The # is 21-that’s how many electoral votes Penna is worth to the candidates. They have been stumping in my homestate with vigor over the past few months. Today had to be the most interesting rally yet down in Philly. As much as I would have liked to see Bill Clinton and Kerry along with all the PA elected Democrats, I would never be caught in a crowd of 30,000 up to 100,000 (what I heard). The newcasters are saying Clinton will help warm black voters to Kerry. It just may work. I do believe Bill has an office in Harlem and is very popular in that community. It was interesting to see Patti LaBelle up on the stage too.
Now Bush has been here at least 41 times and had his mama here today. They want our votes so bad! Will they remember us after Nov. 2nd? The old Keystone state?
Presidential poll:
Nicest prez: Jimmy Carter (and also first prez I voted for back in ’80)
favorite first lady:Jaqueline K. Onassis because she brought a certain flair to the White House
Nicest kids: Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton
Best looking prez: Reagan wasn’t bad looking when he was younger and was a Democrat! JFK had ‘the look’.
Sneakiest prez-Richard Nixon
Good war prez-FDR and Eishenhower
Who would I like to meet: Jimmy Carter-what a great guy for 80 yrs old.
Cutiest pet:Bush Senior’s Millie-a dog that can write a book is cool with me. I liked Buddy the Clinton’s dog. Macaroni was a neat pony for the Kennedys. Who had the goat? : )

Here I am with my son on his 18th birthday in Lancaster, PA on a day trip.

Yes, my only child just turned 18 yesterday. No longer a child and now a man. He is still my little boy and I know we will always be close. We just have that kind of relationship.
I have to tell you what happened on Saturday though. Brian and I were cleaning up the yard getting it ready for the winter and Sean came out and said he was off to the park for a run. Well, surprise, surprise! He hasn’t gone running for many months. When he got back there was a car behind the van and being a mom I thought maybe he had had a fender bender, then in a more calm state, he was giving directions to someone. Well, glory be! Some girls from his class had recognized him in the van and stopped by to chat! It was like he had groupies. He was moving his arms around in an animated way. When he came in, he was grinning ear to ear. We were teasing him in a nice way. I thought it was cute.
Yesterday we took a family trip to Lancaster, PA. It’s just the three of us. I told Sean he could invite friends to a local restaurant for pizza and he knocked down that idea saying birthdays are ‘family times’. We aren’t much on parties for bigger kids and I wouldn’t know who to invite. I think it’s hard to tell people what to buy someone who has everything he needs and more. So we took a shopping trip anyway. Sean wanted another pair of sneakers and had money burning a hole in his pocket from his grandfather. The other thing he wants to buy is a fancy calculator. He only did buy the sneaks. I actually got a little Christmas shopping done, mainly for my internet friends and my niece and nephew. We went to a smorgasbord place and it was good, but could have been better. It was a nice time for the three of us.

My brother wanted us to see this when it first came out and we didn’t. Sean went down to the video store and brought home Fahrenheit 911 and the Passion of Christ. Talk about different flicks.
Well we watched the Michael Moore documentary first. I think every voter needs to see this. And it’s not garbage (as my father-in-law told my son, and he probably didn’t even see it) and so what if Moore is a big man. I hate when people say that about him. He connected the dots for me-I saw how the Bush men work. I’m not going to go into a rage here, but I still think the US is in Iraq for all the wrong reasons. A scene in the movie showed Iraqis doing what we think is normal a few days before the invasion-children flying a kite, a couple marrying (the lady was in a white wedding dress). Then the next scene was an attack and a man putting a bloody dead child in the back of a truck with other bodies and asking ‘why, what did we do?’ I don’t know how anyone could watch this and not think the same thing. Do the bigwigs smell oil? How can we look at the scenes of our young, injured men saying that ‘they still feel their hands’, though both are missing and not feel something? And then the mom who reads the final letter from her son that tells her how great it is to get mail as it makes it more tolerable there. His final question to her-what are we doing here? Please rent this movie. It’s important.

Be afraid, be very afraid! 

Cosmo takes over the new area rug. 

I just haven’t felt much like shopping lately. Yep, it’s a cash flow issue. October basically sucks big time. It’s time for car insurance and all the other bills due in the 3rd quarter. December is another balancing act. Anyway, I’ve had this family room on my mind and it’s coming around. The painting is done except for along a wall where Brian didn’t tape between two colors and it needs touch up. My son is driving and our insurance went up, way up. He hardly ever drives. I was hoping and thinking-hmmmm…. I need some shrimp, Sean can run down to the store for me so I don’t have to put makeup on, that kind of thing. Nope, doesn’t happen. And it’s Sean’s 18th birthday on Sunday. He had picked out things as mentioned in a previous post, but being he’s my only, I had to get a few surprises for him, so I went to TJ Maxx. I hadn’t been in there for ages and they had good stuff! I won’t say what I bought him-ok it’s clothing. I got a chenille throw rug for the family rug that coordinates well with my lounge chair. It has a burgundy background with red flowers (think sofa) with green accents. I also walked past this crystal turkey and then came back and looked at it and bought it! I like candy jars and also have a small turkey collection, so it fits. It’s really pretty. I got Colleen’s (sis-in-law) mom a few things as she’ll be 60 on Sean’s birthday. She just had an operation and I wanted to get her gifts. I blew a bit in there and headed off to ‘Big Lots’ which is usually lots of junk. Got some 50% off Halloween stuff and birthday supplies, so I’m ready for Sunday.

Darn, this has been bothering me lately. There are a few blogs on here with just photos of ‘the bulge’ that has been noticed on Bush’s back with an obvious wire leading up over his shoulder. Hey it’s like Nancy and Ron, ya know. Mommy gave Ronnie the answers to hard questions sometimes. I mean they are saying it could be a way he communicated during the debates or could be a defiberator or whatever that medical device is called. They are saying his mouth looks droopy like he had a stroke. They said it looks like he had a nose job. Man, he’s just falling apart! I wish someone would just come clean with what the heck it is. It’s probably a machine that brainwashes you to vote Republican if you shake hands with him!
Bush had about his 40th visit to the grand ol’ state of PA. Good luck, we have Ed Rendall as the governor who is really pushing for Kerry. And Philly usually votes Democratic.
This is what I am talking about:
http://www.bushwired.blogspot.com/
http://homepage.mac.com/c.shaw/BushBulges/PhotoAlbum15.html

Well after a long post, I tried to publish it and it got eaten! Just like all the Hot Pockets in my freezer do! I know that Hot Pockets have been around a while, but these frozen filled pastries (for lack of a better word) are just delectable! Most of them are. Forget the Philly cheese steak ones. I should know what a good Philly cheese steak tastes like. I started buying them in the summer as Sean got tired of sandwiches and won’t eat soup. I was buying mostly the pizza ones, but now I enjoy the fajitas and chicken and broccoli pot pies. For breakfast they have Lean Hot Pockets Bacon and Eggs and the lady on the box lost weight eating them! You can have a strawberry pastry with icing too. Now the Lean ones are like 4 grams of fat. The others can go up to 17 or more grams of fat. I don’t eat them all that much and if I do, I need to move more during the day to burn that off. I noticed if I have too little for lunch I burn out by the late afternoon.
I am also lucky because Sean will eat and take leftovers for lunch. He’ll feast on leftover spaghetti or tacos! I will eat leftovers, but I like the ‘Soup at Hand’ creamy tomato and vegetable. I just wish they didn’t have all the added salt.
My mom and brother are both diabetic, not the bad type, but my mom just started testing her sugar again and it was 94 in the morning and about 145 at night. She was worried, but she can’t just go by a few tests, but an average of a week or more. I don’t know if Dave is still being careful with his eating. I hope I never get this. I never had a sugar problem even though I am overweight. Mom is 111 pds and showed sugar when she was pregnant many decades ago.
I am hoping I don’t get a phone call from the gyn about the tests I had on Monday. I figured someone read them by now. Say a little prayer for me, will you? : )