Check Out the Two-headed Turtle!

I've been so wrapped up in Hurricane Rita this past week and a half that I haven't had the opportunity to amuse myself with the other oddities and pleasures in life.

But check this out...

A policeman found a a two-headed turtle near a river in Cuba. The tiny turtle is about a week old and was found near one of the country's most contaminated rivers.

Had it not been noticed in a pile of leaves by Officer Alexander Napoles the turtle may have died, but now it has been taken to a local aquarium. Although Alexis Fernandez, a biologist from the National Aquarium of Cuba, said: "It is an animal that is at a disadvantage or that has certain anomalies.", the little fellow appears to be healthy and experts are keeping a close watch on it.

Fernandez further stated, "The probability of its survival will be very limited in the natural world or in captivity."

Photo courtesy of bbc.co.uk.

Wonder what else is happening with me???

Check out the sidebar, under "What else is happening with me?"!

Specifically, for the last week plus... check out my Hurricane Rita Journal!

Eventually, life will return to normal. I'm looking forward to it!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Care to guess how old I am today?

20 Best Excuses for Calling in Sick

According to MSN Careerbuilder and Kate Lorenz, Editor (outdated link removed) comes this stunning report:

You've heard of the dog who ate homework, but what about the cat who unplugged the alarm clock? These days, people are getting very creative when they don't want to go to work.

In CareerBuilder's survey "Out of the Office," more than one-third of U.S. workers say they played hooky from work over the last twelve months. Thirty-five percent of workers admit to calling in sick when they felt well at least once during the last year and one-in-ten said they did so three or more times.

Why are they calling in sick? The top three motivators for faking include attending to personal errands and appointments, catching up on sleep and simply relaxing. The reasons also include attending a child's event, bad weather, making plans with friends and going on a job interview.

"It's a popular time of year for employees to call in sick," said Rosemary Haefner, Senior Career Advisor for CareerBuilder.com. "However, the number of those who are actually feeling under the weather may not necessarily match up with unscheduled absences. Twenty percent of workers say they called into work because they just didn't feel like going into the office that day. One-in-four workers report they feel sick days are equivalent to extra vacation days and treat them as such."

The 2004 CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey, conducted for CCH by Harris Interactive® confirmed this trend. CCH found most employees who fail to show up for work, however, aren't physically ill, according to the survey. In fact, the study found only 38 percent of unscheduled absences are due to personal illness, while 62 percent are for other reasons, including family issues (23 percent), personal needs (18 percent), stress (11 percent) and entitlement mentality (10 percent).

One trend that also may be influencing the higher rate of unscheduled absences is the fact that the number of employers allowing employees to carry over sick time from one year to the next is trending downward and has dropped from more than one-half of companies (51 percent) in 2000 to 37 percent in 2004. As a result, employees may be saying, "I'd rather use it than lose it," noted Lori Rosen, J.D., CCH workplace analyst, and author of HR Networking: Work-Life Benefits.

But could you get away with saying you had to go to your mother's dog's funeral or that you had brain cancer? Would you believe an employee who had the swine flu, forgot the way to work, or was arrested because of mistaken identity? Think carefully, if you're debating calling in sick, here are some of the most unusual excuses workers gave for missing work:

I was sprayed by a skunk.

I tripped over my dog and was knocked unconscious.

My bus broke down and was held up by robbers.

I was arrested as a result of mistaken identity.

I forgot to come back to work after lunch.

I couldn't find my shoes.

I hurt myself bowling.

I was spit on by a venomous snake.

I totaled my wife's jeep in a collision with a cow.

A hitman was looking for me.

My curlers burned my hair and I had to go to the hairdresser.

I eloped.

My brain went to sleep and I couldn't wake it up.

My cat unplugged my alarm clock.

I had to be there for my husband's grand jury trial.

I had to ship my grandmother's bones to India.

I forgot what day of the week it was.

Someone slipped drugs in my drink last night.

A tree fell on my car.

My monkey died.

Is Aruba's Government Covering Up Again?????

If you are interested in the Natalee Holloway case, and have concerns about the way the case was handled, please read this article, posted on the SaveSanNicolas.com website. The title of the article is "IS ARUBA’S GOVERNMENT COVERING UP AGAIN??????".

I've done a lot of research over the past few months. Putting the individual pieces together portrays an appalling and highly suspect picture.

Speaking of Enough...

You gotta read this article by the fine folks at Scared Monkeys:

Who Is to Blame for For Hurricane Response
The following is a snippet from their post:

Unfortunately in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina people have decided to play the blame game instead of concentrating on the matter at hand, evacuating the people from the hard hot Gulf coast regions and providing them with care. Of course we need a scape goat in all of this and by the looks of how the hurricane response was handled it appears that there is more than enough of blame to go around.

The MSM and curious enough the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans seem to be the loudest critics of the Federal Government and President George W. Bush. What a shock. I think Mayor Ray Nagin best look at his own actions. A really good look. Some how in all of this due to political partisanship, not only is President Bush responsible for the slow hurricane response many also are blaming him for the hurricane as well. Even some people in this country have decided to as well. Even though the focus should be on relief efforts, lets look at who the American people think is to blame.

I've had Enough of Sean Penn

Taking the lead from my good pal, Rufus, I've had enough of celebrity actions and comments.

And that includes Oprah and her "correspondents" that I raced home early to watch, only to learn that they blame the government and the people of feelings of racial discrimination and disconcern.

And, of course, to the best non-story of the day, Sean Penn's efforts to Bush-bash and play super-hero:

EFFORTS by Hollywood actor Sean Penn to aid New Orleans victims stranded by Hurricane Katrina foundered badly overnight, when the boat he was piloting to launch a rescue attempt sprang a leak.

Mr Penn had planned to rescue children waylaid by Katrina's flood waters, but apparently forgot to plug a hole in the bottom of the vessel, which began taking water within seconds of its launch.

The actor, known for his political activism, was seen wearing what appeared to be a white flak jacket and frantically bailing water out of the sinking vessel with a red plastic cup.

When the boat's motor failed to start, those aboard were forced to use paddles to propel themselves down the flooded New Orleans street.

Asked what he had hoped to achieve in the waterlogged city, the actor replied: Whatever I can do to help."

With the boat loaded with members of Penn's entourage, including a personal photographer, one bystander taunted the actor: "How are you going to get any people in that thing?"

090405 what a day...

The weather was mild and sunny, today, but the human condition is incredibly depressing. The death toll, as we all knew it would, continues to rise. People are still trapped in their attics. Riots and other civil arrest are on the increase. There are areas of devastation that we are ony now discovering.

Continuing conversation here in Houston ranges from heart wrenching compassion to worries of disease, crime, personal safety and property tax implications. That said, I don't know anyone who hasn't generously donated to the various relief funds. Volunteers are being turned away at this point, because there are simply too many at the moment. Those conditions will change in the coming months, I'm sure.

And it was an awful newsday:

1. Chief Justice Rehnquist passed away over night.
2. Police shot and killed at least five people today after eight gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors with police escorts, while traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs.
3. A civilian helicopter crashed today in New Orleans, slightly injuring two people.
4. The disaster has even made the homepage of Aljazeera. Their coverage includes an article entitled "Friends and foes offer US Katrina help".

I had to get away for a while, so I drove down to the coast and went to lunch with a friend of mine. Katrina and her aftermath dominated our conversations. It could very easily be us one day. It was good, still, to get away from the television and radio... and to feel the warmth of our long-lasting (and eternal) friendship.