Is this a can of worms to open?

You’ve seen every type of license plate. Plates for your favorite college, plates with the state birds, yada, yada, yada.

Well the Florida state legislature is debating whether to create a specialty plate for Christians. Being a Christian it’s kind of easy to say “why not?” But also wanting to be fair, I think then, there should be plates for other religions. And here’s where that can of worms comes in. How can you do all of them? If you want to do all of them, can any state afford it? I don’t know how many requests there would be for, just for example, let’s say a Wiccan plate, but if they asked and the state said “NO” - is that fair?

Would it be fair to say, if we get at least “300″ (or some number that makes it feasible) pre-orders for a plate then we’ll create it.

As I said, I’m not sure where I stand on this. Whaddya think? Hit the comment button and let me know.

Found Money - Lost!

I suppose you already have plans for the money that you'll get back from the IRS...the money that you'll get to help "spur" the economy. For us, since we don't have any dependants anymore, we were looking for $1200. We have always called this kind of a windfall "found money." It just shows up and wasn't' part of the budget. We had decided we were going to "splurge" and buy something nice. I was leaning toward a new HiDef Plasma TV.


I had actually done some preliminary shopping around and when that money was automatically deposited into the ol' checking account, - off the to store I was going to go.


But it's funny how things work out. Last week one of the cars wouldn't start. Called the auto club and had it towed to my mechanic. Turns out, it's going to cost...about $1500. Guess the big screen will have to wait. Ah, well.



Looking at it from the Silver Lining Side...at least we're getting $1200 from the government and we won't have to decide whether we want to eat or drive... And my mechanic will probably have a new big screen to watch. (sigh).... Maybe he'll invite me over for the games this year.

I hate spammers!

This is just great! I found this article this morning. Just what we need a new way to be annoyed by spammers.

Here at work, we just upgraded to Microsoft Exchange Server. Because we have a lot of our email addresses posted on our websites, we get a lot of spam. It is not unusual for me to walk in on Monday morning and find more than 500 spam emails in my spam filter. I used to go to the trouble of checking each one, but I just don't have the time anymore.

Now, it looks like spam will start to clutter my calendar. Why can't these worthless spammers get a real job at a legitimate company? They are obviously very talented, very creative and computer savvy. You'd think that companies like Microsoft, Google, Oracle, etc would love to have them on their team.

Ah Well....I guess that's progress. Excuse me, gotta run...I think I have to schedule a Nigerian fundraiser according to my meeting schedule.

More Wacky Birds

This event at the Mid American Center looks like fun if you like Exotic Birds (Parrots and the like). As you can probably tell from my previous “wacky bird” posts, my wife and I are “Bird Fans.” Our first birds were a pair of cockatiels (Fred and Ethel). We had them for a few years until Ethel went to the great bird cage in the sky. Then we decided we wanted a larger hook bill, so we got “Legolas.” (this by the way was a long time before the movie. I started reading Tolkien’s Hobbit and the Ring series back in the 70’s.) Legolas is a Military Macaw and about 30 years old at this point. We’re not exactly sure of the age. We got him from private citizen who told us he was (we think he’s a he) about two.

Then my father-in-law got “Pepe” from a friend of his. He got “tired of him” and we took him in. Pepe is a Moluccan Cockatoo and a real pain in the “cage.” We believe he was mistreated by his first owner (not my father in law) and is very very skittish. He is much more comfortable with my wife than me. He really won’t let me get near him.

Legolas on the other hand is “My Bird” and he doesn’t really dislike my wife, though he does like to torment her. He does talk, but these birds aren’t known for their speaking ability. His vocabulary is probably about 15- 25 words. He says his name, calls our dogs, tells us to “go to bed”, and a few other phrases he picked up from things we’ve said around the house.

Large birds like these are really amazing creatures. They can live for 60 - 80 years. They have unique personalities, just like people. Legolas for example, will allow me to do just about anything to him. I can pet him, rub his wings, and carry him around on my shoulder all day. He’ll give me a kiss, take a peanut from my mouth, etc. - all without a complaint. When my wife tries any of those things, he’ll get “smooth” on her…he’ll coo, say his name real softly and act like he can’t wait for her to pick him up. But the minute she tries, he’ll scream and bite her (not hard, just enough to let her know he’s the boss.)

If you have ever had an interest in exotics, I would recommend you head over to the MAC for the GOCBS Bird Fair on May 4th. It’s only a buck and there should be some real pretty and interesting birds there

Movies on the Computer?

Do you watch movies on your computer? I don’t. I do subscribe to Netflix and have for years. Now as part of your subscription, you can stream some of their library directly to your computer. It sounds cool, but sitting in front of the computer to watch a movie is not what I consider comfortable. However, I can watch movies on my Zune. I know it’s weird, but I when I watch them on a the Zune, I usually only watch about 10 or 15 minutes at a time. It may take a week to finish the movie, but I can do it.

But I saw this story this morning and this could change my whole idea. If Netflix manages to work out the LG set top box at a reasonable price, my whole opinion of watching streaming movies will change.

UPS Found me.

Well, the UPS Truck showed up last night. Guess they found their way back to Missouri Valley. The Zune Case, after taking the scenic route, arrived on-time as promised and is now hugging the Zune and hanging on my belt. Life's good.

Sometimes, I'm easily pleased.

A Geography Lesson for UPS?

I mentioned the other day, I bought a Zune. It's getting to be "outdoor" work season and I like to listen to music while I'm out mowing the lawn and/or working in the yard. I didn't want to just stick the Zune in my pocket. I found a pretty cool looking case on line for about $10 bucks. So, I ordered it.

A little clarification, if you're not familiar with this area. I live just outside Missouri Valley, Iowa. That's about 25 miles north of Omaha.

On Friday the Zune Case left Colorado Springs on the big brown truck headed for Missouri Valley, with an estimated arrival of today (Tuesday, April 15). I was provided with the tracking number and sure enough, the big brown truck arrived in Omaha yesterday afternoon. And it would be on it's way to Missouri Valley shortly. BUT WAIT, yesterday evening it left Omaha headed for Des Moines, IA. WHAT? In order to get to Des Moines, it goes right by Missouri Valley and then about 120 miles to the east.

I checked the tracking this morning and lo and behold at 3 AM, the package was put back on the UPS truck and headed back to Omaha.

Here's the Tracking:

Stay Tuned! Will it show up at the front door? Or take another scenic tour of western Iowa?