too soon?

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Name three birds that had to die to make your life better:

Chicken, Turkey, Senator Robert Byrd ...

And so it begins

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After dating for almost 8 years, I've asked my girlfriend to join households. Sounds like we're marrying two houses. I don't know if the ring around my bathtub counts as an engagement ring but we going to spend the next couple of weeks getting everything together.

First her house. This weekend, I'm going to grab a pair of old work gloves and start throwing her stuff, I mean, gently distributing her fine belongings into a rental truck for a slow ride to the storage business. Next, she'll come to my house and begin happily tossing my treasures into the garbage bin. That's ok. My ex took the good stuff several years ago. By now, I've learned it's all replaceable ... just like me.

new blog design

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Blogger (actually Google) has brought out new template for blogger.com sites. I've changed mine accordingly. If you're a repeat visitor then you've noticed the change. What do you think? I need to find some time to play with the CSS display of this blog into something eye-catching. Unfortunately, Blogger.com doesn't have hooks that pop out and catch your eye ...

Moving means ..

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... getting rid of junk that you've spent years accumulating. Of course, to you none of it is junk. Every tarnished spoon and broken ceramic piece has an important memory attached to it. They are tokens of faded thoughts that recall the fun while forgetting the pain of those moments. They are trinkets that make you believe times weren't as unbearable as they seemed then.

But that was then. Today, you want to move on to bigger and, hopefully, better times. Today, you take those memories and put them on wabbly tables with paper tags for the world to see. Today, you deface several telephone poles in your neighborhood with a poster printing those car-screeching words "Yard Sale! Everything must go!" Today, you resist that overpowering urge to do a background check on every bargain seeker that stops in your yard. You have to trust that your memories will either end up in good homes or bring terrible nightmares to the new owners. Today, you move on ...

ah, vacation. what?! no vacation?

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I can't wait for tomorrow when I start my vacation. Time to catch up on household affairs, spend time with my son to learn his plans for his senior year and beyond, start some delayed personal projects. Wait, what?! Last Monday was the start of my vacation?!!! It can't be! I haven't made a dent in anything! Where did the time go? This isn't fair ... Am I to be doomed to a life of slavish devotion to everyone's elses projects? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Complicated Sells

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Sometimes we make things more complicated and expensive than they need to be. I don't know why. Maybe we just don't trust anything that seems to easy to do. This would explain why the "some installation required" instructions do an excellent job of frustrating us.

I mention this because I had to go to a site called dietsthatwork.net. The site covers all the famous diets except the granddaddy of them all, that simple "eat less, exercise more" one. Now I know why I'm not rich. I'm not selling complicated solutions.

Banking Crisis Cause..

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One of the best insurance quotes ever is when Jack Benny said, "I don't want to tell you how much insurance I carry with the Prudential, but all I can say is: when I go, they go too." Of course, when Mr. Benny died, Prudential didn't go out of business. Guess he didn't have that much life insurance. But maybe Jack's quote gives a clue about the real cause of banking crisis. I'm betting that Bill Gates made a 'small' withdrawal.

forward, always forward

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Here I am, three years and over 600 assignments later. A few days ago I received notification to be excited about a boat load of new assignments that were soon to be released. I would be excited yet the work has become a barge of off-the-wall product names (although some like "adipex p" sounds more like a drug test at a weight lifting competition), lotions for various body parts, and so many dieting terms that my blogs should be classifed anorexic. For now, the work is helping me as I struggle to care for myself and 3 other families. I don't mean to complain. But I'm looking forward to when things will be much better.

sometimes you've got to get up pretty oily in the morning

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Accidents happen. Someone has to pay the medical bills. Thanks to Workers Compensation laws, your boss gets to cover your injuries regardless of whose stupidity or greed cause those accidents in the first place. For a time this was great news as long as you weren't working on a ship at sea. Then, in the 1970's came the Jones act to cover maritime workers. Fortunate for the BP employees on "Deepwater Horizon", they'll be covered by the Louisiana Jones Act. Still, why were they digging a mile under water at all? Turns out, most of the 'safe' oil is outlawed from drilling. And the sweet, sweet crude that isn't protected is running out. What's an oil company to do but go with unproven technology and explore the riskier, deeper planetary resources.

The good news is that BP is an evil oil company which will be forced to pay for its mistakes. Had it been an evil bank, we taxpayers would be paying ...