Remember your Freegan days?

From Toothpaste for Dinner

A long-held Cheek-ism is that the best kind of food is *free* food. Learned me that one in my college days. Today's view yields that while it may not be the best, it's not to be scorned.

To wit: free beer is always good beer. If you can't embrace the joy of a free PBR Tallboy because it's not "good enough" for you, then step aside from Cheekdom. If you're paying for it, you can be picky, but free is always welcome.

Today's word of the day: Osmosissing

Courtesy of Bucky Katt:

From Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy

Guess I've been channeling Summer Glau

Who knew?

From Randall Munroe's xkcd.com

Only recently discovered Joss Whedon's Firefly and Summer's River.

I'm not just some chick

From Married to the Sea

But I am indeed "just some chick", who happens to blog. I'm not yet struggling with the "why am I here" question as Cap'n Noise is wont to do. It's an occasional ponder, yes.

I read about the couple - Pat and Cat - who shirked the possession thing and biked around the world. What Pat had to say has stuck with me:

"Pat says that, more than anything, biking around the world has changed what he values in life. Pat admits that when he was in his 30s his philosophy could be summed up as, "The one that dies with the most money wins." But, once he started making money, he realized he had to find a way to spend it. By the time he reached his 40s, his philosophy had become, "The one that dies with the most toys wins."

"So, I had the cars and the things," Pat explains, "and then, about that time, I took off out into the world on my own for a bike ride, and decided it was experiences; the one that dies with the most experiences wins."

As Pat was preparing for his trip with Catherine, he turned 60. He calls that birthday, and the change in mindset it brought, "a biggie." His philosophy became, "The one that dies with the most friends wins."

"I'm realizing what it's going to be in my 70s, and that's different. It will be 'The one with the most memories wins.' "

Whoa. Profound and simple stuff, here.

The one that dies with the most money wins.
Have never cottoned to this, nor like those who do.

The one that dies with the most toys wins.
Ok, I may like a few toys, but it's not my idea of "winning".

The one that dies with the most experiences wins.
I know a few who roll this way, and I roll with them occasionally.

The one that dies with the most friends wins.
I've been here for a while. Do I win points for figgering it out way before 60?

The one that dies with the most memories wins.
Too many studies verify this. Do things to keep your brain engaged, and participate in the world, and you're less at risk for many health problems. The friends, the experiences, the toys - they collude to bring the stuff of life.

Hot Cocoa Ho-ness

Hot cocoa is a Cheek chilly weather ritual recently renewed. Had an "aha" moment when I first scrounged a few years back to whip up a cup from Hershey's cocoa powder, and recognized it as my Grandma's hot chocolate. A strong, provocative memory - as she died when I was six.

I believe I've perfected the ritual of assembling hot cocoa goodness. Follow these steps for a single cup:

1. Select your cocoa with care. I choose a powdered mix for convenience, as I ain't gonna get all Martha Stewart-y and select solid chocolate. Good on ya if that's your druther. Pick a powder of substance. No individual packages. And if you call Swiss Miss good stuff, stop reading now and get a life. Darker is better. Free trade if you can find it. Shown here is Trader Joe's Sipping Chocolate.

2. Put a cup of milk (8 ounces, or 1/4 litre for you metric types) in a 2-cup glass measuring cup and nuke on high in the microwave for 2 min 45 sec, or until it bubbles up. Be vigilant until you know your machine's time for boiling milk, as cleaning up the boiled over mess is a pain in the a**. Use at least 1 percent milk - skim milk is not worthy.

3. While the milk is cookin', measure out the recommended powder into an oversized cup. If the 'structions call for less than a cup o' milk, do the math and increase the ratio of powder to balance with 1 cup o' milk. Yes, you may have to deal with fractions for the first time since high school. Build a bridge and get over it.

4. Poor enough of the pipin' hot milk to just cover the powder, then mix thoroughly.


5. Slowly pour the rest of the milk into the cup, stirring constantly.

6. Add copious amounts of whipped cream, and top with your sprinkle of choice (mine is nutmeg).


The goal is to mitigate the hot cocoa suck factor of wasted goodness at the bottom of the cup. When made as directed above, your quaffing will yield no suck factor.


The fickle Atlanta spring has me guessing as to which day will bring the season's last hot cocoa experience, but the blooms about town hint that it will be soon.

Let's Operationalize this Strategy!

Come on, my Canuckian peeps. Is it viable?

From Toothpaste Before Dinner

T.S.F.U.R.T.M.: Killing Hawks

An article I read this morning on CNN.com yields the opportunity to add another acronym to things Cheek. That would be:

That Sh*t's F*cked Up Right There, Man (T.S.F.U.R.T.M.)


Article in question describes a pro golfer who whacked a ball, not into a gopher hole, but into the nose of a red-shouldered hawk because it had the brazen audacity to squawk when f*cktard golpher was filming a segment for TV. The hawk died.

Who the f*ck does the golfing f*cktard think he is? Different story if a random distance shot had nailed a bird in flight, but this f*cktard shot over and over to nail this hawk. And the crew and cronies stood around and didn't do sh*t to stop the f*cktard.

I have the unfortunate experience of becoming recently familiar with Antisocial Personality Disorder. This golfing f*cktard is making my a**hole quiver - and not in a good way - over his sense of entitlement and power over the fate of living things. Life is not a game, and it's certainly more valuable than this f*cktard's golf game or TV show. T.S.F.U.R.T.M.

Speak and Write Gooder, all y'all!

"We owe much to our mother tongue. It is through speech and writing that we understand each other and can attend to our needs and differences. If we don't respect and honor the rules of English, we lose our ability to communicate clearly and well. In short, we invite mayhem, misery, madness, and inevitably even more bad things that start with letters other than M. (Seriously—sort of. But it is true that misplaced commas have cost companies millions of dollars. Murderers have been identified based on idiosyncratic grammar errors. And even the oft-maligned semicolon has changed the outcome of court cases.)"

Read and learn more at NationalGrammarDay.com. I'm *so* tempted to buy the T-shirt!

Kernan the Grammarian also offers you a wonderful verb that you've likely been *doing* for some time, but you didn't know there was a word for it: prepone, brought to you by the wonderful Anu Garg and the folks at A Word a Day (A.W.A.D.).

It Can't Get Any Freer Than *This*, Baby

From Toothpaste for Dinner

Time, time, time. What's become of me?

We bitch. We moan. We beg for more time. We bury our cold noses in this hazy shade of winter.

Well, today's the day we get a whole effing extra day of time. One thousand, four hundred and forty minutes of extra time. What are YOU going to do with it? Get over yourself and *do*.

J.K. Rowling counsels, "It is our choices that define us, far more than our abilities."

As Sheena advised us last year, "February is Free Month". This year, I claim this entire day as free. It's in the black. It's a bonus. If time is money, then this much time wins us all the effing contest. Am hoping to report that I've bought myself a new effing car on my free day. Will advise if such is acquired.

For it's not what you get free. It's how you LOOK when you get free stuff. And lovelies? You. look. mahvelous!

Taped on the wall at the Toyota Dealership (sadly, the Toyota RAV4 did not make the cut list):

Attitude, by Charles Swindell

The longer I live
The more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than the past,
Than education,
Than money,
Than circumstances,
Than failures,
Than success,
Than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance,
Giftedness or skill.
It will make or break an organization,
A school, a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day
Regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past.
We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do
Is play the string we have.
And that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me
And 90 percent how I react to it.
And so it is with you.

Comma Delays Suck

This tickled Kernan the Grammarian's fancy.

From Tony Carillo's F Minus

Lynne Truss would lurve it!

Cheek Tarts

Just for you, my sweet, sweet eValentines.

Acme Heartmaker

R.T.L.B.: Love. And Breathe.

From Randall Munroe's xkcd.com

Happy Valentine's Day, all y'all. The bleak mid-winter is passing and dearth in posts soon resolving.

Today's Rule to Live By: R.T.L.B:
Keep breathing. Love helps.

From Mark Tonra's James

My valentines to you:

"Where there is love, there is life."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi

"The true beloveds of this world are in their lover's eyes lilacs opening, ship lights, school bells, a landscape, remembered conversations, friends, a child's Sunday, lost voices, one's favorite suit, autumn and all seasons, memory, yes, it being the earth and water of existence, memory."
- Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, 1948

"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."
- William Sloane Coffin

And as ever, R.L., you're paramount in my thoughts today, and my heart is with CarolinaMom.

Horse's Ass

Spanks to CountryMouse for this.

F*ck forty!

Capricorn Horrorscope

A tad late. Happy Horse's Ass Day to Michael Clem, Rogo, and TripleC. And my thoughts can't help but go to Hans and R.L., the latter with whom I share a horse's ass day.

Starting off a New Year

Whitenoise keeps pestering for nekkid snaps. Does this one of my New Year's toes in FloridaDad's TajMahTub count?


Found a ridiculous calendar that tickles me silly: "Veggies Gone Wild! Produce Behaving Badly". Here's January:

A Country Holiday

Been busy hithering and thithering throughout the South. Remiss in posting these snaps from my country holiday in Yanceyville.

Cousin Lee set an elegant table. Only after dinner did he note that we looked at reindeer bums throughout the meal.

I really liked Lee's Santa, and Santa's blue ball.

CarolinaMom has guests in her back "yard".

The neighbor's barn at sunset.

How to Recognize a Bad Idea UPDATED

Between Boone's smoking jacket and Pid's Lucha Libre mask, Scott Meyers is spooking me out. If anyone has a Boone smoking jacket picture lying around, send and I'll post.

From Scott Meyers' Basic Instructions

Updated: Pid in *full* Nacho Libre - um, I mean - Lucha Libre attire.

A new take on transplants

One person's stuff is another person's sh*t. But when you've got a bug up your ass, another person's sh*t becoming your sh*t is the trick.

Them crazy Canucks!

In the market

I'm in the market for a new bed at chez Cheek. But this one for almost fitty grand USD? I'm holding out at least until there's a catheter option. And self reliance appliances. And massage. And nutella on toast with bacon every morning.


What are your must haves?

Why are we here?

"We are here to find meaning. We are here to help other people do the same. Everything else is secondary."
- Hugh MacLeod, gapingvoid.com

Here ucking here!