The Cubicle Next Door

Elections were just held on Tuesday, and on Wednesday our newly elected Democratic Representative from the 8th district's son was ticketed for possession of drug paraphenalia. Steve Kagen's son Tommy was caught at the local airport with a marijuana pipe in his bag and given a $186 ticket. The man hasn't even taken office yet, and he's already stepping into controversy. I became really angry about this last night while watching the news when Outagamie County Sheriff Mike Jobe was interviewed for the news and said that the ticket wasn't really a big deal, and he seemed kind of amused at the media's interest in the situation. Excuse me, when is possession of drug paraphenalia not a big deal. If I lived in Outagamie County, I'd be looking for a new sheriff; maybe one who actually cared about drug use by young people. This morning when I was looking at the local news websites, I came across Steve Kagen's press release about his son's ticket. In which he says, "When there's 650,000 dead in Iraq, and a news editor thinks this belongs on television, that's a sad commentary." How clueless is this new rep? That 650,000 figure has been attacked and refuted several times in the press, but the liberals still continue to quote this number as fact. But that's besides the point. What's terribly sad is that Kagen would trot out the dead in Iraq to shift attention from his son's actions. This tells me really all I need to know about the man, and once again I'm horrified that my district voted him in. Shame on us!

The Cubicle Next Door by Siri Mitchell is a delightful read. Jackie Harrison is a civilian working at a military job and trying to keep herself together. To vent about her job, she writes a blog titled The Cubicle Next Door. When she gets a cubicle mate, Joe Gallagher, she really starts pouring out her frustration on the blog, but is stuck when her blog starts getting national attention and even Joe starts reading it. Mitchell includes lots of fun details about blogging, but the story really revolves around Jackie's fear of opening herself up to others. Jackie's slow evolution is at times heart-breaking and hilarious (and at times both). Something I really appreciated about the book is Mitchell's obvious respect for the military. She writes about them with humor and appreciation without being irreverent or obsequious. The relationship between Jackie and Joe grows naturally. The occasional blog entries are well done. Jackie's also a fun character to read about, because female computer geeks are not often written about, so Mitchell makes Jackie fresh and a hoot to read. Her sarcastic humor skewers both herself and the world she lives in. Not just a great chick lit read or a great Christian read, but a great read overall.

We're supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow today, but so far everything is melting as soon as it hits the ground. Thank God! I'm not ready for winter yet.

Added at 5 pm: The snow really started around noon; we're supposed to get 8" of snow. Molly and Mia are already enjoying the weather as seen in the picture.