• December 19, 2012 •

Happy Wednesday & I hope the weather by you is as beautiful as it is here. For me, today is just wonderful. When I got home around 3, it was 78° & cloudy. The wind had died down & it was nice enough out to open the windows. It's been a stressful 24 hours. Yesterday I tried to go into the kitchen & have some Rice Krispies for breakfast. I literally snuck silently into the kitchen, although the only other person who was home was Josh & he was in his room which is off of the garage ... so no problem, right? I get a bowl, a spoon, the milk, the cereal, sit down & here comes Josh. WTH?! I can go all day without seeing ANYONE ... but let me set one foot in the kitchen & everyone comes out like I sounded an alarm. I just wanted a bowl of cereal. How do people KNOW when I step into the kitchen?! Now let me be clear on this ... Josh didn't do anything wrong. He just walked in. The problem is I like to eat alone ... in peace ... without having a conversation as I'm trying to chew my food. It's just a ... well, I want to eat in peace thing. Anyway, Josh walks in & since I hadn't even had a chance to pour the cereal into the bowl yet, I get up & figure I'll go do something else & wait for him to finish what he came in to do. He proceeds to prepare food & sit down & eat ... I wait. Then he starts doing chores ... I wait. Then he starts doing something else ... I wait. I'm half starved by the time I actually get to sit down & eat. At some point I realized I should probably put the milk back in the fridge. Glad I did. While I was waiting to eat, I typed up the meeting minutes from the last meeting I was at & got them ready for tonight's meeting. Which reminds me ... I have to change the department's header to reflect our new Chief & Assistant Chief. More on that later though. After I typed up the minutes I was finally able to eat ... sorta. He came BACK in after I sat down to eat & started talking. Lucky for me, it was short or I probably would have blown a fuse. I was hungry! After finally having a chance to eat peacefully (sorta), I got to work. I dusted the bathroom accents, checked the dresser for items I may need, dusted the decor in the dining room, cleaned the kitchen stove, folded laundry, watered the living room plant, hosed off the front porch since it was in the 70s & my children refused to do it because "it was too cold", dusted the office wall decor, & swept the dining room. I checked eBay, went through the mail, started to machine knit & then Josh was ready to go to work (earlier than usual), so I drove him to work, came back & continued knitting until it was time to go to the LCFD Business & Election Meeting 2012. Paul was nominated for Chief & with no other nominations, Paul Wood became Chief. No vote needed. For Assistant Chief, both Kathy Webb & Keith Swaim were nominated. After a vote, our new Assistant Chief is Kathy Webb. The position of Captain & Training Officer hasn't yet been appointed, Scott is our Lieutenant, & I am our Safety Officer, FRO Admin., Secretary, Treasurer, & Webmaster. That could all change though after the 1st once Paul & Kathy take over officially & appoint their own "staff" as I fully expect them to do. It's important they have a staff that they trust & work well with. Along with the new leadership comes much more change than just staff. We are also going to have a new logo, new shirts, new everything. The LCFD will most likely be getting a full makeover. I had to leave the station early because I had to pick Josh up from work & then take him to Wal*Mart to get a different seat for his bicycle along with a light so he can be seen when it's dark. We came home, watched NCIS: Los Angeles & then headed to bed. I had the worst headache for 3 days in a row, day & night. If FINALLY went away. I'm headache free today. YAY! I woke up, checked my bank accounts, & then Josh needed a ride to a co-worker's house, then to Home Depot, then back to his co-worker's house. He's doing a project for her & needed wood from Home Depot. Something she wasn't able to haul in her car & he's unable to haul on a bicycle. :) After unloading the wood, she thanked me for helping them out, bought me Reese's at Home Depot (thank you!) & then said she had a bunch of stuff to clear out of her garage & if we didn't want it she was going to call a truck to come get it & donate it. I ended up leaving there with a 6' workbench & a beautiful display case with glass shelves. I didn't get too far out of her neighborhood & onto 380 though before the 6' workbench, which was standing straight up in the back of my truck started to tilt. As large & heavy as it was, we had a rough time strapping it down properly & with the high winds & the height of the item, it was just impossible to drive. I hit 20 mph, it tilted. I was terrified this huge thing was going to fall on a car next to me, so I pulled off the highway, checked it, couldn't make it budge at all, got back in, pulled back onto the highway & it tilted again. I immediately pulled off the highway & ended up having to call Aaron to come rescue me. Between his truck & mine we were able to lay both items down, strap them in, & drive safely back to my house. Thank you Aaron! We unloaded, Aaron left, & Kyle IMd me asking if it was OK if he could go to a friends house after school. YAY! SIMS!! SCHWEET! I got all excited, ran in the house & loaded up Sims. I hadn't even finished the room of the house I'm creating ... didn't even get to PLAY the game, when the bus pulls up, stops, & out gets Kyle. "What are YOU doing here?" "It was cancelled." Crap! I shut the game down. Oh well. I hate when I get that excited & then the balloon pops. Back to the furniture I guess. I moved a bunch of scrap wood that was at the top of the driveway & put the workbench neatly up against the house. Now for the display case. What to DO with the display case? I measured it & then came in the house & measured all over the place looking for the best fit. It was a tie between the alcove in the dining room & the wall to the right of my office window. In the alcove in the dining room there's a sofa table (empty) & a single shelf (a server & a printer). In my office there's a 4-piece bookshelf that's custom fit to that space & FULL. And the winner is ... the dining room. I'm old. I'm tired. I'm wiped out from being ill, loading, unloading, moving lots of stuff around. I'm going to wait for Pete to get home. I don't have the energy to bring that thing in the house by myself & Kyle is ill & went to bed already. I don't want to scratch it up trying to drag it & it's too large for me to carry by myself. It's 4' wide X 5' tall & about 2' deep. Even without the glass shelves, which are still in my truck, it's not so heavy as it is just bulky. It's not like I can just wrap my arms around it & pick it up & walk off with it. So ... here I am. HI! :) Myrtle Beach in 2 DAYS!

80% of 90-days-same-as-cash deals don't get paid off in 90 days. And when you don't pay it off in 90 days, the seller back-charges you through the entire 90 days at the new interest rate, plus they lock you in going forward at 24%-38% interest. They rip you off. Also, 90 days is not the same as cash, because when I go into an electronics store with cash, you know what I get? A deal! You don't get bargains unless you go in there with cash.

Ahmadinejad bans all Western music in Iranian state television and radio broadcasts (2005):

The first known pronouncement by a public figure regarding the potential of popular music to act as a socially destabilizing force comes from the first century B.C., when none other than the great philosopher Plato wrote, "When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake." Many similar pronouncements have followed in the 2000 years since, with defenders of the status quo labeling musicians as diverse as Igor Stravinsky, Elvis Presley and Ice-T as dangers to society. On this day in 2005, in one fell swoop, newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put that label on those musicians and many more when he announced a total ban on Western music on state-run television and radio in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The announcement of the ban was entirely in keeping with the antipathy to Western culture that President Ahmadinejad had previously shown as the mayor of Tehran. While in that office in 2003, for instance, Ahmadinejad had issued a ban on all outdoor advertisements featuring international soccer star David Beckham. In truth, however, the ban on Western music was simply a restatement of a longstanding official policy first put in place in Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In banning all music except that with an explicitly religious theme, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini had remarked at that time that "Music dulls the mind because it involves pleasure and ecstasy, similar to drugs. It destroys our youth who become poisoned by it."

In the decades following the revolution but prior to the election of Ahmadinejad, tolerance for Western music had increased to the point that the works of certain Western musicians—George Michael, Eric Clapton, The Eagles and Kenny G. in particular, according to the BBC—had become relatively common on Iranian state television. The ban announced by President Ahmadinejad put an end to that practice, but predictably did little to stamp out enthusiasm for Western music in a nation where 70 percent of the population was younger than 30 as of 2008. As reported in Time magazine and The San Francisco Chronicle that same year, underground scenes devoted to homegrown, Western-style pop, rock and hip-hop continue to thrive in the Iranian capital despite the ban announced on this day in 2005.

It's much easier to prevent bad habits than to change them.

Memorable Meals:

(Downloaded this app! It's going to be great to know which menu items I prefer at each restaurant without having to try to remember ... "I know there's something I got here that I loved, but what was it?")

Memorable Meals is a beautiful app for quickly recording, remembering and sharing your favorite meals, homemade or at a restaurant. Its focused, intuitive design makes it easy and fun to create memory-jogging notes of your favorite dishes. Now you can remember and share all the great meals you experience, with minimum effort.
Memorable Meals features:
• A beautiful, specialized design that makes it fun and easy to record meals
• Photos, voice memos and single-tap quick notes that reduce finger typing
• Editing of your meal records so you can fine-tune or add to them later
• Sharing with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and email
• A meal list you can search, browse or sort to quickly find meal records
How you use it: Start a new record at a restaurant or at home when you have a great meal you know you'll want to remember. Checkboxes, quick notes and voice memos let you enter meal details quickly, with just a few taps. Add to your record by taking a photo or using one from your camera roll. If you're the thorough type, you can add or edit meals later and include details, recipe notes or website links. Then, share your favorite meals with friends and family by email, Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr. --- Think of Memorable Meals as an extension of the food-loving part of your brain.

Philomath:

A lover of learning : scholar; especially : a student of mathematics.

Renee was such a philomath that even after she received her doctorate in chemistry, she went back to school to take classes in comparative literature.

Are you fond of learning? If so, you're a philomath. This word comes from Greek philomathes, which traces to philos, meaning "dear," & the verb mathanein, meaning "to learn." true philomaths will also be pleased to learn that manthanein is believed to be a relative of an old word, mundon, from the language of the Goths (the Germanic people who overran the Roman Empire in the early part of the Christian era). That Gothic word means "to pay attention."

Take photos of your house decorated for the holiday season. Print out copies of the pictures & pack the prints away with your holiday decor. Next year, you can use the photos to help you remember how certain rooms were decorated.

What kind of government is a kakistocracy?

One with the worst of a society’s citizens in power.

What movie’s Oscar-winning score was used as background music for Marlboro Man cigarette TV commercials in the 1960s?

Where is the International Court of Justice located?

A. The Netherlands

B. The Czech Republic

C. France

D. Austria

Answer: A. The Netherlands

Which character appeared 1st?

A. Tin man

B. Scarecrow

C. Lion

Which is the longest?

A. Carton of eggs

B. 12" ruler

C. 14-cube ice tray

BAC. Are you fascinated? Tell me you're fascinated.

Which of these are movie trilogies?

Superman, Back to the Future, The Matrix, Batman, Tomb Raider, The Lord of the Rings.

Your __________ & __________ are like a vampire clown: funny ... but mostly scary.