Have an extra $150,000 ?

Now you can own Ecto 1, the car made famous in the Ghostbuster movies. How cool would it be to drive around in that? I wonder if the siren works.

Ewwww

Is this real? I know it's not natural. Steroids, anyone? No, they're juth thupplementh.
If anyone can tell me the source of that last sentence was, you win a fabulous prize. Hint: it's a movie.

Smooch bait

Remember this?

"It is not easy indeed but life is waiting ahead for her."

Half-human, half-animal: return of the girl who was lost in the wild for 18 years

If you haven't heard this story yet, read it by following the above link.

More stories of people living in the wild:

Many Cambodians were forced to spend years hiding in the jungle during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime and the years of civil war after its fall. In 2004 a party of former refugees who had fled into the jungle reappeared after more than two decades. They were clad in bark and leaves and had no idea that the war was over. Twenty-two babies had been born during their wanderings, several of whom had grown into adulthood without meeting any other people.

A boy aged about 12, known as Victor of Aveyron, was found in woods in southern France at the end of the 18th century. He became a case study in the Enlightenment debate about the difference between humans and animals. Attempts failed to civilise him or to teach him speech.

A missing Indian child, Ramu, aged 6, became known as the Lucknow Wolf Boy when he was found in 1954. His parents said that a wolf had snatched him as a baby. When reunited with his parents, he lapped milk, chewed on bones and showed more interest in wolves at the zoo. He died in 1968 at Lucknow hospital.

In 1970 a girl aged 13 was discovered in a house in California, tied to a potty chair. For ten years she had been locked alone in a room throughout the day. She was unable to talk or walk properly. The girl, Genie, initially made good progress — scoring well on spatial reasoning tests — but she never fully learnt to talk. She lives in a care home to this day.

Source: Feralchildren.com This is one of the freakiest websites I've ever seen.

Some of Santa's lesser-known family members.

Lefty Claus (always leaning slightly to the side)

Melvin Claus (he has anger management issues)

Charlene Claus (suffers from occasional uncontrollable twitches)

Eugene Claus (a one-eyed "special" person)

Christmas Eve Cuteness

They're right...

...when they say that kids have more fun with the box than with the toy that came in it.

Hello out there...

Well, I'm back. It's been a long, busy month-or-so, with the holidays and all. We were just getting back to a normal schedule when we had the MLK day. It was nice, especially since the weather was so gray, wet, and cold, to hang around the house chillin' with my peeps.

I have a bunch of pictures from the holidays, and once I get them downloaded I'll be sure to share. I know you're on the edge of your seat and have been anxiously checking this site daily in anticipation of seeing my boys opening their Christmas presents and just generally being cute. You will not be disappointed. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, please follow the link to one of my favorite websites, Neatorama. There is always something cool to look at or think about (sometimes both!) over there. Last time I checked, the first post was an extra-long one about fads through the years, but the guy updates frequently so there's no telling what you'll find.

I missed the Golden Globes last night--I like to watch Red Carpet stuff like that--because we watched Disc 1 of "The Return of the King" instead. My kids have always liked the LOTR movies, but since we've recently read "The Hobbit" and because of course, they're getting older, they pick up more and better understand things in the movie. It's funny, too, that they want to know if some events in the movies "really happened," meaning "Was that in the book?" I guess they've soaked up a lot from listening to Kirk and me discussing it, because last night Cody said, "I don't like all that "Arwen is dying' stuff." Me neither, Cody.

I wouldn't have been able to see the awards show anyhow, because our original plan was to read some more Potter. We're about 2/3 of the way through "Sorceror's Stone." This will be Cody's first time through the books. He was too young to sit still when we read them through for Chet a few years back. The reading for last night was cancelled, though, because Colt, who is now the one too little to sit through all those chapters, was wide awake and more than willing to watch some LOTR action.

All that being said, I just remembered that E! (love that exclamation point!) replays its Red Carpet stuff on the morning after an award show. Yippee!

Have a great day!

I haven't blogged in...

A coon's age.

So how was your Christmas and New Year?

Still here

Hope you are having a fun Çhristmas season.

Mike was right

It was the Hobbit. I have no problem admitting he got it right. It happens so rarely, I should have acknowledged it immediately.

Puppy Eats Baby's Toes

Have you heard about this yet? It's from good old Bossier City, but
it's even made it onto Fox News.

From KTBS:
Police said the Hansches have told several different stories about what happened. Natale said the couple is charged with child desertion for allegedly putting their baby in a dangerous situation. Natale said the negligence charges apply because the child was under the age of 10 and was exposed to a danger from which she could not protect herself.

Sick. Sad.

I want one!

Urban Outfitters now has available a "Charlie Brown Pathetic Tree," a replica of the sad tree the Peanuts gang had in the classic Christmas cartoon. It comes with one red ornament ball, and can be shaped however you like it.
If you're looking for a minimalist, nostalgic decoration, it doesn't get any better than this.

Why I quit Journalism

My friend Cindy, at "There and Back Again Farms," posted on her blog an opinion about news. Here's her post:

"Why I don’t watch the news
Mike and I were talking about having one of his friends over who is Muslim, and I’m excited because I’ve never sat down and talked to a Muslim before, and then it occured to me that I have no idea what’s going on in the news in that part of the world right now. Not that that would necessarily be part of the dinner conversation, but it made me think about why I don’t care to watch the news. One, I tend to think it is entirely biased. They show you only what they want you to see so they can get their sensational story out and get everyone riled up. Two, its usually downright depressing. Who really wants to hear about the latest murderer before they go to bed? I think there should be a news station that only does happy stories. What would happen if we only told the good things that happen, and only say supportive things about the president, and highlighted the good things this country has done instead of the criminals. Maybe there’s a website that already does that, I don’t know, I do watch the discovery channel, but there should be on one prime time TV, so we could learn whats going on without all the destructive talk. Think about the power of positive. It could change the world."

Here's my reply:

"We already tried that. It was called the 1950’s.
I think major contributors to its demise were the technological advances (TV especially) that led to journalists crawling all over everything, to see if something was happening; when nothing was, the journalist poked it with a stick to see what happened then. Soon every one of them thought he owed it to the world to let his opinion be known.
Our sinful human nature (or was it Satan?) caused us to obsess over other people’s failures and especially delight in the downfall of the mighty; and that’s why we now have Fox News, CNN, the NY Times, the Enquirer…
And now the internet spews it everywhere at the speed of light. It’s only going to get worse.
That all being said, I haven’t a clue about what’s going on in the Middle East. I know the very very basics but I can’t stand to hear all that negativity. What I tend to do is go to some internet news pages and read about what seems interesting to me."


Follow the link and add your opinion, if you'd like.

Name that book

I've been reading this book to Cody at night. What is it?

Sick Wiggle Quits

Greg (Yellow Shirt) has some kind of illness the doctors haven't identified yet. He's quitting the group to hopefully get better.

I hope he's gonna be OK! I like the Wiggles. There, I said it. (Anthony is my favorite)

By the way, put this one down in the "best headline" archives.

Did her mom buy that?

What about 7- and 9-year-olds?

Yep, I've got the cutest of those, too.

All right, we'll call it a draw

Python bursts after swallowing alligator
Wildlife officials in Florida found the remains of a wildlife deathmatch between the two high-end predators. Follow the link to learn more.

That's what I feel like after Thanksgiving week. And you?