"Madam Speaker, this is a huge cowpatty with a piece of marshmallow stuck in the middle of it. I'm not going to eat that cowpatty." Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga. on the Financial Bailout plan.

Rep. Broun may not want to eat the cowpie, but every tax paying American is now going to get a mouthful. Just close your eyes and enjoy as best you can! There are still analysts who believe there is a lot more marshmallow than we think and it won't taste nearly as bad as it could. Time will tell.

I wasn't able to able to see either of the debates, so I tracked down the transcripts: Here is the transcript of the first presidential debate.

Here is the Vice Presidential Debate transcript.

Part of why I missed the VP debate was the much higher priority bocce match I was in Thursday night. Our best player has been gone the past three weeks and our record over that period showed. He was back and we were able to turn in a good performance against a talented team. Taking two of the three games put us in the playoffs for sure and next week we play against the last place team so we may move up one more position in the standings if we take care of business. One of the players on the team we played against on Thursday is a friend of mine and it happened to be her birthday. Couldn't give her a break during the games, but I did go with her and a couple others over to the opening night of A/K/A on Main St. in Saint Helena. They were not serving food that night, but the menu looks good and the prices very good for the offerings. Since Lisa and Julie were both in the mood for food, we went down the block to Cook and ate. I had had pizza during bocce, so I was not that hungry, but I did have a beet salad that was very good. Other friends joined us towards the end of the meal, and when they headed to Anna's for some karaoke, I headed home. No singing for me and besides I have plenty to do at home to get it back under control.

Little did I know that when I got home, my brother would be there with the directive that my room downstairs had to be completely vacated right then to allow the carpet cleaners to do their job first thing Friday morning. That pissed me off, because I had moved about half of my stuff already and was doing it a specific order so there wasn't a lot of double work, but this threw that plan out the window. I got the last of my things moved by 3 am and my new room was so overloaded I slept in the hall on the floor. Had a foul mood at work on Friday thinking about all the extra work I was going to have to do so my brother would not be inconvenienced. Anyway, I got home and started cleaning up and it went much faster than I thought. I could use my bed again and after working on it Saturday night and most of Sunday it is in a condition that I can live with. We also got my dad's office two thirds emptied and that will create a lot of new space. He had so many manuals and notebooks from the 60's and 70's, it is amazing. I don't think even he had gone back to look at them probably ever. They just took up space on a book shelf. We had one of his friends from Bechtel come by and see if any of the manuals were usable if we wanted to donate them, but he said there was very little worth keeping.

As for the house itself, the stucco work is done, the woodwork is nearing completion, the painting crew will be here tomorrow to continue where they can, and we had a team adding gravel and regrading the driveway. Thank you God! We had been so far behind with everything, but the necessary things are being accomplished and I know the stress will be diminishing here in short order (at least for me).