Noticed a lot of tea-drinking in the stories lately. Well I'm gonna speak up for all us who are addicted to our cuppa joe. Found this on Gizmodo after hearing about it on the news.

Coffee Drinkers Live Longer

Millions of us start the morning with a coffee and think nothing of it. But new medical research suggests that it could be helping you live longer—if you drink enough of it.

Found this on PhotoBlip.com:

Today, after I watched my dog get run over by a car, I sat on the side of the road holding him and crying. And just before he died, he licked the tears off my face.

Today, someone else's tragedy provided the miracle my family had prayed for. Thanks to this stranger, my dad will have a heart. It's so odd to think that an accidental death just saved his life.

Much more can be found here: http://www.photoblip.com/pictures/34178/these-damn-onions.html

Found this on Boing-Boing, which sometimes has the darnedest stories. So if you are into such things, here's something that makes the guys cringe when they see it.

http://boingboing.net/2012/05/14/jagged-anti-boner-ring.html...

Sarah McBride says she loves politics and loves her home state of Delaware.

A native of Wilmington, McBride, 21, has been active in Delaware politics since the age of 13 and worked on the 2008 election campaign of Gov. Jack Markell (D). When Markell won the Democratic primary in September 2008, he and his wife Carla invited McBride to introduce the future governor on the stage where he delivered his victory speech.

I want to introduce y'all to this author on BC. She's a damn good writer and has penned some really good stories that are posted here. She's even got a story/novel on Amazon. Who is this paragon, you may be asking?

ABC News

By JULIA KATHAN and SHEILA MARIKAR (@SheilaYM)
April 18, 2012

Dick Clark, the music industry maverick, longtime TV host and powerhouse producer who changed the way we listened to pop music with "American Bandstand," and whose trademark "Rockin' Eve" became a fixture of New Year's celebrations, died today at the age of 82.

Clark's agent Paul Shefrin said in statement that the veteran host died this morning following a "massive heart attack."

My grandnephew came through surgery just fine! His new heart is working just fine, his color is good, he has good circulation in his extremities, in short everything is positive!

My 11 yr old grandnephew is in surgery as I write this; he is having a heart transplant.

London's dystopian Olympics: criminal sanctions for violating the exclusivity of sponsors' brands

BOING BOING | APRIL 14, 2012
By Cory Doctorow at 5:50 am Saturday, Apr 14

Anybody heard from Lauran Travis? She hasn't posted in several years and I haven't heard from her in at least that long. Then all of a sudden I started getting what appears to be the typical spam message from her addressed to me. So I was wondering if anybody had kept in touch with her and had a reasonably current email addy.

From Birchbox Blog:

Stop Hair Before It Grows

Interesting cartoon posted on the Wipeout Homophobia On Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf#!/photo.php?fbid=402468293112567&set=a.382764341749629.108480.122256581133741&type=3&theater

For some reason I can't make this a link, so cut-n-paste into your own browser.

An English family finds that a cancer cure for their daughter is more than just medicine in Oklahoma.

http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-uk-family-comes-to-ok-fo... (please excuse the short ad at the start)

Be sure and watch the video also and have a few hankies ready!

Two of them, actually. The first one is fairly recent. Guy turns into a girl, and because mom made him play dolls with his little sister, (s)he has an addiction to pink.

Second one is much older. Guy tells best friend he is going to a different college than the two of them had planned, and the friend gets all upset and feels betrayed. Second part is from an outside viewpoint, and it seems everybody else thinks he is actually a girl. One calls his pack a "hobo bag" which is a style of purse. Oh, first guy is a transfer student, small build, long hair, kinda fem-looking face.

Karen

According to a local newscast, the defense team for Pvt. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking secret documents to Wikileaks, says Manning has Gender-Identity-Disorder. It was one of his alternate female personalities that leaked the documents. ???????

I have not been able to come up with a source for that last statement, but the APWire has this in it's story: "The defense has said that Manning, who is gay, was bullied by fellow soldiers. Manning's defense team says he told Adkins he suffered from gender-identity disorder - the belief that he was born the wrong sex."

Some of you may have heard about the Troy, MI mayor's comment on her Facebook page that came out last week last week. Janice Daniels, the recently-elected mayor, posted this on her FB page back in June: “I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there.”

SAN ANTONIO -- A local college student says she was fired from her job for refusing to allow a transgender woman into the women's dressing room. Now she's speaking out, saying her religion conflicts with the store's transgender policy.

Liberty Counsel, a religious advocacy group, is representing 27-year-old Natalie Johnson after she was fired over the Nov. 30 confrontation. Johnson said she was never aware of Macy's transgender policy, but now that she is, she doesn't agree with it.

Just on ABC: Steve Jobs has passed away at 56.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sharea/amazing-cyclist-3yj1

I got up this morning to the news that a carbomb exploded in Central Oslo, Norway. Several people are reported killed, many injured and I heard a little while ago that people in the Norwegian Govt. Building (where the carbomb was set off) may be trapped inside.And I just got word from my friends in Norway that a man dressed in a police uniform attacked a youthcamp south of Oslo. The man opened fire with a machine gun, and reports say at least four youths may have been killed.

I've spoken with my family in Oslo and Thank God they are all safe and sound. But I'm still shaken and crying.

Found today online:

"Justice Department seeks to keep enforcing 'don't ask, don't tell' for now"

"The Obama administration wants to stick with the timetable set in last year's congressional action to repeal the controversial policy.The Obama administration asked a federal appeals court late Thursday to suspend its decision last week ordering an end to enforcement of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which bars gay people from serving openly in the armed forces."

Just found this on line at the Tulsa World website:

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Becoming Katie

Katie Hill wasn't born a girl. But she always knew she was meant to be one.

I got this in a regular email I get from the Women On the Web website: http://www.wowowow.com/

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Book Country

"For anybody with a half-completed romance novel on her computer, the idea of sharing it with the world might seem intimidating. What if nobody likes it? Where do you get honest feedback? How will readers respond to Fernando and Gwendolyn's torrid passion?

I just shook my head when I read today's newspaper. The original story contained some terms used in an objectionable manner. Since then it's been cleaned up a bit, and most versions now make it plain he isn't transgendered. But read it for yourself:
http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-man-seeking-sex-change-t...

Karen J.

Well, for those that don't generally follow sports, especially as practiced in the old world, there is great news! Manchester United fell to FC Barcelona in the UEFA Championship by a resounding 3-1. Barcelona owned the game, played in Wembley Stadium, from start to finish despite the antics of United's Wayne Rooney. Somebody ought to inform him he shouldn't start the celebrations until AFTER the game is over!

But as entertaining as his antics might have been to some, his goal was the only time MU scored as FC Barcelona outscored, outclassed, and out-played United.

Well, just over four weeks since my quadruple bypass surgery and I'm slowly getting better. I plan/hope to drive back home Tuesday. Then I will start a rehab therapy program at the local hospital. Joy-joy.

Well, Oklahoma is in the middle of a severe drought, we've had less rain for the year than we normally get just in March. Grass fires are a daily occurrence across the state. If we don't get a lot of rain soon, there will be no wheat or hay to harvest. People had better get ready to pay much more for food as well as gasoline. On the bright side, we here in Oklahoma do have the lowest gas prices in the country. :)

First, thank you to all who responded to my earlier blog. Not only were there far more well-wishers than I expected, there were some from people I never would have expected. (There were also a couple of people who were notable by their absence, but that's all I'll say about that.)

Before shutting down here, I decided to upgrade to the Firefox 4. That was an hour and a half ago. Mozilla really screwed the pooch this time! Lots of cosmetic crap that wasn't necessary and really screws up the layout. Several of my most used apps won't work with FF4 It took me less than 5 minutes to decide to go back to the previous version. That's when the fun begin. Uninstalling FF4 did not roll back to the previous version, and no matter what version I tried to download I always ended up with FF4 again.

I enter the local hospital Wednesday morning to have an cardiac catheterization performed, with a distinct possibility of an angioplasty and stenting. I hope that's what happens. The other, (worse) alternative will be a bypass operation, which I really would like to avoid.

Anyway, by about this time tomorrow I should know, although the pre-surgical nurse did mention I could end up being loaded on a med-flight helo and flown to the nearest cardiac care center right away if things are bad enough. I guess that's the worst possibility. :(