Blue screen of death

My computer has decided, for whatever reason, to start blue-screening. It's been going on for at least a week now — I get logged in, start doing something, then the computer reboots and freezes. No viruses, no trojans, cleaned out the malware I could find, ran HijackThis and things look clean, but still having problems. I just spent the last 4-1/2 hours backing up everything on my hard drive. If I have to do a full reinstall, I think I'll go with Windows 7. I have RC1 and have heard good things about it (most people hate Vista, and I'm not crazy about it as an OS myself). We shall see.

Queenee is back from PA, where she went to two family get-togethers: one for the Hamilton family (Uncle Donald's family) and one for her cousins. She said she had a great time at both and was glad she was able to go. We'll get the updated health reports on Uncle M/Aunt F soon. Uncle Ed is doing well and went to the cousins' party with Queenee and Aunt D.

There are three young robins hanging around this corner of the house. They like the arborvitae and the redbud tree and are still learning to fly. They keep their parents busy with regular feedings. It's fun watching them. I have photos and will get them linked in asap.

Orioles

Late afternoon yesterday, our neighbor, Steve, was mowing his lawn and I was wandering through the yard trying to spot the Painted Turtle I had seen earlier in the day. We stopped to have a chat about the birds we've seen so far this year.

He is especially excited about the Baltimore Orioles, and had spotted a nest in one of the trees between our houses. He said it is very visible from his yard and that I should get a photo. I'll post one as soon as I can. By my count, there are at least three male Orioles and two females, though there may be four males. I have a brief video of the males arguing over breeding rights.

He said he has seen one of the local hawks eating the sparrow eggs/babies in the arborvitae. I know there are several sparrow nests in there. Evidently one of the hawks got an oriole nest on the other side of his yard last year (or maybe the year before). The orioles have not rebuilt there.

I have counted two male Ruby-throated hummingbirds and one female so far. Sadly, we seem to have only one pair of bluebirds, but they are nesting and I'll watch for their first clutch. If this is the same pair we had last year, they'll have another clutch before heading South. The one male cardinal is still feeding his female, though I'm seeing her less frequently of late. Eggs have been laid and babies have hatched!

Stop drive-through mastecomies!

I'm not much for signing petitions, because so many I get in email are specious at best. However, this one is different.

Having health issues myself, I know the machinations insurance companies go through to cover as little as possible, as cheaply as possible. For all the complaining people do about the cost of health care in the US, it cannot be blamed on doctors. I blame lawyers, insurance companies, drug manufacturers and especially Congress. Why do our Congress critters have no-expense-spared no-deductible for-life healthcare, but when the rest of us think we deserve the same, the "OMG IT'S SOCIALIST MEDICINE" song starts? Why are they more interested in what lobbyists have on their agenda than the needs of their constituents? At least the insurance companies and lawyers are transparent about being all about the Benjamins.

Our Queenee had a modified radical mastectomy several years ago. She was fortunate to be in the hospital for a couple days (thanks to her doctor raising hell and refusing to release her), and really could have used one more. Even then, the insurance companies were fighting to get women in and out the same day. Obviously nobody pushing for drive-through mastectomies has ever had one, or has ever had to tend to someone who has had one. As the saying goes, if men could get pregnant, the right to a safe abortion would have been written into the Bill of Rights. A reasonable recovery time from a mastectomy is in the same ballpark.

Please, if you are reading this, sign the petition. I actually used my real name and address, which those of you who know me will appreciate is something I *never* do, ever.

My comments were as follows:

My mother had a mastectomy and was lucky enough to be in the hospital for two days - three would have been MUCH better for her. There is absolutely NO reason other than financial for major surgery being designated as an outpatient procedure. For the men, and I'm willing to bet it is men, making these decisions, imagine losing your testicles to cancer and being told you have to go home the same day. Swelling, pain, drainage? So what. You deal with it.

How many people think that scenario would ever happen?

My ex is a veterinarian. He would never send a female dog home after a mastectomy, not a chance in the world. Why should women be treated with less regard than that?

Where are the "compassionate" conservatives now? Counting their tax-break money? Looking for reds under every Shrub?

Oh, and for the *holes who whine about how men get breast cancer too, go have a look at the statistics. Then tell me how society values men for their breasts. Then justify your ignorance.

Sign the petition for yourself, or your wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, niece, cousin, friend or lover. Send a message to the lawyers and insurance company actuaries and Congress that we want what we pay for.

Memorial Day

Queenee is in PA this weekend. There is a party with her cousins on Sunday, and another with her sister's inlaws' family on Monday. She's a busy busy bee!

Uncle Max is having a recurring bout with shingles, a nasty reappearance of the virus that causes chicken pox. In shingles, it affects the nerve endings and can be very painful and debilitating. Anyone who has seen the British series The Singing Detective starring Michael Gambon (yes, Dumbledore v.2), or the American movie version starring Robert Downey, Jr., will know what shingles is. We're not sure what the status of his heart is, but may know within the week.

Aunt Flo has been told she does not have pancreatic cancer, which is excellent news! She is losing weight, though, and will see the doctors at Jefferson Hospital next week to see what they think is happening. Both Aunt Flo and Uncle Max have all our love and very best wishes for good news and speedy recoveries!

My thoughts are also with cousin B and her daughter M, who is serving in Iraq. I hope they are well and that they will return safely very soon.

Queenee will fill us in when she returns next week. Meanwhile, may we all appreciate our good health and have a happy Memorial Day!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Bill!

Oh no, it's another birthday for Mr. Bill! Have a good one, and here's to many more!


Also, good luck with your eye appointment today. Please keep us posted!

Rachel Alexandra wins the Preakness

Unsurprisingly, we did much better picking horses for the Preakness. I had Rachel Alexandra and Mine That Bird, and had Musket Man as my 3rd/4th pick along with Pioneerof The Nile, who is not doing well. Mr. Bill had Musket Man, Flying Private, Big Drama and Papa Clem. Key Dear had Rachel Alexandra, Luv Glove, General Quarters and Pioneerof The Nile. She had been leaning toward Papa Clem and Freisan Fire.

I'm loving Mine That Bird — he would have really pushed Rachel Alexandra if Mike Smith had been able to stay on the rail. Smith got caught in traffic on the turn for home and had to check the horse around the 3/8-pole, but the little gelding dug in. Just watch the stretch run. When Big Drama lived up to his name and was freaking out in the starting gate, Mine That Bird stood like a rock, calm and collected. I just love that horse. Eddie Arcaro once said that about 70% of race horses don't want to win. Mine That Bird may not always get there, but he doesn't quit. And while he may not be the straightest horse, he is beautiful.

One statistic that came out of the Derby was that Mine That Bird's final quarter was the second fastest final quarter time for a Kentucky Derby, second only to Secretariat, whose Derby performance will, imho, never be equalled. No horse before or since has run each successive quarter faster than the last. But it puts Mine That Bird's Derby into perspective. Too bad the TV coverage continues to suck. And I'm getting tired of Calvin Borel and his, "I wish my parents were here to see what I've accomplished in my life." Yeah, Calvin, we get it, we got it the third or fourth time you said those exact same words. Enough already. Go learn to read.

Is Rachel Alexandra a super horse? Maybe. She's certainly a standout in her filly crop, and she's in a year where there are no standouts in the colts. Many of the early Kentucky Derby favorites pulled out, and there wasn't a Seattle Slew or even a Smarty Jones. So is she all that? I'm not convinced yet. Another Ruffian? I think not.

Musket Man continues to do well. While not winning, he has never run out of the money, with a record of 5-0-3 for his eight races. After finishing last in the Derby, Flying Private finished fourth. Big Drama, despite his temper tantrum in the gate, managed to finish fifth, his first finish out of the money. The rest of the finishers were Papa Clem, Terrain, Luv Glove, General Quarters, Freisan Fire, Pioneerof The Nile, Tone It Down and Take The Points.

On to the Belmont.

I vaguely remembering liking Birdstone in the Belmont. I think I picked him for second or third, because my heart was with Smarty Jones. I was just looking at Birdstone's pedigree and hadn't realized he went back to Mr. Prospector (too far back to matter, but still...). He also has Secretariat's dam, Somethingroyal, in there. Pretty impressive pedigree. Mine That Bird has Mr. Prospector as his great-grandfather on his dam's sire's side. That one may actually count. That's about as far back in a pedigree as I figure should matter. jmho, ymmv.

Happy Mother's Day, Queenee!

It's a beautiful Spring day, warm, sunny, windy (can't have everything) — have a nice relaxing day! Everyone loves you!

And Happy Mother's Day to Key Dear, DamCat and Fluffy as well!

How about a little night music?

Well, maybe not night music, but music.

Ever hear of David Ng? No? He's an applied mathematics (in his case, finance) professor at Cornell. He has penned and recorded a ditty about mitochondria. Seriously. Check it out. In its way, it reminds me of The Philosophers Song by Monty Python:

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates himself was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
Hobbes was fond of his dram,
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:
"I drink, therefore I am."

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed!

A few weeks ago I discovered the wonders of cigar-box guitars. Very cool. This is Keni Lee Burgess playing Muddy Water's "Baby Please Don't Go" on his cigar box guitar.

Mine That Bird!

I missed the entire racing season up to the Kentucky Derby. Usually I will have seen at least some of the early races, but I saw none this year. I'm not sure it would have mattered much.

Key Dear and I were on the phone doing our usual Derby race picks. We put on our hats and made our selections. I had Dunkirk, Desert Party and General Quarters, with Musket Man as my fourth. She had Friesan Fire, General Quarters, Advice, and Summerbird as her fourth. PopPop decided to play this year, picking Hold Me Back and Flying Private. Mr. Bill had Chocolate Candy, Dunkirk and Papa Clem, Mr. K had Papa Clem, Mr. Hot Stuff and Flying Private, and Logito had General Quarters and Join In The Dance.

Unfortunately, while ESPN and NBC were interviewing celebrities and having fun, they weren't giving us any useful information about the horses. We got a couple stories about entries: 75-year-old Tom McCarthy and his one horse stable, consisting of $20K claimer General Quarters; and Friesan Fire's connections, trainer Larry Jones and jockey Gabriel Saez, who endured last year's tragedy with Eight Belles. But overall, I thought the pre-race coverage sucked bigtime.

How they missed pint-sized Mine That Bird's story is a complete mystery to me. He was a $9,500 bargain yearling at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October; Canadian 2-year-old Champion last year, winning 4 out of 5 races in Canada; had never won a race on dirt; had never even been in a Grade I Stakes race. His trainer drove him from New Mexico to Kentucky. He was off to a poor start this year and wouldn't have been in the Derby at all had so many of the early entries not dropped out. Old Fashioned, Quality Road, Win Willy, Take The Points, Square Eddie, among others, moved Mine That Bird up to 17th place, qualifying him for the Derby. Finally the favorite I Want Revenge was scratched the morning of the race.

Calvin Borel had been scheduled to ride Beethoven, who ended up being another withdrawal, and trainer Bennie "Chip" Woolley Jr., a former bareback rider and Quarter Horse trainer, asked him to ride Mine That Bird. Borel had never ridden the horse before the Derby, and the only instruction he got from Woolley was, "lay the horse back and be patient." Borel won the same way he had on Street Sense, by laying back and then threading around and between other horses and hugging the rail. It was a great ride. And the little horse didn't just win, he won by a bigger margin than Barbaro. He seemed to like the mud just fine.

Pioneerof the Nile was second. Musket Man was another nose back in third. Papa Clem was fourth, followed by Chocolate Candy, Summer Bird, Join in the Dance, Regal Ransom, West Side Bernie, General Quarters, Dunkirk, Hold Me Back, Advice, Desert Party, Mr. Hot Stuff, Atomic Rain, Nowhere to Hide, Friesan Fire and Flying Private.

So even though none of us were close to picking a contender, the little horse who could made us all smile and cheer. On to the Preakness!