pumpkin

Here's The Reenactor's jack-o-lantern.

reason enough

Here's an essay T2 brought home from school. Sums it up pretty well.

from the mouths of babes

We visited T1 and T2's school this afternoon for parent/teacher conferences. On the wall outside T2's class were political posters made by the kids in his class. Sadly, T2's choice to support the junior senator from Illinois was pretty much drowned out by all the McSame posters. Only three posters supported the big "O." Anyway, I'm proud to note that T2's poster said, in big letters "Obama" followed by "stop the war" and "no pollution."

In an interesting side note, one of the McCain posters that set us to giggling said, "McCain" then "with us in bed" or "in bed with us" or something like that.

I'll try to get photos tomorrow.

Finally, recognition is achieved

I'm proud to announce that The Reenactor FINALLY has a "grand prize" win for his cooking. Our church held a chili competition this evening, and his chili took first place. It is a carnivore's delight with three, count 'em, THREE meats (bacon, pork and beef) in it, as well as a healthy dose of hot spices.

He has dutifully been crowned a "ribbon whore" by me.* He noted that in spite of the fact that the homemakers who judge the county fair and who have dissed him two years running on what we all know are prize-winning pickles don't ever TASTE the pickles, whereas at this chili competition the entries were actually sampled.

His prize...a soup cookbook!

There will be no living with him now.

* I heard the term "ribbon whore" on Prairie Home Companion last summer when Garrison was interviewing a woman who regularly wins more ribbons than anyone else at the Minnesota State Fair for her baking. She said that she and all the other women (and men) who compete regularly all admit they are only in it for the ribbons, hence the term "ribbon whore."

Is bigger better?

I have been noticing an interesting trend here in the western-most part of the Commonwealth. Twice in the last two days I have found myself in traffic sitting behind a big 'ol SUV with a HUGE Palin bumper sticker on the back of it. Notice I said, "Palin." Not McCain/Palin...just Palin. Did I miss something? Is SHE running, or is she the running mate?

And is the bigger bumper sticker (above the average size for those sorts of things) supposed to imply even more enthusiastic support? Or is the driver assuming that everyone behind her (and it has been a "her" both times) is so blinded by all the bling on her expensive SUV that we need bigger type?

Just wondering.

cat mowing the yard

Yeah, I know the election is just days away, and I'm suffering from real election fatigue. So what is funnier than our cat mowing the yard? Obviously this is electronically altered (a bit....I just took The Reenactor out, except his fingers) but we really did have her on the lawnmower.

No cats were hurt in the production of this photograph.

the truth on the playground

T1 got in the car after school eager to tell me about how she had become a scientist that afternoon. As you read this, bear in mind that this was related to me in the "he said, she said" breathless tones only a grade-schooler can tell.

Apparently, a group of girls on the playground had found what they claimed were a bunch of "roly-poly" bugs...the bugs that roll themselves into a small ball for protection. T1 and another friend went to see this find and after looking at the "bugs" informed the girls that those weren't bugs, they were rocks. So much for education in the Commonwealth, huh? Anyway, the girls who had found the bugs insisted that they WERE bugs, not rocks. T1 took the initiative to try to "squish" one with her fingernail, and when the bug/rock wouldn't squish, she again pronounced it a rock. Nope, still a bug, said the girls. All right, said T1, let's take it to a teacher. She not only took it to her homeroom teacher, who said it was a rock, but to the school's gifted program teacher, who had the bad luck to be walking nearby at that moment, and he too said, yes those (there was more than one) are rocks. Satisfied that she had the authoritative opinion of TWO adults, she returned to the girls and reported their statements that these were not bugs, but rocks.

No, they are bugs, the girls insisted. At this point T1 became exasperated and told them they were crazy (I hope she used nicer words) and that everyone who had looked at them said they were rocks, and they couldn't be squished, so they were rocks.

Thankfully recess ended about then, and the great bug/rock debate was over.

So why am I relating this story to my blog family? Because as she was telling me this in the car I was thinking that my daughter had represented the "liberal elite" media in how she tried to figure out from different sources what these things were, and the girls who defended their opinion that the rocks were bugs, in spite of evidence and opinion to the contrary, represented Faux News.

Yes, I'm losing my mind, and the election can't be over soon enough. But if you STILL have people standing up, on camera, at McSame rallies whining because they can't trust Obama because he's an "Arab", then it is no surprise that their daughters and granddaughters are going to insist that a rock is a bug.

Running the numbers

It is indeed depressing to watch the second Great Depression unfold before our eyes. No wonder they call it a depression. Everyone I know is depressed. Whether it is the economy, or the impending election, or the fact that everything in our world right now seems on the brink of collapse, we are all just flat in a bad mood.

If I run the numbers just for our household it is indeed depressing. Because of the cost of printing and paper, the magazine that I worked for as a freelance designer for 18 years went out of business. They are still publishing online, but my employment with them is cut back to about 10 percent of what I was doing before. The loss of income accounts for about 15 percent of our household income. Add to that the fact that our costs for fuel for our cars has increased by $1500 in the first ten months of this year over the same time last year. Groceries too, in spite of more careful shopping, have increased by $200 in the same time period this year. And our retirement and college funds have tanked by about 25 percent.

And then yesterday, our television that we've had for just 18 months (and that we spent a LOT of money on) developed a "glass half empty" attitude, and is now showing us only the top half of the screen. T1 described it quite accurately as "trying to watch tv over a wall."

So, what is a person to do? Other than take stupid pictures of my cat and posting them here, I am choosing to TRY to be optimistic. I am choosing to see the whole broken television thing as a sign that our family is probably wasting a lot of time watching the damn thing. If we can get it fixed we will. If not, we'll replace it with the cheapest tv we can find. But meanwhile, maybe we'll just read books, play games, and color. Yes, color.

Our numbers aren't great right now, but we do have a lot to be thankful for. And I am.

maverick

There. I said it. She said it so many times last night I thought I was going to bleed out of my ears.

This morning I saw this in a discussion online about the debate. Very nicely worded....

She mentioned the phrase 'team of mavericks'..... I keep visualizing a herd of cats.

But seriously, the definition of a maverick (singular) is: " a person who refuses to conform to a party or group."

So how can you have a 'team of them'?

she said it

If you didn't catch it in the debate, Caribou Barbie actually said, "John McCain has already tapped me and said, that's where I want you...."

Well...I'm sure he wants to, but I didn't know it was fact.

Is it just my clear distaste for this woman that is clouding my judgment, or did she really NOT answer any of the questions asked of her tonight? She pointedly didn't answer at least four or five of the questions Gwen asked her!

And it was a good thing I was NOT making a drinking game of the debate tonight, as I am getting over a cold, because if I had taken a drink every time she said the word "maverick" I'd be drunk right now.