The USA entrapping the population?

**Alarm Bells** **Red Flags** **Spidey Sense Tingling**

There is an alarming set of conditions in the USA right now. Along with all the total infringements of personal privacy imposed by the Patriot's Act where you can be tapped without warrants and detained indefinitely without trial, did you know that securing a passport is becoming increasingly difficult? That "free" americans are being denied permission to leave the country. While it isn't widespread yet and the reasons are professed to be "administrative" it still has the same net effect. You can't leave the county. Hmmm...

Well... I guess who would want to leave, right? So lets all stay. After all the US would never use force on citizens to stay, right? Well... what if they just say "if you leave and you get sick, then when you return we'll just let you die (unless you're rich and pay all medical costs)." Is that the same thing as holding a gun to your head? Given that mortality is guaranteed even if somewhat delayable. If the US legally decided to let your children die untreated because you left the US work somewhere else... would you leave? Well guess what... that's exactly what the US has decided to do. Insurance companies are not required to cover any medical condition detect while outside a US group health insurance plan. That's the law that your Congressmen passed with HIPPA. Sorta iffy if you want to work abroad.

What is more insidous is this also means that if you don't participate in a group plan (because you are self employed or not employed), then they don't have to cover either... fun! So now we all have to have at least one member of the household working full-time for a large corporation or we get to die untreated. Sure you can carry a costly private (individual) health plan at 3 to 4 times the cost of a group plan, but when those plans cap out they are canceled.

I know we all assume we aren't going to get really sick. We think we're all okay... we exercise... etc. But you know what? It doesn't matter how healthy you are, eventually you get old/sick/injured. Even if you live in perfect health until the day you get hit by a bus and instantly killed... what about your wife, your kids, your kids' kids? Extend your view to the extended family around you. Which of them will be killed by the US government by not allowing them health care? Killed. Not "mistreated" or "legally violated", but killed as sure as if they hired a soldier to shoot them in the street.

I remember being taught in school that the US was forbidden to use propaganda tactics on the US population. I was lied to. Oh I'm sure it's a law somewhere, but it's not true today. We pound are chests and claim "we are the best." But are we? Are we really the best? If we hedge and say "well maybe not the best, but damn close to the top" well then where are we really?

Capitalism... pretty cool idea and arguably a good system. Sure it's a good system. But anytime you use a tool you should know what it is doing and how it works. You should be aware of its dangers as well as its strengths. I think we can look around and see its good points. But don't forget to acknowledge its shortfalls. The driving force behind capitalism is the building of wealth. People support capitalism because they believe eventually they are financially compensated for it and prosper. The problem with capitalism is that it has no natural check points. Its only mechanism is wealth and the generation of more wealth. If something doesn't generate wealth, it tends to die off. This arguably okay when the market is new cars for example. Strong products live and weaker products faulter. But what happens when the product is heart surgery? Who makes money from heart surgery? And further what happens if heart surgery doesn't make any money? In capitalism, supply must meet demand before the price of goods is established. In other words, the price of heart surgery continues to rise until the market can no longer afford it and the price stabilizes. But you can't decide not have heart surgery... so the price never stabilizes. People will pay any price.

This mixture is scary. Much of what is deperately wrong in the US is so enmeshed in policy, politics, legality and lethality, that the peaceful solutions may not be what people immediately turn to. When children die, parents get angry. They don't always just camp on the President's ranch in protest. In other countries wars start when people start dying. We may discover that violence abroad isn't our main concern... In the 1960's over 50,000 US citizens marched on Washington. Over 20,000 of those marched on the Pentegon. The army surrounded the building with armed US soldiers. Luckily none of those soldier's had been given ammunition and the crowd didn't explode to full blown riot. What would happen today?

Who pays the bill when you need some antibiotics isn't really the issue. But don't ignore healthcare in the US as something that congress will take care of. The wealthy and privledged of the US make nearly all policy decisions and they are not motivated to solve these issues. They are not affected, they have all the wealth they need to cover costs (and group insurance plans). But we can not ignore that millions of US citizens do not. If we ignore them, they will be forced to die or get our attention. Which do you think they will do? Which would you do?

The Nightmare

Sustis Ahl Akim, Grand Sultan of the Seven Valleys, woke from a nightmare. Strange since he never slept. At least, not since he died. But there it was just the same. His mind swimming with fog of half remembered images of places long gone... of things lost... of things long dead. He forced himself upright. He had been working on some particular problem and had developed a headache. Out of habit he laid down. While being undead generally meant few common ailments it also meant few common cures. His aides claimed the headaches were figments of his imagination and he should banish such notions. But what did they know of living? Demons and Shades had no memory of life. Not like he did. No one had his memory.

And then it struck him. The entirety of the dream flooded back all at once for it wasn't a dream at all. It was a memory. She sat with him on a cool summer night so many years ago. Her hair was a tangle of radiant copper curls. Her eyes sparkled and, as usual, her casual style disarmed him. For all his wealth, power and station this common girl had bewitched him. For indeed she was a witch and that made her even more enticing. She smiled and his heart had leapt. He was safe he thought. Then the smile faded slowly. The woman he had loved slowly disappeared and before his eyes she changed.

"I'm leaving you." She said.

The thought was so completely shattering he sat unable to speak.

"I'm sorry. Goodbye, love." And she walked away.

He watched her walk around the magnificent fountains of the courtyard. Watched her silloutte in the archway. Then watched nothing at all. The water flowed endlessly. His heart broke. It ached down to the depths of his soul. She was gone. Though they would meet again occassionally under flags of truce, he never saw her again.

Alone now in his study he looked around the darkened room. His eyes saw all in the blackness. What a change being undead had made. He tried to summon up the feelings for her and could not. He had silenced them all years ago. That very night he had performed the ritual that could not be performed. When he plunged the knife in to his very heart the pain was nothing compared to the knife she had wielded. The magic surged through him and all pain stopped... all pain. She was nothing more than a memory now. An image. A voice. A shadow.

He drew the cover off his reflecting pool and lightly stirred the water. In an instant it responded to his will and revealed what he desired. She was at one of her kettles. Her copper curls had not diminished after nearly 20 years. He watched the movement of her hands. The way she rested them on her hip while she focused on a book near the kettle. Her nose squinching to keep her reading glasses in position. She was beautiful. The same as she ever was. He imagined that if he spoke she would smile and turn to him and he would see her again as she was. But all that remained was the shadow and he did not speak and she did not turn... and any smile she may have shown would not be for him.

He felt nothing. But still he watched all night until she rested her curls on her modest bed. And then he still watched some more until the pool flickered out spent until he could recharge it. Sustis Ahl Akim, Grand Sultan of the Seven Valleys covered his reflecting pool and stepped out in to the night to seek some young copper haired girl to feed his unlife. Maybe that would cure headaches he thought.

A mild rain

Well as is often the case, the drama we build up to real life events turns out to be anti-climatic. Not at all like the movies where the male leads hangs up the phone and says "Baby, we're moving to Hollywood" and the next scene is a jet landing followed by the first day in the new house in the hills. Ah reality...

The interview went well. I have a few skills and they need them. They're hiring and I'm looking. I need a lot of money and they have a lot of money. They're going to see what they can offer and come back to me next week. So I have another week of pondering what that offer will be. Of course, they could still come back and say that my skills just are not in their strategic interests at this time. So who knows. I'll know more on Friday.

I'm in day 3 going on 4 of Amy's vacation so it has been just me and Gabe. He went to a baseball game tonight with his buddy Joe and really had a good time. Came back with a lot of loot. They didn't have a ticket for me so I stayed home with a pizza and a movie. Apparently Amy developed altitude sickness today and feels awful! I can't imagine a crummier vacation outcome. I was so excited that she'd finally get to do something fun and relaxing... bleh. Totally not fair.

So all our big events have sort of petered out for now in to a mild rain and not so much a storm. Oddly enough it really has been mildly raining here every morning. Just enough for us to enjoy nature's 24 hour sauna that is kansas.

Before the Storm

The world of Owings' is getting interesting. Aside from the usual very hectic day tomorrow I also have something new... an interview.

It is too soon to post all the details yet, but like any new opportunity it brings the prospect of change. My current position is pretty good overall, but it does lack some luster. Time has passed and what used to be a "good job" isn't quite as good as it used to be. I don't know if this will be better, but maybe it will.

I put a lot of faith in "maybe." Maybe gets me through many long days. In times when I have lost nearly all will to keep up hope, maybe is what finally saves me. Maybe something better will happen today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe it won't be bad this time. Maybe I'll get lucky. Maybe this will be a clear message of purpose. Maybe it will just be a good deal.

Many pieces of my life have the potential to be rearranged tomorrow. Maybe some dreams will come true... just maybe. I'll let you know.

Will

A man uses a knife to cut slices of watermelon. Did the knife cut the melon? or did the man? Was it the man's will that effected sliced watermelon?

Same man. He programs a robot to use a knife to cut up a watermelon. Fancier, but is it effectively any different? The man's will programmed the robot and delicious watermelon slices are the result. No matter how fancy the robot may be and no matter how artistic the slices may be, the man's will sliced a watermelon.

Same man, different robot. Now he programs the robot to fish. He says "seek only yellow tuna and go." He codes subroutines for hunting out shoals, ocean currents, maps and fishing techniques. The robot journey's the seas catching yellow tuna. The robot will make many decisions on its way... many the man could not have predicted at the time the robot was programmed, but still the man's will can be said to be at work here. Afterall, without the man the robot is just so much metal.

God creates a man. He programs him with only a single instruction... Live. He follows this instruction until the end of his days. Perhaps God can not predict exactly what will befall his creation. But it can not be denied that programming exists. I wonder what Will is mine and what is God's. Maybe we are the same.

EVE Online: Character blog

Shiplog 14052007

A hard day. I started off the day with a few light level 3 missions out of Mirilene--usual sort of thing. This agent, Amarulyn, is crap. I decided to try a different Federal Navy agent over in Pucheria who was rated higher. She was quite a looker. Her mission were very similar, only the pay was much better.... and so was the difficulty. I struggled through the mission in my passive tank Drake. The missions were longer than I liked and the returns, although greater, were slow. In the end... a break even day.

Shiplog 15052007

Helped a friend mine a bit. She mined, I hauled... in between I ran some local courier missions. I've already made more isk today in a few hours than all of yesterday.

While I really need to focus on my heavy drone skills, I think I'll switch to some leadership skills to help more in ops and squads. Plus I'll need Leadership V for Carriers someday anyway.

My courier agent surprised me with a combat mission on the Serpentis. My intelligence on the mission claims there are no warp scramblers in this mob--we'll see.

World Order is quite different from my last corp. Despite the higher stress of 0.0 security WO seems almost more laid back than the casual mining corp I came from. After all we are immortal. The worst fate is bankruptcy. The rest is just play time. Miners are forever worried about bankruptcy since this is their worst fate... but warriors who can not be killed have nothing to fear. Keep your clones updated...

Shiplog 16052007

Today will be a long slog through station paperwork and meeting with mindless port authorities. You'd think Duvolle would have drug itself out of the 2100's and upgraded a little... but no. The upshot is that I won't be piloting much today.

The good news is that yesterday was highly profitable. Four other pilots and myself ran level 4 missions most of the day in rapid order. The bounties, loot, rewards and resulting offers added up to a good 10-15 million per pilot even after World Order taxes. The reprocessed minerals alone will build a battleship. The large group insured we could annihilate warp scrams, protect our damage dealers and keep our tank repaired. The only cost was ammo... lots and lots of ammo. For me the highlight was tanking a whole room of BS's, frigates and cruisers in my Drake configured for passive shield tank. The guys kept shield rep drones on me so it wasn't solo... but still I felt pretty invincible.

I should wrap up repair systems 4 training today and then switch to 22 hours of mechanics 4 downloading. That should buy my way in to the T2 armor repair mods necessary to the better tanking configurations. I keep trying to stay on heavy drones training, but the T2 drones don't do much good if my ship can't tank.

Looking over what it will take to get in to other ships is depressing. The closest ship is Interceptor at 26 days. The real capital ships are a distant 100 days plus. Slow but steady wins the race I guess. Better tanking will certainly help and I need mechanics V anyway.

The requirements for Imperial Guard have posted and I'm still far short. At best I'll qualify for Imperial Grunt... The true assassins must fly Force Recon ships and that's a solid 70 days out as well.... damn my soft squishy brain and its limited data absorption rate. Still... someday... I'll fly with that elite squad to fame and glory... someday.

Shiplog 16052007 supplemental

I was summoned back to Omist late in evening. My paperwork and clearance forms had unexpectedly finished early. So I momentarily paused my training, downloaded my ghost to the machine and beamed across the galaxy to Omist.

PTDI needed miners for the belts and I was free. I loaded up the Retriever and hopped out. Four miners, 1 hauler and one pilot to play with the rats. It was a good team and we mined well. We decided to split the ore with the alliance. The tally has yet to be counted so I'm not entirely sure what to expect. But I suspect somewhere in the 20 million range even with the split. Mining always has been one of the most profitable ventures. The only challenge is 0.0 mining requires a solid team.

Omist feels oddly hollow... empty... remote. Odd in a universe of vast expanse that one system would seem more isolated over other isolated systems. The stations stand as silent icons of those that have come before and gone. It seems Omist has no memory. The miners, warriors and traders that have come before are forgotten hours after their departure. Aside from the alliance there are no friendly voices. The few allies we have are paid--all others are threats. While threats can be eliminated, they aren't exactly profitable. Isolation and conflict forge souls. Omist has been very profitable, but it will exact a cost from all of us as well.

Rumors flitter in the IO meeting halls of what will be. What systems will we invade next... what happless victims will be our next targets... which alliances will we face... Few can say for sure. Personally, I don't care. Whether we mine together, fight together, die together or randomly warp together, it is no concern. Life is in unity.

The warriors of World Order will soon leave Omist. The silent belts will remain. I wonder what I will leave behind

Shiplog 17052007

I was notified that today was the day to pull out of Omist. IO has interests near HQ in Providence and Catch. The details of the operations are necessarily sketchy. All we know is we must come and we have been instructed to use combat loads.

Just before I began the long 50 hop journey back to Choonka we got word that IAC now considered us hostile. One of our pilots lost a ship in a surprise attack. Aside from this being a cowardly betrayal... it also makes the route home more hostile. I checked my systems stats on the nav comp--the default route looked clean even with the hostiles. I set out.

The vast majority of systems were barren. Almost no non-"allies" on the way. The 3 systems inhabited by IAC were full of their scum. I kept radio silence and made my hops. I picked up a HAC tail, but he seemed disinclined to engage my Dominix. Mostly I just wanted to be free of 0.0 with all my assets more readily usable in and around Choonka. The HAC got ahead of me which I felt was an advantage. I kept my guard up.

On the last 0.0 system he met up with another buddy. I think it was a recon. Feeling braver with two to one odds they locked and scrambled. I had fitted one warp core... but not 2. I launched drones and closed on the recon. I called for help--only 2 hops from Choonka where an op was gathering. The jamming effectively shut down my combat. But I did manage to spook off the recon. I switched to the HAC. Five brothers came to my aid. Many in ships not yet fitted for combat. My tanking held long enuf for them to arrive. Dragoon locked the HAC and sent more drones. The HAC fled and other pursued the recon. No kills, but IAC learned not to assume lone IO members are easy pickings.

I hope our forces gather soon. We can demonstrate our true powers. A war of words may show eloquence, but wars are not fought with words. The cracking thunder of a crushed hull will be our testimony. Our arguments fought with hybrid charges. Our summation a volley of cruise missiles. The siege of our Dreads uproarious applause. The silence of the dead the only rebuttal.

Long live the Alliance! Death to our enemies!

Shiplog 18052007

I have emperically proved that staying hangerbound to train doesn't speed up training... endless hours floating in simulations. My training plans all run in to multiple weeks if not months before any significant goals can be met. A few key skills overlap many other plans. Gallente Frigates V will apply to Assault ships, Interceptors, Covert Ops and even Interdictors. But each of these still requires a great deal of other skills. And while new ships are always exciting I'm lame in them without a few T2 skills to back them up. The only strong T2 skills I possess are in drones. I need to belt-in and just stay on my Heavy Drone V and G. Drone Specialization IV programs. At least then I'll have my little drone friends at maximum strength. I've read that the Gallente assault ships can be pretty powerful mini-droners. Perhaps I'll find out in 85 days... blah...

Back to my simulations... "The Ogre II Heavy Drone model number OGR2011v12 has 24 primary systems and 48 secondary systems. The primary systems are lateral thrust management, orbital thrust management, auxillary thrust man..."

Shiplog 20052007

I've been assigned a Gallente Federation military mission to eliminate a large group of Angels in Trossere. At first glance the mission looked to be fairly ordinary, but has proved to be quite challenging. It takes so long to eliminate the guards that in 2 cases they have called in full reinforcements before I can make it to the gate. Forcing me to start over. But with many conflicting duties, I have yet to get the time to really start and finish the mission in one long session. Perhaps I'll get lucky with some support from the Alliance. I'd like to get it done as the mission is offering a Siege Warfare Mindlink, which I can't use yet, but is worth a good 15 million on the market or perhaps I could squirrel it away for the future. Plus I have another high level combat mission waiting for my response. It seems I'm in demand lately!

More alliance members make the exodus from Omist every day. The situation there is rapidly deteriorating. BoB is moving in fast, our contract with Goonswarm is expiring, IAC's route home is hostile and of course it's 50 odd hops from Providence. I worry that some of our pilots will be cut off. Pirates have an instinct for stragglers.

I participated in my first Alliance combat operation today. It was only a light attack squad, but still a good learning experience. I was over anxious to get to the squad. I had to warp through about 10 systems to catch up. By that time they were nearly done with the small raid, but had received a distress call from Slyph space. While probably outmatched we decided to at least scout it. Plus our ships were cheap and light--we hoped our numbers would make up for the lack of hitting power.

The big lesson learned for me was managing my Overview settings. In the past spotting a few targets was so easy that I took my settings for granted. In a large combat it was not easy to spot ships as rapidly as required. I still managed to select targets well, but I was not as good a scout as I could have been.

The second big lesson was to only listen to the squad commanders and not all the noise in voice comms and/or text comms. One of the pilots calling for our help stated that "only he would be tackling" so I kept my warp scrambler off. But I locked on the enemy Interdictor much faster than he did and I was on him at less than 5km range. I could easily have scrambled him, but I didn't and the Interdictor warped off. I got picked off soon after. The Thorax I lost wasn't a concern nor the mods (remember I only have T1 skills). I was glad to take the fire so that my other brothers could undoubtedly be more effective longer. But I still kick myself for not scrambling that 'dictor... we could have killed him. Paddington (the "tackler" pilot) wasn't in my chain of command... I should have ignored him.

Regardless, it was a good first combat. I'd much rather risk small ships on my learning curve over larger ships. I also don't mind losing my ship so that the other more experienced pilots can attack unmolested. The first rule of War is "When weak appear strong... When strong appear weak." The Thorax cruiser can be intimidating and I charged boldly in drawing fire. I was proud to be a target.

My pod survived and I returned to Unity Station to pick up a shuttle. Soon I was back in Choonka. In order to facilitate rapid future travel I clone jumped to my personal base in Mirilene. I have better implants there for my training. Plus there is that annoying mission in Trossere to take care of...

I will sign off now with a favorite story from my military history holovids...

Quote:

One day in the pavilion at Karakorum he [Genghis Kahn] asked an officer of the Mongol guard what, in all the world, could bring the greatest happiness. "The open steppe, a clear day, and a swift horse under you," responded the officer after a little thought, "and a falcon on your wrist to start up hares." "Nay," responded the Kahn, "to crush your enemies, to see them fall at your feet -- to take their horses and goods and hear the lamentation of their women. That is best."

Yes, that is best.

Long Live the Alliance! Death to Slyph!

Shiplog 21052007

Discouraged with the few responses to my requests with assistance, I put out a call to some old contacts for help with my pesky Angels. Of course, as soon as I did I got offers for help from the Alliance. At one point we 5 ships in assistance on two level 4 missions. This made things much easier. Even with the split and taxes, these bounties add up.

I just couldn't stand another chapter on heavy drone thrust vectors. Upon review of my skills I discovered that I had missed an whole new branch of drone study, Electronic Warfare drones. I opted to switch. I should complete the whole chain in about a week. I figure these drones can be handier for the alliance in support since I don't have the full-on combat skills yet to be DPS.

Shiplog 23052007

The study on Electronic Warfare is facinating. In my previous roles ewar was of no use. A mining barge just doesn't need to dampen or jam a target and most missions have so many ships that a few dampened targets do not make or break your success. But after my close encounter with a recon, I realize the value in a one on one conflict. As a result I went out to acquire several ewar drone BPOs and all the Gallente frigate BPOs for good measure. I have never flown the Imicus or Maulus before. While I've moved on to battleships and cruisers, it is still fun to play with new ships.

I was surprised at the potential of the Maulus. In a small gang a Maulus would be crippling if coordinated with a tackler and a shooter. I made 5 for playtime. I also made a batch of all the others for resale.

I only bought the medium and light sensor dampening drone BPO's and the ECM medium and light drones. I made batches of all. My skills won't complete for 24 hours.

Otherwise I spent the day running missions for isk and loyalty. I estimate my misison totals are in the 15 million a day range.

Long live the Alliance!

Shiplog 25052007

Missions and training...

Shiplog 26052007

Tretchery? Dishonor? Ego? Misscommunication? Who can say? But an IO elite leader has left the alliance leaving behind many of the PTDI corp lost, confused, angry and unsettled. I do not know firsthand of the events leading to the schizm, I only see the results. The alliance is weakened even as its resolve is strengthened. From what I gather, Dark Renegade has fought many glorious battles aside the warriors of the Imperial Order for many years. But that history is soiled. Dark has left. Many of his corp will follow. Some will stay in IO. Regardless, in this time of schizm, we should remember the many valiant acts performed by all PTDI members both on and off the combat field and inside or outside the alliance. All pilots make their own way. I shall respect and honor our brothers until they shoot first. Then we will meet in valorous combat--to the victor goes the spoils. This is the way of EVE.

Long live the Alliance! Honor in battle!

Shiplog 28052007

Vampire Lord gave the word to move clones to two new regions of 0.0 space. In response, I clone jumped to Omist again. My clones are in Choonka, Mirilene and Omist with no skill for a 4th yet. So Omist was the best choice. I had very little left in the BoB station of QSF, but did manage buy a Catalyst for only a million. However, with no station previliges, all I could do was undock the hull and start on the 50 hop journey to B-7 in the Drone region.

The travel was uneventful save for three incidents. First was happening upon a friendly Goonfleet station where I could re-fit the Cat--Thanks Goon! Second was encounting a PTDI member, Valorian, moving through several stations near Goon. Third was being fired upon by Bautschi (a friendly marked pilot) one hop from B-7.

Goonfleet was quite cordial, I was greeted in Local several times.

Valorian was mostly quiet. But entirely unhostile. He and I leapfrogged for perhaps 6-7 systems.

The Drone region was harsh. The station at B-7 has grossly inflated prices and few goods. The nearest 2nd station was 13 hops away. While the minerials dropped from the massive drones would have been immensely valuable, there was no market for them. A shrewd business man would pack up a large collection of T1 BPO's and make for the B-7 station. Mins are plentiful and cheap, goods in high demand.

I picked up a Brutix for 20 million at the station and sold the Catalyst. It was expensive to fit out the Brut and even at inflated prices, not all the modules I would have liked were available. While out test ratting, Lady Explosion arrived in system to scout as well. As it turned out, IO found better negotiations on the other 0.0 target system. We were told to abandon B-7 and make for EO2 in the Wild Lands... 40 hops away. *sigh*

Lady Explosion and I made most of the route together. Once we arrived I finished fitting my new Brutix, insured it and began Angel ratting. Life is good.

Long live the Alliance! Death to CCK!

PS: Oh... CCK declared war on us... eff 'em.

Busy, busy, busy

Things are really hopping as of late.

Work has exploded somewhat as 4 of our 5 team members have left or are leaving soon. I'm left behind to try to keep tabs on everything, but there is little hope that I'll actually be able to keep up on everything. If only folks read my management blogs...

My summer vacation starts tomorrow. I have the next week with all my kids, my parents and my siblings (and their kids) up at Table Rock Lake in the Ozarks. So while vacation is awesome, it is also stressful from all the planning. Even so, I'm sure I'll be having a good time in about 24 hours and for the next 7 days.

Major bummer is that my mother-in-law had a stroke about 2 weeks ago and my wife has decided to skip vacation to help take care of her first week back home from the hospital. My mother-in-law, Cindy, is only about 54. No one saw this coming. Remarkably, she is doing pretty good. In my family, strokes have been fatal within a couple of days. But I have since heard many stories from folks that have experience minor strokes (like Cindy's) and gone on to live many, many more years relatively trouble free. We're hoping for this variation.

Gabe had a fever last week, but no other signs of illness. Amy and I have been totally healthy. Bizarrely, our cat had a unrinary infection which spawned a few hundred dollars in vet bills and 2 weeks of oral torture for Lucy (yucky antibiotics). She seems fine now. We had to change her cat food--she's not happy about that. I predict weight loss at this rate.

I won't be updating from vacation. I'll see what I can do when I get back. Have fun at work!

PS: I've started using blog tags to categorize stuff...