Gary
6/30/09
Hey, it's official: He's now Senator Al Franken! Everyone should send an email to Bill O'Reilly urging him to book Senator Al Franken as a guest. :-) And on the other side, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow will be good tonight.

Of course, more likely Fox will announce the news this way: "Al Franken (R) defeats Norm Coleman (D)." You probably heard they were up to their old tricks again when the Mark Sanford news broke? Check this screenshot:

Anyway, congratulations to Minnesota and to Al Franken. The court also ruled that Norm Coleman has to pay the court costs -- $95,000, to date.

In other UN-L news, the Whittier renovation is really coming along. Almost all the windows have been replaced, which has really sharpened the look of the building. And the big open space in front (i.e., the playground) is all torn up and muddy as a crew of welldiggers are sinking 233 separate 300-foot-deep holes -- for the new geothermal heating and cooling system. See the complete story (plus a photo) here.

Also, I forgot to mention it last time we discussed it on this page, but the EOTW staff person I spoke with back then suggested that anyone who wants to be in the loop for news about the new store opening (whenever that may be) should get on their mailing list. Do this by sending a note to info@eyesoftheworldimports.com.

On an unrelated note, I see that now for the first time since Colorado was a Territory more than a century ago, it is now legal to catch a raindrop or snowflake in that state. Until a few days ago, when this law was changed, it was illegal to own a rainbarrel or any other "catchment" device for trapping rain or snow-melt. Colorado is a water-poor state, so the lawmakers back then decreed that the falling rain and snow was public property, and as such was intended to roll off your house, go into the gutters, into the drains, into the creeks, and then into the reservoirs. At which point, I assume, the state would sell it back to you. Several other western desert states, like Arizona and Utah, still make it illegal to catch rainwater. More on this here.

When he does that brief moonwalk (at minute 3:40 above), you can hear people in the audience shriek like he'd just done a magic trick. I know my jaw dropped when I saw it. Here's an even more evolved example of it:

Nobody like him.

P.S. Weird three days, no? First Mark Sanford "hiking the Appalachian Trail," then Farrah Fawcett, and now Michael Jackson. Whew!

Yeah, the person in the office next to mine had her grandkids here for about two hours yesterday afternoon. She had to watch them while their mom (her daughter) went to a funeral, so rather than take the afternoon off (and inspired, she said, by my having Tristen and Teghan over in the past) she had them dropped off here. Two twin girls about 5 and one boy about 3. Tristen and Teghan were great with them, and those little kids were shrieking with laughter the whole time they were here.

The headbump: Not another Chair Incident, but for a moment there we all thought...uh-oh! At the moment it happened, everybody was in my office including the grandma and three other kids. Teghan was looking at something on my computer screen so she was kind of sitting on my knee, and all of a sudden (I still don't know how this happened) her head was moving down and she whacked my desktop with her brow on the same exact spot as the Chair Incident. No blood, no bruise, no bump (unless one developed later...?) and she was laughing five minutes later, but jeez! If this was a daycare, they'd be pulling my license!

Since lunch, we have been playing with the camera on my computer taking funny pictures. We'll be winding things up in about an hour and a half. Fun day!

Oh my gosh, you must be starving! --Tristen

Feel better, Brent! --Gary

Teghan: Hello, Mom, we're just at work playing with the laser pointer. We're going to play a trick on Rasma and Rob.

Rob and Rasma both have offices down the hall. --Gary

Have the crockpot out for supper, nothing in the oven today, probably could bake something on the deck tho'.

Paul put new steps on the deck and put a couple solar lights on the stair posts and they are surely bright. Hope your day goes well, everyone!!

I will be bringing in two office assistants tomorrow, namely Tristen and Teghan. We will keep you up-to-date on the fun via this page.

Another dangerously hot day here today, so be cool, everybody!

P.S.: Today's picture of Lyndon Johnson might be my favorite picture of any President, ever. :-)

Seemed to be doing better this week-end. Then sometime last night it hit him again. Thought we would wait until the doctors office opened, but soon changed our minds. So about 8 I took him back to the ER. The dr said this time he should stay a day or two so they can find the infection and hopefully treat it.

I saw on the news this morning a tornado did quite a bit of damage in Aurora, NE last night. --Gary

Dang! Get well soon, Brent! --Gary

Yum. Does Zach deliver? --Gary

Thanks for letting me know about Campbell's. Mom, want to go to Campbell's this afternoon?

Ha! I didn't notice there was a theme! :-) --Gary

I don't know why we haven't posted this before, but here's their site. No mention here of their closing, but it is coming. --Gary

Donna will know better than I, but I did drive past the place last night and they still have a sign out saying "closing soon" and "everything must go" and such. --Gary

Part 2 of "Inside the Obama White House" was on last night. If you missed it, or want to see it again, you can do so here. (There's also some out-take footage that was not seen on air.)

Did anybody catch Obama's historic speech from Cairo this morning? I just happened to wake up early this morning, and when I flipped on the TV there it was. It was amazing -- really felt like the beginning of a new era. Here's the President of the United States speaking before a large Muslim audience, and -- rather than having shoes thrown at him -- the crowd is applauding (at least twenty times during the speech) and shouting "We love you!" He quoted the Koran, and the Talmud, and the Bible. That hasn't been done for eight years, at least.... He acknowledged that Iraq was "a war of choice" (wow!) and promised that all combat troops will be out of Iraq by August. (He said "next August" so does he mean two months from now, or fourteen months from now...? I remember Seinfeld tackled this problem....) Anyway, a very powerful speech, given the setting, and you can read the full text here. Or, if you have 55 minutes, you can watch the whole thing:

And to see a series of photos of people watching the speech, go here.

UPDATE: The "full text" I linked to above doesn't seem to be all that full. I looked unsuccessfully for Obama's remark (at approximately minute 34 in the video) that in the past the United States overthrew a democratically-elected government in Iran (Mossadegh) and installed our own ruler (the Shah Pahlavi). Obama said, truthfully, "this history is well-known." But it's well-known only in the Muslim world, unfortunately, and not well-known in America. I wonder why MSNBC didn't include that paragraph.... This shameful act was back in the '50s, under Eisenhower, and is one of the root causes of Iran's on-going hostility toward us. I don't think any American President has ever said anything even close to that before now -- in public, at least.

Is this not a face that says bring it on? :-)