Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

We carved pumpkins yesterday. I'll post a picture later.

Update: It was a very slow day at work. My desk faces the front door of the building so all day I watched people in different Halloween costumes entering and exiting. I've seen 2 Dodgers players, a couple cats, Popeye, Uncle Sam, mexican, inmate, John Lennon, funny tennis player, flapper, weird army guy with blonde wig, vampire, 2 Charlie Browns, bloody zombie, clown, witches, and some other neat costumes. Some people wore orange, and some wore Halloween shirts. Not that any of this is particularly interesting to anyone reading this.... but oh well. I'll post later with a pic of our pumpkins!

ring ring

When we moved we got a house phone as a back up in case our cell phones don't work. The only problem is that we are always getting telemarketing calls on it. Today the phone rang 3 times. I usually never answer it. I answered one of the calls today. It was someone who called me Belinda and they wanted me to donate to a Thanksgiving food fund. We get calls all day from people wanting us to give them money for this or that. As for trying to stop them by adding our number to the Do Not Call list... no good. The DNC list does not stop charity organizations, only goods and services calls. If/when I want to give to charity, I'll choose where and when. So ring away telephone.... I ain't answering.

Cat

Last night we were awakened by a cat growling. A neighbor cat came into our backyard and was nose to nose with Milo in the window. Milo was growling at it. He would've attacked it if he could. The cat wouldn't leave despite us trying to scare it away so it went on for a little while. I wonder if it'll be back tonight.

The debate

I watched the debate last night. I am still an undecided voter so I was watching this debate rather closely.

Healthcare is a big deal to me. Obama seemed to have more plans in mind than McCain did to solve the problem. I didn't really follow what Obama meant when he was talking about how he was going to help people who are NOT covered by their employer and have to pay for their own coverage. I disagree with McCain's want to tax employer healthcare. That'd only make things worse in my opinion.

Education was ok. No big deciding factor for me. I did however like when Obama finished his speech about education, he said that it is also up to parents. He said something like: Parents have to put away the video games and instill good educational values to their kids. Very true and that alone would solve so many of the problems.

Abortion. I am pro-life and like that McCain is. At least Obama said he would consider banning partial birth abortion as long at it had exceptions like danger to the health of the mother. I agree more with McCain on this issue though.

Regarding Joe The Plumber, I know they are talking about the small businessman and it was interesting but it doesn't really affect me too much. I'm not a small businessman and I don't make over 250,000 so I would not be taxed by Obama's plan. I was interested that they spent so much time on him. McCain kept asking why Obama would raise any taxes at all in this economic crisis that we are in. But Obama would only raise it for the top 5% of the country which isn't too bad. He'd then use the money to "spread the wealth". BUT on the other hand, these people have worked hard to earn this money. Why should they be punished with higher taxes for being successful? I look at all these people milking the welfare system because they don't want to do any work and feel bad that it's the small businessman that has to pick up the slack. It is similar to the housing/mortgage crisis. Why should I have to pick up the pieces for other people who bought a house when they couldn't afford it? So I don't know.... there are pluses and minuses. I guess overall I should think about what would be best for me. And for this, I want to hear more about the Joe Sixpacks (middle class) rather than Joe The Plumbers (small businessman making more than 250,000). I hope I'm not totally missing the point and seeing all of this completely wrong. I have a tendency to do that sometimes.

Great line: "I'm not George Bush. If you wanted to run against George Bush you should have run four years ago" -McCain. However, how much does he differ? How much would he really change within his party? Would he continue with Bush's foreign policies or change a lot about it? They touched on free trade and talked about foreign oil but I wish they would have talked about their thoughts on the war a little more and the troops overseas. I would rather they talked about that than their blabbing on about negative campaigning.

So who am I going to vote for? I don't know yet. My vote won't really count too much anyway, this is an Obama state. I'm really interested on voting for the California propositions. Especially 2 and 8.

wind + fire = bad

Hi there. It is Monday morning. It's really really windy out today. When driving to work this morning I looked to my left and saw a big fire. I could smell the smoke really strong too. It is pretty bad and the worst part is that the winds are spreading it quickly. Also, they can't bring in the water helicopters yet because the winds are too strong. I'm glad I leave early for work. I hear the 5 freeway is really backed up now. Hmm. I wonder if they're gonna close the 5. In which case I'm not sure how I'll get home.

Update: Firefighters got it under control. Yay. Much more smoke than fire now.

Update again: Another fire now to the west of the other one. It's that time of year.

Baseball

Although we cheer for the Angels, the LA Dodgers are our other team. They are playing Philadelphia now, Michele and Drew's team. So it's us against them. Go Dodgers!!

Vice presidential debate

We watched the vice presidential debate last night. We missed the beginning though. I agree with them both in some aspects and disagree with them both in others. All I can say is that Biden was straightforward and used examples to back up his points. Palin seemed all over in her answers but came back with a strong end. Overall, I'm still undecided but I could see Biden taking over as president if need be....... I cannot see Palin being able to run this country if the need arose.

Trip East

I'm back from my trip east. It was fun. Here's a real quick summary of my busy trip: I flew into Philadelphia on Wednesday and spent all day Thursday walking around the city with Michele. Happily the rain held off. We walked a lot! I also took public transportation for the first time in a long time...trolly, subway, bus and train. Friday we checked out Temple University where I saw Michele's work and we met Drew after class. The drive from Philly to Buffalo was about 6 1/2 hours or so. We made it in time for Amanda's wedding rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner had a rough start with the restaurant not being ready for us but it all worked out. Good pizza and pasta and wings! Then Saturday was Amanda and John's wedding. It was nice. I liked seeing all my relatives again and dancing at the reception. I wished Rob was there though. Sunday was a relaxing day. Went shopping with mom and watched the Bills game. Glad the Bills won... it wasn't looking good in the first half. Monday morning I met with Rob's Aunt Pat and cousin Mary for a bit. Later, dad and I herded some geese at the park on our bikes. Very fun! My plane took off at 4:40pm on Monday. It arrived in Vegas 40 minutes early! That never happens. The Vegas to Burbank flight was so short. Rob picked me up at the airport and I had to go to work the next morning...blah. Overall great trip! I want to rewind and do it again. I took a ton of pictures and I'll post the good ones in a photo album soon so keep an eye out for them. That's it.... I'd better get back to work now.