I swear, I think our weekends are getting to be busier than our weekdays! ;P Friday was pretty hectic, and add the bad weather on top of that, it made for an interesting start to the weekend. Jessie’s karate test was Saturday — she’s now moved up from orange belt to a purple belt! Jim and I took pictures and filmed, so hopefully those will be up soon. We had a chance to talk to Jessie’s senseis for a bit, and both had nothing but good things to say about our little ray of sunshine. I noted that ever since beginning taking karate, she’s shown so much improvement … both in the dojo and outside of it!

Jessie left after the test with her mother. Jim and I went over to see my folks and saw my brother Jeremy and his wife Christy. They had Ryland with them, so I got to spend a little time with my favorite niece.

Isn’t she precious?

Stupidity knows no bounds

Today Jim and Jessie took me to brunch for Mother’s Day. I got a little aggravated earlier because I specifically told her mother that I was picking her up early and that we were going out to eat. Originally it was supposed to be breakfast … I pick Jessie up and find out that her mother had her EAT BREAKFAST right before I was to pick her up!

*beats head into wall repeatedly*

I swear, one of these days I’m bound to say something to this woman that I know I will regret, but that she also fully DESERVES.

So we waited a bit and went for ‘brunch’ … Jessie was hungry enough and Jim and I were starving! There was a slight ‘incident’ with a group that cut in line infront of us and another family. When I said something to one of the party members, she muttered something about us being ‘racists’ — the party members were black.

They moved on before I could say anything else, but I was fully ready to retort with, “It has nothing to do with race. The color of one’s skin does NOT exempt one from using common courtesy and manners!”

So I fumed a bit, but got over it. We were at Ryan’s and the food and service were great, which fully made up for the inconvenience before being seated. In their defense, it WAS packed, which made it a bit hard for the staff at the front to keep track of who should be where. However, that being said, I find it hard NOT to notice the general lack of manners by people I run across in public nowadays.

To most of these people, I am dying to say, “I *KNOW* your mother taught you better!”

A heart-felt and belated “Thanks!”

If all goes well, it looks like I’ll win this round in the Lunarpages’ WordPress theme design contest. I am completely overwhelmed by the response and surge in votes from family, friends, and extended community. I emailed a few close to me, and just about every one of them emailed their friends and family, and so on and so forth; and I posted on here and you each voted and responded in kind. (thank you!!) My Cotillion sisters rose to the occasion offering support and votes (thank you, girls! I love y’all!). Jim reached out to his guild and the guys have been very supportive with votes and feedback. (thank you!!) And last but certainly not least, the gargantuan legion of members over at the Soldiers’ Angels forums were a tremendous help in attaining and keeping the lead. (thank you very very much, Angels!!!)

I first ran across this on Degree of Madness and thought to myself, “You have GOT to be fucking kidding me.”

WTF?!!? Were they high? Did they seriously think this was a good idea?

Unfuckingbelievable. You know, I love Absolut’s products but I guarandamntee you that I won’t be buying any more!

Billboard shot on SondraK’s site. More on Michelle Malkin’s site here, here, and here.

There’s treatments for all kinds of mental/physical ailments nowadays, from acne treatments to organ transplants. Why isn’t there a stupidity cream out yet!?? ;P

I’ve been tagged by Cookie for the Passion Quilt. I had never heard of this thing, but its concept is interesting.

The way it goes:

A PASSION QUILT

THE RULES:

1. Post a picture or make/take/create your own that captures what YOU are most passionate for students to learn about.
2. Give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt.”
4. Link back to this blog entry.
5. Include links to 5 (or more) educators.

Ok, so here’s my picture, and its title is Find Your Voice

Photo courtesy of Hagit

Here are my educator picks that I think today’s young people could learn a lot from:

• Teresa
• John and Miranda
• White Trash Mom
• Beth of My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
• Conservative Belle
• Greta of Kiss My Gumbo and Hooah Wife
• Jules of Everyday Mommy

Cookie gets honorable mention — he would have been in my list, but he’s already done this meme … and he’s the one who tagged me in the first place!

I got all kinds of weird things via email. Hell, half of them are from Uncle Monster. ;P hehehe… But he’s not the only one … I have a friend in CA who owns a little San Diego carpet cleaning company. He sent me a whole slew of stuff today (bored are we, George? ;)), including two pieces in the animal kingdom that caught my eye: apparently it’s not the feathers that makes a bird, and scientists work on fishing for the lazy. The first one kind of surprised me … I always thought peacock feathers were the ultimate end-all-be-all of sexy costumes of the animal world.

Shows what I know.

Senate says ‘no’ to guns on campus

Several local ‘Bama blogs are already steaming over news the proposed campus gun bill has been blocked by the Senate. A shame really, because personally I thought that was a pretty good damned idea! Per Erwin, it was “designed to discourage gunmen by making them aware someone could shoot back quickly.”

Ya damned skippy.

Something a little lighter

Want a good laugh? Check out this SondraK post.

Very cute.

Spice of Sci-Fi

And last but not least … because I have GOT to have something sci-fi every day, here’s a list of the six most brilliant “bite your head” dragons from science fiction.

Because dragons are cool, mmmkay?

As I indicated in a previous post, it really burns my hide to see senior citizens get taken advantage of. A friend of mine who works in the insurance industry in Georgia sent me a link from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with an article about a shady insurance agent who swindled some folks out of their Medicare coverage and/or Medicare supplemental coverage:

The sales agent said he worked for Medicare. He really worked for a private insurer. And, after he came to Dorothy Consalvo’s Stockbridge home and signed her to a new insurance plan, one she thought would enhance her existing benefits, the 81-year-old said she was shocked to find she had inadvertently given up her longtime Medicare coverage.

Up the road in Norcross, another agent talked Violet and Carroll Cox into signing up for a private Medicare plan at the low cost of $7 a month. They say they were told it would give them the same coverage as their supplemental insurance. It didn’t. “This agent lied all the way,” Violet Cox contends.

It’s a crying shame! If you have loved ones who are “a little on in years,” I would suggest keeping a printout tucked away somewhere with their coverage plan details and any uncovered or out-of-pocket expenses (if any) listed. Most insurance companies have this information accessible via a website, or a quick call. Handy information to have, not just in times of (medical) need …