Weegee, the Senegal parrot

Weegee is our oldest and noisiest pet. He's 16 years old, and while it's not likely that he'll outlive us, he's probably going to be around after our kids leave for college. That's fine with me, because he's pretty entertaining.

The parrot version of the cat-sitting-on-the-newspaper-you're-reading.

Weegee has no fear of consuming food three times the size of his head.

Weegee and Dunecat, via an iPad

Weegee keeps an eye on the bunnies from above.

Wanting to be more gracious

Broken flower
Originally uploaded by julius_cesar713

For Valentine's Day, this past weekend, Rosie gave her (our) dance teacher, Mrs. H, a valentine's card and a flower. The flower was a small purple and white flower Rosie chose from a larger bouquet at our house. I noticed as I was holding it after we arrived at ballet that the stem had broken in transit and started to apologize to Mrs. H. She replied, "Oh, no! It's gorgeous! I love it! Thank you so much!" with such conviction that I really believe that she meant it. I don't think I could pull that off, personally. Mrs. H works with all ages, from 3 years old through well-past retirement ages and must get all sorts of tokens from her students all year long. All I've ever seen her show is graciousness and appreciation for any gifts.

I find myself surprised by this! And shamed, slightly, that I am surprised and don't express how grateful I am for overtures people have made to me. I'm quick to think that a gift has strings or a hidden meaning and pause to grind gears in my head rather than just give plain and sincere thanks.

Something to reflect and work on. Give me a spindly, broken, cheap fragile, beautiful blossom, and I'll enjoy it for its moment in time and let the loveliness of nature and the gesture enrich my day. Really.

Something to meditate on.

Don't Forget Tomorrow Is...

Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

The official site for Talk Like a Pirate Day, which is an annual international holiday on September 19th, is HERE.

If ye need some brushin up on yer Pirate lingo, best ye visit yonder site.

To celebrate in yer place o' work, check out Joanne's list!

Arrr, in the String's house, a favorite Pirate book for the kids is this one: How I Became a Pirate, by Melinda Long and David Shannon. Great for getting the kids to talk like pirates, too!

Have at it tomorrow, and let me know how ye displayed yer pirateattude!

Here's a pic of my pirate, li'l Cap'n Patch! Avast!

I like my country music angry.

Moving in stereo
Originally uploaded by Rune T

Today's run on the couch-to-5K was a 25-minute straight jog. And I forgot my iPod at home. The TVs in the office gym were playing "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," which has that great whistling tune, but sadly, wouldn't be enough to get me through 25 minutes. Eh, Blondie?

I mentioned my dilemma to the gym's trainer, whereupon she showed me her stash of abandoned music players, in various states of disrepair or power loss. The one I settled on was an MP3 player.

Quick discovery: the previous owner liked him/her some country ballads. The more lonesome and acoustic, the better. I spent pretty much the entire 25 minutes listening to the first 15 seconds of each song. Harmonicas? No. Lilting guitar? No. Soft piano? No. Banjo? Um, maybe...wait...No. I did listen to a tune about "California Girls" by Gretchen Wilson that had some angst. If I had it to do over, I would have stuck with Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" on repeat. That one had some serious attitude. Or it did at least compared to "Red Watermelon Wine" or "Stop Shaking Your Finger at Me, Woman." Aaaiiieeee, so very not my music of choice. No, wait, if I had it to do over, I would have had my own music. PLEASE GIVE ME MY PIXIES AND JANE'S ADDICTION BACK!!!!!

However, the distraction of being pissed off at all the stanky tunes, and clicking through them, may have helped. I did the 25 minutes straight, without really thinking about how hard it was. Yay me.

Jerky guy taking up two seats on Metro

Ok, first time sending two pics at once from the phone, so here goes.

I'm riding a very crowded train, and this guy is taking up two seats while playing a video game with headphones on. He has a bunch of mail filling the seat next to him and acts like I'm not there when I ask to sit down.

F-ing Jerk.

Reverends and Rabbis in the house!!

I am gratified that there are religious groups like the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry out there that are celebrating marriage equality, rather than abhoring it. You'd think, from what's out there in the media, that all religions are anti-same-sex-marriage and it's just the heathen, liberal free-thinkers that are trying to turn everyone's heads. I found RCFM online and say hear, hear to their plea to Massassachusetts Bishops! I do hope those esteemed men (and women?) of the cloth are reading:

"Open Letter to Cardinal O’Malley and

the Roman Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts

As ministers, rabbis and religious leaders of many faith traditions, we urge you to stop your political campaign to take away civil marriage rights from gay and lesbian citizens. At a time when the Roman Catholic Church says it is trying to promote tolerance and diversity it is lobbying the legislature and campaigning publicly to ban same-sex marriage in the Commonwealth.

The Roman Catholic magisterium teaches that homosexuality and gay unions are gravely immoral. We disagree with that doctrine, and we rejoice and celebrate marriage equality in Massachusetts. However, we honor your right to believe as you wish. We respect your right to practice your faith according to your laws.

We ask that you respect our faith traditions in return. Taking away civil marriage rights from committed, loving gay and lesbian couples would deny us the right to practice our beliefs. We would no longer be able to marry same-sex couples legally. The state would be in the position of granting full rights and protections to everyone married according to your beliefs, while denying those rights and protections to couples married according to ours.

You are promoting prejudice through your political campaign, intentionally or not.

By proclaiming homosexuality and same-sex unions to be universally immoral and worthy of second-class status under state law, you are sending a message that our faith communities are immoral. You are harming us and our families and your own faithful as well. Thousands of Roman Catholics have signed our Roman Catholic Statement in support of marriage equality. They have signed out of their pain and their love and concern for the Church.

We all have a right to speak our minds and to vote according to our beliefs, but in the political realm, we also have a constitutional responsibility to protect minorities, including the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual individuals and our minority religious communities. Our founding fathers understood the importance of protecting minorities and of preventing sectarian beliefs from becoming civil laws.

Worldwide, we can witness the unfortunate consequences when religious groups try to use government power to impose their will on multi-cultural societies. Respecting and protecting the dignity of every soul, regardless of sexual orientation or religious beliefs, is the American way -- and the only way to protect the religious freedom and the democratic society we all cherish.

We urge you to stop trying to make your religious definition of marriage and family the law of our Commonwealth. Please stop trying to put personal faith up for a popular vote in 2008. Let’s return our focus to our common mission of promoting a socially just and tolerant society.

Faithfully,

The Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry Board:

The Rev’d. Anne C. Fowler, President

Rabbi Howard Berman

Rabbi Devon A. Lerner, Executive Director

Rev. Quinn Caldwell

The Rev’d. George C. Welles, Jr.

Rev. Tiffany Steinwert

Rev. David Pettee

Rabbi Daniel Judson

Charles Martel, Roman Catholic Liaison

Rev. Irving Cummings

Constance Cervone, Roman Catholic Liaison

Rev. Maureen Reddington-Wilde"

Go fight the good fight, RCFM!!

Freedom to Marry Week day 1: Plotting it.

Marriage Equality Plot
Originally uploaded by TreyIII

Kelly O of O for Obsessive and Heather of The Bughouse brought Freedom to Marry Week to my attention so, this week look forward to some posts about marriage equality.

On "Daddy, Poppa, and Me"'s blog, DP&M summarizes this chart more eloquently that I could, so I will quote from his entry:

"The upper line is civil unions, the lower line is full marriage equality. Nations are indicated when they passed either CU or marriage equality (nations in color eventually went from CU to full equality). U.S. states are indicated by italics.

Good News: The march of equality went from 8/100ths of 1 percent of the world having some sort of marriage equality in 1989 (coincidently the year communism fell) to over 8% today.

Bad News: 92% of the world isn't at full equality for their GLBT citizens yet and in more than 30% of the world just being gay is punishable by a severe penalty from years in jail to death.

Also, generally, the more democratic and free a society, the more equal and safe it's GLBT citizens (though there are exceptions). Europe and the Americas.. Asia... sub-Saharan Africa, N.Africa/MiddleEast/Indian subcontinent. That list is a rough (very rough) line from democratic and free to dictatorial and repressive (India being an exception, also S. Africa.. there are others.. I said it was rough)... it is also the line from GLBT equality to the death penalty for GLBT citizens.

But, as the plot shows, the march of equality is progressing."

If I was feeling lazy, I could just quote from his blog all week, but instead, I'll post his link here and you can go see what he's writing:

Daddy, Poppa & me

More tomorrow!

Lurkers De-Lurk!

Hi everyone, It's officially "tied to my apron strings" De-Lurk day! Just pretend that Aimee's graphic actually says January 11th, okay? Thanks.

I may regret this, but I've changed the comment feed to accept anonymous commenters, so feel free to overwhelm me with your love. Obviously, if your particular idea of affection includes spam, I will be forced to return to my "registered users only, includes OpenID" filter.

Welcome!

Today I am working from home and realizing two major issues that I have to add to my proposal for serious telework.
1. I need high-speed Internet. I had to upload/email a 2.7 MB file and it took 20 minutes. See what I mean?

2. I need a second phone line for the computer's phone connection. While my cell technically does work from my basement office if I stand on the table near the window, that is not useful if my customer wants to give me changes on the fly while I input them.

Monday Morning Haikus

My son's tantrum
His clothing feels wrong
Iz icky

A rose wakes
She dresses in red
One kiss, wave

A bus leaves
My wristwatch was slow
Waiting is cold

Like her dad, Rosie is not a fan of the Theatre

My dad and sister took Rosie to see a very popular (crowded) neighborhood Children's Theatre production of "The Wizard of Oz" (the musical version, so "The Wiz" to the rest of us). The curtain call was 30 minutes late, about 25 minutes and $30 after Rosie realized they weren't taking a trip to the video rental store. Auntie M and Dad agreed that the girl who sang "Over the Rainbow" had a nice voice, but the characters hadn't made it to the yellow brick road before Rosie forced a walk-out.

We'll have to find other, more gradual and gentle ways to install a love of live performance in Rosie, I think. Better luck next time!

Flashback: jungle bus

The noisy people I'm traveling with on the commuter bus this afternoon took me back to a memorable high school bus trip.

I'm sure you remember the clowns and the troublemakers that were in your high school? Well our bus driver loved them; I'm sure he used to be one. He would actively enjoy their wackiness and somehow, out of respect for him, they never really got out of control.

There was this one day when the clowns got on and started goofing, making chimpanzee noises. Soon, another wannabe goof tried gibbon whoops, then another, howler monkeys. Other teens tried parrot shrieks and tiger growls. The entire bus population participated now, geeks, losers, prom queens, jocks, burnouts...every last one a jungle animal.

The whole bus vibrated with the sounds of the Rainforest.

What did the driver do? He was laughing so hard, but managed to grab his two-way mike and broadcasted our jungle to the entire high school bus system!

Whoop-woop-woop-whoop!!

This remind you of someone? AJS?

Kebab Koobideh
Originally uploaded by plhu

Auntie M. and I took Rosie and Dash to play in a wonderful outdoor park on Sundy before lunch. They both were running around everywhere and being so crazy-active that I was surprised to see Dash with tears in his eyes. Here's how our conversation went:

Me: Dash, are you sad?
Dash: No! Am angry!
Me: Why are you angry?
Dash: Have tears!
Me: Hmm, are you hungry for lunch?
Dash: YES!!!!

So, we left the park and took them to Moby Dick's House of Kebab, where I ordered Kubideh with rice and we had a side of hummous and bread. Rosie quietly consumed large quantities of rice, some bread and a much-cajoled sliver or two of Auntie M.'s chicken kebab. But after he gobbled up the bread, rice, and some kubideh (which I called "burger" for acceptance's sake), I got this unsolicited response from our boy:

Dash: Am happy! I am happy now!

(try to imagine a swaying happy-dance in his seat)

Road rage

AJS and I saw this crazy car accident this weekend. Luckily, nobody was hurt, but everyone involved needs their heads checked.

So, I notice a car tailgaiting me and when I can, I pull into the right lane. This red truck whizzes past me, closely followed by a white Lexus SUV. When there was a small opening, the Lexus swerves into the right lane, hits the gas, then oh-so-tightly! swerves back into the left lane to cut off the red truck! I swear, there was only a few inches in between them.

From there, the red truck stays on the Lexus, just inches away, when the Lexus makes a crazy right turn --from the LEFT lane-- to exit onto a side street. Too late and enraged, the red truck tries to follow the Lexus (for retribution?) and loses control.

The red truck does a 180 to land rearward into a copse of bushes and small trees. The Lexus got the F out of there.

And so did we. Yikes!

Have I introduced you to "Ghostie?"

Hi, my name is John, but Rosie likes to call me "Ghostie." I am very small and live in Rosie's pocket. Nobody else can see me, so I like to follow Rosie around. My favorite foods are fried chicken wings and rice. Rosie says I snore while I'm sleeping.

Sometimes I tell Rosie not to listen to her mommy. This weekend, when Rosie was running away from her mommy, I scared Rosie's mommy by pushing Rosie really fast toward a busy street. That was funny, but Rosie's mommy didn't think so. Rosie ratted me out, but that's okay; we were just having fun.

Anyway, I'll check in with you later.

Signed,
John (a/k/a Ghostie)

I want to ride SOMETHING!

rosiendashonnahorsie
Originally uploaded by nylonthread.

Rosie likes to be non-specific when she makes requests. For example, if she wants Daddy to let her eat chocolates, she'll say, "I want somebody to give me something brown to eat!" So, when she told me "I want to ride something!" when we were out for a walk, I really didn't have a good reference for what she meant. This photo is what she meant.

Dash loves Ms. Jacinta

Dashiell did the sweetest thing when his teacher, Ms. Jacinta, picked him up this morning. She was just lifting him up to eye-level, but he collapsed with his head on her shoulder and his arms around her neck. Then he lifted his head up to look her in the eye and collapsed into on her shoulder again. She practically teared up and asked, "Dashiell, are you giving me a hug?" I think that was just what he was doing!!

What a sweetheart.

Ms. Jacinta is also the teacher who nicknamed Dash "the guv'nor" because of the take-charge attitude he has in the Infant Room. Of course, he rules the place!