The Shallow End

Holding Out For A Miracle

With McCain's latest "Panama Problem," could this possibly be the miracle for which Mike Huckabee has been holding out? If he can hold on long enough to gather more delegates than Mitt Romney, does he become the GOP nominee? Or can Mitt come back in at any time? Does McCain have the right to cast his delegates any which way he chooses? Wow. I don't think I saw any of this coming.

But all of this may be a moot point if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee. With the momentum he's been gathering, it seems a remote chance that any GOP candidate could defeat him. Unless, of course, the truth comes out. I think when all the campaign rhetoric ceases (but when will that happen?!), people will begin to see Obama for what he is...a better orator than the other candidates. Even as an orator, those who have had the benefit of listening to a good minister, pastor, rabbi, priest, motivational speaker, will find that he's really only mediocre at that. When Barrack actually gets around to unpacking his thoughts, that's when we'll realize how little experience he has, and just how naive he is, not to mention how Marxist* are his political beliefs. That's my opinion, of course. You're entitled to your own. But I fear for our nation. I really do. Whereas, I could get comfortable with McCain, the mere thought of Barrack Obama as President scares me a lot! I've never felt that strongly about a candidate before. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this shakes out. So much for my earlier prediction.

* Corrected...thanks, Beth ;-)

Labels: Politics

posted by Gwynne @ 8:06 AM 16 comments

An Example of Grace

I should have live blogged this on Sunday night, but I was so busy minding my own business (shameless self-promotion link) that all I could do was eavesdrop. I was sitting at a table in Starbucks, uploading photos and checking in on your blogs, including all video links (this link being one of the most riveting clips I've seen in a long time ;-). It stinks not having a high-speed connection at home and no, the free air time at Starbucks has not begun yet, but I was too lazy to pick up and go elsewhere by the time I realized this.

Anyway, the point of this post is that a cute young 20-year old college co-ed walked in with her text books. She ordered hot tea and sat down in one of the big cushy chairs near me. As she started studying, a paunchy, gravelly voiced, slovenly dressed, almost elderly man approached to sit in the big cushy chair next to her (I would later learn that he is only 62 which isn't elderly, but he was not a well cared for 62-year-old). I have to say that I pre-judged both of these people. I fully expected the "old" man to sit down, pick up a paper and generally mind his own business. I expected the 20-year old to steer clear of any engagement in conversation with the old man.

Instead, the old man pulled out his i-Phone (I know!) and started a conversation with her, starting out with "do you watch basketball?" "No, not really." Okay, fine, I thought. Conversation over, as he appeared to turn on his i-phone and watch basketball (at least that's what he implied he was doing). But no...

It continued...

Next ensued a long string of probing questions, starting out with "so, what do you do?" And when she responded with "...work, school and church activities..." he probed further..."where do you live?" (answer) "Where do you work?" (answer) "Where do you go to school?" (answer) Maybe it's my family's involvement in law enforcement, or too much Court TV, but I kept wanting to blurt out something to stop her from answering these questions ("don't answer that question! He might hunt you down and kill you!") And lastly, the one that led to an awkward exchange of their respective religious beliefs "where do you go to church?" (answer) She was raised in a charismatic, conservative, Bible based Christian environment and was homeschooled, while he has read the New Testament 8 times but doesn't attend church because the Bible says he doesn't have to, worships in his home, has some Christian friends, and finds the Bible uplifting...to which she kindly responded that it's one's relationship with God, not the Bible, that uplifts...it was like he was spewing out information intended to "prove" that he too was a Christian. From here, the conversation devolved. And while she was clearly trying to study, he kept on with the questions, and she never once said "enough already." She did mention a couple of times that she needed to get back to studying for her test tomorrow, to which he quieted for about 5 minutes before resuming again. I'm working from memory here, but the gist went as follows:

Him: Do you have a boyfriend?
Her: No, not right now.
Him: Why not?
Her: Maybe someday, but right now I'm busy with work and school.
Him: You're such a cute young petite thing. You should have a boyfriend.
Her: Thank you, that's a very nice thing to say.
Him: How old are you? Do you want to have kids? What are your beliefs on marriage? What will you do when you're done with school? Do you want to get married? And then back to the questions about her church...what church? what do they believe? yada, yada, yada
Her: (answer, answer, answer...every answer carefully worded so as to answer his questions honestly and without taking offense, engaging him in a real conversation about her beliefs, none of which he was really interested in and the conversation returned again to questions about relationships between men and women)
Him: This is the highlight of my weekend, talking to such a cute young petite 20-year old. You are so beautiful. Can I buy you a drink?
Her: That would be very nice. Thank you. (at which point, he went up to the counter and bribed the cute young barrista out of a cup of tea, for free)

Rather than shut him down with one word answers and returning to her textbooks at the very beginning, the way I would expect most co-eds would, with an attitude that she was too good to be bothered with an old man whose appearance was now starting to border on Predator, she completely engaged his conversation, accepted his compliments, praised him for the positive things that he said, ignored the creepy comments and even returned the favor of asking questions of him. Several times I wanted to jump in to rescue her from the now creepy old guy, but because she was handling herself so well, I let it play out.

By the end of the evening (and she did stay all evening rather than packing up early like I would have done, to retreat to a quiet spot), she had done little studying. As she packed up her bag, I fully expected him to trail her out and follow her home. I looked up at her as she walked past and whispered, "that was very gracious of you." She just smiled. Then I kept an eye on him to make sure nothing untoward happened. Contrary to my expectations, he did not trail her out but instead moved to a different table, closer to the barrista and started chatting it up with her. She too was very tolerant even though she was trying to work.

I wish I had it on tape. I know it doesn't play out on "screen" the way it did in real life, but I was truly wowed. It was very refreshing to see a young adult so wise and patient and mature. Maybe the world isn't in such a state of decay afterall. I would love to meet her parents.

Labels: Parenting, Starbucks, Theology

posted by Gwynne @ 8:05 AM 8 comments

I've Slit My Wrists

Although the gesture was mostly symbolic. I slit them (yes, both) crosswise on a file folder as I lifted up a stack of files to put in a box to carry home with me. I didn't draw much blood, but enough to warrant a little antibiotic ointment and a couple Spongebob bandages. Do you remember the story of the attorney who died from a paper cut? Yeah, well, that could be me. What a way to go. I told you this accounting stuff is dangerous.

Labels: An Accountant's Life

posted by Gwynne @ 10:05 AM 7 comments

If I Were A Bird

This came to me today, via e-mail. Given the results of my previous test, I thought this would be my bird of choice. 8-) Afterall, my name means something like Fair White One in some language that is not my own.

But seriously, isn't he (yes, "he," the boys are always the beautiful ones) gorgeous?!

Labels: The Animals

posted by Gwynne @ 5:41 PM 7 comments

I Am A Good Test Taker

How evil are you?

It appears that I answered the questions correctly anyway. ;-)

Via Jim, via Rachel

Labels: Quizzes and Memes

posted by Gwynne @ 2:36 PM 5 comments

Beware!

According to this report, there's a 48% chance that I will resort to eating my friends in a blizzard. I think it was the fact that I've never gone more than 24 hours without food. That, and I can outrun most of my friends. ;-)

48%


You've been warned.

Via those who are less hungry...Jim, Beth, and Jen (whose post title I love)

Labels: Quizzes and Memes

posted by Gwynne @ 12:23 AM 6 comments

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is the day that my dad was born and we will celebrate his birth this evening with a small family dinner and dessert (I sure hope there will be dessert...I may bake a cake, just to be sure).

For his birthday, I am really excited about giving him this. The original photo had significance because it was taken on a special trip my dad took last Fall to the Gallatin River in Montana, where they filmed A River Runs Through It. I also loved the composition of the photo and thought it would be perfect for a painting. After seeing a similar painting of a fly fisherman on Don's site, I inquired if it was still available. When he said it had been sold, I asked if he would consider doing a painting on commission and sent him the photo. I know it is difficult to do commission work because the artist never quite knows what the "patron" expects. My mom is a painter and frets every time she is asked to do a commission piece. But Don willingly took it on and the end result far exceeded my expectations! I think Dad is going to love it. He too is an artist (an architect and wood turner), so I know he will appreciate it.

Labels: Art, Family and friends

posted by Gwynne @ 1:31 PM 3 comments

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Labels: Project 52 (Weekly Random Photos of Life), The Animals

posted by Gwynne @ 10:52 AM 2 comments

Elementary, My Dear

I was going to remove the Blog Reading Level widget from my sidebar because I was becoming increasingly annoyed with its presence. But before wiping it out completely, I decided to check in and see if my more frequent postings had done anything to increase my reading level. And the answer is...a resounding "no." In fact, now it registers at the Elementary School level. *beaming with pride*

Labels: The Absurd

posted by Gwynne @ 3:38 PM 1 comments

Old Dogs, New Tricks (I'm Outta Here!)

I am a tax accountant. Given this, you might think that I could prepare a simple tax return. But no. We changed tax software this year (for the first time in over 10 years) and the transition has been rocky, especially for us "old dogs." I can no longer just "do it myself" when I need to make a quick change to get a tax return out the door. Not only do I no longer know the software inside out, but we also have new processes.

Now, a "quick change" goes something like this:

First I get the return for "final review." This means at least two people have had the file already, one to "prepare" the return and one to do a "technical review" to make sure errors were not made by the preparer and to help the preparer learn along the way. At a billing rate of $315 per hour, I'm not allowed to touch stuff anymore. I'm the one that talks to the client and helps solve problems and that's about it. We're supposed to let the young ones do the work ("training our successors" this is called), so I haven't been allowed to actually "prepare" returns for years now. Instead, someone new, straight out of college, usually prepares the simpler returns (although when it comes time to bill for the time it takes them to prepare "simple" returns, the agony presents itself to me in the form of "realization" goals wherein we are supposed to bill as much of our time as possible, but clearly we cannot bill for learning time...my goal is 85%...this is very difficult to achieve!). More experienced staff prepares the more difficult returns and a manager will do the "technical review." By the time it gets to me, it should be ready to go. But, if I catch something amiss (usually, this amounts to spelling errors...I figure this is often the only thing the client knows on his return and if he sees we've misspelled his name, he's going to assume the whole thing is wrong), I must use another document management program to enter my "review notes" and "route" the file back to the preparer electronically to make the change. Then, the preparer must route it back to me for final approval before I can route it to "assembly." Then, when I get it back from assembly and sign it, I must route it to my secretary for "delivery" (even if I will personally deliver the return). I am not, under any circumstances, allowed to mark the return as "complete" within this routing software, because that causes the whole system to blow up. I think any normal person can see that this whole process has become excessively tedious.

Of course, when things blow up, like when the IRS comes a knockin', I'm the one who has to take the heat. This year has been a doozie in terms of IRS audits. Fortunately, most have been resolved with fairly favorable consequences to the taxpayers, but they have not been without some serious challenges. For the love of all that is holy, SAVE your receipts people, and DO NOT MIX business with personal! Keep separate bank accounts and separate business and personal credit cards. Do NOT buy a multi-million dollar aircraft and claim that it is 100% business when you know it is not. Do NOT build a multi-million dollar home when your business, your sole source of income, is losing money. And lastly, be honest! I have zero tolerance for clients who want me to serve as the barricade between themselves and the IRS. Zero. <*/soapbox>

I think I've finally reached the pinnacle of my career, the point at which I can no longer do actual work or cope with problems like I used to. This is how I know it is time to "retire" and start something new, like basketweaving. I'd like to weave baskets. You know, make stuff. Real stuff, that people can use. As some people know, this is to be my last tax season. I'm going to try and hang on 'til the end, but it's proving to be very, very difficult.

Labels: An Accountant's Life

posted by Gwynne @ 12:31 AM 10 comments

I Am An American Typewriter

For lack of anything else in my life worth posting at the moment and for fear of not upholding my end of the "post almost every day" mantra, here's some filler...



And there's a lot of truth in this. One, I really miss the old typewriter days when midnight oil was spent using special typewriter erasers and later, special white out paper and later still, wearing out the correcting ribbon before the black ink ribbon ran out. And I do tend to the simplest, most classic of fonts when given a choice.

I am fascinated by the 1920s era when many self-exiled Americans lived in Europe. Some interesting literature, music and art came out of that period, but I don't have a lick of Hemingway memorized.

I do have several black and white photos integrated into my decor, but they are not of Paris.

I love using the word "davenport." My grandpa is the only person I know who ever used it on a daily basis. And that is what we called the couch whenever we were at his house. It sounds so "high society" to me. I don't use "haberdashery" but maybe I will now. I do use "hooligans" though, another word from Grandpa, usually prefaced by the words "a bunch of."

I've only recently discovered mojitos and wondered where have these been all my life? Rum mixed with lime juice and mint leaves. What's not to like? But I haven't developed the discriminating taste that would require that I send it back for re-mixing. Not yet anyway. ;-)

And I love, love, love summer hats and linen ensembles...

Exhibit B

So American Typewriter it is. What font are you?

Via Rachel, who is Comic Sans...poor thing. :-)

Labels: Quizzes and Memes

posted by Gwynne @ 7:53 PM 14 comments

And All Is Right With The World

Remember back in the olden days, when AT&T got too big for its britches and some government bureaucrats came in to bust them up? And then we got a bunch of Baby Bells (God helped those who sold off bits and pieces of those companies and needed to calculate their gain or loss for tax purposes by inventing the internet...or was it Al Gore? I've forgotten now...anyway, along came special basis calculators to help with the record keeping nightmare of tracking investment basis)? And then, remember how these step-children were micromanaged by the Justice Department? And then, maybe 20 years later, remember how AT&T started gobbling them all back up again, like a game of Pac-Man (it was all the rage back in the olden days...I realize this reference may now be lost on people who were not even born yet) and added all kinds of other services to its mega conglomerate of a company?

And NOW? AT&T is set to partner with Starbucks to provide free WI-FI in its stores! It's about bloody time! When a customer uses their Starbucks card, the customer will get 2 hours free and then begin paying after that...this is good marketing and a great business decision in my opinion. Starbucks will also partner with Apple to provide iTunes. What could be better than that?

It looks as if AT&T will once again rule the free world.

Labels: Capitalism, Starbucks

posted by Gwynne @ 12:41 PM 8 comments

IT Haiku

Labels: Fellow Bloggers, Poetry

posted by Gwynne @ 1:50 PM 6 comments

Mom Says I Have To Share

If I were a selfish person, I would not mention this. Instead I would bookmark this site and keep it all to myself. Of course, other people have already discovered it and in fact, led me to it, so I couldn't keep it my little secret for long. In the interest of playing fair and sharing a good thing, go visit Idle Minutes and then to the Ebay links he provides, to see his beautiful artwork.


I recently won two of Don's paintings (Lamar Hills and Grand Prismatic Spring). Unfortunately for Don, there wasn't a whole lot of competition, which is a shame (for him) because his work is worth a whole lot more than $4.95 (the minimum bid). From my perspective, I got two wonderful and very affordable original watercolor paintings (free shipping even!). The paintings just arrived today and I was thrilled when I opened them! They are even more beautiful in real life (and his photos are great). They are little gems (2" x 3"). Their small size makes them very easy to fit into any decor (personally, I buy art that I love and then work the decor around it...one must never, ever, buy art to match the sofa, always the other way around, but the problem is I am running out of wall space, so these are perfect in that respect).

The least I can do is offer up a little free advertising, even if it does lead to a bidding war. I'm currently bidding on Granny's Place. Come on over! :-)

Labels: Art, Fellow Bloggers

posted by Gwynne @ 1:04 AM 5 comments

Contest! Contest! Contest!

Someone (a Googler) asks, "who is the band in the Garmin Napoleon commercial?"

Because I am here for my readers.

Anyone know?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Labels: Quizzes

posted by Gwynne @ 8:42 PM 0 comments

Salt & The Fruit Tarts

I couldn't resist giving Sisiggy a plug for this post. Go. Meet the whole family. So cute. I especially like the photo of Salt at the dining table. Don't you think Salt & The Fruit Tarts would be a great band name? Or a drag-queen cabaret act?

Updated to add Janie's post also, to the list of Dogs Behaving Badly posts.

Labels: Fellow Bloggers, The Animals

posted by Gwynne @ 7:38 PM 2 comments

I Am A Moron

Ever since I began blogging, eons and eons ago (well, long enough that you would have thought I'd figure a few things out by now), I've wondered why Google and I could not be friends. It's not like I'm dying for strange Googlers to drop in or anything. It's just that when other people make fun of the search strings that land people on their sites, I wondered why 1) I couldn't even Google my own name and a whole string of text to find my own site, and 2) I couldn't see the search strings that folks may have used to get here. So I got to looking again at my Blogger settings and LO! There was an option for that...I think it said something like, "would you like to allow Google and other search engines to crawl your site for search strings." And it was checked "No." Doh!

So now, coupled with the addition of a Sitemeter, I too can join in the fun.

And the first visitor from Google was looking for "chili made with mango," but they only stayed for 0 seconds, so I'm not sure what that was all about.

Oh, and now I can tell what all y'all are saying about me behind my back, so stop that! ;-)

Labels: Fellow Bloggers

posted by Gwynne @ 7:19 PM 3 comments

About Last Night

After picking up my husband from the airport last night, we agreed not to belabor the boat situation until our surveyor has played his hand with the owner of the shop. We are confident that the owner will see the error of his manager's ways and will work to smooth things over. And if not, well...we'll see.

So we enjoyed watching the Superbowl game on the DVR...he enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the commercials and worked on a beaded necklace for a friend while the game was in progress. Until the last half of the last quarter. It was at that point, that my ears perked up and I got sucked in. I can't help but root for an underdog and the Giants pulled off a beautifully executed victory. The fact that Eli is Peyton's brother made it all the more special. Good job, boys!

Of all the commercials, I'd have to say it's a toss up between Bud's Hank and the Dalmatian commercial (I'm a sucker for horses, dogs and Chariots of Fire theme music), and Garmin's Napoleon...hilarious watching Napoleon zip around the French countryside without being able to see above the dashboard. And then he puts his phone away in his coat pocket, answering the long standing question of "what's inside Napoleon's coat anyway?" Plus Garmin is a local company, so my vote is for them. The talking baby ordering up clown services was pretty funny but very creepy. The Go Daddy and Victoria's Secret ads got a big thumbs down. The dancing lizards had me rolling in the aisles, but when it got to the end and showed the product, it was like someone sliced my tires...SoBe water, what?! At that point, it just looked like plagiarism...I mean, the amphibian thing belongs to Bud and Geico. Couldn't they have picked something else like, oh, I don't know, hairless cats or something?

Much, much more excellent commentary (and all performed live, no less) over at Eric's place. And a half-time report at Jim's.

Heh. I just added a Superbowl category. That's certainly a first.

Labels: Superbowl

posted by Gwynne @ 6:03 PM 0 comments

The Money Pit

Whatever did we do before Al Gore invented the internets? In what I think is a little humorous, my husband just called to inquire about the tides. As in, the tides at the exact location of his person, 2,000 miles away from where I am sitting right now (in Kansas City). He was calling me from the boat which sits on the water that is rising and falling with the tides as we speak. I mean, can't he see the tide for himself? Why call on me for this information? Because ahead looms The Bridge under which he must go in order to get to our slip in Tacoma (did I not mention any of this already? I'll clarify what he has been up to in a moment). So, to find out how much clearance exists between him (or more specifically, the boat) and the bridge (so that the mast might not snap off like a toothpick), he is calling me. And yes, he did check the tide tables before he left Seattle, but he arrived in Tacoma earlier than expected and now needs to know how long he needs to wait until it's safe to proceed. He knows it will be safe in two hours, but what about now? Just how accurate are the tide tables anyway? Are they just predictions like a weather forecast? Or are they cast in stone, known for years in advance and unwavering in their accuracy? We did purchase navigational software that resides on my hard drive...which is also here in Kansas City, not exactly helpful to He Who is Currently Navigating. It does contain tide information, but it's static. It isn't updated via an online service or anything. So I pulled that up and told him to wait an hour to be safe. Then I looked on the internet to confirm and found this which confirmed it. As I was talking to him on the phone, a Harbor Patrol boat came along that had just passed under the bridge. My husband waved to him and asked about the clearance. The Harbor Patrolman said it was 68 ft right now but it might be risky to go under it yet...wait about an hour. Heh. "Told you," I said. :-) I should add that we are not certain how tall is the mast. You would think that this would be a vital statistic published somewhere on the specs or in the survey that we have, but we have not been able to find it. The salesman told us it is 67' and another person told us 65'. So we want to err on the side of caution until we are more familiar with the boat.

And now, some illumination on the goings on of the past week, in what is sure to be the first of many tales in the Boat As Money Pit saga. I've added a new category just for stories such as these. It's not like nobody told us this would happen. It's not like we didn't budget for it, seeing as we really did negotiate a pretty "good price" on the boat based on its need for additional work ("good price" is a bit oxymoronic in the context of boats, of course, because even if someone were to hand you a boat for free, it is an immediate liability as opposed to an asset). This is hardly the kind of story that warrants an ounce of sympathy or prayers. We knew this was coming but we plunged forth anyway. But we have vowed to share (or at least I have...my husband might rather I keep such stories to myself...this was his big idea afterall ;-) the good, the bad and the ugly of this boating adventure (for anyone just tuning in, you may refer to the category previously known as "Sailing" for a little history...just tap on the link to "Sailing" at the bottom of this post).

Anyway, my beloved husband flew to Seattle last weekend to move the boat at last into its temporary slip in Tacoma (temporary until our name surfaces on the list in Seattle). The mechanic has had the boat on his dock ever since we purchased it back in October, including the week of Christmas when he conveniently decided to pull out the engine and all that comes with it, forcing us into a hotel for our vacation. That alone cost us an extra $600 for a hotel. We told him to take his time as we would not need the boat right away, but we didn't think that would triple the cost of repairs! The original estimate was roughtly $5,000 which we had negotiated into the purchase price of the boat, so we were prepared for that. But triple that amount and well, you can do the math. *choke* Essentially, this was to replace engine mounts and compressor brackets, and a timing cover plate on the engine. $2,500 for parts and 110 hours of labor. The engine was not replaced or rebuilt. To replace the engine would have only cost about $10,000. We were shocked. Flummoxed. Mad. And sad...sad because we trusted the shop manager who seemed so nice...honest and fair. To be fair to him, he did advise us that things "were worse than he originally thought" once he opened up the engine compartment and pulled out the engine. But he never once told us what this meant in terms of extra dollars. He didn't call to say, "hey, it's going to be an extra $10,000. Is that okay?" And we didn't ask either...lesson learned. Honestly, when he said "a lot worse" we expected the bill might be double and we were braced for that, but hoped maybe somehow, it wouldn't materialize.

Not having a clue whether we were being taken for the ignorant boat owners that we are or if the work really cost that much, we asked for the complete work order and itemization of work performed. We sent this off to the engine surveyor for a 2nd opinion. His response? "This is not only excessive, it is OUTRAGEOUS!! They didn't even perform all of the repairs that I had indicated in the survey. Let me know when you come out to Seattle and I'll meet you at the boat to look it over." And so my husband flew to Seattle, called the surveyor, met him at the boat, surveyed the repairs and then the surveyor exclaimed that even some of the repairs they did do needed to be redone. And thus began a downward spiral in the relationship with "our" mechanic. He didn't like that we called in our surveyor for an inspection of the work, but I'm not sure what else we could have done. We certainly weren't capable of inspecting it ourselves. He turned all shades of red when the surveyor asked if they had done this and that ("no" and "no").

In the end, they agreed to do a bunch more work to meet the standards of the surveyor, and we agreed not to take him to court to contest the bill. We did ask him again to consider making an adjustment to the hours spent which seemed excessive, but he would not budge. The surveyor said that for the work performed by a capable mechanic, the 110 hours should have taken about 40 hours. I expected him to be willing to make some concession on the hours, but no. I work in a business where we bill by the hour and having these discussions is pretty common. My approach with the client is always to ask them what they think is fair and preserve the relationship at almost any cost. In the end, a good relationship has to be a two way street. In business, I expect to be fair to my clients and I expect them to be fair to me. If they want me to provide services for less than fair value, I'm not going to provide good service. If I want to charge them more than the work is worth, they're not going to be clients for long. I'm not interested in litigating something intangible like how much money an hour is worth. I usually find that when a client calls to complain about the bill and I ask them to tell me what they think is fair, we can arrive at an agreeable solution pretty quickly. The fact that the mechanic was willing to do more work for the money was some concession, but the complete refusal to negotiate the "labor" portion of the bill spoke volumes about his integrity. I might add that we learned in all of this that the labor was performed by a 21-year old inexperienced apprentice and apparently, without a lot of supervision. Looking at the time sheets, it appears there was a lot of "soft" time spent on our boat. I really do think we got ripped off. And I'm disappointed about that.

The good news now is, at least the boat is running beautifully, according to my husband's call. So things could be worse. And now, he just called to say they made it under the bridge with a foot and a half to spare. She is safe now, at rest in her slip.

Now, if we can just get money to grow on trees, we'll be all set.

Labels: Boat As Money Pit, Sailing

posted by Gwynne @ 6:15 PM 6 comments

Ashtanga Yoga

If you like yoga, or especially, if you don't, you'll want to read this.

This is one of the funniest posts I've read in a long time. (*language alert* but still...some things can't be helped)



Via Hillbilly, Please

Labels: Fellow Bloggers

posted by Gwynne @ 10:12 AM 1 comments