I got a holiday gift from a kind relative yesterday in the mail – a check for $100. The amount varies a bit from year to year, but each holiday season I receive a similar gift. Last year it was a bit less, and I used the money to do a little home improvement project.
Before
After
But I digress…. (show off!)
Anyway, I realized after completing this project that what I really need to do is do something for MYSELF with this windfall and I’d better decide soon, or I’ll gain 40 pounds like Oprah. Well, I’m likely to gain about 40 pounds in the next six months or so anyway, but for an entirely different reason.
Gosh, digressing again!
So, despite the threat of obesity hanging over my head, I’m having a heck of a time deciding what to do with this money. Having lived a VERY frugal existence for the past four years, I’ve gotten used to doing without a lot of things and now don’t feel like I really need or want a lot of things anyway. I’ve also come to realize that I’ve got most of what I want and need anyway and, honestly, $100 isn’t really going to get me to Hawaii for a week alone with The Swiss.
So, I’m looking to my readers to make some suggestions. What would you do with an extra $100 and, more importantly, what should I do?
By now, all of you have most likely seen this video (or seen it and seen it and seen it) of an Iraqi reporter hurling not just one, but two shoes at President Bush yesterday.
Myself, I only watched it once since that’s all I really ever watch anything, including the video of Brown Eyes’ birth 11 years ago. OK, I admit to watching an episode or two of Lost a few times over.
But I digress….
While there has been talk ad naseum about the appropriateness of this reporter’s action and his deserved consequence(s), there has been very little discussion about President Bush’s response to the event. In typical tone-deaf Bush fashion, when asked why he thought someone might want to throw a shoe at him, the President of the United States of America said,
“I don’t know what his beef is.”
In actuality, the reporter, Muntazer al-Zaidi, was very clear about his “beef” when he shouted in Arabic as he flung his shoe (a traditional Iraqi insult), “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
But, since President Bush likely doesn’t speak Arabic, maybe I can help him understand Mr. al-Zaidi’s “beef”:
Population of Iraq: 27 million
Iraqi civilian deaths due to violence since the invasion: 208,000
Iraqi children, women and men wounded: over 1,000,000
Number of Iraqis internally displaced: 2,400,000
Number of Iraqis who have fled the country: 2,000,000
Average hours of electricity per day in Baghdad before invasion: 20
Average hours of electricity per day in 2007: 8.9
Iraqis who oppose the presence of US forces: 79%
To this I’ll add my own beefy list:
Number of Iraqi hijackers involved in 9/11: 0
Number of weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq: 0
Number of al-Qaida in Iraq prior to invasion: 0
US military deaths in Iraq as of 12/1/08: 4,213
US soldiers returning from Iraq who show signs of PTSD: 1 in 3
US military operations in Iraq through FY 2007: $416.4 billion
US diplomacy and aid in Iraq through FY 2007: $30.8 billion
US spending on Iraq veteran benefits through FY 2007: $1.5 billion
Initial estimate of Iraq war cost: $50 to $60 billion
Funds requested by Bush Administration through FY 2007: $607 billion
So, in the end, the question may not be why Mr. al-Zaidi felt compelled to throw his shoes at President Bush, but why more of us have not.
I’m neglecting my blog. I know it. My excuse is that it’s the holiday season and between shopping and wrapping and decorating while continuing my usual duties of working my full time job (mom) and my half-time job, I’m left with little time to do anything except lament my lack of time!
I promised my niece at Thanksgiving that I would post this recipe since she seems to have a freezer full of talapia (don’t even want to guess how this came to pass!), so here we go.
I originally got this recipe from Cookie Magazine, a magazine I like some of (travel with kids, kid-friendly recipes), but not most of (expensive clothes for kids and moms, very mainstream health and parenting “advice”, shopping recommendations for lots of plastic toys and video games).
But I digress….
I’m not even trying to co-opt the name Happy Meals here, this lovely concoction already carried that moniker when I found it.
Step 1: Chop, chop, chop. I like to use a talapia filet for each meal (this means two for the Swiss and one each for me, Brown Eyes and Blue Eyes), some carrots, tomatos, onion, fresh lemon, basil and pats of butter.
You’ll notice that I’m using dried basil here as the garden has been put to bed for the year. One of the most appealing things about this meal is that I can get all the veggies (onion, tomato, carrots, basil) from the garden.
Step 2: On a square of parchment paper, spread an inch-wide bead of couscous in the center, leaving about an inch at the top and bottom of the parchment. On this, spoon two tablespoons of water. Set fish in pieces on couscous, so the grains are well covered. Add one butter pat on fish and squeeze the juice of two lemon wedges, adding lemon pieces on top of fish. Next, add veggies and top with basil.
Step 3: Fold the sides of the paper toward each other and twist one end tightly. Crimp the middle downward three or four times and twist the other end to create a tight seal.
Wrapped Up and Ready to Go!
Step 4: Bake at 400° F for 14 minutes or until fish is cooked through.
Brown Eyes Gives Her Happy Meal a Thumbs-Up
Filed under: Digressions
OK, I saw this video and almost peed my pants – not because it’s so incredibly funny (it is), but because I had some serious childhood flashbacks – probably to before I was potty trained.
Since I have family in Minnesota and since the outcome of the senate race there has a potentially big impact on the balance of power in the US Senate, I’ve been following the recount between incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman and challenger Democrat (or, more accurately, DFLer) Al Franken.
Reading the Minneapolis Star-Tribune online today, I saw this comment:
This whole debacle is an embarrassment to this State. Would someone please be a man and bow out???
I laughed out loud.
Yes, it’s been nearly a month since the election, and yes, the recount won’t be final until the middle of this month. So what?
Great, I say. Let the wheels of justice turn. Let the votes be counted. It’s not like these guys actually WORK in the month of December, right? Heck, the Senate doesn’t even begin another session until after the new president is sworn in anyway. What’s the hurry?
It’s startling to me that someone, in their discomfort of this critically important process and their impatience for a resolution, ANY resolution, would call for casting votes aside. What would really be embarrassing to the state of Minnesota would be a sudden stop to this process or one candidate or group bullying the other to call an end to the recount. How could he anyway? The recount is mandated by LAW!
But I digress…..
Each week, Brown Eyes gets a small allowance. Part is for spending, part is for saving and part is for charity. So, a couple times a year, she donates $50 or so to a charity that she’s researched and thinks is worthy of her donation. In October, after counting her money, she found that she was at that magic $50 mark and decided to donate to the Obama campaign. With her donation, she sent a letter explaining that she wanted to be a doctor, but was concerned with the number of people, particularly children, who did not have health insurance and she asked Senator Obama to do something to fix our broken health care system. She also expressed her concern about climate change and asked him to address our over-dependence on oil so we can reduce emissions and save the polar bears.
I wish I would have kept a copy of that letter. I was really moved by her passion and her ability to communicate her goals to the President-Elect.
Then she received a reply:
October 30, 2008
Dear Brown Eyes,
Thank you for your kind words. I am impressed with your interest in politics, especially at your young age. I hope you will always be an active participant in the world around you, and that you will seize every opportunity to make the world better.
Creating change and making the world better is not always easy, and you will probably find in your life that is is more comfortable to ignore injustices than don’t affect you directly. Don’t take that comfortable road. Challenge yourself to make a difference.
If you don’t already know what it means, I want you to look up the word “empathy” in the dictionary. I believe we don’t have enough empathy in our world today, and it is up to your generation to change that.
I leave you with three bits of advice that will make your life more fulfilling: Look out for other people, even when it does not directly benefit you; strive to make a difference every where you go; and get back up every time you are knocked down.
Thanks again for letting me share these thoughts with you. Seeing young people like you who care about making things better inspires me and gives me great hope about the future of our country.
Sincerely,
(personally signed by)
Barack Obama
So Proud!
