Merry Christmas.  I’ll be traveling over the next week so I’ll leave you with these final thoughts of the year.

 

I noticed two amazing things today.

 

1) I got my last paycheck of the year.  The amount on it was more than normal.  This made me wonder what was wrong or what had changed.  I looked over the pay stub information and noticed the following statement: Effective this pay period you have satisfied the Social Security tax limit.  I was not aware that SS had a tax limit.  Also, I guess I’m making a decent level of pay now, or I’ve been overpaying throughout this year.  It better be the former.

 

2) I discovered today that the Miss Bikini World Final pageant was held on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2006, in Taipei, Taiwan.  Why was this not televised?  Why was this not promoted more here?  Why did I not know about this earlier?!  Hungary's Anita Horvath won the event.  I’m willing to bet that there will be less drama than the current Ms. USA is going through.  Good thing The Donald felt it in his heart (and probably another place) to keep the blonde from Kentucky in her current post and not “fire” her.

 

Here is a picture of Anita Horvath.  I think Trump needs to buy the rights to this pageant as well.

 

From the stupid things from Utah front:

 

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch has earned a platinum record for the sale of 1 million copies of the song "Unspoken".  Did Hatch sing this?  No.  Have you heard of this song?  Probably not.  The Senator co-wrote the thing with two other people.  The song was on a religious pop tunes compilation album called "WOW Hits 2005".  The song was recorded by Jaci Velasquez.  I'm not too up on Ms. Velasquez as far as music goes, but I don't listen to Christen radio either.  Apart from Jars of Clay, I don't get much out of it. 

 

If you want the lyrics, follow the link.

 

It goes to show that once you've been a senator for as long as old Orrin has been, you would have enough free time to be a music mogal. Evidently he has a number of songs he has written out there.  Must be nice being able to skip senate sessions to go write music.  That's our political system at work.

 

Reuters is running a story that U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined.  So tell me why we aren’t exporting pot to China?  1 billion Chinese smoking pot and all of the sudden Frito Lay^® will be the best selling snack brand in the World.

 

The report, conducted by Jon Gettman, a public policy analyst and former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also concluded that five U.S. states produce more than $1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington.  Of course Utah isn’t on this list – Mormons like meth.  Your house stays cleaner when you are strung out on meth.  I’m surprised Indiana isn’t on the list.  I remember state police raiding corn fields and pulling out hundreds of pot plants and burning them.  The hippies would be lined up along the road for a mile.

 

By comparison, the United States produced an average of nearly $23.3 billion worth of corn annually from 2003 to 2005, $17.6 billion worth of soybeans, $12.2 billion worth of hay, nearly $11.1 billion worth of vegetables and $7.4 billion worth of wheat, the report said.  But what the report doesn’t say is how much a bushel of pot goes for and how much a bushel of corn goes for.  I know a bushel of corn can’t be more than $5.  A few ounces of the wacky tabbacy goes for $10 or more.  So a couple of dozen of pot plants in the basement can probably go for as much as 40 acres of corn.  Okay, I might be exaggerating, but the footprint for $1,000 of pot is a lot smaller than $1,000 of soy beans.

 

So, we legalize marijuana, tax the hell out of it, have migrant workers take care of the fields, and get pissed off when the price goes above $2 a pound at the Wal-Mart^® supercenter.  Brilliant!  Oh, wait.  No, that won’t work.  We’ll just end up having another E. coli outbreak.  Can you imagine all those poor stoners running to the hospital?  It would be tragic.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/usa_marijuana1_dc

 

(While the story may be true, my comments are pure sarcasm.)

Recently, FDA approved the Cyanokit to treat known or suspected cyanide poisoning.  The approval is a measure to help improve response to emergencies, including a possible terrorist attacks, or when James Bond wants to keep a member of SPECTER alive for questioning.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01531.html

I made a comment earlier to someone that this looks like the year Purdue will be that team in the Big 11 that no one else will want to play.  Not because they are so good, but because they are so scrappy.  They just lost to Butler (the Bulldogs are currently ranked 18^th) but it was close the entire game and came down to the last minute.  It is a young team and they will probably win half of these types of close games.  But this is a Purdue squad that if the other team isn’t playing their best, they will be in for a long game.  I think coach Painter has the team back to being competitive.  Give him another year or two and the team will be back in the top 20 and making noise. 

 

It is nice to finally be happy that basketball season is here again, and wearing black doesn’t mean you are going to a funeral.

FDA Continues to Investigate Widespread E. Coli Outbreak
FDA is collaborating with federal, state and local officials to investigate an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infection in five Eastern seaboard states and Utah.  Most of those affected reported eating at Taco Bell restaurants.  After a preliminary analysis showed possible E. coli contamination in green onions from Taco Bell, the restaurant removed the onions from its stores nationwide.

 

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01518.html

 

My question is, how could they tell that people got sick from Taco Bell by contaminated food rather than their regular food?  And how the hell did Utah get in there when the rest of the cases are on the East coast?

 

Progress on the home front: the floor is up and the sub-floor is drying.  Now I have to find someone to put down new flooring.  I’m thinking tile…

So Salt Lake’s very own Major League Soccer team – Real Salt Lake (pronounced Ree-al, not real - stolen directly from the Real Madrid soccer, er football team) is getting a soccer-only stadium south of Salt Lake with the county and city kicking in a large chunk of the money.  Nothing unusual about this, cities kick in money towards major league sports stadiums all the time.  What’s unusual here?  The team may not be able to stay afloat for more than two years, even with the new stadium.  They averaged 10,000 people per game this year and project 11,700 next year.  Huh?  The team sucked this year and they think they’ll get more people coming to the games because they have a new stadium?  With higher ticket prices?  Well, maybe, because people are stupid.

 

It is one thing to build a stadium for a known team that has a track record and a strong following.  10,000 per game for a team that is 2 years old is not an establishment.  I would prefer to see major league teams of any sport flip the majority of the bill when it comes to stadiums.  In this case, I think the city would have done better putting the money towards schools or transportation and tell the team that they’ll have to earn a new stadium, or build it themselves.  What silliness.

I’ve been quite.  Too quite.  That’s because I’ve been busy.  Too busy.  I came home from vacation over Thanksgiving and found water standing in my kitchen.  The drain line backed up while I was gone and water from my neighbor (I share a drain line with 2 others) overflowed my sink and all over the floor.  So now I’m in the process of tearing up the floor.  My fridge is standing in my dinning area and plugged in.  I’ll be moving my stove soon.  So, since I’m ripping up the floor, I might as well put something nice down, like tile.  Happy Friggin’ Holidays!

 

The Purdue men’s basketball team keeps winning.  I’m shocked and awed.  Lets hope it keeps happening.