Nightingale

OMG that's AWESOME!!!!

Living someplace other than the middle east does not automatically exclude a person from being able to examine data and draw conclusions on certain issues.

You cannot get a darwin award, unless end your own life through your own stupidity. One guy was stupid (shooting a bullet in the air) and someone else died... although, it could be argued that the guy who was killed was dumb enough to join the KKK... Nope... but you can get a Darwin Honorable Mention, which means they fully expect you to qualify for the actual award sometime soon.

Yep....I offered a deal. Lower the child support and I won't sue the shit out of you. So far all I get is threats from her attorney. *Shrug* Here we go again. This is getting to be like a hobby for me. I'd rather spend my money on skydiving. I'm REALLY hoping that the child support is EXTREMELY excessive for you to be that down on paying.... how old is your kid(s)?

I nominate them for a DARWIN honorable mention! www.darwinawards.com

the thing with Irish drinking songs... the drunker you are, the better they sound.

Most people don't choose to take time off at Christmas. For example, I work for the government. My offices are closed. I don't "take" time off... they MAKE me take time off. I wouldn't mind working if we were open, but we're not.

Personally, I believe in God but don't go for the whole "organized religion" thing, because I have found that it is much more about humans than it is about God. I'm not a Christian, but I do celebrate the winter holidays with my family for several reasons: 1. for the sake of family peace. they all know my opinions on religion, but for this one day, we have a mutual agreement to shut up about it and just enjoy each others' company. I agree to show up, they agree not to drag me to church. About half the family has this agreement with the other half. My mom's one of six kids, and my dad's got two sisters, and they all have kids. When we all get together, there's upwards of 50 people... all Irish. The family's very musical, so anyone who plays brings whatever it is they play, and we start out singing carols, then move on to "grandma got run over by a reindeer" and after that, rapidly degenerate into pretty much every Irish drinking song ever written (this degeneration is accellerated, of course, with copious amounts of Baileys and coffee). The family's pretty much split equally between Catholics and Agnostics and/or Deists, but for us, on christmas, that doesn't matter. Its about being together. 2. for me, Christmas isn't about Jesus. Its about seeing my mom smile and cry at the same time when she opens the portrait that my brother and I got all dressed up in formal attire to go have taken because my parents didn't have a picture of the two of us that was more recent than eight years ago. Its about family and hugs and laughter and hot cocoa and giving gifts and saying "I love you." Is it so wrong to have a day for "people" if you feel like a day for deities doesn't quite work for you? Then why pick Christmas day? Because everyone has that day off work! Simple, common sense reason. People get used to being together on certain days. If the reason for meeting on that day has changed over generations, it doesn't make the day or the time any less special, just a little different.

try to get her to do a tandem. if not, then just invite her out to the DZ to watch. Let her talk to some of the AFF instructors. Have a rigger explain to her the science behind why a parachute wants to open. People fear what they don't understand. Help her understand.

motorcycle helmets are heavy. they'll change your center of gravity. I know the helmet in the plane tail impact incident was a Bonehead helmet. It seemed to serve its purpose quite well.

ditto... not liking the assymetry... but #2.

nope. it was Mr. Watterson wanting privacy. interview in Christian Science Monitor: P. BROWER, VIA E-MAIL, ASKS, 'WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...?' Cartoonist Bill Watterson By Lane Hartill Unlike the witty Hobbes or the scheming Calvin, Bill Watterson, creator of the cartoon strip "Calvin & Hobbes," isn't one for much talking. CALVIN AND DAD: Retired cartoonist Bill Watterson looks a lot like the father in the 'Calvin & Hobbes' strips he drew for 10 years. Calvin's father is a patent lawyer, as is Watterson's dad. ILLUSTRATION FROM 'SOMETHING UNDER THE BED IS DROOLING' ©1987 BY BILL WATTERSON. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The reclusive cartoonist, who retired in 1996, leads a private life in a small Ohio town. His strip, which made its debut in 1985, is still syndicated overseas. Mr. Watterson is notorious for not giving interviews. But John Kuehner, a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, talked with Watterson at his front door in 1998. During the chat, in which Watterson forbade Mr. Kuehner from taking notes, Watterson talked of his desire to stay out of the public eye. "He's very intelligent and wanted to discuss the merits of why he wasn't a public figure," said Kuehner in a phone interview. "He wanted to debate; it was almost collegiate." Watterson felt strongly about the artistic integrity of cartoons. He did not like the commercialization of them. Watterson now paints for his own enjoyment and can be seen riding his bike around town. But locals respect his privacy and leave him alone, says a city official who asked not to be identified. According to Lee Salem, executive vice president and editor at the Universal Press Syndicate, Watterson probably won't resume drawing "Calvin & Hobbes," which once appeared in 2,400 newspapers. "I think he will never do [it] again," Mr. Salem says. Watterson, who published 16 Calvin & Hobbes books, has said that he does not think a strip should be continued after the retirement of the cartoonist. "He's not a comedian," says Salem of Watterson. "He's very straightforward. He doesn't want a public persona associated with the work he's done."

as much as we all love calvin and his tiger friend, I fear Mr. Watterson will never start the comic up again. He is a very private person, and he got more publicity than he could handle because of it. The man just wants to be left alone, and if he restarts the strip, people are going to be bugging him again.

vicodin is hydrocodone. not the same as oxycontin and others...

Vicodin knocks me out! I have a small stash from various broken bones, and I use it for migraines. Half a pill and I sleep for 6 hours, and by then the headache's gone. I figure, I'm gonna be useless for 4-6 hours anyway. I may as well be useless and asleep (and pain free!) than useless and awake and in pain and screaming every time someone turns the light on or the cat jumps on the bed.

I'm remembering Raoul Gravell telling me about his run in with the tail of a plane... The helmet had quite a dent, but he walked away. A helmet is round... like any round object, impact is going to be distributed in a circular pattern, rather than straight in. Its simple logic, folks... if I'm going to hit you over the head with a baseball bat, would you like to have something between your skull and the bat, or not? here's the statistics for motorcycle helmets, which will probably prove similar to skydiving, because both are impact related injuries, which are chaotic and unpredictable in nature. According to McLoughlin, 1990, a California study, helmet use is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR in preventing death and head injury to motorcyclists. Hospital survey indicate that the average medical bill for motorcyclists who have suffered a serious head injury are 3X greater than for those with mild or no head injuries. The bottom line being, where a quality motorcylce helmet! In 1997, Texas and Arkansas decided to repeal all helmet use laws. Guess what happened. In 1998, helmet use fell from approximately 97% use in both states to 52% in Arkansas and 31% in Texas. Fatalities, accidents and serious head injuries rose accordingly. In 1992, California required ALL riders to wear motorcycle helmets. Statistics show that traffic related deaths dropped from 512 to 327. A 36% reduction in fatalities in just 1 year. The number of hospitalized brain-injured motorcylcists fell by over 50% from 1258 to 588 from 1991 to 1992. (California Highway Patrol, 199, Trauma Foundation, 2002). According the the Maryland Department of Transportation, after their 1992 helmet law had passed, motorcycle related deaths dropped 20% in 1993 and another 30% in 1993-1994.

hehe... no problem. all I did was type in "spider band logo" into google, and that's what popped up... then I typed in "cold band logo hat" and got all the merchandise links.

Here ya go... http://www.theweathermen.com/acatalog/Weathermen_Music_Cold_951.html and more...the Cold hat is little more than halfway down the page... logo is white, but same logo. http://www.cap-king.com/rocknrollcapsandhats.htm or, if you want a t-shirt or hoodie http://store.artistdirect.com/store/artist/merch/aisle/0,,645096-550,00.html linked from www.coldonline.com also: http://questmuzic.safeshopper.com/2240/cat2240.htm?66

is this it?

Breast down...that's what the butcher recommended to my mom... been doing that for years. Our Menu: Turkey (baked) Stuffing (from inside turkey, and other stuff, baked in oven) Mashed potatos Mashed sweet potatos (yams?... you know, the orange ones) green beans with almonds (I don't like green stuff, but everyone else seems to think they're good) cranberry sauce (canned jelly stuff, and whole berry stuff) salad and of course: pumpkin pie cherry pie

sure... I wouldn't mind going back to Ireland... or anywhere else in Europe. someplace with lots of castles... sigh...

I would HIGHLY recommend any guidebook by Rick Steves. We had five or six guidebooks between us in Ireland, and Rick's book was the one that saved our butts on MANY occasions. He also doesn't list everything, just the really good stuff, so it makes it MUCH easier to decide what's worth seeing, because if you only have a week or two, you have to know what to skip. www.ricksteves.com You can buy his books online, at most bookstores, or at tripleA

My friend Meggie's husband proposed to her at the wishing well at Disneyland. He made a wish at the well for them to live happily ever after, and then turned around with the ring and asked her to make his wish come true! It was in front of a whole group of us that went to Disney together, and, of course, the friends and I decked the two of them out in the bride and groom mickey and minnie ears with the top hat and veil. It was one of the sweetest moments I've ever witnessed... and of course, everyone knew what he'd been plotting except for Meg. We asked Kody how he came up with the idea, and he said he'd asked his six year old cousin for HER idea of a romantic proposal, and the wishing well thing was what Chrissie came up with. He figured most women had known how they'd like to be asked since they were six or so, so asking Chrissie for ideas was worth a shot, and she came up with a great idea.

Kewl = the kind of "cool" that means "great, awesome, groovy" or whatnot. Used more often online. Cool = "Cold" or "great, awesome, groovy" or whatnot.

I wanna go! I wanna go!