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May 25, 2005
Busy weekend...
So, Ryan and I stayed pretty busy last weekend.
We caught the third installment of the Star Wars series on Friday night. It was well worth seeing but definitely earned its PG-13 rating. Hung out with Amy, Jessica, and Brian for a little while afterwards.
Saturday we decided to dig out flowerbeds. Dug about 15 large Hostas out of their cruddy sand & clay beds, and then divided them up between friends and relatives.
Sunday dad delivered a truckload of dirt and helped us rent a rototiller to make digging easier. We worked on the beds till it started to rain, then went inside and worked on stuff there...
So really, not much interesting going on to write about lately. My brother Pete may come to visit on Friday. I'm really looking forward to a long weekend.
For your entertainment pleasure, check out the following:
http://www.sithsense.com
Gratefully robbed off of Ryan's site, www.aquatic.org
Posted by Danielle at 06:34 PM | Comments (2)
May 18, 2005
My dog wants a Yoda costume.
Ok, I think these are hilarious. I need to get the Yoda one for Molly-dog and I'm thinking Darth Vader for the Coco-dog.
Thanks to Ryan for snooping around on shop.starwars.com and passing this along!
Posted by Danielle at 12:17 AM | Comments (1)
May 17, 2005
Politics Unusual.
I dunno about you, but I'm sick and freaking tired of hearing about the so-called "Nuclear Option" being used in the Senate.
Politics aren't something I discuss every day as a habit, but I feel like making an exception today. So, disagree with me if you want, debate is a healthy thing. (Note: juvenile responses like "poopyhead" as well as overly vulgar responses will be deleted at my discretion! (Read: Be mature, folks.) This is my blog so I have eminent domain here! Bwah hahhaaa!)
Ok so back on topic. If I hear one more thing about a "nuclear war" in the US Senate I'm really going to throw a fit. First of all - the terms "Nuclear war" and "Nuclear option" - come on, people. "Real Nuclear War" (tm) could easily be considered the end of life on the planet as we know it. Most people don't want to think of that every time some damn pundit opens his mouth. This "Nuclear War" they keep talking about is a RULE CHANGE in the Senate. True, it's a rule change I don't agree with, but let's face it - nothing like the tragedy of a nuclear holocaust. So let's drop the freaking drama and get down to business.
Second of all - this rule change being dubbed the "Nuclear option" (if I'm understanding everything correctly from what I'm hearing/reading) is basically a change in the Senate operational rules that would forbid the use of a Filibuster by the minority party of the Senate in order to stop confirmation votes for Federal Judicial Appointees and similar positions that are filled by the President and Approved by the Senate.
Personally, I can see both sides here. Republicans (in the majority) are frustrated with getting nowhere with some of the Federal Judicial appointees named by President Bush over the last five years. Democrats are afraid of losing the one last ditch way they have to block a candidate that they feel is one they can't support.
Realistically, the filibuster is an integral part of the Senate's system of checks and balances. It's part of what keeps the majority party from trampling roughshod over the minority party and forcing appointments down their opponent's throats. The very threat of a filibuster is often enough to get both parties to the table in order to work out a compromise - which often works out to both of the parties mutual benefit, and avoids the actual occurrence of the filibuster.
I'm surprised that the idea of doing away with the filibuster ever made it this far, and that some members of the Republican party are so rabid about going through with it. In ten years, it's possible that things could be reversed, with the Democratic party in the majority and the Republicans in the minority. If the filibuster is dismantled, it may come back and bite them in the ass if they ever need to block a Democratic appointee from coming up for a vote in the Senate.
I guess my whole philosophy is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I don't believe that the use (or threat) of the filibuster is truly as much of a problem as some Republicans make it out to be. Don't we have more important issues to deal with in our government? I can't believe the time that is being wasted on this issue. Let's drop the idea of scrapping the filibuster and accept that it's an ugly, but necessary part of American government, just like so many other things. There are more important issues I'd rather see the Senate waste my money on. Like more armor for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's a whole other issue for another day, I think. Time to take my rant and go home to play in my own sandbox.
Posted by Danielle at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2005
Office Space
So, we got the news today at work that our new offices will be available for us to move into at the end of the week. I guess it will be nice since these will all be freshly remodeled and my desk will be close to a window that has a view of something other than a brick wall. :)
Good thing I've only been there a few weeks - I haven't really accumulated anything yet to move.
Not much going on tonight, walk the dogs, do laundry, clean up mess caused by said canines...
I need summer! This cold & cloudy crap needs to end immediately!
(I've got nuthin'. BlogWriter's guideline #101: When all else fails, rant about the weather.)
Posted by Danielle at 06:50 PM | Comments (1)
May 15, 2005
Okay, time to restart the whole attempted blog thing.
Well, okay. I begged an upgrade for the site off of Ryan, who delivered fantabulously despite being incredibly busy.
I really do intend to start updating this thing regularly again. We were having real problems with spammers leaving comment-turds everywhere (you know, viagra adverts disguised as posted comments.) Therefore, if you want to comment you now need to log in - hopefully this will cut down on the spamming.
Okay, so back to my newly-turned-over leaf. Now that I'm in a job that actually allows me to have a life at night and on weekends, I'd like to get back to posting entries on a regular basis. So here's my first one. Expect horrible grammar and occasional spelling mistakes because my writing's very stream-of-conciousness style.
Meh. Just realizing what a lame first post this is.
Caught a new ep of "Family Guy" tonight - did anyone else catch this show tonight? I cracked at the Star Wars reference at the end. The chicken fight was pretty out there as well, I dug the Indiana Jones reference!
Okay, enough already. More drivel later.
Oh, one last thing. If you need a laugh, check this out.
Posted by Danielle at 10:53 PM | Comments (2)