This week, Ashley and I talked about:
So it’s been two weeks since I’ve done a roundup for y’all. What can I say? This summer his kicked my hiney. Between the heat and the kids and the chores and Leif’s crazy work schedule … sometimes not everything gets done. Like the laundry. But that’s another story for another day.
So go click my links (my editors like web traffic, yo!) and maybe even give my articles a glance. You might even learn something! I know I did writing them.
Just after Governor Rick Perry announced his run for the presidency, I wrote about his jobs record in Texas. Spoiler alert: It’s better than Obama’s.
I wrote about the truth behind those ‘budget cuts’ we keep hearing about. They aren’t cuts at all. They’re an increase in spending. Only in Washington … sigh.
I never thought about this problem before, but how do women get bras in Saudi Arabia? They’re not allowed to work, and men aren’t allowed to fit them. My breasts salute America!
We need Social Security reform. The Ponzi scheme is going to collapse, and soon.
In Idaho, a man is being prosecuted for killing a grizzly bear that was on his property. The bear was approaching his family, which includes six children, aged 10 months to 14 years. Bottom line: People > Bears.
Environmentalists are now going after our clean clothes. Leave my fabric softener alone!
Happy reading!
So this is late. I try to post these weekly round-ups on Sunday or Monday, depending on how my weekend goes, and it is now Wednesday night. So late on Wednesday night, in fact, that’s it’s actually Thursday morning on the East coast. What can I say? It’s summertime, which in Mom World is crazytime. The kids are home all day long. They are hungry all day long. They are bored all day long. Actually, kids in my house are never bored, or at least they never voice it, because if they do, they find themselves staring at toilet with a scrub brush in their hand. Nothing cures boredom quite like scrubbing a toilet!
And that’s the kind of mom I am. Interestingly, I just got off the phone with a single girlfriend, with whom I shared a story from the beach today. One of my kiddos was carelessly kicking sand on people, and needed to be corrected. “See?” She said, “This is why I can never have kids. I’d probably kick sand on them and ask, ‘How does that feel?’”
“Um … what do you think I did?”
And that’s the kind of mom I am. The kind of mom whose kids don’t carelessly kick sand on other people.
Anyway, I wrote some stuff last week! And you should totally click on it and maybe even read it. Otherwise you might find yourself staring a toilet with a scrub brush in your hand.
President Obama gave a little speech about the debt limit. It was riddled with blatant untruths. I narrowed down the top nine.
Speaking of President Obama, do you know that he signed a bill that authorized $50 million of your hard-earned money to put guns in the hands of dangerous Mexican drug lords? Because he totally did. Oh, and Attorney General Eric Holder lied about it.
I also mocked global warming scare tactics and possibly polar bears. Because polar bears would totally eat me, given the chance.
Happy reading!
Yesterday we met up with Jon and Angela Gabriel and their two lovely daughters at the San Diego Zoo. It was mega fun, and their seven-year-old declared that she wanted to take Thing 2 home with her for a sister. It was tres adorbs.
One of the must-sees on the girls’ list was the Polar Bear Plunge. Their nine-year-old is a bit of a nature buff, and she really wanted to see the polar bears. The Gabriels live near Phoenix, so it’s not like she’s going to be seeing them there. We made the trek, stopping along the way to check out giraffes and zebras and brokeback camels.
Giraffe
Zebra
Brokeback Camel (See? I wasn't joking.)
We finally made it to the polar bears. Who were MIA. The zookeeper told Angela that if she spotted one, she was ahead of him. Sigh. But the exhibit is still pretty cool (get it? Cool? Polar bears? Ice? Never mind.), so the girls all had fun.
And of course I had to roll my eyes at this:
Commence eye-roll now
That other station to their left? Here’s what that one said:
"Polar bears had to wait longer than ever to set out to hunt, getting thinner as they waited."
Poor thin dead polar bears. I know! Let’s scare children into thinking they’re killing cuddly fuzzy wittle teddy bears by not living the green life.
I’m sure that won’t financially benefit Al Gore at all.
Thing 1 was concerned about the ice melting. “But what about the polar bears?” She asked me.
“They’ll adapt,” I told her.
“But what if they don’t?”
“Then they won’t. But wouldn’t you try your hardest to survive if your environment changed?”
She nodded.
Then she asked if we could go in the sky buckets.
She’s ADH-oh shiny!
What happens without proper auto maintenance.
Inflate your tires to the proper levels. When your tires are properly inflated, you will get better mileage and therefore save money buy having to purchase less $4/gallon gasoline. Plus you’ll be saving America from spending money on foreign oil AND you’ll be saving the planet, because there’s nothing polar bears hate more than gasoline fumes.
Hahahaha! Sometimes I really crack myself up.
But seriously, proper auto maintenance is key to keeping your finances in order. Without regular oil changes and tune-ups, your car will end up needing some major (and expensive) repairs. It’s not a gamble — it’s a certainty. Your vehicle is a complicated piece of machinery, and it needs clean oil and filters and regular inspections to avoid running into big problems like your head gasket busting. I don’t even know what that means, except that it happened to me once when I was 17 and stoopid and didn’t think to keep an eye on the engine temp gauge.
Which reminds me … keep an eye on your dashboard indicators! First of all, make sure you’re not breaking the speed limit, because tickets are expensive, and you can’t always talk your way out of them. Also look at the ones having to do with engine temperature. If it goes over into the red Danger Zone, for the love of your car, pull over, Silly! Then whip out your cell phone and call AAA or someone that knows more about engines than you do and ask them what you should do.
Another easy way to save money in the garage is to wash your car yourself. Duh, doing anything yourself is cheaper than paying someone else to do it – it only costs elbow grease. If you have kids, put them to work. They want a ride to soccer practice? They can contribute by helping sudsing up the taxicab minivan. All’s fair in love and war, and parenthood is definitely both.
When you do take your car in, do a little bit of research first. Google your car’s make and model and find out what some common repairs are and what you can expect to pay. Fifteen minutes online could save you hundreds at the mechanics. There is a TON of information out there, and in this case, knowledge is money saved.
I would love to hear more money-saving tips for cars – leave ‘em in the comments if you have some.
Update: Flyover Country has some great suggestions, inspired by this post. I inspire people! Who knew? Click here.
In which I rant about the need to discuss Wiener’s wiener and about why and what we’re sacrificing to afford high gas prices.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
With Arizona’s controversial immigration lawpotentially headed for the Supreme Court, the state has decided to take safety precautions against drug runners, kidnappers, andmurderers into its own hands. SB 1070 lost an appeal last month to reverse a lower court’s order preventing key provisions of the immigration law from being enforced.
The federal government won’t do its job of cracking down on illegal immigration in Arizona, so Arizona tried to tackle the problem itself. Then, like a nanny scolding a toddler for getting too big for his britches, Uncle Sam wagged his finger and shook his head before gorging on bonbons paid for by the taxpayers (aka working people).
Sorry, Arizona, you’re SOL.
Not Arizona! Oh no. Arizonians have had enough phooeying around, and are probably pretty sick of being called racists because they want to keep criminals from tromping through their backyards. They’re probably also sick of the litter. That stuff’s gross, and it’s expensive to clean up.
Read the rest at The Stir
Gas prices suck. They are through the roof, and since most of the goods that we purchase rely on transportation to get them to us, the cost of everything is increasing. Due to the fact that I took two economics classes in college, I understand that this is due to supply and demand.
The supply of oil (relative to the demand) has dwindled; therefore the cost of it has gone up. Since the United States is sitting onvast untapped oil reserves, it would only make sense that we tap those. It could take up to ten years for us to see that oil in production, which causes many people to overlook our own resources as a potential solution to our supply problems.
Too bad our politicians thought that would take too long in 1996.That oil would be in our cars at this moment, and maybe gas wouldn’t cost over $4 a gallon.
Instead of trying to fix the supply and demand problem with more supply, the government seems keen on lessening our demand. The latest idea out of the Department of Transportation is to levy a tax on everyone based on the number of miles that they drive.
Read the rest at The Stir
Washington State has spent a lot of effort over the past few years enticing people to buy electric cars over old school gas-guzzlers. In addition to a tax incentive from the federal government, the state has exempted sales tax on the purchase of electric vehicles. In other words, it’s a great deal to buy a car that uses less gas.
People buy hybrid or electric cars for one of two reasons: To save money or to appear cool. People that actually want to save the planet ride bikes, not drive coal-powered cars.
To the hipsters, a tax on electric vehicles might not be a huge issue. These people might even feel that paying higher taxes for the privilege of driving a Prius makes them even cooler.
Read the rest at The Stir
I just filled up my gas tank and I didn’t want to cry — I actually did cry. At $4 per gallon, it cost me nearly a c-note to fill up my mid-size SUV. That’s not for the fancy high-octane stuff either; we’re talking regular unleaded.
We don’t have room in our budget to increase the amount of money we spend on gas, so this means we’ll be doing a lot less driving. Fewer trips to visit friends in neighboring cities, no running back to the store for that one thing we forgot, and definitely no drives through the countryside.
I’ve had to do a lot of economizing in the kitchen too, as the price of food has been going up and up. The First Lady likes to tout the benefits of organic rabbit food (which, by the way, children would rather throw away than eat), but she’s not the one trying to pay for it on a modest salary.
Organic farming is much more expensive than farming with pesticides. Without pesticides, there’s nothing to kill the hungry bugs in the fields, which means that actual people need to be employed to keep the produce from being chomped to the vine by the creepy-crawlers. Employing people to care for the plants in organic farms is much more expensive than hiring a crop-duster once or twice a season.
Unfortunately, it’s not just the cost of organic food, but all food that has climbed in recent months and years. In fact, food prices rose more last month than they have in 36 years.
Read the rest at The Stir
