58 Degrees is the temperature in my house right now and I am freezing. I have known this was coming all summer and have been thinking about how to make my home more efficient.

I want to have my furnace serviced. Does anyone know of a good service person to do this? Is this something I should ask the landlord to pay for? If not I would rather just pay it myself because I'm sure it hasn't been done in years and I want it to be safe and efficient. I did have a carbon monoxide issue in my last house!

I also want to have vent-less gas fireplace logs installed in the fireplace. There is a gas hook up already. Do you think this is something that the service person could also connect or should I just do it myself? The gas key is kind of old and when I put my nose down to it you can sometimes smell a tint of gas coming from the key.

I have three large windows I want to cover with plastic. The window sills are wood so I don't want to ruin them. I'm thinking of making wood frames and covering those with plastic and inserting them into the window frame. I don't have a saw and am not so handy but am usually willing to try new things so I might give it a shot. I'm just wondering if this will be much more of a task than I can handle. I don't know what would be the best wood for making such a frame. I'm also wondering if making these inserts would be cost effective. Of course a saw would be an investment. I don't need a power saw of anything.

I'm also looking to buy at least one other electric space heater. I saw one at Lowes that uses radiant heat.
Not sure how I feel about that. They also have electric fireplaces. I saw one for about $80.

So hopefully it will be warmer in here soon. For now I refuse to turn on the heat!

Today we learned a new strategy of interviewing at the smoker's quitline. It gives us a lot more control of what we ask and therefore more of a challenge to both the quit specialist and the caller. I think that it will be good if I am good.

So more work equals more money which I am would be thankful for. As it is, I need a lot of things. When I say "need" I definitely mean that I can't go without them. The only answer is to work more, so getting the extra hours in this week is a good deal.

I am very worried about our economy. It really is serious as you all know. The fall of our economy I would say is not totally surprising but nonetheless still shocking. I knew that it was coming but I didn't really think it would be me even though it was happening all along. I'm glad that the start of the fall happened while Bush was still in office, otherwise I don't think many would have correlated it with him and his giveaways, deregulation and irresponsibility. I think that everyone that regularly has posted on this site gets it, but I don't think that most of the population in this country would have been able to make the connection if the downward spiral happened in the next administration. Look at what our education system has done. No Child Left Behind is the biggest freaking fraud besides the patriot act!

The proposed bailout seems to me like a huge freaking gauze pad to stop the bleeding. Not sure if this gauze pad will be sufficient to prevent a further collapse. I haven't quite figured out the answer but I think that our predicament proves that the free hand won't cop an inappropriate feel when given the right conditions. The right conditions would be when no one else is looking.

Sorry guys they took the video down because of copy right infringement. Oh well. At least I got to see it this AM!! I replaced the video with a pic.




In case anyone missed this Saturday Night Live skit like I did. She did a great job with the Sarah Palin's voice. Clearly she already had the looks! How awesome.

I'm so sick of the rain and dampness. Everything feels so wet in my house.


We are forecast to have sunny days this coming week but it doesn't seem like it with that map. It looks like we are just going to be pounded with more and more rain. Even if we do have some sunny days coming up it looks like we will be hit with the last of Ike unless the jet stream changes dramatically.

Northern and Southern Erie counties are under flood watch right now.

So I have a problem with spiders in my house and I was looking for a way to fix it naturally and I found this....

It is from ehow.com


Instructions
Difficulty: Easy
Things You'll Need:

* plastic spray bottle - garden type
* large canning Jar (glass or plastic with lid)
* old blender
* spiders (fresh and dead)
* Water
* Pantyhose
* Funnel

Step1
Capture spiders or kill and place in a jar. Get as many as possible from your immediate area as those are the ones you want to repel. 15+ is a good number.
Step2
Add warm water to the jar so that you have at least 3 cups of water covering.
Cover and swish lightly.
Step3
Now the tough part.
Pour spiders and liquid into the blender.
Puree on high for 30 seconds to 1 minute
Step4
Place panty hose (or long cut off toe section) ovee the top of the blender after removing the lid.
Step5
Place funnel into mouth of spray bottle and slowly pour the blender contents in. This will leave remains in the stocking and allow all liquid to pass to the spray bottle.
Step6
Discard stocking and place sprayer onto the spray bottle.
Step7
Mist along all windows, doors, attic vents, porch under roofing, attic spaces, boat spaces -- anywhere you want the spiders to find new places to live.

Normally within a week you'll be virtually if not fully spider free.

The UGLY
"I can justify myself before God" Larry Keffer Telephone:
813-376-8888



See who is the man behind the hate.



He is the same man that is responsible for spreading hate in Buffalo at Thursday at the Square and at the Pride parade.




Now the good...

The pride parade starts at 10am because of the heat. It was very hot anyways even at 10am.



My Mom and her husband Joe.








I have more pictures but they are getting an error message when I try to load them. I'll try again later to get the rest of them out.

This is the error message I am getting.

name = IMG_0420.jpg
size = 384070
type = .jpg
error = 500
errorType = 1

The pics i'm having trouble with are one's that I took on my mom's camera. Didn't have any trouble with the ones I took with my own.

I had such a great weekend celebrating his birthday. Packed with fun and ended in both he and I winning big at the Seneca Nation Casino in Niagara Falls. I won $20 and he $26. This is the first time that we both won. Dinner with his parents and (e:paul), (e:matthew) and (e:terry) was really great. Of course Mike's mom put on quite a spread.

Happy Birthday Mikey! A Lion King was born 8/31!




The lion seen on Virginia at Delaware was commissioned by (e:mike). I framed it for his birthday and it looks pretty good framed. Mike loves this lion and it is very close to being lost forever.



This is Tran Zoo Vania also commissioned by (e:mike). This I made for his birthday card. Does anyone know what this place was??

The storm we are having is so great. My cell phone has been working for about a half hour or so. I do hope everyone is OK with the lightning striking and everyone being out. Luckily did not get soaked.

Went with (e:mike) and his mother to the Elmwood Ave art festival. That was so much fun hanging out with the two of them. His mom came and sat on the porch for a while too and saw my new place. Also went again to the festival with my friend Justin whom I haven't seen in forever. It was nice to see him again. The festival was excellent. The garden parade was one of the best parades I have seen. Music, dancing and the scary masks were all so awesome.

(e:mike) so if you see this you know why I can' t call you. Sent you an email.