the day after

I have never been prouder to be an American than I was last night while watching President-Elect Barack Obama.

There really aren't words right now.

election day

Today I am doing my civic duty and working at the office of the Election Commision for my county. Ok, I'm not really doing it by choice, I was drafted. We are the only state in the country that drafts our election workers like we draft people for jury duty. Man, I live in half-assed-backwards state. WTF are we still doing here? Anyway, you can't get out of this stuff unless you are dying in a hospital. Not this election. They think for some reason this one may be a bit busy. Gee, I wonder where they get that idea?

I have to work from 6:30am to 8:00pm and answer the phones to direct people where to vote and how to vote if they are not in "THE BOOK" as they think they should be. I get a break for lunch and dinner which they provide because we can't actually leave the premises. Don't feel bad for me, I have my own office this time (this is my 3rd or 4th election, we get drafted for 4) which is nice because I can surf the net and type on my blog while I am supposed to be working. Just kidding, I have been answering calls nonstop, but am taking a well-deserved break right now.

I have had some very interesting calls today, but let me put out a word of advice to those who would like to be able to vote. People, today is not the day to find out if you are registered to vote. No, this is something you should have checked on weeks, if not months ago. Also, I am very sorry if you were hospitalized with the flu back in March, but tell me WTF does that have to do with you being unable to get to us to register to vote before October 24th? Wow, there are a helluva lot of you who move during the months of October and November. While I can empathize with you moving across the country, but since you are a resident of Louisiana and you are moving to Oregon, you cannot vote in Nebraska. Sorry about that. Also, you people are driving me crazy.

Thanks I feel better. Break is about over too so let's wrap this shizzle up.

I will be off in a couple of hours and I plan to go home, cuddle up on the sofa with a my hubby and a cocktail and watch CNN until this thing is done. Lord, please help me make it through the night.

halloween continued

I am one of those people who loves to carve fancy pumpkins. Every year I let the kids each pick out a pattern from the book and I carve their choice for them. Yes, it is just a pattern, but they really are challenging. Some are much easier than others. This year, Boo chose a lovely skeleton-pirate guy. He was easy. The Muss chose a spiderweb with a spider at the bottom. That one was not easy. Kiki couldn't really decide, but I had a pattern to make a Barack Obama campaign logo and she decided she liked that one.

Like I mentioned, we weren't home on Halloween so I made sure to turn off all the lights as well as the motion-sensitive flood light for the driveway before we left. Then I lit our pumpkins to show off my handiwork. Then we left and did what I told you about yesterday.

When we got home, the Barack O'Lantern was gone. I looked around a bit to discover it shattered in my neighbor's driveway and a bit into the street. Now, mind you, this was the closest pumpkin to the house. This/these hoodlum(s) had to walk past my other 2 carved pumpkins to get to this one. Barack was targeted. I was disgusted. Why can't we all just get along? Why can't we just accept others differing opinions? I have some very good friends, not to mention family who are McCain supporters. So be it, but I am not. I respect their right to support the candidate of their choice, even though I think they are blooming crazy for it. Ok, not really. Maybe just a little crazy. Ok, not crazy, but I just don't agree. At all. Not that he is a bad guy. He just doesn't speak for me or to me at all.

So, Pumpkin-Smashers, I hope you got a good laugh when you destroyed my Barack O'Lantern, but let me tell you something. I carved a new one to light as a beacon to the world tomorrow night. Election night. And I will be the one laughing then.

halloween night

We are never home to pass out candy on Halloween. Our block is mostly the over-80 set and is pretty quiet with just a few lights on. Plus J. is usually at work weeknights and that leaves me to take the kids trick-or-treating. This year J. was actually able to take a vacation day so I thought it would be great to go out on Halloween as a family for, like, the first time ever. Milestone!

So we went out on our candy spree with a friend of ours and his son who is just a bit younger than Boo (but quite a bit taller, that Boo is a wee one). My aunt and my cousin also came along because we trick-or-treat in their neighborhood ~ it is flat and most of the lights are on. Everything went swimmingly until the Muss decided she was tired. Everyone had better get the hell out of her way when she is done because if you don't she will make you pay. Needless to say, there was a scene. My cousin took her back to my aunt and uncle's house and the boys kept going. Kiki (aka Tinkerbell) was done dealing, but she had her daddy/pack mule to carry her where she needed to go.

After returning with our loot to my aunt's house, I wanted to take a few pictures of the kids with family. Especially one with the Muss and my cousin who is her godmother. They always get their picture taken together, it's just their thing. But no, you would think the flash was going to steal her soul and suck the life force from her being from the way she was writhing and wailing at the thought of having a photo taken. So I took a picture of that. She didn't think that was funny at all.

As you can guess, we went home. Thankfully our friend who was with us totally understands and is chill with the whole temper-tantrum-for-no-freakin'-reason thing. Also, as you can guess, the Muss went directly to bed, do not pass go, do not get to eat any candy on Halloween night.

Oh, so the whole point of this post was to mention what we found when we returned home. Stay tuned~

it's been far too long

I can't believe how long it's been since I have posted! It certainly isn't because nothing has happened of interest or because the kids haven't been spouting their usual funnies. It must be because I have been busier than you know what and just haven't had time to put things into writing. Not wise, I know. Again I will be forgetting 10 times as much as I remember and there are so many memories to precious (or hysterical) to lose.

I have a story to share about Halloween night, but guess what, I'm too busy to type it right now. The crazies are about and I need to banish them to their beds. Once that is done, J. & I need to complete our ballots for the election so I can run them by the Election Commission since we will not be able to vote on Election Day. Why, you ask? Because I have been remanded to election duty once again and will be answering the phones directing people to their correct polling places. As much as I would like to send some of them to the wrong ones, I won't.

from the back seat

kiki: what is this song, Daddy?

J.: Hot Legs by Rod Stewart.

kiki: hout wegs?

J.: yes, Hot Legs.

kiki: oh, Captain Hook has hout wegs!

not in hot water

Why, you ask? Let me tell you, my friends, it is because our hot water heater was not working. Well, technically (as my loving husband likes to point out) it was working, but it was leaking out of this pipe-thing sticking off the side. You could look at it and see it was 20-25 years old and so I figured that it would be smarter to just, you know, replace the water heater instead of just that little pipe thing. I had support from my dad who agreed that we needed a new one because the old one was, well, old. And from my step-dad who said that it was probably 50% full of sediment and stuff. And really, how hard can a water heater be to replace? A Saturday project at best one would think.

Clearly, I have no idea what I'm talking about since I don't even know what that pipe-thing sticking off the side is called.

So the original project for the weekend was to replace this little log type low retaining wall on the back patio that oozes dirt every time it rains with some lovely landscape block that my aunt and uncle so generously gave us. 2 years ago. We are a little slow on the home improvement thing. Well, it ended up raining all week and was just too wet to be trying to set in landscape block. So I chime in, "Hey, how about you replace the water heater?" My dad and J. agree and head off to Lowe's. I suggested that they go to Menard's (a locally owned chain), but they went to Lowe's because it is closer. We really didn't do any research about hot water heaters and such, just the prices. Which were all about the same. One would figure that you would get the same type of quality for the same money at any of the major home improvement stores. WRONG.

So they come home with a lovely shiny new Whirlpool FlameLock water heater. I won't go into details about the numerous trips to the neighborhood hardware store to buy this or that as they were trying to install it. Or even about the little blowtorch that engulfed in flames (also from Lowe's) and almost killed my step-dad. Or that despite using the liquid copper sealer stuff as well as sodering with a new non-flame-engulfing blowtorch, the thing still leaked water from several places. No, let me just focus on the true crime here. This particular brand of water heater. Oh, People, please google this thing before buying. I implore you. It is insanely heinous that Lowe's even continues to carry a product that has been causing nothing but grief since the beginning of this decade. This is exclusively sold at Lowe's and was the only kind of water heater available at Lowe's. NUTS, I tell you! I don't know how with good conscience I am going to be able to continue to shop at a store that sells something it knows is a PIECE OF CRAP. HOW?????????? WHY?????????? Do they have no morals? I think not.

Orange is my favorite color anyway. Guess where I'm going to shop from now on?

There is more to our Saturday, but I will have to post that later. I give you a teaser though ~ Mommy freaked the f*ck out.