Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Registering only Republicans

Here's what's scary about this: everything.

A young woman, completely ignorant of how even the *registration* process works, is caught doing something that she was told to do by someone with obviously illegal motives--- if indeed she is working for the county clerk's office.

The scariest thing about it: she's a young woman that has no idea that if Romney/Ryan get elected, their first order of business is to set up shop in her reproductive system and tell her when and how she will procreate. Heaven forbid she might get pregnant as a result of a rape: if that tragedy would come to pass, it would be obvious to Romney/Ryan and his ilk that she wasn't *really* raped, right? Since during a *legitimate* rape a woman's body just shuts down... ergo, if she would get pregnant after a sexual assault, it wasn't *really* a sexual assault...

These same candidates will make it harder for her to borrow money to go to college. Too, she would likely pay more in taxes under the Romney/Ryan "plan." She could likely kiss social security and medicare goodbye for her grandparents. This poor child is the face of the millions being brainwashed by the Republican ticket this fall and I'll be damned if I am going to sit by and them win...


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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Home, Home on the Plains (in every sense of that word)

I hope I don't offend any flatlanders with what I am about to type here (I am a native flatlander myself) but the Great Plains here in central Indiana are "plain" indeed compared to the great "range" out West.

We just got home from an extended stay near Yellowstone, WY. We went to the park/forest five days and saw some amazing things.

Here's just one (Lower Canyon Falls from Artist's Point):



About 30 minutes before I took this picture we hiked down Uncle Tom's Trail to the left of the falls in the picture above and I shot a video that blogger won't let me upload... I am still learning the interface!

We had an incredible time and just enjoyed spending time away in nature and managed to do pretty much everything we set out to do and then some. Our plan is to go back next May sometime for a longer stay in the park itself... since we did most of the major spots on the loop, next trip we are planning to go a bit off the beaten path.

Our drive home from the airport in Indy was at 1 a.m. this morning and I was glad we drove in the dark so we wouldn't be immediately reminded of how flat and frankly, dull, the landscape is here. However, there are lots of places for us to visit down south in Indiana where nature shows a bit more character... and hopefully I will have time in the coming months to post about what we find in our own part of the world before heading back out west...

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Friday, July 27, 2012

Who the Eff is Kunoichi?

You know, once upon a time I *might* have felt a bit "competent" using blogger... I mean, I could add gadgets, change my layout, archive my posts, use random punctuation marks for emPHAsis on the proper syllAble/word.

Apparently, I have lost what little ability I carved out for myself, but I did manage to be able to see my blog again yesterday after pleading to the blogger godds [sic] for help and being rewarded by discovering that some javascript in a widget I installed 3+ years ago had utterly commandeered my little space on the web and was blithely directing my traffic (me and the oh-so-loyals!) to Home Depot, Kohl's and some effing company named "Kunoichi." [That is one heck of a long sentence.]

I hope you, my bloggy friends, are able to work around this issue, too... if you are in the throes of wanting to find kunoichi headquarters and T.P. them, see this google forums post that saved my ever-blogging mind and this article for how to fix the dang bug. It took me a while to find the offending code, but after dusting off my mad blog-skilz [total sic and totally sarcastic] it seems all is back to normal, i.e., not-much-to-say.

Happy last few days of July 2012, all.

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Mish-Mash

Mish:

So after months (years) of seemingly purposefully avoiding blogger-land I turned around and... haven't posted.

If you are reading these words, I. am. grateful!

There is a new member of our extended family---a baby girl named Adalyn who is precious as precious can be. She was born to my nephew and his wife last Thursday (about a month early), their first child. Sometimes it takes a little gift like Adalyn from the universe to help us all remember what's most important in life: family and those who love us. Like, *always* love us in the way that only grows and gives life that truer shade of happy. The kind of love that shows us that our lives do mean something. They matter. They have value.

Another nephew is expecting his first, too, very soon. Another gift.

Tom and I keep trucking on. We are still house hunting. I couldn't have married a more perfect partner.

Weight continues to come off; I have shed almost 40 pounds now.

To celebrate, I got my hair cut. It's funny losing weight *and* getting a new "do." It seems most folks feel safe complimenting me on my hair... since I am pretty sure it's obvious I have lost a few sizes. Stop reading right here if you want only the good stuff...


Mash:

I think if SCOTUS rules the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, my head might just about explode. I am tired of people (present company excluded :) not actually *reading* our laws. The ACA makes it illegal to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions; no life time caps on benefits; and lower costs to patients (and for us all). Here's a link for anyone who would like to read the bill that passed and that the president signed. After all, Thomas Jefferson once wrote that: "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." And since we know that conservatives value access to good education just about as much as they do [insert category of "non-white/non-wealthy/non-straight/ non-Christian" people here] it is our duty as Americans to read what our national representatives are writing and passing as our laws. It is our duty to *educate* ourselves instead of listening to what someone else tells us to think.

It brings into sharp focus the need that our newest addition to our family, little Adalyn, will have for the rest of her life. She will need good health insurance. And her parents are going need the peace of mind of good health insurance since she was born with Down's Syndrome. Why should *they* have to worry about coverage for her if some paper-pusher at Blue Cross, or Anthem, or Cigna decides that Adalyn's health risks outweigh the benefits of her living a healthy life? That's the role of this legislation, folks. It's to protect families and all of us from the growing commodification of everything in our culture by corporations...who now have unfettered "1st Amendment" rights thanks to the very same SCOTUS who might decide that insurance companies know better than doctors how best to care for patients.

I am more and more convinced that American's for Prosperity and the Heritage Foundation have successfully turned reason into public enemy number one... and I hope most of us thinking folks will realize that the only way we make it moving forward is actually to move *forward*... not right, or left. But onward. Upward. In every direction... like the universe.

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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

It's Been So Long, I...

... didn't even know where to go to write a new post. Seriously, Blogger. Why did you go changing things up on me? Pitiful. Downright neglectful and silly (of me).

Notable news: Tom defended his dissertation last month and walks in commencement this weekend. We are officially the "doctors." Sounds pretentious, right? Well, if you equate the equivalent of a mortgage payment in student loans every month with pretension, then indeed-- go on with your bad self. We must be totally crazy since we are looking to lock ourselves into a "real" mortgage by the end of this year. House-hunting has been a strange marital experiment. Slightly less terrible than the writing and defending of two-- count them--- TWO dissertations in our household in the last three years. But, slightly better than having Tea-Publicans as our local, state and federal representation. What the heck is going on in politics? It's like there's an election this year, or something.

So much has happened in the last several months since my last post, I don't know where to begin.

Here's a quick run-down and then I'll be back for more in the coming weeks:
I am 30 pounds lighter (literally) since I last posted!
No more migraines or back aches... yay, me.
We still have two cats, no kids (not going to), and are both gainfully employed with full benefits.
The down-side: not much. But give me a couple of weeks... I'm sure I'll get back to my usual frothy self.

Thanks for stopping by and I would say looking forward to comments, but I am not sure I will know how to find them!

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