Siber-Den

25 March 2003

Historical Burgers

Ok...I'm still trying to confirm this with my older brother, but my mom and I think the Chuckwagon hamburger stand mentioned in this little blurb (scroll down to "Memory lane") might've been the one that my dad ran EONS ago. He made the best damn hamburgers there. I always thought that maybe time and a little bias on my part might have been coloring my opinion on the matter. Good to read that others liked the burgers too. : )

Barbara Parrott McGinity of Houston says she was delighted to learn that Roznovsky's was still in the Houston burger scene. She also recalls the Chuckwagon burger joints that disappeared in the early '70s. As a child, it was always a treat to accompany her dad to the Chuckwagon at Long Point and Antoine for a "real Texas burger."

[Posted at 19:37 on 03/25/03]

21 March 2003

Dog Island

The truth is revealed.

[Posted at 10:07 on 03/21/03]

20 March 2003

24 Spoilers

Attention, John and Cathy, do NOT click on this link. This article has spoilers big time for you fans behind on episodes.

YES!!! Someone else who is annoyed by the annoying Kim.

The Sherry spy scene was a kick, but the show's most frequent lapses into unintentional humor involve its helpless women, most notably Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert), Jack's daughter. The season began with a veritable modeling agency's worth of blond damsels in distress, as Kim found herself au pairing for an abused wife and her abused daughter. The domestic-abuse plot, which developed amid the potential destruction of L.A., was a cheesy symphony of flaxen hysteria, as the female trio angled to escape the violent father.

And:

She's the omega female of 24, an icon of female victimhood who is forever "freaked out."

Her whininess makes me CRAZY!!

[Posted at 23:03 on 03/20/03]

Dog Island?

Ah, the dog lists I subscribe to...always finding something to get worked up about. Today's panty-wad moment has been brought to you by this link. I think it's a joke. Either that, or that contact info describing someone as the "Director of Imports" is revealing. Hmmm.

From the FAQ:

We have conditioned our lovely canine friends to live under our rules. They are used to it, yes. They have learned to love us anyway, yes. But it is not right, no. Dogs should live free, should live lives unfettered by humiliation due to forced public defecation and having to walk on a leash.

It is with this in mind that Dog Island was created. Is it the ultimate answer? No, but it's a step in the right direction - dogs living on their own, controlling their own destinies in ways that they absolutely cannot while under human rule.

Here at Dog Island, we look to give back to dogs what we have taken from them: their freedom.

I have a feeling these people are probably against the liberation of Iraq.

[Posted at 12:47 on 03/20/03]

19 March 2003

An American Family Goes To War

"Dear God, please protect my dad, and don't let the bad guys kill him."

[Posted at 21:00 on 03/19/03]

My Flag Is Flying Again

"When men take up arms to set other men free, there is something sacred and holy in the warfare."
Woodrow Wilson

[Posted at 20:56 on 03/19/03]

18 March 2003

Ouch

Got this short little joke from a friend today:

The price of gas in Texas has gone so high that women who want to run over their husbands have started carpooling.

[Posted at 23:09 on 03/18/03]

A Mustang History

Yes, my car is a bit faulty, and Houston's streets are tearing it to pieces, but I still love it.

Intended to be the pride of the Mustang fleet for '99 was the seriously revised Cobra. The big news here was the first independent rear suspension ever offered under a Mustang; basically a trailing arm system incorporating lightweight aluminum control arms, that rode in its own cradle, which bolted in place of the solid rear axle still used on other Mustangs. The rear suspension worked well, but the revised 4.6-liter, DOHC, 32-valve V8 would wind up an embarrassment to Ford. Originally rated at 320 horsepower (up from 305 in previous-year Cobras), many owners were distressed to discover that their engines were often making less than 300 horsepower. Fueled by Internet bulletin board postings was a class-action suit by Cobra owners demanding refunds or new engines, Ford desperately trying to satisfy them and the suspension of Cobra production during the 2000 model year. While 8,095 Cobras escaped Ford during '99, only 454 made it out during 2000.

I can dream, can't I?

The big news came for 2003 with a reborn, radically more powerful Cobra and a new limited-edition Mach 1 model.

The new Cobra uses a supercharged version of the 4.6-liter, DOHC, 32-valve V8 making a stupefying 390 horsepower. With that grunt traveling through a six-speed manual transmission, the latest Cobra is the quickest and fastest Mustang ever built by Ford.

[Posted at 21:17 on 03/18/03]

10 March 2003

Dog Food I Can Walk To

The corner space in a nearby shopping center has been vacant for quite some time now. For the past few weeks, someone's been prepping the place for business. Kev and I finally found out who on tonight's walk.

PETSMART!!!

Woo hoo!! A Petsmart I can walk to.

I love this neighborhood. :)

[Posted at 20:57 on 03/10/03]

09 March 2003

AAAARRROOOOOOOO

It is officially spring in Houston. Ok...not OFFICIALLY. But today was LOVELY! Sunny AND breezy. Kev and I had planned to roadtrip over to New Braunfels to see more music, but when we went to lunch and saw how gorgeous it was, all I wanted to do was grab him and Kiwi and have a family day at the park. As a result, today may qualify as the outdoor highlight of this year (highlights in my life occur in different categories :).

We did about a four mile circuit of Buffalo Bayou. Halfway through the trek, there's a huge fountain that serves as a watering hole for the nearby unofficial dog park. By the time we got there, Kiwi was pretty overheated...not only from the temperature but from the excitement. The fountain and surrounding area had about 100 dogs running around, off and on leash. Kiwi was in overload. There were dogs leaping into the fountain and running loose and fetching balls and playing....big dogs, little dogs, puppies, and seniors. I think she didn't know whether to be excited or scared of the whole scene. I had to nudge her into the fountain, but once she was in, she waded around and lapped at the cold water. We stood around for a while and watched the dogs frolicking and playing. It was amazing. For her too :).

We walked over to the dog park and experienced some more dog excitement (for Kiwi too :). The only bad part of the whole afternoon was the husky I saw off leash. Other than that, today gets two HUGE thumbs up from me.

Kev enjoyed it as well :). It was hard not to. Every face we met along the way (dog and human) had a smile on it. Houstonians don't take well to weeks and weeks and WEEKS of cold, wet weather.

We drove home with the top down. That probably did much to contribute to this puppy's tiredness. We've got one pooped puppy on our hands.

[Posted at 19:25 on 03/09/03]

07 March 2003

Too On Edge

Not to be outdone by my fire fiasco, today I thought I'd try my hand at getting the police department all riled up.

The tunnel in downtown Houston is a wondrous place. I'm a denizen of said tunnel. I love it. It helps me escape elements and crazy drivers and waiting for the cross lights to turn. It's great. Not only that, it's full of shops and eating places etc etc. Think of a long, underground hallway connecting almost every building downtown, filled with altars to consumerism. It's all that and more, air conditioned and heated to boot.

Anyway, I found a quiet place in the tunnel to eat my grilled cheese sandwich today. There are little collections of tables and chairs scattered throughout. I sat down and started chowing down when I noticed at the table next to me that a box and a small satchel sat on top of the table. The only trouble was....there was no one WITH the box and the satchel. I chewed two or three more times and then stood up and looked around for a second. Visions of exploded buses filled my head as I looked across the way and saw a couple eating hamburgers with their very young daughter. A passerby saw my alarm and actually asked me if I was ok. I pointed at the objects on the table and asked him if they were his. His eyes widened and he backed up a few steps. I went up a nearby escalator and asked one of the ubiquitous downtown police officers to come down and investigate for me. He seemed so incredibly bored by the whole thing, he told me to go ahead and he'd follow. He finally came down and started JOSTLING the satchel and opening it. I decided I'd had enough excitement for one day and set off in the opposite direction to my next account. *sigh* If the damn thing were to go off, I'm not curious enough to stand around and witness it.

I don't know what the hell ended up happening at the place. I stopped at a tunnel drugstore to grab some bottled water, and an employee a few aisles over dropped a box on the floor and I almost jumped out of my skin...the damn incident down the tunnel so scared the hell out of me. That's silly, isn't it. This is downtown Houston, not a bus or pizza parlor or coffee shop in Israel. Still...it's been in the back of my mind since yesterday...the bus that blew up there....one of many...killing dozens of many.

I want to be able to sit down and eat a grilled cheese sandwich without having to worry about something someone absent-mindedly left behind.

[Posted at 21:33 on 03/07/03]

My Kingdom For A Pillow

OK...Roger Creager is all that. And then some. We heard him play for the first time tonight. Amazing stuff. Even through the lousy sound system at the venue.

Holy cow. Where's my pillow? *groan*

[Posted at 01:55 on 03/07/03]

06 March 2003

Mmmmm

I left my car down the street at the car wash to get some of the mud and dirt chiseled off of it and some wax put on it. It's been a while since I've seen that baby shine.

Anyway....I was just walking back to pick it up...and...and...THE SUN CAME OUT!!

Omigosh. The sun. Warmth. Light. Dryness. Bye bye mud. Bye bye puddles. Bye bye fleece. Holy cow.

It didn't bother to come out earlier when I was home walking the huskies again, but I refuse to complain. I actually saw the sun. It exists. Really. It was there for a few minutes.

It's gone again, but it was there. Scout's honor.

[Posted at 14:42 on 03/06/03]

05 March 2003

Pets

I had lunch with Kev today and then went home to walk the huskies. The weather in Houston the past few weeks has been dreadful. I haven't seen the sun in ages. It was overcast and foggy today but kinda warm, so I thought it would be safe to let them have some air and exercise. As we set out, it was misty and very slightly drizzly. By the time we'd gotten a quarter mile into it, the rain started falling. The huskies didn't mind. They were excited just to be out and about and seeing the squirrels that live along the mile walk. I, on the other hand, began to feel amazingly foolish that I was walking two dogs in the pouring rain....without an umbrella. By the time we hit the three quarter mark, it began to subside. By the time I got home, I was quite wet. So were the pups. Still, they tried to pull me on for more. They didn't want the walk to end.

Is it weird that it felt good to walk in the rain? I can't even remember the last time I didn't care about getting soaked.

I know there's a saying about a fool and the rain, but I couldn't seem to remember it at the time. It just felt too good. And the weird looks I got from those walking with umbrellas was worth the soaking. :)

In other news, I spent some time in the garage with the cats (checked dry food and water levels, turned on their electric blankie, and brought them both to purring ecstasy). Kitty Koolie seems to have some new thing on the side of her stomach. It feels like a hernia, but I doubt it's that. I'm going to make an appointment tomorrow for her. *sigh* Hopefully, it's just a little fatty mass. She ate fine. She seemed fine, though she didn't bite me or scratch me. I hope that doesn't mean anything. Will the vet understand when I tell her that's the only behavior change I've seen in her?

Hopefully, my sweet little Kitty Koo is ok.

[Posted at 19:29 on 03/05/03]

03 March 2003

The Fireman

Kev, my dear readers, is a geek. A competent, knowledgeable, capable, WONDERFUL geek, but still...a geek.

And our internet is working tonight because of it. :)

[Posted at 21:49 on 03/03/03]

01 March 2003

Affluence Is As Affluence Does

Animal rights people unnerve and scare me sometimes. I just stumbled across this little blurb on one of the news services. I can understand all the hand wringing about harvesting organs from unwanted strays about to be put to sleep.

"We would certainly never accept that an 'under-class' of unwanted and stray animals should be considered as a bank of potential sources of organs for transplantation"

But statements like this just make the whole movement seem totally ridiculous to me:

Others were concerned cats could not express their will or make an informed choice.

"Neither the donor nor the recipient animal is able to make a decision based on the possible long-term health implications of both"

Um...it seems they don't have much say when we neuter them or perform other operations or treatments on them either.

This article paints a different picture:

A kidney transplant can cost $8,000 to $12,000 for a dog and $6,000 to $9,000 for a cat -- a bargain compared with a year of dialysis for $50,000 -- and the pet owner is required to adopt the donor dog or cat.

Not as alarming as the activists would lead us to believe.

We really are going overboard when we talk about animals and their lack of ability to make informed choices. Kiwi has enough difficulty picking a spot to go to the bathroom (the difficulty being directly proportional to how cold it is, how hard it's raining, how tired I am, or how in a hurry I am). I would hope she kinda trusts us to make the harder and bigger decisions for her.

[Posted at 01:02 on 03/01/03]

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