Merry Chris-, er Solst-, uh Day (Late)

allegedly from 1960:
heh. my late christmas present to y'all.

"JACKSON, Mo. -- A collision with a semi-trailer truck seven years ago left 52-year-old Deborah Shank permanently brain-damaged and in a wheelchair. Her husband, Jim, and three sons found a small source of solace: a $700,000 accident settlement from the trucking company involved. After legal fees and other expenses, the remaining $417,000 was put in a special trust. It was to be used for Mrs. Shank's care.
Instead, all of it is now slated to go to Mrs. Shank's former employer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc."
(go here for the entire Wall Street Journal article)

can anyone say single payer health care? while i understand the recouping of certain unneeded costs by insurers and employers if the costs are found to be ridiculous and/or frivolous, i cannot in any way understand this. and, yes, it could happen to you. or me. this is our future. more and more loopholes to allow companies and CEO's a larger slice of our money at our expense, all made legal by our government and our Supreme Court.
and they will get away with it, too, because we as a nation have become inured to the machinations of those in power. we expect to be screwed and they know it. we have turned deaf and dumb to even the most egregious of crimes perpetrated by the very individuals we elect to the halls of congress and the presidency in an effort to pretend that life is good, rosy, not smelling of the very shit we are being drowned in.
what is the line? "if you are going to lie, lie until you're blue in the face". so long as we don't bother to delve too deeply into the actions of our "leaders" the easier it becomes for them to rely on that.
it's time to wake up, smell the bullshit, and do more than simply say "i voted". because voting doesn't seem to be doing much anymore.

You Want Lies With That, Mister?

so, let's see here. blackwater mercenaries gun down something like 16 unarmed iraqis, get backed by the bush administration who claim it was defensive fire, then they get investigated by the FBI and the FBI finds that blackwater mercenaries actually did kill innocent iraqis and it passes the benchmark into murder. hmm, sounds like blackwater is in the shit, right? done and done. no more free handouts, bad doggie, no bisquit.
but, oops. just the other day comes this:

"Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, N.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00. The contractor is to provide all fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger, cargo and combi Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. This contract was competitively procured and two timely offers were received. The performance period is from 1 Oct. 2007 to 30 September 2011. "

Presidential Airways is the aviation wing of blackwater. so, blackwater is under investigation for, well, murder and it is still receiving contracts to operate in, huh, countries other than iraq, but still either border iraq or are in the general area.
and, then, there's this:
"During today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the performance of State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) revealed that Krongard’s brother — former CIA Executive Director A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard — sits on Blackwater USA’s board. Krongard vehemently denied the allegation, calling it an “ugly rumor”..."
what the fuck...

Hey Chinese Subs: La La La, We Can't Hear You!

The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.
At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.
That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.
(good thing we're the world's only superpower and our ability to detect really, really big machines with really, really big bombs is as good as our ability to detect toothpaste tubes weighing more 3.5 ounces at airports)

Bush's bishops: Exit Iraq now
President Bush’s church, long at odds with him on matters of public policy, called on the United States and its partners today to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq immediately.
(i was born, baptised and raised a methodist and have never been very comfortable with the national leaning towards conservatism. christ was a radical, condemned by almost all, so it should be that a church who claims to follow his teachings should truly follow it and not fear the label. yet, mostly, this church has. so, it's nice to read that it is breaking with some of its old blindness)

So, Uh, Like Stay Healthy And Insurance Will Protect You?

One of the state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed.

Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter. The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday.

Lookin' For Some Wheels

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With oil prices setting records over $90 a barrel - and $100 looking ever more likely - experts say there's a good chance drivers will see $3 gasoline before the end of the year."

heh. where do these people live? because i want to move there if they haven't seen $3 a gallon gas yet.

"But so far drivers have been lucky. The national average price for gasoline has risen barely one cent, going from $2.81 last month to $2.82 this month"...

the cheapest i see on my way to and from work is $2.95. and, yes, i know that fresno and the valley always have higher averages than most of the rest of the country due (in part) to the massive amount of trucking that rumbles through here.
so, does anyone know anyone who sells mopeds for relatively cheap? i am now officially in the market for one.

more camping

Ah Wilderness!

ah, camping. the great outdoors. fresh air. pitting one's will against the ambiguous evil of nature. battling the elements mano a mano. guy stuff. man way. ugh!

Going Camping... Again.

and, yes, it will look somewhat like that. multiplied by 7.

DUR???

Bush: 'I make a lot of decisions'
By DEB RIECHMANN -- Associated Press Writer
(Updated Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 2:36 PM)


LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) Give the man a microphone and he'll talk about anything. For 76 minutes, President Bush prowled the stage Wednesday in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, giving a speech and answering questions about everything from his opposition to tax increases to his veto of a bill to expand children's health insurance.
But he covered a lot of other ground, too.
Bush gave an intriguing description about what happens when businesses expand, as was the case here at a company run by a woman.
"You know, when you give a man more money in his pocket - in this case, a woman - more money in her pocket to expand a business, they build new buildings. And when somebody builds a new building, somebody has got to come and build the building.
"And when the building expanded, it prevented (sic) additional opportunities for people to work. Tax cuts matter. I'm going to spend some time talking about it," the president said.
He offered a pointed description of his job.
"My job is a decision-making job. And as a result, I make a lot of decisions," the president said.
He elaborated on that point later.
"I delegate to good people. I always tell Condi Rice, 'I want to remind you, Madam Secretary, who has the Ph.D. and who was the C student. And I want to remind you who the adviser is and who the president is.'
"I got a lot of Ph.D.-types and smart people around me who come into the Oval Office and say, 'Mr. President, here's what's on my mind.' And I listen carefully to their advice. But having gathered the device (sic), I decide, you know, I say, 'This is what we're going to do.' And it's 'Yes, sir, Mr. President.' And then we get after it, implement policy."
Bush, known for his impatience when fellow leaders rattle on, acknowledged he was doing the same himself in his opening remarks.

Members of the audience snap pictures of President Bush, front foreground, during his speech in an event sponsored by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007 in Lancaster, Pa.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais -- AP Photo
"I'll be glad to answer some questions from you if you got any," he said. "If not, I can keep on blowing hot air until the time runs out."
Asked about global warming, he gave a lengthy account of alternative fuels.
"I'm not quite through," he said near the end. "And it's a long answer, I'm sorry. It's called filibustering." After one answer about American views of the Iraq war, Bush said sheepishly: "I think that was your question, wasn't it? The answer was so long I lost track."
He had some fun with a woman who seemed slow on the draw when Bush called on her.
"You want a little chance to collect the thoughts, you know? I mean we're talking national TV here, you know?" he said.
"I actually wrote it down so I wouldn't get flustered," the woman said.
"It didn't work," Bush said.
Bush gave an upbeat assessment of being president, despite polls showing the public overwhelmingly disapproves of the job he's doing.
"I told somebody behind stage, this has been a joyous experience being the president," Bush said. "My buddies in Texas just simply don't think I'm telling them the truth. But it is."
He forgot that he had promised a question to a woman. "When you're getting over 60, sometimes your mind slips," said Bush, who is 61.
Finally, he decided he had said enough.
"And I got to go, I hate to tell you. You're paying me too much money to be sitting here talking."

(huh??? can anyone who speaks "drunk president" please translate this?)

here's your shadow government.

Cheney to address secret group

The conservative Council for National Policy will meet in downtown Salt Lake

if that doesn't say it all, i don't know what does. no press, no public, no leaks as to where or when they'll meet or what they'll talk about or who will be there. the second coup in preparation? it takes two to finish one, you know.

A man walks into a bookstore with his young son. The boy is
holding a quarter. Suddenly, the boy starts choking, going blue
in the face. The father realizes the boy has swallowed the
quarter and starts panicking, shouting for help.

A well dressed, attractive and serious looking woman in a blue
business suit is sitting at a coffee bar in the store reading a
newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee. At the sound of the
commotion, she looks up, puts her coffee cup down, neatly
folds the newspaper and places it on the counter, gets up from
her seat and makes her way unhurried, across the bookstore.Reaching the boy, the woman carefully drops his pants, takes
hold of the boy's' testicles and starts to squeeze and twist
gently at first and then ever more firmly. After a few seconds
the boy convulses violently and coughs up the quarter, which
the woman deftly catches in her free hand.

Releasing the boy's testicles, the woman hands the coin to the
father and walks back to her seat in the coffee bar without
saying a word.As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no ill effects,
the father rushes over to the woman and starts thanking her
saying, "I've never seen anybody do anything like that
before, it was fantastic. Are you a doctor?"
"No," the woman replied, "Divorce Attorney."

WTF???

sometimes there comes a darkness of the soul. at that moment one can no longer see the greater good that is the overlying fabric of a people. one cannot see the monuments created, the kindness passed on, the gleaming line that connects all.
sometimes it is merely the small insanity of one that affects you or me and no one else that tips us over into the abyss. an abyss that mocks our screams. and makes one wonder if screaming is even worth shouting about.
we have no control over the actions of others, nor should we. but when events conspire to affect our very lives for no better reason than another person has gone over the edge with no thought to how it may ripple out like a stone in a pool then i think that i may no longer be able to stand idly by.
what do i do, though? fly away? provoke a confrontation? assassinate from behind the curtain?
i just don't know.
i have watched many of those i know miscalculate their lives. they have watched me do the same. mostly, though, these events have not made me concerned for my own welfare, my own being.
now, however, i see something happening with someone i do not know as a friend or as a colleague, but the actions being undertaken have the ability to force me out of my current life as i know it in a catastrophic way.
so, fuck it. i'm going camping.

US civil rights hero Oliver Hill dies at 100

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A key fighter in the struggle to end racial segregation in US schools, the black civil rights lawyer Oliver Hill, died at the age of 100 on Sunday, local media reported.
He died at his home in Richmond, capital of the western state of Virginia, the city's Times Dispatch newspaper said.
Hill helped change US society by fighting in the courts to end segregation of blacks from whites in areas of public life such as voting rights, jury selection, access to school buses and employment protection, it said.
His triumph was his role in a series of lawsuits against segregated schools that led to a 1954 Supreme Court ruling that school segregation was unconstitutional.
In 1999 he received the presidential medal of freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Debt Of Service

Debt Of Service. probably you will be misled by that last sentence. unless you read the article it's linked to.

bushism of the week

this from a man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth:

After the Senate Finance Committee approved an expansion of the federal Children's Health Insurance Program to cover nearly 10 million kids, President Bush offered a strange rationale for threatening to veto it.
"People have access to health care in America," he told an audience in Cleveland. "After all, you just go to an emergency room."

have any of you ever been to an emergency room? i can guarantee you that president bush never has.

Just So You Know...

...our activities in and pertaining to iraq and afghanistan are now costing us $4,630 per second. or $12,000,000,000 per month.
in real terms i can understand it equals my annual salary in just under 8 seconds.
and they say only nature can make one feel small and insignificant.

250,000:1

There's a report out that says our brave forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are firing 250,000 rounds of ammunition for every insurgent they claim to have been killed. An excerpt of the article reveals:
"The Department of Defense's increased requirements for small- and medium-calibre ammunitions have largely been driven by increased weapons training requirements, dictated by the army's transformation to a more self-sustaining and lethal force - which was accelerated after the attacks of 11 September, 2001 - and by the deployment of forces to conduct recent US military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq," said the report by the General Accounting Office (GAO)." (italics are mine)
So, some of this ammunition is being used in training. And it has been used to make the soldiers better shots. And more lethal. And self-sustaining.
And yet...we have witnessed a large surge in deployments to Iraq. We have witnessed more of our soldiers being killed. We have not witnessed a real surge in insurgents being killed. And we have read about another report from our experts and generals stating that none of the requirements (aka benchmarks) set forth for the Iraqi government and military have been met.
250,000??? Evidently, bullet manufacturers can't even keep up with our demand for bullets. Evidently, it's still a great time to be invested in the War Machine. Of course, when is it not? There's always another dirty little conflict just around the bend.
What I'd like to know is what the ratio of bullets to kills is when you factor in the civilian death rate. Maybe Bush and Cheney need to start doing that if only to get that ratio down to a numerical amount that we, the people, can understand. Because 250,000:1, while still better than winning the Lotto or getting struck by lightning or dying in a plane crash, makes our troops look like dumb ass, suburban weekend can poppers. Or like Red Coats marching a straight line while the Revolutionaries hid behind trees and rocks and shot them at will. Or Custer not listening to his scouts.
I've always loved that about empirical armies. They feel they just need to march in, show superior force and a strong chin and the natives will quake in their peasant shoes and acquiesce immediately. No matter how many times history has proved them wrong.
One thing I know we did wrong this time as opposed the Indian Wars: we didn't offer civilians a chance at free land. If we had been promised all the free land we could stake in a day, many of us would have taken up arms against Iraq and Afghanistan. We would have enlisted at an accelerated rate if only to get out of a country that was war-taxing us to death and ignoring our basic needs (i.e. medical insurance, a good education, retirement without fear of ending up on the streets, freedom from religious persecution by those in power, civil liberties being shredded while those in foreign lands were being promised those liberties), unlike those in Iraq and Afghanistan. While they may have appeared in need of rescuing to us, most of them now wish they could go back to the way it was. And we are stuck here with less of what we used to have and no apparent way forward.
Oh, and the Air Force has stepped up aerial bombardments that the mainstream press and the White House are not talking about (because that's bad press and makes it look like we're not willing to face the enemy face to face, which any military expert will tell you is a quick route to a shallow grave).
If you read the article, you'll find that we are relying increasingly on foreign manufacturers of bullets. Funny. But I'll bet it's from one or more of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Because, "oddly" enough, the U.S., the U.K., Russia, France and China are the five leading arms exporters in the world (whether through normal or abnormal means).
So, those of you who who claim that we are a nation of compassion for ourselves and others, I have a large bridge shaped exactly like my penis to sell you.

p.s. abcnews has an interesting video clip of a journalist rif-ding along with soldiers in Baghdad. you should check it out.

Ethics and U.S.

p(resident) bush actually admits that someone within his inner staff leaked valerie plame's name to the press. and no one is fired. remember when he said at the outset of this investigation that if anyone working for him did this they would be fired? huh? huh? anyone? bueller? and then he defends his commutation of scooter libby's prison sentence.
a workmate of mine asked me today if i had any "ethical conundrums" for his philosophy class. i gave him our outcry now concerning the genocide in rwanda. i told him that we, as a country, had turned a blind eye to it for a long time while hundreds of thousands died and many more became refugees. i contrasted that with the hundreds of thousands now accepted to have died at coalition force hands and the over 2 million refugees fleeing from iraq. but now it is okay for our administration to look to rwanda and condemn it even as we commit as many or more atrocities in iraq. and the question was: where do we, as american citizens, stand on condemning the one, but ignoring the other?
but now i have a another good one: where do we, as american citizens, stand on a president promising he will fire the person responsible for a security breach only to commute the sentence of one of the very people involved in that breach and not being willing to delve deeper into who the ultimate responsible person is? when do we demand that ethical lines be drawn and those we voted into power stand by them?
in my next post i will answer the question by a commenter who asked in resignation what any one of us can do to change government? i won't be able to answer on a national level, but i will on a local one.

How Many HAve Died?

ahem. not that i don't like rwandans. hell, some of my best friends are sort of look like rwandans without the accent or the skin color. mostly because of meth. but when it comes to genocide i have to give it up to (drumroll, please) US!!!
most independent studies are coming to the same conclusion: somewhere between 300,000 and 650,000 iraqis have been killed since our dirty little "war on terror" began. and most of those deaths have come at the hands of our coalition forces. we hear almost daily of the sectarian suicide bombings, but almost nothing of the daily aerial bombings and artillery barrages happening at the behest of our president (or whoever signs his name and pours his drink for him).
not that i have anything against a man who likes a stiff shot once in a while. hell, if i had a war to run i'd pound a few myself. but i wouldn't claim not to.
and, hell, if i had this war to run i'd throw up a prayer or two each morning, asking some deity or another to forgive me for the massive sins i was about to commit. and to forgive me for not believing in them. but i wouldn't shout it to the country as the only way in which to proceed.
and, if i had any war to run, i most assuredly would want to fire a few of my minions when they came back to me at the end of a day and said that my ideas were full of crap and i just got another 500 people killed to no avail.
poor president bush. he may actually be that dumb (and i've posited this from the beginning), he may actually be that dim and idolatrous to believe that we as a nation and an idea are so superior to all other forms of civilization that we have a moral obligation to spread ourselves across the globe and over all other people like napalm jelly in order to obtain global harmony.
however, his righthand men- karl rove and dick cheney - are not that dumb or dim. they are smart. they understand the short term goals are worthier than the long term, because short can be achieved for the few. short term can make the worthy wealthy. long term makes the unwashed masses restless. so, they have george at the front making his pontifications about fighting them there instead of fighting them here. and iraq is the reason we are over there. and al qaeda is iraq. and karl and dick continue to line the pockets of their friends who have wanted this war since the early 80's.
so much better to be a smart billionaire than a dumb president. no hindsight will prove you wrong when you've got the dim son to smoke your tracks for you.
and all the while, we are making dafur look like another day in new york in comparison.

Badger Badger Badger

what's that, steph? you wanted scooter? okay.
scooter scooter scooter.
commute commute commute.
bullshit bullshit bullshit.
happy fucking independence day:
to whomever still truly believes in it and feels like the government serves us and has our best interests at heart;
to us, as a nation and an idea, who depend on celebrities to titillate us and distract from those issues not nearly as important (like civil rights, group morality, justice for all, equality, honesty, humbleness, compassion for those in need, transparency of government, protection of the weak, an open ear to the powerless, a turned cheek to the angry, not casting the first stone if one is not completely innocent of any wrongdoing) so that we may while away our days feeling superior to those coke sniffing, beaver flashing, head shaving, bible in prison carrying, wife join the scientologists making, little black baby stealing, next unnecessary pregnancy announcing, overblown steroid denouncing, nascar fist fighting, posthumous porn star dna paternity testing, dead pregnant housewife idolizing miscreants who make our country the star of hope that it is to the rest of the world (and why we are held above all others in god's eyes);
to the brave men and women (unless they're fags or dykes) who are overseas shooting at insurgents and terrorists ranging in age from 5 to 95, because their commander-in-chief is too busy commuting the sentence of his little buddy and preparing for a full pardon (even though he didn't consult the Justice Department, the prosecuting attorney, wait until all appeals are finished as is the normal doctrine or the convicted actually asked for the commutation) and can't be concerned about a "minor uptick" in military casualties, which he said should be expected for the next unforseeable future, and the soldiers are in fear for their lives, because they still don't have enough body armor, plate protection on their trucks and tanks, proper directions from their field commanders or protection from the enormous amount of depleted uranium they have unleashed into the air and ground;
and to those among us who merely want to blow shit up in a safe and sane environment on the one day of the year when it's sort of allowed and don't really intend to hold a silent vigil or a moment when we remember all of those who have fallen or whatever.

join me at you know where for festive fireworks, food and drinks. all religions, ethnicities and sexual lifestyles are encouraged (except fags, dykes, muslims, vegetarians, and methodists).
Commies and fascists okay so long as you agree to hold the fireworks while i light them.

WAR

the bane of the tomato grower. that pesky little critter that i've been told is part of the sphinx moth family (those huge ones that used to fly around on hot august nights whose wingspan would easily reach 6 inches...alas, no more due to decades of insecticide). below is the damage i returned to (i show not nearly all of what hapened in a 2 day span) from san francisco. i caught two mammoth caterpillars that evening, 4 moderate sized the next day and 2 moderate and 6 babies the next. and i've been checking those plants since the first sign of damage a couple of months ago.

sucks to be popular.

WTF???

when the State Equalization Board sends you a Cigarette and Tobacco Products Use Tax Return and it turns out to be a form on which you are supposed to tell them how many untaxed cigarettes you purchased iin the last year, you gotta wonder.
when you call and tell the representative that you've never purchased untaxed cigarettes before in your life and she then insinuates twice that you're lying, you gotta wonder.
when you ask for her superviser and are told that he is unavailable and you ask for his number and are told that she doesn't give out that kind of information and you ask how to get in touch with him and you are told that she will take your name and number and you try to give her your name and number and she begins repeating a federal code while you are reciting your name and number and when she hangs up on you as you are still trying to relay your contact information, you gotta wonder.
snippet:
"what's your account number?"
"--------."
"and how can i help you?"
"i got this form in the mail today and not only did you spell my name wrong, but i've never purchased untaxed cigarettes before."
"it say right here on my computer that you bought 98 cartons of untaxed cigarettes over the past three years and stopped in early 2007."
"did you just call me a liar?"
"sir, we received sales receipts from ----------- with your name and address. now, why would this company pull your name out of thin air?"
"you just called me a liar again."
"no sir, i never used that word."
"oh, i'm sorry. you insinuated i'm a liar."
she hung up on me shortly thereafter.
i called back immediately, made my complaint and was transferred by the main switchboard to one of their supervisers. hmmmm.....
turns out my SSN and driver's license are not in their system, which greatly worried the superviser (he gave me his direct number and his extension should i decide to call through the 800 number).
the quote of the conversation with him was:
"i hate to tell you this, but you're not lying."
coming on the heels of a collection agency coming after me even though they had my first name completely wrong and being told by a creditcheck group that i worked at a hardrock cafe in las vegas for a year i'm beginning to hear little paranoic bells in my head (sounds like my alarm going off in the middle of me sleeping off a particularly bad bender).

now he's part of the executive branch, but the order still doesn't apply to him? or the president? excuse me for coughing sputum violently into my hand while i try to keep from shitting out the Constitution i was forcefed a while back by republican operatives. give me a fucking break.
first, dick cheney claims that the National Archives have no oversight concerning his emails, letters, etc, because he's not amember of the Execiutive Branch seeing as how he technically presides over the House of Representatives (if there's a tie vote he's called in to break it). then, under massive scrutiny and witnessing massive outrage, his lawyers realize he's not actually disassociated from said branch. but he still says he's exempt from congressional oversight.
whose government is this, people? his or ours? huh? we have an administration that's been rewriting the rules since day one and we've sat passively by as the Constitution has been trampled and our civil liberties have bee taken away and yet we do nothing.
we let this cretin come in and rule by fiat. and fear. and intimidation. wake the fuck up, folks. as long as you say nothing, we all lose.

this, too, started very innocently. we knew generik would meet us at a certain spot, so we exited the cable car early in order to sneak up on him (much like when i was in the jungle and had to snare the wily crocodile)...
we got closer and the prey remained unaware, too consumed with his immediate surroundings...
we knew that eventually we would have to make a dash for him if we wanted to eat that night...
...too late, he saw us...
as i held up and took a picture of the elusive beast, katie turned and went for the crosswalker...
the inside of generik's lovely wife's outstanding fabric shop...

one place we did not frequent...
...and another...
...still one more...
...negligee, cowboy hat and boots and accordian...sigh...
...um...

woamn playing mandolin while teetering on a totter...
...even the aliens think they should get a handout...
view on the way to the ballpark...
lady giving birth...
one more view on the way...

barry bonds swings and...misses...
arod
arod swings and...connects four friggin' times!!!!
bonds swings and...actually makes contact, even though it was foul and he later settled for a groundout...

home dugout. lots of seeds, spit and paper cups. whoo hoo. but what a game. 13 innings, a massive homerun hit by arod, plenty of good fielding and a comeback by the giants. what a day.

oh, and one more place we didn't get to go...