Friday, March 28, 2003

Vino du night 1994 Taurino Patriglione. High end but very a typical Taurino - tarry and big. Just the way unruly Italian wines should be! The Patriglione, unlike the other Taurino wines, is also super fruity - almost sweet. It edges up on Amarone territory. 9:37:54 PM    comment []

So Charles is continuing to dink with his site. When is he going to add comments?!!!! And when do we get to see what he looks like? Is he tall or is he a little shortie? Cute? Handsome? Who knows? 9:27:57 PM    comment []

War Thoughts I agree with Mom. The talking heads are just over the top - I've avoided them like the plague. I am listening to NPR which seems to be o.k. Not Pro. Not Anti. They're just trying to cover the war in the best way they can. So here are some random thoughts after a little over a week (has it been just a week?!) of war: The New York Times (yeah yeah - I know - "liberal media") ran a thought provoking article on Wednesday: Hearing from the Voice of America and the BBC's shortwave broadcasts of American generals' cautious plans for moving into Baghdad, the [Baghdad] family members said they were worried about the possibility of violent retribution against people like themselves, people with Western educations and relatives in America, if the progress toward the American capture of Baghdad was slow. This was very sobering. I have no doubt that Saddam or his sons (especially his sons) would do just that. He has a history of grotesque retribution. What this means is that our war would result in the horrific deaths of many of the very people we are there to "liberate." Are we prepared for this? From today's Sgt. Stryker: The Army's senior ground commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, told reporters Thursday: ``The enemy we're fighting is different from the one we'd war-gamed against.'' I saw that quote and was immediately reminded of this story from last year: War games rigged? General says Millennium Challenge 02 'was almost entirely scripted'. John Stryker passes on a very interesting story about overly scripted war games. The wargame script was completely done in by an opposing general who refused to play by the rules (script). That story reminds me of Star Trek's Kobayashi Maru. All Star Fleet Academy senior cadets must take this test and all but one failed. Captain Kirk (of course) reprogrammed the computer, changed the rules of the test and beat it. The moral is that you can beat anything if you change the rules of the game. I think that's what could be happening in Iraq. We were expecting the Gulf War circa 1991. What we may be getting is Vietnam circa 1968. I think it's safe to say that most of us (including me) expected this to be a very quick war - after all we flattened them in 1991. We didn't think the Iraqis would resist. Saddam is a butcher and we're there to rescue the Iraqi people. I now realize that is very simplistic thinking for a very complex situation. Of course, Saddam and Sons are monsters, but to have your homeland invaded (even under the flag of liberation) by a foreign non-Muslim power is another thing entirely. At the very least, Iraqis must feel very conflicted. I think Where's Raed demonstrates that ambivalence. How would we feel if Washington DC was being leveled by "liberators?" To finish up, I have this nagging feeling that this war could turn out to be a fiasco. I hope for the sake of our troops and the Iraqi people that I'm wrong. But I just have a bad feeling. The Iraqis changed the rules and didn't tell us. The US was prepared to do some fast serious ass whupping - get in, win, get out, move on to the next Axis of Evil country. I think this Iraqi engagement is not going to be fast. We'll win (defined by getting Saddam), but it will be much messier and much longer than anticipated. 8:45:52 PM    comment []

A Huge Relief on the Health Front! My Interstim Implant has NOT moved. Not at all! Here's the scoop: I was able to get in to see my doctor's nurse today. We confabbed with my Seattle doc via phone. They had me dial my unit waaaaaayy up. I was pretty skittish about this maneuver - when my first implant moved in December, I did that very thing and ended up getting the stuffing shocked out of me when I bent over. However, this time when I went way up, I finally started feeling the shock at just the right level in just the right place. The implant had not moved at all. Instead, it appears as if I had some post operative swelling/edema that finally subsided this week. The swelling reduction probably resulted in a little extra room between the implant lead and the sacral nerve. So I just needed additional juice to hit the nerve. I am so happy - I won't need yet another surgery after all. Whew! I can continue on with the business of recovery. Yea! 8:21:56 PM    comment []

Via today's Street Life: HOW MANY DOGS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB? GOLDEN RETRIEVER: The sun is shining, the day is young, we've got our whole lives ahead of us, and you're inside worrying about a stupid burned-out bulb? LAB: Oh, me, me! Pleeeeeeze let me change the light bulb! Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can I? GERMAN SHEPHERD: I'll change it as soon as I've led these people from the dark, checked to make sure I haven't missed any, and make just one more perimeter patrol to see that no one has tried to take advantage of the situation. JACK RUSSELL TERRIER: I'll just pop it in while I'm bouncing off the walls and furniture. COCKER SPANIEL: Why change it? I can still pee on the carpet in the dark. OLD ENGLISH SHEEP DOG: Light bulb? I'm sorry, but I don't see a light bulb. CATS: Dogs do not change light bulbs. People change light bulbs. So, the question is: How long will it be before I can expect light? 8:05:06 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Stephanie A. Kesler. Last update: 4/1/2003; 9:07:22 PM.