phoenix

Ft. Lauderdale is great. Miami is waaaay to overcrowded and there are more scary people in MIA than Ft. Lauderdale. We try to fly out of Ft.L as often as possible.

It's time once again to review the winners of the annual "Stella Awards." (The Stellas are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's.) That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States. Here are this year's winners: 5th Place (tie): Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little Toddler was Ms. Robertson's son. _____ 5th Place (tie): 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car while he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps. _____ 5th Place (tie): Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000. _____ 4th Place: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the rear end by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams, who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun. _____ 3rd Place: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. _____ 2nd Place: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses. _____ 1st Place: This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, OK. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not explaining in the owner's manual that cruise control isn't automatic pilot. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home.

Ok. I learned a different version in kindergarten.

Your download speed : 1192430 bps, or 1164 kbps. A 145.5 KB/sec transfer rate. Your upload speed : 216404 bps, or 211 kbps.

A smaller list would be what I don't have on my desk. Everything but the kitchen sink. *Founding member of PackRats Anonymous

Happy Birthday, Nuggies! I hope things are going better for you. :thumbup

We have already made plans to go to the Trop to see our fish. I really don't like the plans because the seats are so bad. We have great seats for the Trop and Club Level A seats for the home games.

Due to sooooo many complaints from fans and other customers, the ballpark has relaxed their restrictions on the size of bags that can be brought into the park. Now, the dimensions are 14" X 14" X 8". Each person at the gates have a white stiff board with the dimensions, so there are no discrepancies. This is a direct quote from one of the supervisiors. I confirmed this with Marlins customer service at the concierge desk on the 200 level. Nice to see that our voices were finally heard.

Missed the boat *again*

Norton Anti Virus is the best. We have it for all our computers and we also have SpyBot, Pest Control and Registry Mechanic. Some are freeware and some are not. It's a pain in the tush but nowadays, you have to be pro-active instead of reactive.

That was a curious sight last night. I thought he was suffering from an ill-fitting cup.

However fast it is, it certainly is fast enough to blow it by the guys at the plate. Also- just having a fastball isn't enough these days. Penny has a tremendous fastball but you can't go back to that for every pitch. Eventually, someone is going to catch up to it and hurt us bad.

They had only planned for him to pitch 4-6 innings. His current injury is only a day to day thing which means he will start next time and it was in no way related to his blister. Things like these just happen in MLB and it's nothing to worry about. The disappointing thing is that he was K'ing like hell and I thought he was on the way of making history. Poo. Life sucks, get used to it. :hat With the exception of thinking he was only going to pitch a few innings, these are my thoughts exactly. He was absolutely lights out last night. I thought I was going to be a witness to history.

Length of Shower- The standard 6', with lots of tile.

When I went to Cooperstown last summer, I was filled with pride when I saw Luis' bat & gloves ? from his streak and A.J.'s ball.

Club Level A Section 255 I'll have the Marlins shirt and hat on. I'll be with my spouse.

Authorities said they would not file charges against the owner of the apartment complex after learning a maintenance man had cut the pool's lock. What about charges against the maintenance man? And why did he cut the lock? Did he have to?

:thumbup

Just think- he could have hosted a website which just asked for money outright!! I wonder where these auctions were. I didn't see them on the FLorida Marlins website auctions.

Pitcher Jeffrey Allison, the Marlins' top choice in last June's amateur draft, admitted publicly that his unexcused absences from the team's minor-league camp this spring were caused by drug problems and that he's afraid to return to the organization because he believes it will enroll him in a drug rehabilitation program. Shouldn't he have waited until he became famous before admitting he had a drug problem? :-) Send him packing and get someone who will pish in a cup and have it come back clean.

I'm confused by the 'overt references' part. Other than the words 'under God', where else is a deity mentioned?

I like the fact that it shrinks a little when you pickle it. So, if he was Jewish, would he have a Kosher pickle?

"They F*%# you at the drive thru" -- Joe Pesci, Lethal Weapon 2 My rememberance as well.

Happy Birthday and many more happy ones to come.

Theme and Variations Good stuff though.