Police Blotter and Mr. Roadshow.

***disclaimer*** This is kind of an obnoxiously long post about newspaper columns...but I LOVE this stuff so cheers to you if you're patient with my ramblings! ***disclaimer***
I went to a high school alumni thing tonight which was nice and made to seem even nicer compared to the destruction over at the Trader Joe's that I needed to stop at on my way home. I swear, this specific location is the absolute worst that I've ever been to and is always either 1} packed or b} completely picked over. I try to avoid this particular TJ's but it was on my way home and there were a few necessities {bananas...I'm very picky about my breakfasts}.  
I braved the parking lot which could be described, at best, as perilous. My visit didn't take too much time and as I was wrangling my way out of the concrete jungle, a car drove past me. There appeared to be a slumped over passenger, which is kind of normal, if one thinks about it; it was around 6:45 and on a Thursday night I imagine there are many tired passengers out in the world at this time, especially in this dreadful parking lot. I then realized, it was a dummy. Like a ventriloquist's dummy. A really creepy one with red hair. Oh I about died. Gladly I note that wonders certainly don't cease. Unfortunately, this all happened over about 25 seconds so a picture was just not possible and I was by no means about to follow the car and wait until the driver went into one of the businesses to take a creepy/stalker-like picture of their ventriloquist alone in their car.
What I was going to blog about before I needed to get out the above information is the police blotter today. It's been a while since I checked it out and I was not disappointed when I pulled it up this afternoon.

"...-possibly an animal-..." is what gets me about this. I'm pretty sure that the entries in the blotter are taken directly from police reports and I'm not dissing police officers here, please don't think so, but I LOVE the brevity of these statements. I'm left to wonder here, what kind of animal? What types of noises? Bells and whistles? Mere rustling?

Regarding the first entry here; what caring friends! Then when I read down to the next one about the male who refused to discuss his stab wounds I was curious if it was the same gentleman who was listed in the first occurrence. Perhaps the friends weren't so considerate after all if he really didn't want to chat about it all.

I also am not trying trying to make light of drug problems but what I would like to know regarding the last statement is how exactly the needle was in his clothing? I picture a needle stuck through a suit coat lapel kind of like a boutonniere. Also, how exactly did he break the law? There are so many possibilities especially considering that he broke the law while riding his bike.
Another aspect of our San Jose Mercury newspaper that I enjoy is Mr. Roadshow. 

People write to Mr. Roadshow with their questions regarding Bay Area driving {road conditions, problematic intersections, Prius-related issues, etc.} and he researches their concerns and then answers; kind of like Dear Abby but for local drivers and all about very quotidian car-related/driving matters. Most of the concerns are not very technical in nature and he is super informative and it's local sooooo...I love him and his column. Apparently many others do as well, which is no surprise, but what I think is neat is that his popularity is nation-wide. 
Anyway, though I'm a fan I'm not that thorough of an admirer and I did not know that he will post in his column what vanity plates that he or others have seen and gather reader guesses as to the meaning. Ideally, the owner of the vanity plate will read his column and before the next publishing when Mr. Roadshow posts all of the guesses the owner will write in revealing the mystery; he'll put this at the end of the column.
I especially enjoyed this recent discussion.

I love Mr. Roadshow's responses to the predictions! The guesses continue...

This one included some brief profanity {at the very top} so I blurred it out. After I laughed out loud. We've so far gone from oral contraceptive to Canada to learning to fly to opposing immigration reform...

and we arrive at baseball! The Red Socks, to be specific. The thing is, though, that this is a California license plate and not a Massachusetts set. Hmmmmm...

Sorry, Becs, about the dig on your Twins.

I was digging through other vanity plate conjectures and came across a concern from this week. I guess that not all people love this process. I cannot even fathom why not. Opinions on this topic run strong though. Take a look.

Mr. R-S sure is good about taking criticism! But why the complaints? I think this is UH-MAY-ZINE since I always wonder what those plates mean.

Oh he is so clever!

I'm glad to know that the vanity plate explanations are not going away.
CYWICY folks {tomorrow, most likely!}!
xoxo, natty ♥

Darn you Parade Magazine...

Do you read Parade Magazine? I'm definitely not ashamed to admit that I do like to read the Parade Magazine that faithfully arrives every Sunday if I can find it; the newspaper in my grandmother's house tends to grow legs and meander around, splitting up sections willy nilly and Parade happens to be a repeat offender. The whole "darning" of said magazine, though, refers to today's article that you can read here and cry your eyes out about like I did. It's about a young couple who recently got married but face quite a bit of heartache since the groom has been battling a very rare and agressive form of cancer. It just about shot me through the heart to read about this pair and how optimistic and in-love these two are, so mozy on over to that link and check it out and you just might realize, like I did, that the trials and tribulations that plague your days really aren't all that bad.

I must also confess that I've been very remiss again and decided not to post for more than a month. Well, I'm back and hopefully will be better about blogging. Since it's been work and life that has gotten in my way and I really do enjoy blogging and find that it helps me relax I'll hopefully be better about sticking to it since it brings some calm to a busy life! There are several things to catch up on, but I'd like to work in chronological order from the past; I've a bunch a pictures from my/our Chicago/Milwaukee trip that I'd like to post. I also want to catch up on the school year and how busily that goes. I also would like to catch up on just normal day-to-day biz-nass.

Anyway, that's about where things are. I'm going to post aforementioned information in upcoming individual posts so look forward dear readers!