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.

So that I don;t have to have this conversation again.

Walgreens has nothing to do with Walmart and Sam's Club.

I don't write end-of-year top ten lists.

And I don't usually read them, either.

But Dahlia Lithwick at Salon wrote an important one.

An excerpt:

"I humbly offer this new year's roundup: The Bush Administration's Top 10 Stupidest Legal Arguments of 2007.

10. The NSA's eavesdropping was limited in scope.

Not at all. Recent revelations suggest the program was launched earlier than we'd been led to believe, scooped up more information than we were led to believe, and was not at all narrowly tailored, as we'd been led to believe. Surprised? Me neither."

You should click through to read the rest. Ladies and gentlemen, your government at work. Be afraid. I am not a paranoid person, but this is just sickening, in addition to being frightening.

Maybe there should be a test.

I started assembling Baby Stuff this afternoon, and one of the first things I decided to tackle was the bouncy seat that were we given. I briefly misplaced the packet with the screws and small parts, but once I found it assembly was simple and quick. The last step was the simplest. All it entailed was snapping the optional "accessory bar" into place. The instructions were only this long:

"Fit the toy bar ends into the sockets in the footrest."

Can't get any simpler than that, right? BUT. The there was a "hint" under the instructions:

"Hint: The square end of the toy bar fits into the square socket and the circular end of the toy bar fits into the circular socket."

I feel like if you need this hint you a) probably can't use a screwdriver, so you probably haven't gotten this far in the instructions, and b) probably shouldn't be in charge of an infant. Square fits square and round fits round? REALLY?! I had no idea.

I may also be slightly cranky.

You only want a goat in theory.

My sister had a Very Serious Discussion with my nephew about Next Christmas the other day. My nephew is 7, so they are trying to instill in him charitable impulses and caring about others and such, and now is really the time to plant the idea that there will be less in terms of presents for next year (doesn't bother him right now, of course--next year's presents are a bit abstract right now) so that they can give to charity for people who really need it. So as to get him excited about this, Sis pointed out that they could get, for example, a goat for someone in a developing country who really needs it. Kids like animals, right? Plus, unlike food or medicine, he can understand why someone would want a goat. He got right behind this idea, with one caveat.

He wants to know if they can keep the goat for just a little bit first, since he has "always wanted a goat." (Ha. I wonder how long that would last once the goat started eating all of his stuff. Unlike sheep, goats are pretty smart and therefore hard to contain.) And then, he generously (seriously--he's only 7) points out, they can give the goat to the people who need it.

Methinks my sister is headed for a petting zoo as part of this plan for next year.

Was that a complaint or an endorsement?

This morning I woke up slowly, as I do many mornings. And, as I do many mornings these days, I woke up to getting kicked in the ribs. Fine. No problem.

The kicking paused for a few minutes.

I had gas. So I passed the gas.

I got kicked, pretty distinctly.

I passed gas again.

I got kicked again.

This happened twice more. Each time I got kicked once, kind of hard, right after farting.

Matter-Eater Lad though this was HILARIOUS. Because he is actually 10.

Yep. That's what gets the guys going.

From a maternity sweater description on oldnavy.com:

"Maternity Cable-Knit Kimono Sweaters

Only at Oldnavy.com

Cropped, cable-knit kimono sleeves drape beautifully, while a rib-knit panel swathes your belly in warmth. Best of all, a surplice neckline shows off the sexiest part of every woman's body - her clavicle."

Breaking my own rule--talking about the weather.

It was 4 degrees F when I left the house this morning. I am hearty and able to deal with the cold, but there is usually some transition period during which it is only sort of cold. I think this year I was on the East Coast for that transition period. It is REALLY, REALLY cold.

I must remember to wear a hat when I leave the house tomorrow morning.

Things that will make your refrigerator, freezer and kitchen smell like nail polish remover. And you won't be able to find the source of the smell.

A rotting lemon half, wrapped in Press-and-Seal, with the cut side toward the back of the veggie drawer.

Ways to get kicked out of a parenting prep course

Well, OK. We didn't get *kicked out*. However:

Matter-Eater Lad and I took a parenting prep class on Saturday. It seemed like not a bad idea. The class overall was fine--not overly serious, and the content was good for MEL in particular, who has never really encountered an infant before (although? Diapering a doll is really NOT AT ALL like diapering a live baby. Also, when MEL was trying to swaddle the doll, he banged the doll's head into the wall about four times. Not a good sign.). About 2/3 of the way through the 4-hour class, the instructor showed a video about how to deal with a crying baby that was really all about not shaking your baby and preventing shaken-baby syndrome. Fine so far--this is completely reasonable. I was amused that the video appeared to have been filmed in 1992, but again, no problem--I was quietly amused. The problem came when, about ten minutes into the video, the narrator mentioned that sometimes a breastfed baby cries because of what you are eating while the camera ominously zoomed in to Coke, onions and cans of beans piled on a counter. This was VERY FUNNY for some reason. In fact, most of the class laughed at it. But then I seriously *could not stop laughing*. The video had moved on to talking about the horrible things that can happen if you shake your baby. I *could not stop laughing*. It took me about ten minutes to get myself under control. If you say "never shake your baby" to me, I START LAUGHING. It's just not right. MEL and I are totally going to get ourselves kicked out of the childbirth class.

OH, MENTOS.

Witty was referring to this commercial in the comments:

Belated Announcement

I may, in fact, be 27 weeks pregnant.

Just possibly.

Either that or I have been eating way too much fudge and kielbasa.

Also, over the past three months, my friend P. has been giving me booties every time knitting group meets:





And my friend KK got in on the action last night, too:

(the purple is tissue paper)

Dear Ralph Nader,

Shut up.

You didn't do well in 2004 before because people realized that voting for you under our system enabled a Bush win in 2000. Now I need to track down your complaint and find out what you are actually claiming was done to sabotage your campaign.

Every time you hear about how Congress has such a low approval rating, think of this. *****Updated

I am far from the first person to mention it, but WE ARE NOT UPSET THAT CONGRESS IS WEAK ON TERROR OR THAT THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THE WHITE HOUSE ENOUGH.

We are upset about this sort of thing:

"Tim Starks of Congressional Quarterly reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to bring the Senate's surveillance bill up for floor debate in mid-November. That's despite the hold that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) plans to place on the measure -- something first reported by Election Central's Greg Sargent."

(Here's the lowdown on a hold)

It is important to note that historically the Senate is *very* protective of its procedures and traditions--to the point where Reid has honored holds placed by far-right Senators in the past.

It is important to note exactly how frightening the FISA legislation is:

"Telecom amnesty isn’t the only problem. For example, the Senate bill empowers the Attorney General, not the FISA Court, to determine who complied with the warrantless surveillance program.

The Senate bill would direct civil courts to dismiss lawsuits against telecommunications companies if the attorney general certifies that the company rendered assistance between Sept. 11, 2001, and Jan. 17, 2007, in response to a written request authorized by the president, to help detect or prevent an attack on the United States.

Suits also would be dismissed if the attorney general certifies that a company named in the case provided no assistance to the government. The public record would not reflect which certification was given to the court.

As Spencer Ackerman noted, “So you’ll you’ll never know, if the Senate bill becomes law, if your phone company gave any communications material when the National Security Agency came calling without a warrant.' ”

How un-American can it get?

*****Update

Dodd has responded:

"Just last night, we heard there are plans to disregard Senator Dodd's intention to place a hold on a FISA bill that includes amnesty for telecommunications companies.

That would be a pretty extraordinary move, but Chris Dodd has pledged to stop this horrible bill any way he can.

So if the hold is not honored, he is prepared to go to the Senate floor and filibuster."

Wow. Now, that is decisive action.

I never thought that I would say this, but Chris Dodd may have just won my vote in the Democratic Primary:
"

The Military Commissions Act. Warrantless wiretapping. Shredding of Habeas Corpus. Torture. Extraordinary Rendition. Secret Prisons.

No more.

I have decided to place a "hold" on the latest FISA bill that would have included amnesty for telecommunications companies that enabled the President's assault on the Constitution by illegaly providing personal information on their customers without judicial authorization.

I said that I would do everything I could to stop this bill from passing, and I have.

It's about delivering results -- and as I've said before, the FIRST thing I will do after being sworn into office is restore the Constitution. But we shouldn't have to wait until then to prevent the further erosion of our country's most treasured document. That's why I am stopping this bill today."

It has been the lack of action like this that has caused Democrats to loss faith in Congress. Too often there has been only capitulation to the White House with lip service to the reasons this Congress was elected. It is true that Republicans have been blocked every legislative action that they are able to block; however, that doesn't excuse cowardice when it comes to doing what can be done.

Ah, Minneapolis

I was filling out a library survey, and this question popped up:


What is the primary language spoken at home? Choose one.

English Hmong Somali Spanish Other, please specify

This is middle America, people. And I think it is awesome. Also awesome? The library has Hmong- and Somali-speaking librarians in addition to ones that speak English and Spanish.

*****I do realize that only people who read English will be able to complete the survey. That's not the point--and note the phrasing of the question.

Other ways in which one can tell that one has become a boring adult.

I am just *so excited* that a Target is opening up just around the lake from us on Sunday.

SCHIP veto

What they said.

And every time Bush talks about the fact that he vetoed a "Democrat" bill, remember the bipartisan support.

This question is completely serious. (Updated)

Target is being sued by a class of people who are blind for not making their website accessible. The class has been approved by a judge.

How would one make a completely visual medium accessible to blind people? I am sure there is a way (see also: books), and I certainly think it could be done (and should be done, assuming it is reasonably possible), but I would have liked the article to explain exactly *what* the class is trying to accomplish, using specifics. You know, like the blind people who want to have some way to know a hybrid car is coming. That article mentions possible *solutions*, which seems like a reasonable thing for which to ask.


Update:

This article *does* explain a little bit about what the class is looking for as a remedy:

"The ruling allows blind individuals, who say that many other retailers have designed their Web sites to be accessible through special software that vocalizes online content, to join collectively in the lawsuit."

See? That's all it took to make it clear. There are other articles with more technical explanations, but that one sentence was enough.

Clearly 59% percent of Minnesotans *have not been paying attention*

Are you kidding? 59% of you approve of Pawlenty's job performance? Is there something wrong with all of you?

An Open Letter to the Man Who Dialed My Office Number by Mistake Today.

Dear MWDMONBMT:

When I said hello, did you recognize my (fairly distinctive) voice? If no, your response to my greeting *should not have been* "Hi, honey. Did you get my message?" I'll cut you some slack on that one, though, since sometimes people take a few seconds to process unexpected things in a familiar setting.
However, when I very politely mentioned that I believed that you had a wrong number, arguing was really not the way to go. Given the implied intimacy (or at least personal acquaintance) implied by the first words out of your mouth, how did you not recognize that you were speaking with the wrong person? I feel that I have had a fascinating glimpse into what your life must be like. Also, you sounded as if you might be drunk.

Yes, I am a nerd, and proud of it.

I got an email about this today. After my amusement regarding the fact that the ABA led their first post-new-US-Supreme-Court-term marketing email with a coloring book faded, I realized that I really want it. To be sure, part of that is to see what is presented and in what terms, but also, I think it is cool.

Blink.

Damn your black heart, Steven Moffat! Well, ok, not really. But it is sort of unfair that you are brilliant and funny and possibly the best tv writer ever. Also you have some of the best writer commentary tracks ever--you are also funny *on cue* (regarding "The Doctor Dances:" "Come on, you old virgin . . . ." This is much funnier in context in a Scottish accent, coming on the heels of Moffat discussing the fact that Christopher Eccleston looks very different in person than he does on screen and musing about the extra flesh that Eccleston must let down from somewhere when he is going to be on screen. Really, Moffat talks exactly like a character from Coupling.).

I don't care whether or not all of you out there have ever watched or liked Doctor Who. You need to go, now, and watch "Blink", the Steven Moffat episode from the third season of the new series. I had heard from the Fanboys that it was amazing, which meant that I was, frankly, not expecting very much even though I love Moffat--the Popular Wisdom on these things tends to be set in stone after just a few very odd people weight in. It is creepy, and interesting, and emotional (although not as emotional as the Paul Cornell stuff), and it plays with the time issues in new ways--sort of like Moffat's "The Girl in the Fireplace" from season 2 (which just won a Hugo). There are holes the way there would be for any time travel story, but it is really just amazing. I cannot recommend it enough. However, don't watch it alone--it is also really, really creepy.

And then sometimes I don't hate people at all.

I discovered that I dropped my wallet on the train platform this morning when the woman who found it (20 minutes after I dropped it) called me to let me know she had it. She had found my business card in the wallet and figured she'd give that number a shot, and if that didn't work, she was going to bring it by my house (the address was on my license). She made my day. EVERYTHING WAS STILL IN THE WALLET.

And this is just a minor reason why I kind of hate people.

Also, it is why I live in a city, but I don't want to paint all suburbs--or people who live in them--with the same brush.

Guys? If you live in a suburb where sidewalks are even a possibility, you already don't live in a pastoral setting. Deal with it. I also understand that some neighborhoods have so little traffic that sidewalks really aren't an issue; that's a different situation.

I hear all of the arguments against sidewalks in this article--I am just kind of appalled by them. For instance, go ahead a bring up how senior citizens will shovel the sidewalks. All of the places listed here are places with huge lawns and large driveways. How are those same seniors coping now? Those driveways aren't shoveling themselves, you know. And that picture? Are we supposed to feel bad for this woman? (That said--eight feet is too wide for a sidewalk.)

I am also appalled by the city residents around here who don't want to have to maintain the bike trails and parks, just to be even-handed. What the hell is wrong with you people?

I should also mention that should Matter-Eater-Lad and I ever move to a city in which we need to live in the suburbs, sidewalks will be a minimum requirement for us.

The sign of a well-stocked stash

I am knitting a Clapotis out of this yarn in Topaz, which is lovely, but I am bored. When I realized this, instead of thinking about how I need to shop for new projects, I thought "I should pull that mitten kit out of my my stash (ok, I have two of that kit) and start working on it."

I have more projects set aside in my stash than I would come across in a visit to my LYS.

Success!

An Open Letter To The People Trying To Get Me To Hire Them

Dear PTTGMTHT:

Follow the directions in the listing. Believe me when I say that if you don't *you are not going to get an interview.* Calling and asking what to do when the ad requests an emailed resume is not helping you.

If there is a name on the ad, DO NOT send your cover letter "To Whom It May Concern."

Also, turn off the change tracking on your document *before* you send it to me.


I'm surprised I have to explain these things to you.

What?

No love for Barry and LeVon?

You know what this is a picture of?

5 kg of Nutella. Just for the record, that container of Nutella costs almost $80.00.

Now, I really, really like Nutella, to the point where I can't keep it in the house. But the bottles I buy are generally *13 oz*. Which equals 0.368543801 kilograms.

I had some thoughts about who might need that much Nutella. I think maybe these guys:

Are you so insecure about how your child might view the world that you need a book to indoctrinate said child?

Well, then, I have found the book for you.

Sigh.

Oh, my.

Did Stephen Colbert design this license plate?

I am all for not surrendering patriotic symbols to insane conservative people (please note that I consider this a subset of conservatives as a whole--I may not agree with them on most issues, but that doesn't make them evil or crazy across the board). This license plate is kind of sickening. I think it is the desert camo background that sends it over the edge. How many people who get this plate will have ever worn camo to anything more dangerous than a backyard cookout?

I should perhaps note here that *I* have never worn camo, much less in a defending-my-country sort of situation, except my pink camo neoprene shoes, which really, really don't count.

Bridge Collapse.

More specifics later, but on the frivolous side, I had no idea what the "R.T." in "R.T. Rybak" stood for before I read this BBC article.

Dear Ralph Nader,

I am appalled (but unsurprised) by the audacity you show in still insisting that there is no real difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, that they are so corrupt that voting for them is throwing away a vote:

"Where are the thousands of alliances and two million people to shake the irrevocably corrupt Democratic and Republican parties?".

You know what?

There is a difference.

I am not saying that the Democrats are some sort of paragon of virtue, but there is a difference.

Go to hell, you self-important windbag.

Follow-up

Damn straight.

"If Cheney's a member of the legislative branch, the Democratic Caucus chair suggests, the vice president won't need all the money that currently goes to pay for his executive office, extensive staff and that secure undisclosed location that is so often his haunt. So Emanuel plans this week to offer an amendment to a spending bill that would defund the Office of the Vice President.

Of course, there would still be funding for the Office of the Senate President. But, let's be frank, the rare tie-breaking duties and ceremonial administrative functions associated with that position won't require more than a smidgen of the money that now goes to the vice president's epic executive-branch operations.

"This amendment will ensure that the vice president's funding is consistent with his legal arguments," say Emanuel, a former aide to President Clinton who, like Cheney, has served in both the legislative and executive branches."

Dear Dick Cheney,

Since you apparently missed this part, Article II of the Constitution of the United States deals with the powers of the EXECUTIVE BRANCH. I am posting it in full, since you seem to be unfamiliar with the document. Not, mind you, that this is the first time you have appeared to be unfamiliar with the Constitution.

(Please note that this is the original text of the Constitution--bits that look like they should be hyperlinked have since been amended.)

"Article II

Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

The VP *is* mentioned in Article I, but only in a very limited manner:

"The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States."

Jackass. You know a great way to not have people constantly making you produce your files for discovery? STOP INVOLVING THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, AND SPECIFICALLY THE OFFICES OF THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT, IN CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES. I know you are not the only ones to have ever done it, but sometimes one wonders if ANYTHING LEGAL IS HAPPENING IN THERE.

Behind, too tired and busy for a real post.

I have lots of things I could be posting, but I am very busy and tired, so I will stick with this:

You *can* check a stand mixer if you are flying (Don't look at me like that--*of course* I didn't pay full price for it. Why do you think I was trying to get the damn thing from Philly to Minneapolis on a plane?). Just expect the TSA to thoroughly inspect it. (I think they were jealous.)

Learning something new

I can post this now, because my friend M. has received her birthday present.



I learned how to knit toe-up socks! The pattern is Oktoberfest, knit on US1 DPNs. I did fewer leg repeats than the pattern calls for because I was running out of yarn. Next time I might go up a needle size for the ribbing--it is a little bit inflexible. It is fine once the sock is on, but it is hard to get the sock on.



I like this pattern because it is a visual joke, but not so novelty that they are not practical to wear.

Happy Brithday, M.!

A Milestone

So, a little over a month ago I *may* have turned 30. On Easter, in fact. Matter-Eater Lad and I took the new car and drove up to Duluth, since we never had before. It was cold, but lovely and sunny, which made for a nice drive up there.

We saw the lift bridge:



Sand dunes:


Lake Superior, which was still frozen for quite a distance out from shore:


Elmo joined us.


He pensively regarded the surf:


Mugged for the camera:


And tried to eat the lighthouse:


(Shut up. *We* were *very* amused.)

Matter-Eater Lad also got me this for my birthday. It is absolutely *beautiful*. The artwork alone makes this edition worth it.

My family got together and sent me the money to pick out my very own kayak. I finally chose it and bought it last night (I'll tell y'all about the fun of trying to find a place to put the front strap hooks of a kayak car carrier on a Mazda 3 for a trip that *must* include a high-speed highway another time):



Please note that Elmo helped test out the kayak:

(And let us pause to note how great the grass looks. That part of the lawn was a sand pit and landscaping rocks when we bought the house 3 1/2 years ago--the previous owners had an above-ground pool. Getting rid of the rocks and getting topsoil and seeding the grass was just *so much* work.)


It was a good birthday. And being 30 is really exactly like being 29 so far.

More on the Dragon Socks.

So, I feel that I should post better pictures of the Dragon socks. The yarn is Fleece Artist sock in Moss. I used US size 0 DPNs (oh, how I love the Knit Picks DPNs). The pattern is more or less Child' First Sock (I disagreed with the heel. Stridently. So I changed it.) from Knitting Vintage Socks.

Socks in progress:




At this point in the construction, Matter-Eater Lad decided that these socks look very much like something Aquaman would wear. I was amused, but not as much as he was. He proceeded to ask for an orange sweater in this stitch pattern so that he could look like Aquaman. I said no, because I am not doing that much work for something I know he would never wear.

Finished socks:



I very much like how they came out. I will have to knit some for myself once I finish my sister's wedding veil. Which will go faster once I have started knitting my sister's wedding veil. I may have started a simple pair of stockinette socks while I am waiting . . . .

Actually, I would like to start a subscription.

Bush apologist James Lileks' inane Star Tribune column about nothing (seriously, it is always vague commentary about Target ads or some such thing, and referred to as "humor") was cancelled recently, because the paper wants him to report actual news. Please note that his actual column is not political, and it is a kind of humor column that is horribly outdated. There is a huge uproar in the right-wing portion in the blogosphere about how horrible this is. They are encouraging people to cancel their Strib subscriptions.

My reaction? I have lived in Minneapolis for five years, and I have never paid for home delivery. I get most of my news online. I picked up the phone and ordered home delivery.

I told everyone that I spoke to that it was because they cancelled Lileks' column.

The column itself was a waste of space, but more than that, the ten seconds a day it took him to write the column and get paid for it allowed him the leisure to write here (look to past posts for political stuff). And that is what the right-wing blogosphere is upset about; the Strib is not going to be subsidizing Lileks' political commentary any more. If he were a political columnist, I might understand the uproar. Lileks is free to write anything he wants on his website if he has the free time once he has a real job, just like anyone else in America.

I also sent this email to the Reader's Rep:

Ms. Parry—

I want to congratulate the Star Tribune for getting rid of some dead weight. James Lileks' column should have been cancelled years ago.

Upon hearing the news, I subscribed to home delivery.

Regards,

Kate

************Edited to add************

Please note that I don't think this is some sort of wonderful journalistic advance on the part of the Strib. Getting rid of all of the columnists isn't good journalism, it's just cheaper for them. Lileks is far from the only one that this is happening to--and that is part of my point. That, and the right-wing gnashing of teeth, along with Lileks' asking people to contact the reader's rep on his part just annoyed me enough that it was worth less than $20 of my money to make a point of doing exactly the opposite thing.

SOCKS!

So, I am not so much with the posting lately. I have a ton of photos and stories, but I have just been completely swamped at work, and when I don't take lunch, I don't get to post. I have been knitting, though. I knit these lovelies out of Sweet Georgia in Summer Skin for my Mother-in-Law for her birthday (the color is a little bit off, and I couldn't try them on because my MIL has *tiny* feet):




The pattern is, I believe, the beaded rib from Knit Sensational Socks (no time to get all linky today).

I also picked up some Fleece Artist that The Yarnery brought by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's talk. One skein was the moss or fern colorway (too busy to look it up), very pretty, kind of what I think of as dragon green. Then my friend, who has a dragon thing, got sick, and I discovered that Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks looks very much like scales. I therefore made my friend dragon socks. For various reasons I had to frog the first sock twice before I liked how it turned out:




I haven't uploaded the finished pix yet, but you get the idea.

You know how I was bemoaning the lack of cherry blossoms in my vicinity? Sundara (search for Sundara yarns, she comes up) dyed this as a limited edition in April:


Cherry Blossom yarn!

It made me very happy.