Michelle L. Olson's blog

I feel I am owed this information,

Because I am, as a resident of Illinois, Mr Obama's employer. And I want to know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA6_k3NtXZs

Human Again

I had a flu like thing going on all last week. I finally feel like a human again.

State Parks are being closed in Illinois.

Our Governor has so mis-managed our tax money, and our congress too, that he is now at a loss for when to get some funds, his bright idea is to close Historic Sites and State Parks.

Please if you are in Illinois sign up, and let Mr Blagojevich know he is making a terrible decision. If you are not in Illinois Please forward this link to anyone you do know from Illinois. Please and Thank You!!!

Stop Blagojevich

QotD: There's No Place Like Home

What's your definition of home?
Submitted by NayNay72

Home. Home is partly geographical, and partly emotional for me. Our house is my home, the corn growing soybean farming Midwest is my home, and my family is my home. My Home is filled with my stuff, pieces of me, treasures I have acquired, and bits of things I have plans for creatively. It is a blend where I've been and the potential things I can create. The Midwest is my home. Where I am never more than a couple miles from the nearest cornfield, or piece of the prairie. There is only a certain area of the country that embodies this feeling for me, and I don't think I could live outside of it. And lastly, and possibly my family is Home. My immediate and extended family. I could not live far away from my family, I would not survive.

In the Dog House

The dog and one of the kids. I know, I should have checked that he locked the kennel. I didn't.

I went to lock it and I was stopped by the boy who wanted to give the dog a treat. I said "ok, lock the kennel" In typical kid fashion he didn't hear or didn't listen. And while we ran errands and had lunch, the dog removed the trash from every garbage can in the house. And pooped on my bed room floor.

I'm not ever going to win any awards for housekeeping (even if there where such awards) But someone strewing trash all over the house certainly doesn't help.

So, exasperated and annoyed, I had the kids clean it up. I'm such a mean mommy. The whole time they cleaned up the mess they chattered on and on to their imaginary friends.

I wish my imaginary friends would help me do housework.

How can it be, that with the technology they have at their diposal, NBC's Olympic coverage is still

LACKING? How?? I realize everyone wants to see their pet sport, and I am no different, I want to see and hear about the equestrian events. Unfortunately, I do not have cable or satellite, and all the coverage for equestrian events is running on Oxygen.

But wait!!! I can watch live streaming video on the internet.. But.. I can't. The live video won't stream, and the the highlight videos wont load correctly. It could be because my computer is 3 years old, or it could be because my internet connection is a verizon wireless card, rather than cable or dsl, neither of which is not available in the country.

I'm incredibly disappointed with the coverage running on my local NBC affiliate. Yes, the coverage of Swimming is fantastic! And the kids and I are excited to see Michael Phelps blasting his way through the medals. I was cheering hard for the mens gymnastics team right up until I fell asleep on the couch, and missed them actually win the bronze medal.  But, would it kill NBC or the commentators to just mention any of the other sports? Or for goodness sake run a freaking ticker across the screen with some information about the rest of the Olympics? If I did not know better I might think the games only consisted of swimming, and gymnastics.

The USA Womens Fencing team swept the medals in individualsabre. It received the barest mention! No replay in the wee hours of the morning. No reshowing of the medal ceremony, where the three flags raised all belonged to the USA. Former President Bush thought is was important to go to the medal ceremony to show his support, and NBC can't be bothered to do more than mention it on their main station?

But, every afternoon we are still treated to Days of Our Lives and  reruns of Rachel Ray and Oprah. 3 hours when NBC could be treating us to highlights from Olympic competitions they did not show or even mention in prime time.

NBC, shame on you. Shame on you for assuming, everyone in the country has access to all your channels and hi speed internet, shame on you for not keeping the coverage on your main channel more diverse and informative, shame on you for not making your website more user friendly, and shame on you for making your program guide a colossal pain to navigate.

Shame shame NBC, you should be doing a better job of covering the whole Olympic games, with the whole USA in mind. Shame on you; shame, shame.

QotD: Lifestyles of the Rich ~or~ Famous

Would you rather be rich or famous? Why?

Submitted by Chris Vaughn.

Most definitely rich.   I think  sometimes about the things I would be able to do if I had money. Things like helping out a newly divorced friend whose husband did not pay the second half of the years school tuition for their kids, and now she may not be able to enroll the kids for the upcoming year.  I know $ doesn't solve all your problems, but there are plenty of examples where some generous soul has made a heck of a difference in someone else's life, by putting some compassion and cash together.

No contest, being famous is scary.

Earth Movers

Last Saturday we went to a Caterpillar Tractor Demo with a friend of my husband. I took over 400 tractor photos. these are some of my favorites.

In the past two days I have taken 575 phots...

The first 500 where taken of Caterpillar tractors and big earth movers. (and a few flowers at church this morning.)

The other 75 I took of my friend and her husband and their 9 month old baby girl, my God- Daughter. My friend was a collage of casual family shots and wanted to do some thing like it.

here are the ones we liked the best.

Collage1TCP

Collage2TCP

Collage3 TCP

Maybe I'll get around to uploading some shots of the big machines tomorrow...

really?

Today I was pointed in the direction of a blog that's sole existence  is as a place for people to bash another MB.

Really? have people got so little to do that this is their entertainment? What if all those folks went outside and found something productive to do, OR what if they donated their time to any number of worthy causes....

really, what if they just stopped feeding on the hate?