As we all know, people seem to be getting ruder (more rude?) by the minute. So I've decided to compile a list of things I've seen people do that I think are rude. And I was wondering if you agree...so feel free to leave a comment and chime in with a yes or no by the numbers.

1. Talking on your cell phone while getting a pedicure.
To me, this is just rude. I mean, this person is performing a service for you and the least you can do is pay them some attention while they try and help you relax by making idol conversation.

2. Conversely, any service person (convenience store clerk, retail clothes clerk, gas station attendant, nail tech) who talks on their cell phone while waiting on you or providing a service.
I'd like to think this person is at least half-way paying attention to what they're doing when they're, say....clipping my nails or making change. Is that too much to ask?

3. Even worse....people listed in no. 2 who remain on the phone and turn their backs to you instead of acknowledging you're waiting to pay for something, have a question, or are there on time for your appointments.
SO rude. 'Nuff said on this one.

4. People who stand REALLY close to you in line.
It's called PERSONAL FRIGGIN' SPACE, PEOPLE!! This really creeps me out.

5. Any sales person who insists upon stalking me after I've asked them politely to leave me alone to look.
OK, someone told me once that I don't ask all that politely, but still...either leave me alone or I will leave. It's that simple.

6. We've covered this in previous posts, but it bears repeating. People who talk very loudly on their cell phones in public places.
Go outside or to your car. I don't care to listen to your call while I'm grocery shopping or while I'm trying to have a quiet meal at a restaurant or at a school event or when I'm a captive audience waiting in line to pay for something, etc.

7. People who let their kids screech, yell, or throw huge temper tantrums in public.
Control your children, people. If you can't control them, then remove them...and please GOD don't fly with them.

8. People who cuss out service people to get their way.
There are better ways to handle things...this isn't one of them.

9. People who cough or sneeze without at least making a small effort to cover their faces (e.g., lady coughing repeatedly on the bike next to me at the gym...I wonder what part of me dramatically turning my head in disgust and holding my breath she did not get?
SO rude, and inconsiderate of others. Where the hell did simple manners go?

10. People who throw still lit cigarettes out their car windows while driving or at a stop light.
I've had one of these fly into my car once....during college. Smokers can be so rude.

11. People who throw all other kinds of trash out their windows while driving.
Who the hell do they think is gonna clean that stuff up? Oh, right....they're rude people and it's all about them so they just don't care. Sorry...forgot.

12. People that show up late to your house for dinner.
I mean...you're giving them free dinner, free drinks, nice appetizers...who does that? This is one of my pet peeves and one of the rudest things anyone has ever done to me. Almost two hours, people....I'm not kidding. But I'm not rude so we didn't start without them. Should have...but didn't. 'Cuz when you're the host that's just rude and wrong.

13. In general, being late for anything.
You said you'd show up, so show up. Or not. But that in-between late crap is just rude.

14. Telemarketers.
Rude, rude, rude.

Thoughts?

Okay, so I watch American Idol. Tommy hates that I watch it, but who cares? It's American Idol!! I know a lot of people just like to watch the beginning of it to see the really bad people get humiliated. Well, that's just mean. I like to watch the final 24 because that's when you get to see if the ones they pick can really sing, or if they just picked them to set them up for failure.

I watched the girls last night. I liked Paris. She was cute and talented. But young...oh, so young. Don't think she'll end up being able to hang. No mass appeal. Lisa...oh, Lisa. Young too, but oh so poised. Talented too. But I think they'll end up telling you there isn't enough emotion there in the end. Poor Lisa.

But tonight....well, tonight.....I I really think in the end this season is gonna be all about the guys. Sorry, Paris. Sorry Lisa. I think that's the way it's gonna be.

ACE!!!!! ACE!!!!! ACE!!!! What is there NOT to like about Ace? He's Constantine on steroids. I gots ta have me some Ace each week, I think. I loves me some Ace. Go check out some Ace for yourself. Trust me, if you didn't watch tonight he can sing too!

And Taylor. Man, Taylor you can really belt out a toon. Love to listen to Taylor...but look at him? Not so much. Maybe a little too old looking even for this seasoned pilot's wife.

And Sway....Sway....say it....Sway. It's just fun to say....Sway. Sway can sing...really high notes. But he's a little too girly for me. Fun to watch, but girly.

Bobby - go have another drink why don't ya?

Bucky....you need a throat lozenge, boy.

Elliott...you're good, I'll give you that. But I like to look at ACE....ACE....ACE!!!!!!! Sorry.

Gedeon.....where did you come from and how do we put you back? Pretentious, egotistical, egomaniacle twit. With a weird smile. Sorry, but I have to agree with Simon on that one. Creepy. Very creepy.

Kevin.....you're cute in a school boy sort of way. I think you need a few more years before you can be successful with the viewers. You look like you still need a babysitter.

Those are my impressions...nobody else really left one, good or bad.

So....what did you think (if you watched it)?

Apparently a school in Massachusetts suspended a first grader for sexual harassment. The article tells us that the six year old boy stuck his fingers inside the waistband of a student sitting in front of him and touched her.

Okay - first of all, clearly the kid has not been given any guidance from his parents regarding boundaries. Where did he learn that it's OK to put his fingers inside a girl's pants? Seriously...

The boy's mom claims he told her he touched her shirt, not her....but he didn't deny that his fingers were inside the girl's pants. The mom claims "he's too young to know any better." Whatever...he knew better. He was just seeing how far he could go, I'm sure. Kids aren't stupid.

And I wonder what else the boy has done in the past to warrant such punishment. It's my guess he's done other things and the school was left with no other choice but to remove him from the classroom once the girl's parents complained...but calling it sexual harassment might be a little too much of a charge for a first grader. I'm not saying that wasn't his intention, but that is a little young to be calling it that.

Judging from the boy's mom's reaction it's clear that she feels he does not need to take responsibility for his actions. Unfortunately, this view that it's always somebody else's fault or the kid "didn't know any better" and therefore should not be punished is one more example of the ever increasing erosion of good manners and adults refusing to take responsibility for their actions, and also their kids' actions.

Instead of using this event as a wake-up call to redirect her kid's behavior, the mom would rather write it off to "play" and blame the school for over reacting.

If I had a girl and she was in that class, I would definitely move her to another class or ensure she was never seated next to that boy, who apparently "doesn't know any better". Whatever.

Thoughts?

A few months ago I did a post talking about summer homework the Lancaster, TX district had assigned to kids as a required assignment. Kids who didn't complete the assignment were disciplined by the school. Keep in mind that the kids had already completed one grade and had not yet entered another grade and school was not in session. However, due to low test scores the district decided to assign mandatory homework over the summer break.

Anyway, I was contacted by Sara Bennett, who is co-authoring a book for Random House about the impact of homework on family life. She asked me about my views on the subject and directed me to a site where they've set up a survey for parents, teachers and kids to participate in a study so they could gather as much data as possible to ensure their book accurately reflects the attitudes of all concerned on the subject.

If you are a teacher or you have kids in school, I strongly recommend you go take a look at the survey, and if you have time participate. You don't have to give any of your personal information to the authors, but you can if you'd like to. I think it's worth the few minutes it will take you to complete the survey, and I found some of the questions quite interesting.

Remember, you don't get to complain about something unless you're willing to become part of the solution.

Man, leave it to California. We all know there are a lot of weird things going on out their with their legal system. We've all heard stories about their judges legislating from the bench to promote a certain agenda so we won't talk about that. It's been done.

And I'm sure this has been done too, but I really can't believe that California passed state legislation in 2001 that allows certain undocumented immigrants to pay the same charges for college as other California students. This, while the state has been charging out of state, LEGAL U.S. CITIZENS a much higher tuition to attend the same schools. You can read all about it here in case you haven't seen the news.

While I do believe that kids should not have to pay for the "sins of their fathers", as adults past the age of 18 I think they absolutely must take responsibility for themselves. By this, I mean if you want to attend a college in the U.S......THEN BECOME A NATURALIZED U.S. CITIZEN!!!! There is a process they can go through to get this done. Especially with Mexicans, I think the rules are quite lenient (especially in California) for being allowed to stay here and work and go to school or whatever while you go through the process. I am not a lawyer and I don't claim to be....but it's just ridiculous how after being in the country a number of years as an illegal, taking advantage of all that America has to offer, these people continue to ride the system instead of just playing by the rules like all LEGAL citizens have to.

While this legislation leans toward playing nice with California's immigrant population, it is estimated that this courtesy toward illegals could potentially cost "hundreds of millions" of dollars, according to Redwood City attorney Michael J. Brady.

I know, America's a melting pot, everyone deserves a fair shake and all that. But come on, people. If they're smart enough to get into college, they're smart enough to figure out how to become a U.S. Citizen. While they may live in the state, unless they're a legal citizen I don't think they should be allowed to take advantage of advanced public education without paying some sort of penalties for not being legal.

On the other hand, I absolutely don't think the out of state students should be given in-state tuition rates. Although the law is not fair to them, we have to be reasonable about this. The legislators need to go back, fix the law, and charge the illegals for all the back tuition they should owe the school for being NOT a legal citizen of the state when they registered for classes.

Thoughts?

Yes, I've filed this under things I hate. Maybe it's because I'm older, or maybe it's just me...but have any of you noticed that the work ethic among the 20-something's and younger seems to be dwindling at an ever-increasing rate?

I first noticed this while I was working at a retail store just before graduating college. I had worked an 11 hour day with only one 15 minute break because my 20-something co-worker was late for work. Well, when it came time to close I got ready to head out, and she stopped me, saying "I got permission to leave early because I have to get to a party." I checked with the boss (also a 20-something person) - yes, she had given her permission to go to the party knowing I had been there all day with practically no break - and - get ready for it - SHE was going with her. They both left me to close all the registers while they went out and partied. Neither of them had worked more than six hours that day.

Needless to say...I quit that job soon after that.

And then there was the day the hi-tech company I worked for IPO'd. All the twenty-somethings with shares to spare bolted to the garage to drink and smoke (and I'm not kidding people - in the middle of the day) whilst I stayed at my desk finalizing a news release and handling paged calls for my merry marketing co-workers who only cared about how much money they made that day and could have cared less about the long-term success of the company or how what they were doing looked to the other business tenants in the building.

It confounds me - the sheer lack of consideration not only for co-workers but also for customers. Not to mention the fact that it's becoming increasingly acceptable to treat others with complete and total disdain in general and not take responsibility for actions that would have in the past been firing offenses. What is wrong with people? I have to believe it's probably a combination of several things:

1. Poor Role Models. These attitudes I'm sure are a direct result of like behavior exhibited by the parents of these people.

2. Apathy Unchecked. Parents too busy to notice or too tired to care about poor attitudes and behavior exhibited by their kids.

3. Entitlement Society. Yes, folks, we've evolved into an entitlement society - wherein most people think they are owed consideration or material goods by others, rather than taking responsibility for their own selves and having the gumption to go out and earn a buck for what they want - in short, an "IT'S ALL ABOUT ME" and "WHAT DO I GET OUT OF THIS?" attitude.

4. Political Correctness. Many adults - teachers because the system requires it and parents because of guilt issues surrounding not spending time with their kids - believe it's wrong to make a kid "feel bad" about themselves by making them take responsibility for/own up to bad decisions or behavior or by penalizing them for work not done or rules not followed.

5. Rewarding Laziness - Also in the case of parents, they don't want to "put pressure" on the kids by making them get a job to pay for the things they want or ask them to pull their weight around the house for an allowance; they'd rather just reward sloth and apathy rather than making the kid go earn the money he or she wants for extras.

6. Increasingly Lower Employer Expectations. Employers have learned not to expect more from their employees because, quite frankly, it just isn't there - when was the last time you saw a retail worker go the extra mile to get you what you need - they'd rather tell you they're out instead of checking in the back - and we won't even talk about the fact most cashiers are OK with remaining on their phone convo's with their friends while they check you out rather than actually making eye contact with you and paying attention to you personally in any way.

And I'm sure we all have our horror stories of co-workers who let balls drop and were totally okay with letting others pick up the slack so projects could be completed - without a word of thanks to those who covered for them.

I believe the only exception to no. 6 is gaming shops or electronics departments. Why? Because the subject matter is something interesting to THEM and important to THEM - so therefore they'll deign to actually acknowledge your existence and offer assistance in the way of advice or information. To be sure, it's more than likely not because they have a good, strong work ethic.

Having said all that....I do know there are some kids out there that have good parents and are being raised with a sense of how their actions can have an impact on others (both positively and negatively), are required to take responsibility for their behavior, and know the value of a dollar. Unfortunately, these model kids are becoming more and more scarce. Unfortunately, our society as a whole is going to suffer from parental apathy and rewarded laziness and all this "political correctness" when our work force slows to a screaming halt because there will be very few people with the drive and intestinal fortitude to achieve success in an increasingly permissive and entitlement-based society.

Look at France.....if we continue on the current course, it's coming here, people. Mark my words.

Thoughts?

I had company for lunch and we ate a big meal, complete with my favorite home made chocolate cake. As a result, I'm still kinda full from lunch but I do have a little room left and it is, after all.....time for dinner.

So the question is...would it be wrong to just have chocolate cake for dinner? I'm thinking not, but I would like some more objective opinions...please?

I've been immersed in Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy tonight so I didn't get my usual dose of news. As I scanned the headlines, I ran across a story about pit bulls that attacked six people (including two children) after running out their owner's front door.

I can remember when my little sister was very young, she was bitten by our neighbor's German Shepard. She had to get multiple stitches on her cheek, and she carries a scar to this day. The dog had always been friendly and pettable, but it turns out he had mange and it was making him do crazy things - like bite kids when they tried to come close.

Now, his owners did the right thing....took him in to get tested for rabies and all that. Luckily the test came out negative and my sister didn't have to go through that painful shot regimen. These were responsible owners who had trained their dog to behave around children, only a disease changed things for them so they had to quarantine the dog until the disease had passed and the dog was once again himself. However, even after the dog was back to his old self they would fence him away from children that came to the house like good, responsible, caring pet owners. I'm not sure what happened to him, but eventually the dog stopped being at their house altogether. My guess is they didn't want to risk one more person getting hurt after what happened with my sister, even if the dog was cured.

I also remember a friend of mine which adopted a deaf pit bull that had been terrorized by his mother and litter mates. He was the sweetest dog, always coming up to you for pets. His owners treated him kindly and he got along well with their other adopted dog. Nothing wrong at all with that pit bull. He had been saved from a miserable situation and was grateful for any love he could get.

But then you hear about all these stories where pit bulls are attacking their owners, neighbors and children. I do not believe these dogs are inherently bad...I think their owners are either neglectful by not training their dogs to behave properly, or just plain stupid. I mean, who gets a dog that may have issues with being from a blood line that was bread for violence, and then lets it around other people without training it properly to ensure that all are safe? Every time I hear about stuff like this I just cringe.

We all know people who buy dogs and then make absolutely no attempt to train them in any way, shape or form. Letting them loose in the neighborhood without a leash, allowing them to relieve themselves wherever they please without following behind to clean up the mess, allowing them to bark well into the night and disturb the sleep of others, etc, etc. Unfortunately, there are a lot of irresponsible pet owners out there...we all know who they are.

Taking a step back, we don't know the whole story. One of the kids may have provoked the dogs in some way...we don't know. Or maybe the kids were genuinely afraid and the dogs had not been trained to recognize the fear and deal with it, rather than moving into a primal state and attacking a weak being near them solely on instinct.

And we don't know if this happened with these dogs in the past. We just don't know. If you read the story, it's certainly slanted to make you think it's all on the dogs and owner....but I will say that the owner was irresponsible for letting the dogs so close to anyone that came to the front door unannounced. I always try to keep my animals away from the door when I answer it...but that's just me.

So....what do you think? Is it the dogs or the owners? Should proper training classes be mandatory and passed successfully before someone is allowed to own one of these dogs?

All I know is I feel really bad for those kids and their parents - and yes, I am angry at the owner for not restraining his dogs before he answered the door. And yes, I think anyone that buys a pet of any kind and does not take care of them and train them properly is scum. There, I said it. They're absolute scum. That is all.

School hasn't even been in session for three weeks yet, and already they've announced a dance. A dance? Yes, a dance. I don't remember having actual, no-kidding dances in middle school. Do you? Or maybe I'm dating myself here...

And you know what's even more freaky than the fact they're having a dance? The GIRLS are asking the BOYS to the dance! It's not a Sadie Hawkins type dance...just a regular dance. And some of Scytheboy's friends have already been approached by girls asking them to go with them...and the thing was only announced a couple days ago!

Since when did girls become so aggressive? Most of Scytheboy's friends had already decided they would go in a group and sort of check out the scene, dance or not dance. Just see what they can see, you know? Even one or two of the ones that got asked by girls are more than likely going to turn their offers down because they really don't know the girls well enough to be tied down with them at the dance.

And people wonder why kids grow up so fast these days....a dance? In 6th grade? Come on.....

So what do you think? Is 6th grade too young for a dance? Do you think the girls are being aggressive? Or, am I just old fashioned?

Tommy spent most of the day in the hot Texas sun digging trenches in the back yard as he attempted to fix the sprinkler system. He's in bed right now nursing a massive headache and sundry aches and pains that were the result of said hard labor in the yard. And, he's not finished so he'll be spending the next couple days fixing leaks and reworking the sprinklers...headache or no headache.

So...do you think he deserves a reward pie? If you think he deserves a reward pie...which one should I make? Key Lime (his favorite) or Apple? He likes both....I'm partial to apple. And, If I make it tomorrow he'll have until Friday at lunch time to polish it off. Thoughts? Reward pie or no reward pie?