Rich vs Poor

Between 1997 and 2006 the minimum wage has not been raised and it's been the longest period the wage hasn't been increased, ever. Just more proof that the rich continue to get richer and the poor get poorer.

Whats ironic, is that the people who are making less money or minimum wage tend to be the people working the hardest or dealing with the most crap. I say, lets pay politicians minimum wage and let's get some people who will work harder for us.

Ouch, That Hurt!

Why are schools banning games that teach kids to resolve disputes, learn from others, and games that excercise their bodies and problem solving skills? Check out this article about schools banning games in the name of safety.

I guess we could just send our kids to school under constant supervision, strap them down in their seats so they wont be a danger to themselves or others, and feed them through a straw like the invalids we are raising them to be. While were at it.. Let's not teach them to poop in the toilet either...They might fall in!

And so it begins...

We started working on the loft Sunday! We didn’t do much at all really…I just got everything out of the middle of the floor and swept. Its amazing the difference just a little bit of cleaning will do. Joe started pulling down the peg board that is covering the side walls. He also started working on pulling up the tile floor stuff. Of course it didn’t come up as easily as we had hoped! Why would it?! So we didn’t get very far at all with that. I am going to start gathering up all the info I need to start getting to ready to talk to the historic society. For those of you who don’t know there is a group of people here in Paris that can tell you what to do and what not to do with your own, historic, property. Now I totally get that they want to keep everything historic but sometimes they can go over board and don’t let you do something because they personally don’t like it. We ran into problems with them at StarNet when we did remolding, but I can tell you they aren’t going to push me around with our building like they did StarNet. Although I really don’t see us having any problems considering everything we are wanting to do is going to be taking it back to the historical look they are going for. The only thing we are going to have a problem with is going to be the brick. Right now it is painted green….UGLY Green! (What is it with me and Joe running into ugly green paint colors….) We want to sandblast it and try to get the paint off to take it back down to the original brick color…but how easy it will be to convince them that is the right thing to do and how good it will work is a different story. The only other major thing we are wanting to do is open the windows back up….and tell me why in the world would they have a problem with that?? I just can’t wait to get started!!! We have stopped working on our house now since we are pretty much done so Saturday we got to just sit around for the first time in a LONG time. Joe enjoyed it, he took a nap, but me….well….to tell you the truth I was absolutely totally and utterly bored out of my mind!!! I don’t like to just sit around and not do anything you know…I like doing stuff. But I know once we get started working and doing all this hard work all over again I am going to wish we were done!
I'll add some pictures along the side tonight or tomorrow. Keep an eye out for em..

Trashy News

Sunday evening Kari and I went on a brief cycle ride around and about our neighborhood and on some of the more ‘back’ roads in order for me to pick up some aluminum cans. That’s right, cans. I’m on an ‘aluminum can kick’, especially after finding out that they are selling for approx. 74 cents per pound. It takes around 26 cans to make a pound. You do the math.

Needless to say, during our journey we found and saw more than just cans, or should I say, more than just –beer cans-. Initially, after seeing cans and bottles and other crap littering the sides of our roads, we thought we might pick up the litter too, but we soon came to find out how ill equipped we were for such a task and decided to stick to just cans.

We’ve suddenly become extremely aware of how incredibly polluted our environment is while I’ve been on this ‘can kick’. It has started rubbing off on Kari, now as we drive to destination A, we both can’t help but acknowledge how many cans are on the side of the road, along with all of the other crap. Did you know that for each pound of aluminum recovered, Americans save the energy resources to generate about 7.5 Kilowatt-hours of electricity? That’s enough energy to meet the electric needs of a city the size of Pittsburgh, PA for six years. But HERE, don’t take my word for it.

‘Why is the litter situation in itself so bad?’ we ask ourselves, what makes people so uncaring? I try not to think about it anymore, it just makes my head hurt. Maybe it’s the lack of education? I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, “Stupid people litter, smart people fine you for it.” Or it was something to that effect. It really makes me want to station a couple of video cameras so as to catch the fools in the act, although it probably wouldn’t be admissible in a court of law for some reason…I guess I’ll stick to picking up cans, unless I run across some homeless person doing the same thing. Perhaps one day I'll even start picking up the litter...I might make it 10 feet down a road a night.

Wicket's Loft Living preparations

We started preparing Wicket for the no lawn in the future thing last week. We got him a dog litter box this week. Weird huh..I had never heard of dog litter but someone told me about it and I looked it up and sure enough. We really thought it would be easy to train Wick to use the box, he was so easy to train on everything else so why would this be different? Well that little dog was scared of it the first day!! He was very skeptical when walking up to it...I finally had to actually pick him up and put him in it, at that point he freaked out and ran out and off! It was kinda funny actually. Now when we put him in it he just sits there looking at us like...'ummm what am I supposed to do now'. I know its only been like 4 days but still...I'm not patient! We've still got a several months to get him ready for the transition, I'm just not looking forward to the possibility of having to clean up messes! I remember that from when he was a Pup and I hated it!
We've almost got this house finished!! All that is left to to nail the base board up and do touch ups. Once that is done the bathroom is it and then we will be done!!! Joe still has 4 days before his vacation so he has got to get to work fast :)

Good News for the ANWR!

Yesterday the senate rejected oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge(ANWR)! This has been a hot topic for me recently. I've been arguing on the side of the senate hoping they would not allow the drilling because we know Bush would have let it happen. Like a co-worker said "When it comes to oil, I don’t see Bush as a president but as an oil-man," since we all know he is involved with Halliburton. Yes, Bush keeps saying that we are "addicted" to oil yet he was pushing for the senate to pass the bill to drill in Alaska, and then he goes and visits Biodiesel (a company working on alternative fuel sources) and talks about how much he loves "the innovative spirit of our entrepreneurs in this country" but yet after searching and searching for literally hours (just ask Joe) I cant find a SINGLE dollar amount that is being set aside to help these innovative spirits achieve their goals!! Isn’t it kind of contradictory to say what he is saying, but then turn around and try to move to Alaska for about 5 more years worth of oil, now, when we still have at least 15 years worth of oil reserved or in production? Not only that, but the government is also giving tax breaks to those who buy Hummers and any other gas guzzling SUV (A good thing gone bad that has still not been fixed).

If we started drilling in Alaska that would give the government another 5 years(Approx) to put alternative resources on the back shelf! I mean give me a break....haven’t they been saying since at least the 1950's, and earlier, that we are going to run out of oil and we need to find something else. Yet the government has always pushed it to the back...we still have time. Enough is enough...stop putting it off and do something!!
Why does Japan have more fuel efficient cars than us?? I mean Toyota (Japanese automaker) had 3 hybrid cars in production before Ford (American automaker) finally decided they should get with the times and develop one!

Our fellow blogger, Tass, said he is paying about $6.00 a gallon, yet you don’t hear him and his fellow countrymen crying about the high gas price there. We are only paying $2.60 and yet we complain, why is that?...Because I am sure Tass' car probably gets way better gas mileage than the average American's vehicle. That is why the $6 doesn’t kill them like it does us, or maybe it does, I’m not sure, but it stands to reason that they need less....we need more to fill up our Escalades, Hummers, Expeditions and Excursions. Next time you watch a film or see a photo that was shot in Japan or Europe...look at all the little cars then look around next time you’re on the road... BIG trucks and SUVs as far as the eye can see. And no, I don’t think they will make the move to alternative resources overnight! But why is America taking so much longer to get at least more fuel efficient cars.

Well I didn’t do much talking about Alaska…but I for one am VERY happy the senate voted against the bill and did their part in actually protecting some of our American wildlife.

Here Here!