Seth sometimes doesn't want me to read the paper because of my strong responses. I'm going to try to keep the stronger responses bottled up inside and only respond to the other stuff.
Scientists find extreme galaxy Washington>>Scientists have found a galaxy that gives birth to more stars in a day than ours does in a year. Astronomers used NASA's Chandra X-Ray telescope to spot this distant gigantic galaxy creating about 740 stars a year. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy spawns just about one new star each year. The galaxy is about 5.7 billion light-years away in the center of a cluster of galaxies that give off the brightest x-ray glow astronomers have seen.
-First response: We're not capitalizing the important words in titles anymore, Wire Services? That's lame. It's news, after all.
-Second: EXTREME GALAXY!!! The Tony Hawk Galaxy? The Shaun White Galaxy? Everything's so EXTREME! these days!
- Third: ewww! Galaxies giving birth to stars. Too graphic!
-Fourth: A Gigantic, Extreme Galaxy actually does sound pretty cool.
Bumbo Baby Seats recalled Washington>>About 4 million Bumbo Baby Seats are being recalled after nearly two dozen reports of infant skull fractures. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says babies can wiggle out of the floor seats.
-First response: This is super lame. Two Dozen? That's it? That doesn't sound like a dangerous product. This sounds like a case of irresponsible parents badmouthing a company/product that has helped millions of responsible parents.
-Second: It says right on it not to use it on tables or chairs. FLOOR ONLY. I have five little ones of my own, and I will be the first one to tell you that babies are made of rubber. Babies heads will be, what? 12 inches off the floor? in a properly used Bumbo. From 12 inches off the floor, no baby is going to suffer a skull fracture, even thrashing the crap on out of that Bumbo. Even baby Mr. Glass from Unbreakable.
-Third: Parental supervision. What does that phrase mean to you? Yes, you, idiot parents? That skull fracture? Your fault!
OK. It's getting a little heated in here. Let's all just simmer down now.
And Lastly: Letters to the Editor. I can't get into it here. These are the Forbidden Responses. Much too inflammatory. But I did want to say something about two things on the Editorial page.
Obesity is a parental issue [Denver Post editorial on topic of childhood obesity, government "roles" and parental responsibility]
-First response: FINALLY! Some sense on this personal and family (but NOT community!) issue.
-Second: The Post puts a provoking headline and then spends the entire editorial piece talking about Government Commissions and Michelle Obama and then tacks one little paragraph on at the end about it ultimately being a parental responsibility and personal decision.
-Third: Most things are a Parental Responsibility!! As a Responsible Parent, I have to say, "Keep your government mitts off my child's weight, eating habits, nose-picking habits, and all the other things that are MY RESPONSIBILITY!"
Debating a new Walmart at former CU med campus
This one is about a series of letters responding to the zoning/public funds/NIMBY/development fight around the proposed new Walmart. I hate Walmart, because it makes me feel icky. But more than that, I hate a serious newspaper publishing letters to the editor that instead of intelligent debate, spew cynical, ironic, sarcasm to put forth their point of view. Isn't that why we're so into public education? Higher education? To teach people to express their views using words, reason and logic? Hmm?
And speaking of logic, it is a delight to me to find logical fallacies. I find them in commercials, political ads, letters to the editor, tv news stories, and newspaper articles. They're everywhere! It's way funner than trying to debate topics with boneheads. Just find the fallacy in his argument! Done and undone!
And these are my TAME responses!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
I Love Good Writing!!!
What I don't love is bad writing that gets published and made a big deal over. Seth was sharing with me just the other night the horror of opening a professionally published book and finding total crap. He forced himself to finish reading it, because Maybe! Maybe this will all be worked out and I can forgive whoever did this to humankind! Bleeaaah!! We shouldn't have to do that. My other main point is, everyone's always saying how hard it is to get published...So, if this is what DOES get published, imagine the barf-on-a-page that gets rejected!!
Ow! My brain!
Anyway, I'm reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. It's like a delightful breath of fresh air for my brain. Here are a couple lines that made me glad I can read:
"...she was spared any inward effort to change the direction of her thoughts by the appearance of a cantering horseman round a turning of the road."
"...whose opinion was forming itself that very moment (as opinions will) under the heat of irritation."
"Sir James interpreted the heightened colour in the way most gratifying to himself..."
Ah! Words! You can be such useful tools. There's nothing special about these quotes, really, except that they are well-written. And they're all from the same couple-a pages.
Pray for me to finish Middlemarch this time. It has been my goal for the last 15 years to read all the classics...I plowed through Uncle Tom's Cabin and Madame Bovary, among others. I already donated four or five dollars in late fees to the Aurora Public Library system the last time I tried to read a classic.
PS And one other awesome thing about reading the classics: the authors are able to convey thoughts, ideas, stories, personalities, and themes without ever talking about crotches!
Ow! My brain!
Anyway, I'm reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. It's like a delightful breath of fresh air for my brain. Here are a couple lines that made me glad I can read:
"...she was spared any inward effort to change the direction of her thoughts by the appearance of a cantering horseman round a turning of the road."
"...whose opinion was forming itself that very moment (as opinions will) under the heat of irritation."
"Sir James interpreted the heightened colour in the way most gratifying to himself..."
Ah! Words! You can be such useful tools. There's nothing special about these quotes, really, except that they are well-written. And they're all from the same couple-a pages.
Pray for me to finish Middlemarch this time. It has been my goal for the last 15 years to read all the classics...I plowed through Uncle Tom's Cabin and Madame Bovary, among others. I already donated four or five dollars in late fees to the Aurora Public Library system the last time I tried to read a classic.
PS And one other awesome thing about reading the classics: the authors are able to convey thoughts, ideas, stories, personalities, and themes without ever talking about crotches!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Finish Line
So the pattern says "The cardigan is a tighter fit...If you wish a looser fit you will want to knit a larger size to ensure the desired fit." If there's one thing I don't want to do, it's spend a bunch of hours knitting a sweater that's too flippin' small. So I took my measurements and went one size up from that.
I guess I've also lost 15 or 20 pounds since I first began this sweater. Anyway, it was a couple years ago that I spent all the driving time on our vacation knitting this up. I was using the hilariously large needles required to get the suggested gauge. I hated how loose and floppy the fabric was, but by the time I could tell I hated it, I had knit too much to rip it out. Ha ha! The above picture shows how much I knit before I realized there was no way I could use this garment if I finished it in this size. It was GIGANTIC. I measured it before I 86-ed it, and it measure something like 54 inches around. I bit large...
Jules, Eric, and I spent about an hour ripping and ripping the yarn, trying to separate the two separate strands of very fine-weight yarn without breaking them, and then rewinding it all. It was a stinkin' mess. It felt strangely satisfying to rip out all that work. I didn't have any regrets. What I did have was two extra balls of $8/ball yarn...
The pattern calls for six balls for the size I WAS knitting, but only four balls for the size I started knitting. Oh well; there's a lovely silk and wool scarf, socks, or hat in my future, I guess. So I heard about an event called the Ravelympics a couple years ago. The knitting/fiber online community Ravelry has people who pick a project and knit the whole dang thing while sitting and watching the Olympics. This is right up my alley. I need a strong motivation to finish things, instead of setting them aside to start something new; I watch the Olympics almost religiously; and I needed to get this sweater finished, since this is The Summer of Finishing Projects. The Trifecta!
Except I didn't have this undone and rewound by the opening ceremonies. Instead I began and finished another project, a cardigan for Jules' American Girl doll, Julie Albright. It's a cute little sweater, if a bit boxy. That was finished by Tuesday of the first week of Olympics. Thursday of that week, I had everything ready and started reknitting Barb Wire, with smaller needles and in the smallest size. It turns out I hate lace knitting. Glancing every two seconds at the chart, always worrying that I'd made a tiny mistake that would doom all the rest of my work, and knowing that it can't be washed without a bunch of TLC. Bleeeaahh.
BUT back to the project: I had a lot of time to work on it in the back seat as my brother, sister, father, and I drove to Utah for a weekend. I worked on it all week watching track and field events. I was going to make a big push and get the dang thing finished on Sunday after church. And then I discovered that I was Too Sleepy to Knit Anything. I was almost too sleepy to watch the Closing Ceremonies. I did not get the sweater finished. I stalled out on the shoulders/sleeves, the most arduous part, because it has the most stitches - 200something per row.
Bump this, is what I decided about trying to finish Sunday. Monday, though, was a beautiful cloudy day, the kind of day that makes Summer worth having. I sat by my front window all day and finished every stitch of this sweater, in between making sandwiches, changing diapers, moderating arguments, and getting boys to clean up legos. I FINISHED THE DANG SWEATER!! I used two full balls of yarn and less than a third of the next two, so I have plenty left for another full project. I'm not sure I like the fit of this sweater, but it's not blocked into shape yet. The main point is, that in the Summer of Finishing Projects, I have gotten over a major hurdle.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
We Went to a Crowded Museum
That's basically the whole thing. Last Friday, we and apparently the whole Denver Museum-going Community, decided to go to the Museum. We have our membership and pushed through the crowds to get in and show our cards. We were there for the T-Rex Experience, so we went directly up there, except that there was a line 50 yards long for the elevator so we pushed through the crowds to get to the secret back elevator. The T-Rex exhibit was really cool and it will be even cooler when we go and every single inch of floor space ISN'T taken up by a crowd of rude children who push their way right in front of the patient, well-brought-up children who actually waited their turn to try the hands-on parts of the exhibit.
Russell loved the Robot Dinosaurs, but Scott was frightened of them. There were lots of things to learn about dinosaurs and lots of things to read to your non-readers, if only the crowd weren't so dang loud and Jostly.
Anyway, despite the clear negative voice in this post, it was actually a good adventure and I think it made a memory for the children.
Russell loved the Robot Dinosaurs, but Scott was frightened of them. There were lots of things to learn about dinosaurs and lots of things to read to your non-readers, if only the crowd weren't so dang loud and Jostly.
Anyway, despite the clear negative voice in this post, it was actually a good adventure and I think it made a memory for the children.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Jury Duty
I had it.
That's the news! Bye!
Just kidding. I totally had Jury Duty today. Everyone is always griping and trying to get out of it, so maybe I'm missing something. I had a total blast!!
It was a bummer to have to get the children up and ready so early and shovel them off on someone else, plus it was a bummer to have to drive through the construction site at Parker and Arapahoe Roads. That was the worst part of the whole thing, besides the intense coffee stench in the Jury Waiting Room. I deliberately didn't take anything extra into the courthouse, so I breezed through security. I thought it was funny that knitting needles and crochet hooks are specifically forbidden, but then they freely hand out pens, which can not only poke people, but can also give you an accidental tatto if you get poked just so. Plus, like I'm going to commit "A Time to Kill" by poking someone to death with a tiny knitting needle 2 mm in circumference, right there in the courthouse with all those officers of the peace around. I brought a book instead of knitting.
It's all really well labeled for Jurors. You just go in the line, which moves quickly. The employees are way nicer than the DMV people. After check-in, you just wait until your name is called. There were six jury trials today, with 65 potential jurors for each, so there was a large crowd of us. They asked us several times to scootch in and let the late-comers have the empty seats, but my main point is, a) I have crowd-a-phobia, so there's no way I'm deliberately scrunching right up next to a total stranger, and b) the latecomers can come right into the aisle and sit in the empty chairs if they want to sit down so bad. Then it was just a bunch of reading and waiting. I closed my book every time they would call jurors for a trial; my name was finally called for the fourth trial, the civil trial. The others were criminal.
The part that was really cool was when we went up to the courtroom. I was juror #9 for our trial and they seat you by number, so I was in the second row in the jury box. I got a big comfy chair. I expected the courtroom to be sterile, modern, and ugly, but there was lots of wood paneling and it was fairly respectable. Plus on our way up, I made myself laugh by doing that "gun-gungggg" noise from Law and Order. There were people "Yessir-ing" the judge. The case turned out to be about two people suing each other about a commercial property mortgage foreclosure. I was so proud of myself, because when they read the complaints back and forth, I was unable to come to a snap judgement about who was right and who was wrong. I was ready to make a fair and impartial decision based on the prepoderance of evidence.
They only needed 6 jurors, though. Only the popular potential jurors got picked...so you can guess why I'm at home blogging about this now. I stopped for lunch in the courthouse cafeteria because, When am I ever going to be in there again? They start the trial right then, the instant they release all the unnecessary extra jurors. They took a lunch break pretty soon after that; I heard one of the defendants and his lawyer talking behind me on my way out to the parking lot. He was saying how there were already too many theatrics from the other counsel and how the judge seemed tired of it already. I agreed, actually. The other lawyer was hamming it up just in juror selection, trying to influence us to his point of view.
Anyway, I'll gladly serve on a jury in the future. It was a cool experience and everyone should stop grousing about it and be thankful they live in a country where you can get a fair trial, for cryin' out loud in the night!
That's the news! Bye!
Just kidding. I totally had Jury Duty today. Everyone is always griping and trying to get out of it, so maybe I'm missing something. I had a total blast!!
It was a bummer to have to get the children up and ready so early and shovel them off on someone else, plus it was a bummer to have to drive through the construction site at Parker and Arapahoe Roads. That was the worst part of the whole thing, besides the intense coffee stench in the Jury Waiting Room. I deliberately didn't take anything extra into the courthouse, so I breezed through security. I thought it was funny that knitting needles and crochet hooks are specifically forbidden, but then they freely hand out pens, which can not only poke people, but can also give you an accidental tatto if you get poked just so. Plus, like I'm going to commit "A Time to Kill" by poking someone to death with a tiny knitting needle 2 mm in circumference, right there in the courthouse with all those officers of the peace around. I brought a book instead of knitting.
It's all really well labeled for Jurors. You just go in the line, which moves quickly. The employees are way nicer than the DMV people. After check-in, you just wait until your name is called. There were six jury trials today, with 65 potential jurors for each, so there was a large crowd of us. They asked us several times to scootch in and let the late-comers have the empty seats, but my main point is, a) I have crowd-a-phobia, so there's no way I'm deliberately scrunching right up next to a total stranger, and b) the latecomers can come right into the aisle and sit in the empty chairs if they want to sit down so bad. Then it was just a bunch of reading and waiting. I closed my book every time they would call jurors for a trial; my name was finally called for the fourth trial, the civil trial. The others were criminal.
The part that was really cool was when we went up to the courtroom. I was juror #9 for our trial and they seat you by number, so I was in the second row in the jury box. I got a big comfy chair. I expected the courtroom to be sterile, modern, and ugly, but there was lots of wood paneling and it was fairly respectable. Plus on our way up, I made myself laugh by doing that "gun-gungggg" noise from Law and Order. There were people "Yessir-ing" the judge. The case turned out to be about two people suing each other about a commercial property mortgage foreclosure. I was so proud of myself, because when they read the complaints back and forth, I was unable to come to a snap judgement about who was right and who was wrong. I was ready to make a fair and impartial decision based on the prepoderance of evidence.
They only needed 6 jurors, though. Only the popular potential jurors got picked...so you can guess why I'm at home blogging about this now. I stopped for lunch in the courthouse cafeteria because, When am I ever going to be in there again? They start the trial right then, the instant they release all the unnecessary extra jurors. They took a lunch break pretty soon after that; I heard one of the defendants and his lawyer talking behind me on my way out to the parking lot. He was saying how there were already too many theatrics from the other counsel and how the judge seemed tired of it already. I agreed, actually. The other lawyer was hamming it up just in juror selection, trying to influence us to his point of view.
Anyway, I'll gladly serve on a jury in the future. It was a cool experience and everyone should stop grousing about it and be thankful they live in a country where you can get a fair trial, for cryin' out loud in the night!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Friday Adventure Day
Well, this last Friday we had a big adventure day. We didn't have one big adventure, but we had constant adventures for the whole big day.
First, I woke the children up "early" and we went to the museum first thing. We bought a membership last month: we tried to go to the zoo and buy a membership but the parking lot was so packed we went to the museum instead. So Friday, we used our membership to get in free and we also used it to get reduced-price tickets to the planetarium show. We usually go in the Space Odyssey exhibit first, but for some reason it was all packed, so we went in Gems and Minerals first. When we came out of Gems and Minerals to go to our planetarium show, I realized why Space Odyssey was so packed: the dang historical last space shuttle launch. We were right there, and they had a whole big thing with tv cameras and special exhibits and tv crews, and we were next door in Gems and Minerals. DANG IT!!! Oh well.
Anyway, we wandered onto the roof, where we discovered they had a sun telescope set up. We each took a turn looking in and saw sunspots AND solar flares. The solar flares were SUPER COOL.
When we returned home, super tired, from that, Seth was also arriving home from his half-day continuing education CPA class. He took the afternoon off and we all went to the town pool. They give the children a free pass at the end of swim lessons, that's good for one adult and one child to swim so we used those. The thing was, just as we left our house, it was sunny. Half-way to the pool, the sky was dark and lightning was flashing. I thought we'd have to ditch our plans, but instead genius Seth takes us to the indoor town pool. Genius!
I actually don't like swimming that much, plus I'm still all baby-fat, so I wasn't having a very fun time until I took a spin on the twisty waterslide. It is AWESOME!! I didn't do any other swimming; I just went around and around, time after time on the water slide.
Then when we got home from that, Eric and Jules were invited to sleep over at the cousins' house. We took them over there, and the three little boys were all so tuckered out from our big day that they fell asleep instantly and Seth and I had a lovely quiet date night.
First, I woke the children up "early" and we went to the museum first thing. We bought a membership last month: we tried to go to the zoo and buy a membership but the parking lot was so packed we went to the museum instead. So Friday, we used our membership to get in free and we also used it to get reduced-price tickets to the planetarium show. We usually go in the Space Odyssey exhibit first, but for some reason it was all packed, so we went in Gems and Minerals first. When we came out of Gems and Minerals to go to our planetarium show, I realized why Space Odyssey was so packed: the dang historical last space shuttle launch. We were right there, and they had a whole big thing with tv cameras and special exhibits and tv crews, and we were next door in Gems and Minerals. DANG IT!!! Oh well.
Anyway, we wandered onto the roof, where we discovered they had a sun telescope set up. We each took a turn looking in and saw sunspots AND solar flares. The solar flares were SUPER COOL.
When we returned home, super tired, from that, Seth was also arriving home from his half-day continuing education CPA class. He took the afternoon off and we all went to the town pool. They give the children a free pass at the end of swim lessons, that's good for one adult and one child to swim so we used those. The thing was, just as we left our house, it was sunny. Half-way to the pool, the sky was dark and lightning was flashing. I thought we'd have to ditch our plans, but instead genius Seth takes us to the indoor town pool. Genius!
I actually don't like swimming that much, plus I'm still all baby-fat, so I wasn't having a very fun time until I took a spin on the twisty waterslide. It is AWESOME!! I didn't do any other swimming; I just went around and around, time after time on the water slide.
Then when we got home from that, Eric and Jules were invited to sleep over at the cousins' house. We took them over there, and the three little boys were all so tuckered out from our big day that they fell asleep instantly and Seth and I had a lovely quiet date night.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
I HAD A BABY!
This is old news for some of you. After a threatened miscarriage, a hard recovery from cerclage surgery, and many difficult months trying to be a mother to four children while physically disabled by pregnancy, our son was finally born.
Mark Bryant Leech came on May 10th, at 2:11 pm, after 10 hours of weird labor. I think if I had walked around and been upright for longer, labor wouldn't have been so weird. But I test positive for group B strep and needed IV antibiotics for the baby before delivery, so I went in as early as possible to the hospital. Anyway, baby Mark threatened to need a c-section with his little reduced heart rate, but we ended up not needing one, THANK GOODNESS.
I recovered quickly from the delivery and Mark started out as an absolute living doll of a baby. He's a little gassy now, but he's still pretty dang good.
Mark Bryant Leech came on May 10th, at 2:11 pm, after 10 hours of weird labor. I think if I had walked around and been upright for longer, labor wouldn't have been so weird. But I test positive for group B strep and needed IV antibiotics for the baby before delivery, so I went in as early as possible to the hospital. Anyway, baby Mark threatened to need a c-section with his little reduced heart rate, but we ended up not needing one, THANK GOODNESS.
I recovered quickly from the delivery and Mark started out as an absolute living doll of a baby. He's a little gassy now, but he's still pretty dang good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
