Saturday, March 11, 2006
A handy tool
.
That is the Site Meter.
.
Go get one today!
.
I'm glad I did! It's free!
.
This little tool has been a lot of fun. It also helps me keep track of my relatives who read my blog, but don't leave comments. Thanks, guys.
.
Here is my activity for last week: .
In visits
.
.
.
.
In visits and view
.
And a lot more!
.
Who were those twenty-three yesterday?
.
And the 26 the day before?
.
You can see that Saturdays and Mondays are the most popular.
.
Now it counted you twice if you visited twice. But it doesn't count me, I told it not to.
.
So just go to http://www.sitemeter.com/ right now.
.
Something else, my routine
(remember the shower routine--well, that one is lost today, it was about how I scrub my scalp in the shower so I don't become bald)
(remember the Adi routine)
.
I didn't put coffee or a filter in the maker this morning. Hot water came out and spilled over everything. The electronics in the pot didn't like that and rebelled.
.
Guess we are due for a new pot.
Yesterday's 23 viewers:
Mar 10 2006
1 charter-stl.com 9:00:21 pm 10:00
2 charter.com 7:45:05 pm 10:05
3 oconsolidated.net 6:09:25 pm 10:00
4 huntel.net 6:22 pm 10:00
5 rr.com 5:30:00 pm 10:00
6 pgrb.com 4:56:09 pm
You get the idea.
Where they came from:
(and distance from me)
1 United States
Grover, Missouri 678
2 United States
Somerset, Kentucky 809
3 United States
Conroe, Texas 54*
4 United States
Blair, Nebraska 833
5 United States
Katy, Texas 27*
6 United States
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 1,341
Friday, March 10, 2006
Woman sues Catskills resort
for $20M
over bedbug attacks
(Headline said, USA Today, March 8, 2002)
(Link here to article)
Now $20M is a lot of money. Ms. Fox was on the Good Morning America (ABC TV) show yesterday morning. She looked very recovered from those 500 bites she got at the Catskills resort hotel last summer.
So what were her damages? How did the $20M number come about?
She obviously has recovered now, this next spring after the bites. Granted they were pretty bad according to the pictures, I'm sure her medical expenses weren't even $10,000.
.
.[Photos, supplied by the law offices of Zalman & Schnurman, show bedbug bites on Ms. Fox.]
.
How long was she not able to work and how much did she lose by missing work? Who was a 'booking agent.' There are too many of these already in this world. Don't go to school to learn to be one if you are planning on making big bucks.
Being very liberal with her, I still can't figure out how these actual damages would even come to $100,000.
LawSuit Abuse! Lawsuit Abuse!
Well, that's what it smells like to me. In Texas we have stopped such nonsensical waste of court time and big rewards for pain and suffering.
As an attorney, I know most everything over and above the actual losses suffered by the plaintiff goes to the attorney. She alleged here there was $10M in pain and suffering, mental anguish. Then for punitive damages, to punish the hotel?
As I said, Texas has limited these non financial damages to $250,000. That has been the end to those multi million dollar lawsuits, because the poor attorney's can only get a max of $250,000 without taking from the money awarded for hospital bills, etc.
I could have been sued for $20,000,000 too, because of flea bites!
How would that have happened? Well, back in the early 70's I took the four oldest kids (Karen wasn't even born yet) to Nebraska to spend some time with there grandparents in Lincoln and Tekamah. Tim had almost 500 bites the next morning. He probably was eight years old.
He didn't show me anything, but was scratching a lot by breakfast time. The Arkansas BIG NAME CHAIN motel had those creatures someplace biting him. After breakfast, I finally looked at him and he had about one bite every inch or so on his body.
A friendly druggist found some salve and some benydril tabs to relieve the itching. He was over it by the time we got to Nebraska, that evening. Ms. Fox may have been more sensitive, surely, to get all those big red welts. Or maybe she didn't get them taken care of right away.
One thing sure, she wouldn't want me on her jury.
How could I have been sued for $20M? Tim would do it, alleging that I had not sued this BIG NAME CHAIN motel for the $20,000,000. By the time he became 18, the statute of limitations had run. But limitation time on his rights to sue me as a parent not bringing the lawsuit just started when he became an adult.
Kids are doing this more and more, suing a neglectful parent for neglecting them when they were small. And the parents are losing.
My class action lawsuit
This was a stockholder suit against KeySpan, a power company in New York. The plaintiffs alleged mismanagement causing loss of value to their stock. Since this affect all the stockholders, if true, the lawsuit was turned into a class action suit.
I had to document all purchases made during a several year period. Since I'm in the stock dividend reinvesment program, I was purchasing stock every quarter, or four times a year. That was time consuming finding and listing the amounts and number of shares involved.
Last week I got notice of settlement of this suit. KeySpan was to agree to five new and better checks on management. They were also to pay the attorney fees for the plaintiffs. These lawyers did not get rich, as the award was only $20,000. That may not have covered their expenses. If each stockholder submitted as much paperwork as I did, that alone would cost several thousand to go through it all.
How to do it then?
For sure, stay away from Texas and other states limiting non out of pocket damages.
Go to New York to get bitten. Those people love their attorneys and hate it when businesses try to make a dollar. [It seems like all the big lawsuits and class actions are there. Probably though, there are just more businesses per capita than elsewhere, people are the same everywhere.]
Make the newspapers and the TV shows.
Go to Massachusetts to get bitten. Then get Denny Crane and Alan Shore of Boston Legal (link)to represent you.
for $20M
over bedbug attacks
(Headline said, USA Today, March 8, 2002)
(Link here to article)
Now $20M is a lot of money. Ms. Fox was on the Good Morning America (ABC TV) show yesterday morning. She looked very recovered from those 500 bites she got at the Catskills resort hotel last summer.
So what were her damages? How did the $20M number come about?
She obviously has recovered now, this next spring after the bites. Granted they were pretty bad according to the pictures, I'm sure her medical expenses weren't even $10,000.
.
.[Photos, supplied by the law offices of Zalman & Schnurman, show bedbug bites on Ms. Fox.]
.
How long was she not able to work and how much did she lose by missing work? Who was a 'booking agent.' There are too many of these already in this world. Don't go to school to learn to be one if you are planning on making big bucks.
Being very liberal with her, I still can't figure out how these actual damages would even come to $100,000.
LawSuit Abuse! Lawsuit Abuse!
Well, that's what it smells like to me. In Texas we have stopped such nonsensical waste of court time and big rewards for pain and suffering.
As an attorney, I know most everything over and above the actual losses suffered by the plaintiff goes to the attorney. She alleged here there was $10M in pain and suffering, mental anguish. Then for punitive damages, to punish the hotel?
As I said, Texas has limited these non financial damages to $250,000. That has been the end to those multi million dollar lawsuits, because the poor attorney's can only get a max of $250,000 without taking from the money awarded for hospital bills, etc.
I could have been sued for $20,000,000 too, because of flea bites!
How would that have happened? Well, back in the early 70's I took the four oldest kids (Karen wasn't even born yet) to Nebraska to spend some time with there grandparents in Lincoln and Tekamah. Tim had almost 500 bites the next morning. He probably was eight years old.
He didn't show me anything, but was scratching a lot by breakfast time. The Arkansas BIG NAME CHAIN motel had those creatures someplace biting him. After breakfast, I finally looked at him and he had about one bite every inch or so on his body.
A friendly druggist found some salve and some benydril tabs to relieve the itching. He was over it by the time we got to Nebraska, that evening. Ms. Fox may have been more sensitive, surely, to get all those big red welts. Or maybe she didn't get them taken care of right away.
One thing sure, she wouldn't want me on her jury.
How could I have been sued for $20M? Tim would do it, alleging that I had not sued this BIG NAME CHAIN motel for the $20,000,000. By the time he became 18, the statute of limitations had run. But limitation time on his rights to sue me as a parent not bringing the lawsuit just started when he became an adult.
Kids are doing this more and more, suing a neglectful parent for neglecting them when they were small. And the parents are losing.
My class action lawsuit
This was a stockholder suit against KeySpan, a power company in New York. The plaintiffs alleged mismanagement causing loss of value to their stock. Since this affect all the stockholders, if true, the lawsuit was turned into a class action suit.
I had to document all purchases made during a several year period. Since I'm in the stock dividend reinvesment program, I was purchasing stock every quarter, or four times a year. That was time consuming finding and listing the amounts and number of shares involved.
Last week I got notice of settlement of this suit. KeySpan was to agree to five new and better checks on management. They were also to pay the attorney fees for the plaintiffs. These lawyers did not get rich, as the award was only $20,000. That may not have covered their expenses. If each stockholder submitted as much paperwork as I did, that alone would cost several thousand to go through it all.
How to do it then?
For sure, stay away from Texas and other states limiting non out of pocket damages.
Go to New York to get bitten. Those people love their attorneys and hate it when businesses try to make a dollar. [It seems like all the big lawsuits and class actions are there. Probably though, there are just more businesses per capita than elsewhere, people are the same everywhere.]
Make the newspapers and the TV shows.
Go to Massachusetts to get bitten. Then get Denny Crane and Alan Shore of Boston Legal (link)to represent you.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
About our walk yesterday
.
(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.)
.
It started out as usual, at the proshop where Mrs. Jim dropped Adi and me off.
.
This time, instead of going across the golf course near our house, we went the other way. This was done so Adi could see her friend, Lucy again.
.
Lucy is a young female beagle. We knew her when she was just little, her mom would take her for walks while she was off work on maternity leave.
.
Lately, Lucy has been in her back yard during the day. I guess her mom went back to work. We also remember the time Lucy got lost. There were 'lost dog' notices all over the mailboxes. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
Now all good things have to come to an end, we had to leave. Lucy said goodbye and followed us along the fence.
.
.
.
Also note that blooming tree. It is a dogwood tree, probably planted there for Lucy Dog to enjoy.
.
.
We went over the hill and down to the road. Just before the road we stopped at the fairway number five outhouse. This one was nice soft toilet paper, now Rhodent (link), no Sears catalogs or corncobs here. These outhouses even have running hot and cold water and flush toilets. Pretty good for a golf course.
.
.
What do you think is going on at this golf course outhouse? [No, it isn't sliding downhill, my picture is slopped, not the outhouse.]
.
.
..
.
Our walk was pretty uneventful from there. We did stop at the mailboxes to sniff around and smell the azaleas.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Even though it has been a dry winter, things are looking good for azaleas.
.
.
.
Like I mentioned earlier, all good things have to come to an end. Now it was time for a little work, putting down Weed and Feed fertilizer.
.
(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.)
.
It started out as usual, at the proshop where Mrs. Jim dropped Adi and me off.
.
This time, instead of going across the golf course near our house, we went the other way. This was done so Adi could see her friend, Lucy again.
.
Lucy is a young female beagle. We knew her when she was just little, her mom would take her for walks while she was off work on maternity leave.
.
Lately, Lucy has been in her back yard during the day. I guess her mom went back to work. We also remember the time Lucy got lost. There were 'lost dog' notices all over the mailboxes. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
Now all good things have to come to an end, we had to leave. Lucy said goodbye and followed us along the fence.
.
.
.
Also note that blooming tree. It is a dogwood tree, probably planted there for Lucy Dog to enjoy.
.
.
We went over the hill and down to the road. Just before the road we stopped at the fairway number five outhouse. This one was nice soft toilet paper, now Rhodent (link), no Sears catalogs or corncobs here. These outhouses even have running hot and cold water and flush toilets. Pretty good for a golf course.
.
.
What do you think is going on at this golf course outhouse? [No, it isn't sliding downhill, my picture is slopped, not the outhouse.]
.
.
..
.
Our walk was pretty uneventful from there. We did stop at the mailboxes to sniff around and smell the azaleas.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Even though it has been a dry winter, things are looking good for azaleas.
.
.
.Like I mentioned earlier, all good things have to come to an end. Now it was time for a little work, putting down Weed and Feed fertilizer.
Labels: Adi, Animals, Golf course, Humor, Jim Does, Walk pictures
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
A Day With the Grandchildren
Saturday Mrs. Jim and I got to visit and play with a couple of our grandchildren. This involved leaving our house at 8:30 and taking a trip to Brenham, Texas. There we parked our car and finished the trip to Austin with Billy driving his SUV.
We met GC#4, Karen, and Billy at the McDonalds. GC#4 was hungry, as was Karen. So we all had a little breakfast before we left for Austin. They didn't seem to mind us leaving our car behind the restaurant (not on their property). The birds sure liked it. You would have thought I parked under a tree.
.
GC#4 does a Karate tournament
.
.
.
.
.
We headed to the school gym, where Yellow Belted GC#4 was having her first Karate tournament.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dad and Karen were there to support
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
as well as Mimi and PapaJ.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Her opponent was ferocious, but GC#4, in the white helmet, got in the first lick.
.
.
.
.
.
.
When all the pummeling and kicking was over, both girls ended up with a nice trophy.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Next now, with this tournament behind, she will take the test for a new Orange Belt. That is tomorrow and I know she will do just fine.
Saturday Mrs. Jim and I got to visit and play with a couple of our grandchildren. This involved leaving our house at 8:30 and taking a trip to Brenham, Texas. There we parked our car and finished the trip to Austin with Billy driving his SUV.
We met GC#4, Karen, and Billy at the McDonalds. GC#4 was hungry, as was Karen. So we all had a little breakfast before we left for Austin. They didn't seem to mind us leaving our car behind the restaurant (not on their property). The birds sure liked it. You would have thought I parked under a tree.
.
GC#4 does a Karate tournament
.
.
.
.
.
We headed to the school gym, where Yellow Belted GC#4 was having her first Karate tournament.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dad and Karen were there to support
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
as well as Mimi and PapaJ.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Her opponent was ferocious, but GC#4, in the white helmet, got in the first lick.
.
.
.
.
.
.
When all the pummeling and kicking was over, both girls ended up with a nice trophy.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Next now, with this tournament behind, she will take the test for a new Orange Belt. That is tomorrow and I know she will do just fine.
There was a stop before we ate at the Oasis Hilltop Restaurant, in Dave and Buster's. GC#4 ran the digger machine and on her first try she picked up this huge pinkish purple unicorn and got it into the hopper.
GC#2 at supper
.
After we ate, we got connected with Megan, our GC#2 (Grandchild number 2), and her boy friend, Trent.
Megan is in her second year, now a Junior, at the University of Texas, School of Business. At football time she rubs it in a little about the lopsided score they have against Nebraska. She is going for the five-year option which will end in an MBA so perhaps Nebraska can win one football game against UT by then.
We are very proud of GC#2, she has made the Dean's List each semester. I hope she will explain to me all that Latin that goes on her degree. Megan does work very hard for those good grades.
This summer she will do an internship with the Caterpillar Corporation. Last summer she did one at NASA here in Houston.
Trent is a law enforcement major at the nearby Texas State University-San Marcos. Megan and Trent met while they were seniors in high school. Their colleges are about an hour apart.
.
Since we had already eaten, we left these guys to their own at the restaurant. Megan was doing volunteer work at school and couldn't meet us until almost six. That is why we went ahead and ate, we had to head on home. That takes over three hours.
We got in at 10:20. It was a very nice day, getting to see four of our family of five kids, four of their spouses, and four grandchildren. I'm not sure who will be next, but they all like equal time.
Oh yes, Adi couldn't go, she stayed at home in her pet taxi this whole time!
Monday, March 06, 2006
Headline said: [just out today]
March 6, 2006, 1:34PM
Goodbye 1836, hello Houston Dynamo
By BERNARDO FALLAS
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Our Houston 1836 Soccer team has changed its name to Houston Dynamo. This is because the 1836 name, in honor of the year Houston was founded, was not politically correct.
You see, Texas also gained its independence from Mexico that year. This was done via a miserable war, 'remember the Alamo,' whereby the nation of Mexico lost a lot of real estate.
The powers that are should have know this 1836 name would go over big at all. Mexico is a huge soccer loving country and so are its people. Given their love for soccer, it was not taken into consideration that Hispanic, mostly of Mexican-American descent, is the majority race of Houston. And it is closing in on the entire state.
I know I sure wouldn't like it if it were very anti-Nebraskan (my birthplace) or anti-German (my predominate nationality).
The new name, the Houston Dynamo(s), is named to give credence that Houston's major industry is energy. That makes sense, just like naming our baseball team the Houston Astros and the basketball team the Houston Rockets. These were named when NASA was really going strong.
I like the new name. I don't follow tennis, so I don't know this team's name. Our hockey team is called the Houston Aeros.
[For the article and pictures of their official emblem, click here.]
March 6, 2006, 1:34PM
Goodbye 1836, hello Houston Dynamo
By BERNARDO FALLAS
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Our Houston 1836 Soccer team has changed its name to Houston Dynamo. This is because the 1836 name, in honor of the year Houston was founded, was not politically correct.
You see, Texas also gained its independence from Mexico that year. This was done via a miserable war, 'remember the Alamo,' whereby the nation of Mexico lost a lot of real estate.
The powers that are should have know this 1836 name would go over big at all. Mexico is a huge soccer loving country and so are its people. Given their love for soccer, it was not taken into consideration that Hispanic, mostly of Mexican-American descent, is the majority race of Houston. And it is closing in on the entire state.
I know I sure wouldn't like it if it were very anti-Nebraskan (my birthplace) or anti-German (my predominate nationality).
The new name, the Houston Dynamo(s), is named to give credence that Houston's major industry is energy. That makes sense, just like naming our baseball team the Houston Astros and the basketball team the Houston Rockets. These were named when NASA was really going strong.
I like the new name. I don't follow tennis, so I don't know this team's name. Our hockey team is called the Houston Aeros.
[For the article and pictures of their official emblem, click here.]
"Walk the Line"
..........(Review link)
Hooray for Reese! Hooray for Reese!
Hooray for Reese! Hooray for Reese!
We saw Walk the Line before it left the theatres. I thought it was a good movie.
Reese Witherspoon is the first entry in my book of stars.
It helps that she is a Southern girl, born in 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
.
My vote doesn't count, but she has it anyway for best dressed lady last night.*
.
I can't find a picture I can put here, they all seem to be copywrited. So, click here for the best. Yahoo, Yahoo, ABC news, and others that you can Google have some you can see. It was sooo pretty.
.
I think she got my eye first in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. That one didn't get very good ratings but I sure liked it, especially Reese.
.
She did good for the Oscar judges too.
..........(Review link)
Hooray for Reese! Hooray for Reese!
Hooray for Reese! Hooray for Reese!
We saw Walk the Line before it left the theatres. I thought it was a good movie.
Reese Witherspoon is the first entry in my book of stars.
It helps that she is a Southern girl, born in 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
.
My vote doesn't count, but she has it anyway for best dressed lady last night.*
.
I can't find a picture I can put here, they all seem to be copywrited. So, click here for the best. Yahoo, Yahoo, ABC news, and others that you can Google have some you can see. It was sooo pretty.
.
I think she got my eye first in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. That one didn't get very good ratings but I sure liked it, especially Reese.
.
She did good for the Oscar judges too.
*Per AP Wire,
"Reese Witherspoon is confident her gown is really vintage this time - she picked it out herself. 'It's original Christian Dior from 1955,' she told reporters backstage at Sunday's Academy Awards. 'I found it in a vintage store in Paris, and it's mine!'"
There had been a flap about her as a Golden Globe winner this January, wearing the same glittery Chanel(sic) cocktail dress that Kirsten Dunst had worn to the awards in 2003. (MSNnews.com)
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Hi. Daughter, Susie has a new post on her blog.
(http://chanschats.blogspot.com/)
I'm not sure how long she will leave it, but my judgement says it is a good one.
Susie is an interesting girl/lady and needs a little boost for her to keep on showing us how she ticks. That will come out on her blog if she will indulge us.
She likes to write, I am thinking this might be her medium.
..
(http://chanschats.blogspot.com/)
I'm not sure how long she will leave it, but my judgement says it is a good one.
Susie is an interesting girl/lady and needs a little boost for her to keep on showing us how she ticks. That will come out on her blog if she will indulge us.
She likes to write, I am thinking this might be her medium.
..
Our snow in southeast Texas
That doesn't look like snow, does it? No, it isn't, it's just plain old rain. A lot of it. While you guys farther north were having snow the other day, we had all this rain.
That is water, not snow standing out there in the fairway. We could wade across, it wasn't too deep.
What you see here is what we see out our back windows or from the back porch. They don't plant rye grass in the rough (the part near us and up the berm) so it turns brown in the winter.
.
I asked Adi if she wanted to go out to play in the rain. You can make your own caption of what she wanted to tell me. would like to tell me.
