Ok, so other than Mr. Gore wasting his own energy by his talking, it turns out, Al seems to be wasting our country’s energy as well. Despite his environmental rantings in An Inconvenient Truth, it seems that his monthly electrical bill is about $1,400. This amount of energy expended would power an average sized home for one year. An entire year! Wow!

If that’s not hypocritical…then what is?

You know, if Al did real research with unbiased scientists (or ones that were not on his payroll) and actually conserved energy, I might have more respect for him. This, however, just added to the joke that he already is. I mean, come on. He’s the guy that claims to have invented the internet!

Honey Bunny has an infection, and has been sick for a few days now. She’s been sneezing and wheezing, and has a runny nose. To those that don’t know much about bunnies, this may sound just like an ordinary cold. For some bunnies, however, sneezing can be deadly. It can indicate that a bunny has Snuffles, or Pasteurella.

Honey unfortunately picked up a strain of Pasteurella, which is a bacteria that can cause the above symptoms in bunnies. She went in to her vet, Dr. Holley at the Willow Creek Pet Center, a fabulous vet clinic located in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. She was prescribed Baytril, an antibiotic that is safe for bunnies. Bunnies have a very sensitive gut, and most antibiotics would be too harsh for Honey’s system. Despite the fact that Baytril is great for treating the infection, it tastes awful to Honey, and she fights every dose. It’s awful trying to feed her this horrid smelling concoction, but it is necessary to help her get better. I have to wrap her up in a towel and have Preston hold her while I try to squirt the medicine in her mouth. She hates it – and I feel so bad for her. She’s three days in to her 14 day treatment. She has to have it twice a day, and I nearly cry each time I have to give it to her. I’m just hoping it will do the trick, and she’ll be back to her old paper shredding ways in no time.

I’m just happy to have such a good vet that knows how to treat Honey Bunny and keep her healthy, happy and well. If you’re looking for an excellent vet clinic, it doesn’t get better than Willow Creek.

Ok, I finally decided I needed to update the look of my blog. Flowers just weren’t cutting it for me. I also wanted to get a picture of Honey Bunny on there. The picture is actually from nearly 5 years ago when Honey was just a little baby. She’s so cute. She’s grown up a lot since then. She weighs about 6 1/2 pounds and is so soft. She’s so much fun to have around – bunnies are really great pets. They have such interesting personalities. She’s always getting into something and trying to eat paper. Preston’s Business 2.0 magazines don’t usually last long – Honey shreds them before he has a chance to read them. Sorry, Preston!

I sometimes hear people complain about their Treos, and oftentimes I think people gripe because it’s a trendy thing to do. The new iPhone is coming out soon, and people are excited about that, so they’ll complain about whatever smart phone they have in anticipation of the “greatness” of the iPhone.

Well, I just want to mention why I think the Treo is great, and it isn’t because two of my brothers work for Palm. I was riding the ski lift today at Sundance, and was expecting an important call. (Yes, I had a great signal there, thanks to Sprint.) Suddenly, I hear, “Hey you! In front of us! Hey!”

I turn around, and the people on the chair behind us were yelling at us that we had dropped something…a phone maybe?

My heart sinks.

I look back, and sure enough, there’s my Treo in 3 pieces laying on the snow 20 feet below. It fell out of my jacket pocket. The lift continues on, and I feel sick to my stomach. Once we get to the top, we race down, searching in vain for the phone. Luckily, some good samaritan turned it in to the lift operator at the base of the lift, and he gives it back to me. I put my Treo back together, and try to turn it on. Nothing. I try again and again…still nothing.

Desperate, my husband jumps in the car and races towards a Sprint store to try to replace my phone in anticipation of my business call. Within 30 minutes, we’re back on the slopes, because the phone has started working again, with all of the functions working perfectly. I have had no problems since – I think the phone just needed to recuperate from the trauma of being dropped 20 feet and landing on the well-packed snow.

I am now, even more than before, a huge fan of the Palm Treo. I’m amazed at the durability, and really enjoy all of the features it offers. I’m sure the iPhone will have a lot of cool features, but I don’t know that it will be able to survive such a high impact as my beloved Treo.

Police released the identity of the Trolley Square gunman – Sulejmen Talovic. He was an 18 year old immigrant from Bosnia that lived near Trolley Square. There are so many questions – no one really knows what snapped in his head to make him do this.

I suppose with time, we’ll receive answers, but who knows if we’ll ever really know what happened. This story is so tragic and heartbreaking – so many lives were impacted by this young man’s terrifying and horrific actions.

I hope that those whose lives have been forever changed will be get the help they need to be able to eventually find peace and healing. It is so sad that five innocent lives were lost, but there is one bright spot in the story. The police forces involved were able to show that they knew how to react under pressure and neutralize the gunman quickly. From the moment the first 911 call was made until Sulejmen Talovic was killed, only six minutes passed. This is amazing – so many lives were saved as a result of the quick thinking actions of the police forces involved. They are heroes, and deserve commendation. They put their own lives at risk, and by doing so, saved countless others. A big thank you goes to them, and especially Ken Hammond, the off-duty Ogden police officer that was enjoying dinner with his wife, but noticed the threat and took immediate action. They are all heroes. Thank you.

In my last post, I mentioned the shooting at Trolley Square – reporters are now saying the shooter killed five people, and then was killed by police, making the fatality count six. I’ll post more updates as I get them.

About 3 hours ago, a gunman entered the Trolley Square mall located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and shot and killed several people, and was then killed by police.

There are currently still people in the mall, still too scared to come out of the mall. Police offers are going through the mall to help people out of the mall, and assure them that the gunman is dead, and the killing is over.

It is so frightening because people were simply enjoying dinner at restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe or Rodizio’s, or shopping at Pottery Barn Kids or Williams Sonoma, or other stores there. The gunman stormed in and began randomly shooting and killing people.

Estimates are saying at least 4 people are in the hospital in critical condition, and several others have been killed. There are not many details as to what exactly has happened, or how many people have been hurt or killed. One Rodizio’s waiter was shot in the head, but the bullet grazed his head, and he was ok.

Witnesses say the gunman was young – in his 20s, and he had a look of rage on his face, and that he was “full of hatred and anger and he was going to kill anyone that got in his way.” It is tragic and terrifying – hopefully with time, we’ll get answers as to why something like this would happen.

I’m sure everyone has heard by now how un-gracious the Dixie Chicks were at the Grammys last night. I guess it should come as no surprise that they, in response to winning an award, quoted The Simpsons in their acceptance speech, and said, “Ha, Ha.” Nice one. So full of class.

They whine and complain about how they are a band without a genre, but they have succeeded in alienating the entire country music industry with their remarks about our country and President Bush, and then this. If they could just let things go and be gracious, then I think country music would be more willing to accept them, but they seem to push most of their fans away with their caustic attitude and comments.

I wrote previously about them when they made their asinine statement about President Bush, and they have not done much to win any fans other than the liberal judges on the Grammy awards music panel. They don’t get radio time on country music stations because, frankly, everyone that listens to those is sick of them and their attitude. If they would just go away, it would be great. They would not be missed.

Well, an update for ReAL Salt Lake – Both the State House and Senate voted to approve funding to assist with building the stadium in Sandy, a suburb just south of Salt Lake City.

This is great news – hopefully everything will end up going through. Now owner Dave Checketts just has to approve the deal and finalize everything. It would be awesome if RSL stayed – the games are so much fun. I recently wrote about how Utah doesn’t deserve RSL, but I’m hoping to be proven wrong on this one. I’d love to get season tickets and enjoy the games. Hopefully we’ll be able to in the new stadium! Go ReAL!

My husband and I, along with my parents and some friends, recently went on a cruise to Mexico that left out of New Orleans. I didn’t quite know what to expect from the city, especially after what we saw on the news of Katrina and its aftermath, but I was pleasantly surprised.

New Orleans is a city that is struggling to rebuild, despite the lack of work/leadership mayor Ray Nagan has shown. The city is beautiful, and full of history. The food was absolutely fabulous – if you’re ever there, go to The Gumbo Shop for some of the best gumbo I’ve ever had. We went to Southern Candymakers for the most delicious pralines I can ever imagine. (By the way, it’s pronounced prah-leen, not pray-leen.)

The music was also a huge draw for me – it was wonderful, and had a style all its own. Kind of a bluesy-jazzy mix, full of energy. I loved it!

I loved New Orleans, but it did feel somewhat unsafe in some areas. There was not much in the way of a police presence, which was somewhat unnerving. As my husband and I were walking down Bourbon street, a guy trying to get away from the police ran into me, and was consequently arrested. We watched another guy running away from security after presumably stealing something. It was sad to me…the city really seemed deserted and lawless in some areas.

Despite the lack of police, it is a city I would go back to in a heartbeat. The people were so friendly and welcoming – and I feel that it is the duty of Americans to help out our neighbors, whether it is physically helping to rebuild the city, or spending money there to help business owners get back on their feet. We hope to go back to visit again soon – I absolutely loved it.