Friday, October 29, 2004

For Once, Mister President, I Agree With You

"A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief." GWB, 10/27/04

Plus, Bin Ladin's back the Friday before the election! Who's shocked? Ladies and Gentlemen, your October Surprise has arrived.

Monday, October 25, 2004

NEW RULE:

Must. Stop. Making. Myself. Crazy. Watching the polls at electoral-vote.com.

Good news though: We're going to a little election night party where we will either end up celebrating with friends or stopping each other from jumping out in front of traffic, (assuming there is even any traffic in Crystal Lake, Illinois.)

A Case of the Mondays.

Well, there's not much going on here today. Juli is next door playing with Anthony, Ava is sleeping, and I'm basically procrastinating doing the laundry. It seems I always have a huge to-do list that never gets any shorter. There are always dirty clothes, dirty dishes, dirty kids, stinky litter boxes, cat fur on the couch... I could go on but I won't. I don't have anything real to complain about so I feel bad when I gripe about stuff. I've got it pretty good. The family had a pizza party on Friday to celebrate my Dad's retirement, and Michelle and I went to a bridal shower for Smiley-Cousin-Erin on Saturday. I don't think I can say Erin's name without calling her Smiley-Cousin-Erin, because, well, that's exactly what she is. I've got a huge pile of clothes that I want to list on ebay to make some extra cash but I keep putting it off so I should just suck it up and DO IT ALREADY!! Ok, I'm not really saying anything here so I'll get to work.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Just When I Thought Alan Keyes Couldn't Get Any Crazier...

From Salon.com:

"U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes told a rally Saturday that incest was 'inevitable' for children raised by gay couples because the children might not know both biological parents. 'If we do not know who the mother is, who the father is, without knowing all the brothers and sisters, incest becomes inevitable,' Keyes told the Marquette Park rally held to oppose same-sex marriages. 'Whether they mean it or not, that is what will happen. If you are masked from your knowing your biological parents, you are in danger of encountering brothers and sisters you have no knowledge of.'"

The argument is fascinating for how bizarrely nonsensical it is -- which, perhaps was the point. You have to wonder if Keyes says this stuff just to get attention. Using Keyesian logic, adopted children everywhere who don't know who their biological parents are will be doomed to lives of incest because they will inevitably meet up with their siblings and mate. Wow, who knew. "

OhMyGodThisIsSoFunny

Jason just posted this video on his site and I simply had to share.

Monday, October 18, 2004

Project Get Rid of Crummy Carpet: Before and After













On My Mind

-City of Schaumburg: why on earth would you have a six lane road with a speed limit of 35 mph?

-On the radio this morning there was an interesting story about the women's suffrage movement and they said that one group's argument against suffrage was that giving women the right to vote would be detrimental to families (in that it would undermine their traditional role in the American family). Sounds like a similar argument going on today, eh? Defense of marriage anyone?

-O'Reilly, O'Reilly, O'Reilly. Oh my goodness.

As if I needed another reason to love Jon Stewart, he brought the smackdown on Tucker Carlson on CNN's "Crossfire" the other day. If you didn't read this story already, read the short version here or read the transcript here and smile along with me.

Friday, October 15, 2004

Mo 'Tussin

Ok, I've been taking care of sick people all week, hence my only posting goofy bar photos and adverse reactions to debate rhetoric. This is what's been happening in my house this week:

Lots and lots of boogers.

I've been wiping kid noses and administering Robitussin every four hours and refilling the humidifier when it empties out. Juliana, being that she's four years old and attending pre-school is probably going to be sniffling and coughing all season but poor Ava doesn't understand why her breathe-hole is pluggy and why Mommy keeps shoving tissue in her face all day long. She just doesn't get that I'm trying to help her! It is getting better now but we had a rough couple of days. We had such an awesome time last weekend that I knew I was going to have to pay for it somehow! The Channels show was great. Greg's band Seahorses was also great. Plus, I got to go out with Stephanie, sans kids, and not have to drive home at one in the morning for the first time in oh, THREE YEARS. Seriously, what is wrong with us? We've gone out a couple of times to concerts (Ani Difranco, Henry Rollins) but I always have to be back in the morning to watch the girls so I end up driving on 94 in the middle of the night with a big cup of coffee and slapping myself in the face every thirty seconds to stay awake. This time, however, Jason and I got a room at the Astor Hotel (and a babsittter- thank you Michelle!!) so we were actually able to hang out after the show and have a few drinks before getting a ride back to the hotel to sleep. And I slept until 9:30!! We also got a chance to stop by the Hi-Fi so Jason could check out Maddie and Juliana's art show. Me=Happy. I almost don't even care that I'm probably going to get sick now. In fact, I'm getting ready to unleash my army of compassion to liberate all the germs in my house.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Unleashing My Army of Compassion!!

The above is my most favorite Bush-ism from tonight, by far. Now that all the debates are over, I have to say that I am pleased, hopeful and INCREDIBLY NERVOUS. I don't think I'll sleep a wink on the evening of November 2nd. Oh yeah, and did you get a load of the HUGE dodge Bush did over the Roe v. Wade question??? Egads.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Thursday, October 7, 2004

Ummm...

"The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight"



Wednesday, October 6, 2004

The Big Debut

Well, Juliana and Maddie's very first art show finally went up this past Sunday and here are a few photos in case you didn't see them on the Gessner Girls page. I don't always assume that people who read my ramblings want to see every single photo I take of my girls but I've talked a lot about working on this project so I will share:







The rest of the gallery can be found here.

Speedy Delivery

I just wanted to pop in to say MY NEW HARDWOOD FLOORS HAVE BEEN DELIVERED!!!

I'm excited.

Saturday, October 2, 2004

Public Speaking is Like, Sooo Overrated

Here is s list of excuses I have heard in the last 24 hours regarding the president's poor performance in the first debate:

1. I don't know what you're talking about. The president clearly won!
2. Well, the president was very tired from comforting the Florida hurricaine victims.
3. The podium was set way too high, making the president appear gimpy next to Kerry's much taller stature.
4. No fair! They promised no cut-aways to the candidates while they were listening to their opponents responses! (Becuase god forbid we see somebody's face while they are live on national television.)
5. Well, the debates don't really matter that much anyway and won't really change anybody's mind.
6. We need a commander in chief, not a debator in chief!
7. It doesn't matter that the president is a poor public speaker. People love him anyway.


So, if I'm hearing this correctly, the spin morphed from Bush won the debate easily to debates are unimportant in the long run and you don't have to speak well to be president. But if he truly won, wouldn't they play up how vital the debates really are? I hate spin- on both sides. I wish we could be allowed to watch for ourselves and not have some pundit or campaign advisor tell us what we just saw and what to think about it. Honestly, I was expecting it to be a draw or even for Bush to slightly edge out Kerry, simply becuase foreign policy is supposed to be his strongest area. However, I was very surprised to see Kerry perform better than expected and Bush perform poorer than expected. Did it just get interesting? I still think that Kerry needs to definitely win the remaining two debates to make it a race but at least Bush has his work cut out for him now.

To be fair, there are many conservatives (not directly linked to the Bush campaign) that are telling it like it is. In fact, many right wing bloggers are not defending the president's performance. Here is an interesing post from the managing editor of the (right wing) National Review magazine.