http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3068280
The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on goverment-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3068280
The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on goverment-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday.
Comments Off on VA Allows Wiccan Symbols on Headstones
Posted in Everyday Stuff, ToRn's Posts
Does it matter right now? I leave in 3 days for Portland so I guess it doesn’t matter if I am recovered from my trip up north or not, I barely have time to write this post, but I writing it anyway, sometimes you just have to say fuck it.
I am still pretty tired, I cant seem to get the sleep my body wants me to have, and when I am trying to work it screams at me “sleep more†so it makes working a bigger pain the ass then normal, but since I am like a month behind on shit I have to get done, I don’t have much choice.
My trip to my parents was fun, it would have been more fun had Pauline joined me, but it is what it is, she will soon be working from the house permanently, so this should be the last trip I take without her. I am not counting this week’s trip since she is going to Indiana for a wedding, so it’s not like she is at home alone while I am looking for “strangeâ€.
My parents moved to Northern MN permanently 10 years ago after going up there since my dad was a kid, we started going there when I was 5 or 6 as a family and ever since my parents have gone 4-6 times a year, they found a great place near all their local friends and turned it into a great place on the river with a shabby cabin into a really fucking nice area with a huge house.
It has been 5 years at least since we was last there and there has been a lot of changes, my dad built the house himself and did a really great job, and there is just a few things he needs to do to “finish†it, but I know my dad, it will never be finished, he will always be tinkering with something.
We did some site seeing and really just caught up on what was going on in all of our lives I met some friends of theirs and we had a few cook outs and went 4 wheeling and stopped at the local bar and dad and I got his dock into the river and made some minor repairs to the dock and took one of his 4 boats out for the first time of the year. The rivers were thawed but the lakes were still mostly ice, some of the lakes still had snowmobiles riding the ice which is pretty late in the year to do it, we did walk about 30’ onto a lake which was a first for me, but that’s as far as I would go, too many cracks and “thin†spots.
Pauline and I are hoping to fly out there for 3-4 days in October, we will be in Portland permanently in mid September so by October it should be settled enough to fly out there and just visit with my parents again, October will be cold, but hopefully not too bad. I have already priced tickets and this time I am going to avoided MSP like the plague, and I found a airport that is about a hour from my parents for $500 or so each which is more then we have paid for tickets in a long long time, but taking into account the 4 hours we will save driving and that the car rental at this local airport a small business and not a chain, the car is much cheaper then Alamo or whoever, so really it will cost us the same in $.
Almost forgot, as I said my family has gone to this area of MN for over 30 years, from my first time to my 2nd to last time I have seen MAYBE 5 deer total, the last time Toni and I went up there we counted 20 deer in 6 days, a new record. This time I saw 60+ deer in 3 days, they was just EVERYWHERE! And the deer doo was all over my dads yard, on every path we walked, and in the middle of the woods when we went off the path, you just couldn’t avoid it, it was not a “oh look, another mess†it was “Geeze, don’t they ever stop pooping?â€
My Dads dog, Troubles, which is a perfect name for this 110 lb hyper lab mix.
My Dads river
My Dads dog, Blue, this dog always looked like he has something to say.
Deer #45…. or something like that.
Still somewhat frozen lake
Comments Off on Recovered?
Posted in Everyday Stuff, Family Stuff, ToRn's Posts
My hubbie is home!! We got home about 3am, but we got here. It is great to have him home and being able to put my cold feet & butt on him at night…….grin
We actually got up at a decent time for being up that late, around 9am. Harold unpacked his stuff, we had some cereal, did our morning news surfing and then he went through the 1400 pics that he took while in Minnesota. He got some gorgeous pics and his folks have done some great work on their cabin. I can’t wait for us both be able to go up for a visit.
I got the mounds of laundry going, started lunch and just started in on some store work. By 16:00 I wasn’t seeing the screen very well to work, so I went to lay on the couch to chill out, read a little and maybe take a 10-15 min power nap. Well Harold wasn’t feeling very away wake himself, so we cuddled down in bed only expecting to maybe nap for about an hour…….well, 2 hrs later….damn, did we crash.
Well, I’ve been working ever since. Even with the naps, I got a lot done. I almost got all of our receipts entered. It helped that I didn’t have a bunch of things from my other work. So it was a nice, slow and productive day. Not a bad day at all. Plus it helped that I had Harold home. =)
The next few day is going to be extremely crazy….icks. Right now I need to put away the huge laundry piled on the bed and then try to finish off a few more receipts. I would feel so much better if I get it done. Then I can focus on everything else. Somehow I need to find time to figure out why when I try to add new user pics to my blog they go full size only?…..weird.
Comments Off on 1st Day Back
Posted in Everyday Stuff
**My mom sent me thing and it got me laughing, it is an oldie but goody.
The “Middle Wife” by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher
I’ve been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade classroom a few years back.
When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they’re welcome.
Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater.
She holds up a snapshot of an infant. “This is Luke, my baby brother, and I’m going to tell you about his birthday.”
“First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom’s stomach, and Luke grew in there.
He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord.” She’s standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I’m trying not to
laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me.
The kids are watching her in amazement. “Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, ‘Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!’ Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. “She walked around the house for, like an hour, ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.
“My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn’t have a sign on the car like the Domino’s man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this.” Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.
“And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!” This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!
“Then the middle wife starts saying ‘push, push,’ and ‘breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom’s
play-center, so there must be a lot of toys inside there.”
Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I’m sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it’s show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another “Middle Wife” comes along.
Now you have two choices…laugh and close this page or pass this along to someone else to spread the laughs.
Comments Off on Funny Fwd.
Posted in Silly Stuff
I have been in MN since Monday afternoon visiting my parents, they live in way north MN (Think Canada) so getting to them was not easy, I got tickets to MSP and fucked myself out of a closer airport by getting the dates confused, so I got to drive 4+ hours when it could have been 90 mins…
me iz smart.
MSP is a fucking nightmare of a airport, I don’t even know where to begin, but it was a nightmare to get my rental since, unknown to me, there are 2 separate terminals 15 mins away from each other so when I put in “MSP†into Alamo, and made my reservation I made it for the wrong terminal, but the girl helped me out and gave me a car from there, she really hooked me up…. So I thought.
On the way out of MSP my GPS couldn’t get a signal, so I took a right when I needed to take a left, but, after 20 mins I found my way and once I was out of Minneapolis/St Paul everything was smooth.
On the way back into Minneapolis/St Paul I once again took a wrong turn due to the lack of road signs and construction and semis, so I once more got lost, but this time as I was about to pull over I found the road I was looking for but once I found my exit, I couldn’t turn off onto the exit due to construction and… still no fucking signs telling me where to go…. Another U turn later I got into the terminal the Alamo said to go to, I drop off the car, follow the signs that said “all gates†and took a tram… to find out I’m at the wrong f***ing terminal.
So… back on the tram, past where I started, onto a fucking bus, to the right terminal where I got 2 women in security that hate the world and wanted to prove it to me with their BS attitudes, nice fucking attitudes…. So I finally get to my gate and had 2 hours to kill so I go to the bar and drink 2 screwdrivers and eat and FINALLY get online after 5 days and download 100+ emails and get 10+ instant messages which I just skim/read but since the music in the bar was too f**king loud I left for my gate and waited there until 4 “frat boys†decided to sit behind me…. God I f****ng hate frat boys…
Anyway I am in Chicago and I still have 3 hours to go, I’m tired I feel skuzzy, and I need a shower…. I am sitting at my gate listening to tunes since the bars are way packed, so after I post this I will try and find a bar I can charge this battery with, other wise it will be a boring flight…
Question…. Sitting in an airport listening to Toto…
The visit itself was really good, and I took 1500 pics at least and a lot are really fucking nice ones, I’ll post a few in a few days when I am more “me†but right now I am in a mood and this day is long from over, so I will post more later…
Comments Off on Tired and 1600 miles from home
Posted in Everyday Stuff, ToRn's Posts