Everyone is going to want this trendy (breezy?) new clothing line. She says it’s from the EURIPIDEEZ collection by dadeo! It’s under strategic market study and evaluation. (not yet available in stores)

Mrs. D is at the front door with an armful of borrowed crock pot and in the other her agitated boxer tugging. After transferring the heavy pot, exchanging pleasantries and the usual brief small talk, they begin to slide away lingering at a delicate plant along the walkway. ‘Oh! what a beautiful plant and I didn’t know that it gave flowers…’, she compliments. Maybe it was the dogs idea to stop there and admire the bush because he promptly nails it with a hi pressure squirt. I reply deadpan as if neither of us had just witnessed the embarrassing thing, ‘I think it will not be blooming next year’ 😉

The dang dawg is testing out a most peculiar bad habit. He’s decided it just might work as it tends to pull my arm right out of its shoulder socket. While jogging alongside on his leash, and without warning, he has learned the panic stop. He locks-up all fours stiff legged head down and hind end up throws out the 98 pound anchor. After a very short skid, our tow comes to a dusty screeching halt as I spin-out. His goal is to pull out of the leash. Free. This ain’t-a-gonna happen.

I say you’ve got to earn your free to roam privileges. It’s must be something to watch as I connect foot to rear in attempt to re-motivate the troops. (note: no animals were harmed during the creation of this post. my running shoe has a very soft toe)

Tarja is explaining to me about her other job. Mary Kay cosmetics consultant. She says they sell products for men too! Skin care, colognes and the like. She tests the waters and starts to describe a clear semi-gloss coating that would be good for my nails. Hold-up there, no sale. I’ve got calices on my hands and proud of ’em. I even manage to whack a digit with a hammer from time to time. But she’s the consummate salesperson and if she’s good at it the next job progression is senior consultant, then team leader, director, senior director and on up the hierarchy. Isn’t that a pyramid?, I ask. No. It’s ‘door marketing’ strategy concept as taught by the Harvard School of Business, she says as if mine is a common question and her’s was artfully composed and indoctrinated at one of their MK convention gatherings. They furnish you a car to drive when you achieve Team Leader status. And it’s not PINK! It’s rose-champagne.

Here’s how it went down — George W’s senior inside advisor is leaving a primo career appointment because she’s ‘homesick for Texas’ (!?) She says that she’s abandoning ultimate Washington insider power so she can watch her youngster play soccer? (I think that she just set the women’s movement back a few…) Could it be that Mrs. B decide that she was getting to close to her man and so she sent her packing? How ’bout this one: Recall several months back when El Prez was sporting a black eye. I don’t think that this is connected. But, what REALLY happened? Did he fall off the couch while gagging on a pretzel? Hah! I say he and the VP got into an argument that ended in fist-e-cuffs! My daughter thinks I could be a writer for SNL 🙂

Atlas Ink Company officially opened today! Their website Atlas Ink Company is in full swing. Pleasestop by and visit and tell all your friends about the great products and superpricing on inkjet and toner cartridges!

Getting to know someone and what they are about, you usually start off with a ‘so where ya from’ opener. Tarja has square cheek bones structure and a definite Slavic dialect but she says she’s a Finnish immigrae. Her spoken sentences lack the ‘THE’ preposition so they sound like: ‘Hey Boris! You had better check (the) course’. Her husband is from Romania which doesn’t sound as sexy as Finland (comrade) so that must be it. His name is (was) Nicolei Porutui a freelance carpenter/construction worker. Maybe they thought he was non-english speaking or too scary sounding cause, he wasn’t getting any return calls / job offers over here so he decided to change his name. He’s — Nick Newman — now. (as in ‘new’ man) Clever fur-ners. They catch on quick to the ‘merikun way’

I’m hanging with Henrik and Martha. They are awaiting their connection flight to Denmark and I’m leaving town on a 4 day work shift. Hey! I gotta idea, I chide, Howabout I call in sick to the company and fly away to Denmark instead… No one will know. I will have to call in home on my cell phone from time to time but will instruct everyone within earshot to speak english and keep it down, relay the local USA weather where I would have supposed to have been and the usual small talk. I think I could have pulled it off. I joked with Dede about my fantasy. She was not amused.

Having sworn off Mrs. Fields and cin-e-bun and this is a first, I convinced myself to buy a piece of fruit in an airport. I now understand that the real cost of food is not in its intrinsic value but in the distribution. So 99 cents for a banana no longer strikes me as outrageous, even though the cost to the farmer off the tree is mere pennies. A bottle of spring water should not be priced less than say, a can of cola, even though logic would suggest that the cost of the contents is even less than the banana. The economic value is in the package itself. There! Now I don’t feel so bad about being ripped off for a dang banana!

I thought I recognized the guy from before. He was a dark skinned fellow with a full blackbeard and a turban hat, either Muslim or Hindu, thick Indian regional dialect. Recognizing the 7 inch crochet pin inserted deep into the drivers A/C vent confirmed his ID. He’s an interesting fellow. Even though his daytime job is taxi cab driver, he aspires to be a restaurant tycoon. Enroute he points out the vacant lot that he and his investor friends are eyeing. 600,000 but they think they can get it down to 4. His architect has been working hard on the design. What kind of venue, I inquire. Buffet. Indian cuisine, I speculate? No 40 kinds, he says. I’m confused but he’s hard to understand. Something else about square footage and approval to build a basement. I just nod and uhuh. The big crochet needle? He’s pretty deft at handling this tool which he uses to poke and prod under his cloth head gear. I’m ignorant of custom but I don’t think it just lifts up. There may be ceremony ritual involved. But if you got an itch, you got to scratch.