NO Scavenger Shot??

I failed to post on Saturday (again). I am a bad, bad little scavenger. :(

Lemme see if i can dig something up here late on Monday morning...

hmmm...

AHA! I have a "no" shot. Just say NO to underage driving! Which reminds me of a funny(ish) story involving the kid at the driving wheel. I let him drive my car as an eight year old. I was in the driver's seat, but he was on my lap. He made the turn onto the driveway, but when he gunned it to get up the incline, he overgunned and drove the car right into the bushes of his parent's home! OOPS! I had to apologize and pay them for the bushes. My front license plate is a little bent as a reminder of that historic moment.

And I should also mention, that now that he's ten, he's an ace driver! ; )

POWER!

*cue evil laughter and electrical storm*

Oh my, it's nice to have the juice again. I came home to a home this evening after almost five days without electricity, seeing my house a home again brought tears to my eyes, I am not ashamed to say.

I celebrated by turning on every light, turning on the TV, the computer, the fans and the shredder. Then I did a happy dance and turned them all off again... well, all but a few. : )

I'm going to take the longest, hottest shower of my life.

Thanks for sharing the experience with me!

Scavenger Hunt: RED

Oooh! how dramatic! Tara chose this week's Scavenger Word: RED.

And I chose Beniamino Bufano's St. Francis statue that welcomes visitors to the Robert Mondavi Vineyard in Napa Valley. Apparently the owners are big statue fanatics as they had several about the place. We drank RED wine and the sunset was RED behind the buildings, but after we READ the prices we decided not to buy any. But their statues were cool. This one has a RED cardinal on it. Pretty! : )

(from our engagment trip.)

What!?! No POWER??!?!!!

I feel like using lots of exclamation points today. OK??!?!?!!

Day Five sans electricity and we've made the evening news. i can't link to the video for some reason, but suffice it to say that Channel 3 got off their butts when an old lady from our building called them to say what a bad job the supplier (Illuminating Company) was doing at keeping her alive. Channel 3 apparently roamed her house with a camera and a flashlight and she showed them all the things that she can't handle alone. Very sad. But still not sad enough to return our mystical power source to its proper opperating condition.

Ray-Ray called them again today and they assured him they are doing everything they can to turn our power back on. "They guaranteed us power by midnight on Sunday," he told me.

How nice. Just in time for some late night running around to turn things off...

(picture is of someone else's house illuminated with flashlight. creepy)

Day 4: No Power

Since hurricane Ike blew through 84 of Ohio's 88 counties, I have been without electrical power along with about one million other people. We lost electricity on Sunday evening just before the much anticipated Steelers-Browns game... which we also lost. : (

Four days later and there is still no power in the quaint subdivision that I call home. I live in an apartment building. Some 200 other residents live here also. None of us have power, hot water or even cellphone coverage. So, we may not be in Galvaston and we may have a roof over our heads, but we're definitely having a ripe ol' taste of Hurricane Ike's wrath.

15 Things You'll Do When You've Lost Power For 4 Days:

1. carry a flashlight to your car every morning


2. take your cellphone charger to work


3. shower at work or at a friend's house


4. leave what little produce you have on the porch during the night to stay cool


5. buy only what you can eat in the next two hours


6. flip light switches because you "forget"


7. grumble because you flipped a light switch, which reminded you you have no power


8. check on your parapalegic neighbor who hasn't been able to leave the building since Sunday


9. go to bed at 9:00pm


10. stop wearing makeup because you can't find your makeup kit


11. throw away that watermelon you were keeping on the porch because it's gone bad


12. realize just how stinky your fridge is without cold air in it


13. wash your dishes with soap and cold water


14. start to really miss hot meals and cold drinks


15. lose your sense of humor about the whole thing when your husband leaves for a 3 day business trip to someplace with electricity

Someday soon (hopefully) this will all be just a memory; an academic exercise in being resourceful and grateful. And I will be the normal person with other rather normal and not-too-important things to complain about. In the meantime though... :(

E-LEC-TRI-CITY

I just wanted to here state how grateful I am for the gift of electricity. Having been without it for two days now, I realize how very fortunate and blessed I am to take electricity for granted most of the time. Thank you, Ike, for helping me be more appreciative!

As a "thank you" gift, I am going to donate the cost of one week's electricity to hurricane victims in the southern states via the Red Cross. You can use your cellphone to donate $5 to the Disaster Relief Fund by texting the keyword "GIVE" to "2HELP" (24357). Donations will appear on monthly bills or be debited from a prepaid account balance.

Scavenger Hunt for the Hairy

Mrs. Hairy Woman over at babybull blog brings us this week's autological word: HAIRY.

And here are two very hirsute pictures I took several years ago (in my blue period) using my scanner. It was kind of fun actually, and I encourage everyone to play around with their scanner and burn their retinas out. : )

I think I look a bit like Michael Jackson in that first picture. What do you think?

Remembering 9/11

This is always a hard day for me as it is for many Americans and other sympathetic souls around the world. A complete list of victims can be found here. Needless and painful deaths. Both here in our country and at the US Embassy in Germany.



We remember.





Memorials held around the country and around the world. Photos here.

Arugula Pig-Stick

Wow, have you ever seen the mud-slinging quite this ugly before? It must require thick skin to run for any office, let alone the Presidency of the United States!

In Obama's case, a colorful analogy just turned a pig, into a rampaging Republican elephant.

I have to say that the pig in lipstick comment certainly did not seem to be directed to the 'lipstick pitbull,' Sarah Palin, as is now being charged. And I think the Republicans could do without the petty, toe-stepping at this point. But I guess the GOP sees this as an opening in the gender gap and are swinging the axe to deepen the divide.

Then again, Obama did "accidentally" flip off Hillary Clinton in the primaries, so maybe he's "not that innocent" after all.

Honestly, I doubt Obama is ready to lead a nation. He comes off these days as a petulant teenager, whining about not getting his way. I think if he can stay calm and unaffected then the GOP will have to do the legwork to prove their ticket, but if he keeps saying, "Come on!" and "Gimme a break!" all the time, people are going to see him as a weak candidate. What do you think?

My Fortune Cookie Says...

That's very comforting. thank you, fortune cookie.

Photo Scavenger Hunt - ONE!

Sorry I spectacularly failed to post a photo on Saturday, but here now is my entry for ONE.

The ONE I love, adore, turn to in a crisis, support through his storms, remember throughout my day with smiles, call and talk to, write this blog for. love you, Honey. : ) This photo was taken by me with his i-phone in the back of the wedding limo.

I hereby nominate Mrs. Hairy Woman for the next round.

Obama-Drama vs. Palin-Railin'

Politics is the new Celebrity this fall and expect everyone to get in on the act! Here's my favorite photo of the Great Black Hope. (Why do people forget he's half-white? I think that's racist. But then again, I also think McCain looks like a lopsided T-rex and Sarah Palin's voice is kind of grating.)

I think this election will go down a lot easier for me if I just focus on really trite superficial things like staging a "Cute-Off" for which nominee's kids are cuter, pitting Michelle Obama's wardrobe against Cindy McCain's and just generally accepting that for all the hoopla, Washington is gonna look a lot like Washington come January, no matter who gets elected. That's the way this country was set up, goll darn it, and that's the way it's gonna be!

And don't forget, gentle reader, if you find yourself inspired by soaring rhetoric or storming at the opposition, America is run by humans. That's right, I said it: humans. So, we kinda get what we deserve.


(One human hugging another human. Sort of.)

I'm with this lady. Let's crawl under the table and compare what Obamas and Bidens are eating for breakfast!