BLOWING THIS HURRICANE STAND

I've officially had enough of this Mother Nature chick. So...I am getting the heck out of the Keys for a week. My trip home, which was originally suppose to begin this coming Thursday was moved up (by me) to a Tuesday departure.

I need to be where I can see land at all times. Mountains, twists and turns in the road. A CITY for good God's sake. Civilization, where people say "yinz" and bleed black and gold. Yes...that is where I need to be. If you have no idea where I'm talking about, it's Pittsburgh, PA.

Marie and I will be reunited and perhaps we shall blog together. Like, a sitting next to each other blog. Oh what a lucky day that will be for you all! You have no clue what it's like when we reunite. I'm not ashamed to say I've pissed my pants a little from the laughter that takes place.

It is also our ten-year high school reunion next weekend. I have no comment at this time. We'll see how it goes and then I will give a full report upon my return to Hurricane Island.

So...here's to you Gustav and Hanna. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to get a few more days in the hometown.

Seriously...thanks. I was praying for a good excuse to spend a few more days there and here we are. No better excuse than threat of a natural disaster.

DEBATE DATES

Here are the presidential debate dates in case anyone's interested.

Personally, I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I may just throw a "Political Party" and invite some friends over for each debate.

No alcohol though... I don't want anyone killing each other.


From Wikipedia:

Three presidential Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) debates have been scheduled for 2008:

Friday, September 26, 2008 at the University of Mississippi's Gertrude C. Ford Center in Oxford, Mississippi, moderated by Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of The NewsHour on PBS. This debate will focus on Foreign Policy & National Security.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at Belmont University's Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee, moderated by Tom Brokaw, special correspondent for NBC News. This debate will have a town-hall meeting format.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at Hofstra University's David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex in Hempstead, New York, moderated by Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and host of Face the Nation. This debate will focus on Domestic and Economic Policy.

One vice-presidential CPD debate has been scheduled:

Thursday, October 2, 2008 at Washington University in St. Louis' Field House Gymnasium in St. Louis, Missouri, moderated by Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent on The NewsHour and moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS. Topics have not been set for this debate as of yet.

THROW AWAY THE KEY

I am so tired of hearing about this. Not because I don't have a heart. It's because this girl obviously knows what happened to her little girl and she doesn't deserve to breathe the same air I do.

Luckily, the man that posted her bond had a rational thought and now believes that Casey Anthony knows what happened to her daughter.

Read the story here.

Lock this chick up, throw away the key and let her sit until she can rub enough brain cells together to start telling the truth.

SEX-FILES

X-files star David Duchovny has entered a rehab for sex addiction.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAA?

Read Here

PILOBOLUS

I received this video via email.

It truly is performance art and modern dance at its finest! The performers are from the Pilobolus Dance Theater and are gaining national attention for their creative interpretations!

Things are not as they seem! (Just watch it - you'll see what I mean)

Enjoy!

Video Credit: NBC/Late Night with Conan O'Brien

THANKS, BUT NO THANKS

Billy boy said it all last night.

Click Here

I really don't like bringing politics into this blog. I wouldn't want to deter our readers based on political views.

However, one thing I've learned in life is that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

What I believe in may not be what others believe in. Everyone has a right to their own opinion and I respect that more than most.

I ALWAYS KNEW...

...I was smart!

It was brought to my attention that the two nominees for U.S. President are both left handed. I also am a "southpaw". I've been doing some research on this gift I've been given. For a long time I felt handicapped by this. I would always smudge the paper when I wrote. I had to learn how to cut with my right hand and I noticed that my handwriting looked a little wonky.

Left handers are more inclined to go into the arts, music or anything that requires us to use our imagination. Some current theories say we will soon move from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age as described in an article by Daniel H. Pink, Revenge of the Right Brain. This basically says that the outsourcing of routine analytical jobs will continue and companies will rely more heavily on creative and imaginative people to sell their products or services.

In his book Right-Hand, Left-Hand, Chris McManus of University College London argues that the proportion of left-handers is rising and left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. He says that left-handers' brains are structured differently in a way that widens their range of abilities, and the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centers of the brain.

McManus also says that the increase in the 20th century of people identifying as left-handed could produce a corresponding intellectual advance and a leap in the number of mathematical, sporting, or artistic geniuses.

So...I'm proud to be a lefty. Perhaps a career in politics awaits?

To see a list of some famous lefties click here

This reminds me of a great quote:

Everyone is born right handed. Only the gifted overcome it.



Italicized quote taken from wikipedia.org

GIRL POWER

Uh...all I can say is WOW! Hillary Clinton hit a homerun last night with her speech at the Democratic National Convention. "No way, no how, NO MCCAIN!" Sending a message are we? haha

At one point my husband, the conservative, walked in and asked if I was going to be watching that. I said yes and he walked out of the room. Ah well. There are some things that just aren't worth fighting over. Especially so I don't have an ulcer by the time I'm 30.

As a woman, with a daughter, I was truly moved not by the speech, but by her presence. It wasn't too long ago in our Nation's history that women could not even vote. Now they run for President. That's the kind of country I want to live in.

Watching her last night with Reagan (who is only 13 months) reassured me that she can be and do anything she wants and no one has any right to tell her different. And I leaned over to her and whispered just that in her tiny ear.

I will never stop whispering that in her ear.

"I ran for President to renew the promise of America. To rebuild the middle class and sustain the American Dream, to provide the opportunity to work hard and have that work rewarded, to save for college, a home and retirement, to afford the gas and groceries and still have a little left over each month.

To promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green collar jobs.

To create a health care system that is universal, high quality, and affordable so that parents no longer have to choose between care for themselves or their children or be stuck in dead end jobs simply to keep their insurance.

To create a world class education system and make college affordable again.

To fight for an America defined by deep and meaningful equality - from civil rights to labor rights, from women's rights to gay rights, from ending discrimination to promoting unionization to providing help for the most important job there is: caring for our families. To help every child live up to his or her God-given potential.

To make America once again a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

To bring fiscal sanity back to Washington and make our government an instrument of the public good, not of private plunder.

To restore America's standing in the world, to end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home and honor their service by caring for our veterans.

And to join with our allies to confront our shared challenges, from poverty and genocide to terrorism and global warming.

Most of all, I ran to stand up for all those who have been invisible to their government for eight long years.

Those are the reasons I ran for President. Those are the reasons I support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should too."

AMEN SISTER! AMEN!


If you didn't see the whole speech, click here.

I'M A GEE-NYUS

I will be traveling to my homeland next week (Pittsburgh, PA). I always have this issue with over packing and now that I pack for my daughter as well, space in the suitcase is lacking.

While cruising the isles of Kmart today looking for a duffel bag the size of Texas, I came across those space saver bags. You know, the ones where you suck the air out for "space saving" storage.

The light bulb, that sometimes flickers a few times, went off in my head.

"Hey", I said to Reagan, "what if I put our clothes in these bags to save space in the suitcase?" She gave me the "you have three heads look" but I knew it was a genius thought. So I snatched those suckers up and let me tell you. I have sucked the life out of those bags that were filled with our clothes and I still have plenty of room for stuff.

I'm pretty proud of my discovery, although I'm sure I'm not the first to do this. I'm just glad I finally caught on.



That's not me...but it shows the awesome power of the space saver.