Thursday, October 16, 2008

The picture says it all

Obama Pictures and McCain Pictures

An Irish take on the U.S. elections

An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States...a point to ponder despite your political affiliation:

'We, in Ireland , can't figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States .

On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run!

Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship !!

What in God's name are ya lads thinkin over in the colonies!

Another gem from a Yahoo Group

Gift Wrapping for Bird Owners

1. Clear large space on table for wrapping present.

2. Go to cupboard and collect bag in which present is contained, and shut door.

3. Open door and remove bird from cupboard.

4. Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.

5. Go back and remove bird from cupboard.

6. Go to drawer, and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors,
labels, etc. . .

7. Lay out presents and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping
strategy to be formed.

8. Go back to drawer to get string, remove bird that has been in the drawer
since last visit to collect string.

9. Remove present from bag.

10. Remove bird from bag.

11. Open box to check present, remove bird from box, replace present.

12. Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.

13. Try and smooth out paper, realize bird is underneath and remove bird.

14. Cut the paper to size, keeping the cutting line straight.

15. Throw away first sheet as bird chased the scissors, and tore the paper.

16. Cut second sheet of paper to size - by putting bird in the bag the present came in.

17. Place present on paper.

18. Lift up edges of paper to seal in present. Wonder why edges don't reach.
Realize bird is between present and paper. Remove bird.

19. Place object on paper, to hold in place while tearing transparent sticky tape.

20. Spend ten minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from bird with pair of nail scissors.

21. Seal paper with sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.

22. Look for roll of ribbon. Chase bird down hall in order to retrieve ribbon.

23. Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two directional turn.

24. Re-roll ribbon and remove paper, which is now torn due to bird's enthusiastic ribbon chase.

25. Repeat steps 13-20 until you reach last sheet of paper.

26. Decide to skip steps 13-17 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that is the right size for sheet of paper.

27. Put present in box, and tie down with string.

28. Remove sting, open box and remove bird.

29. Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for lockable room.

30. Once inside lockable room, lock door and start to re-lay out paper and materials.

31. Remove bird from box, unlock door, put bird outside door, close and re-lock

32. Repeat previous step as often as is necessary (until you can hear bird outside door)

33. Lay out last sheet of paper. (This will be difficult in the small area of the toilet, but do your best)

34. Discover bird has already chewed the paper. Unlock door go out and hunt through various cupboards, looking for sheet of last year's paper. Remember that you haven't got any left because bird helped with this last year as well.

35. Return to lockable room, lock door, sit on toilet lid and try to make torn sheet of paper look presentable.

36. Seal box, wrap with paper and repair by very carefully sealing with sticky tape. Tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst areas.

37. Label. Sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulate yourself on completing a difficult job.

38. Unlock door, and go to kitchen to pour yourself a drink and feed bird.

39. Spend 15 minutes looking for bird before reaching obvious conclusion.

40. Unwrap present, untie box and remove bird.

41. Go to store and buy a gift bag.

Bad joke....can't say I didn't warn you!!!!

Just received this from one of my Yahoo groups

Don't say I didn't warn you...




A pirate walks into a bar with a paper towel on his head. The bartender says, "What's with the paper towel?" The pirate answers, "ARRR...I've got a Bounty on me head!"

Monday, October 6, 2008

Yet we meet again....in Alaska

My dear friend, Sarah, passed through Anchorage yesterday on her way to Nome. Her flight from Seattle came in too late to make the 157 to Nome, so, she got to spend the night here in Anchorage. I took her out for breakfast before seeing her off at the airport.
In the last two years, we have tried to meet up in St. Louis several times...where we were both born & raised and have failed. The closest we had come to being in ST.L at the same time was back in July'07. I called her shortly after my plane had landed, she was on her way to Memphis and was in Sikeston Missouri...about 2 hours away. Funnier yet, last October, I called her and she happened to be in the Anchorage airport (I thought she was traveling the next week) with about 3.5 hours to go before her flight left, so, we went out for dinner. We have now meet in Alaska 4 times
So, now it has become a little like a game with us. She is hoping to be able to extend her assignement in Nome, and I'm hoping to make another trip up there to see Nome at a different time of the year. If I'm lucky, I'll get an assignement in Valdez come March and Sarah can come to visit and see yet another city in Alaska (she's only been to Nome, Fairbanks and Anchorage).

The end is here!

 
Well, the end of our very short fall that is.
The night of October 5th, it snowed. In town, enough survived to more or less frost the ground. Further up north it was a different story, it looked like there was about 2 inches of the white stuff on the ground near Eagle River. In Willow, it looked like there was about 1.5 inches on the rails at my cabin.
On my drive up to Willow, on the radio, they were saying that we are supposed to get around 2 inches tonight. Well, my dad was looking on the computer for the Anchorage area and the forecast there said that we are to get 2-6 inches over night...maybe I will get to ski tomorrow!
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