They mulched a tree out back earlier, and ’twas loud as all get out. Newt was not happy with it, not a bit… he sat atop the counter doing what I would consider to be a scowl at the source of the sound.

Writing, and I’m not sure if I want to use the term preternatural or supernatural.

Brother is in a new place.. apparently he heard back and slid right in to the first place that called. I caught him in a couple of fibs, but didn’t bother calling him on them. He claims that Andy doesn’t know where he’s moving to, but I doubt that, and Mark knows where he’s at now… because he helped him to move some things to where he is.

That reminds me of a riddle: What do you call a man with no arms and no legs on your doorstep? Fair Warning.

CS said that yesterday was really busy, that he got a lot of calls (at 10pmish when the shift change came over) from Georgia last night. I wonder if tonight will be the same deal… there really haven’t been any calls all day. I actually had to test to make sure the phone was working properly once or twice, just in case. Now that RI is off to TX (presumably to tend to her elderly parents), I wonder if some of the team tensions will ease up?

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The Dream of the Red Chamber is the Chinese Romeo and Juliet; a tragic, beautiful love-story in 5 lengthy volumes. The scene where Tai-yu (our lovely Juliet) first sees the man she has been so warned against, Pao-yu (the dashing Romeo), I just had to share:

“His face was like the full moon at mid-autumn; his complexion, like morning flowers in spring; the hair along his temples, as if chiseled with a knife; his eyebrows, as if penciled with ink; his nose like a suspended gallbladder; his eyes like vernal waves; his angry look even resembled a smile; his glance, even when stern, was full of sentiment.”

*giggles*
I fear something may have been lost in translation… (via Stelpa)

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Misc nifty reference linkies –

• Equinox and Solstice: site on celebrations of these annual events.
• All About Snow.
• An Atlas of the Universe.
• Holiday Trends from Journalist’s Toolbox, has lots of links for retail/shopping stats and lots of other stuff (holiday movies, etc.)
• Facts about Christmas fun statistics from U.S. Census.
• WHOIS.sc, a really easy-to-use new WHOIS search, now gives you an image of the Web site of a domain, as well as good description.
• Web Watch from Governing.com, this site finds interesting government Web sites. Latest: a teacher monitoring database from Vermont.
• Google number searches You can search by number for things like tracking numbers, airplane registrations and patents.
• United States Counties: from NACO, National Assn of Counties, click on a map to get information on a county, including demographics and lists of officials, and a link to the Web site. More useful searches from NACO (includes finding county by city, finding coastal counties, population range searches, etc.).
• The Saudi Connection: huge investigative report by US News and World Report on how Saudi money financed terrorism.

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Bad essays on weather

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SmoothTeddy – quick 3d modelling and painting. (some cute sample models)