This is a service for Ben

He was going to put this up on his blog but for some reason LiveJournal wouldn't allow it. So here it it--Barack Obama's 2006 speech on religion and politics. This is really good stuff and I recommend carving out enough time (almost 40 min.) to listen to it in its entirety. It's really worth it even if you're not planning on voting for him or the Democratic Party.

I would also like to say what a pleasure it was to listen to him. I mean that literally. He has such a nice voice and his public speaking isn't stilted and fake. He sounds . . . smart. That was the best part. GW, if not reading (semi-successfully) from a teleprompter, just falls apart. Obama really gives the impression of being a thoughtful person who can eloquently (but not in the annoying way)present his ideas.

So give it a listen.

Random story

So Ben changed the background for our Googledamnthem home page. It's a bunch of people at a bus stop and their clothes and background change with your local weather. Anyway there's this little black girl off to the side kind of by herself and today I thought, Who does she belong to? And then I thought, Maybe that enormous black guy right there. But in this multicultural world we live in you should never assume should you.

That brings me to my random story starring Nicole Gray and her brother--this happened before high school but I don't know how old they were. I think they were at a hotel or something and they found this little Asian girl all by herself. They took it upon themselves to find her parents, but all they really did was find the nearest Asian couple in the hotel and try to leave the girl with them. The couple (not her parents) just looked at them like they were idiots.

Okay, that was so not funny all typed out like that. Just picture that image--it's funny . . . Okay, you'd have to have Nicole tell it in that way she has of telling stories and laughing at the same time. I've been missing her lately. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A little TV griping

I got the chance to talk to Faith last night which was SO much better than what Ben was doing--watching American Idol. I came upstairs and sat down to watch a lot of painful squawking and bad stage presence. Couldn't they do better than these people? This is why I don't watch this show.

After American Idol--House. Yay! It's back! But what is up with Chase and Cameron? Are there aphrodisiacs in the air? They're stripping in every available room! Really gross. Cameron just can't pull off the bad girl image and it's pathetic and slightly threatening when she tries. And Chase is such an emasculated whiner. Bleh.

And farther back into the week's lineup--24. What was up with that kiss between Milo and Nadia? It was romantic and yet really, really insulting at the same time. She's obviously a little upset over being tortured despite her innocence (this is the second time an innocent CTU woman has been tortured by the people she works for--another disturbing pattern in a show that I am convinced is written by men for men who hate women who are as competent as men.) Anyway, she really doesn't want to talk to Milo but instead of giving her time to recover he has to come over and force his apology on her and then forcefully kiss her. She, of course, responds positively to this kiss which made me want to scream. Do these women have no rights around here? They're just little men puppets? Shut up and let me torture you, shut up and let me kiss you--because you obviously don't know what you want. (I am impressed, however, that Milo has gone from computer nerd to muscle bound tattooed stud taking a bullet to save someone else's life man.)

Okay, TV griping over.

Estrogen Explosion

I don't know what's wrong with me. I have James Blunt and Damien Rice in the cd player. I'm watching Grey's Anatomy obsessively. Grey's Anatomy! The show that begins with "Previously on Grey's Anatomy..." and then you hear people saying things like "My mother has Alzheimer's", "Did you even bother to tell Burke about the baby?", "Meredith wasn't a fling, I was in love with her", "You're too busy screwing nurses to talk." You know, THAT Grey's Anatomy. But it really does have some great non-soap opera moments--like the speed eating contest.



Okay, I'll stop trying to justify this show. I just like it. And I like sappy chick music. All this has Ben saying, "Who ARE you? This isn't like you at all." I can't explain it other than perhaps it's some hormonal imbalance brought on by . . . Grey's Anatomy. See, it's a vicious cycle.

But at least I can laugh at the ridiculousness of my two favorite shows.

So you thought YOUR life was hard

I'm sure there are some people at our church that don't live with tragedy . . . I just haven't met them yet.

There's this couple named Brad and Alyssa. We met them last year at a Christmas get together thing. She was pretty hard to talk to and didn't seem to like me all that much. But being the narcissist that I am, I just figured it was because she didn't know me yet. I like my lovable narcissist attitude much more than my previous attitude of, "Well, Miss Bitch Troll from Hell hates me and I'll make sure to avoid her and hate her back until my dying day." I have matured a little bit over the years and discovered that some people just take a little longer to get to know, and underneath their apparently snobby exteriors are fabulous people just dying to love me. Like the woman at Diksha's preschool who is an artist and gorgeous and tall and her children look like models and who for the first few months really didn't say boo to me and I thought she was a snob but it turns out she's just one of those people and now she's really, really nice and even got out of her car at a traffic light to knock on my car window and invite me and the kids back to her son's birthday party that afternoon at school. (You just thought that sentence would never end.)

Anyway, I decided to give Alyssa a chance. In the hallways at church I would give her my big smile that said, "Hey, we met at that Christmas thing and we chatted about your baby and your other daughter and stuff. I sat right across from you and . . . I . . . I exist . . ." It didn't work. I did not, in fact, exist. I saw her at Sam's Club--saaaaaame thing. So after a while I just worked very hard at feeling neutral towards Alyssa and not constantly wondering what the hell was wrong with her. LIKE ME, DAMMIT!

But then I found out that she and her very likable and outgoing husband had had another child, a little girl, who'd died of an infection when she was just two. And then I thought, Okay, girlfriend, you don't have to talk to ANYBODY let alone stupid me. And then I felt really bad for thinking they were overprotective losers when they wouldn't put their baby in the nursery because they were afraid of the germs. Yeah, when plain old germs kill one of your kids I think you're allowed to be a little paranoid.

So after that, Narcissistic Jaime pretty much gave up on that relationship. We now go out to dinner with them and some other friends and I've gained enough confidence to say, "How are you feeling?" after she's had a bad cold. And that's about it. We smile at each other but don't talk--that's cool. And now Evie and Alyssa's daughter Grace have become the best of friends. It is sooooo cute. They do their little four year old things and hug each other and then hug some more. Such girls.

Well, anyway, Alyssa had a baby last week--a little girl with Treacher Collins Syndrome. She has no outer ears, her nose isn't fully formed, there are issues with the nasal cavity so she can only breath through her mouth and has to be fed with a feeding tube. All this in a family who's still recovering from the death of a previous child. Life is cruel. I know that verse about God never giving you more than you can handle, but it doesn't say anything about handling it well. Alyssa's now struggling with depression (no duh) and Brad's trying to be strong for her . . . It just seems like too much. I can't imagine the pain of being in the hospital around so many happy new mothers and being miserable as hell that your child isn't healthy, isn't pretty. And being a person of faith who believes things happen for a reason must make it even harder. I know maybe that doesn't make sense, but I think it's easier to believe that some things are just random rather than believe you got this handed to you personally by God.

I guess the good news is that this syndrome rarely has anything to do with mental capacity and much of the physical abnormalities can be corrected to a certain extent. We looked at pictures online and it's impressive the things they can do. But there will be A LOT of surgeries including jaw reconstruction. It's going to be a very long, difficult road for a family that's already been suffering. This just hurts.

So if you pray, say a prayer for this family. They need it.

Raines again

I'm really rooting for this show and I don't know why. I take it personally when this slightly better than mediocre show has icky glitches. So here are a few suggestions--the figments should not fade out, they should just suddenly not be there. And when they do disappear, that shimmery, sparkly sound should NOT be used. And please work on that opening because it really doesn't match the look of the rest of the show. Thank you.

I like how Jeff Goldblum's enormous ears glow in the sunlight. It's like watching bunnies on National Geographic. Cracks me up every time.

So I got my haircut

and it is WAY too short this time. I told her I wanted the same cut and she estimated how much it had grown in 3 months and cut it to that length. Problem is, my hair has always taken longer to grow out than the average person. I am not so happy today. I'm trying to console myself with the fact that it will grow out and having it this short will allow me to wait even longer to get my hair cut again, saving me some money. Notice I said 'trying' to console myself.

I'm getting quite depressed watching a documentary called Unconstitutional, The War On Our Civil Liberties. It's about the war on terror, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo, etc. It's very, very disturbing and downright scary at times. This administration is so . . . I don't have the word . . . sociopathic?

I'm going to confess this--I like James Blunt's music. I know, I know, his voice is so . . . annoying. But it's the same reaction I have to Joan Baez and Stevie Nicks--I hear their voices and go, "Ew," and then about 20 seconds go by and I'm hooked.

I'm wondering something though--do any men listen to James Blunt? He makes such sissy chick music. He's like the guys who walk around campus with cute little puppies--you know they only got that dog to get women. I know that's not something a feminist should say, but as I've said before I am a bad feminist. A feminist would assume men listen to James Blunt. Feminists are open to men crossing cultural gender boundaries. But I don't think men should knit unless they're gay. And I don't think stay at home dads are okay. Stephen Colbert calls them S.A.H.D.S. He's so right. It's bad juju, man. Those kids are so gonna grow up sad. I don't know why, but they are. It would be better for a kid to have a nanny than have a stay at home dad. It's an estrogen thing. Kids need pure estrogen in the air during their formative years. S.A.H.D.S give off some corrupted form of weak testosterone and it's gonna warp those kids.

Okay, that was all very exaggerated and not based on any real . . . evidence. I do not, in fact, believe that estrogen can be airborne, but I do have serious Ew feelings about S.A.H.D.S that I need to analyze and come to terms with.

I'm really wondering if this post has a point.

No, it does not.

Final thought about music--my current favorite song is The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice. I must admit that I'm a rather obsessive listener and get in serious song ruts. I'll listen to a song a million times over and not think a thing about it. Meanwhile, Ben is ready to jump out a window. It doesn't help when it's a song Ben hates and he HATES The Blower's Daughter. Why? I think it's perfectly fantastic. So if anyone would like to take sides here , I'm putting up the song for your analyzing pleasure. (How does one put songs up without using You Tube? Brad? Anyone?) I'm not putting up the music video b/c Damien's face freaks me out. So I'm putting up a *gulp* House fan vid. It's a Cameron/House thing so if you're like me and hate Cameron, just close your eyes and listen. (Actually, despite everything, I think this video is kind of sweet.)

Apparently I have lost my soul

because I didn't like this movie.

I read about it here and here. I heard numerous media whoevers say it was a fantastic film. I was primed.

But then . . . meh. MEH?!? How can this be? This movie had everything I love in a film. It was a movie about a repressed individual discovering life and love with a heavy dose of the surreal. Emma frickin' Thompson was in it! (I must confess I once owned an Emma Thompson/Kenneth Branagh biography and pored over it like a new found gospel.) This movie had Will Ferrell! Dustin Hoffman! Queen Latifah! (It is so nice to see a beeeeeeeautiful woman on screen who is not size 4 or less.) Ben would say, "It had Maggie Gyllenhaal in it!" But I would not. (She's another person who plays the exact same character in every movie. Or maybe I'm just not familiar enough with her work?)

Anyway, I just don't get it. I should have liked this movie. I should have loooooooved this movie. But I didn't. It felt like it was 5 hours long. The surreal wasn't surreal enough. I felt like it just didn't blend--there was the surreal and the real and they just weren't connected enough. I'm not making myself clear at all.

Ben loved it. This movie is now one of his favorites. This, combined with my confusion over my own dislike, became very alienating. Then he had to watch all of the special features and interviews and of course all those people thought the script was fabulous and the movie came out great and blah, blah, blah. And I found myself in the very difficult position of disagreeing with my beloved Emma Thompson. It hurt.

I'm not saying there weren't some great moments. Emma Thompson was so nice to watch. The ending monologue was quite nice. And I really liked everyone's workplaces and apartments--I've never seen so much cool architecture and decorating in a movie.

But I would never want to see this movie again.

Ever.

"What did you do that made the White House send you a letter?"

I have never been more scared to open mail. Ben handed me the envelope and sure enough it was addressed to Mrs. Jaime Iten from The White House. Oh crap. My mind started to race through all my blog posts and e-mails that might have mentioned the President. Oh crap, they're gonna ship me to Guantanamo.

But it looks like maybe I've just been signing too many Darfur petitions. Shwew! It was a letter explaining that the President is concerned and is doing blah, blah, blah, and thank you for writing, sincerely so and so. Nice thick paper too--glad to see our tax dollars at work.

One of the cruelest things I've ever seen

I don't care if he wrote it, this just hurt.

Just can't stop posting

because I'm bored. All I've done is cleaned today and watched one episode of Grey's Anatomy. What a soap opera. And yet so entertaining.


So I'll write about yesterday's exciting adventure at the Wexner Center. We went with Jessica and Brian to experience the Muppet extravaganza going on this weekend and next. In the theater we saw the first episode of Fraggle Rock, some funny Muppet public service announcements and an environmental short (that seemed long just because it was so boring) about a golden toad on the verge of extinction. It was visually over the top but still dragged, and the musical numbers weren't great. Oh well.

Then we headed off to see the rest of the exhibits (were warned by a nice docent about some adult content at the end of the exhibit) and then found the free workshop where the kids could make their own puppets. Unfortunately, the line to the glue gun table was like a mile long. So everyone packed up their supplies and the kids made their puppets at home. (Incidentally, so did Jessica and Brian. I'm looking forward to seeing their puppet with the top hat.)

We spent most of our time at the 100 Lbs. of Clay interactive exhibit. This is art, people. A guy puts out a bunch of clay blocks and then people come around and make their own art and set it on the exhibit stands. We had a lot of fun looking through what people had made. Then we squished someone's less than fabulous project and started our own. (This is the point and is in fact encouraged.) I started out really enjoying the concept of this project--everyone is the artist, the impermanence and evolution of the art, etc. But then when we came back to look at our stuff one last time before we left and saw that someone had come along and destroyed it. C'mon! There were other really crappy pieces they could have used for clay--WHY OURS?!? That impermanence was a little too quick. Fortunately, we were able to steer the kids away before they saw the carnage. Shwew!

Next weekend we'll be going to see the Muppet Fairy Tales in the morning and then hopefully returning in the evening to see Labyrinth. At first the kids didn't want to see it again (we just watched it the other night), but now they're excited to see it on a big screen. (I'll admit it--I did a lot of begging. It's David Bowie--Hello!)

Discipline taken to a whole new level

The following has become the new threat of punishment in our house. It really works. "Do it or I'm gonna make you watch Pudding" gets instant results.

Some Reviewery

We watched the first episode of Raines the other night. It's a great premise--detective sees and talks to apparitions of dead victims until he solves the case at which time they disappear. He also chats with his dead partner. All of this is working out his ideas of what happened and who these people used to be. Since it's all in his head, the ghosts don't know anything he doesn't know and they change how they look and behave as he gets more information. Neato.

It was a pretty fun episode up until the actual solving of the murder which was pretty lame. But I was willing to overlook it. Nice quirky show and it's Jeff Goldblum--what's not to like?

Actually, I have a problem with Jeff Goldblum and I'm really pondering if I should continue watching this series. I really have a weakness for tall Jews. (Don't worry--I've already talked to Ben about it and he's now decided that a degree from Jewish Theological Seminary wouldn't be prudent.)

Moooooving on . . .

Junebug! This is such a fantastic movie!



I highly recommend it . . . with hesitation. Part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was because I could so completely relate to all the Southyness and coping with family and various cultural weird-outs. Without similar experiences I don't know if the movie would hit the same chords. I mean, Ben and I laughed forever at a scene where a neighbor walks across her lawn. That's all that happened--neighbor walks across lawn. But it was so real and that made it so funny. Ben really liked the movie but didn't love it--it hit a little too close to home. But his agonized remarks about "this was my life; it's not funny!" made me laugh even more at all the scenes where the son putzes around the basement rather than engaging his family--too real. The movie's not just funny though--it has some intense emotional scenes that had me bawling. I know everyone says this but Amy Adams IS really amazing in this movie.

I think that most anybody would like this movie, but if you've experienced that church basement, prayer at a baby shower or even just sex on an air mattress in the South--you'll love it.

Oh My God!

Amy Sedaris is on Sesame Street!





Tv IS a good thing.

Really stupid things you can do with Listerine in your mouth

I could have died last night. I was using mouthwash and Ben came into the bathroom and used the kids' rinsing cup to get a drink. Yuck. So I made fake puking motions to let him know just how gross he was. That cracked him up and almost made him spit out the water which made me crack up and start to choke on the Listerine which made him laugh even more which made me REALLY almost choke. If that stuff had come out my nose, I would be dead right now.
Dead but extremely minty.

Okay, okay--I'm not really guilt free

I have absurd guilty feelings about things I shouldn't have to feel guilty about--like entertaining people's liking for me. That sentence made no sense. You know, when someone wants to be your friend but you don't like them and really don't want to hang out with them. I have a knack for attracting people like this. I'm too nice, too smiley, too encouraging and they just eat it up. I can't be mean. This is why my current non-relationship with Nicole is so sad and ironic--in high school she was the absolute best at shaking off unwanted people. It wasn't like she was a snob or anything, she simply let people know if they were liked or not. No confusion, no leading people on, just hot or cold. I loved her for that. Meanwhile, I got stuck with some memorable unwanted relationships much to the chagrin of my other friends who, like Nicole, were much better at not being nice.

Anyway, all this to say that the Aryan Amish Family has wanted to be friends since that Children of the Corn birthday party. I've managed to politely wiggle my way out of a few invites to homeschool things and some invitations for Evie to come over for a sleepover sometime. I wanted to shake them after that sleepover thing. I don't know if most people are like this, but I am very conservative about who I let babysit. I have to really, really know people before I hand over my children. And to this day I've only allowed one sleepover and that was when I was in labor at the hospital. So, no thank you, creepy Amish family.

I'm serious about the creepy thing. The wife isn't too bad, but her husband gives me serious weirdo shivers. And he's always talking to me. Why ME?

Okay, so then the phone call came. I got a message on the machine that Sue wanted to "run something by me." I'm thinking of all sorts of horrible homeschool alliance proposals or a babysitting swap. I was really nervous about making up an excuse that sounded plausible. I was ready to flat out lie. But get this--they were going to rent a condo in Virginia for a week and wanted to know if we wanted to come with them and split the cost. ONE BIRTHDAY PARTY! One party, that's it! Why does a few hours endured at your house qualify us as your best friends?!? Thankfully Ben would be in the middle of the quarter and it just wasn't possible. Hallelujah that was easy! Later Creepy Dad said he was bummed, but I did not feel guilty--just creeped out.

So tonight we went with Ben to music practice. But halfway there I remembered that Creepy Dad helps do sound. Noooooooo! I almost thought of just dropping Ben off and hightailing it out of there. I fought against my cowardice, however. I told myself, "You do not feel guilt, Self. Snap out of it! You disappoint people and you're learning to enjoy it. Disappoint, dammit!"

Sure enough, Creepy Dad said, "Jaime, what are you doing tomorrow?" And I said, "Spring Break stuff." And he said, "Because Sue's planning a clown day." And I thought, What the hell? But I said, "Oh, clown day." And he said, "Yeah, she's trying to find clown noses and they're gonna do face paint and everything." And I thought, I could be nice or I could be honest. I chose honesty and said, "Oh . . . that's creepy. I hate clowns. They freak me out." Maybe that was too honest, but at least I didn't say YOU creep me out. He kind of just went with the flow and talked about some song with lyrics about a girl hating clowns. Yeah, whatever, just don't ask me to do anything ever again.

This was a really long post. But the point is I fought the guilt and I feel great!

It's cold and rainy and . . . cold

I love lying in bed and listening to the rain fall. It's the best way to fall asleep. Unfortunately, one must wake up and eventually go out into the rain and right now that rain is COLD.

I like it when Ernie takes off Bert's nose.

I'm getting my hair cut next week! Woo-hoo! I lasted 3 months between cuts! That means my hair will only cost $200 a year to maintain. And yet, this is still soooooo depressing. I've figured out a lot about this haircut. I now know what to do with it at what stages and what things I shouldn't do with it. I've grown a lot as a person since December.

Okay, who else hates Jack in the Boxes? Yikes. Right up there with clowns in the horror department.

The other day I had this argument with a girl about whether or not Frida Kahlo actually had a unibrow in real life. She was really adament that it was just in her paintings and I was like nuh-uh and it was getting pretty heated so I just let it go. She's 10, I'm 29--that probably wasn't mature. (But I'm right.)

A deer had the timerity to die in the woods really close to our walking path. It must have happened in the winter because now it's in a rather advanced stage of decay. It's really taking the fun out of walks. "Okay, kids, hold your noses and run!"

I've been really horrible to drive with in the car lately. All this warm weather brings out the people (especially on campus) and I just haven't been able to keep my mouth shut. "Oh, wow, what size was she--double zero? Do men find this attractive? That's like child size. Dating her would be like going out with a really tall 9 year old." "Oh, honey, those are not the legs you want to be showing off." "My God, put that shirt back on!" I wish police had the power to issue tickets to really flabby, nasty looking joggers with no shirts. As far as I'm concerned that's a form of assault. Actually, shirts should just be mandatory for everyone--esp. the women who don't understand that that thing they're wearing is a sports BRA. Bra. Bras go underneath clothing, they are not clothing in and of themselves.

There I go again.

Spring artwork I stole from someone who deserves the credit I won't give them

Nooooooooo!

I just sat down to write out my deepest, most profound, most intimate thoughts and here comes Ben pulling into the parking lot. Noooooo! He's going to kick me off the computer so he can write his papers and I'll be forced to do (*in shaking voice*) housework. *gulp*

So sad since I have this nice big cup of coffee to accompany my computer time. Well, we'll just see what I can get down before he comes upstairs.

Spring! Spring? spring

It's getting closer and closer and already the bliss/anxiety is starting to rise. I'm always thrilled by Spring. It never fails to feel like a miracle after so much snow and muck and cold. (Winter and Summer are disposable in my opinion--the extremes don't interest me at all.) But too many bad things have happened right at the beginning of Spring that this time of year inevitably brings up some yucky feelings.

It's almost been two years since leaving our old church . . . at spring time. I can't believe it's been that long. I've been having dreams about old friends that were lost in that transition (a really sad one last night) and weird 'they're trying to take over' dreams too.

And relating to Brad's great music post, I've found that there's music I can't listen to now because I was listening to it during various bad Springs. I started to get the heebie jeebies (sp?) as Ben was playing Norah Jones' second album the other day. I had to ask him to stop playing it because I was literally getting sick.

I'm hoping I'll have enough good Springs that these feelings will eventually fade away. Meanwhile, I'm absolutely thrilled at the warm weather outside. But I'm also absolutely unthrilled that I have to go outside and slog through the mud to pick up dog poo today.

Speaking of dog poo--Notice to small dog owners: Small poo is just as yucky on the bottom of your shoe as big poo. It's also much less noticeable and therefore easier to accidentally get on your shoe--so pick up after your goddamn rat, okay!

Well, dog poo seems like a good place to stop.

I Feel Like I Need To Address That Last Post

I also feel the need to address my blog titles and the fact that I always capitalize each word. Initially I thought it made things look a little more title-y and I didn't want to have to think of which words weren't worthy of capitalization. Then I just kept doing it for continuity sake, but, man, I'm sick of it.

So--I feel like I need to address that last post.

(random note: I've been listening to Alice Deejay's techno crap for the past few days and I'm really enjoying it.)

Anyway, I don't think I'm really a sociopath . . . yet. I'm just off guilt. People seem horrified when I say that. What kind of a world would we have without guilt?!? I dunno--a happier one? I'm obviously playing semantics here, because I don't think we should all just run around and do whatever the hell we want. I believe in personal responsibility. Heck, I believe in feeling responsible for other people (to a point). (The answer to "Am I my brother's keeper?" was 'yes', by the way.) But I think guilt is unhealthy. If you want to change something--change it. If you don't feel like changing it--don't. Either way, don't waste time on guilt--it sucks the life out of you.

Since I've gotten off the guilt track, I've increased in compassion a hundred fold. There's no better cure to genuine love than being obsessed with self-improvement. As soon as you go that route you can't help but turn an overcritical eye on the rest of humanity too. Right now I'm all about faith and where that leads an individual. Organic evolution of righteousness vs. a To-Do list approach. If you're going about your life and it occurs to you that you'd like to change something--great. But don't be guilt-tripped into it--either by yourself or by other people. Guilt never produces any real change. It's an artificial reaction. (I think I've discussed how arbitrary and conditioned conscience is before.)

Anyway, my point is that you should never act out of a 'should' mentality. If you genuinely want to do it, then it will happen. But if you're trying to somehow mold yourself into what you think you 'should' be, it won't take. So if that makes me look a little sociopathic--fine. At least I'm comfortable in my own skin. (And I get to sleep in A LOT.)

Ben Saw This Cartoon Today

and immediately said, "Today's Dilbert is about you."

I love that about me.

Today Was An Ugly Day In Homeschool Land

After Moira did a particularly horrible job on an assignment, I let loose on her. It was not a happy time. I know spelling is one of her weaknesses, but I just get tired of making her practice words over and over and then having her completely forget them. Today she spelled 'very' wrong. Very. *head banging on table* Combine that with her complete disregard for the instructions I wrote out for her and it was just too much.

It turns out she was rushing through the assignment so she could get back to her Nancy Drew book. I'm beginning to hate Nancy Drew the girl detective. Did you know modern Nancy drives a hybrid car? I've never read any of those books because when I was in 2nd grade I just couldn't accept she had a friend named George who was a girl. Tomboy or not, I don't care, get a girl's name. I have a real problem with androgynous names. Odd since I have one myself. And then there's the last name as first name phenomena--bleh! That was so 1999.

What was I talking about? Oh yes, my stressful day. Things got better after she redid the assignment successfully and I watched some New Avengers on You Tube. Man, I laughed my ass off. Yes, yes, I will share a clip because I know you're dying to watch. But first a little background--A British secret agent is killed when visiting a mysterious island. He's being chased around by men zinging him with hooks from fishing poles. They're like deadly assassin fishing pole men. Hilarious. Then a scientist who specializes in reviving the cryogenically frozen is kidnapped and taken to the island. Turns out everyone on the island is a Nazi (they've been disguised as monks since the end of the war) and they have the Fuhrer frozen. The team heads out to get to the bottom of it but Purdey and Steed get captured. Of course they get loose but then turn around to see 4 angry Nazis. How will they get out of this one??? Observe.

This Announcement

is especially for Jessica.

I JUST OPENED A BOTTLE OF WINE ALL BY MYSELF!!!! No coaching or anything! YES!

Evie-ry

These are Evie's lions. Today she told us their names are Upper and Downer.

Pinky, Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?

I think so, Brain. But me and Pippi Longstocking, I mean, what would the children look like?

Sometimes Your Past Catches Up With You

And it hurts.







(Okay, if you don't remember what this is about, watch this. However, I must warn you this is one of the most disturbing and painful things I've EVER seen.)

McCain's Running

I voted for him in . . . man, what year was that? It seems like a hundred years ago. (See? I'm not a democrat; I'm a lapsed Republican. Okay, not really.)

I thought I'd be really torn about who to vote for if McCain decided to run again. But he's made a really sucky reputation for himself with this whole Iraq thing. And then he went to Liberty University to give the commencement address. I actually (and pathetically) signed a petition asking him NOT to go to Liberty. Guess what? He didn't listen. I guess I just don't matter to McCain after all.

So I'm still for Obama. Ben actually bought an Obama '08 bumper sticker. I'm SO not a bumper sticker person. Oh, well--I'll cope.