Friday whirlwind

Let's start by posting the links to a BUNCH of blogs that I found very interesting today.

Lisa chastised me severely for emailing (or paying attention to) the "condemn the brand" blog I forwarded around last week, so I have to be more careful.

This first one is here - the truth about bin laden and the Clinton administration.

The next one is a history lesson. How Iraq came to be Iraq in the first place. Talk about deja vu.

Here is one that discusses our relations with two of the "stans," and how we're promoting human rights abuses.

This next one is quite important and interesting - how privatization of government was pawned off on us, and how it hasn't worked.

Other than that, my whirlwind has taken all the support out of my sails tonight. I'm just .. wiped. I have a ton of stuff to do this weekend, yet and am

At Paladium for Surgery

I’ve been working on my talk for Sunday in church already. It’s a complex engagement.

This morning, the temperature just felt cooler – like the temperature had broken, and that the hottest part of the summer had passed already. That would be just awesome.

I worked on a client’s train wreck of a file last night until about 11:00, then gave up and went to bed rather than fall over. I felt like such a loser, compared to Bram, who worked until 2:00 a.m. or later. I have to get that file work completed by tomorrow, and a bunch of other work as well. Yurg.

One of my friends dropped in yesterday; she hadn’t been to the house yet. She was very excited about all the roooooom I have now, and was walking around asking what my thoughts were about painting and so on. She asked if I had selected the colors for the kitchen, and I said “uh, no.” She then was telling me that she had been working on color selections for her new kitchen and that she had some ideas for how I could paint the kitchen in “rich” colors that would bring out the slate floor, and make the stainless and counter tops “pop.” She had the color chips in her CAR. And, what fabulous ideas they were, too – holy schmoly. She thinks that the walls should be painted in a dark, dusky sage green, and the cabinets and wood trim in a dark, nearly black grey/green. The idea is FABULOUS. I can’t wait to get it painted now, even with the risk of moving out soon.

I’m reading the follow on book to “Wicked,” about which I just raved a while back. It just isn’t grabbing me like “Wicked” did. I guess now that the Wicked Witch is dead, I don’t have as much interest. This story is about her son she had with the man whose death took her to the castle Kiamo Ko that we remember as “her” castle from the Frank Baum story. I don’t know that it’s starting slowly or what. I want to finish it quickly so I can send it to my sister.

So, yesterday I was snooping around on the internet (‘cause I do that sometimes,) and ran a search on Secret Agent Man’s license plate number. I had always thought that he worked in government, because his cars always looked like pool cars. Well, he does.

So, if everything he’s told me about his job is a lie .. what else is? The story that he doesn’t have a wife?

I guess it’s of no real consequence.

Also found the true identity of the Cajun daddy from two months ago. VERY interesting, but what could I do with it? Nothing, really. Knowledge is power, except when discretion and moral fibre prevents one from using the knowledge.

A woman just sat down next to me with a Treo 700p. She says it’s LIGHTNING fast, and she loves it. I’m really jealous now. I need to research what my 650 is worth used on eBay, and see if I can make sense of getting the newer one. She also said that she had heard there would be a NEWER version coming in November.

My evil sister Mikey finally had two minutes together to chat with me yesterday; I was SO glad to finally be able to just chew the fat about nothing at all. I’ve missed his company.

I wonder how long this is going to last?

I think it’s time to reflect on the Virtues, of which I’m speaking the next three Sundays.

Sunday - the day before Monday

An interesting day today indeed. Church was awesome. Came home right after, and Rick came by and groomed the dogs - while he did that, I cleaned the laundry room. Cleaned it - you understand? I pulled everything out of the laundry room closet, cleaned it all, sorted it out, hung up the ironing board, the mops and brooms, the can crusher, the grocery bag holder/dispenser, re-folded all the towels...

Rick clipped and bathed and groomed and clipped and shampooed and groomed and conditioned .. He got about a trash bag of hair out of Jackie. So, the garbage can outside is already full, the kitchen counters are cleaned up and the kitchen desk drawers are all cleaned out for the first time since I moved in. I hung the cool tea light hangers that I got in New York, re-hung some plant hooks on the patio covers, and then .. FINALLY cleaned the white chairs in the breakfast area.

My evil sister Mikey - he's a smart cookie. He got this Oxy/spray cleaner thing for his car seats, and I was really impressed with how the stains came right out of his car seats. So, I asked him, I asked "Mikey, evilness, would this clean my white cloth parsons chairs in the kitchen?"

He said that it would, and told me JUST how to go about doing it .. I finally cleaned those chairs today, and he was absolutely right. They look great! I have to do it again, but what an improvement.

Watching the movie "Adam and Steve," which is pretty silly. Bram's at the ambulance company, being an EMT. He's happy.

Bram and I painted part of the upstairs hall yesterday - I painted two of the doors, and he painted the trim coming up the stairs, so we can finally take down the blue tape. We learned several things - first, that the cheap foam brushes that I had before were crap, and only a decent brush works worth a flip. Second, that the grill for the A/C cold air register was REALLY dirty, not just old. Third, that the white paint WILL cover the FOUR colors on the doors and trim. The guest room needs to be repainted before his friends from Atlanta come in on Friday. I picked out colors from the Behr website for that room; hopefully that can yet come together.

I think I've made a deal to trade doing some really old tax returns for having the outside lighting installed before the weekend - and I'm going to ask the yard stud if he can power wash the house Friday when he comes to mow.

Things are very focused for me today - I'm being boiled in my own money issues, having to be responsible for someone else that I'd do anything for. Having to produce to keep someone else comfortable and secure is about sixty thousand times more intense than having to try to trudge along keeping myself supported.

I have a lot on my mind about this ..

Perhaps I had a wicked childhood
Perhaps I had a miserable youth
But somwhere in my wicked, miserable past
There must have been a moment of truth

For here you are, standing there, loving me
Whether or not you should
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good

Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good