Crappy Week

Our internet went down this week. I hate when my technonlogy doesn't work properly. Turns out we had a defective power cable on the wireless router. It only took four phone calls and two visits from the technicians over 3 days to figure it all out....

Thursday, my sis-in-law called once asking for professional advice about her daughter's stomach ache. Then she called later asking hubby about a flooded bathroom. My hubby is NOT a plumbing person. He told her to call a plumber.

Friday morning, sis-in-law called again about her daughter - "stomach ache is worse, what do I do now?" I tried talking to her, but ended up telling her I'd put her on my doc's schedule that morning because she needed extra reassurance. I got in my car to go to work and found my clutch wasn't working. So I had to get into hubby's car and take it to work.

Once at work, I put my niece on our schedule, and called the dealership about my car. Fortunately, I'm under warranty. We got a tow truck lined up. I called home to get hubby awake to let the tow truck driver in our garage, but he wouldn't wake up for the phone. I ended up calling a friend that lives up the street and gave him the access code to our garage door opener and he took care of things for me. :) Turns out something called a "clutch slave cylinder" went bad. Never heard of it. They were able to get it fixed that day and I got my car home after work! I loved signing the paper saying it was $0. The warranty has paid for itself now. Yeah!

Now I have a half dozen things to do today before Frodo and I are gone for a couple days again. Then I come back, work one last day, then pack for vacation! I can't wait for Friday to come when I get to start the drive.

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As promised, here's how the presidential selector matched me up:

Your Results:
1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (83%)
3. Dennis Kucinich (83%)
4. Barack Obama (80%)
5. Joseph Biden (75%)
6. Wesley Clark (not announced) (73%)
7. Hillary Clinton (73%)
8. Al Gore (not announced) (72%)
9. Christopher Dodd (72%)
10. Michael Bloomberg (not announced) (69%)
11. John Edwards (67%)
12. Mike Gravel (66%)
13. Bill Richardson (58%)
14. Ron Paul (55%)
15. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (46%)
16. Elaine Brown (42%)
17. John McCain (30%)
18. Rudolph Giuliani (30%)
19. Tommy Thompson (28%)
20. Chuck Hagel (not announced) (20%)
21. Mike Huckabee (20%)
22. Mitt Romney (20%)
23. Newt Gingrich (not announced) (15%)
24. Fred Thompson (not announced) (13%)
25. Sam Brownback (13%)
26. Tom Tancredo (12%)
27. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (11%)
28. Duncan Hunter (10%)

Not too many surprises.... except for the person I matched most to, I had never heard of before. Ideally, I'd still like to see Russ Feingold on the ticket, even though he has stated he isn't going to run. :(

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If I don't get off my arse now, I'll end up sitting here all day, getting NOTHING done. I don't have that luxury today. Darn it all. Later!

Having trouble deciding....

...about who to support for the 2008 presidential election? I mean, it's only 16 months away. Who hasn't already decided? (Ha. Re-read the previous two sentences with sarcasm if you missed it the first time.)

This starting extra early crap just bugs the heck outta me. We're gonna be so burned out on "presidential politics" by THIS November, let alone NEXT November.

If you're interested though, here is an online tool that helps match you up with the candidate that best matches your stance on issues:

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html

Then come back and let me know who you matched up with. I took it, and my first choice came up with "Theoretical Ideal Candidate". I bet I could write that one in....

I'll let you know who I matched best with later.

Sleepover!

Remember going on a sleepover at a friend's house? The tv, the talking, the playing, the fun. It was so awesome to be able to sleepover with a friend.

Now I'm on the flipside of the sleepover - I'm the parent. I still don't think they're asleep. But hey, I don't have to look nice when the plumber shows up in the morning. ;)

Frodo's best friend is here tonight. They don't go to the same school anymore, but we still get them together often. They're two peas in a pod.

Originally, Best Friend came over to play for a few hours. Then the boys were begging us to have a sleepover. We caved. They're having fun and they really play well together.

Maybe as grown ups we should occasionally have sleepovers - stay at a friend's house and eat lots of treats and watch whatever we want to watch on tv. I bet we can't stay up as late anymore though.

This cracks me up...

This website gives me the giggles:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

...even though the grammar and spelling gives me the heebie-jeebies a bit. It's part of the charm though. It wouldn't be quite as funny without the weird spelling and grammar - it forces me to read the captions with a funny accent.

Have a happy start to your weekend!

This smells funny...

Bush orders Miers to defy House subpoena

Actually, the whole "executive privilege" use stinks to high heaven. What do they have to hide that they don't want anyone finding out? Only the guilty run from questioning....

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Frodo's baseball season is done. His team won first place in the league and then first place in an end-of-season tournament. He had phenomenal coaches. And the team was a whole bunch of nice kids. Usually there's one or two that are, well.... BRATS. Not this year! Two great coaches plus 11 great kids equals a really fun season. I'm gonna miss it! (And I'm gonna miss seeing the good lookin' coach every now and then too, lol!)

There was an *end-of-season* team party tonight at the home of one of the parents. It was loads of fun. The weather was perfect for an outside party. As some of us were chatting on the patio, I touched my hair and realized some pine sap had dropped onto it from a tree above. I've had pine sap on things before and it is nearly impossible to remove. I was worried what I was going to have to do to my hair! When I got home, I did some poking around the internet, and found a site that mentioned different "remedies" for removing pine sap from cars, tables, tents, and pets. And guess what works? Deep Woods Off. Living in one of the states that claims the mosquito as the state bird, we fortunately have some in the house.

I was a bit leery about spraying the Deep Woods Off on my hair. What would it do to my hair besides repel mosquitos and ticks? I figured I really didn't have a choice - the only other way I was going to get pine sap out of my hair was to cut it out. So I sprayed. Then rubbed the sap area. Then rinsed with warm water. Then I decided I better wash the Deep Woods Off from my hair, so I grabbed the closest shampoo I could find - a strawberry scented kids shampoo. Now I smell pine fresh AND strawberry sweet! But I don't have pine sap in my hair anymore. It really works! I was shocked.

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On another personal hygeine note, I have horribly cracked skin on the heels of my feet. Does anyone have any suggestions for improvement? And I can't do the thing with the socks on the feet with lotion while I sleep. I can't sleep with socks on my feet. I just can't. I have a couple weird quirks like that. (Another is that I can't have my hair over my ears. Both of those things drive me absolutely nuts.)

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My next gripe is about gas prices. In an unusual stroke of luck, I filled up my car the day BEFORE the prices took a big jump up. (Usually I don't go to the gas station one evening just to find the next morning the price went up 10 cents a gallon.) I filled up two days ago at $3.04. Today, the price is $3.40!! I know the news - some refinery is down for repairs and another is flooded in Kansas. Whatever. It's not like we see the prices come back down when the repairs are completed and production is back online.

I honestly think the past increases in gas prices are just "conditioning" for us. They jump up 20 cents, then fall only 5 cents. This cycle goes on and on until we're conditioned at a point now where we'd be tickled pink to see gas below $3 per gallon. And this as the oil companies are making HUGE profits.

I'm so tired of the greed culture we have in the US. Money above everything! It makes me ill.

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