Angels. Blue ones.

Man I've been crappy about the posting! You'd think I could manage to find something to stick on the ol' Blog once a month, but apparently not. At least, nothing interesting and worth reading...so instead, here are some pictures.

I've lived in Seattle for what, 37 summers or so (three summers away during college...), but I've never actually gone to the hydro races. Nor have I gone down to see the Blue Angels air show. Both of these were big events in the 70s when I was growing up, but I was too young to drink and didn't have a boat. And my dad wasn't really a "go sit in a crowd of drunks with my kid" kind of guy.

Well, I figured that now that I'm 40 and have kids of my own I might as well submit them to the expected joys of standing on a bridge with a bunch of other people while really sweet jets fly overhead. So we packed the bikes on the car, headed down to I-90, rode through the tunnel, and found ourselves surrounded by a teeming mass of humanity. Not a steaming mass, because it was still kind of cloudy, but definitely teeming.

When we got there the Patriots aerobatics team was doing their thing in, um, whatever kind of plane it is that they fly. I'm not a plane geek, so I don't know, but they looked like this:



I like the headlights they have on the wings...very sexy.

So anyway, after the Patriots finished we moved out on to the actual bridge - closed to traffic, thanks for asking - and waited for the Angels to show up. First on the scene was their big prop plane, Fat Albert (I think...). This is the plane that hauls all their crap around. It's like their tour bus, only instead of riding in it the stunt pilots fly around in their sweet jets and let the roadies (Marines, in this case...) fly the slow bus. Poor marines. It's still a cool looking plane, and can climb pretty damn steeply as the second photo shows.



Well, after Albert had left the scene the main show started. Well, not immediately...the planes take a rather circuitous approach, heading north from Boeing Field past downtown, around the top of Lake Washington, then down over Bellevue and finally coming back west across the lake, where they hit the smoke. And you need the smoke, 'cause they're kind of small and you can't hear them until they're on top of you...



And after that the show was on. If you've never seen the Blue Angels, the show consists of four planes working together - the Diamond - and two "solo" planes who do individual stunts and stunts together. The impressive part of the Diamond act is that they're so dang close together pretty much all the time:



Whereas the solo pilots fly apart, but at much higher speed. And they do crazy stuff like play chicken and then miss each other by what looks like three feet but is probably a very safe 5 or 10...



Anyhoo, there are more links in the album in case you're interested!

Quote of the week

Well, of the early week, anyway..." Police did not know if the same wookie was involved in Sunday's attack. "

From the illustrious news source MyFoxLA comes this great headline: Chewbacca Allegedly Sexually Assaults Marilyn Monroe, Flees.

It's pretty much my favorite animal.

The zebrula. Not as cool as the Liger, but still pretty cool looking.

Adding to the list...

The list of ways I don't want to die, that is. I would like to add these two to that list:

1. Die in dairy farm manure pit: "Exposure to methane gas led to the deaths of five people, but whether they suffocated from the fumes or drowned in 18 inches of liquefied cow manure may never be known, authorities said."

2. Shot in the face by a fireworks mortar: "A powerful firework exploded in the face of a woman trying to set it off, killing her as her fiance and 8-year-old son watched, police said...'She basically killed herself in front her children and her fiance,' Welch said."

Finally a reason to move to Winnipeg!

From the fine folks at Yahoo News comes this headline: Double pepperoni, mushrooms, extra cheese and ... porn?

To quote from the story:

Porno Pizza in Winnipeg has been doing brisk business since opening last week, titillating the hungry with racy pictures at the bottom of every pizza box.

"They range from softly-lit, lube-on-the-lens pictures like in Playboy, to raunchy, hardcore photos that would make Larry Flint blush," pizzeria owner Corey Wildeman told AFP. "The image is revealed as you eat the pizza."

I must say, though, what are you saying about the quality of your pizza if you have to give people porn as an incentive to finish the pie?

Another investment opportunity lost

And to think I was planning on shorting machete futures...

Price of machetes drops after elections

Headline of the day

From CNN.com: "Astronaut's attorney: She did NOT wear diapers"

Glad they set the record straight on THAT one...

Things I didn't know

From an article about the high rate of bodies being found in the Spokane River in the last year and a half (11 in 16 months): "Bodies normally resurface in seven to 10 days, Walker said. They typically float at the surface for 24 to 48 hours before sinking again."

I'll keep that in mind.

OMFG

Fortunately I don't have any trips planned to amusement parks soon (although we've talked about going to Silverwood over in Idaho)...then again, I'm not a big fan of the free-fall ride anyway. But still...

Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags in Kentucky - CNN.com: "'The people on the ride just came and hit the ground,' she said. 'When I got up there, the lady she was just sitting there, and she didn't have no legs. ... And she was just there, calm, probably in shock from everything.'"

RIP, Cousin Gerry!

So when my mom calls me in the middle of the day it's usually one of two things: the computer is broken and she needs tech support, or she ran in to someone who knew me back in the day and wants to tell me about it. Or, a third option, I've called or e-mailed her asking if she can watch the kids. It's almost never to tell me that someone has died, and on the few occasions that it was it's usually one of her neighbors and the death has been relatively expected.

So I was completely taken aback when she called me today to tell me that my cousin Gerry had died.

Sure, Gerry was old...at 75 he'd lived a good, full life. But the problem was he wasn't done living it. Unlike my dad (Gerry's 1st cousin, making me his 1st cousin once removed, if I'm doing it right...) Gerry wasn't battling a mind-eating disease. Unlike my sister's college roommate who recently passed Gerry hadn't fought MS for 25 years. In fact, he was in such good shape for a 75-year-old that he was out riding his bike when it happened.

Mom was thin on the details when she called, having only received a voice mail from another cousin (we're big on the cousins in my family...Dad had 5 or 6 uncles and each of them had at least 2 kids) saying something to the effect of "Gerry died this morning in a bicycle crash." When I hear the term "fatal bicycle crash" I, being a good Seattelite, assume that there was a large, motorized vehicle involved. Not in this case. According to the story in the Appleton paper he was riding down a hill through a park when he had to slam on the brakes and inertia took over. If you've ever done this you know what happens after you slam on the brakes: bike stops, person continues. The usual result is scraped hands, skinned knees, bruises galore. In Gerry's case the end result was a broken neck and, a while later at the emergency room, a departure from this mortal coil.

I'm not going to be able to do Gerry justice, because while I knew him like I know all my cousins, I didn't really KNOW him. I know he was a scholar - he taught French for something like 39 years. I know he was one of the most literate people I've met - my sister Barb, who went to Lawrence University where Gerry taught, was for years afraid that her Christmas cards would come back covered in red ink. I know he could spin a yarn, mesmerizing his audience with his soft, warm voice and attention to detail in a way I never could. And I know that I'll miss him, and that my main regret today is that, when we went to his 75th birthday party last summer, I didn't bring the camcorder. I thought about it, then consciously decided to leave it in the motel room because "there won't be anything to film." Sure, nothing other than Gerry reciting the family history, explaining who we were and why we were in Ward, Colorado on a sunny August day. And now that memory will live on in my mind, but no where else.

Sleep peacefully, Gerry, and if you see Dad wherever you've gone tell him "hi".

Solstice Parade!

So one of the Chicken family's annual traditions is to pack in the car and head down to Freemont for the mighty Solstice Parade. We've been going since, oh, some time in the '90s, back in the days when the SPD were uptight and if anyone so much as took off their top it was off to the slammer.

Well, as the photo evidence shows, the cops have lightened up dramatically and the amount of painted skin has risen just as dramatically. And now that I have a decent camera I can finally do the parade justice.

As always, the naked bicyclists kicked things off. While last weekend featured "World Naked Bicycle Day," here in Seattle it was wicked wet and cold. Not that taking a practice run would have made these folks skip the parade, mind you, 'cause I'm pretty sure they like riding around showing their painted bits off to the masses. Here are pictures of a few of them...I like the elephant boys, 'cause if you're going to wear a codpiece you really want one that makes you look well hung. The ladybug lady was nice too, but she kind of lost it with the pipe cleaner antennae.



I like these boys too, especially the guy with the flower paint, 'cause he clearly wanted to just go nude but didn't want to buck the body-painting trend. Not sure if the guy in the middle picture is a cop or a sailor, or maybe just some guy who has a thing for uniforms. Oh, and as you can see we found Waldo. In fact, there were about 10 of them, and later in the day one of them came by and hugged someone standing behind us. Up close the paint didn't look as good, 'cause it was kind of starting to crack.



In other news, Lest you think everyone biking naked was in their 20s and early 30s and good looking, here's proof that older folks can get their body paint freak on.



And if Linda Carter had just painted on her costume, Wonder Woman would still be on TV. Well, ok, not on TV, but at least on DVD. And I love the woman in the suit...looks like she's off to work at Staples. The beauty in the paint job is in the details, so zoom in and check out the collar and cuff work.



Finally, after the bikers were gone the "real" parade showed up, led by this bead-throwing stilt-walking guy and the two topless chicks carrying the solstice banner. They were followed, as always, by the samba dancers and band and a guy wearing Nemo as a hat:


The next group had something to do with water, bottled and otherwise. I think they didn't like bottled water, based on the weird long-neck dudes covered with bottles and the guys in suits with all the money, but I could be wrong...



That was followed by about 300 fake Egyptians, led off by dancing maidens and ending with people carrying pieces of a pyramid. They didn't put it together for us...not sure if they ever did. I just want to know who made all their costumes, 'cause that's a lot of fake snakes.



Next up, apparently a message to reduce, reuse and recycle. Or ball up all those plastic containers and roll them down the street dung-beetle style.



These guys were just wandering around. Not sure who they are supposed to be, but they looked pretty cool.



Again with the recycling theme. Or maybe she just wanted people to yell "Nice Jugs!"



This dude's space air bike thing was really sweet...looks like the fan is pushing it, but I'm pretty sure it was front-wheel drive.



Nice hair. Really.

This group featured jack-in-the-box washing machines. Turn the cranks and out pops a kid covered in laundry!



And for those who don't like thrash metal, how about a hand-powered disco and giant boom box? (didn't get a picture of the boom box, unfortunately...)



If I'd been thinking I would have asked these guys where they got their sweet space suits. But I was too distracted by the bubble man.



The Ents made an appearance last year too, I believe, but this year they took it to the next level. Really cool costumes, and the giant tree dude was gorgeous. I really expected him to get up and walk away.



And last but not least, bringing up the rear, the kids' marimba band from, um, somewhere. Salmon Bay school, maybe? Don't know, and didn't get a program so I can't look it up.

All your freak barrel are belong to us

I'll admit it...I sometimes surf Craigslist for no good reason. Just looking for a deal on something. And then I stumble across something like this and it just confuses the hell out of me. And I'm not talking about your run-of-the-mill confusion, this one is profound.

The confusion starts with the title: **Complete FREAK BARREL Kit**W/ Stainless Steel Back**OBO - $100

Not only do I not know what a FREAK BARREL is, I didn't realize they came in kits. Or that they could have stainless steel backs. I'm intrigued...does the barrel come complete with freaks? 'cause the Fremont Solstice Parade is a couple weeks away and I'm short on freaks right now. If there are enough of them the $100 might just be a deal!

Then I read a little farther and come to find that not only is this guy selling his freak barrel kit, but, and I quote, "The system is shocker threaded so all you ballers out there with shockers this is a hott addition to your marker."

The combination of "shocker threaded" and "ballers" throws me for a loop. I thought "ballers" meant street kids playing hoop. But I don't know how that relates to threading. Are we talking threads like "dude, check out them threads! That cat's lookin' hot!" or are we talking threads like "fucking QuickieLube over-tightened my oil plug and stripped the fucking threads"? And what makes this addition to my marker so hot it requires two ts?

Once it gets to the red parts front and the rainbow color inserts I'm completely off the reservation and have no idea what he's talking about. If you're really curious, google "freak barrel" and learn about the wonder that is the freak barrel kit.

If not, just join me in bemused confusion and crack another bottle of gin.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Logan Chicken!

To steal shamelessly from The Beatles, it was 10 years ago today, Logan Chicken taught the band to play. Or at least started teaching me to be a dad...here's a look back at years zero through ten!

"Midtown Madness" comes to life

So one of the kids' favorite games on the ol' xBox is Microsoft's driving game Midtown Madness 3. And the hook in the game is that there's a joyride option where you can just drive around Washington DC or Paris and basically destroy stuff. Can't squish people - this isn't GTA or anything - but you can smash windows and bust up the car pretty darn well. And one of the places you can drive is down into the subway. And race along the tracks. And get hit by a subway car. All from the comfort of your own basement.

Clearly this German guy has played the game and thought he'd try it out for himself.

Finally, Tintin gets his props

And by "props" I naturally mean "movie deal". All just in time for the 100th birthday celebration of Georges Remi, better known as Herge.

Now...who should play the intrepid reporter?

Clearly it was too much for Jerry

On the same day that Lindsay Lohan tops Maxim's 'Hot 100' the Rev. Jerry Falwell dies at age 73.

I like to think it was the picture that goes with the Lindsay story that did it...

Yet another old guy getting a hole in one...

So this 90 year old guy in Florida got his first hole in one the other day, and this is what he has to say about it: "'I have very poor eyesight,' Tanner said. 'I seldom see where the ball goes.'"

Clearly my eyes need to get worse. My only excuse for not seeing where the ball goes is that it almost never goes where I aim it!

Clearly the AP understand's Bothell's fashion sense...

Why else would they include this sentence in their article about tonight's American Idol results show (bold italics are mine)?

"Lewis, 25 and the only man left in the competition, overcame Cowell's attack. The fashion police may not forgive his choice of a t-shirt with a painted-on bowtie Wednesday. Lewis is from Bothell, Wash."

Karma is on the war path

First we have this guy, who got drunk and thought it would be a good idea to tip over some tombstones. Well, Karma got it's own by crushing his legs with one of said tombstones, and now he's facing charges.

Then you've got these nuckleheads, who decided it would be fun to climb in to a giraffe's enclosure at a zoo in Latvia. In this case karma took the form of the pissed off giraffe, who proved that no, he's not a cute little horsey, by beating the crap out of the drunks.

You go, karma!

Yeesh!

Another entry in the things I don't want to find when touring a house I'm thinking of buying: The owner dead in bed.

To quote the Realtor, "I've smelled death. I know what death smells like. I can't believe my sinuses were that bad."

Oops...

Not a good day on the job...

You go, Ted.

Terrible Teddy, the Ten Fingers of Doom has spoken. Is it wrong that I kind of agree with him?

Last Sonic game?

So I'm not a big basketball fan. Or, I should say, I'm not a big NBA fan. I mean, I'll watch it if it's on, and I'll go if it's cheap, and I enjoy myself while I'm there, but I'm not a rabid fan by any means. We usually go to one or two games a year, whenever the Cub Scouts or PTA get a group of tickets going. In fact, we went to a great game back in December - possibly the best game of the season, since not only did the Sonics win, they won on a buzzer-beater shot. Doesn't get any better than that.

Now, as the press reports, since Washington State and the City of Seattle aren't willing to build the Sonics a new playpen, the new ownership is very likely going to move the team to Oklahoma City. Soon. They say they'll play next season at the Key, but somehow it feels doubtful.

So when my friend Chico called me this afternoon and said "I have a 1 in 6 chance of winning tickets to tonight's game...might be the last Sonics game in Seattle..." I had to adjust some plans. You know, on the off chance he won 'em.

Well, win them he did, and we went. Well, technically he went and then I went, since I couldn't get out of taking the boy to Cub Scouts and the wife had a meeting until 8, but I did get there for the second half. The second half of the last game of the season. A game that Dallas didn't care about, and that Seattle would be better off losing. As far as I can tell, other than Dirk Nowitski and Rashard Lewis, none of the other players on the floor had ever worn uniforms before. Sure, they were in the program, but I'd never heard of any of them.

And even with all this garbage time action, the Sonics still managed to lose. By 30. But at least the tickets were free, the dance team were pretty, and the $7 beer wasn't overly watered down!

Cool...

Not sure what to make of this, but I like it!

WFT?

No screaming allowed on the `Screamer' - Yahoo! News

Isn't complaining about the noise of the amusement park next to your house akin to bitching about the smell from the landfill down the street? I mean, wasn't the park there before these people bought? Sure, the ride's new, but it's a RIDE! You're supposed to scream on rides. That's part of the fun!

And speaking of rides, I'll post some pictures from our trip to Disneyland and Legoland some time soon...

Mug shot of the week

Haven't mastered embedding photos from Yahoo News, so you'll have to click the link to see the mug shot of the firefighter charged with racy park romp. "Police said Cole was wearing a blond wig, pink flip-flops and a red-black-and-white striped bikini with the top filled out by tan water balloons."

Why water baloons and not tissue or socks? Well, the guy IS a firefighter after all, and what if he came across a fire on his way to the bar?

Is it wrong that this makes me hungry?

Not really hungry, but a little...

RIP, Bob Clark...

Bob Clark, the guy who directed "A Christmas Story" and "Porky's" was killed in a car crash.

Love "Christmas Story". Both for the story, the sound bites, and the fact that Flick is now a Porn star. Barely remember "Porky's", although I'm fairly certain I saw it on a bootlegged VHS back in the day. Judging from Bob's IMDB entry, I'd say he peaked with "Christmas Story".

Yet another product I didn't think of first

The Banana Guard. Genius.

Another reason not to sleep on airplanes

Mostly I don't sleep on planes because I hate sleeping sitting up. But then I read this and now I'm even less inclined to sleep during a flight. Because really, who wants to end up sitting next to a corpse?

#1 reason NOT to become a Matador

You know, I'd never really been drawn to the life of the Matador. Not sure if it was my dislike for big hats and loud jackets or the fact that I can't speak Spanish, but the job just didn't hold much appeal. And that lack of appeal wasn't helped by this story...

I was going to get all cute and come up with the Top 10 reasons not to become a Matador, but I got stuck after the hat, the Spanish, and a general dislike for Picadors. So we'll jump to #1, best summed up by this quote from the article (the emphasis is mine...):

"Fernando Cruz is suffering from two horn wounds of 25 centimeters in length each. One involves the fibers of the abductor muscle and dissects the femoral artery, the other involves the scrotal area and eviscerates both testicles."

Thanks to the series of tubes we can now watch it...not gruesome, if you don't know the outcome... And since I don't speak Spanish I don't have a clue what the commentators are saying!

Hello, Dad? I'm in Jail!

Somehow the headline just reminded me of the old Was (Not Was) song...

Hello, Dad? I'm in Jail! I like it here. It's nice.

Guantanamo detainee calls home - CNN.com

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, it's a day or so early, but what the heck. If you don't have a special someone in your life, might I suggest you head over to www.hotprisonpals.com? As explained in
this article from Reuters (strangely datelined Bankok, even though the prisoners in question are all from the US), this is your ticket to your own red-hot prisoner pen pal. And not just any prisoner, a HOT one!

And don't think these prisoners are just faking the hotness, oh no...here's a quote to prove it:

"Sometimes the messages get a little racy and we like that," said Rupp. "We pride ourselves on having the hottest prisoners on the Internet."

Another day in the city...

So I work in downtown Seattle. Like pretty much any big city (I'm assuming), we hear a lot of sirens during the day. Lots of fire trucks, cop cars and ambulances driving around. You tend to ignore it, figuring it's just some guy having chest pains in an office building, or a homeless person too drunk to get up. But occasionally it's something interesting. Something that gets a headline like this: Man sets women's hair on fire in downtown Seattle

Now, what makes this REALLY interesting is that:

a) It happened while I was working out at the gym a block away from the incident,
2) I saw the fire truck and cops go by and ignored it, and
iii) I know the un-named witness.

The story from my perspective:

So I'm on the tread mill and I see the cops and fire truck go by and think "Oh, another cop and fire truck driving by." I finish my workout, shower, get dressed and head back to work. As I'm walking down 3rd I see 2 squad cars parked at the corner and a guy with what looks like a TV news camera hanging around. "Huh." I think.

Then I look at the guy getting out of one of the squad cars and it's a guy I used to work with. I'll call him Horace Johnson.

"Huh," I think. "What's Horace doing in the cop car? Well, he's waiving at them and carrying his lunch, and getting out of the front of the car, so he can't be under arrest..."

Horace proceeds to walk down the street with this other guy. I'm just about to say "Hey, Johnson, what gives?" When I see that the other guy has a notebook out and Horace is saying "I don't want my name used..." So I think "OK, I won't say anything..."

I get back to work and start an IM chat with him and get his side of the story:

Scott Chicken says:

OK, I've got to ask...what was all the excitement? I was coming back from the gym and saw you getting out of the cop car, then being interviewed...

Horace Johnson says:

please don't drop my name around, but...a guy attacked 3 people, and set a woman on fire.
a few of us caught the guy until the police came

Scott Chicken says:

Damn! I won't drop any names...I was just about to say "Hey, Johnson...." when I heard you telling the reporter "don't use my last name". I saw the fire truck and cop car go by while I was on the treadmill, but didn't realize it was that exciting.

Horace Johnson says:

it was the craziest thing i've seen in a while

Scott Chicken says:

No shit!

Horace Johnson says:

i thought i was desensitized to weird events

Scott Chicken says:

So how exactly does one go about setting someone on fire? Did he have a gas can or something?

Horace Johnson says:

lighter fluid, he doused all 3 of them. the woman that got lit up REALLY got it bad. 3 foot flames

Scott Chicken says:

Jesus! That is truly insane.

Horace Johnson says:

shocking

Scott Chicken says:

Hoo yeah.

Stupidly addicting game

Thanks to Dave for getting me hooked on this. Nothing like a stupid, addictive, noisy Flash game to seriously waste your time!

And then there was more snow.

In case you haven't been following the weather, it's the winter of ages in the Northwest.

First we had more rain then ever before in November. Then December hit with big winds that blew everything over. And then it started snowing.

Now, usually we get a nice wet snow over night, people stay home from work for a day, then at 2 or 3 in the afternoon it turns to rain and everything melts. Well, not this time.

The first snow storm left a huge mess of ice behind it. That eventually melted, only to be followed by more snow last week. Fortunately that snow was pretty dry, so when the temperature dropped in to the low 20s it didn't make every road in the city a skating rink, just some of them.

This weekend it was supposed to warm back up in to the 40s and start to melt. Well, it didn't. In fact, some time last night it started snowing again. And, since it was the day after a 3-day weekend and the "it might snow Tuesday morning" forecast didn't come in on Friday, I was sorely unprepared to work at home.

So I'll end up burning a vacation day, but I did get to play in some nice wet snow, suitable for snow balls if not for sledding on a saucer, and got to break in the new toy - a slightly used Nikon D50 digital SLR. It's been a while since I played with a "big" camera, and I must say I'm hooked again. Or re-hooked. Which ever it is. The thing's bulky, but it's way faster than my Coolpix and came with a big ol' zoom lens.

And since it's digital it doesn't cost me anything to take, oh, 17 pictures of a branch covered with snow. Or of Santa apparently taking a vacation to come sled down our hill incognito. Or Logan eating snow. Anyhow, here's a link to some samples!

Mid-January Snow

Forward into the 21st century!

Who, you ask? My mother. Yes, the senior Mrs. Chicken, who has been on e-mail for much of this century, has decided to finally leave the dial-up connection behind. My nephew Matt will be thrilled to no longer have to wade through the swamp the Internets become when using Mom's dial-up connection. I think it has something to do with the fact that the phone lines were laid when the community was built back in the 50's, but as far as I know she's never had a connection faster than about 2400 baud. If that. Slow as, um, something really slow.

What pushed her to this? Well, I kind of did. I mentioned what I thought was a new cell tower on the outskirts of the neighborhood and she said "Oh, no, that's for that wireless internet thing."

This led to a discussion of Clearwire and their service and the other high-speed options available to her. After doing some pricing research it turned out that DSL was a better deal because a) the price incentive was longer (6 months @ $19.95 rather than only 3) and she wouldn't have to change her e-mail address since Earthlink can get her the DSL service.

The big advantage, I suppose, is that now when her e-mail system crashes and she calls me for tech support I won't have to say "OK, when you connect next time and see that error try this and then call me back..."!

Who is John Galt?

Is it just me, or is this straight out of "Atlas Shrugged"? First the utilities, then the copper mines, then the next thing you know everyone with a good idea will be holed up in the Colorado Rockies.

Chavez to nationalize U.S.-based utility

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced plans Monday to nationalize Venezuela's electrical and telecommunications companies, pledging to create a socialist state in a bold move with echoes of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.

"We're moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution," Chavez said in a televised address after swearing in his Cabinet. "We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life. We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it."

Chavez, who will be sworn in Wednesday to a third term that runs through 2013, also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to eliminate the autonomy of the Central Bank and would soon ask the National Assembly, solidly controlled by his allies, to give him greater powers to legislate by presidential decree.

The nationalization appeared likely to affect Electricidad de Caracas, owned by Arlington, Virginia-based AES Corp., and C.A. Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, known as CANTV, the country's largest publicly traded company.

"All of that which was privatized, let it be nationalized," Chavez said, referring to "all of those sectors in an area so important and strategic for all of us as is electricity."

Happy Birthday, Miss Maya Chicken!

Well, the big day has come and gone, and the girl is now six. And well-fed on cake, too. So here, to commemorate it, is a series of photos covering this and the previous birthdays:

As if ME getting old wasn't bad enough...

Today is the last day I can say I have a 5-year-old. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, mind you...five is a fun year, but it's a trying year. Maya moved from pre-school to Kindergarten (a wonderous and exciting place where they play with trucks and learn to read and write). She also moved from ear-splitting screaming bouts to screaming bouts that make us worry about the crystal. Not that we have crystal, mind you, but if we did we'd worry about it.

It's hard to believe that 6 years ago instead of sitting in my basement typing on the computer I was loading Paige in the car to head off to the hospital. Yes, I am indeed getting old. er. Older...

School is boring

At least that's the word on the street. Actually, to be honest it's apparently 4th grade that's boring, because Kindergarten is just a pile of laughs.

Such is the story I get from the kids. Logan (4th grade) claims to be bored by the whole thing, with the exception of PE and some of his math. Maya (kindergarten), on the other hand, finds the whole thing to be an exciting adventure as long as you don't ask her to sound out any words. Then she hides her head in her hands. I'm assuming that once she's got as much school under her belt as her older brother she too will be jaded and bored. Sad, really...I kind of liked 4th grade.

Happy New Year!

So, it's 2007 and I'm 40. I suppose that's better than it being 2007 and me being dead...

So far 40 is a lot like 39. Not quite like 30, 'cause when I turned 30 I was in London, it was cold, the wife was pregnant and I had just gotten over a nasty sinus infection. When I turned 40 I was home in Seattle, relatively healthy, and spent the evening rocking out with the band.

That said, New Year's Eve 2006 and New Year's Eve 1996 were fairly similar...in '96 we ordered in dinner, ate Hagen Daz ice cream, then watched TV until Paige fell asleep. In '06 we ordered in dinner, ate caramel apples, played some games, then watched TV until Paige fell asleep. Of course, the TV in '96 was English and didn't make any sense, while the TV last night was the insanely awesome Metalocalypse. So, in short, so far 40 is way more kick ass than being 30. So far...

Happy Birthday to me

I'm officially over the hill, as shown by this fine hat my sister (who, for the record, is 50 and soon to be 51) sent me:

But wait...there's more! In addition to the hat, I was also flocked by both sisters (the other, by the way, turns 50 in May), and not in a bad kinky way:


The sad thing is that the flock returns to it's natural habitat (which I assume is a storage locker or the back of a pickup) some time today. Ah well...

Up next on "Dirty Jobs"

Sewage Diver.

"At the end of each shift, the divers scrub their wetsuits with detergent, removing the stink of urine and rotten waste. "

Somehow I don't think we'll see Mike Rowe down in Mexico City pulling a body out of the sewer any time soon.

Not powerless in Seattle, thankfully!

Well, not in our 'hood, anyway. The lights blipped a couple times on Thursday night (naturally, I was working on the computer at the time...I really should get one of those battery backup thingies one of these days), but not enough to knock out the alarm clock. The Chicken house didn't suffer any damage from the wind or the rain (although I took down the bird feeders to be safe, and the wind chimes to keep the neighbors from calling the cops), and now that it's cold (low 30s) we're snug inside with heat and power.

My Mom, the elder Mrs. Chicken, is not so lucky. No damage to her house, but no power either. And since her neighborhood (on the outskirts of Bellevue) draws it's water from a well, that no power means no water. So Grandma is camping out in our basement where it's warm, dry, and there's water aplenty!

Another candidate for headline of the year

From the good people at Yahoo News:

Flatulence forces plane to land

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency
landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of
flatulence, authorities said.

The Dallas-bound flight was diverted to Nashville after several passengers reported smelling burning sulfur from the matches, said Lynne Lowrance, spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority. All 99 passengers and five crew members were taken off and screened while the plane was searched and luggage was screened.

The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal a 'body odor,' Lowrance said. She had an unspecified medical condition,
authorities said.

'It's humorous in a way but you feel sorry for the individual, as well,' she said. 'It's unusual that someone would go to those measures to cover it up.'

The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane. The woman, who was not identified, was not charged in the incident.

Good news, hopefully...

News flash: people don't like Lurch.

Now, whether he'll pay attention is another story. In the article David Wade, a Kerry spokesman, dismissed the value of such polls and noted the senator's comeback to capture his party's 2004 presidential nomination: "A lot of pundits and prognosticators have lost a lot of dough pronouncing John Kerry politically dead".

True, but then in 2004 most of America didn't know who the hell John Kerry was. I think that now, after 2004, we do.

For the record, while I voted for Kerry in 2004 it was a case of voting for the lesser of two evils, not because he was a great candidate.

The perfect Thanksgiving lead-in

Unfortunately, their plan to get a wicked case of the mucnhies failed. Then again, they don't have Thanksgiving in Holland, do they?

Group scraps attempt to smoke biggest joint

This may mark the first time that a group of people decided not to get stoned because "it might be illegal".

Damn.

Saw the headline and thought they meant Bill. 'cause we need a new weaponized version of the blue screen of death...

Bush taps Gates to replace Rumsfeld

Oh, and one more thing: what's with that use of the word "tap"? I mean, did he actually tap the guy? Like walk over and poke him on the shoulder and ask him to take the job, like an awkward Sophomore boy trying to find a date for Homecoming? 'cause that's kind of a sweet image if you can ignore the whole "sending people to kill people" part of the job...