Politicians: right now I'd rather line them up and slap them than vote for any of them.

Economics: The only way I'd support this 'bail out' is if they wrote into the legislation that those found culpable would be publicly flogged, and left penniless. That goes all the way down the greedy chain to some real estate agents I know of that spent the past 10 years or so selling houses to schmucks that couldn't afford them, and bragging on how much commission they would make - even if the home ended up in a default.

Investing: why do we even bother. It seems like opening the statements is one of the most stressful things I do every month.

~M.E.

New Look

After things have settled a bit here's the corner of the main floor living room. Note the evil guardian camouflaged in the bucket chair.


To completely be able to imagine the room, you have to mentally add the footstool that IKEA didn't have, and this triptych - finished - in place of the Pendleton blanket that has hung over the stairs since we built the house. (If you can imagine what the painting will look like finished, you are better than Me at those things..)
~M.E.

The 'Help'

Yesterday was interesting. I threw a party for a friend of mine who had recently finished a long-time-coming kitchen remodel. The kitchen had not been updated since sometime in the 60's or generously the very early 70's and the work on this project started sometime last fall. Bit by bit over the last year her dad, son and various friends tore the whole thing out to the studs and renovated it. At times she would be without a sink, or without a stove, or the 'fridge would be in another room. But, now it's 98% finished, and we're all pretty happy about that.

So, yesterday I cooked, tended to the food, and cleaned up while she hung out and enjoyed the well-wishers. I actually cleaned up, packed up, and went home fairly early once I realised the party had found a life of it's own - and a life that could only be appreciated by a person who had jumped into the deep end of the Margarita Pool.

It's been a long time since I've seen that much food and so little nutrition in one place. Friends, party food, and a new kitchen. We should find a reason to celebrate more often.

Cheers! ~M.E.

Piano

How many times have you said to yourself - "If I knew then what I know now, Boy, would I have done things differently!" Consolation is that I will be able to get on with my own journey since the worst is over. I lost a lot, but maybe gained some, too. I've been through worse, and in the long run I'm glad for the insight I've gained. Some people don't change, and some people do. I'll end up on my feet because I have a God who never changes and a family who is vastly different than the one I grew up with.

Life is sweeter than a Chopin Nocturne on a new piano. ~M.E.

It's arrived

The Piano is here. Very Cool. ~M.E.

An interesting time waster.

http://www.okcupid.com/politics

I couldn't get it to print mine, the HTML was messed up. I'm a centerist, social moderate - economic conservative.

Give it shot if you have the time, you might be amused. ~M.E.

They're taking over

If asked, we'll tell you pretty quickly that we don't watch very much TV. I didn't recognize any of the shows that won Emmys a few days back. But we do have our time wasting electronics. They are just as bad as TV or video games in their own insidious ways. We are a home of three people and four computers. When our 4th drops in, she brings another with her - and has a 6th at her apartment. When my Sis and BIL visit, they bring their own, too. There are very few days that ALL of our computers aren't powered up and used on the 'net at one time or another. Two live on desks in the office, a lap top floats around on the main level just in case someone is too lazy to even walk down to the office when they want to goof off, and the new red Dell notebook often sits on the red chair in case someone wants to surf and watch TV at the same time.

This morning my goal was to clean the main living space in advance of the piano being delivered this afternoon. What have I done? Checked out the news on-line, read a couple of blogs, peaked in on Facebook, checked my EMail, written a couple of replies, spent an hour sorting the pictures off my two compact flash cards, uploaded a couple of those and photoshopped a couple of others, and messed with the hand-outs I'm making for Friday just so I could justify the 90 minutes I've been sitting here.

Oh, and wrote a crabby blog entry about time wasting computers. Looks like some adjustments are necessary.

~M.E.