It was just that kind of day. The phone rang, and it was the Sacramento Archives people calling about the raffle last Friday. We had won TWO baskets! Out of 20 tickets! That isn't bad, I understate. They turned out to be the ones I put the most tickets into, hoping I'd win one or the other. These baskets were from the Old City Cemetery. The biggest one holds three casserole-holding baskets, a mug from a Cemetery fundraiser, a t-shirt, (I have one of these, showing a bearded undertaker saying "I Dig History"), pencils, a video, 4 old archival prints of Sacramento (the reason I wanted this one), a book about Sacramento's early photographers and two books from the Cemetery. The smaller basket has two mugs, pencils, a t-shirt, and one of the Cemetery books. Since the second mug is green, not microwave-compliant, we're thinking of trading t-shirts (since Rich is L not XL, especially lately!) and repackaging the second for Loretto's auction. Still, this was a thrill.

Later in the day, the phone rang again, and this time it was Fresh Choice for Rich. It appears they picked his card for a free meal. (More likely, they noted we haven't been in for a long time.) Still, I like FC, and since he starts the colonoscopy diet again in a week, we'll probably take advantage of it before then.

Even Sam was better behaved today. After two weeks of acting out in every way, it's nice to see.

There were losers today. Sacramento, is a loser, I believe, with Mayor Serna's passing. I didn't agree with him about everything, especially the extortion payment to the Kings, but he also worked on getting the city more evenly represented. He was big on education and sponsored the Summer Reading Camp that I helped with one year. And, I think, he was a genuinely NICE person.

I was looking for a disinfectant spray (don't ask) and noted that the lid was off on the household lye. Then I noticed crystals all around. Apparently it had exploded in the cleaning cupboard some time ago. Rich was busy packing up Hallowe'en stuff, and I certainly didn't want to tell him about the lye. My normally gentle man is extremely bad-tempered these days, and paranoid. He griped when a u-turner was being polite to him. He griped that the roses are still blooming. The world is out to get him, and I certainly didn't want him to know about the lye, so I cleaned it up quietly. Without letting the dog or cats eat the little crystals or flakes that fell to the floor. I had to throw out a Dobie pad which was in a soaked, ruined, box, too.

Amazon.com changed shopping carts on me when I changed browsers, but they've given me enough help so I can recover it. Then there was eCircles, which completely loused up a group I'd started about Bernadette's engagement. Messages in it appear, disappear, and completely blow up the system. Monica rescued this with a new group. E-Circles also apparently lost a long message I wrote Bernadette about wedding plans I cooked up in church (instead of paying attention.)

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I think we're a winner for not signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban. Turns out other countries, those who have signed it, haven't actually been following it. Krauthammer talks about bitter Clinton:

Sen. James Inhofe later documented 36 lies and half-truths that the president managed to pack into an hour-long news conference. A new indoor record.
....
When Clinton came into office, Iraq's nuclear program was contained. As we speak, Iraq is developing its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons unmolested and unmonitored.On Clinton's watch, Pakistan has gone nuclear. India has exploded its first bomb since 1974. And Iran has been acquiring nuclear material from Moscow, with the Clinton administration standing by powerlessly.

Indeed, Clinton's laxity about technology exports and hunger for campaign contributions (including from Chinese agents), has turned the United States into a major proliferator, with high technology and missile guidance going openly to the Chinese while nuclear secrets are stolen under our noses.

"TO RATIFY this nuclear test-ban treaty would send the opposite message to the world: that the United States is prepared to sit back and risk the deterioration of its nuclear arsenal--with no assurance that the test ban could be enforced. Once our nuclear deterrent no longer deterred, all we would have to fall back on--short of war--would be the word of the United Nations. We all know how good that is. Have we lost our senses, or just our memory?" (Editorial of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/22. They also talked about how Russia is shocked, SHOCKED and about Reagan refusing the nuclear freeze and not lecturing the senate)
"In the Reagan Years, this country put its faith in peace through strength, rather than peace through promises. It was the right choice. It still is."

This Just In: An assortment of European statesmen rushed to criticize the U.S. Senate last week when it refused to ratify the latest nuclear test ban. Among those lecturing the United States on how best to preserve the peace of the world were the British. And the French. And the Germans. Not to mention the Russians. When it comes to protecting the peace of the world, it is always good--well, piquant--to hear from Europe, that cradle of world wars. It has a proven record.
----Greenberg, ADG 10/24.

I believe we're winners.