Happy New Year's Eve!

And you think you had a bad year -- from Wikipedia :

"Recently, the independent movie Zyzzyx Road made just $30 at the box office. The film, starring Tom Sizemore and Katherine Heigl and with a budget of $1.2 million, may owe its tiny revenue to its limited box office release: just six days in a single theater in Dallas, Texas, where, according to director Leo Grillo, it sold 6 tickets, 2 of which were to cast members."

Spartakia Anyone?

Spartakiad initially was the name of an international sports event that the Soviet Union introduced as an alternative to the Olympics. The name is derived from Spartacus, the rebel Roman slave leader . Today the name is used for internal competition within Russia and other former Soviet countries. I have no idea what the events in the two photographs could possibly be.

What strange sense of irony God doth have!

Fire destroys home belonging to 6 southern Ill. firefighters

ASSOCIATED PRESS

12/27/2007

CAHOKIA, Ill. -- Investigators say they believe a space heater is to blame for a southern Illinois fire that destroyed the home of six volunteer firefighters.

The six volunteer firefighters from the Prairie DuPont Fire Department lived in the Cahokia home with family members. No residents were injured. A firefighter from Cahokia was treated and released.

Cahokia Fire Chief Dave Nulsen says the space heater was too close to combustible materials such as clothing or draperies, sparking the fire that consumed the home's entire interior.

Nulsen says residents should keep such items at least three feet away from space heaters.

I burned the dumplings...

Hope you had a great Christmas!!!

And, yes, the dumplings were in chicken broth. And, yes, I still managed to burn them.

Have a great Christmas!

Am I wrong, but...

I was searching the web tonight (Friday) looking for information about pulse and heart rate. I found the above. I think if your symptom is "No Pulse" you're probably past the point of caring.

Don't know why...

My car keys have a red "Panic" button, I don't know why, I don't know what exactly the red "panic" button does, I haven't read the manual, I don't remember where I put it.

I don't know what that little white thing is either. It's magnetic. No one seems to know. I'm thinking maybe space debris.

Oh and yes, my car keys are not actually keys. I don't know why. I haven't read the manual. I don't remember where I put it.

I'm a bum!!!!!

I have always been the guy who had his Christmas shopping finished in October. This year nadda!

I've been bad about posting, and responding to comments, and to visiting the sites that I usually visit.

It's going to get worse.

Bad Jim!!!!!!!!!

From now until Christmas is going to be a madhouse -- but I promise I'll be back in touch will all of the regulars between Christmas and New Years.

Meanwhile, I had a thought about my previous post, about the No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service sign at the gas station. What if I filled my car with gas -- which now takes about $60 to do -- and then took off my shoes and shirt. Would that mean the gas was free since I would not be allowed inside to pay? If it weren't 27 degrees I might try it.

The first sign of Spring, maybe?

Rooty and I stopped by our favorite gas/convenience-store late last night. Since we were there last, a few days ago, a new, big, red and white sign has appeared in the window: No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service. It was twenty-something degrees and snowing. Just who, except for maybe some fraternity pledges, were they expecting to be bare-chested and shoeless in December.

I thought of some signs more appropriate for the place and its clientele:
No Service If Your Parents Were First Cousins
No Service If You Haven't Washed Your Hair This Millennium
No Service If You Ask For a 'Sam-itch'

It's all about bats. Again, don't warn them, help improve the gene pool.

Squeeeeeel

My new car has sensors that let you know when you're close to something. An option well worth having.

There are sensors on the front, and back, and sides.

When you get close to something, little trials of yellow lights start to appear. When you get too close, a red light appears and a buzzer starts. Each sensor has its own set of lights and a buzzer.

It's all a really good idea.

Except in an ice storm, since the ice covers the sensors.

Unfortunately, we're having an ice storm.

Rooty and I drove all the way through town with all of the sensor buzzers going off at the same time. People in Guam probably heard it!

When driving through the ice storm this morning..

..I wondered why no one has ever invented a better windshield wiper, or even one a little different from those rotating sticks.

I just woke up from a nap

I dreamed that I was sleeping.

Does not mean I have to skip tomorrow's nap?

Do as I say, not as I...

Rooty and I went to the grocery store tonight (he waits in the car), then we headed for McDonald's. The road to McDonald's (a state highway) is five lanes wide. As we approached the intersection where we needed to turn onto a cross street to get to the drive-thru, I noticed a car in the lane to my left. The light changed and I slowed for the red, and to make the right turn. The car along side of me just kept going, it was a cop, he went right through the red. Rooty and I parked to eat after we finished with the drive-thru, facing the state highway. The cop was going back the other direction now, he probably got to the nearby city limits and turned around. Attention teen-age drivers: do whatever you want.

It's why they shoot so many cows.

Rooty I came back from Missouri last night -- we had been out state, an odd Missouri term meaning any place in Missouri outside of St. Louis. It's deer season in Missouri. One big truck stop along I-44 had a giant readerboard that said "Get your beer hunting supplies here." That's what I like, truth in advertising.