Greece Now The UK

Yesterday and today Greece is experiencing a forty eight hour general labor strike. Today the UK is experiencing the same thing.

This is what happens in moderately socialist societies. They create a culture of leeches who believe the gravy train will never run out. It does, governments overspend and it destroys economies. These people are protesting pension reform. The government has no more money.

As you can read in the article more than just a few aren't heeding the strike. That means they get it, they understand that there has to be reform to public service workers in those countries. It isn't an endless all you can eat buffet on the public dime, it goes into debt and runs out.

This is the problem we are now dealing with in our own country, the problem they dealt with in Wisconsin and the problem they are dealing with in New Jersey. Public sector workers and unions are breaking the budgets, here's the simple breakdown: liberal politicians need votes, unions provide those votes but expect compensation when their horse is elected that they bet on. That compensation is generally in the form of better contracts which means higher pay. It's an endless cycle every two to four years.

Now if you want riots, general labor strikes, and mayhem here keep putting the people into office that believe that there is an endless trough that our leeches can feed out of forever.

It's got to end and the new battle lines are being drawn now between the public sector union worker and the private sector worker who pays their wages and supports the public sector worker well into retirement.

Not A Lot

After thundering up a very loud storm yesterday morning it swerved and went south of us sadly. This morning it rained and it was quiet...go figure.

Yesterday was a super busy day at work, hopefully the night shift completed what I left so I won't have another one.

RAIN!

Woohoooo! It's thundering up quite a storm outside right now and after looking at the radar I believe we'll get a nice rain out of this!

Yeah so the afternoon will be hot, right now it feels incredible outside and the garden will be watered naturally. Last night we enjoyed two steaks and baked potatoes that I grilled. No kids this week so it's pretty quiet around the house.

I rehearsed The Date with her lines for The Dixie Swim Club and kept her on the exact words she needs to say. The director is a stickler for exact wording so we rehearsed it a few times and stuck to every troubled spot for many many times.

She'll get this down and have a performance she'll be very proud of when it's over!

Sweltering Week

Every high this week is at or over one hundred. That makes for a tough week. At least Shakespeare is over with and so is children's drama camp. That leaves The Date going to rehearsal for Dixie Swim Club once a week and Thing 2 as helping the director of 1776.

All in all this is good for them both. It has given Thing 2 a ton of confidence in everything she's done. The Date has developed a lot as well but she was pretty confident to begin with. Thing 2 not so much.

I'm glad theatre is part of our life. I'm thankful for our theatre family as well:)
Now I've got to get outside and water those gardens for the day!

Sunday

One shoot today for the children's drama theatre camp and after that Shakespeare in the park which I might skip tonight. I've got to get my uniforms washed for work and ready for this next week to start. We'll see, it was a good enough show but it's all back to work tomorrow and yesterday was super busy. The wedding plus the show in the park made for a longer day than I thought it would be.

I was exhausted by the time the show ended and I helped load up.

Right now I'm watching a playful Scotch the cat bat at Mike and Audry the rabbits we acquired two weeks ago. The poor bunnies are trying to get a drink from their water bottle and he will reach his paw in and chase them to the other side of their cage. I don't think he would hurt them however they are too small to hold their own against a cat right now. Perhaps when they are full grown they can play together.

I finished reading A Clash of Kings Friday at work and I've been looking for another book to read on the Kindle. I don't want to start with A Storm of Swords because that would leave me only two books left in the series. A Feast of Crows and the very soon to be released A Dance with Dragons. With one more book in the series left after Dragons I'll have more than enough time to finish the entire series at my leisure.

Long Day

I've got to go to one of the events I really don't like going to and that's a wedding today. Yeah it's a happy time for the couple and all that but for me it means sitting in uncomfortable clothes and trying to keep from either dozing off or staying away from the family drama that always seems to ensue during these events.

After the wedding and trip back to town we have Shakespeare to go to. I missed opening night as my day was more stressful than most while I was at work but I'll be there tonight to cheer on The Date and Thing 2.

After this day I'll be done for the short evening that remains. I've been adapting myself to taste wines lately. I've never been a wine drinker at all but I've read of some of the helpful benefits of a glass of red wine a day. When it comes to hypertension or high blood pressure which I have the gene for then I'm willing to develop my taste for red wine. Wednesday I turned on the WunderRadio app on my iphone, plugged it into the speaker/holder, and listened to the radio while cooking with a glass of red.

Apparently there are a lot of differences in red wine, I happened to have picked up two table wines that had screw tops but I liked the bottles. More than likely I'll be picking my reds by how cool the bottle looks on the rack rather than taste, kind, or brand name.

It wasn't as hard as I thought to drink a glass either. Yeah it tasted a bit sour to start with but once you established the taste and determined it wasn't scotch whiskey then it was easier to recalibrate yourself to a glass. What I need right now is something that is relaxing after work and that's cooking and sipping a glass of wine in the kitchen.

Last night I did have three glasses though but as I said it was a particularly stressful day.

Garden Update

I've got bean plants sprouting up! Yes and tomatoes ripening as well, grape tomatoes! The garden is growing! The poor okra died, the cucumbers look a bit fragile but they are hanging in there a bit. The peppers look strong as well as the sweet potatoes.

All in all this is a very rewarding experience and I'm glad we undertook it. I'm looking forward to many years of gardening, it's just like Farmville but real you know!

In other news it's Friday, it's opening night at Shakespeare and I'm glad I didn't get involved this year. I'll be at the shows I'm sure but this heat is a killer. I've got my Shakespeare in the Park badge for the theatre so I'm content to never do it again. It's hard work and a hot show.

Very Nice Supper

Crime Reporter and Abostang as well as Court joined us last night for supper, perfect for me as I enjoy cooking very much and that made me very happy! I made sesame chicken and kung pao chicken along with homemade egg rolls. Court did a great job of rolling up the mixture in the egg roll wrapper! She hasn't really cooked before and I showed her how easy it really was to make a good tasting egg roll.

The noodles didn't work quite right this time though, I should have made stir fried rice instead. Next week is lasagna and one of my favorite dishes to make. I'm looking forward to that! I believe we'll have the same lineup and I'll ask Court if she wants to join us for supper again.

I usually make more lasagna than we can eat and it usually sits in the fridge until it goes bad if I don't eat any of it or The Date. Anyway Abostang also introduced me to a new game called League of Legends! Awesomely fun game, addictive game play, and a nice diversion from Starcraft 2 once in a while. We were up until nearly midnight playing it.

Fifteen Hour Day

Yesterday was one very long work day for moi. Got up at six as per my normal work day as well as age, I almost don't even need an alarm anymore for early morning rising. I am just up. Head off to work, which means lots of catching up after three work days off. I was right but it wasn't as bad as I had expected this time.

Finished a long day back at work and came home to make supper for my family. I saw The Date briefly during the time I was cooking before she had to go get Thing 2 from drama camp and head to the library to pick up a book she had reserved for Thing 1. By the time supper was done cooking it was time for me to head to my evening gig of documenting a photo shoot for a local magazine.

I believe this will turn into a music video right now, not really sure. I arrived just before six and left at nearly half past nine, two full tapes of footage and one happy photographer richer for the experiences.

Beaten and exhausted I returned home and promptly headed for bed, my day completed. I beat The Date and Thing 2 home as well from rehearsal of MacBeth. I'm glad I didn't help with this show, it's just too much with everything else going on and to battle the heat as well is worse.

I wished they would move Shakespeare to a different time of year instead of the HOTTEST weeks of the entire year. Early fall is nice, late spring is nice but June sucks.

Back To Work

I feel pretty good other than a pulled muscle in my neck and shoulder from mowing yesterday. Don't know how I did it but it's hurt and it burns a bit. It'll be fine in a couple of days.

All in all the time off is what I needed. I feel reset now and capable of taking on the grind again. My time off was productive though as Thing 2 and I built three raised gardens, and planted plenty of vegetables. Abostang and I captured first place in our league and have held it for two days now while advancing our lead over the rest of the field. We've even been getting more gold league players in our random games and are doing pretty well against them.

So now I get through this week, Shakespeare tech week is all of this week with the shows this weekend, The Date's weekly rehearsal is tonight, the drama camp show is this weekend, a wedding on Saturday, Sunday has me shooting the drama camp show for Tech Guy, and Skate and The Inavader's going away party is on Saturday.

We will miss them quite a bit. Skate is one darn good guy. They are on the east coast right now honeymooning before his assignment to Germany and new career path. Yep, missing them being around doesn't even begin to cover it.

Last Day Off

It's nice to have been off this many days in a row. Five days is great actually! It's a busy week ahead but it'll be the last big theatre week until the musical kicks off in July.

After that it's wide open except for once a week rehearsals for The Date in the season opener, The Dixie Swim Club. I'm still proud of her to have gotten into that show. If that director asks you to audition then she sees something she likes in you for one of the parts.

Yesterday we went to the city to let Thing 2 run rampant in the Asian supermarket. That was quite the adventure, she went into a frenzy. We got her under control again and she had a new tea pot, tea, and a drum thing that bangs when you turn it in your fingers. Very annoying.

Today I'll go up to the lawyer's office and see about what paperwork I need to fill out and something else I can't remember right off the top of my head. It's a hot day though, hot and windy.

First Real Father's Day

Although the adoption isn't final yet and there's still another step to go through the ex's parental rights were terminated and he is no longer relevant to any discussion about the girls. They are essentially mine already.

I wish I had met Thing 1 when she was younger but there's always a reason and a plan for things to happen the way they did so I trust and take what comes. I'm sure once she is out on her own and matures through the hard knocks of life then she and I will have a much better relationship. And then we'll become closer and have the father/daughter relationship we need.

Thing 2 is my girl though, probably from the first time she met me. Once The Date and I were married, maybe even before, Thing 2 used my last name on everything. She occasionally calls me dad, I think it's awkward for her to do that. It's ok though, she's never really had a father figure in her life until me. She just doesn't know what that's supposed to be like. She loves me though and I love her.

We finished our gardens yesterday, planted some beans, sweet potatoes, and another okra plant. I picked up some seeds for next year and we're looking forward to having a good growing season!

Garden Planted

Thing 2 and I accomplished planting everything yesterday except the sweet potatoes which will get their own garden. We've got three varieties of tomatoes, okra, bell peppers, banana peppers, and cucumbers. We've got bean seeds and will give that an attempt as well.

Not your typical garden actually since a lot of the main crops have been left out such as onions, lettuce, potatoes, and staple foods like that. We'll plant garlic early this fall and harvest next year in summer.

We filled up the second garden and now only the third garden remains to be filled. We'll get that done this morning when she wakes up. Then we'll get the sweet potatoes planted in that as they apparently will invade your whole garden with the tubers.

The pickles are done today! Honestly they were done likely two days ago on Thursday. I decided to take the cap off one of the three jars and put a bit more vinegar into it as I didn't fill it up quite enough. There was about a quarter inch of pickle at the top that wasn't being pickled. I couldn't resist and ate one...and proceeded to eat the whole jar myself.

They have a tiny bit of spice on the backside of flavor as crushed red peppers were one of the spices used as per the recipe. Delicious though! I'd recommend making your own! They have that Claussen crunch, they taste clean and crisp. They were cheap to make after purchasing the spices, and they are darn tasty!

Friday Morning!

Yeah it's payday but I've also been very busy this morning. I have been editing the shoot from last night at Blue Jay's Barber Shop where they specialize in old fashioned straight razor shaves with the whole atmosphere to go with it! It's really pretty unique and was fascinating to film.

After filming that last night I did tech for Third Thursday which is an acoustic guitar show at the theatre every month. Packed room and good performers as well! It was a nice time.

This morning Thing 2 and I went back out to Lowe's to get more compost and tomato trellises. We've got the second garden full now and some plants planted. When it cools off we'll finish planting and get the third garden filled. We are planting started tomatoes, okra, bell peppers, banana peppers, and we'll get some beans planted for winter.

I believe she got sweet potatoes as well but I can't quite remember. We are too late in the season for many crops that we use a lot of like onions and potatoes and such. That'll be next year but soon enough we'll be able to plant garlic! I use a ton of that when I cook so it'll be very useful!

All in all we have gone with three 4x4 by 8 inch gardens and let me tell you it's a lot of work building them and filling them in this hot sun! It was ninety eight yesterday and it'll be a little over one hundred today! We'll get them wrapped up pretty soon though and really that's the hardest part of this style of gardening. After this it's just crop rotation and harvesting! Easy enough!

I'm Off

I was nearing a breaking point at work. It was slow due to the inspection cycle and that means I had to find work to do for a couple of days this week. I decided to take off, I need a few days of rest and doing what I want to do to recharge.

Plan on making a trip to Lowe's today and getting a couple of tools, then some supplies to build our square foot gardens. I can build two 4x4x8 inch gardens and one 4x8x8inch garden for roughly one hundred dollars. That should produce enough food to supplement our grocery buying and reduce costs. We are in bad economic times right now and depending on what article you read it rivals the Great Depression in terms of economic indicators.

With at least another two years of bad coming it's time to move towards dollar stretching and square foot gardening seems the best way to go. Today is the first step! I'll get Thing 2 and we'll get this going today, she loves to be outside and loves gardening after Grandma showed her a few things last year!

The Date knows how to can and preserve foods so a portion of the gardens will be grown for future use. I want these to look pretty nice and I want Thing 2 to really enjoy doing this so it'll be fun for her and beneficial for everyone.

So today since I'm off work and tomorrow is payday we'll start our endeavor into gardening!

Nineteen Years

Today is my nineteen year anniversary at work. Nineteen long years means that on June 15, 2022 I'm finished, I'll clock out for the last time:) I'll be fifty two and have plenty of time to pursue other things.

I'll receive full pension and after a few more years I'll start to receive my 401k. I don't kid myself about social security. It's a good program that's run its course. I'd rather have all the money kicked into it now transferred to my 401k and let my managers handle it. They've grown my retirement in these rough times well enough.

Nineteen years and I hope the roughest patches are behind me at work. I'm sure that we'll never strike again. I hope anyway, I'll likely vote against it in the future if need be.

I'll earn another full week of vacation next year as well on this date. That'll make the next...last decade go faster! I won't have to be there as much! How ironic is that?

Nineteen years, I was a young twenty two when I started. I've lived through a lot of changes at work, a lot of hoops to jump through, a lot of nonsense, and a lot of struggling. I've got it made now though, some weeks I'm super busy, some weeks not so much. Some weeks I can't catch up, some weeks I'm more than caught up. It'll be just like that for the next eleven years. I'm almost in the home stretch, almost 2/3rds done!

Quiet Night

Had a pretty quiet night at home after grocery shopping. I made a chicken rigatoni dish and played Starcraft 2 with Abostang for a couple of hours. Thing 2 went to rehearsal, and The Date and I lounged around the house sharing the TV.

Abostang and I were promoted to the silver league last week and now we are ranked second and have knocked off some gold league players. In 1v1 competition I went 3-1 last night and everyone I faced was favored against me. If I keep that up it won't be long before I'm promoted to another league.

I forgot the GOP debate was last night, I'd have liked to have seen it however there's a dozen more debates to come before the election in November 2012 and the ousting of Obama. The big debates will be Obama vs. the GOP contender, if the numbers follow suit then unemployment will be double digits by then. I would love to see him explain his failures to the American public and with a straight face ask for their votes again. We literally put a worse Jimmy Carter into office.

Start It Up

One more week in the books, one more on deck. The pickles are looking...well like pickles. The recipe says seven days, I may not be able to wait until Saturday. It's a lot like making bacon, you shake the jar every day for a few seconds to mix the spices around. With bacon you flip the meat over every day.

Hopefully they'll be Claussen caliber pickles or better! When we get expendable funds again and I can get the square foot gardens built and filled with the mixture, we're going to plant pickling cucumbers for sure!

The Date used to can stuff so we'll have a way of preserving foods:) I've got no idea on how to can anything so I'm helpless in that department.

This week should be hot, the rainy weather kind of cooled things down a bit but now it'll get back over one hundred again. So be it, it's just apart of living here. Hopefully this week will fly by!

Rainy Night

I mowed yesterday, good thing too as it rained what seemed like all night long. In reality it was probably only a couple of hours or so. I'm glad I got it done yesterday though or it'd be a lot harder to do coming up!

Washed dishes, made enchiladas, got a few supplies to make Claussen dill pickles, and watched Ice Station Zebra on TCM as well as The Caine Mutiny. Is this what life will be like after I retire? I can only hope!

I also did a little bit of looking into the origin of Mason jars. I had never seen a brand with the name Mason on them. So I wondered if why they were called Mason. Turns out John Landis Mason invented the shoulder sealing lid in 1858 along with a zinc cap. Before that people used wax, cork, or leather sealers. The Mason jar had a threaded neck for the new cap to screw onto. Home food preservation was never the same after that.

Like most inventors who had a brilliant and culturally changing ideas, he sold his rights and died broke in 1902. Before home freezers were commercially viable in the home this was the newest bestest thing to preserve food in the home.

No Power X2

So after the night before and it's power problems I get to work and we are there maybe a half hour and the power to our building goes out. Then it comes back on for half the building.

Then maybe two hours later the power to EVERY building goes out and I wave the white flag and go home at noon. I get home and get Thing 2 squared away at drama camp at the theatre and come back. I decide the day is perfect for pulled pork so I find the thawed roast I had in the fridge, marinade it up, light the fire, and smoke the thing for six hours. It was a small roast so no need for the much longer smoking times that are usually required. However I did smoke it too long by maybe an hour as it was dried out in places.

Usually I cook an eight to nine pounder and that requires roughly two hours per pound to get it tender, this one was very lean and I really didn't account for the lack of fat. However by the time it was over the bark was all over and the meat, though over done, was very tasty!

Pulled the pork and added the sauce, put it on buns and supper was served!

No Power

Yep, it just came back on about fifteen minutes ago. It went off around eleven I think?
I don't know I was trying to sleep when this huge gust of wind hit and hit for ten minutes.

Power went out and that was that. The battery back up on the alarm woke me up and here I am! Yeah it was a rough night with no air conditioning or fans, not going to lie about that. Oh well, it's over and we are up and awake now.

The last day of the week! Hooray! This weekend will be nice, no plans yet but it'll be nice anyway!

Side note to yesterday's blog regarding our conference call with a new client, his partners LOVED the idea and they are now working on what we need to make this happen, they are supposed to have it back to us in a few days! That's exciting stuff right there!

Good Start

Beersnob and I had a conference call last night with our prospective client/business partner and it went very well. Beersnob and I sat at the pub around nine and chatted about how it went and he point out some things we need to be aware of if we go further ahead.

I'll be checking out what a LLC will cost today and see about getting that set up. All in all I felt very good about the call and what he had to say. He was enthusiastic about the prospective idea and we are proceeding ahead.

This is exciting news for me personally as it's an idea I had, gave it legs to run, and now it's on its way to becoming reality.

The Hearing

In case you hadn't heard the preliminary adoption hearing went very well! The ex's rights were officially terminated and the adoption can proceed without his consent! He's over, done, finished...other than he still has to pay his back child support and that increases monthly due to state imposed interest.

I enjoyed being off yesterday and really I didn't do much outside of making a roast for supper. A week like that and I could really recharge my batteries and improve my mood but alas I'm forced to hang onto my leave whenever necessary right now. Beersnob and I are currently working on a project that has the potential to be bigger than average and it would require traveling on our part to shoot it.

More on that as it develops but I LOVE this idea and so did our prospective client. We are setting up a conference call with him for this week to go into detail with them and possibly get this thing underway.

The Date turned in her notice at the library, the twentieth will be her last day there, I'm good with that. She will be launching her special project very soon and is in the process of getting things going right now! This is going to be a big thing for the area and it'll help people out at the same time who are finding it hard to stretch a dollar in this Obamanomy. Believe me we're all hurting and are getting sticker shock at the grocery store and gas pumps.

So I'm off to work to finish out the week now and await news from Beersnob that we have our conference call arranged. I'm looking forward to advancing this project quickly!

Hearing Day

This morning we have a preliminary hearing on the adoption of The Things. It's going to be a good thing and then I don't know the process but I'm guessing they will set the final court date after this.

It'll be nice to remove the "step" from stepfather. Thing 1 is on the fence about it at times but Thing 2 has been using my name since before The Date and I were married. The ex has literally disappeared and not even the lawyer can find him now. He's quit paying child support the last six weeks and since he's 92k behind I don't think he plans on paying for anymore.

I've read stories of men being put in jail for a fraction of that amount. This guy has slipped through the system for years now. It's really strange that he hasn't wound up in prison yet but it's imminent. This is a bed he's been making for years and soon he's going to be sleeping in it for 5-10 more.

It's really a shame that he has no interest in them. Don't get me wrong I'm glad he's gone, most likely for good and this 92 thousand dollar debt will haunt him for his entire life which is deserved and self inflicted.

Any hope for a better life will always be haunted by this until it is cleared up, and it likely never will be. It'll start growing exponentially by a state imposed interest rate and added to weekly by two hundred and fifty dollars. I pay half that amount into my 401k every two weeks!

It's a mess but thankfully we aren't on the wrong end of it!

The Reliance Project

If you read this I ask that you disseminate it to people you know, to churches, to charity organizations, to any philanthropist out there who may be interested in making their community a better place.

The economy isn't going to fully recover for some time yet, it's in trouble and cost of living increases will continue to rise putting a huge strain on monthly household budgets. If these tough times force someone on government dependence they don't give you the skills to get off of it easily or at all. Over time you can easily become a slave to a way of life.

I know there are things I don't know about this right now, get me in touch with smart people who can flesh this out on these bones of an idea.


The Reliance Project
Problem:

According to a recent article in the local paper up to 1 in 5 residents of this county are on food stamp assistance. While this is a sometimes necessary situation during hard times it also seems very high. This is a part of the country where hunger should be a stranger and a day and age in which no one should go hungry. This also leads to unhealthy eating as the food purchased is usually junk food or easy to prepare.

Problem 2:

With the rise in fuel and food prices seniors are at risk of extending their fixed incomes beyond their means. With these necessary costs creeping beyond the reach of many on limited incomes the problem of hunger arises again and is a haunting specter of things to come.

Problem 3:

Average families are looking at more ways than ever to save money just to keep their heads above water. It’s a tough time for everyone right now and for the foreseeable future. If gas prices go beyond four dollars per gallon it will eat up the household budget and leave little left for living expenses.

Solution:

I believe the time is right to form a project group to solve these problems by teaching basic gardening skills. I’ve read Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. He teaches the basic skills of raised bed gardening with rationed space for planting. What is taught can feed a family indefinitely without the backbreaking work of traditional row gardening. I believe that teaching people self reliance will break the cycle of government dependence that robs people of dignity and the motivation for bettering themselves. This is done in a multipronged strategy as outlined below:

• Base of operations should eventually be a 51 food diameter Geodesic greenhouse dome, the price of this dome is $44,950. This allows for 2,200 square feet of growing space anytime during the year. It is dual purpose as it would be constructed in a public area, it’ll be a visible sign that hunger is temporary and self reliance is within the grasp of anyone who wants to break the cycle of dependence, learn to stretch a dollar further by learning these skills, or is looking to learn to be self reliant altogether.

• I’ll work with instructors/gardeners to produce a DVD course of everything taught. These can be sold to raise money to pay for the dome and scholarships for attendees who cannot afford to pay for a course (price to be determined) and learn the basic skills.

• I’ll produce the video course free of charge IF all proceeds go towards paying for people to attend training in the dome greenhouse.

• People who can afford to attend should be allowed to pay for a course and it should be enough to provide for a scholarship to those who are unable to pay.

• Proof should be provided for those on government assistance that they have abandoned government assistance in lieu of self reliance.

• How to prepare the fruits of the labor and preserving should also be taught. The food harvested is worthless unless you know how to cook it after all.

• Over time other courses can be added such as raising chickens for eggs and meat for example.

Benefits of The Reliance Project:

Learning a necessary skill that will enable you to feed yourself and family on an indefinite basis should be a reward unto itself. There are other benefits as well such as a healthier level of eating, less people on public assistance means less pressure on tax payers, a generation of people will be given their freedom to live anywhere and be able to support themselves in any economic condition. Food grown in the dome can be donated to food banks, senior centers, and sold at the farmer’s markets to support the overhead of the dome and training programs.

There are parts of this project I have not fully thought out as of yet and things I’ve not even thought to consider however I welcome any and all help in fleshing out this project to completion.

If we give a hand up and give them the tools to depend upon themselves they will in turn pass those skills down to others, many Americans don’t have these basic skills anymore, skills that were prevalent in the early 20th century.

Weekend Accomplished

After the fairly hectic schedule my family has had the past two weeks it's nice to be able to not do much this weekend. As I said yesterday I had a shooting job in the morning along with Beersnob but that was finished by eight. The Date went to work at nine and got off work at three which was nice to have her home for the evening.

We had been invited to the movies by Court but honestly neither of us wanted to get out much, The Date did head over to T's house after and hung out with the movie going crowd though while I literally vegged out on the couch.

All things considered I plan on doing much the same today. I've got a decent week of work ahead but there are a couple of things that could happen to make it a week to remember. If Beersnob and I land a potential idea then it'll be the week our small company really gets it's foot in the door.

Tomorrow I plan on blogging about the food stamp epidemic and what I feel local people can do about changing it and helping people become self sufficient. It's not easy to get off of government aid once you get on it and some people need to be on it. Some people just take advantage of the system and game it as much as possible though.

I feel it is one of my most important blogs in the near future though, well outside of the one when I get to announce I'm a real father after adopting Things 1 and 2. So tell your friends about tomorrow's blog, repost the link of facebook, and please think about what this idea represents to your community.

Cabaret

Last night's cabaret was amazing. I'm very proud of The Date! She did a great job but she wasn't the only one. Yeah I'm biased because The Date, Court, Red, and a few other friends including Teehee were the performers. It really was an amazing evening! Everyone had strong performances and Teehee was so good he drew a standing ovation for his efforts!

Yes he is that good!

This morning was filled with a shoot with the Divas at 6:30. Beersnob and I edited separate cuts of the shoot so our skills will mesh well! It's working, he did a great job and cut it very close to the way I did. He's a great partner to have!

For now it's going to be a quiet day, I'm making a sesame chicken stir fry and I really love the art of stir fry cooking. It's very difficult to really screw it up.

Here's Why I Got Married

I was going to blog about the economy again and the food stamp program. I've thought of a local solution that would help people off of food stamps and not with any government help at all but I'll save that for another day. Our county has one in five residents on food stamps right now and that's pretty high to me, it's a tragedy in fact. So stay tuned for another post on the matter in the coming days!

Now I want to congratulate my wife and T on getting parts in the upcoming season opener, The Dixie Swim Club. It's directed by CC who has a reputation of putting on a good show and she runs a tight ship. You'll feel you've accomplished something by the time you are finished with the show.

Yesterday was rough on me. I see medical bills piling up from Thing 1's hospital trip and I see the income stream coming in and they don't match up. I was pretty down yesterday and didn't know what to do about it really so The Date and I had a long texting conversation (texting because I was at work and pretty busy on top of it all) she assured me it was going to be ok. Things are just things and stuff is just stuff and it's not important as being together.

So this morning I get up to a very loving and encouraging note that has made my month. I want to preserve it on my blog because I feel it is that important.

Good morning my dear husband!
Nothing in life would be worth struggling for if you weren't in my life. Everything we do takes us forward, even if it seems backwards. When I feel lost, beat down, and consumed by failures, all I need do is curl up in your arms and instantly nothing in the world seems that important. A house isn't a home without love. No matter what house it is. I would live here the rest of my life as long as I knew you'd be with me and love me the way you do. All I want is to see you smile and laugh. I want to grow old together and do puzzles and watch our grandbabies grow like weeds. And when those days arrive, none of these hard days will even be remembered. It's just stuff, it's only money, and it all wears out, gets old, gets spent, falls apart and vanishes from memory. Love and time together sticks like gum to the heart. I remember songs my mother sang to me, things she did with me, not all the things we had. We'll get through this hard spot just like we have all the other hard spots. As long as I have you, I can do anything. I can never thank you enough for all that you do. I'm sorry for being so hard on you about things I know you have no control over. You are my confidant, the only one I trust, and I never mean to burden you. I can't remember what life felt like before you and I never want to know again how to live without you. God didn't forget me - he gave me you.
Love you with all of me - "The Date"

So that's it folks, that's the reason I got married to this wonderful woman. Now tonight she is going to sing in Cabaret along with Court and Red, I've heard their set and it's darn good! Looking forward to it tonight babe and I hope to see my friends there as well!

Trouble Ahead

From this article, "Interest rates are amazingly low and that, thanks to Ben Bernanke, is driving everything," Yastrow said. "We’re on the verge of a great, great depression. The [Federal Reserve] knows it."

How's THAT for an eyeopener? How about this one, it shows a very bleak picture of our economy. Regardless if this is the new Obama economy or not it really doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you are capable of supporting yourselves when meat is fifteen dollars a pound and scarce at the grocery store or bread is nine dollars a loaf.

When you can't buy food because your dollar is so devalued that it'll take a twice as many to buy what it buys now. It's imminent. Look that word up. A financial collapse is coming our way. Our retirements are likely going to be wiped out, our dollars worth less than the paper they are printed on, everything will be turned upside down.

Now is the time to prepare yourselves and family. Learn to grow your own food. Learn to be more self sufficient. Learn to raise chickens if you have to or some kind of meat that you want to eat and can butcher. Learn to butcher for that matter. We've gotten two very good books to help prepare ourselves, one is on homesteading and the other I went into detail about in another blog and it's called Square Foot Gardening.

I can't put a timeline on when the collapse is going to happen but the stage is set and I fear that our government won't be able to stop it. Might not even be able to lessen it's impact. Gas will get higher, food will get higher, and your dollar will not go nearly as far.

If we are headed for the olden days of soup lines and twenty percent unemployment then you can help yourself out and learn the skills people used when there were no stores around. When money was essentially unheard of because it was so scarce. Get that pioneering spirit and start to become self reliant.

Who's going to suffer? Yesterday on my way to work I saw a line outside our local grocery store before they were open. Yep, first of the month means new food stamps and they were there already. I'm all for the food stamp program for those who are on hard times and really need it badly but I'm all for food stamps being temporary too and NOT a way of life.

These people will starve if the economy collapses, they have become enslaved to the state. They have no skills at all to support themselves if the money isn't there anymore. They will turn to whatever means it takes to feed themselves and that is likely crime.

This won't be my family and I hope it won't be my friends.

What A Long Day

But I'm starting to get the hang of shooting a live game. What I'm used to is staged, I tell actors where to go and what to do, then I move the camera to stay on them. I know where they are going and what they are doing and I know where I'm moving the cam, easy.

Shooting live baseball is totally different. You have no idea when the ball will be hit, where it's going, or how long the play will last. Ten's brother is doing a great job of teaching me the ins and outs of shooting live sports. They have a pretty cool set up. It's pretty professional and would be a great tool to learn someday. I don't know if I'll ever have a need to learn to do live four camera shoot but learning a board would rock.

So thank you to you two guys for asking me to help with this, it's educational, fun, and it's a great learning experience. The game went ten innings last night, thankfully it didn't go until midnight! Now for a long day at work and I'll be making chicken enchiladas tonight for Crime Reporter, a request from last week! Looking forward to making enchiladas for the first time, it'll be interesting.

I've found several really good recipes that look very very tasty.