Welcome back Monday

Took the weekend off from posting because:

1) Needed the break after a busy week.

2) Had lots of non-virtual (i.e., real) stuff to do.

3) Figured the world has enough "9/11 Plus 4 years" observations.

So we return to the keyboard to discover that the sun is having X-class flare spitting conniptions, panicked doctors allegedly were killing off their most critical patients in order to get out of New Orleans worst hit hospitals, Hurricane Ophelia is still in serpentine dance mode offshore in the Atlantic, a traitorous American sends a video tape promising Al Qaeda attacks on Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, and a 100 square mile section of Oregon is "bulging," presumedly a magma bellyache that may or may not portend anything special.

This would be quite enough to give lesser mortals dyspepsia, or send them back to bed, but we'd kind of like to stay awake and see how the John Roberts hearings proceed.

On second thought, maybe not. Politics and sausage. You don't want to know.