What’s with all these cities and towns with crazy new laws lately? The other day I wrote about a town in Ohio that’s going to put people in jail for not mowing their lawn and now Charleston, S.C. is going after people that leave chewing gum on street poles.

I’ve never been to Charleston, but apparently the poles have been an unsightly Charleston landmark for years now. Three utility poles at the entrance to the South Carolina city’s popular outdoor market are routinely plastered with used chewing gum. So much so that the poles are a rainbow of colors thanks to the gum. Workers regularly clean the poles of gum but people just keep sticking more on them again.

The City Traffic and Transportation director Hernan Pena thinks this is a big enough problem that he’s asked police to keep close watch on the poles and they’ve even discussed installing surveillance cameras.

Maybe they should just place garbage cans near the poles? I’m sure that would save the cities tax payers a lot of money compared to police and video camera surveillance!

Police said anyone caught plastering gum faces a maximum fine of $500 and 30 days in jail.

My wife wrote a post on her site about how she wants us to get a dog one day. She’s got her eye set on a Boston Terrier, but I don’t know, if we were ever to get a dog I think that I might like a Basset Hound. I think they’re more my kind of dog.

Since she’s getting her heart set on a new pet I decided to do a bit of research and found myself on The Dog Guide. Just as I suspected they say that while Basset Hounds have been bred to be hunting dogs,commonly hunting animals such as the hare, rabbit, fox, pheasant, and opossum, they are also a generally calm and easy going breed.

We’re hoping to have children so if we decide to get a dog it must be a breed that’s known to get along well with young children and luckily the Basset Hound does have that reputation. They can be stubborn, but overall tend to be very affectionate dogs where their owner is concerned.

Since I’ve had a few scares with larger dogs I’m not interested in getting a large dog, so again the basset being a medium sized dog is perfect for our needs.

We enjoy being outside and so does the Basset Hound. It’s apparently a bit of a lazy dog while indoors, but like most dogs quite enjoys it’s time outside. I’m pretty sure if we got one it would not only get daily walks but some time outside in our garden.

If the Basset Hound gets a moderate amount of exercise and isn’t allowed to get heavy it sounds like it might have few problems as it ages. One that does gain weight or gets out of shape can get weak hind legs due to the strain of it’s long body. This weakness can even lead to paralysis. Foot infections and eye ailments occurs occasionally as well.

Compared to some dogs that seem to have a lot of problems as they age the Basset hound doesn’t sound like a hard breed to care for if you keep them in shape and I suppose keep an eye out for foot and eye problems.

I don’t know if, or when we might get a dog, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to do some research in advance to find a dog breed that suites your lifestyle.

Now I’ve gotta see if I can change my wifes mind about her choice of dogs.

Looks like I’m getting a new TV set soon! We’re renovating the basement and I think I’m going to turn it into a den / rec room. So, of course, if it’s a den I’ll need a new TV … right? You’re following my logic right?

Last time we bought a new TV we got a DLP HDTV. It’s nice but we had a lot of trouble with the first brand that we bought. We went through three of them before changing brands! I don’t even want to think about those months of having a brand new very expensive TV that didn’t work.

So this time round I’m thinking about getting an LCD TV. An HDTV of course. Now that I’m used to one I don’t think I’d want to give that up. So I’ve been reading write ups to find out what the best lcd tvs are so that we don’t run into any problems when we buy one.

I think it’s good to do some research before you purchase something that you’re going to be using for 10 years or so. It’s not like we didn’t do any research when we bought our DLP tv, we did, it’s just that the brand that we thought had the nicest picture turned out to be one heck of a lemon!

The technology isn’t as new now, especially if we go with an LCD TV so I’m sure with a little research we won’t have a problem at all.

It’ll be a few months before we are ready to buy a TV so If any of you have HD LCD TVs and want to point me towards some brands that you’ve tried I’d love to hear your suggestions.

It seems that we keep hearing more and more often about people having problems with drugs, alcohol and even Pain Killer Addiction, don’t we? I don’t know if the problem is becoming worse, or if people are just being more open about the fact that they have a problem and the fact that they’ve gone to rehab to get help.

What do you think?

Certainly the stars seem to be more open about going to rehab these days!

If you, or someone that you know, has a problem with alcohol, drugs or appears to be addicted to pain killers you might want to visit the Sunset Malibu rehab facility.

The residential alcohol rehab and drug treatment center is located just outside of Los Angeles. The facility specializes in substance abuse treatments, alcohol detox, and pain killer treatment, as well as combination problems including eating disorders and depression.

Sunset Malibu is a well known treatment center where those in need of treatment for addiction problems can go and stay in a lovely private location.

Visit the website to get more information about their traditional and non-traditional treatment methods, and to view photos of the accommodations and facilities.