Tuesday, November 04, 2008

My boss said that one candidate said one word repeatedly during the campaign that completely offended him. When I asked him what the word was, he said, “Fight.”

He followed that up with, “That man has to stop fighting. There’s been enough fighting in this country.”

I think he misinterprets what the candidate means by fight and I really don’t see how his use of that word is offensive.

My response? “I don’t want him to stop fighting. He fights for the people when no one else does. Frankly, I don’t think he fights enough sometimes. Some politicians don’t do enough of that period. Others do it for the completely wrong reasons.”

He just walked away. I think he voted for the other guy, which I expected.

Of course I thought of the best questions to ask him just a minute ago. “What do you want him to do then? Sit back and let things happen that he knows will be bad for our country?”

Monday, November 03, 2008

We slept in on Saturday. It was nice. Beau and I chatted while we listened to Jesse in his room chattering to himself, his blankets, or whatever.

And then I noticed the itching. My arms especially, were super itchy. Taking a look, I saw what looked like sleeves from shoulder to wrist of tiny red bumps and my arms were hot and slightly swollen. I quickly checked my belly, but it was clear as were my legs. But there was a slight rash on my back as well.

Process of elimination narrowed the culprit to the maternity sweater that I wore on Friday. It was one I had when pregnant with Jesse and had loaned to a church friend when she was pregnant. When I got those clothes back from her I didn’t wash them before wearing, although I will be washing the ones I haven’t worn yet now. This particular sweater was a bit tight in the sleeves, which is why I think the rash was so much worse on my arms than anywhere else.

I still have itchy patches on my arms today - mostly at the elbows and the backs of my upper arms. I’m grateful it wasn’t worse since I can’t take anything and even if my doc said I could take Benadryl I wouldn’t because it knocks me loopy. I tried topical Benadryl on Saturday night, which it worked only marginally.

So I just have to live with the itching. Fun, no?

I like to think that this dreadful election season will be all over but for the shouting, but I have lived long enough to know that won’t be the case.

So someone will win tomorrow and either way it’ll be ugly.

I firmly believe that our country is losing its way - the Founders would be horrified to see where we are today, imho.

That said, I look forward to casting my ballot tomorrow morning and I will be watching the coverage on TV in the evening.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Thanks to cousin CB, Jesse had a cute hand-me-down costume for Halloween.

Beau took him trick or treating at a couple of specific houses in our neighborhood while I tended to the candy distribution at our house. About the time we ran out of candy, they got back home with a larger amount of candy in Jesse’s bag than I would have expected for 4 houses. Folks were apparently way more generous than I.

After they got home we got into the car to take him to Marmie and Pop’s to show off his cuteness.

Bonus photos today - Jesse has transitioned from the high chair to a booster at the table.

Friday, October 31, 2008

I went to the funeral of The Amazing One’s husband this morning.

I posted a request for prayer for TAO and her husband when he was first diagnosed with cancer back in the spring. I started to post last week about how he had deteriorated in the past couple of months, but I lost that post in the intertubes ether and didn’t bother to try to rewrite it. Suffice to say, he had not responded well to radiation or chemo and later developed clots in his lungs and a tumor in his heart. Two weeks before he died he had a small stroke and TAO arranged for hospice care.

His siblings all flew out from California the weekend before he died and got a chance to all spend some good quality time with him. He was lucid enough for that time and it was such a blessing for TAO and his siblings, who also sort of looked at him as a father figure. He was the older one and helped their mother raise them when their Army father was deployed.

He died last Friday. He was 58 years old and leaves behind his beloved wife and two grown sons as well a bunch of friends and coworkers who adored him. From the tributes given at his memorial service this morning, he was the best of men. Having met him, I agree wholeheartedly.  I grieve for TAO and her loss - she was separated from her husband far too soon but they had a wonderful 25 years together.

Please pray for her - peace and comfort and for God to reveal Himself to her through this process.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

On my commute I spotted an unnecessary quote on a minivan. I didn’t have my camera, so no picture.

In Loving Memory
of
“D---- A-----------”

Now the sentiment caught my eye because I recognized the name. The man lovingly remembered was a member of my former church and died of cancer last year. Then I spotted the quote marks around his name.

Why?

A Fairfax County cop died in a training accident and his funeral is today. There’s a huge motorcade/procession this morning and as a result they shut down all exits onto the Outer Loop of the Beltway from Braddock Road to Route 1 in Alexandria (basically, that’s I-95N headed into Maryland). They expect 3000-5000 cars, not people but cars, and that it will take at least 1 full hour for the procession to clear. That means that a major interstate is shut down to all northbound traffic in late rush hour. That is insane.

Fortunately for me, I woke up earlier than I have been and managed to get on the Beltway 10 minutes before they closed my entrance. I walked into my office at 9:05am.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

So Sen. Obama proposes that folks take the day off to go vote. Others suggest that the day be a national holiday.

I say no way to both.

There is no need to take the whole day off to go vote. The longest I stood in line to vote ever was maybe 2 hours. Usually I get in and out in about 30 minutes. As for the holiday idea, that’s ridiculous - half of the people don’t even bother to vote, so they would get a free day off and that just hurts the economy.

If you want to vote, get off your lazy butt and go vote.

Monday, October 27, 2008

We won’t be getting the house. I’m OK with that. And I believe that our house hunt is on hold indefinitely while we work to improve our financial situation. Beau may not agree with me on this, but I’m sure we’ll discuss it at length.

Mentally, emotionally, and physically I’m done with the hunt. I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t.

There are other things that I want and need to be doing with my weekends. There are other things that Beau can be doing with his time as well.

We are done.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

We watched American Gangster last night.

I liked it a lot. It’s a compelling story as a movie alone but knowing that Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts are real people and this case was real made it fascinating to watch.

I highly recommend it, but know that the subject matter is disturbing and violent, the language is adult, there is nudity and one sex scene.

AG gets 4 stars.

Bonus: A Charlie Rose interview with the real Frank Lucas, Richie Roberts, and writers Marc Jacobson and Nicholas Pileggi.

This interview of Joe Biden is priceless. His convoluted answer to the Marxist question is laughable.

[via Hot Air]

Saturday, October 25, 2008

View my page on Team Sarah

Friday, October 24, 2008

You Should Be Allowed to Vote

You got 15/15 questions correct. Generally speaking, you’re very well informed. If you vote this election, you’ll know exactly who (and what) you’ll be voting for. You’re likely to have strong opinions, and you have the facts to back them up.

[via Thinkling Bill]

I asked Beau if I could tell this tale on him. He doesn’t think it’ll be funny to anyone but us, but we’ll see.

We both wear Breathe Right strips on our noses at night. I, because of my pregnancy congestion. He, because of his general nighttime congestion. With Beau there are two factors to consider: 1) he thinks it is wasteful not to try to reuse the strips, so he tries to reuse and 2) he often has his head under a pillow at times in the night. So over the past couple of weeks, when Beau has awoken he has found the strip to be anywhere but on his nose. Once he found it on his underwear. Once I found it stuck to the comforter. This morning he said, “Guess where the nose strip ended up?” I had no clue. “On my forehead.”

I busted out laughing.

“That’s not the best part, though,” he continued. “I woke up at one point and it was on my finger, so I put it back on my nose.”

I continued to laugh hard enough that I started to cry. That’s priceless.

On my own night weirdness front, my dreams continue to be bizarre. The other night I dreamed that Beau and I were good friends with Todd and Sarah Palin. In the dream we were just hanging out with them. Then last night I dreamed that Sarah Palin and I were hanging on the Straight Talk Express bus, but we never talked politics. We talked about babies, just mom to mom. It was great.