new blog not working yet?

Don't worry -- I've really been giving out the correct URL, but it seems that the new blog may not be appearing. It's not some elaborate ruse to fool my two readers. :)

Off to troubleshoot.

Pssst.

I'm moving. The blog, that is. Drop me an e-mail and I'll give you the new address. Don't be shy!

suzeana@gmail.com

And because I'm afraid nobody's gonna e-mail me, I might go looking for you! Or at least my "top referrers". :)

Um. . . . BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.

BushFish.org: Supporting God and Country

Is it cynicism? Paranoia? No, don't answer that.

I'm looking at the cnn website and the coverage of the 9/11 transcripts that were released today.

But what I'm really looking for are more photos of when the Bush motorcade sped by the protesting mom who lost her son in Iraq.

And all of a sudden, it occurs to me how convenient it is that the 9/11 stuff was released today of all days.

What's been getting a lot of top billing in the news lately? This mom outside W's ranch.

What would have gotten lots more coverage today? Bush's motorcade whizzing past her.

What doesn't seem to be getting as much coverage as it would have? Bush's motorcade whizzing by.

Why? Because the 9/11 stuff was made public today.

How does this help the Bush administration? It helps in two ways. It gave them some cover from the grieving, protest-mom story. And it reminds everyone of the fear and terror of that horrible day, hence the purported justification for the "war on terror". (Let's just continue to overlook the small fact that SADDAM HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11 AND THAT OSAMA IS/WAS IN AFGHANISTAN AND WE STILL HAVEN'T CAUGHT HIM. OK, that' more than one fact to overlook.)

Speaking of things not really making sense, I heard Rick Santorum, Congressman from Philadelphia, say that the "war on terror" has been successful which is proven by the fact that the US hasn't been attacked since 9/11. We took the war on terror to the terrorists. Um, yeah. Tell that to the Londoners. Aren't they taking the war on terror to the terrorists also? Santorum actually said, "The proof is in the pudding."

On the other hand, I think the terror level alert was lowered today. Maybe the world is a safer place now. Heh.

Why can't I come up with this stuff?

A good point.

True evangelism, based on the example of Jesus, does not suggest the "missionary zeal" of self-righteous proselytizers. It implies, on the contrary, the kind of all-embracing universality evident in Mother Teresa's prayer: "May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in." Not just fellow nuns, Catholics, Calcuttans, Indians. The whole world. It gives me pause to realize that, were such a prayer said by me and answered by God, I would afterward possess a heart so open that even hate-driven zealots would fall inside. - David James Duncan

Also a good point.

"outrage at the negative aspects of proselytization is well-founded, but the truth of the matter is that proselytization's main flaw is its lack of universality. why, then, do we think that other forms of evangelism are better? is humanitarianism the only way to show god's love instead? the truth of the matter is found in scripture, where christians are referred to as the "body of christ." it's not that any one form evangelism is better than another. it's that they all compliment each other. the stark raving moralism of many proselytizers is well-founded oftentimes but also overdone. humanism is a great tool to show god's love but often ignores the moralistic teachings we must hold to to benefit one another. we all have our own gifts and call and must coordinate to work out the best plan."

Baby clothes for sale.

 

We are planning a garage sale in a couple of weeks. At first, I wasn't even thinking about trying to sell baby clothes. There are several other large kids' consignment clothing sales around here and I thought I might try to sell at one of those. But as i thought about it, I might as well put them out at our garage sale because it's a lot less work than to lug them somewhere else.

The thing is I'm not sure I'm quite ready to get rid of them. Unless something changes, we are probably through having babies, but still. Getting rid of the baby clothes makes it all the more certain that we are done. It makes me a little sad. Are my childbearing years really over?

It's kind of funny though because I have a large tub of maternity clothes and I've had no plans to sell them yet. And I won't bring them out for the garage sale either. So, I guess that's a good compromise with myself. I was looking on ebay today at all the lots of infant clothes -- it would be easy enough to get a new lot of them, if we needed them. :)

Yes, a good compromise indeed.

Why it's a bad idea to have a pitcher of leftover margaritas in the fridge. . .

it looks a lot like lemonade. I'm just saying.

Something to make Jon Stewart's day. . .

We had the TV on PBSkids at lunchtime and between the shows, they do this little bit where famous people talk about the kids shows they remember from when they were little, etc. Well, Jon Stewart's little bit came on, and he was doing it from his desk at the Daily Show.

Daniel looks at the TV and says, "The news is on!"

Alas, dear blog-readers, I'm in the throes of an existential blogging dilemna: to blog or not to blog. But then, I've thought of about ten different things to right about, so maybe the crisis is over. Read on.

Environmental Stewardship

Fiercely protecting God's creation, er . . . or part of it: the oil part.

ABC News: Fight Over Alaska Oil Drilling Continues

I need me a set of these.

Fun Stuff Bright Necklace

Amen.

The Message Thing: a great op-ed piece in today's NYT outlining what the Dems should focus on by Jim Wallis. (yes, it does require registration to read, but it's free).

*click "Amen" for the link to the article.*

How I know that my 7 month old is mobile . . .

something just started sucking on my ankle.

Oooo, it's a fraternity meeting!

BB_28_0126
Originally uploaded by lambdachialpha.

Wonder if they are talking about secret stuff.

I love flickr.

Good babysitters are hard to find.

Are you possessive about giving out your babysitter's name and number?

I think I should be more possessive.

After living here almost two years, I have, only in very recent months, found two babysitters. I've had a couple before these two, but they graduated or moved or my toddler scared them away or whatever. (I'm actually kidding about the last part, because as near as I can tell, he's a perfect angel to everyone but his parents.)

One is a student getting her MA in nursing at a local university. I got her by placing and paying for an ad in the university's newspaper. She's great and Daniel has a crush on her.

The other one I found a month or so ago on Craig's List. She is a teenager that lives in my neighborhood. She seems OK, except that I have to go pick her up (she doesn't drive yet) and she likes to keep the TV on when she babysits. I think it's kid's programs, but still, that's momma's tool for when she needs a break.

Anyway, a family with a one year old moved in a couple of houses down several months ago. Before Andrew was born actually. The mother was asking me if I had any babysitter recommendations the other day. I offered my two very quickly thinking that they would probably be happy to have more work anyway. I don't know if my neighbor will use them or not.

But afterwards, I was like, this mom has been here for less than a year and now she has the names of two decent babysitters just like that. I had to suffer a good year and a half plus before I got a couple of good ones. Why should she get it so easy? And now she might want them to babysit at the same time I might need them. What was I thinking?!

Darnnit.

Distraction.

I don't know about you, but I can turn any small task into a full-scale project. Some under-used part of my brain must crave adventure and novelty in the tedium of my daily life, so I seem to satisfy that need by making simple tasks into convoluted expeditions. The internet has made this tendency so much worse.

(frickin' blogger. I had written more than this, but when I went back to it, this was all that was left. Argh.)

The other day, I needed to know some fact about something or other. All I had to do was pick up the phone and call one of my friends. But why do that, says another part of my brain, when you can go look it up on the internet. Who knows what fun and interesting tidbits of information you might find along the way. Oh, OK, you're right, replies the other part of my brain. (That part of my brain is kind of a pushover, truth be told.)

Calling my friend only involves picking up the phone, well, and probably finding it first. I think I even have her number memorized. Besides, the phone is something that you can easily use with a toddler around by holding it above their reach. Well, if you can ignore their screeching every time you get on the phone. And hear the other person over the screeching . . .

Anyway, I went for the laptop. Why even try to find the exact website I am looking for when I can do a google search and see what other kinds of things pop-up. Maybe I don't know the exact web address anyway, so I'll just do a search first.

Inevitably, this leads me off on many tangents. How many other things can I look at before I really need to find what I was originally looking for? What's around that next corner? I don't know, let's see. Oh, and I should check my e-mail real quick, too. An hour later, I still haven't gotten to the site that might have the one tiny piece of info that I'm looking for, but I've had so much fun along the way (while fending the toddler off all the while) and learned so many new things! (I'm being a little facetious, here. Heh.)

Oh yeah, what was that I was looking for? An hour of distraction maybe? Yeah, that's it.

still teetering on the edge, but the ants are gone

today would have been better than yesterday had it not been for the fact that Andrew has come down with croup. Croup is scary. Daniel had it when he was a baby and we spent Christmas Eve in the ER that year. The doc gave him the steroid injection this afternoon, so hopefully, things will be OK tonight. I think Daniel has a milder case of it as well.

The ants are gone for the time being and both J and I have a steely resolve to clean up every speck of food left behind from the day's refreshments.

Grief is a funny thing, isn't it? Who am I grieving? Well, it's more of a what. My two kitties who passed away last fall. We'd had them for 10.5 years since they were kittens. We lost one in September and one in October. Pepita was my little buddy, my female ally in a house of XYs. Willy was a great cat, too, more like a dog than a cat. When they died I was pretty far along in my pregnancy. We were heading into the holiday season, too, so although I was sad, there was a lot to be preoccupied about. Then, I had Andrew at the end of December and have been busy managing an infant and a two-year-old since then, plus the botched Sophie the Stray Cat experiment which didn't turn out too well. So, while I missed the cats every now and then, I was frankly glad to not have anything else to take care of. As Andrew's getting older and spending less time with his momma and more time trying to get his brother's attention, I've found myself missing my kitties. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I need something to need me or I feel sad. I'm more saying that because Andrew is needing me less, I'm less preoccupied with his care and my brain has a chance to remind me thatI do still miss my kitties. Know what I mean?

As I said, grief is a funny thing. It can catch you by surprise.

*sigh*

Do you ever feel like you are just teetering on the edge?

Today was one of those days for me. I hope it's better tomorrow.

Daniel got sick at the end of last week with a pretty nasty sore throat. His tonsils are huge and we spent the weekend trying to get him to eat. We'd offer him his favorite foods and he'd yell, "No! No! No!" and begin to cry as if we were forcing him to swallow nails. We'd pump him up with some Tylenol and then try again. Poor little guy. We were worried it might be strep, but couldn't really do anything about it over the weekend. His fever was pretty high for the first couple of days, but has gone down.

This morning, we all got up and out of the house in order to go to walk-in hours at one of the pediatric practice's other offices. Our ped doesn't have walk-in hours. Well, it turns out that the walk-in hour is only for the pediatricians at that particular office.

I spent the next three hours repeatedly calling our pediatrician's office to try to get an appointment for today. But their computer was down, so they couldn't make any appointments. They knew they had openings today, but had no idea when.

The difficulty in getting into see the doc began to outweigh my concern about whether Daniel really has strep or not. He was eating better today and even eating without having had a dose of Tylenol. So I finally just asked to speak to the nurse. She advised us to wait another day or so. So, we'll see.

It was more frustration than I was prepared to deal with on a Monday morning. Plus, Daniel was clearly feeling well enough to be a frickin' pain in my ass. When do toddlers get out of the "throwing mom's shit on the floor stage"?

Andrew's teething and constipational problems continue to make him unpredictably crabby. He's into arching his back now to show his displeasure / discomfort. I can see him getting more and more independent every day.

And finally, there were the ants. Our kitchen is overrun with ants and we can't seem to stay ahead of it. They were all. over. the counters this morning and on the floor. We've been battling them since the spring this year. It doesn't help that we have a toddler who enjoys stuffing whole muffins in his mouth and then laughing as big chunks fall out onto the floor. Please tell me when the stuffing things in your mouth phase ends. He stuffed a whole piece of American cheese in his mouth today and then chewed it a little and opened his mouth and let it fall out. Nice. Let's just say that he went down for his nap a little earlier today. Mommy needed a break.

One saving grace, however, was that Andrew went down for his second nap so easily. I put him in his crib, turned on the music and left the room. A few minutes later, both he and I were sound asleep.

This guy?! Really?!

Bush names Bolton as U.N. ambassador

So, Bush decided to go ahead and name Bolton the UN ambassador for the U.S. Great. I think it's a super idea to put this guy in, don't you? Diplomacy so seems to be his strong suit. *smirk*

On one of the news shows that we watch on the weekends, one of the pundits suggested that Bush has been "hurt" over the opposition to his nominees. Hurt? What did he expect? A standing ovation for his choice? I think not. Of course, he was going to pick a right winger, but this guy? Really.

It's said that Bush likes Bolton's brash style. That he wanted someone who's going to go in and inform the UN of our agenda as opposed to having the UN's agenda foisted on us. Does he think appointing this guy is really going to get the message across? Is the rest of the world really going to care? Wouldn't it be better to choose a skilled, but hard-nosed diplomat to represent the U.S.'s interests? Wouldn't that give the President a better chance of advancing his agenda (not that I would agree with this agenda, but at least, we wouldn't look like the loud, obnoxious fools that the rest of the world thinks Americans are anyway)? I guess Bolton could always scream at the ambassadors from other countries and chase them around the U.N. chambers when they disagree with him. That will definitely get their attention.

BlogHer wannabe.

I was looking atMelissa's flickr photostream from BlogHer Con 2005 which took place last weekend. And I found myself wishing I was there. A weekend of hanging out, getting to know people who also enjoy playing around on their laptops, having some drinks with said fellow bloggers, and secretly taking compromising candid pics of each other and posting them online for all to see. Jana could probably provide enough content for a group live blog. How fun it would be to meet all the cool blog-people I know IRL. So whaddya think? BlogHer Con 2005, part 2 (but without all the seminars) this fall, or maybe next spring would be better so I could save up. Maybe Seattle? I've always wanted to go to Seattle. Or maybe in the Caribbean? I've always wanted to go there, too. Or maybe a cruise?