French

French is now mostly spoken by people who aren't French. More than 50% of the speakers are African.

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cat.

Berthier may be Joséphine de Beurharnais instead. There is some argument either way and kittens are difficult to tell. Haven't decided what to do however since cats don't respond to names, it really doesn't matter. Plus the French have a nasty habit of intermixing male and female names so he/she may be Joséphine-Berthier (or JB for short). For example, the Marquis de Lafayette's (hero of our Revolutionary War) full name was Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier.

Haircuts tonight for Patrick and I.

Funny post here.

Ready for the weekend. Unbeknownst to Miranda (at least at this time), I would like to take some of our Saturday and clean up the "garage". Move some of the junk out of there.

Friday night is PFF meeting at IBS. Apparently people are supposed to bring games to play. I need to dig out a game to take but I don't know if I can find Guillotine.

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random thoughts

Economists are saying that the stimulus didn't help. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone except Keynesian economists. This makes the upteenth time that gov't spending didn't stimulate anything.

Marseille is still at the top of their league.

Not this coming Thursday but next Thursday, Miranda is headed off to Kansas City for a day. So it will just be myself trying to take care of the children. Early indications are a nervous breakdown. Anyway, as the Buck Owens song says, "Take care of you for me in Kansas City".

We are redoing the bathroom. The floor is terrible and we are living here for free, so we thought that the least we could do was pay for that out of our pocket. We found some nice linoleum with "fleur de lis" on it. We are going to get it installed the weekend after this one.

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last night.

Last night Mom, Dad, and all of us went to Dink's BBQ in Bartlesville. Very good BBQ. Afterward we went to the mall. I bought some new shoes as mine have started falling apart. I was wearing my shirt that says: "Je ne sais pas. C'est en français." I was walking through JC Penny and the sales clerk started speaking French to me. It was awesome to get to speak with someone else! I was scrambling to catch up and finally gave up when he said that he lived in Paris. Apparently for a couple of years. I was nice to meet someone else and practice. Anyhoo... I decided that we could move to Marseille and mentioned it to Miranda. It was a resounding "NO!". I think I heard a few extra words under her breath (just kidding!!!).

Today I'm working on Mr. Brewers computer. He's the superintendent/principal as IBS. It just jumps to a BSOD on bootup.

Tonight is the IBS Alumni dinner. Apparently we are going to that.

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Louis Alexandre Berthier

Pardon the terrible quality but I have a cheap cellphone.


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cat.

The cat has sat on my lap all day. He refuses to get off. I think I found an office buddy.

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cat.

Berthier is making himself at home. He is currently on top of my desk playing with all the papers and stuff on there. He climbed up my legs which was none too fun and is (ironically enough) playing with the mouse.

He's a cutie.

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hmmm.

I think I found a way to get a new job.

I was selected for a random drug test at work. Looks like I'm going in on the 26th. I am a bit worried though. I read some stuff about Keith Richards. I think just seeing his name in print is enough to make you flunk a drug test.

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updates.

Last night after I got off work and was headed home, I drove through Diamond. I saw a car in front of our house and decided to stop by. Apparently our renter has a new guy. He's at home at 4:40 wearing shorts and no shoes. The one time I stopped by to give her ex the eviction notice it was the same situation. She must not care if her guys work or not. He probably has a job because the car was a Lexus. The inside looked immaculate (at least from the door way), so I was pleased with that.

Patrick and Nellie have decided that they want a kitten. They have been wanting one for awhile and Miranda took them by the pet shop. They apparently want a grey one and Patrick wants to name him Garfield. I will have my own name for him. Our previous cat was called Napoleon so I will probably follow the hierarchy on down. This one will be called:

Louis Alexandre Berthier, Duc de Wagram, Duc de Valengin, Sovereign Prince de Neuchâtel.

Also called Berthier for short (pronounced: Bear-t-ay) or Bertie if preferred.

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Monett.

Off to Monett today. Driving the new car. Better gas mileage and better radio.

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funny story.

I got an email from Bobbe Seymore (steel guitar player with a weekly newsletter) and he has an awesome story. He has worked with a lot of (older) big names but some VERY big names in country music. Anyway, here's the story (read it, it's awesome!):

You’ll see the end of this story coming before you get to it. One time while working with a very famous female country music star, we were having a very hard time finding a place to dump our bilge tank that had gotten full enough where we couldn’t do any more flushing in the bus until we found a place to empty the tank.

We pulled out from a truck stop in Chicago, were heading down the road when a band of motorcycle artists came up beside us screaming, “We hate country music.”

After doing this for about 20 minutes, the rotten tomatoes started coming along with some eggs being thrown at us. We didn’t want to stop because that may have been sheer death for us, because I know they wouldn’t let me personally sleep through the fight that would ensue.

So while going down the interstate at about 75 mph, I suddenly got the brilliant idea to get as many of the gang behind us as we could and open the bilge tank.

Upon telling the bus driver, he screamed, “No. We can’t do that.”

I replied, “Sure we can.”

Recalling the story about the Dave Mathews Band that did this while transversing a wire mesh bridge in Chicago a week before, it must have affected the gang of Harleys pretty severely because we had no more trouble from them, however we did not escape observation from the police.

They pulled us over on the side of the road and I was the one that had the privilege of talking to them since it was my idea the band said. Upon talking the policeman in charge and introducing him to 3 or 4 celebrities on the bus, he seemed to get a big kick out of the result we attained, but promised us if we ever did it again, our fine could be upwards of ten dollars.

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weekend.

Off to Branson this weekend. We are meeting Mom and Dad down at Branson tonight. It will be nice to get away. It's been a bad week for me.

Patrick is very excited to stay in a hotel again. He's pretty silly. The kids have been pretty wild lately. When Miranda wanted to "hear the pitter-patter of little feet around the house", I should have suggested that we hire a midget butler. Actually they are a lot of fun but they sure can get on your nerves as well.

I'm ready for the weekend. Full speed ahead!

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birthday!

Today is Patrick's birthday. We are buying him a bike for his birthday. He is 6 years old today. He's been looking forward to this day for about 3 months!

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ugh.

Apparently women in Maine are taking their tops off to prove a point (the link is safe for viewing, no nekkid women). They are protesting the fact that men go can shirtless while women can't. Having seen quite a few women in Maine, I would say there would be little difference for me in seeing a Maine woman shirtless and a Maine man shirtless. They all looked like men to me anyway. Most had short haircuts and wore flannel. It was bizarre.

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car

We took ownership of our car last night. Miranda and the children love the new car. I'm indifferent. It drives nice and rides nice but it's just a car. It is pretty as it's a bright red.

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funny.

On Sunday, Pastor Albert preached about Simon Peter saying "I go fishing" and the rest of the story. Anyway I had my French bible and here's the translation:

"Simon Pierre leur dit: Je vais pêcher."

The verb pêcher means "to fish". Another popular verb in the Bible is the verb "pécher" (note the difference between é and ê) and they are pronounced very closely. Anyway, "pécher" means "to sin". So it would appear briefly that Simon Peter tells everyone, "I'm going sinning" and they all say, "We are going with you.". This is apparently not correct. Luckily Pastor Albert was preaching from the King James Version in English and set me straight.

I think it explains a lot about the French. They go to church on Sunday and hear about Peter and John going "sinning" and think, "hey... I'm going to do that too.". Unfortunately their pastor isn't pronouncing the ê clearly enough.

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random stuff

Miranda now weighs less than me. Which is fairly impressive because I'm considered pretty skinny.

On Monday we are hopefully getting our car. We decided on (with my much chagrin) a 2007 Chevy Impala. I really wanted a Toyota Corolla that was a really nice looking blue and very sporty. However it was a 4 cylinder and not a very good ride. It had a lot of wind noise and not very smooth. But it looked cooler. Unfortunately Miranda has decided that I/we need to make the good decision and not the fun decision. Pictures will be forthcoming.

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weekend.

Dad called last night and Mom does have pneumonia. I'm not sure if it's walking but it sure is coughing.

On Saturday, Miranda is going to a ladies get-together here in Independence. I will be going to Vinita with the children. Needless to say, I probably won't get a lot done with the children underfoot. Reminds me of my childhood. I spent quite a few hours in the tax office as a child. Speaking of which, Mom has an unclaimed tax return from 1978. The guy was getting back $113. She opened the return and it was by hand. Ahhhh... the old days.

As a child, Emily and I would play tax office. When I was the preparer, she was always getting $1 million back. I was a popular tax accountant. I also loved the words "gross pay" because it had the word "gross" in it. That reminds me so much of Patrick and Nellie. They both love stuff like that.

We are looking to buy a car. The Expedition is a 1999 and the S-10 is a 2000 (11 and 10 years old). We were going to wait until after we buy a house but we feel that the car will need to be replaced before 20 years (at least at the rate our house is going). I want a BMW. Miranda doesn't want to spend over $20k. So I'm guessing that someone is going to have to give in. I bet that it will be me. I've got my eye on this car. There are two downsides to it: 1. It's a GM. 2. It's a Pontiac. Pontiac is no more. GM would be no more except for the tax payers. We are also looking at a Toyota Camry.

Now that our house fell through, we have quite a bit of savings that we were/are going to use as additional down payment on the house. I suggested to Miranda that we use it for our Mediterranean cruise. I am hoping to get some vision in my right eye back when the swelling goes down! Just kidding. She would never hit me. Shoot me maybe but not hit. My head is too hard.

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family

I called Dad last night and it is thought that Mom may have walking pneumonia. She has a doctor's appointment today.

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quick!

Take a picture...

Marseille are at the top of Ligue 1.

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hmmm...

Hmmmmm....

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sick

Patrick is home sick today now. Running fever. I have a nasty cough and he's had one all week. We just can't seem to kick it around here.

To dad. Watch this baseball play by the pitcher.

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update

We got a call from our buyer last night. She started out by saying: "Basically my credit is crap." Needless to say the conversation went downhill from there. Apparently her and her "ex" divorced in January and he has a truck repossession on their credit. She is going to attempt to sue him to get it taken off of her credit. I don't know how well that will work. Anyway... she won't be able to get it done by April 30th. Even if that works, who knows if that would clear up the credit enough to get a loan in these tight markets.

So we are back to square 1.

Miranda is always ranting at me being a pessimist and I always tell her that I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. This is Exhibit A.

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nuns.

Two nuns were traveling in a car when suddenly a vampire jumps in the road in front of them. They screech to a halt and one of the nuns hollers at the other one and says, "Show him your cross!". So the other nun rolls down the window and yells, "Get out of the way you toothy idiot!".

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random stuff.

Last night we went to John and Melinda Davolt's house. They are looking at selling and knew that we may be in the market. Still nothing on our house. According to one web page that I was looking at, it can take 4 weeks to get the mortgage so they better hustle because I'm in no mood to wait around for them. If the contract expires then they are probably out of luck as I've had enough of them to last me a lifetime.

Found an interesting web page. They have quite a number of the Foreign Service Institute language courses online. Here's the web page for anyone interested.

Saturday we are going back to Vinita and then on Sunday we are going to Paul and Jane's for lunch. Two more Saturdays and tax time is over. After tax season is over, a trip to Dixie Stampede is in the works for Mom, Dad, John Wade, Connie Wade, and us. I think Miranda decided that we could go however that may not be the case now. The IBS is doing poorly financially and we were using her check for spending money on our cruise.

Here's some funny stuff... I am always blathering on about Keynesian economics. When the stimulus package was passed they (gov't) had calculated that the "Keynesian Multiplier" was around 2.48 (or a similar number). This means that each $1 spent by the gov't was the same as spending $2.48 by the private sector because the argument is that gov't can spend the money much more efficiently. Now is appears that they spent $5 billion to weatherize 30,250 homes. That is about $165,289.26 per home. Plus it created 84 jobs (that were probably temporary) in California. You can buy an entire home for $165,000 (but that would be obvious to everyone except Keynesian economists). Anyway... the claim would be that the same work done by the private sector would be $409,917.36 (according to the multiplier). That is not correct by anyone's standards.

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