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Much is being made of the democratic convention, and how Hilary is so magnanimous for delivering her delegates to Barak, and much is being made of how this (the convention) is Obama’s moment, his “sweet sixteen” so to speak.  Anyone with half a brain, however, can plainly see that this convention is all about the Clintons.

Hilary had to have the spotlight so that she could ‘hand over’ her delegates to him.  If it wasn’t about Hilary, why did she insist that there be a roll call vote?  Why didn’t she release her delegates to him long ago after it was clear he would win the primary?  Why did Bill have to speak, and why did he LIE … Oh wait, it’s Bill Clinton.  Why WOULDN’T he lie?  I wonder if anyone thought he believed any of the nice things he said about Obama?

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside …

So … we received a visit from a contractor yesterday … I get this sinking feeling that he thinks our zipcode is 90210

his woodworking sub stopped by this evening to look at the potential job … I think HE thinks we’re in 90210…

I have no idea what this guy’s going to bid, but I’m wondering if we’ll be able to convince them all that our last name is NOT rockefeller

I’m hoping that we can find one person to take pity on us and give us a super deal.  I’ll even give them FREE advertising on the web, as I’ll sing their praises

Any contractors wanna volunteer????

Well, soon we’ll be headed to North Carolina for a little blue mountain getaway!  So far, the plan is to take a train ride, go whitewater rafting on the Nantahala river, and possibly hiking or horseback riding.  We’ve got a nice cabin with a hot tub and a scenic overlook setting.  It should be fun.

So Obama picked his running mate … WOOHOO!  Joe Biden.  He’s hardly a Washington outsider, so I wonder how Barak is going to spin him into his change mantra.  I’m sure there are lots of people who are upset that Obama didn’t pick Hillary.

I, for one, can’t fault the guy.  Hillary would then be able to have her cake and eat it too.  She’s got some shady contacts in her rolodex (think Vince Foster ) and could, I am sure, “have it arranged to become president before Obama’s first term is up”.  Not only that, but she’d have it done is such a manner so as to get a groundswell of support for a repeal of the second amendment.

Think about it.  Obama would be the first Black president (sorry Bill Clinton, but you didn’t qualify).  He’d be in office just long enough to continue spouting his “change” mantra and start the ball rolling for a few new social programs.  Then, BAM.  Some Lee Harvey Oswald type takes him out.  Hillary is shown “grief stricken” (she’s good at turning on the tears when necessary) while being sworn in as #45.

The first thing she does as President is to issue a memo requesting that congress write a bill to repeal the Second Amendment.  “This needs to be done quickly” she insists at a press conference, “because my life may also be in danger!”  Within a month, Congress has an amendment proposal ready to be sent to the states for ratification.  There will be enough support from people distraught over the loss of Obama, that it will pass as required.  They’ll even call it “Obama’s bill”.

Hopefully I won’t have the secret service at my door for my rant.  You know, in all reality, it’s kinda sad that I even have to worry about that.  We truly ARE under the watch of the thought police if a random posting on the web puts me under surveillance because of what I wrote.  Kinda makes you wonder what other “freedoms” we have lost, doesn’t it?

But enough of my conspiracy theories …

All the Republicans are speculating on who McCain will pick … will it be Romney? Will it be Liebermann?  My thoughts … I really don’t care who he picks.  In all my years of voting, I have not voted for a candidate based on who his running mate was.  I really liked Lloyd Bentson.  When he was the V.P. candidate, I watched him bitch-slap Quayle all over the stage during the debates.  In the end, I voted for Bush.  If Bentson had been at the top of the ticket, I would have voted for him.

Some make the case that McCain is old, and may not fulfill his term(s).  To that end, being concerned about who he chooses as a running mate makes some sense.  But my goodness, If you’re worried about if the guy’s gonna crump in office, don’t vote for him.

Barr … He already has his running mate.  But I’m kinda ticked at how the Libertarians are running the campaign.  They’re in it to lose!  A recent email I got from the Bob Barr 2008 campaign even said that they don’t expect to win the White House in November, but they could surpass Perot’s 6% margin, which would be a “victory” for them.  Yeah, okay.

All in all, I’m pretty disgusted with all THREE of the candidates.  Two for what they stand for, and one for how he is running his campaign.

restoration progress … NOT!  Well, we have (hopefully) only ONE more contractor to interview.  After that, it’s crunch time.

SCORE!!!!  I called my friendly not-so-local lumberyard about siding.  They said that they could get that amount of siding, but that they didn’t have it there at that time, and it may take 3 to 6 weeks to get it in, since they just got a truck in recently.  (their trucks come in with 16,000 sf of lumber, my order was a paltry 3500 sf …)

So I went ahead and ordered, and thought to myself … 6 weeks will kill any chances of painting this year.

I got a call back from them.  They found that they had just enough wood to cover my order, but it handn’t been entered into inventory yet, and that they could have it to me in 2 weeks or less!  That was GOOD news…

Now the GREAT news… they’re going to deliver the wood for a hundred bucks. That call made my weekend.  I guess that’s when you know you’re old … when a call from the lumberyard makes your day.

I am SO ready for this to be over!

We had a contractor appointment scheduled for 6 to 6:30 this evening.  He didn’t show.  didn’t call.  surprise, surprise.  We found him on craigslist.  I guess he didn’t show up for a reason.

When we called his home number the other day, we got an answering machine, so we called the alternate number (a cell).  When we called today to find out where he was, we found that the number was disconnected.  Not a good sign for a contractor.

Needless to say, he’s off our list.

This one had called earlier, and was the one who said that the only way he could guarantee the  work was to re-roof the entire house.  Well, the guy was not actually the one I had initially talked to.  This one was probably designated to be the Job Super.   We greeted, shook hands, and then got down to business.

He started to tell me that he was going to replace the entire roof, and I asked why.  He said because there are “at least” 4 layers of shingles on our roof, and code limits the max number of layers at 3.  I insisted that the roof isn’t leaking, so why should we replace the roof for gutter work.  He said “we can’t guarantee it (the gutter relining ) if we don’t replace the roof.  Plus the added weight of the commercial grade bituminous rolled roofing …. ”

I stopped him there …

“Rolled roofing? ” I asked

“It’s commercial grade bituminous rolled roofing!” he exclaimed, then added “guaranteed for 25 years”

I could feel my blood pressure rising.  “No rolled roofing for lining the gutters.  Either EPDM Rubber or metal.  No rolled roofing, I repeated.”

I then added that since we were on the topic of rolled roofing and EPDM Rubber, I would like him to quote replacing the carport roof.  He mentioned about the 4 layers of roofing on the porch.  I told him that I could guarantee him that there weren’t 4 layers of roofing on the porch.  He disagreed.  I then pulled my aceWfrom my sleeve.  “We had the porch roof removed and replaced when we first moved in.” I told him.  “That’s how I know.”

“well, the main roof has four layers on it” he maintained.

I said, “Well, regardless, That’s not what I asked you to bid on.  I asked you to tell me if the box gutters need to be relined, and if so, how much will it cost.  ”

He said that he would revise the bid based on what I told him.

He insists that the gutters need to be relined.  I have had other contractors tell me that they would not start with relining, but would recommend a thorough clean and paint first to see where, if anywhere, that the gutters leak.

So, he’s going to get his numbers together and give them to us.  We’ll see what they are.  We have another coming out tonight.

OK, I’m a Yahoo! kinda guy … I really don’t like google for some reason … but I’m going to start using it alot more.  I have officially STOPPED using YAHOO!  as of TODAY.

A little background is in order.

My wife had a couple of online businesses.  One was Youinmindgifts.com, one was youinmindgiftswholesale.com.  Both of these domains were registered through Yahoo! domain registration (and subsequently through Melbourne IT.)  Both websites are hosted on Tripod, and when she opened her new retail shop,  and online shop, I page forwarded her youinmindgifts.com to girlfriendsgiftshopky.com.

She has since started a new, brick and mortar giftshop in St. Matthews, (Girlfriends Gift Shop) and an online store called “girlfriendsgiftshopky.com”.

About a month and a half ago, she got a notice that Yahoo! was going to raise its domain registration fees.  She sent a reply that she would like to cancel her domain registration with yahoo.  She got a confirmation notice that her “youinmindgifts.com” domain would not be renewed.  that was the end of that.

Today, she’s going over the business account and finds a charge from yahoo for domain registration.  She calls Yahoo and gets a guy named Jasper (who had an american sounding accent)  only to find out that she only canceled youinmindgifts, not the wholesale one.  She first tried to see if she could cancel the domain registration and get a full refund since the charge went through on Friday (one business day ago).  That was a no.

So the next thing is to get it cancelled for next year, so that she doesn’t get billed again from Yahoo.  HAHA … easier said than done.  They completely cancelled the domain!!!  We found out after she hung up with them the first time.  We went to the website ‘www.youinmindgiftswholesale.com’  and got a 404.

It gets better.

She called them back …

She got “Ryan” (who had a thick Indian accent).  “Ryan” told her that if she wanted to reactivate it, she would have to pay another $34.95.  He then told her that Yahoo didn’t host her website, but that she should consider hosting with them.  THAT’S  a good one!

She asked to speak to a manager.  “Ryan” said there is no manager, but that someone would get back to her in 3 to 5 business days.  Now THAT’S customer service with a capital S!  NOT!!!

She asked to speak to the person she initially spoke with.  “Ryan”  said hold on.  When he came back, he explained that she should be getting an email from Melbourne IT about the status of her account, since they (Melbourne IT) are hosting it since Yahoo cancelled it, and they (Yahoo!) couldn’t reactivate it.  She never did get to speak to Jasper

I think that’s pretty much where we are right now.  We’ll see if we get an email from Melbourne IT

Dollars to Donuts Jasper is here in the U.S.  and that “Ryan” is in New Delhi!

WAY TO GO MICHAEL!!!    He is going to do the same for swimming now that Mark Spitz did for it back in 68 and 72. (Mexico City and Munich).  Back then, I was 13.  My neighbor had a pool.  I swam back and forth across that pool dreaming of being as good as Mark Spitz.

Now, kids across the country will be swimming across their pools, dreaming that THEY are Michael Phelps.

I guess, for some, it’s fashionable to bash Mark Spitz for certain comments he was reported to have made recently.  I, for one, still think he’s one helluva swimmer and athlete.

The interview / conversation with Spitz and Phelps was great, and showed what good people both of them are.

WAY TO GO, MICHAEL!

Today I heard our President on the radio.  He was talking about Russia’s involvement in the Republic of Georgia.  He said, and I quote:  “Bullying and intimidation are not the tools of diplomacy of the twenty first century.”

Do his speechwriters read what they write for him?  Is he FOR REAL???  I’m just amazed that he could say that with a straight face.