****** WARNING POLITICAL RANT INVOLVED *******

I hear at least one everyday on my way to work and it is beginning to bother me. They keep talking about not having funding when things change from year to year. PEOPLE please, the census only occurs every 10 years. It isn’t going to make much difference in the year to year running of your community. Are people really that dense that they don’t realize this? Do the people in charge of Census advertising think we are that dense? Ok, don’t answer that, some people are that dense.

I did get my census form today. Yes, hurry and fill it out for who will be in your house on April 1st. The government really doesn’t get it do they. Census on April 1st? Just who is the April Fool?

Today I read that the Census is over budget. 30 second radio spots everyday? Big TV spot during the Superbowl. NO, there is absolutely no way they could be over budget. But then our elected officials have no idea what a budget is. Ya don’t spend money when ya don’t have it.. ARRG!!

****** Back to your normal non-political blog *****

Just had to get that out Sorry…

This morning, I awoke to find a box full of donuts on the kitchen counter.  I found one that was half eaten inside so I decided that someone was full and left it.  Little did I know that a little five-year old (her pre-school doesn’t meet on Monday) was not finished and an hour after I finished the half-eaten donut, she demanded to know who ate her donut!  Poor Sydney was in tears because “Bad Uncle J ate My donut!”  To make up for my evil ways, I told her that I would take her out to the Bulldog Cafe for lunch so she could get ice cream which they just re-added to their menu after the height of the winter season passed.  Unfortunately, they are closed on Monday.

So, discovering that we had coupons for FREE FROSTYS at Wendy’s, I cleaned the beauty shop, took a shower, and took the little tyke to Wendy’s.  Then, we approached the door to the restaurant to fin that the dining room was closed until the blinds are installed and I did not relish the idea of going through the drive-up.  I could see ice cream all over the back… NO THANKS!  So we went to McDonald’s, ate lunch, and got a small milkshake to take home just in time for her one o’clock nap… seemed safer.

So… hopefully I more than made up for the donut mishap.  It wasn’t mentioned any further, but sometimes little things have a way of reappearing.

Well, Tony and I have gotten news that his parents will have to sell the house we’re living in because of their taxes. That means we are looking for a new place for us, the cats and Amie. Unfortunately, we cannot afford anything that isn’t a foreclosure. We know that we can afford $200 a month and so anything over that will most likely be pushing it. We have seen two house online, but we haven’t actually gotten the opportunity to take a look in them. One has five bedrooms and two bathrooms and really looks nice on the outside, but of course, the inside might not  be that great. It is two hundred dollars a month, so it’s at the top of our price range, but it has the space we will need. There would be two bathrooms, so Amie could have her own, and Betsy would be able to have a room when she stays the night, plus a room for our computers, and maybe a room for my stuffed animals. Kind of sad that my animals need a room for themselves, isn’t it?

The other house has three bedrooms, which would be enough. We don’t need the other two, it would just be a really, really nice perk. The one downside is that there is one bathroom. Though, if it’s bigger than the one we have now, it might be all right. It would be about sixty five dollars a month. That’s not bad, but the inside might look really bad. We are hoping to be able to see the inside soon enough. We would like to be able to find a house as soon as possible.

Of course, both houses we will have to pay electric and gas bill, but we already do that. It will be hard to find something in about a month, I think, especially since we would like to stay in Bryan because we only have one car and both of our jobs are in Bryan. We are hoping to be able to look at some houses later this week. Pat will be contacting a friend of hers, who helped find their house to help us out.

I feel bad for Amie, since she just moved in and she will have to move again and we haven’t even been able to tell her since she has been at work and we don’t know when she will be home. But if we find a good house, maybe we will be able to have a house that will let her spread out some more and let us not feel like our house is always dirty. Plus, give more room for our cats to run around and play. Pray for us. We really need it.

Okay, I’ve been back to post-lazy for the last several days, so time to post something even if it isn’t in-depth.  I have had a couple of posts in mind that I just haven’t gotten around to.  First, I have next to me some yearbooks, mostly middle school.  What can I do with those, I wonder…?  I have also recently started training someone.  Okay, I am one of a few training him, but he’s my first.  Something soon about that.  Lastly, though I tend not to get responses to retro-gaming posts, it is still one of my interests and it’s time for another one.  I will probably go the youtube route with this one.  Speaking of youtube, here are some videos from another Christian band I have become very interested in, partly due to growing up on metal in the 80s like Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Scorpions and the like.  That’s right, it’s a Christian metal band called Kutless, but that’s not all they do.  In fact, they have done several versions of worship songs which tend to be lighter but still with a little metal flavor.  The first video from Kutless is a recent release.  In fact, this video comes in high-def  versions.  The second one is the title track from an older CD, one of the two CDs from them I own.  The third is the song that made me notice this band when it was played on the radio- they are not so heavy that they don’t get playtime on Christian radio and this song was one of their hits from a couple years ago.  The last song is a common worship song done Kutless style.  Enjoy!

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Amazon link for Kutless

Kutless on Wikipedia

Official Kutless site

Last week, my daughters were playing outside when I heard a bunch of shouting.  Since I was heading out anyway – just had to put on the little guy’s shoes – I brought him out barefoot and began to work on the shoes outside.  That’s when I realized that all of the shouting was because my daughter had found her friend from Kindergarten, but since neither of them were allowed to cross the street, they had been shouting across the street to each other.  Now that mom was outside, I took my daughter across the street to play with her friend, and her mom came out – which is when we realized a church friend is also our neighbor!  So I took the kids for a walk, and we set up a play date for later in  the week.  After the play date, my daughter was telling us about her friend and what she said was so cute – “My friend Chloe is moving to Mexico –  the new one.”  Chloe did indeed say that she is moving to New Mexico, but it’s not really wise to believe rumors started by 6-year-olds.  Until her mom says something to us, we will continue to enjoy Sammie having a friend just a block away, even if eventually she has to move to “Mexico – the new one”.  🙂

How dare you challenge me? 😉 You should blog about that.

No problem, Piece of cake… piece of CRUMB cake! People just don’t understand what is involved in this. This an art-form! My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

Is there a point to this? Do you believe in love at first sight? Or have you ever, like, seen somebody? And you knew that, if only that person *really* knew you, they would, well, they would of course dump the perfect model that they were with, and realize that YOU were the one that they wanted to, just, grow old with. So that’s, like, a metaphor? Not if you pay attention.

So how does it happen, great love? Nobody knows… but what I can tell you is that it happens in the blink of an eye. One moment you’re enjoying your life, and the next you’re wondering how you ever lived without them. I don’t know if that amounts to insanity. I had it great and perfect for a while. You know, I had a dream. And it was wonderful. Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were suppose to be together… and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home… only to no home I’d ever known… I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like… magic. Who could ask for anything more?

I kept telling people that the 60+ degree temperature and sunny skies of last week was premature.  This weekend saw a return to more seasonal weather.  Saturday, I tagged along to the zoo.  Since I had to be back for mass at 6, I drove myself.  I did fine until I exited the turnpike and took the wrong branch off.  Fortunately, my mistake was remedied quickly as all I needed to do was turn around and head back.

Upon paying for admission, I decided to get a membership to the place since for some reason, I ave been quite a bit of zooing lately.  Not that that is a bad thing… as the slogan goes “I Love My ZOO!”  and not a bad deal either.  Discount prices to many zoos throughout the country plus I can bring a friend free each time.  Plus, I got to help a complete stranger by allowing him to get in on my pass.

Because the weather was cold and rainy, our band spent most of the few hours in the indoor exhibits.  The little ones spent a large part of it at the indoor play area.   They even took part in an activity in which they made toys for the birds!  The little one occupied himself with chalk and a beehive.  My little buddy!

After the zoo, we checked out Crazy Prices!  A very cool store with CRAZY Prices!  I picked up a fleece OSU blanket for $5 which usually runs upwards of $30.  Will come in very handy later tonight!  I looked at some hooded sweatshirts that were just as reasonable… BUT… wouldn’t ya know… the largest they had was a Medium.  I’m sure I’ll be back!

After returning and singing at mass, a friend and I closed the evening by watching Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.  And this leads me to wish everyone a Happy Pi Day.  If you don’t get the connection, watch the very fun film!  We won’t get into the hour loss.  Just happy that is behind us and can now catch up on a bit on the rest!  What a Super Saturday!

As of yesterday, all 4 of my daughters and 1 sister have visited and even made a comment or two on my internet musings. It took some time to get all 4 daughters to respond, but it did happen.

So a big welcome to my daughters, Betsy, Froggy, Kittles and Draclet. You are my best girls, and I am proud of all of you.

And little sis, apparently my one ‘relative’ who is blog savvy, I love having you around.

It seems like I have been getting sick a lot lately. Last Friday, I felt terrible after working all day. I had to call and let my leaders know that I wasn’t going to be at my first Bible study lesson! I didn’t feel any better by Saturday, but I was not going to miss a seven hour work day either, not when we need that money. I didn’t stay the entire time. I left two hours early, after I got sick from my lunch. Sunday, I stayed home and did nothing, just so I could be well enough to go to work on Monday. By Monday, I was fine. I was up and about, nothing wrong at all. HA! Now I have no voice and a cough that keeps my voice from coming back. Well, that and having to try and talk at work. That’s always fun to do. I have had no voice sine Tuesday night and it’s now Saturday. Thankfully, that is the only thing wrong and isn’t keeping me from work.

Tony is also sick, though he doesn’t want to admit it. He insisted on going to work yesterday after waking up with a fever. I am pretty sure he will go to work tonight also. True, his fever had gone down by the time he had to go to work, but it came back. I could feel it. I guess he’s just stubborn, not that I’m not. 🙂 We are very stubborn people. One of the many reasons I love him.

Hopefully, Amie doesn’t get sick from us. She can’t get miss any work any any more than Tony and I can. We have a house full of poor people who need to work and need insurance. Though Amie will be able to get that soon enough from her work. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to get it from Goodwill when I am working more with my head cashier position, which I start training for today! Pray that everything goes well.

We recently came upon an old horror movie (1955) called Night of the Hunter.  And if you’ve noticed, I don’t really write movie reviews anymore – I watch a lot of movies and there is too much other stuff going on in my life…  but Night of the Hunter is surprisingly intriguing for a black-and-white horror flick, so I want to recommend it.

In Night of the Hunter, a little kid named Johnny is left with an incredibly adult responsibility when his father is arrested for robbing a bank and killed in prison – Johnny must now take care of his little sister Pearl and hide the stolen money – never to tell anyone where it is.  Johnny’s father talks in his sleep in prison, and his insane cellmate learns of the money and the kids.  The cellmate, played by Robert Mitchum, dons the personality of a preacher and manages to charm the childrens’ mother into making him their new stepfather, even though he is only interested in the hidden treasure.  What follows is a riveting cat-and-mouse game between the children and the bad guy, and while old-fashioned, the movie managed to become quite an intriguing horror / suspense film.  I would share the trailer since they have it on youtube, but apparently the producers were attempting to attract a different type of audience as the trailer plays up the very few sexual aspects of the film – which really isn’t representative of the film at all; the trailer completely misrepresents the film and that’s why I’m not going to show it.  There was good acting, great directing, and talented camera shots and cinematography that really helped to heighten the suspense.  Some of the characters are incredibly old-fashioned (a friend of the childrens’ mother tells her that she “can’t raise those children without a man”, suggesting that she find a man, ANY man to help her – this idea is completely irrelevant in today’s society where single moms are commonplace), but it’s easy and kind of fun to transport yourself back in time in order to sympathize and begin to understand the plight of these characters.  The movie is set in the Depression era; a time when kids were often more of a financial burden than their parents could handle.  In many cases, it was thought to be best for them if they were left to take care of themselves, often before they were teenagers.  This aspect of the movie also explains Johnny’s determination to take care of his little sister, as well as to explain other events in the movie that are best to be left unsaid here – I certainly don’t want to spoil anything.  Overall, Night of the Hunter is a riveting, classic horror movie experience that effectively transcends the decades-long gap between its release and modern horror movies – which all too often rely on blood, violence and gore to entertain.

After watching the movie, I looked up the actors on imdb.com, and I was surprised to learn that young Johnny is played by Peter Graves – a popular actor best known to me as Capt. Clarence Oveur in the Airplane! movies.  It was quite novel to see him in a movie as a kid when I was familiar with his later-in-life acting roles…  And I was also surprised to see that the childrens’ mother was portrayed by the late Shelley Winters, an actress that I knew best as Roseanne’s Nana Mary on the 90’s sitcom Roseanne – no wonder I didn’t recognize her nearly 40 years earlier!

And a final note – Night of the Hunter is based on a novel, one I will have to add to my ‘books to read’ list…  er, make that my ‘books to read if I ever finish the Harry Potter series’ list.  🙂