The right has no sense of irony

Rush Limbaugh turned himself in on drug charges yesterday in Florida. More precisely, he went to the D.A.'s office on felony charges of fraud in obtaining prescription drugs. Of course he seems to have no problem pleading out drug treatment in exchange for having the charges dropped.

After years of "zero tolerance" drug prosecution evangelism.

I guess faking illness or lying to obtain prescription drugs makes someone less of a scumbag than someone buying a dimebag of marijuana.

Pat Moynihan quote of the day

Pat Moynihan reality rule: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

Petitions!

This article has some good information about pending changes to the way that data travels over the pipes that feed the internet. MoveOn.org has more information and a petition that you can sign that will be delivered to your congress-people. Or you can write your congress person. Take the 5 minutes to do it - the free flow of information created the foundation for everything that makes the internet useful.

Cheers!

Bojangles the camera hog

What can I say about this picture that isn't self evident?

Coquette vs Cokehead

I just thought I'd follow up for funny-man Jason.

co·quette
n.
A woman who makes teasing sexual or romantic overtures; a flirt.

coke·head
n. Slang
A heavy user of cocaine.

(By the way, who else thinks it's make-me-cry kind of funny that dictionary.com has a definition for cokehead?)

Oh, did I forget to mention

That Devon saved another dog yesterday?

Yup she (and a group of people) got a dog who had been hit by a car to the doggie hospital. I'll have her relate the whole story later for your tearful entertainment, but as of this morning the hospital said the dog was resting comfortably (as in still alive).

Coworkers make or break a job

This is Joe. Joe is one of those coworkers who makes a job worthwhile.

Custom drinks menu

Devon had her bridal shower on Saturday and she (and the girls and Jake) had a really good time. I'll probably have Dev write up a short summary of events, but I had to post the drinks list for the evening. The theme was "Devon's Dreams and Cocktails" with Julie's house done up as a cocktail lounge. And here is the drink menu the hosts made:

The North Portland
Cranberry, Lime Juice and Vodka

Take a Hiketini
Apple Juice, Citrus and Vodka

Pina Chihuahua
Pomegranate Juice, Cane Sugar and Vodka

Sex on My Bike
Blueberry Juice, Cane Sugar and Vodka

Mutt Dive
Vodka and Club Soda

Bloody Macintosh
Red Wine - Cabernet or Shiraz

Long Way from LA
White Wine - Chardonnay

Miller Time
Lite Beer

O'David
Non-Alcoholic Beer

Stupid stupid Monday

It just figures that my back tire picks up a nice 1/4 inch long shard of glass on the way in to work this morning.

In the rain.

After I just replaced the inner tube with a brand new one.

I'm glad to know that Monday still does his job with vigor and enthusiasm.

One of the top movies of all time

Seven might honestly sit amongst the top movies ever produced by Hollywood. I watched it for the umpteenth time last night and this morning and every time I watch the film I'm captivated.

Friend of a friend

Co-worker and friend Mike Morgan has started his own site recently: ByteMike
He's using RapidWeaver to produce the site. He seems to like the program well enough but noted that the templates are a little tricky to modify. And he has to publish the page from his computer, he can't publish from anywhere (which means RapidWeaver doesn't really solve either of the problems that caused me to leave iWeb behind).

So check out his webpage and let him know what you think. (Or tell me and I'll forget to relay it to him).

Respect for the rule of law

Salon magazine posted an article about Tom DeLay that you will have to read to believe. Sheer ridiculousness.

Sometimes a flat is a flat

I've been riding a flat tire for a week.

Devon and I rode our bikes to the Oregon Zoo last Sunday and then rode them back home and had a really good time. And Monday morning I went to the garage to get on my bike to go to work and found that the rear tire had low pressure. So I added air to the tire and rode my bike to work. The work day finished and I went outside to ride home and found that the same tire had very low pressure again. So I pumped air into the tire using the bicycle pump that I keep at work for just these sorts of situations. And I rode home. And I pulled the inner tube out and tried to find the leak; I found a shard of glass but no hole in the inner tube. Twenty minutes later, no leak had been found.

No problem I thought, I'll just install my spare tube. But no, my spare tube turned out to a spare tube for Dev's mountain bike.

-sigh-

So I added pressure to the tire every morning and every evening this last week. And I got back and forth just fine, though with a little added inconveneince. I pulled the tube out of the tire today and started looking for the leak and finally found it after I overinflated the tube: one of the patches I had used months ago to patch the tire had an itty bitty leak right at it's edge. I didn't feel like placing a repair patch on top of a repair patch (diminishing returns and all that) so I finally ponied up and bought two new inner tubes at the local bike shop in St Johns.

Just like I should have on Monday.
Sometimes a flat is a flat and there's no reason to delay the inevitable.

No more Chrome Bag

I sold my Chrome Bags Citizen messenger bag last night. I loved it. Super tough and waterproof. Cool looking. But I found that I can't carry a real load in the bar or my shoulder starts to hurt something fierce. I can carry the loaded bag fine on my bike, but when I start to walk around I get about 10 minutes of grace before the throbbing starts.

And the bag just wasn't quite large enough. I always felt that I needed just a little more space. And given the pain induced by a fully loaded bag, I'm lucky that I didn't get a larger bag. Which could carry more stuff. Which could cause more pain.

So I'm using panniers almost exclusively until I decide if I want a backpack or not. Truly a rough life. -grin-

Happy Birthday to Me

Yes, yes, 34 years ago I decided to grace the planet with my presence.

Also, happy anniversary to my parents. They have lasted 36 years together, which is inspiring to all of us lesser mortals. I hope they last another 36!

Spring forward...really?!

Yesterday started well enough.

Dev and I got to sleep a little late and kind of moseyed through breakfast and walking the dogs. Then we decided to try a new bicycle ride out to the Oregon Zoo. The route only spans 11 and 1/2 miles, but the last 3 miles is a steady (and sometimes steep) climb. I felt like the climb up Fairview went rather well, but Dev wants to try going out along Sherwood next time. We arrived at the zoo with only a little rain and wandered through the primate house. The chimpanzees seems to like hanging out inside to avoid the looming clouds, but the rest of the gang seemed pretty evenly split between outside and in. After some coffee and strolling around, we climbed back onto the bicycles and rode the long downhill home (which, of course, is the best part of a long climb - screaming downhill back the way you came!) We rolled back into the house at about 2 P.M.

Or, at least, we thought it was 2 P.M.

We then proceeded to immediately move in high gear because we had forgotten to change the clocks in the house for Daylight Saving Time. We made it to our afternoon ballroom dance lesson at Ballroom Parkrose on time and learned a really fun part of the Rhumba. And we got to see at least two of our classmates roll in almost an hour late. Like we almost did.

Fun Sunday Dog Picture

Our neighbor's Catahoula, Lily, loves to burrow and dig and get to places that she should not. Terry had just finished planking the new fence between our yards, but he hadn't finished laying paving stones on the ground. The picture shows Lily shows digging a trench under the fence and then doing her best Steve McQueen impersonation. Moxie and Bojangles valiantly defended our yard, but soon gave way under the superior firepower of the opposition.