what if?

Too Busy to Blog

The last few days, I've been beyond busy.  Not only have I not had time to blog - I haven't even been able to keep up on my blog reading!  Very unusual for me.

If you'd like to know what's keeping me occupied, here's the scoop.  Lots of work (which is good news, as long as I can eventually convert it into paychecks.)  And - lots of fun and work at The Cavendish.  The Cavendish is the largest money bridge tournament in the world.  This is the first one I've ever attended, and although I'm not playing in it, I'm visiting and taking lots and lots of photos.

Here are just a few.  If you'd like to see more, check out the photo section for Thursday and Friday at the tournament site.

Great Expectations

Does it sometimes seem to you that we expect our presidential candidates to be something other than human?  That is, the tiniest flaw, the smallest misstep, any momentary lapse of concentration is something to be highlighted and bandied about for days?

Take Obama's recent and obvious mis-statement about "10,000" dying in the recent Kansas storms.  Or President Bush's clear mis-speaking about when the Queen last visited the U.S.  Does anyone seriously attribute more to these two incidences than a human being either being tired, losing concentration or the like?  No one with a shred of common sense can imagine that Obama momentarily "really" thought that 10,000 had died in Kansas, nor that Bush "really" thought the Queen had been in the U.S. more than a couple of hundred years ago.  Yet, if you looked at the news bites, you'd think that little was more important than these two silly occurrences!

Unfortunately, not only do some wish to make mountains out of tiny molehills, others seem to go out of their way to misinterpret what the "these are molehill" proclaimers are attempting to say.  (See the Volokh Conspiracy link above.)

As Eugene says; it's gonna be a long, long election period as long as people want to focus on the idiotic and mundane rather than what really matters.

Their House

One of the more phenomenal aspects of the Internet is that you actually can meet and make friends from it.  This is exactly what happened to me with David Strom and Magaret Martin, of Our House fame.  When I first found their blog, I absolutely adored the photographs and stories about their birdies (as my regular readers know, I am a birdie parent myself.)  Margaret's shots and stories about her gardening were delightful (as my readers may not know, I am like the Black Plague when it comes to planting and nurturing virtually anything that comes out of the ground.  As a result, I am all the more mystified and amazed by those I know who can plant something in the ground and not have it be dead 22 days later.) 

And, as one more added bonus, David, Margaret and I share an interest in many of the political and philosophical issues of our day.  Marvelous friendships were born - though I regret that the three of us never seem to be able to meet enough in person for my tastes.

Here, you can see Margaret indulging her love of birdies along with her passion and art of the garden.  Well - at least my budgies and cockatiel get the best of care!

Perfect Versus Practical

When the 2008 presidential election choices began embryonic beginnings, my liberal friends were certain that a candidate like Rudy Giuliani had no chance.  While they might reluctantly agree that Rudy would have more chance with the greater electorate, they argued that the point was moot.  "Rudy would have zero opportunity to be the Republican candidate," they'd tell me.  "With his liberal social beliefs, the Religious Right will never accept Rudy.  Period.  Ever."

Well, surely my friends are correct about some percentage of the Religious Right.  But all?  I don't think so.  And, my friends' prejudice that the vast majority of the Republican Party identifies with the Religious Right is also incorrect.

Now, evidence continues to gather that more and more Republicans of any persuasion might be willing to vote for a Giuliani candidacy.  Rudy may not be the man or woman of their dreams.  Still, it appears that today, Republicans are starting to appreciate that a practical candidate who can win is superior to a perfect one who cannot.  Half a loaf, and all that jazz.

Will this "practical over perfect" come to be?  Will the Democrats make a similar choice ultimately?

To toss but one more cliche at you:  time will tell.

What Are the "Love Crimes?"

Andrew Tobias wrote the first software package - "Managing Your Money" - that I ever used to track my investments.  In addition to MYM working wonderfully, Andrew's writing is infused with humor and wit.

You might think that, being a prolific financial writer and investment counselor, that Andrew is a staunch conservative.  But, if you did think that, you'd be wrong.  Andrew serves as the treasurer of the Democratic Party, and thus, as you can well imagine, views much of the world in a very liberal light.

Name a dozen issues; odds are good that Andy and I are on opposite sides of the debate.  Nevertheless, on a few topics, we do see eye to eye.  Gay rights would be one of them.  Both Andy and I believe that one's sexual orientation is essentially an accident of birth.  As such, people should not be penalized nor rewarded for something that is part of who you are, like your hair color or height.

This week, Andy blogged about a bill before Congress that would have added sexual orientation and gender identification to so-called "hate crimes" protections.  Andy thought that they should have been added; the votes were there to pass it.

Now, if I thought that the concept of "hate crimes" was a good one, I might be happy to add sexual orientation and gender identification to the qualifiers.  Committing a crime against someone because they are gay - or black, or white, or a Jew, or a Moslem makes utterly no sense to me.

Finally!

Some people can go-go-go every moment.  They're stimulated, gain more energy and feel fine.

I'm not one of them.

Although I do think of myself as capable, hardworking and willing to put in long hours when necessary, I nevertheless do require some "vegging out" time.  The last week or two? My down time was nil.  As a result, blogging was pathetic. 

But, I've finally got a little bit of breathing room, so I hope to catch up with a few posts! 

Thanks for waiting around for me.

Still Alive and Kicking

This past week I've sold a house, met and signed up new clients, interviewed other clients, attended the dreaded continuing education classes (necessary to retain my license), played bridge in Iowa Saturday and Sunday, thus winning a trip to our national tournament in Nashville this July, and gone on two photo shoots for a real estate magazine that is covering my bridge career.  (JUST call me "Cheryl Tiegs, please.")

As a result, in my so-called "free time," I've had time to visit my favorite blogs and keep up - at least a little - on what's going on in the world.  Unfortunately, however, that's left about zilch-zip-nada time for my own blogging!

Actually - I have done a little bit of blogging.  It is, however, on my Minnesota Bridge Blog!

Please enjoy a story about some local high school students' first bridge tournament, and a post about a Minnesota sweep for our bridge competition (save my dear partner, Bill, from Iowa.)

I'm really still here - and do hope to be tapping away into typepad when I return to something resembling a life!