Buenos Tardes

Just when I thought I had fewer readers than South Carolina's Mensa
membership,
I stumble across THIS!
href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/bottleneck/2007/03/my_husband_aver.html">THIS!
I'm stunned!

It's a tiny mention but still, there are more of you out there than my husband and two friends. Gosh, golly gee schucks!

Yesterday I booked our tickets to Argentina. Yes, that's right folks. Packin' up and heading to South America for a little vacation in October. I'm going to have to pack enough zanax to take down a small country since in addition to our 16 hour flight there, we have three domestic flights booked to take us down to Patagonia and back.

Being the nut-job organizing freak that I am, I've
already sent out a "temporary itinerary" to the three friends we'll be
traveling with. Even though the trip is six months from now,
well.....it's never too early to have a plan! (No wonder I ended up
working in production.)

In other travel news, the Hubbie and I are headin'
to the desert this weekend. Palm Springs bound! We've rented a house
and plan on spending some QT in my favorite weekend destination.

Growing up we didn't have much money to go on extravagant
vacations. So we'd all hop in the car, (my grandma, grandpa and
parents,) and make the short drive east. (Well, now the two hours seems
short. As an eight year old in the back of my grandma's 1978 brown
Cadillac, the trip was eternal.)

We'd pull out of the driveway, out on to Pico Blvd., and I'd say, "How much longer??? Are we there yet? Ok, how about now? How much longer????"

I couldn't wait to get to the hotel, tear off my clothes and jump into
the pool. I'd swim until I pruned. Doing underwater somersaults and
asking anyone within earshot to "wait, watch me do THIS!"

I remember looking over the water to my Papa and seeing him
smile every time I'd do something ridiculously simple; like cannonball
into the shallow end. And he would clap and smile like I was Greg Louganis
doing a two and a half pike. When I think about these times, I can only
remember snippets. Bits and pieces of film on the cutting room floor.

But these memories, they stay with me and feed me to this day. My Papa's smile. The
way it felt to come out of the pool freezing and teeth chattering while
my Bubbie wrapped a towel, warmed by the sun around me. The most
delicious french toast breakfasts at Bill n' Shel's & eating with the whole
family. The frustration I felt when my mom would make me wear a T-shirt
over my swimsuit, (on top of the 45 Bullfrog greasy sunblock,) as extra
insurance so I wouldn't get sunburned. (Thanks mom. I REALLY do
appreciate that now.)

So many of my friends look back on
family trips with disdain. Not me.

Those trips are some of my best memories and Palm Springs will always be a magical place for me. I can't wait to pack up the car.

Except now it'll be Hubbie who will have to field the "how much further, are we there yet, ok now how much further???" questions.

And maybe I just might make him WATCH ME AGAIN when I do a summersault in the water.

More Uplifting News From Lovely South Carolina...

From Foxnews.com:

Monday , April 16, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. —
Potential jurors were questioned Monday in the trial for a man accused of kidnapping and raping two teenagers and confining them to an underground room hidden behind his home.

Kenneth Glenn Hinson, 48, was arrested in March 2006 and is charged with criminal sexual assault, kidnapping and assault and battery with intent to kill.

The trial will be held in Darlington County, but because of pretrial publicity the jury was being selected at the Georgetown County Courthouse, about 70 miles away.

A pool of about 250 people reported to the Georgetown County Courthouse, said Cynthia Wragg of the clerk's office.

The case attracted national attention when South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said during a four-day manhunt that Hinson — convicted in 1991 for the rape of a 12-year-old girl — could have been indefinitely committed to a state program for sexually violent predators after serving a nine-year prison sentence. Two review committees had recommended that Hinson be placed in the program, warning he could commit a future sex crime.

But Judge Edward Cottingham rejected the plan and set Hinson free. After Hinson's arrest, McMaster argued it was that crucial mistake on Cottingham's part that paved the way for Hinson to assault the teens in the dungeon-like space beneath his home.

Cottingham, a retired but active judge, has said he does not remember the 2000 case. Last year, Hinson appeared before Cottingham as McMaster presented his notice to seek a sentence of life without parole in the new charges.

The girls were sexually assaulted and were bound inside the underground room, but managed to free themselves and escape, authorities have said.

The room was just 4 1/2 feet deep and roughly the length and width of a midsize car. Its floor and walls were lined with two-by-fours. A single 75-watt bulb illuminated the space.





Let me get this straight. A South Carolina judge sets free a convicted child rapist so he can commit the crime again, yet all South Carolina's constituents can think about is banning gay marriage and showing scans of fetuses the size of m&ms to women seeking abortions. (Run on sentence anyone? I do that when I'm angry and can't wait to get the words out. Sorry. But this is just.... F'ED.)

More steam pouring from my ears. ARGH!