Christmas just keeps on coming!

Got my Amazon order yesterday. My daughter has already taken ""J.S. and M.N." It's been so long since I've read for pleasure, mainly because everything dissappointed me, but I finished "The Time Traveler's Wife" last week and it wet my whistle.

10 and half months old

Ellen and Janis,
Click on the feet and you should go to dosali.com where you will find the barefoot sandals I make. Click on Brides and you'll see what I spend most of the time on. I wish I had more time to just create new combinations and patterns but it's fun working with the brides too. About the sandals? Well, I used to smoke and when I quit I needed something to do with my hands. After everyone in the family got an afghan and some footies, I remembered we used to macrame these things and I thought I could work up a crochet pattern for them. About a hundred pairs later I needed to start getting rid of them. When I did a search, I came across some strung bead barefoot sandals that were gorgeous but cost in the hundreds. So, of course, I can do that better and cheaper. I love making them, everyone is always so tickled with them. I don't make much money but, look at all I save from not smoking.

I feel like I'm being rude when I don't post for a while.
When I'm unable to keep up with reading all of y'all's blogs, not only do I feel rude but, bereft.
So, sorry if I'm being rude, here's my excuse.
First the baby had his first illness. I've never mentioned how incredibly healthy his 1st year has been because I didn't want to jinx it, but now that he's had the stomach virus (and my superstitions, amazingly, had nothing to do with it) it's safe to talk.
I was always bad about having sympathy illness with my kids but after being puked and pooped on for two days, I got this for real. His mother got sick too and pretty soon Roger, my husband, was the only man standing. What a trooper. For 48 hours I only saw him when he came in to get himself another clean shirt.
Everyone is OK now but I have a mountain of work and 66!!! pairs of sandals to make!
So talk amongst yourselves.
I'll be working to Al Franken and falling asleep to the Daily Show and I'll be back when I dig my way out.

"To serve the economic needs of our country, we must also reform our immigration laws. Reform must begin by confronting a basic fact of life and economics. Some of the jobs being generated in America's growing economy are jobs American citizens are not filling. This past week, I proposed a new temporary worker program that would match willing foreign workers with willing American employers, when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs. If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country a person who will fill that job."
President's Radio Address, Jan. 10, 2004

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but if I were President, I'd be asking, "If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, WHAT KIND OF PIECE OF SHIT HAZARDOUS, monotonous, low paying JOB ARE WE OFFERING HERE? and "How can we make this a better place to work?" Not, how can we legally get a Mexican to do it cheap.
Maybe it's just me.

We were discussing North Korea and The Bomb, at work this morning. It was said that it was in response to Dumya's "State of the State, or whatever you want to call it"
"...We're working closely with the governments in Asia to convince North Korea to abandon its nukyular ambitions. ...Today, Iran remains the world's primary state sponsor of terror -- pursuing nukyular weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve." and his "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world"
That's when one of my favorite old guy's said, "What? Is Bush gonna commit suicide?"

Am I the only person that heard Rummy say this? When Democrats pointed out that the cost of the war was, once again, left out of the budget...

"No way in the world, anybody, a family, a business, eh, this government can pla-an that way, that well, over that long a period of time. It's just not possible-so what do you do? You have supplementals for those things that are of an emergency nature."

OK, so.. by Rummy's logic, I cannot possibly figure my car payment into my budget for the next year, much less, the next three years. Even though I bought it two years ago and (unless I win the lotto) will be paying on it for three more years. So I'm going to need "supplementals" to cover the car payment. So what? I just ask the people that were stupid enough to hire me, the one's that give me a contract every year so I'll know how much money I have to work with, to give me an extra $500.00 every month because it is fucking impossible to figure this into my budget.
Are we all retarded?

Early February

Vincent says "Try it, you'll like it."

According to my friend, Dagmar, the tackiest thing Americans do is dress our children like animals.

Easy Math

If a worker sets aside $1,000 a year for 40 years, and earns 4 percent annually on investments, the account would grow to $99,800 in today's dollars, but the government would keep $78,700 -- or about 80 percent of the account. The remainder, $21,100, would be the worker's.

With a 4.6 percent average gain over inflation, the government keeps more than 70 percent. With the CBO's 3.3 percent rate, the worker is left with nothing but the guaranteed benefit.

Fuck You Bush

Last year the Bush administration eliminated funding for the Bunker Buster, a ground penitrating nuclear weapon, because it was and election year and you know, he's supposed to be interested in reducing nuclear proliferation and the people wouldn't want to spend 500 million on it. But now, they don't have to pretend they give a damn about what the people want so Rumsfeld tells the Energy Secretary we need to put this program back in the budget and "You can count on my support for your efforts to revitalize the nuclear weapons infrastructure and to complete the RNEP study."
What a bunch a jerks we are.

The Night Democracy Died in Georgia
I read the explanation but I still can't understand how this happened. Georgia's Representatives have voted to give the Speaker of the House complete power over every vote in every committee. This page was just set up 2 days ago. You have to read it.