The Christmas Clog and Other Lessons

We had a great Christmas, 4 of 7 kids were here and assorted grandkids. All was going fantastically, a little problem with scheduling with another set of in laws but it was all proceeding as planned, brisket was cooked, turkey was frying outside, potatoes were on the stove. THEN it happened, the drain clogged because someone stupid (ME) put the potato peelings down the garbage disposal. I actually thought that's what it was for??
Well it is for that but we had been having minor clogs since Labor Day, the washing machine, kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and dishwasher all come together in one small drain and then go to the big one (thank goodness the back bathrooms are on another drain!!), I'd always been able to plunge it out before but we'd been using every sink and appliance heavily and then about 4 lb of potato peelings just did it in. Plus cleaning the turkey deep fryer didn't help but I did stop my husband from going and getting a motorized brush of his that he wanted to use on it, but washing it didn't help the drain situation any. No I didn't clean the turkey fryer, it's my son-in-laws and I just hid it behind some shrubbery on the back side of the house, so there you know my secret. Year old peanut oil is not a pleasant sight, we got rid of most of it outside though, well Sissy did.
So there I am plunging and plunging, I thought I had made it clear the drain was clogged but everyone was merrily chatting away in the family room while I plunged in the laundry room. Sissy noticed and went to check the drain to the lagoon, it was fine, she plunged some no dice, turkey is still frying, potatoes are still boiling....... people still chatting......I develop a sore spot from plunging, oldest son notices, he plunges, no dice, everyone else still chatting, oldest son decided to take drain apart and see if we could find plumbing snake, drain breaks in the process and no snake so we used some heavy electrical wire we had laying around. I have 2 large painful blisters and am peeved (insert whatever expletive you desire here) beyond belief. I finally impress on husband that turkey is perhaps done, son mashes potatoes, when he asks for utensils I tell him they are where they should be, I am NOT a happy camper. We do eat......maybe it was the lack of breakfast but then it's all OK, we sit around and have a good time, I decide there are worse things than not being able to do dishes and it will be there after I get back from work in the morning. I go take a nap so I can go to work @ midnight and the girls have done the dishes when I get up!! Sparing the water but they got them done. I bandage my hand and go to work. Husband and I worked on drain the next day, he got it fixed, @ one point we were draining the water into a cooler held above our heads, I try to hold it, it gets off balance and I literally pour 2 gallons of dirty water on basement floor. It's all OK though, I learned my lesson or so I thought, we have a dehumidifier, floor is concrete and will clean. And BTW I was in Wal Mart @ 6 am Friday morning after Christmas when they reopened for our 50% off sale. Those people were NOT HAPPY, they had carts and were determined to fill them, I must say usually people are very polite and even apologetic for getting in your way. It was all fine, no one got ran over but I was glad to leave @ 7 am.
So all is fine till Monday when I have to set up aisles and steel with plastic Christmas totes, hundreds of them @ work, the totes keep coming out of the woodwork, management sends extra boys to help but they keep disappearing. I have to have this done by 10 pm and have everything cleaned up it's 8:30 when I get back from break. I am back in my peeved mood (insert expletive expression). The boys HAVE brought all of it inside and gathered it from other parts of the store but I have like 50 ft of steel to fill, boys are all on lunch now. Miche starts helping me and we get it all out and are ready to clean up by 9 pm, if you read this Miche THANK YOU! The manager who is there comes by and I rant a little about all we have to do yet cleaning up and turning in damaged goods and half of our mess disappears, don't know how or why but it's on a cart and then it's gone! All that high blood pressure wasted, we get through in plenty of time and it looks great.
So when my brother calls yesterday and says he's on his way up and bringing his son-in-law whom we have never met, I don't panic even though I'm on my way to work and we have nothing planned to eat, house isn't dirty but it's not company ready. One guest bed has clean sheets, I make sloppy joe's and tater tots and put my brother in the guest bedroom that isn't the cleanest but he understands.
So what have I learned, SLOW down and enjoy the season, the reason and the people around you. It will all turn out ok. Plus my blisters are almost healed up.
Hope everyone has a HAP HAP HAPPY New Year and today is my grandson Marcus's 13th birthday.

I work @ Wal Mart part time. Have for 6 months now. After having a "desk job" (running my husbands business) for the last few years it's been a culture shock. I had to cashier yesterday @ the front of the store but as they say @ Christmas EVERYONE is a cashier. For awhile the store manager was behind me cashiering, they don't lie, everybody does what they can to keep everything running smoothly. Here in the mid-west we are gearing up for another round of ice and snow, that coupled with the Christmas season made for extremely long lines @ the cash registers but everyone was patient and curteous that checked out @ mine. I don't cashier most days so I may have been slower than some but most of the people left laughing, don't know if that's in the job description or not. I have to work marking down Chrismas items in the early am Friday, trust me I will NOT be standing by the doors when the store opens Friday morning.
My husband was @ home asleep in his recliner when I got home with the three kittens curled up on his lap. Anyway the wild kittens were hissing @ everyone when they came in the house after their mother disappered right before Thanksgiving, now they stand up and beg like the dog for attention. Here's a picture of them asleep in my dads old office chair, Ok Crusoe the survivor isn't asleep, he's begging for food or me to pick him up. My husband keeps saying they are really wild cats, they think they may be dogs and I may be their mother but they aren't sure, they really don't like those big cats outside.
I confess this is for 3 blogs, have to leave for work in less than an hour, haven't had much time to read but I'm still working on The Toss of the Lemon which is an excellent book but just too much going on this time of year. Plus Wal Mart fed us yesterday, good ole holiday meal of bar-b-qued pulled beef and pork and ribs, plus salads and beans and desserts, it was excellent.
I hope all are safe in their traveling this season. Hopefully we won't lose electricity with the storm and those still without get it back soon in the northeast.

My thoughts on Christmas for your pet

In Britain the recession deepens just as it does here and it seems to be effecting the number of abandoned pets also as it does here. Remember your local Animal Shelter and if you can't adopt or aren't so inclined please take a minute and think about donating.
Here's a link to the story about British animals.

Much closer to home there seems to be a lady in Ardmore Oklahoma who cares for 100 stray dogs. Not a big deal you say, the lady lives in a van, has for years, it seems she cares for these animals on her $700 Social Security check and she is 71! She was employed for years, used to work for the humane society in TX but fell on hard times and landed in Oklahoma. A local animal shelter sometimes takes part of the dogs but she is always getting new ones.
Link here.

If you have a pet and are getting it a Christmas present, think twice, go ahead and get the present but maybe a smaller or cheaper one (trust me the pet won't care, he/she/it thinks you hung the moon anyway ) and donate the rest in the form of food or cash to the animal charity of your choice. I think I read that 75% of animal owners give their pet a gift for Christmas and a google search of "Christmas presents for dogs" gives 11 pages of returns.

Lep Cakes or Lebkuchen

I'm almost to tired to blog, made a regular batch with raisins and 1/2 of a batch without raisins, due to my husband thinking raisins are not fit for human consumption. Christmas just isn't Christmas without lep cakes but I hadn't made any for like 3 years I know. My oldest daughter requested them, she says I spoil the dog??
I started out by buying molasses which there were only like 6 jars left in the store which shows it's more popular this time of year, it's on the top shelf too, thanks Mary for the boost if you read this. (Super Center Wal Mart where I work) I reground the ground pecans I put in it because they just weren't fine enough. The nut grinder was my mothers, I have washed it yes but it works soooo much better than any of the new ones. The molasses just didn't seem as dark, we used to have molasses from my great uncle (Peggi's grandpa) I can vaguely remember going over there while they were squeezing the cane. Not sure if they did it with a something motorized or a mule but he grew the cane. They lived in a log cabin by a creek and the only way to reach it was over a footbridge or maybe that was the backyard, an artesian spring ran water through the kitchen sink all the time which was really cool. They moved "up the hill" to a more modern house later but the log cabin was like a child's paradise, I'm sure the adults didn't view it that way however. Anyway this sorghum isn't like what we used to have. I naturally started out with too small a bowl and had to get the biggest aluminum bowl I own. Mom used to make lep cakes on the kitchen table in a granite ware dishpan and I would stir. BTW this recipe isn't for you if you don't have some muscle. It says add flour but not too stiff. You notice there aren't any baking directions? I think 15 min @ 350 and then another 15 or 20 @ 300 is good, this made 3 9x13 pans and actually if I'd had them the next size larger would be good, you'll have to pat it out with your hands. 3/4 of a 5 lb sack of flour is what I added but that might be too much. Recipe reads if you can't read it....
1 pt. each mollasses, shortening, sugar, raisins, nuts, sour milk with 2 T soda, 1 t baking pow. 1 t salt, 1 t. nutmeg, 1 t cloves, 1 t cinn, 1 t allspice, Flour, but not too stiff. Recipe was copied by me when I was 20 and made my mom a recipe book out of her old old passed down recipe cards and I needed practice typing for college, like before computers if you can imagine? And yes I do have a harvest gold stove and range hood, I'm getting a black refrigerator and stove just as soon as these quit, already have the dishwasher.
Anyway I didn't add as much cloves and nutmeg as it called for and increased the cinnamon and allspice and the salt because that's the way everyone likes things, oh yeah, I had part of a box of raisins left so it probably had like 3 C of raisins in it instead of 2, and for shortening I used imperial margarine melted. If you notice I don't follow recipes very well? My mom was an excellent cook but my dad said he would like it if things just turned out the same twice because she was the queen of improvisation. Sometimes things didn't turn out but when they did it was heaven.
The icing is a simple powdered sugar icing, I'm like pretty sure Mom didn't put butter in hers or I didn't because I usually ended up being galley slave for these operations but I like a little butter in it. I melted it and then used like 3/4 of a bag of powdered sugar for 3 pans of cakes. Milk and vanilla finished the recipe till it was pourable but not a glaze, just a thin icing. For some reason these HAVE to have sprinkles on them like angel food cake? but I was out of red sprinkles so I added red food coloring to sugar, the green sprinkles are the cakes without raisins.
Don't tell anyone but I cut the edges off and am taking them to work tomorrow for the Christmas dinner. We don't have to bring anything and they might get eaten right away that way. They used to go in a granite ware refrigerator pan but have gone in Tupperware for years although it might be an antique by now too? We usually used waxed paper to separate the layers and they won't stick after drying a bit but I had no waxed paper, I had LOTS of saran wrap though so that works.
BTW I've had a piece of cheese and these today to eat. Not low calorie and the longer they sit the better, I've been obsessing about making them but procrastinated till the last minute. OCD and avoidant personality disorder make me a miserable person obsessing but then procrastinating quite a bit??!!
Enjoy!

Rod Blagojevich Nude Painting?

Being from Florence (population 75 last time I counted) my views are very midwestern but I'm probably more liberal than most in that I did a nude painting once, hung it on the wall of my bedroom, someone was in there helping my then husband move a heavy piece of furniture and asked if that was me. I promptly took it off the wall. It wasn't me, it was more Rubenesque by far, chubby if I spelled it wrong, and blonde to boot which I am obviously NOT.
Back to the story, seems this guy Bruce Elliot did a painting of Sarah Palin earlier to hang in his wife's bar. A nude painting. Bruce decided to do a nude governor series for the Old Town Ale House which is in Chicago the Illinois governor was the next logical choice. Blagojevich being arrested and up on corruption charges just made the painting have a slightly different subject matter.
This is a family blog so we won't go into detail but suffice to say it has something to do with a rubber glove, read the rest here.
What do I think? Art is art but I was mystified by the whole Frieda Kahlo thing so my midwestern upbringing must be popping up again? And as far as being in a bar drinking staring @ a nude picture of Rod? Just doesn't seem to be what would make a happy drunk but...........

Most Searched Terms for 2008

According to Google here they are, now can I get them all in a blog? In the description, will they change in a month? You betcha!!

Fastest Rising Global Search Terms

1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers

News December 19, 2008

Well it seems that the government is using part of the bailout money for the automakers. Cnn story here.
I was opposed to a full fledged bailout because I didn't think it would work and although I am not pro union or anti union I think the union should have given some concessions, goodness knows the rest of us have. On the other hand if it's an orderly bankruptcy later on and something good comes out of it, it sounds like a good idea?
Ford evidently rejected the offering, link here. They do evidently want a 11 billion dollar line of credit which should keep even ford running I would think? Makes me proud of the old f-150 I have sitting by the house. Guess what I will buy if we EVER dig out of our own personal economic crisis? Since I'm mad at GM and my husband is like phobic about Chrysler it looks like it's either a ford or a toyota tundra pickup. On a side note 90% of tundras were owned by pushy drivers in my estimation when they first came out. Sorry Bocko Dave, you weren't one of em.

The remains that were found close to Caylee's granparents home have been identified as hers. Cnn link.

The weather is nasty period. Snow in Las Vegas and Malibu, Chicago residents told not to drive, 5 inches in NYC, in Boston state workers told to stay home. Links to all these stories here. Cnn story. Here in Florence it's cold, 33 degrees, scuse me 29 degrees, the wind gusted to like 45 mph here earlier today. Garbage cans blew over and makeshift dog house (dog crate with blankets and a tarp covering it and blankets inside) sort of came apart. Gimme a break, dogs have a nice cozy log cabin with straw in it if they get cold but they prefer to stay by the house. Like touching it. Link to NOAA here, type in your city and state and go.....

The electricity went out here last night, the elec company (como) was out here in less than an hour I think, got turned back on and was on like 15 minutes and then went off again. It started going out when it rains? Wasn't really icy last night but was hovering around freezing. Finally about 10:30 it came back on for good. I got a window in my OLD OLD pickup so I can drive it to work so no excuses now for not going to work but it's supposed to be sort of nasty next Tuesday too. My CTS will slide I found out Monday night, someone was on my tail and I hit the turn to our state road too fast. No biggie, it corrected really fast but if the pickup goes in the ditch it's got so many boo boos it really doesn't matter.

Craigslist for service?

On Change.org there is a metaphorical reference to a "craiglist for service". One of the founders of Craigslist has something to say about it.
Mr. Newman recommends going to Change.org to look @ healthcare and what we can do.
Here's the link to the total post.

On a side note my husband was stuck on I-44 in NE Oklahoma this morning, seems two trucks had jackknifed in front of him. All was OK, one truck drove away. Roads are like white outside so I have to go clean off windshield and ATTEMPT to make it to work 25 mi away, forecast tomorrow is for freezing rain, oh joy.

What is Middle Aged

Wikipedia definition of Middle Aged:

According to Collins Dictionary, this is "... usually considered to occur approximately between the ages of 40 and 60".

The OED gives a similar definition but with a later start point "... the period between youth and old age, about 45 to 60".

The US Census lists middle age as including both the age categories 35 to 44 and 45 to 54, while Erik Erikson sees it ending a little later and defines middle adulthood as between 40 and 65.

We won't go into what brought on this discussion but I'm still pretty safe except by the census bureaus young definition.

Mid Missouri and Midwest in for a massive temperature drop!

UPDATE: The temperature did drop from 63 @ 2 pm to 38 @ 3 pm. Stuff falling from the sky looks sort of white too. Time to do things that require electricity, I did go get kerosene.

This from the National Weather service.

FINALLY...A DRASTIC DROP IN TEMPERATURES
WILL OCCUR ONCE THE
FRONT PASSES THROUGH ANY PARTICULAR
LOCATION TONIGHT. AS A
MATTER OF FACT...
A ONE HOUR TEMPERATURE DROPS OF
25 TO 35 DEGREES
CAN NOT BE RULED OUT.
LINK

I don't think the forecasters are smoking anything wacky so it should be an interesting evening. It's 65 degrees here now, the wind is gusting up to 45 mph and it's just cloudy, by this evening we are supposed to have freezing rain changing to sleet and snow, 1/4 inch of ice possible with up to 1 inch of snow and sleet on top of it. Of course last winters ice storm took care of most of the weak branches on trees but I know the temp drop can cause problems of it's own.

So it's a holly jolly pre Christmas season. Think I will sweep the floor (the kittens have discovered what fun it is to drag stuff out of trash cans), take out the trash, and head to town after some kerosene for the heater after I make sure it's in the basement. Oh what fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight!!!!!! Oh and husband is unloading in Oklahoma City tonight and then going to try to make it home, if it's too bad he's just heading up I-44 and trying to go pick up the next load in IL. I remember MS, nothing to worry about but weak tornadoes and hurricanes with bigger tornadoes. OK flooding but that wasn't like ICE.

Fruitcake for the Masses

I used to make a fruitcake recipe that almost everyone would eat. I haven't made it for years, we have been living in a motor home in MS for a couple years and I forgot last year and am working and blogging this year but thought I would share in case anyone wanted to try it. Boiling or cooking the fruit in the microwave really helps, this will probably be an all day project but you will leave the fruit to cool so you can do other things.
No recipe, find one oneline that has fruit and flour in it, I prefer one that looks like it will come out about 1/3 cake and 2/3 fruit. You'll need raisins, (if you want them, I made with and without) @ least a big can of cherries, a big can of pineapple maybe 2 if you like pineapple, 2 oranges or more and a couple grapefruit, I used to make LARGE quantities of these but this is for one or two large cakes. Peel the oranges and grapefruit, remove as much of the white stuff inside peels as possible and cut peel into slivers, juice the fruit and add whiskey and lots of sugar and boil SEPARATELY or cook till tender and candied. I used to do this on the stove, the microwave is GREAT for doing this, just watch so the mess doesn't boil over in it. How much whiskey? You'll probably have to add more liquid (whiskey) to get the fruit candied so I'd say 1/2 C or 1/4 to start with for the peel, more for the fruit. Do the same for a can of cherries and a can of pineapple, probably adding like 1/2 as much sugar as you have fruit or live a little and dump the sugar on! After you boil your first peel or fruit you will get the hang of it. My husband likes things SWEET so I used lots of sugar. If you are using raisins soak them in whiskey and add about as much sugar as you have raisins and cook down, I don't think I actually "candied" them. Let your fruits and peels cool and make the cake, your candied fruit will be more moist than storebought to say the least so adjust the amount of liquid you use acordingly, reduce by 1/4 if you drain your fruit to 3/4 if you don't drain you fruit, if you want drain the fruit and use that liquid for pouring over cake later thinned down with a bit of whiskey or use it in the cake if it calls for it. Make sure it's done but not like crispy, let cool, maybe dab on a bit of brandy or whiskey while cooling, a little more after it's cooled, store in a cool room and keep dumping on the whiskey, maybe adding sugar to it. I usually make one smaller cake and eat the first piece after it's cooled!!

Good NEWS for once from Nigeria!

Three young people were awarded scholarships for their acts of bravery and determination in Nigeria. With all the talk of our economy, the ice storm in the NE and the coming one in the midwest, and Palin's church burning here's a bit of cheer and hope for the world.

Original article here: Punching.com interesting articles below this one on the page also. Obama like hope for Nigeria is the title of one.

Outtakes from the article:
According to the Chief executive officer, Dufil Prima Foods Plc, Mr. Deepak Singhal, the winners were given the awards for their outstanding acts of bravery and courage in the face of disability and illness.
According to him, the first prize winner, Bala, saved his baby sister from a raging inferno that gutted their house in Kano. Ayodele’s heroic act was similar to Bala’s, as she rescued her brother that would have been crushed to untimely death by a vehicle. According to the story, a car had lost control and almost ran over the baby boy before Ayodele’s risky intervention (she ran into the road and snatched him up).
Omalade the third youth rescued himself from the grip of being stigmatized and poverty. Denied education by his parents, Omolade had to take his future in his hands by taking to shoe-making. Nobody taught him. He just fell on his talent and flair for shoe making. He started by mending shoes for neighbours and family members. In spite of all the odds, the crippled entrepreneur now has four apprentices working for him.
Endquote:

Massive inequality, we have learned, isn't the best way to run an economy after all.

I've been poor, eating beans and biscuits poor, can't work because I don't have a second car poor and the kids daddy wasn't a reliable babysitter poor. I have a friend (she did the right thing, college, married an up and coming guy) that couldn't have kids, tried every treatment known to man and of course all I could ever talk about were my kids. They were like most of my life and I felt bad for my friend. She did adopt a little girl who is cute and adorable eventually.

So I can understand this woman's plight, that said, flying in yoga instructors etc. to a remote location in ID? That seems silly and just beyond the point of being rich.

Read the article here to see what I'm spouting about this morning before I go to work. (Don't wanna go, can you tell?)

Father in Hiding because of Illinois Governors Scandal

Of course the father is Rahm Emanuel, democraticunderground story here and the story from The Chicago Sun Times here. ABC has been applauded as being fair by the right and the left and their story is here. Ok I heard abc was fair on a right wing radio show which I listen to so I can be upset but also so I won't start leaning WAY far left.

It does say he did manage to sneak out of his home. I sell on ebay or have and really don't want people to know exactly where I live although they could figure it out if they tried hard enough, that's why the police officer lives next door, LOL. Whoever let Mr. Emanuels address out should be ashamed. Death threats?? Have we all gone nuts?

News and musings, December 12, 2008

Well the automakers aren't going to get bailed out by Congress, United Autoworkers Union wouldn't take any pay cuts. Not a good deal. I know I was opposed to the bailout but if congress wanted to do it with stipulations maybe just maybe I thought it would force Chrysler and GM to evolve into workable auto manufacturing entities again. No dice it seems?
Auto bailout goes down in flames.

It seems Patricia Blagojevich isn't without blame in the whole mess with the Illinois Governor.
Illiniois first lady scrutinized before husbands arrest.

Bernard Madoff founder and president of a New York firm that invested funds for wealthy individuals, hedge funds and other institutions, was charged with operating what he told employees was a long-running $50 billion Ponzi scheme in what may be one of the largest frauds in history.
Madoff charged in $50B Ponzi scheme.

What do all three of these above news articles have in common? Greed plain and simple. I know it's oversimplification but when I was growing up greed was putting as much jelly on your bread as was humanly possible. Capitalism in this country has turned into greed. I am totally for a honest wage for honest work, a honest wage doesn't entail $78 an hour with benefits for gluing carpet in a car. The American consumers have been paying these prices for years riding on our bubble which I'm afraid was one huge Ponzi scheme or pyramid type scheme. Which I believe is not Biblical but that is neither here nor there. Consumers will pay the price now but hopefully we will realize what is fair compensation and it will be lauded more than being able to buy a McMansion in the future.

I know not everyone HAS to work @ Starbucks and it's not a viable option anymore with all the store closing but the book How Starbucks Saved My Life should be required reading in high schools colleges and unemployment lines. It's by Michael Gill and is available here on Amazon. I loaned my copy out but everyone should read it, it just might make you a better worker whether you have a low end or high end job or own your own business. Basically it's how one man realized that there is worth in work beyond monetary compensation but it's also about how he had treated his employees and what type of boss he was which has become typical of so many business'es around the country I'm afraid.

(Blathering drivel below)
I really must clean house and my dreaded desk which has been accumulating things to be filed for like a month now, I wasn't going to blog but the temptation was too great, you know nothing will change if you do everything the same which is true only the house gets dirtier if I spend all day @ the computer. I got up in one of my early morning ramblings and found snow on the ground?!! It's mostly gone now, supposed to be 50 today but snow and ice for 3 days next week, the 3 days I have to work in the week. Hopefully they are wrong. A lady @ work had her husband bring her into work the day it got bad last week and as my husband was away from home I told him that wasn't fair I had to drive in it, he's never taken me anywhere like work and only to the dr if I was REALLY sick and couldn't drive. Then I was thinking about some of the rides I've taken with my husband int he snow and decided maybe it was best I drive! He's a professional driver but sometimes that seems a little scary on the snow! LOL

Caylee's remains found?

I had hoped against hope that the little girl was alive, I'd read somewhere that they found remains in a canal, now this article says that a childs remains were found not far from Caylee's grandparents.

I just read more and this page from channel 6 has loads of links to all of the videos etc. if you can stomach it. Personally I just read the article.

Voter fraud, snow in New Orleans?, $4 Starbucks vs. Mc Donalds

Two articles about voting machine problems and open source software. Seems that Diebold who makes atms which function flawlessly make the voting machines with a glitch that makes them not count some votes. Basically from what I've read you have to purge the first count, count 0 and then it will work (overly simplified explanation). BUT this information wasn't included in the manual in time or wasn't followed.

CA Diebold Voter Failure

Brad Blog

In other unrelated news snow fell in New Orleans, my husband is in McAllen TX and he had the heater running last night so it's no stretch of the imagination to see how it could snow in New Orleans.

Rare Snow Blankets South Louisiana

and Houston

Rare Snow Warms Houston Hearts

Hey all you hurricane relief people down there!!! Thought you left the snow up NORTH didn't you?? LOL

Mc Donalds is putting up billboards in Seattle close to Starbucks headquarters that say Four Bucks is Dumb for expresso. Being a coffee gourmet sort of I haven't tried either one lately, I like my 4 T of Maxwell House French Roast and my 1T of Sams Club French Roast to a pot. Not nearly as pricey as some of the other small bag coffees you get in the store but still much better than custom roast or any generic brand.

Mc Donals versus Starbucks

26 things that are good about the BAD economy

Snow here and tired tired.
Ran across this article
as an example here are two of the things that might not be so bad:
26 not so bad things about the bad economy

17. Can stop worrying about what bling is.

18. You just might possibly finally lose weight.

Read the rest, will give you a laugh instead of listening to the Illinois Governors potty mouth.

How to Understand Kashmir and Survive the Jihadis: An Interview with Sir Salman Rushdie

Link to a VERY interesting story here.

If you know what a fatwa is or a Jihadi and know who Salman Rushdie is you need to read this article. If you don't know any of these things you REALLY need to read this article. If you can wade through it that is, VERY interesting. Doesn't tell you how to save money @ the grocery store but I do admire a man who goes about with an escort on crutches when his life has been threatened repeatedly by a rather large group of fanatics and the hotel clerk is afraid to mention his name aloud.

Memories and Ramblings

I came home from work Thanksgiving eve to find the turkey breast done in the slow cooker thanks to my daughter, my nephew and youngest stepson were also here. We aren't talking teenagers here, stepson was the youngest and he is 25. We had a really good talk about family etc., my stepson echoed most of our thoughts in that his childhood wasn't idyllic when he was living it, his stepmother was known for sneak attacks for one thing, catching him doing something wrong and punishing immediately, imagine the horror!! LOL But after being around others who came from TRULY dysfunctional homes or abusive situations we all realized how very lucky our lives had been. We all sat around recalling memories and analyzing the latest member of the family we thought needed analyzing.

This isn't a sales pitch but it involves a website for ads something like craigslist. It's the brainchild of my cousin with embellishments by me. MOADS4U came about because we were tired of being pushed around by Ebay and wanted something for locals and beyond. Right now it's a little rough but it does work. Collectively we have 20 years of computer and web experience. My cousin is the web person, I'm more of an OS hobby person, I think networking is fun? We've been on ebay for 6 years, been power sellers, I want my feedback on my tombstone, that's how good it is.

What does this have to do with family (I can sense the stifled yawns right now)? My cousin and I have been friends for all of our lives, best friends. We never had to think about it, we always had a best friend. She had a sister who was quite a bit younger and we both had older brothers but we were always best friends. We aren't even first cousins, her mother and my father were first half cousins (and were always there for each other, all of the old diaries from the 30s and 40s have the two families getting together around the wood stove playing board games and then playing in the snow or that's how it seems). On the site MOADS4U the top pictures are her grandpa, a old bus or car, a bank building which was the office where we both worked for awhile (it was the office for my husbands trucking company then), her mother as a girl (my surrogate mother when I needed one), and a creek which was known as Uncle Sam's (not the guy on the poster, Uncle Sam White who used to own it). The creek was a magical place with a rope to swing off of, a log to sit in the water on or dive off of till the next flood washed it away, a gravel bar for fires and wiener roasts. Back in the 70s before pollution or keeping babies away from life was thought of I took my oldest daughter swimming there when she was only 5 months old, she LOVED it and was surrounded by all the town kids who had come down to the swimming hole to cool off. The water ran through miles of woods and fields, it wasn't chlorinated but if it had rained that summer it was fairly clean. We've taken her children there, they think it's great but REALLY like the pool. LOL

We started the website together after doing websites for many people around the country. We share that and a view (my cousin lives next door, down the road if you will) dogs (my dog races their car when they come home and their dog is always here when I come home) and sometimes vehicles. Our lives have paralleled with first marriages that were "forever" to guys who were friends and had some drug problems shall we say. We both grew tired of the lying and just general craziness being married to those two brought. We both ended up getting divorced although hers was more drawn out and mine was faster, she had 3 kids, I had two, we acquired 2 and 5 stepchildren with our second marriages. We were remarried within 2 weeks of each other to a cop and a truck driver although they are so much more than that. Her cop is a gunsmith @ heart and my truck driver is a farmer @ heart (BTW they aren't perfect but we don't wonder what they are up to most of the time). Our children whether natural or step have done us proud which is probably a mid western term but that's how it is.

All of this talk of family the other night (we stayed up till 2 am, STUPID when we had to get up @ 7 am and start cooking and go to the train station) reminded me of our childhoods and while not totally idyllic by today's standards they were almost so. We rode horses and rode horses, sometimes with saddles, more often not, one Indian Pony we could ride without a bridle and jump on him from behind. We broke a pony for the neighbor and it ended up rolling over on me, luckily it didn't weigh hardly anything. We took my pony in an old abandoned log cabin and then discovered there was a cellar that wasn't too sturdy under the pony, all was well and good but that was probably the stupidest thing we did. We swam with the horses and on occasion my pony would chase us, she wasn't known for her pleasant temperament (biting, chasing, and rearing were more here style than nuzzling) (we probably should have been killed @ some point from being thrown off a horse but we figured out how to roll in a ball and relax and could be tossed with the best).

We climbed every roof on the farm except where our parents could see us climbed to the peak, slid down, and then jumped off, luckily it was only like 10 ft to soft grass but it still wasn't smart (all the falling or being bucked off of horses came in handy probably). We explored another abandoned house in the woods (was actually my great aunts but I didn't know it @ the time), my cousin had a broken arm and we took the nails out of the window panes and put the panes of glass in when we climbed out then they promptly fell out and broke. The house was full of awakening black snakes and others in the spring which gave us both a horrible lifelong fear of snakes, the walls had been insulated with mud and straw and I guess it was a good place for them to hibernate. We ran to a door which turned out to be a cellar with steps going to nowhere but a pool of water and bones from animals that had fell in the cellar window and not been able to get out. SPOOKY!! LOL especially for 11 or 12 years old! Where were our parents? Our mothers were doing something in the house with their bouffant hairdos and flowery dresses or Capri's, as long as we didn't have to go to the doctor when we got back and our clothes weren't in tatters we were OK as long as we were GONE and we would just show up for meals. Our fathers were in my dads mechanics shop in overalls (our dads were both big men, not tall but both dark and burly, spoiled us but we did what they said when they said it) working on something or another or exchanging stories with Sunday loafers around a wood stove with bottles of pop in glass bottles, sometimes we played in the shop, whirled each other around with an automotive belt while the other one was on a mechanics stool with wheels and then LET GO! We grew up with tales of how the moon would spill it's magic out if a quarter moon was tipped or how the Spaniards had abandoned some treasure long long ago. The first one nobody really believed the second one no one ever found the treasure and I think it's long gone if it ever was there, a form of that story exists almost everywhere. We had annual beginning of summer and end of summer cookouts @ the creek with swimming parties where our parents actually would get wet and quit fussing about all the work they had to do. When my husband and I were cleaning out 50 year old hay etc. out of the barn last winter we found the trivet device my dad had made for those cookouts (actually he made it for cooking while hunting I think but my mom put a stop to the 26 foxhounds he had @ one time). Our cookouts were kool-aid, fried potatoes always and hamburgers or fried eggs and they always tasted GREAT. We went exploring @ my cousins farm also to old abandoned mines filled with water that we threw rocks in and speculated on their depth and whether their were bodies in there, exotic names like the Ouchita, signs of mans work in the woods abandoned and grown over. We got older and rode in her brothers old cars and wondered which of his friends might be boyfriend material. Then marriages and children came, working and hoping and surviving, now we are both grandmothers.

I'm hopefully able to look back with fondness and ahead with zest although the zest is hard to conjure up some mornings,we are not OLD yet though. My cousin would abhor the thought as she is only a year younger, OK a year and 43 days, but we do have a treasure trove of memories and history. Actually our parents were both older than normal for the 50s and 60s so we are of an age when we remember our parents best. I don't think we are totally unique in our relationship but life has given us each someone to lean on and remember with (what brought this on was trying to remember if we cleaned Aunt Betty's house for her one day and WHY we cleaned Aunt Betty's house, which used to be Uncle Oscars and had a huge screened in porch, was once a log cabin and was by a creek, I thought I can ask Peggi if she remembers!). I look on our website as a modern day quilt made by two cousins, friends, sisters, however you want to qualify our relationship. A few stitches here, a blog there, a scrap of fabric here, a new ad there..... and life goes on.

My daily take on Politics

I used to be a Republican. I have a stepson who served @ the first of the Iraq war in the gulf and luckily was stateside till he got out last year. I have several cousins who are or have been over there. I support them fully. Having said that I don't think this article is too far off of it's mark.
Why America Feels Like it's Been Ruled by a Foreign Occupier.
This excerpt is a bit extreme in it's outlook but it's not too far off the mark.
QUOTE:
Propaganda Tuned Up

Bush took the stance of a foreign occupier in his governance- rational argument would never win the minds and hearts of the masses so crude propaganda such as Fox News was trotted out to scare and paralyze America into obedience. The same quest for obedience through misinformation and crude scare tactics are the same you see in the totalitarian governments from South America to Asia that have brought nothing but misery to their own people and the world at large.
UNQUOTE:

I hope everyone with an IQ over 100 knows to question ALL the newscasts and gather facts. I have become a news junkie along with millions of other Americans, I have CNN, Drudge Report (Republican), Huffingtonpost (leaning Democrat), and democraticunderground (obvious) on my browser tabs most of the time, and then I DO go to Fox News to see what their take on it all is. Others I'm sure just go to one source if they pay any attention @ all

I was looking at the news the other day and thinking how it would have upset my father if he had been alive now. USA in recession possibly depression, Iceland? in Revolt, not to mention how he would have felt about 911. If you had forecast these headlines 10 years ago no one would have believed them, much less perhaps trillions in bailout monies and stimulus packages. At that time we were more worried about the definition of what Clinton did with Monica?

I admit I've been reading President Elect Obama's book the Audacity of Hope. In it he says in 1980 CEO's on the average made 42 times what their average employee made, in 2004 it was 262 TIMES what their average employee made. I think I've got the quote right. That and unbridled speculation and unregulated banking and the trickle down effect (yeah right, it trickled down but it wasn't money), have done serious damage to our economy. You say what do I care what a CEO makes? They should be rewarded for doing a good job not a mediocre job or a so so job, if it's a publicly traded company it affects the stock market etc. which in turn affects pension plans and investments which affect how much money people have to spend on the things we make or sell to earn our food.

Where am I going with all this? Don't listen to one news source only. Don't just go to your preferred parties website. Don't listen to just a select group of people. Diversify your knowledge, it's our mess and it's up to everyone of us to become well informed thinking individuals. Yes we elected them all but the platform MOST of them put out was that they would LISTEN to the people. Have something worth saying to them.

My daily take on Politics

I used to be a Republican. I have a stepson who served @ the first of the Iraq war in the gulf and luckily was stateside till he got out last year. I have several cousins who are or have been over there. I support them fully. Having said that I don't think this article is too far off of it's mark.
Why America Feels Like it's Been Ruled by a Foreign Occupier.
This excerpt is a bit extreme in it's outlook but it's not too far off the mark.
QUOTE:
Propaganda Tuned Up

Bush took the stance of a foreign occupier in his governance- rational argument would never win the minds and hearts of the masses so crude propaganda such as Fox News was trotted out to scare and paralyze America into obedience. The same quest for obedience through misinformation and crude scare tactics are the same you see in the totalitarian governments from South America to Asia that have brought nothing but misery to their own people and the world at large.
UNQUOTE:

I hope everyone with an IQ over 100 knows to question ALL the newscasts and gather facts. I have become a news junkie along with millions of other Americans, I have CNN, Drudge Report (Republican), Huffingtonpost (leaning Democrat), and democraticunderground (obvious) on my browser tabs most of the time, and then I DO go to Fox News to see what their take on it all is. Others I'm sure just go to one source if they pay any attention @ all

I was looking at the news the other day and thinking how it would have upset my father if he had been alive now. USA in recession possibly depression, Iceland? in Revolt, not to mention how he would have felt about 911. If you had forecast these headlines 10 years ago no one would have believed them, much less perhaps trillions in bailout monies and stimulus packages. At that time we were more worried about the definition of what Clinton did with Monica?

I admit I've been reading President Elect Obama's book the Audacity of Hope. In it he says in 1980 CEO's on the average made 42 times what their average employee made, in 2004 it was 262 TIMES what their average employee made. I think I've got the quote right. That and unbridled speculation and unregulated banking and the trickle down effect (yeah right, it trickled down but it wasn't money), have done serious damage to our economy. You say what do I care what a CEO makes? They should be rewarded for doing a good job not a mediocre job or a so so job, if it's a publicly traded company it affects the stock market etc. which in turn affects pension plans and investments which affect how much money people have to spend on the things we make or sell to earn our food.

Where am I going with all this? Don't listen to one news source only. Don't just go to your preferred parties website. Don't listen to just a select group of people. Diversify your knowledge, it's our mess and it's up to everyone of us to become well informed thinking individuals. Yes we elected them all but the platform MOST of them put out was that they would LISTEN to the people. Have something worth saying to them.

Al Gore and Collapse of Civilization?

I never thought I'd be quoting an article with Al Gore in it, there is no love lost between us, I won't go into global warming, I do believe it's an imperative that we cut back on emissions and oil use.
Mr. Gore quotes Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse which I've read and found VERY interesting.
Article is HERE.

GM Bailout and Dow down 444.99 points

Should we bail out GM and the other two of the so called big 3? I feel for all of the employees and retirees, I feel for myself because I have a feeling a wheel mfg. plant here in town will go down thus affecting the local economy (plus flooding the job seekers whom would like MY "other" job such as it is). It would create a huge economic downturn to add to the already poor economy see above, dow keeps going down, down, down. My husband who has his own truck and delivers food all over the US might even be affected because people just won't be able to afford as much fresh produce and meat which is what he hauls. I also have a distant cousin that works for Chrysler as an engineer and is still keeping his job although there have been cuts.

On the other hand I don't make much more than minimum wage, partly because I was VERY sick a couple years ago and didn't know how well I could work and the job market was already going bad in June, two years ago I could charge double what I'm making now and that was just for freelancing!! I hear about these union workers who glue carpet on the floor of a car and get $78 an hour and I want to save them? Then I hear about the ceo's of the automakers flying in 3 separate private jets to BEG for money from Washington? That shows me and the rest of the country that they will just use the money to continue in the same manner. When my husband got back into trucking and diesel went up up up the government didn't step in and save all the small trucking companies or any of them if I recall. It was called capitalism and free market, even though the big trucking companies had bought diesel reserves @ much lower prices when they saw what was happening and kept the rates low to cut the competition out. Plus with the reports on how other car makers such as Nissan have lost between 25% and 33% of their sales when they have the fuel efficient models it makes me wonder HOW the Cadillac Escalade (as much as I love em) and other big 3 products are going to sell enough to pull the big 3 out WITH bailout money?

So what's my opinion, not that it matters? It may be painful, VERY painful but let them fail. After the AIG (bail out insurance??, the people who's business is to make sure your life is miserable? I don't think SO) fiasco and no to little accountability for the banks that have received the bailout money it's time to stop the drain. This means I have a caddy and a ford that I may not be able to get parts for and I'm not sure what happens to my extended warranty but it also means maybe the big 3 automakers can come up with another option that may involve bankruptcy or just going under.

On a side note some are saying shut down Wall Street till January 2, 2009, might not be a bad idea? Shut it down! Now!.

Other news sources:
CNN
Drudge Report
Democratic Underground

Found this later: No need for bailout, say diners near thriving car plant, so I'm not all wet?
Ok, I'll quit editing this but here's a link to the CEO's and their jets: Big 3 and their jets, slideshow!