Coffee??

I just couldn't resist posting this one from the LOL Cats website.. lol..


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Be back later with more of a post... Maybe... lol

Happy Holidays!

I am wishing a very Happy Holiday to everyone! I hope everyone's holidays are filled with love and great times with family and friends.

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This and That

I've been sort of absent from my blog for the last couple of days, but I have been watching the news. More about why I've been "absent" later in this post.

Caylee Anthony
As most everyone expected, the remains found in the wooded area near the Anthony home have been positively identified as Caylee Marie Anthony. Her grandparents, Cindy and George Anthony were notified shortly before the newsconference yesterday afternoon. Her mother, Casey Anthony was also notified, about 15 minutes before the news conference by the jail chaplain. Even though the news was expected, it still tore at my heart. That poor child has been laying there in those woods for so long. I do have some sympathy for Cindy and George, at the moment anyway. How long the sympathy will last will depend on what they do when they emerge from seclusion. They have lost a precious granddaughter and from all the evidence we've seen (I'm sure that the investigators have much, much more.) against Casey, it looks as though they will "lose" a daughter as well. Not in the same sense as they've lost poor little Caylee though.

I read the statement from Cindy and George this morning that their new attorney, Brad Conway released. Here is the text of the statement:

"As everyone now knows, the remains recovered off Suburban Drive are those of Caylee Marie Anthony. The Anthony family did not give up hope that Caylee was still alive until we were notified by the Orange County Sheriff's Office at approximately 1:30pm today. The Anthonys want to thank you for your prayers and best wishes that have been said on behalf of Caylee. They now know that their precious granddaughter is safe and hope that she will serve as the angel that protects thousands of missing children and their families. Please continue your prayers for Caylee, the Anthonys and the families that still hope and pray that their children will be found. We would like to thank crime scene investigators for their exhaustive efforts. The Anthonys want the same answers as everyone who has been assigned to investigate and prosecute this case. In an effort to determine the truth, the Anthony family will be available to law enforcement as the investigation continues. As you can imagine, the Anthonys are grieving deeply about this loss. Please respect their privacy and understand they will stand together as a family in order to get through this. Your thoughts and prayers are welcome, but they also ask that you pray for the families who have lost a child under any circumstances. This is a tragic moment in the lives of good and honorable people. Please treat them respectfully so they can grieve with dignity over the loss of this precious child, Caylee Marie Anthony."

My condolences go to George, Cindy and Lee for the loss of their precious Caylee. I hope they remain true to what they said in that statement. That they want the answers about what happened and that they will cooperate with the investigators to bring out the truth of what happened to Caylee. I understand how they would want to stand behind their family member who is in jail and indicted on murder charges. But, they need to stand back just a bit so the investigators can find the truth among all the lies and "mis-truths" that have been spoken by Casey, Cindy, George and Lee. Especially the lies that Casey has told.

I'm not even going to go into the stuff that Casey's attorney, Jose Baez, has been spewing on nearly every media outlet. He's even attacking the jail policy that determined who would break the news to Casey. Investigation Discovery has a story up on their blog about Jose's little news conference yesterday afternoon. I'm still waiting to hear the story from Baez and company that is going to explain all this away that he's been talking about ever since he became Casey's attorney.

Drew Peterson
Drew Peterson got in the news again this week. He's the husband of Stacey Peterson who's been missing for over a year now. He's also the husband of Kathleen Savio, who mysteriously drowned in a dry bathtub back in 2004. He hit the news again this past week because he's apparently proposed to another woman and she accepted. Another 23 year old woman.. And she wants to be his wife #5! Amazing! According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, her family is in shock.

I sure wish the investigators there in Illinois would find Stacy or at least find enough evidence to charge Drew with the death and disappearance of his wives! Is this new one, Christina Raines, going to be another victim of Drew when he gets ready to move on yet again? I can not imagine what is going through that young woman's mind to even contemplate marrying Drew!

Phil Spector
The retrial of Phil Spector for the murder of Lana Clarkson is on break for the holidays right now. Court will resume on January 5th. But the Spectors, Phil and his "wife" Rachelle, got in the news anyway. Rachelle did another dumb stunt since the picture of her with a gun that I posted about back on December 4th. She apparently took some pictures of Sprocket and posted them on her "website" along with some incredibly juvenile comments. The problem is, she took most of them inside the courthouse which is against all the rules. Judge Fidler, who is presiding over her husband's trial, has said that what she has done are in violation of court rules. Phil's attorney, Dorian Weinberg, has been informed. So if the lawyer has been "informed" of Rachelle's latest stunt, why hasn't he communicated it to Phil and Rachelle and instructed them to take the pictures down? The pictures are still there on her page. (I refuse to provide a link. I'm not going to provide it, especially since a comment was posted on my blog a few days ago from "someone" in Alhambra that gave the link. Comment isn't going to see the light of day, nor will any others that are in the same vein.) What the heck is Rachelle trying to do? Is she trying to get kicked out of the courtroom so she won't have to sit there behind her husband anymore? Is she trying to get Phil pissed off enough to let her out of her marriage contract early? Or is she just an incredibly immature and stupid person?

Mick Brown from the Telegraph in London has an opinion on Rachelle's stunt too... Read it here.

My stuff.... lol
Ok, now for the reason I've been absent from my blog this time. I've been playing with the Christmas present that I bought for myself this year as well as trying to finish up my Christmas shopping for the rest of my family and friends. I ordered a new laptop computer from Dell and the original ship date was going to be December 26th, which was no problem for me. After all, it's not like I was planning to wrap it up and put it under the tree for myself.. lol.. But, on Thursday, I got an email from Dell saying that my laptop had been shipped! More than a week early! And it was shipped from Reno, Nevada! That's just about a 3 hour drive from where I am. It was delivered yesterday! And I'm posting with it right now! lol... I still have a lot of things to install and set up on it, but it's so cool. The computer I've been using up til now was another Dell machine, a desktop machine that I've had for several years. It's still a good machine, but darn it, desktop computers aren't portable! When I go on travels with my folks, I'll be able to take this along and perhaps post stuff about what we see the same day we see it instead of having to wait until we get back home... lol

Ok, so I've posted my "news" for now and I need to get busy and finish my Christmas shopping! Later all!

Oops.. Forgot to mention my trucker friend who got stuck in Reno last weekend. He didn't make it back home until Monday. He ended up having to drive home late last Sunday night after the mechanics put a "temporary" fix on the brake lines on the trailer. Poor guy lost more than half of his day off. He's hoping he'll be able to get his full days off this coming week, but if the weatherman is right, he's going to be dealing with another mess up in the pass tomorrow and he'll be lucky to make it home... Weather like that is something I do not miss about my truck driving days! lol

Snow in the Mountains = Truckers Curse

California is finally getting some snow up in the mountains and my trucker friend isn't a "happy camper". Yesterday he had a long day dealing with the snow up there and it looks like today is going to be a repeat. I just got off the phone with him and he said that he's already had to put the chains on (and take them off) twice getting up the hill this morning! He's definitely dreading the trip back down the hill this afternoon!

Anyway, since his call, I've been playing with the live cams on the CalTrans website. (It's been a while since I watched them. Like last winter when I was his weather/road conditions info person.) The first screenshot looks pretty good. That's at the Whitmore Grade showing the westbound lanes. Road looks pretty good, doesn't it? Pavement is a little wet and there's just a bit of snow on the shoulders. Ahhh.. But wait until you get a little further up the hill! It gets whiter!




Here's the Caltrans camera at Kingvale. The snow is deeper at the sides of the roads and the lanes aren't as clear. This is one of the spots where my trucker friend had to put the chains on this morning. I guess it was pretty nasty between Kingvale and the Donner Lake interchange. I'm not quite sure where he had to put the chains on the truck the second time. With the mood he's in, I was afraid to ask! lol... (And, no.. Neither of the trucks in this screenshot is his! lol)




A bit further up the road, there is a camera on I80 at the highway 89 interchange which is in Truckee. Again, it doesn't look that bad in the camera shots, but apparently the pavement has ice on it. And again, I don't know if this is one of the areas he had to have the chains on. A short while back, he and I went up to Reno for a couple days and on our way up, he pointed out most of the cameras that I've viewed from the Caltrans site plus quite a few more that I've never seen listed on the site.



Caltrans has done some shifting around of available cameras this year. I don't remember seeing this one last year. I'm not quite sure of the position of it, whether we're looking at I80 or if we're looking at highway 267. It seems to be a pretty busy road, though. By looking at a map, it seems to be just down the road a bit from the highway 89 interchange camera. I guess I will have to take a drive up to Truckee one of these days and see if I can spot this one. lol




This camera is a "new" one and I'll have to keep an eye on this camera to see if the snow and ice on the lens clears up later so I can get a screenshot from it. I have no clue which direction it's pointing or what we're supposed to see. The description of the camera says that it's at the Ag Station on I80, which means it's at the inspection area where you have to stop and tell the folks where you're coming from and whether or not you're carrying agricultural products.




There were a couple of the cameras not working this morning. The one at the Truckee truck scale and the one at Floriston. I'll check them out later on today, maybe. Here's a list of the I80 cameras from the Caltrans site, go check them out!;

• 80 at Applegate
• 80 at Colfax
• 80 at Crystal Springs
• 80 at Dutch Flat
• 80 at Whitmore Grade
• 80 at Kingvale
• 80 at 89
• 267 at 80
• 80 at Truckee (Ag Station)
• 80 at Truckee Scales
• 80 at Floriston

Update 1:20pm
Just a quick update. I got another call from my trucker friend. Poor guy. He is stuck in Reno with an "out of commission truck". One of the brake lines on the truck went bad and he can't release the trailer brakes so he's stuck at the loading dock at the Post Office distribution center there in Reno until a mechanic gets out there to fix the problem. It looks like he'll be spending the night in the truck up there. What a way to start your "weekend" huh? His "weekend" normally starts on Sunday night, but he's going to have to stay up there and drive down tomorrow, so the first day of his weekend will be gone. I took a look at the CalTrans camera in Truckee again and it looks like even if he were able to drive, he'd still be stuck. Traffic is at a complete standstill in Truckee and it's been that way for a while now. Somebody must have pulled a really bad boo-boo on the highway west of Truckee.

Blah!

I've posted an announcement over on the right hand side of my blog about Comments and I'm going to repost the announcement here for all to see.

Unfortunately, I have had to enable the moderation of the comments on this blog due to some particularly nasty folks who want to spread their venom around. I apologize to all the nice folks who visit here and leave their thoughts. Hopefully the moderation of the comments won't have to last very long.

Personally I had hoped never to have to moderate the comments on this blog. I believe in free speech, but I don't believe in personal attacks on folks. Especially personal attacks on people that were not in the original posts. So, for the nasty folks who have forced me to enable the moderation; too bad, so sad, your nastiness will not be seen by anyone but me. For the nice folks who have participated with comments on my blog entries, I am sorry that I've had to do this. I hope that the person directing her friends here to spread their venom will get bored with it or will go elsewhere to spread the poison. I hope that one day soon, I can open the comments up again for all.

By the way, the post that has generated the venom from these idiots will stand, as is. It will not be removed. It will not be modified. It will not be rewritten to favor anyone. The comments will be reviewed before being posted for all to see. Venom will be denied.

Caylee Anthony Case ~ Hearing Recap

Another blog that I read regularly has an excellent recap up of the "emergency hearing" that took place this morning.. Head on over to Ketchup Soup and read what Damsel44 has reported.

If Linda Kenny Baden stays on the "defense team", I think she'd better brush up on procedures in Florida. I also think she should think twice about yelling at judges. It didn't go over well in California and it looks as though it's not going to work in her favor in Florida either.

Caylee Anthony Case ~ No ID on Remains Yet

The skeletal remains found near the Anthony home are at the Medical Examiner's office in Orlando and there has been no positive identification as yet. From what I can read in the news articles, bones, duct tape and the garbage bag were not the only things found. There apparently is tissue left on the remains and that is part of what the duct tape was found stuck to, along with hair. Duct tape over the mouth of the skull/head that rolled out of that garbage bag that the meter reader found. Also, the bag wasn't completely closed. It had apparently been in water for some time and items could have "floated" out of the bag during the months that it has lain there in the woods behind the Anthony home. (Casey: "She's close." "I feel in my heart that she's nearby.") So the investigators today are sifting through the site searching for any evidence that might have come from that bag. They are sifting the dirt by hand, they are cutting through the trees and bushes looking for fibers, hair or anything else that might help tell the story of what happened to little Caylee Marie Anthony.

Casey Anthony is still in jail, and reportedly has had some reaction to this news. Which is a change from what she did back when Leonard Padilla's divers came up with that bag of stuff from the river a short while back. That time, she had no reaction to the news. This time, however, she is reacting emotionally. To the extent that the jailers called in a correction officer psychologist and she was placed on psychological observation. Not a suicide watch... Just observation. In my opinion, Casey knows now that the jig is up. She knows where Caylee was hidden and she knows now that her daughter has been found. She also knows now that all of her lies have been exposed. Including the lies she told her family during their visits to the jail.

George and Cindy Anthony are back in Orlando. Somewhere. They didn't go back to the house yesterday and I haven't seen any reports so far stating where in Orlando they are. The investigators had their home sealed off yesterday and executed another search warrant last night. Apparently they pretty much filled 3 cars/vans with evidence taken out of the home. Vacuum cleaners and a small pillow among other things. I haven't seen any mentions of Lee Anthony today either. He's been keeping a low profile for quite a while now and apparently is going to stay "low profile". Meanwhile, the organization that George and Cindy have been using for their "search" for Caylee, Kidfinders Network has announced that they are suspending their search for Caylee due to the "recent developments". I still want to know what they did besides sit around under a tent selling t-shirts, bracelets and buttons. Oh yeah.. I forgot.. They loaned George a rolling billboard to pull around town that had a bad phone number on it!

During this morning's emergency hearing the defense requested permission for Jose Baez to attend the autopsy/autopsies of the remains that were found yesterday. In that plea, they stated "that the anthropological measurements and color of the hair found with the remains match Caylee." Judge Strickland denied Baez's motion, stating that citing the fact that a positive identification has yet to be made. He also stated that the FBI needed to make the identification without interference from outside parties.

Baez also filed a motion to allow him access to the "crime scene" before it is released by the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Judge Strickland denied his access until after the investigation of the scene is complete.

The defense has added a new attorney to the team. Linda Kenny Baden appeared at the hearing this morning with Jose Baez. Does anyone reading here remember her from the Phil Spector trial last year? I have to wonder if her being added to the "team" means that her husband, Dr. Michael Baden is going to join up as well, the way he did for the Spector trial. I also have to wonder how familiar Ms. Baden is with Florida law. From what I read about the hearing this morning, some of what she was attempting to do just isn't done in Florida.

So, now we wait for news to trickle out about the case. What items were found with the remains? Clothing? Shoes? Fingerprints? Casey's hair? What items are they finding in the area around where the bag was found? What things were taken from the Anthony home? Where are George and Cindy? Are they really going to be on Larry King Live again tonight?

Most importantly, is that Caylee Marie Anthony that was found in the garbage bag?

Off I go to read some more....

Sources:
WESH: Defense: OCSO Says Bones, Hair Color Match Caylee
Investigation Discovery: Casey Anthony's Defense Team Denied Access to Autopsy
WFTV: Duct Tape Found Stuck To Mouth Of Child's Remains
Orlando Sentinal:Attorney says body found is similar to Caylee Anthony's

Caylee Anthony Case ~ Skeletal Remains Found Near Anthony Home

I am sitting here listening and watching a live feed from WFTV in Orlando. A meter reader had gone into the woods to "relieve" himself and saw a black trash bag. He moved or kicked at part of the bag and a small skull fell out of the bag. He then immediately called the authorities. (Bless him!) The area where the remains are is less than a half a mile from the Anthony home. The authorities are on the scene right now.. CSI, etc. They haven't removed the bag with the remains yet, and won't until they've checked out the entire scene around the bag. But, the proximity to the Anthony home leads one to believe that the remains may be Caylee.

George and Cindy Anthony are on their way back to Orlando from California at the moment. They were in California for an appearance on the Larry King show (which I chose NOT to watch.) and to check out a lead they say they got about a sighting of a child that looks like Caylee in a restaurant in Newport Beach, California. They have been notified of the discovery of that bag with the skeletal remains of a small child. Jose Baez has also been notified. Tim Miller, leader of Texas Equusearch who had done a number of searches for Caylee, was on the live broadcast as well. He said that the investigators had called him and said "We've got her."

Here are a few links to articles about the discovery;

WFTV
Investigation Discovery
Orlando Sentinal
Fox News
CNN

Will be back later when and if there is any further news..............

Small Update: Slideshow of aerial images from the scene: WFTV slideshow

Another Update (10:15am): Investigation Discovery just posted a new entry. One of the items he is reporting is extremely disturbing.

Sources close to the investigation say that remnants of duct tape were found on both the skull and the trash bag. Those items are now being compared to tape and bags that had previously been collected from the car Casey Anthony was driving at the time of her daughter's disappearance.

Duct tape on the skull???? What the hell was done to that child?????

Rachelle Spector with a Gun?

Well, I got a message this morning that TMZ doesn't want to publish the photo of Rachelle posing with a gun. Speculation is that they are afraid that it was photoshopped or something. And, in another message I received the photo itself! The sender wants to remain anonymous, and I will honor that. Besides, how would I know who it was anyway? Email addresses, especially web emails, can be pretty much untraceable, especially by a non-expert like myself. lol.. Besides, I am sure that I'm not the only one in possession of this lovely little cameo of Mrs. Spector besides my anonymous sender. Shame on TMZ for not having the courage to post the photo. The post with Phil's hairdo that I wrote about yesterday is well on it's way to being one of the most commented on TMZ.com according to the little box over on the right hand side of their page. 152 comments the last time I looked, and it's in 2nd place. (The first place article has 154 comments, so I expect the Phil's "do" article to take over first place sometime today.)

So, here's the picture that was sent to me. The only thing I've done to it for posting is to increase the size of it. But, I have done a little manipulation of it (without saving, of course) to enhance the background stuff so I could look at what's behind Rachelle and her gun. It looks to me like it was taken in some sort of sporting goods store. There is a fellow in the upper left hand corner who looks like a salesperson (he's got what looks like a name tag on his chest). Then there are shelves (?) with merchandise displayed on the right of Rachelle. Then there is that bar thing that she is resting her left hand on. Not being a sporting goods type person myself, I have no clue what the thing is. I also have no clue what kind of gun she's posing with. Is it a real gun or a paintball gun or what?

Even if it isn't a real gun, I think Rachelle is showing her disreguard for her "loving hubby" by showing off with a gun while he is on trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson. A murder committed with a gun! Are there any folks reading my blog that can tell if a picture has been "photo-shopped"? The thing looks pretty authentic to me, but then I'm not an expert. lol..

Rachelle has changed her MySpace picture again today. It's now a picture of a little black dog. And she's removed the comment that was moaning about the "next 3 weeks". I guess she thinks that will fix everything, huh?

I called TMZ this morning to ask about whether or not they were going to post the gun picture. The fellow I spoke to told me that it was "still under consideration". I told him that I was a blogger and that someone had sent me the picture but that I was waiting until they posted it before I put a post up about it. He told me to go ahead and post, since the "powers that be" for TMZ hadn't made a decision yet. And he said "They snooze, they lose".. lol..

So, here are the pics, both the gun picture and Rachelle's current MySpace pic. I'll be back later with an update if I learn anything new about Rachelle's latest airhead stunts.

Update... Just a little one...

I posted another comment on the TMZ website and it was removed a few minutes later.. lol.. I have no clue why they removed it.. Here's what I said:

I'm the one who posted the picture of Rachelle with the gun on my blog.... The pic was sent to me with a request to keep the sender's name out of it. As I posted in my blog, I intend to keep the sender's name out of it. I did call TMZ before I finally decided to post the pic along with a few comments of my own... The fellow I talked to told me that the picture of Rachelle was "still under consideration" for posting here. I told him that I was waiting to see what they were going to do before I posted it on my blog... He told me to "go for it" and post the pic... So... I did! It's there, on my blog, in all it's glory...

Rachelle, if you're reading here, you did an incredibly dumb thing by posting that where anyone could see it... Don't you KNOW by now that nothing on MySpace is truly private? I think maybe you should go crawling on your hands and knees to beg forgiveness from your meal ticket, Phil...

I added a link at the bottom to my blog... Maybe that's why they removed the comment? LOL.. Oh well...

Phil Spector "Do"

TMZ.com has posted a photo of Phil Spector that shows off his "new hair-do" and the comment section for the post is a must read if you're at all interested in what happens to the "Wall of Sound" man. Aside from the photo of Phil, the comment section is full of people making remarks about how they thought he looked like Barry Manilow, among other people. Personally, if I were Barry Manilow, I'd be horrified that people think I looked like Phil Spector! Spector is on trial again for the murder of Lana Clarkson after having a hung jury on the first go-around last year.

The other things noteworthy in the comments section are quite a few mentions of Phil's "wife", Rachelle and a photo that she had posted on her MySpace page a few days ago. I haven't seen the picture yet, but I'm hoping that TMZ will publish it so the world can see what an airhead she is. Would you believe she actually posted a picture of herself posing with a gun in her hand? Her husband is on trial for murder. He's been known to wave guns in people's faces many times over the years and after Lana Clarkson was shot and killed in his home, or "castle", why on earth would his wife post a photo of herself waving a gun around? I have a question. Maybe someone can answer it. We know from the first trial that all of Phil's guns were taken away by the police and I would guess that it would be a term of his bail that he have no guns in his home while he is out on bail. If he happens to have "acquired" another gun and has it in his home, or even if his "wife" Rachelle has a gun in that home, would that violate the terms of his bail?

Now, another little thing occurred to me after trying to look at her MySpace page. (It's been set to private, so the only thing you can see is her picture of the day and a comment.) No, in the picture I'm seeing today, she's not holding a gun, but the comment she has up today is odd.

"Rock N Rosh is dreading this next three weeks...pure live torture!"

I'm trying to figure out what is so horrible about the next 3 weeks. Is she dreading sitting in the courtroom behind her "dear hubby"? Or is she thinking that this retrial is only going to last for three more weeks? There has been a lot of conjecture about the marriage between Phil and Rachelle Spector. Things like most everyone is guessing that the "marriage" is a "job" for Rachelle. All spelled out in a contract that she gets all kinds of money, cars, jewelry, clothes and the like just for pretending that she "loves" Phil so that he looks "good" in the eyes of the jury. Perhaps her "contract" only has 3 more weeks left? She won't be getting more money from Phil? Who knows...

Another thought occurred to me earlier today and I posted it in the comments on the TMZ site. Maybe Rachelle wants out of that contract. She posted that picture of her posing with that gun and she's hoping that someone in authority will have seen it and Phil will go to jail and then she won't have to play "dear wife" sitting there in that courtroom. I wonder if there is an "escape clause" in that supposed contract saying that she doesn't have to play at being a wife if he goes to jail, maybe with a nice bonus at the end of the contract. I know, it's just my imagination running wild, but with the Spector case, who knows.

Go check out the comments at TMZ and we can all hope that someone will post that picture of Rachelle with a gun somewhere so that the world can see. Maybe if enough people post saying they are interested in seeing that picture of Rachelle with a gun, they'll do it! Go read and POST!

If you want to see what has been happening in the courtroom during this retrial, go to Trials and Tribulations. Sprocket has been attending the trial every day and then posts her observations.

Speaking of Sprocket, Steven Mikulan at LA Weekly did a really nice write-up about what Sprocket has been doing. "Spector Retrial Has It's Diarist" Way to go Sprocket! At this point, you're the only one that has been faithfully following and writing about the retrial and someone has recognized it and published it!