7:30 p.m.

• So yesterday the better half was in one of her “nobody loves me I’m going to be a miserable bitch” moods, which prompted me to buy her some flowers in hopes that the rest of the day would be somewhat bearable. As I went to purchase these overpriced plants at the register, I noticed I got a few looks from some female passer-bys. So here’s some advice to you single guys out there looking to score at a grocery store outside of its produce section: Do your shopping with some flowers/roses in hand. Of course, whenever Mrs. kkk sees some guy doing this she always asks, “why don’t you get me flowers anymore?” to which my reply usually is, “because I haven’t pissed you off to the extent where I would have to get them for a while.”

• After all that shit with those hippie iPhones coming out we get this.

AT&T Inc. wiped some of the glow off Apple Inc.'s iPhone on Tuesday, releasing numbers that showed fewer people than expected signed up for service in the first two days of the multimedia cell phone's release.

 

AT&T—the iPhone's exclusive carrier—said it activated 146,000 iPhones on June 29 and 30, a number that disappointed investors following some analyst forecasts that Apple would sell 500,000 or more iPhones in its first weekend.

 

The news interrupted a steady rise in Apple's stock price that started with the iPhone's release. The 18 percent surge generated $18 billion in shareholder wealth.

 

On Tuesday, Apple shares fell $8.81, or more than 6 percent, to $134.89, wiping out more than $7 billion of Apple's market value.

2:30 p.m.

• But did they get health benefits and work breaks?

The picketers marching in a circle in front of a downtown Washington office building chanting about low wages do not seem fully focused on their message.

 

Many have arrived with large suitcases or bags holding their belongings, which they keep in sight. Several are smoking cigarettes. One works a crossword puzzle. Another bangs a tambourine, while several drum on large white buckets. Some of the men walking the line call out to passing women, "Hey, baby." A few picketers gyrate and dance while chanting: "What do we want? Fair wages. When do we want them? Now."

 

Although their placards identify the picketers as being with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, they are not union members.

 

They're hired feet, or, as the union calls them, temporary workers, paid $8 an hour to picket. Many were recruited from homeless shelters or transitional houses. Several have recently been released from prison. Others are between jobs.

• So the local Wendy's around here has its breakfast menu all up an running. Best of luck to them. I'm not a big breakfast-on-the-go person, but out of all the fast-food places out there, I've always liked Wendy's the best. It's a shame this place is in financial trouble.

• I talked about this a while back, but because it's not showing up on my searches, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I sided with the docs on this one then as I do now.

A grand jury refused Tuesday to indict a surgeon accused of murdering four seriously ill patients with high doses of painkillers in a putrid hospital in the desperate days after Hurricane Katrina. The decision closes the books on the only criminal mercy-killing case to emerge from the storm.

Then again, perhaps I should be like those Jersey feminazis who said that when 9/11 first happened, W. shouldn't have been reading turtle books to school children and instead have been in Air Force One shooting down any other hijacked planes.

• Why am I posting this?

A couple who admitted locking a 7-year-old boy in his room with a bucket for a toilet while they watched Packers games at a casino received jail sentences Monday. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner called the couple's actions "abhorrent" and ordered them to undergo psychological screening.

 

"What both of you did certainly shocks the conscience of the community," Wagner said.

 

Scott Scherer, 39, and Melanie Hardrath, 30, admitted locking Hardrath's son in his room with a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jelly, and a bucket that he would have to clean when they returned.

 

They had enough money to hire a baby sitter, said Assistant District Attorney Chris Liege, who showed the judge photographs of the couple's extensive collection of Packers memorabilia.

 

Wagner scolded Hardrath and Scherer, a former youth counselor, for not thinking about what would happen if the boy got sick or the house caught fire while they were at the casino.

 

He sentenced Hardrath to seven months in a county jail and Scherer to nine months. Both will serve four years of probation, with a stayed sentence of two years in prison and more extended supervision.

Because I'm curious to know what will become of the two crackmoms in my neck of the woods whose kids died in a house fire while they were at a bar.

A fire that raced through a three-story rowhouse early Tuesday, killing five children, may have been caused by the youngsters playing with matches, investigators said, but there are doubts whether a teenage baby sitter who was supposed to be watching the youngsters really exists.

• Really? I would have never guessed.

A new study, released Monday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that elderly people who can't navigate health information have a 50 percent higher chance of dying earlier than those who are able to comprehend prescription bottles, doctor appointment slips and hospital forms.