I just discovered Michael Yon (michaelyon-online.com). He's a reporter who actually reports the truth of what's happening in Iraq.
Let me warn you, there is some heartbreaking content on the site. Like this report:

On 29 June, American and Iraqi soldiers were again fighting side-by-side as soldiers from Charley Company 1-12 CAV—led by Captain Clayton Combs—and Iraqi soldiers from the 5th IA, closed in on a village on the outskirts of Baqubah. The village had the apparent misfortune of being located near a main road—about 3.5 miles from FOB Warhorse—that al Qaeda liked to bomb. Al Qaeda had taken over the village. As Iraqi and American soldiers moved in, they came under light contact; but the bombs planted in the roads (and maybe in the houses) were the real threat.

The firefight progressed. American missiles were fired. The enemy might have been trying to bait Iraqi and American soldiers into ambush, but it did not work. The village was riddled with bombs, some of them large enough to destroy a tank. One by one, experts destroyed the bombs, leaving small and large craters in the unpaved roads.

The village was abandoned. All the people were gone. But where?

See the rest here.

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Another gem from Cox and Forkum.

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There is a great new Ross Mackenzie piece I read in the Las Vegas Review Journal. I couldn't find it on their website so I have to link to the Sacramento Bee which did have it.

Here is just a piece of his article:

Global warming and global terror

We know the truth about global terror and malign jihad -- emphatically, flat-out, now. About global warming we "know" a multiplicity of things not necessarily so. In the success of the war against global terror lies the salvation of liberty and mankind. In the war to make the world safe from climate change we invite outcomes unknowable and known -- among the latter the destruction of free economies and free societies in order to save them.

Relentlessly prosecuting the war on terror to a more beneficial result seems clearly the prudent choice -- even if it turns out to take the better part of this century.

Click here for the rest. I highly recommend it.

Actually, I just found out if you click one of the above links it takes you to a sign in page. If you cut and paste this address: http://www.sacbee.com/debate/story/210492.html in your web browser it takes you directly to the article.

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A few weeks ago I sent Harry Reid a letter. Understandably he never replied but here is the letter:

Let me tell you a story. You should be familiar with this story since I share your religion. A great general was fighting a war far from home, and wondering why his troops were not being given the supplies or reinforcements they needed, sent a blistering letter to the leader of his country and demanded immediate support. The leader informed him that certain evil men, for political advantage, were blocking the needed supplies and reinforcements. This general took his troops home and captured or killed those evil men, then returned to the war with the materials he needed.

You might recognize this as the story of Moroni and the traitorous king men who had tried to overthrow the elected leader Pahoran.

Let’s put this in a modern context. President Bush is like Pahoran our elected leader (whether you like it or not), you are one of the leading king men attempting to overthrow the elected leader of this great nation for your own political advantage. I wonder when our Moroni equivalent will get fed up with you, march on Washington, and throw you and your ilk into prison for your treason.

I think you forget how close the election before your last was. I don’t think your next will be close, you will lose badly, I pray. You don’t represent this nation, you represent Nevada (and not very well). President Bush was elected in two national elections, you were not.

Your actions, paint you more as a Gadianton robber than a decent and honest senator, you should resign, if you have any honor left.

If you would like to read the story of General Moroni you can go here to read it.

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I received this in an email then found the source here. It's great. Here's the first part of it:

Americans must confront their axis of idiots and the media

Sgt. Major J.D. Pendry (Ret)
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 4 September 2006

Jimmy Carter, you’re the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You’re the Runner-in-Chief.

Bill Clinton, you played “ring around the Lewinsky” while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses embolden the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.

Read the rest here!

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I’m watching “The Great Global Warming Swindle” which is a UK Channel 4 show that they will not show in this country because it totally annihilates the man-made global warming myth. It tracks temperature change with cosmic ray levels and sunspot activity and the graphs match perfectly. Their theory is that when there are lots of sunspots the solar wind slows the level of cosmic rays striking the earth which cuts the formation of clouds and thus warms the earth. When the oceans warm they can’t hold as much CO₂ and thus CO₂ levels rise, but that it follows warming and is not the cause of it.

One scientist pointed out that if he wanted to study the nut gathering habits of squirrels he would write up the grant request as “The nut gathering habits of common squirrels with a special empathizes on the effects of global warming.” That way he’d be sure to get his grant.

Another scientist had to threaten to sue to get his name off a global warming report that he disagreed with. His only contribution had been to disagree with it! Some anti-warming scientists report death threats for their stand. Even the co-founder of Greenpeace does not believe in man-made global warming, in fact he calls the global warming people anti-human. Fascinating stuff.

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More future tech that promises to help solve the energy problem and the trash disposal problem.

The Prophet of Garbage Joseph Longo's Plasma Converter turns our most vile and toxic trash into clean energy—and promises to make a relic of the landfill.

And then there's this:

The space shuttle never was. It will be remembered as one of the most elegant, most misbegotten detours in the history of technology. It was our Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes's gigantic, eight-engine plane that flew only once.

Music Of the Spheres
Why a Moon Mission Is Worth the Money

By Charles Krauthammer
Washington Post, Friday, March 2, 2007; Page A13

This is a great article on going back to the moon. Let's do it.

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see full article at: http://blog.scifi.com/cgi-bin/blogroot/mt-tb.cgi/2118

Thin film solar tech to undercut cost of fossil fuels within five years

Solar panels that will be more efficient and a whole lot cheaper are on their way, ready to match the cost of old-fashioned fossil fuels within five years. The secret? Researchers are moving away from heavy silicon solar panels and changing the entire solar energy equation with thin-film solar panels made of rolls of dark polymer foil that can be mass-produced in any color. The thin film has already seen some great uses, such as keeping beer cooler.

Even though solar technology has made significant gains since the 1970s when it cost $100 per watt (now it's $3 to $4 per watt), that sweet spot of beating out fossil fuels is $1 per watt. Swiss entrepreneur Anil Sethi says his solar foil can hit that magic number for even less than that — $0.80/watt — within five years and beat the cost of fossil fuels by 50% in 10 years...

see full article at: http://blog.scifi.com/cgi-bin/blogroot/mt-tb.cgi/2118

Environmentalists have been freaking out about fossil fuels for years. First it was global cooling, now it's global warming all blamed on fossil fuels. Well guess what? It looks like much of the "problem" will be solved in 5 to 10 years. What will the environuts complain about then? Oh I bet they find something!

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Two recent American presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. Reagan ended the Cold War and Bush, supported only by the social democrat Blair acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic fight against democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed.

Europe - Thy Name Is Cowardice

By Matthias Dopfner - January 7, 2005

The above links to an amazing article by a German man about Europe's take on the war on terror. Check it out!

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I chopped down one of my pomegranate trees Saturday. You wouldn’t believe the accumulation of garbage under that tree. I even found a little toy basketball that one of the kids lost under there years ago. Someone tried to paint it up like a Jack-O-Lantern. There was a lot of wood that needed to be moved so I tied a rope around it and tied the other end to the truck and pulled and… broke the rope! Twice—because I was stupid enough to expect a different result the second time! Third try was a chain. That did it and I only broke one sprinkler head! I dragged the whole mess out to the slew and even smoothed out the driveway in the process!

Then Jane sent me a bunch of newsletter articles. One of them told me to remove their contact information from the web. You know phone number, address, and the stuff that’s not there in the first place! Well they also mentioned name, so, okay, it’s all gone—the whole thing. Except for this message:

Because of the complaints of several people (some of whom obviously haven’t even looked at the site) about their contact information being on the web, this site has been removed. Since there was no contact information on the site—no phone numbers, no addresses—as was charged, it’s too frustrating to continue the hard work involved in putting out a newsletter twice a year and keeping this site updated. So as of now the website and the newsletter publication are suspended. If the family wants to continue the newsletter, they need to find another editor; I won’t do it any longer. I apologize to the people who have told me they enjoy the website, but the paranoia of some has made it into something I no longer enjoy doing.

So yeah, no more newsletter on the website or in print. Jane even had me password protect the pictures we’ve taken at family gatherings. Why should they have access to those? It’s made me angrier than I should be, I suppose, but I’m tired of working my butt off to put out the darn thing and getting nothing but aggravation in return. Since I doubt if anyone else is willing to do it, I guess that’s the end of it, too bad, so sad, should have done it years ago. Some may ask why I don’t just continue with the paper version. Same thing, I’ve received complaints on that too. So design it yourself, fool! I’m not doing it anymore, have a go at it!

I’m getting trunky. We’re just barely halfway through the school year, but I’m ready for summer. Spring is almost here and the asparagus is peeking out of the ground, so I want summer! It’s even feeling like spring. It’s 72°F out there at 4:27 PM! Nice… Well spring is really more than a month away…

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Via: Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth (UmmYeah.com)

I've been teaching Algebra 1 and 2 and math fundamentals in high school for more than a decade now. This video explains why I usually fail a third of each class. The students are unprepared for high school math and have no concept of a work ethic. Few will consistently do homework or even classwork. Honors classes are an exception, but even there they seem unprepared for high school math work. (The math fundamentals is a class where I teach elementary level math to students who are so far behind they haven't a chance of passing Algebra without such extreme intervention.)

My daughter-in-law teaches third grade. I just asked her about the math text she uses. She told me she hated it. She usually adds supplemental material to the text which includes lots of practice using "normal" math algorithms. It's interesting that her students test much higher in math than the others in her school, and yet she considers math one of her poorest subjects.

I recently completed my Master of Education degree. I took as many math related teaching courses as I could, unfortunately they taught teaching methods that show the same thought processes as used in the math texts mentioned in the "Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth" video. We were encouraged to teach exploration rather than use the more boring traditional math learning methods. I went along, got my degree and threw most of it away!

I believe many teachers are victims of the education system as well. We who actually try to teach and make a difference are outnumbered by the socialists who make up the bulk of the bureaucracy that controls education. Most days I feel more like a babysitter than a teacher. I love what I do, but with just a few exceptions I feel that I'm wasting my time. It would be easier to just give in to the system. But I won't. I'll keep fighting what is probably a losing battle unless something forces a change.

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We basically had a normal week this week, but Laurana livened things up Saturday. She apparently snuck over to Brown’s and was playing in their yard with the dog when it went into the house through the doggy door. Laurana followed it into the house. Well after searching through the neighborhood and getting more and more people into the search, Jane cutting her trip to Mesquite short, and calling out the cops, she finally wandered home. Robert and Shannon were frantic and hysterical. Browns came home and found toys strung around and muddy little footprints everywhere. We’re all of course glad she’s all right, now can we kill the little brat?

It also turns out that one of the Brown’s kids, when he was small, knew where the key was hidden to Robert’s and Shannon’s house back when someone else lived there and he would use it to sneak into the house when they were gone. Aren’t children wonderful?

Since Mark and Rick managed to break my cement mixer, I decided to work on it and see if it could be fixed. After considerable effort I got it all taken apart. Unfortunately it’s in more pieces than it should be since it broke. Oh well, I’ll borrow the one Rick bought and break, I mean use, it!

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Sigh, vacation’s almost over...

It was nice having everyone here (except Charlie). We had an enjoyable Christmas. I got the Pimsleur Spanish 3 set. Maybe I’ll make some more progress.

William wanted to borrow one of my guns. I didn’t want to send him out with the old Lorcin so we went down and found a Polish Makarov at Ace. It’s a really nice shooting gun. Like Robert’s it throws brass all over the place, though William’s is in 9x18 Makarov while Robert’s is 380 ACP (9x17)

I wanted to do some reloading but my press was really stiff. I called Dillon and got some instructions and basically rebuilt the press. They even sent an alignment tool to me free of charge. It works great now except I ran out of 9mm bullets! Ace doesn’t carry my powder so I’m going to try a new one. I’ve still got 380 bullets and some 38’s so I guess I could still do some reloading. Components aren’t cheap, but it’s cheaper than buying the ammo.

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Ah the upstairs bathroom! In the continuing saga, I mentioned I had to tear up part of the floor to make it drain better. That went well and I finally tried it out this morning and found it drained just fine. So I’m thinking it’s finally done. Finally, finally done. Then I go into the kitchen and there is water everywhere. So what did I do wrong this time? I finally put a cap on the pipe where the shower head goes and turned it on. It still leaked so I knew it was in the shower plumbing after the valve. It turned out that it was a cap I could tighten after removing the shower valve cover. Whew! What a relief! So finally, it’s done! (Key fanfare here.)

I got it done just in time, since Valery and family will be here this week.

I was trying to design a custom Rhapsody station for Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra type Christmas music. Using those two groups to set the station’s tone worked okay, but I got stuff like Bing Crosby’s and Dean Martin’s non-Christmas stuff and some new age nonsense, too. Finally when I heard something I liked I’d save the whole album to a play list. Soon I had 18 hours of Christmas music I like, so I don’t need the crummy station anymore.

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Well I finally got the shower “finished” and took a shower to try it out. I had half an inch of water in two of the corners so I guess it’s not finished, huh? I tore up about two square feet and built the corners up more. Tomorrow I’ll put new tile down and grout Tuesday. Friday I’ll be able to seal it again and Saturday I’ll try it again.

It’s been dry and clear for the last few weeks. I washed every car we have except one (since I ran out of daylight) yesterday. So of course this morning it rained. It’s clear now. It just rained long enough to spot all the cars.

I was switched to the new Beta Blogger and found that my archives don’t work. I think what happened is I switched the archives to a separate folder but forgot to put the full path in the settings in Blogger. It took me a week before the darn thing allowed me to complete a republish, but the archives still won’t work. Finally I just moved all the files back to the root and they work fine. Will I have to keep moving them? Because apparently Blogger’s been saving them into the folder okay it just can’t find them in there later!

The house is looking Christmassy. William decorated the house and I decorated the yard including the pine tree and driveway marker snowflakes and the blow up Santa. Yesterday Ace was “giving” away lighted wreaths. Robert, Jessie, and my mom all wanted one too. Too late—sold out! Hey, but I got mine!

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After months (months I tell you!) of work on the bathroom, it is almost done. All that is left is to seal the tile and hook up the last plumbing. Well there are baseboards but that can wait. I can relax for a change, er no I can’t…

I was planning on getting my license renewed as soon as Jessie went on track break, but I completely forgot and now I have five days and just realized I need a physical before I can have it renewed. Plus the physical form is not available on the web so I have to go in to get one, then get the physical, then go back in for the license renewal. Of course if I decide it isn’t worth it to have a CDL I still have to go in to get a regular license so I might as well renew the CDL.

Last year Jane wanted me to decorate the tree outside, but I didn’t want to tempt anyone to cut it down and take off with it. This year it’s so big that it would never fit in anyone’s house so I went ahead and decorated it. It’s almost too tall to reach with the tallest step ladder I own.

I wanted to go out and cut a tree this year, but we simply have no time. So we’re using the artificial one again. It would be nice to have a real one, but I won’t pay the outrageous prices they charge. Of course once I pay for gas and all for a tree cutting outing, I’ve spent that much. But at least that’s a fun family outing and well worth the cost.

Today the Logandale 6^th ward (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) put some little gingerbread type houses out on display. The Spanish Branch was just letting out. Senaida and a friend both have sons the same age and they rushed over to the houses and Senaida’s friend’s son said, “¿Comemos eso?” His mamá yelled, “No!” There was a guy from the 6^th ward sitting there with his wife and he cracked up. His wife said, “What? What did they say?” and he had to explain it to her. (Obviously a Spanish speaker to some extent.) ("Can we eat this?" is the translation.)

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I lost my election on Tuesday. In a three way race, I got 28% of the vote while Ken got 54%. Kelby got 18%. When I went bed Lanny was also losing his election. I got up at 3 and checked the results again. Lanny won by 23 votes! Rush Limbaugh says he’s liberated by the Republican loss. He doesn’t have to carry Republican water any more. He points out Republicans moved to the left and lost. Democraps moved to the right and won. (Except for the ones that only pretended to move to the right—they lost!)

We went up to St. George to go to Ashley’s sealing on Friday. We stayed overnight and went to her wedding the next day.

I’m still working on the tile in the bathroom. It’s close to being done. I may have it done when Val and family arrive. I’m not thrilled with the job I did yesterday. It’s not my best work. The first part was much better. There’s just one wall left plus a little bit of ceiling. That cheap little tile saw was worth every penny. It does a wonderful job!

We’re about to enter a full week of work again, Next week’s only three days though. Nice!

It’s getting quite cool here now. I’m looking forward to some of that global warming!

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I got the floor tile glued down in the bathroom shower—finally. I hope it turns out okay. While the glue was drying I put plastic on the greenhouse. I put notes on the wood to tell me how everything fits. It didn’t work since it was all faded out. One idea that did work, I used a $13 bathroom exhaust fan to blow up the plastic. It does a better job than that other fan. Given the price of plastic, I hope it allows the plastic to last for more than a year this time.

I got my campaign signs. They’re magnetic, and I got enough for three cars. Kelby and Ken are not campaigning at all, so with my newspaper ad and my magnetic signs maybe I can win this thing. At least they aren’t campaigning yet. Maybe when they see my ad they’ll get one of their own. There are still two newspapers coming out before the election.

Mat L. is campaigning like crazy for power board. Mike F. is running against him and has one little sign up in his yard.

My son William still doesn’t have a job. He’s really frustrated. He could get a job anywhere, easily, except in a LDS college town. There are just too many exceptional people!

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A few weeks my wife and I went to Mesquite and ate at a new restaurant. I had “Camarones Del Diablo” and it was very, very good. Yesterday we went to St. George and tried a new restaurant there. I had “Camarones al la Diable” and it was even better! Although there was a delayed reaction. After I finished the top of my head was sweating and I was sweating around my eyes, though my mouth wasn’t burning all that much. We’re talking “mucho picante!” here. Yeah, I’m ready for more. The second restaurant made a mistake, though; they used dipping shrimp that still has the tails on instead of shrimp for grilling that has the tail removed. It was messy, because of the sauce, to remove the tails. I had to remember to keep my fingers away from my eyes afterwards, because the pepper doesn’t wash off the hands very well.

We listened to the first session of conference going up to St. George, but didn’t get to hear much of the second session and it was just ending as we started to drive home. We heard the whole thing today of course.

We weren’t shopping for a vanity for the bathroom at Lowes, we were going to go to Home Depot for that, but on the way out of Lowes I noticed one I liked a lot in the clearance section outside the store. I asked the guy how much thinking if it was under $150 I’d buy it. He said, “$27.50!” Hey what a deal! Later we paid more for a medicine cabinet than that.

I was talking to another teacher and he asked me if I’d noticed a difference between the ninth graders this year and the ones from last year. I told him yes and he said they are monsters this year. Yes they are. I don’t know what they did to them in middle school last year. I’m making lots of calls home. Some times the guardian tells me the brat doesn’t live there any more because they can’t handle their behavior. It’s sad, because that means they go to live with a horrible parent or something.

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Oh, it has finally cooled off here. It’s been nice.

I’m finished with my Master’s—done—finally. It’s so nice to have that over with. Now I can have a life again.

I took the chain saw to the gooseberry bushes under the palm trees by the print shop. However, I didn’t cut one of the stumps short enough, and I bent the shaft of my brand new lawnmower, the one I bought last fall. The last lawnmower lasted many years. This one didn’t even make one.

Something I did yesterday caused me to have an allergic reaction. My hands swelled up and began to itch, but we have no idea what is causing it. We did go out to dinner the night before to a seafood buffet. I had many things I’d never had before so maybe that caused it, but I also had a reaction three months ago so I don’t think that was it.

I’ve been planning all summer to have my brakes done. Thursday they started grinding so I can’t put it off any longer. I really thought I had more pad left than that, but they wore down quicker than I expected.

I installed the new toilet in the third bathroom yesterday, so we have three again. No sink yet, and I still have to do the tile in the shower. Of course I have some time now!

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We found out something interesting. Not only does William not have a job yet, but Ivan no longer has one either. He’s even talking about going back to Chili.

I have a student whose name is Yvan. When I called his name in the correct Spanish pronunciation (Ee von) he made certain I knew he wanted it pronounced Eye-vun! I told Ivan (who also pronounces it Ee von) about it and he thought it was funny.

We went to Enterprise for Tyson’s wedding yesterday. He married a nice girl. I was impressed even though she’s not been active or maybe not even a member of the church—I don’t know for sure. We stuck around and went to the open house in Ivins. Her parents never showed up for that at all!

I only got an 80% on my project draft. I rewrote a little and turned in the final draft last night. I have no idea what I’ll get since the grading rubric is not the same as the one for the draft. They’re each 20% of my grade. The final paper is due next Sunday but it’s only 10%. The other 50% of the assignments are all 100% except for one 95%. If I get no better than an 80% on each assignment I have left I’ll still get a “B.” I’ve been approved for graduation and since I had to pay for my regalia, I might as well order it even if I don’t walk in commencement. I can wear it around the house, yeah, sure.

Our temple recommends expired in August. It’s funny but it just didn’t feel right until we got them renewed today. It still doesn’t feel right since we still need the signature of one of the stake presidency. I can see the importance of having a valid recommend even if there is not a temple near by. Just having it means you’re worthy and that’s a good feeling.

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Well, what an interesting week! We flew down to San Diego on Thursday. Friday while Jane was in meetings, Randy, Rod, Larry, and I went to the Air and Space Museum, It was hard to drag Larry and Randy out of there. Then we went sailing. We never left the lagoon but we had plenty of fun learning to sail. Supposedly this 23 footer could be handled by one person--not very easily. I worked the jib sail and the motor the 3 times we used it. We left the dock with the motor then used it when we ran aground. The stupid boat wouldn’t turn from the shallows. Finally we spilled the air from the sail and just kind of drifted lightly aground, the motor got us right out. We didn’t need it again but we were running out of time so we used it to get back in time. When it was clear we would make it, I shut it down. We sailed right up to the dock and spilled air and stopped perfectly! The man at the dock acted impressed. It was great! We even almost capsized a couple of times. Tried to go too fast – too much sail. When that happens you have to spill a little air quick. Someone else tipped but it wasn’t us!

We didn’t get to go to the San Diego temple because there was no room in the car; we went to Sea World instead. It was really crowded, but we had fun. We went with Peter and Debbie and Chuck and Kathy. We didn’t at first know Chuck and Kathy’s last name, so I didn’t recognize him as the man that ran CO Bastion the last two years I was there.

I found out you get extra security if you board with just a computer bag. Stan told me that’s probably why they did the extra search on me. The guy behind me had a roll-on bag with a computer pocket. Stan says they don’t worry about those. I guess I need one!

We stayed at a nice hotel but the restaurant really sucked! The food was good-service was lousy! We left feedback – you betchya! The weather was perfect. We never once turned on the air. Nor the heat either. It got just a little cool after sunset at Sea World.

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We flew up to Idaho non-stop in a 737 Model 700, Southwest's latest. It was packed. We would have been able to get William a ticket going up but we couldn't get him anything coming back, yet the flight up was packed. On the way back (which took three flights, Spokane to Boise, Boise to Reno, and Reno to Vegas) we were on an old 737 model 300 (two actually) and it was half empty. So why couldn't we get William a ticket?

We had a busy week. It was really hot at first, but it cooled off until the last day was actually pleasant. Today, after we left it was cool. I guess we picked the wrong week.

While we were up there the TV died. We knew it was going because the screen has been looking weird in the corners. But it was a surprise it went so quickly. I’d really like a LCD TV, but they’re a bit pricey. Even if we go with a CRT I want a bigger one than what we have so our entertainment center will be too small. Crud! I’ve looked at the big plasmas and I don’t think they’re all that great. Since digital is the wave of the future most people have to change anyway, but we don’t! Our satellite is digital, it doesn’t matter what the TV is. But we’re forced to make the change anyway.

Oh well, it’s a chance to get a new idiot box.

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We flew out of Vegas at about 6 o'clock Friday. I'd never taken a laptop though security So the TSA was a little peeved that I left it in the case. But they were very professional about it. Just took it out, checked it for explosives, x-rayed the case, and beat the crap out of me. Well okay the last is a bit of an exaggeration. Okay a lot of exaggeration! We landed in Spokane which is a nice little airport. Mark had left us his car in the parking lot, so we drove that to Post Falls. I was surprised at how close that was. Coeur d'Alene on one side and Spokane on the other.

The temperature here in Idaho is only nine degrees cooler than the temperature in Overton! According to the long range forecast it will drop down to normal (low 80's or high 70's) next Monday--after we leave! Yesterday Mark and I went to Wal-Mart and saw a few A/C units on the shelf and I thought surely we could find better units somewhere else. Nope--sold out. When we went back to Wal-Mart and sure enough they were all sold out. So we're dying here. It was nice to go to church today. Three hours of air conditioning! It's supposed to slowly cool off over the next week but won't be bearable until just before we leave. We did buy a fan. I put it in the window last night and it actually got cold for a short time early in the morning. Mark has his Dad's van but the (you could see this coming, huh?) A/C is out. We tried to fix it but it looks like the compressor.

We just ran a neighbor boy off who was peeking in the window. Valery went ballistic on him. Another neighbor just peeked in and wanted to play with the girls, but Valery told her it was Sunday and the girls couldn't play.

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I've bought my son Charlie a camera. I had great fun on E-bay losing the auctions with seconds to go! I finally won one. I'm replacing his 4 mega pixel Kodak C330, which was stolen, with a 5 mega pixel Kodak Z700. It’s bigger. It looks more like my Canon in shape so it should be easier to hold on to and it has a 5x optical zoom instead of the 3x he had in the 330. The controls should be almost exactly the same so anything he learned about the old one should apply to the new one.

We went to my niece, Terilee's wedding yesterday. The groom, Jared works at Concrete accessories. Rick and I were in there the other day, but he didn't tell me until we were on our way home that Jared was Terilee's fiancé.

I’ve started taping in the upstairs bathroom. It’s going fast, but it’s a lot of work. I’ve taped in the shower; tomorrow I’ll do the rest of the bath. Then comes texture and paint. Then tile, reset the toilet and install a new sink (since the old one’s color doesn’t match the new floor). I don’t have a lot of time though with two vacations coming up and my class started.

This is my last class and I will be done! Sweet!

We bought a new ride on lawn mower because the old one would no longer start. Well I fixed it, so now we have two. I’ll use the old one for mowing weeds.

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To repeat another post. I now have a source so I'm publishing again with a link to the source


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I’ve taken to spending 30 minutes a day digging under the house. The hole under there is not getting much bigger it seems. I’m doing that instead of running on the treadmill since my foot won’t allow much running. I replaced one section of AC ducting under there, and I thought it looked good but the duct tape isn’t holding so I have to keep redoing it. I’ve stripped the upstairs bathroom. I’m going to have Rick finish the floor then I’m going to completely rebuild it with a tile shower instead of a tub. I’ve found that the water leak was just water running out of the tub and not a problem with the plumbing. The new floor and tile shower should fix that.

Yesterday we took Grandma’s old John Deere up to DI but they wouldn’t take it! I think they were just too lazy to lift it out of the truck. Mike, my brother-in-law took it. Cosmetically it still looks really good. It just had flood water in the engine and the transmission wouldn’t go into reverse. I bought another John Deere. I was using an old door for a ramp but it folded in the middle with the mower halfway off the truck. I ended up with the back wheels on the ground and the front wheels on the truck. William and I used a 4 by 4 beam to lift it up and set it on the ground. No harm done.

We went to Adam’s funeral Thursday. The graveside was very hot, so they didn’t spend much time there. His first wife showed up with a paper and took their son. Ivan and Meredith are exploring legal options to keep him. I don’t know why Adam had custody, but I do know he’d be better off with Ivan and Meredith.

I just read that Mexico has a cliffhanger in their presidential election. The last thing they need is the marxist. (The driveby media is calling him a "liberal"!)

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Is Hamas crazy? Their little show of force against Israel is summed up nicely in this cartoon from Cox and Forkum.

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I almost missed the deadline for filing for Ivan Cooper’s last two years on the water board. I’m running against two other people. Last time I ran I lost by less than 100 votes. Let’s hope I win this time. And this time I’m going to actually campaign!

You know those stories of people who are fired and they go nuts so the cops have to shoot them to keep them from harming others? Well there was a guy who got fired at a mine and he jumped into a 70 ton dump truck and did 1.5 million in damage, including starting a huge fire. When the fire trucks arrived he rammed them with the dump truck. So a rookie highway patrolman had to shoot him. You know some cops go their whole career and never pull their guns and this guy has to kill someone after two months on the job. What’s worse is this happened here at Simplot less than 10 miles away and it was Adam Cooper who was shot and killed. He's the son of my neighbor Ivan Cooper. He was angry about being fired and his wife divorcing him. Charlie Cooper his brother was the one who had to identify the body since everyone else was out of town.

Some moron said the cop should have shot the tire out and it would have stopped him. Yeah right, if the bullet didn’t bounce back and kill someone else instead. I’m really sure a bullet from a pistol is going to penetrate a three inch thick truck tire!
Adam used to be like part of the family. It’s very sad.

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I spent all week getting the fifth wheel ready to take to the family reunion. First the tires were old so they were dry rotted and I didn’t want to go through what Stan did with his—one blowout after the other. So five new tires. Then the refrigerator didn’t work on gas so I looked for a new control board. I finally found one online but they called back and told me it was no longer available. I started looking around and whenever I found one I called to make sure they had it and they all referred me to the place that I’d already tried to buy from. I finally gave up and bought a new one. I found a huge RV store in Vegas that had them in stock. Then I had all the little repairs… On the way back I expected my battery to charge, but it didn’t. I thought I had fixed that!

We had a good time. We went up Friday and stayed until Sunday. We probably stayed longer than anyone; of course we had the nicest “tent”. My father-in-law looked at the fifth wheel and said: “So you’re going camping, huh?” I told him “Sure, city style!”

Judy told Patty she’s so glad she married John since everyone is picking on Patty now instead of Judy. Some of the kids were shooting lizards with BB guns and showing them to Patty, who would scream and create a scene. Nothing fazes Judy anymore so they don’t tease her anymore.

The Yankees blew a 9 to 2 lead yesterday—losing 12 to 9. They blew it again today—losing an early lead because of bad pitching. It wasn’t even a good team! Washington?

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From Cox and Forkum:

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I think people have lost sight of what the immigration debate is all about. It’s about controlling our border so that we are protected from terrorist attack. It’s become a debate on what to do about illegal aliens who are already here. That debate won’t make us safe. We must control the border first.

There are a few hateful and bigoted people who are making the debate unpleasant for everyone and making those who want to convince illegals to leave and become legal before returning look bad. I heard a story on the internet that may or may not be true. It goes like this. A woman sat down in her seat on an airplane and the man next to her seemed hostile. Finally he asked her how long she’d been in the country. She asked him, “Well how long have you been in the country?”

He proudly replied, “My great-grandparents came to this country.”

She responded with, “I’ve got you beat. I’m a Native American.” He shut-up and didn’t say another thing the whole flight. It’s a nice story if true. This next one is true.

The Review Journal, a Las Vegas newspaper, reported on a woman whose husband was being deported as an illegal alien. She was of course upset, as she should be since her husband, the father of her six children, was going to be out of her life unless she chose to go to Peru (which would require her own immigration nightmare) or figured out some way to bring him back. As she was being interviewed someone drove by and yelled out the window of his car: “Go home!” With tears in her eyes she said, “I’m a native American. Where can I go?”

Now I’m sure the idiot in the car didn’t know what the interview was about. He just saw brown skin and spouted his hatred. How many more idiots are out there ruining the landscape for a reasoned debate?

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Notice the difference between Cynthia McKinney and Condie Rice. The congresswomen has no class, is looking for trouble, and seems to be a racist bigot with something to prove. Condie is a classy lady, doesn't have to look for trouble, (libs cause her troubles and she deals with them well) and has absolutely nothing to prove to anyone.

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Cynthia McKinney

Condie Rice.

Some of my crazy students decided to protest Congress’s decision to do something about illegal immigration. When the little darlings came back, I asked them what they were protesting about. None of them could tell me. They hadn’t a clue. I think I like Newt Gingrich’s plan best: set up centers in Mexico so people can get checked out and get an ID which they can use to enter the US, any employer hiring someone without such an ID gets a huge fine, and the twelve plus million illegals will leave because they have no jobs. They can come back if and when they qualify for an ID card. And of course seal the border!

We’ve had proficiency testing this week. We caught one girl with a cheat book. Dumb girl, now her test is no good. I guess it’s still not over. She’s denying she was using it to cheat.

I was all ready to finish chopping up one of the trees tomorrow, but I guess Eric finished it today. Of course he left a mess on the ground for me to clean up so I guess I’ll keep what ever I clean up.

I finally got the phones system I want. We hung a base unit in the kitchen and we have nine cordless phones to go with it. We went a little crazy with the buy two get one free sale. We can actually add one more, but we’re done I think. All the phones are speaker phones. They have voice mail (which I don’t know how to use yet), and they can act as walkie talkies. We only have two other phones still hooked up. They’ll go soon.

We had a staff development day Monday. This crazy guy was the speaker at the Orleans casino. Apparently he was the teacher of the year or something. The parking lot was so packed it took almost an hour for Robert and me to get out of the parking lot. He was so late getting to his meeting. As we got in the car I noticed the lady next to us in her large SUV (which proved to be too large for her) had her wheels turned way out. I told Robert if she kept backing out like that she was going to hit us. Can you see it coming? We didn’t even try to pull out because it was too busy, but she did. And (you can still see this coming huh?) she scraped my mirror across her fender. It left an 8 or 9 inch crease on her fender, but only a little scratch on my mirror. She gets out—doesn’t even look at her fender—and says, “Looks like someone parked too close! You’re going to have to move first, because I can’t get out.” She gets back into her large SUV and she still hasn’t looked at the damage to her car! I wiggled the car back and forth until I was well away from her and after a few minutes she left. I guess I could get her for hit and run.

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It’s a strange thing. I’m working on a Master’s degree at Capella University. After I finish this class, I’m two classes away from finishing. (I’m burnt out! I want it over!) Like I said, it’s a strange thing. I’ve found that when I have a paper or project due, I sweat and fret; do more research, then sweat and fret again. This usually happens over several days. Finally I kick out a decent paper in an hour or two. I think that my mind has learned to refuse to produce until the junk I’ve collected percolates in my brain a while and then when it’s ready (usually just before a deadline) it slips into output mode and out pours the paper!

Last Friday, I had a kid tell me to shut-up. My immediate reaction was to grab him by his jacket and tell him not to ever speak to me that way. Now a week later, the story is that I picked him up and spun him around my head! When the kids ask me if that is true, I just smile and flex my “incredible” muscles. Rumors, aren’t they great?

Wednesday, the 1^st of February I put my youngest in the MTC (LDS Mission Training Center). Charlie’s going to Viña Del Mar, Chile on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was hard to let him go, though I’ve done it four times now. (My first son went to Islas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands), my second son went to Orsorno, Chile, and my third went to Argentina. Everyone in my family except my daughter and me speaks Spanish—well Charlie’s still learning but he will be—so it’s interesting around here, especially since there are four different dialects, between my sons and my wife who was born in Mexico.) I guess he’s a little harder to let go because he’s my last one.

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My water heater rusted out and my chiropractor mentioned they now have electric on-demand water heaters. I found one on the web that was reasonably priced (about twice the cost of a regular heater) and am now the owner of a Stiebel Eltron Tempra 29 tankless water heater. Notice the three power cables going into the bottom and the sub-panel behind my grand-daughter. When it's on it uses three 220 volt 50 amp circuits. When it's off it uses only the trickle of power necessary for the temperature readout LED.
It works great and it's nice to take a shower and not have to worry about running out of hot water. As you can see from the size, it also frees up all the space the tank took before. We gained another closet! That's always nice!
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Since I got sick and missed all but one day of school last week, I've kind of had the Christmas season sneak up on me. I'm still recovering but I've got to find something for my wife for Christmas. I'm at a loss. Usually I come up with something, but this year I'm drawing a blank.

I'll think of something--I guess.

I've taken to wearing a bracelet. It says "Just Say Merry Christmas." It's a response to the politically correct crowd who are afraid of offending those who aren't afraid of offending us!

You can get these at World Net Daily Store

(See picture above right.)

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Charlie, my youngest son, got his mission call last Friday. He’s going to Viña Del Mar, Chili. When he gets back that will leave me and my daughter as the only ones who don’t speak Spanish. It’s not like I’m not trying, but for some reason, I don’t seem to be making much progress. ¡Es tan duro para mi para aprender Español! Well okay, I’ve learned a little bit.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Several relatives like my fried turkey so I ended up frying 5 of them over the course of the holidays.

My daughter-in-law managed to acquire nine tickets to The Blue Man Group on Friday. We were sitting in $100 seats! The show was very entertaining, surprisingly enough.

Since my daughter-in-law is now on track break from school, I’ll be riding with my son for the next three weeks. That means advantages and disadvantages. Since he gets out before I do and I get out an hour before my daughter-in-law I’ll probably be getting home about an hour earlier than normal. But since my son starts an hour before I do I’ll be getting up earlier, not fun…

My second son has a phone interview with Sierra Vista. If he gets the job, it’s possible he’ll be riding with us too. This could get interesting!

We’ve been building a house for my in-laws. It’s almost finished. The main house is done, but we need to finish the two bedrooms and the master bath. I was trying to spray texture yesterday and it wasn’t going well. I did notice the air compressor was running too much but I couldn’t really check it, because I would have had to go through the living room and track wallboard compound on the carpet. It turns out the pressure regulator was leaking air which didn’t just cause the compressor to run too much, but also caused 80 psi instead of 20 to be fed to the texture gun. Well duh, no wonder it wasn’t working right!

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After a 3 month wait, I had the lasic surgery in my left eye redone. This time the trauma was much less and this time it worked! I now have what is called mono-vision. My right eye sees distance, (about 20-30 with a little astigmatism, they may still fix that, I haven’t decided) and the left is focused for reading. It took only a few hours after the surgery and I was reading with that eye. I had to pull my computer monitor closer, but I can function without any glasses at all for the first time since Jr. High. It is so liberating! I can even wear cool shades! Of course for the last 3 months, since the first surgery, my left eye has been worthless, but now I’ve decided it was worth it!

For the past few years, my wife and I have commuted to two different towns to go to work. Me to Las Vegas and she to Mesquite. We live about halfway in between. Since our gas bill has risen to about $600 a month, it’s been a challenge. She was just offered a job locally, so her drive will be 10 miles round trip instead of 75 so we’ll save considerable money on gas, and apparently she gets a raise too!

Now if I could just get a job locally…

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With the indictment of Tom DeLay and the accusations against Bob Bennett in the news, we once again see the dishonesty of the Democrat party and their accomplices, the news media. Tom DeLay was indicted for one reason, the Republican rule that an indicted leader must step down. The fact that they have such a rule and that the Democrats don’t, gives strong evidence that the Republicans are the more honest party.

The Bob Bennett fiasco shows the shrill nature of the Democrat party. Any sane person who listens to the exchange Mr. Bennett had with his caller would understand that nothing racist had occurred. So either the Democrats are dishonest or they are not sane. You decide…

More tee-shirts from Thoseshirts.com. Aren’t they fantastic? The shirts are great too.

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What is it with libs? Are they so arrogant that they really believe that all people--at least those that count--agree with them? I'm a teacher. A math teacher. The reason I mention the last is that those of us in the math department tend to be more conservative than those on the other side of the building, you know those English, history, and social studies types. However there are plenty of the lib type in the math department, too. I started at a new school this year, so I don't yet know who are the conservatives and who are the libs, except for one. This tattooed young lady, showing lots of cleavage, (I hope she dresses more conservatively next week when the students start) asks me my last name and when I tell her "Bush," she says, "I won't hold that against you!" I didn't know what to say, I should have a witty response for inane comments like that. Instead I just gave her my most disgusted look.

These arrogant, petty haters of Bush (and America, yes I do question their patriotism) are attempting to destroy our nation. They tried before during the war in Vietnam, you know the one we won over there but lost here on our own soil. Now they're doing it again because they're angry, bitter, and they lost the last two elections. The liberals haven't been out of power since FDR and they don't like it! So they lie about Bush, lie about the war on terror, and refuse to face their own hypocrisy! Good! That means they shouldn't win anymore elections!

I wish I could believe that, but after all, we voted for Clinton in this nation—twice! I hope the nation has wised up, but I won't hold my breath.

You can get the shirt (but not the model) at http://www.thoseshirts.com/cat.html

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The following story is from This is True dated 17 July 2005. It is
Copyright 2005 Randy Cassingham, all rights reserved, and reprinted here
with
permission:

"Ethical" Defined

After more than 100 dead dogs were dumped in a trash dumpster over
four weeks, police in Ahoskie, N.C., kept an eye on the trash receptacle
behind a supermarket. Sure enough, a van drove up and officers watched
the occupants throw in heavy plastic bags. They detained the two people
in the van and found 18 dead dogs in plastic bags in the dumpster,
including puppies; 13 more dead dogs were still in the van. Police say
the van is registered to the headquarters of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, and the two occupants, Andrew B. Cook, 24, and
Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, identified themselves as PETA employees. An autopsy
performed on one of the dogs found it was healthy before it was killed.
Police say PETA has been picking up the animals -- alive -- from North
Carolina animal shelters, promising to find them good homes. Cook and
Hinkle have been charged with 62 felony counts of animal cruelty. In
response to the arrests PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said it's against
the group's policy for employees to dump animals in the trash, but "that
for some animals in North Carolina, there is no kinder option than
euthanasia." (Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald) ...Oops, my mistake: that's
"Playing God" Defined.

In his author's notes section, Cassingham had more to say about this
story:

The more I learn about PETA, the less I think of
them. The story of them killing animals isn't even unusual. According to
PETA's own filings, in 2004 PETA killed 86.3 percent of the
animals entrusted to its care -- a number that's rising, not falling.
Meanwhile, the SPCA in PETA's home town (Norfolk, Va.) was able to find
loving homes for 73 percent of the animals put in its care. A shortage of
funds? Nope: last year PETA took in $29 million in tax-exempt donations.
It simply has other priorities for the funds, like funding terrorism
(yes, really). But don't take my word for it: I got my figures from
http://www.PETAkillsAnimals.com
-- and they have copies of PETA's state and federal filings to back it
up. The bottom line: if you donate money to PETA because you think they
care for and about animals, you need to think some more. PETA literally
yells and screams about how others "kill animals" but this is how
they operate? Pathetic.

And you know what I wonder? PETA's official count of animals
they kill is 86.3 percent. But if they're going around picking up
animals, killing them while they drive around and not even giving them a
chance to be adopted, and then destroying the evidence by dumping
the bodies in the trash, are those deaths being reported? My
guess: no. While 86.3 percent is awful, the actual number is probably
much, much higher. How dare they lecture anyone
about the "ethical" treatment of animals!

(This is True is a weekly column featuring
weird-but-true news
stories from around the world, and has been published since 1994. Click
the link for info about free subscriptions.)

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I've been thinking about having my eyes fixed with lasik for some time now. My eyesight has always been quite bad, and as I've aged it's only gotten worse. I've always been very nearsighted with a lot of astigmatism, too—especially in the left eye. My near vision has always been excellent. It was in fifth grade that I finally discovered that my eyes were not normal and I was thrilled to be able to see well for the first time in my life. I've worn glasses religiously ever since, except for a brief time twenty-five years ago when I wore contacts, but had nothing but trouble with them.

A few years ago, I found that it was necessary to take off my glasses for near work and the last few pairs I've worn have been bi-focal. Unfortunately that only took care of reading and distance. I also had to get a special pair of glasses for computer work. Bi-focals work for reading, but not for other close up work so if I was doing work (like plumbing) in a tight spot I would often take off my glasses since I couldn't get the lower part of the bi-focals in the right place. Finally I'd had enough.

The lasik place suggested mono-vision and to see if I could handle it, they put contact lenses in my eyes, one with the prescription for distance and the other for reading. This wasn't perfect because they didn't correct for the astigmatism, but I was thrilled with how I saw. Even at the computer it worked, since I guess I averaged the two eyes and could still see the screen well enough to work. I was also amazed at how comfortable the contact lenses were. I had almost no problems at all, unlike before. I guess they've come a long way in the last quarter century. I should have stayed with the contacts.

It turns out I am one of the 8% who don't have successful surgery. My left eye, which was supposed to be my reading eye, sees nothing but a blur at any distance. In fact the right eye, the distance eye, sees up close better than the reading eye. Now for distance it's a little better than it used to be, but I've lost the near vision I used to have. So my left eye is worthless. The right eye does see well enough that I can drive—in the daytime—and even watch a little TV, but it's not yet good enough to go without glasses for night driving or serious TV watching. So I had to buy a new pair of bi-focal glasses, since my old ones no longer work, and a new pair of computer glasses. Now if I need to see something up close I can't take off my glasses, because I no longer have uncorrected near vision. What a pain!

The doctor says they can operate again in a few months. Again I have a 94% chance of it working. I worry that since I was in the 8% last time I could be in that 8% this time too. We'll see (pun intended!)

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Since I spent a lot of time redesigning my site, I decided to post here just so I could rewrite the blog to my site. Check out the site at the link below.

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I'm a bit surprised I haven't kept this up for two months!

I've got a new job at Canyon Springs High School for next year, unless I can convince Ms. Davies to hire me at Moapa Valley High, which would be nice since she does have an opening. She has a Spanish position also. My son Rick would like that one.

Last week I was a chaperone on a trip for the newly graduated seniors to visit the church history sites for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We actually did the trip in reverse. We left Las Vegas and flew to Kansas City where we boarded a bus and followed the path of the Saints moving east on the route they used to move west during the early years of the church. We traveled through Missouri; Illinois (see the pictures of my wife, Jane, and youngest son, Charlie, in Nauvoo, ILL. That's the Mississippi behind them.), Ohio, and New York, visiting various historical sites of the early church, and ending at the farm of Joseph Smith where it all started with the first vision.

We did take a few side trips. We visited Hannibal MO where Mark Twain was raised and Niagara Falls. On our last day we took a canoe trip on the old Erie Canal, where we got tipped over and I dunked my digital camera. It's dead, Jim! Oh well, I got an excuse to buy a new one. An Olympus with a 12X optical zoom and 5 mega pixels, sweet!

The kids were great. There were times that some chaperones had to sit out in the hall at the hotels until their charges realized they weren't going to get away with anything. Our kids (including my son) knew that we wouldn’t put up with anything and they didn't give us any problems at all.

It was a great trip and we and the kids learned a lot. There are apparently other youth groups that make this trim, because I ran into my niece who was traveling with another group in two separate states!

It's nice to be back though, since I was averaging about six hours of sleep a night. I'm still catching up on back sleep.

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Another great cartoon from Cox and Forkum 

This thing is not fun anymore! It's become an obligation that I feel guilty about when I don't do it. Except when I do it then it becomes fun... Well actually, what is fun is not doing it, but having done it! Now that probably made no sense!

Okay, I had an interview today. I've got another planned Monday morning, another Monday afternoon, and the last (for now) Tuesday. The goal is to get a position as close to home as possible. I'm still tied up with all the many responsibilities I have, school (as teacher), school (as student), editing the newsletter, and keeping up with chores around the yard. If I can get a position near home next year, I'll have about three more hours of time each day. That would be wonderful!

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I've been extremely busy trying to get my apartment ready for tenants, so I haven't written anything in a while. I've been waiting for two weeks for the carpet morons to finish my carpet in the apartment. They left a section without tack board and did some really horrible seams. After a week I got the boss to come and look and he promised it would be done on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday... Today they wouldn't even answer the phone! I guess I'll tell them I'm not paying the rest of the money and I'll hire someone else to finish the install.

Talk about another run of bad luck! Monday we were rear-ended in North Las Vegas as we were making a right turn. Tuesday, we were rear-ended again a block south of the first accident! Unbelievable!

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When my tenants moved out of the guest house, I went in to fix the flood damage. I ended up tearing out all the cupboards and basically stripping the place down to bare walls. I've been spending all my free time trying to get the place ready for renters again.

Of course every time it starts to dry up a little around here, it rains again and re-wets the mud.

My mother's house is in need of a lot of work too, and I just don’t have time to do it all!

So far we've had two cars damaged by the flood—three if you count Rick and Jessie's car.

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Cox and Forkum have another good cartoon. 

We got flooded again! This was the worst flood we've ever had. Despite sandbagging our guest house still got flooded, and my mother had water seeping into her yard through gopher holes! I don't know what more we could have done. We double sandbagged at her house yet it did no good at all. She had at least eight inches of water in the house. Everytime a firetruck went by, the waves went right over the top of the sandbags. My son parked his car inside her yard so it would hold the gate and sandbags against the force of the water, so his car got filled with water. It runs but he has no instruments, nor seat adjustment (which is electric).

The neighborhood and the LDS church came through again and within a few hours had everything out of her downstairs including the carpet. Below are a couple of pictures from my house and a couple of the cleanup at my mom's.

I'm planning on suing the county, again. They are responsible for flood control and it's been 24 years since the first flood. This is the fourth flood and the third caused by the refusal of the county to clean out the river channel! I guess the last time I sued I didn't get enough money out of them, since they did nothing to fix the problem. This time we go for more! Since they settled the last lawsuit, this one will be even easier.

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Mucking out my Mother's driveway 

My Mother's carpet. 

Looking South from our house 

Looking East from our house 

I've had my house full of kids and grandkids for the last week. It was a wonderful Christmas. My son William has returned from Argentina (with an accent) and it was nice to have him home for Christmas.

I've been trying to figure out a way to do this blog in Dreamweaver, but it's incredibly complicated. Other people I know manage to do it, but I think they do everything by hand, the hard way. I don't have time for that so I'll keep doing it on here.

I procrastinated signing up for my next class and now it's full. I had to pick another class. It doesn't really matter, I had to take it anyway. I'll take it next semester. Just one year away from the Master's degree. A whole year! I'm sick of school!

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We had a good time for Thanksgiving. I fried three turkeys. One we had on Thursday evening and the other two we had in Alamo while we helped Mike and Retta lay the block for the two rooms we're building over my in law's cellar.

I also got to try my new Mantis tiller. That thing works better than I expected. It only weighs 20 pounds but it does a better job than the old one we had that costs three times more.

I'm almost finished with my greenhouse. I was looking for a fan to blow air between the two sheets of plastic and I found the cheapest fans could be purchased by buying one of the blow-up Santas or snowmen that Ace had on sale for $20. I bought one of each. The Santa is set up in the yard; the snowman is taken apart so I can use the fan. I have to replace the plug because anything designed for Christmas use has a fuse built into the plug to protect the companies from lawsuits. The idea is that most people replace lights and such regularly, so when the fuses blow people just replace the lights and don't worry about it too much. For a blower I'll be using more often, I have to get rid of the fuse. It will be on a GFCI circuit anyway, an extra fuse is not necessary.

I discovered the magic of Zantac. I feel so much better now that I'm using that regularly. I had been using Nexium with no results. Now I take the Nexium in the morning and the Zantac at night. The pain is now bearable, and in fact most of the time, I don't notice it at all.

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We know that when President Bush was reelected Afghani's and Iraqi's celebrated. We know that in almost every other country they preferred John effing Kerry. Why? Do the liberal Bush haters ever ask why? Let's look at selfish reasons. The Iraqi's and Afghani's are better off with Bush, so they like him. They don't trust Kerry to continue the fight. They and other nations don't give a rat's behind about quality of life in America. They care about their own lives, thus the support for Bush in those two countries. Other countries have citizens and subjects that are jealous and envious of our prosperity and freedom, so they support leaders that are bad for us. They certainly don't have our best interests in their hearts. So only an idiot would care if they liked us or not. Idiots like those who supported the lying, flip-flopping, war hero (in Vietnam, not here) who committed treason after he returned from Vietnam and who did not receive an honorable discharge for his service until after Jimmy Carter pardoned him.

Interestingly enough, one other country celebrated the reelection of George Bush. The story, in NewsMax tells us of Iranians dancing in the streets with joy. Why? Because they hope they're the next country freed of tyranny by the blood of our soldiers. And our wonderful soldiers are glad to do it. This is the month of Thanksgiving. Be thankful for them, and our strong president. Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran are!

Richard's main page

Again a good one from Cox and Forkum