“We’ve heard a great deal about Republican “fat cats,” and how the Republicans are the party of big contributions. I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a “fat cat” and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a “public-spirited philanthropist.”" – Ronald Reagan

This is a really funny Flash cartoon, voice talent by a really funny guy I met a few times. Good, clean political humor. (I hope people still know who Woody Guthrie was!!)

http://www.jibjab.com/thisland.html

Codi and I were on our way home from Clackamas Town Center when we spotted a lot of black smoke rising from the top of Mountain Park in Lake O – almost the exact location where our new apartment is located. We looked at each other with a “wouldn’t that be ironic” look and headed up to see if our new place was on fire. Turns out that it was ‘The Gables’ complex, on the same street as our new place. A 3rd floor apt burst into flames and caught two nearby apt buildings on fire. When we got there, fire trucks were just arriving and we got to see them set up their lines to the fire hydrants, set up the extension ladder, and then fight the fire. One guy that got there just as the fire started said he and others saw and head the roof collapse and heard some of the floors of the building collapse down on top of each other. Even after 45 minutes of heavy water, the building kept igniting again and again. It was smokey and stunk of burnt rubber, roof tiles, insulation, etc. Pretty nasty stuff. The fire dept (with over 7 engines) finally got the fire under control. Well done to the Lake Oswego 211 and 212 (fire engines directly hosing the fire down – and pictured below)!! Thanks for your quick response and help!

On a whim, I downloaded and installed two applications. Boy, am I glad that I did!

1. Thunderbird: Free email/calendar app from Mozilla. Similar to Outlook 2000 or Outlook XP, minus a few features that I never used anyway. The best thing is the price… $0.00.

2. Open Office: A slightly less robust, but all inclusive alternative to Microsoft Office. I have Office 2003 Professional. I took a good, critical look at what I use in Office 2003. Word. Outlook. Excel. And only the most basic functions of each program. Microsoft Office 2003 Pro costs around $400. The price for OpenOffice.org was $0.00 and about 5 mins download & installation time.