Bad Hat

This video reminds me of the scary faces I used to make through the see-through bookcases that scared my sis, even though she knew it was me.

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Yellow Azalea Closeup

Yellow Azalea closeup
Originally uploaded by LIVING... MAEDEANS STYLE

We've seen these different colored azaleas recently that we have been told are native plants that just volunteer to grow in the woods and such around here in Lower Alabama. Since putting up this post, we have learned the name of the yellow ones (see footnote below). If someone knows the name of the light orange ones, we'd like to know their official name. The ones we have seen come in yellow and a light orange -- very pretty. The photos we took were in a large flowerbed right in front of Weeks Bay Interpretive Center east of Fairhope on Highway 98.

More photos of them are here.

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Footnote on the yellow one:

This azalea is named Admiral Semmes . Both of the varieties at Weeks Bay were developed by Dodd & Dodd Native Nurseries in Semmes, Alabama.

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Ravenites server

Ravenites waitperson
Originally uploaded by LIVING... MAEDEANS STYLE

This is the first time we have blogged this way -- from a photo on Flickr. It's so easy, we'll probably do it many more times in the future.

We think we know our waitperson's name but will not reveal it. This place fascinates us, and we think we were meant to find it during the Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival. They mentioned that they are as covered up with business as they were during this festival during Mardi Gras and Christmas celebrations.

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Truth is stranger than fiction

I've been trying to catch up on reading all of John Grisham’s books. The difference between this one and the others I have read is this is a true story. John Grisham decided to write this book after he read a rather long obituary in the New York Times. He realized there was a story to tell and decided to tell it. It was probably a bigger undertaking than he had realized, but he persisted. It seems like it took him 18 months, whereas, he writes most of his yearly books in about 10 months.

Grisham discusses this book on The Innocence Blog May 21, 2008, including a video.

The book was about Ron Williamson, who was convicted of murder in 1988 and exonerated and released in 1999. It also tells the story of Dennis Fritz, who was also convicted of the same crime in 1988, exonerated and released in 1999.

Many people were involved in having the convictions reversed, including The Innocence Project , a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

The Innocence Project gives outlines of all those who have been exonerated after their convictions and imprisonment. This list goes back to 1989. You can read about Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritiz at:

· Ron Williamson

· Dennis Fritz

As of this date, 234 wrongfully convicted people have been exonerated.

One of the key characters in this true story was Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Patterson. Even though DNA testing freed Williamson and Fritz and pointed to the real murderer, Patterson continued to believe Fritz and Williamson were involved in the crime even though the mother of the victim totally accepted the facts as they were revealed by the DNA.

Details that have unfolded since the exoneration and release of these two victims of injustice are available at "Junk Justice and Okie Science".

Dennis Fritz wrote a book also: Dennis Fritz video

I recommend this book, but be prepared that it may have an unexpected affect on you as you realize what you are reading is not fiction.

Check out The Innocent Man trailer.

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TV commercials

Saw this on TV recently:

Car Wash - State Farm

I probably like some of the commercials on TV more than the shows I’m watching. Do you think I’m moving into my second childhood?

• I have Verizon cell phone service, and lots of their commercials are good:
  3G Dead Zones
• Southwest Airlines has a lot of those “Wanna Get Away” commercials I like, plus I like their inexpensive fares. Sometimes you have to drive over a hundred miles to some place to get ‘em, but what the heck?
  Must be football season
• I don't drink Bud, but I still think they have some of the most clever commercials ever.
  Budweiser Alien Wassup

Of course, I get really tired of any commercial, no matter how funny it is on the first viewing, after having seen it for the 200th time. Smitty is always in there saying, “Don’t encourage ‘em!"

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Thanks, I needed that

Later on today, I'll listen to the entire sound track of The Fantasticks. I'd sort of forgotten about it but had a reminder from Carla in her recent blog post: Follow me

Carla already knows I'm a copy cat.

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You need to come up for air once in awhile

Years ago when we purchased our first home computer, I thought Smitty was spending too much time on it and would say something like, "You need to come up for air once in awhile." Now it's payback time. I cannot tell you how many times he has said pretty much the same thing to me.

Then, today it was the last straw. Do you get any notices like this?

Fresh Air Notice

Do you ever get warnings like the ones above? If not, the chances are pretty good that you are not an internet addict like I am. I discussed this in a blog post not too long ago in a post titled Why I spend so much time on the computer .

So, I decided to search the internet with the search of Internet Addiction to see what references I could find. That was really scary.

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