Category Archives: Politics

7 Quick Takes — Raindances

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7 Quick Takes

After having one of the driest Decembers on record, we’re receiving a few weather systems that should make a dent in our needed rainfall and hopefully add some snow to the Sierras. (Yes, I’m fully aware that “Sierras” is like writing “mountainses”. However, everyone around here pluralizes it.)

— 1 —

If you view my blog as a whole, there’s a sticky post at the top which explains the button on the sidebar. Restating it briefly, I can’t throw my weight behind any of the GOP candidates, so I’m supporting Obama. The political discussion on this blog regarding the 2012 election stops at that point (Twitter is another story) and I’m perfectly OK with anyone who wants to pass over my blog until November 7th. I’m not going to gripe about any of the GOP debates or any candidate — the only complaining I may do is about the number of political ads on TV come autumn.

— 2 —

I think everybody in the pro-life movement needs to read this. Kate is another Quick Takes blogger and she is so perfectly on-the-money with what she has to say. I have friends on both sides of the issue and she brings a lot of grace to the pro-life side of it. (Thank you to Katie @ NFP and Me for re-tweeting it.)

— 3 —

I have parent training this weekend for the autism program that will be working with Daniel. I’d prefer doing it over two Saturdays instead of Saturday/Sunday but the only way we can have this in place before Daniel turns three is for me to do it this weekend. I’ve almost got the care schedule for Sunday morning in place and I’m thankful that the people of Metanoia are so awesome to offer to take care of him while Jon is conducting worship and teaching Sunday school. (For those not in the know, I’m married to a Lutheran pastor.) We get an hour-long break for lunch so I’ll definitely be charging my NOOK so I can curl up with it during lunch. (It also has a pad of paper in the cover so I can take copious notes.)

— 4 —

I just found out that a seminary friend of mine is pregnant again… with triplets. I managed not to remark that she was going to have her hands full — I imagine that there will be plenty of people telling her that in her congregation. I’m hoping for a healthy pregnancy for her — pregnancies of multiples can be tricky by nature. (The hospital where I used to live in Montana refused to deliver twins or higher because there was so much that could go wrong.)

— 5 —

I had lobster for the first time last weekend at the lobster feed put on by the Chamber of Commerce. Honestly, it’s not my first choice for shellfish — it was a little bit too rich. The shrimp from the Low Country Boil on the other hand… I wish I’d taken some of it home with me although at the time, the thought of more food was more than I could handle. It was a fun evening and I’m thankful to one of my parishioners for inviting me to go with her.

— 6 —

I have to admit that I’m somewhat amused at the revelation that Paula Deen has Type II diabetes. There are a number of people crying “HYPOCRITE!!!” at her because she pushed her high-fat comfort food while living with the condition and I don’t doubt she is a bit guilty of hypocrisy; but people also had a choice to follow her recipes and eat that food. She claims to have always preached moderation and that’s something that we Americans have problems in practicing. The normal dinner plate size has increased insanely in the last 30-40 years and having appetizers, an entrée, and dessert at most major restaurant chains will use up your daily allowance of calories in just that meal in addition to all the excess fat and sodium.

— 7 —

I’m getting kind of addicted to the Friday lunch special at the local sushi place. Soup, salad, teryaki chicken or beef, rice, and a roll of choice for under $15. It works. They’re also more than happy to let me just sit and read after I eat.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

A Conversation Regarding Gun Control

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One of our deacons (who is seriously awesome and whose wife is one of the people I’m close to at Metanoia) was over fixing curtain rods yesterday and the following exchange happened.

D: Deacon
J: Jen!

D: Hopefully, you don’t mind that I’m collecting dust in a shell box (used for shotgun shells). Then again, you’ve lived in Montana so this is probably normal.
J: Yeah… I’m pretty aware that people own and shoot guns.
D: You’re from northern California though, right?
J: Yeah… total granola hippie but I’m not against guns and all that within reason. You don’t need a semi-automatic weapon to shoot Bambi.
D: *proceeds to explain to me the difference between semi-automatic and fully-automatic*

I amended my opinion to now opposing military grade weaponry for hunting purposes. You can take out Bambi (who is an 8-point buck) with one shot. You don’t need to zipper him.

7 Quick Takes — Brought to You by Fibromyalgia Grumping

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7 Quick Takes

I haven’t gotten half decent sleep since… yeah, it’s been that long but it’s been especially bad this week which means that my fibromyalgia is flaring up. This means that I’m in a boatload of pain and in an extra cranky mood. Jon had to be in the office and doing visits today but his day off is tomorrow and that means I get to sleep in guilt-free. (OK… so I also slept in on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but that had to do with having problems sleeping and having to be more than semi-comatose to take care of Daniel.)

— 1 —

I still have remnants of the mutant death cold from Thanksgiving. I still have random coughing spasms that wake me up and keep me up at night. I was almost coughing to the point of vomiting on Tuesday night and my dad ended up bringing a couple packages of Ricola to the guestroom — I guess I was waking him up and keeping him up. I don’t know what specifically is irritated and causing it — it’s not asthma-related so my inhaler and nebulizer are useless against it.

— 2 —

I see that the Rose Parade is being held on Monday. The joke is that it (almost) never rains on the Rose Parade because the organizers have a deal with God: they don’t hold it on Sunday and God gives them good weather. It illustrates the fallacy of prayer making God into the Cosmic Vending Machine but it is curious that they usually have amazing weather even though it falls during the rainy season.

— 3 —

There’s a new season of The Biggest Loser starting. The only problem is that it’s on at the same time as NCIS:Los Angeles. I missed pretty much all of last season — I only caught the Thanksgiving show where they showed who kept the weight off. I think I’m going to have to pick a night to watch it online or something.

— 4 —

My resolution for 2012: be more active. Fibro can be a catch-22. It helps to be active and get moderate exercise but… the pain makes doing so difficult, especially with me because I’m also under a huge amount of stress and that exacerbates things. I think I’m going to have to be super intentional about taking the time out to go for a walk, do playground stuff with Daniel, or just… DO SOMETHING.

— 5 —

I’m getting a ton of political fundraising emails. Apparently, there’s a huge FEC deadline on December 31, 2011 and all the political stuff I support are hitting me up for money. Can I honestly say that I’m really not looking forward to all the politics and media crud that will be coming soon?

— 6 —

I had to put down The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It was interesting in the beginning but it seems like Grossman took the whole Harry Potter thing and twisted into this dark and fatalist thing. It did sort of keep my attention but it was also depressing how hopeless the characters attitudes were. I still haven’t used up my whole gift certificate from my birthday and I have an additional one from my sister-in-law that she gave me for Christmas so I think it’s time that I invested in some stuff that I do want to read. I also finally figured out how to “close” books on my Nook. Go me!

— 7 —

I did the Saint’s Name Generator again this year. For 2011, I had St. Gianna Beretta Molla which was good because I did need to get to know her better, especially as she also had a killer pregnancy (which unlike me, did eventually kill her). My saint for 2012 is St. Luke which should be interesting. I think this will be a year of reading his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. As a Lutheran, we don’t revere saints in the same way as Catholics or Orthodox do — for us, it’s more of “this is a person we should emulate”. I think I’ll be pondering some of these things internally for awhile.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes — Awkward!

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7 Quick Takes

Yeah… it’s been one of those weeks.

— 1 —

I drove back from San Jose on Sunday morning to try and make it to church in time for the Christmas pageant. Unfortunately, a certain two year old decided to be grumpy and throw tantrums. I’m thankful that people at church understand that he is acting his age and didn’t get too crabby about it.

— 2 —

I got my Christmas cards done on Monday night. The first 75 people on my list got cards with an un-Photoshopped picture on it. It’s not a bad picture — it’s Jon, Daniel, and I walking around at the Sacramento Zoo… with me wearing a shirt that exposed my navel. Oops! I didn’t think it would be glaringly obvious when I ordered the cards but it was. I tried coloring it with a sharpie pen. No luck. Oh well. If people are going to flip out over this, they don’t need to be on my Christmas card list.

— 3 —

I had a WIC appointment on Tuesday morning. The new office is only a few blocks from home which is good. However, it’s cold and foggy in the mornings these days so we drove. Daniel did not want to play with the toys there — he wanted to open and close doors/drawers and play with the printer. Cue tantrums. The scale was also being catty and it was hard to get a good weight on him until we just decided to use the baby scale. I’m thankful that the WIC people were chill about him wanting to take apart the office and that the dietician was great about him tantruming. She gave us some suggestions for things to try with him and one of them (a tortilla roll-up with pub cheese or cream cheese) works.

— 4 —

After physical therapy on Tuesday, we went to Trader Joe’s. We got some yogurt-covered stars and cat cookies for Daniel. I discovered after eating a couple star cookies that they aren’t good for those who are lactose-intolerant. Oops!

— 5 —

I had to deal with flea market traffic on Wednesday. I despise the trading/flea market in the town where I live, especially because people see no problem with taking up library parking spaces because they are too lazy to try to find them in the regular places to park. (I wish they would ticket the cars, especially on Tuesdays when there is no reason that parking lot should be full before 11:50 a.m. as the library isn’t open until noon that day.) Anyway, I was turning to go toward the freeway when three cars sped up and almost hit me. I leaned in on my horn and leaned in on it again when the last car was weaving. About the time that I finished honking at them, a community police car passed me. I was really hoping that he wasn’t going to try and pull me over because I was in a hurry and trying to get to Elk Grove to pick something up before heading on to speech in Sacramento.

— 6 —

House Republicans passed the payroll tax cut. I think my representative’s office has put me on the “please for the love of God stop calling — we’ll do whatever it is you want!!!!!!!!!” list. 🙂 Considering that the Republicans had to re-convene, this is kind of AWKWARD for them.

— 7 —

I don’t have a #7 for you. Oh well… maybe next week.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Purging My Brain

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It’s 7:52 a.m. — an hour at which I have never risen joyfully, even when I worked at UPS and loved my job. (This also includes the times I got up at 6 to kick-box before work.) I woke up at 4:15 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Instead of going and making myself some Instant Breakfast, I played online and listened to podcasts. Bad idea. So… I’m going to purge my brain so that I can go back to sleep (if Jon does office hours from home this morning) or at least cat-nap (if he doesn’t).

[+] Lowe’s, you suck. I could understand if you pulled advertising from “All-American Muslim” because you disagreed with how the show portrayed Muslims and felt that it was not a correct representation of life in America in a Muslim household. (I’ve read non-biased opinions of the show that say that it isn’t really all that accurate. Then again, Islam is as diverse as Christianity in terms of practice and how people observe the tenets of the faith.) Instead, you caved into a group that claims that all Muslims are terrorists. I’ve signed eleventy billion petitions to boycott you and have your CEO removed. Apologize, OK?

[+] Daniel had a good park date with his physical therapist yesterday. We met S at a park in Elk Grove that’s tailored for younger kids and we got him working on climbing things, going down slides, doing steps, going on suspension bridges… It was great. S is also trying to hook us up with a play group in Elk Grove so he can be around other kids.

[+] I’m finally getting over the mutant death cold that landed Daniel in the hospital and gave me a sinus/bronchial infection. We have an appointment with his pediatrician today to re-check him and to maybe try and come up with a strategy so that we don’t have another hospitalization.

[+] Ahem CW… you picked two of the crappier episodes of “Hart of Dixie” to show on Monday. Could we remedy this please?

[+] We got Daniel on a sippy cup and off the bottle cold turkey on Thursday. This meant TODDLER RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but it was worth it.

[+] I have online shopping to do once Jon gets paid tomorrow and then I’ll be DONE for Christmas. I have to toss a box in the mail to Claremont today but that will be once I have brain cells to spare.

OK… going back to bed.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: November 8, 2011

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY October 8, 2011

Outside my window… dark. Daniel didn’t take a traditional nap so I didn’t get to do this earlier.

I am thinking… about something that a Canadian friend asked me regarding the healthcare debacle. Paraphrased: “Why are people so against paying money into a fund to help out other people?”

I am thankful… for the moms who disciplined their kids who pushed Daniel aside or pushed ahead of him during our playground date for physical therapy.

In the kitchen… jambalaya tonight from Zatarain’s and will make my family’s chicken recipe probably tomorrow.

I am wearing… brown long-sleeved stretchy shirt, jeans, and cat socks.

I am creating… secret crocheting projects and my NaNo piece.

I am going… to enjoy NCIS night.

I am reading… Shirt of Flame by Heather King.

I am hoping… speech therapy goes well tomorrow.

I am looking forward to… my massage on Friday.

I am hearing… the news and Daniel squalling.

Around the house… furnace just got fixed.

I am pondering… many things in my heart.

One of my favorite things… Daniel snuggled up with me in the morning watching cartoons.

A few plans for the rest of the week… speech therapy, child development on Thursday, occupational therapy, and massage on Friday.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

7 Quick Takes — More of the Same

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

I need to apologize to someone. Elia of ConservaMom has been referring to the Occupy protesters as “dopes” and instead of just ignoring her site and not reading it (which is what I do when I come across sites that make me want to throw things), I left a really terse comment. She responded to all my points more gracefully than I deserved and I owe her an apology for the comment I left. Elia, I’m sorry. In the future, I’ll just skip her blog on the Quick Takes list. I also still resent her calling the Occupy protesters “dopes” but it’s something on which I’ll have to agree to disagree with her.

— 2 —

The shots of Morgan at the end of CSI this week reminds me of the way I feel like I look at the end of the day. For those who aren’t CSI addicts like I am, she had been in a helicopter that had been hijacked and shot down. There are a lot of days where I feel like I’ve had all those things happen during the day. Yes, I’m a stay-at-home mom and yes, I only have one child. However, Daniel isn’t your normal child and I feel like I’m constantly on my toes trying to reinforce what we do in therapies and also trying to keep the “terrible two’s destructiveness” to a minimum.

— 3 —

KFC has a new famous bowl which features bacon and cheese. I can’t believe people eat stuff like this. It’s mashed potatoes, chicken, cheese, and bacon in a bowl. They were talking about it on KLOVE on Wednesday with people calling in and playing “can you top this?” with worse foods. One mentioned was on the Denny’s menu and it’s a patty melt with mac n’ cheese in it. My dearly departed gallbladder is seizing in a specimen jar someplace.

— 4 —

Speaking of food, I made quinoa for the first time this week. For those not in the know, it’s a “pseudo-cereal” grain-type plant from South America that is a complete protein and has a number of nutrients like iron and calcium. It looks like birdseed and it has a nutty flavor that’s kind of like that of some wild rice components. Daniel didn’t care for the texture though I ate it quite willingly. (I had made my family’s chicken recipe and the sauce will make anything taste good.) I’m scanning all my recipe websites for other things to do with it because it’s not something that would work with pesto. (The grains are too small — it really does look like birdseed.)

— 5 —

I’m currently reading Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux by Heather King. I’ve gotten partway into the introduction and I think I’m going to have to read the chapters in their entirety like I would an essay. It’s so new that it’s not available for my e-reader so I have an actual paper copy. (I like my Nook but I also love real books.)

— 6 —

We have a new speech therapist for Daniel. His former speech therapist is having surgery so Easter Seals put us with a new one. She’s a sweetheart and just engaged Daniel in whatever he wanted to do, which was putting things into a sorter and opening/closing the doors of it. (I learned the signs for “open” and “close” today.) It was educational for me because it showed me that I need to stop flipping out about Daniel not engaging and going with the program. As my mom reminded me, these therapists get paid to do this and it’s not the first time they’ve dealt with an obstinate child. His new therapist is also just going to piggy-back on whatever we’re doing in other therapies.

— 7 —

I have had to change some of the names in my NaNo piece to protect the stupid. If I were to ever edit my piece and submit it for publication, I would have to go back in and redo all the names of the stupid people because I based them on the initials of the real life people from whom I was drawing the inspiration. (Believe me… there could be some really good slander suits if the real life people could reasonably connect themselves to what I wrote.) So… I’m having to go back into my plans and do a “find and replace” — I just wish OneNote gave me the option to replace whatever I found.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.