This morning, Gary and I took our beloved Thatchy to the vet to put her out of her misery. The last couple of days, she took a marked turn for the worse. We had reached the point where even I knew that it was time for her to run the Rainbow Bridge. I can now look back and know that it was the right thing to do for her because her quality of life had tipped over dramatically to more bad than good. Somehow that logic still doesn’t help with the emotions. Perhaps in time some healing will bring forth more of the logic.

Many of you knew Thatchy and know that I don’t exaggerate when I say that she was our perfect dog. She was loyal beyond words…..she was like my right arm. The joy she brought all of us for more than a decade is just indescribable. When I opened the door when we came home and she wasn’t here to greet me with her wagging tail and her big sloppy kisses, the emotional reality was almost too much to bear. Everywhere I look, she’s there…but she’s not. Every McDonald’s will remind me of her standing at attention in her car seat waiting patiently for her piece of the Kid’s Meal. The thought of not hearing her bark when Pond Man Rich appears on our back porch…of her not here to chase the squirrels and the geese….it breaks my heart.

God Bless that sweet dog. We did everything we could Thatchy. I think she knew that. Just seconds from slipping away from us, she looked up and gave me my last big tongue lick. She knew she was loved. Now she is running through the meadows with Maggie on the other side of the Bridge. May we meet again one day.

So much love,

Your Mommie

Posted on March 21st, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 102 Comments »

Posted on March 13th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 152 Comments »

There’s actually some good news when it comes to the Schmidt family doggie scene.

Please meet Spring.  She’s a Maltese and she is precious.  She’s all white with a little apricot on each ear.  Actually, she looks a bit like a little Westie, which is undoubtedly what attracted me to her in the first place.  She’s tiny…as in REALLY tiny…and will supposedly be between 4 and 7 pounds at her full growth.  That means she’ll be traveling with me everywhere-literally-in a little purse.

We decided on her name for a number of reasons, but primarily because she literally runs through the grass “springing” like a bunny.  We also got her on “spring forward” day…it’s spring break…and the word Spring means “season of renewal”.

We’re working on housetraining.  She’s only 10 weeks old, so I know I need to be patient.  She’s doing pretty well already, but I know we’ll have our share of accidents for a bit yet.

My wonderful Thatchy isn’t too thrilled.  She’s just not feeling good enough to play and that frustrates both of them, I think.  Her lump is starting to return and the choking and gagging and snorting is getting bad.  We’ve been saying that we’d watch and as long as she had some love of life, all would be good.  At this point, I think the “bad” is beginning to outweigh the good.  It breaks my heart so to even say it, but I think the next few days may be her last.  Maybe Spring will be able to help us through it all emotionally and in return, we can, hopefully, help her to grow into the perfect dog we had with Thatchy.  I refuse to compare the two as they are very different dogs, but I can’t help but be struck by the cycle of life.  One so full of energy and life…and the other so weary.

The Season of Renewal.

Welcome Spring.

Posted on March 12th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 101 Comments »

BUT! This quick article just HAS to be about football. I know there are some/alot of you who could care less….but DA BEARS made it back to the Super Bowl again in spite of Sexy Rexy “Bad Rex” Grossman! Actually, I kinda feel sorry for those of you who don’t feel the exhiliration..the EUPHORIA..of being football fans when “your team” reaches the pinacle of the game. I’ve adopted DA BEARS as my second favorite team and root heartily for them in every game but one. That one game happened this very season when the Dolphins entered Soldier Field without even a prayer of beating a seemingly unbeatable Bears team. Enter “the bad Rex” and Miami beat the stuffings out of a clearly, usually, superior Chicago team. As they say…”any given Sunday”.

After the beating, the Bears regrouped to now be the NFC representative to THE BIG GAME! And to think I’ll be in Florida for the Super Bowl with my adopted Bears team playing for all the pesos…and I’ll have to watch it on TV. A quick check on ebay is showing tickets in the high thousand dollar multiples, so I’ll content myself with cheering and screaming from the comfort of my couch.

Instead of focusing on the teams in The Bowl, the media seems insistent on gaggingly regurgitating the fact that this game will go down in history as having the first two black coaches. How racist is that?? How ’bout the fact that these are two great coaches or their teams wouldn’t be at the big dance. WHO CARES what color their skin is after all?

I’ve said all year that it really didn’t matter who would be representing the NFC in Miami in February because the AFC representative would beat the pants off ANY NFC team. I’ll swallow that prediction. Not because I have anything against the Colts (in fact, in order of fandom, Indy is my 3rd favorite), Peyton Manning is a Class A QB like few others (unlike his arrogant brother with the Giants), and I’d love to see him with a ring. He surely deserves it…BUT…not this year. Here’s hoping, even praying, that “the GOOD Rex” shows up for the Bears and puts proof to the pudding that it truly is “any given Sunday”.

GO BEARS!!!!!

Posted on January 23rd, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 189 Comments »

I couldn’t say what needs to be said any better than the article linked below. Please read it and think about what this means to this country. Let’s just say that some usual suspects are mentioned….Ms. Pissmeofflousy, John McCain, Michael Chertoff and George Bush Sr.

Just a couple of tidbits:

This latest attack on bloggers comes hot on the heels of Republican Senator John McCain’s proposal to introduce legislation that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards.

Offensive statements? How about…YOU, John McCain, are a grade A arsehole! Does that qualify?

In a speech last month, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a “terror training camp,” through which “disaffected people living in the United States” are developing “radical ideologies and potentially violent skills.” Chertoff pledged to dispatch Homeland Security agents to local police departments in order to aid in the apprehension of domestic terrorists who use the Internet as a political tool.

Looks like I’ll soon be off to jail. Please send money.

Bloggers Who Criticize Government May Face Prison
Bill would allow rounding up and imprisoning of non-registered political writers

Posted on January 20th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 54 Comments »

I’ve held it in as long as I can. I can’t take it no mo’!

Yesterday, we had two Border Patrol agents sent to Federal prison for 11 and 12 years for shooting some Mexican invader in the butt as he was hauling in 800 pounds of marijuana. They didn’t know that when they shot him…they only knew that he was invading, he didn’t stop when told to, they thought he brandished a gun at them…and he was running away. They didn’t know they had hit him as the invader kept on running back to Mexico. They picked up all the shell casings (that’s an administrative no-no). That’s a quick synopsis (see full article at Border Patrol agents sentenced to prison ). So, what do we have here? We’ve got two border patrol agents IN JAIL for trying to apprehend one of the millions of criminal invaders. We’ve got the drug running invader being given free medical care in El Paso, he’s been given full immunity to come back to the US and testify against our brave agents. (By the way, he’s apparently been given immunity AGAIN for more drug running AFTER this incident).

Now SINCE WHEN do ILLEGAL invaders have US constitutional rights to begin with? There is DEFINITELY a chain of calamity for ROE’s coming out of this wimpy White House as it pertains to our entire military AND our border agents. The good guys are doing their jobs to protect our border as best they can and they are in jail for over a decade. The bad guy walks with full immunity, gets free health care..and is now suing our government for FIVE MILLION dollars.

The ROAR from “the people” and many Congresscritters has been most loud…most vocal. Letters from Congress have been sent to the President demanding a pardon for these men. Bush has refused to listen and instead pardons many other drug dealers in his recent Presidential Pardons.

AND NOW….today’s latest report from the border…

Yuma border agent dragged into canal

Today it’s a report of illegals trying to sneak in and dragging our guys into the water. This is not the first time. One time they drowned one of our agents. Mad enough, yet?

Let’s not forget a few years ago when a gang of illegals were trespassing on an American’s ranch on the border. The guy warned them. They didn’t care. He shot at them. They sued and won. The illegals are now living on the American’s ranch. I forget if that poor man went to jail too.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. ANY illegal harms a hair on the head of ANYONE in my family, I will be the most horrible nightmare this White House has EVER seen. That’s not a threat. That’s a promise.

Posted on January 18th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 155 Comments »

No long rant today.  I just can’t bear to hear about anymore murders in Iraq by the turbaned, infidel hating, koran and allah loving, beheading subhumans who grovel at the feet of their pedophile prophet mohammed.

The show “24″ is good for the soul.  It actually has us fighting…REALLY fighting…a war against the most dangerous “ism” of our time.  The perpetually outraged “religion” of islam is indeed “OUTRAGED” with the depiction of muslims as terrorists.  If the murdering cult weren’t hell bent on killing us all…it would be laughable.  I hope you are all watching.  If only we had Jack Bauer in the White House, this war would have been over many “24″ hours ago.

So, as salvation for the soul, here’s one to warm you up…

These birds swoop down in the Everglades to grab a fishy swimming by.  Problem is that they cannot fly at all when their wings are wet, so they sit there with spread wings drying off in the sun, until they can do another swoop hoping for another catch.

Life seems to be a dichotomy of great and evil.  What’s the old saying…”I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich and I like rich alot better”.  Well, I’ve seen great and I’ve seen evil…and great has it all over evil.  Evil of our time resides in the stone age mentality of islam.  Let’s see alot more birds and fish and alot less murdering beheaders.  Time is short.  Let’s roll.

Posted on January 17th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 65 Comments »

World War II. THE “big one”.

Skip to the end. We WON and we WON big. We didn’t fight a war of compassion by politicians afraid of their shadows. We knew what had to be done…and we did it. Our “rules of engagement” were enunciated by General Patton when he said “…no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” We had no partisan media following our soldiers around waiting for “one wrong move”…or, worse yet, a media who lie, and fabricate with loose lips sinking ships as they proudly print leaked classified materials or CNN boastfully showing murdering islamists shooting ten American soldiers.

We’ve now got a more “compassionate” war in Iraq. I repeatedly hear reports of the rules of engagement being literally like tying our soldiers’ hands behind their backs. We’re unable to shoot back at rooftop snipers until we’ve evacuated the building…we can’t enter “holy” mosques which are routinely used as roadside bomb depots because we might “inflame”. Colonel Hunt said on Fox that there is a “7-step process” involved that must be gone through by a soldier before he shoots back at some murdering, turbaned, maniac trying to kill him. The politicians blather ad nauseum about winning hearts and minds while our heroic young men and women are being targeted like dead ducks in a barrel. They must worry through sleepless nights about making that “wrong move” in trying to stay alive in the theater of war and being court martialed by some pinhead elitist political policy run amok.

I had been most supportive of this President as it pertains to the WOT. As I’ve seen more and more of this war campaign of compassion that is getting our guys KILLED…I’ve jumped off that bandwagon. The reason we are not winning this war is entirely because we do not “make those bastards die for their country”. Instead, we molly coddle the enemy for fear of inflaming a perpetually inflamed “religion” hellbent on killing all the infidels.

Which brings me around to “the SURGE”. Does it really matter if we have 100,000 troops…or 100 million troops if they are not allowed to win the war? The numbers don’t matter one damn bit unless the rules of engagement are realistic. We must KILL the bad guys with no mercy. That idiot Sadr should have been bagged and rotting in the dirt a year or more ago. Instead, he lives on to organize and kill more American heroes.

One thing I’ll agree with this President on…”we didn’t start this war, but we will win it”. Then DO it dammit!

And…Patton, once again…

“We’ll win this war, but we’ll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we’ve got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We’re not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we’re going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You’ve got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours.”

War is hell. Let’s roll. We didn’t start this war…but we MUST win it. Do it and bring our men and women home to a heroic welcome for once again saving our country, our culture, and our future.

Posted on January 12th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 141 Comments »

So now that we are back in blustery ChiTown, graced with light gray overcast (HEY! As my Mom always says…”it could be worse”!), I’m already itching for memories of blue skies and warmth! Yeah, yeah…I know it’s been a “mild” winter thus far. For me, winter in any shape or form is just a fact of life, a character-builder meant to make us appreciate the good things in life…like….SUMMER! After six months of gray, cold, blowing, snow and ice, who wouldn’t be appreciative of Mother Nature when she gives us a whole three months of beauty. OK….enough bloviating….here’s the real deal….

I won’t bore you all with my camera full of pictures, but just seeing that sunset…and that blue water does my heart good on this cold, cold morning in January in Chicago.

Cheers!

Posted on January 11th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 213 Comments »

This post will probably not mean a thing to most of you…at least the details won’t…but the larger picture about character, morals, and principles will remind you that you’ve undoubtedly been seeing the LACK of these qualities alot lately.

So, to get this off my chest, and so my family can listen just a little less to my diatribes on this subject, I’ll give you a general overview of my most recent outrage.

As some/most of you know, we are diehard Miami Dolphin football fans. Ever since Don Shula (coach) and Dan Marino (QB) were sent into retirement by the powers-that-be, this team has spent years trying to find cohesiveness. Just when you think you’re on the road to greatness, you find that “that person” wasn’t who you thought he was. WELL…it’s happened again in eyeball-popping, red-faced fashion this week AGAIN.

Two years ago, another failed coach was sent scampering off into the sunset after damn near wrecking the organization..and certainly it’s pride. Dave Wannstedt had managed to do a number on the Chicago Bears, and then brought his “Mr. Nice Guy” act to South Florida. Let’s just say he ran us into the ground, much like he did the Bears, and then was sent out of Dodge. Enter Nick Saban….college coach extraordinaire. Nick, or “THE NICKTATOR” as he’s come to be known around these parts, came to the Dolphins two years ago already on a pedestal. He seemed to have the flashing lights of Las Vegas following him. Miami was jubiliant! FINALLY! We’ve got a proven winner coming up from the college ranks. He was tough as nails, demanded allegiance and perfection. Chortled on and on about always ALWAYS doing your best, about loyalty, about seeing your goal to the end. You just know where this is going, don’t you??

Without boring you with alot of details, after WEEKS of denying any interest in the job, the Nicktator got on a plane to Alabama, University of (say WHAT??) after telling the owner (who had given him carloads of cash, ALL the power in the organization, built him a new “bubble”..I could go on) that he was leaving after 2 years of his 5 year contract. He told his staff by way of conference call, NEVER told his players (save a couple)…and didn’t show up at the press conference.

He arrives in Alabama (say WHAT??) to a throng of groupies giving out hugs and kisses and holds a press conference there once again prattling on and on about allegiance, leadership, doing the right thing…blah blah blah. All this after he flat out LIED to everyone and without any doubt acted like THE most pompous, arrogant ASS you could ever imagine. After being “offended” by the media who DARED to ask him questions about the rumors of this, after refusing to let anyone but HIM address the media EVER, and treating them like red-headed step-children…he became every single thing he swore he wasn’t.

He’s a slug, a charlatan, a weasel and a snake…and those are the nicer things the media is saying about him. Believe me when I say that the fans have alot more to say. Alabama (say WHAT??) may be quite surprised in a few years when ole Nick decides that he’s moving on again. Rumor has it that his wife, Terry, didn’t like the “culture” in South Florida. They lived in an absolute mansion on the ocean and lived life in the way of Kings and Queens, but as “just people”, Nick and Terry weren’t well liked. Their arrogant, egotistical, pompous personalities didn’t endear them much to the Hawaiian shirt, flip-flop crowd of sunshine and rumrunners.

One of my favorite quotes from Nick was “the best way to disrespect someone is just to turn and walk away”. No kidding Nick. You’ve gone from Mr. Moral, Upstanding Leader to Mr. Lying Schmuck in one short plane ride.

Where have the people of morals, principles and character gone? Seems society doesn’t demand it anymore.

I’ve never been one who cared much for college football. He’s changed that. I will now be cheering heartily for anyone and EVERYONE to beat the pants off that little Napolean. Now, where can I get an Auburn hat and pom poms? God help that weasel if he ever shows up at the Orange Bowl. There is not a man more vilified in the NFL…certainly not in the storied history of the Miami Dolphins…than Nick, the Nicktator. You could cut the hatred with a knife. Seriously.

Posted on January 5th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 67 Comments »