Advances in medical science....

....seem to be lagging in certain areas!

Case in point: I had to go for my yearly eye exam this morning, and the optometrist dialated my eyes for the exam. This was at 10:15 a.m. It is now 1:45, my eyes are still dialated, and I'm staring at a fuzzy computer screen.

My question: if medical science can create drops to dialate my eyes, why can't they create drops to un-dialate them when the good doctor is done?

Due to the fuzzy screen, it should be really interesting to review my drawings once my vision is clear again ;)

Happy Friday!

Party on, Wayne.

Party on, Garth.

To goat, or not to goat....

....that is the question. Sorry for that awful attempt at a Shakespearean joke.

The breeder that we got our goats from has had 14 kids born in the past two weeks and has 12 left - 6 male and 6 female. Of course, he keeps trying to get me to "increase my herd," so he sent photos and wants us to stop by. If I had more land, I would have 10-20. On our land, we could easily support 1-2 more, but you're getting into more of a farming operation at that point rather than just having them solely as pets. Not that it's more expensive - the cost difference between 3 or 4 and two is very minimal, if even noticeable. The thing is that our two goats are "weathers," meaning castrated males, and really only useful as pets. Bucks are smelly and can be territorial with other males, and since I'm not breeding, I don't really want one. A doe would be great, but #1 - they're expensive, and #2 - I can't commit to a milking schedule. However, does are what are typically shown at goat shows / 4H events (which we would like John to do).

So, to goat or not to goat?

(sorry again)

I'm building my next house on stilts!

If one more person tells me "we need the rain," I'm going to snap. If you need the rain so bad, bring a bucket or twelve and help yourself, because apparently the rain that everyone else so badly needs is in my basement.

We've never had a problem with water in the basement before except for the few times where the drain at the bottom of the basement stair (which is outside) was blocked with leaves, making the water run into the basement. Well, apparently the ground is SUPER saturated due to all the melted snow from two weeks ago and the 3 (now 4) consecutive days of rain, and it couldn't take any more.

We came home from breakfast yesterday morning and I noticed the basement stair landing was full of water, and it had flowed (rather substantially) into the basement. Well, I shop-vac'd the water out of the landing, but it NEVER STOPPED. Turns out, water was spewing out of the drain like Old Faithful.

So, I plug the drain with a rag and vacuum the water out. Well, that must have built up some pressure, because then water starts seeping through cracks in the floor close to the door. Additionally, I had water coming through other cracks on the far end of the basement.

So, we put EVERYTHING up in the basement on blocks and set up a siphon hose running from the landing to the sump basin and pump. Water ran continuously for about 10 hours yesterday. It was ok this morning, but I'm sure it will be flooded again this afternoon.

Forget rain, I need drought!

Sad, sad....

Being the Sesame Street / Muppets fan that I am, I thought I'd share this news story, taken directly from http://www.tmz.com/:

Economy Rocks Sesame Street, Layoffs Ensue
Posted Mar 11th 2009 4:26PM by TMZ Staff
First Wall St ... then Main St ... now the economy is taking its toll on Sesame St. Sunny days could not sweep the clouds away ... and now the good people behind the world's greatest children's show have announced they must regretfully cut their workforce by 20% -- 67 positions in total. The letters of the day are B and S. When not asked to weigh in on the situation, Kermit the Frog responded by throwing up his hands, and screaming the following statement: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Sad thing is that this story is true (though the humor was added for fun by TMZ).