World Champs

I can't believe MJ did not jump on this one. Congrats to the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies!

Priceless

You can purchase these in the PSU bookstore! Get 'em before they sell out.

Joke of the day....

George Bush, First Lady Laura and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force
One.

George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, 'You know, I
could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody
very happy.'

Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, 'I could throw ten $100 bills
out of the window and make ten people very happy.'

Cheney added, 'That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills
out of the window and make a hundred people very happy.'

Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his
co-pilot, 'Such big-shots back there. Shit I could throw all of your
asses out of the window and make 56 million people very happy.'

Hey Tracy...

I e-mailed you a couple of weeks ago about the soaps you wanted and haven't heard from you. I hope you're still around. Please get in touch.

Thinking of Vicki

I was in the Lehigh Valley today and drove by "Just Born." I excitedly pointed it out to my husband. I would have liked to have taken a picture of it and posted it for Vicki but we drove by too quickly.

100th Year of Catty Football Celebration

Any of you guys interested in coming to the game on Friday night (10/17)...There will be festivities at the game and afterwards at the Catty Club. Should be a good time!!

Well, I did it.

I turned 40 today. I feel okay about it. I think my boobs were sagging that bit lower this morning though.

My sister in law had a little party for me at her house. It was nice. I ate too much.

Who's next?

A fond farewell

So long, posse comitatus. It was fun while it lasted.

When you get to heaven, tell habeas corpus we said "hi."

Safety.. security.. Ben Franklin.. you know the drill.

Don't leave alcohol near your pumpkins!!!

Thanksgiving

As of this moment, I am coming home for Thanksgiving without Rob. I was wondering if anyone wanted to make plans to get together as a group? In the past I have sent out emails to everyone that I had addresses for and I guess I could do that again if we make any definite plans. Feel free to pipe in any ideas.....

New Candidate

New Presidential Candidate - watch the video and let's all put our support behind 'Sundown' (the black pilot from Top Gun), since the other candidates took 'Maverick' already. He did it before, he'll do it again!

What a week!!

Sorry that I was absent and missed all the discussions....

My neighbor was unemployed so she was letting my dog out for me during the day while I am at work. Tuesday she called me and told me I had to "come home immediately". Well, I got home and Mia had torn a two inch gash on the top of her paw and we could fold the skin back over an inch!! Needless to say, I had to make an emergency vet visit and they were talking surgery. Then they remembered that she has kidney disease and surgery must be a last resort, so the poor little puppy got 8 staples.

Rob stayed home with her on Wednesday and I stayed home with her Thursday and Friday to make sure everything was okay - no infections and she doesn't pull off the bandage. She seemed to be doing fine, so Saturday we decided to go out for breakfast. We were gone no more than 1 1/2 hours and we came home to find that she had torn off her bandage and had proceeded to rip out every staple!! Back to the emergency vet we go....

Here we find out that the wound in not healing properly and the skin is dying. To make a long story short, they end up cutting off the dead skin and restapling her with 10 staples. I am concerned about how this is going to heal - possibility it won't. This is my child so I have been a little bit upset but I plan on paying more attention now......

I want to make a website

I'm not getting much bite on my Etsy shop, because I don't think many Brits have heard of it and because the prices are in dollars. I want to make my own website to sell my bath bombs, bath melts, scrubs, etc. So I have a few questions and I know someone out there will have an answer:

1. Where do I begin?
2. What makes a good website versus a bad website?
3. What do I need to do to make my website come up near the top on search engines?
4. How much should I be looking to spend to create and maintain it?
5. Is this something I could do myself, or is there some secret thing I need to know to build my own site?
6. Anything else I've forgotten that I should know?

I'd appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks.

Reality Check

So something happened to me yesterday at work and I want to talk to you about it. There's alot of back story which I'll try to keep brief, but I probably won't. This is going to be a long one, so get a cup of coffee and sit down for awhile.

There are five people in my department - all women - and we're like sisters. We're in and out of each other's classrooms constantly, we share stupid jokes, we commiserate (sp?) and celebrate together. We make fun of each other and support each other. We're mates, get it? In 2004, one of my friends in this department had a baby. He was disabled, but no one would know how disabled until a couple of years later. This took such a toll on my friend. She was off work for nearly a year, trying to put things in place to help her son. While she was off work, I went on maternity leave and had my son. During this time we all tried to be supportive for her. We tried to help her see the positive side of life. We were a shoulder when she needed it, we'd laugh with her and cry with her.

Four days before I was due to go back to work, we met for coffee with the boys. She was tired, frustrated, and angry. Her marriage was on the skids - her husband made it clear that because she was the one that wanted the baby, his disabilities were her problem. She didn't know what to do and was exhausted.

Two days later, her boy died. He literally just fell asleep and died. He was two years and four months old, exactly the same age my son is at this precise moment.

Anyway, the past two years haven't been easy. He died in July 2006, and it was February before she came back to work. She was on and off work for a long time after that, and we all did our bit to cover for her professionally. Personally, we were all at a loss. How do you comfort someone who's lost their child?

So we've just passed another September, and another start to the school year. She is determined that she is going to put on a brave face and get back to life and work. She's getting on with it and I'm proud of her, but I know that she's struggling. She's putting on one hell of a brave face. As for me, I have survivor's guilt. I know that. I have a son that is healthy and robust and doing all the things her son could never do. I don't talk about him around her. A couple of weeks ago she said, "Vicki, you can talk about him. It's okay." But I can't, because it's like a slap in the face. During this same conversation a couple of weeks ago, she told me that she and her husband are considering reversing his vasectomy so they can try for another baby. I thought that was a mistake but I didn't think it was the right time to say that.

Fast forward to yesterday. We both had a free period at the same time, so I went into her classroom and said, "Okay, you're full of shit. I know that you're struggling and I want you to tell me about it." So she did. She talked about her marriage, her daughter (she's 10) and how she's coping with the loss of her little brother, the possibility of having another baby and why that might or might not be a mistake. I know that she wants to have another baby because she is trying to fill the space her son left. I also know that because her daughter is 10 and becoming a young lady and independent, she has nowhere to channel her energies. I told her that if she's looking to fullfil herself as a mother, she's done that, because her son left this life a happy boy who knew that he was loved and wanted. And what happens when that other baby grows up and she's looking for somewhere to channel those energies again? Was it fair to involve a third person in her grieving process? She nodded in agreement and then she said, "Vicki, I envy you."

What???

She said, "You have it all. A family, a job you love and take pride in, a hobby you enjoy, a husband who supports you and believes in you. You have it all. I really envy you."

Okay, I realize that she's right, and what shocks me is that I never thought I'd live a life that someone else would envy. My life isn't anything remarkable, but to her it is. It made me stop and think for a minute about all the things in my day to day existence I might get wound up about. It made me think about how sometimes we moan and bitch about how sucky things are. But I have my son and she doesn't have hers. My daughter is happy and isn't trying to cope with the loss of her little brother. My husband is my best friend, and she's thinking of leaving hers.

Talk about a reality check.

VP debate

Did anyone watch this debate last night? I was disappointed in it. I felt that both of them did not embarass their parties, but Palin was a huge disappointment because she wouln't answer most of the questions. I would hate to think that she couldn't answer the questions so I will believe that she had an agenda and refused to waver from it. I was hoping that I would see some of what everyone thinks is "special" about her, but I didn't. Oh well, I am more convinced that I am voting for the right person when I vote Barrack/Biden in November.

Any other opinions?

Could this be the year????

PHILADELPHIA — - Cole Hamels pitched eight innings, Brad Lidge escaped a ninth-inning jam and Philadelphia took advantage of Mike Cameron's miscue for a 3-1 victory over Milwaukee in their playoff opener Wednesday.Chase Utley's two-run double slipped out of Cameron's glove in the third, helping the Phillies take a 3-0 lead. Lidge gave up a run in the ninth but struck out Corey Hart with runners at second and third to end it."I can't let him get a hit there," Lidge said. "I've always been a strikeout pitcher and that's what I wanted to do."Hamels allowed two hits and struck out nine.
The Brewers got the tying run up in the ninth, but Prince Fielder struck out. After J.J. Hardy walked to put two runners on, they advanced on a wild pitch. Then Hart struck out swinging."Not too many times you can say you're happy to see Lidge, but we didn't hit the ball hard off Hamels," Brewers manager Dale Sveum said.Yovani Gallardo allowed three unearned runs and three hits in four innings, while walking five for Milwaukee.Carlos Ruiz started Philadelphia's third with a single. Hamels then bunted hard to third baseman Bill Hall, who bobbled the ball and couldn't get Ruiz at second. His throw was dropped at first by second baseman Rickie WeeksGallardo retired the next two batters, but Utley ripped a liner to center.

How Much is $700 Billion?

The short answer: a lot. The long answer: depends on how you look at it.Whatever your viewpoint, here's how $700 billion - the figure inked in the initial dead-in-the-water government bailout bill for Wall Street - compares to other vast sums.NASA in fiscal year 2009 will launch several missions into space and pay for hundreds of people to operate a host of space telescopes and even remote robots on Mars and run a PR and media department that puts most large corporations to shame. The agency's budget: $17.6 billion, or 2.5 percent of the bailout sum.The National Science Foundation (NSF) has an annual budget of $6.06 billion to support research and education on astronomy, chemistry, materials science, computing, engineering, earth sciences, nanoscience and physics (among others) at more than 1,900 universities and institutions across the United States. You have to turn to much bigger initiatives, like war and defense, to get beyond this chump change and approach the bailout figure. From 2003 through the end of fiscal year 2009, Congress has appropriated $606 billion for military operations and other activities associated with the war in Iraq, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The entire military budget for fiscal 2008 is $481.4 billion.Social Security is a $608 billion annual program.Many analysts fear the bailout because the cost must ultimately be borne by taxpayers.Based on the U.S. Census Bureau's estimate of the current population of about 305 million people, each person would have to pay $2,300 to fund the $700,000,000,000. If each American (including children) paid a dollar a day, it would take more than six years to pay the money in full. One might argue, however, that this $700 billion would be a modest splash in the bucket of national debt, which already stands at well over $9 trillion (which means you already owe $31,642 each).Even the New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez would lose sleep over all those zeroes. Currently the top paid major league baseball player, Rodriguez takes home $28 million a year, meaning it would take 25,000 A-Rod salaries to carry the $700 billion.