It has occurred to me I've been hogging a favorite family recipe y'all might enjoy making:  Thumbprint cookies

Tech's playing today.

They better win, else hoo boy!
did Charles buy his ticket too soon, since if they lose we can expect
to see the ticket prices for next week's game drop like the proverbial rock.

He'll still have a good time, doubtless, but still....

Hmmmm....that was strange.  On the way to taking Dmitry on his
weekly trek to Blockbuster I lowered my driver's side window so as to
wave at the car behind me (said vehicle's driver kindly let me in when
the lane I was in closed for construction).

Couldn't get it to go back up.

This is how dumb *I* am:  I tried putting it down a little further
at least twice more, just to prove that by golly, the window won't go up. 

Finally wound up with the window close to 2/3 of the way down. 
The passenger side door worked fine....it was just mine that refused to
head north.  Called the dealership's service department and was
told they'd have to disassemble the door to be able to see what's wrong
with it, and if they can at least get the window back up.  But
3:30 on a Friday afternoon?  Doubtful they could get to it today.

Well, joy.  We headed home, with me periodically tormenting myself
by trying to get the window to go up.  Nope.  Nothing. 
Was wondering how the Glad Press-and-Seal would work as a temporary
covering when I pulled into the driveway and tried again for no
particularly good reason.

It worked. 

Of course, I have no idea what went wrong with the dumb thing in the
first place, but with luck I can keep from rolling it down until next
week, when I'll go ahead and take it in to be looked at.  It's
under warranty right now, so may as well be proactive.  Eventually
I'll need to put the darn thing down again.

It was really very strange. 

Oh my.  Now here's a bit of news worthy of being included as one of CNN.com's headlines:  New James Bond a blond. 

Stay tuned for developments as they occur! 

It's appalling how shallow we are as a nation, that the hair color of
some actor chosen to play a fictitious character is regarded as "news."

You know, every once in a while..... 

Just fetched Dmitry from school, and spent a fair amount of the drive
home periodically bleating "DMITRY!" to his impassioned jeremiads
against some boy who apparently threatened to beat him up after school,
such jeremiad ranging from plans to grow his nails long so the villain
can be cut, to hiring a "hunt man" ("Dear, I think you mean hit man...."), to pleas for a home gym with a eye to bulking up, the better to "smash his face into the wall".

This was a fun drive, to be sure.

However, as soon as he hit the back door his mood brightened as he
cheerily told me, "Nice knowing you!" which is his standard way of
letting me know it's game time; before he headed to his room, however,
he requested a snack.  Upon my offering to put a Totino's pizza in
the oven for him, he thanked me profusely as he trotted down the hall.

Then he stopped and called out, "I love you, Mom!" 

Did I mention it was two years ago this very day he arrived home? 

Love you too, sweetie. 

Yesterday afternoon while playing Runescape, Dmitry at last really
"connected" with another player via on-line chat, having a fairly long
conversation.

Came happily into the living room, essentially demanding to know where this
has been all his life.  What's utterly astounding is how he 
-  as do many of us, I daresay  -  takes at full face
value whatever someone in chat says.  As an example, he has a real
problem in Runescape with keeping his connection.  For some
reason, it tends to be regularly lost, though it doesn't happen to me
when I'm on that
computer.  Most likely because of the wireless router used for
that one, I'd think, but whoever it was Dmitry was chatting with opined
the culprit's the keyboard.

The keyboard? 

Dmitry spent at least five minutes trying to convince his father he needs a new keyboard, insisting "But he said....!"

Don saying, "No, Dmitry, it has nothing to do with the keyboard" was argued against, while the opinion of some guy he's never met before was taken as gospel. 

Well, Charles will be in Austin on Saturday, October 22 for the Big Game . . . Texas Tech v. UT.  (Don't you wish you were going, E-B?  )

Actually, as ticket prices go, he got it at a pretty decent
price.  Of course, this is "decent" in the same way $2.85 seems
like a "decent" price for a gallon of gasoline.  In fact, it's
utterly appalling, but compared to what it's been, and is in some places, it's not bad. 

Omigoodness....now this is a headline I've been longing to read:  Reality Shows Hit Hard Times:  Ratings down for many programs

[sighing]  I love Fort Worth.  I do.  Really.

But I loathe the Fort Worth
city council's regrettable enthusiasm for forced annexation of
unincorporated property.  As a story in today's Star-Telegram (probably requiring free registration) says:

A bumper crop of protest signs has
sprouted along the streets of the Willow Springs Ranch subdivision in
northwest Tarrant County.

"No forced annexation" declares a yellow-and-black sign at an entrance to the neighborhood.

Other signs in front of upscale homes show a red circle with a line through it over the words "Involuntary Annexation."

Saying they don't want to pay city taxes for unwanted services,
subdivision residents are fighting a proposal by Fort Worth to annex
Willow Springs and a dozen other areas on Nov. 8. Although public
hearings on the annexation have already taken place, some residents say
they plan to show up at today's City Council meeting to speak out.

"We are getting the services we rely on from the county," said
Willow Springs resident Anna Sadler. "We are going to be paying $2,700
a year more in taxes for services we don't need."

Most of the homes draw water from wells, have their own septic
systems and are protected by the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department
and area fire departments, Sadler said. Her family already pays more
than $7,500 a year in school and county taxes, she said.

Willow Springs is in a 12-square-mile
area along U.S. 287 that has been identified by Fort Worth for
annexation. In 2003, the city annexed the area -- at the time
undeveloped -- for limited purposes, giving Fort Worth some regulatory
powers but exempting residents from paying city taxes.

The city indicated then that it would proceed with full annexation,
under which residents must pay city taxes and the city must extend
services.

First of all, if forced annexation doesn't qualify as "no taxation
without representation," I don't know what does.  Oh, sure,
they'll inherit a city councilman to go along with those brand,
spanking-new taxes, but that's no help.  It's utterly incredible
to me that a city can just decide someone's house is now in that city
when it wasn't before, and that they're going to be the recipient of
unneeded services for which they'll be charged, like it or not.

Annex vacant land, fine.  Annex occupied land when a majority of the landowners vote approval for it, fine.  Just muscle in and take over? 

That stinks.  OTOH, thinking about how city's have begun
wielding the eminent domain club with more verve than righteousness, I
suppose it's all of a piece.

Second, Fort Worth is BIG ENOUGH.  We don't need any more people, having already hit over 600K people as it is.

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