Why do people pay money to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars o look at things on the ground?

It took me a minute to figure what's going on here. But look to the right. A semi has rolled, with the tractor portion up on the hill and the trailer flipped. That's the top of the trailer, into which those cars plowed. Bizarre.

It now takes thirteen digits to express the national debt. But the Hillary Clinton campaign debt only requires twelve.

I am NOT making this up! At the historical gathering of the past, present and future Presidents that Pres. Bush hosted today, each of the former Presidents shared with President Elect Obama some of their favorite aspects of the job. President Clinton, according to Obama, said one of his favorite things was the rug in the Oval Office.
TMI!!

This tells me all I need to know about cat owners:
Cat Painting

I'm redecorating the second bathroom, a long overdue project now driven by guests coming the end of this month. The first step is to take off the 20-year old wallpaper. Unfortunately, under it is another layer of wallpaper. Add in the two wallpaper borders, one at the ceiling and another at chair rail height, and that's a lot of removal.
I've found the method that works best for me is a combination of tearing and scraping with copious amounts of water sprayed over each layer. Yesterday, as I was watching the water I'd sprayed run down the wall I thought to myself, "I should use a surfactant."
I learned that word from Pam's dad. I don't remember the situation in which he used it, but I asked him, "What is a surfactant?" He explained that it's a chemical that breaks down the surface tension of water, allowing it to penetrate a porous surface more easily. Detergents have surfactants added to them so that the cleaning agents can better penetrate the fibers. So if I added a bit of detergent to my spray bottle the water would more easily soak through the wallpaper and loosen the glue on the back side.
All of that got me to thinking about Earl Whittaker as I sprayed and scraped. He died of cancer 18 years ago, which means I knew him for 21 years. He was one of a kind. He worked for what is now known as the EPA as a nuclear chemist back in the day when that field was very young. He was one of a handful of men in the country with expertise in the area, and one of his responsibilities was to travel to various cities and help labs establish standardized measurement procedures.
I made the mistake early on of asking what he did when he got to his lab each day. A half hour later he was still going strong with great enthusiasm, unaware that I was lost by his second sentence, but still feigning interest. (It pays to humor your future father-in-law.)
But don't picture a bright-eyed intellectual man. Earl was none of that. We described him as a Jimmy Stewart character - the absent minded professor.
Earl Leroy Whittaker was as gentle, kind and long-suffering a man as I've ever met. Everyone liked him and admired him. I can't imagine anyone ever getting upset with him, never mind angry. He was quiet, soft-spoken, the definition of benign. The man didn't possess an ego and was a faithful servant of God and his church.
He was also slow, relaxation personified. If he sat in a chair for more than five minutes he was asleep, head back, mouth open.
I miss him.

Monday night Pam and I talked about the differences in our personalities. We've been married for 37 years, and I told her that's because she is her father's daughter. Can you imagine the disaster it would be if we were both ... like me?! Nope, Pam is just like her dad.
OK, maybe not the nuclear chemist part. But you should see her sleeping in her chair.

I miss Earl, but I'm very thankful to have his daughter, nearly his double, sitting next to me, even if she is head back, mouth open.

T'ank you, Fadder.