·:[ Jason On A Shtick ]:·
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They come home from school.  It is like any other day.  They are talking.  I am standing in the kitchen.  Mommy hands me a sheet of paper.  I look at it.

My head starts to sweat.  They are still talking, but now I can’t hear clearly.  Retelling the story from the car…  “Don’t laugh Mommy, it’s a love letter to Mason!” … “Does he write them to you?” … “No, but I am going to try to get him to write one!”

Now my eyes hurt.  She is talking to me now.  Telling me about ladybugs they have at school.  I see her mouth move, but I hear different words.  “I want a big wedding, Daddy!”  It is like slow motion, like a car wreck.

The room is turning.  I’ve made her repeat it many times in jest.  “I can’t get married until I’m thirty.”  She doesn’t know what it means.  She doesn’t know.

Now we are outside.  She is playing.  With the boy next door.  I can’t see, it is too bright.  I only hear her laughing.

There is no spoon.  There is no spoon.

Our university’s president has a really nice Facebook page.  Only problem is that it’s not his!  Most likely created as a prank by a student, the alarming part about the page is how realistic it is, right down to the education history and recent photo from our own school web site.  Our public relations folks were getting nervous because people might actually think it is his page and start friending him.  As Director of IT, this is obviously my problem, so I was asked to see what I could do about it.

We could easily contact Facebook (and when I write “we”, please read it with a super sarcastic tone to mean “they”), but that takes time and by golly this needs to get fixed!  I figured I’d try a little diplomatic legerdemain, so I sent the “president” a message on Facebook.

I don’t want to give away all my tricks, but let’s just say that within a couple days, the page was gone and everyone was happy.  Just like the Secret Service, I’m protecting our president each and every day!

No, prohibition hasn’t been declared (yet).  This is simply the line at Liquor Barn to get this year’s Keeneland Maker’s Mark bottle.  More folks show up every year, but they always seem to have enough for everyone to make more than one pass through the line.

I am a big fan of organization and efficiency and Liquor Barn does not disappoint.  They have the bottles out and ready and all of their registers open.  They even bring around a free coffee and snack cart – can’t beat that on a windy, rainy day!

Here we are on the second pass with people frantically running to get back in line after stashing their first bottle in the car.  Take it easy, people – there’s plenty to go around!

If I have my facts straight, this is the thirteenth Keeneland bottle, with 1997 being the first (please correct me if I am wrong).  I have everything from 2000 on (thanks to my next door neighbors having a few extras of the first couple of years) as well as several other special edition bottles.  I may need more shelf space!

I had no idea that such an animal existed until I ran into this one in an older IBM X series laptop, shown next to a better known 2.5 inch disk: