Wednesday Quote

Sing out loud in the car even - or especially - if it embarasses your children.

~Marilyn Penland

Children's Tylenol Recall

Just an FYI ... I saw this on the news this morning. Johnson & Johnson is recalling a number of infants' and childrens' liquid Tylenol products. The products being recalled were made between April and June 2008 and there are about two dozen varieties. Click on the link for the Tylenol Website for a list of the recalled products.

Undercover Drug Investigators Play Wii During Raid

''Certainly this was a case of bad judgment,'' Auburndale Police Chief Nolan McLeod said.

Ummmm ... ya think? Saw this on the web and had to post. Unreal. Here is a copy of the published story:

With guns drawn and flashlights cutting through darkened rooms, Polk County undercover drug investigators stormed the home of convicted drug dealer Michael Difalco near Lakeland in March. As investigators searched the home for drugs, some drug task force members found other ways to occupy their time. Within 20 minutes of entering Difalco's house, some of the investigators found a Wii video bowling game and began bowling frame after frame.



While some detectives hauled out evidence such as flat screen televisions and shotguns, others threw strikes, gutter balls and worked on picking up spares. A Polk County sheriff's detective cataloging evidence repeatedly put down her work and picked up a Wii remote to bowl. When she hit two strikes in a row, she raised her arms above her head, jumping and kicking. While a female detective lifted a nearby couch looking for evidence, another sheriff's detective focused on pin action.



But detectives with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the Auburndale, Lakeland and Winter Haven police departments did not know that a wireless security camera connected to a computer inside Difalco's home was recording their activity. The recording obtained by News Channel 8 showed several members of the county's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task force entering the house shortly after 8 a.m. According to the search warrant, their mission was to search for drugs, stolen property and the fruits of any illegal drug activity. Now there are questions on how the impromptu bowling tournament might affect the case against Difalco.Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd denies it will have any effect.



"That absolutely is not true; that doesn't invalidate the search at all," Judd said. "Now the defendant would like for it to invalidate the search, but unfortunately for him, it won't." Judd, who watched the video during an interview last week, called the situation an embarrassment.
"I'm not pleased that they played that Wii bowling game," Judd said. The sheriff's office oversees the drug task force. Judd said he initiated an internal administrative investigation of the incident.
"That is not appropriate conduct at a search warrant," he said. "But I am less pleased with the supervision that didn't walk in and say, turn that off. That's what supervision should have done."
Task force members played the video game at various times during the day, for a total of a little over an hour of playing time. The competition proved to be quite competitive at times. A task force supervisor from the Lakeland Police Department, gun at his side, pumped his fist after picking up a strike on the first ball he threw. The video showed he continued bowling frame after frame, competing with another undercover detective.



"Obviously, this is not the kind of behavior we condone," Lakeland Police Chief Roger Boatner said. "There was a lot of down time, but that does not excuse the fact that we should act as the consummate professionals."

"Certainly this was a case of bad judgment," Auburndale Police Chief Nolan McLeod said. "We will handle it appropriately."

Winter Haven police Sgt. Brad Coleman said Chief E.C. Waters had not viewed the video. "If there is any indication that someone did something inappropriately, we will do something about it," Coleman said. Court records show detectives placed Difalco's home under surveillance as far back as December 2008.

"We knew he had weapons," Judd said. "He's a bad guy." His history includes an extensive arrest record dating back to 1995. Difalco, 43, served three years in state prison from 2002 to 2005 for trafficking drugs, owning and operating a chop shop, and grand theft. In what Judd called "brilliant police work," the task force placed Difalco under surveillance and took him into custody, away from his home and weapons, during the early morning hours of March 6, in the parking lot of a Circle K convenience store on Highway 98. Documents filed with the court say, in the March raid, detectives removed methamphetamine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, weapons and more than $30,000 in stolen property. The 11 charges against Difalco include trafficking methamphetamine, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and operating a chop shop.

According to sheriff's office records, 13 detectives and three sergeants spent nine hours searching Difalco's property, for drugs, stolen property and signs of any illegal drug activity.
The raid cost taxpayers more than $4,000. Judd, Boatner and McLeod agree the bowling was inappropriate. But they challenge the notion that taxpayer dollars were wasted. "It was an expansive scene, a lot of searching to be done, a lot of waiting," Boatner said. "The nature of a search warrant is hurry up and wait," Judd said. "Am I trying to defend the fact that they were bowling, not at all. That was inappropriate."

Not just inappropriate, but Tampa defense attorney Rick Escobar would argue the moment detectives turned on that video game and effectively seized it, they turned the search warrant into an illegal search. "I've never seen anything like this," Escobar said after he viewed some of the video. Escobar does not represent Difalco and has no connection to the case. "All the citizens are thinking, 'Wait a minute, we are paying these people to go out and protect us and here they are playing bowling on our time,' " he said. "The real question here is have they seized property that wasn't described in the search warrant?" Escobar asked. "Clearly if they're using it, they've seized it and for totally improper purposes, because it's for entertainment. Investigations are not for entertainment."Difalco's attorney declined comment.

Chip Tulberry, a spokesperson for the Polk County State Attorney, declined to comment on the video, or the validity of the search warrant. "That's a discussion that will occur in court," he said.

September 23, 2000

9/23/00 was our original wedding date. Before, well ... before we found out. :) Today, what would have been our 9th anniversary, was actually spent at the first parent/teacher conference of the year. The irony. The order in which things happen may not be as traditional as some people expect, but, for lack of better words, whatever. I wouldn't change a thing if I could. At all.

So my baby is brilliant, although we all knew that. His teacher absolutely, no doubt, has him pegged. Which is tough for some people. She has children of her own, her babies are also boys, and in their twenties. She sympathized. And then laughed at us a couple of times, and then apologized. But only because she had been in our shoes also. When her boys were in their early teens. She also sorta, kinda empathized because Cam is only 9 and exhibiting some of the same behavior. But in the next sentence, she made it clear that he was the type to graduate early, become a lawyer and perhaps a Supreme Court Justice someday. Wow. Seriously? You're his 4th grade teacher, but yet ... I wasn't surprised. At all. I was damn proud. His report card was fantastic. His grades were exceptional. He was on honor roll. Again. The grade he got in citizenship was the highest possible, and to be perfectly honest, I was pleasantly surprised. Not that he's bad. At recess he's aggressive. He's competitive. In soccer. In basketball. In football. In whatever. He plays hard. And he's a boy. He's not mean. He's a leader. And he's not one to say, "alright gang ... let's tone it down a bit." So I was very proud of him for this. This grade says more to me than anything. And the blatant love for which his teacher has for him made me so very happy. How could she not? :)

Oh - and Bryan created the above artwork while we waited for our turn outside Cam's classroom. Talk about blatant love. :)

And the plot thickens ...

Did I leave you guys hanging?

Racking your little brains

trying to figure out

what in tarnation

SK8 ASYLUM is? :)

Well ... I won't leave you hanging anymore.

That would be cruel.

And you can stop calling our parents' for details.

Thank heaven for you.

And them, I suppose.

So without further ado ...

If all goes according to plan ...

SK8 ASYLUM will be ...

the name of the Peterson's new business. You heard correctly! We are currently waiting for the "2 of 2" packet of information on Bryan's route. Once this arrives, and everything has been filled out and submitted, the business will officially be up for sale. We are in the process of selling it all, getting rid of it completely (Yay! Seriously ... YAY! I might or might not be more excited about THAT than anything ...) and will reinvest in building an indoor skatepark/board shop. Again, not kidding. This is an idea we've had probably since Cameron began his skate lessons about two years ago. Little things have been popping up the past few months - signs perhaps? - that have given us that push we needed. The purpose of our last trip to Vegas was to meet with the owners of the facility Cameron spent a week at for a summer skate camp. We loved the atmosphere of the indoor park and the family feel of the facility in general. Bryan spent quite a bit of time working behind the scenes with the owner at this facility, and Cameron was able to skate non-stop all weekend - he was in heaven!





It's kind of a scary thought to be opening a new business right now, but we've been doing our homework and are pretty confident that it would work. We're combining our likes and dislikes from BOTH facilities, here and Vegas, and creating what we feel is the ultimate skating experience for kids (and adults ... we won't forget those old schoolers that want to push the board around again ...!) We've looked at some building space and met with the owner and broker, as well as neighboring business owners, have drawn up some business plans, drawn up the design of the park/shop, met with the architect and are waiting for the sketches from him, figured out rent and start up costs, labor and materials to build, equipment, staffing, etc. You name it, we've probably already taken care of it. And thanks to my talented friend Heth, we've already got logo, t-shirt, and board designs drawn up! So .. there you have it folks. We are really into step 9 and 10 already with planning, but can't proceed until the first step is finished, which is selling the business. So ... say your prayers, cross your fingers, do whatever it is you need to do for us! We would greatly appreciate it! We will certainly keep you posted once we have more details. :)

Coming Soon ...

Well at least that's the plan. :)

We'll keep you posted!

Tell us how you REALLY feel

What should have been.

RIP.

I like to admit when I'm grumpy and revealing this to others ... as if they couldn't figure it out. But I like to give some notice and am very good about knowing WHY I'm grumpy and letting people know. This covers my bases. Almost like a get-out-of-jail-free card. I am allowed to be grumpy and act grumpy, because I let those around me know. It's common courtesy, people. For example, ""Honey - just so you know, I'm grumpy." Some people, when asked, aren't sure why they are grumpy. Nothing in particular happened, but they're just grumpy. Not quite sure why. Me? I can pinpoint the exact incident that memorializes my mood. Let's take today, for example. I had to wake up around 4:00 this morning to deal with a serial cat killer. Not kidding. Not one present mess but TWO left for the family: Birds. Lying on the floor in the upstairs bathroom. The boys' bathroom. The one my husband had just entered to take his shower before work. No - I didn't wake to the scream of a little girl, but I did wake to the grumblings of a "bloodbath" in the "bath". I get up out of bed and cover my mouth with my jammie shirt. Just in case. Who knows? I might puke. Or it might smell. Either way, I'm prepared. Yup. He's right one bird, and oh ... two birds. And wait ...what's this? Oh look ... that one is still moving. Nice. Good thing I'm shoebox hoarder ... just happened to have have a couple lying around. Now at this point, Hayden is lying on the floor of our room like he is THE YOU-KNOW-WHAT. King of the Mountain. He's proud. We still get our little lizards - usually every 1-2 days. I can handle these. I'm very good about thanking Hayden, and telling him he's a good boy and all that crap. But birds? COME ON! Not gonna happen this morning. Bryan grabs the one that's still moving, and I'm working on the dead one. Seriously. Is this any way to start off a Monday? Especially when I don't have to get up for another 2 1/2 hours? It's garbage day, and we decide to set the box with the live bird in it, on top of all the garbage, with the lid open. Just in case. Miracles happen - he might decide to fly away. Maybe he was in shock? What the heck do you do? It's not like we can just toss it anywhere - Hayden would be sure to bring it back - and I'm pretty positive our neighbors wouldn't appreciate it. So while Bryan is on garbage duty, I'm on clean-up. Thank god for anti-bacterial cleaners and Lysol. Blech. So let's see ... where was I? Oh, right. Grumpy. Not done yet. Now mind you, this has taken an hour. Head back to bed. But I'm a bit paranoid. I can't sleep now because I envision Hayden running right back outside to the garbage can and retrieving the goods that we threw away. Or that he might decide to hunt for more. Since we threw his last gifts out. Maybe he's mad? Maybe he's thinking ... 'humph ... maybe that wasn't enough for them ... better get more ...' Whatever the hell he was thinking prevented me from sleeping for another 45 minutes or so. I finally remembered to just get up and put the block in the doggie door. At least I knew I wouldn't wake up to another bird coming in. You know the those times when you wake up before you're supposed to and think ...why didn't I just stay awake? Well I MIGHT have, if I'd had more sleep this weekend. We'll touch on that later. So I finally get up when my alarm goes off and am EXHAUSTED. Peek out the window ... garbage guy still hasn't come. Great. Decide that the doggie door is still NOT coming off while Cameron and I are getting ready, mostly because I just wanted to get him off to school and not worry about any interruptions. Well we're just about ready to leave and I see the cat. At the window of the back door. And he's got a present. I'm hitting the door trying to get him to drop it. I open the door a crack and apparently that was enough for him because he ran in, up the stairs and dropped it at the door to our room. SERIOUSLY?!! Grab yet another shoe box, scoop it up, head out front and see that the garbage man did come, but there's a shoe box sitting in the road next to the garbage can. Great. A re-purposed bird. Damn cat got it out of the garbage can. I tell you. Now I probably wouldn't be so irritated with him, really I wouldn't, had he not ruined Cameron's birthday cake. Again, not kidding. Read this damn post - do you think I'm kidding?

Cameron had skate practice on Friday night, and by the time we get done there, headed to the store to get stuff for Cameron's birthday party on Saturday, and grabbed dinner, it was kinda late. Later than I wanted to be home. After all, mom had a homemade cake to bake! Cam wanted the infamous yellow cake w/ chocolate frosting, so Mom stepped up. Thinking I was going to be fancy, I bought two mixes, and had planned to stack them with a nice chocolate frosting filling. Bake the first cake ... great. But I didn't wait long enough for it to cool, and when I dumped it out of the pan, some of the top came off. Not a problem. This would be the bottom layer. Bake the second cake and make up the chocolate frosting. Set the cake out, and head to bed. It's after 12:00 by this time. Get up the next morning, and ... what the H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS happened to my freakin' cake? It appeared to have some of the center missing. Unfortunately, my husband has a sweet tooth. He gets up in the middle of the night, usually still asleep, and heads to the kitchen for something sweet. He wouldn't dare. Called him up. (Told him I was Grumpy before he fished saying hello ..., by the way.) Asked him if he may or may not have tried Cameron's birthday cake. Why would he do that, he asks? Do you really think I would? He asks again. Well I'm calling you, aren't I? No he didn't taste it, so then I determine that Hayden must have wandered over and decided to give it a taste-test of his own. The cat. What cat eats yellow cake? Without frosting? Now remember, I can't just use the first one I made, because the top part came off, and it is damn near impossible to frost the spongy part of the cake. Have tried it many times. Tried it again Saturday morning. (Starting to think that the birds may have been his "I'm sorry ... so sorry ... " gifts ... ?) Call Bryan back and tell him to get a damn birthday cake. Whatever he wants. His choice. At this point I could care less if it was Blues Clues or Hanna Montana. Just get a cake. Also let him know that I couldn't find the Beaver game ANYWHERE, even tthough I was positive it was televised. Double grumpy. Especially when I see the U of O game on like three different channels here. Anyeway, Cameron and I did have a nice breakfast that consisted of a slice of yellow cake with homemade chocolate frosting. From the corners. Before I dumped it. It was delicious. Now ... in the midst of all of this, I proceeded to dump over a half can of Mt. Dew on the kitchen floor, and after that was cleaned up, I knocked the tub of butter off the counter and about 1/4 of it dumped out. Approximately 1/59 of an inch away from the Mt. Dew. Why couldn't they have decided to jump at the same time. Oh well. Do you have to ask if I'm grumpy at this point? Time now to vacuum the downstairs. I got company coming over at 4 for a 9 year old's birthday party. Why did I bother vacuuming? Anyway ... get most of it done, head to the corner with the floor lamp, move the magazine rack and oh look ... a lizard. Scared the bejesus out of me. Screamed like a little girl. Grab my trusty cardboard size 8.5 critter-getter and try to scoop it up. It runs. Under the couch. Which is heavy. And in order to move it, I have to move the coffee table. Which is heavy. Once I'm done moving all the furniture, I finally find the little guy and snag him. Throw him outside, and it's off to finish the last-minute cleaning. All-in-all it was a FANTASTIC party. I shed the grumpiness when I put on my party hat. I'm good like that. Bryan foudn my fgame, so he was a hero. I celebrated with a corona. At noon. Whatever, right? Cam had 5 friends over, 4 stayed the night. Slightly better than last year, although I was told they didn't fall asleep until around 4:30 or so. That explained a LTO of the laziness on Sunday in the Peterson home! The mommies and daddies THOROUGHLY enjoyed the game - YAY Beavers! - and had fun hanging out while the boys did their tthing. Pictures to follow. I cna't find my USB cable for my camera. Oh - that made me a little grumpy.

My work day is finally over, so ... here's to the bottle of wine on my counter - it's time for a nice glass of sure-to-get-rid-of-your-grumpiness ...

Happy Grandparent's Day!

Few can bring the warmth

We can find in their embrace,
And little more is needed to bring love.
Than the smile on their face.

They've a supply of precious stories,
Yet they've time to wipe a tear,
Or give us reasons to make us laugh,
They grow more precious through the years.

I believe that God sent us Grandparents
As our legacy from above,
To share the moments of our life,
As extra measures of His love.
-By Author Unknown

To all of our wonderful Grandma and Grandpas ... we love you! But that's the easy part ... the hard part is being away from all of you! Thanks for being the best and for all the love you give. Wishing you all a wonderful day - please know you are all in our thoughts today. We miss you!

9-11-01

I remember what I was doing exactly eight years ago today. I’m sure you all do. It's right up there with the Challenger explosion for me, and even the start of the Persian Gulf war - the first war to occur in my lifetime, in which I was old enough to know what was going on. Life pretty much came to a halt with the somewhat rude awakening that a terrorist attack of this nature could occur. On our own soil. Eight years ago exactly at this time, I was watching the news and getting ready for work. It was just another day. Eight years ago, and in about a 1/2 hour, that all changed. The breaking news story came on. I was paralyzed in the spot I was standing. Even more so when the second plane hit - and I realized that it wasn't a replay, but another attack. Happening at that moment. Live. Cameron had just turned 1. I was still a new mommy. I was devastated. My first thought was about all those parents that lost a child in that daycare center. All those people that lost a child working in the building. All those people that lost a child on the airplane. Then I started crying. I had only been back to work from maternity leave for a few months and I remember dropping Cameron off at Bryan's aunt's house and how hard it was for me to leave. The third hijacked planed crashed into the Pentagon while I was on the freeway to work. I remember there being a lot of traffic and it moving slowly. People were numb and listening to the radio intently. Nobody at work was even working. There were groups of people all huddled around TVs, computers, radios, whatever they could, just to get some information. And when the last plane crashed, I remember the silence that followed. No phones. No talking, nothing. More numbness. Some people just got up and left. I think I called Sara - again. Just to calm myself. Reassure myself that this was happening at the other end of the country and Cameron was okay. But it didn't matter the distance. We all felt the pain and the shock and the big question of Why? I couldn't wait to go home and see my husband and son.

Some pictures I pulled from the web ...

So in honor of September 11, I just wanted to take a minute and recollect as well as pay tribute to those lives that were lost. Now ... I'm going upstairs to give my baby a kiss, a hug, wake him up for school and thank god that my family is here with me.

Happy Birthday Cameron!

My baby is 9 today!

I can't believe it. I was giving him the rundown of what was happening 9 years ago "at this time" and "right now I was doing this" and just cannot fathom that it has been that long already. He requested daddy's special breakfast burritos this morning before school, and we've got homemade nachos requested for dinner. Plus the chocolate cream pie that mom made for dessert AND of course, his presents. I was told I was a little cruel this morning ... for having his presents and some balloons sitting on the kitchen table when he came down for breakfast. Of course he couldn't open them ... daddy wasn't home. So he was a bit ticked. I guess I don't blame him. Sitting there eating his burrito and staring at them. Knowing he can't open them until later. He told me to move them away. But no ... I'm cruel. Oh well. As for now, I took a few pictures this morning (Cam took a few self-portraits as well) so I thought I'd post them. Check back later for more!

And this ... was Cameron's response after I explained for the fifth time that yes, he still had to go to school on his birthday.



He has his "friend" birthday party on Saturday, so I'll be sure and post pics of that later.

Why 09/09/09 Is So Special

Yahoo! News had this article posted and I thought it was pretty interesting. Although WE all know why 09/09/09 "Is So Special"!!!!

Have special plans this 09/09/09?

Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way. In Florida, at least one county clerk's office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn't been lost on the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. Focus Features is releasing their new film "9", an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.

Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it.
Though technically there's nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09. For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated - while others might see the date as an ominous warning.

Math magic

Modern numerologists - who operate outside the realm of real science - believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application. As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists. Though usually discredited as bogus, numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times. "Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers," wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.

Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.
Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9. Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2).

Loving 9

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number eight during last year's Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eight sounds like wealth). Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however. In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky - second only to four, which sounds like death. Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven't already eliminated them altogether.

Happy belated Labor Day!

Just a quick post. Hope everyone had a good weekend. Our was great ... we had fun hanging out with mom and dad, relaxing - a lot, and actually worked for a bit. It was pretty busy, but great overall. Think it was successful in the "business" sense, and gave us LOTS to think about. More on that later. I know, rude, huh? ;)

Thought this was a great quote to start out a short work week! Yahoo!

"Nobody says you must laugh, but a sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the day." ~Ann Landers

Batter Blaster

This is awesome. Have seen this, and passed it. Many times. But when you're grocery shopping with Bryan, well he can get sucked into things like this: Pancake & Waffle Batter in a Can! Yes, it's true. Much like a can of whipped cream. Why not? Thought we'd give it a try. We picked up a can of the Original batter, and was a bit leery about the fact that it was Organic, but ... it is fantastic. The squirt can was easy to use on the griddle, as you can see, you can pretty much squirt your batter into whatever you'd like.

Not all that cheap, $4.99 for a can, but ... it did make about 25 pancakes or so, it was very easy and convenient, no messes, and it is pretty darn good for you in comparison to Bisquick. The pancakes were absolutely delicious. In fact, Cam had about 8 of them the first morning. Can't beat that!

Some Notes

Dear Arizona Weather,
Please cool off. Soon.

Dear HGTV,
Thank you for being our most in-the-moment-favorite-channel. Actually we've been watching you for quite some time, and now that I think about it, so maybe I should change that to our most-favorite-channel. Not many families gather around to watch something on HGTV. At least not ones with an 8-year-old-almost-9-year-old. We love DesignStar and think Antonio needs to win. Please tell him that we are rooting for him. Please also let the individuals know on "Get It Sold" that they should know by now to de-clutter. People can be dumb. Nobody wants to buy a house with cheerios all over the floor under a high chair. No one. Not even parents that can relate.

Dear Next-Door-Neighbor,
I'm glad that you were finally able to buy a house, so that you weren't spending all of your hard earned money renting the one next to us. I'm even more glad that your two dogs will be changing residences as well. I prefer not to hear two dogs fighting/growling/barking at each other - even if they are just playing - all day, while I'm at home, and you're not. It sounds scary to me.

Dear Future-Next-Door-Neighbor,
Please don't be annoying. Please don't have barking dogs. Please be sure you pull the weeds in your front yard, so we don't have to. Please have kids that my son will want to play with. Please be the type of people that enjoy a cold beverage on the patio with the stereo cranking every once in a while, and even more so, ones that don't mind when we have friends over to enjoy a cold beverage on the patio with the stereo cranking every once in a while.

Dear Paralyzed Veterans of America,
Thank you for your service. Thank you for the beautiful return address labels I received in the mail yesterday.

Dear Skateboard Helmet and Knee/Elbow Pad Companies,
You are awesome! Thank you for making your products so durable! They certainly protected my son tonight at his skate practice while he was throwing out his board slides and trying to master a hand plant.

Dear Bryan and Cameron,
I apologize for the Raisin Bran and salad kick I've been on. The adverse effects these particular foods have on my body, and in turn passed along to you (no pun intended), are not intentional.