A snowy white morning here: six inches of the fluffy white and more to come.  Looks like a day to read, enjoy the activity outside the window, and be glad for warmth and food.

Yesterday, we went to MacGregor's Ranch, a nonprofit ranch with a museum and cows.  You can buy the grass fed, organic beef.  When we were waiting to pay, the woman figuring out our bill said that today the cowboys brought the cattle home.  They were feeding them a big lunch, and she invited us to have some food since there was plenty.

We declined, and then the cowboys came through the office, and I said that I had grown up with Roy Rogers, Rex Allen, Gene Autry and the Cisco Kid, they were my heroes.  One of the cowboys said, he was "goin' out to get me a latte."  Another offered that he still didn't pronounce latte right.  We all laughed.  Good cowboy humor reminding us of Dusty and Lefty of The Prairie Home Companion radio show.

Have a fine day, folks.

my fingers get so tangled! Howard Dean, thank you.  You're first.

Lastly, the Balloon Family, neighbors have left a bouquet of flowers and notes of sympathy for the family on their doorstep.  They think that even though what the family did was wrong, they are neighbors and are cared about. 

Nice to know that we care about each other even when we make mistakes.

and humor.  It feels like we've met for coffee on a bench outside the feed store on Main Street.

Phil, the dairy issue is tragic.  I hope Vilsac is doing something for you all.

I leave for a while smiling.  I've enjoyed this.

Wish we could share with you some of the gorgeous weather we have been having. It's in the mid-80's today, fairly dry for this region, and sunny. Good walking down to the river weather.

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Phil, I just don't understand why milk has gotten so cheap on the market right now. Maybe you can explain if you know. I suppose families with lots of milk drinkers appreciate it without realizing the effects it is having on the dairy farmers. I lived in Wis for a few years where even in the towns and cities one could always smell the dairy farms--not a bad smell really. But I wonder how devastating it is for that state as well.

Gas goes up, milk goes down.

1)  What do basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, lumberjacking and "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" all have in common? That's right, none of them causes nearly as much brain damage as America's most beloved sport-of-thugs: football. It is, without doubt, the most violent and sadistic gladiator game we have ever invented for giant, vaguely homoerotic males who weigh more than 250 pounds. Except for boxing.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/10/28/notes102809.DTL&nl=fix

Hi Mary, I plan to do some snowshoeing this afternoon.  Evergreen already has a foot of snow.

Hi Joan, Oooh, I love the warmth, the tropics, a river.  Good to know it's there and you are enjoying it.

Hi Phil, yes, Molly Magee is racing and leaping through the snow, a regular Long Tall Sally Snow Dog.  She's so funny, so affectionate.  We say from Ranch Rat to Tempur Pedic Princess.

Hi HuJo,

I read an article in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell on Pit Bulls and brain damage in footballers, as they say in Britain.  My father used to show me the scars on his head.  He played guard and linebacker for Knute Rockne? the famous coach for Notre Dame.  It makes me very sad.

I'm glad that my son didn't play football throuighout his high school career, just for a couple of years. 

Snow here now about 8 inches.

Phil, something has to be done for dairy farmers.  This is just wrong.

Record rainfall this October. The leaves are finally starting to fall. Most dairy farmers are steaking their herds.

Highs in the mid 50's, lows in the mid-40's..wind chill to the mid 30's.
It is to be about 65 and dry tomorrow so will do some yard clean-up.
Snow maybe next week.
We have more white Thanksgivings then Christmases.
Winter doesn't start until a month after the winter solstice; around the third week in January. Winter ends sometime in early April, although we have had snow on the ground until July 1.

The handyman who does odd jobs for us lost his house and is living in my trailer. If things are bad now, wait and see how bad things get if unemployment is not extended.

Congress is dithering over extending it. Too bad, they didn't dither over bank bonus payments from the bailout monies.

I called his office, but his voice mail box is full.  I sent this email:

Dear Senator,

I remember that you were known for your high ethical standards and morality at one time.  How can you, how can you do this with respect to health care reform?  44,000 people die because of lack of health care; 60 percent of bankruptcies are the result of medical expense; 46 million people uninsured.  How can you call yourself a citizen, a public servant, an ethical person and do what you are doing?  I am sick at heart, appalled, and find your behavior unworthy not only as a member of Congress, but as an American citizen. Shame on you.

Sincerely,
Pat Maslowski

Thank you for the excellent weather reports.

It's lovely here.  The colorful leaves are covering the dark grey asphalt and the sun is trying to peep thru the clouds, which look a bit like sirus/nimbus.

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Jo, my post about the poppies and Karzai was sarcasm.We need a sarcasm icon! :-)

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I'm still waiting for you to get thru a whole day without whining because we don't roll over and agree with everything you post here.  history doesn't bode well for a short wait...  ;)

Re-post up that "whining" post you claim I  wrote or stop whining, Dudette.  :-) 

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Yes, puddle, Lieberman should be stripped of his chairmanship yesterday and  I agree that he could bring this house down, altho at this point it's barely a shack. Your anger is shared by many, I think, including me.

3. I think it's a disgrace that a former VP nominee for the Democratic Party is betraying his "roots", - why hasn't Gore Obama called this s.o.b. out ?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it....

Subject: Rice art

Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan. But this is no alien creation - the designs have been cleverly planted. Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye. Instead, different colours of rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields.

As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge.



A Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants, the colours created by using different varieties, in Inakadate in Japan

The largest and finest work is grown in the Aomori village of Inakadate, 600 miles north of Toyko, where the tradition began in 1993. The village has now earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry and this year the enormous pictures of Napoleon and a Sengoku-period warrior, both on horseback, are visible in a pair of fields adjacent to the town hall.

More than 150,000 vistors come to Inakadate, where just 8,700 people live, every summer to see the extraordinary murals.

Each year hundreds of volunteers and villagers plant four different varieties of rice in late May across huge swathes of paddy fields.











http://www.hoax-slayer.com/japanese-rice-crop-art.shtml

Can't refuse this guy the fresh look...lol.
At least there are some Demos with guts...
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http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/24/rep-grayson-calls-cheney-a-vampire/

Rep. Grayson calls Cheney a vampire
Posted: October 24th, 2009 03:25 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNN)– Controversial freshman Rep. Alan Grayson, who has become famous for attacking the Republicans' health care plan, went on the attack again Friday night, calling former Vice President Dick Cheney a vampire for his recent criticism of the Obama administration's handling of the war in Afghanistan.

"I have trouble listening to what [Cheney] says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he's talking," the Florida Democrat said on MSNBC's Hardball Friday night. "But my response is this: he's just angry because the president doesn't shoot old men in the face. But by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?"...

Grayson is definitely on my list of possible challengers...depending on what happens with HC , the ME and S. Asia.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/24/rep-grayson-calls-cheney-a-vampire/

former, would you like to learn how to make links *hot?*

Grayson uses amusing hyberbole to make his points.  That's quite a talent.

Pakistan hit by car bomb hours after Clinton's arrival

A devastating bomb ripped through a busy market Wednesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar, just hours after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan. Officials put the death toll at more than 80, with more than 200 wounded. Many of the victims were thought to be women and children who were shopping in the bazaar. Dozens of people were feared to be buried under the rubble. » read more

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Dear Mr. President:

Out!  Now!

 

OFFICIAL "FUCK YOU JOE LIEBERMAN" THREAD!

bbl

Source: Washington Blade

Late "Golden Girls" star Bea Arthur has left $300,000 of her estate to the Ali Forney Center, an organization that supports homeless LGBT youth, according to a press release from the organization.

"We work with hundreds of young people who are rejected by their families because of who they are. We are overwhelmed with gratitude that Bea saw that LGBT youth deserve as much love and support as any other young person, and that she placed so much value in the work we do to protect them, and to help them rebuild their lives." says Executive Director Carl Siciliano.

Read more: http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_i...

Barack Obama Saves Joe Lieberman

OH THAT BARACK, he has decided to play the Bigger Man: “President-elect Barack Obama has informed party officials that he wants Joe Lieberman to continue caucusing with the Democrats in the 111th Congress, Senate aides tell the Huffington Post.”

http://wonkette.com/404275/barack-obama-saves-joe-lieberman/

;)