Barbaro euthanized after long ordeal...

From the Daily Racing Form:

By JAY PRIVMAN
Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, was euthanized on Monday at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine at New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., ending an emotional eight-month odyssey that began when he fractured his right hind leg in the Preakness Stakes.
Barbaro eventually succumbed to the ravages of the crippling hoof disease laminitis, the same disease that felled Triple Crown winner Secretariat in 1989. Laminitis often occurs in a previously sound limb when a horse attempts to shift weight to relieve pressure on an opposing, injured limb.
Barbaro developed laminitis in his left hind leg in July, which caused problems with the right hind foot this month, and in recent days Barbaro had begun to develop laminitis in both of his front hooves, Dr. Dean Richardson, the chief of surgery at New Bolton, said at a press conference Monday afternoon. The original fracture in his right hind leg had healed, but subsequent complications felled the gallant colt.

Sad. In this day and age of modern science we can transplant hearts and do brain surgery but we still can't heal a horse with a broken leg. As the old saying goes, "No HOOF, no HORSE."
Rest In Peace Barbaro :(

What are they hiding out there?...

Playing around with the satellite imagery tools on MapQuest, I was visiting the couple places I've lived the last 10 years to see how they look now (okay, so I'm a little nostalgic.) But there's one place I can't view... Council Grove, Kansas. I've noticed this before with the other satellite websites. You can see in detail all the fields of corn and milo in the county, but the towns themselves are blurred images. Hmm... I know we had some old missle silos out there, but what else are "they" hiding? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but it just seems kinda strange that the surrounding country is all clear but the township is blurred out. Makes us wonder what kind of stuff might be stored in the area. Or what locations in town they're trying to keep from being spied on.

It's also a coincidence that our cat & dog we had when we lived there both have developed health problems... tumors and such. Not just one or two, our poor cocker spaniel is covered with tumors.

If I grow a third arm or something I'll let you all know...

Read any good books lately?...

I have 2 hours of time to kill between two of my classes, so I figure I may as well sit and read while having lunch. Can anyone suggest some good books? (No romance novels [please!], but I'm open to anything else.)

Finally...

Well glory be, no ice, no holiday, I actually started classes today. I have to admit it was sorta fun. I know I probably won't feel that way in 2 months, but for now Anna was right, it seems enjoyable to go to school as an adult. Instead of being scared, lost, and apprehensive like when I was a teen, I'm braver, more interested in everything and not afraid to ask questions. I guess it takes some people longer to grow up than others!

One thing I want to mention... back when I quit school I was taking Drawing I, and part of the reason I quit was I found myself sitting outside drawing TREES for our assignment. I thought, "What the heck am I doing wasting my time drawing trees? Where is this going to get me in life?" Well, one of my classes this semester is again, Drawing I. Today for my first day they didn't have me drawing trees at least... instead I found myself drawing MARVIN THE MARTIAN. Seriously. One of the objects I had to draw was a big stuffed Marvin the Martian. We were told that later in the spring when it gets warmer we'll venture outside for class... hhmmm, so I guess drawing trees is now advanced skills to be tackled at a later date. Oh well, at least now I have a better outlook on why I'm doing it. If I have to draw trees or Marvin it has purpose somewhere, if only to get the degree.

On another note...

Hey if any of you folks here in the DFW area have any job openings at your company will you let me know? My Hubby's looking for a job... he has 25 years experience with sales, management, recruiting, training, and motivational speaking. Unfortunately jobs don't just fall out of the sky, so he's having a hard time finding something decent. E-mail me if you know of something (but no scams, no insurance or car sales, no timeshare sales or multi-level marketing. He needs a REAL job.)

How low can you get?...

Can you believe we caught a lady stealing firewood from our backyard???

Last summer we cut down our neighbor's cottonwood tree (yes, with her permission... what kind of people do you think we are?). It was half dead anyway and that dang cotton coming off it in the spring covered our yard and washing our A/C compressor was a daily chore. So Hubby got out the chainsaw and made us a huge pile of firewood out of it, stacked up against the fenceline. Burns nicely too!

So each time it's been cold this year we've had the fire going. Plus in a charitable spirit we've given wood to each of our neighbors to have a nice toasty fire too in this cold snap. However, we were just commenting to each other last week, "Doesn't it seem like we're going through firewood awfully FAST?"

Well, this morning we watched as a lady in a pickup truck parked at the end of our street (we're last house on a dead-end). She got out and walked across the vacant property next to our house to where our woodpile is against the fence. She then noticed Hubby standing at the window (with a shocked/irritated look on his face) about to head out the door... so she turned and walked the other way. She walked across the vacant lot and picked up a few pieces of wood on the ground and threw them in the back of her truck and drove off.

All I can say is, I hope she's in dire need if she's going around stealing wood. Who knows, maybe her electric was shut off? I want to be mad at her for stealing, but I also can't help but wonder if things are that bad for her. But then, from the looks of her new truck surely she's not that bad off...

Ah HA! Snow!...

We finally got a little more of the "blizzard" we were expecting, although this was supposed to happen a few days ago. The forecasters I was watching didn't mention snow for TUE/WED though! Our weathermen here couldn't predict yesterday's weather...

And here it is my first day of school! So far it's delayed opening until noon... and I wouldn't be surprised for that to change. The snow's still coming down as I write this. Man, I wait 16 years to go back to school, and now have to wait a little longer...

Note: Yes, they did finally cancel classes. Of course, not until AFTER I got all gussied up and was on my way driving across town... I was half-way there when Hubby called and said they just updated the cancellations at 11:30 and TCC would be closed after all. I have to admit, I was disappointed. Now I have to wait until Monday for the official "first day". And.... the forecast is for more wintery weather! Argh!

Winter storm warning!!! Well, sorta...

All weekend all they've been reporting on the news is a Winter Storm Advisory and made it sound like the Storm of the Century... ice and snow and freezing rain and sleet and frozen cats and dogs. Well, here was the result this morning:

If you squint real hard, you can almost see the frozen precipitation...

Actually there is quite a bit of ice hanging on the trees and bushes, and my poor Jeep back there is covered in ice (I had to move it away from the tree in case branches came down, that's all I need is a broken windshield!). Temperatures will only get up to 30 today and teens tonight, so our biggest threat is just frozen pipes.

The news stations are reporting that the roads are a mess however (it doesn't take much around here!), so I think I"ll stay home for a while until the roads are better. I may go in to work for a few hours this afternoon after the highway overpasses are melted. Maybe.

I want to quit the bank! Part II...

Another of life's lessons learned: if you aren't planning on staying with a company forever and you make diddly-squat, it doesn't make much sense to have a 401k account.

I opened it in the first place, because I've heard all my life you're supposed to have one for retirement.

Advice from friends more 'in the know' on this financial stuff- Take the same money from your check and invest somewhere else. Hubby says a Keogh plan is better. Oh sure, NOW you tell me.

So today I called Fidelity to ask about closing the account and/or withdrawing the funds. Well it seems that according to our company's guidelines, I can't close the account unless I quit my job!

"Okay, so can I withdraw some of the funds then?"

"Nope, not unless it's a hardship." WHAT??? So I can't even touch my own money?

I wish I'd have known that before I opened the account. You can't touch it, and yes even if you do make a withdrawl they take out the 30% for taxes and fees... what's the point? I know, I know, you're saving for retirement, but as I said I'm not staying with this company until I'm 65 and don't know if I'll be transferring the funds in the future or what.

So another lesson learned... research what you're doing before opening any type of financial accounts.

What a pain in the arse...

Day from hell...

I can't even begin to express how stressful work has been lately. And today was the day from hell. It didn't start out that way; my co-trainer and I had a training class this morning of 20 new-hires... everything went smoothly, everyone showed up and knew what job they were being hired for and knew they were staying a few hours for training. It was the second class of 100 people that was a cluster-fuck. (Sorry for the language, if you know me you know I don't use words like that unless I'm REALLY FRUSTRATED.) I won't bore you with all the details, but it starts with the fact we use like 5 temp agencies for hiring (mostly unskilled workers who don't really seem to want a job and the attitude to match) and they each had seperate lists of people they were juggling around and I didn't get complete lists from the agencies before their Reps *poof* disappeared... plus our HR manager always goes *poof* too first chance she gets... so none of the new-hires knew what they doing and worse than that didn't know they had to stay for training until 7pm. So, we get bombarded by everyone asking questions and total chaos ensues....

And I'd better stop there. All I'll say is that I can't take this stress much longer. And with our turnover rate, we have ads in the newspaper every week saying "Now hiring! 75 open positions!" For 9 months now I've been dealing with this.

If only I could find a nice little quiet job I can work around my school hours for about $14.00/hr...

School & technology... you've come a long way baby...

Sometimes it amazes me how the Internet has changed things. So many things are easier than the old days... pay bills online, talk to people across the US, look up maps for any address in the world, find store hours without having to call or drive there, etc.

It turns out it's made going to college easier too. I'm not just talking about the "online universities", but the brick-n-mortar schools too.

Keep in mind what things were like when I was in high-school... my "technology" was using an electric typewriter to write my senior thesis. Sure, it was in the computer-age (late 80's-early 90's), however even though my friends had computers I did not. Sort-of like how in the early 1900's there were automobiles and yet a lot of folks still used horses and carriages. I was the horse & carriage type. But I developed computer fever in the mid-90's when AOL became a household word. I haven't left my computer desk since... just ask Hubby, he complains that I spend more time with the computer than with him...

Anyway, back to my point. Now that I'm going back to college, it's so cool how much easier it is to do everything.

Registering for classes-
Then: going to the campus, standing in line after line, trying to juggle arranging class schedules so that they don't overlap, hoping that the classes you want don't get filled before you can get in.
Now: All the class registration was done online... it shows what classes are available for what time and you just click on the ones you want, and everything is handled from the comfort of your home in 5 minutes.

Applying for grants, loans, etc-
Then: Go to campus to pick up forms, fill out forms, buy stamps, postal mail to whatever location, wait... wait... wait... twiddle thumbs and fret about money... call campus financial aid office 80 times to ask about receiving it.
Now: Fill out forms online from the comfort of your own home in 15 minutes... wait 2 days... go to the financial aid website 80 times to see if you received it.

Getting textbooks, supplies-
Then: heck I don't remember what we did... I've slept since then... I think it involved getting a copy of a paper list... somewhere... then drive to student bookstore to see if they still have used books that you need. If not you were up the creek, had to go find a new book... somewhere.
Now: online you just click on the course description and instructor, and it tells you what textbooks you'll be needing. You still have the option of going to the student bookstore, or you can go to Amazon.com and see a plethora of used books at rock-bottom prices... from the comfort of your home...

Notice of closings for inclement weather, etc-
Then: sit around all morning watching the news waiting to see whether the name of your school is listed as being closed... they were always in alphabetical order and murphy's law was that you always turned it on right after your school would have just been shown, meaning you'd have to sit through the whole rest of the alphabet waiting to get around to your school again.
Now: This is really neat- the campus has given each student a "Campus Cruiser" account... your own campus e-mail, school announcements are sent to you including notices of school closings.

Getting assignments-
Then: Instructor hands out assignments, hopefully you didn't skip class that day.
Now: Your class assignments are posted on your Campus Cruiser account. Not only that, but message boards are set up for assignments so that you can discuss the project with other students in the class. How cool is that?

Getting grades, test scores, etc-
Then: Ask the instructor.
Now: Also in the Campus Cruiser, it automatically shows you your grades from assignments, test scores, and GPA.

Other things this Campus Cruiser thing does-
Has links to your instructor's webpages so you can learn about them, class schedule, task scheduler, personal calendar, address book, store your files online, e-mail your assignments to your instructor, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff I haven't seen yet.

So anyway, it's just astounding to me how much things have changed with the Internet.

And yes, I'm starting to get excited about school now that it's getting closer. Of course it'll probably be like in high school... you're excited about the semester starting but then after 2 days you realize you have 5 months of hell to go.

I start classes on Wed, January 17. I'll be taking regular classes on Mondays & Wednesdays- classes are:
Drawing I 11:15-2:05
Intro to Computer Graphics 4:00-5:50
Digital Publishin I 6:00-8:45pm

And then one online course:
Business and Professional Communication

So Mondays & Wednesdays will be long school days, and then I'll work my job on Tuesdays, Fridays & Saturdays. I'll have days off from both on Thursdays & Sundays.

Hubby just started a new sales job... plus he still has his own business he's been doing all this time manufacturing batteries for his customer in Ohio... if it works out alright on money, maybe I can quit my job and just concentrate on school... maybe. Again, we'll see how things work out.

Funny video...

Here's a link to a funny video on YouTube... somebody took the Monty Python song "Knights of the Round Table" from the Holy Grail movie and inserted scenes from Star Trek shows instead. They did a pretty good job with it, matching the movements from the movie with the clips from the show. Funny stuff!

Here's link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=75YM4xeEq3w

If you have dial-up it takes forever to load, but no problemo with DSL.

Goodbye 2006, hello 2007...

Yesterday was a pretty nice send-off to the year- went out to the local sports bar and Hubby watched the games while I played the NTN Buzzkill national trivia game. The only bummer was Dallas lost by 2 yards and Denver lost by 3 points in OT. At least Dallas is in the playoffs. Denver has some growing to do. Cutler got some experience this season and we're looking forward to next year...

Then, we went over to our neighbor's house for the rest of the evening. They had some other friends over too so we had a nice little party. We spent the entire night playing Uno and threw a couple games of darts. I should mention, playing Uno passes the legal limit of fun after having a few shots of Goldschlager and whatever other drinks we had. By the time we got around to throwing darts I was lucky to hit the board...

At midnight after a toast we all had the traditional bowl of black-eyed peas. For anyone not aware of southern traditions, each pea you eat is supposed to be one more instance of good luck. Screw the bowl, give me the POT! I need it!

Anyway, here's to hoping for a wonderful new year for you all... HAPPY 2007