We went out looking at microwaves today. We haven’t bought one yet. They are all crap. Well, the ones we can afford are all crap. I did find a GE one at Best Buy we may go look at. I don’t know. I am not inspired to spend money on a microwave. While it does suck not having one, it is possible to live without one. With prices on just about everything going up … like food … it’s hard to decide to spend money on a small appliance. Does no good to have a microwave and not have food in the pantry.

Maybe I’m just tired and grumpy. I don’t like shopping on a good day, and when I am in the sort of mood I am in today, I really don’t like shopping.

But really, all the cheaper microwaves, no matter the brand, appear to be crap that breaks in a year … if online reviews are taken into account. I guess it’s amazing the one we had lasted for a few years before dying.

“Did you order the pizza yet?”

Well, no I didn’t. Why? Because I am an idiot and totally forgot it was Friday and therefore Pizza Night. Duh.

But I am not the only stupid one in the house at the moment! If Lin can’t smell that there’s some tasty dinner cooking, he needs to get his nose checked.

I guess we’ll have pizza tomorrow. Or maybe we’ll skip it and save the money. Pizza isn’t so cheap anymore.

“Senator McCain agrees with Senator Obama that spouses should not be an issue in this campaign, and he has stated that position frequently.”
–McCain Campaign, June 2008

Not so much anymore. Now they are going after Michelle, owing to the fact that she and Ayer’s wife both worked for the largest law firm on the planet at the same time, therefore, they must have known each other and been best of friends! Go read the tale at Talking Points Memo, and if you have a few minutes, listening to the audio of the press conference call, set up by the McCain Campaign, is worth listening to … though it may raise your hackles.

And would people please stop calling the Annenberg Challenge a so-called charity or a so-called educational program or a radical organization? It was funded by the Annenbergs, and the Annenbergs were and are completely and totally Republican. So stop it, please.

But since spouses are now on the table for attacking, I want to see and read some news stories about Cindy McCain’s drug addiction leading to her convincing a doctor or two to write her illegal prescriptions in other people’s names and essentially stealing drugs from her own charity — a crime for which she didn’t even get a slap on the wrist for. I’d also really like to learn a whole lot more about Todd Palin and his involvement with Troopergate (a report coming soon, maybe) and the Alaskan Independence Party, who would very much like to secede from the US — a country they seemingly loath.

Are they really sure they want to go there? I think it’s crappy they want to go there, but hey … I’m all for throwing mud at people who throw mud, especially when the mud I’m throwing is factual and true and not mere speculation, which is all the Republicans seem to have at the moment.

For the last few weeks, I have been battling aphids on my pepper plants. Same kind of aphids that attacked my cucumbers, so the soapy water works just fine at killing them. But I have noticed a few things concerning these damn tiny monsters.

They love the TAM jalapeño plants. I can barely keep up with killing them. But, they only like the ones in pots. The one I planted in the front flower bed has not an aphid on it — though it looks like hell for who knows what reason (most likely poor soil). They also don’t like the banana pepper, which is in a pot and sits right beside the potted jalapeños. No aphids whatsoever on the banana pepper.

Next year, I am not going to bother planting jalapeños, at least not this same variety. For supposedly being specifically design in and for Texas, they were a disappointment. Three plants, all thriving and green all season, and I only got two peppers. What a waste of time. I will be getting more of the banana peppers next year. Considering the awful summer we had, the one plant produced enough peppers to keep me happy, and the fact that aphids seem to not like it at all is a bonus.

I’m still very interested in figuring out why the pepper plants in the flower bed have no aphids at all and the ones in pots do. Up until the weather started changing, they were just as green, bushy and healthy as the potted ones, so it isn’t a matter of weak plants the bugs want nothing to do with. It’s just very odd.

I ventured around to the side of the house between us and the Insane Neighbors today, and I found a little patch of pretty flowers existing in an almost barren, completely ignored corner of my world.

I also actually looked at my tomato plants today, and there are five tomatoes on the Best Boy and more looking like they have set! Woo hoo!

We got a letter the other day from Lin’s retirement fund. He didn’t open it. I usually wait until he opens it, but after it sat there for a few days, I sort of gathered he wasn’t going to do so. I couldn’t resist, because while I have been looking at the graph showing me how horribly things are going on a daily basis, that really didn’t tell me anything about our particular situation.

$474.45 is what we have lost, so far. To someone who has been investing for a long time, or someone who has far more money to invest, this probably seems like a small amount. To us, this is a lot of money to see vanish. In fact, it’s 17% of our investment for the year. I guess I’m thankful we don’t have more money to invest, because we’d have lost so much more.

There doesn’t seem to be a bottom in sight with this market drop-off. I am beginning to rethink whether or not to stick it out.

I swear this is what happens every time we do the right thing. We should have maintained our carefree hippie lifestyle and not worried about retirement. Can’t win for trying.

For the first time in the five years we have lived here, a street sweeper just swept our street.

I wonder what the special occasion is. There has to be a special occasion. Why else would they suddenly care about our tiny little, no-curb-or-sidewalk-having, grown-over-with-grass street?

Yesterday evening I was out watering my plants when Annoying Boy came over to be annoying. He chatted at me about how he hoped people moved in that we liked and who liked us, whined about moving, and then … I heard a tiny little mewing. Across my yard comes running an adorable little kitten. Insane Neighbor Lady brought home yet another cat.

“Do you want him?”

Well, yes, of course I want him. But I can’t have him. We can barely keep the cats we have spoiled with decent food, and we certainly can’t afford any vet bills right now. But oh … so adorable and sweet.

This morning when I left to go shopping, that sweet little thing ran across the yard again to wish me a good morning. Yes, that tiny little thing is yet one more outdoor cat in the neighborhood, and I doubt they will take him along when they go. Even if they did, what kind of life would he have? So … if I see Annoying Boy today, I’m going to tell him not to do anything with the kitten until he talks to me again, and I’m going to ask Lin if we could, please, add another cat to the family. At the very least, I am far better suited to finding him a good home than they are, and I’d rather have him inside with us now rather than wait to see if they leave him behind.

In other cats news, the big, black monster I know they won’t be taking with them — the terror of all living things in the area — is warming to me. I’ve been bribing him with bits of bacon. He won’t let me anywhere near him yet, but at least he doesn’t run away at top speed as soon as I step out on the porch anymore. That one will never be an indoor cat, but I want him to know that if he finds himself here with no one to feed him, we’ve got food and are willing to share.

I wonder how many of their cats I am going to end up with?

There’s change a-comin’ in America, and when America changes, the world changes. My usually vibrant ability to see and feel the threads and connections, and to see somewhat clearly the way things might head, has dulled. I can no longer say with any certainty what may come. I can makes guesses, but they feel less than educated, perhaps because some of the options I see for the path the USA might take seem so preposterous. Unfortunately, just because something seems preposterous doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. The last eight years have born proof of that. Many things I might never have imagined could happen have. We live in interesting times.

All I know now is that in the next few years, anything might happen and that change of some sort is definitely a-comin’ to America. Maybe it will be for the better. Maybe it will be for the worse. Only time moving along will tell. All I can do is sit and wait for things to play out … and hope and pray that somewhere over the horizon we all find ourselves in a better place filled with love and understanding and far less hatred and fear.

Having begun my coffee addiction during the heat of summer, I had yet to experience the joy that is a hot mug of coffee on a chilly morning … until today.

What heaven! What blissful heaven to wrap my hands around a steaming mug of properly sweetened and creamed nirvana. Bringing it to my lips, the steam tickling my nose, and taking that first tentative sip. Feeling it warm its way down through my internal system. Then instantaneous relief from the chill in the air.

I am in my own little bubble of happiness, warm and secure, wrapped in a caffeine blanket.