Monk star found dead

I do not know if Monk is on this case yet or not but Stanley Kamel, 65, the psychiatrist on Monk, was found dead on April 7. At first, no cause of death was given but officials now believe he had a heart attack. They had a little tribute to him after Monk this afternoon. He was really good but he had also played a lot of other roles over the years. Monk will miss him and we will, too!

Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

About 9:15 last night, a huge lightning strike hit and down went the lights! They were off until sometime after 1 a.m. When I awoke at 2 a.m., they were working. About 11 p.m., I drove over to the creek to see how high it was. The water was about eight inches below the bottom of the bridge. There was a lot of high water in Everman which has really awful drainage. So, I made the loop around Enon and when I got back, a huge wind had picked up the cover over the well and moved it at least 10 feet. That dude is heavy! The only other real damage is to one lawn chair. Never a dull moment. I must go check on Mail Dog shortly and be sure she is OK. I hope Michael can come help me get things straight and back together!

This reminds me of a genealogy moment to share. When Mandie, Melinda and Missy were very small, they were all in the bathtub one night when the lights went out on Anmar. They started screaming - and they really knew how - so Dad rushed to the rescue while I lit a bunch of candles. I wrote a really cute little piece in the newspaper called “Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?” and ended it by saying, “Does anybody know how the Lou Grant Show ended? A lady from Forest Hill that I did not know called me up when the paper came out and said she loved the article and could just picture those little girls being so upset. But, what really impressed her was that their Dad got them out of the tub. She said he must be a great father!

Mail dog update

Today I saw the mail carrier out front feeding the dog again (she does this every day) so I went out and talked to her. She is trying to get the dog out so she can take it to a shelter. She is one of those dog lovers who just cannot stand to see a dog abused, abandoned, etc. She fed her a can of food mixed with a bunch of dried food. I guess she does this daily. She says there are a couple of places on her mail route where they have dogs that are pitiful and she carries food and feeds them. I guess there will be some stars in her crown for going the extra mile to help these pitiful critters. She is out there now sitting on the ground talking to the mama dog and has been here for about 20 minutes, maybe more.

Fame is Delayed

Got this message from Katie:

The Late Show has delayed our trip to NY.  Will be sometime in May.
Thanks to all who wished us good luck, etc.  They are still planning
on having us on the show, but something went wrong somewhere.

I thought I had waited until close enough to my flight date to inform
others about this that I would avoid the attention of Murphy, but he
got me anyway.

I'll let you all know when the new date is.  I was told our segment
would probably air the same day as it was taped.

Katie

Famous Pets

Got this message from Jared's sister Katie (she's just younger than he is):

Pyro, my Irish Wolfhound, and I are flying to New York on Wednesday, April 23. We have been invited to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman in the Stupid Pet Tricks segment. Filming will be on Thursday and we fly home on Friday. All travel paid by CBS. IF he performs, I do not know when the segment will air. It might even be that night, Thursday, April 24. I'll try to find out and email again. If you watch the Late Show, look for us. How cool is this?! Katie

from Ginny: Pyro, by the way, is almost as big as a Shetland pony. His trick is to crawl through a tunnel of some sort. When we last saw him at the family reunion he would literally shake with fear when people came near to pet him, even though he could eat small children in a couple of bites. Katie said she auditioned about 18 months ago for this segment. Hopefully he's gotten over his shyness!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK SALE

I just got an e-mail from Scholastic; their warehouse sale is starting this week. The dates are:

$1 Sale April 14-18 9 to 5

Regular Warehouse Sale
May 7- 31
Weekdays: 9am - 7pm Saturdays: 9am - 5pm
Closed Sundays and Memorial Day Weekend

If you sign up at their website you get $10 off a $50 purchase.

Set a budget before you go--it's amazing what you can find!

Mom: I can go on Friday morning early if you want to get books for Action Group.

My mail dog

Well, I don’t know if it is female or male but it is definitely mail! That is my new pet dog which appeared over 10 days living right over the fence behind my mailbox across the street. I really did not see him at first but went over to talk to the postlady who had pulled off the road and she was FEEDING him (or her). She seems to bring bones or something for the dog every day and even puts out water. What a compassionate lady. I have only fed him twice and he ventured out from behind the fence so he is not trapped. A few days ago, the dog decided to cross the street to come over and say hi, but he is not the brightest bulb on the tree and nearly got hit by several natural gas rig trucks, so he has been staying put behind the mailbox. Today, I did not see him when I came in, but later he saw me on the front porch and barked a greeting. He has a collar but that is not unusual for a dumped dog. Why would he stay in the same place, even during those really bad storms? Where in the world did he come from? What in the world should I do, just leave him alone?

In bloom, but changing...

The roses on Shelby have always been beautiful in the spring, but this rose bush has mutated into a two-toned wonder this year. WOW!

And then the storm hit...

There was a bad storm over here on Wednesday morning and the evening before (4-9-08). Connie had hail damage where the paint was knocked off the windowsills. James’s cute little car was also damaged - about 12 hail dents from 50¢ size hail. My land line is out - I have checked all the phones and it is not an internal problem. About 2:30 a.m., there was a terrible lightning strike. When I got up this morning, one of the breakers was out - the one that takes care of the north kitchen outlets (can opener, mixer, radio, etc, but not the fridge). But the most interesting thing was that the light fixture cover in the front hall was knocked to the marble floor but did not break. I can not imagine how that happened. Maybe Dad was here and caught it? One picture is worth a thousand words.