Otter display of public affection

I don't have many pet peeves in life, but one of 'em is otters who go overboard with their public displays of affection. ;)



Taken from BoingBoing and Youtube.

An observation while walking

While on my 4.5 mile walk this morning, I noticed more signs saying to the effect: "This property being developed through XYZ Bank" or "Interested in owning this land? Call 1-800-Business."

Hear of urban sprawl?

I think my part of Kansas City suffers from "Commercial Sprawl" where business people are buying land for the purpose of business, commercial development, and strip malls.

I just hope the Masons don't sell there land behind my house.

KU's Loss--My Take

The deeper you get into the tournament, the more intense and disappointing the losses are.

When a team misses 18 dunks and layups, you deserve to lose. And that's what KU did. The difference in the game was that UCLA's defense was rabid, tenacious, and intense and KU could not respond.
My brother-in-law brought up the good point that KU's lack of challenge from the teams in the Big-12 North also contributed to KU's problems. The lack of any close, intense games from Nebraska, Missouri, K-State, etc...did not prepare KU for the tough, defensive games that SIU and UCLA brought forth.
Also, where were the KU big men? KU needs a big man who can score in double figures, consistently. We didn't get that this weekend. And the rebounding. When SIU and UCLA get as many offensive rebounds this weekend, it tells me that KU's rebounding fundamentals are bad.

Random Notes from the Dog-Gone weekend

1. When I got home from my weekend from Shawnee, my neighbor passed by taking her border collie home after a completed walk in Barry Park. I didn't notice it until my neighbor pointed it out, but the collie had a blue booty on its hind left leg. Apparently the dog got a nail snagged in something and pulled the nail clean out creating a little bit of pain. The dog seemed to be in good spirits, though.
2. I spent Friday through Sunday in Shawnee, KS dog sitting for some very good friends. J and P are a yellow lab and a golden retriever, respectively. And as I said in a previous post, both are affectionate and docile dogs. And they are also smart. They somehow managed to get me out of bed at four o'clock Sunday morning so they could go outside. I think both dogs were smiling when they achieved this (as if the joke was on me). Seriously, my experiences this weekend with the dogs still drives the desire for me to own a dog. However, I'm away from my house ten hours a day and I don't think it's proper to leave a dog alone for that extended period of time.....even if I built a doggie door for access to the back yard or had a neighbor check on the dog.
3. For obvious reasons, the NCAA basketball tournament is once again fun.
4. Finally, I am learning to deal with the fact that I will deal with high blood pressure for the rest of my life. I'm now on medication, am exercising more, and have been scrutinizing my diet and restaurant habits. A few weeks ago, my doctor recommended that I start to lose weight. As such, I have started to take routine walks when I get home at night (thanks in large part with the early start of daylight savings time this year). Also, I have been checking out the natural foods groceries close by to see how their products may help me.

Snakes in a Tent

I got into a conversation recently about Boy Scout summer camp. And, of course, if you ever have gone camping in Boy Scouts, you sometimes encounter a snake. So here’s my snake story:

Camp Jayhawk is located about thirty miles northeast of Topeka, very close to Lake Perry in Jefferson County. I’ve been to this summer facilities three times as a scout in the late 1970s. The first two years, our troop camped on the west side of Lake Jayhawk. The west side was the more luxurious side of the lake because we weren’t required to cook our own meals. We merely had to hike down three-quarters of a mile to the main cabin where breakfast, lunch, and dinner were ready. My third year we camped on the east side of the lake where we were required to cook our own meals and maintain the latrines.

The one thing that all camps had in common were the tents. The camp staff provided our tents and cot frames, but the tents themselves had no flooring So if we got out of bed in the middle of the night the first thing our feet hit was the ground.

Anyway, this third year of scout camp was the year of rain, rain, and even more rain. When we first arrived, we had no problems pitching our tents and establishing camp. It was just the fact for most of the week we found ourselves wearing rain gear. Our third night there was the most violent of the thunderstorms. A couple of thunderbolts struck Lake Jayhawk disturbing my slumber momentarily before I drifted back to sleep.

That following morning, I received instructions from my scoutmaster to get everyone up from bed. It was still raining so he shouted from his tent, probably hoping that I was awake. At the time, I was the Assistant Senior Patrol leader and the highest-ranking scout so getting the troop out of bed and ready for the day was one of my accountabilities.

So I got my clothes and raingear on and walked out of the tent and proceeded to wake the troop. But what I did not notice as I was walking out of the tent were the three snakes (two copperheads and a rattlesnake) that decided to use our tent as shelter from the rain. Apparently, they were coiled under my tent-mate’s bed.

It took me about twenty minutes to go through the camp and get everyone up. In the meantime, my tent-mate had his problems: one of the copperheads decided to climb up the cot and rest on his chest. He tried calling for the scoutmaster but, for obvious reasons, he did not want to provoke the snake. So his shouts were limited to loud whispers.

The scoutmaster did hear my tent-mate’s frantic whispers and was able to move not only the copperhead but also the other two snakes into the woods 200 yards away. When I returned to the tent, the scoutmaster and tent-mate had exhausted looks on their faces. After they took a minute to catch their breath, they told me what happened.

Another lesson in life

Never go and get your haircut while the barber is listening to the KU basketball game on the radio. He pays more attention to the game than to your head of hair. ;)

Random Notes

My apologies for lack of blogging. Here are some notes, which may or may not seem trivial......

1. We had a very low turn-out for our Book club at Scooter's today. I think part of it was the book we read was boring and the other part was it was cold and blustery.


2. Taxes are done for 2006 and the good news is I am getting refunds across the board. If you heard a gush of wind Monday night, that was me heaving a gigantic sigh of relief at H&R Block in North KC. 2005 was the proverbial bitter pill and I am just glad my taxes did a reversal this year.


3. I will be dog sitting once again in March. Some friends are heading out of town and their normal dog sitters are also out of town. Soooo, on St. Patrick's night, I will be spending time with a yellow lab and a golden retriever. Both are friendly and docile.


4. Finally, I added to my collection of toby jugs: