In the news...

I've found news stories as told by the local radio announcers and headlines on what "my home page" thinks I want to see to be equally annoying. Here are a few:

Two attractive blonde women wore identical dresses in public. Why should I care? And not only does this seem like anti-news, is it all that unusual?

On the heels of the healthcare reform bill being signed 13 states have put together bills to exempt themselves from certain aspects of the bill on the grounds that no where in the constitution does it say that the federal government has the right to mandate health insurance to the states. Where to begin? Let's see--unless they happened to have a mobster with goons demanding payment to insure the goons did not damage a shop, home, or family, I don't think there was insurance in colonial days.

In a related story, the local radio idiot seemed rather proud that Louisiana is one of those 13 states. He was definitely proud when he proclaimed that none of the Louisiana legislators voted for the bill. I'm not sure which of these individuals comes across as more stupid or mean-spirited--the elected officials or the newscaster. None of them will get my vote in the next election.

An illegal alien shot and killed one police officer and wounded another during a traffic stop in Florida. Cops hunted him down and put 68 bullets into him. The glee in the voice of the announcer disgusted me, as did his commentary about the story. It seems in his mind the most important part of the tale was the citizenship of the individual. Does he honestly believe that American citizens are not out there committing equally stupid acts? And jokes about how the man died of natural causes--that he was shot 68 times, so naturally he died--or that the cops put that many bullets in him because that was how many they had--are not what I consider appropriate for my child to listen to as we drive to school.

Or how about this one from the drive to school one day just before Spring Break began? A Florida woman wrecked her car because she was shaving her bikini area while driving. Her husband was steering for her so she could be shaved when they got to her boyfriend's house. Yeah. That was an interesting conversation starter as I was dropping Oyster at school. We even talked about it again after school--at her initiation.

By the way--we don't listen to the radio in the car, anymore.

with age comes maturity--sometimes

Parenting can be fascinating, fun, frustrating, and a few other f-words. (Like fabulous--get your minds out of the gutter)!

Lately I have noticed a new maturity that is at odds with the little girl whine I hear almost daily. Chores get done without reminders and nagging. Sometimes. Clothing choices are definitely becoming more sophisticated--except at bedtime when the footie pj's are just as likely to be donned as the oversized t-shirt or the Halloween jammies.

A desire for grown-up hairstyles competes with an equal desire to let the tangles fall where they may. An interest in how teeth become beautiful fights with the reluctance to put forth the effort to keep her teeth as healthy as possible.

It is interesting to discuss the books Oyster is reading and hear her perspective on the characters and events. Sometimes she is right on target (Sounder is the only character in the book with a given name because he is the only one who is special--all the others are interchangeable with any number of individuals and the author wanted to convey his uniqueness). And sometimes a cat is a cat, no matter how special the author tried to make it.

The dichotomy is fun to watch and I plan to try to take note of the changes as they occur. You can actually watch the brain develop if you pay attention.

promises, promises...

Here we go again. The landlord--you know, the one who promised that as long as the rent is paid on time he would not sell the house to anyone? Yeah, that one. The one who didn't give us a new lease when the original expired on Jan 1, stating that we have proven to be trustworthy, so he didn't see it was necessary? Yep.

He told us yesterday that he is having financial problems and has to sell the house. But, being a nice guy and all, he is letting us have first refusal. He needs his answer in, "a week or two." After that he will list it with a realtor and the price will go up, "considerably."

Anyone know of a fantastic place that has more space than this house, is closer to all the places we need to go, is in a great neighborhood, has wonderful neighbors, and costs less than this house?

Oh--and is insulated?