Lots of loose ends

So much crapola, so little time. I feel like I've been running around with my head cut off. Would probably forget it if it wasn't attached...and all that sort of goodness.

Had one very last trek to the cabin for 2008. Just me & the 3 kiddos - we stopped to see a friend and her horseys & had lunch en route. Kids LOVE that. At the cabin we closed up shop.

It has been forever since I've put a boat in or taken one out of the lake. Well, that didn't go all too well...hehehe...and yes I did giggle at myself. 1st - I drove the vehicle w/the trailer to the landing to pull out the pontoon. My deal with backing up - if I have an audience, it does not go well. There were 2 guys there taking a boat out on the far side. Not good. After they left, I shot it back perfectly...but the last thing Dad had said prior to leaving was - 'Make sure you are far enough away from the dock.' Well, I thought I was too close. (Ended up that I wasn't. Live and learn.) So Dad pulls up w/the pontoon. I get out and hold the boat and just have him back it in. Much easier!! And he put it right where I HAD it that 1 time. Anyway, so Dad's back in the boat, pulls it onto the trailer so I start trying to pull him out. OOPS. Forgot 1 very important part. He's got to tie it onto the trailer 1st. Yep - my blonde roots were showing. But we got it done - with a LOT of commentary from K1, of course. She just talks NON-STOP. Whenever I needed full concentration it was "Now K1, you HAVE to shut up now." And you know what? She did. Amazing.

So we put the other boat in the shed. Pulled the boat lift out of the lake & chained it up (that's the worst job). Put the canopy away. Pulled the pontoon out. Tarped it up. Got the RV turned around. Boxed up all the canned stuff & cleaning stuff that cannot freeze & packed it into the RV. Washed the RV & the truck while we were at it, that that's about it.

I did have to watch "P.S. I Love You" again on DVD. Jeez, I love that movie.

So last week was hounding K1 about not running, jumping or riding her bike. She ends up doing all of these things. She figured I wouldn't be as mad if she took K2s bike...and she did...and she fell off the darn thing and it has TRAINING WHEELS on it! Nice. So Saturday her ear starts to hurt. Nice. So help me if this surgery isn't successful, I'm not really certain how my temper will react - because I will certainly know it is K1's fault for not following Dr. orders. I will also be bald...just a fair warning for you.

K3 started to say "HEY!" if you take something away from her (or anywhere near her). She also gives you a corresponding dirty look that is just priceless.

I started really working with K2 on letters and sounds. He has zero interest what-so-ever. Not good. It's like pulling teeth to talk with him for 2 minutes. Terrible. So I asked the women at ECFE for some ideas. 1 used to be a preschool teacher, so I was surprised when she mentioned a Leap Frog video called "Letter Factory". I picked it up this morning. K2 LOVES it. So we'll see how long that lasts.

Saturday I took K1 and a neighbor girl to see "High School Musical 3". K1 is completely in love with Zac Efron. Wow. I wasn't into drooling over movie stars until I was like 11. This isn't a good sign. Anyway, the movie was cute and the girls loved it. I liked that all the kiddies in the theater were singing along!

Election stuff
I have had great fun with this election cycle. I will freely admit that. But I am such a political and history nerd that I'd have to be dead not to. My interest and passion has been re-kindled. I think it has to do with the fact that all the 'rules' have changed. Seriously. You look at how this sucker has gone - there's been nothing like it in the past. Obama's campaign is the model of the future campaign. We'll see it again - but it won't be as awe inspiring to me because of that fact.

People discuss this as an election of historic proportions, but to date it has only been related to 3 things.

1. A Senator - there's NEVER been a Senator elected President. This cycle was bombarded by Senators.
2. A woman - Hillary Clinton. This is the closest a woman has ever come to being elected President.
3. An African-American man - Barack Obama. This is the closest an African-American man has ever come to being elected President.

Although these are 3 great reasons for this election to be historic. I think this election is historic for more reasons than these. The way a campaign is run is completely new. You are no longer able to focus on your hard-core party members for financial purposes. The McCain-Feingold legislation regarding campaign finance 'reform' has nipped McCain in the rearend. Public finanacing of presidential campaigns is a thing of the past. If you are unable to raise a minimum of $600 million dollars to run for this office - don't bother trying. Save what you have and look on from afar because you won't get anywhere in 2012 without that kind of cash.

The 'machine' that the Obama campaign created is completely amazing. Ground up. Amazing. People have publicly knocked his community organizer background. Let me tell you - how do you think he was able to put this huge network together? Using that background baby. True grass roots. From day #1 - not just after his party endorsement. Heck, after his endorsement his network was tried and true and only was expanded in number of participants. All bases were previously established - nothing was seen even close to this from the Clinton or McCain campaigns.

Obama's tech person/team should be lauded. The use of the internet in information flow and fundraising has been jaw-dropping. It will be duplicated for campaigns in the future, and tweaked I'm sure.

I understand David Plouffe is the 'numbers man'. To know exactly in which states, in which specific counties, then townships where to place the exact amount of campaign resources (time, talent & money) has been astounding. To actually look into taking the 1 electoral vote from Omaha to go Blue when the rest of Nebraska would probably go Red. That 1 vote could be 'it' - you NEVER know. Genius. (FYI: Nebraska is the only state that alows its electoral votes to be split based upon their popular vote in specific regions.)

And my last issue for making this historic - taking the high road. More often than not, Obama has taken the high road (and I'm certain has bit his tongue off in the process). I am sure analysis was done on how to run against a war hero. 1 - you never slam the war hero. That is another historic portion. If a war-hero has run, they haven't lost. I am hoping this 'rule' is broken in 2008. So back to the high road. You want examples? I'll give them to you.

1. Whenever McCain's veteran status/POW experience is raised, it is ALWAYS praised. My own personal response would be: Yes, McCain provided great services to this country we all love. Yes, we commend him. However that was a LONG time ago. We need to move forward people. This is 2008 and we need to work on being the best we can be beyond 2008. Not backwards pre-1970.

2. When asked if Palin was ready to be VP/President, it's always 'that's for the public to decide.' You've read my thoughts on this woman. I couldn't have kept the high road on this either. She's completely inept!
2.A. Remember that government checkbook fiasco? The woman wanted to run for VP based on something Obama already DID. And Obama said nothing. Wow. I couldn't have done that one.

3. William Ayers - Bottom line, if you call Obama a terrorist for his affiliations with this man, you are also calling several well-respected Republicans 'Terrorists', as well as several University Presidents in the Chicago area. The result is highly unlikely. Last thing I would have had to state, 'If you are applying this standard to me, then I suggest you research the Keating Five and then go knock on McCain's door.' That's DIRECT involvement baby. You wanna talk character? There is a smear-fest waiting right there.

The high road was taken on many more occasions than these. I do hope that the high road pays off and that politics change course. We, as a public in general, don't like smear campaigns. We don't like campaigns based on being scared and fear mongering. The current Republicans seem to LOVE to run these. I do hope these are a thing of the past & we can put Karl Rove to rest outside the political arena...never to be heard from again. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. Dearly wanted? ABSOLUTELY.

Putting life into perspective

There are things that arise in life that makes or forces you to get a little perspective on things. Monday, K1 had 'minor' surgery on her ear. Now some people out there don't think much about this. But anytime anesthesia is used I get the 'willies'. This makes me very nervous. So even though the actual procedure was 20 minutes, I don't like it in the least. There could be several reasons for this. The first and most pressing is the subject of everyone's mortality, and the fact that everyone on earth believes that they should never have to bury even one of their children. I think this summs up my issue from Monday very well. Now the interesting part.

Sunday my Pastor had given K1 a knitted prayer shawl. Morgan could choose 2 things to bring with her into the OR. She chose this prayer shawl and a new puppy beanie baby picked from the hospital shelves named 'Boomer'. I'll focus on the prayer shawl. K1 has slept with the prayer shawl since Sunday. Although this is typical of new items for young children, I think this item is especially cool that she's chosen to share her sleep time with. With all the crapola in her room that she can be choosing, she's choosing this. I like it. But let's back up. During the procedure, I didn't have the shawl, however I did experience an immense peace. I did place K1 on the prayer chain at church, but from this peace I experienced, I know I was prayed for as well. Now, when K1 was wheeled into the 2nd stage recovery where I and H could be with her, I initially didn't see the shawl. But when K1 moved her legs I saw that she had used it as a blanket - to be covered in prayer in the OR and following. This was moving to me.

K1 did excellent and all's well. We won't know for a month if this was successful. So we'll pray as the alternative is another and much more extensive and 'major' procedure we'd rather avoid.

Thus life is in perspective - for a little while at least.

Belated report

H and I went to see Robin Williams on Sept. 25th, and I had yet to comment on the evening. H has a history of locking keys in the car. Although he has not done this in over 5 years, he had a nasty stint that will live with him for eternity. So that evening, when he needed to lock the keys in the truck, he didn't. We were already in Minneapolis by the time he realized that he left the keys in the truck parked at my uncle's house. So during the entire evening he was wondering if our truck would still be there...it was. But it does put a damper on the enjoyment level.

The show started 30 minutes late. We were in the upper balcony, so we could only figure that Mr. Williams was delayed. It was annoying - mainly because we would have had the time to go back to the truck, get the keys and lock the darn thing! The next morning while listening to the radio we learned that a gentleman had had a heart attack and was revived. Wow. That put some perspective on things. So throughout the evening there were jokes how the audience was getting older and the ticket people also would need to start checking to make sure people had health insurance prior to entering, etc.

There were TONS of political jokes, and Williams is a liberal Democrat, so I absolutely loved the jokes he told. Now this is interesting - a lot of comics have stories they tell with 1 punchline. Not this guy. Every phrase he says is a joke. I couldn't retell his jokes to you if I tried. I laughed for an hour and a half straight and I loved it.

Now next to me was a high school kid with his Mom & Dad. I think they were Republicans since they were not laughing at any of the political jokes. I felt really bad for the kid though - he's sitting there probably thinking this stuff is funny but he can't laugh because Mom & Dad aren't laughing. How bad would that suck? Poor kid.

I had been warned that Williams has foul language. Yeah, he does. More so than even I expected or imagined. But hey - it's his show - that's how he communicates. Leave him to it. He made me laugh, that's what I paid for. Done deal.

So this performance was the kick off to his tour. If he comes to your city, I suggest going. In these sucky economic times and icky political ads on TV, who doesn't need some good laughs?

What a sad state of affairs

Looking at last evening's debate (Sen. Joe Biden/Gov. Sarah Palin), a few things strike me. I think this is the 1st time I've really enjoyed a VP debate. Although my definition of 'enjoy' is different here. I liked Biden's approach. Personally I really wanted to see him rake Palin over the coals, shred her, etc. as she justly deserves. I am sure Biden in private really wanted to do the same. You know he probably bit 1/2 his tongue off last night - poor guy. Unfortunately I don't think the rest of the country would have enjoyed the slaughter as I would have. Everyone would be labeling him 'brutal' today. So Biden took the high road - kudos to him. I don't think I really could have done the same. I like my tongue to stay the way it is.

Last evening Palin kept referring to her & McCain's supposed 'maverick' status. Even to the point of not answering questions from the moderator. "I may not answer the question the way you want to hear, but I'll talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record," Palin said. Not only did she not answer the questions, but she didn't 'talk straight to the American people' either. You know, that isn't being a maverick. That is being a snotty brat (to put it very mildly). I agree that all politicians choose to answer or not answer questions - but MOST give at least some form of response. Frankly, as a viewer, I was insulted by her response to not answer questions and to go backwards and discuss something she already hashed through. I wonder how Gwen Ifill (the moderator) felt about being directly snubbed in this way? Now I am not certain if most people caught this tactic - few pundits are remarking on it today. To me it completely shows that on those questions she truly did not know what to say or how to say it. Bottom line that spells out the fact that she's not ready to be VP...to anyone. Go back to Alaska & be Governor. You like it. It works for you. Have fun. Bye-bye now.

Now the really sad part. The aftershocks of the debate show that people thought Palin did better than expected, there were no major gaffes, and so people are pleased with her performance. SINCE WHEN did the standards for VP become so dirt/mud/crap/piss poor? I mean really...Diane Sawyer's remark afterwards regarding Palin's composure - really? THAT is what we're going to comment on? What about the substance of answers? Here is a specific one that raised several red flags in my book:

IFILL: Governor, on another issue, interventionism, nuclear weapons. What should be the trigger, or should there be a trigger, when nuclear weapons use is ever put into play?

Palin's response was stating that the U.S. use of nuclear weapons as a deterrant was perfect, and that economic sanctions with our allies needed to be placed on countries like North Korea and Iran.

That's it. Oh, and she asked to talk about Afghanistan some more. To read her entire response, click here.

No mention of inspections. No mention of arms control. No mention of test-ban treaties.

What the #@*)!!! Holly Hannah. And people want her within a heartbeat of that proverbial little red button. Oh. My. Gosh. I can't stand it. There aren't words to show how much this really scares the crap out of me.

Where did it go?

I believe there comes a time where every parent around the world probably asks the question:

"Where did this kid's brain go?"

This happened to me yesterday. I was sitting on the couch reading a book to K2. K1 was talking on the telephone in the den with her friend. And please let me remind you that she is the queen of tattling. K3 then proceeded to take a red crayon and scribble on my ivory wall...a lot. A good 2' square full of scribbles.

And K1 said nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I heard some scratching noise and postponed the end of the book to check it out. And do you know what K1s comment was?? This is a good one....

"I didn't think you'd wanna know."

I went into official orbit. Where did this kid's brain go???

Can someone out there tell me when this may end? I fear it is something that doesn't...