I have spent the great majority of the morning going between reading news sites and fooling with paperwork. Since the wife and I are going to the Bahamas next month and I don’t have a passport, while her’s expire ten years ago, there is quite a bit of stuff to do.
It takes two or three weeks to get one if you are willing to pay out the nose, which we are having to do. The first thing we had to do is get online and order our birth certificates. We got hers this weekend but I didn’t get mine until today because a signature is required and of course I am at work during the day. Fortunately I am off today and tomorrow. My first two days off in a row since December 8th. I feel it too.
I was supposed to go to the doctor today at 9:30 or so but they have moved the office and I misunderstood where the location was. Needless to say I missed my appointment. They were nice enough to reschedule it for tomorrow morning for me. That’s cool because I have some writing to do today anyway. Tomorrow I am keeping RePete home with me as she also has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon.
I have to go pick up another copy of my auto insurance policy as well. We have decided that the time has come to get new automobiles and as much as I am a fan of driving a car until the wheels fall off and hate car payments, it’s not worth the inconvenience when one of them breaks down and that will be at some point in the near future. We both take good care of our cars and have over 200k on both of them, but with my job I can’t be car-less. Since I donated the van a few months ago to the Alzheimer’s Association I don’t have an extra vehicle in case something happens with one of these.
I prefer to go through 99% of the car buying process online. Financing all the way up to finding the car. All I should have to do at the dealer is take a test drive and if I like it, drive it the hell out of there. The last car I bought was in 2000 and we ended up spending about 30 minutes in the dealership. The only reason it took that long is that I had not arranged to have it added to my insurance ahead of time. I won’t make that mistake this time. I have to stop and fax my license, insurance and references to the financing company in the morning and then I can start looking at cars. I was hoping to have everything taken care of by yesterday morning so that I could pick the car up today but no such luck. That’s OK, it will give me time for a bit of research. The wife can go get her car this weekend and I will go on my days off next week after researching a few. I still haven’t decided what I want anyway.
Traffic has been pretty heavy (for me) at the site over the last 72 hours, mainly because of the MeredithEmerson posts I put up. Somehow I have landed fairly high at Google and Yahoo! (number 2 and 4, respectively) and I have had something like 16,000 visits on those two posts alone. Several comments as well, which is nice because it means that someone is actually reading it and not just breezing through. If I could just bottle that and figure out how Google picks the top stories I would retire my happy ass tomorrow.
That was the question I asked myself about mid-morning.
I had gone into the men’s room to take a dump and lying there on the bathroom floor was a single solitary little turd all in a lump looking like a piece of chocolate someone had dropped to the floor on their way out. It was lying about halfway between the sink and the toilet.
What exactly were they doing that caused the turd to hit the floor three feet from the toilet? There might be a few explanations I suppose.
1. He had his head stuck in the toilet snacking and his ass pointed the other way.
2. He couldn’t decide what was more important. Wash Hands. Shit. Wash Hands. Shit. Wash Hands. Shit. SHIT!
3. Something like an alligator or a turd burglar was hiding in the toilet lying in wait and bit him on the ass just as it was peeking out.
4. He ate jumping beans for breakfast and it hopped out of the toilet because he forgot to flush.
5. It was really the new millennium replacement for Pet Rocks and toys of that ilk, the Bile Ball!
Not that I go around crapping on other people’s floors too often but I would think that if I let one slip out on to the floor I would feel the need to clean up my fecal matter just in case someone was in line right after me. How embarrassing would it be for the next guy to stick his head out the door as you were going back out into the dining area “Hey Buddy! You left your turd on the floor!”
Needless to say my immediate need to go went away rather quickly and after having cleaned the restrooms I had to go disinfect myself in fear that I might catch something nasty.
Update – January 9h 10:15PM Gary Michael Hilton is a suspect in the murder of a 46 yar old Florida State University nurse who went missing on December 1st. More information in my post here.
Update January 8th 6:15 PM – The autopsy is complete and the results have been released. I have posted them here in the updated entry along with the rest of the updated information
Update – 11:07 PM I just got home from work and saw the news that Meredith Emerson’s body has been located. You can find more updates here as I post them this evening and tomorrow morning.
Update 5:04 PM 1-7-08 According to the Atlanta Journal/Constitution a Union County Georgia magistrate has denied bond for Gary Michael Hilton during and arraignment hearing for the 61 year old charged in the kidnapping of Meredith Emerson.
The Union County District Attorney will be taking the case to the Grand Jury at an unspecified date and time. The grand jury convenes Tuesday but they will not likely turn the case over to them then. The Union County DA said that they will turn it over to them within 90 days. Police have also mentioned that they will continue the search for Meredith Emerson until Wednesday when they will have to go back to normal operations.
Hilton made the court appearance around 2PM this afternoon and didn’t speak during the hearing. The hearing only lasted about ten minutes and Assistant Public Defender Neil Smith answered the judge’s questions to Hilton. Smith is the court appointed attorney for Hilton. District Attorney Stan Gunter said that based on Smith’s limited answers during the hearing he expects Smith to enter an insanity plea for the man. After reading the charge against Hilton Judge Johnie Garmon asked whether the defendant had any questions. Neil Smith answered “not at this time”.
Also according to Gunter he plans on prosecuting Hilton with or without a body. He said that “it’s been done before. We do have blood evidence. If we can match it to Emerson’s DNA, essentially we do have a body”. If only the prosecutor’s in Aruba had those kind of balls two years ago we might have gotten a few answers by now in the Natalee Holloway case.
Update – 3:56 PM Monday January 7th – Police are apparently trying to determine now whether the suspect in the disappearance of Meredith Emerson might be linked to the presumed killings of an older North Carolina couple. I read several different reports about this over the weekend but nothing concrete, which is why I initially left it out of my post. The GBI is apparently comparing case notes with North Carolina investigators looking into the case of Irene and John Bryant. John and Irene are an elderly couple who were found dead after going for a hike in the NC mountains back in late October 2007.
Georgia and North Carolina law enforcement officials are supposed to be meeting at some point today in Cleveland, Georgia to discuss the case according to Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead.
Irene Bryant’s body was found on November 9th near their car in the Pisgah National Forest and her husband is still missing. According to newspaper reports in the Asheville Citizen-Times a person wearing a yellow jacket was shown on surveillance video trying to use the Bryant’s credit card at a Tennessee bank. Some of the witnesses in the Emerson case reported seeing a man wearing a yellow jacket with her before she disappeared on New Year’s Day while hiking in Vogel State Park at Blood Mountain. Hilton attempted to use one of Emerson’s credit cards at the Regions Bank in Canton Georgia according to the warrant for his arrest.
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There are similarities that we’re certainly wanting to look more closely at — nothing that we can release at this point.
Sherrif David Maloney, Transylvania County, NC
Law enforcement officers are supposed to be conducting a ‘target-specific search’ for more evidence in the Emerson case today, whatever the heck that means. Yesterday (Sunday) they were searching for her in Forsyth County near where her dog Ella was found in a grocery store parking lot last week. CNN is reporting that they are also making it a point to look behind churches, mainly as a result of a 2004 case where someone kidnapped and killed a hairdresser in Forsyth County. Her remains were found behind a church. There isn’t any evidence of a connection but Captain Frank Huggins of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said that they look behind churches out of an abundance of caution.
Update – 11:02PM Breaking news from CNN is reporting that along with her ID investigators have found blood-stained clothing in the dumpster. According to the authorities it contains a substantial amount of blood and the clothing was consistent with what Meredith Emerson was wearing at the time of her disappearance.
The GBI also recovered a portion of a seat belt with blood transfer stains as well. Hilton made a phone call from a pay phone Friday at the convenience store where they have recovered these items. His 2001 minivan has had the rear seat belt cut out and when agents arrested him on Friday he was attempting to vacuum the vehicle and wash portions of it with a bleach and water solution. The van (and Hilton) was located at a Chevron station at the corner of Peachtree-Dunwoody RD and Johnson Ferry Rd in Dekalb County. Pretty close to the area of Sandy Springs where I grew up actually.
They are also reporting that Hilton attempted to use one of Emerson’s credit cards at a Regions Bank branch in Canton, GA. Officials have pictures of him trying to use her credit card in the ATM.
Photo Courtesy of 11Alive.Com – Missing persons photos posted on the door of the Vogel State Park welcome center.
Update – Sunday 5:06AM As of Sunday morning (the 6th) 11Alive is reporting that Hilton was transported back to Union county to face the kidnapping charges and that he is being uncooperative. Gayle Bachelor, an officer at the Union County jail, declined to allow The Associated Press to speak with Hilton by phone. He is expected to make a court appearance on Monday. From Yahoo’s news report this morning the warrant on Hilton stated that in addition to Emerson’s ID the bloodstained clothing that was found in the dumpster outside the convenience store was three fleece tops.
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The search has changed from rescue to recovery, based on the evidence we’ve uncovered so far
GBI Spokesman John Bankhead
The search will continue this morning after daybreak but an Emerson family spokesperson, Peggy Bailey stated that “the chances are slim to none that she’s alive” She said that the family was devastated by Saturday’s developments but that “They still want to find her. They’re not going to have any closure until she’s found.”
From the Atlanta Journal/Constitution:
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In a dumpster beside the QuikTrip convenience store, near Kroger at Ga. Highway 306 and Freedom Parkway, they also made four key discoveries, according to the arrest warrant:
• A portion of an automobile seat belt “with apparent blood transfer stains.” According to the warrant, the rear seat belt in Hilton’s 2001 Chevrolet Astro van had been cut out. The warrant also stated, “Hilton was attempting to vacuum the vehicle and wash portions of it with a bleach and water solution.”
• Emerson’s black leather wallet, which included her driver’s license and University of Georgia student ID card.
• Agents determined Hilton had placed a call from a pay phone at the QuikTrip on Friday.
• Three fleece tops, “found to contain substantial amounts of human blood.”
It was a cold day when Emerson, known for her love of the outdoors, went hiking. Snow had fallen. Friends said she’d been wearing warm clothes, including a fleece jacket.
Forsyth County Sheriff Ted Paxton said it won’t be known for certain whether the garments found in the dumpster belong to Emerson until blood tests come back from the GBI. Authorities felt confident in proceeding with charges because Emerson’s wallet, which had her driver’s license and University of Georgia student ID inside, was in the same dumpster as the blood-stained clothes.
Meredith Emerson just recently moved to Flowery Branch, Georgia (near Buford) from Longmont, Colorado. Her parents flew out here as soon as she was reported missing on Wednesday, January 2nd.
Here is a map showing the areas of interest in the case:
The original story below:
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For the last few days I have been trying to stay updated on the Meredith Emerson case. Meredith is a 24 year old hiker who disappeared from Blood Mountain just a few hours north of me. I have hiked the Blood Mountain area several times over the last thirty years and it’s really a beautiful area.
She went missing on New Years Day and reports have been all over CNN as well as my local TV station web sites. Her family has a web site up called Help Find Meredith if anyone has any information that can help out. Volunteers have been passing out flyers in the area where she disappeared since the search teams are all professional search and rescue teams. You can download the flyer from the web site here.
Meredith is an experienced hiker and was out with her black Labrador Retriever Ella when she went missing. She was dressed for the weather and although it can be a tough area to hike in, I have never been where I didn’t pass someone every twenty or thirty minutes.
Yesterday officials named Gary Michael Hilton a person of interest in the case, several people describing him and his dog as someone who had spoken with Meredith on the trail as their dogs played together.
Hilton was arrested yesterday after his white van was spotted at a convenience store in Dekalb County, which is a part of Metro Atlanta. Shortly before he was detained, Ella, the Labrador walked into a Kroger grocery store about 50 miles from where Meredith was last seen. Police also found items belonging to Emerson in a dumpster near the area where her dog was found. So far they have recovered several items from the trail that belonged to Meredith including a water bottle and a leash. While police won’t confirm it her roommate Julia Karrenbauer stated that Emerson’s sunglasses and mittens were found in the area as well.
The GBI is involved in the search now as well and according to WSB Atlanta Gary Michael Hilton has been charged with kidnapping. Let’s hope that’s all it comes to although officials at a press conference stated that it’s not looking favorable that she will be found alive. Hilton is in custody with the U.S. Marshalls on a prior warrant for failure to appear in Federal Court on a charge of abandoning property in a national park. According to what I was reading he had been living in his van.
As of around noon today searchers were looking in a wooded area for Meredith near where her dog Ella turned up. According to 11Alive the items found in a dumpster included her wallet and drivers license.
This video from the AP is from yesterday but it pertains to the GBI being asked to help out with the case and describes Gary Michael Hilton as a person of interest.
Here is some more information from the AP as of around noon on Saturday January 5th.
Nothing that I haven’t already said I guess.
CNN just released more breaking news that I had already seen locally. As I mentioned above Gary Michael Hilton has been charged with kidnapping with intent to cause bodily injury today according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
I don’t really have any more on this tonight except for a question. As more news turns up in the case I will be sure to try and post it here.
My question has to do with the fact that this is getting quite a bit of coverage. Of course my local Atlanta stations are reporting but CNN is wearing it out, and Yahoo & Google are both doing a bit of reporting. There are plenty of other missing hikers around the U.S. so is this another case of Missing White Woman Syndrome?
It was a pretty tough day at work today. It shouldn’t have been difficult but I have worked so many days over the last month that I am just mentally and physically exhausted. I had two cooks with me and this time of year it’s very slow anyway but by the time I finished and got out of the door (five minutes after the first shift was over) I felt like I had worked twenty hours. Just dealing with people and not snapping on them has been a major feat. Some woman called me trying to sell small business phone systems and I ended up referring her to the corporate office. Not that we will use them in the stores but maybe it’s something that can use at the office.
I can always tell when I’ve worked too much because my attitude sucks. Looking cheerful and like I want to be at work so that it rubs off on the employees is quite a challenge when I don’t feel that way.
Updated – I stopped at the hated Wal-Mart and picked up a Dell widescreen 19″. This is sweet. It actually has a much smaller footprint than the five year old LCD I was using. Now I can close the rolltop desk it sits on. Resolution on it is 1440×900. I feel the need for a bit of gaming. Maybe after I nap for a while. It was a long day and day number seven at work for me. I only have two more to go (if I don’t kill someone in the meantime) until I get two off in a row. That will be the first two days off I have had together since December 8th and 9th. I have actually only had two off since then, not including a half-day that I took, but still had seven hours of meetings. No wonder I have been such a bastard lately.
Damned if my monitor hasn’t crapped out on me this morning. I have known for a while that it was dying but I was hoping that it would last a little while longer. Back before Christmas I gave everyone instructions not to turn it off because I wouldn’t be able to get it back on again and they have done pretty well.
I woke up this morning and have been messing with it for a while but it is completely dead. So much for that. I suppose a trip to the Wal Mart is called for this morning before I go to work. I keep a $0 balance on one card but had planned to keep it that way, so much for that.
Apparently police were called to Britney Spears house Thursday night to mediate a custody dispute and in the process she was taken to the hospital to have tests done and see if she was under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Way to go Britney! Keep this up and you’ll get mom of the year. I guess she’s trying to gear up and be a responsible role model for her pregnant teenage sister.
The story at CNN says that their children were returned to Kevin Federline, who has primary custody, while the good doctors at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles get to decided whether to hold her for psychological evaluation for 72 hours.
Although it’s listed as ‘breaking news’ the only reason this story isn’t on top at CNN and Yahoo is the Iowa Caucuses last night. There aren’t very many things going on in the world today that our limited minds want to know more than another Britney scandal.
Apparently the argument at Spears’ home lasted about three hours last night before police turned the children over to Federline.
I’m jealous. Last time I got drunk nobody called the fire department to my house. What’d she do, threaten to burn herself down? And that would be a great loss because?…
Now that’s a crowd. “Hey Joe, you got your camera phone?”
According to Google the incident ‘involved a family dispute that police worked to resolve peacefully by court order’. Looks pretty peaceful to me. Six police cars, and ambulance and a fire truck were called to her house at 10:30 last night to help resolve it peacefully. Perhaps they were having a donut party afterward?…
Being as how it will be late tonight before I get home I thought that this would be a good opportunity to share a bit of space. If you have posted something that you would like to share with the rest of us and get your site noticed, feel free to send a ping this way and the link will show up in the bottom of this post. If it doesn’t appear within twenty minutes then it may have gotten caught in my spam filter and I will have to fix it tonight.
For some reason I have been a day ahead all week. I guess because of the holiday. I didn’t realize until a minute ago that I had posted my Thursday Thirteen on Wednesday evening. Heck, when I put it up I thought I was late 🙂
I can think of several different things I would like to be doing today other than going to this meeting tonight. This is my long day and it’s not likely that I will get to come home until around ten tonight. Personally I think I would rather have my nails ripped out than have to sit through this thing. My numbers are particularly ugly coming out of the holiday and I have about six days to get them right. The only saving grace is that most of the rest of the folks that will be there have just as ugly numbers as I do.
The meeting is in Oxford, Alabama this week. Why? Because that store has the best profits right now out of the 37 stores in the area. It should. I trained the manager. Now if I could just get the three that work under me to start doing their job the meetings will be on our side of town. In all fairness, one of my managers does actually listen and do what I ask, she just needs to tweak her payroll a bit. I am going to start working with her on the weekends whenever I get the chance to help bring down her numbers.
I have the feeling that we are going to see some changes in the area pretty soon. Not necessarily in my end but you never know. I believe that they are going to be realigning the districts and I may end up with a different store or two. That would be fine if they were to take the one store that I have so many problems with. I would make just as much money with a two-store district without that one as I do now. Maybe more since I have lost so much money out of that store over the last couple of months. Have to be careful what I wish for though, as with two stores I don’t get a car allowance and that’s a large chunk of my check as well.
Up until the last few weeks things have been looking up as far as my profits and I may still be able to pull things out over the next few days. I am still planning on putting in for promotion in the middle of February. We will see how it goes between now and then. Who know, this time next year I could be living near the Outer Banks with ten stores. Stranger things have happened. I think I will end up on a development plan though once I actually turn it in. That normally last for six months to a year, although a good friend of mine has been on one for about three years now and it doesn’t look likely that she will ever get a division, although I think she would do a good job.
I am a horrible husband. I am so busy at work and then working at home that sometimes it’s several days before I peruse Holder’s blog. I see tonight that a few days ago she posted some wonderful pictures of the moon in response to a couple of other eloquentladies who have written a bit of witty prose in honor of the lunacy that hangs over us all.
Not to be left out I figured I should post my favorite moon photo as well…clicketh if you will…
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
