From the “You did what……why???? department…..

According to this Yahoo!News story, Clint Straatman, a PE teacher at Minico High School in Rupert, ID, took a Mexican flag from a student…

because “white kids” might have hurt the 16-year-old.

¡Malo!

But wait…..it gets better…..

He said he put it in a garbage can because he had no place else to keep it.

¡Muy, muy malo!

Camelo had brought the flag to school, as did other students, in celebration of Cinco de Mayo….

When I used to watch a lot more TV I really liked to see the TLC station’s home improvement shows like Trading Spaces.  There was another show called Clean Sweep that always impressed me.  For those that haven’t seen it…   The Clean Sweep crew would show up at someone’s house where they would show us two rooms crammed full of junk.   With barely enough room to walk through.  And I would gawk at all that stuff and think I would never let my place get that bad.   The CS team would completely clear the rooms and then a designer and carpenter would come in and paint and redo the rooms with closet organizers and lableled bins, furniture, etc. and turn it into a functional space again.  Meanwhile the couple would be out on their lawn with all their piles of stuff.  The host and a professional organizer would then help them sort through all of it to Keep, Sell or Trash.  The organizer guy (with a cute Australian accent) would lay out a little section of tarp and allow them to keep only what could fit on it.   Then the homeowners go through excruciating distress trying to part with grandma’s treasures and all the unused wedding gifts they received…etc.   After they sort through it, they hold a yard sale.  What isn’t sold is donated to a charity.   In the end, the host brings them back into their house to see the new rooms: pristine and decluttered.  They are always stunned and delighted and most of them cry.   Sometimes I cried too.    

Yesterday was crazy…and today isnt looking much better.  Some days I just have no choice but to be in 2 places at once….being a single parent of 2 is like living in a zone defense.  And yesterday, it was ALL defense….

So, right now my one eye’s still closed and the other is only half open.  So I’m off to get the ‘skin-ponies’ (i decided that if LEP’s dogs can be ‘fur-people’, my kids can be ‘skin-ponies’….heeheehee) off to school, and then hopefully back here for a quick pony party post…a real one, not this drivel im typing right now….

…but if’n I dont make it, add some comments below so this place doesnt look so empty…..  😉

Please follow the link to the Yahoo!News story about the bald eagle whose beak was shot off, and the efforts of those attempting to make a prosthetic to enable her to eat.  There are some pictures of the bird, named ‘Beauty’ (hence the cheesy title of this pony party).

Part of Beauty’s beak was shot off several years ago, leaving her with a stump that is useless for hunting food. A team of volunteers is working to attach an artificial beak to the disfigured bird, in an effort to keep her alive.

That’s correct – this is an update about my pups. They’re both doing better – they finally have appetites. We’ve been giving them roasted chicken – that’s all they would eat. And they’ve been on a combination of medicines, including an antibiotic, phosphate chelator and a vitamin supplement (which is a lovely opaque, brownish-orange concoction). We’ve had tried to give them sub-cutaneous fluids, which are administered by poking the scruff of their necks with a needle. Not for the pickle household faint of heart. Now they’re eating carrots, pasta and other goodies. With a bit of luck, they’ll actually eat some dog food for a balanced diet, but we had to give them anything that they’d eat just so they could start putting on some weight, as they’re currently scrawny little things. This has been a long, arduous two weeks.

Docudharma’s picks:

and ucc edges me out by picking the correct number of games for the stars/fins series….good job, ucc!!

Conference Championship Matchups:

Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh (2) vs. Philadelphia (6) (series begins Friday)

Western Conference

Detroit (1) vs. Dallas (5)  (series begins Thursday)

Janis Ian

At Seventeen

I forgot about pony party because I have an out of town guest.

Oops. Here is your morning art…..

And a pop song to contemplate….

I like that whole “too shy” concept even though it doesn’t describe me….

Save your money on “Iron Man”….. I went to humor a friend. Short summary: white dude redeems himself with help of female personal assistant with secret crush on him mixed with skeptical realism, and loyal best friend who happens to be black second and doesn’t get to do much. Basically world order is restored by the rightful heir: the middle aged white man.

Have a great day. Please don’t recommend pony party, hang out chit chat and then go read the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list. Probably won’t be another pony party as I am in host mode. So bootleg up peoples.

This is one of the most amazing pieces of video i’ve seen in a while.  If you dont like modern dance you may not enjoy the routine…but the dancers themselves are beyond belief….a dance team where the female lost an arm, the male lost a leg…

Blessings to all on May Day*, known in traditional Celtic cultures as Beltane

^{*due to the leap year, and the tradition of evenly spacing the sabbats across the calendar, “May Day” falls in April this year.}

Some days there’s nothing i feel like putting in the pony.  Ok, that’s a lie.  Some days im particularly sensitive to the amount of sports content i put in the morning pony ;), but have nothing of substance to say.  On those days i generally hunt for a news story or some other item on the web i can present for discussion.  But on Monday when i am typing this (like with time travel in the douglas adams books, we need new verb tenses to discuss what we’re typing that wont have published until some time before youre reading it but after im typing it…but we’ll save that topic for another day) i’m horrifically unfocused…the Flyers are playing, and, at the risk of sounding whiny..i just dont feel like it…

So here are some finds from my horribly unfocused web travels…

From the “news you can use” category, is it any wonder that this Yahoo!News article caught my attention???

Chocolate may reduce pregnancy complication risk

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is rich in a chemical called theobromine, which stimulates the heart, relaxes smooth muscle and dilates blood vessels, and has been used to treat chest pain, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries, Dr. Elizabeth W. Triche of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and colleagues

Apparently after polling new mothers and testing cord blood, researchers found a possible link between higher chocolate consumption and fewer occurrences of preeclampsia.  So I guess all those Peppermint Patties I ate in 1993 were a good idea…  😉  

Thanks to all of you for your comments in my pony party last week. After a full week at the vet, my pups are now at home, though they’re not out of the woods yet. Both tails started wagging as soon as they walked in the door. And we got them to eat a bit. They’ve both had a really rough week, with maladies ranging from kidney failure to incontinence to jaundice. Have you ever seen a yellow dog? Not fur color – I mean yellow skin. It’s not a pretty sight. Both have lost over 2 lbs. In one case, that’s 20% of his body weight. For the other, it’s 15%. This hasn’t been a fun week. But, the vet is hopeful. We’ll just have to wait and see. They appear comfortable, though frail. Poor pups.

The most likely cause is leptospirosis, though that’s not confirmed yet. Pretty scary little bacteria, I must say. And, we have to take precautions, because it is zoonotic. But at least my pups are home.

Thanks again for all your kind wishes. I hope to be able to comment today, but that will depend on my schedule.