Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

Okay, I finally finished watching Paradise Hotel. Was I surprised that Charla didn't split her money? Nope. Was it right? Not really. I liked that they had those tidbits of Reality Revealed in between commercials and episodes. I knew that Dave guy lied when he said she'd still be her friend if she didn't give him the money. Face it Dave - You had a crush on her and she didn't like you in that way (Strike One), She said on national TV that she didn't like you touching her (Strike Two) and than she kept ALL of the money? (Strike Three) You were playing he game until the last minute, hoping to get a little cash since you weren't gonna get any bootie and she dissed you. In the immortal words of Toni - Yatzee!
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We grilled out last night. I made some grilled onions and porterhouse steaks. I was a bit disapointed in the steaks though, I don't think they were cut right because they had some gristle. Oh well, what are you going to do when they are on sale?! The onions were good though. Mindy made some potato salad, which was good, and Emily had (well, we gave her) hot dogs - which the dog ended up feasting on. If a dog eats a hot dog, does that count as canibalism?
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What was accomplished this weekend? I did yard work - front and back yards. So that's all good. We also got the goodie-bags for Emily's party taken care of and we ordered the cupcakes for the kids to enjoy after Build-A-Bear. Once again, if you are in Hanes Mall and want to stop by and say hi feel free. It's always fun to meet my LJ friends in person. Plus, you can see Emily and that makes the trip worthwhile. :-)
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Anything else? Hmmm.... All the coverage of the hurricane aftermath is just depressing. Gas prices are distrubing. Stuff with the Supreme Court and politics is just too much to handle right now. What to do? Watch Prison Break on Fox! That show is just entertaining as heck!!

A Birthday Request

Our home is in need of art for the walls and I know I have many friends who are photographers, artisans and artists. For example, I know that eicnan takes photos of old cemetaries, hellziggy takes photos of flora, fauna and stray mooses, and nikki42 does some very amazing work of her own.

So, for my birthday, if you would like to contribute a piece of work to our walls it would be much appreciated. If you wish to be a contributor, just drop me a reply and I'll email you my address.

So the question then becomes how old will I be at the end of the month? For the record, at the end of the month I will be officially 35.

Thirty Five? I'm much to young to be this damn old... At least, that is what Garth Brooks might say. For some reason I am thinking of this as the mid-point of my life. The first half is over and done with and now the second half really begins. Unless of course I am destined to die at 60 - then I have already squandered five of my remaining years! *gasp*

Hmmm... That pretty much brings up another entry entirely. But I won't go there right now.

Okay, I'm just going to say this and that will be the end of it.

As I wrote earlier, the whole Katrina aftermath has just been weighing on my mind. I am not going to make a broad sweeping statement and say that the slow recovery is any one politicians fault. (I bet some of my pro-Bush friends would finger me for a Bush Basher in this instance. Fooled Ya!)

This is what I have to say about the whole situation. We are a modern society (in some respects, not all) and this should not have caught ANYONE by surprise. New Orleans is a city that sits BELOW sea level, so the threat of any type of natural disaster should have been planned for DECADES ago. Support systems and processes should have been on high alert in case they needed to be put into action. Evacuation efforts should have been coordinated using the city, state and local resources so that the loss of life could have been reduced. The city and surrounding communities and churches had buses for crying out loud, why didn't they use them? The bottom line, this has been a cluster fu$% of massive proportions. The contingency planning of what to do should have been done WAAAAY before Bush stepped foot in office, so I can't very well say it is his fault. As much as I would like to blame for this, i just can't. Darn it!

If anything, it would make sense for all communities to plan on how to react to situations like this. The West Coast should be planning for Earthquakes and Tsunami's. The East Coast for Hurricanes and also Tsunami's. Basically whatever natural disaster that is of high likelihood to hit your region, the communities should have some sort of plan in place to deal with it. I think many people become complacent and jaded when it comes to the things that are outside of our control but we take for granted. For example, i have lived through so many Earthquakes I used to stay in bed when they would hit in the middle of the night. I wouldn't even roll over or get out of bed. Of course, if the roof collapsed on me I guess I would have wished (however briefly while I was still alive) that I should have got up and went to the door jam.

In the end, we need to have a healthy amount of respect for what Mother Nature can do to the little specks of carbon based life on the surface of this planet. I appreciate the sunrise and the sunset, enjoy the beauty of them both when i take the time to admire them both, but I also need to remember that those skies can change at a moments notice and to respect the force that is nature. And Bush didn't have anything to do with that.