The Mind Wobbles

So many things to absorb, think about, deal with and put up with - it simply makes the mind wobble...

Friday, June 27, 2008

The Lola Shuffle - "The The In-Laws are Coming! The In-Laws Are Coming! Edition"


Yes, that's right! By the time the next Lola Shuffle comes around my MIL in FIL (that's them up there - are they not adorable?) will be here - YAY! We always have a good time when they're here. And they'll be here for my birthday, which means I moght even get a yummy MIL-cooked birthday dinner !

MIL makes several dishes that I really like: Home-made pierogies (OHMYGOD you have no idea how good they are!), Slovak-style Halupki, spaghetti and meatballs, etc. The thing is the pierogies and halupki are hard to make, so we'll see...

So Lola, shuffle us up a good "in-laws visiting" mix...
  1. Come Dancing - The Kinks
  2. Stronger - Kanye West
  3. Dark Road - Annie Lennox
  4. Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
  5. Whatta Man - Salt-N-Pepa
  6. New World Man - Rush
  7. Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw - Jimmy Buffett (oh, nice job Lola - perfect for the in-laws!)
  8. Help! - The Beatles (Lola is being snarky now...this is totally random, I swear!)
  9. Mesage to Myself - Melissa Etheridge
  10. Love to Love You - The Corrs

Have a great weekend before a holiday weekend!

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Meme! The ABCs of Me

What fun! I stole this from a favorite Internet forum.

If you want to play replace my answers with yours and let me know in my Comments!

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A is for age: 44

B is for birthday: July 8

C is for career right now: Technical Writer

D is for day and time you're doing this meme: Tuesday at 9:36 PM

E is for essential item you use everyday: Computer

F is for favorite TV channel: HBO

G is for favorite game to watch: College Football

H is for Home town: Miami, FL

I is for instruments you play: Sadly, none

J is for favorite fruit juice: Mamey

K is for whose butt you'd like to be kicking: No one's

L is for last restaurant in which you ate: TGI Friday's

M is for favorite type of music: Almost everything

N is for your full name: Hilda Ana Alvarez-Strang

O is for last overnight hospital stay: When I had hepatitis over 25 years ago

P is for people you were with today: My Hubby

Q is for your favorite quote: "Don't let yourself arrive at your grave perfectly preserved, made up, with every hair in place! No! Slide in sideways, body completely used up, mojito in one hand, chocolate bar in the other screaming, "WOO HOO! What a ride!" (Anonymous - modified by me)

R is for Biggest Regret: Not going away for college

S is for relationship status: Married

T is for time you woke up today: 9:00 am

U is for underwear you have on now: Panties

V is for vegetable you love: Onions

W is for worst habits: Eat too much

X is for x-rays you've had: Neck and foot

Y is for something yummy you ate today: Chicken Marsala

Z is for your Zodiac sign: Cancer

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I Challenge You To Watch This and Not Smile!


Dancing Guy - (Note - it has sound. Make sure to click "watch in high quality" right underneath the video.)

I got this from my friend Barbara. Thanks!

This guy, Matt, traveled around the world and danced a "jig" in each country. In this one (his third video) he invited people to dance with him - amazing to watch.

God bless him!

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

'Toon Tuesday




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Monday, June 23, 2008

R.I.P George Carlin


He was the voice of a generation that changed the world...and he was a voice deperately needed now.

Godspeed George...keep'em laughing!

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Friday, June 20, 2008

The Lola Shuffle - The "I'm Getting New Window Treatments Edition"


YAY! I'm getting new vertical blinds for my living room sliding glass door, and new horizontal blinds for my dining room window. They're being installed today! WOO HOO!

So Lola, shuffle us up some new vistas music...
  1. Till Then - The Mills Brothers
  2. I Am...I Said - Neil Diamond
  3. Come to My Window - Melissa Etheridge (Totally random, I swear!)
  4. Embraceable You - Nat King Cole
  5. Practice What You Preach - Barry White
  6. Love Will Keep Us Alive - The Eagles (one of my favorites)
  7. Turn the Beat Around - Gloria Estefan
  8. Waiting in Vain - Bob Marley and the Wailers
  9. Julie, Do Ya Love Me? - Bobby Sherman (are you swooning with me Dixie?)
  10. I'm Goin' Home - Hootie and the Blowfish

Have a wonderful weekend, and may your windows shine wonderful sunlight on you!

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

They Do!



Same-sex couples in California get marriage licenses


"These are not folks who just met each other last week and said, `Let's get married.' These are folks who have been together in some cases for decades," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "They are married in their hearts and minds, but they have never been able to have that experience of community and common humanity."

YAY! Congratulations to all!

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'Toon Tuesday




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Sunday, June 15, 2008

That Darn Cat!



Actually, change that to That Damned Cat!

So here we were - Hubby and I - a little after midnight on Saturday night, minding our own business, playing World of Warcraft not bothering anybody. All of a sudden we hear what sounds like crying outside our door, we assumed it was a cat, but I opened the door to check and a blur ran into the apartment. It turned out to be a full-sized frickin' frackin' cat who proceeded to howl like Satan's Fiendish Feline while running around our living room. I freaked out because, well, I hate cats on a good day when they're cute and fluffy never mind when they're shrieking at me for no reason - the damned beast didn't look like it was hurt and it was moving around just fine. It was making so much noise I thought it might be in labor - but no, it was thin and agile.

So Hubby, who like St. Francis of Assisi (and unlike me), loves all creatures great and small, tried to talk to it like he's Dr. Doolittle. Of course the devil-cat was having none of it and continued to howl like we were cooking it on an open spit. Luckily, despite my terror-induced catatonia I had closed our bedroom door because by now the cat was in our second bedroom looking out into the living room. Hubby told me to leave the apartment door open and get a saucer of milk so he could lure the cat out - except for the cat apparently didn't get the memo about how the plan was supposed to work. So eventually the cat - still howling like a furry banshee - backed into the guest bathroom where hubby placed the saucer of milk and shut the door. The damned thing continued with the screeching. It was horrible.

Next Hubby called the non-emergency police number and explained the situation to them. Much to our surprise they took down our information and told us that someone would be out to get the cat! In under 15 minutes four Miami-Dade County Paramedics showed up asking where the emergency was - even though one of them was carrying a broom (!). We told them we had not called in an emergency and told them what was going on.

After repeatedly asking us whether it was our cat, they began *the extraction procedure*. First they asked us for a broom - I wasn't even sure if we had a broom (we have a cleaning lady) but we did and we gave it to them. Then, they opened the bathroom door and asked us where the cat was. WHAT? The bathroom has no windows and it isn't that big, it's a bathroom! Apparently the stupid cat was in the tub! You can tell they thought we were giant wussies - until they tried to grab the cat up and it hissed at them - all of a sudden they recognized it was a problem.

So now we had four buffed paramedics, a hysterical cat and two brooms in my bathroom - the guys were yelling and the cat was howling, the brooms thankfully were quiet. They finally ushered the beast out of the apartment and as the fourth guy was walking out, THE DAMNED CAT CAME BACK IN! They quickly closed the second bedroom door, so where did THE DAMNED CAT go? On to the bottom shelf of my baker's rack full of knick-knacks - some valuable some not so much, but still, they're my knick-knacks! My husband, God bless him, got concerned because as he told the paramedics "If something breaks my wife is going to kill the cat and have it for breakfast after killing the rest of us."

I of course was very helpfully having a conniption on the other side of the room telling my husband, who was holding the baker's rack to keep it from shaking, to start taking stuff off of it and handing it to me - all this with the Keystone Paramedics doing their slapstick routine and THE DAMNED CAT standing *in* my baker's rack. The guys started talking about going downstairs and getting the gloves when one of them apparently got tired of the crap and grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck and ran outside with it. They left with THE DAMNED CAT and my broom. Later however when I checked, they had left the broom by the door.

So, where was the oft-touted brilliance of cats? You know, how cat apologists always say cats are soooo much smarter than dogs? Well I don't think a dog would have run into an apartment if it was scared. If the DAMNED CAT was scared of us why did it come inside not once but twice? What was it doing out there in the first place? I thought cats never got lost.

Dumb-assed cat.

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Friday, June 13, 2008

The Lola Shuffle - "The I Have a Deadline and I'm Freaking Out Edition"


AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! So, I've been in burned-out, tired of working, don't want to be here mode for the last few weeks and now the disgruntledness is coming home to roost (?). I have a big deadline that I totally should have been able to meet with time to spare if I hadn't been dilly-dallying. In Spanish we have a saying for my state : "En la luna de Valencia" which translates literally to "On Valencia's Moon" - I don't know why Valencia specifically. See - I'm doing it right now!

So, get serious Lola, shuffle! Something inspirational, uplifting, manic...


  1. You're Still the One - Shania Twain
  2. The Love you Save - Jackson 5 (yes, with Tito!)
  3. Say You Love Me - Fleetwood Mac
  4. Anyone Else But You - Michael Cera and Ellen Page from the "Juno" soundtrack (this is the two actors singing it, as opposed to the version by the singers - it is awesome!)
  5. Daybreak - Barry Manilow (That's what I'm talking about - inspirational!)
  6. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day (One of the best songs ever, IMO)
  7. He Went to Paris - Jimmy Buffett
  8. Cecilia - Paul Simon
  9. Don't Speak - No Doubt (old school - nice)
  10. Breathe - Melissa Etheridge (Wow! perfect ending Lola)

OK, have a great weekend and to all the Fathers out there - enjoy your day and your kids!

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

'Toon Tuesday


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Monday, June 9, 2008

Book Review - "The Masked Rider" by Neil Peart


The Masked Rider by Neil Peart is the author's first book, published in 1996. The book describes his month-long bicycle tour in Cameroon. Peart describes in detail the challenging riding conditions and "rustic" accommodations, in addition to his relationship with his travel companions and talks about the people he encounters. The book was an interesting, easy read. It is however the first time that I read a travel memoir that doesn't make me want to take the journey. It was difficult and uncomfortable and at times just nasty.


Although this is his first book, it's the third one of the four that he's written that I have read. Having already read his second book Ghost Rider - where he describes his cross-US motorcycle trip after his wife and 19 year-old daughter had died unexpectedly within a year of each other (accident and cancer respectively) - this was somewhat bittersweet. In this book he tells of how he can't wait for the end of the journey when he meets his wife in Paris to enjoy a vacation with her. At another point as he tells of the poverty he encountered and how the some of the children were underfed and sick, he says that he can't imagine the pain a parent must feel upon losing a child - little could he have known he would know that pain all too well the following year when he would lose his daughter.


It's also interesting to compare traveling conditions in that part of the world prior to 9/11. He complains about the inconveniences they had to endure at security checkpoints and when flying - it's nothing compared to what goes on now.


I'd recommend it to Neil Peart fans and to people who enjoy travel memoirs.

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Friday, June 6, 2008

The Lola Shuffle - "The *Has This Been The Longest Week Ever Or What?* Edition"

I mean seriously! By Tuesday I had already had a long week! I think it's because we were programmed during our oh so important formative years to expect a 3 month summer vacation - so when June rolls around, our minds, bodies and souls are ready for 3 months of mindless, for the most part unplanned activity, or non-activity depending on our mood. Yeah, that's it.

So Lola, get out of your "I should be on summer vacation" stupor and shuffle us up a nice list...

  1. I Shot the Sheriff - Eric Clapton (while this is good, I prefer Marley's version)
  2. Kiss - Tom Jones (conversely to the above, I prefer Tom's cover version to Prince's original - this one sounds naughtier, in a good way)
  3. In The Navy - The Village People
  4. I Could Fall In Love With You - Erasure (I totally credit my colleague Sarah for turning me on to Erasure. Although I'm not quite the pathological stalker fan she is, I do enjoy some of their music. I really like this one.)
  5. Dancing In The Dark - Bruce Springsteen (Forever a classic - always makes me smile)
  6. Under African Skies - Paul Simon (Great song!)
  7. Volcano - Jimmy Buffett (Fun!)
  8. Oye Isabel - The Iguanas (an old favorite)
  9. Pinball Wizard - The Who (Ummm...Lola - what have you been doing? Have you been "fraternizing" with strange iPods? Or, heaven forbid - a Shuffle! I didn't know how this "got in" to Lola! Good song though...)
  10. My Life - Billy Joel

    Good job Lola - but we still need to solve the "Pinball Wizard" mystery, young iPod!

    Enjoy your weekend - I'm going to pretend it's a 3-month summer vacation...(sigh)

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

On the 40th Anniversary of Bobby Kennedy's Death




I think he'd be happy to see Barack Obama's success.


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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

We've got a Candidate!




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'Toon Tuesday






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