Mom is doing great! Really great! The therapist was really impressed with her today!
Mom came home Sunday afternoon, and ever since it's been a whirlwind of therapy, continuous passive motion machine, walker exercises, and puppies.
I did manage to pay my bills and get all of the Christmas cards done. If I have your address, you should be getting one....
On tap for this afternoon, Round 2 of puppy booster shots at the Vet and sorting all the Christmas presents that need to be wrapped. And then maybe some Christmas decorating, I hope.
In other news, it's pouring like the proverbial SOB here in Fresburg, which I love, especially at the holidays. There should be a TON of snow in the mountains. YAY!
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at December 18, 2007 06:12 PM (0Pi1o)
3
Yay! Glad your mom is doing so well - that's great news!
I haven't even started my cards yet... I think it's a bad year for cards, but I will get them out this week if it kills me. (it might - heh).
Snow in the mountains - do you go there for Christmas? Or is it that you have a great view of them from where you are? (can you tell I'm not familiar with California *grin*)
Posted by: Teresa at December 19, 2007 08:41 AM (rVIv9)
Posted by: Sarah at December 19, 2007 09:03 AM (vLcEk)
5
I wish *I* had Christmas cards done... Maybe this weekend...
Posted by: Richmond at December 19, 2007 04:09 PM (WUpdd)
6
ONCE AGAIN I totally suck in the Christmas Card department. *sigh*
I'm sending my auntie to your website. She really needs new knees but is ascairt (and I don't blame her) but maybe if I can show her how great your mom is doing (and YAY! BTW) then maybe this will help allay some fears.
Posted by: Margi at December 21, 2007 01:00 AM (KF0g8)
Thanks to everyone for chiming in (especially wRitErsbLock for posting the name)! It was a really hard decision to make, since it's a little close to our resident cat's name (Arthur), but sometimes that's just the way it goes.
1
Yay! I'd like to thank my parents for birthing me, my parents for letting me survive childhood, my teachers who taught me to read, my friend D who introduced me to Harry Potter, and the benevolent deity of my choice for whatever powers I choose to believe in.
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at December 15, 2007 06:23 AM (0Pi1o)
2
Use all three parts of his name. You can call him Alastor when he's being good, Mad Eye when he's being sassy and Moody when he's just shredded your last pair of good nylons.
Posted by: Darby Shaw at December 15, 2007 11:28 AM (fwmWr)
Good News!
I just talked to my Dad and everything with Mom's surgery went well. She is now officially the Bionic Woman, with two titanium knees. The Dr. was very pleased and last I heard Mom was in recovery and Dad was waiting to be able to go see her.
A request
I tried to post this last night, but MuNu was having a moment...
Friend, frequent commenter, and occasional guest poster ZTZCheese and her hubby got a new kitty!
He's cute and smart and friendly, and he needs a name. However, kitty didn't seem too taken with any of the names we've tried so far, so she asked me to ask YOU to help us come up with suggestions.
He seems like a "people name" cat, rather than a "cat name" cat, but a clever cat name might suit.
He's a little put off by the small silver flashy-thing in his face in this shot:
Yes, he is one-eyed, he's not winking. But he sure could be.
1
He IS adorable. I love kitties.
Jack?
"As in one-eyed jacks are wild."
LOLLL!
Posted by: Margi at December 12, 2007 12:07 PM (KF0g8)
2
If it were a girl, Meredith or Lexi would be awesome (Gray, Grey's Anatomy...) But since he's a boy and probably doesn't want a girl's name, how about:
Nimbus. Gray like a nimbus cloud, and extra nifty since it's the name of Harry's broomstick.
Or...Clarence. From It's a Wonderful Life, since it's Christmas time!
Or...Suess. In honor of the Grinch, of course. My holiday hero. =)
Posted by: Amanda at December 12, 2007 12:39 PM (5PUVj)
3
are they potter fans?
mad-eye mooney would be appropriate
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at December 12, 2007 02:27 PM (+MvHD)
Over the last few days I've been thinking a lot about the amazing bumper sticker of awesomeness and how we parent our children. When I say "parent our children", I mean in the general sense, that is, how ADULTS guide and direct children towards what's right and instill in them a sense of right and wrong. Not just their parents, biological or otherwise, but grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, mentors, and friends. Hillary said that it takes a village to raise a child, and although her application of that message was far more socialist than I agree with, her point is well-taken. Children grow up surrounded by adults. ALL of those adults have something to do with raising them, even just reinforcing proper behavior.
I've often heard it said (and I believe it) that parenting is an act of will. As a parent, you are the boss, and what the kids want is secondary. It seems to me that a hell of a lot of ADULTS are abdicating this responsibility because they just don't want to "hurt the kid's feelings" or they'd rather let someone else be the bad guy.
See, here's the thing, and this is what has come up over and over and over in conversations about the bumper sticker, good kids are NOT kids who never think of doing bad things. Good kids are not kids who say "it's wrong, so I won't do it." At least not all the time. Good kids are good simply because they know what will happen to them if they get caught doing what they want to do that their parents disapprove of. They have rules and boundaries and consequences. Consistent, very negative consequences. I was one of those goody-two-shoes kids. But sure as hell NOT because it was wrong to do bad things. Oh hells no. I was terrified of what my parents would do if they caught me.
Good parents make it possible for their kids to reach the stage in their life, where as adults, they can recognize all of their right and wrong steps in the past and use that knowledge to "parent" other children: their own, nieces and nephews, students, mentees, etc.
I've gone down the road before about no consequences for kids and how THAT turns out. But I'll sum up. Kids who don't understand that their actions have consequences CAN NOT succeed in life. They don't turn in homework, but they expect an A. They can't show up to work on time, but they'll sue you for firing them. They expect hand up after hand up and if they don't get one, it's YOUR fault. Mom and Dad fix everything, from a bad grade to a parking ticket to getting kicked out of college because of academic dishonesty. Kids who don't understand that actions have consequences are precisely the ones who will take a gun and try to make their own.
It's a simple principal of Psychology: Associative Learning. If I get zapped every time I press the red button, pretty soon I'll learn not to touch it any more. It's not just a fancy trick, either. This is how the mammalian brain is wired. We learn by experience, both positively and negatively.
Which brings me to a recent experience. I was involved with a community outreach program sponsored by our school a few weeks back. Two groups of high school students were assigned to be helpers to the college students and faculty involved with the program. One group of kids was from a high-achieving science-related magnet school. The other was from a "cultural" charter school. The difference between the two groups was remarkable, and not surprisingly, correlated with the expectations of the adults around them AND the consequences of their actions.
The "magnet" kids were friendly and polite, they pitched in to clean up without being asked. They were creative and helpful and spoke respectfully to each other and to us.
The charter kids were (with a few exceptions) just the opposite. They were loud and lazy, they yelled at each other and spent their time making messes and trying to break things rather than helping out, and when faced directly with consequences, they ignored requests to sit down and/or be quiet from their teachers and principal. Which, I later understood, because the threatened consequences never materialized.
What you don't know is that these kids all come from the same background: ethnically diverse, lower-middle-class and underprivileged homes. They all live in the same neighborhoods, have the same kinds of "stereotypical" families. What's different about them is the expectation that positive and negative behavior each have their own set of consequences. It couldn't be more striking.
So yeah, it's not about the damn guns. It's about shitty adults who think "kid gloves" means "use with children" instead of "made from baby goats".
1
EXCELLENT POST! Yeah, I just yelled out loud 'excellent post'.
Posted by: pam at December 10, 2007 12:42 PM (l6NIn)
2
Yeah, apparently most people don't know what "kid gloves" means anymore. Even my husband just learned, when my mom had hers from when she was younger out to look at them. I think he just pictured kid-sized boxing gloves with extra padding or something.
But you're 100% right. I could see it from watching the people i was in school with -- especially college. The kids who were pre-med (cough) and just whined themselves to better grades. I saw a lot of it in the undergrads at JHU, too. Um, not to pick on pre-meds. Or doctors. It's just the people I found were around me who did it most!
Posted by: silvermine at December 10, 2007 01:07 PM (4gdyI)
3Warning: disjointed thoughts ahead!
Disjointed? Beg to differ, dear. Very nicely done, and I say that as the father of two wonderful adult children.
4
As someone who works with kids in a certain capacity, but does not have kids of her own, I have to admit I sometimes take a bit of issue with the "it takes a village" mentality.
An example: some of the kids in my youth group are whispering in church. I specifically DO NOT sit with them (they sit near their parents) because I have other duties during the course of church and I feel that, if their parents are there, it is not my job to "parent" them. But then someone comes up to me after church..."Those darn kids where WHISPERING again. Can you not DO something?"
No. When I go to church, I go to worship. I do not go to be the parent, when the parents who are there choose not to. I feel it would be overstepping my bounds to sit behind the kids and knock their heads together...er, hush them...when they are whispering.
But, because I'm the Youth Leader, because these individuals know me (and don't necessarily know the kids' parents), and because they know I won't lash back at them, they come to me and make me feel guilty for not being Mama Hen 100% of the time.
The lives of those of us who work with students (either little-kid, teenaged, or college-aged) would be SO much easier if parents just took on the responsibilities they are supposed to, and don't let their kids run wild, and expect someone else will be the "bad guy" with the discipline.
I've come so close to resigning as youth director BECAUSE it seems that every misbehavior of the kids is somehow my fault, that I could stop it if I really wanted to...even if the parents are sitting right there, oblivious.
Posted by: ricki at December 11, 2007 10:04 AM (O5SYw)
5
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I press a key, a letter appears on the screen.
At the age of 13, my parents punished me for something I did for the last time. It made an impression. I don't remember what I did wrong, but it must have been bad, and the consequences fit the offense. The punishment, a few licks from my fathers FRATERNITY PLEDGE PADDLE. Nothing excessive, but enough to make a deep and lasting impression on me to never ever do what I had done again. And I never gave them a reason to punish me again.
Another highly effective consequence I received was "wash your mouth out with soap." At the age of 8 or 9, I cussed at a video game, while my mother was in the other room. She was into the room I was in in a flash, had me by the hand, and into the bathroom for a mouthful of softsoap. I took profanity out of my vocabulary for a long time after that (now I do use it sometimes, as a stress reliever, much better than losing my temper).
From my perspective, it comes down to making sure that when a child does something they know is wrong, the consequences should make a deep and lasting impression on their mind, such that when the situation arises again, they have a moment of pause to think, "wait a second, if I do this, it is going to make my life really SUCK afterwards."
Posted by: Petey at December 12, 2007 09:01 AM (tmnSV)
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at December 12, 2007 02:30 PM (+MvHD)
7
It doesn't take a village, it takes a boot-camp.
Adults who in their moral vanity busily impress themselves with their own sensitivity and broadmindedness do no service to kids - and produce poor, nonperforming results.
Posted by: DirtCrashr at December 12, 2007 04:31 PM (VNM5w)
Among the drunks....
I'm guessing this ranking has everything to do with a certain blogger moving to Fresno......
The list below ranks the cities from most dangerously drunk to least dangerously drunk.
Most Dangerously Drunk
100. Denver, CO F
99. Anchorage, AK F
98. Colorado Springs, CO F
97. Omaha, NE F
96. Fargo, ND F
95. San Antonio, TX F
94. Austin, TX F
93. Fresno, CA F
92. Lubbock, TX F
91. Milwaukee, WI F
90. El Paso, TX F
In other highlights, Washington DC comes in at 88, Los Angeles at 65, Las Vegas surprisingly near the middle at 47, and the LEAST dangerously drunk cities are (below the jump!) more...
1
I was dangerously drunk in El Paso once.
A random Mexican was threatening me, trying to get me to go to Juarez with him.
Posted by: Aaron at December 10, 2007 02:43 PM (x57wb)
2
Apparently, New Orleans didn't qualify as a city. I've been there enough to know that THAT is not a dangerously drunken city, its a continuously drunken city.
Posted by: Jay at December 11, 2007 08:40 PM (B28PS)
3
Where I live I had a local cop tell me he's never seen so many drunks. This, in a town of 20,000 ...and he's from Cleveland.
Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at December 12, 2007 03:52 PM (8F+iI)
4
I've been dangerously drunk for years. Milwaukee surprises me, I thought it would have been higher.
Posted by: Contagion at December 12, 2007 05:26 PM (QQZMi)
5
The rankings are based on arrests and accidents.
Milwaukee's placement must have something to do with the fact that we're functional drunks.
Posted by: Aaron at December 12, 2007 08:10 PM (SbW5B)
6
Yay! I got a B+!!! I think I will celebrate with a glass of wine... : )
Posted by: Richmond at December 13, 2007 01:35 PM (df2Db)
I Still BelieveThis gets better every year. Santa Claus IS real. And if you are patient enough, and believe enough, he brings the presents our hearts desire most.
After spending an entire day either in a hot and stuffy conference room full of angry, yelling, exasperated voices, or on London transport, I took a very long journey home and finally made it home at 8:30 at night. Which meant, at the end of the day, that I had spent a whopping 6 hours in transit and 7 hours straight in meetings, stopping only to exercise my bladder's rights and to scarf down a thoroughly unsatisfactory baked potato, and that I got home a shattered shell of a human being.
But all that time in transit allowed for something that I needed-a little thinking time. I needed some time to sit down and think about why it is that I was missing the holidays so badly, why it was that the baubles and bangles weren't getting into my heart, why the lights reflected in disjointed pools from my disbelieving eyes. This (for me) has nothing to do with religion and I don't want to get into that aspect with this post, I'm simply talking about the spirit of hope and laughter that the holidays imbue you with. I thought about why it was that I was unable to project myself into my favorite Christmas activities-watching Scrooged, A Miracle on 34th Street, and the old Burl Ives' steadies Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Why couldn't I listen to the whole John Denver and the Muppets Christmas CD? What was happening?
And then it hit me as fast as it hit Susan in A Miracle on 34th Street (not the old one, the newer one with the doe-eyes Elizabeth Perkins and the new lisping Susan who is so damn cute it made my ovaries throb). I realized with a slight smile and a shake of the head why it was that I no longer felt so light and joyous about Christmas. In one moment, a smile spread on my face and I started to laugh (which I was on a crowded train at the time, so at least the guy moved away from me, lest I have something contagious).
The reason I felt so lost was that I didn't believe in Santa Claus anymore.
I had outgrown him and joined the race of jaded adults too afraid to let themselves confess that there might be something just a little bit bigger to life than they would be willing to admit.
Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Sinterklaas, the Hannukah Armadillo. Why had we forgotten them? Why have they become symbols that are reserved only for the kids, for the young, for the little people that are still chock-full of innocence, of hope, that the world really will reward you if you've been good and kind to Mommy and Daddy, that there is someone looking out for you and checking a list to make sure that you are going to get what it is that your little heart so badly needs?
I need to feel like there is a fat man in a red suit who is out there who exists purely to make the hearts of other people lighter. I need to know that the dreams that the children go to bed with on Christmas Eve are not wasted dreams, that the candy cane visions and sugarplum dreams go into a melting pot of something bigger, something that will bind and wrap up the children in little invisible force-fields of optimism as they grow up. I need to feel like there's someone who cares so much about what it is that will make us happy that he's keeping a list, checking it twice, giving me a reason to not be naughty, just nice.
Read the rest, and take the spirit of the season back into your life, just like Santa reminds us to. Or maybe the Hanukkah Armadillo.
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at December 10, 2007 06:38 AM (+MvHD)
2
For somebody *else* to volunteer to do the farookin' church newsletter...
I am a firm believer in Mr. Claus... ; )
Posted by: Richmond at December 10, 2007 08:21 AM (U0sKl)
3
Aiiie. Reminds me of my old job. I think people deserve to not have their souls crushed every day -- not just at the holidays.
That's why I quit my soul-killing job.
Posted by: silvermine at December 10, 2007 11:27 AM (4gdyI)
Talk about your Airport Park-N-Ride!
In the 80's and 90's we had Limousine Liberals. Now we have Gulfstream Greenies:
Tempo Interaktif reports that Angkasa Pura - the management of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport are concerned that the large number of additional private charter flights expected in Bali during the UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) December 3-15, 2007, will exceed the carrying capacity of apron areas. To meet the added demand for aircraft storage officials are allocating "parking space" at other airports in Indonesia.
The operational manager for Bali's Airport, Azjar Effendi, says his 3 parking areas can only accommodate 15 planes, which means that some of the jets used by VIP delegations will only be allowed to disembark and embark their planes in Bali with parking provided at airports in Surabaya, Lombok, Jakarta and Makassar.--emphasis mine, Ed.
I thought they were meeting to try to COMBAT Global Warming. Hypocrites.
1
Oh, I thought it was to combat the USA... *grin*
I wonder who is of the "lower tier" and has to park their plane at a different airport. Now THAT would be some fun times - showing the ranks among the greenie weenies.
Posted by: Teresa at December 04, 2007 07:11 PM (rVIv9)
2
From Michael Crichton's State of Fear: "If there's anything worse than a limousine liberal," Morton said, "it's a Gulfstream environmentalist."
"But George," Evans said, "you're a Gulfstream environmentalist."
"I know it," Morton said. "And I wish it bothered me more."Heh. Read some of the other excerpts too.
Alternate Forms of Energy Bumper Stickers
Ever seen that stupid "Coexist" bumper stickers with all the quasi-religious and philosophical symbols replacing the letters? How about this one instead?
Posted by: Amanda at November 29, 2007 12:55 PM (5PUVj)
6
I'm going to try and hand draw these images, white on black like the original. Then maybe I'll put it up in my Cafepress store.
Posted by: Aaron at November 29, 2007 02:00 PM (x57wb)
7
Cool. I haven't seen the original --- mercifully --- but I've seen my share of Save The Planet crap . . . SSDD.
Posted by: dogette at November 30, 2007 08:36 AM (q/UVc)
8
I've never seen one of those coexist stickers...but then, I live down in the Redneck riviera and the only thing we worry about coexisting with are the gators and the skeeters!
Posted by: Mrs. Who at December 01, 2007 02:37 PM (6zbwL)
9
I have a "coexist" neighbor down the street and it has diminished my faith in them because it's one of the most stupidly facile and retarded bumperstickers ever.
They ought to include a swastika next to the hammer-and-sickle -- because everyone knows those two "religions" co-existed so well, at least in 1939 for a while, when it was convenient... Stupid hippies.
Posted by: DirtCrashr at December 03, 2007 10:20 AM (VNM5w)
Happy Turkey Day, Y'all!
Since we'll be busy with family stuff until Sunday, and I'm pretty sure I won't get a chance to post anything, I thought I'd leave you with this.....
Variations on a theme
So you may have noticed that much of today's posting was an attempt to laugh at a bad situation.
I am recovering from a Complete Fuster Cluck of a weekend. As I described it in an email to a friend: Cheating, Cleaning, Family Drama, and a Prostitute, none of which are in any way related to each other.
Bear with me as I attempt to screw my head back on straight, because as you may have guessed, it went al 'splodey and needed to be replaced......
I can haz Sweet Potato?
I was nearly weeping reading this. I hope you'll enjoy!
You know, a lot of times I write up random posts and then don't post them. But Best Beloved just called me, and I could not really explain why I was inarticulate about sweet potatoes, so I said I'd go ahead and post this. That way, she can read it at work and know just what kind of day it has been. (Short version, for those who do not feel like reading the whole post: ARRRRRRG. Fucking sweet potatoes.)The longer version, summarized in conversation form:
Dog: I am starving. Me:Actually, no. You aren't starving. You get two very good meals a day. And treats. And Best Beloved fed you extra food while I was gone. Dog: STARVING. Me: I saw you get fed not four hours ago! You are not starving. Dog: Pity me, a sad and tragic creature, for I can barely walk, I am so starving. WOE. Me: I am now ignoring you. Dog: STARVING. Dog: Did you hear me? I am starving. Dog: Are you seriously ignoring me? Fine. [There is a pause, during which the dog exits the room in a pointed manner.] [From the kitchen, there comes a noise like someone is eating a baseball bat.]
There's More. Oh so much more. Go read it all. Laugh. Weep. Pee. Well, maybe not the last one.... h/t redsugar muse
1
Hilarious! Laughing, yes. Peeing? No.
What I wanna know is: what does it sound like when someone eats a bat? Cuz I think I should look out for that sound.
Thanks for the laugh, chica!
Posted by: Margi at November 19, 2007 02:52 PM (k3tPv)
2
Okay, I am seriously deficient in the writing category - that is hilarious. Thank you for the linking the laughter!!!
Posted by: Teresa at November 19, 2007 09:41 PM (rVIv9)
Jack?
"As in one-eyed jacks are wild."
LOLLL!
But you're 100% right. I could see it from watching the people i was in school with -- especially college. The kids who were pre-med (cough) and just whined themselves to better grades. I saw a lot of it in the undergrads at JHU, too. Um, not to pick on pre-meds. Or doctors. It's just the people I found were around me who did it most!
