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Scouts! Like herding cats…

There is so much I don’t know where to begin. My 7 yr old’s scout troop has 12 or 16 boys in it; perhaps more. They are all great kids! But I tell you what! I sure don’t remember 7 and 8 years old the way these guys live it. “Live!” That’s a good word because I watch these kids and wonder how some of them will “live” to see double digits in their ages. Thank goodness kids bounce!

So, because school is out tomorrow, only 8 boys show up. They are supposed to be sitting down and listening to the den leader while they earn their music badge. I lean over to another dad and say, “It looks like popcorn!” and he replies “and sounds like it too.” Because not a one of these boys can stay planted in their seat for more than a second and if they are seated they are squirming so bad that you want to take the whole group to the restroom.

After learning about different types of music, we play “musical chairs.” The game should be renamed to “last two boys standing wrestle with your butt cheeks until someone hits the floor.” The highlight was when we had 7 boys left 6 chairs. The music stopped and Miles was on the side of the circle of chairs that was blatantly all full. My son takes to the butt check wrestle with a boy that is already sitting down. The only thing is to that boy’s left is an empty chair. All my son had to do was stand up and sit down to stay in the game. Instead he continues to wrestle and Miles runs around the circle, passes my son, and sits down to his left. Hopefully a lesson was learned. It was quite funny!

The den leader wisely chooses to not play musical chairs again and switches to a sing-a-long. The group choses Old McDonald Had a Farm so 7 boys and den leader start singing while the 8th boy starts making snorting, oinking sounds to the rythm of the music. Oink-snort-Oink-snort until they get toward the end of the first verse and the music suddenly stops as the Oinker switches to Oink-oink-oink-snort-BARF. Everyone stares and someone blurts out “Looks like chocolate milk shake!” Life is good at 7!

Overall, quite a fun evening!

On the way home the 7 yr old explains to me that if I let him get run over by a car “Mom would kill you then marry you then go live with someone else and sue you. I don’t know what sue means or where I heard it but I’m pretty sure it means you tattle on someone to the president then they take you to court.” From the mouths of babes!

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Back from the pede. Checked 3 things: 1) New rash…

Back from the pede. Checked 3 things:

1) New rash that is all over the baby’s stomach and back

Diagnosis: Negative on strep. Probably a virus. Should go away in a couple of days. Give plenty of fluids.

2) Lump in left breast

Diagnosis: Unlikely to be cancer (despite proximity to Oak Ridge). Could be an ovary is producing some estrogen (poor thing). Could also disappear. Size noted in charts. If still odd around age 4 then concerns begin. Question posed to doctor: Do we need to quit using milk that was produced from cows fed hormones? Answer: (Politically correct) no research has shown that to be a concern but you can buy special milk at some natural stores.

3) Rash on leg since summer has not gotten better

Diagnosis: Looks like eczema. Not much concern. Non-steriod topical prescribed to be used twice daily. Some samples provided.


From WebMD

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, afflicts 6% of all Americans — 15 million adults and children — with red and inflamed patches of skin that are uncontrollably itchy. The condition burdens mostly children, and although nearly half of them outgrow the condition, the rest suffer with it their entire lives.

The baby and I returned with food from McDonald’s so everyone was thrilled.

I chopped wood then headed to scouts with the 7 yr old.

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News – Cleansing Bush

Ex-officer: Bush file’s details caused concern By Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY

As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush’s military records…

A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968…

…he overheard conversations in which superiors discussed “cleansing” the file of damaging information.

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Not Porn – Just Naked Co-eds!

In How I Miss College! I gave a link discussion Harvard’s newly approved “porn” magazine. Now this:

Crimson Misrepresents H Bomb


Yesterday’s article about the upcoming magazine, H Bomb, misrepresented the goals of our organization …

…is a literary arts magazine about sex and sexual issues at Harvard…

…male and female students will appear nude in photography portions of the magazine…

…We hope that people understand the misrepresentation that has occurred and are neither offended nor expecting a porn magazine to come out in May.

May! For those that missed the point of this marketing piece from the founders of the H Bomb, your first issue is May! Signup Now!

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The 10 yr old slipped and fell to the floor in the…

The 10 yr old slipped and fell to the floor in the girl’s bathroom. Apparently there was water on the floor. She landed on hit and elbow. The school nurse iced her up and called to inform up. Sarah says “she’s fine” and I explained the definition of “bad fall” to her. I think I need to have her chiropractor uncle chat with her. Going to talk to Mom now to see if she wants her to have a trip (pun intended) to the pede.

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News – Attempted Kidnapping

Family on alert after men try to kidnap daughter By BRYAN MITCHELL


The Strunk family of West Knox County requests the community look out for two men who tried to abduct their 16-year-old daughter on Super Bowl Sunday.



“If you are brazen enough to pull up into your driveway during broad daylight, what’s next?” he said.



She said that two men who roughly fit the same description confronted her just days before the Feb. 1 incident in a parking lot and tried to get her into their car. She was able to flee unhurt from the scene.

Watch your kids closely!

Other resources: Put the Amber Alert on your webpages and desktop

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Got the 7 yr old and 10 yr old loaded up in the ca…

Got the 7 yr old and 10 yr old loaded up in the car. Drove to the 7 yr old’s friends house, whose step Dad (they make a big deal about the distinguishment there) works for the Knox County Police Department, and the mother came out saying with a smile “Jim saw you in the driveway and was betting you didn’t look at the news. Knox county schools are opening an hour late.” I thanked her. Of course our schools are having a delayed opening. The roads are wet. We can’t have these poor people drive in the rain!