Sarah Palin hates Polar Bears

Kudos to John McCain for blowing my mind, temporarily. I have to admit, my first thought was how cool is that! A woman, Sarah Palin, as a vice presidential nominee. One step closer to having a woman at the highest level of government in our country. And, she's from Alaska. I lived there! And since I obviously don't remember the Mondale/Ferarro ticket of 1984, this would be an entirely new experience to live through. And then I started digging into who this lady is and what she stands for. I started reading information such as this:

-An outspoken anti-abortion Republican
Stay the hell away from my body lady and let me decided what I can & cant do
-Palin is an avid hunter and a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association So we can have more guns in the hands of freaks that shoot up schools
-Elected offices: Wasilla, Alaska, City Council member, 1992-96
--Wasilla mayor, 1996-2002
--Elected governor of Alaska, 2006
Great. 2 years as governor of Alaska and no national experience. Could stand to be leader of the free world. I belive I saw she was a PTA leader as well.
-Against same-sex marriage, although she claims to have good friends who are gay
Yeah, because bigotry stings less if your friends

I did read that she was a runner up in a beauty queen pagent though. And won Miss Congeniality! Actually, I shouldn't make fun of that. She is really pretty. And does look a lot like Tina Fey who is so totally funny. 30 Rock is one of the best shows on TV right now. Season premier Thursday October 30th!!

I knew all along who I was voting for in this election, siding with the same party I have since I was old enough to vote. But, I have to admit, it did give me pause when I saw the potential for a women to be the second most powerful person in our country. And then I got over it. I'll end with this quote from Hillary Clinton:

“We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin's historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain," Clinton, the first woman to win a presidential primary, said in the statement. "While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.”

One day left

I'm sad the Olympics are almost over and now I'll have to wait 2 more years until Vancouver in 2010. They make me really happy to watch, but really tired. I've been watching to 11:00-11:30 everynight and I have to turn around and get up at 5:30. There is one sport that seems really interesting to me, and it's handball. I'm surprise that the US doesn't have a mens or womens olympic team. I'm not sure whats happening when I watch the game, I think it's like soccer only you use your hands instead of feet, but it seems like it would be fun! And, they have a cute little ball they get to play with, sort of like rugby.

Also, even though their country's leaders are acting like bastards, I really like Team Russia's uniforms: I really like their uniforms and the track jackets are even better. And no, I have no idea why there is a little puppy photo-shopped into the picture. But look at the coaches shoes! Cute!

I have Rams box tickets tonight to see them play Baltimore for the 3rd game of the pre-season. Free food and tickets. That makes up for the $20 i'll have to pay in parking. But, I did get gas today at Mobil for $3.29 a gallon so filling up my tank when it was a little less than half empty only cost me 25 bucks.

Who let rythmic gymnastics into the Olympics? And they are getting rid of softball and baseball....jeez.

Olympic sized injury

I was going to write an entire blog about how much I love the Olympics and how I have been religiously reading/watching the games since they started...but then I came across this video. It's of one of the weighlifters from Hungry. So awful. I can't imagine how that felt. When I saw this for the first time, I was eating spaghetti and it made me drop my fork and put my hand over my mouth. Ugh!

Consider yourself warned.

What $50 dollars can get you. Part two.

Part two of my mini 4 day vacation. So I drive on up to Branson which is about 45 minutes outside of Springfield. All the way up in them thar hills. Now Branson is considered a hot place for those with families or are over the age of 60. A place where people can go for wholesome entertainment without the supposed sin and debauchery of Las Vegas. Yeah, it's a pretty boring place. But thousands of other people don't agree and that is evident by the fact it took me over an hour and a half to drive 3 miles down main street. So aggraviating. Just stop and go, stop and go. Sometimes, when I am in traffic like that with no way out, I just want to drive my car into a tree.

But, I didn't. And first things first, I needed a place to stay. I wanted to keep it cheap again and while I was driving 2 mph down the road I caught a building out of the corner of my eye. It was in the shape of a giant riverboat. One side was flat, the other side all rooms with little portholes for windows. I knew that was place for me. So I pull up to the front office and get out. By that time, the temperature outside was a heat index of 112 and my Old Navy flip flops started melting into the asphalt. I go inside and get a room for one night at 50 dollars. I climbed up three flights of stairs (This is not a hotel for the handicapped) and go to my room. It wasn't bad at all! For some reason I had two beds, but the AC was just under the window so I had no problem reaching it. The only problem was the lock. It had a little door handle lock and the other lock was a chain lock that you hooked up. But, the chain was gone. So it was just the little door knob lock. This time though, I had a chair in the room so I simply put the chair up against the door that night. And, when I looked out my porthole, I saw this:

If you can't tell, its a scaled back version of Mount Rushmore with John Wayne, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin. At least I think it's Charlie Chaplin. It took me awhile to figure it out. I kept thinking it was either Bozo the Clown or Adolf Hitler but then I finally figured out he was wearing a bowler hat.

I had some time to kill before meeting up with my friends and I decided to do something incredibly touristy: The duckboat tour. The tour takes you down the streets of Branson and then into Table Rock Lake. Here is a picture of other Duck Boats getting into the water after us. They are WWII relics put to good use. I got a seat all by myself which was a good thing because it was so hot. What was annoying & embarrissing though is that everyone was issued a duck bill whistle that when you blew into it, it quacked. And all the stupid kids in the duck boat blew their duck bills all the way down main street and into the lake. Just imagine, your sitting in a WWII era boat/car in 112 degree heat with little kids blowing on their honkers all the way there, and all the way back.

I survived the duck boat and spent a great night sitting around and talking with my friends. The next day, Sunday, we decided to do something fun before I had to take back off for St. Louis. We decided that a showboat cruise out on Table Rock Lake would be it. It vaguely reminded me of the ferries I would take as a little girl and that always makes me happy. It was an all encompassing tour. We actually got a stage show (so korny), three course meal and a two hour lake cruise. We actually skipped the second stage show and just spent it out on the upper deck of the boat looking out at the water. It was a nice ending to my mini vacation. So, after the cruise I drove back home for four hours and prepared for a full week of work.

What $80 and $42 dollars can get you. Part one.

Well, you may wonder why I have a photo of cashew chicken from Wong Fu to the left. Thats because I went on a mini vacation to Springfield and Branson Missouri last Thursday-Sunday! I went there for a reason - to meet a friend that weekend, but I decided to go early to hang out in Springfield and rehash some old memories.

I went to college for one year at Missouri State University. in Springfield before transferring to Mizzou for the final three years. I hated Springfield. Best grades I ever got in college, but it was a miserable time. EXCEPT for the Cashew Chicken at Wong Fu. Seven years ago, it was the most.awesome.dish.ever. I have not had it for seven years, and I knew this would be a good time. So I went to the student union and got my food. Spilled a portion of it down my shirt and pants and the meal wasn't exactly as I remembered. But, I was still happy. So I spent the rest of the day walking around campus and taking pictures. I also went to Bass Pro Shop which is fun (in a horrifying sort of way).

So later that night I needed to get a hotel room. Decided to go to stay at a Best Western. When I got up to the front desk and received my room, they told me it would be $80 bucks. So I swallowed my pride and said "okay, I'll stay one night." No way did I want to spend that much. But I took my little card key and went to my very nice hotel room for a good nights sleep. That was Thursday night.

On Friday I did a little more of the same...slept in, hung out, went to the mall. That night I actually had a ticket to go see the Springfield Cardinals which is the St. Louis Cardinals AA team. Its a great brand new little stadium and I had a really fun time. And prices were so much cheaper at this ballpark than the major league park back in St. Louis. So Friday night, I needed a new hotel room. I wanted to be cheaper this time so I decided to spend the night at the Dogwood Inn (no website) for $42 dollars. The clerk (no english) handed me a key and a tv remote control and I went on to the room. The room had an air conditioner, and it was going full blast. But, the unit was high in a corner that I could not reach and the room had no chairs for me to stand on. At least it was on though. Oh, and the door lock was just a little button on the door knob. And, the topper, was that there was a little hole in the wall. All I could see was wood in it but what I was thinking about was Anthony Perkins taking the picture off the wall in his office at the Bates Motel to spy on Janet Leigh in her hotel room. I shoved a receipt in it.

So Saturday I headed down for Branson. Part 2 soon. But I will give you a hint, it involves three kinds of boats: Duck boats, Showboats and Riverboats.