Musings
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NaBloPoMo + DoSoEvAyMo = Busy Month
I’ve been debating this whole NaBloPoMo thing. I’ve participated for the last couple of years, and it’s fun. You meet a whole new community, assuming you put the effort into that. At the very least, you write every dang day, which is a good exercise. Of course, this isn’t such a problem for me, as I write almost every day already. But I’ve been backing off from that a bit in this last year, thinking I might like to not feel that obligation, to only write when I am moved to…but now I’m thinking, yes, I’ll go for it. I don’t know why, just that I feel like it. Or…
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Personhood vs. Parenthood
I heard the other day about an amendment on the Colorado ballot that would define Personhood as beginning at the moment of conception. This is clearly a pro-life effort, working to determine a concrete definition of when life begins, which would eventually lead to outlawing abortion by defining abortion as the murder of an unborn child. I’m not willing to go so far as to use the word murder, but at the same time, I’m not willing to say that a fetus isn’t a living being either. And really, what this all comes down to is parsing words in a battle over rights. The rights of the unborn child vs.…
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Friday Randomness
Ted got this picture emailed to him the other day, and we’ve all been cracking up over it. Just in case you haven’t seen it yet, have a chuckle. Regarding Palin’s clothes, no, the GOP shouldn’t have bought them. She and her husband make enough money, she could have bought them herself.  Not to slam Alaska, though, there really aren’t that many places to buy the kind of things you would need on the campaign trail. Not defending her, as I said, she should have bought them with her own money. Just an observation about shopping options in Alaska. (Actually, there’s a Nordstrom in Anchorage, so she should have…
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Remakes: Friend or Foe?
I was looking online the other day for “Lost”, wondering when the new season would start (I never found out, exactly, though I seem to remember it’s January or February of 2009), when I came across the little tidbit that Land of the Lost is being made into a movie, coming out in 2009. I know this labels me as lame forever, and my brother was embarrassed at the time to be related to me, but I LOVED “Land of the Lost” when I was 8 years old. Oh Holly, how difficult to have to grow up without your mom, in a land of dinosaurs and Sleestack…the danger always present,…
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I Wish I had Read This BEFORE I Went Grocery Shopping
Picture and text totally cribbed (though shortened a bit) from Hungry Girl Fiber One Original Bran Cereal vs. All-Bran Original Natural Wheat Bran High Fiber Cereal Nutrition: A half-cup serving of Fiber One has 60 calories, 1g fat, 105mg sodium, 25g carbs, 14g fiber, 0g sugars, and 2g protein. Half a cup of All-Bran has 80 calories, 1g fat, 80mg sodium, 23g carbs, 10g fiber, 6g sugars, and 4g protein. Calorie and sugar counters will appreciate Fiber One’s numbers — plus, F1 has 4 extra grams of fiber. Protein seekers and those totally opposed to artificial sweeteners (Fiber One is lightly sweetened with aspartame) may prefer All-Bran’s stats. Taste: All-Bran…
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Kids These Days
Slide show from El Hogar de los Ninos website. One of Maya’s electives this year is a class called Teens Around the World, in which they learn a bit about geography, but mainly about the issues that face children and teenagers all around the world. Sort of like a class I took in High School, Global Studies, but also different. They study issues like immigration, hunger, child labor, and what they as children and teens can do to help. The teacher is on the board of directors for an organization called El Hogar de los Ninos, which works to help very poor children in Managua, Nicaragua. From their website: In…
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People are like pigeons
I got a good chuckle out of this story, from Reuters: TEHRAN: Iran failed Friday to register what it said would be the world’s largest sandwich in the Guinness book of World Records after people rushed forward and began eating it — before it was measured. Event organizers had planned to stuff the 1,500-meter-long sandwich with 700 kg of ostrich meat and 700 kg of chicken, and display it in a park in the capital Tehran. But as the sandwich was being measured, chaos ensued. The giant snack was gone in minutes, a Reuters witness said, leaving the three Guinness representatives present with a dilemma. One of the event’s organizers…
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Happy Friday
Hey all, it’s Friday, and I’ll admit that I’m glad. I’m looking forward to sleeping in Saturday and Sunday, maybe wasting a bit of time watching 90210 on Soap TV. (Do I need to clarify that I’m talking about Beverly Hills, 90210, vs. the current teen drama, known just as 90210?) I know, loser. 😉 This morning I have meeting after meeting, and this afternoon Maya has her first school dance, and Ted has an interview in the City.  I hope they both go well. Especially the job interview. Keep your fingers crossed. Tomorrow evening, Maya and some of her classmates are volunteering at a dinner/fundraiser in San Francisco, raising…
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Visit with Grandma
(Grandma, 1941, 18 years old) I went to Stockton on Sunday to see my Grandma and her sister, my Great-Aunt Flo.  I haven’t seen them since the service we had for my mom, in June. They both seem a bit thinner, a bit sadder, but overall stronger and better than they did when my mom first died. Still sad, still somewhat angry, but better. Kate and I went up, hoping to take them to Grandma’s favorite place, Red Lobster. (I’m not a huge fan of the RL, but there isn’t a lot else in Stockton.) But Grandma said, um, no, Kate’s work is precarious, Ted isn’t working, you cannot take…
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Happy Thanksgiving!
To my Canadian friends! (graphic found here)
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Question*
If the answer to life, the universe, and everything is indeed 42, and my age currently is also 42, why the hell has this year indeed sucked so fucking much? Just wondering. A message? Cruel joke? Or merely coincidence? (image found here) *1st, I know I’m a huge dork. 2nd, I have indeed had a glass of wine before writing this. 3rd, Maya is obviously watching The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is funny as hell, and also, distracting as hell when I’m trying to read my book. So I’ve given up on the reading.
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A Sad Day
I was saddened to read in this morning’s paper that Mother’s Cookies has shut down operations and is filing bankruptcy. I’ll admit to fond memories of growing up with Mother’s Cookies, those yummy super sweet pink and white circus animal cookies, or the taffy sandwich cookies, or Ted’s favorites, the peanut butter gauchos. Sigh. Mother’s has been around a long time (since 1914), though the company has been bought and sold several times in the last 15 – 20 years. Before that, they were a Bay Area institution. They were located in Oakland until just a few years ago, when they moved to Ohio and Canada. I went to buy…
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Die How You Live
The discovery of Steve Fossett’s airplane and remains this week got me thinking about death. My first thought when I read about his plane crashing last year was, “Although I’m sure that he didn’t wish to die yet, this is probably how he would want to go.” Doing what he loved. Living his life, not shirking from it, unafraid. I had the same thought when Steve Irwin died doing what he loved, diving and spending time with animals. Roy Horn didn’t die from his injuries after being mauled by a tiger, but if he had, he also would be dying according to his passion. I have to admire that. Don’t…
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Happy New Year!
(image found here) It’s Rosh Hashanah, (unless you’re Ted, and then it’s Rush Hashanah), which is the New Year according to the Jewish Calendar. I’ve made the impulsive decision to make my New Year’s resolution now rather than in January, because there are a couple of things I need to work on, and there’s no time like the present, right? I don’t generally go in for New Year’s Resolutions, actually, but this year, I feel the need. So. Here goes. 1. Floss. I know, I should have been doing this all along, but I haven’t been. I don’t enjoy flossing, and I don’t get much tartar on my teeth, so…
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Back to Work
Autumn’s Mom did a guest appearance over at The Mommy Diaries last week, and this morning I thought I’d see what else was going on over there. Well, another guest blogger had stopped by, DC Urban Dad, and he wrote a post about being thankful for his wonderful wife. In that post, he mentioned that his wife has been home with their baby for these last several months, but that time is coming to an end, and she’ll be back at work soon. It was a nice post, but really, what it triggered for me was memories, memories of my first day back at work after having Maya. Maya was…