brykmantra.com

… Is a very very very fine house,
With two dogs in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is better
Coz of you …

It’s hard to realize it’s been so long, but we’ve been in this house for 10 years now. In fact, in was ten years ago tonight that we were frantically loading up the last of our possessions from our old house, driving it the two miles to this house, throwing it into the garage, and hurrying back for more. At about this time that night (around 10), our neighbors were helping us pile things in my truck and unload it over here — a favor for which we repaid three of them, Kim, Ann, and Stacy, by taking them out to dinner a couple of weeks later.

As I recall, we finally finished up about 3:30 AM and got to bed about 4, but didn’t get much sleep before we had to get up and go to work.

I wasn’t really sleepy the next day, exactly. I was just so exhausted I was numb … which was kind of a rush in itself.

We had spent the whole month of August making repairs, since the place was a HUD foreclosure and a fixer-upper, and needed all new carpeting. We got just enough work done to put the carpeting in just in time to move in the furniture, then it was a mad dash to transfer the goods.

It was too late that year, but the next spring I got to work on the yard, which had been horribly neglected. Fully half of the front yard was bare (except for ugly weed grass) and riddled with huge cracks. It took a lot of top soil, mulch and sod, but I got those bare expanses filled in, and our across-the-street neighbor later expressed appreciation for my efforts, since he said we probably improved property values by fixing that place up!

Anyway, it’s been ten years, and we still love our little house, with its roofed-over patio and nice shade trees and sloped living room ceiling …

Here’s to another 10 or more!

The Alaska Governor (and, now, Vice Presidential nominee) sent a video greeting to Craig Ferguson last year to Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson, offering him honorary state citizenship (before he actually firmed up his US citizenship). Here’s a clip:

As you may know, I follow politics, and had just about given up on politicos getting anything right — until today.

McCain picked a woman as his running mate!!! Woo-hoo!!!

Seriously, I had given up on the idea that McCain might pick anybody but another white guy. I could just imagine this presidential season, as the hopeless two-white-guy Republican ticket limped along for two months against the first African-American candidate in history.

But that’s all changed now: McCain stepped up and did what he needed to and picked a female running mate.

Ha ha ha ha, now the fight is ON!

All the news commentators would skim over the two or three most eligible women — mostly Kay Bailey Hutchison, and there was ONE mention of Sarah Palin — then they’d go back to concentrating on the same old white guys, like Mitt Romney, Joe Lieberman, Tim Pawlenty, and some other guys I’ve barely heard of.

WHITE GUYS.

Now, I have nothing against white guys. Historically, some of my best friends have been white guys — in fact, now that I think about it, I’m actually a white guy myself — but when it comes to politics, enough is enough. White guys have gotten this country in the mess it’s in, and in the 232 years that we’ve officially been in existence, there has only been ONE instance where one of the people on one of the tickets was not a white guy, and that was 24 years ago.

So this year, when Obama was breaking down a barrier for the Democrats, I was going to be VERY, VERY UNHAPPY if McCain and the Republicans just sat back and said, “Well, we’re just gonna stick with what’s worked so far …

But good ol’ John McCain went and surprised the holy living heck out of me and picked Sarah Barracuda Palin! HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Whew!

Bonus points: She’s a babe!

But um … more importantly … she’s an experienced executive official with deep economic knowledge, and brings a much-needed Washington Outsider perspective to the race.

And she’s a babe. Woot!