welcome to yet another 4th of july, with all the same distaste as mentioned in previous whyspers. happy independence day america, can we now get it over with?

this year we opted for a bit of an early "celebration" and took the kids to see sinbad yesterday. i really enjoyed it, as did the kids, but saxy says he was disappointed. pfeiffer did a great job as eris and i honestly couldn't tell brad pitt was voicing sinbad or zeta-jones was marina. like i said, the kids loved it and i had a wonderful time. the scene with the sirens was particularly well done and i loved the bird.

after the movie, none of us really wanted to go home with the exception of the oldest. we took care of that by doing a little mall hopping and shopping. all the kids came away with new books, kitten got new dice, jewel a new headband and her ears pierced, froggy got a few new things for dress-up and a much needed backpack, taz also got a much needed backpack (stitch! he picked it out at the disney store) saxy picked up a few movies (which counts for taz since he's a movie buff too) and a maralyn monroe mug and a stuffed pluto he's been wanting for ages, and i got a new dragon and picked up some clothes. it was about time on the clothes - mine were starting to look a bit ragged from over use and age. i found some good deals though and only spent $150 for 4 tops and 4 pairs of pants. we ate out, drank lots of soda, and generally had fun just spending time together out of the heat. gypsy was probably the only one not impressed by the end, but she was working. taz was definitely hitting too tired by the end of the day as he stopped giving the appropriate commands just before we left the mall.

as we were waiting for our bus home, some kids tried to run off with some clothes from our local macy's. now, seriously folks, how idiotic can that be? i personally would never try to steal from a department store these days even if i was a little thief, especially in a mall department store. why? security cameras, security guards, mall security cameras, mall security guards, mall parking guards, those freaking plastic electronic beeper tags that you can't take off the clothing without the right kind of hand gadget to do so since trying to will either rip the clothes or get blue dye all over them and render said clothes useless anyway. i mean, department stores take theft so seriously now days that they are just about as bad as banks when it comes to robbing them. not to say it doesn't happen successfully, but the risk of getting caught is too dang high. and i don't know about the rest of the u.s. but we're a three strikes state.

perhaps these kids thought numbers would help because there were 4 of them, 2 girls and 2 guys. they dash out into the parking lot, several security people right behind. i swear, it didn't take long. in seconds a parking lot security car had blocked their car (which i gathered they had left open so they could just dive and run). i'm not sure why the one girl they got first didn't realize she was in trouble, but her three friends sure did and scattered to the winds. we saw one fellow dash behind the mall in the opposite direction as everyone else - minus the clothes he had been carrying. two others went further into the lot, followed by 3 more security people. all but behind the mall guy were caught while we watched. none of these kids looked like they needed the clothes they were stealing, but the clothes they were already wearing could have been stolen too, for all i know.

and people wonder why things are so damn expensive these days.

today has actually been relatively quiet, although not as quiet as i would like and it most certainly will get noisier as the evening progresses. headphones and music are definitely in my future for the evening. gypsy, who seems to be afraid of every kind of thud, pop, whistle and bang imaginable, is on tranqs, the cats are in hiding. i paid a bunch of smaller bills, including our utilities, we had a lovely steak and shrimp dinner, and i am currently working on .net issues. tonight, it's back to my mt installation and template creation nightmare. i should be in good company however. even drugged, the dog is hiding under my chair. at least she's not shaking nearly as much, although she still might provide a good foot massage before the evening is over.