• Congratulations: Mike and Amanda. The very best wishes for both of you. May your new life together be ever blessed.
• Unnecessary lust item: 3/4-ton Suburban, black, with the diesel. Of course we don’t need it, but it would be pretty cool for a while. Even if only for irking Mr. Anti-SUV at work.
• Holy cow, does it ever stop? — Neighbor’s yappy dog, yapping. Goodness, he just doesn’t give up!
• A week has passed: Oliver Gray, the new kitten in our house. Four weeks old now; still no bigger than a rat. Suddenly has ears. Has yet to poop. Learning to walk, and quickly! Wasn’t crazed about him coming, but he is cute. For now.  And he’s getting stronger.
• Why the heck am I thinking this? — Sudden urge for a tattoo. Odd.
• What the heck happened here? — Garage door spring broke. Doesn’t appear to have beat the $h!# out of the vehicles on its way to the floor. No clue why it broke. Not tough to replace, though… thankfully.
• Back in the U.S.: Doctor Jay.
• The week ahead: birthdays for Jeff and Gemini; Father’s Day; preparation for a trip to the Honda Hoot.

More to come. The list grows when I’m not in front of a computer, and then suddenly shrinks when I get ready to enter it.

• Beach-sitting on Grand Cayman, zip-line fun on Isla Roatan, cave tubing in Belize, and touring the ruins in Costa Maya.
• Having time to sit on deck, sip a drink, enjoy the sun, work on my tan, and finish a novel I’d started a while back.
• Time with Mrs…. All to myself.
• Opportunity for Mrs. to fully unwind, relaxing without the routine pressures.

• Listening: Digital Underground, Playwhutchalike. Old-school, but kinda fun.
• New toy: my pal Mikey’s new Scion tC. Neat stuff!
• Still fun: last weekend’s shotgunning. Not sore anymore; still have a gun to clean.
• Goofy: new Dodge Avenger commercial — lab rat plays “Smoke on the Water” with transmissions.
• A little freaked out: going on a cruise. Seven days on a boat?! And for two of them I can’t see land? Yikes.
• Ready for it: vacation. Bring on the shorts and the drinks and the lack of need for safety glasses.
• Doing right now: staying up WAY too late.
• Finally got it done: preparing a will. It’s not that tough to do, it just takes a while to get a handle on the act of actually doing it. I’m more conscious of my mortality now.
• Handed off: my first reall Access application. Client loves it. That’s a nice feeling.

Have a good weekend, friends.

Good for Ms Johnson, for standing up for what she believes and for taking action accordingly.

We’re not sure we would have even thought to put out the 33rd stone. Not out of malice or hatred, but simply because we believed there were 32 victims and one killer.

• Pain: Thirty-two innocent lives lost.
• Dignity: VT added a 33rd stone to the memorial in front of Burruss.
• Awesome: community strength. The Hokie Nation certainly pulls together in times of crisis. This week, we’ve had the attention and the compassion of all our friends and rivals.
• Remember
• The wonder and joy and potential of the 32, not the despair and evil of the one.
• Appalachian School of Law
• Columbine High School
• Oklahoma City
• Must prevent: copycats. Find those who would attempt to copy this and stop them using all means necessary and available. No mercy, we say.
• Resentment:
• Toward all the blamers, opportunists, and finger-pointers out there.
• Overheard: “I’d be planning to sue the University if I were a student there, for not providing a secure environment.” The quick minded retort from a colleague: “Don’t you think that money would be better spent on improved warning and communication systems, rather than paying off people who just want some money?” Good job, Mr. E.
• The media: “Why weren’t these students better protected?” “How was the killer able to get a gun in the first place?” “Why didn’t the University go on full lockdown after the first killing?” “Who’s to blame?” Blah, blah, blah. Bunch of stink-stirrers.
• Toward the media, for repeatedly showing the killer’s video and photos. The families of the victims don’t need to have this pushed into their faces over and over. Nor do the rest of us. And for goodness’ sake, leave the killer’s family alone. They didn’t do this — HE DID. ALONE. Don’t take this out on his sister and parents, making their lives tougher than they are right now.
• Toward the media, for attempting to infuse its own bias into the reporting done. Give us the facts, and keep your opinions. And when you prod us for a statement and then find it doesn’t align with your views, publish it anyway. Isn’t that part of “fair and balanced?”
• Toward those who have turned the attention toward their own personal causes — mental health issues, gun control issues, blamestorming — instead of making a positive contribution toward the recovery.
• Anger: toward the killer. And only toward the killer. No one else is to blame here.
• Kudos:
• To the restaurants and other businesses who set their televisions to ESPN sporting events rather than to the stations airing the killer’s video.
• To the restaurants and other businesses supplying goods and services directly to the emergency responders, investigators, and others working to sort this mess out.
• To the vendors who decided to sell VT logo goods not for profit, but simply because people want to buy them in their own shows of support. You’re not a money-grubbing opportunist? Good for you.
• To those who are in town as genuine counselors and supporters. Thank you for sharing your strength.
• Nicely done:
• President Bush, for wearing an orange and maroon tie in observance.
• Seth Meyers, of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, for wearing an orange and maroon tie during this weekend’s show.
• The “Hoos for Hokies” message painted on a bridge in Charlottesville. (Anyone have a photo of this? Please forward it to us.)
• Nikki Giovanni — “We will prevail!” (transcript of Ms. Giovanni’s address)
• Dr. Charles Steger, for maintaining a dignified posture when addressing the media and dealing with its constant presence.
• Virginia Tech Police and Virginia State Police, for attaching maroon and orange ribbons to vehicle antennas. (Photos coming)
• Poorly done:
• The Today Show cast did not bother to wear the orange and maroon on Friday’s show.
• Good thinking:
• The student (an Eagle Scout) who used an electrical cord as a tourniquet on his own leg, likely saving his life.
• Dr. Librescu, for barricading the door so that his students could exit through windows. Thank you, sir, for your sacrifice. We cannot thank you enough, and we are in despair that you were taken from us.
• They’re all here: saw vehicles on campus today from all agencies — Virginia Tech Police, Blacksburg Police, Radford Police, Christiansburg Police, Virginia State Police, ATF, US Marshals Service. Plus a boatload of unmarked vehicles.
• Time to go home:
• The media. Classes resume tomorrow, and it’s time for the media to go back to their offices. The campus, the town, and the community need to get back to life’s “normal” status, and we don’t need you in our faces while we get there. You’ve been here long enough. Thank you for coming, now go home. (photo)
• The Scientologists. Just because we think it’s time for you to go.
• Can’t stand to hear them anymore:
• Taps
• Amazing Grace
• Overdramatic:
• Jeremy Crider
• Scott Leamon
• Rosie O’Donnell
• Nancy Grace
• Proof that the media and the politicians don’t always really know what they’re talking about:
• “gun magazine clips” — CNN.
• “barrel shrouds” — Carolyn McCarthy (Link to hotair.com for video clip) doesn’t understand her own legislation.
• “She shot him in the back with a pump-action .22-caliber shotgun.” — Nancy Grace. (transcript link) A .22-caliber shotgun? Um, yeah. We’d like to have a look at that one.
• Video links:
• Rosie attacks Tom, and he keeps his cool. It’s an oldie but a goodie. (link)
• Hey, Rosie’s anti-gun, right? But her bodyguard carries! (link)
• Rosie’s rant from this week. (link1 vid available here and here)
  
• Interesting question: do things like this happen more often in small towns than large ones? Are there statistics on that? This question was asked on last night’s Glenn Beck show, and now we’re curious about it.
• Links:
• Virginia Tech
• Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund
• Lansing Cartoons (source of the “Today we are all Hokies” cartoon)
• Pray:
• For the victims and their families.
• For the killer. For the killer’s family, that they might find peace and be safe.
• For the emergency workers, witnesses, and bystanders present during the early moments of this tragedy, and that their families will help them deal with that trauma/stress.
• For the investigators tasked with sorting this out.
• For those for whom this tragedy brings up painful memories of events past.
• That we can all pull together to help one another as has been seen this week. Preferably without a disaster as the cause.
• …

There’ll be more. Stay tuned.

• Thankful: Easter
• Thankful: Successful transplant
• Listening: Timbaland — “Shock Value“
• W00t: Givi bars installed, trouble-free.
• Holy cow did he really say that? Imus: “nappy headed hos.” Yup, he really said it.
  
• A nice break: a reduction in personal property tax for vehicles with over 80 kilomiles. Why is that good? Because both four-wheelers in the Black Cat Research fleet are over 80K.
• “Holy cow!”: a new OEM wheel for a ‘95 Park Avenue costs over $400.
• Treat: a LARGE coffee from neighborhood Starbucks, and two sugars. Yum.
• Introduced: Infiniti G37 Coupe Darned near gorgeous. Video here.

Links:

• Stop Rosie petition. Wow. Can’t really disagree much.
• American Thinker article, Re: Roanoke Times article
• The Urban Dictionary