Grammatically Correct
April 19, 2008
Last night David had a slumber party for his tenth birthday. He had invited a couple of friends over and we had invited their parents over to enjoy his birthday dinner, cake, and ice cream. After the food the kids were off to their various corners of play, littler kids down stairs and older boys upstairs. We were sitting and enjoying the after dinner conversation when David comes running down the stairs, “Byron swore, he said the “a” word!” The other boys all follow, minus Byron, saying the exact same thing. We calmly call down Byron and he reluctantly drags himself down the stairs. We shooed the others off to play and then began the following conversation:
“Byron, do you know why you are down here?”
“Yes. I said a bad word.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Well, David said the card was a butt and I just corrected him. He used the wrong word and I told him the right way to say it.”
Our friends had to turn the other way and try their best not to laugh. We finished his punishment, sent him on his way, and laughed so hard we almost wet ourselves. Kids are the best source of entertainment possible.
When Snakes Attack
April 18, 2008
A pet store employee got attacked by a Burmese Python. Pretty scary.
Another School Shooting
April 17, 2008
A 17 year old kid in California was shot and killed at school yesterday.
The officer fired at the student shortly before noon, after the Roosevelt High School sophomore allegedly came from behind and struck the officer in the head with a crude wooden baseball bat, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.
The officer fell down dazed, and reached for the gun in his hip holster, but the clip fell out.
As the student came at him a second time, the officer grabbed a secondary weapon — a semiautomatic handgun he carried as backup — from his ankle holster and fired one or two rounds, Dyer said. The student reportedly died within a few minutes.
“The officer was fortunate that he was able to defend himself,” the chief said. “This officer had a secondary weapon that very likely could have saved his life.”
Yeah, it is a good thing he was able to defend himself. It wouldn’t take very long for a baseball bat to kill a guy. That said, you just knew that somebody would complain about the police officer’s use of deadly force.
Silvia Carrillo, whose daughter is a sophomore at Roosevelt High, said the shooting did not seem justified.
“My son and my brother went to school here too, and nothing like this ever happened. I think this wasn’t enough for him to kill the kid,” she said.
If being sneak-attacked from behind by some huge kid with a baseball bat isn’t enough reason to shoot somebody, tell me what is. I mean, what does the kid THINK is going to happen? Does he expect that the officer is going to just laugh it off and say, “Now son, don’t go doing stuff like that. You’re going to get detention!” Hell no. He’s going to fight for his life and, in doing so, he’ll draw and fire his weapon when necessary. You can be damn sure I would have.
Western White House
April 16, 2008
The comparison between GW Bush’s personal home and the home of Al Gore is rather startling.
Oh, who am I kidding? It’s not that surprising.
Fees
April 15, 2008
As I look at the receipt for the registration on my “new” car, I find that there are the following items on it:
- Motor Vehicle Title: $6.00
- Zoo Cultural Tax: $0.05
- County Options Sales Tax: $0.13
- Local Sales Tax: $0.50
- Mass Transit Tax: $0.28
- State Sales Taz: $2.33
- County Option Transportation: $0.13
I’m still trying to figure out why I pay for a “Zoo Cultural Tax” when registering my vehicle. Shouldn’t a “Zoo” tax be incurred when one goes to the, oh, now what’s that place called? A zoo?
Registration
April 15, 2008
While I was in California over the weekend, my grandmother gave me her car, as she’s given up on driving. The car is a 1990 Toyota Camry and has only 64,000 miles on it. That’s not so bad for an 18 year old car. I went to register it today and asked if I could get some personalized plates. The ones I wanted were, in fact, the old ones that I had about 7 years ago before we moved to Oregon. Sure enough, they could do it since nobody else had gotten them since my old car’s registration was canceled. I still had the plates so I was able to put them on this evening when I got home from work. Wow, the car really is mine now. Oh, sure, it’s no the nicest car in the world. It’s not the most stylish, the fastest, the coolest or even in the best shape. What it does have going for it, though, is that it’s now mine. It’s free and it’s good enough. It’ll also last for quite a while to come.
Parting with my Honda will be difficult, however …
Waiting for our flight
April 11, 2008
David and I are sitting at the airport in Salt Lake City right now. Our flight to San Francisco leaves in about an hour and a half. We’re going to go see my grandmother and, since we’re going to be in the Bay Area, we’re also going to go to a Giants game. David’s never been to a Major League game before so he’s pretty excited. We’ll be driving back on Sunday and should hopefully have a good time together.
Five Whole Dollars …
April 7, 2008
Betsy lost her first tooth today, which was immediately followed by her second lost tooth. They weren’t, in fact, lost, though. They were pulled by the dentist (who did a fabulous job, BTW) because she already had two permanent ones coming in behind her baby ones.
Anyways, she was so excited about the Tooth Fairy coming to collect the teeth and put them in a little box that she stashed between her two pillows. When I went to check on her tonight, I found that she needed to change her pull ups. I had her change and then go throw the old pull ups in the garbage in the bathroom, which got her out of the room for a brief ten seconds. When she got back in bed, I told her I was so proud of her for being so brave at the dentist. She told me where she had put the box containing her teeth so I told her I wanted to see them again. I reached in between the pillows to find them but there were no teeth there! I instead pulled out a five dollar bill. The Tooth Fairy had already come!
I have rarely seen such a perfectly happy face in my life. She looked at the five dollar bill with such excitement and, with that shy grin that only she possesses, said, “Wow, five dollars for two teeth. The Tooth Fairy must REALLY like me!”
Yes, Honey. The Tooth Fairy really does like you.
Fitness Update
April 7, 2008
Sore knee tonight so no running. Walked 2.5 miles, though, in 41 minutes at a cost of 246 calories. I hope that my knee stops hurting.
iPhone Goodness
April 7, 2008
Okay, so I finally broke down and did it … sort of. I purchased an 8GB iPhone, but not for me. My Lovely Wife was the lucky recipient. I figured that it would help her with her scheduling because if its integration with iCal. I also figured that it would help her to be more contactable by me because of its email capabilities. It’s also a great contact manager, one where she can have email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses all available at the touch of her fingers. It also comes with Google Maps built into it so Melanie never has to get lost again. Did I mention the really neat user interface?
The good news? It doesn’t cost any more per month than her old cell-phone-only plan did.
