I’m not sure I buy all of the points (about the increase in the numbers of SAHM’s) made here, but I do hope she’s right about one thing:
that this new trend is part of a larger, modest but encouraging shift toward greater commitment to marriage and family generally
With lower-than-average incomes, a heavier-than-average tax burden, and some of the highest health insurance premiums in the country, Vermont is hardly paradise for working people. Howard Dean has some explaining to do – if someone will just ask a few questions.
That this woman is even considering making a dog-fur sweater is evidence that she has far too much time on her hands. Get a hobby! Volunteer somewhere! Help the homeless!
Toby Keith would probably be outraged that I was applying that moniker to a far-left presidential candidate-hopeful, but this article makes the case that anger is why Howard Dean has had such a showing up to now. I found it to be fairly balanced writing, and an accurate reflection of what I’ve observed from my armchair.
via C-Log
Sesame Street characters help kids deal with terrorism
I’m supportive - at least in theory - of videos that encourage kids to ask their parents for explanations about things that frighten or confuse them. Now I just wish they offered videos to parents about how to answer those questions!
“There was a contract signed in which it was made very clear long before the arrival of the artists that there are laws in St. Kitts that do not take kindly to the use of indecent language on stage,” Information Minister Jacinth Henry Martin said Saturday.
Ellen Degeneres wants to be known as an entertainer who happens to be gay, not as a gay entertainer.
“I have to say something gay, otherwise people might leave here tonight and say, ‘She didn’t do anything gay. She’s not our leader. What happened to our leader?’ “
I’ve always thought Ellen Degeneres was funny, and I was somewhat put off by her coming-out. Not because she was gay (I didn’t care, one way or the other), but because it was so overhyped and dramatic. Now it seems like she might regret the splashiness somewhat, but only because it didn’t have the effect on her career she had hoped. She’s still a very funny person, and her work in Finding Nemo was really extraordinary. She doesn’t have to worry about losing me as a fan, but I’d just as soon she stopped using her sexuality for hype. Granted, that seems to be the point of the whole article, but it’s one of those “Don’t think about pink elephants!” things, isn’t it?
So it seems some states have a problem with some topics being covered in textbooks. John Leo’s review of Diane Ravitch’s book The Language Police covers many of these, including “peanuts as a good snack (some children are allergic), owls (taboo in Navajo culture), and the palaces of ancient Egypt (elitist).” I’m sorry; owls? Peanuts? This is just plain ludicrous. As if we didn’t already have a thousand, here’s yet another reason for us to homeschool our children.
What started out as a sensible suggestion – don’t always show women as homemakers or minorities in low-level jobs – developed into hard reverse stereotypes (women must not be shown in the home, maids can’t be black).
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I do not think the Republicans are infallible. I know very little about the Patriot Act, having not had the time to sit down and read the monster. If Kathleen Parker’s assessment is correct, it’s a very scary thing.
Here’s how things could go bump on deadline. Under the act, a reporter can’t be wiretapped as long as he isn’t an “agent of a foreign power.” But if in covering a story, a reporter calls someone who fits the definition -a foreign student or a foreign political organization -then the reporter’s e-mail addresses and phone numbers can be monitored, unbeknownst to him.
I guess the entitlement mentality has reached into the Dean family, so much so that his kid feels he has the right to steal beer from the rich.
I saw this report on CNN, including similar porches in the area that were still standing. How anyone could have reasonably expected “dozens” of people to safely fit on that patio is beyond me, but maybe those plastic cups were filled with more than punch. Hints have already been made at suing the apartment owners (isn’t that always the first response?), but I think the survivors should face some kind of endangerment charges.
Friday was a really frustrating day. I was trying to do all of these handyman-type projects, and with every single one there was some small, annoying little problem that kept me from getting it done. First was the electrical in Adam's room. I'd been painting the primer on the walls, waiting for Mike to have a chance to help me get the light-switch installed. I had primed three walls and the closet, and all that was left was the two doors, the ceiling, the wall that would have the switch, and the closet doors. Mike came in and got the old light fixture down, only to find out that the mounting screws for the new light fixture were too close together; it wouldn't work. No problem; we'd just use the old one until I had a chance to buy a new one that would fit. Next job was to screw the conduit to the wall, so we could run the electrical wire inside it and make it a less messy-looking job. Problem was, apparently the conduit would be traveling along a beam, and the only screws we had were too long. I made a quick trip into St. John for screws, got home and got the conduit on the wall (after MUCH cussing about how hard that crap is to cut), and got Mike down to instruct me on next steps. I tried to get the wire into the conduit, per Mike's instructions, myself, but we were using the cable you typically put underground, so it was stronger and less flexible, and an utter b**ch to get squared away. I finally had to call on Mike's help, and only by his brute strength did we get the conduit cover snapped on with the wire inside. We got the switch box mounted and, shockingly, the damn thing worked the first time.
Next up, table and chairs for the kids and for us, birthday gifts from the in-laws. I would link to them, but I don't want to give them any more business. The kids' table and chairs was actually pretty decent, except that because of some bad welding, I couldn't finish the assembly without buying a longer bolt. I had started assembling these pieces earlier in the week, so I picked up a long bolt and nut when I was in St. John. Got home, only to find that, while long enough, the bolt was too fat to fit into the hole. While I sympathized with the bolt on that level, it didn't get the table put together. Mike eventually scrounged one up, and I finished the assembly. After that was done, I decided to ride the wave of my <heavy sarcasm>success</heavy sarcasm> and work on the table and benches for us. This went together reasonably smoothly, until I found that the wood screws included with the benches are too long and, if used, would stick through the top of the benches. Obviously, this was a non-starter. So, that project is currently on hold. Between all the mechanical problems, and the kids' usual crabbiness, the day was long and tiring. I skipped scrapbooking, plain lacking the energy.
Yesterday was better. I got some more painting done. The priming part of that job is nearing an end. I still need to put one more coat on the ceiling, one wall, and one (maybe two) door(s). I also need to put two coats of primer on the closet doors, but I'm hoping that job will go fairly quickly. Then I can start the actual painting! The rest of the day was devoted to working on the Mall Crawl, which draws to a close tomorrow. I still have a couple of loose ends to tie up, but then I can call it good. I did the same thing today (more Mall Crawl stuff), and decided to launch my own weblog. This is an idea I've been privately toying with for a few weeks now, and recent world events caused me to take the leap. As of now, I'm using Blogger's free service, so there are no comments. If I find I stick to it, I'll upgrade to their Pro package, and will instantiate comments. Until then, feel free to comment on stuff you see there, over here.
I have been a very busy little beaver. Friday night was scrapbooking again. I didn't bother trying to lug all my stuff down there to work, since I didn't have a babysitter and knew I'd get very little, if anything, done. Instead, I took my finished album (the mystery project I talked about some time ago) and showed it off to the folks there. I tried to go to a movie, but Kayla refused to quiet down enough for me (or the other paying customers) to enjoy it, so I left after only a few minutes. I went back to the scrapbook store, and ended up helping others with layouts until 2AM. Kayla, of course, immediately fell asleep upon leaving the movies, and stayed asleep until after midnight. Brat.
Saturday, we realized I didn't have all the pieces I'd need for the electrical work in Adam's room, so I drove to Spokane to buy what I'd need from Lowe's. That night, I ripped the carpet and carpet pad up from Adam's room and rolled it up. And allow me to say, old carpet is GROSS. Sunday, I worked on my computer and allowed my back to recover from the ordeal with the carpet. Today, I pitched the carpet into the garage (will haul it off to the dump sometime later) and started working on getting the nail-studded carpet strips and staples out of the floor. I don't know who put that carpet in, but if the guilty party ever happens to read this journal, let me just say that you really could have gotten by with a couple hundred fewer staples. Anyway, that part of the job is all done, I've swept in there about a dozen times, and now we just have to do the electrical work before I can paint. The wiring is the old cloth-and-tar stuff, so Mike says splicing could be tricky. Oh, well. That's probably a job for tomorrow, sometime.
The first round of puttying is all finished. Adam helped me some last night (by "helped" I mean that he had his own putty knife and a bowlful of water to dip it in, which subsequently got spilled on the carpet, but since it's the old carpet anyway I didn't care - but, I digress) and I finished the job today. Now it needs to dry, then I'll make another trip around - sanding the rough patches, adding more putty where needed, filling holes I missed. I figure it will take me three rounds of patching and sanding before that chore can be called done. I'm a little nervous about the light fixture. See, the one that's up there now has a pull-string; no wall-switch. That's not really workable for a short (and overzealous) toddler, so Mike ordered some (insert lots of technical sounding electrical stuff here) to make a wall-switch happen. They didn't have it at our local Ace Hardware stores or building supply centers, so he ordered it online. We could save some bucks in shipping costs by having it delivered to a store where we could pick it up. It's now a week later, and we've heard no word about the stuff. The electrical needs to be done before the priming and painting, since I'll need to paint the wires so they blend into the room better. It's always something, isn't it?
So, what have I learned about putty and drywall tape? Plenty!
We did our usual errand run today. Easy trip this time - just grange and grocery. We were actually home by 11AM - I think that's a first for us.
The paneling is all down! Woohoo!! Next step is to patch the walls. See, there are several million (or so it seems) nailholes that need to be filled and sanded before I can paint. There is also a chunk of wall about 4"x36" above the door to the garage that is just missing. It needs to be patched, so I bought a small chunk of wallboard from the Colfax Building Supply. There is also a spot that appears to be a former doorway - possibly to a porch or a pantry or something - that has a piece of wallboard nailed into the opening, and isn't seamed very well to the surrounding wallboard. (Yes, the grammar and structure of that sentence sucked - sue me.) That needs to be fixed, so I have drywall tape. Anyway, have to fix all these things, plus a few other little odds and ends, then I'll have to figure out how to get the carpet up. The trick to doing so is that the big dresser is still in there for the time being, so I'll need to move it out or work around it somehow. Once the carpet is out, I can start priming.
Adam went to preschool yesterday. We spent a lot of time over the last week talking to him about the pushing and kicking, and explaining to him that there would be consequences for his behavior. Lately, he seems to be resorting to it less often, so I was hopeful. It turns out he played nicely with the other kids all morning, until they went outside to play. Then he proceeded to push a little girl down to the ground (our doctor's daughter, as it happens) "because she was in my way". When he came back in with the other kids, he grabbed a little boy by his shirtfront and dragged him across the room to get him away from a toy he wanted to play with. I came downstairs to talk to him about it, and made him apologize to the poor little victims. I sent him back to play and was observing, and he proceeded to push another little girl away from a toy - twice - so I grabbed him again, talked to him some more, elicited another apology, and we left. Since he went so long without being aggressive, I took him to see the fountain and river he likes to visit in Pullman, and let him have lunch at McDonald's (drive-thru). I know that he's trying; I think it's when he gets tired that he gets pushy. I don't really know what I'm doing, by the way - I'm just muddling through as best I can. No, that's not really a plea for advice. As best I can tell, some kids just are this way, and you just have to correct, correct, correct, correct until they get it right.
Kayla likes her little infants class, although she doesn't care to have me leave her in it. There are plenty of teachers, lots of toys and other children to play with, a climbing structure - all good things - but she still has enough separation anxiety that she cries if she sees me leave, or notices after awhile that I'm not around. I don't yet get to spend much time with the other Mommies, alas.
We're loving playing in the pool. The weather has been in the mid-90's the last two days, and it's nice to splash around in the pool. Adam's getting more and more confident in his poolplay all the time, and enjoyed floating on my tummy while I floated on a pool mattress. He also likes to see me go underwater, though he only does it accidentally, himself.
Now, I ask - isn't she just the most adorable child you've ever seen?
Addendum: I have compassion for parents who lock their children in closets, and respect for those who don't.
Work proceeds apace on Adam's room. I now have the
paneling off of three of the four walls, and they still look pretty good. I'll
have to do some patching on the wallboard above the door that leads to the
garage, but other than that it seems to be all pretty usable (and didn't I just
have a nightmare about having to diagram that sentence for 7th grade
English class!!). I took the kids up to Spokane yesterday to shop at
Lowe's for the things we'd need for Adam's
room. Adam's current obsession is the Pixar Animations film
Finding Nemo, so we're decorating his
room in that theme. I bought some deep blue paint for the walls and doors, and a
blue a shade lighter than that for the trim and ceiling. I've never painted a
room all by myself before, but before last year I had never installed a floor,
so I'm not too worried. I mean, after all, it's just paint! If things go
horribly awry, I can always just nail the wallboard back up put
up some wallpaper.
Anyway, besides that I got some primer, carpet (a color called "Washington Wheat" that looks like sand to Adam and I), a carpet pad (those suckers STINK), a new light fixture, and lots of other odds and ends (paintbrushes, rollers, etc.). I saw some drawer pulls with ocean themes (Adam liked the seahorse and starfish ones best) that I thought would be good for use on his dresser, but (1) they were $3 each, and (2) they were special-order-only, so we didn't get them. I'm going to prime and paint his dresser and bookshelf, so we can reuse those pieces of furniture. He'll need a bedframe and boxspring, but I'm not thinking about that until the walls are painted and carpet laid. The nice paint folks at Lowe's said I could just use the acrylic paints I have at home (and which are only $1 a bottle at Michael's) to do the decorative painting (fish, coral reef, etc.), saving me the expense and frustration of innumerable bottles of latex paint which I will never use for anything else. While I'm on the subject, I love shopping at Lowe's, but I absolutely hate when I have to buy something (so far, flooring) that has to be loaded out their little loading dock. The guys are inevitably never there to load it out, and I end up spending about an hour waiting around for someone to track down what I've bought, and track someone else down to load it up. This doesn't keep me from shopping at Lowe's, just makes me cringe when it comes to load-out time.
I mentioned that Adam loves Finding Nemo. Since it's in theatres, that obviously means we've seen it. I've been moviegoing rather a lot lately, actually. Finding Nemo was excellent, and I wouldn't mind taking the kids to see it again. The Italian Job was ok, but I think they showed all the good stuff in previews. A Mighty Wind was shockingly bad, and I actually left halfway through.
Tuesday is preschool day for the summer session. There was a great turnout, kid-wise. Our preschool had been sharing toys and facilities with the co-op, but they (the co-op) moved to another church, taking all their toys (and other stuff) with them. So we've been tasked with finding stuff for the classrooms. Luckily, I saw a sign for a community yard sale in St. John Saturday morning, so I'll be going to take a look. Adam was not at all well-behaved. He was excited about going when we left the house, but after the hour's drive he got over that. I had to carry him into the classroom kicking and screaming. It took me ten minutes or so to get him calmed down, and I finally got him distracted by drawing with markers. When the teacher brought him to me about an hour and a half later, with wet pants, she told me he had been hitting and kicking other children. I suspect this means pushing and kicking, since those are his preferred methods of combat, but I could be wrong. At any rate, it meant he couldn't go back to his classroom, and I cancelled our now-usual trip to the fountain and river. He was dismayed, but I tried to explain to him about consequences. Trying to parent a toddler is like trying to nail Jello to a wall, though, so we'll see next week if it had any impact.
I also continue to work on TheQuilt. I've finished quilting half a row. While I'm sort-of happy about that, it isn't near progress enough for the time I've spent on it. Oh, well... must keep trying!
My. Monitor. Is. So. Totally. Cool!!!
My inbox has a life of its own. I think it's hooked up
with another inbox somewhere else in the Internet, and they're breeding. I say
this because when I woke up this morning (at 5AM) there were 33 messages. It's
now 2:30PM, I've been answering email all day, and could never seem to get it to
go below 27. It's now at 2425, which is why I'm taking a break
to write this entry. I'm sure by the time I'm done, it will have crept back up
over my water mark again. This is just
QuiltIndex mail, mind you; I still have 13 items in my personal inbox. That
number, at least, seems to be holding steady, even if every single item will
require about 20 minutes, on average. My goal today is to have two empty
inboxes, but I may have to resort to Mike's method; create two new email
accounts. :-\
The Mall Crawl is bumping happily along, for the most part. There are the usual mystery problems (seemingly mostly related to the AOL browser), but for the most part this has been a very smooth launch. We did a few upgrades to parts of the Crawl which only shop owners see, and they seem to be pretty pleased with them. Mike's .NET-fu continues to impress my clients. :)
How are the kids, you ask? Ahhhhh the kids. Well, Adam's deep in the throes of toddler tantrumming. As I type this, he's in the bedroom, being punished for kicking me. He's overtired and needs a nap, which precipitates his bad behavior. He's also bored, but I have to get work done and so can't supervise more outside time. He did go out for about an hour this morning - I LOVE that fenced-in yard! He's not all bad, of course, and there are still very touching moments. Like, 5 minutes before the last tantrum, he came over for some cuddling and asked, "How about one of those wonderful kisses, Mommy?" I complied. :) He's a smart boy; he's just trying to figure out the limitations. This is totally normal, but nerve-racking.
Kayla now has four teeth - two uppers and two lowers. I am here to tell you: teething SUCKS. It makes everyone miserable, especially the one trying to actually cut the teeth. She also has more and more "tricks" every day. She can now say "uh-oh", "mama", "boo", "numnum", and "buhbuh". We're not sure what "buhbuh" means, but she says it when playing with blocks, books, shoes, etc. so we think it means "toy". She can stand easily and creep along furniture while holding on. She waves bye-bye, makes kisses and clucks, is a champion peek-a-boo artist, and is so absolutely in love with her big brother she can't see straight. She worships him. When he goes outside to play, she stays in the living room at the sliding glass door, watching BrotherVision. He likes her back, sometimes.
I'm making more progress on Adam's room. Mike got the last bookcase out of there, and we've gotten the vast majority of the other junk moved out (still have more bags to take to Goodwill, some Christmas stuff to put in the rafters, and other odds and ends). For those who haven't visited the farm, sometime in the 80's whoever owned this house fell in love with that cheap plastic wood paneling, and put it up in every room in the house but the bathrooms (yes, even the kitchens!). One of my goals in life is to rip all that crap out and replace it with something decent. The first room to be redone will be Adam's room, so to that end I ripped off a big sheet of it yesterday. It was easy to get off; they had glued it up, then nailed it to the wall, and I could pretty much just peel it off (after taking off the framing around the door). Mike feared for the quality of the walls under the paneling, but it's not that bad. Looks like there was either a plaster or drywall wall, topped by some REALLY ugly pink-and-silver-filigree wallpaper, which had then been painted over in white. The paneling was over this, but did not reach the ceiling. I'm tempted to peel the wallpaper off, but I think I'll stick with just sanding the glue residue and painting over it. Not every project should turn into a Big Thing, right? Anyway, I need to pull all that paneling off, then figure out what I'm going to do with the walls. There's a big dresser in there that some friends are coming to get at the first of July. I'll probably pull up the (green, shag) carpet before I start painting the walls. I don't know what kind of motif/theme I'm going to do; I'll probably just take Adam to the store with me and let him pick something that looks good. The in-laws have contributed a goodly sum to this renovation, which is, of course, very much appreciated. :)
Speaking (kinda) of pumping up the economy, Mike and I have made a few significant purchases recently. My monitor is finally starting to get very blurry, particularly in the corners, so we ordered me a new flat-screen LCD. It was supposed to arrive the end of this week, but isn't here yet. Also, today Mike ordered a swimming pool for us to put up in the front yard. It was a pretty good price, and I think Adam will love growing up with a pool (Mike had one growing up, I did not). I even have a few floaty toys from the spring luncheon I helped put on last month for my quilt guild. They're not to be used as life preservers, but since (a) the pool isn't as deep as Adam is tall, and (b) he won't be in it unsupervised, I think it should be ok to play with.
I finally finished all the stupid scrapbooking swaps I signed up for. Please, if you're new to scrapbooking, DON'T get started with swaps. They suck down too much time, are frustrating and expensive, and keep you from getting any actual scrapping done. Now that I'm finished with them, I've started a new scrapbook. Can't really mention the details here, since it's a gift for some friends. So why did I mention it, you ask? Cause I'm a tease, duh? ;) I'm also continuing to work on the NeverendingDoubleWeddingRingQuiltFromHell. I'm still working on the first row, of course. I have finished three feathered wreaths and some of the pieces in between. As it heats up and I want to drive less this summer, I'm hoping I'll pick up the pace. I can already tell some increase in my quilting speed.
Ok, I just realized how long this entry is. I'll stop now. :)