I have to add more to my post from yesterday because truly the Italians are hilarious:
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/obama-president-italy
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
A World View
Ok, I've been telling you guys this for a long time now: The World LOVES Obama. In my line of business I hear this a lot. Those of you worried about our foreign policy if Obama gets elected -- worry about our foreign policy if Obama doesn't get elected instead.
This example may be a little over the top, but still awesome nonetheless.
This example may be a little over the top, but still awesome nonetheless.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Home Sweet Home
Good news! Although I have been reluctant to write about it for fear of jinxing anything, we have found the perfect apartment. A little smaller than we had originally been looking for but so absolutely worth it in every way. Today I signed the lease -- so all is set and I can official say we have a new home. We'll be moving in shortly after next weekend, and I'll post pictures soon.
As much fun as the lake house has been, I am so excited to be moving to Allentown!
As much fun as the lake house has been, I am so excited to be moving to Allentown!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Awesomeness has a name...
... and it's whoever wrote this blog.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/18/palins-transparency-proposal-already-exists-in-dc/
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/18/palins-transparency-proposal-already-exists-in-dc/
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Washing dishes
My mom was telling me a while ago that when we were little and she would stay home with us all day, she would be rewarded with free time when my Dad came home from work. And when was that? After dinner, while she did the dishes. That's right my Dad would play with us after dinner so she could have alone time while cleaning up the kitchen.
Now don't get me wrong -- I realize this statement reflects very poorly on my Dad. But stop in your tracks. To clarify -- this was my Mom's idea and my Mom's choice. You see, apparently she really likes doing dishes, and finds this very reflective. And this is the point when I realize that no matter how much I become like my mother, I am so not going to be my Mom.
Im not an overly literary person to begin with, but it would not be possible for me to find the words to describe how much I hate doing dishes! When Rob and I first moved in together we had an apartment without a dishwasher. Things did not go over well. See when Rob was little his Mom and Dad worked nights (remember, his Dad "saved lives" by sleeping on the job at a med-tech lab) and they had a housekeeper who doubled as day care. They also had a dishwasher. While I can't speak for what they learned to do when they were little. I know this rule of thumb from the Fussell family. Fill up the dishwasher, then Fill up the sink. Then buy paper plates. I quickly told Rob, at this time when we had been living together for 2 years and there was still no sign of a ring on my finger, "You are sooo lucky you haven't proposed, because if you had you'd be 24 and divorced right now." The logic wasn't really there at that point. I get angry when I was dishes.
See Rob was really calm about this because see he didn't WANT to have dishes in the first place. It wasn't that he wanted me to clean up after him. He didn't. In fact he saw no problem with not ever cleaning up. And he saw no reason why we couldn't just get paper plates and neither of us ever clean up. He also sees no problem with me never cooking and instead buying take-out or pizza every night. In his mind there's no downside to this.
In retrospect, I have only had dishwashers at 2 points in my life -- Senior year of college, and in our last 4 years in Chicago in the apartment that shall always be known as Awesomeville. We're looking for apartments now and a dishwasher shall be a requirement. Meanwhile, I'm living at the cottage. Where there is no dishwasher. And where all the silverware is actual silver. And therefore must be immediately washed and dried. And never soaked. Oh that's going over really well. Really Well.
But I must say -- Rob has learned over the years. I'm not saying that he does the dishes. I'm not even saying that he put his dishes in the dishwasher when we had one. But he has learned to take the dishes out once we're done eating and put them next to the sink. AND somedays I will wake up or finish work to discover that he has put away the clean dishes. I consider all of this step 1 & 2 of my plan. We are well on the way to Mr. Clean.
Now don't get me wrong -- I realize this statement reflects very poorly on my Dad. But stop in your tracks. To clarify -- this was my Mom's idea and my Mom's choice. You see, apparently she really likes doing dishes, and finds this very reflective. And this is the point when I realize that no matter how much I become like my mother, I am so not going to be my Mom.
Im not an overly literary person to begin with, but it would not be possible for me to find the words to describe how much I hate doing dishes! When Rob and I first moved in together we had an apartment without a dishwasher. Things did not go over well. See when Rob was little his Mom and Dad worked nights (remember, his Dad "saved lives" by sleeping on the job at a med-tech lab) and they had a housekeeper who doubled as day care. They also had a dishwasher. While I can't speak for what they learned to do when they were little. I know this rule of thumb from the Fussell family. Fill up the dishwasher, then Fill up the sink. Then buy paper plates. I quickly told Rob, at this time when we had been living together for 2 years and there was still no sign of a ring on my finger, "You are sooo lucky you haven't proposed, because if you had you'd be 24 and divorced right now." The logic wasn't really there at that point. I get angry when I was dishes.
See Rob was really calm about this because see he didn't WANT to have dishes in the first place. It wasn't that he wanted me to clean up after him. He didn't. In fact he saw no problem with not ever cleaning up. And he saw no reason why we couldn't just get paper plates and neither of us ever clean up. He also sees no problem with me never cooking and instead buying take-out or pizza every night. In his mind there's no downside to this.
In retrospect, I have only had dishwashers at 2 points in my life -- Senior year of college, and in our last 4 years in Chicago in the apartment that shall always be known as Awesomeville. We're looking for apartments now and a dishwasher shall be a requirement. Meanwhile, I'm living at the cottage. Where there is no dishwasher. And where all the silverware is actual silver. And therefore must be immediately washed and dried. And never soaked. Oh that's going over really well. Really Well.
But I must say -- Rob has learned over the years. I'm not saying that he does the dishes. I'm not even saying that he put his dishes in the dishwasher when we had one. But he has learned to take the dishes out once we're done eating and put them next to the sink. AND somedays I will wake up or finish work to discover that he has put away the clean dishes. I consider all of this step 1 & 2 of my plan. We are well on the way to Mr. Clean.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Just in Time
All I can say is I moved out of Chicago just in time. We're talking 2 weeks of saving grace here. Can you imagine if Friday night after a long day of work, I got on the train to find this? I so would have quit before Monday morning. If there is one thing that just ruins my day it's having to stand for an hour on a crowded train full of pushy people.
To those of my work colleagues who live on the Brown Line, see ya later suckers.
To those of my work colleagues who live on the Brown Line, see ya later suckers.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Has Karl Rove taken over as McCain's campaign manager?
I'm a little disturbed with the latest resurgence of campaigning tactics that I saw in W's campaign. Anyone else care to join me in this one? While I'm not a supporter of McCain's plans, or really Republicanism in general, I liked McCain as a person. He's a good guy -- honest, upright citizen and such. Despite being somewhat delusional in his beliefs in how to make America more successful, he's an ok guy.
Then the campaign rolled around and my God it was like his own ability to speak was replaced with someone else's words. He opens up his mouth and all I hear is the attitude, screaming and hatred of Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Palin, et. al. It's interesting to me that never once did I hear ANY message delivered by McCain about how he was going to cut back government until the convention. Oh, there were little hints here and there but McCain's message has been mostly issue driven -- how are we going to solve gas prices: Give money back to the people, and all that Jazz. Now the taglines come out.... and it's all coming back to me.
Here is the word that give me chills: Earmarks. Someone please take a look at how Earmarks became McCain vocabulary. No one reads my blog so therefore I cannot shed light on this wonderful topic to millions of deciding Americans, but I would like to direct anyone to a brief description of Earmarks many meanings. To be clear, Earmarks does not have 1 meaning. It does not mean as it does in Sarah Palin and John McCain speak getting money from the government for bad things. It's primary meaning is getting money from the government for things.
So translation, because it sounds bad, you won't hear Sarah Palin or John McCain say "We believe the government shouldn't provide money to states, states should be independent and raise their own money from oil drilling so they can be completely self-sufficient," you will instead hear a whole lot more about how their opponents get hear marks for their constituents. Silly me. I thought that was their job and what I elected them for.
As an after note -- this blog as already to be posted when I saw a Fox News story about how Obama had achieved the most earmarks of any candidate in 2007. A detailed graphic was then provided. Of the 4 earmarks they listed, I remember 2 which were 700 Million for crime prevention and juvenile delinquency programs and 200 million for disease research. What would this world come to if Obama got elected. The mind reels.
Then the campaign rolled around and my God it was like his own ability to speak was replaced with someone else's words. He opens up his mouth and all I hear is the attitude, screaming and hatred of Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Palin, et. al. It's interesting to me that never once did I hear ANY message delivered by McCain about how he was going to cut back government until the convention. Oh, there were little hints here and there but McCain's message has been mostly issue driven -- how are we going to solve gas prices: Give money back to the people, and all that Jazz. Now the taglines come out.... and it's all coming back to me.
Here is the word that give me chills: Earmarks. Someone please take a look at how Earmarks became McCain vocabulary. No one reads my blog so therefore I cannot shed light on this wonderful topic to millions of deciding Americans, but I would like to direct anyone to a brief description of Earmarks many meanings. To be clear, Earmarks does not have 1 meaning. It does not mean as it does in Sarah Palin and John McCain speak getting money from the government for bad things. It's primary meaning is getting money from the government for things.
So translation, because it sounds bad, you won't hear Sarah Palin or John McCain say "We believe the government shouldn't provide money to states, states should be independent and raise their own money from oil drilling so they can be completely self-sufficient," you will instead hear a whole lot more about how their opponents get hear marks for their constituents. Silly me. I thought that was their job and what I elected them for.
As an after note -- this blog as already to be posted when I saw a Fox News story about how Obama had achieved the most earmarks of any candidate in 2007. A detailed graphic was then provided. Of the 4 earmarks they listed, I remember 2 which were 700 Million for crime prevention and juvenile delinquency programs and 200 million for disease research. What would this world come to if Obama got elected. The mind reels.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Outdoor Photo Booth
Some pictures that we took on our anniversary. As you may know Rob and I are fond of self portraits... and these create quite a little chain.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
How did we celebrate our 2 year anniversary?
With Rocks.
Actually we started out by having a picnic on the site of our wedding altar. We had planned to go out to dinner with Grandma but due to some car troubles the day before I had a fair amount of work to do, and had to work a little late. So instead we postponed dinner with Grandma and I hastily arranged a picnic -- sending Rob out to pick up calzone, while I set up a blanket outside, made a salad, and set up the itunes to all Sinatra and Ella songs. Then I locked the front door so Rob had to go around back and see me.
And then Rob took me on an evening rowboat ride on the lake. Then we skipped stones for about an hour. All in all it was pretty darn fantastic.
Actually we started out by having a picnic on the site of our wedding altar. We had planned to go out to dinner with Grandma but due to some car troubles the day before I had a fair amount of work to do, and had to work a little late. So instead we postponed dinner with Grandma and I hastily arranged a picnic -- sending Rob out to pick up calzone, while I set up a blanket outside, made a salad, and set up the itunes to all Sinatra and Ella songs. Then I locked the front door so Rob had to go around back and see me.
And then Rob took me on an evening rowboat ride on the lake. Then we skipped stones for about an hour. All in all it was pretty darn fantastic.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Labor of Love
I've always loved Labor Day -- the perfect mix of summer and fall when even the potential bad weather can be awe-inspiring. For many years now, my family has celebrated Labor Day at the cottage. While not one of our more famous holidays and never one to bring distant family members home to attend, we've generally had a picnic lunch and hung out together. And I'm happy to say... I've just hosted my very first one! In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, I've just hosted my very first family anything. It went swimmingly: beautiful day, lots of food, good company and conversation and even some of my favoritest distant family members making an extension of their visit for the day.
Sadly, this holiday does actually celebrate those who labor -- namely me, and thusly bring up some concerns of mine. I'm still a little tentative about this working from home thing. I was amazed at how well things went this past week. Brilliant concentration and strict scheduling paid off. It's a busy season for us, and truthfully I enjoy my work. But so far I've found the biggest distractions to be the people that I work with -- not Rob the person that is near me while I work, but my actual coworkers who ichat me often with work related stuff, but still distracting. I realize that I took on a lot more responsibility with my recent workload shift, but I haven't felt like I've gotten anything more done.
I head into this next work week feeling slightly less organized and less in control than I would like to be. And what's more I'm going to be starting things on an off foot because my movers are finally delivering our stuff -- tomorrow morning in Buffalo, an hour away. So slight delay of work startage for me. But at least Rob will have lots of clothes again (poor self-sacrificing husband that he is).
Sadly, this holiday does actually celebrate those who labor -- namely me, and thusly bring up some concerns of mine. I'm still a little tentative about this working from home thing. I was amazed at how well things went this past week. Brilliant concentration and strict scheduling paid off. It's a busy season for us, and truthfully I enjoy my work. But so far I've found the biggest distractions to be the people that I work with -- not Rob the person that is near me while I work, but my actual coworkers who ichat me often with work related stuff, but still distracting. I realize that I took on a lot more responsibility with my recent workload shift, but I haven't felt like I've gotten anything more done.
I head into this next work week feeling slightly less organized and less in control than I would like to be. And what's more I'm going to be starting things on an off foot because my movers are finally delivering our stuff -- tomorrow morning in Buffalo, an hour away. So slight delay of work startage for me. But at least Rob will have lots of clothes again (poor self-sacrificing husband that he is).
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