Friday, September 29, 2006

I am ashamed.....

to say I am an American.

Now before you start flame throwing, hear me out....

My dad is part of the Greatest Generation. He was a sailor in WWII, and his entire generation sacraficed a lot to put an end to the reign of a tyrant.

Yesterday my government (well, not really, since my vote seemed to count for naught), decided it is ok to torture people to get information.

Now here's the deal....the only "information" you get when you torture someone is whatever they think you want to hear. Any one of us under the right situation will say ANYTHING, true or not, to make the pain stop.

So, now we're going to make this all nice and legal so there won't be any war crimes trials when all of this is over....we've added a new "legal" twist to this...too bad Hitler didn't think to do that before the war, it would have saved a lot of his guys the legal hassels after the war.....

Oh yes, and just why do we think the "enemy" will have any compunctions about torturing any of our soldiers if they get the chance? Haven't we seen enough heads cut off on grainy video feeds to know they will not think twice about returning the favor to us?

We have seeming learned nothing......it must be true......"we have met the enemy and he is us".....

yes, I'm ashamed today to be an American

Monday, September 25, 2006

OK, one person can.....


change the date that is. My daughter and her fiance have changed the date to August 18, 2007.....seems he has a cousin that is getting married August 4, and they are trying to spare his family 2 weekends of back to back weddings.....nice kids!

And don't you love this picture of them? They are adorable together.

So, that is my "proud mom" brag for today!!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

what's that ringing sound?

ok....its the distant sound of wedding bells!

my daugher called to tell us that the young man she has been dating for months asked her to marry him and she said yes.


hmmmmm, do I look like a "mother in law" to you......

I know there will be LOTS of sewing to do here for this affair....lets see, bride's dress, maid of honor dress, bride's maid dresses x 2, flower girl....oh yeah, and I'll probably have to come up with something for me to wear.....WOW!!

I'm extremely glad that we have done such a great job teaching her how to do a long range plan for a big project.....she's already writing lists (that's my girl!!!)....which will make it much easier for all involved

OK, no one (and I do mean NO ONE!) is allowed to schedule anything for the two weeks around August 11, 2007

Saturday, September 16, 2006

NUTS!??



I clipped this picture out of our local newspaper.

Its amazing how we have no issue with picking up a little wild animal to have it cared for but a good number of us won't do the same for a child.....{sigh}

Anyway, it is a cute picture of the squirrel, and my lab wants me to get her one with a broken leg so she has a chance to actually catch it (those in the neighborhood with 4 good legs are just too quick for her!)

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Fall's coming....

I know that anyone that can read a calendar knows that, but you can feel it in the air here.

Yesterday we mowed the lawn in the back yard and planted some grass seed in the bare spots that had developed back there earlier in the summer.

While the mowing was going on, I was cutting up some of the branches of the lilac bush we had taken out.

It was warm, but not like summer warm...something cooler about the air even tho' the sun feels warm.

At the end of the working we could sit on the porch and talk about the projects we need to do next like replacing some of the trim on the tool shed and getting a coat of paint on it before the snow season starts. I'll probably have to repaint the door on the storage shed too....

Its nice tho to be able to work outside without fear of sunstroke....

I like fall. I know its the end of summer, but it has always felt like a beginning too, and I think that may have to do with our training as children....the fall was the beginning of school. This year fall is the beginning of new projects too.

So, I'm watching now for the leaves to start falling off the trees....

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

The reward of hard work.....

sometimes is getting paid to do it!

I spent several hours yesterday with my accounting client, and will have to spend some time at home working on some things for him.....for instance, the August bank statement needs my attention.

Its amazing to me how all of the seemingly random tasks that I did for 30 years in the corporate world have suddenly taken on a new meaning. All those little details picked up by doing payables, receivables, payroll, inventory, cost accounting.....just seemed like jobs at the time.

I now have the chance to make sense of all of that with some logical plan for my client and a reasonable explanation of every change that needs to be made...for instance: why you never throw away a time card; why you don't throw away a voided check; why you keep a file cabinet with employee records locked; and a dozen other little things that don't matter to a really little business with no employees, but can be a major issue once you become even an LLC

And so, today I'm being thankful for having learned all of those things that are now, at a time when I really need it, being translated into what my daughter so gleefully describes as "billable hours"......cashing that first check (which I received yesterday) will be sweet!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Not being able to avoid...

the question of the day....where were you 5 years ago?

Well, I remember it clearly, my daughter had gone off to college not a month before and was 1000 miles away, and we believed we had just sold our house, so I was packing boxes that day.

My husband had to be at work at the usual early hour, so we were up, and had CNN on the TV. I had just let the dog out the back door when the second plane hit...and I remember saying to my husband, "something is going on in New York"....now that was a masterpiece of understatement!

I hear people talk about how sad they were (or still are), but I admit I went right to the "seeing red" stage, being totally outraged that this had happened.

So, am I the strange one? I guess it might be one of my ways of dealing with difficult things......perhaps rage is more acceptable than tears......perhaps not.

One thing for certain, I'm still mad 5 years later, but mad at other things ... that we have done practically nothing successful to find Osama, that in order to go into a stadium I have to be searched, and I will never fly again because I cannot be sure I would be able to endure what it takes quietly

I believe what one of our founding fathers said: When we give up our freedom to be secure, we are neither free or safe!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

listening for a calling.....

When I started this blog, the idea was that it would be somewhere apart from the studio stuff where I could just rant/ramble/babble about whatever was on my mind.

For the most part it has served that purpose well, and brought about a rather interesting group of comments, even from folks that I didn't know were reading it.

So, today, a bit of personal and/or spiritual thought

First of all, I think I'm a scripural snob.

Lets begin with I'm old ... old enough that the King James Version of the Bible is the one that "sounds right" ... I understand that God is multi-lingual, hears and answers in all languages, but to me the "language of prayer" will always be that older English style. There is more poetry and perhaps some sense of being invited into something special and different from the everyday world, and that seems to be the right thing for worship.

So, last evening, as I was listening to the reading from Isaiah, I had this sense that something was missing.....this morning I opened my old KJV and read the passage there......and understood what inspired yet another piece of Messiah

Anyway, back to the listening for a calling subject....I would like to be more involved with something at the Church. I know that some of my family has been able to serve by singing, but that does not appear to be in the cards for me. The Church has many groups right now that are looking for teachers of adults, teens and children, but I do not feel qualified to do that. So, this week, as I read in my old KJV, I will try to listen too.......

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Paper dolls, artist bios and history according to bloggers

I mailed them off today. Two sheets of dolls and clothes, a background art sheet and the hardest part, the artist bio. Now we just wait and see if they "meet muster" and actually get used.

I've been thinking about the difference in the way history will be viewed from now on. Traditionally, history is written by the victors. After all, one man's patriot is another man's insurgent.

The papers are full of articles about 9/11 again as we approach 5 years out. This will be another one of those dates that those of us that were alive will forever be able to tell exactly where we were and what we were doing. (For people my age, other such days were when John Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and Bobby Kennedy were shot. For my parents its Pearl Harbor and D Day as well).

Because of the internet and the growing blog culture, there is much more "history" that is the personal reconciliation of the common man. I think that is a good thing, and it is definately more interesting than memorizing names and dates and battles. It gives history a feel of the impact on individual lives.

Blog on my friends! Blog on!!

Saturday, September 02, 2006

and another new "job"

While I was reading one of the magazines I get, a letter to the editor wanted to know if they were going to be printing any paperdolls anytime soon.

I decided to be bold and wrote the editor an email referencing that letter and asking if they would be interested in do so and if they would like to see some that I had done.

SHOCK! They said yes!! So, I'm busy creating the original art work they want and it needs to be in the mail on Wednesday for the deadline on the Christmas issue.

Oh joy!! I might actually get paid to draw and color!!! YIPPEE!!

Ok, enough foolishness, back to the "drawing board"!!