Do they honestly think…and I am including anyone at all in this whole “they” thing, cuz “they” know who they are…do they honestly think that Rush Limbaugh is the problem? Maybe not…but I think that THEY think we are stupid enough to believe that he is.

Making it a bad thing to speak out what we think about our government?? That is one of the key ingredients to our “freedom”. If Obama wants to squelch our freedom of speech and opinion…among the other steps we are seeing towards socialism, then I hope he fails at that, too. Which was actually what was said, by the way. Rush said turning this country into a socialist experiment is what he wants Obama to fail at…pay attention, you goobers.

It is also not flying with me to blame the previous administration for our debt when it has been doubled and soon to be tripled in less than 90 days. That’s double 8 years worth of spending…in 3 months.

Some other things I think, just for the record:

I think Michelle Obama’s “fashion sense” is fair, at best. The dress she wore on Election night made her look like a black widow spider. I am sick of being told that she is the end all and be all of fashion that has ever been in the White House.

I think that many folks who voted for Obama are regretting it now.

I think NO EARMARKS should mean NO freaking EARMARKS! And if you’re a Republican with an earmark in these bills? You should lose your RNC card, or whatever it is you get. Idiots. I told you folks he didn’t have the power to do what he said he was going to…don’t look for your check in the mail anytime soon.

I think Rahm Emmanuel is scarier than Nancy Pelosi. For a lot of reasons. Nancy Pelosi [woulda loved to be a fly on the wall when she met with the Pope] is scarier than Joe Biden. Joe Biden is scarier [not to mention, pathetic] than Obama…and he’s scary enough. Believe me when I say I pray for Obama’s safety.

I think I’m sick of bailing out big business when they have obviously screwed up and blown billions of dollars already. When I had a business and times got bad, no one bailed me out. NONE of the bail out money is going to small business, and they employ over 90% of the people who work in this country. That is a huge WTF? for me.

I think NO ONE on earth is worth a $5 million a year salary, plus stocks and perks and jets. Unless that guy is running the factory by himself and delivering the goods in his company hybrid and writing all the ad copy and making all the sales…nope. Not unless he’s doing all of that…alone. And anyone who’s making that much and still taking bonuses and approving layoffs and letting anyone below him in the company take a pay cut…well, they should have a cut somewhere else. Bastards.

I think, since tons of countries owe us money and we owe a ton of money to other countries, we should have a “global olly-olly-oxen-free” and just start over. Screw it.

I think it’s insanity to put someone who cheats on his taxes in charge of…

Oh, to Hell with it. This whole thing is insane. God help us all.

Heh. Not my caption…but my hilariously funny pic of my hysterically entertaining kit-tay. Check the date…front page today!

My baby…he’s famous! *sniff*

Edited to add: Um, Zoe pointed out…that’s actually BOTH my boys. LOL Stevie, too! How wrapped am I by the cat? *snort*

Edited again to add: HEY! This pic was chosen for the second lolcats book! More to come!

Not if it’s Obama talking.

Holy cow…it was just like one of his election speeches. Does he know he won? Cuz he’s still making all the same promises…but never any concrete idea of how it’s going to happen.

He says we are in dire times. He’s going to cut the deficit he “inherited” [from a Democrat dominated Congress for the last two years, right?]…but he never says what he’s going to do about the money he’s spending. He’s going to send more troops…but end the war. He’s writing a new budget and restoring “fairness” to the tax code. According to him, I will not pay a “single dime” more in taxes. I might even get $20 a month or so back. Not sure where I’ll spend all that, but I have time to figure that out.

He’s going to snap his fingers and create jobs and clean energy and school programs and more troops and education for everyone [if you volunteer for something, is what I got out of that]…he’s going to stop the “torture” at Gitmo [if embarrassing someone is actually torture…whatever…at least we don’t pull out fingernails or cut folks heads off…hello?] and get “swift justice” for the detainees there. He will keep jobs here in the US and save the auto industry and make Medicare better…um, by cutting parts of it, I think. Hmmm. Oh. And he’s going to raise the benefits and pay for everyone.

He says he gets it. I’d love to think he does. But it feels like he’s buying into his own publicity. Whatever he was saying during the election that made some folks certain he was going to pay off their mortgages and put gas in their car. Only this is bigger.

And that’s great. GREAT. I mean, really…I’ll take it. But I am not under the spell, I guess, cuz I do not get how he’s going to do it. He has already spent an insane amount of money without batting an eye or even looking at it first. So, I guess, while I would love to believe what he says he’s going to do?

It ain’t gonna be cheap.

I belong to a “family rec center” type of gym. It’s awesome. Cheap, clean, loads of equipment…and best of all, three pools. TWO heated indoor pools, one “recreation” with slides, a “lazy river”, etc…one lap pool with 8 or 10 lanes [I’ve never really counted], and one outdoor pool with slides, etc, that’s open all summer.

Normally I go during the week…I sort of plan to NOT work out on the weekends, cuz I am trying to work up to two hours in the water five days a week. If I can do that? I think I should be able to have the weekends to relax. And? Did I mention the “family” nature of the gym I go to?

Today was almost more than I could endure. I don’t mind splitting lanes. I don’t mind however they want to share lanes. But some common courtesy about it would be nice. I always ask to join a lane. I also know my speed and never try to share a “fast lane” since, I’m not really fast. But? Other folks either can’t read, don’t know how fast they swim, have delusions of grandeur, or are just plain rude.

Then there are the little cherubs and the people who believe they are the sun and the moon. That’s awesome. But? They do NOT belong in the lap lanes. On Sundays there are only 3, because they block off a large portion of the lap pool for a slide and the diving boards. And 3 would be enough, if the only folks in the lap lanes were actually swimming laps. But no.

Today there was a child, who could swim, sure…but he was with his Grampa, and wherEVER he wanted to go was fine. So. If he cut across the lap lane in front of me…oh, well, good for him. No matter which lane I moved to, they were there…either hanging on the edge or standing in the lane or swimming in the center of the lane I was trying to “share”. Not like there wasn’t an entire pool and a half for the darling lil munchkin to play in.

*sigh* Anyhow…took me forever, or it felt like it, to get my mile and a half in. Grrrr. But now I have more incentive than ever to go every week day…cuz…never again on a Sunday.

OK, no hate mail, please. One of the reasons I haven’t blogged much is that it seems like only people who bow down and kiss Obama’s feet…or want to…are allowed to have an opinion. I actually got negative comments and e-mail from several people when I openly said I was happy that Sarah Palin was added to the Republican ticket. I told folks on day one of this blog that I am a Republican. Not a surprise, so…

Anyhow, I have decided to have my opinion AND my blog and whoever doesn’t like it, well, that’s fine. The election is over, and the Obamaniacs won. He went right in and started HIS plan. The one that had folks convinced they didn’t have to worry about their mortgage or gas prices or anything at all. It was supposed to fix everything. Unless you listened to Biden. Lord help us if he ever gets in the top spot.

We’re definitely having ups and downs. Prices on everything are up, my shop sales are down, everyone’s anxiety is up, the dow is down…we just took a 5% pay cut with Steve’s job…which is better than a layoff. The good news is we might get $15 back per paycheck with Obama’s “stimulus plan”.

Today, Obama threatened to “call the mayors out” if they “misuse the economic stimulus dollars”. How on earth could those dollars be MORE misused than they already have been?? How would he even know? He never even read it…and likely still hasn’t. Yeah, yeah…I haven’t either…but it ain’t my job. And I don’t have to read it to smell the pork in it. All I have to see is the speed at which the liberals blew it past everyone…because they can.

There is a “check and balance” system in this country for a reason. Too many people got bamboozled into believing the liberals had the answer and swung the balance too far out of whack. So here we are…with a Congress dying to spend a ton of money on a bunch of ridiculous crap and no grown ups in the White House to say no.

I was in Walmart last night, a woman came down the aisle I was loitering in [yes, I forgot what I needed…again], she was talking to the man walking with her. She stopped mid sentence, just in front of me, looked at him and said, “Hello? Who are you?” then continued chattering. I burst out laughing.

She turned around and looked at me. I threw my hands up and said, “I’m sorry. I thought I was the only one who did that.” She said “Oh, noooo. I have had the worst day. I went and got drunk after work. I’m drunk. Cuz I found out today my company is cutting half of us, so I may not have a job. So, I got drunk. On top of all that, I’m feeling even more stupid cuz, know what? I voted for Obama!”

So, I’m thinking…as bad as it gets? It could still be worse. At least I didn’t do that.

Yes, yes…I posted something similar on my SparkPeople page. Meh. I am fairly certain that of the two people who read this blog, only one even knows the address to the SparkPeople page. Read it anyhow! LOL

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OK, let’s just back up a sec. I swim. I like it. But when I am at the gym? I look like a complete idiot. A swim “nerd”, if that’s possible. Because I get bored so easily. And I have no air cuz I’m a fat girl. And I’m a nerd…LOL

First, I wear a swim cap. I don’t like stuff pulling on my hair. So I have a lycra swim cap. And goggles. I don’t like the water in my eyes. So. Goggles. Then I realized that I was struggling so much with my breathing, that I wasn’t seeming to really get much of a workout. So, I got one of these:

…which is awesome. I can swim my hour without stopping, except to drink.

I also wanted to get more work on my legs. I read that short training fins create more resistance and work the muscles in your legs more. So, I got some:

I have these:

…but I feel like I work my arms enough and I don’t want to get too bulky. I’m not training for competition.

I also have one of these:

…but I don’t use it much since I got the snorkel, cuz I don’t need to rest as much.

So, then, there was the boredom. Counting laps, making up blog posts, shopping lists, design ideas for my store …just, your mind goes wild with things that frankly, are frustrating, cuz you cannot do a thing about ANY of them while you’re doing laps. I always thought, “If I just had some music…”, but at the time, the technology was for only the very elite. Several hundred dollars that I was unwilling to spend. But, I recently found a cheap [$40] mp3 player at my local Fry’s. It was not a case, but a waterproof mp3 player, with a pair of earplugs that looked like clear, soft rubber Christmas trees. I used it about 4 times…and honestly, even though the sound was just so-so, and if water got past the Christmas trees it was pretty much gone…it was still awesome. I could still hear the music for most of my workout [an hour of laps] and I would have been tickled. As it happens…I have sissy ear canals. I can’t wear any kind of ear plugs, not even the foam ones, for any length of time…and I am talking minutes…without breaking down the skin inside my ears. Then I have days of crusting and healing before I can wear them again. I thought if I just kept redoing the process it would toughen up in there. But at one point my left ear was nearly crusted shut. So sad.

I researched some more and found something called “bone conduction technology” in reference to underwater music players. Used to be very expensive. VERY. Now? It’s not so pricey!! I got this Saturday:

I put almost 3 hours of my favorite workout music on it over the weekend. I used it for the first time today. And…O.M.G. Awesome is not even close to how cool this is. First, it doesn’t go IN your ear. It clips to the strap on your goggles and the speaker part [the large end in the picture] sits on the skin in front of your ear, near your cheekbone. This conducts the sound through the bone directly to the inner ear. It was loud and crisp and wonderful…then I put my head under water. My ears filled with water and…LOUDER, CRISPER, even MORE wonderful! I stopped and asked my lane mate if he could hear it. He said, “Hear what?” I lifted the speaker from my cheek and he leaned in and said, “OH! I can now…” It sounded for all the world like the whole Natatorium could hear it! I swam for an hour and the only thing that changes the sound is when I swim without the snorkel, there is a bit more noise in my ears from turning and lifting my head to breathe…so it interferes a bit in hearing the music. But really, not very much. I have no idea how this thing is waterproof, but it seems to be, and is just completely amazing.

I can only see one issue with it. I am certain to want to swim MORE…and might very well hurt myself with this…

Where did January go?? I swear someone stole my month!

OK, I was sick for about 3 weeks of it. That was three weeks of sneezing, nose-blowing, sinus-irrigating [yes, I did too], coughing, peeing [yes, that too], sleeping and less-than-joyous misery. And then there was a week of sort-of-half-sick-and-very-confused-trying-to-be-an-actual-well-person. So, I guess it wasn’t actually “stolen”, but rather misplaced. Still. Grrr.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter. I am so far behind on everything I feel like I will never catch up. I mean, between my businesses, my MIL, my husband, cat and daughter…cooking and what absolutely minuscule cleaning I do…errands and shopping and appointments…then there’s keeping up with e-mail and trying to do a little bit of social networking [i.e. Facebook, Twitter, this blog, etc]…not to mention trying to market my stores, create new designs, create new websites, find new income streams…also keeping up with eating better, and exercising and doing my SparkPeople journaling…

Whew! It’s no wonder I’m exhausted. CRI…and might I add…MINY!

The last few years I haven’t really made any New Year’s resolutions. Mostly because the things I would put on the list are things I pretty much work on every day anyhow. Be healthier, lose weight, work smarter, be more successful, give more…yadda, yadda. So, no point in making a list of what I do already.

And? I’ve done OK. I’ve lost 40 pounds. I actually stopped “dieting” due to a series of family and personal issues, and apparently something has sunk in, because I haven’t gained any back. I haven’t lost any more either, but not gaining it back plus some is a major deal. I am getting ready to make another big push to lose again, kick up my workouts and see what happens.

A big part of why I think I didn’t gain it back is my use of SparkPeople.com and tracking my food and fitness there. I started out just putting down what I ate…without even trying to eat better. It showed me what choices I was making that were probably not great. As I made small changes…like drinking a can of V8 juice or water instead of soda…I saw the differences in my journal. I was able to click more fruits & veggies on my tracker and more water clicks, too. I started looking forward to adding stuff to my trackers and started working out, kinda to be able to track it. Dumb reason, but whatever works. And it did work. I worked out more and ate better and started losing. One more thing to change in my SparkPeople tracker…lost pounds on my customized ticker. It’s great. Best part is that it’s free. There are ads, sure, but I don’t care. It’s a great program. They give you the option of putting in your own foods and planning your own workouts, or being on “autopilot” and following their plan for food and workouts. Workout videos and scads of articles, recipes, etc…all available on the site. Lots of support from folks on teams and forums for just about any geographic area or interest you might have, too. Did I mention it’s free?

Of course, it’s not for everyone. I haven’t figured out how it is that some things work for one person and not for another. Sure, actually doing it makes a big difference. But, if that’s a given, you should be able to quantify results. And you can’t.

Programs advertised on TV, like Nutrisystem and Weight Watchers, have great programs…people have lost weight on them, right? Then why do they always have the disclaimer “Results Not Typical” when they are bragging about those folks who lost weight?? I lost 40 pounds on my own…so if losing 45 on a program isn’t “typical”, what in the world are they charging people for? What’s the point of paying for a program if they don’t have typical results of at least 40 pounds? Jeez. I just don’t get it.

Anyhow. Whatever your resolutions are this year, good luck with them. I am revolting against the resolving. No resolutions for me. I will continue to do what I’ve been doing. Starting with laughing. Ya gotta laugh.

moar lolz by Cyndi

Happy New Year!

You all know Ansel, my cat, the love of my life, my sweetie boy. Some of you have met him, some have seen his videos on YouTube or his stuff on Cafepress…and the folks here in Blogland have mostly been subjected to stories about him. Well, today is one of those days. He’s at it again.

Let me preface this by saying I do try to get video whenever possible. I like to document the cuteness, so it doesn’t seem like me just thinking he’s cute when he’s not. He just really is. Heh. But when he is hunting, there can be no camera present. If the camera comes out, he is immediately attracted to it and feels the need to rub on it or bite it, but not to continue to do what he was doing that was cute enough to want to film it in the first place. It’s some sort of rule.

This morning it’s windy & cold here in the Metroplex, like windchill in the teens overnight and an expected high of 40F today. Oh, now…no need to feel bad for me. It will be 65F on Christmas day. When it’s cold, Ansel is pretty full of…well, it is something like piss & vinegar, but with some firecrackers & moonshine thrown in. He’s whiny, and wants EVERYTHING…and yet, doesn’t. He wants his food dish full, and he does eat a lot more when it’s cold out. We don’t keep our house exceptionally warm, because the utility costs here are insanely high. So, for Steve and I, we just keep it at 66F and throw a log in every so often. Ansel loves that Daddy can make the hole in the wall so bright and warm and he will lie in his bed in front of it for hours. But there is no warm in the fireplace yet. So he cries for me to come look at his food dish. I get up, go into the bedroom, and I look. It’s full. I say “What??” and he just purrs and squeaks at me. I go back and sit down. I try to work, maybe type something, upload a design…something. He cries from the depths of the house. I go, again…and he purrs and squeaks. Maybe he thinks he’s my personal trainer or something. He will cry to have the drapes open, presumably so he can look outside. He may look out for a minute. Then he walks away. Or…like this morning…it turns into the beginning of…THE HUNT.

My front room is called the “library”, because we don’t “live” in it, we live in the family room. But the books all live in the front room…5 bookcases, 7 feet high. So. The library. Yes. I know. The internet, blah, blah…we like books. We have law books, nursing books, tech books, metaphysical and new age books, religious books, books about Christmas, books of bedtime stories…lots of books. I have two copies of one book, because it’s out of print and my Mom gave it to me and I lost that copy in a divorce. So, compensating, I guess. I know…I’m DIGRESSING, anyhow…

I have no idea what goes on in his head…truly, I would pay big money to know. But I am a slave to it, either way. Packages come in the front door from various delivery trucks…FedEx, UPS, USPS…and they get opened on the floor of the library. Ansel is rightthere to see what’s in them. He’s curious…he’s a cat, and this thing just came into his house. I get it. But then? He falls completely in love with the packaging. I currently have 4 boxes and a 15 foot long crunched up craft paper snake in the middle of the library floor. These? Are “cat toys”. I know, little furry mouse. Tiny balls with bells inside. Sticks with strings hanging. Bah. My cat has his own jungle made of cardboard and paper.

He lurves cardboard. He rubs on it and paws at it and lies on it, in it…he even rides it.

Cardboard is his favorite toy, and I have loads of it. It comes and goes. The two cardboard carpets are gone and now he has the boxes. One of these boxes came with the most wonderful surprise…the paper snake.

It must be a cheaper filler than bubble wrap, which honestly, is more my thing than his…but Amazon spared no expense on the paper filling in this particular box. It’s craft paper, about 3 feet wide…comes on a roll. They apparently stretched out a length of it and crunched and twisted it into a snake. The snake, as I mentioned, is easily 15 feet long. It came with 2 smaller snakes, each about 4 feet long. Ansel? Adores these paper reptiles.

And this morning, the paper snake is the prey.

He sits in the dining room, seemingly unaware of the fact that a giant slithering paper monster has entered the house and is planning to have his beloved Mama for breakfast. Then…out of the corner of his eye…he sees it! He hides his 14 pound furriness behind the 3″ leg of the dining room table to stalk the snake. When the time is right, he streaks into action in a spotted blur…across the dining room, down the hall, into the library and pounces on the snake…he grabs it and rolls over with it, disorienting it and wrestling it into submission. The sound is like all the presents in the country being opened on Christmas morning simultaneously, in stereo surround sound. Really. It’s the most amazing din…made by one miniature Leopard hunting one really long paper snake. So, he kills it…paper carnage all over the library. Then, satisfied that I am safe, he walks away. Until…wait! What was that? A silent rustling…there! The beast! It stills lives! He leaps on it and kills it…again. He crawls inside along the length of the belly of the beast to make sure it’s dead. He goes back to the dining room and it starts all over…many, many times. He is the Snake Hunter.

No big deal, just another day in the life of Ansel keeping Mama safe from paper beasts. He never gets tired of it. I never get tired of watching it. Cheapest Christmas present ever.

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Please consider joining my Kiva lending team, Friends of Write2B. I get nothing out of it, except a warm fuzzy that I am helping another working adult to advance their business and keep their families fed, clothed and well. Not a charity, not a hand out. A loan. Awesome concept.

He was not a happy camper, because of the picture taking, but if I had tried to put an actual hat on him, I would be limbless right now.

Poor Ansel…I bet there are moments he wonders if my adoption [read: abduction] of him was in his best interest.

Example: I was walking back to the recliner after a trip to the bathroom. He was on the back of the chair…his favorite spot when I am working on the laptop. He was being a good boy. Just lying there. Being good.

I stopped and patted him and kissed him and loved on him as I went by…so, not like I didn’t know he was there. And then? I forgot before I got my butt into the chair and nearly launched him over my right shoulder into the fireplace.

The look he gave me was priceless.

I apologized…between giggles…for about 5 minutes.

He? Was NOT amused.

Poor cat. He coulda had a smarter Mama, methinks.

He didn’t leave the back of the chair, but he does have his tail wrapped around my neck. As a warning, I guess. Not sure who for, but that’s where it is.

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Please consider joining my Kiva lending team, Friends of Write2B. I get nothing out of it, except a warm fuzzy that I am helping another working adult to advance their business and keep their families fed, clothed and well. Not a charity, not a hand out. A loan. Awesome concept.