Satire

I stumbled across this article tonight written by an unidentified TARP wife. The commenters seem to suggest this is meant to be some sort of satire, but I must admit I don't find it.

Take a read and let me know what you think.

I was turned off early on by this:

It also means we’re part of the community of more than 400 companies that have
received government bailout funds, whose fall from grace has been
swifter and harsher than any since Mao frog-marched intellectuals into China’s countryside.

I don't have any love for Mao or his crazy policies, but, if he had marched this woman off the the countryside for a little re-education, I can't imagine complaining too much.

It's difficult to sympathize with a woman (or an entire group of charlatans) whose biggest concern is being seen getting into a taxi laden with shopping bags. Mind you, not concerned because she can't afford it, but rather that someone will see her.

This recession hurts everyone equally, I guess.

Exciting Weekend

I just found out that I have to work on both Saturday and Sunday this week, but I won't let that put a damper on the greatness that will be this weekend.

As I was thinking about this weekend, one of the things I was most looking forward to was not working. I've worked the past two weekends and will have to work the next three or four in a row.

BUT, the true excitment of this weekend is Saturday at 1:30 and work can't stop it!

It's Columbus Taco Truck Tour 2009!

I will be there and I hope to see you there, too. If you are interested in carpooling, let me know.

In addition it will be above 80 degress for the first time in a long time.

Uh Oh

Obama might win me over with this.

High speed rail to Chicago? Cincinnati? Cleveland? Dayton? Toledo?

Well, yes. Thank you, Mr. President.

Ok, maybe not Dayton and Toledo...

Trying Not to Complain

Angie and I keep saying that 2009 will be our best year yet. So far, that's true in many respects.

However, I look forward to the promises God has made us and I long to be there now. I struggle with the everyday things that aren't prefect.

That's one of the reasons I haven't felt like writing. All the words that want to tumble out are complaints, and I don't want fill pages with those words.

My future is brighter than my now and my now is brighter than my past. I try to keep that in mind.

Taco Truck Tour

I had no idea there was a blog devoted to the taco trucks in Columbus. There is.

Taco Trucks in Columbus, Ohio

On April 25 @ 1:30 pm, they're hosting a tour of 4 trucks on the westside. Westside 4 eva.

Who's in?

Ariving in America

I found a link to this article from the New York Times while I was browsing Michael Totten's site. It's written by an Iraqi who recently settled in the US after working as a translator for the US military.

Yesterday we took a long drive to get somewhere. My aunt is very cautious and
alert while driving through a particular neighborhood. She turns to me and says:
“Look!” I turn around and spot two empty cans of soda and, like, three empty
bags of potato chips all in a polite pile. “This is a bad neighborhood,” she
says.

I will only add that I think it's unfortunate that the US, European and Iraqi governments so severely limit the Iraqi people's freedom of movement and that more Iraqis aren't experiencing the same joys of living in a relatively free and open society.

The Crucifixion

For Good Friday, here's an article from Slate.com about the historical meaning of the cross and the "foolishness" - and perhaps the full meaning - that has been lost over time.

Jesus' crucifixion represented a collision between Jesus and Roman governmental
authority, an obvious liability to early Christian efforts to promote their
faith. Yet, remarkably, they somehow succeeded. Centuries of subsequent
Christian tradition have made the image of the crucified Jesus so familiar that
the offensiveness of the event that it portrays has been almost completely lost.

Cincinnati Review

Today, Angie, Nila and I went to Cincinnati for the day. We just wanted a change of pace, and Cinci's close.

We visited five Cincinnati landmarks.*

McAlister's

Angie drools over McAlister's. It's a chain of restaurants apparently popular in the south. The only Ohio joints are in the Queen City. I had the club sandwich. It was good. Angie had a barrel of sweet tea.

Findlay Market

This is an indoor/outdoor market in the heart of Cincinnati. I thought it was small and crowded inside, and I enjoyed the outdoor areas much more. It was packed with people and they day was beautiful, so it was a good stop.

The problem with the Findlay Market was that Google gave us some terrible directions. You know how sometimes Google will use every name a street has? Well, our directions told us to exit on US 29/34/782/09898/149/Hopple St., or something like that - and I'm only sort of exaggerating it.

We did this, but then we had to turn right immediately onto US 34/09898/Hopple St and then left onto US 29/782/149/Hopple St and then a left and a short turn towards the sun. But first we had to sing a sea chantey and answer three riddles.

We failed at this and drove in a circle, but then we found our starting point and tried again. This time, we made a left turn into oncoming traffic and almost met our ends. We did not; we made it safely through the intersection only a little thankful for our lives.

We sang about the Edmund Fitzgerald and answered our three riddles, but we must have answered wrong because we ended up on the UC campus and I gave up on the Google.

I drove what I assumed was south and figured I'd hit the river eventually. I remembered that the market was downtown from the map I had seen yesterday - I should note we only brought the written directions, nothing pictorial.

It paid off. My spidey-sense found the market and Angie bought some homemade soap. Who doesn't need soap some lady made in her bathtub?

Ault Park

When we decided to go to Cincinnati, I did a quick online search for things to do. I didn't want to have to tell people I just went to Ikea and a grocery store...

I found information about the Hyde Park area of the city and it looked pretty nice, and I figured we could spend some time kicking around in the park.

Hyde Park was fantastic. The homes in and around the area were stunning. We drove through without checking out any of the small shops and boutiques in the town center, opting instead to find the park.

I had not mapped directions for the park; it was more of an afterthought, but I found it because I am awesome.

The park was really nice. Nila walked around the garden and refused to smell the flowers.

She was tired and cranky after about 30 minutes, so we fought her into her car seat and she took a little cat nap on the way to Ikea.

Ikea

I hate shopping at Ikea. I love Ikea, but the shoppers there are insane. It's like they've never shopped before. There's so much wide-eyed meandering that a person can't browse in peace without knocking into a small Indian family or falling over the feet of some guy from Kentucky who isn't quite sure what he's doing there.

I would prefer that all of these people either stay home or learn how to follow the arrows helpfully painted on the floor and KEEP MOVING OR PULL OFF TO THE SIDE!

Aisles are for walking, carpeted areas are for standing and figuring out whether or no the Oogglesfjord bookshelves go with your Ulxwesty carpet and Huvershorb dog bed.

FYI, it doesn't.

We picked up a few small things. It was more of a reconnaissance mission this time. Angie goes into more detail about our purchases here. (We did buy a tray for our soap, don't worry.)

Jungle Jim's

I am a big fan of Mr. Jim. But, alas, it was the one-too-many on our list of things to do. I was cranky, Angie was cranky and Nila was hungry. We were all hungry.

I got the bare essentials; all-natural hummus, curry powder, garam masala, blood orange juice, Double Decker bars.

The trip to JJ's was short, but we only had the one argument about subs and we left the store on good terms.

We ate dinner at that other famous Cincinnati landmark; Wendy's.


*admittedly, some are not landmarks.

**While we did take some pictures, we didn't take any of these. Click on the picture to see where they came from.