I cannot leave my shoes laying around without someone putting them on and sloshing around the house in them.

I've had this cellphone pic sitting around for a while...bugging me.

Is it me? Or, is there something wrong with this picture? A little girl who looked to be just three or four years old, no higher than my SUV fender, riding her bike with training wheels...alone. I saw her ride down three different streets before finally turning into a driveway. She was by herself the whole time and I never saw any sign of a parent or anyone looking after her. I'll just add this one to my list of things I'll never understand.

Saturday night we had a going away party for one of my coworkers. She and I worked together at a prior firm in 2001. She left that firm for our current firm a few months before I did and we've worked together ever since. She will be rejoining her family in New York who had moved out here while she was in school but who then shortly thereafter all moved back to New York abandoning her in Oklahoma. She's been a good friend and will be greatly missed.

We had twenty-four people attend the party. Some thought it was bigger and some thought it was smaller than our last firm get together at our house two years ago. I can't remember myself. I just know we all had a great time.

Last night we attended Luciano Pavarotti's Farewell Tour performance at the Tulsa Mabee Center. Even for a non-opera fan like myself, I must say that it was absolutely amazing!

The program consisted of eleven songs, an intermission and ten more songs followed by three encores. The main program included eleven Pavarotti solos, two duets with Cynthia Lawrence, six Lawrence solos and two of the Tulsa City Orchestra* by itself. Several of the evening's performances were immediately recognizable, many were vaguely familiar and all were incredibly performed.

Tulsa was the first of just three American cities on Pavarotti's forty-city Farewell Tour around the world after which he will permanently retire. From here he will go to the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California, and then the Office Depot Center in Sunrise, Florida.

[*Interestingly, the program credited the "Tulsa City Orchestra" but that phrase does not appear on any internet search engine. The well known Tulsa Philharmonic, Oklahoma's last full-time orchestra, ceased operations on September 12, 2002, due to financial problems which have similarly plagued orchestras around the country.]

A co-worker and Freeper known as Guido and his father attended the Sept. 3, 2005, St. Louis, Missouri, Cindy "Sheehadi" Sheehan Bus Tour Counter-Protest. On this page are pictures taken by Guido and his father.

Here is the Free Republic thread about the counter-protest.

Another issue of SmokeLong Quarterly is out.

For those yet unfamiliar, the point of SmokeLong is that the stories take about as long to read as it would to smoke a cigarette...and often shorter. The genre is also referred to as flash fiction. These vignettes of under a 1000 words (usually 400-700) are incredibly well written and well worth the small amount of your time they take to read.

The editor, Dave Clapper, is particularly fond of the latest issue:

Man, I LOVE this issue...I couldn't stop staring at it the first couple days it was in my hands. And the writing! Whoosh! Amazing.

Check it out!

Also, if you are interested, SmokeLong Annual, a hard-copy of the past year's editions of SmokeLong Quarterly, is available from CafePress.

Yesterday, Oklahoma had a special election to determine whether the state's gasoline tax should be raised five cents a gallon. Yes, you read that right. Our esteemed legislators wanted to raise the price of gasoline five cents a gallon obstensibly to pay for roads and bridge construction. Of course, it never occurred to them to stop treating the existing $0.16/gallon gasoline and $0.13/gallon diesel tax as a general slush fund and actually allocate it to roads and bridges which everyone agrees hasn't ever been done. That would be far to difficult and so, as always, the legislators' answer is to raise taxes. Unfortunately, for the legislators, the proposal required voter approval. Oklahoma voters decided against playing the role of a bottmless piggy bank 87% to 13%.

In my ongoing mockery of our ID-less voting system, here is the conversation that transpired at my local polling place yesterday:

Poll Worker 1: Hi, how are you?
Me: Exhausted, I've been going all over the city voting today.
Poll Worker 1: (smiles and lightly chuckles)
Poll Worker 2: Name?
Me: What precinct is this?
Poll Worker 1: Precinct 183.
Me: (looks at scrap paper pulled from pocket) Hmmmm...183...for this precinct I'm D-A-N-Z...Don Danz.
Poll Worker 1: (laughing out loud)
Poll Worker 2: (oblivious to the world, finds name and turns voter list around for me to sign)
Me: (signs name) It's rediculous that you can't check IDs. You have no idea who I am.
Poll Worker 1: Yes, it is rediclous. The system needs to be fixed.
Me: Yes, it does.

As I have said before, I can't imagine anything more asinine than not checking a photo ID before someone is allowed to vote. Who could possibly be against checking a person's ID before they vote? Well, quite frankly, Democrats are opposed to it. Why? Because they say it disproportionately frightens blacks and the elderly and would keep them from voting. This is not only untrue but, also, incredibly insulting to blacks and the elderly. I guess blacks and old people don't use checks or credit cards either because they are too scared someone will want to see some ID. What a load of crap.

The only real reason to oppose checking identification is that in some places Democrats rely on widespread voter fraud in order to be elected. There simply is no other reason to oppose mandatory photo identification before voting.

I'm no longer using the Blogrolling service to maintain any part of my blog rolls. Far too often problems with Blogrolling was the sole cause of the site refusing to load. All of my links are now hard-coded.

However, I will still continue to use the Blogrolling service to allow people to easily add Danzfamily.com to their blogrolls.

Blogroll Me!

Over Labor Day weekend Drew did a little part-time life guarding for his Aunt "D" at Palatine's Family Aquatic Center (Community Pool).

After his shift in the chair, Drew took to the waters enjoying the zero depth, fountains, sprayers and slides.

But, Drew's most favorite activity was playing hoops. We'd drag him away only to have him spot the "ball, ball, ball" from far across the pool.

Drew went non-stop for over three hours as we all took turns trying to keep up with him. His only breaks were to get a quick hug and kiss from Grandma. Drew has really grown up since last year's visit.

While visiting Grandma over Labor Day weekend, Drew--a mere twenty-one months old--was taking coasters in and out their holder and counting them!

William Rehnquist
1924-2005

Supreme Court Justice
1972-2005

Chief Justice
1986-2005

Like most everyone else under 40, I've never known another Supreme Court Chief Justice other than Rehnquist. And, in my work as an attorney, primarily as a researcher and writer, I can tell you there have been few judges finer than William Rehnquist. His thirty-three years of service on the court and nineteen years at its helm have left an indelible mark helping to keep our nation on the right track. Whether blinded by politics or just unaware, most people will never know how incredibly fortunate we have been to have had our highest court guided by Rehnquist's unparalleled wisdom and judgment.

requiescat in pace

The freakishly talented Sean Gleeson has completed the logo for the Okie Blogger Round-up 2006. Everything for the Round-up is still in the planning stages except for the location, Oklahoma City Bricktown. If possible, I'll be in attendance and hopefully live-blog the event similar to January's Okie-Blogger Bash.