DATELINE: Memory Lane, TX

Monday night I drove over to a neighborhood I used to frequent while living in Dallas (Lower Greenville) and visited some old haunts. It's been awhile, maybe 10-12 years, but I managed to remember where places were.

Ships is a total dive and I found it chock full of the same degenerate alcoholics I remembered. This is also where my miserable ex-wife and I had our first date.


Milos Char Bar is a great place that somehow has survived the re-development in the neighborhood. I had planned on getting myself a fabulous dinner but couldn't resist the Hickory Burger at Milo's. When the burger showed up I unwrapped the wax paper and immediately remember the smell of the hickory sauce. Adale made fun of me that I can't remember anything important but did remember the hickory sauce but she would understand if she had ever tasted one of those burgers.




I bet Carrie wishes the burger picture was scratch'n'sniff.

I bought a bong here. Probably some screens too.

I also stopped at the Winedale Tavern, another dump I used to hang out at. Good times.

Passion of the Benny Hill

Border Patrol + Yakety Sax

Doris Lessing finds out she just won the Nobel Prize for Literature

CHICAGO: Outtakes and deleted scenes.

Driving to the airport to fly back to Pittsburgh at the end of my short trip to Chicago last week I was really hungry and had to stop at a mini-mart for a chili-cheese dog. I did not feel very good after eating it.


Here is the aforementioned celebratory Wolfgang Puck spicy chicken pizza & beer.

BREAKING NEWS: FOX HAS CANCELED ALL BUFFY SING-ALONGS!

Allison may have attended one of the last legal Once More With Feeling sing-alongs. What a bunch of dicks.

Does anyone know a free program to take snapshots of webpages? The ones I've found are crappy (IE or Firefox).

DATELINE: Dallas, TX

I'm finally back in the game! Today is the first day of the project and it's been a little crazy.

1. Hotel internet has a filter that blocks out tons of shit, including youtube, facebook, craigslist rant n' rave. The blocked page says if I have a legit business nedd to go to the website I can email with a description of my need and my job/position to petition for access. ASSHOLES!
2. Internet is verrrrrrrrrrrry slow.
3. Toilet was clogged up & had to get maintenance guy to fix it.
4. First interview (via phone) was suspicious of me, didn't expect call & interview didn't happen.
5. Second interview rescheduled.
6. Couldn't meet with head of organization because of power outage.
7. Working situation less than desirable for other reasons.
8. It's raining like crazy.

Good news is that because of my Gold VIP status with Hilton I get free breakfast (I'm not at my usual Hampton Inn with the meager spread) which includes all the bacon, sausage, pancakes, waffles, and other goodies I can eat!

DATELINE: O'Hare airport, Chicago
My trip was a success & I'm celebrating with a Wolfgang Puck spicy chicken pizza and a beer. The wanted to meet me to see if they felt comfortable with me. As you rightly assume they were no match for The Man's business acumen and charm. The client is a pretty religious org & I had them eating out of my hand. They didn't even blink an eye when I told them I fear no one except the Great Cthulu. In addition to meetings & tours of their facilities we attended the Ladies Auxiliary Luncheon for their org. Even hymnals, swedish meatballs, and child singers couldn't tamp down my mojo.

I'm off to my flight home after I finish this beer. Chau.

J.J. Fad - Supersonic

I didn't know where Fergie's song came from.

PUSH IT FERGASONIC

Binghamton Update:

In case those of you who are former residents with Binghamton, Jewel of the Southern Tier, ever wonder what is going on there, these emails from the Anthropology Department will give y'all a little local flavor:

Subject: Building Stench Sent Date 09-27-2007 4:32:39 PM From Heidi Kenyon Reply-To Anthropology Graduate Students To ANTHGRAD@LISTSERV.BINGHAMTON.EDU

Everyone, I spoke to the building administrator (again!!) today about the unpleasant smell in the building. He hasn’t been able to find a source for it, so he is having Environmental Health & Safety send someone over tomorrow. We are aware of the issue (believe me!!) and I wanted you to know steps are being taken to resolve it. Thanks, Heidi Heidi Kenyon, Secretary Department of Anthropology & Linguistics Program Binghamton University PO Box 6000 Binghamton, NY 13902-6000 Science 1, Room 137 607-777-2737

From: andy merriwether [mailto:andym@binghamton.edu]
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 3:27 PM
To: Andym@binghamton.edu
Subject: Open House: National Alpaca Day

Please post this on the faculty and grad student lists for the department:

Saturday is National Alpaca Day, and Andy and Ann Merriwether of Nyala Farm Alpacas are having an open house from 10-5pm this saturday and sunday. All are welcome. You can see, feed, lead and pet soft wonderful alpacas. There will be activities for kids and adults, including felting, spinning, and leading alpacas through obstacle courses. We have a new cria (baby alpaca) that is less than 2 weeks old. Nyala Farm also features Wensleydale sheep, Jacob's sheep and Angora rabbits.

We are located at 104 Rockwell road in Vestal. Directions are available on the Southern Tier Alpaca Association web site http://www.southerntieralpacas.com/Home/ under the Member Farms Section (choose Nyala) then choose "directions"

http://www.southerntieralpacas.com/MapPage/NyalaFarmAlpacas.asp

All are welcome, hope to see you there.

I told you guys that National Alpaca Day was blowing up!

Hey all,

I'm getting ready for a quick trip to Chicago and probably won't be posting anything until Wednesday.

Joe was in for the weekend & we had a good time, although it went way too fast. I'll write more about the weekend later but I do want all you to know that none of us recommend Delta Farce.
Very disappointing in light of the hilarious Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector.

BREAKING NEWS: JESS DUMPED BRETT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Page Six is reporting that Jess & Brett are no longer together. After the show ended, Jess went back to Chicago and not long afterwards called Brett and broke it off with him, saying that she was dating someone else. I could have told Brett that she was not interested in him at all. Heather would never, ever have left Brett - even Big John couldn't get her fake, glitter encrusted claws out of Brett's hide.

Just think, after 11 months of work Business n'at is already worth $5.00! At this rate in a few years I can sell it & take everyone out to the pizza buffet to celebrate.

This website is worth
What is your website worth?

BREAKING NEWS: Brooke Hogan (Hulk's daughter) is a giant!

Funny, I'm not really surprised, especially after this headline a few years ago.

October 2, 2007 -- LOU Pearlman - the hog-fat, boy-band honcho who created *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys and launched the careers of Justin Timberlake and Nick Carter - was a pervy pedophile who preyed on the young men he mentored, Vanity Fair reports.

"I would absolutely say the guy was a sexual predator. All the talent knew what Lou's game was," Steve Mooney, an aspiring singer who was Pearlman's assistant, told VF's Bryan Burrough. "Some guys joked about it. I remember [one singer] asking me, 'Have you let Lou [fellate] you yet?' "

Mooney said he once asked Pearlman, who was known as "Big Poppa," what it would take for him to get into a band. "I'll never forget this as long as I live. He leaned back in his chair, in his white terry cloth robe and white underwear, and spread his legs," Mooney told Burrough. "And then he said, and these were his exact words, 'You're a smart boy. Figure it out.' " Mooney added that a singer groped by Pearlman told him, "Look, if a guy wants to massage me, and I'm getting a million dollars for it, you just go along with it. It's the price you got to pay."

Phoenix Stone, an early member of the Backstreet Boys, tells Vanity Fair Pearlman was "definitely inappropriate" with Nick Carter. Nick's mom, Jane Carter, wouldn't get into specifics, but said, "Certain things happened and it almost destroyed our family. I tried to warn everyone. I tried to warn all the mothers . . . I tried to expose him for what he was years ago."

Tim Christofore, a member of Take 5, recalls that during a sleepover at Pearlman's house, the music czar swan-dived onto his and another boy's bed and wrestled with them wearing only in a towel, which came off. "We were like, 'Ooh, Lou, that's gross.' What did I know? I was 13," Christofore told Vanity Fair.

Rich Cronin, lead singer of LFO, recalled Pearlman told him of an "ancient massage technique that if I massage you and we bond in a certain way, it will strengthen your aura."

Pearlman, 53, is in a Florida jail awaiting trial on bank fraud charges. Prosecutors say he scammed more than 1,000 investors out of $315 million. He'd been a fugitive until June when he was busted in Indonesia, living under a fake name. His lawyer did not return calls from Page Six.

I think this is the most awesome play EVER!:

"Point Break LIVE!, the absurdist stage adaptation of the 1992 Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze extreme-sports blockbuster, tells the story of former college football star Johnny Utah (Reeves in the film), as he pursues the surfing, bankrobbing, skydiving, bare-hand-fighting, adrenaline junkie cum Zen Master, Bodhi Sattva. The Brechtian blockbuster, which garnered a "Seattle P-I Best of Seattle 2004" award during its run in the Northwest, features armed robbery, big-wave surfing, car chases, explosions, and no less than two extended skydiving sequences. Best of all, you could be the next Johnny Utah... the starring role of Keanu will be selected at random from the audience each night, and will read their entire script off of cue-cards. This method manages to capture the rawness of a Keanu Reeves performance, even from those who generally think themselves incapable of acting."

CAVEMEN

Star of GIECO Caveman makes fun of anti-evolution host

I am soooooooooooooooo excited for the Caveman show premiere tonight!

Old 97's

I'm going to go see the Old 97's in Dallas next month!!!

This past weekend was Rhonda's big birthday weekend. Adale & I went with Rhonda & Toby down to the Bloomfield Italian festival and had a fun afternoon among the guineas. We watched some old guys play a little bocce ball, saw lots of tasty food stands, and almost bought some great Italian pride t-shirts.

Last night John & Janet (Adale & Rhonda's parents) came to town for some birthday fun. The day was almost ruined when the wings I ordered from Fox's Pizza turned out to be spicy rather than the desired plain, but I saved the day by calling up Fox's and having them bring out the correct wing order. Earlier in the day John told me that he had a extra cake from making Rhonda's cake so he made me my very own special cake. He wouldn't tell me what the cake was so I was imagining some sort of obscene design, maybe a big cock.

He made Rhonda a really delicious coconut Igloo cake. It was one of the best cakes I've had - moist with tasty icing.

Rhonda & Janet getting excited about the pizza & wings

The cutting of the cake

And here's the special cake John made just for me...a boobie cake with cherry icing

Breaking Rock of Love News: Heather was on The Surreal Life

I can't believe I never saw this until now - Heather was in an episode of The Surreal Life trying to get on Vanilla Ice's jock. Maybe Brett is wiser than I thought.

ROCK OF LOVE FINALE


Well, Brett made his decision and selected the girl who he wants to Rock his world and I think he screwed up. The final 2 gals are Heather




and Jess

Even though I think that Heather was the best gal for him hands down, Brett chose Jess. That decision was pretty much inevitable because Jess is younger a somewhat cuter. Brett was concerned that Heather was a stripper & because his heart had been broken by a stripper before, every stripper is untrustworthy. The thing is is that I really think that being a rock star's wife is one of Heather's dreams and that would mean that she would do anything & everything to make that happen and keep it. She is ferocious and would have fought tooth and nail for Brett. There was something a little phony about her dedication to Brett, that part of it was a dedication to being a rock star's wife, but that phoniness would fuel her drive to stay with Brett.

There was also a phoniness about Jess but I couldn't put my finger on it. I don't think she really cared that much about Brett. I would bet that they will not be together in a year. After the honeymoon's over and he's back on the road it'll be less than 6 months before she leaves him.

A sign of the Apocalypse? The End Times?

I've never been very spiritual or religious, but something about this little comic spoke to me.

reporter attack by llama

Alpaca attack

HAPPY NATIONAL ALPACA FARM DAY!

I hope all of you are as excited as I am about National Alpaca Farm Day, a day that the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association marketing committee has designed with a comprehensive plan to increase awareness of alpacas. Alpacas are not only cute but there are many benefits to alpaca ownership:

• Alpaca breeding is an alternative lifestyle with strong incomes
• Alpaca ownership creates a wide array of tax benefits
• Alpaca farming is a fulfilling lifestyle
• Alpaca ownership can include 2 alpacas to thousands!
• Alpacas provide a diversification in your financial portfolio
• Alpacas create a commodity that is both rare and in demand worldwide
• Alpacas are considered the “Aristocrat” of all farm animals
• Alpacas produce a luxury product that is in high demand. Textiles produced from fleece are known in fashion centers of New York, Paris, Milan and Tokyo
• Alpacas live a relatively long and trouble-free reproductive lifespan

Long Run Alpaca Farm is only 30 miles from Joe, Carrie can go to up to Georgetown to visit Hummers Homestead Alpacas, My Lady's Manor Maryland Alpaca Farm will welcome Kristen and Bern, Team Rocker can check out Park View Alpacas...everyone can go to this website and find out where the nearest farm is.

Wednesday we went & hung out with Adale's dad. He's recovering from an accident at work - a rock fell onto his leg & he'll be off of work for maybe a month. Nothing broke but it's all black, blue, and orange. We helped Spike with the computer (we're his tech support) and then went off to Wing Night at the Jefferson Hotel. They have big, whole wings, not little wing dings. The pictures aren't pretty but boy oh boy they're tasty.

Basket War

I haven't had much to say about what we've been up to because we've pretty much been doing the same thing for the past several weeks. Adale & I have been working at home, watching the cats run around. We did go to Games n'at twice last week, which was pretty fun. There's a sit down car racing game that we've been slightly obsessed with, as well as a stand-up first person zombie shooter game that we've been having fun with. Adale had a meeting last week at The Franktuary, a hot dog shop in the basement of a church (it used to be called Hot Dogma but there was an already existing place with the same name that made them come up with a new name) & I went along. Not to the meeting, but to the hot dog shop. I had the Texan, a chili cheese dog, but next time I'm going to try the Buffalo (blue cheese + buffalo wing sauce).

I didn't let y'all Mr. Droolface's recent health problems. As some of you may know he's gotten really skinny. When he had pancreatitis a few years ago he lost a ton of weight, but even after his pancreas stabilized he's been getting skinnier. He was about 13 pounds before the pancreatitis and is 7 pounds today. After his yearly blood test a few weeks ago the vet said he has an overactive thyroid, which is the reason for his weight loss. If it kept going without treatment he probably would die within the year. The two treatments are daily pills or a $1500 radioactive zap. There were a few days where I thought I was going to just let him pass away w/o treatment - the radioactive treatment seemed too much to spend on a cat when $1500 could make a big difference in a person's life, and the daily pills didn't seem like it was possible with our lives (traveling and whatnot). After talking to the vet I found out the pills would totally reverse his problems so we're giving it a try. The pills are really small so I can squish them into a kitty treat and he'll eat it w/o knowing. It's only been a few weeks and the vet should we'll begin to see changes after a month or so. The long and short of it is that Droolsy was on death row for a few days but got yet another reprieve.

The Editorial staff of Business n'at would like to recommend a new website:
My Roommate is a Dick

They don't have too many posts yet but I believe they have a strong future ahead of them.

Dear Roommate,

Are you kidding me? Are you serious? Do you really need two electric toothbrushes? And wtf is Carb Intercept anyway? We "share" a bathroom. Put your crap in a drawer.

Box Fight: Mimi vs. Mr. Peaches

String + Box + kitties = Fun!

Roadtrip to Atlanta!!

MEET MR. PEACHES!

Yes, the new kitten's name is Mr. Peaches. It took awhile but we both think it really fits the little guy. He's too sweet to be called Mr. Nibbles, so we butched up Adale's Mom's suggestion of Peaches by adding the "Mr."

"Don't Tase Me, Bro!" (UF Student Tasered Remix)

Mimi and the new kitten

It only looks like Mimi is trying to smother the kitten.

BREAKING NEWS: Mimi & the new kitten are friends!

PITTSBURGH (GZ) -- Adale caught Mimi & the new kitten sleeping very close to each other on our bed. As I was getting my phone ready to take a picture Mimi started to get up. I gave her a pet and she laid back down RIGHT UP AGAINST THE KITTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mimi then cleaned the kitten for several seconds.

These developments, though anticipated, came about much earlier than expected. Video will be coming shortly.

dude, what? yeah, I'm totally listening...I was just resting my eyes



zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The kitten loves to play with Adale's hair bands. It will grab it with it's teeth and pull with all its might to get it out of your hands.

Two nights ago we were in bed playing with the hair band & the kitten grabbed it out of Adale's hand, ran to the end of the bed with it in it's mouth, jumped off the bed and took off running into the living room.

A few minutes later it came back & jumped on the bed with the band still in its mouth.

This is Mimi's basket, where she spends a lot of time chilling out. The kitten, showing no respect, jumped up into it & fell asleep.


The kitten has figured out that he can climb up the screen door.

Found this old picture & thought y'all would appreciate it.


The Date: May, 1991.

The Setting: My friend's Ray & Mike's apartment in Pasadena, CA (Southern California).

The Scene: Drinking beers before heading out to the Butthole Surfers/Redd Kross/L7 show at the Palladium.

The graph below represents the hits Business n'at has had for 2007, broken down by month. You can clearly see the crazy effect my posts on Rock of Love had on site traffic. I still get lots of people stopping by due to outside links to those posts or google searches for Brandi M / Pamela.

Page Load - The number of times your page has been visited.

Unique Visitor - Based purely on a cookie, this is the total of the returning visitors and first time visitors - all your visitors.

Returning Visitors - Based purely on a cookie, if this person is returning to your website for another visit an hour or more later.

It's difficult for me describe in words why the new kitten is perfect, so I thought a pie chart would help. All percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number and, as always, you can click on the picture to see a larger version.

DATELINE: Kitty Heaven, PA

I've been neglecting Business n'at for a very good reason...we have a new kitten!!!!!! This dude who works with Adale's mom had a kitten to give away & we picked him up Friday. I'm going to put on my cold, analytical hat on and say, with all honesty, this is the most perfect kitten ever. He's so cute, he's the nicest kitten you could ever imagine, and he is all about lovin' & running around like crazy. He's been purring & making muffins non-stop since we picked him up.

This little guy is so good natured - he purred when we gave him a bath, he sleeps with us all night, he sleeps on my lap. I'm at a loss for words to describe how wonderful he is.

Mimi was not happy at all when the kitten showed up. She growled & was terribly upset for a few days. Now they're running around chasing each other & I think they'll be good for each other.

Droolsy hates the kitten and that will never change.

One problem we've been having is coming up with a name. I have wanted to have a cat named Mr. nibbles for several years but I'm not sure Adale is down with that. We had kicked around Julius Nibbles when we thought about getting a bright orange kitty like Buddy, but the new kitten is a pale orange and the name doesn't exactly fit. Y'all have any suggestions?

This is from the Bike Bike conference but I didn't shoot it.

*** I should also say that the pictures below are from the Bike Bike website.