Medary.com

Listen to the lyrics.



Barrytown people got to be from another world.

Claire McCaskell, Idiot (Democrat, but that should go without saying) from Missouri: "The Senate passed a budget, in fact we did better . . . "

Oh, Holy Jesus and Mary Mother of God (I'm not a Catholic, but I married one) . . .



Note to Claire: Talking fast is not necessarily an indicator of sagacity . . . in the common tongue, spouting nonsense at a rapid clip is known as "babble."

Babbling Claire. Babble, Claire, Babble.

The Velvet Revolution.

Via the Velvet Revolution blog.

Accept no substitutes.

Governor Scott Walker wins. It wasn't close.



Laurel and Hardy dancing to the Gap Band link courtesy Iowahawk's, Twitter feed, @iowahawkblog

He may be even stranger than I am.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Hat tip to Andy at Ace of Spades HQ

"Too big to fail" is just a polite way of saying "too big to succeed, but we're going to keep propping it up, throwing good money after bad anyway, because we don't have the wit or imagination to conceive of any alternative."

(Yes, we're still around. Another travel journal will be forthcoming.)

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Nine

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

February 10 (Friday, Day 14, At sea) -

Snookums and Pat slept in until 9:15 and then showered. Pat ate a light breakfast of muesli while Snookums read on the verandah. The sun was out and the sea was calm. Then Snookums realized that Mom might get a 100-day medallion at the 11 AM Mariner reception and had to logon to try to verify it. She failed and decided to ask the concierge at Neptune Lounge if Mom was on the list. She was!

Snookums went to Mom’s room at 10:00 AM and opened up the door just a bit to see that it was pitch black and Judy was still sleeping so she didn’t go in. She returned to Mom’s room around 10:30 AM and now everyone was up but still in pajamas. Snookums made sure that Judy knew that Mom was going to get a copper medallion. Everyone said that they were attending so Snookums let them get dressed. Snookums and Pat arrived at the event at 10:45 in order to secure good seats.

Captain van Zaane, Mom with her copper medallion, Hotel Manager Stan Kuppens

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Eight

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

February 9 (Thursday, Day 13, St. Maarten) -

We woke up and it was raining (naturally!). It didn’t stop us, though, from heading out to meet with our private tour guide, Joyce Prince ($375). And the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. The five of us found Joyce and her nice big van and she started by taking us on an island tour. Then she dropped off Pat, Judy and Snookums on Front Street so they could get their two Diamonds International charms (sunglasses and clock charms) and the Effy pendant and took Mom and Dad on more of an island tour for twenty minutes or so. When the five of us met up again, we went to the butterfly farm ($12 per person) and spent a nice hour there. It was supposed to be handicap accessible and for the most part it was, but due to the heavy rain that had occurred earlier in the day, Dad’s wheelchair wheels got stuck a few times in the mud and had to be manhandled out. Snookums found a 10 cent (Euro) coin, too, at the butterfly farm. She was hoping to find a guilder from the Dutch side, but settled for the Euro coin from the French side.

St. Maarten scenic overview

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Seven

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

February 8 (Wednesday, Day 12, San Juan, Puerto Rico) -

Snookums woke up around 9:15 and immediately yelled to Pat to wake up since she was going with Dad to the 9:30 AM “Veterans Meeting”. To Snookums’s surprise, Pat was not in the room. Snookums got up and showered and piddled around until 11:00 or so. It was very cool and cloudy and windy and rained a bit, too. Pat came back to the cabin and then Ian, the Travel Guide, announced that a scenic narration would occur as we passed El Morro Fort so we went outside on the bow of the ship on deck 5 to see our approach. It was VERY, VERY windy on the bow but the view was great and the sun was fully out. After we got our pictures, we went to Lido for lunch and ate by the pool. While we were eating, the pool’s retractable roof was opened up the whole way since it was so sunny (finally!). Dad drove by in his scooter and we talked to him for a few minutes before he left for the library and we went back to our cabin to get ready to walk around San Juan.

Dad, Pat and Snookums

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Six

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

February 7 (Tuesday, Day 11, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos) -

We woke up at 7:30 AM and waited for our pre-ordered room service breakfast. We had ordered it to be delivered from between 7:30 and 8 AM. The other time it was delivered at the beginning of the time period so we were kind of counting on that since we were going to meet Judy at 8:15 AM. Breakfast finally came at 7:55 AM and the server brought it in and looked at Snookums and said, “You need to write your room number on the order form.” Snookums then pointed to Pat and said, “She filled it out.” Mystery solved! When Pat filled out the room service breakfast form last night she neglected to fill in the room number. She did, however, write down the last name so the kitchen was able to look that up and find us. Whew!

Grand Turk shoreline