Chase had the dinner of his dreams last night: movie theatre popcorn, the better part of a can of pringles smuggled into the theatre courtesy of my diaper bag, laffy taffy, and a root beer to top it all off. I figured I'd test his kindergarten teacher's theory that the proverbial sugar high is a bunch of bunk. Just kidding. Every so often we hit a rush hour show and do dinner at the movies. Last night's dinner was particularly awful (usually he gets a hot dog) but the movie (Bee Movie) was cute and one night of junk isn't going to to kill him.

Now he'd like to see Fred Claus (gotta love those previews). It's PG, which is what Bee Movie was, but it seems a bit more adult than Bee Movie, perhaps b/c it isn't animated. I was on the fence about it, but I really want to see it myself, so I think we'll probably go next Monday night. Grandpa will still be on vacation and once Cassie gets mobile, movies will be a lot harder to do w/both kids by myself.

I will undoubtably curse myself writing this, but Chase has been doing very well at school since the end of cycle break. He's gotten ALL happy faces since he went back. He really, really enjoys school and it is amazing to see how much he's learning every day.

Cassie is still our sweet little lump. She's not rolling over or anything, but she will scooch around on her back, which is kind of funny. She started squealing yesterday. She loves when Chase and I make animal sounds for her. She also loves when Daddy sings "Who Let the Dogs Out" to her.

Grandpa Bill is enjoying his trip to Texas. With the start of deer season this weekend, the kids, dog and I are going to visit Aunt Mikki. Why spend the weekend going nuts here w/the kids when I can share the insanity? She mentioned going to the Tigers game, which I would normally love. But the thought of three adults and four children under age five at the Tiger's game sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. We'll see. Chase tried to use the Cowboys playing Sunday Night Football as an excuse to stay up later last night (denied)...he's quite the little Cowboys fan these days!

Finally, I got this in an email today. Since Dad is on vacation w/o access to email, I can't discuss it w/him. So I'll post it here for your comments.

Madam speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits (including Retirement fund, 401Ks and Mutual Funds!

Alas, it is true - all to help the 12 Million Illegal Immigrants and other unemployed Minorities! Boy, are we in trouble... This woman is frightening. Take special note of the last paragraph. Is she really this whacked out?

Nancy Pelosi condemned the new record highs of the stock market as "just another example of Bush policies helping the rich get richer".

"First Bush cut taxes for the rich and the economy has rebounded with new record low unemployment rates, which only means wealthy employers are getting even wealthier at the expense of the underpaid working class".

She went on to say "Despite the billions of dollars being spent in Iraq our economy is still strong and government tax revenues are at all time highs. What this really means is that business is exploiting the war effort and working Americans, just to put money in their own pockets".

When questioned about recent stock market highs she responded "Only the rich benefit from these record highs. Working Americans, welfare recipients, the unemployed and minorities are not sharing in these obscene record highs". There is no question these windfall profits and income created by the Bush administration need to be taxed at 100% rate and those dollars redistributed to the poor and working class". Profits from the stock market do not reward the hard work of our working class who, by their hard work, are responsible for generating these corporate profits that create stock market profits for the rich. We in congress will need to address this issue to either tax these profits or to control the stock market to prevent this unearned income flow to the rich."

When asked about the fact that over 80% of all Americans have investments in mutual funds, retirement funds, 401Ks, and the stock market she replied "That may be true, but probably only 5% account for 90% of all these investment dollars. That's just more "trickle down" economics claiming that if a corporation is successful that everyone from the CEO to the floor sweeper benefit from higher wages and job security which is ridiculous" "How much of this 'trickle down' ever gets to the unemployed and minorities in our county? None, and that's the tragedy of these stock market highs."

"We democrats are going to address this issue after the election when we take control of the congress. We will return to the 60% to 80% tax rates on the rich and we will be able to take at least 30% of all current lower income tax payers off the rolls and increase government income substantially." We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income in our country and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest."

When asked how these new tax dollars would be spent, she replied : "We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profits taxes could go a long ways to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as 'Americans.'"