Hunters - I still get mad thinking about them!

About 15 years ago, I lived on a farm in Southern Maryland. It was there that I had a real opportunity to observe deer, and their amazing presence. It was during that time that I also learned to DETEST guns, and hunters.

Every year after Thanksgiving, the gross redneck hunters would line the neighboring properties, and squeal when they "got one", all the while chewing tobacco and smelling like Budweiser. They also voted republican.

I was reminded of that time last weekend when I shot these photos with the girls at Oxon Hill Farm. How anyone can find joy in the destruction of something this amazing is beyond me.

Catching Up On The Mail

The Caps:

SouthEast Division Champions! More on them in another entry, but thanks to my readers for your support of the most amazing players, team, and Coach in Washington History! It is a GREAT time to be a Caps fan. I will be proudly displaying my Ovie Bobble head in my office, and plan to wear my new Jersey to work tomorrow.


The Tudors:

YES! I have been watching with great interest, and really appreciate all of the comments that I have received on last years "Tudor Series". I do enjoy the way that they are (rather accurately) portraying Henry's tyrance emerge as he becomes more obsessed with Anne Boleyn. I also think that they are doing Thomas More justice by their portrayal of his character. Anxious to see how they handle the Jane Seymour affair later in the season.

Charlton Heston:

Dead. Good Riddance! Your ideas about Gun Control (or lack thereof) were barbaric, dangerous, and irresponsible. As a mother of small children, I can not forgive your using your celebrity for such evil.

Promise to blog later. Off to feed the kids.

My E-mail to the Generous Georges on Duke Street, Alexandria VA

Hello. I have been a customer of yours for over 17 years, to include my annual coordination of a pre-marathon pasta event at your facility in Alexandria for up to 100 people. During the course of the last couple of years I have noticed your service going down while your prices went up, but over looked it because it was a good place to take kids and convenient to our home. My lunch experience today broke the camels back, and I am frankly shocked at how horrible dining at your establishment has become.

I took today off to be with my 2 young daughters and had my husband meet us as a special treat. This rarely happens and we looked forward to it all morning.

The service (if you call it service) was beyond atrocious. Since the sign said "seat yourself" we took a seat. We did not realize that this also meant got your own silverware, locate the highchairs and booster seats (and wipe them down yourself) and then search for 10 minutes for someone to take your order. We also needed to get our own menus (and wipe them down) but couldn't find the children's menu's. Our waitress who never told us her name and wore no name tag or I would certainly pass it on) was annoyed that we didn't find our own children's menus, I'm sorry.

Our drinks came in a reasonably short timeframe, but no straws accompanied them. When we asked a gentleman for them because our waitress was ignoring us, he said that he would get them if we couldn't find our waitperson. NICE. Did I mention that the 2 of them were only serving 9 tables? Not exactly "in the weeds".

I needed to send my food back because my pasta was cold. The girls small pizza which I told her they would be splitting turned out to be a burned and uncutable mini pizza, and the waitress told me that it was my fault I misordered because you have no "small pizza" just a regular pizza which is not what I asked for. We ordered a second mini-pizza which came 20 minutes later with a lot of prodding from me. CLEARLY it was not made a priority in the kitchen. My husband did not tell me how his meatball sandwich was because I was so mad at this point he didn't want me to blow. But, it looked small.

The servers were filthy and I wont even get into the fact that the whole front of the restaurant smelled of urine, I am sure that the health department will take care of both of these issues.

We did get the check after asking for it, but, the waitress NEVER came back to get it. She had disappeared. The same gentleman that was covering her butt the whole meal finally took care of it for us because the girls were really fussy at this point and my husband desperately needed to get back to work.

Generally I would just blow this off, tell my friends NEVER to go to Generous Georges and forget the experience. However, the dismissive manner in which we were treated by our waitress was inexcusable and therefore resulted in my comments. It is a shame that a beloved neighborhood establishment can become such a horrendous dump in such a short period of time.

Lifes little frusteration - #604

Once in a while I discover a little annoyance that I need to discuss. This is one of those times. And, since this is my blog, indulge me ..............

Who the fuck invented the Juice Bag and can we kill them !!!!!!!!????????????

I for one, have NEVER been able to get the straw into those idiotic packages without covering myself with a liquid that resembles the crap that one would put in their humming bid feeder. And, I always find myself struggling with them when one of the kids is crying because they are desperately thirsty. Most recently this occurred at my nieces birthday party, but at the time I was reminded that it happens every single time!

Is it operator error, or, is this a universal problem that just isn't discussed?

No matter what, you can always find reasons to smile ........

Well, it is official. I have been completely *(^& over by the complete self promoting incompetents in the upper management at work and have been screwed out of another promotion. I guess that I was expecting it, but am no less pissed by the result.

After sulking for about an hour, I decided to do something that I have NEVER attempted in the past. I looked at what was good in my life rather then dwell in the crap. It is really not surprising that I came up with a rather impressive list in a very short time:

- My 2 amazing girls
- Tom, who caught an early flight home
- Susie and Papa are healthy and close
- Two episodes of LOST on TIVO
- Good Friends, and;
- Showtime's upcoming series "The Tudors"

And it is The Tudors that will get the rest of this entry's attention. I am excited about this series, especially since it promises to be full of the political, sexual, and bloody escapades of my favorite Renaissance Pig - Henry the VIII. Always concerned about my readers, I want you to be prepared for the series so that you can enjoy it as much as I. Therefore, I am committing to writing a minimum of 8 entries leading up to the April 1 Premier. These entries will highlight each of Henrys 6 wives, and his two daughters. Tonight we will start with wife #1, who was arguably the classiest of them all (albeit stupid for loving the schmuck) ........... Katherine of Aragon.

Katherine was Katherine of Aragon (Princess of Spain) and queen consort of England. She was the wife of Arthur, Prince of Wales and when he died before they consummated their marriage, Henry VIII agreed to do the deed. I am sure that this had political ramifications, merging of powers, yada yada yada. I choose to believe that it was because Henry, tired of playing second fiddle to his fathers favorite son, found a way to bang his brothers intended and took it. A small detail like his brother was dead didn't matter, Henry won.

Where did Henry fail? All of the male heirs that he conceived with Katherine (5) died in childhood and their only surviving child, Princess Mary (later Bloody Mary) could not inherit the throne (little did Henry know that the People would speak loudly on that issue and both Mary and Elizabeth would take their turn as the head of state, but I digress). Henry decided that because he could not make a baby boy with Catherine (who was deeply religious and spent her entire life praying about it) he would have the marriage annulled and make a baby boy with Anne Boleyn instead (which never happened, thought many believe that he did make a bastard boy with Anne's older sister Mary).

The Pope refused to allow the annulment of Henry's marriage to Katherine, which set off a chain reaction that led to Henry's break with the Roman Catholic Church, and gave us the Episcopalian Religion (Catholicism with Divorce). Katherine and her daughter were separated and she was forced to leave court. She lived for the next three years in several dank and unhealthy castles and manors with just a few servants. She died on January 7, 1536 at Kimbolton Castle and was buried at Peterborough Abbey with the ceremony due for her position as Princess Dowager, not as a Queen of England.

This concludes our essay on Katherine. It would be longer, but I am still working on Phillippa Gregorys The Constant Princess. Tune in for next weeks Tudor edition, for an in-depth look at Henry's Hussy --- Ann Boleyn.

NO REPRESENTATION FOR YOU!

Washington DC's parking office SUCKS. In 2 months I received 2 parking tickets. One I paid because I realised after careful observation that I might have been in an illegal spot. I still have my doubts, but I am willing to take the hit because I am not 100% certain I am right.

The 2nd ticket I received was COMPLETELY unjustified. I parked at a broken meter for less then an hour. I needed to go to my office when I was on leave to get some paperwork together and the meter began to eat my quarters. Immediately I called the number on the meter and reported the broken meter. They said that I would be OK, and when I came back to my car I had a ticket. I was pissed.

I then called the parking office AGAIN and filed a complaint, but still needed to appeal with a formal letter. I did just that, complete with times, POC's and locations.

Today I received a letter that blew my mind. They claim that they did a "meter analysis" in which a status was printed from the meter and it was determined that the violation was valid. Since I am certain that the meter was broken and I am not confident that they went to the RIGHT meter, I decided that I wanted to see a copy of the analysis. Guess what! NOT AN OPTION. I need to first clear my record of liability ($25) and if I pay an additional $10 and file a secondary appeal, it will be reconsidered by another board. However, I am not allowed to offer evidence or permitted to attend my hearing. I can not get a copy of the meter report.

This city sucks.

Tomorrow Tom is going to pay the ticket because a) he loves me and does not want me to go to jail and b) he knows that I will NEVER pay it. What I do plan to do tomorrow is research my DC FOIA options and figure out how to get the meter reports from the area surrounding 1900 half street, SW.

Thank god I took tonight's Xanex early.