http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/02/obama-i-have-more-executive-experience-than-palin/
snip:
"Barack Obama contends that he is more experienced in executive matters than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin because he has managed his presidential campaign for the past 18 months."
Wow. Talk about circular logic. So, Mr. Obama, you are qualified to be President because you are running for President?
Don't get me wrong, we all know what so called "experience" has gotten us; a legislative culture filled to the brim with corruption, scandal and downright ignorance. My suggestion to both parties: Drop the experience schtick. You are both lacking on one side or the other. The Repub's are at least heavy where it counts.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11670.html
snip:
"Under Obama’s plan to let the scheduled 2011 tax rate hikes occur, and his plan to raise the self-employment tax on those making more than $250,000, the S corporation rate would rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. The sole proprietor and partner rate would rise from 37.9 percent all the way up to a staggering 50.3 percent. Many Democrats in Congress have proposed making all small businesses (including S corporations) pay this 50-plus percent rate. A small business tax rate that high would be the highest marginal rate faced by them in nearly a quarter-century."
Unbelievable. Talk about discouraging entreprenuership.
What does punishing the successful imply? Reward for mediocrity, that's what.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Frank's OK...that snake soon won't be.
From Steve:
I picked Frank up from his normal Vet's office yesterday after work. Dr. LaPierre and I had a sit down to talk about what we needed to watch out for for the next few days. He said that Frank was doing alot better, although the swelling on his leg and right side seemed to be hanging around. If that doesn't go down in the next few days, we may have to have it drained.
I brought Frank by the barn since Crystal had to work late so that her and Elaine could see that he was doing better. After some hugs and kisses from Mom & Grandma, Frank and I were on our way back home. Once out of the car back at the house, our neighbor Jim came by to check on Frank. For the first time since the incident, I saw Frank's tail (if you can call his nub a tail) wag when he saw Jim. This was a huge relief to me, as this was really the first semblence of his personality coming back from his ordeal.
I made sure that Frank was resting comfortably at his favorite spot; the cold tile of the bathroom floor over the AC vent, and then it was on.
Jim and I proceeded to located the suspected grouping of holes in the ground near the apple tree in our back yard. Years ago, the back part of my yard was a part of a gulley that drained down to the lake behind our house. When our house was being build, they filled the gulley to level the lot. Because they ran out of fill dirt, the geniuses used garbage and stumps to help fill the hole. Over the years as water runs off our property, it finds its way through the nooks and crannies of those old stumps and makes little holes that sometimes surface near the apple tree. A perfect home for snakes and all other sorts of undesireables.
JIm brought over some smoke bombs (what the hell does a 70 year old man need with smoke bombs?). At his instruction, I doused some old T-shirts with oil and jammed them down the holes with the handle of a shovel. Next, I threw in the smoke bombs. To top off our creation, we poured about 3 gallons of gasoline into the holes and lit it.
It looked like we had opened up the gateway to hell.
The explosion sounded like a large "thump" underground. Immediately after that thump, flames as tall as me shot out from the holes. Fire erupted from other holes that we didn't know existed, including one right under Jim's feet prompting the old man to bolt faster than Carl Lewis out of the way.
They burned fow awhile, and nothing slithered, crawled, or scurried out. If anything was alive down there, it wasn't now.
After hell's fury subsided, we dumped the 320 pounds of concrete that I had laying around down the holes. Hopefully Tropical storm Hanna will help the mortar mix to find it's way to all of the little passageways under our yard.
At Present:
Well, Frank just hopped out of bed. He trotted in here to see if Santa had brought him any surprises in his food bowl. He hasn't expressed any interest in food since he's been home, this must be a good sign. I fixed him some of his wet food and mixed in his medication. He ate it all!
Crystal is at the barn already, getting ready for the wedding and reception tonight. Frank is watching me type away and wondering when we are going to go for a ride.
He's going to be OK. That snake will die.
To be continued........
I picked Frank up from his normal Vet's office yesterday after work. Dr. LaPierre and I had a sit down to talk about what we needed to watch out for for the next few days. He said that Frank was doing alot better, although the swelling on his leg and right side seemed to be hanging around. If that doesn't go down in the next few days, we may have to have it drained.
I brought Frank by the barn since Crystal had to work late so that her and Elaine could see that he was doing better. After some hugs and kisses from Mom & Grandma, Frank and I were on our way back home. Once out of the car back at the house, our neighbor Jim came by to check on Frank. For the first time since the incident, I saw Frank's tail (if you can call his nub a tail) wag when he saw Jim. This was a huge relief to me, as this was really the first semblence of his personality coming back from his ordeal.
I made sure that Frank was resting comfortably at his favorite spot; the cold tile of the bathroom floor over the AC vent, and then it was on.
Jim and I proceeded to located the suspected grouping of holes in the ground near the apple tree in our back yard. Years ago, the back part of my yard was a part of a gulley that drained down to the lake behind our house. When our house was being build, they filled the gulley to level the lot. Because they ran out of fill dirt, the geniuses used garbage and stumps to help fill the hole. Over the years as water runs off our property, it finds its way through the nooks and crannies of those old stumps and makes little holes that sometimes surface near the apple tree. A perfect home for snakes and all other sorts of undesireables.
JIm brought over some smoke bombs (what the hell does a 70 year old man need with smoke bombs?). At his instruction, I doused some old T-shirts with oil and jammed them down the holes with the handle of a shovel. Next, I threw in the smoke bombs. To top off our creation, we poured about 3 gallons of gasoline into the holes and lit it.
It looked like we had opened up the gateway to hell.
The explosion sounded like a large "thump" underground. Immediately after that thump, flames as tall as me shot out from the holes. Fire erupted from other holes that we didn't know existed, including one right under Jim's feet prompting the old man to bolt faster than Carl Lewis out of the way.
They burned fow awhile, and nothing slithered, crawled, or scurried out. If anything was alive down there, it wasn't now.
After hell's fury subsided, we dumped the 320 pounds of concrete that I had laying around down the holes. Hopefully Tropical storm Hanna will help the mortar mix to find it's way to all of the little passageways under our yard.
At Present:
Well, Frank just hopped out of bed. He trotted in here to see if Santa had brought him any surprises in his food bowl. He hasn't expressed any interest in food since he's been home, this must be a good sign. I fixed him some of his wet food and mixed in his medication. He ate it all!
Crystal is at the barn already, getting ready for the wedding and reception tonight. Frank is watching me type away and wondering when we are going to go for a ride.
He's going to be OK. That snake will die.
To be continued........
Friday, September 5, 2008
My Baby Frankenstein...
Those who know me know how dear my baby Frankie is to my heart. Although the Dog Whisperer might tell me I am wrong in doing so, Frankie has always and will always continue to be like a child to me. So when he is in pain, so is momma :(
Over the past 5 years of Frankie's life, I cannot count how many times we've been to the vet for an allergy or to the emergency vet because of some other semi-serious injury. But nothing prepared us for last night's visit to the after hours vet hospital...where we apparently almost lost our precious baby.
Last night at around 8:00 I let the tank out for his evening pee. Everything was normal, he wandered around the yard sniffing and peeing on everything, and because he is trustworthy not to run off, I came back inside to wait for him. We can always tell when he is ready to come back in because he sits at the back door and as he sits down to be let in, his little butt hits the door letting us know he is there. Upon hearing that noise, I promptly went and opened the door to find him acting very strangely. He was going crazy, licking the air, and turning circles. When he came into the house he started licking the walls and continuing his odd behavior. I wasn't too concerned at first because we've seen him do this once before when he got stung by a hornet...so I thought maybe he got stung again. I sat down on the floor to further investigate his injury but he wouldn't let me near his little paw he was holding off of the ground. When Steve came into the hallway, we found two bite marks that were bleeding leading us to believe he had gotten bit by a snake. Immediately I was on the phone with the emergency vet and they told us to bring him in. I could tell he was in a tremendous amount of pain so I gave him some pain medication I had left over from only a few short weeks ago when he hurt his jaw so bad he couldn't open his mouth for 2 days. This seemed to calm him down and sedate him, but also helped to keep his leg from swelling.
When we go to the vet, everything seemed to be ok. They told us that he did indeed get bit by a copper head and it seemed that the snake did not leave much venom in the wound because his leg wasn't swollen too bad, but they wanted to keep him over night for observation. Well this broke my heart because all I wanted to do was take my baby home. They said they still needed to run a series of tests but they would be observing him closely to make sure that the swelling caused by the bite didn't affect his breathing at all. Everything seemed to be on the up and up...
At 4 this morning, Steve and I received a phone call. When the phone call comes that early, you know something has to be wrong so we assumed the worst. Thankfully, Frankie did not pass, but wasn't doing so good. The bite was much worse than they first assumed and my poor baby's leg swelled to the size of a tree limb. This also affected his ability to breath and the ability for his blood to clot since his blood cell count was so low. He ended up with a severe nose bleed, and the vet had to do a blood transfusion. Immediately my mind went to a terrible place and the water works were turned on, and because I am so emotional at the moment anyways, the water works could not be turned off very easily. Steve and I were pretty much awake for the rest of the morning until the alarm went off at 6:15.
After getting up I called the doctor to check on Frank. She said he was doing 90% better after the transfusion but that I needed to come pick him up and take him to my regular vet office to be monitored today. I cried all the way to the emergency vet, and even when in the office, I couldn't hold back the tears. Then I saw my sweet angel. Both of his front legs were swollen, his face was swollen, you could still see traces of blood from his nostrils, and one of his eyes was swollen. He was disoriented so I don't think he really recognized me or Steve, but when he saw the car, he knew we were there as he tried to jump in. If this was him looking 90% better, I don't want to know what he looked like at 4am when we got our phone call.
So now I am sitting at work, thinking about my poor baby at the vet's office, hoping and praying that all is well. I know that deep down he will be ok, but my heart breaks for him because he is in so much pain. But it also breaks because this dog is my child and will forever be one of the loves of my life. I couldn't imagine my life without him and I can't wait to be at home with him, loving on him. In moments where you think you have almost lost something so dear to you, you look back at all the annoying little habits like his obsessive licking of the furniture, his need to sit in your lap all the time, the constant drooling, and the smelliest farts you have ever smelled, and you cannot wait to be around those habits again!
Over the past 5 years of Frankie's life, I cannot count how many times we've been to the vet for an allergy or to the emergency vet because of some other semi-serious injury. But nothing prepared us for last night's visit to the after hours vet hospital...where we apparently almost lost our precious baby.
Last night at around 8:00 I let the tank out for his evening pee. Everything was normal, he wandered around the yard sniffing and peeing on everything, and because he is trustworthy not to run off, I came back inside to wait for him. We can always tell when he is ready to come back in because he sits at the back door and as he sits down to be let in, his little butt hits the door letting us know he is there. Upon hearing that noise, I promptly went and opened the door to find him acting very strangely. He was going crazy, licking the air, and turning circles. When he came into the house he started licking the walls and continuing his odd behavior. I wasn't too concerned at first because we've seen him do this once before when he got stung by a hornet...so I thought maybe he got stung again. I sat down on the floor to further investigate his injury but he wouldn't let me near his little paw he was holding off of the ground. When Steve came into the hallway, we found two bite marks that were bleeding leading us to believe he had gotten bit by a snake. Immediately I was on the phone with the emergency vet and they told us to bring him in. I could tell he was in a tremendous amount of pain so I gave him some pain medication I had left over from only a few short weeks ago when he hurt his jaw so bad he couldn't open his mouth for 2 days. This seemed to calm him down and sedate him, but also helped to keep his leg from swelling.
When we go to the vet, everything seemed to be ok. They told us that he did indeed get bit by a copper head and it seemed that the snake did not leave much venom in the wound because his leg wasn't swollen too bad, but they wanted to keep him over night for observation. Well this broke my heart because all I wanted to do was take my baby home. They said they still needed to run a series of tests but they would be observing him closely to make sure that the swelling caused by the bite didn't affect his breathing at all. Everything seemed to be on the up and up...
At 4 this morning, Steve and I received a phone call. When the phone call comes that early, you know something has to be wrong so we assumed the worst. Thankfully, Frankie did not pass, but wasn't doing so good. The bite was much worse than they first assumed and my poor baby's leg swelled to the size of a tree limb. This also affected his ability to breath and the ability for his blood to clot since his blood cell count was so low. He ended up with a severe nose bleed, and the vet had to do a blood transfusion. Immediately my mind went to a terrible place and the water works were turned on, and because I am so emotional at the moment anyways, the water works could not be turned off very easily. Steve and I were pretty much awake for the rest of the morning until the alarm went off at 6:15.
After getting up I called the doctor to check on Frank. She said he was doing 90% better after the transfusion but that I needed to come pick him up and take him to my regular vet office to be monitored today. I cried all the way to the emergency vet, and even when in the office, I couldn't hold back the tears. Then I saw my sweet angel. Both of his front legs were swollen, his face was swollen, you could still see traces of blood from his nostrils, and one of his eyes was swollen. He was disoriented so I don't think he really recognized me or Steve, but when he saw the car, he knew we were there as he tried to jump in. If this was him looking 90% better, I don't want to know what he looked like at 4am when we got our phone call.
So now I am sitting at work, thinking about my poor baby at the vet's office, hoping and praying that all is well. I know that deep down he will be ok, but my heart breaks for him because he is in so much pain. But it also breaks because this dog is my child and will forever be one of the loves of my life. I couldn't imagine my life without him and I can't wait to be at home with him, loving on him. In moments where you think you have almost lost something so dear to you, you look back at all the annoying little habits like his obsessive licking of the furniture, his need to sit in your lap all the time, the constant drooling, and the smelliest farts you have ever smelled, and you cannot wait to be around those habits again!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Bev Perdue Sucks
Just wanted to voice my opinion on a recent ad that has been plaguing my TV over the past few weeks:
Bev Perdue's campaign says Pat McCrory is "wrong on vouchers." It stipulates that McCrory is for a plan that would "cost the state's school system 900 million dollars" and help "private school kids." The private school portion of the ad is accompanied by a picture of an Ivy-League-esque looking building. What a crock.
Why shouldn't the State reimburse parent's for taking their children out of crappy government schools? The sad truth is that for a majority of families, there is LITTLE TO NO CHOICE buto to send a child to a local public school that may or may not meet their child's needs. The State spends a certain amount of money on each child, each year, and by taking that child out of that crappy school, the parent's are saving the State money. Shouldn't they receive at least a portion of that in the form of a voucher towards a private education of the parent's choice?
The State takes your money, mismanages a school system, and forces you to send your child through said mismanaged school system. Your only other alternative is to foot the bill for a private (or home) school, a feat that is out of reach for a majority of households.
Is Bev Perdue scared to introduce a little good hearted competition to our public schools? Heaven forbid they have to actually be forced to raise the bar, or risk loosing students to vouchers.
Bev Perdue's campaign says Pat McCrory is "wrong on vouchers." It stipulates that McCrory is for a plan that would "cost the state's school system 900 million dollars" and help "private school kids." The private school portion of the ad is accompanied by a picture of an Ivy-League-esque looking building. What a crock.
Why shouldn't the State reimburse parent's for taking their children out of crappy government schools? The sad truth is that for a majority of families, there is LITTLE TO NO CHOICE buto to send a child to a local public school that may or may not meet their child's needs. The State spends a certain amount of money on each child, each year, and by taking that child out of that crappy school, the parent's are saving the State money. Shouldn't they receive at least a portion of that in the form of a voucher towards a private education of the parent's choice?
The State takes your money, mismanages a school system, and forces you to send your child through said mismanaged school system. Your only other alternative is to foot the bill for a private (or home) school, a feat that is out of reach for a majority of households.
Is Bev Perdue scared to introduce a little good hearted competition to our public schools? Heaven forbid they have to actually be forced to raise the bar, or risk loosing students to vouchers.
Wow...You're really big!
For those of you who don't know any rules on pregnancy etiquette...let me enlighten you on the most important one in my book. Rule #1: NEVER tell a hormonal pregnant lady she is really big unless you want to get drop kicked in the forehead.
So to elaborate on my one big rule of pregnancy etiquette, I cannot tell you how many times I've heard "Wow, you're really big." Honestly, I don't mind when my family members and close friends comment on my growing belly because I know they are commenting to be cute and funny...and are doing so out of love. But, If I have one more stranger tells me how big I am, I swear I will go Chuck Norris on their ass. Don't you think I wake up every morning knowing how freaking huge my belly is...I mean I do carry it around all day long. I am very aware of the HUMAN BEING inside of my belly that has taken over my body. I am reminded of that everytime I try to tie my shoe, or shave my legs, or roll up the end of my pants, or even just try to bend over to pick something up off of the floor. Trust me, I think I know it's big and it's round, and it gets in the way. I'm also reminded of how huge my belly is when I pour boiling water on it because it's in the way, or when it captures food that has fallen out of my mouth, and even sometimes when I'm walking around in my lounging clothes and the bottom of the belly somehow escapes my shirt for some fresh air. But it's my "big" belly and I don't need anyone reminding me of what I look like. It's kind of like telling a blind man "hey, you're blind." Thanks for the heads up dumbass!
With that being said, I do however want to make one more comment. Even though my belly is big and growing like it should be, I love how my doctor reminds me that I am measuring "spot on" with my size and that I am no bigger or no smaller than I should be. Thank you Tanya for reminding me that my belly is actually average size :)
Ok, so enough venting...let me tell you a bit about what Steve and I did over our Labor day weekend. Instead of going on vacation, we spent a relaxing weekend at home working on the baby's room. In only 11 short weeks or little girl who we have officially named by the way (London Rose Osborne) will be here. And since wedding season just started for me and I will be working every weekend from now until the baby is born, it was important for us to get as much as possible done on her room. And we accomplished sooo much in those few short days we had. The only thing left now for us to do is to put up chair railing and trim and get that painted, and then comes the fun part of decorating. Well, and we still have to find a dresser for her room, but that's a work in progress. It's just so exciting to have most of it done and for the room to actually look like a nursery!
That's about it for the update, so enjoy some pics below :)
Steve and I (and baby London)
29 weeks...yes I know...my belly is big!!
The nursery before we started working on it.
The nursery now...still a work in progress. Will update
So to elaborate on my one big rule of pregnancy etiquette, I cannot tell you how many times I've heard "Wow, you're really big." Honestly, I don't mind when my family members and close friends comment on my growing belly because I know they are commenting to be cute and funny...and are doing so out of love. But, If I have one more stranger tells me how big I am, I swear I will go Chuck Norris on their ass. Don't you think I wake up every morning knowing how freaking huge my belly is...I mean I do carry it around all day long. I am very aware of the HUMAN BEING inside of my belly that has taken over my body. I am reminded of that everytime I try to tie my shoe, or shave my legs, or roll up the end of my pants, or even just try to bend over to pick something up off of the floor. Trust me, I think I know it's big and it's round, and it gets in the way. I'm also reminded of how huge my belly is when I pour boiling water on it because it's in the way, or when it captures food that has fallen out of my mouth, and even sometimes when I'm walking around in my lounging clothes and the bottom of the belly somehow escapes my shirt for some fresh air. But it's my "big" belly and I don't need anyone reminding me of what I look like. It's kind of like telling a blind man "hey, you're blind." Thanks for the heads up dumbass!
With that being said, I do however want to make one more comment. Even though my belly is big and growing like it should be, I love how my doctor reminds me that I am measuring "spot on" with my size and that I am no bigger or no smaller than I should be. Thank you Tanya for reminding me that my belly is actually average size :)
Ok, so enough venting...let me tell you a bit about what Steve and I did over our Labor day weekend. Instead of going on vacation, we spent a relaxing weekend at home working on the baby's room. In only 11 short weeks or little girl who we have officially named by the way (London Rose Osborne) will be here. And since wedding season just started for me and I will be working every weekend from now until the baby is born, it was important for us to get as much as possible done on her room. And we accomplished sooo much in those few short days we had. The only thing left now for us to do is to put up chair railing and trim and get that painted, and then comes the fun part of decorating. Well, and we still have to find a dresser for her room, but that's a work in progress. It's just so exciting to have most of it done and for the room to actually look like a nursery!
That's about it for the update, so enjoy some pics below :)
Steve and I (and baby London)
29 weeks...yes I know...my belly is big!!
The nursery before we started working on it.
The nursery now...still a work in progress. Will updatelater when it is complete!!
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