Ugh - McCain

While old Grizzly Mama may have seemed to have been caught up entirely in domestic matters, an eye has been watching the primaries.

I am heartbroken that Fred bowed out after SC. There is all kinds of speculation, and for me atleast it is wishful thinking, that Fred is positioning himself to accept an invitation as VP for the winning nominee. They said he was lackluster, not interested, no 'fire in the belly'. We all thought that was good, see? It wasn't about personal ambition. It was about accepting the burden and doing the right thing for our country. What a bunch of suckers we were.

Anyhoo - on to McCain. The RINO who I am shocked to see has apparently won in FL. Troll and I always wonder what Florida does with its absentee ballots. It feels too much like hanging on to a hope by the skin of our teeth to wonder about such things. It never works, anyway. Already problems reported at several precincts. Dang. Those Floridians have such a hell of a time doing the ballot thing, don't they? I am really blown away by Giuliani's terrible showing. Amazing, isn't it, that his strategy could go THAT wrong? For a minute there, I thought it might work.

No matter, we've got Super Tuesday coming up. What will happen then? We'll just have to wait and see. Giuliani's out. And he endorsed McCain? Oh My God. Why are so many people endorsing a guy that the Republican base despises???

If he's it, we'll have to vote for him. Have to. Can't let the socialists have it. I am afraid that many Republicans will just sit it out if McCain is it. It looks like things could get dicey within the Republican camp, soon.

I have to go with Romney. It's all I'm left with. Not perfect, but better than McCain. I could do it - I could vote for Romney, warts and all, without the bile rising in my throat. So. Romney it is for Old Grizzly Mama.

Cross posted at A Tangled Web.

'Mommy's Nerve Exploded.'

That's how the 7 year old described the meltdown moment. Okay - so every once in awhile they ask if they can blast music real loud, and I tell them no, because I have a 'bad nerve'.

This week has been tough. I've been over the edge a few times worrying about crazy stuff. I've been able to pull myself back without much trouble. Until - - the 11 year old seemed incapable of writing 100,000. I pointed it out to her, that she had written '100,00' - instead of '100,000'. When I told her to write it correctly, she huffed and she puffed and scraped her pencil so hard across the paper that it almost tore. Did she write '100,000' correctly in the process of sharing her little fit? No. She wrote - in a very hard manner - '100,00' AGAIN. So - I got pissed. I mean, I really don't need this crap. This huffing and puffing and rolling of eyes very dramatically and then damaging of paper. I really don't. She wrote it wrong...AGAIN.

I was aghast. My 11 year old has no clue the correct writing of 100,000??!! After nearly 7 years of school? All of those games playing with place value? All of those calculations? Fun with powers?? So - she starts crying and I start yelling. I'm trying to vacuum the room where the bird lives - which just happens to be the room where the computers for school are. He's thrown bird seed everywhere - he's so nasty and all he does is scream. The eldest gets sent to her room because I really, REALLY cannot deal with this overly dramatic crap. The younger starts crying too - just to get into the swing of things. I figure I might as well join the both of them. They have to go to school - because I've done such a horrible job of teaching them. I have to call Troll and let him know that the girls have to go to school. It's got to be public school, too, because we cannot afford Catholic. No archery tonight! No. We will stay in and learn how to write the number 100,000.

Long story short - we all calmed down. She was duly quizzed on how to write 100,000 and was able to do it perfectly. They both sailed through their remaining lessons without so much as a huff or a puff or even any dramatic rolling of their beautiful eyes. Archery is on, again. So is staying home for school - atleast until we can get the financing figured out for Catholic school this coming September.

I never said that it would all be roses and sunshine, did I? If I neglected to share that piece of information with you, please forgive me. It was a terrible lapse. Fortunately for all of us, these moments don't occur often. I think that the situation was made no better by the fact that I'm changing - oh yeah - THAT changing. And I think the older one might be going through some little changes (in quite the opposite direction!) herself.

Grizzly Project

It was finally time to deal with my last problem window. The stuff has been sitting there, mocking me, for over a month. You may all know of my last project, using Wallpaper for Windows. In a dervish of energy (please note that I use the term 'dervish' with the intent that it means what the American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd definition, tells you) I firmly intended to complete the task. The task, you say?

Ah. The task:



The nasty upstairs bathroom window. Home of the dirty and hated mini-blind with sad valance.

I immediately saw that I had a problem. It is the roll of vinyl - 'Rhapsody' - that caused so much botheration. It was of a size that I could only cut 2 panes, side by side across, and 2 panes up the length. I have 12 panes that need to covered. I would have preferred that the design reflected seamlessly from pane to pane. It was not to be. I had 2 rolls of the stuff and I refuse to buy anymore. We tried several different possibilities. Worked it as hard as we could. Finally it was time to just make the first cut - and to hell with what happens next. Troll came home from work in the middle of it all. Here is what we decided. The bottom six panes would be covered - the top six panes would not. The valance was washed, dried, ironed and installed with the proper curtain rod in that 3 inch rod pocket.



We have convinced ourselves that we would prefer it this way. More light, you know. It is on the 2nd floor, so privacy is assured. When the trees have their leaves outside that window, it will be nice to see them.

It looks beautiful at night from outside - when the light is on in the bathroom. I tried to get a picture of it, but it didn't work well at all:



I also think that the valance looks so much nicer with the proper rod in the wide pocket:



It's a much nicer view from the throne, now. Relaxing. One must be relaxed in order for things to work properly.

We have identified yet another problem window. It's in the vestibule where the coat hooks and boot mats are. It's the last one, I swear! Whoops - actually it isn't. The school room hasn't even been touched. *sigh* I had completely put that out of my mind.

Interview

I popped a resume out Thursday around midnight - via the web. I heard from the company Friday a.m. I have an interview next week for a REAL job.

Will it be a union shop that I will find unbearable? Will it be located in an outright dangerous neighborhood? Will I be left with no security card outside in the dangerous neighborhood - waiting for the guard who is supposed to be on duty but has disappeared? Will it be full of disgruntled workers? Will the manager change my shift on me via cellphone while I'm on my way into work - after having jumped through hoops to get the kids watched? What horror awaits?

We won't know until next week.

**UPDATE**

Assessing the 'interview clothes'. Not good. I am quite a bit chubbier these days. Maybe moreso since we quit smoking. I'll stuff my rearend into that black skirt with the plum blouse wrapped around the top of me. My little fence-climber heels. I haven't had the time to get my hair properly cut, been doing the bangs myself. (horror!) I'll twist my way-too-long hair into a knot, throw some makeup on (I think my makeup is in a box in the garage somewhere...), and hit the road Wednesday very early in the a.m. Oh, dear.

I'm Feeling Invigorated

So much for hibernation. Do you know what I think my problem was? Looking at all those decorations that had to come down, and that Christmas tree dying in the corner of the living room. I think it just made me feel so tired.

It's gone. It's ALL GONE! Wooooo-hooooooo. The needles are vacuumed up and my living room is back to normal. The game room needs to be reconfigured, but that will be done tomorrow.

Today was beautiful - high 60's. Very unseasonable. The girlies and I took all of the outside lights and decorations down. Well - they rode their bikes around and climbed the trees and stuff. Then while they were at CCD I got the inside stuff back into the storage bins. When Troll came roaring in on the Harley from work, he dragged the tree to the curb and hauled all of the decoration storage boxes up to the store room over the kitchen.

I'm making big plans. I've got the girlies signed up for homeschooler swimming stroke improvement class, and archery lessons. We've joined the bell choir at church - yes - even me. (I have to label my arms with color coded masking tape so I don't ring the wrong bells...) I may be playing my new flute as a part of that. They are still in the choir. So we have every frigging day of the week booked up. Yikes. We just want to do everything.

Today the older struggled with Geometric Construction using only a compass and a straight edge. Okay - so I don't remember a damn thing about this from school. So. We had to read the book together and follow the instructions together - and voila! She was off and running, constructing an angle congruent to another angle, bisecting angles, and constructing perpendicular lines. It's actually quite fun and interesting once you get over being overwhelmed by it.

The little one is working on quarter hours in time. A friend of mine remarked a couple of years ago that her niece was not taught how to read an analog clock in school. Terrible, isn't it?

They both got me to work out with Gilad on Fit TV. This man is a maniac - can I share that? I could never be so obsessed with my body - honestly. However - the girls love to work out to his show on TV. Old Grizzly Mama was down there on the floor exercising, too. I also caught myself swimming laps yesterday. Maybe this quitting smoking thing might lead to a pair of lungs that can actually support some physical exertion?

The favorite Christmas present for the girls? They each received (among other things) a Red Ryder BB gun. We have reviewed the safety rules, and continue to follow them - very important. They do not shoot unless I am there supervising. We live in a township that has no problem with shooting in the back yard - so out we went. They're enjoying themselves and improving. But - guess who shattered the shatterblast target on the stake? You got it - Old Grizzly Mama. So - we're all having a lot of fun with the Red Ryders. No one has shot an eye out. Not yet, anyway.

Back to the salt mines. Time to get down and dirty with this election coming up.

Fred Thompson

Okay - one more, little, itsy-bitsy entry before I hibernate. Thanks to Gayle at My Republican Blog.



Go Fred!