He's still talking.

 And this is what we need to see, right here. 

It's not only that he's talking, but that he's speaking eloquently. He has not had a bathroom break. 

I'm not sure why the link I shared yesterday changed to private. He has held the floor for 23 hours and 50 minutes. If he holds it for another half hour, he will hold the record for the longest speech, beating out Strom Thurmond at 24 hours and 18 minutes.  (Late Edit: He has done it!)

But it is not about that. It's not about records. It is about galvanizing our government to stand up and resist the unconstitutional activity we are seeing unfold before our very eyes. 

I sent another e-mail to John Fetterman and Glenn Thompson, suggesting that they see Cory Booker as the role model. This was what they were elected and sent to Washington to do. 

I am watching this now, and I know that I am witnessing history. I know also that when these awful days are done, Cory Booker's name will be writ in the history of our country. 

Today, we met at the lawyer's office. Bless the man, we expected to go there and tell him what we wanted, and go back next week to sign a contract. He had it all laid out on his desk. He wrote in a few pertinent details, asked his questions, and wrote the contract out today. Mia was not prepared for it. Neither were we, but we walked out of there with the signed papers. 

She said, "I was so sure that I was going to get here and find out that this was an April Fool's joke." It wasn't, of course. Her family is meeting up at her house to celebrate with pizza today.

Happy Stories

"This is not right or left. This is right or wrong." Cory Booker, March 31st. 

Cory Booker is filibustering on the floor of the senate right now, and vows to continue as long as he is physically able. 

https://www.newsweek.com/democrat-talking-long-hes-physically-able-protest-trump-2053378

Back the video up to the beginning to listen, otherwise it will take forever to buffer. 

Please stop what you are doing and go here to thank him: 

https://www.booker.senate.gov/contact/write-to-cory/form

We got the sink cut out of the counter top.  Tim stressed mightily about this. If he would have screwed it up, it would have been a $400 loss. He measured, and measured again. I measured and measured again too. Finally, there was nothing left to do but to cut. He did. We set it all in place, dropped the sink in and it was perfect. The putty is curing right now. 

Tomorrow we meet at the lawyer's office with the woman buying our house. Hopefully, once our lawyer knows what we need, he will be able to draw up a contract fairly quickly. I know that Mia is chomping at the bit to get started. Tomorrow, we will go over to the house with her. We're going to mark the wiring for her, so that she knows what wire does what. It will make it easier for her. She also wants to do some measuring and get some numbers. 

It's also a big day for our new tenant as well. She is officially moving in tomorrow. We'll have to meet up with her as well at some point. 

Daffodils are out! 

We all need happy stories. Feel free to add your own happies in the comments.

And finally, just for laughs. 

Plugging along.

 We did not get a lot done today. I put the finish on the countertops. We used something called Rubio Monocoat, which is something Tim's cousin gave him the last time that we were at the Hardwood Mall in Emlenton. Like, 4 years ago or something. I think he forgot he had it. It was just a small bottle, but I rubbed that in, and it brought out the grain beautifully. It's not shiny, but it gleams. Tim's sold on the product. 

Tim has the sink marked out but he wants to cut out the countertop outside to avoid raising all the dust inside. Just about the time that decision was made, the skies opened up. It was raining cats and dogs and showed no signs of letting up. 

We unpacked the range hood, and he's pleased with that, but he did not like the wall mounts with the kit, which would require another trip to Lowes. 

We do get in trouble at that store. Friday we spent $600. Yesterday we spent $300. Today, well...as long as we were going to be there...Tim wanted subway tile instead of the square tiles. (Inconsequential side note? We have 3 boxes of the square tile in the basement.) But he wanted subway tile with black grout. Picture below has nothing to do with our actual kitchen...just meant to show you the look he's going for. 

Don't know how or when that popped in his head, but since we have a black composite sink and the appliances are stainless with black, well, it kind of works. Browsing around last night, I discovered that they had the subway tile he wanted. 4 x 12 for 79¢ each, which by my calculations, we would need about a hundred to do the job, which is kind of economical. As long as you don't consider the 3 boxes of square tile that we have in the basement already, which we actually paid nothing for. Someone had the boxes in their garage for years, and weren't going to use them, so we picked them up because we could use them. Well. We could have if Tim hadn't got an itch about the subway tile. Anyways, so we picked up another $100 worth of stuff today. 

I said to Tim on the way out the door, "We need to stay away from Lowes for a while." He cheerfully said, "We can do that. We've got everything we need for the kitchen." Which is very cool. 

We are still working on the raised beds. 

 I've dropped down below the milestone weight I was struggling to reach. I was dropping weight and then sort of 'plateaued' a few ounces above that milestone. I ran out of lettuce for my evening salad, and didn't have time to get more, so I had a small helping of the regular supper I had for Tim (venison roast with vegetables, lots of vegetables). I had small suppers for the next couple days until I got to the store, and much to my surprise, I lost two more pounds last week, which dropped me under that loss. It is my second 'milestone', so I'm pretty happy with myself. 

My appointment is Thursday, and I will be interested to see if the A1C has dropped from that 6.4. December was my first high reading. With the weight loss, I think that I'm proving that I am serious about this. I haven't had dessert since January. No sugar in my coffee. Two meals a day. High protein, low carbohydrate, and lots and lots of water. 

I didn't watch the news today, at all. I did catch that JD and Usha went to Greenland. The trip was supposed to last from Thursday to Saturday. However, once Greenland got wind that it wasn't just Usha coming, it was JD and an entourage, the invitations were revoked one after another. They could not find anyone that would host the group, and so they went to the only place they could: Pituffik, an American Space Base. 3 hours later, they head home 

(DOGE? DOGE, can we talk about government waste?) 

It appears that the EU and Canada are standing strong. European citizens are being told to stockpile 72 hours worth of food. (Experts are advising that this should be the minimum.) They are preparing for crisis. Because of us. Because of the aggression of the United States. 

I cannot tell you how unbelievably sad this makes me. 

For everyone out there wondering what is wrong with the United states, remember this: Only 17% of Americans approve the Gaza plan, 18% approve the annexation of Canada, and 19% approve the president's plan for Greenland. I hope that's a little comforting.

https://www.livenowfox.com/news/new-polls-little-support-us-takeover-canada-greenland-gaza

While we're on the topic of government waste that somehow DOGE has missed, there's this:  Trump has spent 26 million dollars flying to Mar-a-Lago to play golf every weekend, and he rakes in significant amounts of money by from the government for meals and rooms at his club for his security team.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/17/trump-golf-taxes

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2025/03/trumps-golf-habit-costs-taxpayers-millions-author-says-there-is-a-dirty-secret-about-the-president-on-the-links.html 

Elon is supposed to be leaving DOGE in May. I find that hard to believe. We'll see. 

Now we're cooking....

 No pictures today, sorry. But the kitchen is taking shape. We hung the upper cupboards. We set the lowers in place. We have the counter top in place, but not yet attached. 

The countertop comes with a story of its own, and you will see what a hard ass I can be. We were looking at countertops at our local big box store, and I saw what I wanted...live edge teak. 

While I saw it displayed with a price, I could not find the product. Tim liked it too, so we thought that we'd ask about it. Perhaps it needed to be ordered. How long did a special order take? So we tracked down an employee who couldn't look the product up on his phone, so we followed him to his desk. He looked the product up and said that it was not available and that it couldn't be ordered. 

Disappointed, I said, "Well, I don't know why they would show it as an option." He shrugged and said, "I agree with you." 

Now we had already told him that we intended to purchase countertop that day, but he made no move to assist. Shifting 10 foot sections of counter top requires employee assistance, but he leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head and so I said, "Well. Let's go pick out something else, then." 

We went by ourselves, and we settled on our next choice. I didn't like that nearly as much as I did the teak. Perhaps we could locate the product on line, but really, we just want to make forward progress, and really, so I gave in. It will need to be finished. (Feel free to hop in with suggestions). 

So...we still needed to get it loaded on a cart, so we headed off once again. I found two employees who tried to direct us back to the other employee (still sitting at his desk with his hands behind his head). "No," I said firmly. "He's not interested. I'd prefer to stick with someone else." They both looked surprised but they said, "Sure..." and off we went. 

I have the receipt, and the two of them will get good customer feedback. I will not give negative feedback about the other employee. Who knows? Maybe he was having a shit day. It happens. But, credit where credit is due.

Today, I watched my kitchen take shape. and it was pretty exciting. 

We went back to Lowe's afterwards. I want shelves instead of upper cabinets in the corner, and I knew the brackets I wanted. 

We also wanted to look at range hoods. Not necessarily to buy today. We still have the backsplash to install, and so...we thought we could wait on that. We just wanted to find one that we both agreed on. 

We did too. 

We both liked it. 

It was also $180 off. 

And it was the only one left.  

It's been kind of a spendy-spendy weekend. 

But...I'm excited about the kitchen. 

See Saw

 I'm on political overload right now. This whole Signal debacle, and today, I am hearing about Trump's executive orders re: the Smithsonian. 

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/27/nx-s1-5342914/smithsonian-president-trump-executive-order

Elon Musk is providing Starlink to the Whitehouse. 

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/19/casual-white-house-starlink-use-is-a-cybersecurity-nightmare-a-transparency-problem-and-a-weird-marketing-stunt/

I dunno, but I was pretty sure they had a secure system set up in place before this, so I don't understand why, unless, of course, you take into consideration that it is believed that Hegseth used Signal because he had the messages set to automatically delete after 2 weeks (which was later changed to 4 weeks). This allowed plans to be made without worrying about an inconvenient record of events to answer to later. 

(Signal was not only used for war plans. They've dug up accounts with a lot of eggplant emojis that are linked to venmo accounts. I'm waiting for the "official" explanation on this. Probably involve Italian restaurants and food delivery. 

The official investigation is unfolding right now, and what we can know for sure is that these people are, at the very least, bald faced liars. 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-gabbard-questioned-on-participating-in-signal-chat-where-war-plans-allegedly-leaked

That's a lot, isn't it? I came upon this, which I found encouraging.

https://ishouldbelaughing.blogspot.com/2025/03/i-didnt-say-it_01442929915.html

Thanks, Bob. I needed that post. 

I have good things happening in my corner of the world. 

We signed a lease. 

The correct pronoun is 'she'. 

Good to know, good to know.

Her family is coming together for her, donating what she needs to get started, and her joy is touching.

We've been getting things around for the house sale. Being part of that story is a happy thing too. Her family has come together in a big, big way. I messaged her to ask if she needed a kitchen range. She has one. And a fridge. And cupboards. And the bathroom. She thinks probably the best thing to do is just rent a u-haul to get everything there. She's excited. Her family's excited. 

All my peppers and my tomatoes have germinated, and I get a little happy every time I look at that. 

I'm have my granddaughters' easter box ready to mail.

We're going to see Lou Gramm next week in Erie, courtesy of the youngest daughter who bought tickets for us for Christmas. The original concert was canceled due to the huge snow event there. 

Concert?

Happy about that. 

The fact that it isn't snowing?

Another happy.

That's it, really. I hope that you all have joys to counterbalance the chaos.

Mom Duty

 Yesterday, I had to run out and pick up some things. While I was there, I decided to look for a 'Bluey' t-shirt to go with the Bluey sunglasses I got for the youngest granddaughter's Easter. While I was looking, there was a new grandma shopping there as well. She has a grandson, and she was looking for little outfits. 

I smiled to myself, because I remember that. The 'new'. The joy of it. 

Before too long, she was joined by a huge guy, tall and sturdy. "What are you going to get your new nephew?" she asked. 

He answered that he did not know, and she urged him to pick something out for him and that she would pay for it. 

I found Bluey and looked for the correct size, and headed off and somehow found myself in front of the pair of them. I listened to the son say tell his mother that he had called off work. His mother expressed some amount of concern, but the son said, "I was worried too, but it occurred to me that I am the only night cashier they got, so they're not going to fire me." 

A person with any amount of common sense would see immediately that this is not true. The young man is not working 7 days a week, so presumably there is another night cashier. Most of these jobs (I've worked them) cut off hours below the 40 hour mark to avoid paying full time benefits. Normally they will cut you off just below 32 hours so that if someone calls off, they use you to fill in those hours while still keeping you from full time status. It's a racket. It is the racket of multimillion dollar companies who are more concerned with profits and shareholders than they are the people who work for them. 

So...I get it. 

But as they followed along, I listened to the guy bragging about his importance, about the fact that he has job security because it is a shit position that would be impossible to fill if it were not for him. He was doing the company a favor, and they would be desperate to keep him on, no matter what. 

The young man is in for a rude awakening. I'm not sure where his job was, but I'm going to guess that it is some convenience store or gas station. They go through employees like toilet paper. No one is indispensable. There is no such thing as job security.

I stopped to look at zip up hooded sweatshirts. They were getting rid of winter stock and had them on sale for $5, an amazing deal. Tim has 4 of them that he wears all the time. One has a tear, one has a broken zipper, and all of them are spotted up with paint or grease or something. It was a good opportunity to replace them. 

The little group walked past, the son still talking about how important he was to his company. I'm old enough to know better. So is his mom. Just seems like she had a duty to make sure that he knew how things work. He might not have paid one bit of attention, but it needed saying. 

Just Another 'nuther Day (and no one died).

 Oh my gosh. Was today a day! We had the chicken coop on the truck, and we had to unload it. It is heavy, made of rough cut, so it had extra weight because it is not dry wood. Just the two of us concocted a plan to hook it to a chain, and come-along it down a set of wooden ramps. Of course, the thing did not want to drag properly, and then suddenly, it was leaning precariously off the back of the truck, and I was begging Tim to get out of the way because if it were to fall, I would not be able to stop it. Which made him impatient, of course, because he was watching out.

I texted my brother in law to come quickly if they were at home, even as Tim was telling me not to do that. They were home, and they dashed right over, although by that time, the chicken coop had crashed from the truck to the ground and nobody died, which in Tim's mind, proved his point that I should not be texting for help when we didn't need it at all. 

We tilted it back up on its skids and Anna and Dave were able to admire how well built and sturdy it was. 

(Which we proved by losing it off the back of the truck. It bounced, but there was no damage.)

Sorry for using the same picture I used before. The unloading process was so frightening that I never even thought to take a picture afterwards. 

We finished building our raised beds. I did remember to take pictures of those, because I knew Northsider has been anxious to see them. They are not yet filled with dirt and fym and sawdust, but that will happen. Siding the house is on the agenda too.

]

All my tomatoes have germinated, and 9 of 12 pepper plants as well, which makes me happy.

Even though tomorrow it is supposed to snow.

Today, I watched The Remarkable life of Ibelin. If you have netflix, I do recommend it. Tissues are required.