Texas to Ohio and misc.

Alissa and I drove up to Ohio last week where she'll be doing a summer internship with Julia Reichert. I flew back the following day. It was a nice ride up, and after leaving Nashville we made a quick side trip to visit the birthplace of the last true (and honorable) Republican.

I remember as a kid standing in this same spot, marveling at the huge Oak tree that was growing since Abe was a boy. Sadly, it died in 1976.

Abe's boyhood home. I'm sure the man had a little difficulty getting through the front door.

The 30 acres of bottom land that Abe worked as a boy. Gorgeous area. Stop if you get a chance and pay homage to the man that served as the final exclamation point to the Republican party.

 Alissa's new digs for the summer.

My first house. Still love this place.

Stopped by the memorial tree on the third anniversary of my friend's passing. Not an easy day.

The Bush Library

With all the boot-licking coverage of last week's rewriting of history, this photo was nowhere in sight. 

Melissa Stockwell, the first female U.S. soldier to lose a limb in Iraq, reading the Pledge of Allegiance at the opening ceremony of the Bush Library which is, unfortunately, located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. I think the look on George W. Bush's face says it all. And, no hand over his heart, no salute...nothing. What a "patriot."

Bush declined the invitation to attend Margaret Thatcher's funeral a couple weeks ago. The stated reason? Scheduling conflicts. The real reason – a tribunal has found that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are guilty of war crimes. Many countries now believe that they should be held accountable and stand trail in The Hague – just like the rest of the world leaders who have been accused of war crimes.

Roxy is a needy dog

The Humane Society sends us all the problem dogs. They know we have a pretty solid pack of resident dogs who don't put up with much in the way of bad behavior, aggressiveness and similar nonsense. 

Reader, meet Roxy, our newest foster beast.

They think she's a black lab/greyhound mix. This girl spent a good bit of her youth on the streets hanging out with the local riff raff, and picked up most of the bad habits which put those dogs on the street in the first place. We broke her of her worst habit, jumping up, in the first few hours she was with us. The biting and snapping is close to being solved as well.

Now that she's learned who's boss, she wants to get up in our face constantly. I can hardly get any work done with her around, as evidenced below.

From the Police Blotter

With big city life comes big city crime. I was reading the paper last night and ran across the following item. A stark reminder that we need to remain ever vigilant!


"A resident on E. Dallas St. reported a drive-by pooping after 
witnessing a man in a white pickup truck stop in front of her 
house and let his large dog out to defecate in her front yard. 
After the dog had finished his business, the man loaded it up 
and drove off. Police found the evidence, but were unable to 
locate the culprits."


You just can't make this stuff up.

It's a dangerous world out there, reader. Watch your step.

Easter in Norman

We all went up to Norman to see Alissa perform in the Sooner Dance Company's Spring Show this weekend. Great time and a great performance! When we arrived Saturday morning, Alissa was busy with rehearsals, so I took Jen and Taylor over to the Natural History Museum on campus to burn up a little time. I'd been through it once (briefly) with Alissa on Dad's Weekend at OU, and really liked the museum, although we arrived about 5 minutes before closing, so we only saw one room. I've been to a number of natural history museums, but none really compares to this place. It's associated with OU's anthropology department and is well funded and very modern. If you're ever up that way, stop in. It'll be the best $5 you'll spend in Norman, Oklahoma.

Here are a few pics from the weekend.
(Don't pay attention to Taylor, she obviously doesn't get out in public too often.)

 They had a special temporary traveling display of these huge bugs. They're all hand sculpted by an artist/scientist from Italy. This was, by far, my favorite display in the whole place. The artist creates each one with excruciating detail, and then hand paints each one. They are really stunning! If this doesn't get kids interested in entomology, I don't know what would.

 Jen doesn't get out in public very often, either.

 This thing is about 4 feet tall!

Taylor had to try out the dugout canoe. Don't worry, kids are allowed in this display.

 One of the many sculptures around campus. Here are the girls just before the show.

 The Sooner Dance Company posing for photos at the end of the show.

 Sunday morning we picked Alissa and Taylor up from the dorm (Taylor spent the night at Alissa's dorm now that she no longer lives with a psychopathic ghetto-queen roommate). Then it was off to IHOP for some Easter Brunch before the bible thumpers were once again turned loose on society.

And there you have it.

Auntie Cara came to town

Jen's sister Cara came for a very brief visit last week. First time she's been down here in something like 10 years or so. It was nice to see her, and she planned it so that she overlapped with both girl's spring breaks, which was fun.

Here's Cara making nice with Nana the friendly chicken. Sadly, Nana passed away a couple days later from an unknown illness. I treated her with several medications in hopes of bringing her back around, but nothing seemed to work. I even discussed the situation with the good folks at ChickenvilleUSA, and they really didn't know what else I could do. I guess I could have taken her to an avian vet, but frankly I don't see the logic in spending $100+ dollars to try and fix a $10 chicken. I know, I'm heartless. I'm also a Yankee.

Nana enjoyed the attention and made no effort to get away from Cara the Chicken Whisperer. I sent the photo to Cara's husband, who promptly inquired as to whether she was selecting a bird for dinner. I think Cara's husband has a little bit of Yankee in him, but he is from Kentucky and all. I don't know, Kentucky's kind of the no man's land between Yankee and Rebel territory. I guess he could go either way. Tony, care to comment?

Alissa home on Spring Break enjoying time away from physics, film, dance, English and Italian classes. Oh, and also happy to be away from all those hillbilly Oklahomans for a spell.