Coretta Scott King has died. I was born the year her husband was killed. I wonder what the world would have been like had he survived the shooting.

Went to Topeka yesterday to do some research. Managed to keep myself busy by looking up various dates, like the Shuttle explosion from 1986 and a few other things. Mom kept busy looking at old census files. She did find a few things but not as much as she would have liked.

It was a nice day to go with the rain. We got close to an inch, glad we got some rain since we really needed the moisture.

Have been having some strange dreams lately. Walking in fields, driving in strange towns, driving over odd bridges and going through some odd maze like route to get out of a hotel. The latter usually involves me trying to get away from someone.

My pick for Superbowl winner is Pittsburgh.

Will be going to Topeka again tomorrow so mom can do some genealogy research. It has been awhile since she wanted to go and who knows when we will get another shot.

Kiska has been doing well since her surgery last week. She will need to have her stitches out next week.

A cousin of my moms past away earlier this week. I think I might have met him once or twice at a family reunion, but I don't recall much about him. My mom's side of the family stopped having reunions, so far as I know, years ago. We speculated about his wife. He hadn't gotten married until late in life and was very into African Violets. Not to say that a straight man couldn't wait until late to get married or wouldn't express an interest in African Violets but he may have been pushed to get married. And that's all I'll say about that.

Chris Penn, Sean Penn's brother, died. He was a good actor and sort of lived in his brothers shadow. Sad he died so young.

Kiska had her surgery and is doing fine. Sergi got loose while we were trying to get both dogs in the car, we wanted to go ahead and get Sergei's shots for the year. He ran off but came back quickly. Once he was back, we got him in the car and off to the vet's office we went. It was a lot to have Kiska's surgery, shots, exams and heartguard for both dogs. But if we're lucky, we wont have to take them back again for a year. Although Kiska will need to go in next week to have her stitches removed.

Wilson Pickett, Tony Fransisca and Shelley Winters passed recently.

Will be taking Kiska in to the vet's office tomorrow to be spayed. We will take Sergei in so he cant get his yearly shots, when we pick up Kiska tomorrow evening or Thursday morning we will make sure she gets her yearly shots. Then we can go ahead and license them for the year.

The pictures are of Kiska at five months, the Christmas tree and one of Kiskas favorite hobbies-biting Sergei.

Had a winter weather advisory yesterday. South of us got more snow and a bit more rain then us. We got a little more than a dusting, others got as much as a couple inches. Accidents galore because idiots in SUVs and ugly big trucks think they can drive fast, while they can they just cant stop on a dime if they need to and then they crash. If mom hadn't needed a couple things we wouldn't have gone out after she got home.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Art Bell whos wife has died. May she rest in peace.

/rant on

Pat Robertson a so called man of God is giddy about Sharons' stroke. I don't know how this loser is able to go out and say crap like this without people coming down hard on him and doing protests and what not. I mean this jerk has also called for assassinations of people. Is he getting this message from God? This is why when people ask me about my beliefs in religion I say "I believe in God, I don't believe in religion", and that's the truth. Its bad enough idiots like Robertson have an audience who think he's the greatest thing since sliced cheese, but you have the people in the cult known as Scientology that spout crap like "Aids is a state of mind".

When religions can get there act together and say "Okay, we've worked everything out and we are all together on this. This is what we now are going with as a belief structure and so on" I might listen to them. You have one book called the bible, but you have like (this is an exaggeration) 2,000 religions based on that book.

/rant off.

First tragedy of the year. Several miners in West Virginia die after being trapped in the mines for some hours. One miner survived and the family's of those who died at first thought their loved ones survived only to be told that wasn't the case.

May the miners who died rest in peace. May peace come to their families.

Happy New Year. May this be a better year for us all.

I feel a bit drained after all the plumbing, stress and waiting of the past week. Don't want to talk about the estimator and the other plumbing deal because it will only piss me off again. Am happy the week is over and now looking forward to having a subdued New Years celebration.

Have a good feeling that this coming year will be better. Will be more successful selling on eBay then I was this year. Also feel that maybe some things will o our way more then a few times this year. Will put up my predictions of the coming year up tomorrow.

Have a safe and Happy New Year.

Well that was some Christmas. It started off nice and went down hill from there. Opened gifts and had breakfast before we started doing other things. Mom started some rolls and forgot to take a plastic bowl she had left in the oven when it had been turned off while the dough was rising. So when we opened the warm oven to place the rolls in to bake them, we found a half melted bowl. Good thing was it was easy to get out.

At some point mom went back in to go to the bathroom and noticed her toilet wouldn't flush she began using the plunger on it. As she did that, I went into my bathroom and noticed the sewage back up in the tub and in my toilet. We called a plumbing company we have used many times before and in the afternoon a guy came out. He said it was either the septic tank (which was just pumped this past spring) or it was a clog. If it was a clog he would need to auger and that meant water in the laundry room. So we told we would think about it and have the company come out today.

This morning we were doing some cleaning while we waited to hear from the plumber. Midmorning a guy with a septic pumper arrived and less then a half hour later he was finished. The septic tank was fine, just had some water and no other problems. So we then had to wait for another guy to come out and auger the drain. It wasn't a long wait for him and he got started quickly and was done quickly too. There was a clog where the water goes to the septic tank. The pipe was warped or cracked, because of this toilet paper couldn't go through properly if it was a big wad. And what we had was a large wad of paper. The plumber patched one leaky pipe with some tape and told mom that the pipe leading to the septic tank needed to be fixed. So tomorrow an estimator will come out and check things out. Not sure how much that will cost but to fix the clog and drain the septic tank again cost over three hundred dollars.

We did have a botched Christmas dinner and figured we should get out the house and do something. So while it may not have been the Christmas we had in mind, I guess things could have been worse.

I just need to vent a little about eBay. I do like eBay and have for the seven years I have selling there. While it does have a lot of ups it does have a few downs. What irks me is how somebody can try and make you out to be the bad guy in the situation when you've done nothing. For example, I have a bidder who didn't pay for the item when it closed in October, I left neutral feedback (I save negative for something rather heinous) for her and filed to get my fees back. Well now here it is some two months after the close of auction and absolutely no response from her and she finally shows up to the party and she's seething. She claims she paid (She first said she paid with a check, then a money order and then with cash), but alas I did not get said payment. She says she's angry and that I am a liar and a cheat. Not once did she respond to any emails not did I get payment. I doubt she has any proof that she did ever send payment. So just to make the whole thing go away so we can all move on, I said I'd give her the bloody CD for free. And folks she's getting "angry" over a stupid $3.25 auction for a stupid Sugarhill Gang CD. Well I hope she cuts herself on Christmas with something sharp and rusty and then bleeds to death. I don't see how I am the bad guy when payment was never received and no contact from her at all during those two months but what-bloody-ever. Screw her and her nasty self. She'll probably gloat over it and then try and claim I didn't send it but I will have delivery confirmation to back me up. So screw her to the Nth degree and her stupid parents who didn't use a condom the night she was conceived.

Okay...I feel better now.

Got some more snow. It started sometime yesterday morning and ended early this morning. Just a light snow, but we did get about a couple inches. The sun is shining now.

Went to Crown Center yesterday. Almost decided not to go because of the weather, but since I had wanted to go last weekend and didn't I figured we might as well go ahead and do it. After we were finished we went to Manny's for lunch. We got groceries and then headed home. It was a little slow going in spots but it wasn't to bad getting out and about.

There were heavy snow flurries for about two minutes and then it let up. If it does manage to snow, I doubt it will amount to much.

Had a migraine yesterday and much of the day was wasted trying to get rid of it. It finally left when I was about to go to bed in the evening.

Neglected to mention Richard Pryors passing. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the trailblazing comedian, I did like some of his stuff.

Most of the snow has melted. Yesterday it got into the forties and now grass is poking through some spots in the snow. There are still large mounds of snow in parking lots though.

Had a migraine much of yesterday. Finally it left late in the afternoon.

Bought a tree yesterday, a nice five and a half foot Balsam. It looks really good in the living room where you can see it from the street. We wont be putting any expensive gifts under the tree (although I wish Santa would bring me the new xbox with a few games and some gamecube games), so no worry about theft. Will post a picture of the tree later.

We got a foot of snow out there. It is a light and fluffy type, but yikes none the less. Took me and mom about an hour to clear the driveway. When we were almost finished I looked up and saw a huge line of Snow Geese flying. They were really high up to. Had to be close to a hundred of them, long line which was doubled up at spots. We could barely hear over a neighbors snowplow, but we did manage to hear a faint honk. It was just a wonderful sight. I have a tendency to look up at the sky a lot during the day (and night too). Particularly when I am out and about. So glad I looked up when I did.

It is cold and lightly snowing out. Does the chant "Snow, snow go away, I want warm weather right today!" work? Or am I just wasting time and energy?

Kiska loves the weather. Of course she's only four months old and this is all new to her. She will be five months old on Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas. I just haven't been in a Christmas mood at all this year. I am not completely Bah Humbug about it though. Managed to get the final two things I had ordered for mom. It turns out one of the sub drivers had delivered that first package to a house two streets over and they had refused it. He shipped it back to Amazon and probably never looked at the address to see that he had screwed up. If he had made an attempt to deliver it to the right house we would have had ten days to claim it before it was shipped back. Glad I ask my regular carrier about it, otherwise I would have never known what really happened.

It has been bitterly cold the past week. Might dance in the front yard and scare the neighbors if we have a warm spell. Lets see, which would be more welcome right now, a heat wave or junk mail. I think a heat wave would be but junk mail is not without its merits ( one being that you can light the stuff on fire in the fireplace).

Have been keeping busy by culling out some things I have neglected. I used to have quite a collection of sports cards, but I found I wasn't really enjoying them. So I kept my Topps cards and kept cards of the teams I like and still follow. The rest of the cards I donated to Goodwill and I don't care what they do with them, I am just happy I finally thinned my collection. Not sure what I'm going to do with my concert t-shirts. I don't have a lot, but not sure if it really matters that I have a t-shirt from a concert I went to twenty-something years ago. Might keep my Queen "Hot Space" shirt and that's it. As much as I love music, I don't have a driving need to go to concerts.