So I was picking up a couple of small parts at the orange home improvement store and there was a Hummer parked next to me. When I came out the guy who owned the Hummer was trying to get a gas barbeque grill in the back and having no luck. It was a small grill, and it would have easily fit in the back of the Civic if I put the seat down.

Apparently most of the space is taken up by the spare tire, and the guy ended up taking the grill apart to get it into the Hummer. I’m missing the ‘Utility’ of the thing if there isn’t enough cargo space for a small gas grill or a week’s worth of groceries.

Later I had to go to MalWart to pick up something that isn’t sold anywhere else in town, and the person who wanted it would not accept substitutes. I got a good space that was actually close to the doors, and then though I should leave because the Civic was totally out of place facing a Bentley and a Range Rover. The Range Rover starts at $80K for the base model, and Bentleys are about a quarter step below a Rolls in price and prestige. If they were driven by the ‘staff’ they would have been parked well away from other cars to avoid dings. These things were parked by the owners – who didn’t worry about the cost of dings to the doors.

That was certainly more fun than shopping at the Anchorage WalMart. You shoot an employee because he wanted your dog on a leash? WTF, over?! What kind of charge is “weapons misconduct”?

Of course WalMart didn’t interrupt shoppers just because one of their employees was gunned down. OK, they stopped selling guns and ammo during the crime scene investigation.

If you wonder why they took away the suspect’s prosthetic legs – he gunned down a guy over a leash, so he would probably remove one and beat you over the head with it, or bust up the patrol car.

While Florida elected officials are working overtime to dump any money associated with the Internet gambling scheme that masqueraded as a veterans’ charity, the Federal government has been demonstrating it’s ‘concern’ for vets.

The wait for a claim to be processed by the Veterans Administration has grown to 500 days and the copay for the TriCare medical insurance that provides medical care for military families has been significantly increased, while the base pay has been flat for a couple of years.

Now, in response to the sequester, the active duty Tuition Assistance Program has been suspended. Under the program the military would pay up to $250/course for active duty personnel taking college courses.

This is how they support the troops, by gutting their benefits.

This is the last day of the race. This morning only minutes separated Luan and Mikhail, and Christine only has an hour lead over Bob, so things aren’t quite settled at the moment.

Mikhail has had to finally drop a puppy at White Mountain.

Update: Mikhail is showing no interest in catching Luan, but Luan is really roaring down the trail at better than 8mph.

Bob is only 8 minutes behind Christine having shaved an hour off her lead between Elim and White Mountain.

Update: Dorado’s cause of death has been determined to be: asphyxiation as the result of being buried by snow in severe wind conditions. He was chained and couldn’t move, so he was smothered by drifting snow.

Finished At Nome
45 Mike Williams Sr (35)
46 Gerald Sousa (49)
47 Louie Ambrose (53)^R
48 Angie Taggart (40)
49 Luan Ramos Marques (47)^R
50 Mikhail Telpin (63)^Q
51 Cindy Gallea (17)
Beyond White Mountain
52 James Volek (66)^R
At White Mountain
53 Christine Roalofs (37)^R
54 Bob Chlupach (43) Φ

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, while italics indicates Yukon Quest winners. The numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers. The small “R” indicates a total rookie, while the small “Q” indicates an Iditarod rookie who has completed a Yukon Quest.

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.
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