I hate bailouts.

The big "bailout package" just makes me livid. I was excited that the senate opposed the bailout the first time. I thought, finally, a good, solid, smart decision that the government made.

Then they voted it in with extra whipped cream and a cherry on the top.

And now the effects are trickling down.

Congress hemmed and hawed about all this money they suddenly have to give to financial institutions, with no plan on how the banks are to spend it to get out of debt.

The banks are holding it back after they get it, and CEOs are still as cozy as can be living on outrageous bonuses.

And the people. Oh the people on mortgages who have more than enough money and are spending it unwisely, who are getting their mortgages paid through the bailout, and when they sell their house, the seller gets to buy it at a reduced price from the bank who takes the money and wipes the mortgage free and clear, with no money owed from the contracted price that the mortgagee promised to pay in order to live in the house.

Josh says, Unfortunately we are honest people. And honest people pay their mortgages, instead of letting our payment lapse for a few months, sell our house to someone for a lower price and renting for a while until the market bottoms out.

Lets screw with America. Please America - swallow our debts so we can live the materialistic and fantasy lives that enable us to pass nothing down to our children but deceit, poor money making decisions, and a must have mentality.

I'm wondering how many people who are moralistically and ethically making the worst decision of their life just for the money.

Final Tally

Well the tally ended up as 100 McCain, 66 Obama, and 1 Nobama.

Guess as far as the signage goes, the tally doesn't ring true.

Good to know.

My first theory is that Republicans post more signs (or more as they usually have at least three posted in their yard, which I only accounted for one, being it was one yard. The only exception would be that there were 3 Republicans represented in one household... but hey, the system is flawed as we can see...)

I thought maybe there just weren't any outgoing politicians who went door to door with signs. I never got asked from either party. And all of the local electors who visited my door were democrats, so that kinda screws with my mentality. I guess I'm saying that in a sense we as Americans are rather lazy or overly busy, because we don't actually go to get a sign. We wait for the sign to come to us.

I'm also wondering if the Democrats being split up over Hilary impacted the signage.

All in all, an interesting test.

Wal-Mart Worker Crushed to Death on Black Friday; Union Responds

Does anyone see what is wrong with this headline???

No, I'm Ewan McGregor!

Josh and I started singing moulin rouge's medley, and of course I was singing Ewan McGregors part because he starts out, and I started singing first...

Me: I was meant for loving you, baby. You were meant for lovin me.
Josh: The only way for loving me baby, is to pay a lovely fee...
Me: Just one night, just one night...
Josh: There's no way , cuz you can't pay... (stopped singing) How come I have to be the whore? I want Ewan McGregor's part!
Me: No, I am definately Ewan McGregor.

How many fights start because you really just want to be Ewan McGregor???


You want to buy some death sticks?

(By wave of the Jedi hand, and hot Ewan McGregor/Sir Alec Guiness voice.) You want to go home and re-think your life.

I want to go home and... re-think my life...

Detroit

I drove down to Metro to pick up my brother, and I was really surprised by the lack of Obama signs. I'm wondering now if they trying to sneak attack us by voting democratic??? Because Detroit is known to be really democratic, while the rest of the state has a higher percentage of Republicans, especially the closer you get to Grand Rapids.

Anyways there were more signs for McCain than Obama, which really surprised me being in motor city.

Potatoes for President

I saw a huge sign for McCain Potatoes. I was a bit confused because their slogan is, Go for the Blue Bag... So I looked it up online...

Alas...

Paid for by 'People For A Better Potato' (AKA McCain Foods) ©2008 McCain Foods USA, Inc.
Disclaimer: McCain Foods is Not Affiliated with John McCain For President

Darn.

However the site itself is pretty halirious.

Why you should go for the Blue Bag

We don’t believe in business as usual.
With so many unique flavors and cuts, McCain is clearly the anti-establishment.

We believe in cuts for everyone.
Tax cuts are great, but crinkle cuts and wedges are so much tastier.

And my personal favorite...

We stand up against big oil.
Every McCain potato product is 0g trans fat, and requires zero offshore drilling.

Click on the issues, and check out Economy.

Potatoes for President

Maverick!

Yesterday I saw my first 'Maverick' bumper sticker.

I've been entertaining Josh with how many ways that Sarah Palin can say Maverick.

And counting...

With less than a month until election day the signs have been popping out everywhere. Today I almost didn't reconize the new Obama/Biden sign, because the letters on it are so small and narrow, they just blended in with all the other multi-colored signs. I had to recount on my route as I came back to make sure I had gotten the number right.

Is Navy blue in? That seems to be the color of all the signs these days...

(edited October 29th) There are newer Obama signs that are white and orange. I wonder if he saw my site and voted for change???

Another homemade sign...

Marines for McCain.

Sniff.

I started to feel bad for McCain as far as signage goes, but today I saw a McCain sign.

Now I don't feel so bad.

Signs every which way.

I saw a homemade sign that said,

Obama for President, Biden for VP

I guess that was ambitious... or couldn't get a manufactured Obama sign.

I also once saw a state senator use old large signs for the side of his barn. I often wonder if it was to cover the wood until he could paint or side it, or if it was used as insulation. It was just humorous to me to see these enormous large signs pasted every which way going up 20 feet in the air and 20 feet across, signs that were coveted during election season, now used as barn fodder.

No one can use the words 'barn fodder' in a sentence like I can.

Vote for more signs, more bumper stickers.

I've started counting the voting signs for presidental canidates. I don't count a sign twice, so here is the running tally as of yesterday.

I have one for Obama
One for McCain


And one for..... Nobama!

I thought, maybe I'll just classify this under McCain. Then I thought of all those independants and green partiers... and realized, no I'm just going to have to give this one a group of it's own... The not for obama-ers.

I'm okay with that. We need a third party anyways.

On the watch for Leno

So Jay Leno has a section of his show called Headlines, where people send in funny things that show up in newspapers. Ever since I watch the police blotters or ads just to make me laugh. Todays was...

At Homer St, it was reported that the restaurant was broken into and coins from various gumball machines taken.

My question was did the cash registers not have enough in them that they had to raid the gumball machines? I think one of the pans would have cost more than what they got out of the gumball machines.

Voice of a vegetable

I just found one labeled...

Squash gutz.

The voice of meat

We buy meat in those huge family packs, divide it into 1 or 2 pound packages and put them in our freezer. It's cheaper, basically it's taking the labor and time of packaging it into smaller packs out of the total cost of the meat.

So I was helping him put away the meat, and being he put the sharpie in my hand, I thought it would be funny to start labeling the packages with something besides...

Beef 6/16/08

And instead put things like...

Ethel RIP 6/16/08

or

Moo. 6/16/08

or

Beef... it's what's for dinner. 6/16/08

Josh got such a kick out of this, at first, that he refused to pack the meat by himself anymore and insisted that I label them. That was until he started getting his own ideas...

One of his chicken labels was...

MAD CHICKEN DISEASE
(Don't say I didn't warn you!)
Bwahk-ha-ha-ha-brawk

or...

Private: Unfeathered

and my personal favorite...

Wings ≠ Fly - What kind of crap is that?!


The Voice of Meat series continues after this...

Tornados

I used to love storms when I was a kid. I'd linger by our sliding glass door just to see if I could get a glimpse of a tornado usually by candlelight. Just the thrill of danger lurking or some kind of a natural chaotic evil about to happen seemed to interest me to no end.

That was until I had three little girls.

I decided that tornado whistles in the city are NOT a warning for adolescent thrill seeking funnel watchers anymore, but for mothering instincts to kick in and huddle downstairs in the bathroom with no windows straining to hear the tornado whistle to finally turn off while calling the electric company by cell phone and trying to keep the girls interested in playing Memory (Dora style) by candlelight.

Not as thrilling as it used to be, folks.

Michigan and Florida

I like to keep up on the news. Personally my two favorite states, although Kentucky runs a close third. All those mountains...

So I read last night that the democratic party decided to split the delegates votes up between the two candidates. I think it's to basically ensure a candidate for the democratic party before they've officially split the party into two separate parties.

The party for change, and the party for not so much change...

I completely roll my eyes at the stupidity of this "lost" Michigan and Florida vote. If the law was set up this way, they should stand by it. Why vote to have the primaries moved up at the expense of losing votes knowing full well they would turn around and fight that it wasn't fairly counted? That's ludicrious.

That's politics.

I guess why this upsets me so much isn't because I would have chosen either of these candidates, but the possibility that I could have... and would have lost my right to make my vote count towards my candidate. I did stand in line at my primary and I voted. But I know there are people who didn't come to the polls because they felt they weren't going to be represented and rightly so.

My proposal? If the democratic party is going to make it count, I suggest a re-vote for the entire population of Michigan and Florida. For those independents who showed up to vote, for those democrats who wanted a voice that wasn't Hillary's, and Republicans who have the right to vote to screw the democratic party.

Hurrah for Democracy.

Mud is her passion in life.

When I was a little kid, my grandparents didn't believe that I ever got dirty. I liked to stay clean and after all those christmas cards with darling clean photos of me in a dress, I guess I created the illusion that dirt was an evil beast. So after an all day in the sandbox free for all, my mom snapped a photo of me dirt and all.

When Dar walked into my bedroom exactly like this all I could think was...

Yes, Grandparents. This is your angelic granddaughter...

...and she does like dirt.

cparadise2, you bring small business' to shame.

I bought, well actually Josh bought some transformers on ebay. I waited a month before emailing the seller that we haven't received the merchandise. No response. Since I paid through paypal, I had to put in a dispute through them. No response. Another 2 weeks go by. Then I had to escalate it to a claim. Still no response, but one day, paypal decides to 'investigate' and gets a shipping number by magic. So I ended up getting the transformers and now I have to leave feedback. You are able to check a box whether your feedback is positive or negative, I of course choose negative. This is what I wrote (and had to shorten it being there is only so many characters)...

Items fine once recv'd, only shipped when escalated to claim - no email replies

I actually got an email from another ebay user that hadn't received his merchandise from the same seller and he thanked me for leaving feedback. He told me that the seller actually emailed him that he was sick, for more than two months now, and he was really upset that he still hadn't received it. Josh and I found another transformers set we wanted to buy but we found it was from the same seller. He had just listed more items in the time period of his 'sickness.'

The seller decides after all he knows how to reach his computer and emails me this gem.

Reply left by cparadise2 (the seller): I was sick and not feeling well, so I sent order late.Your SILLY another ROOKIE. Your very a SILLY PERSON !

As if 'silly' is an insult. Is this person for real?

So out of the kindness of my heart I thought I could explain some sense into this poor soul. I decided concise and blunt would be the way to go.

This was the first email I have received from you, to withdrawal a negative response which you rightly deserved. Will not buy nor recommend you any ebay user, and will NOT withdraw negative feedback as it was honest and accurate.

This is what he wrote today.

So I guess when your sick it doesn't slow you down.

This is what I sent back.

I guess when your sick you can still use your fingers and type an email.

one email to tell me you were sick, BEFORE I had to escalate it to a claim was all I was asking.

How big of a jerk am I on a scale from one to ten?

Snow warning - what the weather man gets paid for.

Winter storm warning for Michigan.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW...ARE EXPECTED. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Does anyone else find this redundant?

I mean, significant amounts of snow, you never see that here. And hazardous travel? While it's snowing?

Impossible.

Isn't that what he said?

Baby. It's cold outside.

My co-worker, Trish, is pregnant with her first child, and invited me to her baby shower. When I told Cassie that I was going to get something for Trish's baby, she was excited.

"Oh yeah mom! We can go to the baby store and get a baby toy." She said, then she gave me this worried look. "but first, we have to go get Trish a baby."

After I told her that Trish's baby was in her tummy, she seemed a bit relieved. I called my brother to tell him about the buying a baby for Trish story, and Cassie wanted to talk to him. It went like this...

"So, mommy splaned (explained) to me that Trish has a baby in her tummy. But it's okay, because we can get a toy for the baby before he comes out."

She's got the problem solving idea down, first you get a baby then you get a toy for the baby.

There's an order to these things.

And she was pretty interested in the fact that the baby was in a temperature controlled climate in her tummy. She was concerned that the baby would not be warm enough in there. Laurel and Dar didn't have any questions about baby's when I was pregnant. Laurel was impressed that a baby showed up one day, and Dar was mad that there was a baby.

I'm actually really glad that she's my last child. I'm not sure I could handle all the baby questions.

Smoked tea

Read the description. It's just as interesting as the tea (which is why I choose to buy and try it).



I'm adventurous.

And this tea is unique. There is no tea that smells like smoked salmon while you're trying to grasp what your actually tasting. I gave up the fight of trying to drink it after a few sips, and put this baby on the back burner as one of the more interesting tea drinking experiences. Its on par with drinking 'the leather tea' last year.

Coffee

Today I decided that buying coffee is like smoking a pack of cigarettes each day. It definitely costs more than a pack of cigarettes. Oh wait, isn't a pack five bucks now or something (You can tell I'm not up on my smoking genre)? A Biggby coffee is only slightly cheaper (by like 50 cents), and a lot more sugar. And it's not like either are good for you or anything.

I don't buy a coffee every day. I'm lucky if I get it once a week. Not that it makes it any better that I'm spending that much for it. I do always have coupons though. And a lot of the barristas know who I am. I just like my coffee once a week. Today I met the manager. When they asked me how I was today, I told them that I was grumpy. Both the barrista and the manager stopped dead in their tracks to look up at me in shock. I couldn't help myself. Then I smiled like I was joking and he said well, that's what the coffee is for. This is what I'm hoping, I said. He even offered to carry my coffee out to my car. How is that for awesome? I should have took him up on it, Josh thinks its because my gloves were covering my wedding ring (he always thinks that someones hitting on me). I just told him that he wasn't my type, but it would solve my coffee cost dilemma.

I can think of several things that make coffee so much better. It's not like I have to go outside to drink my coffee. You don't see any signs saying 'No coffee' with a big red circle and a slash through the middle of it, or a 'This is a coffee free zone.'

People don't come up to you and say, 'Could you please put out your coffee?'

Most people don't toss their coffee cups out the window on the highway while driving.

And you usually don't see smushed coffee cups on the sidewalk.

There isn't any special sand to put your coffee into before you walk into the grocery store.

But you can get a coffee from a vending machine. It's not recommended, but for all those 17 year olds, it's gold.

Yeah, I'm not kicking my bad coffee habit. Not today.

States

In 4m 59s

Click here to Play

Not only do you have to know the states, but you have to know how to spell them.

I got stuck on Illinois and Massachusetts. I was really worried that I would get stuck on the New England states. It's hard to tell them apart over there.

Freaks and Geeks

I was in the drama club in high school. My friend called it the freaks and geeks club. And although you got a good assortment of those, there were many types of people who were in our drama club. We even won a state competition while I was there. "Guys and Dolls."

The most vivid memory I remember is when the male lead singing "I've never been in love before." For some reason I can hear his voice when he hits the climax of the song. I can recall seeing Nicely and the guys singing "Sit down your rockin the boat" Last minute, one of the actresses dropped out of the show for academic reasons, so a memory that sticks out in my mind is when the 'dolls' are doing their show tune and they threw in a girl who was neither graceful nor eloquent in and she knew it. She played it up and it was wildly hilarious to see her jump in, 'trying' to do all the things that the other girls were doing. It took the fun scene to a whole new level. Why we didn't have her in the show in the first place, no one quite knows.

My friend didn't understand what goes into a theatre production. The freaks and geeks of high school could turn the theatre upside down and into something great.

I still think about and appreciate all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes when I see a play. I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' and marveled at their self revolving sets. 'Momma Mia' had amazing vocalists who worked long and hard hours to perfect each ABBA song without getting laryngitis. 'Some like it hot.' had eye popping make-up artists, who transformed the men into 'ladies.' And I'm always curious on how the children are going to climb out of a wardrobe and into Narnia in "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.'

So one last hurrah from this blogger for the freaks and geeks that live behind the scenes, who have truely found their calling.

Well everyone knows my cat is weird.

I think I was wrong in thinking he's part dog. No, he wants to be human. He was taken away from his mom way too early and only had us to learn from.

He jumps into the tub to clean himself.

He puts his paws on the table while we are eating. And when he goes for food, (although he knows he's not suppose to) he swipes the silverware with his paws, instead of his teeth.

I've seen him trying to turn the doorknob in our bedroom.

Somehow, he got sandwiched between our front door and our metal/screen door, and Josh didn't even know he did it. The girls started giggling, and pointing out the fact that Jetta was in the door, and Josh was positive that Jetta had ran off. But sure enough, I looked out our window on the door and there he was, looking back at me pitifully.

He was probably thinking something like, "I can't believe you idiots just locked me between two doors."

He sounds like a squirrel when he's happy.

But he does really stupid things like jumping on my counters. You'd think he'd learn, first of all, there is never anything good up there. And second, I get mad when he's up there, and he doesn't like me when I'm mad. He rubs up against my legs when he knows I'm angry at him, licks my hands, and purrs as if to tell me how sorry he is, and how much he wants to have a treat. Always self-motivated.

It's true.

Hmm. I wonder who did that????

Takes all the fun and mystery out of the who done it.

Intriguing

Cassie came up with this gem today.

"A cat is an intriguing animal."

How many 3 year olds do you know that say the word intriguing and are grammatically correct???

Sisters, more than just blood.

Well another weekend of being sick. I'm just glad there is no projectile vomiting involved.

Dar went over to my mom's house friday night and ended up spending Saturday there, because my mom didn't want to take her outside in the cold. Which was fine with us, since Josh and I were both down and out.

So today, even though Dar was still sick, she decided that she would take care of Cassie. When Cass needed a fresh cold cloth for her head, Dar would take care of it. Dar moved off our two seater couch so that Cass could cuddle up on it. And when Cassie, who woke up later than usual this morning, heard that Dar was home today, she immediately moved all of her things out to the living room to be with her.

That's the kind of love and sisterhood I always dreamed about. I have sisters, they are just so much older than me that I really don't know them. We're talking 12 years or more, so honestly we're just in different stages in our life. That's not to say that my brother is not equally as awesome as the girls are, it's just different. It's one of the major reasons that we had the girls so close in age.

And for some strange reason, I get really excited when someone asks me if they are twins.

No. But close enough.

Horses

Laurel was telling a story about her day at school, while we were eating dinner tonight. It went something like this.

So there were a lot of kids being loud at library today, but Alese, Jaylyn and I were being quiet so when we got back to class, Mrs. Waddell said we could have a horsey kiss and I ate mine all up then we got our coats and went home.

A horsey kiss?

oh. A Hershey kiss. She meant a Hershey kiss. I was beginning to wonder what they really did at those schools these days.

Sometimes you really have to deceifer the code of your own kids.

Like when the girls were singing the Transformers theme song. It went like this...

Transformers

More than meets the eye

Autobots leading battle to defeat the evil horses of the deceipticons.

Must be something in the water lately.

Like horses.

Definance

Today Cassie is defiant. Yesterday for lunch she wanted a piece of lasagna. She decided after taking two bites that she didn't want it, so I told her that she could put it away for dinner. So she did. And didn't want to eat it for dinner. She ate two bites. So I told her that she would be seeing it for breakfast. Out on the table this morning for breakfast was this little plate of lasagna for Cassie.

She didn't want it.

She wanted something else.

Like a cookie from Biggby's.

'Nope.' I said. 'Eat your lasagna and maybe I'd think about it.'

'I ate all of my food.' Piped up, Adara. Way to play it up.

'Okay, cookie for you.' (I think at the time, I wanted to hit home the fact that I was the one in charge, not Cassie. It may have been subconsciously to prove to myself that I had more backbone than Cassie.)

AAAHHHHHHH said Cassie

And it hasn't stopped.

She's sitting at the table complaining at the lasagna plate that its too saucy.

Ah, relief, it's 10.15 and finally she's letting me feed her the lasagna like she's a 1 year old.

-The rantings of 25 year old stay at home mom