I was looking through my logs and realized that, according to Google, I am the number one authority on Chapstick Addiction. If you’re curious here is the original blog entry.
How’s that for weird?
Got called for jury duty again, see that story here and here. Second time in a year. Damnit. I went to the county courthouse all the way over in Georgetown for jury selection. It was standing room only, just like last year. The clerk started into her schpiel about responsibilities of jurors and then swore us all in. She then went over the list of exemptions. One of those was you are exempt if you’ve served on a jury in the last 24 months. Woohoo! says I. And lookie there, it says that very thing right on the summons. The clerk said anyone who was exempt could leave after collecting their pay. I went forward, got my $6, yes, that’s six dollars, and got outta there. I was out in less than 15 minutes and got the full $6 for a day of jury duty.
Six dollars a day. 600 pennies. That’s what the county thinks is fair pay for a juror. What the hell is up with that? I spent nearly that in gas to drive halfway across the county and back. This might have been a days wages 75 years ago but this is 2003 and I earn over 40 times that. That doesn’t even buy a decent lunch. I think people would be less upset about doing their civic duty if it didn’t cost them money to do so. Let’s start paying these folks for their time. If I ever have to go before a jury I’d be happier if it was a jury of my peers who aren’t upset because of the money it’s costing them in lost wages to be there. I’d also prefer it to be a jury of peers, not of the unemployed or stupid. The ones that couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse to get out of it. I think it is our responsibility do do jury service but let’s not make it a hardship.
I didn’t even have to show up because I was exempt.
Moral: Read all the way through the documents sent to you.
: Hands Around My Throat from the album “The Animatrix OST” by Death In Vegas
Ok, it isn’t jam, it’s jelly.
Last night we spent a few hours and made Prickly Pear Jelly. On Thursday we went out to the ranch and did a little offroading and decided to pick some of the ripe prickly pears. When they’re ripe I’ll occasionally pick one for a quick snack. I had always wanted to make it into jelly so we ended up filling a 3 gallon bucket with the ripe fruit. Making the jelly isn’t a tough process it’s just time and labor intensive. We found a few recipes on the net and hacked together our own from a few that sounded good.
(Read on …)
This story disappeared quickly from CNN’s main website but I managed to find a link buried deep in their site. It tells how you can reduce your risk of breast cancer by up to 40 percent. They seem to want to hide this information from you. I think it’s a conspiracy.
Women, take this to heart. It’s for your own good. If you need help with your daily health regimen please let your loved ones know and I’m sure they’ll sacrifice the time to help.
Our long time friend and companion, Beemer, is no longer with us. She was just shy of 14 years old. I gave her to Shannon as a wedding present. It was a long hard decision to let her go. She was just too uncomfortable all the time. She was always plagued with ear problems and they were getting bad again. She wouldn’t have survived a 7th surgery. The doc said he was amazed at how long she lived because dogs of her breed and size don’t generally live past 10-11.
She lived a good life and will always bring a smile to our family’s faces. The hours and hours spent playing in the surf at Dog Beach when she was a pup. Playing in the snow at our place on Palomar Mountain. Fetching her off the roof of the neighbors house that was buried in a snow drift and getting stuck myself in the process. The way she would watch the road as we drove and would lean into the corners a split second before we started the turn.
She will be missed more than I can say…