tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244726692012-02-16T18:21:55.173-08:00This is for Kirk von Ackermann, missing in Iraq since October 9, 2003.Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.comBlogger5781100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-78243853994122885322010-04-04T16:56:00.000-07:002010-04-04T17:07:40.112-07:00

Done!Okay folks, anyone interested come on over to the new digs.Doing It WrongI won't be taking this one down or transferring the files - Missing in Iraq will stay just where it is and maybe I'll post here now and then on things that are related to Kirk or Iraq or missing people or any of those many things that have been so important over the last six years or so.But it's definitely time for

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-44782909901292979002010-03-23T21:06:00.001-07:002010-03-23T21:41:48.159-07:00

Child 2 is going to kill me if I don't post - long distance, just with the the sheer force of its personality. Child 2 is not to be trifled with.See, the thing is that for the past... I don't know, month or two or more I have been feeling a little, well, cramped around here. The title of the blog, the reason I began it - it's not that I felt like I had outgrown it necessarily, just that there

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-54753843013865934332010-02-22T12:00:00.000-08:002010-02-22T12:00:01.369-08:00

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-61465798483685571032010-02-21T20:17:00.000-08:002010-02-21T20:20:57.421-08:00

Felled by flu, but still alive. Just.Stoopid flu.More later, but just to prove life goes on in the pest house.Children 1 and 3 are out back with a couple of friends having built a fire in the fire pit. One of the friends apparently was assigned a paper on piracy for some class or other and is, for reasons unknown, reading it aloud.Which is why Child 3 just bolted through the house to retrieve its

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-6803445300114426632010-02-08T16:58:00.001-08:002010-02-08T17:15:27.320-08:00

Watching the super bowl with Child 1. I haven't watched the super bowl in... hmmm.... ever? But this year we had a Party with Food and People (okay, two extra people) and a Large Television (not mine) with American Football on. Child 1, having recovered from its experience in the Happiest Place on Earth sat in a comfortable chair happily stuffing its gob with sweet pepper slices and meatballs (

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-84053108509416752992010-02-03T06:23:00.000-08:002010-02-03T06:39:13.501-08:00

I offer, in lieu of anything of substance or entertainment value, the following utterly random and totally trivial facts about ME. Because what's more exciting than things you never wanted to know about someone you have possibly never met? NOTHING.1. I once bit my sister. While we were in the library. Why? Because you can't scream in the library. Which I totally knew, and so when she went first

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-60257670351160518932010-01-27T05:52:00.000-08:002010-01-27T05:57:51.470-08:00

1. It only takes one week back in college to begin seriously arguing that pub mix is so a food group.2. Noun style is bad, usually. Sometimes it's good, but only when it's well done. Verb style is good, except when it isn't. Bad, good and well done are totally subjective and you shouldn't use them (except when you should). Semi-colons however are always awesome and indicative of great

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-68859426664838730402010-01-22T05:47:00.001-08:002010-01-22T09:47:29.929-08:00

Did any of you see this?A U.S. contractor producing gun sights for the military has been engraving bible verse references on them. Really. Now, the follow up story is that this company has voluntarily decided to stop doing this which, in my opinion, at least upgrades the execs from 'underpants on the head loony tunes' to 'capable of comprehending the concept of organizational meltdown,' so, well

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-71934599642590711672010-01-21T05:51:00.000-08:002010-01-21T06:02:12.299-08:00

Possibly a continuing feature! Aren't you excited? I know my family, with whom I already shared a number of fascinating items, are totally thrilled.Anyway.1. No one should ever produce a design text book because students (meaning me) will inevitably spend all their time being snotty about the examples (as in - 'this example sucks!') rather than oh, say, learning anything.2. Text books still say

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-81471483416310070592010-01-20T06:06:00.000-08:002010-01-20T06:29:32.511-08:00

It was the first day of school yesterday.Which immediately brings images of white socks and pig-tails and metal lunch boxes (mine always had rows of banana stickers on the inside of the lid because nothing is quite so valuable and important to save in a neat row as the Dole sticker off a banana).I had been so excited when I registered. I was going to do this just for me, make a plan and look

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-42010897199766665892010-01-15T14:10:00.000-08:002010-01-15T14:18:36.118-08:00

You see!I make these non-resolution things with every intention of not doing them, or kind of doing them, or saying I was but then not or saying I wasn't but really meaning to all along AND having one or two up my sleeve that I was totally going to do but wasn't going to tell anyone about so I could be secretly virtuous and stuff.Only it never works that way, does it?So here is my short, in order

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-70769674912434656482010-01-11T07:49:00.000-08:002010-01-11T08:50:12.256-08:00

Child 3 is experimenting. This sentence has sent a frisson down the back of all adults who know Child 3, so I want to clarify at once:1) The experiment is ON ITSELF2) It does not involve any explosives at all. None3) Nor does it involve fire, projectiles, spinning things or combustion engines4) Except incidentallyWhat happened was last week some time Child 3 looked up with innocent blue eyes and

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-44350386457851861372010-01-06T06:37:00.001-08:002010-01-06T08:10:11.045-08:00

I don't DO resolutions and I reject the idea that January 1st is some mythical magical time to get over your bad self and Change Everything. However for some reason this week a sort of, kind of... we'll call it Not A List at All set of things has been building itself in my mind. Viz:1) I'm not in shape. I'm not OUT of shape, I'm just not in shape either. I've not been as good as I was about

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-26478348496910571712010-01-04T19:54:00.000-08:002010-01-04T20:14:32.309-08:00

Phew.That was a year, that was (points, big ones, to anyone [outside of immediate family] who gets the reference ).It was though, wasn't it? I mean, here, in this house, it started a bit slow, then picked up rather much and then there was a sort of Whoosh, BANG!! at the end. In fact, I'm still sort of recovering from all the whooshing and banging and I'm not quite sure where the dust will

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-39319657944577202722009-12-30T08:10:00.000-08:002009-12-30T08:13:33.246-08:00

After two and a half years held hostage in Iraq, British hostage Peter Moore has been safely released.

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-62946932189805525382009-12-24T12:56:00.000-08:002009-12-24T13:13:13.740-08:00

It's been... a year. A lot of year. A whole lot of GoodBadGoodBad year. But, and I'm deeply, truly, unbelievably grateful for this, it has been a more good than bad year. That sounds so simple and banal so I have to repeat it - this, this year, has been MORE GOOD THAN BAD. For the first time in six years this year, as tumultuous as it has been, has been a good year.I'll do a summation later but

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-82065835707320307522009-12-15T10:04:00.000-08:002009-12-15T10:20:16.054-08:00

Right, so say you're sitting in a hospital waiting room on the surgery floor having been told, two hours ago, that it would take two hours for the be-surgeried person to be put in a private room. And say you were also told to keep an eye on a nice monitor which would scroll your be-surgeried friend's patient number past every few minutes and magically change the background color when the haven of

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-62773435858768419642009-12-14T10:22:00.000-08:002009-12-14T10:33:49.607-08:00

Didn't intend to disappear.In fact I had a nice post all written about how nice it was to sit down at Thanksgiving with this small circle of people I care for and just talk and laugh and eat together. And it was, very, very nice.But then there was this call one morning, a 6-in-the-morning call which is just late enough to be probably a work thing: someone calling in sick or someone with a

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-61018625620312645152009-11-20T09:38:00.001-08:002009-11-20T11:05:59.303-08:00

Phew! Right, here's where I've gotten:1) Taking the GRE ... DONE! Last Saturday.2) apply for a masters program ... DONE! Sorta. I'm off-cycle with admissions so I'm going non-degree this Spring and being all official in FallI've also3) Registered for Spring classes and gotten everything I wanted to get4) Met with the faculty member I'd like to chair my committee and gotten enthusiastic approval

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-23789257409687501242009-11-12T10:11:00.000-08:002009-11-12T11:02:05.550-08:00

Well, I hope last for a bit, but this was on my mind this morning so...Someone sent me a link recently to a post on the Passive Aggressive Notes website. You can read the post itself here, but here's the text of the posted note:Hi – you don’t know me but I’ve noticed that you go into #360’s apt late @ night & I sometimes see you coming out in the morning. & it’s obvious that you sleep over ther [

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-41352364278762882492009-11-10T14:07:00.001-08:002009-11-10T14:17:22.887-08:00

Right, although it is dispiriting (and... well, we'll say irritating as that sounds mild and sort of like a rash rather than something soul sucking and stress-producing and generally end-of-the-worldish) that things are still a bit nebulous and uncertain when it comes to time, last night when faced with the option of a) fretting and b) deciding that All Was Lost because it is far easier (somehow)

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-15337238793767603402009-11-09T18:21:00.000-08:002009-11-09T19:22:29.233-08:00

Phew - that was fun, wasn't it!Yes. There is a great deal I feel about the election in Maine. In fact, it's a bit split - rather like the vote. On the whole I'm going to take it as a good thing that the election was so close. Of coures, I can do that because it's not my family on the line - I can say that it's positive that an election like this was, technically speaking, within the expected

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-41596974291788701542009-10-29T06:44:00.000-07:002009-10-29T08:56:28.467-07:00

There are many Mormons who are not concerned with the actions of the church. There are others though who are torn, people I know and people who have written about the fact that they feel a great deal of internal conflict about their well-loved church asking for donations and publicly calling for members to vote in a particular way on the rights of people who are not even members of their sect.

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-12271891527934460362009-10-22T21:00:00.000-07:002009-10-26T20:21:53.903-07:00

It's hard to say exactly when polygamy started in Mormonism. There is no official record for what is generally felt to be the first plural marriage (by non-Mormon historians and Mormon historians alike. Please note that of course there are dissenters who do not accept this marriage). According to journals and notes however, Joseph Smith married Fanny Alger, aged 16, in Kirtland, Ohio some time in

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-34674012686038283132009-10-22T19:04:00.000-07:002009-10-22T19:50:36.200-07:00

So what outed me?Proposition 8.I know.Me and how many others? But it's important, because in some ways the fact that the church got involved in an election in California over the civil rights of a minority, the rights to pledge a commitment to each other, to publicly pronounce that they were a family hits a pretty tender nerve.Some of you might not have been following this whole drama (maybe? How

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-19841520587227850252009-10-19T12:31:00.000-07:002009-10-19T15:05:35.193-07:00

I've been rolling this post-I-wasn't-going-to-post around in my head for the last few days and it's funny how once I took off the various restraints of offensensitivity it ballooned up and grew out of all sensible proportion. I had to spend an hour or two hacking off the more egregious branches just to get it down to size, and even now I know it's a two-post post. So, here's the back story.I was

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-81860035916019369802009-10-16T08:45:00.000-07:002009-10-16T08:59:51.487-07:00

I've been debating writing this post - both internally (I totally trounced myself on logic but I'm losing to myself with rhetoric) and externally. The thing is, like any other blogger there's a lot I don't write about. The Children, by and large, are not reportable out of respect for their privacy. I also don't talk about a lot of my personal life nor do I lay down all the boring minutiae of day

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-7969754166243821912009-10-05T15:07:00.001-07:002009-10-05T15:38:41.473-07:00

This weekend is Balloon Fiesta weekend. The city is known for its Balloon Fiesta (well, that and being so very favored by the COPS show for our particular brand of idiot criminals that the mayor had to ban them filming here for a while as they were giving us a bad name). Hundreds of balloony people come here to fly and thousands and thousands swoop in to admire the flying - well, the flying and

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-64537049435473497522009-10-02T12:32:00.000-07:002009-10-02T12:46:17.290-07:00

Child 3 had, as I think I've mentioned before, the good taste to be born on its grandfather's birthday. As we were, at that time, living in said grandparent's basement it was the least we could do. Every year they have dinner together or something to celebrate the fact that one single day in history saw the arrival of two such superior people. This year they also celebrate the nifty coincidence

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-13887628631995678552009-09-29T06:57:00.000-07:002009-09-29T08:13:27.196-07:00

Graduating from basic is apparently now a Big Deal. When Kirk graduated he did it pretty much on his own, celebrated with a free head shave (mandatory) and showed up at the local airport a day later bald, limping and about 15 pounds lighter. For Child 2 I was sent a large packet about two weeks in explaining all about graduation and what the FOUR DAYS would involve. Four. Days. High school

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-59664538518059895932009-09-25T07:55:00.000-07:002009-09-25T08:34:14.982-07:00

I've been a bit defensive about Child II. A lot of my friends both online and off are what I would consider intelligent, educated, broad-minded people whom I both like and respect. If they were jackasses it would all be rather easier (well, okay if they were jackasses they wouldn't be my friends either, but why be logical?) because I wouldn't care what they say or think. And actually, what's

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-91508793454895791372009-09-11T10:03:00.000-07:002009-09-11T10:22:16.329-07:00

I went on holiday in July.A real one, a holiday just to be a holiday - with time off and no additional goals like, for example, moving across the country. A whole holiday intended simply to relax and recreate.I can tick off one more item on my 'things to do in order to be a real grown-up' list. It's all very exciting.I'm sort of going on another holiday next week but as it is a) to San Antonio,

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-88178123317960846862009-09-10T09:38:00.000-07:002009-09-10T09:56:49.761-07:00

There are certain truths about movies that I think are self evident but I will outline them here just because:1) movies are made, primarily, to provide a venue for the display and appreciation of certain arts. These arts are (in no particular order) graphic, costume, set design, art direction, typographic (well, okay credits in general), lighting, editing and... well, I'm sure there's other stuff

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-31261559446936019472009-09-09T14:20:00.000-07:002009-09-09T14:42:22.517-07:00

So!It's now past the Tuesday deadline and everyone who was going to bundle has bundled (you did bundle, didn't you? I mean, unless you have some horrible condition where going into a store with FIVE aisles of scrapbooking supplies and SIX aisles of Christmas gee-gaws [in AUGUST PEOPLE!! AUGUST! So wrong it's made me break out the square-brackets-within-the-parentheses {dang, where was I...oh yes}

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-22700734195806598192009-09-02T14:17:00.000-07:002009-09-02T14:24:42.400-07:00

So I got some stuff on Monday, bundled everything up on Tuesday and was going to mail them today, Wednesday, until life intervened which means, sadly, I'll be bouncing off the deadline by shipping them tomorrow. But! They're all ready to go which makes me happy. Here's what I put in my two bundles:Both have:5 yards of fabric (a nice restrained green check as Art mentioned that less vibrant

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-72922132032970498842009-08-28T10:26:00.000-07:002009-08-28T10:36:38.244-07:00

Anyone out there a sewer or knitter? I'm a little late to this party but there's an amazing soldier in Iraq who is organizing a donation project to provide supplies to Iraq - bundles of fabric, thread, other notions, yarn - whatever. I KNOW if you sew you have fabric lying around and this is an amazing way to pass it along to someone who needs it.One point: he's leaving Iraq pretty soon so you

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-17857132925788716152009-08-18T12:21:00.000-07:002009-08-18T12:39:35.029-07:00

Child 1 whizzed through for one last weekend. It had been gone just long enough to make us all go, 'oh yes, THAT'S what it's like having another body around the house' a bit but not so long that having it back felt strange. Of course it was only here for the blink of an eye - a few meals here and there, a visit to its Grandparents, a single load of laundry and off again.I dropped it at the

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-16863874057683824932009-08-12T14:05:00.000-07:002009-08-12T15:00:11.796-07:00

Ah... Child 2.Does Senioritis translate? The strange illness that besets students towards the end of their studies - lack of motivation, general malaise, marked antipathy to the school/teachers/administration/school system/evil parents who have put them in this situation? Maybe it's an Americanism but I'm going to bet that the disease is universal.Child 2 had it last year.Had it bad.Had it so bad

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-82251052658967929692009-08-10T14:36:00.000-07:002009-08-10T14:56:18.049-07:00

[Yes, the order imposed by the list in the previous post is not only going to be violated, it's going to be thrown on the floor and stomped on]Some time during the last academic year I noticed, as I wandered blithely through the University campus, colorful posters enticing innocent young to attend a meeting. Normally I'm extremely dubious about these as they are usually of the, "come and see just

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-78691869424105168782009-08-05T15:47:00.001-07:002009-08-05T15:59:58.299-07:00

Sorry! I'll respond to comments and emails in a bit but I wanted to break the silence before it got so thick I couldn't manage it.Things I would have posted about if I didn't need to write that last post but now I can post about once I start posting again (which I have. Started I mean):Child 2! Child 1! (slightly less exclamation marky than Child 2, but still pretty markish)Holidays, the taking

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-17431897245502399542009-07-20T19:03:00.000-07:002009-07-20T19:31:58.736-07:00

Two weeks.I know.But I've been a bit... taken aback at how difficult it has been to write all this.And apparently two weeks is what it takes to face up to the last post.Not that it's a big one, it's just really the point of the whole thing.The point is, about a year ago I heard from an expert, a lawyer who knows how to deal with Labor department claims and he thought he could help me.A year ago

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-17445724875316252642009-06-29T19:15:00.000-07:002009-06-30T08:44:32.673-07:00

So.If you've managed to plow through things as they possibly should be, and taken a glimpse of things as they were, let's finish the job, shall we? Again, sorry for the length, but I think this is important.Kirk went missing on October 9th, 2003. I've said that so many times in so many ways its acquired a strange life of its own. For a very long time it was defiance, and denial as I tried to

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-8220481023022295112009-06-26T06:12:00.000-07:002009-06-26T06:27:43.682-07:00

So, to adjust the chart a bit for the real world:In fact I'm not entirely sure there was a call for bids either. I have a feeling the company sort of showed up, talked to a few people and, being Johnny on the Spot, got the deal.But I definitely know that no one asked about whether the company was carrying insurance. I know this because Kirk's boss, when I told him about the Act, had never heard

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-36766266826615904152009-06-24T07:08:00.000-07:002009-06-24T07:10:16.391-07:00

Right, sorry about the lag there. So to recap, here's a little visual of the ideal claim process:Next up?The real world (okay, the world as I know it).

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-49624151826502786422009-06-11T19:02:00.000-07:002009-06-11T19:41:10.528-07:00

Right.So I've been trying to work out how to write this and not be totally and terminally boring. I was going to do a nice flow chart complete with little colored boxes and arrows and everything. But for now we'll just talk through it.So, here, highly simplified, is what is supposed to happen:War (okay, war isn't supposed to happen, but that's where it all starts so...)Which produces needs -

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-69441579412346860112009-06-05T13:57:00.000-07:002009-06-05T14:19:31.305-07:00

I didn't want to write this post.Or the ones that will come after really.For a few months I really thought I would write something quite different, something pretty simple and short and that would be the end of it.But it's not, and I can't.And I'm afraid the next few posts are going to be Not Much Fun. It's not going to be horrible or tragic or deeply awful or anything, just complicated and quite

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-32674254241874689512009-05-29T04:43:00.001-07:002009-05-29T05:02:46.901-07:00

I spent Memorial day weekend watching masochists. Someone noticed that there were two towns about fifty miles apart with a rather large mountain between them - a rather large mountain that, at the topish bit, was nearly 11,000 feet higher than the ocean. And that someone also noticed that a very clever person had built a) a road and b) a train-track between the towns and said to itself, gosh!

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-69602386275944942292009-05-11T13:20:00.000-07:002009-05-11T13:34:19.263-07:00

It's finals week which means:Little lost lambs are once more roaming the halls, trapping themselves down the very last corridor (mine) and bleating anxiously until rescued. My favorites are the ones who end up at my office and say hopefully, "Dean so-and-so? I just need this form signing..." Um... no.Three little freshmen were sobbing bitterly at the bus stop when I ran by this morning simply

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-67976486364890621272009-05-08T14:33:00.000-07:002009-05-08T14:48:49.543-07:00

It was Spring, at least I think it was - just a week ago or something. And then something went snap (or maybe Sproing!) and it's summer and the mercury is creeping past 90 already.I can't tell what happened because I'm pretty sure April lasted at least eight weeks, possibly ten or so, but I'm not sure how we suddenly ended up in May already.Without any warning at all (okay, except for the

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-28515400194054509552009-05-01T07:40:00.000-07:002009-05-01T07:43:44.923-07:00

1 man-made duck pond, verdantly green with algae3 dozen ducks47-eleven goldfish of varying sizesX-thousand undergraduates in assorted states of un-dress and/or washedness2 handfuls toddlers with grubby handfuls of breadcrumbs1 school outing (aged approx 6) half-heartedly chasing down an escapee who had slipped the hand-holding-chainWhy on earth did someone feel it was essential to post a sign

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-8522466505465959022009-04-18T07:41:00.000-07:002009-04-18T08:12:44.289-07:00

My memories of moving out here, within a month of Kirk's disappearance, are split. I have the calm, reasonable moment to moment memories, the ones where I could line up the next hour and walk through it carefully, eyes on what had to be done, looking only as far as the thing directly in front of me. Eventually that stretched to a day at a time, still with a stolid interior dialogue that recited a

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-56757064391284784322009-04-15T08:42:00.001-07:002009-04-15T08:53:07.881-07:00

Child 1 is studying for an anthropology test. I am being Helpful.Child 1: Dating methods,Me: [avoids talking about chat up lines and clubbing. Am very helpful]Child 1: RadiometricMe: That's where they check out their Pandora stationsChild 1: [natters on about something anthropologic]Me: If it's mostly classic rock they're probably in their fifties.Child 1: [natters rather more loudly]Me: Hey!

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-73039109903396997612009-04-11T19:24:00.000-07:002009-04-11T19:37:17.995-07:00

Child 1 is scheduled to work all day tomorrow and, being a-religious AND rather an idiot I hadn't realized it's Easter Sunday until about two days ago. Quick talk with Child 1 to re-schedule traditional family activities to today plus even quicker run to the store to procure the necessary supplies and ka-bling, holiday saved!So last night we had the Traditional Tossing of the Jelly Beans (

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-58178198652317243832009-04-10T10:47:00.001-07:002009-04-10T10:50:10.312-07:00

Early morning conversation with Child 1 produced:The invention of the Chastity Quarter (you had to be there)Declaration of the need, at least locally for "What Not to Wear" for transvestites (no really, you had to be there)Concise and fascinating discussion of the cultural revolution among modern humans 30,000 years ago and how the increase in trade would have produced a need for changed/

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-51399346982163186762009-04-07T08:37:00.000-07:002009-04-07T08:51:39.477-07:00

In relation to the previous post - having spent a few minutes walking the aisles of a well known store I would like to request the following:Dear little-girls's-clothing-manufacturers:1) "Little" girl also implies young. As in not 20. Or 30. Seriously.2) Please cease instantly producing a) anything sporting the words 'foxy,' 'sexy,' or 'hot.' I would personally prefer to add 'princess' but that's

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-13531821454389974652009-04-03T14:14:00.000-07:002009-04-03T14:30:48.486-07:00

Dear Women's Clothing Manufacturers:In the current economic crisis I'm sure you're aware that it's your responsibility to encourage customers to return to the market-place and spend their money, increasing consumer confidence and hopefully speeding the recovery we all hope for. Isn't it nice when patriotic duty and innate greed coincide so beautifully? As a concerned citizen and an (occasional)

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-87634648468115582212009-04-01T11:38:00.000-07:002009-04-01T12:12:04.093-07:00

We welcomed the Superior Aunt and its Superior Offspring with a cold front that dropped the temperature down about 25 degrees. The nice thing about living here is that you can get temperatures chilly enough to produce goose-flesh and yet still get sunburnt if you're rash enough to wander around outdoors for any length of time (we did. However I'm not an idiot and thus was well sun-creamed. Didn't

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-3015607957365164032009-03-27T08:16:00.001-07:002009-03-27T08:29:25.341-07:00

The Superior Aunt is coming! Bringing with her the Superior Cousins (Children A, B and C). When asked what she wants to do she replied with a request for Mexican food. And more Mexican food. Seeing as this is the city that has green chile as an ingredient in at least one dish on every menu I think we can handle this (the menu claim could be a slight exaggeration, but I have seen it offered with a

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-30807636432021025312009-03-25T08:32:00.000-07:002009-03-25T08:54:46.683-07:00

An old friend found me the other day.Well, really, he found Child 1 on Facebook in one of those mad, modern connection things that seem to happen all over the place.Hadn't seen him for years and years and it was obvious that he hadn't heard about Kirk. So I had to tell him the story and I realized how really, really bad at it I am.It's not that it's difficult for me to tell it any more. I've said

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-62453216049086716002009-03-19T04:17:00.001-07:002009-03-19T04:53:13.937-07:00

Given:The minivanWith the six soccer-ball stickersMarked "Jacob" "Joshua" "Madison" "Hannah" "Ashley" and "Brianna"And the gymnastics stickerMarked "Tyler"And the Jesus fishAnd the "God is my co-pilot" stickerAnd the window label with the big-eyed, pajama-clad infants clustered around a crossYour "In case of rapture this vehicle will become un-manned," license plate frame is a public spirited

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-43333864560362726832009-03-16T19:10:00.000-07:002009-03-16T19:18:15.054-07:00

I feel that Child 1's birthday post might have given an inaccurate picture of said Child. It does indeed hold down job and school without apparent botheration. However it should not be judged on that alone. As counter evidence I present the present this Child bought for itself, something it felt was particularly suitable to mark the occasion of it leaving its irresponsible teens forever:What are

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-78717125462071317852009-03-13T10:40:00.000-07:002009-03-13T10:55:38.939-07:00

In my free time (HA HA HA!! See what I did there? With the free and the time and putting them together like that? I kill me, really I do) I've spent the last week or so putting together software training screen casts. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the basic set of the first program (out of two sets, four programs. Yes, nuts, I know, shut up) so I've developed something of a system and, being a

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-48924229728791675812009-03-12T07:59:00.000-07:002009-03-12T08:09:26.700-07:00

I'm not a morning person.Really, truly, genuinely not.I'm so not a morning person I get up waaaay early just so I can be awake by the time I have to do anything anyone might want to pay me for. (it makes sense in my own head, trust me).So, at that waaaaay early hour I can generally handle either the minute numbers or the hour numbers on my alarm clock, but not both. When I say generally, that

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-21265974948468094192009-03-10T18:44:00.000-07:002009-03-10T19:08:40.320-07:00

Had lunch today with a particularly favorite uncle and aunt and, among other things, I learned that Darwin spent the last several years of his life in an intense study of earthworms and soil.He even wrote a book, with the gripping title, The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, With Observations on Their Habits.I like the thought of this man, this giant who produced one of

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-91791123760381256592009-03-04T09:26:00.000-08:002009-03-04T10:00:29.537-08:00

At what age is a Child too old for birthday posts? Will Child 1 be 84 and I 100 something-or-other and beaming a post in through my virtual brain port? It does seem a bit weird to still be calling it Child when it is clearly nothing of the sort and when, this year, it officially left behind its teens. One of its friends, a few weeks older than Child 1, was mourning the fact that, as a non-teen,

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-10539143550086539662009-02-28T11:20:00.000-08:002009-02-28T11:36:27.853-08:00

I'm meant to be vacuuming at the moment. The vacuum is actually sitting in the living room where I turned it off after two seconds of high-quality dirt sucking, but as I had already dusted everything (baseboards included) I think I can sit down for a few seconds.The reason I'm dusting and vacuuming rather than harassing the Children into doing it is because we made a deal. They would clean the

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-75778475384508107722009-02-23T09:16:00.000-08:002009-02-23T09:29:40.792-08:00

I don't watch reality television.I have no idea what celebrities are pretending to know how to dance and which hopefuls are being voted for on what talent show. I've only seen five minutes of Lost and I don't even have a subscription to HBO. I don't like baseball.I compounded all of that by not realizing it was the Superbowl until the very day (twigged off by the bleary-eyed men in the grocery

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-28194950960377954012009-02-19T14:10:00.000-08:002009-02-19T14:33:23.854-08:00

Child 2 had a rather significant birthday this last weekend.Not one of those slightly quirky personal Important Birthdays (for me that would include 6 [favorite number as a child], 11 [far cooler than 10 which for some reason didn't impress me at all, 16 [Age of Official Dateableness - thank you Mormon upbringing] and 24 [I have no idea why, none at all, really, just something about that number..

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-43419485584472379892009-02-13T06:58:00.001-08:002009-02-13T07:01:18.694-08:00

I was going to write about doing taxes and how it's totally normal to shout at the news-print manual things like, "Why can't you just say what you mean??" or "WHY SHOULD I MULTIPLY LINE 23b BY 15% HUH? JUST ANSWER ME THAT!!"However.I hab a coad. Courtesy of the ever generous Child 3. So instead I'm just going to post an old picture of Kaj because it makes me smile.Then I'm going to go back to

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-7707464625422041552009-02-12T06:16:00.000-08:002009-02-12T06:21:34.957-08:00

During last night's Netflix showing -Child 3: Know what I would do if I had a Darlek come up like that? I'd jump on and go, "now SPIN! WHEEEEEE!"Child 1: I'd poke it in the eye stalk. POKE! POKE! You can't see me!Me: I'd totally cuddle it. "Whose an ickle Darlek-warlek then? Izzee? Izzee? Hims is just the cutest little genocidal wobot hims is!"Child 2: This is why Earth will never be invaded by

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-73768416264052985532009-02-06T16:07:00.000-08:002009-02-08T16:25:55.536-08:00

We have a few odd traditions in my family - not my Kirk-Megan-Children family but the family I was raised in, and some of them have to do with giving gifts. One is the habit of giving someone not what you think they'd like or need, but what you, personally, find really, really funny. I don't indulge in this one terribly often but it is why my poor sister, when she took up belly-dancing as a

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-36971248756151779512009-02-03T06:37:00.000-08:002009-02-03T06:52:07.652-08:00

You know those teenage moments? Not the ones where you were wearing just the right thing and you thought of the perfect phrase at the absolute best moment to say it - no, you remember both those times quite clearly. I'm thinking of the moments when you know, right as you're saying or doing it, how utterly humiliating it is. The times you can almost see the words leaving your mouth on a ribbon and

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-52593910219680618262009-01-26T07:36:00.000-08:002009-01-26T08:27:13.643-08:00

If you're going to come hiking with us, it's probably a good idea to get your terminology down first, just to avoid confusion. For example:Sproinking: Climbing large boulders in a goat-like fashion, preferably enormous collections of rock off the main trail and providing ample opportunity to tumble off, breaking one's neck in the process. Stealth-cactus: Vicious, thorn covered plants growing a)

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-42895346181134063472009-01-22T08:01:00.001-08:002009-01-22T09:44:40.282-08:00

I hate replacing expensive things.Take the television, for example. I have no idea how old it was. It's entirely possible that we bought it in Alaska which means we really did get pretty good service out of the darn thing. I could feel all smug as well since we have cheapy bundle-priced Dtv so we didn't have to make the HDTV upgrade (don't get me STARTED on government imposed consumerism...

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-52747388209936787642009-01-20T12:38:00.001-08:002009-01-20T12:54:50.330-08:00

So we watched it here at work.One of the profs nicked a television (from another prof who had squirreled it away for private viewing purposes, or so the story went) and set it up in a classroom. The picture was terrible - fuzzy and wavering and filled with lines of static that rolled steadily up the screen. Half of us had planned on sitting quietly at our own desks and tuning into one of the many

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-10754490229708367872009-01-20T07:30:00.000-08:002009-01-20T08:29:27.550-08:00

One of the problems with working where I do is that it has, shall we say, a slightly lax dress code. When I first hired on I dressed the way I did in California for work - suits, heels, even (gasp) tights now and then. A week or so in I realized that I was dressing more formally than everyone around me up to and including my boss and her boss. The problem was I had a sort of polarized wardrobe. I

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-6534036876697949592009-01-15T06:38:00.000-08:002009-01-15T06:55:56.516-08:00

I've been having unusually vivid dreams lately, some of them are the variety where you know you're dreaming and if you concentrate just hard enough you can change things and do magic and stuff (only apparently I'm rather lazier than I was as a child because the past several times I've thought about it and decided I couldn't be bothered), some just regular dreamy dreams. I'm not sure what makes

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-2095063792981230552009-01-07T15:18:00.000-08:002009-01-07T15:27:52.060-08:00

Well, due to the Male Child deciding (on purpose I'm sure) to develop an ophthalmic migraine today I'm still not going to get that darn other post done.So, instead a short piece of our holidays.Over New Years I found myself with just Child 2 still awake; Children 1 and 3 had long since tottered off to bed. We cuddled on the couch watching a Survivor Man episode [for uninitiated: Survivor man

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-23495762222060605262009-01-06T18:11:00.000-08:002009-01-06T18:32:35.779-08:00

Ahem.Yerse, sorry about that. Sometime around the last two or three days of holiday I suddenly developed this amazing allergy to my computer. Not quite sure why...So I might have sort of not read or replied to comments... or emails... or... BUTI am back now and I do have the second what-I-gotsted-for-Christmas post sort of burbling away in the back of my mind along with a bonus post that I

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-67350614017236768142008-12-29T18:23:00.000-08:002008-12-29T19:04:52.905-08:00

[Note: I am moderately to seriously opposed to the practice of summing up the holidays with, "so, what did you get?" It just seems a little... commercial somehow. I am at least somewhat of a hypocrite though as just a day or two ago I was more than delighted to get an update on holiday loot of a friend of the Children which allowed me to say, "really? A tattoo? And it's oozing??" Still, it's a

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-31323281004351470332008-12-26T07:39:00.000-08:002008-12-26T08:33:30.536-08:00

I am not a huge fan of those holiday boast letters - the end-of-year wrap up ones. I don't mind getting and reading 'em mind you, it's the composition of them that I'm not so keen on (and the printing. And the addressing. And the mailing. And the thinking of piles of paper waste and the net ecological effect of the additional fuel needed to physically deliver them). I don't really remember if we

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-82035193315200183572008-12-18T21:00:00.000-08:002008-12-18T21:18:56.349-08:00

Technically Child 2 has a house-sitting job over the winter break. Practically it's a two dog sitting job with the house as an optional extra. Child 2 is, one could say, slightly dog-centric on these things. Unfortunately there was a slight disconnect between the day the house-sitting job started (today) and the last day of school/final exams (tomorrow) so for this evening we're actually all dog

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-56375667184781948472008-12-16T18:19:00.000-08:002008-12-16T20:17:03.871-08:00

It doesn't snow here. Well, that's not quite true. It snows, if we're lucky, once a year. That's real snow, snow that sticks and stays and really means it. More usually we get a few flurries that spend more time just getting down out of the sky then they do on the ground. Optimistic children looking at the clouds in the evening and hoping for school closure are lucky to wake up to anything more

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-82957389343498017922008-12-15T05:58:00.000-08:002008-12-15T07:07:38.819-08:00

You know those regional products? The ones you find in local stores that you don't really think about (if you were raised in the area) but suddenly take a good look at and really wonder what the rest of the world would make of them? I glanced across the street the other day and the sight of one of those products proudly displayed on my neighbor's lawn struck me suddenly, and I wondered what some

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-22810431545566589102008-12-12T06:40:00.000-08:002008-12-12T06:44:45.907-08:00

The family of a British man kidnapped 18 months ago in Iraq is holding a vigil for him this evening.Please keep him and his family in your thoughts today - I will.

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-60471644435921169912008-12-11T14:49:00.000-08:002008-12-11T15:14:08.537-08:00

Dear Young Man Who Came to the Door Yesterday,First, I'm terribly sorry that after the first five minutes of watching you stand in the wide open doorway thus allowing the (expensively) heated air to go bless the lives of the sparrows on the drive I went back to the work I was doing on my computer and only glanced up now and then. I'd like you to know that it wasn't just that you were spending

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-3770690669961658112008-12-10T08:57:00.000-08:002008-12-10T09:23:30.275-08:00

The Male Child had a bit of a shout the other day. Geometry: specifically proofs. Also teachers who assign 32 problems but only grade a random 5. Totally with the Male Child on that second one.But not the first.I love geometry - love it, and the proofs were the best part. I loved the logic of it, the fun of building up a watertight argument based on simple principles. I loved that you start with

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-27314024077314280662008-12-08T07:08:00.000-08:002008-12-08T07:48:01.422-08:00

One of the female Children has been dithering for a few weeks about that terrifying topic - hair cuts. This particular Child has had long hair since it was five and first started growing it out. Once a year it would get impatient and decide it was NEVER going to have super-duper long hair, grab a pair of scissors and lop off its mane at just below shoulder length. But short hair? Really truly

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-21861192642545934832008-12-02T10:07:00.001-08:002008-12-02T10:20:44.204-08:00

Tree retrieved from garage rafters by long-armed Child balancing precariously on chair and resting said tree on head of its sibling helperDecorations finally run to earth in bin (after Children insisted they were nowhere to be found - bin had been misleadingly labeled "Christmas")Egg nog poured into festive martini glasses and drunkCrackers pulled, Male Child mocked for finding a lipstick case in

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-34689967581763701782008-12-01T12:28:00.000-08:002008-12-01T12:35:47.343-08:00

Ahhhhhh...Four days.Four LOVERLY daysof offnessthat is, off workand with these used-to-be-short people of whom I'm rather fond.Was good.Also dinner with parental types of whom I'm also rather fond. Also good.There was the torn moment on Thursday morning when we all realized it was raining, because on the one hand we LIKES rain and we needs it (it hasn't rained in weeks and weeks and weeks) but on

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-18992544843586504772008-11-27T10:55:00.000-08:002008-11-27T11:03:14.772-08:00

The Excellent Anna (she who is Boaty) has saved the day really as I wanted to write something about genuine, real, ungrudging gratitude but without walking straight into ooey gooey sentimentality (which I reserve for the privacy of my own home, thanks - my Children have much to fear) and fortunately she came up with the brilliant idea of writing about why I'm grateful for my blog.so- I'm grateful

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-76212884527421669372008-11-25T16:55:00.000-08:002008-11-25T17:04:45.754-08:00

It is the time of year to be grateful. I suppose. Yesterday I was too busy looking for that darn turtle to come up with something to be grateful for, and to be honest today hasn't been the most inspiring. However, I refuse to buck tradition, so I present, today's gratitude.My job recently did a bizarre sort of mitosis sort of thing, only with a bit of mutation. So I have twice the job I did

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-58269514332236181222008-11-24T05:48:00.000-08:002008-11-24T06:05:15.701-08:00

There's a graffiti artist around where I work who does its thing entirely in stencils. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm rather opposed to graffiti in general on the grounds that destruction of another's property is Not Right. I do recognize that there are some amazing artists out there doing remarkable work - and sometimes on derelict buildings which considerably softens my aforementioned

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-56127508914945240022008-11-19T14:50:00.000-08:002008-11-19T15:24:44.653-08:00

Lo! There was smoting!Colloquially that would be, "We done been smitified."I was happily working away on my computer when there was a "ffffZZZZZPT" noise and the computer turned off. And no, naturally I hadn't just saved any of the four files I was working on. I did, however, remain quite calm and cool and dignified AND I didn't use any of the more descriptive words in my vocabulary. I might have

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-2175092971058910402008-11-17T06:48:00.001-08:002008-11-17T06:48:32.446-08:00

Child 2 is a high tensile sort of Child - always has been. As an infant it had to be swaddled incredibly tightly just to get it to calm down and sleep or its wiry little arms would work free and literally wind it back up just by their gyrating action. It has a hair-trigger to this day and great amusement can be had by innocently walking up behind it and saying hello. Granted you have to do it

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-67182328946714700292008-11-07T10:42:00.000-08:002008-11-07T11:01:27.684-08:00

For various (and sundry) reasons I've been busily going through old files the last couple of weeks. This includes an entire set with enticing labels like: "Army, orders," "Army, Pay," "Army, Awards," and - apparently when I was more than sick of the job - "Army Forms, STUPID." There's another set for the Air Force as well although I don't seem to have made editorial comments on those. Mixed in

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-28935330280794554932008-11-05T10:18:00.001-08:002008-11-05T10:22:42.976-08:00

I went to bed early last night, leaving the Children to watch the results coming in (mandatory school work - they HAD to watch television). I had just reached that almost-but-not-quite asleep moment, that magical moment when you're drifting off but you don't know it yet, that moment where if something should happen to startle you awake you're pretty much resigned to another half hour before you

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-5616796813895538542008-11-04T06:14:00.000-08:002008-11-04T06:44:14.877-08:00

Did you vote yet? Did you? [yes, those from other parts of the world you can ignore this one, I'm being 'Merka-centric for the moment] 'Cause you know if you don't vote you don't get to whinge about the government AT ALL for the next four years. [well, less on some things, but let's focus]Just think! At the end of the day today a miracle will happen. An honest to goodness, realio trulio

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-71453229310969978092008-11-01T11:56:00.000-07:002008-11-01T11:58:45.266-07:00

On today's hike:Child 1: Hmmm... the trail forks here.Me: Yes, but see that one goes that way and this one goes this way. [slight pause for thought] That is the Way of the Trail.Child 1: [with deep respect] You are wise in the Way of the Trail!Child 2: [disgusted as we snort] You are just so weird.

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-59047839565951074742008-10-29T12:01:00.000-07:002008-10-29T12:05:20.736-07:00

No time today so I thought I'd cheat and just post this photo I found the other day. I was going through a box - a box I'd put off going through for ages. The kind of box that starts out holding non-vital but important stuff that should be sorted and saved and filed and generally organized and ends up collecting more and more such items, always with the intention that yes, when I have a moment

Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4