2007 at My Puddle

January:
American Soldier got me thinking about what I would see if my life flashed before my eyes. I came up with: Laying across my Grandmother’s lap as a child, as she scratched my back; the birth of my two boys; a meeting in the San Antonio airport; a parkbench in New York City, in the shadows of the former WTC’s; the rush I felt getting my first financial license; seeing the pleasure in my son’s eyes as he pitched his first strike-out; my younger son’s laughter and silliness; the touch of My Man’s fingertips on my skin; my Mom.

I asked the question "... if we, as American's, don't appreciate what we have, why, and what makes it so special, how can anyone else in the world understand it?"... and then proceeded to tell you the answer given by Romanian Cornel Nistorescu: "Only freedom can work such miracles." HOOAH, Mr. Nistorescu!

February:
Anna Nicole Whats-her-name died. SO WHAT.

Liz and David Carroll were found guilty of murdering their foster son, Marcus Fiesel. Liz Carroll made news again last week after being denied a re-trial. Poor baby. NOT. Marcus suffered greatly in death; I hope like HELL that the Carroll's suffer greatly for life.

Kevin got a BUTT HOUND!

And... we had one hellacious ice storm. Trust me when I say that I can completely sympathize with John & Beth Donovan, who just made it through a similar ice storm.

March
Remember Me

Candy!

Surrender Date

April:
We're still praying you home, Matt.

On being a Virgo. (VirgOOO, not VirGINNNN, mind you.)

May:
May means the Milblog Conference! Friday will be a day I will never, ever forget. Not one minute.

I was very tired. It's my only excuse.

I love Jeff Ruby... because he hates OJ too.

June:
I'm a lewd banshee street performer with a texture similar to butter?? WHO KNEW???

I won't forget again. I promise, Alice. And I won't forget you either, SFC Jason Bishop.

Make Love, Not War!

A simple question, "Where's Larry?" leads to one my most embarrassing moments EVER.

July:
Reason 8,259 why I Hate al Qaeda.

I will always love you, Aunt Sandy... and, like the hundreds of others who love you, we will never forget your smile, or your infectious giggle, or lust for life.

August:
The "List Of Things I Don't Understand" grew quite a bit in August. Things I'll never understand, and things I don't think I could ever forgive.

1SG Keith got pegged in the airport with a name he's proud to carry: Soldier Daddy.

Another name I'd be proud of: Badass Marine. OORAH!

And my son found a new favorite restaurant.

September:
Do you remember? I know you do. There's not an adult alive today who doesn't remember 9/11/01.

Welcome home, Sgt. Eddie Jeffers. You're in good company, Soldier. *sniff*

Summer vacation wrap-ups.

And... somewhere in the middle of September.. I turned 40, and I *STILL* can't believe I drove 140mph to celebrate!!

October:

MacGyver came home, and Karen found out she's gonna be a grandma to TWINS. woah.

Firepower Upward. I still can't believe he's gone.

How come we lose men like Delaplane and Jeffers, but we can't kill cowards like William Garner????

And perhaps the best political quote this year... by Senator John McCain.

November:
Refuting John's 10 Reasons Men Prefer Guns Over Women. heh.

What a SMACKDOWN!

The Ol' Lefthander rounded third and headed for Home one last time. Reds baseball just won't be the same without his smooth voice.

What is this a picture of?

December:
I went AWOL for a while there.

Mike Huckabee: another idiot politician with a real shot at the Oval Office.

I'm not sure who scares me more: a presidential candidate whose first two acts will be establishing socialized medicine and ending the war, or a mother who helped her 6-year-old daughter win a Hannah Montana concert prize package by falsely claiming that her soldier daddy died in Iraq this year. *shudder*

Benazir Bhutto is dead, leaving Pakistan in turmoil... again. Damn. Just... Damn.

A Few Updates on "Today"

1. Edwards has no pulled ahead in Iowa. On the "Today" show this morning, Matt Lauer asked him what are the first to things he would work on if elected president. His answer: end the war and create socialized medicine in the US. Given those two answers... I still can't figure out how he came up as a top match for me in 2008. I am COMPLETELY against BOTH of those ideas. *shudder*

2. On the same segment this morning, Lauer failed to question Mike Huckabee's recent stupid-ass comments on Bhutto's death. I figured Lauer would have been all over that action, given MSM dislike of the Republican party.

3. WOW! "In the next half hour, we'll discuss the case of a 6 year old who won Hannah Montana tickets by lying about her soldier-daddy's death". It actually made MSM television coverage...!! The real father is a carpenter, who is alive and well. The store sponsoring the contest has since chosen a new winner. Is that really it? Will it end there?? I seriously think that legal action should be taken against the mother who wrote the essay as a "Christmas story" (that's what neighbors are saying she's calling the fake essay now. grrrrrr). When local reporters asked her about her essay, the little girl stammered and looked to her mom for what to say, leading me to believe that the mom wrote the essay, and then, after it won, told her daughter not to say anything about the essay or winning the contest. SHEESH.
Come on... surely this is fraud, or mail fraud!

... and with those updates.... I'm hitting the shower. Gotta go to work today for the first time in a week. BLECH

Model Parenting

The mother of a 6-year-old girl admitted to lying in an essay contest in order to win Hannah Montana tickets.
The lie? "My daddy died this year in Iraq".

The mother's excuse? "We did whatever we could do to win."

The sponsor of the contest is "considering" taking the tickets from her. WTF? They're only "considering" it????? The entire prize package included a makeover, airfare for four to Albany, NY, and four tickets to the sold-out Hannah Montana concert on January 9. It wasn't until after the makeover was completed that officials discovered that there is no record of a Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar, the name given as the deceased father, dying in Iraq.

If it was up to me, I'd prosecute the HELL out of the mother for fraud. What a crock of SHIT. I wonder if the little girl even knows her mother did this, or if the mother has taught her daughter that "winning at all costs" is the way you play the game.

Thoroughly disgusting.

I'd read about this earlier this weekend, and then Leta email'd me about it with the title "And our nation slips further into the bowels of hell"... and she got it from on of her boys in Iraq. Yep. The story has made it all the way to Iraq (on the internet, I'm sure), but I've yet to hear one peep about it in national television news. I guess lying about a dead soldier is OK with them.

Bastards... ALL of them. Bastards.

Sugar and Spice, and Everything Nice.....

That's what little girls are made of.

But apparently, *I* am made of:

The Recipe For Me

3 parts Naughtiness 2 parts Pride 1 part Superiority Splash of Intellect Sip slowly on the beach

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

What are YOU made of?

H/T Ala

Mike Schmuckabee

Is this really the best we can do in Iowa? A former governor who is currently making foreign policy statements about Bhutto's death like:
"In light of what happened in Pakistan yesterday, it's interesting that there are more Pakistanis who have illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border,"

>The Border Patrol reports "hardly any" arrests in 2007, 660 in 2006, in 2005 they weren't in the top 10 list, and in 2004, Pakistan was in last place. Oh, and btw.... what in the HELL does illegal immigration in the US have ANYTHING to do with Bhutto's murder??? Boggles my mind, it does.

"But the most urgent thing to do is to offer our sincere sympathies and concerns to the family and to the people of Pakistan, and that's the first thing we would be doing other than, again, trying to ascertain who's behind it, and what impact does it have on whether or not there's going to be martial law continued in Pakistan, suspension of the constitution,"

>Um... Mr. Huckabee.... martial law in Pak was lifted several weeks ago. His comeback was just as lame: ""it was not that I was unaware it was suspended, two weeks ago, lifted. ...The point was, would it be reinstated, would it be placed back in?" Is that REALLY the best reply you could come up with??

Perhaps this sums it up best: "A senior aide to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee admitted Friday that the former Arkansas governor had "no foreign policy credentials" "
Gee... you think? Something makes me think that another President from the fine state of Arkansas is *NOT* what this country needs. AT ALL. And yes, I'm including the other candidate who hails from Arkansas in that assessment. Hillary and Mike... *shudder*
According to selectsmart.com, my best candidate match is John McCain (67%), followed by Rudy Giuliani and Alan Keyes (both 60%), and then Mitt Romney and *hack cough spit* John "Slick Pony" Edwards (59%). See who you match up to HERE.

AWOL

yep.
I've been AWOL from my blog. I haven't posted in over a MONTH. Holy shit. I think that's a record. Not even so much as a "Hey- I'm still here, just really busy with that thing called LIFE." sorry folks- that is, if there ARE any folks left around here!

Anywhooo....
LIFE has been kicking my ASS for the past two months. I've logged well over 2,000 POV miles for work, plus flew to Nashville for an overnight trip in the middle of BFT (bum fuck Tennessee). No lie- I had to drive another 2 1/2 hours AFTER landing. Since I'm in the retirement business, the end of the year is a killer. So many plans have 1/1 enrollments, and they all want/need enrollment meetings for newly eligibles- not to mention new plans rolling out 1/1. I let out a HUGE sigh of relief last Thursday when my last trip for 3 weeks came to an end. WHAAAHOOOOOO!

Christmas was crazy-fun. Keith was here, and we had the boys all week. Translation: the house is once again trashed. haha. My brother and his girlfriend came over on Christmas Day, which is significant because I've been in this house for almost 2 years now and this is the first time my brother has been over here. He has a huge problem with my divorce and the activities surrounding it, so we've had a very rocky relationship for a couple of years now. I fully credit his girlfriend with bringing him around and getting him to ease up- and I'm eternally grateful to her for it.

My cousin, CW2 Wade, is still deployed in Iraq, and will be for another 7 months or so. She just moved and likes the new base much more than the old one. She says that the chow hall is much better than the old one. I've sent her a few care packages since her deployment, and so have a lot of my "Church Lady" friends. I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to me, my cousin, and her Mom & sister to know that my friends have been showing her so much love!

My friend Karen's son is also deployed in Iraq. Ryan is an MP, and, much to Karen's delight, was "bored" the first couple of months he was there. WHOO HOO! We like "boring" wars when our loved ones are involved. haha... When Ryan gets back, he'll have a housefull- his fiancee is expecting TWINS in the spring! Ryan's SUCH a good big brother, I know he'll be an awesome Dad! His little sisters are only 6 and 16, so he's had a lot of practice. Since Ryan is gorgeous, and so is his fiancee... those are gonna be some BEE-YOOUUU-TEEE-FULL babies!!!

OK, so much for the personal stuff. Now for the blog stuff.
1. Bhutto's DEAD. This scares the living shit out of me. To lose a friend in a nuclear, volatile country is a huge hit to our foreign policy. Early reports said she was killed by either shrapnel or gunshots to the head, not the explosion... now the official report is that she cracked her skull on the sunroof. I don't know what to believe, but I do believe this is going to send Pakistan into a tailspin. Much violence to follow.

2. Petraeus thanks the troops for their 2007 accomplishments, reminding them that "In places like Ramadi, Baqubah, Arab Jabour, and Baghdad, you and our Iraqi brothers fought—often house by house, block by block, and neighborhood by neighborhood—to wrest sanctuaries away from Al Qaeda-Iraq, to disrupt extremist militia elements, and to rid the streets of mafia-like criminals. Having cleared areas, you worked with Iraqis to retain them—establishing outposts in the areas we were securing, developing Iraqi Security Forces, and empowering locals to help our efforts."

3. What in the HELL would drive a woman and her boyfriend to kill her parents and her entire brother's family, including two little children, on CHRISTMAS EVE???? Good Lord. Such a tragedy.

And.. that's all folks.