lawmummy

Why have you forsaken us?

Clearly our sacrifices of rubber ducks, enormous wads of toilet paper and most recently, an entire bag of flossers, did not please you…

You rejected my offering of Drano.

You have turned away from an eco-friendly mixture of baking soda, salt and vinegar.

You even scorned the plumber.

You have spewed forth - again and again - and again - your bowels into our kitchen, our mudroom and yes, leaked into our basement.

What must we do to again be in your good graces?

Sincerely,

Lawmummy and Family

And PS, if you happen to run into the Heating Gods, ask them what’s up on their end…

That’s right.  Who says Philly sports teams can’t be #1?

ESPN just voted us the #1 city in a sports slump!  Take that, Atlanta (who ended up #2).

ESPN says:

No four-professional-team city has gone as long as Philly without winning a title. There hasn’t been a championship parade on Broad Street since Moses Malone led the Sixers to the 1982-83 title. The Eagles came close in 2004, but fell to the Patriots in the Super Bowl. The Phillies reached the postseason this year for the first time since 1993. And the Flyers have been consistent regular-season performers who instantly melt down in the playoffs. Local hero Smarty Jones almost won the Triple Crown, but like the pro teams, couldn’t seal the deal, finishing second in the Belmont Stakes after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Good ol’ Philly.   It’s home.

How can it only be Thursday?

I am tired.  Chris, Amy and Charlie all seem to have some sort of thing and Katie is, well, being Katie (translation:  getting her dressed this morning was murder).

Some girl calling herself taxgirl has been selling terrorist tee shirts on CafePress and they are refusing to take them down.  Grr.

And some other web site is stealing my content and hasn’t replied to my email.  I am not excited about sending the cease and desist letter.

What’s going on with the world this week, for goodness sake?

So, to create a diversion, I have two fun writing exercises up at my other blogs…

One, tax haiku. Who can resist tax haiku?

Two, a three word story game on my kids’ book blog. Easy peasy.

If you need a burst of creativity during the day, stop on in!

From Farmers Almanac, for my region:

Winter will be about a degree milder than normal, on average. Precipitation will be a bit above normal across southern New England and eastern Long Island and below normal elsewhere. Snowfall will be near to slightly below normal, with the snowiest periods in mid-December, mid- to late January, and mid-February. The coldest temperatures will occur in early and late December, mid-January, and early and mid-February.

April and May will be slightly warmer than normal, with above-normal rainfall north of the District of Columbia and below-normal rainfall to its south.

Summer will be rainier and slightly warmer than normal, on average. The hottest temperatures will occur in mid- to late June and mid-July.

Expect a hurricane in the last week of September. Otherwise, September and October will be slightly drier than normal, with near-normal temperatures.

From CNN:

President Bush signs a federal disaster declaration, freeing up federal funds for families affected by the wildfires.

See?  Nothing to worry about… If you’re mostly rich and white and live in a key state with a Republican governor.

Just saying.

Amy learned this song at preschool and it is now one of her favorites. I must say, I’m a bit envious of Thumbkin, as no one seems to realize that he’s simply behind your back. Hmm. How to master this trick…

I’ve missed a few days’ blogging here and there. Things have not settled down at the house.

For one, Amy has this thing. By thing, I mean bug/virus of some description. It is not the same thing as a week and a half ago when she was prescribed antibiotics. The doctor looked at her nose and said, “If you had this much pus anywhere else on your body, you’d treat it” and promptly wrote a prescription for Omnicef.

Ten days-ish later, she has developed a new thing: fever and vomiting. It started last Saturday (sort of) when, just after we finished a lovely dinner, we arrived back at our friends’ house to find Amy under a blanket, complaining of being cold. She was quite feverish. She promptly threw up all over the car seat and our friends’ driveway.

On Sunday, we laid low and by Monday, she appeared to be completely recovered. But that was Monday.

She started off Tuesday by crawling into my bed with another fever. When she was feeling well enough to get up, she proceeded to vomit all over the kitchen, mud room and powder room. On the plus side, we now have a downstairs powder room to vomit in…

Today, she seems better. I, however, feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Partly getting something. Partly worked too much in the yard on yesterday. I have no Halloween costumes finished yet, but I did move my butterfly bush to the back of the yard (it was too close to the sidewalk), divided a peony, moved a lavender plant that was being choked to death by lantana and weeded/pruned the day away. Chris and Katie were underwhelmed but I think it will look great next spring. Oh, and I ordered two trees for the yard - a Japanese maple (cliche, I know) and a sorrel tree. Fingers crossed.

We terminated our agreement of sale on the new house this week. We have asked for our money back. And now we wait. The sellers are not pleased - but I did notice that the ad for the house was back in the paper on Sunday, so it was hardly unexpected.

On a sad note, our long time vet died of cancer last week. I wish his family much peace.

And that’s the news for now.

Pennsylvania politics just became a little more disturbing this week.

And no, I’m not talking about the buzz surrounding Santorum’s run for Governor in 2010 (he swears he won’t and this is one time that I hope he keeps a promise).

I’m talking about former Rep. Brett Feese’s no-bid contract to serve as in-house litigator for the GOP.  You see, Feese lost his seat.  And like many politicians, that didn’t stop him from taking taxpayer’s money, and even more of it than before.  He managed to wrangle a $155k state salary on the day he left office (!) and secure a no-bid contract for $95k.  At $250k, he is the best-compensated legislative staffer in Pennsylvania.   Bully for him, no?

Only a little thing called ethics rules probably forbids Feese from having that contract in the first place.  The GOP, lead by House Republican Leader Sam Smith, swears that (1) they aren’t sure it’s a violation and (2) if it’s really a violation, it wasn’t on purpose.

Okay, let’s grant them that.  Mistakes happen.  And despite the fact that they’re supposed to know the rules, maybe, just maybe, they didn’t understand them.

But the solution?  You gotta love it.  Smith said if the contract turns out to be a violation, they’ll rip up the contract… and raise Feese’s salary.

We, in Pennsylvania, should be proud to have politicians who are willing to think out of the box like that…  If she can’t cheat one way, we’ll do it another way.

From the Bloomington Herald Times:

Indiana University law student Jesse Sneed may have been aiming his assault rifle at his Real Estate Transfer Finance and Development textbook when he fired shots from his westside apartment balcony early Tuesday morning, police say. The book was found later in the parking lot, shot clean through by two rounds, according to investigators. Sneed, 27, was charged Thursday with criminal recklessness in connection with the incident, which closed down businesses and schools for several hours after neighbors reported hearing gunshots on the city’s west side Tuesday. No one was injured.

Oh c’mon, what law student hasn’t taken out their frustrations with an assault weapon?

A lot has been written and talked about with respect to the “Ellen dog fiasco.”  And I thought I’d take a moment to add my thoughts because… well, why not have yet another perspective, right?

Actually, I feel kind of strongly about this, which is why I wanted to say something.  I’ve seen a lot of comments berating Ellen for “not reading the contract” and going on and on about the law.  And usually, I come down on the side of the law.  Laws are in place to protect us and to protect those who can’t always speak up (dogs, children, you get the idea).

In this instance, I agree that Ellen did the wrong thing.  I also feel very strongly that the agency overreacted.

I have a “rescue dog” - I’ll bet that many of you have rescue animals.  We picked up our dog, Lyle, from the SPCA.  We named Lyle, we paid for him, we pay for his vet bills and his license.  But we do not “own” Lyle.  The papers that we signed say that we have to give him back to the SCPA if we no longer can care for him or if the SPCA feels that we’re not taking care of him properly.

Knowing all of this, I still call Lyle my dog.  He has lived in our house for eight years.  And in my will, I have bequeathed him to my parents if something happens to Chris and I.  Legally, we can’t do this.  Legally, we have to give him back.  But realistically, what are the chances of Lyle being adopted out to a good home if he were to go back to the SPCA?  He is now an 8 year old energetic lab with a crooked jaw.  You and I both know that he would likely be destroyed.  And imagine what would happen if every animal that was ever adopted through a “rescue” organization returned it when he or she couldn’t take care of it?  Chaos.

The point of those papers, really, isn’t to tie the hands of a pet owner looking to do what’s best for the pet.  It’s to ensure that dogs are not resold, abandoned, mistreated, etc.

So, was Ellen wrong?  Of course.  Was that agency really doing the right thing - or maybe just looking to make a point in the presence of lots of press?  Draw your own conclusions.

I’m off shortly with my friend, Kristin, to pretend to be a member of high society.

Historically, I have worn black to this function (sometimes with a feathered hat, sometimes not).  This year?  Bright pink with squiggles.  What does this say about where I am right now?