"intellectual curiosity"

im seeing this phrase being used a lot lately especially when it comes to republicans not having it. Scott McClellan accused Bush of not having any in his book. Just this morning Colin Powell said Barack Obama had it, and the Eagle of College Station, Tx said Sarah Palin has little. This paper, which hasnt endorsed a Democrat in 50 years, is endorsing Obama.

But back to "intellectual curiousity," I really like that phrase. It means you dont have all the answers, but you are willing to look for them. You are interested in expanding your own view of things. Maybe im just elitist that way, but that means to dont cling to guns and religion and are a one (cough*abortion*cough) issue voter. You look at the big picture. And it has nothing to do with intelligence, just a willingness to acknowledge you arent the end all, be all of the known world. And you dont try to act smarter than you are (cough*i read 'all of them' when asked what media publications you follow*cough)

and in one of my self-induced crack attack moods, i just reorganised the boys' legos. i should post a picture of it. all the pieces are separated by type, size, use. aahh....letting my anal retentive freak flag fly.

And I found four kitten, probably 5ish weeks old, they still had some of the newborn blue to their eyes in the backyard. damn, they were cute. there were two grey tabbies, a solid grey, and a tuxedo.

happy birthday to meee!

first the bad news, I seem to have misplaced my grocery money envelope. granted it only had 20 dollars left in it, but im still pissed. so i had to take from my gas money. kroger had fuji apples for 97cents a pound and they had a bag of bananas for 50cents. there's nothing wrong with them. one i had wasnt even ripe. and strawberries were cheap so we now have lots of fruit in the house, if nothing else.

saturday was my birthday. husband took the boys to the air show with grandpa. i stayed home and puttered in the front yard. i trimmed the hedges, raked leaves, mulched with said leaves and hedge trimmings, put my butterfly bush (that i started from a cutting) and lemon balm in the ground, did some decorative edging with stones around the yard. and i even cut down two of the weed trees along the property line. one had grown through the chain link fence so getting it out is going to be a pain in the dupa. and i put down some buffalo grass seed in a bare spot. then husband and i went out to medi cafe, ate good middle eastern food and shared a hookah. and before that we got a bottle of wine (it's a B.Y.O.B. establishment) and i found a thomas DVD for only 5 dollars - one more present down for buddytwo (the other one i got at a garage sale for 50cents!) then we came home and watched the bourne ultimatum that i borrowed from the library.

when husband gets his bonus, im getting my bike fixed. and i found a double burley on craigslist. i just hope it's still available.

buddytwo said his first sentence this last week. "hi, kitty." and he knows a lot more of his body parts than i thought. i was "type a" with buddyone to get him to learn vocab. lately he has been pointing to his eyes and saying "eye-eeee" so on a whim i asked him where his head was, and he points to his head. mouth, mouth. leg, leg. ears, ears. and just tonight buddyone used the word "delicate." i dont think ive ever really used it. fragile, yes. delicate, not so much. maybe he learned it from word girl or martha speaks.

veep debate post

so here it is. ive got PBS on to watch the debate. a friend from DC went to school at washington U. in St. Louis.



"revelation made aware"

her response on climate change is utter crap.

and in other news, today is the one year anniversery of...oh shit she just said "drill baby drill"... of us living in the house. so here is a break-down of what we've done:

• new furnace
• new sections the roof
• radiant barrier and more insulation in the attic
• TNR 4 cats and adopted 2
• garden less than successful, but ive started another bed. i know ocra will do well.
• new fence for half the yard
• window film in the playroom
• new door knob for the bedroom
• bought a crock pot, toaster oven, bread machine. all at thrift town - total, i think, was 20 bucks.
• cleaned out some of the crap left in the backyard by previous owner
• new shower head

plans for the next year and beyond

• put down buffalo grass seed in the back yard
• restore knotty pine panelling in the living room.
• put window film in south side windows until we can get all the windows replaced with low-e double paned windows
• take down weed trees along driveway
• pave driveway
• tear down "garage/shed"
• replace other fence
• have trees "serviced"

and here's a picture of "awesome" blossom