After thinking this out a little more clearly, I just can't take a break without a bit more explanation.

Our business is demanding more of my time now. Our store and website are gaining momentum with each week that passes and I need to get some systems in place to handle it. I want to finalize our fourth quarter planning soon. I'm planning more and more events for the store for the next few months. I will have a lot on my plate for a while.

Also, the weather takes me outside as much as I possibly can be. The gardens need a lot of attention. I want to spend as much time at the dog runs at Piedmont Park and Cohen Park as we can right now. We practically live on our big ol' porch at night this time of the year.

I have read your sweet comments and I am truly and madly in love with you guys. You have no idea how much I appreciate the fellowship and love you all have shown me. I felt I owed a little bit more of an explanation to my friends that have shown me such affection and encouragement.

This is probably my summer break actually. I'm pretty sure I'll be back. I'll pop in from time to time to check on you guys. I'll be at the pink-haired Blogstream poker table on Friday nights as often as I can. I'll post a random tune some Saturday nights. I'll be thinking about you guys a lot.

IT'S ALL GOOD. My head is just very full right now. I'm grinning...I hope you are too.

Love,

Tommy

(I also wanted to change out the cheesy (cheesy, but pretty...but mostly cheesy) song for something a little more smooth and summery. )

The last remaining Snawsome dog treat is taunting me from the top of the refrigerator. I took it out and smelled it. I took a teeny tiny itty bitty bite off of the end. Blach!

I was thinking it would sorta taste like a Slim Jim, right? But noooo, it doesn't at all. Oh, HELL no. It tasted like an eraser/rice cake/hominy/liver thing. The consistency was like a cross between one of those big smunchy orange candy peanuts and a styrofoam cup. Blach!

Man...I would totally suck on Fear Factor.

I promised to eat a dog treat though. I painted myself into a corner. I couldn't face the stream if I didn't eat SOME kind of dog treat. Soooo.....

I would like at this time to invite you all into my bathroom to watch me eat a Milkbone brand dog treat. I think if we scrunch up we can all fit in here. Some of you may have to watch from the hall. Dammit Randy...stop playing with my Hello Kitty scrubby sponge!











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T

(I was going to post this for my Saturday thingy, but now I have something completely different in mind for then.)

Bebel Gilberto's new CD "Momento" comes out next Tuesday. I ordered some for the store last week, but they won't ship them until tomorrow so that nobody puts them on the shelf until the release date. But when I was messing around imeem.com, I saw that the album has been uploaded song by song for a couple of months already. I'm not sure how this works...I guess people get advance copies or something.

Anyway...so I've heard it now and it's amazing. This CD is soooo sexy. She still sounds a lot like her mother, but she's also developing more of her own style. There's also more English language on this one.

The distinctive Gilberto tweak on the old standard "Night and Day" is sublime and extraordinary and gorgeous.



I can tell already that this disc is going to be my smiley chilled out summer groove. Let us at this time picture me on the beach in Rio listening to this. Awwww yeah.



T

My week began with news of a horrific slaughter. My week is ending with a faint glimmer of hope. My wish is that we will one day respect the sanctity of life for all our brothers and sisters, not just the walking, talking ones. Maybe we aren't barbarians. Maybe we have evolved. Maybe one day we will truly search our hearts and wake up and realize that killing an unborn child is murder, plain and simple.

It honestly grieves me that some of my fellow liberal brothers and sisters can still intellectualize the murder out of the equation. I cringe when I hear the word "choice" used in this context. It becomes a dirty, disgusting word to me. I like the word "choice" to have positive connotations. I want to cry when a beautiful word like "choice" is abused to rationalize genocide.
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"WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court's conservative majority handed anti-abortion forces a major victory Wednesday in a decision that bans a controversial abortion procedure and set the stage for further restrictions.

For the first time since the court established a woman's right to an abortion in 1973, the justices upheld a nationwide ban on a specific abortion method, labeled partial-birth abortion by its opponents.

The 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion."

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It's a start. What we decide in the next few years will be our legacy to future generations. We will appear in their eyes as murderous barbarians or evolved human beings that ended the sanctioned slaughter of the innocents. It's our "choice" now.

T