Been a quiet couple weeks. And what excitement there has been, hasn’t been anything I really wanted to share. Short version: my back has still been mad about life, but only when I’m sitting. I’ve been okay standing or laying down, but after a day of sitting at work, I’ve been coming home and going horizontal. Working to correct things, but as the doctor says, these things take time.
I am getting some of the springtime things done around the house. Bought some roundup yesterday and zapped all the thistles around the house. I also tore out my old trellis, and have a new one on the way, so my hop plants are spending the next week or so without support. Today, it’s supposed to rain, which will make all the springtime growth just that much happier, but it also will probably keep me from getting any more done in the yard. But maybe I’ll manage to wash the windows. That’s a spring-cleaning task I haven’t done since I bought my house over five years ago, so it’s probably time to tackle that one soon.
And that’s about it for now. Sorry the posting has been thin, but it’ll probably continue that way. The first pre-season Saints game is just a week from today, so big chunks of my calendar will be blocked out for baseball soon.
- A scientist said so, so it must be true: Bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover. Huzzah! [flutterby]
- Weird. Government doing something that makes sense? Get rid of ethanol subsidies, state’s auditor says. [metro mpls]
- Excellent: wrongcards says they’re
ecards that are wrong for every occasion!
I don’t entirely agree. I can think of at least a couple occasions that just seem to call out for cards like that. [metafilter] - In a reversal of a 1981 policy, High Court Curbs Power of Police to Search Cars in some cases. As Bill points out locking your car doors when you exit the vehicle may now prevent warrant-less searches. [endwar]
- More than one person I know has wondered Just how high are firearms sales climbing? Well, thanks to the Buckeye Firearms Association, we now have some pretty pictures to make the data clearer. [vinnie]
- Says here ‘Scientific American’ Editor Out in Reorg. Plus a whole load of staffers. It’s possible I won’t be renewing, but we’ll see… [metafilter]
Spring is in the air, and I’ve got the next week off from work. This after two unplanned days off due to my back getting sore. I’m hoping another day or two of pain-killers and rest will get me up and about again so I can enjoy the relatively nice weather that’s forecast. No big plans (anymore), since I had originally planned to go out of town, but ended up cancelling when it got to the point that it hurt to sit in a chair at work. Hopefully staying home will mean I can at least get a little caught up on my list of things to do around the house.
In any case, I’m thinking that it’ll be a pretty nice week, whatever ends of coming of it. Here’s hoping your week works out well, too.
- This USPS News Release: ‘Check It Out, Man’ is a sure sign that the shark has been jumped. [metafilter]
- Cool. Wronkled Magazine is the new online magazine for the discriminating GWC. I got a few chuckles.
- Another bit of writing from Ben’s travels: The Dream of a Three Calendar Breakfast talks about some of the same things I found during my 2007 Vacation, especially the death of small-town America. But I found my three calendar breakfast in McCausland, IA and it was good. There is still life out there, it’s just getting harder to find.
- Will Obama the Pitchfork Operator turn the crowds against the capitalists? [vinnie]
- Heard about the New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ? Yeah, there’s some change. I remember being told I was paranoid last October when I suggested that the new boss would be no better than the old one. [scott mcgerik]
- Justin Raimondo takes a look at The Two Faces of Barack Obama and doesn’t like what he sees. Then again, our Prez is turning out to be The Great Divider, and has a bigger popularity gap between members of the two parties than GWB did just after the Florida recount or than Bill Clinton ever did.
After some nice weather and some outdoors activites in March, we seem to have settled into a cold spell around here. And frankly, it’s dragging on me a bit. I’m not quite ready for baseball season to start (yes, I know it has for the bigs, but that doesn’t really matter much to me), but I sure would like a few nice days that would entice me out into the yard. Or the garage even. There’s cleanup to be done out there, but I haven’t had a nice enough day to open the windows on the house this year, so it just doesn’t feel right to start outdoor cleaning yet.
That said, I’m getting the feeling that things are going to start rolling along Real Soon Now. The season ticket pickup party for the Saints is two weeks out. And then there’s a Saints game down in Miesville just two weeks after that, and then things will be busy. It’s just this in-between time that’s tough. I suppose I’ll start consoling myself with MLB games on the idiot-box, but I just can’t get excited about watching steroid-enhanced-millionaires who might not even have made the majors if it weren’t for “the juice.”
- My friend Ingrid linked to … but the devil sends the cooks and it got me thinking that I haven’t been cooking enough lately. It’s the time of year that falls in between the making of soups and stocks, and time to bust out the grill. As I mentioned above, it’s dragging on my a little, but soon the weather will improve and I’ll be cooking outdoors again. I’m looking forward to it. Oh, and it’s a pretty good food-blog, too.
- A lawsuit alleges that Minneapolis cops planted [a] pistol on teen after they gunned him down. What’s clear is that the kid got hit by a cop car while riding his bike, then chased, and had nine rounds shot at him. And then he was found with a gun that he’d supposedly been holding that had no fingerprints or DNA evidence on it. Whether the gun was a .380 or a 7.65 isn’t clear, but one of them was supposed to be in the police evidence locker. Take a look at the video and see what you think. Maybe he should have simply submitted rather than running away after being knocked off his bike by a patrol car, but that’s a decision I wouldn’t want to have to make.
- I’ve heard The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S..
The predominant source of guns in Mexico is Central and South America. You also have Russian, Chinese and Israeli guns. It’s estimated that over 100,000 soldiers deserted the army to work for the drug cartels, and that ignores all the police. How many of them took their weapons with them?
The problem isn’t the U.S. Most of the guns people are freaking out about aren’t even available for purchase in the U.S. [vinnie] - This week saw the (re?) launch of LIFE with
More than 7 million photos from the Life and Getty Images photo collections are now available to consumers in the largest online photography site.
Worth a look, but budget some time for your visit. [top]