The Elephant Stomp and the UnCola

Hahaha...kudos to the Republicans in office. They effectively blocked a bid for a pay raise by the Democratic controlled Congress.

After making campaign upon campaign upon campaign promises not to accept a pay raise until the minimum wage increase was enacted and blasting Republicans during the campaign trail about pay raises and blocking minimum wage increase, the Dems blew it and ticked off Republicans let them know.

The Republicans refused to sign off and agree to the annual Cost Of Living Allowance adjustment (COLA) that Congress blesses itself with every year. There is no up or down vote on this, just an obscure procedural move tucked into the recesses of everyday Capitol life. This year's raise would have been $2,800 per member. Because the Dems attacked Republicans on the issue during campaigns, the usual no-brainer brokered deal fell apart with Republicans making the Dems pay the piper and live up to their promise of no raises until the minimum wage is enacted.

Poor widdle wawmakers...their pay is frozen at $165,200 a year. I think we should have a telethon to help them out.

Aaah...life eez good.

The Daffy Duck Liberal Look

This isn't a great missive or even a decent piece of writing...it is what it is, a rant.

I don't have a great deal of respect for liberals. While they wrap themselves in the cloak of free speech, very few have a grasp of the cost of that speech.

My son is leaving for his second tour in Afghanistan soon. His twin brother was in Iraq for a year and my husband just had his orders to Iraq canceled. As you can see, our home is kind of a revolving door of call to colors. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

When I told my liberal friend that Brandon was heading back to Afghanistan, the response began. (And they all do it.)

First, there is a noise...somewhere between a sigh and a condescending cluck.

Then the face screws up in this Daffy Duck, "poor pitiful you" look.

Followed by the perfunctory, "Oh man, I wish this war was over." Note to liberals...so do we.

My favorite comment though is "I support the troops but not the war." Um, 'scuse me but do you realize how stupid that makes you sound? Saying you support the troops but not the war is tantamount to saying you support bathtubs but not bathing. What's the point? No troop in their right mind believes for a nanosecond that you think they are any brighter than pond scum or that you care one whit about their welfare....They humor you because it is your right of free speech. The little thing they protect...remember?

To all the troops out there, to all the veterans, to all those who remember the words to the Star Spangled Banner, I offer my deepest and purest of thank yous. You are all my heroes, I believe in you and what you stand for.

For the rest of you, you can kiss my red, white, and blue right wing backside. You exercise your right to free speech, I am now exercising mine.

Excuse me but you seem to have left your knife in my back

It was a bit of a rough night here. I found out that one of who I thought was my dearest friends betrayed me. The grief that I feel is not the betrayal, it is the loss of the friendship. Yes betrayal is bad, but the cost of that betrayal is higher.

Even if we get past this event, the friendship will never be the same. Nor will it be stronger and that is a character flaw of mine. I am a loyal person, much to a fault and in friendship, I expect loyalty (and tolerance :-) ) in return.

If you remove the loyalty factor, what do you have? Kind of a void with maybe a few good time bumping around in it. I do have better ways of amusing myself looking into the nothingness to see if something is there.

I don't know if I will miss my friend. I will miss what was.

You are Outta Here

So we were to meet the grading contractor at the new house. Today was to begin the final grade and landscaping for closing in September. What a fiasco.

So Charles & I show up at our agreed to time and wait and wait. Finally Keith shows up about an hour late and apologizes for being late. We walk one more time through everything he has agreed to in the cost of the bid (which we have everything in writing...thank God.) I notice he starts interjecting comments such as "If I do it this way, it will look a lot nicer but it will cost you more." We politely decline each time. We leave after going through everything.

We had to run out there to pick up a toy Kai left later this afternoon and the grading guy has his very rude and belligerent brother with him. The guy starts screaming at us! He says he needs double of what his brother agreed to (in writing) or he was walking off the job. I was so proud of my husband, this guy was looking for a physical altercation and Charles dismissed him like a housefly. Charles kept telling him no, it's not going to happen.

After 20 minutes of in your face confrontation with this tool, Charles finally looks at him and says You're Outta Here...thanks but no thanks.

My husband is a class act. He never once raised his voice or his fist. But just with his demeanor he let them know who was in charge.

We are now looking for a grading contractor. The fun never ends on this project.

An Infestation of Koala Bears

I went out to the new house yesterday and things are looking pretty darn good. I expect that we will be in sometime around mid to the end of September. It's been a long two years waiting.
While I was out there, an exterminator the builder sent showed up. I was chatting with him and he said it is standard with my builder to spray the vents & such to ensure that there is no infestation.

Zoinks what an ugly word, infestation. No matter what you associated with it is ugly. An infestation of spiders, infestation of bugs, etc. It conjures up gross. You never hear of an infestation of puppies or ponies. Can you imagine an infestation of Koala Bears? Flip on the light and all these cute little things go scattering for cover? You wouldn't be mortified, you would probably just stand there and go "Awww, aren't they cute?".

My random thought of the day.

Crash, Bang, Boom, Buzzzzz

Unfortunately, Friday we had a severe storm roll through and our beautiful Bradford Pear split in half. So this weekend was spent chopping, sawing, dropping and yanking various and assundry tree parts to the dump. Funny, I was very sad when it happened but you know, it really opens up the front of the house and you can see the front. It also adds more light to the front rooms of the house.

Brandon and Cameron turned 24 Saturday. We celebrated in our "traditional" way with a dinner at Red Lobster. It is kind of comical because none of us really care for Red Lobster but we have made it there every July 22nd since we moved here. (With the exception of the year both of them were in Iraq and Afghanistan.) It truly makes me happy to see them doing so well as adults. I miss having them as little boys though.

Speaking of little boys, Kai was carefully writing on a sheet of paper and then asked "How do spell stink?" I told him and he finished writing and went upstairs to what I thought was his room. Nope, he left a note for his brother...."You stink Jase."

Hey Cameron got to meet the Governor of Virginia. I asked him if he told the Governor I did't vote for him. He wasn't amused.


I got a call from a women's voting group to write an article for their newsletter. Cool. She had read my previous article about apathy and the American voter and wanted me to tailor it to their group. (I guess I am to be a harbinger of bad tidings if they don't get off their duffs.) So we went through a few questions and then I asked what format and the deadline. Her response? "Oh, I really don't care. Whenever you can get it here." Hmm, sounds like apathy runs amok.

Is It Fall Yet?

The heat here is oppressive. It is almost painful to go out. I kind of feel like a vampire when I go outside during the day. Shrinking from the sun. Remind me, dear reader, when it is 20 below and we are all playing peoplecicles, that I groused about the summer. :-)

Today was the distinct pleasure of redoing my lighting fixture package with the builders sub. I thought it was completed but it turns out, I got someone else's order. They didn't have very good taste in lighting.

Just a few more weeks until school starts. I am kind of sad. My littlest one will be starting kindergarten. No more babies in the house, no more toddlers, just kids.

Like Lemmings Running Off A Cliff

So the real estate market here took a nose dive...a very VERY large nose dive and the panic sets in.

My neighbors a block away, in desperation (their house hasn't sold in two months) lowered the price of their house over $100,000. Oh what a joy, it immediately lowered my house price. (Yes, dear reader, we are selling.)

A decision had to be made and we made it. We are renting this one out until an upcycle in the market. Thank you Mssrs. Greenspan and Bernanke for single handedly stopping the housing market.

So This is My Blog

My first blog entry. Not bad. Let's see how my postings progress in time. I am very new to blogging but I think I am going to dig it.