We Love Our Vacuum

Dyson DC14 Complete Here is our new vacuum cleaner. With tax it was about $600 which is 3x more than we've ever thought about spending on a vacuum cleaner. Why blog about a vacuum cleaner? Because it's the COOLEST thing we've bought since David came home with his iPod mini. Everything they say about it is true. It eliminates dirt that the old Hoover swore wasn't there. And boy do we need it with 145 pounds of black labradors lying on the carpet all day.

Bentley

 
This one looks pretty good! 

Who wants a cookie?

 
 

Hoover at Sea

 
OK Here is another attempt to post from within Picasa2 to blogger. Maybe the third time is the charm.

This picture was taken in the Gulf around Fathers Day. 

Bentley

 
 

Here is a nice picture of Bentley. It's a little dark, but the brighter shots all show either a blue or gray haze in his eyes.

I kinda like this one. But we need to try more shots, probably some on the back porch and maybe the front yard.

Long trip to Taipei

Long trip to Taipei, but I’m learning how to travel it a bit better.  This time I brought two books which is good because I finished the first one on the way over.  I bought a neck pillow at the LA airport, which helped a great deal.

Blogger for Word

O.K.  This is pretty cool.

Eric should go to www.blogger.com and download “Blogger for Word” at this link:

http://buzz.blogger.com/bloggerforword.html  

Blogger for Word is a free add-in that makes it a snap to edit and post to a blog from Word.  When you install the program it adds a new menu into Word.  The menu items include:

Blogger Settings;  start here to tell the program your blog sign-on.

Open Post:  This is a real cool feature.  You can grab a post straight from your blog in order to edit it.  A drop down menu lets you choose what blog you want, and another lets you pick out which post to edit inside Word.

Save as Draft:  If you don’t want to post right away.

Publish:  Gives you the option of either Updating an existing post or Creating a New Post.

This is a really useful tool for playing with Blogger.

SUN-SENTINEL INVESTIGATION: FEMA has always been a disaster!

Free money, poor planning, poor response. It's the FEMA way!

SUN-SENTINEL INVESTIGATION: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The view from our room in Jacksonville, FL. We went up for the weekend to see the Jags play the Denver Broncos.
click on image for larger picture

Jaws in 30 seconds with bunnies.

"Jaws" reinacted in 30 seconds using bunnies!

Jaws in 30 seconds with bunnies.

Alerts go out on dog influenza - OrlandoSentinel.com:

This makes me think we should keep Bentley away from the adoption days until more is found out.

Alerts go out on dog influenza - OrlandoSentinel.com:

Advice Goddess Blog

Heh. From now on, I'm going to reply to all interupting cold calls with:

"I'm sorry, I'm busy right now. Can you give me your home phone and I'll call you back later."


Advice Goddess Blog

Hurricane Katrina: Folklore vs. Fact

Hmmmm. Used to be you could trust what you read in the papers and heard on the news.

Gateway Pundit: More Hurricane Katrina: Folklore vs. Fact

Apple admits problem with iPod nano

For once I'm happy not to be an early adopter! But it's still soooo cooooool and I want to get one once they fix it.!

(blogged while under the influence of Itunes...)

Apple admits problem with iPod nano

Michelle Malkin: TOM DELAY INDICTED

Wonder how this will play in the Orlando Slantinel and St. Pete Liberal times:

Michelle Malkin: TOM DELAY INDICTED

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

The St. Pete Times Poynter Institue is teaching it's liberal students (minions) to lie in order to push forward it narrative:

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "The chaos in the wake of Katrina seemed to affect some reporters and editors, says Kelly McBride, who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute, a journalism research and education center in St. Petersburg, Fla.

'You get so hung up as a reporter on what the big picture is that you use generalizations that become untrue.'"

What ever happened to just telling the freakin truth?

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

From OpionJournal:

"The problems with the New Orleans Police Department are nothing new. In February 2004 the Gambit Weekly reported on a study conducted by the University of New Orleans for the New Orleans Police Foundation, which found that the NOPD was quickly losing officers. In just the preceding three years, a force of 1,700 had become a farce of 1,500; the foundation estimated that 2,000 officers were needed to police the city adequately:

Recounting the 'three major reasons' cited in the UNO study for the shrinking NOPD--poor pay, lack of consistent promotions, and the city's strict residency requirement--the Foundation then offered three more contributing factors for the reduction in force:

• 'Housing costs are higher in Orleans Parish than other Parishes in the metro area, and the residency requirement forces our police officers to bear these higher costs.'

• 'NOPD officers do not consider the Orleans Parish School system adequate; 84 percent send all or at least one of their children to school elsewhere, usually at additional expense.'

• 'NOPD officers make less (money) than their peers in other agencies; they have not been promoted as promised. This is especially crippling when coupled with the negative impact of the residency requirement, higher housing and education expenses.'

Result: The Big Easy became the country's murder capital. "For New Orleans to have a murder rate that is on par with New York City's, our city would have to record only 36 murders per year," the report found. "This is 221 fewer murders than the 257 murders recorded in 2002."

The Gambit notes that the study, which was actually issued a month before the paper's report, was supposed to have been a "blockbuster," but instead it "became quickly swallowed up in a 24-hour news cycle of bloody crimes."

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "Remember a few weeks back when left-wing commentators were citing Katrina as an indictment of Ronald Reagan's small-government philosophy? What we see here is Democratic big government at work. Employees walk off their job when they are most essential, and weeks later their bosses haven't figured out if that's a firing offense!"

NCAA Football - Weis uses play called by 10-year-old boy dying of inoperable brain tumor

This one will make you cry.

Yahoo! Sports - NCAA Football - Weis uses play called by 10-year-old boy dying of inoperable brain tumor

Everything in Michael Crightons "State of Fear" is true

Here is an article about Arianna Huffington showing up to a Sierra Club meeting in a Chevy Suberban limo.

Michelle Malkin: DRIVING MISS ARIANNA

Last night Betsy was watching Fox News and some eco-zealot was spouting off about global warming and rising oceans causing more hurricanes. When his opposite pointed out the oceans weren't rising and global warming doesn't exist globally he retorted

"I wish I was paid by Exxon to go on these shows and lie about global warming."

If you haven't yet, go out and find a copy of State of Fear

Sluggo?

I kinda like the name Sluggo for Bentley. Sluggo is: "Nancy's best friend and constant companion. He's a sweet kid and a loyal friend. Sluggo's certainly not the brightest kid in the gang, but he's always there when you need him."

Deputy Dawg

Is this Bentley?

EBay to Buy Internet Phone Firm for $2.6 Billion - New York Times

Skype was sold to EBay for between 2.6 Billion and 4.1 billion.

Yikes, and here I thought it was just an internet toy!

New York Times

More stories of frustrated volunteers

If this doesn't get you mad I don't know what will. Doctors told to mop floors instead of saving dying patients because the lawyers were concerned about liability? FEMA not allowing a water truck to unload because of paperwork? Firefighters sent to Atlanta to take sensitivity training while New Orleans burned?

What the hell is going on with our government? If I were drowning in a cesspool and had a choice between rescued by an abusive firefighter, or drowned and dead because the would be abusive firefighter is in Atlanta learning how not to offend me I'll take the former thank-you-very-much.

CNN.com - Leadership vacuum stymied aid offers - Sep 15, 2005

Katrina - What Went Right

Interesting article on what went right in the New Orleans rescue effort. It would seem that with no unified command and no communication systems established that multiple rescue groups simply went about there work saving people without recognition. While the press was reporting that nothing was going on, and in the process making a politcal issue out of it, thousands of lives were being saved.

"Urban also notes one explanation why the rescue operation flew below the radar of the media: Individual federal and state units were not coordinating their efforts overall. There was no central clearing house for information on rescue efforts. What looked like a hurricane relief breakdown was in fact a press release breakdown."

So while we had a near total governmental breakdown at the local, state and federal level the people and agencies themselves went about their work.