Renovate me!

Last week I was watching this program on TV called Renovate My Family, or something like that. It's the first time I'd ever seen it, but I know my purpose in life now is to get on this show. It's a reality show where they come in and, as the name suggests, renovate a family. The episode I happened to watch was about a family of five outside Chicago. Apparently the son suffered paralysis due to a snowboarding accident or a water skiing accident or something along those lines. Anyway, the associated trauma of the event was basically tearing the family apart. In addition, their house was poorly designed or equipped to accomodate someone in a wheelchair. So the Renovate My Family folks come in and completely redo the house and solve all the family problems and give them all makeovers. So, I want these people to come to my house and give me a new house and a makeover. I told my husband we had to come up with some sort of serious dysfunction we could fabricate so they'd come put us on the show. He flatly refused. I don't why whenever it comes to trying to get onto television, my husband gets all ethical on me. This is the man who wants to open a super welfare complex where he'll have a check cashing store, liquor store, discount cigarette store, casino and hourly daycare under one roof. So, I'll probably never get onto the show and have my house redone. That's really what I want--a complet house makeover.

I've noticed "Life in Debt" hasn't posted for quite some time and I wonder what happened to him. You'll remember he's the bloke whose managed to completely screw up his life with compulsive shopping and extra-marital affairs. I wonder if he got fired. There's something I don't understand when I read blogs written by British folk. It doesn't seem they have to actually be at work very much. It seems like there are a lot of ways for them to get off work and not have to worry about losing their jobs. It sounds like they have leave coming out the ying-yang. Can anyone explain this to me? I don't know much about standard leave practices in Europe, so I'd appreciate anyone who'd be able to fill me in on the specifics. I know, in general, there tends to be more leave available to Europeans for things like maternity and paternity leave, but what else do they get?

By the way, I'm still soliciting for interviewees. If anyone out there thinks they're interesting enough to be interviewed and wants to launch their sparkling personality into the blogosphere, let me know and we'll set something up. Let me also note that the only rule is that you have to be willing to answer any question I ask. If you're interested in just being foul for foulness sake, don't bother. I'm not interested in talking to you because that's just boring.