"How To Increase Smeen Production? 44 Crucial Steps New Power Plants To Run Onn hCicken Droppings"

All one spam...

A meme from maricelt (by way of frualeydis:
1. Anyone who looks at this entry please post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.
2. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper.
3. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on.

Mine is this:
http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archives/2006/08/15/yakushima_forest.html

It's beautiful, and green and alive. I don't really have five sentences.

I miss him. After all this time, five years of marriage, seven years together, two children, all manner of ups and downs, I am still deeply, deeply in love with my man.

I wish there was some way I could tell him today and have it get there in less than three weeks. Well, I can do that much, so into a letter it goes.

From the one voted Most Likely to Eat Her Own Young.

I got a phonecall from him today. We got to talk fro almost 15 minutes.

We talked about his care packages and the kids and how I can't sleep in our bed without piling blankets and pillows on his side of it and other mundane things. For a second it was like an ordinary day and we were just bsing and it was so nice.

And now it's been a few minutes since I hung up and ...

I miss him SO MUCH.

Can we be done with this kind of crap now? Everywhere there are people going on about "THEY are ruining things!!! THEY scare me. THEY are weird!" With "THEY" being whatever group the speakers are fearful of: gays, guys on motorcycles, people with different skin colors or religions or languages, people who eat lots of garlic, people who live in another town, women, men, children, people with strange fashion sense, police, whatever.

I have this to say about that: People are people and some of them suck or have irritating personal habits or cultural differences that seem weird, but FFS, don't equate individual people with everyone of a given group. That's stupid, childish and reveals a lack of abstract thought or the willingness to put effort toward using abstract thought.

It's the personal-interaction equivalent of not understanding why there's nobody behind the mirror making faces back at you. Make the effort. Let go of the blame, drop the scandalized attitude. You are not cavemen. Evolve a little.

...but it still hates me.

It's a big chunk, that "done" part, but not big enough.

Frak you, Donut of Misery.

... and it hates me.

That is all.

The kids Would Have None Of That. Sigh.

Oh well, I tried, and they followed me around turning everything on again.

Our president has fangirls. O_<

I have no idea how I feel about that.

I got a phonecall today.

Wow.

I'm floored and happy and I think I can ride on this high for a week.

But I still cried after he hung up.

Last night, the man who wasn't my grandfather died. We were not related much at all, but he, his wife, and my mother had been great friends for a long time, and they regarded her as a supplementary daughter.

We were the only grandchildren they had, me and my siblings, and then I had kids and they had some great grandkids. And we sent pictures and talked on the phone with them.

It's been a long time coming, this. He's been too sick to visit for years, adn sick for much, much longer than that. They kept fending off his cancer until he wore out.

My kids never met him, but they got to hear his wonderful voice.

I wish my husband had gotten to meet him. I miss his stories. I will always miss his stories. Wonderful stories.

Goodbye, papa J. My tears are all for selfish reasons because I really feel the world is less without you in it. And that's not fair.

James called me Mommy today. He said it TWICE. The last time he called me mommy was a few months ago.

It's worth noting, anwyay, so I can come back and see it.

I find myself unwilling to trade months of heartache for less laundry, fewer dirty dishes and no soda cans in my recycling bin. Not that I get a choice.

From dolls09

More pics below, in ze flash thingy:

This is mostly copied from my Other Blog. This missive is not "against" the CPSIA, however, I am worried about how that very necessary piece of legislation has been, and continues to be, mishandled by the vary people who should be making it work. As it stands, it's not doing any good, and won't be able to do any good, until the blame stops being passed back and forth between the CPSC and the Committee for Energy and Commerce.

Like many, many other parents, I was delighted that there were now steps being taken to test imported, lead-contaminated toys. I still am. I am delighted that the toys and clothes and feeding items available to me will be safer in the future. ( However, there is something gravely wrong with this necessary, well-intentioned law. )

That's where I am. It's not a pleasant place to be. It's like looking at the burnt-out shell of a home you once loved. What's worse is that I'm not alone. It's like a huge city has been obliterated, and we all have to start over.

This has been long-winded, but people in despair want to talk about it. It usually helps to do so. So far, my letters, calls and emails have been ignored. So far, it looks bleak.

At least our inspiration can't be outlawed. I can only hope that next year, some of us can emerge from the wreckage, like cicadas, and begin again.

http://www.change.org/ideas?order=top#listSection It's #4. We have only a couple of days left to vote.

Right now, it will still effectively put all handcrafts businesses that make children's items OUT OF BUSINESS, or drastically reduce the number of items available. There is no provision for component testing, so one-of-a-kind items (dolls, bears, clothes, etc) will become a thing of the past, as unit testing (the only option allowed under the law) destroys the item.

There is also no regulation of testing costs (complete, required tests cost between a few hundred and several thousand per item), few labs available to do testing, and enormous penalties (jail time and fines up to 100,000 dollars) for not providing proof of testing.

Please vote this up - right now the "legalize pot" idea is at the top of the finalists list, and that looks kind of bad, don't you think?

Hot today. Fraking freezing tonight.

W. T. F. Weather!

We just returned from a long distance trip to my in-laws Halfway across the country. We were away from before Christmas to after New Year's. Two days of hard driving in each direction, a horrible hotel on the way there and a decent one on the way back, and an airbed in between. We are very, very glad to be home.

Salient negatives:

• Even a good airbed is terrible for longer than a few days.
  
• Driving for more than 10 hours is painful
  
• Riding in a car for more than 10 hours is also painful
  
• ... even with breaks
  
• Don't take the last available room in any motel
  
• I am definitely not able to eat eggs anymore
  
• ... don't ask how I know that now
  
• Decaf iced tea is thirst quenching but does not help me stay awake
  
• We discovered that BabyJ's carseat was VERY expired when we replaced it on Jan 1
  
• I forgot to finish the dishes the night before we left (ew)
  
• ... also BabyJ hid a plate of snacks under the couch and I found it last night.
  
• My FIL is not well, very much so.
  
• My BIL is not well, but he'll probably get better
  
• I brought no books and only one project
  
• ... then I broke a knitting needle
  
• I think the timer on the fishtank's light didn't work while were gone
  

Salient positives:

• The boys loved playing with all the cousins
  
• Hilariously, FX is now his slightly older cousin's Official Minion
  
• Said slightly older cousin is turning out okay, if a little emo
  
• There was hardly any drama
  
• ... even on Xmas
  
• We got to see C's grandma
  
• We got a replacement seat and got it in without incident
  
• The trip out and the trip back were mechanically uneventful
  
• We managed presents for everyone
  
• The kids got nice presents and had a good time
  
• We have family pictures
  
• ... of everyone on C's side
  
• We paused the New Year
  
• ... I suggested it
  
• I finished half of the project I brought
  
• All the stuff we brought that wasn't presents came home with us
  
• BabyJ got to hang out with dogs and a cat.
  
• ... and only pissed off the cat once
  
• We were all incredibly happy to be back home
  
• ... so much so that FX went straight to bed
  
• ... and even BabyJ went to his own bed once he ran around for an hour
  
• ... and we all slept in this morning
  
• The dishes I left weren't too bad
  
• ... and the snack plate hidden under the couch was not gone when we got back
  
• Finally, all our fish survived our absence, apparently without noticing it
  
• ... even accounting for the broken light
  

So we are home, and happy to be here.

Belated winter-holiday-of-your-choice greetings to everyone, and Happy New Year.

I have dishes to do now.

Why did no one tell me about these and these and these?

So funny. SO BAD.