Merry Christmas

A few hours late, but there you go. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!

I had a very nice Christmas watching a couple of movies and working on some genealogy before the kids came home from their dad's house. We had our little Christmas and the kids seemed very happy with their minor haul. Later, my mother had us over for Christmas dinner. Days like that are what memories are made of.

A few hundred billion here, a few hundred billion there...

Congress-critters are now asking questions about where the $700 billion bailout to the banks is being spent. Wonder if they'll get the same response the AP got when they began asking questions.

Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money, said that while some of the money was lent, some was not, and the bank has not given any accounting of exactly how the money is being used.

“We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to,” Kelly said.

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

“We’re not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking,” said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Some banks said they simply didn’t know where the money was going.

Umm, assholes. That money came from the public that you're denying answers to. This is actually turning out worse than I thought it would.

Crazy weather!

So, Saturday was mid 70s. Today we'll be lucky to get out of the 20's. Christmas should be in the mid 60's! Needless to say my wardrobe is getting a pretty good workout.

At least we don't have the snow that some of you folks are having to deal with. You have my sympathies.

There is only one answer...

The Atlanta Urinal and Constipation is reporting online that the jury deliberating the fate of Brian Nichols is deadlocked on his sentence.

There's only one answer here and it's the death penalty. This criminal has shown time and again that he has no remorse for killing four and leaving one guard with brain damage. This jury needs to stop wasting time and money and get on with what needs to happen.

If money was no object

I got tagged, thanks to Jen. The subject is six things I would do if money was no object. Here goes.

1) Make sure that me, my wife, kids ,mother, step-father, sister, grandfather, aunts and uncles, cousins and in-laws would never have to work again, no matter what they wanted to do. Not to worry about relations coming out of the woodwork, I know who's who! :) One of my goals would be to always live somewhere warm.

2) I'd start a sighthound training, rehab, boarding, eventing, everything facility.

3) I'd fund research into finding economical alternative energies.

4) Since I love music and I know that most good bands will never be heard, I'd set up a record label and make sure good music is heard.

5) I'd give like a bazillion dollars to mental health and cancer research charities. We don't need to lose people that way anymore.

6) Me and R would hit the road and ride or drive around the USA and see all the things we've always wanted to see. Then we'd head out to the rest of the world!

Now I'll tag Jessi, Dan and Sandra.

Sort of surprising, seeing that I'm still a bit overweight. But I think I'm in pretty decent condition...
34.5 miles per gallon

Created by The Car Connection

h/t Expert Witness

Pictures of the house

Back during the summer Andrew, Neil and I spent a day repairing a pretty nasty place in my house. I promised pictures, so here they are.

Starting off, rotted studs and sill.

More of the same. Where the corrugated pipe ends is where the sill should be. The siding in this area was being held together by the paint for the most part.

The corner, another shot of the rot.

Wider view. Not pretty.

Me up on the roof doing a bit of demolition, Neil and Andrew on the ground repairing a floor joist.

We've pretty much gotten the rot ripped out at this point. 

Getting ready to sister the wall studs, floor joists have been repaired already.

Me doing more demo.

Neil again, working on the floor joists.

Siding repair is made, just waiting to be painted.

Finished the siding, just have to paint.

More on the BMW

1978 BMW R80/7 "Airhead" pictures.

So, ignore that I don't have a helmet on. I was just tooling around the driveway a bit the day I got it started. I always wear a helmet when riding (hell, even wear a helmet when riding my bicycle).

The BMW rides GREAT! I'm having a lot of fun with it so far. Haven't gotten to ride a lot, and I am just getting comfortable on it. Got insurance and tag last week as well as my Motorcycle learners permit. I think I'm really going to have fun with this!

Fun stuff

A lot has been going on. We went out to Cartersville this weekend for the annual CHASE Veteran's day trials. For the first time since 2001, I was not FTS or FTC for a CHASE trial. I had a great time being an exhibitor and a judge!

We only ran the whippets this weekend. Carmela did well on Saturday and placed 3rd after we forfeited a 1-2-3 tie. Everett and Lobo were the only FCh Whippets on Saturday (btw, where the hell are all the Whippets????), Everett placed 1st and Lobo 2nd. We ran Lobo and Everett only on Sunday with an entry of four. Everett took 1st and BOB and Lobo finished 3rd. Great results!

Not only did we run all breed trials both Saturday and Sunday, we ran a Rhodesian Ridgeback Specialty on Saturday after the all breed trial. This was successful with an entry of 14. Even tunning the two trials, we were finished by 2:00 in the afternoon!! Sunday we finished about 1:30!!! Something to be said for having a smaller trial! Congratulations to Woody and Jennifer for doing such a great job!

My friend John is going under the knife tomorrow for a heart valve replacement and triple bypass. We wish him the best!

Karen's stuff finally arrived about a week and a half ago. The moving company that she used is a rip-off. First, they exceeded the estimate by a factor of 6, secondly they arrived five hours late to load the truck, thirdly, taking over a week to get her stuff to her and not giving her a status on where her stuff was (there was a genuine fear that her stuff had "disappeared), finally they broke a lot of her stuff. They dropped the fridge and damaged one door so badly it will have to be replaced (this is a $1700 stainless steel fridge), her toaster oven was crushed, one of her recliners is destroyed, the speedo housing on the bike is broken, and many things are just plain missing. For all her trouble, the moving company is offering her $.60 per pound of damaged goods. The nerve... I hope she is able to sue this company and recover every bit of money she has lost.

More about the bike... I have it now and it is great! Thought I was going to need to get a battery for it, but a long slow charge has brought the battery back to life for now. I got the bike running last week, got it insured and registered and even went and got my motorcycle learners permit! Went for my first ride Friday afternoon and had a blast! Didn't ride very far, really, but it was a lot of fun. Can't wait til the weather warms up!

Finally!

Brian Nichols is guilty. It took 3 years to get to this point. Maybe now his victims families can have some peace.

Holy.....Something

It's been a while since I've posted. Wow! Yeah, I've been way busy. Weekend in Florida for Neil's wedding (wow, what a good time). I got to spend a lot of time with old friends and new, got to hang out on the beach and swim in the ocean for the first time this year. I love my friends dearly and really value the time we get to spend together, no matter how short.

The following Tuesday, I flew to Newark then was driven to Florida, NY to help our friend K load up and move to the South. Now she's a Damn Yankee, even though things aren't going great right now. Amazingly, her stuff hasn't arrived yet (full semi of furniture and stuff). Gawd, I hope it arrives soon. Anyway, I spent that Wednesday packing a trailer with her stained glass (actually overloading the trailer ) and helping the movers with some of the larger stuff. Thursday at 1:00 we were finally able to hit the road and drag ourselves south. Pulled in to K's house @ 11:30 pm on Friday night. Saturday was spent watching Soccer and helping unload (as well as Sunday). I was a tired pup that weekend.

Last Wednesday, I drove out to Eatonton to our annual computing conference at Rock Eagle. That was a good time, as always, with lots of social events as well as good lecture sessions.

Saturday was the 3rd annual ASFA Greyhound National Specialty in Moreland, GA. We had a pretty good showing with Sweeney taking the Field Champion Stake and Nellie winning out of Singles. There was a very nice entry of 30 Greyhounds at the Specialty this year with dogs from Colorado, California and Texas. Some really nice Greyhounds in the field this year.

Sunday was the Fullerton Cup trial at the same location. We didn't run the Greyhounds but did have Lobo and Everett, our older stalwarts, entered as well as Carmela, entered for the first time. The course was a bit challenging for the dogs as it features a couple of pretty good sprints uphill. The dogs aren't in the best shape they've ever been in thanks to the long summer hiatus, but they did acquit themselves pretty well. Lobo finished 2nd in Field Champion with Everett at 3rd. Carmela, in her first trial and entered in Open, took her first 1st placement! That's exciting for a mostly race-bred little bitch. We're really looking forward to continued coursing and much racing in the future.

So, now things slow down a little. We do have another trial the second weekend of November, but after it's pretty open. We need to decide what we're doing for Thanksgiving and later on in the year, but have a few weeks to take care of that.

Until later,

Yep, recall

And now the Dow is down some 700 points (3:01 pm Monday October 6th, 2008). That bailout was supposed to do what, exactly?

Recall the bums from Washington. What the hell else is there?

What he said...

Another opinion on the "bailout". I like LOVE it!! 

Investors chill

I'm not an economist. Hell, I can barely balance my own checkbook. One thing that I do know is that the world isn't going to end. As I said in a previous post, let the free market sort out the winners and losers. Let the companies with poor buisness practices self destruct and be gone forever, but don't saddle us* with the burden of saving their asses.

Yesterday the "Bailout Plan" failed to pass a vote in the House. Thank . Investors did panic yesterday on the news, but it looks like they have regained their composure and have figured out that all this settling out might not be such a bad thing after all. The Dow has so far recovered 4/7ths of the losses from yesterday. That's huge! Good for Wall St. for not digging their heads into the sand and continuing the freakout.

Oh, and if you have some cash on hand... Now's the time to buy stocks. Actually, you might have missed your opportunity by about 8 hours!

*Us - All income tax paying citizens of the United States

Goodbye Capitalism!

This "bailout" of the mortgage industry is another nail in the coffin for Capitalism in the United States and gives Socialism a big boost! Where does the money come from for this bailout? Well, it's coming from you and me. Oh, but the big G (Government) is going to pay us back you say? Yeah, OK. Um, the Federal Debt (BTW, fittingly, the national debt clock website (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock) was down when I just checked it - must have melted under the new 1.4 Trillion dollars added from bailouts) stood at this writing at $9,795,500,413,374 (http://zfacts.com/p/461.html). Yeah, you're right. What's another $1,400,000,000,000. To me, that's a lot of zeros.

Consumers made poor choices when they secured loans for their homes. If this is you, I'm sorry, but it's a choice that YOU made. Mortgage companies made poor choices when they wrote loans to people who in the long run had absolutely no business getting those loans. That's their choice and the consequences should not be bailout but should be bankruptcy.

Happy Birthday!!!!

You know who... ;)

'Bout Time

One of those things that just makes you say damn, why'd it take so long. He should have been executed by now. Back in March, 2005 Brian Nichols escaped from custody while on trial for rape. During the escape he killed a judge, a court reporter, a deputy and a federal agent who was off duty performing renovations on his house. There's not much doubt about his guilt. Let's get it over with.

3000

I just noticed that this blog, which admittedly is quite boring compared to the others I read ever day (see the sidebar), hit 3000 visits last week. Thanks to whomever from Texas came from Sandra's blog and later wandered over to Marko's.

Thanks to everyone else who reads this. I average a measly 8 hits per day or so but enjoy occasionally posting thoughts and rants. Thanks for your time.

The Omnivore's Hundred

This looked like fun. I first saw this at Atomic Nerds but it has origins at Very Good Taste.

(I'm adding links to Wikipedia slowly, so this is still being edited)

Here are the rules:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here linking to your results.
The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese Fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (muscadine and scuppernong)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

9.11

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com