Public Idiots

Last night Paul and I went to dinner with our daughters. We were seated at a table for four near a large group of local folks.  The four of us were conversing very happily amongst ourselves, discussing the week, the menu, the weekend. It was a nice break from the daily quickie dinners we've been having at home. (Mac had a prior engagement and couldn't join us.)

At any rate, the local group seemed to also be enjoying their time out.  It appeared to be a family group of at least two generations (young children), if not actually three generations.  Other than the general buzz of conversation, I really didn't pay that much attention to them.

That is until I overheard one of the men say something about Mexicans. I admit... I'm sensitive to this subject matter and I listened in. I really didn't have to try too hard because he was exceptionally loud about this subject.  Well.. turns out he was telling a joke.  His group started laughing, until one of the women noticed my face (I'm sure I must have looked flabbergasted), and suddenly there were a few furtive looks thrown our way and a general silence at their table.

I said nothing, I looked straight at them, and said nothing. In my head I was honestly hoping that my kids didn't hear that joke at all. It took me a moment to join back into the conversation going on at our table.  Things seemed to be getting back on track until their food arrived.  They all bowed their heads and prayed en masse!... Now.. please don't get me wrong... I have no problem with prayer.. goodness knows it's definitely part of my daily life.  But I think I felt even MORE offended seeing them pray when it seemed that they didn't really live the Christian love of all men by the jokes they were eager to laugh at.

I may be too sensitive, I admit. But as we were leaving the restaurant, Kendra brought up the group and the joke. She was also very hurt and offended.  And that's what really pisses me off... my children should not have to hear such things in public.  Why can't racist people tell their stupid jokes at home instead of out in the world where they can be overheard?  And worse yet, do they not even think about what they teach their children when they say such hateful things, even as a "joke"? 

 

Tags: casual racism

Joke, joke, another joke from Estela's jokebook

Hope you all get a laugh from this and don't hate me cuz I'm a republican

glitter-graphics.com

The Republican Fisherman

    A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost.  She lowered her  altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me,  can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

    The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level.  You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

    She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."

    "I am," replied the man.  "How did you know?"

    "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost.  Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

    The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat."

    "I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

    "Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going.  You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made  a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but,   somehow, now it's my fault."

Interesting Miss America Trivia

Miss Utah (I think she is the blond, doing push-ups) was a member of the National Guard unit (1-211 Aviation) that replaced Paul's unit at the end of Paul's tour in Afghanistan.

:)  We're sorry that she didn't win, but she did get "America's Choice."  HOOAH!
Tags: Miss America, Afghanistan

Getting There

It's been a busy few days. Cat is still not eating as much as she should, but she most definitely is behaving happier... still a bit yellow though, so I'm not sure how her visit with the Vet next week is going to go.

We made a trip to the Emergency Room with Kendra Wednesday night. Kidney infection with LOTS OF PAIN! But we have things under control at the moment.  Still some pain, but the antibiotics and rest are helping a lot.

Yesterday Paul was able to put my computer desk and computer back together.  So I'm feeling pretty content about all that. I can finally do my computer entries without having to beg time off someone else's computer (yes, mine was the last to be enabled). Having this corner all done is inspiring me to really get busy on some of these boxes.  We are still missing some of the cushions from the couch.. I know they are around, we just havent found the right box in this box jungle.

After much hope of being able to put my desk up in the kitchen, we discovered that the breakfast nook just isn't big enough for my desk. We've had to put it up in one corner of the dining "room". From this corner,  here is a view of the rest of the room.

View directly behind my back, looking towards the dining room area

view to the behind-right side of my desk

view towards the living room area.

I'm hoping by next weekend we'll have a clearer view. Some of the boxes need to go into storage (empty computer boxes for example.)  We still need to find a storage place that we like.

Tags: boxes, moving, computer

What the Vet said and What I think is true

First off, Smokey is home and doing very well.  She is a bit needy in the "pet me, love me" area, but otherwise back to her old self.  We brought her home at the close of business yesterday.  We also brought home KFC.  She insisted that she needed a bit of chicken..we succumbed.. though we try not to feed her chicken anymore..but she's been sick... so she got a bit of chicken.

At bedtime, she joined me in bed as usual.  What was unusual is her insistance that I pet her non-stop while she drifted off to sleep.  Never mind that I was also sleepy and wanted to drift off.  She clearly felt I owed her big for all her time away from us.  She's lucky that I am nice. She also finally went off exploring and I managed to get a little sleep before she came back at 4 am, insisting on more petting.

Okay... so the Vet really isn't sure what brought all this stuff on.  He says that older cats can be that way sometimes... be unhappy, quit eating, cause metabolism imbalance and WHAM.. sick cat. When we first took her back to the Vet (the clinic also has a kennel which is where she stayed while we were in transit), he mentioned something about abcessing from not eating, so he'd start her on antibiotics just in case.

I think that Smokey had Kennel Cough.  While I understand it's rare for it to transmit to cats, it does happen and her symptons match the ones I found on the internet (for cats). I suspect that this is what happened with Smokey.  While she is home now, we do need to continue the antibiotics for another week and return to the Vet next Monday for new blood tests.

I could be wrong, but... Smokey's been in kennels enough times that I know how she behaves... and this was really different.  She was really ill. But the attendant claimed that she was eating fine there, so how could her not eating at home just a few days cause such a quick and debilitating result?  I think it is the Kennel Cough...or someone was lying about how well she did in the kennel.

the "No Whining" entry

Today I am going to write a quick note about some of the good things that have been happening recently.  Mary (of Just Mary fame) has requested some non-whiney entries.  I'm trying to oblige her, I hope she appreciates it!

1. I love my new bed. Paul picked it up in Colorado and brought it back here for me.  When I do sleep, I feel like I'm sleeping on a cloud. And the new smaller size (Queen from a King) was a smart move since our new bedroom is smaller than the old one.

2. My sister knew we were getting a smaller bed, so she gave me sheets to fit the new bed at Xmas... better still these things are 400 count.. OMG.. they are so soft.. I may never be able to go to a lower thread count again.

3. Smokey continues to improve, she should be home by tomorrow.

 

This AM the news was good.

The vet called us this morning with some good news.  Smokey is eating again and her blood test results were improved over yesterdays. The vet wanted to keep her a bit longer and see if they could get the numbers down even more.  He is going to call us later this afternoon and let us know how she's doing. 

We might even be able to bring her home this afternoon.  By the latest, he felt she'd be ready to come home tomorrow morning.

This is very good news for us, and I hope she keeps getting better through the day so she can come home soon.

Thank you everyone for your kind wishes.  :)