wil and kris (and gracie and ava)

I’m proud of the company that I work for. We take pride in rewarding those who care enough to get involved with our community that is our country.

it’s bigger than coffee.

i finally decided who i am voting for…i’d honestly been undecided this whole time till about a week ago. and as much as wil and i would talk about our opinions, i wasn’t entirely sure of who he had decided on either. when bringing it up last night, i was happy to find out we are voting for the same person.

but it got me thinking about married couples who would be voting differently. men and women should most definitely be unique individuals with their own opinions and personalities…but when it comes to marriage, wouldn’t it be kind of a conflict of interest to fall on either side of the aisle?

• if you can’t agree on taxes, how can you deal with your finances together?
• if you can’t agree on abortion, how can you decide on birth control and pregnancy?
• if you can’t agree on education, how can you plan to educate and parent your children?
• if you can’t agree on energy/environment, how can you manage how you run your household & cars?
• if you can’t agree on foreign policy, what happens if your son or daughter is enlisted to fight?
• if you can’t agree on marriage rights, what does your marriage mean to both of you?

i am glad that as unique as wil and i are to each other, we are a team. now, lets get this vote over and find out who’s president!

we need something non controversial on this blog again. not that politics are bad in any way, but something that requires less thinking, i say.

actually, we are excited to host the presidential debate on tuesday (we as in nashville, not we as in me and wil…’welcome to dinner mr. obama and mr. mccain! we apologize for our crazy horse-dogs…’). it’s actually at wil’s old school, and it’s kind of neat that of three debates and the whole country, one is here in our neck of the woods, in the building across from wil’s old dorm.

they’ve had the event center fenced off for a few weeks for preparation, and last night while buying some snacks at the ghetto gas station across the street, we saw the center lit up like day time with huge banners and pristine planters. kind of crazy.

i haven’t decided if i want to try and be out and downtown just to be part of all of the excitement (even though i know you probably won’t be able to get even within blocks of the whole campus), or just stay at home and actually watch the debate in my pj’s…our friend mike says he just ‘wants to be in the vicinity of history being made’ (coming from a history major, mind you).

we’ll see…but that actually was not what i intended to write at all when i sat down here at the computer…my mind hasn’t been able to stay on course very well recently. wil is sitting down stairs just coming home from work, so i’ll make it short so i can say hellow and hang with him, but i just wanted to say how happy i am it is fall…the leaves are starting to change, the nights and mornings are cool with perfect afternoon temps, and the mums are gracing everyone’s doorsteps (including ours, yay!). i hope to get some pretty pumpkins again and maybe grab my teeny box of october decorations out of the attic to disperse throughout the house. yipee for fall!

and i also am excited for a new haircut…i keep going shorter and shorter the last few times i get it cut, and this is by far the shortest. it’s been chopped off the back and it’s really refreshing. why are new haircuts such a big deal on affecting your outlook on life? everything just seems to be happier with new bangs swept across your face? that is…assuming you like how the cut came out…

wil got his hair cut in the last week or so too…but his never seem to be a drastic change. : )

sorry things are so political right now =/

i got an email from a friend of mine recently, and you may have gotten an email from me about the same thing… The idea of the email was to propose a new, different, less risky bailout plan for our economy. Risking 700 billion dollars isn’t the answer.

It’s being called the ‘common sense fix.’ Read through it, and if it’s something you feel will help boost our economy more than the current proposed plan and if it’s something you agree with - make your voice be heard. Our congressmen can’t vote on our behalf if they don’t know what we think and how we feel.

Here is a pdf of the plan

Here is where you can copy the plan from to paste it into your email to your congressmen.

Here is where you can search for your state’s senators
Here is where you can search for your state’s house reps.

I hope everyone is doing well and has been minimally impacted by the economic state.

-wil

Well… as expected, there was a lot of back and forth… (it was a debate after all). One thing that bothers me so much is how much ’sidestepping’ there was. I wish the candidates would just answer the questions and explain what they support or policies they want to introduce.

I think the most defining part of the debate was towards the end when they were talking about Iraq and how our view and investment in Iraq affects us and our situation with the rest of the world. Senator Obama made a good point in that we need to spend less money and attention on Iraq to widen our scope to a world-wide level, but we can’t forget that pulling out of Iraq while it is still unstable is a poor decision. What does it take to find a balance? I feel like I need more details on each candidate’s opinion on this before I can decide which I agree with.

I’m still not a fan of ‘offshore drilling.’ I think the affect it will have will be minimal at best, and giving up the oil we actually have right now will only create more, larger problems when we run out in the future.

One interesting thing that I took away from the debate was the emphasis on ‘change.’ From the start of his campaign, Senator Obama has pronounced and advocated change. But what was interesting was how obvious it was that both of these candidates represent pretty significant change. When it comes to our financial situation, the way we handle energy in America and even some subtle foreign policies. I wonder if Senator McCain would have more support from non-Bush advocates if he emphasized his changing policies…

i’m not one to have any interest in politics, but while looking for cookie recipes online (that’s definitely what i tend to be interested in more…) i came across an article about tennessee and i thought some facts were pretty interesting to pass along.

a while ago i heard on the radio that lobbyists were trying to get tennessee legislature to pass a law allowing grocery stores to carry wine. i’m not that much of a drinker…maybe a glass every week or so, but this little tidbit of news really intrigued me when it first came up. it seems kind of silly that tn is one of the remaining few states to not sell wine in grocery stores, and it would just be so nice to not have to make a special trip to a liquor store and instead be able to grab a bottle during a normal grocery trip. so i was quietly rooting for it to pass as i continued to hear a snippet or two every few weeks about it on the radio in my car. but tonight, i think i’ve found out that it probably won’t pass.

“This year’s effort to put wine in grocery stores got stuck in the mud. Despite the support of thousands of voters who e-mailed, called and signed petitions; despite more than 200 news clips, the bill was shipped off to a summer study committee. Which is legis-speak for it needs CPR this session.” ok…so no wine this year…

in explaining that since it was popular this year, it will be brought back again, and possibly again for a few years because tennessee just does things at their own pace. a slow one that is. here are a few things that makes us that way:

• it took 20 years for a lottery to pass (just started a couple years ago). WOW, ok.
• adults were not required to wear seat belts while driving until 2004. WHAT!?!
• legislature has been debating on banning open alcohol containers for almost 20 years…unbeknown to me, i guess drinking alcohol in the car isn’t such a big deal because “people like a beer on the way to football games, so state law allows everyone but the driver to legally quaff”. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

where do i live? what the heck? i was physically laughing while typing the alcohol one because of the absurdity. but with all that said, the article did end on a good note…that because trader joes is coming to green hills in the fall (WAHOO!), the chain probably wouldn’t have made that commitment if they weren’t confident that the bill would pass soon enough.

bring on the two buck chuck!