I added a great cobbler recipe to my recipe list. It’s from Barb at work. The recipe calls for fruit… fresh fruit. And it’s REALLY good stuff!! I, myself, had to eat three helpings just to make sure it was as good as I thought it was the first and second helpings.

Check it out by following the “Recipes” link on the tool bar.

I got this as a forward, and it really rings with truth. (Thanks, Jim!)
As I watched the news coverage of the massive flooding in the Midwest with over 100 blocks of the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, under water with the levees breaking, and the attention now turned downstream for when this massive amount of water hits the Mississippi, what amazed me is not what we saw, but what we didn’t see…

• We don’t see looting.
• We don’t see street violence.
• We don’t see people sitting on their rooftops waiting for the government to come and save them.
• We don’t see people waiting on the government to do anything.
• We don’t see Hollywood organizing benefits to raise money for people to rebuild.
• We don’t see people blaming President Bush.
• We don’t see people ignoring evacuation orders.
• We don’t see people blaming a government conspiracy to blow up the levees as the reason some have not held.
• We don’t see the US Senators or the Governor of Iowa crying on TV.
• We don’t see the Mayors of any of these cities complaining about the lack of state or federal response.
• We don’t see or hear reports of the police going around confiscating personal firearms so only the criminal will be armed.
• We don’t see gangs of people going around and randomly shooting at the rescue workers.
• You don’t see some leaders in this country blaming the bad behavior of the Iowa flood victims on ‘society’ (of course there are no wide spread reports of lawlessness to require excuses).

Iowa vs. Louisiana

• Where are all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?
• Where is all the media asking the tough questions about why the federal government hasn’t solved the problem?
• Asking where the FEMA trucks (and trailers) are?
• Why isn’t the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels in Chicago?
• When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines?
• Where are Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks?
• Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen television sets?
• When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a ‘vanilla’ Iowa, because that’s the way God wants it?
• Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of cannibalism?
• Where are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural people?
• How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever again?

Happy Birthday, Connor!

While this is being distributed as a joke (thanks, Ron!) everything alleged in this note is absolutely TRUE.

The Honorable Tom Harkin
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Phone (202) 224 3254
Washington DC , 20510

Dear Senator Harkin,

As a native Iowan and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill’s provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a cit izen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.

Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I’m excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.

Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emergency room as my primary health care provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year.

Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications, as well as ‘in-state’ tuition rates for many colleges t hroughout the United States for my son.

Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver’s license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is very important to me given that I still have college age children driving my car.

If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative. Thank you for your assistance.

Your Loyal Constituent,
Donald Ruppert
Burlington , IA

Hurry up! The forms are going fast! Sign up today!!

Happy Birthday, Sue!

Last night was pretty wicked. We had a wind storm that raged through town some time around 5am. When I say raged, I mean RAGED. There were gusts of up to 98 mph recorded at our local airport. The radio station’s weather gear was reporting gusts up to 80 mph. That’s a lot of wind. Also, there was a lot of rain. I was talking with an intern at work an his parents had a glass porch, a kind of sun room. I say “had” because he said every pane of glass in the room was broken by rain and wind – no flying debris, just rain and wind. There are still branches down all over town and many of them have fallen on power lines. So not only are many streets still closed but there are parts of town without any power. When I went into work this morning, we were pretty much told to turn around and go home as there was no power. (How can computers work without power?!?) That means I got to work from home today (Woo-Hoo!!) As of this writing, there is still a large portion of our downtown area that has no power and there are some residential sections that are without electricity as well.

After driving around town running errands, I’ve come to the conclusion that our street is not hit so bad. However, I’ve got pictures of our backyard and of our across the street neighbors as well, just to let you see what happened just here.

So I know the pictures weren’t really in panoramic-style view, but hey… I’m not that great of a photographer! Here’s a few of the front yard:

The downed flag pole didn’t have a flag on it last night, and still the wind bent it over. Wow. Maxine (our neighbor) will probably want to get the flag pole back up ASAP. And I’m not certain how soon our neighbor Dean (across the street) will be able to get his front yard cleared. There are so many others in town that the tree trimming and removal service people are overloaded right now.

Now I think I’ve heard it all! Many of you who have read my blog for a while know what I think of the global warming scare – it’s just that: a scare. There’s loads of scientific data to back that position. The sad thing is that those who began the global warming scare are abandoning it now because it’s been taken over by people who try to shape political policy via scare tactics (the far left). In other words: “If you don’t stop [some activity that everyone does], global warming will continue.” or “You need to reduce your carbon footprint.” or some other kind of nonsense. Listen, when Ed Begley, Jr. says something like this, I will take it more seriously than when Al Gore says it; at least Ed Begley, Jr. is LIVING his decision and not just telling others how to live.

Anyway, I came across an article first on Hot Air, later on other blogs and news aggregates that is pretty…… well…… you decide. It seems that global warming is the cause for…… you guessed it…… kidney stones. Well at least that’s what Science Daily, US Department of Health and Human Services, and a host of newspapers and news services are saying. They tell us there will be an increase of kidney stone surgeries by the year 2050. Heck, we can’t even predict next week’s weather and they’re telling us something that will happen 40 years from now? AND they expect us to BELIEVE what they tell us?

KC comes home tonight. She’s been at Très Jazz Jazzercise International Convention. She’s been calling each night and it sure sounds like she’s having a great time. While the convention was going on, there were six workout sessions each day that she attended. To me that sounds like a lot of working out, but she said she had a good time with it. There were six others from town here who she went with. They left a day early and are returning a day after; it’s only 2 more days but it does give them some time to shop and do tourist things at New Orleans which they wouldn’t have had time to do otherwise. She was saying that when they get back all they have to do is figure out how to get the six workout sessions per day in around their jobs…. not likely!!

Well, no longer! I went to the doctor today and had my stitches removed today. I had half of them (every other one) removed on Monday. The rest were removed today. Now for the vitamin E; I’ve been told that vitamin E applied to the scar will minimize it almost to the point of making it disappear. It will take several months of applying vitamin E, but if there’s no scar then I can do that.

It’s just really nice to have the stitches out. Now I can rub or scratch lightly on it – it’s been itching like crazy – and not worry about pulling on the stitches. It really hurt when I pulled on the stitches! The doc said in a month or so I should be just about back to normal (well, at least as normal as I can be?!).

The Center for Disease Control in Toronto has issued a medical alert about a highly contagious, potentially dangerous virus that is transmitted orally, by hand, and even electronically.

This virus is called Weary Overload Recreational Killer (WORK). If you receive WORK from your boss, any of your colleagues, or anyone else via any means whatsoever – DO NOT TOUCH IT. This virus will wipe out your private life completely.

If you should come into contact with WORK you should immediately leave the premises. Take two good friends to the nearest grocery store and purchase one or both of the antidotes – WORK Isolating Neutralizer Extract (WINE) and Bothersome Employer Elimination Rebooter (BEER). Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.

You should immediately forward this medical alert to five friends. If you do not have five friends, you have already been infected and WORK is controlling your life. (Thanks, Shana!)

Happy Anniversary, Eric and Brenda!

Happy Birthday, Helen!