Bowling w/ the Gang

Illegals March on L.A.

Chris Daughtry Rocks!!

Hello Jim & Kim fanatics...and welcome to JimmyPowell.com!
A fun & entertaining site where you can get a glimpse into our little world!

I've always teased my good friend Chad about his emails because he usually only checks his email every few months or sends his responses in ALL CAPS which he refers to as "the big pencil". Last week he sent his first email of 2006 which was a political forward so I emailed him back to say "hey" and see how he, Sara and the baby were doing.

Here was his elaborate response:

All I could do was laugh but then again, maybe short and to the point is the way to go. Chad is a member of law enforcement hence the COPS reference.

Over 500,000 people protested in Los Angeles on Saturday over the legislation currently making it's way thru Congress that would begin cracking down on illegal immigration primarily by building fences along one-third of the U.S. Mexico border and making it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally. It seems ironic to me that people who are here illegally would protest our government trying to enforce our immigration policies. That would be like me stealing a bunch of clothes from a department store and the staging a protest in the parking lot against shoplifting laws. I should also demand shoplifter's amnesty so I can keep all the clothes!

I have many friends and clients here in California that migrated to this country legally and I have no problems with that but allowing over 1,000 people a day to simply walk into this country is just unacceptable. Granting amnesty to the over 12 million illegal aliens currently residing in the U.S. is just insane!

Our country has immigration laws and they should be enforced! Illegal immigrants don't pay income tax yet they use all the same public resources that we the taxpayers provide. Not only that but many illegal immigrants send over $20 BILLION untaxed U.S. dollars back to their countries of origin every single year.

If the people of South and Central America want the kind of opportunities that America provides then they should rise up and overthrow their corrupt governments and establish democracy in their own country. If all the impoverished people of the world come here, the American dream and everything that's great about our country will cease to exist.

It's time we built a wall (not fences) and pulled our troops out of Iraq and put them on the southern border. I'd much rather have our troops guarding against illegal immigration and the huge influx of illegal narcotics which cross our southern border each year than fighting a lost cause in Iraq. Sadly, I expect our inept president and government will give in to public pressure (a lot of whom can't vote mind you) and do nothing to stop this problem.

Something to think about....if Osama Bin Laden or any other terrorist wanted to enter our country, all they'd have to do is find safe passage to Mexico and then they could just walk across the border.

Some of you may have already seen this floating around on the internet but it's still worth reposting. If this guy doesn't look like the Nutty Professor I don't know who does! (Check out the link below to see his official bio)

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/inside/bios/news-article.aspx?storyid=51563

This is simply amazing! One of the world's oldest creatures, a giant tortoise believed to have been about 250 years old, has died in the Calcutta zoo where it spent more than half its long life. Addwaita, which means "the one and only" in the local Bengali language, was one of four Aldabra tortoises brought to India by British sailors in the 18th century.

Zoo officials say he was a gift for Lord Robert Clive of the East India Company, who was instrumental in establishing British colonial rule in India, before he returned to England in 1767. Long after the other three tortoises died, Addwaita continued to thrive, living in Clive's garden before being moved to the zoo in 1875.

"According to records in the zoo, the age of the giant tortoise, Addwaita, who died on Wednesday, would be 250 years approximately," said zoo director Subir Chowdhury. That would have made him much older than the world's oldest documented living animal: Harriet, a 176-year-old Galapagos tortoise who lives at the Australia Zoo north of Brisbane, according to the zoo's Web site. She was taken from the island of Isla Santa Cruz by Charles Darwin in the 19th century.

Aldabra tortoises come from the Aldabra atoll in the Seychelle islands in the Indian Ocean, and often live to more than 100 years of age. Males can weigh up to 550 pounds. Addwaita, the zoo's biggest attraction, had been unwell for the last few days, said local Forest Minister Jogesh Burman. "We were keeping a watch on him. When the zoo keepers went to his enclosure on Wednesday they found him dead," Burman said.

I wonder if he knew how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop? All jokes aside, just think about all that has happened in the world during this turtle's lifetime!

I really need to keep my video camera charged, ready and waiting in the bedroom (not for that...although....) because on several occasions we have witnessed one of the funniest sites to be seen out here...watching Asian people parallel park. We have some Asians leaving a few doors up and a few doors down from us and it's amazing how long it takes them to parallel park. Last night we watched a woman struggle to back into a spot for several minutes in spite of the fact that there were absolutely no cars for 30 of 40 feet. She could have just driven straight into the spot but for some reason she decided to back into it for about 3 minutes before making her daughter get out and tell her how close she was to the curb. That lasted another 2-3 minutes. If I could get that on camera I'm pretty sure I could get it played on Break.com.

Every third weekend means it's the most dreaded of chores...laundry! So we got up early and headed to the local laundry mat cause it's a lot quicker to wash and dry 9 loads at once rather than spend the whole day doing them one by one. We tried a brand new, hi-tech laundry mat that just opened near us and lo and behold, they will even wash, dry and fold your clothes for you...for a price of course. As busy as I am and as much as I hate doing clothes, I'm real tempted to let them but at $1/pound, it could cost a small fortune to wash all our clothes.

After clothes came my second least favorite chore, taking all our recycled plastic, cans, and bottles to the local recycling center. Recycling is a pain and doesn't pay that much but I believe in practicing what I preach cause I'm a somewhat of an environmentalist...but not exactly a tree hugger.

We didn't too much Saturday except be lazy and watch the boob tube...at least for most of the day. Kim was a little sore from bowling and we just felt like having some down time. I did some web updates for a few clients while Kim organized all her pictures on her computer and I eventually went out to pick up a few movies and dinner but that was the highlight of my day.

We met up with our 'West Coast Peeps" on Friday night for a few rounds of bowling in El Segundo. It'd been a long time since either of us bowled (years actually) so we didn't exactly bring our "A" game but we still had blast. Bowling is always fun when you're in the company of friends and having a few cold ones to boot. Looking forward to doing it again soon!

For her birthday, a little girl asks her mother for a Barbie and a G.I. Joe.

Confused, her mother mother asks, "G.I. Joe? Doesn't Barbie come with Ken?"

"No", says the little girl, "She comes with G.I. Joe. She fakes it with Ken."

I was witness to one of nature's rarest scenes earlier today...a hummingbird sitting still. I was making up the bed when I noticed this hummingbird taking a break on the Yucca tree right outside our bedroom window. I slowly crept out of the bedroom, grabbed the camera and then slowly crept back in and managed to get a few shots before another hummingbird came by and they both flew off together. At one point, I was probably within 3 feet of him/her separated by only the window. The pictures turned out ok considering they were shot thru a window that hasn't had it's spring cleaning yet but all in all, I consider myself lucky to have gotten these pics.

It's amazing how my website affects my reality sometimes. The other week a put a post on here about how much I've gotten into Kenny Chesney and how I'd love to see him if he ever came this way. As fate would have it, our good friends Janice & Mike read that post and learned that he's coming to LA this June so they're getting us tickets so we can all go together. This will be my first ever country concert but I am so looking forward to it. Guess I need to download all his songs now so I'm not that guy that only knows his hits. Mega thanks going out to Janice! You rock! :-)

I would have never guessed this in a million years, but Jada Pinket-Smith (Will Smith's wife, Ms Purdee in the Nutty Professor, etc.) is into heavy metal in a big way. She is currently on the Ozzfest Tour fronting her own metal band called Wicked Wisdom. She says she grew up on 80's metal and loves everything from Black Sabbath to Guns N' Roses.

There is hope in the world after all!

We are in full American Idol mode now that it's down to the final 12 and we've already picked our top 2 contestants! We're totally pulling for the rocker dude Chris Daughtry who has rocked the show virtually every week so far and last night's show was no exception. We were a little worried cause all the contestants had to sing a Stevie Wonder song but we forgot that the Red Hot Chili Peppers did a rock cover of Higher Ground back in the 90's and of course that's exactly what Chris did. He blew everyone else away!

Another interesting fact about Chris...after doing a Fuel song a few weeks ago the band offered him the job of being their new lead singer. He had no choice but to turn it down because he's under contract with American Idol. This dude is on his way and we couldn't be more excited.

Having lavished enough praise on this guy, our pic for runner up is Katharine McPhee who's right here from LA. She can definitely sing and she's also got the looks. So even though we just got into the top 12, we've already picked our top 2 finalists.

\m/  Chris Daughtry  \m/ Our pick for the next American Idol	Katherine McPhee Our pick for Runner Up