This is just a quick post to say I'm still here, just a bit preoccupied. I spent most of yesterday getting my Pogo badges and passing a retake test for the law library course. I spent most of last night working on the essay portion of my final exam for the American Jurisprudence course. I didn't even get close to being done. I did pass the quiz portion though. 100% correct, so I'm feeling pretty good. Anyway, I am going to focus on the essay today, but thought I'd post this quickie first, so that you know I'm still here.

Oh, also, happy last day of September!

It's one of those wet soggy mornings. All gray and raining outside. The kind of morning that requires a light to be turned on in whatever room you are in because there is not a drop of sunshine getting through the gloom outside. And why is the weather like this? These are the remnants of Jeanne. This is the gloom and moisture that tore apart homes, destroyed trees, stranded wildlife, and flooded civilization along the south eastern states. So, all I have to say this morning is "blech!"

This was a great day! The Wife and I enjoyed our time with our friends which you can read a bit about on the Feature page which was updated and the previous feature was archived.

The Journal was also archived (as you can plainly see) and of course the Birthdays on the Recordings page were updated. Have a great week!





Good morning!

This is a bonus post added to last week's Journal. The reason for this post is because I currently don't have time to update the site right now since The Wife and I are meeting friends in 2 hours to pick grapes at a winery for the beginning of their harvest. This should be a fun day!

I also wanted to post the information relative to the post from Wednesday (9/22/04) with regard to the new specs. So, here you go...

Katie seems to utilize Photoshop to zoom in on the images to see if there are any scratches on the lenses, and she is correct. The newest pair of frames and lenses are #2.

Both Greg and Katie are correct in that #5 is a very old style of glasses. I have had them for many years and use them when on vacation to sunny locations. They are good sunglasses as they cover more surface to block the sun. They have wrap-around things to hold onto my ears which are good for activities like amusement parks. Also, if swimming or at a beach, I don't have to worry about getting them scratched, wet, or lost. The lenses in this pair have also just been replaced to hold my newest prescription.

In response to Talam, I always keep my previous year's glasses just in case I lose my current pair. Generally, we donate our older glasses, however, I might not be donating #3 and #4 this year. Even though I no longer wear them, I really like the frames, they won't necessarily be out of style in the next couple of years, and I might want to reuse them with new lenses in the future. Time will tell.

#1 - Last pair (2003/2004)
#2 - Current pair (2004/????)
#3 - 3rd most recent pair with clip-ons (2002/2003)
#4 - 4th most recent pair with clip-ons (2001/2002)
#5 - Oldest pair with new lenses (1996 I think)

Well, that's it. I will try to get the regular weekly update posted before tomorrow.

My education will be continuing. I am going to go through the American Institute of Paralegal Studies (AIPS) curriculum:

Oct. 4, 2004 - Alternative Dispute Resolution
Nov. 1, 2004 - Employment Law or elective (Immigration Law or Criminal Law)
Jan. 3, 2005 - Legal Writing
Feb. 7, 2005 - Family Law or elective (Criminal Law or Intellectual Property)
Mar. 7, 2005 - Real Estate
Apr. 4, 2005 - Legal Research
May 2, 2005 - Estates and Trusts
June 6, 2005 - Business Law
July 4, 2005 - Tort Law
Aug. 1, 2005 - Civil Litigation
Sep. 5, 2005 - Bankruptcy or elective (Intellectual Property or Criminal Law)

The only change from the standard curriculum is for the Intellectual Property elective in February (noted in bold).

Following the successful completion of these courses, I'll jump into a two month review course in January 2006 for the Certified Legal Assistance (CLA) exam. I'll then sit for the exam in March 2006. The passing rate of the exam has been about 60%. This exam is administered by the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA).

So, what does this mean for The Wife and I? Well, we are going to have to live on a slightly tighter budget after our Disney vacation for about 4 or 5 months, but all is good, because I should be working again within the a year.

Today we went to pick up my latest pair of glasses. Here are the glasses I have worn over the past several years. I have placed them here in order from lightest to darkest. Can you guess which pair is the most recent?

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

TheBackofMyMind.com is now an "Evil Approved" web site as can be seen in this screen capture. This is all in preparation for next month.


Notice the number of visitors to date.

I am keeping the update simple today, since I am not sure what to do for a Feature this week. Also, this allows me to finish reading the next chapter in my textbook putting me ahead of the class at this point in the week.

Journal was archived and Birthdays on the Recordings page were updated. Have a good week!

I was all set to procrastinate posting on the site until the Friday pic tomorrow, but last night something happened that merits a post today.

The time was about 2:00am, The Wife had gone to sleep around 11:30pm, and I was in the basement finishing up my Pogo badges. I didn't hear it and after seeing it, I cannot imagine how I didn't, but The Wife and Dustie the Cat certainly did. She came downstairs telling me that a tree came down in the backyard.

Now we have had branches fall in the past, and certainly we know what it is like during a big wind storm from our previous residence. So, I was expecting a large branch on the balcony or something that startled hear from her sleep without me hearing it.

We headed out to the balcony with flashlights.

Lo and behold!

I was so caught up in things yesterday that I completely forgot to update my site. Well, okay, to be honest, I could have updated it, but every time I thought about it, I was too damn lazy to do it.

Therefore you had to wait an extra day. And, for what? An updated Images page and this weeks Birthdays on the Recordings page. Yes, last week's Journal was also archived.

There was also a weird thing happening with the "comments" for the past day or two. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I'll just assign the blame on Haloscan.

With that, I'm going to get back to my reading and wishing you all a great week ahead.


"The longer the act is delayed, the greater the pleasure derived." -Lao Tsu

I'm still not sure what the problem was with my PC, but I seemed to have solved it with a repair on XP and Office for XP. That was strange.

I have done all but 10 pages of my required reading for my class for next week. I have already done the homework, posted my opinion on the Discussion Question (DQ) for the week, and completed the 2 extra credit assignments available. This means I just need to do a little reading, take the quiz (not available until Monday), and stay active in the discussion group next week.

Since the PC is fixed and I've almost exhausted what I can do for my class, here is a Friday image. I could have sworn this was a character out of Alice In Wonderland.

WHO
              R
                      U
                              ?









I seem to be having some serious issues with my PC today that need repair. So, no unusual Friday image today, just Felix helping me out with the problems.

Also, I want to spend some time in my classroom that just opened, so I'm not sure when I'll finalize the repairs to the PC unless the issues interfere with my classroom.

Sorry about that for those of you who look forward to the Friday image. I hope you have a great weekend though.

This was sent to me by a friend. I liked it so much I wanted to share it with you.

--------------------------------------------------
A young woman was pulled over for speeding.

As a Wisconsin State Trooper Officer walked to her car window, flipping open his ticket book, she said, "I bet you are going to sell me a ticket to the State Troopers Ball."

He replied, "Wisconsin State Troopers don't have balls."

There was a moment of silence. He then closed his book, got back in his patrol car and left.

One critter has been extracted from the wood burning stove at a cost of $161.25 which I can deduct from next month's rent. Below are pictures of the critter, no it wasn't the infamous bat, but instead a flying squirrel. Rocky, seems to have gotten into the house from the poorly constructed grate on top of the chimney which I will need to talk to the landlord about replacing.

Rocky was all covered in soot, a bit frightened, about the size of a child's fist, and was having a little trouble breathing. She was kind of cute and I am not as bothered by having her in the house as much as I was with a bat.

Bill, the guy who caught Rocky, will be taking her to his place to set her free. We talked for about 15 minutes on the driveway with some water and a straw providing water to Rocky. She probably hasn't had any water for almost 24 hours and breathing all that soot surely wasn't good for her. Once she started drinking she'd grab the straw with her little paws, then appeared to calm down a bit.

Anyway, here's a couple pictures of Rocky. I just hope Bullwinkle doesn't decide to try and squeeze down our chimney next.

  





Last night The Wife and I watched another movie and were both a bit sleepy when it ended at 9:30pm. Thinking this was a good thing considering I am somewhat an insomniac, she went off to bed as I came down to the basement to check emails etc.

While I was reading I kept hearing this little noise coming from near the wood burning stove. I thought it was probably Dustie the Cat. I decided that it was time to go get her to stop from whatever she had gotten into. As I approached that side of the room, I realized that she was not in the room and the sound was coming from within the wood burning stove. That's when I woke right up!

Now, some of you know I cannot handle bugs of any sort, and when it comes to wild critters, well, some can be cute and cuddly from a distance, but not up close and personal with all their diseases. Some of you might remember hearing about a bat that was making it's way into our bedroom through the window screen and window frame a couple years back. Enough said.

So, I had to go upstairs and wake The Wife to come and make sure I wasn't attacked by some racoon or poor little cardinal that made it's way into the chimney and down to the stove. She was happy to oblige. We carefully approached the stove with all the lights in the room on and a flashlight to boot. I opened the stove doors very slowly and slightly and pointed the light inside. I couldn't see anything at first, so I opened them a bit more. Lo and behold, there it was.

It appears our little flying rodent friend has found a new way to enter the house. That's right! It's back! I mean, it's a bat!

Not sure how to catch it, we tried to barricade the doors to the stove in a hope to contain it until morning when we could call some form of "animal control" in our area. The Wife went back to bed, and I now couldn't sleep and sat up watching the stove to make sure it couldn't get out. I kept seeing these little hands reaching through the cracks between the doors to the stove and the frame. I had to try a new barricade method when I saw it almost get out. I was up until 4am trying to make sure it had no way out but the same way it entered.

Now it's morning and I haven't checked to see if it's still in there. That's what I am going to do now and then call for "animal control" of some sort. The Wife is not here to protect me and Dustie the Cat would prefer to play with it than herd it outside, so if this should happen to be my last post, know this... I would have run fearfully while being attacked by the furry winged rodent.

The Wife and I had a nice weekend together. We did our big grocery shopping, which means lots of items from BJ's (like Costco) that won't need to be purchased again for a few months, watched a couple movies, had homemade burritos for dinner last night, went our to lunch today at Rosy Tomorrows, and she played with her Porch Garden while I once again became the "Basement Troll" to update the site.

For this week, I have updated the Feature, Photos, Birthdays (on Recordings page), and archived last week's Feature and Journal. So, it's time for a fresh new week of life for us all. I wish you all a fun-filled and enjoyable one.

Don't let this sign discourage you from having a GREAT weekend!!

I spent this morning trying to plan what company and vehicle type to rent for our vacation in Florida next month. I have decided Avis is still the best for me. They have always treated me well and I seem to get really good rates from them. I am pretty happy with what I am planning for a vehicle, but need to confirm this with The Wife later. I am looking at a Premium vehicle so that I can have XM Radio. I don't want to be lugging around music CD's on this trip, and prefer to listen to music while we drive. I will be bringing a few MP3 discs for my MP3 player, but that's for the room not the vehicle. Anyway, the "premium" vehicle is like $100 more for the week than the one we would normally get, so it's no big deal. Also, based on a coupon I have, we get a free tank of gas, which I figure is about $30 these days maybe more for such a large vehicle. This is going to be a real vacation for us, so we are pampering ourselves. We are flying in business class, driving a "premium" vehicle, and staying in our 2 bedroom timeshare with full kitchen (only 5 minutes from Disney World).

That was this morning, but I didn't post anything about yesterday yet, so, here is what we did for fun. The Wife and I spent a couple hours yesterday placing stakes in the soil and running string to help keep the huge tomato plants from falling on top of everything. They have grown so tall, they can touch the ceiling of the covered porch. The fruit is about to start changing color too! Check out the pictures below.

Of course the jalapeño plants are producing fruit too. I counted over 25 peppers on the plants with more budding. We picked one yesterday. I believe it was a bit early for the picking, but The Wife sliced it up and took a bite. She immediately went for the milk as it was mighty HOT in her opinion. Oh, and that is saying something. This is the woman that eats the hottest hot wings she can find and still adds more Tabasco to them. Here's what they are looking like.



There you have it, we will be driving in style while on our self-pampered vacation to Disney World and thinking of the wonderful sauces we will have concocted from our fresh tomatoes and jalapeños sometime during the next 6 weeks.