IT'S OVER

Woohoo! At last, my bank account is sorted. I just came back from dumping 5000 into it and opening a savings account that will let me buy a new Harley in 6 months! The Sakal mess is over except for the Victor bit. And that should be moving into the courtroom soonish! I even have a small cash stash, small being the operative word. IT'S OVER. Now I can relax and not get hysterical at the end of the month. Happy happy gimp. Of course I can't go wild buying, but, the end is here. No thanks to Striar. He is far from out of it with me, but I pulled myself out of the morass he left me for broke in 2 years ago. HA! Before coming home, I went into Traklin and bought the printer scanner, copier I want for 500! Trust me, that's cheap. It will be here on Sunday!!!!!!
Right, enough blathering. It's Friday, 4 Dark Angel episode Friday, so off for a rest for this gimp.

HARLEY UPDATE

Papa laddy and of his lads were just here on a search for Afikim phone numbers. It seems my diagnosis was 100% correct, but even worse than a few burnt wire ends. It seems they need to change the whole *braid*, which is NOT a new hair do, but the main bundle of wires that connect everything to the batteries from the switches. Oops. Now, did I mention how great these lads are? Pappy laddy has taken full responsibility for it and I won't be charged for that part of the surgery. Of course I might not have him back until next week, but that's ok as the only thing I need is the Friday local papers and there are plenty of people who can bring them. I'm not too upset by this news and that is probably partly due to the good news about Kiri/Cab!

GIMP DETECTIVE

What a lousy week! Harley is now paralyzed from the neck down! Larry from Afikim was here on Monday and more or less pronounced him dead from a broken neck, and tried his very best to get me to buy a NEW one for 15,000 shekels. We couldn't come close to agreement on how to pay for a new one, so I very carefully took him(Harley) to get a second opinion from the local *clinic*. They said that they could weld his neck, and he'd be just fine. I took him in for the operation yesterday, and it went just fine, but he woke up paralyzed from the neck down (his wiring got fried during the welding) They are working on putting his central nervous system back together and he just might be ok by tomorrow.
There *is* some good, no, fantastic, news. I spoke to the English First UK office and Kiri/Cab is NOT on their missing person list which means she is ok and accounted for. The down side there is that Sky is yammering bout a new earthquake and tsunami threat, this time from the direction of Australia which is not good for Borneo, if that is where she is. Soooo back to the worry corner. At least I now have the all important phone number and web site for finding out what's going on with EF people. I think maybe I'll wander on over to the Sky site and see what I can find out about this new threat. I'm not sure I can take much more of this.

ULTIMATE CONCEIT

I'm going to scream if I hear just one more TV hotshot ask if the world's weather is out of control. Excuse me, but since when was it ever subject to mans' control? Ok, so we can seed clouds and make a little rain, but that's it. Control hurricanes, typhoons, tornados and other natural manifestations of weather like heat waves, have never been in our control. So just who the hells do those people think they are asking if The Weather is out of control?
I'm not quite sure how that mini tirade leads into one of my pet theories about the weather here. I have noticed that when our leaders go in the obviously correct direction, we get just the weather we need.......lots of rain in winter and not too hot summers. When we get all soft and try to do as others (Europeans, Americans, UN) would have us do, things go to crap, like this winter. We've had very little rain and the summer was hot as hell. Granted, I haven't made a proper scientific study of this, but I have been keeping track on my own. When Sharon was elected after promising not to pull out of Gaza unilaterally, we had a great winter and the Kinneret filled up. Things turned to shite the minute he went along with the very reason that as**ole Mitzna was defeated.
Oh, and BTW, we are not, repeat, not, occupying Gaza and the West Bank in spite of what *they* and many of our own think. There is one and only one reason that our troops are there and that is to prevent *them* from blowing up in our midst and to try to stop *them* from firing missiles at us. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Our people should not have to leave their homes unless *theirs* do too. You know, the triangle, Um El Fuckem and that lot. I'd personally like to see Nazareths Muslims go too so the Christians can have their city back. Bethlehem too. It distresses me that the Christians have pretty much let *them* get away with it. There *was* a bit of a flap over the mosque *they* wanted to build in the courtyard of the church in Nazareth. Get real here people. There was absolutely no reason for *them* to build a mosque there other than that they *could* and that reason just doesn't work.
I'm wild with worry over my pal CabAret who is working in Indonesia, but supposed to be on holiday in Borneo. Phone calls aren't going through, and this morning I did something I NEVER do. I turned the TV over to Sky News first thing. Well, Cabbsie *is* from the UK, Wales to be exact, so of course Sky is the channel of choice. I'll go out of my damaged mind if I don't hear from her soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates today! I hope that next year you will stop giving in to all the jerks who want to secularize it. They don't deserve your consideration, you, however, deserve theirs. For the life of me I can not understand why they feel so threatened by 90 % of Americans exercising their right to practice their religion as they see fit. It would be another story entirely if they tried to stop others from exercising the same right, but hey, guess what, they don't! Are so many people that insecure in their beliefs that they feel threatened by those who believe differently celebrating their beliefs in public? If so, they have the problem. I always thought the ACLU was an organization that defended everyone's civil rights. I just never realized until recently that their method of defending those rights is by denying them to everyone. Something is very wrong with that. I hope you get it sorted soon.
It's almost time to start making my annual Christmas calls.
It is also time to take my semi busted foot to bed. Yesterday's x rays show no broked or fractured bone, it's the ligaments that are a mess. I'm supposed to stay off it and take it for whirlpool treatments. I'm also supposed to the wheel chair which doesn't fit in this corner, so, don't be too surprised or worried if I'm not here in the near future. It starts to really hurt after an hour or so.
I'm still sad that Dark Matters is off the air now. I am so going to miss my personal prophet. I've been moaning and groaning to myself for ages that we need a prophet, not fully understanding that Dwight Schultz actually was fulfilling that role almost every week. He truly has a brilliant grip on what is going on and has a special gift for expressing it. It's too bad that his audience was limited to the 100 or so Dark Matters listeners. He'd probably freak if he knew that I think this about him, but I do and hope that he will one day have a forum that will get his message out to more people.
Time to put foot up.

NO TIME TO FIX THE WORLD

Where does the time go? I barely have time these days to read and answer my e mail, never mind keep up with things here. For some reason I decided to stay in on Sunday, and try to get caught up. Finding out that Dark Matters is going off the air took the air right of me. Yes, I DID cry at the end. Life just won't be the same without them. I was so sad I didn't even feel like reading, never mind writing.
On Monday when I finally decided to go out, Harley went and exploded his front tire right on the ramp. The lads came and changed his tire on Tues. morning and I went to check my mail box and get groceries. Just at the bump from the street to the path, he stopped in his tracks. Already knowing what was wrong, I got out the cell phone and called the 'guys' They said they'd be along shortly, but never showed and there I sat in the street, freezing, but with a book. If I have something to read, I can be stuck in a corner forever and be perfectly happy. I finished the book at around 17:00 and decided to ask the next person to push Harley up onto the path knowing full well that his wheel would fall off. Sure enough, just in front of the entrance to the ramp, his wheel fell off! Even at a time like that, there is great satisfaction in saying " I told you that would happen" I went in and called and begged the lads to come get him as he couldn't stay there like that all night. They finally did. They came this morning to take me to get him, but as I wasn't dressed, we decided they'd come back in hour. I got dressed and went out to wait for them. No show. Back in and at 16:30 called again. We'll be right there. They finally arrived and I got Harley home in one piece. I, on the other hand, am still cold and have developed a whole bunch of new aches and pains, among them, I suspect a fracture in my foot from dropping the computer on it this morning! I'll take it to the quack tomorrow.
As to fixing the world..........I'm not sure it's worth bothering. Sharon has lost his mind, and is really going to do the one thing he swore he never would. The rest of the world is throwing itself at the so called Palestinians and promising them everything it can think of, with out making sure the keep agreements. Been there, done that, don't need another T shirt.
And over in America, the me me me crowd is trying to kill anything to do with Christmas, as if Christmas is a personal affront to them. Come on, people, it's a holiday that over 90% of Americans celebrate, how in the world can it be an insult to those who don't? I rather enjoy it, admittedly, from afar, but sending and getting cards is fun. When I was a kid, I used to go to the Dagget's every Christmas morning for the tree and opening presents. They always had few for me, and I always had for them. Isn't that what it's about, sharing? The little Jewish girl at the Christmas tree was neither a threat nor in danger of losing her religious identity. I loved it, but knew it wasn't mine. There are a lot of people in America who should just get a life.
Irit, Guy, and Romi are on an airplane on their way over there for a month. Irit called at 07:30 to tell me they're on their way.
I think it might be time to get up, undressed, make some soup and try to warm up. Achy called to tell me that the computer guys at his news thingy want to talk to me. I can talk to them from bed! It's about time this AOL thing hits the news.

THE GIMP AND GRAPHICS

One of these days I'll figure out to save stuff from Publisher as JPEG or something like that. It only took all day to get the poptart thing done and it's prtty crap. I'm hoping I'll be able to fake the computer out and get it posted here. I'll try a little later. Right now I want to rant a bot AOL. They still don't have their act together, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if it's all Netvision's fault. I've stopped hating them as much as I used to, but if AOL isn't sorted PDQ, they will be back on the target for practise.I think it's time to go fight with the pic prog. You'll know if it works because there will be an awful picture of a popTART here!

AOL WARS AND TEADRINKER'S INTRO TO HI TECH!

I do not deal well with frustration, as anyone walking by Gimp House this morning is now able to confirm. The emails that were sent to AOL were all unceremoniously bounced. After an hour spent attempting to decipher the gobbledygook they send with the bounce, I realized that *my* server is somehow at fault, so I called them and the techie said they are working on it and that using Yahell or Hitmail might work. In the end that's exactly what I did. I used the hated Yahell and it got through. I hope they sort the issues soon because I really don't like Yahell, and I don't like Hitmail even more! I'm getting quite used to Thunderbird and the only complaint I can think of is that it doesn't have an automatic signature feature, but I can live with that and have even figure a way around it involving Ctrl-C and V!
Teadrinker got her digicam and PSC yesterday and the insanity and curses started. She *did* get the camera to work with a minimum of fuss. Then, this morning we moved on to the PSC (Printer Scanner, Copier) and the real fun started. She had much trouble getting the ink carts in and spent ages on the phone threatening dire injury with a hammer (to me, and/or the PSC) while simultaneously cursing me in several languages. After bellowing right back at her, she called HP support here and they really pissed her off, and we were at threats involving hammers and other implements of destruction. More Gimp bellowing and she calmed down, put the torch (flashlight in her mouth and got the ink carts in AND PRINTED A PICTURE! She has now gone off to recover.
No matter how many times I tell her that people of average or above average intelligence often have trouble with these devices because we have a hard time grasping that "yes it can be that easy" she refuses to believe it. I'm starting to dread the day she gets a computer! So is she. She remembers the good (not) old days when I was just starting out with my first one. The fact that she is without a doubt smarter than I am will only hinder her, but, on second thought, I might enjoy watching (listening) to her going through what I went through not so long ago!
I've been sitting here for 7 hours now and my knees are most unhappy. I think I'll take them for a rest even though my topics list for the blog is getting quite long. Blame AOL!

SLOW SUNDAY

As usual for a Sunday morning, I was up at 05:45, had the computer booted and a coffee to hand by the time Don and Dwight came on for another 3 hours of glimpses into the twists and turns of their brilliant minds. I *am* thankful every day I wake up, and even more so on Sunday because it means Dark Matters will be there once again to get my mind into gear. Their shows are brilliant and I wouldn't miss them for anything.
I managed to get Scrabble sorted at last and can already see that it is going to be dangerous and that not much else will get done around here. I spent way too long playing against myself while listening to Snoopy Christmas at full volume. I can get away with it because absolutely no one here knows English or American culture well enough to know what it is! I love that song and it gets me all bouncy and happy smiley.
I should have stuck with that instead of going to watch the news. Those kind peaceloving so called Palestinians dug a tunnel under an army post in southern Gaza and set off over 100 kg.......That's over 220 lbs of explosives under the post and blew it shy high. Sky News was reporting 3 dead, I was watching Israel 10 and Teadrinker had Sky on and me on the phone. These are the people everyone is so excited about us making peace with. Excuse me a minute here, but wouldn't it make more sense for them to lay off the attacks as a gesture of good will as Sharon is moving ahead with his disengagement/suicide plan? Something is very wrong here. It won't be long before they have a system of tunnels to rival the North Vietnamese, if they don't already.
I'm also getting good and sick and tired of OUR media using THEIR terminology. We have a perfectly good word in Hebrew, but they are all using the Arabic Houdna-cease fire and it drives me wild as does using the word Intifada. Must we give them linguistic credibility while they are trying to destroy us?

SATURDAY NIGHT CATCH UP

Why is it that I always get lost in the item of the moment and what I had planned to do remains undone? Of course, in the end it does get done. What brought this on? Nothing earth shattering, that's for sure! I've been looking for a scrabble download that I wouldn't have to pay for, not because I'm cheap, but because I don't have a card that works outside of the country. Today, the solution hit me. KazAa Lite! A good 3 hours after downloading KazAa,which took over an hour to find, I finally had Scrabble, and could not stifle the urge to play. The original plan was to play until the news came on, and hopefully to exercise enough willpower to stop and get today's post written. No such luck. I just kept playing. The psychic of the universe struck again today, this time in the form Joel who brought up the subject of movie remakes. Poor man, it earned him quite a tirade. I've been pondering the subject for several days now. I do not understand how the high mucky mucks in Hollywould can be so egotistical and incredible stupid as to think that they can take a great movie and improve it. They can't, as has been proven time after time. At least a few haven't been totally twisted like the new Harvey with Harry Anderson (it would have been better with Dwight Schultz) but at least H.A. didn't ruin it. James Stewart WAS much better. The new Bye Bye Birdie stinks in comparison to the original with Ann Margaret and Dick Van Dyke. They changed too much and ruined it for me. The all new updated Charlies Angels also stinks as does the Starsky & Hutch remake. And while I'm on the subject, there's Galactica with Starbuck as a woman. Really. And now it seems Cannel is threatening to do a new A Team movie and his remarks about prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had no idea what the original was about. Why can't they just leave well enough alone. If they MUST meddle why can't they leave it at just adding color to old Black and White? I have NEVER seen a remake that comes close to the original. Are there no original ideas out there in Tinseltown? Oh, yeah, not to forget Alexander the Gay. Huhn? That wasn't covered in any history book I ever read. Have they lost their minds? That's just TOO much. Starbuck's a girl and Alexander's gay? What next?
Irit managed to infuriate me yet again today. Last week she said I could go visit them tomorrow. I told her maybe, and in any case I can't leave until after 09:00 because of dark Matters. She called today and asked what's up. She said they are going someplace in the afternoon and I'll have to leave early. Does she really think that I'm going to go though all the performance of getting on a bus, going there, then turn around and go home again? Seems she does. But, I'm not. Looks like it will be a good long time before I see that kid. She is not going to play Pat Tal with me. I have a life too and her brat's iron clad schedule is not my problem. I'm not young, and I'm in a wheelchair to boot. Just who does she think she is? If/when I get a car........we'll see. But for now, if she can't make the effort, f***k her and the kid. She bitches that they are staying here only until I kick off. Yeah, well, when my mother had cancer, I postponed my plans and moved closer to her so she could see the kids the easily. How things change and I NEVER made her feel that I was just waiting for her to go, never mind said it to her face. Am I feeling hurt? Damn right I am.
Looks like it's time to set the cellphone alarm and settle in for Sue Thomas F.B.Eye. I like that show, which reminds me of another mini topic.
There's been a lot of liberal talk about the moral principles crowd and their TV viewing habits. They seem to think that watching *immoral* shows is hypocritical. Well, it isn't and they don't necessarily watch for prurient reasons. The fact that I watch CSI and NCIS and Law and Order doesn't mean that I have criminal tendencies. In fact, if anything, it influences in rather the opposite direction. There's not much those liberals won't say to try to keep on the moral high ground, no matter how stupid.

SCARY BLOG STUFF

I don't scare easily. Hey! I live in Kiryat Shemonah for crying out loud, and regulary use the intercity buses, but, yesterday, I was a bit freaked out when I saw that someone from an anti conservative blog had been here. After sleeping on it, I realized that the poor guy hadn't had an original though in his life and his vocabulary is limited to Liberalish. His favorite word is neocon and I wonder if he even knows what it means and where it came from. Neocon is short for 'new conservative' which is totally a Liberalish concept. It's used as a derogatory term for conservatives, which leads me to wonder how long one has to be a conservative to lose the prefix 'neo' Obviously I have almost as much contempt for *born into it and never questioned it* conservatives as I do for those whose favorite word is neocon and use it for everyone who is not a liberal. I just don't know about those people. I've mentioned several times that it annoys me when bloggers just reprint articles they agree with rather than make the effort to take the general premise and explain why they agree with it. I *have* used selected portions of articles to support things I've written, usually after I wrote it. But never have I just reprinted an article and let it stand as my opinion. Intellectual laziness, or inability to think independently? Only they know, but I have my suspicions. A trained parrot could get the message across in a more entertaining way.
I don't mind at all that those of other opinions read my blog, it *is* in the public domain, after all, and it just might start someone on the road to independent thinking. Everyone is welcome to read the twisted meaderings of my damaged mind.(got the CT and MRI scans to prove it!)
It stuck me last night how similar in sound (and possibly meaning) are the Russian word Czar and the Hebrew word for minister- Sar שר. Of course my dictionary-the Hebrew one doesn't go into the etymology of words beyond the root. I must remember to ask one of the many teachers I know, who just might know, or maybe Achy.
Yafit is busy washing the floor after doing the mountain of dishes and turning the stove around. The fridge door now opens all way! See? I really am smarter than I look. Yafit was amazed that it actually worked. Sooooo, I really don't have to go the 'built in' route. I've also decided to keep the dog's food and water in the loo. Peg is back in dog bog for trying to escape while I was leaving to get the turkey. I caught his tail just as he was about to squeeze out of the broken lower glass part of the screen door. Ooops. Yafit is almost finished, and I should be able to get the turkey in the oven by 15:00.

A DOGS LIFE

Ragamuffin and Pegasus are still in 'banishment' to the door handle in the loo...or dog bog, if you use Britishisms! Ragamuffin, the brainless wonder keeps getting her lead all twisted and I have to untwist it frequently. Keep in mind that the loo in Gimp House is in scale size wise.........it's small. That door is at the very edge of the shower area. The last time I untwisted her lead, she had gotten it so that she was almost in the air and held quite close to the door that is practicaly in the shower........same wall the water control thingy is on. Oh, yes, while struggling to sort her lead without strangling her in the process, I turned on the shower. Brrr cold. It did get me to reconsider the banishment. I just might give them another chance at freedom tomorrow. It is Hanukah, after all, and the banishment is only temporary. If they go back to their evil ways again, it could become permanent.
I've finally pretty much gotten the general idea on how to get along with Firefox and Thunderbird and een like them. Try them, recommended.
Oh dear, it sounds like Raggy has gone and twisted the lead again. Gimp to the rescue.

WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE

Hasn't 'Azam 'Azam been through enough? I came in from my morning expedition to catch the last few minutes of an interview on my talk radio channel with some spoil sport whinger from Israel 2 TV. He was whining that selling this story is a dangerous precedent and that a new law should be passed forbidding news companies from buying stories. The assumption is that Israel 10 (Israel 2's competition) bought it. They are only upset because *they* didn't get it. While I tend to agree that NEWS should be bought, this is much more than news. I hope he can cut a deal for a book. Small minded people drive me wild, and even though I really don't like the left slant of Israel 10, they *do* have the best people working for them. They hired the best away from Israel 1 and 2. Enough already, leave the guy to get on with his life and stop acting like American Democrats.
Happy birthday to me! Turning 51 for the 3rd time is fun. I was not thrilled when Irit called and instead of wishing me a happy birthday, she asked what I want to get Romi for Hanukah. Uh, ok.......but sheesh. I of course ordered what she wanted, then, went out hoping my turkey would be in. It wasn't He promised me tomorrow. If it's raining, as predicted, they'll deliver it. I'm going to try a new stuffing........wheat, onions and garlic. Should be interesting. Turkey isn't exactly macrobionic, but it *is* on personal ok list. There's not much more that I love more than turkey and I *do* do them well.

SHE SAID -HE SAID-SHE SAIDor WHERE HAVE I HEARD THIS BEFORE?

I quite enjoy finding things I've already written about here being picked up by the big boys.....aka..... the crowd at Jonathan Garthwaite's daily news letter. The one below started out as a commentary on news as speculation, then, went on to talk about his speculations from last year. I hope the link works.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/matttowery/mt20041207.shtml

These days, "news" is old by the time you read it. People don't want to know what happened anymore -- they want to know what's going to happen next. In our quest to feed this obsession, and to seem smarter than everyone else, columnists and pundits make a lot of predictions, especially at this time of year. You'll likely see a lot of "what happened in 2004, and what's going to happen in 2005" columns very soon. In fact, you're reading one now.

And this by Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Putz.......aka........the newspaper that caused me to learn to read Hebrew!

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/Glick20041206.shtml

The only way to fight these people is to refuse to play by their rules. We must be able to look in the mirror and realize that indeed we are the good guys here. And we must be willing to look at the rotten evil that characterizes the ideology of our enemies and say that defeating them is the mission of our generation

It really is time that people learn that armies in combat situations are where they are, and doing what they are doing for reasons of national urgency, and that they are not day camps. Soldiers kill and get killed, and and and painful as that is for those close to them, without their sacrifice, we would not be living the lives we are living, thanks to them. I know that sounds hard and cold, but war/combat is not warm and fuzzy. It is cold and hard, for everyone. When dealing with combatants who are not regular armies and work under the assumption that all is fair, including booby trapping the wounded, dead, and using ambulances and mosques for cover, the whole thing turns into a moral dilemma of nightmare proportions. Do the recognized armies violate the sanctity of holy places, hospitals, and ambulances, thereby violating international agreements the other side is not party to....Geneva Conventions etc? Or do they continue to play/fight by the rules the opposition doesn't even recognize. War is not civil, or a nice children's game with clear rules that everyone agrees to play/fight by. It is a dirty, nasty, painful, deadly business, without which, we would long ago have gotten used to living under intolerable regimes. The above segment of Glick's article sums it up nicely, but I'm sticking with the Hebrew papers. The Putz still drives me wild, even though they have her now. Not that the Hebrew papers are that much better. At least I'm not limited by language.
Ok, now that I've ordered Romi's Hannukah gift, It's time to go get my turkey. Better late than never, right?

RABID PRESS

I could not believe my ears while listening to the headlines on the 17:00 news show. They actually had the nerve to ask if 'Azam 'Azam is going to sell the story of his imprisonment to the media for money. Bloody hells people, the man hasn't even been home for 24 hours yet and already you are questions like that as if he owes someone something. He was arrested for absolutely no reason other than that he was an Israeli with Tefron connections in Cairo. He was locked in a prison cell when not at hard labor, and when they finally got him out after releasing 6 Egyptian students who had planned to steal a tank and do 'lord knows what' (nothing legal is a safe bet) instead of all the political big shots going to Mrar to greet him there, they dragged him from Eilat to Tel Aviv. Excuse me, but there is something very wrong here. Sharon is at Mrar now. Why couldn't he go there yesterday? And now the media in the form of Moshe Shlonski thinks it's wrong for 'Azam 'Azam to sell his story for money. The man had 8 years taken from him through no fault of his own. He lost 8 years of income from work. Why the hells shouldn't he sell his story. For the highest amount possible says *I*. This is getting me as riled as the Southern Lebanese mess Falul Face created. Leave the man alone. He's going to have enough to deal with after being unjustly imprisoned for 8 years. Crikey, let him do what has to be done in peace and quiet.

OVERNIGHT

Waking up to the latest news is always an experience. This morning was no exception. 'Azam got home at long last and I'm still furious that he had to wait until the politicos were through with him, but I guess that's just the way things are. The poor guy must have been more than a bit befuddled by the whole thing. The important thing is that he is now home and the whole country is happy about it.
The so called Palestinian elections are coming up and last week Barghouti agreed not to run for P.M. Surprise, surprise, he changed his mind and now intends to run. He must think that if elected, we'll have to let him out of prison where he serving several consecutive life terms for terror related murders. Of course we will let him out. If he *is* elected, the whole world will be screaming at us. After all, Arafart was just as bad and we let him become the 'head' of the P.A. I can but hope that we learned our lesson, but, somehow, it seems we never do.
I'm enjoying the Mozilla browser and e mail apps, with one exception. The e mail one doesn't have an automatic signature feature, but it does have a nice purple default page and text option. I still can't figure out how to get rid of the attachment paperclip that shows up on all the incoming mail, whether or not it has an attachment. I'm beginning to think it might somehow be connected to the new AVG prog.
It's time to get dressed and go out. I might be back later, I might not. I just can't seem to have a consistent time to post here. I post when I have something to say, or just want to ramble. Apologies to my 2 faithful readers.

'AZAM AZAM HOME AT LAST

One of the saddest most frustrating episodes of Arab intransigence ended today and I keep getting all teary. 8 Years ago a Druze from Mrar, who worked for Tefron in the Krayot area went to Cairo Egypt, where a relative was in charge of the Tefron factory there. He was arrested as he entered his hotel and was tried, convicted and sentenced to 16 years at hard labor for espionage. The guy was just there on a visit and because of some kind of business things that no one really understands, he paid the price. Everyone involved knew that he was innocent, but in prison he stayed, until today. After 8 years and 1 month, 'Azam 'Azam was returned to Israel in exchange for 6 students who were caught and held here for planning acts of terror. Fair enough. At least he's back. It upset me a bit that he was delayed in going home for photo ops with all the politicos who were involved with his release. *I* think he should have been taken straight home after the medical check up and security debriefing, but the political mucky mucks decided that having their mugs photographed with him was more important than reuniting the man with his family. Even as I type this, he is on his way home, by car. What? All our addycookers (helicopters) are out of service? Get the man home already. Everything else is secondary.
I'm just waiting for Pollard to start squealing. Now, there's one who can rot in prison as far as I'm concerned. *He* was guilty of espionage and is a traitor to his country. I can not comprehend our giving him citizenship when he never so much as set foot in this country. Ok, so he spied for us, but as far as I know, at his own instigation. He and Va'anunu can both rot. I'm just glad that 'Azam is finally out of that Egyptian prison and on his way home. Talk about a miscarriage of justice; it was more like an illegal abortion.
I only heard bout it after I got home from my Sunday errands. Sony paid for, meds and fags bought, Christmas cards for the A Team lists bough, signed, and addressed, ready to go. Groceries tomorrow, and back to TV now until I fall asleep.

FOR MY TWO FAITHFUL READERS

I hope my two faithful readers will forgive me for being so lazy over the weekend. That's pretty much why I didn't post. Another excuse (you decide how good it is) is that I've been messing around with browsers. I decided to try Firefox because IE *is* annoying. I love Firefox for the simple reason that it has a lovely purple skin with paw print buttons. The problem is moving everything from IE to here. In the end, I gave in and reinstalled IE, but as it is possible to choose which browser to use, I'll probably be with Firefox most of the time. I also downloaded their e mail app, but I think I'll be using OE more. Thunderbird just doesn't do it for me and it doesn't seem to have a signature option. Spoiled and lazy pretty much cover it.
Nothing very exciting happened over the weekend. On Friday I made a quick trip to town and on the way home lost 6 of 10 packs of fags. Go ahead and laugh. I'll just be replacing them today! The rest of Friday was spent reading the local scandal sheets and falling asleep in the middle of TV shows I wanted to watch, or being woken up by Teadrinker (who no longer is Spike) Saturday was spent messing around with Mozilla and looking for ways to get rid of those trojan horses. No joy there. Gerald says he can come sort it(the THs) on Thursday afternoon. He still likes IE and hasn't read any of the nasty things being said about it. It annoys me to no end that Firefox is hyped as the best alternative, but doesn't support many things and IE is still needed. If he can sort the whole thing out, fine, if not, I guess I'll just have to use both. Can anyone see me not using a browser with a purple skin? Not likely.
Irit called and said that if all goes well I can go visit next Sunday. They are leaving for a month in the States on the 22, two days after her brother gets here. I'm not sure that leaving us on our own is the best idea, but he has a habit of doing things like picking dates that conflict with her plans. The whole wedding mess with dates and now, coming here, while she's there. Teadrinker is on alert. And I am working on myself to remain calm.
In about half an hour I have to go out and pay Yehiel for fixing the Sony and convince him that he wants to bring it here and set it up on it's perch, buy more fags and Christmas cards for the A Team lists, and do a few other things, like try to get the scrips for the next 3 months on the worst day of the week to go to the clinic. I also have to sort the log in issue with my bank. AND arrange to make the last payment on the Skalal mess by credit card. I also have to pop into Traklin and tell the guy that Teadrinker wants to buy a digicam and printer, and other boring stuff .

COATS, CUPS AND CRAP

At last.......a purple parka coat to call my own. I just love it, and the fact that store was having a 2 for the price of 1sale didn't hurt. I got a nice purple turtle neck sweater too. The other purple things in the other mall were gone by the time I got there, but as I don't need them for any other reason than that they are purple, no big deal. I HAVE THE COAT. AND I found some cigarette lighters that I don't have yet. 3 for 10 shekels. I also found out that I was correct about the light fag question. Same fags, different name. Light is now blue, so I can keep on smoking the same fags. I decided to treat myself to an ice cream at Mac Donnies and discovered purple thermal coffee mugs similar to my Puffin Stop and LL Bean ones. You guessed it. I bought 1. I'll probably get more next week. I also paid the butcher bill, and went to get Harley's front tyre changed and to pay for the gas they brought last week. My butcher is building an addition to his store and I can't get in now as the ramp is gone. I hope they finish building it soon. Tomorrow I'm going out early to get the local papers and to start building my supply of fags for the month. Groceries can wait until next week. No way am I going grocery shopping here on a Friday, without a list yet. There's plenty to eat here so that can wait.
I have the feeling that a recurring theme here is going to be the news media as speculative predictors of the future. They just can't wait for things to be done, they have to ask all those 'what if' questions that turn the news into a long list of *maybe* instead of a factual report of what was. 90% of tonights news was speculation on what the new cabinet will look like now that Shinui is gone. Will Labor join? What about Shas (barf)? And the other ultra religious party, and the far right? The speculation is enough to put you to sleep permanently. It's also pretty clear that the newsies have preferences and what they are. Shades of the U.S. I really only watch for the weather these days. Summer is back but it looks like I'll be getting a great birthday present in the form of a storm. Of course pre winter started suddenly. One day it was HOT, the next, cold and stormy. No transition at all. Then, back to summer, almost. We'll see next week. The more storms, the happier I am. Shimon the butcher promised me a turkey for Monday. I'll roast it for a birthday dinner. Maybe Achy will come.
The banishment of the dogs worked for that one day only. Ragamuffin peed on my duvet and Peg crapped on the floor. They were both immediately banished to the door handle in the loo. Peg opened the door and crapped on the living room side. They'll be banished for a good long time and no amount of pathetic whining will help this time.

GIFTS, DOGS, BLOGS, PROGS AND POLITICAL SUICIDE ON PRIME TIME

I just learned another life lesson. After working on today's post for over an hour, spell checking and(goof reading) looking for my usual grammar goofs, and being pretty satisfied with it, the whole thing got lost in cyber hell. And it WAS good, even if I say so myself. Now, the challenge is to try to remember it!
Spike, aka Teadrinker, called to say that she got her gift and that it was one of the best she ever got. Several years ago, she told me in passing that she wants a poster with the Hebrew letters, in order, with the names of each. While in Jerusalem, with Wallygator, I saw a place mat with all that stuff on it (that's what the big secret was) and bought it on the spot. She got it today and was almost crying from joy when she called. I enjoyed every minute of the torture I put her though by not telling her what it was and making her wait. It was well worth it. Even though she knew something was coming, she had no idea what it was until it was out of the bag. I'm not sure who was more amazed that I remembered that off hand comment of hers, her, or me. I *am* brain damaged, after all!
She WILL go ballistic when she gets the envelope the pictures are in. Oh, she will! It's so much fun.
There was an unexpected benefit from the dog's banishment to the loo. Ragamuffin started her pathetic, "I'm miserable" whine, so I took pity and let them out. They both went the whole night without 'going' on the floor. I was so proud of them when I got up. They are put out every morning for an hour or two unless it's raining. If that's the case, I take them walkies with Harley when the rain lets up. Sometimes, I'm just too lazy to let them out again at night, so if they wet and/or mess, I can't complain, and don't. It will be interesting to see how long this lasts.
I had a great scream up at the TV last night during the news on Channel 10. They were going on about the soldier who was killed in tunnel under Philadelpi Road in Gaza, the route of preference for so called Palestinian weapons smugglers. How is it IDF's fault the tunnel collapsed? The so called Palestinian smugglers built it. IT'S THEIR FAULT. I got over most of my wrath during the Personal Opinion segment with wass'isname. He was talking about the suffering so called Palestinians go through as a result of roadblocks. He pointed out that the West Bank and Gaza have been 'occupied' since 1976 when the Jordanians and Egyptians lost them (ever wonder why they refused point blank to take them back?), and, that until the second intifada there were no roadblocks or troops in the towns or cities.They were allowed unlimited entrance to Israel to work, shop and visit(and plan).Roadblocks only started when they began blowing up buses, pizzarias, coffee shops, and using ambulances for weapons transport. It's hard for them to remember that with the P.A. media spouting anti Israeli hate messages constantly. Even *we* forget it.
What I don't get is, how on earth can they have elections before sorting out what they want- a democracy or any other form of government so the candidates can have something to campaign for? Daniel Pipes had a really good piece on that yesterday about Iraq, and to make it about the P.A. all that had to be done was change the names.
It was absolutely thrilling to watch Falula Face (Ehud Barak) commit political suicide on TV in front of his whole party. He's finished, thankfully. No way can he come back from that.
I enjoy Hercules so much it's almost indecent. I just adore the foolishness. Hercules lived so long ago that it's a real giggle to catch all the modern references to things that hadn't been dreamed of back then. Of course the Sorbo Guy is easy on the eyes, even if he doesn't have much of a butt. I just enjoy the foolishness of it.
They called from the store today, and my coat is here. I'll go get it tomorrow. I have lots of stuff to do tomorrow. Get the coat, and sweater poncho, pay the butcher, get a turkey, groceries, and a few other things. I don't need fags yet, so I have another day or two to decide what to smoke if the new law really means my fags are a thing of the past. They, in their infinite wisdom (not) have outlawed 'light' fags, so the question is, will they still be available, but not as light. Do They really think that smokers think that light fags are healthier? Yeah, they probably do. That's why They are They. Ok, this is saved. Let's see if it posts?