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In honor of Presidents' Day, tell us: Who was your favorite U.S. President and why?

Holy cow, I sure don't know.  Honestly, presidential history has never been that interesting to me, so I do not know nearly enough to make an educated response to this question.  I can name a few who would NOT be on the list, but even they have a couple of good points.  How's that for a lukewarm answer?

I guess here is where I should mourn my public education- something about not even being able to list the presidents, much less assess their major contributions and spheres of influence.  But, uh...I really don't care.  There are better things for my brain, I think.  Do I really need to know Taft's major decisions?  Oh wait--he ended up on the Supreme Court, so yeah.  Maybe.  Don't want to be a Palin, with that not being able to name a non abortion Supreme Court case.  SCARY.

Anyway, the president is largely a public figurehead.  Yes, it's good if he can get along with others and commands some international respect.  But one man does not a country make.  (If he did, um, that would be SCARY.  scary scary dictator monarch something.)

Of course, we could also get into the holiday being kept because merchandisers need another sale day.  MLK would be too political (tee hee) and who's going to buy a vacuum on Valentine's?  Really, Presidents Day is a conspiracy against trees.  All those ads in all of our mailboxes.  As long as they get here before the weekend--no mail today.  Of course, soon there be no mail at all on Tuesdays they claim.  Whatever.  AS long as I don't end up with my biulls coming late.

I wonder if these questions could be more personal--would they be easier or harder to write?  I mean, for more than three minutes.  This is way too shallow a question for ten minutes, unless I was going to write a biography of the president in my assessment.  Hmm.  My choice was President X.  He was born.  He had some schooling, but not as much as the average suburbanite does these days.  He did a bunch of shmoozing to get nominated.  Probably raised some money, too.  These days it is lots and lots of money.  Hopefully he had SOME sort of experience, but what can really get a person ready for a job like this one?  Can you predict what four years might entail?  Much less eight?  A lot of grey hair, apparently.  And then the speaker circuit and a special arrangement with the secret service.  I wonder how much that costs every year.  Seemed pretty posh in Guarding Tess, but can I really trust some Nicolas Cage movie?  Would I want to?

How are you spending Valentine's Day?

Ok, better late than never.  This Valentine's has been about as 'romantic' as usual--we don't generally celebrate it as any special love day.  We slept in, had eggs for breakfast, then spouse took the kids to the gym while I ran errands.  Woot, new shirts.

We did eat out, but it was with the kids and with an eye to leftovers, so again, not such a special thing.  But hey, eggplant yumminess.  And the kids liked it.  THen home again to prep for tonight's party at work and maybe some napping.  Sooner or later everyone helped out and everyone took a nap.

And then there was the rain.  We had some light showers throughout the day and then it was time to get to the party.  And there I was with uncovered cupcakes and the rain was pouring.  Hail even.  The nine miles to work took nearly a half hour.  You know it's wacky when you're doing forty miles per hour and barely anyone is trying to apss you.  Got to work, jerry-rigged a cupcake cover and got everything and everyone inside, only people soaked. 

Ten minutes of chaos, then a fairly decent party.  Spouse was at home having some success at video game.  Now I'm home, watching SNL and no big whoop.

And spouse wants to read over my shoulder.  zzzzzzzzzzzz.

What are you doing to save money during this economic downslide?
Submitted by Jenn.

First and foremost, I'm strongly curtailing our eating out.  No 'eh, I don't feel like cooking' sort of nights,,,well, more of less.  We still eat out for special occasions or as just special treats.  But no more guilty trips to McDonalds because I don't have my act together.  (And if we do go out, we might use a coupon.  That's not a deal breaker though.)

Food is still a major expense, but even there--a first line of defense is to eat the food already in the house.  Something like twenty percent of the average American's food budget ends up in the trash (I know, lies, damned lies and statistics), and I know that still happens in my house.  But we're getting better.

I'm not shopping as much as I used to, not that I've ever been that much of a spender.  But there doesn't seem to be as much draw and thus as much temptation.  I have too much stuff already.  Heck, I've been in a mood to get rid of things lately--who wants to bring MORE into the house while still culling things out?  I still covet from time to time, but rarely do I have to take advantage and actually BUY something.

Of course, some of my cost cutting is just laziness--not going to the store because I'm not in the mood to run errands.  And hey, the library is FREE, assuming you remember to return the books.  Gotta say, I almost never buy books these days.  And very rarely do I actually pay retail.  Free paperback exchanges are my favorite.  Even Half-Price books seems expensive in comparison.  If I do go that route, it's generally the clearance shelves in the back.  Note to self--go through kids' books for the school's used book sale.

But hey--we finally got a Discover bill under $1000.  And considering that it had the tail end of holiday charges, that's a real accomplishment.  We'll have to wait and see if we can keep it up.  Maybe, if gas stays under $2/gallon.  Oh, yeah--even there.  I'm trying to cut down on my mileage, both for the money and the environment.  I used to fill up every Tuesday and it was pretty much a full fill up.  Now I'm doing a full fill up every 10-12 days.  It's hard to get through two Wednesdays without careful planning, but it IS possible.  (Wednesdays are co-op days.  80 miles badabing, but I'm keeping twenty families from driving 30-40 miles each... It makes sense, really.)

I should not try to do this exercise with Colbert on.  He's more than a little distracting.  Woot.  We like our Colbert.  Especially when he's doing mental association shtick.

(Today's vox qotd sucked, so I grabbed this one from elsewhere.)

You're cleaning out your garage and, hidden away in a back corner, you find an old shoebox. The box is heavier than it should be. When you open it up, you find cash—$40,000, to be exact. Where did the cash come from, who hid it there and why?

My first thought upon finding said box would be to wonder what my kids have been up to.  Because they're the most likely to come across such a box and claim it for their own.  Of course, with my luck they would spend the money on cheap plastic crap and sticky hands I would spend all of eternity scraping from my ceilings.

So, where would the kids have come across that kind of dough?  Well, there is the neighbor who is always handing them odd things he has found while cleaning out his garage...maybe he thought the box contained his son's old baseball cards or something.  Hey--maybe the box IS full of baseball cards, and they're rare enough to be worth 40 grand.  Hmmm...what are the chances that one of my neighbors would have a Babe Ruth rookie card?  And that it wouldn't have fallen apart in an un-airconditioned garage in a TExas summer.  Ok, that approaches zero.  Never mind.

As for someone HERE earning and hiding away that kind of money--well, I suppose it's a better investment than an IRA these days.  You could open that envelope without dread.  Ok, maybe dread, as a roach would crawl out or something.  Or, again, the kids would find it and spend the cash on Cheap Plastic Crap.

I guess it is possible that the original owners of the house left the box behind, and we've just been extremely remiss in cleaning in the corners.  Or it's up on a shelf--that's acutally possible, as I know *I* never see anything above my own height.  Make it 5'10" and it might as well be on the moon.  I can even hide chocolate from myself that way.  Chocolate?  I have chocolate?  Wow!!!   

An extra forty thousand dollars, of course, would be a fun thing to find.  Of course, I'm honest enough that I would feel the need to report it to the cops or something.  But then, it is MY garage, and has been for a dozen years.  Someone else claiming ownership would be a legal stretch.  (And with my luck, notifying the police would mean that the money was dirty in some way--a quickly stashed bank robber or a really lazy money launderer.  And remember, where there are money launderers there are sleazy Columbian drug lords.  Unless it's the seventies, and then it can be a sleazy Cuban driug lord.  Just as long as he isn't pro-Castro.

A more satisfying queston would include my plans for spending the forty thousand dollars.  ah, financial security.  Or countless designer sunglasses.  It's really kind of a toss-up.  Pay off the mortgage or be really styling.  Can you really put a price on eye health?

Greatness is not a destination, but a journey. What do you do for your family, career or community that you’re most proud of?
Sponsored by Nature Made.

I have, for the last five years, run an organic produce co-op.  It's an offshoot of a much larger co-op, so I don't have to do it all.  But I have persistently done my piece since October of 2003.  I get up at 5:37am (yes, 5:37), drive downtown, help unload a truck and figure math and get stuff set up for the big co-op to open by 9am, then pull shares for my suburban location, get them in the car and drive over to that location to set up and we're (hopefully) open by  11.  And that's when the real happy gets to happen--a day when my face might really hurt from smiling 'too much', but those smiles are 99% of the time entirely genuine.  I get to share random facts and hints, build community and be a help in some way.  My kids really don't remember a time when we weren't involved, and they still do the take-down in the evening and are all abut such strange comments as "The parsley smells really fresh today".

For my family--I don't know--the obvious answer is something about cooking.  I'm pretty damned good, and I can be pretty consistent.  But sometimes I'm also pretty lazy.  I'll never be June Cleaver--I'm better described as "Martha Stewart on crack"...ok, so apparently I had embraced the term by the time I made the meat cake with the bacon florets... (I can also tell you many things at which I am not great.)

Career...it is still very much in development.  I'm still trying to develop the patience and tact to truly be a non-anxious presence and just let things happen.  It would be much easier to say what I think...but that wouldn't get me very far.  I'm getting pretty good at finding the lessons to be learned all over.

I'm also great at napping.  I'm not sure that's great for the world or my family or whatever, but I am a champion.  there is no time that isn't ripe to be picked for a nap.  There are very few places that won't work--ok, trash heap maybe.  Nuclear testing site, likely.  But I can nap standing up in the shower.  i can take a nap followed by another nap.  I have been known to check to see if something 'exciting' is happening and shrug and nap again..even if it is exciting. 

I'm sure I have other habits I've quite forgotten, but woot, 10 minutes is up.

What's the first thing you do when you get home from work?

The first thing I do when I get home from work, if I will be staying home for more than fifteen minutes, is to kick off my shoes.  Yes, it would be better for me to put those shoes away, or perhaps to consider keeping shoes on while I go about the home business of each day...but I just want them off.  Kicking them is an exclamation--sometimes in joy, sometimes frustration.  It's instantly bringing my feet to my personal Best Practices, setting aside societal expectations for foot containment devices.  And no, I don't wear uncomfortable shoes--not by any stretch of the imagination.  I wear boring ugly comfortable shoes.  Sometimes I even wear socks, though, in best practice of KT land, socks would be completely unnecessary unless it was cold out.  And hey, if it were truly KT Paradise Land, it wouldn't get that cold.  Definitely not inside.

Even if I wore slippers to work, I think I would STILL kick them off when I got home.  When it is time to tidy the house, either for company or for the maids to bee able to clean or because I'm making  a half-hearted effort at being a better role model to the kids, I am a bit appalled at myself for the shoes flung off in the kitchen or the study.  Maybe that's why I don't have fifteen pairs of shoes--that would be more than an armful to take back to the bedroom.  Sneakers and a pair of black slip ons are the most common offenders.  Hmm, it would be lovely if shoes could fetch themselves back to their homes.  Definitely save me some time on those mornings when I can't remember where the shoes are.  (Better shoes than wallet.  Or keys.  Or phone.  Or all five pairs of sunglasses.)  Some things stay in their homes better than others.  Could I get an assistance animal to keep track of all my crap?  Oh--a personal assistant might be cheaper and less paperwork?  Or I could just train myself to put things away or find a new easier place to store them?  That's crazy talk.  Really--I've considered putting a shoe mat inside the garage, right near the door to the kitchen.  I could make room.  But there there would be roaches scampering in my shoes.  If I'm too lazy to put shoes away, it probably goes without saying that I am too lazy to empty out said shoes.  THAT would involve leaning over and picking something up!!  Can't have that.  Maybe pegs for my shoes, like some sort of Dutch clog thing?  (They DO do that, right?) 

So yes.  I come home.  I take off my shoes.  Then I deal with all of the STUFF to be carried, the computer to hook back up.  The dinner to consider and the errands I forgot to run.  Usually I am the first one home, so it's not so much with the "Hi, Honey!"  Unless he left a message on the machine...and I remember to glance down and see if the light is blinking.

Okay, we hate to ask, but... over the roll or under the roll?  

Wow.  Someone had writer's block today.

Honestly, I don't care.  But the men I've lived with insist on over the roll, so that's what I do when I'm thinking about it.

Ok, question answered.  So here's mine--WHY do some people insist on starting a new roll on the counter rather than finish the old roll and have to put on the new one?  Are they really that lazy, or living in some happy crappy little passive agressive world?

If you could open a restaurant, any kind you want, what would it look like and what's on the menu?
Submitted by A is for Amy.

Obviously, money is no object.  I don't have to worry about expenses or pulling in business or anything like that.  To me, that's part of 'any kind you want'...

So after Uncle Vito sets me up with the neverending money, I hire someone else to handle the aesthetics and the books and the dishes. 

The menu would be some combination of my all-time-favorites and daily experiments.  So there would always be some happy soups and good bread and homey desserts.  It'd probably be mostly vegetarian, but a few meaty things, just in case my father drops in or something.

There would be a certain emphasis on seasonal ingredients--it just feels weird to have fresh cherries in January.  Supporting local growers would be cool--maybe I could have gardens out back for herbs and such. 

And I wouldn't mind too much about making EVERYONE happy.  If they didn't appreciate, oh well--don't have to deal with THEM again!

Would you rather go back in time or visit the future?
Submitted by Auds.

Going back in time would be so much more satisfying than going to the future.

For one thing, there's the whole financial security through careful use of information.  If Back to the Future II taught us anything, it's that nothing can possibly go wrong if you have a sports almanac and connections to bookies.

Sure, there's a decent chance that I might change the now-future, but it's a pretty small chance that I'd make myself not exist or something.  I mean, maybe they decide to spell Pepsi with a y.  It'd be a little weird, but no sane person drinks the stuff anyway.

If I headed to the future, there's an excellent chance that I would learn something that I wouldn't want to know.  Of course, that could happen in the past, too.  Imagine walking in on Great-uncle Herschel getting it on with Great-aunt Margie.  But hey, maybe she was hot back then.

Seriously, for all those who are curious about the future, I think there are enough mysteries in the past.  Did Shakespeare write the works of Shakespeare?  Was Benjamin Franklin as sleazy as we thought?  Which came first--the chicken or the egg?

Do you have any phobias?
Submitted by Amirul B Ruslan.

I'm not especially fond of parking garages and other enclosed (and hard to escape) spaces.  I wouldn't say that I'm deathly afraid, but I really would prefer to spend as little time as possible in them.  I especially hate those spiral ramps with the tight turns and the low ceilings.  Elevators aren't much better. 

I also dread visits to the dentist, but this is a rational fear--they cost lots of money and cause me pain.

Spiders I remind myself are good and helpful beings, and I admire the big pretty ones.  Unless they're jumping.  I really want to be able to predict the motion of things, and the jumping ones make that difficult.  Other bugs rarely freak me out, though the big cockroaches have been known to make me shriek in surprise.

Rats and such tend to make me squeak--not only are they surprising, but they can bite and scratch.  I'd prefer for them to live in their world and me in mine, please.  (And yet my husband just spent 20 minutes investigating noises in the attic and setting out a trap...)

I'm pretty damned cool in the dark.  I used to hate it, but somewhere along the line I decided that it was comfortable to be in the opaque blanket.  Probably when I started needing more sleep?

Heights I'm more or less fine with.  I don't especially like being in a tightrope sort of situation, but can look over the edge of a building just fine.

The number thirteen?  Wide open spaces?  Feet?  No problems.

Death?  I'd prefer not to talk about it, thanks.

Horror movies really freak me out.  Probably because my brain has a hard time separating fiction from reality.  If nothing else, I end up with wicked nightmares for a long, long time.  I still have the occasional "Carrie" nightmare, and I think I was in middle school when I saw that.  I don't watch horror movies now.  I don't think I've missed much.