Darth Vader Gets a new Job

Did Darth Vader get a demotion on the Death Star to water boy?

Overconfidence - A picture story

Sometimes I am the cat, and sometimes I am the eagle. I would like to think I am the eagle more often than not. . .

Winter is here!

Thanksgiving just happened and Christmas is right around the corner. It seems like summer was just yesterday. I can't believe how quickly fall has passed and winter just arrived upon us. I actually don't mind winter. I am not a huge fan of the snow, but that is more because of bad road conditions. Snow is beautiful. Although, icy roads scare me and so do the crazy drivers who don't know how to maneuver on them!

Winter driving in Montana is not for sissies or for those with high blood pressure. A normal 20 minute commute can take 45-50 minutes after a snowfall when the temp has dropped below freezing and that is in an AWD vehicle. Road conditions here can just get a little sketchy after the snow falls. It is not a big deal, but I don't like to drive fast at all until I get a good feel for the condition of the road. That is my policy these days. I am really not in a hurry to get anywhere so much that I will risk my life, other lives or my new car. Just not worth it!

Returning Messages

I am floored by how people find it acceptable to not return business or personal phone calls and or emails. I understand that everyone operates on his or her own time schedule and may have extenuating circumstances, but not returning communication to someone you know who has contacted you directly for some explicit purpose seems to becoming more socially acceptable. I don't really understand why? It goes against everything I know and how I was raised. Don't get me wrong. I am completely guilty of doing this myself. I can't say I have not done it or don't do it still today from time to time. Sometimes, time just gets away from me, too. But to just ignore people is downright rude. I will say that returning Email and Voicemail messages is crucial to the success of business for me so I strive to return my messages in a timely manner. In my personal life, if someone calls or emails me, I try to do the same although not always successful in getting back to someone immediately, I do get back in touch with people as soon as I can. It is just common courtesy to call or email someone who has contacted you.

The reason for my semi-rant on this subject is that I am noticing so much more lack of response from people. If they don't want to answer you, they won't and this could be someone I have talked to or know quite well. I ask - At what point did this become ok? If this was your spouse, would you ignore them? How about your family? It seems to me like we have made a decision to throw common courtesy out the door with the rest of our family values today. It not only frustrates me, but saddens me, too. What happened? ET phone home when we call.

Unicorns, Leprechauns and fat crack whores. . .

These are my list of items that don't exist. Or I have never seen one. I think it is impossible to be fat if you have a crack habit, hence the non-existence of the fat crack whore. And the unicorn being the most mythical majestic animal I know, I have never caught a glimpse of her majesty.

Really?

Ugly Stepsister

The Best Movies

One of the best things about Holiday weekends is the movie marathons on TV. Take tonight for instance. Spike TV is showing a Star Wars movie marathon. I grew up on Star Wars. My brother and I went as Star Wars characters for Halloween when we were kids. Yesterday, when my friend and I had stopped into a video store to grab a couple of movies to watch for the night, there was an entire section of new Star Wars collector's items. They even have a light saber now - one for Darth Vader and one for Yoda. The Star Wars legend lives on even for today's generation of kids and the toys keep getting better and better, yet the movies are still the best!

No Heat!

It is Thanksgiving weekend and I have a four day holiday. I had choir for a church service Wednesday night and came home afterwards to my house thermostat at a chilly 62 degrees. I normally keep my thermostat at this temperature during the day, but have it about 68 while I am here at night. I adjusted it, but the heat did not seem to be coming on. I did not really think much of it Wednesday night so I went to bed. I got up the next morning and the house was 62 and then the temp went down to 61 before I left. I adjusted the thermostat again before I left for Thanksgiving dinner with my family at my brother's house. I came home to find that the temp had not only not changed, but there was no heat blowing out of the heater vents. I turned on my air purifier heater that my parents had given me in my living room and decided that there was nothing my landlord could do for me on the holiday and to call her in the morning. I had a spa day planned so I called her on my way. It turns out that no one works on a holiday weekend in Bozeman, Montana in the heating business. My landlord spent the entire day at my apartment to find that the blower on my heater was busted. She then spent Saturday finding a replacement and someone to put it in only to find out it did not fit and part was going to have to be brought in on Monday and installed. I have space heaters all over my apartment. Both my landlord and I are terrified of these things. We are constantly checking on them to make sure they are not going to burn my apartment down, but it is the only way to heat the place until the furnace can be fixed. My landlord has been great trying to remedy this situation and provide me heat in the interim. I am so lucky that it has been and is so warm in Bozeman right now.

Hey Fat Boy

It turns out that research now shows that men being overweight is now a cause of women not being able to get pregnant. (You would think that would have stopped the sex in first place, but evidently not.) A man being obese according to recent studies can cause low sperm counts and therefore be a cause of a woman not being able to conceive.

So often times many of the reasons a woman cannot get pregnant are blamed on the woman. It is her uterus, her ovaries, her low hormone production and only after the doctors have exhausted every possible reason it could not be a woman's problem they will look at the man and his plumbing etc. And now, look at what research has found. You can't be fat anymore and have kids, boys or your swimmers are not as effective. HA!

Solute to Veterans

I just want to stop and give a shout out to all of the men and women who have served our country in the past including my dad, my sister, Tara and Chris (as well as countless others) and to those who protect and serve us today. We would not have our freedom, live in this amazing place, enjoy our rights, and be the country we are without the Veterans of the Armed forces of the United States of America. God Bless you!

When Did I Become A Ma'am?

I was headed through the drive-thru tonight which I should NOT be doing since there is just about no fast food that is gluten-free, but I have a major deadline so I can rationalize anything right now and figured I can remove the bun from a burger, right? As I pulled up to the second window after paying my fare to the nice girl at the first window (BTW, when did fast food become so expensive? I thought that fast food was supposed to be cheap. . .) a young gentlemen in one of those nice polyester uniforms says to me, "Here is your drink. Did I give you a straw already, ma'am?" He handed my my piping hot bag of 1000mg of sodium and 50g of fat and I was quickly jostled out of my post-work haze certainly not offended but definitely wondering when did I cross over into the realm of ma'am?

Flashback to the 80's

Today I went to the mall with a few friends and we shopped and hung out for hours. This is not a normal Saturday activity for any of us. We enjoyed ourselves and spent the afternoon catching up. We also observed that they cycle of fashion dictates, the 80's is rearing its ugly head and certain trends from my childhood are finding their way into my adulthood. I find this to be unfortunate, disturbing and amusing all at the same time. Today, I saw a teenage girl in fishnet stockings with a plaid mini skirt, tall black leather biker boots and black corset top. It was like I had stepped in a time machine and gone back 20 years to punk bands of the 80's! Or Halloween had come early and none of us had received the memo. . .Either way, this is an era of fashion best left in the past. I know that anyone who is my age or older with any good sense knows that mini-skirts are not a good idea, neon is a no-no and horizontal stripes can make a size 6 look like a size 12. Stop the insanity now. Stay in this decade!

Online Social Networking

I did it! Ha! I took the plunge and got on Facebook (after multiple requests from multiple friends to do so.) Now if I can just remember to check that account and update it. I can barely post on here every so often. I am amazed at how social networking has proliferated the Internet, but I hear from my friends that they can spends hours on their respective accounts. Twitter is the latest rage (I guess.) I cannot keep up with this trend. I am still back at blogging. How five years ago of me. Technology is moving so fast these days. How do we all keep up and still maintain some semblance of privacy and intimacy?

Halloween Costume Ideas

Today we were visiting for a few minutes in my office about creative Halloween costume ideas and I was trying to come up with something really creative but not so completely elaborate that it takes me 6 months to make. We discussed dressing up as a ladybug, a pumpkin, a hunter, a cowboy etc. all relatively simple costumes and easy to do. I work for an engineering firm (our parent company) so we threw out some ideas like a calculator, pencil, eraser and a bunch of grapes (ok- that one was a little out of context).

Last year for Halloween, I went as a disgruntled house wife complete with a fake cigarette and giant velvcro rollers in my hair. This year with the economy in crisis I am considering going as a credit card- Visa or Mastercard- like the entire American population could not recognize me as the most popular form of payment in America today. LOL. Might take me a little work to make one out of some cardboard and paint, but it would be pretty funny and quite ironic. .

Monday Morning Commute

After a weekend of snow, we all headed back to work today, and the roads were anything but decent. It was a solid sheet of ice from Belgrade to Bozeman, even on the Interstate. I was waiting to see the idiot who drove like he was above the concepts of physics and physical science, but did not see any cars in the ditch. I did, of course> encounter Mr. Jackass when I reached town and got off the Interstate. I found a driver in a green truck that appeared to have 4WD. He looked like a woman late for work trying to apply make-up while driving. I watched this guy swerve no less than three times in less than a 1/2 mile of driving. I was sure he was going to cause a wreck. He kept looking at himself in his rear view mirror. WTF? It was like he was shaving and driving. I mean the roads are slippery and Mr. Jackass is paying not attention to his driving. I just did not want to be in his wake after he caused a wreck or witness one.

It turned out he made a left turn and I was no longer following him. I was quite relieved but honestly scared for the other drivers around him!

The Gold-digging Whores of. . .

Brave Tv network produces this series called "The Housewives of (enter title of large metropolitan US city)". They have made several now. The Housewives of Orange County, The Housewives of New York City and now The Housewives of Atlanta. I nicknamed it "The Gold-digging Whores of. . ." because these women are not housewives. They are dumb as a box of rocks and don't do a damn thing for themselves. They are the rich and elite socialites in each of their towns, but most of the ones featured are not married anymore. They do have a ton of money which they have now from being married. So, in that case, I should not be calling these women dumb. They actually are smart. They figured out how to have it all. They married into it and then left with at least half. After catching a few episodes (because I just can't help myself if I see this horrible tribute to the elitist idiots of the upper tax brackets in America being paraded across cable- I just have to tune in. It makes me feel somewhat morally superior even though my checkbook proves me to be financially inferior.) I watch in total surprise. The arrogance of these women, the self-centered behavior, the superiority, and the verbal drivel of repeated pride and pompous remarks that comes out of their mouths is amazing. It is like they have no idea that their own crap stinks. I am fascinated yet disgusted all at the same time. Of course, that is what makes for good "trash" reality television and what keeps us tuning in. . .

We bailed them out for what?

I was so glad to know that after the bailout of billions of dollars by the feds to AIG their executives went to CA for a corporate retreat and spent $410,000. WTF? Really? These people should be in jail. They have proved to Americans that if we continue to put our trust and faith in the these financial executives, they will screw us every time. And then they had the gall to ask for another $30 billion? No way! My tax dollars need to go to someone who is not going to spend them eating caviar and drinking champagne on my dime after we bailed them out because they made stupid investment decisions. If you want to go to CA, spend your own money, not mine.

First Snow

October 10th and we have had our first snowfall in Bozeman. It was not a skiff, either. It was a nice, wet stick-to-the-ground-because-the-temp-was-right-at-freezing-snowfall. And the wind was a whippin'! For once, the weather people actually predicted something correctly. We knew this was coming. Fortunately, by the end of the day, the wind is what cleared everything up and the roads were clear by the end of the day, but we woke up this morning with snow on the ground. I am not sure any of us are ready for winter this early, but that is why we live here. Montana has real seasons, even if it is four in a day.

My response to the shirt

I stopped and read that shirt, proceeded to tell the young man wearing it that I thought it was awesome and chatted away with him. five minutes later, I had a VIP guess pass to Teasers in hand. I would say things are looking up.

Best Shirt from this Weekend

"If I had wanted your opinion, I would remove my dick from your mouth."

Twenty Minutes

I have a friend who as a theory that it should only take 20 minutes to get from one side of Bozeman to the other even on a bad day. Today I am calling this theory BULLSHIT! Bozeman has become near impossible to drive 2 fricken miles in under ten minutes. Granted, we are not in Denver, Seattle, Chicago or San Francsico, but we have our little traffic foibles and they suck it up and muck it up here. Today I saw the best bumper sticker "Welcome to Bozeangeles Montukey" I would have laughed even harder if it wasn't so frickin' true these days. And the reason I had time to actually read this bumper sticker, well actually study it intently was because th City decided to repaint the lines on one of our busiest streets TODAY. I understand the need to do refresh painting etc, but since I am not a city planner I don't understand painting during the busiest time of the day causing end of day traffic to become a clusterfuck for the end of the day commute. I know that road crews don't normally work weekends, but I can think of a few better times to paint the lines on the busiest intersections in town and they have nothing to do with 8AM or 5PM Monday through Friday. And then possibly we could go back to everything only takes 30 minutes to reach in Bozeman. . .
But not with, striping, road closures, and idiot planners.

A Hell of a Mess: Observations by Lee Iacocca

So here's where we stand:
We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving.
We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.
Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way.
These are times that cry out for leadership. But when you look around, you've got to ask:

"Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense?

I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina . Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again.

Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies?

How did this happen? And more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle c lass dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.
What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobble head on Fox News will call them a name?
Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change? Had enough? Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America 's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises:
The Great Depression , World War II , the Korean War , the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play.
That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America . It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
Excerpted from "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"

Blast from the Past

I managed to send out a bunch of Christmas cards with a long update letter this year to my family and friends some of which I have been out of touch with for an extended period of time. I included some pictures I had taken when we had them done for the church directory in as many of them as I could. I ended up hearing from two of my friends that I have not talked to in quite some time. We are on email and messenger now so we are in regular contact. I am really excited! Anyway, things have changed a lot in our lives, but it is like nothing has changed in many ways. There is nothing like an old friend.

The People have spoken

Well, the first Caucus was in Iowa yesterday and the voting public has spoken. I can't say I was too surprised, but it is going to be an interesting 2008. I may have to get really interested in foreign film, set a new record for how many books I have read in a year or take up guitar playing. I am not sure I have the patience to tolerate the political cloud that is settling over America for the next 11 months. In such a crucial election year, I do want to know my candidates and the issues, but I don't want to eat, sleep and breathe every move each of them make just so one of them can get an edge over the other (compliments of our media.) I feel myself using my NetFlix account a lot in the next 11 months. . .