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Our Russian tortoise, Ira, has been in hibernation since 19 Dec 03. This morning, we took him out of hibernation and warmed him up.

Ira’s hibernation adventure began in late October when he stopped eating regularly. Sarah and I stopped feeding him altogether in early November. Tortoises that hibernate with any food or waste in their digestive tract will die as the food rots in their belly during hibernation. Thus, it was very important to make sure that Ira had a completely empty system.

In addition to stopping feeding, we also started soaking Ira in luke-warm water more regularly. Soaking him ensured that he was properly hydrated. It also helped to flush any wastes out of his digestrive tract.

A thermometer was put into the fridge to check the temperature of the air. We were lucky as our fridge was right in the hibernation sweet spot of 39-41°F.

On the appointed day, at the appointed hour, we cleared all the vegetables out of the vegetable crisper in our fridge. Some shredded newsprint went into the empty crisper to serve as bedding for Ira. Then, it was time to put Ira into the fridge. Right before he went into the fridge, I weighed Ira and recorded his weight and the date on a piece of paper. I put Ira into the fridge early in the morning, before he had a chance to wake up from his nightly rest.

Over the next weeks, we occasionally opened up the crisper drawer to see how Ira was doing. He was clearly in a deep sleep, but somewhat responsive to physical stimulation. About once a week I spritzed his newsprint to temporarily raise the humidity in the crisper to prevent him from becoming dehydrated. Also, I weighed Ira periodically to ensure that he didn’t lose very much weight while in hibernation.

This morning, seven weeks after he went into the fridge, I took Ira out and started warming him up. After sitting in his pen for roughly fifteen minutes, he started to show some signs of wakefulness. His breathing got much deeper and more frequent. His head started to come out of the shell and orient itself towards the light. About one-half hour after taking him out of the crisper drawer, I put him in a warm bath to soak for twenty minutes. This helped to rehydrate him after spending so much time in a frost-free fridge.

Now Ira is back in his pen, basking under his heat lamp. He hasn’t eaten anything yet, but I’m guessing that he is still waking up his various organs and bodily functions. However, given his clear eyes and generally quick reflexes, it appears Ira survived his hibernation adventure with no deleterious effects.

Yesterday, NPR reported that 40 people in Los Angelees have died from
“celebratory gunfire” since 1985.

Where, exactly, do people
think bullets go when they are shot into the air? Into space? If
it was that easy to achieve escape velocity, garbagemen would be out of
business as we’d all just load our household trash into giants bullets for
giant neighborhood guns to shoot into space. In reality, bullets
follow the generally true maxim that “what goes up must come crashing
back down to Earth in a truly spectacular fashion.” Note to
self: if you find yourself in LA for New Year’s Eve, remember to bring
a Kevlar helmet.

We celebrated the New Year’s arrival last night by going to bed before
midnight. Some friends came over for dinner. We made Indian food
(soup, a dal, and naan), drank wine and beer, ate florentines (cookies like
we had at the wedding), and talked. We were all spent (for a variety
of reasons) and falling asleep in the living room by 11:30. Our
friends packed themselves into their car and went home. We fell into
bed and greeted the New Year this morning.

Painted on the door of an interstate service plaza in Indiana:

No Pets
No Shirt
No Shoes
No Service

Minnesota Vikings fans were treated to another painful, classic Vikings loss yesterday.  When the best offense in the NFL (Minnesota) meets the worst defense in the NFL (Arizona), something had to give.  Naturally enough, the giver was the Vikings.  What did they give up?  A berth in the postseason.  Even as the last two minutes were winding down yesterday, and the carnage that was the Vikings’ season was being ground out relentlessly by Arizona’s previously punchless offense, dread infused my bones.  I watched the clock ticking down towards zero, all the while hoping against hope that Tice would use the three timeouts the Vikings had in their pockets to stop the clock.  After Arizona recovered the onsides kick, it became immediately obvious that the Vikes would need time to get down the field and kick a winning or tying field goal.  Of course, Arizona scored a touchdown as time expired, giving them the lead, and the game, and the Vikings had no chance to salvage their season.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the Vikings collapse yesterday.  However, one person deserves a larger than average share of the blame:  Denard Walker.  What is this stiff even doing on the team, much less on the field?  He made two completely brain-dead plays in the last two minutes of the game alone.  All year, his MO has been to enter the game, make a bonehead play or two, commit a penalty or two, and give up a few long passes or two until he is yanked.  What is even more unfathomable is why Tice and Co. keep putting Walker in the game week after week after week.

What made that loss even more painful is that I work with scads of Green Bay Packers fans.  And who should benefit, almost exclusively, from the Vikings stumble?  The Green Bay Packers.  My co-workers wasted no time this morning letting me know that they were fully aware of which team got into the playoffs and how that scenario came to life.

Yesterday, we had fifty degree weather (in December!), so Sarah and I took advantage of the mild weather to work outside the house for a change.  It certainly didn’t seem like December in Wisconsin when we were outside without jackets, hats, and gloves.

Sarah and I got back last night from our Christmas trip to Cleveland, OH.  Her family lives just outside of Cleveland proper, and since we visited my family for Thanksgiving, we visited her family for Christmas.  It was a long drive to get there and back, so we both are enjoying car-free days today.  There’s nothing like a good bike ride to work out the kinks of 9+ hours (each way) spent in the car.

While we were in Cleveland, we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I had been putting off a visit to that particular institution for several years, simply because I did not think it would be very interesting or fun.  However, having now been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I would recommend that all Cleveland visitors pencil in at least half a day to visit it.  If you’re really into Rock and Roll, you could easily spend the better part of two days at the museum.  My favorite nugget of information that I gleaned from the exhibits (and I learned quite a bit, actually) was that Howlin’ Wolf, a blues singer, did not trust banks.  So, he carried all of his cash and valuables around with him in a suitcase, even on stage.  The suitcase is in a display case in the museum.

Sarah’s father took us to eat at Slyman’s in Cleveland.  They are famous for their corned beef sandwiches.  I’m not a corned beef fan.  Most everyone else in our group does like corned beef, however, so I simply kept my reservations to myself.  Having now been to Slyman’s, however, I can say that not only is their corned beef (probably) really good, but that their turkey melt is fabulous.  Nearly everyone else had a corned beef sandwich or a reuben, all of which were at least four inches tall and almost all of that height was meat.  My turkey melt was may just a touch shorter, but juicy, warm, and tender.  The rye bread was flavorful and fresh.  In short, it was a perfect turkey melt.  My favorite picture on the Slyman’s web site, shows their corned beef sandwich in all its heart-stopping, artery-clogging glory.  Check out the reuben!  That sandwich seems to say, "If you eat me, you’ll keep your cardiologist in business, but I’m worth it, all the same."

The Salvation Army bell ringers really get on my nerves.  They suffer from the same problems as public radio.  When public radio has a fund raising drive, everyone suffers.  People who give money to the station suffer just as much as people who don’t give money to the station.  I’d be more likely to give money to the station if it would make the fund raisers go away.  But, no.  It doesn’t matter if I give money to the station on the first day of the pledge drive, the last day of the pledge drive, or not at all.  The fund raisers will continue to interrupt my favorite radio programs with their inane chatter regardless of my actions.  Salvation Army bell ringers suffer from the same disconnect between the actions of those who donate money and the ringing of the bell.  If I could make bell ringers stop their ceaseless ringing by putting money in their kettles, I’d be more than happy to do so.  However, giving money doesn’t stop the ringing any more than walking by the bell ringers everytime without giving any money away.

f you’re an X-Men fan, issue 150 of the New X-Men is an instant classic.  Powerful story, excellent artwork, this book has it all.  Unfortunately, the sister book, The Uncanny X-Men, seems to be lost in the wilderness.  A less than compelling story arc, reasonably unpleasant artwork, characters that are neither here nor there.  That book would do itself a favor to dump Archangel already and bring back Longshot or Gambit.

Last night Sarah and I had an interesting discussion about the capture of Saddam Hussein.  News sources were reporting that Hussein would be tried in a "civil court."  We debated exactly what sort of civil court could try someone like Hussein for crimes he committed.  Clearly, all current Iraqi civil courts derive their authority and mandate directly from the US military.  What sort of laws are currently being enforced in Iraq?  Federal law leaves most of what we consider crimes (murder, theft, rape, assault) in the hands of the state.  Are there special Federal laws for unusual circumstances (like foreign nations that have been captured by US forces)?  Certainly, we can’t try Hussein under laws that have just been created.  The US seems quite clearly wedded to the idea that laws can’t be created criminalizing past behaviors.  Will that policy be chucked overboard in Iraq?  Hussein committed crimes against humanity, but those crimes really ought to be tried in an international court.  Of course, the US couldn’t control all the actors on a stage like that, so the chances of that trial ever happening are none and less than none.  So, in the end, it doesn’t matter what court has jurisdiction over Hussein and his crimes, the Bush administration will punish him however it sees fit.

There is no water supply shut-off valve for the toilet in our basement bathroom.  To turn off the water to the toilet, a shut-off must be turned in the room next to the bathroom.  Unfortunately, that shut-off did not have a handle on it.  So, I bought a handle and tried to install it yesterday.  The handle went on quite easily.  I turned the water off to test the handle and shut-off.  All was well.  I then turned the handle again to restore cold water to the bathroom.  All was not well.  Water came spraying out around the shut-off handle at a reasonably fast rate.  So, I turned off the water again, and cursed cruel fate.  At this point, my knowledge of water shut-off valves had been exhausted, so I turned to my handy-person encyclopedia:  the Internet.  Ten minutes of reading about water shut-off valves later, I knew about the valve packing nut, where it was located on the shut-off, and how to use it.  Some small application of a crescent wrench, and the basement bathroom was back in business.  Obviously, the wily water shut-off valve did not reckon on the speed and breadth of the Internet when it tried to drown me in spray and hassle.

Christmas decorations have been overtaking our house slowly, but relentlessly.  Sarah has been digging them out of boxes in the basement and putting them up all over the house.  I expect to come home one of these days to a fully functional recreation of Santa’s North Pole Workshop and Factory Outlet.

Saturn dealers will happily put Mobil1 Synthetic oil in your Saturn at a cost of $6/quart (about $30/vehicle).  The Saturn web site specifically recommends not using synthetic oil in a Saturn.  Is this profit motive winning out?

Wow, it takes a great deal of water to produce a car. An interesting fact I saw on the web site today:"It takes 39,090 gallons of water to manufacture a new car, excluding the tires."  That, of course, instantly made me wonder how many gallons of water are necessary to manufacture a bicycle.

For all the H2 lovers out there, may I recommend www.fuh2.com.  My favorite picture and caption has to be the one of the H2 up on the flatbed truck.

We got our first snow of the season the day before yesterday.  Of course, it only stuck around on the grassy areas for a few hours before it melted away.  Where is this legendary Wisconsin winter we’ve heard about for a year-plus now?  Wisconsin has got nothing on South Dakota, Massachusetts, or the Sierras when it comes to snowfall or cold weather or a combination of the same.

Traffic engineers just love to install traffic loop detectors in roadways.  Then, they don’t have to worry as much about light timing.  A car comes along, trips the loop detector, and the light changes.  All is well.  Except if you’re a bicyclist.  Bicycles in their normal orientation (i.e., upright) do not have enough mass/metal to trip the loop detectors.  This leaves cyclists deciding whether to run the red light, wait for traffic traveling in a parallel direction to appear (thereby tripping the loop detector), or to get off their bike and push the pedestrian walk button.  Some very small number of intersections actually have smaller, more sensitive loop detectors designed to detect bikes, but those intersections are outnumbered 10 or 100 to 1 by intersections that are not so equipped.  Thus, dealing with such short-sighted traffic engineering is something of a continuous bicyclist hassle.  Now, a fourth option has been added to the arsenal of bicyclists who come upon poorly engineered intersections.  In this newsletter, read the section titled "Triggering traffic signals" for information on a fourth option.

The best way to avoid a traffic ticket?  Cream a cyclist.  Studies show that the best way to avoid getting a traffic ticket is to crash into a pedestrian or bicyclist.  "…drivers are at fault in 70% of cyclist deaths and 92% of pedestrian deaths there. And 74% of them didn’t even get a traffic ticket."

Sarah and I were wondering about what, exactly, a canola is and how does one get oil from it.  As it turns out, there is no such thing as a canola. Instead, canola oil is derived from the rapeseed plant which is native to Western Canada.  Those smart marketing folks decided that selling something named "rape oil" on supermarket shelves was going to be something of a nifty trick, so canola oil (can from Canadian and ola for oil) was born.  I learn something almost every other day.

When Sarah and I lived in California, we obviously had no need of a snow shovel, so we never bought one.  When we moved to Wisconsin last year, we didn’t buy a snow shovel because the house we were renting came equipped with one.  Now that own our own house, it seemed like the right time to buy a snow shovel, but we just never quite got around to it.  Last night, finally, we bought not just one, but two snow shovels.  Now I can stop feeling guilty.  I kept worrying that we would get two or three inches of snow and there wouldn’t be a snow shovel to be had within the city limits for love or money.  You’d think we’d never seen snow before going into December without a snow shovel in the house.

It’s obviously been a while since I wrote anything in this space.  Sarah and haven’t been that busy over the last few weeks.  However, I just never quite got around to putting anything down in digital ink.

There is now an RSS feed available for those interested in following bogen.org in their newsreader/blog-reader of choice.  Simply point your RSS feed reader towards http://www.bogen.org/feed.  This feed is somewhat experimental at this point, though it does work with the RSS readers I’ve tried.  This took me some time to generate since I don’t maintain my weblog in any of the standard weblog systems.  So, I can’t simply point and click like most people.  Instead, I had to kludge something together in perl that produces the feed from the HTML source of the site.  Ugly, but effective for the moment.

After something like sixteen hours of repairs and adjustments, the bikes we bought at the Madison Police Auction are on the road.  Both bikes have new, fat tires.  Sarah’s brakes didn’t work all that well, so we replaced her front brake pads with some Kool Stop brake pads and all seems well now.  Her front derailleur doesn’t quite work as well as I might like, so fixing that is the next project.  That might be fixed by replacing the cable and if that doesn’t work, we’ll look at the shifter on the handlebars.  Once I got a part from the bike shop to replace the missing part on my bike, I was able to get my bike on the road.  My bike is currently riding on some reasonably aggressive, wide mountain bike tires.  As such, the bike is somewhat hard to get around due to the high amount of rolling resistance created by the tires.  I’m waiting for some snow to see how much the tires help to keep me upright.  If the tires aren’t spectacular, they’re coming off and will be replaced with some less aggressive tires that are currently sitting in the basement.

Sarah, Dalla, and I made the trip to South Dakota over Thanksgiving.  The drives there and back were generally uneventful.  After nine hours in the car each way, I was more than happy to declare today a "Car-Free Day."

A sixteen-gauge shotgun, a .22 rifle, and a BB gun made the trip from South Dakota to Wisconsin with us.  Once we got home, Sarah said, "It’s amazing how quickly a house can go from no firearms, to multiple firearms."

For those interested parties, Kris is not dead.  Not only did we spot him in Watertown, but we ate and drank with him as well.  We also saw Kris’ brothers, and a pair of the Holien brothers during our brief stay.

If the Vikings continue to play as badly as they have been, don’t be surprised to see them out of the playoffs when the year ends.  A good high school team could beat them at times.  Unfortunately, Sunday was one of those times.

Some of today’s entries might be incoherent.  Might?  Should be incoherent if my general inability to drive the keyboard is any indication of my ability to string thoughts together.  It’s late and time for me to go to bed.

On my way into work today, I biked past a "Clark 04" yard sign.  That got me thinking about how many Democrats think Clark is their best chance to win in 2004 because he has credibility on national security and military issues.  What, exactly, does that mean?  Who doesn’t have credibility on those issues?  How does one get credibility on those issues?  Clearly, GW Bush had no more credibility on those issues in 2000 than Al Gore did.  I’d even go so far as to say that GW doesn’t have any more credibility on those issues today than he did in 2000.  The US hasn’t suffered a new terrorist attack since 2001 more due to luck than due to any of GeeDubya’s initiatives.  The USA PATRIOT Act has snared more money launderer’s, strip club operators ("In the urgent push to pass the Patriot Act, she says, ‘never… did the FBI say we needed additional tools to keep this nation safe from strip-club operators.’"), and other forms of garden variety criminals than terrorists under the Bush Administration.  Bush and his administration have all acknowledged at one time or another that there is no link between the war on Iraq and terrorism.  So, how does one gain or lose credibility on national security issues?  Does one have to vocally advocate for an armed overthrow of the government by a hostile, foreign invader?  Why doesn’t Dean or Kerry have as much national security credibility as Bush?  Clinton certainly didn’t have any, according to conventional wisdom, when he ran against GeeDubya’s father and he still won two terms in office.  GeeDubya, the draft dodger, certainly didn’t have any, again according to conventional wisdom, when he was elected.  Why should I care about Wesley Clark or any other Democratic candidate possessing or lacking national security credibility?

When Guster’s new album, "Keep It Together," came out this year, I was initially unimpressed with it.  The band seemed to be incorporating more garden variety drum kits and whatnot, and moving away from its acoustic origins.  However, even though some of the songs on the album are poppy dreck, several really stand out.  The title track, in particular, is a haunting number that is always ready to jam itself into all the nooks and crannies of my brain, making it hard to eradicate.

People unfortunate enough to be around me when the topic of PowerPoint comes up in conversation quickly learn that I am a fervent believer in the idea that PowerPoint actually inhibits communication, rather than facilitating it.  Further evidence for this theory can be found in the November 2003 issue of the Atlantic Monthly on page 82.  The following excerpt is from an article describing NASA and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board:

The latter message seems to have been lost.  Indeed, this particular PowerPoint presentation became a case study for Edward Tufte, the brilliant communications specialist from Yale, who in a subsequent booklet The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, tore into it for its dampening effect on clear expression and thought.  The [Columbia Accident Investigation Board] later joined in, describing the widespread use of PowerPoint within NASA as one of the obstacles to internal communication…

For an interesting example of PowerPoint’s ability to make anything boring, check out the Gettyburg Address rendered as if Lincoln had used PowerPoint.

From our "When Direct Mail Marketing Intelligence Fails" department:  The other day I got a catalog full of "Motoring Accessories For Your Truck & SUV" in the mail.  Yes, I need a $400.00 custom grille for my truck and a set of custom, chrome pedals for my SUV.  Now I’ll be able to trick out my Earth Destroyer properly.

Sarah and I each got new (to us) bikes this weekend.  The City of Madison Police Department Auction was held on Saturday.  Sarah got a Gary Fisher Tassajara mountain bike. I bought a Schwinn Woodlands mountain bike.  Total for the two bikes:  $42.20.  Both bikes need two tires and at least one new cable.  Both of my derailleur cables are cut.  Sarah’s rear brake cable is shot.  The Schwinn has a bit rust on the frame, but I should be able to sand that off and coat the exposed metal.  Sarah’s bike is reasonbly rust free, but needs a new saddle.  I also had to cut a chain lock off her bike (which took about ten minutes, owing more to using a hack saw, vice grips, and pliers instead of a bolt cutter that I don’t have).  Once we get new tires, tubes, saddles, racks, panniers, fenders, and cables, each bike will have a final cost of around $120.  I’m planning on using my bike as a winter commuter which will let me retire my Schwinn Sprint for the winter.  Sarah will most likely ride the Tassajara this winter to save her cruiser from the road salt.

Gee, I wonder why children today are fatter than historically children have been.  I’m sure that Cheeseburger Fries (60 calories, 6 grams of fat per fry) served in school cafeterias have nothing to do with that disturbing trend.

One of my favorite lines in the Cheeseburger Fries article above deals with the guy "who is known in the business for his expertise with developing breaded coatings."  How do you put that on your business card?  Breaded Coating Guru?  Chief Breaded Coating Scientist?  If that isn’t enough of a surreal thought, the next sentence is almost better:  "In the past Moore worked on breading projects like onion rings, jalapeno peppers, seafood and even French toast sticks (in effect, adding breading to bread)."  I wish I could be a fly on the wall during the corporate meeting where the decision to add breading to bread was made.  How could anyone come out of that meeting with any idea other than to get out of that company as quickly as possible?

It’s clear that the Vikings defense is not much better than last year.  (Which also makes it plain just how bad last year’s defense was.)  The Vikes got some of the personnel they needed in the draft last year, but they desperately need a linebacker or three with speed between the sidelines, a better free safety, and a corner back that is even merely average.  The defense has stopped the opposing offense (as defined by forcing a punt) exactly eight times combined in the last three weeks.  A good defensive team like Carolina forces seven punts in one game.

For some reason that I still don’t understand, Sarah doesn’t want to get a Warthog Bar for the dining room wall.  She just keeps muttering something about "Never." whenever I bring up the subject.

From our "Wow, I Didn’t Know You Could Do That With Legos" file:  There is a Hostage Situation in Legoville.

Today it became obvious to me that I went to the wrong college.  My school did not have a Centre for Explosion Studies.  It’s really too bad that there isn’t a degree program in Explosion Studies.  Imagine the cocktail part conversation:  "Yes, so then I studied law at Harvard before moving to Washington D.C.  Where did you go to
school?"  "Well, I studied how to blow things up, and now I blow things up professionally."  Which of these people sounds like more fun to hang out with on the weekends?

When we lived in California, we bought Halloween candy as though we expected the 3rd Division to drop by for a bit of trick or treating and we still ran out of candy.  Last year, we bought nine bags of candy, and got two trick-or-treaters.  This year, we bought five bags of candy and got eight trick-or-treaters.  Next year, we’re buying two bags of candy (one kind that Sarah likes and one kind that I like) and giving up on people stopping by with their kids to trick-or-treat.

It’s hard for me to take serious any sort of exclamation about how the US "cannot afford <insert project or item here>."  When the government spends $87 billion in Iraq, and I see that we could build a solar power satellite to provide constant, clean, renewable energy to the US for $200 billion, I automatically think, "Well, heck.  If we had that $87 billion that we’re wasting in Iraq, we’d be almost half-way there."  People talk about reforming our schools for $10 billion and I think, "We could do that eight times over if we just had that $87 billion that we’re dumping into the Iraqi sands."  Our nation’s bridges are falling down and it will take billions of dollars to fix them?  "Gosh, we’d have it licked if we just had that $87 billion that we’re giving to Halliburton, Bechtel, and the like in Iraq."

We got two consecutive days of rain, starting on Sunday.  Today was supposed to be a third day of rain, but instead we’re getting mostly cloudy with periodic rain sprinkles.  I had to climb up on a ladder on Sunday to clean out two of the downspouts on our house.  The birch tree in our front yard was kind enough to clog both with leaves and whatnot.  Next spring I’m going to install screens over the gutters so I don’t have to clean out the gutters or downspouts again.  It’s not a terrible job, but one that seems somewhat easy to prevent.  Sarah and I put some shelves up in the basement this weekend, as well as numerous hooks and
hangers to get more of our "stuff" off the basement floor.

Michael Perry’s book Population 485 is truly a classic.  Perry is a firefighter in a northern Wisconsin town and the books subtitle ("Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren At a Time") gives only a hint of the book’s content.  There are incredibly funny passages, some incredibly insightful passages, and some truly clear thoughts.  One of my favorite passages from the book:

"It can be argued that one of the nice things about working in the field of fire and rescue is that for the most part, things went to heck in a hand basket before you were called, and so there is nowhere to go but up."

Republican Senator Inhofe stands on the floor of the US Senate chamber and says, "Global warming is a hoax."  Should I believe someone who has a batchelor’s degree in economics from the University of Tulsa and has worked in the aviation, real eastate, and insurance industries or a worldwide cadre of climate scientists working at numerous colleges and universities including little schools like MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley?  Hmm…

Listening to NPR this morning was an incredibly depressing way to start my day.  First, there was discussion of the bill to send 87 billion of our dollars into the monetary black hole known as Iraq.  Of course, not a single dollar of that sum would be a loan, just like El Presidente wants.  Then, NPR managed to report on a lily-livered bill to simply hold emissions steady (not reduce them) without a single trace of irony.  Republicans (minus John McCain) were lining up against the bill because they agreed with Inhofe’s statement covertly, if not overtly.  What allows a US Senator to stand on the floor of the US Senate and lie without a single person calling him to task?

The Vikings lose, Elliot Smith commits suicide, and George Bush is still President.  Tough week.

Dumbest argument I’ve heard in the debate surrounding Wisconsin’s concealed carry law.  Republicans want to make the records of who has a concealed carry permit closed to the public.  Their reasoning?  Burglers will request a list of concealed carry permit holders from the local governmental authority.  The burglers will then know whose house not to rob.  Moronic fallacies of this argument?

1. Burglers most likely do not spend much time requesting public records from governmental authorities.
2. I could legally possess seven thousand shotguns in my house without a concealed carry permit.

Of course, the "burglers will rob your house if you don’t have a concealed weapon" argument is so much cowshit designed to create fear in a generally unthinking, soundbite-addicted public.

When will people realize that a major part of conservative Republican politics is built on creating fear in the public at large?  We fear getting robbed walking the (safe) Wisconsin streets so we need a concealed weapon.  We fear that cities will raise taxes incredibly high so we need a state ban on tax increases.  We fear that terrorists might strike at our house so we need the USA PATRIOT Act.  We fear running out of oil for our gas guzzling cars so we need to drill in ANWR.  We fear not being able to watch TV at night because of a blackout so power plants have to be built (and without those pesky environmental restrictions).  If people would simply examine how many of the arguments used by conservative Republicans are specifically crafted to create fear of something in the general public, people would turn their backs on conservative Republicans because they would realize they have been used to advance a political and economic agenda that really wasn’t in their
best interests.

Last night we saw Guster at one of the local live music venues.  The show was good, but probably not as good as when we saw them at the Fillmore in San Francisco.  Both Sarah and I are a bit wary about the fact that the percussionist plays a standard drum kit on the new album.  The fact that the band has a percussionist who plays bongos, cymbals, snares, and whatnot with his hands and feet is part of the band’s charm.  If the percussionist turns into a (standard drumkit) dummer, the band is essentially two guys with guitars and a guy on drums.  Whoopee.

The (Republican controlled) Wisconsin Legislature continues its drive to ramrod a concealed weapons law in Wisconsin.  The fear-monger from Eau Claire that is pushing the bill said yesterday that "criminals are everywhere."  My first thought was, "Would that include government, including the current federal administration?"

Our mild weather came to an end yesterday.  We had a beautiful weekend followed by a gorgeous Monday.  The weather on Monday was so nice that we went for a walk after 22:00 and the temperature was still above seventy degrees.  Now we are looking at a forecast that calls for rain and high temperatures in the forties on Sunday.  Oh well, all that wonderful weather had to end sometime.

Another busy weekend for us.

• Installed track lighting in the dining room.
• Fertilize plants
• Install outdoor thermometer on side of house
• Rake leaves
• Install new door handles on closet doors.
• Cut up old trim around picture window for the trash
• Laundry
• Soak the tortoise
• House cleaning
• etc.

Any weekend now we should be able to have a nice, relaxed weekend.

Dalla has a mild case of conjunctivitis.  We took her to the vet on Saturday after we noticed one of her eyes was red and discharging a small amount of matter.  Of course, in the time between making the appointment and going to the appointment, she ate a screw(!) that was part of the track lighting we were installing.  The vet prescribed two pieces of bread for screw consumption and a triple anti-biotic for the puppy pink eye.

The following is a brief window into the experiences Sarah and I have as dog owners:

I took Dalla out to go to the bathroom as Sarah was leaving. When we came back in, I made a peanut butter and dog biscuit sandwich. I thought about putting her in her kennel, then and there, but decided she could roam the house a bit more while I surveyed the kingdom. I pushed the peanut butter treat to the back of the counter to prevent treat poaching by a certain furry member of the family and head for the throne.

I sat there, reading my magazine, as I heard all these high-pitched yips coming from the other end of the house. My first thought was that she was looking out the back door at a squirrel on the patio. So, I called to her (with the door closed). I could hear her tags come trotting down the hall. Apparently, the closed door was boring because she quickly turned and trotted away.

A short time passed.

More high-pitched yips could be heard from the other end of the house. I started to worry that Dalla had damaged herself in some way, but not so much that she wasn’t still mobile. So, I called to her again. Again, trotting and tag jingling. I stood up and cracked open the door to visually inspect her. She took this as an invitation to come in, so I tell her “No.” while I eyeballed her body. No blood. No dangling body parts. Nose still plenty wet and cold. Hmm. All appeared well. Shut the door and go back to my kingdom.

Another short time passes.

High-pitched yipping could again be heard from the other end of the house. I finished my survey, so I opened the door while I brushed my teeth. I hoped that she would hear the door open and come to make sure that I was okay (her usual routine). Nothing. Finished brushing my teeth and proceeded to the other end of the house to determine dog’s source of distress.

Dalla was lying on the floor of the kitchen between the refrigerator and the cabinets on the east side of the kitchen. Her tail was wagging madly. Her mouth was slightly open. She was staring intently at the counter-top where her peanut butter treat was located. She yipped because she hadn’t gotten her treat yet! I took the treat off the counter, and she ran to the basement door. I opened the basement door and she took the steps to the basement in one big jump. Into her kennel she ran, tail wagging the whole time.

I placed the treat in the dog’s kennel and shut the door.  She happily starts licking and chewing the treat, all thoughts of yipping forgotten.

I think our dog is addicted to peanut butter.

We saw the movie Better Luck Tomorrow the other night.  It was a really interesting movie with deeper characters than most and a very surprising, morally ambiguous ending.

You can only imagine my joy at Rush Limbaugh’s admission that he abused drugs.  Now, let’s hoist him on his own petard.  It’s always interesting how the "law and order types" that generally want to send everyone up-river for various reasons suddenly want understanding and treatment for their problems, rather than the incarceration that they prescribe for everyone else.  Thanks for playing the game, Rush, you hypocrite.

For the record, it was the National Enquirer that broke the "Rush Limbaugh is a drug addict" story.  Perhaps all the people who (gently) ridicule me for having a subscription to the National Enquirer when I was young will remember that fact.