Greetings, this is going to be another slow day for me. No news, picture, or question of the day. I have a lot of work to do with getting this store started. I'm learning paint shop pro which isn't easy considering my roomie didn't have the instruction book.

Today is the Puerto Rican Day Parade. My friend Todd, who is Puerto Rican isn't going because his experience at the parade hasn't been that great and he feels, to a certain extent, that the parade is embarassing to his heritage. He cited the example of a man who was walking down the street with a large hoop earring in each ear and a $10 food stamp dangling from each one. The following year his friend told him about a woman who was walking down the street with a sign that said (when translated into English) "I love Puerto Rico, but the U.S. keeps me here" -- basically saying that government support was keeping her in a nice (or somewhat nice) lifestyle. Then of course we call remember those Central Park "wildings" a few years ago when women were pretty much stripped naked and assaulted by Puerto Rican men who were drunk, rowdy, or both. There haven't been any major things since that year's fiasco.

What I did find funny about that was the mother of one of the lead instigators who consistently said that it wasn't her son, wasn't her son, wasn't her son, WASN'T HER SON! Yet there he was on the video dowsing women with water, pulling on their clothes, bumping up against them (and I am being polite and not getting as graphic as I could). I do find it funny when parents say that it's everyone else BUT their kid even when there is proof to the contrary.