We received a call from the airline late this afternoon. Our luggage has been found and will be delivered to our door either tonight or tomorrow. That's a big relief. I was beginning to think I'd never see my drawers again, let alone all the stuff we brought back with us.
I just hope if they bring it tonight that one of us can get awake enough to answer the door. After our adventures of the past few days & working yesterday and today, I'm plumb worn to a frazzle. And Mike's getting sick with something....probably a spring cold. So we're going to bed. Like....now. The dogs will wake us if the luggage gets here tonight. I think.
Good night y'all.
Looks like one of the local schools may have prevented a child abduction.
When a scruffy-looking man walked into Grace Hill Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon and asked to pick up a 6-year-old boy, school employees did what came naturally: They verified the names on the student’s approved pickup list and refused to hand over the child.
The man then quickly left. The school promptly notified the child's mother of the incident. When she could not identify the man from the school's security cameras, police began a search for him. They haven't found him yet.
Kudos to the school for following proper security measures, even though the man asked for the child by name.
Pretty freakin' scary.
Looks like someone's been reading the DU again.
Pentagon and Pakistani officials on Saturday denied an Iranian state radio report that Osama bin Laden was captured in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan "a long time ago."....The director of Iran radio's Pashtun service, Asheq Hossein, said he had two sources for the report. The radio quoted its reporter as saying bin Laden had been in custody for a period of time, but a U.S. announcement of the capture was being withheld by President Bush until closer to the November election.
"Osama bin Laden has been arrested a long time ago, but Bush is intending to use it for propaganda maneuvering in the presidential election," he said.
Now I do think there's a big hunt going on in Pakistan right now to find Osama and his band of merry terrorists, and I'm cynical enough to notice it's conveniently happening in an election year. But I think it has more to do with the recent relevations about the illicit activities of the leading Pakistan nuclear scientist giving the US a big stick to make the Pakistani leaders actually do something about al-Queda operating out of their country than anything else.
Or maybe we recovered & freeze-dried some of Osama's DNA from one of those caves in Tora Bora, and we're just waiting for the clone to reach maturity. Then we can 'capture' it right before the election.
That's about as likely as what Iran's claiming.
Adjust your tinfoil hats accordingly.
Our flight to Orlando went smoothly....so smoothly that as we were landing early in Orlando I couldn't believe we hadn't had any problems. That was all about to change.
We picked up our luggage and went to pick up our rental car from Avis....you know, the "we try harder" people. May I just say that after our experience, they don't try nearly hard enough. There was a gentleman in front of Mike in the registration line having a hissy fit. I soon found out why.
It seems that Avis in its infinite wisdom was only running one shuttle van that night. So their staff told that gentleman (and Mike) to leave his wife & their luggage sitting at the shuttle pickup point while he went to get the car. The gentleman (and Mike) understandably had a problem with leaving his wife alone in a parking garage in a strange city. But once we saw the long line waiting for the shuttle, I told Mike to go ahead and arranged myself with my back to the wall within sight of the line. Mike wasn't thrilled with the idea, but figured that a) I hadn't eaten in 6 hrs, and b) I hadn't had a smoke in 3 so he pitied the fool that tried to mug nicotine-withdrawal Low Blood Sugar Satan. I was a little cranky.
It took about an hour and a half, but we finally get our car & head out to the motel. It's 12:30 am. We'd both been up since about 6 am, I had to work a 4 hr. shift before we left, and we're both dog-tired. We had problems finding the Apopka HoJo that we'd made reservations for online, primarily because we were looking for a 3 star hotel as advertised and not a dump that catered to contractors & hookers.
We almost left when we pulled into the parking lot, but by then it was almost 2 am. We checked in and as we were trudging to our room, we heard the most hideous noise coming from the room adjacent to ours. I'm not sure whether they had a dog in heat or they were doing things I'd rather not think about, but it sounded bad. We opened the door to our room and Mike said "First thing tomorrow I'm looking for a different hotel." It was a dump. It was the kind of place that you wouldn't walk around the room barefoot for fear of catching something. The air conditioner made this horrible metallic screech all night. There was a workboot footprint on the bathroom floor. It was that bad.
The next morning, as we were going to eat breakfast before Mike dropped me off at the seminar, Mike remarked that the Mustang we rented really got crappy gas mileage. We'd only gotten a little over a hundred miles on a full tank of gas. It wasn't until Mike used up the next tank of gas and got almost 300 miles on it that we realized what had to have happened.
Someone drained our gas tank while we were sleeping at that crappy little hotel.
Yeah. We found another hotel the next day. But that's another story.
See, here's the snowstorm that stranded us. We knew we were in trouble when the landing lights came on when we were about to land in Charlotte last night and we could barely see the end of the wing because it was snowing so hard.
The US Airways staff were great....the ticketing agent in Orlando even bumped us up to an earlier flight in an attempt to make sure we would make it home last night. Didn't work, but then the folks in Charlotte gave us several choices of ways to get home on the first flight out this morning. The Charlotte Red Cross came in and set up canvas cots & blankets for everyone. I didn't sleep much....imagine the sounds of 700 people trying to get comfortable on squeaky canvas cots....but it was great just to have a warm place to stretch out. And the airport businesses stayed open late & opened early this morning to feed us all. Purt near everyone there couldn't have been nicer and went way out of their way to make us as comfortable as possible.
Nothing like Southern hospitality when you're stranded. Now if our luggage had just made it home when we did.
Oh well. It'll show up eventually.
We are finally home safe & sound. I never managed to find internet access while we were gone, but that was the least of our problems. It was, shall we say, a nightmare trip from hell.
Didja see the big snowstorm in Charlotte, N.C. last night? So did we....all night at the airport. I'll tell ya all the details later if you're interested (and even if you're not), but for now let me just say that there are some of the nicest people in Charlotte that we've ever met. And I sincerely mean that.
But now I've got to get caught up with everything since we were a day late getting home. And at some point I'll have to get more than the 3 hrs. sleep I had last night.
But we're home, Sollie, home. And there's no place like home.
This week's award goes to Jeremy Niederbrach of Salem, Arkansas. Jeremy was awaiting trial on a charge of criminal mischief and decided to step outside for a smoke. However Jeremy wasn't too bright.
During a 10:30 a.m. court recess, Niederbrach went downstairs and out the west entrance of the courthouse. He stood with a handful of others who lighted up cigarettes. Legal ones.
His girlfriend asked him for a cigarette lighter and when Niederbrach reached into his pocket, officers said, he found a prescription pill bottle. Inside the bottle was the butt of a marijuana joint. "He stood out there, and he lit up the joint," Roork said. "Unbeknownst to him, people were watching."
Like a couple of Drug Task Force agents who happened to look out the courtroom window at just the right time....who just waited for him to come back upstairs and then arrested him.
What a maroon!
David was kind enough to do a real live Tarot card reading for me. It was amazing how accurate it was. Go check it out.
Paul provides the laugh link of the week: Scamming a Nigerian Spammer.
I'll be giggling about this one for days.
According to today's WashTimes, John Kerry wasn't quite the war hero he's been made out to be by the left. And as John Hawkins also notes, neither was their other poster child Max Cleland. I find the left's constant touting of their 'heroism' incredibly offensive....because I know a different kind of hero.
I once knew a man named John. John was a kind soul, a left-leaning tree-hugging environmentalist. He was a friend of mine. He & I disagreed on many subjects, but I had a helluva respect for his intelligence and always enjoyed visiting with him. John's appearance could be more than a little startling, as he was criss-crossed with horrible burn scars everywhere visible and was missing many of his fingers. I knew he was a Vietnam vet, but I never asked, because I was raised to believe that is rude, and John never volunteered much about how he was injured. I later found out what happened from a friend of his.
John was in 'Nam, and one day a phophorus grenade was lobbed into a group of soldiers. John, being a quick-thinking kind of fellow, grabbed the grenade and ran to throw it away from his comrades. He saved a lot of lives, but at a horrible cost to himself. He didn't like to talk about it, but I gathered from what little he did say that he had endured multiple surgeries but was still in pretty much constant severe pain. Several years ago, John committed suicide. I miss him, but I can understand why he did.
There are a lot of men out there like John. Men like one of my ex's friends who daily struggles with the after-effects of Agent Orange. Men like my sister's next-door neighbor who left his family to fight in Desert Storm, and is now coping with Desert Storm Syndrome. Men like my father, who lost an eye and almost his life in Korea, but came home, raised a family and farmed all his life despite the inoperable shrapnel in his knee. Men who did their duty and sacrificed for our country, and then quietly went on with their lives as best they could. Those are my heroes.
John Kerry and Max Cleland are not.
You know Reuters, I really didn't need to see a photo of this while I'm eating breakfast.
Nasty.
Officials think there may be a serial killer 'round here.
Law officers are investigating whether the deaths of ten women in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi are linked to a serial killer.
Police say they believe the killer as [sic] a long-haul truck driver preying on women around truck stops.
Now you might think that you're not at risk because you're not a drug-using truckstop prostitute, as most of these victims were. But remember that not all of them were.
Most truckers in my experience are the nicest fellers you'd ever want to meet when you're broke down in the middle of the night. They'd give you the shirt off of their backs if you needed it.
Apparently this one ain't. Let's all be a little more careful out there.
Dean's finally acknowledging the inevitable and will announce this afternoon that he is withdrawing from the Democrat primaries.
Dean exits the active race certain in the knowledge that he will live on in the annals of U.S. politics for shattering Democratic fund-raising records with $41 million collected in a single year — as well as on late-night television and Internet parodies for a high-octane concession speech on the night of the Iowa caucuses that he's likely never to live down.
Yeah, that was definitely one of those times when it would've been better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool. Yeee-argh.
There's some speculation that he may support Edwards. If I was a bettin' man, that's whom my money would be on. Edwards, who just ran a close second to Kerry in Wisconsin of all places. If he did that well in the North, what do you think he'll do in the South? After all, he's a smooth talkin' trial lawyer that has so far managed to keep his foot out of his mouth.....something his opponents can't seem to do. Nice-lookin' too....doesn't look anything like a botoxed hound dog's ass (and how Kerry manages to also look arrogant both puzzles & frightens me).
Then there's Kerry's war protestor record and his many disparaging remarks about the National Guard. Have any idea how many Southerns are Vietnam vets and/or National Guard members? About a ga-zillion. And if you look closely at what Kerry said while protesting the Vietnam war and what he says now, there's really not much difference. Only the nouns have changed....i.e., "Communism [terrorism] isn't a threat that we should go to war against". That dog won't hunt down here.
Of course, there's Edward's huge med mal jury awards, but that's not necessarily the big minus that you might think. After all, Mississippi juries have historically awarded some of the highest jury awards for medical malpractice in the country.
Something to think about.
CNN's breaking news is reporting that a Federal appellate court has upheld the 'do-not-call' list, "turning aside free speech challenge by telemarketers." No link yet, though it says details will follow.
I love it when I'm right.
UPDATE: Reuters has a little more:
The court said in a 51-page written order that the registry is valid commercial speech regulation because "it directly advances substantial governmental interests and is narrowly tailored."
The order's not been posted yet, but should be up soon. Should be interesting reading.
A 2 yr. study by the Feds have found 13 locations in Arkansas to which they may relocate some Florida panthers. Let me think about that for a nanosecond. No.
Arkansas did not participate in the federal study, and Game and Fish Commission officials have said that the state wasn't interested in having Florida panthers stocked here.
Not that that'll make a hill of beans to the Feds. I say go ahead and relocate 'em....see how long they last. You know, there's reasons we hillbillies killed most of the panthers around these parts years ago. They prey on livestock and most small animals.....young'uns too if they get hungry enough. And if you're fool enough to think panthers won't live around humans, I suggest you talk to anyone who lives in Florida.
They can tell you different.
--Finally saw this Boohbah show I've been hearing about. I've got a better name for it. Freaky Colored Zygotes. And what's with the farting sound every time they move? I hated it. WildChild gave it an around-the-world-and-a-backsnap.
--Had to buy new toothbrushes for everyone today except for WildChild. Why not him, you ask? Well, this morning, he grabbed for his toothbrush after I told him to wait & let me get it. He knocked over the entire holder & all the toothbrushes, which fell into the trashcan....except of course his which he managed to grab as it was falling. There is little satisfaction in telling a 3 yr. old "I told you so."
--Posting will be light for a few days because I've got to do next week's homework this week since we'll be out of town next week. That's right, batten down the hatches & put the kids under the bed. Mike will be appearing daily Monday-Wednesday in beautiful downtown Eustis, FL. Me, I'm going to be stuck in a HIPAA class in Orlando.
Bill & Sean, I expect you boys to behave now. Remember, it's always fun until someone cuts off their knuckle. [Don't you hate it when people make insider family remarks & you have no idea what they're talking about? Me too.]
--Anyone have any tried & true methods of potty training? Because personally I think when a kid comes & tells you that his diaper needs changed because he's pooped, it's high time someone potty trained him. I've tried the "big boys go in the potty" talk. WildChild agreed, but seems to think that doesn't apply to him. So this morning I scolded him & we had the talk again as I was cleaning him up. About an hour later, he wandered by where I was doing my homework, and I caught that unmistakable whiff. "WildChild," I said (actually I used his first, middle AND last name, you know, that thing moms do when they're really pissed) "Did you poop in your pants again?"
He ran over to me, threw his arms around me and said "I wuv you Ma."
"I wuv you too, but that doesn't answer my question. Did. You. Poop?"
*silence*
Of course he had.
It's been 20 yrs. since I've potty trained a kid. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
--It's another Friday the 13th, which means I'll hear comments all day about how unlucky it is. The only thing I suspect I'll see unlucky about today is all the fools who waited until the last minute to buy their Valentine crap.
--If Jesus died for their sins, why do some Christians hate Jews for 'killing' him? I mean, according to their doctrine, if he hadn't died, they'd all be going to hell in a handbasket. I've never understood that one.
--I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to read that Microsoft's programmers used profanity in their code. (link via Fark) Programmers swear? I had no idea. [/sarcasm]
--Why don't dogs understand body lotion? Why don't they think gee, she's putting funny-smelling stuff on, she must want it there? But noooo. Apparently that smell means that if the stuff isn't removed immediately, MOMMY'S GONNA DIE! And if the mental image of me hopping around the bathroom, lotion bottle in one hand, while trying to simultaneously shoo out & dodge the very large Akita who's learned how to open the bathroom door and is earnestly trying to save me from the funny-smelling stuff that's on me amuses you, well....I'm glad I brightened your day.
Just wait until it happens to you. Then see how funny you think it is.
*ppffftt*
The battle between the anti-smokers and pro-property rights people wasn't settled by yesterday's election.....and it's looking to get nasty.
Coolwater owner Rick Schweik told the crowd he would not recognize the new ordinance, and that Coolwater, Common Grounds, and On the Mark do not plan to enforce the city's new smoking ban.
I'm familiar with 2 of those 3 businesses, and they ostensibly have a legitimate beef. They're primarily bars that also serve food, but they do not meet the ordinance's requirements to qualify for the bar exemption.
The city's response?
City Attorney Kit Williams says, "If a business owner would constantly ignore the ordinance then there's a provision in the ordinance that says that that person's business license can be revoked or suspended. The city provides or issues licenses to various bars and restaurants in order to sell alcohol, and if we revoke that license, they could no longer sell alcohol."
In other words, they plan to use every trick in the book to punish transgressors.
Gonna get real interesting before this is over.
Y'all will be happy to know that the evil anti-smokers won, and the Fayetteville smoking ban passed by 410 votes. You'll be even happier to know that the wise citizens of adjoining Springdale defeated a proposition to allow restaurants to sell alcoholic drinks on Sundays.
What a world, what a world.
The President's press secretary has released copies of Bush's National Guard records that show he was never AWOL.
Can you people shut up about this now? Or has this taken on a life of its own like the plastic turkey that wasn't?
Kerry, who is regularly accompanied by a "band of brothers" of military veterans who served with him in Vietnam, said Tuesday he has said all he is going to say about Bush's record.
"I just don't have any comment on it," Kerry told reporters between campaign stops in Tennessee and Virginia, which were holding their primaries Tuesday night. "It's not an issue that I chose to create. It's not my record that's at issue and I don't have any questions about it."
Oh kiss my ass, you two-faced mealy-mouthed lying sack of shit. Let's see, how was it you once referred to some of those 'band of brothers'? Oh yeah, it was something like this:
they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country
Mr. Kerry, I'm not interested in hearing anything else you have to say. You are a disgrace to the uniform you once wore.
Today's the official election on the proposed city-wide smoking ban, and the clerk's office is predicting a record turnout. There's already been 2,550 early votes cast, which is unheard of for a special election.
The anti-smoking group ran commercials on all the local cable stations yesterday. I didn't see them, I was buried in homework, but Mike was livid about one in particular. It said that there had been x number (I don't remember what number they quoted) of restaurant workers that had died in Fayetteville last year from the effects of second-hand smoke. Mike wanted to know where they had gotten that figure. Pulled it out of their ass was my guess.
And I just now saw a jogger pass by wearing a pro-smoking ban sandwich board. It's 21 degrees outside.
There's a fine line between dedication and outright stupidity.
While reading this article about how funding for first responders is being tied up, I couldn't help but think of the time my hometown first responders worked their first traffic accident.
A lady had had a one-vehicle accident, and the first responders arrived quickly. She was injured, but her door was jammed by the wreck and they couldn't get her out. Someone arrived with the 'Jaws of Life', and the first responders were hard at work peeling the roof off the car like a can of sardines.
Then the local police got to the scene, made them stop.....and opened the passenger side door so the EMT's could get the lady out.
Y'all prolly think I make this stuff up, don't you?
My imagination's not that good.
An article about a local election coming up in my home town reminded me again why I'm opposed to term limits........besides believing that if people are stupid enough to keep elected bad people, they deserve what they get.
The District 90 House of Representatives (Madison, Newton & part of Searcy county) seat is up for grabs this year because the current Rep., Mike Hathorn, is ineligible to run again due to term limits. Rep. Hathorn is, IMO, what we call down home a 'fine feller'. [Disclaimer: my daughter is good friends with his wife, whom she met while they were both in nursing school.] Young, energetic, smart as a whip....and passionate about good government. I've attended a couple of lectures he's given at legal seminars, and was quite impressed. And if there ever was a district that needed a good, progressive, intelligent representative, my old home town is it. But we're losing this one. And here's what's running so far as his replacement.
Roy Ragland, whom I have known for most of my life. A "pastor and cattle rancher". *ahem* Yeah, that's two of the things I'd call him, though I would add a few adjectives....like 'smarmy', 'unctious', 'too lazy to hit a lick at a snake'. You get the picture. He's the type of person that makes you want to take a shower after talking with him for a few minutes.
A common opinion of him is that he got the 'calling' to become a preacher because a)he's in love with sound of his own voice, and b)it's a great scam to make money without working for it. So becoming a politician is a natural step for him.
But he's also the type of person that is only interested in what's good for that district if it's also good for him. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Don't believe me? Spend a few minutes talking to him, you'll see what I mean. Or look at the fact that he's raised $4,000 so far for a campaign for a vacant seat for which he has no opponent.
Yep. He's running unapposed, which is almost enough to make me move back home & run for the office myself.
Trust me. That's pretty bad.
I plugged in my new space heater before starting on my homework this morning....after confirming with a thermometer that it was 15 degrees colder under my desk than in the room. No wonder my little feetsies were getting cold.
I was working away when I noticed my feet, which had been all toasty, were getting a little chilly. I looked over at my new space heater & discovered there was a major problem.
Sollie was sitting in front of it, basking like a elephant seal and completely blocking the heat flow. It did no good to make him move. As soon as I turned back to work, he was right back in front of the heater.
Little Bastard! Go buy your own!
I'd hoped to be completely snowbound this morning, but alas. We got snow, sleet, freezing rain, the works last night but. It never got cold enough for any of it to accumulate. So I've got to head off to work here directly.
Dammit.
At least it's a cold, rainy, dreary day so maybe we won't be too busy. I really don't feel up to wearing my Cheerful Cashier face today....but like any great actor, I will rise to the challenge if necessary. The show must go on, after all.
I'll be ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.
A U.S. appellate court has granted scientists' request to study the "Kennewick" skelton.
Judge Ronald M Gould wrote that, under the law, the remains could only be considered Native American if they "bear some relationship to presently existing tribe or people or culture".
Because "limited studies to date" could not establish that link, the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the green light to the scientists.
Scientists are interested in the 9,000 yr. old bones because they are different than those of today's Native Americans.....so it's not clear if the "Keenewick" man is an ancestor or a wanderer from parts unknown.
Me, I've always thought ancient peoples traveled all over just like modern ones....just took 'em longer to get there. Wanderlust didn't develop in modern times, there's always been those who want to see what's on the other side of the mountain/ocean.
But if you look closely at the facial reconstruction of this skull, it's clearly this guy, victim of a time travel trek gone horribly wrong.
See what I mean?
I've been hard at work catching up on all the homework I let go while WildChild was here, but I keep having to come out to the kitchen and thaw out with some hot tea or cocoa. For some reason we've never figured out, underneath my computer desk is the coldest place in the house. And since it's snowing/sleeting and the temperature is steadily dropping, I can only work for about an hour stretch before my legs & feet get numb. I've had it. Tomorrow I'm buying a space heater after work....assuming I can get to work.
Oh yeah baby. The revised forecast is for 3-5 inches of snow & ice here tonight. All I got to say is the more the better. If I don't have to go to work tomorrow, I can get completely caught up with school. I've made considerable progress today....beginning to see a faint light at the end of the tunnel.
Now if I could just figure out where that intermittent whistling is coming from.
Whattya mean "Train!"?
Another experiment for the "Things We Don't Need" category:
Mice have been used to produce viable monkey sperm using tissue transplanted from the testes of macaques....It might also be possible to grow human sperm in mice, although the team agree this would be a controversial move.
Ya think?
Today's sweetest moment is courtesy of, who else, WildChild, who's been spending a few days with us. Last night, he was happily munching on Sweethearts candy....a big hit because a) they're shaped like hearts, his current favorite shape and b) they have words on them.
So he was carefully getting one candy out at a time, I would read the words, he would repeat the saying and then pop the candy into his mouth. Until he pulled out one that said "I love you". I read the candy, he considered it for a few moments and then said
"I lub you Ma" and snuggles up against me for a hug.
I guess buying him a dumptruck load would be overdoing it a bit.
White powder found in a Senate mail room has initially tested positive for ricin. No injuries have been reported so far. All 3 Senate buildings have been closed, but the Senate will continue to meet as scheduled.
Wesley Clark just learned a lesson most of us locals already know.
The caravan was heading to Oklahoma City from McAlester just after midnight Sunday when it was stopped by an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper.
The lead car driven by Clark staffer Reid Cherlin carried Clark and foreign policy advisory Jamie Rubin. The trooper says he clocked the car at 88 miles per hour in a 75 mile an hour zone.
Cherlin says he had the cruise control set for 83 miles per hour.
Cherlin and the other two drivers were each given $150 speeding tickets.
Even us ignorant hillbillies know better than to get caught speeding in Oklahoma. A little FYI for Mr. Clark: Speeding fines are statutory in Oklahoma and are therefore not subject to negotiation. And since they were going more than 10 mph over the speed limit, it's likely the prosecutor will refuse to keep the tickets off their driving records.
All together now: "Aaaawwww."
I was sitting in my rocking chair, dozing through the throughly boring & skanky Stupor Bowl halftime show, when suddenly Mike exclaimed "Did she just show her boob?"
Apparently, she did.
The combination of today's Stupor Bowl and the snow forecast for tomorrow(We're all going to starve! It's a blizzard! Maybe 2 whole inches of snow!) has made this weekend rival the last few days before Christmas. I have a blister on my thumb from scanning & bagging so many 2 liter bottles of pop. Plus a big paper cut on my index finger.
I have to be back at work in an hour.
Feel my pain!