Plenipotentiary

After a harrowing (and I’m not kidding – it truly sucked. Two full hours longer than it should have been due to asinine behavior on the part of my fellow travelers on 95N) drive to Potomac, MD, we had a lovely meal with the Grand ‘Rents. Then – how COOL is this?! – Hubby and I dumped the boys off with Grandpa and Grandma J and went to the Marriott. Hee!

The next day, the whole herd went to Baltimore Inner Harbor. Now, I haven’t been to the Inner Harbor, other than drive-bys, since I was a young teenager, and I’d always thought of the place as a hole. Imagine my surprise, then, when we arrived at a lovely, scenic spot, full of things to see and do and enjoy. There were street musicians, lively pubs, tons of great restaurants, water-taxis, boat tours, submarines (thanks, no. Been there, done that, felt so claustrophobic I nearly had to breathe in a paper sack then had awful imaginings of implosions for many months after. Not for me – but maybe I’ll let Hubby take the boys one day), and neat museums and stuff. So much stuff, in fact, that Hubby and I are planning a weekend trip as soon as is manageable.

We took the boys to the Science Museum, and here are some of the things we did:

Youngest Son created Pangaea:

Oldest Son macked on Hottie:

All the Boys (3 sons, 2 nephews) and the triceratops:

Middle Son and Oldest Son as ISS Astronauts:

Me and All My Boys:

I think I may have to create a Flickr site, hmm…? Now I just need to figure out how. Not to mention how to put posts “after the jump”. Can any of you more advanced folks let me know how to go about this?

Drunk astronauts? Holy orbital hangovers, Batman! But after Lisa Nowack went bugshit last winter, I’ll believe anything.

Sabotage? Why? Pissed he wasn’t eligible for benefits? Maybe he was looking for press after the hullabaloo the computer screw-up caused at ISS. (At least that wasn’t NASA.) No names have been released, so I’m guessing it wasn’t terrorism. Just somebody gone buggy.

Add Burt Rutan and Branson into the mix (not to mention Victoria Principal), and the future’s not looking too good for NASA these days. Sad. (Though things aren’t going too well for Rutan, either.) I hope this doesn’t send us into a no space flight tailspin.

I used to go to NASA Langley every couple of weeks, and they were awfully nice folks over there. I even achieved a small measure of fame. They were performing a wind tunnel experiment that I was allowed to watch. About five minutes into the experiment, the giant wing attached to the wall fell off. Hard. Couldn’t hear it, though (wind tunnel – duh). I said, offhandedly, “Dontcha hate that?” The guys around me just looked at me blankly, but two weeks later on the chalkboard in the hallway, someone wrote:

Quote of the week: Don’t you hate it when your wings fall off?

I didn’t even think it was funny, but heck, geek humor is sometimes over my head.

I’m noticing, as my new addiction increases steadily, that there are certain things I like in a blog, that will keep me coming back.

First – pictures. I want to visualize some of the stories, and the people who are telling them to me. So post some pictures, you nanners! (Fat Sparrow, especially, needs some good pics. Her posts are so hilarious, I just have to know what some of her life looks like. I’ll take a pass on the broccoli fleurette’s, though.) I.M. Bitter does a fantastic job with the photos.

Second – humor. The blogs I return to again and again have elements of humor in almost every post (Gimme a Minute does well with this, though he can be a bit scary. Jonson is good for a keyboard/beverage introduction most days).  Just like I prefer to get my current events from Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Mahrer, I prefer my blogs with tongue firmly in cheek. Don’t take yourselves so damned seriously, folks! Sheesh.

That’s about all I got, for now.

“True” Friendship: None of that Sissy Crap

1. When you are sad — I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against The sorry bastard who made you sad.

2. When you are blue — I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile — I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.

4. When you are scared — I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried — I will tell you horrible stories about how much Worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused — I will use little words.

7. When you are sick — Stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don’t want whatever you have.

8. When you fall — I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

9. This is my oath…. I pledge it to the end. “Why?” you may ask; “because you are my friend”.

Friendship is like peeing your pants…everyone can see it, but only you can feel the true warmth.

(Sent to me via email by the right-wing biotch known as my best friend.)

Man, this guy’s a tool. A herpes giving, middle finger showing, drug smuggling, dog fighting tool. And now I have to put up with the media circus and traffic snarls that are coming tomorrow to my fair city, as this waste of space is on trial here. Thanks a ton, Vick. Stupid should hurt, dipshit.

I get really tweaked when I think about the cruelty involved in this. I hope they throw his ass in jail for a very, very long time.

Trying to use “World’s Smartest Man” in a post. Hmmm…. I’m thinking of snark instead of actual smart people. Jon Stewart keeps springing to mind. Or maybe Little Bro, as he married so very, very well. Then there’s Hubby (smart cuz he married me, get it?).  Ken Jennings? Richard Feynman? Tom Lehrer? That’s it! Tom Lehrer!

Youngest Son just said, “Yeah, that felt good when I farted.”

He was talking to himself.

Aren’t children terrific?

Have you ever been following a car on your morning commute, and for no rational reason, just wanted to ram the damn thing? Happened to me this morning. Heavy traffic on Parham Road, I’m late for work again, and there’s this car in front of me. He wasn’t doing anything wrong – but he was in front of me. I genuinely wanted to roll over his ass. This is not sane, in my opinion. Feeling the inclination to murder perfect strangers who are innocent of any wrongdoing, whose only crime is being in proximity when I’m in a snit, is not acceptable. I need therapy.

First trip to man’s Only Home. July 20, 1969. Brings a tear to my eye.

 Photo from NPR

I can’t actually comment too much on this from my own opinion just now, as I’ll go off on a rant that I may never recover from, and my boys are trying to sleep. But here’s the update from Genarlow’s lawyer:

Genarlow Wilson Update: July 20, 2007

GEORGIA SUPREME COURT HEARING ORAL ARGUMENTS IN WILSON CASE ON JULY 20TH AT 10AM

The Georgia Supreme Court granted Wilson’s request for an expedited [EXPEDITED?! The kid's been in jail for over two years for having SEX! Yeah, fast work there, Georgia] hearing and the Court will hear his legal pleas on Friday, July 20th at 10 am.

The argument will focus on 2 issues.  The first argument will be dealing with the denial of bond.  Wilson’s bond hearing scheduled for July 5th was canceled by Superior Court Judge David Emerson in Douglas County and he dismissed the request. 

The second argument will be about the grant of habeas relief that Wilson won in the Superior Court of Monroe County, Georgia.  The Attorney General of Georgia [aka the dickwad] filed an appeal of the order to release Genarlow Wilson and thus he remains in prison.  Wilson’s lawyer will argue the legal points that the Monroe County Judge was correct that his imprisonment is cruel and unusual punishment.

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers.  Genarlow, his mother and I all thank you.  “An individual can fight an injustice but it take a community to do justice “

BJ Bernstein

I just can’t believe this kind of thing is still happening. I used to live in Georgia, have vacationed there many times with my family, and have nothing but fond memories of the place. But this is beyond fucking belief. LET THE KID OUT OF JAIL, APOLOGIZE, AND KISS HIS ASS FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, YOU NONSENSICAL ASS-WIPES!