There must be no one at home in Olympia. I have written local, state, federal, and yes, even the Governor, asking WHY are other states allowed to register equipment that drive on our roads when they should be paying for license tabs in this state. At one time, my address book had more contact names for government representatives than friends. Reichert-"we'll look into it and get back to you"-no reply, Morrell-"not a federal issue, contact the DOL", Murray-"ditto", Smith-"staff will look at this, no reply", Gregoir-NO RESPONSE. Local reps-"state issue, call them". The no response hurt the most. When the state is obviously looking high and low for every dollar it can find, here I am waiving my flag and there is no response. After several years of hounding these people I think I am giving up because my story is not being heard. Even the TV and newspaper people have not replied to my cry for "WHY"? The "Tip Line" might as well be called the "If no-one is dead or dying, don't call us line". Hundreds of thousands of revenue dollars are lost in this underhanded scheme of large corporations finding the cheapest state to register their fleet, put their license plates on road equipment, and truck on their merry way at the expense of Washington taxpayers. If ANY-one out there can put a bug in ANY-one's ear that has ANY idea of how to get a hold of ANY representative with ANY department that has ANY-thing to do with ANY king of inquiry, budget review, DOL department, DOR investigations, etc, I am willing to travel ANY where to tell my story to ANY one. I only have one request, don't call me and say you "know a guy who knows a guy". Give my number to someone who can GET THE JOB DONE. Marty 253 318-2084

Hello, bloggers. You'll rarely see me post in this space; this is your forum, not the TNT's!

But several of you came to mind as I launch our plans to bring back our Fair Blog next month. We're fishing for participants in the paper over the next several days:

Want to be an Internet writer for us at the Puyallup Fair? For the second year, The News Tribune plans to blog the fair’s 17-day run in September, pointing out the sweet deals, making off-the-cuff observations and providing spontaneous reports on things to do and places to avoid. Interested? Drop an e-mail to melissa.santos@thenewstribune.com or call her at 253-552-7058.

Let Melissa, our Puyallup beat reporter, know if you're interested -- or you can always query me. We'll have a secure computer set up at the fairgrounds. You'd have to commit to blogging a minimum of four times during a single day at the fair. (A second day could be negotiated!) We'll give you a free gate ticket and parking pass.

As the ol' theme song says: "You can blog it at a trot, you can blog it a gallop!"

Or something like that.

Ok so picture this. Sitting on my couch, giving my baby a bottle, and watching kid shows with my four year old. When suddenly there's an extra noise in the house that doesn't belong. Oh lord, not again!

I muted the tv, adjusted the baby for proper carrying, and calmed my daughter. What is that? I followed this unusual noise. I get to my bathroom when it stops. As I push open the door my bathroom is covered in water. What happened? My daughter was with me. My husband is at work. I was on the couch. Slightly panicked I put down the baby, calm my freaked out daughter, and investigated. This looked like spray not overflow. So I immediately thought, "Oh No! Sewer back up!" I run to the basement and it is clean. No sewage, I am safe. As I am in the basement I hear the noise again. I run upstairs my daughter has her ears covered and OMG the toilet is spraying everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE!! Then it stops. I think, "Call the water department". There was a low flow issue last week maybe something is wrong again. Nope, no low flow. I am put on hold while the lady asks around. While I am on hold I watch the toilet water sway back and forth until suddenly the sway is rapid. Then BOOM eruptus. There it goes again!(Screams) "I'm hit! I'm hit!" panick again "Hello take me off hold, it's doing it again" as I am on hold I am thinking no one is going to believe me. I run and grab my camera and turn it onto video. I manage to record action and hang up my phone as I am still on hold. I redial and she answers, "It's doing it again...." She suggested that my daughter flushed a toy down the toilet. Yeah right! I wasn't buying that.

After many calls and referrals I finally was told to contact the sewer department. It was their doing. They were jetting the sewers and used alittle too much pressure. Which in turn gave my bathroom a toilet water shower. Afterwards there are few hours of cleaning and replacing items that I will never dare use again. I went through the emotions of panick, anger, bawling, and laughter. I mean come on there is toilet water spraying everywhere! Panick. There is pressurized sewer air blowing into my bathroom. Anger. There is toilet water and sewer air blowing into my bathroom while both kids are crying. Bawling. There is sewer air and pee pee water blowing into my bathroom. I got it on video. My daughter is freaked. My toilet looks like a over cranked bidet. Laughter.

Toilet Blowing



Donna

Snow, rain, sunshine, fog, life bubbling around me and I found myself just tightening up during the last few weeks... Huckabee... McCaine... Obama... Clinton... and the whole world twisting and turning in ways far beyond my understanding

I felt as I was my insides were boiling like an egg in hot water

It is a wonder, though, with a little quiet sleep and a change of heart can do as the weather starts promising to kiss one with new life

I thought of the wonderful image of Mary Magdalene that appears on trinity stores. com website. Thank you Brother Robert Lenz, Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) for giving us such wonderful works as Mary Magdalene here... holding the egg in her hand as a sign of rebirth

=> Read more!

FULL MOON OF DANCING CLOUDS

in the full
moon of dancing
clouds the tides
of my emotions
rise
I name demons
but I won't
own them lest
they carry me to
be pummeled
at the wave's
demise
neither will I
vainly think
my will could
stem the tide
wash over me
wash over me
wash over me
wash over me
till I am
worn smooth
and catch
the reflected
light

All things must come to an end and Commie dictators, despite what they might want you to think, are no exception. Fidel is 81 years old and he is either dead, or he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. The other night, Granma, the Cuban Commie newspaper of record reported that Castro took a Sherman and said "I neither will aspire to, nor will I accept, the position of president of the Council of State and commander-in-chief.” The king is dead. Long live the king!

One wonders if he isn’t already dead and Raul is trying to make it look like his brother will keep his pledge to outlive the Bush Administration. Needless to say, it wouldn’t surprise me to know that the old Commie is already chilling out in a cryo-freezer waiting for January 21st, 2009. Commie dictators can’t even tell the truth when they are dead.

What is Cuba’s immediate future is anyone’s guess. Raul is no softie and was the administrative cog that kept the Cuban jalopy sputtering along. Fidel wasn’t exactly the executive type and relied on his brother to take care of the more mundane details of actually running the country. Fidel was the orator, the personality, the leader, but management wasn’t exactly his forte.

And while Raul is the administrator, he doesn’t have his brother’s flare for the flamboyant. At this point in time, there are more questions than real answers. Since any news that comes out of a Commie dictatorship is spun like a dreidel on Hanukkah, it’s doubtful we’ll have a good read for the near future on what all this means.

I tend to think not much will change. Raul may lighten things up a bit economically, but he really can’t afford to lose too much of a grip on things. The real question at this point is who is on deck in Raul’s game. It’s one thing to leave the store to your brother, but it’s another thing entirely when your brother is ready to expire retire and there isn't any brothers left. Transitions to the next Commie in Chief are usually not done without a whole lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth and sometimes, they can be downright bloody.

So, I figure Raul has maybe five to ten years, give or take a few. In that time, he needs to watch his back like never before. There will be opportunists who are thirsting to take on the mantle and title of El Presidente and with Fidel out of the way, I’m sure someone will hear opportunity pounding.

And after Raul, it’s anyone’s call.

VW

A recent blog on the Grit City Blog regarding the movie "I Love You To Death" which was filmed in Tacoma got me to thinking . . . Let's get more Hollywood Filmmakers here to Tacoma to film another movie! I worked as a stand in on this film and it was a blast! I met Tracey Ullman, Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates.

The latest movie filmed here was "The 10 Things I Hate About You" back in 1996. It would be great to have another movie filmed here with the name "Tacoma" in the film verses the Seattle name!

Who else remembers when Stockard Channing was here in the mid 70s filming "Sweet Revenge?" My parents took me downtown early one evening to watch Stockard walk down St Helens Avenue several times while they filmed her. If I ever met her I would tell her that story! Oh, and what a terrific actress she is - I would tell her that as well!