Parents pledge to find missing student: "Madison Police Capt. Luis Yudice said investigators were trying to determine whether Seiler's disappearance was related to a February 1 attack that left her unconscious when she was struck from behind by an unknown assailant."

I wonder if they are considering a neurological disorder of some kind. That's the first thing that occurred to me.

Irish boys and girls with soul: "In the end, Parker found his lead singer in the unlikeliest place. A man named Rob Strong was brought in to do some work for the film, and he brought along his 16-year-old son, Andrew. The younger Strong started singing, Parker recalls on the DVD, 'and our mouths just dropped open.'"

"The Commitments Collector's Edition" DVD is out. Great movie.

Spambling

I've seen a bunch of posts about this lately - it must be a trend in spamming: filling the subject line of the spam message with unrelated words that when put together sound almost poetic (in a beatnik sort of way). Some recent examples that I've received:

"frustrater phagocyte famous ginsburg salem"

"lute floorboard espousal"

and my favorite:

"ontology impression astigmatic lieutenant"

Complete nonsense, yet somehow meaningful.

Badly injured driver waits 36 hours for aid: "A motorist injured in a crash lay paralyzed in the middle of a freeway with a broken neck for 36 hours before he was rescued."

He had been in a fender-bender, and wanted to get out of the way of traffic, so he started to walk down the middle of the highway, between the Jersey barriers. He felt faint and collapsed between the barriers, where he lay until someone riding in the back of a pickup saw him. I can't believe no one else saw him drop! He must have been so scared.

An article with a headlining containing the words Rod Stewart, underwear and cow. Rod can dish it out with the best of them, huh? Mee-ow.

Howdy. Just peeking in. Spent the entire weekend cleaning out and packing up. We got an incredible amount of work done, and that feels good. There's still a lot to do, but the workload is becoming more manageable.

Watched a bunch of new television this weekend. Quickly:

Wonderfalls - I like quirky, but this show might be a little too quirky for me - or maybe it's just the main character that's spiking the quirk-o-meter. She could very quickly get on my last nerve. I think I will give it one more try.

Touching Evil - Liked it. Not as much as the BBC original, but it could grow on me. Plus, it feels like wrapping myself in favorite blanket - a crime show with a slight paranormal edge, an off-kilter male lead, a by-the-book female partner that's filmed in Vancouver. You know what I'm talking about.

Deadwood - Second episode was last night, better than the first. If you can handle an abundance of foul language and a lot of really dirty naked people, it's worth it. HBO's done it again.

Renovations: I spent Friday night playing the the color scheme and smaller design notes here - like the buttons in the right column. I used this awesome button maker. Pay him a visit and see what you can do. I'm not settled on the final color scheme, but I like the buttons. I'd also like to spiff up my banner with an image of some sort, so that'll be another project (I have neither the photo-editing skills nor the software, so it'll be a while before I can come up with something I'd want to show the world). Then there's the task of distributing the design changes down into the subpages of the site, which I never did the last time...

Back to work. Maybe I'll sneak in a post or two, though. Have a good afternoon.

I'm going to try to watch 2 new shows tonight - Wonderfalls on FOX at 9:00 and Touching Evil on USA at 10:00. I'll let you know what I think. If they're any good (and I hear they are), they probably won't be around next year.

Boy, 3,  found after night in mountains: "'He smelled like dirty diapers, man, but we were just happy to see him,' said Bill Chestnut, one of the people looking for the boy."

LOL, tell it like it is, man.

Tanker crash closes part of East Coast highway: "Traffic in Bridgeport, Connecticut, dragged to a near-halt Friday morning hours after an oil tanker crashed and burst into a ball of fire on Interstate-95, causing extensive damage to the roadway and forcing officials to close the interstate in both directions. "

The ripple effect from this is going to be lovely. I-84 East, which runs from NY through CT to the Mass Pike, is going to be a nightmare while this is being fixed. Miraculously, though, no one was injured seriously. Besides the re-routed traffic, this won't affect us too much; the only realy direct affect will be felt by my father - he takes either exit 25 or 26 to get to his yacht club - and he can figure a way around it.

Burglary suspect snuggles up to sleeping victims: "An Oklahoma couple were surprised when they woke up and found a drunk burglary suspect asleep in bed with them, police said on Thursday."

Sort of cute in a scary way.

We failed you.

The buck finds a rest stop: "But just reading those words in newspaper reports made me think that the words of the former head of counterterrorism will go down as one of those defining moments in American public life, like the Army-McCarthy hearings' 'Have you no decency, sir, at long last' or the Watergate hearings' 'What did the president know and when did he know it?'"

Scott Rosenberg writes in his blog about Richard Clarke's testimony before the 9/11 commission yesterday in which he said the words that countless Americans have been waiting to hear: "Your government failed you, and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter. We failed you." Powerful words, made even more powerful with the realization that such an apology has never and will never come from the current administration. If you are interested in this story, please read Salon's interview with Clarke, conducting the day before his testimony. I don't usually post political items, but Clarke's testimony was so stunning, especially coming through that crowd of finger-pointers, that I felt compelled to mention it. If it affected me so much, I can't imagine how it felt to the victim's families to hear those words. "I'm sorry." When genuine, those 2 words can heal many wounds.

If the 9/11 Commission achieves nothing else (and the chances are good that it will not), maybe Clarke's testimony will stand as one of those defining moments that Rosenberg talks about, and inspire others to take responsibility for their failures as well as their successes.

(viewing of ad required for free day pass)

Man catches 2-year-old girl as she falls 3 floors: "A 2-year-old girl fell three stories from a resort walkway and safely into the arms of a man who had been reading a book by the pool and raced to save her."

Wow. I've got goose bumps.

Doesn't it look like someone photoshopped human faces on these monkeys? Awesome photo, though.

Richard Simmons Cited for Slapping Man: A fellow passenger recognized Simmons on Wednesday night at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport as he was waiting for a flight to Los Angeles, police said.

Hmm, I wonder how he was able to recognize him?

All better now!

Whitney 'checks herself out of rehab': "Her spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer, refused to give details of where the singer is but told the paper: 'Miss Houston is continuing the prescribed treatment. Her movements are in total keeping with the program.'"

Mhm. Right.

Scotland invents deep-fried chocolate sandwich.

Yay, Scotland!

Mi Vida Loca

Life has been insane the past few days, and will get even crazier over the next month or so. We found out yesterday that we got the house that we were the backup offer on! The seller withdrew (by mutual agreement with the other buyer) from the first offer and decided to go with us. Now the fun starts - I'm trying to hire a home inspector today, then we have the appraisal done, and unless there is anything serious that pops up, we work on the terms and the contract. It's a 3 bedroom ranch that has an in-law setup in the basement for our mother (with a bedroom, living room, full bath and eat-in kitchen). It also has a pool and a nicely landscaped little yard. We'll have to update the appliances and paint all the rooms (and eventually update the bathroom), but otherwise, it's in good condition. The sellers want to close by the end of April, so I will probably be even more absent than usual over the next few weeks, but I will keep you as updated as I can.

I also had a little scare with one of my cats, Winnie. She's 17 years old, and has been slowing down for a while now - basically just sleeping alot, but still looking like a much younger cat. Well, she's started having difficulty walking, standing, jumping on the bed - her back end was very wobbly. I took her to the vet Monday and yesterday and was relieved to find that she wasn't dying of cancer (which I was convinced of), but has a prolapsed disk between the 11th and 12th vertebrae, as well as some arthritis, and the inflammation is pressing on the nerve pathway that controls the back legs. So, we started a long term steroid treatment yesterday - one pill a day (prednisone) for the inflammation. If there is no improvement after 10 days, we'll do a cat (hehe) scan to see what our next move is. It may be my imagination, but she seemed improved already last night - unlike her normal routine, which basically consisted of lying in her bed, she walked around the apartment for over 2 hours, lying on the dog's bed, waiting for me outside the bathroom, bossing Petie around, and walking much more steadily. So I'm hopeful.

Now it's time for lunch.

Police:Woman, 75, used age to scam car dealers: "She'll say she's sick and going to be hospitalized, or that her stockbroker is sending the money, or promises they'll have the money next Friday,' said Tony Kotlarz, an investigator for the McHenry County state's attorney's office."

With a name like Gooch, a life of crime was inevitable.

This headline cracks me up: Zombies Push Jesus from Top of North American Box Office.

'Vampire' tour guide collapsed after seeing blood.