I thought this was pretty neat if you like mechanisms

http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu

BBC

Want to see what names were popular in what year? See the Social Security Website.

Yesterday, I actually felt like I got a lot done.

The morning started out with Broderick's soccer game in Tuscola which he won. It was a very low energy morning for him though and he didn't hustle as much as he normally does, but he did almost score a couple of goals!

Then, we went garage saling in Philo and luckly didn't find anything that we just had to have. We did stop by the Clem's who were having a sale and talked with Stacey for awhile... it was nice. She is the little sister of my first real friend (the first person I met in my area before kindergarten) so it was fun to catch up.

We got home and I had just finished making my Menard's shopping list when Holly's Mom Mary called with a flat tire, so I drove down to Tolono and found a big long nail poking out... so I fixed her tire and drove up to Menards with Walid (who is going to insulate and drywall his garage, so he needed to haul stuff home in the truck).

Finally, I got home around 5:30 and still managed to get the upstairs washer all plumbed in and the hard part done with the water supplies and drains. I still need to do a little more drain work, but she'll have her washer working again later today!

When we woke up this morning, it was raining (effects of Rita) so I jumped up and went out to row up all the windows in the car and bring in the lumber from yesterday's shopping (so nice to live out in the country where clothing is optional).

OMG! I almost forgot to mention... Holly and I were busy in adult activities last night when suddenly Bridget walked in the room! Normally we can hear her on the stairs, but we were busy enough that we didn't notice.

Luckily, she was so tired (she came down to use the restroom) that she didn't notice. She just asked why we were still up. Whew!!!

I guess I really need to get the upstairs bathroom put back in!

Glynis is someone I work with and her 8 year old boy was killed while playing Sunday.

News Gazette Story

This is a really fun little thing.

George Bush Parody

A friend sent me these pictures and I put them into a slide show. Truly beautiful pictures of the storm itself that makes you forget all the destruction caused by it.

Katrina.pps

Now that we are a nature preserve, a new website.

Barnhart-Grove Prairie Restoration Project

I was feeling under the weather this weekend, but I managed to get some work done around the house. I finished putting in the subfloor upstairs where the bathroom/laundary room will be. Our HVAC guys are coming out Tuesday or Wednesday of this week to do a final look through to decide where exactly the vents will be going.

It may all be pointless though if heating costs increase like people are talking, then we won't be able to afford to heat.

I also put up some more siding around the electrical service and along the top on the West and East. That leaves just the very top little bit to finish and then those sides will all be done.

Lefty got out this morning... I went out to give him an ear of corn (our neighbor harvested his field over the weekend, so I picked up some ears that were missed) and didn't find him. Turns out that he was out in the harvested cornfield eating to his delight. He is such a big dog though, as soon as I called him, he came running up to me.

I see that Brown (FEMA's director) has resigned today.

Oh! Our Prairie is now officially a Nature Preserve! Signed by the Governor and all!

For those of you who are ring tone junkies... check this out.

WolframTones: An Experiment in a New Kind of Music

These are pictures taken by the son of someone here at work taken before, during, right after, and then the flooding...

Kodakgallery.com Slideshow

How do you like this quote?

Barbara Bush: It's Good Enough for the Poor - Yahoo! News

"Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them," Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's "Marketplace" program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.

We had a nice weekend. I spent most of Saturday putting in new flooring in what will be the upstairs bath and laundary room. I have about 75% of the subfloor laid down. It is going a bit slower then I expected, but I have to cut around so many things (like the stairs and bedroom doorways) that it is going slow.

I hope to get it finished up tonight so that we can really figure out where we want things to go. The designs are still up in the air as we try to figure out where to put things.

Yesterday, Broderick, Donald and I met Trent in Pontiac for the annual Thresherman's Reunion IN Pontiac IL. It is always a good time as they have lots of old tractors and steam engines. They also have a scale steam engine that you can ride. I took lots of pictures, but it may be awhile before I get them up... I am back-logged.

Since William is not doing Fantasy Football this year, I've decided to start my own league. If you are interested in playing, drop me a line or put in a comment here.

Oh! Yesterday, we also got together to celebrate my sister (Karen's) b-day. Her actually b-day was on Friday, so happy b-day sis!

CNN.com - The big disconnect on New Orleans - Sep 2, 2005

I haven't typed up anything about Katrina... but I am so furious it almost hurts to think about it. I suppose this is what people felt like in the 60's with President Johnson an Vietnam war.. but do the feds really have no %$#@ clue on what's going on?

I read on CNN today that Brown (director of FEMA) said that he didn't know that conditions were bad at the Superdome in LA until Thursday and is now working to get them food and water. What the F^#%$? We've all know about it since Mid Monday morning.. how can he not know about it until Thursday?

Why is it that our idiot president can take care of disasters overseas quickly (which I am not knocking) but something like this happens in our own backyard and it is days before real aid starts to arrive.

I couldn't believe his press conference yesterday. About the first 30 seconds were spent talking about relief and most of the rest of the conference was spent talking about disrupted gas lines and the efforts to get fuel flowing. People are dieing there and he is worried about the gas and oil? Good Lord... where are your priortities? How about getting help down there today.. not next week.

I couldn't believe it when they were talking about getting extra soldiers there early next week (this has now been bumped up to this weekend). It takes almost a full week to get help?

And FEMA (again Brown) says that no disruptions have occured with the rescue operations.. but in reality they have since the rescurers are being shot at.

Maybe I should cut the President some slack when his advisors have no clue.. but ultimately, it is his responsibility. All he has to do is turn on the TV (oh.. and watch the news... not cartoons).

We knew this storm was going to hit.. I know that things are much worse then we hoped.. and that what has happened really is a wrose-case scenario... but why weren't we prepared for it? Why didn't we have evacuation assistance for those who could not afford to leave? We should have had buses the day before the storm taking anyone who needed to leave out of the city.

I commend the mayor and the governor on trying to keep things together.. It's the federal government that is really dropping the ball.

On the blog I linked to below... he said that the national guard was actually preventing people from walking out of the city or allowing people to come and pick up people.

Ever see that movie "Escape from New York"? I really hope we learn a lesson from all of this so nothing like this happens again. President Bush, when are you going to learn to take care of your own people?

Oh, I forgot, you cut short your vacation by 2 days (2 days after the hurricane) to help out. Oh... he must have been "stragetigizing" on how to help out..

Blog from someone on the inside of New Orleans The Interdictor