"A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter is not a nice person." - Dave Barry

Michelle Obama was on the Today Show this morning for a 30-minute interview with Matt Lauer. I listened while I printed off the Sunday stuff. There wasn’t much substance, but I didn’t expect any. She’s the President’s wife, not an elected or appointed official, so she she shouldn’t be making policy statements. The one area where she did speak freely involved her efforts to improve what kids eat.

It was good for me to hear her speak. I needed that. I needed to hear her talk about “Barak” and to use words like “my husband.” She even talked about his selection of shirts, and that she and the girls wish he’d get a little more color into his wardrobe. With a 24-hour news cycle that includes too much yelling and diatribe it’s easy to forget the President is first of all a person who has a wife and two young girls. I didn’t catch Lauer’s question, but her response was, “I think everything he does as President is difficult and he struggles with all of it.” His press secretary could have said the same thing but it wouldn’t have had the impact it did hearing it from his wife.

I’ve written here about my care to always refer to the President with the appropriate titles, reflecting the respect the Bible says is his due. To hear her refer to him as Barak, something I should never do, made me pause even as she spoke and pray for the man. Not the President, but the husband and father and worker with what has to be one of the toughest jobs in the world.

Line from a Quick Trip ad (gas station convenience store here) for their sub sandwiches:
“Baked in our own juicy kitchens”
What is a juicy kitchen?

We live in Maricopa County. I read on USAToday.com that 54% of all homes in Maricopa are underwater. The mortgage exceeds the home’s value. We’re tenth in the nation in that category. But it could be worse: Clark County (Las Vegas, NV) has 71% of homes underwater.

I downloaded two books to my Kindle so I’d have reading during any downtime on my trip. I got Condoleezza Rice’s memoir for $9 (half of the hardback price) and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes FREE.

All but one of my dozen irises is showing new growth and the roses are all leafing out nicely. I’m eager to get the lily pond filled and planted but Shirley says it’s still too cold.

Brief post, but the day was spent doing prep and taking care of details. Today figures as a Saturday in that I won’t be home again until about seven hours before I leave for church Sunday morning. So it was nose to the grindstone all day. Now out to dinner at Chick-Fil-A with Pam and then on to an elder meeting. Up by 4:00 a.m. to make my 7:00 flight.

I should be able to post from Seattle in terms of internet connections. Mental energy may be a different matter.