Technicalities

The Last Real Post

Here's one last post before I move everything over to the MuNu site. I thought it might be appropriate to do a little politics for the last time. Yesterday, I was out at noon time and heard Rush Limbaugh talking about this article in the Washington Post:

Kerry's Inner Circle Expands

If you want a sneak preview of how Kerry will run things if he's elected, just take a look at how he's running his campaign.

The campaign now includes 37 separate domestic policy councils and 27 foreign policy groups, each with scores of members. The justice policy task force alone includes 195 members. The environmental group is roughly the same size, as is the agriculture and rural development council. Kerry counts more than 200 economists as his advisers.

Just look at the number of economists... 200!!! Now I ask you, when was the last time you heard even 2 economists agreeing with each other? Now multiply that by 100... You can see why Kerry has a hard time making decisions.

The other problem with this many people vying for Kerry's attention - jealousy, frustration, an inability for the "task forces" themselves to function.

One task force is still arguing whether it should be titled the council on babies, children and youth or just children and youth.

I'm beginning to think that this might be why Kerry didn't "have time" for a national security briefing that was offered to him. He's got so many other meetings going all the time, he can't be bothered right now with a minor thing like security. I guess he'll just leave that to the Bush administration. But what is he going to do if he gets elected and they aren't there anymore? Will he leave the economy to the economists? Or will he leave the national security to the Joint Chiefs? Or will the environmentalist people be left out in the global warming? It's a dilemma.

House Redo... Carpet

Tomorrow morning... sometime, I haven't a clue WHEN, people with new carpet will show up and install same in my living room, the stairway and upstairs hall. Should be a really fun day... I guess this means I'll have to actually bestir myself at some ungodly hour of the morning, so I'm ready when they get here.

The one bright spot will be - the old crappy carpet, that was basically uncleanable and smelled awful, will be gone. Things should be looking up by tomorrow evening... I hope.

Although I am not using the same carpet people, I still remember the nightmare of the last installation. We were doing our bedroom and the stairs down to the basement. (2 totally different places in the house, 2 totally different carpets). When the man came to measure, he asked this specifically - I said NO! they are NOT the same carpets or colors. He wrote it down... they still ordered it wrong. We ended up with a 3/4 installation in our bedroom for a week!!!

Not to mention, when the men doing the installing found out about the mistake, they took off like bats out of hell (done for the day, quick run home before we have to stay longer!). I had to literally stop their car in the street and make them go back in the house and put the door back up in our bathroom! They had taken it off the hinges to get it out of the way. Not to mention finding a spare piece of carpet to put over the tack strip that lay directly across the door into the bathroom. (ah can you see it, you go walking barefoot into the bathroom only to forget the tack strip is there!) And last of all not not not mentioning that they didn't cut the carpet up into small enough pieces for us to put out at the curb for pickup.

So, you see I am a bit anxious about this. Not much, just a bit. All the carpet is the same color this time, so I can hold a tiny shred of hope that things will go right...

Is the Weekend Over?

I hope everyone had a lovely Independence Day/July 4th weekend. I must admit to having gotten very little of anything done. I had a total brain-fried collapse weekend. Rather annoying since I have still got so many things that need to be done around the house. Did a tiny little bit of blog reading. Had no ambition to post anything, therefore things were pretty quiet around here.

Beloved blogless husband and I did go over to some friends for dinner on the 4th - it's pretty far out from town, so we didn't see any of the professional fireworks. But the neighbors had spent mega-bucks and brought out some pretty good ones to shoot off over the pond. The weather was very nice for Sunday after Saturday's numerous storms. Played some Trivial Pursuit (I really suck pond water at that game) and got home around 2am.

Tomorrow it's back to work - hopefully fully rested up and ready to start doing things again. I just know that having a 3 day weekend is going to throw me off for the rest of the week. Now if only the neighborhood teens can finish shooting off all those black cats and M80's they bought, it might quiet down enough for sleeping.

Some Days are Like That

So, after yesterday's marathon day, today I woke up tired, proceeded to a migraine, and had to think about work. Luckily my client's company is even more messed up than I am, so I spent all day waiting for them to do some (majorly necessary) work that should've been done last week. This is good, because anything complicated would've blown up in my face I'm quite sure.

Therefore, since I am still not up to total functionality, I'll just throw out a few good links. I know, it's so lame, but there it is. Tomorrow is going to be an even longer day than today, so I am going to do one post and then off to relax a bit away from the computer.

First off, if you haven't read about Drill Sgt Rob's War Pigs, you need to find out about the newest crop of great young soldiers.

The best news anyone could ever hear!

Jennifer is recommending some reading. Another one to add to my list for my next book run!

Find out about LeeAnn's substitute yoga instructor... one question, how are you supposed to relax while laughing???

And last of all, I found this: Kerry Cancels Speech To Avoid Picket Line. Hmm... what's that again?

...Kerry announced Sunday he would cancel his planned speech in front of some 200 mayors in order to avoid crossing picket lines set up by the Boston Police Patrolmen's Union.

Okay, but what happens if there are picket lines at the DNC? Does that mean Kerry won't go in and make speeches? I've been wondering about that all day since I first saw this story. So, listen up all you unions, Go Picket The Democratic National Convention, and let's see what happens.

House Painting Round 4 - The Final Round is Done!

Today was the finish of painting. OMG it looks great, too bad we couldn't have done this years ago. (yeah - wait 7 years, decide you'll be moving soon, THEN paint *sigh*). Next up - tile for the front entry and new carpet. So, stay tuned.

In the meantime, Pam has created a wonderfully clever story, finding various phrases to link appropriate posts.

And being behind as usual, I am late announcing the next installment of Cool Blue's Star Chores. Find out where the Left Hand Path takes us.

Over at Stop the Bleating, Matt is talking about the new law in Mississippi that brings in some much needed tort reform! Wonderful - plus don't miss the last paragraph about the High Court in Australia - it is most excellent!

Serenity is in most fabulous form! She has a few things to say to Bill Clinton. Ah I love it, classic Serenity! She is incomparable! And since I can't match it or exceed it, go read what she has to say.

Last of all, go wish the lovely, talented, intelligent Tammi good luck. She's on her way home and has the remote possibility of facing a bottom feeding scumbag of a moron. Let's let her know we're all behind her and ready to come help her take said moron out - along with every single toad of a relative - if necessary. You'll be wonderful Tammi! Just go enjoy yourself and have fun with your mom!

House Painting Round 3 - Done

So, we're getting down to the end. Yesterday saw the completion of one of the bedrooms being painted. That just leaves the hall and stairway. I think the paint fumes are doing strange things to my brain... then again... maybe not. Anyhow, I have lots of stuff to say and no time to say it. I suddenly got dumped on from all sides at work and I have a massive amount of reports to finish up. Figured I should take a few minutes to at least pop in and say hello to anyone who is dropping by. So, Hello.

Of the many things I need to do, but have yet to complete is getting a blog roll of my bloggy siblings up and on the sidebar! In the meantime, visit the proud papa - Harvey - who is handing out cigars because he has spawned yet another blog child. Check it out!

House Painting Round 2 - Done

Taking us into the realm of "who gives a flying fig", the second day of house painting is now complete. The living room, kitchen and family room are done. We have returned the furniture to some semblance of its original position, rehung the curtains, wiped up the baseboards. Pictures will be rehung tomorrow (giving the walls plenty of drying time).

However, since we are also getting new carpet in the living room - to be scheduled when all of the painting is done - we will have totally empty bookcases for the next week or 2. This makes the living room look like an unfinished hotel room, but I am not moving books 3 more times. I figure I should also wash the windows in there before the new carpet is installed. Ho-hum, another long week I see.

I will be very ready to have lunch with Tammi on Saturday.

I Am Awake

And I think to myself... what am I doing up at this ungodly hour??? I am NOT a morning person. The fact that I no longer have rug rats running around my house, means I can sleep in at least once a week - although I will admit that most people would think I sleep in every day, but hey, for me 7am is a nightmarish hour that should never have been invented!

And so I am awake - waiting for painters. They said - we'll be there at 8am. Therefore, I am awake. I really need to go hit up Starbucks. That may make up for having to give up my once a week sleep in.

House Painting Round 1 - Done

Ah house renovating - it builds character. We are having our house painted - inside. Today they did the ceilings in all the rooms being painted. The entire first floor, stairway, upper hall and 1 bedroom. We have furniture clumps in each room. No discernible places to sit outside of our chairs at the computers - even the kitchen table is positioned so we can only use one chair.

However the ceilings in the house are once again white - the color they were intended to be. Tomorrow they start on the walls...

Now That's Hot Pizza

The local landmark pizza place had a bit of a fire this afternoon. I didn't know anything about it until I saw the kids across the street looking up at the sky and realized there was a helicopter hovering around somewhat south of my neighborhood. That was it, just the helicopter hovering for about 2 hours. So, I turned on the radio and listened... The news came in the form of the traffic report.

You see the Pizza place may be a landmark, but the big news is that the fire closed one of the few east-west roads in the Northwest Suburbs to thru traffic. So, now that we knew the fire was in town, my husband and I took a stroll down there - about a mile and a half. Only we couldn't get close enough to see. They had keep out tape up and the road curves - so the large house sitting next door, totally blocks the view. This means I'll have to drive through town tomorrow and see the damage (like every other wanker is going to do *G*)

It's very odd, but I never saw any smoke - none! Even when looking out my windows and watching the helicopter. But it seems like every community from the Northwest burbs sent a firetruck to the scene! I swear we counted at least a dozen trucks and up to 6 ambulances. Amazing thing for a fire with no visible smoke.

I called my daughter - figuring that the way things worked, her husband would already have the entire scoop and she'd know all. I was destined to disappointment, she hadn't heard anything yet. (her husband plays all kinds of sports, and the pizza place sponsored most of his teams - they would eat there after every game).

I already told my husband he'll have to go get a haircut soon and get all the news (barber shops excel at collecting local news). I'm sure they will know all the details by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.