I want to smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, the whole day down.

I have a conference I'm supposed to be going to next week in Orlando (big up to the angriest city in the FLA, yo!). A bunch of the staff are going, and the plan was to rent a van. But - big surprise - no one is willing to drive the van. So I've decided that everyone will drive themselves, or can carpool together. As for me, I've never driven myself to the big city across the bay, let alone two hours to the City That Walt Built. But, I figure, if I can make it to ORL, I can make it to south Georgia next year as Megansita and I have planned. Then next Saturday, I'll be taking part in the local Susan G. Komen Foundation Race. Megi wants to do the 5K, so I guess that's what we'll do. Pray that my legs don't give out on me by the time it's over. I'm only $30 short of my donation goal. *Hint Hint*

"Terror must be maintained or the empire is doomed"

From a story on CNN.com this afternoon comes this little gem: President Bush said he would declassify an intelligence document that reportedly finds the Iraq war has increased the terror threat to the United States. "It will stop all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something about Iraq," Bush said........

........Wait. What? I thought the Iraq war was meant to make us safer? But, instead there's a report that concludes this war has potentially increased the treat of bodily harm to the citizens of this country due to an increase in terror funding and growing anti-US sentiment in that part of the world as a result of our involvement? <*sarcasm*> No! Really!? <*/sarcasm*> And then, he says the American people should come to their own conclusions. Oh, come on, Bushy - the mere fact that you were re-elected for a second term indicates that the majority is not so good at thinking for themselves. Why not just gently lead them to the conclusion you want them to come to, as has been done so effortlessly in the past? Could it be that it is becoming more and more difficult to pull the wool over the collective people's eyes?

The Prez went on to state that media accounts of the leak were meant to "create confusion in the minds of the American people" and suggested that the report had been leaked for political purposes. Oh. Of course. Because no responsible media entity would print information regarding this report simply due to a sense of journalistic integrity and the search for the truth. And because our loving and altruistic Government for the people by the people would never in a million years lie to us. Obviously. And we the people just want to know what color suit Katie Couric will be wearing while she perches on the edge of her newsdesk with her approachable soccer-mom haircut to gently spoon feed us the nightly news propaganda she reads from the teleprompter.

Oops. My politics are showing. How embarassing...

The chaos butterfly adversely affects my weekends, too...

So there's been this ongoing debacle involving a check for a student, that has become the bane of my existence. Or one of the banes, along with the whole hiring process lately. But this thing with the check is getting utterly ridiculous. I mean, can we not get our collective shit together so this kid gets paid? I think we're on the way to totally ruining his life...at least, that's what he'd have us think.
Oh hey - the old boss is here. How weird. And I think I may have just said too much, but hell, it's all public here when all is said and done.

I'm seriously looking down the barrel of a busy weekend upcoming, between finally getting windows and Devin's first ever school-friend birthday party on Sunday. Next weekend is just jam-packed, too, between yet another pre-K friend birthday (this one's at Chuck-E-Cheese's *score*), and more home improvement plans. Then the following weekend is equally busy. Whew. How did this happen, all of this socialization and activity planning??

Weekend update...uh, updates.

Not necessarily improvements, however. I guess some of the internet predictions regarding cast changes to this season of SNL were partially accurate - the new cast has been announced, with some noticable absences. And The Killers will be the suck-ass musical guests for the premier on September 30th. And Andy Samberg still isn't very funny in anything. Except for the Lazy Sunday Chronicles of Narnia skit with the ever-funny Chris Parnell (who is leaving SNL). Which I would post here, if I could find it on YouTube. But it seems that NBC/Universal ruined that for me with the serving of a cease and desist notice to several video sharing sites. I hate them. I hate them soooo much right now. Cause I would give anything to sing along to "the cupcakes, the cupcakes".

So, instead, here's Chronicles of Libraria, courtesy of some USF Tampa student. Hey, dude - your mini-metropolis of higher learning clearly owns my waterfront campus of ill regard. I mean, check out the juice/smoothie bar. We're still waiting for our promised, but as yet undelivered, Starbucks.

I'm so tired, I can't even tell if this is clever or not. Someone let me know if I have erred on the side of the un-funny.

UN-listening skills

I had my first informal "conference" with my son's afternoon Pre-K teacher yesterday. It seems that he has been refusing to participate in circle time, and this causes a distruption for the other children. He does have issues with listening, but now my husband and I are at odds about what to do to help resolve the problem. I think my son needs more one-on-one structured time with mom and dad in the evenings and on weekends, where he has to follow instructions and directions (games, art, helping with chores, etc.). My husband's answer so far has been to scale back on tv and computer time, which is all well and good in general anyway, but he tends to lose sight of the root cause of the behavior. Just because you take away tv time does not mean you send the kid into his room for the majority of the evening by himself to have totally random, unstructured play time where he makes the rules and does whatever he wants. That does not solve the problem. It just confuses the kid! Taking away his toys and assigning an earlier bed time will also not address the bigger issue of the fact that my son is an only child, who although he's been in preschool or daycare of some form for half of his life, still prefers to be by himself a lot of the time and isn't crazy about being a "joiner". So, he's just like his mom! I think we need to plan more family time together, and I plan on buying a task chart for assigned chores and activities that make him develop his listening skills and make the idea of being part of the group seem more appealing to him. How many years of this do I have to look forward to, now???

Saw a bumper sticker on a jeep yesterday that said "If you can read this, roll me over". That's kind of how I feel. If you can see the look on my face this week, buy me a drink. I'll be your best frieeennnd!!