Yes, it’s that time of the week again!

First, some nearly unbearable cuteness:

Aren’t they adorable? Awwww!

And here is Kit, staring intently at air molecules. Every once in awhile they attack her and she runs through the house like a mad thing.

And finally, more proof of how disgustingly photogenic Kat is:
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You’ll be shocked to hear it, but it’s supposed to rain today in Morgantown.

Here’s the rain for June:

Here’s the rain so far for July:

That’s 23.70in of rain so far this year.

For comparison, Seattle Washington has had 12.89in of rain this year.

Good Grief!

Yes, I am wasting time before my class starts. Why do you ask?

Michelle: (running up the basement stairs in the dark)
Michelle: You know, in 38 years, nothing has every grabbed you while you went up the stairs in the dark.
Michelle: That just means the odds are against me then, doesn’t it.

Yes, I really am that easily scared.

Mine?

Wet. Very very wet.

I took my camera down to watch the fireworks, because I want to play with the settings and see if I can learn to get nice pictures.

Didn’t even bother to get it out, it was so wet. Although part of me wishes I’d gotten a picture of everyone standing under umbrellas, watching the fire works.

But besides the wet, it was a good day. Crowded hot and humid in the house, but my aunt and uncle were visiting, and our friends Del and Kathy stopped by. And the food turned out well.

All in all, a good day.

It’s the 4th. Don’t expect much today.

As Kat has been hogging all the Friday Cat Blogging recently, Kit apparently decided she needed to make up for lost time.

Kit decided to sit (or lie) still for once, and let me get a decent picture.

When Susan left on Friday, she and Michael attempted to smuggle Kit into her bag. Grandmom’s opposition (as well as a probable issues with the TSA) stopped this plan.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Rules for Flying the American Flag

Happy Birthday Kathy!

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

YAY! YAY! It’s my birthday!
Time to do the birthday dance!
Time to sing a birthday song!
It’s my birthday! It’s my birthday!
La la la la la la la!

I’m having molten lava chocolate cakes for dessert, with fresh whipped cream and strawberries!

Awesome day for MEEEEEEEE!

What I Believe

(via Nathan)

Here’s who I look like in the Celebrity feature match.

I’ve actually had Andie MacDowell come up before in a features match.
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Yesterday driving Susan to the airport, I had one of those blanks where you can’t remember a person.

We’d been talking about Robert Parker’s Spenser books, and I remembered a throw away line where Spenser is sitting in an hotel room watching the news, and he notes that the anchors voices get deeper as the evening progresses, and if the trend continued, the midnight news would be read by… and there I blanked.

“Who’s the guy with the deep voice? He was around before and after the Civil Rights Movement maybe? I think one of his names starts with an R? Ro…? Ro…? Ro…?”

No one knew. However it came to me coming back from the airport.

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I tend to ignore Technorati (I realize this is blasphemy for some) because it doesn’t usually give me any useful data. Instead, I occasionally look through my referrer logs.

It’s interesting to see who is coming from where and how often (Nathan, you’re my biggest referrer right now, but I have lots of links in from the UCF. YAY!).

But it’s also interesting to find new blogs who are linked here.

Book Fetish
Hillbilly Savant
Mythusmage Opines
Useless Drivel

I really don’t see myself visiting Useless Drivel, as the first thing I read was a pro-Bush post, but there you are!

I would like you to note that this article does not mention tapeworms.

However, that’s about all it doesn’t mention.

The email subject was: “WVU coach to compete in Summer Olympics”

I didn’t even have to open the e-mail to know what the sport was.