There are great Michael Jackson videos on all the music channels this weekend. I can't believe Comcast doesn't have a live MTV HD channel. Anyway, you can watch online above. MTV is doing a tribute to him this evening, but there are too many interviews. Better to watch online, or one of the other channels.
The autopsy showed no signs of foul play or trauma to his body. Michael's body has been released to his family. Toxicology tests will take 6 to 8 weeks. His doctor, Houston cardiologist Conrad Murray, who was living with Jackson, has agreed to be interviewed. He's not suspected of criminal activity. Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of two of his children, Paris and Michael, will get custody as she never relinquished her parental rights.
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I just hope it's dry tomorrow until 1:30 when I'm done with my shift for the CSA. Hauling containers of veggies in the rain and mud is not my idea of a good time. I do like the feel of the air coming in my window right now though. Parent
In the meantime, the weather is supposed to break - it's been rumbling and darkening and threatening for hours - but so far...nothing. Now the blasted sun is out again - but that may generate the thunderboomers and get this show on the road.
Glad to hear your AC came on! I killed my big one last Labor Day weekend. Trying to decide how I want to do the new set up. Get another wall one or go with a couple of smaller window ones along with my newer big window one . . . sigh, must decide very soon or we're gonna have one mother of a heatwave! ;) Parent
When I dislocated my shoulder and had to have surgery, I ended up sleeping on the sofa for a pretty long time because we had a water bed that I could get into, but not out of, without a significant amount of pain. It was a comfy sofa, so that was good, but invariably I would wake up around 3:00 am just dying of the heat because the dog - who had started out curled up at the end of the sofa - had gradually shimmied her way up alongside me and acted like a 75lb heating pad on High...and she snored, to boot! Parent
Yeah, she does have shorter hair than a lab, but I'm convinced they may have the same heating power. It's one of the reasons I don't let her sleep with me. She's pretty good if I nap on the couch (aside from my cramped legs!), but she's not nearly as polite on the bed. She's almost as tall as me at full stretch, and she, like my youngest cat, likes to sleep stretched out, belly up against me . . . with feet on pillow. Thankfully, I don't have any current snore machines!! The nice thing about peak summer is most of the cats will retire to the coolness of tile in front of a fan. Dot would still hog the bed and give me hot flashes if allowed . . . . Parent
Of course he didn't - must not besmirch the Bush administration. (Or the security that let Gannon through.)
"vicious and unAmerican"? Can anyone remember a previous politician going AWOL for days? Any governor who takes off for days without telling anyone should be promptly replaced by the Lt Gov until he's pronounced fit for duty by a psychiatrist and a physician. Parent
What creeps me out, as it always does, is how hungry the media is to cover death.
No offense meant to you, Jeralyn - you've put up some nice and respectful posts on this - I just have my limits, I guess.
People die every day -- especially people without health insurance and in horrifying "preventive" wars. People have horrible, disfunctional lives every day and also don't have billion dollar talents to help offset the horribleness (of course, nor do they have personal doctors "helping" them self-destruct, but that's another story.). It really is time to get back to real news, important news to the country at large. Maybe Monday will bring things back to where they should be.
In other words, we are in total agreement! Parent
I may check it out if there's another rain delay . . .
So sad to split kids up.
Coincidence or harassment?
Not being an attorney, I'll leave it to the attorneys on this site to comment.
On the other hand, I've discovered they will gladly drown themselves in dixie cups full of beer. They prefer Stella Artois to stout. I'd much rather repel them. Any suggestions anybody?
I've had 100 percent success in stopping slugs with copper tape, so I'm baffled. But there are always the slugs that are inside the protected area and then of course can't get out. Are you sure that's not what's happening?
There's no way to protect a whole yard, but the tape and/or diotomaceous earth (far easier to deal with and less ugly than eggshells) will make a barrier that will keep them from crossing over.
I lay down the copper tape on the ground around whatever it is I really need to protect (a bunch of nice hostas, for example), and then pin it to the soil with ordinary hairpins from the local Walgreen's. You do have to keep an eye out for mud or dirt getting on the tape after a rain, but as long as it's reasonably clean, it works.
Diotomaceous earth works less well and has to be reapplied periodically.
There's also slug poison you can get in garden and hardware stores, but it's really ugly, gets moldy quickly, and also has to be replaced after it rains or every couple of weeks.
I have to say that my experience with beer saucers alone is that it just attracts more slugs to your yard from neighboring areas. But it works fairly well to deal with the slugs that are inside a tape-protected area.
I absolutely hate the damn things, so you certainly have my sympathy.
More info about exactly what you're doing with the tape, etc., would be helpful. Parent
Earlier today I tried dried seaweed and, sad to say, the slugs just motored right over that as well. HOWEVER, a guy at the garden store said his mother got great results from using pennies as a barrier. I tested it and found slugs avoid both new and old pennies like the plague! They won't even pass through a quarter inch gap between two pennies. So this evening I circled the base of a dozen garden plants with a 3" wide ring of said pennies.
Given your success with copper tape and now the promise of my success with the pennies, I'd say slugs don't like copper. It may be that the actual copper content was too low in the tape and mesh I was using. Do you know the brand name of the stuff you use?
I suspect you're right about beer attracting more slugs than I started out with. I was initially just amazed to find something that had any effect at all.
Good to know the diotomaceous earth acts as a barrier. I read somewhere that it worked by serrating and desiccating the slug's body - so that was off-putting. Long story short, I'm now going to add some diotomaceous earth to my penny barrier and I'll give an update as to how that goes.
Again, thank you and happy gardening - or in my case yardening. Parent
It's not just that they don't like copper, it actually electrocutes them because of the make-up of their slime, apparently. The fact that the pennies are working testifies to that.
Diotomaceous earth doesn't work as well, in my experience, but it's a good backup, especially in places that aren't amenable to surrounding with copper tape.
Seaweed and salt marsh hay only reduce slug problems, but they sure don't eliminate them, as you've discovered.
Also, if you can stand it, laying down a few flat pieces of lumber or even a plastic bag near the problem areas, then lifting it in the morning and killing the slugs that congregate underneath it can help.
It's an endless battle, though, since they reproduce like crazy.
Good luck! I imagine slugs must have some sort of useful function in the ecosystem, but damned if I know what it is. Parent
Keep drowning the slugs unless you are losing plants. Then go to chemicals. Parent
Apparently, the two sons have not spoken to either parent since Madoff's fraudulent schemes were revealed, though his wife visits him regularly at the jail. His wife isn't attending the sentencing for fear of being victimized by Madoff's victims. She appeared to be quite indignant over her situation. Parent
