…12/31-09: the price for peace is much less than the cost for war

32º in ABQ; 61% humidity at 6A…eat a four course New Year’s Eve meal at Andaluz for $80 per person; AM crash on I-40 near Grants; a tiny hole in the top of a gallon jug of bottled water; Brad’s painting progresses; another bright moon this AM; the roads are still snow packed & icy; have fun, get drunk?; tonight is the night for ‘safe rides’; an Atrisco APT complex has had no heat for three months, tenants have used their ovens to keep warm, resulting in several people becoming ill, due to carbon monoxide poisoning: some tenants did not have electricity, or locks on their doors; ‘polar bears’ take the plunge at ‘our’ Las Vegas; one clinic had to get rid of 400 seasonal flu vaccines, today is their expiration date;

‘fashion orgasm’?; being body scanned at an airport is an option?; the virtual strip search; there is a ban on texting while driving a FED vehicle, this policy may expand to all drivers in more states; jobless claims fall; Tiger Woods’ affairs have hurt our economy; flying the confusing skies; or count as one; the New England fishing industry cannot attract younger people to work in that occupation; gas in soda can help you lose weight; Obama’s first veto does not matter, janitors who clean Delta & United Airlines go on strike at Logan Airport; GA funeral parlor will pay for all burial expenses if you die tonight from being drunk; and another weird: MO father & son accused of torturing & killing a twenty year old OH man; the naked conference call; AT&T hangs up on Tiger Woods; gas prices have risen 63% during 2009, about $1 more than this same time, last year, with the NATL AVG being $2.63 per gallon; the minimum in CO is going down; a new trailer for ‘Alice in Wonderland’; radiation detectors being used in Times SQ; Rush Limbaugh is a ‘cultural figure’; the DOW declined today; MT is now the third state to offer doctor assisted suicides; the Washington Times is cutting its staff by 40%; more Americans are doing brunch;

is the world ready for 2010?; the man who has the “world’s best job” was stung by a jellyfish; five people have been killed from a shopping mall shooting in Finland; the price of oil has risen 78% during 2009; eight CIA agents were by Taliban terrorist, who was dressed as an AFG Army officer; be alert in Bali, an Indonesian island; oil is $79.71 per barrel; gold is $1,102.30 an ounce; CIA ‘failed to connect the dots’; AFG militant was not searched when he entered the military base; after only one year, the end of the Kia Borrego; Spain raises its terror alert, fearing another ETA attack; volcanic ash is causing flight problems to & from Puerto Rico;

…12/30-09: think of the earth, as a gift

29º in ABQ; 89% humidity at 6A…GAQ; Brad got the H1N1 vaccine, and a bus pass; officer involved shooting on Indian School RD in NW ABQ; snow & ice from the VLA to Pie Town; Brad made Guacamole; dense fog in SE NM; winter weather warnings in NW NM; many businesses & people owe the Duke City about $100K; PM flurries; NM jobless rate down to 7.8%; free job search course offered; snow shuttle races will return to NM; Brad preparing Baked Mushrooms stuffed with Crab Imperial; don’t make your first photo in 2010 be a mug shot; man struck & killed while trying to cross I-25; man with crutches struck by an ABQ Ride bus;

a Wednesday, that’s a Friday; very empty AM & PM R/R;

E Coast snow, Midwest snow; flurries in KC, SLC, INDY, St. Louis, Chicago & Portland, OR; rain for Little Rock & Houston; snow in the N Rockies, along parts of I-35, the Twin Cities & Detroit; ice & sleet & freezing rain for KY, IL, IN, MO & IA; El Paso saw snow yesterday; temps from the 10s to the 70s;

more access to classified documents; Al preserved in wax; the ‘Taco Bell Diet’?; NH woman has come down with GI anthrax…but how?; it will cost $75 million for security at the 9–11 trial in NYC; so far, suspicious van parked in Times Square for the past two days poses no threat to New Year’s Eve gala; ‘Thriller’ is the first music video to be considered a NATL treasure; 5.8 quake shook San Diego, followed by nine aftershocks; 22K Corvettes recalled, their roofs could separate from the body, striking other vehicles; Gene Autry to appear on US stamps; the DOW ended slightly up; companies, not the GOVT, issue recalls; mother & newborn revive after flat lining; the era of mixed metaphors; security investigation ordered; we need better internal body scanners; inmate attacked guard at Warrenton, VA courthouse; eight million people in the US will fly this upcoming weekend; strange: CA man killed a dog, ran naked across a tennis court, and poured hot coffee on himself; US Airways jet made a safe, emergency landing at San Antonio INTL Airport after one of its tires went flat; GMAC gets more bailout bucks; ‘when you worry, you make it double’;in Israel, man enters subzero ice block, trying to break the world’s record; radicalized in Yemen; wildfires in W Australia; oil is $78.77 per barrel; gold is $1,090.60 per ounce; a drug resistant strain of HIV in Africa?; Iraq released a British hostage; Russian spacecraft may be used to move asteroid from its close path near Earth; deadly security breach at US facility in AFG; a similar terrorist plot took place one month ago, onboard another African flight; there are 350 million FaceBook users; that’s ‘Sir’ Patrick Stewart; the Canadian GOVT suspends Parliament until after the Olympics, will resume in March;

…12/29-09: honoring honor

26º in ABQ; 60% humidity at 6A…GAQ; Brad’s Chiro visit; container of sauce fell from the freezer to the floor; shuttle service to the N NM ski slopes, using Rail Runner & buses; Santa Fe ranks number fourth in the number of burglaries; two banks robbed in NM yesterday; the ‘Safe Ride’ program has proved to be a success; double shooting in Peralta; thirty years later, the song ‘Same Old Lang Syne’ by Dan Fogelberg brings a tear to my eye; 54 Duke City homicides during 2009; ‘District 9’ arrived; a Tuesday, that’s a Wednesday; no PICU Admits; forgot diskette at home; AM R/R was on time; the new look in PowerChart, that no one mentioned to us;

more lake effect snow from MI to NY, and along parts of I-90; white across NM, OK & TX: snow for Boston, Syracuse, Buffalo, Cleveland, OKC, Detroit, Albany, Phoenix, ABQ [per Weather Channel] & SLC; NC ice storm; windy across NY & New England; Seattle rain; temps from 10s to 70s;

no maps on airplane monitors, just TV shows; ‘shredding day’ in NYC; stolen renovated kitchen items found on EBay; changing Fenway Park into a hockey rink for a Bruins game; most US to Canada flights will not allow carry-on luggage; so many missed signals, so much blamed to be shared by many; after sixty years, the end of ‘free TV’?; the time has come to review INTEL & determine its shortcomings; company to pay $1.25 million for importing toys from China that contain too much lead; pot found inside a teddy bear in a S CA toy store; the DOW went down; chaos at a TN Wal-Mart involving two shoplifters; space warfare?; is there mold in Tylenol Arthritis tablets?; only 50% of the items placed into a plane’s cargo hold are scanned; many of the 9–11 Commission recommendations have not been implemented, for a variety of reasons; will America return to racial profiling?; discounts by dealers who sell Pontiac & Saturn models; another weird: two FL teenagers plotted to kill their mother by setting her bedroom on fire while she slept; Beverly Hills schools will no longer allow ‘outsiders’ to attend classes in their city; San Fran has too many Chihuahuas; we now have a ‘systemic security failure’; police badge saves TN police officer; Hollywood stars shining on Broadway;Iran: the ‘iron fist of brutality’; Chinese women are bad parallel parkers; China executed a British drug heroin smuggler; a return to the Cold War?: Russia needs defense or missile shields, or needs to know how ours work, to protect itself against a preemptive strike by the US; gold is $1,090.10 an ounce; oil is $78.97 per barrel; a ‘blue moon’ at the end of December; how did the Nigerian father know that his son went to Yemen for terrorist training?; the well educated, the lonely, or the unemployed radical; Iran shipping uranium to Kazakhstan?;

…12/28-09: persons, and people

20º in ABQ; 60% humidity at 6A…GAQ; rifle stolen from N NM deputy’s police car; time to recycle holiday trees; skiing in the Sandias; caffeine in the iced tea kept us up until 11P on Saturday; meth bust in a N Valley home; does Rio Rancho need two hospitals?; gas was $2.41 per gallon this AM, and $2.49 per gallon this PM; watering the golf course today?; PM trailer fire; portable space heater caused a Duke City home to explode, also destroying two vehicles; the SunPort has bio scanning equipment, which cost $170K; ABQ residents will have to pay more to have their trash picked up;

working during Winter Break; slightly busy weekend; waited twenty minutes for an AM R/R; stopped by Amtrak this PM;

snow for Boston, Cleveland, Erie, Pittsburgh, and upper MI, from N New England to WV, and along parts of I-90; rain for Orlando & Seattle; blinding blowing blizzards in OK; flooding in MD & DE; NM evening snow mentioned on ABC AM News; temps from 0s to 70s;

two ‘suspicious’ men detained at Phoenix airport, then released; holiday retail sales were slightly up this season; Cowboys beat the Redskins; many people face FaceBook addiction; and another: nine people, six of them children perish in a MS APT fire; after eighty years of service, the Lake Champlain bridge is no more; drunk passenger detained upon arrival at SLC airport; send pothole pictures to your city GOVT so they can get repaired?; sweeping security changes; no blankets, pillow, laptops, IPods, no GPS or onboard entertainment, such as movies; luggage will be scanned, opened & screened; no reaching into overhead compartments; arrive four hours before flights; the DOW ended up; woman to officiate an official bowl game; NYC’s ‘Tavern on the Green’ will close at the end of 2009; more air marshals on flights; 285K lbs. of beef is contaminated with E Coli; another pyrotechnic device found on a man bound from Baltimore to NYC;Yemen is a very poor country, a breeding ground for the Taliban & al Qaeda, who now claim the group behind the terrorist attack; ‘the system is not working’; suspect will face a judge today; passengers on INTL flights must remain seated one hour before landing; did the ‘underwear bomber’, whose parents said he ‘disappeared’ two months ago, have an accomplice?; Yemen is the next AFG; was this man on a terrorist ‘watch list’; he paid cash for his ticket, and carried no luggage on an INTL flight; no expression when arrested, with severely burned legs; gold is $1,110.40 an ounce; oil is $77.10 per barrel; two men were married in Argentina, the first in Latin America; a two ton, British bullock;

…12/27-09: you can’t put a price on fun

17º in ABQ; 57% humidity at 6A…fatal family fight in Santa Fe; seventeen year old killed in front of a Farmington TARGET; the rich in NM [those earning more than $395K] pay only 5% in taxes, while the poor shell out 11% of their income; home invasions also on the rise in the 98th & Central area of the Duke City; drunk driver caused a collision at Zuni & Florida, the other vehicle was a police car; man caught with cocaine on his moustache; hot air balloons in the AM sky; purse stolen at SunPort, then hidden under the blanket of her grandchild who was in a wheelchair, but the thief was apprehended; YouTube allowed me to use ‘poppers’ in a comments; fatal shooting in Las Cruces; hot air balloons seen in the AM sky; Brad prepared a tasty Cream Cheese & Olives; 1/5/10: the date the S Valley votes to become its own town; a deadly hit-and-run in Dona Ana CNTY;

the ‘checkpoint challenge’: laptops may no longer be allowed as carryon luggage; freezing rain in parts of MN; case of drug resistant TB has been found in FL; from snow to floods across America; toning down the terrorist threat; twenty-two suspicious fires across Houston; ‘NCIS’ is one of the top TV shows; get ready for the smaller office cubicle; gain weight, lose wrinkles?; temps from the 20s to 60s; more US prisons filled with the old, and the ill; New England is in the playoffs; the Patriots & the Steelers won; the Colts & the Saints lost; two deaths from nine suspicious fires in Northampton, MA; old car showrooms are becoming new restaurants, schools or daycare centers; ‘Avatar’ only saw a 3% drop in earnings this weekend, while ‘Sherlock Holmes’ earned $65.4 million, and was in second place;

the lifeline to emergency information: eight grams of explosives, called PETN, was in a six inch packet sewn into the material in Yemen, a country where America provides money for military aid; the man is now known as the ‘underwear bomber’, but he has stated ‘there are more just like me’; another Nigerian locked himself inside of a bathroom of the same ‘terrorist’ plane today, Flight 253, and remained for an hour: but he was confirmed to be suffering from food poisoning; what are security measures in foreign airports?; passengers tackled the Holiday bomber, plus put out the fire inside the plane; airline terrorism had its origins during the 1970s; 82 million hits on the original Susan Boyle YouTube video; Iran violence captured on video; people could be heard saying ‘death to the dictator’; will cell phones be confiscated in that country?;

…12/26-09: the gears of gears

19º in ABQ; 47% humidity at 6A…GAQ; NM School for the Arts has a new home, which is located in Santa Fe; man killed in SE ABQ mobile home park; the NM Salvation Army raised more money during this holiday season; lobsters on the loose in NE Heights?; should there be a new NM food tax?; a trash tax hike for the Duke City?; man tried to steal $500 worth of meat from Carlsbad grocery store; fatal Los Lunas mobile home blaze; a 20% increase in Four Hills home invasions; bought various items at Trader Joe’s; how to handle an orchid; and while we are not in the habit of drinking alcohol, Brad & I toasted the season with Irish Coffee at Two Fools, while enjoying a Paddy Melt & Reuben Sandwich, respectively; after watching us, a straight couple ordered the same drink, and approved of our taste in libations;

a buffalo leather jacket?; it’s time to spend those gift cards at the mall!; is ‘Jersey Shore’ too racy for MTV?; fish oil battles inflammation; more diesel oil spilling in Prince William sound, the same site of the Exxon Valdez incident; twenty-three inches of snow has fallen on Duluth, MN; poor travel conditions across the Midwest & New England; seven states, from WY to WI, face blizzard conditions; kidnapped AZ girl safely found; Charlie Sheen arrested on ‘criminal mischief’ charges; freeze warnings for Phoenix; this is the day to look for deals; El Paso, TX borders a MX war zone; NJ refinery shutdown hurts former workers: new, similar jobs are in other parts of the US; Showtime eliminates gay character from series; in a case described as ‘road rage’, a MD man attacked a vehicle with a hatchet on the I-495 part of the DC Beltway. near Rockville, MD; a twist on the word ‘plucked’; Adam Lambert is not starting a cosmetics line, but Jay Leno says he would use it; Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn have been together for more than 25 years; many Hollywood romances have exceeded the twenty year mark; coming soon to a Ford near you: Wi-Fi; snow covers 44 states; how many post-holiday deals can really be found?; broken water pipe caused a flood at NATL Airport, closing a terminal plus a several gates & a baggage claim area; people will have to remain in their seats for longer periods of time during flights; the Honolulu Symphony faces Chapter 11 bankruptcy; Ford Mustangs: the latest cop car; critics think ‘Watchmen’ was a dud?; the ‘Dragon Diamond’; plane passengers helped subdue would–be terrorist; Christian missionary has entered N Korea bearing a letter for its leader; get ready for another new Dr. Who; large green men at hockey game, prancing near a penalty box?; London police searching various parts of that city which may be linked to the airline terrorist; could a gamma ray burst from a ‘death star’ strike Earth?; bridge collapse in India killed 45 people; the bomb malfunctioned, the detonator was a dud, and the explosives were concealed in his underwear; the ‘alleged airline bomber’ is the son of a Nigerian banker, but the younger man’s name was never placed on the ‘no fly’ list…why not?; the major security breach onboard an airline will mean tighter restrictions at airports; this event has been labeled a ‘nightmare in motion; the Yemen leader only control 30% of that country; magma sighted on Philippine volcano; a Lufthansa jet was forced to land in Reykjavik after discovering a piece of luggage with a name tag that did not match any of the passengers onboard, the airplane remained two hours on the ground: the conclusion was that someone had forgot this suitcase during a previous flight, which was bound from Frankfurt to Detroit; the French lipstick that actually conceals a knife; naked New Zealand bicyclists were told to wear helmets; five years since the deadly tsunami;

…12/25-09: Santa Claus is back to bed

20º in ABQ; 25% humidity at 6A…man shot & killed last night in the Duke City; car crashed into vehicles in a car lot at Lomas & Wyoming; another ABQ burglary caught on camera, and by neighbors; had breakfast, then went back to bed, and continued our rest from yesterday’s activities; 2010 Census jobs still available in the Sandia Pueblo & Sandoval CNTY;

ten states facing blizzard conditions; snow from KS to MN; fifty vehicle pileup in OK; the ‘amazing’ Winter White House in HI; the Obamas will be on vacation for two weeks; country singer will walk 1,700 to raise awareness of the homeless; a complete gift wrapped APT is in Chicago; Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae now offered unlimited financial support; temps from the 10s to the 70s; buy a new electric car in OK for $895…but read the fine print before sealing the deal; actor Morgan Freeman is also a certified pilot, that’s why he bought a gift as a holiday ‘gift’, Brad & Angelina are also licensed to fly; health care reform bad for small businesses?; snow across the N Plains; PA student suspended after being told not to wear a Santa suit to school; icy conditions in WV, VA & the Carolinas; missing eleven year old MD girl’s body was found near the DE border with that state; for one family in Key West, FL, there was ‘snow’ [crushed ice] for the holiday; more E Coli found in meat shipped to six Midwest states;

Santa had to visit 800 homes per second; the ‘overseas pregnancy’ issue in the military has been dropped; is Vatican security also slipping?; Taliban released video of captured US soldier; the ‘difficult’ year of 2009?; Virgin Blue airlines ‘lost’ a deaf, mute passenger on an Australian flight; the Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’ is one big tube; in what is being called a terrorist attack took place on a NW/Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit when a man with supposed ties to al Qaeda threatened to blow up the plane as it landed in the US: passengers said they smelled smoke and then a person on fire;

…12/24-09: Santa Claus is out of bed

31º in ABQ; 63% humidity at 6A…funds found to help remove trash from NM highways; someone is stealing outdoor decorated trees; new HOSP for Guadalupe CNTY; this AM there is still bad driving conditions along I-40 from Clines Corner to Tucumcari; two Duke City tattoo parlors were shut down for being in violation of health & building codes; the NM Powerball is now worth $110 million; will it be too windy to light Luminaria?; today is a day for YouTube conversations!; smash & crash: yesterday’s NM traffic accidents mentioned on ABC AM News today; holiday greetings from Martha; Brad completed his Enchiladas today, and the meal was a success!; the wind was not in our favor, though, the Luminaria kept falling over, and the same type of weather is expected tomorrow; heavy traffic on the Internet tonight;
the balloon boy’s parents cannot make a profit on their tall tale for four years; tree limb crashed down into the kitchen of an IA home; the SEN passed a health care reform bill this AM, but it does not provide a public option; there is a hot line to help repair holiday lights; and the YouTube Yule log video; a twelve vehicle pileup on the Chicago Skyway [we’ve traveled on it]; Alvin & the Chipmunks have been immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds; 87 million are traveling by air this holiday; bad weather from NM to WV; Obamas will spend the holidays in HI; another Midwest blizzard; NYU worker charged with stealing over $400K from the school over a five year period; the fees & fares to fly keep rising; Amtrak trains stranded for three hours in the NJ area; IN boy hands out stolen money on his school bus, cash that he took from his grandparents’ safe; gourmet movie theater open in Los Angeles with $29 tickets, where people sit in luxury recliners; man surrenders after holding VA post office hostage; the First Lady read stories to the patients at Children’s HOSP in DC; sportscaster George Michael has died at the age of 70 from leukemia; a trailer park in Brooklyn?; does Bernie Madoff have cancer?; police pull over car near Joplin, MO, and inside the luggage & holiday presents were marijuana; snow covers an area from Dallas to Omaha, major interstates are shut down; hacker shuts down major online shopping websites; twisters reported in TX & Louisiana;
website for Trance 2010; after five years, a NJ man will get custody of his son, who was taken by the child’s mother to Brazil; Pope Benedict XVI was injured after he was knocked over by a woman in the crowd;

…12/23-09: Santa Claus is wearing red

30º in ABQ; 85% humidity at 6A…lots of people at the River of Lights last night; GAQ; overnight moisture at The Beach; Santa Fe will not raise its minimum wage; parts of I-25 & I-40 are icy; snow fell in the NE Heights; are pit bulls being returned to people who are using them for fights?; heavy snow fell in the Four Corners & Cuba; Brad prepared Guacamole; $10K in valuable coins dropped into a Salvation Army kettle; multiple accidents from the snow have closed parts of I-25, I-40 & US 285; Silver City APT house fire; 50 H1N1 deaths in NM;

comic climbing; no CTI Admits; traffic lights not working near the Frontier restaurant; snow started again around noon; some of us were told that we could leave, but I stayed until the end of my shift: then I took my regular buses to the NE Heights, and arrived home by 5P;

rain for Nashville & St. Louis; NM snow mentioned on the ABC AM News; snow for Omaha, the Twin Cities & Chicago; N Plains snow, tricky traveling along parts of I-10, 1-35, I-80, I-90 & I-94; OK, KS T’storms; N New England snow; Dallas storms; SE US twisters; temps from the 10s to the 70s;

people think the economy is worse than a year ago; COBRA coverage will be extended for fifteen months to the unemployed; Blackberry users find their E-mail function was not working; real men wear pink; twenty vehicle pileup near Flagstaff blamed on snowy conditions; the CO ‘balloon boy’ parents get sent to jail; new homes sales fall in November; UT man wanting to get a massage by a woman, instead gets a gun pointed at him by a man at the meeting place; white vs. icy holidays; five people being held hostage at Wytheville, VA post office; John Kerry’s wife has breast cancer; volunteers vaccinated the homeless against the swine flu; Phoenix ‘holiday house’ decorated with 100K lights; Amtrak train struck a tree near Redding, CA, causing a 7½ hour delay; are AIG execs still getting bonuses?; gift cards from Blue Cross & Blue Shield to help pay INS premiums or health care, such as medicines; New England church will not have to sell its Tiffany window; DE pediatrician accused of molesting his patients; another weird: former Louisiana worker killed two fellow employees, and wounded another person; otters on a plane delay takeoff;

Ford may sell its Volvo car line to China; the fuselage broke apart, the oxygen masks dropped in front of passengers as a jet slid off the runway in Jamaica: the good news is that there were no fatalities, but 89 people suffered injuries; Santa is followed on FaceBook; cold weather with snow spreads across Europe, shutting parts of the Autobahn; Soyuz has reached the INTL Space Station; more people in the UK are buying quilted toilet paper; son legally reunited with his father in Brazil; oil is $76.35 per barrel; gold is $1,095.80 per ounce;

…12/22-09: in the evening, the real me came alive!

36º in ABQ; 48% humidity at 6A…GAQ; the HAZMAT situation kept I-40 closed for twelve hours; deadly crash at Spain & Eubank, pedestrian was killed; tax lightning is no longer legal; Baillo’s returns to its original owner; isolation has its privileges; man had his driver’s license suspended when he could not afford his child support payments; no more than 45% interest rates on payday loans; home sales on the rise in the Duke City; attempted child abduction in Carlsbad; Brad completing Posole & Middle Eastern Green Bean Salad; nine Santa Fe businesses busted for serving liquor to minors; NM was the first state to require ignition interlocks; holiday greetings from my YouTube friends; 75 year old fought back when attacked in an ABQ parking lot, thieves were eventually caught at a fast-food restaurant;

finish the GI report, and PICU transfers; the Lobos Men’s basketball team is 12–0; a very empty AM R/R;

photo of snowy Waynesboro, VA shown; more snow for Columbus, Twin Cities, SLC, Milwaukee, INDY, Buffalo & Chicago; N Plains blizzard, from CO to WI; freezing fog in WV, TN & KY; icy along parts of I-81, in Richmond & Philly, from DC to Asheville; NM snow mentioned on ABC AM News; rain in Los Angeles & ‘the’ Las Vegas; snow in parts of I-35, I-80 & I-90; temps from 10s to 70s;

people still shoveling & sledding; millions of dollars stolen from Citigroup by hackers; actor Arnold Stang has died at the age of 91; ship luggage to its destination, INS for packaged contents costs about $20; violent crimes have dropped during this past year; YAHOO will close its offices during the holidays; 25% of those polled fear they will lose their health INS coverage; Hispanic are more likely to have skin cancer; NC mother & son are killed when their vehicle is struck by a train; MI man got stabbed in the chest, but that did not stop him from placing an order for a cup of coffee at a local restaurant; an Eddie Bauer car seat for children?; Obama has chosen a ‘Cyber Czar’; the DOW ended up, with health INS stocks on the rise; the $5 million FAA ‘holiday conference’ at the ATL OMNI; US father will have custody of his son who is currently in Brazil; nasal swine flu being recalled, loses potency over time; SC priest wins $100K for his church in a poker game; woman threatened to kill Michelle Obama while the First Lady was in HI on vacation; Chrysler may not pay back its TARP loan; three people have been killed by a dust storm in AZ along I-10 which involved 30 – 40 vehicles;

in Nazareth, a home found that dates back 2K years; the Chunnel has reopened; oil is $73.45 per barrel; gold fell to $1,084.20 an ounce; Olympic torch now in Niagara Falls; after tinting her lashes, UK bank cashier’s eyes became glued, she could not open them; OPEC will not change the oil output of its member nations; would pregnancy be a crime for US soldiers in Iraq, with both parties being punished?; MX family murdered: the motive was revenge by a powerful drug cartel; UK pastor says the poor should be able to shoplift, instead of turning to burglaries, or prostitution; Prince William slept outside with the homeless of London;

…12/21-09: there is a difference between night & day

28º in ABQ; 60% humidity at 6A…GAQ; Duke City home construction on the rise; more taxes on cigarettes & gas to balance the NM budget?; historic Bernalillo structure burned down; I-40 closed near the Continental Divide, due to a HAZMAT situation; job hunter who stood on a Duke City street corner has two interviews; the Tribal Collaboration Communication Act has been passed; tank carrying propane spilled its contents on the highway after a car went under the truck, snapping its nozzle; more electric power to Rio Rancho, thanks to new transformer; illegal cockfighting ring broken up in the S Valley?; fake Native American jewelry being sold, or original artist’s name has been removed;

$4.5 million: total salary paid to UNM Vice Presidents; no weekend PICU Admits; working on the McLoughlin project; nearly have everything up-to-date; very busy weekend;

snow for Cleveland, Rapid City, Twin Cities, Des Moines & Buffalo; twenty inches of snow fell in Chesapeake, VA; very cold in New England; more Midwest flurries; days of recovery; most snow seen in DC during December in over 70 years; the Dakotas could receive another 3 – 5 inches of snow; a snow day for DC & FED workers; temps from the 10s to the 70s;

busiest shipping day for UPS; people will be flying without fees, but will travelers be home for the holidays; many cities have closed schools today; the compromised health bill; two boats collided in San Diego harbor, killing at least one person; online shopping has remained strong; ‘Secret Santas’ spread joy around the US; Cape Cod residents clean the snow off roads to allow an ambulance access to their neighborhood; three hour limit for passengers having to wait on the tarmac?; BOLO: ‘be on the lookout’; nation’s best hackers were being tested to ‘beat the system’; ‘the other husband’; Mother Nature vs. Old Man Winter; luxury item holiday sales are down; ABC World News with Diane Sawyer; the ‘cheap deal’ of health care reform may not go into effect until 2014, people will be able to buy INS, but will have to buy it from another company; another child, this time in NJ, was shot & killed by an illegally owned gun; Whole Food stores recalling hazelnuts, which may be contaminated with salmonella; the E Coast snowstorm has resulted in fewer car rentals available;how to save the Saab; Chunnel service still suspended; Philippine volcano keeps erupting, alert raised to Category 4: only days before eruption; what are the true meanings of nursery rhymes?; gold is $1,106.50 an ounce; oil is $74.25 per barrel; Mexico City will allow same–sex marriages, the first Latin American metropolis to do so; has Iran created a key component of a nuclear bomb?;

…12/20-09: moon glow

26º in ABQ; 61% humidity at 6A…NM legislature wants a law to prevent Spaceport passengers from suing the state; fatal rollover crash near Espanola; Nob Hill neighbors caught a burglar; lower the number of credits to graduate from Rio Rancho high school; NM unemployment funds are getting low; armed robbery at a Hobbs Burger King; man impersonated police officer was involved in a carjacking; GAQ; Bernalillo teen dance hall burnt to the ground; two men accused of stealing copper wire from PNM power lines; UT missing mother was born in NM; ABQ to DC flights are still cancelled; holiday tree sales are lower this year;twenty inches of snow fell on DC, ten inches for NYC; and Boston got nine as the blizzard moved away from New England this PM; many people along the E Coast are in the dark; holiday travelers may be flying, instead of buying today; Tom Brad’s baby boy’s name is Benjamin; ‘Avatar’: the ultimate ‘geek movie; the health reform bill would contain no public funding for abortions; the Saints suffered their first loss to the Cowboys; Evangelical Church opens its hearts & doors to gays; Patriots won; Dulles Airport has 4–6 hour flight delays; nearly 5K flights have been cancelled by the blizzard; Cape Cod received two feet of snow, plus power outages; football games were played in spite of the weather; a corrupt health reform bill; fire in the NYC Macy’s store; there were no injuries after a homemade blimp landed on OK interstate; ‘Avatar’ made $72 million;

6.0 earthquake rocked the African nation of Malawi; now, 55K passengers were affected by the Chunnel weather problems; pop music used to torture GITMO detainees; England will phase out paper checks; Auschwitz prison sign was found in Poland; Soyuz heading to the INTL Space Station; neutron initiator being tested by Iran; the A380 has been grounded again;

…12/19-09: styles & strategies

31º in ABQ; 67% humidity at 6A…GAQ; gas is $2.42.per gallon; two more Eunice firefighters, one of the being the mayor’s grandson, are accused of various felonies; Socorro jeweler playing ‘Secret Santa’, hiding boxes of items, which are sold at their store, in various places around the town; one of the guys who works at Trader Joe’s is from S Boston, complete with a New England accent; holiday ornaments bought by the Bernalillo mayor, at a cost of over $2,500; 911 lines down in Luna CNTY; bullet hole found in window of Sandoval CNTY Courthouse; the new gay/lesbian nightclub in the Duke City will need an updated sprinkler system; this weekend, listen to Baroque holiday music in Santa Fe; the ‘best of the West’ plays in ABQ at the NM Bowl; $350K in money confiscated from three big drug busts across NM; man at Duke City intersection is dressed up in a suit, with a sign saying ‘I need a job’, and has been handing out résumés: he has not worked for nearly a year; during the past year, there has been a 112% increase in Santa Fe home burglaries; NM has to stop issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens; is the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe haunted?; Brad made Wonton Soup; watching a soccer game through the reflection of a glass painting; fatal shooting at Twelfth & Central SW last night; fatal car crashes in both Sandoval & Rio Arriba counties;

NM ranks 24 in the list of happiest states, higher than VA, which is 27; two feet of snow expected in DC, NATL Airport may close, blizzard conditions from VA to MA; ‘Avatar’ getting good reviews; health care reform agreement on Capitol Hill?; the 55 foot NYC APT: low rent, minimal space; the Smithsonian museums have shut down, thanks to the blizzard conditions; people are stranded on I-81 in W VA; the SEN health bill got sixty votes; this was ‘Super Saturday’ for shopper?; fifty million people are stuck in the snow; up to twenty inches of snow could fall in Cape Cod, accompanied by 60 mph gusts; 1,200 flights have been cancelled; Providence & Boston in the blizzard’s path; nudity is in the news; roaches forces NV man to move out of his APT, and sleep in the hallway;

winter weather shut down five trains in the Chunnel: 1,300 passengers were stuck underneath the English Channel, the tunnel should reopen today; France launched another spy satellite; the ‘Big Bang’ Collider keeps breaking records, it will shut down for the next few months; plenty of snow in N France; unemployment is high in AFG;

…12/18-09: reduce or reuse and recycle

35º in ABQ; 54% humidity at 6A…GAQ; another school district for the Duke City?; the Eunice fire chief & four co-workers accused of theft; METRO Detention CTR employee charged with attempting to smuggle drugs into an NM prison; Santa Fe burglaries on the rise across all parts of the city; NM ranks #2 in highway traffic planning, and easy access; a very large utility bill; saw two guys sitting side by side, holding each other’s hands at a Duke City restaurant; Channel 10 news van at The Beach; the Real ID program may not start until May, 2011; no one injured after rollover crash at Twelfth & Mountain; NM is late sending unemployment checks; woman drove the wrong way for five miles on I-40, went under The Big I, and crashed near the San Mateo exit, she was charged with drunk driving; a holiday greeting by Heidi to Brad & myself; the worst of the worst property crime offenders appear in the ABQ Journal;

left at 12:30P, ate at Two Fools; MGR called me about the McLaughlin project, and that I should finish it next week; great Fish & Chips & Irish Coffee, to Trader Joe’s, climbed for comics, and returned home before 5P; chaos in the new PICN area;

light snow in the N Plains; chance of tornadoes in S FL; storms from ATL to Roanoke to Orlando, along parts of I-10 & I-20, in Charlotte, New Orleans, Tampa, Nashville & JAX; snow in Detroit, Chicago & Cincinnati; a weekend blizzard for the E Coast?; S FL floods, Miami downpours; CA beach erosion forced people out of an APT complex; very wet along areas of I-75 & I-95; get ready for plenty of snow from Asheville to Boston, Long Island & Cape Cod; temps from 20s to 80s;tonight is the final broadcast for Charley Gibson; HI & FL are the happiest states, while NY is the saddest; number of prisoners on Death Row is decreasing; DC mayor signs the same-sex marriage bill, which now goes to Congress for approval; this time, a murder-suicide in UT; tanker truck fire shut down Dallas HWY; school budget cuts may mean the end of Driver’s Ed classes; 447K baby car seats being recalled; live Pacific Chorus frogs tagging along on AK holiday trees; the agency to rate video games is shutting down, a victim of today’s economy; NYC criminal died by falling three stories after he tripped over his own baggy pants; bottled water sales on the decline; to how to slow the passage of a health care reform bill…read it out loud; ‘unjustified spending’ by the Post Office; 700K packages of Vicks Dayquil have been recalled;Obama in Denmark; after multiple legal battles, a US father may be able to bring his son home from Brazil by the holidays; China, the climate stumbling block?; has Iran seized an Iraqi oil well?; gold is $1,106.80 an ounce; oil is $74.25 per barrel; is N Korea guilty of computer hacking?; the end of Saab; Obama ordered missile attacks on Yemen to kill al Qaeda insurgents; thieves stole the ‘Work Sets You Free’ sign at Auschwitz death camp; the Pet Shop Boys have a holiday album; the deepest underwater volcano captured on video;

…12/17-09: intelligence, insurance & investments

28º in ABQ; 60% humidity at 6A…GAQ; there are now 47 H1N1 deaths in NM; extra seasonal flu shots have been given to a NE ABQ Clinic; Santa Rosa police chief resigns; Alamogordo man raped his co-worker; water main break in SE ABQ, and in Baltimore, MD; Duke City solar plant expanding, and hiring more staff; when he stands on his hind paws, Chewy is nearly as tall as Nancy; NM now has only ‘regional’ swine flu activity; construction worker struck by semi on I-40, near Gallup, shutting down the interstate for twenty miles; Angel Fire starts night skiing this weekend; Brad making Tortillas; Toys for Tots needs more items; NM wants to ban the use of cell phones while driving; mother has been granted full, legal custody of the boy who killed his father; a child was not properly restrained during Tuesday’s crash on I-40;

provider training at 12:30P; E-mail requests to Brent for missing provider info; nothing informing staff that PICN had moved into the front part of PICU, and NICU is now in PICN, and some PICN babies have been exposed to Varicella; the electronic template; no PSUP Admits;

very cold from Boston to Buffalo; snow across New England & the Great Lakes regions; rain for Orlando, New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, Tampa, JAX, & Portland, OR; floods in Louisiana, GA & AL; snow in Reno, ID, MT, WY & CO; chance of snow in VA & the Carolinas; temps from 20s to 80s;

the Mt. Hood search changes from a rescue to a recovery; some banks will delay foreclosures for thirty days; fewer feel the recovery is improving, as compared to this same time last year; many people feel the company is still heading in the wrong direction [whatever that is!]; one restaurant will offer a 25% discount for life if a person has a grilled cheese sandwich tattoo [which some call a ‘tramp stamp’]; the recession has meant fewer immigrants coming to America; budget cuts force states to release prisoners earlier than planned; conflicts in the economy; the selling of Wall St; the DOW took a plunge; initial job losses are more than predicted; the ‘Pentagon haircut’; BlackBerry users in North America were not able to send or receive E-mails today: the problem has been corrected; standard shipping rates have ended: now, packages cannot be guaranteed to arrive at their destination before the holiday; Tiger Wood’s wife is filing divorce papers; TX boy suspended from school because of his hairstyle…floppy; hand written letters make up only 3% of today’s mail; in terms of health care reform, delay is a recipe for doom; NYC killer murders three generations of one family, then falls to his own death; fraudulent US doctor found on Italian MTN; The $130 million helicopter that Obama does not want; Pepsi will not have a Super Bowl ad?; actress Jennifer Jones has died at the age of 90 from natural causes;GITMO should close by summer of 2010; the AFG troop surge into AFG has started; insurgents using a $25 computer software program to hack into cameras of US military drone; Hillary Clinton is in Copenhagen; climate talks have stalled; oil has dropped to $71.50 per barrel; gold fell to $1,107.50 an ounce; British Airways strike put on hold?; ‘vampire’ arrested for attacking judge; China may not comply with climate change compromise; Scotland’s biggest airline goes out of business; robot cameras have recorded the deepest underwater volcanic eruption;

…12/16-09: giving the good life

25º in ABQ; 66% humidity at 6A…GAQ; NM weather is ‘complicated’; algebra course does not need to be taken if parents sign a waiver form; new Rape Crisis CTR opens in the Duke City; NM school districts face deeper budget cuts; the ABQ economy is ‘stagnant’, but better than most W cities; submit the best holiday photo to KOAT, win an HD TV; Ruidoso police officer lied, stating he was a Brigadier GEN, so he could collect two incomes while on reserve duty; the Rail Runner will celebrate one year of service to Santa Fe tomorrow; Navajo Nation votes to reduce the size of the Tribal Council; Nancy & Brad prepared Chicken Enchiladas;

MGR taking us out to lunch at the 66 Route; main elevators in the Pavilion are not working during the early AM; a nurse brought chicken pox into NICU; felt like I was part of the group; I walked and took the bus to the restaurant: JoAnn drove me back to work; how organized am I as a Coder?; production looks good; plenty of bottles of hot sauce;

Orlando T’storms; chill in the air in the Midwest, E Coast & New England; light snow for Buffalo, Erie, Pittsburgh, Albany & Cleveland; white weather in the Sierra Nevada range; getting cold from DC to Boston; floods in the SE US; rain in JAX, Corpus Christi, San Antonio & Boise; snow along parts of I-90; temps from the 10s to the 80s;

‘taped in the nude’; kill the bill on health care reform?; minimal chance of survival for the two Mt. Hood hikers, as whiteout conditions continued, unless they found or built some form of shelter; Obama has a 50% approval rate; McDonald’s will offer free Wi-Fi at most restaurants by 2010; stress can cause illnesses; hypothermia begins when the body temp reaches 95º; gay marriages in DC by March, 2010?; missing MA woman found alive in a snow bank; Miami lottery winner ends a couple’s marriage; will more Americans be traveling this holiday?; the DOW was slightly down; someone will die on ‘Smallville’?; no serious injuries were reported when a car collided with a horse drawn wagon in W VA; Tiger Woods has been voted the AP Athlete of the Year: Ben Bernanke was selected the Time magazine Person of the Year…otherwise known as ‘the important nerd on the planet; nearsightedness is on the rise; the PRES ‘commits kids to war’; Roy Disney has died from cancer at the age of 79; long hair keeps TX child from attending classes; are jobs returning to ‘the‘ Las Vegas?; weird: NC family charged with keep the corpse of a relative inside their home for months;

Obama urges N Korea to resume nuclear disarmament talks; two UK men were paid, and posed as other people to pass driver’s test, but they usually failed; Iran tested a long range missile, capable of striking Israel & parts of Europe; Chilean weightlifter gave birth during training; Philippine volcano is still erupting, 50K people told to leave their homes; Susan Boyle’s YouTube sight has had 120 million hits; oil is $72.66 per barrel; gold is $1,136.20 an ounce; weird: boy in Brazil has fifty sewing needles inside his body; a ‘flashing’ New Zealand female teenager was struck by a car; has a nearby ‘super Earth’ been found?;