Yes, that's right, bugs. It's only 40 during the day, but still they are waking up. I almost ate one today, that's how I know.

We seem to have chipmunks setting up shop out back in the stone wall. I guess it's because our resident cats no longer go out. That will change with the kittens come along. Yes, there should be kittens at some point, after we rid ourselves of these old fogie cats, who are thinking outside the box! Bad kitty!  Actually, we do want to try to get some young cats or kittens, preferably from the same batch who will hopefully get along. Like I've said, I'm tired of cats that dont' get along.  Of course, the woman down the street got brothers, really wonderful cats, and of course the best of them, the really friendly one, got eaten by coyotes. Kind of makes sense, it's the hunter brother who survived. Again, it doesn't pay to be nice. Even for cats.

My brother finally found the piece of the transmission that was warn. He gave me the gears to bring to my favorite parts store to see if I could get it. I brought the parts book, but it doesn't have a breakdown of the transmission. The parts guy thought  that that might mean that Simplicity doesn't sell anything but the whole transmission. Which would be @ $700.00. But he consulted with some other guys, and I left the part with him. He called later saying that they do sell a kit, for $60.00. Well, for that I'll take a chance. Its either that or a new mower, and it might end up being a new mower in the end anyway, at the rate things keep breaking on this old geezer of a machine.  And I haven't even touched the wheel bearings on the other mower.

The truck gets to go to the shop tomorrow for another master cylinder. That should go another year and a half. :-(

Ok, got to check out the genealogy thing on PBS that Mrknowitall reminded me of. It is on line.

Didja miss me? (echo, echo, echo)

It's been cold this week. I chopped up a snow pile and it's all still there. I thought the sun would have done a job on it. I put out a load of laundry to day and when I took the second batch out, the first was cardboard. Too funny. But the air is so dry, it should suck the moisture, or at least most of it, out by tomorrow. I hope.

I have a doctors' appt. tomorrow. I wonder what pills I'll need to be put on? lol. I also made an appointment to get an eye exam, but that's not till later in the month. Well, making the appointment is half the battle, right?

I keep trying to catch up on paperwork, and I'm making some headway, but I feel like I'm just too distracted. I've lost two things that I cant find, and it's driving me nuts. They were just there...

The Ins. Co. called me and then emailed me forms to fill out for the insurance on my father's house. Because the estate is still not settled, a regular insurance co. wont insure it, so for over $1300.00 I can get basic fire and liability Insurance. And my brother who lives there still has to get rental insurance. WTF? I just emailed the GD lawyer again. He said this should be simple. What a frigging.... lawyer.

The female cat is driving me nuts. She was screaming last night at some ungodly hour and woke up the kid. He called down, but I didn't answer and I guess he went back to sleep. She seems to be getting worse with the screaming. Mostly it's because there isn't something wonderful in her bowl, but then again, she does it after she eats something wonderful. AAHHHH. Does it make me a bad person to keep looking in the paper for kittens? I realized today that I'm in a state of perpetual 'waiting for things to die.' People, lizards, cats... And that isn't even counting my job.

I just realized my selkie's belly button is in the wrong place. Hopefully not too many people will be staring at her pubic area to figure it out. Then again, if you can get hundreds of millions of dollars for this: http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/108752/giacometti-sculpture-becomes-most-expensive-work-ever-to-sell-at-auction
then well, who's going to even care about a belly button?

I put out a two day old pancake for the birds, only to see the cat out there munching on it. I just don't get it.

We watched Caprica last night. Looking fun, interesting. I have no idea where it's going, but hey, it's all about the ride. Also enjoyed the opener of Lost. And also have no idea where it's going, but I'm going to enjoy the ride. Waiting for V and Flash Forward to come back. Then I'll have no time to blog at all.

Speaking of Moose.. no, no one was? Seems she now has the genealogy bug, and the old stone photographing bug. Wonder where that came from.. wonder...Phase5?

Well, one of my LJ friends has found employment, if temporary. Yay for Mrknowitall. The G man.

I know I had a bunch of stuff to comment on, but honestly, I just cant keep a thought.
I did find it absurd that the Indians (not sure which tribe) actually are trying to argue that they cant put in Cape Wind because when they did a core sample of the ocean floor, they found that 7000 years ago, it was not under water and their ancestors 'may' have been buried there. WTF? May have? Give me a break. If that be the case, stop all construction now, everywhere. Because Indians MAY be buried anywhere. That's just an absurd argument. Really the only thing that interests me about the Cape Wind project is the money. Who's making it, what deals are being done.... That's what bothers me. But that there are going to be wind turbines off the coast interfering with my view... more power to them. I love to see them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBazB5SrKhU PEI wind turbines.

Mr. Brown has gone to Washington.... He's already felt the power of the Republican party. He was going to wait another week, but I think he got hit by the Whip who said "get yer ass down there boy" and so he did. It's wake up time. And I don't mean for the Democrats, I mean for Mr. Brown.

The end is nigh. Tonight is the beginning of the end of Lost. Its' been fun while it lasted.

I once compared Lost to a role playing game I used to play. That game basically ended with the characters heading into space. I wonder if Lost, with it's many similarities, will also end up in space?

I spent the morning cutting suckers (small trees)off a hill. A very steep hill. The last time I did that it snowed too. My fault?

I'll write about the FB thing tomorrow.

Not only was it warm enough for the leaves to be raked, but the ground wasn't a bowl of soup like I expected. So considering today felt like spring, I raked. And raked. And... well you get the idea. Got a good chunk done, ready to be picked up when the real spring gets here. I couldn't pick up anything now if I wanted too because I have nowhere to dump them, the pit is flooded right now and any attempt to dump there would doubtless eventually involve a tow truck. So we'll just skip that. I have other thing to do too, and guess what, it's still winter. Memorial day is still a few months off.

I tried to get back on the DU site, but guess what? The page wasn't found. Oh yeah, that's just great.

I was looking at a stone today while raking and noticed that the it said "twin" and I looked at the dates. One son was born and died in the same year as the date of birth of the twin. Sad, but it was nice that they noted that he had a twin brother. I think they were born in 1895, long before neo natal care.

So, who wants to buy a Toyota? Anyone? Anyone? Well, you CANT! Boy, as if they (the car companies) weren't having enough problems.

Pernell Roberts died. "Who?" you ask.  He was the eldest brother on Bonanza, and also played Trapper John in the series Trapper John, MD.
RIP Adam. Its' off to the Pondarosa in the sky.

Wolfgaar will like this. I got an email from my SIL about a  photo of a rock formation in Birmania. The formation, at certain times, has an amazing reflection in the water if you look at it horizontally. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/8/4/1/5/6/ar118307693265148.jpg&imgrefurl=http://activerain.com/blogsview/134486/amazing-photo&h=348&w=584&sz=37&tbnid=QqkEvDthg3j_DM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbermania,%2Bphoto&hl=en&usg=__9U12C53m4LZsUGo2LgM6DpybUfw=&ei=RKVfS8v8AcuXtge7upHtCw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&ved=0CA0Q9QEwAA

NPR had an interesting show on about Bail Bondsmen. They have been doing a series on the whole Bail system, and how it hurts people and costs the taxpayers millions. It was interesting. One of their arguments is that it unjustly targets the poor. Of course I have to say that if these people, poor or not, didn't break the law... well, they wouldn't need bail now would they?  It does sound like the system, like so many others, desperately needs to be overhauled. The thing with the bail bondsmen was just ridiculous in some states. I cant even explain it, but the state gets screwed and loses money. And its because they allow it.

Got to go get me some Big Love.

Where to begin?
I broke Ryther's shaving mirror today. had it in my hand and it just slipped away into the tub. Now, this mirror has fallen I cannot tell you how many times in the past. 20 maybe at least. We'll be sitting in the living room and her 'crash'. "What was that?" Oh, just the mirror, again.  And yet this one time, when I'm there, all responsible and all, it shatters. Oh well. I don't shave, what should I care, right?

I found a home for the flute I found. My crazy friend in Oregon will take it for her son. Her husband played flute, and although this is considered an inferior flute, a school flute, he will fix it and try to teach his son, who is interested, how to play. Yay.

I've been home a lot lately since there is not much to do at the cemetery right now (although I did paint some signs, get gas in the truck and move frozen flowers today). It's that time of the year, when I have to do all the year end taxes, W-2's and so one, and start getting the years figures from the ledger into the computer. Every year I say I will do it as it comes in, and every year I put it off to the end of the year, which actually works out because, what the hell else would I be doing? 

So being at home, I have the radio on to NPR all day. I also check Facebook  more than I should. I don't multi-task well, let me tell you. I would never make it in an office. I need to be outside.
But anyway... Today when I got home I noticed my state senator was going to be on the radio, so I tuned him in. Unfortunately I missed half the show, but what I did hear was interesting. What I also found it interesting were some of the comments on his FB page from some of his 'supporters'.  One person wrote that NPR was "state run crap" and another that it was "Socialist National Welfare Radio".  Wow, no wonder this country is in the state it's in.    I may not always agree with the slant some programs or conversations take, but NPR give the most balanced and in depth news around. It informs. Now, you may not agree with the conclusions they come to, but damn if they don't give you a lot of info to go on. According to Wikki: In a Harris poll conducted in 2005, NPR was voted the most trusted news source in the U.S.^[4] Now, how much do you trust Wikki to be right? hmm? lol
It just galls me that people will submerge themselves in one news sourse that's not very good, or that's mostly opinion, rather than try to get the most information they can. I don't think a bombastic talk show host is really a good source of news.  If you stick a Herald in front of me, or a Globe, hell, if you put a rag in front of me I'd read it. Doesn't mean I won't just take it with a grain of salt though.

So on NPR today were a number of topics of interest. I listened to my senator describe the fact that the chamber where the governor was giving his state of the state last night was rather empty, that they were bringing in people just to fill the seats. That can't be a good sign for his political future.
Also of note was the statement Sen Kerry made apparently saying he knew Scott Brown was going to win the election. LOL!  Well, he did, did he? He might have told Martha that and maybe she could have gotten her shit together. What a jackass. I bet he's getting a bit nervous about his seat, although I'm not sure how much longer he has before he has to run again. The voters are notoriously short minded.

Who is going to run for Barney Frank's seat? See, that's the thing. You got a republican into an empty seat, but can you actually get a man with that much power out of office if he doesn't want to go? Does anyone seriously think that if Ted was still alive, he wouldn't have been voted right back in? I have no doubt that he would have won again. He just had too much power.  But I am wondering if Barney might just bow out. Because he knows he's part of the problem. I just wonder how many others know that?

Anyway, also on  today was a discussion of Denialism. New book. But this is one I didn't quite agree with. Basically he was saying that if you didn't trust science, you were a denialist. Ok, that's oversimplifying it. But then he goes on to flutter back and forth giving reasons not to trust science, but that you should trust it. He sounded like an idiot.  You should trust that vaccines are safe, but we don't know how much mercury in fish is bad for you. We don't have all the answers, but you should trust us. Vitamins are useless. But... arn't doctors telling us to take them, and isn't that based on... science? Organic food is the same as non organic. Well, maybe in an absolute sense, but if you are buying something from Monsanto which leads to poor land management and enslaved farmers, is that fruit the same as an organic fruit. And wasn't DDT safe at one point? Actually I guess its argued that it still is safe, just in more measured amounts. Which is scientifically correct? Which scientist do you believe? And when they find they are wrong, like with the safety of plastic (also mentioned today) then who do you believe?

I see Obama has gotten stirred up by the election of Scott Brown. He's out there yelling at Wall Street again. Yeah, you do need to regulate the banks. You do need to break them down to more manageable sizes. Why are banks selling insurance? Can I ask that?

So back to Monsanto. We watch a show Better off Ted which is pretty silly but funny. Its about a big corporation. They have fake adds sometimes, and I was looking at a Monsanto add in Nat. Geographic today and all I could think about when i read it was teh show.  "Producing more. Conserving more. Improving farmers' lives. That's sustainable agriculture. And that's what Monsanto is all about." 
Yeah, right. See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122498255   I guess it sounded better than "Monsanto, enslaving farmers for years to come".

Well, there you go, all before dinner. Ummm.
And there is beef stew in the crock pot for tomorrow.

And catching up on Dollhouse. Yeah, that's 19 years of marriage for ya. And now that he's back, the cat is acting up again. WTH? She was pretty good the four days he was gone. Now it's back to waking up the kid with her yowling.

Harry's tumor is growing pretty rapidly. I let him on the porch for a bit of sun and smells today and he tried to squeeze by the snow shovel, and he couldn't lift his back leg high enough to get by and kind of fell. Poor guy. I kept an eye on him while he was out there, and he didn't go off the porch. He can still get on the bed and couch, and up and down the stairs, but I think it's getting tougher. Eventually I'll have to bring the kitty box upstairs for him. I hate the kitty box, but I've dealt with worse.

My MIL brought by some stamps and ink pads she bought must be 10 or more years ago, when we went to a stamping store for a demo. She never used them. I'm not sure I will either. I really have to pear down on my stamping supplies. I just don't use them. I need to find them a good home though. Those puppies are expensive. Anyone know anyone into rubber stamping?

I spackled and sanded my girl. I didn't get to the store to get the spray paint that I need. I'll have to do that tomorrow. Hoping for the weekend off to go to NH. Might even get by without a storm. Might.

I got the mail today and pulled out three flyers for Brown. Brother.

We got back today after an overnight trip to my mother's in NH. We had a good time. We went up for a baby shower for my step father's niece. It's her first baby. She and her husband and mother came up from down south where they have been living for a while. She's a doctor. Her mother just recently had surgery for brain cancer and lung cancer I think. It's been pretty nuts for a while I guess, but hopefully her mother will make it.
My mother's house was sort of assigned as the place to have the party. Not so sure my mother wanted it there, but she let the other women handle most everything and I think it worked out pretty well. She has to deal with a sister in law that she's not so fond of, but other than that it seemed to go off fine, even with almost a dozen people staying in the house. I think the niece looks at my mother as a sort of second mom, the rational, together mom who has the answers. My mom's pretty good that way. I'm not too jealous. Although years ago when the family had moved in with my mother and step dad, and things were getting a bit out of hand, I was a bit pissed off that I thought my mother was being taken advantage of. I'm glad that's over.

The brother of the woman who's pregnant, who just had a baby with his wife 10 months ago was there too. It was funny watching the two of them together, "don't let her put that in her mouth.." and all that fun stuff.. Oh the joys of parenthood.
Said brother also had a mouth full of pain from cankers or something like it. That was a hot topic of debate among the doctors as to what it was, and I was a bit shocked to hear that he was on some kind of oxycontin, codin or whatever it is. I keep meaning to look that up, because I swear to god, every boo boo and outchie these days is given oxy something for the pain. And I was under the impression that oxyanything was the most hard core pain killer you could get, and very addictive. So why would they be giving it out to everyone for everything, unless there were some huge marketing push to sell it for some reason? It really bothers me. I can see it for cancer, or severe injury, but mouth sores? I don't know.

Saturday morning we had heavy heavy rains. We didn't leave for NH until they had let up a bit, but I am kind of worried about what the state of the grave we did on Friday will be when I get to work on Monday. It lay in the path of where the water drains for the cemetery, all the water from the hill finds its way down the road and then cuts over the grass. We took the sod from the grave and made a brim which I hope was able to at least slow, if not divert the rain from the grave. I envision flowers and dirt on the other side of the road and a vault erupting from the ground. That would NOT be a pretty picture at all.

Friday after work I ran into my brother with Biv as I put my father's truck away at the house. They got to talking about cars, she was going to the drags this weekend maybe. Last time she brought Himself a photo of a car but didn't get it signed, and she mentioned that to my brother and he said "I painted that car." I was like, well, hell, who cares if the driver signs it, I want you to sign it! Pretty funny. I'll bring it by for Uncle to sign.

Got to go, season finally of Defying Gravity.

pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
RIP Larry Gelbart, writer for MASH

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-young/larry-gelbart---rip-make_b_284396.html

We've been watching Defying Gravity for the last few weeks. Its' a show about a crew of astronauts going to Mars. It's a character driven show, with perhaps and alien 'influence'. We really like it. I'm sure it won't last just because we are enjoying it. Murphy's law and all.

The last DVDs we rented from Blockbuster was the whole first season of True Blood. It's not as good as Six Feet Under, but it's fun. I don't like some of the characters, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Pretty good for light porn. HBO is always good for that. lol.

Met with the Hospice nurse today. Hopefully they can help my father feel a bit better. Although hes so stubborn and doesn't want to help himself. As Frank sang "I did it my way." The good thing is they cover the cost of some of the drugs he's on, the really expensive one, and even the Tylenol he takes. Small consolation I suppose.

Boy, you'd think with the way the news is reporting things, that every accident is caused by an elderly driver. I wonder how many accidents they are not reporting on that are not elderly drivers? I know there are elder drivers that need to be tested, but I seriously think if people just LOOKED before they crossed instead of expecting cars to stop for them, a lot of this would be avoided. But we have a whole generation of kids that were told the cars will stop for them, and hell, half of them dare the cars to hit them. You've seen them do it I'm sure. I saw a kid on a skateboard in the middle of the lane with earbuds in. You've got to give them some of the credit.

Guess which user pic I'm going to use for this entry. Oh, wait, by now you already know.

I have at least a dozen potted trees in my back yard in various stages of growth. I try to get them big enough so that when I plant them at the cemetery, the little bastards wont be as inclined to kill them. I'm not sure how successful this will be, since they would have to be a good three inches around to guarantee that, but then I wouldn't be able to move the things. so we will have to take our chances I suppose. Biv already nailed one of my baby lindens a week ago. She mowed the thing over even though I had put a flag next to it and told her about it. Se la gare.

I have a number of trees I took from my mother's yard in NH. He has lots of woods that have been cleared, and there are small trees now growing to beat the band now that the big ones are gone. I took three beech trees home with me, and one tree that I cannot quite identify. The beech trees are also interesting, as one has stiffer and more veined leaves than the other two. I would love to know what the difference is.
The one that I thought might be a linden has much more smooth leaves. They are still that heart kind of shape, but without the veins and 'pleats' in the leaf that the linden has. And this tree is growing exponentially. It's grown at least six inches this spring. My Linden has hardly grown at all. I'll have to post some pictures of my 'children'. I'm going to have to try to dig up some more of these false lindens. If they grow that fast, they would make great shade trees in some sections. I like variety at the cemetery too, esp. considering that every year there seems to be yet another threat to the trees.

I'm also cultivating Catalpa trees. They grow incredibly fast as well. They are kind of a messy tree, with their 'cigars' in the fall and spring to clean up, but they have beautiful flowers for a while, and they grow anywhere. The wood is kind of trashy, but who cares when it grows that fast. I'm not looking to build a boat.

I have one elm baby. I see elms in the cemetery growing wild, but from past experience, I don't know if they will survive to adulthood or not. We had a beautiful elm that grew out of the stump of an elm that died of Dutch Elm disease, and I thought that it was great that the new growth could do so well. And the tree it became was perfectly formed and needed in that spot. Unfortunately it suddenly dropped dead a year or so ago. It was about 10 inches in diameter and maybe 20 feet tall when it died. It was a crying shame to see it go. Yet new growth still comes out of that same stump. Cant kill it, but cant keep it alive. Go figure. So my baby elm is from a seed. So I don't know if it will live or not, but it's growing well and I'm training it.

Oh, that's where the title comes from. I have to train a lot of the trees to make them strait. Which means cutting off some branches and deciding which branch will become the dominant branch, the one that goes strait up. Then I tie that branch to a pole to make it stay. I found some cool ties that are Velcro. They are just like the ties on some of the lettuce that you can reuse. Great idea.

Well, I have more political things to post about, but I think we are going to try to finish a movie. We are in the middle of Across the Universe. It's fun, inspired, and of course, the music is great.
We also watched Valkyrie the other night. That was pretty good. I never realized how far any attempt on Hitler had gone. Although I knew there were assassination attempts, I didn't realize how close to usurping his government they got. Interesting. Maybe PBS will do a real version of it. I don't recall it from World at War, but it's been a very very long time since I've seen any of those. lol

I'm getting back to my cemetery roots here. lol

I was able to sleep until almost 11am this morning. I haven't done that in 6 months. I SO needed it. And I might, just might, be able to maintain some kind of late sleepage once my father gets out of the hospital since he is actually able to swallow pills now that the stent is in.

I had the wildest, longest dream this morning. Started out with people hunting down other people, mostly kids I think, and I was one of them trying to get away. I think we finally go the upper hand. Then it changed to vampires, and trying to figure out who was a vampire and who wasn't and you couldn't tell by looking at them, they had to touch a cross to prove they were human. Then it morphed into the vampires were zombies, and everyone was being turned into a zombie (although not the gooey rotty zombies) and in the end I got turned into one too. Because I wear glasses, I asked "will this mean I can see better in the dark?" the reply was "Not really." Kind of funny. I then went out and found a zombie baby, just emerging from the ground. I took it back to the others to be raised. So freaky funny weird.

My son said there was a girl who wore a shirt to school that said:

G_ F_ck Y_ _rs_lf Would you like to buy a vowel?

And she didn't get sent home. Who lets their teen daughters wear a shirt like that on any day, let alone a school day? And yeah, I think it's funny, but not on a kid. And even I wouldn't wear it. Something I'd picture on a college drop out, or punk bank member.

http://runpee.com/#app=3e1a&e1bd-RunPeeID=0.0.0&26f3-selectedIndex=0
Runpee.com. Check it out before you go to the next big movie. "because a bladder is a terrible thing to hold".

Yesterday I was gyped out of my Ledger. It was a bonus day, and the one person who gets a weekend paper is supposed to get an extra paper, only the truck driver couldn't figure that out and gave me the same number of papers. Today, as a consolation prize I guess, I got three extra papers. If only I had a parakeet.

I wanted to read about the ravens that were featured on the front page. I'll have to look on line.

The Sat. Ledger had a section where kids had drawn their moms and sent in the drawings to be printed. While reading the page and looking at all the varied manifestations of motherhood, I noticed that three kids on the front page all had multiple pictures. Favoritism I first thought, then I realized the obvious difference in artistic aptitude of the same child, and I knew it was a miss-print. Sure enough, Monday there was a clarification with the pictures and the right names.

On today's Ledger's front page is a story about another death at the Braintree Motel 6. Maybe it should be the Motel 666. "We'll leave the light on for you". No thanks Tom, I think I'll sleep in my car, where it's safe.

I would like to say that I like the sales tax, if there has to be one, to be at 5%. Its a nice number, easy to figure. You can make the change very easily. I don't like that 6.5%, or whatever they are going to settle on. No, I don't like it one bit.

I keep thinking that the more people lay people off, the less people can spend, so the more people will be laid off. It's a vicious circle, or a catch 22.

The Unitarian Church had a new sign. I love their signs. They are so funny. One is "Cushioned pews and no Hell", another, for the summer when they don't have regular meetings, is "God trusts you to miss a few weeks." or something like that. Today's was "No one left behind." A reference to the Left Behind series. Too funny.

NPR had something about the marshmallow test. I desperately wanted to try that on Himself, but never did. You put a marshmallow in front of a young child (not sure of the age, have to look that up) and tell them if they can wait and not eat the marshmallow, they can have a bunch more. It's a test of delayed gratification, and apparently those that can resist have a better chance at succeeding in life, which makes sense since if you can tough things out, you will go further than if you just give in. I'm not sure how Himself would have done. He can be very patient at times, but at other times, it's me first NOW!

Last night we watched the LOST season finally. Enjoyable, but I don't get the whole Jacob thing. And what's with Juliet?

Someone planted a dogwood tree on their lot, nest to their gravestone. I think it might be the same person who wanted fertilizer on the graves like the 'other' cemetery does. Well, I have news for her, not only do we not fertilize yearly, but we don't allow you to plant a tree on your lot, like that 'other' cemetery is know to do. And we have bylaws to back that up. I put a nice but certain note on the tree. Remove it or we will. I'm trying to think of a place nearby that it might be able to be planted, but the prospects are not too good. And I do love trees, just not next to stones. Dummies.

Ryther just finished Twilight. Of course he read it in about a week. And that was only reading it in the morning before work. Show off.

I'm still sick but less so. I just want to point that out, and the fact that the oak pollen is heavy, so that next year I can see if I'm sick at that time, when that is happening. Otherwise, I'm going to go watch a new PBS show with Kenneth Branagh in it. I haven't seen him in anything in a long time, and he's a really good actor.

Just finished watching the latest episode of the PBS series We Shall Remain. I made a comment on one of those Facebook quizzes that two friends took. They both got Andrew Jackson as their president of choice or whatever it was. And I wrote in "trail of tears" because ever since I read Creek Mary's Blood by Dee Brown, that's all I can really think of about Andrew Jackson, that it was his policies that sent the Indians on the Trail of Tears. Now that I've watched this episode, its even more obvious how much he had to do with the removal of the Cherokee nation from their lands. And I also learned that the Supreme Court of the US actually sided with the Cherokees in their argument for the rights to their land. And good 'ole Hickory' just blew off the Supreme Court. Ya gotta love the US government. Nothing every changes.

Well, last night's celebration of Sushi's husband's 40's birthday went pretty well. We thought that Bear had gone to the wrong restaurant, but it turned out he was just delayed by traffic. Phew! We all got a kick out of him taking his reading glasses out to read the menu. Welcome to the four eyes club. He actually looked really good in them.
Also looking good, even when blotto, was Sushi. I think her husband liked his gift. He was noticeably quiet last night. At least until the subject of WOW came up.
The food was good I thought. Bear and Ryther and Sushi enjoyed two bottles of Trimbach Ribeauvile' Pino Griz? wine. Who's birthday was it again?

And Grafix1da gave me some wonderful signs for my flower garden, which will have to wait until I actually have some worthy flowers in them. They are home made and awesome. One reads "Please Enjoy" and the other reads "Do Not Pick". I love them. I need more. And a shotgun. Just in case people (girls) cant read. Yes, I am turning into that mean old lady. Well, no, I am that mean old lady.

I did get some quality sleep last night and this morning. That alone is a good thing. I hope it lasts me through the week.

My neighbor had his back roof re-done, and his chimney pointed. The guy is related to his daughter in law and has done work down the street too. So I had him do my chimney yesterday. He took down the old antenna that was slowly loosing arms, and did the pointing. Looks much better. Once they change over the TV signals for good, and we see how that all works, I might put the flying saucer we have in the living room out on the roof, but I want to know how things go first with the reception.

I helped my brother with his car today. He's doing the springs and needed some weight to push down on the front end to tighten a nut. Weight I have, esp. after last night. I was glad to help. It's cold out today though with that wind, even if the sun is warm.

Dump and pet food today, upload some photos and laundry. Nothing exciting. Day off tomorrow I hope. Yeah Patriots, and not the sports team.

Thank you School House Rock.

"The British are coming! The British are coming!"

Now, the ride of Paul Revere
Set the nation on its ear,
And the shot at Lexington heard 'round the world,
When the British fired in the early dawn
The War of Independence had begun,
The die was cast, the rebel flag unfurled.

And on to Concord marched the foe
To seize the arsenal there you know,
Waking folks searching all around
Till our militia stopped them in their tracks,
At the old North Bridge we turned them back
And chased those Redcoats back to Boston town.

And the shot heard 'round the world
Was the start of the Revolution.
The Minute Men were ready, on the move.
Take your powder, and take your gun.
Report to General Washington.
Hurry men, there's not an hour to lose!

Now, at famous Bunker Hill,
Even though we lost, it was quite a thrill,
The rebel Colonel Prescott proved he was wise;
Outnumbered and low on ammunition
As the British stormed his position
He said, "Hold your fire till you see the whites of their eyes!"

Though the next few years were rough,
General Washington's men proved they were tough,
Those hungry, ragged boys would not be beat.
One night they crossed the Delaware,
Surprised the Hessians in their lair,
And at Valley Forge they just bundled up their feet!

And the shot heard 'round the world
Was the start of the Revolution.
The Minute Men were ready, on the move.
Take your blanket, and take your son.
Report to General Washington.
We've got our rights and now it's time to prove.

Well, they showed such determination
That they won the admiration
Of countries across the sea like France and Spain,
Who loaned the colonies ships and guns
And put the British on the run
And the Continental Army on its feet again.

And though they lost some battles too,
The Americans swore they'd see it through,
Their raiding parties kept up, hit and run.
At Yorktown the British could not retreat,
Bottled up by Washington and the French Fleet,
Cornwallis surrendered and finally we had won!

The winner!

Hurray!

From the shot heard 'round the world
To the end of the Revolution
The continental rabble took the day
And the father of our country
Beat the British there at Yorktown
And brought freedom to you and me and the U.S.A.!

God bless America, Let Freedom Ring!

One of my neighbors just dropped off some hard boiled eggs. I said we'd take them as the boy loves them, and her kids love to dye them but not eat them.

On Cuba. It's about time. A good start. More please.

The mattress that someone dumped on the sidewalk was picked up. Yay DPW.

The architect who created the Zakim Bridge send a check for $15,000. to help pay for the electric bill to light the bridge at night. Of course that only pays for three months of lighting. How much for solar panels?

On the back up at the tolls because too many people called in sick for Easter and there is no money to pay for overtime for the other workers. My simple, green solution? Open the goddamn tolls to alleviate the back up. How bloody hard is that? If you can't keep up, just let people through until you can. That should be a law. At all tolls.

I had no luck with the butterfly weed seeds I planted last year, so I put some of the remaining seeds in those peat pot things and I now have two trays of them that have mostly sprouted. I hope they do better this way. I really think they are so pretty.

One of my lizards seems to be dying. One is as fat as a cow, huge tail full of stored food, but the other is so thin, all it's reserves are used up. She won't eat. She looks at the food but wont touch it no matter what it is. I feel bad for her, but I'm not going to spend good money on a lizard. I mean, what are they going to do with her anyway? I really wish I had just gotten mice.
Of course I now have plenty of meal worms. I'm keeping my own breeding bunch. I have everything from worms to beetles now. Soon there will be baby worms again. Just in case.

Just finished watching Doctor's Diaries. on PBS. Ryther and I have been watching this on PBS for years as they follow the same doctors from med school though their careers. It's very interesting to see what becomes of them.

Have I mentioned that sometimes I feel like I'm playing monkey in the middle?

Will the Globe stop turning soon? Will that be good for my newspaper? Seems unreal to think that the Boston Globe might stop printing. But times they are a changing, big time. I really don't think the Herald has what it takes to be Boston's #1 paper for news. It's much more of a rag. Only time will tell I guess.

In other news news, YAY IOWA! Three states where it will be legal for gays to marry. And Vermont, the state that really started it all with Civil Unions, is on the verge of possibly becoming the 4th state to allow gay marriage, but it would be the first to actually vote it into legality rather than having the courts order it. I would really like to see more states actually vote to allow it, but either way, I think it's here to stay. I think as people get used to the idea, and see that it's no big deal, more states will allow it, but I do think it will take time for some of the more conservative states to change, if they ever do on their own. But then again, I think it took nearly 100 years after emancipation for interracial marriage to be legal in all 50 states, and that by court order if I'm not mistaken.

Speaking of gay... we did enjoy the musical Godspell today. My only complaint is that at times the music overpowered the singers, who were really good. Great set, fun interpretation, although I didn't like the opening sequence, it didn't make much sense to me. And I was disappointing they didn't carry Jesus through the isle at the end. They did that in the high school production I saw, and it really was awesome. But other than that, it was really enjoyable.

My brother got my father some 'shamwow' shams. He gave me two. I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to do with them, since I've never seen the commercial.

It's really really windy tonight. Feels much colder than it is. brrr. Time to curl up with a good movie.

And you thought I was negative. Boy.

I expanded the bounds of my garden this afternoon. Another four feet wider. The loam is surprisingly rich compared to what is under the existing garden. That's because the garden in over the leaching field that is full of sand and gravel. I dumped two more wheel barrels full of compost in the garden, and I have more to go. I seem to have an abundance of leaves from last year that will compost over the summer. I need another bin.

I could have put out a few loads of laundry today, but I thought it was going to rain. It didn't. I was actually a beautiful day. Although there was a strange front visible on the horizon that make Boston disappear around noon, and made it look like there were mountains visible all along the horizon.

I got another call for a funeral. I really don't want any right now. I have things to do.

You can tell it's Spring because the flocks of vagrant youths are hanging out at CVS.

Ryther found Highlander on Hulu. Something to fill the gaps on the ever vanishing shows that I watch.

Ryther was asked by one of his co-workers where to get a sticker for his car. Ryther told him to go to the place that he thought I took our car. See, that's the problem right there. I take the car for the stickers usually. I haven't gone to the place he recommended in maybe 15 years, because the place hasn't done inspections in that long. As a matter of fact, the place I used to take the car after that is also now gone. So I take it to a Shell station. Which is where his co-worker eventually ended up, coincidentally enough. I don't give out computer advise. As Mrknowitall would say "just sayin".

NPR had an interesting interview on Fresh Air the other day. It was about the derivatives market. " Years before the current economic crisis, law professor and former Wall Street trader Frank Partnoy was warning about the dangers of risky financial practices.

In his 1997 book FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street, Partnoy detailed how derivatives — financial instruments whose value is determined by another security — were being used and abused by big financial firms. Partnoy used his experiences as a derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley to give the book an insider's perspective."

If you have the time to listen to it, it's very interesting. According to Mr. Partnoy, Phil Grahmm and his wife had a huge part in the total non-regulation of these instruments. "Again, my expectations were dashed. The Federal Reserve engineered a private bailout of LTCM, but Greenspan resisted derivatives regulation. The derivatives lobby, led by Senator Phil Gramm and his wife Wendy, who initially had deregulated swaps in 1993 and had been a director of Enron since then, waited out the storm of criticism. Then, in late 2000, as the country rubbernecked at the Bush v. Gore election results, they and Greenspan persuaded President Clinton to perform his last official act, signing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Greenspan, Rubin, and Levitt all supported this sweeping deregulation of derivatives. It was one the greatest mistakes in the history of financial markets."

Okay, I like dark chocolate. I especially like Ghirardelli dark chocolate. But I'm sorry, I draw the line at Twilight Delight 72% cacao. Woah! It's so on the verge of being baking chocolate. And yet, they have a darker dark, and 80% I think. I don't think so. There's bitter sweet, and then there's just plain bitter. The 60% is great though. Perfection. And yet, I am going to finish the Twilight. Just a little at a time.

Friday night we went over to (yes, I know I posted this) Ged's to watch the last (two actually) episodes of Battlestar Galactica. We were watching the episodes at home on HULU but for some reason in the last few weeks, HULU has had an 8 day delay on the episodes, so in order to know what was going on for the two hour finale, he let us watch his copy of the previous week an hour before the last episode aired. Which was really nice and we had a nice time with a few other geeks.
I thought the ending was pretty good, although I didn't quite like the very very end. It seemed to wrap up everything nicely. We did see previews for a spin off show of sorts, which maybe we'll see on HULU. Having watched and loved the original Battlestar Gallactica, I really have been impressed with the retelling. And it certainly wrapped things up much better than the original. It has been a long strange trip though, and I feel I should watch it all over again and see what I missed or what I've forgotten.

It's been a cold weekend here in the North East. The clouds tonight were really weird. I saw the sun though this low layer of foggy cloud, and it was all pinky and strange. Eyre.

Took the Jetta in for what I thought was going to be a replacement of the OX censor, but they did nothing but evaluate it. I know it's due for a timing belt, but I have to explain to them that they don't need to do the water pump because it was done two years ago when the impeller blew apart. I wonder what that will save. Then my father wants me to take it to his friend the mechanic, but while he's a great mechanic, I always get the impression that he doesn't even want to work on the thing. And now that the car situation is different, it's not so easy to drop off the car and get a ride home from my father. But he just doesn't get that. UG. I hate cars. I really do. I hate interfering parents too. MYOB. Which reminds me I forgot to call my mother again! Cripse.

Is it bed time yet? Yeah, I think so.