Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Betsy

The hall closet got cleaned this morning while the LW finished up the latest garden newsletter and got it shipped off to the printer. CP ran back and forth in the hall while I was working in the closet, yelling "excooose meee" with her baby in a small pink bedpan. It's pretty funny, but par for the course in Our American Life. I finished, closed the hall closet door..and the thrill of actually getting daddy to move,was gone. What's a little one to do? Run outside! Out the back sliding door she flew and into the flower bed with a shovel. I was able to sneak up on her with the video camera running and film her sitting her bare butt into the dirt so she could spray the surrounding plants with flicked up dirt.

We'll do some shopping, cleaning, and organizing today because Aunt Betsy gets here tomorrow afternoon. We may even go paint sugar skulls at the library.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Why...

...do men even get interviewed on abortion rights stories.......ever? As far as conception goes, we're on the outside except for a tablespoon of proteins. Last time I checked, my wife's body carried the baby. Why do men even have a say in what happens in a woman's body. It seems a sad Stepford holdover.

I was listening to the jeebus lovers on NPR this morning in a story about a proposed ban (again) on abortion in that state. The anti-Roe crowd is hoping to take advantage of conservative sheep types in the rural dakotas to wedge this in and send a legal challenge to the supreme court (thanks mom and dad for voting McCain/Palin). Hopefully Obama will win and keep the court from getting red staters to fill the retiring spots coming up on the court. They'd probably have better luck passing something like this in the lobbyist run state of Mississippi, but I'm sure that there are plenty of 1950s-60s abortions hanging around in the society closets down there.

I told my mom that if some day, CP walks into a drug store and can't get a morning after pill or contraception because the jeebus loving objector behind the counter won't give it to her, I'd have CP call her and thank her for voting with her racist repugnantcan roots when she had a real choice to make.

Monday, October 20, 2008

-ings


Two -ings that don't necessarily fit well were on a collision course this weekend. Telecommuting and remodeling. The LW took control of CP's bedroom this weekend and is in the process of filling holes, applying primer, and painting. Well, it's to the taping point now and will be getting painted this week. As it stands, everything is out of CP's room for the most part so the remainder of our 750sf house has had to absorb it during the shuffle. It reminds me of when we first moved in because there is stuff spread out....e v e r y w h e r e.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Out of Steam

In 1994, when I was freed from the grip of Uncle Sam's Yacht Club at age 24, I road tripped home to Kansas City in my little red Nissan pickup. Along the way, I stopped at roadside attractions and just took it easy.This freedom from rushing, and from being owned by "the man" was quite a change for a kid who had been in the military for six years and it was an odd time full of new adjustments.

One of my planned stops was Williams, AZ. I picked this stop so that I could ride the steam locomotive up to the Grand Canyon and back. The trip was my first on this type of train and it was a joy. Little did I know that the owners of the train would later sell it out to people who would eventually shut it down. It's a sad day for the kids who might never get to ride the rails and watch the steam fly.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Skewwwy Window

That's what CP said from the back seat this morning as we headed off to do our morning errands. I put up our newest Halloween purchase this morning, a pair of LW-picked menacing cat eyes similar to this on our front window. Last night we ran out and picked up a blacklight and some little spiders to add to this year's front yard menagerie. Our plan, of adding $100 worth of fun halloween things for the yard each season is working out well for us and it's really fun when the neighborhood kids get a kick out of it. I find some of the small apartment complex things in our 'hood to be scarier than our window on any day.


We were off to Centric this morning to drop off a 120 roll of film that's been in my old Graflex 22 since last christmas when all of the wife's family made the trip down to Union Station. They'll be developed and then scanned onto a disc. This is my first time doing this with these negatives and I'm anxious to see how it works out. Using my regular camera as a meter for setting up the photos has worked out pretty well in the past.....ohhhh, not this time....just checked my regular camera since I always seem to tweak the ISO. Well, the photos from this morning will be two stops under, so we'll just see how that works out, but it probably won't work out well.

Seedlings have started coming up in the back yard. Broccoli, spinach, sugar snap peas, and all of the rest are trying to make a go of it. If I can only keep the chickents out of there for another month, I'll be set.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Tongues of Nuts

This morning, while reading the Sunday NY Times, my lovely wife discovered that our repugnantcan VP candidate is a Pentecostal. Speaking in tongues, crazy Kenyan witch hunters, the whole bit. She turned to me, after some sailor-like swearing, and said, "even the Jehovah's Witnesses think that they're off the deep end". Funny stuff.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Home Again

We got back from almost a week on the road and a week away from CP on Friday. The LW went down to Aunt Carie's house to pick her up while I was sitting on the lawn at the InnSuites here in Tucson. It was good to get away and see some new parts of the state, but we both missed CP and were happy to see her.

I was working on the GABA Cross State tour the entire week shooting in the morning and working on tired muscles in the afternoons. The day in Tucson was the only hitch of the entire week. The manager at the InnSuites here decided that they had an ESL teacher conference in the hotel and didn't want anyone in the courtyard, but they'd let me set up my table for the pawltry sum of $500. What a bunch of rat bastards. If you're ever in town, avoid this place like the plague. The manager was, through his employees, grumbling about all of the bags and bicycles...and everything. Moron.

We had a really nice stay at the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff. It was a cool old place and it had that 70s John Wayne era charm to it. We'll go back there if we're up in Flag again. We stayed at the BW Arizona Inn in Page (nice views!), the Anasazi Inn in Gray Mountain (Yikes!..scary), the BW Payson Inn in Payson (nice), and the BW Apache Gold in San Carlos (surprisingly nice), but Little America topped them all.

We're getting back into our groove with CP and it was the Zoo this morning. She fed the giraffe this morning for the first time without being afraid and it was fun.