A little bit better

Off Minor
by John Harvey

As I have said before, every outing Harvey's writing becomes a little bit better and this is no exception. Off Minor is book 4 in the Charlie Resnick series, the Nottingham police detective.

The basic plot involves the disappearance of two little girls over the period of three months, then the first one turns up dead. With conflicting evidence Resnick believes they have found their man, but did he kill both?

Our little boy is growing up.

So 24 is a rather involved show, each episode building on the next, ramping up the tension and excitement. We have been Tivo'ing the season and watching it whenever Lisa, Gunnar, and I can get together at the same time. That has not been easy, but we are about halfway through it so far.

We sit down to watch the 10pm hour and are into it about 10 minutes when the phone rings for Gunnar - it's a girl.

Gunnar: Uh, yeah - I will have to take this.
Lisa & Me: We are watching it now.
Gunnar: I will watch it later.
Us: We are going to delete when we are done.
Gunnar: I will find it online somewhere.

Rather talk to a girl than watch 24 (when you are involved in it already)

In Honor of the Last Post

Here are some great restrooms and toilet related images I have seen.

First is this art project where it is built out of one way mirrors. From the outside:

And from the insideMade to look like you are on top of a ski jump
WWMD

For those of you who like to be judged

Inside/Under a large Aquarium

In the great outdoors

Minimalist Urinals

Those crazy Asians

Clever ad about the consequences of drunk driving

ALL the world is a stage

Ezekiel is full of S@#%

Our son Zeke has been sick for almost three days with a mild sore throat, unrelenting fever, and moderate to severe abdominal pain. We thought he had the standard stomach flu that people get and were treating him with over the counter drugs. The confusing thing was the stomach pain because it kept moving from right where the appendix is to up by his ribs on the opposite side. Yesterday we finally gave up and took him in to the ER where they did blood work and really didn't find anything definitive. They suggested we stop with the Tylenol and come back if and when it got worse (to see if we were masking symptoms). Several hours later we were back where in they did an X-ray of his abdomen and got back some results from earlier. Zeke had two things going on, hence the confusion. First he was positive for strep explaining the sore throat and fever, and, well see the X-ray for yourself.

Lisa turned to me and we mouthed at the same time - "Zeke is full of...". Well you get it. Most of the time it's just an expression, but not with Zeke - he really is and will be for about two days as it works its way out.

Blessing #1 - Zeke is capable of giving himself a suppository.

I report, You decide

I saw this great story on CNN a few days ago. I guess there was a program in the US in which hobbyist recorded bird watching material for over 90 years. This program dated back to the 1880's and was recorded onto index cards - over 6 million of them. Currently the collection sits in the basement of the U.S. Geological Survey building in Laurel, Maryland and while they provide an unprecedented amount of information describing bird distributions, migration time and migration pathways, and how they are changing, it is worthless because it is unsearchable.
The solution, access the power of our connected society and let citizen scientists transcribe the information online. So if you are interested in being part of this project, have time to volunteer, or just want to be part of history; go online to the North American Bird Phenology Program at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. There you can watch a short training video and began entering the information.

Of course there is the other side of the story, mainly from this picture I found online several months ago and haven't been able to use, until now.
I guess they believe bird watchers are sick pervs that need to be stopped. From their website though I found this quote "Most disturbing are the groups of bird watchers seeking vicarious sexual gratification in the woods. Oftentimes they gather in relatively large groups and, aroused by birds’ mating rituals, they get involved in sickening mating rituals of their own, without any regard for birds’ privacy." I guess certain people among the 48 million bird watchers get so turned on they end up doing it in the woods.

So I am not passing any judgements, but both groups are looking for volunteers.

I guess it could have been worse

Police: Man fires at Utah McDonald's drive-thru after learning onlybreakfast available

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Police said a customer fired one or two shots into a Salt Lake City McDonald's after the driver of the car he was in was told the restaurant was not serving lunch yet. Police said the female driver of a white Dodge Intrepid pulled up to the drive-thru and ordered from the lunch menu early Sunday but was told only breakfast was available.

Police said two men then got out of the car and one pulled a sawed-off shotgun from the trunk, shooting into the drive-thru window once or twice, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday. No one was injured.

The car then left the scene.

Via The Associated Press

Promises

Promises in Death
by JD Robb

Eve Dallas and company investigate another murder in the city, this time it is one of their own. Not the best of the series but not the worse either. For me it is like watching a long running TV series now, I am more involved in following the characters lives than the actual plot sometimes.