Mrs Whiggins

The text of Florida SB1365 is here for any who wish to read it; it's fairly short: https://m.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1365/BillText/er/PDF As @Sawbonz pointed out, there is a push/pull aspect to this and for me, it is what is unwritten where things could easily go off the rails. For example, what is to stop a county from having a revolving carousel of migrating homeless people wherein the law (enforcement arm of the govt) drops off 'offenders' in another jurisdiction--I've heard this kind of happens now from rural to urban areas because rural areas lack social services, but I cannot vouchsafe for that rumor--which leads me to a different thought after perusing the bill/law: since counties/munis are on the hook for the land, services, etc and residents, business owners, and the AG can file civil suits (according to the bill lines 117-120) is another intended/unintended consequence to bankrupt these municipalities? I note this because a lot of the redress that a city (under financial difficulties) might have is regulated through the state (office of children and families) and seems like it would be possible to pick and choose whom to offer relief vs punish (cutting to the chase: blue county vs red county). I agree that criminalizing homeless persons is not only troubling but an indictment on our society--all of us. However, I have no solutions to offer but that this one has some aspects that could be positive or abused and per usual the vague and airy waving of hands about the details probably ensures that Abbott will encourage the Texas Lege to adopt this and then go after Houston, Austin, et. al. As I am not one of the Surly legal eagles, if anyone reads the signed document and has any thoughts to the above speculation, please offer them.

Pardon my serious reply, but I don't think she does. I don't think she believes in any of it. She's a nihilist that's found a way to monetize her lack of decency. I concur. Her past would indicate that she is an apt pupil of geometry and an acute observer of all the angles.

^^^This^^^^ Our children have 529 plans and thus far the oldest ended up with the fortunate situation of scholarships rendering much of it unused but will pass it along to the next generation (that's the plan anyway). Next oldest had a mix of scholarships and then whatever that did not cover then we pulled out the remainder each year via the fund directly paying the school through the portal (first time was a simple phone call until we got electronic set up). Will still have some left over and IIRC will have some time before a decision will be necessary as to naming another bene or transferring $$ to another type of account. We determined that the funds were each theirs and left the decision with them as opposed to passing it down to the next in line.

Almost finished with The Shadow Docket. It's been a solid read thus far although I wish Vladeck had provided a glossary for the legal terms. Although I believe he wrote the book for the general reader, I'm one who will look up the meanings of terms I don't know as well as pronunciations as I go.Took me forever to read certiorari over and over again before my brain finally decided on one of the *six different ways various SCOTUS judges pronounce(d) it. FTR I settled on the pronunciation ser-shee-or-RAHR-ee, (rhyming with Ferrari) because I adopted the accent of Luigi from the movie Cars. Jokes aside, it's a book worth reading. I'm considering reading The Nine: Inside The Secret World Of The Supreme Court by Jeffery Toobin next as I never got around to reading it and although it would be somewhat out of order considering this last tome, might be a good supplement to what I've just finished. Anyone else read that? Thoughts? Or I may switch to fiction for awhile as I've been on a long nonfiction run. *Article here regarding law professor James Duane and the variances: https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/how_is_certiorari_pronounced_even_supreme_court_justices_disagree

World Population Clock: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#google_vignette One of eight billion stars and yet the world is never enough.

You and Mrs. GOTJ are saints. Just know this. It's funny because all I can think about (with our children growing up and moving far away) is how to rid ourselves of a lifetime of possessions and flotsam and jetsam so that we can transition into less care for "things" as our need for care for ourselves increases. Some of these "things" hold a lot of memories and yet when it comes down to it...it's just extra trouble for those we care about. Sorry you've got this on your plate. Maybe it will go better than you think but regardless, vent here because it's a rocky road to navigate with those we love.

Something I've considered as it has its positives but I'm going to have to fight that battle another day.

Calling dibs on 420-BEER* for the band name. *Big Easy Eating Rats

I understand. The peat is for a couple of spot that are very likely TAAR in our St. Augustine. We were gone for the early part of the summer last year and it took hold before we returned. It wasn't cinch bugs as we checked via the usual methods and the spanghum is one of the least invasive ways to enrich the soil/benefit of the doubt with respect to that IMO.

I see your point, and yet it is slightly different. His children, William and Harry, are grown. William and Kate have a young family and for all their position and issues, when this type of situation hits your family if you're a parent of young children, it's tough. Our own family had to figure out ( away from ANY of the extraneous things that being a royal would bring) how to handle this. It's not an easy road to travel regardless. That mistakes were made with respect to communicating with their citizenry that were exacerbated by certain media sectors is of no small consequence but what a maelstrom of emotion to endure. Sure, they've got wealth, power, and prestige, but they face death as surely as the least of these.

Everything Everywhere All At Once Turning To Shit. That's going to be the mantra of the 2020's.

Part of our lawn is trash because we have a new fence install but I'm kinda ambivalent about the effort thus far (i.e. I'm getting some blowback about overdoing with resodding, etc due to the surgery and I get that because it's coming from concern that I'm going to actually overdo which is not inaccurate with me). I'm leaning towards the prudent which is to spread some spanghum peat over the worst spots and perhaps a few strips of new sod and call it a day until, as you point out, the April/May grass flex and reassess. Already dropped some fertilizer last weekend because we had that rain forecast and trying to work around the doctor stuff.

Made beef/hash soup with leftover roast beef, onions, potato and beef broth. It's a family thing I grew up with and dirty Gibson's with cocktail onions seem to work well during the dinner prep so uh yeah, I'm a little wooooozy right now.

I had surgery this week so I haven't done twice weekly mows yet either. Normally I really get it going in April through the summer months and then if we get that awful awful heat then adjust accordingly. Last year was brutal on lawns.

That isn't gender, that's just weird, like @tigol mentioned. I put a trash can, sized appropriately in every room, it's changed out when full or during the regular cleaning each week.

Definitely. Texas Tech is scheduled and coming off their indoor championship win; TCU is also slated to show but I think A&M and Baylor are not (heading to LSU). Heat sheets are not yet released, but should be within the next day or so. It's a weekend with a lot of meets where the weather is amenable (LSU is hosting, Florida as well). Also--spot on with the third leg on the relay, and he had a very nice hand off from leg #2 that helped.

Had to pass last night; driving and drinking a no-no. Did pick up some apricot liqueur with which we've started experimenting so may check in this week with some more cocktail shenanigans.

This is outstanding. Even better is that squirrels are so stupid in some regards that the squirrel is likely to stop eating, bury the victim for awhile and then forget where he left said victim thus prolonging the eventual outcome.

That meet has produced some great results over the years. Several years ago I thought the Fort Bend Marshall 4x100 team might break the record (that was the FB team with Achane IIRC) and then last year Fort Bend had yet another great group pulled together (there were a few other schools over the last couple of years--Katy Seven Lakes, PA Memorial) so congratulations to the athletes for getting after it and succeeding. I believe Watkins is a LSU recruit (football/track)? Shame (as several Texas unis would've loved his talent), but it's his call. We won't be attending the Relays next week, and I don't believe the HA squad is entered but then again the Relays is coming up very close to a lot of HS District Meets this year. I've got various conflicts but hope to catch some of the meet via web and post the uni results in the UT track thread.

Late mother's birthday today so cooked a nice beef roast with potatoes and carrots and raised a couple of glasses of wine (Bordeaux) and had a few cocktails (*Green Deacon & Wibble) in honor of her life and the grace with which she lived it. A votre santé. *Recipes: Green Deacon: absinthe, 1 1/2 oz gin, 3/4 oz sloe gin, 1 oz grapefruit juice. Rinse glass with absinthe, add other ingredients into cocktail shaker with ice and shake until chilled, strain and serve in cocktail glass. Wibble (as in Weebles Wobble but they don't fall down): 1 oz Hayman's Dry Gin, 1 oz Hayman's Sloe Gin, 1 oz Grapefruit juice (recipe calls for pink grapefruit but we use white because it's less sweet), 1/3 oz fresh lemon juice, 1/3 oz créme de mure (we used créme de cassis because that's what we had on hand), 1/6 oz simple syrup (we omit this because again, we prefer things that are less sweet). Add ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice, shake strain and serve.

I suppose KateGate is short and catchy, but I'd like to see them branch out with Royally Gone Girl (to tie in with the side eye everyone's giving Wills) or The Princess Vanishes (to go with a Hitchcock theme) or does no one watch older movies anymore?

Our children participated in team and individual sports, we understand the situation only too well. However, our time on this planet is short, sometimes shorter than we realize.

I'm not an arborist, but is the green towards the bottom new growth sprouting on the tree or something else growing up the trunk? If that was my tree, first thing I'd be tempted to do is climb a ladder and take a very small cutting in that top third to see if the inside of a tiny branch is still green and alive. If not, then I'd likely not keep the tree because 'topping' a tree is normally not great. People do it, however, so that would be your call. It has/had a nice fairly straight trunk. The issue with topping is that it can expose the tree to stress, insect and disease damage, and sometimes requires more returning to the site to prune it up to get to a nice shape. If the upper part is dead (the branches snap easily) then cutting on it may not do it much harm but again I'm not an expert. As it is not at your home property, you may wish to check the status (living wood vs dead) and if you decide to keep it, give it some fertilizer (at least a foot away from the trunk) as it is not a mature tree and could probably benefit. I don't know what your ratio needs to be, but I'm guessing something that has some nitrogen for certain. Now is a decent time to add nutrients because the soil is warming up and the things are growing. Good luck! *Also, if that's a bird nest in the tree, check for eggs before you start cutting!

This has strong to very strong vibes of the scene in Hitch (2005) where Will Smith tells Kevin James to stay in his lane. (clip below for laughs) Exactly. Don Huffines did that with his mantra of eliminating property taxes in Texas when he was a candidate; a common refrain among those that have zero understanding of how the sausage gets made. Clip from Hitch: