Saturday night at the movies

good stuff here


some more good stuff


and one more for the road

Miscellaneous Thoughts

I should be doing other things but I've got some questions. Any answers out there?

*If we give that pretty lady from Alaska all the clothes and accessories, and whatever's left of the makeup, will she please go home now?

*Why is it that (most) people who go to an Obama rally come away excited and optimistic, and (some) people come away from the McCain/Palin rallies looking for someone to beat up?

*Alan Greenspan didn't know that humans are greedy? Huh? Where's he been? I'm searching for an Ayn Rand photo to insert here.

*Will the next president do anything to stop mountaintop removal in WVa?

*What will happen to all those signing statements after Bush leaves office?

*Is it OK to be pleased with Colin Powell's moving endorsement of Obama and scathing indictment of the McCain campaign, and still be mad at him for what he did at the UN? How can I hold these 2 thoughts in my head at the same time?

*Is there a downside to early voting? I like it but worry that somehow all those early votes might get misplaced.

*Does having a camera and mic in front of you make you stupid and angry? Sure are a lot of folks saying stupid things these days. I wonder how I would behave if a roving reporter asked me what was on my mind right now.

*Will the Commonwealth of Virginia know that I've got an Obama button on under my jacket when I go to vote? Do you think they'll have metal detectors?

*Will it be possible to get the foxes out of the henhouse? I'm listening to Bill Moyers interview James K. Galbraith about the sad state of our "corporate republic".

*Will my big brother read this and get mad?

Good night all, xoxo

Good Grief, I Forgot To Write About Pete

My favorite child had his birthday on the 17th and I forgot to acknowledge it. What kind of mother am I?? He's not really my favorite, of course, they are all wonderful. However, Pete does give the best presents of all my children. He's busy with graduate school and his social life, so he probably doesn't check my blog very often. It's not like he has the Empty Nest on his feed page where he can check it every hour to see what's new. Shoot, we aren't even friends on Facebook. And forgetting to write about him here isn't nearly as egregious as forgetting to pick him up from the babysitter's house one evening years ago. I wonder if he noticed.

So here's a slightly late shout-out to good old Pete, 26 years young. As I told him on the phone yesterday (see, I am not completely thoughtless) I am glad I gave birth to him, and I think it worked out well for both of us.

Princess Evie Comes To Town

I was going to write something about how sick and tired I am of bloviating windbags and this whole blasted campaign, can't we just have the damn election now and be done with it, but then baby Evie came to see me and for a few hours I forgot about cross burning and lynching and whatever else those crazy-assed rethuglicans are up to.

Evie is nearly 3 months old and starting to be a little more open to being sociable. Maybe, she's thinking, this crazy old broad leaning over me is not so bad. Evie seems to like it when my too-long bangs hang over my face while I change her diaper. That really tickled her. Or maybe it was feeling the breeze on her private parts that made her laugh. We'll never know.

Enjoy these photos if you aren't too wrapped up in figuring out who to vote for. It's tough, I know.

With big brother Peyton, right before their heads smacked together resulting in serious wailing from the Princess

Forget about politics, look at this:

Betty White On The Late Late Show, Craig Furgeson, 10-06-08

Betty White Rocks! You go girl!

Dear Diary

I am so ashamed to be such a bad blogger. But I do have a good excuse. I changed jobs and retired. Or I retired and got a new job. I don't know, I'm so confused. It all happened so fast.

Let me back up and start over. Last March I completed 30 years of service in the Virginia Retirement System. This means I could retire with full benefits. I have been rolling that idea around in my head for some time, as the benefits are kind of nice and there is no real reason to wait to collect; in other words, the monthly benefit does not increase if you wait to retire.

But, being a young-ish person, and having a child in college makes it kind of hard to be without full-time employment. I do like working. I just wanted to work somewhere else, doing something else.

I learned about a job as the records manager at a law firm. It sounded like a hard job, and I really was not looking for a hard job, since I have been working for 30 years now, doggone it, but my husband said I should go on the interview to at least find out about it. So I did. It sounded interesting and I was invited back for a second interview. All went well with that one. They made an offer, I said I need x amount of money and they said OK. Next thing I know, I am filling out retirement papers, and telling the people I work with that I am leaving. Golly, that was hard. By my last week on the job, I was an emotional and physical wreck. Also around this time, I hurt my shoulder, so I was not in good shape at all. And I only had 4 days off between jobs. People, if you do this, take as much time as you can between jobs. Trust me on this.

During my "retirement", I visited my son at college and 3 three grandchildren. Here are some photos:

I hope you will forgive me for not writing in almost a month. I promise to be regular after this.

I enjoy my new job and think it will be a good fit. I left behind some very fine people and that was much harder than I thought it would be. I thank them for their support and kind words during this time.