Too Funny! Tina Fey Rocks!

RIP Paul Newman

Debates

Poor Jim Lehrer - trying to get straight answers!  Interesting especially in light of the economy but geeze if anyone actually uses debates to make their decisions - yikes!

Interesting article today from a conservative commentator - from her lips to Sarah's ears!  (As if!) 

Getting testy now on both sides - personally, after the Couric interview especially, I'm looking forward to the Vice-Presidential debate - but I'm truly doubtful that there will be one - SP can't speak coherently on almost any topic and I bet the party finds a way to keep her away from Joe Biden!

STOP SPENDING $10B a month in Iraq and we'll have a better chance to end the economic problems - but that's just me.

New Season!

NCIS is back - but who would have thought that Lee would be a traitor??  I always liked her.  :-(

Now Gibbs just has to prove it!

A LONG Week

This is been a REALLY long week - interviews, training and meetings filled all 6 days but the week is almost over!!  Last night I went to bed (and sleep) at 8 pm and didn't wake up until 6 this morning.  I know the TV was one when I fell asleep and I (dimly) remember hearing someone talking during the night (probably evening) but I didn't really wake up enough to know who it was or turn the TV off.  Oh well - needed the sleep for sure.

Next week looks much calmer - we'll see!!

Buyer's remorse??

I got the estimate and saw the drawings for the new kitchen - beautiful - and easy to get caught up in the excitement!!  But a couple of days later and I'm wondering if I should be so daring.  Besides, in the meantime I've had to buy a new washer and dryer (not in the plans) which are being delivered tomorrow. 

The kitchen is beautiful - the cabinets lovely - a honey colored maple with tons of storage - and countertops of quartz (about the same price as some granite but easier to take care of and guaranteed!).  But floors aren't included (yet another decision) and painting and all that good stuff.  The suggestion was to take down the 1/2 wall in the kitchen (don't know yet who'd do that) and appliances - OMG I had no idea (until shopping for a new washer/dryer) that the cost of appliances had soared quite so much!

Oh well - I have some questions for the designer - and then I guess we'll move forward - but probably not until the first of the year - it takes about 6 weeks to get the cabinets/countertops and about 4 weeks for the installation and that would be between Thanksgiving and Christmas - not a particularly good time not to be able to cook!

Fingers crossed   -   decisions to be made.

Kitchens, Appliances, Air Conditioners and More

Today I got the A/C downstairs fixed - yea!! - and now all is cool and the poor little window air conditioner, which nobly picked up the slack, is silent!  Best $89 ever spent because it was able to make the entire downstairs comfortable (along with a fan) enough to wait several days for repairs.  Now they just need to come back in the next few days to fix my duct work . . . and so it goes!!

Of course, right after I'd made the appointment to get the A/C fixed, I came home to discover that the washing machine had given up the fight.  It's time has come and I'm now on the hunt for a new washer (and probably a dryer).  I know these things happen but they always seem to happen to me just when I've gotten some money together to do a major project!  Oh well, hopefully by next week I'll have a new washer & dryer (one question - to stack or to pedestal??? suggestions?) and move on to the next problem!  (One additional problem - gas dryers aren't always in stock - except for the most expensive, of course!)

Tomorrow I meet with the kitchen designer - he says he's got some good pictures and plans ready for me - ones that will make my kitchen much better.  I'm really looking forward to seeing them and then going to look for more new stuff - range, dishwasher, fridge, wine fridge??, countertops, tile.

HBO Special . . .

If you have HBO On Demand, check out the HBO Special "Thank You Mr. President" by Helen Thomas.  It's only 37 minutes but a good look at the "Dean of the White House Press Corps" and a brief insight into 47 years of Presidential reporting.

PS Helen - I've seen you on TV at press conferences since JFK and you always had good, HARD questions - but you weren't as funny as Mae Craig (thanks for the brief view of her in the special - now THAT brought back memories!!).

Showing my age here!

New Week - New Meetings

Well, I have to admit I enjoyed my Saturday off - thank you to whoever made the decision - but I really wish that Saturday (NOT today) had been the NCIS marathon     - but at least I got to see some of the shows before I came to work!  Looking forward to the 23rd and a whole new season!!

The downstairs A/C decided to stop working but we did have a "spare" window unit that worked remarkably well considering its size in relation to the downstairs!  The A/C repair man is coming Wednesday (after another meeting in the early morning) and, wonder of wonders, their rates have gone up!! SURPRISE!
Hopefully it will be something relatively minor and easily fixed - but it must be done!

I'm still waiting for the kitchen designer to come up with his design - I'll give that a few more days before I call - I would love to get it done by Christmas (I know - fat chance!! But I can dream!)

OMG - HANNA is coming . . .

Oh no - Hanna - not a hurricane - is coming and you'd think, from listening to the news, that 1. it was truly the storm of the century and 2. it was actually going to have MAJOR impact here!  Even if Hanna becomes a hurricane before landfall tomorrow, it won't be a hurricane by the time it gets here.

Oh well, I just hope that the over-reaction to Hanna (libraries, rec centers, etc. closing for the entire day)  doesn't cause people to underestimate future storms (IKE is a much more powerful storm).  We'll see!

In the meantime, I'll stay home tomorrow and wait for the rain to end.  I'll also wait to see if we close for nor'easters - they're frequently as strong as what we're going to see from Hanna and, to my knowledge, we've never closed for one of those!

And the politics continue . . .

I must admit I've not been watching the Republican convention as much as I watched the Democrats convention - but there haven't been any speeches I've really wanted to see - yet.  I'm hoping to be able to see John McCain's acceptance speech - but it depends on when it happens - if it's before 9 EDT then I probably won't see much of it because I'll be at work. 

I have been watching the Daily Show - great place for news!  It was very interesting Wednesday night - particularly when the show compared several "pundits" opinions on various things. (Strangely most of the pundits were from Fox News - go figure!)

For instance, when talking about a possible Gov. Kaine vice-presidential candidancy, Karl Rove said that he (Kaine) had been Mayor of the 105th largest city in the US and "apologies to Richmond" but it's just not that big a city and, by inference, doesn't give much experience to the possible candidate.  A few weeks later:  Sarah Palin was the Mayor of the 2nd largest city in Alaska and that gave her lots of experience - guess Alaska doesn't have very many large cities because the city she was the Mayor of has a population of 9,000 to Richmond's 100,000+. 

You'd think these people would remember what they had said - after all it was written down and taped! 

Oh well, I guess that's what makes ratings on news programs - but I find it annoying and misleading.  I just fear that too many people simply believe what is said on the various news programs and don't bother to do any of the research to see the facts behind the headlines.

I would like to see a woman in a vice-presidential or presidential role during my lifetime and I think that will happen but I REALLY don't want this particular woman.  I don't like much of what I've read and heard about her positions -

"Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor. "  TIME magazine September 2, 2008


Not exactly what I want a heartbeat away from the Oval Office - and I wouldn't have wanted her to be MY mayor either.
61 days to go . . . I'm still Diane and I wrote this message . . .