New babies on the way!

We left the sparrow's nest from last year up, hoping that they would come back and reuse it. We were surprised to see what we think is a robin taking residence. She added to it--it's definitely bigger this year. This is all we've been able to see of her so far. The head and tail look like a robin, but she looks to be on the small side, which is why I'm not 100% sure. I don't want to bother her, though, so we'll just have to wait. I'm sure we'll see her full body soon enough. I took this shot from quite far away--having a great zoom is very helpful at times like this. We haven't heard any peeping sounds, and the babies are usually quite loud, so we're pretty sure nobody has hatched yet. We will continue to put food on the ground near her nest, so she can eat well without working too much. We so love to watch all of our spring babies!

This week has continued to be stressful and busy and full of animal placements. We had to find immediate placement for 2 dogs and 3 cats by this morning. Shockingly, we actually did what we thought would be impossible! Allegrea has made so many helpful contacts through her AR MySpace. These people stepped up and helped, and two of the animal placements are in Rockford and Chicago . Once again it’s apparent that many of our local acquaintances—as people like this could not be called friends—prove unwilling to house more than the one dog or one cat in their huge homes with yards. God forbid they put themselves out with an additional responsibility. These people repeatedly show us that they would rather see an animal die or become absorbed into our already crowded and less than ideal circumstances, than make even the tiniest of sacrifices. When I am leaning toward my agnostic side of the fence, I can console myself by thinking that justice will be served in the end somehow. Benign neglect is no less evil than abuse. When I lean toward my atheistic side of the fence, I get really pissed off thinking that there may not be justice for the very selfish masses.

Time spent with my very sweet and entertaining Luciana as well as with my furred and feathered babies has helped my pain slowly cede into the background. It’s far from gone, and I’m still not able to talk about the horrible things that happened that Saturday night and beyond, thanks in part to the cruel and dishonest JPD.

L. had her friend Emily stay overnight on Friday. Emily is such a sweet little girl! They used to be our neighbors, and we still miss them over two years after they’ve moved. The girls had lots of fun together as always.

Poor Dej got a horrible cold virus and was home sick Thursday and Friday. She even had to miss work, which bummed her out a lot, as that’s lost money. She returned to school yesterday, but is still far from over this virus. We’re hoping that the rest of us can stay healthy and don’t catch it.

I'm taking an online seminar in .NET power debugging today and tomorrow. It makes for long days. I'm not good at just sitting and listening for hours on end. I know-it sounds too exciting for words and you wish you could join me. ;P Anyway, Dej called me while I was in the class today, so I stepped out to call her back to see why she was calling during the school day. She told me that she just ran over her cell phone with her car. She had dropped it out of her pocket and didn't notice, until she had driven over it. The screen is smashed and there's no display, but the phone still works. That child has a knack for breaking and/or losing everything she owns of value! Good thing I never got around to cancelling the insurance plan we put on her cell phone.

L. has heard the term, “smoke weed”. She has a teenage sister and a world full of our very diverse activists, and we tend to have a lot of political conversations (drug laws, penalties, policies, etc.). She hears everything. However, this particular phrase, she has always heard as “smoke wheat”. She thinks that there are people who actually smoke wheat. We don't correct her, because it's so innocent and precious (and funny!). She drew a picture once, when she was really mad at D., portraying D. as a very ugly, evil looking girl with a piece of wheat hanging out of her mouth. She asked me Sunday if people smoke flour. I said not that I know of. She said that when she grew up she wouldn't smoke wheat, but she should smoke flour, and then she proceeded to giggle her ass off as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Her giggle is so infectious, that I couldn't help laughing.

Plenty o' crazy here

Not feeling chatty. Not feeling like being on this shitty earth quite frankly. I got a call last night for an animal rescue situation. Threw on my clothes and went out with Allegrea. What we ended up dealing with was deeply and profoundly awful. Devastating at many levels. I wish I could unring that bell, but no way to do that. Now it's a matter of just trying to keep my brain actively assaulted with input, so it's not allowed to think and wander. I don't know how long it will be until I can close my eyes to sleep without seeing things that make me want to die. This really sucks. There are no happy endings. I need a new tattoo quickly. It helps a little. If you're totally sane, it wouldn't make sense, so no point in explaining. Sorry to be oblique, but I'm in a lot of pain and just not ready to relive the situation.

Oh, and the Janesville Police Department yet again has proven themselves to be blatant liars who don't care about anything or anyone other than raising revenue. They looked both of us in the face last night and blatantly lied and showed cruelty and disregard beyond belief.

Al. and I worked at the RC Humane Society rummage sale today. They sold a lot of stuff, so we're hoping they raised a good chunk of money. It will never be enough, though. I am just shocked by the things that people buy. There seem to be some people who will buy anything. The majority of these 'junk collectors' were quite old, and I kept thinking as we were adding up and packing bag after bag full of shit that will sit around and collect dust, their children/grandchildren are going to have to deal with this nightmare of crap someday. My grandparents were like that. What a pain. I just don't understand the mentality of these people I guess. Bottom line, though, is all that money went to help the animals, so at least it was for a good cause.

World Week for Animals in Laboratories

I almost forgot to mention that this week is World Week for Animals in Laboratories! How remiss. Here's a quick five-minute activity to help our fellow beings who are RIGHT THIS MINUTE living lives of fear, agony, and suffering beyond words, in a cruel laboratory. THERE IS NO EXCUSE OR JUSTIFICATION FOR ANIMAL TORTURE!

From IDA:

IDA's Up in Smoke campaign highlights the futility and inhumanity of nicotine experiments on newborn and pregnant animals. These are some examples:

- Since 1992, Elliot Spindel at Oregon Health and Science University delivers steady doses of nicotine to pregnant monkeys through pumps implanted into their backs. The babies are cut out of their mothers' wombs in order to dissect their lungs.

- At Texas A&M University, Ursula Winzer-Serhan forces baby rats to consume nicotine mixed with baby formula at the equivalent of three packs of cigarettes a day. After about a week of being fed nicotine, the babies' heads are cut off and their brains are dissected.

- Researcher Kent Pinkerton at University of California, Davis, subjects pregnant rhesus monkeys to smoking chambers where they are forced to inhale cigarette smoke for six hours each day, five days a week. When the infants are ten weeks old, they are killed by lethal injection and their lungs are dissected for analysis.

Over the past five years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has given at least $16.5 million to this category of research. This appalling figure does not reflect the total cost of all nicotine research on animals, only that which focuses on nicotine's effect on fetal and newborn development.

Animal researchers staunchly defend these experiments as necessary for improving maternal and newborn health. But answers don't come from animal studies. After decades of animal studies, we still have not solved the problem of smoking during pregnancy. Only education, public health outreach, and prevention programs can address the human behaviors that lead to smoking.

Please call and/or email the following individuals today to politely urge the NIH to stop funding nicotine experiments on animals and instead redirect funds towards prevention, education and smoking cessation programs. Then follow up with a letter, fax and/or personal email:

Elias Zerhouni, M.D.Director, National Institutes of HealthBuilding 1, Shannon Bldg RM 1261 Center Drive, MSC 0148Bethesda, MD 20892-0148 Email: ez26y@nih.govTel: (301) 496-2433 Fax: (301) 402-2700

Norka Ruiz Bravo, Ph.D. Deputy Director: Office of Extramural Research 1 Center Drive, MSC 0152 (Room 144)Bethesda, MD 20892-0152 Email: ruizbran@od.nih.gov Tel: (301) 496-1096Fax: (301) 402-3469

Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy!

Tonight LOST returns after five weeks of desolate emptiness without it. We will be recording it shortly and watching it at 10:00 (1.5 hrs from now)! Can you tell that I'm a bit excited? :D

The garden is really springing to life! We have lots of daffodils and even some tulips open. The trees and shrubs are budded out, and there is a lot of green everywhere. It was hard to get good photos, as today was so windy!

I'm still suffering major muscle pain (in pretty much every muscle between my neck and knees) from a yoga class I took on Tuesday. I LOVE yoga and have to admit I haven't been practicing for quite a while. I feel so much better in every way when I regularly do yoga, yet my laziness seems to win. Anyway, I knew that they were offering a class during the day at work Tuesday, and I wanted to go, but the way things have been going lately at work, I didn't think I would have time. I didn't dress appropriately or bring any extra clothes. As it turned out, Tuesday was not nearly as crazy busy as the last few weeks have been, so I thought I would run down to the class and observe, in hopes of picking up some pointers and getting inspired to start up again. I got down to class, in my work clothes, and took a seat, prepared to watch. When the teacher started class, however, she started with breath work. I knew that would be helpful and clothing wouldn't matter, so I got into position on the floor and did the breath work. Of course we all had to take off our shoes, and it was only after I had removed mine and looked down that I realized what I had done. Now I was standing in a room full of co-workers with each of my 10 toes painted (poorly) a different color--lovely varying shades of red, burgundy, pink, mauve, silver, blue, lavendar. Yes, I had previously let Luciana paint my toenails and forgot to remove it. It was made all the more pretty by the missing chunk of toenail and scab that was prominently displayed on my left big toe. So very pretty.

I was really into the groove and feeling great when she switched from that to asanas, so I figured, "what the hell", I'll just do a few. She had us doing a great 12-pose sun salutation, and we did several rapid repetitions of it. It felt great! It felt so great, that I couldn't stop myself and finished the whole class. After the one-hour class, I felt re-energized and headed back up to work. It was then I realized that I was HOT, sweaty, and less than fresh. It also hit me then, that since it was a Tues., I would have to go straight from there to teach my class that evening. Great. A whole day of less than freshness.

I've never done yoga with co-workers before. There's a bit of weirdness afterward. The breath work--well it looks and sounds pretty weird. Some of the positions--hmmm--not so flattering. I had just bared my hideous toenails and prominently stuck my ass up in the air in downward-facing dog. We share a special bond now, I guess. So now when I run into Dave or Kay in the hall or in a meeting, we have the mutual nod. We've buzzed like bees together, panted, grunted, waved asses in the air--we're a special kind of family now. ;P

I do wish that teacher worked in Janesville. I don't see myself adding yet another trip to Madison in my week, but I would LOVE to take classes with her. She also teaches body rolling, which I hadn't heard of before. After hearing her talk about it, I looked into it, and it looks really interesting. I'm strongly considering ordering up some of the balls so I can give it a try. Ultimately, that would give me one more thing that I have the equipment and ability to do, that would improve the quality of my life, that I lazily neglect and kick myself for. We should all have a plethora of things that are good for us that we neglect and kick ourselves for. Why limit it to just yoga? Feeling guilty over just one or two things is so boring!

Happy 4/20!

This whole weekend has flown by in a whirlwind of activity. We somehow managed to squeeze most of our weekend chore work in and do quite a few fun activities and even enjoy a little bit of time outside (not nearly enough though!).

Friday night, L. had a sleepover with Logan, and we was able to stay until date-night-time Saturday. Saturday was a beautiful spring day, so the kids got to play outside all day. I did as much work outside as I could, but did have to come inside for some of my chores. :( The kids got along perfectly all day, although she and Logan always get along well. He's such a well-behaved little boy. He's always perfect when he's here! Mark had a work day, so he had to go into work. He's also been doing a lot of landscape consulting jobs on the side lately, so he spends much of his little time home working at his drawing table. This is such a rough time of year for him. I'm pretty sure he secretly enjoys it though. ;D

Last night was date night, with another Mark-planned surprise event. We went to see Woods Tea Company, who are extremely talented and very unique. They performed celtic-type music, including many Irish drinking songs, bluegrass, and some folk music. None of these are typically musical styles that I would listen to, but it was enjoyable live. They played so many unique instruments and had very nice voices. I, true to form, fell apart with a spectacle of public weeping. I apparently cannot attend plays, concerts, or movies without embarassing myself with public weeping. Yeah, so the woman with the beautiful voice sang a song she wrote for her beloved dog, who died at 15 after a period of frailty. I was a mucousy mess. They followed that song with a raucous Irish drinking song that I proceed to cry through as well. Oh, also they played the song, There Were Roses, which is about two friends, one protestant, one catholic, who were casualties of the religious wars in Ireland. That one got me too. I left the concert with my hideous 'crying headache'. I always get it after crying, and it always lasts until I wake up the next day--as if crying in front of others isn't bad enough, I have to have the headache to add insult to injury! UGH!

After we got home and M went to sleep, I spent some more time grading exams. I finished up grading today between the protest and the concert we attended this afternoon. I'm glad to be done, and even more glad that my students did really well. I am so proud of their performance on this assessment. This group is a real joy to teach!

The girls spent the night at my parents, as usual, on our date night. While we were attending our concert, L. was spending time at my mom's with a 9-yr old girl from West Africa. She just recently arrived in the states after having spent her whole life in a refugee camp. Despite some language barriers, the girls had a great time together, and we're delighted that L. got to meet Sonya. She enjoyed spending time with her and was absolutely riveted by Sonya's tribal dancing. L. attempted it, according to my mom, but it didn't go so well for her. It's good for L. to learn more about how much of the world lives, and maybe she can pick up a bit of Swahili in the process.

Our Petland protest today went amazingly, fabulously well! We had a great turnout, even though many we were planning to see ended up being unable to make it. We also had a record show of support from the community. We were baraged with honks, waves, thumbs up, and people stopping with questions or offering donations. The public is finally getting wise to the hell that is involved in pet stores/puppy mills. The two are inextricably linked, so I will always refer to them as a unit. It was a beautiful day too, which doesn't often happen on protest days. We even got some photos of most of the group from today.

Here's the funny part of today, though. We usually keep the protests fairly quiet beforehand. We haven't give Sardina-the-human-piece-of-shit any warning previously. This time, however, Allegrea wrote a letter to the editor which mentioned our protest, and it appeared in the paper this week. Allegrea and I arrived a few minutes early, to find two squad cars waiting for us. Yep, Sardina-the-human-piece-of-shit, is a phallus-lacking bitch, who called the cops. He usually does this once we arrive, despite the fact that in the years we have been protesting there, we always follow the law to the letter, as we know that the police just wait for us to do anything that may possibly give them a chance to jump us. Anyway, we were honored with two of Janesville's finest for the two + hours we were out there. I'm so glad our city is rolling in the kind of money that allows to officers to be paid to idle their cars, burning gas, for over two hours, to observe a peaceful protest at a pet store. Boy, we are fortunate in these tough economic times to have our force preventing potential crime from peaceful animal rights' activists. It would be a screaming disaster if anything were to interfere with Petland's ability to do business on a Sunday afternoon, and it's great that the JPD realized this and put so much of the taxpayer's money to work protecting Petland. How lucky also, that there were no other crimes, potential crimes, or investigations that needed the attention of two police officers today.

After the protest (and after my grading) we went, along with my parents, to Madison to see the tuba & euphonium ensemble's concert. The concert was pleasant, although it was tough to sit inside that long on such a beautiful day. We got back to town with some daylight left and got a little bit done outside (very, very little). I got a phone call then about an animal welfare situation that we needed to look into, so Allegrea and I had to run back out. M & L stayed home to eat and walk the dogs. I didn't manage to squeeze in eating time today, so I'll have to take care of that pretty soon!

Yet again, I had so much more I intended to "say", but I've already typed a novel. I still have some work to do and need to eat, so I guess I'll have to revisit the stuff I didn't say tonight--provided I remember it.

PETLAND PROTEST TOMORROW!!!

Sunday(4/20) at noon. Meet in front of Fazoli's on Hwy 14!! Show Sardina we've had enough of his puppy killing!

Beloit parks commission burns bunnies alive

The first daffodil of the season.


As expected, they went with easy instead of ethical. Lee Fassett and Robb Baller (Beloit Parks guys) are assholes. Lee is a liar. Our group was promised, by Lee, that we would be notified of when/where they would burn, so we could walk through the area and inspect for nests. We would have had a shot at saving some. Lee, however, informed us that he doesn't intend to keep this promise, because he's too "busy". Their behavior illustrates that no matter how they try to dress Beloit up, it's a city with no heart and no ethics. We are NOT done with this issue.

On a completely different note, a homeschooling update: It continues to go very well, and we are both having so much fun learning! L. picks things up so quickly, except her multiplication facts. She memorizes poetry--hard poetry--like it's going out of style, but she doesn't have any interest in memorizing her mult. facts. Other than that, though, it's all great.

We are really loving the Singapore Math. It does a fabulous job of teaching application of math. She is learning it so well and really enjoys most of it. She still loves her history. Language doesn't thrill her, but she tolerates it and "gets it" pretty quickly. She's doing very well with spelling and writing. We will be starting keyboarding and Latin soon.

We have started working with the seven step scientific method and will continue with this quite intensively all the way through her schooling. My goal is that, eventually, every single thing that comes into her little brain will be filtered automatically through the scientific method, giving her the exceptional logic and necessary skepticism that seems to be absent from most Americans today.

Our first experiment was extremely simple, and we will continue to build and tweak this one for a while. We purchased two small, identical flashlights. Her hypothesis was that batteries used in the refrigerator would last longer than batteries used at room temperature, because the cool temps would help them last longer like they do for food. Our first trial (obviously deficient in sample size which we haven't gotten to yet) resulted in her hypothesis being unsupported, as the batteries in the flashlight at room temp outlasted the batteries in the flashlight in the fridge. We've identified some potential flaws in the study, so she has refined the study, and we will start another trial tomorrow. We will continue to identify weaknesses and redefine this. Once we get to a point where it's solid and we can confidently say her hypothesis is either supported or unsupported, we will move on to a series of new experiments.

Mom manuevered to mall on a Monday

Back to work already, and I don’t know where the weekend went. L. & I have a cold, which kept us fairly quiet and unproductive throughout the weekend. M. had a workday Saturday, and D. had to work all day Saturday. Other than a quick run to Target on Saturday night for some essentials, we stayed in the house for the most part. I didn't wear makeup and looked pretty crappy, which is a guarantee we will run into people I know (and I did). That never happens, of course, when I go out in public looking nice. We bought three new books for L. from T. Each of them was from a series that L. has been reading. She has already finished two of the three books, and has started on the third. She’s such a little reader and is getting faster, so we are struggling to keep up with her book appetite. That is a “problem” that I don’t mind having.

Sunday night brought a bit of a situation, with Allegrea calling to say she had gotten a stray kitten—black, so a high risk to leave her outside. We currently have no safe place for anymore cats, so we were forced to make the tough decision to take her to the Humane Society. Given her bad neighborhood, age, coloring, and lack of other options, it was the best we could do. It really sucks. I have been sick about it all day. They are full, so I know that her chances are not good. There are many kittens younger than her, and they will go first (if they go at all). We need money and space. We need fewer idiots who are not responsible for their animals. I’m so profoundly sad over this beautiful kitten, who will most likely never experience the love and attention that she so deserves. My heart just breaks for all of the animals in her position.


On a slightly more positive note, L. and I read a news item in my beloved feminist journal, Off Our Backs, about the Gulabi Gang--also called the Pink Posse. It's a group of poor women in India who don pink saris and kick much ass. They are protectors of those that nobody else protects--the very poor and women. They are inspiring, and L. talks about them all the time now. She wants to join the "gang" and fight with them when she gets bigger. I wish my sisters continued safety and courage in their inspirational battle!

After dinner tonight, M & L took the dogs out for a nice long walk, and I intended to get some chores done and the animals fed/medicated. Instead, D. decided to mercilessly hound me and guilt me into taking her to shop for clothes. I don't like clothes shopping. I don't like the mall. I had already washed my face and taken off my makeup for the night. I really tried to talk her out of it, but she was determined. I asked her specifically if it was me she needed or my money, because I would have been much happier just giving her some damn money and sending her. But no, she claimed that she really needed my opinion. Now I was confused by this, because we do not have the same taste in clothing at all. We agree on the cuteness of maybe 1 in 50 items. I pointed this out to her. Again, trying to encourage her to take the money and run. It is very frustrating to go shopping with someone who claims they want your input, but sneers at every. single. item. that I try to point out to her. Nooooo, she says, it won't be like that at all. So off we went to the mall on a Monday. And it was exactly like that.

Me: Ooh honey, this is cute.
Dej: No, that's too earthy.
Me: How about this one?
Dej: Too pink
Me: This one is nice.
Dej: I don't like that material. Find one that's in this material.

[etc., etc., etc.]
[screaming, badly behaved children]
[loud, obnoxious, zitty teenagers]

She did finally like one thing I pointed out. She even purchased it. With my money. I'm honored.

501 (c) (3)

As I've been researching this and looking into paperwork and various tax-exempt options for our AR organization, I've been struggling with a growing sense of something wrong. I've finally put my finger on it. It is very clear that these organizations are not to be politically focused, which is where we are struggling. Specifically: "Organizations with this classification are prohibited from conducting political campaign activities to influence elections to public office". While at one time this may have been the case with churches, this is no longer the way that many of them operate. Having grown up in a fundamental church, I can say for a fact that in that church, the "minister" was very outspoken, not only on what we should and shouldn't watch on TV, think, feel, but on how we should vote as well.

I have seen a dramatic increase in my adult lifetime of political organization and activity within the churches/denominations. Fortunately for them, right in the upswing of their very organized campaign to create a theocracy here in the U.S., the right-wing very unfundamentalist politicians found themselves desperately in need of the religious-right demographic. What happened next will take the next 100 years to recover from, if recovery is even possible after all the damage that has been done courtesy of the marriage from hell between Bush and the fundies. What is almost sad is that the fundies were just a tool in the Bush admin's arsenal. Not only does he and all of his ilk find the fundies largely worthless and laughable, but many of the fundie leaders themselves obviously find their followers the same, as evidenced by the rampant fraud and manipulation utilized by these leaders themselves against their own followers.

The relationship between these two groups with very different aims and motivations did find common ground in that they both felt it beneficial to dispense with civil liberties, which are tremendously inconvenient for both those who need to keep the majority poor, unempowered, and silent. I think it's safe to say that the Republican leaders and many of the fundie leaders were/are both in pursuit of money and power. Period. Their followers, however, blindly and unquestionably follow their leaders--who seemingly studied the rhetoric and manipulation used by one of the great, twisted minds in history--Hitler. These followers, like those in Germany, have become awash with promises of returning our great nation to it's rightful, god-given place on top of the world and all the people in it. The people that were/are least respected by these "great" leaders, swept away with patriotistm, nationalism, and theism, were convinced that these leaders had their interests at heart and became unwitting dupes in the game.

It is hard, though, to feel much pity for very long, when considering the fact that the "innocent dupes" were able to be preyed upon because of the inherent belief that THEIR worldview is the only one that should be considered. Their religious view is the only correct one, and thus, all others are evil and should be banished from the country. The fact that they wanted to carve out a fundie-ruled world where everybody else is forced to play by their rules. In a completely non-theocratic government, nobody is excluded. No religious groups are discriminated or favored, which leaves all of them free to live their lives as they dictate (or their "god" dictates) as long as they aren't harming others. This also means that those of us who do not need magical fairies for strength, and the threat of hell and promise of heaven to live moral, productive lives, are free to pursue our lives without discrimination or forced theology in our chosen activities and pursuits.

Since an analysis of statistics of churches reveals that the majority of them are using their wealth to create empires, millionaire ministers, and feed the political machine, they should have their tax-exempt status revoked. I'm relieved to find that I am far from alone in my conclusions, and I think (and hope) that we will see a change in tide after the next election. A movement is building and will soon be ready to fight this battle. The important point to remember here is, that, this is an issue that probably wouldn't even have raised notice, had the churches kept their religion where it belongs--strictly between them and their god. In attempting to force it on others, they aroused the attention and ire of folks who would have contentedly ignored their existence. In merging with the political right to strip civil liberties, they have put themselves in a situation where it will be much easier for them to lose the rights they now take for granted and so cavalierly have tried to take away from others. If churches would indeed like to actually become charitable organizations again, rather than empires, they would still have the ability to create a sub group with strictly charitable activities, thus allowing for tax-exempt donations that would actually be used to help those in the community.

If I remember correctly, Jesus himself did not feel that church buildings were a good thing. Jesus himself was against collecting wealth, and trying to strong-arm others into following a christian path. I'm pretty sure he would approve. Maybe recognizing churches for what they really are and assigning them the correct legal status would help this country make some progress in recouping our billions of dollars in losses on the war of terror that the Republicans and the religious right have saddled the rest of us with. It would be one tiny step in the direction of fairness and sanity.

Great girl teamwork!

I had promised L. yesterday that we would work on one of the projects that came in her latest monthly craft kit. I had not looked at what the project entailed when I committed to it. Bad, bad mistake. Tonight after I got the post-dinner kitchen cleanup done, we started the project from hell. It consisted of 42 punched out pieces that had to be layered on top of one another, using dimensional foam tape (tiny little squares and rectangles) stacked from 1 to 8 pieces thick. My fingers may never uncramp again after peeling the backing off both sides over 300 tiny pieces of double stick foam. We've been enjoying her little projects from this club, but shit. They could have sent us a block of wood and a fingernail file, and I could have whittled the whole fracking thing. It would have been less painful than this process. The upside was that we had a nice, long time of working together, and she is absolutely enchanted with the finished product. It did turn out nicely. It's too bad that the layers and the dimensions of the finished product don't show in a photo. It looks great up on her new white bookcase! It was definitely all worth it--she proudly called me into her room so I could see how she had it displayed on her bookcase, and turned around putting her hand up for a high five, and said, "Great girl teamwork, Mom!"

I'm sure I will be picking up little pieces of backing from the foam tape for weeks to come. We tried to keep it neatly in a pile, but the cats kept trying to get into the pile. I keep encountering pieces scattered about the house and have seen several of the cats walk by with little squares clinging to them.

I also caught a picture of Dej. bouncing on L's little zoingo pogo stick thing (the technical term). She had to hold the handles, so she couldn't cover her face when she saw the camera for a change.

Since the BD family (that's us) are avid readers and addicted learners, much of our time is spent reading books and the Internet and trying to acquire more knowledge and information. I have run across two new favorites in the last week, and I thought I would share them with you.

1. L and I have started reading George’s Secret Key to the Universe, by Stephen Hawking and his daughter, Lucy. While it’s written for children, it is an enjoyable read for me too. It’s a great mix of fictional adventure and accurate science information. We have not yet finished it, but both of us look forward to bedtime now, so we can read another chapter in this book. We’re having a lot of fun with it! There are even a couple of extra bonuses for us. In explaining the birth and death process of stars, the Hawkings discuss elements (as in the period table of elements). This dovetailed nicely with our chemistry studies of the elements in the table, and she was excited when she was able to correctly identify a description and picture of a helium atom. The other pleasant surprise is that George, the “star” of the story, is a vegetarian. His parents are also vegetarian, and are very “crunchy” people—even living off the grid. How cool is that! I had no idea this was the case when we ordered the book.

2. My own personal newly discovered favorite is the website, The Two Percent Company. I don’t know the people involved in the site and ran across it while following links that interest me on other sites, as I often do. From what I can gather, it’s run by a few guys, who are very intelligent and well informed. I have not yet been through the whole site, but so far everything I have read, I have loved! They are a bit more vigorous with their skepticism than I am, but we all have our differences. Beyond that, I find myself agreeing, cheering, and reading aloud to whoever is in the room with me, whenever I read their website. The site is also rife with a lifetime supply of other cool links to explore. This is copied from their “Goals”, listed on the “About” page:

Our mission at the Two Percent Company is to expose the blatant stupidity and recklessness of many individuals and groups in our world — particularly those who have acquired a great amount of power, influence, and notoriety.We plan to forge the unknown into common knowledge, to eradicate bullshit and ignorance — willful or otherwise — and, in general, to fight for truth, justice, and the use of science, reason and logic to further the progress of humankind.

I love this statement, and they are off to a great start with their goals. Like I said, I don’t agree with 100% of what they say, but probably about 97%, and I love the way they say it! They are quickly becoming my latest heroes. I have no idea who Jeff & Tom are, but I would really, really love to hang out with them.

Petland kills puppies

It's been a while since I've talked about the evil that is Petland. Protest coming soon!

So what a weekend it’s been! We absolutely loved the springtime weather, although I had enough work to this weekend that my only enjoyment of the weather was sitting outside working on my laptop while the kids and dogs played in the back yard. L. pretty much lived outside this weekend. She’s such an outdoorsy girl anyway, that she spends time outside even when the weather isn’t nice, but if it is even remotely pleasant out, she will be outside from morning until bedtime if possible. H. isn’t quite as robust about playing outside as L., so if he deems it “too hot” or “too cold”, they argue about going outside. Several times on Saturday, H. decided that (at 64 degrees) it was too hot to play outside. He came inside our house and played, and L. just stayed outside. That seemed to work well for them.

Unfortunately, our spring-like weather is now gone and we are back to the winter that will not end. My garden is stirring to life, and we're already behind, as we should have applied 10 yards of mushroom compost already this year. Our bulbs are up several inches now, and it's hard to rake off the mulch, apply the compost, and then re-apply the mulch, without damaging new growth. I spotted the first flowers of the year today--a hyacinth and scilla!

Our date night Sat. was fun. The event started early, so we had to hit the Taco Bell drive through when we got to Madison . We each got a bean burrito, which we quickly ate while parked at Olin Park , enjoying the beautiful old oaks we parked by. Had they included the fire sauce that we requested, I have no doubt that I would have continued with my usual pattern of ending up with a large stain on the front of my shirt, usually in a very prominent area. Because they didn’t manage to provide the fire sauce, I had a very dry, boring burrito, but I did manage to make it through the night stain free, which is saying a lot for me. We went to a play at the University Theater, called Dragonwings. It was a lovely asian play about a Chinese father/son in 1906 Chinatown . It would have been totally appropriate for L., and she would have loved it. I missed her while we watched the play.

While we were there so naively enjoying our play, knowing that L. was safely having fun with my parents, and thinking that D. was safely having fun at her boyfriend’s house, we couldn’t have been more wrong. Now, we have told Dejanique time and time again that hanging out at a friend’s house means you have permission to be at that friend’s house. Only. If she decides to go to another friend’s, or to Taco Bell, or anywhere else in the world, she needs to call and let us know. See where this is going?

We assumed, because we gave her permission to be at Brandon ’s that she was actually at Brandon ’s the whole time. We were wrong. So wrong. The fact that I know we were wrong might imply that she felt bad for violating the rules and came and admitted trolling about. That’s not quite what happened though. She walked in and said, “I know you’re going to be really mad, but just let me explain. Don’t get too mad, okay? I know you’re going to be mad, but…” This is never a good way for a conversation to start. Of the 500 or so scenarios that ran through my head during that introduction, none of them were good. And they all made me mad. She proceeds to tell me that she got a ticket for underage drinking.

Now, had this ticket been issued at B’s house, I would have been disappointed, but not mad. It’s not like we don’t know our nearly 18 year old drinks on occasion, and for the most part has been fairly responsible and up front about it. She was not at B’s house when this happened, however, but he was with her and ticketed as well (as were several other kids that were with them). None of them were drunk, and we know this, because they were all forced to blow a breathalyzer. The fact that they weren’t drunk makes it a little funny to me, because they got punished for drinking a beer—they didn’t even get to have any wild drunken fun. Anyway, as she was trying to explain to us what happened, we found that she, B. and a group of friends had been bopping around town quite a bit that night. Despite all the prior conversations we have had about our expectations of her being stationary unless we are told different, she did not feel the need to call and tell us they were going to be mobile. “Why?”, you may ask, as we did, after so many warnings/discussions on this very issue did she not just call or text. Well, because she wasn’t the driver. She just didn’t think of it. That may have worked better had she not already used the exact same reason just a few weeks ago. So the ticket itself—that’s her problem. She is responsible for paying that, going to court, taking the alcohol/drug class, etc. That’s a fair consequence for her irresponsible drinking (I say it was irresponsible, because had she done it responsibly, they wouldn’t have been in a position to get a ticket). We will be addressing her flagrant disregard for our rules however. I did find it interesting that the police did not call us. They told her they don’t need to call the parents if the child is 17. I find that very odd. If she hadn’t come and told us, we would have no way of knowing. Wow.

M. started a blog for work. I encouraged him to do so, thinking it would be a great way for volunteers and visitors to stay in touch with what’s going on in the gardens. He’s a good writer and a good photographer with thousands and thousands of photos from work, so it seemed like a natural extension for him to blog. What I told him was that it would be a great idea and would only require 20-30 minutes a day at the most. He could just schedule that time at the end of his work day with minimal impact. What my workaholic, salaried husband apparently heard was this, “Since you don’t spend enough time working as it is, what with the fulltime days and the frequent evening and weekend work events, you should do more. You should start a blog for work and update every, single day, 7 days a week, whether or not you even work that day. You should also do it from home in the evenings, so it doesn’t interfere with your work day. You could do it either before or after your requisite hour or two spent reading/selecting seeds/plants for work after L. is in bed. I would love to watch that process. It’s infinitely more rewarding than actually doing something together.” UGH! But it is a very nice blog.

Spring...finally!

A Happy spring picture L. painted. Notice that, as always in her pictures, she has included a waterfall (on the left side).

Today is absolutely beautiful! It's almost 70 degrees. L & H are playing out in our back yard with the dogs. She just came in and tried to change into shorts, but I told her no. She compromised with leaving on the pants and t-shirt, but changed her shoes and socks for flip flops. The windows are open again, so the cats get to lie in the window sills. They really miss that in the winter. I was hoping to get out and get some gardening time today, but it's not shaping up that way. I've had a full day of grading, creating homeschool work for the week, and paying the monthly bills. I still have a few more chores to take care of in the house, and then we will be heading out for date night. Tonight is another top secret activity, planned by Mark. I have no idea what we are doing, other than it is in Madison.

The concert Dej went to last weekend was a band called, "Explosions in the Sky". There was a huge group of her friends there--a group of 20-30 kids went to see this concert. She had me listen to her iPod this week to hear this band, as I had never heard their music before. I was absolutely shocked! It's kind of like elevator music. I mean, it's REALLY mellow instrumental stuff. Not what I expected at all! I know she has drastically varied musical tastes, but this is just SO not what I think of when I think of a huge group of teens going to a concert. It's a far cry from her usual death-metal type concerts (which I actually prefer to this music). She had a great time, so that's what counts. It's just really odd. I guess I never will figure my teen out!

Tattoosday 7

Here is Mark's newest tat. It's only a few days old and is in the peeling and itchy phase. It turned out great, though! We are both SO happy with it. M. knew he wanted a green man, and he had that whole left shoulder blade available and calling out for some decoration. He found some pics online that were somewhat like what he wanted but not IT. He gave the pics to Allegrea and explained what he wanted and she took it and did some magic. She came back with a drawing that I thought was great, but wanted a more "manly" face. Austin stepped in and reworked the features. Once M. was happy with that, Allegrea added all the details, the different leaves around the outside, and totally rocked the shading and coloring! As I mentioned before, it took almost five hours, and he did it in one sitting. Take a look at the extremely detailed shading on every single leaf. Now think about trying to recreate that by mixing your own custom colors and applying with a vibrating needle. Clearly Austin (Baldwin's Body Art) is very talented and very patient!

On a much less pleasant note, I am disgusted that the Canadian baby seal clubbing season is underway again. It shocks me that this continues to be tolerated. I do tend to think of all other third world countries as being morally superior and more enlightened than the U.S. is, so it is so surprising to me that Canada is still so unevolved on this. I guess I need to remember that even in evolved societies, there will always be the less intelligent self-centered violent death mongers called hunters. They are such an unecessary throw back to our "cave man" days. They have absolutely nothing of value to offer a thinking society, much less a compassionate one. My wonderful (and highly evolved) friend Anthony Marr has provided contact information. Please take a few minutes to e-mail a note urging the EU to follow the U.S. (unbelievable--I know!!) in banning Canadian seal products. And please check out the updates from the ice. It's not pleasant to watch/read, but then you are safely ensconced in your cozy home or office and not being bludgeoned to death. Those who don't learn about and try to prevent evil are complicitly offering approval!

http://www.antisealingcoalition.ca/blog/sealhunt2008.php

Remember all it takes is one brief e-mail! You can simply copy and paste the e-mail addresses to the various countries. And below is the plea from Anthony, who states it very well.
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All opposed to the infamous Canadian seal massacre:

This is the third day of the annual Canadian blood fest. Already several thousand baby seals have been brutally snuffed, but still a long way to go for the medieval killers to claim all 275,000 innocent lives, not counting those pups who will drown in the shifting ice. Now is the time to ride the tide of sorrow sweeping the compassionate people around the world, for the seals.

Over the last 13 years, I have campaigned against the barbarism both directly at the Canadian government, as well as to intensify external pressure on Canada from beyond (US and EU). Of these, I've found the latter more effective than the former by far.

Now, I ask you to join me to write an email, just one, to all the nations in Europe to ask for their help to end the atrocity. It doesn't matter if a certain country is already on board; send it your wish anyway, so it will be further consolidated. I won't tell you what to say in your message; basically, just ask the European countries to ban importation of all Canadian seal products, and any other product they wish. As diverse the expression, the better.

All the destinations are European embassies in Ottawa, Canada, but even if you are American or European or Australian or New Zealander, write them anyway. It is their job to pass your message on to their own governments.

Write your heart out. Thank you.

Anthony Marr, founder and president
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.ARConference.org

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Delegation-Canada@ec.europa.eu, ottawa-ob@bmeia.gv.at, ottawa@diplobel.org, verwaltung@dgparlament.be, mailmn@storm.ca, or@sabor.hr, ctcny@cyprustradeny.org, ottawa@embassy.mzv.cz, ottamb@um.dk, embassy.ottawa@mfa.ee, embassy@finland.ca, germanembassyottawa@on.aibn.com, embassy@greekembassy.ca, ottawaembassy@dfa.ie, sysadmin@huemott.org, ambasciata.ottawa@esteri.it, redazione.web@governo.it, embassy.canada@mfa.gov.lv, litemb@storm.ca, washington.info@mae.etat.lu, info@dutchhelp.com, ottawa@polishembassy.ca, embportugal@embportugal-ottawa.org, romania@romanian-embassy.com, ottawa@slovakembassy.ca, cgspain.toronto@mail.mae.es, sweden.ottawa@foreign.ministry.se, generalenquiries@BritaininCanada.org



Belgium
frieda.brepoels@europarl.europa.eu; philippe.busquin@europarl.europa.eu; frederique.ries@europarl.europa.eu; gerard.deprez@europarl.europa.eu; antoine.duquesne@europarl.europa.eu; raymond.langendries@europarl.europa.eu; bart.staes@europarl.europa.eu; marianne.thyssen@europarl.europa.eu

Denmark
niels.busk@europarl.europa.eu; ole.christensen@europarl.europa.eu; dan.jorgensen@europarl.europa.eu; christel.schaldemose@europarl.europa.eu; lebech@post5.tele.dk; margrete.auken@europarl.europa.eu

Germany
info@reimerboege.de; hiltrud.breyer@europarl.europa.eu; daniel@caspary.de; albert.dess@europarl.europa.eu; karl-heinz.florenz@europarl.europa.eu; info@matthias-groote.de; heinz.kindermann@europarl.europa.eu; holger.krahmer@europarl.europa.eu; info@peter-liese.de; erika.mann@europarl.europa.eu; helmuth.markov@europarl.europa.eu; vural.oeger@europarl.europa.eu; rharms@europarl.eu.int; dagmar.roth-behrendt@europarl.europa.eu; doculmer@aol.com; europarl@weisgerber.com; jutta.haug@europarl.europa.eu; karin.joens@europarl.europa.eu; mail@bernd-posselt.de; wichert@gruene-europa.de; renate.sommer@europarl.europa.eu; ulrich.stockmann@europarl.europa.eu

Ireland
liam.aylward@europarl.europa.eu; colmburke@colmburke.eu; briancrowleymep@eircom.net; avril.doyle@europarl.europa.eu; jim.higgins@europarl.europa.eu; kathy.sinnott@europarl.europa.eu

Greece
stavros.arnaoutakis@europarl.europa.eu; ioannis.gklavakis@europarl.europa.eu; dimitrios.papadimoulis@europarl.europa.eu; georgios.papastamkos@europarl.europa.eu; antonios.trakatellis@europarl.europa.eu; evangelia.tzampazi@europarl.europa.eu

Spain
pilar.ayuso@europarl.europa.eu; carlos.carnerogonzalez@europarl.europa.eu; ignasi.guardans@europarl.europa.eu; cristina.gutierrez-cortines@europarl.europa.eu; esther.herranzgarcia@europarl.europa.eu; antonio.masiphidalgo@europarl.europa.eu; willy.meyerpleite@europarl.europa.eu; rosa.miguelezramos@europarl.europa.eu; javier.morenosanchez@europarl.europa.eu; josu.ortuondolarrea@europarl.europa.eu; maria.sornosamartinez@europarl.europa.eu; daniel.varelasuanzes-carpegna@europarl.europa.eu

France
marie-helene.aubert@europarl.europa.eu; francoise.castex@europarl.europa.eu; joseph.daul@europarl.europa.eu; harlem.desir@free.fr; anne.ferreira@europarl.europa.eu; francoise.grossetete@europarl.europa.eu; aguellec@europarl.eu.int; jhenin@europarl.eu.int; anne.laperrouze@europarl.europa.eu; mn.lienemann@nordpasdecalais.fr; lipietz@club-internet.fr; tokia.saifi@europarl.europa.eu

Italy
vincenzo.aita@europarl.europa.eu; info@sergioberlato.it; giovanni.berlinguer@europarl.europa.eu; iles.braghetto@europarl.europa.eu; marco.cappato@europarl.europa.eu; paolo.costa@europarl.europa.eu; alessandro.foglietta@europarl.europa.eu; monica.frassoni@europarl.europa.eu; umberto.guidoni@europarl.europa.eu; raffaele.lombardo@provincia.ct.it; c.muscardini@tin.it; n.musumeci@inwind.it; guido.podesta@europarl.europa.eu; vittorio.prodi@europarl.europa.eu; guido.sacconi@europarl.europa.eu; amalia.sartori@europarl.europa.eu; gianluca.susta@europarl.europa.eu; marcello.vernola@europarl.europa.eu

Netherlands
bastiaan.belder@europarl.europa.eu; johannes.blokland@europarl.europa.eu; kathalijnemaria.buitenweg@europarl.europa.eu; dorette.corbey@europarl.europa.eu; Kartikatamara.liotard@europarl.europa.eu; europa@maaten.net; jan.mulder@europarl.europa.eu; lnist@home.nl; cornelis.visser@europarl.europa.eu; janmarinus.wiersma@europarl.europa.eu; corien.wortmann@europarl.europa.eu

United Kingdom
jim.allister@europarl.europa.eu; elspeth.attwooll@europarl.europa.eu; mrgrahambooth@aol.com; john.bowis@europarl.europa.eu; philip.bradbourn@europarl.europa.eu; philip.bushill-matthews@europarl.europa.eu; chrisdaviesmep@cix.co.uk; bairbre.debrun@europarl.europa.eu; den.dover@europarl.europa.eu; glyn.ford@europarl.europa.eu; ian.hudghton@europarl.europa.eu; caroline.jackson@europarl.europa.eu; skamall@europarl.eu.int; sajjad.karim@europarl.europa.eu; caroline.lucas@europarl.europa.eu; linda.mcavan@europarl.europa.eu; eluned.morgan@europarl.europa.eu; neil.parish@europarl.europa.eu; struanmep@aol.com

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And to end on a slightly more positive note, my friend, P.K., has gotten us hooked on a Canadian product that does not cause suffering and death... The Trailer Park Boys. Why did I think that trailer parks were just an American thing? Anyway they have been moved to the top of our Netflix list. There are tons of clips on You Tube, and of the random ones we've watched, they've all been pretty funny. Who can't use a little stoner humor to brighten up a day?! ;D