The Goal Dress January 29, 2009

I haven’t said anything about this yet but I’m doing this cleanse thing. I’ve been on it for about 3 weeks and am doing well. I haven’t measured the inches yet this week, but I’ve lost about 10 lbs. While the weight/inches loss is nice, I actually did it for health reasons. My mom’s neighbor who also has fibromyalgia did this and within a few weeks her symptoms were gone. Sign me up for whatever will do that. The idea of being able to wake up in the morning and not feel like you’ve been pummeled with a baseball bat is more than a little appealing. I have noticed a change in the symptoms but they’re not entirely gone. We’ll see how that goes.

As I said, I don’t hate the weight loss benefit as well. My birthday is in a couple of months and I have tickets to see Wicked that night. Since it will be my birthday and I will need to look fabulous, I have decided that the above dress will be my outfit for that evening. What do we think?

Best Benediction EVER January 21, 2009

Dumbass of the Day January 21, 2009

Yeah, yeah, I know. All posts today are supposed to be all hopey and changey. I’ll get to that. I read this story today and HAD to say something. I’m always amazed at sex offenders because for some reason they always think that they are the ones who won’t get caught. I don’t watch the To Catch A Predator show, but they show clips on The Soup enough that I get the gist. This story isn’t just about any sex offender – this is the MAYOR of Racine, Wisconsin. (if Racine sounds familiar, you’re thinking of A League of Their Own. The Peaches.) If you don’t feel like reading the whole sordid story, I’ll sum it up for you.

1. Dude asks gov’t employees to take a look at his PERSONAL computer b/c it is acting up. There’s PORN on it – pictures involving underage girls. The repair guys report him and an investigation is begun.

2. He begins chatting online with someone he believes to be an underage girl. Turns out, it’s the investigators setting him up.

3. He agrees to meet the girl AT A LOCAL MALL where he promises to buy her lingerie and then take her to a hotel “for a good time.”

4. He is caught, ummm…, red handed at said local mall.

How does the MAYOR of a town think he can ANONYMOUSLY go to a LOCAL MALL and be seen buying LINGERIE for a TEENAGER and NOT GET CAUGHT. Unbelievable. I hope the book is thrown at this d-bag.

Racine, Wis., mayor resigns after sex-sting arrest

Print By GRETCHEN EHLKE, Associated Press Writer Gretchen Ehlke, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 20, 2:11 pm ET MILWAUKEE –

The mayor of Racine, Wis., resigned on Tuesday, days after being accused of trying to arrange a sexual encounter with someone he thought was an underage girl. Mayor Gary Becker resigned, effective 5 p.m. Tuesday, in a one-sentence letter that made no reference to the six felonies he faces. His attorney, Patrick Cafferty, said Becker decided to resign because “it was in the best interest of everyone involved.” He said his client intends to plead not guilty to all charges during a Feb. 10 arraignment in Racine County Circuit Court.

The City Council had planned to meet Tuesday night to begin the process of removing Becker from office in Racine, about 20 miles south of Milwaukee. Instead, the council’s president, David Maack, said it will meet soon to decide whether to hold a special election or appoint someone to serve as mayor for the roughly two years left in Becker’s term. “I think it will allow us to move forward as a city and a council. We won’t have this whole removal process hanging over our heads,” said Maack, who had called for Becker’s resignation. Becker, 51, was arrested Jan. 13 at a suburban Milwaukee mall following a two-week investigation by the state Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation. After chatting online with a state agent posing as a 14-year-old girl, Becker went to the mall to meet the girl and buy lingerie for her, according to a criminal complaint. During the chat, he offered to take her to a hotel to “have lots of fun,” the complaint said. The investigation started last month after Becker asked city workers to help him fix a problem with his personal computer. Police said the computer technician found six pornographic images of what appeared to be underage females and alerted authorities. Police passed the case on to state investigators to avoid a conflict of interest. Investigators who searched Becker’s computer found records of 1,800 sexually explicit chats, District Attorney Michael Nieskes said.

Becker, who is married and has two children, is charged with attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child under 16, possession of child pornography, child enticement, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, attempt exposing a child to harmful material and misconduct in office. The charges carry a maximum penalty of more than 114 years in prison and $370,000 in fines.

25 Things January 11, 2009

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. (Just find “notes” in your applications on fb and create a new note. Cut and paste this paragraph and add your 25 things) You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you. Or I want you to know more about me. Something like that.

1. Someday I hope to own one pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. I know it’s completely ridiculous to pay that much for shoes, but my gosh they’re beautiful.

2. I can’t stand when people don’t put things back the way they found them, fill things up when they empty them or replace things if they’ve borrowed them. It’s basic kindergarten rules, people!

3. I want to one day be a lounge singer.

4. If I could go back to college, I would have been less afraid of failure and pursued a music degree.

5. I love LOVE living in San Francisco and wouldn’t live anywhere else if I could help it.

6. I am WAY too much of a fixer.

7. Coffee is my day’s greatest pleasure. When I drink the last drop in the morning it makes me incredibly sad.

8. I wish I had a food processor.

9. I have a goal of simplifying and generally doing fewer things better.

10. This is the year of travelling for pleasure, if at all. No conferences, no business, if it can be helped.

11. I get a fiendish delight from ignoring friend requests from people on facebook with whom I was never actually friends.

12. I really enjoy entertaining in my home. I want to have more people over to dinner and soon.

13. I over-think EVERYTHING.

14. I believe in miracles.

15. I am a slow, internal processor of emotional information and half the time I have no idea what I feel about anything.

16. I’m always so sad when football season ends, particularly because baseball season is next and I LOATHE baseball.

17. Good music makes me really, really happy.

18. I would love to learn more about wine.

19. I love breakfast meats.

20. Someday I want to go to the Sundance Film Festival

21. I absolutely hate craft stores.

22. I’m an INTJ.

23. I’ve worked in churches or para-church organizations in some capacity almost continually since I was 18. I have been screwed over in almost every single one of them. I’ve decided to stop letting that happen. Better late than never.

24. I hate when singers breathe in the middle of words.

25. Playing with my niece and nephew is my happy place.

Update on the current state of my happiness January 8, 2009

I’m at 5 out of a possible 5 J, today’s long training session notwithstanding.

 

iPod played Pour Some Sugar On Me, Living On A Prayer, and Tony Bennett’s The Way You Look Tonight ALL IN A ROW!!!

 

My iphone just arrived and is charging. I am now officially part of the cult.

 

I get to have sinfully delicious soul food for dinner @ the Hard Knox w/ the MBCC Staff.

New Year, yada yada January 1, 2009

Apparently everyone is supposed to post about their reflections from last year and hopes for the next year. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just don’t have any. Last year was fine. Not bad, not great, just fine. It’s been a blur of work, travel and friendships, most of which have been good. This year I’m anticipating more of the same.

I am going to be doing a little observation to see if going to a party on NYE and eating black-eyed peas makes a difference in the quality of my year. I never do that and this year I did, so let’s see what happens. I have to say, it was the perfect party. The food was excellent, the company was delightful, and the crowd was exactly the right size. Really a joy. These are people with whom I want to spend more of the year, and I think that I may have gotten plans to go whale watching out of it.

I over-analyze and over-reflect all throughout the year, so I don’t see a need for special-edition reflection today particularly. If anything, I should give my brain a break, except that I have  sermon to write for Sunday.