And here's the "cat".

Here's Emily, Matt, and the Emmy.

Fun time at Connor's 12th BDay. Lots of other 12 year old boys (no girls). Guess it was a 48 hr party. Josh and Jessie came down for the event, and it was nice seeing them again!

And, Josh brought his newest rifle: the Ruger 5R556, a gas piston driven assault rifle, made in the USA. He brought other weapons: a hand gun, which was very light weight; the RPK M72 ... made in Yugoslavia; and a Springfield XD, which has an American brand, but is actually made in Czechoslovakia. I am just getting into rifles, as out Sea Cadets will do a 3 day training in November, at the local shooting range.

HOW TO CALL THE POLICE WHEN YOU'RE OLD AND DON'T MOVE FAST ANYMORE.

George Phillips, an elderly man, from Meridian, Mississippi, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" He said "No," but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me. Then the police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available." George said, "Okay."

He hung up the phone and counted to 30. Then he phoned the police again. "Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot them." and he hung up.

Within five minutes, six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence, and caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to George, "I thought you said that you'd shot them!" George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"

The moral to this story: Don't mess with old people!

I have been on this cleaning spree ... since May. It is a slow process, because of my OCD need to re-organize, move, clean, paint, throw out, give away, etc. just about everything. Today, I came across something I had written about my father's family. This was done as an assignment for a Family Therapy class I took in 1989 (BTW, this was probably my favorite class). Sayings from this paper, my father: "I was pressured to excel. I graduated from high school at age 16 and from college at age 20. I always put my efforts into my career and hard work." From my father's father (the successful businessman): "Pay your honest debts even if it takes the shirt off your back." From my father's brother (the jazz musician): "Never say I can't".

OK, while I was being pissed off today, I decided to take on Qwest and the people I work for. Basically, I won w Qwest and they will refund $, and my issues at work have been resolved (I hope).

Obama and the Snake

This is a story I heard in AA. A man is walking down the road and he meets a snake. The snake says, "I'm so cold. Please pick me up so I can be warm." The man says, "I can't pick you up. I know what you do. You are posionous and will bite and kill me." The snake says, "I promise I won't bite. I've changed." The man picks up the snake and the snake bites him. The man, with his last dying breath, says, "You promised you wouldn't bite." The snake says, "You knew who I was when you picked me up."

So what can I say? How stupid, stupid can Americans be? They picked up this snake and are now bit!