Atomictumor

One of our frequent commenters (commentors?) has recently leaked his impending arrival to our fair city to AT the other day and suggested a possible meeting this weekend. AT and I thought it might be a good opportunity to have a full-blown best of the ‘tumor shindig at a local watering hole, everyone invited.
I happened to drive by the Blue Hound Grille today and saw the sign for the new place (80 East Pub & Grille) and cars in the parking lot. I’m going to check tomorrow to make sure they’re open for business (and maybe get a peek at what’s on tap). What a better opportunity to support our local small business owners than to tie one on over there, say Saturday around 1 or 2?
If any of youse guys are interested in meeting us (no pressure ;) then drop us a line here or email and let us know. If we don’t hear from anyone, perhaps another time.

And for the hell of it, a picture of a goofy kid:

The Missus had her first OBGYN checkup today and the news can’t be better. She called right after the appointment this morning and told me that, just as we’d figured, she’s six weeks along. A baby that’s six weeks along is about the size of a bean.

When the Doc did the ultrasound they were able to hear its heart beating. Now I don’t know about you, but that made my morning. Just think about that for a moment. We’re six weeks along and there’s a heart beating. All this time we’ve been thinking about names. We’ve redone the budget. We’ve searched, and not yet found, the first outfit. And somewhere along the way it’s heart began to beat.

It’s beating right now.

Life is beautiful.

Yeah, AT I know what you mean. We’ve got a case of the itchy eyes over here at Cemestos Gardens. The eldest was diagnosed with pink eye this past Sunday. Now the littlest has it.

For all you interested here’s a great book on the subject.

Recently the AT family has been done in on all fronts by poison ivy. It started with Pigpen, who got into a patch while walking in the greenbelt with the preschool recently, and proceeded to get it all over himself. He was outdone in a big way, tho, by our own MastaG, who had it so bad on his ankles that faith healers were getting excited about the prospect of leprosy making a comeback. We ended up getting him to the doc last week, where he received steroid packs and whatnot, and is now on the mend.

GAC then got it on her neck, but not too bad (which is a friggin miracle, because she and MastaG share an affinity with breaking out in boils at the mention of poison). Even I, who rarely has any problem with the stuff, am now sporting a modest bit of the red stuff right underneat my eye, and between my index and bird finger on my left hand. Two of the best places for rashes, damn right I snatched them right up.

I think its an offensive on the part of the plant world. Perhaps the poison is retaliating (along with the damn chow dog in the neighbors yard behind us) over the introduction of bamboo in the back yard. That could be what it is, a mighty bamboo-poison ivy battle to the death. East meets west. I’ll buy it.

Oak Ridge Schools are taking one for the team, as council members, after sitting through a dozen or so citizens coming up and speaking eloquently (and sometimes, not so eloquently), unanimously voted to continue on their idiotic 5 year zero growth path to glory. The high point of the meeting, for me, was either when everybody on the council went into a song and dance, looking shifty eyed, regarding education vs. fiscal responsibility, OR when Superintendant Bailey (who, I admit, has been maligned here in the past) stormed out of the meeting after the vote.

Mayor Bradshaw’s was the best, managing to only occasionally look up from his table, he blathered on about how education is important, but that the city has a lot of services that they have to juggle, and you can’t put a focus on one over the others.

Indeed. And what focus will be put on the kids next year? That depends on what the school board has to cut from their budget. I’m keeping an eye on Netmom for this (and for a great review of the shindig last night, as she’s usually johnny on the spot with this school board business.

I’ll also end with one more thing. I’ve tried like hell not to get involved in politics, because I’m loud, and brash, and tend to say things that I later regret, but you hinky bastards have forced my hand. Sticking to your guns is commendable, but I ask the council to look and see who they’ve pissed off and who they’ve backed. True, the cranky, barren, “no-tax for me” crowd does tend to vote prolificly, but by choosing to knock the school board down a peg or two you’ve killed off the impression that Oak Ridge has a government that is committed to schools.

I’m not sure what you’re committed to anymore, council, and for that reason we need to end your political careers.