Bailing out of 2008

My favorite way to ring in the New Year. . . Dave Barry style. Happy New Year!!



"How weird a year was it? Here's how weird:
► O.J. actually got convicted of something.
► Gasoline hit $4 a gallon - and those were the good times.
► On several occasions, "Saturday Night Live" was funny.
► There were a few days there in October when you could not completely rule out the possibility that the next Treasury Secretary would be Joe the Plumber.
► Finally, and most weirdly, for the first time in history, the voters elected a president who - despite the skeptics who said such a thing would never happen in the United States - was neither a Bush NOR a Clinton.
Of course, not all the events of 2008 were weird. Some were depressing. The only U.S. industries that had a good year were campaign consultants and foreclosure lawyers. Everybody else got financially whacked. Millions of people started out the year with enough money in their 401(k)s to think about retiring on, and ended up with maybe enough for a medium Slurpee.
So we can be grateful that 2008 is almost over. But before we leave it behind, let's take a few minutes to look back and see if we can find some small nuggets of amusement. Why not? We paid for it, starting with ...
JANUARY
... which begins, as it does every four years, with presidential contenders swarming into Iowa and expressing sincerely feigned interest in corn."

You can read the rest here.

Oops I Did it Again

[It's re-run time folks. I posted this story last year, but it's still a fun memory for me just the same. Merry Christmas! ~cn]

I was thinking of some of our fun family memories of Christmas pasts. Of course there's always the "Christmas Tree Fell Over, and Broke All My Favorite Radko Ornaments" story. You can probably guess who was responsible for that memorable moment. Yes, it was our infamous outside cat, Friendly (and no, he's not) who found his way into the house yet again and discovered a prime scratching post which happened to be our tree. (no poo this time; just broken glass, water, pine needles, and yellow and orange cat fur.) Apparently our tree stand was not designed to withstand 18 pound cat ornaments.
Another fun memory was what I call my "Norman Rockwell Meets Nurse Ratchet" story. One Christmas Eve several years ago, I was finishing up my last Christmas preparations. I'd ushered my husband off with the oldest 3 kids to deliver some home baked goodies to neighbors. My youngest, who was about 4 at the time, was quietly playing in our den with her newly acquired doctor kit which she'd received from a neighbor. And I was merrily baking a few last batches of Christmas cookies. (As a very astute and now experienced mom, I'd already warned my daughter that only the REAL vet can take the cat's temperature--a preemptive strike, so to speak, against any pre-schooler veterinary malpractice.) Anyway, as the radio softly played Christmas music in my snug, sweet-smelling kitchen, I put the last batch of cookies in to bake. "Ahhhh," I thought as I sat down to savor the moment. "All is right with the world--I feel just like June Cleaver--what a Norman Rockwell moment." Reality came crashing in along with flailing arms and a toy stethoscope, and I heard, "Get outa my hospital!" as my daughter's baby doll came flying through the door into the kitchen. Apparently, the doll was uninsured. This is probably one time Friendly was glad that he remembered that he is an outside cat.

It Depends on What the Meaning Of Is, Is

[Editors note: Someone sent this story to me in a email.]

"In an AP government class, they were discussing the qualifications to be President of the United States. They are pretty simple: The candidate must be a natural born citizen and at least 35 years of age. One girl in the class immediately started complaining about how unfair the requirement to be a natural born citizen was. In short, her opinion was that this requirement prevented many capable individuals from becoming president. KC and the class were just taking it in and letting her rant, but everyone's jaw hit the floor when she wrapped up her argument by stating, 'What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified to lead this country than one born by c-section?'"

[As a mother of four of those unnaturally born citizens, I wholeheartedly concur. ~cn]

Sneak Peek

Just popping in to show a preview of what's coming December 13 over at Spooky Time Jingles. Check here for my Spooky stuff. And here for my Jingly stuff. Now off to work again. :)

Ciao~

Addendum: Here's the full view:

Busy Week!

So much to do. . . so little time.
:)

[Update!]

P.S. I did find time to enter Jenni B's awesome giveaway. She is having a drawing on December 7 for some of her wonderful faux dessert ornaments. And the very best part is that Martha Stewart herself actually photographed these same pieces for an upcoming book. Jenni B explains that she will give "THREE lucky winners one of the EXACT (not a copy!) ornaments Martha took home with her and touched with her own Queen of Crafting hands! Isn't this going to be fun?"

It's a good thing.

This. . .

. . . is what I found in my mailbox when I came home after only a few days out of town. Nineteen pieces of political junk mail. . . count 'em, nineteen. And I threw away a ton more of these before I even left town last week. It's ridiculous. My favorite in the picture above is the card with the finger pointing which tells me to "Give up, or fight back." Give up? Fight back? Is that a message to the likely voter or to the mailman for having to deal with so many extra pieces of mail? Poor guy. All this wasted paper (not to mention the overworked mail carriers) simply because we Georgians couldn't decide along with the rest of the country just who we wanted as our senator -- hopefully we'll be deciding it tomorrow in a run-off election.

And then there's all of the robo-phone calls we received in the past week or so. I've never been so popular! So far I've heard from at least one of the candidates, the candidate's wife, Sara Palin, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Fred Thompson, the NRA, the NRTL, the governor, and a few others I've never even heard of. When we returned on Sunday there were no less than 8 messages on the answering machine urging me not to forget to vote this Tuesday; and I've had at least 5 more calls today. I don't think I could forget to vote if I wanted to. :)