Be Unprepared - Why the Senate should ask John Roberts the questions he least expects. By Bruce Reed

Actually, this link goes to Bush and his rapidly declining approval rating.

I'm shocked, shocked I say!

We're expecting quite a bit of rain over the next 3 days. Hurrican Katrina is headed for landfall in the Gulf. For a while there, everyone thought that New Orleans might just be blown off the map by this. They're still looking at quite a bit of damage, but I don't think the whole city is going to disappear under water. They've moved a lot of people into the Super Dome.

Well, we're moving to Oak Ridge at the end of the month. Not sure how I feel about this. Oak Ridge is bigger, more stores and things to do, and we'd also be closer to everything. Also, OR has one of the best educational programs in the state (gotta teach all those kids of PhDs, ya know). And the people who are renting us this house are letting us move in with no deposit and they will let us break the rent up into two payments each month to make it a bit easier on us.

But the house. Well... I don't like it. It's an older duplex that's had the middle wall knocked out and it's one house now. It's dark, no carpet (I don't know how I feel about the whole place being hardwood), and it needs some work. Less of a yard than we have now, but what yard there is is fenced in. One kitchen will be the utility room and the other will be an actual kitchen. Bedrooms are small... Ah, I guess I got a bit spoiled by this place. While it's not the nicest place I've ever lived in either, it's nicer than where we're going. The landlord might have been anal, but she kept this place nice.

The other place has potential, though. It's got a little porch that we can hang wind chimes and maybe put some plants on, and the little area right in front of the porch is perfect for decorating for holidays. And the place has CH&A, but still no dishwasher.

I'm sure it won't be so bad once the outside is cleaned up some more and we're able to get all our stuff in there. We'll have to buy a few things for it, like curtains and some lamps (I hate how dark it is). Maybe it won't be so bad by the time Christmas is here.

Yay! I was just drying my hair and I was bent over to dry it upside down, and I was able to see past my belly to my panties! Heh, I know it's kind of silly, but this is the first time since Noah was born that I've been able to see any change in my belly. Hopefully my new routine is the reason. Now to stick with it!

I talked to mom a couple of days ago. She said that Randy had somehow convinced Marla to go back to rehab after all. I hope this works. I really don't want to have to get all stupid at the holidays. But if she shows up stoned, I'll just have to ruin everyone's holiday.

And just when I think we're going to be ok financially, we're not. I don't know what happened to all our money this month. But Friday we've got to pay the sitter and rent, and we're supposed to use my paycheck to do it. Well, my check will just cover those things. That leaves no money for groceries and gas. Also, electricity is due. I should be able to use my ORV money for that, but I won't get that until probably next Tuesday. Tank is supposed to be going out today to see if some of their advertisers will pay him now. I don't think any of them have paid for the month of August. Well, a couple have, but there's a lot that still owe. That's the bad thing about this kind of extra income. It's very iffy.

On a positive note, MasterCard is giving away 12 cars. Guess I need to be using mine more often, because I could use a few new cars (keep 3 or 4, sell the rest, heh)

WBIR.COM - Hyattes arraigned in Roane County

The continuation of our 15 minutes of fame.

Their capture was such a disappointment. We were all hoping for a big shoot-out.

I had kind of forgotten about this. Time to get back on the ball.

And let me start by saying, I hate my neighbors. They leave their damn TV/radio/both on 24/7 and loud. But the guy over there seems unstable, so I'm afraid if I complained, I might have some drunken idiot breaking into my house later on. Then again, I've just about had enough (as I listen to it droning on now at 6:15 a.m.) I may tell the landlord.

I've not written much about Marla, and I guess I should. Not going to get into the gory details, but I'm hoping my parents have cut her off. She's addicted to pills, she won't raise her daughter, she stole two credit card apps from my mom and submitted them, then charged up $25,000 worth (that my parents will have to eventually pay back since they don't want to charge her with fraud). She won't go into rehab, she swears she doesn't have a problem, and her new husband is almost as flaky and worthless as she is. I don't think she's working now, but that's nothing new.

I try to call my mom occasionally and talk about stuff that will take Marla off her mind. So I tell her how my life is a living hell because I have Noah to deal with. It's usually good for a chuckle.

Ok, enough about that, let's talk about me!

I think I've found a workout plan that will work. I've just been doing some odds & ends strength moves, mostly pilates, then doing some stepping. I freelance it, occasionally use a few moves that I learned on my workout tapes. I do the strength training in the morning along with at least 15 minutes on the step, and then when I get home I try to get 15-20 minutes more on the step. I think my problem before was that I was getting almost no cardio. This way is easy, and breaking it up into two workouts keeps it from becoming a bore. And I can watch TV instead of tying up the TV with a workout tape.

Alright, enough for now.

Just checking in since it's been a while.

Not much new going on with us. Football season is starting, so that means Tank's show will start generating some extra cash for us soon. We had hoped to already be seeing some of it, but these people don't want to get off their money that easy. And once the money starts coming in, I'm going to start putting things on lay away for Christmas. Yes, this year I'm really going to start my shopping early. Because hopefully this year, it won't be such a struggle for us.

It's been insanely hot here lately. In the 90's most of the time. Dog days of summer alright.