Life With Frenchie

Oh wow! I can’t believe I forgot about this!! Last weekend, the office had a suite to the Ringling Bros. Circus so a very whiny enthusiastic EP and I packed MM and some friends into the car and headed off to the big city! I guess once you’re an adult, the circus loses most of its appeal and mystery. It has been a few years since I first took MM to the circus so the theme has changed. This year it was a theme that really hit home - something about being all about me! Anyways, the show was mildly amusing as the main clown was always causing the ringmaster grief. There was the usual parade of performers doing crazy things like hanging from extra-long scarves and twirling all about, the bottom of the circus totem pole circus performers — the dog trainers (what are they doing in a circus anyways??? they should be on Animal Planet), and the lady with the horses (really, does it take talent to get the horses to follow one another around an enclosed circle?).

There were still a few things that entertained me. For instance, the guys on the motorcycles in the metal ball. WOW! That just really amazes me. At one point, there were 7 motorcycles in there. I was literally covering my eyes with my hands and watching from between my fingers. When the motorcycles were stopping, it was so precise that they had to pick up their bikes and inch as close as possible to the other stopped bikes in the sphere. How do you even practice stuff like this? I mean, isn’t practice usually where you make your mistakes and learn and adjust? So how do you make a mistake when you have 7 motorcycles zipping around a, relatively, tiny sphere?

There were also the trapeze artists. Has the net gotten higher? Or the trapeze lower? It just doesn’t seem as huge as it did when I was younger. Granted, I was smaller (not much, but enough) then so things seemed so much bigger back then. Still, I feel like the trapeze used to be so much higher back then. Also, they didn’t do the usual taking away of the net. What’s up with that? I guess they figured traumatizing thousands of young kids, and several adults, when the circus performer goes splat is not so exciting. Just a thought.

By this point,  I was suffering from a terminal case of boredom! But, of course, we had to wait for the elephants! It’s pretty amazing how these giants can seem so gentle and “cute” when doing their thing in the circus. They paraded around, laid on their sides, climbed over each other, sat on each other, and walked in circles (why is it that elephants walking in circles is more entertaining than horses doing the same??). Nevertheless, I was glad it signaled the end of the show. I also don’t remember the circus being so incredibly long. I guess when you’re young and overly excited about things, time flies by. But when you’re *gulp* old and bored, things tend to drag on forever!

I guess my childhood is really over. I think this was the last year that I will see the circus.

Wiretaps cut off after FBI lets phone bills pile up

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press
Published on: 01/11/08
Washington — Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau’s repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.

A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI’s lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000.

In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation “was halted due to untimely payment,” the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government’s most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.

“We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence,” according to the audit by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.

More than half of 990 bills to pay for telecommunication surveillance in five unidentified FBI field offices were not paid on time, the report shows.

Assistant FBI Director John Miller said wiretaps were dropped only a few times because of the backed-up billing, which he said didn’t significantly set back the investigations under way. He said the FBI “will not tolerate financial mismanagement, or worse,” and is working to fix the problems.

“While in a few instances, late payment of telephone bills resulted in interruptions of the timely delivery of surveillance results, these interruptions were temporary and in our assessment, none of those cases were significantly affected,” Miller said in a statement Thursday evening.

The report released Thursday was a highly edited version of Fine’s 87-page audit that the FBI deemed too sensitive to be viewed publicly. It focused on what the bureau admitted was an “antiquated” system to track money sent to its 56 field offices nationwide for undercover work. Generally, the money pays for rental cars, leases and surveillance, the audit noted.

The American Civil Liberties Union called on the FBI to release the entire, unedited audit. The group, which has been critical of some of the government’s wiretapping programs, also criticized telecommunication companies that allowed the eavesdropping — as long as they are getting paid.

Wow! This has been just a busy week! I feel like my poor blogs have been neglected. You too, my faithful readers!

It’s been over a week since I’ve posted anything on my blog. Surprisingly enough, not a whole lot has really happened, but you know me - I’m never at a loss for words.

Driving down the road the other day, I was sitting in a bit of traffic. As it’s truly beautiful here in Florida these days, I had my sunroof open and windows down. Motoring along, I hear someone’s radio absolutely blaring! Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t disturb me. It just piqued my interest cause I’m “curious” and wanted to figure out what song was playing (hey, I was stuck in traffic - I was bored!). As the car got closer, I realized that it was Cher…and it was really loud because I could understand it just as clearly as if I were playing the song in my car and this car was 2-3 lanes over. Now my question is: Which is worse - the person playing and rocking out to Cher at maximum volume or me being able to identify which song it was …”Just Like Jesse James”????

Sadly enough, that may have been the highlight of my week. *le sigh* Other than that, I’ve been working and EP was just as busy this week, so we mainly just crossed paths all week long. Hopefully I will have some semblance of a life again soon.