so sunday when y'all were fixing wings and running to the liquor store, i was

SINGING! w a bunch of old hippies. and a 6 yo girl.
so, voice lessons got me through the plague. 2 1/2 yrs til my finances got crunched and i stopped. i have the best coach ever, a guy who fixes broken voices. i am stunned at the voice i have now.
his wife has been a friend for 20 yrs, and is 1 of my favorite people. he and i have become dear friends as well, w our hour always running long, half music, half chat and laughs.

in the interim, i have sung a few times w an irish pick up band. i’ve been dying to find someone to sing w, preferably several someones. every nov i harangue my fb friends about caroling, but have yet to make that happen. but a dear, dear friend told me that her hs bf had a monthly song circle at her house. folkies. said friend had been following my urban farm fb page for years.

so, we finally talked on the phone in early jan, and i missed 1, but i showed up this time.
i had an absolute blast. they may have been a tad disappointed at my knowledge of the folk cannon, but then i was told they knew a lot of irish tunes, and they didnt know any of the doz on my list. they wanted galway girl, but none of the players knew it. i was not prepared for a capella. but that’s a thing w them.

they were very kind, including downloading parody lyrics to ‘whiskey in the jar’ that i had shared a vid of w the host. they like funny songs, and everyone joined in and loved it.
the 6 yo, a grand, came in after the food part, and they did a couple songs for her, including the itsy bitsy spider and the old woman who swallowed a fly. i got to experience 1st had the power of telling a little girl u r a swifty. lol. which is to say- 💣. i asked gramma to find out what her fave is, and i’ll learn it for her.

it did break up a bit early cuz 1 guy wanted to see the game. but the complete lack of talk about sportsball might have been my favorite part.
i plan to make it a habit. it’s also on the next block from a college friend i havent seen in dog years.

if i were joe, i'd have merrick garland on the carpet yesterday.

the prez keeping his paws off doj is a good policy. but it’s also his JOB to see that the dept is well run. hur proves it is clearly not well run.
i wd ask for the resignation letters of any shit stain’s leftovers not covered by civil service, and for the process to begin to remove those that r.
i wd review the state of hi level prosecutions for j6. if there r no congresscritters on that list, i wd ask for his resignation.

this has nothing to do w the political hit delivered by hur, but by the incredibly inappropriate content of the report, in violation of allllll doj procedures. including garland’s responsibility to edit that piece of trash. it’s time to put his head on the chopping block. give him 60 days to get his shit together or hand over the reigns.

ps- i wd make sure commander sat in on the meeting.

ok, i have a potluck on sunday.

i was thinking i’d make chili, but i’m making a stop 1st to drop some food on a friend who had a car accident. a picky eater. “doesnt do beans”. he asked for chicken marsala, which i’m not making for a doz ppl.
but i think i need to do something cold, cuz i’ll spend some time w the friend 1st.
who has something brilliant? these r new friends, 1st time at their monthly hippie song circle.

miss hotlips new life.

i’ve been posting in pets about my perfect pup gone wrong. been a nightmare. but she started a training program this week, and she’s gonna b fine. this is the 1st of the daily-ish vids they do. have a couple more i’ll post when i get them up.
i’m super pleased.
thread here.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/116188912

miss hotlips' new life so far. updated w vid

well, after 4 full days of training, i couldnt b more pleased. she’s getting acclimated, more confident every day. she’s so solid on the basics that they have her doing hurdles. which, of course, she picked up instantly. they’re gonna have a hard time keeping up w her.

the best part, tho, is that she’d doing great w other dogs. they had internet trouble so i wasnt getting the vids they usually do. but i got a couple last night of her playing w 2 diff dogs. big enclosure, her on a long line, 3 trainers. a tad nerve wracking, but fine.
the 1st was a dominant female, much bigger than her. she looks a lot like her target, radar. not sure she wd see that, but maybe. i’d forgot how delightful it is to see her play w a big dog.
she was very wound up, of course. she surely has missed it. but she did great. she got the cues, she responded appropriately, including hitting the floor a couple times. when they pulled her off, she cooled out well.
the 2nd 1 was a lot nerve wracking. a submissive male, not much bigger and not as well trained. she was very much in his face. but again did well, including stopping the game to watch a couple other dogs passing by.

the best i was hoping for at this point was for her to b on the other side of a fence from another dog w/o losing her shit. i get a 1hr session w the head trainer each week, and i’m hoping they’ll let me bring radar. if she’s half as good w him as she was w dog #1, we’re halfway home.

imma see if i can get the vids up to share.
ok, here it is. 15 min.

did your military training lead u to a good civilian job?

so, i have a burr under my saddle, planted there by my bro, a viet man vet and the dad of an army nurse.
here’s his story- u might have read 1 of my many posts about my nephew, an army lifer, jr rotc, an army scholarship to a masters, to a phd at the war college, a flag officer at fort campbell, won a congressional medal for bravery, who rose to be obama’s liaison to jsoc, to a asst sec def for jsoc.
when my nephew want to be an rn, he talked him into joining the army. he signed up for a 4 yr hitch, and was a surgical nurse at reed. it wasnt til he got home to cali that he found out that if he wanted his rn, he had to start at square 1. he couldnt even work as a emt.

the student loan lobby has fixed it. my brother made it a crusade, and changed the law in cali. the next cycle, the sponsor of the bill was targeted, defeated, and the bill was repealed.
there’s 2 things about this that make me fume- the 1st is that his lifer uncle did.not.know.this.
the 2nd is that my nephew was in the wh during this time. several members of the fam got private wh tours, including the west wing. i know obama was made aware of the problem, cuz my bro left a letter about it in obama’s medicine cabinet. he earned a visit from the ss for that.
i’ve talked to several state legislators, and none of them will touch this. few even know. this is a state by state issue. states issue civilian professional certs.

now, we have a dire need in this country for all kinds of things, nurses is the tip of the iceberg. and we have many unemployed vets. all that’s needed to fix this is to shut up the loan lobby.

so i’m curious about whether my peeps here have had this problem, or if they have been able to build a career on their military training, or if they’ve hit this same wall.

my friend, du’er kelly westlund, is working on affordable housing in wis. i dont know much about military structure, so i wonder what other types of training has civilian applications. the structure of such a bill shd b- this cmos is equivalent to this certification.
she’s someone who is aware of and pissed off about this issue. she was a candidate for congress herself, but lost.
i have her ear, she has a wide mandate, and i’m hoping y’all can give me some facts to take to her.
tia.

xposting from the lounge- my new year's experiment.

xpost from the lounge- my little new year's experiment.

i did a little new years experiment on fb. decided january was the perfect time to check in w old friends.

on nye, i posted an invite to my friends to talk or get together. it got a fair number of likes, nothing epic. but it did start something.

this is my post from this morning w results-

so, it’s feb 1, the end of my january reach out to old friends experiment, and boy howdy am i keepin this.
so, i had lovely long phone calls w 5 old friends, a visit from an old flame, 2 fb friends met irl, 1 meatspace, the other phonespace, a standing invitation to a monthly gathering of crazy ppl, 2 live performances, and multiple future plans, including a possible houseguest for the dem convention this summer. oh, and several long text chats.
i missed connecting w a few ppl, too. but it’s still nice to know how many ppl wd like to have a long chat.
it was a great reminder that, tho i’m alone most of the time, i cd change that. that’s a rly good thing to know.

eta my inspiration for this-

ok. all this tay tay insanity is forcing my hand.

so, i did listen to a bit of her music, and i didnt hate it. it didnt cost me anything.
but at this point i think i’m gonna have to watch the movie. imma watch it on the big tv, have a date night w myself. i wasnt gonna spend the $20, but now i have to check out what all the fuss is about.

i’m so glad she’s on our side.

eta- thanks so much all for a delightful thread. keep kickin.