"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

on a very special blossom

kitten season is fast approaching and the cats are coming back to the yard. and recently there is one that has decided to make the shed home. she (thats only a wild guess. i havent been able to catch a peek at any bits) is consistantly there and allows me get pretty close to her. the last two times ive left out food, ze's come out to eat it while we are still playing in the backyard. i wonder if ze is a recently dumped cat. that might explain why ze would pick a "home" so close to people and doesnt instantly run away when we appear. and augustus decided to name the cat blossom, not after the eccentrically dress television character, but after ruff ruffman's cat. ze isnt black, but is grey tabby and white with what i could only describe as white "tears" on zur's face.

ive got a list of potentials i need to fax in so i can start trapping again. and a few weeks ago, i trapped another cat. he didnt really strike me as a cat with much personality so i didnt really name him. and when i picked him up from the vet's, the tech said she didnt think i was feral. he seemed pissed off enough to not like people (although being in a small trap wasnt all the fun either) but i figure if i happen to catch an unaltered, untagged animal on my property, you're pretty lucky he didnt go the way of poison or bb gun which i can only imagine would be some of the other animal control options in texas. and it's dipshits that dont fix their outside male cats, cause it's not like they will have to worry about finding homes for unwanted kittens, that impregnate my feral females and make more cats for me to trap.

And regarding Sarah Palin, Feministing, link on the side, has been covering the issue quite well so there's really nothing more i can say on the subject. But one thing i will add is that Sarah Palin fired a Wasila librarian over censorship issues, only to reinstate her after the public protested. In honour of upcoming Banned Book Week, i suggest donate a copy or two of some of the many challenged books to your local library in Sarah Palin's name. Apparently, there is also a Planned Parenthood fundraiser in the same vein, because PP will send a thank you card to the person.

harriet miers 2.0

apparently i wasnt the first to think it but it makes me feel kinda good to know andrew sullivan and i think on the same wave length.

in case i need to spell it out, back in the day bush nominated harriet miers for the supreme court because sandra day oconner was retiring. it seemed like the only reasons were because she was the closest vagina-owner with appropriate political leanings. her nomination was later pulled when bush realised he wasnt fooling anybody and a good 'ol white boy was found. on npr they quoted some people at the rally and it seemed the only thing going for palin was that she was anti-choice. when that's your only qualification, any jack-ass will fit the bill.

and, in some unsubtle move to be historic and non-bush lite, palin is the anti-cheney. she can smile without making babies cry. she's mom, and what person wouldnt want to vote for mom? (oh yeah, those with a brain who can pick apart her policy positions. argh. too much alliteration.) what's next mccain? baseball for sec. of the interior? apple pie for the head of the Dept. of Agriculture? this is base pandering at it's most obvious. this quote sums it up.

"I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative. Well, she's a better speaker than McCain," - Faye Palin, Sarah Palin's mother-in-law, laughing. Faye may vote for Obama.

honestly, im hoping this crashes and burns similarly as miers's nomination. obama and biden have been given the presidency on a fucking platter. lets hope they dont fuck it up.

im calling it

i thought of this last night and am making claim to it.

sarah palin = harriet meyers.

you heard it here first. ill flush it out later. back to pancakes.

my house is cool!

the folks came to do the attic. for the first time this summer, the AC wasnt running all day long. at 4:30pm the house was 80 degrees, not 84. woot!! they sprayed the radiant barrier and blew in more insulation. lets hope we see a big difference the the electricity bill.

and to be more confusing, im doing a name change. buddytwo has always had ears that stick out. it's really cute. octavian augustus had jug handle ears. suetonius said his ears were of "moderate size" but colleen mccollough made a big deal of them.

as for buddyone, maybe sulla. just forget the mental break-down at the end and proscription.

speaking of, sulla's birthday is soon. we want to hold the party at the house. one, i hope it doesnt rain, cause the house is not big enough. two, ive got tons of stuff to work to do in the backyard. and speaking of the backyard, i want a wood chipper and a sod ripper cause im sick of the big pile of random wood by the "garage" and i want to put down buffalo grass. the stickers are driving me fucking insane.

and i want to put texas sage and rosemary on the south side of the house. i wouldnt have to mow and both can be neglected and still come out fine. id like to make it a raised bed, too. but i dont think ill have the money for that.