Yes, yes

We are happy with a baby coming! On the other hand, some things are not going as well as planned. But today it went up to 70 and we went out and fed the baby fish (who are very GREEDY), they come running as soon as they hear us rustling in the food can. I sprayed insecticidal soap on some of the bug infested plants, and now I really have to think about bringing some in for the ((winter) shhhh - don't say it too loud). Yesterday was the first day of fall. Here's what I have to say about that - 180 days until Spring!!! yes. Doesn't seem so bad.
We are looking for a snow plower for the driveway. On the other hand, some people are saying that we are having another El Nino winter - I get this kind of info from my hair dresser, who so far has been infallible. Well, if that is true, it makes me happy. But they usually have trouble predicting tomorrow's weather, yet alone the whole WINTER. Whatever. What do we expect, living here? On the other hand, I would prefer to move farther South (at least 10 miles, but on the other other hand, I don't want to move away from my family). So we would all have to go. Seeing as how we can't really agree on anything, this might be hard. OK. One day at a time. What we have to do is make ourselves indispensable, babysitting, etc. and then move - they will follow. Yuh think? Maybe not. So we will have to go with Plan A. (All of you in the know, know what Plan A is. So far, no good.) Of course we can't move until we pay our taxes (rowwwrrrr). What are they doing with this money we need to send them? is my question. Evidently it's none of my business.
You all take care, wear your helmets, and remember:
180 DAYS UNTIL SPRING.
and pete's sake...pay your taxes.

Rowr

Ok, we will send the IRS money, I guess, but we DON'T LIKE THEM ANYMORE. HAH! Take THAT. I'm wondering about barter... we have a ton of baby koi here and we paid $7.99 apiece for their parents. And we have some spare cats. I'm keeping Surely, though, he's a nice cat. But I can send the toilet paper shredder, and there are others... wait, we might have to keep the Shredder, too, - for bears.

I dug up the daisies yesterday and moved them to Daisy's grave, along with a poppy to commemorate Poppy, and also because the dadgum thing was taking over the whole flower bed. Ciao is buried over there too somewhere - hmmm. Maybe a Cat Chow bag stuck on a stick? Of course, the whole entire rest of our pet cemetary got dug up when they put the allotment in next door. No compassion.

Why do our animals get so old? They're older than I am now, as far as I can calculate the animal/people calculus. Interesting. I am now a child, in their estimation, which is probably why they're so supercilous (cats!).

The baby is coming in one week and one day! Whoo hoo. I can't wait to meet him/her. Judging by its Mom, it's going to be a big one, that's all I know. I figure if it doesn't come soon, she is going to explode, and we can't have that.

Two new people at Thanksgiving dinner this year!

Take care, and wear your helmets.

Death and Taxes

Everyone wants a piece of us, I guess. Yesterday: letter from mortgage company informing us our house payment is going up $50 a month because the dumb a***es passed that last levy. (sorry, if you were one of them.) I figured it out; if we pay off our house tomorrow, we will still have to pay almost $300 a month in taxes, to keep it. Throwing money at schools has not worked so well, so far, and I doubt more money will do more than enhance their sports programs, which is what it's all about, anyway.

Today came a notice from IRS - they say Bob's disability payments are taxable; for 2004 we owe them $1600; God only knows about 2005, and we are well into 2006, aren't we? This is exactly why I had HR Block do the taxes! Because for the first time, I was unsure of myself, since the disability payments. I could have saved the $100 I paid them each year and screwed it up myself. I think we gave them an extra $35 for insurance for 2005, come to think of it. I say IRS is wrong; (looked it up on THEIR site)- they clearly say that if you pay the premiums yourself for the disability insurance, you do not have to declare the income. Only if the employer pays the premium. We have an old pay stub of Bob's that clearly shows a payroll deduction for "long term disability ins". But in that case why did the insurance company send the IRS income statements?

So - no doubt we will be paying for this for the rest of our lives. Have you ever tried to fight with these people? And what are they doing with this money anyway? Obviously, someone needs it more than we do.

Gary used to say, "They can kill you, but they can't eat you!" I think he was wrong.

Elect a Muslim to Congress?

And so, it begins.
I dunno, do we want sharia law?

Once again, Powerline has done its homework. It is slowly exposing the media's bias, and its attempt to tar anyone who does not go along with their parade.

Right now, Democrats are trying to elect a Muslim to Congress. This is unremarkable. Except that they are trying to hide significant facts about his past. In their new role as political fixer, they've decided that the public may not know certain things about their candidate. And if you try to reveal some facts the Democrats don't want you to know, their trained jackals in the press will attempt to smear you.

Powerline found out that Keith Ellison was a member of the Nation of Islam (Farrakhan's organization) for several years. He says that he was just a member for about 18 months, and it was only to help organize the million man march.

But the facts don't seem to back him up. Powerline has uncovered evidence that he was a member of the Nation of Islam for at least 3 years. And, they uncovered the fact that he used several Nation of Islam-type aliases while he was in college and Law School.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune refused to report all this. They want their candidate to be elected, and since the Tribune is one of the most wildly left wing papers in the nation, it stands to reason that they would act like Soviet Commissars, and simply present their version of things with little or no regard for the truth. So much for the watchdog press that supposedly protects us from scheming politicians. Apparently when it comes to Democrats, the Star Tribune will have no problem suppressing facts.

And the deliciousness of it all. No doubt to elect a radical Muslim to Congress would be their fondest inverse-reality world delight. They live in a through-the-looking-glass world, where, when in a war with radical Islam, the highest and most honorable thing to do is elect a radical Muslim to Congress! That's the Democratic party thinking for you. After all, Democrats know that it is the United States to blame for everything that goes wrong. (Jimmy Carter on Larry King said so last night. There is no war on terror, only something of our own making).

Read the whole thing:
Penraker

Bad Movie

Seems the movie showing the assasination of a live, sitting president is going to be released in the US. Funny, the democrats don't seem to have a problem with it? Although they had a lot of problems with the showing of the movie "the Path to 911"?
Hmmm.... Oh, yeah, and we're not allowed to connect the war on terror with the attack on 9/11, judging from their criticism of the President's speech the other night. Evidently the attack on 9/11 was not connected to terrorism; or at least not in their eyes. Which, it seems, have been taped shut somehow, along with their ears. So no inconvenient truth can get in. Never let the facts get in the way of a good campaign!
Well, I'm watching all of this while I'm making up my mind how to vote.

Weekend at the Lake

Well, we had our weekend that we so looked forward to. Me and Duckworth, our two daughters and their two toddlers (1-1/2 and 2 years old). The weekend was donated to the Lion's club, to use in a Chinese auction, then it was re-gifted to us. We have been planning it for almost a year, with great anticipation.
I started having some doubts when the owner took 2 months to send me the information we needed, such as: where it is. We finally got the info by email a month ago - and guess what? They have a water shortage. That's right, they spelled it out "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down". I.am.not.making.this.up. Why is there a water shortage every time we stay by a large body of water??? In Nova Scotia our cabin had a jacuzzi - with a sign that asked us not to use it because of the "water shortage". You could see the ocean from the window. We don't have a water shortage here at home, even though we are miles from any body of water whatsoever.
DW and I left on Thursday, taking with us the 2 year old because we have him on Thursdays. Everyone else was coming after work, in the evening.
I had a spark of fear when we arrived and found the house at the bottom of two sets of very steep stairs, which took you to a deck, then another set of very steep stairs that took you to the lake - did I mention that we were bringing two toddlers -the house itself seemed very old on the outside but was BEAUTIFUL on the inside. Yes indeed. With doilies and (probably) priceless antiques stuck in every nook and cranny. And a topside deck about 10 ft. off the ground. Both decks had railings, however, the slats were about 4-5" apart. Did I mention that we were bringing two toddlers??
One of the advertised four bedrooms was padlocked and I guess not meant to be used. Good thing, then, that my son couldn't make it there, after all. All weekend I imagined that they had an insane relative locked up in there. This fit right in with the fact that, solely by coincidence, there was an escaped convict roaming the area who had already shot three people, one of whom had died. The first night I propped a (antique) chair under the doorknob, because there did not seem to be a way to lock it from the inside.
By Friday afternoon, I had decided to go home Saturday morning. But it got better after that. They caught the convict, the kids calmed down, and only two things got broken - both broken by ME in the process of moving them to a safer place where they wouldn't get broken. We still had to keep the kids away from the railings, though, and we rigged up makeshift gates from lawn chairs to barricade the outside stairs.
Saturday we rented a pontoon boat for an hour and that was fun.
We told the owner we broke a candy dish and a lantern hanging from an umbrella; he said not to worry because they had locked everything valuable in that fourth bedroom, I guess with Aunt Ethel or whatever. Good God. I would like to get a look at what they consider to be valuable.
Next vacation will be better.

Where we were on Sept. 11

Update: The link no longer works. Because we are no longer allowed to see anything that would be disparaging to those who want to kill us. I guess.

I was at work, with the radio on. At first we thought it was a small plane that had accidentally crashed into the tower. Then the second one hit. It was frustrating because there is no TV here; we got online once and saw a picture on CNN, after that we couldn't get online anymore. All I wanted to do was go home and gather the family up.
It's five years later, and I am still mad. Oh, and by the way,here's a link where you can watch the Palestinians dance in the street that day:
"Happy"

This Isn't Right

I saw Bill O'Reilly last night interviewing the Croc Hunter's friends, and saying (implying) that he took too many risks. Well - maybe he did, but that is not what killed him. The sting ray thing had nothing to do with crocs, but it was an accident; a tragic accident - and now is not the time to be criticizing the way the man lived his life. petes sake.

Crikey

The crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin, has been killed by a stingray stinging him straight through the heart.  This is sad.  I loved that guy!
Read it here:

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Martyrdom?

Captain's Quarters has an interesting post from someone condemning the two Fox journalists for "converting" to Islam:
Convert or Die
I guess the premise is that they committed heresy.

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Gadgets

I'm hooked on gadgetry. I have three different book lights, and I'm researching one that hangs around your neck. (Probably not good in bed, though - might strangle you in your sleep.) I have an automatic pot stirrer (battery operated) -it stirs your pudding, sauce, whatever, constantly, while you go out to have a smoke. This is strange because I normally only cook once a year, on Thanksgiving. You never know when you might need it though! I have that board to put frozen meats on that will defrost in half the time. I have things you put in the microwave to keep things warm, and other things you put in the freezer to keep things cold. I'm overjoyed when we get a new gadget magazine in the mail - I was looking at one yesterday that has covers for the edges of furniture so your cats can't claw it up. Yes!!!
(Cats - they multiply around here without actually breeding. Started out with one, went to two, then four - then someone moved back home and brought two more. Like I said - they just COME. And they never die, no matter how old they get. I think the oldest one is about 15 now and just keeps on, really admirable. How old is that in people years?)
I have a whole gaggle of battery operated-rechargeable-solar operated-wind upable- radios, flashlights, weather alarms, tvs, lights and what not. It makes me happy. Although half the time if the power DOES go out, I a.) do not have batteries, or b.) they're not recharged. So we light candles.
One thing for sure - the kids will have one heck of a garage sale when I'm gone! Whatever. Wait till they get in that attic!