For a little Halloween atmosphere.

Lyman called the IRS (that's the federal income tax agency in the US) for a reason.

He was put on hold. The recorded voice said, "Our representatives are helping other customers. Please hold."

Customers? CUSTOMERS?!!!!

Talking to the IRS is always a horror story, with zombies.

Happy Halloween!

"Oh, that color."

I'm looking at the ribbing of the sweatshirt I'm wearing today. It's a dedicated "small paint sweatshirt".

Why do I keep clothes so long?

The babyshit mustard paint on this shirt, what designers now call "Tuscany gold", is the artefact of a bad yellow color that my mother chose for the house I grew up in. It wasn't badly her fault. She didn't try it before she painted, that's all. She wanted champagne and wound up with light lager. She asked me to paint a door.

This color was for the trim.

Lucy has another egg. It was there yesterday.

Back in the day, in the suburbs of Dallas, our newspaper group ran pretty baby contests.

It was more fun than a lot of revenue projects. Babies are a funny lot. But the revenue benefits were iffy. The project was time consuming. It raised printing costs. Where our papers sold in newsstands, people would pay for one paper and steal another half dozen for the ballot forms.

At any rate, if you'd like to look at the baby pictures at the Alexandria Town Talk newspaper, they're here.

I'd guess the contest is easier to manage online.

UPDATE: I like the expression on #088. How about the dimples on #032? #436 has enormous eyes. #077 is going to cut my Social Security payments.

#396 seems to have a wild sense of humor. She's my fave.

It's 54 degrees out there today. It hasn't been as low as 54 at night here.

I am reading this book. How in the world do you pronounce the name Delesdernier?

Which Classical Music Composer are You? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Tchaikovsky You are Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky! One of the most well know Russian composers today, Tchaikovsky drew much inspiration from folk songs and his own melancholy. He was homosexual but conceal it through a failed marriage and several other ill-fated relationships. Tchaikovsky 69% J.S. Bach 63% Franz Liszt 50% Hector Berlioz 44% Antonin Dvorak 0%

The verification for this post is zmvynbiy, which might mean something in Russian.

(Thank you, Chef Tony.)

They're doing it again, and this story provides as good an example as any:

Jindal, 36, will be the nation's youngest sitting governor. The son of Indian immigrants, he will also be the first Indian American governor in U.S. history, and the first nonwhite to hold the job in Louisiana since Reconstruction (emphasis mine).

Raise your hand if you've ever lived in a state with a non-white governor. Which state was it, and what was the governor's name?

In the twentieth century, Hawaii had some non-white governors, Douglas Wilder was the African-American governor of Virginia for a while, and Deval Patrick is currently governor of Massachusetts. Anyone else?

UPDATE: Bruce Moomaw over at James Joyner's place brings up Gary Locke, the Chinese-American governor of Washington for a period, and Bill Richardson, the mostly Hispanic governor of New Mexico. That's a big four on the continent.

Lucy has another egg. I don't know whether it belongs to the 20th or the 21st.

She broke the other one from this clutch.

This story raises a smile.

Before I forget, Lucy laid an egg at 10:50 p.m. on October 17.

Mr. Paul Palubicki and Peg Britton have posted different exercises to find the candidates who hold opinions closest to yours.

The one at Paul's place is far more comprehensive, but Peg's is fine for a quick look.

My rump would not be so sore if I'd listened to my mama and spent more time cleaning baseboards than painting them.

A friend sent us this video of Snowball, the dancing cockatoo.

This boy has some rhythm.

If that dancer is not your type, try this one.

You know, I've been figuring our electric savings from our improvements wrong.

After changing some lightbulbs, I estimate the baseload of our house to be about 900kW a month. That includes refrigerators and computers, washer and dryer, lights and ventilation. That can't be changed without replacing appliances.

Changing the windows and ducts, and sealing the chase, the recessed lights and air supply boots affect air-conditioning usage, or later, gas usage.

So today, when I read the meter for a months usage at 1486, and compare it to last year's usage for the same month, 1811 with an estimated baseload of 1000 kW, I should calculate the variable energy savings. Let's see, 811-586=225, 225/811=27.7. Absolute savings is 17.9 percent.

But all of this is senseless without a comparison of degree days for the two reporting periods. If you have a source where I can find historical numbers, I'd be most appreciative. I can find a month's worth at accuweather.com.

How are you doing, Mr. Gore? Congratulations on the prize.

Beware! Wet paint!

African Grey parrots have the reputation for being smart, but watch this macaw.

The tape is in French. If that bothers you, turn the sound down.

Margaret is one of the great names for women. What did her friends call her, Frederick?

What did you call her? I called mine "Mother". She was tired of "Mama" many years ago.

Everyone, including grandchildren, calls Lyman's mother "Girl".

It's no fun at all going south if you can't go all Tennessee Williams, now, is it?

Do di do, ah, do di do.

Wait just a damn minute, Gary Post-Tribune.

20,000 people from across the nation didn't descend on Jena, Louisiana, because they thought it was a problem unique to the Deep South. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were explicit in their motives regarding the march in Jena: to call attention to racially unfair prosecution across the country.

Why they couldn't do that at home is a different question, and I don't know enough to go there.

However, a little point Gary might take into consideration is from this article in the Concordia Sentinel:

While hate groups exist all over the country, it is erroneous to say the Ku Klux Klan still operates here, Ingram said, adding that the only Klan organization he knows of today is in Indiana.

Stanley Nelson is investigating a 60's Klan murder in Ferriday.

UPDATE: That goes for you, too, John Mellencamp.

Mostly Cajun has one of the best Boudreaux jokes I've read in a long time. And it's clean!

I visited my new doctor's office this morning. More get acquainted stuff, mainly, with a liquid nitrogen treatment of a seborrheic keratosis that had emerged on my back.

The doctor is one of five doctors in the clinic. The waiting room is large, and today, cold. Is this one of those buildings that's cold in the summer and hot in the winter?

Charlie was carrying on in his cage before I left this morning. His most-used phrase now is "Mr. Wolf," most often done as a call. He might howl or might not.

So in a seamless transition from home to doctor's office, the first patient called after I arrived was Mr. Wolf.

I woke this morning to an e-mail from the director of Warnings. He was googling his name and found this entry from last year.

It's been over 25 years since we've exchanged greetings.