Payback time

Okay, I'm probably being punished for gloating so gleefully last week over Da 'Boys whippin the Cheeseheads. We're getting skunked by the 'Skins right now and it is just plain ugly.

Where's the joy, Boys? Can we manufacture some enthusiasm somewhere, please?

Eesh.

UPDATE: 26-24, Skins. Absolutely, totally, completely pathetic. I did NOT know that team wearing our jerseys and playing in our stadium today.

Bitterly clinging to my gun

I found one of the backyard wood-rats yesterday and --almost-- nailed him with my varmint gun. He was just a tad too fast for me. And Bijou is no help; she's the chickenest dog you ever met. She might bark at a burglar but she'll run and hide too.

But I ain't-a skeered. We've got all kinds of varmints running loose in this hick town... skunks... possums... rats... and the ubiquitous skwerls, of course. Nevermind that we live a block from Interstate 35, where heaven knows who might be driving through on less-than-honorable intentions. I don't intend to disarm myself anytime soon. In fact, I'm pretty seriously thinking it's time to add to the arsenal.

I think Obama might want to pry my varmint gun from my hands, though.





I'd like to see him come try.

Conquest!

Dude occasionally finds a love interest lying around the house... usually a stray mitten or stuffed animal. This morning it was the coonskin cap. He toted it around for quite a while, even taking it into his kennel and singing to it.

Hello? [taptaptap] Is this thing on?

Geert Wilders, chairman Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, at the Four Seasons, New York, on September 25, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem:

The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome’s ancient buildings and maybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they still look very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.

But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitors see – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corner. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.

...

Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything. Therefore, it is not that the West has a stake in Israel. It is Israel.

Are we going to wake up in time?

Okay, no real surprises here...

Your result for The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test...

Feminine

You scored 43% masculinity and 60% femininity!

I'm a chick, I expected to score "Feminine"... but I'm also not surprised that it's only about a sixty-forty split.

I'm not exactly in the flat-top haircut league, though.

What I *don't* get is how I ranked above a hundred percent... 43% to 60%? Hunh?

This is not looking very good, people.

Over at Wizbang I read some tea leaves (apparently it looks like the European banking giant Fortis is on the brink of failure now, as is Wachovia):

We are witnessing a failure in government. Our Congress cannot work together to provide an immediate fix to a problem it created in the first place: forcing the American financial sector to extend mortgages to those who were high risk borrowers in order to champion to the American people that more minorities own homes than ever. That worked well under a booming economy. But when the natural cycle of economics turned downward, fear dismissed became reality unavoidable. The house of cards came tumbling down.

And even still, amid all the haggling and fighting going on in Congress over how to shore up the financial cash crisis, not a word is mentioned about changing the counter-intuitive practices forced upon mortgage lenders in the first place. In this respect, it's not unlike how Congress and the White House chose to address illegal immigration: by trying to deal with those already here first rather than initially addressing the cause: the influx of illegals that continues to flow unabated.

Make no mistake, if we wake to Black Monday this week, the responsibility lies squarely upon Congress and the electorate which has put them there, not our banks. Our banks' hands were forced by mandates from Washington, not their boardrooms.

I'm not officially freaked out or anything, but this is serious shizzle. I am firmly against the bailout, though, for the same reasons I'm against the confiscatory taxes we all have to pay -- it's MY MONEY and it ought to be my decision where it goes.

Sooners versus the Purple Horned-Frogs

I won't spend a great deal of time gloating over this one, out of respect for my favorite little sister who graduated from TCU, but...

BOOMER SOONER!!

OU 35, TCU 10

Note to RedFish and my cousin Heather: DON'T LOOK!

For as long as I can remember, I was terrified of spiders. All spiders... the webby kind, the jumpy kind, the rubbery brown kind, any kind you could name. Just seeing the word "spider" actually made my heart leap with involuntary terror.

You think I'm kidding? Well, I'm really not.

But I have come a very long way... so long, that I can now objectively classify certain spiders as "those who don't see me as something to bite." The ones that fascinate me most -- and which are freely allowed to live in my house -- are the jumping spiders, Family Salticidae.

My friend Lori, who now lives in the Pacific Northwest but who at the time lived in Iowa near me, spoke lovingly of the little jumping spiders as "cute" and as helpful little creatures who ate bugs with ferocity and glee and had absolutely no interest in humans. I slowly began to see her point -- their squatty little furry bodies, their prepared stance and their instinctive defensive posture whenever you come near -- were humorous and, yes, cute.

I finally began seeing these as "not spiders", even though they are. Spiders are nasty, horrid, evil things that lurk and want to bite me (bear with me for a moment, that's my irrational chick mind talking). Jumping spiders aren't like that at all.

So when I was upstairs earlier, doing my laundry, I noticed one of the largest jumping spiders I'd ever seen on one of the windows. I happened to have the camera with me and got as close as I could without losing focus or scaring him away:


Obviously this is using the camera's super-close-up setting, so the picture isn't as crisp as I'd like, and he/she looks enormous when in reality he/she was only about as big around as a quarter. But I have identified this little critter as a Phidippus audax, or a Bold Jumper spider:




I found this spider's iridescent green chelicerae and fierce facial expression absolutely charming. Does that make me weird?

And I believe this is prima facie evidence for the fact that I have indeed come a loooong way.

A little vintage Segovia

Bach is my absolute favorite composer of all time. I love his work as interpreted on a guitar, a piano, a harpsichord, a trumpet, an organ... even on an electric guitar. I always preferred playing Bach during my piano lesson days, to the point that my teachers almost despaired of convincing me to play anything else.

Music...

My students often like to bring me their favorite CDs to add to my iPod, since I play music while they're creating artistic masterpieces. Thanks to the kids, I can now say that I have a complete collection of Anthrax. Dunno that I actually WANTED that, but there you go.

Yesterday one of my girls who was born in Vietnam brought me a couple of pop CDs from Vietnam. It's not exactly the type of "World" music I prefer (the indigenous traditional stuff, not the westernized popmuzik), but I've loaded them onto the Pod anyway. I'll probably play them sometime next week.

Caturday Cat in a Box

Would you mind? I'm trying to take a peaceful nap in this box here in Isaac's room, since he's not home today and it's quiet in here.

Caturday Catwalk

I'm not sure what Ralph Lauren was going for in his Spring 2009 collection on display at New York Fashion Week, but my first impression is that he was trying to distract us from the eternal sameness and boredom of his horsey-set couture by adding funky turbans. This first one looks like a chick from Hyannisport got caught in a sandstorm in Afghanistan:


And this one apparently forgot that a turban won't win you any Muslim pals if your neckline leaves nothing to the imagination:


Fashion is so weird.

I actually don't mind the fabric head-wrap in certain circumstances. I wear one myself sometimes. It just seems, well, out-of-place in the preppy couture of Ralph Lauren's collection.

Same headache again

Started at about 7:45 tonight.

Okay, let's give this another try

I'm going to resume drinking the Nectar brand protein powder shakes I bought. I have probably waited a couple of weeks longer than I should've, but I've just been so distracted with other things that I forgot. Rick has been gently and not-so-gently chiding me about the low protein intake problem, and he is right -- while I am consuming enough protein for a normal person, I am not absorbing all of that protein, and I will pay for this sooner or later. Probably sooner if I'm not more careful.

One thing that happened to me about four months after my first bariatric procedure was that I lost about a third of the hair on my head. At the time they said it was due to protein, but since then I'm not entirely sure it's just that. I think it may also have had something to do with the anesthesia. I found that after other surgical procedures I had oddball symptoms that cropped up about three or four months post-op, too.

But I still need to pack in the protein. If my body doesn't get enough protein on a regular basis, it will eventually steal it from my muscles.

I began drinking the tastier Nectar brand of protein right after my surgery and found them to be relatively palatable and not at all disagreeable. The problem came later in the form of tremendous gassiness. Since then I've found that it seems like lots of food causes this gassiness, so I might as well put up with the protein shakes' effects too. Originally I blended some canned peaches in with the peach-flavored shake powder, so this time around I'm leaving out the peaches. I did, however, add in a cup of peach yogurt. This may cause the same problem. I dunno. But at least the shake tastes okay.

On an unrelated health note, I took my evening dose of Aleve at about 7:30PM in hopes of perhaps staving off the headache that always seems to show up at about 8:30PM.

It didn't work. The headache is back again, and in precisely the same place.

I do NOT want to go to the doctor, but I don't see that I have much choice now. Dangit.

The Vicodin tablet did not relieve my headache last night either, but I felt better anyway. Heh. I'm not going to waste one tonight, though. There's obviously something else going on that isn't affected by painkillers. I may try a decongestant tonight to see if maybe it's a sinus problem.

AWESOME AMAZING WONDERFUL NEWS

I finally convinced the green-eyeshades finance dude at school to approve the purchase of a Nikon D80 camera with an 18-200mm VR lens.

I know, Nikon is discontinuing the D80 in favor of the D90, but the D80 is still an outstanding camera that will stand the test of time. And the fact that it's being discontinued means the price is at the bottom right now.

[happy dancing]

It won't belong to ME, but I will be in charge of taking care of it... which is the next best thing. If I could afford to, I'd get one for myself, but at least this way I will be really accustomed to using it when the day finally comes that I can afford my own.

A local professional photographer is going to come to my class once the camera comes and help us learn how to use it. Besides feeling rather excited myself, I am really glad that the kids will finally have a REAL CAMERA to learn on. I've got one student (a junior this year) who I believe has a future as a professional photographer herself... and she needs to get as much time on a DSLR camera as possible.

Watch this space for more pictures soon. Feel free to give suggestions or comments regarding how the photos I post could be improved.

My latest food crush

I absolutely canNOT seem to get enough green grapes. I haven't been able to eat them for eleven years, and I'd forgotten just how much I love them. All food with skins was off-limits for me because it would invariably get hung up in the silastic band.

Last week it was steak that I couldn't get enough of. Now it's grapes. I wonder what I'm going to re-discover next week?

And I continue to shed weight like crazy.

Small confession

I did something at the college tonight that was just the teeniest bit mean.

Yes, I should be learning my lesson from recent mistakes. But this opportunity presented itself like a juicy ribeye steak fresh out of the broiler and I could NOT refrain.

There is one student in my remedial English class who has been nothing short of obnoxious for the entire duration of the class. He farts and belches openly with no regard for those of us around him. He blathers on about nonsensical stuff. And when I call on him to answer a question, he has to scramble around and ask those around him where we are in the book because he never NEVER takes notes or follows the lecture. Not EVER. Never even turns anything in. I can't imagine why he even bothers to come except that he must get some sick charge out of being obnoxious. He certainly has no chance of actually passing the class.

Tonight he was in fine form, stiffing those sitting at his table by refusing to contribute to the group work I assigned. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and dozed off.

It just so happened that it was at the end of class. When I finished the lesson, I said, "Okay, let's be done. Good night." Everyone arose from their seat and exited the classroom... except for Obnoxious Ogden (not his real name). He was still asleep. I waited for a moment, and a couple of students glanced nervously at me as they left the room, almost as if to ask if they should bother. Everyone hates him, though, so no-one volunteered. I took one last look at him, leaned back in his chair, snoozing peacefully, then turned off the lights in the room and shut the door.

Might as well let sleeping jackasses lie, right?

Same headache, same time

The same headache has arrived again, precisely at 8:30 PM tonight, in exactly the same place behind my right eye.

Rick thinks I might have a sinus infection, but I don't have a stuffy head or drainage or anything.

Tonight instead of the usual two Aleve tablets (which I have to take for my arthritis anyway) I took one Aleve and one 500mg Vicodin tablet left over from my recent dental adventure. I always keep pain meds when I don't use them all because they eventually come in handy. I think I went through almost my entire stash of extra Vicodin after my surgery two months ago... I hurt a LOT more than I expected I would, and we lived so far from a pharmacy that it was just easier to use what I had rather than try to get a refill of what the doc had prescribed for me. Plus, now I always feel really guilty when filling a Vicodin scrip thanks to The Angry Pharmacist and all his rants. Even though my scrips are always legit and never the result of abuse or overuse, I still feel bad about it.

I'm probably going to use this blog as my personal headache documentation again (like I did several years back), to keep accurate track of their onset, duration and location. Feel free to ignore the headache posts.

Oh... and the white-hot anger that overwhelmed me yesterday? I knew it would be better after I woke up, and it was. I had some of those little miniature pumpkins that people decorate with this time of year, and I tied a little note of apology to the stem and put it on the desk of my offending co-worker. Yes, he was in the wrong, and his behavior and attitude were sucky. But he obviously perceived that I was the one behaving badly and I knew there would be no reconciliation if I didn't go forward with a sincere apology. Eventually maybe he'll realize he was the one with the problem, but I doubt it... and it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things anyway. I need to be able to work alongside him without friction, and I've learned where his tipping-point is with regards to sarcasm and jokes. Basically I will no longer joke with him, and hopefully if I stay out of his way I can stay on his good side. And most important of all, I needed to be the one who submitted -- out of reverence for Christ. Jesus didn't deserve the treatment HE got, but he took it willingly. I'm certainly NOT undeserving of punishment for lots of crap I do and don't do, so let's just take the medicine cheerfully and move on.

I have better things to do than hang onto anger and grudges. I see too many people around me who have clutched their lifelong bitterness to their chests like security blankets... it's no way to live, in my opinion.

Exactly the same headache

I don't have the headache all day, but at about the same time every evening for the past three nights, I have a twingy headache right behind my right eye.

I refilled my Prozac prescription today and the pharmacist said that the doctor won't refill it again until I go in for a visit. This ticks me off royally because I was JUST IN THERE a month ago for a different issue. A Prozac refill shouldn't be a big deal, though. It's not as though I haven't been in to see her in a year or something.

That being said, though, if I'm going to HAVE to go in for yet another stupid doctor visit, I can mention the headache and see what she says. Probably nothing; I haven't been hugely impressed with this doctor. My former doctor was annoying enough, sure, but this one who came in as a replacement when that one left is not terribly scintillating either. I sometimes get the idea that I do more reading and research than some of these yay-hoos.

Meh. It's probably just this really really really really really really rotten mood I'm in... this Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very-Bad Mood.

Grrrrrrrrrowl. Snarl.

Extreme irritability

One of the things I think I remember about the first time I lost a lot of weight was that estrogen and other hormones are stored in fat and released when that fat is eventually metabolized... sometimes resulting in a cascade of emotion.

Two months ago today, I had surgery. I have lost a LOT of weight in that two months already. And up to now I haven't really noticed much emotional stuff. Until today, that is.

Today I could gnaw nails into finely-honed needles and spit them at light-speed.

This morning at the breakfast table I noticed my eldest daughter's neck and the obvious layer of grime lying there unscrubbed. We were about to leave, so I made her stay behind to wash, and let Rick bring her to school when she'd finished. She is FOURTEEN. When -- oh when -- will the urge to be clean and fresh-smelling kick in? We need this desperately.

A co-worker "did it unto me" today... and I wouldn't normally have noticed or cared, but I have experienced a tsunami of private anger all day. It's tempered with the knowledge and desire to reconcile (more sure evidence of my Savior's presence than of any better nature within myself), but it's white-hot anger nonetheless.

At Wal-Mart this afternoon, I had the distinct privilege of being right behind someone who had gotten a whole cartload of stuff and then discovered she had no way to pay for about nine-tenths of it, so she had to go back through each item individually and decide whether the clerk should void it or keep it in the tally.

More extreme irritability. I kept my eyes averted from her in hopes that I wouldn't go all X-Men Cyclops in her face. I was glad I hadn't bought anything sharp or pointy.

At home afterward, I had to convince my eldest daughter to put on clean underwear after she took a shower rather than re-donning the ones she'd had on all day.

Why should I have to convince her of this? Can someone please 'splain to me why it isn't obvious to a fourteen-year-old girl that she should wear clean clothes?

My molars are nearly nubs.

In yer face, Cheese-Heads

Dallas Cowboys 27
Green Bay Packers 16

An unusual occurrence

Wendy M. Painter, "Migraine", 16" x 66", 1993

I actually have a headache tonight. A few years ago this was an every-day thing, but I can now say that I do not even remember the last headache I had. I don't know of a particular reason why I'm having a headache tonight, but unless it persists and isn't gone by morning, I probably won't even bother worrying about it. How cool is that?

Just the same, I should probably check my BP. When I was having all those horrible headaches, it turned out that my systolic BP was spiking over 200 and I never even knew it. I have been taking my Lisinopril faithfully, but we dropped the HCTZ a few weeks ago because my BP was going too low.

Likely cause: sleep deprivation. I didn't get as much sleep last night as I should've, and I didn't nap this afternoon because I had to go try to find some pants that won't fall off me at school tomorrow.

It's 10PM now, so I think I'll just go to bed now and see if that helps.

Okay, this officially infuriates me

And makes me re-think ever donating ANYTHING to the ASPCA:

SPCA Brings Squirrels from Gulf Coast to DFW

When representatives from the SPCA of Texas stop in North Texas Sunday to help reunite five dogs rescued in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike with their owner, they will also drop off a load of squirrels from the Texas Gulf Coast.

According to a release, the SPCA of Texas is bringing about 175 wild baby squirrels to the Perry Animal Care Center in McKinney.

State-licensed wildlife rehabilitation groups are expected to pick up the squirrels and care for them until they can possibly be released into the wild.

Can someone please explain to me WHY they are rescuing SKWERLS?!? They're not only not endangered, they are a menace to society and should be culled whenever possible. Even God thinks so; otherwise, why would he have sent the hurricanes? Sheesh, people. We should be stewing them up and serving them to hungry people displaced by the hurricanes, not rescuing the dadgum terizt rats and re-releasing them onto an unsuspecting public.

Just stuff

This is my baby -- Bijou the Wonder Poodle, sweetest lil' doggie EVAR. She's very devoted to her mommy and sleeps under the covers in the crook of my knees.

These next two photos are of some of my absolute favorite old-timey annuals: Four O'Clocks... so named because they don't bloom until after four o'clock in the afternoon. My great-grandma used to have lots of four o'clocks. I was absolutely delighted to discover that there are four o'clocks planted here at my new house. There are fuchsia ones, light pink ones, and yellow ones (although the yellow ones aren't quite opening up just yet).





And planted in profusion: brilliant red-orange cannas:




Over in a corner by the pool: a fig tree! I have no idea if it's fruit-bearing.


I am looking forward to spring so I can find out what other delightful little garden treasures await me.

Happy Catfurday

Nerd Day

Me, along with my trusty yearbook staff, celebrating Nerd Day.

GRRRRRRRRRR

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth here... The Closer just had its season finale and I have to wait til fargin' JANUARY to find out whether Sanchez lives or dies.

FOUR MONTHS.

I am getting way too old for this sort of thing.

But I have to say, kudos to the folks over at TNT for the best Closer season yet. This show just keeps getting better and better, and it was pretty darn good to begin with.

Public Service Announcement

From Jeff Kramer of Syracuse.com:

One fascinating tidbit I learned is that a surprising number of motorists cut in front of [concrete] mixer trucks, often while texting or talking on the phone. Do not do this! Ernie Davis spent less time playing for [Syracuse University] than it takes for a loaded mixer traveling 55 miles per hour to come to a complete stop. Also, if you're an animal-lover whose instinct is to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a squirrel, keep this in mind: In a panic stop, front-loading-style mixers automatically spit out one to two yards of concrete. At 4,000 pounds per yard, that's easily enough to crush you, your car and your cuddly squirrel friend. The message should be clear to all: Squirrels hate us.

Skwerls are terizts. They can -- and will -- use any means at their disposal, even our gullibility and a cement mixer, to dispatch their enemy: humankind. Hey, it's possible. Watch your back, folks.

You're welcome.

The Domo-kun story in video

Domo-kun is a Japanese tv-station mascot. Here are a few of the brief thirty-second spots which he appears in:





The following one is where he gets his name (as a result of a play on words by the television announcer):
















Obviously there isn't a LOT there -- these aren't full-length programs, just quick commercials (not unlike the Geico cavemen commercials). But perhaps these give you a brief glimpse into Domo-kun's very simple origins. You can find more Domo-kun episodes on YouTube as well.

DOMO-KUN!!!

How cool is this? Target has adopted Domo-kun as its Halloween seasonal mascot this year, and they even have some little Domo-kun figures that you can buy. I love Domo-kun!!

Who -- or what -- is Domo-kun?

The Wikipedia entry states:

Domo (どーもくん, Dōmo-kun?) is the mascot of Japan's NHK television station, appearing in several 30 second stop-motion sketches shown as station identification during shows.

The name "Domo" was acquired during the second episode of his show in which a TV announcer said, "dōmo, konnichiwa" (どうも、こんにちは, "dōmo, konnichiwa"?), which is a formal greeting meaning something along the lines of, "Well, hello there!", but which can also be interpreted as "Hello, Domo!", and thus is a convenient dajare. The kun suffix on "Domo-kun," the name used to describe the character in the Japanese versions, is a Japanese honorific often used with young males.

Domo, the main character, is described as "a strange creature that hatched from an egg." [5] Domo's favorite food is Japanese-style meat and potato stew, and he has a strong dislike for apples, due to an unexplained mystery in his DNA. Domo-kun is known to pass gas repeatedly when nervous or upset.

I am completely aware of the dubious kitten-related infamy afforded Domo-kun by his exposure on FARK forums, but I choose to ignore that yucky stuff and instead focus on Domo-kun's kawaii-ness. He's just FUN.

And he has a pooting problem, just like me (one of the less-than-pleasant side-effects of a biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch procedure). What's not to like?

Hey, I've eaten that...

Duck on the half-shell? They're saying it's one of the fifteen most repulsive foods on record. I bet I can come up with others. Yes, it's certainly not pleasing to the eye of most American diners, but it isn't as nasty as it looks.

Anyway, yes, I have actually consumed this dish. I taught English classes to a group of Vietnamese adults several years ago, and one evening we had a celebration party (I don't remember the occasion... might've been my birthday). They brought this dish for me and I quickly got the idea that this was a real honor and that it would be rather rude not to try it.

Watch out for the beak and feet, but otherwise it's certainly edible with a bit of salt and cilantro.

That being said, I'm probably not inclined to order it at my local Vietnamese restaurant.

Evacuees on their way

My cousin Matt, his wife Emily, and their five children Hannah, Josh, Caroline, Sarah-Kate and Evie (Houston residents) are on their way to Mom's house in Denton. I look forward to getting to see them this weekend, of course, but I'm praying their house and property stay safe in the oncoming mess.

I've been through one hurricane in my life -- Hurricane Allen, back in 1980, when we lived in Corpus Christi. Allen was a real monster, as you can see in the Wikipedia article linked. Mom and I evacuated to Dallas to my Aunty Ada's house, but Dad worked the emergency room at the hospital. When we returned to our home (which we had carefully boarded up with plywood on all the windows), we found that something really large had slammed into the plywood on the window in my bedroom, shattering the glass underneath it and allowing buckets of water to pour in. There were a couple of inches of water standing in my bedroom, damaging my bedroom furniture and ruining lots of stuff. Also, I believe the storm surge was quite nasty, since Corpus was on the "dirty" side of the eyewall.

Any-hoo, up thisaway Hurricane Ike is due to be at his worst on Saturday afternoon and evening. He should be just a TS by then, but we're predicted to get 4-8 inches of rain.

On a completely different subject, I need to head off to bed. I have to be at school by 6AM tomorrow morning to help the school picture photographers get into the gym to set up. Oy.

I want it! I want it! Can I have it? PLEEEEEEAAASE?

A remote control Dalek!!!

I'd like to get video of an r/c Dalek chasing my cat around the house, screeching "EX-TER-MI-NATE!!!"

Forty bucks in my tip jar gets you that video posted right here on this blog.

Oh, for Pete's sake

I got a piece of paper from Martha today after school:

IN A MILLION WORDS OR LESS... TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SCHOLAR!

Dear parents,

Yes, today the parents are getting a homework assignment! A listserv I was visiting was discussing "first of year activities." In a Million Words or Less... was a huge favorite, and a huge success. The reason behind it is that it takes teachers a great deal of time to know your child. Some we never really know. Being familiar with each student's personality, background, and strengths or weaknesses helps me plan for the year.

Who better to tell me about my students than the people who know them best! This activity gives you a chance to tell me what you think I should know about your scholar. I will not share your comments with any other person unless you tell me in your message that I can.

Eighth grade students will be very busy this year. Among other things, we will work toward improving vocabulary both for reading comprehension and for greater clarity in their writing and speaking. The curriculum is rigorous but very doable. The goal of the curriculum is to prepare your student for success in high school and the assorted state-mandated tests.

Take your time with this homework assignment, but there must be a deadline. Please get In A Million Words or Less... to me no later than Friday, September 19th. I am looking forward to reading your insights which will help make this a successful school year.

Sheesh. I have a couple of options. Either I spend pages and pages telling things exactly as they are, or I tell her to keep her eye on this child because you just never know what she's going to do at any moment in time.

Due to a few disciplinary issues, her cell phone and mp3 player were confiscated this weekend. Then she pulled a real doozy -- she got out a family-sized frozen lasagna while I was on the phone with my cousin in Tennessee, warmed it in the microwave, at the top part off it, left the rest sitting on the dining room table and went to bed.

!!!!!

When I discovered what she had done, I marched upstairs, dragged her out of bed and chewed her up one side and down the other. Her punishment was that after she had finished the lasagna (not all at once, of course, but at every meal until it was gone), she would be able to eat a ham sandwich for her meals for the next week. I'm not starving her, of course, but I am limiting her options as severely as I can.

She furiously stomped back up the stairs (as heavily and noisily as possible, kicking everything in her path) and screamed that I was a "fat faggot."

When I tell you people that I'm not sure how I will be able to keep my mugshot off CNN until she moves out of the house someday, I'm really not kidding.

And in the meantime, I'm supposed to introduce her to her English teacher. I'm pleased that she's been moved into regular English class rather than SPED English (she will probably always have to have SPED math, I'm afraid)... but holy cow! Where do I begin on this assignment?!? I'm glad I have a week to come up with something.

I have to admit... I *almost* felt bad...

Really, I did.

I was coming around a bend in the road out in the middle of nowhere, a couple of days ago, and a pair of pigeons were RIGHT THERE on the edge of my lane.

Pigeons! What the heck are pigeons doing out here anyway? They don't give out freebie food in these parts. The stupid birds were even right in the same spot where I saw the bobcat kitten a few weeks ago.

I didn't make a concerted effort to steer away from them, assuming they'd take flight.

Well, they didn't.

The soft thump stunned me. I quickly looked into the rear-view mirror. I swear it looked like there'd been a massive pillow-fight behind me. I've never seen so many feathers exploding in a cloud. POOF! It was like there were no bodies there, just a gazillion feathers.

It's not like they're endangered or anything. They're annoying pests not unlike skwerls in the Big City, right?

My major confession here isn't so much that I killed a couple of stupid brainless pigeons.

It's that I haven't been able to stop laughing every time I remember the gigantic POOF of feathers in my rear-view mirror.

And get this... I almost immediately considered pulling over and collecting the now-tenderized pigeon carcasses and taking them home for supper, thereby fulfilling one of the Hundred Things You Should Eat Before You Die. Hey, it WAS road-kill. And I knew it was quite fresh.

But I decided it wouldn't have been prudent, since that particular bend in the road didn't have a clear line of sight for oncoming cars.

I feel better now, having confessed.

Too bad they weren't REAL skwerls, though.

Tara Bites

Well, actually, there's only one TaraBite... or is it terabyte? I forget. Anyhoo, we bought a LaCie mass storage device on Woot some time back and it is supposed to be able to store a whole terabyte of stuff. W00t w00t!! Even as I blog at this moment, I am transferring all my music and photos over to Tara. I'm hoping that I'll be able to free up a LOT of space on my laptop that is making it run kinda slow.

UPDATE: Can someone explain to me why iTunes won't access my library on the LaCie? I have changed the Preferences setting to look for my library there instead of on my laptop's hard drive, but it does nothing.

I used to like iTunes, but I've become less and less enamored with it of late. I had to look elsewhere to find the seventh Potter audiobook even though it had been available on the open market for a year. And now I find its interface confining and even a bit insulting.

If anyone can 'splain to me what I can do to fix this, I'd sure 'preciate it.

UPDATE: I love my readers! I received an e-mail from BlogDog with this extremely helpful web page, which got me started on the right track. Then I read the comment from MaggieKatzen about dragging the library into iTunes to help it recognize the library. Without these two very helpful friends, I would not have succeeded -- but I did! And it's working beautifully.

Thank you!!!!!!!

Big Fun in Ballyhoo

Martha with one of her pals from school.




What To Wear To A Monster Truck Bash: Heels, Daisy-Duke shorts and an off-the-shoulder t-shirt.

I think I was not dressed properly for this event... I was wearing my OU t-shirt (which I wear every Saturday in the fall).



Infant Fashion Tip: Diaper, socks, and a mohawk haircut. Tres chic.


YeeHAAAAWWW!!! It's Monster Truck Time!!!

Here's a brief video of some of the Monster Truck Action. The building in the background is the Ballyhoo Elementary School. You'll hear Isaac in the background as well as a few of my students:





Does this officially make me a redneck now?

This event was sponsored by all the local churches. The driver of the Monster Truck told his life story after the festivities. Prior to the Smashing of the Junk Cars By The Monster Truck, we were regaled by live worship music -- every single song exactly the same as the ones we did back in the Soulfire days. [sigh] We thought we were so edgy and out-there.

I guess, however, that this qualifies as "speaking the local language" in a way. No-one would come to a symphony performance here, but line up the Monster Truck Guy and give away free hotdogs and the whole town (plus all the even smaller communities nearby) will show up. It's what works here, so we went and participated and enjoyed ourselves.

What I'm reading right now

ReImagining Church: Pursuing Organic Christianity by Frank Viola

I haven't started it yet, but it's the first thing I've seen in a while about church that I've actually been interested in reading.

100 Things You Should Eat Before You Die

In celebration of my new-found ability to eat real food that isn't soup, I bring you One Hundred Things You Should Eat Before You Die. Some of the things I've had before but a few are delicacies of the sort that one doesn't find in restaurants which I frequent. I'm a plebe, I'm not gonna lie to you. But watching Iron Chef has made me want to try some fancy-shmancy stuff like:

#97 Steak tartare
#84 Black truffle
#78 Foie gras
#53 Eel
#51 Sea urchin
#42 Poutine (certainly not fancy-shmancy, of course, but it sounds interesting)
#33 Haggis
#29 Caviar (I'd like to try the really good stuff from Russia sometime)
#16 Kobe beef (I want a boneless ribeye from a beer-fed, massaged Wagyu steer) (I don't want much, do I?)
#4 Lobster Thermidor
(doesn't this look yummy? I thought so. I've had lobster before, of course, but never this particular dish, and I haven't been able to eat lobster of any kind since my stomach troubles)





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

Stuff on the list that I've already had: (with asterisks beside ones I'd have again, five asterisks if I totally totally heart the stuff)

Venison
Huevos rancheros*
Cheese fondue
Baba ghanoush*
Calamari*
Pho*
PB&J
Aloo gobhi*
Hot dog from a street cart*
Steamed pork buns*
Pistachio ice cream*****
Heirloom tomatoes*****
Fresh wild berries*****
Rice & beans (the Haitian kind is the best, IMHO)*
Oysters*
Baklava*
Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
Sauerkraut
Root beer float*
Curried goat*
Chicken tikka masala
Krispy Kreme donuts
Abalone*
Paneer*****
McDonald's Big Mac
S'mores*
Frog legs*
Funnel cake*
Fried plantain*****
Hostess fruit pie
Escargot*
Hare/rabbit*
Goulash (it's too close to soup, which I've sworn off of for as long as possible)
Flowers*
Spam
Catfish*****
Mole poblano*
Polenta (isn't this just grits? duh!)
Snake (too tough and stringy for my tastes)

------------------------------------
And stuff on the list I will never EVER eat if I can help it:

Borscht (again, it's soup. and it's made from beets. I apologize to my Russian friends, but beets have always tasted like mildew smells)

Cognac with a fat cigar (although I do like the way cigars smell, I'm not particularly interested in toking on one, and cognac always sounded nasty to me for some reason -- maybe it's not, I dunno)

Whole insects (just no) (I might've been remotely willing to give it a try until I watched Bear Grylls eat a big fat caterpillar on Man vs. Wild and it spurted big yellow guts everywhere and the look on his face was just awful) (so NO)

Kaolin (who in the world eats clay ON PURPOSE?!? Unless you're a starving Haitian?!? NO.)

Durian (fruit that smells like rotted socks? although I did try Limburger cheese a couple of years ago -- could it possibly smell worse than that? I doubt it. But I don't particularly want to give one a try.)

Roadkill (WTF? Why is this on the list?!?) (although my great-grandpa Akers used to have a bumper sticker that read "Eat More Possum" on it) (heh)

Gameblogging from this chick's perspective

2:39PM: Touchdown Oklahoma! pass from Bradford to Broyles. Sheesh, that was pretty. And fast. What, didn't that take about a minute and a half into the game?

This would be the perfect day to be at that stadium in Norman.

The kickoff receiver for Cincinnati looks like his jersey doesn't fit properly. Matter of fact, none of the Cincy players look like those jerseys fit. I know it's just the way those weird skinny jerseys look, but those seem to be worse than usual. Like they're all barrel-chested skinny-boys or something.

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

2:44PM Cincinnati QB Brutza sacked.

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

2:51PM Touchdown Sooners! Again!

This is NOT looking good for Cincinnati. [sigh]

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

3:03PM What'd I miss? I was loading the dishwasher. Oh, the score is still 14-0. I guess I didn't miss anything major.

Ugh, they just put a lot more pressure on Bradford than they've been doing. That was ugly. On third and ten, too. Time to punt.

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

3:06PM Wow... what a massive sack on Brutza again. Sheesh.

Fantastic punt by the Cincy kicker. That thing had wings.

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

3:09PM Cincy just intercepted... wait, a flag on the play, what's going on? Oh, OK. Cincy still gets the turnover, but they get a major penalty for a bad hit.

Ugh, they just fixed that problem with a terrific run by Gilyard. Huge gain for Cincy.

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

Aside: Can someone please 'splain to me what a Bearcat is? There are a bunch of 'em around this area, too, in the high schools... Pilot Point, Whitesboro, Sherman... lotsa bearcats. I've never quite known what one was, though.

UPDATE: Here's what I found on the internet about the Bearcat. I'm still not particularly impressed. Aren't they sort-of related to skunks and stuff? Just askin'.

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

3:20PM Touchdown Cincy. They struggled hard for that one. Nice QB sneak.

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

3:26PM Great big gain for OU, first down. And another first down! Ooh, and then the guy with the lovely long curls (Clapp) almost went into the end zone. OU isn't taking any of this lying down... Hey, Cincy -- Offsides, doofuses. Heh, we moved from the half-yard line to the fourth-yard line.

Touchdown Sooners. Chris Brown for the run-in.

Ummm, hello Special Teams?!? Why the heck did you let that guy run right down the middle of the field for that long? And who was that idiot Sooner standing right in front of him and doing NOTHING as he ran right by? Ecch.

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

They just interviewed the guy from the Oklahoma City Thunder (Seattle Supersonics' new name, isn't it) NBA team. I could've thought of a lot better mascot names. How do you represent a Thunder? It's just something that makes a lot of noise and does nothing. That doesn't bode well.

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

3:40PM Oh sheesh. Grutza just sent a huge pass flying downfield and Gilyard made a flying leap catch.

WHOA we almost intercepted it just then.

[sigh] Sooners, they already got your number. Don't y'all start caving in now. Can someone please shut down Mardy Gilyard? Good grief.

HEYYY! We just intercepted it in the end zone. Good pressure on Grutza.

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

3:49PM [sigh] Interception on an accidental tip. I gotta go finish loading the dishwasher.

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

4:00PM The dishwasher is loaded and running, and I'm back on the couch and it's 21-13 now. I guess they scored, but what happened to their extra point? I'll probably never know.

Halftime at 4:10PM.

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

4:40PM Touchdown Sooners!! Nice little pass to Numbah Nine Juaquin Iglesias.

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

4:45PM WTF?!?!? WHERE ARE OUR SPECIAL TEAMS?!?!?!? YOU JUST LET GILYARD RUN ALL THE WAY BACK FOR A TD, YOU DOOFUSES!!!!

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

4:51PM Spectacular catch by Broyles!! Holy moly. What was that, like, eight hundred yards or something? Dadgum.

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

4:56PM Touchdown Sooners! Very nice, Chris Brown.

I am not liking how well Cincy is keeping up with us, though. We oughta be a little more dominant, I think.

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

5:03PM Touchdown Sooners again... oh, crap, did Gresham celebrate too much? Ugh, looks like some nasty business going on down in that end zone. Are we all getting a little miffed about things? Cincy gets an unsportsmanlike conduct for that, and we get the touchdown. Sheesh, people. It's a GAME. A very awesome game, admittedly, but still!

42-20 Sooners. This is more like it.

----------------------------------
5:15PM Third quarter is over. I have to be down at the football field in about ten minutes, but I don't really want to leave and miss the rest of this game. Shame on me, though -- my kids really want to see the monster truck thing.

I can't believe I'm taking my kids to see a monster truck. I have thoroughly converted to redneck in the short space of two years. [sigh]
---------------------------------

5:20PM Field Goal Sooners. It's 45-20 now. And we seem to have gotten some semblance of rhythm back. I can breathe, and maybe I feel like I can leave and trust them to actually finish the job without me screaming at the TV.

I am pathetic.

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

FINAL: Sooners 52, Cincinnati 26. Boomer Sooner!!!

Groooaaaannnnnnnn

If you're even remotely interested in anything Harry Potterish, you simple MUST go read this brief bit of, er, "fanfic" over at Blog d'Elisson:

Nom de Guerre

ELECTRIFYING!!!

Sarah Palin just served up some serious RED MEAT in that speech. I was excited before. Now I'm bordering on ecstatic.

I honestly didn't expect something this surprising from McCain, but I think it's clear evidence that he's in this thing to win. She's the best thing that could've happened to this ticket. She's sassy, funny, brilliant and poised.

Pure class.

I'm in.

OK, just one more

I just saw this picture of Sarah Chalke (Scrubs doc) over on InStyle's web site and felt my heart leap with joy. Is it simply because I'm wacky for colorful things, because I'm thinking it's entirely possible this is the fugliest dress EVAR and I'm blinded to the fact because of the PRETTY COLORS -- OOOHHH LOOKY!!!

I. HEART. THIS. DRESS. I heart it hard. I think Sarah looks positively radiant wearing it, too.

Is this more evidence that Love Is Blind, or do you agree with me?

One lil' tidbit before I go to bed

Our school district is currently without a superintendent. The former one left right before school started. One of our other administrators has stepped in to fulfill the position for the interim (and she stresses that it is INTERIM because we all love her dearly and wish she would just go ahead and be the superintendent even though she hates it).

She knows her limitations, however, and requested that the district also hire a consultant to help guide her through the morass that is our beloved school district's finances. The fellow they hired is a local guy who also happens to consult with school districts all over our area with regard to money. A lot of people know him and he has been doing what he does for at least a couple of decades.

I didn't figure I'd ever hear from him, since I'm about the furthest thing from an accountant's mind -- particularly since I haven't even submitted a single purchase order this year yet. He spoke to us as a group during the hellish Teacher's Meeting Week, and he seemed very bookish, soft-spoken and a little shy. Just what you might think a green-eyeshade accountant-type might be like.

So imagine my bewilderment when I found a personal (read: actually to ME) e-mail from him in my Inbox at school the other day.

The gist of it was that he had seen a LOT of yearbooks but that the one we did last year was absolutely the best yearbook he had ever seen in any district he'd ever been in. The dude ACTUALLY TOOK TIME to write me a personal e-mail about the yearbook!

And he CC'd it to all my bosses.

If he was hoping for my eternal and undying love -- and slavish devotion -- he now has it. I'm such a sucker for geeky types.

Oooh, shiny!

Just downloaded Google's new browser, called Chrome. I was pretty excited about it, thinking it was a way to be another step ahead of the haXX0rs and virus-generator creeps.

But I have a problem: I can't install Google's Toolbar (my preferred way of navigating any browser I use) on Chrome!!

Huh?

Why wouldn't Google build its Toolbar right into Chrome? Google's Toolbar is probably the most widely downloaded and used application that Google produces.

When I downloaded Chrome, it automatically imported my Firefox bookmarks. Problem is, I don't really use my Firefox bookmark list. I use my Google Toolbar bookmark list because it's available to me on other computers and other browsers.

[sigh]

C'mon, Google. Let's fix this, k?

Other than that, it seems to be a decent browser -- super-quick response times and not nearly as CPU-hogging as Firefox. I'll keep using it for now, but [ahem] I sure would like to have my Google Toolbar.

Just sayin'.

Weird tooth/mouth stuff

This is long, so if yawners about personal health issues bore you, move along to the next post and ignore this one.

Remember back a couple of weeks ago when it looked like I was going to have to have a root canal? Well, I have a VERY weird follow-up to that tale.

I went to see my dentist in Sanger. She sat me down and x-rayed my mouth and tapped on my teeth and examined me as well as she could. The intense pain I felt whenever she tapped on one particular molar in my lower right jaw was enough to make me nearly come out of the chair. It had already been throbbing and aching for several days and I was miserable.

She noticed a small lesion on the inside of my gums near that tooth. "I first noticed it right after I had surgery, so I had just assumed it was some sort of abrasion related to all the anesthesia apparati that probably had to be crammed in there," I told her. My mouth is rather small, as are my teeth, in comparison to my gigantic head, so I could understand how there might not be room for tubes and masks and things during surgery. At any rate, I had noticed this "skinned place," as I termed it, but had also noticed that (unlike most mouth injuries) it had not healed up at all over the two weeks since my surgery.

The dentist and hygienist both postulated that it could be an opening through which an abscess on the root of that molar was draining. Yecch! Any-hoo, weighing all the facts as she had them, she said it was probable that I needed a root canal. Before she could perform such a task, however, I needed to have the infection cleared up, so she put me on a course of regular old penicillin for a week.

After a few days, Rick and I determined that there was no way we could afford $900 for a root canal, so I cancelled the appointment, but I finished the antibiotic regimen nonetheless. Of course, my tooth stopped hurting (thanks to the penicillin), so I was hoping I could at least hold out until my dental insurance kicked in before going back to have the deed done.

A couple of days later, the little abrasion thingy became a puffy little abscess that was quite painful in its own right (although the tooth itself didn't hurt anymore). I didn't mess with it for a week.

Finally yesterday I decided to lance the thing. THEN it got weird. It burst open and a good-sized shard of TOOTH emerged from it.

Wait, what?

You read that right. A triangular, sharp hunk of TOOTH came out of the abscessed place on the inside lower right side of my gums.

WTF?

There are a couple of possibilities I can see here. First, since I noticed the abrasion right after surgery, it is conceivable that somehow during intubation a bit of one of my teeth got broken off and somehow jammed into my gums. You'd think, though, that if a section of tooth that big got broken off, I'd have noticed.

The other possibility is even weirder. That area is pretty close to where I had my wisdom teeth removed twenty years ago. What are the chances that a stray chunk of wisdom tooth (mine were completely facing the wrong way and a total mess when they took them out) got broken and then healed up inside the gums? And what are the chances that the broken chunk of tooth would eventually have to work its way out?

Anyway, the relief was literally IMMEDIATE. My tooth doesn't even hurt a little bit, and the abscessed place on my gums is GONE just one day later.

And I didn't have to have a root canal.

Here's hoping that was the whole problem and I really DON'T have to have major dental work now. It sure appears to be the case.

Thank you, Jesus. We seriously did NOT need that expense at this moment.

It's precisely at times like these that the Johnny Appleseed song comes to mind:

"Oh, the Lord is good to me,
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need
The sun and the rain and the apple seed
The Lord is good to me!"

Food, Glorious Food!!! And a Fred Thompson joke, too!!!

I can't wait to try it!

It's incredibly exciting to be able to eat again after literally YEARS of having trouble keeping things down. Tonight I ate a steak. I was able to eat steak before, mind you, but only if I chewed it up and then surreptitiously removed the bite from my mouth afterward. I wanted the taste of yummy beef (GO MEAT! I luuuuurrrrrrrves me some MEAT), but I couldn't actually swallow any of it.

Well, that's all overwith now.

Rick texted me this afternoon saying, "I'm at Wal-Mart; is there anything you need?"

I texted back: "If they have ribeyes and they're cheap, that'd be absolutely splendiferous."

He brought home an incredibly beautiful slab o' beef. I dribbled some Allegro Marinade (kinda like a soy sauce and Worcestershire mixture) on it and broiled it for a while.

O-o-ooo-oooohhhhhh-hhhhholy COW that was some good COW. Like buttah, I tellz ye.

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

Fred Thompson, just now, addressing the Republican convention: "Sarah Palin is the only VP candidate in the history of the US who can properly field-dress a moose."

Heh!!











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



On the subject of food, glorious food: This week's Carnival of the Recipes is up! The theme this week is Travel Food. Wheee! I love traveling. In fact, I'm hoping to do a little traveling this fall, sometime around my birthday. I'm thinking tropical thoughts... I need to see some palm trees and have someone bring me a fruity drink with a little paper umbrella in it.

How in the world is she traveling, having just bought a house? Well, we have a credit card full of air-miles that MUST be used up THIS YEAR or they go away forever.

The sacrifice is great, I'll grant you, but you can trust me to step up when the going gets tough.

Gustav comes to North Texas

The wind changed a few hours ago, and when I left school the skies were beginning to cloud up in bands of weird gray. The wind is coming in fairly strong gusts now, and the sun is intermittent.

There are a few sprinkles of rain on the windows. Not much, though, and certainly not to the extent that they're getting to the northeast of us.

I sure do welcome the breeze, even if it's gusty. It cools things down a whole bunch.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Report To The INS?

Hospital chided for reporting illegal applicant

CARROLLTON - Maria Martinez' attempt to land a cafeteria job at a suburban Dallas hospital got her arrested, jailed and deported.

She did use a counterfeit social security on her application to Trinity Medical Center, but her relatives and supporters wonder whether the hospital overreacted by calling the police.

Anyone using a COUNTERFEIT SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER on their employment application should be turned in to the police, regardless.

During yet another year marked by several high profile immigration raids targeting both undocumented workers and the companies who hire them, the Martinez case raises questions about what employers can or should do if they discover an applicant is not authorized to work legally in the U.S.

A spokeswoman for the medical center here contends the hospital was simply following policy and has a responsibility to report criminal activity, including possible identity theft.

My point precisely.

It may be hospital policy, but employers aren't required to report a worker or applicant suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, say immigration attorneys and enforcement officials.

"For an employer to go ahead and take it upon themselves ... to report that is unusual," said immigration attorney Kathleen Walker. "There's no obligation on my part to go call law enforcement."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok agreed, saying employers and local police typically don't have the training needed to determine whether someone is in the country illegally.

Oh really? Never mind that this person used a FAKE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. Which is a crime.

Carrollton's mayor has emphasized that one of his priorities is to rid the city of illegal immigrants. The neighboring suburb of Farmers Branch has unsuccessfully tried to prohibit landlords from renting houses and apartments to tenants who cannot prove they are in the U.S. legally.

But hospital spokeswoman Susan Watson said the decision to report Martinez had nothing to do with the immigration debate in suburban Dallas. The hospital reported what it considered a crime, she said.

"Regardless of whether they were an illegal alien, legal immigrant or an American citizen, it still wouldn't have mattered. They still would have been reported," she said.

Watson said it was the first time in at least two years that the hospital reported a possible crime involving a worker or applicant to police. But officials are always on alert because many employees have access to patients' medical records and other private information, she said.

Yup.

Immigration attorneys and advocates are concerned that many employers have become overly cautious, to the point that they might be bending or breaking the law.

"When people are being prescreened before a decision to hire is being made, then you could have exposure to discrimination charges," said Walker, an El Paso lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Recent workplace raids around the country have increasingly led to prosecuting unauthorized workers for identity theft and use of someone else's social security number. But those prosecutions have stemmed from federal investigations into workers at specific companies, not calls from an employer to local police.

Still, such raids have left employers edgy, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at New York University School of Law.

"I think employers are beginning to feel the pinch and in many cases I think they are trying not only to be sort of extra cautious but ... to be pre-emptive," said Chishti. "What's troubling is that employers have taken it upon themselves the job of ascertaining whether a crime has been committed."

Umm, no, Chishti. The hospital simply turned in this person to the police, who then determined that she had committed a crime.

Martinez, a single mother of a 3-year-old son and a teenage daughter, acknowledged buying the social security card for $110 at a Wal-Mart., according to police records. She also had a second social security card and two counterfeit cards stating she was a legal permanent resident.

She had planned to fight the state charge, but after being held in jail for nearly three weeks, she agreed to be deported to Mexico. Her son joined her there.

"She told me to please forgive her," said Martinez' 19-year-old daughter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she also is in the U.S. illegally. "She told me she wasn't strong enough to fight."

Please. Strong enough to fight?!? You were strong enough to sneak across the border in the first place. And you brought your kids with you. And you defrauded the US. I'm sorry... you're probably a very nice lady and maybe your kids are upstanding folks who work hard... but you're here ILLEGALLY and you need to be sent back.

If we don't do this, and do it every time, we're going to suffer harsher and harsher consequences. I'm not anti-immigrant, I'm pro-law. You folks are welcome to emigrate here as long as you do it legally.