Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
I love my mini-garden
But rather than bore you all to tears with non-stop photoblogging of my balcony garden, I'll just keep adding photos to my new Flickr badge on the right, you lucky devils.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Clothes, Glorious Clothes
Once Hannah was out of school for the summer and I had finished my paper, it was time for us to do a little clothes shopping before all the summery clothes were gone. BTW, can you believe that the shops are already putting out the fall clothes?!
I haven’t bought Hannah much in the way of summer clothing the last couple of years because 1. she still had some stuff that fit and 2. one week of hot weather spread over three months does not a proper summer make.
But this year, her t-shirts have gotten obscenely small, so it was time to replace them. Maybe I can smuggle some of the old ones out of her closet now without her noticing.
As for me, I was down to one pair* of rather threadbare denim shorts and wanted something lightweight but with a little more coverage, like capris, to wear in the tropical climate of Italy later this summer. So in between Hannah grabbing everything in sight off the racks and whining that I wasn’t buying her jeans and boots (in the fall, I said!), I tried a few things on.
I am not really all that big, although I do have proper womanly curves in the right places, but apparently you have to have legs like dowel rods to be able to buy pants in the women’s or juniors’ sections here. I guess they just don’t design pants for the weeble wobble-shaped woman here, or I need to find a w-w shaped woman to follow into the right shop for that. Anyhow, I finally found a pair of pants that mostly fit. In the children’s department. In the huskies section. Yes, I had to adjust the *elastic in the waistband* of my *huskies children’s pants*, but now they fit. I mean, screw it. John likes the way they look on me, and Hannah can wear them next year (they are only one size larger than she wears) if she starts getting husky on me. The end.
* I actually found another pair of shorts in the back of the closet after I had gone shopping. They are dark blue heavy twill, but the waist is lower than I am generally comfortable with. Unfortunately, that was all I could find last year when I was looking, and I’m not sure that I even got to wear them last year because the weather changed again as soon as I had bought them.
I haven’t bought Hannah much in the way of summer clothing the last couple of years because 1. she still had some stuff that fit and 2. one week of hot weather spread over three months does not a proper summer make.
But this year, her t-shirts have gotten obscenely small, so it was time to replace them. Maybe I can smuggle some of the old ones out of her closet now without her noticing.
As for me, I was down to one pair* of rather threadbare denim shorts and wanted something lightweight but with a little more coverage, like capris, to wear in the tropical climate of Italy later this summer. So in between Hannah grabbing everything in sight off the racks and whining that I wasn’t buying her jeans and boots (in the fall, I said!), I tried a few things on.
I am not really all that big, although I do have proper womanly curves in the right places, but apparently you have to have legs like dowel rods to be able to buy pants in the women’s or juniors’ sections here. I guess they just don’t design pants for the weeble wobble-shaped woman here, or I need to find a w-w shaped woman to follow into the right shop for that. Anyhow, I finally found a pair of pants that mostly fit. In the children’s department. In the huskies section. Yes, I had to adjust the *elastic in the waistband* of my *huskies children’s pants*, but now they fit. I mean, screw it. John likes the way they look on me, and Hannah can wear them next year (they are only one size larger than she wears) if she starts getting husky on me. The end.
* I actually found another pair of shorts in the back of the closet after I had gone shopping. They are dark blue heavy twill, but the waist is lower than I am generally comfortable with. Unfortunately, that was all I could find last year when I was looking, and I’m not sure that I even got to wear them last year because the weather changed again as soon as I had bought them.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Hitting the pool
On Wednesday, it was brutally hot--33C (about 92F) outside and 28C (about 83F) inside--so we drug our carcasses to the local outdoor pool. John complained that we found a spot in the shade under a tree. Hello? What is the point of going somewhere to cool off if you don't--sit somewhere cool? John and Hannah swam a bit, then John took his towel to go lie in the direct sunlight. I love the heat, but hate sunbeams--I can feel my skin sizzling in direct sunlight--so I stayed on the blanket under the tree.
No, I didn't smother him with a floaty. He was too lazy to sit up while taking his turn at blowing up Hannah's alligator. He worries that it looks like he is pleasuring a blow-up alligator, but I assure you, he never does that in public. (Ha ha, Honey!)
Now that Hannah is careening toward the teenage years, I fear that all her photos for the next, oh, 10 years will look like this, just with different clothes. Oh, well.
Here is something I jotted in my notebook at the pool:
"Old ladies, middle-aged ladies, young women, girls--all wear two-piece swimsuits, bikinis even. The men wear trunks, speedos, a prosthetic leg. There are none of the long t-shirts of my youth, no beach cover-ups. I find myself staring at someone's back in line at the snack bar. Does that spot look cancerous? Should I say something? She walks off holding ice cream."
Sorry about that--I was reading Margaret Atwood at the pool.
Anyhoo, about 5 minutes after we got there, a big black cloud settled over the sun and floated back and forth over it for the next 3 hours. Have you seen my recent post "Murphy's Law"? Yeah, that's my life. I thought I also heard thunder, but that turned out to be the sound of children flopping themselves down the new big, plastic pool slide.
If we were to chart Hannah's level of enjoyment of a pool outing, it would look like a big V. When John suggests a trip to the pool, she gets totally gung-ho, gathering up everything without being reminded, grabbing the car keys so she can pack up and wait for us in the broiling parking lot, being extra polite. We get to the pool, she gets into the water, gets a snack (with her own money), and then she is ready to go home. No, there is no reason to stay, life at the pool is an unremitting hell, etc. etc. Finally, she stalks off to get back in the water, just to get us off her back. That would be the bottom of the V. Then she finds her friend's brother. A boy about her own age to pester? Nirvana! Back to the top of the V until it is time to go.
No, I didn't smother him with a floaty. He was too lazy to sit up while taking his turn at blowing up Hannah's alligator. He worries that it looks like he is pleasuring a blow-up alligator, but I assure you, he never does that in public. (Ha ha, Honey!)
Now that Hannah is careening toward the teenage years, I fear that all her photos for the next, oh, 10 years will look like this, just with different clothes. Oh, well.
Here is something I jotted in my notebook at the pool:
"Old ladies, middle-aged ladies, young women, girls--all wear two-piece swimsuits, bikinis even. The men wear trunks, speedos, a prosthetic leg. There are none of the long t-shirts of my youth, no beach cover-ups. I find myself staring at someone's back in line at the snack bar. Does that spot look cancerous? Should I say something? She walks off holding ice cream."
Sorry about that--I was reading Margaret Atwood at the pool.
Anyhoo, about 5 minutes after we got there, a big black cloud settled over the sun and floated back and forth over it for the next 3 hours. Have you seen my recent post "Murphy's Law"? Yeah, that's my life. I thought I also heard thunder, but that turned out to be the sound of children flopping themselves down the new big, plastic pool slide.
If we were to chart Hannah's level of enjoyment of a pool outing, it would look like a big V. When John suggests a trip to the pool, she gets totally gung-ho, gathering up everything without being reminded, grabbing the car keys so she can pack up and wait for us in the broiling parking lot, being extra polite. We get to the pool, she gets into the water, gets a snack (with her own money), and then she is ready to go home. No, there is no reason to stay, life at the pool is an unremitting hell, etc. etc. Finally, she stalks off to get back in the water, just to get us off her back. That would be the bottom of the V. Then she finds her friend's brother. A boy about her own age to pester? Nirvana! Back to the top of the V until it is time to go.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Murphy's Law
We are trying to do our bit to reduce our energy consumption, both for the environmental benefits and also because the cost of energy keeps going up. John reminds us constantly about turning out unused lights. I do my bit in the area of laundry.
Al Gore recommended not using the hottest setting on the washing machine, so I have already given up 90C for whites. (A lovely side effect is that the strata of deodorant on John's t-shirts doesn't get melted onto them; they have never been more deodorant-free.) I also bought a drying rack to reduce our use of the electric dryer.
I don't think I've used the dryer more than about once a week in the last couple of months.
Of course, the weather here tends to throw a monkey wrench into my laundry plans. We either have a long stretch of cool, wet weather, which means I have to either find room for the rack indoors or use the dryer, or we have unseasonable, unpredictable storms. Recently, we have woken up to sunny, hot weather. Perfect for drying jeans, think I. So I shove the jeans in the washing machine on cold. I drag the wet jeans onto the balcony and arrange them on the drying rack. Thirty minutes later it clouds up. Thirty minutes after that it starts to pour rain. Or, as happened on Saturday, it begins to hail:
I wonder if I have inherited my Grammy's weather-influencing ability. She lived in Houston with my Gramps and had always heard about how dry it was out in West Texas. Alas, every time she visited us in West Texas, it rained. She didn't believe him about the desert conditions.
Hannah really didn't want to go on a class outing on the next-to-last day of school, so she got busy on the Internet looking for tips on rain-making. She spent all of Monday evening in her raincoat and galoshes, shaking her home-made rain-maker and spinning and chanting. Unfortunately, the rain did not hit until *after* the class had reached their outdoor destination. Fortunately, they went back to school early to watch a movie, and Hannah had dry clothes in her backpack.
So the moral of the story is that Mother Nature will always kick you in the proverbial nuts.
Al Gore recommended not using the hottest setting on the washing machine, so I have already given up 90C for whites. (A lovely side effect is that the strata of deodorant on John's t-shirts doesn't get melted onto them; they have never been more deodorant-free.) I also bought a drying rack to reduce our use of the electric dryer.
I don't think I've used the dryer more than about once a week in the last couple of months.
Of course, the weather here tends to throw a monkey wrench into my laundry plans. We either have a long stretch of cool, wet weather, which means I have to either find room for the rack indoors or use the dryer, or we have unseasonable, unpredictable storms. Recently, we have woken up to sunny, hot weather. Perfect for drying jeans, think I. So I shove the jeans in the washing machine on cold. I drag the wet jeans onto the balcony and arrange them on the drying rack. Thirty minutes later it clouds up. Thirty minutes after that it starts to pour rain. Or, as happened on Saturday, it begins to hail:
I wonder if I have inherited my Grammy's weather-influencing ability. She lived in Houston with my Gramps and had always heard about how dry it was out in West Texas. Alas, every time she visited us in West Texas, it rained. She didn't believe him about the desert conditions.
Hannah really didn't want to go on a class outing on the next-to-last day of school, so she got busy on the Internet looking for tips on rain-making. She spent all of Monday evening in her raincoat and galoshes, shaking her home-made rain-maker and spinning and chanting. Unfortunately, the rain did not hit until *after* the class had reached their outdoor destination. Fortunately, they went back to school early to watch a movie, and Hannah had dry clothes in her backpack.
So the moral of the story is that Mother Nature will always kick you in the proverbial nuts.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Camera fun
We have had our digital camera for 3 or 4 years now and have never figured out how to take close-up photos without them coming out blurry. Just recently, I noticed a setting with a little tulip-shaped flower and the letters "MF". I don't know why we hadn't ever tried it before. I thought it turned on the date-time stamp--Monday through Friday--and John only thought "motherfucker", although I can't see how that is an automatic setting on a camera. Usually that is user error. Anyhow, I finally noticed and tried it:
Motherfucker, indeed. (Except on me.)
So without further ado, I will now bombard you with photos and commentary about my balcony garden, because I love the satisfaction of coaxing things to grow.
All the flowers in our window boxes were planted as seeds, so it has taken awhile to get actual flowers. These were one of the first ones to put out blooms:
I don't know what any of the flowers are called, because I wasn't very good about labeling the pots when I started them, and Hannah was helping me, and some of them are from mixed-seed assortments that didn't specify what was in them beyond "summer assortment" or "butterfly assortment" or whatever.
These are on one side of the yellow flowers. The flowers are tiny, but there are lots of them, and their perfume really attracts the insects.
This is on the other side of the yellow flowers. It is only one plant, but it is putting out clusters of purple buds at every node. It is also an insect-pleaser.
I have a variety of these in different shades of pink and orange in the next planter over. This is the latest one to open up--I just love the salmon color! The flowers look very delicate, but the petals are quite thick and firm, and the flowers last a long time without discoloring or wilting. I think the oldest flower is about 3 weeks old and is just now getting brown around the edges.
I made this picture a little larger so you could see the weirdness of this plant. It looks like a succulent, with fleshy leaves, but it needs lots of water. The underside of the leaves and the stems are covered in tiny bulges that look like water droplets. Occasionally this plant puts out a spiky--something--that has fine hairs sticking out of it. Not knowing what this plant really is, I guessed that it was some kind of ground cover and that the spiky things were its flowers. But then one of these popped up:
It only lasted a couple of days, but the lovely color and delicate petals were a nice contrast to the fleshy leaves underneath.
Lemon balm. I've been using it in frozen concoctions instead of lemon or mint. Delish!
Hannah saved some seeds from the kitchen, and now we have these:
I wasn't sure which kind of pepper I had been chopping when Hannah asked for the seeds, but I'm guessing bell pepper. The 2 plants that survived have put out a ton of flowers, so we should get quite a few peppers over the summer. The go nicely with the tiny citrus trees
and gigantic walnut trees
that stand next to them in that corner of the balcony.
Last year I bought seeds to plant chili-peppers for John. We didn't manage to use all the chilis, and I didn't get around to composting the dead plants, so a few weeks ago I went out and harvested the seeds from the leftover chilis. Voila! New plants. I love recycling.
John was waxing optimistic about growing half our own produce, but that is hard to imagine in our circumstances (no actual garden). But, it will be nice to go out on the balcony and snag the occasional pepper to throw into some spaghetti. And although our flowers are few in number, they give me a lot of enjoyment on a cool summer morning.
Motherfucker, indeed. (Except on me.)
So without further ado, I will now bombard you with photos and commentary about my balcony garden, because I love the satisfaction of coaxing things to grow.
All the flowers in our window boxes were planted as seeds, so it has taken awhile to get actual flowers. These were one of the first ones to put out blooms:
I don't know what any of the flowers are called, because I wasn't very good about labeling the pots when I started them, and Hannah was helping me, and some of them are from mixed-seed assortments that didn't specify what was in them beyond "summer assortment" or "butterfly assortment" or whatever.
These are on one side of the yellow flowers. The flowers are tiny, but there are lots of them, and their perfume really attracts the insects.
This is on the other side of the yellow flowers. It is only one plant, but it is putting out clusters of purple buds at every node. It is also an insect-pleaser.
I have a variety of these in different shades of pink and orange in the next planter over. This is the latest one to open up--I just love the salmon color! The flowers look very delicate, but the petals are quite thick and firm, and the flowers last a long time without discoloring or wilting. I think the oldest flower is about 3 weeks old and is just now getting brown around the edges.
I made this picture a little larger so you could see the weirdness of this plant. It looks like a succulent, with fleshy leaves, but it needs lots of water. The underside of the leaves and the stems are covered in tiny bulges that look like water droplets. Occasionally this plant puts out a spiky--something--that has fine hairs sticking out of it. Not knowing what this plant really is, I guessed that it was some kind of ground cover and that the spiky things were its flowers. But then one of these popped up:
It only lasted a couple of days, but the lovely color and delicate petals were a nice contrast to the fleshy leaves underneath.
Lemon balm. I've been using it in frozen concoctions instead of lemon or mint. Delish!
Hannah saved some seeds from the kitchen, and now we have these:
I wasn't sure which kind of pepper I had been chopping when Hannah asked for the seeds, but I'm guessing bell pepper. The 2 plants that survived have put out a ton of flowers, so we should get quite a few peppers over the summer. The go nicely with the tiny citrus trees
and gigantic walnut trees
that stand next to them in that corner of the balcony.
Last year I bought seeds to plant chili-peppers for John. We didn't manage to use all the chilis, and I didn't get around to composting the dead plants, so a few weeks ago I went out and harvested the seeds from the leftover chilis. Voila! New plants. I love recycling.
John was waxing optimistic about growing half our own produce, but that is hard to imagine in our circumstances (no actual garden). But, it will be nice to go out on the balcony and snag the occasional pepper to throw into some spaghetti. And although our flowers are few in number, they give me a lot of enjoyment on a cool summer morning.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Done!
I turned in my final paper on Friday, after writing seriously for 4 or 5 days. I ended up with a 19-page linguistics paper in German. I call that quite an accomplishment.
I am still trying to get caught up on a few things around the house but will be back soon, promise!
Friday, July 11, 2008
quickie
I went downstairs this morning to wake Hannah up and discovered that _somebody_ (of the 4-footed variety) had deposited a dead bat at the foot of the stairs. Fortunately, it wasn't mangled or anything. On the other hand, I doubt it flew into our house and then had a peaceful heart attack while lounging on the tile floor.
Anyhoo, I couldn't get John to get his lazy carcass out of bed and come deal with it before Hannah saw it--which was a close thing anyway because she suddenly got a nosebleed and came out of her room before I could go in there to wake her up--so I scooped it onto the dustpan and put the whole thing out on the balcony.
While I was fixing Hannah's snack for school, John came moseying downstairs. "So, did you remove the deceased?"
Hannah: "Huh?"
Me: *mind racing* "Hannah, we're speaking obliquely."
Hannah: "Hello, people! Eleven-year-old kid, here! I haven't read the whole dictionary."
And thus we avoided the topic of the dead bat until Hannah had to leave for school 3 minutes later.
Anyhoo, I couldn't get John to get his lazy carcass out of bed and come deal with it before Hannah saw it--which was a close thing anyway because she suddenly got a nosebleed and came out of her room before I could go in there to wake her up--so I scooped it onto the dustpan and put the whole thing out on the balcony.
While I was fixing Hannah's snack for school, John came moseying downstairs. "So, did you remove the deceased?"
Hannah: "Huh?"
Me: *mind racing* "Hannah, we're speaking obliquely."
Hannah: "Hello, people! Eleven-year-old kid, here! I haven't read the whole dictionary."
And thus we avoided the topic of the dead bat until Hannah had to leave for school 3 minutes later.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Don't have much time...
John needs to get to work, so Internet fun and games is over for me for now, but I wanted to point out that I put a butt-load of pictures up at Flickr this weekend for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to look around over there (via the widget on the right) in lieu of reading anything here.
Friday, July 04, 2008
TMI = Comedy Gold
(I told John I was going to blog this, but I don't think he believed me.)
We were in bed, and the sheet had slid off, and I asked John to pull it back up because I didn't like the cats looking at my ass. "They can see right up my crack!"
John: "Those cats can't tell the difference between your crack and your face."
Way to be reassuring, Honey!
We were in bed, and the sheet had slid off, and I asked John to pull it back up because I didn't like the cats looking at my ass. "They can see right up my crack!"
John: "Those cats can't tell the difference between your crack and your face."
Way to be reassuring, Honey!
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
minorly annoyed
The last few days have been beset with minor annoyances. While getting some milk out, Hannah knocked a cup of yoghurt out of the fridge, which then exploded lemony dairy over half the tile floor. I left the mop propped against the counter in the kitchen, and Hannah bumped it, causing it to fall onto the cat’s ceramic food bowl and smash the edge of it off. Etc. Etc. Sometimes it seems that my life is just a string of minor annoyances.
On Monday, I turned on the TV briefly while I was eating lunch, and in the middle of a tourist ad for some African country, the picture narrowed down to a couple of colorful stripes in the middle of the screen. I turned the TV off and back on. Stripes. I turned on the DVD player. Stripes. I turned everything back off and thought. Then I vacuumed the back of the TV. Bingo! We are bathing in the electric glow again! One small success can really turn my day around (for a little bit, at least).
In other news, John found flights on Ryanair to Stockholm in August for 0 Euros (I think the roundtrip total for the three of us is 150 Euros in fees), so we are going to Stockholm for about 5 days for John’s birthday in the middle of the month, then a week after we get back, we’re driving to Italy for 12 days. I am planning on putting our adventures in European travel up on my travel blog; I’ll keep you posted.
It’s a shame that the bulk of our extended family’s birthdays are in the late summer/fall, because we are going to be as poor as church mice after all that traveling. Thank goodness for our American visa—we sure can’t use it over here with the horrible exchange rate. But we have it in case of emergency.
Hannah has an infection in her toe. We had been treating it at home, and it was getting better, but then after she spent the day doing the equivalent of the Presidential Fitness Test, she was complaining about it, so I took her in to the doctor. Who then gave me a prescription for iodine and curd soap (?--Kernseife). So unless her toe swells up or really starts to hurt, we continue with the home treatment. Plus she has another plantar wart, so I spend way more time than I enjoy messing with her right foot.
Except for me bitching and moaning about writing my paper, and John working his heart off (as he put it on the phone today) on several projects at once, and Hannah waiting impatiently for the end of school in 3-1/2 weeks, that is all that is happening with us. Our life is one big party, no?
On Monday, I turned on the TV briefly while I was eating lunch, and in the middle of a tourist ad for some African country, the picture narrowed down to a couple of colorful stripes in the middle of the screen. I turned the TV off and back on. Stripes. I turned on the DVD player. Stripes. I turned everything back off and thought. Then I vacuumed the back of the TV. Bingo! We are bathing in the electric glow again! One small success can really turn my day around (for a little bit, at least).
In other news, John found flights on Ryanair to Stockholm in August for 0 Euros (I think the roundtrip total for the three of us is 150 Euros in fees), so we are going to Stockholm for about 5 days for John’s birthday in the middle of the month, then a week after we get back, we’re driving to Italy for 12 days. I am planning on putting our adventures in European travel up on my travel blog; I’ll keep you posted.
It’s a shame that the bulk of our extended family’s birthdays are in the late summer/fall, because we are going to be as poor as church mice after all that traveling. Thank goodness for our American visa—we sure can’t use it over here with the horrible exchange rate. But we have it in case of emergency.
Hannah has an infection in her toe. We had been treating it at home, and it was getting better, but then after she spent the day doing the equivalent of the Presidential Fitness Test, she was complaining about it, so I took her in to the doctor. Who then gave me a prescription for iodine and curd soap (?--Kernseife). So unless her toe swells up or really starts to hurt, we continue with the home treatment. Plus she has another plantar wart, so I spend way more time than I enjoy messing with her right foot.
Except for me bitching and moaning about writing my paper, and John working his heart off (as he put it on the phone today) on several projects at once, and Hannah waiting impatiently for the end of school in 3-1/2 weeks, that is all that is happening with us. Our life is one big party, no?
Friday, June 20, 2008
The internet is bringing up Hannah
Hannah was playing an RPG online, and some guy claiming to be Zach Efron was trying to pick up some girl on the rebound. So of course Hannah had to ask: If you're Zach Efron, aren't you dating Vanessa Hudgens, and what are you doing trying to pick up this girl?
Hannah is learning some important life lessons via the internet.
Hannah is learning some important life lessons via the internet.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wow--this really is me!
Your Ice Cream Personality: |
 You are an incredibly modest person. You don't feel comfortable bragging about yourself... or even receiving complements. You are incredibly cautious. You rather miss out on something than make a mistake. No one would ever call you wild... but they would call you responsible. You are a somewhat open minded person, but deep down you're fairly conservative. You don't like trying new things very much. And if you do find something new you like, you stick with it. You are a natural multitasker. You feel alive when you're doing more than one thing at a time. You are fun loving and sweet. You tend to enjoy joking around and teasing people. |
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Quote of the Day
Hannah says:
"I just want you to know that I wear brown pants to show my dislike for Thursdays."
Don't we all?
"I just want you to know that I wear brown pants to show my dislike for Thursdays."
Don't we all?
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Hannah is a glamour queen
Hannah has long had a love of shiny shoes.
Shiny silver Pippi Longstocking sneakers, bought in Sweden when she was 3.
Shiny pink platform sandals, bought in Sweden when she was close-enough to 4. (Diva-tastic!)
(I am now wondering about all the shiny children's shoes available in Sweden--probably a response to the dreary winters.)
And now, to complete the trinity of shininess:
Shiny silver flip-flops, bought here in Germany to replace her old, worn-out, pink rubber flip-flops.
Oops, I forgot the tennis shoes, which I think I may have already shown here:
Shiny gold swooshes on white leather, bought here in Germany, but American all the way, Baby!
Hannah is quite demure in all other aspects of her dress, so I don't mind buying her some flashy shoes if she wants.
Shiny silver Pippi Longstocking sneakers, bought in Sweden when she was 3.
Shiny pink platform sandals, bought in Sweden when she was close-enough to 4. (Diva-tastic!)
(I am now wondering about all the shiny children's shoes available in Sweden--probably a response to the dreary winters.)
And now, to complete the trinity of shininess:
Shiny silver flip-flops, bought here in Germany to replace her old, worn-out, pink rubber flip-flops.
Oops, I forgot the tennis shoes, which I think I may have already shown here:
Shiny gold swooshes on white leather, bought here in Germany, but American all the way, Baby!
Hannah is quite demure in all other aspects of her dress, so I don't mind buying her some flashy shoes if she wants.
Favorite Headline Ever
Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens
Yes, it's a bit old, but I was poking around in my favorites folder and came across it again this morning.
Yes, it's a bit old, but I was poking around in my favorites folder and came across it again this morning.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Welcome aboard!
About a week ago, Mr. Jooge sent me a link to an NPR piece, because it made him think of me:
Stimulating the Economy with Gay Marriage
I had read somewhere that New York was also using this argument in support of gay marriage.
Then today I read over at the Whatever, How to Save Your State Economy, Scalzi’s commentary on the MSNBC article on the same topic. Only, some commenters have rightly pointed out that $64 million in tax revenue is chump change when you are talking about a state with a deficit of $15 BILLION.
When I got the original email from Mr. Jooge, I had just been tearing up over the story of George Takei’s* wedding. He has been with Brad Altman for 21(!) years, and now they are able to be married, thanks to the change in California. The man is *71* years old. You never know—he might not have that much time left (although he looks much, much younger than that). It made me really happy to know that he will get to experience a state that many of us take for granted.
Way back in the day, John and I were not dead-set on getting married. We were committed to each other and knew that a piece of paper wouldn’t make any difference in how we felt about each other. But then we decided that getting married would make life easier (God—I can’t imagine what a nightmare moving abroad would have been if we weren’t married to each other). I am honest enough to admit that I got all gushy and tingly over throwing a wedding, and reading about George Takei, I felt that all over again on his behalf. I would have loved and honored John no matter what (as George and Brad have done for 21 years), but there was something magical about going through the ceremony, and I am tearing up again thinking about all the people who are going to get to share in that magic.
Mushy, gushy aside, just today I read a fascinating article in the NYTimes, "Gay Unions Shed Light on Gender in Marriage," on how researchers are looking at gay marriages in comparison with hetero marriages, and how they are discovering that some marital problems are not gender-specific, as previously thought. Very interesting stuff.
-----
* For the geek-impaired, George Takei played Sulu on the original Star Trek series.
Stimulating the Economy with Gay Marriage
I had read somewhere that New York was also using this argument in support of gay marriage.
Then today I read over at the Whatever, How to Save Your State Economy, Scalzi’s commentary on the MSNBC article on the same topic. Only, some commenters have rightly pointed out that $64 million in tax revenue is chump change when you are talking about a state with a deficit of $15 BILLION.
When I got the original email from Mr. Jooge, I had just been tearing up over the story of George Takei’s* wedding. He has been with Brad Altman for 21(!) years, and now they are able to be married, thanks to the change in California. The man is *71* years old. You never know—he might not have that much time left (although he looks much, much younger than that). It made me really happy to know that he will get to experience a state that many of us take for granted.
Way back in the day, John and I were not dead-set on getting married. We were committed to each other and knew that a piece of paper wouldn’t make any difference in how we felt about each other. But then we decided that getting married would make life easier (God—I can’t imagine what a nightmare moving abroad would have been if we weren’t married to each other). I am honest enough to admit that I got all gushy and tingly over throwing a wedding, and reading about George Takei, I felt that all over again on his behalf. I would have loved and honored John no matter what (as George and Brad have done for 21 years), but there was something magical about going through the ceremony, and I am tearing up again thinking about all the people who are going to get to share in that magic.
Mushy, gushy aside, just today I read a fascinating article in the NYTimes, "Gay Unions Shed Light on Gender in Marriage," on how researchers are looking at gay marriages in comparison with hetero marriages, and how they are discovering that some marital problems are not gender-specific, as previously thought. Very interesting stuff.
-----
* For the geek-impaired, George Takei played Sulu on the original Star Trek series.
2 great tastes that taste great together
You know I love me some Avatar, and some Muppets. Here's what you get when you mix the two: Avatar, the Last Puppet Bender. Enjoy.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Muppets never get old
Hannah finished watching a Barbie movie this morning and wanted to know what to put in next. She suggested The Muppets Take Manhattan, but I didn’t feel like it. She said I had to turn in my “I appreciate the Muppets on a much deeper level than you” t-shirt if I didn’t want to watch it. She doesn’t understand that even if I didn’t feel like watching it in the first place, that doesn’t mean I won’t laugh myself sick at Dabney Coleman running up and down the hall with a Muppet chicken clamped onto his ear and Animal grabbed onto his legs, or the Swedish chef throwing popcorn in his face and singing, “Popping corn--3D!” I still got Muppet cred.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
