Paris Responds to McCain Ad

I just saw a Paris Hilton video on Countdown where she responds to McCain's ad. She actually comes across a lot smarter than McCain and the ad is certainly better than anything his campaign has put out. She has a better energy plan too.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d

Fred Phelps

Fred Phelps' church, Westboro Baptist, in Topeka Kansas had a fire that caused $10,000 worth of damage. They think it was intentionally set.
This is the church whose members picket military funerals blaming the deaths of the soldiers on our tolerance of homosexuality. Some of the signs they carry say things like: Thank God for IED's, Fag sin=9-11, Thank God for dead soldiers, and Fags die, God laughs.
So is God now punishing Fred Phelps and his "church" for his beliefs and actions? Did God intentionally set the fire?
Jerry Falwell blamed Katrina on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, and lesbians. Apparently God is pissed because these people are turning America into a secular country.
John Hagee said basically the same thing.
I know I don't like it when people try to speak for me or tell people how I feel or what I think. I wonder if God feels the same way.

Barack Obama’s Birthday

Today is Barack Obama's 47th birthday. Follow this link and find out what you might win if you donate something by midnight tonight: Barack Obama’s Birthday

Posted using ShareThis

I made the cake with The Generator Blog http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/

Facebook

After hearing Stephen Abram (Stephen's Lighthouse)http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/ speak at the Library 2.0 workshop I attended a week ago, I was convinced that I should sign up for one of the social networking sites although I can't remember why. Yesterday Facebook showed up as number 106 on the blog Stuff White People Like http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ That was all the convincing I needed and last night I signed up for my own account. I haven't added much to it in the way of personal information but I'm there. I searched my niece Erin and asked her to be my friend but haven't heard back. She may still be in Madagascar or she may have too many friends already.

The Daily Kos has some maps on the state of the presidential race based on the latest poll numbers: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/1/12401/40833

Calle Vienna has an interesting post on the McCain ad that compares Obama to Paris and Britney: http://michilines.wordpress.com/
It seems that the Hiltons are not very happy about Paris appearing in the ad as they are big McCain supporters. Poor McCain can't seem to get anything right.

Obama is proposing a $1,000 emergency rebate check funded by a windfalls profit tax on big oil. I wonder how long it will take McCain to steal this idea.

Houston Hide From the Wind

The city has a pretty neat tool on their website for predicting wind during a hurricane based on zip codes. When I looked at my zip it told me that the maximum sustained wind would be under 50 mph and that I am not in an evacuation zone. It also give the maximum sustained wind for 6 hurricanes going back to 1900.
http://www.houstonhidefromthewind.org/

There is a wonderful interview with Barack and Michelle Obama in People magazine. Here is the link: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20214569_1,00.html

I am so looking forward to having this wonderful family in the White House.

The picture is from People magazine.

"Mr. President, we will be forever in your debt"

When bush took office in 2001 he inherited a budget surplus of 128 billion. When he leaves office he will leave a 428 billion dollar deficit. Representative Rahm Emanuel took a jab at bush when he said "Mr President, we will be forever in your debt."
When are people going to wake up and stop electing these idiot republicans? Every time one of them gets in they screw up the economy and the country and then a democrat has to come in and fix it. Bush has screwed the country so bad this time even Obama may not be able to fix it. But of course he will be blamed. Obama is already being blamed by the McCain camp for high gasoline prices.

HGTV's Design Star

Last night was the finale of HGTV's Design Star. The two finalists Jennifer and Matt were sent to New Orleans to design rooms for 2 families whose homes were destroyed by Katrina. Viewers get to vote on the winning design. I liked them both but am leaning towards Matt.

The best part of the show came at the end when the St. Augustine marching band, The Purple Knights, marched up the street playing When the Saints Go Marching In. The St. Augustine band is the best High School marching band in New Orleans and probably the best in the United States. Seeing them march was always the best part of any Mardi Gras Parade and I'm glad they're still around.

Kitirik

When I was growing up in Houston in the 1950's one of my favorite shows on TV was Kitirik's Carousel. The show was on Channel 13, KTRK. They came up with the name by putting the letter i in between the station's letters (KiTiRiK). Kitirik's real name was Bunny Orsak and she was 23 when she got the job in 1954. Her mother made her cat costume. The show had a studio audience but if it was your birthday you got to go on stage and meet her. I absolutely loved her and when I was 5 I got to be on the show. Here is a picture from that day, one that I will never forget. I also found some other pictures of her that I've included.

Here is a link to an article about the show: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=resources/inside_station/station_info&id=3300775

If you haven't seen Obama's speech in Germany here is a link: http://my.barackobama.com/berlinvideo
I had seen little snippets on the news but this morning on C-SPAN I was able to see almost the entire speech. He spoke in front of a crowd of over 200,000 people, many waving American flags, none of them burning. I didn't think the US would ever recover from bush, at least in my lifetime, but after seeing the response to Obama in Europe I feel very optimistic.

Chicken Fat in Lay's Potato Crisps

I had to stop at Randalls on my way home yesterday afternoon and because I was hungry decided to get a bag of chips. Because of my diet I decided to get the Baked Lay's BBQ crisps. I didn't look at the label. When I got home I did look at the label and discovered chicken fat as one of the ingredients. Why on earth do potato chips/crisps have chicken fat? Fortunately I hadn't opened the bag so I can return them. That's why I shop at Whole Foods. I never buy something there and later discover some animal product hidden in the list of ingredients.

McCain's Flip-Flops

1) Was against the Bush tax cuts; now is for making them permanent and even bigger.
2) Was against the GI Bill; now is for the GI Bill.
3) Was for immigration reform; now is against immigration reform - and repudiated his own prior position on immigration reform.
4) Opposed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill - which had his name on it.
5) Was for gay marriage, and then opposed gay marriage.
6) Was for Roe v. Wade, then was against Roe v. Wade; then for it, sort of; then against it, sort of.
7) Was for storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain; then was against it.
8) In 2000 was for military action against rogue states; now is against it, EXCEPT for Iran….which he sings about bombing and says it's good to sell them cigarettes so we can kill them.
9) Negotiating with North Korea; was against it; then for it, especially when Bush did it.
10) Negotiating with Castro's Cuba - in 2000 was for it, now against it.
11) No negotiating with terrorists except when Colin Powell went to Syria in 2002 and when, in 2006, said we'd eventually have to deal with Hamas.
12) Unilateral military action against terrorists in Pakistan - against it when Obama said it was good; for it when Bush did it in the spring of 2008.
13) Warrantless wiretaps - against them 6 months ago; for them now.
14) Torturing detainees - always against it; since he was tortured he should know. Now, in favor of torturing detainees.
15) Perpetual detention of detainees - bad a few years ago, good now.
16) Iraq - the right course in 2004; stay the course in 2005 and now he was always against the flawed strategy - especially when Rumsfeld was there.
17) Estate tax - for it in 2006; against it now.
18) 2004 - for privatizing Social Security; 2008 against privatizing Social.
19) February 2008 promised a balanced budget in 4 years. April 2008 said it will take 8 years. June 2008…..back to 4 years. [And, since he is now for the Bush tax cuts, balancing the budget EVER will be impossible.]
20) In 2008 - first glad to look at oil windfall profits tax; then it's a bad idea - Jimmy Carter's bad idea.
21) In 2000 - no new offshore oil drilling; now, just very recently, it's a great idea.
22) In 2000 - attacked Bush fundraising leaders; in 2006 had some of the same people co-chair his own fundraisers.
23) In 2000 - Jerry Falwell was an "agent of intolerance"; in 2006 McCain delivered the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University and in 2008 McCain was big buddies with Rev. Hagee and Pastor Parsley.
24) Opposed and voted against the Martin Luther King holiday; now says he was for it.
25) 1986 - opposed South African divestment to attack apartheid; June 2008, praised it.
26) In 2000 - defended South Carolina's Confederate flag as a symbol of heritage; in 2002 said it should come down and it was an "act of political cowardice to not take it down."
27) 2000 - against teaching creationism in schools; 2005 - alternatives to evolution should be taught.

This is from the Ed Schultz website. Thanks to LibraryLioness8 for sending me the link. http://www.wegoted.com/news/detail.asp?newsID=268

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

Former LA prosecutor and author Vincent Bugliosi has written a new book called The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. In it he makes the case for trying Bush for the deaths of 4,000+ American soldiers because he took the United States into a war with Iraq under false pretenses. HCPL has this book on order.
Vincent Bugliosi is probably best known for his successful prosecution of Charles Manson and his "family" for the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969.
He later wrote a bestselling book, Helter Skelter, about the trial. He is also the author of the book Outrage about the O.J. Simpson trial and a book The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose our President, as well as several other books.

Walk Score

Walk Score http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/ehas rated San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington D.C., Long Beach California, Los Angeles and Portland Oregon as the top 10 most walkable cities in the U.S. There is also a place where you can look up how your neighborhood scores. Houston is number 26 on the list if you live in Montrose, River Oaks, or downtown. I live between River Oaks and Montrose and this wasn't a big surprise. If I didn't have to work I could easily live without a car. My area is becoming more and more urban everyday with lots of shops and restaurants in easy walking distance of my home.

Corrupting Young Minds (with books) in the Library

Here is a link to something I read on The Shifted Librarian . It says a lot of the same things Stephen Abram said at the Library 2.0 workshop last week.
http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2008/07/17/corrupting-young-minds-with-books-in-the-library.html

From The Daily Kos

The McCain campaign must be really desperate. In an attempt to distance McCain from Bush, they are not only attacking Bush but now saying that Obama is like Bush. From a foreign policy advisor for the McCain campaign: "I think the American people have had enough of inflexibility and stubbornness in national security policy...We cannot afford to replace one administration that refused for too long to acknowledge failure in Iraq with a candidate that refuses to acknowledge success in Iraq. "

And if that wasn't enough, on Friday at a fundraiser, McCain announced details of Obama's trip to Iraq "I believe that either today or tomorrow, and I'm not privy to his schedule, Sen. Obama will be landing in Iraq with some other senators."

Details like this are always kept secret for security reasons. DUH.

The Incredible Shrinking Technical Services Department

While other libraries across the country are experiencing budget and staff cuts, the technical services area at HCPL is experiencing another kind of loss. In the last 2 years we have lost about 150 lbs., or, the equivalent of one person in weight!

Tony Snow

This is by Richard and is from the American Leftist blog http://amleft.blogspot.com/ He says exactly what I wanted to say but didn't have the nerve to.

"Over the weekend, I heard that Tony Snow, Bush's former press secretary and FOX News commentator, had died from cancer. Is it such a terrible thing to note that his major achievement was propagandizing for the killing of Iraqis, and then, after we started doing it, perpetually justifying it? He maligned those who questioned the conflict as traitors and defeatists. He was a stereotypical example of a sort of perverse professionalism whereby anything that promotes your career, no matter its consequences for others, is considered smart, hardnosed and admirable. One would like to believe that his death induced some reflection about what it means to lose a loved one amongst his friends and family, a flash of recognition that the Iraqis that he so cynically exploited experience death as painfully as them. Perhaps, they even felt discomfort at the attention his death received while Iraqis, for the most part, have died anonymously. But I doubt it."

One Way to Beat the Houston Heat

I've been trying really hard this summer to keep my electric bill low and it's paying off. Yesterday I got my bill and it was $90. Last month it was $85. I keep the thermostat at 79 and use fans and most of the time the house is comfortable. When I finish my last dog walk in the evening I usually take a cold shower to cool off and that helps. Last night Channel 11 did a report on electricity and said that Texans pays 2x what other states pay for electricity. I would really like to know why. It's supposeed to be in the high 90's all weekend with no rain so I'm sure even keeping the house 79 will require a lot of AC but as long as I can keep the bill under $150 I'll be happy.

On July 9, in an interview with The Washington Times, Phil Gramm, one of John McCain's top economic advisors had this to say about the economy "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," and "We have sort of become a nation of whiners, you just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."
The DNC is referring to him as "Out of Touch Much, Phil" and McCain is distancing himself from his comments. I don't think McCain is evil like the Bush family but I do think he is totally out of touch with working class Americans. If one of his top advisors doesn't see a problem with the economy I don't see how McCain and his advisors can be expected to fix the problem if elected. It's also very insensitive to have a member of your family run up a 750,000 AMEX bill as Cindy McCain did in a one month period earlier this year, at a time when so many people are suffering from soaring oil prices, the loss of their homes from the mortgage crisis and the loss of jobs. I know it's her money and she can spend it any way she chooses but it just seems pretty insensitive to me.
Another top advisor and possible running mate for McCain, "Victory Chairman" Carly Fiorini, is also causing trouble for McCain. At a press breakfast recently she questioned why insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth-control medications and said twice, for emphasis, that "those women would like a choice." According to NARAL, McCain has voted 22 times against family planning. Included in this is his vote against a proposal that would require insurance companies to cover the cost of contraception. He doesn't seem to remember anything about this however. Look at this YouTube video to see his reaction when questioned about this. It almost makes you feel sorry for him in the same way you might feel sorry for an aging parent or grandparent who is losing his or her memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkQDbfF4RqA

Pets and the Presidential Election

I did a blog a few months ago about all the presidential candidate's pets. At the time, Obama had none and McCain had the most (24). New polls show that pet owners prefer McCain over Obama 42 to 37 percent. Obama leads McCain in homes that don't have pets 48 to 34 percent. I usually prefer pet owners over non pet owners but have made an exception in Obama's case. What I would really prefer is a person who has lots of animals and doesn't eat any. Kucinich is the only politician I know who falls in that category.
The good news is that Obama has promised to get a dog after the election is over. Because one of his daughters has an allergy to dog dander, their choice of dogs is limited to a few. The AKC has recommended 5 different breeds and has a place on their web site where you can vote on which one you prefer for the Obama family. Here is a link:
http://www.akc.org/poll/special/presidential.cfm

Another reason to move to Canada

According to a study by the Climate Change Risk Report, Canada is the country that is best prepared to deal with the effects of climate change. The study looked at 168 countries and determined which countries were the best and worst in terms of dealing with changes brought on by climate change, rather than countries that will be the most affected by climate change.
Canada is number one followed by Ireland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. The US is number 11 followed by the UK.
8 of the 10 most vulnerable countries are in Africa with the Comoros Islands number 1 followed by Somalia and Burundi. 5 non-African countries in the top 20 are Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti, Pakistan, and Nepal.
Factors looked at in determining the ratings were: the economy; natural resources and ecosystems; poverty, development and health; agriculture; population, settlement and infrastructure; and, institutions, governance and social capital.
The Comoros and Chad also scored lowest on the report's index of CO2 emmissions which means that the countries most likely to suffer were also the countries the least likely to have caused the problems. How typical.

Hello from home

I have internet access at home now! I just hooked everything up and am doing this entry on my new super girly pink flamingo Dell laptop. It's supposed to be wireless but right now I'm still attached.
Update: I am wireless! I'm in my living room on my computer!

Rosie at the Pug Meetup

Rosie and I went to the pug meetup at the Danny Jackson Dog Park on Saturday morning. Miss Grimm was also there with "Big Bubba" and her pug Bubba. Rosie had a good time meeting all the other pugs and their people and swimming in the pool.

Roku Box and the incredible squirting toilet

I got this from Cool Tools blog:

"The Roku box from Netflix allows you to watch movies on your TV whenever you want to, for no extra charge, in DVD quality. It is a tiny thing that sets up in a few minutes. If you have wi-fi in your household it will link up to that so you can put the box near your TV. For achieving such a complex task it has a remarkably simple interface and no-fuss approach, very similar to an iPod. We were watching a movie within ten minutes of opening the shipping box." There is more information here: http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer/order-now/

Also from Cool Tools, the Toto Washlet Toilet. The seat, which will fit most toilets, has a sprayer that cleans you after you go. Some models even come with a dryer, thus eliminating the need for toilet paper. More advanced models will automatically raise their lids when you approach. You can read the Cool Tool blogger's experience with the toilet seat here:

http://www.bloglines.com/preview?siteid=28834&itemid=1396

Eggplant Parmesan

Since I only cook about once a year I thought I should document it. A friend of mine gave me a whole grocery bag of vegetable including several eggplants and some wonderful tomatoes so I decided to make Eggplant Parmesan. I bought some seasoned breadcrumbs from Whole Foods and used Parmesan and Romano cheese. First I breaded the eggplant slices in eggs, breadcrumbs and Parmesan and then I fried them in olive oil. After this was done I made a nice tomato sauce out of the fresh tomatoes, several cloves of garlic, basil and some other spices. Then I layered the eggplant in a Pyrex dish with cheese in between the layers. After that I poured the tomato sauce on top, and topped it off with some of the breadcrumbs and more cheese. I then baked it for 30 minutes. The dogs were very eager to help so I gave them the leftover eggs with a little cheese. It turned out really great and I made about 5 meals out of it.

Sleeping pug

Ignoring Bush video

I love this video. I first saw it on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
George Bush arrives in Raleigh, N.C. waves at spectators, they don't wave back. Waves again, still no wave back. At least they didn't give him the finger. Ignoring him is probably a better insult anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O42muyE2Wqc

The USPS has issued a commemorative sheet of stamps honoring Charles and Ray Eames, the husband and wife design team probably best know for their Eames lounge chair and ottoman. I would love to have one of these chairs but will have to settle for the stamps.

Encyclopedia Baracktannica

On Saturday, McCain met with former supporters of Hillary Clinton in an attempt to get their votes. One of the key organizers of the meeting was Paula Abeles. In 2003, Paula Abeles along with her husband Nat Abeles led an attempt to keep the descendants of Sally Hemmings from attending a gathering at the Monticello Association, an organization made up of descendants of Thomas Jefferson.
Here is the AP report about the incident from 2003:

The wife of a Thomas Jefferson family association official said Friday that she masqueraded as a 67-year-old black woman on an Internet chat room in a bid to keep descendants of a reputed Jefferson mistress out of this weekend's family reunion."It might have been somewhat unethical," said Paulie Abeles of Washington, D.C., who participated for eight months in the Yahoo! message board created for relatives of Jefferson slave Sally Hemings."It might have been childish, but I really think I was working in the best interest of the majority of the family members to make the reunion a calm and civilized gathering," she said.

Michelle Obama's Shortbread Cookies

In the last 4 presidential elections, readers of Family Circle Magazine have successfully predicted who the winner will be based on the winning recipe submitted by the spouses of the candidates. This year Cindy McCain has submitted a recipe for Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies and Michell Obama has submitted a recipe for Shortbread cookies. Because I'm an Obama supporter I'll include her recipe here. If you want to see McCain's you can go to the Family Circle Magazine website http://www.familycircle.com/

You can also register and vote on your favorite and look at recipes from past campaigns

Michelle Obama's Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons Amaretto (almond liqueur)
1 teaspoon each orange and lemon zest
3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg white
Chopped nuts or dried fruit (optional)

Directions
1. Heat oven to 325 degree F. Line a 17 x 12 x 1-inch baking pan with nonstick foil. In large bowl, cream together butter and 1-1/2 cups of the sugar.
2. Slowly add egg yolks, and beat well until smooth. Beat in Amaretto and zest.
3. Stir in flour and salt until combined.
4. Spread dough evenly into prepared pan, flattening as smoothly as possible.
5. Brush top of dough with egg white; sprinkle with nuts or fruit (if using) and with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
6. Bake at 325 degree F for 25 minutes or until brown, turn off oven and allow cookies to sit in oven (with door ajar) for 15 minutes. Cut while slightly warm.

How rich are you?

Here is a pretty interesting website where you enter the amount of money you make and it tells you and shows you on a graph where you rank in the work in terms of wealth. I was pretty surprised by my ranking (the 277,391,305 richest person in the world) since I don't consider myself particularly rich.
http://globalrichlist.com/

The reason for the website:
"We are obsessed with wealth. But we gauge how rich we are by looking upwards at those who have more than us. This makes us feel poor.
We wanted to do something which would help people understand, in real terms, where they stand globally. And make us realise that in fact most of us (who are able to view this web page) are in the privileged minority.
We want people to feel rich. And give some of their extra money to a worthwhile charity."

Thanks to NV for sending me the link to this website.

Another Dad Picture

Here is another picture I took of my dad sleeping in his favorite recliner with my daughter Tam and Smokey

My Dad, Bill LeGrand

My dad was born in Houston, Texas on May 5, 1916. His mother was Sarah Effie Meads and his father was Henry Fain LeGrand. He spent his childhood in Houston and Bryan and after graduating from high school enrolled at Texas A & M where he received a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering. In 1940 he started working for Gulf Oil and he continued to work for them until he retired in 1978.
I didn't have a really close relationship with him as a child but we became closer after my mother died, and had a really good relationship when I became an adult, especially after my daughter Tamara was born. He really adored her and they spent a lot of time together when she had breaks from school. Today she works in the same industry he worked in and I think that would have made him very happy. He would have been really happy if any of his grandchildren had gone to A & M
but none of them did. He absolutely loved A & M and attended all of their football games with his friends Joe and Jesse.
After my mom died he had to start cooking for us and became a wonderful cook. Everybody in my family remembers how wonderful some of his meals were especially his spaghetti and meatballs.
He loved water and fishing and after he retired built a house on Lake Livingston. He also built a lot of the furniture that was in the house. He could build just about anything . He enjoyed taking his boat out on the water at sunset or sitting on his deck sipping his scotch and soda.
He also loved cats and always had at least one. When I was in high school we adopted a gray kitten named Smokey from the SPCA and he kept her for many years and even had an oil painting done of her which I still have. He also had several strays who adopted him over the years including a black cat he named Shadow, because she followed him everywhere, and a gray Tom who called my dad meow (that was his joke).
He died on June 6, 1998 from complications from a stroke he had had over a year earlier. The stroke left him partially paralyzed and he was very unhappy, so his death was a relief, but I still miss him, especially on Father Day.

Michelle Obama

Pictures of Michelle Obama were recently displayed on Fox News or Fixed News as Keith Olbermann calls them, referring to her as Obama's Baby Mama. When I first saw this I figured it had to be derogatory since it was on Fox but I didn't know what it meant. According to urbandictionary.com "baby mama" is an unmarried woman with whom you had children and are not otherwise involved with. This is not what you call a man's wife, or even a girlfriend.

Joan Walsh writes in Salon "Are they racist, or just clueless? Isn't there racism even in their cluelessness, if somebody didn't know what "baby mama" means, but used it anyway? Even at Fox, won't somebody have to apologize?"

No one will apologize or lose their job over this and Fox will continue to slander the Obama's. They can't come up with any real criticism so have to stoop to racism.

Latest Poll Numbers

These numbers were taken from polls conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal and reported last night on Countdown with Keith Olberman.



Overall Obama is leading McCain 47% to 41%.

Obama is also leading in all of these groups:

Independents 41 to 36

Blue Collar 47 to 42

Catholics 47 to 40

Women 52 to 33

Latinos 62 to 28



I'm feeling hopeful. It will be so wonderful to have an intelligent, articulate person in the White House.

Bush's Farewell Trip to Yurp

Steve Bell, a cartoonist for the British paper The Guardian, is one of my favorites, especially when his subject is GWB.

Bush is on a week-long farewell tour to Slovenia, Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain. I'm sure they are happy this is his last trip.

John McCain -- Lost in Space

Here is a link to a video of John McCain done by Brasscheck TV:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/325.html

I don't think McCain is an evil person like bush but can we stand another 4 years with a president who can't keep his lies straight?

Games

Here is a link to an addicting game: http://oos.moxiecode.com/examples/reflex/

And another one called Note Pad Invaders: http://www2.b3ta.com/notepadinvaders/

Here's one called Save Fred the Bunny: http://www.10mg.nl/

If anyone can figure the last one out let me know.

Another cute picture of Rosie and Ginger

National Donut Day

The first Friday in June is National Donut Day. It was officially established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much needed funds because of the depression.
Donut trivia:
More than 10 billion donuts are produced in the US every year and it is a 3.6 billion dollar industry.
Canada has more donut shops per capita than any other country in the world.
The hole appeared in the center in the 1st half of the 19th century. The purpose of the hole is to help it cook move evenly.
Adolph Levitt invented the 1st donut machine in 1920.

The official Library of Congress heading is Doughnuts and the call number is 641.865 (Dewey) or TX770.D67 (LC)

The pictures are of the cataloging and processing departments at HCPL celebrating National Donut Day.

Pictures

Here are some pictures I took of my new car and my really cute pups. There is an Obama bumper sticker on the car.

Libraries and Wireless Internet

After complaints of headaches, weakness, stress, balance, and eye problems by the staff, four libraries in Paris have turned off their wireless Internet access. Library workers in the U.S. and Canada have also expressed concern about wireless networks. The director of the library at Southwestern College in Santa Fe left her job last year because of insomnia which she attributes to the wireless network in the library, and the president of Lakehead University in Ontario has prohibited his university from installing a wireless network on campus because of concerns over the health of the students. I have heard about the dangers of living near power lines for years and the dangers of constant cell phone use so this doesn't really surprise me.
This information comes from The Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/and The Connection http://www.connectionfrance.com

Acai

I became aware of Acai (ah-sigh-ee) a few years ago when I noticed it as an ingredient in the mango tea I drink by Honest Tea. Acai berries, which are grown in the Amazon, have more antioxidants than blueberries and pomegranates and more anthocyanins (good for the heart) than red wine. They’re also rich in protein and dietary fiber and have high levels of Omega-3, 6, and 9 fatty acids. Of course, the less processing the better and today I found a company that sells the berries as unprocessed as possible. The company is http://www.ezoetic.com/

There is a lot on information on their web site about Acai, including how to order, why it's good for the Amazon, and some yummy recipes. I may check with Whole Foods to see if they are selling the product or will sell it as that would be a lot easier.

A Painless Root Canal!

On Friday I went to my dentist to have a root canal. After 2 hours of unsuccessful drilling, he sent me to a specialist. I was supposed to see the specialist on Wednesday but called Saturday morning to see if I could get an earlier appointment. Anyway, yesterday a wonderful endodontist, James C. Morrison, Jr., DMD at Greater Houston Endodontics on Woodway was able to do the root canal and I had no pain. I was totally relaxed and was surprised when it was over because I never felt a thing. His office staff was great too. He reminded me a little of Michael Knight from season 3 of Project Runway. I could be all wrong about this because it's all a fog and I couldn't find a picture of him online but that's the impression I have. It doesn't really matter what he looks like anyway because he is a dental genius but of course looking good never hurts. I still have a lot more work to do but this was the worst of it. All of my fillings are 20-40+ years old and need to be replaced. The total will be about 4,000 but my insurance will pay about 1700.
While all of this was going on I was watching MSNBC with the volume turned up really loud so as not to hear the drill. There was a lot of speculation about HRC dropping out of the race, finally. Bill C. had made some comments hinting at that earlier in the day and so had HRC to her staff. BREAKING NEWS: She will concede tonight! Anyone who knows me or reads this blog will know how happy this makes me.

Move On www.moveon.org started a petition in response to Scott McClellan's book that reads: "People who helped lie this country into an unnecessary war should not be rewarded for it. Scott McClellan should donate all the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans--like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America."
Today on Meet the Press, Scott announced that a portion of the profits from his book will go to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

55

Here is some trivia about the number 55 from Wikipedia:


55 delegates attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
There are 55 gallons in a drum containing liquid.
55 was the highest speed limit allowed in the US between 1974 and 1986.
In years of marriage, 55 is the emerald wedding anniversary.
55 is restaurant slang for root beer.
In 1973, Spiro Agnew, resigned the Vice Presidency at age 55.
55 is the atomic number of caesium.
The number 55 is also know as double-nickles in the gambling world.



The number 55 can also be written as fifty-five (Cardinal), LV (Roman) and 110111 (Binary)

Famous people who will turn 55 this month: John Edwards, Tim Allen, Cyndi Lauper, and fourdogmom.