Tomorrow is not my birthday!
You have no idea how excited this idea makes me - I was not born on April 1st. I nearly was, I could easily have been. In fact, when I was little enough to be confused on the subject, my brothers used to try to convince me of it in their annual April Fool's joke.
But thank God and little green fishes, I held out for two more days, and my birthday is safely on the third.
My nephew cut it even closer - his birthday is on the second. I was rather hoping he'd join me in safety two days away, but he missed by about an hour. I fully expect that by the time he's grown he'll be fully as relieved as I am about his birthday. It's a great birthday, spring is arriving, or fully arrived, depending on where you live, flowers are popping up, it's just getting nice enough to go out without your coat, or even without your shoes. It's tax season, and that's a bit of a downer, but if you're prompt with your taxes you have a refund to play with.
S says he's getting me a pair of sais for my birthday, so I'm happy. Now if I can only keep sensei from finding out why I have them. Birthdays mean being put on the barrel (continuous fighting), cycling through the class until you score as many points as you are old. Great for the seven-year-olds, not so exciting for the thirty-seven-year-olds. Though sensei doesn't put nearly as much effort into finding out when the adults birthdays are, possibly because he doesn't want to kill us. If I don't tell, maybe he won't ask? I can hope.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Monday, March 20, 2006
An Office of Her Own
Well- sort of.
For the last forever - basically since I started writing seriously, my office has been my computer, tucked into the back corner of whatever random room happens to have the most leftover space. Usually the guest room/kids' play room. With the room serving three (or more) purposes, you might imagine my office space would be small.
You have no idea.
Up until yesterday my computer was only accessible by fighting my way the length of a long room piled to hip high (or higher) with stuff. The guests couldn't even stay in it because the beds were piled. I regularly fell into things as I missed my footing slogging across. There was yarn and fiber, books, toys, all of our old or spare computer stuff, they boys' old school stuff, the last six boxes remaining from our move, even an old unused futon (in addition to the beds), all crammed into this one room. I was lucky there was enough room to sit at the computer, there was no way I could keep track of my dictionary, thesaurus, or any hard copy.
In short, it was a pathetic mess. Until yesterday.
S and I took the whole day. We sorted, we tossed, we stored, we unclogged the vacuum cleaner six times. Today we are putting in a bookcase.
The room is still our guest room, but the kids' toys have been banished to their own room, the last moving boxes have been dealt with, and there's acually room in here for me to sit down and type without debilitating claustrophobia setting in.
Life is good.
For the last forever - basically since I started writing seriously, my office has been my computer, tucked into the back corner of whatever random room happens to have the most leftover space. Usually the guest room/kids' play room. With the room serving three (or more) purposes, you might imagine my office space would be small.
You have no idea.
Up until yesterday my computer was only accessible by fighting my way the length of a long room piled to hip high (or higher) with stuff. The guests couldn't even stay in it because the beds were piled. I regularly fell into things as I missed my footing slogging across. There was yarn and fiber, books, toys, all of our old or spare computer stuff, they boys' old school stuff, the last six boxes remaining from our move, even an old unused futon (in addition to the beds), all crammed into this one room. I was lucky there was enough room to sit at the computer, there was no way I could keep track of my dictionary, thesaurus, or any hard copy.
In short, it was a pathetic mess. Until yesterday.
S and I took the whole day. We sorted, we tossed, we stored, we unclogged the vacuum cleaner six times. Today we are putting in a bookcase.
The room is still our guest room, but the kids' toys have been banished to their own room, the last moving boxes have been dealt with, and there's acually room in here for me to sit down and type without debilitating claustrophobia setting in.
Life is good.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Hedgehog Ho!
Well - by next week we may have a second pet. Or not. S is being maddeningly changeable about the whole thing.
You see, there's this baby hedgehog. She and her sister were the unexpected addition when a friend from my knitting group rescued an overage female hedgie from a pet shop (too old to sell). She's now old enough to go home with someone, and A doesn't want two more hedgies. So, knowing that S adores hedgies (at least in theory), she asked us.
S wants to go see her, he's been reading up on hedgies ever since A offered, he really is wild about hedgies, has been for years - but he won't say yeah or nay about actually having one.
Sigh. I wouldn't mind a hedgie. I also wouldn't mind not having one. But I'd really like to KNOW before we end up coming home with an adorable bundle of prickles and I have no cage, no food, no wheel, no anything because I have no way of knowing ahead of time, and we can't afford to blow the money if there's no hedgie in the offing.
I have discovered that a Sterlite container with holes will do as a cage, so a least we may not be completely bereft of necessary items.
You see, there's this baby hedgehog. She and her sister were the unexpected addition when a friend from my knitting group rescued an overage female hedgie from a pet shop (too old to sell). She's now old enough to go home with someone, and A doesn't want two more hedgies. So, knowing that S adores hedgies (at least in theory), she asked us.
S wants to go see her, he's been reading up on hedgies ever since A offered, he really is wild about hedgies, has been for years - but he won't say yeah or nay about actually having one.
Sigh. I wouldn't mind a hedgie. I also wouldn't mind not having one. But I'd really like to KNOW before we end up coming home with an adorable bundle of prickles and I have no cage, no food, no wheel, no anything because I have no way of knowing ahead of time, and we can't afford to blow the money if there's no hedgie in the offing.
I have discovered that a Sterlite container with holes will do as a cage, so a least we may not be completely bereft of necessary items.
Friday, March 03, 2006
FDA Chickens Out
Well isn't this a surprise. It looks like the FDA is going to bow out of the Plan B decision altogether and allow the states to decide whether or not to allow Plan B to be OTC.
In truth this is minorly preferable to the simply foot-dragging that was going on before where it was not over the counter anywhere - but not by too bloody much. Living in a state that has a remarkably SD-like bill just waiting for the appropriate moment to launch, I don't have much faith that we'll be seeing Plan B OTC in a drugstore near me anytime this decade. What always makes me puzzled though, is that the people fighting Plan B are nearly always the same ones who are virulently anti-abortion. Is it too big a mental leap for them to realize that the availability of Plan B would reduce the number of abortions? Surely no unwanted pregnancies would be preferable to them? (I realize the answer is not just "No", but "NO!!". I simply can't fathom the thinking.)
I do think the legislature here (and hopefully in SD) may be in for a nasty surprise come voting time. There are a lot of us who are pro-choice who as a rule vote based on a slew of different considerations. Those voting habits are gonna change in a hurry when we're staring down the barrel of a gun - which is exactly how I feel about the legislation. No health exception for the mother - what, for the love of kumquats, are they thinking? Outlawing abortion is bad enough, and more than enough to get my blood boiling to start with, but to deliberately endanger grown women in favor of a ball of cells in outrageous.
Check out anti-abortion legislation. I have yet to see any that does not have as a side-effect causing more late term abortions. You give women more hurdles to leap through, it takes longer, they abort later. You reduce the number of clinics, it takes longer to make the travel arrangements, get the money, take the leave from work, abortions happen later. If they have to go to another state - same problem, abortions come later in pregnancy. Unless you think that cute little blastocyte is exactly the same as a fetus with a heartbeat, is exactly the same as a neonate, is exactly the same as a grown woman - why would you support that?
If you do think that a fertilized egg is the moral equivalent of a grown human being, then I despair of the human race.
In truth this is minorly preferable to the simply foot-dragging that was going on before where it was not over the counter anywhere - but not by too bloody much. Living in a state that has a remarkably SD-like bill just waiting for the appropriate moment to launch, I don't have much faith that we'll be seeing Plan B OTC in a drugstore near me anytime this decade. What always makes me puzzled though, is that the people fighting Plan B are nearly always the same ones who are virulently anti-abortion. Is it too big a mental leap for them to realize that the availability of Plan B would reduce the number of abortions? Surely no unwanted pregnancies would be preferable to them? (I realize the answer is not just "No", but "NO!!". I simply can't fathom the thinking.)
I do think the legislature here (and hopefully in SD) may be in for a nasty surprise come voting time. There are a lot of us who are pro-choice who as a rule vote based on a slew of different considerations. Those voting habits are gonna change in a hurry when we're staring down the barrel of a gun - which is exactly how I feel about the legislation. No health exception for the mother - what, for the love of kumquats, are they thinking? Outlawing abortion is bad enough, and more than enough to get my blood boiling to start with, but to deliberately endanger grown women in favor of a ball of cells in outrageous.
Check out anti-abortion legislation. I have yet to see any that does not have as a side-effect causing more late term abortions. You give women more hurdles to leap through, it takes longer, they abort later. You reduce the number of clinics, it takes longer to make the travel arrangements, get the money, take the leave from work, abortions happen later. If they have to go to another state - same problem, abortions come later in pregnancy. Unless you think that cute little blastocyte is exactly the same as a fetus with a heartbeat, is exactly the same as a neonate, is exactly the same as a grown woman - why would you support that?
If you do think that a fertilized egg is the moral equivalent of a grown human being, then I despair of the human race.
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