Officer Kelley, the cop that responded to our call the other night, was very nice.  He apologized profusely for being so late, seeming embarrassed by the whole thing.  I understood, though…the holidays are known for their domestic violence, so I’m sure they were pretty busy that day.

Anyway…I chatted with him as he lifted prints from the car.  Since my stepdad used to work for Arapahoe County, I thought I’d ask some questions to see if they knew each other.  He told me that he had been with the county for only 4 years, though, which seemed to eliminate that possibility.

I was also curious if Mark Ortler still worked there.  It turned out he did, which led the officer to ask how I knew him.  At that point I told him about my stepdad.

To my astonishment, he did know Mike…just not from having worked with him.  Apparently, Officer Kelley once worked in a Safeway that my stepdad frequented while on duty.  They used to chat with each other and eventually Mike even took him on a ride-along.  It sounded as though that experience was one of the things that had led to his interest in police work.

Now, here he was lifting prints from my car…full circle.

It’s a small fucking world sometimes…

This is an actual local commercial that I just saw on Fox 31 in Denver.  Whether or not you agree with the message, you have to admit…this is a hilarious display of absolute insanity.  Imagine the balls required to put something like this on TV for all to see.

Their website is theantigym.com, and it contains a few other equally crazy commercials.

I’m thankful that we’ll soon be getting rid of the lying piece of shit we call our “commander in chief.”  Remember when Bush was running for office in 2000 and said all of these things?

If Ron Paul wins in 2008 I’ll have something else to be thankful for, too.

The last celebrity I wanted to see get arrested was Shia LaBeouf.  Fortunately, it seems like the actual offense he committed was ridiculously small and petty.  Misdemeanor criminal tresspassing for not immediately leaving a Walgreens when asked?  Who fucking cares?  This will blow over rather quickly, I’m sure…

I normally wouldn’t mention such celebrity gossip on this site, but I had actually decided recently that Shia was my new favorite actor (surpassing my previous favorite, Will Smith).  I was even going to mention it after seeing Transformers, but decided against it.  However, since this event has given him a vague cultural relevance, I might as well ride the wave.  As for why I like him so much:  He has repeatedly chosen great movies to be in, and done excellent acting jobs in them.  He also strikes me as a genuinely nice person.

But then…what the hell does my opinion of a random celebrity matter?

In any case, if you still haven’t seen LaBeouf’s first movie Holes, I would highly recommend it.  It was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and it actually made me feel better about life for awhile.

It’s that time of year again:  Beard Watch!

Beard watch began 2 years ago as a pact/male bonding thing amongst a few of my co-workers and I.  Since then, I’ve kept the tradition going as an annual event.  The rules are less stringent than they used to be, but I’m a purist, so I still try to follow the most important ones:

Sure, I always look terrible, but one of these years I’m going to grow a beard that doesn’t make me look like a 14-year-old boy.  If anything, not having to shave for a month is reward enough.

Feel free to keep track at the official Beard Watch ‘07 page.

I’m just not entirely sure what to say about this…

Note:  As you may know, according to Adobe’s website, I am not “allowed” to call this a photoshop.  As far as I’m concerned, Adobe can get fucked.

I drove by Hampden and Chambers today to see the old Taco Bell.  The store itself appeared to have closed down recently, making it one of a hundred different businesses that have failed on that intersection over the years.  The thing I had come to see still existed, though.

Years ago, they had repainted their drive-through markings.  Somehow the painters had butchered not just one…but both of the words in the simple phrase, “THANK YOU.”  Thinking that it would be noticed and fixed rather quickly, I brought back my camera the same day to snap a picture.  After all…someone was bound to notice such an obvious error.

All these years later, however, and it’s still there.  Throughout the entire life of the store, nobody noticed or cared enough to get it fixed.  Amazing…