Friday, March 03, 2006

1. Please continue to pray for my grandfather and his wife. He is being released from the Florida hospital today in order to be brought home to Virginia tomorrow. They will be driven back by her daughter and son-in-law - it’s a long drive and they are anticipating it will be a 14 hour trip. Please pray for their safety and wisdom should anything happen with Granddad on the way.

My mother is making arrangements for their home here in the meantime, although I think the plan is for them to take him directly to the hospital just in case.

2. Beau’s phone interview with the college went well yesterday. They want him to talk to their chaplain and get some references and recommondation letters. So that’s a positive sign and we’re encouraged. Please continue to pray for him in this process - it’s hard for him to not know about his job future. But he’s been a good sport about the substitute teaching and we’re grateful for that small provision.

Thanks for praying. We really appreciate it!

Our small group meets on Thursday nights, but Beau was feeling under the weather and so we stayed home last night. So I got to watch TV. Assume the following contains spoilers.

Survivor Exile Island: Wasn’t Cirie told that she would be the next to go home when Casaya went to tribal? Interesting development there, which makes me happy since I’m on La Mina’s side. I wonder how much they all reek now after the fish throwing/chopping challenge. Beau noted the oddity of Terry gaining strength on exile while the rest of his team crumbles. I believe it’s his Navy survival training - he knows it’s for a short time and not really a big deal for him. They are too dependent on him as their leader and they flounder (so to speak) without him there. Yes, Beau watched it with me and I think he liked it because he didn’t say anything derogatory like he usually does.

CSI: Recorded on the DVR for viewing tonight. Beau was worried that he’d miss it by going to bed early. I reminded him of the DVR. He likes that one, too.

The Office: Was recorded and I watched it when I woke up at 4:30am this morning. Yep, all on my own, wide awake at 4:30am. So I got up rather than toss and turn for the 30 minutes until the alarm went off. Anyhoo, hilarious and sad, as usual. Really this is the weirdest show to me, but I love it.

Without a Trace: This is a great show and I really liked last night’s episode. Anyone else think the boy’s dad looked like a younger Victor Garber?

Last week her boyfriend was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.

Today, the cell phone bandit is to be sentenced.

Alxandria, Va. (AP) - The “cell phone bandit” returns to court Friday to learn her fate.

Candice Martinez was the woman seen in the infamous surveillance video, chatting on the phone while robbing four Wachovia Bank branches in Northern Virginia last October and November.

The now 20-year-old Martinez has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence under an agreement with prosecutors.

The plea deal has no guarantees on jail time. Martinez could face life in prison. But her attorney Michael Davis has said they’re hoping the judge will follow sentencing guidelines of eleven.5 to 12-years.

Martinez is due to appear in Alexandria (website - news) federal court. Last week her boyfriend was sentenced to a dozen years in prison for the bank robberies.

Unrelated, what I want to know is how the AP reporter graduated from J-school? Since when is “eleven.5” proper grammar anywhere? Does the AP not have editors?

UPDATE: She got 12 years as well.

I got this from my sister-in-law by email:

Osama at the Pearly Gates

When Osama bin Laden died, George Washington met him at the Pearly Gates. He slapped him across the face and yelled, “How could you dare try to destroy the nation I helped conceive?”

Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted, “You wanted to end our liberties, but you failed!”

James Madison followed, kicked him in the groin and said, “This is why I allowed our government to provide for the common defense!”

Thomas Jefferson was next, beat Osama with a long cane and snarled, “Evil men like you drove me to write the Declaration of Independence.”

The beatings and thrashings continued as George Mason, James Monroe and 66 other early Americans unleashed their anger on the terrorist leader.

As Osama lay bleeding and in pain, an Angel appeared. Bin Laden wept and said, “This is not what you promised me.”

The Angel replied, “I told you there would be 72 Virginians waiting for you in Heaven. What did you think I said?”

Beautiful.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

So is today a blog holiday and I didn’t get the memo?

Just finished Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card. I have the next in the series on hold at the library.

Next up is Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts, finally. I’m in the mood for lighter reading.

A note to all callers be they family, friends, whomever of any of our prisoners:

1. We go not give out information of any kind about any of our prisoners. Period. End of discussion. Call the attorney. Period. End of discussion.

2. You can get huffy with me all you want, but it is much more likely that I will stonewall if you do. Policy is policy and you being rude is not going to break me. I will not go against our policy no matter what your special situation is.

3. When I explain our policy about prisoner information, I also give you the advice to contact the prisoner’s attorney. If the attorney is not helping you then consider getting a new attorney.

4. I cannot make your loved one call you. They have access to phones any time they want. If they are not calling you then they must not want to talk to you.

5. You calling me to insist that they need to be released today does not mean they will be released today. We do nothing without an order from the court, which is on a signed, certified piece of paper from the judge himself.

6. We do not give out information of any kind about any of our prisoners. Period. End of discussion. Call the attorney. Period. End of discussion.

7. Do not make me repeat myself more than twice. I’ll be happy to repeat the initial statement a second time to clarify. The third time you insist that I must give you information is when I will lose patience with you and threaten to terminate the call.

8. Remember that I am the one who works for the agency. I know what I’m talking about more often than not. If I don’t know something, I will always give you a different person to talk to or to call.

9. I’ll repeat this one a third time, since that does seem to be the charm: We do not give out information of any kind about any of our prisoners. Period. End of discussion. Call the attorney. Period. End of discussion.

Yes, I’ve had a couple of callers today who insisted that I was to give them information about their prisoner loved one and then got condescending and huffy with me when I stuck to my guns. I don’t raise my voice with these people, but there’s a definite chill in my voice when I’m perturbed. My office got a little frosty this morning.

AI5: Like most folks, I think the guys are of better quality than the gals this season. My favorites are still: Taylor Hicks, Elliot Yamin, and Chris Daughtery. I missed Chris’ performance last night since he sang last and I had switched over to LOST. I predict that Kevin will most likely go home or maybe David the crooner. Gideon still gives me the shivers for some reason.

LOST: Wow. Lots of new clues last night. The rest is hidden to protect against spoilage.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

One of our admins is retiring. Her last day in the office is in a couple of weeks, but she has a lot of sick leave accrued and will be using that until her official last day. She’s solitary and didn’t want a huge luncheon, but she did want to go to lunch with My Boss and me. I forgot that today was the day.

What stinks is that she’s an early bird that gets to the office at 6:30am, so she was ready for lunch at 11am. I usually eat lunch at around 1pm since I’m here until 5:00-5:30pm. So here I sit at about 2pm, with three more hours to my day, but feeling like it’s almost time to go home.

Plus, it’s a little boring in the office while The Circus™ is on hiatus this week. I believe that party will resume on schedule next week, so I’ve got that going for me.

We went to the Great American Steak & Buffet, by the way.

No, no, no, people. You’re confusing TV shows.

Philimination = The Amazing Race not LOST.

Two different kinds of shows here. One is reality TV, the other is not.

Two different networks here. One is CBS, the other is ABC.

Two different nights. One is on Tuesdays, the other is on Wednesdays.

Get is straight! Sheesh.

I only managed to stay up until my normal 10pm last night. I managed to watch the second hour this morning. Without further ado, click the link for my 2 cents on the teams, Phil, and The Race.