Whoa! Time to spew....
I was watching the Dr. Phil special on Pat O'Brien tonight and I sent the following to CBS:

Dr. Phil,
Confronting Pat O'Brien about the insanity of his behavior while actively alcoholic/addicted as if he should have known better based on the logic in your mind is ridiculous.
Alcoholism is a disease (check with the AMA) which defies logic.
I hope your program helps people to understand the insidious nature of alcoholism.
I have to wonder though what the motive is for airing this program. One can only infer that your network would not air this program if it did not think it could make money on it. The easiest way to make money is probably to make it sensational.
The popular view of alcoholism is that it is a choice and that only weak-willed, criminal types choose to do the insane things that people do while under the influence. Sensationalizing the things that a highly visible personality did while under the influence serves very little purpose but to reinforce the ill-informed opinion that alcohol and drug addiction is a choice that alcoholics and addicts continue to make.
I'd like you to know two things. First, once you cross the line into alcoholism, drinking is a voracious compulsion and not a clear "choice". Second, you never know when you cross the line only that you are on the other side.
Thank you for considering my view.

For those of you following along at home, I'm an alcoholic. If I can stay sober til the 25th of this month, it will be 18 years since my last drink. My recovery means everything to me. It is the most important thing in my life.

Lots of things have been building up that I want to write about. I wonder if I'll remember most of them.

I just finished listening to the audiobook of "The Secret Life of Bees." It was WONDERFUL!!! It was read by a woman who sounds just like the 14 year old southern girl that the book is about. I cherish this book. It was portrayed in the reviews on Audible.com as a book about women for women. Well, I like women. I like chick flicks and books that make me cry. This one made me laugh and it made me cry. It is a treasure. Read it. Listen to it.

We have only two more days of classes at St. Norbert and then a week of finals and it's "Summertime and the livin' is easy." Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high. Your daddy's rich, and your ma is good lookin'. So hush little baby, don't you cry......

Yeah, I wanna go upstairs and play my guitar and listen to my old LP's. Seems like there is so little time for everything yet I'm very afraid of giving up the security of work. I don't need the security of the money. I'm sure Liz can support me in the manner which I have become accustomed to. She nearly has her Master's degree. Just one more summer and she'll be done. She is flying up the salary schedule and her pay is awesome. I can start drawing a comfortable pension any time I want but could probably live on just her salary until I'm 65 and can draw the maximum amount. The thing I don't think I could handle about retirement would be the lack of contact with other people. I have many satisfying relationships at work and it will be hard to leave them when I do.

It's getting hot in here. I have the door closed so the baby kitties can't get in. Here's what happened:
About a week ago, I began to be concerned that when it was time to take the baby kitties to the humane society I would not be able to catch them. They were spending a lot more time in the big woodpile behind Bossler's where there mother was teaching them cat stuff. But Geoff showed up one night with all four of them in the kitty condo so we put them in the bathroom. By this time, Geoff had decided to take one of them. It is one of the all brown ones. He named it Bernouli. Nouli for short. Then Sharon and Dennis Bossler said they wanted a kitten. The came over last Thursday and picked one out but said they didn't want it just yet. When I asked Sharon about it the next day and said I was going to the humane society the next day, she said they wanted two. Sharon wanted the other brown one and Dennis wanted the one with the dark brown spots.
So, all of a sudden, I was down to having to take one little kitty to the humane society. I quickly decided I didn't want to do that but Geoff said he only wanted one. I said I'd take the one in but Liz, bless her heart, said I could have a kitten. I think that's WE can have a kitten but it doesn't matter. The LAST one is smaller than the others, was the most scared of humans and has eyes that are red and runny. But he's improved by leaps and bounds since we've adopted him. I think I'm going to call him Dynamite because he's so adventuresome and loves to wrestle and play with Nouli. We'll take them to the vet and get their shots and have them checked for fleas and stuff.
Smokey does not like the kitties and she hisses and bats at them. We will have to ease them into cohabitating. For now, Nouli and Dynamite live in the bathroom. They are a real show when I inhabit the throne (Baseball, Apple Pie, Televison shows, what's your favorite movie?) (Did I get your mind out of my bathroom?) in the morning. They run and chase each other's tails. They wrestle and gnaw on each others feet and heads and bodies. They are just a riot. Everyone should have baby kittens at least once in their lives. When you look at baby kitties, how can you believe that there is no God?

I'm getting kind of tired so it's time for me to pack it up. My new computer is very cool. How did I live without a 20 inch LCD and 3ghz processor? God has blessed me so richly in so many ways. The older I get, the more I understand how blessed I am. Thank you, Lord.

Ciao, babies!