Boo! (and it ain't Halloween)

So.... today the US Senate confirmed Timothy Geithner as the 75th Treasury secretary.

I say BOO!

Appointed by President Obama, this is the person who is in charge of the IRS; uhm....
HE DIDN'T PAY HIS TAXES!

"A careless mistake," which Geithner failed to correct until he was chosen for the position of Treasury secretary. He owed ~$34,000 in unpayed taxes, and finally payed over $47,000 in taxes and fees.

Several Senators said that they wouldn't typically confirm someone with this suspect history, but they felt he was the right person for the job in this time of economic distress. Really? Really? There is only one person in the United States of America who has the competency to steer the Treasury Department? Then, my friends, we are in deeper trouble than it would appear.

I find it interesting that in light of "change we can believe in" and that "our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some" and "those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day," yes, in light of those Presidential quotes, a tax cheat now runs the IRS.

I say boo to the sixty yes-voting Senators! I say boo to our silver-tongued President! I say boo to tax-cheating Secretary Geithner. Yeah, I know they aren't reading this, but none the less, I say boo!

Tag! You're.... a coincidence

So.... I was graciously "tagged" to participate in a bloggy chain mail thing by Raising Rascals (thanks Amber), where you go to the fourth file of your photos and pick the fourth picture, post it, and then tag more folks. Well, the way my photos are set up is a little more complicated than the instructions (only because my computer does it automatically - I can barely put my socks in the correct dresser drawer). So following Lisa's Little Slice's lead, I picked the fourth (well only) photo from the fourth sub-folder from the fourth folder from 2008, and, oh my gosh, it is actually one of the photos (the bottom one) that I had already planned to use for my next post! Ooohhhhh. Creeeepy. (No, I'm for real. It really happened that way).

Oh, well, here's the story. My friend, MLW, who was featured in my most recent post is also the subject of this one. I'm really not gunning for her; I was looking through an old email file to find someone else's email address, and I came across the email that is described below. After laughing out loud at my own hilarity, I decided a post was in order.

MLW, who lives in the DC area, graciously sent a thoughtful email to a few friends:

From the Washington Post. I just thought it looked yummy, and I wanted to
share it with my baking friends.
MLW

Being the smart aleck that I am, I responded in the following manner:

I made brownies last night and thought I'd share the recipe I used.
-Aaron

I promise - No more MLW posts for a while... Thanks for being a good sport.

Careful what you wish for...

So.... it has been a while since I've posted. Well, you didn't need me to tell you that, but I guess I needed you to tell me.

I was talking on the phone this evening with some dear friends of mine, and both husband and wife commented on my need to blog (almost a month since the last post - I was really hoping that Chrismon story would keep you occupied). I expressed my apologies and offered some excuse about being busy (work, wedding, etc...).

After finishing the telephone conversation, and instead of blogging (with a lack of clever topics jumping to mind), I continued working on entering names and addresses into a database for the correspondence for our upcoming nuptials. We're getting the information together for the calligrapher for the invitations as well as in anticipation of printing address labels for the Save the Date cards (which Rachel was only a little annoyed when I started calling them STD cards - actually she thought it was funny). There was a random Texas address that I didn't have in my address book, on facebook, in a phone book, or in my collection of the past few years' Christmas Cards, so I went rifling through a desk drawer to find a card that I knew the Texas addressee had sent this past year. Along with the Texan's card, I found a lovely handwritten letter (on two sticky notes) from the wife of the couple to whom I was talking earlier, the very same person that was encouraging me to blog again. This note, which was taped to the front door of my friend's house to let me know why she wasn't answering the door, is at least six years old.

This note helps to explain why I love this couple and use the adjective "dear" to describe them. Hopefully they won't mind being the topic of this blog post (but they asked for it).

Thanks to all you great friends who keep me laughing.