THURSDAY
+ Priscilla Owen, the Texas judge whose nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court is creating a storm in the US Senate (actually it has little to do with her personally -- it's a fight over how much power the Senate minority is going to be allowed), is a part of our extended Covenant Church family. Her Austin area congregation, St. Barnabas the Encourager Evangelical Covenant Church, is completing the affiliation process next month.

+ There is a construction trailer on the site of the future El Pollo Loco in north Turlock. Alright! -- progress of sorts.

+ Crop Report: All of our apricots split and rotted -- too much rain at the wrong time of the year. However, the cherries, which are even more prone to splitting, didn't. They're tasting great!

+ I'm surprised it took so long -- but Google is now offering a personalized portal option. It's pretty basic at this point and will have to play a lot of catch-up to be in the same league as my.yahoo and competitors. But it is a start.

+ Revenge of the Sith is already available for download from the Internet -- quite illegally. I suspect that it will have little impact on the lines at the movie theaters. Still, I'll wait until the DVD comes out -- and borrow it from someone.