Jailhouse Pop

I refuse to apologize for the poor quality of the title pun. I've been awake since 4:30 in the morning. It's the best I can do for now. Sorry. No, wait, I'm not sorry, I'm just fucking exhausted.

My father is currently in his second month of a 4 month jail sentence for drunk driving. This is the second time he's been incarcerated for driving drunk - the first time was for 6 weeks, and he was a changed man - for about 3 months. Then he went right back to his old ways. It's nearly miraculous that he's never hit anybody else while drunk driving - he's wrecked more than 15 cars, but the only person he's ever physically hurt is himself.

Psychologically, emotionally....it's hard to have a father who behaves like a child. I mean, he's a man in some ways - he set a great example of work ethic for us. No matter how much he drank, he was always up at 5am and never missed work. He worked for a construction company M-F, and on Saturday, he built decks or stairs or did roofing projects. He was tough in a way that made us feel kind of proud of him - no one picked fights with him.

He was also gentle in surprising ways - like when he found a nest of baby rabbits that had been abandoned - perhaps the mother was killed by a dog or cat or coyote. He scooped them out of the unprotected nest, tenderly holding the tiny rabbits in his massive hands, and took care of them until they were big enough to be on their own. He was vehemently opposed to hunting, an activity he associated with the English (and he hated the English on a general basis, but specifically, he is fond of a great many English people). If we had a splinter, he was the one who could calm us down and take the splinter out without hurting us.

I'm a naturally optimistic person - while I have many moments of self-doubt, I ultimately feel that eventually, I will achieve my goals and be the person I want to be. But looking at my father, I wonder if I'm not just deluding myself. He's a person who had a lot going for him - skill, intelligence, strength - and he just kept making (keeps making) terrible choices. I am like my father in so many ways, I wonder if I share his weaknesses - he doesn't like to deny himself what he enjoys, even when it's bad for him; he lashes outward when he makes a mistake; he loses his temper and says and does horrible things*, only to suffer from tremendous guilt afterwards - but never attempts to rein in his temper, so it's a neverending cycle - rage, abuse, guilt...rage, abuse, guilt...rage, abuse, guilt, ad infinitum.

What keeps me going, ultimately, is my fear at starting down that spiral. If I start to give in to all of my little desires - one more ice cream cone, I'll just surf around the TV dial for one more hour, I'll just buy one more pair of shoes (all of which are things I deserve because I work hard and I live with so much physical pain, so shouldn't I get to have these little things that give me fleeting moments of pleasure?) - I feel like I will just keep sliding downward. Fear can be a powerful motivator, even though it doesn't feel very strong to admit that I can't have one more ice cream cone because I'm afraid I won't be able to control myself.

My dad is going to turn 63 while he's in jail. I look at him and realize that wisdom doesn't come automatically with age - one has to make and acknowledge mistakes to gain wisdom, and he can't admit that his mistakes are his fault, something he did to himself. So what else can I do, but try to learn from his example, even if his example is of what *not* to do.

*I usally only say and do horrible things in my imagination, where it can't hurt the people I love.

Other people's children

As I mentioned on Friday, two of my nieces slept over on Saturday night. L is 5 years old and no trouble at all, and M is 4 years old, is developmentally delayed, still in diapers, and is just an odd kid. Sweet, but odd.

They arrived around 4pm on Saturday. They had a great time. Loki walked with them down to Cumberland Farms to get some snacks and picked up a pizza at the neighborhood pizza place. They played hide & seek, lots of pretending and dress up.

At around 9pm, I started rounding them up for bed. This is when we started to have problems. M started crying "I want to go home! I want my mom!" Monkey actually did a great job of calming her down, which is good, because Loki went to work and I had no car, so M couldn't go home.

And then, the whole evening almost fell completely apart when we couldn't find her Pep. M, like many children, is obsessive compulsive. And one of her obsessions is Pep - she cannot go to sleep at night without Pep. Pep is a small plastic dog. Monkey and I tore the entire house apart looking for Pep before we found him in a plastic bag in the dining room. (Unfortunately, my house is messy enough that trying to find anything can be difficult.) By then, it was nearly 11. I laid out some sleeping bags, and tucked everyone in.

An hour later, I was awakened by M, because her diaper had leaked and her pajamas were soaked in urine. So I had to locate some new jammies for her - I gave her a pair of Monkey's, which were way too big, but they had the Power Puff Girls on them, so M was pleased.

Sunday morning, Loki got a chance to be alone with them while I was singing at church. They had breakfast and did a lot more playing, and SIL showed up to get them about 1:30pm.

Call me a horrible, mean person, but I was so glad to only have my own children in the house. I don't like handling other people's children.

I5BOTD 3/7/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Consolidated Truth

a group blog written by students at several different universities.

I5BOTD 3/4/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Rayne Today

she's a great writer, with a really interesting perspective.

(This will probably be the only blog I highlight for the remainder of the weekend, because my two nieces will be sleeping over my house tomorrow night, and I can't imagine that I will have time to get on the computer.)

I love Jesse

but the current line-up on Pandagon is amazing. Lindsay Beyerstein from Majikthise, Amanda Marcotte from Mouse Words and S.Z. from World O'Crap are kicking ass, and even though I am very fond of Jesse Taylor, and have been reading his blog since he started it, I am loving the tenor and quality of the posts these women are publishing while he's gone.

I will be updating my blogroll soon!

Appy polly loggies

I've been working like mad the past couple of days, so I haven't had time to surf through the I500's looking for a new blogger to highlight, and I haven't had time to think much about anything political, and I haven't really spent enough time with the family to have any stories about my wonderful children. There are a few posts brewing in the back of my skull, but I'm too sleep deprived to get to them today. Plus, we've had crappy weather and my bad hip hates crappy weather, so I've been asking my husband if he knows anyone who can get me some quality narcotics to dim the pounding, exquisite pain (but not seriously - I am not a law-breaker, I can't do it, I'm just too much of a good girl - plus, who wants to be like Rush Limbaugh? Not me!), and okay, that's enough excuses. Back to work - I think I can actually see some desk peeking out at me!

I5BOTD 2/28/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

GOP Spotlight

because someone needs to shine a light on the cockroaches currently infesting our government.

New to the blogroll

Hello, Shakespeare's Sister

Flip-flopping like a GOPpy

Caught on Tape is where you can go to see Republicans in the House who have publically declared their support for Social Security flip-flopping, on tape.

I am represented in Congress by the excellent John Larson, but my mother is in Rob Simmons district, and currently, Social Security is the only thing keeping her going.* I don't know if anyone reading (or if anyone *is* reading, but that's a whole other post) lives in Connecticut, but Mr. Simmons is a Republican who has had to get a whole lot more moderate than I believe he actually is, to stay in office. He was challenged by Kevin Sullivan in November, and it was a very close election (lots of attack ads funded by out-of-state GOPers didn't help, but Sullivan did great considering the many disadvantages a challenger has).

I'm not his constituent, but I will be contacting him to let him know how I feel about his flip-flop.

*Did I tell you, if you are out there, that my father is in jail? No? I'll have to talk about that at some point.

I5BOTD 2/25/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Marching Orders

Well written, good graphics, from a California blogger.

I'm doing it

I'm getting my hip replaced.

Ever since I stopped taking naproxen, my daily pain index has gone up dramatically. I'm walking with a cane all the time, I can't shop anymore (especially grocery shopping), my range of motion has decreased, and last night, (and here's some TMI, for those with sensitive minds), Loki and I could not enjoy our favorite sexual position because I couldn't do it - we are essentially down to boring old man on top, and I'm a gal who needs some variety in her life.

So I called the doctor and made an appointment. Now I need to lose about 30 lbs. (Although I have cut way back on my caloric intake, my exercise level has dropped, so I've gained about 15 lbs.), and I should probably get some dental work done prior to having the surgery, since dental infections can seed infections of artificial joints. As much as the idea of surgery scares me, going to the dentist is about 1000 times worse.

Oh, and I need to save about $2000, too, because I don't have short-term disability at my job, so I will have to take some unpaid time off from work.

I am both terrified and excited, which usually means I'm doing the right thing.

I5BOTD 2/24/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Peaks and Valleys

Another fine blog authored by a woman.

Frustrated

Okay, I'm trying to add Steve Gilliard to my blogroll. I've looked at it about 50 times now, pasted it back in again, copied another blogger who is on my blogroll and pasted in Steve's information, and no matter what I do, he is not showing up.

Any ideas?

I5BOTD 2/23/05, now with more estrogen

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Gia's Blog

Chosen specifically because it's authored by a woman.

I was over on Political Animal and Kevin Drum asked the quarterly question, "Where are the women political bloggers?" A lot of the women who have already answered this question several times over, jumping up and down screaming "I'm right here!" got kind of pissed off that no one paid attention the last time they answered this question, and this brought out the inner misogynist of the moderate Democratic male in the comments thread.

I think one of the main reasons that the women (myself included) were pissed off was that the reason that the men believe women don't have political blogs is because the women don't like the vicious, down and dirty fighting that politics brings with it. And then, when the women were showing how they were not above a good political fight, the men got dismissive and obnoxious, talking about hormones and bitches and hysteria. It was ugly.

I'm not a really confrontational person. Growing up with an abusive alcoholic father, I developed sensitivity to and accommodation of bad moods and anger as a survival tactic (if daddy was cranky, it was time to be the good daughter, otherwise I might get punched in the face). Then I married a guy who thought I was going insane when I fought the way my parents fought, and I had to learn how to control my temper so we could actually have productive arguments, that usually result in resolution of the conflict.

But the internet actually makes it much easier for me to have a political debate, because I have time to make my argument, to think about how I feel and what I want to say. I went back to Kevin's blog this morning after thinking about the subject of woman bloggers, and maybe the comment thread is no longer active, but I had my say. I think the political blogosphere can only benefit from the diversity of viewpoints that are out there, including women and black people and Asian people and Hispanic people. I'd like to see the big liberal bloggers take a more active role in increasing the diversity of the political blogosphere, because they actually have the power to do something about it.

I think it is shameful that the liberal/lefy side of the blogosphere has so many outstanding female voices that are not highlighted and promoted. Like I said over at Kevin's blog, Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin are the most popular female political bloggers on the TLB's ecosystem, and I think that's awful. How about some of the big bloggers (who happen to be almost entirely male) give the lesser known bloggers (many of whom are women) a hand up that ladder?

Pain and suffering, viva la vida!

I don't have time to get into it right now, but I want to link to this post at American Street because the topic resonates with me. Read it, think about it, we can talk about it later, okay?

Opera stories

I was just over at Bitch, PhD (which I will also add to the blogroll if I can ever figure out what's going on with it), and she posted about how her son PK (Psuedonymous Kid) made her stop and listen to La Boheme because it was beautiful.

I've never given opera a fair chance - I think the music is often incredibly beautiful, but the voices are not always appealing to me. However, I know a few opera singers through my church gig, and in person they all have tremendous voices.

When I first started singing with the choir, we had a tenor section leader who was literally and metaphorically larger than life - a mythological character writ human. Matthew was about 6'6" tall, and looked like he could have been Thor, or a Hell's Angel - long blonde hair, dressed in black leather, with piercings and tattoos. He had 4 older sisters and 4 younger sisters, and he was born on February 29th. And his voice was extraordinary...probably not the perfection that a lot of opera fans seem to go for, but rough from cigarette smoking, touched by some heavy drinking and hard living, and imbued with a tremendous sense of humor. Despite the Hell's Angels appearance, he was a working opera singer, and he's traveled around the world a couple of times, often playing Pinkerton in M. Butterfly.

He was married to a lovely and gracious soprano. (I don't think they are married anymore because Matthew, like many dynamic and interesting men, had trouble keeping his penis between him and his wife - he couldn't stop himself from sharing it with another woman. I love Matthew, but like all the rest of us humans, he's far from perfect.)

Anyway, one year for our pops concert, Matthew and his gorgeous wife sang the Clock duet from Die Fledermaus. Monkey was sitting in the front row, and as soon as the first note came out of Matthew's mouth, Monkey's hands clamped over her ears. She has never recovered from her first experience with opera, which she declared to be "too loud".

Oh well, maybe someday.

I should have done this months ago

Steve Gilliard has been added to my blogroll. I think Jeanne D'Arc, Digby and Steve are the three best writers of any kind of blog.

eta: And yet, he is still not showing up on the blogroll, despite the fact he is in my template, which I republished. I'm working on it, it's right behind fixing the links to World O'Crap and What She Said.

I5BOTD 2/22/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is a slight change of pace, because it's not really a lesser known blogger, it's a well-known and really excellent blog, authored by someone who has perfected the rant:

The Rude Pundit

Chosen because it's a great blog, and he has a nice tribute up to Hunter S. Thompson, which tells of his encounter with the gonzo journalist himself.

A real day off

I didn't have to go to work today, thanks to Washington and Lincoln, and I had the most "off" day I've had in a long time.

I am still, at 8:15pm, in my pajamas. I brushed my teeth and combed my hair, but I didn't bother to take a shower. I finished Good Omens (which was excellent, very funny, and I'm pleased that Terry Gilliam is slated to direct the movie), replied to an e-mail from my old friend Greg, who I wrote about in a previous post (I tracked him down by remembering his siblings names, and then finding that one of them had a website with an e-mail on it - I e-mailed him, he e-mailed Greg, and voila!), Monkey's best friend J came over for a couple of hours while J's mom went grocery shopping, and when she picked up J she took Monkey over her house for a few hours, we played with the dog*, surfed the web, watched the tube, came back and surfed the web some more, made some dinner, and now I'm back here again. This is the laziest day I've had in while - I can't remember the last time that I was healthy and didn't leave the house at all.

*On the subject of the dog....our guy is a Basset Hound, which I highly recommend for temperament (he's very sweet, good natured, not the least bit destructive), but must discourage for training (so hard to train...we basically take one steps forward and three steps back). After about 3 months of Cooge reliably doing all his business outside, he suddenly won't defecate outside anymore -- well, he will, but he saves some for inside. He doesn't do this while we're out of the house, when he is confined to the kitchen, but only when we're at home. He doesn't seem to get that we don't want him to do this, because today he just squatted down and did it right in front of Sio. Advice is welcome.

New to the blogroll

Please welcome What She Said

I5BOTD 2/21/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Backup Brain

I enjoy reading their college search posts. Even though Sio is only a sophomore, she is already on the college hunt. Her guidance counselor helped her come up with a list of colleges that she should consider based on her grades, test scores, and her career plans, and it looks like the author of this blog has a child who is considering some of the same schools.

Visa? No, I'll pay with my sense of how much I'm worth

Nice catch of Allan "Objectivist" Greenspan's idea of how to fix social security over at Sadly, No!.

Apparently, giving people the sense that they might have some wealth, which will make them feel wealthy, is just what the doctor ordered, even if in actuality they have squat.

Greenspan's a smart guy who knows that people pay attention to what he says, so I don't think he used such weaselly language without a damn good reason. And I suspect that reason is that the fix that Bush hasn't quite come out and told us about is going to do bugger all to insure that people in this country don't retire into poverty.

Happy Birthday, Molls

Today is my niece Molly's 4th birthday. She's sort of my de facto godchild, even though we didn't go through any religious ceremony or anything, but SIL gave her my name as a middle name.

Molls is a special kid. She's an enigma wrapped within a conundrum and all that. My theory is that she is almost entirely left-brained - she lives in an almost entirely imaginary world, where she is a horse or a cat or a dog, and my friends, Molls is a method actor when it comes to her playing. When she's a dog, she's not a dog who talks - she's a dog who eats out of bowls on the floor and pants and tries to scratch her ears with her feet. She would probably try to pee and poop outside if SIL would let her.

Anyway, Happy 4th birthday, Molls!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since we're celebrating birthdays, a huge happy 33rd birthday to Atrios, who I just realized is not on my blogroll, and I can't imagine why.

I5BOTD 2/18/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Mockingbird's Medley

I was just randomly clicking on blogs to find one to highlight, and this one already had a post up for today's date, with a nice story about a baby hippo that survived the tsunami and has now bonded with a very old tortoise. There's a cute picture of the two animals together.

I5BOTD 2/17/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

IN THE DARK

written by a journalism professor. I hope the link works - last night I had no problem accessing his blog, but today, on a different machine, his screen goes black after a few seconds. If you get to read it, it's interesting and a topic of much interest these days.

Also, just a quick note that I'm super busy today, so this may be all you hear from me today. I'm sure you will survive, if not thrive, without me.

ColbertKilledAPanda.com

Beautiful bit on The Daily Show tonight. Stephen Colbert, er, Ted Hitler mentioned DailyKos, Americablog and Atrios.

Bush budget a big "fuck you" to the poor

Most days, my job is pretty dull. Make coffee, make copies, fax stuff, collate, mail stuff, help the people with Master's Degrees figure out how to operate the folding machine, answer the phone, swallow my frustration at people who don't seem to be able to answer the question "would you like to leave a message in her voicemail?", enter data, drink coffee, listen sympathetically to my co-workers complain about each other....ad nauseum, day in, day out.

But then there are days when I have meetings, which I enjoy only because it means I get out of the office for a little while, sometimes I get a free lunch, and occasionally, the meetings are interesting.

Today, we had a meeting about homelessness in the Hartford region. We had a speaker who works with an advocacy group for supportive housing. His specific responsibility with this group is as a lobbyist at the federal level, so he printed out a bunch of information about the Bush budget for housing. Despite the fact that the HUD page has a blurb about how the wonderful Bush administration has given just oodles of money to solve the problem of homelessness, the fucking asshole Bush administration has actually cut tons of money from the budget. They've moved Section 8 away from HUD into the Commerce Department (because surely people who have no experience dealing with housing problems are the best ones to fix the problems). The same group of people who use the services that are being cut are losing other services at the same time, from child care and education programs to health care programs.

Anyway, one of the people at the meeting, a woman who has been working on housing issues for 40 years asked the speaker if there was some sort of "grand plan" that the Bush administration was going for, something that she couldn't see from the information she had in her hand. Our speaker told her that the only grand plan that he can see is that they want to cut everything, and let each state and municipality deal with the problems however they can - he quoted Grover Norquist's bathtub statement and then he said "basically, this is an economic group that they just don't care about". There was a lot of angry discussion, including some input from people in Economic Development, who one would think might be more conservative, who are frustrated at the fact that effective working programs are being decimated and in some cases eliminated altogether.

And this is just going to make things worse where we live. Crime will increase. Health problems will increase. The lessons that this country has learned are being flushed down the toilet, and our country is going to go with them.

This is why I loathe the Bush administration - because I love my country and they are fucking it all to hell.

I think he's already won the 2005 Koufax for Most Humorous blog

Yeah, it's The Poor Man again.

I5BOTD 2/16/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is

The Core 4

Primarily selected because they have a Cartoon of the Day, and I love cartoons.

I5BOTD 2/15/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Upon Further Review...

I like his sense of humor.

I renounce my sinful ways

Because The Poor Man has shown me the light.

(I haven't written anything about Gannon/Guckert because others are doing such a great job, but here's my brief opinion: I think Karl Rove* likes to suck dick, so that's how Gannon got ahead, no pun intended.

*He shore do got a purty mouth**

**Yes, I did watch Deliverance this weekend

My first foray into opera

After 2 classes, my Madrigals* teacher gave me a solo - she wants me to sing "Embarme dich, mein Gott" from J.S. Bach's Matthaus-Passione.

I am slightly skeptical - while I am very comfortable singing sacred choral music, my solos at church are usually on gospel songs, or my least favorite genre of music ever, contemporary Christian (blech). I always thought that was just because my voice is not well trained - I took voice lessons for a year or so in my early 20's, but I quit once I achieved my goal at the time, which was to smooth out the transition between my head voice and my chest voice - I used to have a range that turned whispery somewhere around G#, whereas I now have a strong range of nearly 2 octaves.

Anyway, I'm digging the Bach - it's a gorgeous piece. This is sung by Peter, when he realizes that he's betrayed Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed, just as Jesus told him he would. (Why is it sung by a contralto? I don't know. I think the contralto voice just sounds so mournful, perhaps that's why its a better fit than a countertenor.) It's a lot of work for me - I am really trying to focus on improving my breath control (I've been lazy, singing in a choir - I just breathe whenever I want to because there is always someone else singing) and feeling the emotions of the music and the lyrics.

But now I wish I could get in touch with one of my best friends from high school. Well, we didn't go to school together, we met at Wesleyan University's Center for Creative Youth - Greg was there for Music, I was there for Creative Writing. I'm not even sure how we met, but he was one of my very best friends for the remainder of my high school years. He lived in East Hampton, CT, about 10 miles away from where I lived in Hebron. He was a huge opera fan, which didn't make his high school years any easier.

He also loved to hear me sing, which I always appreciate - even my own family gets tired of listening to me from time to time, but when Greg and I went out anywhere, he would just ask me to sing one song after another.

We lost touch while he was in college - he went to Yale, and we spent a lot of time together his freshman year, but then he buckled down and I got married and had a kid, and then I moved and lost touch with him. I'll have to see if his parents still live in East Hampton - maybe they can give me his address, and I can let him know that I'm finally looking into opera, like he always wanted me to.

*The class is totally misnamed. We aren't doing a single madrigal so far - we're doing a Russian dirge that has a basso profundo solo that goes to low A flat (and friends, that is a low note) and Dies Irae from Mozart's Requiem.

I5BOTD 2/14/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

OverSpun

Nice use of pix on this blog.

I5BOTD 2/12/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Nebraskan Liberation Front

It's pretty easy for me, here in my blue state of Connecticut, to be a liberal. But to stay blue in a red state is something that takes effort, and I applaud all the blue people who are outnumbered where they live.

Fast Boats

Steve Gilliard has presented a challenge to the reality based community. He's asking people to write an op-ed for their local paper on the topic of Social Security. The deadline is February 21.

I'm going to spend some time researching the issue and write an op-ed from my perspective, as a 35 year old female. This is going to be a real challenge for me - my eyes tend to get glassy when I read economic stuff - I have trouble with number related concepts - but it's important.

RIP, Arthur Miller

Story here.

The IKEA Dilemma

Kevin drum has a post up about the IKEA experience, which reminds me of my love/hate relationship with this company.

Connecticut got its first IKEA last October, and my sister-in-law and I went shopping there one Saturday. Susy loves shopping more than anyone I know, and I had heard good things about IKEA furniture from my friend Julie.

It was a complete madhouse, of course - we could hardly see the building from our parking spot, and the place was crawling with people. The parking lot had as many license plates from out of state as it did Connecticut plates.

I didn't pick up any furniture, but I got a paring knife, a couple of storage boxes, some curtains and some teacups. I waited in a ridiculous line, and the cashier rang up my purchases, and I wrote a check.

That's when the problems started. My check would not process through their system. We called the cash manager over, and she was quite possibly the least helpful customer service person I've ever dealt with. I didn't have any cash or cards with me, so Susy put my stuff on her credit card and I wrote her a check for it.

That was it for me and IKEA. I vowed never to shop there again. I went home, hung the curtains, washed the teacups and put them away, and then, every time I use that damn paring knife, I would curse IKEA, because I love that paring knife, it's perfect for me, and I hated IKEA for making such nice, inexpensive things and then having such wretched customer service.

And then, I just couldn't help it, my bedroom needed curtains, and everywhere I went, they were so expensive, so I went back to IKEA again. I will never embrace them wholeheartedly, but I have to grudgingly admit that I kind of like shopping there.

And Susy got the number to the floor of the warehouse from an overly helpful customer service person, so when she wants something specific, she calls first to make sure it's there. She was kind enough to give me the number as well.

I5BOTD 2/11/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

Freedom Camp

The author of this blog, teh l4m3, has not been at it for very long, but he's off to a great start.

Nastrovya!

Loki's mother is the only right-winger still left in the family. She's kind of an odd bird. Sheila's a twin, and she's always been submissive to her twin sister Sharon, who is, I've been told, completely and 100% evil. Loki's parents got divorced about 20 years ago, and Sheila ended up marrying another right-winger, a guy who we will kindly refer to as a controlling, snobby, arrogant jerk, and trust me, that's being generous.

Thankfully, Sheila and Jerk live 3000 wonderful, long miles away. But this has left a grandmother gap for our kids and for Loki's sister's kids. So Loki adopted Anna, a sweethearted tiny Polish woman he works with. Anna is a doer - she never sits down, she is productive every waking moment. She makes pierogies and galumpkes and won't take no for an answer, no matter how full you are.

Last night was Anna's 65th birthday, so we went to her house to celebrate. Her son and grandson had a basketball game, so we missed them, but her friend Maria was there with her hot son Tulik. (Tulik is so good looking he actually took my breath away. He was lovely, too - funny and charming.)

In the half hour we were able to stay, we toasted "Nastrovya" about 15 times, and I drank more than I have since last May, when my high school friend Therese got married. I had Hennessey, Southern Comfort, Stoli, some kind of Polish beer (and I don't like beer, but this stuff was pretty good) and some kind of liqueur.

So I was lightly toasted when I got to choir practice. It helped me out a bit, since I am singing a solo at the 335th birthday of the church, which is next Sunday, and I'm singing a gospel song which asks that I improvise over the choir. I found it easier to set aside my New England white girl ways and cut loose with a couple of shots of cognac in me.

Anyway, nastrovya, Anna, I'm so glad you are a part of our lives!

I5BOTD 2/10/05

Today's blog was chosen because the blog is named after a character from the comic book and movie Mystery Men.

Please, read and enjoy Mr. Furious.

(btw - you might start getting the feeling that I am a geek. This is not true, and as my proof I can state unequivocally that I have never seen even ONE Star Wars movie. However, I am a geek appreciator - I am quite fond of people who are obsessive about their hobbies (see "Committment" post below or in the archives, depending on when you're reading this), because it's a quality I lack, for the most part.)

I suddenly feel so evolved

Thanks to you few, you proud, you band of people who linked to me, I'm now a Flappy Bird in the blog ecosystem.

I5BOTD 2/9/05

Today's Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

From The Ministry of Truth

Mainly because the blog reminds me of Loki, who is an astronomy buff.

Bushspeak to English translator?

I think it might be a field to consider - I suspect it will be a growth industry in the next few years.

Of course, I am talking about the brilliant oratorical stylings of one George Duh? Bush:

via the brilliant Digby

Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

'Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

'Okay, better? I'll keep working on it.'

I tried to do a little parsing myself, to figure out what the hell any of that meant.

On the table: big cost drivers:

how benefits are calculate (sic)

Whether or not benefits rise based on wage increases

Whether or not benefits rise based on price increases

Okay, - what Bush is saying here is that his people are looking at the big costs of Social Security, which they believe to be how benefits are calculate (again, sic), and whether benefits should increase based on wage increases or get cut based on wage increases, and whether benefits should increase based on price increases or decrease based on price increases.

Series of parts of the formula being considered,

With personal accounts those (??which??) change

Idea is to get closer to what has been promised

I admit - I'm stumped as to what he means here. I don't know what changes with personal accounts, and right now, Social Security delivers exactly what it promises, so what's the prob?

There is a reform that will help solve red

Finally, I can agree with Duh?. There is something that needs to be reformed, and it definitely involves the color red.

I must ask, in all seriousness: is this man on drugs?

I5BOTD

After randomly visiting a few of the new blogs listed to the right hand side of the page, I've decided to highlight a new one every day (that I manage to get to the computer).

Todays Indie 500 Blog of the Day is:

The Disgruntled Chemist

Chosen for several reasons:

1. I've been helping a friend edit her book about the environment, so environmental issues are much on my mind lately, and this blog has information about global warming.
2. He/She has a beautiful response to untethered wingnuts - totally calm and rational. As someone who has a fiery temper, I really admire that calm response.
3. Sio is planning to go into Chemistry, and this blogger is a Chemist (even though the untethered minds on the right don't think you can be a Chemist if you are a graduate student.) I may need to solicit this blogger for advice on schools, careers, opportunities, etc. in the near future.
   

Read! Enjoy!

If I were a children's book written by maurinsky, where would I be?

I have a vague recollection of sticking this book, written expressly for a much smaller Monkey, in a drawer somewhere in the house. I want to submit this book to a contest sponsored by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

While I'm not a naturally gifted artist, I can be creative at times. This book was illustrated with a series of collages illustrating the big adventures of a tiny Monkey.

Any ideas?

Pedestrian complaints

Unlike nearly everyone else who lives in suburban Connecticut, I am a regular user of public transportation. I take the bus home from work nearly every day, and to work many mornings*. I take the bus to school. If we're home on the weekend and want to get out of the house, we leave the car and walk to the bus stop.

And I have a big complaint about my pedestrian time, in particular, the time I spend walking from work to the bus stop. Spitting. Men, this is a complaint I have to direct towards you, because I have never seen a woman spit in public. Every sidewalk is an obstacle course, covered with splats of saliva and snot. Does that sound unpleasant? It's fucking disgusting, is what it is.

Things like this made me wish I had a son, because I would teach him not to spit in public.

Please stop spitting. If you must, find a trash can, or step into a public restroom and use the toilet. Please.

Next time on Pedestrian complaints: Why do we even bother to have Walk/Don't Walk signs?

*Loki and I go in the same general direction in the morning, but there is no bus service to his job, so he must drive. We carpool when he manages to get ready early enough.

Allow me to brag about my kid

My dear oldest child, the one who was born when I was a mere teenager, the one Catholic Family Service told me was doomed because I wasn't going to give her up for adoption, yes, that one, Ms. Sio - well, she had an exciting day today.

(Let me just add that I am too proud of her many and varied accomplishments to think about how I feel about the two exciting things that happened to her today on a political level)

1. She spent some time with a recruiter from the CIA, who said that based on her records, she would be an excellent candidate for joining the agency, particularly in the areas of science and technology, or espionage.

2. Several of her teachers nominated her for a National Leadership Conference that is taking place this spring in Washington D.C. Sio was very excited about the itinerary, although I did tell her they probably wouldn't like it if, when she meets Dubya, she tells him exactly how she feels about him - that's the kind of thing that would get the CIA watching you, but not for recruitment purposes. However, the conference also comes with an exciting price tag, so unless she gets a scholarship or we win the lottery (highly unlikely, since we never play), she may not go.

I can already tell that my stomach will be queasy at the thought of my baby in the CIA within the next 12 or so hours, so I'm just enjoying the warm glow of pride while it lasts.

Groundhog Day

Oh, I meant to post this a few days ago.

Here in beautiful Manchester, CT, we have our own groundhog, who lives at the Lutz Children's Museum, named Chuckles. While Punxatawney Phil may be the official rodent weathercaster of choice, Chuckles is a local sage, well worth listening to.

Our local newspaper, the very excellent Journal Inquirer, featured Chuckles prognostication on the front page of the paper this past Wednesday. The headline read:

"Chuckles Does Not See His Shadow: Spring Around the Corner"

And just below that, the headline writer with a sense of humor wrote:

"Bear in mind, Chuckles is blind and deaf"

(Chuckles is very old now, so he's suffering from diseases related to aging that most groundhogs never get to experience.)

Tempting Snow

Last night, we got more snow. I went out to clean off the car, and I realized that this was the snow I'd been waiting for.

Most of the snow we got this year was either really powdery or really hard. But this was wet and sticky. In other words, this was snowman snow.

I seriously contemplated calling in sick today so I could build a snowperson or two in front of the house. Monkey and I even got started building one, since she had a 90 minute delay for school. But time got away from us, and we only have the bottom third of our snowperson completed. I'm hoping the snow is still good for building when I get out of work.

Indie 500

I just added a shitload of blogs to the roll, under the heading Indie 500. These are other bloggers who opposed Gonzales as AG.

They may not all stay in the blogroll, because I haven't visited them all yet, so I don't know if they are all bloggers that I want to be associated with, but we're starting off agreeing that torture is bad, so I can at least assume they are better human beings than Joe Lieberman.

'Holy' Joe? Your 'yes' vote says 'NO'

Joe? Holy Joe Lieberman? You are done.

I was pleased to pull the lever for you when you ran for the Senate. You did a fine job as the AG of Connecticut, and I thought you would do a good job in the Senate.

I started to get a little worried when you started your moralizing about video games. I got a little upset when I wrote to you to complain about it - I mean, here you are, a powerful Senator, and you are focusing on a topic that really should be the responsibility of parents - and I got a form letter back thanking me for my support. Clearly, your office was not registering the opinions of your constituents. I wasn't happy about it.

But I have to admit, I was a little proud (although also a little worried - it didn't seem like a good strategy) when Al Gore chose you as his running mate. I was proud that a fellow Connecticutian was going to be the first Jewish VP.

And then you gave up the fight. You and Al Gore were clearly the winners, and you just let it go.

And then you voted to give Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq.

And today, today you voted to confirm Alberto Gonzales. This is a man who boiled complex legal issues down to one sentence summaries so his benefactor didn't have to read too much. Because of Alberto Gonzalez, people who were mentally retarded, who were not given the best defense possible as is required by the law of this great country, and people who were truly repentent, were killed in the name of the State of Texas. This is a man who called the Geneva Conventions quaint. This is a man who drafted a legal memo that gave our military the okay to torture people.

I know you think of yourself as a moral man. But torture is immoral, full stop. There are no conditions under which torture is moral. It's immoral when Saddam Hussein engages in torture, and it's immoral when the United States engages in torture.

Today, you gave your full approval to torture. You condoned torture. That makes you morally depraved, as depraved as the people who raped prisoners with fluorescent lights, as depraved as the people who put naked men on dog leashes, and even as depraved as Saddam Hussein and his rape rooms.

You bring shame to the state of Connecticut. You bring shame to the Democratic party. But mostly, you bring shame to yourself. It doesn't matter how devoted a family man you are, or how devoutly you attend Temple and observe the Sabbath. You are no better than those who actually performed the acts at Abu Ghraib.

I cannot wait to work for the person who challenges you in the next election. If no one else will, I will. Because Connecticut deserves better than a torturer to represent us in the Senate.

May the spirits of those who have been tortured haunt you for the rest of your days.

Mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be administrative assistants

There are a lot of sucky things about my job. Executives often feel free to order you around like you're a well-trained poodle - no "please" or "thank you". You get left out of staff meetings where decisions are made that affect everyone in the office because "we just need you to grab the phones!" People hand you huge projects 10 minutes before they *must* go out in the mail. Or they hand you huge projects that *must* be completed "today, before you leave", when it's 5 minutes before you're supposed to leave.

But one of the things I find most frustrating is when they give me busy work, work that is a waste of anyone's time. For example - 30 minutes ago, the Director gave me a file folder and said she needed 30 copies of everything inside of it for a 2 o'clock meeting. There was a memo on top, then 3 separate sections that were about 20-35 pages each, each section stapled. So, without further instructions, I made a judgement call, and made the copies the same way they were in the file folder: 2 page memo on top, section 1-30 pages stapled, section 2-25 pages stapled, section 3-35 pages stapled. I collated all 4 sections together and paperclipped them all together.

10 minutes ago, the Director came running over to me with the stack, and said that the 2 page memo on top had to be stapled together, so could I please set aside what I was doing (which was given to me by another Director, and was in the "must go out today before you leave" category) to do this crucial stapling.

So this was my priority, given by one of my bosses: set aside the revenue generating project you are working on, and take apart each one of these packets to staple the first two pages together.

Oy.

On the other hand, I did get paid over $16.00/hour today to staple things together, so it could be worse.

Yeah, it's not enough to make it worthwhile.

State of the Kitchen

I did not watch the SOTU address last night. I am one of those Bush haters, I can't even look at the man, and it turns my stomach to listen to his voice. It's easier to control my rage when I read the text, which I plan to do later today. I particularly want to read up on his so-called Social Security reform, because I thought it would be a bust, but Jesse is leading me to believe it's even worse than I anticipated.

Instead, I focused on the state of the kitchen. I have been making major inroads in combatting my naturally slovenly ways. I washed the dinner dishes (which was easy, since we had leftovers...mmmm, Shepherd's Pie), reorganized one shelf in my pantry (I think I was overdue in throwing out the oregano that had been with us since 1993), washed all the counters, and swept and washed the floor.

So the SOTK is pretty good.

The Talk

Monkey and I had 'the talk' tonight. It was hilarious. We were eating dinner, talking about my SIL, Susy, who has found herself unexpectedly pregnant. She already has 4 children (who were planned), and was on the pill, but somehow got herself knocked up anyway. She and BIL are both pretty happy about it, particularly BIL, who now feels his sperm are somehow embued with superpowers.

So Monkey asked how babies are made. She had asked once before, when she was really little, and I sort of gave her a quick rundown, without involving any words like penis or vagina.

Tonight must have just been the perfect night for her to ask, because we got into all the details. At first, she was confused about where the man puts his penis, and pointed to the back door, which caused Loki to choke on his food, and strongly suggest that the back door is a one way street - poop goes out, nothing goes in. I left it there, because I really was not willing to get into the subject of anal sex - our topic was procreation, and that's what I was going to describe.

To her credit, while Loki was choking and Sio was covering her face with embarassment, Monkey was totally cool about the whole thing. After describing physically how it happens, we sort of added the context that I endorse for my children: sex is a wonderful activity to be enjoyed by adults who are committed to one another. We talked about the possible negative consequences of sex - unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases. We talked about how her private parts are hers and no one is allowed to touch them. I let her know that if she has any other questions, she can come to me and I will be honest with her. And we suggested that she not share her newfound knowledge with any of her school mates, because this is the kind of thing kids should learn about from their parents.

At the end of the conversation, Monkey was laughing about the whole thing, and then she paused and said "So Susy had sex with S. (BIL) 5 times? I'll never be able to look at her again!"

Man, I love that kid.

How will this affect their GPA?

A Texas state senator has proposed a law that would require schools to grade children on their weight.

(Just a side note: while I am not obese, I'm on the chubby side, and one of my mortal fears is that one day I will recognize myself in one of those "from the shoulders down" shots. You know the ones I mean - where they are reporting on the TV news about a weight related item, and they know we can't rely on our own imaginations (or our own mirrors, for most of us) to conjure up a fat person so they show some poor unsuspecting schlub who was probably just raised in a house with poor eating habits (like me!) and haven't been able to break the lifelong habit. I hate those shots.)

There are so many reasons why, as Americans, are fat, and I don't think this state senators plan would make a dent, even if it did pass, which it probably won't.

But there are policies that would benefit the general population, family friendly policies that would allow for a less ridiculous pace of life, that would encourage lifestyle choices that could impact our fattiness. Family leave, for example. There is evidence that breastfeeding can reduce the likelihood of obesity later in life - I think this is because the baby learns to recognize when it is hungry and when it is full, something that isn't quite as easy when the baby is on a tight, measured feeding schedule, where they are supposed to eat X number of ounces every X number of hours. From my own anecdotal experience, my diet improved dramatically when I was nursing, because I had a strong motivation to eat well - my babies were getting their nutrition from me.

And of course, parents themselves need to take responsibility for what is in their house. We don't have soda in my house because it's a complete waste, nutritionally. It doesn't help you, and it certainly can hurt you. And I don't just cart my kiddlywinks to their various activities, I have physical activities of my own - I swim 2 to 3 times a week for 2 hours each time.

I would also think the state senator might take a look at some of the other issues she mentioned: that many of the students in Texas don't have health insurance. Or how about taking a look at school lunches - they tend to be of minimal nutritional value.

I'm not preaching from the altar here - I am far from perfect on the food issue myself. Too often, I rely on more processed food than I would like (because of time issues), and I have perfected the art of ignoring side dishes - we often just eat a main course with a salad on the side - less veggies than I would like to serve, but I just can't get my act together.

TV on DVD

I am a big fan of TV shows on DVD. There are a lot of series I didn't watch because I was busy doing other things (parenting stuff, community theater, living life with other humans instead of sitting in front of a screen). Now that my hip is in such bad shape, I can't do a lot of the things I used to do, so I am more inclined to waste time watching the tube. Watching shows on DVD is perfect because I can avoid commercials, and I can schedule the watching on my own time.

One series I recently purchased is Freaks & Geeks. I didn't catch this show not only because of NBCs capricious scheduling, but because when it was on the air I was involved in two different community theater productions, Three Short Plays by Christopher Durang and A Little Night Music. F&G was a great show, and the DVD is ridiculously abundant with delightful extras - there are commentaries on every episode, and you can feel the love that everyone associated with the show has towards their collaboration. It's a critically acclaimed show that many felt was cancelled too soon, but it's one absolutely perfect season, at least they never declined in quality.

Speaking of declining in quality, I spent much of the ridiculously cold weekend watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2, on DVD. I didn't start watching this series until it was in its 4th season, so I had to buy the previous seasons to catch up. Season 1 was okay, but Season 2 and 3 were mostly fantastic (On the plus side: Surprise, Innocence, Passion, Becoming Parts I and II. On the minus side: Inca Mummy Girl, Bad Eggs, Go Fish (seriously, what were they thinking?). Unlike a lot of fans, I really enjoyed the show until the tail end of Season 6 - I confess, I really liked Buffy & Spike together, so I was only disturbed by the ridiculous magic=drugs storyline they gave Willow. I probably won't even bother buying Season 7, because it was like a different show completely.

Angel was on a different track than Buffy entirely. I think it started slow and picked up steam, and each season was on the whole better than the season before it.

But here is where I commit heresy: Firefly was, in my opinion, the best of Joss Whedon's creations. I know, Buffy's an icon, Angel's cool, but Firefly was so much more complex than either of these shows. Buffy and Angel both touched on the gray area between good and bad, but Firefly lived in the gray. I think the show had the best acting, the best sets, and the most potential of the shows Joss Whedon created. Of course, it's easy to talk about the potential of Firefly when it was cancelled halfway through the first season. I actually shed tears when I heard it was cancelled. I am trying to not get too excited about the movie, Serenity, so my expectations don't get out of control. I will be there on opening night, though.

My only complaint about TV on DVD is that some shows I would like to watch again are too damn expensive. X Files, Six Feet Under - I'm looking at you.

Iraqi Election

I'm pleased that the election in Iraq went more smoothly than I anticipated. It is moving to see the people who voted, who are taking the concept of democracy to heart. It may turn out to be a blow against terrorism - it may not. It may turn the entire region around - it may not. I think it's too early to draw any conclusions about what the election means, because we won't really know whether it was a success until several years down the road.

It is rather depressing to read all the gloating from the right regarding the election, though. A successful election does not negate the way the Bush administration achieved it - lying to the American people, manipulating intelligence to support their conclusions, misusing our military men and women, killing many thousands of innocent Iraqi people, turning America into a country that commits acts of evil, like torture, dragging our good name into the mud. None of that has changed because Iraqi people have voted. There's really not a lot to gloat about.

Whatcha reading?

Since I am several years behind in my reading, I just started Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I'm loving it so far.

I picked it up at the bookstore this Saturday, where the girls and I spent the day. While we were there, I read David Sedaris' latest book, which I can't quite remember the title of - something about Plaid and Corduroy. It was quite good - lots of laughs, as in his previous books, but there were more stories that were touching, in a way that makes me a little teary-eyed. I'm in love with the whole crazy Sedaris family.

Also new

I also added links to the official website for Nellie McKay and to Ben Folds' website. Ben is going to be on Air America radio this Sunday at 10pm, so I know I will try to stay awake long enough to listen to the show.

I'm also going to see Ben Folds in February at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at UCONN. I'm very excited, it will be my second Ben show in less than a year, and he is just awesome live.

Done!

I updated my blog today - I put everything in alphabetical order (I always get slightly organizationally inclined during this portion of my monthly cycle) and added some new links, including Ezra Klein (who does look suprisingly like Matt LeBlanc in his picture), Body and Soul, Real Live Preacher (who has a lovely book out right now, called reallivepreacher.com), Political Animal, Political Strategy, James Wolcott (he must be a superhuman on that evolutionary scale of bloggers by now), The Poor Man, Tequila Mockingbird, Suburban Bliss, and Crooked Timber (even though I don't always understand what they are talking about - seriously, I sometimes need to draft a chart to keep track of their train of thought - because they always give me something to think about).

I also added links to Television Without Pity and Fametracker, because I really do enjoy watching TV ever so much more when I can visit a message board afterwards to talk about it with snarky people I don't know who are probably half my age.

I also removed the Kossack Bloggers heading, because my list was pretty out of date, and removed those blogs that I don't really visit. Not to say they aren't worthwhile, I just don't visit them.

Committment

I'm always amazed and slightly impressed with people who take hold of a particular lifestyle choice (and I'm not talking about gay people, I'm talking about Biker Guy or Gal, or Goth Teen, or Body Art Fella, or Fashionista, etc. Actual choices, not inborn traits) with both hands and don't let go. Mostly, I am slightly impressed that they are so committed. I still can't decide what I want to do when I grow up, and let's face it, at my age, the grown-up ship has long since sailed.

But I do love tattoo magazines.* Every month or so, Loki and the girls and I will head over to the bookstore (and there are only 2 chain bookstores left, so we usually pick Borders because B&N is at the mall, and I hate going to the mall), and I will unfailingly pick up every tattoo magazine on the rack, and just marvel at the committment the people documented within have made to their chosen lifestyle.

*Smooth transition, no?

I admire the artistry of some of the tattoo artists, no doubt about that. But I can't imagine making a decision on what tattoo to get, so I hold the tattooed in special regard, if only for their decisiveness.

A year or so ago, I was flipping through a British tattoo magazine, and I saw photos of tattoos that won awards at a tattoo convention (and here, again, is the committment - I have only attended 2 conventions in my life, one of them for work purposes - a telecommunications convention, so that was mandatory, and one Science Fiction convention so I could get Nicholas Brendon's autograph on my CD of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical, "Once More, With Feeling", and yes, that is a little dorky, but I can't help it, Joss Whedon and I are like twin souls, parted at birth, only he's much more successful and a much better writer than I am, and it's really beyond time for me to bring this sentence to an end) and in one photo, a gentleman had a lovely tattoo of what appeared to be a green alien woman with very large breasts. On his penis.

Do you want to know what award he won?

His award, for the tattoo on his penis, was the "Best Small". I admit, I felt a little pity for him - he went through all the pain of having a ink forced under his skin with a small sharp needle, only to be recognized for the minimal size of his member.

Still, just getting the tattoo leave me slightly impressed, so...congratulations, English guy, with your "best small".

The Shadow of the Torturer

If Alberto Gonzalez is not opposed, we will all be living under the shadow of the torturer. While he is not the person physically peforming the torture, he (acting on behalf of his long-time benefactor, George W. Bush) is the person who is condoning, encouraging, facilitating the action. He, like all people who support the use of torture, is morally depraved.

NO ON GONZALEZ!

I'm a big dork

School started today, and that always gives me a happy feeling. Yes, I always loved school, from kindergarten through whatever grade I'm in now. I loved high school so much (not the classes, necessarily, but just being there) that my favorite day of the week was Tuesday, when I got to school at 7am and didn't go home until 9pm.

I'm taking a madrigal class this semester, and it looks like a pretty good group - not enough men, which is pretty typical, but the teacher seems fantastic, and it looks like we'll be doing some interesting music. We sight-read a piece tonight that was crazy - there is a bass solo that was foghorn low.

No more road rage

My father has an absolutely foul temper, and this is one of the traits he has bequeathed to me. I am aware of my tendency to fly off the handle and get excessively angry over little things, so I work very hard to control my temper, with a fair amount of success. My kids don't tiptoe around me, I don't punch holes in the wall or break windows - when I start to feel enraged around my family, I tend to just put myself in time-out - I take the dog for a walk or wash dishes or just breathe deeply until I feel less angry, which puts me in a better position to put whatever triggered my anger into perspective.

One of the things that was killing me was driving behind cars with Bush/Cheney stickers on them. I could feel the rage move through my whole body, and I would usually drive a little faster. I dealt with this by reframing the issue in my head - a car with a Bush/Cheney sticker was doing me a favor, because the sticker was identifying the driver of the car as either completely misguided and misinformed or a complete idiot*. That really helped me feel less angry.

I have also adopted a new habit, which is giving thumbs up to people with anti-Bush stickers. Yesterday I gave the thumbs up to a gentleman whose pick-up truck sported a sticker that said: Proud to be a Veteran - Ashamed of G.W. Bush. He gave me the thumbs up in return.

*It's my opinion, and I'm sticking with it.

Back to school

I start back at school tomorrow. I completely chickened out from my oft-repeated goal of finally getting that remedial math class* out of the way and instead signed up for a one credit vocal music course. It works out pretty well, because we have a lot of expenses this year (Sio is going to Toronto and Greece, Monkey is going to camp, I need a new stove, I want a new dishwasher, and I have to finally suck it up and finish painting my kitchen, a job I started two years ago**).

*I will tell the story of Why I Suck At Math another time. Suffice it to say, my problem is one of psychological impairment rather than incompetence or stupidity.

**I am truly the laziest homeowner ever. I bought 3 quarts of paint because I wasn't sure which one I wanted on the wall, and I painted half the kitchen, but I never put down any primer, so the 3 colors I chose are now flaking off in the high traffic areas. I need to just make a decision about the color and get the primer down so I can finish.

I love New England

I may just be saying that to convince myself, though, because it's fucking freezing (although it did reach a high of 13 fahrenheit on our back porch today) and we're supposed to get 2 feet of snow. At least if it happened during the week, I could miss some work, but no, it had to happen on the weekend.

Oh well. I've got the necessary amounts of bread and milk to get me through any crisis.

The Last of the McCafferkeys

My maternal grandmother died today, at age 99 years and 8 months. There won't be a lot of grieving - she's had Alzheimer's since the late 80's, so all our grieving was done a long time ago. She outlived all of her siblings, who, one by one, all nine of them, succumbed to cancer. She outlived her husband by 30 years, and for the last 20, she didn't even remember him.

Writer Nuala O'Faolin has written that the Irish love a character, and by god, my gran was a character. She was born in Mayo, and her striking looks made her the object of a lot of male attention, which she loved. She was tall and slender, with jet black hair, and a dazzling white smile. She was never clear about when she first came to the U.S., but she was pretty clear that she had a lot of "fellas" as she called them. My sister and I would visit her in her Queens apartment after my grandfather died, and she would hike up her skirt and tell us how the fellas loved her "Betty Grable legs". At the time, she was in her 60's, and her legs were ravaged by varicose veins, which made T and I wonder who this poor Betty Grable was. But in gran's mind, she was always young and strong and beautiful, an object of desire.

She was also peculiarly obsessed with teeth. My suspicion is that healthy teeth in a country like Ireland were an indication of wealth and health, and gran was obsessed with her teeth - she brushed and flossed and never ate any sugar. When she would come visit us in the country, she would inspect each of us as if we were horses she was considering. She would look into our eyes and determine whether they were sufficiently bright and shining. Then we had to bare our teeth for her. For several years, she was very concerned that my incisors, which seemed to be growing in horizontally, would cause me to never marry, but they eventually straightened out on her own.

She always made me march up and down, as well, and then she would turn to my mother and declare that I was a cripple. Yeah, she wasn't always a nice lady.

When she was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she lived for a time with my Aunt Bernadette, and when Aunty B couldn't take it anymore, my mother took gran in. After a couple of years, it was clear that she could no longer be managed at home anymore - she still came across as very coherent to people who didn't know her, but she also did things like shoplift, hide food in her pocketbook, and she would set out on walks and disappear for hours.

So she was placed in a nursing home where my Aunty Mo worked. One evening, Aunty Mo was cleaning out gran's night table, and she opened the bottom drawer to reveal rows of false teeth. Apparently, gran had been sneaking out of bed at night and stealing the other patients false teeth from the glasses where they soaked.

Resolved

I always make New Year's Resolutions, although I have a poor record of follow through. About five years ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to swim, and that one worked out really well - the only stroke I can't do is the butterfly. And maybe 3 years ago I decided I had to lose weight, so I joined Weight Watchers, and lost 30 lbs, which I still haven't gained back yet (although I do work on it sometimes - damn you, Shady Glen and your delicious crispy cheeseburgers). Other than that, my resolutions have been utter failures: I haven't finished my degree, I haven't saved $2000, I haven't exercised on a daily basis, and my house is still a mess.

This year, I decided to deal with the messy house. My resolution is to do one thing every day that will help rather than hinder the ultimate goal of having a neater house. My sister suggested I sign up for Fly Lady, but I had to immediately unsign up after receiving 20 e-mails at work telling me it was time to deal with that entryway closet* and asking me if I was wearing laced up shoes**, and wondering if my sink was shining***. Thanks, but no thanks. In addition, she recommended a James Dobson parenting book, and I'm sorry, I cannot trust the judgement of anyone who would do that, I don't care if you can eat off her floors.

So far, it's going pretty well. I've made a dent in the piles of clothes in my room that need to be donated or thrown out. I take about 10 minutes a day to just throw out crap that I would ordinarily walk by without a second look. Instead of thinking "I'm going to have to deal with those books that someone has taken down and not returned," I just get up and deal with it.

And I have finally, after a lifetime, cultivated the habit of making my**** bed when I wake up. I've made my bed every day so far this year, and changed the sheets twice. What's more, this bedmaking has caught on, so now Monkey makes her bed everyday, too. (Sio is a compulsive cleaner, her room is completely spotless and she's always made her bed. Loki and I presume this is a recessive gene.)

So far, so good.

*My house was built in 1920, when it was apparently unfashionable to have closets on the first floor of a home. Our bedrooms have substantial closets, which is actually unusual for homes built at the time, because our neighborhood used to be *the* neighborhood, where all the chi-chi people lived. It's still a really nice neighborhood, even though we live there.
**I don't even own lace up shoes, because I cannot reach my left foot due to my hip. I'm a fast learner - the first time I had to ask someone to tie my left shoe for me was the last time I wore shoes with laces.
***My sink hasn't even been empty, let alone shining.
****Loki never makes it through the night in bed with me (his skin is so heat sensitive, and I'm an oven when I sleep. Plus, I have sleep apnea, and Loki is a light sleeper, so the sound of the CPAP keeps him awake. He nearly always ends up on the couch, which he says is his favorite place to sleep anyway. And after 16 years of marriage, I have come to believe that Rob & Laura Petrie had the right idea, sleeping in separate beds - it's easier to ride the bumpy road of marriage when one is well rested.

Stuck in my head

For some reason, I cannot get Bjork's Human Behavior out of my head. I don't even know the words to the song, but that beat is just pounding away in my brain. And the last time I heard that song was at least a week ago.

My usual surefire cure to getting a song unstuck is to sing It's A Small World After All. Unfortunately, the cure is worse than the disease - you end up with It's A Small World After All stuck in your head.

Oh, great.

The National Honor Society Controversy

Sio has been invited to join the National Honor Society. Ordinarily, I suspect this leads to a burst of pride on the part of the parents, who surely have contributed not just genes, but emotional and financial and academic support to their young genius.

But in our house, the National Honor Society is on The List*. You see, when Loki was in high school, he was a candidate for the NHS, but they rejected him because he didn't participate in enough extra-curriculars for their taste - despite the fact he was a member of the Chess Club and the Arrow-Catching Club**. And yours truly was rejected because they decided I wasn't civic minded enough - apparently, they didn't mind civic involvement of the Eagle Scout/DAR variety, but they frowned on students who protested against Ronald Reagan and wrote letters to the editor condemning the actions of the Reagan administration in the Iraq/Contra scandal.

We're not going to stand in the way of Sio joining the NHS, because I suppose it still looks good on a college application, and it will probably look good on the thousands of scholarship applications Sio will have to fill out to help pay for college. Paying for college. That's a topic for another post.

*Term appropriated from The Out-Of-Towners (original version) starring Jack Lemmon and that flighty weird chick whose name I can't remember right now. Other groups on The List: Wal-mart, Best Buy, the Boy Scouts of America, the American Family Association, Connecticare, and NetfuckingZero.

**Loki had a very cool teacher who started the arrow-catching club for all the geeks who didn't play sports***. They met once, to create a secret handshake, discuss how *not* to catch arrows (with any part of your body other than your hand) and have their picture taken for the yearbook.

***I say this with love and affection, despite the fact I was totally sporty in my younger, non-disabled years. I'm not even 5'2" and I played varsity basketball, that's how much of a jock I used to be.

It's You I Like

Flea at One Good Thing has a post today about the unconditional (almost) love our kids give us.

It reminded me of the first time I got my hair cut after Monkey was born.

I lucked out in the hair lottery. Although I had to suffer through my childhood years getting called Carrot Top and even Tomato Head (after my mother put an ill-advised green bow in my hair for St. Patrick's Day one year), my orange hair darkened into a lovely red color as I got older. My hair is wavy, and it looks good even when I wake up in the morning. It also grows very fast.

My hair wasn't very long when I had Monkey, and I was so busy with her that I didn't bother to get it cut. For 2 years. One day, I was at work, and my hair was driving me nuts, so I went to the salon on my lunch hour and had them chop it, to about chin length. When I picked Monkey up from my sister's house after work, she took one look at me and burst into tears.

Kids really don't want their moms to change.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finslippy has a great story up about her son finding his Special Purpose.

There are not a lot of boys in my family, so I don't have a lot of penis stories, but I do have one about my nephew, Dennis the Menace*. He was getting to be a real lazy porker of a kid, so my sister decided he had to start doing some sports. They tried baseball, but he was bored; they tried soccer, but he would just stand there looking at dandelions; but eventually they found 2 sports he enjoyed: football and wrestling. Football is great because it's a physical activity that helps him release some of his aggression, and wrestling is great because it's one on one, and he's not the best team player.

One day at a scrimmage, he was wrestling against a girl. The gym was crowded that day, my friends, and my sister was sitting with the other moms when DtM suddenly stopped and shouted out to my sister: "Mom! My penis moved all by itself!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Not his real name, but definitely his real personality

But what if the head cheerleader is a cheertator?

You know, the cheerleader defense may actually be the best the defense can offer. Because torture is simply indefensible.

Misfit parent, Queen Bee child

I never went through a phase where I tried to fit in with my peers. I knew I was different and I embraced it. I grew up with a bunch of kids whose dads were engineers and whose moms had MFAs but stayed home, or were in law school. My father only went to school until he was 11, when he became an apprentice carpenter. My mother dropped out of Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow High School to take a secretarial course rather than finish reading Great Expectations. Aside from that, I went to school with a bunch of kids whose families came over on the Mayflower, and I was the child of immigrants. My friends all had one sibling (or none), I had four. We were different, and I loved it.

In my more self-conscious and painfully awkward years, I worked very hard at being different. I had a tragically classic Flock of Seagulls style hairdo when I was 13, and I had a mohawk when I was 16. I enjoyed my status as a misfit.

Sio is a misfit of sorts - she is a lovely person, friendly and kind, and everyone seems to like her, but she definitely marches to the beat of her own drum, and always has. I am more in tune with the music her peers are listening to than she is. She wears neat twinsets and skirts, and looks like a librarian while her peers are millimeters away from exposing pubes every time they move. It's all good - I can cope with this. I am comfortable with supporting her choices, because I can relate to not wanting to be the same as everyone else.

But Monkey is very aware of what is cool, and she wants to fit in. I can't buy clothes for her, because she needs to try things on to determine whether they are "cool" or "lame". She asks for Bratz dolls, and wants to listen to {sob}Hillary Duff and Lindsey Lohan. (She'll listen to actual music, too, but she wants to make sure she's also listening to what her peers are listening to.) I feel a knee-jerk reaction to dismiss her desires to fit in, because I just don't get it, quite honestly. But I guess it's a choice she's making. As long as I keep my influence, I will let her have a Bratz doll, and I won't make a big deal.

But I draw the line at Hillary Duff. She can listen to it at her friend's house, but not under my roof!

Truly, there are blogs for everything

I give you the Dunkin Donuts experience.

(Loki and I were fairly devoted Dunkin Donuts coffee drinkers, but since we have some saving to to do, we have dropped our daily visit - he gets a large hazlenut with lots of sugar and a little cream, I get a medium regular, regular - because we figured we were spending about $1200 on coffee. While we have a coffeemaker, coffee and half & half at home. So now we get Dunkin Donuts coffee as a reward for completing unpleasant tasks.)

Somebody call Lileks!

This E-Bay listing is currently going for $21,000. I figure with the amount of space he has available, Lileks could easily quadruple that.

bad health

Last night, I went to bed at about 11:45pm, way too late considering I had to be up at 5am. I watched most of American History X, a movie I hadn't seen before, which got me all worked up emotionally, and left me feeling generally depressed, because the Camerons of the U.S. seem to be winning right now.

At about 12:30am, I was awakened by the sound of tears. I checked in on Sio, who was sobbing quietly in her room. In the past couple of weeks, her psoriasis, which was basically in remission for about 10 years, exploded, and she was crying because she said she used to be so pretty. I hugged her, and told her she is entirely beautiful, inside and out, and there is nothing psoriasis can do to stop that. She has an appointment with a specialist later this month (because she will not miss school for a doctor's appointment.)

Then I realized that Monkey was also crying. I checked in on her, and she was crying because her privates were itching. This has happened before with her - she has very sensitive skin so we have to be very careful with the soaps she uses when she bathes...but she slept over her cousin's house on Saturday, so she probably took a bubble bath with them, which resulted in the irritation. Easily resolved with a very tiny amount of Monistat.

The whole Laughing Wild family has been suffering recently - oddly enough, I seem to be the healthiest one, since I'm only dealing with chronic pain. Loki has very bad eczema, which is triggered by stress, and his body is almost covered right now - I would ban him from reading online message boards, which get him all worked up, but I'm not that kind of wife - I just gently suggest it might behoove him to take a break from fighting unwinnable battles against "AmericanPatriot27" and "Bush2Rulz" on a political message board.

Loki slept on the couch last night because it's cooler downstairs, and his skin is so irritated that the warmth my body generates was just causing him pain. I got him some nice cool sheets (I've got flannels on the bed right now) and tucked him in. By the time I got to sleep, it was around 1:30am. I still got up at 5 and showered and got dressed (in my new cashmere sweater, purchased off the clearance rack at Marshall's for $38 - and I had a gift card, so I only paid $3.00 of my own money for it), did my hair and makeup (so people will see a functioning person instead of the extra from Shawn of the Dead that I actually am today), and took Loki to work, took Sio and Monkey to school, and headed into my own job. Damn. It was a long day by 7am.

Recent celebrations

In addition to Christmas (which didn't seem to be under any kind of attack in our blue state - I tried saying Merry Christmas to various shop people, and unlike Lileks & O'Reilly noticed, no one seemed shocked or horrified by it. One can only assume there is something personally offensive about the aforementioned fellows that was actually the cause of the horror. Maybe the shop clerk recognized They Shall Know Him By His Fivehead? Maybe O'Reilly had falafel breath?) and New Year's Eve (which I celebrated with my favorite sister and my daughters and her daughter, watching a marathon of What Not To Wear on TLC....it was my girliest new year ever) , Loki and I recently celebrated the 16th anniversary of that day when we had our traditional Irish Catholic wedding - I was 5 months pregnant when we got married in a bar.

40,000

Absolutely horrifying. If I believed in God, events like this earthquake would make me reject Him/Her out of hand. I prefer to believe it's just nature, which is neutral and functions without regard to those of us who inhabit this planet, than a deliberate action of a supposedly benevolent creator who loves us and has a plan.

Three times

I've tried to update three times from work, and failed. So I'm hoping the 4th times a charm. Quickly: Monkey is doing The Nutcracker this weekend, Sio (aka Sweetness) has decided she wants to major in Chemistry when she goes to college, Loki may be very sick but he won't go to the doctor, and I have my piano final tonight.

Don't forget to vote in the Koufax Awards!

Sick

I am sick today. I was feeling a little under the weather on Friday, so I decided to release myself from my work responsibilities. In a lovely display of karma, today I have a fever of 102F, and I'm so achy and feel so generally horrible that I'm balancing feeling like this with dying, and thinking that dying looks pretty good. Except since I'm a little behind at work, I came in anyway.

Novel update

I am now up to 10,715 words in my National Novel Writing Month novel, tentatively titled Off To A Bad Start. I hope to be at 30K by Thanksgiving, which will give me a long weekend to finish up.

Grrr

The two funniest posts I've ever written were destroyed. I'm not holding Blogger responsible, it was due to a problem with my work computer, but I'm not happy that Blogger and my work computer hate each other so much.

One of the hilarious posts featured the details of a conversation I had with a friend who is a Bush supporter after the election - shorter version: when I tell her about Bush's flaws, she puts her fingers in her ears and says "na-na-na-na-na, I can't hear you!" which leads me to believe that reasonable discussion is no longer possible. But I get the last word, so it was a good conversation. For me, anyway.

I can't even remember what my second post was about, but it may have been about ethics vs. morality, a subject that's been on my mind lately. I promise that it was very funny and both of my regular readers should be sad theses two posts no longer exist.

Tonight, I'm going to send you over to Pandagon (where you probably already visit) and ask you to comment on their thread about what the Democrats should stand for.

In other news, I'm a year older, I had the crappiest birthday ever (and not just because I didn't get the item at the top of my list, a Democrat in the White House), I saw The Incredibles and I didn't like it anywhere near as much as everyone else in the entire world did. (It was okay, funny in some parts, but not as satisfying as Toy Story (I or II) or even Shrek. I even liked Finding Nemo better, and I didn't really like Finding Nemo, either.) The animation was terrific, though, so if that's important to you, you'll have a great time. Really, there was no part of it that I can call bad, I just didn't like it.

I'm feeling better now

Ohio is still up in the air, Florida early votes haven't been counted, and I still live in a beautiful blue state. And regardless of the final outcome, John Kerry is my president. I think I'm going to make a sign for my car, so when I drive to work tomorrow, everyone behind me will see my sign: John Kerry is My President 2004.

I swear to you that I am not drunk, I am simply experiencing some euphoria born of hope and sleep deprivation.

I don't think it's *entirely* over yet

But right now it looks like Bush has muscled his way to a second term.

I'm not too happy about it, but I do believe America can survive even this. Well, I'm trying to believe it. The problem is that the half of the country that supports Bush is completely irrational. Most of them are religious fanatics who have more in common with the Taliban than with the Jesus that they claim to follow. Many of them are vengeful, ugly people who through some sort of fantasy or delusion believe that they are entirely self-made people, unable to empathize with the plight of those who are less fortunate than they are, unable to see that it could have been them who was born to a drug addict, or an abusive parent, or an alcoholic, or with the wrong color skin.

Tomorrow morning, I'll get on the bus, and on my way to work I'll pass by Center Congregational Church, where the Connecticut Constitution was drafted (the first draft of the U.S. Constitution), and I'll hope for the best.

If things look like they're headed where I think they're headed, at the very least me and the girls are registered foreign born nationals of Ireland. We can always head to the saner shores of Europe.

Perspective

For the last two weeks, I've been biting my nails over baseball.

Tonight, I have given up the nails and moved on to extreme nausea and high anxiety over the future of the country. Makes the playoffs and series seem like a day at the park.

I started the day in a spirit of high optimism. Loki and I arrived at our polling place about 7:45am, there were only Kerry supporters outside, and everyone was in high spirits.

Now that results are coming in, I'm too anxious to watch the coverage. S is flipping through all the channels but Fox, and she's been instructed to inform me if A)anything surprising happens or B) there is good news for Kerry. She just let me know that Kerry has won NY - certainly does not fulfill A, but I'll take an expected B.

Just One Thing

I happened to catch some of SNL's Presidential Bash tonight. It was like deja vu. Going back to Ford/Carter, there were accusations that the Democratic candidate is a flip-flopper.

So to the media, I ask, no, no, I fucking demand: DON'T EVER LEGITIMIZE THE STUPIDITY OF THIS ATTACK AGAIN!!!!

If I have learned anything from this campaign, I learned how incredibly lazy the press is. Republicans accuse the Democrats of flip-flopping, the press obediently asks "How do you, Mr. Democratic candidate, respond to the charges of flip-flopping?"

It's an illegitimate issue, and if I hear any so-called journalists ask about this in the future, I will know that the so-called journalist is a lazy-ass media whore.

It is not a weakness to change one's mind. When the situation changes, when the fucking facts change, it's fucking RETARDED to NOT change one's mind.

Sox in 4, Kerry in '04!!!!!

Damn, that was a beautiful ballgame. We stepped outside a few times when the Cards came to bat to check out the eclipse, which was gorgeous - the moon was a coppery red color - but other than that, we were tuned in to this history breaking moment. I can't help but engage in some magical thinking about how this is a sign, at least for tonight.

Because I don't have enough to do already

I have decided to sign up for National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) after my sister begged me to. It will be something to take my mind off the election mess that will probably occur, as well as get my 35th year off to a productive start. (Yes, I have a birthday coming up - my main request this year was for a Democrat in the White House, but unfortunately there are a bunch of people who don't want me to get my birthday present this year! Hopefully there are more people out there who want me to be happy as I enter my mid-30's than not.)

I Hate Musicals!

Actually, I love musicals, my title is simply a reference to a very funny song in a very funny musical, Ruthless! The Musical.

Last night, as I sat in my freezing cold house (we are trying to cut back on the heating bill by not turning the heat on...novel idea, I know), unable to watch the game for any stretch of time (because only a Red Sox fan is biting their nails at the bottom of the 9th when the team is up by 7), so I tuned into PBS, which was broadcasting their show Broadway: The American Musical.

It was great, although a pox on Kenneth Burns for popularizing that damn technique of having actors read letters written by actual people - it just bugs me.

Anyway, they played a film of Ethel Waters singing "Suppertime", which had me in absolute tears - the story is that the song is sung by a woman whose husband has been lynched, and it's time to get supper on the table, but it's so hard because she knows her man isn't coming home no more.

I cried again when they were talking about Oscar Hammerstein's final song - Edelweiss. I grew up in a house where we were always singing - my mother played piano by ear, and we used to play "Name That Tune" - if you guessed the tune you would get to move up a step, and whoever got to the top of the stairs first won. And we always, always sang in the car. My father used to have a list of requests that he liked us to sing for him, and Edelweiss was one of his favorites. It's such a sweet, simple tune, with such hopeful lyrics. What a lovely last song for Hammerstein to write.

Tonight they will be hitting my favorite era of Broadway, the Sondheim era. But I have a rehearsal tonight, so I'll have to catch the 1am showing...or maybe I'll have to get up at 4am. I can't tape it because our VCR is kaput, and I am sadly Tivo-less. Well, I suppose I could just wait - I'm sure it will either be repeated or available on DVD in time for Christmas.

I got to meet Mr. Sondheim once, by the way. He gave a talk at Fairfield University, and I ponied up the dough to attend a cocktail party fundraiser afterwards. He signed one of my Sondheim albums (that's one of those round black vinyl things, we used to play them on record players, oh, how I loved the crackle of the needle hitting the vinyl), and shook my hand. Nothing terribly memorable for him, but I will always remember it.

Sean the sheep and evil chickens

My mother drove to Massachusetts one day while I was at school and bought a lamb for me. I think this was shortly after a visit to the orthopedist, which usually left her feeling guilty about not catching my hip displaysia until it was too late to do anything productive about it. So she bought me a lamb.

There is very little in the world that is more adorable than a lamb. They leap around in a way that makes you feel joy in your heart. The problem is that lambs become sheep, and sheep are so boring and dull that it breaks your heart. Watching a lamb turn into a sheep is enough to make one want to die before they get old. We had Sean for about 8 years, and then one night he was mauled by either a coyote or an uncontained dog, and we had to put him to sleep.

Onto the evil chickens.

My sister hatched a bunch of eggs for the science fair when she was in 5th grade. We had a dozen eggs, and 5 of them turned out to be roosters. Chickens are fairly aggressive animals to begin with, but with that many males, these guys were the most ornery bunch of chickens ever. Instead of turning on each other, which roosters are well known to do, these guys banded together and took out their fierce aggression on us. They would hide under bushes, coming out to attack your ankles when you walked by. They would attack your hand when you went out to feed them. They were nasty little buggers.

Now, I respect vegetarians, but my experience with chickens taught me that chickens are inherently evil and deserve to be eaten.

My Pet Goat

You know, I've read these three words literally thousands of times, but did I ever tell you that I actually had a pet goat? His name was Caligula (my older sister was taking Western Civ at the time and thought that an appropriately goaty name), and he was so cool.

I got him when he was 5 days old. I had to get up in the very wee hours of the morning to feed him, but he was so cute and charming I loved every minute of it. When he got a little older, we bought him a dog collar and we would take walks with him. We would walk down the street to Cumberland Farms and he would wait outside for us.

We eventually sold him back to a farm, as he got very aggressive when he was older - but never to me, he was always a sweetheart to me.

Next time, I'll tell you about my sheep, Sean, and the evil chickens.

Possible way to approach stem cell research

I went to bed last night slightly dissatisfied with Kerry's answer on stem cell research. The questioner was, I believe, pretty clearly pro-life, but I thought it was a fair question - if we are already having success with non-embryonic stem cell research, why open up the moral and ethical can of worms of using embryos for stem cell research?

I thought it might be effective to approach embryonic stem cell research in the following way: compare it to organ donation. Right now, those embryos are either going to stay frozen until they are useless or be destroyed anyway. If we use the embryos for stem cell research and find ways to cure tragic diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, or to help someone with a damaged spinal cord walk again, it's like letting these embryos, embryos that would otherwise just be destroyed anyway, make life livable again for someone who is currently suffering. It's similar to those people whose families see their loved one live on through organ donation. I know if I were going to a fertility clinic and created more embryos than I could use, I would be happy to sign a card asking that the embryos created from my egg and my husband's sperm be used to advance science and help a suffering person be healed from their disease or affliction.

Fave debate moment

I'm torn between GWB being so out of touch he doesn't know that he owns a lumber company and GWB being so unable to take responsibility for anything that he had to blame Clinton for his bad job numbers.

He brought up the Clenis. Yes, Bush, let's remind us of a time when the economy was doing well, we had good jobs and we had hope for the future.

O'Reilly on The Daily Show

I didn't watch the whole interview, but O'Reilly told a couple of whoppers while I was tuned in:

1. We haven't been attacked since 9/11 - there's a family in Connecticut that buried their grandmother because she was killed when someone mailed anthrax to her house. I seem to recall that several Congresscritters received anthrax in the mail, too. Not a big showy attack like 9/11, but I don't think that means we can just claim victory against all U.S. based attacks. Oh, and like 9/11, the responsible party hasn't been caught or convicted yet.

2. The economy is doing well. While the worthless O'Reilly may be doing all right for himself (I've always been convinced it's easier to make money when you have no ethics), the Dow is not headed upwards, there are very few jobs, we have a huge deficit, and something like 164 economics professors signed a letter about how we need to replace our CEO president because things are bad and they're only going to get worse.

As an Irish-American, I am completely embarassed by asshats like O'Reilly and Hannity. I renounce them as fellow Irish-Americans.