We're in a world of green right now. The only place greener is Nova Scotia in the summer.
We hit a couple of movies last week unintentionally. We went to one, "Kung Fu Hustle," based on a review by Gene Shallot on the Today Show. It wasn't our cup of tea, there were only five people in total watching the movie. About twenty minutes in a mother and daughter in front of us left.
We left about five minutes later and went to watch "The Interpreter," which we really enjoyed except that my cold and cough forced us to miss the ending. I thought Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn made it a really well done movie.
Saturday night we went out to dinner with our friends, Robert and Diane. The consensus was to go to Jeffrey's Bar & Grill on Market Street in Downtown Roanoke. Glenda and I had been there a couple of times previously, the food had been good but the service was spotty. This time the service was excellent and the food was also very well prepared.
Diane and Robert hail from Maryland so they are very particular about their crab cakes. The ones at Jeffrey's got a thumbs up. Diane thought her Maryland Mom and Dad who have recently moved to Roanoke might find them a little spicy, but the consensus was these just might be the top crab cakes in Roanoke. I see more tasty research in the future.
Glenda had shrimp and grits, it was exceptionally tasty, and she like it also. I had a cup of gumbo which is the best in town and the Cajun fried cat fish. The breading was a little heavy on the cat fish, but it was very fresh and delicious. Some cheesecake and Key lime pie was also enjoyed at the table so I don't think anyone who tries Jeffrey's will leave hungry. There is a more detailed review of Jeffrey's at the Roanoker Magazine.
The weather remains cold here, it was 45 when I got up this morning. The inch and one half of rain we got this past weekend was welcome relief, but since we have had little heat, we were not suffering very much.
We have enjoyed some new bird visitors at the feeders in the last few days, including some Rosey-breasted Gros Beaks and some Indigo Buntings to go with the uncounted horde of Gold Finches and our regular crew of Cardinals, Chickadees, Tit-mouses, Woodpeckers and Sparrows. We have also had a couple of Blue Jays horning in occasionally. I keep trying to get a good picture of the Grosbeaks but they seem to be pretty shy. The others only leave the feeder when I am shooting at squirrels on the feeder. I guess they still don't trust my aim.
On other news, I found Paul Krugman's article, "A Gut Punch to the Middle," in this morning's New York Times a good summary of the what all the Social Security talk really means.
The important thing to understand is that the attempt to turn Social Security into nothing but a program for the poor isn't driven by concerns about the future budget burden of benefit payments. After all, if Mr. Bush was worried about the budget, he would be reconsidering his tax cuts.
No, this is about ideology: Mr. Bush comes to bury Social Security, not to save it. His goal is to turn F.D.R.'s most durable achievement into an unpopular welfare program, so some future president will be able to attack it with tall tales about Social Security queens driving Cadillacs.
After all Medicare is much closer to insolvency and it seems to be on the back burner. Then of course there is the whole health care issue which seems to be completely ignored. It is hard for me to believe that health care and benefits costs have reached $1500 per car for GM as outlined in this article in the LA Times.
Like the Social Security system, GM has ample financial reserves — for now. The company has $19.8 billion in cash reserves, more than enough to fund this year's $5.5 billion in health care costs.
But Wagoner, who declined to be interviewed, must find a way to reduce the company's so-called legacy costs: $87 billion in pension obligations and $60 billion in retiree health care benefits. He has said that health care costs have reached a "crisis" stage...
There has got to be a better way to do health care. It is a terrible burden to small business and to anyone no longer privileged to be in a company offering health care. The Roanoke Times is currently running an interesting series "Uninsured in Southwest Virginia."
There was an another interesting sunrise this morning over the Roanoke Valley, you can view it at this link. Still know SUSE 9.3 upgrade to compare to the Mac OS X Tiger. This could be a big week, my new vacuum coffee pot and Linux upgrade might show up.
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