update on the last post

i have found an article which provides a line of explanation to my last question.

here's a link to the article.

here's the quote:

"The government comes up with the most bizarre, dangerous nonsense, and it indicates that they are abdicating themselves of all responsibility by saying that she may have knocked her head or concussed her head against one of the levers on the sunroof," Rehman said.

(Rehman is Sherry Rehman, Peoples Party information secretary and was in the caravan that day)

insight?

can anyone enlighten me as to the relevance of the possibility that benazir bhutto died from hitting her head? if she did, is that supposed to exonerate someone or some entity? i can't seem to figure out the implications of this new revelation and yet, no one will elaborate to enlighten me... at least no one on the radio. i suppose i could search out more text for the answer, but maybe someone reading this will know, so i'll check here first.

i mean, they couldn't possibly be implying that the entire death was an accident... an unfortunate slip and fall.
they couldn't possibly be implying that more security would have been pointless because... well... i don't know... i'm not an expert in security, but isn't security supposed to keep guns and bombs at bay, so that the immediate results of these things (i.e. impact... be it from actual shrapnel or shrapnel-less force) don't happen? i don't see how they could be implying exoneration and yet i can't seem to think of any other reason this would be an issue.

lest i'm being just as ambiguous: the person who attempts murder, thinks they've accomplished it (when in reality they have not), takes that person out to a ditch to rid themselves of the body, in the middle of winter... and the person in fact dies of exposure to the elements... well, they've still caused that person's death, just not in the manner they supposed. still, they could be found guilty of murder, rather than simply attempted murder.

i could be way off on a tangent and not know it because there could very possibly be some other reason it is (seemingly) such a big deal that she died of a skull fracture and not a bullet or shrapnel, so if you know, please share!

have an ollie small-ie christmas

25 week update

it's not a very flattering picture, but...

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the 25 week update

run run rudolph

this past weekend we went to chicago so greg and his brother could run 3.1 miles over ice and through the cold early in the morning. you'd think they might be alone in this endeavor, but apparently 946 others thought it a compelling idea as well...

however, i suppose if you're going to get a pair of free foam-like antlers, it might just be worth the price of admission...

brother-in-law had to grow his antlers... painful...

brothers, pre-race...

afterwards, free hot chocolate and coffee. later, a t-shirt mailed home, and maybe a medal! though the logic escapes me, if the person who placed first in one's age group also places first (or second, or third) overall, the person who technically placed second in that age group gets bounced up to first... the third up to second... and the fourth up to third (and so on and so forth).
so, having placed fourth in an age group containing the number 1 guy overall, greg may well just get the bronze! woot!

pets

i must say, it is so nice to have pets in the house. never before have i had so many pets at once. just three. but in a small condo, you can look in any direction at any given time and find either a sleeping cat, or a busy cat or a scruffling puppy, whatever scruffling puppies do.

dracula and ollie really do seem to be friends. i think it's because both have the ability and the desire to be friends with pretty much everyone, so of course, it makes sense that they would befriend one another.

rabbit on the other hand, has the desire to be friends with anyone who has food for her. otherwise, she would rather oversee things as though an aloof and ambitious supervising manager. always calling us into her office to say, "look, this is about as low as i'd like this food bowl to get. and can you keep that dog away from it? thanks."

how can we not love them?

even when oliver unhems his jacket...















or takes my socks out of the laundry basket and puts a hole into each....

what is the use in getting upset? a higher blood pressure? no, that is not a good enough reason. they are socks. there's no use. we'll simply learn from the lessons they teach us.

to kill or not to kill... a turkey

though it's a bit late, i thought i'd put this link up to a radio program we heard while on our drive to thanksgiving events. the guest brings up a couple of topics:

contrasting happy, healthy turkeys with plenty of land on which to graze with factory-farmed turkeys, whose lives consist of dark, cramped quarters and growth hormones among other things;

discussing the seeming disconnect between being an 'animal lover' while eating them and turning a blind eye on the way animals grown for meat are treated;

discussing whether or not it's okay to ask someone else to kill an animal, if you would be unwilling to do it yourself. i'm sure i could think about it a bit longer and find plenty of jobs i would not do myself but am perfectly content to 'ask' others to do, but is this job different?

if you're envisioning crazy peta rhetoric, not to fear-- he discusses this in a very un-peta-like and un-self-righteous manner and is challenged by some callers. it's worth listening to (click on listen to this program in the upper, center of the page).

in other news... self-portrait at 23 weeks...

saturday scribblings

power returns

continuing from the last post, and three weekends ago, the natural bridge lending its name to the natural bridge state park...

the largest in the state. alas, not so tall when you compare it to natural bridges even one lake michigan away, but impressive nonetheless.

the shelter beneath it. thought to potentially have been at least a temporary stopping point for people as long as 12,000 years ago. when woolly mammoths were pets.

more fall colors and blue skies...

fall sweater.

spotting cows...

that same weekend, the next day, was the first annual halloween celebration for the neighborhood...

carving pumpkins...

a close-up of the puppy in the last picture...

a second puppy...

greg, dressed up as an engineer...

the next weekend... two weekends ago... we were back up in the same area of wisconsin for an 18k trail run. greg's first official trail run.

while greg ran, i hung out with oliver who, it turns out, is a masterful cricket hunter...

although that weekend's pictures end there, greg placed third in his age group, and even won a chocolate bar in the raffle. woot!

finally, i think this picture was taken about 2 weeks ago now, so needless to say it's a bit out-of-date, however, you get the idea that i am, in fact, beginning to show.

fall colors

oh so many days have passed since i updated veralouie, and now, a broken power cord has me in a race against time... so, i will have to focus on one event for now and hope that all who read this are happy to look at fall colors and a little brown dog.

a couple... or has it been a few now... weekends ago we drove northwest to natural bridge state park. a wonderfully, fun little voyage which began with an early morning at manna, the best cafe in madison...

on the way home to pick up ollie we spotted this little brown dog running through our neighborhood... a tailless fox...

oh, the battery runs low...
onto the drive and some of the colors and evidence that wisconsin is a tall state...

oliver...

colors and dried fields...

can you spot the dog?

the husband...

more evidence of wisconsin's height...

okay... i have too little time to download more pictures... so i will end this post for now and publish. until next time!