Friday 060509

TGIF. I just realized my wedding anniversary is Sunday. My neighborhood is having a community yard sale today and tomorrow. I had one years ago and swore I'd never have another but if Rob's efforts cleaning out the garage to fit two cars in instead of 1 produce anything he'll throw some stuff out tomorrow.

With the sale I found I had to tag everything, put it on display, be available to strange people hours and hours and then move and pack back up all the crap that didn't sale, making very little money in the process.

It's so much easier to bag stuff up, assign a value to it and donate it to my charity of choice scoring a receipt for the tax deduction.

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Nagasaki Pilot Dies

AP Photo


Just days before the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, the pilot that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki that ended World War II died at the age of 88. Charles Donald Albury, whose actions killed 40,000 people on Aug. 9, 1945--and thousands more due to radiation sickness--had maintained he felt no remorse. Japan surrendered five days later. He also flew the support plane for the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, which he described to Time magazine four years ago: "When Tibbets dropped the bomb, we dropped our instruments and made our left turn. Then this bright light hit us and the top of that mushroom cloud was the most terrifying, but also the most beautiful, thing you've ever seen in your life. Every color in the rainbow seemed to be coming out of it."
Read it at Los Angeles Times

Obama's Tense Time in Germany

Gero Breloer / AP Photo


President Obama's popularity is high in Germany--the site of one of his largest speeches during the 2008 campaign--but differences with his current host, Chancellor Angela Merkel, are creating tension on his visit. Publicly, the two appeared close as they toured Dresden Friday, with stops at the Buchenwald concentration camp, and the military's Landstuhl hospital planned for later. But disputes over how to address the global economic crisis, what to do with Guantanamo Bay prisoners, and larger questions of Germany's role in the world, are chilling relations with one of America's traditional allies. "They're not angry, they're not anti-Obama or anti-American," a former ambassador to Germany says. "But they're confused by the wave of criticism which has been sent at them by the administration and people close to the administration."Read it at The New York Times

Which anniversary is it? and congrats

I feel the same way about having a garage sale. It's way too much work for a little chump change. Donating, especially with the tax benefit, is definitely the way to go.

So what band did you see last night? Or was it just dancing on the bar again?

No band last night. I'm working on a post about what I'm seeing tonight and have been for about an hour. I don't know why I feel compelled to embed stuff that I have to convert and upload. It never works right anyway. I'm on my last attempt to make it work. If it doesn't, I'll just have to link.