I went to bed at 11:30 last night and woke up at 11:00 this morning. It was so good. Here it is 1:30, and I've finished the only things I had to do today: Enrollment Clearance, yearbook photo (*shrug*), pick up planner. So now there's only an empty day to fill with relaxing and listening to NPR pieces online. :) Every day should be like this.
Here are a few interesting pieces I heard on the same day a week or so ago:
Balloon Incident Ends Ostrich Farmer's Career: All Things Considered, August 10, 2005 -- Melissa Block talks to Arizona Ostrich Rancher D.C. Cogburn about the day his ostriches stampeded several years ago, and the financial woes he's had ever since. He says a hot-air balloon so spooked the birds that they panicked; many were seriously injured. His loss to the balloonists in a civil lawsuit has led Cogburn to quit the business.
Ranchers Weigh Government's Role in a Crisis: Morning Edition, August 10, 2005 -- Andrea Seabrook visits cattle ranchers in Missouri coping with the mid-summer drought. These ranchers tend to resent federal government intrusion into their business, but they know they need its help now.
And there was one more Missouri-cattle reference I had heard that day; I had been listening to the news on TV while getting ready that morning, and there was some fair in St Louis which had a contest called "Cow & Owner Lookalike" or something. The first girl (about 12 years old) they interviewed did not seem clever at all, except for the concept: they were both dressed in baseball outfits (the cow had a baseball cap and a BIG jersey and his/her tail was made to look like a baseball bat) and the cow's name was Albert Moo-jols. When asked how she came up with the idea, she replied, "Well, not by myself. My mom helped me and we thought and stuff." Ah. The next contestant was a kid, about 9 years old, and his theme was Nascar. The cow had a hat or something, and a checkered flag on its tail. The news correspondent (who always looks rather foolish on these news stories, a la Bruce Almighty, pre the 'Almighty' was added) asked the boy if he thought he was going to win and he glumly replied, "No." The reporter sent a surprised and somewhat mocking glance at the camera, and moved along to the next little boy (not older than 4 years), whose theme was John Deere, the costuming consisting only of a John Deere cap for the cow and a John Deere cap for the boy. Asked if he believed he was going to win, the little boy screamed, "YEAH!" Triumph.
