You know, I'm in just an incredibly sad and hurt and upset mood, and I think it's time for me to take a tiny sabbatical from this page. I don't have the energy to do much of anything, let alone do any good writing here. I think I'm going to crawl into my cave and hibernate until this feeling passes.

My Torts professor was never this cool.

Dave kindly pointed me to this interview with Josh Charles, best known for Dead Poets Society and the late, great, lamented Sports Night, about his lifelong love of baseball. What a cool interview.

It appears that Sarah (of the "Mmmm...aahhh...(slurp)" subtitles on this past Monday's Joe Millionaire has an interesting past as a fetish film actress.

In an update to the story I posted a few days ago about the surgeon who branded a woman's uterus with the initials of his alma mater, the stronger willed of you out there can now read the pleadings and watch a video of the surgery. The surgeon is now claiming that he used the initials only to divide the uterus in half from left to right and top to bottom. You can draw your own conclusions from where the initials appear.

A Florida urologist has been charged with watering down Lupron, an expensive drug used to treat prostate cancer. He was charged in the 60-count indictment with healthcare fraud, product tampering, and the wholesale distribution of prescription drugs without a license for allegedly diluting drugs given to at least 32 patients between July 2000 and November 2001.

She won't recover from her losses,
She's not chosen this path, but she watches who it crosses
Maybe move to the right, maybe move to the left
So we can all see her pain she wears like a banner on her chest

And we all say it's sad, and we think it's a shame
And she's called to our attention, but we do not call her name,
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands.

We're busy with our happiness, busy with our plans
I wonder if alone she wants it taken from her hands
But if things didn't get any harder
She might miss her sacred chance to go a consecrated martyr,
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands.

I wonder which saint that lives inside a bead
will grant her consolation when she counts upon her need
It makes us all angry though we feign to care
But who will be the scale to weigh the cross she has to bear,
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands.

"Is the glass half-full or empty?" I ask her as I fill it
She said it doesn't really matter, pretty soon you're bound to spill it.
With the half logic language of the sermon she delivers
And the way she smiles so knowingly at me gives me the shivers
I pull the blanket higher when I'm finally safe at home
And she'll take a hundred with her, but she always sleeps alone,
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands.

-- Emily Saliers

But will it have Deney Terrio? That's the burning question.

We got home from the Super Bowl party a little after 1 am, and then for some completely unknown reason, I couldn't fall asleep. This means that I am not only exhausted, but I am also super duper cranky. Grrrrrrrr.

Today is my eight-month wedding anniversary.

Monday is my parents' thirty-fifth anniversary.

Kinda makes you think.

Mujibur and Sirajul, made famous by David Letterman, will lose their jobs one week from today, when K&L's Rock America closes. The natives of Bangladesh say they don't know what they will do next.

The good news is that we did secure a plumber, thanks to my amazing paralegal and her handy handy husband, and the two plumbers were just here in my kitchen. The radiator has been safely removed and capped, leaving the space open for my new refrigerator.

The bad news? Well, for one, when they pulled the stove out to install the cutoff valve (our old cutoff was in the basement, and Sears won't install the new range without a cutoff next to it, as we found out when we had a new one installed on the tenant side), they uncovered about twenty years' worth of...well, grossness. About a pound of cat fuzz and other assorted lint, a cheese curl of indeterminate origin, a pen, a matchbox car, Dave's tire pressure gauge, a medicine-dropper syringe thing, a circa 1965 felt magnet with googly eyes, and about 30 Ritz crackers. Ew, I say, ew.

But that's not the end of it. In hooking the stove back up after installing the cutoff, the guys discovered that the stove actually needed to be condemned. There is such a serious leak under one of the burners that the stove literally could have gone up in flames at any time, and gas may have also been leaching into the house since we've lived here and turned the gas on. He simply cut off the gas, and the old range is now a very heavy placeholder.

The good news is that our new stove should be here within ten days. The bad news is that I have no stove until the new one arrives.

Now, I'm off to the grocery store, and then I need to do laundry. We have both a birthday party and a Super Bowl party down in the Philly area tomorrow, so I won't have time to do any chore-type stuff tomorrow. Dave's off doing a consulting gig right now (hooray!), and when he gets home, we're going to head out to buy birthday presents for a very special one-year-old boy!

A reverse-gender sequel to Joe Millionaire?

"No," theorizes Evan Marriott, the 28-year-old construction worker at the center of the $50 million big white lie, in an interview with TV Guide Online. "I don't think women are portrayed as breadwinners in America. I think it's an old-fashioned reality that men are the breadwinners."

That said, Marriott believes a female-driven Millionaire would work if producers dangled a different booty in front of her male suitors. "They ought to call it Jane Big Boobs," he suggests with a grin. "They get a woman with big, fake boobs, have all these guys go after her, and then, in the end, she takes them off and goes, 'Ha! I'm as flat as a f---in' pancake!

Fox should have called his series Joe Tiny Brain.

Nineteen doctors nationwide have adopted a plan which will cater to a select group of patients willing to pay an annual $1500 fee as a retainer in order to keep seeing their internists.

Physicians who have joined the Florida-based MDVIP program say that the smaller patient population gives them time to see patients on short notice and allows them to be available by phone 24 hours a day. "Concierge care," however, has drawn the ire of Congress, especially as it relates to billing for Medicare beneficiaries.

I think it's pretty clear that I endorse a strict separation between church and state, but this story really got to me.

I find it really ridiculous that this man was fired for saying "God bless you and this family, and God bless the United States of America," after the flag presentation to families -- and only to families who had a chapel service or a clergy person at the grave!

A woman in Kentucky has accused her surgeon of branding her uterus with his alma mater's initials before removing the organ during a hysterectomy. The actions were caught on videotape, where the doctor is clearly seen using a cauterizing tool to write "UK" in 2-inch-high letters on her uterus.

She seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress.

And on a related topic, a man who says that he was slandered in the feedback section of the eBay site has filed suit.

I'm cranky. Stupid people have been annoying me all day long, and to top it off, I just got a "Problem with Transaction!" email from half.com. Now, I've been selling stuff on there for almost two years now, and have never once had a complaint. Today's email comes from someone with no feedback whatsoever (i.e. new user), who bought a book from me last week.

The book is not yet available in the United States in paperback, so I did what everyone else on half.com does -- I listed the book under the hardcover item and clearly stated in capital letters in the Notes that it was a paperback edition.

This book, in hardback, costs about $25 new. The international paperback edition, which I had purchased from another half.com user in new condition and read once, cost $7.99 new. I had it listed in the "Like New" category for $4.99.

My description of the book, just for your edification:

PAPERBACK EDITION from St. Martin's Paperbacks. 304 pp. Read once.

The email I got was from a very cranky person who claimed that she was misled by my failure to indicate that this was a paperback, and that she could have bought the paperback new for the same cost that she paid me for a used version.

1. See the giant "PAPERBACK EDITION" from St. Martin's PAPERBACKS up there?

2. The paperback is NOT AVAILABLE IN THE UNITED STATES.

3. If you had bought the international edition paperback new, you would have paid $7.99.

So what did I do?

I freaking refunded her purchase price. I so hated doing it, but I don't want bad feedback. It makes me absolutely BONKERS when people can't READ. My email, while polite, made it obvious that I was chagrined by her failure to understand how half.com works or to grok the words "PAPERBACK EDITION."

Can you tell it's been a long day?

I forgot to mention that posting will probably be sparse here until next Tuesday, because my boss is in Japan, meaning that I am in charge of the department. We also got a new attorney this past Monday, and I am getting her up to speed on everything. We like her a lot. This is good.

Note to R. Kelly: Please get some help. Seriously.

GlaxoSmithKline Inc. is still shipping medications to Canada despite earlier threats that it would cut off supplies to pharmacies that sell to U.S. consumers at lower prices. Glaxo still insists that the policy will go into effect at a later date.

Glaxo told Canadian drug wholesalers two weeks ago that their shipments would be cut off as of today if the wholesalers continued to supply pharmacies who are retailing the products to Americans (mostly via internet pharmacies catering to elderly patients seeking cheaper prescriptions).

U.S. law prohibits Americans from buying drugs in Canada or Mexico that are available in the United States. Regulators generally don't enforce the ban as long as people bring in no more than three months' worth for personal use. Some U.S. residents buy medicines on the Internet, by phone or even on group bus trips over the border.

U.S. drugmakers plan to ask the Supreme Court today to invalidate Maine's new law forcing drug companies finance lower-priced prescription drugs for uninsured patients. The law would use Maine's Medicaid program as leverage to encourage drugmakers to give discounts to up to 325,000 uninsured people.

Maine claims that the new law would relieve discrimination against the uninsured, while drugmakers counter that the program would unlawfully burden Medicaid patients in order to achieve discounts for people who aren't poor enough to qualify for Medicaid benefits.

Hello, my name is Simon, and I like to do drawrings!

As my husband so eloquently describes, we are having a very hard time finding a plumber who would be willing to come out and remove a radiator from our kitchen. Anyone in the northern NJ area have any recommendations?

Although not usually my first source for news (something about the Moonie connection just wigs me out), the Washington Times has an interesting piece on "shadowing" -- where drug reps sit in on patient examinations. An organization of psychiatrists intends to ask the American Medical Association to review the ethics of the practice.

Tomorrow, I start in earnest to try to do something that I've never been able to master before.

I'm going to start eating breakfast.

Yes, that's right. I'm one of these people who blows off breakfast and then either snacks or pigs out at lunch because I'm hungry.

The pantry is stocked with individually-sized Special K boxes, Oasis bars (in strawberry cheesecake, white chocolate raspberry, and chocolate peanut butter), and I've got yogurt in the fridge.

Hey, it's a start, right?

From the "things aren't weird enough" file, Dave and I headed out to get something to eat earlier, and we discovered that our across-the-street neighbors had two new animals walking around in their backyard.

ROOSTERS.

Now, I may be wrong, but I don't think this area is zoned for livestock. And Dave suggested that they might be being kept for cockfighting, which happens far too often in Newark, not far up the road. I'm planning to check into the local ordinances and maybe place a call to Animal Control.

Do you know how bizarre it is to see *roosters* running around in the backyard of a relatively dense suburban area?

And, just as an aside, the men's competition today at the US Figure Skating Championships was the weirdest one I've ever seen. It was like the whole afternoon was cursed.

Hey, it's an interactive entry! I would like for all of you to tell me the absolute worst birthday/holiday/whatever gift you've ever gotten.

Why am I asking? Well, Dave was over visiting his folks the other day, and he came back with a birthday gift from his mom for me.

A book titled "Healthy Weight Loss."

I'll just wait here while you pick your jaws up off the floor. After I finished welling up with embarrassment, I got mad. I mean, really. On what planet is giving a gift like that EVER acceptable, especially to your daughter-in-law who has obviously been troubled by her weight for her entire life? And HELLO, I've lost about 40 pounds over the last year or so.

Way to ruin my evening. This was mitigated somewhat by the lovely Lenox bowl which also arrived, a wedding gift from people I've never heard of and whom Dave only vaguely remembers. Yay!

Um, "while she decides whether to sue for malpractice"?? If someone mistakenly told me that I had aggressive breast cancer and then mistakenly removed both of my breasts, you can me damn well sure I'd be at the courthouse as soon as possible.

Although it's still a major source of search engine hits for this page, I don't think I ever did find out what a "tricky tray" is.

So it snowed here last night -- just a bit. I wore boots this morning which apparently do not behave well when the soles are wet. As I walked into the marble-floored lobby of my building this morning, I went down, flat on my knees, mostly on the right one. Ow ow ow ow ow. It's swollen, and there's already a bruise. You'd think after thirteen years of ballet I'd have managed a bit more grace.

Well, the new computer is here, and sort of up and running. We're having a bit of an issue trying to export all of my old Outlook mail into Outlook Express on the new machine, but Dave, my personal tech support guru, has promised that he has the situation well in hand. This week has seemed like it was about 18 days long, so I am really, really glad that it's Friday. Hockey tomorrow, and maybe some sleep. Ugh.

The scariest part about this story, for me, is that I am almost positive that I went to grade school for several years with the female lawyer. Let's just say that I never, ever would have pegged her to become an attorney.

I paid my third visit to the allergist this morning, for more skin testing on the stuff that I didn't react to last time.

Well.

What am I allergic to? It might be easier to tell you what I'm NOT allergic to.

All grasses tested, all molds but one, dogs, scallops, and a couple of trees.

Everything else? Hello, big puffy lumps on my arms.

The main problem? Ragweed, dust mites, aspergilla mold, and...cats.

She seriously asked me today to consider finding other homes for the cats. I laughed.

As a compromise, I will be doing some major housecleaning and tossing of rugs and such. I will also be getting some new HEPA air cleaners and special covers for my pillows, mattress and box spring.

I will also be starting a regimen of allergy shots next week. I'm going to be getting them three times a week until the initial round of 31, yes, that's right, 31, shots is complete, at which time the schedule will be cut back.

This blows.

A divided Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a death sentence for a man convicted twice of the same crime. David Sattazahn was convicted of a 1987 murder in Pennsylvania, but jurors were unable to decide whether to impose the death penalty. A second jury sent him to death row.

Justices Scalia (who wrote the opinion), Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy and Thomas decided that double jeopardy did not apply in Sattazahn's case because the first jury did find him guilty; they merely disagreed on whether to sentence him to death.

News on the new series of Survivor: The Amazon has a male tribe competing against a female tribe, and one of the female competitors is deaf.

Nearly two dozen states are investigating the pricing practices of pharmacy benefit managers, including Merck & Co.'s Medco unit, according to the Connecticut attorney general and several other law enforcement sources.

The issue for the states is whether the pharmacy benefit managers -- which function as middlemen between drug makers and their clients -- are passing along the best prices for medicines to their own state agencies and consumers.

Toward that end, the states are examining consumer fraud and antitrust violations.

You've got to admire this guy's ingenuity. The dealership says that he won't be getting the car with his $41,400 worth of coupons, though.

Gosh, where *is* everyone today?

First of all, Goofy has a human WIFE? And secondly, he has a last name, and it's GEEF?

Last night's birthday celebration was a rousing success, mostly because we planned ahead -- Legal Seafoods doesn't take reservations, but they do have preferred seating, which means that you give them a time, and they take your name and promise that you'll be seated within thirty minutes of that time. Although the mall was a mob scene and we had to park a mile away, we were seated immediately upon arrival, and proceeded to enjoy an amazing dinner. I had a tasting flight of light white wines, while Dave opted for a flight of reds, and he started with red clam chowder while I had a green salad with a wonderful tomato balsamic vinaigrette. For appetizers, he chose popcorn shrimp, and I had a hot crab and horseradish dip. Main courses were wood-grilled salmon and mashed potatoes for him and three varieties of shrimp (wood-grilled, stuffed and coconut) for me with onion strings. Dessert was also delicious -- apple tart for him, with luscious chocolate pudding cake for me. Holy Hannah, it was a wonderful meal.

Then, we headed over to the movie theater, where people were walking away from the box office muttering because Chicago (playing at only a few theaters in this entire part of the state) was sold out. This is why I love Moviefone. I had procured tickets for the 8:30 show the night before, so we breezed in, bypassing the long line, and sat down. The movie was just great -- I was concerned about Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere, because I had no idea what their singing voices were like -- but I was pleasantly surprised. I knew that the movie had to be good because even my musical-theater averse husband enjoyed it, especially "We Both Reached for the Gun." And damn, Catherine Zeta-Jones was terrific. I think I'm going to see it again, but I won't subject Dave to it. I'm not crazy.

How can I help you understand the subject of infidelity?
For you monogamous people, I'll go slow
And by the end of this song, you'll be just as enamored with the idea as I am
The first two letters of this acronym will remain constant
But the final letter changes with the sex of the person it's applied to
In the case of women, it refers to "pussy," a derogatory slang term for "vagina"
But for the purposes of this song, it can also refer to women in general

I could have sworn that at some point in November I blogged about the "Eli Lilly Bandit," who inserted a provision in the recently-passed Homeland Security Act absolving Lilly of liability for injuries (mainly autism) allegedly caused by the thimerosal they used in their vaccines. I can't find that entry now, which is bizarre, but anyway...

It didn't take long for Congress to cave and decide to repeal the provision.

I make no secret of the fact that I'm addicted to NPR. At work, it's known that probably once a day I'll say "I heard this story on Morning Edition..." or "I'm so happy that Jackie Lydon isn't on All Things Considered any more..." and the like. I also have a raging crush on Soterios Johnson (scroll down on that page). We have a secret code, even. When he says "I'm Soterios Johnson," it really means, "I adore you, Heather." Ahem.

Anyway, yesterday as I was driving into work, I heard this story (caution: Real Audio link) about the Picasso painting "Femme en Blanc," now in a private collection in Chicago. It first belonged to a Jewish couple in Berlin, but was taken by the Nazis during World War II, and resurfaced in the 1970s, when it was sold to a collector in Chicago. That collector now wants to sell the painting, but has met a court challenge from the last living descendant of the original owners, who has sued to recover the artwork.

I feel so badly for all of the parties in this case, but I do feel that the painting should be returned to the original owner's family. Who pays, though, to make the innocent buyer whole?

Merck has announced a tender offer for full ownership of Banyu Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. of Japan, which would make Banyu its largest wholly owned subsidiary outside the United States. Merck currently owns 51 percent of Banyu.

Analysts said Merck had recently been frustrated by Banyu's performance and that the U.S. firm wants to raise its profile in Japan, which ranks behind only the United States and Europe among the world's most profitable pharmaceutical markets.

Dave ordered a new computer for me last weekend from Those Cow People. Although the original order confirmation said that my machine would arrive yesterday (may I say HA!), the order status page seems to be stuck on "Your Gateway order is being prepared for release to manufacturing."

I'm glad they're so well prepared, but come on, people!

The story of missing Laci Peterson is depressing the hell out of me. I absolutely believe that her husband knows exactly what happened to her, and the marina/boat story reminds me way too much of the horrific fate of Anne Marie Fahey.

Outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan will issue a blanket commutation to almost all inmates on his state's death row, reducing their sentences to life withOUT parole (contrary to what that CNN link says). On Friday, Ryan pardoned four death row inmates whom he believed were tortured into making confessions for crimes they didn't commit.

Right now, I have an absolutely splitting headache, and I really want it to go away. My sweet husband is taking me out to dinner and a movie for my birthday celebration tonight, and I want to actually feel like leaving the house.

I dyed my hair again last night, as the vibrant eggplantish dye (Natural Instincts Rosewood) had faded into nothingness. This is darker, but much, much prettier.

Currently, I'm still in my pajamas and watching Made on MTV -- the one about the girl from Manasquan who wants to be a cheerleader.

"It was just mind-boggling," said Sherlene Washington, 47, who grew up in the house. "I'm just engulfed in s---."

Literally.

If my coworker does not STOP talking on the SPEAKERPHONE for EVERY FREAKING CALL after she's been repeatedly asked to PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE, I am not going to be responsible for what happens. No, sirree, Bob.

Yesterday? Not such a good day. Turmoil at work, for a variety of reasons including the incompetence of a vendor which could cost us an awful lot of money and the attendant ennui of the department who hired the vendor, followed by having to stay late to fix someone else's mistake (always high on my hitlist) and then a manipulative voicemail from my mother (to whom I am currently not speaking; more on that below).

Today? Marginally better. It's Friday, of course. I came in early, in hopes of being able to leave at a reasonable time this afternoon. I had a good meeting this morning, at which I was notified that I will be taking on a new and very important responsibility in an interim period before a permanent person is hired to fill the role; I am pleased and looking forward to the challenge. My department is taking me out to lunch today to celebrate my birthday, as well.

The issue with my mother? She betrayed a confidence to an old friend of mine as well as the friend's mother, and then denied it. On my birthday. She ended up screaming at me on the phone and basically blaming me for not believing her. I'm livid, and I refuse to speak to her until she owns up to what she did and issues an apology. Last night, she called and I didn't answer the phone, so she left a weepy voicemail, purportedly to inform me of the poor health of another family friend, with no acknowledgement of the previous evening's hooha.

I really *want* to have a good relationship with my mother, and the most disappointing thing is that we really had been on an upswing. This happens every time, though, and it hurts my heart. She just cannot seem to get it together, and I refuse to cater to her inappropriate behavior.

Oh, I'm also sending out tidbits to the Notify List again, so if you're interested, you can sign up over in the sidebar, there.

One of our friends teaches at the school where the alleged murderer was tracked down.

Recent hit search string: "Mikael+Renberg+Infection."

A mother in California left her children alone for three weeks while she went to NC to visit a man she met on the internet. She was thoughtful enough to stock the freezer with food before she left. Christ.

I find this little anecdote disheartening. Really, really disheartening. (For those who don't get the reference, the opinion in Roe v. Wade appears in the volume in question.)

Dave, being the best husband ever on the planet, got me Ratchet and Clank for my birthday. I'm going to eat dinner, play some, and then take a time out for The Bachelorette and Celebrity Mole. Alas, poor Anderson Cooper, we hardly knew ye.

3/2/03 -- new Six Feet Under season!

In legal news, Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to pay $670 million to settle lawsuits accusing it of antitrust violations used to keep generic versions of BuSpar and Taxol off the market.

Happy birthday to David Bowie (56), the late Elvis Presley (who would have been 68), and to ME! You all can guess how old I am.

Is it just me, or does Gnat just sound like the most adorable child alive?

This story is sad, but still hilarious, really. You'd think you'd grab a clue as to your fiancee's motives somewhere before spending, oh, $330,000 on her. I love the last paragraph.

"In November 2001, Mary Toon was found in contempt of court for ignoring the divorce decree and failing to return flatware, a humidor and a pie server that belonged to her husband."

Contempt of court, people. For a pie server. Oh, the humanity.

We attended the Devils-Leafs game Friday night at the Meadowlands, and saw Brian Gionta leave the game in the third period after getting in the way of a Scott Stevens shot. We thought that perhaps the shot had hit him in his, ahem, groin area, but it seems that the puck actually broke his leg. Sheesh!

It's never good when the first thing you find out in the morning is that you have to buy a new furnace for your tenants.

I probably shouldn't have read this story so early in the morning. And who names their child "Girly Chew" anyway?

Don't be fooled by the rocks that I've got.

I'm still Heather from the block.

I cannot even put into words how horrific this is. Why do people like this have children at all?

Attention Buffy fans: The First Evil has a LiveJournal.

"Sauron definitely not as evil as me. He is only a disembodied eye!" Hee.

If this lawsuit is successful, does that mean I can sue the people who are inevitably flapping their gums whenever I go to the movies?

Retail therapy works. I am living proof.

The outlets in Secaucus were pretty crammed with people and picked over today, but I did manage to score some jewelry, a wallet and a new purse at the Liz Claiborne store, and I finally got the shoes I've been lusting over for months for half price at Nine West.

We're also just about to order a new stove and refrigerator, too -- it will be nice to finally have the refrigerator in the kitchen instead of having to run up and down the stairs to the current (read:old) fridge in the basement. Oh, and to have an oven that, you know, works. We've been using the microwave and a little toaster oven for non-cooktop foods since we moved in a year ago.

Next: the dismantling of the Christmas tree. And new Dead Zone tonight -- season premiere! I have to remember to watch Alias, too, to see what happens to cute little Marshall.

Right now, though, I'm heading back downstairs to finish eating my lunch and continue watching the original Buffy pilot.

There's nothing like getting woken up by your tenants, informing you that their furnace started smoking at 3 am. Dave's over there right now trying to figure out if it's the finicky water level on the furnace or if we need to call PSE&G to come out and do a repair. Oh, joy.

I'm still in a crappy mood about the whole radio show thing from last night, and this incident isn't helping. I'm going shopping.

I'll be filling in for Duane on the Midnight Cafe on Disintegrator Radio tonight at 11 pm. If you'd like details on how to listen in, head on over there or drop me a line by email or IM me at HeatherAR. I'm looking forward to it!

LATER UPDATE: Either a) my computer is having a seizure, or b) I'm a complete moron, because the broadcast software is not working correctly. No show for me tonight. Sad. :(

A father whose son drowned six years ago after a night of underage drinking rented three hotel rooms for a New Year's party for his underage son in Harrison, NY (free registration required). Patrick McNeill's 20-year-old son, Patrick Jr., was found drowned in New York Harbor in 1997 after a night of heavy drinking at an Upper East Side Bar.

The family sued the Dapper Dog bar on 92nd Street and Second Avenue, its owners, the bouncer and the bartender for $20 million, because allegedly the parties knew Mr. McNeill was under the legal age to drink but served him alcohol even after he became so intoxicated that he fell down.

The Harrison police chief, David R. Hall, said the father of the host went to the hotel in the afternoon, "rented three rooms for his son" and told the "desk clerk not to give them the key" to the liquor cabinet in the rooms. "His son assured him that there wouldn't be any alcoholic beverages there," said Chief Hall, adding that the son charged $25 admission to the party. The police said they were considering filing charges against the father.

We saw the Devils beat Toronto tonight, in a lovely shutout in which Mikael Renberg did not play. We had heard while we were in Toronto last week that Renberg had an infection around a cut, but we didn't realize that Renberg could have lost his hand in a lifesaving move by doctors. Yeesh.

JD Jungle has announced its first annual OJ Awards, which honor outrageousness and stupidity in the law for 2002.

NY Rangers thug extraordinaire Matthew Barnaby has a weblog. Why am I not surprised at the one-syllable words?

"I have began my Christmas shopping and that is a trip. It is scarier in the malls then it is on the ice in Philly."

Freaking brilliant. BRILLIANT!

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that plaintiffs in abuse and neglect cases are not required to file medical malpractice claims, but can sue the facilities for wrongful death and negligence by citing the Nursing Home Residents' Bill of Rights statute. This law explicitly stated that nursing homes are governed by a standard of care separate from that governing medical care, and that lawsuits against nursing homes do not qualify as medical malpractice claims.

The Florida Supreme Court's ruling stems from a case involving 92-year-old Albert Redway, who was suffering from diabetes, pneumonia and heart problems when he died at a St. Petersburg, Fla., nursing home in April 1998.

Full disclosure: My mother has worked for over 25 years for a nursing facility which is now owned by one of the defendants in this case.

Here's Advertising Age's list of the 20 most effective ads of 2002. I have to disagree with most of their choices, although Number 15 is a perennial favorite in this household.

This morning, I had to wake Dave up to help me slather my upper arms in this stuff and then wrap said upper arms snugly in Saran Wrap. Yes, that's right. Cream. And Saran Wrap.

Why am I engaging in such fun, you ask?

I'm visiting the allergist again this morning, and I'm having sensitivity tests done on each arm to determine exactly what I'm allergic to. Since she's going to be using me as a pincushion, she was kind enough to prescribe me the lidocaine cream to help to alleviate the discomfort. Hooray!

A drug-testing company whose employees managed to botch four clinical trials by falsifying paperwork is still entitled to insurance coverage under an employee dishonesty policy -- even if the employees had nothing to gain and honestly believed they weren't doing anything wrong, says the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Happy New Year, everyone. Welcome to 2003.

Our trek to Canada was relatively uneventful, and we spent our time doing the things we normally do when we're in Canada: sleeping, visiting with Dave's cousin, her husband and toddler; eating out; playing cards, including learning euchre; and just generally hanging out.

The baby got sick while we were there, and I was feeling a bit under the weather on Monday and yesterday, but by the time we arrived at our usual NYE haunt in Allentown, PA, I was feeling pretty good. We had a small gathering this year, capped off by sparkling cider, Dick Clark, and Eddie Izzard.

"CAKE OR DEATH????" "A Room With a View of Hell! Staircase of Satan! Pond of Death!" Jesus, that guy is freaking hilarious. I had forgotten how much he makes me laugh.

Anyway, after driving over 500 miles yesterday (we drove straight from Toronto down to Allentown and then home to NJ), we're taking it easy today. I'm working on my self-performance-evaluation, which is due Friday, and then it's on to my 2003 work goals. Ugh.