then it's probably a duck. Recently the NC legislature passed a bill which mandated that for any child to attend kindergarten they have to have an eye exam. Now we are not talking about an eye exam that is routinely performed by a pediatrician, no, now the child has to have an eye exam performed by an optometrist. So no big deal you may perhaps say but it may interest you that the Speaker of the North Carolina House legislature happens to be - you guessed it - an optometrist. So now, basically they are saying to parents that unless you can shell out the money for an eye exam your child cannot go to Kindergarten. NOOOOOOO says the legislature, in the bill we have put a provision that for every child that cannot afford the exam the government will pay. Lets hear it for welfare for optometrists... now not only do they require a child to undergo a completely unnecessary eye exam but if the parents can't pay for it the government is going to line the optometrists pockets. And anyone has any doubt about corruption in politics? By the way just so's you know, here is a duck, and his missus.... quack.

If there is one things that can send me diving headlong into a wave of nostalgia it is the scent of bluebells. Bluebells for those of you who are not aware are for the most part here in the US known as English Wood Hyacinths or simply Wood Hyacinths. Sometimes they are even known as English Bluebells. Where I am from we have "bluebell woods" small forests which in the spring are carpeted with wild bluebells in full flower. In the carpet you can occasionally find a white or pink one but the majority of the flowers are the glorious sky blue and the entire forest smells of heaven. Bluebells have a scent very similar to hyacinths, which as anyone knows can scent an entire house with a single bloom. As a young girl I would walk down by the canal and wander down country paths until I eventually ended up in the bluebell wood. I would breath deep of the scent as it filled my nostrils, and revel in the seemingly endless carpet of blue nodding heads. Invariably I would pick an armful of the blossoms and carry them home to my mother where they would be carefully placed in a vase so that their scent could fragrance the house for weeks or more. When I first moved over here my mother packed, among other things, bluebell bulbs from her garden which I then planted in the forest areas of my garden. Over the years the clumps have got bigger. Today when I was out bringing in my laundry I noticed a small clump under a tree in the back in full bloom, and I had to immediately stop taking in laundry and go over to smell them. All of a sudden I was 10 again, wandering through the bluebell woods, picking armfuls for my mother. A single sniff transported me 3,000 miles and 35 years.

I am not one to trim my toe nails on a regular basis, toenails are for the most part, something that I tend to ignore. But, due to my wearing of pointy toed shoes in my youth and the resulting squishing of my toes, occasionally my toenails cause me grief, like now. My little toenail has grown to the extent that it is sticking into the toe next to it, obviously it is time for my toenails to be cut. I do not notice this until it is too late so to speak, until the toe nail itself is stabbing into the next toe and causing great pain. This is of course due to the fact that I appear to have toenails like Parrots beaks, while I can quite happily yank off the offending little toenail when it comes to my big toenails we are talking about serious pieces of equipment to remove them large pliers perhaps, or even a blow torch. And you know it doesn't help matters that I am one of those weird people that simply cannot stand to have my feet touched, even by me, if I ever get an itchy foot I have to resort to the hairbrush treatment to scratch it, I simply cannot abide to have my feet touched by anything or anyone, which makes clipping toenails a very delicate operation.

Anyhoo while we are talking about feet (what do you mean you weren't I was) here's a shot from last weekend, the caption that immediately came to mind was "do you think this branch makes my feet look big?"

I am in the process of attempting to refinance my mortgages. In the process I went to the website and requested my annual free credit report (not the rip off "free credit report.com" site which makes you sign up for some spurious credit monitoring service to get your free credit report but at annualcreditreport.com which is a government required site which means you can get it really free). I am dismayed that I did not do it sooner. There is a bunch of stuff on my report which is bogus, and I don't mean a dispute of some sort but I mean completely bogus. There was a judgment listed for some real estate company which I have never had any dealings with (I have owned my own house for 14 years and this judgment was listed in 2004) I went over to the courthouse and checked the judgment books.... nope nothing, this thing is completely bogus yet it is showing up on my credit report. Then there is another thing, a credit card that I have been paying under a payment arrangement once a month without fail FOR FOUR YEARS and the damn credit card is reporting the account as a charge off.... despite the fact that I have been paying them for FOUR YEARS.... on time every time, never missed a payment, NEVER for four years. So my advice is to check your credit report, you have no idea what is showing up on there. I am in the process of making phone calls and sorting all this stuff out, who knows how successful I will be however, if I don't get any satisfaction from these people I am going to set my Cardinal on them, "so I hear my friend has a problem with you, do we have a problem, do you need to be sleeping with the fishes?"

I had just posted an entry about laws enacted to try to stop hunters shooting each other and what do you know it, the VP decides to shoot one of his hunting buddies. Is this not a classic. It just goes to show that even smart people can do something stupid.

The luckiest tom cat in the world. So As I told you my cat broke his leg and had to go into surgery to fix it. When I took him to the vet he inquired of me "would you like us to go ahead and neuter him at the same time" I said yes of course, not having suggested it due to my thoughts that perhaps three surgeries at once would be a bit too much, but the vet assured me it would be no problem. So I went to pick him up after the surgery and while checking his stitches noticed that the "snip" did not appear to have been performed. I made a mental note of it to speak with the vet when he went back in for his post-surgery check-up however my brain's hard drive appeared to have dumped the question into the recycle bin so it was not until I picked up the two girls from their spaying surgery that I remembered to ask the other vet. "Hmmmmm Dr. Martin had mentioned that he was going to neuter Arnamade but he doesn't appear to have done it, did he forget?" Dr. Padgett called for the chart and began to read a boat load of medical jargon and then looked at me and said "there were no testicles to remove". My blank expression must have alarmed him "he must have already been castrated or he has a *long latin name that I can't remember now*" I assured the vet that he had not been fixed previously as he was born in my house and had not been fixed. Whereupon he gave me a long explanation of the fact that his "equipment" so to speak was more than likely located somewhere else in his body, and due to that fact he was probably sterile. He also said that the surgery to try and find his "equipment" to remove it is quite tricky, because there is no telling where it would be, more than likely up by his kidneys. He did point out however that it would not effect his libido, he would be perfectly capable of performing the act, just not capable of impregnating anyone. So he is probably the luckiest tom cat on the planet (providing the problem does not cause medical issues in the future), he can wander around the neighborhood ravishing all of the local unfixed females without any consequences whatsoever. I am not sure that I am entirely happy with this scenario but faced with the alternative of putting the poor baby through another major surgery right now I am leaning towards leaving things as they are. Only time will tell if he gets too big for his boots and starts taking on my other "fixed" toms.

My feet are freezing. I just thought I would share that with you. My house is configured such that the living/dining room (which has cathedral ceilings) is like an icebox, whereas the smaller rooms (the bathroom and master bedroom for instance) are like an oven. It is a constant battle to try to figure out where to set the thermostat. Does one set it so that it is comfortable to be in the living room (ie 100 degrees) or does one set it so that it is comfortable while sleeping (ie 60 degrees), right now it is at 60 degrees and I STILL wake up in the middle of the night uncomfortably hot and sweaty (and no it has nothing to do with any dream I may have been having.)

How silly are some laws. Recently North Carolina introduced a new law with regards to child safety seats. Now any child that is less than 80lbs or younger than 8 (I believe) has to be in a child safety seat or a booster seat. One of my husband's students was a passenger in a car that was pulled over just recently for some totally unrelated offense (a tail light I believe.) Ms. tiny (I shall not name her) is the sweetest young lady on the planet but she is Jada Pinkett Smith petite, in other words she is about 4 foot 5 high when she stretches and being a cheerleader she is slim. The officer looked at her in the passenger seat and said "you need to be in a booster seat how old are you?" She quietly and politely explained that she was 17 and had her own driver's license but apparently the officer determined that due to her size and weight she should have been in a booster seat, he warned her friend (the driver) that next time she would get a ticket. Is it just me or is this not getting a teensy bit sizist? As the population of the US gets heavier and heavier are the teeny people in this world now being punished because they are NOT obese? An eight year old who weighs 90lbs does not have to be in a booster seat and yet a 17 year old, with a driver's license who weighs less than 80 must be? I would posit that she should now start taking advantage of her "child" status, she should demand the child price in restaurants, and should she decide to fly anywhere she should demand to pay a child's ticket. After all if law enforcement view her as a child then shouldn't she be allowed to take advantage of it? I, after years and years of trying to figure out what size I am in American sizes (we must have the most confusing size charts on the planet) have discovered that being 5' 3" and 98lbs I am not a 1 or a 0 I am actually a child's size 14. Perhaps I should be in a child seat?

Tufted titmice are cool, I have decided this, they are very very cool.