Party at the Postols

We took Gate, UGA and Labor Bear (aka Trotsky) to the Postols for a party on Purim 2013 (5773) with the Postols stuffed animals. The big red bear next to labor bear is Ivan (in the last image, Labor is on the left and Ivan is on the right. Mike has a pink duck who is always evil and a stuffed beanie buddy who is always good (November bear).

The Postols had enough stuffed animals to require two pictures. 

Anyway, we think the stuffed animals had a good time.

Michelangelo Goes to Sienna's

Mikey has wanted to get an 'insider' tour of Sienna's Restaurant for some time. After all, he's looked a the final product several times (in fact the post below shows Mikey doing that).


Tonight, I took him there. 

He got to see the pizza dough being prepared (1st image) . They use a device to flatten the dough and another to cut it into round pieces and another to punch holes in the dough. All this is before any of the ingredients go on it.

Then after the ingredients are on it, it goes into a cooker oven. The oven has a moveable grid and the pizza moves with the grid and comes out cooked (second image).

Of course, Mikey said the cooked pizza looked awesome.

Mikey Praises Pizza - Again

Mikey Again Praises Pizza 

Our dining table was set on Dairy since it was the day after Chanakah and we had people over for a dairy meal the previous night.

So Ann decided it would be a good day to carry out pizza.

Naturally we invited Michelangelo to the event.

He declared the pizza to be awesome.

No surprise there.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:24 AM

Christian Stuffed Animals enjoy a youtube concert

Wiley, Ski Bear, Jim and Martha came down to the couch to enjoy a few viewings of "Oh Holy Night" as sung by the Celtic Women.

The video is here.

If the counter is right, the video has been downloaded about 8,000,000 times with several thousand comments.

Vampy in Safed

We took Vampy to Safed (in the North) as part of our trip to Israel.

He was especially interested because there are 3 large cemeteries there. He thought that because of all of the kaballah influence a lot of people would be confused and wandering around and easy prey.

It turned out a bit different. The cemeteries were all on very steep terrain (and Vampy doesn't like that because he gets tired after flying a few feet) or guarded by military personnel.

The image has Vampy looking at the direction signs very near our motel. It shows you have to go way down to see the cemetery.

Another Policy Triumph for Gate

President Obama signed a bill shielding airlines from carbon fees in Europe.

An account of this from The Hill, leaves out the role of Gate who is in favor of global warming as policy (since it would increase his habitat).

No doubt some environmental groups were disappointed as were the Euro agencies that stood to collect the fees.

The airlines will be thanking Gate at some future time perhaps.

Vamp's Day At Blood Bank

M went to the local Red Cross blood bank to give platelets. Vamp wanted to come to because he was interested in making a withdrawal.

One of the first things you do at the blood bank, after giving name, SSN, Date of Birth, etc. is to read the rules. The rules are complicated. They require you to think about where you have 'lived' and that is a sore point with Vamp (who is differently alive).

After the first bunch of information there were many questions on hepatitus, AIDS, etc. and Vamp was pretty confused by the end of it.

He also wasn't that happy in the pheresis area because the bags of platelets have a yellowish color to them, not like the nice red that he hoped to see.

Still, he was pleased to get a nice bumper sticker (Vamp thinks it is a great slogan too) that said, "GIVE BLOOD" (the stickers were available at the after donation snack bar.

Mikey Gets His Awesome Pizza

After G got word that he passed the VA bar exam (he passed the MD bar in 2011 and was waved in to DC in early 2012), we got pizza to celebrate. Michelangelo (aka Mikey), who thinks pizza is awesome, got an invitation. 

For some reason, Graduation Bear also heard there was a party and invited himself. Grad was disappointed that there was no hard liquor or recreational drugs available. 

Mikey kept saying how awesome the pizza was (Mikey thinks a lot of things are awesome - once M was at cafe Shawreen and some people, after being told that mustard and ketchup was available on the condiment table, said, "Awesome". Mikey was impressed with that also..

Gate Might Be in Trouble

After the VP debate on Oct 11, Gate was worried that he (our Alligator) would be blamed for Biden's creepiness.

This worry was based on the fact that Gate has had to brief VP Biden several times in his (Gate's) job with the Office of Legal Counsel and Biden was impressed with Gate's smile and decided to smile repeatedly and at inappropriate times in the VP debate.

However, as a couple of days have passed, it looks like there will be more focus on Biden's comment that neither he nor POTUS was briefed on the threat to the consulate in Benghazi and Biden's implied comment that there would be no troops in Afghanistan post 2014.

A small step for a woman, a giant meal for a croc

A woman in Thailand was feeling depressed.

She left her house and got into the crocodile area.

The image on the left went with the story in a British news source. I don't know if it was an 'after' picture but the crocodile sure looks well fed.

Alligator Law

The estate of an 83 year old Georgia woman had sued a home owner association and country club subsequent to the woman dying from an alligator attack. 

The premise of the law suit was that the home owner association and country club should have had Alligator warnings near each of the 150 or so lagoons on the property. There were warnings in various documents but the woman wasn't a resident and was house sitting for her daughter).

The supreme court of GA ruled that the woman should have known alligators like to be near lagoons in and around Savannah, GA. 

Article here.http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/06/21/georgia-alligator-ruling-reversed/

Party Time and Date Time

 Grad and Jolene went on an internet watching date. Jolene insisted that they look at images of trains. She had Coke to drink while Grad, who didn't think trains were that interesting, had something a bit stronger. 

Unfortunately, Grad toppled on this side  from the effects of his drink and the date was over.

A second date?

Not that likely. 

I used both a regular and brightened image for both the pre and post drinking. 

Wile In the Comixs

Wile Coyote was in the comix.

He is so well known even now, decades after the most recent 'new' adventure.

Grad Has an Accident

One of Graduation Bear's eye's popped out. I built a patch for the eye. Then later that day I found it and put the eye back.

Grad bear, however, likes the patch. 

He says it makes him look cool and it impresses the chicks.

Mr. Coke Faces a PR Problem

Today's Guardian (a UK pub) has a story about a woman whose is said to have had an addiction to Coke which contributed to her early death.

She died at age 30 of a heart attack.

Per the story, she drank 8 to 10 litres of Coke a day (which is about 3 or 4 times what G drinks during his most thirsty times). She also smoked about a pack of cigarettes a day and didn't eat well.

Coke put out a PR notice that said that even drinking that much water a day might be bad for you and the coroner's office agreed with that statement.

Dogone Conference

Gretel and UGA had a conference today to discuss an article they read at the BBC.

The BBC article was on the advantages of taking dogs to work. The BBC article was, in turn, based on research by employees of Virginia Commonwealth University from the business, medical and math/statistics schools.

There is a national 'take your dog to work day' which began in 1996 in the UK and 1999 in the US.

The pro-dog TYDTWD crowd has its own site (and its own spokes dog. 

There is no 'take your cat to work day'. An artist's concept of how this would have worked out is here. 

Visitor at Motel

A Super 8 motel in Baton Rouge Louisiana got a visit from a lovely 6 foot long gator.

Everybody was presumably thrilled, except a few people who were bitten.

Article is here.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/weird/NATL-Alligator-Visits-La-Motel-Bites-Guest-147141025.html

Vamp Studies Up for TV watching

Vamp is another stuffed creature (not an animal) who came to us from Atlanta.

He is a vampire but an unusual one. He has no legs and has an odd peak on the top of his head and something of a tail. We think he may have been designed as a ghost and changed during the manufacturing process.

Anyway, Vamp is nice and cuddly (although Vamp says that the camera makes you look 10% fatter) and I sometimes let him watch the TV show "Angel" (which is about a good vampire trying to right wrongs in Los Angeles).

In the image, Vamp is looking at the TNT web site for the TV show Angel.

Labor Organizer Bear and Grad

Labor organizer bear (in red, we call him Jimmy) came from Atlanta. 

He had a meeting with Grad. Grad was telling Jimmy about how he, Grad, dealt with a Corporation.

Jimmy had hoped to teach Grad the song,

"Oh lets go down and join the union.

Oh lets go down and join right now.

Oh lets go down and join the union.

Come on down. I'll show you how."

Fellowship of Christian Stuffed Animals

Five of our stuffed animals are Christian. Four of them came recently from Atlanta.

Wily Coyote decided to give them a briefing.

The two next to Wily and Jim (the lamb) and Martha who were Kathleen's friends at her church. The gray bear is Mixed Metaphor bear (because he is a gray Christmas bear who bring chocolate in a gray box and has a gray Santa hat). The bear on the right is Ski Instructor Bear.

Is UGA too Vigilant

UGA sometimes refers to his 'mission statement' as 'constant vigilance'.

This expression is also a favorite of Mad Eye Moody, a character from the Harry Potter series.

Anyway, one of UGA's trainees identified the contents of Entertainer Snoop Dogg's possessions as containing drugs. This was in South Texas (Sierra Blanco).

Snoop's total stash consisted of enough marijuana cigarettes to fill a prescription bottle (probably no more than 2 ounces). Seems to be a bit petty considering that the entertainer calls himself 'Dogg'.

Wily Advises Reindeer

Wily Advised Musical Reindeer about the Cartoon Network version of the song that Musical Reindeer plays.

This song is, "Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer".

The song makes the Grandfather and grandson out to be bad for wishing Grandma would be run over. However, in the Cartoon Network version, the story line turns this around and the Grandfather and grandson actually rescue the Grandma after she is hit and taken to the North Pole (this due to a complicated plot involving selling a toy store).

Wily's Favorite Time of the Year

Wily driving a Train at Mall

Wily loves looking at Manger Scenes

Wily Coyote Loves the End of the Year. 

He loves the TV music specials, the Christmas themed movies, the Christmas themed regular TV shows and the Christmas themed radio music programs.

He also loves going around the neighborhood looking at the manger scenes and going to malls and looking at and participating in fun activities.

Lucy the G. P.

Lucy the G. P. is a new member of the Weiss household.

We've needed a medical professional for some time because of various things that have come up.

Lucy, however, is a somewhat relaxed member of the medical community.

She comes to work late and takes only a few clients, refers them all to specialists and collects $100 a pop for the referrals.

Sweet deal if you can get it.

Dr. Lucy does Yoga Too

Dr. Lucy's schedule permits plenty of time for yoga.

This is where she gets some extra relaxation.

Her body allows more bending than many of the other stuffed animals. 

However, as shown, our cat Trina can also do yoga, arguably Trina is better at it than Dr. Lucy.

.

The Road Runner and Sonic Booms

We've received some complaints about road runner. This is because he has been accelerating his delivery business by traveling long distances at high speeds - actually faster than sound. For example, by traveling at about 1300 feet per second (a bit more than the speed of sound at 20C), he can make a delivery from Washington DC to Chicago in a bit less than 90 minutes. However, this causes a sonic boom along the way. Road Runner has agreed to limit his speed to just less than the speed of sound except in rural areas in the summer daytime (when sound waves are more strongly refracted up). The graph is from the wikipedia article on the speed of sound.

UGA gets Negative News

The GAO is highly critical of the Dept of Homeland Security's border program.

They (GAO) released a report that said that the old "virtual" fence wasn't performing at expected levels and there was no reason to think the nenw 'multi-function' plan would work either.

Of course, DHS has two things they could do better. One is to rename it the Dept of Domestic Security (because the acronym, DDS, inspires fear) and secondly to have more detainees interrogated by UGA (which will also inspire fear).

A report on the GAO findings is here.

Croc Insurance for President Obama

President Obama has been given a $50k policy that covers crocodile attacks. This was for his visit to the north part of Australia.There is no apparent cost to the taxpayers of the US and unless the President is attacked by a crocodile, no cost to the tax payers in Australia.

The insurance policy is to be framed with the image to the left.

This comes from a Financial Times article here.

Weaponized Pumpkin

Now pumpkins may get more respect (see post below for 'low respect for pumpkins).

Near Pittsburgh, PA, a man was walking with his wife on a public side walk when he was struck by a pumpkin. The pumpkin was thrown from a passing automobile.

Shortly before the attack a neighbor noticed a pumpkin was stolen from her property.

As of a day after the attack, the assailant (or assailants) had not been apprehended but then on Nov 17, four teens came forward and admitted they had stolen pumpkins and weaponized them.

The initial story is available here.
The follow up story is available here.

Mr. Pumpkin Doesn't Get Respect from Starbucks

Yesterday Starbucks Corporation announced a big quarter. Revenues were up about 7% and earnings were up about 30% (compared with the same quarter last year). Same store sales in the US up by about 6%.

Several spokespersons for the company were on the various financial channels but not a single one (that I saw) credited the pumpkin spice latte (a seasonal addition to the menu) for this great result.

WashingtonPost story on the quarter's financial performance of Starbucks here.