"Cake or Death"

http://cakeordeathcartoon.wordpress.com/

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but that's my first Christmas post of the year. Ho-ho!

Astronauts are Smart, Brave and...Clumsy?

Yes, seems walking on the Moon will challenge even those with the Right Stuff. This video is comprised of some of the lesser played clips from the Apollo missions.



Remember this next time you do something like accidentally walk into a door!

Four for Fridays

Hello everybody! Welcome back to Four for Fridays! It's been a rather easy week and today seems like a good opening to a wonderful weekend... Here are some random questions.

1) Are you following the Packers this season?

2) What are your Thanksgiving plans?

3) What are you most thankful for?

4) What is the tallest building you have ever seen?

Enjoy your weekend!

Open Blog - Friday & Weekend

Yay!

"Boy, 6, caught playing doctor, is accused of sex assault"

From JSOnline.com:

"By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel

"Nov. 17, 2011 7:52 p.m.

"Three young children caught playing doctor last year have unintentionally landed themselves, their families and some Grant County officials in a federal civil rights case sure to raise questions and outrage.

"The parents of a 6-year-old boy who faced charges of first-degree sexual assault have sued Grant County officials who investigated and filed the juvenile petition. The charges came after a 5-year-old girl's mother suspected that play had gone too far.

"The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Madison, claims officials violated the boy's and his parents' civil rights, and seeks damages and an injunction against Grant County District Attorney Lisa Riniker. The suit also names a sheriff's deputy and social worker as defendants. None of them could be reached for comment late Thursday."

Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/box-6-caught-playing-doctor-is-accused-of-sex-assault-pi33ogg-134089743.html

Just going by the story, I'd have to say that I side with the boy's parents. I never had kids. I thought the "doctor" stuff happened at an earlier age. Anyway, it just seems like the PC police going too far again. Is there a legal age of reason?

"Daughter Chooses The Dark Side"

"She must be stopped, now, before the force grows too strong in her."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN-z6jlmLRs

I've known women like that. So, it starts in childhood.

Physics

Bass Boat.....

A good old Alabama boy won a bass boat in a raffle drawing. He brought it home and his wife looks at him and says, "What you gonna do with that. There ain't no water deep enough to float a boat within 100 miles of here."

He says, "I won it and I'm a-gonna keep it."

His brother came over to visit several days later. He sees the wife and asks where his brother is.

She says, "He's out there in his bass boat", pointing to the field behind the house.

The brother heads out behind the house and sees his brother in the middle of a big field sitting in a bass boat with a fishing rod in his hand. He yells out to him, "What are you doin'?"

His brother replies, "I'm fishin'. What does it look like I'm a doin'?"

His brother yells, "It's people like you that give people from Alabama a bad name, makin' everybody think we're stupid.

If I could swim, I'd come out there and whip your ass!"

"Military Reunions with Man's Best Friend: Dogs Welcoming Home Their Owners from Deployment "

http://welcomehomeblog.com/

That's just beautiful.

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my perky puffins! How are you? The weather has been extraordinary again. We’ve already had two days in the 60’s this week. There’s been plenty of wind, too, so sometimes it gets frustrating trying to rake up the leaves. Believe it or not, if the leaf litter isn’t too heavy, and you have a mulching lawn mower, the best thing to do is to chop those leaves up over and over again so that the lawn can absorb the small particles of organic matter. This is best done on older, established lawns. (A tip of my crystal ball to Mr. OrbsCorbs for providing that timely lawn care tip.)

Our acclaimed Green Bay Packers made mincemeat of the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, pushing their record to 9-0. Awesome! Audacious! Astounding! Hurrah, hurrah to the astonishing Packers! We love you all. Next on the agenda is Sunday’s confrontation with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, November 20, noon, Lambeau Field. Give them hell, boys!

Well, there’s nothing in the news I want to write about. It’s all so depressing and ugly. I entered “beautiful and uplifting” into YouTube’s search engine. The responses included this, “[NEW] KPM Music - Written In The Stars (Uplifting Beautiful Female Vocal – ‘Epic Movies’ Album):”



Oh my, that was uplifting. I feel like my sinuses are cleared now. No matter what goes wrong in the coming weeks, it can’t be as bad as being a turkey. Celebrate your good fortune by eating some turkey with family and/or friends on Thanksgiving Day. Or celebrate with strangers at one of the community meals being provided in Racine. Or stay at home alone and eat a frozen turkey TV dinner, for all I care. I don’t even care if it’s turkey. Please give thanks for what you have and share what you can with those less fortunate with you. That is what is important. An attitude of gratitude.

Thank you, my dearest, most loved Irregulars and regulars. Thank you for reading my blog, and thank you for being you. I enjoy every moment that you spend with me. Thank you so much.

Give thanks, or else: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com.

Thank the Great Spirit for life, for love, forever. And don’t forget to button up your overcoats because you never know when the weather will suddenly shift, especially in November. Have a wonderful week, my dears. Stay centered. Samshu!

Open Blog - Wednesday & Thursday

Halfway to the weekend.

HealthFair - Health Screening Services

http://www.healthfair.com/

They're going to be in Racine, on Saturday, December 17, 2011, at K-Mart,
2211 S. Green Bay Road.

What do you think about these mobile testing outfits? I remember discussing the changes in health care a couple of years ago with my doctor, who spoke about how it would cost x amount of dollars if he ordered an MRI, but an independent contractor could do it for a third of that cost. Well, here's the independent offering tests for a lot less.

What about insurance coverage? This is from their FAQ:

"Q. Does Medicare or health insurance cover preventive health screenings?"

"A. Health insurance coverage varies from policy to policy. Upon request, HealthFair will provide you with a detailed, itemized receipt that can be submitted to your health insurance company to determine coverage and/or reimbursement."

I assume that means no. I'm sure if Medicare and/or most policies covered it, they would trumpet the news. In any case, you have to pay first, then seek reimbursement from your provider later.

So, is this how health care is evolving? If I could afford to have the 6 Test Package done, I don't know that I would. I'm pretty sure that I know what kind of condition some of those things are in regarding myself. I don't want confirmation. If I don't know about it, it doesn't exist.

If the technicians and equipment are up to the standards that HealthFair claims, this sounds like a good deal.

Nationalism

A good rant from George Hrab about nationalism. People who think like us get accused of hating America a lot by certain people.

buddhify

From http://buddhify.com/:

"Modern meditation. To go."

"With meditation and mindfulness increasingly popular amongst city professionals, buddhify offers an accessible introduction to mental training, to help users make the most of ‘dead time’. Whether commuting to work, at the gym, walking about town or at home, buddhify offers quick and easy guided meditations, to help users focus, improve awareness and increase wellbeing in the midst of the city."

I don't even have a cell phone, so I can't use this, but it's good to know that it is available to the stressed out urbanites of America.

Open Blog - Monday & Tuesday

Rise and shine!

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant.

If there is such a thing, I want to come back as a Condor. Then when there is someone I do not like such as Scott Walker, I will wait until he/she is speaking in public, then swoop down and take a massive dump on them!

California Condor, the Andean Condor has wingspan, ranging from 8.99 to 10.2 ft. It is also heavy, reaching up to 24 to 33 lb.

20 Years of Running: How the Hell Did I Miss That?

I somehow totally missed the 20th anniversary of when I started running: October 28th, 1991. That's the date I started. Well, I ran track in high school and such, but I didn't keep it up in college. Besides, doing it for a sport is different than doing it for yourself.

There was no special reason. My roommate at the time was training for his first marathon, so maybe I was just sort of seeing his runs and decided to start again. I gained some weight in college, lost it when I took a year off to teach high school in the Virgin Islands and was worried about starting to gain it back. In the end, I am still not sure what the dominant factor was that first day.

It was a Monday. I went to the IM East building at Michigan State after my last class. I started running on the indoor track, 9 laps to a mile. Did two miles that first day. A couple weeks later, I added a round on the Nautilus machines a couple of days a week. It was a bit of stop and go at first of course. I took time off over Christmas Break when the building was closed for a week or so.

But I kept running inside over the winter. By March, I was up to about 3.5 miles a day. I switched to running over lunch in the spring semester since my class schedule changed. One day I went out for a run outside...one day and I would never go back to indoor running again. In early April, my first 5k race. Did several of them. By late June, I signed up for and ran my first 10k, the Diamondal Dam Run (with a literal shotgun start from the local sheriff). The first Sunday of November was the Williamston Half-Marathon. I decided that was close to the one year anniversary of starting to run and that would be my celebration. I ran that cold half marathon, about 30 degrees out, 25 mph winds, freezing rain that had turned the dirt country roads to mud. Not exactly ideal conditions for the first one, but I did it...and knew I would be back next year.

Okay, skipped an important day. the Monday before the Williamston race, I went out for my last long training run. Near sunset. I hit the turnaround right at sunset and really hit my first big runner's high. Don't feel myself hit the ground once those last six miles.

I kept running outside all winter. By now, it was a lifestyle. Ran dozens of races. Kept that up when I moved to Florida. 1997 was the first Disney Marathon which was almost derailed when I got the chicken pox less than two months before the race. At the end of the race, I knew I would be back next year, and have been back every year since (and am training for January 2012).

I run everywhere I go in all types of weather. I don't have quite the high end speed I did 20 years ago, but still do pretty well for what I have to work with. I didn't keep good logs the first couple of years, but based on the ones I have, my lifetime total should be pushing 35,000 miles.

I am fortunate my health has held up (more because of running rather than in spite of it). I have a few odd injuries here and there...sprained ankles for bad steps, an occasional fall with some scrapes and bruises, occasional sore muscles, but the worst have always been non-running related (take the auto accident last year for example). I have added more gym work as the years have gone on, but I just can't imagine what life would be like without my time on the road each day. Doing the best to be sure I can run for the rest of my life.

Useless Information

Did you know:

The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise can launch 4 jets simultaneously?

"It can happen in an instant."

I saw an ad for this in today's Parade magazine:

http://www.greatcall.com/5star_urgent_response/

From the online ad:

"Why Choose 5Star Urgent Response?"

"What if you could help protect those closest to you, or yourself, with the touch of a button? With the new 5Star Urgent Response™ service, now you can. At the press of a button, you will be connected to a skilled team of highly-trained Certified Response Agents. They will identify you and your location, can conference in family or friends, help dispatch 9-1-1 emergency service, access a nurse, or provide any additional assistance, if needed."

Also:

"Certified 5Star Response Agents

• Live, 100% U.S. based people you can count on - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Certified by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch® and trained in CPR and other emergency protocols.
• Agents are equipped to handle a wide variety of situations and remain on the line with you until your situation is resolved"

I bet you these will sell like crazy.  That's very shrewd marketing.  I wish I had thought of it first.  "Makes a great gift."