The President's Speech

I came home from work tonight and sat and listened to the President's Address to Congress. I can't say that I'm a Democrat...or a Republican for that matter. I wasn't overly keen on Obama for President...or McCain either. None of that matters though because Barack Obama is the President of the United States and he is my President and so deserves my attention and support. Whilst I am not a US citizen...yet, I am very much affected by the policies he chooses.
I felt his introduction spoke of common sense. His ideas for reform and recovery sounded far reaching and hopeful. My concern is whether they will be too little too late. Will they work? Will they pull us out of this Depression we're in? I have no idea. I hope they do.
This country is in an economic mess right now with so many good people being affected. My own personal feeling is that it behooves all of us to be hopeful for the future, be positive that things are going to change for the better, do what we can to be fiscally responsible in our private and professional lives but most of all, to pray to Heavenly Father (or whatever supreme entity you believe in) to help us as a country (and as a world) to get out of this as unscathed as possible, learn from the experience, move on with a better life and then thank God for all the blessings he has bestowed upon us.



I should add that I found all that constant standing up and clapping very distracting and most annoying. Having Nancy Pelosi in camera shot was not a good idea.

My Speedy Ticket

In my last post I mentioned getting flashed by a traffic camera when coming home from the bookfair. I told one of the girls at work after it happened. "Oh, something similar happened to me" she said, "just wait 6 weeks and you'll get your ticket in the mail". Well guess what? Mine was mailed a mere 4 days after I got flashed and it arrived yesterday just in time for my birthday. It said I was doing 66mph but I think that the speeding ticket was going a lot faster than that to get processed and out to me in Gilbert in such a short period of time.
Actually, that was probably the funniest thing to happen all day. I woke up feeling terrible. Nothing I could exactly point to but just decidedly blah! At first I thought it might be atmospheric as it was pretty cloudy, but I soon discovered that it was just that time of the month and instead of feeling better, I just got more tired, weepy and blah as the day wore on.
After being on hold on the phone for 15 minutes, I struggled with an arrogant and unhelpful Government official during the morning which only served to heighten my frustrations and confirm my belief that I can't stand arrogant people and especially arrogant people who are unhelpful. I needed a nap in the afternoon but didn't feel any better after that. I was lucky that Heather was making dinner as my birthday treat, so at least I didn't have to worry on that score, but I never did feel any better at all throughout the day.
Anyway, after receiving some beautiful cards from my family, the one from the traffic enforcement that arrived was pretty funny.
Dear Janet. Happy Birthday. Do not pass go. Do not go to traffic school. Just pay us $182 and by the way, did we wish you Happy Birthday?
The only consolation was that I didn't look too bad in the photo they snapped of me. Not good enough to post though!

Book Fair and a Ticket

This weekend Brent, Michael and I went to the used book fair at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. Whilst it would be nice to have photos of the event, carrying an extra camera in addition to the books would be just plain crazy, hence no photos. I blogged about the event a year ago, and it is still just as huge, but this year I felt a little disappointed, as if the whole thing has lost its sparkle.
To start off with, it's in Phoenix which is about a 35 mile drive away and whilst it's free to get it, there is a parking fee of $7, not much, I know, but still. The paperback section was all messed up which made it extremely difficult to look up the books by author and there just isn't the type of historical fiction books that I like to read. I came away with a couple of James Patterson books that I don't have, a new Anita Shreve and a few paperbacks. Brent got a few that he was interested in and Michael was disgusted that there were only about a dozen or so Law Enforcement type books, but he did snag a couple of them. All in all, we were in and out in an hour, less time than we usually spend in the Half Price Book store in Mesa. Somehow, I think we'll take a miss next year.
To add a cherry to my disappointment cake, I got flashed by a photo radar on the way home. I am always extremely careful to not exceed the speed limit and was going at about 65mph on the freeway just like everyone else, but somehow, that darned camera liked the look of my car. I couldn't understand it. The speed limit is 65mph on freeways, right? Well wrong, not on that particular one, it's 55mph on that stretch and so "flash"! Now I just have to wait for the ticket to come in the mail and decide what to do about it. Do I ignore it and wait for them to serve me the ticket in person (I don't open my door to strangers) or just accept it and go to blasted traffic school? Either way I'm screwed and out of pocket by about $150.

A Happy Chappy

This is a little blurry, but this is Christopher who is now 9 and a half months old. He has 5 teeth and is proudly showing off a few of them.

Pottering on my Patio

Yesterday and today I spent some time pottering about on my patio and in the back garden, which was far more enjoyable than the weeding I did in the front garden on Wednesday. I only wish my plants would grow as well as the weeds.
I had bought a few plants and herbs the other day which I planted and ran new watering hoses to, a task that was not easy going as the ground was as hard as a rock. In fact, I discovered that in one particular part of the garden it was literally concrete. It appears that the builders had just thrown some concrete remnants into a corner and covered them with a light covering of soil. The main water line was also just a couple of inches under the soil so I was extremely careful that I didn't puncture that. There were already some existing trees and shrubs, but I wanted to add some more and whilst it's not quite finished yet, it already looks more "filled in".
In the picture you'll see my little herb garden which is just under my kitchen window. I love lavender and along with it I planted some rosemary, sweet basil, parsley, lemon thyme and in a pot which isn't on the photo, some mint. I made those cute little bugs and butterflies on sticks to pretty up some focal points and thought it would be something the grandchildren would appreciate too. I put two windmill flowers in a pot which once again reminded me so much of my own childhood. The dogs enjoy the fountain and see it as no more than their own drinking source, Danielle just enjoyed running her fingers through the water. She has her own little watering can but hasn't quite got the hang of watering like Grandma does.
The beautiful vine in the center was my Valentine's Day gift from Brent. Whilst I love roses, I'm much too practical for them and so I asked for a plant instead, hence the jasmine which will smell gorgeous when it's flowering some more. Brent is a traditionalist though, so I also got some Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

The Birds

In 2004 when I was at my mom's looking through some of our packing boxes, I found a very crude wooden bird feeder that Jordan had made when he was about 7 or 8. His grandad took it outside and we watched as the birds flocked to it to eat. I loved it! There's something very peaceful about watching birds, although I can't say I'd watch them anywhere but in my back garden.
Anyway, thinking about that, I bought this cheap-o bird feeder from Wal-Mart the other day and hung it from a palm tree in the garden (this IS Arizona you know!) and have loved watching the birds come to feed. I've discovered that only two small birds can perch at a time, three is simply a crowd and that they're extremely messy. The ground below is covered with bird seed as you may be able to make out in the picture. Can you see all the daffodil shoots coming through? I can't wait for those. There are tulips planted there too and hopefully they'll all remind me of an English spring when they flower.
That bird sitting in my honeysuckle bush was pecking at the flowers and pulling them off before I even got it planted. I had bought a few shrubs and they were just sat outside waiting to be planted when Mr Dickie Bird discovered the sweet honeysuckle nectar. I took a photo of him, but then went outside and shooed him away. After all, I wanted to have at least some flowers left to enjoy myself.

In the Kitchen

On Friday morning I woke up and felt like being a little industrious in the kitchen.
First, I made pease pudding from a ham shank that had been refrigerated since Sunday dinner. Brent really appreciates this new trend of mine. He hadn't had pease pudding for probably 15 years until I started making my own this year. While that was cooking, I juiced 10 lovely lemons that I bought from the market for just $2. I got 8oocc of juice from them which made 2 whole pitchers (4 litres) of lemonade. Then I juiced the grapefruits. The four smaller ones in the picture I got from someone at work but the four ginormous ones were from the market again and altogether I got about 3/4 of a pitcher of pure grapefruit juice.
There were some really good deals at the market this week including apples and brambles (blackcurrants) so I made an apple and bramble pie and was filled with memories of my grandma who would make things like that when I was a child. I rotisseried a chicken that I wanted to use in a pie over the weekend and kept taking a look every now and then as the chicken got his suntan. That has always fascinated me. Finally I made a huge pot of beef stew complete with potatoes, swede (rutabagas), parsnip, onions, carrots, leeks, parsley and some round white bean that I don't know the name of. It tasted really good and despite the size of it, there was none left by the end of the day.

The best of it all was, I had done all this by 9.30am!!!

Redemption

Following the weed episode with Jordan last week (no not the drug, the weeds that he failed to pull for me that were living down the side of the house), I am pleased to say that yesterday he fully redeemed himself. He didn't finish pulling the weeds, I bought weed killer for that, but he did help me to re-organise the garage.
We have a 3 car garage with 2 spaces straight on as you enter then a tandem at the back. The whole idea was that Brent's tools and machinery were to be at the back in the tandem part so that we could actually fit 2 cars in the garage. Well they were, of a sort, but everything was totally higgledy piggledy and disorganised. He was always complaining that he could never find anything and I certainly couldn't find anything that I might need, so...
I have told Brent before that he is disorganised and we've tried to get the garage sorted out before, but he just gets antzy when I try to move anything to a place where he doesn't think it should go. Enough was enough though and action was called for. He was banned from the garage yesterday morning and Jordan was raised from his bed (looked like he was raised from the dead!!!) so that he could help me with the heavy lifting. Of course, a little financial incentive didn't hurt. We had a 3 hour time limit as Michael had taken my car out and so there was plenty of room to then move stuff around. We worked SOOOOO hard. All the things I might use like the paint, painting supplies, barbecue stuff, camping stuff, etc was arranged into one place and the tools and machinery were neatly organised into the tandem part at the back. We swept and vacuumed, vacuumed and swept and made it just in the nick of time.
Boy was I dirty when we had finished and tired too. Jordan really worked hard. I was proud of him and felt that he had earned more than the amount we had agreed on. He definitely redeemed himself from the weed episode. I couldn't have done it without him.

TV Ramblings

The Bachelor
So far, I haven't mentioned "The Bachelor" this season, although I have been watching it. I always hate the first night when they bring out the 25 hopefuls but as the weeks go by and they weed out the obvious "no hope" contestants, I usually get into it a bit more.
This week Jason had 5 women who he took to his home town of Seattle, WA. My favorite choice for him was Stephanie. When I saw her in week 1, I thought she seemed a bit "stretched" in the face, like she'd had too much plastic surgery, but as the weeks went by I really got to like her personality. She reminded me of a Southern woman who would take care of her man. She had endured tragedy after her husband was killed in a plane crash when their daughter was only 10 weeks old, but she moved on and showed a heart of gold to not only Jason but all the other contestants too. She was mature, a great mother, very elegant and I thought she would just make a great match for Jason. NOT SO!!! He sent her home! He said they just didn't seem to have a connection.
Okay. Now he's down to 4 and next week he goes to meet their families. The previews show one with a cookie mother, one whose parents refused to go on the show and the other 2 who looked reasonably normal. Is this where Deanna Pappas, last years Bachelorette who rejected Jason comes in? To tell him she made a mistake not choosing him and that he's making a mistake not choosing Stephanie? I highly doubt it. This is TV you know!

American Idol
As I have already posted, I am not a usual viewer of American Idol but decided to watch it this season when I heard David Osmond was a contestant. Tonight I got comfy on the sofa to watch the Hollywood group rounds and hopefully see how David did.
I endured almost an hour of them showing the carryings on of drama queens, the bikini girl, argumentative groups and people who couldn't hold a note. What I didn't see was David singing. All we were shown was him being rejected and then walking out with his mom who said to the camera "WE know he can sing!"
I know he can sing too. I have heard many of his recordings and have seen and heard him perform live. He is AMAZING! What I don't understand is how he can get cut and they keep some of the others who are absolutely useless, including the "comedian" Norman Gentle who was literally a JOKE!
I don't usually look at the American Idol forums, but was interested to take a look tonight and let me tell you, there are some very unhappy people there tonight, not just with David being cut, but others too. There was very much the feeling that he was cut because he was an Osmond and therefore too much of a well known name, in a competition where they're looking for new talent.
Who knows the reason? Anyway, David was performing last night in Salt Lake City, he has a great new web page and MySpace page out and a CD will be released shortly. My opinion is, he'll do well WITHOUT American Idol and my Tuesday and Wednesday nights are now free again.



Postscript: Apparently David had laryngitis the night of the group rounds and could barely sing. Pity, a case of pure bad luck, but it would still have been nice to at least show everyone why he was being cut. Here's what he has to say about it.
http://www.davidosmond.com/blog/

Post Clarifications

I've been asked a couple of questions this week about things I've put on my blog, so let me clarify.

Firstly:
David Osmond is the son of Alan who was the eldest singing Osmond. Alan is pictured here with his brothers in the 70's (second from the right) and a fairly recent picture of him with his wife Suzanne. Don't you just dig that plaid!!!

Secondly: the happy pill I've mentioned Brent taking is NOT Viagra!!!!!

February Chicken

The 1st February brings....drum roll please...the February Chicken of the Month. This is a Dutch Bantam, Crele. Very regal.