It's like this...

Yesterday my nephew Chad stopped by the house for a visit. I found him and his girlfriend in the living room with my father. Chad is the fourth of the five children my brother had. He was once this tiny little baby boy who crawled into the trunk of my hubby's porsche and said he'd ride in there because he so wanted to be with us. He could have ridden in the backseat only there wasn't a backseat in the car. It was a two seater and we were dating and oh....where did that time go? ..pulls myself back from the way-back-time-machine before I get lost... At any rate, Chad stopped by. He's shorter than my boy now. More pierced and tatooed. He's taken a different path than the one that was laid before him as a boy. It's stunning to me how the choices of the parents create such an impact on the children. Despite that though, children have their own free agency and make their own choices about things after awhile and the line between what happened due to poor pa...

I'm the first to admit that I don't know enough about the entire bailout vote that didn't pass. I will say this... Bailout the crooks and those Gucci-wearing-golden-parachute-getting rich boys? I don't think so. Where is all that bailout stuff helping the little guy who can't make his mortgage payments? Greed is what got this mess rolling in the first place and you shouldn't reward greed. Boeing and IAM please start talking to each other. Puhleese? From the article I read last night in the Seattle Times, it doesn't appear that there is any movement in the negotiations because they're not talking to each other . Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Good news for us is that I've got those flyers going out to the school today for the kids to sign up for early morning Spanish class. Hopefully I'll get at least ten kids per class---maybe more. It's not exactly a golden parachute or a bailout but I'll take what I can get. Oh....on the good...

We've been on strike against Boeing for three weeks now. I say 'we' because you know that whole we-become-one thing when we got married? Which means that what happens to him, happens to me, yada yada yada. Of course when he eats only I gain weight, but that's another blog post. Yesterday we got paid for being on strike. A whopping $150 check. We'll be drawing that fabulous sum (don't be hating me for the riches) each week we're on strike against Boeing. Cuz, you know, $150 will surely cover everything here at Rancho Troeppl. It's ridiculous. The two sides aren't even talking to each other. At the end of the week we lose our health insurance. Gone. Zip. I don't know about you, but I've got four kids who like to eat and tend to grow after eating. This requires new clothing to be purchased. I also have people I owe money to. None of them are likely to come calling in the middle of the night with baseball bats to break my legs if I do...

Today after we picked the kids up from school, I decided that the day was so nice that it would be a good time to tackle the Monster Hedge. It was huge job and though we're still not completely finished, it does look a lot better. As an added bonus our sweet doggie (who is terrified of water) fell into the pond while we were out there. My father happened to be down by the pond when it happened and I was on the other side of the creek. I saw her go in and I screamed. Like a girl. Seriously, it just came out of me. It scared my father so badly that he jumped and looked behind him at the pond, because I was also pointing as I shrieked. Then he really freaked out. He didn't know what was coming out of the pond at him---it looked like The Swamp Monster---all covered in slimy green goo and mud. Once he realized it was our not-so-graceful-pooch, he leaned over and grabbed her collar to haul her out. Of course she then did that whole body shake thing and sprayed him with mu...

There aren't usually too many silver linings in the dark-rain cloud of having your husband out on the streets in a strike against their employer. While it's stressful and uncomfortable and just plain aggravating, there are a few things that I'm enjoying. This is one of them. Having my husband home in the evenings. The kids absolutely love it---and I know he does as well. Helping out with the daily homework is just one of the perks of having my husband out on strike.

This is Amy and Cassie. Amy belongs to my father and Cassie is our dog. According to my father, his dog is partially human and mine, well mine is stoooopid. I took this today as they both longingly watched me eat something. They are beggars of the first order. You can't see her, but my father's tiny beagle is at my feet, also begging. Night before last our dog got into trouble. She stole and ate half a bag of cat food during the night. In her defense, my father has reduced her food to once a day and she's been getting more exercise than she previously recieved so she's hungrier. Due to her consumption of the cat food, my father declined to feed her that day. Sooooooo, last night she broke into the box of dog bones that was on the floor by the basement door and finished the entire thing off. There may have been ten to fifteen bones in there. This did not please my father. He chastised her severely. Of course last week his dog got up on the counter and stole th...

I know, I know. You're getting tired of my Smilebox addiction. Well just so you know, I can stop anytime I want to stop. I can. I mean it. I just don't want to stop. So there. Yes, I'm like that. Go figure. So tonight as I was waiting for the second rise on the delicious pizza dough I'd made, I took a looooooong walk with my hubby and youngest daughter and three mutts. There are so many parks in Seattle and surrounding areas. I love living here. And so here. Smilebox. Yes, again. Hush. Make a Smilebox postcard