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I'm in constant thinking mode.
I feel bad, because I kind of have the idea that if it was based purely on the facilities to work in, then the decision would be a slam dunk for Darius.
If he didn't have me to think about, and what I like and don't like, the choice would be obvious.
But having a wife along to consider the other factors as well kind of muddies the waters.
We're trying to set up a second visit to the other place in early December, to get a better idea to help us make the decision. It is a very close decision, though.
think think think think think think think
Today was Gabby's last day
Which is sad. For us. Not for her, really.
She's getting married and moving into a little log cabin with her husband, which is exciting.
I stopped by, and I gave her a wedding present and a little housewarming gift. They're weren't much, but she was excited to receive them, and apparently, I chose well, because she was showing it off to a co-worker.
Her wedding present is a little bit of a joke, I told her it goes with the wedding present "that she doesn't know she's getting" and I know that she won't open it until her wedding because she likes to save things like that.
Then for her house, I decided that every log cabin needs a braided rug. I saw one in a store that had the same colors as some coasters she made at girl's night ceramics. So, I picked up for her, and that's what I put on the card.
It kind of ties in to why I wrote the title this morning, and was going to make an entry before I left.
Of the three places we went to, one made me feel like the town needed me, my coaching skills, my theatre background, as much as it needs Darius.
And that was very addicting for me. It rode over all other considerations, and I had hard time not saying, "let's move here, now."
I didn't realize how much I want to make a difference in the place we go to until that moment.
And part of it is because I want to be a good role model to children, young adults. I thrive on their respect and admiration. It's not just because I'm doing something for them, but because I can feel that they appreciate whatever I'm doing that makes it all worthwhile in a sense.
It almost makes me feel selfish that I want to go to the place where I can make the most difference.
More than the turning of the leaves.
What makes it official autumn is the flock of Canada Geese that landed on the UMaine experimental farming fields. They flew over my head to land for their rest as I drove to work yesterday.
Mr. Mossy has become quite a clown when he goes out, now.
The other day we went for a walk, then I sat on the porch with my netbook, and took one of his beds down to the porch with me. He hung out on the bed, I typed away. When Darek returned from his run, he called Mossy from a little way down the street, Mossy ran down the sidewalk to him, then he ran back to me, then Darek called him and he ran to his Daddy again, and back to me. It was very cute. We can stand at opposite ends of our property and give him a call and he'll dash back and forth between us. It's good exercise for him, for sure. And cute as all get out for us to watch. He looks absolutely silly when he's bearing straight down on you at full speed. And then he jumps around and his tail whips about like a helicopter blade, then he's off again.
Darek has been leaving the downstairs door open faithfully for Sebastian. He doesn't talk about missing the little buddy, but I can tell by that one simple act how much he wants him to come home.
However, I was walking Mossy, and there's a skunk not far down the street, and we have raccoons in the area.
With the cold weather coming on, we can't have them moving in to our downstairs, so I had to start closing the door, and told Darius why. I felt bad, because it's almost like giving up hope.
They were going over the lost people. One of them was a hearthbreaking of the flood waters ripping a toddler out of his father's arms when their trailer was pulled in half. I can't imagine that poor father's grief and the guilt he feels, even though it's unlikely he has the strength to have done anything to prevent it.
Another one is a man who died when the ground collapsed underneath him, and yet another woman who was washed away in her car.
Then this is followed up by a man who is missing because he bet his friends he could swim across a flooded ravine behind his house.
Seriously?
Another example of the tragedy of stupidity.
And what were his friends thinking taking him up on that bet?
Please tell me they seriously tried to dissuade him.
It floors me how people die of absolute foolishness in natural disasters.
Trust me, people. Mother Nature is not to be messed with. When she puts the smack down on stupidity, the result is usually permanent.
I've always known that the flower heads turn from green to red in the fall, but I've never been around them at that time. So this will be really neat.
They're already half turned, they have a pinkish look right now.
I'm becoming used to the fact that Sebastian isn't coming home.
We still leave the door to the building propped open a little, except for windy days. The door has a glass inset, so it would be bad to leave it propped for the wind to smash around. We prop that open so that he can get it in if he comes home, but he won't be able to get into the apartment until we open the door.
Oddly, Grania seems to be happier and more comfortable with Sebastian gone. It's wierd, because I got Sebastian for her because I felt bad about her being alone after having lived with other cats for awhile.
I guess she enjoys being the only cat.
She doesn't get all worked up around Mossy any more. She doesn't jump up and bristle when he walks by where she's laying. The other night Grania was sitting on my lap when Mossy came over to say Hi. I pet Mossy, then he started sniffing at Grania. She didn't get upset, she just sniffed back, although she was leaning her head back a bit as she sniffed like she was saying, "Hey buddy, careful where you stick that huge schnoz of yours." It was incredibly cute.
Somehow, I get the idea she wouldn't mind if we adopted 10 dogs. As long as they all knew she was in control. But she's not interested in having to share attention with another cat. She wants to be the only lap animal, the only animal allowed on furniture and cuddle animal.
I've had quite a few dreams about the fuzzy little guy.
I miss the wide eyes and silly ghost attacks where Sebastian would dash around taming blankets and rugs. I miss waking up with a warm body curled up and purring reassuringly against my head. Believe it or not, I miss the prompt interruption the second I sat down on the toilet.
He would get up and follow me back and forth whenever I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night to make sure I made it back and forth okay. He was my mini body guard making sure I was safe and comforted.
I hope he comes back. I do miss him dearly. But a part of me can't help wondering how Grania will react, and will she be unhappy if he does.
Wherever he is, I hope he's at least having fun and happy.
But it was short haired tiger cat. Not our fluffy boy.
I miss him so much. My pillow is empty in the morning.
Grania, however, seems to be living it up. She jumps on the bed in the morning when my alarm goes off for loving. She spends more time in my lap because Sebastian doesn't jump up on the back of my chair and do the gargoyle stare at her.
http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?C
I saw this article today, and it started me thinking.
This, to me, is an extremely hard issue to have a position on.
On the one hand, the score and the loss is demoralizing to the kids.
Especially the ones who were on the team the year before that won.
But, the winning coach had taken out all their starters for the second half. He played his second team, he wasn't keeping his first string in to see how high they could run up the score.
Not only that, but most of the points in the first half came from mistakes made by the losing team. A blocked punt, allowing a kickoff return of 99 yards, two interceptions with short yardage. Two of these scoring opportunities came from special teams, which is fairly rare in High School football. You can't put out your special teams unit and tell them, "don't try and block the punt." You may as well not put them out at all. Same with the return team. "Okay, get the ball, but don't try and run with it."
Not only are both of these things wrong for the young players trying to learn the game, it is just as insulting to the other team as beating them.
Maybe, MAY-be, you could tell your defense, "if the opposing quarterback throws the ball at you, try batting it down instead of catching it."
But still, that's almost the same as taunting. "I could have caught the ball but I didn't." Is that any better for the moral of the other team?
The fans of the losing team talked about how the fans of the winnng team weren't cheering any more because even they were embarassed. Or maybe they were sensitive to the fact that other team was alreasy upset, and felt bad for them so they had the sportsmanship not to rub it in.
You can't put all of this on the shoulders of the winning coach, saying that he should have done more to prevent the score from being so high. The losing coach didn't want to talk about it. Why? Was he embarassed by his team's performance? Did he not prepare his team enough because he figured, "we beat this team last year, we'll have no problems with them this year?" At least some questions have to be asked of the losing coach as to why his team lost so incredibly to a team they defeated a year ago.
On the one hand, I am pleased that more people are aware of the idea of sportsmanship. It is something that has been missing in this day and age of Little League parents beating each other up in the parking lot. However, I don't feel the winning coach should be accused of showing a lack of it. He did what was within his power, short of actually throwing the game, to give the other team a shot.
Hopefully, painful though it may be, the losing coach will go home and watch the tape to prevent a repeat. Why did the Quarterback throw two interceptions? Was the receiver on the wrong route? Did the QB not read the defense properly? Was the QB under too much pressure because the front line wasn't holding their gaps? Why did a kick-off return make it through his special teams for 99 yards? Who picked up the wrong rusher to allow someone through to block the punt? These are things that every team has to take a look at when they happen to keep them from happening again, win or lose.
I was really surprised that anyone had not seen it yet, but I wouldn't pass up a chance to see it with friends.
This morning one of the girls and I at work were talking about it. She liked it, we talked about the reworked ending and how the director's decision to not make a huge battle in Hogwarts when the entire series ends in a huge battle in Hogwarts. It also means that you can put more story into the movie, because battles take a lot of time.
One of our co-workers overheard us and felt the need to tell us how the movie made him want to throw up, and rip apart every thing he could think of, and rounded this all up by saying how the whole series of movies was a joke and he didn't know why they kept trying.
Talk about a kill-joy. Really? Was it necessary to rag on something that someone else has enjoyed, indirectly implying that they are lacking in some manner to have enjoyed the movie? I don't think so.
Maybe that's just me.
In other news, Sebastian has been gone for almost a week.
Darius guilted me into sleeping in my bed at night instead of the porch. He said it's bad enough he has to miss Sebastian, he doesn't want to miss his wife, too.
I want Sebastian back home.
I'm worried about him, the little head butting maniac.
It looks like I'll be here awhile.
Customer with four line activation walks in ten minutes before closing.
I'm not going to rob my RWC of that kind of commission by insisting we close up shop. Like I could anyways. I have to check the visas, but I'll do that it in a minute.
Finally went a bike ride the other day.
It was great, but man I was exhausted in two minutes!
Did the normal little single track that we always do. Not hugely technical or challenging, but it was good to see a familiar face, so to speak.
Did the new single track I found. Lots of walking.
Partially due to the technicality, partially due to my lack of fitness. Arms were just too tired to go over some of the obstacles, or legs too tired to power through them.
Took on spill, twisted the ankle a tiny bit in the fall, but nothing really bad, by any stretch.
Need to get running again.
I'm partway there on setting myself on a schedule again. For September at least. October will kill it.
November and December I'll get back into it.
I have all Monday's and Wednesday's off, and work closing or mid shifts all month. No opens and definitely no clopens.
I have work outs Monday and Wednesday, regular basis.
Go me.
Now I have to supplement with running and biking.
Mostly I've been overly amazed by the number of people who think they are more important than anyone else in the world. The people who seem to think that they should be waited on NOW, regardless of the people who have been sitting and waiting patiently ahead of them.
Two little boys learned valuable lessons today.
They were playing with the toys, and the little baby one started crying. Without looking up from his newspaper, the father said, "Bobby* let your little brother have what he wants."
So, Bobby learns to resent his little brother because his little brother gets what he wants when he cries, regardless of the situation.
The little brother learns that he can whatever he wants, regardless of whether or not it's rightfully his by crying.
And Evony is screwed up.
No wonder everyone told me not to play.
I was part of an alliance, and building my city in the shadow of another more established alliance person.
Then the alliance kicked me out, and the big protector started pillaging me every half hour. WTF?
I teleported my city away, but I don't know if I'll keep on going.
That's just plain... poor. Mean spirited. You name it.
Playground bully.
I wish there were natural disasters on Evony... I could make an earthquake split is his city in half, and then a volcano grow up out of the middle of and pour hot lava down on what's left.
If you work forty hours a week, fiftty-two weeks a year in the richest country in the world, you should not live in poverty.
Truer words were never spoken.
Or ignored so thoroughly.
Rush is complaining that democrats are going to use the death of Ted Kennedy to get the Universal Health Care bill pushed through.
When Darius and I were on Block Island we found out just how biased Fox News Channel is. They were airing a piece titled "Universal Nightmare' about how bad Universal healthcare would be for people, using isolated instances of patients who might lose the coverage they currently have under Universal Healthcare.
But i notice that they don't offer a solution in the stead of Universal Healthcare to insure the estimated 46 million people who are uninsured. It's almost as if they're saying, "it doesn't matter that people out there are dying every day because they aren't insured and can't get proper health care, as long as this one cancer survivor can have her 14 specialists monitoring her case and making sure she stays healthy."
Darius laughed in disbelief when the woman claimed the help of 14 medical specialists taking care of her cancer. He shook his head at the over care,so to speak.
she said if she had gone with the first doctor's prognosis she wouldn't be alive today.
I believe whole heartedyl in second or third opnions, but you don't need 14 all at the same time. Who's going to take care of the other people while you're busy keeping all these medical professionals to yourself?
My uncle diesd of Lung Cancer, my aunt had a tumor removed her from brain. I'm pretty sure she doesn't have 14 specialists tracking her, and she's still doing pretty well seven years later.
So far, all I've seen from opponents of the health care bill are their determine efforts to tear it apart. But i have yet to see a single one acknowledge the number of people without health care and offer any solutions for the problem.
Their general attitude is that the haves might lose something in the process of giving to the have nots... which, frankly the way things work in general. Stuff has to be given from the haves to the have nots in order for them to have anything. But, my point being that they're so busy worrying about themselves, everything is me me me, that it makes me sick. Appalls me, actually. Possibly the way I was raised, but i can't conceive of such selfishness at the expense of other people's lives and well being.
And for those people who scoff at the government creating useless jobs by researching and putting into use alternative energy resources I truly believe have their heads in the sand. Somehow, they seem to honestly think that there is an endless supply of oil and other fossil fuels
so that we don't need to find something to have in place for the eventual day when they run out. Not to mention the environment, but of course, that's not really happening. It's just an Al Gore propoganda machine.
We have people in Maine who want to sue the people who put up the windfarm because their propert values have dropped. Unless you are trying to sell your place, take a look at the bright side... your taxes drop with the drop in your property value, don't they?
A place we interviewd for Darius's job has a windfarm along a ridge, which excited me no end. I thought it was fantastic, and I think it looks cool, too. the person who was showing us around said her husband refers to them as a blight on the landscape, but she looks on the practical side, and the energy they produce and is all for them. I see both. I think the row of giant white pinwheels is visually appealing to the child in me, and the fact that it's taking advantage of a natural resource at hand and not putting out any pollution as it uses the natural resource is a bonus.
The flap over Michelle Obama's "short shorts"
First of all, they aren't short shorts. They're walking shorts.
The comparison to Daisy Dukes is ludicrous.
Short shorts are the shorts that show off the woman's butt cheek in the back.
Michelle Obama was wearing typical LLBean type hiking shorts that are absolutely appropriate for touring the Grand Canyon.
Give me a break, people!
I haven't been writing in ages for the most part because I don't have many positive things to say. I didn't want my LJ to become a pure bitch fest. From stupid people at work (it was a real toss up for the Jackass of the Week award last week) to the radical Republicans going nuts about budget deficits now that Obama is office that didn't have a word to say over the past eight years when they began skyrocketing in the first place.
I haven't been running or riding my bike this summer, and it hasn't been purely to do with the rain. It's been due to lack of motivation and everything else.
I've been going to some counseling sessions. I walked in one day to work and said, "I need to do something, whether it be some time off work to get myself right side up again.. or.. something, because I am not myself." So my boss referred me to a program provided by the company, and I've been going to counseling provided by the program.
I wasn't leaving the house for myself... only to take Mossy to his playgroups, and to a gaming group every other week, but I wasn't doing anything else. So, I had to do something.
Hubby and I are going to Block Island next week for a couple days.
Yay!
I'm going to live in the ocean and be a mermaid for two days. My two boys can wander around all they want. Mossy is going with us. We have an air conditioned room that allows dogs.
They're both going to be laying in bed groaning having their wives pamper them.
It was hard match for me to choose the person I wanted to win. Federer is my man. But Andy... man, he's had a tough road back and fought so hard to improve his game. He's played amazingly well in this tournament, and I loved the comment he made when he defeated Andy Murray that he felt like the man who killed Bambi. Of course he wants to win and go on into the finals and maybe win Wimbledon, but Andy Murray so far is the closes that Britain has come in forever to having an Englishman take the title.
I would have been very happy for Roddick if had won, but my man won in the end.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c
Ouch indeed.
I was going through old entries, and the one about the wallet.
Amazing how you can mess up the whole thing at the very end and not realize it.
It wasn't my phone I picked up from the floor of the car it was the wallet.
I have now edited it to the correct ending.
Maybe they're hoping that if they're loud enough, people will overlook the fact that it was their Commander in Chief that created a large part of the deficit to begin with.
I do appreciate the fact that this article also calls Obama on the carpet for being overly optomistic about how his stimulus will help.
I do believe it's a truer picture of the actual financial situation, what has caused it, and what needs to be done/addressed in order to get us out of it.
http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/arti
So, Friday we head out to DC again. I'll be sight seeing, hanging with my nephew, hopefully Sherry and I will have a day to hang together.
I hope I can get myself out of bed early enough on Saturday to go to the farmer's market in Alexandria.
July we're going to visit the Meyersdale Clinic in Pennsylvania and check it out and the neighborhood. Darius has talked with HR, and he's also finally touched base with the recruiter, which is cool. Now it's in his hands to find what he wants for a job, and he has the time to do it.
He's also coming around to the idea of buying a house. Woohoo!
Now, if I can just make him see how impractical it would be for us to buy another Corolla when we need a family car, like a Forester, we'll be all set.
His argument is that we could buy the Corolla up front with the sign on bonus. My argument is that we could put down so much on the Forester that our payments would be miniscule, and it's more practical to have the tiny payments and the kind of car we need, rather than another of the kind of car we already have that won't fit our lifestyle much longer.
We'll see.
We have to actually have him sign up for a position and receive the bonus before we can spend it.
But a house for me to do whatever I want with... I can't wait.
I'll be covered in paint and dirt and dust for months. Bliss!
So in blue blazes do I get a high score in violent?
Lust and Gluttony... mmmmm, foooooooood. Yeah, I get those.
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
| Level | Score |
|---|---|
| Purgatory (Repenting Believers) | Low |
| Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) | Moderate |
| Level 2 (Lustful) | High |
| Level 3 (Gluttonous) | High |
| Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) | Low |
| Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) | Low |
| Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) | Low |
| Level 7 (Violent) | High |
| Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) | Moderate |
| Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) | Low |
Take the Dante's Inferno Test
The new guy, I keep forgetting his name, was really cool about letting us keep things in the attic for the year, so we don't have to pay $80 a month for storage. With our rent going up this year, that's a good thing.
When we arrived, I was stunned by the yard, which is mowed all the way down to the trees at the brook. All the underbrush along the road had been taken out, as well as the tree that fell into field ages ago.
My pond is actually holding water, now. I don't know if in the years it's settled enough that it plugged the leak on its own. There are little minnow like fish in it with two large frogs. Even the back that had grown way up in the years we lived there, he's cleared it out, and cut down the trees that the porcupines had weakened before they could fall on the house. It was amazing.
Then I went inside.
The buffet is missing. That's a mystery I must solve because I must have it. Nobody has seen it. Not Nicky or the cousins, not the people there now. The table has been refinished, and that's going to be ours, too.
I went into the living room... and it had been gutted.
Now... it did need to be done. That's granted.
But I always had this secret little hope that I could dismantle it and put it back up somewhere, somehow. Grandpa had put a lot of work into the window seats, shelves, and paneling over the mantle.
However, even though I knew it needed to be done, it didn't lessen the schock to the system.
The living room was the gathering place for everything. And now it really only can be seen in pictures.
It took me a little bit to get over it.
Then I went upstairs, and all the stuff of mine had been moved. I had another momentary heart attack.
Apparently, Jus told him that everyone had gone through everything, and all that was left was junk. Lucky for me, the guy and his fiance looked at some of the stuff and thought, "there's no way this is stuff to be thrown out." And kept it aside.
So, I went through my old stuff. I put the furniture that I've inherited into the attic, and what I want to keep. I just need to shoot off an e-mail to them about it.
I did get quite a bit done. Yay me.
