Res Ipsa Loquitur

Sandy Sox Guilty

Breaking news via Michelle:

Former national security adviser Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified material from the National Archives, a misdemeanor, the Justice Department said Thursday.

I vote for 1 yr. in Federal PYITA prison.

And a small $100,000 fine.

More Spring Flowers

I've posted more photos of our spring flowers here. Yeah, yeah I know I should be doing my programming homework.

What's your point?

Mmmm....Biscotti

These are killer....especially if you love dark chocolate as much as I do. I'm not addicted, I can quit eating dark chocolate any time I want.

I just don't want to, that's all.

Yo, To Whom It May Concern

You know, I might be more receptive to a pre-recorded phone pitch for or against the President's Social Security Reform plan if you had a better spokesman than Tommy LaSorda. (I didn't listen long enough to tell which he was advocating) Call me crazy, but he's not my first choice for financial planning advice.

Just a suggestion.

Schiavo Dead

In case you haven't heard, Terry Schiavo passed away this morning. May she now find the peace she was denied in life.

Our condolences to her family and loved ones.

Lend Me Your Ear

The link to the archived YPR show on Blogs, Bloggers and Blogging has been posted. Very interesting, well worth a listen.....if nothing else, to hear Craig's delightful Montana accent. Jim "I Don't Really Sound Like the Godfadda....Much" of Parkway Rest Stop called in, as well as several other bloggers you might know.

Check it out.

More Adventures

Lest you think my parents are the only techno-tards I know, there's also a rotating one in my C++ class. Sometimes it's me. Other times, it's this other guy. He's a pretty good programmer, but he sometimes gets hung up on the simplest stuff......and just goes on and on about it. It's like he gets hung in an infinite loop of annoyance.

Like last night. We're working our way through exceptions, you know, it's those annoying error messages that you get sometimes that make no sense, like "Error number 1462" and then your program crashes. So the instructor's writing some code, showing us how to do exception throws & catches. Basically what you do is tell the computer hey, if this program tries to do something stupid like divide by zero, throw (send) a text string. It might be something like "Hey moron. You broke it." Then this other part of the program catches (receives) the text string and displays it on the screen. It doesn't have to display it, but that's just the way our example was done.

Without getting too technical (I hope), you have to name a variable to hold the text string during all this. (Think of it as an envelope holding a message that's being mailed.) Now there's a few rules about what a variable can be called, you can't use a word that's a C++ command or it can't start with a number, but basically you can call a variable pretty much anything. You can even name it Fred if you want. But you usually try to name it something that will remind you what the variable is meant to do. Very basic, beginner type stuff.

So the instructor writes "catch (char * ex)", which is just a way of saying that the catch part is going to receive a text string and store it in the variable 'ex'. And Annoying Guy asks why the variable is called 'ex'. And starts going on and on about how there's some special reason why and he wants to know what it is.

The instructor starts trying to explain there's no reason, he just decided to call it 'ex'. I'm sitting there, wishing I could throw my very heavy book at Annoying Guy and make him shut the hell up so we could finish the chapter & go home sometime before my hair gets any greyer. I mean, Hello? We're studying exceptions and he named the variable 'ex'. Think there's a connection?

Then for the rest of the class, every time the instructor would name a new variable he would say "Now there's nothing magical or special about this name."

Good grief.

Adventures in Techno-Tard Land

My parents, God love 'em, are complete & total techno-tards. I know they can't help it, but it doesn't make it any less annoying. For example, a while back we'd taken them our cordless phone set that interferred with our wireless network. Now, you might think installing & using that is pretty simple. But you'd be wrong.

First, they didn't have a long enough phone wire to connect the phone to the jack so it could set on the chest of drawers, only one that was about 3" long. And we couldn't hang the phone on the wall because the phone jack was behind the chest of drawers. Stupidly not thinking of that, we didn't bring a phone wire with us. So last weekend, we finally remembered to bring one with us when we went to pick up WildChild.

Plugged the phone in to the jack and guess what? The speakerphone worked, but the handset was dead. Why? Because my dad had unplugged it after we'd left the first time. Because you know, no sense wasting electricity.

*sigh* We told them to leave the handset on the charger for 24 hrs. to see if the battery would recharge. I get a phone call the next day from my mom saying the handset still wasn't working. Did they leave on the charger like we said? Oh, hell no. Because my dad noticed the base of the phone was warm so he took the handset off the charger. Why? Well, my crazy grandmother once left a rechargeable flashlight plugged in for God knows how long & it exploded. So he was afraid the phone was going to do the same.

*another sigh*

Leave. It. On. The. Charger. For. 24. Hours. I said. If it doesn't recharge by then, take the battery out of the handset and get a new one.

Yesterday another phone call. The battery never charged so they got a new one. They left the handset with the new battery on the charger overnight, just like the boy at the store told them, but the handset still wasn't working. It just displayed an "Out of Range" message when it was turned on.

*big sigh*

That means, I explained, that the battery isn't fully charged and you need to put it back on the base so it can finish charging. But the boy said it would charge overnight, my mother said, and it's been charging since late yesterday evening. I don't CARE what 'the boy' said, Put It Back On The Charger, I said firmly. Then she insisted that I call them back around 6 pm so they could tell if the phone was working.........even though I explained repeatedly that if there was a dialtone when they turned the handset on, it was working.

*rolls eyes*

So I did. My dad answered the phone. The other phone, not the new one. So I had to wait until he put that one down & picked up on the new one........even though he said he'd called his sister earlier on the new one & it worked just fine. Because he wanted to make sure he could get incoming calls on the new phone, not just outgoing ones. I'm not kidding. So he finally picks up on the new phone and immediately starts complaining that he can't hear me very well.

"Dad," I said semi-patiently. "You have to hang up the other phone first."

"Oh yeah," he laughed. "I guess that would help."

Freaking duh.

I remind him again to leave the handset on the base when they're not using it, resisting the urge to sarcastically ask him if they unhooked the battery from the Jeep every time they turned the key off. Mostly because I was afraid of his answer.

I swear, if Mike ever mentions again that maybe we should re-furb an old computer & get those two hooked up to the internet, I may have to smack him upside the head. On second thought, maybe I should let him go ahead and HE could handle all the phone calls that would generate.

Nah, a smack upside the head would be less painful.

But They're So Cute

Break out your baseball bats, it's baby seal killing time again.

Animal rights groups have begun fresh public campaigns timed for the start of the annual seal hunt off the coast of Canada this week and suggestions that South Africa may kill elephants for population control.

Because you know, it's much better to let them die slowly of diseases and starvation than a quick blow to the head. [/sarcasm]

Too many people are disconnected from the realities of nature and have a 'But They're So Cute' (BTSC) syndrome. Like the lady looking at a panda at the San Diego zoo who asked me "Oh, it's so cute! Wouldn't you like to climb in there & just give it a hug?" To which I replied something like "Are you crazy, lady? That's a freaking bear." And a freaking ill-tempered bear to boot.

Animal rights group WWF uses the panda as its trademark symbol, a cute and cuddly bear with black and white markings.

"It actually is solitary, ill-tempered, and aggressive, but never mind Mere facts cannot compete with perception," natural history writer Stephen Budiansky writes in his book "The Covenant of the Wild."

I think I'd rather attempt to hug a buzzsaw. I would probably crawl away in better shape.

BTSC sufferers ignore the fact that wild animals are, you know, wild. They don't want to snuggle with you. They usually view you in one of three ways: 1) something harmless to be ignored; 2) a food source; 3) a threat. And the latter two are much more likely than the first. (Actually there's a fourth option, as a breeding partner. But I'd rather not discuss that.)

Nature is not cute and cuddly. In fact, it's rather brutal. Especially in the way it deals with overpopulation. Since we're partly to blame for certain animals' overbreeding, I think it's only right that we deal with the results. When the only choice is slow starvation or a quick death by a sharp blow to the head, well, that's not a tough decision.

Batter up.

Adjust Your Linkage

Aaron has moved.

Link via Steve.

Move Over, Mississippi

New Arkansas state motto:

"Thank God for Maryland."

(Link via Fark)

Blog Wedding Ahead

Frank & Sarah are engaged.

Awww! How sweet.

Congratulations!

Hey, Let's Raise Taxes!

Hey kids, since we've gotten rid of all those nasty big businesses in Fayetteville, how are we going to pay for all this new stuff we want to buy? I've an idea, let's all get together and raise taxes.

Voters will be asked to increase property tax for schools by 4.8 mills in a special election May 10. If approved, the increase would fund $1 million a year for technology and increase the minimum salary for teachers to $38,000.

Mayor Dan Coody has proposed asking voters to approve a sales tax increase and extension to repay a $62.5 million bond issue for citywide transportation improvements. Aldermen have not yet decided whether to fund the improvement project with a sales tax, which would involve asking voters to adopt a quarter-cent sales tax that would be levied from 2005 to 2017, and a three-quarter-cent sales tax that would be in effect from 2013-2017.

Seeing as how the city has filed a lawsuit trying to get their hands on the school & library millages to fund the downtown TIF, I don't see the point in voting for increased millages for either.....at least until someone determines to which entity those taxes would actually go.

And as for adding to the sales tax rate, good luck with that. We already pay 9% sales tax in Fayetteville.....add another 2% hotel/motel/restaurant tax to those of you looking to visit our fair city. I wouldn't mind that one so much, our streets are in sad condition. But then I look around at all the hundreds of thousands (and in some cases a million +) of dollars spent on attractive landscaping, walking trails and gentrification of Dickson Street and well.....let's just say I'm not inclined to give them more money when they so obviously waste what they're already getting.

This is just the beginning of the city administration's shock of discovering that money doesn't grow on all those trees they've run businesses out of town to protect. When you drive away the most lucrative part of your tax base, guess who gets tapped to make up the difference?

Actions, meet consequences.

More Kinfolk

Y'all may not find genealogy all that interesting, but I think it's fascinating. I've been going through some research a cousin did on one branch of my mom's family and discovered that I have German ancestry to add to the mix of Irish, Welsh and Cherokee. A regular little melting pot, I am.

I did a little poking around on my own, and found that this branch of the family has been traced back to 1537. One ancestor was even reportedly a "very active member" of Luther's Reformation movement in present-day Germany. There's several Lutheran ministers and even a few sheriffs in that side of the family too....pretty funny when I look at how some of my cousins turned out.

What I find even more amusing is that, according to the genealogy, I'm eligible for membership in both this and this. Not that I'd join. Much like Groucho, I usually won't join any club that would have me as a member.

But the oddest thing, as my mother pointed out, is that my great-grandfather's great-great-nephew married a woman from Oklahoma whose last name is the same as my SIL's. My mom asked what I thought about my daughter and SIL possibly being (very) distantly related. I told her I thought it proved that I didn't move nearly far enough away from home.

She didn't think that was funny. Heh.

Happy Easter!

We had our Easter with WildChild Friday night....including a new, strange ritual in which he would pour Nerds in my hand, force me to eat them and then he'd yell "Yay! Ma saved the day!" Repeat until Ma refuses to eat any more Nerds. I'm not sure where that came from. Sometimes I'm afraid to know what goes on in that little brain.

He was pretty excited by his Easter basket full of toys and candy until he discovered.....cue theme from 'Psycho'...."Oh no!" he wailed. "The Easter Bunny didn't bring me an Easter movie!" And he actually started to cry. I guess he thought that since he'd gotten some Christmas-themed Charlie Brown movies for Christmas, he should've gotten Easter movies for Easter. Logical, but wrong. We finally convinced him there weren't any Easter movies (he's a bit young for the Mel Gibson one I think), so he was satisfied with what he had.

After we'd promised that he could buy a movie when we went shopping Saturday that is. We don't spoil him.

Much.

Another Mystery Solved

All my life I've heard the old saying "He's as drunk as Cooter Brown". And I've always wondered who the hell was Cooter Brown and just how drunk was he. Thanks to a commenter at Craig's, now I know.

Mike of course, knew the whole story. And didn't even tell me because he didn't know I didn't know. *rolls eyes*

I never made the connection, but I had heard the story about how two of his relatives (grandsons?) and a friend once caught a 6 ft. alligator and put it in a Tastee-Freeze....which quickly emptied of customers & employees. Not that Mike was involved or anything.

He wasn't even there when it happen. ;-)

MoMA Mia

This is funny:

A British graffiti artist who goes by the name "Banksy" went one step further, by smuggling in his own picture of a soup can and hanging it on a wall, where it stayed for more than three days earlier this month before anybody noticed.

The prank was part of a coordinated plan to infiltrate four of New York's top museums on a single day.

Go read what he put in the other three.

Too funny.

Runaway Judiciary

The Schiavo case may have some unintended consequences for the federal judiciary.

Conservatives inside and outside Congress are vowing a showdown with the federal judiciary over the Terri Schiavo case, as Republicans say courts at all levels have flouted congressional subpoenas and legislative intent that her feeding tube be reinserted pending a final decision in the case.

"They have defied federal law. And this confrontation now is the confrontation between the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, the will of the people and the judicial branch of government," said Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican. "Constitutional authority will either be imposed upon the judicial branch of government, or we might as well board up the Capitol and turn this country over to the whims of the judges."

This fight has been simmering for some time. The federal judiciary has shown an increasing tendency to legislate from the bench, pulling numerous 'rights' from their magical penumbra hat. BTW, I believe this is an inevitable result of the post-modern/deconstructionist movement. Once you start reading things into text instead of interpreting it, you can find justification for anything. Just look at, for example, the expansion of the 'right' to privacy into the 'right' to abortion.

The federal judiciary may get its collective knuckles rapped after the Schiavo case. After all, Congress does have the constitutional power to 'ordain and establish', and presumably dis-establish, the federal court system. (Art. III, Sect. 1) It would be extraordinarily difficult to find a penumbra which would make Congress' power to limit the federal courts' jurisdiction unconstitutional, I suspect....though I'm sure some will try.

It's seldom advisible to start a pissing contest with a water hose.

Beginning of the End

The Supremes have refused to hear the Schiavo appeal. A remaining issue is before the state court, Gov. Bush's somewhat bizarre attempt to place Terry Schiavo in state custody based on allegations of neglect. A ruling is expected on that sometime today.

I'm sure we can all guess how that's going to turn out.

Questions Answered

David has masterfully answered my 5 questions. Go check 'em out.

Free Bikes Stolen

This was a great idea, but unfortunately not very realistic.

The Community Bike Program started March 10, when city employees placed 16 bikes in four bike racks located around the city, near parks or trails. Each bike is set up with a helmet. Anyone can borrow a bike for the day and return it by dark.

The bikes are ones recovered by local police but that have never been claimed by their owners. As you can imagine, almost every one of the bikes put out by the program are now missing. Too bad, because it was a great idea.....though I can't think of a street in Bentonville I would dare ride a bike on because of the traffic and extraordinarily stupid drivers. (Like the guy yesterday who sat behind me at a light blaring his horn because I wouldn't make a left turn until after an on-coming car had cleared the intersection. I'm like hello, moron. Just because it has its signal light on does not mean it's really going to turn. This is Arkansas, where half the driving population leave their turn signals on constantly.)

Anyway, it's too bad about the community bikes that were stolen. It's always the selfish assholes that ruin things like that for the rest of us.

Here Kitty Kitty

*basso profundo snarl*
MEE-OW!

Like I've always said, I'm not afraid of the dark. I'm afraid of what's IN the dark.

Wow

Installing MT-Blacklist was relatively painless and simple. If you have any problems leaving comments, e-mail me at solliesez-spamsux at yahoo dot com.

Now let's see if this sucker works.

PSA

I'm going to try to install MT-Blacklist this afternoon, so if the site disappears, looks weird or jumps out & bites your hand you'll know why. I've attracted a very persistent comment spammer, you see. And the little bastard is starting to piss me off.

First, it pisses me off that someone's stealing the bandwidth for which we paid and using it for free advertising. I hate a goddamn thief worse than I hate a liar. And that's a lot.

Second, comment spam is like coming home and finding a steaming pile of dog crap on your front step everyday from your neighbor's Chihuahua. It's not that it's so much trouble to clean up, it's that it's just freaking rude. After a while, you just want to put on your cowboy boots and see how far you can drop kick that little fucker.

Anyway, Jim suggested that I try MT-Blacklist so I could ban the little bastard even though he's spoofing his IP. So I'm gonna give it a try.

Assuming of course I can remember the log-in for our server.

I Want It

Oh yeah, baby. My dream car--updated.

Sweet.

Just A Minute

Take just a minute and remember our neighbor in your thoughts & prayers. He could use a little help right now.

Yikes

This was a little too close to home:

An unarmed man wearing black socks on his hands walked into the bank at 3401 Mission Blvd. about 3:41 p.m. Tuesday, demanded money from a teller and left on foot with an undetermined amount of money, according to a police report. The police dispatching center received a "teller hold-up alarm," followed by a 911 call from bank personnel reporting the robbery.

That's only about a mile away from our house.....though I imagine an woman armed with a black .357 and a tri-colored Akita would beat an 'unarmed man wearing black socks on his hands' any day of the week.

But I would prefer not to find out.

I Need A Drink

Good gravy, what a morning. The cat had a vet's appointment this morning for her annual checkup & shots so she had to stay inside. You'd think we'd cut off her left....paw or something. 3 1/2 hours of constant complaining and squalling. She finally got pissed off & disappeared....under the bed where I couldn't reach her when it was time to leave. I finally coaxed her out & started trying to get her in the cat carrier. The dogs, seeing that I was having problems, decided to 'help'. The cat starting trying to climb up my arm. Rather forcefully. Luckily, I'd thought ahead & already had my jacket on.

Stupid cat. And then she caterwauled all the way to the vet's and back. The vet decided against an oral de-wormer and recommended this, after I told him to get anything down that cat's throat usually required two people. And stitches. Heh. (Revolution for cats works great BTW. I highly recommend it)

All this after spending about 2 hours this morning removing a trojan that I'd picked up on my laptop from visiting a website. Thanks to the way my anti-virus software handled it, just clearing the java cache didn't remove it. A command line file delete plus some other file deletes did.

Now I'm going to kick back & enjoy a nice hot cuppa. Just as soon as I take the dogs out.

Again.

Name That Crab

So we have a 10 gallon aquarium that we haven't used in a while, and I'd been trying to decide what to put in it. We need more fish like a hen needs a flag, and neither of us care much for snakes or lizards. Something low maintenance.....like a hermit crab. Perfect.

A little sand, a few shells for food & water and of course the obligatory half coconut shell for a house later and.....Ma has a crab! WildChild thinks it's pretty cool as long as I don't pick it up. I'm thinking he'll get over that far too soon though.

But the poor little thing hasn't a name. So far I've been calling it "Not Dead Fred" because I haven't killed it yet. But I'm open to suggestions. Level of difficulty: all of our pets' names begin with the letter 'S'.

Satan is probably a bad choice though.

Schiavo Update

Media reports, as I suspected, haven't been entirely accurate. Terry Schiavo has had, in the past at least, a temporary guardian ad litem appointed. You can read his December 2003 report here. (Link courtesy The Corner)

I don't think it resolves the key issues--Terry's wishes or her current mental function--but it does contain a case history up to that point and some interesting observations.

Definitely worth reading.

I think I read somewhere that this attorney's recommendations were somehow suspect because he is a well-known 'right-to-die' advocate. That doesn't necessarily mean that somehow his personal beliefs overrode his ethical obligation to ascertain and articulate the wishes of his client. Absent any evidence to the contrary, and I don't see any in his report, I would assume he fufilled his ethical obligations.

On Dying

Like most of you, I've been following the Schiavo case....with increasing dismay. From a legal standpoint, I have a huge problem with the apparent fact that she's never had a guardian ad litem and an attorney appointed to represent her in any of the legal proceedings. Instead, the judge appointed himself as ad litem. That may be legal in Florida (and I have no idea, I'm not licensed there), but it's just wrong. A judge's duty in this case is to decide whether or not she wanted to be kept alive by feeding & hydration. An ad litem's duty is to investigate & represent her wishes/best interests. No one person can adequately do both. The duties are too disparate.

Secondly, as Jim said, there isn't any clear indication of what she wanted. She left no 'living will', and isn't able to communicate what she wants now. Absent that, I don't believe anyone should be 'unhooked'. Otherwise, it's too easy for someone to exploit the system for their own interests, not those of the incapacitated. I know this will come as a great shock to you, but some witnesses lie in court. Some don't even realize they're lying. They've just convinced themselves that how they want things to be is the way that it happened. I don't know if that's what's happening in the Schiavo case (and neither do you), but it's always a distinct possibility.

Another problem I have is that even if Terry Schiavo did tell her husband & the other witnesses that she didn't want to be kept alive by artificial means, that doesn't necessarily mean that she completely understood what that meant. It's been my experience that people don't understand that this also includes providing nutrition & hydration to an otherwise functional body. In fact, I can't ever remember having a client who didn't blanch and protest that "No, no no! I don't want to be starved to death" when I've explained the full ramifications of that part of an advanced health care directive.

For those reasons, I don't believe food & water should be stopped in the Schiavo case....unless and until it can be proved otherwise, with adequate legal protections in place.

And probably unlike most of you, I've had a beloved relative who wanted to die refuse food and drink. A few years ago, my grandmother, who'd been ill with a stomach virus, decided she was sick & tired of being sick & tired and was ready to move on to the other side. She missed my grandfather and was just tired of living. Nothing we or the doctors said could change her mind. She was alert and competent....and communicated her wishes quite emphatically. We, as a family, finally came to terms with it and allowed her to do as she wished. It wasn't what we wanted, but it was what she wanted. And we loved her that much. It wasn't easy, but allowing (or causing) someone to die shouldn't be.

But unlike the Schiavo case, there wasn't a question about what my grandmother wanted. Absent any clear indication, we should never presume to know what another would wish in this situation.

With that said, may I make a suggestion? Get your thumb out of your butt and visit your attorney to have an advanced health care directive drawn up. Don't put your family and loved ones through something like this.

Because there, but for the grace of God, go all of us.

Ark. Health Dept. Director Killed

ERRATA: Apparently Dr. Boozman was working on a barn and one of the steel walls of a horse stall collapsed on him, not a gate as was reported yesterday. Still, what a terribly tragic accident.

One of the local papers is reporting this morning that Dr. Fay Boozman, director of Arkansas' Health Department, was killed in a farm accident yesterday.

Rogers and Lowell emergency personnel responded to a call concerning an industrial or agricultural accident at 4:11 p.m. at 11140 Mount Hebron Road, according to Sgt. Scott Clifton of the Rogers Police. A man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Clifton.

According to scanner traffic, emergency personnel responded to a call of a man crushed by a large gate. Upon arriving on the scene, they immediately called for the Benton County coroner for an unattended death.

Our condolences to his family.

Even More Questions, Queries, Posers

This time, from Andy:

1) Easy one first - do you think the Clintons have any redeeming features? That's a joke, right? Ummm, let's see. They did start the process of dragging Arkansas kicking & screaming into the 20th century when Bill was governor. That's about the nicest thing I can think of off the top of my head.

2) I assume you were driven into law? What drove you? A 1990 Geo Metro. Oh sorry, you meant 'what drove me' not 'what I drove'. Funny thing, I always wanted to be a veterinarian. I've always had a natural rapport with animals, and loved the science involved. But by the time I was able to go to college, my health problems wouldn't allow me to do that. I discovered the law in one of the first night classes I took, and figured with my love of reading, writing & research it would be a good fit. Representing children combines all of that (kids aren't much different from animals really), which is why, I guess, I have such a passion for it.

3) Arkansas and Kansas share the majority of letters. Why the difference in pronuniciation? Can you believe people here still fight over that? According to this, we kept the "official pronunciation..."that received by the French from the Native Indians, and committed in writing by the French word representing the sound; and in accordance with same it should be pronounced in three syllables, with the final 's' silent, the 'a' in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables." This traditional form "ARKansaw" was made official by the Arkansas state legislature in 1881."

According to this , Kansas also came from the French word "after the Kansas, Omaha, Kaw, Osage and Dakota Sioux Indian word "KaNze" meaning, in the Kansas language "south wind"."

Basically, I think it comes down to we kept the French pronunciation and Kansas didn't. Arkansas was settled primarily by the French and other law-avoiding citizens, you know. Fun factoid I ran across recently while reading some early territorial documents: The first lawyer in Arkansas practiced for several years until it was discovered he wasn't a bona fide lawyer at all. If I remember correctly, he was then prosecuted & run out of the state. Many of our so-called 'founding fathers' had similarly interesting backgrounds....which is why early Arkansas history is so fascinating.

4) Do you think you could beat me at Scrabble? ;) And why. I dunno if I could beat you, but I bet I could give you a run for your money. I have a huge vocabulary and I can spell.

5) Top five modern divas are...?

1. Hillary Clinton
2. Martha Stewart
3. Madonna
4. Star Jones
5. Our cat

Ooh, bonus question: do I join the local pub football team? Yes. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. Plus you can use those great totally British lines like "Right. Well, I'm off for a scrum. Ta."

Thanks! Those were tons of fun.

Friday Funny

I'm not sure who authored this, Mike got it in an e-mail from a friend, but it's hilarious and viciously accurate. Without further ado, I give you:

Northwest Arkansas Barbies

Mattel recently announced the release of limited-edition Barbie Dolls for Northwest Arkansas....

Pinnacle Barbie
This princess Barbie is sold only at Village On The Creeks. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a half million dollar, cookie-cutter house. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with an augmented version.

Farmington Barbie
The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation or secondary education. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately.

Bentonville Barbie
This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.

Springdale Barbie
This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

Rogers Barbie
This collagen injected, rhinoplastic Barbie wears a leopard print outfit and drinks cosmopolitans while entertaining friends. Also available with a mobile home. Fake fingernails, and Percocet prescription available.

Huntsville Barbie
This tobacco-chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased beer-gutted Ken out of Oakhurst Barbie's house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans and a see-through halter-top.

Dickson Street Barbie
This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, archless feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow. She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two "on the square" Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.

Walton Arts Center Barbie
This versatile doll can be easily converted from Barbie to Ken by simply adding or subtracting the multiple snap-on parts.....

Delaware County, Oklahoma Barbie
This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy with dark tinted windows, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) ...unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking about.

Rev. Gov. Strikes Again

Our Health Department has a new program, thanks to our Rev. Gov.

Governor Huckabee is launching a program to reward restaurants that offer healthy menu options and smoke-free eating.....Completely smoke-free restaurants can earn points for healthy menu options toward qualifying for a Gold Award from the Arkansas Health Department. Restaurants with no-smoking sections with separate ventilation systems can earn a Silver Award and those with no-smoking sections alone can go for a Bronze Award.

Award winners can place decals on their doors and use the Healthy Arkansas logo in their advertising. Applications will be evaluated in May and winners will be announced in August.

Told you they'd be after your lard next. There's no stopping a do-gooder when he gets on a roll. If you can tell a restaurant owner he can't allow smoking, it's just a short step to telling him what he can serve....and how he can cook it.

Just you wait and see.

Irish Eyes Are Smiling

I haven't a photo of my Irish great-great grandmother, but here's one of her son, my great-grandfather. And a fine, strappin' young boy-o he was too. The photo was taken on the day of his marriage to my great-grandmother, a half-breed Cherokee. (Not that that's not fairly obvious or anything. She'd made the blanket hanging behind them, according to my mother anyway. But Grandma's another story for another time.) The little boy in the photo is my great-grandfather's little brother BTW, my great-great uncle Prinder....who was well-known in the family for telling whopping tall tales.

Here's another photo taken years later before Great-Grandpa passed away. I don't remember him at all, but I do have a few memories of Great-Grandma. We visited her in Washington state when I was three. What I remember best was her laugh, and the way her whole face would light up when she smiled. And I remember her house was a happy place, with lots of laughter and music. My grandfather's many brothers all lived nearby, and they were all mechanical & electronic geniuses.....and could play just about any musical instrument you put in front of them.

They'd set up a recording studio in one of the spare bedrooms, and made a 78 record of my sister & myself talking and singing while we were there. I remember sitting on the bed while they made the recording, and I kept getting into trouble because I was bouncing on the bed as I was too excited to sit still. I also remember singing something, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" I think it was, and stopping halfway through to ask my sister to hold my chewing gum....which cracked my great-uncles up.

It's hard to imagine all the changes they saw in the world during their lives. My mother tells the story of how one of my great-uncles would always pull back on the steering wheel of the car when he slowed down.....because he'd driven a team & wagon so long he never lost the habit of pulling on the reins to stop. I don't remember that, but I do remember that this great-uncle was the bean eating-est man I ever saw. He insisted on having beans in some form at every meal, even at breakfast. He used to come down & visit my grandpa at Christmas some years, and oh! The tales they would tell, one right after another until everyone was in tears from laughing so hard. I wish I could remember some of them.

So I suppose it's not too surprising I turned out to be a lawyer, blogger and geek as well. I come it by naturally.

I'm not sorry I missed out on the red hair.....though I could've done without the freckles as well.

Virtuous Vigil

This morning's online version of a local newspaper is running a photo of a candlelight vigil held by the U of A Young Democrats. I couldn't find an accompanying article, but the photo's text explains that the vigil, held at the campus Peace Fountain, was "to remember the consequences of the war in Iraq."

Doesn't that just make you feel all warm & fuzzy inside?

Yeah. Me neither. I'm guessing they weren't memorializing 'consequences' like this or this. Because you know, HalliBushitlerMcChimpyNoBloodForOil is their likely motto.

If what they claim is true, then where is my damn cheap gas? Cuz I tell you, I'm not in the mood to pay $10 to fill up my freaking lawn tractor today.

I demand to see some return on investment, dammit.

Unexpected Stuff

--Apparently there was a Wild Kingdom party in our neighborhood this morning. Something tripped our security light out on the carport when I came out with Sollie around 5:30. And there was a raccoon & something fighting in one of the neighbor's trees as well. It was too dark to see anything but silhouettes, but I'm sure at least one was a racoon because of the sounds it was making. We had a couple of pet racoons when I was a kid, and I'd recognize that krrrrr-krrrrr trilling anywhere. I even learned to mimic it reasonably well, which was an enormous help when I took Spanish in undergrad. (Go ahead. Laugh. It was.)

--I completely forgot it's St. Paddy's Day. I have some claim to the day, seeing as how my great-great granny Winnie came over from the Old Country. (Though given all the freckled redheads in both sides of my family, I suspect she's not the only Irish ancestor I have) I spent a few days in Dublin once, a more dreary & depressing city I've never seen. Took a bus tour of the city, and it was all "And here you'll be seeing the bullet holes from the uprising in '03, when we shot up the bloody British barstards fer looking at us the wrong way doncha know." Interesting though to hear the other side, because I was studying British politics of the Victorian/Edwardian era at Oxford at the time. (The coolest part of the trip however, was seeing the Book of Kells.)

--I found out just before I left this morning that my instructor was ill so we won't be having class today. I hated to hear it because he's a nice guy and a good teacher but.....HOORAY! Spring break's starting a day early! And even better, I found out before I drove all the way to Bentonville!

Some surprises are good.

Blake Verdict In

Just heard on the FoxNews Channel that the jury found Robert Blake Not Guilty of 1st Degree Murder, and Not Guilty of Solicitation of Murder. They deadlocked 11-1 on the second solicitation charge, and the judge just declared a hung jury on that charge.

UPDATE: They're now reporting that the judge has dismissed the second solicitation charge.

But Of Course

Official Survivor
Congratulations! You scored 68%!

Whether through ferocity or quickness, you made it out. You made the right choice most of the time, but you probably screwed up somewhere. Nobody's perfect, at least you're alive.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on survivalpoints

Link via Dean

Spring Baseball

Saturday was a beautiful warm spring day, and you know what that means. T-ball time!

Start at the top and scroll down.

More Questions, Queries, Posers

For David:

1. In your next life cycle, you will be reborn in the pre-20th century era of your choosing. When will you pick and why?

2. Name one thing you've always wished you could do, but can't.

3. Star Trek or Star Wars?

4. Suppose I'm planning to spend a couple of days in Montana. What should I definitely plan to see and do?

5. In a temporary moment of insanity, you quit your job and start a ranch. Which animal(s) are your primary cash crop and why?

I'll update with a link to David's answers later.

Still 3 more slots open if anyone wants them.

Questions, Queries, Posers

UPDATE: Keith's excellent answers are posted here.

For Keith:

1. What's the one food to which you find it impossible to say no?

2. Word or WordPerfect and why?

3. Lawyers: techo-phobics, techo-idiots or both? Discuss.

4. Condi or Giuliani--who gets thrown off your lifeboat & why?

5. You find Aladdin's lamp and rub vigorously. The genie appears. What's your three wishes? (Assume any wish for more wishes gets you turned into a newt.)

There's still time for up to 4 more participants in the 5 question meme. Volunteer in the comments.....if you dare.

Future Horse Race

It's official.

Asa Hutchinson announced Saturday he is entering the 2006 Arkansas governor's race, launching a bid for state leadership after eight years of public service in Washington.

Mmmm, smells like I told you so.

Should be an interesting gov's election, what with Asa's opponent, Win Rockefeller, likely to get our Rev. Gov's blessing and backing. Add to that the probable Dem's challenger, the relatively well-like present AG Mike Beebe and.....well, it's going to be a real horse race. A very expensive horse race as well.

If the Repubs want to put another candidate in the Gov's seat, they're going to have to find some major cash to win this hotly contested primary AND defeat Beebe.

Like bales & bales of it.

Numbers Lock

A recent survey showed Hillary & Rudy practically neck and neck.....even though Hillary is less popular.

The Quinnipiac University survey found Democrat Clinton, buoyed by strong female support, in a statistical tie — 43 to 44 percent — with the former Republican mayor among voters nationwide.

Clinton is viewed favorably by 34 percent of those surveyed, while 29 percent view her unfavorably.

2008 is going to be an interesting year. A Rudy-Hillary race will be a no-holds-barred put-the-kids-under-the bed low down & dirty fight to the finish. On the other hand, tactically a Condi-Hillary race would be more interesting. Hillary couldn't attack Condi head-on without appearing to be an aging shrew.

Then there's the Bill factor. Hillary should garner some support from those who would like to see him back in the White House....and lose some from those who don't. And there's the matter of his health problems. Like I told Mike last night, you better be glad Bill came through his surgery with flying colors. Otherwise, the sympathy factor would make Hillary virtually unbeatable in the 2008 election.

Add to that all the rumors & controversy about alleged illegal voting in the last election, and 2008 looks to be a interesting year.

Very interesting indeed.

Interview Meme Time

Since I've been trying to finish some C++ homework that's due tomorrow and then Sollie and/or the cat broke the internet here, I hadn't seen that Craig had posted interview meme questions for me. Lemme see if I can answer them.

1. What’s the best part about stealing babies? That's as easy as a knuckleball high and outside. The best part was knowing that I had a small part in rescuing a child and giving him or her a chance at a better life. In my opening statements, I always told juries that it was my job to represent a child's right to be raised in a wholesome environment, free from abuse and neglect. I believe every child has that right, and I enjoyed helping to make sure my clients got that....whether it was by returning home or by finding a new home. And yes, I rilly, rilly miss stealing babies.

2. Whenever I read a piece of legal writing it looks like someone pulled random pages out of the O.E.D, pasted them on a paper, and then sprinkled it with random latin. You guys do that on purpose, don’t you? Of course we do. Otherwise the mark, er, I mean the client doesn't feel like he got his money's worth. It's also usually a shorthand way of referring to some long-winded legal theory. Just think of it as the same as your saying "RAID" instead of "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks", for example.

3. VB or C++, and why? C++, because if you can program in it, you can also do C, C#, JavaScript and just about any other language. Or so I'm told. I didn't like VB.Net at all. Though that was prolly more because of the bad instructor I had than the language itself. (VBS is another matter, I liked it but now MS isn't going to support it anymore so....phhhhttt.)

4. Who, in your opinion, is the best legal mind around today? Oooo, that's a tough one. I haven't read a legal scholarly article in so long, I couldn't say who's the best....or even who's writing currently. Scalia's by far the best legal mind on the Supremes, even though I disagree with his strict constructionist jurisprudence. His opinions are well-written, well-reasoned and have a great flow of logic. They're not all happy sunshine smoke & mirrors like most of the rest of the Court. I saw him on a panel once, arguing alone against the rest. It was like watching Ali take on some bantam-weight Golden Gloves.

5. (You know I just have to ask this one.) What’s your favorite lawyer joke? Dang it, you know I can't remember jokes. Lemme think. Here's one:

What happens when a lawyer takes Viagra? He gets taller.

Though the first time I heard it, a colleague said about opposing counsel (who was a real jerk) that if he took Viagra, his head would explode. The same colleague also said the senior attorney of a local 'prestigious' firm didn't cast a reflection. Took me a minute to get that one.

Thanks, Craig. That was fun!

Ok, now here's the rest of the meme. The first 5 commenters get to answer 5 questions from me. (Craig is exempt of course)

Who wants to be next?

Sentencing

The defendant charged with killing a local 18 month old boy was sentenced yesterday.

A Lowell man was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a toddler who had been left in the care of the defendant's wife.
.....

Officials say Zulpo killed 18-month-old Jeron D- McGrew of Rogers on September second, 2004, by jumping on him.

If you remember this from back in September, an autopsy had determined that the little boy died from compressive chest trauma.

May his parents & family find a little peace now.

We Have the Technology

So I went to the doctor today for my annual, and had him check my hand & arm while I was there. General consensus: he's not sure why my thumb is numb, or why my hand tingles all the time, or why my elbow hurts but he thinks it's nerve related.

I just love paying doctors to tell me things I already know.

Anyway, bottom line we're immobilizing my elbow & wrist for 6 weeks to see if the problems will clear up. (If not, I get a referral to a specialist or two. Happy happy joy joy) So in addition to the wrist splint, I now have an elbow brace.

I feel like the freaking Bionic Woman over here.

BTW, thanks for the AFLAC/speculum joke Bogie. I got a terrible case of giggles during that part because I couldn't stop thinking about that.

What A World

Hanging is too good for some people. (Assuming of course that he's guilty as charged)

Mr. Smith Goes To Court

Murphy Smith was subpeonaed for an interview with the Benton Co. Prosecutor's office concerning an upcoming murder trial. Mr. Smith dutifully appeared at the appointed time, but the deputy monitoring the courthouse door refused to let him in. Mr. Smith was finally allowed to enter after the deputy read the subpeona. The problem?

Prosecutors were surprised Tuesday when a witness they subpoenaed in the Albert Keith Smith murder case turned out to have four legs, fur and a tail.

With jury selection to begin Friday in the murder trial against Smith, prosecutors have been interviewing anyone that the Van Buren postal worker wrote to from the Benton County Jail.

You see, while he was in jail awaiting trial, Mr. Smith the person had written a letter to his dog. So when prosecutors saw "Murphy Smith" on the jail's list of people who had been sent mail by prisoner Smith, they naturally assumed it was someone they should talk to.

I'm sure they're going to be teased about this for a very long time.

Not Quite

I just ran across an nice example of the theory of "when in doubt, just spell 'er like she sounds." A writer used 'segway' instead of 'segue'. They're sorta synonymous I guess....if by 'synonymous' you mean one is a smooth transition and the other is a smooth ride until you make the wrong move & fall flat on your ass.

Why yes, I am the Language Police. What's it to you?

Lovely Evening

I have such a lovely evening ahead. I think we're having a test in C++ class tonight. I say 'I think' because I wasn't feeling well last week & missed class. But the class syllabus says we're having a test tonight. And since our instructor is a totally anal control freak about doing everything exactly on schedule, I think it's safe to assume tonight we'll be having a midterm over C++ classes, overloaded operators, inheritance, polymorphism and virtual functions. And it's also safe to assume that it'll be the test from hell like all his other tests have been. Imagine taking a multiple-choice C++ exam, written by someone with a less than firm grasp of the English language.

May I just pluck out my eyes with cocktail forks instead? Slit my wrists? Take away my birthday?

And I have a programming assignment due Friday on the latter three....which wouldn't be that big of a deal if I actually understood them. Which I don't. At all. Oh I understand the logic and structure just fine. I haven't a clue how to actually write it. Primarily because my instructor's idea of teaching involves throwing a program up on the overhead & reading through it with us. You see that's easier that actually writing & explaining each part as you write it in class, asking questions like "Now what should we do next?" because that takes too long. Yeah, he did say that. I wish I were exaggerating.

It's a very frustrating class.

Hooray For AHTD!

Hwy. 412 is the primary road to get east of Fayetteville. I've travelled it a ka-jillion times going to my parents' house in the last 12 yrs. So I let out a big cheer when I read this morning that there's going to be some improvements next year. (registration req'd)

Many people who own property along U.S. 412 between Alpena and Huntsville showed up at the Alpena City Hall Thursday night to have a look at Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department's plans for passing zones along the winding, mainly two-lane federal highway.

The current job before AHTD calls for four passing lanes added on either westbound or eastbound lanes.

Big deal you say? Yep it is. You see, there's currently only 1 passing lane on that entire 35 mile or so stretch of highway. It's on the westbound lane, and up one of the steepest hills between Alpena & Huntsville. So if you're say, stuck in the back of a big line of traffic you may as well forget passing all the four-bangers that are slugging along ahead of you. All of them except one or two are going to pull out in the passing lane, bog down on the hill and completely block both lanes. Trust me. It never fails.

It takes over an hour to travel that little stretch of highway pretty much anytime of year. There's always numerous Farmer Browns, driving the farm truck that can't go over 40 mph (or worse, a tractor or hay truck that can't go over 20). Then there's Tillie Tourist, who drives about 80 on the straight stretches and then slams on the brakes because OMFGTHERE'SACURVEINTHEROAD which must be carefully navigated at no more than 20 mph. And let's not forget Mr. U of A Student, who apparently understands neither the laws of physics nor the laws of Arkansas. He will be either 2 inches away from your back bumper or trying to pass you on a blind curve because dammit, he's important, impatient and late for a kegger.

Add to that various & sundry delivery trucks, tractor-trailer rigs and of course the inevitable chicken truck (or worse, the chicken gut truck), and you have a very unpleasant drive. I curse that road every time I drive it. And these days, I drive it as little as possible.

Adding passing lanes will help somewhat. Though what it really needs is four-laned, as much traffic as it carries. But that would take an enormous amount of money, money the state doesn't have. Plus, it's not like funding road improvements for NW Arkansas is a big priority for Little Rock legislators.

If the balance of power continues to shift away from Little Rock, Hwy. 412 and these other little dinky roads will eventually get driveable. I think it will, because power follows money and NW Arkansas is where the big money is going these days.

I just hope I live long enough to see it.

King Tut Not Murdered

A 3-D x-ray exam of King Tut's mummy did not show any evidence that he was murdered. But there was some good news.

The team thinks it has found Tutankhamun's penis, which was present in the 1920s but had gone missing by the time of an examination in 1968. "Although they cannot be certain, the team believes that they have located (it) ... loose in the sand around the king's body," the report said.

Is it just me, or did anyone else have that old ditty "Found A Peanut" pop into their head when they read that paragraph?

Back In The Day

It used to be a bit more hazardous to be a newspaper editor.

March 5, 1905 AUGUSTA — As Sheriff M. H. Patterson was returning from Pumpkin Bend he met E. C. Kramer, editor of the McCrory News. Taking his buggy whip, he assaulted Kramer, wearing the whip out on him. Patterson claims that Kramer unjustly criticized and slandered him in the columns of the News.

Beat him like a rented mule, sounds like.

Never Fails

Ever notice how this always happens right before holidays & popular vacation times?

Overnight gas prices jumped at some stations in Northwest Arkansas more than ten cents.

Some analysts fear prices could jump as much as 24 cents a gallon in the next week.

At the gasoline station off Lafayette and College in Fayetteville, prices spiked 12 cents overnight.

Yeah, yeah, I know increased demand without a concurrent increase in supply increases prices. But I also know that the barrel of oil that sold yesterday for $55 takes a bit longer than overnight to work its way through the system to my gas pump. And that if the price of oil dropped tomorrow to $40 per barrel, the resulting decrease would take a bit longer than overnight to work its way to my gas pump.

Gather ye profits while ye may.

I'm not a cynic. I'm a hyper-realist.

Investigation Results

More results of the investigation into the shooting death of Benny Spears have been released.

Spears, co-owner of Herman’s Ribhouse in Fayetteville, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.20 when he died, [Washington Co. Prosecutor] Jones said. He also had cocaine and Valium in his system. A person with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 is considered too intoxicated to drive under Arkansas law.

He'd also reportedly had an argument with his wife earlier that evening. (Many more details in the article.)

I can only guess that with the death of his daughter 18 months ago and the recent fire in his restaurant, this was just the final straw.

What a terribly sad and tragic ending.

Geek Giggle

My PHP instructor was having problems the other morning before our class moving a file on the school's network, so he'd been talking to "IT guy", who's the school's network administrator. They were still trying to figure out the problem when I came into the room. I could hear my instructor explaining what he was trying to do, and what was happening and all. Then IT guy goes, 'Oh by the way, I'd been meaning to ask you. I was checking on some things on the shared drive the other day and discovered that I could delete the files. I thought we made those read-only."

(I should explain that the shared drive is used by the instructors to put homework files on, so we students can copy the files over to our own computers/drives. The instructors can change them or delete them, but we can't. Sometimes the instructors have problems deleting them, and they have to get some of the network employees to do it.)

So when IT guy says this, I get the giggles. Bad. My instructor stares at IT guy for a long moment and then slowly says "Weren't you logged in as administrator?"

IT guy said "Well, yes because I was doing X, Y & Z. But it also let me delete any of those files."

My instructor takes another long pause, and finally says "But IT guy. If you're logged in as administrator, you should be able to delete files on that drive. Because you have FULL ADMINSTRATIVE RIGHTS." (For my non-geek readers, that means that you can do just about anything to any file you want. Including deleting it.)

It takes IT guy a few seconds until he gets it. "Oh. Yeah, that's right. I thought there was something wrong with the drive."

Like duh. I got just plumb tickled.

Poor IT guy. I think it was too early in the morning for him too.

Illegals Free Tuition Bill Stalled

The Rev. Gov's bill to give certain illegals free college tuition has stalled in the state Senate.

A state Senator says he wants to make sure it is legal to allow the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition and access to scholarships before a bill granting those privileges goes any further.

The problem? The bill is somewhat similar to one passed in Kansas, which is currently tied up in litigation to determine if it violates Federal law. Like the 1996 Federal law which "bars illegal aliens from obtaining financial benefits at a public college that are not allowed to all U.S. citizens".

I don't know the answer to that, but it seems to me that the proposed bill does at least offer financial benefits to illegal aliens that out-of-state students can't get. You can read the text of the House bill here. (Interesting what you see when you browse around. Check this out)

I'm not anti-immigration per se. It's just that I believe we tend to get the type of behavior we reward. Therefore, we should not reward illegal behaviors.

At least not if we're trying to stop illegal behavior.

Wednesday Excitement

Well, that was definitely a break from the same old routine. Photos of the wreck start here. The driver, a very polite guy, said his brakes locked up as he was coming down the hill, so he hit our bank rather than run out into the intersection & risk hitting someone.

I got to chat with him a little because the tow truck driver had a little terrier (a Jack Russell I think) with him, and it jumped out of the truck. It led both guys on a merry little chase around the neighborhood. I finally stopped laughing long enough to get a jerky-style dog treat and join the hunt. The tow truck driver & I finally cornered the little devil in our back yard, and as I kept the dog's attention with the dog treat, he crept up from behind & grabbed him/her/it. I gave him/her/it the treat anyway....a just reward for a good laugh.

Then I had to give our two doggie treats when I got back inside. Sassy at least deserved hers, as she obeyed the "Sit. Stay." command when I first opened the door to go out. She'd been watching everything out the windows very closely and it was clearly against her better judgment to let me go out alone when there were TWO STRANGE MEN and a STRANGE DOG RUNNING ALL OVER OUR YARD and THEY COULD BE DANGEROUS.

Sollie had no idea what was going on, being a very short pug who can't see out the windows, but he was damned if he was going to stay inside and miss all the excitement. Whatever it was. The foot is quicker than the pug, however, and I blocked his escape & slipped out the door.

The cat, being a cat, ran and hid in the closet. If it wasn't for all the moles she catches, she'd be completely worthless.

Whew. I think I deserve a nap now.

Local Roundup

--Preliminary autopsy results were released in the Benny Spears' shooting. There's still no theories or explanations for Mr. Spears' strange behavior that night, but investigators are reportedly still seeking interviews with anyone who may have had contact with him that day.

--My kids & I lived in nearby Farmington for 6 yrs., and I got to know everyone pretty well. Let's just say I wasn't real surprised to see this in this morning's paper:

A former Farmington police officer has filed a civil suit against the city, the mayor, police chief and a police sergeant for conducting an illegal search of her home, questioning her minor children without consent and firing her because she made the complaint.

Don't get me wrong. Farmington is a great little town, chock-full of very nice people. But IMHO, the officer in question has been a lawsuit waiting to happen for several years.

---Whoa! Someone just wrecked in the corner of our yard. And I didn't even hear it. How the hell that fool ran off the road, up a steep 6 ft. or so bank & into the large cedar tree there, I don't know. Oooo, I wonder if I can get some photos without going outside in my jammies? I bet I can.

Back soon.

Today's Funny

I dunno if this is legit, but it's hilarious:

Don't mess with Texas women

(Hat tip: Charles)