MOVED

New Blog: http://tsarb.blogspot.com/

Best Line From Mother's Day

5 year old Josh and 7 year old Ben fooling around on the sofa.

Josh: MOM, Ben hit me with his fist in my eye.
Ben: Mom, my fist was accidently moving.

Nancy (Patrick's mom) and I were playing with a spring-loaded car on the table. Ben was told earlier not to play with it on the table. Nancy releases car, car looses control, I go to grab it, knock over my wine glass, shatter, wine everywhere. "See, Ben, this is why your mom said not to play with the car on the table." Me pointing at Nancy and looking at Wendy - "She started it." A good day was had by all.

Operation Thin Mints - updated

Update: I just found out that my Uncle Charles (deceased) was stationed on the USS Midway when he was in the Navy. Amazing.

My sister is a tech sergeant in the Air Force at the Navy brig in San Diego. I am so proud of her, the work she does and the person she is. In San Diego, the Girl Scouts from the area raise cookies to send to the troops overseas. This year they raised over 200,000 boxes to send!! They had an all female color guard from the Brig do the opener. It took place on the USS Midway, which is now a museum. Jennifer is in the blue uniform (with all the stripes :-) )

View photos of the event here.

Kissing A Few Frogs

We are packing up the house at 103 Munro as we go through each room. In the meantime I've been looking for potential new houses for 6 months or more. At first they were to see what's out there. Now I have a "short" list. I do a search with criteria such as price, 3 bedrooms at least 1.5 bathrooms. They've been a few houses I absolutely could have been comfortable in and of course they are sold. That's ok. Now we have to get serious. This is what I'm up against folks. House #1

Click on MORE PHOTOS to see the full affect.

Notice the t.v. on the t.v.?! Good Lord look at all those teddy bears. And the owls over the fireplace. I'm not sure WHAT that shiny (clipper ship?) is to the left of the mantel. I know, I know, that stuff will not be there, but it makes me wonder what else has not been updated since 1964.

House #2
The stop and smell the roses house. Notice the eat-in kitchen and formal dining room wallpaper. Hmm....how could you miss it. I wonder if the flower wallpaper in the bathroom is a form of poupourie?

House #3
Go no further than the front entry. Notice the paint chip on the stairs in the shape of a mouse? At least I hope it's a paint chip. The gash in the wall just around the corner makes me curious. Remember, people are showing us the GREAT aspects of their home. This was a featured home in the Sunday paper a few weeks back as "The House of the Week."

House #4
.

This is what I have now. NOT that I'm expecting this in the downsize







Notice the descriptions states 2 full baths, so one can only assume this is the better of the 2. Blue tile does NOT make me think of the ocean. Where is the storage for hair products, blow dryer, makeup??? I cannot make this work. I can change wallpaper, but after all this I can't go in there and start pushing out walls for a bigger bathroom because this one looks like I can wash my hands WHILE sitting on the toilet.

Finally House #5
This would be WONDERFUL if there were hardwood floors under that carpet. And a kitchen that has been updated within the past 40 years! HA! Look at the linoleum floor!! I think every house in America between 1965 and 1978 had this. The cabinets and refrigerator went in at the same time. Just call me Kitty from "That 70's Show"

NOTE: These links will only last as long as the house is on the market.

We're Ready for a Heat Wave!!

At 6:15am I've already been up for 45 minutes. I have the news on and hear:

The sun will be rising in about 1/2 hour. Perhaps with the sun it will bring the temperature up over zero degrees. Right now with the windchill we are at -10 degrees. Over the weekend the "North Country" will experience a 70 degree temperature difference, bringing them up close to 40 degrees.

And at 40 degrees we'll be basking in the warmth, shoveling the deck off to bbq some chicken.

Dark Elegy

Taken from Syracuse, NY Post Standard, February 27, 2008:

Families of Syracuse University students killed in the 1988 bombing of Flight 103 visited Washington Tuesday to ask for a national memorial for terrorism victims. But a federal commission that oversees such things rejected the proposal that Dark Elegy, a memorial consisting of 76 individual sculptures by Long Island artist Suse Lowenstein, be chosen to commemorate victims of terrorism worldwide.

Lowenstein's son, Alexander, 21, was among 35 SU students killed when a bomb exploded in their plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, as they returned from a semester abroad.

Her sculptures portray mothers, wives and sisters of the victims in grief-stricken positions after hearing about the death of their loved ones. The sculptures have been displayed in several cities, including on the SU campus in 1995.

I can't tell you all how outraged I am at John G. Parsons, an associate regional director for the National Park Service in DC and Michael McGill, a commission member representing the U.S. General Services Administration.

First Mr. Parson's comments on Dark Elegy:

"...raised concerns about the sculptures in a May 2007 letter to Lowenstein. He told Lowenstein that "your female figures are intentionally highly figurative" and said that could pose a problem. "While they may be appropriate in a private sculpture garden, such a realistic grouping of naked women may be found objectionable to some aspects of American society," Parsons wrote.

Michael McGill came to the defense of Parsons at the hearing at the National Building Museum in Washington. "He has for the past 30 years been a major figure in this city," McGill said of Parsons. "He has learned by experience about problems that can arise. He was not being voyeuristic. He was not being odd."

Other commission members avoided the conflict over the nude sculptures, and instead focused their concerns on whether they would properly represent all terror victims.

There were 2 questions asked. They can be found below with my responses. I've also forwarded my response to Suse Lowenstein (artist).

My responses to the Post Standard

1. First, does a sculpture representing the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 adequately represent all victims of terrorist acts?

What about this sculpture says explicitly Pan Am Flight 103? It was inspired by the mother/artist of one of the victims of 103. Mothers grieving. This sculpture captures the grief, the horror and the life changing event of the moment they learned of their child was killed in
planned act of terrorism. Was it different for the mothers of the victims of 9/11 or when the uniformed military personnel walk to her front door - "Your son/daughter was killed by a road-side bomb in Iraq at 13:00 hours on February 16, 2008."? Do you think it was different
for a mother learning the same news in 1946? In time of war, naturaldisaster or sinking ships it's ALWAYS been "women and children first."

Why should this different?

2. Can Washington, D.C., cope with the larger-than-life images of grieving, naked women?

You see naked women???? I see women exposed, without protection, vulnerable. Clothes reveal cultural background and social status. They are purposefully "stripped" to make one of the most profound statements one piece of art has ever made - we are all vulnerable regardless of who we are or where we've been. If we can't protect the "women and children" where are WE as a society? Can Washington DC cope with this? or is it: Washington D.C. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH !!!!

I wonder if this same type of conversation was had when the very phallic Washington Monument was erected.

To advocate and voice your opinion regarding this topic.

True Definition of My Blog Name

Ali rec'd a subpeona the day before yesterday. Her old, crazy-ass landlord is being sued by the guys who live in the bottom apartment in the new place as well as the old apartment, for deplorable living conditions. They, Kyle and Doug and Merv had to reappear yesterday in court. Kyle's mom is a lawyer :-) Anyway, Merv TACKED THE SUBPEONAS to Alison and Paige's door. Ummm....not a legal method of delivery. The police have been called several times from both sides and it's ALWAYS Merv's fault. Making false police reports, harassment. The same cop comes everytime. He's sick of Merv. The county building inspector is sick of Merv and the judge is sick of Merv. Merv wanted Alison and Paige to testify AGAINST the guys!!! Alison the police to see if ithe subpeona was legit. The police said the girls did not have to go to court since the subpeona was delivered illegally. The police were on the way to an accident with personal injury but noticed Merv's truck in their driveway! When Alison called, the police were coming back from the accident and was going to stop anyway to let them know Merv was on/near where they live. The police arrived at their door in less than a minute since Ali called and she commented on how fast the service is.

Anyway, Alison and Paige went to court. The judge told Merv that the girls served no purpose and were not going to testify against the boys. Kyle and Doug won the case and Merv has to pay them back all the rent they paid. Alison and Paige will now follow suit proving they also lived there at the same time and were under the same risk.

Alison and Paige CANNOT get a restraining order like I suggested because Merv has not been charged with anything yet. That's only a matter of time. The cop is waiting for a reason now.

In other news, Barb cannot be released from VanDuyn Rehab because the GI bug is going around her floor and they are in quarantine. Greenpoint will not come and assess her because they do not want to contaminate the senior living facility. So she's in a holding pattern until the quarantine is lifted.