Well, it might be a slow Sunday for you, but it’s not for me. Those of you who know about our issues with the p*ss wars probably don’t know it’s confined to room and almost exclusively to the sofas on that room.
It’s a long story, and yes, I know why. There is also a vent in the dining room. Let’s just say that vents on the floor are bad ideas with cats.
Anyway, so months ago we closed the dining room and the movie room. There is a problem with that from the POV of the humans. This house is designed to be actually very open and for traffic to flow between those two rooms (and heating too.) Closing them up took away some of the livability of the house, made the dining room dark. Like rooms not being used the living room, dining room and movie room (our fancy name for a room with a computer, an exercise machine and a sofa… oh, yeah, and my craft stuff. But it’s where we watch movies, so…) started accumulating what’s technically known as cr*p. Not cat cr*p, just the human sheddings. Boxes piled in the movie room, books piled in the living room. I colonized the dining room with my art and sewing stuff.
Well, my husband, proving once more he’s the brains of this association, came up with a solution. We had tried baby/dog gates in the past in vain. Cats jumped over them. But husband pointed out the existence of TALL pet gates and also that three of the cats are very old and one is very pudgy. So I got one of those gates, and we installed it at the bottom of the stairs, where an archway leads to the dining room. On the other side of the kitchen, the doorway into the dining room has a swinging glass door, which blocks the little pests. This leaves us the three rooms cat-free and stops the p*ss wars.
Oh, frabujous day, right? Yeah — except when it became obvious they couldn’t go through the gate, I decided to clean the living room. It was a bit like cleaning an abandoned area, because we hadn’t been able to USE it. We couldn’t put anything on the coffee table, because the cats might hit it. Ditto with my art work, which was supposed to take place in the nook, but was mostly in the dining room — etc. I took advantage to move the furniture and wax the floor, wax-polish the wood furniture, wash the sofas getting rid of any residual issues (there weren’t many. I’d kept them covered. Unfortunately they hit some uncovered corners.)
So, today I have the dining room and movie room to finish (should be faster.) AND hopefully I get to write this evening.
I haven’t finished the book, so no vacation, but the offloading of some of the blog (at least) is making writing something I want to do again, proving my diagnosis was correct.
My younger kid brought strep home on his last day of finals, but I haven’t caught it (knock on wood) and let’s hope I don’t. He’s medicated to the gills, of course.
Meanwhile, a few links for your Sunday consideration:
Obama Repeals ObamaCare
Under pressure from Senate Democrats, the President partly suspends the individual mandate.
It seems Nancy Pelosi was wrong when she said “we have to pass” ObamaCare to “find out what’s in it.” No one may ever know because the White House keeps treating the Affordable Care Act’s text as a mere suggestion subject to day-to-day revision. Its latest political retrofit is the most brazen: President Obama is partly suspending the individual mandate.
The White House argued at the Supreme Court that the insurance-purchase mandate was not only constitutional but essential to the law’s success, while refusing Republican demands to delay or repeal it. But late on Thursday, with only four days to go before the December enrollment deadline, the Health and Human Services Department decreed that millions of Americans are suddenly exempt.
Because rule of law if for sissies. And for all my colleagues who ran around during the shutdown screaming it was settled law: THESE ARE MY MIDDLE FINGERS. Next time you clucking chickens (particularly the men) run around carrying water for our would-be feudal masters remember you’re not nearly as smart as you think you are. What you mistake for reasoning is actually your pathetic nerd-left-out wish to belong. Grow up. If you doubt this is a dictatorial regime, see where they make and break law by the wave of the hand and let me tell you right now, ladies (particularly the men), dictatorial regimes are bad for geeks, nerds, weirdos, outliers and odds. They pound all the round pegs into the square holes they control. And you will be pounded too, and not in a way you’ll enjoy.
The Washington Times says it’s the Season for Apologies:
If Barack Obama wants a worthy legacy, now that he is well on his way to wrecking the health care system, he should establish a Cabinet-level department to make sure that every American gets all the apologies he deserves.
Demanding apologies has become the national pastime. The apologies don’t have to be authentic, and in fact few of them are. The most often heard apology, usually offered by a politician, is something like “I sincerely apologize to anyone who might have been offended for anything I said.” Translated from the corporate vernacular, that’s “if I said anything to hurt your feelings, tough.”
Hey, why not? After all, he DID spend most of his first year in office apologizing to everyone else. But the issue, of course, is apologizing for things you actually did. That’s much harder, particularly for president never-been-spanked-baby, who thinks that his farts don’t stink. Anyone care to lay a bet on whether he’ll actually grow up? No? D*mn it. My retirement fund could use some padding.
Meanwhile, this don’t look too good:
Chinese military lashes out at Japanese defense documents
On the one hand, Japan claimed that it is a peace-loving country, and that it adheres to a defensive defense policy and will not be a military power. On the other hand, Japan is peddling the so-called “proactive pacifism”, said Geng.
In its new defense program guidelines, Japan gave up the policy of building of a moderate self-defense force and proposed to revise the “Three Principles on Arms Exports”.
Japan also planned to purchase advanced armament like F-35 stealth fighters, surveillance drone fleet and Aegis destroyers and tried to form a fast-response-amphibious unit, said Geng.
Where is Japan’s military and security policy going? Geng questioned, adding that it causes great concerns from Japan’s Asian neighbors and international society.
Of course, Japan is an ally of the US and no one would dare… Oh, stop it. Unless you want to lay a small bet…
But be not afraid. There is a tendency to think that we are in unique or very difficult trouble. We are in very difficult trouble, but there is — dare I say it — hope, if nothing else because people are catching on to being yanked around.
The boat might get rocky and the water choppy, but in the end we win they lose, because that’s the trend of history and the way to bet (so NOW you want to bet. I see.)
Meanwhile it’s that time of year, yes, the one you’ve been waiting for with big eyes and anxious ears…
It’s time for the 2013 Darwin awards, the reminder that every day, in every way, the human race is getting better and better because those too stupid to live, don’t.
Here is a sample:
1. When his .38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
And Now, The Honorable Mentions:
2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef’s claim was approved.
3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.
And now I’m going to wax the dining room. Be good and don’t OD on the eggnog. I put real rum in it. (What? It’s low carb. So I have to make it at home.)
