This Ramirez cartoon struck me as being rather funny . . .

Funnier yet, Emanuel may be ineligible to run for Chicago Mayor.

One of the more interesting landmarks along the route from Wickenburg to the Phoenix metropolitan area is Buzzard’s Saloon near Morristown, AZ. Buzzard’s may be closed for the summer because the gate always seems to be closed. Many businesses in town post signs that they are closed until fall. Click on the image to enlarge.

We can be at Lake Pleasant in less than an hour from our new house in Arizona. I took this photo in July of this year. It was a little too warm that day for a picnic, so we just did some sightseeing before we drove back to town. It is indeed a pleasant lake and state park. Click on the image to enlarge.

When we were in Wickenburg earlier this month, Damsel ordered all of the appliances for the new house. There is an appliance store in town where our contractor recommended we order the new equipment.

The kitchen appliances will all be stainless steel. Damsel ordered a 23 cubic foot stainless side-by-side freezer and fridge. The microwave sits over the five burner stainless range and oven which is a one-piece built in unit, as is the dishwasher. We will have a stainless two-tub sink under the kitchen window.

I went on to Lowe’s virtual room designer and built the kitchen seen here. Our actual kitchen will not be quite as wide as this model but the appliances will be placed roughly as shown. Our cabinets will probably look a bit different than those pictured here since we went with a rustic southwestern finish.

Click on the image to enlarge.

What a beautiful fall day here in Southern California! We have waited all summer for the weather to be as agreeable as it is in our new Arizona home. It was sunny and warm, about 88° on our patio. I took this photo of Cabela relaxing on the patio swing with “Daddy.” Click on the image to enlarge.

About thirty years ago, I worked in the Preliminary Design Department for a major toy manufacturer. Part of the daily routine on the development team was to play with contemporary games and toys to foster a sense of what kids might like. I remember one of the popular video games at the time was Space Invaders, where alien ships entered the atmosphere and it was the game player’s job to shoot ‘em down.

Since I am interested in development of on-line applications, I subscribe to a blog where Flash™ animation development is discussed. Last week there was a post about a game submitted to the developer’s forum called SWiSH Invaders. It is strongly reminiscent of the game I played (and was never very good at) 30 years ago. I post the game here for your amusement and, if you happen to remember that game, nostalgia.

Link to the on-line game is here.

Not only are they merely dead, they’re really quite sincerely dead . . .

Hat tip: The Patriot Post and Investors Business Daily.

I’m posting this is so DirtCrashr can be again reminded of Hawaii.

This is the second year this plant has been on the patio, but the first pink flowers started to open this week. Click on the image to enlarge.

After nearly twenty years, my old Hewlett Packard 4L Laserjet printer finally bought the farm. The venerable old printer started misfeeding the paper last night causing jams and errors. I tried troubleshooting it for a while but it stubbornly refused to cooperate. So I disconnected it from the network and loaded it up to go to the HAZMAT recycle center on Friday. I have a bunch of other HAZMAT items boxed up so the timing is right.

Image: HP 4L - Click to enlarge

Even before showing signs of failure, it started getting hard to find toner cartridges for the old printer. Fortunately, one on-line source came through a couple of years ago when I ordered a couple of toner cartridges. I used one up and the last one we had started to exhibit signs of going out of toner.

The last time I installed the printer on the new laptop, I had a difficult time locating an on-line source for a proper printer driver. I guess the signs were all there that the time has come for a new printer.

We will be in the market for a new printer when the new house in Arizona is complete. In California, we’re going to scout out and buy a cheapie printer to use until we finally get the house on the market.

Jim Geraghty at NRO’s Campaign Spot forwards this interesting Election Year Dynamic Trend Map from Google:

This shows states senate race trending at the present time. The redder a state is the better for Republican candidates, the bluer states go to Democrats and yellow is a toss-up as of today.

You can change the mode to senate, house or governor races. You can also change the source of polling (limited to a few liberal sources).

Try it yourself.

As Geraghty says, “If your map just keeps getting redder and redder, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s broken.”