Chickens in Springfield city limits AND why you can call me ROOSTER!

Is this a great idea? Is this a bad idea? Is this hillbilly or is this progressive? I've heard that we're actually behind in this movement.

If the city allows residents to own chickens, I hope only my good neighbors consider them. I have/had a couple of neighbors who can't/couldn't take care of their cats... they ended up pooping in my yard all the time and chillin' on my porch. Minnie thought their poo was "kitty candy."

And, I guess since I grew up in farm country, I'm kind of over it. My mom would tell me these awful stories of my strong, big-boned, great-grandmother chopping off a chicken's head and then plucking out all of the feathers so they could have something for dinner. I think she hated chicken for years.

Still, I also think having chickens and eggs would be kind of fun. Cost-effective? NO. But, kind of fun. And maybe a little smelly.

The woman in the story is a friend of mine. Actually, I hang out with her teen girls! Our connection is adoption, so the girls and I will get together a few times a year and do something fun. Last time it was Silver Dollar City!

Anyway, back to the chickens. I like chickens. We had some when I was a kid. I am all about sustainability. I just don't think it's for me... but again, you're talking about someone who killed off her garden a couple of years ago. I'm hopeless. I will, however, gladly accept some chicken eggs!



OTHER CHICKEN TALES: Chickens embarrassed me as a kid. How can that be? In high school, our mascot was a rooster. Seriously??? It was like I lived in a mocumentary--Asian girl grows up in a chicken town...with a rooster as a mascot. We were the Roosters and Chicks. You can imagine the jokes when we played ball against the Carrollton Trojans or the Lexington Minutemen. Try telling somebody your high school mascot was a rooster and see the response you get... that's all I'm sayin'. A former co-worker at KY3 (news producer and blogger Chris Replogle, a rival from Nevada) gave me the nickname "Rooster"... and it stuck.

One more story-- I once hit a chicken while it crossed the road. It was like a cartoon. A poof of feathers flew up in the air, and I couldn't see out my windshield for several seconds. I'm pretty sure I had two girlfriends in the front seat (someone always sat in between the driver and passenger back then--don't recommend it!) We screamed like any 16-year-old would... then we laughed. That's what happens when you live 15 minutes out of "town" and on a backroad. To this day, I still slow down over hills on backroads-- you could run smack dab into a chicken, a cow, a tractor, or much worse if you're not careful.

I Think My Birthday is Wrong

I have always prided the fact that I was born on the scariest day of the scariest month of the year--October 13th!

My birthday was on FRIDAY THE 13TH for two VERY SPECIAL birthdays-- my 16th and my 21st.

My 16th birthday was also homecoming. I took my driving test, passed, and went to school in my new-to-me hot red Cavalier. haha! After school, I drove a handful of my friends to get something to eat. I then picked up my homecoming date (still friends) Ryan Allen, and took him to homecoming.

A few days later, I flipped my car. Coincidence? I think not. It must've been the Friday the 13th curse. Try explaining that to a very disappointed and angry father.

Fast forward five years. My 21st birthday was also on a Friday. My college sweetheart bought me a keg at our favorite bar at KU. Actually, it was my least favorite bar, but it was one of the most popular ones because it was right off campus: The Wheel. I think I'm the only person who didn't love the Wheel, but I did love Wheel Pizza. Yummm...

Anyway, I remember I wore my favorite long, green leather skirt, knee high boots and a black turtleneck. Long skirts, boots and turtlenecks were kind of my uniform back then. Anyway, I remember someone else had also ordered a keg that night and suddenly my keg was empty. I though I looked H-O-T-T... too bad I ended up puking in a back alley and going home early. What I wouldn't do to still fit in that skirt.

But, as much as I've loved to be a Friday the 13th/October 13th baby... I think I've been celebrating the wrong day. Technically, if I was born on October 13th in Korea, I would have likely been born on October 12th time in the U.S.!

This travesty just occurred to me... TONIGHT on the way to dinner with Jim.

Should I switch my birthday? Or should I try to squeeze out more princess power from the two-day birthday snafu? I mean, I'm too old to celebrate a "birthday week" (though I try to pull it off every year regardless...) However, do you think I could try to get special attention on both days?

Pleasant Hill Grad Dies

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A soldier raised in Missouri has died in Baghdad of injuries that weren't sustained in combat. The death of 31-year-old Army Specialist Randy Pickering is under investigation. His brother, Chris Pickering, says the family expects to get the autopsy results soon. The Michigan man says the family is skeptical of initial reports from the military that the death might have been a suicide. Randy Pickering grew up in Pleasant Hill in the Kansas City area and later lived with his grandparents for several years in Liberty. Chris Pickering says his brother didn't graduate from high school but earned his equivalency certificate and had a college degree in computer programming. He lived in Missouri until his mid20s, when he moved to Minnesota with his father and other family members. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-12-14-07 0811EST