It is, as Jeeves would say, an "axiom."

A car trip halfway across the country with a one-year old at the holidays seems like a much better idea when it is conceived in August than it does two days before the commencement of said trip in December.

Posts like this are one reason why I will never get a political job.

My solution for the Lieberman thing, since the Democratic Caucus has failed to borrow Hillary Clinton's balls**?

Someone should be assigned to kick Lieberman in the nuts as hard as they can.


If they were to do that, I would feel like he at least had faced some consequence for campaigning in a nasty, religion- and foreigner-baiting way against the Democratic candidate. Taking away his chair, a plum saved for someone who acts as part of the caucus, would not have been "retribution," it would have been the correct consequence for not BEING part of the caucus in terms of the actions he was taking.

**Please note that this refers to an SNL sketch, not Clinton's actual vote, since she also supported Lieberman today.

My tired the work.

And yet I have just SO MUCH to do. *yawn*

(Typing "yawn" just made me yawn. Hmmmmmmm . . . .)

Progress marches on.

Even with Prop 8 passing in CA.

I can't be the only one who keeps having this thought.

Obama won, guys. *The election is over*. I know it has been almost a week, but it still seems unreal.

I thought of this in the car this morning and you are not allowed to smack for me saying it aloud.

Obama? Is in the process of creating his Barackracy as part of the transition.

Thank you very much. Tip your waitress.

There were fireworks in my neighborhood last night.

And I suspect we woke up the neighbors when we both yelled as MSNBC called Ohio for Obama. That was when we were sure it was over. As you have all seen, we have tried to make Veronica a part of this historic campaign at every turn. Last night was no exception. We woke her up so that she could watch Barack Hussein Obama give the speech in which he accepted the role of President-Elect of the United States.


She was confused. And she won't remember it. But she was there. This country isn't that far away from the shame of slavery, and it is even less far from the shame of segregation. Leaving aside all of the other (more important to governing) reasons why I am excited that Obama won, I am proud to be a citizen of the country that elected him.

We voted. I was--get this--voter #270 in my precinct.

Did you? It matters. And if you have voted, wear your sticker--I got stopped on the way to the train by a woman who was considering voting who was worried about the length of the wait. I think I managed to convince her to take the time.


****And a note for Fox News: I know my baby has an "I Voted" sticker. This is not a sign of voter fraud. Do not begin running special reports about voter fraud in Minnesota. Her little kitty also wore the sticker for a bit. Minnesota has also not started to allow stuffed animals to vote. Just in case you were confused. I know you find these things confusing.

Too nervous to talk about the election.

Here is more baby.

Still not about the election

I think from my past posts you can tell how I feel about what has been happening with the election.

And I just don't have the energy right this second to comment on every lie and scandal. Who knows, I may change my mind later today even, but for now I am just holding my breath and hoping next Tuesday goes well.

In the meantime, on the election front, one of my sisters lives just outside of Northern Virginia, in Leesburg. She spotted this sign in a window on Saturday night:


The McCain campaign in general seems to have made some major miscalculations in Virginia.

Eight years

Eight years ago today, right about now, Matter-Eater Lad and I were getting pictures taken by the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. We had been married for less than two hours.

Our families and our best friends were there, too, along with some Japanese tourists who were very nice.

Veronica recommends the carrots.

I want to see baby pictures, so all of you are going to see baby pictures, too.

A friend put this together. I think it is hilarious.

Things I can't say out loud during a casual business lunch

Dear [boss]:

The reason you have the perception that the media is harder on McCain is not because the media is harder on McCain or Palin. One need only look at the lack of coverage of the Troopergate report to see that--can you image what would have happened if BIDEN were involved in such a thing? The media seems harder on McCain and Palin despite letting things go because McCain and Palin are lying and their plans make no sense and they keep making erratic changes. You are a smart guy who nit-picks about everything else--why do you have such a blind spot when it comes to this?

Sometimes, when it seems like the coverage of one guy is more negative, it is because that guy has more negatives.

And that's just a great start to the working week.

Sigh. While I was getting ready this morning, the baby rolled off the bed. She's fine, and she was just scared, but really not a good sign.

And this is just what we need.

Palin is trying to kill Troopergate by preempting the probe. Why is this not being covered *at least* as much as the Ayers smears? Her behavior here was appalling and unethical. If we are not going to talk about the real issues at stake in this election, why are we not talking more about this?

Irresponsible.

If Obama wins and GOD FORBID someone carries out a violent act against him, the roots of it will be here, and both McCain and Palin will in part be responsible. The level of their rhetoric is disgusting, and they should be ashamed of themselves. They won't be, because clearly all they care about is winning, but they should be. They have nothing to add to the economic discussion that needs to be happening *right* *now*, and so they resort to whipping up violent, racist hatred.

John McCain, there was a time when I had respect for you. Not anymore.

I enjoy reading The Economist, myself.

I would subscribe if it weren't so expensive.

If Sarah Palin reads the Economist, I am a snake-handler who speaks in tongues and is ALSO a witch.

But I didn't even play Lego Batman last night!

And I had a dream that Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler were in the game as characters last night.

Maybe that's just a sign that I have been spending too much time with flames on the side of my face watching Sarah Palin.



Seriously, I hate her so much.

A sign that I should stop posting and get back to work

How heroic.

Another sign of something

When you read this article, your take-away reaction is that you really want a cheesesteak.

Signs that you may have been playing too much Lego Batman

On the drive to Target, during which you pass a lovely lake and could be contemplating nature, you instead look at the lampposts and wonder how many points you could get for smashing them with the car.*


*I find it amusing that in the game Batman gets extra points for smashing up municipal property.

Knitting Content

So, I *have* been knitting. I have just been posting to Ravelry (my user name is elmamus) instead. However, here are some pictures of my recent projects:

Clapotis, in Alchemy Bamboo Topaz (I can't remember if I posted my Clapotis pictures)


Tulip Sweater, Dream in Color Classy, for V

And lots of socks:



Snicket Socks, Dream in Color Smooshy, Some Summer Sky


Dragon Dance Socks, STR club socks



Bellatrix Socks, Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn, Crushed Velvet


Fawkes, Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Sugar Maple




Salto, Dream in Color Smooshy, Wisterious.

There were others, too. But I don't have pictures of those.

I have more socks on the needles and more non-sock knitting to do, but people keep needing socks, plus they are good for commuter knitting, so I suspect that I will mostly be knitting socks for some time.

Sigh.

It would be funny if it weren't so frightening and embarrassing.


*********edited to add*********

You know, I bet UFOs fly through Minnesota airspace. That means that I am an EXPERT on Mars.

Also, I can see the Moon from my house.

Wow. I guess this is sort of like when I meant to send a gift to my father and I sent it to myself, halfway across the country, instead?

Apparently people are really distracted and just that ignorant of geography?

This campaign is making me irrational.

For example, I want to scream at undecided voters. Really? You can't decide? It isn't as if there aren't clearly articulated differences between the two major-party candidates. If you don't like those choices, there are also other candidates--that Ron Paul fellow seems to be popular in some sets, and there is always that ass, Nader. While I am not actually suggesting tests at the polls, the number of undecided voters makes me think that some people are just too dumb to vote.

BUT. I am so glad that the Obama campaign handled McCain's crap from yesterday well--I was biting my nails. And this is funny:

" 'Obviously if it turns out that we need to be in Washington, we've both got big planes, we've painted our slogan on the side of them," Obama also said. "They can get us from Washington to Mississippi pretty quickly.' "

I hope that the McCain gambit--transparent though it may be--doesn't play with the voters, either.

Grammar Girl would be so disappointed.

Sigh. What about this map, older sister, shows that Acme is "literally right around the corner"?

Please also note the lack of, you know, STREET NAMES on much of this map. It worked very well for getting TO the grocery store, but not so well for getting BACK.

(You didn't think I would really keep it, scan it, and post about it, did you?)

******Updated to add:

I am not saying that the grocery store isn't close the house, by the way. It was not very far. It is just that any directions with this many turns do not point to a destination that is "literally" right around the corner. Am I nit-picking? Why, yes I am.

Hee.

I didn't get around to posting this the other day . . .

. . . so most of you have probably already seen it, but this gives me another opportunity.

Maybe I just don't have that much respect for our political discourse.

I should start by saying that I think it is pretty clear that Barack Obama did not intend to call Sarah Palin a pig, and that I would much rather the news media report actual, you know, NEWS.

HOWEVER.

I also really wouldn't have CARED if he DID call her a pig. And not just because I find her elevation to the GOP presidential ticket and the resultant poll bounce really, really embarrassing for our country. Really, 1) politicians call each other names ALL OF THE TIME, and b) anyone whose nickname is "Sarah Barracuda" really needs to grow some damn balls and stop whining. She described herself, more or less, as a Rottweiler with lipstick. OK, then. STOP WHINING. Criticizing a woman IS NOT THE SAME THING AS BEING SEXIST. Or, if that is the standard, you are not allowed to criticize Obama ever again, lest you be a racist. Ridiculous, you say? You are correct.

I should also mention that ad hominem attacks should not allow anyone to whine, in either party, but also should not be NEWS.

Awesome*

I look forward to the new breed of superhero/supervillain that has just been created.


*Yes, Eddie Izzard--this really IS awesome.

2:32 AM CDT, Or: Ways to Confuse the Baby

I always bring my phone in and put it next to the bed--I use it as my alarm--but last night Matter-Eater Lad set his text alerts to the most annoying ring he could find and brought his, too. That meant that at 2:32 AM when we both got the text about the Biden pick, we were WIIIIIIIDE awake (most annoying ring EVAR). Since we are both nerdy political junkies, this meant that we both got up and flipped on MSNBC to see how the press was reacting to the choice. We were up anyway, so I grabbed the baby to feed her, since that meant that she would sleep later in the morning, which I figured we would want. Actually, the most amusing part of it was watching the media speculate on how everyone would be ticked because the story leaked and the text messages still hadn't gone out. This was half an hour after we received ours.

Permanence

V started to cry when I leaned over to kiss her goodbye before leaving for the train this morning. She knew it meant I was about to leave, and I had not even opened the car door yet.

Note to self.

In current state of sleep deprivation, 1.5 glasses of wine at a friend's house will cause you to go home and immediately have to go to bed.

This is worth reading.

Even if you have to watch an ad to get to it. (Let me know if you do--I have a Salon membership so I don't know how it works for just one linked article.)

I present to you . . .

this:



No. I have no idea why my almost-7-month-old has decided to sound like a two-pack-a-day smoker.

Argh. Shoulders and arms hurt.

Too much Wii boxing kayaking.

Looking back over my posts . . .

. . . it is just possible that I may be cranky today.

Are you trying to make me hate the Olympics?

Dear NBC,

I get that you are trying to have as much Olympic coverage as possible. You have paid an unseemly amount of money for the rights to air the Olympics and air them you will, even if they are the crappy summer Olympics that do not include curling, hockey, or that (seriously) most practical of winter sports, the biathlon. Also there is no ski jump.

However, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT PEOPLE WHO TUNE IN TO MSNBC ("the place for politics") IN THE MORNING WANT TO WATCH SOCCER? US v. China women's soccer? Two days before the opening ceremonies? I even like soccer, but you can just bite me.

I tried going back to CNN, but after 10 minutes of coverage regarding Madeline McCann (I really don't care if I did misspell that--I know new docs were released, but she disappeared A YEAR AGO), I had to turn it off, since I remembered why I switched to watching MSNBC in the first place.

A Note To Family Members Regarding RSVPs

It is completely acceptable to have one person call and RSVP for several people. However, when there is a number AND an email address on the invitation instructing you as to which of the hosts will be able to accept your response, mentioning in passing to the other host (who lives in another state, and is not set up to handle replies) that you will be attending an event with two other people really does not count as a reply.

Especially when you would TOTALLY never let someone hear the end of it if someone did that to you.

This is almost worse than not replying at all.


********edited to add********

Please note that this is for a large party, and this is extended family. This was not my mom mentioning something to my sister. And either way, it comes from someone who has been known to make up "etiquette" and then hold failures to conform to the made-up rules against people, sometimes, seriously, for years.

Quote of the day

This article is not actually that interesting, but it does have this quote, which almost made me spit tea on my monitor:

" 'They say I'm going to confuse milk consumers,' she said. 'How can you get confused between a boob and a bottle of milk from the store? They're two different kind of jugs.' "

I may be slightly behind the eight ball on this one.

But HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Curse you, Amazon, and your quick checkout!

Sign #142 that I am more tired than I think:

I sent my dad's birthday present to my house rather than to his. I live in Minnesota. He lives in Pennsylvania. Sigh.

It should be an undisputed fact that Michelle Bachmann is just an embarrassment to Minnesota.

Case in point.

My favorite bit of the AP article?

"Bachmann predicts that if the U.S. more thoroughly taps its own energy sources, gas prices could be cut in half. Other energy experts have disputed that projection."

OTHER energy experts? Is this meant to imply that Bachmann is any sort of EXPERT? The mind boggles. You know what? I read Cryptonomicon. I am now a code-breaking expert. You shall all listen to my proclamations and bring me logic puzzles! Plus, I have watched ALL THREE Terminator movies. I am now a robot. I AM A CODE-BREAKING ROBOT!

Lest things get too serious around here.

The most important piece in play this election.

""If McCain genuinely thinks it's smart politics to run against the Warren Court in 2008, Obama simply needs to run against the Roberts Court. He must promise to nominate Supreme Court justices who will protect civil liberties, civil rights, and ensure equal access to courts and justice. He needs to talk and talk about these issues not because these are tender, liberal values he wants his judges to share, but because they are values enshrined in the Constitution, values that have been corroded and neglected in recent years.

The future make up of the Supreme Court is the most important outcome of the next election. There are many other important issues, but this is paramount.

Exactly.

From Salon's Broadsheet:

"[R]ather than scolding women for failing to flock to higher-paying careers, perhaps we should be wondering why the fields college-educated women dominate are so devalued in the first place."

Take out "college-educated," and you have the problem in a nutshell. This does not mean that women should not have the opportunity to branch out from more female-dominated fields into the hard sciences, but allowing each person the opportunity to study and work in the field to which they are most drawn should not be a discussion marred by casual dismissal of those other fields.

Wow.

Here is a good run-down of both the things Conservatives are saying about Jesse Helms, and a nice sampling of the kinds of things Jesse Helms said during his lifetime:


" 'Death of a Conservative Great [Mark R. Levin]

I wish the Helms family peace, and I thank Jesse Helms for helping to ensure the election of Ronald Reagan, being a warrior against the Soviet Union and for the release of Soviet Jews and other abused minorities, and being a voice for millions of unborn babies.

I have noticed some of the smears lobbed at William Buckley in other places since his death; Jesse Helms is in for even more of it. Other prominent conservatives will face the same. Unfortunately, such is the nature of these things now.' "

" "Jesse Helms was a kind, decent, and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called "the Miracle of America." So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the Fourth of July. He was once asked if he had any ambitions beyond the United States Senate. He replied: "The only thing I am running for is the Kingdom of Heaven." Today, Jesse Helms has finished the race, and we pray he finds comfort in the arms of the loving God he strove to serve throughout his life.' "

That second quote is from George W. Bush.

and, just to be clear, here is an example of Helms' behavior:

"'"When Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the first African-American woman to sit in the Senate, Helms followed Moseley-Braun into an elevator, announcing to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch: "Watch me make her cry. I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing 'Dixie' until she cries."

Then, emphasizing the lines about how "good" things were before the Civil War ended slavery, Helms sang "Dixie."'"

Wow. Leaving aside the racism and misogyny, that story illustrates SO CLEARLY how Helms "strove to serve" a "loving God . . . throughout his life."

I devoutly hope that Helms is getting exactly what he deserves right now.

Lest you think I only refer to the minutiae of my own life.

I am still royally pissed off about telecom immunity and FISA and all of the implications therein. Glenn Greenwald, as usual, has interesting things to say about it:

"It's notable because the political establishment is not only about to pass a patently corrupt bill, but worse, are spouting -- on a very bipartisan basis -- completely deceitful claims to obscure what they're really doing."

He goes on to discuss the fact that those arguing FOR telecom immunity seem to be under the very mistaken impression that the president can order someone to undertake an illegal act, which is a fundamentally un-American idea. Go, read what he says:

"That just isn't how our country works and it never was. We don't have a King who can order people to break the law. I have no doubt that people like Nancy Soderberg are spending the July 4 weekend paying shallow homage to the Founding, all the while being completely ignorant of or indifferent to the principles they pretend to celebrate. Just compare her claim that telecoms were justified, even required, to comply with the President's "order" to break the law with Thomas Paine's view, set forth in his 1776 revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense concerning how our country was supposed to work:

But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve as monarchy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other."

I broke the shovel

I had the sort of weekend gardening in which I broke the handle off of my full-sized shovel trying to dig up a (very large) hosta. My shoulders hurt.

Just a blur.

Please note that like the last photo, some of V's limbs are blurred here (just the left hand in this one). This is an accurate representation of her constant movement.

You Know, For Kids!

My hips hurt from too much Wii Fit Hula Hooping.

I am 8 billion years old.

Not a Ham.

Baby clothing is often labeled with helpful words such as "baby," as if one might forget that there is a baby in the clothing, or that the clothing is for a baby, and instead put the clothing on, say, a ham. Matter-Eater Lad and I find this kind of weird, and also funny. This tee-shirt also labels the baby. It says "kid." We like it better than most.

Dear One of My Bosses,

I have decided to take it as a compliment that you have just given me three days worth of work and a deadline three hours from now, rather than taking it as a sign of your lack of organization.

(My bonus had better be HUGE this year)

(And I know you said I should get what I could finished before I need to leave. You also know full well that I am not going to leave you in the lurch. )

BIG BILL!

I came across this lovely picture.

(Go and look. I'll wait.)

Now, although the caption doesn't say anything about it, students of history will remember that President William McKinley was shot (he died a few days later) by Leon Czolgosz in 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.

Students of musical theater will, at this point in this post, have this song running through their heads:



(Sorry. I couldn't find a better recording.)

And here are the lyrics.

This song has been stuck in my head all morning. You are welcome.

Exactly.

Everybody calm down and think.

"As St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, an enthusiastic Clinton backer, said this week, 'You don’t spend your life fighting for women’s rights and then vote for Sen. McCain.'"

"'I’m not going to get into whether any rational progressive could think it makes sense to prefer John McCain in the White House to having it occupied by Hillary Clinton’s virtually ideologically indistinguishable colleague. But one thing that should be said is that focusing entirely on Roe v. Wade as a reason to oppose third-party narcissism is very mistaken. Yes, it’s true that replacing John Paul Stevens and/or Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a Republican appointee will be bad for abortion rights, although this is likely to occur by further draining content from Casey rather than overturning Roe outright.

But even when it comes to women’s rights, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The enforcement of civil rights protections for women is likely to be much less in a Republican administration, for example. The global gag order will remain firmly in place. And in general, four more years of a tax-cut-supporting, massive-defense-spending GOP president will not only make any kind of serious progressive reform (much of which disproportionately benefits women even if not specifically targeted to do so) virtually impossible for four more years but will also make it more difficult in the future. A McCain presidency would be very, very bad for women even if not a single Supreme Court vacancy opens up during his tenure.'"

Happy, but not satisfied.

I completely agree with Matter-Eater Lad's comments here.

However, there is a reason I was torn about which candidate to support when I caucused:

"Prejudice against older women, apparently, is one of the last non-taboo biases. I've been stunned by the extent to which trashing Clinton supporters as washed up old white women is acceptable. A writer whose work I respect submitted a piece addressed to "old white feminists," telling them to get out of Obama's way. I've found my own writing often dismissed not on its merits (or lack thereof) but because as a woman who will turn 50 in September, I'm supposed to be Clinton's demographic. Salon's letters pages, as well as the comments sections around the blogosphere, are studded with dismissive, derisive references to bitter old white women."

I myself have encountered people who never liked Hillary, who thought it was OK in the past to say extremely sexist things about her and especially her appearance, who have been whole-hearted Obama supporters. They may be totally sincere, with no sexist agenda now, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I am *extremely* excited about Barack Obama as a candidate (and I have issues with some of Clinton's recent and not-so-recent campaign strategies), and I did end up caucusing for Obama, but that doesn't mean that this sort of sexism has gone away, or that there aren't whole segments of our society that find it charming to wax nostalgic about days when women had very few choices and very little power. I once got into a heated argument with someone who was somewhat aghast that the struggle of women in this country was in any way being compared to that of African Americans in this country. That person, not wrongly, argued that the direct consequences of slavery have no equal. However, to trivialize the struggle for women's rights in this country and across the world is a mistake, and to try to pretend that sexism isn't present every day is naive. It is not unusual for people who are considered mainstream to talk about how much more wonderful it would be for our families to go back to days when women always stayed home with the kids (not chose to do so, but had to do so, and there is no option for men to stay home for the kids in that scenario), times when women had no options but to go from being protected by their fathers to being protected by their husbands with no way out if something went wrong. What would the reaction be in a similarly-positioned person said something like that about the days when African Americans had to sit at the back of the bus? Racism AND sexism are alive and well in this country, and neither one should be able to be considered acceptable in any way.

I should also add that I do not think that sexism hurt Hillary Clinton more than racism hurt Barack Obama. Both were and are present here.

Edited to add:

Per Matter-Eater Lad's post, I do think one major difference is that women really thought Hillary Clinton could be the nominee and then president, while African-Americans really thought that Barack Obama could never do it. This difference could explain why so many people feel like this nomination was taken away from Hillary while people would not have felt that way if Barack had lost.

I still have not downloaded the pictures from my camera.

However, here is another phone photo:



V. was all for the cheering!

And it was totally awesome.

It took almost three hours of waiting in line for my pregnant sister and me (with the baby strapped to me) to get into the Xcel Center last night. The line wound all around downtown Saint Paul. It was all worth it to be there the moment at which Barack Obama announced that he is the Democratic candidate for president. It was electric.

Here is a photo from my phone (I will have real-camera pictures later):

And to think that I was annoyed that the republicans are holding their convention in Saint Paul.

On Tuesday night, Obama is set to kick off the general election with a mega rally at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Minnesota. What's special about the Xcel Energy Center? Well, it's where the Republicans are holding their convention in early September. Cheeky!

I am totally going to be at the Excel Center tomorrow night, with my baby and my sister. How can I miss it?

I sense a theme emerging.

"A Chinese policewoman helped save the lives of nine babies by breast-feeding them after they were orphaned or separated from their mothers as a result of the May 12 earthquake."

Wow.

It is nice to hear some sort of uplifting story come out of the earthquake--even one that is tempered by the probable death of the mothers of these babies.

How one knows that one has had a long day.

This is the assembly for a breast pump that attaches to the breast:



There is the top bit, which has the pump-y stuff that attaches to tubes on the pump itself, and there is the bottom bit, which is a bottle that has been screwed on.

On Tuesday, I set up for my third pumping session of the day. After about ten seconds, I started to wonder why the sound was different. Then I noticed that my skirt was damp. It took me seriously thirty more seconds to realize that I had not screwed the bottle onto either of the pump assemblies, which means that I was pumping milk directly into my lap.

A year ago today

A year ago today, Matter-Eater Lad and I found out the we were going to have a baby.

Today in misunderstood statistics

Today we will look at seemingly dire statistics that are actually in no way revealing as to the issue at hand. Our example is this website from the National Conference of State Legislatures on US state breastfeeding laws.

In the introductory paragraph, the site quotes stats from a New York Times Article:

"According to the New York Times, approximately 70 percent of mothers start breastfeeding immediately after birth, but less than 20 percent of those moms are breastfeeding exclusively six months later."

For those of you who may not know this, babies are generally introduced to solid foods at four to six months. That means that I would be SHOCKED if more babies were exclusively breastfed at six months. Now, this may actually mean the portion of the baby's diet that comes from breastmilk or formula, but that is not what they say. Breastfeeding support is shockingly low in this country, in large part due to our totally crappy maternity leave policies (look, people, what she said. And I don't even normally like Slate.com all that much, but the whole bit I list below really resonates with me*), but this statistic is unrevealing as to the result of that lack of support.




*Here is the bit I list below: "But the news media and public policy makers still don’t see working families’ issues as economic or public policy questions. Consider: If fathers get pushed off the job, that’s discussed under the heading of labor, business, globalization, world trade, all public issues. But if mothers get pushed off the job—because jobs disappear or are redefined during her maternity leave, or because bosses stop promoting a woman with children on the assumption that she will soon refuse to travel or cut back or go part-time—if mothers get pushed off the job, that’s discussed as women making private emotional choices. How natural: She just wanted to stay home with her baby. In other words, women are seen as having personal lives even in the same arenas in which men are seen as having public lives. And that has consequences. When the demands facing working families are posited as personal issues for individual mothers rather than as a major public policy issue for a 21st century economy, each family must tackle these issues alone. This focus makes as much sense, according to media critic Caryl Rivers, as saying, “Okay, let’s build a superhighway; everybody bring one paving stone. That’s how we approach family policy. We don’t look at systems, just at individuals. And that’s ridiculous.”"

Also, for every mad, crazy sports fan I have ever known

As someone who doesn't really follow sports, and who doesn't really follow any team in particular, this sketch really rings true for me.

I am just going to keep putting up baby/knitting pictures.

My brain is too fried for anything else.

The yarn is, from top to bottom: Dream in Color Smooshy (Wisterious), Sundara Tulip in silky merino, Sweet Georgia Speed Demon in Firefly (an old colorway), Tahki Cotton Classic in I don't remember the colorway name, and Dream in Color Smooshy (Some Summer Sky).

It isn't that I have less to say lately . . .

. . . it is that I don't have time to write it down.

So here is another baby picture:

So, Matter-Eater Lad and I Learned Something a Couple of Weekends Ago.

In Minneapolis there is no minimum age limit to get a library card.

Crap weather, blah blah blah blah

It is stupidly gross out, and grey, and most people would show you lovely flowers to cheer you up. I, on the other hand, present you with Manny and the Piano:



It makes me smile every time.

For everyone who really, really likes Obama or Clinton . . .

. . . and who can't bear the thought of voting for the dem they don't like come November if that person becomes the nominee,

Remember all of this about John McCain. Especially this:

The Supremes. The day the next president takes office, five of the nine Supreme Court justices will be over 70. John Paul Stevens will be 88; Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75; Anthony Kennedy, 71; Stephen Breyer, 70; and, I smile as I write this, Antonin Scalia is 72.

The next president will probably pick one or two of their replacements; maybe more, if he or she is reelected. McCain, who favors the repeal of Roe v. Wade, promises conservative audiences, "We're going to have justices like [John] Roberts and [Samuel] Alito."

Dear V.,

We are aware that it introducing a bottle some of the time we have messed with one of the central mainstays in your universe, namely your food source (other mainstays: pooping, farting, smiling, sometimes us). We therefore expect some upheaval. We also realize that since you only get a bottle some of the time it is probably confusing for you. However, it would be exciting if you decided for sure, finally, whether you like the bottle or not. Taking the bottle with no problems for your Dad one time while seriously screaming your head off when offered the bottle another time when you are certainly hungry is really getting old.

Love,
Mom

Aha! Not just about the baby. Also about knitting.

V. was very, very interested in some simple knitting I was doing last week, so of course I put her on my lap and took a little video on my camera:



That is the Princess Bride in the background, in case you are wondering. ("I am not left-handed either!)

5:19

That is when my daughter woke me up this morning. And overnight. It is the first time she woke up after 11 PM last night. Now, those of you without infants may not think of that as a wonderful thing, but I went to bed at midnight and proceeded to have the longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep that I have had in over two months (since I am the food source, I pretty much always have to get up when she wakes in the night, although Matter-Eater Lad is at the ready for those non-food-related wakings). Pediatricians consider 5 hours of sleep to be sleeping through the night for an infant, which means that V slept through the night for the first time at 9 weeks--not bad at all! I am sure this won't continue and there will be nights when she wakes up four times or when she won't sleep at all, but *today* I am feeling obnoxiously chipper and well-rested.

(More non-baby stuff soon, I promise!)

Dr. Livingston, I presume?

I now emerge from the jungles of caring for a newborn (hey, I haven't been getting much sleep--allow me my tortured metaphors) to actually post and announce that at 12:23 PM on Friday, January 18, 2008, Matter-Eater Lad and I met our daughter, Veronica Rose:

who by now more often looks like this:

She was 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 21 inches.

More later, since I would rather this not turn into a blog that is entirely about another human being's intake and output, and right this second that is all I've got.

Hurry up and wait.

It turns out that the last couple of weeks (one hopes) of pregnancy are much more stressful than the preceding months (in a healthy, normal pregnancy, of course), especially--and this is important--if you started nesting at, say, 36 weeks and you are now 38 weeks along. The reason for this? YOU ARE JUST WAITING AT THIS POINT. After two weeks of busy, busy getting things in order at work and at home, there just isn't that much left to do that really needs to get done. This means that you start to *worry*. Not so much about giving birth, in my case at least--I am steadfastly in denial about the whole actually having to go through labor thing, and I therefore have not gotten stressed out about it yet--but about LATER. Mater-Eater Lad is doing the same thing. You start to ask yourself unanswerable questions. What if you screw up your kid? What if you can't figure out how to care for your kid? What if it turns out that your kid is a horrible, evil brat? What if your kid *doesn't like you* (excluding the teenage years, of course, when no kid likes his or her parents)? This has been worse for Matter-Eater Lad, I think, because I am still working (not working would just stress me out more), but his semester hasn't started yet, which means that he has work to do (he always has insane amounts of work to do), but in a more amorphous fashion than normal.


I am just grateful that I am more or less still comfortable, since that would certainly add to the pressure of the wait. As it is, my aches and pains are minor enough that the idea of the experience of and recovery from labor doesn't seem like a good trade-off to get rid of them.

Dear Baby,

I am sure you will be cute and all, but I am unamused by the feet you are intent in sticking as far up under my rib cage as you can get them. Please stop. It hurts.

(Also? My understanding is that short women, who have shorter torsos, have months of this crap. You have my sympathies.)

Ha.