...good news and bad news...

First the bad news...the sad news...our beloved Pekingese Pokey, was finally relieved of his pain on Tuesday, November 7th. I credit our dear veterinarian, Pokey's doctor of many years, Dr. David Morris, for his support, his thoughtfulness, his clear explanations of Pokey's deteriorating health, his incredible patience and kindness as our family worked through our grief, guilt, our collective inability to make this decision, and his love for all of the animals in his care and their caretakers. Each member of our family is dealing with our loss in our own way. You'd never think the death of an animal would affect you this way...after all, we are looking forward to eating the flesh of a dead turkey in a couple of weeks, and we love to watch rodeos and horse races. But Pokey was not just another animal. He has been part of our family for the past 15 1/2 years. Often where we have gone and for how long has been predicated on if Pokey was to go with us (vacations, of course), an out-of-town wedding (not necessarily), who will be here with him if there's a thunderstorm (he stressed out with the lightning and thunder). He was a part of our family, always here, always loving and always loved, always in the middle of things, and now he will be always missed. Our baby, Pokey, May 7, 1991 to November 7, 2006. He lives on in the hearts he leaves behind.

Now some excellent news!!!!
Elections are over. And "Macaca" is history! We can only pray that Jim Webb does right by those of us who supported him and hope to see some genuineness in his efforts in Washington, that he puts on his "thinking cap" and listening ears" and remembers that we sent him to do the right thing. Let us all hope that the changes that have taken place across the country have signaled the beginning of the restoration of a decent reputation for the United States across the world.

AND...

We get our televisions, telephones, radios, newspapers, and highway medians and shoulders back!!!!! You know, the city of Virginia Beach (and other communities) could make big bucks if each of the candidates was fined for each frigging campaign sign left standing in the ground after election day. I say, give them one day to celebrate, one day to sleep it off, one day to clean it up, and then: my plan can be tried. I love this: either way the city wins. Each sign that is turned in to the city gets the "turner inner" $5. The city can turn around and fine the campaigner $7 per sign that has been turned in. Each day the sign remaina in the city's custody, storage fees apply. We can each earn a few bucks for de-littering, the city can make a few bucks, and our city landscapers don't have to deal with having to get off their mowers to remove and dispose of signs before they can do their work. It'll make those working for the various candidates more responsible about clean-up time, because the candidate can deal with this issue however they want to...I am sure they don't want the fine or the bad press. Maybe an award can be issued to the best cleaner-upper and the worst violator by the local newspaper. Increased readership! And maybe an "awards ceremony" at the new and improved convention center that the city went ahead with despite the fact that most residents did not think it was necessary (we already had a convention center at the same location. So the admission to the "Delittering Awards Ceremony" might be a way for the convention center to make a few bucks and earn its keep, and great entertainment for all of us. It could even be televised. Maybe commemorative souvenirs could be sold by concessions in the lobby.

And finally...

I hear it's a bit chilly in my hometown, Chicago. A friend of mine in exile in Phoenix sent me this this morning, and it is so true...I don't know who wrote it and I don't want to get sued for copyright infringements. I did not write it and am not taking credit for writing it. I'm just passing it along for entertainment, and to tweak the hearts of other former Chicagoans.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you
live in Chicago.

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't
work there, you live in Chicago.

If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in Chicago.

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed
a wrong number, you live in Chicago.

If "Vacation" means going anywhere south of I-80 for the
weekend, you live in Chicago.

If you measure distance in hours, you live in Chicago.

If you have switched from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again, you
live in Chicago.

If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard
without flinching, you live in Chicago.

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you
live in Chicago.

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live
in Chicago.

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody
is passing you, you live in Chicago.

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow,
you live in Chicago.

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road
construction, you live in Chicago.

If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you live in Chicago.

If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly", you live in Chicago.

If you actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all your friends & others, you live in Chicago.

...I only went on line to check my e-mail...and...

...I just wanted to check my e-mail, that's all. But then I heard that the "Army Times" newspaper this coming Monday, will contain an editorial asking for the removal of Donald Rumsfeld from the position of Secretary of Defense. Something tells me that things are not going well in Iraq, and the military branch most affected by the decisions made by Rumsfeld and approved by Dubya, has lost confidence in those in power at the highest levels. Whew...part of me would love to be a fly on the wall in their offices! And part of me is thinking I am frigging glad I am not the President.

It was tough enough to be Chairwoman of the Spaghetti Dinner Committee...should the noodles be served separately? Should we have marinara, pesto, AND Alfredo sauces to try to please everyone? How many kinds of salad dressings? How many slices of garlic bread per person? Italian ice, cannoli or biscotti for dessert or all three?

I'll just stick to cooking thank you, and continue to bitch and moan about the poor choices being made by our elected officials and their appointees. It's my frigging right to complain. AND...

I just want to give some input. It's up to the people we've hired to sort through all the choices and suggestions, think long and hard about the consequences, and then make the right decision. Not the Democratic or Republican choice, not the corporations-choice-award, simply, the morally right choice, even if it is not as appealing as saber-rattling, or oil-controlling. We all have to live on Mother Earth together, so "can't we all just get along???" Frig.

Every Day Brings a New Revelation....

Boy oh boy, we don't even need mini-series any more! Just watching the news fills that need.

Two latest stories: "I did not have SEX with that man..." kind of reminds me of "I did not have SEX with that woman." No self-respecting Republican believed that when Clinton said it, so why should anyone believe the same line coming out of Rev. Taggard's mouth?? AND "I did not inhale"...skeptical Republicans dismissed that when Bill said it. Why should we believe Taggard's, "I bought meth, but never used it. I was just curious..." Oh brother, give me a frigging break. What an f-ing hypocrite. Do as I say, not as I do. Shame on him.

AND, Virginia politics...starting to sound like something out of Richard Daley's Chicago of the 60s... Jim Webb, former Secretary of the Navy, who is a Dem, running against George "Macaca" Allen... Now, we seem to have a little problem with the electronic voting machines in about three locations in Virginia. One of the locations is Charlottesville, VA (where George's buds took down a UVA law student this past week when he asked Georgie about his divorce). How convenient. The other locations (I can only remember one off the top of my head...) Arlington. That's it. I can't remember the third location. The problem, that "there simply isn't enough time to correct" before the election on Tuesday...is that James "Jim" H. Webb's name is so frigging long that it cannot fit on the ballot. It appears as: James "Jim" H. (I am not kidding) on the summary page of the ballot. That's where voters look to be sure they've put in the correct name.

His name is too long?????????????????????? JAMES WEBB (let's see...I count 9 letters, tops) GEORGE ALLEN (let's count together now...6 letters in GEORGE, and 5 letters in ALLEN...add them together and that is 11 letters). Nine letters in James Webb, ll letters in George Allen.... I may not be a rocket scientist, but it kind of seems to me that James Webb's name is TWO LETTERS SHORTER than George Allen's. What's up with that? I'm studying early childhood education. We learned how to teach math concepts to kids in one of my previous classes. Maybe someone missed preschool math???????

And there's no time to correct the problem before Tuesday??? What about hitting the "DELETE" key and retyping James Webb correctly? If every employee of the Voters' Registrar's offices in the three towns involved worked on each individual machine to correct this problem, and maybe got a few bucks of overtime to correct the problem, they'd still have enough time to order some pizza and watch a football game or two before Tuesday. Or, how about dusting off those punch card machines and distributing them to the polling places? Oh, you say there's not enough time to print up the new ballot books for those machines? How many Kinkos do you suppose it would take to handle that project? Give me a frigging break.

I'm just waking up and I'm already getting pissed off.

Extinction of a Species...

I just read with great sadness, the possible extinction of pink plastic lawn flamingos. Evidently, the company that created and has been manufacturing this suburban species of bird for the past 50 years, has pulled the plug.

I have one breeding pair, still in the package up on my front porch...the older ones are lying, faded and with rusted and bent legs under the edge of the porch where I gently placed them while weeding my garden earlier this year.

In the spring when everything comes back to life after the long, cold, gray days of winter, I will bring them back out, gently wash and dry them, straighten out their crippled legs, and see if they can be resurrected. Perhaps in their next life, they will come back as cowmingos. I will have to let you know.

Brief Updates...

I am sure everyone saw "macaca's" henchmen take down someone who was asking a question of George Allen out in a college in Charlottesville, VA yesterday. Perhaps the question was inappropriate; it had something to do with the details of Allen's divorce (I didn't know anything about a divorce until yesterday, and it's really none of my business) back in the 80s. Allen was asked why the divorce papers were sealed (I don't know, are they generally available for public viewing?) I think a more appropriate response would have been for George to say, "None of your frigging (that word is optional) beeswax", and go on about his business. I would say that someone over-reacted. I believe we will be seeing this on TV for a while ... hm, maybe through next Tuesday??? It'll kind of balance out Kerry's faux pax!

And as far as Kerry's comment, I'm no rocket scientist, but if I can be so bold as to attempt to explain what I thought he meant, when addressing those college students out in Cali, loosely translates (kind of, maybe): that students really need to pay attention to their education, because if they don't, they are likely to be (1) uninformed, (2) and for that reason, more easily swayed by the rhetoric of certain (and I'm not pointing fingers here) ideologues, and (3) be more vulnerable to being easily manipulated into going to battle for a cause that they do not thoroughly understand by some flag-waving knuckleheads who equate free speech and freedom of thought with a lack of patriotism. I know very few people who would not defend our country if it was attacked, and then I think of all of the young men who died in Viet Nam, for a good example, not for OUR freedom, not to defend OUR security, not to guard OUR borders from invasion, but for some agenda that most people in our country did not understand, and were not told about. I recall friends, including my dear friend Mohawk Chieftain, who were willing to give up their lives when called upon to do their "patriotic duty". We (our generation) were between a rock and a hard place. Be labeled a traitor, a draft-dodger, or go leave the country. Of course, we had a draft way back in the olden days when we were alive (as my kids put it), and if you were smart enough or wealthy enough to attend college, you could totally avoid any military duty, especially Viet Nam by staying in school forever. What about registering as a "conscientious objector" you ask? Look what happened to Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay)..didn't he end up in jail or something?

Anyhoo, I don't believe for one second that Kerry doesn't care about and respect each member of the military, particularly enlisted servicemen and servicewomen, because he knows the price these young people pay for trying to do the right thing. So it appears to me that somebody is just trying to add a little last minute spin. War sucks. Stupid wars suck more. Politics and secret stuff that we don't know about, pisses me the frig off.

Well, my goodness, I am glad I didn't have time to post that last night, because this morning, my dear pal Mohawk Chieftain forwarded to me a very interesting editorial from the New York Post. While the whole thing was very informative, one particular paragraph stuck out in my mind, and sums up pretty much all that I've said above, and so I quote from the NY Post editorial, and I'm sorry I don't know when it was published or who wrote it, and I am absolutely not taking credit for the words, but agree with the sentiments completely:

"But when candidates for lower office make their opponents out to be friends of Osama bin Laden, or try to turn a minor gaffe into a near felony, that’s just depressing. When the president of the United States gleefully bathes in the muck to divide Americans into those who love their country and those who don’t, it is destructive to the fabric of the nation he is supposed to be leading."

Reading that pisses me off even more, because NOW I know I am not the only one thinking about this, I'm just pissed off enough to say it out loud. Kind of like the story about the Emperor's New Clothes.

Friday morning update: While I'm thinking about it, Rush Limbaugh or Limburger, whatevah, pisses me off too. What chutzpah to make comments about Michael J. Fox. Unbe-frigging-lievable. And that's all I'm going to say about that. Not all I'm thinking. I'd just like to wake up one morning and find that people are "making nice."

And one last thing, Muqtada al Sadr...I thought devout Muslims didn't want their pictures taken. I see on the news RIGHT NOW, his image on posters. It looks like he posed for the picture...it wasn't a candid shot taken when he wasn't looking. A photo op? What's up with that? I hope I don't offend anyone. I was just thinking, ya know. If anyone knows the answer to this, please tell me.