WeatherGirl’s Station

Wild. Way over the top and stereotypes abound but the fight scenes are incredible. Best use of a musical instrument in a fight scene. Would recommend highly for the visuals and the wacky sense of humour. Not to be taken too seriously.

Current temperature 54F/12C

Last Friday, the studio where I’ve been learning to tap had its end of year dance recital at UMM’s HFA recital hall. I wasn’t sure how I’d do in front of an audience and whether nerves would affect our routine but everything turned out fine. Both Janet and I had a great time and enjoyed watching all the other dancers perform their routines. The audience was wonderfully supportive of all the dancers which was a huge help.

Check out the article Nic posted at thomasmcphee.com you’ll find a link there to photos from the show.

Current Temperature 55F/13C (Dew Point 46F/8C)

In a rash mood of I-don’t-know-what I subscribed to watch the F.A. Cup final yesterday on pay-per-view. Sadly the wrong team won. Man United were clearly the better team, unfortunately their finishing skills left a lot to be desired.

This article gives you an idea of the current situation at Old Trafford.

Current Temperature 73F/23C (Dew Point 46F/8C)

After checking out the pictures, I’ve just added Extreme Ironing to my ‘to do’ list along with

• climb Mount Everest
• swim the English Channel
• score the F.A. Cup winner.

I’ve nothing but undying admiration for these guys, especially for those working underwater. Wow, the risks they take. Their insurance costs must run in the millions.

Clearly I’ve been missing out on the real fun! Many thanks to Hafren for the heads up.

Current temperature 63F/17C (Dew Point 55F/13C)

My techie flunky fixed comments for me. Hip, hip hooray!!!!

You may post comments to your heart’s content.

Mucho thanks to techie flunky!!!!!!

Current temperature 61F/16C (Dew point 54F/12C)

Yesterday George Galloway, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, roasted the US Senate committee investigating the ‘oil for food’ scandal. And he did it without notes too. You can read more about his testimony at the Beeb.

I have no opinion on Galloway’s participation in this scandal. But I do find it suspicious that a leading opponent to the war in Iraq is on the US Senate’s hit list. Perhaps the committee should turn it’s attention to people who we know have done deals with Saddam Hussein. They might start with Donald Rumsfeld and go from there.

Disappointingly, only 2 US Senators bothered to turn up, which given that they’ve accused Mr Galloway of breaking the law, is rather disrespectful. I suspect they realised they wouldn’t stand a chance and didn’t want to be shown up in public.

If you get the chance you should listen to coverage of Prime Minister’s Questions from the British House of Commons. It’s not for the meek and mild. I suspect George Bush (shrub variety) wouldn’t last 10 seconds.

Current temperature 57F/14C (Dewpoint 55F/13C)

Yes, I know, comments are still broken. My apologies. There is a possible solution on the horizon, however.

Grades are due Wednesday. Then my techie flunky will be free, free to work on the problem. And he knows on which side his bread is buttered!

Current temperature 52F/11C

So which do you think is more damaging to children: introducing them to guns or teaching them to be nice to each other?

Well in our community encouraging children to be nice to other people is apparently beyond the pale and talking to them about guns is exactly what should be going on in school.

In my previous post Madness in the Mid West you can read all about the efforts of local community members to ensure that children did not attend a play that encouraged tolerance of others and to play nice.

Tuesday 10th May, my 11 year old son attended the Safety First program in which one of the elements was ‘gun safety’. Not being of a Yankie persuasion I contacted the school to find out exactly what was involved in this program. The person I spoke to had no clue about the content. A fifth grade teacher who was contacted had no clue either but did say the program was ‘good’. I was told I should contact the program organiser, the underlying hint being I should stop bothering the school because this was nothing to do with them. The program organiser was unable to tell me what the actual content would be either. He gave me the name of the DNR field agent who would be doing the session.

Here’s what I don’t get. The school bent over backwards to find out the content of the play and worked in co-operation with the director to make it ‘community appropriate’ before losing their nerve and backing out. Yet when they sent kids off to learn about ‘gun safety’ they didn’t seem to be particularly interested in what would actually be discussed.

After my son came home he told me what he had learnt. He was supposed to treat every gun he came into contact with as if it was real and loaded. As we’re living in a ‘gun happy’ culture this seems a sensible thing to learn. But then he asked me, if he was supposed to treat any gun he came into contact with as real and loaded why did they spend part of their time looking at a group of items brought by the DNR guy and identifying which of them were real guns and which were fakes?

Didn’t make sense to me either.

Oh, they sent a gun lock home with my son. Does this mean I now have to go out and buy a gun?

Current temperature 55F/13C

Alessandro Petacchi won stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia. We’ve waited a long time for the Fassa Bortolo boys to get things right and today the train was working hard and delivered Petacchi to the finally meters in great shape. It was especially sweet because of the catastrophe of stage 6 last Friday.

Yee ha!!!!

For Giro reporting check out cyclingnews.com.

To watch/listen to coverage of the Giro check out cyclingfans.com. Watching Italian TV post race coverage of today’s stage has been quite an experience. And I’m not an Italian speaker.

Current temperature 52F/11C

Oh, yes, it’s for the attempting-to-be-white-out blizzard conditions in mid May!!!!!

Current temperature 32F/0C (windchill 19F/-7C)
Wind 25mph/41kmph, gusts up to 36mph/57kmph