Mea culpa

Hi my little blog --

I have neglected you and I am sorry. Life has gotten in the way of cyberspace. Nothing drastic -- my first real vacation in years, work, work and more work, and yeah, more work.
And that's all good....
But more to come, I promise.

Random thoughts

1) Educating myself about Supreme Court pick Sonia Sotomayor. My main question is if a white person -- either male or female - even intimated that a person was better qualified than a Latino or Latina simply because he or she was white, would we even be having this debate about what makes a statement racist?

2) June 1 always fills me with dread -- it's the start of hurricane season, and even though I no longer live on the coast, I keep a weather eye on the tropics from now until November.

3) Tickets for Disney Cruise finally arrived. Now it's REAL.

4) Sad to learn that David Stick -- pre-eminent historian of the Outer Banks -- has died at age 89. I had the honor of interviewing him when I worked at a weekly newspaper there a couple of years ago. What that man didn't know about the history of his beloved barrier island probably isn't worth knowing.

5) Why do people think it's acceptable to talk on their cell phones when in line at a store -- any store? I work part-time for a major retail chain and that behavior is not only rude, but annoying as well.

6) It is comfortably warm outside today - finally.

7) Wonder if I can get my fellow taxpayers to pick up a $24,000 tab for a date night of mine.

8) Hoping that Susan Boyle gets her groove back. What an amazing voice and talent!

9) Is there anything as terrifying to a woman as buying a new bathing suit?

10) How many more days until football season??

Cruising with De Mouse

De Sister, De Sweet Niece, De Grampa Stu and I are counting down the days until we go cruisin'.
Yup, we've spent money that we don't have and have gotten tickets to take a three- day Disney Cruise to the Bahamas June 24 through the 28th.
De Sweet Niece is graduating high school on June 12 and the trip is her graduation present. She deserves it -- she's got good grades and has a life plan that includes going to nursing school.
De Sweet Niece first mentioned the possibilty of a cruise in December, the day after Christmas, when we were at the mall doing a little day after shopping with De Sister, her mother.
I loved the idea and said how about if we (de sweet niece and I) go together.
That worked with her.
Not wanting to take her out of the country without telling her parents -- namely De Sister and De Bro-in-Law, I told them about the plan that night over a dinner of chicken wings and beer.
Seemed to be the time to ask them. Adult beverages were involved, after all.
De Sister immediately wanted to go and cast a pleading look at De Mom (our mother). De Grampa Stu (de bro-in-law's dad), who was also there, said he wanted to go.
A look passed between de gramparents, and in the blink of an eye the number of trip participants went from 2 to 4.
It remains to be seen how four people with strong opinions about what they want to do will get along on a boat for a few days.
Pray for us.

Holy moly!

Oh my gosh -- has it been since January that I posted to this blog? Yikes! Things have been CRAZY -- in all capital letters -- for the past couple of months.
The company I work for introduced mandatory furloughs in February, so my fellow employees and I are all struggling with the loss of 10 days pay. That has meant that I have picked up as many hours as possible at my seond gig.
Don't, however, think I am complaining. I am grateful in the current economy to have both jobs and am praying really hard for everyone who has been laid off as the recession has deepened. It will get better -- it always does.

SNOW DAY

Snow is gently falling here in Northern Virginia, coating everything with fluffy, white flakes.
What is it about snow that makes it so peaceful, so calming, so centering? Whenever it snows, it makes me feel like I am at the beach, where I always feel closer to God. It's that whole "nature" thing, when you can look around and know deep in your soul that there is something more out there, something calling us to become our best selves. Wish that feeling would last longer than the fleeting few seconds it does.

What an ouch

I have been a little out of commission this past week. Pulled some serious muscles in my rib cage last Sunday in an unbelievable way.
It all began innocently enough -- I was watching the football game last Sunday and decided to put Casey's new snowboots on her paws. Santa brought the boots at Christmas time, because Casey simply hates getting her feet wet in any way shape or form. So, to make a long story short, I bent down and twisted in a real weird way, heard a pop, felt a snap and had my breath taken for a nanosecond.
Trip to the doctors a couple of days later found that I had strained/sprained muscles. Got a prescription for muscle relaxers and pain killers. Heaven.
So a week later, I am still a little sore, but am getting much better.

Big doings on Sunday

I was up way too early yesterday -- but for a good cause -- watching local Marines from Quantico rehearse for next week's inaugural parade.
The alarm went off at 5:15 a.m., and it was about 27 degrees outside when I headed out the door at 6 a.m. to make the trek to D.C. and the Freedom Plaza near Pennsylvania Avenue.
There was plenty of media on hand by the time I arrived at 7:15 a.m. The service members who were portraying President-elect Obama and his family, and Vice President-elect Biden and his family, were already rehearsing the swearing in ceremony. The Army Staff Sergeant who was standing in for Obama gave the shortest inaugural address in history: "Thank you and God Bless America," which drew applause from the audience.
Then it was time to practice the parade. About 3,000 members of the Armed Forces and some civilian groups marched down Pennsylvania Avenue for their only dress rehearsal in advance of next Tuesday. Having only watched inaugurals on television it was quite a rush to follow the marchers along the route, which passed by the White House. It drove home one of the many things that makes our country great: Every 4 or 8 years, we have a peaceful change of power. And that's what was on display Sunday.

TGIF

Yahoo, it's Friday and not just any Friday. It's the first Friday of the first full work week of 2009. And it didn't get here fast enough for me!
The first week back after the Christmas holidays always seems so long. I've spent the whole week catching up with folks who've been off for a couple of weeks and scheduling interviews for upcoming stories. It's all worked out, but man, what it challenging.
Seemed like everyone really didn't want to be back at work and needed until Thursday to get their groove back on. I know I did.
Pretty exciting weekend coming up. Heading to D.C. on Sunday to cover the inaugural rehearsal.

Getting hot in D.C.

Since I live and work in the shadow of the nation's capitol, I'm always interested in what our elected representatives are up to -- and the doings on the Hill have been very interesting today.
The Senate -- in the form of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) refused to seat embattled Illnois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's (D-Il) (hey, notice a pattern here? They all have D's behind their name) pick to fill Barry Hussein Obama's senate seat. By all accounts, Roland Burris is qualified to fill the seat, but the Illinois Secretary of State gave the Senate some wiggle room by refusing to certify Blago's selection.
How interesting -- a bunch of ahem, white democrats refusing to seat a black man. And yet, black Americans vote overwhelmingly democratic.

Recessionary spending?

Worked my part-time gig last night. You would never know there was a recession going on by the number of people that were snatching up clothes on a FRIDAY night -- after Christmas.
All my co-workers said the same thing -- "I thought we were in a recession."
Grocery shopping this morning and more evidence that people are spending -- long lines! But even in a recession, I guess people have to eat.
I hope all this means that we're beginning (or have) turned the corner and the economy is on its way to bouncing back.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Had a great time last night ringing in 2009. The evening began with dinner out with my favorite friends from work Courtney and Lynn at Applebees.
The celebration was a combined New Years and 21st birthday party for Courtney, who actually turned "legal" back in November. Court and I had Cosmopolitans. T
Courtney's mom, great aunt and grandmother, who retired from the paper where we work in 2007, joined us, along with my mom, so all and all it was a nice dinner.
After that, headed home and waited for the ball to drop from the safety of my couch -- those folks in NYC looked like they were freezing!
Went to Mass this morning, so 2009 got off to a good start! Now, off to cook dinner for the family!

Princess Casey!

Here's a picture of my beautiful, beloved Chow mix, Casey, with her new best friend, Santa Claus! Casey is a rescue dog who adopted us 5 years ago after we lost our 15-year cockapoo, Conrad.
Casey was rescued by the humane society back home in Jacksonville, N.C. after she had been beaten up and thrown out of a car. She had two surgeries before we got her, and is today a happy, healthy and spoiled little girl!

Say goodbye 2008 and hello 2009

Well, there's only a few hours left in 2008, and I for one am itching to bid this year adieu. If I hear the words "bailout," "maverick," or "go green" one more time, I think I'll hurl!
No doubt about it, 2008 has been challenging --- constant chatter about the collapse of the economy, failed ponzi schemes, continuing worries about terrorism, and political scandals can make even normally positive people feel anxious about the future. But the dawning of a new year brings with it a clean slate, limitless possibilites and the chance to start over.
My resolutions for the new year -- exercise more (that is a definite), eat better, and laugh more!
I hope we all take advantage of the good that 2009 will offer.

This that and the other

As Christmas draws near and the year comes to a close, it's always fun to take a look back and a glance forward.
Here are some highlights from my 2008:

1) Attending the Papal Mass at National's Stadium in Washington, D.C. Only one way to describe it: Holy Awesome!

2) Hanging out with the President: I'm a reporter at a suburban newspaper just outside D.C., about 20 miles or so from the nation's capital, so its always a cool thing to get to report on the President. Got to do that a couple of times this year -- on Sept. 11 for the memorial service at the Pentagon and at the final T-Ball on the South Lawn fame of President Bush's administration.

3) Still on the reporting front: Seeing families reunited after their loved ones returned from serving oversees was joyful. Tearful were the departure ceremonies that I reported on.

4) Hanging out with family and friends at the beach, dinners out, conversation, reading good books -- the little things that we forget that make life meaningful.

Much to be thankful for

Thanksgiving is behind us and the mad dash to Christmas is underway! It is hard to imagine that in a scant four weeks we'll be celebrating the Lord's birth and then ushering out 2008 and welcoming in 2009.
Our family had a joyous Thanksgiving, although it got off to a rough start. Mom, Princess Casey (my much loved and much spoiled Chow Mix) and I headed out last Tuesday morning on the 4 1/2 hour trek down Interstate 95 on the way to my sister's house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I know -- its so tough to spend Thanksgiving at the beach! BTW on Thanksgiving morning, Casey and I were on the beach enjoying the sand and surf. She was wearing her "fur" coat. I was in short sleeves, soaking up the sun!
Anyway, back to Tuesday. We're all comfortably ensconed in my Honda Pilot and were less than seven miles into our trip, near Exit 148 just outside Woodbridge, Va., when I noticed that a STOOPID driver was coming up WAY fast behind us. I no sooner had mentioned that to Mom when aforementioned STOOPID driver darts into the far left lane lane and speeds by. There were cars in front of us -- natch, we're talking an interstate -- but everyone else was actually giving everyone else plenty of room and not tailgating. As I watched STOOPID driver, he swerved back into my lane and hit a car that was about four or so car lenghts in front of us. Both of their vehicles then spun out, with the car that got hit by STOOPID driver spinning into the far right lane nearest the shoulder and then hitting a car that was traveling there. All three vehicles ended up in the embankment. I certainly do hope no one was seriously injured. What a way to begin Thanksgiving.
The rest of the trip to OBX passed uneventfully. All the family gathered at my sister's house and we had a marvelous time, eating too much turkey, watching the parade, and doing a little shopping. So much to be thankful for -- our faith, our health, this wonderful country, our freedom, and the marvelous men and women who defend all the above.

The country spoke, now what?

Last week's presidential election was historic, no matter which candidate you supported. Had John McCain and Sarah Palin prevailed, the United States would have elected its first-ever female vice president.
As it turned out, we elected our first black president. As far as making history goes, that isn't too shabby.
Now, Barack Obama has some pretty big shoes to fill.
His own.
Durng the long campaign season, he quire simply promised to be all things to all people. He pandered to the hard left wing of his party by promising to get our troops out of Iraq post haste, to close Gitmo, and to bring universal healthcare to the nation. He promised 20 million illegals a way to citizenship.
He promised to not raise taxes on 95 percent of all Americans. -- But demurred from repeating this promise during one of his first post-election appearances.
All those promises had one Obama supporter, Peggy Johnson, famously declaring on a You Tube video that she didn't have to worry anymore because he would pay her mortage and her car payment.
Problem is -- who's going to pay for all of Obama's promises and what are his millions of supporters going to do when they discover he can't deliver on them.
I for one am going to sit back, smile and say "I told you so."

SEMINAL ELECTION

After nearly two years of campaigning, innumerable ads and polls the only thing that matters come tomorrow is YOU.
And what you decide when you head to your polling place. Are we really going to elect someone whose own running mate says will be "tested" by our enemies within 6 months of taking office?
Do you want lower taxes and the ability to decide about health care yourself?
Do you want activist Supreme Court judges?
How about your 401K? Do you want the government to take it over? Gee, not me.

Been a while

Wow! Has it really been over a month since I've blogged? Guess so! Well, a lot has happened in the past 30 days or so -- a $750 million bailout by our government for the financial industry (and now everybody, including cities, states and the auto industry) wants "their" share of the pie. All I know is if Uncle Sam keeps sticking his hand in my wallet for more money, pretty soon I'm not going to have any money for anything else.



And, we're continually told that nobody's shopping or spending money unnecessarily. Here's what I've observed over the past few days. Went out to eat at a popular chain steakhouse here in NOVA that's known for its "Down Under" flavor. Waited 40 minutes for a table because the place was so packed.



Spent the day at Busch Gardens last Saturday with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. The place was packed. When we left for the night at around 8 p.m. the gate folks told us there were 15,000 people in the park and more were coming in.



I know this may be anecdotal information, but, I don't seriously believe these two places are the only spots raking in the cash.



Don't forget to vote on Tuesday.

My first blog

I've finally taken the plunge and joined the blogging world. Let me say that first step is a hard one to take. There are literally millions of voices in cyberspace vying for everyone's attention, so I thank you for stopping by. As the days go by, I'll be adding longer posts and more fun stuff to the blog, so stand by!