John Mayer Drives me Nuts!

John Mayer was recently honored by Time Magazine as being an influential person. I am not sure how this happened. I don't have any clue why songs like "Your Body is a Wonderland", "Daughters", and "Waiting on the World to Change" would put him in the running for such an honor. The author of the Time piece gives little basis for Mayer's honor other than his songs will "be your friends for life." What?! If an entertainer is honored for an award, such as Times Most Influential, shouldn't they do something more significant other than write odes to women's bodies, and anthems for apathy? I will admit, I enjoyed his first album, but it doesn't mean he is influential. He's not, as song writers go, a tour de force. Politically he isn't either.I haven't heard of him using his celebrity for helping anyone but the Democratic party. Lord knows the Dems need another celeb supporting their causes! He doesn't go to visit orphans or raise money for children who have facial deformities, as his girlfriend Jessica Simpson does. He doesn't speak of or support any charities that I know of. So why Time Magazine did you put him in your 100?

I know this post may come off a bit snarky. I apologize if it did. I am simply frustrated with the media continuing to put people on a pedestal that haven't really helped society in anyway.

The "Truth" about Al Gore

Al Gore Caught Warming Globe To Increase Box Office Profits

Finally some news about Al Gore that doesn't make me roll my eyes. When I read this I actually roled with laughter. Only the Onion could make Al Gore funny.
I hope you enjoy!

Catchin' up

Wow, it has been almost 3months since my last "real" post. Man, time flies when things are going crazy. Lets see where to being.....The last weekend of January my Dad married my now Step mom. She's great. I now have 4step sister in addition to my own 3 sisters. My Dad now has 7girls! Her girls are great. Both families love getting together. We are all so similar that it is a real blast. My step mom is a great cook, so my Dad now has a gut! He's always been so thin. He doesn't seem to mind and Step mom loves that he appreciates her cooking so much!
Most of February and March had my fam sick with the stomach flu, the real flu, strep throat, and sinus infections! It was the crappiest month ever! We are all on the mend now and enjoying the weather, thank God. To add to February's crap factor my Step mom found out she has lymphoma, a type of cancer. She received her diagnosis about 2 weeks, or less, after she and my dad were married. She called me personally to tell me, which I thought was very thoughtful. She said from the day of the biopsy on God has given her a peace about the cancer. She believes God is going to use her sickness to bring my Dad closer to God. I think she is right. For instance, the Sunday following the diagnosis my Dad wanted to go to church with her. He WANTED to go! The church she and I go to is progressive, by dad was raised southern Baptist, that is the reason he usually states for not wanting to go to church with her. Well he goes to church and the second song they sing is and old gospel song, sang like he grew up hearing it, and my dad had been singing it to himself ALOT in the days following Stepmom's diagnosis. He was floored. He turned to Stepmom, with tears in his eyes, and told her about the songs significance to him. She was very touched. Having said that, he has only been to church 2 other times in the past 2 and half months. That may not sound like a lot, but that is more than he has been to church in the past 10+ years, so I am very happy!
My Stepmom had further work done in March and it turns out that they believe she has very little of the cancer in her body. We were all happy to hear about that,but she does have to receive treatment. She started radiation therapy about 2weeks ago. It has left her tired. I'm not sure how often she will receive radiation or for how long. She and my Dad are very quiet on all the details. So I just pray for her and figure they will let me known stuff when they feel comfortable. Any prayers any of you would like to offer would be greatly appreciated.

On a lighter note my sisters and I went on a road trip to Philly last weekend. Man was it crazy. I sat the fence for a month or two before deciding ,a week before our departing date, that I would in fact be going. My sisters were really cool about my hesitations, but they were also really great at persuading me to go . Now, before I go any further I will name my sisters, for clarification purposes. I will not be using my sisters real names to "protect the innocent or not so innocent" :) My middle sis,will be Middlesis,and my youngest sis will be Babysis.(I'm a genius, I know)
The car ride was slated to begin at 7am last Friday. My sisters and I are notoriously NOT morning people. Notorious. So I figured we would miss the slot, and we did. Middle sis and myself promptly arrived a Babysis's house at 7:30am. We were on the road and hitting a Starbucks by 8am only to realize we were going the wrong way, we hit traffic, tried to take a "short cut" got lost, found our way back to Babysis's house to use the bathroom, and start out on the road again!! This would frustrate some, but these crazy things are to be expected by my sisters and I so we just laughed it off and off we went!
There is nothing like a 9 hour car ride to bring siblings closer and to find out how different you really are. We all three have such different musical taste. Middlesis loves classic country, some new country, R&B, and classic hippy music. Babysis likes classic country, Japanese music, 80's music, and some music that I have never heard of. Then there is me. I like some classic country, love the 80's, 90's, British rock, hippy rock, new and emerging artist, things like that. Out of fairness to each other we started a cd system in the car. Babysis could put in the first CD, since it was her birthday road trip, then me, then Middlesis. It worked out well. I think we all tolerated each others taste on the way to Philly. On the way home Sirius was king.
Baby sis made all the arrangements for the trip, being as it was her long time dream. We had a great hotel in the center of town. We could walk or bus to anything. There was a Starbucks on every corner.(Shocker, I know) So we were set. We visited Ben Franklin's grave, the Liberty bell, the halls were the Declaration was signed, the house that Tomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration in. We visited China town and had lunch there. China Town was by far the best! It is a close nit community. They were very friendly. There were a lot of families walking around. It was one of the few places that we felt safe. It is also one of the few place that we didn't observe any homeless people or people asking for change. After China town my sisters and I meet up with a couple of Babysis's friends that live near Philly. Everyone went to see the Mutter Museum of Medical oddities. YUCK! Mutter is part of the PennState medical school and its main purpose is education and research. Middle sis is a nurse so she was looking forward to the Mutter so she could learn some new things. Babysis had just always wanted to go, and her friends were of the same mind. Not me , no way! I sat in a nice comfy chair in the lobby away from all of it. When they came out of the museum they all said it was great, but I wouldn't have been able to handle it. I agree and I haven't any regrets.
After we arrived home on Sunday babysis did some further research on Philly. It seems it has the 3rd largest murder rate in the country! They had 7murders in our area on Saturday Night, thus explaining why Middle and Baby kept being woken by sirens! We had a good laugh and all agreed that it was a blessing that 3people went, instead of 2. We also agreed that it had been a great idea to say in after dark, even thought the streets were alive with all types of people and it had been so tempting to go out at night.
The trip was invaluable on so many levels. I learned so much about my sisters. So much of their hurts, their stubbornness, what I need to pray for when it comes to them....That part was kind of sad actually. I wish there lives were in such a state that I would just have to thank God for them. But they are not. My sisters have a lot of pain stored up from our childhoods and our parents divorce and post divorce. In a way it is a gift to be able to know these things that I have suspected for so long. I think the trip, at least for Babysis and I, was a time of understanding each other better and getting closer. I hope Middle sis feels the same.
So there you have it the condensed version of my life during my 3month hiatus. Hopefully I will be able to write more often. I am also hoping to bring more to the blog than just my life. We'll see how that goes. :)

Updates from my crazy life coming soon!

I haven't had alot of time to myself for a while. I hope to update this blog this weekend.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, so much has happened since I last blogged. Man was January a busy month! My guest's from the UK arrived. We had a great time. This was their first trip to the states. So we showed them around. Everything was new to them, from the size and look of our schools, to shopping malls, to our American size food portions. We had fun figuring out the differences in language. They say boot, we say trunk. We say pants, to them that means underwear! We had tea and biscuits every day,Yummy! We were all sad to have them leave. It was a wonderful week. No more than 6 days later my other half was in the UK for work and to play a gig. He was excited because none other than Mr. Ewan McGregor was to be at the gig. My other half was able meet him, and reported that he is really great looking in person, and cool! Ewan and his two friends stayed for the first set and then asked for the bands information! They said they have movie rap parties in New York and they are always looking for new bands! Even if nothing comes of it, it is still freakin' cool and flattering.
We have also taken our house off the market for a month. Ugh. I hate selling a house. We're going to put it back on in March in hope that the spring plants will add curb appeal. For some reason snow and rain just don't move a house!
This week has finally been a time of slowing down. It feels like I can finally breath. It seems like since Thanksgiving it has been run, run, plan, plan, go, go, go! By this point it almost feels weird not to have much on the calendar.
I do have one thing on the calendar. I'm celebrating my birthday with my sisters this weekend!! I am so excited. My Brittany argument sister is starting to come around. She is talking to my mom just about everyday! In the past our mom has been lucky to talk with her once every two months! She and my mom have been discussing politics, religion, relationships, heavy stuff! It is so exciting. My other sister has a great hubby, she is quirky,and a lot of fun. We are kicking off the evening by going out to eat with our mom, then heading back to quirky sisters house for a night of our all time favorite movies, dance revolution, home videos, and junk food!! It's going to be a real deal slumber party! It is so nice that, not only am I excited, but both of my sisters are too!!

Speaking of politics, I have to start reading up. The media is really pushing Obama. I'm just afraid they are going to make him the next Howard Dean. In the 2004 election they were pushing Dean early on. The moment he announced he was running they were touting him as the next president, then one day the just turned on him like a pack of rabid wolves! I have a feeling they're going to do that to Obama in an effort to push Hilary. (Don't even get me started on her. I would love a woman to run for president, just not her. She has always struck me as very smart, but cold, unloving, methodical, and um, I don't know, communist. ) I hope none of this happens, but I just have this feeling it will. Having said all of that, I have to read up on all the who, what , where's, and whys. I like to be an informed voter. The problem, it seems, is that at this point all of the "candidates" are saying the same thing. They are trying to play it safe. I wish we could get rid of the "squeaky clean" candidate image and just get real! Is someone is willing to come forward and be themselves, warts and all? Please, candidates, if you will get real I'll be willing to listen. Because what you are can't be worse than what I think you are. Let's be honest, the title Politician doesn't conjure up the image of a boy or girl scout! So please just get real, and I will listen!

Colbert the king of tv!

After whining about not having anything good to watch the other night, I was finally blessed with a great tv night. On Thursday I was still sick, so this lead to more sitting on my butt watching tv. As luck would have it, it was Thursday, night of may options! There was Ugly Betty, Grey's, Scrubs (it was the night of their musical), and Colbert with O'Reilly! The two I was most excited about were Scrubs and Colbert/O'Reilly. The Scrubs musical was cute. Lots of funny parts, just like Scrubs. JD and Turks hetero guy love song was cute. Colbert was on the O'Reilly factor earlier in the evening. Colbert was funny. He was great. O'Reilly looked uncomfortable. I'm not sure why he was uncomfortable, Colbert wasn't rude or out of line. Then later that night O'Reilly was in the hot seat over on The Colbert Report . Once again, O'Reilly just didn't seem comfortable. Both Colbert/O'Reilly shows fell flat of the hype and my expectations, but they weren't bad. I think they could have been better had O'Reilly just been more comfortable. Maybe he's just not comfortable being asked questions or in a parody situation. Who knows. Colbert was heard to say, after his show was over, that O'Reilly seems like a nice guy.
For your viewing pleasure I have included both segments. Enjoy!


Colbert on The Factor


O'Reilly on the Report


FYI, Colbert really did steal what he said he stole, Fox news confirmed it.

Whoa is me!

Oh my goodness do I have a cold! Ugh! I felt this cold coming on about 4 days ago. I have been downing regular tea, red tea, green tea, herbs, airborne, you name it, in hopes of warding this baby off. To no avail. I am sick and I don't have the time to be sick. (Do we ever?) It is t-minus 3days until I have house guests! I have soooooo much to do to get ready, very few helpers and not much energy. To top it off I have only crappy tv to watch in the mean time. I know, whine, whine, whine. But seriously, I have one evening to rest, which is tonight, and there is nothing on! Oh but you say,'Watch American Idol!' No thanks. I really think it is the most over rated show on tv. I hate it when they show the people who can't sing. Not only do I not want to hear them "sing", but I hate hearing them get torn down. I hate that the whole next day ALL the radio stations laugh and poke fun at the people who can't sing. I just don't get making fun of people or even laughing at someones attempt at their dream. I just can't make any sense of American Idol. But I'm too sick to bore people with the rest. So what am I watching tonight? Soap net. Oh yes, I said it, SoapNet. This is how desperate I am for some "decent" tv.

On another note, can you believe we are just about in the middle of January?! Is it me, or as you get older does time roll bye more quickly? Is it that we are more busy? Because I have to tell you I was a fairly active kid, and time seemed to take FOREVER to tick bye. Now it just flits. In some ways that's great because you get back around to birthdays more quickly. Now I have to prefece; I hate getting older. I always have. But I love my birthday, I love other peoples birthdays. Just like Christmas, how fun is it to go shopping for the right gift?! How yummy is cake?! Cake and Icecream are the best food group on the whole pyrimid. The very best. I am an equal oppurtunity cake eater. The more cake the better, with a nice side of icecream, pure heaven!

Totally on to another topic.(ADD much?!) I was at the library and discovered a new periodical. It's a Canadian magazine called Macleans. A friend of mine informed me that it was a kind of Time or Newsweek for Canada. They had a great article titled Why are we dressing our daughters like skanks? Great, catchy title huh? With a title like that I just had to read it and it was great! It talks about how companies and parents are working together to degrade the next generations innocence. I checked online and Macleans has an excerpt entitled Why are we dressing our daughters like this? Here is the link: http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/life/article.jspcontent=20070101_139023_139023
The article really is quite good. It certainly has affected who I purchase from and what I purchase. I hope you find it as informative and interesting.
Have a good week!

Thinking Happy Thoughts

I have been trying to think happy thoughts the past couple of days. I have also been trying to make sense of Noah's passing and wrestling with my own feelings on it. I don't think, at this point, I would have had the faith and peace that Noah's parents had in order to do what they they did. I guess that's why I wasn't given Noah. Many parts of his story and his parents words spoke to me. Here is my little story and if you stick with me you will see how they tie together.
My mom and her best friend were talking the other day about my sister. (The one I had the Brittany argument with.) They were talking about their concerns and what not. My mom said something about my sister being an alcoholic. My mom's best friends says,'We're not going to use that word anymore. I refuse to label our girl. We are just going to start calling her a child of God, and anytime we want to use the A word ,we will just call her a child of God.' My mom recounted this little story to me on the same day that I read on Noah's Blog about his mom being glad that Noah didn't have a diagnosis and therefore no label could be put on him and it hit me.... When we or others are given a label it confirms or reaffirms something about us. If it's negative then we buy into it and can let that thing control us. We give the negative thing a foot hold in our lives ,or the lives of others, and therefore it has power. I have been given the story of God talking to Abraham lately. I was trying to piece together what it all meant. My sis, dad, Noah, no labels and Abraham. I think I might be getting it. When God told Abraham he would have descendants as numerous as the stars and that he would have a son; Abraham laughed at God and said 'I am an old man and Sarah is an old woman. We can not have a child at this age.' He labeled himself and Sarah. When we label that limits what we allow God to do. Maybe if he would have just fallen down and thanked God and accepted it as fact, MAYBE he and Sarah would have had their son sooner. What I am getting at is I am not longer going to label Dad or Sis. I'm not going to label them out loud or in my head. When I start to label them I'm just going to say child of God and thank the almighty for what he IS doing and will do in their lives.

Now on to less complicated happy thoughts that don't require as much thought. :)
I LOVE mint Christmas M&M's. I ran across a hidden half pound of them. I had hidden them over the holidays. I am relishing them. Ahhhh, it's the little things.....
I am enjoying a wonderful book call "Nonviolence: 25 lessons from a dangerous idea". I'll be giving updates on it as I get more into it. At this point , regardless of your stance, I recommend it. It has a lot of history in it.
I am so happy that my cat is getting de-clawed at the end of this month!!!! My couch is happy too. I have some great friends coming into town in a few days and it will be so nice to catch up with them.
I just received a few new cookbooks in an attempt to over come my culinary rut. I am looking forward to using them. I love to cook. I come from a family of great cooks and have been feeling inferior lately. I'm hoping these books will help. It's Rachel Ray, how can it not?!
These are my happy things for the moment. They may not be glamorous, but they are helping to keep me a little sunnier.

This is an update of my previous post

Sweet Noah passed away on the same day that he was taken off of life support. I consider it God's grace and mercy that he passed so quickly. Please pray for his family during this time.
Thanks.

My heart is so heavy

There are so many things that I've wanted to blog about, but right now they all seem frivoulous. There is a little boy named Noah Steven. You can reach his blog via mine, by looking at my links to the right. The short story about Noah is that he was born in August of 2006 and shortly after went into the ICU. The Doc's aren't sure what is wrong with Noah. He is on some type of life support and his parents have been praying ferverntly for a miracle. After lots of prayerful consideration they are taking him off of life support on friday. It's complicated and ,I can't even say I completely understand it, but they are putting him as a sacrafic before God and asking for a straight up miracle. My heart is soooo very heavy for them, their family, and for their son. This, I'm sure, wasn't and easy decision. I am asking anyone that reads my blog to go to Noah's. Read about Noah and his family. Most of please pray for them all. Please pray as God leads you.
Thanks.

Hangin' with me a fun way to spend your day?

Man am I tired today! I had to be up at 6:30 am in order to get my soon to be stepsister to the dentist to have her wisdom teeth taken out. Yikes! I thought she would be tired, but turns out she was in good spirits, but wanted to hang with me instead of going home to an empty house. It was a nice experience. We chatted and watched movies. It was nice getting to know my step sis better. She's a good "kid". She and I also decided to be shopping buddies next time one of us needs to do some power shopping:)Hanging with my stepsis aside, this week has been a real zinger. I am finding that I may not be so much of a stress eater as a stress drinker. Starbucks. Hazelnut latte. Mocha. Vanilla latte. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. yummmmmmmmmmmmm. The good thing about Starbucks being a "stress buster" is that there is not one for about 5miles of my house and it isn't on my route to many places. So my stress buster is still in moderation. My stressful week has only equaled 2 lattes. Where as if I was an at home stress eater this could spell trouble. Thank you Starbucks for your crack laden drinks and the fact that your not currently convenient for me to get to!
I am going to log off now. Scrubs is do on soon. They brought it back, finally. Such a smartly written wacky comedy. Enjoy your evenings.

Calendars, Couches, and Cats, Oh My!

Have you ever looked at the calendar and your head starts spinning? I look at the calendar for January and it is already filled up with dates and possible dates. It feels like the month is over before it begins! I'm not complaining. I love being busy and having people to see. It is just crazy the over whelming feeling a full calendar can bring.
I am excited about 2007. I can't really say why; it just feels like it is going to be a good year. I felt the same about 2006, and I can't say I was disappointed. In many ways 2006 was the best year I've had in a long time. I just seemed to fly by too quickly.
I have to say I am enjoying the AWESOME weather we are enjoying presently. I am an active and outdoorsy type so the mild winter has been welcome. Don't get me wrong I would love to see a light dusting of snow, but it is so nice just to pick up and take my dogs on a walk and not have to worry about Eskimoing up just to do it.
We have 3 Dogs and 2 cats. This may sound like trouble, but it is a fine arrangement. All of our boys get along famously. They all get along so well in fact, that 4 out of the 5 have decided to conspire against my new sofa! My oldest dog, who has a bed of his own, has decided he needs to be sleeping on said sofa. The two midgets have decided that they shouldn't sleep on the sofa, but on the pillows, and there are A LOT of those. There is the one cat ,who believes the couch is his own personal scratching post!! I have mostly remedied the dogs with yelling, clapping, and throwing of other throw pillows at them. ( it seems to be working) The cat on the other hand is undeterred and has taken to scratching at night when mommy can't see! SO mommy is calling the vet tomorrow to make a de-clawing appointment. We'll see who the winner is now buddy!

Happy New Years!!!
I usually like to have a quiet new years eve, but this year I was special, we were in demand for various parties. Imagine our surprise, No date with Blockbuster?! I was actually looking forward to watching a few flicks, but alas I was needed. We were invited, by a couple we adore, to our favorite wine bar to kick off the new years eve. Then there was the invite to a huge blow out party. We also were invited to two smaller parties held by some friends and neighbors of ours, but we had to decline all offers and go with numero uno, My sister in law. She was top pick for many reason. Reason number one: She asked first. Reason number two: she had a babysitter! All in all we're still reveling in the fact that we had so many offer. It was a nice ego boost :) We had a great time , but man am I beat today!
Since I felt like such a lazy butt today, I decided to catch up on my music and revive some of my old loves. OH MY GOSH! I had forgotten how much I loved Elvis Costello,Morrisey, the Smiths, the Cure, Pearl Jam....Man these bands and people took me back! So many memories...So I spent the day cleaning , a little, and reminiscing to myself.
As I was eating a healthy snack of Cheetos and sitting on my butt listening to music I started to wonder; Is everyone somewhat "stuck" in a certain period of their life? For most of us is it high school or college? It seems those are the two times in our lives when we understand how wide open the future and our potential really is. We are also realizing how little responsibility we are shouldering at that time and juncture. Everything seems attainable and easier at those points in life. These are just the things the Cheetos and I were contemplating...
I do not make New Years resolutions, but I do embrace every year that comes and hope for things. I hope 2007 is filled with more hope,continued purpose, new surprises, new dreams, and fun. For the world, I hope we all have a greater sense of purpose and a drive to do what is right and just. I hope we all find a greater capacity to love one another this year.
May we ALL enjoy greater Peace, Love, and Fellowship in 2007, Have a wonderful year!

I love Christmas and family. I love the shopping, giving gifts, decorating, and having family stay with me. It's nice, even when it isn't. Thankfully there weren't any real dramatic episodes to report this holiday season. I enjoyed my house guests. I enjoyed visiting all types of family. I just hated having to observe some of my family. Let me explain. Christmas eve eve was nice, until I got into a heated discussion about Brittany Spears with my sister. BRITTANY SPEARS?! Who argues about Brittany Spears?! We do. I didn't realize until much later that my critic of Brittany's mothering skills was, in a way, a critic of my sister's mothering skills. So I fought with myself over my feelings of guilt over inadvertently dissing my sister, but not really feeling all that guilty about it.
Then there was Christmas. Christmas was wonderful, it really was. We finished it off by visiting my Dad and stepmom's house. It seemed like a perfect way to end the evening, and it almost was, except for the fact that my dad is an alcoholic. Some people don't think this is a problem because he is not a mean alcoholic. I, however, find his alcoholism to be a problem, because it isn't good for his body or our conversations. My dad talks forever about the same subjects over and over again when he is drunk and you can't get away. All I can think of during our conversations is how sad his state is, how much I know he doesn't want to be this way, how awkward this all is, and how can I get out of here! I know all I can do for him is pray. Nothing more. Sometimes I worry about he and my sister. My grandma tells me not to. She says I've always tried to save people and that I can't save anyone who doesn't want to be saved. She's right. So when I worry about them, I get into some major prayer. It really is all I can do.
So, with this you are probably saying, 'this doesn't sound like a wonderful Christmas.' It was because I was able to spend a good amount of time with all of my family. Everyone enjoyed their gifts, I enjoyed mine. This holiday also opened my eyes even more to my sister and my dad and sisters problems and helped me to resolve to pray for them more. I also hope the conversations my sister and I had will bring about some epiphany for her. I know it did for me.

Is it me or are more and more musical artist sounding the same these days? Case in point: When I first heard Fergies "London Bridge" and "Fergalious" my first reaction was 'Man, these suck!'. At that time I wasn't sure why they sucked so it nagged at me until I reached a decision. Fergies music sucks for two reasons: 1. The lyrics are so ridiculous that a seven year old even asked me what she was talking about and why it sounded 'stupid'. 2. She sounds like she ripped off Gwen Stephani's first solo album. (Now I have to add, I don't like Gwen's latest song "Wind it up". It sounds like she took the sound of music soundtrack, a marching band, and a crazy lady, threw them in a blender and what came out was a musical assault on the ears that should be illegal! She and the Neptunes really could have done much better.) You may be asking yourself what brought about this rant and rip apart of these two women? This morning I was accosted by their back to back videos on the television and it reminded me how irritated I am by the lack of originality in the music industry and by artists these days. I know the "industry" has a rhyme and reason for it , with the bottom line being money, but that is all a little too much of a discussion/rant then I would like to get into on a blog this morning.
Now I watched the billboard Music awards the other day; did anyone notice The Killers are still rockin' the 'stache? Brandon flowers and crew are, I believe, trying to bring back the mustache. A male friend of mine informed me the other day that he had read in GQ , or some other male magazine, over the summer that the mustache was making a come back and was the rage in New York. My friend had tried earlier this year to bring back the 'stache to our conservative city. He had a moustache for several months but no one, not even his fiance, were convinced on the come back, so he formed it into a gotee. I give him credit for giving it a good faith effort, but I think the Killers will be able to continue where he left off. Who knows , thanks to these grass roots efforts, we might be seeing more moustaches soon.

I have just had the best week in a long time! This week I managed to get in touch with friends that I haven't seen in , maybe, eight years. It was so good to see so many familiar faces and catch up. It was nothing I planned, it was just a gift that was given to me and I am still revealing in the awe of it all. It was the best week in a long time and I am very thankful for it.

This is going to be a very random post for many reasons. One I've meant to post for so long now and figured I had better 'just do it', and 2. why not :)
Did anyone else see the on the AP that Al-Qaida has denounced the Popes visit to Turkey? I was really mystified as to why the AP thought this was news. Even for those who haven't been keeping up with the Popes comments on Islam, this is not surprising news! Why did the AP report this and why did Al-Qaida bother to say anything? We get it already Al-Qaida, you don't like other religions and they are all blasphemous, don't bother releasing any statements!

More randomness: Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsey Lohan. Can these girls put on some underpants and with all of their millions, at least, purchase some class?! I hope there aren't anymore young girls, or older girls, that look up them. I am tired of seeing their antics on magazines, in the news, or on E!. Where are these three girls parents?! If my mom every heard or saw me doing anything like this, she would take me aside and smack me! I hope their moms wake up and give them, at least, a good talking too!

Now that I have gotten that off of my chest: How about the season we are starting to enter into? I LOVE the Christmas/holiday season. I LOVE IT! I love shopping for the perfect gift. I love picking out and sending Christmas(and Hanukkah), cards. I love decorating. I love it all. My only bummer this year, is that I have my house up for sale. Since it is up for sale, I can't decorate very much. My tree is going to be a small table top tree, and I can only put a few thing in the yard. It's a bit of a bummer, but it is better than nothing, and my gifts will look quit impressive next to that dinky tree.....minimal is starting to not sound so bad:)

I have a love hate relationship with fall. I would have a full love relationship with fall if it were 75 degrees every day and if it didn't seem like winter was just waiting around the corner. I love racking the leaves, picking pumpkins, trick or treat, apple picking, baking, all the quintessential fall activities. I just hate that it goes so quickly and before we know it winter is here.
Currently I am hating that the elections are just days away and I haven't figured out which politician is lying less that the other. I just don't get why politicians are still using mud slinging techniques. All it seems to do is disenchant people with the political process. Well, maybe I just answered my own question. We as a people can't allow our selves to get away from the political process before or after we have voted. Even after the poles have closed we as a people have to watch the politicians. We have to always be sure they are doing the will of their constituents, not the will of their pocket books. We all have to remember We are the boss of them, not the other way around.
To end on a happy note, tomorrow is beggars night! I love seeing all the creative costumes. I love eating the candy and talking with my neighbors. I look froward to this every year. Beggars night, a good excuse to get out doors.
Have fun!

I am testing to see if this works. Maybe I'll use it , maybe I won't . Not sure.