jes the draggonlaady

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/20/vicks.recall/index.html

Nasal spray this time.

I've one assistant in particular that has a much higher-than-expected incidence of finding trouble. She's not causing it, mind you, but she seems to always be there when shit happens. If an animal collapses in a kennel, she's the one who'll find it. It's to the point that when R says "I need Doc!" I just want to hide.

Oct dc = 30

The trial has begun of a Texas Department of Criminal Justice offender charged with murdering a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Officer during an attempted escape in September 2007.

Jerry Duane Martin, 39, will be tried in Leon County in the death of Susan Canfield, a TDCJ officer who was killed during the escape attempt of Martin and fellow inmate John Ray Falk Jr., 41.

Walker County District Attorney David Weeks said Martin’s trial is being held in Leon County due to complications involving other sites.

State District Judge Kenneth Keeling of the 278th Judicial District will try the case.

Falk’s trial has not been scheduled.

Weeks said that although all charges against Martin will be considered in the punishment phase of the trial, most of the trial is likely to focus on Canfield’s murder.

“The case in chief will be primarily on the escape and the death of Susan Canfield,” Weeks said.

Weeks said that due to the large number of witnesses and personnel involved, the trial is likely to last for several weeks, with the principal question being whether or not Canfield’s death qualifies as capital murder.

“This is a difficult case,” Weeks said. “The situation is very unique because Ms. Canfield died as the result of being thrown off a horse, so there are issues there that are different than most. I feel very confident, but it’s going to be up to the jury. I believe it’s capital murder, but the jury’s going to have the final word on that.”

Weeks said that if Martin is found guilty, jurors will have the option of recommending the death penalty.

On Sept. 24, 2007, Martin and Falk were working outside the Wynne Unit when Martin approached an officer and asked him to hold his broken watch. As the officer reached for the watch, Falk distracted him with a sound, allowing Martin to grab the officer’s weapon.

Using the weapon to hold off nearby officers, the two offenders were able to scale a barbed-wire fence. After stealing a second weapon at gunpoint and exchanging fire with several nearby officers, they were able to commandeer a City of Huntsville truck. While escaping, they rammed TDCJ Officer Susan Canfield.

Canfield, who was on horseback, was thrown from her horse and was killed due to head injuries sustained when she struck the windshield of the truck and the ground. Her horse was later euthanized due to wounds from the collision and gunfire.

According to TDCJ reports following the incident, Martin was the driver of the vehicle when it struck Canfield.

Martin and Falk later dumped the truck a mile away and hijacked a local motorist who was in line at a nearby bank drive-thru.

Officers from several local agencies were able to shoot out on of the tires in the hijacked vehicle, leading Martin and Falk to continue to flee on foot.

Falk was apprehended within an hour after the escape, while Martin was found hiding in a tree approximately three and a half hours later. At the time of their escape, Martin was in the tenth year of a 50-year term for attempted murder, while Falk was serving a life sentence for a 1986 murder.

In March of 2008 both men were indicted for the murder of Canfield. The charge was elevated to capital murder due to provisions in the Texas State Penal Code that allow a murder to be upgraded to capital if it occurs during an attempted escape from a penal institution.

Charges against both men also include attempted capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated assault, all felonies stemming from hijacking the second vehicle and returning fire on local police.

Both were also charged with interfering with a police service animal, a third degree felony stemming from the death of Canfield’s horse.

-----------------------------------

“This is a difficult case,” Weeks said. “The situation is very unique because Ms. Canfield died as the result of being thrown off a horse, so there are issues there that are different than most."

Really? I totally fail to see how the part where they shot the horse and hit it with a truck which resulted in the rider falling from the horse and sustaining fatal head injury on the windshield of the truck makes this unclear on the intentional assault/murder vs accidental fall from horse front. But maybe I'm missing something?

In the words of Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, "It's been my experience that when their legs fall off, that's a bad sign."

Working through; but only another 50 pages last night. Hey, I told you it would be easy to put it down and not go back, I had other stuff to do.

So now we get into the WTF sections.

The sparkly scene was actually mostly brain-shredding not because of the sparkly (which is bad enough) but because of the constant comments about how stunning his "god-like beautiful perfection" was, and how she couldn't believe this "Adonis" was talking to her. The $3 words were way over-used; I have a hard time thinking that it's a 17 year old talking, when there are obvious, more-common word choices. I mean really; "besotted"? The author tries to justify it by saying that Pride and Prejudice is the girl's favorite book, but it just comes off as an excuse for the author to use her favorite thesaurus.

AAAAAND... the creepy. I was mistaken on how creepy the boy would turn. He didn't sneak into her room once; he finally 'fesses up to having snuck into her house EVERY NIGHT for 6 weeks. And to eavesdropping on conversations with practically everyone she's talked to in the last 2 months. AND to following her everywhere she goes. First damn vampish thing the vampixie's done, which is totally fine, right? Vamps are supposed to be dark and creepy, so yay. He's finally being something resembling a vampire instead of a fairy. What I absolutely cannot stand is her reaction. She's not at ALL creeped out, or angry, to find that he's been jealously stalking her every moment, waking AND sleeping, for weeks. No, no, that's not creepy, it's not stalking, it's Fucking-A-Romantic-As-All-Hell in her dumb shit little brain. I just want to smack the hell out of the girl. Guess since she's already decided that it doesn't matter that he claims to be a murdering monster, it doesn't matter that he's a stalker too. *headdesk*

Either way, I'm gonna do it... Twilight, here I come.

Comments, as I think of them:

"Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose" Uhm... Do teenagers talk like that? I was pretty well a nerd in school, and don't recall using the word "verbose".

(Bruce says he did, so maybe I'm overly critical?)

Bella is a whiny-ass. The whole moving up to Forks thing is somehow her idea; hasn't been explained yet, but you'd think she was being made a martyr.

(about page 30 here)
Why the hell is she obsessing over the boy who was a rude ass and trying to come up with ways to brush off the guy who's being nice and helpful, all the while whinging about how she'll never fit in anywhere and nobody will like her? self-fulfilling much?

She's lived with her father every summer of her life, and she just NOW discovers that he can't cook? what the crap did she eat every prior summer?

Also, she's a whiny-ass.

150 pages in (yes all in one go;when I'm on a mission, I'm on on a mission, you sillies) and she's still a whiny-ass but less annoyingly so I guess. I have very little sympathy for the character-type in general, but can see where it'd be appealing to some... you know, basically anybody that likes rom-coms. Edward has mostly been your typical teen-age asshat boy, jerking between "stay away from me, I'm SOOOO bad for you" and asking her to go out and do things. She did finally figure out what he is, but decided (with all the wisdom of a whiny 17 year old) that he couldn't possibly be actually, you know, evil. And really, up to now he's done nothing to make her think otherwise.

General feeling at this point? I could put the book down and never wonder what happens to any of the characters. Not a compelling read for me. But I've suffered through worse than this has tossed up so far.

250 pages in, and it's awful damn sappy with the fluttery heart and agonized thoughts of having to live away from the object of her obsession. Definitely not the sort of thing I'd normally read, much to chick-flick/harlequin for me. Also, not much of a vampire story...other than one incident of moving fast and being strong, and several "mind readings" there's been nothing to indicate the boy's not just a big talker, so it's hard to call whiny ass really any more stupid than typical teenage emo girl.

And with that, I'm done for the night.... the dreaded sparkly in the sunlight scene should be just coming up though.

Apple files a patent on evil:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/business/15digi.html

Surgical Assistant is out because her kid's having health issues. Receptionist 2 is out because she's having health problems. Technician is only able to stay for half the day because she has doctors appointments in the afternoon. That leaves 2 assistants and a tech for the morning, and 2 assistants for the afternoon. With 3 doctors. Oh, and did I mention that the tech can't take x-rays anymore? and the assistants that are here don't know how to do them by themselves yet? They're working on learning, but...

Appointment showed up at 9. Woman has a list of problems the dog has and she insists that she really needs to talk to the doctor about all of them and really wants to know what's going on, but she has to be to bowling by 9:30. Well, that's sweet. Thanks for planning to actually have time to look at the dog. So she asks if she can just drop the dog off, and says she'll be in town all afternoon, and she can come back in any time. Oh, except that she has an appointment at 1:30. And oh yeah! She has another appointment at 2:30. So she leaves the dog and is supposed to come back at 4.

Next appointment is the woman who turned Pippen over to me (http://draggonlaady.livejournal.com/?skip=20&tag=fosters). She has a fat little dog. She was told 2 years ago that the dog is fat. It is exactly the same weight (hey, at least it hasn't gained, right?) I discuss his weight with her again. Her excuse is that the dog eats all the food the baby throws out of the high chair, so she just can't control his diet. So... you have a baby in the house. Got baby gates? Keep the damn dog out of the kitchen while you're feeding the baby. Problem solved. Woman seems skeptical at this suggestion. I am willing to bet she will not do anything about it.

People keep asking me questions about cases that I haven't seen and know nothing about.

Cat got dropped off with instructions to check blood sugar and if we want to we can recheck urine because she had a urinary tract infection last time we saw her. When I talk to the owner, turns out the cat's been lethargic and not feeling well, having difficulty urinating, and drinking and urinating excessive. NONE OF WHICH was I told by the receptionist who checked the cat in. Assistant who overheard the receptionist and owner talking says owner did tell these things to the receptionist. *headdesk*

Lunch was moldy.

Tried to mail off some stuff today, was reminded when I got to the post office that it's a holiday.

But hey, the back of my car is full of dead cow for the eating, so that's good.

Also, great hilarity in video form. Watch the video(sorry about the ad that precedes it):

Now, does anybody feel an overwhelming need to create a .gif of the ponytail take down (starting right about the freeze frame above) for me to give Bruce for Christmas? Even a slight urge? Please?

And another foster off to a new home, hurrah! Norman has been re-named Rough, and gone off to live with one of my really amusing and dedicated clients. Hopefully he'll fit in with her crazy menagerie and they'll all be happy. Wish him luck!

Wisdom from 4-chan. Frighting concept, I know.

"Seriously, Twilight has conditioned a legion of prepubescent girls into believing that obsessive/possessive behavior and objectification of women is not only acceptable, but also romantic as fuck. Stephanie Meyers has done the sexual deviants the world over a huge favor."

I suppose I should get around to reading this book, just to see how bad it really is.

The following is the list of top ten FDA-regulated foods associated with food-borne illness outbreaks in the past 20 years, as reported by Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and elsewhere. Please note that meat is USDA-regulated, NOT FDA-regulated, so please don't yell at me about how berries cannot possibly be more dangerous than burger.

LEAFY GREENS: 363 outbreaks involving 13,568 reported cases of illness
EGGS: 352 outbreaks involving 11,163 reported cases of illness
TUNA: 268 outbreaks involving 2341 reported cases of illness
OYSTERS: 132 outbreaks involving 3409 reported cases of illness
POTATOES: 108 outbreaks involving 3659 reported cases of illness
CHEESE: 83 outbreaks involving 2761 reported cases of illness
ICE CREAM: 74 outbreaks involving 2594 reported cases of illness
TOMATOES: 31 outbreaks involving 3292 reported cases of illness
SPROUTS: 31 outbreaks involving 2022 reported cases of illness
BERRIES: 25 outbreaks involving 3397 reported cases of illness

Read the whole report here: http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/cspi_top_10_fda.pdf

I tried, in fairness, to get a comparison stat for how many outbreaks/year are associated with meat products, but my web-fu is not strong. If anyone can provide me a reliable source for that into I'll happily post it here.

Anyhoo, here's the contrast you get from my fail: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/03/beef.recall.e.coli/index.html

Hey again. Still hanging steady at number 8 or 9.... please vote, and beg your friends and relatives to vote too!

Go to http://theanimalrescuesite.com Click on the big purple "Click here to give - it's FREE!" button. Advertisers on the site donate for each click.

On the next page, click on the banner at the top that says, "Help your favorite shelter win a prize! Vote Today"
Search for Wayward Creatures Relief Agency in Chewelah, Washington. Vote and confirm your vote.

Thanks!

Here's the Drummer pony (I still need drums for him, anybody got any they'd like to part with?)




And the band all together:

So the creative bit has come back, and I've finished up a couple more MLP customs. These are 2 of a set of 3 Rock Band ponies. I should have the third done tonight or tomorrow.

On guitar, Ace:




On vocals, Doc:

Now you all go read some more at twolumps.net.

any suggestions? additions? changes? I've never done letters for donations in memorium before...

------------------

I wanted to write a special thank you note in regards to your recent donation made in memory of Katie.
The money you trusted to us was used to help cover the costs of an emergency hysterectomy for a little dog with a severe uterine infection. Her owner is currently undergoing treatment for a terminal cancer, so money is very tight in the household, and they were going to have to borrow money to afford treatment for their pet, or consider euthanizing her if they couldn’t find someone to give them a loan. Instead, little Jasmine is now back to her normal self, happily snuggling with her owner.
Thank you so much for your generosity, and continue to hold on to your loving memories of Katie.

Several companies have recently recalled certain cat foods deficient in thiamine, dog foods containing mold, and dog foods that could contain plastic.

Diamond Pet Foods recalled several lots of cat foods deficient in thiamine that Diamond manufactured for Premium Edge Pet Foods. The recall applies to Premium Edge Finicky Adult Cat food and Premium Edge Adult Cat Hairball Management food with date codes of RAF0501A22X 18 lb., RAF0501A2X 6 lb., RAF0802B12X 18 lb. (BB30FEB11), RAH0501A22X 18 lb., RAH0501A2X 6 lb. The dates of manufacture are May 28 and Aug. 30.

Wysong recalled certain lots of dry dog foods containing mold—but no mycotoxins—that the company manufactured in June and July. The recall affects lots 090617, 090624, 090706, and 090720 of Wysong Maintenance dog food and lot 090623 of Wysong Senior dog food.

Nutro Products recalled several lots of dog foods with a best-by date of Sept. 10 after finding pieces of a worker’s plastic hat in the production line. The company determined that the final products probably did not contain any plastic.

The recall applies to Nutro Ultra Puppy food in 4.5-pound packages, bar code 79105 51313, and Nutro Natural Choice: Chicken Meal, Rice and Oatmeal Formula Small Bites Puppy food in 5-pound packages, bar code 79105 23050, from PetSmart stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. The recall also affects Nutro Ultra Puppy food in 30-pound packages, bar code 79105 51315, from Petco stores in California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.

This is the new foster:
http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=14996366