…is where my new laptop is resting. Ok, not really. In fact, I have it on my desk, in front of my desktop monitor and keyboard. I swear, though, I will get mobile with this thing. My new toy is an Acer Aspire 5740-5513. Much thanks to Mike for not only finding me a killer deal, but for setting it up with all my preferred software and settings. Thanks Mike!

I wish the South liked Hockey more. Guess the climate isn’t exactly conducive.

I confess, I prefer the days when players weren’t required to wear helmets. Yes, I’m that old I almost remember those days, certainly “grandfathered” players anyway.

Still- Go Hawks!

Your humble Innkeeper has a lot on her mind. Enjoy the meander or stop reading now. You’ve been sufficiently notified.

I. Stella Escapes.

The first few hours of the first day of 2009 sucked. Sucked in the worst way. Our little cat Stella Blue was missing. She didn’t show up for breakfast – a clear indicator she was not in the house, or was stuck somewhere. Worse yet, before bed – laaaaaate on New Year’s Eve, Mike asked if I had seen her. I had seen her for dinner (though not after) and assured Mike she was likely fine. Queue foreboding music.

During the evening festivities, Mike and I were preparing pork butts to be smoked. We were back and forth between the bbq and the house numerous times well after midnight. That must be when she made her escape. Clever little brat she is.

Stella’s predictable, however. Mike didn’t take too much time (after I rudely awoke him with the news) to figure out she was under our house. Southern coastal homes are on stilts. You knew that, right? When we first met our Stella Blue she was living in insulation under an abandoned home. She seems to find this a safe spot. When the hobo let her out, that’s where we found her too. It’s her go-to place.

We had a lot of difficulty getting her out. She was scared out of her mind. Mike, a painful crawl under the house, and a super-soaker solved everything. Stella’s back home. She will be getting a collar and a chip.

II. Too Much Cabbage.

As I mentioned in Part I here, Mike and I smoked some pork butts for New Years. It was much more than that, in fact. We had a whole North meets South New Years. All southern food, as we watched the NHL’s 2009 Winter Classic. Well, most of it – half of the time was spent trying to coax Stella out from under the house. In addition to the pork, we made Hopping John and coleslaw. The BBQ sauce we prepared to accompany the pork and the slaw were ‘North Carolina’ style – very vinegar based. All turned out impeccably. We ate it until yesterday.

For lunch today, I decided I could no longer handle my southern leftovers. Trying to go in a completely different direction, I ordered from a downtown Japanese place. Shrimp tempura sushi and harumaki. An impulse order, really. When I get that Japanese food ‘craving’ I usually get only one of these two items. It completely slipped my mind that most of the stuffing in harumaki is cabbage – just like the coleslaw I’ve been eating for nearly a week. I need a break. My colon may never forgive me.

III. Savannah Recycles?

Last thing. For now at least. Recycling pick-ups officially begin today. Savannah’s been a bit behind other cities in getting kick-started in the recycling. After some wrangling, we’re here. From what I’ve seen so far, this is going to fail; unless, of course, the course is changed.

The biggest problem with Savannah’s recycling program is that our recycling ‘bin’ is far from a bin. It’s a giagantic, alley-sized garbage can. This oversized bin in no way induces me to recycle. If it were smaller, and I could fit it in my house, I might consider recycling. As it stands right now, I’ll have to buy a separate can that I can dump in the large alley bin. Keep in mind, however, I can’t line it with a plastic garbage bag – those aren’t allowed for recycling.

This garbage bag issue brings me to my next complaint about Savannah’s recycling – the limitations. If I want to recycle any glass or plastic bottles, I am required to wash them first. If I want to recycle paper materials, I have to remove tape and staples. Note to recycling officials: I. DO. NOT. CLEAN. MY. GARBAGE. This is an insane request.

Finally, the city has hired a private contractor to program each and every citizen’s address into the bin we were issued. This is to allow the city to track who’s recycling, and if so, who’s doing it properly. This creeps me the hell out on numerous levels. I won’t count the ways.

I’ve resigned myself to thinking that, at most, I’ll recycle cardboard boxes. We usually have a lot of those and I have to break them down to get them in the garbage, so it’s little difference if I put them in the recycling bin. Don’t think I’ll be doing much else unless and until the program changes.

~~~

There you go. It’s 2009. This should be fun, Beachcombers.

I’ve gone ahead and added ‘Barack’ and ‘Obama’ to my approved words list in the Microsoft Word dictionary. It’s real now. I don’t need reminders those words might have been spelled wrong. It’s official. Welcome to a new day in America.

The universe has absorbed another one – Arthur C. Clark has passed to the great beyond. It’s been a depressing month for geeks.

Score one for Cyan and Gina in the 2008 Death Pool.

Mike and I have started a blog specifically for America’s Debate Radio. You can check it out here: Radio Blog. Stop by and leave some comments.

Four new blogs are now on the The Gull Reef Reads. The first two, Blog d’Ellison and catfish, are by bloggers who found me through Velociman’s blog. I’m glad they did. I was hooked on both of their blogs right away and have been reading ever since.

The other two are friends by way of America’s Debate. Cyan is back to public blogging at Cities Beneath the Sea. I’m always pleased when she is writing more, she’s always been a delight to read. Also added to the Reads list is the blog of moif over at JRC-1138. He offers a glimse into life in Denmark as a proud papa, husband, and illustrator.

Go check them all out.

In order to avoid any activity of real consequence, I decided to clean up The Gull Reef Reads. There were a number of outdated links and some bloggers just aren’t writing anymore so I made them walk the plank.

I also decided to come out of lurking and add two blogs that I have been reading for quite some time now but have never let them know. First up is Voodoo Knickers. This blog is hosted by a handful of incredibly bright neo-hippy types who lead far more interesting lives than me. I first came by Voodoo Knickers when one of its writers, Titanium Dreads, joined at America’s Debate and linked his blog in his profile. I’ve been hooked pretty much since then. Funny, really, because TD hadn’t posted at AD in over a year. Doubt he even remembers he’s a member.

The second link I’ve added is almost like sharing a dirty little secret. Almost, but not quite that bad. You may recall last summer when I first found Devine Innerbitchin. Because of her blog, around that same time, I developed a habit for reading Velociworld. I’m incapable of accurately describing Velociman’s writing. Sort of a modern day Rhett Butler-Edgar Allen Poe mix crossed with a monkey and steeped in a solution of alcohol and opiates. Sort of. Just go over and look. I adore his Savannah ‘back in the day posts.’ It’s stuff you’ll never read on the Chamber of Commerce pamphlets.

I think that’s about it. If you notice anything I’ve missed (nudge, Vigilante-Wertz) or are just dying to be added, drop me an email Thegullreefclub @AT@ g
mail.com.

Ahoy, beachcombers! I’m back from Chicago(land). We had a marvelous time. As with most vacations, I am exhausted and need a vacation to recover from this. I’ll update you with details of our adventures as time permits. Right now, I am going to lunch. Gee, I’ve such a rough life.

It has come to my attention this Gull Reef Club gets a few visitors every month seeking this Gull Reef Club. Please be advised, visiting beachcombers, that we are in no way related. Our only similarities seem to be a love for Georgia’s coast and Herman Wouk.

I would be happy to share a rave Postcard about my condo compadre were they willing to comp me a night or two. Nudge…

So it’s late in London now. I shouldn’t let the night end without sharing my sympathy to those over there. No politicking tonight. There will be time enough for that later.

If anyone is interested in chatting about tonight’s speech by President Bush, you are more than welcome to join the peanut gallery in the America’s Debate chatroom, starting around 8 pm (eastern). Information Link.

You don’t have to be an AD member to chat with us, you just need to have an opinion…and those are so hard to come by these days….

Two more members of the America’s Debate community are hosting blogs nowadays – Doc’s Rants is brought to us by the adorable Doclotus and nebraska29 runs the show at the Stogies and Politics Lounge. Welcome to the blogosphere, gentlemen.

Mike and I have spent all weekend painting the America’s Debate World Headquarters so I haven’t had time to prepare this week’s postcard. I promise we’ll leave tomorrow. Don’t unpack.

In the meantime, check out my best (read ‘only’) Canadian friend’s new blog: Joe’s Blog. ‘Bout time you entered the blogosphere, Joe!

Tomorrow evening America’s Debate will be hosting one of it’s semi-regular chats. Mike posted an announcement about it here. Info on how to access the chatroom is here.

Even if you are not a member you are welcome. We don’t debate in these chats like on the forum. Most of the time they are quite fun and rather silly. If you have time, stop by and say hello.

I put up a few new links today and noticed that my descriptions of everyone’s sites have disappeared. Mike claims they did when he upgraded the WordPress software. Could be. I tend not to be that observant when it comes to stuff like this. So is life…

Anyway, the new links are:

America’s Debate Resources – a directory of member-submitted links covering a broad range of topics related to news, government, and political debate. Big duh to me. How did I forget to put this up sooner?

Divine InnerBitchin’ – luck of the draw on pingomatic’s last 100 submissions led me to Ms. Flynny’s page and I haven’t left since. She is a charming writer with a delicious sarcastic side.

Gut Rumbles – I found this blog linked off Ms. Flynny’s site. This is not blog-lite.

Dizzy-Girl I mentioned this site previously. It’s back up now. If anyone is keeping a scorecard, I found Gennie’s site through GutRumbles.

All three of these folks are southeast coast bloggers also. Yay, geography!

Almost forgot these guys: How Crazy Am I? and Centrist Revolution.

HCAI is the blog of lederuvdapac, whom I know by way of America’s Debate. Centrist Revolution is the blog of Overlandsailor, also a fellow AD member and sponsor. Sailor’s blog is not Firefox friendly (you gotta move the blog off of AOL, my friend!)

Sorry I forgot you guys.

I added a few more links to my blogroll, 72hrchikdom and Street Musician. Sorry it took me so long!

I also updated sleepcyan’s blog to reflect her new title, A Velvet Resurrection. I wanted to add Dizzy-Girl but her site seems to be down right now.

If I am missing anyone or you want to make a change to the way your link reads, please leave a comment.

Mike will be upgrading The Gull Reef Club today. There will be a little bit of downtime. We’ll be back soon.

If I have linked to you and you would like a better description for your site, please let me know. Otherwise, I’ve pretty much ripped the description off from your site, if you had one.