This is the mural by the bathrooms at the Borders in Bozeman. Maybe I'm delusional- or just nasty minded, but the book looks kind of vulvular to me...I'm just sayin...

Another shot of Higgins Ave. and the dogs at the bar.

Congrats to another friend- actually son of friend. Good job!

Movin on up

To the west side- begins this weekend. If I can get myself together and start cramming books into boxes. There are so many. I forgot that I have so many books- until I was in MT and saw the stuff that my Mother is hosting in her barn- there are probably 30 boxes of books there...sigh...and yes, I have read most of them. The only ones I haven't read belong to Spouse. And I refuse, refuse, refuse to read his old philosophy texts. Philosophy scares me. It gives me a headache. Too much grey area- not enough clarity. He loved that stuff back in the day. I was a history geek. It was an odd match that has worked pretty well. And hey, boys and girls- isn't it comforting to know that jobs are available for those with non-practical Liberal Arts degrees? Oh yeah- that's right I haven't gotten one yet...But rather than blame the LA degree, I'll blame the Fine Arts one instead. That's what's standing in my way! Yeah!

Haiku du jour

I haven't done one of these for several days (been not too inspired by the muse- Poetry) but since I've been self absorbed and drinking tea again (helps to be sick- don't know how sick people can't be self absorbed- comes with the territory methinks) I figure that I should belt one out.

Job hunting goes on
making status symbol life
harder to obtain.

(Like that? Hmmmmm- status symbol life- forget that- let's discuss bare minimum of paying bills, getting teeth cleaned, going to Dr. when sick, etc....)

Oh- and BTW, yesterday on CNN they were talking about states that have the highest number of employed people without health insurance, and MT made the top 5. Really (voice dripping with sarcasm)- you don't say?! How could such a thing be possible? Well, having endured pathetic wages and very high property/rent prices, I get it. Penury, I say! Penury!

And Alan Greenspan is starting to grumble about the economy- and the deficit- and that's a leetle scary. This here house o' cards is getting a tad shaky for my taste! But that story was pushed aside by some story du jour a couple of weeks ago. Makes me wonder about the smoke and mirrors of the media...keep the peoples all distracted and such... (Hey- look over there!)

I'm so proud!

Cudos guys! I just found out that the very talented (and criminally underappreciated) boyz at my last job won a major international award- including a trip to Europe to collect the prize and some money. I am very happy for them. They deserve the award- they deserve the world! Especially since that particular project was one of the most challenging ones that we faced as a company. It about killed me. But it was a great achievement, and I'm thrilled for them. Hopefully it will prompt their boss to admit that they are as wonderful as I have always said- and to divide up the prize money amongst them. Viva les boys!!!

These fishes were by the bathroom at the Iron Horse Brewery in Missoula. They almost scared me too much to go in the bathroom. I think they are making me sick- through their evil mind powers. Especially the scary albino one on the bottom...

Who brings dogs to a bar? People in Missoula do, of course! And the dogs aren't even close enough to the USA Today stand to read the paper...And yes, that's Wordens in the background.

This is the bastard who cut me off and almost plowed into me. A pox on his home!

Relapse

So after a couple of days of feeling better, the gods are laughing at me again. I got sicker yesterday. So, not much to see here- move along, folks. If I do have more trouble sleeping tonight and find more exploding frogs stories, I will post. Otherwise, I'm gonna hunker down on the couch and sleep. Who do I have to sacrifice a chicken to in order to get better? Or does that particular god prefer goats? I like goats, and would have a hard time doing the deed- but the longer this goes on, the fewer qualms I have...I'm just saying....

Good God!!!

From MSNBC.com:
BERLIN - More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said Wednesday.

Both the pond's water and body parts of the toads have been tested, but scientists have been unable to find a bacteria or virus that would cause the toads to swell up and pop, said Janne Kloepper, of the Hamburg-based Institute for Hygiene and the Environment.

"It's absolutely strange," she said. "We have a really unique story here in Hamburg. This phenomenon really doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere before."

The toads at a pond in the upscale neighborhood of Altona have been blowing up since the beginning of the month, filling up like balloons until their stomachs suddenly burst.

"It looks like a scene from a science-fiction movie," Werner Schmolnik, the head of a local environment group, told the Hamburger Abendblatt daily. "The bloated animals suffer for several minutes before they finally die."

(And that's probably the most horrific thing I have read in weeks. Worse than the finger in the chili. It reminds me of the raining frogs in Magnolia. Disturbing world we live in, no?)

Interview down

Well, that's over and done with. I dunno how it went. I suppose I'll see. But I don't feel that slam dunk kind of aura. So I dunno. I hope I got a chance at an interview...but we'll see. I'm supposed to hear back by the end of the week.

Set list for show

This is more for my future reference (playlist- Ipod kinda thing):

City of Blinding Lights
Beautiful Day
Vertigo
Elevation
Gloria
The Ocean / New Year’s Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes you can’t make it on your own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill
Bad
Pride in the name of love
Where the Streets have no name
One

Zoo Station
The Fly
Mysterious Ways

All Because of You
Original of the Species
Vertigo

Embarrassment of riches

So, not only do I have an interview this afternoon- but I am being recruited for a job much akin to the one I had in Bozeman in (sigh) Portland. It would be perfect if it was here. I'm just not ready to call it a day here yet, and not willing to drag Spouse from his job and move there. After all- we just found the perfect apartment! So I have to say no to the Portland people. Bummer. Let's hope that the interview goes really well.

This is for Scott. Thought he would like Ole's Country Store- just for the memories. Dude- did you ever buy the 3 hot dogs for a buck? I didn't. Never was that drunk. Ever...Or that desperate. And I read The Jungle too many times.

And this relates to us counting the pee bottles on the side of the road during our last trip (didn't do it this time- too tiring). Washington frowns on the pee bottle method of waste disposal. Just so you know.

yeah- like we need more where this comes from! Look at the insolence in his eyes...and the slothfullness in the other one...

Kitty news

So when we were in MT last week, we were able to visit my Mother's ranch. They don't have any animals there anymore- for a while- but they do have cats. Lots and lots of cats. Actually, probably only about 6. Most of them fixed. The only non-fixed one is having her last litter. The father of all of the litters has been unfortunately dismissed from this mortal coil. He was a nasty, scurvy little shit who tried to kill my favorite farm kitty- Jo Jo Pumpkin. So no big loss there.

So my Mom is basically growing our next cat for us. We'll be pleased, I'm sure. There might be plenty to go around. So if there is a need for healthy, rather large and fluffy MT ranch kitties, let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

Now I'm hustling cats....god- I do NEED to get a job!

In other news

I might have a job interview. With Washington Mutual. Not to say that I love the thought of being back in the banking world- but it's not branch work, and looks to be in the tech area of the company. That is reassuring, as I loathed working in a branch. Customer service of that nature is nasty. People get all up in your shit when you're dealing with their money. And I can't blame them. But unfortunately, in a bank like the one I worked at, plenty of knuckleheads have access to your account and can muck it up easily. Just like the financial aid office (been there, worked there, have the scars to prove it too). I was the fixer upper. And it sucked. People are very emotionally tied up to their money. And they come unfuckingglued when something is amiss. And the poor schmuck who gets to figure out what went wrong is the one who deals with the distraught or totally pissed off person. Even collections was easier. Cuz then you're not taking any crap off of them- they owe you. But you also go to hell for being in collections. Seriously. I have some bonafide hell time a comin. But not much- I was only a temp.

U2 Concert

Ok- I'm a dumbass- it's official. I didn't take my camera. No way to share the joy with images. But it was really, really fun. We both forgot that we're sick for a while- which was a wonderful thing. It was probably one of the most effective concerts that we've attended. By that I mean that Bono and the boys have a way with the crowd. Yeah, Elvis Costello is a rock star, but Bono is a ROCK STAR. And they played almost all of my favorites.

All in all it was a good night. I disliked Kings of Leon intensely- they blew. They didn't seem to want to be on stage. Maybe they were sick like me and didn't have enough blow to boost their moods...I dunno. But it was unfortunate. And I was glad to have ear plugs so that their suckiness didn't hurt my hearing.

The lady next to Spouse stank of patchouli. That was about the only sore spot of the evening. He hates patchouli. He says it smells like wet dirt. And I don't think he means that as a good thing. Actually I think it was a patchouli-based perfume that smelled of old lady. But he was in some distress for a while. Then he gave up. And entered the smell-free zone.

So the expensive tickets that I couldn't affort were great- it was a stupid expense, but I'm glad in the end that we had such good seats. We've never been that close to the stage before. On the stage that came in a semi-circle into the crowd, Bono et. al. were probably only about 30 feet away from us. Kewl!

So. I think I'll stop gloating, and just say that it was worth the hours spent online when the tickets went up for sale.

Oh and another piece o news- seems that Bono stayed at Bill Gates's pad last night. They're buds. During the text message thing on the screen during the concert, someone text messaged Bill Gates's name. Guess it could've been him, since I hear he was there. We were breathing rarified air!