We're all in this together?

I don't think so.

Twice today, I heard on the radio that the politicians think we're all in this financial crisis together.

Sure, "we're" all suffering the consequences right now, but I am for damn sure not in this with everyone else. Adam and I have owned two houses - we bought little, old houses, that were charming, and most importantly, that we could AFFORD.

Novel concept, I know. Pay back what you owe. Since we got married, we had a little credit card debt, but guess what: It's paid off!

I feel like we've done everything right. We don't live beyond our means. Yes, we buy some stuff we don't really need (see: Wii Party 1). But, overall, we are pretty careful about spending money. And even though we've lived right, I know eventually we'll get screwed in this deal somehow. Those of you who are more well-informed than I, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, comment if you disagree, whatever. But, I just feel like my tax money should be spent on things like great schools, public services like fire and police, and good roads (I am from Kansas - we expect pristine roadways around here...), NOT to bail out giant companies who got themselves in this mess.

Maybe those in charge of the corporations should dig into their personal savings accounts, severance packages, 401Ks, and contribute some of those millions to the cause!

Everybody knows where I stand on the whole Obama/McCain issue, but I did hear Obama say something today that I disagree with. He made an analogy that if your neighbor's house was on fire, you would just grab the hose and start fighting the fire, not blaming them for always leaving the stove on or smoking in bed. To me, that analogy doesn't fit here. It's not even in the same ballpark.

This is obviously failed economic policy. What happens now? I could care less about the jerks who got us into this mess, but what about all the rank and file employees who could lose their jobs? Lose their retirement accounts? What about those of us who have done the right thing economically, but will still be swept up in this mess?

Do Adam and I need to get our garden growing next spring so we can feed ourselves and have food to barter?

The "economic crisis" hasn't had a huge effect on our daily lives yet (except for high gas prices) but I think I really am starting to worry about what's going to happen. Last night, I lay awake for about two and a half hours. Is that nagging stress trying to tell me something?

Why do the people who are elected to represent us and protect us allow things like this to happen?

DVR overload

Crap.

What happens tonight when I want to watch Dancing With the Stars, Chuck, Big Bang Theory, AND How I Met Your Mother?

We can only watch/tape two show at once. Plus, Adam will want to watch Monday Night Football.

Looks like he'll be watching football in one of the bedrooms, I'll be watching "Dancing With the Stars" in the other bedroom, and the DVR will be taping Chuck, Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. Those are the shows we both like to watch, so that's what we'll tape and watch together at a later date.

THEN, Tuesday night - "Biggest Loser." On at the same time as "Dancing With the Stars."

Wednesdays, ABC has decided to bring back "Pushing Daisies," which is a great little show I got into last year before the blasted writer's strike. That's the good news. The bad news is that now, CBS has moved "New Adventures of Old Christine" to the same time slot. Again, a double-shot on the DVR.

Good thing I've kissed off Grey's, since Earl and "The Office" are on Thursday nights.

God, I watch too much TV. I've got to squeeze my Wii Fit time in here somewhere. Good thing I get up at 5 a.m. every day.

RESULT!

Today, when Mitzi and I got back from our 10K run, Adam was outside in the one-car garage, sorting through a bunch of stuff.

He finally came up with a plan for our storage, and that plan allows us to get the car in the double-car garage! That's one huge thing I missed during the Year of Living Apartmentally. My car was always garaged at our house in Wichita, and on cold winter mornings, it was really nice not to have to scrape ice and snow off the windows.

We moved everything out of the playhouse, swept and cleaned it out, and then put all of our lawn and garden stuff in it.

I was hot, sweaty, and not thinking straight, so I didn't shoot a photo before we moved all of the junk out, but here's a few photos of it all cleaned out.

Apparently my cousin Sara and I liked to use quotation marks in our youth. Crazy to think that those two autographs have been there for 20 years. Depending on when that was written, we would have been 11. I don't remember what we played in the playhouse, but we were in it a lot. I think we probably played school, and house (there was an old wooden ironing board in the very back of the playhouse when we cleaned it out). And, I guess we liked to write on the walls.

I wish that the wood was more preserved. You can tell from years of neglect and lack of fresh coats of paint, that the old playhouse is starting to look like those old abandoned houses and barns you see on the prairie.

That fence and building on the other side of the window is the neighbor's yard and garage. I'm not sure how old the playhouse is, but it's been there as long I can remember being at Grandma's. Maybe Grandpa built it for Julie? I don't think it was there when the older kids were little, but I'm sure one of them can post here to let us know.

There was a giant fluff ball in the back left corner. Probably a mice nest. Luckily, when I swept it up, nothing jumped out at me.

Here's the after photos:

Obviously, having the lawn furniture in there takes up quite a bit of space, but I don't want to leave that wood furniture out in the winter weather again. It'll need to be stained next spring, anyway.

I think next weekend I need to get all of the lawn stuff cleaned and ready to store over the winter, but it's nice just to have it organized. (Hopefully that organization will magically move INSIDE the house pretty soon!)

All it took was one cheesy dream sequence - no more Grey's Anatomy for me

WARNING: Don't read this if you're a Grey's fan and you haven't watched the season premiere yet. Possible spoilers ahead.

Okay, now I'm back.

I'm so done with this show. How can a show that was once so good have gotten so bad? I mean, I used to sit on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, hoping the show wouldn't end as the end credits rolled.

Now, I sit on the edge of my seat because I'm afraid I might have to run to the bathroom and throw up!

Seriously - Cristina gets hit by a falling icicle (granted, a GIANT falling icicle) and she dreams of her and Meredith as old maids living together? How could they have even filmed that scene without cheese oozing out of their mouths? It was ridiculous. Maybe I just hate it when young actors are made up to look very old, because it never seems anything but cheesy to me, I don't know. But that was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back.

Not even hot-Army-guy-who's-so-hard-core-he-gave-himself-staples would keep me coming back for more of this crap. At the end of last season, when Meredith built her house of candles for McDreamy, I KNEW it wouldn't last. I knew the first show of this season would be her freaking out about making a commitment. It's what she does, and I'm tired of watching it and listening to it.

Do the writers of this show have to make everyone on it (especially the women) into bumbling idiots because of romantic entanglements? The scrub nurse who was so good at her job that every doctor wanted her in their OR "accidentally" cuts Derek with a scalpel? She's so flabbergasted by the fact that he chose Meredith (she's surprised by this?! Has she not seen them around the hospital?) that she can't do her job properly?

I've written about this before - that I don't like how they write the women on the show. It's really a stereotypical, somewhat offensive look at these characters, who are supposed to be so smart that they're in a surgical program. Alas, I guess they're not as smart as they thought, since their program is the now the 12th best in the country. If the people who wrote those ratings knew about all the sex the staff is having in the rooms in the hospital, or the crap that Izzy pulled, they'd probably be ranked 99th!

The best part of the show was the chief's speech at the end. I wish I could coach my yearbook and newspaper staffs like that! Or, more importantly, maybe he needs to give that speech to the writers and producers of the show!

Dear Grey's Anatomy,
I'm over you. Get over yourself. I think you've jumped the shark.
Sincerely,
Me

Should I or no...

Yes, I let the DVR record Grey's last night. I thought at the end of last season I wouldn't start watching it again because I was FED UP.

I'm going to watch the season premiere tonight, since I'm home without anything else to do, but I need to decide whether or not I'll stick it out for another season.

I don't think I can take Meredith and Derek's crap any more. I'm over it.

Plus, I love "My Name is Earl" and I noticed that it didn't record last night because I had too many shows set.

We're going to Manhattan for the KSU game again tomorrow. This will be a weekend from hell. I've got to write two papers for my grad school class, and grade a BUNCH of stuff.

I think I'll try to work on the papers on the way to the game. Mom and Dad are driving, so that'll be two hours of time I COULD spend on work. The grading will have to wait until Sunday. Bets and Mitzi and I will be having the second annual (okay, the first was just last week) PANERA GRADEFEST '08 on Sunday. You might think we wouldn't get anything done when we're all three there together, but we get a lot more done there than we do when we're alone at our respective houses. No TV to distract, no random housework to distract.

It's like it makes you want to get in, get the grading done, get out.

I'm going to watch Grey's now - don't want to be up all night long.

PS - Can't believe I almost forgot...We got a new piece of Wii equipment...be on the lookout for a possible Wii Movie post part two in the next week or so!

I thought these were something you DIDN'T want!

As a high-school teacher, muffin tops are something I see on an all-too-frequent basis. I'm guessing that eating THESE Muffin Tops probably causes THOSE muffin tops.

Consumers must have realized it as well, since the cereal is on sale for 75 cents at Big Lots.

Betsy and Mitzi and I went to Big Lots last weekend, because Bets had a crafting 911 - she needed more red or purple beads for her college gameday earrings. We were working on some craft projects and we didn't want to stop right in the middle.

Thank God the new house is just a two-minute drive to Big Lots...You can't just run in and out of Big Lots, so of course we looked around at all the big lots. I should have kept my camera out the whole time. I think I could've written a story using photos from the store.

Hmmmmm. Maybe if I get desperate for blog content one of these days, I'll try that.

File this under: Friggin' idiot (Ike MRE fraud)

Someone on the J Teacher listserv sent this story by e-mail to us today:

Baytown teacher stocks up on free MREs, stirs up cyberworld. Here's an excerpt:

Michelle Homer / KHOU.com

Jacki Steinhauer is one of the lucky ones. She has no damage at her Deer Park home, she has power and she doesn't have to work since her school is closed.

"Life is great after a hurricane when nothing really happened to your house!" Steinhauer says in her blog, "The Secret Life of an Uninteresting Teacher."

The most recent entries brag about all of the free MREs she's been eating -- MREs that are meant for hurricane victims who have no food because they have no power. Some of those victims have no homes.

The teacher has it down to a science, according to her blog: "I got Schlotsky's today for lunch and went again to the courthouse in Baytown to get my water, ice, and food. This time, there were different meals, but hopefully as good as the others. Then, i came home, emptied my trunk and then headed off for the Deer Park POD (Point of Delivery)."

"I think that I am falling in love with MREs. They are pretty darn good. I went around 5:30 to go get more MREs and actually got another box of real MREs, water, and ice," Steinhauer wrote on Wednesday. "Right now, I have five cases of water, two 20 pound bags of ice, four 10 pound bags of ice, and four boxes of MREs."

While stocking her pantry and frig with taxpayer-funded freebies, Steinhauer has become quite the MRE connoisseur.

Seriously?

Nothing like this little heart-warmer to restore your faith in the goodness of humankind.

I hate that she's a teacher. Being a teacher has nothing to do with her acting like a jackass, stealing from those who really need help right now, and being stupid enough to post it for the world to see, but there will be other jackasses out there who will somehow turn this story into a "All teachers are idiots, we pay teachers too much...insert other ridiculous anti-education rhetoric here rant."

When the TV station first contacted her, she told them she didn't have a job - even though on her blog post it said "This is great. I don't have school and getting free food!"

One of the forum commenters probably said it best - karma will come back to bite this woman in the butt in a big way one of these days.