Drew Peterson Arrest Video

This is the "Raw" video from the MyFox Chicago site.... It appears Drew's smirk is gone... For now.

Drew Peterson Arrested!

I just heard the news on Headline News! State police have arrested Drew Peterson for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio! His fourth wife, Stacy Peterson is still missing and Drew is the only suspect in her disappearance. Investigators have presumed that Stacy was murdered by Drew, but no arrest in that case has happened. Yet.

Here's what the Herald News in Chicago says:

BOLINGBROOK – Authorities arrested Drew Peterson on Thursday near his Bolingbrook home for the murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio, according to police sources.

“I guess I should have returned those library books,” a hand-cuffed Peterson said Thursday evening as he was being led into state police headquarters.

Police took Peterson into custody at Weber and Lilly Cache roads.

“The charge right now is the murder of Kathleen Savio,” said Lt. Carl Anderson of the state police.

Savio, 40, was found dead in a dry bathtub in her Bolingbrook home in March 2004.
At the time, Illinois State Police failed to find anything suspicious and her death was ruled an accidental drowning by a coroner’s jury.
After Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy, then 23, disappeared in October 2007, officials reclassified Savio’s death as a homicide and gave the state police another opportunity to figure out who did her in.
Savio’s body was exhumed from its grave. An autopsy conducted in November 2007 determined Savio was the victim of a homicide.

State police have called Stacy Peterson's disappearance is a "potential homicide" and say Peterson is also a suspect in that case.

Just think, my last post included a little blurb about Drew being considered for a role on the HBO reality show that is filed in a brothel in Nevada. Hilarious.. I just found more information about that too... The Associated Press is reporting this:

CHICAGO (AP) — HBO says there's no chance Drew Peterson will appear on a reality television show set in a Nevada brothel.

In fact, HBO spokeswoman Tobe (TOH'-bee) Becker says the network would cancel "Cathouse" before allowing the former suburban Chicago police officer to appear.

Peterson is a suspect in the October 2007 disappearance of his wife, Stacy.

Peterson publicist Glenn Selig (SEH'-lig) said Wednesday that his client was weighing an offer from the owner of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch outside Carson City.

Becker calls that a "stunt" that HBO does not condone.

Brothel owner Dennis Hof (HOFF') said Thursday he's still talking to Peterson about a possible job, even though Peterson can't be on the show. Selig says Peterson is interested.

All I can say is that it's about time they arrested that sick, sick man!!!! And I think it's extremely funny that Drew's PR guy is busted on that reality show story.. I do believe I'll pour a glass of wine and celebrate! lol

Sources:
Arrest story: Herald News
Reality Show: The Associated Press

Update:
I found an image of Drew with cuffs on.. although you can't see the cuffs..

Illinois State police Lt. Carl Anderson (left) and another investigator escort Drew Peterson into District 5 State Police headquarters Thursday. Peterson was arrested in the 2004 murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio. (Michael R. Schmidt/Sun-Times News Group)

Picture source: The Sun-Times





Another Update:

I watched the press conference about the arrest on CNN. They have indicted Drew on two counts of murder 1, and the judge signed off on a $20 million bond. So, Drew will be sitting in jail for a while. I'm hoping that he hasn't got access to enough money to bond out. I honestly believe he would be a flight risk. I'm still looking for more information online since I didn't take any notes while listening to them! lol...

Just couldn't resist....

UPDATES below....


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This lolcat was just too cute, I couldn't resist bringing it here....

In the News

There are a couple items in the news that have me shaking my head this morning. One is about Drew Peterson, the ex-cop in the Chicago area who is the only suspect in the disappearance of his wife, Stacey Peterson. Drew's publicist put out a press release saying that Drew is in talks about appearing in a role on an HBO reality show set in a Nevada brothel. Apparently the owner of the brothel originally wanted to get former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to be on the "reality show", but I guess the former Gov. turned it down. And, since both Drew and Blogo have the same PR guy, the PR guy is pushing Drew at the brothel. I've never seen this "reality show" since I don't have HBO, but I have a hunch that Drew would fit right in. If I did have HBO, I doubt if I'd be interested in watching it. I'd never even heard of the show before reading that press release! lol

The other item that has me shaking my head is in the local newspaper this morning, the Appeal Democrat. The story's title is "Accused poachers bagged" with a sub-title of "Illegal, 'sickening' hunts left 5 wounded deer to die". The titles are bad enough, but check out the article itself:

A Nicolaus man and two juveniles are facing felony animal cruelty charges for wounding deer with .22-caliber guns and leaving the animals to die "a slow and agonizing death," a California Department of Fish and Game official said Tuesday.

Jeremy Lee Harkins, 19, was arrested Monday at a Shasta Street apartment in Yuba City along with an alleged accessory, Kayla Marie Williams, 18. Harkins was being held Tuesday in Sutter County Jail on $20,000 bail.

The illegal hunting, long past the end of deer season, allegedly occurred in early December near Nicolaus. Charges were filed by the Sutter County District Attorney's Office after a lengthy investigation, said Game Warden Nate Stebbins.

Harkins and the juveniles shot at deer from a car with a .22-caliber rifle, and apparently a stolen handgun, using rimfire ammunition that is prohibited for hunting deer, said Stebbins.

Small-caliber weapons and rimfire cartridges, instead of centerfire cartridges, are likely only to wound deer, he said.

In one case, the suspects shot a deer at night. Realizing they had only wounded the animal, they returned the next morning "and brutally tried to finish it off" by stabbing or slitting its throat, said Stebbins, who found the carcass.

Two deer carcasses were found. As many as three other animals were wounded, said Stebbins, who called the shootings "sickening."

The juveniles were cited and released to their parents. They will appear in Sutter County Juvenile Court, he said.

Williams allegedly helped Harkins conceal evidence. A fifth suspect, who allegedly provided the handgun is being sought, said Stebbins.

Besides cruelty to animals, charges against Harkins and the juveniles include shooting from a car, wasting game and receiving known stolen property.

The suspects had plastic bags in their car and supposedly planned to salvage meat from the deer with the slashed throat, Stebbins said.

After word of what the suspects were doing got around the small town of Nicolaus, a number of witnesses were found during the "complex" investigation, said Stebbins.

The story is bad enough, but the comments on the article are something else. Apparently the mom of one of the "kids" arrested has been on the paper's site "defending" her daughter. Here is her first comment:

NotJudgeorJury wrote:

You people that have already "Convicted" my daughter and her boyfriend for what this article says, need to slow down and make an effort to find out what the TRUTH is. Does the TRUTH matter to any of you, or are you so excited to be able to have someone to talk about and make judgements when Im sure none or almost none of you are Judges! Thank GOD for that! The two adults mentioned in this article were driver and front seat passenger in the vehicle. The minors in the back of the vehicle are the one(s) that shot the deer! When the adults heard shots they thought they were being shot at and FLED the scene. They did not realize until the GAME WARDEN came that a deer had been shot. They were not involved at all with the next day actions of the minors after the fact! So you people need to get a life and stop judging because I am sure that if it was one of your children written about in the paper you would be outraged when the ignorant people make their ignorant comments about something that they don't even know SH** about!

Uhm... Ok, "Mom"... They didn't realize a deer had been shot? Excuse me, but in the article above, it states that 5 deer had been shot.. On different occasions! I guess she has no feelings for the deer that were wounded during these kid's quest for "fun". For crying out loud, the one deer was shot and wounded at night, then left to suffer until the next morning when the idiot kids went back out there to "end it's suffering"!

The other folks commenting on that article didn't take her attack very well as you can imagine so later, "Mom" comes back and fires another shot:

NotJudgeorJury wrote:

To everyone who wishes they were the judges and jury's: I guess being judge and jury of a space where you are allowed to make comments is all you were capable of "aspiring to" in your miserable lives! I never said that they were not guilty of something, Did I??? I absolutely agree that they MUST be guilty of something, otherwise they would not be in this mess to begin with. I am not as ignorant as many of you though, because I am not talking about How I BELEIVE THEY ARE INNOCENT! I don't think that for a minute.... I don't think that they did nothing. I don't believe what they are being charged with, is appropriate! So dont be too disappointed if they just happen to beat these specific charges. I wouldn't be surprised if they are found guilty of something. And my daughter is well aware of taking responsibility for her own actions and living with consequences of choices she has made... And I am sure that she is being charged at all because she is NOT going to tell on anyone involved, even if she has to go down for the entire incident! It doesn't make the story true! So, I guess I would be more than f***ing happy to see any animal killed, because I don't like animals! Does that mean I am guilty of doing such a thing! No. But it really doesn't bother me at all that the animal was killed. So there is something for you hypocritical people to discuss untill your hearts desires! I love it, when I am the center of any conversation! Negative or positive, really doesn't make a difference to me. I am just happy knowing I got under someones skin today!

Oh boy... This woman is something else, isn't she? Yes, she's defending her daughter and I can understand that, but I don't think she's doing it very well. I think she hits the nail on the head when she says "I love it, when I am the center of any conversation!" I'm going to check back with the paper's site later today and see how the "discussion" is going...

I'd be interested to see what my readers here think about the poacher story... And about the comments.... Follow this LINK and see what's being said...

UPDATE:
Thursday AM: I checked on the comments for the poacher/arrest article this morning and I found one more post from the Mom I quoted yesterday. It seems she's backing off her attitude from early yesterday.. She's still defending her daughter, but it appears that she had a little chat with her daughter and the boyfriend and found out that they aren't quite as innocent as she thought.

notjudgeorjury wrote:

To all of the people posting about this article. I stopped reading ALL comments at my last post, so whatever you have to say about these two adults or myself is really falling on deaf ears. I have absolutely no patience for people that are judgemetal when I am sure that each and every one here has broken the law in some way or another, at some time or another committing crime anywhere from taking office supplies at work, to molesting the neighbors kids and/or worse. Any how, they are not the ones being accused, nor are they the ones on trial. After a very lengthy conversation with the two adults here, I have to apologize to all of you for sticking up for them, because it seems there is more truth to the article than I would like to beleive and after they seen the lengths that I am willing to go to protect them, they felt that I needed to be told the truth. I did not have to come here and apologize to you guys, but I am a woman and I cant admit when I am wrong. While there is some truth to the article, there is also circumstances that are not mentioned in the article. I still stand by my daughters innocence, and I will leave my explanations at that!

I also noticed that more than a few posts were "removed" due to violations of the user agreement for the paper's website. Plus a couple of the posters who were there yesterday are completely gone, posts and all... I guess I missed a "lively" discussion over there.. lol

Another UPDATE:
Thursday PM: Another post from the mom of the girl that was arrested left another post this afternoon... She sounds a bit upset, wouldn't you say? The funny thing is that I just finished reading the rest of the comments and didn't see any posts referring to her being in trouble with the law, nor anything referring to "snitches". This lady needs to calm down and talk to her daughter, the boy friend and the other kids that were arrested instead of ranting and raving on the newspaper's website!

notjudgeorjury wrote:
I hear there has been a few assumptions made about me so let me clear that up for you folks! First of all, NO, I have never been in trouble with the law.(Just because we are not snitches, doesn't mean that the entire family is on the other side of the law). We are not snitches, because someone very close to us was a snitch, and guess what? They was killed for snitching, so we won't snitch! We like being alive! Secondly, someone seems to think I sound crazy, because I ramble...Well when I am furious, I ramble. And you are absolutely right about me being crazy, thats how I get when someone is attacking one of my children, regardless of the reason. You might just know how crazy I can be, if I only knew any of you or where any of you live! We would definately being having this discussion face to face.

Or did I read this wrong? She is making threats, isn't she?

This 'n That

I'm still around, still watching the news on the net and on TV. Yes, I'm still keeping track of what is going on with the cases I've posted about in the past. My brain is having trouble coming up with posts for the blog though. The story behind that is that I got fed up with the new tax hikes the federal and state governments put on cigarettes and have decided to quit smoking. Instead of buying a carton of cigarettes this last time, I bought the patches. (Dummy me, I found out after buying them that I could have gotten them for free if I had signed up for a class at a local hospital! LOL) I started using the patches when I had gotten down to the last pack of cigarettes in the last carton I bought. I managed to make that pack last for 4 days and now I'm on day 2 of having no cigarettes at all. Ugh. I still would love to have a smoke! lol...

So, anyway today's post (which is probably going to be all over the place.) is going to start off with one of the LOL Cats that I thought were really cute yesterday.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Now for the rest of the "news"....

I've been adding a few posts to the other blog I post on, California Fire News. The posts have been mostly earthquake reports that measure over 3.0, but occasionally I find another item of interest. As for the earthquakes, one yesterday was a 4.4 on the Richter scale and it was centered near Malibu. There have been a number of small quakes in the Los Angeles area in the last week or so Hopefully this isn't a buildup to a bigger one.

As for the cases I am watching, a couple of them have been really hard to get news about them because of gag orders that the judges in the individual cases have ordered.

Sandra Cantu (victim) and Melissa Huckaby (accused murderer)
The Sandra Cantu case is one of those that have virtually disappeared from the local and national news broadcasts. The latest hearing for Melissa Huckaby was a very brief one with the defense postponing a plea from the accused and the judge, Linda Lofthus, ordering that the autopsy findings be sealed to "prevent public outrage", plus she ordered a gag order on everyone involved in the case. The next hearing will be May 22nd in the San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton. There have been a couple articles recently though. These articles are about the reward that had been offered when poor little Sandra disappeared.

Apparently there is a psychic in the Los Angeles area who thinks she deserves to get some of the reward money even though her "vision" wasn't exactly accurate and the investigators used none of the information provided by any psychics when they were searching for the child. This woman said she predicted the little girl would be found in a "barranca (A Spanish word for canyon or ravine.) and that she was killed in a church, and the killer was someone in the trailer park the little girl called home. Ok, she managed to get 2 out of 3, supposedly. But, since the Tracy police didn't use psychic predictions during the investigation, how much actual "good" did this woman do? I'd say "none".

The other article I found this morning is about the man who did do something to help the Tracy police find Sandra. This guy is the man who found that suitcase floating in that pond on the dairy. The original news reports that came out when Sandra's body was found in that suitcase said that the farm hand(s) who found it had refused the reward. Back then, the reporters said that the cops would be talking to the men. And apparently they did. The man who is receiving the reward money is Jose Luis Franco, and he'll be the recipient of a little more than $20,000. He says he'll be putting the money into a trust account to pay for the education of his four children. He's hoping that they will be able to go to college. Good for him! And good for his family!

The Public Information Officer with the Tracy Police Department, Sgt. Tony Sheneman says that the reward will be going only to Mr. Franco. Not to the supposed psychics who are trying to claim part of that reward. (Can you tell that I don't believe in a lot of the supposed psychics who claim they "solve murders"?)

Sources:
The Tracy Press (hearing and gag orders)
The Mercury News (psychic claim)
The Tracy Press (reward money awarded)

Maria Lauterbach (victim) and Cesar Laurean (accused murderer)
Now that Cesar Laurean has been extradited from Mexico and brought back to North Carolina, he's had his first hearing and an Onslow County judge issued a gag order in the case. The order states that to ensure Laurean's right to a fair trial, prosecutors, law enforcement officials and Laurean's defense attorney are not to release any information to the news media or the public that would "have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter." (Click here to read the gag order.) So, we'll get very little, if any, information about the case before it comes to trial. Whenever that will be. A date has not been set yet.

Sources:
jdnews.com
Investigation Discovery, The Criminal Report Daily (A very good overview of the case.)

Stacy Peterson (missing/murdered) and Drew Peterson (primary suspect)
Drew Peterson has been making himself seen and heard again. He was on a local morning show there in Chicago and he had the nerve to take his two teenage sons with him and put them on camera to defend their father. I suppose he thought this would be a "good move" to defend himself from the wrongful death suit that has been filed by the family of Kathleen Savio, Drew's 3rd wife who was found dead in her bathtub during a contentious divorce. As far as I'm concerned, he is exploiting those boys. They should not have been on TV defending Drew.

More news about Drew is that the authorities have not given up on searching for Stacy. The divers were out in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal again searching the other day. The searchers weren't commenting on what they were looking for nor on what they found, but they're out there... And from all the sources I've read so far, the searching has to do with the Stacy Peterson case. Plus, apparently Drew was on a talk-radio show this past week and Stacy's sister, Cassandra Cales called in and "lit into Drew". Interesting conversation... lol

Sources:
ABC 7 Chicago
The Herald News
Chicago Sun-Times (Be sure to check out the recording of the radio show and Cassandra's call.)

Caylee Anthony (victim) and Casey Anthony (accused murderer and mom of victim)
The Orlando authorities released a bunch of new documents about the case against Casey Anthony this week. Some of them are fascinating to read and have generated quite a few comments on the InSession message boards. I'm still trying to read through them, so I'll reserve any comment from me for now.. lol

George and Cindy Anthony are still trying desperately to defend their daughter, but the attorneys for Zenaida Gonzalez are asking a judge to force George and Cindy Anthony to respond to certain questions they would not answer during recent depositions. It should be interesting to see if the judge can force those two to behave themselves during a deposition. I've never seen behavior like theirs in a deposition! But then, I haven't been in that many of them.. lol..

Then we have Jose Baez giving an interview to an Orlando TV station where he says that Casey had "very compelling reasons" for her actions when referring to her partying for the 31 days that her child was missing before Cindy Anthony reported her missing. Uhm.. Yeah, right. Baez actually has the nerve to compare Casey's case to Cynthia Sommer's case. (And I'm not even going to link anything to that! Go google!) The "ugly coping" thing that Baez is trying to put out isn't going to work unless he puts Casey on the stand, in my opinion. And how many people think the guy would actually do that?

Sources:
WFTV (List of links to documents)
Orlando Sentinel (also about the documents released)
WESH (Article about the motion to compel the Anthony's to answer questions)
WESH (Article about Jose Baez interview)

Lana Clarkson (victim) and Phil Spector (convicted murderer)
The sentencing hearing for Phil will be on the 29th of this month. The only thing that I've heard since his conviction is that Rachelle and the rest of the "Phil is innocent" groupies are trying to circulate a petition to make the powers that be let him go free. Uhhh... Rachelle, do you really think that a petition is going to let your "dear hubby" out of prison? If so, I think you should sit down and think some more. I don't think it's going to happen.. Phil was convicted of 2nd degree murder and there's the added use of a gun that will extend his sentence. Rachelle, just keep up your comedy act.. You might need it one of these days to earn a living for yourself instead of living off Phil's royalties. Those just might be going to the Clarkson family when they win the wrongful death suit.

~~~~~~~~~~

I think I'll stop for now... Have I given you enough links and stuff to follow? lol... I think I'll go find some carrot sticks to munch on to take my mind off wanting a cigarette.............

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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

10,000 Visits? Wow!

Sometime in the last couple of days, this little blog hit a milestone. 10,000 visitors and more than 15,000 page views. That amazes me, especially since I haven't been posting as regularly as I should. I've still been following news stories;

• The circus surrounding the Anthony family and the missing child, Caylee.
  
• The Phil Spector trial, part deux.
  
• Stacy Peterson is still missing and her husband, Drew, is still the suspect in her disappearance. (I'm not going to post much about this one until Drew's firearms charges go to trial... Nothing new there at all... Darn it.)
  
• Josef Fritzl, the man who kept his daughter imprisoned in the basement dungeon for so many years. (He's been found competent to stand trial... He's been charged with rape, incest, false imprisonment and slavery in addition to murder.) The trial is expected to begin in March of 2009.
  
• The fires in California and elsewhere.
• And many others........

I just haven't posted about what I've read and heard about the cases lately. I guess I'll post a bit today.

Caylee Anthony
The Anthony family circus continues on and on, and Caylee is still out there somewhere. The grandparents are still insisting that Caylee is not dead and are busy defending their daughter, Casey, and promoting themselves and Kidfinders. Kidfinders seems to have a lot of people questioning their legitimacy. I'm still trying to figure out what they've done to help find Caylee other than loan George that rolling billboard around town with Caylee's picture on it. Big deal, especially since the phone number on that rolling billboard has been reported to be out of service. If someone actually saw Caylee and tried to report it by calling the number on that billboard, they'd reach a disconnected number. Kidfinders is also doing some fund raising this weekend, with George and Cindy as the star guests at a "meet and greet" thing, and they're saying that they need funds to continue the search for Caylee. One article I read on the Orlando Channel 13 website says;

Kid Finders officials said they are always in need of both money and volunteers. The group has found itself short of donations, and have had to scale back its efforts in the its search for Caylee.

Uhm. When have they done any searching? And their website also says that they have a "search and rescue" unit now, with all kinds of "new equipment" for searching. A boat with side-scan sonar. ATV's and other stuff. But they need money. So, George and Cindy are out there begging for donations for this organization. I've never read about any searches organized by Kidfinders and if any have been done, I'd love to know what kind of searches they are conducting. Anyone out there have a clue?

And Cindy has announced that she plans on writing a book. Big surprise, right?

Cindy Anthony also said she hopes writing a book would guide people in similar situations through what she has been through as she searches for her granddaughter.

"Two years down the road, once Caylee's back home safe, and her life's back to normal, and our life's back to normal, if I can help someone in any way, and jot everything down, that I've learned, you know, that's where it is," Cindy Anthony said.

I can't imagine what kind of stuff Cindy would put in a book about her ordeal.

• Would she advise those parents to report the child missing but not give any information that would help give a direction to look in? (What was the child wearing, description of who she was with?)
  
• Would she advise others to stand up at a vigil for the missing child and scream at people to "get off their asses" and go find the child? (Where do you suggest we look, Cindy???)
  
• Would she advise them to constantly change her stories? (Smell of dead body in the car, pizza, pizza with maggots, no smell?)
  
• Would she advise them to constantly berate the investigators who are actually looking for the child?
  
• Would she advise them to bash a volunteer search organization (Texas EquuSearch) because they were looking for a "dead Caylee"?

The cast of characters in the Anthony Family Circus keeps changing too. We've got Casey's lawyer, Jose Baez, who's going to have to hire another attorney because he's not qualified to try a capitol crime case. We've got Cindy and George's lawyer, Mark Nejame, who is "advising" George and Cindy but can't keep Cindy from shooting her mouth off whenever a camera gets pointed towards her. Leonard Padilla, the California bounty hunter who bailed Casey out of jail and is now making the news with his divers doing searches at Jay Blanchard Park. We've got the TES people badmouthing Padilla, and Padilla's people badmouthing TES. Cindy and George's publicist, Larry Garrison has been fired and there are accusations going back and forth about what money has been paid to who for TV appearances and the like. The publicist for Jose Baez, Todd Black, who avoids the camera and even manages to avoid having any infomation about himself on the internet. (Odd, huh?)

The whole thing is such a confusing mess and meanwhile, Caylee is still missing.

Phil Spector
The retrial of Phil Spector for the murder of Lana Clarkson back in 2003 is ongoing, but trying to find any information about the trial this time is limited to an occasion blurb in one of the newspapers or following on blogs. I've been following it on Sprocket's Trials and Tribulations blog because she's been attending the trial every day and has a talent for writing so that you almost feel you are there with her. Her observations of what goes on in the courtroom are excellent.

Poor Phil, though. (Said tongue in cheek.. lol) Last year during the first trial, he hit the headlines quite regularly and was on TV (CourtTV) almost every day. This year, I guess the news media has decided that Phil isn't a big enough celebrity to warrant regular coverage of his trial. And Phil thought he was more important than just about everyone else, including O.J. Hah! OJ's trial in Las Vegas got gavel to gavel coverage just like the murder trial way back when. Phil got gavel to gavel last year but this year has been relegated to the back page news. No headlines, no TV news spots, nothing. From what I hear, his defense is still planning on pounding on the "has-been" status of Lana Clarkson prompting her to commit suicide in Phil's home. In my opinion, Phil Spector is much more of a "has-been" than Lana Clarkson. Lana was recovering from major injuries to her wrists and had been out of action for over a year when she was murdered. She was just getting back into the swing of things, a new job at the House of Blues, a photo shoot scheduled, etc. What was Phil doing? Nothing besides sitting in that "castle" of his collecting the royalties from the past. Nothing new. Phil was sitting in that castle imagining that he was a bigger star than anyone. Bah... He is a has-been that played with guns once too often. "I think I shot someone" says it all.

The Fires
I've mentioned before that I also post on the California Fire News blog. I spend quite a bit of time searching for information on what is going on, but I haven't been fast enough lately to find information to post anything before Bob, the blog owner, posts it. The fires burning in Southern California right now are devastating to thousands of people. Many homes burned and many more are in danger of being destroyed. As the photo here (Courtesy of the L.A. Times) shows, it's pretty horrific.

Fire season may be "over" for most of Northern California, but Southern California is by no means out of danger. The Santa Ana winds will continue to blow off and on for another month or so and with the winds comes the fire danger. All it takes during one of the wind storms is for one power line to get blown down or one idiot with a penchant for flames to start a disaster. The fires that are burning right now are all under investigation, they have no idea yet what started them... Yet. The first priority is getting the fires under control and saving lives and as much property as they can. I grew up in Southern California and still have a lot of family living down there. I spent many years as the wife of a firefighter and I know the hardships that those heroes on the firelines and their families have to face.

Go check out the California Fire News blog... Look at what has been posted there. Scary times for Southern California right now... Very scary. If you're from down there, my heart goes out to you... I remember the feelings very well.

One quick note about the California Fire News blog... The stat counter for the blog is near 1 million visits! Congratulations to Bob Blogger for having such a fantastic and informative blog!

Other Stuff
I got to do something fun this past week... My trucker friend gave me a call on Monday and told me to pack a bag, grab a coat and get my butt down to his place in Sacramento. He was on his days off and didn't want to spend it sitting around his place by himself, so he invited me to go with him up to Reno for a couple of days... Actually we didn't stay in Reno, we stayed in Sparks at John Ascuaga's Nugget hotel and casino.

By the time I got down to his place, it was late afternoon so we grabbed some burgers and hit the highway. The trip up to Reno/Sparks from Sacramento takes about 2-1/2 to 3 hours so it was dark by the time we arrived at the hotel. We got a snack at one of the restaurants and then wandered around looking at the slots and the tables. We mainly just wandered all over the hotel that evening. No gambling or anything, just exploring to see what had changed since the last time there a few years ago. A few places were different; Trader Dick's restaurant and bar is bigger, a couple smaller eateries had changed and a couple more were added. The showroom was closed, so we couldn't take in a show but that was OK.. That wasn't what we had come up there for. We explored the gift shop (and bought nothing! LOL) and the floor where the pool and spa is.

The next day, we wandered around the neighboring places after breakfast. We had breakfast at The Silver Club and I wouldn't recommend it. The service was slow, the food was marginal. Actually, my breakfast was icky. I had biscuits and gravy and the gravy tasted like glue with some tasteless lumps in it.. UGH! My trucker friend decided he was going to get a massage at the spa at the Nugget, so we went up so he could make a reservation. Then we went back downstairs to the casino. He headed for the craps table and I headed for the penny slots. I found a pretty good machine on my 3rd try. It actually let me win! I started off with a $20 and by the time I quit playing, I had over $70! My trucker friend didn't do so well on the craps table, but he said he had fun anyway. After lunch at Rosie's Cafe at the Nugget, my trucker friend went upstairs for his massage while I wandered around some more.. Checking the machines and people watching. Later we went wandering again, the craps table at the Nugget had upped the ante on the craps table so we headed back over to the Silver Club to see if anyone was playing there... Nope.. Never saw anyone playing craps at all! We spotted a theater a block or so away and thought we'd see if there was a movie playing that we'd want to see. The theater was "different". You know how you go to a theater and there are posters up for all the movies they are showing? This one had none. No posters. Just a list above the ticket booth, no information or anything except for the times the movies are being shown! We didn't see anything we wanted to see, so we headed back to the Nugget. After all the walking, my friend's massage and everything, we decided that we'd spend the evening upstairs relaxing and order dinner from room service. The last day, we stayed away from the Silver Club. Checkout time was 11am so we had breakfast semi-early and my trucker friend went and got another massage while I went downstairs to see if that penny machine would pay me some more money. It didn't.. lol, I blew $20 on it. After he came down from his massage we checked out and hit the highway for home.

As we came down the "hill", I kept a look-out for the CalTrans cameras to see if I had spotted them right on the maps that I did last winter. I guess I somehow managed to get most of the camera locations right, but I had imagined them on different sides of the road.. lol..

LOL, I just told my trucker friend that I was writing about the trip up to Reno and he sent me a "review". Here's what my trucker friend just sent me on Yahoo:

J. A. Nugget would review at 3 stars. service and friendliness of staff was acceptable and in some cases was exceptional. Entertainment was lacking in availability. Food service was above average though not exceptional on quality. Cash advances and items purchases were excessive and seemed abit greedy by management in trying to increase higher revenue by gouging guests and visitors. Rooms were above average and comfortable, though tv/internet options were high priced.

And here's his "review" of the Silver Club:

Silver Club food sucked dead ass, service was about the same. The place was damn near dead and most of the game tables were closed both day and evening. Very poor review on entertainment, service, and overall experience. Out of 4 stars would rank it 1/2 star for at least being open.

Can you tell he didn't like the Silver Club?

Anyway, we made it back to Sacramento and parted ways. Him into his place and me back into my Blazer and back up the road to my place (trying to beat the rush hour traffic, which I did!). I'm so glad he invited me along for his mini-vacation. It was nice to get out of the house for a couple days. And, no, I didn't take any pictures because I left the camera at home this time. On purpose. I knew we wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the rooms, and I didn't want to leave the camera laying around in a hotel room, nor did I want to carry it around the casino! lol..

And to close this post, I'll add another LOLCat... hehe


more animals

Wow, It's November Already

And it's raining today. It rained a bit yesterday, but luckily for the trick or treaters last night, it stopped long enough for the kids to make their rounds and get the goodies last night. I think I had more kids come to my door last night than I had last year. One good indication is that I didn't end up with left-over candy this year. There were some really cute little ones at my door. A little fireman with great big brown eyes. A little princess with a huge smile. A little dragon who wouldn't talk. And many more. By the way, the little dragon was my grandson! lol...

I've been keeping busy with stuff around here, but it sure doesn't show much. I still have a lot more old photos to scan, including the old ones of the bridge here in Meridian. I need to get those out of the pile and get them scanned so I can post them on here with comparison pictures from "now". I've also been reading through the family tree information that my cousin had done. I need to update my genealogy software so I can get the online family tree updated.

I'm still watching the news and still following a few cases.

Stacy Peterson
She's been missing for a year and a few days now. Her husband, Drew, is still considered the suspect in her disappearance. The Will County State's Attorney, James Glasgow released a statement about the case a few days ago. He says that they are close to determining what happened to one of Drew Peterson's wives. Whether it will be about Stacy or Drew's 3rd wife, Kathleen Savio is anyone's guess. All we can do is wait and see what comes out next. I hope this case doesn't end up "forgotten" the way Lisa Stebic's case has.

Phil Spector
The second trial for the murder of Lana Clark started this past Wednesday, opening statements were given by both the prosecution and the defense. Testimony was supposed to have started on Thursday, but one of the alternate jurors fell in the parking lot at the courthouse and apparently broke his foot. Judge Fidler postponed the start of testimony until this coming Monday. The first trial for Phil was televised live last year, but no media outlets have stepped up to the task of televising the second trial. Apparently the media has decided that Phil Spector isn't newsworthy enough to go to the expense and effort of manning a camera and microphones in the courtroom this year. So, for those following the case, we're down to gleaning bits and pieces of information from what news organizations publish and from bloggers. One blogger in particular, Sprocket, is planning on attending as much of the trial as possible and her blog, Trials and Tribulations, will be my "go to" place to find out what happened in the courtroom. She does an excellent job of narration, detailing all that goes on in the courtroom as well as giving information about the people in the courtroom with her.

I have to wonder how Phil feels about not being famous or newsworthy enough to be plastered all over the papers and news shows every night. It seems to me, that Phil Spector wants to be "famous" and wants to be "honored". In an interview that came out before a documentary was aired on British television, Phil complained about his lack of accolades for what he did for the music industry. From the Mirror UK:

His hands shaking, Spector clearly does care - and the man who gave the world classic tunes like Be My Baby and You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' believes he is given far less respect than he deserves.

"I don't get depressed cos I don't let myself get depressed," he says.

"It is a wasted emotion. But I'm concerned with the fact that I haven't been made a doctorate at a college and Bill Cosby has, even Bob Dylan has.

"I think I have offered more to American culture and music than they have, or as much. George Martin, Paul McCartney are made sirs, Buddy Holly had a stamp, I love him, but he only lived three years in rock'n'roll."

In my humble opinion, Phil has an extremely inflated opinion of himself. All the names he mentions did a lot more for the music and entertainment industry than he ever did. His name was not as well known as any of them. His "fame" only comes from what he did in a studio to other people's performances. When the murder of Lana Clarkson hit the news, most of the public didn't know who the heck he was. He was a producer, not a "star", and producers don't have the "fame" that the stars have.

As for the trial, there's an interesting quote from Phil about that as well.

As for the upcoming retrial for the death of Lana Clarkson, Spector insists people are out to get him.

He describes the judge of the first trial as a "mean son of a bitch" and admits: "I have been ostracised from the industry with this indictment hanging over me. Innocent until proven guilty is no longer a factor."

He thinks he's been ostracised from the industry because Lana died? Uhm. No Phil, you dropped out of the industry a long time ago. It's been 30 years or so since Phil developed his "wall of sound" and has done virtually nothing since then. The "wall of sound" worked well on the old sound systems, the transistor radios and the "record players" with one speaker. But on the sound systems of today it would sound like crap, in my opinion.

What a sad little man he is. He went out on the town that night, bent on partying and having a drunken good time. He finally ended up at the "House of Blues" and was greeted by the hostess, Lana Clarkson, who mistook him for a woman. I'll bet that stung his ego. His date for the evening left him there and Phil pestered Lana into going back to his "castle" for a drink. Apparently Phil did not want to be alone that night. In the early morning hours, Lana ended up sitting in a chair in the foyer of Phil's "castle" with a gunshot wound in her mouth, her jacket on, her purse on her shoulder. There were two people inside that "castle" that night and one of them can't talk anymore. One person outside who heard the gunshot and then saw Phil come out the door with the gun in his hand and heard him say "I think I killed somebody". With Phil's history of pulling guns on women to keep them from leaving until he was ready for them to leave, it would seem that Phil pulled that gun on Lana to keep her from going home. He wanted "company" and he was going to make sure he had it. Was the gun going off deliberate? Or was it an accident? Whichever it was, it was his gun, his house and Lana is dead. That is murder.

I'll be watching Sprocket's blog for updates on the trial. Too bad for Phil that he's not famous enough to be in the headlines anymore.

Caylee Anthony
The missing 3 year old girl and her family is still in the news a lot. Casey, Caylee's mother, is in jail and will be there until she goes to prison. She has enough charges against her and enough evidence for those charges that I don't see any way she can strut her way out of it. She has a November 5th date for the check fraud charges, and a December 11th date for the pre-trial hearing in the murder case with January 5th set as the starting date for the murder trial. I'm curious if Casey's going to have two trials. One for the check fraud and one for Caylee. I wonder if any of the news stations will be streaming the trials live.

Meanwhile, Casey's mother, Cindy has been "busy" surfing the web and harassing people who blog about the case. One blogger in particular received a phone call from Cindy. The blog is called Justice for Caylee and the blogger puts daily updates up for all to read. In her post on Wednesday the 29th, the blogger details a phone call that she recieved from Cindy Anthony. Cindy has gone too far. In that phone call, Cindy blasted the blogger for having the website, blasted the blogger for the slideshow at the beginning of the site and accused her of trying to make money off Caylee. Cindy then went on to malign Tim Miller of EquuSearch, accusing him of using Caylee to make money as well. I'm not going to detail all that Cindy ranted about in this post. Go to the Justice for Caylee site and read for yourself. Lee Anthony has also joined in the "bash Tim Miller" club that his mother started. He sent emails out to news organizations telling people not to donate money to EquuSearch. The Investigation Discovery Criminal Report Daily blog about the Anthony case wrote about the emails as well as detailing a fax that they received from Todd Black, the invisible spokesperson that the Anthony's have hired. He blasted the EquuSearch organization as well. Sick, I tell you. Just plain sick.

Then we have the lawyer, Jose Baez. Yesterday, the news reports were all about him being warned for hugging Casey at the jail. Warned twice. As a rule, most jails have a "no touch" policy for security reasons, but Jose seems to think that hugs are ok. According to him, he didn't know it was against the rules for him to touch Casey. And according to him, he hugs all of his clients. Ick. One of the news stations, Channel 9 in Orlando even reported "Mr. Baez stated he was upset as he hugs all his clients. He went on to say he would hate for a brief to be filed in order to correct this." Uhm. Jose? What the heck kind of brief would you file and what are you trying to "correct"? You want special permission to go against the rules and hug all your clients? Or is it just that you want special permission to hug Casey Anthony?

Other Stuff
There are other things that I watch for in the news as well. Things about the fires here in California, and the aftermath of the fires. For instance, areas of the state are under a flash flood watch this weekend. Particularly in the areas that were burned durning the fires this summer. I'm hoping for a gentle rain, no gully washers that would cause havoc in the areas that are trying to recover from the fires. At least the fires are out now for the most part. The people in those areas that burned just have to watch for flash floods and mudslides now. I'm glad I'm down on the flatland. But I guess I'll keep an eye on the level of the Sacramento River which is a block away from where I'm sitting.

And to close today's post, I'll put in an LOLCat in honor of yesterday, Halloween....


more animals

Gremlins, Anyone?

more cat pictures

Well, first of all, I will apologize to those who come and read my blog regularly that have found nothing new for the past few days. I'm sorry for not posting anything! lol.. No excuses, though, I don't have any. First of all, the news about my Mom is all good. Everything is going fine with the new pacemaker and her healing from the surgery to replace the old one. I spent the last couple of days helping my trucker friend spend money.. lol... He's getting ready for his vacation and he needed some new clothes and stuff. He's preparing to go to England for a visit and some sightseeing. So, I went along and gave advice about things to take and things not to take. Things like comfortable shoes, clothes for both cool and warm weather and stuff like that. We also met up with another friend who had a job interview on Tuesday and gave him some moral support, along with crossing our fingers for him. Hopefully he'll hear back from them with a job offer. Yes, my fingers are still crossed.. lol

The firefighters are gaining a lot of ground with the fires from the lightning storm last month. According to Cal Fire there are 25 active fires burning in the state. And not all of them are from the lighting event. I've been putting the statistics for both the state and national fires up on the California Fire News website every day. Check it out... Hopefully the weather will hold and the firefighters will be able to contain the rest of the fires soon. The thing that worries me is that this is the end of July. Traditionally, the worst months for fires in California are September and October. We still have August to get through... Yikes.

As for the crime stuff I've been watching, first we have Drew Peterson, who's going to have to face the gun charges against him. Too bad for Mr. Brodsky, who predicted on a couple message boards and on TV that the gun charges would be dismissed. I wonder if he'll be making anymore predictions about Drew being charged in the death of Kathleen Savio or the disappearance and possible homicide of Stacy Peterson?

Another situation I've been watching and reading about is the missing 2 year old child in Florida, Caylee Anthony. The "drama" the child's mother, Casey Anthony, has caused is twisted beyond belief. Lies upon lies upon yet more lies. I truly feel sorry for the investigators in this one because even the Grandmother, Cindy Anthony, has been putting lies out. For instance, take the pizza in the car scenario that the Grandmother insists on. In the 911 call, she tells the dispatcher that the car smelled like it had a dead body in it. Later on, she tells the media and the court at Casey's bail hearing that the car had a bag of pizza in it for 12 days. What happened to the "dead body smell" that she was screaming about in the 911 call? One of news stations in Orlando, WFTV Channel 9, did an experiment. They put a whole pizza in a car in the hot Florida sun. Here's what they had to say about it: "But the Eyewitness News experiment doesn't support the smelly pizza theory after temperatures in the 90s. After seven days, the moisture was gone from the pizza and it had the consistency of shoe leather. More importantly, you have to get really close to smell anything and, when you do, the smell is pizza." And that is just one of the statements by the Grandmother or the Mom have made that have been proven false. The InSession message boards have a lot of information and a lot of speculation as well about the case.

At this point, it's going to take a miracle to bring that child home alive. I've never seen a missing child case in the news with so much misinformation handed out by the family that has been so easily proven to be false. The Grandmother rants on about how "no one is looking for Caylee" on all the news programs. But, how is anyone to even know where to start looking? The date she went missing keeps changing. We have no idea where the child was last seen because the Mom lied to the investigators about where the mysterious "nanny" lived. We have no clue what the child was wearing when she was last seen. Uhm.. Wouldn't that be an important bit of information? In normal missing child cases, it's reported to the police shortly after the child goes missing. In this case, the child being missing wasn't even reported until the child had been gone for 31 days! Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

Updates ~ Fires and Other Stuff

The California Fire News blog has some good updates on the fire conditions. The good news that I'm seeing is that the state is down to a total of 27 fires now. Bit by bit, the firefighters are gaining ground, especially when you consider that a month ago there were over 2,000 active fires in the state. All we can do is hope that the weather keeps cooperating with them so they can continue containing all the blazes. The blog owner, Bob Blogger, has also been putting some of his own photos up on the entries and one of them for today is pretty impressive. The winds have apparently changed directions again and are sending smoke down in the valley again today. When I step outside, there is a distinct aroma of smoke in the air. Ugh.

Other Stuff
I spoke to my Mom last night, and she's recovering very well from the surgery to have her pacemaker replaced. She says all she is taking for the pain is an occasional aspirin. It won't be long before she's back to 100% the way she's going.

Drew Peterson made the news again yesterday. After his friends let it out about the secret taping of their conversations, Drew and his attorney, Brodsky have been hitting all the news shows for interviews. The funny part is that yesterday morning, while Drew and Brodsky were being interviewed on the Today Show, his friend Len Wawczak was letting another "cat out of the bag". For a while now, there has been a blog where a woman/girl named "Ashley" was posting screen shots of her chats with Drew. In those chats, Drew was proclaiming his "love" for Ashley among other things. For instance, if you were watching Larry King a while back and saw Drew and Brodsky on there, with Drew tugging his ear fairly often, you were seeing Drew "signalling" his "love" to Ashley. Well, Ashley has "come out". Ashley was Drew's friend Len! I am quite sure that the news wasn't pleasant for Drew to hear... lol.. Almost every message board that I visited yesterday had folks laughing like crazy at Drew and his excuses. One of these days the Grand Jury in Will County will finish and hopefully will hand down some indictments against Drew. For his murdered exwife, Kathleen Savio, and for his missing wife, Stacy Peterson.

Hey! It's Wednesday!

And I should probably apologize for not posting anything yesterday. So I'll do that and then get on to the explanation. I'm sorry for not being on my computer yesterday! Uhm.. Well, I'm not that sorry.

I spent most of the day yesterday hanging around a hospital. Last Thursday, my Mom went in for the usual checkup on her pacemaker and they found that it wasn't working properly anymore so they scheduled her for surgery to replace it yesterday. We had to report to the hospital at 8am yesterday morning, so I had to get out of here well before that in order to get her to the hospital on time. No time for the computer then.

I met my folks at their house about 7:30, and we headed over to Rideout Hospital in Marysville. Mom already had most of the check-in stuff done before we went yesterday, so all she had to do was go up to the cardiac floor and check in at the nurses station. They got her settled in her room and we stayed there for a bit, at least until they started bringing in the needles and stuff to get her hooked up to the IV and the machines. Then my Step-Dad was ready for breakfast (or escaping from the needles!), so we left Mom there and headed back over the river to Yuba City, and the Cook'n'Pot restaurant (Mmm.. Good food!). After breakfast, we went to their doctor's office to pick up a prescription for Mom and then back to the hospital. Once back at the hospital, we settled in for the long wait. The wait before they took her to surgery, the wait while she was in surgery and the wait afterwards while they monitored the new pacemaker to be sure that it was doing the job it was meant for. I wish hospitals had more comfortable seats, both in the rooms and in the waiting areas! Anyway, we finally left the hospital around 5:30 or so and stopped at another restaurant, California Red's (Mmmm.. More good food!) for dinner. Poor Mom was pretty hungry by then. All she'd had all day was a dry turkey sandwich and some carrot sticks after she came out of surgery. By the time I got home last night, the computer (and the blog) was about the furthest thing from my mind. But, I'm back on it this morning....

Fire Stuff
I got a call this morning from a friend of mine. His wife works up in Paradise and he said she told him that the smoke this morning in Paradise was thick enough to cut with a knife. With the changes in the weather over the last couple of days, the smoke is hanging in there again. Bad. I noticed the increase in smokey air last night on my way home from my folk's house. The setting sun was the dark orange-red orb hanging above the coastal range again. I could look straight into it through my windshield as I drove home and it didn't bother my eyes at all.

For fire updates, go to the California Fire News blog. "Bob Blogger" is putting the information up there now. You'll even find a post from me on that blog today! I posted the newest satellite photo of the smoke and fires in California there earlier this morning. Yep! I am officially one of the writers for the California Fire News now! I won't be putting all of the stats up here on my blog anymore. If (and when) Bob Blogger gets called out to the fire lines with his water tender again, I'll be putting the updates from Cal Fire and the National Interagency Fire Center on his blog for him.

Other News
Drew Peterson hit the headlines in the papers again this morning. Drew is under suspicion in the death of wife number 3, Kathleen Salvio and is a suspect in the disappearance of wife number 4, Stacy Peterson. Apparently the investigators have him on tape now. They "recruited" two of his friends a while back. They wore "wires" when they went to "visit" Drew for several months. The friends are also the ones that were in the news recently in articles about that folding gun that Ric Mims mentioned a long while back. The articles in the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times are pretty interesting. It's also pretty interesting to see how Joel Brodsky, Drew's so-called attorney and Drew are trying to spin this new story. According to Mr. Brodsky, the whole taping thing never happened and according to both Drew and Brodsky, the only reason this is hitting the news is because those friends, Paula Stark and Len Wawczak are trying to "profit" from Drew's problems. Uhm. Yeah, sure Drew... (Insert rolling eyes icon here. LOL)

To end on a "positive" note, I'm going to put in a plug for the 3rd annual Kacie's Ride For Hope. The ride will be on September 13th and will start in Placerville. They've got a map posted on the website now that shows the route the ride will be going on. If you are at all interested in spending a day in the mountains on a bike (Meaning motorcycle type bike!) check this one out. All proceeds from the ride goes to a really good cause. To quote from the website: "All proceeds generated from ticket sales and raffle prizes, as well as cash donations will be donated for Emergency Services to "The Center for Violence-Free Relationships", formerly "The El Dorado Women's Center"." The website also has a lot of photos posted from last year's ride...

And, for the end of my post for this morning, here's another LOLCat picture... hehe...


more cat pictures

More Wind.... Ugh!

Today is Day 3 of north winds. The weatherman said that we wouldn't have as much wind today, it was supposedly going to die down last night. I wish he'd told the wind that it wasn't supposed to blow today! As I look out my window here, the trees are bending and blowing in the wind pretty much the same as they did for the last 2 days. The strange part of it is that the wind is blowing a lot here in the valley, drying out the plants, making people miserable with their allergies and all, but up in the mountains the weather is very different. I got a call from my trucker friend and he reported that it was snowing up in Truckee! Yep! Snow! According to the weather websites some of that snow is actually supposed to stick to the ground.. Weird.

I keep checking the El Dorado County Sheriff's website where they show the inmates, and according to that page, Mario Lozano is still there. I've signed up on another website to receive an email when he is moved or his status changes. I haven't heard from them yet, so apparently Mario is still sitting in the El Dorado County Jail. I would have thought the state would have picked him up by now.

Other trial/crime news has been sort of interesting the last couple of days. Drew Peterson got arrested for a weapons violation, and Stacy is still missing. Phil Spector's date for the 2nd go around of his murder trial has been set for September 29th. And I finally found some "references" to the Rex Archer thing.. Sort of. Apparently there were Federal search warrants served on a local doctor who is running for a political office and the comments section of the local newspaper became quite a debate with Rex airing his dissatisfaction with the local paper and airing some of his legal woes (pertaining to his arrest a while back on child molestation charges.).

Postings here are going to be somewhat sporadic over the next week or so because I'm not going to be as close to my computer as usual. (I wish I had a laptop in addition to the desktop I have! lol) This weekend I'm going to be going back and forth from my house to my daughter's house because I'm "watching" the kids (2 teens and a 4 year old!) while my daughter and her husband "get away" for a couple of days by themselves. Then next week, I am going to be the driver for my Mom and Stepdad on a trip down the coast. But after the trip south, I should have some good photos to post (for those who are interested! lol)

What a week for True Crime Watchers

• Bobby Cutts found GUILTY.
• Mark Jensen found GUILTY.
• Stephen Grant sentenced to a minimum of 50 to 80 years.
• Drew Peterson's third wife's (Kathleen Savio) death ruled a HOMICIDE.

It's been a busy week for the justice system!

Rest in peace, Jessie Davis and Chloe.
Rest in peace, Julie Jenson
Rest in peace Tara Grant

Here's hoping for justice for Kathleen Savio so she may rest in peace.

Here's hoping that Stacy Peterson will be found soon.

I'll try to post more later.. But first, I just have to watch On The Record and see what Greta has to say!

New at this..............

This is the first post for me in a real blog. I have no idea why I'm even doing this... lol.. I have no clue what to include in this thing.

Lets see. I'm a "trial watcher"... I got sort of hooked on watching trials last summer during the Phil Spector trial. I posted quite a bit on the Court TV message boards. I'm still fairly active on the message boards, but I'm not really watching a trial regularly now. I'm watching a couple missing persons cases in the news and on the message boards. One is the Stacy Peterson missing person case and the other is the missing Marine, Maria Lauterbach.

I'm also interested in photography and used to work in that field years ago. Now, though, it's a hobby. My work history took some odd turns after I was divorced. The photography studio that I worked for back then closed down and I had to get some kind of job so I could pay the bills. So I worked in security for a few years, but that barely paid the bills. So I learned to drive a truck... Like a 18 wheeler type truck! I drove cross country for a while and truly enjoyed it. I was able to see a lot of places and meet a lot of great folks out on the road. After an auto accident messed up my back, I had to find something else to do, so I got retrained in CAD drafting. I worked for an architectural office as a drafter and small projects manager until I retired 2 years ago.

Now I'm just a retired lady, watching trials and following crimes and the like in the news. Pretty boring, huh? lol