Obama is Not Paying Attention...

The Hill quotes Obama pressman Jay Carney who says that Obama isn't paying any attention to Palin's bus tour:

"I don’t think he's paying much attention to that," he told reporters during his daily briefing.

Sort of reminds me of how he also wasn't paying any attention to the Tea Party.  

The man needs to learn from his mistakes.

(H/T:  Memeorandum)

What Does This Video Tell You About Herman Cain?

Watch this new Herman Cain video.  Assuming you don't know much about him (well, many don't!), would this video make you want to vote for him or not, and why?

Rush and the Double Entendre

Rush Limbaugh says Weiner-Gate is "hard to swallow."  Oh my.

You know he had to say something.  He says he's befuddled by the whole thing because he simply doesn't tweet. 

"What if as the girl claims Weiner has 'a small problem'"?

"Is he giving his constituents the shaft?"

Oh my.

Update:

Rush says he wasn't up to date on Weiner-Gate until today.  "It does not warrant top of the program interest to me."

"When you have the mindset that they're all depraved, it's not news to me...I don't have time to be distracted like this."

True enough.

Sarah Palin Drives the Media

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin is driving the media crazy and she gets props for that from me.  As she takes her bus tour around the country, the media is feeling slighted because she isn't keeping them informed or talking to them.  She only talked to us for three minutes!  screams this NYT piece.   The New York Times notes:

It was a surreal situation given the fact that Ms. Palin and her advisers had shown an almost complete contempt for the press corps and its usual rituals. But the grumbling among the press corps notwithstanding, reporters and camera crews continued to follow her across three states and hundreds of miles over the long holiday weekend.

Why should she have anything but contempt for the press corps when that's all they've ever held for her?  Because she's a candidate?  She's not.  Not so far as we know, anyway.  Why should she make herself available to them?  Because she might run for president?

MSNBC pouts that Palin was a "no-show" at the Gettysburg battlefield, even though, as others have noted, she never announced plans to go there:

Palin was a no-show for several hundred supporters, celebrity-watchers and media who turned out in hopes of seeing her at the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg on Monday. She and her entourage arrived at a hotel outside the town late in the day and spoke to a smaller group of people gathered there.

A non-story.  But for a non-story, it's at the top of Memeorandum.  Palin's travels are all over Twitter (even with its own hashtag: #wherespalin).  Savvy political move or just a family vacation?

The only thing that is certain right now is that Palin is in a big, bright bus traveling the country with her family.   The press is hovering because they are consumed with Palin and there might be a story if she decides to announce along the way.  If she decides to announce her candidacy in the 2012 race they all want to be there.

And why is that?

Round No. 70

This screen shot from Drudge just says it all.  Is it just me, or do you get the feeling that the whole laying of the wreath thing today was just obligatory?

I sometimes criticize my mom for being a "snob," because she used to dismiss people as "common" or "low-class" when they didn't observe the proper decorum or code of respect she thought a situation warranted.  I now understand what she meant.

Memorial Day 2011

We've had a quiet and relaxing Memorial Day here at SIGIS.  As it should be.

I went to my mom's this morning, took her a hamburger I grilled yesterday so she'd have something to eat today, and did her bookkeeping.  She was pretty emotional today and was remembering those friends of hers who aren't here any more.  I reminded her that Steve and I were doing the cemetery thing today and would leave a flag at my dad's grave and at my godfather's grave.  She got all choked up.  It's hard for her being shut in like she is. 

Steve and I went first to the cemetery where my dad is and left a little flag.  He served in WWII and was a flight instructor.  There's a family tombstone, but his particular marker is on a slope and we have to dig it out every time we go.  One of these days I'm going to get industrious and do some landscaping to stop that.

Dad doesn't like for me to linger in cemeteries and would kick my ass for even going in the first place (he wasn't much for that sort of thing.)  We cleaned the marker off, set the flag, set one for my grandfather (he was in WWI) and off we went.

We headed on over to Greenwood Cemetery where the annual Memorial Day service was to be held.  Attendance was about the same as last year...I was hoping there would be more people.

The temperature hit 93 today so it was hot out there.  The service lasts about 40 minutes:  there was a speaker who gave brief remarks, Parkway High School AFJROTC participated by doing the presentation of colors, a flag folding ceremony, and escorting the various veterans groups, organizations and auxiliaries as they lay wreaths. 

I made my annual stop by the graves of Bose F. Kelley and his brother William. I wrote about them previously, here.  I hope their story is preserved somewhere.  The Times mentioned them in their write up today, here.

There are always flowers at those graves.  Always.

The service was lovely.  The Sons of the Confederacy group was there as they were last year:



We headed home and fired up the grill:

And after dinner, sipping on a Spaten Dunkel:

There's probably a rule about drinking Spaten out of a Sam Adams glass, but it's okay.  It's all good.

And so it goes.

Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: The Memorial Day 2011 Edition

We're spending Memorial Day quietly this year.  I'm tending to some things around the house and we'll go to the service at Greenwood Cemetery at 2.  Then we'll come home, grill, and catch some events on television, I suppose.  It's been a couple of weeks since I've done a round-up and so I think I'm overdue for that.  As summer rolls on and I get back to regular business here at SIGIS, hopefully posts and round-ups will get back to normal schedule!

Let's see what folks are covering this week:

I want to start with No Sheeples Here and her Troopathon post because it is such an important cause.  Please be sure to check that out.

Memorial Day posts abound.  Pundette has her annual Medal of Honor post.  The Pirate's Cove has a Memorial Day Pin-up. SWAC Girl has a poem.  Obi's Sister has video.  Michelle Malkin has a fabulous, link-filled post.  Pecan Corner has a lovely tribute.  Reaganite Republican has Reagan's 1984 Memorial Day speech.  My Bossier notes the day.

Speculation about 2012 is heating up and who will win the Republican nomination.  So many of us (myself included) are unhappy with the field so far.  And now David Brooks has put the kiss of death on Pawlenty.  I mean, an endorsement from David Brooks?  Really?  The Other McCain weighs in and Pundette confirms. 

In fact, as far as 2012 goes, Professor Jacobson lays it out quite clearly.

The Pirate's Cove notesDebbie Wasserman Schultz's buffoonery with regard to illegal immigration.

Paco celebrates spring.

Someone needs to teach Obama some church manners.  Doug Ross has the video.

WeinerGate is all over the blogs but the most complete coverage, as always, belongs to The Other McCain who will bring you totally up to speed and beyond.  Camp of the Saints rounds up coverage.

Another Black Conservative picked up on Mitch Daniels's comment this week that he "could have beaten" Obama.  No, it's not just you, ABC: it's IS cheap talk.  If you can do it, Mitch, then do it.

Jim Brown explains how states like Louisiana can be players in the 2012 election.

Wyblog got linked by The Huffington Post.  Is that a good thing?

Grandpa John has a little compilation of Michelle Obama's rough fashion week.

Short 'n Sweet, but I've got to get my day rolling.  Take time to remember and be thankful today.  It's more than just a Bar-B-Que day!

Take a Memorial Day Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden

On this long weekend, Steve and I decided on the spur of the moment to take a trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden yesterday.  We'd only been a couple of weeks before so this visit was a little unscheduled for us, but it was so worth it.  One of my goals was to take a lot of pictures to replace the photos I had lost when my computer got sick last week.  I all of a sudden didn't have any pictures to use when updating Milly's Facebook page.

She had added lots of things since our last visit and while I was still focused on glassware (last time it seems that's all I was able to see...), I tried to look around with a new eye and see things I hadn't noticed before.  Milly rearranges stuff all the time and so even though you may just notice something for the first time, it's probably been there for a year. There's just so much to see it's almost overwhelming.

The shop was super busy yesterday.  In fact, I hardly had a chance to visit with Milly much because she was so busy tending to customers.   One of the things that walked out the door yesterday was that cool tabletop jukebox that I admired.  I loved that thing.

I've posted a picture like this before, but this tray of stoppers and lids continues to fascinate me.  There are two trays filled with these things sitting there.  It's great if you've got something that needs a lid or a stopper and the original was lost or broken:

Under the counters that run the length of the building on one side are these shelves that hold all types of lighting essentials.  I keep digging through these trying to find some that will work in my dining room.  My chandelier needs five glass shades and I can only find sets of four in the ones I seem to like:

And speaking of lighting, how cool is this old outdoor fixture?!  I love the beveled glass.  It's a perfect fixer-upper project!  I can just see Mike Wolfe from American Pickers picking this up and declaring it "a GREAT piece!":

There are zillions of VHS and DVD movies on the second floor; all the Disney movies seem to be there:

Need something to wear to your next PETA meeting?  Some full-length red fox, maybe?

The stairs leading to the third floor:

How about these funky table lamps?!  There are two of them.  From the 70s?

Speaking of funky furniture, what would you do with this one?

And chairs...oh my lord.  Chairs all over the third floor:

And trunks...there must be eight trunks up there:

From my new study of glassware I was able to identify these Anchor-Hocking Bubble pattern plates right off!

These "Twelve Days of Christmas" plates are adorable:

I also liked these "Mother's Day" and "Father's Day" plates from Norway:

Need a sax?  I guess that's a saxophone.  I'm not up on my musical instruments.  It's cool, though.

I love looking through these old pictures.  I know it's crazy because I don't know any of those people, but it's fun to look at them and just wonder.  There's one of these six young girls, teenagers probably, from the forties.  They're all wearing dresses or skirts and lined up one behind the other sort of at an angle, all with hand on hip, wind blowing, and laughing.  It's great.  There are also these old funeral cards in there with very maudlin pictures or drawings and information about the deceased.  There's one that looks sort of like this one but has an angel draped in sorrow over a tombstone.  (I think it's that black card behind the white pitcher, to the right).   I should photograph it next time.  Apparently they are quite collectible.

These bluebirds are pretty:

Vintage purses:

And vintage purses with gloves:

A pretty pink compote:

For the John Deere collectors, Milly has lots for you:

If you're decorating a "man-cave" and want old license plates, you can have your pick here.  An entire basket of old license plates from all over the country:

I really love this old smoking table but I have no idea what I'd do with it.

I'm channeling Mike Wolfe again with these mechanical toys:

In the linens area I thought this baby quilt was cute:

And I loved this tea towel:

For my friend Crystal, let me assure you that Mickey is all over this place:

 

...hiding in corners...

...and in the windows:

I'm thinking this chair could be a weekend fix-it-up project.  You could easily make a round seat cushion in whatever fabric and have an adorable chair for the kitchen or even a vanity.  I, however, am not crafty.

I'll stop here.  I'm holding some photos back for the Facebook page, so be sure to "Like" Second Hand Rose Antiques on Facebook.  Remember, give Milly a call at 318.371.9830) if you see something you need, or if you live close, drive on over.  She's there six days a week (closed on Sunday) and everything is always on sale! 

You can plan your trip to Webster Parish with the help of this Louisiana Life article (which mentions Milly's store, briefly.)

I'll leave you with possibly the strangest thing I saw yesterday.  A poodle pin.  It's furry.

 

Steve said it looks like "a dead chick."  It doesn't.  Really.  

Previous tours, here.

Memorial Day Events in Shreveport

Memorial Day weekend is, as we all know, about much more than a day off work and firing up the grill.  Last year Steve and I attended the Memorial Day service at Greenwood Cemetery and I lamented the low attendance at the event.  In case you're from around here and looking for a way to remember and observe the holiday, these are some options:

Today, Forest Park Cemetery (both locations) will have complimentary flags to place on the grave site of your veteran:

The cemetery grounds are open today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for family visitation, the celebration is from, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The staff at Forest Park Cemeteries are providing complimentary flags for placement on veteran grave sites as well as serving refreshments to all those in attendance.

The Shreveport Times has a listing of events including the annual "Wreath Casting on the Waters" at the American Legion Post on Cross Lake.  There are observances in Keithville, Oil City, and at Hillcrest.

The annual ceremony at Greenwood Cemetery will be at 2:00 Monday.  This was a very moving ceremony last year and Steve and I plan to make it an annual event.  We drove by there yesterday evening to see if flowers had already been left at the graves of the Kelley (brothers?) and they have.  I'm consumed with curiosity about those boys and would love to know their story.

Today, we're headed to Minden for the afternoon so I can do some photography for Milly's Facebook page.    Then it's back home for some overdue rest.  We'll take some time this weekend to remember and thank those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom and I hope you will, too!

Enjoy your weekend!

The Cabinet

We went to Coushatta today to pick up the china cabinet Steve bought for me last weekend.  His friend, Larry, came over in his truck and we all drove down there to get it.  Since our last visit it turns out that someone has come in this week and bought the entire inventory (the store is closing, remember) and so it seems my timing was perfect in finding this cabinet!

Steve and Larry wrapped the thing in blankets, wrestled it into the back of the truck, and we drove very carefully all the way home.  Because three sides are glass, and the door is bent glass, I was terrified.  But we made it safely and got it inside.

I've spent the afternoon cleaning and loading the thing.  First the Murphy's Oil Soap to to strip off any grime, then lots of Old English, inside and out.  That wood just soaked the oil up.  Every square centimeter got the oil treatment.  Then the glass.

Oh lord, the glass.  My OCD personality spent an hour cleaning the glass inside and out.  Trust me, there's not a single streak to be found.

Then I loaded it up.  Here we go before (in the shop):

and after:

As you can see, I haven't left a lot of room to grow and collect.  It's pretty full now.  In fact, I left out quite a bit.  I can squeeze in some things, but I don't want to over crowd. 

As I was cleaning the glass, Milly called.  I promised her we'd come to Minden tomorrow and see her new pretties and maybe pick up a little something to go in my cabinet.  Only four of those things in that cabinet now came from Milly's.  Most of the rest was inherited.  I have a pair of Stevens and Williams vases at my mother's that will go in here in a day or two.  I'm terrified to move them:

I'm looking forward to Milly's tomorrow; when my computer picked up that virus this week, I I lost all my shop photos.  Since I'm the admin for her Facebook page, I've got to get more photos! 

My work today is done and it's time for a beer. 

The Facts of Life

It is a little known fact of life that one cannot sort, purge, and clean one bookshelf in one's house without having to do all of them.  Every single shelf in the house.  Purge.  Sort.  Dust.  Clean.  Re shelve.

(I know, BoR, the Kindle is looking good right now.)

On The End of School and Classroom Discipline Measures

First day of summer vacation and I woke up at 7:30.  That's about three hours earlier than I planned.  But, it's two hours later than usual, so I guess it's okay.

I'm anxious to get rested up and return to regular blogging here.  As I get older I find it takes me longer to recover from the school year than it did when I was young and just out of the gate.  It will take me about a week to decompress and finally start to relax.  I will probably still check my school email four or five times a day for the next several days.

This year was harder than most on most of us at school for various reasons.  I want to post about it but I'd have to hold back so much information that it would be pointless, so I'll just stay quiet.  I'll just say that it was a variety of factors that made this year so difficult and the biggest problem, when you boil it all down, comes from people in Baton Rouge, or Washington even, who have never been in a classroom as a teacher trying to dictate how things should be run.  Some things should be left to the school level and to the principal who was hired to make those kind of determinations.

I'll give you one brief example so you know what I mean.  This year Louisiana schools went to a major/minor referral system.  It's all part of the new Positive Behavior Reinforcement program where you reward a kid for doing the right thing so he'll continue to do the right thing.  One of the intents of this system is to keep discipline referrals down and keep kids in class rather than suspended for things like uniform violations or classroom disruptions.

With the minor referral system, a student gets three minor referrals before he is written up on a major referral.  A minor referral requires no trip to the office, no contact with an administrator and no disciplinary action.  It's a slap on the wrist that says "Don't do it again and I'm going to warn you two more times."

So.  A student comes to class out of dress code three times before he gets action from the office.  Or he can sit in class and eat Hot Cheetos and drink a soda, in violation of your class rules, three times before anything happens.  Or any combination of these.  So on any minor referral it might be the same offense 3x or it might be two uniform issues and one time when he was disrupting class by talking to his friends instead of listening to you.

On the fourth minor, he gets a major and goes to the office.

Then the process starts all over again.  Three more minors.

The major referral process still stands for things like fighting or cussing out a teacher.

But you can see the potential for manipulating the system.  And from a student's point of view, there aren't any consequences for his bad behavior or disregard for the rules for quite some time.  When you have thirty kids in a class and you have to stop class to write up five minor referrals for no ID, two minor referrals for eating in class, one for that kid who is more interested in talking or sleeping rather than listening to the lesson, you can see the chaos that ensues.

Part of the PBS (positive behavior system) idea is that if you reward the student for NOT talking in class or for wearing his ID with an incentive (like school dollars he can spend in the school store on things like chips and candy that he can't eat in class) then he'll be more inclined to do the right thing.

This is what happens when liberals get too involved in education and in the operation of schools at building level.

Most kids are going to do the right thing and follow the rules simply because it's the right thing.

Anyway, this is just one of the things that has made this year such a challenge.  But, I'm not going to think about all that for 70 days. For the next 70 days I'm going to rejuvenate and enjoy my family and myself.  I'm going to read, poke in antique stores, visit Milly Rose often, work in the yard and  play with my dogs.  Steve and I will take day trips and I will blog my silly head off once again.  Tomorrow we are going back to Coushatta to pick up the china cabinet Steve bought for me which means today I have to empty a bookshelf and move it so I'll have room.  I have to wash my glassware that's going in to it and wash and press some antique linen that will go on the shelves.

I'll begin my decompression and recovery process and be right as rain in a day or two.

A Pox on All Computer Viruses

My laptop picked up a virus last night which wiped out all my desktop icons and my libraries.  I have no photos and no documents.  I did a System Restore after getting rid of the virus and got my icons back, but no libraries.  Tbe "Restore Default Libraries" did not do one thing for me.  So, after school today I'm dropping the thing off at Merlins because if anyone has a chance of restoring the contents of those folders, it will be them.  They may be gone forever, but he'll at least get me up and running again.

It's an expense I didn't need.

We're closing school this week.  Finals today and tomorrow and then the endless reams of paperwork and documentation begin.  We have inservice Wednesday and then I'm done.  It's been a hard year; many of us feel this year has been tougher than most.  Stakes are so much higher now.  And pressure.  It's been a combination of factors, but I'll absolutely sock the first person who comes up to me and says, "Oh what a cushy job you have!  You get the whole summer off!"  Ka-Pow!

Take a Trip to Ed Lester Farms and A Random Antique Stop

Ed Lester Farms in Coushatta is officially open for the season and we have made our first pilgrimage to stock up on fresh veggies.  Pickings were light today because it's still early yet, but we did make off with some sweet Armistead onions, some purple onions, fresh yellow squash, a handful of peaches, some blue lake snap beans and a big bag full of new potatoes.  For dinner I've got green beans and new potatoes already going on the stove!

They had some of the biggest collards you've ever seen, leeks, and bushels of pinto beans but I passed on those.

We'll go back down in a couple of weeks and they'll have some tomatoes ready and loads of other things.  From Shreveport it's only about a 35 minute drive.  Of course, it took us a little longer because we stopped to pick up some railroad spikes!

Long time readers will remember this post from last summer where we stopped on the way to Lester's and poked around the Galilee Baptist Church and the old Hutchinson store.  We discovered it's also a prime spot to pick up railroad spikes.  I drive them into the ground around my hydrangea bushes and they make the hydrangeas turn dark blue. 

Once our mission at Lester's was complete, we headed on into Coushatta to Bailey's Sandwich Shop which has, without a doubt, the best hamburgers ever.  While Steve placed our order and we waited, I wandered up and down the street.  Pretty much all that is in old downtown Coushatta is the Council on Aging at the old railroad depot.  Restaurants are shut down...

...as was most everything else.  Bailey's is open though, and does a steady business!  EVERYthing they have there is good.

I was taken by this stray dog that walked up.  I thought she was a beautiful dog, but she was terribly skittish and wouldn't come up to me.

I did end up sharing most of my burger and fries with her because she was so obviously hungry.  I'd toss a bit out to her and she stayed and ate with us, but when we were finished she returned to her scavenging.

I wish I could save every dog like that I find.  I'd have loved to bring her home and give her the love she needs, but I know my dogs wouldn't stand for it, and she, hopefully, belongs to someone around there.

We then embarked on a sort of "picking" mission for Milly and decided to check out Frankie and Johnny's Antiques in Coushatta.  My new glassware obsession was stoked by all the things I saw in there, but what they really had that I loved was furniture.  The fellow minding the store was very helpful and friendly; he told us that the owners are retiring and trying to close out the store by the end of July so lots of great deals were there to be had.

I fell in love with this old secretary - not a single nail in the whole piece:

This is what it looks like closed up:

There's a coffee table that matches it.  Lovely piece.

He was especially proud of this Johnson Brothers Friendly Village china:

Pretty glassware:

and depression glass:

and stemware:

I thought these pictures were neat:

How about green velvet chairs?

More glassware:

And even more glassware:

And more interesting furniture:

I fell in love with this piece:

And I thought this wooden bowl was interesting.  It's huge:

They had several pieces similar to this in various sizes and styles:

I liked the shop but there were no Boston Terrier shop dogs there was no Milly Rose to sing to us or regale us with crazy stories!  There was only one floor and not four, but did see some beautiful things and met some nice people.

We'll head back down to Coushatta in a couple of weeks to check out Lester's again.  This is what they are promising in the days ahead:

I can't wait!

Now, what am I going to do with all these railroad spikes?