Joe don't make the dough

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/howmuchdoplumbersreallymake#full

This article shows that "Joe" doesn't make enough in the first place to be in the top 5% of the American income. But thanks for looking out for them Joe.

Joe the Plumber

Aight kids....politics is confusing we know....and no one wants to say things out right for the fear of being attacked or harassed by a reporter, even if you get one significant lil fact wrong. Which hey, I might be doing here...so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Ok Joe the Plumber....If you are profiting over 250,000.00 a year doing your job.....yes, you will go in a higher tax bracket.

DO YOU REALIZE...that you are in the TOP 5% of the United States average income?!?!? The rest of us little people are averaging 65k a year...with DUAL INCOME.

So spare me your whining about making so much money. I'm sure you work darn tootin hard for it and have put hours and hours and tons of sweat into your business, but if you find you can't afford to purchase another existing business...maybe you should wait a little bit. This IS "a recession" and expanding might not be the best idea right now.

It's just like people who purchased homes when they really couldn't afford it. You seem to be putting yourself in the same position....you want to purchase a business, but not sure you can afford it. I suggest sitting down with a business planner and figure out what you can afford.

wait....he's isn't in the tax bracket he was discussing?
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Joe_speaks.html#comments

and may not be registered to vote?
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/The_Joe_file.html#comments

Long time no see

Can it really been since APRIL that I wrote?

These little kids are keeping me super uber busy these days and I never seem to get a moment to myself during the day.

A little update on me: I got the Wii Fit and well, I've been hooked on it ever since it came into the house!! I've lost a total of 22lbs as of today and working out a few times a week now :)

I'm making this short, but I'll write about stuff soon!!

Re-living teenhood

Well, last night I had a visit with my past. I took my daughter to the Bon Jovi concert. This was a concert I desperately wanted to see when I was 13 years old, and like ticket prices today, it's WAY expensive! Luckily a friend of mine offered me the tickets (half priced) and I decided to take my 13 year old daughter....

....yes, the band I was in LOVE with at 13....I am taking my starstruck teenager too. Ironic?

While I totally enjoyed our time together, singing his old songs and not really sure of the new ones....I couldn't help but look around. There, everywhere, were all kinds of parents, once teenage fans, with their own children. Few bands can maintain such stardom and take on two or more generations of fans.

I could have let the situation bring me down...getting older, being a mom (of a teenager), remembering my good ole rock n roll days....no, I have fantastic memories of being that young kid to being a hot girl in my 20's at concerts. I'm glad I could take my daughter to her first concert, and I hope she has many more to come...with me or with her friends.

Navigation

In the olden days, we often referred to a map for directions to a new place, or in the rare case you got lost. Men were stuck with the stereotype for never asking for directions when they were lost, and the women were there to always back it up with an I told you so.

So along came the internet, and mapquest and such were born. This was to help ease the problem of getting lost and to save a few marriages. What often happened was the passenger would become the navigator, reading off the instructions. Much safer way to avoid an argument over asking for directions right? Nooooo, directions were often wrong, rarely provided information on detours and one way streets and couldn't tell you an alternate route when traffic was bad. Couples again were hopelessly stuck in the loop of asking for directions.

Then....GPS was created and made available to the masses. The military had been using it just fine to guide missiles and coordinate troops. So if the military can do it....why not the average human being? These cute little devices that suction cup to your windshield magically tell you in a soft voice when to turn and in how many feet. The perfect solution to the wife's nagging voice when you make a wrong turn right? Hehehehe, no. First of all, you have to decide on where you are going, and take 10 minutes to enter it into this little gadget. Is it a favorite place? is it an attraction? TOO many choices!! Then you have the option of entering the address and say..GO!, that takes another 10 minutes to enter in and then wait for this little TV screen to calculate your route. Once you have that 20 minute step is completed, it's time to pull out of the drive way.

Now some of us like to listen to music as we drive....and wouldn't you know it, you miss an important turn because you were be bopping away. You quickly turn down the music...."honey, did you hear that last direction?", of course she didn't, she is happy she doesn't have to tell you where to go anymore, and is now annoyed that her nap has been interrupted. Taking down the TV like gizmo, it's time to start pushing more buttons, or listen to Ms. Happy Navigator voice tell you to "U-Turn if possible" in the middle of an interstate. So instead of being told by your significant other that you're doing it wrong, you now have a computer telling you the same thing.

Seems like technology has not made any more advancement in the saving of marriages/relationships over driving directions. Human, computer or the good old trusty map, we'll always be lost at some point and end up testing our marriages/relationships to the max. At least I can text message my best friend and tell her we'll be a little late.

Ok, so Mom was right about something...

My mother always told me: "Pregnancy kills brain cells"

so, according to an article from USA Today, my mom was right!?!?!?

http://content.momstampabay.com/moms/momsarticle.aspx?storyid=75349


Now I remember every single moment of each of my 3 births from the beginning pain to the rush and release of delivery. People told me I would forget the pain over the years...well, no, i didn't.

But now that I've had three kids....I get more forgetful by the day...I call my children by everyone else's name in the house (c'mon, we all do that)...I go through every name I can remember then point at the person and say "YOU!, _____insert action_____"

Similar to a pot head, but without the drugs and smell, I find myself grasping for that word that is sitting right there on the tip of my tongue, which is not good sometimes because I am a writer by trade. I find myself looking into the air, hoping that it floats by or maybe the dog will speak up and say something besides woof.

Anyhoo, nice to know that someone finally had the gumption (and memory) to write about it and let us mothers know....hey we're not alone!

I was going to end with something witty...but I forgot it. :shrug:

The Cell Phone Generation

I watched my son pick up a stereo remote control the other day and put it to his ear and say "hello!" While creative and on the right track(it does have numbers on it) it makes me think about the lack of confusion growing up as to what a phone was. Now we even have people walking around with blinking blue ears like something out of Star Trek.

Remember when....

• you actually dialed a phone - now you can just speak a name and the phone dials for you
• the ringer was two bells being clanged together - now you can hear "Apple bottom jeans" in every public setting
• the phone was something that stayed at home, or was in a booth on the street - now...well you know.
• a dial tone - huh?

While progress is good, maybe it's also moving our toddlers to become more creative in what could possibly be a phone. Of course there is the good old banana, who didn't try that one! I actually caught my son doing this the other day. But what else will he pick up and say hello into that we never would have thought of in the past. I bet my son would love a Hot Wheels phone!

A Product Endorsement!

I have to pass this one along. In an effort to control that nasty kitty litter mixed with poop and pee smell in my poor downstairs bath, I have been on a hunt for the perfect kitty litter box.

Mission Impossible eh? Just about! I've gone through 2 of the automatic cleaners, which often involved late night confrontations as one of my cats laid down a poop that would bring the Jolly Green Giant to shame, and put the machine into a spastic cleaning circuit that mirrored a loop in the space time continuum. (That was for my Trek Fans out there) I've used the covered pans, hoping they would...um...hold in the oder? I think my cats have nearly passed out from the fumes....the things I've seen them do in there are indescribable! I've tried open pans, hoping I would get motivated to clean the darn thing every time I saw a sandy lump....nope, turns out. I'm pretty lazy.

I found this kitty litter box on Amazon.com. I wondered WHY is this kitty litter box getting a 5 star rating from fellow cat owners. Is this possible? Has someone found the secret? No killer rabbits to worry about? I had to try it. I did what I don't normally do...I ordered it without consulting my husband first. I wanted to discover this on my own. I snuck(which is not a word in spell check) it into the house and secretly tried the gadget out on my own.......

It's about as goofy and awkward as JC trying to feed himself with a spoon to clean out, but people of the world...this WORKS! If you look at the above picture...you tilt the silly thing to the left(it loosens the litter), roll it to the right all the way over until it's upside down on the green part(there is a kitty litter strainer in there, I didn't think it would work..), then you roll it back to the left, sifting the kitty litter back into place. You pull out that little drawer with the handle...and POOF! All the little presents left behind are right there! A quick dump in the trash and the thing is clean. It's so much fun to do, the box gets cleaned like twice a day now between everyone in the family. It's like a secret magic trick that we are all trying to figure out.

Gone are the days of trying to ignore that cat box into cleanliness....in are the days of tumbling out the magic poop. If you have cats and are at your wits end...TRY THIS!!!

Search on Amazon : "Automatic Kitty Litter"

It's a sport for the players

.....yet a patient mumbling wait for a fight to break out for the fans. It's a typical beginning....boo the refs for the poor calls, cheer for the home team, and boo for the opponent. Each team warms up for the upcoming battle for the goal, one hoping for a come from behind victory, the other to maintain their lead. As the time begins, the crowd cheers and then settles down in their seats to enjoy their favorite $10.00 alcoholic beverage and maybe a $7.00 box of popcorn. What do they wait for? A brawl on the ice. Ice Hockey at its best.

The stadium is rather quiet as the sloshed audience attempts to maintain eye contact with the puck, but as soon as a glove hits the ice, it is ON. The audience jumps to their feet (hopefully not spilling a drop of that precious and expensive liquid) and cheer on the fists that fly and the ones that land painfully. The penalty...something we do for 2 year olds.."time out".

These guys on the ice are obviously trained athletes, skating that long and hard is HARD!! And have you ever tried to control a puck coming at you at X mph? No thank you. My absolute favorite part of the night, was the gentleman ( I use this term loosely) behind us who desperately wanted to be a coach for our team. He made sure they knew how many more seconds were available in the Power Play, and knew JUST when the player should shoot for the goal. For my first time viewing an Ice Hockey game, he did seem very knowledgeable and was very deft at reading the score board out for everyone around us. But I don't think the team would have hired him. They would probably have to supply him with 10 beers before every game in order for him to perform at his best and loudest. Anyway, lucky us, we were there for his audition!

All in all, we did have a great time. Personally I loved when they smashed each other against the plastic (it's not glass anymore folks) and of course when a Ref would get in the way(that's hilarious...they wear NO pads!!) Oh, and the other ROCKIN event, is when the home team made a goal...it scared the CRAP out of me the first time. The stadium is blasted with a fog horn type sound that literally shakes the stadium. I could feel the vibration of the sound in my feet through my shoes! There is no disclaimer on my ticket for this deafening sound, only to be wary of flying pucks. I guess I should be grateful for the sound instead of the wayward puck.

As a first timer at a Hockey game, it was like any public venue, it took all kinds of characters to bring the whole experience together. My favorite was the group of pirates touring the stadium throwing out beads to the audience....oh and the free t-shirt my section won from 5/3 bank. (Anyone know where they are located?) GO SECTION 109!! I saw myself on the big screen!

And for my next adventure.....Gasparilla!!!! (sorry, you'll have to look that one up)

Finding the Time

Some of us are always trying to find the time to do all of the things we want to. It's probably all of us that are seeking this out, just others seem to do it flawlessly on the outside, but just like us...are totally stressed to the max on the inside!

Me, I'm trying to find the time to make sure the babies are played with enough, that my house is clean enough, that I have enough food in the house for dinner, can I get to the store before the kids have their naps....It's a constant flow of "enoughs" through my head that it's enough to take me to a shrink....

My current projects just seem to have added to my "enough" list. As I start up an internet business, my OCD is taking over. If I had my way, I'd be on the site all the time while I'm awake, searching for the best deals and obsessing over the look and care I have put into it. But I have to make sure that I don't spend too much time during the day on my computer. I obsess all day about it, then have the evening(family time) to get things done. But am I spending enough time with my older daughter and husband?

This "enough" thing can really be a bummer. Have I said enough?