Back on Aug. 30 this was in the newspaper. I don't recall hearing anything about it on NPR or any other news that I watch or listen to, nor have a heard any follow up. I find that strange. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/30/us-soldiers- ( Read more... )

I keep seeing things about the salaries of WI school teachers. They make a piddling average of $50,000 plus health and dental (if you believe John Stuarts #'s) or $41,600. for the average HS teacher from the site I looked at. That sounds pretty low, but you have to look at it relative to the other costs in the state. Houses in WI average $152,000. ( Read more... )

Busy day. Papers, then my mother took the boy out shopping, then we went to sign our taxes and pay for them, then off to drop off my sculpture (or 'gently place') at the art show I entered her in, then to get some food shopping done for tomorrow's meal, then to the library, then off to try to help Sushi prepare her new home for habitation ( Read more... )

It's chilly out. But I'm not complaining because if I did, then the heat would turn up to 95 and I'd be really bumming.
My garden probably is not liking this though. But at least the sun is warm. Too bad we won't be seeing that for a few days, but we do need some rain I think. Top soil was getting a bit dry and dusty. Of course I say that now that ( Read more... )

So my single bedroom home has finally been recognized as a two bedroom, at least according to the guy who looked at it today for the refinance. Yeah, that room upstairs that runs the length of the house that my son resides in, yeah, that's now a bedroom. lol

Yesterday I took note that Monsanto sponsors Marketplace on NPR. So when a segment came on ( Read more... )

There was a segment about a vermiculite mine and how the entire town was basically poisoned by the asbestos in the vermiculite. Pretty sad. It also reminded me that my neighbor's house had vermiculite insulation in the attic. I'm not sure if my house has it or not, or where that vermiculite may have come from, but I think the number given was that ( Read more... )

I was listening to a story on NPR about ice racing in NH, and some of the racers who race on frozen ponds were 13 years old, not even legal to drive on solid ground. The girl also said she was driving standard, which she really didn't know how to drive. Now, I have never seen an ice race, but it occurred to me that there is a strange disconnect ( Read more... )

So LJ is cutting back it's staff. Luzclarita clued me in on how to back up my LJ, and I think that is exactly what I will be doing this weekend. I don't want to loose all this crap. God knows what I would do without it. lol Actually, I would like to keep it. It's very much like a diary, and who knows what fun it will be to read in years to come ( Read more... )

Well, lets start with the bugs, shall we? As many as 20,000 trees may face the ax in Worcester in an attempt to stop the Asian Long Horn beetle from spreading. And yeah, people are still ignoring the quarantine and moving wood, thereby potentially spreading the little friggers to other parts. Great job people ( Read more... )

I wat thinking today, that while its pretty obvious that this house of cards fell because the housing prices have fallen, and people were given mortgages for those overpriced homes that they could not really afford, I asked myself, what caused the price of houses to go dawn so suddenly? What triggered that? I mean, it's been going sky high for 10 ( Read more... )