Outdoor Home Decorations

rmiles7721September 10, 2007Home & Garden

If you’ve had the chance to come to the house you know that I am somewhat concerned about the way the yard looks. I don’t want just a nicely mowed lawn. I love gardens and knickknacks around the yard as well. I have Elephant Ears and Lillies, flowering vines and other neat stuff including two goldfish ponds. That’s one of the reasons I have been so concerned about the dry spell we are in. All of my plants are suffering and since my county is under a complete watering ban there isn’t much I can do. When it rains I open several coolers that I have on the back deck and let them collect the water for later, but that is usually only enough for one watering.

In addition to the plants that I have growing I like flags and plaques and whirlygigs as well. Anything to brighten the yard. If I had them I would probably have pink flamingos and garden gnomes out there as well just to add color. I really want to stick this sundial out there from MailBox And Beyond…

sundail.jpgIt’s a little over $60 which isn’t bad at all. It also comes in weathered bronze and moss green but I like the verdigris that is shown in the picture. This thing would look great above my upper pond. I really need to do something with the area anyway, at least mulch around it. Unfortunately there isn’t any grass in that area and everytime it rains anything loose gets washed down.

Mailbox And Beyond mainly sells residential mailboxes but they also have quite a bit of stuff like the sundial as well. There are a couple of really nice mailboxes over there as well, but I will have to wait on any of those for a while.

Gabrielle Makes Landfall…

rmiles7721September 10, 2007Site News

Just after noon yesterday Tropical Storm Gabrielle hit North Carolina but it darn sure wasn’t enough to chase anyone off.

Groggy…

rmiles7721September 10, 2007Uncategorized

I’ve had such a problem sleeping the last few nights that I took a couple of Benadryl last night around eight. It was still after ten when I finally went to sleep and boy do I feel groggy this morning. That is about the strongest medicine I will take and it shows in the way that it effects me. Man I don’t want to wake up this morning.

I found out last night that I have a meeting in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon so I am going to have to try and reschedule the time I am picking up that darned rental car. It was supposed to be at three tomorrow afternoon but I have to be in Atlanta by three. Hopefully they will let me pick this thing up by noon tomorrow.

The wife took both girls clothes shopping and then grocery shopping over the weekend. We all have to make sure and wear blue at graduation because blue is the color for Lima company. They picked up a pair of ‘sparkly’ shoes for the four year old and my wife said that my older girl just stood there with mouth agape staring at the jewelry. That’s too darn funny. I guess she is at that age where it is starting to look good to her.

I am so hoping that today will not be a terribly long day. I have several things that I really need to get done this afternoon both online and off and I need to go ahead and finish the laundry and start packing since obviously I won’t have a lot of time tomorrow and non at all on Wednesday before I leave.

Pedophiles in the Making

rmiles7721September 9, 20073Site News

This is just sick. I stopped over at MyBlogLog to see what my traffic had been today according to them and ran across a link to a site called marryourdaughter.com

I am listing it here but I darn sure won’t actually deign to create a link to it. These chicks are 15-17 and basically being sold off. I understand that’s how it works in some cultures, but NOT HERE. Holy cow. I am a scumbag but I darn sure wouldn’t condone what amounts to child abuse and statutory rape.

Great Deals From Deal Locker

rmiles7721September 9, 2007Site News

Deal Locker is one of those coupon site where you can get Printable Coupons, Free Samples, & Deals. With the holiday season coming up I have started my Christmas shopping and I much prefer to get everything online that I can. I always try to get the best deal that I can and at Deal Locker I can get free online coupon codes for my favorite stores including coupons for Amazon, which is one of the places that I prefer to do as much shopping as possible.

Deal Locker is still in public beta testing but for all intents and purposes the site is fully functional. Everything that I need to use there is accessible and should be for most other people as well.

Taxes

rmiles7721September 9, 2007Site News

Taxes are a bitch. I haven’t ranted about them recently so it’s due for one. That last post about being in the two got me to thinking about it. Did you know that the top 5% of wage earners in the United States pays 55% of the federal income tax? The top 5% earns 31% of the income in the U.S. but pays over half the taxes. That ain’t right. Now I am not particularly for increasing anyone’s tax burden, least of all the people that can ill afford it but I am for doing away with the federal income tax completely and putting in a consumption tax such as the Fairtax. It wouldn’t apply to the purchase of used property, cars, clothing from consignment stores, etc…which is where most of the folks that work for me do their shopping for autos and clothing so it wouldn’t hurt them as bad as opponents of the bill like to mouth off. Not only that but everyone in the U.S. would get a prebate check to cover the amount of sales tax they would be paying up to the poverty level, so people in the bottom 5-10% would actually be making MORE money than they are now.

Think about it. If you make $40-60k a year right now you are bringing home considerably less than that. Wouldn’t it be nice to bring it ALL home and do with it what you want rather than having the federal government make those choices for you?

Do You Live in The Two?

rmiles7721September 9, 2007Site News

What does it mean to live in the top 2% of wage earner in the United States. You hear all the time that ‘money can’t bring happiness’ or ‘money isn’t everything’ The problem with those statements is that it’s usually people that are satisfied with what they have or are unable to make that kind of money that are uttering those statements. Money doesn’t bring happiness. That very well may be 100% true but being poor certainly doesn’t bring happiness and if I had the choice between the two (and I do) I certainly won’t choose to be sitting in the kitchen eating dog food after I retire.

The top 2% of wage earners in the United states makes over $200,000 a year. This includes families with one or two wage earners. We are halfway there and I don’t plan to stop until I have made it into that 2%. Being driven enough to succeed often calls for hard work but the rewards are security for myself and my children.

Do you have what it takes to be in the the top 2%?  Take the test and find out. Even if you aren’t sure it takes only five minutes of your time. Sometimes the difference between success and failure is being willing to work a bit on self improvement both physically and mentally. Walk. Run. Read a book every couple of days. Ask yourself questions and if you don’t know the answers, FIND THEM. Be willing to set goals and push yourself until achieve those goals. It’s not rocket science and it doesn’t take a college degree or piece of paper to make you successful, you just have to be willing to take chances and learn from your mistakes.


Cell Phones, Wal-Mart, Dog Food…This Ain’t My Shopping List…

rmiles7721September 9, 2007Parenting/Family, Uncategorized

Yesterday afternoon I ran out to the local Wal-Mart to get stuff for hamburgers. The girls had company coming for supper and I try to only make them eat dog food when their friends aren’t around so as to avoid answering sticky questions. Get them ready for old age a bit early and all that.

Anyway, apparently on the way out the door I dropped my cell phone. I didn’t realize it until I was getting in the car and flipped. My damn cell phone has hundreds of numbers related to work as well as personal stuff that I really can’t afford to lose. There are several years of history stored in that thing. I checked at the cash register where I was run up and then walked down a couple of aisles. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I was going to have to go to Verizon and report it lost but decided to check with customer service before I left. Apparently I walked right past it on my way back in to the store because the dude that found it and picked it up was returning it to customer service as I was walking up.

Thank goodness for honest people. I guess I just spend far too much time around these people that I work with because half of the fuckers would have put it in their pockets and left with it.

I’ve started putting the belt thing back on my belt rather than hooking it into my pocket as I normally do. It will take some getting used to but it does tend to fall out of my pocket a lot.

The Crucible

rmiles7721September 9, 2007Parenting/Family

Man, that Luna moth this morning was cool. The photos were just taken with my phone and sent to Flickr. I think I have one more I need to email myself and then post later this afternoon.

Today was a pretty uneventful day at work. I cooked all day and then hit the door right at the end of the shift. All of my managers are in so they can take care of all the mundane day to day stuff while I sit on my ass here at home and blog for awhile 🙂

The wife is napping right now and I have the girls set up in the driveway selling lemonade to support my ugly beer habit. All is well in my world today. The boy should be finished/finishing with the Crucible right about now or possibly in the morning. I know that was a tough row to hoe for him but he’s tough. I am really looking forward to seeing him for the first time since June, later this week. We are driving up to Beaufort on Wednesday afternoon and will check in to the hotel that evening. Any of you guys on the coast want to get together for a beer or something on Thursday or Friday night give me a call or shoot me an email.

Back to the Crucible. The hardest part for him I am sure will be the ten mile hump they have to take at the end. He’ll probably want to sleep for two days straight when he leaves with us Friday afternoon.

Saturday I think we are going to spend the day on Hilton Head. This will probably be the last chance for us to see our friend Niqui before she and her kids move to Cyprus so I know the wife is looking forward to it.


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rmiles7721September 9, 2007Site News



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