Olive had to go to Hastings Pet Hospital today to ensure that she would not procreate. This morning at 7:00 AM as we left the house, she knew something was up.
She's taken several automobile trips and just likes to walk around and look out the window, but this morning she keep looking at me and giving me an extremely sad and frightened, "Meow". Over and over and over. It was exceedingly sad. I kept talking to her for the entire trip, she'd meow and I'd tell her it was gonna be ok and then she's meow again, etc.
When we finally got there she was quivering. It was very difficult for me to give her to the nurse, but I managed to let her go.
Six hours later I picked my sweet Olive up and we drove back to Hopkins with her in my lap most of the time. She's a bit groggy from the surgery, but it looks like she's going to be ok.
If it's like this taking a cat to the vet, what's it like to have children?
After watching my friend suffer through completion of a MONTH of that damned Atkins diet and certainly after watching him enjoy a single day of cheating I have decided that I should write a diet book.
I know, I know, I won't put my picture on the cover.
The book will follow two basic principles:
1. Eat Less
2. Exercize More
I have to figure out how to fill 180 or so pages with the wisdom somehow.
They'll call it a fad, but I'l be rich!
Maybe I'll try it out and see if it works.
If you're bored enough to be reading this, here are some fun things for you to do:
Watch My Condo Being Built
Watch A Strong Bad Email
Pop Bubble Wrap
Become Amused (Hit the 'say something stupid' button at the end - It'll slay ya!)
Have fun,
Michael
Here are what appear to be the known facts, laid out recently in considerable detail and documentation by retired pilot and Air National Guard First Lt. Robert A. Rogers, and in a 2003 book, “The Lies of George W. Bush,” by David Corn.
1. George W. Bush graduated from Yale in 1968 when the war in Vietnam was at its most deadly and the military draft was in effect. Like many of his social class and age, he sought to enter the National Guard, which made Vietnam service unlikely, and fulfill his military obligation. Competition for slots was intense; there was a long waiting list. Bush took the Air Force officer and pilot qualification tests on Jan. 17, 1968, and scored the lowest allowed passing grade on the pilot aptitude portion.
2. He, nevertheless, was sworn in on May 27, 1968, for a six-year commitment. After a few weeks of basic training, Bush received an appointment as a second lieutenant – a rank usually reserved for those completing four years of ROTC or 18 months active duty service. Bush then went to flight school and trained on the F-102 interceptor fighter jet. Fighter pilots were in great demand in Vietnam at the time, but Bush wound up serving as a “weekend warrior” in Houston, where his father’s congressional district was centered.
A Houston Chronicle story published in 1994, quoted in Corn’s book, has Bush saying: “I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes.”
3. Sometime after May 1971, young Lt. Bush stopped participating regularly in Guard activities. According to Texas Air National Guard records, he had fewer than the required flight duty days and was short of the minimum service owed the Guard. Records indicate that Bush never flew after May 1972, despite his expensive training and even though he still owed the National Guard two more years.
4. On May 24, 1972, Bush asked to be transferred to an inactive reserve unit in Alabama, where he also would be working on a Republican senate candidate’s campaign. The request was denied. For months, Bush apparently put in no time at all in Guard service. In August 1972, Bush was grounded -- suspended from flying duties -- for failing to submit to an annual physical exam. (Why wouldn't he take this exam from a doctor?)
5. During his 2000 presidential campaign, Bush’s staff said he recalled doing duty in Alabama and then returning to Houston for still more duty. But the commander of the Montgomery, AL, unit where Bush said he served told the Boston Globe that he had no recollection of Bush – son of a congressman – ever reporting, nor are there records, as there should be, supporting Bush’s claim. Asked at a press conference in Alabama on June 23, 2000 what duties he had performed as a Guardsman in that state, Bush said he could not recall, “but I was there.”
6. In May, June and July, 1973, Bush suddenly started participating in Guard activities back in Houston again – pulling 36 days at Ellington Air Base in that short period. On Oct. 1, 1973, eight months short of his six-year service obligation and scheduled discharge, Bush apparently was discharged with honors from the Texas Air National Guard (eight months short of his six-year commitment). He then went to Harvard Business School.
Documents supporting these reports, released under Freedom of Information Act requests, appear along with Rogers’ article on the web.
In the absence of full disclosure by the President or his supporters, only the President and perhaps a few family or other close associates know the whole truth. And they’re not talking.
Bush was apparently absent without official leave from his assigned military service for as little as seven months (New York Times) or as much as 17 months (Boston Globe) during a time when 500,000 American troops were fighting the Vietnam War. The Army defines a “deserter” -- also known as a DFR, for “dropped from rolls” – as one who is AWOL 31 days or more.
And if you made it all the way through that...Thanks to Demetrius Jenkins, you can Click on this.
HOPS CORPORATE
PO BOX 725489
ATLANTA GA 31139-9923
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Michael and I have been a loyal customer of Hops since my father first took me there about 6 years ago in Marietta, Georgia. When I relocated to the Twin Cities area of Minnesota I was quite pleased to find that I had two Hops within driving distance from my home. I have frequented your restaurants for a few years now. I was a stockholder in AVDO (but we won’t talk about that now). I am writing to you to voice a concern; an extreme concern.
“We’ve changed that to homemade croutons”
You can imagine my shock when the Caesar salad that I ordered arrived without the burnt cheese thing. I, of course, just thought the prep cook or the server made a little mistake. When I inquired about that delicious treat that I had been thinking about all day long at work, I got the following as a response:
“We’ve changed that to homemade croutons”.
You have GOT to be kidding me?
I love the Jamacian Sirloin. I love the root beer. I adore those little honey-butter carbohydrate rolls they bring you when you sit down. I enjoy the French onion and the potato soup, really, I do, but I come to Hops for the burnt cheese thing that comes on the Caesar salad.
Pillsbury took away Foodsticks when I was a kid in the 70’s, Herrshey’s did this to me with the P.B. Max bar back in the early 80’s. Houstons changed their Veggie Burger, and I can only get a McRib about every 3 years. Please. I implore you. Don’t do this to me.
If it is a money thing, that’s fine. I’ll pay extra for it. I don’t give a damn about the homemade croutons and what with the Atkins diet, half of my friends are picking them out and leaving them on another plate anyway. You had a great thing going there. You had a great thing. Bring them back. Bring them back soon.
Please let me know that you’re going to take my suggestion to heart and return the burnt cheese thing to its rightful place in Hops Caesar salad.
I’ll be eating at Maggianos until your reply,
Michael
Loyal Hops Customer
