Well, we’re back from Con… LOTS more on that later when I have more time to write.

Until then, I’ll cover all the loose ends:
1. CRIKEY! The Croc Hunter gets killed in a freak accident. That sucks!
2. Sorry to everyone who left a comment and it’s taken me weeks to get them posted. I had to root through the spam trap just now. Anyone who has commented here before has been cleared, so please let me know if the system keeps holding your comments, ok?
3. Having a honking big suite/room at the Con is heaven. Gotta get it again next year!
4. Living in the Bad Trip Tent for the first 36 hours of the con is a real bummer.
5. Andy loved his Ozzy collectible record. Yay!
6. Shout outs to everyone who stayed or just visited the room this year! It was grand!
7. Now Nick wants a cap for the Ranger. Being able to sling 500# of con crap into the covered truck bed rawked! LOL
8. Sorry we missed Farshad’s. We were busy with Bad Trips, Klingon parties and dancing.
9. Shout out to Ted and Kelly! Thanks for having us to the party! It was fun! Sorry we missed you on Sunday. I was tired of people and the dumbasses who run the Hyatt so we had to leave.
10. Damn, it’s true: Be it ever so humble, there’s NO PLACE like home!

That said, now we get ready to drive to Myrtle Beach for a few days! Tee! We’ll be back from holiday on Saturday and back to real life on Monday 9/11. Hmm, kinda somber, isn’t it?

Well, everyone, I hope you had a safe trip home from the con and I’ll post more when we get back!

TTFN

Sing that with the Spam tune from Monty Python.

I have more info about the animal testing stuff, but all that will have to wait! It’s down to 5 days until the Con and we are SO excited! And distracted! I can’t keep my mind on anything other than the con planning!

We’ve got a suite and an adjoining room and a CROWD of people who are staying or crashing with us! This promises to be a banner year for DragonCon!

Andy’s party is Friday Sep 1 in the suite. Call my cell at the con if you need more info.

Main page with current guest list: Dragoncon.org

Ok, enought posting, I’ve got PLANNING to do!! :-D

So, Heather came over this afternoon for a bit before she headed out to Birmingham to see her folks. She left here, heading out to the interstate. About 5 minutes after she left, she called me back and said, “You’re not going to believe this. I just got rear ended!”

That’s not the funny part, just stay with me. I ask if she’s ok, yes, if the car is ok, she’s not sure. So since she’s just right up the road, I get in my car and go up there. I get there just as the cops pull up. There’s a blue car, something generic American, like Mercury Sable or something and there’s Heather’s car with no obvious damage. Breathing a sigh of relief, I hopped out to check out her bumper to see if anything was loose, etc.

There were 2 black guys in the sedan, probably about 20 or so. The driver is a big guy, he’s kind of perched next to his car and the passenger is this rasta looking guy who looked quite uncomfortable when the POlice pulled up. Heather has been in a rear end accident before, so she’s a bit rattled.

So, I crawl around, check out her car and the the boys’ car and there’s literally NO damage to either vehicle. I asked if everyone felt ok and they all did. I ask Heather if she wants to do anything more and she says no. So the cops ask if the parties are gonna just leave it and we said yes and I thanked them for being so prompt.

The cops leave and the boys are visibly relieved. The driver runs up to me and says “Can I have a hug?” I laughed and said sure and grabbed him. Those boys were SO happy that they didn’t have to talk to the cops. So I turn my attention back to Heather and try to get her to come back to the house for a minute to calm down, but she has a bee in her bonnet to get to Birmingham. As the boys are pulling away, the rasta guy says, “You ladies need something for your nerves?” while making the universal toking motion. I laughed again and “No thanks, hon, we’re covered!”.

They left and I turned to Heather who had missed all the underlying tension when the cops were there and told her that those boys were carrying, hence their consternation about the incident. Heather says, no, really? And I say, well, YAH, they just offered to sell us some weed, dude! We horse laughed over that!

That’s got to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen lately!

Heather decided to go ahead and hit the road and I came back here to write this down before I forgot!

LOL Hey, I guess you had to be there! :-)

[This post updated in 2017 with current animal testing policies.]

The other day I was thinking about the products I use around here and wondered just exactly where the various companies stood on animal testing. PETA, of course, has lists upon lists, but I tend to shy away from PETA.

The thing to remember is that these companies only test on animals when law requires it. And trust me, there are LAWS demanding animal testing. You cannot fault a corporation for complying with the law. Also, having been with a research scientist for 8 years, I can assure you that the regulations for working with animals are STRINGENT. The animals are spared as much pain as is possible and they are kept in clean environments. Animal testing is necessary, sadly. Not for makeup, IMO, but companies have to comply with the law. PETA is a bunch of rabid vegans who don’t even understand that we’d still be plague and disease ridden if not for animal testing.

I challenge every PETA member to forego ALL medications, since ALL medication has been tested on an animal at some point. That’s right, ALL OF IT.

Anyway, here is the info I found.

So, I hit the internet and started going to the various large consumer companies looking for animal testing policies or any other info I could find. Here are the results:

Johnson & Johnson: has a very detailed description of their policies on their site.

Nestlé Purina (includes Friskies): I got a VERY nice email back asking me to please call customer service and I did. The lady was extremely nice and she said that yes, they do keep animals to taste the food. I figured as much. The PETA people are trying to make Purina look like satan, but I know how stringent government animal care guidelines are and I am not worried about the animals they keep for taste tests and the like. It is all noninvasive, nonvivisection type things. They even adopt out the pets once they are retired. They now have their policies on their site here. There is no specific info about animal food testing.

Proctor & Gamble: This company does have its policy up here.

You know, when one realises that a large chunk of consumer products are owned by one company (P&G) and a large chunk of the food industry is dominated by one company (Sysco) and the media is consolidating (Cox Communications) and communications is going back to a monopoly (AT&T) and retail is dominated by one company (WalMart), it makes one wonder whatever happened to originality in America?

Just damn.