Tyler

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I just might have mentioned that Sharon's grandson became a father.






The dad wasn't much bigger than that the first time I saw him... managed to put him right to sleep.

25 years ago... Sheesh!!!

Oh! yeah - 19 inches, 7lbs 9oz., blue eyes
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Hold on there.

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Here I have been trying to get my head around the idea of having my first official grandchild and Sharon's grandchildren start having children. For crying out loud, Hugh is ten months old as the next generation makes an appearance.
On another note the new arrival is a great-great grandchild... yep, the fifth generation.

I suppose I'll
get used to it

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Coasting along

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There won't be much here for the next week or so, as we'll be out of town. Mostly for the Lions Convention at the end of next week, but I've got some other stuff going on and we want to visit family, too.

and there's that long
post I am writing
BTW - there may be more exciting news on the family front.

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Warm-up exercise

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If I'm going to even begin to try to post anything like 100 things about me, I should at least take inventory. I don't plan to elaborate because I am basically lazy and my keyboard is giving me fits.

Just bold the things you have accomplished in your life.

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said "I love you" and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise even have a photograph. I looks just like a sunset.
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was wasted
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe I have backpacked, just not in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow milked a goat
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke well it was kind of like singing
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River - or was it the Colorado River?
82. Been on television news programs as an expert goat milking
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas too many times
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Eaten fugu (pufferfish)
89. Had a one-night stand
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house
92. Been in a combat zone
93. Buried one/both of your parents
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently
96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show
97. Raised children
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication - does my blog count?
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol all three
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read something they wrote
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone's life

how many is that?
I lost count?

Lists

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I haven't become obsessed with lists. They just interest me... a lot.
When I signed out from my Hotmail account today, I was redirected to MSN, where one of the article links caught my eye. Ten Companies We Love to Hate isn't the title of the article, only link title [and it's gone now].
I thought I would save everyone the time it takes to check out the article [it is eleven pages] and post the short form here. And just to be fair, I have posted the top ten favorites or Hall of Fame as well.

Shame -
No. 10: Citigroup beset by scandal, scorn
No. 9: Is B of A adapting to change?
No. 8: Abercrombie too cool to help shoppers?
No. 7: Qwest tackles gripes online
No. 6: HSBC candid but not well-liked
No. 5: Time Warner Cable's image slow to change
No. 4: Capital One blames the economy
No. 3: Sprint Nextel says it's getting better
No. 2: Comcast gets back to basics
No. 1: Is AOL getting the message?


Fame -
No. 10: Southwest's secret is personality-plus
No. 9: Costco keeps workers happy, too
No. 8: Apple puts geniuses to work
No. 7: Whole Foods sells 'peace of mind'
No. 6: Publix workers own the stores
No. 5: Nordstrom empowers salespeople
No. 4: Amazon wows with selection, shipping
No. 3: Netflix delivers movies in a flash
No. 2: Trader Joe's chooses products well
No. 1: USAA sensitive to military stresses

For the record: I can't comment about any of the companies on the first list because I haven't used their services. I have, however, had some experience with seven [maybe eight] of those on the second list and regularly have contact with three [maybe four] of them.

I've already
said too much,
but why couldn't
I find Veridian
Dynamics or
Dunder Mifflin?

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Amazing what we can come up with

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One of the other sites I visit regularly posted a kind of retrospective for his followers.
First, I should mention that this guy writes posts that actually require the reader to scroll down in order to read the entire post, unlike yours truly whose posts sometimes are more than one line of text. But I make up for quality with quantity.
Where was I? Okay, so he writes long posts. The ones in is retrospective are long enough that he took several days to post each one... and darned if it isn't all exceptionally readable and entertaining. Here is where he's posted it.
One of the post is One Hundred Things About Me. I thought maybe I could do something like that, except I'll have to call it one thing about me because there's no way I want to hand out that kind of ammunition to all the folks who think that there's something for which they need to get even with me.
If When I do take this project on, it may take some time because I plan on spelling all of the words right, using the correct punctuation and the having the exactly perfect word to describe it.

yeah, right!

NFL Conference Championships today

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So, if you're not interested in watching the games...



This is a nice video of Jupiter spinning.

sorry! Jupiter doesn't
have any cheerleaders

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Sorry

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That's about as close to an apology as you'll get for me bringing up the weather again.
I just can't help myself this time. The forecasters told us that today we'd have a respite from the rain. There's another storm due tomorrow. I even checked the Weather Service site and it tells us there's a 40% chance of showers. The gadget on my desktop shows sunshine. So, what I wanna know is why has it be raining steadily since before 4:00am (yeah, it woke me up).

Then it dawned on me. I looked at the Doppler radar feature and it shows that there's an isolated shower that has been stationary over Anderson and the Redding Airport. This has managed to drop nearly two and one quarter inches since just before 4:00am. I managed to verify the location of the rainfall by checking the local traffic cameras and they all show that it is only raining in the immediate vicinity of the areas I've mentioned.

I should've just never said anything yesterday?

like I was gonna
go out anyway

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Why?

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One of the most inane things done locally was the relocation of the place where weather information is recorded.
For years there was a spot near downtown Redding where the high & low temperatures and the daily rainfall were taken. Then it was decided that it would be better to move the location nine miles south and east, out in the middle of the valley, to keep those statistics. As of right now those records say we've had slightly less than two inches of rain over the last three days. I'm happy that I am nowhere near any of the folks who've had to move to higher ground because of the lack of rainfall.

those aren't blue
skies, it's blue air

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Choice

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Before anyone gets their knickers all knotted up about me bringing politics to this blog, I shall explain that this post is about a local non-partisan office.

The metropolis to the north, Redding, appears to be determined to make the City Clerk position and appointed rather than elected position. I can see their viewpoint to a certain extent. The last two clerks were appointed to the position because their predecessors retired. The most recent one who served multiple terms ran unopposed most times.
On the other hand, the fact that the election is uncontested also signifies that the citizens are making a choice. They are choosing not to run for an office that restrict where the officeholder may live and that requires a major cash infusion in order to gain it.

not only that,
but there are
some evening
shifts involved

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So I was cruising blogs again...

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I came across this post.
The original quote is mind-boggling enough in itself. Then I saw the first reply...
Now wonder the post was titled WTF.

readers are reminded
that WTF means
what in federation

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Question

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"Why is it when I press #1 for English, I still can’t understand the person on the other end of the phone?"

thought it a time or
two, somebody
else actually asked

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Quote

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Peter Blake ~
"Great part of being a grownup, you never have to do anything."

I found this in the sidebar of a friend's blog. The quotes change on a daily basis. Then I did a little research. The Peter Blake quoted is a fictional character on the Television show House, M.D.
Now my question is: If a fictional character creates a quote, does that make the point of the quote a fiction?
Does that question even make any sense?

sure glad I
checked before
I made it
my mantra

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I Forgot

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There is a certain weather condition that I overlooked because our area of the Sacramento Valley only occasionally experiences it. Ground fog. The visibility is currently about 400 feet. I hope that the condition improves before we have to go up the road to our meeting in an hour... and definitely hope that it's lifted by the time we're driving home this afternoon.

Outta here...

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We have a Lions District Conference in the south end of the district all day tomorrow. We'll be gone until Saturday evening at the earliest.

hope the weather holds out

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Here comes trouble

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Mom says that he has "decided to start crawling."

that's now that he
is almost walking
without assistance

How'd I get to be Uncle Skip?

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Long ago (though it only seems like yesterday), far away (before freeways it used to take six hours to drive from here to there... now it takes six hours because of traffic congestion) there were two brothers who were related by marriage (think about it... you can figure it out). So were their parents.
When the boys were ten years old, a baby sister was born. Two years later another baby sister was born. The boys became men and ten years later when the girls weren't babies or girls any more, they became women ladies and got married. Eventually, they had children of their own, who are the nieces and the nephews, along with the brother's kids, who aren't kids any more... heck, one's almost an old man.
So that's the story and I'm sticking to it.
The only thing is, I lost count beyond my sisters' offspring. Oh, heck! I might as well admit that I have a hard time remembering how many grandkids we have.

there are eight!!!

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About Haiti

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The earthquake was devastating to say the least. Once again Lions Clubs have stepped up to help. First, the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) has awarded a $50,000 Major Catastrophe Grant [their caps, not mine]. LCIF has further requested contributions for additional relief and sent out a press release. All donations are tax deductible and 100% of the funds received are used for the relief effort. None of the funds donated to LCIF are ever used for administrative purposes. LCIF was named the #1 NGO (non-governmental organization) two years ago.
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what I miss

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I have been restricted from eating certain foods since August.



I am so jonesing for a burger

otherwise everything is
moving along just swimmingly

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check it out

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Check out Sleep Talkin' Man. I found it through Blogs of Note. With the exception of the current stuff about t-shirt sales, the things the woman writes are at times hilarious ....and sometimes perverse. Then you realize that all she's doing is reporting what her husband's said in his sleep. It really is entertaining.
I may eventually link it in the sidebar.

sure happy that I
don't talk in my sleep

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Jeez!!!

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So I just looked at Facebook and found a request to send a fertility doll to the seven year old grandson.

I may be speechless

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I have noticed

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Many of the blogs that I consider to be good are posted maybe once or twice each week.
I don't think posting less often would improve the content here.

feel free to keep your
comments to yourself

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You can't make this stuff up

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Yesterday afternoon someone called 911 and asked if there'd just been an earthquake. When informed there had indeed been a quake, they then asked when the next one would occur

?

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Earthquake

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Sharon stepped into the room about 45 minutes ago and asked me, as I was bouncing around on one leg, if I felt anything. She'd been in the kitchen and the dishes rattled along with the window. Of course I had not felt a thing. It turns out that there was an earthquake in Eureka, on the coast about 150 miles to the west.

a whole lot of
shakin' goin' on

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Golly!!!

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Last year around this time I was really prolific... three posts on one day. One of them almost made sense. Ironically the one that made the most sense received no comments. The one that made the least sense received the most comments.

I have to remember to add the books I've read to the list in the sidebar. Santa was really good and brought the rest of the books by a certain local author. He also has a blog, which he to which sometimes posts.
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Cool creatures

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did he say calamari?

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The remodel

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I haven't forgotten what I said about doing something with the sidebar. I just don't feel pressured to jump in and change things willy-nilly. There are a number of things that are quite satisfying about how it works now. I particularly like that the more questionable links replace my blog instead of opening a new tab or window. Of course my reasoning is that, since the window for this blog is no longer open, there is no direct association... or even, necessarily, a recommendation where the link is concerned.

I am not even going to
concern myself with the
idea that you might draw
your own conclusions
.

Uh, oh!

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this isn't....

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...the quote of the year:

Jesse Ventura: "You give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders."

I'd like to be
able to sell
tickets to that

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I wish I' known this before I set the alarm

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Today is:

Festival of Sleep Day

yesterday was:
Run Up The Flagpole
and See If
Anyone Salutes Day

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Recap

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~ Did much of nothing yesterday... still only thinking about revamping the sidebar. Just like I am thinking about doing a lot of other things.
~ Watched the parade and then watched a video of the parade.
~ Voted on the KTLA website for the People's Choice Award. I'm fairly certain that the Cal Poly Universities float will win again this year. My guess is that the students have figured out how to stuff the ballot box. If all of the Lions Club members in the world with internet access were to vote, it would be a whole 'nother story.
~ Watched the end of one bowl game and all of the Rose Bowl.... was only mildly disappointed with the outcome.
~ Had delicious homemade split pea soup with corn bread for supper. That's a household tradition for the first day of the year.

maybe he was
on his cell phone?

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Rose Parade (updated 1/4/09)

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This is a much shorter version than the one that was here originally.


Sharon and I know some folks who are at the parade and had to get up a 4:30 this morning.

why does the
IP have his
finger in his ear?

Nobody gave him a banana!!!

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