"I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn't mine." - Rita Rudner

The theme of tonight's post: "Had a bad day." (Like making a right turn despite a sign saying it's forbidden. Explain that one to the boss.)

The President had a bad day. First he found out that his 4-star General in charge of the Afghanistan operation has been saying what others have been thinking, and it ain't at all complimentary of the Commander in Chief or his key advisers. Does he fire McChrystal and risk fouling up the timetable that has us out of Afghanistan by summer, 2011? If he doesn't, how does he maintain any cred with the rest of the the force?

Then a federal judge blocked the President's 6-month moratorium on deep water drilling. Interior Secretary Salazar said the President will quickly write a new executive order to replace that one but chances are pretty good that one will be challenged, too.

The French soccer team had a bad day. They got beat by South Africa, 2-1. That means the French team, which was the runner-up in 2006, is out after the first round with a grand point total of 1 (they had a tie in their game against Uruguay because neither team scored a goal). Their greatest success in the World Cup was confirming every negative stereotype anyone ever had about the French. This culminated in their coach refusing to shake hands with the South Africa coach after the game.

This Russian pilot had a bad day. He decided to pull up his landing gear before his billion-dollar fighter jet was off the ground. The good news is he climbed out alive. The bad news is he lives in Russia and climbed out alive.

Al had a bad day. He decided the cheese could be unwrapped from around the capsule and the capsule spit out on the floor. So now I pry his mouth open and jam it down his throat. He really likes that! He wishes we had to do it more than twice a day.

I had a bad day. While passing through the garage I noticed a small puddle of golden fluid under the right rear wheel. I think it's gear oil.
But it was a very small puddle. I wiped it up and it hasn't reappeared.
I'm pretty good at denial, so I'm going to go ahead with the brake bleed and pretend that puddle never existed. If it's back tomorrow I'll work on coming to grips with reality.

On a more positive note, I wrote an article and sent it off. I had actually committed to writing one six months ago but successfully bailed on that. So today I spread out the books and went to work.
I like writing.

Now I'm going to do some more eating. Supper. Then dessert.