First of all, let me thank everyone for the outpouring of support we’ve been given! Family, church, friends, and mere acquaintances have all written, emailed, called, and visited. If it takes a village to raise a child, then our real and virtual “village” has closed ranks like I’ve never seen. Maria seems to be getting better. She remains comfortable during dressing changes, and her outer dressings are no longer “dirty” when we change them. Honestly, I think she’s more concerned with eating and playing with toys than her burn at this point. She’s even gotten up on her hands-and-knees to crawl for short distances. ...

At 11am Saturday, while she was out enjoying breakfast at Cracker Barrel with Whitney and her Grandmother Cathy, my daughter Maria was scalded over 10% of her body by a carafe of boiling water. The waitress sat the water too close to her, and she reached out and pulled it onto herself. She was seated in a highchair at the time, and the boiling liquid burned her from the center of her chest to her waist, and the upper part of her right thigh. A nurse behind Whitney directed them the administer first aid, and an ambulance took her directly to the University of Kentucky hospital E.R. ...

Poor baby! Give us a yell if you need anything! Jeff Roberts - Oct 1, 2007 Poor baby! Give us a yell if you need anything! I am so sorry to hear about Maria being hurt. Let me know if you need anything. Update: She’s had a pretty good day today. She’s in pain, but she’s eaten a couple of times and we’ve changed her dressings without causing her too much pain. ...

“Isn’t it awful that he’s so old he only gets the parts of the dead guy?”

Wha??? Jeff Roberts - Sep 6, 2007 Wha???

From the Herald-Misleader: Georgetown officials yesterday placed mandatory restrictions on outdoor watering. Among the uses banned are watering established lawns or golf courses, filling fountains or pools, and washing sidewalks. Soaker hoses may be used on sod, vegetable gardens, flowers, trees and shrubs. That should happen only on certain hours and days. The schedule is the same followed by Kentucky American Water customers: 6 to 10 a.m. and 6 to 10 p.m. People with addresses ending in odd numbers water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Those with even numbers water on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Billy Jenkins, manager of the city’s water service, said officials hope to reduce consumption by 15 percent to 30 percent. Royal Spring, which usually supplies most of Georgetown’s water, has been dropping rapidly, Jenkins said. In recent days, Georgetown bought up to 60 percent of its water from Frankfort. ...

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } closeup_cropped, originally uploaded by miniharryc. Daddy with severe 5 o’clock shadow and Maria squinting at the camera :-) My boss cooing at Maria

link They are some awesome (expensive!) components. At the height of my gadget craze, I almost bought an Acoustic Wave, but just couldn’t justify it.

Tired. Bored. Lonely. Bitter. Angry. Helpless. Controlled. Concealed. Afraid. Aggravated. Imprisoned. Obligated. I really don’t have anywhere to hide today. I’ve ALWAYS had somewhere to hide–work, women, racing, ****, friends, school, academics, video games, chat rooms, reading. That’s the comforting thing about being obsessive–you lose yourself in things, easily. You’re not YOU when it’s uncomfortable to be there. Obsession, fantasy, denial–they all go hand-in-hand. They’re my trinity of “not dealing with stuff”. ...

I can identify with trying to remove distractions … Jeff Roberts - Sep 5, 2007 I can identify with trying to remove distractions and make time to just be still. We all need to be in our own little bubble sometimes it is what keeps us sane. And yes I think that everyone goes through the same struggles. ...

Probably the worst Disney animated film of the modern era. They sanitized the lusty, humanist story of Heracles. Example: One of Heracles’s challenges was put to him by King Thespius of Thespiae who wished him to kill the Lion of Cithaeron. As a reward, the king offered him the chance to impregnate each of his 50 daughters. Accordingly, Heracles did this in one night (sometimes referred to as his 13th Labour). ...

I was sitting at a red light when they rolled up beside me, the guy riding his Suzuki Do-Me 8000 with his hot female companion on the back, her thongage pouring out of her low-rise jeans. Her blond hair fell from beneath the helmet and fluffed weightlessly in the hot breeze. Her skintight ballistic-armor motorcycle jacket was unzipped down to her navel. It’s a good look, I guess, if you go in for that sort of thing. ...

Scene: Kitchen table. Joey’s eating his A-B-C’s & 123’s. I’m reading the paper. The contents of my wallet lay spread upon the table, drying from their recent trip through the washer. (“But Honey, I was going to wear those shorts!”/“For the THIRD DAY IN A ROW?!”). Joey regards one card intently. Joe: “Harold…umm….this doesn’t make sense.” Me: “Huh?” Joe: “Well…this says Auto-Zone Re-Wards.” Me: “Yeah…” Joe: “There’s nothing rewarding at Autozone.” ...

I believe the answer to “Honey, I was going to wea… Whitney - Sep 3, 2007 I believe the answer to “Honey, I was going to wear those shorts!” was “I washed them because they were in the laundry pile.” Forget that you were gonna wear them for the third day in a row….the third day in a row out of the hamper? Now that’s gross. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my husband. ...

TCL goodness One girl told me I loved my car more than I loved her. I replied that I love my car. I don’t love you. Oy. Make a girl feels special, whydoncha?

She: Your car is a hunk of junk. Me: At least i… Jeff Roberts - Aug 2, 2007 She: Your car is a hunk of junk. Me: At least it doesn’t belong to my Daddy. Yeah, that was the beginning of the end.

Yeah, you knew it had to happen…I like football. Why not indulge in that national passion–Fantasy Football. My team’s called the ‘Madden 09 Wannabees’, and we had our draft at Bufallo Wild Wings on Todd’s road: View Larger Map Anywho, Here’s the linueup I got (picked #8 in a serpentine draft): Starters: RB - Brian Wetbrook - Philly RB - Willis McGahee - Balt’more QB - Vince Young - Ten ...

Here is my team: STARTERS: QB: Carson P… BryanCombs - Aug 2, 2007 Here is my team: STARTERS: QB: Carson Palmer WR: Chad Johnson WR: Marvin Harrison WR: Calvin Johnson RB: Adrian Peterson RB: Cedric Benson TE: Jason Witten K: Adam Vinatieri DEF: Green Bay BENCH: QB: Tony Romo RB: DeAngelo Williams WR: Mushin Muhammad WR Marty Booker TE: David Martin DEF: Cincinnati ...

We had GREAT seats. I’ve never had seats like that for anything…not a High School band concert, even. We were 2 rows back from “center stage”. When they were doing their skits, the performers were maybe 5 feet away from me. I could see the creases in the makeup, that some performers were a LOT older than they wanted to appear. And then, it hits me. I’ve got highly made-up women on a platform above me dancing in spandex, sequins, and stockings: ...

You’d think the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Baily Circus is unchanging, right? Wrong. Two words for you: House Cats. Yes, there’s an act in the middle of the 1st act of the Circus where a two trainers do an act with trained housecats. I’d pay real money if Letterman would do a walk-on and and make some quip about “Stupid Pet Tricks”. But, it got better. I’ve been to the circus in Lexington many times, most recently in 2001, when the “Red” Ringling Bros. circus came to town. This is the circus with Bello, a clown/aerialist/acrobat main character with Vanilla Ice’s haircut. It’s also the traditional, 3-ring “Big Top” show. What we got this time in Lexington is the “Blue” circus, a one-ring circus with a plot (trust me!) that plays like an amalgam of Cirque du Soleil and a broadway show. ...