Guess I could do a quick update.

Steve got a nice raise and bonus and more options today so that definitely helps with the college and maybe a couple of fun extra things for us, too.

Nathanael will be coming home next weekend for 2 weeks. He's been busy a LOT and trying to be more social-tends to isolate himself- but he has been enjoying the Iowa winter.

Speaking of winter, we got quite a helping of it a couple of days ago- huge storm- then right away it got warm and it's about all gone- supposed to be almost 60F in a couple of days. Wet, wet, wet. It sure was a pretty storm. It was on all the stations for, like, 4 hours, because, well, people are obsessed. "We're all gonna DIE!!!!! Ah!!!! The white death!!!!" Truth be told, the driving wasn't bad and the extra fuss was needless (as was with the previous 2 storms). Some of our radio "personalities" had lots of fun making fun of the newscasters who told us to stay inside as if bombs were dropping. One of those was Bill Cunningham. You know him as the guy who kept repeating Obama's middle name. Of course he had the right to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he did it derisively and he knows it. He's trying to say Obama has terrorist ties because his middle name is Hussein. Which is ridiculous. Hussein is a fairly common name, it means "good/handsome", what of it? That doesn't make him Saddam Hussein. What if my name were Hitler... should they retire the name Hussein because of one bad apple (and his sons)? But Cunningham, he's been around Cincy at LONG time. He's amusing and that is his THING- causing controversy, getting banned for a week, etc. etc. etc....this is how he plays the game and it works! I think McCain was an absolute gentleman for taking the high road on this one. He can afford to sit back now and now let Obama and Hillary go at it. And some of the stuff that's come up on that is pure ridiculous. McCain's non-affair with a lobbyist that looks dead on his wife? Obama's kindergarten records that Hillary's people dug up for Pete's sake! And Obama in Kenyan clothes- so WHAT! His dad was Kenyan! He looked pretty darn good in those clothes too. But it doesn't MEAN anything. Politically. Saying Barack has terrorist ties in Kenyta because he wore Kenyan clothes is like saying that since I used to wear a ruana in Colombia I guess I am Manuel Marulanda's mistress, LOL! (I still have it and sometimes I still use it- it's WARM for wearing up in the mountains....) Btw that does NOT mean I'm on the Obama bandwagon. Charismatic as he is, I see that as his main attribute- it's useful but I need to know MUCH more. And Hillary- I know enough about her- and no. way. Looks like McCain for me though I really liked Huckaby a lot. On a "conservativeness" website, Steve took the "test for conservativeness" and got a 37 of 40....me, I got a 23.... I'm just not as conservative, I guess, as even I once thought I was. I'm pro-life. But I don't want a frackin' fence along the Rio Grande. I can't think of anything stupider. The gov't is so stupid it would be hiring companies who hire illegals to even put UP the fence. Guatemalan migrant workers sneaking into the US to work at Club Chef are NOT a national threat. What else...don't really want universal health care the way it's being proposed because do you really want what Canada has....no thanks...but I do know that something has to be done to fix the system we DO have. Because we already HAVE universal health care- it's just that it's expensive ER services. I'm satisifed with my own health coverage. But I'd like that net in case it fails...that being said, I don't see how, logically, you can get insurance companies to be able to cover everyone. It would be nice but insurance companies have to make SOME profit or they will go out of business. Plain and simple. I don't believe it's fair to deny someone treatment if they are enrolled and they then get something very serious, like cancer. The more people get sick, though, the more everyone's premiums go up. Like any insurance. I don't think an insurance company is necessarily WRONG in saying to 60-year-old smoker with a risk for cancer, "sorry, can't insure you at a reasonable rate." If they said yes to every American, they couldn't stay afloat financially- premiums too expensive. But then I have the opinion that for CHILDREN there should always be treatment, the best and finest, no matter what their family's finances. And no matter what their family's nationality. Or legal status. I would be willing to pay for that in my taxes. There. I know a lot of hospitals and doctors do things like this already for free. I think that should always be the case. So there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. At least for the next 5 minutes.

Sorry to ramble. It's MY blog and it's incoherent as usual. Bear it or stop reading it.

During this blizzard I read We Were the Mulvaneys. I got it for free at the adult spelling bee I was in (don't ask how I did- could YOU have spelled "mounteblank"?) Now Joyce Carol Oates does not know me. So how does this story KNOW me. And my life. HOW. I also picked up other free books including one about Mother Theresa with some utterly beautiful photos.