Important Stuff

Beyond paper or plastic

Those wily Brits are up to something again… Bags of Change: Carrot Better Than Stick – TreeHugger: Bags of Change encourages responsible shopping bag use by dangling a tasty carrot. In short you get a discount at any participating store into which you to take their funky organic hemp-cotton or Amazonian latex bags. So far over 50 stores are involved. I kid because I care. Actually, I…
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Politics

Getting my goat

It’s been a couple days since the Florida primary. Although I’ve spent most of them trying to cough up a lung, I’ve had a little time to read some news. Lucky for you I’m taking a sick day today, and a fever has a way of loosening my tongue a little ;-) After my little talk with lonely poll workers I’ve learned that turnout was actually up since our last Presidential…
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Kitchen Sink

The Liar's Diary

The Liar’s Diary is a book by Patry Francis, a New England author with cancer. In her case the disease has been particularly cruel; it threw her a curve at a time when most authors are out promoting their book – right now. Since she can’t get out to promote the book on her own, one of her friends organized a group of bloggers to do it for her. And so far it’s apparently…
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Current EventsPolitics

Swan song in the sunshine state

Even with the move of our primary date (to today), I wouldn’t have guessed it would still be relevant. I know Florida is a big state with a lot of delegates. I know it’s been pivotal in recent elections. Still, I thought most nominations were sown up by the time South Carolina had its say. I hear some of my fellow Floridians with “listed” phone numbers are inundated by push…
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Wellbeing

What would you do to stay awake?

The nasty bugs of winter have finally caught up. We get colds too, even in sub-tropical Florida, and I should know. It’s been impossible to avoid this year. Everyone around me is falling victim to this latest epidemic of sniffling misery. In a way I’m glad I was able to avoid it for this long. It suggests my immune system is making a comeback. However, my experience tells me winter…
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BethFamily and Friends

Everyone's a critic

You remember Pavlov, right? Well I get an immediate response whenever one of my children hears the shutter release on my camera. Adam had fallen asleep on the train at Busch Gardens this afternoon, and Beth yelled out, “take a picture dad, take a picture!” So I did. “Let me see! Let me see!” So I let her see. “Oh, you can do better dad.” Jeez, I can’t…
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Kitchen Sink

шесть вещей

I’ve been tagged. These are the rules: 1. Link to the person who tagged you (Richard). 2. Post the rules on your blog 3. Share six unimportant things/habits/quirks about yourself 4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs 5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website First, I want to apologize for not following the…
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Politics

Floridians redeem themselves

Alright, let’s not get crazy here. We’ve got a long road to travel before we can unload all of our baggage. But… this gives me a little bit of hope. Poll: Giuliani slips to third in Florida – Miami Herald: Rudy Giuliani has hit the skids in a Florida freefall that could shatter his presidential campaign and leave a two-man Republican contest in the state between John…
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Family and Friends

Hide the silverware!

We’ve lived in our house for almost ten years. For all that time we’ve had locks on the drawers in our kitchen, socket covers on our electrical outlets, and cabinet locks on our… well… cabinets. Why so long? We moved into our house when Beth was one. When Beth got to an age when they could come off we decided to have another child, so we left them on thinking we’d…
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Beth

A few disappointments on the way to a good day

Today was supposed to be the day Beth and I went kayaking. Adam was in school, we both had the day off, and Cheryl was too sick to venture outdoors. Wa-la! The perfect day to rent a two-person kayak and tool around the the intra-coastal waterway for the day. The weather looked like it was trying really hard to do it’s part. It warmed up quickly around lunchtime and hovered around 70 all…
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