Our hearts and best wishes go out to Friend of the Blog Penny Karma and her hubby, who were both under the weather this past weekend. I'm not sure if they're better yet or not, but hopefully they are.

Insurance. Sigh..... What an ulcer-inducer, indigestion-producer, and diarrhea-causer. Although, for me, the insurance situation has improved greatly in the past few years. You see, for about ten years, I was a self-employed, independent goulash mixer. Being a freelance goulash mixer has great potential, because when you create a great batch of goulash you don't have to share the goulash glory with anyone. But 99% of the time, truly great goulash is more of a matter of luck than mixing skill, and ordinarily-good goulash is a dime a dozen. Maybe I just say that to make myself feel better. So? It works! Anyway, a few years ago, I became a corporate goulash mixer, and that is the reason for the improvement in my insurance situation.

Now I'm just one mixer in the great corporate horde. Luckily, my previous experience as an independent mixer helped elevate me to Head Mixer. My only superior here at the mixing plant is Walking Boss. Technically, I'm supposedly at the same level with Queen Underboss and Princess Underboss, but Queen Underboss has a way of making me feel like her inferior most of the time. I haven't really helped the situation, because I have adopted a somewhat servile countenance when dealing with her. But, still, I take great comfort and pride in the fact that she doesn't know diddly about goulash mixing, which is my great, enduring specialty.

We also have Waldo the Farmer working here. I'm not sure exactly where he falls in the pecking order, but, as near as I can tell, he's on a par with me, Queen Underboss, and Princess Underboss. Waldo is much more assertive and "drill-sergeant-like" than anyone else working here. He manages our farm, of course, and wrangles the hired help farmhands and cowboys. He is what Tim Robbins' character in some movie ("Bull Durham", maybe?) called "a no-shit guy." He's pretty-much a no goulash guy, too, so our paths don't cross very often. He has a hilarious personality, though, so I make it a point to go out and listen to him every so often. It's not really "talking" to him, because he does most of the actual talking. I'm usually laughing too hard to say anything, anyway.

So, I found a good website where all of you, My Gentle Readers, can enlighten yourselves regarding "Raising Arizona": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093822/ . You're all most welcome. Please note that the similarity between one of the jokes on that website and the attempted joke in my blog entry is entirely accidental. I didn't even know that site existed when I wrote that entry. This is just further evidence of how masterfully funny the movie is!

And here is the definitive quotation from the movie that I had mostly correct in an earlier post:

Memorable Quotes from Raising Arizona (1987)
Evelle: Gale? Um, Junior just had a - an accident.
Gale: What's that, pardner?
Evelle: He had hisself a little ol' accident.
Gale: What do you mean? He looks okay.
Evelle: No. You see, moving though we are, he just went and had hisself a little ol' rest stop.
Gale: [sniffs the air] Well, that's natural.