Saturday, January 21, 2012

Saturday Again

It's Saturday again and I just finished breakfast at Eggberts with my brother-in-law. It's almost 9:00 now and at 9:30, I will go visit my sister and Gerry in the nursing home. Slinky is out on the patio on the chaise lounge and that's where he wants to be. It's only 18 degrees out there but he evidently prefers the outside to the kitchen and utility area in the house. At least if he has to "go", he doesn't have to get me to open the door for him.

The class reunion meeting went well. It was a cold evening so not too many came out. I think there were nine. Anyhow, I had a full living room. It broke up about 8:30.

Slinky slept well. He only woke me up once....well, twice if you count 4:00 AM. He woke me up at 12:30 to get out to pee but he went right back to sleep when I let him back in. So I got a good night's sleep.

I will stay in today. It's too cold to get out and mess around. After I visit Phyllis and Gerry I will have to go by the bank and get some money. I am nearly broke.

Maybe I will read today. It doesn't look like it's going to warm up.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Ah, Friday At Last!

This is the last day this week to work.

Last night I went to bed at 8:00 and it's a good thing I did too. Slinky woke me up almost every hour on the hour after midnight. What a dog! I don't know what to do with him. I am tempted to give him one of my sleeping pills so I can get some sleep.

I took the broom to nudge him out of my flowerbed during one of his trips outside and he growled and barked at me.

This evening at 7:00 I will host my class reunion planning committee. I should be making my pumpkin bars right now but I will make them after work, I guess. I need to go to the market too and get a few things. I am out of coffee and I need to get the cake mixes and lidded pans for Tuesday's cakes for the First Christian Church dinner in Independence. Also I want to get some tomato soup. I like tomato soup with my grilled cheese sandwiches. Sometimes that's what I have for lunch.

This evening I will meet with one of my classmates at 5:15 at Lannings for dinner. Then we will discuss possible dinner plans for the classmates there in their private room this fall. Finally we will come out to the house to prepare for the meeting at 7:00.

It will be a busy day.

More..

The classmate called this morning to say he is renovating his house and has run onto a mess. He had to cancel dinner but will try to get to the meeting. The weather has turned nasty so I don't look for him to come. It was misting this morning. I wonder how many will come tonight?

I have the pumpkin bars in the oven. I hope they turn out. I have not made them before. This is Leslie's recipe.

I made up the potato soup mix that Bob A gave me for Christmas. I had cup of it for lunch with half a grilled cheese sandwich. It was really good! It is Wind and Willow and for a mix it is excellent.

The bars are out now and they are supposed to cool for thirty minutes before I cut them into bars. Then I am to refrigerate them. I hope they are good! They smell good!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Real Romney

I heard an interview on NPR when coming home from work this noon. The interview was with the authors of the new book, "The Real Romney". Everyone who is considering voting for Romney should listen to this program. You'll learn a lot about him..some good and some bad but essentially why you do not want to vote for this candidate.

A New Book Examines 'The Real Romney'

Longtime Boston Globe reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman start their biography of Mitt Romney by examining his ancestors, many of whom played crucial roles in the development of the Mormon faith. The Real Romney also examines the candidate's political beliefs and his career in private equity.

http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/

I downloaded the book on my kindle. Now I will see what else the authors have to say.

From FactCheck.org

Facts were sometimes used as blunt instruments as the four remaining GOP presidential candidates hammered away at each other in the last debate before Saturday’s South Carolina primary.

Santorum and Romney tangled on the Massachusetts health care law. Santorum wrongly claimed it was a “government-run” program. Romney erred when he said everybody was covered by private insurance, ignoring Medicare and his own expansion of Medicaid.

Santorum also fouled up when he claimed the state has “the highest health insurance premiums of any state in the country.” Seven states and Washington, D.C., were higher in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available.

Gingrich claimed Romney appointees “funded” an abortion clinic. The truth is that an autonomous state agency approved a tax-exempt loan — not direct taxpayer funding — and Romney said he wasn’t aware until after he left office.

Gingrich, slamming Jimmy Carter, said “unemployment went to 10.8 percent.” It did — nearly two years after Ronald Reagan took office. But it never exceeded 7.8 percent under Carter.

Gingrich claimed that “none” of the ideas on the website of his Center for Health Transformation resemble Obama’s program. Actually, we found a call there for an individual mandate, which Gingrich himself repeated as recently as last May.

Romney slammed Gingrich’s claim to have “helped” Reagan create jobs, saying Reagan mentioned Gingrich only once in his published diaries. That’s true. Reagan wrote that the young congressman’s 1983 suggestion to freeze spending “would cripple our defense program,” and he rejected it.

Ron Paul, a physician, claimed medicine “worked rather well” in the early 1960′s. That was before Medicare, when in fact rising health care costs were forcing many of the elderly onto public assistance or charity care.

Cold Thursday

Another cold day. I guess we ought to get used to them. It is winter, after all.

I will work today and then just come home and relax. I need to clean the bathrooms again. I do have a meeting here tomorrow evening at 7:00. Some of my classmates will be here to decide what we will do about our class reunion. Our sixtieth is next year but some of the classmates want to have it this year (we are dying off like flies) and invite the class of 52 to join with us. It is their sixtieth and they are not planning anything special.

I will know more after Friday evening's meeting.

I watched my favorite TV show last night....Harry's Law. At the end of the program they announced the program would be moved to Sunday evening at 7:00. Shoot! The only show worth watching on an otherwise group of idiot shows and they are moving it to interfere with my Living the Questions group. That's disgusting!

Slinky slept in the kitchen (actually the utility area) last night and did pretty well. He woke me up three times to go out and then went right back to bed. Missy woke me at 4:00 and I got up to let her out. She put her nose out where it was cold and backed away from the door. I grabbed her up and put her out anyhow. If she wakes me up at 4:00 AM to go out and then changes her mind, that's just too bad. She's going out anyhow. She hissed and spit at me but that's nothing new. Ill tempered cat!

The latest Politifact findings:

Romney is stalling on releasing his tax records. Here's what Politifact found in their investigation:

Our ruling

Romney's right that there's a strong April trend for releasing tax records, especially among politicians who practice annual disclosure. But that's not Romney's history — he's steadfastly refused to open his personal tax records for public consumption. That weakens his appeal to tradition. He could just as easily follow in the footsteps of Obama, Bill Clinton, Dukakis, Dole and his own father and release a batch of earlier federal tax returns now. Meanwhile, he implies that only party nominees release their tax records — when recent history shows primary candidates opening their files to inspection. His statement that candidates "have tended to release tax records in April" is partially accurate, but leaves out important details. We rate his claim Half True.

From me: Furthermore, CBS news found that he has extensive financial holdings offshore. What's the purpose of that if it's not to hide something. I simply do not trust the man. He has something to hide that his tax records would reveal.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Back to Work

It's 12 degrees right now. Way too cold for Slinky to be outside for any time at all. I will leave him in the garage when I go to work and when I go to Independence for lunch with Juanita and get my hair done. If it warms up some before noon, I will let him out in the back yard while I am gone this afternoon.

I'll work today since it's Wednesday. I didn't get out to see Phyllis yesterday. One of my dear friends needed some help with her computer so I went over there and did what I could do. I ended up bringing her work home and doing it for her on my computer. I got it finished about supper time. These folks have been very good to me since Bob died and I will do anything I can to help them.

About 7:00 AM, I will call Juanita about our lunch plans. I forgot to call her last night. I kept falling asleep so I finally just went to bed aabout 8:30. I completely forgot about the call.

More later...

I called Juanita but she was having problems with a knee and staying off it. Instead I went to Sirloin Stockade and ate with Gay and her classmates. Then I went on up and got my hair done.

More politifact findings:

Gingrich says food stamp use (SNAP) has increased among people more under Obama then any other president.

This is their findings:

The number of SNAP beneficiaries is at a record level, and it has risen in most months of the Obama presidency. But Gingrich oversimplifies when he suggests that Obama is the root cause. Much of the reason for the increase was a combination of the economic problems Obama inherited combined with a longstanding upward trend from policy changes. But Obama has supported those policies. On balance, we rate Gingrich’s statement Half True.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What Politifact.com Says

Romney’s claim that more Americans have lost their jobs under president Obama then any other president is accurate if you count from every president’s first day in office to his final day -- by those standards, Obama is indeed the only president since World War II to have presided over a net job loss. But if you compare each president from one year into his term to one year after the end of the administration -- a plausible approach if you hope to capture what kind of impact their policies had on the economy -- Obama’s job statistics shift into positive territory, while George W. Bush’s fall into negative territory.

The fact that Obama’s -- or any other president's -- numbers can change dramatically depending on what timeline you use suggests that Romney’s conclusion isn't as telling as it sounds. Throw in PolitiFact’s perennial reminder that no politician is the sole cause of either jobs lost or jobs created, and we arrive at a ruling of Mostly False.

I follow Politifact.com because the site is a Pullitizer Prise winning site for determining the truth or falsity of various statements of polititians. I recommend the site to determine truth or falsity of statements and claims during this election year.

Slinky slept out last night until 1:30...that's when it got cold. I let him into the utility room then. He has been pretty good ths morning. He is lying here now napping in the warm kitchen.

I will change my bed today and wash my sheets and towels. That's about all I have on my schedule. If it warms up enough before noon, I will go out to see Phyllis.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Another Monday

Slinky slept outside last night by his own choice. It was positively balmy. He is in here beside me now as I post on this blog.

I went to bed at 7:30 again last night. I just can't seem to get enough sleep. After Sixty Minutes was over, I couldn't find a thing to watch on TV.

I will probably clean house again today and perhaps do some laundry. I need a few things from the market too. I can probably get them at the Dollar General store and save myself a six mile trip to Wal Mart.

I am not even dressed yet. I am sitting here in my PJ's. I can't decide whether to wash my hair or not. I have an appointment on Wednesday but the wind has played havoc with my hair this weekend.

One day this week I am going to make a dessert for my classmates meeting. The trouble is..I have no idea how many are coming. My daughter sent me a new recipe for pumpkin bars. If I make those, I will need to get some ingredients at the market.

My son's girlfriend is going to pick him up at the airport in Tulsa on Monday. So Leslie and I will not be going to Tulsa. Hopefully, they will get over here to see me for a couple of days.

More later...

I cleaned house early this morning and did a load of laundry. Then I called my brother-in-law and asked him if he wanted to go to Bartlesville with me. He did. We walked around the mall and then went to Dink's Bar B Q and had a root beer, a brisket sandwich and baked beans...a great lunch. It's the best Bar B Q in the area.

Then we came on home and I took him home. Then I watched some TV this afternoon and will wash my hair with a shower tonight. It's supposed to get cold tonight and tomorrow. I will probably have Slinky in the house tonight.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sunday Again

Today, I will have church. I have the sermon since our guest minister had to cancel. Afterward a group of us will probably go eat out somewhere.

The weather has changed from cold to warm again and back to cold and it will be warm again the end of the week. If people don't get sick it will be because their immune systems are very strong. All this change back and forth from warm to cold and back again cannot be good for us.

Slinky did well last night. He got me up four or five times to go out but he went right back to bed and so did I. I hope this change continues. I got plenty of sleep last night. I went to bed about 8:00. I tried to find something to watch on TV but it was impossible. There is so much trash on TV anymore. It's just anything to keep the shows cheap....mostly nonsense.

This will be a rather quiet week for me. The only thing I have scheduled is my hair appointment on Wednesday and the class reunion planning meeting on Friday.

Next Monday, the 23rd, my youngest son, Scott, will be coming in from Germany for a short visit. I am looking forward to seeing him. If his girlfriend doesn't make room in her life for him, he will go visit Ashley, his daughter, in Georgia, for a few days...probably on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday while I work those mornings. I have kept that week and the following one free for him. He will leave on Friday, the 3rd of February. I will work a different day that week so I can take him to the airport if he and his girlfriend don't get together.