Rani

And she's BACK! Life has been "chewy" for the past year or so, but I desperately missed my pipes and my buddies on the forum, so last Friday I stopped at Golden Crown in Anaheim on the way home and picked up a new KM. I'm moving jobs within the same company this Friday, to a much less stressful position with a boss that isn't a total asshole like the one I've got now so there will be much more time for hookah, and wine and hookah, and more wine, and more hookah, more wine, lol.......... Though if anyone in here prays to the pagan gods, could you send up a quick prayer that karma come a visiting to my soon to be former boss? No ill will, you know but if anybody needs karma to visit his ass, this short little Persian twit who told me hookah is for "common people" is the one. Nice to see my old folks, and lots and lots of new ones. 'Rani

  Trying them is my weekend project.  I want to get some new containers and even though I never have acclimation issues living so close to the factory, still I want them all out into containers so I can try them all this weekend.  I may have to bring out the Turkish pipe for these......  Oh, side note....... I now work with a Turkish guy who is getting married (arranged) in June in Turkey and I've already put a minor bug in his ear about bringing back some pipes..... We shall see.  I will continue to try and work the source!  (She says slyly, rubbing her hands together and chuckling with sinister glee.....)   Funny thing last night though,  I had them all out on the bed after opening the package and my cats were ignoring them.  So I slit open the outer bags about an inch  just so I could inhale the fragrances, and immediately Kabuki came around and insisted on laying on the pile of packages, sniffing, and sniffing and sniffing until I put them all up.  He's the one who LOVES when I smoke Tangiers.  Won't get off my lap and out of the smoke.  So they already have the Kabuki seal of approval.   'Rani

Oh, and did I mention all but the Jamaica, Green Apple Tea and Pumpkin Pie are Burley?   Nah, nah, nah, nah-nah!   'Rani   PS:  I will forgive anyone who says....."You bitch!"  for today only.

Came home from work to a big package of samples from Tangiers.........   Kashmir Peach Green Apple Tea Brambleberry Pumpkin Pie !!!!!!!!!!! Jamaica Absinthe Blackberry Tropical Revenge     Soooooooooo, this is just me doing a naked happy dance and shouting out......."Nah, nah, nah, nah-nah!"   'Rani

  Nope, she was an only child at the time.  But if you get them when young they'll consider themselves in charge of everyone and everything in the household.  The cat will have more problems with a rambunctious puppy than the puppy will with the cat most likely.  I would suggest you introduce them carefully so the puppy don't get smacked and end up thinking it's fun to chase cats.  If you're reasonable introducing them to each other knowing their personalities and natures, it should be find.  Pyr's were bred to shepherd other animals and to them it doesn't matter if they['re sheep, humans, or cats.  They tend to love everything and everyone they accept as part of their circle or family.  When Gypsy was a year old and over 100 pounds I could even open the car door and yell "Doggie doctor!" and she'd jump into the front seat (because she had to ride shotgun) and head over to the vet with perfect attitude, wagging her tail even as we walked in the door.     I used to get her groomed every other week because she was a very active dog and the groomer's was the only place she wasn't crazy about.  And even there, according to her groomer she was a great dog.  She'd just climb over the counter to get to me when I picked her up!  It's not easy to control 100 of puppy attitude!  Make sure if there's water around, like a pool you drown proof it right away because they WILL investigate water.  Almost as much as a Newfoundland.  I got Gypsy in the dead of winter and had a pool.  I stood there in 30 degree water while my boyfriend threw her in to teach her to swim to the steps and get out.  Soon as the water heated up for summer (I lived in Palm Springs), I couldn't keep her out of the pool.  Scared people to death sometimes when they'd be swimming and the 140 pounds (by then) of water loving dog sailed over their head and splashed buckets of water everywhere.  Then she'd swim to the steps to get out, race around the pool and do it all over again.  There were even times I'd be doing laps and she's join me.     They also tend to jump on people a lot because they love attention.  At the advice of a trainer I didn't knee her, but I would grab her front paws and stretch her up and not let go.  That broke her of jumping pretty fast.  Though I once introduced her to someone new who patted his chest and tried to get her to jump up.  She looked at him, looked at me, at him again, gave what looked like a doggie shrug and up she went.  Knocked him on his ass.  But because they're so smart, he was the only one she ever jumped up on.  She knew the difference.  They're super smart that way.  You're going to adore having one.   'Rani 

Okay, give 'em up.......... What are your New Year's Resolutions?  You know the ones.... Yeah, those.  That "to-do" list we can't keep past the first week in January..........   For me this year I tried something new.  I went outside at midnight, lit some incense and a little list to burn with it.  I asked all the elements and spirits of the air, and earth, fire, and water and all the universe to help me achieve them.   A clean, uncluttered home. A healthy body. Prosperity and abundance. Acknowledgment as an author and activist.   So, next year at this time I'm going to put back up this thread and see how I, and all of you did.   So give 'em up guys!   'Rani

  It was a long time ago.....(I'm old, lol) and I don't often remember it because it's colored my own drinking habits for so long it's now second nature.  But for some reason I had the feeling I needed to post it EVERYWHERE.  Not sure why, but I always trust my instincts.  So I'm going to assume somebody out there needed to hear it.  And now, let's move over to resolutions in chit-chat, 'kay?   'Rani

Why is this in the serious section?  Let me tell you a story...........   I went to high school with a girl named Gail who was not my closest friend, but was a part of my circle of friends.  Since we weren't all that close, I lost track of her when she moved to Arizona after high school, but I heard about her life.  She married this complete asshole who put her in the hospital more than once, and ended up dropping out of college because there was so much drama and stress brought into her life by her husband and his circle of friends.  Hubby went to jail on a drug charge and Gail found herself a divorce lawyer.  By the time I caught up with her it was in a department store a couple days before Christmas Eve.  She'd remarried a great guy named John who adored her and made her blissfully happy. She'd gone back to school and had becomed licensed to work with disabled and challenged children.   She was shopping for a pair of baby booties to tell him she was expecting their first child.  She couldn't decide on pink or blue, and hated yellow so together we found her some mint green adorable booties and had lunch together in the food court.  When we went our separate ways, we hugged and promised to keep in touch.   The next time I saw Gail was a few weeks later at her funeral.  While riding in the car with her husband, their car was broadsided by a drunk driver.  Neither John, nor Gail and their unborn child survived.  Both families were devastated.  Each had adored the other's child and it was a first grandchild for both families.  The double funeral was attended by nearly our entire class and we were all devastated by the loss.  Both families had gone from complete happiness to horrible tragedy in moments at the hands of a single drunk driver.  The damage was so great it required closed coffins.   So for all you guys who are young on here today, if you're going out tonight to have a good time, great.  But if you're going to be drinking, take a cab both ways to the venue.  That way you don't have to worry if your designated driver had even one, and you can party to your heart's content.  Don't be that guy.  The one who took the future and the happiness from two families as well as all the children Gail would have helped if she'd lived.  The driver survived but spent the rest of his life in prison for vehicular homicide.  His life ruined as well though I have a hard time finding compassion for him.   So have a very Happy New Year's and drink and party as much as you please.  And then call the same cab company who dropped you off to pick you up and take you home so all you have to worry about  tomorrow is a hang over.   'Rani

So I decided we need a recipe thread.  Not for major items, but for the snacks and "smalls" that are great for sitting around with friends or family or even just you and the hookah.  So I'll start with this....... Yeah, it's a link, BUT IT HAS PICTURES!  So much better than just telling you about it.   Bacon Wrapped Crackers   http://www.thecookierookie.com/bacon-wrapped-crackers/   'Rani

Anyone who wants to know how deep in the shit we are politically should start reading Mother Jones.  Admittedly, Mother Jones is a left-focused magazine, but unlike a lot of political magazines, it actually names names complete with facts and figures about how things are done.  It's available outside the country as well as inside, electronically.  I pay a whopping $1.99 a month for a subscription on my Kindle.  Read Mother Jones and if you're a U.S. citizen, you'll never have another peaceful night's sleep.  Ever.     Here's the problem...... People begin to think of government, all government, as though it were a living, breathing person.  They begin to give it it's own rights and privileges and begin to support it beyond the individual people it's supposedly made up of and created to serve.  A good example is Social Security.  Now, if you have a leg with bone cancer and the doctor came to you and said, "You can survive, but we have to amputate the leg."  You look at yourself and say "Live with no leg, or be buried with both of them."  And you tell the doctor to go ahead.  People are looking at the government as the body and Social Security as the leg.  BUT IT'S NOT!  Government is NOT a sentient creature that has a right to a continued existence.  It's merely a system of laws and regulations that allow individuals to live and work together in relative harmony according to the agreements they make among themselves..  It's the rules of the tribe so to speak, but it's not the tribe itself. Until we stop granting government as having sentient status, we're all going to be diminished.  We keep talking about how "America" needs to reduce Social Security, taxes, etc., if it's going to survive, but it doesn't have an inherent right to survival that outweighs the rights of the individuals themselves.  It serves us, we do not, or rather should not, serve it.  Until we get over the mindset that somehow government has more rights than we do, we're bailing a dingy with a whole lot of holes in the bottom.   Here's what I finds hilarious about the conservative movement.  By NOT having health care, and welfare, and all those other social services they like to rage against, they diminish their own power and ability to control the future.  Let's face it.  Most people don't want to be involved in politics.  They don't really care who's in charge and they don't really care if their boss is a multi-billionaire.  They only want to live their lives.  They want go to work for a decent wage, have a home to go home to at night, whether it's rented or mortgaged, educate their kids, watch football on the weekends and have a BBQ on the 4th of July.  Beyond living their lives, they don't really care much and they go away happy and silent to the "great workings" of government and industry.  Why, if you really want to control the country, wouldn't you give them the very things that will keep them silent and happy and our of your way?????     My youngest cat Keiko can't stand me getting dressed in the morning to go out.  She literally circles me over and over and over again.   I sit on the bed to put on my socks and pants and she's walking across my lap and around my back and across my lap and ........ Indefinitely.  So now we have the morning treat ritual.  Every morning I throw a hand full of cat treats on the other side of the bed and to the sound of crunch, crunch, crunch, I get dressed peacefully.  Consider the population as Keiko and cat treats as social services.  You get a lot more done on YOUR agenda when the population is happy and out of your way.  For the right wing not to see that is very likely one of the dumbest things about the whole movement.  And luckily, why over time, they're going to fail.  Because they'll keep going and take away one key "treat" to many and the population will revolt.  It's happened that way every single time in history.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Why on earth else do you think Democrats keeps giving things away to the population?  So they're happy and silent and out of the way.   'Rani

    You will love, love, LOVE having a Great Pyr.  They are such good dogs and really smart.  I miss my Gypsy even now almost 20 years later.  The only thing you have to be careful of is they will dig to China given the chance.  Gypsy was excavating under the pool decking.  So we dug it out and refilled it without large rocks.  That stopped her and was better than cutting her nails too short.  I used to tell her "Let's go to bed." and she'd run and grab her favorite throw rug and drag it to the side of the bed to sleep.  They have the sweetest natures too, but  once they consider you part of the flock they guard, they're very protective.  Gypsy wouldn't even let the mailman inside the gate.  I had to install a mailbox out front for mail.  She never bit anybody, but she made it very clear if they weren't her family, she was keeping an eye on them.  And she did that from four months old.   'Rani

Never fuck with us old folks.........   http://95rockfm.com/best-voicemail-giving-play-by-play-of-car-accident/?trackback=fbshare_top   'Rani

Alert!  Alert!  Woman weighing in here............   First of all, EVERYBODY has lost some interest in marriage.  Once women discovered not just their sexuality, but their earning ability and independence, men lost the ability to control marriage on traditional terms.  And we don't really have a new working model yet.  Plus, unfortunately I also think women have gained the independence (for the most part and IF we can prevent the GOP from taking us back to 1952), without fully accepting the responsibilities that come with being an independent person in a relationship.  Girls are just now really being taught what being part of a team is all about.  Girls sports up until the last decade were really not competitive.  They didn't come with the big bucks or the fame, etc.  So women were raised never fully being part of a team, or partnership working together.   They've got some adjusting to do, and I think it is happening.   Having said that, partnerships ARE better than going through all of what life is going to throw at you by yourself.  When you have someone who completely has your back, for better or for worse in everything and is really on your side, life is a whole lot easier.  If you're single imagine all the crap you've gone through in the past few years.  Wouldn't it have been better with a partner who was playing 100% on your team?  If you say no, I'm thinking you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  If you're married and been through some crap the past few years, ask yourself how you would have gotten through it without her on your side.  Then go buy flowers and kiss her feet.  Or anything else she wants kissed!     And now a story............   Met a guy at my lodge.  Nice guy, but early on he said "I'll never get married again."  We had some flirting going on but it never went anywhere.  Why?  Because he said he'd never get married again.  Now, I'm not looking for marriage and I've got some serious commitment issues myself, but why would I give up my time, my energy, MY BODY to someone who's closing a door I haven't even decided if I ever want opened again?  If I as a grown woman are going to invest everything I am into being with YOU, you better bring something to the table.  Doesn't have to be "I really want to get married" (and frankly that would scare me off) but it has to be an openness that allows for whatever potential future we decide on together.  It's been said nobody is ever interested in marriage until they meet the person they want to marry.  I'd say that pretty much covers it.  So any article, study, or just mind numbing wild ass guess, probably not worth a hill of beans.   'Rani

I heard a quote the other day I liked................ "Some people are so poor they have nothing but money."   I'm discovering the wealthiest people in the world are the ones who are the poorest in every way that matters.  More power to this man.  He's not remotely close to what I consider truly poor.   'Rani

You guys are gonna make me blush........... Thank you.   I don't think the ACA is a failure.  But I do think it will take a decade, maybe more, to realize what a success it is, or was, because I still think the next president is going to modify it and take all the credit.  Before making a judgement, remember IT'S BRAND NEW.  It's not only brand new for you and I and every other individual, it's new for the health insurance industry, doctors, hospitals, etc.  It's a new set of rules they haven't worked with before, so until they get those rules down and working within them, they're going to be all over the place.  Some of the complaints are justified, however, where the blame is being leveled is not.  People are not applying simple logic, they just want to blame.  For example:   Plans being cancelled........ Congress and the President were correct when they said you could keep your plan.  The law provides that all plans were automatically grandfathered indefinitely UP UNTIL THEY TIME THEY MAKE A SUBSTANTIAL CHANGE TO THE POLICY, at which time it had to conform to the new legal requirements.  So insurance companies immediately made substantial changes to the policies so they could cancel them and use it an opportunity to lure customers into much more expensive policies.  Bad?  Yes.  The fault of the government and the ACA?  No.  You can lay the blame squarely on the insurance companies for a new method of price gouging.  Not that it should surprise anybody since premiums have actually tripled in the last couple decades, averaging a 40% increase every single year.   People aren't signing up...........  As of this morning, nearly 1.5 million have signed up on the federal exchange alone.  Don't forget many states have their own exchanges like California, and many others have combined exchanges with other states.  Those figures aren't part of the 1.5 million being reported as signed up so far.  Secondly, nobody is going to be fined until they file their income taxes for 2014.  Meaning not until April of 2015.  So people are going to be putting it off.  Just like they put everything else off.   It's much more expensive than they said it would be.  That will, I think change.  Remember this is new for the insurance companies as well.  They're out in left field and they're going to pad their profits until they have to bring them down by the end of 2014.  By the end of 2014 they are limited to a 20% profit margin, with 80% having to go back into your health care.  Right now they have zero historical data on which to determine what they should be charging.  Any overages will likely be rebated back to the customer in 2015, or they'll put it into new policies, etc.  They just have to reinvest everything over 20% by the end of 2014.     Higher deductible.  Yep.  However, most people don't really understand how deductibles work.  If you have a $10,000 deductible, and you go to the doctor with a $40 co-pay, you have $9,960 left on your deductible.  If you're prescribed $60 of medicine, now you have $9,900 left on your deductible.  Every penny you spend on health care is applied to the deductible, so it goes down and lot faster than you think it does.  And there's the obvious.   Did you know 85% of all bankruptcy filings in the United States are due to an unexpected medical emergency?  Yeah, scary isn't it that you're only one car solid accident away from bankruptcy.  And you also have to consider actual costs of any treatment.  A broken arm is going for over $20,000 these days.  Do you want to pay $20,000 or $10,000 even if you have to use all of your deductible?     And one of the biggest complaints I hear is that now "we" have to pay for "them" to get subsidized health care.  Well, we've always been paying for it.  Many times over.  People think if someone doesn't have health insurance, ends up with that broken arm, the hospital takes their information and sets up a payment program.  That would be true if the patient were honest and going under their own name for treatment.  One of the biggest uses of identity theft is medical treatment.  I know someone who got a bypass on someone else's identity!  Yeah, more than a quarter million dollars in charges they will never pay a dime for because hospitals don't fingerprint people before treating them.  And who pays the hospital so they can stay open and in business?  We do.  We always did.   Lastly......It's going to ruin our great health care system.........Uh, we rank 37th in the world in health care.  CUBA RANKS HIGHER THAN WE DO! So does Costa Rica and a few other "third world" countries.  And some people think that's good enough???? Personally I don't think so.  The best health care in the world, bar none, is offered in France.  France has the universal health care system we really want.  Just like the SDI that's taken out of your paycheck, they take a small amount that covers 70% of your health care expenses.  You can pay the remaining 30% out of pocket if you choose, or you can (free market here guys) buy a supplemental policy to cover the 30%.  Basically it's like Medicare for everyone, complete with a Part D supplemental policy. So everybody gets coverage, and health care insurance companies are still in business, making profits.   I have no doubt we WILL get there, but we had to take the first step first.   Now, the ACA is NOT by any means the best thing since sliced bread.  We need true Universal Health Care.just like France, but it's going to take a while for them to move to it.  Good ol' Reagan, may everybody travel to California just to spit on his grave, totally fucked up the American citizen by making corporations and profits more important than citizens.  Even HE called it voodoo economics!  And let's not forget he died of Alzheimer's..... Which we now know rears it's ugly head many years before it gets to the point of a diagnosis.  I prefer to believe he was already heading towards dementia when he fucked us over.  Otherwise I'd have to face the fact that it was intentional.  For everyone who followed him though, it was either blind stupidity or malice, because we've been losing our rights and privileges every since.  Which is why I firmly and fully support what I call passive anarchy.  Violent overthrown of the government would only get a whole lot of innocent citizens killed.  But how do you boil a live frog?  Put it in cold water and slowly turn up the heat.  By the time he realizes he's in hot water, he's toast.  That's what we need to do to our government.  Passively resist at every single opportunity.  Otherwise we might as well just line up for the recycling plant.   'Rani