Silly Season

Can you believe all this election talk about "a pig in lipstick"?? Thank god Obama didn't say they had "screwed the pooch". I can only imagine what we would be talking about then.

Lots of plane time today in my travels from Massachusetts to San Diego...so tomorrow should be a good, politics-free post.

Mexican Mosquito's

Must every vacation I take include a trip to the pharmacia?

As I have mentioned, my pre-move ritual included being in a foreign country COMPLETELY unavailable to my movers. Now….I can’t even tell you what part of Mexico this little haven is in [the part by the water?], but I CAN tell you that it is the freakin’ mosquito capital of the world.

I am the Dr. Doolittle of the mosquito kingdom. I attract those critters like I speak the language. After the first day of my vacation, the entire topography of my skin had changed from the sheer volume of mosquito bites. This Irish blood, untainted by the slightest hint of pigment, must be quite a delicacy down there. I am sure my bright white skin looked like a beacon on the hillside…a well-lit runway that the little bastards could alight upon. NOW I know why people invite me on trips…I can’t take my turn cooking dinner or even pack everything I need, but I am a human fly strip taking all the malaria bullets.

Which means I once again found myself in a drugstore of a country where they speak no English playing medicinal charades…hoping in the midst of the language barrier that I didn’t inadvertently ask for Rogaine instead of cortisone [it would explain why I have to shave my legs more often]. Should I worry if my anti-inflammatory says “Balco” on it?

But I CAN say that my xmas shopping is done…non-FDA-regulated “generic” z-packs for everyone!

Vote for...

....Palin?

Okay…of COURSE I have a few thoughts on Sarah Palin...some of these i picked up from my (hours of) checking the "liberal blogosphere" (someone has to be the core demographic!):

• Gerraldine Quayle. BET ME that McCain’s vetters didn’t tell her to learn how to spell potato
• Trophy Vice
• I always wondered what happened to Gabrielle from Beverly Hills 90210. (That will only make sense to females of a certain age – but the resemblance is uncanny)
• 20 months ago she was on the city town council of an Alaskan burb with a population of 7,000. Ummm, there are senior class presidents with larger constituencies [and a better energy policy, but I digress]
• Was the mayor of Lake Woebegone unavailable?
• She’s no Mike Huckabee
• When you carve out the corruption apportionment, the Alaska state budget is smaller than Obama’s Ohio spend.

I'm just sayin'

Cali-bound

Sorry to be offline last week – decided to take a wee Mexican vacation before this weekend's move. But moving day came and went over the weekend…and of course, I have just a couple of observations from the big day:

• The movers actually wanted to come Friday – but I still had 3 episodes of Jon Stewart to watch before they packed the Tivo. See you Saturday. (Move delayed on account of satire.)
• On Friday afternoon – in the spirit of “i-need-this-like-I-need-another-blue-sweatshirt”, one of my giant trees fell right across my driveway. God appears to be telling me to get a move on (not a Jon Stewart fan?)
• Given the fact that I am moving into an already well-furnished house – I realize that most of this stuff won’t get unpacked until like…2012…[when I can no longer stall on cleaning out the garage]. I’m not so much packing boxes as I am time capsules.
• Rita devised an ingenious plan to mark the “to-be-unpacked” boxes with blue tape and leave all the other boxes unmarked (and destined for the far recesses of the garage). I consider it to be a flagrant attempt to keep the bright orange UT barbie and the 300 or so plastic cups from the Titans home games unmarked and out of the house.
• I was clearly distracted by the bagel-laden moving party that arrived because I COMPLETELY neglected my blue-tape duties. Which means I spent the last half of the move running around the house screaming “WHICH BOX HAS THE COFFEE POT IN IT???” (everything else can go to the garage – but the Bunn coffee maker got triple-taped.)
• Just FYI…when arriving for an early morning moving party – you should NOT ask the already anxious mover if she “thinks that truck can even MAKE IT to California?”.
• After my obligatory lunchtime run to Starbuck’s, my neighbor asked me whether I left the movers “alone with all your stuff??” ummmm, they’re going to be alone with it for the next two thousand miles…I don’t think this extra 20 minutes is going to cost me a coffee table or anything.
  

My stuff is off to Cali. I am off to….Massachusetts. What move?

My post convention bounce

Denver is one of the few stops NOT on my itinerary this week. But that doesn’t mean I wasn't there in spirit. I even declined an invitation to a work dinner last night with the excuse that I “had to watch Obama’s speech”. The only reply I got from my boss was “that makes me ill on so many levels”. I felt like it was a really excellent networking moment.

So sorry – not much to blog about…but I do have a random collection of punditry from the past four days:

• After last night’s speech, the Republican who DOESN’T get selected today as the VP may be one lucky republican
• Obama took a look of heat for the “messianic look of the greek temple stagecraft”…ummm, I think that’s supposed to be the oval office – granted an oval office with Stevie Wonder playing in it, but the oval office, nonetheless. If you don’t like the architecture, talk to Thomas Jefferson.
• Barack and I are now texting regularly.
• I, for one, will be paying close attention to Cindy McCain’s speech next week. Because let’s be honest…if the president is 73 years old…it’s really going to be the wife running the country.
• We consume 25% of the world’s oil and have less than 3% of the world’s reserves. Even if we drill in ALL of John McCain’s backyards… we STILL won’t be able to affect the price of gas.

I hate that I will be out of the country for the start of the Republican’s convention…but I am SURE I will have ample blog material for the end of next week.

Welcome back

It’s good to be online again….and there are certain ways I can tell people are back reading the blog after the hiatus:

• I got really cool comments telling me things like – I’m “officially middle aged now”. Ummm....I need a BLOG for this??
• Coincidentally, I got three emails about Christmas travel the same day I blogged about going to NYC for t-giving. Tomorrow I should blog about “things you can do to help my move”
• Nicola had my passport in my hand by breakfast today.
• My readers have voluntarily topped up my Starbuck’s card (# 6034-4310-3885-9900). Just sayin’
• My bit in the blog about John McCain’s houses has really taken off in the media.
• All the cash donations.
• Ummm…this is a little awkward…but see…I can literally tell who’s reading my blog by the trace on my site. The trace that tells me not only who is reading the blog, but…kinda cool, here…what site you came from in arriving at savemethecall. Sooooo… “GE Plastics”, thanks for your loyal readership…but at some point…you REALLY should quit shopping for Corvette accessories at work.

Someone fire my travel agent

This week’s itinerary? Nashville to Boston. Boston to Philly. Philly to San Diego. San Diego to [Somewhere], Mexico. Now, it’s hard to complain when your week ends with a vacation in Mexico – but do I really have to make four stops to get there? What am I?…going on a tour of (some) of John McCain’s houses???

The whole thing makes for QUITE a challenge when packing. Here are a few things I’ve noticed:

• I have discovered that I brought a certain number of things (like…twenty-three) to Massachusetts just to Fedex them to California so they can be packed for Mexico. My bathing suit should be ASHAMED of its carbon footprint.
• My cowboy hat is going to look GREAT in Mexico. It does, however, look ridiculous in the Providence airport.
• The Mexico portion of my packing got a LOT more attention than the Massachusetts portion of my packing. Go figure.
• I will do ANYTING to not check a bag…thereby engaging the different-city-same-outfit rule and pushing casual Friday boundaries to the limit with plans of a beach wrap.
• If I work out every single day while I’m gone…I STILL won’t need all 13 of the sports bras I packed. (Really? And not a single hair brush?)
• Know what would have been handy to include in the suitcase…a passport. (ummm….Nicola?…if you’re reading this ….)