I picked the WRONG day to neclect to bring a coat or umbrella

Taken from my front porch. That white stuff is hail.
Waiting for the bus? Was not fun.

Max, as usual, tried to escape. I let him, thinking the rain and hail would get him to forever stop asking to go out. I was wrong. His grass-tasting tour of the yard was uninhibited. "Oooh," says Max, "ICED grass. A rare delicacy indeed!"

Free Association Friday

Yes, I'm starting a meme. It's MINE ALL MINE.

OK but not really.

What I'm gonna do, is pull out my good ole Webster's New World Dictionary, open to a random page, and with my eyes closed, put my finger on the page and the entry it's closest to will be my inspiration for my free association. (Hm...wondering if I might need a newer dictionary...mine was published in 1971...holy crap it's 10 years older than me!) After picking the word I will just type away until my fingers decide they're done.

Today's inspirational word is: Immutable

Immutable, as in, this is an immutable law of the universe. What laws are immutable? That husbands are silly. That cats are psychotic but loving. That Thai food is the bomb diggity. Well, maybe not all Thai food, but all Thai food I've had. I once had this dish at a little hole in the wall Thai restaurant on Lake Street in Minneapolis. I ordered my bean dish 4 out of 5 on their 1-5 spicy scale. I should have ordered a 3. I figured, OK this is Minnesota, right? Minnesotans, as a general rule, are pretty intolerant of spice. My mild is my mother's hot. So I figured, OK I like it spicy, so...normally for a Thai restaurant I'd go 3 but they probably dumbed it down for the locals...so I ordered a 4. Which was very good that day...a little much for me but nothing I couldn't handle. But when I re-heated it in the microwave? Did you know that when you reheat chili oil it gets hotter? Yeah me neither. And OMG was my mouth on fire. I had to walk around with it open for a while. But I'm stubborn, right? So I kept eating it because, dammit I was not gonna throw out perfectly good food that I paid my hard-earned money for! Tears were streaming down my face. Gallons of water were consumed (and later pissed out). My fist was pounding the table and my feet were twitching. But, by God, I finished those beans.


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I am Uteressa, from the realm of Vulvacular

So. I am a gamer. And I happen to be born with a set of genitals that confers the female status. Some people would call me a girl gamer. I mean, yes I'm a gamer, and yes I'm female, but why does there have to be two categories: gamer, and girl gamer? Nevermind the fact that I haven't been a girl for nearly a decade; I think I can very safely call myself a woman.

Gaming is an interesting beast for female gamers, especially those of us who enjoy MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). The first time I publicly admitted to being a female while playing WOW (in my n00b days), the conversation went something like this:

General Chat - Some Player: There aren't many girl gamers. I'm a girl and I'm like the only one.
General Chat - Me: You aren't! I'm a girl (well I'm over 18 so a woman) and I know other women who game. There's lots of females on WOW.
Private Chat - Some Player: I'm glad to see other girl gamers! Would you like to chat?
...wait 10 seconds...
Private Chat - Some Player: I mean like sexy?
Me (offline): Headdesk

I've seen players who publicly (online) identify as female get harassed as being not as good players (even though it wasn't true), have rape jokes about them told online, or get hit on. After a few experiences as such, I became much more reserved about grouping with other toons (characters) who I didn't know.

I tend to be very protective of my identity now...the only people who know are my guild members. I never go on general voice chat. I just want to play, dammit.

But some female players revel in their...um....femininity? Just today, I ran across a toon named Fallopia and another named Ovaree. Now, I don't see male toons named Vas Deferentia or Testicuole, and I wonder, why would you want to name your character after your reproductive organs? That's a little too...girly? For me. If you want to "come out" as female online, go ahead, more power to you, but naming yourself after your reproductive organs? Hm. Maybe I'm just too private (heh I heart bad puns) or maybe I'm just not the "I am woman hear my uterus roar worship the earth mother goddess wombs rock!" type of person.

To each their own I guess.

My ass is kinda big news

So this saturday, Freki and I participated in the Paws & Claws Pet Walk. Paws & Claws is the shelter from which we adopted Freki, and I have volunteered there for a while, although not as often as I would like!

Everybody at the dog walk, hangin out

We got there early with a friend of mine who was volunteering to walk one of the shelter dogs. We hung out, got registered, got my t-shirt and Freki's bandana, played a little fetch to tire him out (it didn't work) then we met and walked with two of my coworkers and their dogs. Great fun was had by all.

Tired dog walkin

About midway through the walk, we stopped by a river and Freki begged me to go in, so I obliged.

Freki in the water

He was only mildly upset with me for not letting him off-leash to romp and swim. I tried explaining to him that this is not the dog park, but he didn't understand. He was like "Bitch, please. This is water! There are geese! Little doggies need to PLAY!"

After the walk, we hung out for a little bit to see if we won anything in the drawing, and we did! We got a grab bag of toys, a Sigg bottle for me, and some doggie supplies which were unfortunately too small (which really isn't surprising, Freki is a bit of a beast). I'm sure we can find someone who will use them though.

Afterward, we were both very tired. I dropped the boy off at home, then went out to lunch with everyone we walked with at Pannekoeken. Twas good. After that I went home and napped with Freki. We were both very tired. Max and Milo joined in, just for kicks.

Tonight, as I was preparing to write this entry in fact, and I hear (in babytalk), "Is that Freki? Yeah is that you? Is Freki on TV? You're on TV! And mommy's butt! And leg!" Apparently LB was watching the local news, and we were on TV. I asked, "So did my ass look terrible?" To which my well-trained monkey man says, "No it looked fabulous."