Nilknarf News

So, this will only be the start of today's entry... 'cause we're going out to celebrate Karen's birthday at the Olive Garden in about ten minutes....

Got a rotten night's sleep last night. The power came back on at 02:00 and I got up and turned some lights off and thought about fixing the clocks... then it went off again. Dammit. Went back to bed, sans C-PAP and fans, miserable trying to sleep, and bad for Karen too, 'cause I was snoring mightily without the C-PAP.

The power finally came on for good about 06:00 and I put the C-PAP on, figgering that I'd at least get 30 minutes of good sleep. Karen woke me up before she left, but I didn't drag outta bed until about 07:45.

And drag kinda says it all about this day.

For one thing, my knee hurts. A bunch. Yeah, *that* knee, the one wot wuz fixed.

For another thing, I'm really tired. Not sleeping does that to me, and I'm not used to it any more.

21:00...
So... went out tonight to celebrate Karen's 62nd. Went to Olive Garden, as previously stated. It was more or less OK, except that Lacee was misbehaving badly, and so was Matt. They feed off of each other.

And the phones... Karen's and Kim's cell phones.

Phones and kids should be barred from celebratory meals.

Yeah, I've known that a long time. Other people don't, though. I was embarrassed. Too tired to be properly embarrassed, though. Whatever.

The big news from yesterday, of course, is the "under god" needing to be removed from the pledge of allegiance. Really bad timing there... it was put in after everyone was all stirred up about the godless communists in the early 50's. Now, of course, everyone is all stirred up about the godless... well, allah doesn't really count... terrorists.

Still, the point is: separation of church and state. That point is lost in the rhetoric, and then there's the fact that a large number of people have no idea what SOCAS means... and the large number of people who think that the state should be run by *their* church... stupidly not realizing that it would most likely be somebody else's church.

And then, today, the supremes (court, not the most excellent singers) decided that it's OK to do vouchers, thereby weakening the already handicapped national education system. Whatchwannabet that the tuitions in private schools goes up the exact amount of the vouchers? And that the average guy is *still* gonna have to send his kids to public schools, 'cause he can't afford to do otherwise? And that there will be even *less* education going on in public schools, 'cause the "private" schools are siphoning off all of the money? And that the private schools will be able to afford to build new chapels and buy gold-leaf bibles to better educate their students?

Bitter? Me? Nah.

Tired and grouchy.