Cat gets 'Lucky' in rescue on icy river

MISSOULA, Montana (AP) -- If cats have nine lives, a kitty in Montana has definitely used one up.

A house cat survived being locked in a cage, thrown off a bridge and then stranded in an icy puddle of river slush.

The ordeal ended Tuesday morning when a pair of passers-by spotted the calico cat while crossing a footbridge and called for help.

Missoula firefighters arrived minutes later, donned wet suits and launched a rescue boat.



People are mean. Maybe the law that allows people to drop off unwanted babies at safe havens that include firehouses should be extended to animals as well. Save the firefighters a trip AND get rid of a sweet cat! Win/win!

Kenya's Hippo, Tortoise Mark Year Together


By RODRIQUE NGOWI Associated Press Writer
© 2005 The Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya - The unlikely couple of a baby hippo and a 130-year-old tortoise were still together, a year after the hippo was separated from its family by a tsunami.

...

The tortoise at first resisted. But the persistent Owen kept following him around the park, into the pool and trying to sleep next to him.

Mzee relented after several days. As the bond grew, the tortoise even returned signs of affection. They are now inseparable.

Dear Dallas Stars,

If you're going to blow someone out by a score of 6 to 1, please try to accomplish it on nights I'm either parked in front of my TV or when I'm actually IN the stands, cheering you on. This habit you have of scoring like mad on the nights I'm away is ridiculous.

Thanks,

Me

Dear Sneeze,

Please don't implode my eardrum again. That really hurt.

Me

Hussein: 'White House lies'


World not surprised.

Intriguing: Google sees fit to advertise lowridertalk.com and an air-bag website in my banner thingy.

Maybe I should talk more about puppies and kittens.

I take pride in small things. Today, I cleaned up the area to the left of my computer desk. I also cleaned up a little bit underneath it. That's about it. It makes me feel better tho. I hate clutter. You wouldn't know it to look at my house but I do. I abhor clutter. I just don't know what to do about it. I'm pathetic that way.

I went out to the shed with the intention of cleaning up a portion of it so I could take boxes of stuff out to it. Better to have them in the shed than in the house, you know. What ended up happening was a minor reorganization of the shed, raking of the yard and a few things found their way into oblivion.

I threw away some Bruce Lee tapes. I hated to do it but I was never going to watch them and I've tried selling them. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone right now who would just LOVE to have them.

I want to rearrange the living room but there's no magical way to do it without getting rid of SOMETHING. I'm tempted to do it when the boy isn't home... just to see if he'd even notice a significantly roomier living space. He's one of those people that only has to walk around an obstacle a few times before it becomes a permanent fixture to him. I don't think that's a BAD thing, it's just a thing. So if there was suddenly no exercise-monstrosity in the living room, he'd only have to absent-mindedly walk through that space a few times and it would seem to have always been "so." It's just idiotic enough an idea to work.

Everything said on here starts with "I". That's been bugging me for a while. Maybe it means more of my endeavors ought to involve other people. Or it could just mean I am uncreative and simple. That's a more of a probability.

English is escaping me. Words used to be easier to come by and now I find myself reaching for synonyms. For anything at all. It's depressing. Disheartening. Frustrating.

Bleh.

I think Christopher Walken and Oprah would make an excellent president/vice president team.

I would vote for them. I would vote for them because I think that if I didn't, they could very well make me burst into flames with their minds.

Stars 2
Senators 0


heh.

Comedian Richard Pryor dies at 65

I would post pictures of the room now that it's almost done but I have no camera. I really should know better than to loan it to people when I've got pretty stuff to take pictures of. Damn you, Will!!! ;)

Brothers die in traffic crashes minutes apart

Thursday, December 8, 2005; Posted: 1:42 p.m. EST (18:42 GMT)


LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- Sheriff's deputy Andy McDowell was forced to live a parent's worst nightmare twice in a matter of minutes.

After he was taken to the site where one of his two sons was killed in a car crash early Wednesday, McDowell was driven past another fatal accident. Only later did he learn that the fiery wreck took the life of his only other child.

"You take the most unimaginable hell that a parent could be told and double that," Warren County Deputy Coroner Dwayne Lawrence said.

Rory McDowell, 23, and Cory McDowell, 21, both died within a couple of miles from the home they shared with their father in southern Kentucky's rural Warren County.

Twenty five years ago today:




Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

Something weird: when I type, only my right hand gets cold. And when I say cold, I don't mean a little chilly. I mean ice freaking cold. I can't feel the keys half the time when I'm typing. My left hand is typing just as vigorously and yet it's perfectly warm. Doesn't make any sense to me since I have a cup of hot chocolate and which hand do I use to hold it? My right one. I don't get it. Maybe this is the reason Jacko used to wear the one glove. I'm on the verge. I'd have to FIND my gloves but I'm ON THE VERGE.

Last night, the Devils played the Red Wings. The boy predicted a 4-3 rout of the Devils since the times the Red Wings have lost lately, they've lost to teams that aren't on a par with their play. Devils were 13-10-2 at time of play but they play well. Anywhoo. The boy said 4-3. I thought 5-2 but I didn't say anything. 4-3 would have been a good game. Detroit won, 5-2. I should really start placing some bets on these games. *sigh* I wonder why it only works with hockey? I've never been able to predict the actual score on a football game.


Interesting link: www.longnow.org

They're building a clock that will last 10,000 years.

This is brilliant. And no, I didn't find it myself. She always finds the coolest stuff.

I love how 20 minutes of reading reaffirmed my hatred of fuckin' Larry the Cable Guy.

I'm guessing this is a case of using the wrong pre-written headline. Funny funny.

"When the end of the world comes, it won't be referred to as "Judgment Day".
Rather, it shall be called "T-Day", when Mr. T ends the world by simultaneously pitying all six billion fools on this planet to death."


Best thing I've read all day.

Updated Uber-List

1. Read new books: no more re-reading old
ones.

2. Find a market for soaps.

3. Take up knitting again.

4. Start crocheting again.

5. Make more candles.

6. Take a yoga course.

7. Landscape the front yard.

8. Plant a fruit tree.

9. Learn how to drive.

10. Save up at least $1000 dollars. Doesn't matter from where.

11. Get money from Misty.

12. Throw out clothes I don't wear anymore. always a work in progress

13. Wear the clothes I like.

14. Do more sewing. Partially done, anyways.

15. Stop talking inside my head.

16. Paint the bedroom.

17. Get a new desk for the office

18. Get a raise from the job I like. I got one. When I went for the second one, I ended up jobless. Good going!

19. Stop eating out so much.

20. Wipe out old computer and give it to Mom and the girls.

21. Start a compost heap.

22. Go to Galveston with the boy at least once during the summer.

23. Go to Galveston with Nicole at least once.

24. Paint the kitchen.

25. Get rid of extra furniture.

26. Replace pots and pans.

27. Hang flower boxes on the shed.

28. Pave area in front of shed.

29. Grow irises. Irii.

30. Make fresh pies as often as possible. Baking
is fun.

31. Write more letters.

32. Get something pierced. Nose or eyebrow, I think.

33. Get another tattoo.

34. Get some Johnny Cash LPs.

35. Buy more Beatles LPs.

36. Go to one amazing concert.

37. Get insurance/doctor's office fiasco sorted out.

38. Send out postcards regularly.

39. Improve handwriting.

40. Learn how to dance

41. Buy more comics.

42. Learn how to paint. Japanese!

43. Learn Tarot cards by heart.

44. Bake bread.

45. Get ChiChi's health issues sorted out.

46. Get rid of pointless collections.

47. Take a trip somewhere I've never been.

48. Locate and buy copies of "In His Own Write" and "Spaniard in the Works".

49. Level the backyard.

50. Learn how to sleep in.

51. Expand cooking skills.

52. Take a real vacation.

53. Get glasses or contacts.

54. Visit friends more often.

55. Keep a normal journal and update it every day.
Working at this one.

56. Take more pictures of the pets.

57. Wear more dresses. So much fun!

58. Clean out the office closet.

59. Come up with a schedule of daily chores. Gah.

60. Eat less candy.

61. Film parties. They're fun to watch later.

62. Write more emails.

63. Make mix CDs.

64. Exercise more.

65. Dye hair red.

66. Get some real muscle tone. I'm pretty sure this is never going to happen.

67. Replace dishes with Matching Set.

68. Knit baby bonnets and find place to donate them.

69. Clean out closet and donate unused clothing. Ongoing project.

70. Expand backyard flowerbed.

71. Add a flowerbed to the front yard.

72. Replace broken screens.

73. Replace missing blinds in living room.

74. Hang more pictures.

75. Take more photos of family and frame them.

76. Paint shed.

77. Get new printer.

78. Get flat panel monitor.

79. Spend more time hanging out with Bob.

80. Stay depression-free.

81. Stop buying things you don't need. Work. In.
Progress.

82. Take unread books to Half Price.

83. Redecorate the bedroom: get rid of picture mural.

84. Have at least one garage sale.

85. Stop collecting things that don't have an immediate purpose. (ties in to
#46)

86. Do things on list. *sigh*

87. Drink more water.

88. Eat more fresh foods. Processed is Bad.

89. Baby-make.

90. Give more money to charities.

91. Finish at least one game I've started.

92. Get shots for the cats and dog.

93. Upgrade to a futurephone.

94. Organize dresser and closet again.

95. Put old cabinets in laundry room and new cabinets in kitchen.

96. Replace/get rid of carpet in kitchen.

97. Replace Beatles videos with DVDs.

98. Paint bathrooms.

99. Patch/replace sheetrock.

100. Put a birdbath in the yard.

101. Have a small garden.

102. Cut my hair.

103. Start an address/birthday book for friends and send cards.

104. Regular doctor and dentist visits.

105. Either get a day-planner or use palm pilot more.


30 out of 105. That's sad.

Pound's unfounded comments will hurt his cause

By Scott Burnside


Dick Pound's suggestion that one-third of NHL players take some form of performance enhancing drug says more about the man and his organization than it does about the NHL and its players.


Pound, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, is already being pilloried in the Canadian media for the comments and one has to imagine that unless Pound can come up with supporting documentation, the entire organization will see much of its good work go down the drain with the Turin Olympics on the horizon.

The comments are ludicrous.

....

During the 2003-04 season, the National Hockey League Players' Association conducted tests on virtually every player in the league as an educational dry run to prepare for what everyone expected would be a new policy on drug testing. Less than 1 percent, or fewer than seven players, tested positive.

....