New journal address
January 21st, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
I will not be active on JournalSpace. I can be found at http://lowandslow1.wordpress.com/
Regards,
S
Recent Posts
Ready or not, here I come!
January 17th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
Kelly convinced me to give the “new improved” JournalSpace a try. So, for better or worse, here I am. I’ll keep my WordPress blog open, too, until I decide where I’m gonna settle. I like WordPress, but I’m tired of trying to chase down all my old JS friends, many of whom have settled on BlogSpot. Doing all that has turned blogging into “work”. Let’s hope this new JS brings us all back together like the good ‘ol days. 
I just had a scary thought: What if the “new” JournalSpace is just the “old” JournalSpace in disguise? K says I’m the ultimate skeptic. Haha! She’s probably right.
I’ll be back later. Have fun, everyone.
S
Emma Belle and more....
January 17th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
As I mentioned earlier Emma Belle, our 9-year old (+/-) miniature Schnauzer, has been moping around lately. Occasionally she’ll jump off the chair she likes to sit on and we hear her “yelp”….clearly something is wrong. Yesterday I took her to the vet and she diagnosed that Emma has what we would call a pinched nerve, probably somewhere in her neck. She can fully turn her head left, but turning it to the right she tenses up. Some muscle relaxers were prescribed.
While Emma, K and I were still out of the house yesterday making ourselves scarce while our house was being shown, the Realtor called to say her clients had just left and were very impressed. She’s holding an open house on Sunday afternoon and she expects them to come back for another look-see then. We have our fingers crossed.
We’re running errands this morning so that I can get back in time to meet with my homebuyers I’m building for right now. Then we’re going back out for our bookstore/latte run. Finally we’re meeting Gillardia and Doc for dinner at Pistazzios later this evening. Today is one of Gill’s 29th birthdays. 
There was a big story in the local newspaper today about all the restaurants offering discount coupons to their customers. “$10 off a meal for two”, “Buy one, get the second entree free”, etc. Come to think of it, we DO use a lot of coupons these days. Do you? And as I was driving by a large retail area not far from our (current) home yesterday I saw a sign announcing that my favorite barbecue joint is opening a new eatery there. YEA!!
Time’s a wastin’. Gotta go. Have a fun day everyone.
S
Just call me "Supersonic S"
January 16th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
Whew! I’ve been running balls to the wall all morning. Work is getting done just fine without me having to put on my “bad cop” hat, so I excused myself to come here and hide for a while. My Realtor called around noontime and asked if she could show our house today at 4:45pm. Uhhhhh…OK. We may have to postpone our evening plans for an hour or so, but if she could bring us a contract….:D
I’ve been playing the Merry Maid ever since she called…making the bed, emptying the trash, putting out fresh towels, etc. I already had an appointment to take Emma Belle to the vet at 3 because she hasn’t been her usual vivacious self for a few days now. She “yelps” on ocassion when she jumps off the couch, making us think she has an “ouchie” on her leg or maybe early arthritis. Whatever, we can’t let her hurt.
My one day off (tomorrow) will be interupted because my homebuyer, who travels for weeks at a time, will be in town and I need to get some input from him on a couple of matters. That bums me, but I’m glad to have the work, so you do what you have to do. Right?
Have a good weekend, everyone. I’ll have to catch up with y’all later.
Regards,
S
Pardon my ignorance.....
January 15th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
….and I admit I have a lot of it, but even after several years of blogging, I’m not sure I “get it”. I’ve found that many of my old JS friends have multiple journals. Why? Many of us, me included, barely have anything to say in one journal, much less two or three. And when JS crashed for good, everyone was so upset that all their old entries were gone forever. In a few instances where people might have posted original poetry or photos that might be a great loss. But I can’t recall anything I’ve written about in my journal that is/was worthy of a footnote in history. Telling the world that on September 23rd, 2007 I had my oil changed should not put me up there in the rarefied air with Hemingway or Faulkner.
Or should it? Try this: “It was a brisk winter morn when Sir Scooter Lowandslow decided to print out a grocery list and check off those things he needed in order to replenish his pantry. The clipping of coupons would be entrusted to the lovely and talented Lady Seabee, while faithful servant Emma Belle would be left behind to safeguard the castle during their pillaging foray into the countryside.”
Hey, not too bad. Maybe Okra…er…Oprah could publish this as her Book of the Month selection. Wonder if I could get an advance on my royalty?
S
The Animal Odd Couple Video - CBSNews.com
January 14th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
Trust me…you’re gonna love this…once you get past the intro… 
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.771056&w=425&h=350&fv=link%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww%252Ecbsnews%252Ecom%252Fvideo%252Fwatch%252F%253Fid%253D4696315n%26partner%3Dnews%26vert%3DNews%26autoPlayVid%3Dfalse%26releaseURL%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Frelease.theplatform.com%2Fcontent.select%3Fpid%3DPN4vfQMh9X4_tWHwG1FImDmttZUu4DWc%26name%3DcbsPlayer%26allowScriptAccess%3Dalways%26wmode%3D]
more about “The Animal Odd Couple Video - CBSNews…“, posted with vodpod
What don't these morons understand?
January 14th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
I usually watch CNBC (business news) during the day. Again today the bank stocks, and therefore the stock markets, are tanking, and once again expert after expert comes on and says that until the housing crisis is addressed, this pattern will continue.
Why can’t those morons at the Treasury Dept. and the Federal Reserve understand that? They’re so preoccupied with propping up their buddies at Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, etc that they’ve forgotten who drives, really drives, our economy. It’s us consumers! You and me. We’re 70% of the economy. We buy things, industry hires people to make those things, we bring home paychecks….
Sixty-five percent of Americans own their homes. Our homes are by far our largest individual asset. If (on paper at least) your home is worth $200K more than you owe, you’ll probably feel secure. You’ll step out and buy that new car, or take that vacation. But if you feel like your house is nothing but a black hole of debt worth less than you owe on it, you’ll feel poor. Poor people don’t buy things. Then industry won’t need employees to make things you’re not buying, and jobs will disappear. The unemployed then can’t make their house payments, adding even more abandoned houses to the market. It’s a vicious circle. That’s where we are now.
If your body is ravaged by an infection, just changing the bandage will do little good. You need to attack the infection. Just throwing more (taxpayer) money at the banks will not fix the problem. The banks are in the toilet because their collateral (home mortgages) is going down in value every day. Stabilize house prices and the banks will stabilize, too.
Instead of using our tax dollars to give bankers big bonuses…Grrr!… how about using it to buy up bad mortgages or foreclosed houses? Then instead of dumping them on the market all at once like they’re doing today, they can be sold off over time. (That’s the plan that was sold to Congress last fall, a plan that SecTreasury Paulson & Co. soon abandoned as soon as they got the $$$ in their hands.) Get supply and demand back into balance and home values will stop going down. Works every time.
Is this too difficult to understand? Is it? If you can understand this, why can’t those highly educated Washington bureaucrats understand it? Jeeeeez!
S
Habits
January 14th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
Is your life very regimented? Are you a creature of habit or are you just all over the board? Personally, I like a routine. Every Monday night we watch Top Gear on BBC America. We try to beat the weekend mob to the grocery store by going ourselves on Thursday evening. Friday is our night to eat dinner out. Saturday I stop by the bookstore, and have a Starbucks latte, too.
When anything happens that disturbs that routine, I feel messed up. That’s why our recent Christmas/New Years holiday weeks turned me upside down. If someone invites me or us somewhere I always try to steer them to Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Since you can count the TV shows I watch regularly on one hand (with a couple of fingers to spare), I hate it when someone calls during my shows. But I’m too curious/polite to NOT answer the phone. I wind up watching TV during the phone call while just nodding and saying, “uh huh…yes…I see…”, and enjoying neither.
I’ve been told (not by K) I need to get the stick out of my a$$ and loosen up, but old habits die hard. There are good ruts and there are bad ruts. I like to think I’m in a good rut.
Oh, another one: Every morning I get up and, after taking care of the dog, I get a little bottle of Starbucks Frappuccino and sit down at the computer and check JS…or whatever it is we call our different journal sites these days. Yep…good rut.
“Please copy the following security text, then leave your comment:”
GhdT4lleBovwet
(Take that, BlogSpot! Haha)
Good day, everyone.
S
Just shoot me!
January 13th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
I don’t mean to sound like an uncaring father, but my daughter is driving me nuts talking about her upcoming wedding. Andrea is the last of my daughters to get married, and quite naturally she’s ecstatic. A few weeks ago she ordered her dress, last week she went out and finalized “the place” where the ceremony is to take place (a country club hall overlooking the golf course…and no, we don’t have a membership there, nor do I play golf), and now she’s on to flowers, the photographer, and all the rest.
Women don’t seem to get it that most men are bored to tears talking about weddings. I really don’t care. Not at all. Of course I’ll wear my assigned costume a tuxedo and do all of the things expected of the father of the bride, including selling a kidney to pay for it, but all I want is for it to be over. OVER!
I love my daughter dearly, but weddings are for the women of the family. Little girls learn at a very young age about weddings…they play dress up, put that net thing over their face and walk down an imaginary aisle, etc. Trust me, little boys don’t spend even a nano-second thinking about weddings. Big boys, either, for that matter. This is agony!
Maybe I am a bad father. 
S
Fact, or crap?
January 12th, 2009 in Uncategorized by Lowandslow
That’s actually the name of a game I saw at “Tar-jey”. So here’s one I’ll put to you: Kelly just said something to me and I said, “Huh? I didn’t hear you.” I told her she sort of mumbled it under her breath. She said, no, it’s a fact that when a man’s hearing begins to fail it’s that audio spectrum that includes the female voice that is the first to go. Yes, a lifetime around airplanes and power tools has taken its toll on me, but could this be true? Fact, or crap?
Guys, I see some definite possibilities here. “No dear, I didn’t hear you say anything about us going to visit your mother this weekend. I’ve already promised the guys we’d go to that car show. Must be that female audio frequency deficit (FAFD) thing again. Sorry, babe.”
I wonder if this might qualify me for one of those little handicapped parking signs you hang from your rear-view mirror?
S
