Monday

I was off on my tax diatribe yesterday. It had to do with one of my Propane Investments in Colorado. Not for me to worry about though. I use H&R to do my complicated taxes, and I pay for “Peace of Mind”, meaning that if they screw up, they pay the penalty. I have to pay the tax, but I would have had to pay that anyway. Living in a small town, H&R is only open 2 days a week here during non-tax season. So I have to wait until Wednesday to drop the bad news on them. I still don’t know who made the mistake, but whoever, I have Peace of Mind that I will pay my necessary tax and no more.

I know that summer is tourist time here in Flag. I had to run some errands on the west side of town. Between the construction projects and the tourists, the time to get across town is longer than usual. I really didn’t expect it on Monday morning, but it was there. I was able to use the freeway to get back home, and that was not crowded. I try to plan my trips so I don’t have to back track. Sometimes this means driving through downtown.

I got invited to a hamburger BBQ for this Saturday. Unfortunately it is in Denver. It will be for those of us going to Africa. While these people are great, I’m not up for a 10 hour drive to get there, and a 10 hour drive to get back. I did find out that my roommate will be Hamdy. The guy who might have been my roommate backed out. First it was Hamdy, then this other guy, then back to Hamdy. It will be a great trip. Only 12 of us are going. I already know five and they are great to travel with.

It was hot again today—90° on my deck. To add to this, no rain but lots of smoke from prescribed burns. What a strange day. Being outside was not pleasant. Guess this is one of the joys of living in a very large National Forest.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that my next door neighbors had set up a pool table in the living room. I should now rephrase that, my neighbors have set up a pool hall next door to me. From about 5pm every day until who knows when, cars come and go. People play a few games, more come, some leave. They are not loud or any bother. It’s just that my other neighbors have not been this gregarious. My office is upstairs and I can look out the window and see all the traffic. I woke up about 3am last night. Unusual for me. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I walked downstairs to get some water. They weren’t loud, but they were still playing. Ah, to be young again.

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Random Fact…

In the 1500’s, houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs)lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

Shaving cream will reduce the fogging on your bathroom mirror. Smear some on the mirror, wipe it off, the mirror will have less fog during a hot shower.

Crazy Stuff In The News…

The Washington Supreme Court ruled that Seattle, WA had for two years improperly charged water customers for servicing hydrants when the city should have covered the service from general tax funds and it ordered refunds to customers an average $45. However, Seattle then discovered it had insufficient general funds to pay for the hydrant service and thus imposed a water surcharge of $59 per customer. The most likely reason the surcharge was higher is that the City had to pay $4.2 million to the attorneys who filed the account-shuffling lawsuit.

Month long events in August
Edinburgh Festival is an internationally famous arts festival that takes place during August... National Immunization Awareness Month… National Psoriasis Awareness Month… Women's Small Business Month... National Back to School month…American Adventures Month…Golf Month…National Inventor’s Month…National Win with Civility Month…What will be your legacy Month

Week of Aug 3…

Sturgis Bike Week
Psychic Week
Exhibitor Appreciation Week

4 Aug…

216 days so far this year…149 days remain in 2009
Coast Guard Day
National Chocolate Chip Day
National Night Out
*Republic of Upper Volta / Bourkina Fasso (National Day) 1984
*Norway Peer Gynt Festival Days

BIRTHS ON THIS DAY…

1755…..Nicolas-Jacque Conte inventor (modern pencil)
1792…..Percy Bysshe Shelley England, romantic poet

1832…..Gaspar N£¤ez de Arce Spain, poet "Spanish Tennyson"

1900…..Elizabeth Britain's Queen Mother
1901…..Louis Armstrong New Orleans, Jazz musician & bandleader
1909…..Glenn Cunningham US middle distance runner in the 1930's
1955…..Billy Bob Thornton Hot Springs, Ark. actor,
1958…..Mary Decker Tabb Slaney NJ, Olympic track star
1961…..Barack Obama Hawaii, 44th U.S. President
1962…..Roger Clemens Dayton Ohio, Boston Red Sox pitcher


Events on this day…

1693…..Dom Perignon invents champagne

1735…..A jury finds John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, not guilty of seditious libel. The case marks the first victory for American freedom of the press

1821…..The Saturday Evening Post was published as a weekly for the first time.
1830…..Plans for the city of Chicago laid out
1892…..Sunday school teacher Lizzie Borden arrested in Fall River, Mass

1916…..US agrees to buy Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million
1944…..The Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse
1964…..Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James Chaney found buried inside an earthen dam in Mississippi
1988 Congress votes $20K to each Japanese-American interned in WW II


Word Fragment Puzzle

In each of these puzzles, a word fragment is given, and you must think of an English word that contains the fragment -- that is, you must form a word by adding letters to the beginning and/or the end of the fragment. You may not add letters to the middle of the fragment, nor may you rearrange the letters given. Multiple solutions are given for several word fragments (although we omitted most alternate solutions that rely on variations of the same word). To solve the puzzles, however, you only need to find one word for each fragment.

1. htg [1]
2. tht [2]
3. relso [1]
4. thsa [1]
5. rotr [2]
6. ksk [1]
7. achc [1]
8. fj [1]
9. ofre [1]
10. eref [4]
*Bonus: xpu [3]
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Answers:
1. Nightgown
2. Bathtub breathtaking
3. quarrelsome
4. soothsayer
5. protract protrude
6. buckskin
7. beachcomb
8. fjord
9. proofread
10. aftereffect dereference bereft therefore
*Bonus: expulsion expunge expurgate

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