Hey Folks, we’re getting a dollar from the State of Florida. They recently settled a lawsuit brought by four people for selling names and addresses of people who licensed their automobiles in Florida. Each person who so registered their vehicle between 1998 and 2004 gets a dollar off their next renewal.

The four who brought the lawsuit get $3000 each.

The lawyers get $2.83 million in fees plus $20,000 in costs.

Which reminds me of a joke. What’s the difference between a lawyer and a carp? One’s a scum-sucking bottom-feeder, the other is a fish.

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

“Every man serves a useful purpose: A miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor.” — Laurence J. Peter

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

Jake Winter, a specialist in forensic bureaucracy, explains The Rule thusly: “In any analysis of a confusing political problem, the rule is to ask, ‘Who benefits?’ You will find the answer to any political or bureaucratic question, if you can answer that one correctly.” — from Dead Watch by John Sandford

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

We’ve booked two cruises. The first to be booked is on Royal Caribbean in November 2009 to the Eastern Caribbean. We booked that in July. Next we booked a Panama Canal cruise in December of this year. You may think we’re rich, but we’re not. We won’t be eating or driving our car for the next two years.

The itinerary for the Panama Canal caught out attention. It only has one port we’ve visited before, Aruba. The rest will be new to us.

Here’s the itinerary:
Ft. Lauderdale
Aruba
Cartagena, Columbia
Panama Canal, Panama (transit)
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
Huatulco, Mexico
Los Angeles

The coolest thing about the itinerary is that there are seven days at sea including the Panama Canal transit. We love at-sea days.

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

 

Hog Heaven

I’m with Scoop. Big Screen TV + DVR + Olympics = Hog Heaven.

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

Fear Itself by Walter Mosley is a mystery. Paris Minton is a black bookstore owner in the mid-1950s, who is a reader and a thinker, but a scaredey cat.

His world is turned upside down when his friend, Fearless Jones, comes to ask for Paris’ help in finding a man named Kit Mitchell. Paris is apprehensive, but Fearless is his friend. He knows Fearless will protect him because Fearless is as much of a brave one and reader of people’s hearts as Paris if fearful, logical, and intellectual.

The case leads to missing jewelry, a missing family treasure, and four murders.

My favorite quote from the book:

“I liked looking up words in the dictionary. It calmed me, because there was no tension in the definitions. Definitions were neutral: facts, not fury.”

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

My little girl is 39 today. I’m really not old. Really.

Happy Birthday. Thanks for bringing us so much joy and so much life.

You make me smile just thinking of you.

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.