PETA and the Fly VERSUS Prez Obama

Have you heard the latest criticism of President Obama? He was being pestered by an ordinary housefly while being interviewed. He tried to shoo it away, and it just wouldn't go. So he swatted and killed it.

Now PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is getting involved. Boy, are they ticked. They say he should have kept shooing it away, or had someone else try to catch it and move it.

HE WAS DOING AN INTERVIEW!!!

Maybe he should have paused the televised interview with CNBC correspondent John Harwood?

"Excuse me, could someone get over here and remove this fly? I don't CARE if there's a deadline for this interview's completion! This is a living creature that must be taken care of. Much more important than the American Citizens I'm working to help."

Come on! If a fly is ok, then is a mosquito? They are about the same size. Both are irritating and carry diseases, but yes, mosquitos could possibly give Prez Obama the West Nile Virus.

What about slugs in the garden? Does PETA allow the chickens to eat flies and gnats and slugs and tomato hornworms? If hornworms are allowed to live, they WILL find and eat their fill of corn and tomatoes until humans have nothing to eat. So... how is letting the chicken do IT's thing any different that a human taking care of them?

IT'S A BUG!

Has PETA set a limit for their "beliefs"? Unbelievable controversy when there are so many more things to think about.

I checked out PETA's website (http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/06/obama_and_the_f.php). It sounds like they are using this to further their cause and sell some bug catcher thing.

Ridiculous.

Prep and Funnel Clouds

Tween and I had a busy day today. We worked on the "pink" bedroom, getting stuff out, rearranging the furniture, changing out the curtains, etc. I took Tween out to eat as a thanks for his hard work, and he got sick. Damn restaurants! We need more restaurants that serve organic gluten-free foods.

But that's neither here nor there.

By the time I got him up, in the bathroom to hug the toilet, his bed ready and fan on, and him into bed, I got a call that we had a tornado warning near us. I threw some clothes back on him, we grabbed some stuff and headed to the basement office. He curled up on the floor with a pillow and a blanket that I had just washed last weekend. We were only there for 20 minutes or so, but it was a LONG 20 minutes. He's terrified of tornadoes. That's a big factor in the next house we buy ... needs a bigger basement.

I think we made enough headway to stop today. He's resting in bed, with the fan on, holding his little tummy (can you tell I'm a mom?) and reading a book about dumb criminals. I'm gonna prep for tomorrow: handyman expected to make some minor repairs, and so is the guy to replace our garage door. Fun.

Short Man Equals Big Jerk?

Can't help it. Our neighbor irks me. (Disclaimer ... pic to the right just depicts his stature but is not actually him.)

I'm 5'7" and have to look down at, well, we'll call him Sal Sigil. He must be about 5'5", and has the attitude and personality of a short man who feels he needs to compensate for his height.

He has a huge white king cab long bed pickup truck that he never uses to haul anything. It's diesel, and I can hear him start it at 6:30 in the morning, behind closed windows, idling for a minimum of 10 minutes no matter what time of year.

From what I understand back when we first moved here and he talked a whole 5 minutes to us (before he discovered that we're not "keep-up-with-the-Joneses" type people: he was a city representative in congress (or senate?) for several years, and believes he wasn't reelected because he's hispanic. He's never made us feel welcome to the neighborhood, and has been obvious in his distaste for our old vehicles and casual attitude towards life and money and family and fun. He even (allegedly) thought we were too poor for our house because we ELECT to use a human-powered push mower instead of a gas-eating lawn mower.

• This is the man who "allegedly" turned us in to the city authorities because we didn't water our grass often enough for him.


• This is the man who let all of the plums and apples from his tree drop onto the sidewalk and just stay there to rot and stain and let kids pick them up and get sick.


• This is the man who came over and grabbed a person from my yard to take something from his during the big annual spring bulk giveaway.


• This is the man who made his wife shovel snow this year while he was inside possibly dealing with clients or eating a Big Mac.


• This is the man who woke me up a week or so ago at 7:20 (after a night of insomnia and I'd just gotten to sleep) using his leaf blower because he's too lazy to sweep, and when i asked him to wait at least until 8 a.m., he basically blew me off... no pun intended.


• This is the man who NEVER puts out a recycling can because he doesn't even have one ... never mind that the trash pickup company gives them out for free ... he just doesn't believe in conservation.


• This is the man who NEVER participates in the Lights Out ... you know, that night once a year when we all turn out our lights for an hour to help save the Earth.


• This is the man who "allegedly" reported me to the city for not moving my car often enough to suit him.

He's at it again this morning. I'll be glad to move away for him. He's made us absolutely miserable here, including our 12 year old. Anybody want to buy our house?!?!

p.s. I intend for this to be my last rant about this neighbor. Afterall, we need to sell this house!

It Rained ... Finally!

The Denver, Colorado area finally not only got a good bit of rain, but hail and flash-flooding. We had just finished doing about 3 hours worth of work in our container garden, planting all but 3 blueberry bushes, 2 raspberry bushes, and 2 blackberry bushes. The tomatoes, etc. were finished. We put away our tools, covered the left-over potting soil, and came inside to take our showers (hot hot hot = sweat sweat sweat). By within minutes of the last of us showering, the rain started. Barely a drizzle for less than 5 minutes, followed by 45 minutes of pounding hail, followed by another day and a half of light to medium rain.

Luckily, the spot we chose for our container garden was the south side of the house, well protected from the hail but not from the rain. Everything got drenched, and it looks like everything survived. Yippee!

Kinda a good thing that the dogs don't live here anymore. The massive amounts of mud, the intense work to our house, both inside and out... we're better off.

Dogs Leaving

We just can't take care of the animals any more. Besides the cost and having to get ready to sell the house and try to get a business off the ground and home-schoolwork and Hubby not being here during the week, they have to go. Hubby is taking them to a no-kill shelter in a few moments.


Updated May 20 at 9:20 a.m.: The chihuahua had a heat stroke yesterday before Hubby even got here to take the dogs. We rushed her to the vet where he filled her will subcutaneous fluid (via I.V.), and she was up and walking again this morning. Hubby has now taken them. This is very difficult for us.