Wmcmanus

STFU, Crappy! Nah, just kidding. Glad to hear that things are going well for you.

Good luck to the Gators.

Good news, Dinny. Let the healing begin. Continued thoughts and prayers for your sister, Ken.

Happy birthday, Larry! (Insert favorite emoticon, animation, funny picture, or other pleasantry here. I would but I just can't keep pace with guys like Grahame, Jim, Al, etc!)

Nice pic. I'm looking forward to the video...

Happy birthday, Ryan!

That definitely happened in Little Cayman in the 1980s when there were only two cars on the Island. When I first arrived in Grand Cayman in '96, I made a weekend trip to Little Cayman and there were only about a dozen cars, even then. At that time, there were 40 residents (now closer to 170) and most of them were seasonal workers at the one true hotel or at the handful of bed and breakfast types of places. Little Cayman is a place for newly webs, over-feds, and nearly deads.

Don't you just want to know more about these bad girls and what they did to get in this situation...

Laughing out load! My worst experience ever with tipping happened a couple of years ago when I was very late for a flight back to Cayman on American Airways. Normally with American I use curb side check in. They charge I think $2 per bag for the company, and then you can tip whatever. So I'm accustomed to giving $5 per bag (as a tip, in addition to whatever they charge) and that seems to be pretty much the standard. They just check you in on the computer and then toss your bag onto a dolly. After the dolly fills up with bags, I suppose they need to wheel in that batch and return to their post, but basically it's no big deal. $5 is about right and they always seem pleased with that, or at least it seems to be within the realm of expectation. But this time was different. The guy said, "Uh oh, it looks like it's too late. But wait, there might just be something I can do for you." So he quickly calls someone to see if maybe he can still get my sorry ass and my bag on. He gets a positive response, apparently, but whatever he's doing, he's really pushing his own luck with his contact on the other end, and it means that I need to quickly follow him inside, and we need to move fast! So off we go, and then he disappears with my bag and doesn't come back for about 5 minutes. Don't know where he went, but it must have been a long way. He might have had to take it down to the plane himself for all I know. Eventually, he comes back and is acting all proud of what he's accomplished for me, and I'm completely oblivious to all of his extra effort, just thinking about my own near disaster that (but for his heroic efforts) was narrowly averted. It would have cost me a $75 change fee, a night in the airport hotel (another $175 or so with tax), and problems with the college because I would have had to cancel my class that night and I'm pretty sure I was giving an exam! So I reach into my pocket and hand him the same $5 that I had slipped out of my wallet initially when I first walked up to the curb side check-in before realizing that it would be such a close call. The guy palmed it at first and didn't look at it until he got 2 steps away from me, and then he completely went off on me. Not load, not anything that would cause a scene, but very clearly showed me what a dickhead I had been. Something like, "You know, it's not worth. I busted my ass for you, and put myself in a situation where I could have gotten in trouble for breaking the fucking rules. Not bending. Breaking! And for what? Five dollars? Fuck it. I'm done helping people out of jams. I could have stayed out there and checked in 10 more bags by now..." So now I'm hurriedly fishing for my wallet, and grabbing for $20 bills and he says, "Keep your money" and walks away. As a result of this experience, my standard is now $10 per bag, and anything extra that they do automatically makes it $20. If ever there is another extra, extra special case, it will be $40 or $50. Not for their sake, but for the sake of my own peace of mind. I hate it, hate, hate, hate it, when I get that feeling of being a total heel. But I wasn't even trying to be cheap, I was just focused on my own issues and was nervous about whether I'd get on that flight. Totally oblivious to his needs, let alone my need to show him some appreciation beyond, "Hey, thanks." Oh well, you live and learn. Now I feel like a big wheel when I give $10 after someone in front of my gave $2 or $3.

Happy birthday, Bonnie! It sure looks like you had a lot of fun!

Thanks, Brent. Funny thing happened tonight. When I finished teaching and was on my way home at 10:30pm, I decided to stop at the grocery store because I knew I had nothing in the fridge. So I'm walking around the place with no particular plan, just looking for munchies. Then as I'm about to head to the checkout line, I looked up and noticed this beautiful young blond, and she seemed to be checking me out... or at least looking at me in a more than casual way. Of course, at this time of night I'm both hungry and tired and not thinking too clearly. Obviously, she's not looking at me because she thinks I'm hot (but kind of look like someone, maybe), But she's hot so I don't mind, but quickly diverted my eyes, pretending that I didn't notice her noticing me. I was then happy to "score" at nice look at her spandex shorts, long sexy toned legs, and wonderfully tight and well proportioned upper body from the side view I had as I approached the checkout line. Then I had one of those "toss up" moments when I had to decide between standing behind, a) the normal, everyday fat old lady in line #1, or b ) the spandex-clad young lady who showed no visible signs of sweat, so she obviously dresses this way by choice on a routine basis, and not just when returning home from the gym. I chose the latter. I could tell by her body language that she wanted to say something to me, or that at least she had something on her mind, but she kept her attention to the task at hand of paying for her groceries, while I maintained eye contact with the aforesaid spandex shorts, and was able to detect some nice frilled fringed undies. Nope, she definitely wasn't just at the gym. But I was contented to keep those thoughts to myself, until suddenly, as she was about to leave, she couldn't contain herself any longer. Turning toward me now, with eyes aglow, she said, "You know, I've just got to thank you, sir! I know this sounds silly, but you really made my day one time, and I always hoped I would meet you so I could tell you about it. You drive an orange SUV, right?" "Yup, that's me. Ford Edge." "Well, back in December one day, I was sitting in traffic, and you pulled up along side of me, and it just totally made my day! I was having a terrible day, and there you were. I told everyone, there really is a Santa Claus! I saw him! I believe!" Then she sort of trailed off and said, "I don't want to tell you what was making me sad, but you changed all of that just by being there." She was so sweet, and being so sincere. I'll never know what I helped her with, but at that moment, I didn't care. She was young and beautiful, and I was tired and hungry and getting some pretty cool attention. Then I did it... I don't know why, but it was a case of open mouth, spill out words. So I said, quite excitedly, as though there wasn't a thing about it that was in the slightest bit "wrong" or even creepy... "You know, I've got to admit as well, that you really made my day! I can't even begin to tell you just how good you look look in spandex! So I think we're even!" She just laughed and walked away. Meanwhile the cahier girl, who sees me in there every other day (because my fridge is always empty and I never pick up more than a few items at a time) just shook her head and laughed. So I said, "What?" acting all innocent. Then she said, "You know, I shouldn't say this, because you might take it all wrong, but she really does look good in spandix!" Then she said, "I'm so jealous!" The which I replied, "See, even you think she's hot! You think I'm bad!" So now we'll see where it goes with the grocery store girl. At least I've got some ammo.

Vicki, I've got a Florida "share the road" plate on my Atom. Here's a pic at Glacier National Park. Only pic I can find from behind the car.

Have great one, Nate!

Wow! That was close, Steve. Hope the smoke damage isn't too severe, but that's what insurance is for. Sorry for your neighbors. Hope none of them lost their homes.

This was pretty much the way it worked for me, especially in the early years when you couldn't buy entire seasons of HBO shows and the like on DVD. The real poison was when I'd be visiting my parents for several days and make the mistake of watching an episode of The Sopranos or Oz, and then think, "Damn, this stuff is good. I'm really missing a lot..." But nowadays, if you're the patient type, you can wait get everything you'll ever want or need once the box sets come out. I've got The Wire, Friday Night Lights, and Six Feet Under sitting here in the queue. It doesn't bother me that I didn't see them when they were being produced, and I like the fact that I can control when I happen to get around to them. I've listened to a hell of a lot more music in the past 25 years since I gave up TV (as an addiction in its own right). If I had cable, I'd sit and veg out in front of the TV day and night, surfing channels. What a waste of time! THAT'S WHAT THE INTERNET IS FOR!!!

I haven't had cable or anything remotely like it since my first year of law school in 1988. I was a full time student and half time faculty member, teaching accounting for the business school, so knew I couldn't afford to be tempted by any distractions and really needed to study as much as possible. I still had a TV and VCR and would rent a John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart movie once every other week or so. I've never looked back and quite frankly don't miss it other than live sports, but that gives me an excuse to spend more time in pubs. I buy a lot of Blurays of current movies, as well as complete series box sets (HBO stuff, etc.) of good TV programming, and also use my 65" plasma for watching baseball (through a feed from MLB.com which I subscribe to). What I miss mostly is college basketball, but there's probably an internet-based subscription for that as well.

Kim Kardashian is pregnant. Interesting...

Doesn't seem believable, but still funny. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=510257249013272

This has been around for a while, but some of you may not have seen it before: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=MZ35SOU9HTM

Happy birthday!

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Happy birthday, ole buddy ole pal.