I have complained and complained and complained, but the grass just keeps growing. So once more I trotted out this morning to whack them bloody blades. Who says that training a child to do something over and over and over won’t stick with them? As much as I complain I can still hear my dad’s sarcastic “When are you going to cut the grass?” I have been cutting grass since I was seven. I have come to view lawn grass as an enemy I must vanquish at every turn. So even though I get plenty good allergic reaction from time to time I still sally forth to attack the enemy on my trusty steed.

I have always told my wife that if after I die someone says we kept a neat house, we did something wrong. Yet I am so compelled to keep the grass looking like a picture. Here’s one for you, dear Father!

Were you paying attention?

1) Well Joni Ernst made a little faux pas at the GOP senate debate. Answering a question about an ad showing her shooting she said the ad was shot before “the accident.” What was she referring to as “the accident?”

2) After a couple of weeks of hearings and finger pointing this head of the VA resigned. Who was the secretary of Veteran’s Affairs?

3) A new automobile company? Who garnered much attention last week with their driverless, no steering wheel car?

4) Who can forget? 70 years ago next Friday my Father-in-law was among those paying a little visit to what beach on the French coast?

5) This one time youth icon became a great grandfather last week. He has been like a rolling stone his whole life. Who is he?

6) One Iowa and the Iowa pride Network announced they will join forces. What mutual issue do they work on?

7) It looks like the NBA’s controversial owner may be gone already. Who is said to have bought the LA Clippers and what was his previous job?

8) Which British Royal was called on to abdicate after he/she compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler over Crimea?

9) Iowa’s Regents will consider a new budget proposal next week based in part on the number of Iowa students in the university population. Which of the 3 state schools looks to be a big loser based on preliminary numbers?

10) Her most famous appearance was to read one of her poems at Bill Clinton’s first inaugural. What poet laureate of the United States died this week?

11) The average CEO in the United States now makes about how much per year?

12) ” your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.” What proud gun owner declared that this week?

13) What long serving Tea Bag senator opined this week that “legal gay marriage is almost certain to become a reality throughout the United States.”?

14) Jumping on to the fame and fortune of TV, which current cable star did the Republican party name as its lead speaker at their Republican Leadership Conference?

15) Maybe he ran out of words? Who stepped down as Pres. Obama’s Press Secretary Friday?

Hard to believe that Republicans would take a stand for crappier, more unhealthy food for kids in schools. What am I saying? No it is not. Treating all but the 1% like dirt is what being a Republican is all about. I often wonder how parents tell their kids they voted Republican? Glad we never had to.

Answers:

1) last weeks mass murder in Santa Barbara

2) Gen. Shinseki

3) Google

4) Normandy Beach as a part of the D-Day invasion.

5) Mick Jagger.

6) gay rights

7) Steve Balmer, former CEO of Microsoft

8) Prince Charles

9) Iowa – possibly as much as $60 million

10) Maya Angelou

11) $10.5 million/year or about 8.8% more than last year

12) Samuel Wurzelbacher aka “Joe the Plumber” (his head was in the toilet too long)

13) Orin Hatch

14) Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty (there’s an empty seat in the clown car, Phil)

15) Jay Carney.