It's Christmas time in Hollis Queens, Mom's cooking chicken and collard greens.

my collards and mustard greens are coming along nicely. admittedly, i don't have a huge garden, just a couple of short rows so i could practice some fall planting. in the spring longer rows and more variety will follow. i still have to find the sprinkler lines anyway before i take the tiller to the yard.



yesterday i had a quick dinner with one of the girls from work. of course this will bring speculation from plenty of the other ladies here. Sometimes it's difficult to be one of three men on staff here at school. for the most part i'm used to it after ten years of teaching, but sometimes i still get surprised. i jokingly asked if she wanted to rent a room in the house. i'm halfway hoping she'll consider it. i could use the cash and she's laid back enough that i think we could get along, even though she is a republican. we cant all be perfect right?



The debates last night were more of the same for the most part. McCain was like a pitbull, minus the lipstick, and Obama reminded me a bit too often about the last eight years. in the primaries, i voted for Hillary. I love the Clintons, his years in office were good for me. i had tremendous respect for McCain up until the point he chose Palin as his running mate. that was such a terrible decision to me. To me he was just trying to curry favor with women voters. Does he think they're all dumb? She in no way seems ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, but what do i know, i'm just an elementary school teacher. besides, living in Texas my vote wont count for much anyway.

and what's up with pledging allegiance to the state of texas, how bizare. growing up in MS i didn't pledge my allegiance to that state, thank goodness, i can hear it now:

"I pledge allegiance to thee Mississippi,
One state under ignorance and backwards thinking!"

The whole texas pledge thing is just another reminder of the ridiculous ego that texas and texans seem to have about their state. i often wonder, if you think it's so great here.....have you ever left? Have you seen the rest of the country? Tried walking through the redwood forests of California? Meandered through the metropolis of NYC? Skied the black diamond slopes in Taos?

Oh, and Alaska is much bigger than texas and really close to russia, which apparently gives anyone living there great foreign policy experience!

tio