The Adventures of Stretch & Ellie

I’m really enjoying the creative side of blogging and the ideas keep swimming around in my head. I’ve got My First Steps With Jesus which is more inspirational and lets me talk about the most important think in my life which is my walk with Christ. Then there’s Sneezes & Wheezes which is educational about lung disease. Of course there’s this one which was my first and my favorite because I’ve learned a lot doing this and have really enjoyed getting to know my visitors through your comments. With that said, I have a new baby which is geared more towards kids, both young and old. This one is titled The Adventures of Stretch & Ellie and it’s being told from the viewpoint of my 2 puppies. I plan on having them tell you of their many adventures when they sneak out of the yard, without permission. They’ll also tell you of the fun they have stalking squirrels and birds and their most favorite hide out which is under the house. I’m not sure what type of animals they encounter while they’re under there but I’m sure they’ll tell you all about it.

So, please gather up the kiddies and let them read all about The Adventures of Stretch & Ellie. I’m sure the younger ones would enjoy it if you read it with them. While you’re at it let me know what you think. The puppies are really excited about their first venture into the literary world and hope you have as much fun reading it as they did writing it.

The Innocence of a Child

I was reading something tonight about pre-teens and the internet and it brought back a memory from about 10 years ago.

My cousin was about 8 at the time and I’d given her an old computer I got for free. It was a very old 386 and it didn’t have a CD drive or modem. She kept bugging me because she wanted to go on the internet to www.disney.com. I purchased a cheap modem and with her grandfather’s permission I set her up with an AOL account. The reason I went with AOL was her grandfather was very computer illiterate and I lived 80 miles away. I could set up restrictions for her internet usage and read her emails from my home. I also set up her email so only those I approved could send her emails.

During one of my checks I noticed an email from one of her friends which had some photos attached that she described as porn. My blood was boiling and I was formulating the conversation I would be having with her as the pictures were loading. They turned out to be pictures from an online catalogue of men’s underwear.

We still had a conversation about acceptable and unacceptable email but I was careful not to go into too much detail of what porn was. If she thought underwear ads fell into that catagory I wasn’t going to tell her any different. She was still an innocent child and I wanted to keep her that way, at least for a few more years.

I Don't Care About Clay Aiken's Sexuality

I can’t believe the big news item today is Clay Aiken’s sexuality. Who cares and why is it such an issue with the media? There are more things to be concerned with than whether a celebrity prefers men or women.

I’m not gay, I’m a Christian, I tend to lean more toward the conservative party and I’m white but that doesn’t mean I can’t or don’t associate with anybody who doesn’t share the same beliefs, opinions or preferences that I do.

I like Clay Aiken. I liked him on American Idol and if I voted it would have been for him. I don’t like him any less because I now know more that I really need to about him. The same goes for other celebrities. I’m a sucker for a good Rock Hudson/Doris Day movie. When I heard that Rock Hudson was gay and had aids I didn’t stop liking his movies. I still enjoy them on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I don’t like Rosie O’Donnell. I did like her when she was starting out and I didn’t stop liking her because she’s gay. I don’t like her because she’s a big mouthed celebrity who tries to force her ideas and values down everyone’s throat. I never really liked Ellen DeGeneres. That wasn’t because of her sexual preference, I just didn’t like her humor but I can honestly say I enjoy her now. She’s funny, doesn’t take herself too seriously and is tolerant of those with different beliefs than her’s. I like Bill Cosby, I had a few of his albums when I was younger, I saw him in Las Vegas and I’d pay to see him again. He’s wholesome and funny. I don't like Al Sharpton because he's a big mouthed bigot who sticks his nose into everybody's business. I won’t watch a Jackie Chan movie because I’m not into the type of movies he makes, even though I’ve heard they were funny I just can’t sit down and watch them.

The list goes on and on. I like certain people because of who they are not what they are and I won’t stop enjoying or being entertained by them because of some deep dark personal secret that really is nobody’s business but their own but the media insists on making this the hot topic and front page news.

Tonight's Episode of Eureka

If you’ve checked out any of my other blogs you might have noticed I did a few on TV shows. I received some sad news yesterday that the company who owns those blogs is shutting them down along with about 40+ other TV blogs they own. I’m a little bummed because there was one I really enjoyed writing and it was for Eureka on the SciFi channel. I decided I wasn’t going to let them shutting down the blogs stop me. I enjoy the show, I had some great stats and comments from readers so for now I’m going to include it into this blog until I decide if I want to branch out and do a blog dedicated totally to Eureka or not.

For those who’ve never watched the show it’s great. It’s about a little town in Oregon. The town is full of geniuses. The premise is, after WWII the government took all the geniuses and located them in this little town to work on top secret projects. The town is not on any map and it’s pretty much invisible unless you happen to travel through it or stop for a while which is what happened to Sheriff Jack Carter and his teenager daughter Zoe. The town is full of very eccentric residents from Vincent who runs the local coffee shop/restaurant, Café Diem to Douglas Fargo the accident prone nerdy genius who works at Global Dynamics the large governmental research facility and Eureka’s largest business. Helping to run Eureka is Jo Lupo a female deputy who loves guns and anything that makes a lot of noise. There’s Allison Blake who is head of Global Dynamics and Henry Deacon, another scientist, mechanic and newly elected mayor. Sheriff Carter, his daughter Zoe and Jacks sister Lexi who arrived a few weeks ago live in S.A.R.A.H. a smart house that was the creation of Fargo.

Tonight’s episode was the mid season finale. It ended the story of Eva Thorne who came to Global the first episode this season. She had some secrets and was doing some investigation of an underground bunker that nobody knew anything about. She was very secretive. Tonight we found out why. The bunker was the where they had the first Doomsday Bomb in 1939. There was some sort of material they were exposed to and it caused rapid aging. The men who were working on the project experienced rapid aging of over 40 years in 28 days. One of Eva’s secrets is, she was a lab tech back then and was actually 107 years old. Her brother was one of the scientists and died but for some reason she was immune to the toxin and it had the reverse effect on her. The scientists closed up the bunker and worked on a cure until they died.

A few weeks ago Zoe came in contact with the mysterious substance down there and tonight she started aging. Allison Blake found out she was pregnant and asked Sheriff Carter to be her birthing coach and the government fired Sheriff Carter at the end because he let Eve Thorne go instead of arresting her and handing her over to the government. Carter felt she was as much a victim as the rest of them and had suffered enough.

I must say, Allison’s pregnancy came as a shock to me but not my husband. He’d read something about it on the message boards. The father, Nathan Stark, disappeared a few weeks ago on their wedding day. There was a time loop and in order to save the citizens of Eureka he sacrificed himself to set the timeline back to normal. He became frozen in time and disappeared.

Jo and Zane are going on their first official date. It’s about time after the way she threw herself on him last week when she thought they were all going to die.

The question that remains for the rest of the season:

1. Is Jack really fired?
2. Will Jo become the new sheriff and hire Jack as her deputy?
3. Taggert is suppose to be coming back to the show, how will they explain his being gone so far?
4. Will Nathan Stark ever be found and returned to this time line or is he lost forever in limbo? Rumor is Ed Quinn, the actor wanted off the show but they did leave it where he could come back.

God's Awesome Design

Whenever I get a cold the cough can last for months and this year is no different. I had a cold about 3 weeks ago and since then I’ve been drinking Robitussin straight from the bottle and chain sucking on Ricola. This makes having a conversation very difficult (thank God I can still write) and sleep is almost impossible.

Yesterday I had a severe migraine and slept most of the day with a pillow over my head to block out any noise or light. The one thing I did not do at yesterday was cough but it's 3:00am, I’m headache free, awake and hacking away. I’m glad I wasn’t coughing yesterday because I don’t think my head or stomach could have handled it.

This got me to thinking back to an article I’d read about 15 years ago. It was talking about how when you’re sick food doesn’t taste the same and sometimes has no taste at all. The article went into how this was part of the body’s defense mechanism because so much energy is needed to digest food but when you’re sick that energy is needed elsewhere to fight whatever it is that’s infected you. They mentioned that this was “Mother Nature’s” way of making you not eat to be able to fight your illness.

Mother Nature may sound politically correct but I believe it’s another example of God’s awesome design of the human body.

Nonsense or No Sense

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice, Joan A. Madden, has the right idea when she dismissed the lawsuit filed by Nello Balan owner of Nello, an upscale Italian restaurant. Mr. Balan’s sued supermodel Le Call $1 million for damaging his $5,000 Jean-Paul Gaultier designer umbrella and emotional distress. In addition to calling the case frivolous Justice Madden fined Mr. Balan’s lawyer, William S. Beslow, $500 for filing the claim.

Finally someone recognized the lawyer's part in wasting tax payers money on something so idiotic as damages for an umbrella. When you have something you treasure you don’t loan it out. You keep it under lock and key so it doesn’t get damaged. Umbrellas get wet, they sometimes get turned inside out and they do get bent. If you can afford to spend $5000 on an umbrella you can afford to replace it.

America as a whole has become very lawsuit happy. If something doesn’t go the way you want, you look for someone to blame and you sue them. The ones who are truly to blame here is the lawyers. If they wouldn’t take these stupid, yes I said stupid cases people wouldn’t be so willing to call foul and call a lawyer.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many common sense warnings on things now. Warnings on an electric radio not to use it in the bathtub. A warning on a fan not to touch the blades while it’s moving. And warnings on cups of hot coffee telling you it’s hot and can cause burns. It’s because of these idiotic lawsuits. I saw a show many years ago called The Blame Game. It was about how sue happy people are. They had a case of a man who purchased a bicycle and was riding at night. He got hit by a car and sued the bike manufacturer because there was no warning anywhere on the bicycle that said you should have a headlight when riding at night. Anyone with half a brain could have figured that one out but to some people if it’s not written down in simple plain English (or Spanish) their brain and common sense stops working.

Please Get Back to the Basics

I thought my frustrations with the presidential election would end when the Democrats stopped arguing amongst themselves after the primaries but I was wrong. Everyday there are headlines about who bashed who yesterday. Their speeches are full of put downs and insults. Either one is focusing on important issues which are what they will do for the country but instead are focused on how they can make the other one look bad or should I say worse.

This is petty school yard antics and I for one am fed up with it. I don’t care that Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter acted like a teenager and got pregnant. Jamie Spears gets pregnant and she’s held up as an icon to teenagers, Bristol Palin gets pregnant and she’s marked with a scarlet letter and her mother is held accountable for it. Neither Obama nor Palin have much experience in politics and now they’re pointing fingers on who is less qualified. I don’t care that McCain doesn’t know how to send an email. That’s why they have presidential aides and secretaries.

Let’s get back to politics and let the candidates debate and discuss the issues. Instead of telling us why the other person is the wrong choice, tell my why I should vote for you. Let me hear something positive out of your mouth. Right now I can’t say who I’ll vote for but I sure wish I had a third choice. I will make a promise. The first candidate that can stop bashing the other one and tell me why he’s the best choice I will vote for because that shows he or she has character, morals and standards and is the most mature and responsible person for the job.

Not Bad For My Age

I got to thinking about age this morning and realized I actually younger than I thought I was.

Here’s how I figured it out.

In my mind I feel like I’m still in high school so that would be arounnd; 14

I was told the other day I looked like I was in my mid 20’s so we’ll say; 25

I think I’m very wise so we’ll say I’m intellectually; 70

When I first wake up I feel like I'm; 16

When I first try to get out of bed and move I feel; 100

I’m told I sometimes act like I’m; 3



If I average it out I’m only 38. Not bad for someone born in 1957

And The Award Goes To

I'm so excited. I just received an award. I feel like I should make an acceptance speech. Here goes; I'd like to thank my husband for his support, my friends and blogging buddies at WAHM and most importantly Kateedyd for presenting me with this award.

Here are the instructions for the following Brillante Weblog Premio award recipients:

1. Place the logo on your blog.
2. Link to the person who awarded you.
3. You can nominate up to 5 blogs.
4. You can then add their links to your blog
5. Leave a message in the comment section to each nominee on their blog

Here are the 5 blogs I'd like to pass this award on to:

1. Ugly Ass Opinion
2. The Ways Of A Godly Woman
3. Life Is Funny Wearing Purple Colored Glasses
4. Simply Vicki
5. Mom Tidings

Some Pet Peeves

We all have pet peeves, little things that bug us. I won’t lie, I have many. 
 
People smacking gum or chewing it loudly
Failing to cover your mouth when coughing
Failing to discipline your kids
Someone who complains or whines constantly
People with the “gimmies”

The one I want to talk about today is the person who constantly changes the radio station just because there’s a song on they don’t like. You know the one. They have every button in their car tuned to a different station and drives with one hand on the wheel and the other on the radio. They spend so much time searching for a song they like they never hear an entire song. If they left the station alone the song would be over in a couple of minutes and the next one might be one they like and they’ll actually get to hear it from the beginning. This person also hates talk radio or news. As soon as the news comes on they switch the station. Maybe the news is something you really need to hear.  

Now this person may be the same way with the TV. A commercial comes on and they change the station only to be met with 5 more commercials before they end back at the original channel and the program has restarted and now they’ve missed some of it.  


LEAVE THE REMOTE ALONE. It’s only a couple of minute’s worth of ads. Use that time to go to the bathroom, fix a snack or give your brain a rest, but stop irritating me.