Joe Biden hilarity

First the Chinese dissed poor Joe because he ate at a regular restaurant instead of the Golden Palaces used by the Chinese Government people. And then Joe left a tip. Goodness Gracious, someone did not tell Joe that we do not give incentives here in the land of Mao. People may come to expect payment based on performance.

Then good old Joe announced how he thought the "one child" policy was well thought out. How choice equates to the aborting girls policy boggles the mind. But that is just Joe. I am sure Joe would be just as happy with Jack instead of Jill, not that there is anything wrong with that.

But according to the China Daily, also the source for the above information, the real faux pas that Joe committed was his disdain for the awful stew, known as Chaogan. It is offal stew, and Joe instead chose the noodle dish.

Onto our boring little lives, Big Daddy got a drenching Saturday. I was getting my roots blond and BD was buying a bread knife. The heavens let loose with such a downpour the street was under 6 inches of water in a heartbeat. BD was in the street at the time. He dried out at the coffee shop near the salon, the one without water, so he had juice-they could not make coffee.

This gave me a moment of introspection, I, dumbass as I am, for some reason thought that the people selling coffee used bottled water. The water in China is not potable. Boiling water may get rid of most of the nasties if it is done properly. I am not sure making coffee gets rid of all the nasties. But I know it does not get rid of the metals and other things we are not supposed to drink. Like certain chemicals. I remember 20 years ago when I was selling real estate their was a huge concern in Michigan for people drinking from spring-point wells for agricultural chemicals that became "potentially" more deadly when boiled. You had to have wells tested by the health department before you could sell the property.

I think I am off Starbucks for now.

Don't Ya Love Joe Biden and of course NY banks

Good ole Joe, it is guaranteed that whatever comes out of his mouth will "shock and awe". Wonder what all the people on the train said to him. Guess we know Obama told him to get his ass on the train and smile, dammit, smile.

Then Chrysler retirees cannot cash their checks cuz some bank stopped payment and a judge had to say, well pay the people. No, not the suppliers, contractors, or your cronies---the retirees. I wonder if everyone knows just how close to disaster all this really is. I am laid off until August 3rd, which I think means I have to look for work. I am not sure of all the rules but my company sent me 5 pages to read while I am already laid off. Alrighty.

Pedicure day so toes are cute and I am ready to take on the Grandma story.

Grandma lives next door and her daughter and son-in-law live 3 doors down next to the Clampetts. Grandma is about 96 now and was going strong until this winter. She is a pip. When we overheard her bitching about the huge fir tree, which Big Daddy tells me was really a bastardized Blue Spruce, we decided to take a look. Don (the ghost and former owner) kept the bottom trimmed so it never looked right but got huge. So huge we could not get near it from the backyard which was surrounded by the huge bug infested hedge, nor the front unless we walked down Grandma's drive and snuck behind it. No wonder she bitched.

When we gathered to cut it down she asked me why it never bothered us. Well, we go to work at 4 or 5 AM and come home late and it is on the other side of the house where we never go. Who opens the window treatments when they are never home. Needless to say the former tree area had no grass. We paid to have the stump removed, put in dirt for a flower bed next to the foundation and put down the best grass seed. Not good enough for Grandma. Then we had the seed wars.

I planted some spring bulbs and forgot about it.

The next year we did the back yard. I did the weird thing with grass as it was only 3 feet wide. Put down layers of newspaper, then leaves (plenty from the Don the Ghost tree) covered with so many inches of dirt and watered. Sure enough, next year grass was gone. We took out the hedge and Big Daddy put down a patio. Ohio Tumbled Blue Stone delivered too many times by the skid (6 tons altogether) for a little back yard. At the end I told him if it wasn't finished by Labor Day I was divorcing him and marrying a Mexican to finish the patio in exchange for his green card. It was finished. Yard was simple, acceptable, somewhat barren-but looked ready for business in the near future.

We were ready to go to New Orleans for our 25th anniversary when 9/11 happened. I was in an assembly plant with co-workers from France and a young Jr. tech. It was so surreal as I had been telling the French they could not go home until they solved their problems when Bush shut down the airlines. Now they were stuck. And so was I.

Stay at home, well, let us garden. Put in a few things. Grandma commented. She wanted a lilac bush. I put in a pink oriental lilac as this is a small yard and they are quite small and can be pruned. SHE HATED IT. It was the wrong color and not French. Grrr. She has also hated snapdragons, marigolds (the expensive white ones) thyme, tarragon, rosemary, oriental poppy plants, bachelor buttons (which she had planted first) and anything I planted. She hated my grass, my dog, and my mulch. She will not weed behind her dying bushes but goes back and kicks off the mulch. She also does not use PREEN. Grrr. Now she wants a rose bush. WTF.

So we started giving her some wine whenever we traveled cuz she watched the house, yea right, and maybe I will plant a damn rose bush even if I can't grow them. Because you know if you get to 95 or 96 well, WTF.

Next, Third Rock from the Sun or as we know them the "Clampetts"