Is it Saturday yet?

Yesterday I was busy, as I will be today... I've already walked Aiko and Yoshi and given them breakfast; I've visited Ooch, loved him, fed him, and cleaned his litter box; I'm eating breakfast as I write and post this. Yesterday I called and wished Grandma Anne Snow a happy 80th birthday - her daughter Raian spent the day with her, and I extended the invitation to brunch, lunch, or dinner at the Cheesecake Factory to Anne. Kathy told me she would stop by the house last night, so I made a pan of deep-dish brownies. Of course, time got away from her (as usual), and she called and cancelled at 9:30. (Actually, I'm surprised that she even called...) I visited Ooch twice yesterday, walked the little boys twice, and walked the red kids once; I also spent two and a half hours loving my kits. Tonight I move over into the Weimareiner and German Shorthaired Pointer's house until Saturday morning. This morning, as I walked over to Ooch's I realized there was an 8-point buck standing stock-still about 5 feet away from me, just off the verge. It took a moment for it to dawn on me that he was standing underneath one of the old apple trees, and that he was stuffing himself on what has already fallen. He didn't twitch at all, and stared back at me eyeball to eyeball... I guess I didn't look or smell threatening.

Judge Larry Naves has ruled, in Denver, that ex-professor Ward Churchill should not be reinstated to the CU faculty, and that he should receive no monetary compensation for the loss of his job. Churchill's lawyer announced late yesterday afternoon that the ruling will be appealed. Judge Larry Naves' decision is a 42-page report, and includes many reasons, or grounds, for his final decision. The following is a small excerpt from The Daily Camera report, written by John Aquilar, about the appeal: "Those grounds include arguments that Churchill’s presence back on CU’s campus would erode the standards of scholarship at the institution, would cause friction between Churchill and others, and would make it hard for CU to recruit top-notch talent to the faculty.

Both Robinson and Katz (attorneys asked their view on the appeal) agree that Churchill did himself no favors when he criticized CU as a “not very glorified vo-tec,” among other descriptions, at the same time he sought to regain his job there.

“A lot of his comments post-trial seem to support a finding of irreconcilable hostility,” Robinson said. "

The tourists to the high country are doing the usual stupid things that Darwin's Law covers. Several folks have been swept away in flash floods, fallen off rocks while climbing, fallen off and down trails while hiking, and yesterday four Coloradans went white water rafting without helmets or safety vests. Only two will return home. - And here in Boulder, locals are again forgetting that we are surrounded by "green spaces" and that wildlife wanders quite a bit. A home owner in Sunshine Canyon went out to work in his yard, and left his door standing open. A neighbor yelled at him that he had a bear in his kitchen, helping himself to a bowl of fruit. The two men made a lot of noise and managed to get the bear to leave the premises without getting the Department of Wildlife involved.