What a way to spend summer vacation

Pretty cool, huh? A mosaic of Ray Charles, made with Post-its. The artist, David Alvarez, spent a good part of the summer working on his masterpiece. Who knew that post-its could be an artistic medium? The complete story can be found at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/29/irpt.post.it.art/index.html

Too old for this

I'm tired. I completed that annual reminder of how exhausting and stressful high school can be. It was "back to school" night at K2's school. All those classes--every day, all day; the bells ringing, and only five minutes to get to the next class or be frowned on for being tardy. It's so hard!

OK, not really. I don't think I'd' really want to relive high school, even if that was an option, but it's fun to relive a little piece of it vicariously, once a year.

What goes around, comes around?

Yesterday, the president, in his press conference on Alberto Gonzalez's resignation, was critical of Gonzalez's critics. He accused them of dragging Mr. Gonzalez's good name through the mud.

Hm-m-m. US Attorney Carol Lam and the other fired USAs, having been forced out with little explanation, followed by the suggestion that they were not adequately peforming their jobs, might have something to say about good names being dragged through the mud. Just a thought.

The understatement of the millenium

I haven't watched Michael Jackson's Thiller video in years--maybe not since our Beta VCR broke (and the Thriller wedding video doesn't count). But we now have our own DVD of some of Michael Jackson's music videos including Thriller. MJ (my MJ) and I fell out laughing when at the beginning of Thriller, Jackson turns to his "date" and says, "I'm not like other guys." Ya think?

Thriller came out in the mid-1980s. If Jackson's statement is not the understatement of the millenium, I think it's at least in the top 10.

It's official

Summer is officially over. It may still be in the 90s, but that's not the gauge since it'll be this hot until November. It's not over because by Tuesday, everyone in school will be back in school.

How can I be sure that summer is officially over? All the good restaurants had long lines or long waits for lunch today. After trying three restaurants that had lines or waits longer than K4's tolerance, we finally settled on IHOP, with only a 10 minute wait.

Oh well. If not getting to eat at our first restaurant choice is the most I can complain about today, life ain't too bad.

Justice not entirely denied

It took 43 years, but finally, James Ford Seale has been called to account for the heinous crime he committed against two teens, as described in this article. How much hate and depravity must one have to be able to kidnap two hitchhiking teens, beat them, bind them, and toss the teens into the Mississippi River while they were still alive?

It's a miscarriage of justice that it took so long to try the case and obtain a conviction, in part because of the apparent collusion of law enforcement officers. Seale should have spent the better part of his adult life behind bars instead of enjoying whatever his degenerate life consisted of. Nonetheless, I can't think of a fate worse than spending the twilight of your life behind bars, knowing that you're almost certain to die in a prison hospital, deprived of the comfort of family and friends. Suffering from cancer and other problems, Seale is in pretty sad physical shape, but off to jail he goes, finally getting the justice he deserves.

Merry maids?

The people down the street apparently use Merry Maids. At least, there were a couple of the Merry Maids leaving their house, and I don't think they were burglarizing it. But the two women didn't act anything like the maids in the television ads. They weren't dancing, singing, or kicking up their heels with joyful shrieks at the thought of vacuuming.


D'ya think Merry Maids engages in deceptive advertising? If I had the inclination to hire a maid service, the ony reason I'd hire Merry Maids is to have someone who was gleeful about cleaning my house. If the maids aren't really merry, then what's the point?

This could have ended badly

The other night on Letterman, Dave's guest was Samuel L. Jackson. Sam (I can call him that), told a rather amusing story about diving head-first into a river of uncertain depth. Then they both laughed about firecrackers blowing up in people's hands, and other activities that easily could have ended very badly. I often refer to such youthful antics as "stupid boy stuff." If I mention it in class, I'm sure to catch at least one male student drifting off into his recollections of something from the past that was either very dangerous, bordering on criminal, actually criminal, or some combination thereof. The kind of thing that could have ended badly.

But it really isn't exclusive to men. After all, I've got my own "this could have ended badly" tale that Letterman reminded me of. When a senior in high school, I fell one full story. I could have broken bones, become paralyzed, or suffered some other dreadful consequence, but fortunately I walked away with not even a scratch or bruise.

Tony, my boyfriend off and on during high school, was a year ahead of me. Once he graduated, he promptly got his own apartment on the second floor of a two-story house, with an exterior staircase. For obvious reasons, I had pretty strict restrictions on my being there, including never being there without my mother knowing. I don't recall what I was supposed to be doing, but my plan was to stop by for a brief visit. Who'd even know I was there if I didn't stay long.

Tony and I started goofing around, taunting each other, when he picked me up, carried me to the outside landing, and threatened to throw me over the railing. Next thing I know, I was falling. That slow motion feeling really happens. I still vividly remember the thoughts that raced through my mind on the way down: "That idiot dropped me! I'm going to die, and my mother will find out that I was here. If I don't die, my mom is going to kill me when she finds out. I don't think I can hide a broken arm or leg. This is going to hurt."

When the dust cleared, we discovered that the 2d story landing had dry-rotted and given way under our combined weight. Lucky for me, I fell on top of Tony. Lucky for Tony, he suffered only bruised ribs. Lucky for both of us, the only lasting consequence was having to endure the retelling of our fall over and over again by our friend across the street who saw the whole thing and was literally rolling on the ground laughing.

Tony was okay. I was okay. But this could have ended badly.

A voice of reason

In an earlier post, I was very critical of the Southern Christian Leadership Council's plan to honor Michael Vick, which the SCLC has since reconsidered. I could be just as critical of the statement made by Rev. R. L. White, president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP. He said, "It is regrettable to us that Michael Vick had to settle for a plea bargain. All of us, the fans of Mr. Vick, had hoped for a more favorable outcome.”

Thankfully, this article provides an alternative view to that of Reverend White and the local NAACP chapter. I like that Dennis Courtland-Hayes, interrim president and CEO of the NAACP, stated clearly and unequivocally that, "Michael Vick is not a victim. He absolutely must account for what he has done."


I appreciate Courtland-Hayes' statements. His is a voice of reason.

Give me the night . . .

Today was Pepper's turn to visit the vet. He absolutely, positively hates being put in the cat carrier, but he has no choice in the matter. Wonderful. A cat suffering mental anguish, as evidenced by his distressed meows. Ah, but a little George Benson cured his distress.

Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast. Okay, it's the savage breast, and there's nothing really savage about our cat, but the music worked.

Homecoming

Yayy-y-y! K1 is home from her great camping adventure in the east. Overall, she had a pretty good experience.

She comforted homesick kids, discouraged campers from engaging in "mean girl" behavior, and didn't get eaten by the bear. She got to see America Ferrara who was filming a movie at the camp. She took time off in New York and Boston. She ate lots and lots of chicken. She sang lots of camp songs and yelled lots of camp cheers. She grieved with the campers in her bunk when one of the girls died in a freak accident. She met lots of parents and made lots of friends from around the world.

She learned lots about herself, and when you're her age, that's important. But I'm happy to have her home, even if only for a couple of days before she heads back to school.

Surviving tax-free weekend

Another tax-free weekend, whee! It's not as though it 's that big of a savings--$8 per $100, but it's the principle that counts. So like thousands of others, this weekend I'll join the throngs to buy new socks, underwear, pajamas, and school clothes for the Ks. Things that are most obvious on tax-free weekend:

1) There are way too many choices of socks and sizes. Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Russell, crew socks, ankle socks, no-show socks, extra-cushion socks and on and on.

2) There are way too many underwear choices for toddler boys. It's hard enough to decide between Sponge Bob, Superman, Transformers, Batman, Sesame Street, Spiderman, and Cars. Should you really have to decide on briefs, boxers, or boxer briefs for a 3 year old?

3) There are plenty of cold-weather clothes available, but not nearly enough choices of hot weather clothing. Hello. This is Texas. It won't be cooler than 95 until November.

4) Tax free weekend supplies yet another good excuse to shop for me! I need to buy new stuff now, while it's on sale, and tax-free.

5) Never ever, no matter what, take the kids shopping on tax-free weekend. To do so is to court disaster.

The perfect gift?

I received an e-mail today about the new Supreme Court coloring book. The ABA website includes this description: "This 32-page coloring book features expertly rendered illustrations depicting significant Supreme Court Justices of the United States to color in--including all current sitting Justices."

Hm-m-m. It's been awhile since I was legitimately "coloring book age," so maybe I'm not a good judge of these kinds of things. But is a coloring book, depicting lots of really old people likely to be appealing to the kid set? I like educational things for my kids, so there's something to be said for the concept, and maybe the connect the dot puzzles and other activities are really fun. I'll have to give some thought to whether to buy copies for the kids in my family.

Random thoughts on current commercials

The little kids asleep, I was just surfing the net, with the TV on in the background, when the Viva Viagra commercial came on. Each time I've seen it, I'm just flabbergasted. It's just too weird. Do guys really sit around singing about Viagra? Don't answer that; I don't want to know. But then I started thinking about other commercials that are memorable in some way or another.

Most annoying commercial: I think it might be a Cheerios commericial, but it's so annoying I switch channels when it plays. It's a family, at the breakfast table, tapping out some lame rhythm on their breakfast bowls, table, etc.,--a la Stomp. Not clever; annoying.

Cutest commercial with kids: the Bandaid commercial where two little kids (a boy and a girl) are singing, "I am stuck on Bandaid brand." The kids seem sweet without being cutesy.

Commercical most in need of Emily Post: the Texas PSA urging immunizations for whooping cough. Coughing into someone's ear and saying, "Pass it on" bothers me. Cover your mouth when you cough!

Commercials with the best announcer: The Whataburger commercials. "Whataburger. Just like you like it."

Favorite commercial currently (although a little creepy): the Jerry Jones/Papa Jones commercial. Any commerical where there's a rap song for an old guy can't be all bad. OK, I'll admit I laugh almost every time.

Happiness is a Warm Gun?

Maybe, but only if you've got a functioning iPod on which to listen to the song.

K2 has been in a low-grade funk for the past three weeks because his iPod had to go to the iPod doctor for repair. He carried on, but life for him just wasn't the same without his iPod, which is all but surgically attached to him. But alas, the Fed Ex man delivered K2's iPod today, and all is well in his world. Idon't know if any version of "Happiness" is on his iPod, but I think it'd be fair to say that for him, happiness is a working iPod.

Michael Vick/SCLC Update

Whether the Southern Christian Leadership Council has backed off or never intended to honor Michael Vick, this is good news. Yes, I just heaved a sigh of relief.

Serves the witch right

How bad must it hurt to have to forfeit a lottery ticket worth $1 million?

I hope it hurts like being stranded at the altar by your one true love, in front of hundreds of guests.

I hope it hurts like 99 splinters being shoved under your nails.

I hope it hurts like losing to your worst enemy.

I hope the woman described in this article hurts like hades. She bought the winning ticket with a stolen credit card.

As the victim of identity theft committed by a couple of witches who were never caught despite having chcarged thousands of dollars on my credit cards, I'm happy to see at least one thief get her comeuppance.

Capt. Obvious strikes again

I love when "research studies" reach obvious conclusions. And so it goes for a study by Stanford researchers that concluded that McDonald's marketing works, even on pre-schoolers. According to the study, preschoolers generally think that food in a McDonald's wrapper tastes better than the same food packaged in a plain wrapper. Well, duh! If you spend a billion dollars annually on marketing, you'd certainly hope that you could convince someone that your product is better than the one in the generic wrapper.

And if there was any doubt about how early the McDonald's brand takes root in the minds of little children, let me recall a story from K1's youth. A child who was not yet three at the time, K1 accompanied me and my friend, Wanda, as we were out and about shopping and doing miscellaneous girl stuff. I promised K1 that we would stop at the next McDonald's we saw to get her a Happy Meal, before returning to my conversation with Wanda. Just minutes later, K1 exclaimed, "McDonald's, McDonald's!" I scanned the freeway looking for a sign; Wanda searched for some indication of a McDonalds. Neither of us saw anything to suggest there was a nearby McDonald's. But K1 was insistent. Finally Wanda and I, by squinting, could see a golden dot, on the horizon, many miles ahead, which indeed appeared to be the golden arches. I saw first-hand the power of McDonald's marketing.

The Flim-flam game?

I think we were about to be scammed. We are thnking about doing some work in our kitchen, and work in the kitchen is never cheap. Being at the begining of the process, we thought we'd start by getting an estimate for refacing our cabinets. Thus we contacted a certain national home improvement provider (not Lowe's or Home Depot) and they promptly sent out a representative to take measurements and give a quote.

It was not been a pleasant experience. I wasn't (too) bothered by the fact that the rep plopped his big dirty sample bag on my kitchen table. I wasn't (too) bothered by a snarky comment he made. I was shocked by the quote. Our kitchen is not that big; we don't have that many cabinets. The quote for refacing--not replacement--nearly $20,000! But wait, he'd give us a 10% discount because it was "low season" and another 10% if we signed the contract on the initial visit. He informed us that "60% of his contacts" sign on the initial visit. Yeah, right. Not us. I think that was the flim.

Now the flam. Lo and behold, we got a call earlier today from this company, offering us a new opportunity. They could cut the price drastically. We just needed to meet with another rep., who would need to take new measurements. "Why should we be the beneficiaries of such a price reduction? Why didn't the first rep offer that deal to us before?" I asked. According to the guy on the phone, this was a new product, for which there were currently no "marketing costs " to be included in pricing the job, but come this time next year, the price would be much higher. The first rep didn't have access to this offer because he was a regional salesperson, rather than a corporate rep. Although the telephone guy would never provide specifics, the materials to be used were from the same company, of similar quality. Oh, okay.

What the "corporate rep" didn't know is that we now have more information. We in fact confirmed that the first quote was very inflated. Were we about to be scammed? I think so.

Countdown

You know football season is almost here when the football commercials start to run, and the Papa John's Cowboys Unlimited Offer becomes available again. The new Papa John's ad with Jerry Jones dancing is too funny. I haven't found a commercial that amusing since . . . well I can't remember when.

September 9. Thirty-four days and counting . . .

Summertime

Summer is for kids. Camp, swimming, ice cream, and long days outside.

K3 and K4 had a great time swimming at the Y this weekend. K4 finally conquered his fear of going through the downpour of the big, domed, rain thingy. Once he did, he wanted to do it over and over again. Now able to tread water, K3 can't be so bothered with the shallow pool. She wants to hang out mostly in the deep end, not to mention she's ready for the big time in the cannonball competition.

Summer--the time when I feel most like a kid again.

Thinking like the KKK

What's the difference between the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Ku Klux Klan? Less than what appears at first blush, if you consider the SCLC's plans to honor Michael Vick, as described in this article. Michael Vick has done nothing recently that deserves special recognition.

Does the SCLC, the same organization led by Martin Luther King, not subscribe to the concept, so eloquently stated by Dr. King, that we judge a man by the content of his character and not the color of his skin? Yet the SCLC, in choosing to honor Vick, rejects that concept for which so many fought, and for which some died.

No doubt, the SCLC would not bestow honors on Michael Vick but for the fact that he is an African-American. What particularly infuriates me is that I question whether the SCLC would bestow honors on Vick at all if had not been indicted for dog-fighting activities allegedly occurring on his property. This is not the basis for deciding who is worthy of respect.

Let me be perfectly clear: if the SCLC were simply criticizing Michael Vick detractors for having convicted him before he's had his day in court, I'm right there with them. I might even be in agreement about any criticism of the NFL's decision to restrict Vick from attending Falcons training camp. But having said that, one must look at the facts critically. It is a fact that evidence of dog-fighting activities was found on Vick's property. It is a fact that one of his acquaintances has already pleaded out and implicated Vick. It is a fact that dog-fighting is a brutal "sport" that appeals to the basest of human instinct.

One should consider what it means to "honor" someone. The dictionary definition of honor is to confer distinction; to holdin high respect. Moreover, one should remember what the SCLC supposedly stands for. According to its website, its focus is "To promote spiritual principles within our membership and local communities; to educate youth and adults in the areas of personal responsibility, leadership potential, and community service; to ensure economic justice and civil rights in the areas of discrimination and affirmative action; and to eradicate environmental classism and racism wherever it exists."

Help me out here: where exactly does honoring Michael fit within the professed focus of the SCLC? What aspect of dog fighting (assuming it was occurring) is Christian? There are simply too many individuals worthy of honor by the SCLC to select one who is tainted by the allegations such as those contained in the indictment. If Michael Vick should ultimately be found innocent, after having comported himself with aplomb and dignity, then by all means, honor him then. At least there will be a basis for doing so. But while he remains under a cloud of suspicion, supported by evidence of wrongdoing, now is not the time to sully the name of the SCLC or dilute the values for which it professes to stand.

The KKK's standard operating procedure is to judge people solely by the color of the skin. I'd expect better from the SCLC.

The ultimate kick in the pants?

First the judge loses his $54 million dollar lawsuit over his lost pants, now he may lose his job. A judge without common sense should not be a judge, and this judge seems to be severely deficient, as suggested in this article. Maybe there is justice in the universe.

Minneapolis tragedy

The banner "Breaking News" is so often plastered across cable news networks and internet news sites, that its use is often a misuse: "Paris released from jail." "Paris returned to jail." "Paris released from jail."

Tonight, there really was breaking news. The Minneapolis bridge collapse is defies description. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.