Some days it's not worth chewing through the leather straps

Avs' Konowalchuk Retires, Cites Health Condition The hardest working man on the Avs had to hang up the skates today due to a genetic health condition that can cause an irregular heartbeat. So long Kono, you will be missed by all of us fans. See more here

Last Saturday, we decided to replace our female black lab mix, Bailey, who passed away in January from bone cancer. Our other dog, a mixture of Border Collie, possible Lab and whatever, seemed to be ready for a new friend, and we had always had dogs in pairs. That's when we heard about a Border Collie rescue and applied to get a dog from them. We figured we would help out a dog in need. So we made arrangements to meet Jordi (pronounced Yor-dee) at a park and see how the two hit it off. Well, they got along great, and we came home with a slightly larger version of a pup than what we were thinking of, he is a Border Collie Newfoundland mix! Yeah, that's right, Newfy... He is 14 months and as big as Hootie, but a real sweetheart of a dog. He had never been on grass, possibly not even indoors, and he is learning the house rules pretty quick. Here is Jordi and Hootie together in the backyard, with mom holding them for the photo op, Jordi on the right:

From Robot Chicken via DevilDucky, comes this great bit about the Star Trek regular cast members beaming down with the "expendable redshirt"... Check it out here

Iowa Woman Finds Drowned Bat in Tea Mug By Associated Press CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - A western Iowa woman is recovering from the shock of finding a drowned bat in her tea mug _ after she sipped from the cup all day. The brown bat, about the size of two tea bags, was found a few weeks ago by a 60-year-old Woodbury County woman, said Chuck Cipperley, an environmental director for the Siouxland health office in Sioux City. "I knew the person, so I knew it was no joke," said Cipperley, who took the call from the woman. The woman, who declined to identify herself, told Cipperley she found the bat when she was cleaning out the mug at night. She said she put the bat in a plastic bag before alerting the Siouxland health office the next morning. Cipperley said the bat was sent that day _ Sept. 1 _ to the University Hygienic Laboratory in Coralville. Results showed the bat did not have rabies. State Epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk said had the bat been rabid, the woman p...

I had a call last night from my sister. It was my dads birthday, and he would have been 80 this year. So we were both a little down and were talking about things. After we hung up it got me to thinking about our growing up together and how cool she was to me. It was funny, we never fought and always got along really well. People would ask me about that when conversations came up about not getting along with their siblings. I mean, isn't it a given fact that siblings fight? Well, not really in our case. My sister never gave me any grief in High School when I was one of those pukey freshman and she was a Junior, and I always tried hard not to be the little brother who embarrassed her. Then all these years later, after our dad had passed away and mom was sick, she and her husband made the sacrifice of moving back in with her and taking care of her until she passed away. She has had her share of grief, and yet always thinks of others, and helps me in more ways than even she understands...

Sorry, that will be my only NRA reference... From AP via Comcast, now I hear that Fox is running a 30-second television spot with just one static image in an effort to reach viewers who fast forward through ads using digital video recorders like TiVos. And this is supposed to prevent me from skipping commercials how? The best part is later in the news item: Advertisers also have begun experimenting. Earlier this year, KFC Corp. promised coupons at its restaurants to viewers who could identify a secret code only visible when its commercials were replayed in slow motion. Suuurrreee, like a coupon to a crap place like KFC is enough of an incentive to get me to go SLOW MOTION through their lame commercials. Check out the rest here if you like...

From YouTube, via PistolWimp, comes this extremely educational piece on how to talk like a pirate ! Ya know, just in case it ever come up...