Happy Birthday, Doug!!!

Wow, forty-two years and I've gotten to spend the last nine with him. Am I a lucky girl, or what? Katie has quite a way of expressing birthday affection.


















As you can see, someone went a little wild with the decorations this year. Doug and I were gone an hour an a half to vote, and the girls spent the entire time taping up balloons and streamers.










































Doug was happy to get a homemade carrot cake (his favorite).

Here we are at Doug's choice of restaurant for his birthday dinner. Poor Mariah is put out that she can't have Tabasco sauce until she is 18! (It's the law, you know).

P.S. This blog is a few days late, but I'm so glad we got to celebrate all day Saturday!

Day Out

The girls were at a youth retreat this weekend, so Doug and I took in a bit of sightseeing in Nashville.
















We drove by a large private high school, which happened to be hosting a huge marching band contest. Doug was pretty nostalgic about his marching band days. He lamented that he didn't stay in DCI longer. All the bands were pretty impressive, though--much more like DCI than the marching band days of our youth. Fun afternoon!















This nice man with a horse and buggy sat on the side of the street, just waiting to give someone a ride.

Here we are, sitting right where Carrie Underwood and Bette Midler have perched!














After some incredible Japanese food, we took a stroll over to catch our first professional hockey game. Here's Doug standing outside the arena in front of the Predator's big air slide.
















Here's the Preds, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-3. I don't know who's more brutal--the players or the fans. Quite an ending to quite a day!

Quote of the Day

Something to consider:

A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.
Barry Goldwater

Saved by Lipstick!

As if Monday's bill wasn't insulting enough to the American people, the Senate decided to "sweeten" up the deal by adding all sorts of pork to it. Now, in addition to $700 Billion dollars, we the taxpayers will get to pay for all sorts of new programs and projects tacked on.

I guess a couple Senators from Tennessee aren't interested in another term. They may think we'll forget all about it before they come up for reelection in a couple of years, but some prominent and outspoken Tennesseans (and little ol' me) aren't going to let it go.

My Representative voted "no" in the House, so we'll see if he caves or not this next go around. As of now, he's got my vote in November...the first time I've voted for a democrat--ever.

And what about the presidential nominees?

"Let's not call it a bailout, let's call it a rescue," Senator McCain says. Puhleeze. So, if you take a pig, make it even fatter, and put lipstick on it, it's not a 700 Billion Dollar barrel of pork? What happened to, "I'll make 'em famous" for the first person who tried to pass a bill with earmarks?

Senator Obama voted yes on the bill, too. More wasteful spending, billions of dollars to special interests, fiscal help for the rich... Is this the kind of change we need? I don't think so! Talk about "lockstep with Bush."

I'm mad, ya'll...And neither major party candidate will get my vote. Yeah, I know that McCain will still probably take Tennessee in the election, anyway. But this year I'm voting on principle. Hopefully the House will do the same. If ever a bill needed to be killed, it's this one.

If you want a common sense approach to the financial crisis, click here.