Man has this campaign been crazy. Lots of crazy accusations and lots of mudslinging. It’s funny, however, because for me personally, I don’t really watch or listen to that kind of crap - it’s tantamount to allowing someone to tell me how to vote - instead, like any other important decision, I review and study the facts as they relate to issues important to me. I do so by attempting to study factual studies, actual voting records and historical data. What I have found odd is that there are tons of places out there promoting their ‘fair and balanced’ opinions as fact.

The owner of a blog that I read daily from back home wrote the other day that 58% of a pool of 608 Texans planned to vote for John McCain while (and really, I have no idea why this is even important) 23% of those who were polled believed that Barack Obama was a Muslim. I’m sorry, but aside from that being untrue, it sure seems kind of silly, right?

In another venue, which I frequent, I’ve read messages where people are being warned about potential civil unrest in the days following the election.

It’s sad to me, as an American, to see our political elections turn this way. There are hundreds of countries all over the world where simple elections for office turn into bloodbaths. How sad that there is real fear, here in our own country, of this happening on November 4th?

For a number of reasons, I have changed my methodology of thinking this election - I have split from ‘party ticket voting’ and investigated the issues which are important to me and while there are a few things that I agree with the Republicans on - there are far more issues that are important to me that land me squarely on the Democratic side of the ballot.

Also, I’ve said it before and I will say it again, having lived under the ‘rule’ of both of these Senators in their respective districts, I find that Obama, more often than not, does what he says he’ll do - and when he does it (and even if he doesn’t do it) I find that his decisions are more in line with my thoughts and ideas than those of John McCain.

My decision to vote for Obama this Tuesday has landed me square in the cross hairs of some family and friends but that’s ok. I can’t pretend to know what issues are important to them, at their core. For me, my experience as a Military wife, a middle-class family and woman lead me in a different direction - but I’d like to think, when it’s all said and done, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office - we’ll come together in the spirit of country and do the best we can with whatever leadership is in place.

You can’t please all the people all the time, but you can please some of the people some of the time - I’m a Democrat. I’m voting for Obama - please stop sending me the hate mongering, racist propaganda - there, I said it

I haven’t been following the debates. I’ve done my own research and having done said research, I’ve already decided which candidate I will be voting for. I have, however, been watching SNL - given the current state of affairs in the world, I need to laugh…not watch a debate in which the vast majority of the time is spent asking the moderator to repeat the question and/or not answer the asked question at all. For me, I learned everything I needed to know by looking at voting record stats, researching the big supporters and researching and learning more about the big issues important to me.

Of course, as with every election, neither of the candidates is a perfect fit. In the end, I agree more with Obama on certain mainline issues, whereas McCain and I are about as far apart as two people can get with regards to most issues…of course, I’ve said before, I have the benefit of having lived in the same areas as both candidates while they were Senators. I’ve been exposed to their actual ‘work’…and I think that allows me to draw on that experience when it comes time to cast my ballot. Which reminds me, I registered in my new house but I haven’t gotten a registration card yet. I need to call about that tomorrow (Can someone please remind me?)

Something else that’s on the ballot here in Arizona this year is “Proposition 102″ - the “Save Marriage” proposition, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. It’s a pretty interesting situation, because a very similar proposition was on the ballot several years ago and it failed..so they rewrote it and put it up again. I’m not sure how I feel about the proposition being back on the ballot in November. I know how I’ll vote, of course - but I wonder if we’ll keep beating this dead horse at every election…?

There are a lot of measures/propositions on the ballot in November - If you’re in Arizona, I encourage you to check out the AZ Ballot Measures Website and read up on all of the ballot items, so that you’re fully informed and educated about each issue when casting your vote. If you’re not in Arizona, then Google your own state + November ballot issues and see what you’ll be casting your vote for this year.

If you’re not registered to Vote - please take a minute to register. It’s really important that we all remember that voting is a privilege - you have the ability (well, as much as the Electoral Collage allows) to chose the politicians who run our country (city, state, county…etc).

Ok, thats all from me, for now.

I made Manicotti for dinner, it was awesome.

I am eating Almonds right now, they rock (and they were totally on sale, score!).

I also got some awesome Orange Juice on sale - love it!

So - to recap. Go vote. Not registered? Go register. My Manicotti = awesome. Almonds = great snack food. OJ Rulz - not the murder, the orange liquid. Google the measures on the ballot in your state in November - study them, learn them, vote on them. This isn’t that high school fill in the bubble test - it’s not cool just to make neat designs by filing in random bubbles (I know I’m not the only one to do that…admit it).

Gnite!

So, there’s been a lot going on here - and I just haven’t felt like blogging. To be honest, I am totally drained by the end of the day and in the morning, I spend so much time trying to talk myself into staying up rather than just going back to bed, that I don’t have time to blog then either.

Keeping with the random wonkiness that is my life, Jerrett developed a sudden and extreme allergy to cats. This has been pretty devastating for him because he loves his cats more than anything in the world (well, not more than XBox 360, his new Laptop or Ham & Cheese Hotpockets…but they come in a close fourth…). At any rate, he’s not happy. I, on the other hand, spent the entire weekend vacuuming the world, washing everything possible and scrubbing floors (did I mention laundry? Yeah, I did a lot of that too!). I am sad, of course, I love my kitties. They are like the answer to my secondary infertility (thirdary? Is that a word? What do you call it when you’ve had two, but can’t have another? Whatever.) Anyway, he puffed up like a bullfrog, so we put the cats outside - and until today, they’ve been ok. Those of you back home may not be aware, but here in Arizona, they don’t have actual ‘fences’ - they have cinder block walls all around the perimeter of the back yard. It was odd when I first saw it, but I am getting used to it now I guess. So, as I was saying, the cats had all stayed in the yard for the past three days…then today, Jerrett calls me at work, “JAXON IS MISSING!!!!” - apparently, Jax went off to do whatever it is that boy cats who have been fixed do…I am certain he’ll be back…but its sad, because I know he could really be gone and he’s the oldest of our lil guys.

Things are not looking up at John’s work. It seems that with the reduction in production, the need for a Six-Sigma Black Belt trained Process Improvement Engineer is…well…drying up with the production. I figured it’d eventually come to this, because the housing market out here is just awful. I admit I worry, because his line of work is so specialized…and coveted when the economy is slipping but recoverable - not so much when businesses are dropping like flies and they can barely afford to keep the production staff they need to continue to offer their product. It’s a double edged sword.

Oh! I randomly heard from the lady that lived next door to us when we lived in Malta…that was strange. We hadn’t talked in almost three years and then *BAM* - she calls. Apparently, the housing market isn’t as bad there as it is here…there is a new subdivision in town and they are building a new school to support the students. It’s odd to hear that, because there was talk of just shutting down the 5 room school in Malta and busing the kids to Dekalb, where the Jr. High and Sr. High school kids went. Anyway, that’s pretty cool I guess. I don’t know if I ever shared this with you guys back home, but Malta was smaller than Boyd. They didn’t have a single traffic light, nor did they have a store of any sort. The town was so small, in fact, that they didn’t offer mail delivery if you lived in Town. You had to have a PO Box and come pick up your mail (but only during business hours, because the place was locked up tighter than a drum at 5 PM). I wonder how all that’s working out for them now?

So, that’s basically it. We’re hanging in there, but things aren’t looking good. With John’s job and whatnot, we might be exploring our options…again. God I hate this.

Newsflash: Gas is now $4.00 a gallon. Limiting my purchase at the pump to $50 is hardly helpful. In fact, it’s down right mean. Either raise the maximum allowed purchase to something reasonable, like $100, or don’t offer the service at all!

I realize you do this in an attempt to reduce the possible risk of loss, so I have a suggestion. Cut the price of Gas in half. The less something costs, the less likely you are to suffer a significant loss due to theft. It’s true, I read it on Wikipedia.

Seriously. The cost of gas is driving me crazy. I drive a mom-mobile. A mini-van. It should not cost $109 to fill up my van when I am sucking fumes, but it does. I think the price of gas really started to bother me once we moved into this house. It’s further from the office than the old house (which I <3′d) - and further from the school, which I drive Jerrett to every morning. What used to take me 15 minutes (don’t even get me started on the office move last Oct, which tripled my commute) now takes me more than 40 minutes. Plus, because I live so ‘nestled in suburbia’ - it’s just easier to take surface streets, rather than going down to get on the freeway.

Anyway - enough of that. I know we’re all being hit pretty hard with the rising costs of everything…

In other news: things are going pretty ok here. We’re finally getting stuff unpacked, no thanks to me. I’m irritated about the barky barky ankle bitting muts that live over the wall from us. They start their crap about 5:05 EVERY AM - even on weekends - and it’s just freaking annoying. These types of things should be required to be disclosed when house hunting. Seriously. Had I known, it mighta been a deal breaker. No lie.

Oh. My. Gosh. So Sunday is grocery store day around these parts. I usually try my darnedest to get my crap together and get it done on Saturday - but I am also pretty darn good and finding a random excuse not to, so Sunday it is.

I’m up at the butt crack of dawn, even though I’d gone to sleep like six hours past my bedtime last night - I feel like crap, I am clearly dehydrated and John and Jerrett are complaining, again, about having to eat Saltines for breakfast. *sigh* Off to the store I go.

I’m not a big store person…I don’t cook a lot…it’s just not my thing. It’s not that I can’t cook; I just hate doing it…so I do it as little as possible. It stands to reason that my trips to the store are few and far between (although, I will walk across broken glass to get coffee, creamer and sugar, for my morning addiction).

People that don’t cook don’t really keep tabs on the cost of anything beyond the staples. You know, bread, milk, coffee, sugar, cream, Doritos…you get the idea. I rarely find a good reason to go down the “Charcoal, Storage Containers, Napkins, Plastic Forks” aisle. As I’ve said, I don’t cook…therefore I have no use for any of that crap…

Until today.

I’ve decided I am going to try to start making sandwiches or something for lunch every day. Our new office location isn’t conducive to cheap lunch time jaunts and incase you missed it somehow above, I don’t cook.

Last week, a coworker showed up with this “wrap” that even as a non-cooker, I thought I could pull off fairly easily. So off I go to do my Sunday Grocery Shopping (for the first time in three months).

I should have known this was a bad idea when, in the parking lot walking up to the store, I started to get ideas of grandeur for dinner. I start my excursion in the Fresh Vegetables section and by this time, I’ve already talked myself into Chicken Tacos for dinner - and what goes better with chicken tacos than Guacamole? You get the idea. I’m walking out of this store with $200 worth of food that’ll sit in the refrigerator until someone gets sick of looking at the green fur that covers it or it just disintegrates into nothingness.

So, anyway, I’m nearing the end of my shopping excursion when I realize that, even if I do make this fantastic wrap for lunch, I’m gonna have to put it into something to get it from the house to the office. So, off to the Charcoal, Storage Containers, Napkins, Plastic Forks aisle I go.

Now, I should say in advance, there was a time, long before we moved to Arizona, that I did, in fact, cook. Nightly even. I was such a good wife…I bet John misses her a lot. So, it would stand to reason that, at some point in my married life, I did have a ‘thing’ (box?) of Aluminum Foil in the pantry - but, I don’t anymore and honestly, I can’t think of a more ecological and earth friendly way to get my wrap from point A to point B.

I pull my cart up to the ‘foil’ area and I literally start laughing. Like seriously laughing out loud. People must have thought I’d lost my freakin mind. I try to regain my composure because I am clearly making an ass of myself…but I am hysterical.

Please, tell me when Aluminum Foil started to come with this thin gold plating? I mean, it must be there…50 Sq. Ft. of generic aluminum foil cost…(wait for it)…$3.88.

FOUR DOLLARS!

Now, as I said above, it’s been a while since I’ve actually purchased aluminum foil (I don’t even call it that, I’m a throw back to the old school, I call it tin foil) - but I distinctly remember being able to buy a small thing (box?) of Diamond Aluminum Foil (generic) for under a buck.

I am so floored (remember the hysterical laughter from above) that I have to get my phone out, call my mother, and ask her about this $4.00 tin foil! Like me, she’s floored and urges me (the daughter who doesn’t cook, doesn’t like to get out much and damn sure won’t do in two trips what can be done in one, even if it’s gonna cost me a little more) to go to the Dollar Store.

Now, I’m all for the Dollar Store - but seriously…if the Dollar Store can sell it for a buck, why can’t Fry’s?

Please tell me that there is some crazy premium on tin foil due to the astronomical price of fuel…please tell me that there is a shortage of aluminum coming from the aluminum factory because all of the aluminum factory workers are on strike or something. It is not possible for the price of foil to be this high…

It’s un-American!