Interesting Old Photo

See if you can figure out what's not quite right in this sports picture:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=snibbe/081031

Hurricane Humor

These are floating around via e-mail right now. Some are just too true for comfort!

You know you're from the Gulf Coast if:
1. You have FEMA's number on your speed dialer.
2. You have more than 300 'C' and 'D' batteries in your kitchen drawer.
3. Your pantry contains more than 20 cans of Spaghetti O's.
4. You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering your windows.
5. When describing your gutted house to a prospective buyer, you say it has three bedrooms, two baths and an open air feel to it.
6. Your SSN isn't a secret, it's written in Sharpie on your arms.
7. You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot.
8. You are delighted to pay $4.00 for a gallon for regular unleaded.
9. The road leading to your house has been declared a No-Wake Zone.
10. You decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool.
11. You own more than three large coolers.
12. You can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about it.
13. You rationalize helping a friend board up by thinking it'll only take a gallon of gas to get there and back.
14. You have 2-liter coke bottles and milk jugs filled with water in your freezer.
15. Three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain; today you can assemble a portable generator by candlelight.
16. You catch a 13-pound red fish - in your house.
17. You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner's insurance policy.
18. You consider a vacation to stunning Tupelo, Mississippi.
19. At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw.
20. You have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row.
21. There is a roll of tar roofing paper in your garage.
22. You can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at the Weather Channel.
23. Someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof.
24. Ice is a valid topic of conversation.
25. Your drive-thru meal consists of MRE's and bottled water.
26. Relocating to South Dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea.
27. You spend more time on your roof then in your living room.
28. You've been laughed at over the phone by a roofer, fence builder or a tree worker.
29. A battery powered TV is considered a home entertainment center.
30. You don't worry about relatives wanting to visit during the summer.
31. Your child's first words are hunker down.
32. Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it's Christmas.
33. Toilet Paper is elevated to coin of the realm at the shelters.
34. You know the difference between the Clean side of a storm and the Dirty side.
35. Your kids start school in August and finish in July.
36. You go to work early and stay late just to enjoy the air conditioning.
37. You are prepared to wait in line at Starbucks for 2 hours to get a cup of coffee.

Timewaster Of The Week-Oct. 28-BONUS

Posted this last year:

http://www.dedge.com/flash/halloween/

Ah, the smartybritches hangman!

Timewaster Of The Week-Oct. 28

Life isn't fair, and neither is this frustrating game:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/games/play/911486/

Sarah Palin Gets PWNED!

I don't know the back story on this, but I do know she's got the wrong animal there on the scarf.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/10/21/in-which-sarah-palin-displays-the-latest-in-donkey-fashion.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM6t4Y7u5pI

Silsbee School Officials Stick Heads In Sand

About a decade ago, a little girl disappeared off an elementary school campus in Killeen, where I was editor of the newspaper. Witnesses saw someone come up to a playground fence, pick up the girl and carry her away.
Drug-sniffing dogs picked up her scent on campus. In addition, records showed that the little girl had used her breakfast card in the cafeteria that morning.
A massive search effort ensued. A few days later, the girl's badly decomposed body was found in a rocky ditch near a river.
The school district could have served as an instrument of community calm. Instead, it circled the wagons, refusing to address the tragedy publicly. The district even denied that the girl was on campus that fateful morning.
Now, the Silsbee school district is doing the same in the aftermath of an arrest of three football players in the reported sexual assault of a cheerleader.
Other than a couple of brief statements issued via e-mail, the entire district has been tight-lipped about the incident. Media calls to district officials have been ignored. At a time when SISD could address community fears, it is burying its head in the dirt.
A wise Vietnam vet once told me that the only way to survive an ambush is to fight your way through it, and this is the approach that SISD should be taking. Instead of clamming up and hoping the issue will go away - and it won't - it should be taking a proactive stance, assuring the public that it is addressing the problem, particularly on campus, where professional counselors should be made available to help students through this difficult time.
Perhaps the district is doing a fine job of handling the crisis in-house. But that doesn't go far enough. Parents and the public have a right to know that the district is doing something more than circling the wagons.

Timewaster Of The Week-Oct. 20

Early voting started today, with turnout this year expected to be heavy.

But maybe we could save all this time, expense and emotional energy by deciding our new president this way:

http://armorgames.com/play/2453/battleground-states-2008

Another Candidate Pick 'Em

Answer the questions, and it shows how well your views match up with the presidential candidates:

http://www.stopandvote.org/candidate_selection.html

Ring! Ring! *%$#@$@#@!!!!!!

Few things generate cold-sweat terror like a telephone call in the dead of night.
All is peaceful, and then BAM! The heart races. The mind struggles to gain consciousness. The sweat pours forth.
It's 3 a.m., so what's the deal? Who is it? Why are they calling? What horrible news am I about to hear?
Sleep-destroying night calls were common at our old house in Beaumont, thanks to our number being one digit off from someone who apparently stayed up all night.
It had never happened at our new home out in the country - until last night.
Ever since Hurricane Ike, I've spent every weekend, from dawn til dusk, sawing, hauling and burning debris around in my yard. Staying up past 9 p.m. on those grueling days has been almost impossible. Many times, I've fallen asleep on the couch, only to wake up at 2 a.m. with my dried-out contact lenses glued to my eyeballs.
Last night, I decided to avoid that by turning in early after perhaps the most physically demanding day yet in the post-Ike cleanup. While I was in very deep sleep for what seemed like hours, the telephone rang, jolting me awake.
It's 3 a.m., so what's the deal? Who is it? Why are they calling? What horrible news am I about to hear?
With my pulse pounding, I grabbed the phone, and what might go down as the most bizarre thing I've ever done, I inexplicably launched an assault on the caller.
WHO THE %^%$#@!!! IS THIS?!?!?! WHAT THE %^%$#@!!! IS GOING ON?!?!?!
A soft, rather timid voice responded. It was my wife, who informed me that she was on the phone with the administrator of my son's preschool. She had called about my wife's availability for substitute teaching.
And it was only 9 p.m.
DOH!
Somehow, in the span of about 10 minutes, I had fallen into hard sleep, so hard that I thought it was in the wee hours of the morning when the phone rang.
I got off the phone and fell quickly back to sleep, but I awoke this morning with my heart racing, remembering the call and wondering why the heck that I had responded that way. The wife was furious with me and thought I was policing her phone calls, that I didn't trust her or something.
After bountiful apologies to the wife, I drove by the preschool on the way to work and apologized to the administrator like I'd never apologized to anyone before and tried to explain myself, which was hard to do. The apology was accepted, thank goodness, but I'm still trying to understand what happened.
I'll probably never figure it out, but one thing is for certain: I'm going to dial it back a notch when it comes to exerting myself in the yard from now on.

Timewaster Of The Week-Oct. 13

Waste time with a dolphin:

http://armorgames.com/play/2019/dolphin-olympics-2

Maybe We Need To Do This

Southeast Texans have it tough.

We're stilling climbing out of the Hurricane Ike rubble AND dealing with this economic meltdown crap. People are losing their jobs, and retirement investments are swirling down the toilet.

Maybe it's time to GET MAD AS HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_qgVn-Op7Q&feature=related

The Loss Of A Mother

Mom was skeptical last year when I asked to say a few words at my dad's funeral services. She apparently liked what she heard, because on her death bed last week she asked that I do the eulogy for her, which I delivered Tuesday.
Just before Hurricane Ike, she went to a Houston hospital complaining of stomach pains. Days later, with her condition rapidly worsening, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a very nasty and aggressive thing.
She died a week ago today.
I always figured she'd live to be 100 or at least outlive her husband, who died at age 87, and her mother, who died at age 90.
But she really never got over her broken heart over my dad's passing, and I believe that profound grief and loneliness allowed her body turned on itself.
With my dad, who died two months after surgical complications, I had plenty of time to reflect on his life. With my mom, I only had a matter of days.
I don't want to reveal her age, due to an agreement we had long ago. I agreed not to tell anyone her age in exchange for her not coaching me while I drove.
But, boy did she live a full life.
Her side of the family has a rich history. Our early ancestors came up from Mexico in a covered wagon in the early 1800s and helped settle Texas. Two of our ancestors fought for Texas independence at the Battle of San Jacinto.
My mother was raised by a single mother in Dallas during The Great Depression. When she was old enough to leave home, she made up for her struggles by living large in California and San Antonio. She even had a date with Dan Blocker. If Hoss Cartright from “Bonanza” is grilling you a steak, you know you’re living large.
She eventually settled in Houston, where she became an executive secretary for a major oil company. She was a part of the same long-gone 1950s social scene as famous Houstonians such as Al Vargo and Sonny Looks.
She married my dad in 1962 and moved into their new home on their wedding night. They shared that home for 44 years, and she lived in it right up until her fateful trip to the hospital last month.
With my sister and I off to college, she channeled her empty-nest syndrome into a new business. She dressed up in Victorian garb and gave Beatrix Potter presentations to children in libraries and classrooms all over the Houston area. She became rather famous, too.
She was always someone I could count on in a fix, whether it be emotional, financial or whatever.
Mom was quite a character, and I'm going to miss her. I feel like a vital link to my childhood is all gone.
I take comfort in knowing that she is reunited with Dad. Her suffering is over, and her broken heart is now mended.
Here's a little video my brother-in-law put together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_G2wA0OCDI