OK - I don't want to jinx myself, but the weather for this weekend looks like it's going to be fabulous. I don't think I could wish for any better. My mom has decided she's going to come with me and my sister for the weekend getaway, which is really cool because the lake is near the little town where she grew up in PA. She's not so keen on my brother's lady friend but that's ok, they're in another cottage - we can always escape.

MrMike - I hope your dad has a happy birthday, and thanks for dragging my kid along, I appreciate it.

Enjoy your weekend everyone - I'll post pix of my trip when I get back.

Whenever I’m getting ready for a trip, my dog acts strange. Everywhere I go she’s right on my heels. And she looks at me differently. It’s like she knows I’m going somewhere and she’s afraid I’m going to leave her behind. I find it very odd. She doesn’t act like that in the morning when I’m getting ready to go to work. Freaky little animal. She is really cute though.

I received the below e-mail from one of my (very conservative Republican... or in this case maybe Fascist) uncles today. Normally, I just delete the political crap they (he and my other uncle) send me because it usually burns my ass to read it, and ALMOST makes me love them just a little less. Even just the first (well second) statement “These are NOT taken out of context…” is nonsense. Of course they’re out of context... if they were in context, they would be surrounded by the rest of the book ... duh! Anyway, it is totally this kind of BULLSHIT that perpetuates racism, ignorance, fear, and hate. It makes me want to SCREAM!! The really horrible part is that there are a bunch of whack-jobs out there who will send this CRAP to a bunch of other whack-jobs and it eventually will end up in the hands of the masses, many of whom aren’t really too bright themselves and could possible be influenced by this STUPIDITY! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh (that’s me screaming)!

[box]Hi, DIRECT QUOTES from Obama from his books. These are NOT taken out of context--but his own words.

From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself , the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'

And FINALLY the Most Damning one of ALL of them!!!

From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

• If you have never forwarded an e-mail, now is the time to Do so!!! We CANNOT have someone with this type of mentality running our GREAT nation!! I don't care whether you are Democrat or a Conservative. We CANNOT turn ourselves over to this type of character in a President. PLEASE help spread the word!!!![/box]

My god, I sometimes can't even fathom how we remotely came out of the same gene pool - WTF!!!!

Ah, a long weekend away at a beautiful little lake in PA... now that's something to look forward to. My sister and I (we share a cottage), and my brother and his clan (they have their own cottage), have been making this trek every year for the past 5 years on Columbus Day weekend. This seems to be perfect timing for Fall foliage, and, so far, we’ve been super lucky in terms of it not being too cold. Here’s a pic. of the view from our back door there. It's very relaxing.



The Lake in the a.m. - great with a cup of coffee!

OK - so my car saga goes on... this is like some weird, bad novel. Ends up my mom's car, that I borrowed because mine broke, needs some stupid window motor and some other regulator thing... Price tag $585. There aren't any after-factory available (old car) but my brother can get dealer cost at, oh, $360ish - PARTS ONLY. Thank god he knows about cars - he's going to go junkyarding and try to find a window motor for less and put in in at home (so I don't have to pay labor at his work) - he's such a great guy.