1) Has anyone ever been to a conference? Who?

2) What was the conference about?

3) Did other people attend/hang around and watch/stay away?

4) If people had a conference for just those in house, what would the conference theme be?

5) If there was a conference (out front) for plurals, who would be most likely to attend? Why?

RIP Sen. Edward Kennedy.

I have no idea why his death is touching my heart. He was not particularly radical. I suppose his staunch defense of his opinions makes me admire him.

-Jana

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

it's just Tuesday, but in our world, it's MARDI GRAS!

Happy Mardi Gras Everyone!

Only nineteen more hours and he's out. It's been ages since I've been this excited about anything political. Actually, I don't think I've been this excited about anything political.

-Ned

Ganked from Nomads Quill and we say let's do it!

Hi,

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child.

So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.

Divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.

So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.

That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.

A husband and wife team has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.

Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads

Put away money for college - it'll be there

Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.

Buy a new car - create jobs

Invest in the market - capital drives growth

Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves

Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U.S. Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And, of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ("vote buy") economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U.S. Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it.

Sell off its parts.

Let American General go back to being American General.

Sell off the real estate.

Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.

Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion

We Deserve It Dividend more than do the geniuses at A IG or in Washington DC .

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5
Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

Birk

T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic

PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it's either good for a
laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

Shamelessly ganked from <A href="http://rhymer-713.livejournal.com" target="_blank">Rhymers</A>

<div align="center" style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><form action="http://quizzes.blogquiz.net/fun-quizzes/LiveJournal-Memes/My-bid-for-world-domination-livejournal-meme-quiz_aWQ9OTEy.html" method="post" name="quiz912"><table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td><table style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3"><tr bgcolor="#003366"><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="middle"><div align="center" style="color: #FFFFFF; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://quizzes.blogquiz.net/fun-quizzes/LiveJournal-Memes/My-bid-for-world-domination-livejournal-meme-quiz_aWQ9OTEy.html" style="color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: none;">My bid for world domination</a></div></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#6699CC"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">LiveJournal Username</td><td align="left" valign="middle"><input type="textbox" name="ljusername" value="birch_household" size="20" maxlength="64"></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#6699CC"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Why you did it</td><td align="left" valign="middle"><select name="input:0"><option value="0" >Your mother never understood you</option><option value="1" >Your homeland was eaten by gerbills</option><option value="2" >To meet your father's unreasonable expectations</option><option value="3" >To win your loves heart</option><option value="4" selected>Why not?</option></select></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#6699CC"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Your lair</td><td align="left" valign="middle"><select name="input:1"><option value="0" selected>Basic classic castle</option><option value="1" >Hidden underground complex</option><option value="2" >Undersea dome</option><option value="3" >Den of inquity</option><option value="4" >Mountaintop hideout</option></select></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#6699CC"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Your hideous secret weapon</td><td align="left" valign="middle"><select name="input:2"><option value="0" >Orbital mind control lasers</option><option value="1" >Giant tumble dryer</option><option value="2" >Army of mind zombies</option><option value="3" selected>The entire Abba collection</option><option value="4" >Killer robots</option></select></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#6699CC"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Your favourite colour</td><td align="left" valign="middle"><input type="textbox" name="input:3" value="blue" size="20" maxlength="64"></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#6699CC" height="5"><td colspan="2"></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#336699"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Beautiful and exotic but deadly eastern lieutenant</td><td style="color: #FFFFFF; font-weight:bold;" align="left" valign="middle">thecuteone33</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#336699"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Henchperson who constantly plays with knifes</td><td style="color: #FFFFFF; font-weight:bold;" align="left" valign="middle">chimerahouse</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#336699"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Your perverted scientific genius</td><td style="color: #FFFFFF; font-weight:bold;" align="left" valign="middle">valid_noise</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#336699"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">You cordon bleu chef</td><td style="color: #FFFFFF; font-weight:bold;" align="left" valign="middle">divergentchorus</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#336699"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Lieutenant with serious moral qualms</td><td style="color: #FFFFFF; font-weight:bold;" align="left" valign="middle">azure_shades</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#336699"><td align="left" valign="middle" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Number of countries subverted</td><td style="color: #FFFFFF; font-weight:bold;" align="left" valign="middle">23</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#003366" height="5"><td colspan="2"></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#003366"><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="middle"><div align="center"><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Fill in your answers and click here!" style="font-size: 9pt;"></div></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#003366"><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="middle"><div style="color: #FFFFFF;" align="center">This <a href="http://www.blogquiz.net/" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Fun Quiz</a> created by <a href="http://www.blogquiz.net/users/Hairymonster" style="color: #FFFFFF;">Andrew</a> at <strong>BlogQuiz.Net</strong><img src="http://70.84.102.91/x/blogquiz.net-blog/3" border="0" width="1" height="1"></div></td></tr></table></td></tr></table><a href="http://www.dailyhoroscopes.biz/taurus/today/">Taurus Horoscope</a> at DailyHoroscopes.Biz</form><br></div>

Because it's fun.

-Ned

Completely ganked from <A Href="http://nomads-quill.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">Nomads Quill</A> with our thanks :)

The American Family Association has created a form to tell those godless, gay-loving heathens at Hallmark how...well...godless and gay-loving they are for creating gay marriage greeting cards.

There is a form, editable by anyone, that sends email (for the purposes of hate speech, preferably) to those in charge of making this gay-friendly decision.

They want to fill Chairman Hall's inbox with hate. Let us, instead, fill it with love.

https://secure.afa.net/afa/activism/TakeAction.asp?id=329


I'm sending several. Erase what's written for you and say your piece.

We realize that homeschooling is not for everyone, but here is a good reason to think twice about letting strangers teach your child science or anything else.

It was such an amazingly nice day today that the group of home school moms and kids we hang with on Tuesday afternoons went to the park. Now our arms and shoulders and face are sunburned. I didn't realize it until we got home. Ironically, on the way home we stopped and bought some sunblock because we're going to help run a soccer/baseball program for the next few weeks and didn't want to get burned tomorrow.

-Sarah

The house needs a good cleaning, but for today I'm going to:

1) Clean downstairs bathroom.
2) Clean upstairs bathroom.
3) Sweep the back staircase between the first and second floors.
4) Sweep and mop the kitchen floor.
5) Put the kids books away in their library.

Let's see how far I get with that.

-Sarah

I can now tell everyone not only how to get from here to there, but also that the distance between them is exactly 826 km by car. You can see for yourself:


Right here.

At least I can cross the washing machine off the list. It's no longer a kitchen ornament. It took another trip to the hardware store to get a new water intake pipe (hose really), but it is working now.

Tomorrow (yes on Sunday and at no extra charge) the electrician is coming over to see why the light fixture in Ethan's room won't work even though we have current flowing into it. He'll also check the bathroom light. We and Chorus were going to install a new fixture in there, but the wiring is so old and brittle that neither of us will touch it.

Kim's basement is now one third painted. We have chosen a shipping agent, and we're almost done with the add-ons for the Czech order.

Maybe things will move along this week.

-Sarah

So, last Thursday I wrote a list of things I hoped to accomplish by today. Here's how I/we did:

• Finish painting Kim's basement - Primer/sealer coat is finished.
  
• Have all the wood for the shelves in her basement cut - Not even started
  
• Have our taxes ready so that once we have all the bank documents, etc. we can fill out the forms immediately - Data through March 2007 is entered
  
• Have the shipping agent selected for the order from the Czechs - Still in progress, but that's not my/our fault
  
• Have the order add-ons chosen and sent over the the Czech Republic - Still in progress but will be done by tomorrow
  
• Send the wire transfer to the contractor in NOLA
• Finish stringing the black beads we have - About half-way finished
  
• Put a new light in Ethan's room - Old light is down and we have more thing to try before we say it's a wiring problem and call in a trained professional
  
• Install the dishwasher so it's no longer a kitchen ornament - This one is really frustrating! It's completely install, but the copper water intake pipe is bent (maybe while it was moved) making it inoperable. We need to buy and install a new pipe.
  

• The books that got moldy in this basement have been wiped down and re-boxed.
• The folding table next to the washer and drier is now empty of crap and can once again be used for laundry.
• All the laundry is finished, including the sheets and comforters.
• Kim's meds for the month have been ordered.
• Kim's kitchen, living room, and dining room are clean.
• Kim's bedclothes have been washed and her bed freshly made.
• All the beads we rescued from NOLA have been moved up to the third floor where we do our stringing.
• Ethan's room is cleaned and vacuumed.
• Ryan's room was cleaned and vacuumed. It's a mess again, but he's 4 and I'm not going to quibble on that one.
• About half of the black beads are strung.
• I made 4 phone calls that were either annoying or intimidating and kept calling until I got the people I needed to deal with and are now off our plate.
• The desk is down to a reasonable level of paperwork.
• The entire house has been swept, including the stairs, and the kitchen floor has been mopped thoroughly.
• The library books that were due were returned.
• The big pantry shopping is done for the month.

This is probably not interesting to anyone but us. I just want to see some progress on "paper" so I'm writing a laundry list of things I'd like to have done by next Friday.


In no particular order:

• Finish painting Kim's basement
  
• Have all the wood for the shelves in her basement cut
• Have our taxes ready so that once we have all the bank documents, etc. we can fill out the forms immediately
• Have the shipping agent selected for the order from the Czechs
• Have the order add-ons chosen and sent over the the Czech Republic
• Send the wire transfer to the contractor in NOLA
• Finish stringing the black beads we have
• Put a new light in Ethan's room
• Install the dishwasher so it's no longer a kitchen ornament

Bush wants to pardon himself and everyone in his administration, retroactive to 11 September 2001. The sad truth is he'll probably be able to get congress to go along with it.

How soon can we leave the country? Maybe we should be looking for a farm elsewhere.

*Headdesk*

(Cross-posted to LJ)

Finding time to write: I have been writing a little more, but I find it's very hard to write. I sit for a long time and then, if I'm lucky, manage to get out a few hundred words. Then again, this type of writer's block is a vast improvement over not having any time to write at all.

Kim: She is still doing well on the medications and we haven't noticed any decrease in her mental abilities or any worsening of the Alzheimer's. The construction work on her basement is finally finished and it no longer smells like litter box. Now Chorus and us have to paint the walls and build her some bookcases down there. After that we can get the stuff out of the shed in the yard and back into the basement.

Work: We have about 32 shows set up for this year. We've already done one this month and that one went well. Personally, I'm optimistic about making good money this year. We have a more established client base and I've noticed that the average amount of each sale is going up.

New Orleans: The house still isn't sold, but we finally have a contractor who is decent. We've decided not to fix the mother-in-law cottage. We had it gutted and are selling that part as is. The house itself is looking much better. Of course we've only seen photos, but that's enough to see that it's looking good. Every time we get an update on it, It's hard not to want to go back, but that's just not an option. WE settled with the insurance company for far less then they owe us, but at least they gave us a check and there isn't any more fighting. Still left to do is figure out how to sign on to the lawsuit(s) against the Army Corps of Engineers whose negligence and faulty levees caused the flood in the first place.

JM: She has finally gotten a job which we think will really help with her depression. Granted we had to find it and update her resume, and send it in, and drive her to and from the interview, but as of the end of the month she is working in her field at the job which excites her.

Chorus: They are trying to find an endometriosis specialist since the doctors they've seen so far haven't been incredibly helpful. I forget if we wrote about their back injury. They have two bulging disks after bending over to pick up a sandwich bag-sized bag of coins. If we did write about it, it's much better now. They got a TENS unit that helps with flare-ups.

That's all energy I have for updating right now. The new episode of "Monk" stored on DVR is calling and so is a nice warm cup of cocoa.

-Sarah

We really didn't feel like walking the dog tonight, and even though Ethan walked him just 2 hours ago, we walked him anyway. Once we're outside walking, we usually feel better. Tonight, we got the added bonus of stepping outside to find that it is gently snowing. Our shoes crunched the half-inch of snow on the ground and Croydon scampered happily next to us. We had thought about taking a slightly shorter walk tonight because of the cold and because we're tired, but once we felt the snow under our feet, we set out along our usual path. There's nothing like a little snow to make a cold night happier.

-Ned and Sarah

1) Does anyone do anything special for New Year's Eve?

We go over to our friend's house and eat fish and exchange holiday presents.

2) Does anyone make New Year's resolutions?

Sarah tends to, but she doesn't usually tell anyone what they are. Jana does also.

3) What, if any, is the best New Year's resolution anyone in the household/system has ever made?

Probably to go to college.

4) Has anyone ever seen the ball drop in Times Square in person?

Nope. I know a few people who'd like to see it, but the majority opinion among the front runners is that standing in Times Square with a million strangers and no bathroom is a level of hell.

5) Go on, make a prediction for 2008.

Ryan will learn to read.

This one was nicked from Lea who stole it from Sassy who ganked it from Louise (of Nosselinfea), but that's as far as I'm tracing it.

Bold the things that true.

Father went to college (He didn't finish high school.)
Father finished college
Mother went to college (For a week before she dropped out. She had a full scholarship, but she took a job in a bakery in order to help support her family.)
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children’s books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (Piano lesson for 2 years.)
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school (A parochial one. Grade school, too.)
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house (A one bedroom for the 7 of us before I turned 12 and then a 3 bedroom one.)
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

I'm not sure how much stock I put in these class memes. I do think it's interesting, however, that they're generating so much interest.

-Sarah