I think this is an important example of why it's important to have working smoking alarms in your home and not to smoke in bed or while dozing.

Man, child die in house fire

A man and a 10-year-old girl died in a house fire overnight, and the girl's mother was clinging to life this morning.

Donald Jones, Patricia Lawhorn and Kim Lawhorn, 10, were overcome by smoke as they slept in an upstairs apartment at 1301 Fourth St., Jackson Fire Chief Larry Bosell said at the scene.

Foote Hospital officials confirmed Jones and Kim died of apparent smoke inhalation.

A University of Michigan Hospital spokeswoman said Patricia Lawhorn was in critical condition this morning.

Bosell said the fire appears to have started in a couch in the second-floor apartment.

"It looks like careless use of smoking material," Bosell said. "The sad thing is that this could have been prevented with a working smoke alarm."

The alarm had been disabled or was broken, he said.

Jackson firefighters found the victims in a bedroom on the home's second floor and carried them on stretchers into ambulances that took them to Foote Hospital. None could be seen moving as they were taken outside.

"It's going to be rough on these guys," Bosell said of the firefighters who found the victims. "It's nothing you can ever prepare for."

Update #1--Donald C. Jones was smoking on a couch when he apparently fell asleep, starting a fire that killed him and a 10-year-old girl early Friday morning, a fire marshal said.

Update #2-- A third person, 43-year-old Patricia Lawhorn, has died in the fire that started on Friday.

How sad! The whole family wiped out because the smoke alarm wasn't working. Here are some on Amazon.com just as an example for price comparison. The least expensive is under $7. Not counting tax, each of these people are dead over $2.33, that's terrible. I'm sure now, their family would gladly pay that to have them back, but it's too late.

Plus I'm pretty sure that the Fire Department gives out free detectors if you can't afford to buy them. I'm not sure if it was a certain program or if it's all the time. Any which way, there is no excuse for not having one, especially if you smoke in the house. And if you smoke and sleep. Of course everyone thinks it won't happen to them, but it can. I'm sure this man didn't think he was going to kill himself and murder two other people. But he did.

I feel bad because I still haven't bought a carbon monoxcide alarm. I should get one this week so I can have the guys working on the basement put it up for me. Tomorrow I'll test my smoke alarms too. Most times it's recommended to change the batteries during Daylight Savings but I don't do that. They last longer than 6 months.

Not that it's a surprise, but I hate stupid people. Which is most everyone.

I'm in a computer class of 11 people. It's pretty much assigned seating. Sometimes a person's computer won't work. I don't know if it's the actual computer or the operator, so that person will move to a different spot.

Today, I got to class 15 minutes early and some chick is in my seat!! Luckily all we were doing today was taking a test. I at first thought she was from a different class like on a different day, but then she asked a question and I realized she's in our class and sits at the end of my row. Well there's only 4 in a row so she skipped a computer and sat in mine. Why she didn't use the empty one behind her's?? I don't know. So rather than me displacing someone else, I just sat way in the back, which because it was a test that was fine. But if it was actually a class I wouldn't have been able to see the board, I'm practically blind.

Some people are stupid, rude or oblivious and need to be shot.

(walked 2.6 miles today at Cascades)

So there is this stupid new sitcom on Mondays with David Spade in it. I only watch it because I like "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and 1/2 Men" and it's on between it.

But anyway, it also has David Puddy from Seinfeld and he had a bunch of T-Shirts that his wife wanted to throw out but he wanted to keep them. So about a week later he came home and she had a surprise for him. It was a T-Shirt Quilt!!! How funny. He was mad at first but then he loved it. He took pictures of it with his camera phone and was showing strangers in the bar. And reliving how he got each T-Shirt and what was going on in his life at that time.

The quilt was really nice too. I hope mine turns out as well. If I ever finish it.

Right now, I'm still ironing on interfacing to Jodie's shirts. I have to finish up a few for Brian's and make another column for mine.

Pet food maker expands recall push

Canadian supplier of 'cuts and gravy' style dog and cat food tied to 10 animal deaths

March 19 2007: 9:09 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A pet food producer announced Monday that it has beefed up its call center and Web site after a massive recall of its "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food found in 90 private-label store brands linked to pet deaths and illness.

Some 10 animals - one dog and nine cats - have died in the U.S. after eating the food, with several others having been sickened, said the Food and Drug Administration.

Ontario-based Menu Foods (Charts) Friday launched the precautionary recall of food produced between last Dec. 3 and March 6, based on feedback in the United States about the food's impact of pets' kidneys.

More than 60 million cans of dog and cat food have been recalled by the company, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The food is packaged in cans and pouches under different names and sold nationwide by retailers including Kroger (Charts), Safeway (Charts), Wal-Mart (Charts), PetSmart (Charts) and Pet Valu (Charts), according to the FDA.

Menu listed the affected brands on its Web site at http://menufoods.com/recall/

The company said consumers who have any of the listed products should immediately stop feeding them to their pets.

But despite testing the food in question, the company remained unclear about what had caused the problems.

The food was all produced at Menu's facility in Emporia, Kan., but the products are sold across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Menu said the complaints coincided with the introduction of wheat gluten from a new supplier.
The FDA says it has launched an investigation as well as working with Menu to ensure the recall is effective.

"We take these complaints very seriously and, while we are still looking for a specific cause, we are acting to err on the side of caution" said Paul K. Henderson, CEO of Menu Foods, in a statement.

I had been thinking about making a T-Shirt quilt for a long time. I can't remember where I first even heard about one. In the summer I enter 5k races and almost everyone you get a T-Shirt with registration. I also have a bunch of Hard Rock Cafe shirts. Last March my mom & I took a class at Country Stitches. They should have put in the class sheet that you get before hand to cut the shirts ahead of time, because the majority of the 4 hour class was just cutting the shirts and ironing on the interfacing. Then probably about 6 months later we took another class after all our T-Shirts were cut & ironed and learned how to sew them together in the columns. Thats mine above. I changed my mind on 3 shirts so I need more interfacing for those. They are having another class in April that I'm going to try to get to so I'll know what to do next.

In the meantime, Jodie wants one now. She brought over 39 T-Shirts! Saturday I cut them. I ironed 9 of them and already ran out of interfacing because her designs are HUGE!

I'm helping my mom with hers too. I have 3 of her columns done and need interfacing to finish up some more.

I'm thinking that my quilt is going to be front and back T-Shirts instead of a solid color on the back. I'll get at least 5-8 shirts this season in the 5k's plus I have some golf shirts and a sweatshirt I forgot about.

I think that when I go to JoAnn Fabrics today I'll see if they have a new bolt of interfacing and I'll just buy that. I'm sure we'll use it all.

Jade & I went to Cascade's yesterday. I wanted to walk around twice which is 3 miles but there were a couple of dogs we passed and I think Jade gained weight and got even stronger, so she was pulling hard on the leash when we passed them. It was nice out but kinda windy so after going around once I was tired. Also we don't stay on the path, to avoid other dogs, so it's harder to walk on the grass on the hills. And I'm so out of shape.

I wanted to go again today but I got up early, to try to get used to it, since I should be going back to work next week. Then Dennis came over to look at everything I need done, after he left Pat came over to clean, then it was 4pm and Jade was going to get picked up and she wasn't feeling too well, her temperature was 103 degrees and she was laying on Jodie's t-shirts that were on the floor that I'm making into a quilt for her.

Ugg. I'm getting fat. It's so cold here that all I want to do is sit on the couch with my laptop and a heating pad on my feet and watch TV and surf the internet.

I went to Walgreen's to get some Easter M&M's because Meijer didn't have any and bought a bag of Snicker mini's. Well guess what I had for dinner? The WHOLE damn bag of Snickers! Who the hell does that? That's insane. I've got to start running again. Already two months into this year and I've paid for my membership to the YMCA and haven't been in probably 18 months. But I keep paying because I know the minute I stop paying then I'll want to go.

Britney's Night in the Valley

I love David Spade. This video is funny.

Oscar Fashion Round-Up

The Fugly

Ivana Baquero & Mari Belverdu--I have no idea who these two are but they get my worst most fugliest of the night. WTF?? The one on the left looks about 12 with gross eyebrows and what looks like an ice-skaters outfit on, including the skates.

The one on the right has some kind of 1920's flapper dress in Purple??

Cameron Diaz--I'm not sure if I hate this dress as much as I do, because I just hate her or if it's just the dress. But I hate her messy dress, the Indian jewelry earrings and the wrinkly wedding dress. Maybe she bought this hoping Justin Timberlake would ask her to marry him and when he broke up with her instead, she decided she might as well get one wearing out of it.



Eva Green--I hate the flesh color, the mummy wrapping around the chest, her hair with the huge part and her bad Mortica Adams make-up.



Gwynth Paltrow--Get this bitch some scissors. Her hair is way too long. I'm not liking the color of this dress.



Jessica Biel--I like the color of this dress, it's unexpected. But the dress itself is unremarkable. I don't like her hair. And why is she walking like there is something shoved hard up her bum??


JHo--She NEVER has good hair on the red carpet. And why always with the pregnant woman dresses? You know she's sterile. Not liking this at all. And don't like her.



Keisha Whitaker--Love this dress from the front. Nice hair, make-up, love the hair. Then I saw the back. Why is the plant from Little Shop of Horrors climbing on her?



Rashida Jones--Poor thing. She's so pretty and I love her on my favorite show, "The Office". Did her dad, Quincy Jones, ask her to come with him at the last minute? And she was lounging around in this fugly thing? WTF??? There. Are. No. Words.

Now on to better things...

The Good

Reese Witherspoon--Love this dark blue dress and it gets lighter at the bottom. It's basically the same dress she wore to the Golden Globes and an award show before that just long. But I still like it. She always looks sad, you know she cries herself to sleep.


Nicole Kidman--The BEST dressed on the red carpet. Love this dress. I love that it's fire engine red while everyone else is wearing either light colors or blue or black. I like her hair straight. The bow is done right, not like that hideous thing ScarJo wore last year. And she's as thin as Portia.


Rachel Weisz--kinda looks like her chest is going to pull her top down, but I like the color.

Portia Di Rossi--I love anything blue so of course that's a plus, and she's so slim. Looks great.

Naomi Watts--Love it. I like the purple sash with the yellow. I like her hair.

Maggie Gyllenhaal--Another blue, this time with black. She had some feathers or some crap in her hair, but overall it was nice.

Kirsten Dunst--I love this dress. Maybe she could have done her hair and make-up better but I love it.

Kate Winslet--I'm liking this mint green and the criss-cross at the chest.

Helen Mirren--Couldn't really find a good picture but this dress is really nice. Her hair is not too young, not too old. Very elegant.


Madonna--She wasn't at the Oscar's just the Vanity Fair after party but she's my best dressed. Love the dress, the hair, the body.



Cate Blanchett--I'm really liking this steel colored dress. Of course, only Cate can pull it off, her hair and make-up is perfect.


Abigail Breslin--She is so cute. Another reason I like her is that her parents dress her in age appropriate clothes, unlike Dakota Fanning who dresses like a trampy 15 year old. This dress reminds me of Barbie.