It doesn't make sense

I'm still trying to wrap my head around a senseless violent act that occurred in my little town. Someone I know was murdered. It was in the middle of the day and some punk 17 year old kid stabbed her to death in her own front yard. She lives right across the street from the Middle/High school my boys attended. They are friends with her daughter. This young girl is now trying to understand why. We are all trying to understand why. Marilyn didn't have much. Nothing that was worth stealing and definitely not worth murdering someone over. The details are still sketchy. One of the coaches from the high school witnessed her struggling with a young kid. The coach alerted the school resource officer and they went to help Marilyn. The kid took off running. It took three blocks but the officer caught him. Life Flight landed at the high school, which was immediately put on lock down. Marilyn died on the way to the hospital. The speculation is that the kid was trying to steal her car. I don't know if he was a student or if he is telling the truth to the cops. He has been arrested. He received cuts to his hand during the incident. I hope it gets infected and he has to suffer.

This is just so stupid. I am sick and tired of all the violence in this world. Why can't people just get along and help one another? What ever happened to following the Golden Rule? Why is this 23 year old girl having to help make funeral arrangements for her mother? Children are supposed to bury their parents but not at this young age.

Donate Life

Bou did a PSA recently about organ donation. My MIL brought home a info card on organ donation from the DMV. There is an online registry now. You can register and have your wishes printed out with your registry number and even e-mail your loved ones with your wishes and information. The site iswww.donatelifeflorida.org. Under their terms and conditions it states,

"This registration will serve as a document of gift as outlined in the Florida Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. A document of gift, not revoked by the donor before death, is irreversible and does not require the consent of any other person."

This is a great way to make your wishes known.

The dog speaks better Spanish than I do

I'm learning a language through the Rosetta Stone Program. The program is really good. It is interactive and teaches pronunciation, recognition, spelling, and grammar. I am working on learning Latin American Spanish. I'm in Lesson 2 so I'm not really expecting perfection at this point. But, come on. The program needs to give me a break on my accent. Apparently, a southern accent doesn't work well with the pronunciation. It displays a picture and the words describing it and then it says the words. I then have to repeat it and it will "ding" and go green if I get it right. I don't see that very often. More often than not, I get the "buzz" and the gray microphone sign. I have to repeat it until I get it right. It's not going so good. I'm comprehending the language and am able to listen to what it says and pick the correct picture from a choice of four. That part is going good. But as for speaking it, if someone who was native to the language heard me, I'm sure they would be rolling on the floor. Hell, for that matter, everyone who heard me regardless of their language would be rolling. I suck. I was trying to do this over the holidays when the boys were home. Chowhound and I were in the living room and of course the TV was on and the dogs were hanging out. It was not an idea environment to be using a microphone built into the laptop. All of the background noises were being picked up. At one point, I was repeating and repeating the words to no avail. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Then all of a sudden the dog started barking and "ding" he got it right. Damn it I didn't know my dog knew Spanish and can speak it better than me. He's giving me speech lessons now.