Grrrr.....

So I'm reading today's Chicago Tribune and I turn to Page 6 of the Play section and Ellen Warren's column, "Bargins, of Course" and I'm OUTRAGED by not just the behavior of Lenore Wineger, 69, porfessor of early childhood education at UW-Oshkosh of Wilmette, but by our Federal Government for apparently pissing away my tax dollars.

Ellen's question: "And what brought you out to the mall today?", her response. "I just got a FEDERAL GRANT, so I wanted to treat myself [with lunch at] Joes's [Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab] and buying my funky watch. It was $104.90, reduced from about $125 at Nordstrom".

My tax dollars are going to this nitwit so she can treat herself to a fancy lunch and get 15% off at retail on a funky watch!!!

What the hell is wrong with people????

Wii

Wii got one today. Between Cam and Ethan, they had a fair amount of gift cards at Toys R Us and some birthday and Christmas money. Rather than blow it on toys they may play with for a little while, Brooke and I agreed to pitch in the rest of the cost and get them something they REALLY wanted, could fight over all the time, and want us to spend more money on (I'm kind of kidding about the last two items).

Stripper Pole = Fitness Pole

I think this is HILARIOUS!!!! Flirty Girl Fitness is marketing stripper poles to women, but calling them "fitness" poles. As a male, I think this is wonderful, especially since I'm not raising daughters.

I've got to tell you though, I don't think this is a good thing for children to see. For adults, I don't see the harm in spicing things up and dropping a few LBS in the process, but really, do we want children to see this and start associating stripper behavior with a healthy lifestyle?

Here's the link: http://www.flirtygirlfitness.com/

Barney Frank

Honestly, HOW does this guy look at himself in the mirror? HOW does he continue to get away with his political patronage game. First he oversaw the financial failure of Fannie/Freddie (not only ignoring, but SHOUTING DOWN calls for reform YEARS ago) who happened to be contributing to his campaign, NOW he's gone to bat for OneUnited Bank in Boston and given them a check for 12 MILLION DOLLARS of FEDERAL TAXPAYER money because they are FOB (Friends of Barney).

The good news is OneUnited Bank has provided a company car for use by the executives, it's a PORSCHE. Yeah, they spend almost as responsibly as our "friends" in Congress.

These clowns in Washington are issuing blank checks to friends of theirs and letting others fail (because they're not as connected), and they're using MY MONEY to do it.

Where's the "Change I can believe in?"

Or doesn't that apply to conservatives?

Read ALL about it on this link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123258284337504295.html#printMode

Family Hour?? What Family Hour???

Ok, I'm totally getting old. This from the guy who couldn't understand why a woman I used to work with would not let her children watch the Simpsons (I get it now, now that I have kids).

Anyway, I was watching W's Farewell Address and immediately after it at 7:15 CST, CBS launches RIGHT into CSI, which opened with some guy graphically strangling another one to death (blood out of the corner of his mouth, eyes open, everything). I have an 8 year old in the house, and a 6 year old (tomorrow, Happy Birthday Cameron!!), and they are usually watching tv at 7:15 at night before taking a bath.

This is CRAZY!!!!

Oh, and the thermometer in my car read -22 this morning on the way to work. No, that's just air temperature, NO wind chill.

Gotta love Chicago

It's SO Cold...

That when the heater kicks on at home, Funky gets up (wherever she is at), and will lay down ON a heater vent, then when it shuts off, she goes back to whatever it was she was doing.

Nostalgia

A VERY weird weekend. ALL SORTS of excitement on my bride's side of the family, but that isn't my story.

Anyway, I took my mom to get her car yesterday and since we were in Gurnee with a small handful of gift cards, we went to Borders (scored TWO Bone graphic novels for Ethan, had a $5 off coupon and it was 'buy one, get one half off'...BEAUTIFUL), then to Target and Ethan spied a "Schoolhouse Rock" dvd and asked about it. $10 for 2 DVD's containing all the Schoolhouse Rock's ever made and bunch of extras like interactive games and commentaries. I bit and said ok. He and Cams watched that whole thing ALL AFTERNOON yesterday (3 apparently IS a magic number).

Then, when Cameron was taking a nap (no, he's five, he usually doesn't take them, but he was up late and woke up early and Brooke THREW herself on the sword of taking one too, "just to help him sleep"), Ethan and I watched an hour retrospective of "the Electric Company", not one word of "dad, that's silly" or "Can we watch something else?" He loved it and I'd forgotten all about "the Letterman".

Now I have some "homework" to do. Yuck!