Went up to Boone to see Jed the mountaineer at his little cabin....

... which led to lunch at the Sunrise Cafe - a place I'd never been before. Had the John Wayne dish - a flour taco piled with more fried food than I could get through. Then off to the drug store to get my drugs. Then to the Saloon for a beer. I had heard that they'd gotten a keg of Hopslammer beer on Wednesday. Alas, it had sold out within eight hours and was no more.

But we had fun talking about old friends and enemies. No more lies than usual were told. Then about 3pm I hit the road just an hour or two ahead of the big storm that is coming through. Raced down the mountain to the Beshears Barber Palace where I caught up on all the news in Wilkes while getting my quarterly haircut.

As I was setting in the barber chair swapping stories about growing up on a dairy farm I looked out the window and saw the air was filled with big puffy white flakes. The storm had arrived. Got home just in time to catch Carmen with the little lummox setting off on their afternoon walk so I went with them. Carmen, the little Cuban, complained about the cold all the way, even while refusing to wear gloves. Now we are in for the evening and expect to stay in until February.

Hope you are warm, wherever you are.

Curious George as Agent of Chaos....

... which is the way Carmen and I (and Leo to tell the truth) think of little Mr Miggs. So here is a nice little bedtime story about Curious George as read by Werner Herzog, the eccentric and dark German director, for all you little would-be Agents of Chaos.

is it just me, or does he sound like the governor of California?

Teaching Sparta the Mean Kitty not to eat the mermaid corpse...

... some of you may remember the "kitty so mean we named it Sparta" cat from a previous episode. Now we have another video showing what to do with your cats like Sparta when you bring home that long coveted mermaid corpse.

Sparta - for you fans out there - is an Egyptian Mau.

kitty claw caps?

A video for little Mr Miggs and friends ...

... it's for Google's Nexus One (whatever that is). But it has Ninjas. And swords.

and lots of strange little sounds coming from the ninjas.

AHA! I have sent in my taxes, breaking with a longstanding family tradition.

Unfortunately that family tradition is to send in the tax form as late as possible in the year they are owed.

The tax return I just mailed off was for 2008.

Carmen has suggested she do the taxes this year.