Moving Day

In keeping with our fine tradition of moving every summer for the past 10 years, today we pack up, yet again, and make a new home. Much more on this exciting development later. For now, I have 2 worried puppies to reassure and a full day of activity ahead!

One year

Adam and I got to have breakfast with my best friend this Sunday in New Orleans before she hopped a plane back to Oregon. It did my heart good and, as always, really sucked to say goodbye to that girl again. We ate brunch at this place called Elizabeth's and it was such a treat. Ah, praline bacon, I hardly knew ye.

So, Beth celebrated her one year wedding anniversary with her lovely husband Chris yesterday. In honor of the occasion, I was looking back through the pictures of that weekend in St. Charles Louisiana. Such fun and such bliss!! Easily one of the best weekends of my life.

The traditional first year anniversary gift is paper. I just saw an updated list that allows for plastics for the first year gift. And one of the recommendations was DVDs. How sentimental! (Beth, sorry I didn't send you any plastics. Have I shirked my maid of honor duties?)

Happy anniversary to Beth and Chris!

Remind me to stear clear of these when the time comes

(theonion.com)

Papoose

We are over halfway there. We had our 2nd ultrasound today, and we caught the baby yawning!! (Could he be bored with us already?? It's gonna be a long 18 years, little one.) It was ridiculously cute and funny. He (gender-neutral "he") was sleeping when we so rudely interrupted. That will likely be the last look we have into the womb, and I am fine with that. It's sacred business in there. You won't see us lined up to pay a few hundred dollars for a 3D ultrasound in some strip mall somewhere.

I was going to label this picture, but I think it's pretty easy to make out. (The brighter spot in the very center of the photo is the nose, the dark spot just to the left of that is the mouth mid-yawn.)

And.... FEET!! I already want to nibble on those, but it'll be way better when they aren't covered in amniotic fluid.

I am happy to report we resisted the temptation to find out the sex of the baby. Only one person on the planet knows, some ultrasound tech, and she swore to promptly forget as soon as we left the building. So the guessing games may proceed.

The Sun Herald

The local paper here has a section called "Sound Off," wherein readers can send in little comments about recent articles, their deadbeat dad, the rising cost of a fishing license, poorly timed red lights on highway 49, you name it. You can imagine the gems I find here regularly. Here's one:

"OK, Sun Herald, now you are taking this too fast, coming Sunday, "... the real terrorists at Guantanamo Bay." I'll tell you what, I subscribe to your paper, and I don't want to see this bull, even if it is true, I don't want to read this. I am a patriot. Has this paper gone so far to the other side it's pathetic. Should we go back to Berkeley, Calif.? Should we free all the terrorists in this country, free all the terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, are we gonna sympathize with them and let them all free? I realize they have rights. I don't want to read this."

Ignorance is bliss?

Tom Waits Interviews Tom Waits

Excerpt:

Q: What's wrong with the world?
A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley's dog made 12 million last year... and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It's just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Q: What is a gentleman?
A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn't.

Click here to read the whole delicious thing.

Fun with anagrams (punctuation mine)

Adam Lornitzo
Best: Doorman: La Zit
Ok: Amoral Ditz? No!
Worst: Amid Tonal Rot.

Laura Sue Wolfe
Best: A Real Useful Ow
Ok: A Luau!! Free Owls!!
Worst: Alas Woeful Rue

Go have some fun at wordsmith.org/anagram
(idea blatantly stolen from Freaks of Slumber)

Surprises

I am listening to an old mix cd I made years ago (labeled simply as "mix," how creative of me), so I didn't really know what I was putting on. But it is one of the best mixes I've ever made!! Full of bands I listened to nonstop my sophomore/junior years in college. The Eels, Yo La Tango, Dismemberment Plan, Beta Band, Flaming Lips, Cat Power, Billy Bragg! I was rocking out.... and then.... who should appear but David Gray and that song "Babylon"!!!! What tha?!? How did THAT sneak on there?? The blandest vanilla stuck in the middle of the most delicious flavors. Very curious. Must have been an identity crisis going on.

Book update

Remember when I proclaimed publicly on this blog that I was going to read 100 books this year? HA HA HA HA HA!!! What a riot! At this rate, I'll be very lucky to get to 75.

17 - "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse (was a favorite of mine in college, as it was a classic among the hippie circles; happy to rediscover this fantastic tale of a young man's spiritual journey)
18 - "Icy Sparks" by Gwen Rubio (totally crappy drivel, what a waste of time!! I actually didn't finish the last 30-40 pages, it was THAT bad. But I'm counting it anyway because I can.)
19 - "Grace (Eventually)" by Anne Lammott (love this woman, she talks about the difficult realities of faith and is totally honest, but in this collection, she comes across as pretty angry. Much prefer "Traveling Mercies.")
20 - "Jesus' Son" by Denis Johnson (a very quick punch to the gut)
21 - "Tar Baby" by Toni Morrison (Morrison is a national treasure; read anything by her you can get your hands on)
22 - "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (exquisitely beautiful, my first McCarthy book and definitely not my last; this is one of the best books I've read by a living author)
23 - "The Last American Man" by Elizabeth Gilbert (highly highly recommended by my best friend, so I knew I would love it, and I did. Nonfiction account of a brilliant, passionate man who lives off the grid in the Appalachian mountains. An inspiring page-turner.)
24 - "Spiritual Midwifery" by Ina Mae Gaskin (tale after tale of lovely and strong hippie ladies giving birth naturally on The Farm in Tennessee; every pregnant lady should read this book; makes you realize how the culture of birth in this country has gone horribly awry)

Anyone got any good recommendations? Throw them my way.

I Am Legend

Have you seen this movie? Mary and I agree: worst movie EVER. Here's why.

From the first second in the movie, you understand that Will Smith's only friend in the world is his dog. I told Adam right away, if anything happens to this dog, I'm going to lose it. Sure enough, the dog gets bitten by the mutant, rabid, evil, Satan dogs, meaning the poor pooch has to die. What's worse is that Will Smith's character actually has to kill her with his own hands. And it would have to be a German Shepherd, which I have an emotional attachment to anyway, since our family dog while I was growing up was a German Shepherd.

True to my word, I began openly sobbing. I mean, quality sobbing, facial contortions, shaking, the whole bit. I had to turn away from my own husband because it was so ridiculous. Then I started laughing like a possessed maniac because I was crying at a stupid sci-fi movie. It was not a pretty sight. Adam is no stranger to this type of behavior from me, although this was seriously extreme, so he just quietly went and got me a wet rag and said "there, there." He then laughed at me, which I totally deserved.

Sigur Ros

For all interested parties, I just discovered these guys' new album is streaming on their website. Release date is next week. Count me obsessed after listening to the first minute of the first track. A different sound for them. I love the old and I love the new. LISTEN

Wouldn't want any other daddy

Sick and Wrong!!

Sigh. You know you're getting old when you think the new, re-imagined Strawberry Shortcake is a crime against humanity. But seriously, there is no comparison!! The original Strawberry Shortcake was perfection. Why'd they have to go mess with her?? Now she is all pink and sleek and apparently "spends her time chatting on a cellphone instead of brushing her calico, Custard." Um, just no. This is why I'm a teeny bit scared of having a little girl. I don't do well with this kind of thing. I can see myself having a crazy show-down with my daughter in the toy store in a couple of years, standing firm against this kind of crap and insisting on only authentic Strawberry Shortcake merchandise.

Feeling old-fashioned, sentimental, and a wee bit grumpy today. Humph!!

Read a NYT piece about plans being made to "update" many of your favorite cartoon character Here

Eek!

I had to double check the date on this article because it seemed like something from the archives, but, alas, it is a current story about a high school in Charleston, Mississippi, that held its first ever interracial prom THIS YEAR!! 38 years after integration!! The segregated white and black proms have been organized privately since integration because the school does not host an official prom on school grounds. So the separate communities do their own thing. However, Mississippi's own Morgan Freeman has been offering for over 10 years to fund a prom at the school for everyone, and the school has declined until this year.

Holy moly. It is shocking, and also not shocking. This is definitely not representative of the entire state of Mississippi, but it makes my state look absolutely hideous. Part of me is so proud of these kids for realizing that they can enjoy something like prom while brushing up against kids of another race, but then a bigger part of me is just aghast that they are just now having this realization, that their community is structured in such a way that it never really occurred to them that there was something weird about a white prom that black kids didn't go to and a black prom that white kids didn't go to.

Oh, and this quote: "Some white parents wouldn't let their kids go, and some insisted on holding a private prom for their kids."

Read it and weep, here:

Mississippi School Holds First Interracial Prom

Missing you

Can't wait to see this!!

This is getting ridiculous

The level of cute is off the charts. Can someone PLEASE freeze time? The oldest cliche in the book is just true true true - they grow too fast!!

Historical

It is a rare thing to observe history - progress - being made. I am so proud of our country right now for having its first ever black presidential candidate. No matter where you fall politically (and I know my very scant readership is pretty split politically from super liberal to super conservative), you HAVE to see that this is an amazing moment in our time, this thing that would have been totally unthinkable not so long ago.

I would have written this same post had Hillary gotten the nod because it would have also been amazing to see a female candidate, but I'm really glad I'm not writing that particular post. I guess there is no way for her to gracefully exit the race at this point. She seems determined to..... something. Not really sure what.

I'm feeling very optimistic today! It IS possible for a nation, a people, to change, to advance, to rethink and rediscover themselves. Our history as Americans is too littered with ugliness. This is a bright time.

The Cuteness

found on babble.com