MOVING!

Don't get excited. We aren't moving right away but we have decided that we have officially outgrown the teacup and we are starting the hunt for something new. I wish we could hold out until we are ready to buy but with the whole housing crisis and Bryan getting ready to completely change careers (more about this later), we have decided it would be best for us to continue renting for the next year or so.

We are going to head out today to scout out some places. I'm excited because this is a college town and CUTE houses are everywhere.

Here is a list of my house demands:

I wanted to put it down in writing so when I get woo'd by the cute colonial with no garage or storage building, you can remind me that I have a list.

• Dishwasher
• Storage Building or Garage
• Laundry room or 'area'
• 3 bedrooms
• An actual dinning area that has enough room for our table
• Reasonable pet deposit
• And a dishwasher

Weekend

Did this week seem really long to anyone else? With the election and just the general hum of life I feel like it has been FOREVER since last weekend. I'm really looking forward to laying around the house.

Nightmares

I think I might be growing weary of all the politics. Or at least my subconscious is. Last night I had a nightmare over and over again about running for some sort of public office. Apparently, I had been involved in some sort of government snafu involving big squares and I lost A LOT of taxpayer money and I was desperately trying to not let my constituents find out about it. Now that I write that down, maybe I was running for re-election? And, yes, squares.

That's all I can really remember. It was terrifying and it kept pace like the action sequences in a smart political or lawyer movie like The Firm.

Introducing...

President-elect Barack Opunkin!

Civic duty

I voted this morning and now I am stalking news websites to see if any early results are posted. We have been waiting FOREVER to vote and now we have to wait all day for any news of how it is going! Argh.

There are only 2 people at my work (including me) who are pro-Obama and it has been a good-natured 'us against them' battle for the last month or so. Mainly we just send each other witty emails and try to stear clear of a 'real' political discussion. It is funny because not one person had mentioned politics at all until people started talking about my bumper sticker. I am a radical! This afternoon we are all planning to go to Starbucks, Chic-Fil-a, and Krispy Kreme to get our free goodies (sadly, we are not close to a Ben and Jerry's). I'm loving my job because while we obviously have different views, there are no grudges or hurt feelings. That is refreshing in today's political climate.

Squirrel Update

I know that Squirrel-gate 2008 has taken over your life as much as it has mine so I thought I would post an update. Sawyer was distracted by McDonald's and a nap until Bryan got home and then it was all squirrel, all the time. Fun!

The weird thing is, the squirrel didn't appear on our sidewalk by itself. Apparently, when Bryan left that morning at 6 am, he noticed a flattened squirrel in the street in front of our Obama yard sign. The lot that our house sits on is as long as a city block so our yard signs and the squirrel were quite far from the house. He didn't think anything about it until coming home.

So the question is: Did someone throw the squirrel into our yard to get it out of the street and it just happened to land on the sidewalk? Or did someone purposefully take the squirrel and put it on our sidewalk? Either way, thanks roadkill conscious pedestrian!

I can't help but wonder if it was in fact placed on purpose. This really annoys me because if I think it was placed on purpose - my next thought is - it was placed in our yard because of the yard sign. Why else? We don't really know any of our neighbors so I doubt it was one of them. It could have been some pesky neighborhood kids but what kids are out on a Sunday morning between 6 am and 10 am? It makes me wonder.

We live in a 'blue town' in a 'red state' and we proudly support Obama. No big whoop, right? Wrong. The day that we put our Obama bumper sticker on the car, Bryan was screamed at in the Homeland parking lot. He actually contemplated calling the police because of some of the things that were said but then decided that it was an isolated incident. Hopefully, it was.

Parenting situations you don't think about

So this morning Sawyer and I left the house to walk to church (Bryan is at work). We go to the end of the sidewalk and Sawyer stopped in his tracks and grabbed my leg because there was the most gruesome squirrel carcass laying at the end of the path.

I didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do. So I quickly marched him through the flower bed and out to the street. He held my hand really tightly and after a minute started asking questions. Lots of questions. Questions I could not answer. Ok, some I could: 'Yes, the squirrel was dead.' Yes, I like squirrels.' And my favorite - 'Yes, I prefer living squirrels to dead ones.'

When we came home he really wanted to investigate the squirrel and I felt that the investigation could quickly lead from wanting to look at it to wanting to poke it with a stick so I said no and bribed him with McDonald's.

McDonald's is the only thing I could think of that would capture a child's attention more than a dead squirrel. McDonald's or maybe a power ranger.