A Bad Day For Goats

This just in from CNN:

Goat demoted for parade incident
Handler: Commander 'had no option but to demote Billy'

Saturday, June 24, 2006; Posted: 6:22 p.m. EDT (22:22 GMT)

LONDON, England (AP) -- A British army regiment's ceremonial pet goat was demoted in disgrace after it marched out of line before a host of international dignitaries during a parade to mark Queen's Elizabeth II's birthday, a military spokesman said Saturday.

The military mascot, a 6-year-old male goat called Billy, was downgraded from the rank of lance corporal to fusilier -- the same status as a private -- after army chiefs ruled his poor display had ruined the ceremony June 16 at a British army base in Episkopi, western Cyprus.

Lance Cpl. Dai Davies, 22, the goat's handler, was unable to keep control during the march earlier this month, as the mascot darted from side to side, throwing soldiers off their stride, spokesman Captain Crispian Coates said by telephone from Episkopi -- one of two British bases on the island.

"The goat, which has been the regiment's mascot since 2001, was supposed to be leading the march, but would not stay in line," said Coates. "He was reported for subordination and after consideration, the commanding officer decided he had no option but to demote Billy."


So. I wonder what type of form you use to report a goat for insubordination? And as a final kick in the goat-pants, this:

Since his demotion, soldiers of a lower rank are no longer expected to salute Billy as a sign of respect, Coates said.

Billy must be the laughing stock of the British Army......

Save Screech's House, Part II

It looks like the plans to sell 15,000 t-shirts to raise $250,000 isn't working out well, so Screech has a new plan:

Buy a Sponsorship Brick - $1000.00 Each

Help! Save My House by buying a sponsorship brick. For a one time cost of $1,000 per brick you can buy a brick on the house below. You can buy as many as you like.

Simply Click Here to purchase your brick and have your 88 x 31 pixel banner in JPEG or GIF format posted and linked to your site as a sponsorship brick. There are only 250 available, see my example in the top left below.

Thanks, Dustin Diamond

Only 250 available?? Better hurry!!

*Screeeeech*

Who didn't love Screech from Saved by the Bell? Hmm? Oh. Well, regardless....

Screech, a.k.a. Dustin Diamond, has run into a slight problem with his house - foreclosure! Now he's looking to his fan base to help him out and SAVE HIS HOUSE! Better hurry, though, he only has a short period of time left before he gets booted! He's selling t-shirts and taking donations. I encourage my fan base to buy t-shirts. They will make excellent holiday gifts!



If we don't do this, he may be forced into another boxing gig (anyone remember his appearance on Celebrity Boxing, where he mercilessly pummeled an irate Ron Palillo, of Welcome Back, Kotter fame?), or worse, celebrity reality TV show!

Check out the story - it's kinda amusing :)

Our New Neighbors!

Well, actually, we're the new neighbors:

These guys live behind our new house in Maryland. They seem like a friendly bunch! How often do you think Joe will have to say, "Leave the Alpacas alone!"?

There are also lots of snakes out in the country. I found out black snakes don't like to be touched. I am going to assume that applies to all snakes going forward....

When we decided on the house we wanted, we went back to our Realtor's house to complete the paperwork. They live in the sticks.

As we're heading towards the house, she turns and points out a black snake (about 3 feet long) making it's way across the driveway behind us. Things went something like this:

Realtor: "Welcome to the country - we have a lot of snakes out this way".
Jeff: "Cool! Is it poisonous?"
Realtor: "No"
Jeff: "Cool! I want to see…!"
Jeff: *walks over to black snake and approaches from the tail end, because he thinks worst case, all it will do is slither away a little faster*
Joe: *to Realtor - "He's not that smart sometimes…"*
Jeff: *decides to try and pet the snake's tail*
Black Snake: *immediately coils up, hisses at Jeff and prepares to strike*
Jeff: *screams like a girl and runs*
Joe and Realtor: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Luckily, I left the camera at the hotel that day....a clean pair of underwear would have been helpful though.

More Interesting Sites!

At least, I found them interesting....these are more sights from our stroll through downtown Frederick, MD.

If we ever want mushy peas, this is the place!

Though I've never heard of peas with fish & chips. What the heck is that??

We're not exactly sure what this is:
It sits on top of the carillon bell tower. If I had decent eyesight, I might be able to figure it out.

Small-Town Charm

Frederick, Maryland is a small town, with lots of historic relevance and Mayberry-esque stuff. Since it was such a nice day (75 and sunny, versus the 110 in Phoenix - ha!), we decided to take a stroll through the historic section of downtown Frederick. We found lots of neat little shops - and you know me: camera ready for any oddities.

So far, I've found the following:

The plaque on this cast-iron dog statue says her name is Charity and she has been here since 1858. That's one old dog!

Next, every small town needs at least one of these:

For only $25, I could get a body piercing. That sounds reasonable. I could always do one of those web-thingies where I encourage viewers to suggest and vote on where I should get a body piercing, and then broadcast the event live. That assumes I trust people. Haha. That's funny.

This next one is something I have not seen in a LONG time....

Finally, this one really caught my eye:

It's a wall mural - can you believe it? Someone painted it on here - it looks so real and 3-dimensional. Now that's talent.

Now if we can just convince Trader Joe's that small-town Frederick is *thee* place to be....

Hot hot hot!!

Welcome to Phoenix! It's hot.

Here's a taste of summer here:

This weekend is supposed to get to about 112-113. Wee! Thanks goodness we'll b back in Maryland starting tomorrow.

The dogs wrote me to tell me they don't miss the heat. They almost miss me, but not really. Grandma is apparently "cool". Something about bacon and pig ears.....we'll have lots of re-trainig to do when we get settled.