Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Last week, Jeff and I purchased our very own domain and webspace so...let this serve as your notice that...

Our BLOGS Have Moved!

You can find Walking Under Chandeliers (Katie's Blog) at http://kathleen.theutechs.com/blog/ or http://theutechs.com/kathleen/blog

You can find A Stranger in a Strange Land (Jeff's Blog) at http://jeffrey.theutechs.com/blog orhttp://www.theutechs.com/jeffrey/blog/

Please update your links or blogrolls with our new sites!! See you there!

Bottle Deposit

While watching the Iowa Basketball disaster last night from our local Old Chicago, I was struck by an interesting question. I posed the question to my drinking mates, and we didn't come up with an answer, so I thought I'd pose it here on my blog.

In the state of Iowa, we pay a 5-cent bottle deposit on all aluminum cans and glass bottles.

Therefore, when you go to a bar and buy a can or bottle of beer, shouldn't you be able to take the bottle with you, regardless of the amount of liquid left in it, because the case could be made that in purchasing the bottle of beer you are the one paying the bottle deposit and therefore should be able to return it to the store for your 5-cent refund?

Friday Five!

Happy Weekend!

1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)?
It's hard to pick a favorite, honestly. I read anything I can. Jeff and I have almost 20 magazine subscriptions that we get every month, and I read them every month. So, I obviously enjoy reading magazines. But, that's not necessarily my favorite. For leisure reading, I enjoy novels and I read on average of two novels a month. I would have to say that newspapers and poetry fall to the bottom of my list. Newspapers would rate higher on my list if I lived somewhere where we could get a quality daily delivered every morning. Such is not the case in North Liberty.

2. What is your favorite novel?
Again...hard to pick a favorite. I would have to say that my first favorite novel was Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel, I read it when I was in 7th grade, it's a fantastic novel. Another one that I enjoyed recently and I am currently recommending to people is Good In Bed by Jennifer Weiner. Other books near the top of my list: The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts, Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain) and any of the Harry Potter books.

3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)
I'm not a big poetry buff anymore (in my youth I was--ha ha!). I enjoy Maya Angelou and I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Shel Silverstein.

4. What is one thing you've always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?
One thing? How about half of Barnes and Noble? Seriously, my "Book Backlog" is currently at 9 books. They're all sitting on the shelf waiting for me to read them. It's funny, because the backlog never seems to decline...

5. What are you currently reading?
Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer

A Legend

As I am sure you know, today, Mr. Fred Rogers died after a short battle with stomach cancer. I had avoided posting about his death today because, I didn't know exactly what to say about it, and because it's been widely covered on the net and I didn't want to be repetitious.

But...I got to thinking, and I do have a few things that I think need to be said about Mr. Rogers.

Everyone is talking about Mr. Rogers today. It happens frequently when a celebrity dies, their popularity spikes in the days following their death. Mr. Rogers is no different. I am sure that many of us in the Gen X generation haven't had a conscious thought about Mr. Rogers in years, yet today we're all talking about him. In fact I even heard a caller on Talk of the Nation on NPR who said that his company has dedicated tomorrow as "Cardigan Day" as a small way to honor Mr. Rogers. The mere fact that every newscast, radio call-in show, workplace and private conversation is dominated by the death of this man really got me thinking.

Mr. Rogers gave all of us a gift that we may not have realized until now. In giving us the gift of himself, he gave us the gift of ourselves. Let me explain. Mr. Rogers taught us to be genuine, to be accepting and to be an individual. I remember, as I'm sure many of you do, a particular episode when Mr. Rogers was trying to make a rainbow with water mist and a flashlight. He couldn't do it. He was obviously getting frustrated until eventually his neighbor came over with a prism and helped him make the rainbow. Mr. Rogers was frustrated on a children's program. They aired his frustrations, teaching us that it's ok to be frustrated, it's ok not to succeed at first, you should keep trying.

In a world where we are all worried about how we look, how much money we make, what kind of car we drive, how big our houses are and what our job title is. We could probably stand to remember some of the lessons we learned from a man who wasn't afraid to wear an uncool cardigan, sing off key, and care about his neighbors. Fred Rogers was a very special man.

And you wonder why there are so many Drunk Catholic Jokes...

A priest in Germany, needing to stretch his limited church budget, has started brewing beer in his washing machine.

I'm not kidding...check this out.

From the Covering of The Derriere Department

State Farm is cautioning their insured drivers to drive carefully, because it won't cover auto damage caused by nuclear blasts or radioactive fallout. All policyholders are expected to receive the notices by mid-2004.

Can't wait to get that one...

Do you Really Need to Be an Expert to Figure this Out?

The headline on Kaiser Network this morning reads:

Health Policy Experts, Officials Say Medicare Must Be Restructured To Focus on Chronic Disease Prevention

Seriously? Do you need to be an "expert" or an "official" to know that if you reformed Medicare to allow better preventative health care and disease management you would save yourself money by reducing hospital stays? This just seems to be common sense to me, but apparently it isn't to the House Ways and Means Committee. They had to hold hearings Tuesday to help them to make this recommendation.

All kidding aside...
Reforming Medicare to include increased benefits and coverage for preventative care is critical to the health of the program. Given the influx of baby boom enrollees Medicare is going to see in the next few years they need to do everything they can to keep these people healthy and out of the hospital. Spending a little money up front can potentially save thousands of dollars in hospital and surgical charges. It looks like, after hearing the testimonies of chronically ill patients, the message has been heard. Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) said that Medicare "must change soon" to prepare for the aging baby boom population, adding that without reforms, "Medicare cannot adopt ... advances" in chronic disease management.

I wonder how long it's going to take for these reforms to be realized.

Oh Where Oh Where...
Has my Comment Feature gone?


(thank goodness I'm working on that new MT template...soon...very soon...I won't have to worry about things like this anymore....)

UPDATE: Apperantly if you want something to stop slacking...Call it Out!! As soon as I posted this...voila...comments were back! (Good to see "Calling Out" works on things other than basketball players and washing machines)

Maybe the Curse is Broken

Jeff and I are a Curse. We are a curse on Televison shows, rest assured that as soon as we fall madly in love with a TV show, that we will do anything not to miss every week...remember, we don't watch much TV at all, so the shows we fall in love with really have to meet high standards...it will get CANCELED! Such has been the case with Once and Again and Gideon's Crossing. However, it looks like the curse is either broken, or at least weakening. Because...

ABC has jumped the gun and issued early renewal notices for the Fall season for some of their programs. These programs include Alias! Huzzah!

Adding to the Ole' Blogroll

I am always on the hunt for new blogs to read, I enjoy all of the ones on my blogroll right now, and I read most of the ones that Jeff links to, but I'm always looking for new perspectives and therefore new blogs. Much to my surprise I stumbled on a blog this morning authored by an author. Specifically it's Jennifer Weiner's blog. Weiner is the author of the fantastic, side-splittingly-funny, book Good In Bed, as well as the book In Her Shoes.

Ladies, (and men I suppose), if you haven't read Good In Bed yet...it's a must-read. It's a quick read (I tore threw it in less than a week) and gives you a whole new perspective on your love life! Very Good Stuff!

So...in short, even though I have just stumbled on her blog, I'm going to add Jennifer to my Blogroll on the presumption that if she writes great books, her blog's going to be top notch as well!

Go Away Already...

Why won't Jesse Jackson just go away? He tries to make himself an expert on everything...his latest? He's going to make friends with Saddam, and together they'll save the world, or something like that.

Virtual March on Washington!

In a perfect illustration of our dependence on technology in this New Millenium....Today, there is a Virtual March on Washington going on. People are being urged to email their congressmen and the White House and show their support for the anti-war movement.

While I don't agree with the anit-war movement, I do agree with the idea of a Virtual March on Washington. With all of the junk that floats around on the internet, all the emails claiming to enlarge your sex organs or make you rich while you work part time, we've finally stumbled on a good use of email. This is a perfect way for every American to participate in the democratic system. Make your voice heard, email your representative whether you are for the war or against it.....This is the beautiful part of being an American!

UPDATE:
I have just been listening to the news on my way home from work and on the radio now that I'm home. While I agree that this was a good idea, an EMAIL march on Washington was a good idea, what apparently happened was that people jammed the phone lines and shut down the circuts because of overload. I don't think that's a good set-up. Emailing is one thing, email can be read afterhours, deleted if they aren't interested, or saved for later. Simply calling with the goal of shutting down the phone system of Congress, now that's just idiotic.

A Debate?

Debates over the impending war in Iraq have become a virtual hobby for most American's and Europeans in the past few months. Everyone has an opinion that they want to debate with anyone who doesn't agree. Well, the level of war debates has been taken to a new level this morning.

Yesterday, CBS News' veteran anchorman Dan Rather conducted the first face to face interview between an American reporter and Saddam Hussein in over 10 years. During this interview Saddam declared : "We do not have missiles that go beyond the proscribed range." He thereby strongly indicated Iraq would resist efforts to begin the destruction of the missiles. On top of that, Saddam has decided that he needs to debate, in traditional American Election style, Dubya on live television/radio, about the need to go to war. This is what CBS reports about the challenge:

"Saddam also challenged the president of the United States to join him in a live radio and television satellite linkup and debate the need for war before the entire world. "I am ready," said the Iraqi president, "to conduct a direct dialogue with your president. I will say what I want and he will say what he wants." "This will be an opportunity for him, if he's committed to war, this will be an opportunity to convince the world." "This is something proposed in earnest," Saddam said, "out of my respect for the people of the United States and my respect for the people of Iraq and the people of the world. I call for this because war is not a joke." "As leaders," the Iraqi president said to his American counterpart, "why don't we use this opportunity?"

Are you kidding me? This guy is a genius, he thinks he can come off looking like the kid being bullied here, but we're not going to buy the charade. After 12 years of out rightly defying UN sanctions you can't just suddenly ask to debate the need for a war that's purpose is to enforce the sanctions. In addition, I find it incredibly interesting that one of the worst dictators of all time is willing to subject himself to one of the most democratic processes in existence. Obviously, Dubya isn't going to take him up on the challenge, Ari Fleischer said last night that the White House views the request as a dramatic stalling tactic by Saddam. No matter what, it amuses me that Saddam would request this.

Another note about the interview: I had originally heard last night that portions of the interview would air on the CBS Morning Show this morning, those segments did not air. According to the CBS News Website the Iraqi authorities held up transmission of the tapes while they were being translated and instead Rather will have more on the interview on Tuesday's CBS Evening News, and on a special edition of 60 Minutes II on Wednesday night.

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, Please Shine Down on, Won’t you Shine Down On, Please Shine Down on Me!

This is your PSA for today:

Never underestimate the power of the Sun!

Here is why: I have been feeling a little under the weather lately, fighting a small cold (given to me by my loving husband, I'm sure) , feeling quite lethargic, and finding myself a little crankier than usual. I was discussing my out-of-sort feeling with Jeff the other day and he suggested that I might be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I brushed it off as nothing. But, ladies and gentlemen, I think he was right. I just drove home from work and I was feeling awful on the way home from work, I had a horrible stomach ache and I was all sorts of crabby. I got home and stood at the kitchen cabinets wondering what to eat for lunch, the south sun was beating in the sliding doors and hitting me. The warmth felt unusually good, so I did what any normal person would do, I grabbed a pillow off the couch and laid down on the kitchen floor with the sun beating on me for 30 minutes...and now...you guessed it...I feel incredible.

Amazing. Just wanted to share!

Kinda Like Loosing a Family Friend

Cruising the blogosphere this morning, I stopped in at Interrobang, where I read Dave's post from yesterday about the approaching end of the comic strip For Better For Worse. FBFW is Lyn Johnston's 24-year old strip about the Patterson family and it has always been near and dear to my family's heart (being that we are Patterson's and all.) Over the years the strip and it's characters have had terrifyingly realistic parallels to the life of my family, for example Michael, the oldest child in the strip went to college when I did, was a Journalism major and got married the same year that I did. We've always chuckled that someone was spying on our family for the material Johnston uses in the strip.

It's going to be sad to see it end, at least we have a four-year warning.

Happy Friday!

It's that time of the week again...Friday Five! Happy Weekend everyone!

1. What is your most prized material possession?
That's tough, right off the cuff I don't think there is one thing that I value more than any other. I tired to think of it in terms of, if my house was burning what would I grab...the answer to that would be pictures, as many as I can carry. I don't think that really answers the question.

2. What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest?
My teddy bear. I have had Quillan (aka Q-Bear) since I was in 4th grade (that's almost 18 years), he is a very well loved bear, with a tear or two here and there. But that bear is full of secrets that I've told him over the years, he's well traveled and still sleeps in our bed every night. Him and Jeff even have conversations sometimes. No I'm not crazy.

3. Are you a packrat?
ABSOULTELY!

4. Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum?
Prefer? A spic-and-span clean house. Notice I say prefer, that's not always how the house is, but if I would like it to be.

5. Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there?
Our house is full of themes...I love themes! Our living room and kitchen have a beach house/seaside theme, the office is done up in Iowa stuff, our bedroom has a rustic/autumn theme going and the entire lower level of our house is dedicated to my love for our country and decorated in stars and stripes complete with red walls in the family room.