Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Small Excitements of Life

Last Sunday night we had a game-night at church. That kept us out later than usual. When we got back to the house (around 11 pm) we got the Varmints 3 ready for bed ASAP, and dropped them right in, except for Little Bear. At 11.30pm, he decided he wanted to pray and ask Jesus to take away his sins and take him to heaven. Needless to say, Daddy was very excited!

Today (Saturday) I took the training wheels off of his bicycle. Except for the occasional starting push (on my part), he's done a great job of riding -- from the very first push. In fact, he's doing much better than I ever did. I distinctly remember riding into rose bushes (multiple times), (fenced off) flower gardens, and even (literally) up a tree. He's all proud of himself -- the neighbor's boy is 2 years older and still uses training wheels. (Although, up until a short time ago, the neighbor's boy lived in an area that was not conducive to riding bikes. He'll probably have his off shortly.)

I'm Tired of Politicians, Political Propaganda, and Media Hype

The current Presidential campaign has dragged on so long that I quit paying much attention to it... as of Florida's primary. There were so many psuedo-conservative candidates in the race, that the true conservatives had either dropped out or fallen too far behind the rest of the field, leaving me little more choice than the best remaining option. I'd much rather vote for the best candidate than the best one left. Since then, even the other "good," and "OK" options have dropped out. Currently, we have the most liberal Senator in the US, the 16th most liberal Senator, and a pseudo-Republican Senator running for President. It appears than no matter who wins, the USA loses.

All three of the candidates have serious baggage. McCain, once a Reagan-conservative, has sponsored legislation that would move our country even closer to socialism. Hillary, ugh, 4 more years of the fiasco that was the Clinton's Presidency? I hope not. Then there's Barack, and Jeremiah Wright, and Michael Pfleger, and Louis Farrakhan -- except I don't understand why the Republicans haven't dropped the hammer on the closeness of the Obama-Farrakhan ties. Perhaps they're waiting for him to be nominated as the "official" opponent with hopes that surely no one in their right mind (living in the USA) would vote for a supporter of Farrakhan?

Anyway, the immediate consequence of the long-drawn-out Presidential campaign is two-fold: 1. none of the three have had any recent executive experience, and 2. all are hoping to bring our nation ever-nearer to Socialism. This has pushed me to look much more closely than I normally would at the other races.

Locally, I've found only one decent candidate for public office, Dr. Marion Thorpe, who is opposing Alcee Hastings for the 23rd U.S. Congressional District. (Unfortunately, the 23rd isn't my district.) Having spoken with him often, I feel I know him quite well. Dr. Thorpe is a candidate that, in my opinion, would be one of very few assets to the Congress. The "Myth Debunker" blog has a May 30th post that mentions him in detail. I just wish more honest people with firm convictions (like Dr. Thorpe) were in Congress (or at least trying to get in there). I've had enough of these professional, lifetime Congress-people that are so out of touch with the realities faced in day-to-day living by "normal" Americans.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Kid-isms -- #1

The other day for dinner, my wife decided that she didn't feel like making dessert (she's 31+ weeks along with Varmint #4... I don't blame her). Instead, she brought out the family-sized applesauce jar from BJ's. When the kids finished their dinner, she started dishing out the applesauce.

The ensuing discussion was great:
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Little Bear: "Mommy! May I please have dessert now?"
Mommy: "You just got dessert; you have applesauce."
Little Bear: "Applesauce isn't dessert."
Mommy: "Tonight it is. If you want any dessert tonight, it's applesauce."
Little Bear: "But that's not dessert -- there's no chocolate in it!"

(At which point, I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard.)

Friday, May 16, 2008

On the home stretch

I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It takes us about 6 working days to "finish" one floor. We have to cover the floors, scrape off the popcorn ceiling, float the (concrete) ceilings in flat, strip the wallpaper, cover the base board and crown molding, texture the walls, paint the walls, and finally, clean up all of our mess. Today we're starting day 2 of the 2nd to the last floor! I'll be spending the morning on stilts: scraping popcorn and sanding ceilings before being able to get down (hopefully by lunch time), when I'll finish by carrying a 20 pound box of timed-dry mud over my head for the next few hours. Hopefully, we'll even have time to paint it before quitting time.-