spiritual warfare in chicago's inner-city

i don't really care to share much about this till i can post the pics that go with it. tune in a little later.

sigh, my girls are old and in college

yesterday me and kylie went up to visit christin at albion college in michigan.(and i DO NOT have to be grammatically correct ANYMORE. i am not a teacher. ANYMORE.)

i can't believe four years have gone by. i WILL say however, that it will be a refreshing thing for the profs to have freshmen in class that have perfectly capable, well-used, ready-for-a-challenge brains for a change. i have heard from my dad how new college students are getting worse and WORSE. this too says a lot about or diminishing society. but thankfully, my girls are very pro-active about lots of stuff. including bettering themselves, making the world a better place for everyone, and making the most of their education. woohoo and congratulations!

the pic is of me, kylie and christin in front of christin's dorm.

stupid ESPN guy

the show was on tonight, tuesday, august 21, 2007. anderson cooper's show on CNN.

okay. for real. michael vick done wrong. yessur. but first of all, why is hurting dogs all of a sudden more important (and seemingly worse) than all these pro athletes who physically abuse their wives/girlfriends? are they really too dumb to talk things out and be logical about their issues? oh yeah...guess you gotta have a BRAIN to be logical. but to the person with the argument that a woman can leave the situation and a dog has no choice, GROW A FREAKING BRAIN. maybe you need a petri dish to help the process. especially since most of you actually are starting unfortunately with microorganisms. let me know; i have connections. but number one: no, a woman is NOT always able to leave a troubled relationship. not with her life, anyway. and number two: the woman is still the victim. these dumb jocks with hot tempers. WHAT ever.

and to the ESPN idiot who was on my boyfriend's show on CNN tonight, (anderson cooper--what a hottie) you are shamefully stupid. there is no hypocrisy. NONE. zero. these pro athletes get paid a gazillion dollars to throw a ball, hit a ball with a stick, OR throw a ball AND hit a ball with a stick. did i confuse you? unfortunately too many little kids in our country hold these dumb jocks in high esteem and YES, THEY ARE TO BE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD. and yes, michael vick is to be made an example of. (i believe you called him the "poster boy" for dogfighting.) okay, YES. michael vick sucks and ANYONE should serve some sort of a jail term for hurting defenseless animals and doing all the crap vick did to them. and SINCE michael vick is a large profile person, he needs the royal discipline--whatever that may be. so yeah, all the athletes that you "cover" and "interview" (which is another story in and of itself) are to be held to a much higher standard.

i would like to have thought higher of ESPN but i suppose you're not too much smarter than the athletes you interview. maybe getting a subject and verb to agree in your sentences is difficult. and heaven knows you'll never be able to enunciate. and TO ALL THE PRO ATHLETES IN THE WORLD: please stop uttering "know what i'm sayin" because i (thankfully) don't relate to you at all. learn to articulate. if you're not sure what "articulate" means, look it up. it's under "A" which in case that doens't help...is in the FRONT of the dictionary. and oh yeah, a dictionary is a BOOK. you might be able to find one in a library--oh forget it.

i truly feel sorry for you. it probably has something to do with your microorganism of a brain.

wedding @ aberdeen

so my friends chris & ellison got married last night and will be cruising in the northern pacific between seattle and alaska soon. man, does that sound like a TON of fun! so these two pics are of me and cindy, (old friend i haven't seen in FOREVER) and here's a pic of ellison and her dad mike.

here's a pic from the entry before

but bigger and funner news is that we had a tornado last night! woohoo! i actually didn't get to see it or anything but it was in our county--just south of valpo. we were totally on the weather channel and all! but unfortunately, they kept repeating that "portage county" needed to run away and hide rather than "porTER county." oh well. we knew what they meant.

here's the tire tracks that IDIOT semi left after slamming into the little old man's car that i helped earlier this week. freaking unbelievable.

what's wrong with people anymore?

so there was a little mishap on northbound IN 49.

on my way to work this morning there was a bit of a jam northbound at the stoplight at 500. when i finally inched up there, i saw a little old man trying to push his car out of traffic. his car had obviously overhetad and smoke was pouring out from under his hood. ALL KINDS OF TRAFFIC just drove around him--a little old man clearly in need of assistance.

so all pissed off, i pulled over, threw my car into park, and ran out to help him amidst the traffic on the highway. everyone just continued to drive around us and our efforts to remove the car from the road. (what the heck? do i live in a crappy place where everyone is so self-absorbed they can't help out a fellow human being that is in trouble?)

that aside, i let the man (his name is dale) use my cell fone to call ahead to the caravan that he was traveling with to let them know he didn't make it through the light. they agreed to circle back. since i knew he got a hold of his wife and son-in-law, i asked the man if there was anyone else he needed to call or anything. i also asked if he wanted me to stick around until they got there. he said he was ok and felt fine knowing they were on their way.

i stuck around for a few minutes but felt comfortable leaving him, knowing that he had reached his wife. i wished a good day upon him and headed back on the beaten path to work.

in my office a bit later, i heard my cell fone ringing. i don't usually get a signal in my office so i didn't even bother to answer. when i left for lunch, (jimmy johns...woohoo!) i checked my messages as i drove.

dale's wife was that one whose number i did not recognize. she had called twice and left a message once. here was her message: "i just wanted to thank you so much for helping my husband get his car off to the shoulder and to let him use your cell phone. i'm also thankful you didn't stay any longer than you did to help him. please call me when you get this message."

i was seriously like, WHAT THE HECK??? so i called her back immediately and asked if everything was ok. she explained to me that just as soon as i had left, they pulled up. instantaneously as her husband and son-in-law popped the hood to see what was wrong, a semi that wasn't able to stop at the light (for whatever reason) came barreling into them and ran them both over. the little old man (dale) was released from the hospital around 1 or 2 p.m. but his son-in-law didn't fare so well.

please pray for their family. and luckily, i didn't stick around cuz i could've been a pancake myself as well today.

but just a thought...what the h-e-double-hockey-stix is wrong with people today? i've not ever been so mad in a VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY long time. (thankfully, this is a righteous anger.) i'd love to go through life not being so cynical but unfortunately, more and more i'm seeing the worst of my fellow humans. good grief.

WHO ME?

yeah, YOU. i know you were just trying to help...but did you really want the big red fire trucks to show up?

so brynn was trying to help mommy cook dinner tonight without mommy knowing. somehow, deb had turned on the broiler for a pizza for dinner and in a split second, brynn cooked a plastic hamburger bun, potato chip, and cell phone. i understand her cooking food but the cell phone? anyway, there's soot and ash everywhere on the main level of their house. in my opinion, the basement is FINE but i'm not sure about the upstairs. so the fire department came and put a huge fan at the door to suck out all the bad black smoke. the fire had already been put out by the time they got there. (and the really bad black smoke was from the cell fone battery, most likely.) a neighbor person, grandpa-type-person, ran in and supposedly extinguished the fire in the broiler/oven but the house was full of black smoke.

so thanx to the fire dept for the big fan. and thanx to the grandpa-person for helping out. and thanx to brynn for a fun evening.

barry bonds is the most well known CHEAT ever

sick to death of him. and all the media hype. thankfully the BREAKING news i've heard is mostly from sportscasters bashing him. he knew what he was doing. he knows he was being illegal. what a sham.

in OTHER news, i'm dogsitting again. i'll actually not sleep in my own bed for about a month. the sad and pathetic thing about that is that i'm not on vacation or anything. i'm still in northwest indiana. ish. (except for the one night we stayed at my friend's lake house in michigan.) and unfortunately, this one dog is pretty gassy tonite. even worse is that it thinks it likes me so it hasn't left my side since i came in tonight. i need a gas mask.

ZOOB

it's been a year now! we were on our way back to the states from china this time last year. and with one more person! it's been cool to see the kids one year later. we're in noblesville for the one-year reunion with our travel group. pretty interesting. some of these kiddos can talk, some definitely cannot. anyhow, here's brynn...one year later. her birthday is on monday...she'll be TWO! she's pretty silly. understands pretty much all of what you say but can't say much yet herself. i don't suppose it helps that i make up random words all the time either. the word of the day today was "ZOOB." and of course i try to get her to pronounce these words. and the poor kid, she always tries.

this is her in her carseat; pic was taken today. er...rather...saturday.

anyone heard of dierks bentley?

apparently he's quite popular with country music fans. he definitely is hot...i'm just not a fan of that music. btw...how many country western singers does it take to change a light bulb?

FIVE. it takes one to actually change and replace it, and four to sing about how much they miss the old one.

my new friends are so cute!

aren't my new bffs so cute? brings new meaning to bart simpson's "eat my shorts!"

no picture yet...

i'm too tired to go in search of my camera with the pics from tonight...it probably ran off with my cell phone. but my cell is actually MIA and has been for a few days now. my mom and my employer person think i lost it on purpose cuz i hated that fone. anyway, i've already ordered a new one but won't get it till wednesday, so i'm told. thankfully, everything's backed up online. (seeing as how i have more than 400 contacts in my fone.)

anyway, i made best friends tonight with a 3-week-old jersey calf. he is soooooooooooo cute. and nibbly. when i got home a good third of my shirt was soaking wet. he licked my arm and sucked on my fingers. it is a good idea for 3-week-old calves to have a salt-lick? i dunno but i'm sure i provided that service tonight. man, i could take him home. i've got pics, but like i said, they're still in my camera. which is who-knows-where.

oh yeah, and i met some country singer named "dierks bentley." i had never heard of him before tonight but got a pic with him anyway cuz my friend went NUTS over him. he's in concert tonight at the good ol' porter county fair. and seeing as how he wanted to go hang out for a few minutes in between some parked trucks in the parking lot of the fair, it was obvious he was trying to keep a low profile. (he was sneaking around with a hat and sunglasses on too.) after a large herd of girls/women saw him, they drew a crowd and started heading over towards us in the parking lot. he saw them, greeted them kindly, said goodbye to us, and made a mad dash back to his "safe area" which was between his tour buses. so i guess i somehow am a lucky person! but he WAS totally hot. i'll say that for him. too bad i don't like country music.

the good ol' county fair

anyway, instead of working at the courts, i'm trying to PROMOTE the courts at our county fair. woo hoo. not woohoo, but WOO hoo. not super fun is what i'm trying to say. i think it's good for us though. but man, i've never seen so many mullets since the eighties! besides that, we've got more rednecks around here than i last remembered. but then again, they do always come out for things like this. all i can say right now is...the poor, poor offspring of people such as these. (and unfortunately, there are a lot.)

it's been awhile

i posted a comment on a friend's blog and found myself signing in to my own. i don't have a ton to write about or even mention. it's my first summer working. i don't teach anymore. and this is the ONLY thing i miss about teaching. stuff is ok but i miss traveling. i miss my freedom in the summer. saturday i had an enjoyable day, tho. i went to play wii at a friend's house, we swam and floated in the pool, had dinner, and then i went out with another friend on his boat to watch the fireworks.

sigh.

i miss the great white north too. anyhow i guess it would be the great brown north. the midwest has had a serious lack of rain. but i usually get to cedar during the summer. couple times. i still had fun on memorial day weekend when i forced myself up north even though i felt crappy. sore throat, etc. but i still had a good time. went sailing and slept a lot. both were muchly needed. i miss my friends up there and the water. miss the boats. miss sailing. and the trees and the lack of people. but again, that was basically my last post.

the pic is of a friend's dog. he lives on a farm. in ohio.

SAW MY FIRST MOOSE!!!

unless it was an elk. i was going southbound at about 85 and these two huge horse-type things were going north about probably about 20. enormous. i had just crossed the bridge (the mackinac bridge) and was on my way home from spending some time with my friends in the U.P. we slept and sailed. it was a good time. but it got chily when the sun wasn't around. i also bought a new game called "snorta." it's quite a fun game. anyone wanna play?

fun times, happy wedding

kim carter got married last night. it was pretty classy. bridesmaids wore black and the bouquets were red roses. kim and sean faced us as an audience rather than have their backs to us. there was a really cool video shown at the beginning of the wedding. anyhow, it was fun and i have fun pics to post. and yeah, i'm wearing a dress. the reception was at sand creek and was quite fun as well. i had a great table of people to sit with and we danced and took lotsa great pics.

and again, SORRY i've been away for so long if anyone even looks at this anymore. i have been so busy at work and stuff!

sheryl crow vs. karl rove

you go, sheryl! i love how she got karl's goat. furthermore, it shows how badly the white house administration is in denial about our environment and global warming. honestly, sheryl has some very interesting ideas that i wouldn't necessarily agree with to help cut down on waste, but she did well to embarrass our unfortunate president's top advisor. she's right--just a little bit too extreme for me.

oooh wheeee!

VT

virginia tech got a raw deal. blacksburg, VA did too. apparently the people cho meant to kill (some rich, whiny, spoiled kids) were not the ones he did away with. unfortunately, he was tossed aside by society and even though there were warnings from his professors to their administrators, and even to the police, nothing was done.

as a former teacher, i feel that i have every right to say that as a society we have failed him. if he acted strangely as a younger child and was bullied, his teachers and other adults in his life are at fault for not intervening. he moved to this country when he was 8 and apparently had a ruff time adjusting. too bad for us--esp. the families directly affected who had family members killed earlier this week--not enuf was done to help him. our country is great at standing by and watching children get bullied. "they'll grow out of being the smallest kid," they'll say, or "someday he'll really fight back."

so although cho is completely guilty and WRONG to do what he did, he is not completely at fault. we can't hold him personally responsible either, because he is dead too. but when all these interviews on t.v. have all these people saying, "of course we'll learn a lot from this..." I DISAGREE. we don't learn from much. our society is ego driven--not many think of others first. if we continue down this path as a bunch of self-absorbed people, we won't learn anything at all.

we are a screwed up society.

oh yeah, COLBERT FOR PRESIDENT!!!

imus

i'll have fun pics someday--from when i was in amish country last weekend. i've just been busy 24/7 since i've been back.

this whole imus thing, however, is something i feel i finally need to speak about. first of all, what he said was pretty low. he must have been thinking it but accidentally said it out loud. shame on him for even thinking that. however, what happened to free speech? if imus has been on the radio for ~30 years as a SHOCK JOCK, why is everyone surprised he actually said something like this? now all dj's are gonna put a cap on everything they may want to say for fear of getting in trouble. i've heard that his firing was a mistake--only because cbs acted too swiftly. you wanna know why? cuz of those dang people named "REVEREND" al sharpton and "REVEREND" jesse jackson freaking out on the poor network. (as for al sharpton--i question ANY person who was ordained at age TEN. what the heck is that?????) and jesse jackson is just a punk. he's a MLK wannabe. but far from the real thing. what the heck is "rainbow push," anyway? at first glance it sounds like a gay/lesbian rights group. all we need are these two "men" thinking they're God's gift to our current society and trying to tell people that certain others owe them something.

i'm getting tired of AL and JESSE.

and what about the hypocrisy? the double standard? check out some of the hiphop/rap lyrics of today's "artists." you might be surprised at the profanity and degrading of women.

heading to amish country

i'm leaving on friday to go to middlebury, indiana for a thing. unfortunately the weather is supposed to be lousy. so i'm considering getting a nintendo wii so we can at least have SOME fun. i was hoping to play outside and maybe even get a new bike for my birthday to ride around on. however, since the weather is supposed to be crap and i had been contemplating a wii anyway, i might just go with that. i'll let ya know.