photos for 23rd month newsletter

Just too cute!



Even (maybe) cuter



Eating Miso soup



Eating Unagi



Loving Unagi



In Mama's arms on VACATION!



"DELLS LEMONADE!!!"



Dells dripping on Mommy's head.



Showing Mommy some love in Newport.



Riding high on Papa's shoulders



Drawing



Fun with cousins on the beach



Mommy, Mama, JB and (unborn) baby brother



"Happy days"



Gap ad...



Sea-scape



Salty kisses



Another Gap ad



Football




Football...




"Cheese"



Non-posed "cheese"


Laughing!



Thumbs up!



Not afraid to touch the sand this year!



Power washing the house with Mommy



New BIG BOY BED! (making room for brother)



Computer games



Finally driving the girls around.



Mommy's birthday



Picnic in July



Tee ball slugger



Dancing in he rain



In the rocking chair



Art table from the Grannies



Serious ARTIST!




In the garden with Mama



Reading "take me out to the ball game."



Kisses for Mama



Kisses for Mommy



Riding my motorbike



Chillin' on the couch



Playground in Brooklyn




Mommy's Mini- ME






Bubbles in the park






Reunion with Amaya



Finding a Digger! at C-lo and Laura's wedding



Ice cream on the 4th of July





A meeting of the minds






Kisses after the parade

Dinner showdown: What he says and what I hear

Tonight, it took me a while to get dinner ready.
And, I was a little late picking JB up from day care...
And... I made a quick stop with my sister to her house to check on the kitchen remodeling project.

So, there were 2 meltdowns and 1 self-imposed "time out" before we got him to eat some goldfish. By the time i served the meal, it was 7:15 (dangerously close to bath time) and JB was whimpering, "Eating time now... eating time now... eating time now?!?" Then the minute he starting eating, he transformed from bratty to sweet with a lot of "Thank you, mommy" and "here" offering us some of his food, etc. This made me feel guilty for not being more on top of my game, and grateful that soon this long commuting (that he really does take in stride) would soon be over. He ate better than most night in terms of diving right in and not complaining about the parts of the meal that were unappealing to him.

Toward the end of meal, he was becoming more tired (read: dictatorial). At one point, a piece of skin from the pear he was eating got into his mouth and JB spit it out onto his hand and threw it on the table, "Ewww". I asked him to put it on his plate and not on the table. Then he started screaming at me like a tiny man who has reached the end of his rope. A lot of the words I couldn't make out, but i heard, "NO, MOMMY." and "STOP IT." As if I was manhandling him with this simple request.

I froze and gave him my mother's famous, "No you did not just shout at me" cocked head, narrowed-eyed, raised eye-brow, piercing stare. His tone simmered down a little and he said something that I honestly did not understand. My goal at this point was to not back down, but somehow get out of this without a huge, unnecessary battle of wits. Having no clue what he had said, I chose to act like he said, "Sorry." I put the pear skin on his plate as if I was willing to do the manual labor since he had offered the apology. I waited... He measured my expression and decided against moving the skin back onto the table as he had a few seconds earlier.

Battle avoided.

Katy: (to our son) JB, that was a good job saying, 'No thank you'
Me: (Quietly to katy) Is that what he said? I couldn't understand him.
Katy: Yeah, that's what he said.
Me: Good, because I thought he said, 'fuck you' but I was going to ignore it
Katy: (laughing) I think he meant 'fuck you' but what he said was 'no thank you'.

T minus 3 weeks and 3 days

WOW.

We are getting close to the due date. And it has been HOT!!! It was 90+ degrees all week and they are forecasting at least another few days of that weather.

We might have to cut katy's wedding band off. I say "do it now before it gets too purple." But she is hesitant. She is huge. But just huge for katy- swollen limbs and big belly- not huge like the rest of us Americans. She looks amazing and healthy (if you don't look at the ankles, the ankle scream "congestive heart failure") and glowing through all of the heavy breathing.

JB knows something is up and he has started waking up once or twice a night. But I think it's the rollercoaster we are on more than JB's restless nights. We are just exhausted and we put ourselves in the bed at 8:30 pm last night. This morning, I feel so much better than I felt last night and it occurs to me how excited I am for all of these changes. We only have only a few weeks to try and rest before we start up with some "around-the-clock care" of our new baby boy and some mental calculations and logistical adjustments that our new big brother is going to require.

And the grass really needs to be mowed, but that might have to wait until the heat wave breaks.

Seems like we're finally moving to Midpoint!

We made and offer on "Blue Steel" on the cul de sac.
It was countered a few thousand over what we offered.
We accepted last night!

Then we celebrated with a meal of grilled tuna and chicken, homemade mango salsa, and tomato and Mozzarella salad with Anne and Pat who made a surprise stop on their way through New England.

The day started at our friend's Jaime and Dan LEGAL wedding (now that I'm a mom, something chemical has happened, I cry at all weddings, but I seem to get especially emotional at gay weddings and during "mother/son dances".) There was a lo-key backyard reception where I got to wear shorts and a t-shirt and eat amazing Mexican food AND tie on a mid-day beer buzz.

Yesterday was a terrific day!

People only want what they can't have

Remember when we decided to take our house off the market? Well, that's the week it went under contract. When our Realtor put the property on "temporary status" so that we could sign the paperwork and just stop the nonsense (focus on bring the Bean v.2.0 into the world and not on keeping our home show-ready) that is exactly when not one but TWO other agents called to say, "WHAT'S UP WITH THAT HOUSE? WHY IS IT ON TEMPORARY STATUS? MY CLIENT'S LOVE THAT HOUSE..."

Pause for a moment to let that sink in.

Um, people... the property has been on the market for nearly a year!!! I don't mean to sound angry when I say, "If I knew that you would marry me when your testes were barely ALICE BLUE, i would have flashed my titties and walked a half a block away months ago!" I had no idea that allowing second and third showings was the equivalent of "Giving the milk away for free."

I blame Obama for this. He knows we're a nation full of procrastinators, but first time home buyers that want to get the home incentives have to buy and be closed by November 30th. So our guy in the oval office wasn't really considering the Web-Tiern family timeline when he enacted legislation mean to help us the housing market!

Therefore, we got above our asking price. To be clear, our asking price was recently reduced to 5,000 less than we paid for the house. And when we give them some dough back at the closing, we are a few grand under that our asking price, but it's a price we can live with and the closing date is 4 weeks post Bean's due date.

The house hunt started again full speed as soon as we were under contract. We have the option of living with my parent's in the lovely suburb of "Midpoint" which is our intended destination, but obviously if we could just move once with the 2 kids and a house full of furniture, that would be ideal.

We found 2 houses that we really liked in our price range. House A (we'll call her "steel blue") came on the market 2-3 months ago. When I got the email, notifying me of the new listing, I wryly remarked to kt, "I think our house just came on the market." Since we had sworn off home buying until ours was sold, I was half kidding. But I was hoping that we might sell soon and get to at least look inside Steel Blue (SB). SB is located on a cul de sac in a quiet neighborhood on "our side of town." Midpoint is a primarily residential town that is divided by "main st", a North/south running state road. I have no reason to prefer "our side of town" except that all the relatives that have ever lived in Midpoint have lived on the West side of Rt. 10. Going into this, I didn't think I cared what side of Main Street we lived in, but looking at houses, it seems except for a very few "neighborhoods of interest," my brain can barely handle the "sinking suspicion"* that "something doesn't feel right over here on 'this side of town'."*

[*The asterisk is to remind you to read this line with an air of mockery; it's a little embarrassing to admit that a few miles across a road changes the "feel" of belonging somewhere, especially in this barely-stratified-at-all town where probably the "better parts of town" exist on the opposite side from where I came from... Anyway, I have been counselled on this by several people and been advised that my emotional connection to neighborhood is more normal than many of my other behavioral responses.]

The other house, "White walls" (WW) is located on the east side of the main drag- just off the center of town, on a fairly busy cut-through of a street. On paper (well really) on line, SB is the better house: more sq footage, better location, siding, newer windows, etc. But Katy and I both liked WW better. We liked the lay-out, the lighting, the lot, everything but the road (the busyness of the road not the "I can't handle living on the other side of the congregational church" aspect.)

After 3 showings each, and after hemming and hawing for a bit, we brought the 10 "usual suspects" to check the two homes out side by side. Look up poor judgement in the dictionary and there might be a photo of us caravaning 4 cars and taking three kids under the age of 3 to tour houses at dinner hour after a long day at work camp day care. But SB and WW back to back was helpful and Katy and I agreed... (It's two bad that we needed 6 showings to convince us of what anyone who looked at these 2 houses on line already knew: SB was the better house of the two.)

So we made an offer, 25k under the asking price. Which was rejected outright. Before you get all, "of course it was rejected outright" let me remind you that we know the market. We were offering what we thought it was worth. We have explored the inventory. We know where things are compared to last year and compared to 5 years ago. We know that we listed our house at what our neighbor sold his for 2 weeks before (that was- you may recall- 4 days before the L.Brothers folded). Our asking price started 50k higher than we sold for. Essentially (though it pains me a little to say this) our house sold as soon as it was appropriately priced for this market. We made our offer and were willing to pay 10 to 15k above that first offer. But let me get back to the point: The seller, we'll call her "Donna Trump" REJECTED OUR FIRST OFFER!!! OUTRIGHT! Ohs, boy, Donna Trump, now you've slapped me in my face!

What's weird is, it didn't end there. After she rejected our offer, she seemed eager to negotiate.
???
Her agent kept calling ours asking about "those buyers". Apparently, in her world, if you want to sell your house, you do not entertain offers below your asking price because driving a hard bargain keeps the people begging to put in higher offers. It was confusing and strange. We've waited a few weeks, but after tormenting her a little I think we might be ready to come back with another (slightly higher) offer...

Downpour of language

JB: (stalling at bedtime) Mommy?

T: Yes.

JB: Mommy, it's raining outside.

T: (practically speechless from the shock of all those words strung together in such a precise and perfect way) Yes.

JB: (pausing for effect) It's pouring.

T: (blink. blink. blink. blinking back a tear of pure love) Yes it it.

He's a very good negotiator.
I don't think I'm a softy at all...
I think that he earned an extra few minutes at bedtime all by himself with that display.

Back from Vacation and ready for some full time nesting

For those of you not friends with us on FB, a lot has happened that you've missed. (Sorry, you know that GSO readers are my real true friends, right?)

Since I got my iphone (let's call her Lil'cutie) I've been able to check all my Internet haunts regularly and my email, but I can't blog from there without buying a $10 app that I'm not sure is fully functional yet. So the blog has suffered a little since Lil'cutie started living in my pocket.

The day before vacation (July 9th), I got a stomach bug, we sold our house, we packed for our trip, we saw 4 houses as potential new homes, and we fled the state to hit the beach.

Two days later, I had a minor sunburn, the inspection was conducted, we all got re-oriented to salt air and sand, Katy and I spent more than a few moments panicking about the "mess" we had gotten ourselves into. It wasn't just that we sold the house at a slight loss (I mean the economy is in the toilet and presumably we will make it up on the other end). It was that we had never fully comprehended the costs on the selling end and also now we would be moving once (IF NOT TWICE) in the 4-8 weeds surrounding the birth of our 2nd child.

We rationalized our way out of the mental anguish, made several financial and logistical contingency plans, plotted alternatives to all of those, figured out how we would make it work at every level, and just when excitement started creeping around the corner, the buyer rescinded his offer. RollerccccccccccoooooOOOOOOOSSSSTTTTTERRRRRRRRRRRR!
CLICK.CLICK.CLICK. WHEEEEeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE

There was a tiny bit of anger or rather frustration. Thank God we were away, b/c if not I would have had at least 3 rooms in my house packed and stacked in boxes and probably a 1/2 full POD in my driveway. Then instead of being disappointed and disjointed, I would have had to go out and find that guy and it would'a been a mess. I don't mind an amusement ride, but that would have pushed me over the edge.

While we were away, we had perfect weather, got some tans, and I got a concussion. Falling out of the back of my sister's minivan was not my most proud moment. We (adults) were taking turns climbing out of the way-back because 3 car seats were taking up the entire second row and obstructing the fire exits. It was very adorable to see all the "Ruggies" side by side, strapped in in their matching car seats, but evidently, it was also life-threatening.

I'll admit that I'm clumsily stumbly on a good day, but I really do get around okay. I have this weak left ankle that rolls without warning or consequence. I can be walking down the street, roll the ankle, recover in some jerky movement that would knock a gymnast's score down an entire point for her landing, but ambulate away without ankle pain or other damage. This happens on average, 4 times a week. I've come to think of it as part of my gait. So, I stepped down, off the bumper of the minivan, onto my unreliable left foot, and the ankle rolled. One minute I was vertical. The next, I was on my back- head bouncing off the asphalt. I heard Lil'cutie fall out of my pocket in a plastic crash.

The sky was so blue. (I see Blue... He looks glorious.)

I heard footsteps. Katy and Web were immediately by my side to confirmed my my mental status (dazed but alert and oriented X3) and help me wiggle out of the middle of the parking lot. I heard a lot of people offering to call 9-1-1, so it must have looked bad. Katy was not pleased about it. She did not appreciate the site of the bounding cranium or the laying motionless for 90 seconds on my back on the pavement... I think she took those 90 seconds to imagine life with 2 boys and no wife, or a wife that spent most of her days drooling. ("THAT'S NOT FUNNY" She's shouting in the background as she reads this.)

A little nausea for a day, a bad headache for 2-3, some jaw pain, and a tender scalp for a week now, but really it could have been worse.

We're taking the house off the market so that we can have this baby without strangers running in and out getting all into our business; and so we can let our house get messy again, and whatnot. The vacation, the ocean, the time away with family (and maybe the bump on the head) have really seemed to help chill me out a little. The pressure is off; which just goes to show you how much "pressure" has kind of been on (It's practically irrational that someone would say, "The pressure is off" as her wife enters the last 6 weeks of her pregnancy.)

It's becoming apparent that we have been running on fumes and have not been paying much attention to the Bean v2.0 except to know that he is kicking and moving and growing in there (And he's makin' his mama's ankles all swollen.)

Now we can focus on the end of the race (Sept 10th due date) and really stop for a few moments to let the summer sweat sting our wide open, attentive eyes; and let the fear of parenting 2 children combined with Katy's extreme state of pregnancy be the undiluted reasons we can't sleep at night. We're practically peeing our pants in anticipation. (Well, one of us is practically peeing her pants for other reasons too.)

Bubbles

---

Pete: I wish I liked anything as much as my kids like bubbles.
Ben: That's sad.
Pete: Totally sad. Their smiling faces just point out your inability to enjoy anything.

Now that JB is very much into bubbles, (and I'm dabbling in generalized anxiety) I think of this line from Knocked up often. The scene made me laugh when we saw it 2 months before he was born (though as I recall, we cried a lot during this movie- more a comment on our collective emotional state than on the movie's ability to "move" us, but I digress...) The line about the bubbles has hung with me and I can't calculate how often I've mentally recited it because it's silly but it's also kind'a poignant.

In college, whenever a certain bunch of my good friends and I would see little kids running around, laughing, and having fun, we would mockingly chastise them from an inaudible distance, "Oh, you are riding high on life now, kid... but just wait until life starts riding you." Then we would use the quote on each other sarcastically when one of us fell on hard times.

Thing about both of these lines is they cheaply use the kids as props to try and hint at an unpopular truth. It gets harder and harder to experience joy, pure joy, the more you know and the longer you live.

Bubbles. Go ahead, wherever you are, go buy a plastic bottle of those bubbles and play with them. Help an almost-2 year old blow bubbles. I dare you to find the fun in it. We're talking about soap here, people. But in my experience, it is so annoyingly sticky and messy that from the minute I stick my finger in to bring up the "wand" I cannot wait to sink the tool and re-cap the container. Also, it's not that easy. Unless I'm buying a brand with defunct wands, the physics of bubble making are very precise. If you blow too hard, nothing. If you blow too soft, no bubbles. If you blow at the wrong angle, nada. If the wind is blowing, you-get-the-point...

For his part, JB
1) Wants to do it himself
2) Doesn't seem to be bothered by the bubble-juice spilling every where and/or dripping all over everything and his clothes
3) Can barely create any bubbles (as above, he either blows to hard, too soft, at the wrong angle, etc.)
4) Does not want any assistance...
5) Sometimes feels compelled to taste the bubble soap.

When 1 or 2 tiny bubbles -of his own making- float out of the wand, he shouts, "I DID IT!" perfectly thrilled with himself. If nothing is born of his efforts on the next 5, 10, or 50 attempts, he will say out loud to no one in particular, "Almost." It's adorable at first, but if it happens too many times in a row, I have the irresistible urge to grab the device out of his hands and CREATE SOME MOTHER-LOVING BUBBLES!!!

My kid loves bubbles.
It seems (much to my dismay) that I hate bubbles.
I am alarmed at the degree to which I am annoyed by something that brings him this much joy.
How long before I'm shaking a cane in a neighborhood kid's face screaming, "Don't let your messy ice cream cone drip on my sidewalk!"

Sweaty sunshine and random musings

Dear peeps and GSO'ians out there reading...

Sorry for all the Internet silence.

I miss you too.

The sun came out yesterday and again today. I think I understand why ancient people might have been afraid of the sun. It is so powerful and when you haven't seen it in like 36 days, it can really freak you out! Just kidding. But I don't think the seasonal depression is just going to silently wash away with the first drops of summer sweat or the faint heat of a minor sunburn.

Since I've written last, I had a birthday. No biggie. I'm still in my mid-30s and believe me, I cannot WAIT for the 1st season of Thirtysomthing to come out on DVD in September. I feel like if I can just watch that show NOW (as opposed to when I was addicted to it in my late teens and early 20s) it will unlock some true secrets of personal success and happiness.

This morning my car's odometer read 171717. And at that exact moment in time, the "trip mileage" (which I had just reset at the beginning of my work commute) read... wait for it...

17.7 miles!!! (I.shit.you.not!)

I don't know what this means, but despite how my desk at work looks, I love symmetry and order, and isn't that it's own reward?!? Not to be too pessimistic, but I'm sure that means the car will die soon.

Katy is pregnant.

For those of you that just fell off your chair, you need to read the GSO more often.

For those of you that are like, "yeah, we know that..." What I mean to imply with uncapturable inflection, is...

No.
For realz.
She. Really. Pregnant now...

She is waddling, belly out-to-here, swollen, all "don't-you-dare-touch-me-and think-that-type of-RELATIONS-is going-down-after the-word-cankle-came-out-your-mouth"...
She is adorable
and...
uncomfortable.

And I just try to walk the yellow line; expressing love and support, but not too much love or too much support, if you know what I mean; cause I don't want to be any more annoying than I have to be. With all my breathing and sleeping (right there in the bed and not even getting a leg cramp) and with my flip flops still fitting me and all... I mean she's got a point, that must get annoying!

IBO and husband and the baby (LABO) are doing really well. It is a relief and I will fully exhale in about 2.5 weeks when he is 36 weeks gestation. As an extra slap in the ass for them, A tornado touched down in their neighborhood and left a trail of destruction. Fortunately, (they are eternal optimists) they just went and slept at the hospital with their baby- since there was no power at their house.

I'm working on a newsletter. For those of you that are counting the missed months, Katy and I agree that JB is old enough for this to become a "quarterly" newsletter and not a "monthly" newsletter. So really, I have not even missed a deadline! He's done some super adorable things in these last few months, so stay tuned!!!

BONUS BELLY SHOT:

"My Morning view" 29 WEEKS:

Rain, rain, moldy brain

It has been raining, forecast rain, off and on raining, no end in sight soggy for weeks now. April showers brought May flowers and May monsoons and June deluges. I'm afraid I'm not weathering it very well. Pun intended.

Today was a day that I spent the better part of trying not to burst into tears.

My body is showing signs of break down. I've got some bad tendinitis. They call it tennis elbow, though I haven't had any tennis anywhere near my elbow in a few years at least. Bottom line, I'm in a lot of pain. I'm wincing every time I pick up my son, every time I forget and use my left hand to lift a glass of milk to my lips, every time I roll over in bed. It's pathetic, but it's impossible to rest or avoid and it hurts like a mo-fo.

My car is in the shop. It needs new brake pads and a break flush, and several belts and caps that will supposedly make the AC run again. Oh that's right, my AC shot it's wad in the middle of June. I'm one of those cheapskates who might drive around for a while on the highways with the windows down. But if it's going to RAIN EVERY SINGLE DAY!?!?! I can't expect people to understand if my kid is arriving at day care soak and wet...

Today started with JB taking a tumble on the stairs.

On my watch.

He likes to "walk" down now the stairs now, facing forward, holding on to the railing that is just barely within his reach. If he pays attention, he does really well; though he does look (in his quest for the banister) like a kid who's arm is being pulled straight up into the air by a parent who is trying to lift him our of a puddle with one hand. He did 5 stairs tolerating my constant pestering, "Pay attention, look at your feet..."

Then, as if he was sick of hearing all my advice, he turned around and crawled down backwards (he never does this). We were 3 stairs from the bottom, I took my eye off the ball, thinking we were home free, and he flipped around, trying to take the last few like the two-legged creature he is. I knew it was coming but could not react in time. I was in front of him and as he fell toward me, I locked my knees effectively bouncing him into the wall but preventing him from rolling past me. Before I could swing him up onto my impaired left forearm, he was wailing and the bruise and bump had already formed. Katy swears what she meant to say was, "What happened, is everyone alright?" But what came out of her mouth as she sprinted to the stairs was, "How did this happen???" I felt like shit about it the rest of the day. I know this child will have many more falls and bruises in his lifetime, but this one could have and should have been avoided. Mommy should'a been on point.

A few minutes after that drama, when JB's tears were dry but I wasn't sure if I might still need to cry about it, our doorbell rang. We scheduled an early AM appointment to price out refinishing our floors. The old dude arrived and clearly could not figure out what 2 women were doing in a home with one baby and no man in sight at 7:55 in the morning. He measured the rooms and took stock of the hard wood and just before he wrote out the quote, he tipped his head to JB, smiled, and nodded toward me, "Is that your grandma?"

blink.blink.blink.

I looked down at my breasts (saggier than they once were for sure but not too shabby in this high priced bra) and tried not to scream, "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, OLD MAN?" It might not have been so bad if my birthday wasn't coming up, but I couldn't help thinking all day that the older you are, the younger other people usually look. This guy could have fathered Noah. I should have looked like Miley Cirus to him... But I guess where he comes from, if 2 ladies are living together, there must be a shared bloodline and generation separating them.

I spent much of the rest of the day running late and feeling anxious and wanting to run away and sleep (in the impersonal rental car that has temporarily taken the place of my crap-filled-forester).

I spent some of the day thinking about our house and what it means that we have not sold it yet. Why are we meant not to move before this baby will be born? Why has the amazing energy that we have experienced in this home not drawn some other family to it?

I spent some of the day thinking of racism and power and "otherness".

When I got to work at 1pm, i felt like I had been crying all day, even though I hadn't shed a tear.

Katy and I went to Ikea tonight to buy some furniture to set up a big boy bed for JB so that he won't feel misplaced by the bean v2.0. Twelve weeks and counting...

A few minutes ago, I went in and stroked the sweaty, bruised head of our son and for about the million and first time today, felt tears choking up inside of me. They were sort of love-drenched, sappy tears, but also sort of disparate, fear-filled, sad tears. How are we going to take our baby out of that crib?!?!? How am I going to keep him safe from all of the ways he can get wounded in this world?!? I know I can't, but how am I going to be able to stand there while it all happens to him? Doesn't adding another little boy to the mix just mean there will be more chances to cause inadvertent bruising??? Or not make the catch when they need me to???

My tears never fell. So they are just kind of stuck inside of me. Just kind of heavy and dank, and freaking me out. But it's okay I guess, there's enough water saturating the land right now to cause a tiny puddle in our basement... what we don't need right now, is more ground water...

In a family way

This morning, the alarm went off and Kt brought JB into our bed.
As has become an occasional routine, I scratched and tickled his limbs, his hands and feet, his head and back. If you tickle any part of his body that is one of a pair, he will hold the other one up after 30 to 60 seconds and say, "Other one". Back and forth. Back and forth.

Katy was on the other side of Jake, warm from the excessive mitosis. Her pregnancy has brought out a feverish state. Lately when her normally-ice-cold hands touch me, I startle with a flash of concern that we will die from swine flu. Then I remember BEANv2.0 and all the dividing and dividing and the dividing and the ATP that releases

Just because time is flying by...

I'm too tired at night to blog about all the things that I think about during the day.

But so much has happened in the world lately:

1. Sonia Sotomayor - nominated for to be justice of the SCOTUS
2. Prop 8 upheld by the California Supreme Court
3. The gays have taken to the streets as a result
4. Dick Cheney has taken to the airwaves (This guy hid in a secret location and wouldn't confirm or comment on even his own name for 8 years, now he seeks the spotlight like an Elvis impersonator in Vegas.)
5. Dr. George Tiller (a Kansas doctor that spent the better part of his adult life a target of violence; having been shot in both arms in 1993 and attacked when his clinic was bombed) was gunned down in his church last Sunday. He was one of only 3 abortion providers in the US who was trained and able to perform an abortion beyond 21 weeks gestation.
6. New Hampshire just joined Maine, Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts to become the 7th state to enact marriage equality for Gays and lesbians. (California was the 2nd, but the advancement was reversed when a slim majority passed proposition 8 last November, adding a constitutional amendment that defined "Marriage" as only between "one man and one woman".)
7. Miss California's 15 minutes of fame seems to finally be up.
8. Newsweek Magazine has totally fucked up its entire format and where it used to be my little weekly news candy, is now exceedingly distasteful to me, like a fungus that has grown on my big toe
9. Nine houses have sold in a 1.5 mile radius of our property in the last 4 weeks
10. Our house is not one of them.
11. Softball season has begun.
    

I have a lot of feelings about most of the above items. I would like to write a post on each; but I will likely not get to it (You're saved.)

I have a lot to write about how much JB and katy are changing. He with stronger language skills and a higher capacity for cognitive analysis of the world around him... She with the belly and "bean v2.0".

I will find the time to write about that, but not tonight.

I leave you with 3 of the funniest Internet snippets I have seen in a while.

One about a slippery slope:



And one about understanding the religious history that has brought us to the place where that slippery slope is a constant fear for some in our society.



And one is for geeks everywhere:



Think about it!