I’m sleeping.

Don’t forget to go see the Friday Ark.

This morning as I walked to the front door after dropping Scytheboy off at school, I noticed something was attached to the door handle. Can I just say that I HATE IT H-A-T-E it when people leave stuff attached to my front door handle, inserted into the door frame, taped to the front door, placed on our little table in the front door area, or taped to the side windows by the front door.

What is it with these people? I didn’t ask for information about their cleaning services (I know I clean better than they ever could), their crappy Chinese takeout food, their lawn service, their seemingly cost-effective carpet cleaning deals….I don’t care about ANY of it!!!!

I especially hate it when they rubber band the stuff to my door handle. Then when I take it off invariably the rubber band pops my finger, pissing me off even further. I think really that’s what they’re trying to do when they do the rubberband thing…piss me off. That’s it, I know it. And I am NOT paranoid.

I guess what annoys me most about the whole thing is that by leaving the stuff scattered all over the front door area these people are forcing me to then DO something with it. Of course, what I do before I even walk through the front door is immediately walk to the dumpster and throw whatever it is away – WITHOUT looking at it.

And I HATE when they leave business cards or flyers in the door frame and you have to bend down and pick them up to throw them away.

Oh, I know. Their goal is to make sure you SEE what they’ve left. But at least with me, all they’re doing is ensuring I never buy the product or service they’re trying to advertise to me WITHOUT ASKING ME if I was interested.

The people ringing the door bell are bad too, but at least you can choose not to answer the door and they’ll eventually go away.

Are you with me on this?

I totally stole this from Paula…I saw her post about being a turtle so I got curious and went to take the quiz myself.

So which cute animal are you? Go take the quiz and find out!

I was going to file this under the Politics category as well, but it’s more of a question each of us as parents have to ask ourselves. What brought this to mind is a case in Lexington, MA where a father is going on trial resulting from him disputing the ‘right’ of a local public school to introduce his then-5-year-old son to the issue of homosexuality.

Okay, so short version is the school sent home a “diversity bag” which included a book called “Who’s In a Family?” which depicts same-sex parents alongside others. Now, first I have a problem with schools presenting any type of material related to family values without parental notification ahead of time. Second, who the hell teaches topics like this to a five year old? Five. Kindergartners are dealing with lots of changes at that age – being at school, making new friends, having to deal with more structure and discipline, how to hold their water until prescribed bathroom breaks…all of that. To then throw in the complex topic of family values and alternative lifestyles on top of it could, in my opninion, seriously screw up a kid’s sense of reality.

I ask you….who teaches sex ed to a Kindergartner? Not me. The kid would have to be awfully developed, mentally, emotionally and physically to handle a convo. like that at such a young age.

Now, the dad did write an email to the school outlining his views. It says, in part:
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I am from Wisconsin, but I live in Texas. Texas is a lovely place. My husband is from Texas. There is no snow to blow, rarely are the streets slick and icy in the winter, there is no State income tax, they know how to manage natural disaster crisis quite nicely, the school system where we live is very highly rated…etc, etc, etc. I could go on and on about all the reasons why I live in this wonderful sate.

However…….I HATE THE HEAT! I cannot stand that sweaty, humid, icky feeling when I walk out the door of my beautiful air conditioned house into the blazing Texas FALL weather. Last time I checked it was the END of friggin’ SEPTEMBER! Guess what the heat index is for today? 102! And tomorrow? 104!! Enough already.

Here are some reasons why I hate the heat:
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Here are some random thoughts from my day:

1. Living with a sick person is hell. Pure hell. That is, if you want to try help them get better and all they want to do is to be left alone.

2. When you’re cleaning out the filter from your wind tunnel type vacuum – don’t inhale. Especially if you’re allergic to dust. Not good.

3. If you’re cutting the plastic off one of those pre-wrapped potatoes from Kroger, don’t use a freshly sharpened knife and then drag the sharp edge across your thumb. It hurts. Bad. And bleeds. A lot. Ouch.

4. Bonus: If you slice your thumb and it’s bleeding, you can’t cook. And if the other adult in your house has the no-kidding flu they can’t cook either. You get take out and you like it. Because you didn’t have to cook.

5. Listening to someone else hack up a lung when you’re trying to eat does not help the whole appetite thing.

6. It sucks having a bleeding thumb because you have to hold it up above your heart to stop the bleeding, which makes you seem like you’re saying “everything’s a-OK.” Well, it’s not. Your thumb is bleeding. And it hurts.

7. Think carefully before you agree to let your child play the sax in the middle school band. It is loud. Very loud. Doesn’t matter how good your insulation is or if you make them practice in their bedroom upstairs with the door closed – it is still loud. Very, very loud.

That is all.

Okay, I admit it. I have a reputation for being kind of anal when it comes to the cleanliness of my kitchen and bathrooms, the washing of hands, etc. Some people I know might say I’m a little OCD about the whole thing. But hey, it keeps the house smelling clean and it also wards off sickness. Case in point….Tommy has the flue and neither Scytheboy nor I do. We’ve all been wiping stuff down, washing our hands, and generally trying to keep those bad flu germs at bay. We might still get the flu, but so far it’s been working.

Now, some people I know have bought into the whole idea created by this guy called Levy that basically said if you use antibacterial stuff in your house you will create and environment where some new super-germ will take hold and basically make everyone in the house deathly ill as it is resistant to antibiotics and using the antibacterial products will increase said resistance. I never believed it. But some people I know actually stopped using all the antibacterial stuff and went back to using yucky, wet, germ-filled sponges in their kitchens. Um….ewwwww!

Well, now there’s a new study out that disproves the hype. Here is an excerpt from the article I’ve linked to:

The researchers reported in the October issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases that, “The results from our study do not implicate use of antibacterial cleaning and hygiene products as an influential factor in the carriage of anti-microbial drug-resistant bacteria on the hands of household members.”

While the researchers also reported that they found no evidence indicating triclosan-containing antibacterial products work better than soap and water, the key point here is that there’s no evidence that triclosan is contributing to the development of “supergerms” that would be resistant to antibiotics.

The health scare over triclosan-based antibacterial products was kicked off in the 1990s by Tuft University researcher Stuart Levy who, ironically, is one of the researchers on the new study. Levy authored an August 1998 study in the journal Nature reporting that widely used antibacterial consumer products caused genetic changes in bacteria.

Going beyond the scope of his study, however, Levy then speculated that these genetic changes could create dreaded “supergerms.”

By July of 2000, the scare had caught fire to the point that the American Medical Association urged the Food and Drug Administration to expedite the regulation of antibacterial products — even though, as I pointed out in my FOXNews.com column at the time, there was no scientific evidence that antibacterial products had caused any increase in antibiotic drug resistance, much less produced any “supergerms” despite more than 30 years of use in hospitals and homes.

I’m SO glad that I’ve finally been proved right to these people who who think I’m anal, OCD, and possibly even insane for using anti-bacterial stuff in my house. Who knows? If they see this study, maybe they’ll jump on board the anti-bacterial train and be as clean as me!

I’ve been guarding the wine for us. Which one shall we open?

Okay, so Tommy’s been whining about being sick over at his site. He’s usually not a whiner so this is highly unusual for him. He is a prior military pilot and current private sector pilot, so for him to actually admit that he’s sick is a very, very BIG deal. And for him to go to the doctor is an even bigger deal. Trust me. I’ve known several pilots all the way up to the Colonel level in the Air Force who live with chronic pain and rarely see doctors, claiming they are not “sick”.

And I can truly say that he is, without a doubt, sick. I saw the patient form….it said “Influenza”. They even gave him that special new influenza mediation that kills the virus instead of masking the symptoms…so we now just have to wait for it to kill the virus.

He’s been sick since Monday and finally went to the doctor today (Thursday) after only getting worse instead of better. So for the past few days I’ve been thinking about how we “do sick” differently. Following is a comparison of how we each react to being sick:

Him: “I’m sick. Leave me alone. If I need something I’ll let you know.”

Me: “I’m sick…I need everything. Anything you can think of, I need.”

Him (after four or five days of being sick): “I guess I should go to the doctor.”

Me (on day one or two): “I feel like shit. I’m going to the doctor.”

Okay, so now we’ve covered generalities on how we each treat being sick. Further generalities on him include staying by himself where nobody will bother him, drinking large quantities of Diet Coke, and eating what’s been put before him as long as it’s not too healthy. Junk food and favorite foods rule the day when Tommy’s sick. I’m sure that’s the same for most of us.

Now, for me here is a detailed list of what I need when I am sick:
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I never, ever, in my wildest dreams though I would EVER utter these words out loud…..I like Martha Stewart. That’s right, my newest dirty little secret is I actually like Martha Stewart.

Now, anybody that knows me well knows being like Martha Stewart is nothing I would ever aspire to..at least in the artsy-craftsy creative sort of way. I don’t make Christmas ornaments out of sticks and pine cones from the yard, I don’t make creative wreathes for my door, I don’t make decorative napkin rings…hell, I don’t even know where the napkin ringed napkins are supposed to go on a formal table. I will admit to liking a tidy house and having some ability to cook…but that’s about as “Martha Stewarty” as I get.

Anyway….why do I suddenly feel the need to confess I actually like this woman? First, let me say her PR machine has been quite spectacular in reshaping her public image. They’ve done an excellent job of making her look and seem like a “real person” in every single video clip and printed interview I’ve seen with her and about her since her return to “polite society”. She is unabashedly honest about her time in prison, and doesn’t complain a lot about how hard it was. She’s not even griping that much about how unfair her verdict was. She’s chosen to take the high road and get it over with and move on with her life, it seems. At least that’s the image she and her people are trying to portray…and I have to say it’s a good one.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I absolutely hate that she’s so domestically talented and could plan circles around me when it comes to a social event. That said, I commend her ability to rise from the ashes and reshape her own image into something that is much more palatable to us at large and hopefully an example to those other actual corporate crooks that are now having to take their medicine.

It will be interesting to see how her new “Apprentice” show goes. But for now…yes….I have to confess I like this new Martha Stewart just fine.