1.  I turned 44 today.

2.  I also ate…a LOT.  Like 3,200 calories-lot.

3.  But I worked out too so that makes it all better, right? (NOT).

4.  The Boy is out of school all week due to the pig flu…never mind that nobody in his school has it.

5.  They’re calling it “Swine Break”.

6.  And they won’t have to make up the days.

7.  I’ve had this weird creeping poison ivy-esque rash thing for like two and a half weeks.

8.  It’s gone away in some places and popped up in others.  In fact – I think it’s spread to my face.

9.  Clearly I must go somewhere amongst the unwell to get a cortizone shot or some special salve or something.

10. If you knew me,  you would know that I am a border-line Monk – what with all the opeing doors with t-shirt hems and hand washing and refusing to use public pens and all.

11.  No, I’m not wearing a mask and gloves when I go out and I don’t plan to.

12.  But for God’s sake people..cover your damn faces and wash your damn hands after you cough and sneeze and STOP wiping your noses with your palms and then grabbing door handles.  Yuck.

13.  My forearm is on fire and my face is hot and they both itch…even with cortizone 10+.

14.  So tomorrow I will share space with the unwell.  But I damn sure will not use public pens, touch door handles or  even put my hands on public counters.

15.  Because I can’t afford to catch anything else or bring something back to the house.

16.  Shut up, I am NOT Monk.

17.  Am not.

18.  That is all.

P.S.  44 wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have this creeping rash crud.

With my circle of women from the family.  Sisters, aunts, cousins, cousins’ wives.  It was…awesome.

Anyway, when I got back I heard there was Swine Flu in Texas.  My dad lives in south Texas.  Not good.  But I talked to him today and he and the entire step-family down there are taking precautions and being careful.  So I will keep my fingers crossed.  In the mean time, The Boy’s district has cancelled all extracirricular activities through the middle of May and an elementary school about 12 miles away is closed through May 7th due to three cases.  Nice.

I have to admit as addicted as I am to scouring political sites from all party affiliations, it was really nice to not have news and the only T.V. we watched was the Bio channel.  Otherwise it was music, drinking and dancing Thursday through Sunday of last week.

And then…when I get home…I come back to:

1.  Worldwide swine flu outbreak.

2.  North Korea making more threats.

3.  A budget approved by Congress that…let’s just say….astronomically increases the deficit dems complained about during the last election.  Not happy about that but I’m sure you could have guessed that without me saying it.

4.  More than $600,000 added to the deficit with a dumb-ass AF One flyover and a wasted trip to St. Louis just for a press op prior to the press conference tonight.

Glad I had the time away, but worried about the flu, North Korea, the quadrupled deficit and the rampant spending by the White House for photo ops.

But….I am being good.  No personal attacks.  Just disappointment over irresponsible spending.

Time to finish drink four.  Trying to wean myself slowly from the all day/all night drinking that ensues on girls’ weekend.

But…I will work out for an hour and a half tomorrow. At least I’m functional…..

Remember the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole? I hope you do.  Many spouses and children suffered because of this brutal attack and the family members lost.  It looks like…finally….some funds  have been unfrozen to help make the lives of the victims a little bit easier.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood’s order freed the funds under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, which requires the release of blocked assets to satisfy a judgment against a “terrorist party.” The State Department has designated SuSudan as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1993, Wood said.

Individual awards will range from about $200,000 to $1.2 million, according to Andrew C. Hall, an attorney for the families.

As the wife of a survivor of the Khobar Towers bombing in June 1996…..I say this is a step in the right direction at least.

Never forget.  They have declared war on us, people.  No matter what terms the new administration would like us to use for these types of attacks.  It’s war.  Against our country and its people.  Plain and simple.

DALLAS —  A federal judge has dismissed the claims of a parent who wanted to remove the words “under God” from the Texas pledge of allegiance recited each morning by public schoolchildren.

You can read the whole article here.

I can understand why the suit would have merit if kids were required to recite the pledge.  But when they are given the option to simply remain silent…this ruling is a good middle ground.  At least for me.

I know, I know..separation of church and state and all that.  But this is Texas, damnit!  We do the right thing down here.  Just so we remember, Article 6 of the Bill of Rights says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

I’m just sayin’.  It’s getting a bit ridiculous, all these anti-religion lawsuits.  If they want to change things, they should put it to a national vote and try to get 2/3 of the voting public to agree with them instead of wasting the state’s time and money on these suits.  I’d rather my tax dollars go toward something else.

As the spending continues and the stock market plummets beyond belief, I’ve been wondering if there are any elected officials in the democratic party who think maybe they’ve gone just a bit too far.  And it appears there might be more than one democrat who agree the spending has gone off the deep end.

Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona have joined a quiet revolt in the House that could slow some of President Obama’s fast-moving priorities.

The two are among 49 Democrats from congressional districts that backed Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential race and whose support for the Democratic majority’s progressive agenda is increasingly not assured.

A dozen of them were among 20 House Democrats who voted against the $410 billion discretionary fiscal 2009 spending package (HR 1105) on Feb. 25. Another group later forced House leaders to sideline a contentious bill (HR 1106) to allow bankruptcy judges to modify home loans.

You can read more about it here.

And in case you missed it….there are 122 projects which were paid for in the stimulus package but have now been given more money in the new omnibus bill due Friday for signing.  You can read all about them here.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of ACORN receiving almost four billion more in our tax money when they only seek to fix elections with much of their funding.  Maybe it’s just me….

You know….at this point I don’t even care if the democrats bucking the system are standing up to put the brakes on spending only to save their own seats.  Any help we can get to stop the bleeding is a boon.

Gird your loins, people.   Who knows what will be introduced next?

Blondie, The Go-Go’s, The Bangels, Ray Charles, George Michael,  Huey Lewis and Lyle Lovett got me through the last half of my workout.

Oh yeah….I had a heart o’ glass, I was vacationing, I was walking like an Egyptian, I was hittin’ the road, I had faith, I was hip and square, and I even had a little church thrown in (should make my sister-in-law happy).

Thank God for Napster, or I wouldn’t have finished and I wouldn’t be treating myself to some wine tonight!

P.S.  Shut up….you know you  know all the words to most of those songs!  Don’t EVEN try to pretend you don’t.

Here are a couple ideas:

1.  If you’re going broke because you have more spending commitments than you have money in your coffers, how about requiring illegal aliens to pay out of state tuition to attend state-run colleges just like anyone else who does not qualify as a legal resident of Californa?

2.  How about lowering taxes so you can gain more business tax revenues when businesses can again afford to have headquarters, hire new workers and build things in your state?  Lower taxes actually bring in more revenues from businesses, large and small….but then you can find that out for yourself by looking at the results of past tax hikes and reductions.

Just a couple friendly suggestions.  From me to you.

My younger sister is coming for a visit this weekend!!  She will be sans kids and so will I…for part of it.  The Boy is at a debate tournament and will not return until 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.  So…of course I decided I needed brows done and a haircut because there might be pictures in the hot tub.

The haircut is in the middle of the day tomorrow.  NOT good for cleaning, which I want to do before she gets here so I can relax with her…sans kids….with husband in the man room upstairs minding his own business while playing War Craft and watching hockey.

So anyway….in an effort to:

a.  Not worry about the boy who left today at noon for the tournament and isn’t the best at communication.

b.  Get everything done so maybe I can actually have (sort of) a day off tomorrow….during which I will only have to go to the hair dresser, the liquor store and the grocery store…

I…..

a.  Did 50 min. of cardio.

b.  Got gas.

c.  Checked The Boy’s grades on finals like every hour until I found that he got A’s on all his finals and got A’s for the entire semester in all classes (good job).

d.  Made steak, potatoes, peppers and onions with leftovers for lunch (it was SO good).

e.  Cleaned the entire house plus all the “high dusting” which entails taping an extended swiffer to a pole (we have REALLY high ceilings with ceiling fans and lights).

f.  Changed out the litter box tray.

g.  Did laundry (well if I’m being honest the fourth load is in the washer and it’s 12:27 so I will wait and put it in the dryer, then go to bed…then fold it in the morning).

h.  Oh…yeah…somewhere in there there spouse bought me dinner and I took a shower.

i.  Drank four drinks and had some postachios.  Yummy.

So….

Because I did all that TODAY….tomorrow….I GET TO SLEEP LATE AND NOT WORK OUT!!! (but if I’m being honest I’ll prolly at least do some Pilates).

I’m so excited!!  Sleeping late, no getting up to take The Boy to school, and after lunch the liquor store and the visit with my hairdresser.  Later, I will get minimal groceries for to make snacks to have with the liquor.  Good thing we have restaurants within walking distance because there will be drinking……

Um….guess I should do a couple more things.  Like maybe drink some water and take Advil.  Right?

P.S.  Some time this evening I checked email and my sister wrote me, “STOP cleaning.  I really don’t care.  But I guess that’s like telling a cat to stop licking its butt.”  She knows me so well…..

I haven’t posted here in a while.  Guess I’ve joined the many slackers out there this time of year.  We took a quick trip out west to see some relatives for Christmas, but now we’re back.

A few notes about the trip:

1.  It’s always good to go see relatives if you have the time.  It makes everyone happy.

2.  It’s probably never good to play Wheel of Fortune on your PC while the spouse is driving, and then constantly ask him to look at the screen and give letter or vowel suggestions, or even to just solve the puzzle.

3.  Those Planet Earth DVDs are cool.  And they keep passengers quiet and occupied while you drive.

4.  I think I’m addicted to fruits and vegetables.  With all the yummy Christmas meats and treats and casseroles that barely contained any green…well let’s just say I’m glad to be back on my regular diet (he he).

5.  The cat did fine while we were away…he didn’t even go after anything on the tree which was a nice surprise.

I think that’s it.  See?  Not much to talk about.  The spouse is already back on the road for a trip but hopefully he will be back in time to toast in the new year.

Cheers.

I got glasses last week, which can be considered both good news and bad news because:

1.  I can see.  That’s the good news.

2.  I can see.  That’s the bad news….because now it takes like twice as long to clean the house because I can see more dirt than I used too.

Oh well….at least now I don’t have to walk around squinting all day long.  I guess that’s also good news.  Oh and also, I can read the street signs while driving.  I guess that’s good news for everyone else on the road!