The Wall

I popped into the girls' bedrooms one morning and took some shots of their personally decorated walls. Each of them has very individual and unique taste, and they each have a full wall that reflects their interests. I will post some close-ups of some of Luciana's very interesting artwork later, when I have more time.

I forgot to mention that Saturday for our date night, M. surprised me with tickets to the opening weekend of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. They had a fantastic pianist, Garrick Ohlsson, who totally rocked the Mendelssohn, Respighi, and Rachmaninoff. He played the same Rachmaninoff piece that Cecile Licad played a few years ago. Both of them were awesome!

L. lost another tooth tonight and is anxiously awaiting the tooth fairy's visit. Strangely enough, her friend, Hunter, lost the same tooth (well, you know what I mean--the tooth in the same position) a little earlier today.

She had a rough night last night and was up quite late. She was reading a very cute book she got from the library, called "Toes", about a cute little polydactyl cat. It's a kids book, from the kid's section. The poor baby finished the book last night at around 11 (we put her in bed at 8:30 every night, but she reads and reads--just like I used to) and came running into our room. It was obvious that she had been bawling. Her eyes were swollen and red, as was her nose, and she looked pathetic. Toes died at the end of the book. She was heartbroken. I personally go out of my way to avoid sad books/movies. I have enough real-live sadness and ugliness to deal with, that I certainly don't find it entertaining or enjoyable. The whole book was cute and happy, and then they just throw this sad, shocking death in on the last page. WTH??!! As a parent, I would really appreciate some type of warning or indication on the books, because she really takes these things hard. She ended up with a horrible 'crying' headache and being up even later, because we had to try to cheer her up and get her mind off of it so she could get some sleep. UGH! She and I came up with a plan that I will read the last few pages of her potential library books and filter out those that are very sad. It may not catch all of them, but it should help. I don't understand why they feel the need to put that type of stuff in so many children's books and movies. They, too, have enough ugliness to deal with these days without sticking into their 'entertainment'.

This will probably be my last entry until this weekend. Tomorrow night we will be busy shopping and packing for our camping trip, and we leave Thursday morning.

This one time, at POW camp...

We watched the first portion of the debates with Luciana on Friday. It was great that she watched them and tried to engage in the process by asking many, many questions. It was, however, a bit distracting and seriously impeded my ability to yell obscenities at the tv screen. Maybe for future debates we would be better off watching them without her and taping them to watch the next day with her. I'm absolutely desolate to find that what promises to be the highlight of my year, the Biden/Palin debate, will occur this Thursday when we are camping (freezing) in a tent in the middle of nowhere! We will tape the debate and watch it when we return Saturday, but I really, really need to see it live Thursday night!

I was relieved that McCain made a point to remind us every second or third question that he was a POW. I tend to forget that if not reminded every few minutes. Also, we were titillated to hear that McCain's top priorities, in this troubled economic climate, is war spending and veterans. Boy, that sounds like a plan that will really help the middle class a lot. Even more thrilled that his idea of fixing the health-care crisis is to tax employers on all insurance benefits. He basically repeated the same three tired slogans (Obama = inexperienced and naive, he = maverick POW, pork barrel = bad), regardless of whether they were pertinent to the topic/question at hand. Enlightening. He also revealed himself to be disrespectful repeatedly to his opponent, arrogant in his blatant refusal to even look at Obama, dishonest, and vicious without call. Obama gave (mostly) relevant answers indicating that he was looking at the long-term health of our country (probably hard for McSame to care, as he won't be here long enough to realize the long-term damage he intends to wreak), and was extremely polite and deferential (maybe overly so-but he's smart enough to know how an 'angry black man' would play out), intelligent, and downright presidential. It was such a tremendous feeling to think that perhaps, for the first time in 8 years, we don't have to be humiliated as a country every single time the POTUS opens his mouth. All that said, I still think Obama is the best of two shitty choices. He's just light years away from being as shitty as the repug candidate.

This afternoon we went to the library. H. was here (as usual), so he went with us. It's definitely more challenging to take the two of them to the library than to take just L. We couldn't find any books on Plato, Greek philosophers, or any other specific philosopher that was aimed at children. We did find a pretty good book that covers philosophy and has a section with the ancient Greek philosophers, along with the other biggies throughout history. I think we'll have a lot of fun going through it. L. picked the movie, "The Bridge to Teribithia", for family movie night tonight. M. picked an older movie called, "Labyrinth". It stars David Bowie as the goblin king. Need I say more? That was the one she chose to watch tonight. She seems to be enjoying it, but I had to get the laptop out. It is colossally bad. I guess we'll have "The Bridge..." for next week's movie. We saw that at the theater, where it made me weep horrifically for quite some time. I will probably have to sneak on the laptop then too. I really hate to cry.

I decorated L's left arm and hand with henna this evening. D. was supposed to do it for her, but she is awash in her own stupidity and selfishness at the moment and couldn't be bothered with keeping a promise. Poor L. had to settle for non-artist mommy designs. It finally dried, so we will cover it with saran wrap overnight and wash it off in the morning. It's not horrible, and the girl seems happy enough with it, so I guess it was a success. I absolutely love the look of mehndi and would like to have a real tat done that looks like mehndi.

I finally got some decent pictures of our newest little Willow bird. She has found her one and only true love and it's not me. I am definitely a second-class substitute for Mark. She is completely enamored with him and tries to follow him out the door. She is so pathetic when he leaves.

Teh stupid. It hurts.

I will be parked in front of the debates tonight. I will thoroughly enjoy watching the intelligent debate the bottom of the class (oops, I think that's third to last, not the absolute bottom, in class rankings).

If you missed Palin's interview with Katie Couric, as I did, treat yourself to a bit of it. It's online. It was, again, a fairly lightweight interview, as far as those typically given to candidates for POTUS and VPOTUS. All we need to do is let Palin talk. Teh stupid cannot hide. She is capable of winning the election for Obama. Please FSM, oh please, let her debate Biden!

Our very lucky family grows again!

We had a semi-productive day with school work. L. is feeling a bit fiesty lately, so we didn't get all the way through history today. We will have to finish up history tomorrow in addition to our Friday work.

We took our new family member, Winnie, to the vet today for a checkup. Winnie is a male teddy bear hamster who we adopted from the Humane Society. As part of the adoption, we got a free vet checkup. It is such an unusual and awesome feeling to leave the vet's office with a receipt for $0. Winnie was brought into the Rock County Humane Society in May, and was not yet full grown. He had a runny left eye, which is the primary reason we took him to the vet. He seems to have vision in it, and it doesn't seem to be sore or sensitive. It just gets a little crusty and he tends not to keep it all the way open. The vet said he was fine--in good health, and thinks the eye may be just a result of having been in woodchips at the HS. Wood chips, especially cedar, should not be used for ANY small animals. We are using paper litter now, and hopefully will see his eye clear up soon. He weighs all of 1/2 ounce but has managed to make us all fall in love. He is very sweet and cuddly (as long as you don't wake him up!!) and is very entertaining. He lives in the bird room, and Scraps the naughty rabbit, is intrigued with him.

We also adopted the lone cockatiel there, who looked very sad and lonely. Her person got cancer, so she ended up at the HS. She (her person thought she was a girl, but I'm not certain that is the case) is very sweet and loves to have her cheeks, neck, and head scratched. We named her Willow. She can wolf whistle and is very human bonded, so it's awesome to have a 'pet' bird again. Despite all the birds we have, none of them are particularly enamored with humans. They were all adopted later in life and many had been used strictly as breeders. I talk to them and love them, and they are interested in me and like the attention but have no desire for affection or physical interaction. All of the human-bonded birds that I've had have died, so it's been a few years since I've had my birdy-bond fix, and it's wonderful! I'm working on a good picture of Willow, but birds are really tricky (for me anyway).

During history today, we were reading about the democratic government in ancient Athens. Our text mentioned Plato's views on democracy, which echo the most prevalent and scary thought that I've had lately in regards to our government's colossal failure in, well, every area possible. Plato said, in short, that a democracy can only succeed when the citizens are educated. You see the problem here in the U.S? We, as a nation, are becoming increasingly UNeducated and un- or misinformed. My fear is we have now, as a nation, become so damn stupid and uneducated that a democracy will never be effective. Just as Plato predicted, we, the uneducated nation, are now controlled by tyrants. I think the fact that there is even a close race between McCain/Palin and ANYBODY indicate the extent of our populace's ignorance. Why else would so many vote against their own self-interests? I can only attribute it to our ever-shrinking average IQ and understanding of economics and politics. I am inspired to re-read Plato, so we'll have to hit the library this weekend. I'm hoping that I can find a version that L. can enjoy reading and discussing with me.

I love toradol!

I've been down in bed in agony with a migraine that wouldn't respond to anything and an intestinal virus. Just too much fun for one person to have. I finally gave up on winning the migraine battle and had M. take me to urgent care when he got home today, so I could get an injection. The whole process of getting up, going outside, going into urgent care (with all the bright lights and noises), and spending the time there is really unpleasant, especially with a migraine. It was worth it, however, as for the first time in days, I'm not in horrible pain, and I may finally be able to sleep. I went in with a hideous migraine and left 40 minutes later with a happy head and a sore hip. My least favorite place to get an injection is in the hip, as I find it much more painful than any other spot, but it was so worth it to be free of the beastly headache.

Now I'm two days behind on life and have to catch up tomorrow. I'm going to try to relax now as I'm pretty sleepy from the shot. I'll leave you with a cute picture of Touky (female lovebird) and her partner, Sky (male parakeet). They are totally pair bonded and are so cute together. They preen/groom each other, feed each other (and let me tell you, if you haven't been fed by a bird who loves you, you just haven't lived--there's nothing like the loving way they regurgitate their food up to you!), make lots of little nests, and do absolutely everything together.

PZ Myers, still on a pedestal

Another weekend is coming to an end. Sundays are always a day of mourning for me (unless I am on vacation or don't have to work on Monday), and I work hard to stay in a good mood and appreciate the day. I've gotten most of my chores done for the weekend and may end up with a few hours today during which I get to choose what to do. L & H are playing and will probably be together until bedtime, unless of course they have one of their very dramatic arguments and split early. M is finishing up his chores now, and D, who has not yet started her chores, is out socializing yet again.

L has had a great weekend, although I'm missing her as my time with her has been limited. Yesterday Sonia was able to come over and play. The girls had a great time. I love to hear them play, as they are both very kind, good at sharing, and quick to giggle. Sonia's English has improved dramatically in the last few months, making it much easier for them to communicate, although they managed before. They were a flurry of activity, playing inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs--they really maximized their time together. Sonia loved all of the animals but especially liked spending time with the birds. She was here through dinner, and I was concerned about making something that she would like to eat. It was the first time she had eaten or heard of lasagna, so I told her if she didn't like it that I would find something else that she did like. She tasted it, liked it, and wolfed down quite a large piece. I'm secretly hoping that my vegan lasagna has now spoiled all future flesh lasagna for her. Lasagna made with dead flesh and pus cannot possibly compete with the suffering-free stuff, right! She will be able to come back and play for the day again in November. L. is already anticipating it.

This is a great photo of the girls, except for the remainder of L's (vegan) ice cream sandwich around her mouth. The child is incapable of eating chocolate without leaving some remnants of it around her mouth. It has at times been a convenient indicator that she's helped herself to something she was supposed to, but it would be great if she could conquer that little issue at this point in her life.

I was really proud of L.yesterday, when she sent Sonia home with some toys and clothing. Specifically, though, it wasn't just toys and clothing that L.didn't want anymore. Some of the things Sonia really liked, L.liked a lot, too. She was so kind, though, in telling S.that she could have it. While I appreciate that she's always willing to give away things she doesn't use very often, I am much more appreciative to see that she is willing to give away things that she prizes and enjoys. L. is quickly becoming a person who I respect a great deal. I hope she maintains those qualities throughout the oh-so-lovely teen years!

I've saved the best for last, and the best of this weekend--probably this month, maybe even this fall--was our Friday night outing to see PZ Myers. We arrived early, as always (we have to do everything on 'Dwyer time'). It was a good thing, too, as the room was already packed! We found the last three seats together and squeezed in. The room continued to fill and had people standing/sitting/kneeling in the outer aisles. Keep in mind, this is a Friday night, in Madison, with beautiful weather, and this talk was standing-room only. It thrilled me to see that many spending their Friday night improving themselves by attending PZ's talk. We had parked a few blocks away, and walked to the building in warp speed (still on 'Dwyer time'), then packed ourselves into the crowd. It was quite hot in the room, too. My tea tree deodorant was asleep on the job or something, but it was clearly not doing what it was supposed to be doing. So much for running up to PZ with my outspread arms for the psycho stalker fan hug.

Whenever seeing a 'hero' live, I am a little trepidatious. There are so many ways one can fall short of the icon status I create in my mind. This is especially true of people with whom I've only had Internet experience. So much personality can be
lost in person, particularly with intellectuals, who can be appallingly boring speakers. I'm relieved to report that PZ suffered no such shortcomings. He looked great, which I still can't figure out, considering he had on a buttoned-up dress shirt and a suit jacket! I don't know how he didn't pass out, as it was SO hot and stuffy in there. He gave a great talk (of course), and the wit and humor that I so enjoy on pharyngula were apparent 'live' as well. He was a very engaging, fun, and interesting speaker. I think everyone in the room learned and laughed, and that is the epitome of an excellent speaker--one who can teach without boring the audience. I so wish I had the pleasure of being a student in one of his classes! I think he would be fantastic in the classroom. He ended his talk with a cephalopod, as it was Friday, and the Friday cephalopod is a pharyngula tradition. Perfect ending.

L. took a sketch pad, and sometimes listened and sometimes sketched and listened. Her sketches were hilarious. At one point, I noticed her drawing a very lifelike rendition of the flying spaghetti monster over a jesus fish. She had brought with her a painting she made for PZ. She's taken to painting with flowers this week and has learned pretty quickly which types of flowers provide the best colors. She made a dog, completely drawn/painted with flowers for him. I'm not sure why a dog, as she has been drawing cats almost exclusively, but I'm sure there was some logic behind it. I wish D. could have attended, but she had to work. She would have loved it!

I spoke to him briefly after the talk and M. took a couple of photos. M's very indulgent and supportive with me and all my 'pedestal people'. I also got to speak with some local people, who are reactivating a science group in WI, so I'm excited about that. I would have loved to join PZ and the others at the union for beer and brilliant conversation afterward, but it was late, and we had to get back to get L. to bed and take care of critters. If we even get PZ in the area again, I WILL NOT miss another beer outing!

Eve Ensler, on the RNC's merkin

Because she expresses my feelings so much nicer than I would.

Eve Ensler -- the anti-violence activist who wrote Vagina Monologues.
September 5, 2008

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story — connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air. Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

One of the sunflowers our little yellow finches so enjoy.


My parents cat, Emmy (one of their three cats)--she's the sweetest, shiest little girl and is rarely seen by others. She was a feral mommy cat who my parents adopted.

Monday was not a good start for us. Our sweet chippy did not make it through the night. It wasn’t unexpected, as when a wild animal is found in such bad condition, the odds are not in favor of recovery. Usually by the time they are that sick, it’s too late to reverse it. It doesn’t make it any easier or less sad for us, though.

L. started coming down with a cold on Monday, too, which also wasn’t a surprise. Last Friday when Hunter spent the night, he had a bad cold. Tuesday morning, I couldn’t get L. up and awake, as she hadn’t slept well and was feeling bad from her cold. I gave up on waking her and took the morning off of work to let her sleep and recover. We did get some very nice snuggle time while we watched Scooby Doo together. Both of my girls have always been great Scooby fans, as were my brother and I. Who doesn’t love Scooby?! Anyway, after she was up and around for a while, she felt well enough to go to my mom’s, so I headed in to work for the afternoon. I had a hideous migraine yesterday and would loved to have stayed home for the day, but I really needed to finish up this stored procedure that was irritating me on Monday. I seem to have a cold now, too, but it’s pretty minor so far anyway.

M. had to work late Monday night, as it was the plant sale clearance. I’m so happy the plant sale is done…well, almost done anyway. He decided to open it for one additional day this Saturday, but hopefully will be able to get someone else to cover it for a change, so he can take his first day off in over 3 weeks.

We’re having beautiful weather this week, so I’m hoping to free up some time to get out and get the garden cleaned up. I’m so far behind in weeding! Tonight would have been a great night to start to tackle that mess, but L. has been nagging me for days to help her with a blog. She has been absolutely determined that she needs to have her own blog. I set it up for her a few days ago, but hadn’t had the time to teach her how to post and add pictures. It’s been driving her crazy that she can’t post yet, and she in turn is driving me crazy with her whinging about it. I told her Monday night that I would probably have time to work with her Weds., and she will not be put off for another day! I’m actually quite interested to see what she puts on her blog. Her mind really intrigues me. We spent time working on it tonight, and she picked it up really quickly. Unfortunately, though, we found that when she went down to the computer and tried to post, the parental controls I have on the machine she uses will not allow her to post to blogger. I will have to spend some time tonight trying to figure out how to allow that without allowing any other possible dangers.

We’re very excited to have the opportunity to see PZ Myers (of the Pharyngula blog fame) speak in Madison on Friday. He is addressing a topic that I, too, am quite passionate about: Caught in the Middle of the War Between Science and Religion. I’m a great admirer of his opinions and his brain, so it will be awesome to get to see the man behind the blog. We are planning to take L. We think she will enjoy it and get something out of it, but if not, she is great about sketching or writing quietly.

Chipmunk love, or I like to look at poop

I sneaked off to get my blog done earlier than normal. I am watching the episode of Evolve that should have been shown last Tuesday. It is indeed good. This will take me a while, as I can only type during commercials. I just saw another commercial with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. I actually find them very entertaining for some reason. This was one with a stuffed giraffe. I don't know why they amuse me, really, but they do--maybe it's a nerd factor that appeals to me. Mark just got home from work a bit ago. He finished the jambalaya and corn bread that I made (way too much of) today and is gathering up recycling. L. is cleaning up her craft area after some more creating, so I thought I could get some blogging done. M. actually got some time to do his blog while at work today (work blog, work time--I know!!! Novel idea!), so if I get mine done, we may have a little time to visit tonight before he passes out from a long, cold, wet work day.

We had some friends over last night for a cookout, although the rainy weather did not allow us to hang out on the patio, M. was able to grill up the veggie burgers. I made WAY too much food, and those leftovers, along with the fact that I made enough jambalaya to feed an army, mean that I'm trying to pass food on to everyone I see. Anyway, we had a wonderful time and enjoyed our visit immensely. Lynn and Rick are AR friends (that probably goes without saying though), and like most AR people, are brilliant and compassionate--a combination M & I look for in friends.

This morning, right after L. came home from spending the night at Grandma & Grandpas (for our date night) Hunter came over, as usual. I jumped in the shower, and the kids were playing downstairs. By the time I got out of the shower, the kids came running up to tell me that they had a sick rat that they found in our driveway. During the time I was in the shower--less than 20 minutes, they had picked her up, wrapped her up, brought her in, gotten the phone book out and called a bunch of vets in Janesville and Madison. As far as I know, L. doesn't know how to use the phone book, so that was H's doing. They had gotten the small animal 'recovery' cage out and ready for her, and L. had been holding her close to her heart to warm her and comfort with her heartbeat. I was pretty impressed, although I would have preferred that they didn't just start making a bunch of phone calls without me present or having talked to me. I'll deal with that later, though.

It was pouring rain, cold, and she was completely drenched and lying on her side in our driveway. By this time, though, she had dried enough for the kids to tell me that she was a chipmunk, not a rat. L. told me she had done a full assessment of her body and found no external wounds, no damaged limbs--nothing apparent that would explain what was wrong with her. She was very cold, barely breathing, and I told the kids that she most likely wouldn't live for more than an hour, so their job was to keep her warm, safe, and comfortable. L. was doing so well with her 'triage' work that I let her continue to lead. Several times I checked and really thought she had passed as her breathing was so minimal and she wasn't responding to anything. L. kept her warm and on her chest for a few hours. I was chopping and preparing food in the kitchen and she was sending H. with updates as to her status: "60 beats per minute, breathing more deeply, opened left eye, moved head". I got these updates every few minutes. Then they said she seemed to be awake and had peed. I was completely shocked, as I attributed her prior movements to be pre-death seizures/contractions. I checked her again, and she had gone back to sleep, but this was definitely sleep and differed from her unconscious state. Then H. came running into the kitchen with a paper towel with poop on it to show me. She woke up again and pooped. L. explained that she sent it in to me because she knows that I, "like to look at the poops". Fast forward to right now, and she's still with us. She is awake at the moment, though she doesn't stay awake for very long at a time. She is moving around. I have given her droppers of sugar water, and she has lots of food available to her. She hasn't yet eaten on her own, but continues to improve. She is most definitely still unwell. I have never seen one go from the state in which she started to this much better and am completely puzzled as to what is going on. I will get her in to see the vet tomorrow.

Because I was here alone with the kids and a sick chippy, I ended up in a bind. I had started the jambalaya already, when I realized that I was completely out of cayenne pepper, which is a very necessary ingredient. Dej came home at just the right time and agreed to run to Basics to pick up the cayenne pepper (and some vitamins while she was there), transport the papers for my buying club, and fill my car up with gas. She has never driven my car before, and I have never given her my debit card before. She surprised me by agreeing to do all that, as I knew she had plans later. She agreed, did a good job, returned home safely with all the right stuff, and helped me out in a HUGE way! It's a great day when both of my children prove themselves to be responsible, helpful, caring people!

L. is done and in need of attention, so I'm done blogging. Today ended up being completely different from what I had planned. I certainly wasn't very productive. Who knew a little chippy would find us and rewrite our plans for today! We're so glad she found us and we've gotten to spend some time with her, but I'm hoping to have her back outside within a few days. I'm very proud of L. & H. that they took the initiative to help a distressed being without stopping to think about it. L. did a great job 'managing' her first rescue. She's really paid attention through the years!

I know the pics aren't great, but I was trying to be non-invasive and to not frighten her with the flash.

The vortex of creativity

I've been sucked into the vortex of Luciana's craft area. I'm almost done cleaning and organizing. The child has every type of art/craft supply possible! I get frustrated by the effort involved in trying to clean it. Added to all the supplies are the massive, massive quantities of her various creative endeavors. She certainly gets plenty of use out of it. She's very creative, and of course she wants us to keep every single thing she creates, which is often multiple things per day. It's hard to keep up with, but I'm so glad she enjoys expressing herself in so many different ways. She does a lot of drawing, multimedia art, scrapbook pages, writes and illustrates books, writes songs, makes unique and interesting things out of wood, silicon chips, fabric--you name it, she will create with it. I have one bin of stuff left to sort, organize and put away. She's so excited with how nice and neat her 'new' craft area is, she started creating lots of stuff this morning. She actually put everything away and left it neat when she was finished, which is a huge and encouraging step! Maybe this time it will work!

Okay, so Tuesday night, I eagerly turned on the History Channel and sat down to watch a new Evolve, which looked very interesting. It did not come on. Sand Hogs came on instead. What the hell?! I can't believe anyone watches that crap or the Ice Road Trucker show. Those two seem to be on the History Channel all the time these days. Are there really that many rednecks in this country...nevermind. I know the answer to that one. They owe me an episode of Evolve, though. I'm already disappointed that TLC (which was supposed to be the LEARNING channel) has become almost completely overrun with stupid, uneducational reality shows and given up any pretense of quality programming. I'm afraid to see the History Channel end up the same way.

Glad to hear the super collider is off and running and no end-of-the-world black hole is in sight [TIC]. I am so excited and can't wait until it's at full power! The discovery of the Higgs boson particle is imminent (in terms of a science schedule, meaning years, not days), and I absolutely cannot wait until it's found! There really is nothing more interesting and exciting than science. It's so much better than anything we could make up!

M. had to go straight from working late at the plant sale to Baraboo to give a talk tonight. He won't be home until around 11. Christ on a cracker this gets old! I will never understand why he does this! Since my dad had to go to a visitation tonight and Dej was working, my mom decided to take L. & I to Olive Garden. My penne arrabiata was good--lots of big chunks of garlic, which I love. We rambled through Target for a bit afterward. I was finally able to pick up a little package of darts for our dartboard. Apparently, they only sell darts in the fall/winter, so we had to wait until they were available.

I found this little...hmmm...not sure what to call it--picture, I guess, while sorting through her stacks of papers. I glanced at the top and almost tossed it into recycling, but decided to peek under the stapled paper on top. I'm not sure when she made it, but it's so very her! She's such a wonderful child.

Here is her new 'desk', which is really just a 4 ft. table we had with a little plastic table 'cloth' on top. Ivan has already claimed it for his own. The rest of her craft stuff is stored in bins in a little cupboard-type thing. We have to do that to keep the cats and dogs out of her stuff. The dogs have chewed up many a marker and paint tube that were left within their reach. They rarely do stuff like that anymore, but I did find a chewed up pastel lying on the steps a few months ago. I now know that pastels stain carpeting and couches.

Trailer for sale or rent...

My head is a very scary place. And if you can identify that title, you're old, too.

Poor L. had a funky day today. I'm still not sure what was wrong, but she was definitely not herself. She crawled in bed with us at around 4 this morning, after having a bad dream. She went right back to sleep, but that's the first time in ages she has done that! I dropped her off at my mom's and went to work this morning, as usual, and she seemed okay--a little pale and rough looking though. My mom called a couple of hours later to ask if she was okay, as she went to sleep on the couch there. She NEVER does that. My child, since birth, has been able to go without sleep and doesn't crash or nap like normal people do when they are tired. She didn't look good and wasn't acting herself at all. I left work, came and picked her up, and then finished my work from home. She was just 'off' all day, so I'm hoping tomorrow will go better for her.


I spent the weekend working on the basement. I got the rest of the office carpet ripped out, the floor scraped and cleaned, and laid the new carpet tiles down. They look really good. except the three missing tiles. I went to Menards to get an additional two boxes, but they only had one in the right color (of course). I was three shy of being able to finish. The naked spots are well hidden for now, and I will have to troll Menards every week until they get more in. Once that was finished I started the grand task of getting the office area cleaned, organized, and put back together. As I always do when I start these projects, I felt compelled to continue on and clean, organize and rearrange the rest of the family room. I'm still working on that. Luciana's craft area/desk is a nightmare, so I'm trying to sort through that mess and try yet another means of organization in hopes that she will keep the area tidy. I do this about once a year. It never works, but I must be an optimist or incredibly slow, because I keep thinking, surely this time it will work. I hope to be finished and have perfect order downstairs by the end of the week. It will probably look great this weekend--but not for too much longer than that.


I really thought when I started my basement project that I would have it finished by Sunday night. I ALWAYS grossly underestimate our household projects, by days or weeks, not just hours! This amazes me, because in my career, I am pretty damn good at estimating. I have to estimate how long it will take to develop large, major software applications. I have no problem doing this and am almost always within my estimate. This skill clearly doesn't translate beyond software development. I'm not sure why.


M. is still MIA for the most part, due to the long hours of the plant sale. L. is missing him intensely and had a really rough weekend without having 'daddy time'. He will finally get a day off the weekend of the 20th, after working full-time plus for 19 days.


Since my naughty little baby girl can obviously read my mind, she intuited that I was hoping to re-do my dining room soon (soon, in terms of our household project schedule, means in 6-12 months). She decided to help me get an early start by stripping the wallpaper off for me. I'm sure it was done out of sheer kindness and a desire to contribute something to the household. Or it's possible that it's because she ran out of caulk to rip off, as we haven't yet replaced the windows and tub caulk she removed.


Here she is on her cat tree having fun playing with her mommy, Hallie.

YAY!!! It's cantaloupe season!

This week has been crazy and completely devoid of fun! My stressful, unpleasant project is almost done, and I will feel like a new woman once that is finished and signed off on. Home has been full of chores, trying to make a dent in our many half-finished projects inside and out. Half-finished is probably more wishful thinking than reality, though. My body is complaining that I spent today and tonight (when we weren't working on homeschooling) trying to fix our old computer and get it up and running and scraping the basement floor in the office area so we could put carpet tiles down. Our old carpeting was destroyed last time our pipe froze and exploded down there. We've been meaning to replace the carpet since we got the pipe fixed, but are just now getting around to it. I made a little progress, but my hands and lower back are punishing me for it now. It makes me feel old!

We had an appliance repair man come this morning to look at the refridgerator that died. This is the one we keep in the basement to store our buying-club food. We are able to save money in the buying club by getting our organic/vegan food through them, but we have to buy in bulk. We lost hundreds of dollars of food when the fridge died, and it will take a long time to replace that! Fortunately he was able to fix the fridge for $100, which was great since we couldn't afford to replace the thing right now. It's fairly old, so we were nervous that it wouldn't be fixable, but as it turned out, it wasn't a big deal.

L. had her friend Emily spend the night tonight. That's a huge treat for her. E. is such a sweetie, and we don't get to see them (her and her family) nearly often enough. Unfortunately, that left poor Hunter as the odd man out, since the girls wanted "girl time". He was very bored and lonely, so he was my shadow for the day. As soon as he got home from school, he came over and helped me scrape the floor, put some carpet tiles down, work on the computer, and make pizza for dinner. Since he helped make the pizzas, he asked if he could stay for dinner, so he joined us for dinner while the girls ate up in L's room.

M. is in the midst of his plant sale, and the only time he is not working for the next couple of weeks, he will be in IL attending a wedding for an old friend of his. We won't get to see him awake for the forseeable future, and that is really hard on L. especially. The whole thing irritates the piss out of me, but since expressing it is pointless, I will continue to channel it into working on house projects.

I'm still on a rampage about that worthless bitch, Palin. Good god, I can't believe how many American citizens are so stupid that they have jumped on board basically because she is attractive and made some funny jokes. Yeah, that makes for a great politician. I cannot believe that when it comes down to it, women are still evaluated and judged primarily as eye candy. She is setting women back by decades and isn't remotely in the same class as Hillary, despite claiming that she is. That seems to be the only criteria her "fabulous" speech was based on, as there was certainly no content and nothing that indicated she is remotely qualified to run the country. She doesn't even raise her own children. What kind of monster willingly leaves a three-day old baby to return to a job that requires much more than 40 hours a week?! When I was forced to return to work after my leave was up, I cried every single day. For months. I would NOT have gone back after two months if had ANY other alternative. When I did return, I only went back at 30 hrs a week rather than 40, though. It's even more sickening that it's a handicapped child she is abandoning! I am a feminist--even a chauvanist according to some. Women do have the right to choices, freedom, and equality, however, once we make the choice to become mothers, our children should come first. This thing, for all her 'soccer mom' pro-family BS does nothing but talk. She is selfish and unnatural and shouldn't even claim the title of mother. Perhaps a little more time spent with her children (along with the appropriate education) could have prevented her little girl from getting knocked up and breeding. It's really quite easy to try to force women to breed, removing all choice, when she never actually has to raise and spend time with her kids. She's really working the mileage about being so noble in choosing not to abort the DS baby. Really, how noble is it when she drops it and abandons it to return to her life of child-free, no, make that handicapped-child-free corrupt governing. Maybe the other women in her situation, who had to make less-noble choices and opt to terminate the pregnancy with handicapped children didn't have the luxury of squatting, dropping, and returning to life as normal without being impacted by the child. They had to make the realistic choice of say, quitting a job they couldn't afford to quit to stay home and care for the special needs child, for the rest of their life. Lifelong daycare for a special-needs child is something that most women in that situation cannot afford. How dare that piece of human filth imply that she is better than any other women in similar situation! There are just so many things profoundly wrong with this beast, I could write a book. I really could. But since I try to spend every non-working, waking moment with my children, I would never rob them of their mother for something so pointless.

Our vegan cat food arrived via UPS, and as soon as we brought it in, Hallie staked it out. We didn't even get the box opened. I originally ran to grab my camera, because she and Lila were both standing in identical positions on top of the box. Of course by the time I returned from grabbing my camera off the kitchen counter, nosy little Lila had jumped off to see where I had gone. Hallie, was not about to give up her prime spot on the yummy cat food.

Evolve...tonight

Baxter, poised on the dresser, waiting for treats--pole position allows him the opportunity to knock the treats out of my hand, perhaps allowing him to snag a few extras.

Today was a big day for us. L. started her homeschooling year--third grade. She started, as usual, whining about having to "work", instead of bumming around all day as she did through the summer. It will take her a week or two to get back into the groove. It irritates me, though, as she has no clue how much easier and more flexible her schedule is than it is for those who attend "regular" school.


Even more exciting, D. started college today. She only had two of her four classes today, and she will attend the others tomorrow. I'm shocked that she signed up for a 9:00 am class! That was a surprise to both M. & me, as she is so not a morning person. I'm anxiously waiting to hear how her day went, but she had already gone to work by the time I got home from work.


Our baby mourning dove is well. We've named her Cypress, and we were able to move her into the bird room last night. She is still caged, as she needs time to acclimate and gain strength. Once she's used to the environment, puts on a little weight, and learns to fly, she will be cage free, like the other birds. Saffron (our Indian ringneck dove) has been lurking around Cypress' cage all day. Saffie is prone to crushes and really wants a best friend. Saffie is a big part of the reason that Cypress won't be out of the cage unsupervised until she gets bigger. Saffron follows her 'crushes' around and can become very irritating. Cypress needs to be a little closer to Saffie's size, so she can handle her pushy love.

Oh, L. & I are reading, "A Wrinkle in Time" for our bedtime reading. What a good book! We just read chapter 4 tonight. I don't know how I missed reading this classic in my youth, but I'm having a blast reading it with L., and she's really enjoying it, too.

Back to school season brings the inevitable glut of posts on my 'mommy board' that absolutely infuriate me. "My poor innocent child got kicked out of Kindergarten/1st grade/whatever for hitting a teacher/assaulting a student/whatever, what can I do". The other parents on the board, who are too lazy to actively parent and discipline their children, always have the solution--"Get an IEP". One huge reason that I homeschool and one of the biggest single factors in the destruction of the school sytem is the 'mainstreaming' of troubled, violent children. Naughty, uncontrollable, disruptive, violent children are all now "special needs", which means that the other students in the class have to be exposed to their crap, which is often frightening to the children. The teacher has to focus her very limited time and resources on dealing with the rotten kids, leaving little time left to educate the rest of the class. Why are bad children (yes, I realize that in most cases it is the parent's fault) excused and accomodated at the expense of the children who have a shot at being productive, contributing members of society? Why must the entire class suffer because of one or a few rotten apples? If our school systems are even savageable (and I'm not sure that they are), the only hope is to pull these problems out of the classroom and keep them with their own kind. Sorry if that sounds cold--wait, no, I'm really not. A message to the lazy parents creating these little brats: "Clean up your own fucking mess. Stop inflicting your poor parenting mess on the rest of the world. We all pay the price." I didn't have the luxury of the option to homeschool my oldest child. She was exposed to things that no child should ever have to see/hear, especially at the place I sent her to become educated. I watched her lose countless hours of classtime due to these children, and see how undereducated she is--and she was in AP classes!

Sarah Palin--the worst VP choice ever!! That is one scary bitch for so, so many reasons. Keep pushing that abstinence-only sex ed, Sarah. We need more knocked up little girls shitting out kids they are ill-equipped to raise in an overpopulated world. I guess it makes it okay, at least for dominionist-fundamentalist-creationst beauty queens, as long as they make their knocked up little girls marry the baby daddy. Yeah, that fixes the problem. That's a way better idea than teaching kids to use condoms. @@ (<-- BIG eyeroll here, in case the sarcasm wasn't evident).

Now that I've taken care of my venting, I can go watch EVOLVE, on the History Channel. It starts in a few minutes, and I don't want to be late!