Cinderella or Ariel?

You know you're at "Grandma's House" when the choice of band-aids include only the following:

Ariel, Dora, Cinderella or Snow White



Why can't they make ones for young adults...? I wouldn't mind Master Shake or Meatwad.

Almost 2009

While I'm attempting to work from home - which can be challenging to say the least - I am also prepping/educating myself for a new blog. Not a Ginny by any means. This blog will solely for the purpose of communication within the Ag industry. I am a very basic person when it comes to knowledge of the web and it's endless tools so that is why I am prepping myself prior to my TBD launch date. Seriously, my knowledge on CSS is very limited to the days when I managed the country websites for my job at the trade council ... let's just say, this may be a long education session.

The reason why I want to do this came out of my desire to get back involved in increasing awareness between the Ag community and the rest of the world. I want to throw in a few new (boring?) twists to it. I don't just want to write/report on how the cow's are doing and talk about the market prices. I want to mix the on-the-farm view of policy happening in ALL regions, nationally and internationally and mix them together.

Test:

In Sept of 2008 in China - what was the big scandel about?
Who won the 2008 World Series?

Which one could you answer more easeily? More people could tell you who won the World Series but are clueless to the melamine in dairy (produced in China) scandel.

New question:

Which one of those events affects your life the most?

Yeah...the melamine issue.

98% of us involved in the Ag/Food industry knew about this but still are limited to geting the info - REAL info - out on what is going on, what this means to us (U.S. Ag) and what this means to YOU (the consumers). That makes me more upset than anything. How could somethin SO huge go unnoticed to so many people?

And that is why I'm going to start a new site. It's just a drop in a very big bucket, but hopefully that drop will be met by many more and lead to an overflowing bucket. I hope that by the time I leave this earh the consumer will actually understand the products they take in on a daily basis.


************

If you see a girl at the gym on a Friday night, bouncing away on the eliptical, pumping her fist in the air and yelling at the TV screen that is airing C-SPAN 2 .... it just might be me.

The C-SPAN Plan

I still have PA license plates and ID but by golly I have a gym membership in the closest city to the farm! Can you see what takes priority in my life? The gym isn't anyting fabulous (though, I have to say, the eye candy is quite nice).

Killer Chic

Can anyone explain this to me? When we live in a era where we idolize what the celebs of the west are doing... adopting 3rd world babies, promoting green tech & so forth - it is hard to understand how these people who consider themsleves so righteous (I mean, they do think they are so great that who the vote for is whom you ought to vote for) wear t-shirts and caps with pics of Che. Che, a man who has killed many under communism, is far from a person you should be associatng yourself with if you have any concern for humanity. If you do not know the history of Che you are a very sad person who has been living under a rock and/or we really need to bring our schools up to speed in the history dept.

This is all the more reason of why I refuse to listen to the crap that celebs tout for many of them are just a bunch of hypocrites concerned with money and fashion.

Check out the latest piece on the fashion trend here.

Shot of the Past

So I moved home to the farm in MN. I'm living with my parents for a short while, helping them get ready for the new house they are building and taking a new gander into what I want to do with my fruture. It's day three and I'm already going a tad crazy - but we'll see if I can get use to it.

Now, I DO love my parents and how they have handled me thus far. I have been trying to thank them for the FREE room & board by helping like crazy and making their meals. I almost went as far as packing my mothers lunch for work tomorrow (but she beat me to it).

It will take a bit to get use to...such as my poor car will never be as clean as it once was now that I'm back on a gravel road. Or the fact that I'm living out of the room that I grew out of when I turned 14. I was very happy to leave my home area in the past and move on....now I'm back in it and on top of that having to re-live good portions of it for I have been spending the last few days going through old momentos of Jr. High, High School & college. I'm cool with college stuff seeing it's still pretty recent but I look back at photos, cards, love letter, etc. of years earlier and I think the same few things over...

- I guess I wasn't THAT ugly
- Wow, I was so immature - can't believe they were even friends with me
- How was I that popular then?
- Glad to never have to re-live those years again

Let's just say I have 3 BIG garbage bags full of the past that will be burned and be kept as the past.

Now onward to the future!

The Last Lunch.

I did it. I made it through a year of uncertainty (only to be followed-up on with more!) and the challenges

Dear Cleaning Dude

You seem like a very nice man.

Corner Work Need Not Apply

I have a friend that needed a hobby. Hobby idea given to her: find me a job and potential housing in MN or DC (yeah, I'm getting back into politics....mayyyyyybe).

Once given the task she sarted to find a lot of random jobs that seemed only to be best marked as "interesting".

Jobs Selected:

- Marketing for random group (okay)
- Karaoke manager (umm, no)
- Ad researcher (sounded shady at best)

Before I could let her go on I decided to lay some ground rules....

1. requirement should not include: Must be able to stand at corner for long periods of time and accepts only cash
2. Costume wearing
3. Maid with costume options
4. Involves going into campus bars late at night
5. Wearing a headset
6. Anything that requires door-knocking

Before eHarmony there was Hoard's Dairyman

I'll admit it for I am very guilty of my own pre-"e" days when I was searching for The One. At a young age a lot of the magazines that littered my dad's desk were farming/dairy based mags. Seeing I loved to read anything available I would pick-up the magazines to read about the latest technology with milking parlors or a new way to handle a displaced abomasum.

Soon I learned that whenever they did an article about a farmer, they ALWAYS included age and location. From then on I started to grab all magazines possible....Hoard's Dairyman, Progressive Dairy, Country, Holstein World, etc. to check out the latest crop of elgible bachelors. It was a great pre-screening process cause when you do a write-up about the farmer you typcially include the stats of the farm. As in, number of acres, techniques used, herd head-count and so on. Pop in a picture to show him by the livestock or tractor and then I know which breed of animal and implements he preferred.

My list was a bit particular:

Holstein
1,000 acres
300+ head
John Deere
Chevy
Age: 25-33
Owner (or co-owner)
Uses technology
Belongs to at least one association

I continued this tradition throughout college - it wasn't hard to go into the Dairy Science Dept. reading room and gather up the magazines. But I found that the habit soon waned off once I moved away from the farm life and lacked the subscriptions. It is also awkward seeing boys that I actually knew from my collegiate days in there. But I have a feeling this may start-up again seeing I'll be located back on the farm for awhile and yup, still single! Yeah, there may be technology to do the screening, like eHarmony, but I prefer to do my market research the old school way.

I think I'll make it my new morning coffee break habit.

Best Evite Ever....... I mean EVER

Okay, you got it. I'm moving. Blah, blah, blah...it was tough for me to move away from MN friends & family and then from DC to Philly but it's only getting worse. More than anything it's gonna be tough leaving the quick access (3 hr drive) to DC for a fun weekend of spirits, sports, friends (urban family), gluttony AND political drivel.

But the last time in DC (as an east-coaster) will be spent at a b-day bash for two buddies. As I opened the Evite for the party I realized that all those times I've asked myself, "How is it that I'm friends with y'all?" this evite pretty much sums it up. We are all very much like one another. Humor - check. Ideals - check. Politcs - check. Check, check, check!

So to share - here's what the Evite said:

Join us to mourn the passing of yet another year for these two political hack Valentine babies. Bring your Halloween fatigue, prepare for holidays and family fatigue, and help the two old fogeys trying to lift themselves out of their post-election doldrums and malaise. (Ok, fine - it's really more Tony who can't tell up from down right now; Chris is taking the loss pretty well.)

November surprises aplenty will be in store. We'll have lots and lots of wings. Seriously. Would Tiger Woods and Mammy Ahmadinejad do any less?

Names A-M bring intoxicating liquid spirits. Wine ok, but NO WINE COOLERS.
Names N-Z bring chips, dips, or otherwise tasty snack products.


Updated Gameday odds:
- The milk-stealing rando from the last Pirate Party comes back. 37:1
- Random gunplay. 15:1
- Tony throws (or golfs) something off the balcony. 7:1
- Chris sings karaoke. 5:1
- Tony throws Chris off the balcony after karaoke. 5:2
- Tony divorces the wife again after she brings wine coolers. 10:3
- Chris says something that transforms Shannon into Chainsaw. 4:1
- Something explodes. 3:1
- Chris & Tony get into a fight over Article II vs. Article I of the Constitution. 2:1
- Running out of Bourbon. EVEN MONEY.

Street parking is available. Crystal City & Pentagon City Metro Stations are closest, and if you really care about the Birthday Boys, you'll be drinking with them and shouldn't be driving.


~~~~~~~~

Yup. I'll miss these guys!

Resignation

It's done and in the books.

Words present: Challenge - Immersion - Success - Prosper - Rewards - Lessons

Last Day - November 24th

It's quite a relief and (shhh!) exciting. I've come to desire the nomadic lifestyle. I will actually miss living out east for two reasons - proximity to so many cities and my 'urban-family' have been awesome. Not to say that I will not enjoy being back in my homeland and near those family and friends - but I know it will be a difficult transition. So, for those of you there, please note that I love you and am excited to be back; it's just that for a while I may be a bit sad and missing what I've called home since 2006.

So the transition weeks are ahead. Here's to hoping I do not have to replace my timing belt/water pump at the expense of $1,100 that I was quoted this morning and that I will get a decent U-haul trailer this time around. Also, here's to saying goodbye to the things I will not miss.....

1. warm winters
2. tolls
3. nasty traffic
4. expensive gas
5. snobs that consider me from "fly-over" country
6. bad grocery stores
7. scary newscasts
9. slimy(er) politics
10. fake aura & rhetoric

Though as I say adios to them with not a tear, I will hug a dear goodbye to:

1. life-long friendships
2. convienence - transportation
3. the ocean
4. D.C. & policy wonkers
5. early America (history)
6. cheeseteaks & Rocky
7. Rosslyn Beach
8. PCC (both)
9. good shoe smiths & cheap dry cleaners
10. frequent flyer miles

Russia will take the lead.

All I have to say is that I am happy to be looking for a new job seeing that much of what I've been working for in these past three years will now be thrown out or heavily challenged.

Oh and look.......

In & Out

I voted. I surprised myself on a few local. But trust me - I'm still wearing red.

Dirty - One Plate & One Cup

My office is a growing office. When I came on board I was no. 7 in the office. Our sample room doubled as our kitchen and there was no room to sit for lunch. Things have changed a bit - we now have our own kitchen, table and chairs, microwave, ect, yet we are lacking real dishes. So from the beginning it was customary to bring in your own cups, mugs, silverware and whatnot to make it through your lunch period. With that I found it best to just go out and buy a set of 4 plastic cups, 2 microwavable plates, a glass bowl and a nice mug. I made my own little pantry area in the kitchen for my dishes & food. People knew it was mine and all was good.

Until a week ago.

The new person.

Has yet to get it.

Today I found victim no. 2 in the sink. My favorite white cup all dirty and it wasn't done by me.

I have yet to 'see' her doing this but it just seems quite coincidental that this all started after she came on board. So what have I done? I stashed the dishes in my desk drawer. Childish - perhaps but she's rubbed me the wrong way since day one so here it is....No more dirting my dishes pal!

Quotable Matter

"The current financial crisis has startled America from a hypnotic trance of self-indulgence and irresponsibility. But as we return to American fundamentals, we may discover that our political, social and economic system -- despite all the current election-cycle hysteria -- is still by far the most resilient in the world."
~Victor Davis Hanson

"Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late Democratic senator from New York, once set the difference between American capitalism and the older European version by observing that America was the party of liberty, whereas Europe was the party of equality."
~Fouad Ajami

"Thirty years ago, Hubert Humphrey suggested that the measure of any government was "how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."
~William McGurn

Hot Under the Collar

I respect freedom of speech in form of civility. I respect your opinion. I respect the electoral system. I respect the office of the President.


I do not respect heckling of average citizens who question the candidates. I do not respect people who make a mockery of an election. I do not respect double standards. I do not respect the media [re: bias].


I believe that voting is a privilege - NOT a right.


I respect the Constitution......

Do you?

Sorry Bob

I can't listen to Bob Seger's song, "Like a Rock" without visions of a Chevy pick-up going through my head. It drives me nuts. I had to take it off my Pandora list for that very reason. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Chevy & and like Seger but that combo when I'm not plopped infront of my TV awaiting for my show to come back on is just plain annoying.

We have a newbie in our office. She's nice. Kinda. Makes me think of an outter suburb mom type. I walked by her office today and well, that perfume sure wafts a LONG DISTANCE. I think it's a sign that you have too much on when someone like me (who has a ruined sniffer!) nearly passes out when walking by your office. Not to mention if you can still smell it when you, the Perfuminator, isn't even in the office. I don't care how 'lovely' it may smell...that is just too much.

And speaking of smelling....

I go to a pretty decent gym. What I mean by that, all the employees and clientle are for the most part curtious, clean and concientious. That was until the other day when I walked into the bathroom section of the women's locker room and smelled it. THE HORRIBLE B.O.! I had horrible flashbacks of 4th grade gym classes with sweaty classmates who had yet to learn about proper hygiene and were nicknamed "smelly" by the other kids. I felt bad those days thinking that they had inattentive parents, but geesh.....when you're a 40+ yr old woman, I think you would catch on to the fact that a little deorderant wouldn't kill yah (and perhaps save a life or two that was in your presence!!).

What else have I done today other than complain like a crazy ol bat and work ??

I shoe shopped. Are they not pretty?!

Yo Playa!

Tonight - GAME ONE OF THE WORLD SERIES! I wasn't excited until it hit me that I may never live again in a city that may potentially be the World Series Champs thus I will embrace my "local" team. **Also it would amuse me to see a huge party-riot happen too....not gonna lie**

I have a mad crush on a Russian in Cali. As in, mad crush on client whom I've never met but has the best voice evah. I'm pretty sure he's probably ugly and scary in real life cause that's how luck typically has it.

What am I doing right now?

Good question and here is a list:

1. Jammin to a new hip-hop fave, People Under the Stairs

2. Quotin' product for another bust in W. Africa

3. Laughing at the poli hatred on YouTube (Karl Rove almost got handcuffed in San Fran)

4. Buzzin' on the Coffee

5. The DRESS came. It's purty. Purty dang hot that is! (pic included) So yup, I'm sitting here and dreaming about twirling around in that dress. Yeah, this is when I know I'm super girly.

Prayer

I typically keep this site for laughs...but I think spreading the word and need for prayer is more important:

A letter recieved this morning -

This is a request for prayer for YWAM missionaries and their churches in Orissa, India. The request came from Mable Hurst, an associate of HCJB Global. Please read and make this a matter of urgent prayer.

Dear beloved sponsors and friends of Good News India.

We have never seen anything like this. We knew that Orissa was the most resistant and hostile State in India as far as the Gospel is concerned. And we brushed off the continuous threats and harassment we faced as we went about His work. But none of our staff imagined that they would see this kind of carnage.... And it seems to be totally under the radar of the Western Media.

Let me explain. A militant Hindu priest and 4 of his attendants, who were zealously going around the villages of Orissa and 'reconverting' people back to Hinduism, were gunned down by unknown assailants in Central Orissa last weekend. Immediately the Christians were blamed. The cry rose up...'Kill the Christians!' And the horror began.... In the past 4 days, we have first hand witness to hundreds of churches being blown up or burned and many, many dozens of Christian tribals have been slaughtered. For no other reason than they bare the name of Christ.
Night and day I have been in touch with our Good News India Directors spread across 14 Dream Centers in Orissa... they are right in the middle of all this chaos. In Tihidi, just after the police came to offer protection, a group of 70 blood-thirsty militants came to kill our staff and destroy the home. They were not allowed to get in, but they did a lot of damage to our Dream Center by throwing rocks and bricks and smashing our gate, etc. They have promised to come back and 'finish the job.' Our kids and staff are locked inside and have stayed that way with doors and windows shut for the past 3 days. It has been a time of desperately calling on the Lord in prayer. More police have come to offer protection. In Kalahandi, the police and some local sympathizers got to our dream center and gave our staff and kids about 3 minutes notice to vacate. No one had time to even grab a change of clothes or any personal belonging. As they fled, the bloodthirsty mob came to kill everyone in the building. We would have had a mass funeral there, but for His grace. In Phulbani, the mob came looking for Christian homes and missions. The local Hindu people, our neighbors turned them away by saying that there were no Christians in this area. So they left. We had favor. The same thing happened in Balasore.

All our dream centers are under lock down with the kids and staff huddled inside and police outside. The fanatics are circling outside waiting for a chance to kill. Others were not so fortunate. In a nearby Catholic orphanage, the mob allowed the kids to leave and locked up a Priest and a computer teacher in the house and burned them to death. Many believers have been killed and hacked into pieces and left on the road.... even women and children. At another orphanage run by another organization, when this began, the Director and his wife jumped on their motorbike and simply fled, leaving all the children and staff behind. Every one of our GNI directors that I have spoken to said: 'We stay with our kids.... we live together or die together, but we will never abandon what God has called us to do.' More than 5000

Christian families have had their homes burned or destroyed. They have fled into the jungles and are living in great fear waiting for the authorities to bring about peace. But so far, no peace is foreseen.

This will continue for another 10 days.... supposedly the 14 day mourning period for the slain Hindu priest. Many more Christians will die and their houses destroyed. Many more churches will be smashed down. The Federal government is trying to restore order and perhaps things will calm down. We ask for your prayers. Only the Hand of God can calm this storm. None of us know the meaning of persecution. But now our kids and staff know what that means. So many of our kids coming from Hindu backgrounds are confused and totally bewildered at what is happening around them. So many of their guardians have fled into the jungles and are unable to come and get them during these trying times. Through all this, I am more determined than ever to continue with our goal: the transformation of a community by transforming its children. Orissa will be saved... that is our heart's cry. If we can take these thousands of throw-away children and help them to become disciples of Jesus, they will transform an entire region. It is a long-term goal, but it is strategic thinking in terms of the Great Commission.

What can you do? First, please uphold all this in fervent prayer. Second, pass this e-mail on to as many friends as you can. We must get the word out and increase our prayer base for this is spiritual warfare at its most basic meaning. We are literally fighting the devil in order to live for His Kingdom. The next 10 days are crucial. We pray for peace and calm to pervade across Orissa.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on and help us to get as many people to partner with us on this cutting edge effort to fulfill His mandate: Go and make disciples of all nations....
Prayer works!

~~~~~

Please send one for them...

Really people??

Grow up people.

http://worldofwonder.net/archives/2008/Oct/13/sarah_palin_tshirt_cuntroversy.wow

Grow up.

Update:

It just keeps getting better...! Mac Hater & Dog Pooh!

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7658638&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1