Monday, December 31, 2007

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas vacation

It seems that I've taken a bit of an unannounced vacation from blogging.

Well, now I'm announcing it.

I shall return to normal blogging after the new year. I promise.

Don't want Jenny cutting off a cat's toes or something.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

The airing of grievances

All day today I'll be participating in the airing of grievances portion of everybody's favorite holiday, Festivus. I'll be doing it on Twitter and I'll post it here at the end of the day.

You can find my Twitter page here.

UPDATE: Here they are. Finally.

  • TV Writers. I WANT MY 24 DAMMIT!!!
  • People who lie through their teeth. Here's looking at you, Roger Clemens.
  • Travis Johnson. YOU FUCKING MORON! YOU DO NOT PILE ON AN ALREADY SACKED QUARTERBACK!!! (This was while watching the Texans game)
  • Wanda Sykes doing Applebee's commercialls. I CAN'T STAND THAT WOMAN'S VOICE!!!
  • The tools that stole baby Jesus http://snurl.com/1vqj8 Shame on you. Much shame.
  • People who can't park their big-ass vans properly, you suck.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Chillin'

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.


Just chillin'
 

No, we did not buy Taffy that bed. My uncle who we got her from bought it for her when he adopted her a little over two years ago and it made the move down with her. She had it when we stayed at his house after Rita, which was only about a week after she'd been adopted.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Moblogging: Kids day at the rink

UPDATED now that I'm home.

Just a few of the 2500 4th and 5th graders at Ford Arena for the Wildcatters Think at the Rink game.

Man that was a fun game. The kids were amazing, yelling and screaming and dancing. That's the loudest I think that building's been for a game in a long time. You had the kids chanting "Let's go 'Catters," ooohing and aaahing when there were hits. They even booed when Mississippi scored their lone goal.

Of course, they had to do some learning too while they were there, as the team did some stuff to help them prepare for the TAKS test (the state assessment) which comes up in April I think.

Great time.

And, oh yea, the 'Catters won 2-1. That kinda helped too.

The local paper liveblogged the game if you're interested.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Petey goes to the vet

Petey took a trip to the vet today.

He was just going for yearly shots, but that's not the point of this.

Petey's the only dog of our pack that doesn't like car trips. If you open the car door Taffy and Bruiser will hop right in. You have to pick Petey up and put him in the car to take him somewhere.

And then he gets to the mean vet's office where they poke and prod him and do all sorts of unmentionable things.

And then he got home.

By this time he wasn't in a very good mood. We tried to take off his collar and he tried to bite us. We got it off anyway.

After we added the tag, we tried to put it on and he tried to bite again, so we left him alone for a while. Jason eventually put his collar back on.

I swear, he's never been like that before.

I'm just going to assume it was the stress from the vet trip that made him like that and blow it off.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Raggedy Andy shoots up

I've got a bum elbow, can I get some HGH?

Former Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte today admitted he had used human growth hormone to overcome an elbow injury in 2002 as alleged in the Mitchell Report, which was released Thursday.

Pettitte, a Deer Park resident, admitted using human growth hormone on two occasions and said he did it to help him heal faster. Human growth hormone wasn't banned by baseball until 2005.

So, did God tell him to use HGH too?


I also thought I'd share my thoughts on the Mitchell Report while we're at it.

I'm disappointed by a few things. First that the Astros traded for Miguel Tejada a day before he appeared on the report. Yes, Uncle Drayton says he had no idea. Of course he didn't, the man's clueless.

In all seriousness, what needs to happen is that the recommendations in the report are implemented. And fast.

Don't hang asterisks. Don't scratch records. If the morons in MLB had kept their house in order from the beginning none of this would have ever happened.

The same goes for suspending people in the report. Any evidence cited in the report would be too weak to convict, so there's no point in handing out suspensions. They'll likely be appealed and tossed.

Simply put, the steroids/HGH era happened. Forget punishing those involved and fix it so it doesn't happen again.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Chillin'

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

Put that camera away. I'm watching TV, you goof!

Sorry for disturbing you, "Prince Petey."

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Mario is the man

Mario Nine sacks over the last five games. Three and a half tonight.

And now just half a sack behind the league lead. Yes, I know that he's got a game on them, but he'll be up there pretty high after the week's up.

I think it's safe to say that Mario Williams has shown that he was a better pick than Reggie Bush or Vince Young.

And the scary thing is that, as young as he is, he can only get better. A LOT better.

And while we're at it, how about those Texans beating the Broncos 31-13, reaching .500 the latest they ever have, and guaranteeing themselves at least a tie of their best record in team history.

Now they've got a few extra days to prepare for a Festivus meeting with the Colts in Indianapolis.

They may not be going 10-6 but I'll take this!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Nine years?

The Astros picked some random dude up off of waivers today:

Ryan Houston, a 6-foot-4 righthander who's won 34 games in the Toronto Blue Jays minor league system in nine seasons, was claimed off waivers by the Astros today.

Houston, 28, has spent his entire career in the Blue Jays minor leagues, going 2-2 with a 4.30 ERA in in 50 appearances out of the bullpen last season. He was recently released by the Blue Jays and accepted his assignment to the Astros, who have placed him on their 40-man roster.

Houston is 34-30 with a 3.86 ERA in 279 career minor league appearances since 1999, mostly in relief.

Yes, that's right folks. He's spent nine seasons in the minors.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know shit about player development in baseball but it seems that if a guy spends nine years in the minor leagues without being called up to the big show there's a reason for it?

You know, something like him not being all that good.

Who knows, maybe Round Rock needed some bullpen help, because I'd be willing to bet that's where he'll spend next season.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

What's wrong with this picture?

Earlier this season you'll remember that we were forced to have the Texans and Raiders instead of Colts-Patriots because the Texans were on the road.

Shouldn't the same rule apply to home games?

Well it doesn't. Today's Texans game is a FOX game and our FOX affiliate's showing the Cowboys game.

Seriously, what idiot dreamed up these SERIOUSLY FUCKED UP rules? Sheesh.

As of this writing, the Texans are winning and the Cowboys are losing.

At least there's the radio.

Ugh.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Christmas presents

We were just talking about Christmas gifts for people.

We discussed my grandfather. This one's not in my good graces because he went around spouting off about how my dad wasn't his kid.

Nevermind the son that he has from his second wife that was born just eight months after my dad, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyways, I suggested something for him for next year.

A DNA test.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Reach for it, reach for it

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.


A Wildcatters goalie reaches up in an attempt to stop a puck (the black thing right above his glove) during warmups before a game.

I'd guess that that's our occasional emergency backup goalie Matt Savich getting some practice in before a game but it's hard to know for sure since there's no name on the back of the jersey. Savich is a local dump truck driver who played hockey in college that we'll bring in as a backup when we only have one "normal" goalie due to another one being called up.

We've got a game tonight and I plan on bringing the camera.

Yea, I know they're missing

I'm aware that some of the images in posts are missing. It's all the images I uploaded to blogger using Windows Live Writer. They're still on the server but they're not showing up for some reason.

I'm pretty sure it's a problem with Blogger's handling of image uploads in WLW which is different than uploading the images through the compose post pages that Blogger has. I'm assuming that between that and the custom domains setup I'm using (which still seems to be somewhat buggy from what I'm reading).

Anywho, I guess I'll be uploading images to TinyPic for the time being until this gets resolved.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

New domain stuff

Hey y'all.

I know, I was showing a "parked page" earlier.

Anyway, I bought a domain for the blog. It's jrtblog.com. As soon as DNS has some time to get things worked out (just takes time) I'll set up blogger to handle it.

All the stuff involved in setting this up is way over my head. Thank goodness for google, huh? :)

UPDATE: It's working here, so I've changed it. Thankfully, all the old links will redirect to the new URL thanks to Blogger's custom domain feature.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

It's time to damn another team by making a prediction

This time, it's the Patriots.

After watching them more or less pull that win out of their asses last night, I'm now convinced that they'll run the table.

Let's face it, the Ravens had them beat until, as Tony Kornheiser called it, "tragic inevitability" set in and the Ravens melted down faster than a snowball during a Texas summer.

The football gods seem to have the Patriots' backs this season.

The only way I can see them losing any games is if they rest some of their guys the last week or two of the season.

Or next week, since my predictions tend to be a kiss of death.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Making good

The Texans lost today, meaning that there'll be no way they go 10-6.

Now I have to make good on what I said, so here goes. Don't worry, I THINK it's safe for work.

nekkid

Hey, it was cold!!!

So... uh... does this satisfy the requirements of the final meme? If so, then I tag Jenny because she's the only person I can think of that might actually be crazy enough to do it.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Being looked at like I'm stupid

Welcome to Friday Saturday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

Yea, I know, I forgot to do this yesterday. Well I'm doing it now so quityerbitchin.

The other day I was discussing the principles of quantum physics with someone when Petey came in. His look is just priceless:

071201 petey huh
Huh?

Don't worry Petey, most people feel that way about it.

Including me, considering I had to type quantum physics into Wikipedia just to see what it is and that was all I could think after reading the first paragraph.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Texas UIL announces steroids testing rules, student-athletes react

(Another fine mediocre JRT parody)

AUSTIN (JRT) - The University Interscholastic League yesterday released it's proposal for steroids testing procedures for high school sports. The sanctioning body of Texas high school sports is seeking comments on the program.

Highlights of the program include random testing of about 3% of high school athletes, will not screen for illegal drugs, and will allow parents to witness the testing procedure.

Under the program, a first positive would bench an athlete for a month and require a positive test before they could be reinstated. A second positive would ban them for a year and a third would result in a permanent ban.

"We think it'll be a reasonable deterrent." said Seamour Eisenman, UIL spokesperson. "But we'll see what the public thinks and make changes from there."

High school athletes we talked to about the program had mixed comments.


" I think I'll stick to the 'roids "

"Wow, they're only going to test three percent of us," said Arlen High School junior Joey Holts, third-string quarterback of the school's junior varsity football team. "Obviously the odds of getting caught are slim, so I think I'll stick to the 'roids. Maybe I'll be able to move up to second on the depth chart next season with them."

Kenton Berry, the starting center on Arlen High's varsity basketball squad, had a very different reaction.

"I've never touched steroids," said Berry. "I've always been afraid of my [testicles] shriveling up like raisins. The star basketball player can't have that! At least I won't have to give up all the yeyo I've been doing."

It should be noted that not all athletes are thrilled with the program. Tennis player Grace Alcocke thinks that the program doesn't go far enough.

"[The proposal is] weaker than wet toilet paper," said Alcocke. "The odds of being caught are next to none and the punishment is too weak. You have to sit out longer if you fail a class than if you test positive."

Those wishing to comment on the program are welcome to send their comments to steroids@mail.uil.utexas.edu. The comments are open for about two weeks.

Back and... who am I kidding, I suck just as much as before

The hiatus is officially off.

I needed some time to more or less reboot that part of my mind that deals with blogging.

<sarcasm>If I'd known it would take this long to reboot I would have upgraded the system while it was down!</sarcasm>

Anyways, I'm BACK!

But can the blogosphere handle my now-rejuvenated bloggy-ness? We'll just have to wait and see, huh?

Friday, November 16, 2007

Saving kitteh's toes

I'm taking a hiatus.

For how long? I haven't decided yet.

I've just been a little burnt out on the whole blogging thing I guess and just feel like I need a break.

You know, before I commit blog suicide and endanger Posey's toes.

But hey, keep checking me out, I still plan on doing Friday Photo during the hiatus (tho I think I"m going to skip this week).

Oh yea, I'll still be on Twitter.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Updated: I'd do something about how the new Zune software kicks ass, but...

...I'm stuck with this:

Bad omen if you're stuck trying to update firmware for 20 minutes.

UPDATE: After uninstalling and reinstalling the Zune software, it's working fine now.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Carnival of the Cats #190 - The 'quick and dirty' edition (fixed)

It's that time again. Time when the Carnival of the Cats gets weird because a dog's helping host.

Yes, that's right, Bruiser's helping host again.

Unfortunately, some stuff out of our control has popped up this time and I'm more or less stuck copying and pasting the BlogCarnival HTML. Pesky life, getting in the way of things!

Anyways, Bruiser, you ready to start?


Soon as I can get into the bathroom!

Alright then, I'll start without ya.

Ah, Bruiser's finally joining us.


Taffy said she wants to help too.

Fine by me.


Can Petey help too, daddy?

I've got a bad feeling about this, but I guess...


Since they're helping you can I go take a nap?

No, you promised me you'd help.


But I got you helpers!

You can nap after we're done, there's really not much left.

Alright y'all that's all I've got. Next week's supposed to be at Pet's Garden Blog.

If anybody's wondering, the problem that I had with the links was that in the code it used the " symbol twice instead of once for some reason. Windows Live Writer, my blogging software of choice, thus butchered the code royally. But hey, it's all worked out now.

Friday, November 09, 2007

At the ranch

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

This week it's a couple photos I shot at the ranch we dropped Ashley off at on Monday:

I forget this pretty girl's name, but she's an adopted Australian Shepherd (mix I'm thinking) that serves as the watch dog for all the horses. She was really sweet.

And these are a few of the horses at the ranch. The white one you see in the front was actually walking up to me. It stopped right in front of me and demanded attention, so it got some petting.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Sassy's puppies

As part of my adventure to Houston the other day, I snapped some pictures of Sassy's puppies. Here are a few of the best ones.

As you can clearly see, these are some very adorable, and healthy, five week olds.

Next week they'll go to the vet's office for their first round of shots and they'll be for sale a week later.

And to think, with Ashley (another one of my mom's dogs) spending the week with Maverick (the daddy of these puppies) we'll be doing the puppy dance all over again in about two months.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

The six way tie

Laurence got this week's weekly challenge posted. I participated in this crazy topic, and I thought I came up with a good story:

As Joe walked through the gates of hell, he watched a lime-colored pumpkin release a puff of blue smoke.

"What's that for?" he asked the ghostly squirrel guarding the gate.
"Means it's time for Satan to get his rocks off," said the squirrel. "If you see it, you have to report to Satan's castle and give him an orgasm."

"Oh, f***," said Joe. "Can I get around it?"

"There's a rumor that if you can tell him a really good rhyme he'll let you off," replied the squirrel.

"A sublime rhyme?" asked Joe.

"Try that one," said the squirrel.

So go and vote for the ones you think are best. Remember, they're checkboxes for a reason!

Having listened to the recording I should explain the beep. I've always thought that the beep left more of an impact than saying the word. Just listen to the recordings of Johnny Cash as Folsom prison and San Quentin and you'll see why.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Fighting? In hockey? You've got to be kidding me!

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

07-11-02 Elmo jawing

Texas Wildcatters' number 59 Riley Emmerson jaws with the Florida Everblades bench during the first period of their game Sunday afternoon at Ford Arena.

07-11-02 let's dance

After a goal that brought the score to 2-0, the Wildcatters' Riley Emmerson and Florida's Brad Herauf drop the gloves.

07-11-02 knockout blow Riley Emmerson delivers the finishing blow to Brad Herauf, bringing Herauf to the ice. Both players were assessed five minute penalties for fighting in a game that the Wildcatters went on to win 5-3.

If y'all are interested, here's the box score for the game. I've got some other good pictures from that game which I'll probably run on here in the near future.

And, yes, I know Emmerson's way bigger looking than the other guy, but when you're 6'8" everybody looks small next to you.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

The hammer throw

H/T: Deadspin

Why where you stand means everything:

I can sympathize with that actually. To an extent.

When I was in high school, I was on both newspaper and yearbook. I was a crappy writer (mainly out of laziness) but I was probably the best sports photographer on staff and was pretty good in the layout/design department as well.

My favorite thing was shooting football games. Lots of action, lots of fun, and the element of danger that at any moment a WR could run you over if you didn't watch yourself.

Thankfully that never happened!

However, one time when I was shooting a varsity game an incomplete pass one-hopped the ground and caught me square in the nuts.

Yea, it hurt.

Good times, eh?

Halloween

Halloween was last night.

Though you wouldn't have known it in our neighborhood.

As is usual, we didn't get a single trick-or-treater, which leaves a whole huge thing of candy for us to not let go to waste.

I can feel my waistline expanding now.

The trend in this town seems to be that kids will skip over most neighborhoods and either go to big events organized by churches or just do your standard trick-or-treating in the rich neighborhoods in the west end.

Honestly, I'm impressed. I would have never thought to do that.

Then again I grew up in said west end, so it wouldn't have really mattered anyway.

In semi-related news, here's a ghost video for y'all. I'd never heard the story behind that ghost before, but it's from a newspaper-sponsored blog, so it must be true.

Friday, October 26, 2007

I got the biscuit!

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

Texas Wildcatters defensemen Mike Madill moves the puck down the rink during a second round playoff game against the Florida Everblades at Ford Arena on April 27, 2007. The Wildcatters lost the game 5-2 and ended up dropping the best-of-seven series four games to two.

I wanted to get a hockey picture in this week since the 'Catters have their home opener tomorrow night against the Everblades. I don't plan on bringing the camera to opening night, but I'll probably bring it to Sunday afternoon's game.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

24: Season 7 trailer came out today

First, watch it:

Yea, I know, Kiefer refers to the UK but it's all the same, trust me.

My thoughts below the fold:

Now, to me it was worth it to see that red-headed FBI agent (especially if it's the one played by Jeanene Garofalo) have this exchange with Jack:

FBI Agent: Do whatever it takes, torture him if you have to.
Bauer: I’m going to enjoy this.

You *KNOW* that line would make her blood boil.

In all seriousness, it looks like we've got a really good season in store for us come January. Of course, as Blogs4Bauer noted, last season's trailer made it look really good too. Yes, the first four episodes were probably the best the show's ever put out, but the rest of the season, while still better than most of the crap on TV these days, was pretty bad by 24's standards.

As far as Tony, I was surprised enough when I heard that he was back (from the dead, nonetheless) so it was kinda nice to see Jack as surprised as me.

Good guy turned bad. And not just any good guy, but one of Jack's closest friends. One of the few guys who'd probably be able to guess Jack's every move.

Now that I think about it, that sounds a lot like Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye. Oh well, GoldenEye's one of the better Bond movies if you ask me.

Anyway, it looks like an interesting plot. Very techno-geeky and different than the kind of threats we're used to seeing on 24.

I've got a good feeling about it.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Puppies, flat tires, and ex-girlfriends oh my!

Went to Houston today.

On my way, I stopped at my mom's vet's office in Nome and picked up a bag of dog food for her.

On the interstate, I was driving in the right lane. I moved onto the shoulder to avoid what looked like tire treads in the roadway and managed to thwack a chunk of wood that was on the shoulder before I could get back in the lane. Made a loud thunk, so I got off at the first exit and gave the underside of the car a look-over. Looked good to me.

More on that later.

When I got into Houston, I exited off of I-10 to take the toll bridge to get to my mom's house. The only eventful aspect of that was that for the first time in two years I went through a cash lane since the car didn't have an EZ Tag yet.

I got to my mom's house fine, looked at their brand new motorcycle and Sassy's puppies, which are three weeks old now and ADORABLE!

Then my mom took me to Chili's for lunch. I had the soup and salad and it was good.

And then the fun began.

When I got out, I noticed that the left front tire was flat. We aired it up at the first gas station we could find and my mom took me to Discount Tire to get it taken care of.

Apparently I ran over a nail when I hit that board and that's what took out the tire. They were able to patch it and I was on my way.

I spun down to the South Belt to take care of the stuff with the toll authority and get an EZ Tag. I had to go do it in person because, while the PT was a rental car, someone blazed through the tag lanes without one. Once they saw the bill of sale and made a copy, I was clear to get a tag on the car.

From then, I was off to Katy, on the far west side of Houston. The tire thing put be behind the eight ball a bit on time. Instead of getting out there just before rush hour as I'd planned, I was stuck in the middle of it. I decided to take the beltway to the Westpark tollway and go up SH 6 to get to the Katy Freeway and my destination.

That worked pretty well, actually. Westpark was a bit slow right around the beltway, but I knew it would be because it always is.

SH 6 was a real breeze most of the way, at least for a surface street. About the last mile or so, however, was stop and go. Much more stop than go. Tons of fun.

Once I got on the Katy Freeway it was a breeze. Past SH 6 there's no construction and the traffic was thick but moving at a good clip.

Finally, I got to my ex-girlfriend's house. Yes, you heard me right. Ex-girlfriend. The one that was doing something with that boot at an Astros game last year. We get along really well, but hadn't seen each other in about a year so I offered to hang out for a while next time I was in town.

We went to a mall near her house and pigged out on Cinnabon cinnamon rolls since she'd never had one before then did a little window shopping. I can honestly say I enjoyed it.

After I dropped her off I headed home. There was a bit of a slowdown on the east side of a town because of a wreck, but nothing too bad.

I got home about 9:30 to discover that my TV tuner software didn't record House for me like I'd set it up to. Yea, fuck you too Pinnacle. See if I ever buy your crap again.

Thankfully there was an awesome recap on TV.com.

Now it's time to get some sleep, so peace out!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Random thoughts: Inspired by my car

Here goes:

  • Today I got an envelope from GEICO. It had FOUR insurance ID cards for the new PT Cruiser. Oddly enough, those four cards were for my current policy term which ends Saturday and not the new one which I've already made my first payment on. Seems kinda crazy, doesn't it?
  • Chrysler and GM have the buttons on their car remotes in reverse order. You wouldn't believe how many times I've locked my car when I want to unlock it.
  • Apparently the PT's previous owner had a habit of occasionally cruising through the EZ Tag lanes on Houston tollways without a tag, so I've got to show them a bill of sale that I bought the car before they'll let me get a tag for it.
  • Speaking of Houston, I'm thinking I'm gonna go over tomorrow. I've got nothing better to do. Go to my mom's, see the puppies, get taken to lunch, and goodness knows what else.
  • I started reading The Godfather last night. Not really far enough into it yet to say much about the book, but considering that it's my favorite movie I should love the book too.
  • I was called over to a lady's house to look at her computer. She said her printer's not working. The problem: Dry black cartridge.
  • That little prediction I made isn't looking so hot right now. Thank goodness I said I wouldn't post those naked pictures.
  • Jim Thompson hails Xenu on Twitter. I wonder who I should hail...
  • The Wildcatters haven't quite figured out their mail merge system for emails yet apparently. I got an email from them last week that started off with "Hey First Name!" I simply replied that I felt so loved.
  • Speaking of them, I picked up my season tickets today. They had a get together for us at Rio Rita's (a local Mexican restaurant)where we could have picked them up, but I decided to pass because their food sucks. They obviously are using a different printer, since they came in big sheets instead of a book. I thought the book was more convenient
  • I hate that I have to install QuickTime to get MP3's to work in Firefox. I hate it more that the damn thing nags me to install iTunes too.
  • I. Love. Tweetr. Best Twitter app I've ever tried out.

And that's all I feel like saying.

I am SO outta here!

Friday, October 19, 2007

My new ride

2006 PT Cruiser:

Ain't she a beaut? And no, I'm not talking about my brother's Matrix parked behind it.

She's a quirky little car, but I'm liking her.

Here's some of the things that have thrown me so far.

  • The button for the automatic transmission shifter is on top instead of on the side.
  • The door handles have a button on them to open the door, they don't pull out to open like my brother's Matrix and my grandmother's Corolla. You have no idea how many times I've pulled on the things.
  • Closing the hood. I'm used to easing them down all the way and pushing down a little to close 'em. On these, the manual says you have to lower it to about eight inches up and then drop it. Trust me, the other way doesn't work. I spent ten minutes in the driveway like an idiot trying.
  • The cup holders. The big cup holder for the driver is way bigger than the one the Alero had. I used to be able to put the straw in the cup holder and then put the cup from McDonalds (or wherever) in and they'd both stay. Well, I tried that and the straw fell between the center console and the drivers seat, so I had to fish it out.
  • No cruise control. Not a big deal, just an accessory that wasn't on this one.
  • The headlights don't turn on automatically when it's dark. This is the first car I've ever driven that didn't do that. There may be a way to turn that on, but I haven't looked through the manual to see yet.

Of course, those'll come in time.

On a side note, my grandmother got talking with the sales guy about her days teaching first grade, and as the conversation evolved we'd found out that she'd actually taught the salesperson's wife. My grandmother remembered her name and everything.

Small world, aint it?

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Sunset at Minute Maid

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

IMG_0036The sun sets on Minute Maid Park during opening day April 3, 2006.

I figure this is a wallpaper-quality image (Heck, I used it as wallpaper for a long time) so I uploaded it to Flickr so y'all could grab the full size image use it as wallpaper as well.

The full size image is a little grainy, but that's just a result of the ISO setting and it looks fine shrunk down to 1024x768 (or whatever you use).

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Man, this car shopping thing is HARD!!!

Really.

I found out from the insurance company today that my car's being totaled. Apparently replacing Alero's airbags is a really expensive proposition.

Since that's the case, I'm looking for a new one. My grandmother's going to help me get one before I get the insurance check and just have me sign it over once I get the check.

When I bought my Alero back in '05 it was simple. I had no real idea what I wanted, I just showed up at the dealership, told 'em I wanted a car with good gas mileage, and they showed me a few cars.

Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

This time I'm hopping online, looking at dealer inventories for used cars, researching the cars I see, all that good stuff.

And my head's spinning.

If you follow my Twitter account you saw that I went out earlier to look at a vanilla PT Cruiser. I don't mean boring vanilla, but that the color resembles Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.

One of my neighbors has a PT Cruiser, so I went over and asked them a few things about it. She said that overall it's a good car, so I decided to go take a look.

When I got to the dealership I saw it right in front of the building. I opened the doors, looked at it, all that good stuff. It was a 2005 with about 34,000 miles listed on their website for $9,995. Only knock it had was some paint chips on the front, probably from bugs or something.

Then a salesperson comes out and breaks my heart when he says "Someone's inside signing the papers on that one right now."

The sales guy suggested a few cars in about the same price range. Two Dodge Neon's and a Kia. I dismissed the Kia right away because I've heard pretty lousy things about them and one of the Neon's because it was red, and cops love red cars. So I wondered over to the black one and asked the sales guy to grab the keys for it.

When he got back I got in and sniffed. It had a weird smell to it, similar to what the PT Cruiser had, so I figured that was something that the dealership did. But, even above that strong smell, I could smell that it'd been smoked in. Smoke smell's a deal-breaker for me because the smell overwhelms me. I probably could have febreezed it out of the fabric or something, but I shouldn't have to when I buy a car.

So we left.

Some digging around on the web showed me a couple more PT Cruisers that were available in my range at other local dealerships. Then I got a call from my neighbor's husband/boyfriend/whatever he is and he told me that while a good car it has some problems with gas mileage, occasionally getting under 20 mpg in town. No biggie, my Alero did the same thing on me a few times when I did purely city driving in it, a rarity for me.

Then I did the research. I found through fueleconomy.gov the government's fuel numbers on them and was like "eh, I'll pass." Of course, if I'd read closer I'd see that they'd applied the new mileage formula to older cars and that the numbers were about the same as my Alero was showing, and when I noticed that PT Cruisers came back on the table.

So tomorrow afternoon I plan to buy my grandmother lunch somewhere and then go head to the dealerships that had PT Cruisers listed. One's got a silver 2006 and the other's got a blue 2005, along with whatever else the dealerships I go to have to offer, just a bit more educated about what I can get.

It'll be a blast, I'm sure.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Giving Amazon MP3 a shot

This is *NOT* a Pay Per Post or ReviewMe.com ad. I'm doing it of my own free will in part because I don't believe in blogging about something when wads of cold, hard cash are involved.

I tried Amazon MP3 last night.

For those that haven't heard, that's Amazon.com's new DRM-free music download service. The prices vary, but you can download a song for under a dollar or an album for (on average) $7.99 and download it as a crystal-clear 256kbps mp3 file (or set thereof, if you download an album).

The significance of the songs being DRM-free is that you can take the file and burn it to a CD, copy it, put it on mp3 players. Anything. You could even put them on file-sharing services. BUT DON'T or we'll likely lose this wonderful tool we've got.

Now, I'm one of those holdouts that still prefer buying CD's to downloading my music off of the web. In fact, before this the closest I'd ever come to buying music online was ordering a CD off of Amazon. So needless to say, I was new to this...

Anyways, last night I wanted to download Feel Good Inc. from Gorillaz. It got stuck in my head, long story. Anyway, I hopped on the site, got to the page for the album it was on easily, and clicked the "Buy MP3" button next to the song.

Now, the next steps may not be exact, but you'll get the idea.

I was prompted to download and install a small application that would set up the mp3 file and automatically put it in your iTunes or Windows Media Player library. So I did.

Next page I got was the download of the song. It doesn't send you the mp3 file itself, but a different file. From that file, the program I'd just installed placed the mp3 file in my My Music folder in a folder named Amazon MP3. The program then deleted the file that was originally downloaded, leaving just the mp3.

I opened Media Player and there it was in my library, just like it said it would be.

When I connected my Zune, I had to manually add the song to it's library. No shocker really, the Zune software in it's current design sucks. Whenever I rip a CD in Windows Media Player I have to do the same thing. Can't blame Amazon for that.

All in all, I was happy with the experience. So much so that I might just finally stop buying CD's and download my music.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The key to winning in 2008

It's not the war, it's not immigration.

It's bullshit.


Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

How ironic that Hillary is on the still that the player shows?

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Blogger's commenting system kills my comedic genius

Houston over at Tater Tots for the Masses did a post about me yesterday. I left a comment noting that:

I had a funny line to put here, but Blogger won't let me use the strike tag in the comments.

A comment that, in full, would have read something like:

And I'm sure my three readers will be just as nice to you. :)

You know, I tried using graphics for my blogroll at one time but I got lazy decided that the text-based blogroll looks better.

Well, that and BlogRolling has a bookmarklet that allows you to add sites to your blogroll on the fly.

Which I guess does make me lazy. Not that y'all didn't know that already.

And another thing, why the hell does a guy named Houston live in Dallas? Doesn't it just seem odd?

Friday, October 12, 2007

Sassy

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

This is from Sassy's visit last month.

071012 Sassy what's goin on Hey, what are you boys getting into?

For y'all's information, Sassy gave birth to her puppies about two weeks ago. She had six puppies, but the runt didn't make it past a couple of days, so there are five cute little Sheltie puppies that I'm told all are sable like her, but a darker shade of it.

You know, it's hard for me to believe sometimes that her and Bruiser are only about a week apart age-wise.

Stupidity-induced insomnia

I can't sleep tonight.

I'm a little on the sore side and I feel like too much of an idiot to sleep.

I'd ventured out to Taco Bell for a late-night snack but abandoned the plan when I saw the drive-thru line and headed home.

On the way, I was involved in an accident.

I looked down for a second like an idiot and when I looked up there was a car in front of me. One I hadn't seen before that moment.

I didn't even have enough time to think "OH F***!" before the crash sound and the airbags popped.

Sans a scratch or two I'm fine.

As far as I could tell, the people in the other car were ok too. A couple of them went to the hospital to get checked out, but there wasn't any blood or anything that I could see, so I don't think it was anything big.

The car's banged up, but it doesn't look like anything a good body shop can't handle.

The cops that came out there were nice and, with a few laughs had me feeling relaxed and not like as big an idiot. Naturally, I got the obligatory "you rear-ended someone, here's your ticket" ticket. I'll go down and deal with that next week.

I've already reported the accident through GEICO's website and they should be getting with me sometime today about how all this'll work out. The cops and the wrecker driver AAA sent both told me that GEICO's really easy to work with about this sort of stuff, so that makes me feel a little better.

Now if I could just get some sleep . . .

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Fraternity at Texas Tech has no class

 
  Reveille VII and Mascot Corporal Pierce Hunter (source)

Really, just don't go there:

Texas Tech has banned the sale of a T-shirt bearing the likeness of Michael Vick hanging the dog mascot of rival Texas A&M.

The red and black shirts, with text that says "VICK 'EM" on the front in an apparent reference to the Aggies' slogan "Gig 'em," was created by a Tech student who was trying to sell them before Saturday's game in Lubbock.

The back of the shirt shows a football player wearing the No. 7 Vick jersey holding a rope with an image of the mascot Reveille at the end of a noose.

First off, let's ignore the fact that I'm an A&M fan here, because it truly is irrelevant.

This idea is just sickening. There's no words I can think of to describe just how horrible this is.

Needless to say, anything having to do with animal cruelty sets me off. I mean, just look at my three little angels. Anybody who's convicted of animal cruelty should be thrown in a hole under the jail and then have that hole filled with concrete if you ask me.

And someone who jokes around about something like this doesn't deserve much better.

But what else would you expect from a bunch of drunken frat boys?

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Updated: Fall down, go sue

What a sad, sad, situation:

A police officer who slipped and injured a knee responding to a toddler's near-drowning has sued the family of the 1-year-old boy, who suffered brain damage and can no longer walk, talk or swallow.

Casselberry Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn alleges Joey Cosmillo's family left a puddle of water on the floor, causing her fall during the rescue efforts. She broke her knee and missed two months of work.

[...]

Eichhorn's attorney, David Heil, said she has persistent knee pain and will likely develop arthritis. He said city benefits paid by workers' compensation and some disability checks helped with medical bills, but it wasn't enough.

Please tell me I'm not the only person that thinks this is a disgrace. Their kid almost died and you're suing because you messed up your knee pretty bad.

Of course, you'll probably win the case too.

Let's just hope that the judge sees things like I do and awards you a dollar, as you occasionally see in lawsuits.

If I were the other family, I'd pay her in pennies.

UPDATED: Eichhorn has been placed on leave and now plans to drop the lawsuit.

For once, common decency rules the day.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Nothing to gain

 
  George Steinbrenner and Joe Torre.

The reason your feet seem to be cold is because hell just froze over.

It froze over because I'm blogging about the evil empire known as the Yankees.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard that George Steinbrenner has said that Joe Torre would likely be replaced if he didn't win their ALDS series against the Indians after the team went down two games to none in the best of five series. As you also probably know, the Yankees won game three, but lost last night.

I personally believe that Steinbrenner would have to be off his nut to fire Torre.

Torre's managed the club for twelve years, taking them into the playoffs all twelve years, winning the AL East ten times, winning the American League six times, and winning four World Series.

Not to mention bringing back a 21-29 team with tons of injuries to the pitching staff to 94-68, giving them a Wild Card berth after all the ESPN talking heads were saying that they had no chance. The record speaks for itself.

If that's not enough, then consider that all the players in their clubhouse love him. Alex Rodriguez has the ability to opt out of his contract, Andy Pettitte has a player option, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada can also leave after this season's over with. I'm sure whatever happens with this will have an influence on what those guys decide.

And then there's the fans. I was watching the game last night and whenever Torre paid a visit to the mound late in the game you heard the chants of "JOE TO-RRE" from the crowd. I think it's safe to say, based on that, that the fans don't want him to go. Although nowhere near the level of Phillies fans, Yankee fans are nuts. I wouldn't want to have them pissed off at me.

But this begs the question: What is there to gain by firing Torre? I just don't see what someone else would be able to do with this team that he hasn't. If anything, replacing him would probably hurt the Yankees more than help.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. If you've got a varying opinion feel free to leave a note in the comments. I won't bite.

Hard.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Check

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

07-10-05 Madill Check
Texas Wildcatters defensemen Mike Madill checks a Charlotte Checkers player into the end boards during a game on December 8, 2006 that the Wildcatters went on to win 4-0.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

LOLScrabble?

No, I'm not looking to start the next big thing on the internets, just got a kick out of this when playing a game of Scrabulous with one of my readers earlier:

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Random Thoughts: Brought to you by dog vomit

Yes. That's right. Dog vomit. You'll see.

  • Is it safe to say that the Mets have pulled off one of the most monumental
  • Last night I was up a lot longer than I'd planned. Bruiser had been sleeping on my bed when he decided to throw up, so I had to run my sheets through the laundry. Fun fun fun.
  • I've been tempted to make a joke about this sign on a message board or two, but I think it's probably just a little bit too edgy.
  • Taffy's really clingy with my grandmother. It's driving her nuts right now that she's gone to Fort Worth for a funeral. Poor girl.
  • The other kids aren't happy either of course, but they've been down this road before. They'll all be happy when she gets home Wednesday.
  • Today Craig Biggio played his last game and another bit of my childhood died.
  • The Texans are 2-2. They could be 4-0 if it wasn't for all the injuries that the team's suffered, but honestly I'm just happy they're not 0-4.
  • David Carr may have a new jersey on, but he still sucks. 7 for 19 for only 40 yards in the third quarter. I'm just amazed he hasn't been sacked yet.
  • Got to see a live hockey game last night. AHL preseason game between the Aeros and Rampage. Aeros won 5-4 and I got a game puck. Was a bit surprised they were using Wildcatters pucks and not Aeros ones, but I'm told that the 'Catters will have their 5th anniversary logo on the pucks this year so they were probably trying to just use up some of the old ones.
  • Scrabulous is just about the biggest time-waster there is online.

I'm sure there's more I could say, but I didn't get enough sleep last night so cut me some slack.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Waiting in line

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

Petey and Bruiser in line for the bathroomStop taking so long! We need in the bathroom too!!!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

If you don't think dogs have personality, then you obviously haven't met Petey

Petey's something else.

The poor cutie's little quirks make him the butt of a lot of jokes around here, but they're also all true.

Like the other day when I was heading home from a trip to Sam's with my grandmother and, in a radio commercial for something, a lady says "Petey stopped eating and lost all of his hair" or something like that, we both agreed that if Petey lost all of his hair, he'd just roll over and die. Not from some weird condition, but just because he is so vain. He insists on being brushed at least once a day and can't stand to have a single hair out of place.

And then there's all the jokes about how you get growled at for looking at him the wrong way. Granted we don't, but if Bruiser or Taffy do it then they get growled at.

And don't cough or sneeze around him, because he WILL NOT tolerate that. You'll get barked at. A lot.

And the same for coming to the front door. If he hears a noise outside he goes nuts barking.

I swear, it's a miracle we get any quiet at all with him.

(In tomorrow's Friday Photo, see what happens when Petey and Bruiser need in the bathroom)

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

My victims may have suffered, but I shouldn't have to!!!

Apparently some death row inmates are concerned about the way they're going to die:

The Supreme Court today agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in a case that could affect the way inmates are executed around the country.

The high court will hear a challenge from two inmates on death row in Kentucky — Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. — who sued Kentucky in 2004, claiming lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

[...]

Baze and Bowling say the procedure inflicts unnecessary pain and suffering on the inmate.

Unnecessary pain and suffering, huh? Funny how that's a concern to you now that it's YOUR turn to die.

I'm sure Baze was concerned about Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe's pain and suffering when he shot them to death. And I'm also sure that Bowling was concerend about the pain and suffering of Edward and Tina Earley when they were shot and killed. And I'm SURE he was concerned about their two-year-old son that he also shot.

I say let 'em suffer.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Friday, September 21, 2007

Paw Shake

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

taffy This week it's Taffy with her thing about shaking hands.

When Sassy visited a few weeks back, I'd pilled out the camera and took some pictures of her and the rest of the kids when I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch Taffy shaking paws with my grandmother, not to mention Petey popping in and trying to lick her hand by the looks of things.

This is the picture that I planned on running last week, but Humberto had to come and screw with my plans.

As far as the lack of blogging this week, well all I can say is that I've been under the weather so it hasn't exactly been a priority of mine.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

The boldest prediction I've ever made

The Texans will finish the season 10-6.

Or better.

There.

I said it.

After seeing the way they've played today, I certainly think that it's doable.

If I'm wrong, I'll post a picture of myself naked on this blog.

What's that? You don't want to see it?

OK, fine, I won't post it.

I probably shouldn't put the world through seeing that horror anyway.

But I'll think of something humiliating to post.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Boy, that escalated quickly... I mean, that really got out of hand fast.

(If you don't know where that came from, watch this)

Welcome to this special Humberto edition of Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

IMG_1186  
Our front yard yesterday before Humberto paid us a visit. Click any photo in this post for a larger size.  

As I sit here at my computer listening to The Who, I thought I should write a nice, lengthy post about my experiences with Humberto.

As just about everybody else, I thought that Humberto wouldn't be any big deal at all. You know, just a lot of rain and maybe a little bit of wind.

  IMG_1188
  A long exposure shot from our front porch that night before things began to get nasty. There was a light rain and some wind, but nothing bad.

I was wrong. VERY wrong.

When the 10 PM advisory came out with 65 MPH winds I had a feeling that Humberto might become a hurricane. I mean, I'm no meteorologist, but I figured that since it had intensified by 30 MPH in twelve hours it had a shot at packing a little more power.

It was about 12:45 AM when I came across the information on the web about the storm being upgraded to a hurricane with 80 MPH winds.

When it came on shore just east of High Island at 2:00 AM it was packing 85 MPH winds. I started watching the local news outlets, who were doing wall-to-wall coverage of the storm making landfall, flipping channels a lot at first and then settling on one. About 3 AM, the radar they were showing indicated that the storm's eye was heading pretty much due north into Beaumont. About that time, the lights were starting to flicker and the power dropped for a few seconds a couple of times.

About 3:30, the power went out for good. Without the noise from the TV I could hear the wind and rain from the storm a lot better, and it was pretty loud, even downright scary at times. I found out later that the local storm report put out by the NWS showed a 74 MPH wind gust at a middle school about two miles from our house and that what we were experiencing at that time was a portion of the eye wall, as the eye passed just a few miles southeast of us.

A little before 5, I remembered that my Zune I bought back in February has an FM radio, so I plugged some headphones in it and scanned the radio to listen for news. Thankfully, all the ClearChannel stations were simulcastiong with their AM news-talk sister station, so I got to hear all the information.

IMG_1222  
Our front yard after the storm had passed. The pile by the street is of stuff that had already been gathered before I thought to get the camera out.  

When the storm let up enough, I checked around to see what the winds did and saw nothing but tons of leaves and limbs, though nothing terribly substantial was laying around on our property, then took a walk around the block to see if it was safe to walk the dogs. Since it was, we took all three of the kiddos for their morning walks. The mosquitoes were already pretty bad, and they're just going to get worse over the next week or so.

  IMG_1224
  Down the street, one of our neighbors got a lot more that fell than we did.

After the dogs got their walks, I helped out with the clean-up and then decided to walk around and take some pictures of the sights. I walked down the block and then across the LIT campus to see if the MLK underpass had flooded.

What a shocker, it did. The city had also already come out and blocked off the underpass, directing all traffic to the feeder roads.

IMG_1227  
STOP! There are limbs down in LIT's parking lot!  

After that walk around, I came home, settled down, and made some phone calls to family and friends to let them know that I was fine.

After that, I decided I needed some sleep and laid down until probably about 2 PM. It was about then we found out that the official word from the electric company on when we'd have power back was "by Tuesday."

  IMG_1228
  MLK blocked off at the underpass, though I'm really not sure if three orange barrels was the way to go here.

With that, we decided to get out the generator and hook up our fridge and deep freezer to avoid the stinky mess we came home to after Rita. To stay away from being too graphic, let's just say that I'd never smelled anything that bad in my entire life. We got the freezer cleaned but decided to let FEMA handle the fridge after my cousin offered us an extra one he had in the garage.

IMG_1229  
In this shot you can see the water collected in the underpass. I would have gotten closer, but the mosquitoes were about to carry me away.  

Anyways, we got started setting up the generator when we realized that we needed another extension cord or two to pull this off, so I got sent out to pick up some extension cords and find an open gas station to fill up our gas can. My car had a nearly full tank, so I offered to take someone else's car and get it filled up while I was out and my grandmother took me up on the offer.

  IMG_1233
  The lids to some trash cans lay in the LIT parking lot. I never saw the trash cans, which seemed odd since the cans always looked to be pretty heavy.

I had heard that morning that the downtown area had power, so I headed down MLK to a Shell station near downtown, thinking I'd probably have some luck there. There wasn't even a line! I just pulled right up to a pump, swiped my grandmother's debit card (she'd offered to pay for it since I was filling up her car) and filled everything up.

IMG_1234  
Another shot of the trash can lids... and a dumpster.  

When I got in the car, the fumes from the gas can in the backseat were getting to me, so I decided to drop that off. I set the gas can by the car and went in the house to make sure that the dogs weren't in the backyard. When I opened the door, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.

THE LAMP IN THE LIVING ROOM WAS ON!!!

Our electricity was back. Since there wasn't a dire need to get the extension cords anymore, I decided I was better off waiting than fighting off the throngs that would likely be at Home Depot looking for anything and everything.

So now life's pretty much back to normal. All that's really left is to rake up all the leaves in the front yard and get them out of the way.

Quick update on our status

We're fine.

We don't have any damage, just some limbs down.

We'd lost power for about 13 hours, but got it back on about an hour and a half ago.

More to come later . . .

Late-night Humberto Blogging

 
NOAA  
Humberto on radar. (Click to enlarge)  

For reasons beyond my control (besides the hurricane at my door), I'm having trouble sleeping tonight, so I thought I'd add a late-night post since we haven't lost power.

About 12:45 AM, I got the news on the web that Humberto had been upgraded to a category one hurricane with winds of 80 MPH. The NHC later reported that it came on shore just east of High Island about 2:00 AM with 85 MPH winds. It's looking like the strongest winds, which would be a bit weaker before they got here anyway, will pass just a few miles to my southeast.

Up until a couple hours ago, we'd just been getting light drizzle, but the rain is starting to pick up now, along with the winds. We shouldn't have the worst of our winds for another three to four hours.

Since I dug out my tripod, I thought I'd try setting up out on the porch and taking a few pictures with long exposures.


The end of my street through a telephoto lens at 1:39 AM.

I'm really not sure why I decided to take those pictures, I just thought they'd look cool honestly. I'll post a few more pictures later, if just because I loved how green they made our yard look.

There are scattered reports of power outages in the area, so I'm gonna wrap this up now so I can get it up if we lose our lights.

See y'all on the flip side.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Blogging may be light the next few days ...

Pro Poker player Humberto Brenes, NOT the Humberto I'm talking about here.

... depending on what Humberto decides to do.

He looks like he'll be little more than a rainmaker, but there's no telling, especially if it stalls out over us like some people seem to think it will.

If I don't post here, keep an eye on my Twitter page, as I'll try my best to post updates to it.

Ideally, Humberto turns out to be just a minor inconvenience and things are back to normal here soon.

Maybe even with some cool pictures.

Regular blogging will resume as soon as is humanly possible.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Linda C. Lee

(Re-posted from 9/11/06)


NOTE: In honor of the victims of 9/11, 2,996 was created as a tribute to the victims of that horrible day with the intentions of remembering the innocent victims and not their murderers. This is my small contribution.


Linda C. Lee was the kind of person that most of us (myself included) wish we could be.

She was a graduate of the University of Maryland, a senior associate at a financial services firm, and your friend, whether you knew it or not.

Friends describe her as having an amazing ability to make friendships and having the ability to make you feel like the most important person to her, wanting to know everything that's going on in your life.

She also loved adventure, often sneaking off to New York City for the weekend with friends while in high school. As they became young women, they would try to convince taxi drivers to let them drive.

At age 34, she was attending a technology conference at the World Trade Center when it was attacked.

Her memory will live on through the Linda C. Lee Memorial Scholarship at the University of Maryland, established by Jennison Associates LLC, her employer, and her friends and family.

Never forget

Six years ago, I was a Junior in high school. My Algebra II and Chemistry classes went like normal. As usual, I was the first person to make it into my third period class, newspaper. We were going to press the next day with our first issue of the year, so I was expecting a busy 55 minutes.

We had a sub that day because our adviser (teacher) was off at the school photographer's studio shooting the yearbook cover. She asked me if I could get something she had on the computer to print. I thought "Alright, no big deal. She's got an email or something." Then I sat down and saw what she had pulled up. It was a page on CNN.com. I don't recall exactly what was on the page, but I do remember a small image on the page of the explosion from one of the planes (probably the second) hitting one of the towers.

"Holy shit," I thought.

We went to press the next day as scheduled, just with a new lead story.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Monday, September 10, 2007

I'm calling you out. Yes, you K T.

Dear K T Cat,

Remember our friendly little wager this time last year?

Well, I was thinking about that yesterday when the Texans were beating up Kansas City.

Did you know that Mario Williams' 38-yard fumble return equals the amount of rushing yards that Reggie had the whole game against Indy? Not to mention the five tackles and two sacks.

But that's besides the point.

This year, the scheduling gods have smiled upon us and given us a matchup at Reliant Stadium on November 18th.

Here's what I was thinking...

Loser's side posts the winning team's logo on their blog. No explanation, just posting a logo that is a minimum 300 pixels wide.

Let me know if you're willing to subject yourself to the inevitable humiliation that will come from accepting this wager.

Sincerely,
Justin

P.S. Go Texans!

Saturday, September 08, 2007

A visitor

Meet Sassy.

Sassy's one of my mom's dogs. She's headed off for a weekend trip to New Orleans and asked us to watch Sassy since she's pregnant.

She's sort of like a much smaller version of another guy that's been on here.

Except that she doesn't bark at everything.