nipperkin

Last night police scheduled a press conference for 2pm today regarding a suspect in custody in the Brooke Wilberger case. For those of you not in Oregon, Brooke was a BYU student visiting her sister in Corvallis at an apartment complex maybe half a mile from my apartment. She was out in the parking lot at 10:15 in the morning on May 24, 2004 when she disappeared, leaving her flip flops behind. Since then there have been posters and bracelets and news pieces everywhere trying to get people with tips to call in. We have a poster of her next to our mailboxes, and I've seen them at the coast too.

Anyway, last night police found Joel Courtney, a guy who was in Corvallis on the 24th and is now being held in Albequerque for kidnapping and raping a foreign exchange student down there. He's being charged with 18 counts of sexual assault and murder, including Brooke's, though they haven't found her body yet.

I was pretty sure she was dead, but it still makes it sad when I know for sure. Poor thing.

ROSEBURG, Ore. - A newborn kitten recently entered the world with two faces and, hopefully, at least nine lives.
Gemini was born Sunday with two mouths, two tongues, two noses and four eyes.

"I kind of feel sorry for her, because I can't know for a fact if she's going to live or die," its owner, Lee Bluetear of Glide, told the (Roseburg) News-Review. "If she makes it, she should be a perfectly normal and healthy cat. Other than having two faces."

Roseburg veterinarian Alan Ross, who examined the kitten on Tuesday, said he can't estimate the kitten's life span. He said when he first saw the kitten, he wouldn't have given her more than a 10 percent chance of survival.

"With the three of our veterinarians here, we have a combined total of 50 years of experience," Ross said. "We have never seen anything like this."

Bluetear, 40, said Gemini is much stronger and drinking more milk than in its first few days. Ross said that if the kitten does survive, it might need surgery to remove the extra tissue in between its two mouths.

Bluetear has been breeding different kinds of animals, starting with dogs, since 1980. Roughly three years ago, she discovered a litter of smaller than normal kittens she calls "miniature cats."

She now has plans to market the miniature cats, which grow to about 4 pounds, on the Internet.

Gemini was born to a miniature mother and a full-size father.

"Everybody is totally amazed that this thing exists," Bluetear said.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

http://katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=77861

The pope finally died. Poor thing - I bet he's wanted to go ever since he got sick and had to have that tube down his throat.

I'm spending my first few hours of alone time straightening up. Somehow it's more fun cleaning when you know nobody but you is going to be messing it up until next week. Heh. The bedroom had clothes everywhere (they were clean, but for some reason neither of us like putting them away) so now they're in dressers and closet.

I'm trying to decide what kinds of projects I want to do this week. So far I have:

Straighten the pictures on the picture wall
Hang the kitchen curtain (the rod is kind of balancing on the mini-blind hanger bracket thingies right now)
Finish my drop-stitch scarf (how do I weave ends in in knitting?)
Maybe make a skirt or two
Decide what to do with all these stupid squares

And by the way, for anybody who is in the general area, visits are welcome this week. Come see lonely old me. :D

So long, Ken Jennings. We'll miss you! :(

Kerry just conceded.

Some Portland DJs got fired after laughing at the beheading.

Good riddance.

The two-headed baby died.


:(

Measure 30 has failed.

Tonight is when we find out if Measure 30 passes. I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't.

I've been reading the little news stories on katu.com and the like, and reading the quotes by people who are voting yes makes me sad. These people are putting their faith into an organization which has made no promises as to how all this money is going to be spent. We've done it before - we've given more and more money to the government, who says "but our ________ neeeeed it!" and then when they get the money they put it towards things like light-rail stop decorating.

I guess all I'm saying is: if you don't know or don't care about how a measure is going to turn out, don't just vote a certain way because the radio commercials are appealing to your emotions. Read about the measure. Read both sides, even. Find out exactly what's going on, and THEN vote.

Keiko (the whale from the Free Willy movies) died this afternoon.