Or, it’s all up to the dogs.

I saw an interesting headline today.

Poll: Pet Owners Prefer McCain Over Obama

My first thought was, “Heck, most Democrats actually prefer McCain over Obama, so what’s the big surprise?”

The presidential pets are generally a big deal. They get news coverage and photo ops and actually have a lot of do with the overall likability of a U.S. President.

By the way, did you know that George Washington’s foxhound was named Drunkard? I have a new appreciation for the humor of our first President. On a tangent – Washington grew up on a Virginia plantation on the Rappahannock River called Ferry Farm, which was actually owned at the time by one of my direct ancestors. It was later sold to Washington’s father.

Anyway, back to the dogs.

It seems Barack Obama is not a pet owner. Pet owners in American have noted that fact. A joint AP-Yahoo News poll shows pet owners like McCain over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners quite solidly in favor of McCain.

Comments associated with the poll said a lot about how people view those who own pets. They said that a pet owner is a more “caring, giving, trustworthy” person and shows that they are “ responsible”.

Unlike Obama, McCain owns pets – a LOT of pets an English Springer spaniel called Sam, a mutt named Coco, turtles Cuff and Link, Oreo the cat, a ferret, three parakeets and many saltwater fish.

Even though the poll showed that people who are NOT pet owners like Obama over McCain 48 percent to 34 percent, you have to backtrack and note that approximately 63 percent of American homes include a pet.

Sounds to me like Obama better take his daughter’s puppy shopping sooner than later.

In general, I’m not a girl who loves cars. I like my cars functional and affordable. I drove a Volvo in high school and college and then have had a series of decidedly unsexy cars and vans. It’s not bothered me in the least.

However, there are two types of cars that do turn my head – old Jaguars and Ford Mustangs. Since I am a frugal girl, I have to admit I would probably never buy a Jag, but a Mustang is a distinct possibility. When the anniversary edition came out several years back, I begged my then husband to get one. He ended up buying a Dodge Charger and I sulked.

There is a cool Mustang dedicated website that has frequent posts about the 2010 Mustang model and spy shots people have taken on the streets of Detroit. It looks like an exciting makeover!

I’ve backed way off of watching most reality shows anymore, but my daughter and I love So You Think You Can Dance. The routines are generally exciting and beautiful and the dancers are inspiring. I enjoy the comments and input from the judges much more than on shows like American Idol, where the judges tend to be amazingly negative. Plus, Cat Deeley is just so completely charming.

My favorite dancer on the show has been 18-year-old Kourtni Lind, since the beginning. I love to see tall women move with the grace she has. I look at her and can barely believe she is so young! Her spirit seems older, wiser than other kids her age. Seeing her voted into the bottom three and ultimately removed from the show tonight felt disappointing. Every year, the tall dancers systematically get removed early one. It makes me wonder of height in the world of dance.

I love a clean house. I just don’t love doing the cleaning. However, as I always tell my daughter – you cannot only do the fun things in life. You have to do a whole lot of un-fun stuff if you want to live in a clean house. And, yes – we want to live in a clean house.

It seems absurd to me that in the middle of a huge oil crisis, when everyone is screaming about saving energy, that I should just add to the commotion by plugging in all of my appliances. I’ve got an awesome vacuum cleaner, but I left it behind in my old house so we could use it to keep the house clean to show it while trying to sell it. Much to my chagrin, my ex is living in the house with his new wife now and trying to put off selling in the house. In the meantime, my vacuum and washer and dryer and a few other appliances are there, out of reach for my own use.

I need a new vacuum while I am waiting for my ex to get around to getting my things back to me and while I was shopping around I began to be really attracted to the Energy Star ® approved Dirt Devil AccuCharge stick vac and hand vac. Not only do they use 70% less energy, the cordless vacuum is also idea for me since we are heading right into hurricane season in Florida. I love the idea of being able to clean the house even when the power is out.

That reminds me about the hurricanes back in 1994. Our power was out for four days. While that might not seem like a long time, it was miserable from the inside looking out. The house got filthy as the sand and damp was tracked in by everyone. I was almost climbing the walls wanting to vacuum. If I’d had a cordless vac back then, I could have saved myself a WHOLE lot of insanity.

I wanted to be here near DC for the 4th of July, but this year my daughter’s father has her for that particular holiday. So, I made plans to fly back to Florida on the 2nd. Two days afte3r I made the flight reservations, my ex offered to let me stay out of town through the holiday, but by then it was too late since United charges $75 per ticket for a change. Too bad I did not fly on Southwest. If they have not yet changes their policy, they used to let you do a change for no cost.

Lucky for us, a lot of places around here are doing the 4th of July festivities this weekend, so we won’t be missing much. I had no intension of going down the Mall for the fireworks anyway. Have you ever fought those crowds? I have, but not with a child in tow – and I am not willing to give it a try just yet. When I was a kid, my parents used to go into the District with us every year, but we finally got smart and started going over to Crystal City to the top floor of his office building, where we sat out on the plant ledges. It sure beat fighting the crowds.

Tonight we are going to a little park off of Job Corp road near Shepherdstown, WV for fireworks – unless I find something better. We are going soon for a street fair they are having in Shepherdstown during the day. Shepherdstown is the oldest incorporated town in the West Virginia and it’s one of the most charming hamlet’s you’ll ever see. A lot has changed since I went to school there, but many of the shops have changed. The Yellow Brick Bank is still there, as are the Bavarian Inn, Betty’s restaurant, the bakery and a few others.

So, I’m off to show my daughter my old college town – even though I know she is not old enough to care. Maybe they will have The Little House open. She will love that.

Things are still bad for pretty much everyone who owns a home in Florida. The insurance companies were allowed to get so out of control with their price increases that most people were priced out of their budgets. On top of that, almost all of the large insurance companies started cherry picking, which means that they dropped home insurance policies, but still tried to come into the state and pick up car insurance and life insurance policies — basically the lower risk stuff.

The Florida government keeps trying to tighten guidelines and the insurance companies keep finding loopholes and sending in their monies special interest groups to bribe whoever they can. So, largely the situation is not any better.

Now that I am looking to buy again, I seem to always be sifting through various home insurance quotes. I have to figure in the cost of taxes and insurance before I can determine if I can actually afford a property. It is enough to make my head spin.

It’s 80 degrees with 40% humidity and a slight breeze. As you might guess, I am not in Florida right now. We just don;t get that kind of weather this time of year in sunny Florida. I’m in West Virginia, right along the shores of the Shendandoan Rover. In fact, when I look up from the keyboard and out the window of the front door, I can see down the hill and right to the river. My dad’s yard goes right to the Shendandoah.

 Bliss.

We’ve already been to DC, Harper’s Ferry, and all of my favorite clothing stores. I think today we will stay home and explore in the woods and along the river.

Not a good day. Today, that is. Today was just not a good day overall. I had to get an MRI and found out I am claustrophobic. I had no idea. I had to interact with my ex-husband face to face, and that is never pleasant. Lots of little things went wrong, but the biggest was that I hit my neighbor’s car!

Well, yikes. The kid parks in front of his parent’s house. About 75% of the time he parks across from my driveway. I drive a van. He drives a little Nissan Z. I am SO careful to back out properly, despite the fact that I generally end up making a 16-point turn. Annoying, but thus far it has worked in my favor.

Well, this morning as I pulled out to take my daughter to ballet camp – SMACK! Holy cow. I just sat there and thought about every swear word under the sun. Not a good situation. I was JUST looking at switching car insurance companies and this certainly puts a damper on those plans. In fact, my current insurance will more than likely go up again.

This guy, he LOVES his car. He loves so little in his life. He stays with his girlfriends for a month or two and he switches jobs frequently. He is pretty crappy to his parents. I know I called him a kid, but I think he is in his early 30s. He still lives at home and is pretty much a lay about, so I think of his as a kid.

Anyway, his car is a whole other story. He washes it at least three times a week. He pulls it into the yard and spends an hour or so making the thing sparkle like a pile of diamonds. It’s astonishing the time and effort he puts into that car.

He was unaware that he would not have to contact his insurance, so at first he panicked. After I explained it to him and handed him a phone number and a claim number, he seemed calmer. It will just be a matter of finding a good body shop. I looked around the net a little to see what a typical body shop does with claims and loaners and the like. I found a lot of info on this auto body montclair page, which led me to a whole site that does nothing but rate and recommend body shops and related services. So, I forwarded him the link and I’m just crossing my fingers that the next time I even have to deal with this is the next time I write a premium check.

I let myself feel pressure over things that I really ought to overlook. Back when I was putting out the applications for schools for my daughter, there was one charter school I decided not to apply to, because I had heard one negative comment about the school.

Well, my daughter did not make the lottery for the charter schools to which I did apply, I really cannot afford to continue her at her private Christian school, and we finally settled on one of the fundamental schools in county. That is still a rung above the other public schools, but still – they use the typical Sunshine State Standards, which are lacking in some places.

So, I got into an email conversation with a woman on one of my Freecycle lists and her daughter goes to that charter school I did not apply to and she loves it. Her five-year-old is speaking Greek and Spanish. That is NOT something my daughter will pick up in a regular public school.

So, here I am beating myself up over my decision to overlook that school. I am sure it is too late, but I am going to call tomorrow and get her on the waiting list.

When I moved this county of Florida, one car insurance agent told me rates here are second only to Manhattan when comes to their sheer expense. I believe it.

It’s not just people in Florida who are looking for ways to trim their monthly budgets. Pretty much everyone I know is shopping around for better rates on their home and car insurance. It’s one of the first things that come to mind when you’re facing the rising costs of living right now. There is only so much you can do to keep food and gas costs down, so you have to find other areas from which to cut.

I’ve been in calls to Geico and other car insurance companies that say they guarantee low rates. My car insurance is reasonable, but it went up after the “no fault” issues in my state last year. Long story short: they cut out the service for no fault when the state told them to, but never lowered my price. When the state told them to put it back, they upped my fees. Shady, to say the least.

So, for me, finding new insurance is not just a matter of money, but of honor.