Of Historical Note
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George W. Bush likes to talk about how Americans thought the Atlantic and Pacific oceans kept us "safe" from the rest of the world; and how September 11th was the first time the main body of America had been attacked.
Or, to use his wording:

"And, yet, here you are graduating from high school, the first high school class to ever have seen the 48 contiguous states attacked by an enemy."
-Eden Prairie High School, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Mar. 4, 2002

He has consistently stated that the continental United States had never been attacked prior to September 11th.

I guess he learned all of American history from Schoolhouse Rock; although I think he forgot about the Three Ring Government.

I learned American history from teachers, encyclopedias, and historical novels, and even this song. Because when you're a little kid, listening to the Oldies station with your mom; you can't help but remember a verse like this:
"Well, we fired our cannon til the barrel melted down,
so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind,
and when they tetched the powder off, the gator lost his mind."

Which segue's nicely into The War Of 1812, since that's what the song is about.

On June 18th, 1812; the U.S. declared war on the British-held Canadian provinces. Britain was busy dealing with Napoleon, and the U.S. figured this was a good time to get rid of any and all British presence in North America.
We failed miserably.

But here are some things that the President of the United States ought to know:
*Our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner; was inspired by a battle during the War of 1812.
*The British conquered Maine. All of Maine. Took the whole province away from us.
*The British strolled into Washington, D.C. and burned down the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Library of Congress, the United States Treasury, the Washington Naval Yard, the U.S. Patent Office, and... Oh yeah, THE WHITE HOUSE.

I would say that constitutes an attack on the contiguous 48 states. George Bush lives in the White House, but he can't remember that invading forces looted the place, burned the contents in a pile on the street, and burned the building itself?
I'm sure there's a historical plaque somewhere.

If he would bother to read it, he could improve his speeches by a significant amount. He could (1) appear educated, (2) look like he cares, and (3) show some genuine patriotism.
He could talk about how Dolly Madison (the First Lady, not the bakery) stood her ground in a burning city, saving as many historical items as she could. How (like those brave firefighters on September 11th, blah,blah,blah) she stayed and did what she could after even her bodyguards had taken off. He could talk about how former President Thomas Jefferson gave his personal library to restock the Library of Congress after the war had ended. How brave citizens rallied around the city and defended it from further incursions. And how, after that significant event; Americans repelled every incursion...

But no. He prefers to forget that there was ever an attack on "Uh-mare-can" soil prior to 2001.

Apology
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I owe someone an apology, but I don't know who. So here it is:

To the person in the expensive navy blue car on the 55/270 interchange at 7:15 am this morning; I'm sorry.

You couldn't possibly have known that my turn signal meant that I wanted to move over a lane, even though the lane I was in ended in a quarter of a mile. You couldn't possibly have understood how mass + speed = velocity; otherwise you wouldn't have jumped into the car-lengths I was leaving for the 18 wheeled tractor trailer in the lane I was signalling for.

But really, I don't know why you then sped up enough to sit in my blind spot. That was just dumb. If you had been driving an economy car, I wouldn't have seen you at all. Fortunately for you, I could see 25% of your mid-sized sedan grill in my mirror.

As for why you cut across 3 lanes of traffic without using your turn signal, causing the cars you were cutting off to slam on their brakes ... I assume you were trying to get away from me.

Which leads to my apology. I'm sorry I was an ass. I'm sorry for planting my driver's side wheels directly on the yellow lane stripes and putting less than a foot between our respective vehicles. It was wrong of me to use my truck as an intimidation tool. Just because I *have* power, doesn't mean I should use it.

Wow
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Thank you for the replies! I just re-red my post, and it sure sounds self-pitying. That wasn't my intent. :) I was sad and frustrated; and I *was* crying -but not out of self pity.

No Work For You!
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Sigh. I did not get the job. The other applicants were more qualified, typed faster, had better resume's, etc. And I'm crying at my computer because I really need a job and it's so hard to even get consideration because I've been a stay-home mom for 15 years.

I'm sad.

Finally A Photo
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the scarf

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I had some trouble uploading the pic; and I'm farther along now. This was taken last weekend. Note the very crooked stitches.

Well, it's my first attempt at stranded knitting. I'm getting better.

What A Morning!
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Today is report card day, so L has a half day of school. The plan was to drop him off, drive to Borders with my knitting, knit and drink coffee for 3 1/2 hours, then retrieve my son. I was out of bed early. We were out of the house somewhat early.

And I had a flat tire.

So I rushed into the house, woke the hubby-man, called the school on my cell phone, saw L off with Dad, drove to 7-11 to pay 50 cents to air up the tire, and drove to I-55 Phillips to get the tire fixed.

Fifteen minutes and fifteen dollars later, I grabbed the cell phone to tell the hubby-man about the sheet-metal screw that was imbedded in the tire; only to discover that I was still on the phone with CBC.

I hadn't hung up. And their voice mail system didn't hang up either. Poor Liz now has 45 minutes of The Sounds From Inside My Purse on her voicemail.
*giggle*
Including such high points as "the credit or debit? conversation" and "What the heck caused the flat?"
There's probably some cussing from the mechanic over my stick shift truck and how my seat is too far forward for his long legs.
I wish I could hear that. :)

*UPDATE*
The hubby-man, King of all things trafficky; got L to school on time!

Finally
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I finally buckled down and added some knitblogs to my side bar.
I don't want to hear any complaining, either. I avoided the mommyblog trend. I avoided the daddyblog trend, too. I never listed a long string of polit-blogs, even though I read quite a few. So y'all will just have to deal with the knitblogs :P

In other news, the hubby-man has had a cold all weekend, so I haven't gotten very far on the scarf. I *did* however, find the battery charger. So I should have some progress pics tonight.

Then I Just Sighed
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I took the time to look up stranded knitting, so I could learn how to do it properly. Then I picked up my genome scarf and set to work with my new skills.

2 rows later, I spilled my cup of coffee on the pattern sheet.

Then I just sighed and sadly took the now soggy -yet colorful- sheet to the trash.
I need a shoulder to cry on. Maybe I'll knit myself one when I'm done with the scarf and the Victorian Lace Shawl from Elann.

Well, I needed to print out the third pattern sheet anyway.

The Secret Scarf
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My inner geek is ready to come out of the closet.
I dug through the Human Genome Project and found the MCR1 gene on the 16th chromosome. I dug deeper and found the variances that cause red hair.
I copied the code.
I converted it to a color chart.
I wrote my first ever pattern.
I'm knitting a gene...
And I'm not alone!

I shared the pattern with others on the Knitty board, and hopefully, they'll be knitting the redhead gene with me!

Coffee
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I was making a pot of coffee this morning, like I do most every morning; and my mind wandered to the job interview I had this week. After the interview, my potential supervisor commented that coffee was her weakness. I replied that I'm a coffee snob.
We discussed Kona, and how the fine notes of Jamaican Blue Mountain can be ruined by bad roasting.

(Shh... Don't tell, but I don't think Blue Mountain is all that special. Although, I have a preference for African beans, so I'm biased.)

One of my duties will be to refill the air pots, and I thought up a series of questions to ask on my first day:

1. Can I keep my favorite creamer at work?
2. How big is their biggest corporate logo coffee cup?
3. If it's not big enough, can I bring my CBC coffee cup?
4. If I provide a spare air pot, can I share my special blend with all and sundry?