Remember my post in June about the gumball machines? Well, a couple weeks after that article was published, there was one in the Dallas Morning News that Ladystyx and her cohorts stole one! Oh ok, maybe she didn't actually DO it, but she could have been the mastermind! LOL


From Staff Reports

Burleson police were investigating a burglary in which a gumball machine was stolen from a Jeep Outfitter store last week.

Police said the incident occurred the evening of Oct. 15 in the 2000 block of Interstate 35W. Police said it appeared that a person entered the store trying to steal computer equipment, but instead left with a gumball machine, belonging to a charity.

When police arrived, they discovered a broken glass door and smashed computer equipment on the floor.

Police said as many as three people in a dark-colored SUV may have been involved in the incident. Surveillance video show a man in his late teens or early 20s wearing a blue baseball cap, a black T-shirt and tan cargo shorts. The driver was described as wearing a yellow T-shirt. A description of the third person was not available.

Police said this incident may be connected to another burglary at the business two weeks earlier. In that incident, money was stolen from a drawer.

Anyone with any information was asked to call police at 817-447-5300, extension 333, to speak with an investigator.

This morning, after my shower, I opened up my blinds to find this:

A Mourning Dove had decided to perch on the 3-4 inch ledge outside my bedroom window. As you can see, there wasn't much room for his/her tail.

It sat there while I got ready for work. My bed is about 3 feet away from the window, and I was able to sit on the bed to put my shoes and socks on, the bird never moving.

Dumb bird!

Just over two weeks after Iggy posted a picture of a terra-cotta Chinese soldier, this showed up on my day-at-a-glance calendar. I was still convinced I had seen them in a movie other than the previews of The Mummy III. Last night I went searching, further into the depths of the internet than I have ever gone before. Fortunately, Ladystyx was there to pull me out when I got stuck. What I found was: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. (If you enter the site, it brings up the plot, and you can click on another link called "Mythology", then on "Terracotta Warriors" and it will explain their part in the movie. Otherwise, read my bit below.

In that movie, starring Angelina Jolie, she was trying to get away from someone who had quite a few of those terra-cotta warriors in a cave. I believe he had stolen them and was planning on selling them for money. During this scene, she was hiding amongst them and was being chased by a man with a sword, who was smashing them to bits in the process of trying to kill her. I stopped at Blockbusters this afternoon while I was out running errands and rented it, just so I could confirm the precence of terra-cotta warriors.

I'm pretty sure that satisfies my curiosity about where I saw them previously. The scene in the movie played out pretty much how I had thought it would. Now I can move on to other interesting things.

Not much going on around here since I went to 6 Flags. I had a really fun time! Boy I love roller coasters! We were there from 9:30AM - 10:00PM. A very long day, which gave me blisters on my feet, but they've now all healed.



Yesterday I stopped at Target to pick up three new cd's that came out this week. Unfortunately, they only had one there. Yes, Randy Travis has a new cd out, and it' s country music, not gospel! The two Target didn't have that I'll have to look for elsewhere are John Mellencamp's Life, Death, Love and Freedom and Ace Young's self-titled cd.

Here are the tracks listed for Randy's new cd

1. Around The Bend
2. You Didn't Have A Good Time
3. Every Head Bowed
4. Love Is A Gamble
5. Faith In You
6. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
7. Dig Two Graves
8. Turn It Around
9. From Your Knees
10. Everything That I Own (Has Got A Dent)
11. 'Til I'm Dead And Gone

On the front it has a sticker with a review on it: "Randy Travis has recorded the perfect country album" by Robert K. Oermann.

I'll be ripping it to my computer soon, anyone that would like it, just let me know, I'll share!

Tomorrow morning I'm off to ride the roller coasters at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL. Following are my two most favorite rides:

Raging Bull: A hyper-twister steel roller coaster built in 1999, has a top speed of 73 mph, and a first drop of 208 feet.

My second favorite ride, one of only two wooden roller coasters at Great America, The American Eagle features two trains that do a traditional "out and back" route with a helix at the end, and will race each other at times. On special occasions, one is reversed and will take the riders backwards, but I can't do that. Built in 1981, it was at one time the world's fastest roller coaster. Steel roller coasters have easily surpassed it in speed, but it remains the highest, fastest and longest "racing" roller coaster. And Intenseguy will appreciate this, the trains for this ride were built by the Philadephia Toboggan Company. This remains one of my favorite rides to do after dark.

New this year is the Dark Knight indoor roller coaster. From slashfilm.com: According to Six Flags, The Dark Knight Coaster will “transform guests into citizens of Gotham City - caught in the middle of a city under siege and torn apart by The Joker.” The Dark Knight Coaster’s will use storytelling, physical movement, video, sound and special effects to bring guests a one-of-a-kind dark ride experience.

It will be interesting to see how popular this will be at Six Flags, known for the thrill of fast coasters with big drops.

This is curtesy of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page:


A dentist accused of fondling the breasts of 27 female patients is trying to keep his dental license by arguing that chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases. Mark Anderson's lawyer says dental journals discuss the need to massage the pectoral muscles to treat a common jaw problem. . . .

Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Phillips gave [administrative law judge Jonathan] Lew three new complaints, including one from a 31-year-old woman who said Anderson fondled her at least six times over two years.


My first question is, how do pectoral muscles relate to your jaw, which is a bone?

My second question is, why would anyone allow someone to ILLEGALLY fondle them one time, let alone six times? I'd be SO out of there after the first time.

I'm finally home. Whew, what a busy weekend!

Friday night was the barbecue and fireworks (with a k) in Cherry Valley, IL. I mapquested it, and the quickest and most direct route, although not the shortest, is 71.91 miles from my home. During those nearly 72 miles, I saw twelve out-of-state license plates. I'm used to seeing some, as the roads I was on are routes from Illinois to either Iowa or Wisconsin. However, I saw some plates from just about all sides of the country. To make this interesting, I found images of all plates on the net, so you can see all the states that were represented during my drive. In alphabetical order:

California plates are interesting because they stay with the car, for the life of the car. So all the really old cars from the 60's and 70's have very different plates. The most common "old" plate you see in CA is black with yellow lettering.

Obviously, this is a sample plate. This is the current style issued to passenger vehicles. As you all are aware, states now offer dozens of styles for just about anything you can think of. Colorado even offers one for Horseless Carriages.

This is the most common Florida plate I've seen. Some states still have the state nickname listed on the bottom.

I like how they put the peach for the "o" in Georgia. This state has the respective county listed at the bottom.

Iowa is one more state in the U.S. that has made their plates more representative of their state in the last few years. According to the Iowa License Plate database, when I moved to IL in 1982, the Iowa plates were dark green with white letters. Then they went to dark blue with white letters in 1986, and in 1997 switched to the image you see above.

Kansas is a plate I see commonly, since Interstate 88 in IL meets up with Interstate 80, the main route through Iowa before heading south to Kansas. They have a new design that will be coming out in 2010.

Michigan has a variety of styles available, I see several of them, so I always have to do a double take to make sure I'm reading the state correctly. In addition to this Great Lakes Splendor, they have a white one with a blue banner across the top where the state is listed, and the state's website is listed at the bottom; the other one is the Spectacular Peninsula plate, also with a picture of the Mackinac Bridge on it, with a cityscape and pine trees.

Missouri's famous state motto: The Show-Me State. According to their website, they have also had a re-design, with the new plate showing an outline of the state, with the state bird underneath it, and the motto on top underneath the state.

Mississippi is the Magnolia state, so it makes sense for them to put a big 'ole Magnolia blossom smack dab in the middle of the plate. They also include the respective county on their plates.

On the top left is Niagara Falls, and on the top right is New York City, the two most well known places to visit in New York State. And they just happen to be at opposite ends of the state. I wonder how NY got the nickname The Empire State?

Pennsylvania was the first state to include their website on their license plates. That was back when the internet was first invented by Al Gore. I remember thinking how silly it is to put their website on a license plate. Although, with all the people who have internet access these days, I bet it helps the state residents remember where to go for information about plates and registrations.

Wisconsin, America's Dairyland. Or as those in Illinois like to say, Home of the Cheeseheads. Drive through southern Wisconsin, and you see dairy farm after dairy farm after dairy farm. There's no shortage of them. I see Wisconsin plates almost every day, as my commute to and from work is on a main route between Wisconsin and Illinois.

There you have it, the 12 different license plates I saw on Friday afternoon. It was interesting looking up the history of some of these plates. I hope I didn't bore anyone.

Happy Independence Day! I'm going to a barbecue this afternoon, fireworks tonight, and will be gone all day tomorrow and most of Sunday painting with my aunt. Have a great weekend everyone, talk to you Sunday night!

This is a bit outdated, but I still thought it was weird enough to make you shake your head wondering what goes through the minds of some people.


Aldermen fear terrorists could poison gumball machines

by South Jersey News Online
Thursday October 11, 2007, 7:56 AM

DOVER, N.J. (AP) -- Fear that terrorists could poison children has led three Dover aldermen to begin inspecting gumball machines.

They've surveyed 103 machines in the Morris County town and expect to report their results on New Year's Day.

Aldermen Frank Poolas, Jack Delaney and Michael Picciallo have found 100 unlicensed machines filled with gumballs, jawbreakers and other candies. The three feel they're ripe for terrorists to lace with poisoned products.

Police Chief Harold "Butch" Valentine tells The Star-Ledger of Newark the odds are a person would win the lottery before terrorists would use the machines to launch an attack.

Delaney says their goal is to create a registration process to find out where the candy is coming from.

Last night while AliceKay was streaming, I saw some clouds moving in, so I went out onto my balcony to take a picture of them. It was raining lightly at the time, too. One picture was taken with a setting of "cloudy" and the other as either "daylight" or "auto" I can't remember.

As you can see, they both look pretty much the same. I discovered I don't have a "dusk" or "low light" setting. But I do have a "tungsten" setting, which I could use to make my pictures really freaky!

Who needs water anyway?

Right now I have no running water in my apartment. The water to my whole building has been shut off. So much for doing laundry tonight!

It all started yesterday....in a land far far away, oops wrong story. It really did start yesterday, though. I came home from work to see a note on my door that maintenance had come in during the day to fix something that was leaking. It said they replaced the tub diverter, which is the knob you pull up to switch the water from the tub to the shower head. Apparently, they said mine was leaking into the bathroom below, which is interesting because the one that was "leaking" is the tub I don't use. It's the hall bath, all I use that for is the potty, the sink, and I hang clothes to dry on the curtain rod. I shower in the master bath where all my stuff is. So how could it be leaking if I never use it???

I let it go, and went to work today. When I come home after running errands, I hurried to the potty to umm, well you know, and when I flushed, very little water came back into the toilet bowl. I checked the faucet on the sink, no water. When the toilet didn't fill back up, I suspected no water, but the faucet confirmed it. Being the curious person I am, I called the leasing office, and asked if by any chance the water had been shut off to my building. After being put on hold for a couple minutes, I received an affirmitive reply. I was also told someone from maintenance would be coming around to everyone in our building to let us know what was going on.

While on the phone checking up on my aunt, I had a knock at the door. I hung up with her, and waiting in the hallway was my good friend Jack the maintenance supervisor! Apparently, the leak they thought was coming from my bathroom, really wasn't coming from my bathroom. Duh! After working on it for most the day, they finally gave up and called a plumber. Unfortunately, he won't get here until at LEAST 8:30pm tonight. Jack said they'd be back around later to let us know when the water is turned back on, so I will probably throw a quick load in at whatever time that is. And I feel bad for the guy below me, this is the THIRD time in 2 years that he's had his bathroom torn up. I wouldn't be surprised if he moved when his lease is up. I might consider it if I were in his shoes. (Someone's working down there, I can hear them through the floor of my bathroom, lol)

What some of us go through just to watch some television:

Wednesday night I was sitting at the computer, was probably in chat, and was watching the Cubs game on the little tv next to me. About 10:30pm I think, I got off the computer to watch the rest of the game on the living room tv. I got comfy (with my right knee elevated and a cold compress on it), and watched the last three innings of baseball.

When the game was over, I was flipping through channels, when the picture and sound started going in and out. Eventually, it went out completely, and I was left with a black screen and a blue box asking me to be patient that the channel would come back shortly. It never did. Not on any channel. Since we were having some thunderstorms pass by, I chalked it up to the storms, turned the tv off and went to bed.

Thursday night, I was again at the computer, in chat, and watching the Cubs game. I was going to go to bed early so I could go in to work early on Friday morning, so about 10pm, I got off the computer. My plan was to listen to a little more of the baseball game from the tv in the living room while I got ready for bed. But, when I turned on the tv, I still had no picture or sound. Grrrrrr.

I picked up the phone to call Comcast. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the number on my acct, and waited, and waited and waited, and waited some more. I hung up to re-try it. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the number on my acct, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited again. Grrrrrr.

I hung up and mumbled to myself that I would do it differently next time. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 2 that I was not calling from the number on my acct. I entered my phone number, and waited and waited, and FINALLY got through to be on hold. Whew! Since I figured I would be on hold for several minutes I got the cold compress, situated myself nice and comfy on the love seat, with the phone wedged against my ear next to the pillow. I closed my eyes and waited. After about 15 minutes, I heard a ring, and thought I would be connected to a live person.

Nope! It took me back to the beginning where I had to press 1 for English, press 1 for an exisiting customer, and press 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the one on the acct. Since I knew I'd now be on hold AGAIN, I got comfy AGAIN with the phone wedged up to my ear and relaxed for more waiting. I almost fell asleep waiting for a live person. It was only another 20 minutes, but I was tired and wanted to go to bed, lol. I finally got through to someone, explained my problem, and set up an appointment for a technician to come out today between 1 and 4pm. I would have preferred Saturday, since I'm usually not home on Sunday, but I didn't want to wait until Monday and be forced to take time off work.

Fortunately, my aunt was understanding, and since there was no new movie to see this weekend, all I needed to do was go out to vacuum and mop her floors for her. She and I also cleaned up some birdseed that had spilled in her garage and was attracting ants, and I ran a couple errands. One was to Farm & Fleet to buy some birdseed for myself. They had 20lb bags on sale for $4.99, and while there I picked up a new finch feeder for her, to match the copper-topped regular feeder I got her for Mother's Day. Then I went to Wal Mart to get her some Rocky Road ice cream she was craving, and some sourdough hard pretzels that she wanted.

So this morning I was reading emails at about 11:30am, and the door buzzes. The technician was 90 minutes early. I scrambled into jeans and a t-shirt and let him in. He determined my cable box was bad, went outside to get another one, brough it in, hooked it up, and still nothing. That one was bad too? He unhooked my vcr and connected the cable box directly to the tv, still nothing. Going back outside, he brings in ANOTHER cable box, a different model with no time/channel display, hooked it up and VOILA! I have picture and sound now!

However, he didn't re-connect what he disconnected, and I didn't watch closely enough to what he was doing to be able to re-connect it myself, so I had to call Comcast back to have him come back and hook it back up the way he found it. They gave me a hard time about it, saying they don't normally hook back up third party equipment they might disconnect during a service call, which I think is a load of crap. He did come back an hour or so later, hook it back up and everything works fine now.

The only thing left I haven't had a problem with is my phone, so that's probably next month! Calgon, take me away!

I've held onto this, off my calendar at work. A conversation in chat last week reminded me of this picture that I had sitting around waiting to be scanned.

The answer is: C, Lake Ontario. Toronto, capital of the province of Ontario, lies on the northwestern shore of the lake of the same name, the smallest of the Great Lakes.

Sunday night while chatting, my neighbors decided they were going to start their Independence Day celebration a bit early. They started shooting off fireworks from the balcony, then switched to placing them in the grass between our buildings, then ended the night lighting them right on the balcony itself. The WOODEN balcony. This was the best picture I could get, without using flash. It was midnight after all. The black vertical lines through the glow are the wooden slats of the railing.

I didn't call the police, all the guys had to do was plead innocent, and if the officer didn't actually SEE them doing it, he had no way to prove it, it would just be my word against theirs. I confirmed this with the City yesterday after work. I also found out there is no noise ordinance for the City of Naperville. Any time, day or night, if someone is too loud and is disturbing me, I can call the police. They will come and ask them to quiet down. If they don't, and I call the police back, then the officer would ask me if I want to press charges for disturbing the peace. So there is no official quiet time like 9pm or 10pm in Naperville.

So I now have a picture, which I've sent to resident relations so she could see it. And I have all the debris from the fireworks. They were lighting off Magic Crystals. You can also watch a you tube video of what they are like here. I am now armed with lots of evidence and information for the next time they decide to shoot off fireworks on a Sunday night at 12:00AM.

Step 1: Change background on blog (Done)
Step 2: Scan picture to be posted on blog (Done)
Step 3: Transfer picture from camera to computer (Done)
Step 4: Update your friends on stuff


*Updated 6/3 9:28PM completion of Step 3 before Step 2

*Updated 6/4 10:39PM completion of Step 2

Tuesday night, as American Idol time was approaching the sky got dark, the wind picked up, and I started seeing lightning out the window. The weather men said we weren't supposed to get rain until after 10pm, but obviously no one told Mother Nature. She decided to make an appearance at 6:45pm. After the first wave, a rainbow came out and I took the following pictures. Unfortunately, they don't do them justice; They were much prettier and more colorful in person.

This one looks like a double rainbow was trying to form, although it never really did.

The rainbow went clear across the sky, if the trees hadn't been in the way, I probably could have seen it touching the ground (or appear to anyway). After no more than 10 minutes, the clouds covered the sun again, the rainbow went away and the next wave of storms came through.

It was interesting watching American Idol while not at the computer talking to others while trying to listen to the songs. I haven't done it all year, and I really got a different impression by just watching and listening and not having the distraction of others. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE talking with everyone, it was just a nice change of pace to sit there and focus just on the music, performances and the judges comments.

Needless to say, didn't EVERYONE expect a David v. David finale? This is my fifth year of watching American Idol, and I can honestly say, it's the least climactic. No one has really jumped out at me enough to make me eager for a cd after all this. Yes, I might buy one or two, but this whole season has almost seemed staged from the beginning, everything being a setup for the Cookie v. Gaspy finale. Who will win? We'll have to wait and see...

Why some people shouldn't own or keep ORBA's:

Pieces of an ORBA found on the balcony.

ORBA was left outside accidentally, with the lid on right side up. Now it's upside down?

Hmmm, some chewing was going on. Perhaps the naughty Charlie was back?

More chewing along the edge. Upon closer inspection, half of the sunflower seeds inside the ORBA had been eaten, leaving only the empty shells. ORBA was taken back inside for protection. Unfortunately, nothing will heal the terrifying injuries it sustained from being left outside for just one day.

Remember my post a few days ago about the naughty birds? I determined I was entirely too quick to assume the birds did it. My aunt said maybe a squirrel did it, but I said, "No, I haven't seen a Charlie on my balcony all spring." For those of you new to my blog, Charlie is another name for any and all squirrels. Too long to go into now, besides I may have already explained this last year, so just nod your head and keep reading.

Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in the living room, next to the sliding glass door, watching tv. A movement caught my eye out on the balcony. I turned my head very slowly, and sure enough, there was a Charlie (squirrel) on my balcony, looking for all that seed he'd emptied from the bucket. When he couldn't find it, he decided he'd try getting it from the bird feeder instead. He jumped onto the railing, then leaped onto the top of the feeder.

I thought for sure there was no way he'd figure out how to lean over the side to get seed, the feeder almost isn't big enough for him to sit on, let alone lean over head first and feed.

He turned this way and that, reaching up to hold onto the cord used to hang the feeder on the hook, determined to find a way to get that seed!

Sideways didn't work too well. What will he try next?

There ya go! Use your back claws to grip the opposite edge, lean down head first and use your front feet to grab that seed and stuff your face.

It's even better if you twist your body around, so the silly humans watching you and taking stupid pictures will ooooh and aaaah at your acrobatics.

After being chased off the feeder, jumping to the bricks of the building, leaping to safety in the tree, then scurrying down to the ground, Charlie digs around in the droppings to see if there's anything good left to munch on.

My apologies to the birds for saying they were naughty. I jumped to conclusions without any hard facts. Since it appears Charlie is quite adept at getting seed from the feeder, it wouldn't surprise me if he was the culprit with the holey bucket. Bucket problem is fixed now too. I went to Home Depot on Saturday and adopted an orange round bucket alien that was willing to trade shelter for seed holding. He's an indoor bucket after all!

Because one just isn't enough.....

Supposedly, a second cougar was spotted earlier this week in the Chicago area. It was never found, and there have been no reports since of anyone seeing it. Searches were made by helicopter and foot over a forest preserve where it was see chasing deer. Here's a link to the story.

And it has also been determined the one previously shot and killed by Chicago police was in fact a wild animal that may have wandered here from the Black Hills in South Dakota.

I knew we could get a little wild here in Chicago, but this is going to extremes, lol.

Coming home after a hard day's work, I thought I'd sit and relax a bit before eating dinner and watching Survivor. But wait, I might need to fill the bird feeder outside. I'll check to see if it's empty. Yup, it's empty; before I sit down, I'll fill it so the birds have food tonight and tomorrow. After getting the step-stool from the bedroom, I open the sliding glass door, step outside and I discover I have naughty birds. Not naughty as in "they're having sex" but naughty as in, they chipped a hole in the plastic bucket I keep the birdseed in.

There's no way I'm going out tonight to Home Depot or Lowes to get another bucket, so I just taped up this one and brought it inside to keep my chippy birds away from the bucket. Not to be confused with Chipping Sparrows, which I also have.