The city-assessed value of my home dropped, so my next property tax bill will go down.

I was raised by Democrat parents.  Of the set of grandparents I knew, my grandpa was a socialist-turned-Republican; Grammy was a closet Democrat (because Pa always ordered her to vote Republican, & she’d agree, then go into the voting booth & usually vote Democratic).

I’m a political junkie & watch up to five hours of news a night when I don’t work.  I weigh the issues, learn about the things I’m not familiar with or don’t understand,, listen to the candidates, discuss the issues, etc. with relatives, friends, & co-workers of all political stripes.  I always end up voting Democrat.

On last night’s show, Keith Olbermann interviewed someone who has taught waterboarding. He said that if he waterboarded Hannity, he could guarantee that he could make Hannity swear his favorite show was Olbermann’s “Countdown”. Olbermann repeated his promise to pay $1000. for each second Hannity lasted while being waterboarded.

Worried, but I’m not panicky yet.  I had an allergic reaction to the only flu vaccination I’ve ever had, & I’m not sure if I could take a vaccination to this version of the flu.

There are no cases locally- touch wood.  If some crop up & there seems to be an "epidemic" around here, I’ll go to my doctor.

Right now, six, but four come with memberships to organizations (AARP,  American Legion & related groups).  I get Smart Computing (in Plain English) & I just subscribed to Budget Travel. I read other magazines, but I pick them up at stores if the articles catch my fancy. 

I am considering splurging & subscribing to a British mag -Period Living- which is no longer available in area bookshops.

 

If I get interested enough in a periodical to  buy it at a store every month for a year, then I subscribe.  If I lose interest, I let the subscription lapse.  I’ve had a wide variety over the years, ranging from Easyriders to Town & Country. 

I had a will drawn up when I traveled behind the Iron Curtain & all I could leave was a pile of books, two cats, & a fat mortgage to my brothers & sisters.

Now the house is paid off, I have more books than I care to count, & I have much-loved nieces & nephews I want to provide with some money for education. 

I have to update my will.  Thanks for reminding me.

I think Susan will "glam up" a bit.  She’s unemployed (but looking for work), & probably doesn’t have a lot of money for ‘frills".  If she does get a record deal, she’ll hopefully have a bit of money to spend on frills, including new clothes.  If she asks for advice (or, more likely, gets it shoved at her), I hope her advisor/s get her to update her image a bit; better quality clothes, etc. without changing the Susan the world fell in love with into another over-processed, plucked. primped, plastic Madonna, Britanny, or Christina.

I feed Bubba the WonderCat first or my life isn’t  worth living.

I heard about Susan Boyle on NPR while ar work, & as soon as I got home I went online to YouTube to catch her performance.  I agree with Piers (the first judge) Susan is stunning!  You MUST see the entire performance on YouTube, where she claims never to have been kissed,  where Amanda (the woman hudge) said it was a priveledge to listen to Susan, & the entusiasm of the host & fellow Scot in the wings.  Of course, Simon Cowell claims that he knew she’d be terrific when she first walked out on stage.

One of the British papers is calling her "Paula Potts" for her "unassuming" appearance, the way she surprised the judge & audience, & the way the British public (& the world) have fallen for her.

 BTW, Paul Potts’ second album has been released in Europe, but won’t be available here in the U.S. until next month.  I loved his first album & have pre-ordered his second "Passione".

I buy some stuff from Lauren Hutton’a "Good Stuff" make-up for older women & love, Love, LOVE the stuff.  Her face disc with concealers, blush, contour, etc. is divine, & it comes with a video so you can learn how to use the diffferent items by watching Lauren applying it on herself.

Most of my eye make-up & lipstick comes from Target or sales at Walgreens. My eyelashes have always been short & sparse, so I am a sucker for every offer by cosmetic companies to make my eyelashes look thicker or longer.  Buying mascara at discount department stores or drugstore sales is the only way I can keep trying falling for every offer of better lashes.

 

The psychic Peter Hurkos said in one of his books that when he did his mentalist act in Vegas, he wasn’t allowed to gamble in the casino at the hotel his show was at.

There are still soap operas airing?  Really?

I have made more than two of the men I’ve dated.  With one it didn’t seem to make a difference.  The other I didn’t think it made a difference for a long time.

Neither of us drove,  I owned my house, he rented. I spend a lot on books; to me being rich means having all the books I want. After a couple of years, he started complaining about what I spent on books, even though I didn’t buy unless all my bills were paid first.  One evening we were out & I mentioned something I’d read.  He complained that if I didn’t spend so much on books, I could afford a sports car to drive us around in.

Right away, I heard the pounding noise of nails being driven into the coffin of our relationship.

Years ago,  dear friend was trying to get me to listen to Rush, saying he’d change the way I thought about conservatives/Republicans/the Right Wing. My friend would insist there would be no liberals left if we’d all take to heart what Rush said.

I listened politely to my friend, but agreed with little of what he was repeating.  I didn’t listen to Rush; a.m. radio reception is spotty where I live & since I usually work nights, I was asleep when Rush was on.

Since my doctors don’t have middle-of-the-night hours, I have to make appointments to fit in their schedule, & one day during daylight, I was at my eye doctor’s & Rush was on there.  I thought that I’d listen & form my own opinion.

Ye g*ds & little fishes!  I was astonished by the carelessness, smug-self-righteousness, complete idiocy, whatever you want to call it of the man.  He aired a call from a teenager who said that he was a Republican & agreed with all Rush said.  The boy wanted Rush’s latest book, but his parents wouldn’t get it for him. They did not flatly refuse; they were farmers who were too busy to drop everything to haul him over forty miles (in each direction) to the nearest bookshop.  They wanted to wait until they had several reasons to make a trip.  Being descended from generations of farmers, the parents reasoning made sense to me, although few jobs are flexible enough to allow workers to drop everything tp pursue their own errands (mine certainly isn’t).

To my surprise, Rush told the teen that he was being held a prisoner in his own home & declared that he had bad parents. 

I don’t know what you were like as a 14 year-old, but i was a mouthy bitch who was looking for any reason to think my parents were screwing up in the way they were raising me.  I remember my own siblings, friends, children of my neighbors, & now my own teen-aged nephews & neices; & teen-agers can be jerks.  If there had been someone like Rush around to make such pronouncements about my parents when I was a teen, I would have hung his picture on my bedroom wall next to my poster of the Monkees.

When I heard Mr. Limbough describe a teenager as a prisoner because his politics were different from his parents, I decided that he was an irresponsible, self-agrandizing boob, & nothing he’s said has persuaded me to change my opinion.

I’d like to see it, too.  I’ve been a fan of Tovah’s since I saw her in the mini-series "Holocaust" in the seventies.