In case you are wondering, I had to buy a new mailbox today. This is what happens when a RAV4 swerves to avoid a cat, takes out all the mailboxes for my block, along with 20 feet of a telephone pole. Amazingly, we had Internet, phone and power throughout. The driver was taken to the hospital. The cat was put in the truck full of road kill.
My mailbox is the one with the black front.
Got hit by the AMT this year. Apparently our combined income and the family size is just perfect for those folks who get caught up in the AMT. I shouldn’t really say bite. I should say devastating hunk of income going to taxes. I tried all the deductions I could but basically the AMT says ‘yea, that’s nice, now where is the money?’ Kind of like the mafia in the movie Goodfellas.
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Yup, that’s the scoreline today. Take it to the bank.
I was on the sidelines. Wenger came up and told me to take the ball down low into the corner, then in an elaborate scheme I was to get the ball back and make about 8 passes so we went from the left corner, back to the midway line, and then into the right corner. From there we would cross and get a header and win the game.
We were already up 1-0 in the 78th minute when I came on. The throw-in came to me but it was way too strong and rolled back all the way to our goal. I followed it, turned and looked downfield. Most of the players were still on the left hand side waiting for the throwin, but in front of me, 70 yards away, I could see Tierry Henry making a break to the right which was virtually unoccupied. I kicked an amazingly straight pass 70 yards on the ground, passed all the players and Herny got it at the goal line. He stepped over the ball with his left foot and then kicked it behind his left leg with his right foot, stroking it into the goal.
Woohoo! My first EPL assist! I remember getting mobbed after the goal by the players and Wenger catching me in the hallways to congratulate me on my pass. I went to Jill Smith (Arsenal Supporters Club liason) but she was out. I told the person there “I just wanted to gloat and bask in some glory for a bit” and she laughed. “You deserve to”.
I then hear this roar, slow at first and growing louder. It sounded more like a wail. I looked around and noticed I was in bed and it was dark. My first though was ‘Henry doesn’t play for Arsenal anymore so it couldn’t have happened.’ My second thought was of my son calling me over the baby monitor.
I walked into his room with visions of nubile young Arsenal babes wishing to congratulate me on my goal scoring prowess, only to then be confronted with the reality of a dirty diaper waking my son up from his sleep.
Sigh…
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UPDATE: PA Avenue is now entirely closed between 15th and 17th.Hazmat teams have just arrived at the White House. Penn. Avenue in front of the White House has cops every 50 feet or so. Not sure if I should stick around to find out why…. 
I don’t normally like over the top parodies of folks, but this was a pretty funny video interview of Gov. Richardson and Obama.
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Pilot’s gun fires on US Airways domestic flight; no injuries reported
When the law first passed, I said that each pilot has to train with a ‘hostage’ that was a small ‘dummy’ of a child or something being held by the terrorist. The pilot first had to shoot the hostage, then shoot the terrorist before they would get permission to have a gun on a plane.
Basically, having pilots that are armed (and preoccupied with flying) ensures that there is at least one firearm on the plane that can be obtained by a bad guy, either by slowing killing all the passengers to taunt the pilots or overpowering the crew. Most pilots I’ve talked to have said ‘we don’t need a gun–we’ll just put the plane in a dive and you’ll see the terrorists on the ceiling pretty battered and bruised.”
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Washington Post. A few weeks ago a ship was halted about a mile from our county with a ‘no sail’ order as the crew was all drunk. The Maryland Pilots who were guiding the ship out of Baltimore called for backup and lo and behold, it came from the Special Operations units of the Calvert County Sheriff’s office. Apparently the local SWAT team here is one of two in the country specially-trained for Maritime interdiction. Never knew we had this level of a SWAT team around here. Guess it makes sense with a nuclear power plant and LPG gas / storage facility on the water.
After the Maryland captains left the ship, the Coast Guard called on Calvert’s Special Operations Team, which is trained to work with the Coast Guard in such situations. The team several years ago became the second such outfit in the country trained by Navy Seals in “Special Waterborne Operations,” according to the Sheriff’s Office. The team also handles security matters linked to the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and the Dominion Cove Point liquefied natural gas facility, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Also on March 10, sheriff’s officers boarded their patrol vessel Spec Ops II and met Coast Guard personnel in the Patuxent River, the Sheriff’s Office said. About 9:30 p.m., 11 sheriff’s officers pulled up alongside the Ocean Victory, climbed up a long ladder and went aboard. Their posture was somewhere between full-on SWAT raid and casual entrance, said Thomas, the team’s commander.]]>
My bracket is not entirely out of it, but boy is flipping a coin not exactly the best idea. Since you can generally pick the winners of the first round of March Madness, maybe next year I’ll only flip a coin in round 2. Though I did get Western Kentucky advancing all the way to the Elite 8 which has worked out well as they seem to be on a roll.
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