Monday, August 25, 2008

I HATE this hotel

You all know I'm living in a crappy hotel until our house construction is done. Along with the cigarette smelling, carpet burn holes, noisy door slamming neighbors and generally unclean conditions, I find this note under my door at 9:30pm when I return from a long day at work:

"Attention: The City of Madison will be shutting off the water on Tuesday, August 26th from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. due to a water main break. We apologize for any inconveniences."

After a llooooonnnngggg day of work, I wanted to sleep in and report to my office at about 9am tomorrow. But, no! I need to get up early to partake in a simple shower. Drat.

UPDATE: I decided to work from home for the rest of the day, so I'm back the hotel at 11:20AM. There is STILL no water. It's odd that the housekeeping crew is "cleaning" the rooms on my floor. How do you clean without water? Eewww.

Angry and frustrated

Why can't people just do their jobs? Why do adult men need to be babysat and nagged to do what they are paid to do?? (I'm not being sexist. I only have male employees at the moment.)

Sales people are paid to SELL. Sell anything, I don't care what! But don't tell me at the beginning of the month that you will sell $50,000 of monthly contracts and only show up at month end with $4,000. That's crap. And it's double crap when I ask what is pending for sale, and the entire team is SILENT. Why do you think you should still have a job?? Really, why shouldn't I just fire your collective asses??

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Priceless?? I'm not so sure.

Summer of 2008...

# of golf rounds = zero
# of times hiking = zilch
# of boating excursions = nada
# of backyard barbeques = none
# of trips to Home Depot = too many to count
Time spent building the new house = Priceless??
I'm fairly sure there IS a price, and it's not pretty....

Monday, August 11, 2008

Mom's comfort food

I love my mom. She is totally awesome. She made me comfort food tonight. That's right - round steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies, and brownies. It was soooooo good! I've been living in a crappy hotel for the past four weeks. So, I've been eating out or microwaving food. My mommy loves me so much she cooked just to pamper me! She even bought me a can opener as a gift! Suddenly, the number of my microwavable food options exploded! Yea Mom!!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Ok, so a guy cheated on his wife -- is this NEWS???

Fifty percent of married men cheat on their wives. Sad, but true.

So, John Edwards had an affair in 2006 and later confessed to his wife. She forgave him. Whoopee -- is this really news???

John Edwards isn't a candidate for president... or even a candidate for vice prez. Why do we care?

John McCain cheated on his wife... with Cindy. He cheated on his first wife when he was 40 (eons ago..) even after she had a terrible car accident and required 18 (yes EIGHTEEN) surgeries. He left her for Cindy -- a younger and MUCH RICHER woman. (She's a beer baroness you know)

The American media reports ad nauseum about John Edwards (who is a mere civilian -not an elected official or a candidate for president). Why don't they report about McCain's "worst" philandering past??? Me thinks the media likes McCain...

Georgia & Russia - a 3 AM moment

From Politico.com...

"When the North Caucasus slid into war Thursday night, it presented John McCain and Barack Obama with a true “3 a.m. moment,” and their responses to the crisis suggested dramatic differences in how each candidate, as president, would lead America in moments of international crisis.

While Obama offered a response largely in line with statements issued by democratically elected world leaders, including President Bush, first calling on both sides to negotiate, John McCain took a remarkably — and uniquely — more aggressive stance, siding clearly with Georgia’s pro-Western leaders and placing the blame for the conflict entirely on Russia. The abrupt crisis in an obscure hotspot had the features of the real foreign policy situations presidents face — not the clean hypotheticals of candidates’ white papers and debating points."

See the whole story here... http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12409.html

Bottom line for me: Obama yields more restraint and has more mainline views. McCain is a war-monger.

And do you realize that Georgia started the conflict by invading the now sovereign South Ossetian capital as Russia’s powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin headed to Beijing for the Olympics?

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

McCain encourages his wife to enter topless contest

John McCain visited Sturgis, SD today. If you aren't familiar with Sturgis... it's a wild biker weekend full of drunken debauchery.

Indeed, McCain felt so comfortable at the event that he even volunteered his wife for the rally’s traditional beauty pageant, an infamously debauched event that’s been known to feature topless women.

“I encouraged Cindy to compete,” McCain said to cheers. “I told her with a little luck she could be the only woman ever to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip.”

Now, I'm OK with people wanting to be topless... just don't make others view it unless they are willing. But what would the media have done if Obama had offered up his wife for the event?? Seems like a media double-standard to me..

Monday, August 4, 2008

The McCain Low Road

I'm sick of John McCain and his juvenile tactics. I know that political campaigns get ugly and nasty, but I remember both Obama and McCain vowed to run honest, positive campaigns free of mud-slinging. So far my opinion is that McCain is rolling around in the pigsty. If I were Obama, I'd probably lower myself to those standards and fight back... but Obama must be a better person than I.

1. McCain's "Celebrity" commercial. The basic premise is that Obama is similar to Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears... saying he's "popular", but he can't lead. Bull. Malarky.

2. McCain's "The One" commercial running all over the Internet. If you haven't seen it, it should anger you when you do. It casts Obama as the Messiah and the coming of The Rapture. The video even has clips from "The Ten Commandments" comparing Obama to Moses. The message is clear -- mocking Obama as a Messiah, and not a realistic serious politician.

3. The latest McCain stunt is to hand out tire gauges labeled "Obama Energy Plan". McCain claims that Obama's total energy plan is to have people properly inflate their tires. Total Crap.

What really bothers me is that people hear false statements, and they believe it. The average American is not interested in politics, and they don't take the time to research the facts. People form opinions based upon soundbytes, and these soundbytes are completely and utterly false.

Lift yourself out of the gutter, McCain, and have a real discussion about the issues facing us. Energy. Economy. Jobs. Healthcare. Ending the war in Iraq. Getting Bin Laden. Restoring our world relationships. Education. Securing our nation.
We don't need to have our time wasted with sensationalist false attacks. I expected better of you.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Tourist in your own town

Lee and I went to Eau Claire to visit Cassie this weekend. It was so good to see her! We made Cassie a tourist in her own home town. We toured the Leinenkugel's Brewery on Saturday. With only 47 employees, they brew ALL of the Leinie's brews sold throughout the country right in Chippewa Falls, WI. It was pretty interesting, but the best part was sampling the brews.

On Saturday night, we took Cassie and Chris to Fanny Hill Theatre. The dinner theatre was playing "Forever Plaid", a funny, light hearted musical comedy about a 50's group that died, but were able to perform one last time for us. Food was remarkably VERY good. They even had our favorite wine.