Park and walk

As researchers looked for the cause of the growing obesity epidemic, maybe they should just look at the obvious. Park your car as far away from the door as possible, and walk. Take the stairs. Get up to change channels. Be less efficient in running your errands, even inside the house.

"Consumers who pick up their prescription medications at a pharmacy drive-through window might be jeopardizing their own safety in the name of convenience. A new OSU study indicates that pharmacists who work at locations with drive-through windows believe the extra distractions associated with window service contribute to processing delays, reduced efficiency and even dispensing errors. The study suggests pharmacy design should emphasize minimal workflow interruptions but it also offers a caution to consumers to check their prescription medications, especially those obtained from a pharmacy’s drive-through window, said Sheryl Szeinbach, the study’s lead author and a professor of pharmacy practice and administration at Ohio State."

From OSU Research.

Do you need a pet sitter

in the northwest Columbus, Upper Arlington or Grandview area (Henderson Road to Goodale)? Actually, this gal will run with your big ol' dog! She's very athletic. I saw her notice on a bulletin board at church and called. Turns out we know her, which makes me glad, because now I can recommend her to you, since she has worked for us (in another capacity--we don't have a dog). She's a member of Central Ohio Professional Pet Sitters and the Pet Sitters International. She'll watch your pet when you're on vacation, or if you need someone to come in while you're at work. Call 614-378-6706 for more information or to negotiate a time and place for her to meet your little sweety. She can water (or talk to) your plants and take in your mail too. As much as I enjoy having a pet, what to do when we're out of town is always a problem, so we depend on family and friends. But maybe that doesn't work for you. Check her out! A great gal.

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Pay day loans--more guilt from the rich

“The American dream is founded on the belief that people who work hard and play by the rules will be able to earn a good living, raise a family in comfort and retire with dignity.”

How many times have you seen a version of this? The latest was January 24, and the authors were Bill Clinton (a very rich man demanding thousands for his personal appearances who struggled to the top from nothing) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (also extremely rich who came to this country from Austria, also with nothing, and who married a Kennedy).

President Clinton's dream: play hard, hardly work, don’t follow rules for a good life--or any rules, don’t support my idea of what constitutes a family, live way above the level I would define as comfortable, and refuse to retire with dignity, running around trying for a 3rd term, embarrassing the country and his wife. President Clinton lives a different dream, and tries to pass it off as ours; but it's certainly our nightmare.

Now Clinton and the Governor of California think short term loans are THE problem for the poor. Lack of access to some things we middle class take for granted may be a problem for some--but the poor also don't use the interstates, suburban libraries, private jets or farm subsidies. That's not why they are poor (women who don't marry the father of their children are a major cause of poverty in the USA) and these quick-serve loans serve many outside Clinton's target. There is no shortage of BMWs, Mercedes and Cadillacs in front of pawn shops and loan stores. Some people do not use bank services for very pragmatic, personal reasons--hiding assets, living on the edge, gambling debts and bad money management, to name just a few. There is also no shortage of private and government agencies already set up to assist the poor who want to break out of this bind (see CFED, for example, which has a 25 year record).

A socialist/progressive’s version of the American dream includes the above, but inserts a phrase about the gap between groups and leveling differences. We have a marriage gap, not an income gap. Male heads of household have net assets of $82,400 compared to a woman head of household's $48,500. Hello! He's married; she isn't. If liberals really care about poor children, they would encourage marriage.

No article on poverty these days talks about housing, food or automobiles because the American poor have those--it’s only about inequality, the gap between classes. We import poor to use our services. They are called illegal immigrants. Then the Conservatives say the American dream has died because government regulations, taxes and labor unions have destroyed initiative, steal from the people who work hard, and ship jobs overseas.

The term “American dream,“ first appeared in a book written (according to Wikipedia) by James Truslow Adams entitled The Epic of America (1931).

"If, as I have said, the things already listed were all we had to contribute, America would have made no distinctive and unique gift to mankind. But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement." [p. 404]

Martin Luther King, Jr. said the substance of the American dream could be found in the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Today's liberals think that Happiness is the right. That "no gap" is the right. MLK said “The American dream reminds us that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth.” It’s a long way from Adam’s and King’s dream to a poor man’s store front payday loans and an even longer road from that to a foundation being set up to shelter a rich man's money.

Clinton’s article says poor working people are paying $40 to payday lenders and pawn shops to cash their checks. He wants to put a stop to this by opening up more banking opportunities (with money from his foundation). Wasn't it about 3 years ago that all the social, economic and political wisdom colluded to encourage poor people, including immigrants with false documents, to buy homes without investing anything, because owning real estate was supposed to be part of "the American dream?" We now call that dream the subprime nightmare. Now Clinton thinks the money not spent on payday loans will be invested in the stock market. Wow. That’s a huge stretch even for Bill--but doesn't it have a nice capitalistic ring to offset his socialist wife taking over healthcare? Then after we get them paying checking account fees, let’s issue them credit cards, "another day older and deeper in debt."

WalMart probably charges under $5 for the same service. But Democrats don’t like WalMart because it is successful, the real American dream. Some city councils and zoning boards work very hard to keep them from building in their jurisdiction especially if they provide jobs and services for low income people--like inexpensive clothing and appliances and banking services. Some states have passed special laws to keep WalMart out of the banking business.

I'm sure glad I'm not rich. I don't think I could carry around all that load of guilt--and BS.

2.7 million receive incorrect SSA-1099 form

Alert seniors were catching the problem before it came out in the press, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and Wisconsin. I first heard about it from a high school friend who usually sends out jokes and local news. He said his 1099 overstated what he'd received. He and a lot of others.

"Corrected forms will be sent to all affected Social Security recipients and to the IRS by the end of the month, Lassiter said. Because corrected information is on the way, he said the Social Security Administration decided not to tell the public about the mistake until asked about it by a reporter.

The bad forms over-reported the amount of benefits received by some Social Security beneficiaries who purchase Medicare Advantage or prescription drug plans under Social Security parts C and D, Lassiter said. The incorrect information is in Box 3 of the form, "Benefits Paid."

In some cases, Social Security computers preparing the 1099s included premiums for those plans paid in 2006 as part of benefits received in 2007, leading to the error, Lassiter said.

In Wisconsin, 61,511 bad forms were sent out. Florida had the most, 196,742, followed by Texas at 188,361, California, 157,288, and Illinois, 124,707. In all, the Social Security Administration sent out about 57 million 1099-SSAs."

I didn't see anything about Ohio. Our SS numbers have been stolen so many times by inept state and OSU employees, maybe the error-angels just by-passed us this time. They say it will cost $1 million to fix it. That's impossible, unless they think because they don't use stamps on the envelopes, it doesn't cost anything. I guess the additional forms and labor is just funny money. And of course, no one will figure the cost the citizens will pay their accountants to refile. You don't ever want to have mismatched numbers and give them cause to audit--that's really a big expense.

Why we eat "healthy" and just get fatter

There's an interesting article in the NYT Magazine called "Unhappy meals" about how we eat, focusing on nutrients instead of real food. In our house, we eat real food as much as possible (fruits and vegetables that haven't been canned or pickled or plasticized or dehydrated), but still rely on frozen for variety, and canned for sauces, beans, and those rarely consumed items. We eat bakery bread that is firmer and tastes better than either of my grandmothers could make. We eat small portions of meat, but do eat meat every day. I wouldn't dream of purchasing something labeled a "healthy snack." Read the label! It's like a chemistry text book. We aren't fat.

But what is the problem? Nutritionism may be the culprit, says the author. There are more government regulations, more nutritional studies, more diets (low fat, low carb, etc.), and there's a huge industry of journalists and authors (including the one who wrote the above article) who do nothing but write articles or publish books about what to eat and how to eat it. One nutrition/exercise/health web site I read recently said we are spending more on obesity per day than on the war in Iraq. I haven't crunched the numbers, but that's scary! Read the article (recommended by Janeen who combats food allergies daily in her family) and see what you think.

On the Women's Health Initiative: "But perhaps the biggest flaw in this study, and other studies like it, is that we have no idea what these women were really eating because, like most people when asked about their diet, they lied about it. How do we know this? Deduction. Consider: When the study began, the average participant weighed in at 170 pounds and claimed to be eating 1,800 calories a day. It would take an unusual metabolism to maintain that weight on so little food. And it would take an even freakier metabolism to drop only one or two pounds after getting down to a diet of 1,400 to 1,500 calories a day — as the women on the “low-fat” regimen claimed to have done. Sorry, ladies, but I just don’t buy it.

In fact, nobody buys it. Even the scientists who conduct this sort of research conduct it in the knowledge that people lie about their food intake all the time. They even have scientific figures for the magnitude of the lie. Dietary trials like the Women’s Health Initiative rely on “food-frequency questionnaires,” and studies suggest that people on average eat between a fifth and a third more than they claim to on the questionnaires. How do the researchers know that? By comparing what people report on questionnaires with interviews about their dietary intake over the previous 24 hours, thought to be somewhat more reliable. In fact, the magnitude of the lie could be much greater, judging by the huge disparity between the total number of food calories produced every day for each American (3,900 calories) and the average number of those calories Americans own up to chomping: 2,000. (Waste accounts for some of the disparity, but nowhere near all of it.) All we really know about how much people actually eat is that the real number lies somewhere between those two figures."

There are good ideas and points in this article--many we've heard before, but cherry pick. We are bombarded by anti-western this and that, and eco-friendly tidbits by the same journalists who wrote us into obesity! You need to be selective. In the 1970s women were literally pushed out of the home and kitchen; we've been getting fatter since. Now we're being reeled back. Barefoot and pregnant probably won't fly these days. But do try to eat real food.

If you can find it.

Theistic Evolution

Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Answer Man, says the banner of theistic evolution that many Christians wave (God used evolution as His method for creation) makes as much sense biblically as the phrase flaming snowflakes.

You've probably heard of Lyme Disease--nasty stuff. Starts out as a rash, then fatigue, chills, fever, headache, and muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes, moving right along to painful neck, dizziness, heart palpatations, arthritis in the knees, sleep disturbances and fatigue (according to the CDC site). You get that from a tick bite--but what you really get is an infection from a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. You see, the tick doesn't just grow a bacteria--first it bites an animal like a deer or mouse that has it. Ticks don't fly, they can't jump on the deer, and they rarely move more than a yard from where they are hatched. So they have to wait for the "host" animal to brush up against the weed where it has spent its little smarmy life just waiting. Ever wonder how it (or other bacteria, viruses, microbes, etc.) developed over millions of years if the deer or mice or weeds weren't also evolving with the same plan in mind? Sort of like those little methane microbes under the ocean I mentioned yesterday, without which our global temperature would be 50 degrees higher.

I can see why atheists want to believe in evolution. But Christians? It really isn't even rational that an omnipotent God would bumble through billions and billions of years of mistakes and trial and error just so a deer could brush up against a piece of grass waving in the wind with a tick who never left home. To say nothing of the fact there was no disease until Adam sinned. So what were the little buggers passing along?

Dinner Menu

This was last night's, but was so yummy, I thought I'd post it in case I'm standing in front of the refrigerator some day at 4:30 wondering what to fix, and need to check my blog.

Oven baked, wild-caught salmon
Fresh greens, tossed salad
Freshly sliced cantaloupe
Peanut butter chocolate pie

The salmon was frozen from Trader Joe's (yes, of course, fresh would be better, but we live in Ohio, not Seattle). After it thawed (a bit--don't let it go all mushy on you), I set the oven for 375, sprayed a glass 8 x 8 dish, arranged the salmon in it, and put a light coating of mayonnaise on the salmon pieces, which I then sprinkled with some dried onion flakes, garlic salt, dill and parsley. Why not fresh herbs, you ask, but I never have those on hand.

While the salmon was baking (about 20 minutes) we had a small glass of wine and watched the evening (local) news. I don't like white wine, so we had Charles Shaw (3 buck chuck) Merlot, in my pretty 4 oz. stemmed glasses, which is just a perfect size for me. I get light-headed with 5 oz. I never drank wine before my heart surgery in 2002, but think it's probably much healthier than the chemicals in drugs. At least it's natural. In California this is called "two buck chuck;" in Ohio we pay import fees so it's $1.35 more per bottle. I can always tell the expensive stuff--doesn't taste nearly as good.

For the salad I used chopped red leaf lettuce for the base. Lettuce doesn't have much nutrition, so the darker the better--then grape tomatoes, shredded carrots, chopped organic mushrooms, fresh broccoli (and I use that term loosely, since I think it's been in the frig 2 weeks and God only knows when it was harvested and shipped) and sliced olives. The cantaloupe was cut just before I served it, but January isn't the best season for this fruit, so it wasn't like getting an Indiana cantaloupe in the summer.

Sounds really healthy. But ah, the dessert.

I used a purchased 8", chocolate crumb crust (Keebler), ready to use. The filling was made with 8 oz. low fat cream cheese, mixed with 1 cup of natural peanut butter (I use Krema), 1 cup of Splenda, 1 tsp. of vanilla, and about 4 oz. of sugar-free Cool Whip. It's stiff, so don't give up until thoroughly mixed. Put it carefully in the crust. Return to frig. When it set up a bit, I warmed up some sugar-free fudge topping, and made a design on the top of the filling. I serve that (very small pieces because it is terribly rich) with a dollup of the Cool Whip.

We both told me it was a great dinner. My husband always does, but I'm a bit pickier.

Hillary Clinton's legs

There's a good article in today's Wall Street Journal by Christina Binkley about "Women in Power"--their fashion tastes. Hillary is shown in that bright yellow blazer with black slacks we've seen on TV. Most of the other powerful women are shown in more feminine attire. Of the outfits shown, Condi's was way out in front with a very attractive skirted suit that showed off her lovely features, but looked smart. Nancy Pelosi's suit was a tad short and bunchy, and looking at her person you can't help but see she is a Californian with various enhancements and injections a part of her regimen. The PepsiCo CEO also looked lovely in an outfit that spoke to her heritage. Would it be racist to suggest that minority women in the US have a flare that the rest of us lack?

Yes, Hillary looks like I loaned her my legs, even though she's a pro-abortion, feminist, socialist who might go to the White House, not on the coat tails of her husband, but his fly. (There's some pretty good theory out there that she might not be where she is today if it hadn't been for Bill's indiscretions, particularly 10 years ago with Monica.)

But here's something to consider. She's probably healthier than the other candidates, both Republican and Democrat. Those of us with pear-shaped bodies (which almost always means heavier legs) are much healthier than those of us with apple-shaped bodies (usually they have great legs). If you don't believe me, google it. But I think she should get out of those omnipresent, omni-coverage slacks, and flaunt her healthy, solid, sturdy legs. Just lengthen the skirts a little, because wide thighs are just murder when you sit down on stage in front of an audience--even for skinny candidates.

Thursday Thirteen--13 steps along the American Way

I saw these points in Bret Stephens article about 2 weeks ago after the Iowa caucus. Whatever your party, religion or profession, I think you've seen or heard at least some, if not all, of these.

In the American way. . .

1) CEOs must perform on a quarterly basis.

2) Presidents and Congresses must reinvent politics in 100 days.

3) Generals should wipe out opponents in 100 hours without significant casualties.

4) Doctors should save life and limb every time.

5) Search engines should yield a million results.

6) What's bad will be made good, and what's good will be made great.

7) If it isn't great, it's down right awful.

8) There is a solution to every problem.

9) Trial is possible without error.

10) Risks must always be zero.

11) Every set back is a disaster.

12) Every mishap is the basis for a law suit.

13) Chronic impatience and complaining are just part of our culture.

The Band

What would your album cover look like? Try this. I found it at Ingrid's site. Her album is awesome.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random: The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3: The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/: The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post. Also, pass it along in your own journal because it’s more amusing that way

Will you see your pet in heaven?

This is a great concern to many people, particularly the elderly who have been cared for and comforted by the companionship of a cat or dog or bird or other animal. Often it is the act of caring for and protecting the animal that helps the human. Our kitty brings us a lot of enjoyment, but she also brings out the best of our caring instincts and behaviors. Sometimes we just chuckle watching her sleep--the picture of absolute relaxation and not a care in the world. This is one of the better answers I've seen for this question.

The photo of the 3-legged shepherd mix and the mutt cat was found at Dog Friendly.com Somebody loves them a lot and I'm betting the animals return the favor.

Methane release in reverse

Interesting article at the Alchemist newsletter. Sounds like Archaea are a lot more important than polar bears. Isn't God amazing.

"Two microbes, known as Archaea, consume 90% of the greenhouse gas methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere from melting methane hydrates. However, these anaerobic microbes, which live in the ocean sediments, do so using a sulfur compound, methyl sulfide, rather than simply reversing the biochemistry of methane-making microbes. According to Christopher House and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University: "The Archaea take in the methane and produce a methyl sulfide, and then the sulfur-reducing bacteria eat the methyl sulfide and reduced it to sulfide," explains House. Understanding how these symbiotic organisms remove methane from the oceans is important because without them the average global atmospheric temperature would likely be warmer by about 10 degrees Celsius." (To convert Celsius (Centigrade) to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and add 32.)

Red jeans

Who knew? I thought colored jeans (except blue denim, gray, black or ugly) were out of style except for wearing around the house to clean, or to dash to the coffee shop in the wee hours of the morning. This photo is from the Ditto site; those aren't my legs, or fold marks (shouldn't they be ironed before the photo session?). Also, mine aren't flares or low rise. These cost $158. That's outrageous. It makes me flush to think about it. Mine are Ralph Lauren and I think I paid $3 for them at the Discovery Shop. Beautiful fabric and fit. Smug attack.

Speaking of colors, I mended some cotton gloves today. I'd been trying to think of something that work like a skinny darning egg, and finally came up with a fat colored marker. It's about the size of my index finger, which is where I always poke through. I don't like heavy gloves, but the thin ones don't last long.

Speaking of thread, I used a close match from a wooden spool from my mother's sewing cabinet. When's the last time you saw one of those? These spools belonged to my husband's grandmother, Neno, so I'm guessing they are maybe 60-70 years old because I've had them almost 50.

You know who you are

Someone I love is trying to quit smoking. I suggested he take one day at a time, and he assured me an hour might be a bit much. Then I saw this quote at Dancing Boys Mom. Is this great, or what?

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once--Ashleigh Brilliant

I smoked a few cigs in college--had gained some weight. My roommate, daughter of a doctor, thought it might work. Stupid 60s. Fortunately, they tasted so bad, stung my nose, burned my eyes and made my breath stink, so I didn't continue. Can't imagine the attraction for those just starting. That's a lot of hurdles to try to look cool.

If only it were this easy

Si. No. Per piacere. Grazie. Prego. Parla inglese? Che? Vorrei vedere il cartellino dei colori.



Looking ahead to our trip.

What's a blog bar?

It's a way for the consumer to get involved--immediately. Computer terminals at the location (store, show, museum, library) allow real time input. I saw this at Trend Central via Library Marketing (her link didn't work; use mine).

"The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently (i.e. Dec. 24, 2007, the date I saw this) hosting a blog bar, with eight computer terminals, at their current blog.mode: addressing fashion exhibition. The public can post their reactions to the show and ask questions which curators will respond to; in short, the blog bar is meant to “provoke commentary.” Excerpts of the blog will be included in the post-show book in order to document the impact of the exhibit and attendees’ participation."

I haven't seen a blog bar, but Sunday we did attend the final day of the Monet's Garden exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art. It was very crowded. We weren't the only ones who waited for the last day. But I understand Saturday was even worse, with lines circling around the entry to the exhibit twice. We went right after first service at church, then stayed for lunch in the lovely restaurant/buffet designed by my husband many years ago. If CMA had had a blog bar, I might have commented how much more I enjoyed the American impressionists, because I liked seeing figures in the paintings. Blobs of color don't excite me too much. I probably wouldn't have "provoked commentary," except from my husband who doesn't do computers and would have been ready to move on to another exhibit, so it would have been a short message.

3WW--Three Word Wednesday

Today, January 23, the words are

Breath
Scattered
Tomorrow

For Mother, who died on January 24

Tomorrow she will be gone;
her breath scattered,
her words silenced.

Only her deeds will remain.

Bone posts 3 words on Tuesday night or Wednesday. The challenge is for you to write an essay, poem, thought, etc. using the three words, post that at your own site, then comment at the 3WW site, and the others who are participating. See you there. Or here. OK?

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His father's heart

The excerpt from Steve McKee's book, "My father's heart" in today's Wall St. Journal was riveting. I thought I'd forgotten most of that phase of Dad's life. How different it could have been for our family if he hadn't quit when he started to cough up blood.

On Sept. 30, 1969, 16-year-old Steve McKee watched his father die of a heart attack on the couch in their TV room. A lifelong smoker, John McKee had already been stricken by a heart attack six years earlier. But, unable to quit his three-pack-a-day habit, he made no lifestyle changes that might have prolonged his life. Deeply disappointed by his father's seeming surrender to cardiovascular disease, Mr. McKee -- now an editor at The Wall Street Journal -- set out to find the man who died before his son could know him. With this memoir, he sought to find a measure of understanding for his father, and anyone affected by smoking and heart disease. . . .

My father and my father-in-law both stopped smoking cold turkey as they began to move beyond the line of two packs a day. Dad was probably 36 or 37 when he began to cough blood; my husband's father was older, maybe in his 50s when one night out with his friends he started to open that third pack, he put it down and quit. My dad lived to 89; my husband's dad to 91; my husband's step-father, also a very heavy smoker who didn't quit, to 75; my husband's step-mother, also a smoker, died at 71 of lung cancer. All began smoking in their teens and really enjoyed it.

"My sister Kathy and I woke up every morning to the sounds of the same alarm clock: Dad's cough, his cigarette hack. Breath in. Pause. HACK. (Catch) Cough. They came in stanzas--three, four, five at a time, the second-to-last always the biggest crescendo." writes McKee

Oh, I remember that cough. We children had never known anything else but Dad's coughing. And the blue haze everywhere in the house if he was home. In those days, I didn't find the smell unpleasant like I do now. It was always a mix of after shave, hair cream, cigarettes and fuel oil. But what must my mother have thought? Neither of her parents smoked. Her mother was a health-nut--wouldn't even eat red meat, and she was always airing out the house.

Dad told me 40 years later that he wanted a cigarette for 20 years. When I was younger, I didn't think about that too much. But now I'm in awe of his focus, drive and determination. He was not always a pleasant person to be around when I was growing up. I wonder now if he just wanted a cigarette, if his head hurt, his eyes burned and his skin crawled for nicotine. My parents weren't social like McKee's parents. Dad dealt with people all day, 12 hours a day and a houseful of noisy children at night. And all the while, craving a cigarette, knowing that would take the edge off.

I won't be reading the book, but I'll remember it could have been me.

Link to the review is here.

Better safe than snowy

When I left the coffee shop this morning, there was about 1/2" of snow on all my windows, the mirrors, the head lights, hood, roof, etc. I only live 1/2 mile away. But I took out the brush and cleaned it all off. Most accidents happen close to home. I didn't any want loose snow to be picked up from the hood and plastered against my windshield or from my roof on to the next guy. Not everyone was as careful, so I had to watch them too.

Here's what's happening a bit north of us as of 2 p.m. today--looks like Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.

"GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - A foot of snow blanketed parts of Michigan and Wisconsin during the night, closing schools Tuesday and causing numerous traffic accidents. At least three traffic deaths were blamed on the weather in Michigan. Winter weather also was blamed for deaths in Oklahoma and Kentucky.

Snow started falling Monday and continued early Tuesday, piling up about a foot deep in western Michigan and up to 13 inches deep in some areas of southeastern Wisconsin. The snowfall started diminishing Tuesday in western Michigan, where the National Weather Service canceled a winter storm warning.

Nearly every school was closed in the Grand Rapids region."

Did you see that Baghdad had snow last week for the first time in about 100 years? That must have been exciting for the kids.

Omaha and Chickadee

The spell-check in my Outlook e-mail program wants to change Huckabee to Chickadee and Obama to Omaha.