• Music

    Uileann Pipes Tent

    These guys (didn’t catch the group’s name) were pretty good, but not quite up to the level of play we heard in Seattle from the Irish Piper’s Club. Still, they were good and the fiddlin’ women did great on the one song we heard. This image was sent from Flickr as a blog entry, email or cameraphone image. Via: Flickr Title: photo_0029.jpg By: GinnyRED57 Originally uploaded: 17 Sep ’05, 6.00pm PST

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    Nice Speech, Nobody There

    Bush to Offer Hurricane Aid Package – Yahoo! News Rather than speak before a live audience, Bush planned to stand alone and broadcast his message directly into the camera from the evacuated city’s historic Jackson Square, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity since the site had not been announced. The square and its most famed landmark, the St. Louis Cathedral, were on high enough ground to avoid flooding but did not escape damage from Katrina’s 145-mph winds. Two massive oak trees outside the 278-year-old cathedral came out by the roots, ripping out a 30-foot section…

  • Home Improvement

    Nearly Kitty Time Again

    The other day, we went to the cluster of big-box stores over on Barrington Road where many of our simple needs may be met: Home Despot, Staples, and up until 2 years ago when Stuey died, pet supplies at PetSmart. David had some errands to run at the other stores, and I decided to loiter with intent at the PetSmart, where I knew there would be some cats in their Adoption Center. Last weekend’s visit to a similar pet place near our hotel in Salt Lake started up a powerful hankering; it had been nearly two years since I’d even…

  • Hot Off The Presses

    Michael Brown Resigns

    Just saw this on the box at lunch: Michael Brown just resigned from FEMA. Well, we saw that coming. UPDATE: “The focus has got to be on FEMA, what the people are trying to do down there,” Brown told The Associated Press. His decision was not a surprise. Brown was abruptly recalled to Washington on Friday, a clear vote of no confidence from his superiors at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security. Brown had been roundly criticized for FEMA’s bearish response to the hurricane, which has caused political problem for Bush and fellow Republicans. “I’m turning in…

  • Hot Off The Presses

    Alvaro’s Katrina Photolog

    A young Nicaraguan man named Alvaro R. Morales Villa documented the New Orleans he has grown to love in an amazing, amazing, amazing series of photos at this Kodakgallery.com slide show. If you love good photographs that tell a compelling story, go to the site, change the settings to “5 second delay” (the longest, as there’s some text to read) and click “slideshow.” Because the young man spent so much time going around documenting New Orleans “before” and “after,” he inevitably fell in with journalists. The story he tells in pictures is incredible, but at some point he has to…

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    The Shameful Eleven

    These are the eleven Republicans who voted against the $51.8 billion Katrina aid bill. Remember, the National Republican Congressional Committee issued a press release attacking 65 Democrats (like Utah’s Rep Jim Matheson) for voting against this bill, when actually they voted for the final version (they had voted against some procedural action on it earlier in the day, but the NRCC couldn’t be bothered to correct its release). These eleven congressmen, Republican conservatives all, just voted against the $51 billion package ( H. R. 3673) for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Horrible human beings, all. Rep. Joe Barton – TX…

  • Uncategorical Weirdness

    Happy Birthday Murpheola Stocknottle

    It really was a swell bash and a lovely party, and lots of friends and family came to my sister Timmy’s house to help Mom celebrate her 90th birthday, which we celebrated last Saturday. There was lots of great food, and clearly shown in this picture, plenty of drink (well, boxes of wine are kind of an inside joke in the family). I’ve uploaded all the photos (even the action-shotty ones) as a set on my Flickr page. There was even a fun game to play – some sort of “ring on a string” thing where a metal ring was…

  • Clan: McTiVo

    Bloggy Goodness

    Okay, I’ve bloviated My Important Thoughts About Current Events enough for the week. Time I got back to basics and wrote about stuff I probably know more about – silly, mindless, entertaining drivel about my favorite things. So tonight being Friday, we’re parked in front of the TV watching Stargate, Atlantis, and then my husband David will be watching Battlestar Gallactica. Tonight for the first time, though, my geek cred goes up slightly; I’m using my “new” laptop (which is really David’s old one). Slowly I’m moving stuff over to it from my own “old” computer, like photos and other…