I have to say that this is the least prepared I have ever been going into the voting booth and I have a strict policy of not voting on things I know nothing about. So, I only voted on a couple of items.
My first and foremost reason for voting today was that my friend’s dad is running for King County Superior Court Judge and I wanted to make sure to support him. Vote Nic Corning.
I also wanted to make sure and cast a vote for Christine Gregiore because that Dino Rossi character scares me to death and his current messaging is pretty convincing to those not really aware of what he is all about.
I go to the polls to vote as it makes me feel connected in my community and I think it is a good lesson for my kids (well, just Ada right now). They keep telling us they are going to take this right away and make us all vote absentee, but it still hasn’t happened. It’s not like I am up in arms or anything, it just makes me sad.
What’s next? Voting by text message, like American Idol?
and when I turned it on…. Nothing. Doesn’t work. Damn! If that’s not bad enough, check this out…
So I go onto the internet to see if there is something that I’ve missed during setup or some secret. My first reaction is always to look it up.
By the way, there was nothing to find. The stupid thing is just broken. Ahhh, I digress.
Anyway, I do a search on google, I click on something and land on a blog, much like any other blog you’ve seen and BAM! Windows opening, sounds, I swear I heard some woman laughing at me and all in all general mayhem on my computer. I go about shutting everything down and return to lamenting about my brand new, not working, very fancy, Cuisinart
Later, Karli calls me into the kitchen and he’s all “What’s this all about?”. I look and low and behold a virus has my computer. Crap!
As our resident computer technitian, this falls squarely into my court. This is what I see.
I see what appears to be a blue windows system screen telling me to reboot and install an anti-virus program because my computer has been “shut down” to avoid total devastation. I’m shitting my pants at this point, since it has been fully two years since I have backed up the family photo directory, which is really the only important thing we use the kitchen computer for.
So, I hit the power button to kill the computer. When I reboot, there is conveniently a license agreement for the installation of a spanking new Antivirus XP 2008 program waiting for me. Hmmm. Red Flag! Red Flag!
ALL STOP!
This is why I am writing this. This thing is nasty and gets nastier, but is fairly easily taken care of if you don’t fall for many of its tricks.
some of the symptoms that I experienced are…
- it took over my desktop and replaced my background with a blue background with a spyware warning in the middle.
- That blue Windows system notice was actually a screensaver. If you hit a key on the keyboard, it just goes away.
- It disables the screensaver and desktop tabs on the appearance settings popup
- It deleted all system recovery points prior to its infection. This one chaps me.
- it launches its own installer with no way to cancel or back out. I have even heard of certain instances where it goes ahead and installs it without you doing anything. Do not touch this, do not accept the license agreement and do not try to close it.
The following instructions are what I used to get rid of this. It turned out I was lucky and aware enough not to let it get too far or do too much, so it was pretty easy to get rid of. This is not always the case, so if this doesn’t work for you, try the link at the bottom of this article for more tips and detailed information or search the internet for even more info.
You need to get a certain Malware program to get rid of this. I found many people who had many different programs that were not successful at removing this and I ran McAffee (on my computer) and Housecall and neither were able to get it. This program worked first try for me.
Download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
Install it and make sure to check update on the last screen of the installation process. This will ensure you have the latest and greatest.
Run a full scan and wait for it. It took about 45 minutes on my computer.
When its done, view the results and make sure everything is checked to be cleaned/deleted and then have it remove all the bad stuff. Restart your computer.
This may be enough, it was for me. I just had to go in and change back my background and screensaver.
If this doesn’t work for you, then check out the following article. It’s what helped me.
Precise Security – Threat Center
There are many many places on the internet to look to more information as well. When in doubt, google it.
I think they have the same nose. They look more alike in these photos than I have seen anywhere.
They say some of the most outlandish things I have ever heard. The last panel I was listening to, one member of there organization used the words “borderline fascist” when referring to the democratic party and the presidential nomination process.
They are so angry that their candidate didn’t win that they are willing to aggressively sabotage the election process. Would they really rather have McCain and every scary thing that that entails, such as the continuation of bush’s policies, appointment of more very conservative supreme court judges, more war, no addressing of the severely flawed and failing education in this country and a misguided approach to helping the economy recover, rather than have Obama in the White house, simply because Hillary didn’t win the primary fair and square.
Hillary ran a great race and although I truly believe that Obama is the better candidate and that he is better for America than Hillary would be, if Hillary had won the primary by following the existing rules (not the ones she made up), I would have been upset for a little while, but I would have gotten squarely behind Hillary, because she is certainly better than McCain or any other republican they could put out there.
Let’s get real here folks. I am glad that Hillary will get her roll call at the convention. It was close enough that this is clearly the right thing to do. But, why all the anger. Obama won fair and square, following the rules to a tee.
I like to use a football example (don’t ask why, I hate football). Just because the losing team makes a great and triumphant comeback in the second half and gets within one point at the end of the game, doesn’t mean that they deserved to win and the the win should be stripped from the winning team. That’s just absurd. Hillary made some major mistakes at the beginning of her campaign and just because she finally got it together at the end, but not enough to overtake Obama, doesn’t mean that she should win. She didn’t win. Get over it. There is nothing about Hillary Clinton that makes her more entitled to the nomination than anyone else.
Are the rules a little messed up? Maybe. That doesn’t mean you can change them to suit your purposes, it just doesn’t. It is time to rally and get a democrat elected so that we can start fixing the atrocities that have happened over the last eight years.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I get that, I have mine too obviously. But, why is this organization getting so much traction in the press? Why are so many people listening to such extreme views and obvious sour grapes? You got me.
I am glad to know that Hillary’s organization is denouncing this kind of behavior, although I think it should be done a little more directly. If it were me, I would be a little more direct with addressing this organization because the sheer number of people that are falling for this crap.
Here are a couple of references…
Here is an article with Hillary denouncing Ricki Liebermann, but not PUMA directly.
I would think there would be more about this, but not too much was easily found.
I will not bless Puma or Just Say No Deal with a link from this site. If you are interested they are easily found on the internet.
Instead, I will post links to the blog portions of both the Clinton and Obama websites. I feel the blog sections are the most informative, and of course you can easily access the rest of their sites from their.
The Classic Celtic Cross Layout
The Celtic cross layout is one of the most classic and popular layouts. It generally give you a good overview of the past, present, future and how you can expect things to go.
Here is the general layout
3 10
5 1 6 9
2 8
4 7
Shuffle the cards while asking your question.
Deal the top two cards into positions one and two. These two cards are a cover and cross duo (this is really hard to represent without creating a separate image), but use your imagination.
Deal the remaining card into positions 3 – 10.
Here is some detail about what each position means.
1. Covers You – The current situation
2. Crosses You – The challenge you will need to confront and overcome
3. Above You – The best you can hope for, given the current conditions
4. Below You – The past foundation that needs to be considered
5. Behind You – Something that just happened the is influencing the situation
6. Before You – Something that is just about to happen that is influencing the situation
7. Who You Are
8. Who they want you to be – represents all the people around you and what they want for you.
9. What You Want
10. What you get – The end result, the answer.
But, he is like the grubbiest, no care in the world, trouble making menace I have ever met and it is just so damn endearing (well most of the time). He deserves more than the average 1 year old do. But, guess what, that really doesn’t exist in “as short as you can go so I don’t have to come back any time soon”.
So, we went with the phohawk. This wasn’t really a choice. He has an obscene cowlick. “I’ve really never seen anything like it” was the comment from the stylest. It pretty much sticks straight up off the top of his head anyway. Poor little dude.
We took him to the same salon that we did for Ada’s ordeal and once again, I was impressed with their patience, speed and innovation. I highly recommend Fun Kuts in Lynnwood WA
Here are some before and afters…
I love his hair in the picture on top, but it rarely looks like that, it usually looks like the photo on the bottom and that is not nearly as cute. If he has more of his sister’s natural curl I might have trimmed it a little and let it grow some more.
Here’s a couple of photos of the new do. The one on the left is the one they took at the salon. The flash and the red wall completely washed him, on top of his extreme paleness. But it does show what a perfect angel he was. The image on the right is in his favorite chair at home. This was the only one of 10 that wasn’t a complete blur. Oh, boys.
Have I mentioned I can’t for the life of me get his hair to stand up like that for more than about 30 seconds today. No product I have is working. I guess I will have to call and see what they used.
He looks pretty studly huh?
Chop Chop Salad Recipe
Makes 2 Servings
2 cups romaine lettuce, finely chopped
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup slice green onion
1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
2 T sliced black olives
2 T Parmesan cheese, grated
3 oz chicken breast, grilled
1 oz dry salami, diced
2 T banana pepper, diced
2 T Vinegrette Dressing
everything in this salad should be pretty finely chopped to keep with the nature of a chop chop salad.
Other than that, just put it all in a bowl and toss. Serve and enjoy.
I would also like to state that I am not a christian or a muslim or a buddist or a member or any other organized religious group, but I hold my personal spirituality very close to me. I grew up going to church with my family every sunday and have a good grasp on what christian values are all about, although that is not where my spiritual beliefs lie anymore. I also fully agree that anyone should be able to worship and believe whatever it is that they feel is right, but for God’s sake, keep it out of my government and don’t push your beliefs on me.
The way this country is moving and the fact that a very large portion of the American population believes that God created humans in his image less than 10,000 years ago when scientific research clearly shows over and over again that that is just ludicrous, scares me to death. But again, I digress and that is not what this post is about.
This post is about the George W and Bob Costas interview last night. The way that George W sees every situation through the lense of christianity simply just freaks me out. When asked pretty straight forward questions about the state of political affairs in China and the influence of the Olympics on that, he answered several questions with random unrelated statements about religion.
Here are a few exerpts…
Costas: If these Olympics are as successful as they are shaping up to be, most people believe this only further legitimizes the ruling party in the minds of most Chinese citizens. And even absent true liberty as we understand it, the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese people are much better than they once were. Therefore, what’s the party’s incentive to reform?
Bush: Well first of all, if you are a religious person you understand that once religion takes hold in a society it can’t be stopped. And secondly I think the Olympics are gonna serve as a chance for people to come and see china the way it is, and let the Chinese see the world and interface and have, you know, the opportunity to converse with people from around the world. This is very positive development in my view for peace. You know, who knows how China’s going to progress. They have been through some very difficult political times, the Cultural Revolution for one, where the leadership actually created violent anarchy as the society turned on itself. All I can tell you is it’s important for the United States to be active in this part of the world, with all countries, and to stay engaged with China.
I do agree that it is important that we actively engage with countries, even if we disagree with their actions, but what does religion have to do with this. Yes, religious freedom is one of the many liberties missing in China, but interesting how this is at the forefront for Mr. Bush and that he makes such a bold religious statement at such a moment.
And after discussing Joey Cheek and China’s relationship with Sudan…
Costas: As you attempt to press these points with them, do you find Hu Jintao not just warm to you personally, but is he receptive? Do you sense any movement?
Bush: Yeah, it’s hard to tell. I mean, all I can tell you is that it is best to be in a position where a leader will listen to you. I went to church here. And I’m sure the cynics say ‘Well, you know, it was just a state sponsored church.’ On the other hand, and that’s true, it gave me a chance to say to the Chinese people, religion won’t hurt you, you ought to welcome religious people. And it gave me a chance to say to the Chinese government, ‘Why don’t you register the underground churches and give them a chance to flourish?’ And he listened politely. I can’t read his mind, but I do know that every time I met with him, I pressed the point.
Huh? What does that have to do with the question? When you don’t know how to answer the questions, just talk about how you would like Christians to be able to push their religion on the Chinese people just like they do everywhere else in the world?
Sigh, I just don’t even know what else to say.
A couple of weeks ago, a minor incident caused a huge upset in my life. My disappointment and hurt feelings transformed into misdirected and overinflated anger and caused me to stop for a minute and consider what was really going on.
What I said in the post about not letting things build up because years of frustration and pain are really hard to deal with all at once is so true as I feel that much of the intensity of what is happening with me right now comes directly from hiding from myself and my issues for so long. But, there is more than that at work.
Over the last couple of weeks I have done some serious soul searching and have determined a couple of things.
1. It is time for me to find a good therapist. I spent a couple of years when I was younger in therapy to deal with my issues surrounding my parents divorce and also to try and eliminate some pretty self destructive behavior. Although this was crucial to my current success in life, what I learned to do was to set the bad feelings aside and concentrate on the good feelings.
This is sort of the foundation of cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is one of the most common forms and although I can not be certain, I assume the type of therapy I received so many years ago. They take the negative behaviors and circumstances and change the way the you look at them and think about them in a more positive way.
“The objectives of CBT typically are to identify irrational or maladaptive thoughts, assumptions and beliefs that are related to debilitating negative emotions and to identify how they are dysfunctional, inaccurate, or simply not helpful. This is done in an effort to reject the distorted cognitions and to replace them with more realistic and self-helping alternatives.” – Wikipedia
This is extremely effective in increasing a person’s ability to function in the real world and lead a productive and positive life and may definitely be enough for many, if not most, people. And, as I said, I owe a lot to this type of therapy, which enabled me to put aside the anger and hurt and move on with my life.
But what I am feeling now is like I put all those feelings and consequently most of the negative feelings I have had throughout the subsequent years into a drawer and closing it, seeking to avoid slipping into those hurt feelings and negative emotions, no matter what they involve. The drawer squeaks open now and then and I shove a couple more things in and then close the drawer again.
Well, now the drawer is so full that it won’t close any more. It is now time for me to figure out how to empty out the drawer and deal with, live with, or get rid of whatever is in there.
I have been working on finding a therapist since the day, but this is definitely easier said than done. Finding someone who resonates with your belief system (no christian counseling please – geez, is everyone pushing their christianity these days – oops angry words), fits in with your schedule and within your network and actually has time to see you is really difficult. Be patient and active, that’s the mantra.
2. I am very much trying to own my emotions and to truly feel them, even if they are not entirely rational. Feelings are real, in any state and they shouldn’t be pushed aside. I am very overwhelmed by the emotional state I am in right now, but am crying when I need to cry and expressing my feelings either out loud or with words so that I can embrace all that is me.
Remaining in control and not starting down a destructive path is very important, but so is feeling all of this in a safe supportive environment. I want to feel whole and happy and motivated and inspired.
3. It is time for me to embrace who I am. I am a little quirky, a little introverted, and a lot of other really great things too. I am who I am and although life is a journey of change and hopefully improvement, I am proud of the person that I am. It takes great strength to come from where I was to where I am and I need to stop trying to be what everyone else expects of me and just be me.
In that vain, I am going to stop pussy footing around on this blog and just say what I have to say. That’s what this was supposed to be about after all, yet I have found myself tempering myself as to appear in a certain manner and by doing that, not really representing myself.
4. It is time to get my shit together and my life somewhat organized and working more smoothly. I am never going to find the time or energy to do whatever great things my future holds for me if I can’t even handle what I have now. Now, I know that more time will naturally come and that I can’t underestimate the demands of two kids 4 and 1, but there are self defeating patterns that I have propagated throughout my daily existence and it is time for those things to change. A little determination is in order and I am tired of feeling hopeless. Get moving.
When it comes right down to it, it is about feeling comfortable in my own skin. That is what I am working toward.
On one of these fitful missions, I was rummaging through the cheese/lunchmeat drawer (you know, the little one in the middle of the fridge) and saw I had salami and mozzerella, tortillas and right above on the shelf was a jar of marinara. Meanwhile, Ada is whining and moaning about how she didn’t get her pizza because we didn’t make it to the Towne Center that day (we do this a couple times a month, the library and slice at our amazing community meeting place)
And wallah! The invention of the Pizza Quesadilla.
This one is great for the kids. Ada loves to help me make these, makes her feel like such a big girl. Her favorite part is to spread the sauce, but eek, make sure you have a paper towel handy.
Pizza Quesadilla Recipe
2 soft taco/fajitas size flour tortillas
2 T Bottled pizza or marinara sauce
6 slices of salami or 10 slices of pepperoni
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon olive oil
Place one of the tortillas on a flat surface and spread the sauce over it evenly with the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula
Spread 1/2 the cheese, then put the salami/pepperoni on, then top with the rest of the cheese.
Top with the other tortilla
drizzle just a bit of olive oil (1/2 teaspoon) in a medium skillet
Remove from pan onto cutting board and let sit for a minute or two. Cut into six pizza slice shaped wedges and serve.
Notes:
- This works just as well with corn tortillas if you or your kids prefer them. I think quesadillas are better with corn tortillas, but of course my kids prefer flour.
- I have a jar of marinara in the fridge at all times. It is oh so flexible. You can use it as a sauce on pasta and chicken of course, but you can also use it when a recipe calls for a couple of tablespoons of tomatoe sauce or to use as a tomato base for any other kind of sauce you may want to make. Kids love to dip pretty much anything in it and of course it makes great pizza sauce for this recipe.
- As far as toppings go, keep it minimal and flat as you will have to flip this in the pan. But other than those rules, you can use anything really. Whatever your kids like or you want to sneak in there. You could chop up some spinach. Thinly sliced mushrooms or onions would work great. Finely chopped chicken is also a good option.
- My daughter prefers orange cheese to white cheese (yes, she’s four) and so I add a little bit of cheddar to the mix, just for the color. Again, be creative, do what works for you.
- It’s important to put a little cheese on the bottom and a little on top. This helps to keep the tortillas from slipping and sliding apart.
In this post I have recommended the Oxo Good Grips Medium Silicone Spatula
Now, onto the skillet. I have three of these pans (two 10″ and one 8″) and they are by and far the best skillets I have ever owned. I love them and they have gone on my short list of things people get as gifts from me.
This recipe is a classic example of how to be creative and whimsical with food, especially with your kids. They will love this one.