Give it up.

Time to offer some thanks. I fashion myself to be a truly grateful person. I have a wonderful and loving husband who is creative, intelligent, kind and inspiring. I have parents who have shown me more love and kindness than I could ever humanly expect or deserve. I have a cool brother who teaches me many things and a very, very driven sister-in-laws. I have siblings-in-law whom I admire. I have a job that is as ecclectic as my home decorating sense, a part-time gig that is changing the way I think of perfect strangers, I have a pup who cuddles up, good health, a warm bed to sleep in, plenty of food (do you know how expensive a standing rib roast costs? damn.) that is really, really, really tasty. I have friends who are like an extended family - diverse, busy, focused, expressive and talented bunch. I have friends of old who are far away but never forgotten, though we may rarely communicate. I have surprise phone calls to look forward to, and laughs to share. I have morning coffee and mimosas on the horizon after a three mile jog, plus muffins and companionship. I have enjoyable food prep with my sweetie, a little bit of vino from the lot purchased today and a feast with 10 people whom I will be honored to be with. Life indeed is good. I hope you have plenty to be thankful for, too. Give it up with a grateful heart, y'all. Happy Thanksgiving.

It's Frugral Friday!

Two Frugal Friday entries today... The tip itself and then a Frugal Friday Monologue. Enjoy.

Tip: Canvas shoe bags make great storage containers in every room in the house. They're not just for shoe stoage anymore, baby. I keep on in the bathroom to hold lotions, bandages and other various and sundry items. If I had the right place in my kitchen it would hold utensils and spices.

Monologue: Here's a way to spend a Friday night without spending much cash, and it will help explain why I didn't get this posted yesterday. Here goes nothing. Work all week. If you haven't done this since September 28 it is easy to come home exhausted. Have happy hour at your kitchen table with good friends, eat leftovers on the couch and get a movie On Demand. Get ready to post your blog. Then fall asleep...

Frugal Friday Tip

This week's Frugal Friday tip: Almond oil. What an awesome tool for manicures! Just mix a tablespoon with some epsom salts and scrub. Slather up with some lotion afterwards. AWESOME. Give yourself a little coat of almond oil before apply lotion for several days in a row; then scrub again. I buy the oil at our co-op, but you can probably get it for just about $5 anywhere. And epsom salts are a couple of bucks, too. Right on, I say. Frugal Friday rules.

Let the craziness begin.

It's been a good week here, a busy one. Finally! Busy again. I start my new and awesome Director of Education job at a local art gallery on Monday, and I started my part-time retail gig yesterday. I have surpised myself with an interest in working for a large multi-national corporation, not unlike those I often complain about. I will not complain about the handsome associate discount.

Also, go politics. Tuesday was a great day for American democracy, in my opinion. Nice to see the Blues take control of Congress. As a constant reminder, I will soon have a pair of patent leather red Dansko clogs, won on eBay on the day the GOP red party lost control of Congress since they assumed almost total control when I was too young to vote but still had a strong opinion for politics. Got stepped on, I will probably think of that and chuckle, but that's just me.

Exercise

Your civic duty! Please vote today.

I voted today, but I am cynical about the vote in Florida. P. and I went to vote this morning at 7a, when the polls opened. When I finished my ballot (which I spent considerable time learning about this election) I went to the scan-tron machine and lo and behold, it was broken. So I hope my vote will count; I'm certain it will, but it's not hard to understand why people don't feel so great about our democratic process. All voters were invited back to watch the process at 7p when the ballots from earlier in the day are counted, but I'll be performing my other civic duty: community band. Nevertheless, it's great to vote. And the sticker makes such a rad accessory all day long.

Frugal Friday!

By classification, I am nowhere near poor. I certainly don't qualify as wealthy either. I consider myself lucky to even be approaching the middle class. Dudes, we live in a seriously shrinking middle class in this amazing country of ours, and my opinion is that we can each pinch a penny here and there for good reasons all our own.

It will keep me vigilant if I share a frugal tip each week, so Frugal Friday is born. I am plenty excited about this concept, so today I'll share not one but two frugal tips.

Tip #1: Make your own disinfectant wipes rather than signing away your life savings to the Clorox company. Take some paper towels, fold them in half or thirds depending on your persuasion. You could even cut the roll in half with an electric knife. That would be dramatic. Anyway, next boil a cup of water and pour it over 1/4 cup of Borax. (Borax is not toxic or lethal but will clean the living shit out of some stuff. Give it a whirl. If you don't give a crap about the enviornment and toxicity, you could subsitute PineSol or some other cleaner.) Pour half of the liquid mix in the botton of the container in which you will store the wipes. Put in the towels, schlop the remaining liquid on top. Turn the container over several times, let the towels absord the liquid for a few hours and you'll be ready to wipe some stuff up. Good luck. And don't use cheap paper towels, it doesn't pay in this instance.

Tip #2: Framed letters and cards make excellent home decorating items. Complete a grouping on your bookshelf, relive a card from your dad that says "Oh Shit" in your kitchen, etc. No message is too outrageous.

Already I feel fulfilled by Frugal Friday.

That's abuse.

I hate it that politicans and mega-stars use their substance abuse as a convenient excuse when things go sour. Mel Gibson and his stint in rehab, Mark Foley and his alleged substance abuse issues and now Florida State Rep. Rafael Arza (R - Miami) is blaming his use of a racial slur on the fact that he was drunk.

I don't consider myself a total lush, but many a weekend night find me with more than a beer or two, drunk and having a dance party in somebody's living room. You don't find me (or any of my pals, for that matter) leaving messages with racial slurs, sending inappropriate email messages to children or verbally absuing a Jewish police officer. When I get drunk, I listen to a little Kanye West, wireless compute, and often become overwhelmed by my love for my husband and fondness for my cute little dog. I don't get it, man. I know everybody's different, but friends, we must draw the line in the sand at some point, for heaven's sake.

Luckily I'm not the only one who feels this way. I know it's long, but I am posting an editorial comment from CBS's Bob Schieffer on the matter. It's worth a read - and proves that many of us are tired of excuses. Enjoy.

How you doing on excuses in the Mark Foley Congressional Page scandal?

Remember when the story first broke? Congressional excusers who apparently knew of this, first described the e-mails that Foley sent to a 16-year old page as "overly friendly," not explicitly obscene.

My first thought was that great line from Robin Williams' new movie when a presidential character denied wrongdoing: "I did not have sex with that woman...I wanted to."

Then we heard that whatever he had done, Foley had checked into alcohol rehab — the obligatory stop for national celebrities caught in scandal

Question: does getting drunk make it OK for a grown man to prey on 16-year-olds or for congressional leaders to cover it up?

From Chapter Two of the excuse manual came word that as a child Foley was abused by a priest, but was now cooperating with authorities — naming names.

Which brought a 69-year-old man from under a rock somewhere with an excuse to gag a buzzard.

It's always dangerous to say we know enough, but haven't most of us with an IQ higher than our age figured out two things here: that Foley is a creep who should be kept away from kids and that Congressional leaders knew that — how could they not have known — yet chose to ignore it?

I have a request. My barf bag is at the ready, but spare me any more detail.

I know all I need to know on this one.


By Bob Schieffer
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Just call me Prez.

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