Happy Halloween

Here are my little superheros, in their costumes from last year.




And for something really scary:

Time to Get a Real Job

I saw this story about a bank robber who has hit the same bank three years in a row. He always does it this time of year and only takes a relatively small amount of money - not enough to live off of. Police are speculating that he's robbing the bank in order to "pay for Christmas."

Ha! If this is seriously this guy's motivation for robbing a bank, I think it's a sad one. Besides finding a new profession, he should also consider getting one of those Christmas bank accounts. (You know, the ones where you can put money into it all year and then it dumps the money into your checking in time for you to buy presents). I love gift-giving (almost as much as I love gift-receiving!), and we have to budget well in advance if we want to keep supplying Wade's home-improvement book collection, mom's knitting magazines, and Amanda's board game supply.

It's funny how I can categorize most of my family by the types of gifts that they like. Matt loves finding car parts and guns under the Christmas tree. My dad wants history or political books or man-toys (camera-related, music-related, or farm-related). Amy likes clothes/shoes and Ryan likes kitchen stuff or outdoor gear. Diane likes jewelry and for Matt to change her oil. Isaac just likes money - mostly so that he can count it in front of Seth every time he comes home from college. Me - I like purses and plants.

I like buying gifts for people. It's fun to get stuff I know (or at least hope) that they'll be able to enjoy. But, I think that if I ever run out of present-giving funds, I'm definitely not going to rob a bank for it!

Fall's A-Bloomin'

Even with the cooler weather creeping in, I've still got a ton of color in the yard. :)


My new purple dahlias just started blooming this month. I got them in the ground late this year since I ordered them from an end of the season sale, but they sure are pretty.


One of our new flower beds has yellow roses with yellow and purple daylilies. The new yellow rose bushes (long-blooming and disease-resistant 'Sun Flare') have really taken off and are still blooming their little heads off!


My 'Mardi Gras' floribunda rose has been my favorite rose this year. The flowers open bright orange-pink and fade to pink with a hint of yellow. Very pretty. I've had blooms non-stop since May with almost zero effort.


And of course, it can't be fall without pansies. I got some in the ground last week so that I'll have some color throughout the winter months. You can't beat pansies for blooms from fall until June!

A Little Perspective

Michael Yon, the best boots-on-the-ground source of insight into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that I've ever seen, put a post on his site yesterday that, I think, should help us to gain a bit different view of the state of affairs here in the US of A.

I'm not a writer, he is, so just read his post, "Brother, Can You Spare an Afghani?". It's a short one.

And, if you've got the time, read everything else of his that you can find. It's far better than anything you'll ever get from the mainstream media. Great stuff.

Goat Patrol

Franco from The Goat Patrol (above) looks a lot like our beloved Tulip.

Tired of mowing? Got a lot of poison ivy? Try The Goat Patrol. You can rent a goad herd to graze on your property. (For before/after examples, go here.)

We had goats (two) growing up and they were great pets. We loved riding them, and they were excellent yard-protectors. Daisy and Tulip were their names. Daisy was my goat (a jumping goat) and Tulip (a milk goat) was Amanda's.

They were escape artists, however, and Mom and Dad were called to pick them up from "goat jail" on more than one occasion. One time, while Mom was working shifts, she woke up from her nap to a breath of hot goat air. Daisy had gotten out of the fence, into the house, and was standing above Mom on the bed at the far end of the house.

We loved those goats! (Except for when mom and dad told Amanda that we couldn't get a dog because we already had goats... she then said she wanted to eat the goats). Daisy and Tulip were a lot of fun, great burglar alarms, they kept the 2 acre yard clean of brush (but littered with goat poop), and Dad never had to spray for poison ivy (their favorite). Of course, they did eat the bark off of several of the fruit trees and by the time they started eating the siding off of the barn, he decided that it was time to find them a nice farm home.

Dad says he'd like goats again some day. Ahhh, some day...

Why Vote McCain?

Why Vote for McCain/Palin when you can just vote Palin?


I've been hearing from the MSM that polls suggest that independents are joining the Obama camp due to Palin's "lack of experience". Well, I can see that not everyone thinks that a small-town mayor and governor of the largest (land area) state isn't qualification enough to run as Vice President - or just President.

Campaigning for the Republican ticket apparently doesn't mean that you like "that wrinkly white-haired guy" anymore. (Sorry for the Paris Hilton quote - don't hold it against me!)

Sample Ballot

Only two weeks away from the presidential election.

Here's a sample ballot for our area. As usual, there are a lot of offices (and candidates) that I'm not familiar with. I guess I need to catch up on some research!

Night-Mare

Poor horsey got its head stuck in a tree.


Gracie the horse probably regretted her curious look into this tree when her head got stuck. A neighbor heard her cries and cut down the tree with a chainsaw (after taking photos first, of course) to free her. She suffered some scrapes and a dislocated jaw, but was okay.

This reminds me of the kid with his head stuck in a chair. I think I got a bucket stuck on my head once or twice. What is it with sticking our noses where they don't belong?

Smells Fishy

Maybe I'm just overly suspicious of politicians, but this story makes me think that something fishy is up.

A family member of mine who has been a teacher for years applies regularly to various grant foundations to earn extra money for her classroom. (The city school system can't always provide enough supply money to each teacher to support their needs/desires each year, and some teachers end up buying supplies with their own money). Anyway, she's been applying to these grants for a while now and has received them in the past from various places.

One grant in particular sounded a little strange to me. It's run by the family foundation of a candidate running for public office and this year they awarded her one of their grants. What's fishy is this: the checks aren't made out to the school this year, like other grants, they're made out directly to the teachers. In fact, once the teachers cash their checks, they have to claim them as personal income on their tax returns! How is "money for the classroom" able to be categorized as personal income?? Why aren't the checks written to the school, with the named teacher listed on the memo line, as others are? (Plus, writing them out to the school shields the money from any taxes, and all of the grant can then go towards supplies).

Another thing... these grants were applied for back in March. Well, they announced who would win them in May, but the checks didn't come in until recently... right before the election. Maybe it's just a coincidence that the "family foundation" is writing personal checks to constituents in the area where this guy is running for elected office, but it sure sounds fishy to me!

PS> If anyone has an old laptop they'd like to donate to this teacher's classroom, she says she can get a letter to make it tax deductible. :)

A Time For Laughs

Manicure and a Rifle

After I get my free manicure, compliments of the U.S. taxpayers, I'm going to go out and get a hunting license so that I can join in on all of the fun that the A.I.G. executives are having in the English countryside.

Bottoms Up

From Michelle Malkin:

A Beverage for Tonight's Debate
Ingredients are Amaretto, Cranberry, Orange Juice, Rum and Nutmeg. ACORN! Shake it up serve as a martini. Don’t know if you drink but if you do, enjoy! It tastes pretty good.

TRFG: Chapters Three and Four

Two weeks ago, we covered Chapters Three and Four of The Reason For God.

Chapter 3 is titled, "Christianity is a Straightjacket", and it talks about the view that Christians aren't free/able to think for themselves and are conceited to think that they have the only truth-claim.

On freedom, Keller writes: "Christianity is supposedly a limit to personal growth and potential because it constrains our freedom to choose our own beliefs and practices... In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions. If we only grow intellectually, vocationally, and physically through judicious constraints -- why would it not also be true for spiritual and moral growth?" As a fish is restricted to the sea in order to be "free", we are too restricted to certain spiritual constraints in order to fulfill our potential, and to do so freely.

On the exclusivity of Christianity, Keller points out that a claim that all truth-claims are wrong is a truth-claim in itself (as is the claim that all truth-claims are power plays). Also, he notes that every community is defined by specific beliefs and practices, and is therefore exclusive to those who do not conform to those ideas (which includes groups that are commonly categorized as "inclusive" and "open minded"). "Any community that did not hold its members accountable for specific beliefs and practices would have no corporate identity and would not really be a community at all. We cannot consider a group exclusive simply because it has standards for its members."

When speaking about the lack of cultural rigidness of Christianity, Keller notes that Christianity does not require people to give up their cultural heritage. Unlike Muslims, Christians aren't required to dress a certain way. Christians in Africa, Latin America, and Asia can all become believers without having to replace their own heritage with "European-ness".

Chapter 4, "The Church is Responsible for So Much Injustice", speaks to the - sometimes founded - claim that religion causes violence. In some instances, this is very true, even of Christianity. Christians have been responsible for the death and destruction of many people in history. But, to say that the church is the most responsible is illogical. Just take Nazi Germany, Communist China, Cambodia, and Russia - these nations imposed a strict absence of religion and were responsible for some of the most brutal (and mass) murders and tortures of recent history.

Although Christian nations were highly involved in the implementation of the African Slave trade, they were also responsible for its abolition. Keller writes, "Even though slavery in some form was virtually universal in every human culture over the centuries [the notion that slavery is morally wrong is a very recent one], it was Christians who first came to the conclusion that it was wrong... Christians began to work for abolition not because of some general understanding of human rights, but because they saw it as violating the will of God."

On fanatics (you know - the overbearing, insensitive, harsh, obnoxious, self-righteous Pharasaic-types incessantly voicing their displeasure and acting in-your-face holier-than-thou), Keller writes, "What if... the essence of Christianity is salvation by grace, salvation not because of what we do but because of what Christ has done for us? Belief that you are accepted by God by sheer grace is profound and humbling. The people who are fanatics, then, are not so because they are too committed to the gospel, but because they're not committed to it enough."

I like this. It can pretty much sum up all of Christianity's shortcomings and injustice. Accepting that "the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints" is the first step. We're still imperfect - working towards perfecting Christ's behavior in the example he set before us.

Almost Lethal Rolling

Have you seen this story? A Michigan teen was shot three times while toilet papering a house in Solon Township.

Apparently they did not know the rules of T.P.-ing 101: Stick to the trees. "Kent County sheriff's Lt. Jerry Miedema said the teens were intent on draping the house in toilet paper, while the homeowner's 'intent was to come out shooting.' "

I can't count the number of times we rolled someone's house growing up. It was a tradition. One time, the cops pulled me over in the beige '89 Camry wagon on our way home from rolling our favorite "brothers" and called my parents. (I was the driver of Amanda's spend the night group since I was the only one with a license at the time). We were about 100 feet from our street when we got stopped too. So close!

The day we got back from a vacation in Europe, our youth group rolled our house with something like 240 rolls of toilet paper. It was a sight to see, but we got them all back...

Do you hear banjo music?

Nope, no banjo music here. Just another great weekend at the Nantahala.

Loaded up and ready to roll. (Plus 2 more boats on top of my 4Runner.)

Here's a bit of the pre-game warm up. The intense interest and concentration really shows in this one.

The usual suspects: Kary, Amy, Me, Amanda and Wade. (Becca is the photographer and Ken is piloting right behind her. I don't know how Ryan missed out on this one. He must have been off swimming somewhere ;) )

Amanda did a great job pushing her comfort zone.

Oh, here's Ryan

This is some of those darn kayakers messing up a perfectly good scenic background for two of the sisters.


Becca enjoys the rapids with her eyes closed.

Wall Street 101 by VDH

I like Victor David Hanson. He seems to speak common sense no matter what he's writing about.

His recent article on the Wall Street debacle is really good. (Read the whole article here.)

"How odd that all those boring lessons from our grandparents turn out to be true in the globalized, hip 21st century: Save your money. Don’t borrow what you can’t pay back. Look first at a man’s character, not his degrees. And if a promised return on an investment seems too good to be true, it probably is."

He says that they're plenty of blame to go around (speculators, politicians, mis-managed companies, and unqualified buyers). How does this affect me? Our retirement accounts have taken a big hit, but other than that we're mostly okay. Why? Because we don't have any loans that we shouldn't and because we try to save as much as we can and not live above our means (of course our savings would be better off if I didn't have a purse habit and Matt didn't have a car habit).

Food For Thought

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

--William J. H. Boetcke

I was sent this quote and it was attributed to Abe Lincoln. I tried checking Snopes first, but couldn't find it and then googled the quote to see that it was actually penned by William Boetche, a German-born Presbyterian minister. Apparently this is a common mistake, with President Reagan even attributing the "Ten Cannots" to Lincoln in a speech in 1992.

How to Get a Free Manicure

How about you become an executive of a giant national insurance company that has recently received a $85 BILLION bailout and then take a $440,00 spa day with the new government-furnished funds.

(the Smoking Gun.com)

What The Heck?

Over the weekend, we added our final (at least "final" until I run out of room and can convince Matt to help me add another) flower bed. It was really just an extension to the perennial bed in the far back, but I'll count the 20 x 10' extension as a whole new flower bed. :)

Heather P. brought me some plant babies to add to the new bed. She received them on her doorstep and we don't know what one of them is - it's unmarked.

What the heck is this?

I really haven't the faintest clue what this is. I'd like to figure it out since I don't even know its sun tolerance - and I'm nervous about putting a possible shade-only plant in my full sun bed.

Here it is from the other side. The stem kind of twists at the base and then grows straight up. The leaves are soft too.

Another plant I'm not so sure about is this one. It came in a Jackson & Perkins pot that said "Rosa Trepadora." Of course, their website doesn't have anything listed by that name and from my google search, it could be one of several completely different plants. Who knows?!

Get in My Belly!

What's the best burger joint? If we were closer to Auburn, I'd say Niffer's - hands down. (Y-U-M!) But, since a 7-hour long round-trip for a hunk-o-hamburger isn't really realistic, we had to find a new favorite burger place closer to home.

We really loved Backyard Burger - until it went out of business (let's call it the Harnation curse). Then Five Guys opened up. Not bad. Their burgers are actually really good. The grease-bag fries, however (even though yummy) just make me sick.

The other week, we were running some errands and decided to stop in at Red Robin to grab dinner. I'd been there once before with my mom after a morning of shopping. However, I must've forgotten just how good it was. After Matt & I lamented having to pay close to $10 for a burger, we admitted that they were the best burgers we had had in a long time! My mouth is watering just thinking about them. Topping that off with one of their yummy malt shakes and endless seasoned steak fries, we both agreed that it is definitely the best burger place in town!

Where do you like to grab a burger?