Yesterday, I bought a copy of FranklinCovey Planning Software from CompUSA. I had previously downloaded a trial edition from the FranklinCovey web site and liked it so much that I decided to go ahead and make it legal. We'll see where this goes.

BREAKING NEWS -- Authorities probing D.C-area sniper attacks take second man into custody, federal law enforcement source tells CNN. Details to come.

Alert out for AWOL French marksman...France notes speculation of link to Washington-area sniper

Apparently, the serial sniper murdering people around the Washington, D. C. area left a letter in a wooded area behind a Ponderosa restaurant in Ashland, Virginia, the site of his (or her) latest attack. MSNBC News reports: "An investigator who read the lengthy message told NBC?s David Bloom that the contents indicate 'this could be a very difficult time we are about to go through.'"

Well, I didn't hear from the independent adjuster today, and I'll be out of town for the greater part of the day tomorrow. If I don't hear from her/him tomorrow, I'll be calling Farmers Insurance Group customer service back. You can count on it!

I started this site a year ago, on September 30, 2001, because I was involved in a three-car automobile accident that day (you can read about it by clicking here) and wanted a journal to "write it out of my system." As fate would have it, I was involved in another automobile accident (this time only involving one other car) on October 2, 2002, almost a year to the day after the accident that prompted the creation of this web site. This time, as I was pulling into a bank parking lot, one of their customers backed into my 1997, tan Mercury Grand Marquis. The damage was minor, but I filed a claim, anyway, because even a small dent will reduce the resale value of a car. At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Friday, October 4, I initiated a claim by visiting the web site of Farmers Insurance Group. About an hour later, I received a telephone call from David, one of their employees, who asked me some questions and said that an independent adjuster would be contacting me no later that Tuesday, October 8. I'll keep you posted on developments.

Yesterday marked the first year anniversary of the Prickly Pig weblog, an eon in Internet time.

The Associated Press news agency reports that a man identified as a twenty-one year old Bulgarian "student" was apprehended as he attempted to carry weapons onto an airplane. Transportation Security Administration spokesman Robert Johnson said that the individual had a pair of scissors concealed in a bar of soap and two box cutters hidden in a lotion bottle. The man claimed to have packed that way so as to avoid damage to other items in his luggage.