Ten minutes after they arrived...

Ten minutes after they arrived ... our old master bathroom is half-destroyed...

Lane and Josiah take out the old granite counter top

Pasquale takes a break from his favorite activity: destroying tile

Lane contemplates a challenge: capping the sink feeds

Pasquale swings the sledge, with a grin on his face

He was trying to warn us about progressivism!

He was trying to warn us about progressivism!  Beluga whale mimics human speech...

Geek: tcpdump and BPF...

Geek: tcpdump and BPF...  Your morning geek fix.  Learning how to analyze network traffic was one of the best investments of my geek time I ever made...

The bureaucrat on your doctor's shoulder...

The bureaucrat on your doctor's shoulder...  It's funny when Scott Adams mocks bureaucratic managers in Dilbert.  It's not funny when bureaucrats affect your medical care.  One story from the linked piece:

I recently operated on a child with strabismus (crossed eyes). This child was covered by Medicaid. I was required to obtain surgical pre-authorization using a Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT, code for medical identification and billing purposes. The CPT code identified the particular procedure to be performed. Medicaid approved my surgical plan, and the surgery was scheduled.

During the surgery, I discovered the need to change my plan to accommodate findings resulting from a previous surgery by another physician. Armed with new information, I chose to operate on different muscles from the ones noted on the pre-approved plan. The revised surgery was successful, and the patient obtained straight eyes.

However, because I filed for payment using the different CPT code for the surgery I actually performed, Medicaid was not willing to adjust its protocol. The government denied all payment. Ironically, the code-listed payment for the procedure I ultimately performed was an amount 40% less than the amount approved for the initially authorized surgery. For over a year, I challenged Medicaid about its decision to deny payment. I wrote numerous letters and spoke to many Medicaid employees explaining the predicament. Eventually I gave up fighting what had obviously become a losing battle.

This is what happens when government runs your healthcare.  The recent Veteran's Administration scandal is another example.

Let's repeal ObamaCare, fast!

Metropolitan Museum of Art...

Metropolitan Museum of Art ... posts 400,000 art works online, many in high-resolution scans.  More are coming, too.  Washington Crossing the Delaware (Emmanuel Leutze) at right is just one of them...

John Kerry deserves a magnum cum laude degree...

John Kerry deserves a magnum cum laude degree...  In climate pseudo-science.  James Delingpole tears apart Kerry's recent graduation speech...

Driving through a wildfire...

Driving through a wildfire...  In Russia.  This is surprising behavior even there, where an interesting fraction of the population is either drunk or insane (or both)...

Lion, tiger, and bear, oh my!

Lion, tiger, and bear, oh my!

Busy day in Paradise today...

Busy day in Paradise today...  The flooring crew will be here to finish removing the old flooring – 32 cubic yards of debris and counting.  Wallboard artistes will be here to complete the job of repairing the wallboard damaged when we removed (horrible) old MDF cabinets.  A demolition crew will be here to crush, kill, and destroy our existing master bathroom, in preparation for completely rebuilding it – we're basically exchanging a large tub (which we never use) for a giant shower (yay!).  A “pre-construction” surveyor from the local gas company will be here to figure out how to run a gas line to the barn we're going to build – and the electric company will have a surveyor here for the same purpose.  As if all that wasn't exciting enough, our new lawnmower gets delivered today.

I'm going to be tired tonight, I think :)