AnnaOneAnnaTwo's Blog

This is my proposal: When a bar/restaurant owner applies for a business license, the owner indicates if the bar/restaurant will be a (1) smoking establishment, (2) non-smoking establishment, or (3) smoking separate establishment. A smoking separate establishment must have smoking area(s) truly separated from the non-smoking area, not just a wall between the two where the smoke wafts where it may. It is up to the bar/restaurant owner to determine how best to accomplish this, but they must pass indoor air inspections (which are conducted at the same time safety inspections are done). The restaurant/bar owner is then required to place a small sign on the entrance(s) indicating the type of establishment the customer is about to enter.

This plan gives the owner complete freedom to determine what is best for his/her business and the customer full knowledge of the conditions he/she is about to enter. Eating out is not a right, after all, but if you want to, you pick the type of business that suits your preference and leave the other places alone. If you prefer non-smoking, you go to those places; if you want to smoke, pick a smoking establishment. Likewise, employees (and potential employees) know what they’re getting into if they want to work there. If you don’t like the conditions, find a new job. Most importantly, this gives the government the freedom to butt out of private industry and the lives of citizens in a free country.

Somebody please tell me why this wouldn’t work and end all the fussing and fighting and general crankiness over smoking or non-smoking bars and restaurants?

Personally, I prefer non-smoking and would usually spend my money in non-smoking restaurants. My friends who smoke would prefer a smoking restaurant. But sometimes, because we want to spend time together, we make exceptions. It’s not that hard, guys!

I have had seven phone calls in the last five days from various "supporters" of John McCain.  They are all prerecorded messages, never a live person I could unload on or even beg to put me on a do-not-call list, and they're DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!! How do you get off the dang call list for these campaigns???  Yesterday, Sunday morning, the phone rang before I was even awake!! I want them to know that the nonstop calls make me want to vote AGAINST the candidate, not FOR them.

This happens so often and makes me crazy:

We're watching a TV show, movie or sporting event on television. The volume is comfortable for everyone in the room. ... But then:

COMMERCIAL BREAK!! AND THE VOLUME GETS UNCOMFORTABLY, PAINFULLY LOUD!!

Everyone scrambles for the remote to lower the volume or hit mute.

WHY DO SO MANY COMMERCIALS HAVE TO SCREAM AT US!!???

I think the broadcast channel should control this.  But until they do, I think I'll start a boycott list of companies that do this.

Yesterday, within two minutes, I experienced the trifecta of parking lot rudeness:

1. People blocking two spaces in a crowded parking lot while unloading their purchases, completely oblivious to the others who were circling trying to find a place to park.

2. Driver driving on the wrong side of the road (perhaps he was a momentarily confused European).  Usually this one is driving "up" the "down" lane, but this parking lot had a double-wide lane between parking spaces.

3. Driver blocking the entire driving lane, resulting in backed up traffic in two directions AND the pedestrian lane while she waited for "her" parking space to be vacated.

You would think those three incidents would be enough, right?  No, there's more.

I parked in a vacant space and went in to do my shopping.  I was in and out pretty quickly and when I returned to my car, someone had let a shopping cart loose. It had banged into my car where they left it sitting.  No dent, but I had to move the cart to move my car. !!!

So I moved the cart, parked it in a cart corral (why couldn't the person who used this do this? Yagotme.) and returned to my car.  While I was getting into my car, a dark blue station wagon pulls into the space next to the passenger side of my car.  Within seconds, a teenage girl bails out of the back door of that car, throwing the door open wide ... yep, right into my car!!!  Big door ding there now. She didn't even apologize or slow down. Neither did her dad who was driving.

Hooboy.

Courtesy.  Ain't nothing common about it.

I know I'm gonna catch some big ol' hassle from some of you who think squirrels and chipmunks are cute and precious,  I know, harp, you love 'em, and if I had only a few I might love 'em, too.  And you may think there is nothing better than birds in your yard, and if they'd stay in the trees, I'd be OK with that, too.  But here in South County, the more development that takes place, the worse it gets!!  We're rapidly reaching epic proportions.  So give me some help, guys!

1)  How do you keep birds from building nests in your hanging plants?  I've got the thickest Boston ferns, and the birds have just found them.  There will be nests in there before the week is out.  There's plenty of trees around and I've got a big lot.  Why do they pick my hanging baskets up next to the house and how do I make them go elsewhere?

2) The squirrels and chipmunks are destroying EVERYTHING.  They've chewed into my shed, through my trashcans and lawn furniture, and gnawed through all kinds of things.  They've tunneled under my porch and driveway and tons of spots in my yard.  How do I get them under control?

Thanks!

Anna

I love working downtown except when it comes time to drive home. Way too many days when I leave there are large tour buses, delivery trucks or even passenger cars PARKED in a driving lane honking up traffic and creating road rage.  Worst location: eastbound Walnut Street alongside the north side of the Stadium West garage.  Messes up traffic headed in all directions!! And there's a big "NO PARKING" sign right on the pole next to them!!!!!

I assume the tourists from these buses are at the Millennium Hotel, Drury Inn or the Arch/Old Cathedral/Riverfront.  Sometimes the police are right there on the corner directing traffic and you'd think they'd advise the bus drivers to move it, but it doesn't happen.  Ugh.  I'm glad we have tourists in our town pouring bucks into our economy, but I wish the bus drivers would dump a little cash into the parking lot operators' coffers--or the city's coffers for parking violations.  C'mon guys!

Ah, feels so good to vent on this one.

Justice.  I think that's the fascination we have with Paris Hilton.  Even if you loathe the non-stop headline coverage and the rabid "news" hounds reporting her every move, the reason we can't tear ourselves away from the coverage is that at the deepest level we really want justice.

 We want those in our society who break the rules to pay. 

We want those who break the rules repeatedly to pay a lot. 

And we want those who break the rules and then flaunt it to pay until it hurts.

Like sitting in jail for awhile.  Maybe for 45 days.  Not two and a half.  All 45.  At least.

That's why we watched the "Paris" saga unfold. And why we were disgusted when she was released early.  And why we were glad the judge sent her back. We have an innate longing for justice, right?

Or do we?  What would you do if YOU were Paris?  If you were Paris' parents?  Would you "take it like a man"--I did the crime, I'll do the time?  Or would you use every legal resource available to get yourself or your child off the hook or to receive an easier sentence?  Would you feel differently if the person being released to house arrest was going home to a regular low or middle class home?

Is this merely a story of a spoiled, rich brat who is finally getting justice and is finding out how painful it is for us regular folk?  Or is it an opportunity to examine our own perceptions about truth, justice and the American way??

With liberty and justice for all.  Except me.  Give me a break, OK?

Now that Memorial Day is passed and we, hopefully, took some time to be grateful for those who fought for our freedom, keep our current soldiers and their families in your hearts and prayers.

I'm so tired of all the name-calling, Bush is right/Bush is wrong, Republican versus Democrat noise over whether we should be in Iraq or not and what to do about it now that we are. That's not what this blog is about.  And I don't need anyone to leave comments of that nature.

All I know is that some really wonderful people have stepped up to do what our country called them to do. They put themselves and their personal comfort and desires aside to do a supremely difficult task.  What an incredible sacrifice!  And what bravery they possess to protect the rest of us--people they don't even know and some of us they probably wouldn't even like!!  How honorable these soldiers are!!

Left in the wake are their families.  A dear young man I know recently went to serve and his beautiful young wife and two lovely little girls are trying to live as normal a life as possible without their precious husband and daddy. They are like so many.  Mothers, fathers, grandparents, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, children ... all trying to get through another day, standing proud that their loved one is serving and hoping that they will be home safely soon.

So today, please don't spew any more anger at me about this war.  No one thinks war is good; sometimes its sadly necessary.  Maybe this one is; maybe not.  Instead of arguing about it, use your energies to show some love and kindness to the soldiers and their families left behind.  Contact a soldier's support group (asoldierswishlist.org) or the USO and help with their needs. Mow the grass for a young wife and mother; send a card to a soldier's mother; look for ways to help ease their burden.  Until they all come home, make each day a random act of kindness day for our soldiers and their families.

Glenn Zimmerman made a comment this morning I can't stop thinking about.  He said something (sorry, only half listening, Glenn) about an alarm clock that instead of ringing, buzzing, or playing some other annoying noise, wakes you with Mike's Shannon's voice saying "Get up, baby, get up, get up" like Mike does when one of the Cardinals hits a long ball (remember when THAT used to happen??).

I assume Glenn was just being funny, and that such a thing doesn't exist, but I think an alarm clock like that would sell like crazy here in St. Louis.  I'd buy several for my husband, grown kids, other baseball fans.  If this doesn't exist, someone should invent it!!!

If you could customize an alarm clock to wake you with any voice, song, sound bite, etc., how would you customize your alarm clock?

Remember the excitement of the final days of the school year and the anticipation of school being out?  Remember the longing for those long dog days of summer with nothing to do but relax?  By mid-June, this turned into whining 'Mom, I'm bored!"  Ah, for some of that boredom now!

Well, I've been out of school for a whole lot of years, I've nearly always worked in jobs where I don't get summers off.  But when May rolls around, I still start thinking of things I want to accomplish before the summer is over.  This always includes a list of books I hope to read.  I'm an avid reader year-round, but summer is the time I feel I can tackle some "classics"--the challenging literature I had to read in school but couldn't possibly appreciate then.

My "big girl book" for the summer is between "Anna Karenina" and "Sense and Sensibility".  Which would you choose?  And what are you reading this summer??