Bob 's Blog

Gate Crashers Update

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:08:41 -0600

UPDATE!!!!

Attention Secret Service!

It appears the couple that crashed the White House dinner this past week is trying to cash in on the stunt. It would seem the couple aren't happy with boasting about it and posting pictures all over the internet. Now they have chosen to peddle their story to television.

~~~

The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not publicly discuss bookings, told The Associated Press that representatives for Michaele and Tareq Salahi contacted networks to urge them to "get their bids in" for an interview. The executive said the Virginia couple was looking for a payment in the mid-six figures range.

~~~

Read the story here

"They just went to a party. They didn't do anything wrong," Paul Morrison, a Virginia attorney who has represented Michaele and Tareq Salahi in the past, told The Associated Press.

Some people just don't get it. I hope they are charged with a Federal crime and get some jail time from this stunt. I can just see gate crashers lined up outside each major event held at the White House in the future. Nip it in the bud right now.

They bragged about the event on their facebook page.

Lions, Hyenas, and Panthers! Oh My!

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:35:10 -0600

I received an email with an amazing set of photos in it.
These are not my photos, and I haven't touched them up or revised them in any way. Most don't have any kind of markings on them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Ranger is assigned to prevent poaching around the wildlife refuge area of Lanseria , South Africa . The way these animals interact with him is absolutely stunning! The lions seem to know he’s there to protect them. His charm works with hyenas and cougars too. Hyenas are usually vicious. Check out the pics taken in the river – amazing because lions hate water.

These next 4 are incredicle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This guy truly does have an amazing relationship with these animals, but these are wild animals.
They obviously view him as a play thing.

Animals sometimes eat their chew toys and play things. I hope I never see a story about him turning into a snack.

The last few photos have a trademark on the bottom left. If the owner of these photos would like for me to remove this post, I will do so immediately upon request.

Attention Secret Service! Security Breach

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:18:07 -0600

Attention Secret Service!

We have a serious breach of Security in the White House. How is it possible something like this can happen?
I've seen and heard reports saying there was never any threat posed to the President or anyone at the gathering.

The Secret Service maintains that President Barack Obama was never in danger at a state dinner after an uninvited Virginia couple got through security, but it wouldn't comment on whether anyone is screened for radiological or biological weapons.

Wrong!

Anytime anyone gets through secuirty without proper authorization, this is a major issue. Obviously, they weren't carrying weapons, but.... they got through security. What if they were bringing in something else? Just let your imaginations run wild.

Look what I found -The Competing Narratives of Barry and Sarah

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:14:59 -0600

I came across several interesting news articles during my morning internet news festivities.

Folks sleeping out at a Best Buy to get the best bargains on Black Friday. This idea has no appeal to me at all.

I checked the latest news on Climategate, and it seems the Lamestream Media is still pretending this is a non-story. I suppose if you don't report about the emails there was never any type of cover up or plot to deceive the public.

The Dubai World request to suspend it's debt repayment for six months has rattled the world financial markets. With their dependence on the Tourist Industry and Real Estate Market for this massive project, how could they have not seen this coming?

I did come across a most interesting article in the American Thinker. The writer Jack Cashill gives his perspective of two of the most prominent American Citizens in the news today. He compares the different paths they followed in their lives and books they have written.

I haven't read either book yet, but after reading this article I feel compelled to read both. I already have Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue". I will go to the library and see if they have Barack Obama's "Dreams from my Father".

It's an interesting read, and I thought of just putting the link, but decided to provide the full article.

November 27, 2009

The Competing Narratives of Barry and Sarah
By Jack Cashill

In the spring of 1964, Sarah Heath, then just three months old, flew into backwater Skagway, Alaska (population 650) aboard a 1930s-era Grunman Goose to start a new life with her parents, brother, and sister.

At that same time, in America's other new outlier state, Hawaii, two-year-old Barry Obama was just getting used to a fatherless existence in the otherwise-comfortable world his white grandparents and occasionally his mother would make for him.

At the time, not even Nostradamus could have foretold that the paths of Barry and Sarah would intersect in the "historic" 2008 election, Barry as the first major party presidential nominee of African descent and Sarah as the first woman with a real shot at the vice-presidency.

Each would change names before reaching the national stage. Barry Obama would become Barry Soetero, and then Barack Obama. Sarah Heath would become Sarah Palin after eloping with the formidable Todd Palin. Obama would chronicle his journey in the 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father and the 2006 sequel, The Audacity of Hope. Palin would chronicle hers in the 2009 memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life.
How the literary/media establishment would respond to the respective memoirs of these two political figures would reveal far less about the authenticity, honesty, and literary quality of the tales the authors told than it would about the collective mindset of that establishment.

From a classical perspective, Palin's is the more compelling narrative. The obstacles that she must overcome to fulfill her destiny are many, varied, and real. Raised in the frozen outback by a schoolteacher father and a school secretary mom, Palin accomplishes nothing without a good deal of work, often under difficult physical circumstances.

Palin takes a semester or two off to pay for college. She works at a diner over the summer. She enters the Miss Alaska contest to help pay tuition and is awarded second runner-up and "Miss Congeniality." She interns during other summers to become a sports reporter.

After college, Palin joins fiancé Todd on his Bristol Bay salmon boat. During slow salmon runs, she works "messy, obscure seafood jobs" until she can find a job as sports reporter, and even then she keeps returning to Bristol Bay when the salmon are in season.

Throughout this period, despite the hard work and harsh environment, Palin never loses her sense of wonder about the spectacular natural theater in which she is so very much at home. When asked about the state's best attributes during a Miss Alaska pageant, Palin responds, "its beauty and everything that the great Alaska outdoors has to offer." Prophetically, she also plugs the state's "potential in drilling for oil," which, even then, "Outsiders don't understand."

Back in Hawaii, either through his grandparents' connections or by dint of affirmative action, Obama spends grades five through twelve at Hawaii's poshest prep school. Like Palin, he plays basketball, but while she is leading her school to the state championship, he is a second stringer on a team whose wins and losses go unremarked. The only scores Obama shares are the imagined racial ones that need to be settled, a working out of his "pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against [his] mother's race."
In his recent book Barack and Michelle, Chistopher Andersen quotes a black friend who rejected Obama's claimed reason for being benched in a particular game.

No, Barry, it's not because you're black. It's because you missed two shots in a row.
Obama admits to "marginal report cards" in prep school, but his underperformance does not diminish his dreams. He hits the mainland in the late 1970s with the "diversity" movement in full flower. Diversity's rationale is that people of varied cultures enrich the educational experience. Obama's upbringing, however, has been thoroughly white and elitist. The diversity bean-counters couldn't care less. His skin color improves their "metrics." Obama will ride this pony far.

After two druggy, uninspired years at Occidental College, Obama transfers to the Ivy League -- Columbia, to be precise. In Dreams, Obama dedicates one half of a sentence to a summer job on a construction site. Otherwise, he is silent on how his tuition might have been paid for. As to his grades and SAT scores, it would be easier to pry North Korea's nuclear secrets out of Kim Jong-Il.

After several years as a low-paid community organizer in Chicago, Obama decides to return to law school. Despite a lack of resources and a mediocre performance at Columbia -- he does not graduate with honors -- Obama limits his choices to "Harvard, Yale, Stanford." He had absorbed the diversity zeitgeist deeply enough to see success as an entitlement.

In the spring of 1989, during Obama's first year at Harvard Law, Palin's "life truly began" with the birth of her oldest son, Track. That summer, with Todd working a blue-collar job on the North Slope oil fields, Palin, her father, and their Eskimo partner work Todd's commercial fishing boat in Bristol Bay. Palin's mother, meanwhile, baby-sits the ten-week-old Track.

In 1992, while an anxious Obama dithers in an office that the University of Chicago has given him to write Dreams, half of his $150,000 advance already cashed, Palin is pulling her babies, Track and Bristol, along on a sled as she goes door-to-door seeking votes in her run for Wasilla city council.

Not yet thirty, Palin settles upon the philosophy that will guide her political career: reducing taxes "and redefining government's proper role." Like few Republicans this side of Ronald Reagan, Palin will adhere to these principles throughout her political ascent.

Not surprisingly, Palin's tenacity makes enemies among those who have cashed in their Republican heritage for the perks and power of office. Palin's perseverance in the face of this resistance makes for compelling political drama. That she is a woman challenging the good old boys of backroom Alaska heightens that drama.

Yet despite pushing the boundaries of female accomplishment throughout her career -- as sports reporter, as commercial fisherman, as councilwoman, as mayor, as oil and gas commissioner, as governor, as vice-presidential candidate -- Palin never loses her sense of the feminine. Having five children surely helps. So does living in an environment where manly virtues still matter.

An exchange with the larger-than-life Todd helps clarify Alaskan reality. Todd is a four-time winner of the Iron Dog competition, a 2,200 mile snowmobiling marathon. One night, Sarah expresses interest in competing. Says Todd:

Can you get the back end of a six-hundred-pound machine unstuck by yourself with open water up to your thighs, then change out an engine at forty below in the pitch black on a frozen river and replace thrashed shocks and jury rig a suspension using tree limbs along the trail?

When Sarah answers "Nope," Todd replies, "Then go back to sleep, Sarah." Todd lives his Eskimo heritage. He does not just dream about it, let alone exploit it.

While Palin is slugging through Alaska's political morass like a determined Iditarod musher, Obama is cruising through Illinois politics on skids greased by his Chicago cronies. In his 2004 run for U.S. Senate, both his chief primary opponent and his expected general election opponent are undone by damaging personal information leaked to the media. Obama wins both elections easily.

The combination of his black genes and white upbringing makes the famously "articulate and bright and clean" Obama an irresistible choice to keynote the race-conscious 2004 Democratic convention. "I mean, that's a storybook, man," alleges the inimitable Joe Biden.

The story told in Dreams will become a huge bestseller in the wake of the 2004 convention. The lofty, lyrical style of the book will seal the Ivy-educated Obama's reputation as a genius, and its much-celebrated narrative would serve as a foundational myth for Obama's ascent to the White House.

Said NEA chairman Rocco Landesman just last month, reiterating the accepted wisdom of the chattering classes, "This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln."

The establishment will not be so kind to Palin. In the week of Going Rogue's release, the New York Times house conservative David Brooks will call her "a joke." Dick Cavett, the Norma Desmond of TV talk, will dismiss her as a "know-nothing." Ex-con Dem fundraiser Martha Stewart will brand Palin "a dangerous person." And literally thousands of lesser liberal lights will deride her as "stupid," an "idiot," or a "moron" (8.5 million Google hits and counting for "Palin" "moron").

In that same week, Chris Matthews was worrying out loud that Obama was "too darned intellectual," and author Michael Eric Dyson was celebrating Obama's "sexy brilliance." But while the Associated Press was sending a platoon of reporters to fact-check Palin's book, neither the AP nor any other media outlet dared check either Dreams or Audacity of Hope. They likely feared what they would find -- namely that Obama's genius depends solely on his willingness to lie about it. "I've written two books," Obama told a crowd of teachers in Virginia last year. "I actually wrote them myself." He did no such thing. He had massive help with both books.

Although the prose of Dreams is often lyrical, it is not Obama's. As I have argued in these pages, and as Christopher Andersen has confirmed, Obama's gifted friend Bill Ayers gussied up the rough outlines of Obama's life and imposed upon them the mythic dimensions of Homer's Odyssey. To accomplish this, the authors invented any number of incidents, many of which are easily disproved. For a serious seeker of facts, Dreams is Sutter Creek in 1848. In Going Rogue, by contrast, Palin does not shy from crediting Lynn Vincent for "her indispensable help in getting the words on paper." And yet the story is told honestly and sincerely in Palin's voice. There is no artifice, no postmodern mumbo-jumbo, and not a sentence in the book that Palin could not have written herself. My personal favorite, "I love meat." I suspect that, unaided, journalism major and former reporter Palin is a better writer than Obama.

Left to their own devices, Palin is clearly the better speaker. In Going Rogue's climactic moment, the unknown Palin serves up the most dazzling convention speech in modern political history, and she does so in spite of a malfunctioning teleprompter. "I knew the speech well enough that I didn't need it," writes Palin.
Had Obama's teleprompter malfunctioned at the 2004 convention, he would not be president. He has always depended on the eloquence of others. So thoroughly hooked on the teleprompter is Obama that the irrepressible Biden jokes about it. "What am I going to tell the president?" Biden asked the crowd at the Air Force Academy after a teleprompter blew over. "Tell him his teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?"
In the final analysis, Going Rogue is a better book than Dreams. No Republican has ever held Palin up as a genius, literary or otherwise, but her narrative is as shrewd, sensitive, and straightforward as its author.
Dreams, on the other hand, is merely a well-crafted fraud.

Remember our Servicemembers on Thanksgiving

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:10:05 -0600

I received this video in an email the other day, and thought it was just beautiful.
Remember our Service Members and their families on this day.
Give thanks for their service and their sacrifice.

I hope you all find this video as enjoyable as I did.
I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
Drive safe and God Bless!

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:12:56 -0600

I received an email today containing the photo below.
I found it to be really cute, and quite ingenius.
I know some may think it's over the top, but hey,
this is America, and we do have free speech.

These folks probably never thought they would be
an internet hit, but I'm sure this photo has made the rounds.
Let the Tea Party movement roll on.

Stop the spending!

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:21:13 -0600

Time to hide your piggy banks folks.

President Obama and his administration have shattered the glass ceiling.
Spending a staggering $3.5 Trillion during his first year in office, the administration far exceeded any other first-year president.

The above figure is based on year 2000 dollars.
Using that formula - Bush spent $1.8 Trillion in 2001 and Clinton spent $1.6 Trillion in 1993.

I believe I once heard the President say He's just getting started.

Hold on to your hats, we're in for one hell of a ride.

The full article can be found here.

Obama shatters spending

Is Nancy uncomfortable?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:23:27 -0600

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems a little uncomfortable with the question about legal rights for Osama bin Laden.

As can be seen in this video the Speaker basically blew the reporters question off as if she were asking what her next best seller would be.

CNSNews.com asked Pelosi at her regular press briefing on Thursday: “When we capture Bin Laden, should he be told he has the right to remain silent and given a lawyer?”

Pelosi responded: “Well, let’s see, how many years has it been? Nine, eight years. Let’s worry about capturing Bin Laden and not worry about your, your question.”

Read the full article and see the video here.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/57443

Going Rogue - Going to be a million seller?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:05:05 -0600

The Associated Press is reporting that Sarah Palin's book is selling big in it's first week.

Palin's book "Going Rogue" sold 700,000 copies (includes pre-orders) in its first week.

The first printing of Palin's memoir came out November 17 with a first print of 1.5 million copies. Publisher HarperCollins announced on friday that printing would be increased to 2.5 million copies.

Seems Mrs Palin is about to become a million-selling author.

Bill Clinton's "My Life" sold more than 900,000 copies in its first week. I would venture to say Palin is doing pretty well considering she is not a former President.

Just a tidbit... Nancy Pelosi had a book in 2008 barely sold 3000 copies.

Global Warming / Man made Climate Change = Climategate

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:40:49 -0600

I'm not a scientist, so I rely on scientists to do what they do and I expect them to be honest with their findings. I've been a sceptic of Global Warming and Man-made Climate Change from the start. Based on the stories coming out now, Scientists are no better than Hookers, Prostitutions, members of our Congress and Senate.

It's being reported that a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit. The hacker accessed apporximately 61 megabites of confidential files with emails and released them on the internet.

The alleged emails that were released supposedly exchanged boy a few of the most prominent scientis suggest:

"Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more."

Brace yourselves folks, this is junk science at it's finest. I think we are in for some really interesting fallout from this in the weeks to come.

Unless of course, they can manage somehow contain this before it goes viral.

Here's are two interesting sites to read some of what the emails contained.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/11/23/climategate.aspx

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_warmist_conspiracy_tthe_emails_that_really_damn_professor_jones#63704

I'm sure the lame stream media will jump all over this. Let's see if they do any real investigating.

IOC says NO to Obamas and Oprah

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:12:46 -0500

Did anyone think it possible? After all the planning and millions of dollars spent to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, the bid would be tossed aside at the onset?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/8283061.stm

After all, Michelle Obama and Oprah sacrificed ( taxpayers money? ) to go all the way to Copenhagen to push the bid. Not to mention Barack Obama, flew there the following day (on taxpayers money) to place his shining star on the ticket.

Yes, it is possible. The IOC and the WORLD have said no.

Could it have been the protests in Chicago against having the Olympics there that caused it? Could it be gang killing of a teenager and the beating of another teenager that caused it.

Or, could this just be another worldwide "NO" to Obama? Possibly. Seems the POTUS is hearing that word a lot these days.

Only time will tell.

Whorehouses on the taxpayers dollar!

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:11:14 -0500

It's a pretty sad day when a government funded agency is so willing to use our tax dollars frivolous. But, this is beyond frivolous!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,548827,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549241,00.html

Where is the outrage? Where is the media? Why are we not hearing about Congressional hearings on this organization?

I've seen several blogs posted slamming Fox News (Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity in particular) and all their lies. The only lies I see are the lies of the ACORN folks.

It's time to put an end to this nonsense.

Do you remember your first job?

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:14:56 -0500

Unemployment rates are at 26 yr highs. Unfortunately for teens (16-19), the rate is the highest it's ever been since 1948 when they started keeping track. Let's hope times get better soon.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/oh-what-a-time-to-be-young/

I started working (as a dishwasher on weekends) when I was 14. I made $1.25 an hr. I can still remember the satisfaction it gave me when I got my first paycheck ($25.00). I bought myself some new clothes for the upcoming school year, and flowers for my Mom. I felt so grown up. Ahhh, those were the days.

Maxine's advice

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:24:13 -0500

I just love Maxine, and when I get emails with her comics in them, I always end up in stiches. This latest one is no exception.

"BAIL EM OUT! ????

Hell, back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country, our banking system, our auto industry and possibly our health plans to the same nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling whiskey!"

Have a great day, and enjoy Life. Let Maxine do the bitchin and moaning for you, if only for today.

Sunday morning chuckle

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:44:19 -0500

I received this in an email this morning from one of my buyers. He's a 82yr old Navy retiree. Need I say more?

I've often been asked, 'What do you old folks do now that you're retired?'

Well..I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background, and one of the things
I enjoy most is turning beer, wine, Scotch, and margaritas into urine.

And I'm pretty damn good at it, too!!

I do this brought a smile to your face, I know I'm smiling.

If she hasn't ...

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:14:03 -0500

I received this photo in an email entitled "If she hasn't she will".

I will say, that at first I wasn't too sure what the title meant, until I studied the photo more closely, and increased the size of it. In the email, it was small and you really couldn't see the lion in the grass in the background.

I have no idea whether it was photo shopped or if it is an actual picture. All I can say for sure, is I do believe she has. What say you?

Together at last

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:40:31 -0500

Living in a age restricted community, and dealing with the older generation quite often, this doesn't surprise me in the least.

I received this from one of my buyers who I might add, are old enough to be my parents. He always has a good joke for me when I visit, and she reminds me very much of the little lady on the left with her hand on her cheek. The one answering the question at the end.
Enjoy!

LORD,... THEY ARE FINALLY TOGETHER

Judy got married and had 13 children. Her first husband, Ted, died of cancer.

She married again, and she & Bob had 7 more children. Bob was killed in a car accident, 12 years later.

Judy *again*, remarried,.... and this time, she & John had 5 more children.

Judy finally died, after having 25 children.

Standing before her coffin, the preacher prayed for her.

He thanked the Lord for this very loving woman and said,
"Lord, they are finally together."

Ethel leaned over and quietly asked her best friend, Margaret:

"Do you think he means her first, second, or third husband?"

Margaret replied:.....
"I think he means her *legs*, Ethel...."

Little girls know how to outsmart little boys!

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:23:54 -0500

I received this cute email from a friend and he asked if it reminded me much of my grandchildren.

I had to laugh, because I could picture my youngest granddaughter doing this. She's very smart. Or, so she thinks.

Enjoy!

Undies

Little Susie goes home from school and tells her mum that the boys keep asking her to do cartwheels because she's very good at them ?

Mom said : " YOU should say NO - they only want to look at your undies".

Susie said: " I know they do, that's why I hide them in my backpack"!!

Tech Support at it's finest.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:53:01 -0500

Too Funny Not To Share................................

I think we have all spoken to this guy at one time or another.

I received this email the other day. What really made it hit home is, I had just finished talking to our Brighthouse representative about a problem I was having with my DVR. I was having trouble understanding him, and asked where he was. He said he was in India. When I asked to speak to someone from the US, he
said he would transfer me to another rep, but couldn't guarantee where the rep would be located. Fortunately for me, the young lady spoke very good English with a mild accent ... I didn't ask where she was from.

I swear this guy also works for Brighthouse..

Mujibar was trying to get a job in India

The Personnel Manager said, 'Mujibar, you have passed all the tests, except one.
Unless you pass it , you cannot qualify for this job.'

Mujibar said, 'I am ready.'

The manager said,
'Make a sentence using the words
Yellow , Pink and Green .'

Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said,
'Mister manager, I am ready'

The manager said, 'Go ahead.'

Mujibar said,
'The telephone goes green, green ,
and I pink it up, and say,
' Yellow ' , this is Mujibar.'

Mujibar now works at a call center.

No doubt you have spoken to him.
I know I have.

For Sale! Comedy at it's best!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:31:48 -0500

We get all kinds of emails in the Real Estate business. Some funny, some sad. Some are just downright amazing.

This was sent by a friend. He joking questioned whether this was a new company in town.

Do you detect a bit of friction in this neighborhood?

Now a question for all Realtors.

Do you knock on the door and ask for this listing?

Late Sunday comedy

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:21:57 -0600

Living in a Retirement Community we get all kinds of stories. My friends all have a tendency to send me jokes and comics about seniors and the things they do. Every once in a while I get some that I just can't resist sharing. You'd be surprised at how close the the truth some of these can be. I hope you all enjoy these as much as I did.

911 CALL

An elderly Floridian called 911 on her cell phone to report that her
car has been broken into. She is hysterical as she explains her
situation to the dispatcher: 'They've stolen the stereo, the steering
wheel, the brake pedal and even the accelerator! ' she cried. The
dispatcher said, 'Stay calm. An officer is on the way.' A few minutes
later, the officer radios in. 'Disregard.' He says. 'She got in the
back-seat by mistake.'

FAMILY

Three sisters, ages 92, 94 and 96, live in a house together. One night
the 96-year-old draws a bath. She puts her foot in and pauses. She
yells to the other sisters, 'Was I getting in or out of the bath?'
The 94-year-old yells back, 'I don't know. I'll come up and see.' She
starts up the stairs and pauses 'Was I going up the stairs or down?'
The 92-year-old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea listening to
her sisters. She shakes her head and says, 'I sure hope I never get
that forgetful, knock on wood .' She then yells, 'I'll come up and help
both of you as soon as I see who's at the door.'

'I CAN HEAR JUST FINE!'

Three retirees, each with a hearing loss, were playing golf one fine
March day. One remarked to the other, 'Windy, isn't it?'
'No,' the second man replied, 'it's Thursday.'
And the third man chimed in, 'So am I. Let's have a beer.'

Birdhouse and squirrel

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:40:50 -0600

A few years ago while I was up north for the summer in the Buffalo area, I was visiting some friends in the country. We were sitting out on his deck and I spotted a squirrel go into one of their many birdhouses. I mentioned it and and went over to see if I could get a picture of it inside. No such luck, I think he saw me coming and hid deeper inside. By this time, I think everyone thought I was either hallucinating, or just pulling their leg. I do have a bit of a prankster in me.

I decided to try and get a video of the little guy, and tapped the house with a broom handle. We all gathered around, and here is the outcome.

Bob Cumiskey
Realtor
A1 Connection Realty, Inc.
1509 Rickenbacker Drive
Sun City Center, FL 33573
(813) 633-2020

Winter comes to Sun City Center

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:32:39 -0600

Last week winter came to Sun City Center. We had been expecting it, and the forecast had even warned of snow but later changed the snow forecast because they said it would be too cold for snow. The storm that blew through before the front hit, tore a section of my screening away from our pool cage, but it was easily fixed. The frost on the roofs and ground across the lake really surprised me when I awoke. The cold didn't seem to bother the family of ducks that have taken up residence on our lake this year.

The gulls didn't seem to mind the cold either.

I only stayed outside a few minutes, to get these pictures. Having lived in Florida now for over 15 years, I don't have the tolerance for cold like I did when I lived in the Buffalo, NY area.

Fortunately for us, winter doesn't last very long here. 2 -3 days at a time is normal, rarely does it last more than that. The other day we hit 80, and today our high will be 67. Life is good here in Sun City Center.

Bob Cumiskey
Realtor
A1 Connection Realty, Inc.
1509 Rickenbacker Drive
Sun City Center, FL 33573
(813) 633-2020

Don't forget to block your cell phone

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:15:08 -0600

I received an interesting email recently about cell phone numbers going public. That age old warning of telemarketers calling.

Here is the email as I received it..

This only takes a few seconds and it should save you time and money.

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this week. REMINDER...
all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies tomorrow and you will start to receive sale calls.

... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222.
It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time.
It blocks your number for five (5) years.
You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked.
You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.. It takes about 20 seconds.

Pretty Scarey huh?

This email apparantly has been circulating for quite a few years now. I went to Snopes - www.snopes.com - and checked to see what the real truth was.

According to the article:

There is a grain of truth in the message making it believable, but it's wrong on two counts:
Not all cell phone numbers will be listed in the national directory planned for 2006.
And telemarketers will not have access to the directory.
It is illegal for marketers using auto-dialers ~ and most do ~ to call wireless phone numbers.

Here's the truth:

A national directory will be compiled, but numbers will be included on an opt-in basis.
If a cell phone subscriber does nothing, the number will not be listed. when the directory is ready,
it will be available only as part of the existing 411 directory service, accessed by calling in and asking for a specific number.
It will not be published in a book or on the Internet. And it will not be sold to telemarketers.

Cell phone subscribers can list their numbers on the do-not-call registry if they choose,
but there is no deadline to hget on the list, as the e-mail messages now circulating suggest.

You can read the snopes article here. http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp

I'm including a link to the FTC website concerning this issue. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/04/dnc.shtm

I went ahead and registered my cell phone just because I could. You just never know when they are going to change the rules on ya.

Don't speed with your dog in the back seat.

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:47:54 -0600

I received this email from a friend the other day, and I couldn't stop laughing. Enjoy!!

I GOT
CAUGHT
FOR
SPEEDING
YESTERDAY!!

I THOUGHT I COULD TALK MY WAY OUT OF IT,

UNTIL THE OFFICER LOOKED AT MY DOG

IN THE BACK SEAT.

THIS ONE IS DESTINED TO BECOME A CLASSIC!

SEND IT TO SOMEONE WHO NEEDS A SMILE.

That poor dog.