They are out there....

It was January 3rd, and I was at LAX waiting at the curb to check my bags in on the way back to San Francisco. I was in a fairly long line to check in the curb, but it was far better than the lengthy line serpentined back and forth inside the terminal. I was in my own zone, tuned into my i pod and watching the hillbilly girl two spots in line ahead of me flirting and fawning over the hot guy standing in front of me. I tried to figure out if he was someone famous, but based on the entertainment trivia I know he wasn't ringing any bells for me. I got bored watching the show between hillbilly girl and hot guy so I tuned out and looked around.

Something caught my eye near the stop sign at the curb. It was a white sticker afixed to the pole of the stop sign. I squinted the best I could (which I hate to do - hello crowsfeet!), but couldn't make it out. I had to wait until the line crept forward so I could see what the white sticker said. Once I could finally read it, it was a black and white graphic of the face of Andre the Giant - undoubtedly the largest man ever to be a professional wrestler/actor. The sticker said that Andre had a posse. Now, as Andre is no longer with us, I was perplexed as to why there may be a posse out there. If there is then lets hope they are a positive posse rather than a n'er do well posse. I snapped a pic to commerate the thought and then moved on to check in my bags.

Fast forward to the first weekend in March. I was visiting in Minneapolis and was driving down Lyndale Avenue in Uptown with my pal Bud, chatting away. As we waited at a stoplight at the corner of Lake and Lyndale, my eyes were caught by a large black and white image on the wall of a building, above Big Mike's Sub Shop. I cried out to Bud "it's the posse!". Bud's head whipped around from side to side looking for a band of marauders (assuming I spied some sort of crazed group coming down the road toward us). What I was pointing to was the large face - about 5 feet tall - of Andre the Giant, the same picture that I saw on the sticker at LAX.

After seeing Andre's face again in Minneapolis, at first I was amused, then pensive. I'm still curious as to what this posse is up to...hopefully good - rather than no good.

If you experience a posse sighting - let me know.....

turn the light off when you leave the room, for the dog's sake

I have the tendency to fall asleep with the TV on. I like the noise, it distracts my busy brain so I can sleep. I normally wake up around 5 ish in the morning, lay in bed half asleep, kind of listening to what's happening in the world on the news and trying to will myself to wake up eventually.

This morning, I woke up a little more abruptly as it processed something that it heard on the news at 5 AM. Our creative Gavin Newsome, the San Francisco Mayor that brought you gay marriage (go Gavin!) and wanted to give the whole city free wireless internet (I wish...) has taken it upon himself to free our fair city from the dependence on fossil fuels and other countries to power our energy demands.

Gavin wants to harness the power of the puppies. Power of the puppies? Little dogs harnessed and running on treadmills in some sort of pet power plant? Nope. Not the plan. The plan is to collect the dog poo of San Francisco, allow it to ferment, and then use the resulting methane gas to power the city. The news report quoted that 4% of the garbage in San Francisco is dog poo!

Apparently waste cans will be put in the parks along with biodegradable bags so all the poo can be collected. For those of TFK readers out there currently looking for an employment opportunity in the bay area, I think some new poo collection positions will be opening soon.

Talk about working hard for your money. I'd like to thank in advance all puppy poo collectors as it could be one of the worst jobs ever. When I was on dog sitting detail for the ex roomie, dealing with what the dog did in the park every morning was a little more than I could handle sometimes.

Also - a little shout out to the dogs, hopefully a high fiber diet is all they need to be successful in this endeavor. Plus, if it's a success...will there be pressure for them to perform more often? You know how Americans can be. Something takes off, and we just want more more more. There could be some very exhausted dogs in San Francisco in the fairly near future. One may see a lot of pooches laying on the ground like the dear departed Ranger, the star of today's picture post.

but one more time with feeling. eeewwww poo.

Just add an extra vowel...no one will notice

As I strolled down the lanes in Brighton, England with my pal Amy, I came across a shop where one can fulfill all their rocker needs. What are rocker needs you ask? You know, the usual...skin tight jeans, leather studded accessories, Sid Vicious t shirts etc. As they were having a sale, I thought it was the perfect place (06 Christmas gift spoiler ahead family and friends) to pick up some lovely studded dog collars for all the girls, and some sassy leather studded cod pieces for the boys this holiday.

As I approached the shop, I noticed there were some challenges relating to grammar on the storefront. I was overwhelmed by the creative spelling of the word "closeing". It could be my my ignorance in the differences between American english and English english - you know color vs. colour, realize vs. realise. Or perhaps they have an employee outreach program for the spelling challenged, and they didn't know any better when they made the sign. I personally think it's because the "t" is missing from the sign above the shop - changing the shop name from the former Electric Rock to Elec ric Rock. I think they said "add an "e" to closing...maybe it will detract from the "t" that is missing in the sign".

I'm sure it was a Brit that stole the "t" - you know how much they love their t(ea).

Man. I crack myself up.....

Hard Rock Hotel...I really expected more

As I looked through photos on my computer for blogging fodder, I came across a photo I took while in Las Vegas last fall. I was staying at the Hard Rock Hotel. If anyone has ever stayed there before, one is well aware of the tremendous amount of musical history memorabilia that graces practically every surface of the hotel.

One spot that really doesn't have memorabilia is the elevator. It makes sense, it's a small space, plus with all the antics that go on in those elevators with the youthful clientel that frequent the hotel, it's just putting the memorabilia in danger. To give the elevator that rock and roll feeling, they are carpeted with leopard print carpet and quotes from songs of various rock acts.

As I hit all the elevators at one time or another, I felt a connection to one more than the rest. Which one you ask? Why, it's the one that has a Prince quote posted. Why that elevator - why the connection? I don't know...maybe because I'm from Minnesota? Maybe because I used to hang out at Prince's club Glam Slam when I was in my 20's and used to see him there, prancing about in high heel boots, lace jumpsuits and sucking on tootsie pops? Maybe because I memorized all the words to "Purple Rain"? Not sure. Whatever the reason, it caused me to take a photo of the quote in the elevator.

As I prepared to post this picture to this posting, I wondered - what song is the elevator quoting? I went through my mental library, humming the songs I thought I knew the words to. When my brain failed me, I turned to the internet, going to a website devoted solely to the lyrics of Prince songs. As I searched through all 360 songs, I finally came upon the song where the quote comes from. It was "Let's Go Crazy". Imagine my surprise, as I thought I knew the words to all the songs on that album - it was a pivotal release during my sophomore year in high school - if you were anyone - you knew the words to that album.

According to the website the song lyric is "Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down" not "don't let the elevator bring you down" as illustrated. I don't know who to believe. One would think the Hard Rock Hotel would be accurate in quoting a pretty famous song. But maybe the website is wrong? Prince lyrics can be hard to translate some times, heck, my sister in law thought for years that "little red corvette" was "pay the rent colette". I don't give her too hard a time - she grew up in Canada. Needless to say, this disparity is rubbing me the wrong way. I'm not sure what I should do.

I know what most would say: "get a life Missy - and get over it"