First, Ashlyn turned 18 on October 2. She informed me she was going to “ride that ass!” then she giggled as I picked my heart & jaw up off the floor. She was of course, referring to the donkey at the Fiesta del Burro Loco. Ai yi yi.

Then on October 5, she wrecked our Cadillac…

I received a phone call from Ashlyn beginning with “Mom, first let me say, it’s not my fault.” You can imagine my thoughts at that moment. I have to say, I’m quite proud of how she dealt with her first wreck. She was calm as a cucumber through the whole ordeal and not one tear was shed.

As she was leaving school, the girl driving the car behind Ashlyn was fumbling with a radio or something and plowed into the back of Ashlyn, sending her into the car ahead of her. In total, 4 teenager vehicles were involved, and ours was the only one that had major damage. Most importantly, no one was hurt. Cars can be replaced, kiddos can not.

The insurance company totalled our car. ::mourn paid-for Cadillac::

Halloween was fun. We got a new jack-o-lantern kit courtesy of Mr. Potato Head. Ashlyn and her boyfriend (also acquired during my blog vacation) Elliott assembled our “Pirate” with the help of one of our neighbor kids.

And I hung out in the yard again…

Ashlyn bought her first car in mid-November with some help from Grandparents and us!

She wrecked it 6 weeks later…

Amazingly, this one wasn’t her fault either. However, the jackass who backed in to her while on his cell phone and not looking (a 44-year old man, no less) lied to both the police and his insurance company that she had hit him, defying the laws of physics…his insurance company initially denied our claim…

I should have been a detective/lawyer…they say that pictures are worth 1000 words. In this case, it was worth just over $1200. There was a perfect mirror image of her tire and the word “Rotation” on his bumper. We argued how could this image be so clear if her car was in motion? He clearly, hit her. He also was paying so little attention, he didn’t even realize which side of his truck was involved. I also pointed out that inaccuracy. End result: a check to repair her damage and a rental car voucher for the time it’ll be in the shop. Lesson I hope that jackass learns: Don’t F*** with tiggerprr’s daughter and stop being a big, fat liar!. Lesson I hope Ashlyn learns: Honesty and a billion pictures of everything is the best policy.

And she wonders why I hesitate to let her drive my car…

Hubby has a growth coming out of his head…

And Ashlyn and I get to go to the Democratic Presidential Debate held here in Myrtle Beach this coming Monday…woo! I’m more excited for her, since this is almost like being a small part of history.

How have YOU been?

Kristie has a Chip-In widget on her site and has graciously offered to match the funds that her readers donate for Reign’s surgery.

If you find it in your heart to do so, please go to Slacker-Moms-R-Us and give even a dollar towards this poor furbaby’s surgery. Show him some of the love that he’s sorely lacked during his short lifetime.

The kids also started school this week. So we’ve been adjusting our schedules and getting used to waking up on time to get five of us out the door and to our respective destinations. So far, so good.

I’ve also been playing WoW, but I am NOT addicted to WoW as someone seems to think. I just enjoy it, I could quit any time. I just choose not to.

Our first recording of our joint podcast led Yoshi to decide that we needed to have 2 podcasts, one where he and I co-host and interview fellow bloggers about themselves and their blogs. Jenny Ryan has graciously agreed to be our first victim interviewee. I just have to get off my butt out of Azeroth long enough to help Yoshi prepare some good questions for her. If you’d like to be interviewed by Yoshi and I, drop either of us an email, we’d love to hear from you!

We’re also going to go with our other podcast idea which is a mass hodgepodge of general discussions about topics of the day, news, movies, games, vacuum boobs, what Britney Spears isn’t wearing, etc…

So some pretty exciting stuff going on behind the scenes here! I’ll keep you posted!

Oh, and the cats are fine but OC seems to be a little more verbal and needy now that people aren’t around all day again.

1) He will not be given the punishment that is due to him. He’s copping a plea. I’m also certain of this because I didn’t think the maximum sentence was harsh enough to begin with (5 yrs and a $250k fine). I don’t understand why it’s necessary to offer him a plea bargain at this point. I think a quote from the awesome 80′s movie Heavy Metal sums up somewhat nicely how I feel about Mr. Vick:

Hanover Fiste: He’s nothing but a low-down, double-dealing, backstabbing, larcenous perverted worm! Hanging’s too good for him. Burning’s too good for him! He should be torn into little bitsy pieces and buried alive!

2) I know that there’s a special place in Hell reserved for him. But sadly, that won’t ease the suffering or pain of those animals that were forcibly thrown across the Rainbow Bridge.

3) I know that there’s a ton of sufferinng in store for him in this life or the next, karmically speaking. (Yes, I know I’ve covered two sets of religious beliefs here, but cut me some slack, I am half-Japanese and as such have two sets of families, one Buddhist, one Christian. I’m open minded to both and have an interesting theory about religion I might share with you all some day when I’m feeling brave.)

4) I find it hard to believe that there’s people who are so insensitive to the cruel and violent nature of what’s happened here because the victims were “just” dogs. I also don’t see why they say that if he wasn’t a celebrity, he wouldn’t be being punished at all. Though, I really want not to believe that’s even possible, it actually is probably possible. Special tiggerprr hurricane warning here: If you are of this camp that believes this, fine, I accept that you’re out there and have those feelings. But if you dare post one comment here in an inflammatory way towards me or others who feel the way we do, I WILL rip you a new one in ways you’ve not ever conceived of. Use the voice your mama tried to teach you and if you don’t have anything nice (or at least in a civil way) to say, say nothing at all.

THAT’S the real crime here. Life is life, regardless of whether it’s human or animal. Everything should be protected under the law. Those animals had feelings, those animals were scared, those animals were hurting and no one was there to speak for them. Certainly not Michael Vick. Until we recognize that all life has value and start to care about it…we’re in a downward spiral that will lead to our demise.

Yet, WE are the “civilized” ones and the animals are “savage”. I’m just sad and disgusted.

EDITED TO ADD: You have got to eff-ing be kidding me.

This is part of what RL White the head of the Atlanta Chapter of the NAACP had to say:

“In some instances, I believe Michael Vick has received more negative press than if he would’ve killed a human being,” White said. “The way he is being persecuted, he wouldn’t have been persecuted that much had he killed somebody.”

My husband said it very eloquently: If he’d have killed people the way that he murdered those dogs… he’d be in the league of Jeffery Dahmer or a Hannibal Lecter. I totally agree.

I read this news article just now, about Oliver, the capuchin monkey at the Tuplelo Buffalo Park and Zoo that rivals Criss Angel and Harry Houdini in his ability to get past locks. As naughty as he apparently is, perhaps his name should have been Marcel.

On a serious note, there’s a lot of discussion about the caging of animals for our viewing pleasure, and I have mixed feelings about it myself. In a way, I wish that all animals could just be left in their natural habitats. But until we humans get over ourselves and the need to build, build, build and procreate with wreckless abandon, we’re destroying their homes, and sadly by the time my grandchildren are around, or my daughter’s grandchildren (God, even just saying that makes me feel like I’m 80) are here, the only place (if the animals aren’t already extinct) they may be able to see these wondrous creatures might be zoos. So I just don’t know.

Of course, now the disease fearful part of me starts to think of that scene in the Outbreak where the monkey that caused said outbreak is chilling in the forest…he was most certainly not picking up field mice and bopping them on the head though.

I need to go wash my hands. LOL j/k!!!!