Going, Going, GONE!!!

Oh, happy day! The sun is out and the birds are singing in Illinois today (literally). We woke up to a new governor this morning. King Blagojevich has been dethroned! Yesterday was a great day. Blago made an appearance at the senate hearing in Springfield. He was just in time to hear the 59-0 UNANIMOUS vote to oust him from office! Greg and I watched the vote online and couldn't believe that it was unanimous. We were so excited. I also listened to the senate speeches, and a lot of them were saying what a sad day it was for Illinois, blah, blah, blah. But then one of them said, "Actually, today is a happy day for Illinois." Right on! I agree with that guy. Yes, this state has become the laughing stock of the world, but at least Blago's removal from office shows that there is still a little bit of sanity here. Blago is now referred to as "the former governor." The new governor, Pat Quinn, is another Democrat, but at least he didn't agree with Blago's budget cuts. He said that he will clean things up and try to right Blago's wrongs. Hooray for Governor Quinn!

I have been quite disturbed by some of the things President Obama has done during his first week in office. He signed an order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay which means that the terrorists there will either be put into prisons in the U. S. or they will be released. There's a bad idea! Obama thought that imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay was a violation of the terrorists' "Constitutional rights"--what Constitutional rights? They don't care about our Constitution. But the saddest thing Obama did this week was restoring federal funding for abortions. President Bush had revoked all federal abortion funding, but Obama restored it. And, Obama made it possible for the government to provide funding for abortions not just in the U. S., but all over the world. How can you care about the Constitutional rights of the terrorists, but not of the little unborn babies??? That makes me really sad. Democrats defend abortion by saying that women should have the right to choose what happens to their bodies--but they do have a choice--they can choose not to do things that cause babies to form! People should be accountable for their choices, and the babies that result from certain choices should be given a chance at life. So, while I will always respect the office of the President of the United States, I'm having a hard time respecting the current President as a person.

When Greg and I were at Ulysses Grant's house the other day, we noticed a very interesting quote from him in the museum exhibit. He said, "If we are to have another contest of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other."

Animal House

All of the animal children were being quite naughty this morning. Big Spike was pooping everywhere (so he was banished to his bedroom), Little Spike was constantly barking, and Lily was trying to annoy Little Spike. I was lucky to catch Lily on camera as she woke Little up from his morning snooze. They are so funny! I think Big Spike needs doggy diapers. Are there such things?

Yesterday I had a fun lunch with Linda at my new favorite Springfield restaurant: Thailand Cuisine. It made me feel very much at home to have some tasty Thai food. We were celebrating both Linda's birthday and the first day of Blago's impeachment trial. Meanwhile Blago was in New York on a media blitz making himself (and Illinois) look even more foolish than before! He even said that he had considered Oprah for Obama's senate seat. The man truly is insane. Word on the street is that when Blago is removed from office, the directors of all of the state agencies would need to step down as well--and that would include Jan Grimes who is the mean IHPA director! That would be good. Linda is doing really well and is keeping busy with contract projects for the Lincoln Home and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. We had fun eating Thai food and catching up on things.

Today I had a fun time over at the Athens library. I'm going to be volunteering in the special collections room on Tuesdays. The ladies who work there are funny.

Meet Me in St. Louie

Yesterday Greg and I had a delightful mini-road trip to St. Louie. It was a beautiful sunny day though the temperature only made it to the mid-20s. I love St. Louis. Not only is it the home of the best baseball team: the Cardinals, it also has a really cool skyline.


St. Louis also has funny billboards.


I have always wanted to visit the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site on the south side of the city. The home is named "White Haven," though it seems that "Green Haven" might have been more appropriate :-) In talking with the ranger who took us on the tour, we learned that the original green paint was made with arsenic--and we think lead paint is bad! This was the house where Grant's wife Julia grew up. He purchased it from her father and planned to retire there after the Civil War, but instead of settling at White Haven, they spent eight years at the White House. It is a really neat house, and we had a great time there.

They have a pretty cool museum exhibit in Grant's barn. Although, this totally random panel in the kids' section is a little too random :-)

After White Haven, we had some delicious St. Louis-style thin crust pizza at Imo's. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and checking out sports card shops and antique malls. We went to the largest antique mall I've ever seen! We were accidentally in there for three hours--and had no idea it had been that long. It was a great day, and I'm glad that we live so close to such fun places.

Fleece and Fajitas

Here is Miss Lily enjoying the new fleece blanket that Grandma F. T. and Grandpa Dick sent. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! She loves to snuggle in her blanket, and sometimes she shares it with the doggies.

And here are the delicious fajitas that Greg and I made last night. Mmmmmmm, they were so good! The tortillas are filled with chicken (seasoned with, among other things, Chinese Five Spice), red peppers, green peppers, and onions. We topped the veggies with some of Greg's tasty white cheese sauce. Luckily Greg is feeling better from his stomach troubles! We had a fun time on Wednesday evening babysitting our neighbors' kids for a little while. They are so funny and cute. Madison is five, Nora is three, and James is 8 months. While Greg fed James his dinner, the girls showed me all of their Christmas presents. We had a good time. Since tomorrow is supposed to be a nice, sunny (though chilly) day, Greg and I are going to go on another outing to St. Louis (only without the extra body this time). We're going to do the fun things that we planned on doing the other day--but we will have more fun this time because we're not so tired, and Greg's tummy feels better.

Good morning, St. Louis

When you can make it from Athens to St. Louis in less than two hours, you know it must either be really early in the morning or really late at night. Today is was really early in the morning. I got to go on a body-delivering adventure with Greg! The man who passed away last Saturday (when the police called us) was being flown to Michigan today. I had always wondered how that works. They have to be put into a special box, and then they are delivered to the cargo area at the airport. Then the K-9 unit comes and checks out the box to make sure there isn't anything suspicious in it. The K-9 doggie was so cute, and he was excited to have work to do this morning. We left Athens this morning at 5:00 and arrived in St. Louis by 6:45 a.m. We were going to wait around for a while so that we could have a history adventure visiting Ulysses S. Grant's house, but Greg started to get sick. We feared it was the dreaded stomach flu, so we got on the road and came home, but after a few more hours of sleep Greg seems to be feeling a bit better. We don't need any more stomach flu episodes around here! Speaking of which, we got our financial statement from the ER today--ouch. It was a very expensive six hours, but I would have paid any amount to feel better at that time. They broke down the different charges, and I was interested to see that the fee to examine my bowel sample and test it for bacteria was only $450. If I had been forced to examine that stuff, I would have charged at least one million dollars. That was a bad day, and I am crossing my fingers that Greg doesn't get the dreaded influenza. We'll go to U. S. Grant's house when Greg gets better.