Did someone call him a bear?

Who's the ape on my buddy's Buddy? I'll never tell (it's not me, though).

I've been scooting to the salt mines as often as possible, but its tough some days when I need to drop off the boys at daycare. If anyone knows of a sidecar for a People 50, I'll start looking for very small DOT approved helmets for the tikes. Ha! Sure be nice if it warmed up in the mornings, but the afternoons have made for nice riding.

Had one break down in nordeast while on my way back to the office from an appointment. I hit a pothole just before it stalled and figured I might have knocked something loose. Unfortunately, I had procrastinated adding a tool kit beneath the seat and had no way of knowing. Missy brought me a phillips screwdriver and I was able to determine that a loose spark plug wire was the culprit -- fastened it and we were on our way home. I have tools now -- won't make that mistake again.

If anyone's interested, an 8mm, 10mm and 12mm wrench/socket, some allen keys, a flathead and phillips screwdriver should just about dismantle this hog -- so there's your basic toolkit. Something to plug and/or inflate tires might be good too, but I like to live dangerously, and I have AAA w/ RV coverage. I don't have the following multi-tool but I did notice one at Pep Boys and it might be worth a look:

Bell Powersports The Jimmy Motorcycle Multi-Tool (Standard Measurement)

Supposed to be a nice weekend -- safe riding!

My reason for this post is two fold:

1) To inform you that I am still alive and kicking.

2) To test out a new Mac dashboard widget I just downloaded from Google Labs that allows one to post to Blogger right out of the widget gallery.

Ta.

Want to do some chest pounding? We have a place for you in health care.

Unusual and often ridiculous egos do not stop at physicians. Nine out of ten of you reading probably have a graduate or post-graduate degree. But do you list it after your name every chance you get? Do you add to that list a special qualification every time you take some form of continuing education? Well in health care you sure do! Look at this (protected) name from a piece I was editing today: Nurse Sunshine, RN, BSN, BS, EMT-PS, PA-C. This might be one of the more ridiculous ones I’ve seen in a while, but it is not uncommon. Paramedics are getting to be just as bad – I saw this tubby EMT clearing people from the hall as he was bringing a patient through the other day (it was a routine patient admit, not any sort of emergency, by the way): “Watch out...behind you...coming through!”

Love Your Children

No baby news to report yet. Carolyn and baby-to-be were given a clean bill of health at her last appointment this week. Her official due date is December 19, but we're betting it will be sooner.

Poor Taylor came down with a stomach bug last night, so Carolyn stayed home with him today. He seemed to be in better spirits this morning.

On a sour note, it's the following kind of shit that makes rethink my "opposed" position on the death penalty (from today's Star Tribune): Couple charged in death of 23-month-old

And to think there are perfectly loving would-be parents out there who can't conceive. What gives?

"...grave and deteriorating?" Who knew?

Can anyone be surprised that the Iraq Study Group Report has broken my week-long blogging apathy? You had to expect this.

First two not-so-fun facts about Operation Iraqi Fiasco: More American troops have been killed in Iraq than were killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (a timely figure given the anniversary of said attack). And the conflict in Iraq has lasted longer than WWII.

While I am heartened that a concerted effort has been made to change course in Iraq (so sick of the word course), I am disappointed that rapid withdrawal of forces is still off the table. Here is why we should apologize profusely and split:

• From an international and national PR standpoint, there's no way around this being a humiliating part of American history. George W. Bush and his administration should be the ones saddled with this. We must not allow them to prolong this so that some future administration who has to clean up the mess.


• Defeat has already occurred -- now let's try to cut our losses.


• Why does it matter what "good" is being done along the lines of promoting democracy in Iraq? That's not why we went there. Weapons of mass destruction were not found, so let's stop trying to twist the objective of the original mission into one of diplomacy. We should never have invaded in the first place -- admit it and get out.
  

  Peace in the middle east is an illusion and it is not sustainable -- whether we have troops there or not. There is too much history and too much bad blood between middle-east nations that we can't control. To think otherwise is the height of either arrogance or ingorance. It will always be a breeding ground for terror.
  

  When has middle east diplomacy ever helped us anyway? Today's friend is tomorrow's enemy. We helped train and arm the likes of Osama Bin Laden to fight the Russians back in the day. Now Bin Laden is at large (still) and responsible for orchestrating the most reprehensible attack on U.S. soil in history, while Russia is a trusted world ally.



• Sadly, there is growing sentiment among Iraqis that they were actually safer (happier?) under the rule of Saddam Hussein. The aptly-named website iraqbodycount.org places the country's civilian death toll at somewhere between 50,000 and 55,000. Easy to see why an Iraqi likes his survival odds better under the rule of Saddam than under that of President Bush.

32 Percent Nerdy - Big Deal

I would have actually guessed more. I take some issue with this having assessed me as a conformist. Maybe sometimes, but I pride myself on discovering cool magazines before they catch on (a la "ReadyMade" and "Make" -- both nerdy magazines).

You Are 32% Nerdy

You're a little nerdy, but no one would ever call you a nerd. You sometimes get into nerdy things, but only after they've become a part of mainstream culture.

How Nerdy Are You?

Oh, Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...you reduce greenhouse gases

This year, we opted for a real Christmas tree. I was raised in a real-tree home, then fell into the artificial tree rut for several seasons in a row as an "adult". The memories of having the real deal came flooding back the minute we arrived at the tree lot. The most rewarding part of the experience, obviously, is the scent of an evergreen. But I would be remiss not to acknowledge the process of selecting the best tree, getting it home and into the house.

We picked a 6.5 foot balsam from a nearby lot hosted by the Bork Tree Farm of Hinckley, MN. I'm plugging them with that link because the guys there were super friendly. One of them trimmed the trunk, wrapped the tree and propped it on top of our way-cool minivan AND tied it to the roof rack. Maybe I'm so out of the loop that this is all standard procedure, but I sure thought it was helpful. We also received a tree disposal bag and a little ornament too -- nice touch. The photo is blurry, but you get the idea (didn't want to use the flash and didn't feel like digging out the tripod). Our eyes were bigger than the tree space available in our living room.

So we decorated the ol' (new) balsam and then watched a movie when Taylor turned in for the night. It was An Inconvenient Truth (see trailer in my previous [evidently controversial] "Environment" post). Yeah, nothing like wrapping up a pleasant evening with tales of global disaster, but we both had been wanting to see it. I was expecting it to be terrifying, but it almost seemed more inspiring than anything. Whether you buy into the whole idea of global warning or not, it's a good film and I would encourage everyone to rent the DVD from your favorite video purveyor.