I was floored. I finished my call and hurried back inside where I promptly whispered what I'd been unfortunate enough to see to hubby. 
After much grumbling and stalling we head upstairs.
I feed both animals, make lunch and it's back downstairs for the brushing of the teeth and hair, finding of the shoes and Star Wars Lego guys and then off to school.
Occasionally I get to walk Drama Kid into school to say goodbye and if I'm lucky I get a hug and kiss before he runs off.
After drop off I head down to the beach for my walk.
I had my first mammogram on September 10th. Everything I'd heard about them made me nervous.
I wasn't going to tell Drama Dad it was vegetarian until I'd served it, but I did anyway. He really liked the flavor though he's not a huge fan of polenta. He suggested crushing tortilla chips on top instead which I might try. I also won't slice the polenta but mash it to form more of a crust. The slices were a little thick. Let me know if you try it.
Me: Is there more we can be doing as citizens to show our support?
Sgt: There is always more, but it's not in the deeds being done it's the amount of people doing them. Hope that makes sense.
Me: No, elaborate, pleaseSgt: Like I stated, what you are doing is awesome [adopting a soldier], and let's us know at least some of America cares that we chose to do what we do. So I guess what I'm saying is keep the care packages coming, but get more people involved.
To me some of America isn't good enough. I'd like to see most of America getting involved. And I also know that a lot of people don't support the war here, and that's fine, but at least support the troops. We didn't choose to come here, but we are here, so at least acknowledge that we; the American military; have sacrificed so much for a country we love and support us for that if nothing else.
Well, after reading that I decided care packages weren't enough. If you have friends or family in any of these states please consider passing this along. These are the "taken" states (but the more the merrier, international would be great too!)
I am blown away that it's been 10 years since the first book in the Harry Potter series came out. It took me awhile to jump on that bandwagon but I'm so glad I did. I absolutely loved the books and have been impressed with the way the movies have followed them so closely. 
Published Thursday, September 13, 2001
No humor column today. I don't want to write it, and you don't want to read it.
No words of wisdom, either. I wish I were wise enough to say something that would help make sense of this horror, something that would help ease the unimaginable pain of the victims' loved ones, but I'm not that wise. I'm barely capable of thinking. Like many others, I've spent the hours since Tuesday morning staring at the television screen, sometimes crying, sometimes furious, but mostly just stunned.
What I can't get out of my mind is the fact that they used our own planes. I grew up in the Cold War, when we always pictured the threat as coming in the form of missiles - sleek, efficient death machines, unmanned, hurtling over the North Pole from far away.
But what came, instead, were our own commercial airliners, big friendly flying buses coming from
They were able to do it in part because our airport security is pathetic. But mainly they were able to do it because we are an open and trusting society that simply is not set up to cope with evil men, right here among us, who want to kill as many Americans as they can.
That's what's so hard to comprehend. They want us to die just for being Americans. They don't care which Americans die: military civilian Americans, young Americans, old Americans. Baby Americans. They don't care. To them, we're all mortal enemies.
The truth is that most Americans, until Tuesday, were only dimly aware of their existence, and posed no threat to them. But that doesn't matter to them; all that matters is that we're Americans. And so they used our own planes to kill us.
I'm not naive about my country. My country is definitely not always right; my country has at times been terribly wrong. But I know this about Americans: We don't set out to kill innocent people. We don't cheer when innocent people die.
A DECENT PEOPLE The people who did this to us are monsters; the people who cheered them have hate-sickened minds. One reason they can cheer is that they know we would never do to them what their heroes did to us, even though we could, a thousand times worse. They know that when we hunt down the monsters, we will try hard not to harm the innocent. Those are the handcuffs we willingly wear, because for all our flaws, we are a decent people.
And now we are a traumatized people. The TV commentators keep saying that the attacks have awakened a "sleeping giant." And I guess we do look like a giant, to the rest of the world. But when I look around, I don't see a giant: I see millions of individuals - the resilient and caring citizens of New York and Washington; the incredibly brave firefighters, police officers and rescue workers risking their lives in the dust and flames; the politicians standing on the steps of the Capitol and singing an off-key rendition of God Bless America that, corny as it was, had me weeping; the reporters and photographers who have not slept, and will not sleep, as long as there is news to report; the people in my community, and communities across America, lining up to give blood, wishing they could do more.
A GOOD COUNTRY No, I don't see a giant. What I see is Americans. We may have the power of a giant, but we also have the heart of a good and generous people, and we will get through this. We will grieve for our dead, and tend to our wounded, and repair the damage, and tighten our security, and put our planes back in the air.
Eventually most of us, the ones lucky enough not to have lost somebody, will resume our lives. Some day, our country will track down the rest of the monsters behind this, and make them pay, and I suppose that will make most of us feel a little better. But revenge and hatred won't be why we'll go on. We'll go on because we know this is a good country, a country worth keeping.
Those who would destroy it only make us see more clearly how precious it is.
(all photos pulled from Google Images, clink on photo for source)
