Obama and Clinton are wading through Oregon. So far Obama has mentioned Hillary only once, when discussing the gas tax vacation she and McCain endorsed to try to get votes, and only while explaining why he is not for it. Good for him, he stayed focused on who he has to beat, McCain, and much older man, a friend of GW Bush, and oldtimer in DC politics who offers more of the same old same old.

Clinton is promising Oregonians everything but a blow job, I guess that's Bill's job (insert a silent giggle here).... I'm sorry, but Hill looks mean, calculating and desperate. I assume she is all of these, I have never seen her in another light. I do not like her health care policy, forcing Americans to buy insurance the government has fixed the price on, with no outline of what it will be fixed at, also no justification on how forcing the insurance companies to lower prices is fair but forcing gas companies to limit at the pump prices is not.

My ideas on solving the health care crisis are rather different. The short version of the fix: I think the best bet is to offer education grants to medical students, and we pay the medical training costs of doctors, BSNs, PAs, NPs. radiologists, lab techs, and pharmacists in exchange for 1 year of public service for every year of paid education, then open government funded clinics and roaming rural service vans, place a doc and nurse in every one of them. First of all this would open higher education to thousands of talented people who cannot afford to go, secondly it would revive the pool of care providers, third it would provide care to those who do not have access to it now. This plan could be started immediately by offering to pay off student loans on those set to graduate in exchange for public service. The people seen pay $25 per office call, they pay flat rates labs and flat rate med costs.... pay set salaries to the staff while they get valuable on the job experience and we turn out seasoned medical care staff that can be hired in at a higher rate of paid to train newly graduated doctors. This is a win/win/win/win for all concerned because it opens up education, and health care access. It also encourages people to consider a medical education, rebuilding our supply of trained providers. I am betting it would make providers outside the clinic be more competitive on their pricing. OTW no one gets forced to do anything, with a low cost option for care in place, the others would HAVE to lower pricing to compete. Plus it would not be a bottomless hole, it would generate money to help fund it's self.... throwing money at insurance companies will never do that.

No one running has come up with anything like this, but there is more than one way to fix what is wrong. This way we would fix more than health care access, we would educate trained professionals who might otherwise wind up as fast food servers because of financial restraints regardless of how brilliant they are. And while we are at it, let's offer dental services in the clinics under the same kind of program too, dental health goes hand in hand with medical health and it is sometimes even more expensive.

I do not have any auto immune disease, my ACE level was normal, I DO have Pernicious Anemia.
Normal on the labs is 180+ I am at <100, no wonder I am tired and not thinking clearly.
Pernicious anemia is a blood disease caused by the lack of a substance (intrinsic factor) that the body needs in order to absorb vitamin B12 from food.

Symptoms include weakness, numbness in the hands and feet, mental confusion, weight loss and fever. Pernicious anemia can damage the nerve cells in the brain and spinal column.
I am sad to say the weight loss has not occurred in my case, but all the other symptoms have, (what is the heck is up with THAT?).

The treatment for pernicious anemia is vitamin B12 shots or nasal spray. Because the body can no longer absorb this vitamin from food, the shots or nasal spray must be continued for life.

So Ramie we will both be taking daily shots, but not the same kind.

Oddly enough I felt fine until I got health care coverage, then I started falling apart. So I have borderline high cholesterol and a pretty impressive Vit B12 deficiency.

Anyway I am up, moving and the lawn is getting deep again already. I guess I will have breakfast and tackle it with the lawn mower before I have no choice but to use the weed wacker again. I am NOT doing manual labor on mother's day... so today is the day. Maybe I can convince Karina is would be a good workout and get her to do it this time.

I NEED coffee!

http://www.yelp.com

it's a data base that is forming where you can voice your yay or nay for any type of local to you business/ service. I'm book marking it, portland has been busy filling it up, if no pages exists for your town, start adding info on your favorite or least favorites places.... and get one going. This is the kind of stuff you need when you relocate to a new place and long after you live there.

This wonderful place is more fun than Disneyland

I am taking an Encaustic Painting Workshop at Scrap next month

Heaven in 2 square blocks

The best art supply store I have ever found

Places I like to eat:
La Costita Cocina Mexicana
The Berlin Inn, they offer a menu for your dog on their patio, doggies are welcome there to dine with their human parents
JaCiva's Bakery and Chocolate
Spendy but great for special nights out- Marrakesh Moroccan Food
I go to Wong's King for the best Dim Sum in Portland
VooDoo Donuts has the Best Donuts
The Paradox Palace Cafe, vegetarians, vegans and their burger eating friends can all eat wholesome food here
When I need a Falafel sandwich I go to the Down To Earth Cafe
And last but not least I have to mention this even though I have not been there yet, (but I plan to go soon and check it out), my son's new place of employment Living Room Theaters, And this is his menu

The pie I made yesterday.... Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie:



Yes, I know I'm mean, deal with it.

I've tried, so I guess I'll do and end of day post and try again.

I dragged Vi out and about, I had to pick up some vitamins so we hit Riteaid. I also dragged her into the salvation Army Thrift Store since it was right there, (she loves walking through that store and has no idea I am exercising her). I needed to look for a replacement lampshade and check out their camping gear. I figured I'd grab what I could with $20 and I have to say I hit the jackpot while there even though I am short on funds till payday. I got 2 lampshades, a large water cooler, and a small ice chest, plus 5 nice sized stacking bins (on rollers) that look sorta like these...
We really needed something in the bathroom, (Karina's cosmetics have taken over). I mean, who was I to say no to a solution that was marked $.99? They could have gotten a lot more for it easily. I also got 2 camp worthy cooking pans, and this cool 70's era Ingrid Picnic Ball that I had no idea was a collectible retro piece when I found it. 6 cups, 6 plates in two sizes and 6 bowls are inside it, plus the outside can be used as 2 serving bowls when emptied. I found a couple like it but in different colors online, (mine is complete though):
And I found a rather nice keep-it-or-leave-it table top BarBQ (NIB) and 2 small wooden chests/jewelry boxes I want to paint... total damages.... $12.50. I have $7.50 left over to go wild with, Yay!

Exciting life I lead eh? Just call me the master bargain shopper.

I made a pie for after dinner, a super easy strawberry cream cheese pie I use to make when the kids were small. Vi loved it, well she must have, she ate 2 big pieces. I also made chicken and dumplings for dinner. Then we watched deal or No Deal and I came home to do laundry and clean up the kitchen. I've also done 2 loads of laundry since I got home, and tried to sleep... I'm gonna try again I guess, my life today lacked any major reportable excitement so I have nothing much to write about.

The space we got limits the size to 10x10, it's been a long time since I bought a tent, been looking on ebay, anyone know anything about Wenzel tents? I want one with a rain proof bottom and good rain protection, I do live in Oregon after all..... and we had a horrible experience at Diamond lake one year in a tent that was not exactly well made for wet camping.

I need to get the tent asap, I plan to customize it...(Karina doesn't know this yet) muhahaha

Off to work Vi, home at 930 tonight.... on my cell till then

I made Vi stuffed cabbage leaves and eggless banana muffins with dried bluberries and cranberries in them for dinner. This was no small feat since there was no food in her house to speak of beyond mustard, pickles, cereal and jelly. I took cabbage, hamburger, rice, homemade spaghetti sauce, baby carrots and 3 got-to-be-used-up-now bananas from my house. I had a bag of dried cranberries in my car... I keep emergency rations in my car because I care for a lot of old folks who have little or no food. Anyway, I winged the muffins...they were a tad dense, but she had no eggs so I added applesauce from the car stash as a binder. I gotta say dinner was yummy, I haven;t made stuffed cabbage in ages. I shared some with her next door neighbor who is also struggling to keep food on the table with rises prices...she now claims to love me, we'll see how long that lasts. I need these little old ladies to form a non-profit so I can take them off on my taxes ;)

I got to thinking while at Vi's about spending 3 days and nights in a tent with my daughter Karina.... one of us may not come home alive from the camping trip. Ramie likes to acknowledge her feminine side, but Karina is the girlie-girl in our family... she took 2 suitcases to Cali last summer, one of them held nothing but makeup. I have worn makeup maybe 10 times in my life, so she did not get this addiction from me. Oh gawd, I just had a thought, wait till she finds out about the outhouses! Luckily the ocean tends to carry all evidence of foul play out to sea fairly quickly. I hope Keegan is not overly attached to her. Heh....

Oh I need to share something artsy I found online.... Is this not the most amazing video you have ever seen?

Off to bed.... the cats are stalking me.

I found a tent campsite at the KOA at Lincoln City, on the coast. Thank gawd I am a young 53, or the mere idea of tent camping might kill me, I actually love tent camping. Keegan is now worried about being eaten by bears. Hahahaha
Close-by is fireworks on the 3rd and the 4th, art galleries, museums, a casino and the factory outlet stores and great food...everyone should be happy.

I was thrilled to find out my Tribal Sun sold to someone from my friend's list on Vox, Yay!

Out the door to work.... more later via cell phone.

Borrowed from Sari0009 over on Xanga.

It is a video of a speech by Naomi Wolf, author of the book "The End Of America" on "Squashing Democracy: 10 Things You Must Know, because the blueprint is predictive"

Be sure to go watch part two on youtube

A little lesson is why trying to buy a politician doesn't pay, not in the long run anyway....and just another example of what Hillary is capable of.

Dave is progressing well in his recovery from his stroke, but our neighbor was not so lucky. 3 doors down from us lives Keegan's pal Mikey, his mom and grandmother... his grandmother, age 53 had a tooth pulled last Thursday, complained of a headache at 1130pm, and collapsed at 1230. 911 was called, she never woke up but hung in until Sunday when she died. No history of major health issues, camped, fished, ate organic foods, worked long hours like I tend to do. Truly a nice woman. This makes me very sad, she was the main attention giver to Mikey, and his child care provider while mom attended school. I don't know why stuff like this never seems to happen to the self-serving asswipes of the world.

Toi top off this piece of bad news....
Karina and I got July 3-6th off and planned to take Keegan camping. I have been online or on the phone for 2 days and trust me, there is not a single cabin, yurt or affordable vacation rental open during those dates anywhere in Oregon. Some places flat out laughed at me, "Lady you need to book NOW for next year". Yeah, well you know some employers do not let you request your dates off until May if you want summer dates off. Oh poop.... we may wind up camping in the back yard with the snakes

Coffee in hand I went to check out the Collage Mania site.
Collage Mania started today! It's going right now! 235 collages are available today for a minimum donation of $80 to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause. If that is too rich for your wallet, the ones remaining tomorrow go for $40 each. Help FFAC and Virginia Spiegel meet and exceed her goal of raising $30,000 for the American Cancer Society and add to the more that $150,000 already donated.

My believe sun already sold, yay! My Tribal Sun Collage is still available.


If you buy my Tribal Sun collage today and mention you saw this notice in my blog when I email you for shipping info on Wednesday, I'll throw in an extra surprise.

It's for a good cause. I won't even feel slighted if you like one of the other collages more than mine there are a LOT of cool ones left.

Important Edit: DOUBLE YAY! Both of them sold, now I wish I had donated more. I hope someone I know got them. I don't find out who the buyers are until Wed.

And I found proof I raised a great daughter....
This video is by my oldest daughter Ramie:



I am very proud of her, I had no idea she made this before tonight but I love it.
Now, someone needs to explain to me who MadV is on youtube....

78 where I live, when you are use to cloudy skies and rain, that is almost hot...if you live in a 1978 mobile home it is tropical.

I tried to tackle the bedroom again yesterday and got so frustrated I gave up, there is simply no room to move around in, I need to haul a load to the Salvation Army to be sure. I did get the dresser for Keegan unburied, and I hauled 2 huge bags of "toss it" stuff to the garbage can....but beyond that.... I made no headway, in fact I think I lost some ground. I am tackling it again tomorrow, I need space to set up Alice for some sewing. Gonna do laundry all day tomorrow, and scrub the walls in the bathroom so I can wallpaper. Only doing up to the sink cabinet because I think I am yanking it out and dropping in a sideboard with a bowl sink on top to update it a tad.
I am gathering broken dishes to make a mosaic around the mirror later this summer.

We cannot list the trailer for sale yet, too many in the park are on the market, so I am painting, etc a little bit every day, so we can ask more. One sold Thursday, after 2 more sell I'll list it.

I quietly started sparkpeople.com on monday, I weighed in today and I have lost 4 pounds, yay!

Today is my splurge day, we shopped from noon till 330,(Walmart and Winco). I just got home and I am craving a chili dog and a beer.... gotta eat and then I am off to Vi's till 10.

The 2008 Orphaned Works Bills are creating a battle that wages on all over the internet, an excellent sample of this can be found here: http://mollykleinman.com/2008/04/16/wonks-and-librarians/

To amuse myself I've been researching the Orphaned Works legislation everyone is wetting their pants over, people are drafting letters and poised, ready to fight. I personally decided to take a different route, I went looking for where it might have come from, looking for who might have pushed for it, and who might be owed favors that might help get it over the hump before I write any letters. This is probably the most important thing I learned while battling politicians down in Coos Bay Oregon, "follow the money". It's a good lesson to learn. Anyway I ran into some interesting data while looking into contributions made to the politicians involved in the senate bill, don't you just love the internet?

The details on just one of the politicians involved follows:
First of all the senate version is also called "The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 (S. 2913) It was introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and lists Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) as a backer, I find this odd because Hatch appears to have drafted this originally. It's named after Shawn Bentley, who was an intellectual property counselor for Hatch for several years before he died from cancer.
Interestingly enough he also worked for years for AOL/Time Warner... who happens to be a major contributor to other people heavily involved in both versions.... $41,100 to Leahy alone, they might very well be interested in this passing, but they were not the biggest contributor.
Other major contributors include a litigation attorney who defends naughty people who seem to infringe on patents and copyrights, sizable donations also came from Disney, and then there is "TechNet", an interesting little group of tech moguls, who do a lot of big money lobbying for "causes" that tend to make their members lots of money.... on the record, $81,491 went from Technet to Leahy alone last year, (John Doerr is at the top of the Technet heap, he is the money guy behind Google), that's a lot of freaking gerbil food in my book. I find it interesting that Technet members are already profiting nicely from registries for health care, real estate and financial information, so IMHO they would be crazy to not be interested in making a bundle by creating an art registry. Technet is also endorsing a move to lower patent violation penalties by Leahy and Hatch... info on that here: http://tinyurl.com/6gmgqq. Now, if you read the OW legislation, both versions seek to lower and limit fines on copyright violations...in fact they read quit a bit like Technet's outline of the need to limit patent infringement lawsuits " for the good of humanity" of course. Ahem.... can I prove their donations to Leahy or Hatch are to encourage a push to get the Orphaned Works through and make money as a result? No, but it looks suspicious on a major scale to me.
I feel some deja-vu coming on.... and I suspect people are gonna need to do more than write letters to stop this, in fact I doubt it can be stopped. I haven't finished digging but there appears to be some major money going to the politicians behind making these bills resurface, and some major players have to be involved, it could be Technet, or someone else who doesn't matter, not really. I doubt whoever it is, that they are use to investing large amounts of money and getting nothing in return. Maybe artists better start taking down their art and locking it up now.

I do have to say I haven't had this much fun since I tracked down the skinny on one particularly powerful Environmental Impact Study company in the mid-90's that was up to their elbows in obtaining way too much Federal grant money for performing environmental impact studies (prior to public works projects that seldom actually ever occurred) in financially depressed areas, especially along the west coast. I also found a link from them to suddenly appearing HIGH interest home loans in those areas that were defaulted on at a very high percentage rate, leaving them in control of large amounts of property, some of which they sold off at a loss to local small town politicians, some they kept... the value of all of it rose dramatically within a very short period of time after they got control of it. No one cared then and I doubt they do now, so I imagine that is still going on. I haven't seen anyone mention potential lobbyists for these bills yet so maybe no one but me cares about that either.

BTW, It's impossible to ignore the fact that Technet CEO John Doerr sits on the board of Amazon, Google, Intuit (quickbooks), and the investment company he is a partner in is the primary funding behind Zazzle, (sorta like cafepress). I also discovered that additional donations were also made separately from those by Technet to many of the politicians involved, in the name of John, his wife Ann, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers ( the venture capital group where John is a partner)... and under the name of everyone I have tracked so far that sits in power at Technet. The contribution numbers coming from this general direction will soar much higher than it appears on the surface..... Leahy may never need to buy gerbil food again.

It is always about following the moola, either where it's going to wind up, or who it's being taken from who has friends in the highest places, or who wants to make more. I'm just a nobody, finding this took info me a little over an hour, if I had the time and the desire to create a spread sheet and to cross reference contributions, names and connections the picture would get much scarier and clearer...and it might even lead in further reaching directions, but it is definitely food for thought and something to keep an eye on.

I am sure my daughter Ramie would admire the fact that John and his wife have shoveled a ton of money into backing stem cell research and lobbying for it. That is going to make someone a lot of money some day too.

Anyway I need to get some stuff done here at home.... more on yesterday after I accomplish something productive on the home front.

A link to this video was posted on the QA list, I just got around to checking it out, I sure could have used it several days ago. Consider this your "no food or drink in mouth" warning:



A real update will follow after I super load some coffee and update my sparkpeople nutrition tracker with yesterday's food intake. I worked a 13 hour day yesterday, data entry did not occur when I finally got home.

You really need to read this post and share it with others. I have not seen this story covered by the lamestream news at all here in Oregon anyway. Yesterday we had McCain and Clinton showing us how figures lie with their gas tax vacation idea and now it appears we are well into the area of liars figuring.

This election is gonna set me off yet.

Okay so, first off...
Obama can't bowl worth a crap... few people in Illinois can, trust me I know, I was born there... I nearly killed a superior court judge myself with a bowling ball once in California... on accident (grin)
True story! In fact when someone from Illinois tells you they cannot bowl, do not bully them into being a fill-in on your damn bowling team unless you want someone killed....remember you heard it here first, write it down so you do not forget it, it's important!

Secondly we have....
Royal Crown drinking, "blue collar" Hillary who can't work a simple jiffy mart vending machine but she has assured us she is not an elitist and she can run this country.... (cough)

And now, without a doubt, we ALL know for SURE that neither Hillary nor McCain knows a thing about economics....

This is me, slapping myself on the forehead.... I just got one daughter straightened out about Clinton related things... and now the other one has gone mad on me.... and become a Hillary supporter. I have no idea where I went wrong, I promise never to do it again, and it may come down to me killing her to keep her from voting to cancel my well thought out vote in the Oregon primary. I did not change my registration from a card carrying independent since 1979 to (cough) a democrat (cough) to have a person I gave birth to negate my vote..... as the saying goes, I brought her into this world and by gawd I'll take her out of it if she insists on being a brain-dead moron.

Okay so I won't kill her, but I may be investing in some duct tape and a gag....she'll forgive me eventually....and if she doesn't Keegan will at least be amused by seeing his mom tied up and gagged on our primary voting day.

I really do think the world has gone mad, and the worst part is usually rational thinking people are willing participants in the craziness. I am utterly stupefied by the number of card carrying democrats who do not yet realize Hillary is a republican in a democrat suit. I suspect she and McCain are MUCH closer than even Bill realizes... I am also quite sure it's "strickly business" and she is not having sexual relations with that old man.... heh, ewwww, I just got a visual that almost made me go blind!

Okay, back on track....
So we will be seeing McCain in Nov even though he wants to line the pockets of the oil guys with more profits this summer, (because dropping taxes does not insure prices will drop, in fact demand will rise and so will prices , so when the tax comes back on we will be paying more than ever, so this plan is not helpful) Let's say Hillary somehow manages to get the Democratic nomination slot, we will have our first republican vs republican presidential race in history! Not only that but if she loses to McCain she'll slime her way into the VP slot somehow, and wait for John to drop dead or help him get there if she gets tired of waiting, and that will be the ball game.

Buenos dias mi amigos, Como esta? ....just practicing, in case.... I'm beginning to think my 4th grade teacher was right she assured me that my ability to sing 10 Little Indians in Spanish would come in handy someday, maybe she was psychic.

Anyway, my hat's off to Obama for showing he has both common sense and an "elitist" understanding of basic economics, I don't want to trust either McCain or Hillary to balance the US budget after today. I sure would love to talk to Obama about some easy steps I and my 31 years of health care experience think he should consider in order to truly fix health care for everyone, but I imagine he is pretty busy these days dodging bullets from the two republicans he is running against.... ( I'd outline them here but Hillary would probably steal them and claim them as her own).

I will say one thing :
Life was a whole lot easier when I was an Independent, because I hated everyone running for office that had even a shot at winning.... that is if you believe your vote counts at all.

I watched the most fascinating show on the history channel today, on the Mayan Doomsday Prophecies for Dec 21, 2012. More info can be found here.
The actual show I saw can be watched online here if this subject interests you at all. The Mayans were interesting people, they were highly developed in ways no one can explain or justify... especially in regards to math, astronomy and time.

I LOVE ancient knowledge, the symbols, the art, the mythology.... when I was living in New Mexico I became consumed with petroglyph rock art and the meanings behind them. One day I spent the whole day wandering the cliff dwellings near Silver City, as the sun went down the way the desert winds swept the cliffs, they created a moaning sound that sounded like a 1000 voices whispering....it was eerie to listen to it, and yet comforting in somehow. It was almost abstractly spiritual in a way, I found it makes you feel connected to ancient voices and you become acutely aware of the lives that have passed through a place before you.... in a way you can almost see them and you can certainly feel them if you close your eyes and open yourself to the presence of their energy.

Even as a child I felt connected to the energy in the California missions when we visited them. I felt connected to the people who use to live there in weird ways I cannot explain. I think I would have loved living back then.

BTW, the site above that has the Mayan Prophecies Movie up has some other fun videos to watch if you need something to do: http://www.moviesfoundonline.com

For reasons I cannot explain, I enjoyed watching American Dictators, even if you believe Alex Jones is a total lunatic, some of what he puts out there might have at least a small shred of truth in it somewhere.... sorta like Michael Moore's "documentaries".