Here's a great reason to store old appliances in your yard: "As he heard us, he sprang to up and appeared he was going to run, but an inoperable refrigerator was blocking his way". Not only that, but "The suspect was carrying a potato peeler and a folded map of the Sacramento area," which if you ask me, are the bare essentials of life.

While hunting feverishly for a Love Boat Screensaver that I have yet to find, I found some great pictures of boats. Enjoy!

12 years ago today, my friend Jos was killed. I've come to regard this day with great reverence and also superstition. I've been dumped on this day, and had other horrifying things happen on around this day (2 years ago, my mom's dog, literally the center of her life, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Today, he's totally beaten the odds and the tumor seems to have regressed), so I enter each August 29 with great caution.

So far, nothing has happened, but it's only 11:13 am so I'm remaining cautious.

I'm also pausing a moment to remember Jos, a wonderful person who left this earth far too soon. Rather than repeat myself, here's what I had to say last year on this day.

I'm working at home and Rainie sauntered into my bedroom, where she isn't usually allowed to go (this way, we have one room where we don't have to stress about picking every little thing off the floor). I followed her in to usher her out and sat down to pet her (sometimes, I just can't help it). She wouldn't let me pet her and kept giving the fan the Evil Eye. She walked out of the room then came back, all the while trying to stare the fan down.

Her charms did not work, the fan is still there, so she ran off, barking in frustration.

'Erwin, I think we've won Powerball' . Enjoy your new truck and trips to NASCAR races, Erwin!

This is great! Next year there will be 2 stamps that say 'Spay your pet' and 'Neuter your pet' thanks to the hard work of the Prevent a Litter Coalition (PaLC). Let this be a reminder to all of you to make sure the pets in your own lives (even if they're indoor-only) are spayed and neutered. Not only does it lower the birth rate, preventing unwanted animals from entering the world into an uncertain fate, but it eliminates the risk of many reproductive-related cancers in male and female animals.

Face it kids, it's the right thing to do. Don't have the money? Ask your vet for a discount or a referral to a low-cost spay/neuter clinic. Your local shelter should also have some kind of reduced-rate program.

My Weekend Adventure
The weekend started off by me waking up with chest pains. Fearing the worst, but always practical, I got up, put in my contacts and fed the dogs before telling Andrea we had to go to the ER. Once there, it was amazing how quickly we were ushered in once I said "chest pains." Bypassing the bowel issues lady and the guy with a big bandage on his head, we headed into the bowels of the ER.

It took 3 hours, 4 different hospital people and 30 times of me telling Andrea no, she couldn't look into my ear with the ear thing before they told me I'd pulled a muscle in my chest and I could go home now with Motrin in hand (and I relented, givng Andrea a chance to see the money shot of my eardrum). As soon as they said it was just a muscle I was ready to get the hell out of there and back to playing hockey but no, I had to rest for at least one day (though the doctor told me a week).

And it was a good thing I rested. Our playoff game was great, even though we lost, we played a great game and I took a shot on goal against the toughest team in the league. The best part was having a large cheering section in the stands. Thanks to everyone who came!!

I can't help but think that "NS6.1 may be the missing link Netscape has needed in order to grab back a decent chunk of market share" is a bunch of hooey. But see for yourself what this guy has to say about it.

I was a happy Netscape user for a long time, refusing to look at IE or even use Outlook. But it soon became clear that IE is just a better product, these days it's much less of a little bitch to the pages I work on than Netscape has become.

Man, people suck sometimes. These two dogs are currently tied to a tree with electrical cords in a backyard. The rescue can't take them in because they've never had any shots and could transmit a host of diseases to other dogs. The good news is, they'll get into foster care before too long.