Friday, May 20, 2005

Happy Birthday!

Sending out a big happy birthday to Zach who is 2 years old today. Happy birthday!


Funny Stuff From George Carlin

"Kids are not all cute. In fact, if you look at 'em real close, most of them are rather unpleasant looking. And a lot of them don't smell too good either."

Stupid News Story of The Day



(Bang Bang...you're stupid)

Thieves Pistol Whip Woman With a Toy Gun



HONG KONG - A tip for muggers and thugs: If you decide to pistol whip a victim who won't cough up cash, don't do it with a plastic toy gun.

Two thieves in Hong Kong on Thursday tried to rob a 55-year-old woman working as a parking lot cleaner, the Ming Pao Daily News reported Friday. Police said when the woman wouldn't hand over any money, the men began hitting her on the head with a toy gun, the paper reported.

When the gun's barrel broke, the woman saw it was fake and began screaming for help, causing the muggers to drop the pistol and run away, the paper said.

Ming Pao showed a picture of the black toy gun with a large spring popping out of its broken barrel.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Finally a Thursday

It is finally Thursday. I know I probably say this every week, but man this week seems like it crawled by. This day is crawling by, too. It feels like it should be a lot later than 3:00. I am so sleepy. I am always sleepy. I wonder why I am always sleepy during the day, but at night, I am wide awake. hmmm.... maybe I am just weird.

Tonight is CSI's season finale, which is directed by Quentin Tarantino. I can't wait! I love CSI ! You can be sure I will be glued to the tv set tonight.

I am glad we have a 3-day weekend this weekend. I would have loved to go back to Red Rock Canyon and maybe take a little hike or go on a trail or something, but it is supposed to be 101 degrees up there on Saturday, and me and my whiter-than-white skin will fry out there. Maybe I will go anyway. I would have loved to spend more time up there than I did last time. Or maybe I will just stay home and veg. We'll see. One never knows with me, being the spontaneously crazy person I am.

Alicia has still not had her baby, and the crazy woman is still working. She will probably go into labor while she is at work, knowing her. Tomorrow is her official due date which, coincidentally, is also my best friend Cyndi's son Zach's 2nd birthday (try saying that five times fast!). I haven't heard much from Arlene lately. She's probably been out doing something unmentionable with her man...hehe. Although, that is not something I want to visualize! (GROSS, ARLENE!) .... hehe.. just teasing. You know I ain't got nothing but love for ya.

I have been hooked on this game called Dark Fall the Journal, that my friend Mike gave me. It is one of those puzzle games where you have to gather clues and solve the mystery. That kind of game will keep a nerd like me occupied for hours. I wonder if that was the whole point in him giving it to me....hmmmmm. (lol)

Star Wars Episode III is out. I really want to see it. It looks really good, like the old Star Wars movies were. The reviews of it were all really good, too. I guess I will have to catch that one sometime....maybe after all the hype is over. I don't like to go to crowded theatres with screaming kids and ringing cell phones. It ruins the whole movie.

It is supposed to be around 96 degrees this weekend here in good old Bake Town. Looks like summer is making an early appearance. I just know this summer is gonna be a hot one!

Shoot....it is only 3:30 now. I had hoped writing a little would make the time go by faster, but it hasn't. I can't wait til 5:30 so I can go home!

Stupid News Story of The Day



(This is the true story of what happens when a kid brings a gun
to school and Show-And-Tell starts getting real)


Pre-K Student Brings Handgun to School



AUSTIN, Texas - A pre-kindergarten student brought a handgun to school, where it was seized by a fifth-grader and turned over to the principal, school district officials said Tuesday.

The 5-year-old reportedly displayed the loaded weapon outside the Blanton Elementary School cafeteria where students were gathered before class. The fifth-grader recognized it was real and took it to the principal.

Investigators were trying to determine how the child got the gun, Austin Independent School District spokeswoman Carmen Luevanos said.

District police said they will pursue charges against the adult who allowed the student to bring the weapon to school. The adult was not identified.

A charge of making a firearm accessible to a child is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500.

Luevanos said investigators do not believe the 5-year-old intended to harm any students.

"He just took it out to show other students," she said. "Their conclusion is the child was not really aware how serious his actions were."

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Bye Bye Vonzell

Well, tonight on American Idol, Vonzell went bye bye. I was sorry to see her go. She always was cheerful and happy and just seemed like a nice person. While I had predicted from a while back that it would be down to Bo and Carrie in the end, I cannot predict who will win the whole thing. My gut says Bo, but I dunno. Both of them are so good. I guess I will have to wait and see. No matter what happens, all 3 of the finalists will probably get contracts and cut records. All of them are great, but there can only be one winner.

Am I an Idol fanatic or what? This is so sad! lol

Funny Stuff From George Carlin

"Some people see things and ask, 'Why?' Some people dream of things that never were and ask, 'Why not?' Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that crap."

Sleepy haiku

My eyelids drop down,
Heavily with sleepiness.
Stay awake I must.



(oh my gosh am I sleepy) ... need caffeine...must resist the dark side...fight the sleep... fight! I can't wait to go home today.

I am so sad

I am so sad. I just read that CBS is canceling one of my favorite shows, Joan of Arcadia. This is not a surprise. After all, it is one of my favorite shows, so that probably doomed it from the start. This cancellation is one in a long line of my favorite show cancellations. My So-Called Life, Freaks and Geeks, American Gothic, to name a few, all succumbed to tv cancellations, and they were really good shows. Why is it always that the good quality tv shows like Arrested Development get nominated for Emmys but never get the stellar ratings like a silly reality show like Survivor gets? One will never know.

I heard that CBS plans to bring in a few new shows to replace Joan of Arcadia and Judging Amy, which also got the axe, including one where Jennifer Love Hewitt talks to dead people. I smell some crappy tv coming up. Good luck with that one, CBS.

Animal Spirit Quiz

Wolf


Wolf ~ Wolves are also regarded as path finders
and teachers. Wolf is represented by the
constellation Sirius, the Dog.
In the Zuni tradition the Wolf symbolizes the
direction East.

Wolf's Wisdom Includes:

Facing the end of one's cycle with dignity and
courage

Death and rebirth

Spirit teaching

Guidance in dreams and meditations

Instinct linked with intelligence

Social and familial values

Outwitting enemies

Loyalty

Steadfastness

perseverance

Taking advantage of change

If you enjoy this quiz please rate, and I may do
some more!
src=http://www.othellobloke.co.uk/Nativemid/bravewarrior.mid>


Animal Spirit Guides ~ Which One Calls To You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Stupid News Story of The Day



(Flirting with a cop won't get you anywhere...except maybe jail)

Trooper: DUI Suspect Tried to Hit on Me Wed



WOODVILLE, Maine - A state trooper says she's baffled by the behavior of a suspect who displayed amorous intentions as she was taking him into custody for getting into a car accident and failing three roadside sobriety tests.


"What did he think I was going to do? Go out on a date with him?" asked Trooper Jennifer Fiske, who arrested Peter Bradley Murray early Sunday morning on Route 116.

Murray, 42, allegedly began behaving inappropriately while seated beside Fiske in the front passenger seat of her cruiser, which has no cage separating front and back seats.

"Then he said, 'You have beautiful green eyes,' and he started touching my arm," Fiske said. "I'd had enough of that."

Fiske got out of the car and went around to the passenger seat to handcuff Murray. She said he tried to cuff himself to her, saying, "I just want us to be tied together."

Fiske responded by giving a sudden short twist to the handcuff and rapping him on the thigh with her police baton. She said he later tried to grab for the steering wheel, forcing additional smacks.

Murray was charged with operating a vehicle under the influence, assault on a police officer, refusing to submit to arrest, and refusing to sign or give a name

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

American Idol and "Chaotic"

American Idol was awesome tonight. Bo did a spine-chilling rendition of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me." I thought it was the highlight of the night...maybe of the whole show. It was just so incredibly good. When Carrie sang, "Cryin'" I got goosebumps. I have to tell you that those two are so close. It is going to be hard to choose between the 2 of them. As good as Vonzell was tonight, I think she will be next to go. Her 1st song, "Never Love This Way Again," was pretty shaky and out of tune in spots, although her rendition of "Chain of Fools" was fabulous. Geez....it is going to be tough!

Ok, I tuned into Britney Spears's reality show, Chaotic, and it was anything but. It was pretty boring really. Full of video of her being silly and acting stupid, and of course, video of Kevin and all his hillbilly glory. I don't think I can sit thru another episode of this, with all her "ya'll's" and "fo schizzle's" and her just being raunchy and stupid. It lacks the endearing quality of The Newlyweds. While I find Jessica Simpson to be likeable and sweet, I just find Britney to be stupid and annoying. At one point, she asks, "Can you handle my truth?"...well Britney, my answer would be "I could, but I just don't care."

Tune in next week to see more chaos... or if you just need something to put you to sleep.

(for those of you who can't wait til next week to see more Britney, here's a preview clip from an upcoming episode - hehe)



Check out my new high score on Collapse - I finally broke the 2 million mark, and almost got to 3 million - hehe
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Funny Stuff From George Carlin

"One of the best expressions in the English language is, ' Who says so?' I guarantee, if you keep saying 'Who says so?' long enough, sooner or later, someone will take you into custody."

Stupid News Story of The Day



(Beware of crazy, sword-loving people in internet chat rooms)

Cook killed in sword attack at hospital


PARIS (Reuters) - A cook at a Paris children's hospital was killed in a sword attack Saturday evening by a man he met on the Internet, police sources said Sunday.

The fatal attack took place inside the Necker hospital, after a disagreement between the 34 year-old victim, who has not yet been named, and his attacker.


"He stabbed him. The security team and one of his colleagues tried to intervene, but were unable to do anything," Isabelle Lesage, director of the hospital, told Reuters.


The attack was carried out with a short Japanese sword, known as a "katana," a police source said.


"The cook suffered one or more sword blows, particularly in the area of the carotid (artery), which caused a quick death," a police spokesman said.


A police source said the attacker, a male in his 50s, then went to a police station with the weapon, and told police he had just killed someone.


Police said he had been examined by psychiatrists but appeared to be of sound mind.

(one wonders just how sound his mind could have been to go into a children's hospital, armed with a sword and kill a man - hmmm - that cook must have pissed him off bad! )





Monday, May 16, 2005

Funny Stuff From George Carlin

"They say if you outlaw guns, only outlaws and criminals will have guns.
Well, those are precisely the people who need them."

Stupid News Story of The Day



(even Bambi shops at Wal-Mart)

Customer Tackles Deer in Neb. Wal-Mart

NORFOLK, Neb. - So exactly how do you stop a charging deer in Wal-Mart? You take away its credit card.

Shoppers at the Wal-Mart here wish they would have thought of that. It would have been a whole lot easier.

A deer without a grocery list entered through the doors of the supermarket part of the store Thursday.

The store's greeter didn't see the deer enter through the exit, but she did see the critter when it hit the slick floor and fell. It quickly recovered and went scurrying down the aisles.

After doing a little looking around, the deer was tackled by a customer. Others of the human persuasion then tied the deer's legs so it couldn't kick, placed it in a shopping cart and pushed it outside.

Officials took the animal to nearby Ta-ha-zouka Park and released it.

My weekend in the mountains

Chris and I went up to the Sequoia National Park on Saturday. We left Bakersfield around 10:30 or so and got up there about 12:30. It only took about 2 hours to get up to the Visitor Center, so it wasn't a bad drive at all. The weather was beautiful...sunny and mild. You couldn't have asked for better weather. I was in awe of the surrounding mountains. Some of them were green and full of meadows and trees, while others were rocky and snow-topped. We had decided that we wanted to see a lot, including King's Canyon, and that it would be too long of a day to do it all in one trip, so we decided to get a campsite, so we could get up early the next morning and go down to King's Canyon and Cedar Grove then. We lucked out and got a campsite at Potwisha. It was only about 1:30 when we got up there, and there were maybe 3 campsites left. The others were closed due to snow. Lodgepole was open, but there was snow on the ground, and we would have had to set up camp on the parking lot or on top of the snow....brrr.

After we got out campsite staked out, we headed up to Crystal Cave. We had tickets for the 3 pm tour. It was a 1/2 mile hike down to it, and there is a sign at the trailhead that basically says it is a tough hike coming back up (and they do mean it! lol). It was so pretty going down there. There was a creek running through it and a small waterfall, and it was shady and nice. I was so looking foward to going in the cave...BUT....the generator had gone out on the group that was ahead of us and they lost the lights midway through their tour (they had to walk through part of the cave in the dark with only flashlights), so no cave tour for us. We had to walk all the way back up sans cave tour :( Someday I want to go back and see the cave though. It looked cool.

After the cave, we went up to Moro Rock. Now, I saw this rock from way down below at the Visitor Center where we were about 2000 feet up. The top of Moro Rock is about 6700 feet (just to give you an idea of how high up it is). When I got out of the car and looked up, I was thinking, "No way!" (lol). It was 1/3 mile up to get to the top...and it was all steps. After doing the 1/2 mile hike back up from Crystal Cave, I was already pretty tired, but I wanted to do it. I was not prepared for just how high up it was though. I was soooo scared, and I told Chris that if I fell down and died, I would come back to haunt his ass! Most of the way up, there were railings. But after a ways up, there were no more railings...only some rocks that were maybe knee-high (and that was supposed to keep you from plunging over the edge...riiiiiight!). It took me a while to get up there...partly cuz it was tiring, but mostly cuz I was shaking from fright (yes, I am afraid of heights). Even more reassuring were the signs that said "Extreme Danger...Lightning risk" (basically saying that if you were up there during a thunderstorm, you were in extreme danger of getting struck by lightning). The trail was very, very narrow in spots. But after all was said and done, once I got to the top, I was standing there in awe of view. It was breathtaking.

Next, we went to see the General Sherman. That tree is huge! Much bigger than I ever imagined. There were still patches of snow around it. It was huge! No picture could do it justice. We also went through the Tunnel Log (I drove under it twice), and the Auto Log ... I guess a long time ago, people drove their cars across it, but not anymore.

After that long day, we headed back to camp. It was after 7 pm when we got there, and about 8 or so by the time we got the tent up. It was pretty warm, so there wasn't a need for sweat pants or that stuff. There were a lot of mosquitos though, and I got bit a few times (boy they are itchy today!). The night was nice...BUT, we were next to the loudest campers of the bunch. I swear, if I didn't know better, that my loud ass downstairs neighbors follwed us up there! They were up allllll night. I got sleep on and off, and I know that somewhere around 2 am, they started shouting "Bear, bear!" and whooping and hollering. I looked out the tent , but I didn't see a bear. I saw a deer earlier as I was down getting a drink of water. It was no more than 10 feet from me, then it took off running up into the hills. Other than the rowdy neighboring campers, the campsite was really quite nice.

We got up around 8 am on Sunday morning, took down the tent and then left around 9 or so and headed down to the Visitor Center to get our cave tour tickets refunded, then headed up to Lodgepole for breakfast. By the time we got up there, it was 10 am, and they started serving lunch at 10:30 am, so we decided to wait and get lunch instead. So we walked down to the river and checked that out, and walked around the place and then sat out in the sun for a bit. I was starving! And I tell you, that cheeseburger and fries was just about the best cheeseburger and fries I had ever tasted - lol (the night before, all we had to eat were some crackers and a cheese danish we picked up from the market cuz the snack bar was closed by the time we got up there).

After that, we headed down to King's Canyon. Honestly, I expected it to be like Kern Canyon, but it was so much different! For one thing, the road was way up high. The drop off from the side of the road was .... well, let's just say that it was very, very far down to the river below...very far - lol. The road was twisty and the speed limit is around 35 mph most of the way, so it took a while to get there. The surrounding mountains are rocky and some are snow-capped. At Cedar Grove, we took a little hike to Zumwalt Meadow. I have to tell you, that if you go to King's Canyon, make sure you go on that trail...even if you do nothing else. The view of the meadow is awesome! It was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. Gorgeous...absolutely gorgeous! It is a simple trail...pretty much flat the whole way, and less than a quarter of a mile. There was a tricky spot where the river had overflowed and a creek was flowing through the trail and you had to do a little rock-hopping to get to the other side, but it wasn't bad. If I can do it without falling in, anyone can!

On the way back up, we stopped at Grizzly Falls and took some pictures. It was so pretty, and due to the large amount of rain we have had this year, the falls were really roaring down and spraying mist out everywhere. You can't get too close without getting drenched, and I got a little wet getting close enough to take some pictures, but it was worth it!

The drive back was pretty easy. It was mostly downhill, so you can coast a lot of the way. And as my legs were tired, this was a plus - lol. We got back into Bakersfield around 6:30 or so, very tired and very stiff and very thirsty.

I had a great weekend, as you can tell. I saw so much stuff and had so much fun. I want to go to Yosemite next. Chris is great to go with too, because he has been to these places and knows the good places to go. He is an experienced backpacker and hiker, and that is good, because I am not! lol. I love camping and being outdoors. It is great. And I hope I make it to Yosemite soon. I am dying to go after going to the Sequoias! Of course, I am tired today. Was very tired yesterday too, due to being kept up all night by some noisy campers (damn them and their loud music!). I was sleepy coming home, since I did all the driving, and I went to bed around 10:30 last night. And, yes, my calf muscles are sore, and I am mosquito bitten, but I still had fun, and want to do it again!!

I took over 100 pics while I was there, and posted a bunch below.

Check out http://www.nps.gov/seki/ to see more about the Sequoias and King's Canyon.

Sunday, May 15, 2005


Lodgepole - they had a little market, a snack bar and a visitor center, as well as a laundromat and showers (which weren't open - lol)
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if you look hard enough, you can see the squirrel - hehe
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there were all kinds of wildflowers in bloom
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view up the mountain from the parking lot of the Visitor Center
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Tunnel Rock in Sequoia National Park - you can't really drive under it anymore - at least, you couldn't when we were up there
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Chris giving the General a salute
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The General Sherman - this tree is huge!!
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at the entrance to Crystal Cave - the walls were wet and water was dripping from the roof of the cave - standing at the entrance, you could feel the cold air coming out - it felt like natural a/c
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Chris at the entrance of Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park - Sadly, the generator broke down as we were hiking down to it, and we couldn't go in :(
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View of Moro Rock from way down below (it is that big, round gray rock up to the left)
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Yes, this is a stairway - lol - narrow!
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Stairway up to the top of Moro Rock
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View from the top
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Top of Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park - it was gorgeous up here - but getting here was sure something (since I am a'scared of heights and all - lol)
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The Tunnel Log - we came across this coming back down from Moro Rock
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me driving thru the Tunnel Log
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Sign on the Bear Box at the campsite - someone said they saw a bear, and they started shouting and hollering at it, but I never did see it
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There was still quite a bit of snow up here - this was around 7000 feet
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On the way to King's Canyon - The fog was beginning to roll down - boy it got chilly !
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Zumwalt Meadows Trailhead
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Snow Plant - on the trail to Zumwalt Meadow - these appear right after the snow melts, but they don't last for long - - pretty huh
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Zumwalt Meadow in Cedar Grove (in King's Canyon, CA) - it was so pretty here - this pic doesn't even do it justice
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Grizzly Falls in King's Canyon, CA - I got quite a shower when I took this pic - hehe
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Grizzly Falls in King's Canyon, CA
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