Like I Needed Something Else

I already have places to go three afternoons/early evenings a week. So I went to pick up the Equestrienne from her horseback riding lesson on Wednesday. I found her grooming a pony she hadn't even ridden that day, but who needed grooming desperately. He is shedding his summer coat to make way for his winter one. While I was less than thrilled about waiting for her while she finished, it did garner her an invitation from the stable owner to come and help out at the stable on another day from her horseback riding lesson. So now I'll have places to go four evenings a week. Like I needed that. Of course, the Equestrienne is thrilled to be turning into a stable rat. And the experience in the stable will be good for her. She's not a phenom, but she does seem to be ahead of some of the other riders in her progress. She'll be starting jumping as soon as she gets better about keeping her heels down.

Free Museum Admission!

Mr. BTEG discovered a great deal for homeschoolers this Saturday, free museum admission for two to lots of good museums. For those of you who pay attention to such things, it *is* being sponsored by dictator-owned Citgo, and I'm not sure what business the Lt. Governor of Louisiana has sponsoring a nationwide museum opportunity. But it's still a great chance for learning, for those whose homeschooling budget is tight. Which is probably just about everyone. :)

LOLBrowns

More at the aptly named Waiting for Next Year.

Via Dawgs by Nature.

Choices

It seems fairly easy to me. If you elect Obama, with a Democratic Congress, you will get socialism. Do you want socialism? Vote for Obama. Do you want babies born after a botched abortion to be killed anyway? Vote for Obama. Do you want to vote for someone who had his own private negotiations with the Iraqis, essentially going over the head of the current president? Vote for Obama. Do you want someone who is trying to have members from the opposing party investigated by the Feds and told his followers to "get in people's faces"? All this information is out there on the internet. This is what you'll get.

Now, Republicans were very unhappy with the choice of John McCain as Republican nominee. His stand on illegal immigration, in addition to his Gang of Whatever-Number-I-Can't-Remember association, were real negatives for a lot of Republicans. And maybe one can't believe everything a politician says. But he has never asked for a single earmark in his entire time in the Senate. You can read a great article by the Anchoress about how the Democrats are running away from the economic crisis because they don't know what to do, and how John McCain is trying to provide leadership. Whose answer do you like better? And Sarah Palin already has a record of taking out corrupt politicians, *Republican* politicians at that. You don't have to just go on her words, look at what she's done.

And if you don't like either of them in the end, vote third party. Frankly, my big issue is socialism. We're currently the least socialistic of the major countries. Where on earth are we supposed to go if more socialism gets enacted here? It reminds me of when I lived in an all-girl dorm in college with set quiet hours at night. Men, who weren't even residents but were there sleeping with their girlfriends, were breaking the quiet hour rules. Their response: if you don't like it, move to the 24-hour-quiet dorm. In other words, we want to break the rules; if you don't like it, *you* can leave. Screw that. I happen to like our Constitution and the way our Founding Fathers set things up. If you want socialism, move to Canada, or France (sorry, Canadians. You can move here).

Blogging Meets Real Life

Tonight the Evil Genius family had the privilege of meeting Dan of Necessary Roughness while he is in northeast Ohio for work. We had dinner at a good German restaurant that Lutheran Lucciola would have loved - potato pancakes, schnitzel, Kartoffel Salat, cabbage. :) I remembered a way that my Transylvanian Saxon potato salad differs from the potato salad at the restaurant; in the Saxon kind, the potatoes are boiled in their jackets and cut up cold, skin and all, the next day for the salad. After dinner, we had a wonderful ending in ice cream. We got along so well with Dan, it was like we already knew him, and in a way we kind of did!

It's interesting how the internet brings people together. We would have never found our current church , for example, without the internet, and I never would have gotten to know Dan without the internet. Or Lutheran Lucciola, for that matter, or lots of other great people across the country, or as far away as New Zealand. Hey, the internet even helped us when we were driving home from Michigan Sunday night. We were getting hungry but didn't want fast food. So my husband used his phone/PDA to look up a Pizza Hut a little further down the freeway, we called ahead and ordered a pizza, and arrived there just in time to pick it up.

It was rather interesting driving home from Michigan through the wind and heavy rain that were the last gasp for Hurricane Ike. Fortunately, my husband's nephew had a slightly sprained ankle, so we did not have to sit at a soccer game in the wind and rain. We did have lunch together, and checked out John's dorm, where we had birthday pie. John likes pie. :)

Obviously we had effects from Ike, although nowhere near as bad as down south. A couple of my girls' friends missed school on Monday because the power was out at their school. There are downed branches piled up everywhere, and shingles torn off of roofs. I can't imagine how awful the devastation is down in Texas.

Splashing Surprise

As I type this, I am sitting in the Great Wolf Lodge Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. It's becoming quite a tradition to come to Great Wolf Lodge; we've been here twice before. Both of the previous times were for holidays. The first time we came was Christmas of '04. It doesn't seem that long ago, but the Dancer had "reindeer food" she'd made in her Girl Scout troop that we had to sprinkle on the balcony for Santa's reindeer. It was a *very* cold and snowy Christmas, and it was glorious to spend two days completely indoors, swimming in enveloping warmth, and eating in the restaurants here in the Lodge.

The next time we came here was for Thanksgiving of last year. We had wonderful fun once more, and were thankful for our blessings over a luxurious buffet.

This time, our trip was last minute. We are going up to Adrian, Michigan tomorrow to see our nephew for his 19th birthday, and watch him play in a soccer game. We decided to get a head start on the trip and go part way today. At first, we considered camping, but it has been raining steadily since yesterday. Not good camping weather. If the rain stopped at a reasonable time, we were thinking about spending some time at Cedar Point, and staying on-site there tonight. There are not a lot of hotels between here and Toledo. However, the rain was very persistent, so we decided to come back to the Lodge, where the weather doesn't matter.

We did consider staying at a new indoor water park called Maui Sands. However, we had some questions about their rooms (their website is awful), and we called three times without them answering their phone. Mr. BTEG and I really don't want to work that hard for the privilege of giving someone else our money, so we went back to the tried-and-true. The water park at Maui Sands does sound tempting, so we drove by on the way here. It looks like perhaps it opened too early. Basically what they did was take over a Holiday Inn Express and add some rooms and the water park. They haven't scraped all the Holiday Inn Express signs off the building which doesn't look so good. Also, even though the rooms looked good online, when we got there, the hotel just looked plain boring on the outside. It just didn't look very nice. Plus, they allow day passes at Maui Sands, whereas we're snobby and prefer the exclusivity of a resort. :) So back to Great Wolf Lodge we came.

Tomorrow we head off for Michigan. Hope it doesn't rain.

I'm Sick to My Stomach

But stuff like this needs to be seen. These are the people the Democrats align themselves with. This is not just an "alternate point of view." These people are enemies of our country and all that it stands for. We cannot allow the people who would malign and destroy our country to take hold.

Life on the Merry-Go-Round

It seems there's never a quiet moment around here anymore. Tuesday afternoon the Dancer has ballet and jazz; Thursday afternoon she has tap. Fortunately, her dance classes are very close to a large shopping area that has several stores that are not near our home, such as the pet supply store and the sewing store. While the Dancer dances, I often shop.

The Scientist has Latin on Wednesday mornings and horseback riding Wednesday evenings. And since the Die-Hard Equestrian is dropping her blog name, I am changing the name of the Scientist to the Equestrienne. :)

The Equestrienne is learning through Ohio Virtual Academy this year. There's all kinds of new books, papers and folders around the house, plus we have to find a space to set up her new computer, when we get the rest of it. So far, it seems to be going well. She's putting more of an effort in for this than she did working for me. It's a little hectic for me right now as we learn how to deal with this new system, but I'm hoping I'll have less work to do as we go on. It *is* nice being able to focus more on the Dancer's education.

We still have a lot of organizing to do, but I'm hoping we'll get into a working routine soon. Right now I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

I Love My Husband

Check out the license plate he got for his new vehicle.

Now we match.

I've Lost My Way

When I first started this blog, I wanted to write about all kinds of things, not just the personal events in my and my family's life. However, I had a life-changing event at the end of February this year, and since then I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm not a world events blogger, I'm not a crafty blogger (at this time), I'm not good at exploring or talking about my faith and I'm not good at keeping up with events in my (larger) church, so I guess I'm not much of a Lutheran blogger either. I'm just me, and right now I'm not sure where I'm going. All I wanted to do with this blog is express *me*, and I'm not sure how to do that right now.

Step Number One

to being a Christian witness in today's world -

learning how to spell Christian.

Photo courtesy of Mr. BTEG.