Thinking

I sure do wish The Californian would get a new picture of Vincent Brothers. They keep using a picture of him with his head in his hands looking kinda pouty and annoyed. Brothers’ attorneys asked a judge to throw out the case against him last week for about the millionth time, which the judge replied ‘NO DUDE!’ They’re back in court again today requesting that the gag order be removed because, ya know, it’s real important that they’re able to plead their case to the public BEFORE THE TRIAL EVEN STARTS.


There’s a book signing planned at Russo’s at the Marketplace this coming Saturday. This is no ordinary book signing. The book, “American Sideshow” is about some 250 carnival performers. Accompanying the author, Mark Hartzman, will be two local sideshow performers, Vivian Wheeler the “Bearded lady” and George McArthur, “a sword-swallowing, fire eating, 7-foot-3-inch man.”

Also this week, we have Doofus Doolittle performing in the Ozark Jubilee at the Fox Theater AND The Supergrass Festival, Thursday - Saturday at the Rabobank Arena.

Bakersfield just got a whole lot more interesting.

I dont' even know how to title this post.

I hate to benefit from someone else’s tragedy – I really do – but it appears that’s what has happened. A good friend of mine has tickets to see INXS in LA tonight, and she can’t make it, so she’s offered the tickets to me. Woo hoo! I haven’t taken a road trip in a long time, so I’m taking the afternoon to prepare for the journey and thus I will not be able to post much of anything today.

I couldn’t, however, leave town without talking about the high school teacher who is going to trial for getting it on with one of her students. Jennifer Sanchez is being charged with "three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, one count of oral copulation and one count of sodomy." Oh. My. Gawd! Of course, for all we know it never happened, (although the paper says that she has admitted to a relationship) but if it turns out that she did! Oh. My. Gawd! Like it’s not bad enough to do it with at student – she had to do it up the butt?! How would ANYONE not think that that kid is going to tell EVERYONE! ‘Hey! Guess what I did this weekend? Ms. Sanchez – UP THE BUTT!’

That’ll make one helluva memory page in the year book.

A Game with no Winners

It’s true that the death of 11 year-old Alyx Detjen is very tragic and my heart goes out to her family. I can not imagine how awful it would be to lose a child. I also commend them for coming forward in the hopes of helping others. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there about “The Choking Game” but I did find this website somewhat useful.


Hope you do too.

For those of you

who left Bakersfield and took everything except the kitchen sink. This is for you.

Everywhere Else Sucks

I wonder if the back says "So we suck harder."

An Actual Conversation

While watching the news with Paul last night, they began reporting about the little girl from Bear Valley they believed died playing the choking game. “Don’t play the choking game” I told Paul, to which he replied, “What’s that?” We watched the news and talked more of the sad news about the little girl. Paul said that it seemed strange that kids these days would make a game out of choking themselves. I agreed.

Back in my day, the most dangerous things we ever did was eat pop rocks and drink soda.

Every Man's Dream

Sherman emerged from his Tortoise house recently looking groggy and parched. Slowly he drug his tiny hard shelled body across the tank, and up and into his little water pond. There he stuck his face under the water and appeared to go back to sleep. When Paul got home from school that day I told him about Sherman had done.

“He’s probably tired of sleeping in his own filth,” Paul said. Then he added, “Yeah, Sherman’s living the life.”

Fastest gun in the North West

Forget Texas, don’t mess with 71-year old Norman Laxson. He shot two people yesterday, killing one of them, when they attempted to rob his house. The details are still pretty sketchy, but according to the paper, three men tried to break into Laxson’s home last night while he and his wife were home. Boy did they pick the wrong house. Laxson leapt into action, pulled out his shotgun started blasting away. When the police arrived they discovered one man dead, one bleeding from multiple gun shot wounds, and good ol’ Norm sitting on the porch.

Something tells me no body is going to mess around in that neighborhood anymore.


1/27/06 Update - I orginialy spelled Norm's last name wrong due to the fact that the article I read had it spelled two different ways and I assumed Lawson was the correct version. I have since fixed my mistake.

Favorite New Search String

I don't know what this dude was looking for, but I hope he didn't find it.

Follow Up File

The wife of the man who died following his arrest last weekend is now blaming the sheriffs for killing him. According to Mrs. Robles, her husband was on PCP, which she told the officers about, so they should have just left him alone and let him come off the drug naturally. She also claims that what looked like a headlock was really just her husband holding her as they prayed. And I guess the screams the neighbor heard were really just the two of them “calling out to the Lord.” Hmmm…

Either way, eight sheriffs and one very angry dog does seem to be a little overkill (no pun intended). According to the sheriffs, not only was Mr. Robles on PCP, he was also on Meth, a combination which sounds to me, would make anyone totally nuts. And, of course, you’d have to be crazy to resist arrest in Bakersfield. Dude’s lucky they didn’t just pull out a gun and shoot him.

On a side note, in the article in the paper today, Mrs. Robles says that her husband, “worked at Food Maxx in Bakersfield for four months but quit because the job didn’t pay enough.”

Is it me, or does that just not make sense?

Here we grow again.

I am happy to introduce y’all to yet another Bakersfield blogger, Bako Carpetbagger. He is on a mission and I, for one, am excited to have him around. Despite being accused of having “conservative slant” (my mother will be happy to hear that) I am actually all for changing things up in this town. I’m tired of living in a red county in a blue state.

So, welcome to town B.C and best of luck to you.

Props

I just had the loveliest conversation with J.R.  He is such a genuinely kind, honest, and caring person.   I am proud to call him my friend.

Peace Brutha.

Deep in thought...

plotting her revenge.

Jumping Trains

I had the pleasure of hosting three fourths of a Jumping Trains reunion recently. The only one missing was Shearson, and I see that dude everyday anyway, so he wasn’t missed. Joey still lives in San Francisco, but was in town, unfortunately due to his mother’s passing. He showed up with Rob, who despite what some might think, is doing very well, and shortly after that Chris dropped in. Chris is now the father of THREE children (holy crap) the latest being born just a couple of weeks ago. (The other guy in pic is another old friend – he’s standing in for John.) Beers were drank and songs were sung.

What I wouldn’t give to see those guys play again.

West Side Success Story

I went to see the Bakersfield Music Theater’s production of West Side Story yesterday. Paul and I like going to plays and I am particularly fond of musicals, but I have to say West Side Story has never been one of my favorites. I just don’t care for the songs, except for “I feel pretty” of course. But, my nephew had a pretty big part in the play, so the whole family got together and off we went to the theater.

I’ve been hearing a lot of good stuff about this play, and I have to say, I was impressed. The director chose to dress the characters in a more modern day gangster style rather than the classier look of gangsters forty years ago. The Jets were dressed like punkers and the Sharks were dressed in Latino gang style. Most of the guys had elaborate tattoos I heard were drawn on by an actual tattoo artist before each performance. They didn’t shy away from dressing the girls all trampy either. If those skirts got any shorter they would have been belts.

The choreography was great and I was really impressed the dancing. Most impressive of all were the lead actors who played Tony and Maria. Man – those kids got some lungs on ‘em. The effects were great too. When Tony stabbed Bernardo fake blood went squirting across the stage causing more than a couple of people to gasp, “Eww!” That was nothing compared to the gun shot at the end of the play. The sound was so loud and sounded so real, I nearly dropped a load right there in my pants. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of the older patrons had heart attacks. I’m not kidding. If you go, wear Depends.

After the play a representative from Garden Pathways came out with Supervisor Michael Rubio (who, by the way, is totally hot) and they talked about the gang problem in Kern County and encouraged each of us to do our part to help. They passed out forms so people could volunteer for a mentoring program and brochures explaining more about their program. Everything was very well done I was extremely impressed.

Here’s hoping this will be the beginning of a kinder, gentler, gang free community.

Knock, Knock! Who's there?

The news story about the guy sneaking out of the hospital reminded me of a story of my own. This is a true story and it happened about ten years ago. I was still married at the time and living about four blocks away from Mercy Hospital. It was late and I had gone to bed, but I wasn’t asleep yet. My husband was still up watching TV, which was unusual because he almost always went to bed before me.

Our bedroom was right next to the front door, and the bed was right next to the window, so as I was drifting off to sleep I heard someone walk up the steps and knock on the door. I didn’t think much of it, figuring it was a friend stopping in to say hello. I heard voices for a minute, and then my husband came into the room and told me I needed to get up. He said there was a lady at the door and that she needed help.

When I walked into the living room I found a woman who was in really bad shape. Her shirt was ripped, her bra was exposed, and she feebly tried to keep herself covered with one arm while the other was very clearly broken. Her face was bruised and bloody, and she had scratches and cuts all over the place. Nearly hysterical she told me her boyfriend had beaten her up and that she had run to get away from him. When I told her we needed to call the police she became very agitated and begged me not to. Hoping to calm her down, I went and found a T-shirt for her to put on, and showed her to the bathroom so she could clean up. While she was in there, I grabbed the phone and headed to the back of the house.

I wasn’t sure if I should dial 911 or not, since there wasn’t really a pressing emergency, so I decided to just call the regular phone number. After a few rings someone answered and I explained that an injured woman had come to my door claiming her boyfriend beat her up. “Where do you live?” the operator asked. When I told him there was a short pause and then I was told the police were on the way and to stay on the line. Puzzled, I stood there waiting for further instructions, when all of the sudden I heard what sounded like a dozen helicopters buzzing around the house. It had literally only been a minute, maybe two, from the time I called. A couple of seconds later the door bell rang. I was still holding the phone when my husband opened the door and a stream of policemen poured in. There must have been five or six cop cars outside clogging the street.

Around the same time the cops showed up, the woman emerged from the bathroom and they immediately pounced on her. They grabbed her, handcuff her hands behind her back (broken arm and all), and led her outside to one of the vehicles. Confused, I tried to stop them, explaining that this was the woman who needed help, and asking why they had arrested her. That’s when I found out what had really happened.

The woman had been fighting with her boyfriend when she shot and killed him. The police had taken her to the hospital to treat her wounds before taking her to jail, and she slipped out the door while they weren’t looking. That was the reason they were able to respond so quickly – they were already searching the neighborhood for her.

The moral of the story? Don’t let strange ladies into our house in the middle of the night OR if you ever get arrested, pray they stop by a hospital first.

Opps! We killed him!

The bodies are starting to stack up around local law enforcement.  Another person died while in police custody this weekend.  According to the paper, Ray Robles was taken to KMC following a traffic accident in which he was arrested for drunk driving.  While the cops weren’t looking, Ray slipped out and walked home.    A short time later the police were called and found Ray holding his wife in a head lock.  Eight cops and one police dog later, they were finally able to subdue Ray.  (Dang – that’s one tough cookie.)  An ambulance was called to treat Ray for dog bites (ouch) and that’s when he went into cardiac arrest.  

After fighting off eight cops and a police dog, he probably died from exhaustion.

Proving that I'm a big Geek!

As a devoted reader of Dooce, the Queen Mother of all bloggers, I was surprised recently when I read that her husband, Jon, had a cornea transplant. I read everything I could find on her blog and his to find out why he had the transplant. Finally I decided to email him and ask. I didn’t really expect a response (I image those two are swamped with emails on a regular basis) but I decided to ask anyway.

Saturday morning I woke up and found an email from one Jon Armstrong. How cool is that!? I got all excited! Turns out Jon has Keratoconus, just like Paul. It’s amazing to me how many people have this disease. I had never heard of it before. Jon had his surgery eight years ago, but he still has to wear a hard contact lens (poor guy.) From the sound of it, there have been great improvements in cornea transplant surgery. Last week we took Paul back to UCLA for a check up and his vision is already 20/40. In few months it should be perfect.

Thank God for Dr. Casey.

F.Y.I.

I have a crush on a local news anchor. He reminds me of Real Kato.

Bakersfield is...

Which is your favorite?

Kornucopia

The new (and possibility improved) Korn will be kicking off their new tour starting in Bakersfield next month. Apparently they’ve decided to quit pretending like they not really from here.

I've actually been to two concerts, believe it or not, and both times I had backstage passes. I've had backstage passes in the past, but none were quite like the passes I had to see Korn. I think I had more fun running around backstage than I did watching the show.

I doubt I'll be catching Korn this time around, but I wish them all the best with their new album

Help the Homeless.

If you'd like to help the homeless but you're too lazy to get off your butt, you can always check out their website and donate some dollars.

Something New

For those who are WAY beyond bored. (Like me.) Scroll down and enjoy the view.

More News Nips

I can’t help but wonder if Jeffrey Moreno isn’t a trifle in embarrassed right now. He’s sitting in a Kern County jail after attempting to rob a smog shop on Chester. The man working behind the counter noticed that the gun being used in the hold up was from Wal-Mart, and proceeded to take the gun from Moreno and beat the crap out of him with hit. Maybe next time he should shop at Target.

----------

Good news! The kid who shot and killed Deondre Marzette inside the plaza this past December was finally caught and arrested. Andre Ball, one of four people arrested in connection with the murder, is the person police believe actually pulled the trigger. Ball has been missing since the shooting and the other three have already been arrested.

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Violence broke out on Bakersfield downtown Wall St Alley again last night. One man and one woman were arrested for stabbing Thomas Holiwell last night near the Alley Cat. The relationship between the three is unknown at this point, but I think it’s safe to assume he won’t be buying those two drinks any time soon.

What's your name again?

Here’s another great example of why you don’t want to mess with the authorities in Bakersfield.  If they’re not shooting at you, or beating you to death, they may just forget that you’re there.  That’s what happened to Denise Miller when she was booked into the Kern County jail last December on suspicion of shoplifting.  Three days later her family showed up with the bail money to spring her.  They were told Miller was already gone.  Confused, the family returned home and waited for her to show up.  When she still didn’t come home they went back to the jail and they were again told Miller was no where to be found.  In the mean time, officers (apparently confused about who the woman was) tried to return her to Ridgecrest, until Miller convinced them that she did not live there.  When they finally released Miller five days later, all of her belongings were gone - presumably to the other Miller.

Denise Miller has filed a claim against the county.

News Nips

The “Philosophy of Design” class was shut down yesterday after the El Tejon Unified School District promised to never mention God again if those damn lawyers would just go away. I guess it was a little hard to convince people that the class would have fair and balanced discussion when the teacher was the preacher’s wife. Silly hillbillies.

--------------------

The Sons trial is heading to Santa Maria this week, because, well, it’s nicer there, and who wouldn’t want a jury with at least one person who didn’t already know every thing there was to know about the case? It will be interesting to see if they can finally reach a conclusion on this case and put it to bed already!

--------------------

Speaking of trying trials, Vincent Brother’s may just die in prison from old age before he even gets a trial. It will be three years this summer since Brother’s family of five was found dead inside their home, and so far the case has only gone as far as the preliminary hearing. Now the prosecuting attorney’s are asking the judge to remove one of Brother’s attorney’s claiming that he is incompetent. Obviously I’m no legal wizard, but isn’t that usually good news for the prosecution? Even the logic they're using while asking for his removal seems a little shaky to me. Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green wants Anthony Bryan be removed because she reasons “if Little did a bad job representing Brothers during the preliminary hearing, Bryan did a bad job too.” Huh. Does that mean if the person if the office next to me does a bad job, I must be doing a bad job too, cuz we work together? I guess it’s a good thing I’m not a lawyer.

--------------------

Speaking of lawyers, Kern County just got a whole bunch more. The gang related shooting in the Valley Plaza recently has gotten people all riled up. (Apparently they didn’t realize we had a gang problem BEFORE the shooting.) In response to the public outcry, county supervisors have leapt into action and hired six new “gang attorney’s.” Woo. Those gangsters must be shaking in their loosely tied sneakers right now.

--------------------

Speaking of Kern County Supervisors (okay, I’ll stop that now) yesterday they voted to add the sludge ban proposal to the upcoming primary election. If people vote yes, Los Angeles is going to have to find somewhere else to spread their sludge. According the paper today, Los Angeles “trucks more than 99 percent of it municipal sludge to land it owns south of Bakersfield.” That’s a lot of crap.

Of course, once we ban LA from sludge dumping in Kern County, it will be interesting to see what we do with our own.

Favorite New Search String

It's good to be number one.

Awful

Some poor soul was just run over and killed right in front of my place of business. So sad.

Crazy hillbillies.

The big news around town lately is all about intelligent design.  People are in a tizzy because Frazier Mountain High School has decided to offer a month long elective philosophy class which will teach, among other things, the theory of creationism.  I can see why the Americans United for Separation of Church and State are suing the school district.  I mean, heaven forbid if children these days be taught any type of philosophy.  

They might actually start thinking for themselves.  

Yeah, Right...

At what point does one realize she/he is grasping at straws in an attempt to seem credible? Umm... dental records are a pretty clear sign.

Give it up W.H. Sleeping with Google won’t even save you now. (sniff)

Bakosphere

Our little Bako Blogosphere is getting bigger and bigger. Welcome to the Bakosphere.

Sharing

I love this.

There goes the neighborhood

I realize I’ve been conspicuously absent lately, but it really couldn’t be helped. I’ve been too busy calling the cops and chasing away hookers to do anything else.

For example, the other day I was at home writing a post about the two female teachers arrested recently for having improper relationships with a student, when I was interrupted by an argument next door. A woman was telling a man how worthless he is, and he was pleading with her to remain quiet. Pepper that with a liberal amount of the F-word, and you’ll get the picture. I finally became alarmed when I heard what sounded like a person being thrown against the wall, so I knocked on the door and informed the couple that I was preparing to call the police. They apologized and promised to settle down. After a few more minutes of shouting and a whole slew of curse words, they finally quieted down.

The thing that disturbed me most was that I knew the couple did not live there. An older man lives alone in the apartment next to my house. But lately I had been seeing this rather scraggily looking couple hanging around. The day before the woman was in the front yard sorting through a bag of aluminum cans I was pretty sure she had just dug out of the trash. I try not to judge people by their appearance, but I was really starting to think that these are the people I normally see eating out of the dumpster in the alley. Needless to say, I was alarmed.

My neighbor, Chester, thanked me for stopping the fight between his guests and told me rather apologetically that they were just drunk on Gin. That didn’t really make me feel any better, but I let it go.

So last night, I was in my office blogging away about the kids who were arrested for killing that dude in the Plaza, when I heard a familiar raspy voice unloading a stream of obscenity. I tried to ignore the noise, while at the time keeping an ear out for any sign of physical violence, when all of the sudden my door bell rang. It was my neighbor Chester. He asked me to call the police because the woman was doing drugs and he didn’t want that in his place. About that time the woman joined Chester on my front porch, shared her doubts about his masculinity, then stormed back inside his apartment. I told Chester not to worry. Forty-five minutes later the police arrived and escorted the woman away.

Chester returned to my house to offer another apology, and I invited him inside to explain what the heck was going on. Turns out Chester is an ex-con who likes to hang out at Central Park and socialize with the people who live there. He recently ran into this woman, who he knew before he got locked up, back in the days when she was a prostitute. He agreed to allow the woman to stay with him for while, not realizing that it also meant she was going to bring her “boyfriend” along. Apparently he also did not know she had a thing for heroin. Once she moved in she decided she liked it better than the park and decided to take over.

Had the police not removed her, that woman would have literally squatted right next door to me.

Take that W.H.!

In case you missed it, my crazy friend Waist High attempted to make me feel bad recently with these posts. As usual her attempt resulted in a miserable failure. I may not have a view of a moss covered tree from my back porch, but from my front porch I can see my avocado tree, orange tree,
and of course, my flower boxes.
You see,Waist High, we here in California have a little thing we like to call sunshine. You may have heard of it. It helps things to grow. Things besides moldy old trees.

Who's Brocks NOW baby?
p.s. And oh yeah baby - that Top Ten website thing you posted about? It's a scam

Brillant!

I came up with a great idea today on the way to work. I’m gonna be rich. I’m telling y’all about it now so you’ll know – just in case someone steals my idea – you saw it here first.

You know those annoying stick figure stickers that people plaster all over their SUVs representing everybody in the family? Well, I was thinking of coming up with some “different” stickers for people who lead “alternative” life styles. You know, like two mommies, two daddies, and a pirate named Patches. What else? A devil maybe. Or a stripper with tiny little tassels.

The possibilities are endless.

Dang it!

Today was the first fog delay of this school year. Too bad I'm not still in high school.

Bombs Away!

Another bombshell was dropped in the Bruce Sons case yesterday in a trial that has already had enough twists and turns to give a person whiplash. Here’s my quick synopsis:

1. Loyal and hard working CHP officer, Richard Maxwell tries to arrest crazy wild eyed car thief, Bruce Sons, and is innocently gunned down in the process. The city mourns and a section of highway is named after the martyred officer.


2. Crazy wild eyed car thief and his slightly less wild eyed step son claim self defense, but are still sent to the “big house” for murder thanks to the diligence of Assistant District Attorney Stephen Tauzer.


3. Tauzer is killed by former co-worker Chris Hillis in a bizarre story of homosexuality and cover-ups. See The Lords of Bakersfield.


4. Defense attorneys find out Maxwell had a history of problems on the jobs, including, “swearing at people during routine traffic stops and escalating stops with idle threats” and that this evidence was never turned over to the defense. Sons conviction is thrown out, and a new trial begins in 2005.


5. Second (new) trial ends in a hung jury. The D.A.’s office decides to try again.


6. Third (not so new) trial ends in a hung jury. D.A.’s office decides to try again. (Yawn!)


7. Defense attorneys finally win their motion for a change of venue. Fourth trial is tentatively scheduled to be held in San Luis Obispo.


8. Prosecutors finally admit Tauzer knew of Maxwell’s history and chose not to share the information, but still insist that he, “did nothing wrong except for lying to the jury.”

I think Robert Price sums up the whole thing very nicely in his blog post when he points out that the one thing we do know for sure is that the D.A.’s office still hasn’t apologized for wasting tax payer’s money.

What a mess.

It's not a gang - it's a club man!

I’ve been so busy catching up at work lately I’ve neglected to tell you all hell is breaking lose around here. Again. Last week a young man was shot and killed inside the Valley Plaza. The very same plaza that children were allowed to run free in twenty years ago. I remember scampering down hall from Wyatt’s cafeteria to the Koi fish pond, and marveling at the giant hanging bead thing. Nowadays you’re more likely to be dodging bullets.

Naturally the shooting was gang related, and not surprisingly the culprit has not been apprehended. It’s hard to believe a 19 year old can be killed in broad day light INSIDE the plaza at Christmas time, and not be caught by someone! Shortly after the news broke it was reported that gang violence is up in Bakersfield. Who woulda thunk? Half of last year’s homicides were gang related, up a full 60% from the year before. That’s a lot of gang banging.

I remember a few years ago (okay, Paul was about 5, so I guess it was several years ago) as I approached the plaza to enter, the doors came flying open and two teenaged boys came running out, chased closely by several other teenaged boys. All them were at least dressed like gang members, whether they were for real or not, I don’t know. The boys squared off once outside and began taunting and cussing at each other. Unfortunately, Paul and I were caught right in the middle of the melee. Furious, I started yelling at the boys to take their fight somewhere else and that I should be able to take my son to the plaza without having to be confronted with such nonsense. Of course, I didn’t use those exact words, but you get the picture. Anyway, the boys were so surprised their mouths hung open in shock. Then they took their brawl out to the parking lot and Paul and I proceeded safely inside.

Gang bangers..ppffftttt!

BUMS are welcome!

If you’re looking for info about the hottest local bands, you now have another resource.  (I wish this stuff was around 10 years ago.)  BUMS, or Bakersfield Underground Music Scene is a blog dedicated to keeping ya’ll up to date, and so far it looks like they’re doing a fantastic job.

Keep up the good work!

Just because

Here are a few random photos I took while driving around recently.



This is the sign that Waist High pointed out could be altered by connecting the 'L' and the 'I'. (It was her idea! Not mine!)


This is a view of the mountains from Ming Ave. (near West) on a clear day. Doesn't look so bad does it?



This a view of the truck sitting next to me at the red light. I couldn't even see the top of it.

Happy New Year to You!

I thought I’d try and start the New Year out right and begin by blogging.  Sorry ‘bout leaving y’all hanging the past couple of weeks.  I’ve been enjoying my time off with my kid.  I also enjoyed some of my time off recently with someone else’s kid.

Early last week I took Waist High’s daughter, commonly known as LTD (or Lovely Teenaged Daughter) to lunch a Mexicali.  I had never met her before.  She was very sweet and well spoken – not at all like her mother.  I got her drunk on margaritas, and she shared her horrific experiences of growing up with a nut job.   Towards the end she began to cling to me, weeping and begging that I save her.  It broke my heart.  I am now working on an adoption plan, so if any of you care to donate….  

What else?... Paul is doing very well and everyday his vision gets a little better.  It’s amazing.  Paul and I want to thank you all again for your good thoughts and warm wishes.  We were very touched by all the calls, emails, and comments.  Your support is and was greatly appreciated.

I’m afraid I don’t have much else to report.  I haven’t read a paper in weeks, but I swear I’m going to go get one today.  I didn’t do anything for New Year’s Eve cuz I’m a sick, sad, pathetic human being.  I was home alone watching The March of the Penguins when midnight struck.  New Year’s Eve has historically been a very bad night for me.  I often find myself crying when everyone around me is cheering and ringing in the New Year.  I decided to play it safe last night.  Now I’m up early, bright eyed and bushy tailed (I dunno – my mom used to say that) and ready to have the best year ever.

Oh wait.  My twenty year high school reunion is this year.  Gag.  I can not possibly be that old.