As I opened my son's bedroom window this morning (airing the room, pre-teen boys stink, in case you didn't know) I head birds twittering.  Nothing unusual in that, we have lots of trees around, and there are always birds somewhere. But this was loud, and it was getting louder.  I looked up at the sky, and saw a swirling, chirping mass of sparrow descending into my yard.  There must have been thousands of them, flapping and tweeting and pecking and pooping.....the air was litera...

Tom Daschle has lost SD to John Thune. I've had the dubious pleasure of meeting Tom a couple of times....and I don't care for him.  He's manipulated the people and he's lied. He's paid people for their vote, and he's deliberately targeted the Native American population, going so far as to pay people for their vote (he was also accused of registering dead Natives to vote and of bussing intoxicated people to the polls last time around) He's used scare-mongering tactics,...

I'm taking my youngest in to get tested for ADD. Jake's had issues with listening and following directions for ages.  He rarely finishes anything he starts,  he forgets things constantly, his room and his desk at school are disaster areas, he's disruptive.....sometimes when I talk to him I can almost see the words bouncing right off him.  He doesn't listen, he doesn't absorb.  We had parent/teacher conferences last week, and his teacher brought up his lack of self-disc...

The current consensus seems to be that once this election is over, a lot of blog sites will cease to exist, because people will have nothing left to talk about. Will JU fall prey to this phenomenon?  Are we really so politically charged that once the results are in we all shut up and fade away? I don't think so.  I think that the people here are multi-faceted.  I think that there is more to us than our political persuasions.  I think the the JU community is strong now, ...

I love to watch my husband shave. He knows it, and indulges me.  The ritual, the routine...it fascinates me.  The way he turns his head this way and that, cranes his neck, tilts his jaw...all in an effort to rid himself of the last elusive whiskers.  The way the blade makes a clean swath across his face, the specks that are left in the sink.....the pins of blood that bloom pink into the foam should he be careless enough to nick himself.  The smell and feel of hi...

I've been wonder who's been reading me....not the regular JoeUsers, but people who, for whatever reasons, make a point of coming here to read the garbage I turn out on a regular basis. I'm going to leave this article open...anonymous users can respond too....so, if you're one of my lurkers, could you please leave me a post?  You don't have to tell me who you are or anything about yourself if you don't want to, just tell me what led you here and why you come back. Registered users...

We're going trick or treating as a family of living dead...things. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!

"It's been a year, D.  A year today" "Yep.  Yep, it has" We sit there in silent awkwardness, him not really knowing what to say and me not wanting to say it. I can feel the cork on the bottle loosen slightly. "I.........never mind" I stuff it back in, I ram that stopper down as hard as I can.  I can feel the bottle buzz and hum slightly, as if the things within have awakened in anticpation of freedom. I know that I mustn't let them out.  I know what n...

I'm here to sing the praises of flat 7-Up, cream crackers (English crackers, very bland) and warm chicken noodle soup. I was sick all last night and most of the day today. It started right before I went to bed.  I had some pretty powerful stomach cramps, right at my solar plexus.  i thought it was because I had got myself slightly emotional earlier in the evening, so I didn't give it much thought and went off to bed.  I woke up at 1 am, in pain and sweating.  I mana...

Link A recent study at Harvard University concludes that sleep-deprived interns make more mistakes than those who have had adequate rest. Well, you don't say??!!!!!  Did we really nead a Harvard study to tell us that?!! I find it amusing that truck drivers are legally limited to the number of hours they can drive for in order to ensure they get enough sleep....but we're letting physicans, fledgling physicians at that, work on people when they're sleep deprived. Makes not much...

I went to my son's 4th grade TaG class today to talk about immigration.  Somehow the discussion got perverted and we ended up talking about the election and the candidates. Thye asked me who I would vote for (if I got a citizenship and could vote).  When i said "Bush" the room erupted in cheers and hollers of "Yeah!!" and "whoo hoo!". I asked them why they were applauding.  The responses were, I thought, a good insight into the thoughts of America's future voters...kids who ...

I don't have any grandparents left. My maternal grandmother died when I was 7, my paternal grandparents when I was 16 and 17, and my maternal grandfather when I was 25. I am a grand-orphan. I'm looking for a grandparent to adopt...or who wants to adopt me.  They don't have to live close to me (although that would be nice).  I'd like someone to write to, email with, call on the phone, share stories with...all the things grandparents and grandchildren do together.  ...

This might not mean a whole lot to you unless you've spent any time in the UK... Radio One legend John peel has passed away at the age of 65. John was with Radio One from it's beginning in 1967.  He helped launch many bands in the UK that other DJ's had labelled 'unlistenable' simply by giving them airtime on his show....bands and artisits that went on to be greats, such as Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Ramones, Jane's Addiction and The White Stripes.  He used to encourage unknow...

I saw a wonderful image this morning. A picture of a little boy, holding a stethescope to the chest of an elderly man, listening. Listening to the beat of his father's heart within that elderly man's chest. The boys father had been killed, and his organs had been donated.  The man who got his heart had been told earlier the day of the transplant that unless a heart became available soon he wouldn't be strong enough to withstand the surgery.  Miraculously, later that day, h...