Ashley

Wow, that's a pretty intense wall cloud! Scary looking! :jaw:

When I used to work at a gas station in high school, a pack of Marbs was right around $4.75. It's crazy how much they have went up. I don't know if it has anything to do with the area or not, we're pretty rural, so maybe that has something to do with it. Oh well, I have far better things to spend my money on!

I never have, nor will I be, a smoker, so I personally love this. I used to work in a bar for about four years and I hated coming home every night smelling like a walking cigarette -- my clothes, my hair, everything. It was disgusting. Then the owner of the bar developed health problems and they ended up making the bar smoke free for his sake. Since I don't smoke, it's a little hard for me to see the other side of things because I see absolutely no benefits at all from smoking. However, I understand that people don't like being told by the government what they can and cannot due, as far as their personal habits go. With the rising price of cigarettes, though, how many people are going to be able to afford to smoke? The last time I was in the checkout line at Wal-Mart, I noticed the cigarettes behind the clerk were $9.00+ for a pack of Marlboro's! Yikes, pretty expensive price someone is paying to kill themselves quicker.

Exactly what I do, too! I go to school at Northern Michigan University and the CEO of Starbucks graduated from here. As a gift, he donated a Starbucks to the University and it's in the basement of our library. When students are on a meal plan, they get a certain amount of "dining dollars" to use at Starbucks -- when I was on the meal plan, I got $75.00 per semester to use there. It was quite nice. I don't have a meal plan anymore since we moved into an apartment, but now I make my own coffee and I use Coffee House Inspirations by International Delight in Vanilla Latte -- tastes just as good and I can control how strong I want the coffee (Very strong!) I've never personally had a problem with Starbucks, but I'd agree that they are pretty expensive.

Congratulations High school goes by so fast! Enjoy every moment while you can because it only goes faster once you get out! I'm almost a senior in college already and it seems like yesterday I was graduating middle school. You'll do fine, I'm sure!

I'd rather be out in the woods doing my own hunting than watch any of the hunting shows

That's too creepy, and right by the child's swing set! Yeah, and the DNR tried to tell me that the cougar that attacked Thumper was "most likely a fisher." You are so right, PotashRLS. There have been a bunch of cougar sightings up here in Northern WI, also, within the past five to ten years, and it makes me angry that the DNR doesn't want to admit these animals exist here.

Happy birthday! Glad to hear you're having a wonderful 28th

They were just mentioning he wasn't in good health this morning on the Today show. Sad to hear he passed

This whole oil spill is RIDICULOUS! The amount of oil getting into the ocean is unreal. BP doesn't seem to be moving too quickly on all of this, either. I really hope they stop this soon -- it's wrong that we're probably going to have to end up footing the bill for this one.

That's a little creepy, if I do say so myself. I'd definitely report it; who knows what this guy was a part of. You can't be too careful these days...

Well maybe if the DNR people would get out of their office once and a while and actually go check out the woods, they might find those statistics a wee bit different ...

That's a good one

We have a changing table out in the porch right now that I had been re-painting. The mountain lion must have ran across the bottom shelf of the table because this is a picture of the claw marks it left. There are several coats of paint on it and it scratched all the way down to the original paint color. There were also several footprints that were left on the table, and this is the best one I could take. I have outlined the print in red and if any of you can help me decipher what the track is, that would be awesome.

We went to visit him at the vet's today. He's doing better -- he used his litter box, he was up and moving around, cleaning himself, and kneading his paws from happiness when I petted him. We're not bringing him home until tomorrow sometime because the puncture wounds are still bleeding and draining. I'd rather he stays safe where he needs to be in case something were to happen. Here is a picture of him from today: I think you're right, camoman1. I believe it was a young mountain lion that attacked him now that I've Googled images of bobcats, lynx, and mountain lions. We actually found the paw and claw marks from the animal and it had BIG paws. Thank you everyone for the well wishes. It is a miracle he is alive.

I was watching the updates on the Weather Channel. I hope you are all safe down there. God be with you!

I had just sat down at the computer tonight around 11:00PM to check my Facebook quickly before going to bed when I heard some scuffling from the screened porch we have added on to our house. My cat Thumper, who turns eighteen next month, was outside and I figured another stray cat was trying to pick a fight with him, as that often happens. The scuffle died down, and then no more than ten seconds later, it started up again, and this time, I heard the patio furniture move, so I knew this was not a stray cat. I ran as fast as I could and flipped on the porch light and flung open the metal door and looked out the screen door into the porch only to see Thumper fighting for his life, backed up against one of the porch windows. I yelled, "HEY!" because I couldn't see the animal at first, as it was under the patio table. It shot out from under the table, and I saw Thumper jolt from his spot. I then saw the animal. It was about the size of a small/medium dog with a short haired brown coat and big paws, but it wasn't spotted -- the coat was the color of a deer. I had no weapon near me at the time and I began to scream as loud as I could, over and over. The thing ran around the porch confused, looking for a way out, and it finally ran out the storm door. We found Thumper hiding behind our grill in the porch and he was on his back flailing and had very shallow breathing combined with wheezing and blood pouring down his neck We IMMEDIATELY got him to the vet, who just happened to be on call, THANK THE LORD!!!!!!! She put a tracheal tube in him to drain the blood out and sedated him lightly to get him to stop thrashing. He had gone into shock. She gave him an IV to get fluids back into him and also gave him some steroids and antibiotics, as she said bobcats/lynx often have bacteria infested mouths. (Thumper has all his shots, thankfully.) She eventually took the tracheal tube out because he was beginning to come to, and she left the room for a second and Thumper suddenly stopped breathing. My dad started to pump on him to try to get him to breathe, and the vet rushed back into the room and put her stethoscope on him and couldn't find a pulse. Somehow, after about thirty seconds of death basically, he took a breath, then another, and then another. By the time we left, (he's staying there overnight), he was breathing on his own without the tube, he had been moved to a kennel with a heating pad underneath him, a cushioned bed, the IV still attached to him, and he was beginning to wake up a little from the sedation. When I kissed him and told him I loved him, he looked up at me, so his eyes were moving. Please please PLEASE pray he makes it. I have had this cat since I was three years old and I feel that God put me in the right spot at the right time -- fractions of a second later, he would have been dead. He has several puncture wounds where you can tell the animal had just about sunk his teeth into him for good, but they're quite small and bleeding had stopped by the time we left. His lungs luckily didn't fill with blood, or at least very much blood, and everything coagulated. I have a gold, 7mm. .08 bullet waiting for that bobcat/lynx if it ever gets brave enough to show itself again. By the time I had run to the gun cabinet and had the gun in my hand, the thing was already long gone. This is a recent picture of Thumper. I love him very much and I am going to be severely upset if he doesn't make it

We go hunting with each other I'm lucky that we don't have to worry about arguing about time spent in the outdoors. We're going to teach our son to hunt also, so I can't complain. Maybe one day she will realize how important it is to you and want to try it, you never know!

I've only seen the movie, but I would love to see it on Broadway someday. It is definitely one of my favorites!

Nice gobbler, jcwa!! And congrats to you, too, Ambuscher!

That's a very nice family picture Cute girls!

What a cutie Glad to see everyone is doing well!

Good for her

That's pretty sad.

Congratulations on the little one Post pictures soon!!