January junk

Or, an alliterative way of saying Bits and Pisses. Well, I got to go back to work today, not so Laurie. I got to be a guest packer in the blow-fill dept., which consisted of blowing bits of fuzz off just filled pillows and throwing each flavor in one box; once these boxes were filled, put them in the actual display packages with the right side of the law label up, all upcs facing one direction, doing bits of building the boxes and labelling them when needed, and trimming unruly strings. The main bright spot was I got my chance to see how well the new car does in winter slop (answer, quite well) as well as how it does going home on good road (answer, going 80 feels just as smooth as going 45- a good thing within caution).



My sister Jen Schible turns 59 today!!! Happy birthday, Pete!!!



The continuing story of the facebook page shows us with 3 count 'em three likers so far! Thank you very much. I'll try to make it as rewarding an experience as ... as... well, as rewarding as reading a nitwit like me can be.



I had a comment by anonymous on the first fb post "another retarded idea". They ask,

"retarded doesn't mean stupid. I don't get why you used it here."

Well, anon, it's like this. First off, unlike other cultural buzzwords such as "gay" and the "n" word, it can be used in a non-derogatory sense. It means in essence to be held back to a lower level by some means or for some reason. Unconvinced of its wisdom, I held it to a lower level of esteem than other far better ideas. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to use in this sense; where "gay" I would not use on this site because of its derogatory nature (though I will and do use it in informal conversation because of my opinion of not so much the sin of homosexuality but the activists that want to flaunt it as if there going to gain "converts" to something they claim is "not a choice"); nor would I use the "n" word here, even though to me its definition is "not ambitious enough to work, ambitious enough to commit crimes" As you can see, this can and should apply to people of any race, but is too tied to one (whether from history or from example) to divorce it from race. Once again though, I am wont to use it in private conversations when discussing those who fit the definition.

Secondly, if you look under the windmill on the blog home you see the phrase, "and pc be hanged." If anyone needs to feel offended by my use of this word, be offended because you are a true believer of pc and I am a heretic.

So, Jim Harbaugh is happily ensconced in San Fran, leaving the UM alumni "Jim or bust" clique out in the cold and the rest of them happy to have in Brady Hoke an alumnus, at any rate. The winner in this whole situation, though, is Les Miles. His flirtation with the job was more than enough to scare LSU into giving him that BIIIIG new contract. And Pitt , who took Miami of Ohio's coach when they decided to give Dave Wannestadt the bum's rush (can't argue with that move) and then fired him when he celebrated by smacking his baby-momma around, have ripped off their second mid-major of the off season by stealing Tulsa's coach. Not that I wish bad on anyone, but it would be amusing to see them stumble onto a reason to fire this guy without a game played too, and watch 'em go crawling back to that bum Dave. Speaking of bums, that's pro'ly how Miami coach Tony Sparano felt after owner Stephen Ross and GM Jeff Ireland (remember him? He's the one who during last years draft interview asked Dez Bryant how his mom liked being a ho) fell all over themselves to apologize for "how they handled" their flirtation with the aforementioned Mr. Harbaugh. When original owner of the Dolphins Joe Robbie died in 1990, organizational class died with him.

Oh, and I guess my thought about not giving nutbags air time isn't a worldwide thought. From T6news:

After receiving an offer to be on a nationally syndicated radio talk show, Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church won't picket the funerals of any of the six victims of Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., after all, a church spokeswoman said Wednesday afternoon.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a church spokeswoman, said the pickets had been called off after radio talk show host Mike Gallagher offered to have her on his radio program Monday.
Phelps-Roper said the decision boiled down to the church being able to communicate its message with as wide an audience as possible. She said Gallagher's radio audience is estimated to be about 10 million people.

Gallagher, from what I hear, is to the right of Rush Limbaugh, and I'm sure that broadcast will be a real knee-slapper.

The church had sparked outrage earlier this week when it announced it would protest the Thursday funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was one of six people killed during Saturday's shooting spree that also wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
However, that protest was called off in exchange for the church being given airtime on two radio stations -- KXXT-AM, a 50,000-watt station in the Phoenix suburb of Tolleson, Ariz., and Canadian station CFNY-FM, 102.1 "The Edge" in Toronto.
Phelps-Roper was interviewed on the Dean Blundell Show on the Canadian station on Tuesday and is to be interviewed again on the show Thursday.

Blundell, from what I can determine, is like a "Bob and Tom" show with even less good taste. Shirley will either be highly insulted or feel right at home, depending on how warped a sense of humour she has.

She also is to be a guest on "The Steve Sanchez Show" on Saturday morning on KXXT-AM.
Upon hearing of the church's plans to protest at the funerals of the Tucson shooting victims, some residents of the Arizona city began to organize efforts to shield mourners from the picketers.
As for trading picketing at funerals for radio airtime, Phelps-Roper said, "It's always a question of where can you put the words in the most ears."
This isn't the first time Westboro Baptist Church has traded picketing at a funeral for radio airtime.
In October 2006, the church cancelled plans to protest at the funerals of five Amish girls who were executed in their Pennsylvania school in exchange for an hour of airtime on Gallagher's radio show.
Phelps-Roper said the church also cancelled plans to protest at Virginia Tech after a gunman killed 32 people in a massacre in April 2007 for airtime on Gallagher's show.

When does being "all things to all men" bleed into prostituting your message, Shirley?

Phelps-Roper will be a guest on "The Steve Sanchez Show," a live call-in program that airs from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturdays Topeka time on KXXT-AM radio, which serves Phoenix and the surrounding area.
On Wednesday, Sanchez said he had Phelps-Roper on his program in October before she hung up on him after he challenged her views from a scriptural viewpoint during their chat.
For Saturday's show, he said, he would avoid going "down that road" again and would allow Phelps-Roper to have a "platform" for her viewpoints during 30 minutes of airtime, though he said there would be plenty of "disclaimers" and that he would "moderate" the discussion.
Calls from listeners also may be included during the half-hour segment, which is to run from 9:15 to 9:45 a.m. Topeka time.

That would be 11:15-11:45 our time here in beautiful Fort Wayne, dudes.

Sanchez said the show is heard in several major U.S. cities in addition to Phoenix, and also can be heard live online by logging onto his website, www.thestevesanchezshow.com.
Sanchez said he came up with the idea to offer Phelps-Roper the airtime in exchange for not protesting at the girl's funeral on Tuesday night.
He said he called Phelps-Roper and initially requested that the Westboro church not picket at any of the funerals from Saturday's shooting. However, Sanchez said, Phelps-Roper refused to stay completely away and the two sides agreed that the church wouldn't protest the girl's funeral.
Sanchez said he called Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Tuesday night to inform her the church had agreed to stay away from Thursday's funeral.
Sanchez said that as a Christian, he disagreed with Phelps-Roper's viewpoints, but was willing to give her 30 minutes of airtime to keep the Westboro church away from the girl's funeral.
"Of course she wants her platform," Sanchez said. "I looked at it this way: I'm a grown man, and I can stand 30 minutes of her."

You sure? I've seen grown men puke from just drinking beer.

Meanwhile, a team of four other Westboro Baptist Church members on Friday will be in Washington, D.C., to picket the memorial service for Richard Holbrooke, who was special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan before his death in December.
Margie Phelps said she and three other church members would picket Holbrooke's memorial service at the Kennedy Center , as well as protest at American University and an Islamic center in Washington, D.C.
"It never takes but three or four people to handle one of these things," Phelps said. "There's always people available if we need them. It's just managing the resources the Lord gave us."
Another group of Westboro picketers are to go this weekend to Los Angeles, where they will picket the Golden Globes Awards ceremony.

The Golden Globes? WTF???

Okay, I think I'm done offending and informing for one evening. Gottsa go ta work tomorrow, y'know? (note to Bob G's neighbors- that's what the neighbors you don't like do during the day).

what I did on vacation day 2

Other than the aforementioned green hole expedition, we watched Kansas beat GA Tech, and then went to a birthday party for Laurie's brother-in-law Jack.

Here's the basic group: picture one (l to r) : the legs of TJ, who is Laurie's niece Katie's fiancee; the back of Laurie's nephew Andy's stepdaughter Abbey with Andy over her left shoulder; Laurie's niece Rachel; sitting, Jack's sister in law Penny and brother "Beanie", and Mark Burns; standing at the edge of the table is the birthday boy hisself; and running towards me on the floor is my good buddy Baxter. Picture two features Laurie's sis-in-law Mary holding new kitten Manny (seated in the rocker).

Here is Manny. He was found abandoned by a co-worker of Laurie's brother Chuck. Mary guesses him at no more than two weeks old due to the fact that she is having to bottle-feed him and rub him to go to the bathroom. At first they didn't think he was going to make it, but he's a real fighter. Everyone fell in love with him, especially Mark's wife Jackie. The picture is him and Laurie.

Next we have the new generation: the little little guy is TJ and Katie's son Jackson. The slightly bigger little guy is Andy and wife Kristen's son Blaine. He gave us a good floor show, shaking his booty to the Allman Brothers. Jackson got his moment in the sun by sticking his hand in mom's broccoli casserole. And for good measure, while she cleaned one hand, he put the other one in. And while she removed that one, he grabbed a foot with the first one. Easy, mommy, I'm just experimenting with more efficient eating methods.

Once the crowd dwindled somewhat, we started a rousing game of pictionary. Some of us are better artists than others. Among the words we refused to do were: parasol, cornflake, tango, and cowardly lion. But the topper was Jack's rendition of lab rat. He never did get to the "lab" part, because we couldn't figure out his "rat":

I ended the game with a wonderful green and red marker rendition of an olive, which gave the boys (me, Jack, Mark, and Rachel's friend Christian) the win over the girls (sister Mary, Jackie, Rachel, and Laurie). Rachel's man Alex did the timekeeping, dice-rolling, and guessed for the girls when Laurie finally succumbed to whatever bug she got from Tina this week. I've a feeling that whatever day three brings, it'll be me'n'Scrappy against the world.

World cup update

Ok, so Saturday, the USA finished off with a 10-0 rout of the Kazakhs, and added to that Sunday a 4-0 blanking of France of which score IIHF said "flattered France", i.e. it could've been much worse. France then beat Italy on Saturday 2-1, but the Italians beat the Kazakhs 2-1 on Sunday. Thus, anything could still happen in the Relegation round- although the worst that could happen for USA is a four way tie that would be broken by goal margin and we're +14. In the main rounds, Russia beat Germany 3-2 on Saturday and followed it up with a 6-1 rout of Denmark. Evgeny Malkin had a goal and an assist as the Russians continue a 23 game world cup win streak. The Swiss claimed a 3-2 win over the Czechs on Saturday; also on Sunday, Latvia broke open a game that was scoreless through 2 periods with 2 empty-net goals to beat struggling Norway 5-0. Belarus finally got another win, though probably too little too late as it went to OT when the Germans scored with less than a minute left to tie and were trying to win with time running out in OT and coughed up the puck and the Latvians scored on a 3-man breakaway. But the difference between a regulation win and an OT win is 3 pts to 2 pts, and that point will likely mean the end of the Belarussians. Finally the Swedes won a lackluster 3-1 game over a disappointing Canadian group. Russia now leads one group with 12 pts, double that of second-place Finland and Denmark. Germany's 4 pts lead a trailing group of Slovakia (3) and Belarus (2); in the next round, the bottom two from each group are out and the top 4 go on. In the other group, Switzerland and Sweden each have 9 pts, but the Swiss have a game in hand. Canada is third with 6, and the Czechs, Latvians, and Norse all have three.

I decided to see what all the divisions in the IIHF look like, and here is what I found. The bottom group, division 3, consists (or will next year) of Luxembourg, the UAE, Greece (who were supposed to host this years division 3 shindig but amazingly couldn't find the money- go figure), South Africa, Mongolia, and Armenia, along with Turkey and Israel, who got bounced out of division two . Then comes division 2, with Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Mexico, Romania, China, Iceland, New Zealand, along with Ireland and North Korea who rise up from division three and Serbia and Croatia, who fall from division one. Division one then is Ukraine, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, the UK, South Korea, along with Spain and Estonia coming up from division two and whoever loses the relegation round after Tuesday's last games.
Those two losers will then be replaced amongst the big-boys group by Austria and Slovenia.

The Blackhawks Knocked off San Jose 3-1 today to open the NHL semis. I'm hoping they can find a way for both teams to lose in the other semis, but I guess I'll have to root for Montreal because, being a New York Islander fan, I'd sooner cheer for space aliens come to exterminate the entire planet than the Philadelphia Flyers.

Got the weather center up and running with a lot of very appreciated help. Very cool. And one last note: the Reds beat the Cards again today 7-2 and took over first place in the NL Central. What a very nice weekend.

The baseball birthday trip #2

This was one fun day. Started out from Kc and Ashley's apartment, where I was confused by a rug doctor sitting by the door (no Carpet)- I was informed it was for the bedroom which does have the only carpet. Moving out, we stopped at McDonalds in New Haven where there was a bit of a debate over whether Ashley would end up with the sweet tea, no ice that she wanted or the Hi-C, no ice that KC thought she wanted. (Hi-C won). After deciding to disregard the mapquest route KC had copied (it wanted us to head to Indy and turn east!) and just take 30 to 75, we stopped off at the Werling rd. Marathon where I got a pepsi and a new pair of sunglasses (remind me to tell you the story about the other ones later). Ashley's phone had a gps so we turned that on to make fun of and headed east. Near Besancon, I saw that someone had built a house on the pond we used to go swimming at, which really tripped me out.

Flash foreward to near Lima, where 30 actually meats 75. Gps lady said we needed to turn off at one of the Lima exits; we debated it, figured perhaps there was a problem getting onto the highway from thirty, Ashley said gps claimed a 20 minute time savings, so we listened and turned off. What followed was a series of "turn right"s and "turn left"s that almost seemed to take us in a circle until we finally ended up on some secondary road heading south, for no better apparent reason than to keep us out of Lima.

We then played a license plate game where you make phrases out of the letters on the plate (the only example coming to mind right now is "AUU" became "Ashley's underwear's ugly".) This game got abandoned when we discovered that apparently about 90% of Ohio license plates start with an "e". Soon- the trip seemed to go really fast- we entered Wapakoenta, where in a reversal of policy gps lady took us through town and onto- you guessed it- I-75. From here it was a hundred or so miles of scenery and signs, notably the "Solid Rock Church" in Monroe where they have this massive statue of Jesus waist deep in a pond with

fountains and the whole nine yards.


Eventually we passed through Dayton, which is far more massive than I had imagined, and on to Cincy. Again, gps lady tried to take us around the horn to the stadium; we opted to follow the signs instead, which was a good idea. It wasn't long before we found $5 parking on the far side of Paul Brown stadium (home of the Bengals). KC then handed us our tickets (copied off the internet) and we crossed the street towards Paul Brown. I told him to hit the button for the crossing sign, and farted when he did. As we crossed, KC noted that we had four tickets (a friend of Ashley's bailed on us) and he needed to sell one. We no more got to the other side when a black guy riding a bike and wearing a laminated sign saying "I need tickets" called out to us and KC said, "I got one". KC told him he paid $42 for it and wanted 30. Ol' boys says, "I can't sell those paper tickets for 30, I'll give you 10." KC said no thanks as the guy showed us another one he had bought that was printed in black and white. KC said, "Mine's in color, it must be worth more. Give me 15." Ol' boy says ok, and the ticket was sold, to haunt us later.
Our path led us across the north side of Paul Brown (which is a really beautiful stadium, at least form the outside), down the street, across a parking lot, and up a set of stairs that faced some big 1/3 built complex going up between the stadiums (stadia?). At the top of the stairs was an other ol' boy with a radio and a sign saying, "homeless, will work, sorry for asking". This swiftly became a common theme- I've never come across more allegedly homeless beggers in any one place in my life. Mixed among them were the usual people handing out have-you-met-Jesus cards and others trying to raise money to put light on some historic bridge over the Ohio that they're trying to restore ( I think; a good deal of it was shrouded in tarps). At least on of the homeless was a white girl whose sign read "homeless and hungry", but looking at her build, I told KC maybe if she went a little more hungry, she might not be so homeless. Finally we reach the Great American Ballpark, with its statues of Ted Klusewski, Frank Robinson, and Joe Nuxhall out front.
This was the annual civil rights game, and we were among the first 10,000 and got jerseys with the name and # of Chuck Harmon, the Red's first black player. Now this is a really nice building and our seats were good too- maybe fifty feet down the first base line, 12 rows from the field. After finding the seats, we went on a bathroom, souvenier, and food hunt. I got me a Mr. Redlegs hat and a Joey Votto shirt. Ashley got an ice cream cone, and we circled the stadium until behind the outfield wall. They have a nifty overlook of the river where paddlewheelers do donuts in front of the stadium, and we decided to eat there. We got the "meal deal" (a hot dog, a cup of pringles, a candy bar, and a pop. Of course this had to be an adventure as well; they overcharged KC 2.50, couldn't swipe my card right, and the whole think took a good 5 minutes and four of them and three of us to sort out. Afterwards, we were nearly back to our seats when they began wheeling out the award winners that they would be presenting to. The first was Harry Belafonte: I told KC I wanted to see him so we ducked down a corridor to the field as he was being driven around the outfield in the ballcart. He was waving, stopped to look at the field, turned back to the crowd, looked right at me, I waved, he waved, KC's eyes got big and he yelled,"Dad, he looked right at you when he waved!" That was cool! Next, they brought out Billie Jean King, who declined to wave or look at me. The third award-ee was Willie Mays. KC tried to get a picture, but the whole place was standing and waving and Say -Hey was sitting and forgoing the wave. After this we returned to the seats to watch the rest of the civil rights pregame festivities.
By the time we sat down, Marty Brennanman was on-field introducing the rest of the celebrities. Before he got far, the guy that ended up with our ticket showed up. He was pre-inebriated, drinking a Labatts blue tall-boy, and looking like someone you'd see in the non-serious offenders section of your local sex-crimes registry. KC immediately named him "Howard the Drunk", and that was his name the rest of the night.
They celebrities introduced included Mr. Cub Ernie Banks; Hank Aaron; Layla Ali; a preacher that was a former teammate of Mays' in the negro leagues; and some old black former congressman who looked like his diet consisted of sucking lemons. After everyone got their awards, we watched a tribute to the late Lena Horne (who was scheduled to be there), Roberta Flack came out and sang "Imagine" (and KC said managed to turn a three minute song into a ten minute one). Jeffrey Osbourne sang the national anthem, a color guard played "God blees America", and army paragliders chuted in to drop off the game ball, which Ernie banks threw the first pithc with. Ashley took a picture of Howard the Drunk to send to her friend that blew us off, and the game began.
And what a game! Adam Wainwright was going for the Card's against Red's rookie Mike Leake. Both were sharp early; St. louis scraped in a run in the second, and we did likewise inthe bottom of the inning. Colby Rasmus (who next to Chone Figgins is my least-favorite player in baseball) knocked a homer over the 404 sign in dead center to give the Cards a 2-1 lead, which flustered the kid and he walked Pujols and Holliday before getting a long, loud out to end the third. Things settled for a while then. We watched and joked about Howard, followed the scoreboard. Every game playing while we played, with one exception, the team that took the first lead lost it; by nthe time we left, the Mets had blown a 3-1 lead on Florida and lost 7-5; Colorado had lost a 3-1 lead on the Nats and was in process of losing a 4-3 lead; the Indians trailed Baltiomore 2-0 until the 9th, when they scored 8, seven of them after two outs; Boston had went from a 6-1 lead on Detroit to a 6-6 tie; and even the A's had started with a 2-0 1st inning lead only to trail 3-2 in the fourth.
In the mean time, we had been trying to guess who would do what when they came to bat. In the home fifth, just after we had a man thrown out trying to steal second, I told KC that Jonny Gomes would hit a HR. KC says' "He really doesn't hit for Power." 5 pitches later, Gomes put one 433 feet over the short porch in left field and the game was tied at 2-2. The kids decided to go pee in the bottom of the sixth; while they were gone, we got 2 men on and rookie OF Stubbs, hitting .182 and having looked outmatched by Wainwright the whole game, tripled into the right field corner and both runners scored.
At the seventh inning stretch; "teen sax sensation" BJ Jackson played "America the Beautiful" and did a great job.I thought Howard was going to pass out, fall down, or barf on me during it, though. KC took me out to the concourse and showed me a big open area we missed before, where they had a speed gun for pitching, a play park for little kids, a huge kiosk with big-screen video baseball games you could play, a track to time yourself in the forty, and a ton of other stuff. After which, I had to pee; KC warned me the nearest restroom had a line, but this was a LINE. Some guy passing by heard me go , "Ohhhh..." and said to follow him the next one down the other way was always free. Sure enough, no muss, no fuss, and got back in time to join in the last three of six or seven circuits of the wave.
Comes the bottom of the ninth, Reds up 4-2. Closer Francisco Cordero comes in, the locals get nervous. Cordero gets an out, walks a guy, throws a wild pitch. another guy singles in a run. Pujols strikes out looking, argues with the ump, but not enough to get tossed. "Sir, I believe you missed that call." "No, I don't believe I did, please sit down." "Very well, sir, and thank you." Now the whole place, 41,000 +, is on their feet, even the unsteady Howard. Pinch hitter hits a double deep into the left field corner, Schumuker steaming for home. OF hits cutoff man Orlando Cabrera. Cabrera guns a bullet at supersonic speed to catcher Ramon Hernandez. Schumuker slides. Hernandez tags. Joe West yells, "Yer OUT!" Scoreboard sceams Reds Win! Fireworks go off and the world rejoices. What an ending!


Going out we saw an allegedly homeless man with a sign I actually believed- "Why lie? I want beer." I told KC, Him I would've given money to, had I any.
Going home was an adventure too. Gps lady got us onto 75, then trie to get us off again to head towards Indy. She then went to sleep for the night. Ash has a headache, so we stop at the first gas station for aspirin and a pepsi for me. Of course this was deep in the Cincy Ghetto, and the pumps were lined with blacks, none of which were actually pumping gas. Needless to say, we decided to forego the gas and move on. A block down the road we found a much safer BP complete with a cop, a totallt primered convertable with a door that openned up instead of out, and yet another homeless guy ("please, can you help me, sir? Ah'm homeless, ah'm starvin', ah'm about ready to commit suicide..." "Sorry, I don't have any cash on me." "Thank you sir." ) So I decide to buy him a bag of chips, but by the time I got them paid for, somebody gave him a couple of bucks, he came in, bought a bag of ice, and disappeared. I'll eat the chips later on. North of Dayton, we found a radio station that no lie we listened to all the way to Coliseum boulevard. X107.5, Lima, as it turns out. About this time, Ash got nauseous and we stopped off at yet another station so she could barf in the trash can. (Better her in the trash than Howard on my lap, though!) Arrived home at about 2:50 am. Have to say, best birthday present in recent memory. Right now, though, I'm going to go set up my other present- a home weather station! Life is good.