Mona Lisa's Eyebrows

Last night's debate

2008-01-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty disappointed in our GOP candidates after last night's debate. They were each given a chance to discuss what we should do about our national oil crisis (and let me tell you, having to spend over sixty bucks to fill up my gas-guzzling SUV is a crisis!). Not one of them did what I was hoping for, which was to sit up, look straight into the camera, and say with conviction, "Invade Venezuela!"

Although I suppose the only one crazy enough to spout off something so offensive before making it into office is Ron Paul, and that kind of goes against his foreign policy.

I have to disagree with Jack M's assessment that Hillary bringing up S-CHIP is going to cost her the nomination, and I didn't think the got TOO shrewish there compared to some of the other times she lost her cool. Remember, the people who are most likely to show up to the New Hampshire primaries are those who are die-hard Democrats, and they're all for putting each and every one of our children on welfare.

I'd comment more on the Dem debate, but I fell asleep. Blah blah blah blah tends to do that to me.

Here's some lousy Photoshop for you

2008-01-06T08:35:00.000-08:00

Dave in Texas noted Barack Obama's strong resemblance to Richard Nixon in this picture:

I see a stronger resemblance to some of our childhood icons:

Best hot sauce ever

2008-01-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

Original Juan makes what I consider the best hot sauce ever. I'm in a little bit of a panic that they're temporarily out of stock, because we're down to three bottles and that won't last us through three weeks of playoffs.

A couple of uses:

Carefully strain out the chunks and pour the strained liquid into a spray container of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (or your favorite spray butter substitute). It only takes a couple of tablespoons of liquid to flavor an entire an entire bottle. This is fantastic popcorn topping. Unfortunately, the popcorn sold by Original Juan isn't that tasty, so this is a great way to bring garlic heat to your popcorn.

But what to do with the chunks? Hot wings!

Take a big batch of wings cut like you'd cut them for buffalo wings. Coat in flour mixed with some spices - this weekend I used cayenne pepper, paprika, a bit of salt, and black and red pepper. Let the wings sit for an hour, then coat them again. Heat canola or peanut oil to 350 degrees, and fry up those wings, it usually takes about 13 minutes to cook them through.

Take the bottle of hot sauce you just opened to make your popcorn topping, and pour it into a small heavy saucepan. Don't forget the chunks you strained out for the popcorn topping. Add a stick of butter, warm over low heat until the butter is melted, and take a taste to check the heat. (I can promise, a stick of butter to a full-size bottle of this sauce is plenty hot for all but the most nuclear hot wings.) If it's too hot, add more butter. If you have to cut it with butter too much for your poor innocent tastebuds, you might want to add a little bit of garlic powder or minced garlic to bring back some flavor.

Toss the wings in the hot sauce, a few at a time, coating completely. One batch of hot sauce will cover anywhere from 50 to 100 wings, depending on how much butter was added. These wings are actually tastier the second day, after the sauce has really had a chance to soak in, so don't hesitate to make them the night before you are watching football and then chow down during the game.

Blogging has been light...

2008-01-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

Blogging has been light, due to holidays and due to Geiger repeatedly being sick. My husband's been absolutely fantastic about doing the all-nights, but he's wrapped up his Christmas vacation so I'm anticipating not much sleep.

Awesome Toffee

2007-12-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share my awesome toffee recipe in time to make it for the holidays. My mom's ex taught it to me about 20 years ago, but since she had to email me recently to get a copy of it (and I didn't even get a 'thanks for taking the time to write it down for me') and I have made it so many times that I can now make it from memory, I'll call it my own.

A pound of butter
Three cups of sugar
24 ounces of *good* chocolate - Ghirardelli at minimum. If you use Nestle or Hershey crap on this recipe, you will be wasting your time.
A bag of walnuts

Cut a piece of the butter off and use it to grease a cake pan or cookie sheet - something with walls high enough to hold the toffee. An 18x11 inch pan is a good size.

Melt the butter in a heavy pan. When it has melted, as it starts browning, add the sugar, stirring to mix. Continue gently stirring over medium to medium-high heat until the toffee has cooked to a dark brown. If there is a puddle of butter on the top, use a paper towel to soak as much of it as possible up. Pour the toffee into the cake pan. Sometimes at this point I add the walnuts so the walnuts help hold the chocolate and toffee together, sometimes I just add it to the chocolate.

Wait for the toffee to cool and harden, then rub the top with paper towels until any excess oil from the butter is gone. (If you added enough sugar in the above steps, there won't be any to mop up.) Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or in the microwave, but be careful not to burn it). Spread over the top of the toffee. Cool until the chocolate hardens. It may have to be refrigerated.

Chicken or the egg?

2007-12-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

On the front page of Fox News. Unsurprisingly, CNN is not leading with this either.

A roundup of Gallup health polls over the past four years finds that Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to report having excellent mental health.

The survey found that 58 percent of Republicans polled reported having excellent mental health. Only 38 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of Independents reported the same.

The question is, does this mean that insanity leads a person to liberalism, or does liberalism lead to mental illness?

From my personal experience, my mental health improved greatly when I started taking personal responsibility in my life - sure, bad things had happened to me, but that didn't mean it had to continue to affect me and my behavior. With that realization came a movement toward conservative thought, i.e. the government wasn't responsible for taking care of me and the government wasn't responsible for legislating my behavior. Those two principles go hand in hand more than I think most libs realize; if one expects the government to not tell them what to do, one must show that one is responsible enough to not be told what to do. I think most people learn this in their teenage years, I'll admit it took me a few years longer.

Can we please invade Venezuela now?

2007-12-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

From CNN, I don't know why this isn't the lead story:

President Hugo Chavez on Friday wrapped up his campaign to push through broad constitutional changes with a broadside attack against adversaries at home and abroad -- including a threat to cut off oil exports to the United States.

If the economy is so vital to our security, and Hugo Chavez is threatening our economy, wouldn't it just make sense to get rid of Chavez now? It's certainly more politically correct than invading Brazil for its new-found oilfields, not to mention Venezuela is closer and smaller.

Plants in the Democratic Debate

2007-11-18T11:02:00.000-08:00

No one's coming up smelling like roses here.

Jenny Bea has done an amazing job rounding up the identities of some of the questioners at the Democratic debate earlier this week. This one's a must-read.

Doug Ross also has a very interesting write-up. Including the fact that one of the 'undecided Democratic voters' may not even be a U.S. citizen, and therefore would be INELIGIBLE TO VOTE. Yep, that's me screaming there.

(h/t AoSHQ, where both of these stories were linked.)

The Font Thing

2007-11-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

The Font Thing is a piece of software that doesn't suck. Really, it's pretty indispensable. The Font Thing is a tool for viewing fonts, and runs on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP. No word on whether it will be updated for Vista, or even whether it needs updated - it appears the developer (Sue Fisher) hasn't updated her website in several years.

I end up using this just about any time I need to choose a font for a project. It's got a fairly easy to understand interface, and allows viewing of multiple fonts with whatever sample text you choose, so if I'm trying to match a font on a graphic a client has provided and the graphic is too trashed to actually used, I can easily scroll through all the fonts on my system to choose the closest match.

The font info is also accessible through the app, so I can get information ranging from who owns the copyright on the font to the metrics, such as the smallest readable size and the average character width.

And the absolute bestest part of it? It's FREE. Not shareware or spyware or adware, it's FREE. And there's not even anyplace on the developer's website to indicate where to throw a few bucks in gratitude. Really odd.

Non-sarcastic PSA

2007-11-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

Bonfils Blood Center is teaming up with the Food Bank of the Rockies and Community Food Share to help save lives multiple ways at once.

Bonfils is waiving the fee to register with the National Marrow Donor Program for bone marrow donation (normally $30) if you bring in a can of food when you come in to donate. The food banks will be helping families in need through the holidays with the canned food, and I'm sure all two of my regular readers have been eagerly waiting for the opportunity to donate bone marrow. A list of Bonfils donation locations are here. Most, if not all, of the donation centers have evening and/or weekend hours, and the staff has always been fantastically super-nice and very competent - I've only had one painful needle stick in three gallons of donation with Bonfils.

Bone marrow transplant is an essential part of treatment for lymphoma, leukemia, and other blood and bone marrow cancers. Only about 30 percent of patients needing a marrow transplant can find a suitable donor within their family; the other 70 percent are left to the whims of who has registered with the NMDP. Since a match will most likely be found in someone with the same genetic background as the patient, it can be especially hard for minorities to find a suitable donor. This is why it's especially crucial for as many people as possible to register.

Time to invade Venezuela

2007-11-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

Hugo Chavez is apparently still smarting from being told to shut up by King Juan Carlos of Spain. He's now threatening to nationalize Spanish banks in Venezuela.

I hope he goes through with it, and I hope Spain invades as a result. And I hope the US is asked to participate. I think we're long overdue a war for oil, and it would be really nice if I could fill up my gas-guzzling SUV, with its 16 mpg in the city and 19 on the highway, for less than $60.

So please, Hugo Chavez, keep rattling sabers. You think you can call our president the devil with no repercussions, but can nationalize another country's banks for being told to shut up? We'll be smiling when businesses no longer invest in Venezuela due to your threats.

(h/t AoSHQ)

Lefties don't have a sense of what's appropriate

2007-11-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

There are appropriate times and situations to express your views, and there are times that are not.

It is not appropriate to use your children to further your political point of view. Brainwashing your child that the President and the troops and America are evil is not teaching your child to be a free thinker. Teaching your child to be deceitful to further a political point is not teaching your child to be moral and honest. Using your child as a pity story to increase your free government handout teaches your child that he/she is a tool, not a person that you as a parent cherish and protect.

There's a corollary to this - it's not appropriate to drag someone's kid into an unrelated debate. It's especially not appropriate to make sexual comments about someone's kid. It amazes me that I repeatedly see supposedly educated, smart moonbats targeting a kid with sexual comments, and then trying to blow it off as a joke. It's creepy and weird.

Parades and services to honor someone or a group of people are not times to express your political opinion. Specifically, acting out at a Veterans Day parade is inappropriate. Yes, we understand that you are veterans too. This does not give you the right to disrespect other veterans, or our country, during a parade to honor veterans. You got outraged when the Westboro Baptist Church picketed funerals of gays, you should understand that there's a corollary here.

So next time, lefty, before you go screaming your political views in whatever forum you can find, using whatever mercenary means you can dream up, ask yourself: is this really someplace where I'm being asked to air my ideas, or is my lack of judgment by spouting off wherever I feel like it going to turn people away from my ideas, whether they're valid or not? Are my children going to hate me later in life when they realize that I used them instead of protecting them? Am I creating hate for my political position by inserting my ideas at a time when I shouldn't be in people's faces?

Twelve becomes eleven

2007-11-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard about the Aqua Dots recall, get out of your cave.

Millions of Chinese-made toys have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful date rape drug when ingested. Two children in the United States and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.

The Aqua Dots Super Studio was named one of the twelve best toys of 2007 by Toy Wishes magazine in their holiday issue. More information about the recall can be found at the official Aqua Dots Recall website.

Part of me is wondering if there's any profit to be made by getting a list of all toys made in China, buying "xxxxxtoyrecall.com", and offering to sell it to the toy distributor so they'll have it ready for when their toy faces a recall. Yes, when, not if. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that China's doing at least some of this stuff on purpose? How often can accidental injuries occur before someone starts recognizing the pattern?

Boycott Lego (?)

2007-11-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

I never thought those words would be coming out of my keyboard. Lego is a staple in our house, and has been since before the kids were born.

From NRO's The Corner:

A few days ago I posted a bleg asking for ways to reach out to Lego Systems, Inc. to see if they would donate Lego sets to wounded warriors at Walter Reed who use the sets for therapy. Quick response from Lego — forget it. Now we learn that Lego has awarded $5000.00 to eight year old Kelsie Kimberlin, as part of their first annual Creativity Awards. Her entry — a 5 minute anti-Bush video set to an altered John Lennon tune ("Happy Springtime/Bush is Over").

Problem: the video was actually produced by her father, Brett, who runs Justice Through Music, a civic engagement nonprofit. Brett is also noteworthy for being a convicted bomber (aka terrorist), and for having claimed to have sold pot to Dan Quayle in 1988. Just the kind of person you want associated with your child's favorite toy. Some free advice to Lego — want to fix this PR nightmare? Do the right thing and help the wounded warriors already.

I hate to quote someone's post in entirety, but there's no succincter way to put it than how James Robbins did. There is some question as to whether Brett Kimberlin's claims to have sold marijuana to Dan Quayle were true or just an attempt by Kimberlin to harm Dan Quayle's political career. And just how much do we want to reward someone who put a bomb in a high school parking lot? Of course, Lego is too cowardly to outright admit that they hate our president and our soldiers - they couch their anti-USA sentiment thusly:

Kelsie encourages other kids to sing about peace and her choir sang a re-make of John Lennon's song, 'Happy Xmas, War is Over.' The video of 'Happy Springtime' has been viewed on YouTube almost 50,000 times and the song has played on MySpace almost 200,000 times.

They're too cowardly to even mention the full title in their press release. Frankly, after having skimmed through the video, I don't see any indication that a child had much of anything to do with the production of it. It looks to me like the entire video is a vehicle for giving the Speedway Bomber recognition and money.

(h/t Discarded Lies)

Update Nov 12: Lego sent me an email claiming they had no idea of the content of the video. Apparently they decided that they were going to judge the essays as a standalone effort, and "made the decision to not regard, consider or otherwise evaluate any ancillary materials, including pictures, collages, paintings, songs or online videos". Whether this decision was made prior to someone at Lego seeing the video is unclear, but they claim they had no knowledge of the video.

Leave it to someone on the left, and a terrorist to boot, to exploit their child and deceive or collaborate, depending on how involved you believe Lego is, for personal gain and to push a message on to a toy company that now claims they take no political positions.

Full text of the two emails below. I forwarded the first one to James Robbins, but did not receive a reply, although he posted the text of the email on NRO. I'm still waiting to hear if Lego has provided kits for therapy for the soldiers at Walter Reed. (Which is NOT a political move, leftwing moonbats - keep in mind that claiming you support the troops but oppose the war actually means supporting the troops, whether you agree with their ideology or how they ended up in Walter Reed.)

Thank you for your interest in LEGO® brand toys. We are always delighted to hear from a loyal LEGO enthusiast.

A blogger at the National Review incorrectly wrote that LEGO Systems had denied a donation request from Walter Reed Hospital to support troops and their families. The company’s community relations department responded favorably to the request via voicemail, and details have yet to be finalized on that donation request; however, it was not denied. In fact, the company has historically contributed to several organizations that support the families of men and women who serve the country, and continues to do so. For many years, LEGO Systems has taken great pride in making contributions to such programs as the United States Marine Corp’s Toys for Tots program and Operation Gratitude, which sends care packages to U.S Troops.

LEGO Systems does not endorse one political perspective over another. In its November 8, 2007 issue, The Washington Post ran a story implicating LEGO Systems’ recognition of an 8-year old girl’s creativity through an essay contest as endorsement of a political agenda.

LEGO Systems sponsored a contest to identify and honor 10 children’s creativity. One of the winning entries told of a girl’s endeavors to “sing for peace” by rallying her choral group to sing a peace song. She indicated she would use the money to “spread the word of peace and music and get more kids involved in saving the planet,” which the company finds compelling and commendable. Because the contest was essay-based, LEGO Systems did not regard, consider or otherwise evaluate any ancillary materials, including pictures, collages, paintings and online videos, and as such, was not aware of the specific content of the song.

While LEGO Systems does not ever endorse any extreme messages, it does always endeavor to encourage creativity among children. The intent of the contest was to highlight and celebrate children’s creativity, and LEGO Systems regrets any confusion the Washington Post article causes.

Alice, thank you again for contacting us. We wish your family many happy hours of creative building with LEGO brand toys in the years to come.

Thank you for your follow up email.

The girl mentioned in her entry that her song was shared on MySpace and YouTube, which supports her claim that the prize money would be used to “spread the word of peace and music and get more kids involved in saving the planet.” As previously mentioned, because the contest was essay-based, LEGO Systems made the decision to not regard, consider or otherwise evaluate any ancillary materials, including pictures, collages, paintings, songs or online videos, and as such, we were not aware of the specific content of the song or the video. That decision, intended to promote equity among all entrants, some of whom had not submitted ancillary materials, is being re-evaluated for future programs.

As a toy company, LEGO Systems does not take political positions. We are disappointed and deeply regret that our good intentions of rewarding children’s creativity has been used by others for political purpose. This certainly was not the intention of the contest, nor should this situation be perceived as a corporate position on politics. LEGO Systems does not endorse any political or extreme messages. It does always endeavor to encourage creativity among children. The intent of the contest was to highlight and celebrate children’s creativity, and LEGO Systems regrets any confusion or unintended sentiment that this situation causes.

Please do not hesitate to contact us again if we can be of additional assistance to you.

Please help Weber Elementary

2007-11-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

This slipped under my radar until a fundraiser at my son's school this week.

I kited this pic from the school's website, but I'm hoping they won't mind.

Weber Elementary School in Arvada, CO sustained an estimated $3 million in damage due to an arsonist last June. Most of the damage was in the library. I have been told by a Scholastic Books representative that their library has no books. Parents were being asked to donate a dollar at my son's school's book fair to help purchase books for Weber.

I know how much I enjoyed the library at my elementary school growing up, and how much I hated it when we moved to a school that had a poor library. And I've seen how much MadLibs loves checking out and bringing home books from the library at his school. It almost makes me want to cry to think there's an entire school of kids that are missing that opportunity this year.

So if you've got some spare pocket change, or some gently used books that are lying around, please help Weber rebuild their library.

The mailing address for the school is:

Weber Elementary
8725 West 81st Place
Arvada, CO 80005

Flippity flippity flop flop flop...

2007-11-07T15:03:00.000-08:00

...kinda like a dying fish.

I think John Edwards has just removed himself from Hillary's VP list. This video is from the Edwards campaign. It may be the ballsiest thing John Edwards has ever done.

(h/t AoSHQ)

How to solve the China problem

2007-11-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

Why doesn't America just make it a rule that we only import things from China that should actually contain lead? It seems like they have a surplus of it, since it's ending up in everything else. For instance, we could make sure we have plenty of kryptonite shielding. And bullets. I'm certain China could make some bullets that contain lead.

Hillary's the scariest

2007-10-31T10:35:00.001-07:00

But I'm going to bet most of the twelve regular readers here knew that already.

An AP Survey revealed that Hillary Clinton is the strong front-runner for scariest political Halloween costume. She beats the next politician, Rudy Giuliani, by two and a half fold.

Yesterday, I almost bought the mask they show in the link for Halloween, but MadLibs told me it was too scary to wear to his school. No joke. He thinks my flaming skull mask is less scary. I'm truly amazed at what a smart kid he is.

It's like he could see the future

2007-10-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, Bill Whittle wrote an excellent essay called Tribes, part of which discussed the events that happened at the Superdome in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I'm sure some people read his essay and were enraged; after all, how in the world could anyone predict what would happen if ten thousand people were shoved into a situation like that?

Well, it's happened again. Ten thousand people were shoved into Qualcomm Stadium as refugees from the fires in southern California. Sure, it's not quite the same situation - there's a road in and out, so people can bring supplies, but from the sound of it Qualcomm Stadium has turned into a place of hope, caring, and mutual support, while the Superdome was described as hell.

As much as I like to slam California, I'll be surprised if we hear reports of residents shooting at police officers or Guardsmen who come to keep order in the aftermath of the fires. And I'll be surprised if we hear too many reports of people using their aid money for strip clubs and tattoos, and I'm guessing that people who double-dip by claiming their house burned twice, or accepting payments for rentals while they're living in free housing, will be the widely-publicized exception to the rule rather than what seems to be the norm in Louisiana. But what do I know, I can't tell the future. Maybe we should ask Bill Whittle, he seems to have a good handle on it.

Go Fred Go!

2007-10-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Fred's plans for border security and illegal immigration reform have been posted at Fred08.com.

Mark Krikorian does a great job of penning the Cliff's Notes for it, if you're not inclined to read the whole thing. I agree with Krikorian, Fred's going to do a bang-up job of attrition through enforcement if he sticks with this plan.

I was hoping something like this would be coming out of Fred's campaign. And I'm hoping this prompts some of the people who un-registered as Republicans to re-register so they can vote in the primaries, because it'd be a shame to have a candidate who's got any less than Fred's plan for immigration reform running as the Republican candidate.

(h/t Ace of Spades - I hadn't gotten around to reading my the weekly update in my email yet, and didn't realize this had been posted. I'll be hopping on those things in the future.

Another reason Giuliani is not my favorite...

2007-10-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

Giuliani is rooting for the Red Sox over the Rockies. Not that baseball's really my thing, to be honest, I wasn't even sure who was playing the Rockies. But this is just unforgivable.

I question this definition of romance...

2007-10-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

Hillary told Essence mag that Bill is romantic because he brings her gifts when he's away.

Funny, I always thought a big part of romance was keeping pants zipped in the face of temptation, because you'd never ever want to hurt the person you're in love with. And Hillary, we already knew Bill was a gift giver, since he gave several gifts to Monica Lewinsky during their affair. The fact that Bill gives gifts is not something unique and special to your marriage.

I'm not sure the message the African American community needs is that romance is about what you get materially from a relationship rather than what you get from a stable, faithful relationship.

A moment of wild speculation

2007-10-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

Does the fact that many Malibu residents are ignoring evacuation orders, instead expecting firefighters to somehow mysteriously bring the fires under control, and barring that, expecting the firefighters to rescue them despite the fact that it puts firefighters at risk and keeps the firefighters from spending their time fighting fires have anything to do with Malibu's overwhelmingly liberal population?

Blending Chuck Norris

2007-10-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

In honor of/Despite Chuck Norris's recent endorsement of Mike Huckabee (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I like Mike Huckabee, but he's not Fred Thompson), I feel the need to post the Will It Blend video featuring Chuck.

Oh, and if anyone feels so inclined, I'd definitely take a BlendTec blender mysteriously showing up on my doorstep.

So nurturing

2007-10-21T18:40:00.001-07:00

Hillary hates little fuzzy kittens. I'd be willing to bet she had a hand in poor Buddy's death too.

UPDATE: Harvey does it much better (as usual) over at IMAO.

Geiger's febrile seizure

2007-10-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm all up in arms about nationalized health care, I might as well share our final experiences with Kaiser Permanente.

Dr. Michelle Glasgow, after agreeing to continue to treat my hypothyroidism to the levels where I was losing weight, did an about-face when it came time to actually up my medication dosage. She would never answer my question about why she said previously that she would, only stating that I was within the TSH levels that Kaiser considered normal, despite the fact that those levels do not reflect the current guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. I'm not sure what her reasoning was for refusing to raise my dosage, other than playing God - Kaiser wasn't paying for my medication so it's not like they were out any cash.

We had already decided to find other health care (and had taken the steps to purchase it through our LLC, at half the cost of what the school district was charging for Pacificare insurance) when the incident happened that completely sealed our decision to leave Kaiser.

(You're going to be wondering what we did with MadLibs during all this - fortunately my father-in-law was visiting, and so we just shouted into his room for him to watch MadLibs, got a "Huh? I need to watch MadLibs?", and ran out the door.)

In late June, 16-month-old Geiger started running a fever. She was teething, and despite what some doctors say, MadLibs had run crazy high fevers when he was teething, so we just assumed it was due to teething, gave her some Tylenol, and put her to bed at 9 pm. Although we keep a baby monitor running, it hadn't been necessary to actively listen for a while - Geiger is pretty good about hollering when she's ready to get out of bed. About an hour after we put Geiger to bed, my husband (R) happened to walk by one of the monitors and heard what sounded like rhythmic sighing, and brought the monitor to me. We joked that she must be singing herself to sleep, and listened for probably a minute or two before R. decided to go check on her - we usually have a policy of not going into the kids' rooms after they go to bed, but if she was having that much trouble falling asleep maybe she just needed some playtime). R walked into Geiger's room and immediately shouted for me to come up.

Geiger was having a seizure, and was burning up with fever. I took her out of R's arms and told him to go call the pediatrician, because I really wasn't sure what to do other than to try to get her fever down. I ran into the bathroom and started pouring cold water on her. R couldn't decipher the phone system to reach anyone (our previous pediatrician's phone system just had you press 0 to reach someone, and in my opinion any phone system you might call in an emergency should work this way) and we decided we could get Geiger to a hospital faster than an ambulance could get to our house and get her there, so we loaded her up in the Jeep and drove as fast as we could to Good Samaritan, which obviously was not my first choice, but it was closest, and there's a toll highway that runs practically from our house to the hospital so we wouldn't have to worry about the traffic of going into downtown Denver. It took fifteen minutes from the time we realized she was having a seizure to arriving at the hospital. Geiger was still seizing.

(Note: if your child ever has a seizure, call 911. We weren't sure if a seizure was considered enough of an emergency to call 911, and didn't take into account that your urge is to drive like a maniac to get your child to the hospital. Plus they can stabilize your child in the ambulance - if Geiger had stopped breathing on the way to the hospital there would have been nothing we could have done.)

R dropped Geiger and me off at the door to the ER and went to park the car. I ran in and told the receptionist, "My daughter is having a seizure, we need help NOW!" The receptionist just sat there slack-jawed for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a couple of seconds before a nurse came out and took us to three different rooms before finally deciding where we needed to be. It took almost twenty minutes and two doses of Ativan to make the seizure stop. Geiger's temperature was 103.5 degrees, which is actually low for a febrile seizure and is lower than what MadLibs' temperature runs when he gets sick.

Once we were actually in the right room and the staff had figured out what to do with us, the care was excellent. They got the seizure stopped and had a nurse pretty constantly with us. They even gave us some socks with treads on the bottom (I didn't even know they made those for adults) since we had made it out the door with no shoes or socks, just pajamas. They did seem a little incredulous that she had a seizure with a temperature so low.

Good Samaritan didn't have a pediatrician on duty past 2 am, so R and Geiger rode in an ambulance downtown to Children's Hospital while I drove home to grab a cell phone, let my father-in-law know what was happening, and grab some real clothes, blankie, binky, bunny, etc. Geiger was still unconscious from the Ativan, and she needed to be observed until she regained consciousness.

The staff at Children's was also wonderful. R and I took turns staying awake and fielding phone calls (R had called my mother-in-law from Good Samaritan and asked her to call my mother for some affirmative prayer, so word was getting out). The resident at Children's sat me down while R was asleep and discussed in depth what had happened, what we needed to watch out for, and told us that despite the long duration of the seizure it was unlikely that there was any damage. We were instructed to give Geiger alternating Tylenol and Motrin to try to keep her temperature down. We were told to follow up with a pediatrician at Kaiser at the end of the day (it was now very early Friday morning) so she wouldn't go all weekend without a followup.

At about 7 am, Geiger regained consciousness. Her first word waking up, of course, was "Daddeeeee!" (Mommy's pretty ubiquitous, and I'm OK with that.) She was still very groggy and unable to walk and focus, but they let us take her home. We called Kaiser to find out that Dr. Merrill was on vacation, so we would have to see Dr. Bruce Doenecke, who had scoffed at me for being overconcerned and not knowing to just apply some hydrocortisone when I brought MadLibs in for a rash a few months before - a similar rash a year before had been strep. We got an appointment for 4:45, so as to get us as close to the weekend as possible.

At about 2:30, Geiger started screaming like her bones were being ground into glass. Nothing calmed her down. We called Kaiser and were told to wait for our appointment at 4:45 (which I understand; they probably wouldn't have been able to get us in any earlier anyway and by the time we got there we would have only saved a half hour). Dr. Donecke really didn't know what to do with us or about us - I had assumed a pediatrician would have at least a rudimentary knowledge of febrile seizures, but he honestly seemed clueless. He at least had the good sense to call Children's to talk to a neurologist, who said that it could be a reaction to coming off the Ativan or it could be post-ictal nastiness, but we would have to wait another 24 hours before another evaluation would be necessary. We could try Benadryl, but since she had never taken it before it was possible it would wire her even more.

The real kicker was when we asked Dr. Donecke what to do in the future, especially if we were up on a mountain or at my mom's, which is miles from the nearest paved road and at least 30 minutes to the nearest hospital, if an ambulance can even find the place (FedEx sure can't!). His profound, reassuring answer? "I don't know." Dr. Donecke didn't even offer to try to find out what our alternatives were. I don't know if it's just that we weren't his regular patients, or that he's really that unconcerned with the wellbeing of his charges and their parents' peace of mind. Even after we asked him if he expected us to never be out of reach of a phone and hospital, we received no answer.

Ten days later, we had left Kaiser Permanente for good and were back with our old pediatrician. Here's the plan our pediatrician laid out for handling this in the future:

Second seizures don't require a trip to the emergency room unless the seizure lasts for more than five minutes. We were told we don't need to call 911 until after the five minutes had passed, but I think we will probably call right away.

If Geiger starts running a fever, we immediately begin alternating doses of Tylenol and Motrin every three hours. There's some debate on whether this actually prevents a seizure, but if we can keep the fever down we're hoping that will help.

We carry a thermometer and Motrin with us at all times. The Motrin has the current dosage written on it so we don't have to think.

Geiger's pediatrician wrote a prescription for rectal diazepam (diastat), which we immediately filled. A few notes on this - talk to your pharmacy about what dosages they are able to get before you get your prescription written - the dosage the diazepam came in required that we purchase the refill at the same time (two to a package) so we ended up having to pay full price for the refill, and the whole prescription cost us $200 with insurance. Your pharmacy probably doesn't stock this, so be sure to bring in your prescription a few days before you will need it. When we hike, fly, go to mom's, etc., essentially whenever we go someplace where we might be out of reach of a hospital or doctor or a phone, we carry the diazepam and some rectal acetaminophen (marketed as Fever-All, ask your pharmacy for this too) to handle the seizure and bring down the fever long enough for us to get back to civilization.

It's amazing what a pediatrician who's actually interested in helping a parent maintain their kids' active lifestyle and who is actually concerned about her patients can do. The odds are good that Geiger will have another febrile seizure, since she has three of the risk factors for a repeat - she was under 18 months old, her fever was relatively low, and her seizure lasted more than fifteen minutes. With the current plan we've developed with our pediatrician, we can rest assured if we go someplace that is out of reach of phone and hospital, we can handle a seizure.

(And in case you're wondering, as if anyone read this far, Geiger is fine. She oddly lost her attachment to her bunny lovie for a while, but that either came back or redeveloped, I'm not sure which. She's still beating all the curves for learning and development, and her head is still way too big for her body.)

I wish I could draw like this

2007-10-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

Darleen Click has a comic that sums the Democratic congress and the S-CHIP snafu up nicely.

I've almost come to the conclusion that some people really are too stupid to spend their own money. This is why they are OK with the government taking their money and spending it however the government feels is best. I wonder how they'll feel when they don't have the money for fancy cars and dinners out and fancy clothes because instead of being taxed at their current rate, their tax rate jumps up to 40 or 50 percent? But they'll have health insurance! Demanding nationalized healthcare for everyone is no different from saying, "I can't manage my budget and provide for my family, and everyone else is just as personally incompetent as I am." Yes, that's YOU, Mr. and Mrs. Frost.

One only has to look at the disaster that is Kaiser Permanente (and more on that later, we finally managed to shake free of Kaiser but I haven't had time to write up all the fun) and the rampant Medicare abuses, both on the part of doctors and patients, to know what a catastrophe nationalized healthcare would be.

Hillary gets it

2007-10-19T09:35:00.001-07:00

Hillary Clinton totally understands that offering universal health care means the government can tell you how to live your life.

As for ways to reduce pressure on the overburdened health care system, she said she could envision using "carrots and maybe a few sticks" to motivate people to lose weight and make other behavioral changes that could help...She didn't directly address questions of whether smokers or obese people should pay more for health care but said as president she would use the "bully pulpit" to encourage healthy lifestyle choices, particularly among young people.

Too bad she's got this fantastic understanding of the implications of government-provided health care, and she's still in favor of it. Oh, yeah, I forgot - she's insanely power-hungry. And thinks she can run each of our lives better than we could possibly do it ourselves. That explains it.

I can't imagine that the families perpetually dependent on welfare who don't think anyone should tell them they have to go get a job are going to look kindly on being told they have to shave a few pounds.

Snowball attack

2007-10-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

Possible two-year prison term for throwing a snowball at a coworker.

When (Michelle) Oehlert reported the incident to deputies the following day, she said Thistleton and two friends were "taunting her" just before she was hit with the snowball. She complained that the snowball "caused her pain due to a prior injury" — a car accident several years earlier.

The DA is calling it an 'iceball' to try to make it sound like he's not a complete idiot.

Schools prescribing birth control?

2007-10-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

A middle school in Maine has made the decision to prescribe birth control pills to its female students without requiring parental consent.

The school in question is one of the few schools in the district to have an on-site clinic, apparently because of the high percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunches. I discussed the ramifications of the nanny state in the school and the slippery slope of allowing the government to offer additional, non-education-related services to students a few days ago. This is quite clearly another case.

I went to middle school and high school in an urban area - the high school I attended was over 60% African-American, and was gang-infested. I understand the problems many kids have coping with that environment, the tremendous amount of peer pressure, and goodness knows I made quite a few stupid choices myself during my middle school and high school years. Many of the students are not going to have two positive parental role models, and many of the students will be lucky to even have one. And sure, an eleven-year-old is not emotionally mature to make choices about sex and birth control, although she's probably going to be already making some choices about sex at that age. But putting the schools in the position of providing birth control to students is opening too many cans of worms.

First, there are the implications of having the school step in as an authority that may be circumventing parental wishes. I think it's likely that at least a few parents who don't want their child receiving birth control will refuse to sign the parental consent form allowing their child access to the clinic. This will decrease the student population that is served by the clinic. For instance, if Catholic students attend King Middle School, it's possible their parents will no longer allow them to seek health care from the school clinic. I'm pretty 'liberal' when it comes to birth control, but I think I'd be furious if my child went to her school clinic and was offered birth control. Offering a kid birth control is going to lead at least a few kids to think they need to use it, maybe earlier than they would have if it wasn't shoved in their faces.

Second, does the school really not have educational needs to spend their money on?

And third, can the school afford the financial and political ramifications if a student has medical problems due to taking birth control pills the school has prescribed? I don't think that when my daughter is eleven I will have discussed the medical reasons I had to stop taking the very birth control pills the CNN article uses as a graphic, or how taking the pill made both me and my mother so hormonally insane that it almost ruined our lives before we each clued in (at about the same time - my mother was on the pill as a hormone replacement late in life) that we were poisoning ourselves with birth control pills.

I know that denying a young girl birth control probably won't stop her from having sex - if anything, it's likely to make her act out even more. But schools have to stop trying to take over every aspect of parental responsibilities. If the Portland School District feels so strongly about having birth control available to students, maybe they should ask Planned Parenthood about putting offices near existing schools. This would allow the school district to continue to provide health services to in-need students without parents having to worry about whether birth control is being offered to their children against parental wishes, the school won't be opening themselves up for a lawsuit when a girl drops dead of a blood clot or starts acting out because the pill made her crazy.

How disturbing is this?

2007-10-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

Got this letter from MadLibs's school today.

Dear SchoolName parents:

Today about 12:30 PM today (sic) there was a safety concern in the area around the school.

The office staff was in constant communication with district security and the CityName police. Every precaution was taken to ensure the safety of all students at SchoolName.

Thank you for your support of the safety and security of SchoolName students.

Sincerely,

PrincipalName

Way to put parents' minds at ease!

Let him die, already!

2007-10-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

CNN reports that the ACLU is sticking its nose in where it's not wanted again. They've filed to have all executions in Nevada halted until the Supreme Court decided on the 'cruel and unusual punishment' status of lethal injection.

The lucky guy who had his life saved beat a little old lady to death with a tire iron. What's more, he hasn't filed any appeals. He's ready to go. I wonder if he's grateful to the ACLU?

Opt out of having your info shared by Verizon

2007-10-16T10:19:00.001-07:00

PeenieWallie has an important public service announcement if you're a Verizon customer and you place any value whatsoever on your privacy.

And they wonder why the district thinks they can send these out...

2007-10-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Denver Public Schools recently got itself into some hot water by sending a sealed letter home with a student informing the student's mother that the student was overweight. Of course, the child opened it and supposedly became distressed - perhaps she wasn't aware she had a weight problem?

I've seen comments on some blogs asking why in the world Denver Public Schools thinks they can engage in this sort of personal life interference. I'm guessing some of the same people who are up in arms over this are also up in arms in favor of the proposed expansion of the S-CHIP program.

70.7% of Centennial K-8's students were eligible (PDF warning) for free or reduced lunches in the 2005-2006 school year. To be eligible for free or reduced lunches, a student's family must be at or below 130% of poverty level. To qualify for the state CBHP health plan (PDF warning again), the student must be at or below 200% of poverty level.

What this means is that well over 70% of the students in Centennial K-8 qualify for state-funded health care.

With the government providing lunches and health insurance to a large portion of these kids, is it any wonder that the government feels a well-meaning obligation to do what they can to reduce those insurance costs?

Years ago, I did volunteer work at an HIV-testing clinic that also provided services to disabled people who needed mental health, physical health or housing services. My work there was a big part of what turned me from a bleeding heart into a conservative - seeing people use food stamps to buy pork rinds and candy bars and then asking for more more more because their food stamps were gone by was disenheartening. Even more disenheartening was taking a poor mom who had no food for her kids grocery shopping a few years ago and having her get mad and yelling at me in the grocery store because I wasn't willing to add twelve-packs of soda to the grocery bill.

I understand that there are many families out there who use their state and federal provided funds as wisely as they can. But parents who don't spoil it for everyone and make the government act as a nanny state to reduce the poor use of government funds. If we keep expanding government-funded health care, don't be surprised if we start seeing more and more cases where Big Brother is telling us how to raise our kids.

Fun with databases

2007-10-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post has a website where you can look up congressional votes since 1991.

But wait, there's more!

You can see votes sorted by several categories.

Political party

State/territory

Region

Boomer status

Gender

Astrological sign

Surely some statistics geek out there can run some numbers on whether we should be voting for Scorpios or Aquariuses...

Nothing good can come of this

2007-10-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

John H. Lee, a Korean director with only two films to his credit, is planning a remake of one of my favorite films ever, John Woo's The Killer. From what I can glean from the article, the remake is apparently being done with Woo's production company's blessing.

I understand that John Woo feels an enormous debt to those who mentored him in his early career, and has carried on that tradition by acting as advisor or executive producer on many young directors' projects, but a remake of The Killer seems to be a setup for failure. Either John H Lee will try to follow closely in John Woo's footsteps, and will fail because he doesn't have Chow Yun-Fat in the leading role, and can't recreate the incredible interpersonal dynamics and the amazing battle sequences, or he will try to make the film his own, in which case it will have to depart significantly enough from the original film that it shouldn't be called a remake.

And in a worst-case scenario, Hollywood will insist on a happy ending for the film, which will completely ruin it.

Colorado Friends of Fred

2007-10-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

The Colorado Friends of Fred Thompson website is up at www.colorado4fred.com.

One hundred million hits

2007-10-07T12:20:00.001-07:00

PostSecret is quite likely going to reach one hundred million hits this week. That's about fifty thousand *times* more hits than this itty bitty blog has gotten. Way to go Frank! Both for the PostSecret project and your bang-up job raising awareness of Hopeline (1-800-SUICIDE).

The Truth Laid Bear managed to pick up on the fact that PostSecret was down for about a day a few weeks ago, but has not yet picked up that it's active again. I'm disappointed.

Nuance is everything

2007-10-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

This is not a post about Fred Thompson, this is a post about CNN.

In a story on CNN today:

Still, most say that despite a few gaffes -- such as his statement during a Florida trip that he didn't "remember the details" of the 2005 Terri Schiavo right-to-die case -- Thompson is still a favorite to win over the values voters that dominate the primary.

'Right-to-whatever' carries the implied meaning that the whatever is being applied to whoever is exercising that right. In this case, it seems to imply that Terri Schiavo was exercising her right to die, rather than the actual facts of the case: her 'husband', who was shacked up and had produced two offspring with another woman, pulled the plug on Terri Schiavo despite the protests of people who obviously cared more about her well-being. Can anyone really argue that a man engaged in a long-standing adulterous affair has the best interests of his wife at heart? But CNN refers to this as a 'right-to-die' case, implying that Terri Schiavo herself expressed the wish that she wanted to die and exercised that 'right'. No documentation exists that Terri Schiavo said that she didn't want heroic measures to save her life implemented, and Michael Schiavo didn't bring up that she might not have wanted heroic measures taken until seven years later, after he had won lawsuits due to her condition totaling well over a million dollars. He waited until everyone had been bled dry.

This should be more accurately termed a 'right-to-kill-so-I-can-marry-my-concubine' case. Or if one wants to be more sensitive to a cheating husband, a 'right-to-kill' case. But in no way is Terri Schiavo's death a 'right-to-die' case.

Woman doesn't understand fanboy tax

2007-10-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

"A New York woman is so angry at Apple Inc. for lopping $200 off the price of the iPhone that she's filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages."

The gal is also suing AT&T, saying that the two-year contract is unfair. Waaah. Someone held a gun to this woman's head and made her buy the iPhone and sign the service contract. Oh wait, they didn't?

Google's Custom Search is spam

2007-10-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

If it hadn't been a Google-owned blog, I wonder how long it would have taken to wrest control back from the spammer?

Who's sponsoring the DREAM Act?

2007-09-19T12:31:00.001-07:00

The DREAM Act is the latest attempt by Congress to give illegal immigrants a pass, by giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and awarding legal status to any immigrant who claims to have been in the country before the age of 16, no matter what their age. Then illegal immigrants who receive amnesty under the DREAM Act can petition to have the rest of their family receive amnesty too. This is receiving quite a bit of press on conservative blogs, but I'm not seeing anything about it on major news sources.

What interests me a lot about this is the list of sponsors and co-sponsors of the bill, which doesn't seem to be getting ANY attention outside of Durbin's sponsorship. Here's the list of co-sponsors:

Hagel
Lugar
Leahy
Obama
Lieberman
Feinstein
Kerry
Feingold
Clinton
Bayh
Menendez
Murray
Boxer
Cantwell
Salazar
Dodd

Lieberman is the disappointing one to me in this list. The rest of these I expect to see trying to self-destruct the country. I don't understand why no press is being given to the fact that two Democratic presidential candidates are trying to spend federal money to educate illegal immigrants, providing money to them that citizens can't receive if they are a resident of another state.

Hannity is having Lieberman on in about fifteen minutes. I wonder if he's going to ask him about why he co-sponsored the DREAM Act? Unfortunately, I've got to go get MadLibs from kindergarten, so I can't continue to listen.

WTF happened to PostSecret?

2007-09-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

In case you're not familiar with PostSecret, which seems pretty hard to fathom, the wikipedia entry is here. It seems unlikely that PostSecret just went away, since Frank Warren (the guy who takes the time sift through hundreds of postcards each week and post them) has several speaking engagements coming up, and hasn't shown any indications of stopping.

If you're interested in any of the books that Frank Warren has compiled of postcard secrets, here are some links:
the original PostSecret book
The Secret Lives of Men and Women
My Secret
A Lifetime of Secrets

Part of the proceeds from the books (Frank doesn't say how much, but it's been enough to keep Hopeline afloat) go to support Hopeline, a national suicide hotline with the phone number 1-800-SUICIDE that has taken over 2 million calls. Frank has also done several fundraisers for Hopeline.

I really really hope that whoever 'nicole' is, she tried to visit PostSecret, discovered that for some reason there was nothing there, and parked it until Frank can reclaim it. It was up last night - I usually visit it on Sunday mornings because that's when the new secrets are posted, and Saturday afternoon/evening to read peoples' responses to it. It's a handy place to visit if I've been spending too much time comparing my insides to other people's outsides, too.

UPDATE:
Just got an email back from Frank. Blogger apparently took down his site, which has been around since 2005, because they decided it was a spam site. Frank is asking people to email Blogger to allow him to put PostSecret back up. I don't have an email address yet, but as soon as I hunt one down I will post it.

AND A BIT OF SNARK:
Is this part of Google's "Don't Be Evil" campaign?

ANOTHER UPDATE:
Blogger has taken down the blog that 'nicole' posted. Hopefully this is on the way to getting PostSecret back up.

Google should think about making a hefty donation to Hopeline as part of fixing this aggregious mistake.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE:
Google/Blogger has unlocked PostSecret enough to let Frank make one post, with the following message:

(Blogger sent me the following message late last night. Please email them to unlock the PostSecret Blog ASAP. PostSecret has not been fully unlocked by Blogger yet. Sorry, I know this is frustrating for you - it is frustrating for me too.)

Your blog is disabled
Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

We received your unlock request on September 16, 2007. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.

posted by postsecret at 11:57 AM

I'm wondering how in the world Blogger/Google thought that a blog with over 95 million hits (yes, that's right, 95 MILLION) was a spam blog. And what does Blogger/Google have in place to make sure that once a blog is determined to be Not Spam, this doesn't happen again?

ANOTHER UPDATE:
WOOHOO!!!! Looks like it's back up. Big donation for Hopeline, Google. Clean up your reputation!

Network Solutions doesn't care about security

2007-09-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

We took over maintenance and development of a website for a client we've done software for for several years. Network Solutions hosts their website. Today I discovered that sometime between the last time I visited her site (about two weeks ago) and this afternoon at 4 pm, someone hacked her site and put malicious code in a hidden iframe on three of her pages. I called her, left a message, and fixed the webpages. By the time I fixed the pages, she called back, said she was out of town and didn't have her account information for her website with her and she needed to get back to her group. I told her I'd call Network Solutions and ask them to at least lock the site down so that no one, including me, could make changes to her website until she contacted them to change her FTP password.

After several phone calls, including:

calling and speaking to someone who didn't speak English well enough to understand what I was trying to explain;
calling back to be told that their support system was down and I'd have to call back in two hours to have the site locked down;
being routed multiple times through their phone system to enter a password to retrieve voice mail for an account I obviously shouldn't have had access to;
finally reaching someone who spoke some English, explaining the situation, and being disconnected when I was put on hold;
finally reaching someone who spoke English and knew the difference between hold and disconnect, only to be told that they couldn't help us after all. At this point I asked to speak to a supervisor, and was told one would call me back within an hour. By this point it's 6:15 pm.

By 9:15, I STILL hadn't heard back from Network Solutions, so I called back to be told a supervisor would call me back within an hour. The supervisor finally called me back at 10:05 pm, to tell me that they wouldn't lock down the website. So my client's site is still hanging wide open, waiting for these guys to come back and hack it again. I asked for the supervisor's supervisor to call me back and was told it would be within an hour; I'm still waiting.

Hubby said he's tempted to call them up and tell them he's going to hack our client's website and see if they'd lock it down then, but we're worried about criminal repercussions. You'd think Network Solutions would be worried about the repercussions about having one of their customers' websites compromised and serving pages that could result in the loss of the customer's client base, but it's pretty obvious that they don't. Worst case if they locked the site down is that the person on the phone isn't really supposed to have access to it, and so they've protected their customer from a malicious attack and as soon as the customer notices it they'll call in. Instead, they'd rather contribute to the insecurity of the internet. I wonder if there's some service package they're going to try to pitch when our client calls in to try to secure her site.

The Denver Post needs a new proofreader

2007-09-14T14:02:00.001-07:00

The Denver Post throws the kids to the lions. Mountain lions, that is. Fortunately, they recommend taking better care of yourself and your pets.

Maybe they are counting on the kiddos keeping the mountain lions sated enough that they won't eat the rest of us. Since, after all, you don't have to be able to outrun a mountain lion, you only have to be able to outrun the slowest person in your group.

Never forget

2007-09-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

When a design team can't handle the truth...

2007-09-06T17:50:00.001-07:00

The fellers over at Design Vitality posted an article about logo design, stating:

Your logo is the most important factor in your brand’s identity and it has a huge impact on how users perceive your website, or company.

I made the observation in the comments that their logo actually says "VD". Not that anyone really uses that abbreviation much anymore, it seems to have been replaced by STD. But if they want to be known as the design group you don't want to get too close to for fear of something rotting off, that's their prerogative. Funny, though, the comment disappeared, along with another comment I made inquiring as to where my previous comment went. The only comments that show up on the site now are unabashed praise.

I wonder what working with a design group like this would be like? IMO, the worst developers to work with are the ones that can't stand any sort of criticism, or who flip out and try to silence you when you point out their mistakes. Makes for unhappy coworkers and unhappy clients.

Non-tech people shouldn't write tech stories

2007-08-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

I feel bad for this girl, I really do. She posted a picture of herself online, a porn company hijacked it for the cover of one of their DVDs and then even had the nerve to blame her picture for poor sales. I think the porn company should be busted for using a pic of someone underage even though she's not nekkid in the picture.

What I find irritating, though, is this:

By posting a picture online, aren't you not only giving permission to download it, but in a way requiring it of just about everyone who visits your website? Aren't reporters supposed to be wordsmiths of a sort, conveying ideas through the precise use of language?

Holy 5h!7!!!

2007-08-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

Now THIS is why we live in America. Because you don't hear stories about getting fined for wearing offensive t-shirts here, unlike in the UK.

T-shirt Hell must be running scared.

Go Jeep Go!

2007-08-08T06:33:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart promotes the sexualization of babies

2007-08-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

In a hurry today, I picked up a ten-pack of girl-oriented bibs at Wal-Mart. I should have flipped through them before I bought them, because this was in the middle of the pack:

Does ANY conscientious parent think it's a good idea to advertise their baby daughter as a prostitot? Who in the marketing department at Baby Connection (the baby department for Wal-Mart, and the brand name under which these bibs are sold) thought it would be a good idea to associate the clearly sexual term 'hottie' with a bib sold in their baby department and obviously made for infants and toddlers? Did they really think that parents would want to buy this, and if they did, how do they feel about turning babies into sex objects? Do they think that even joking about a baby being a sexual being is funny?

Iraq wins Asian Cup championship

2007-07-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what being rewarded instead of being tortured will do for the morale of a sports team. I hope Uday Hussein is spinning in his grave, and I hope the IOC are duly ashamed of themselves.

I shouldn't be laughing about this...

2007-07-27T11:57:00.001-07:00

By now I'm sure you've heard about Oscar the Cat, who lives in a nursing home and buddies up to dying patients. Yeah, that's not funny, it's touching and warm and fuzzy.

THIS is funny, although my finding it funny just shows how bad my taste is.

Did their map artist go on strike?

2007-07-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Flattop/Hallett Hike

2007-07-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from hiking Flattop Mountain and Hallett Peak on July 15. Click on the thumbnail for larger photos.

Morning sun on Hallett Peak

This is the sign at the Dream Lake viewpoint, about a third of the way up.

This is Dream Lake.

Long's Peak from the Dream Lake viewpoint

This is either Chiefshead or Thatchtop Mountain from the Dream Lake viewpoint

Stepping back a little from the sign at the Dream Lake viewpoint

McHenry's Notch from the Dream Lake viewpoint

It's amazing to me what lengths trees will go to to grow...especially at altitude.

This is not the top of Flattop...but by this point I was kinda wishing it was.

Longs Peak from about halfway up the Flattop trail.

About halfway up the Flattop Trail, you can see the parking lot. It was very encouraging to see how far I'd come. Unfortunately, the second half of the hike took about twice as long as the first half.

They really don't want you to miss this cairn. It's about four feet tall.

Do not descend, huh?

Like I'm gonna try descending to THAT. From the Emerald Lake viewpoint, you can see from Longs Peak to Emerald Lake in one sweeping view.

Suddenly, Hallett Peak appears over the top of Flattop.

The top of Flattop Mountain is uneventful. I wasn't even certain I was at the top, other than a 'go back' sign that said, "Bear Lake 4.4 mi".

The other sign attached to the 'go back' signpost.

Tyndall Glacier is the big snowpatch on the side of Hallett Peak.

It's the Howdy Marmot!

Cairns mark the top of Hallett Peak.

Longs Peak from the top of Hallett Peak

God glued a rock back together.

2007-07-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

Read this.

Then read this.

Then go vote here. (You'll have to provide your age to get to the voting page.)

Tech support tip

2007-06-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

When doing tech support by phone for someone several hours away, before having them Fedex you their laptop, be sure to make sure they actually know how to reboot the laptop and are doing so when you tell them to.

Attention loose changers...

2007-04-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

But of course fire never gets hot enough to melt steel...

Having your eyebrows plucked is un-Islamic

2007-04-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

I'm going to use this as an excuse to FORCE my husband to consistently have his schnauzerbrow groomed. Probably by the same gal that does my eyebrows.

CU sticks their foot in it again

2007-04-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

The University of Colorado, the Front Range's bastion of free speech, had a student suspended arrested for making comments sympathetic to the VA Tech shooter - namely:

“If anyone in here says that they’ve never been so angry that you wanted to kill 32 people, you’re lying,” Karson said to the class, according to a police report. He also stated that he was angry about the “mindless droves” on campus.

and

According to witness reports, Karson, a psychology major, allegedly said there were aspects of CU that "made him angry enough to kill people" and expressed sympathetic views toward the Virginia Tech University assailant during a class discussion.

Given what I understand about Max Karson's history with CU administration, I have to wonder how much of this is an attempt to shut up the kid any way they can. I'd be interested to know if the CU campus cops discussed the statements with administration prior to the arrest, and how much gleeful chuckling came from the chancellor's office when the campus cops were sent to pick up Karson.

Not to mention, Karson's got a track record of over-the-top satire, which I'd link to but he's apparently taken his website at yetipaper.com down.

Political correctness is going to take away every last bit of free speech we have. I hope this kid ends up owning the CU campus for this. I don't agree with what he said, I think it's tacky as hell in light of recent happenings, but if tacky were enough to get arrested then any number of Hollywood A-listers would be behind bars.

Something I didn't know you can do with Google Maps

2007-04-13T09:15:00.001-07:00

HyLoft shelving doesn't suck

2007-02-20T22:33:00.000-08:00

As a matter of fact, Hyloft ceiling shelving does more than doesn't suck. I think I'm in love with these shelves. This place did the opposite of what my digital camera did as far as their instructions - it was just a few pages, and everything was explained out so well that I think my husband could have even assembled it. They must have had some clueless idiot go through and try to put together their shelving from their instructions, and then rewritten the instructions based on the idiot's feedback, because every single time I had a question about where something went or how something fit together, it was RIGHT THERE. I'm gonna cover the entire ceiling of my garage with these, I swear.

This is not my garage, by the way. This is a picture I swiped off the Hyloft site. My garage is entirely too messy to post a picture. This despite having done a complete cleanout last summer - my husband doesn't understand that the garage is not for discarded box storage, and he doesn't seem to understand that the best place to store boxes of old papers is not next to the furnace, which is why I was installing shelving in my garage at 11:30 pm on a weeknight.

I would KILL to be able to write instructions as clear as whoever the technical writer for Hyloft did. If they're not paying their tech writer oodles of money, then they don't know what a good thing they have.

Information overload

2007-02-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

Does anyone actually read this much documentation?

That's 18 ounces of documentation. That's right, over a pound of docs for a camera that weighs 5.5 ounces.

7 ounces of that documentation is in Spanish. Separate books that are Spanish, that is, not books that are split between multiple languages.

Shades of Fargo...

2007-02-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

Above are the google ads that came out when I sent a gmail out with a picture of Geiger after MadLibs fed her lunch.

2006-12-20T17:14:00.000-08:00

This is why I drive a gas-guzzling SUV with four-wheel drive - so in weather like this, I can at least get to the store to get baby food, which is the item I forgot to stock up on before the storm hit. The baby fruit, anyway, which Geiger* has come to expect at the end of every meal. Last time we had a storm like this, diaper rash cream was the forgotten item, and Mad Libs* ended up with the worst case of diaper rash I've ever seen.

We're twelve hours into a thirty-hour storm. By tomorrow, I bet we can't get out of the house without snowshoes, which we don't have. They're on my Christmas list, but I don't think anyone took me seriously enough to actually buy them for me. After we took this picture, we had to break out the snow shovel to get the door closed again.

That's my Australian Shepherd, Bella, peering over the snowdrifts that have piled up to our doorknobs. At two o'clock this afternoon, the snow in the front yard was above my knees. When I went out to run the few errands that seemed really urgent, such as picking up baby food and going to the bank, visibility was down to a few car lengths, and there was at least a foot of snow just sitting on the roads.

*Mudbug and Boo have earned the new nicknames of Geiger and Mad Libs. Mudbug has always liked it when I click my tongue, and about a month ago she started doing it herself. I can sit in my office chair and she swims around the room (she doesn't quite crawl yet, but she can swim rather quickly) and all I hear is *click*click*click*click*click*. Boo has started interjecting odd words into his sentences. They're the right part of speech, for instance, ordering his vanilla steamer with no foam and no belly buttons. Thus the Mad Libs moniker.

Caveat emptor - Dillon Millsap is at it again

2006-12-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

A year ago, my husband preordered an Xbox 360 from Alliwire.com, a company that seemed to have a decent reputation - references were listed on the site, there was an active forum that seemed to have customers posting on it, etc. Shortly before the launch date, the owner of the website, Dillon Millsap, announced that his seller for the 360s that he had promised to ship had disappeared with everyone's money. He kept promising to refund everyone's money, and some refunds were issued (including my husband's, after I called the sheriff in Denton County, TX and started inquiring about pressing charges). All the while, he's posting on his forums about various Xbox 360 games that he's playing. During all of this mess, he announced that he was a 17-year-old high school student and that he could just bow out of paying for any of this - a notion I think he was rather quickly disabused of when disgruntled customers started calling his parents and threatening small claims suits against them.

As far as I know, there are still people who have not received a refund - a quick bop around Google shows people posting as recently as September that still are out their cash. The people I feel really sorry for are the people who told this kid that they'd hang in there for their systems, and that they were confident that he would eventually come through. He also was delisted from Ebay at about the same time, although whether the two events were related I don't know.

Alliwire.com has been down for a while. I was doing some research on where to find a PS3 or a Wii, just in case I happened on some poor soul that had one for sale and didn't have the connections to advertise it well enough to run up the price. I came across a post on Cheap Ass Gamers from a year ago that mentioned that alliwire.com was doing PS3 preorders. I started wondering whatever happened to Dillon Millsap - I knew he'd been NARUed from Ebay, and that he'd closed down most of his contact information. A Google search turned up this post from someone posting as Dillon Millsap - with a homepage of entertainextreme.com. The kid's advertising that he has four years experience in selling game consoles. I don't see any mention that one of those four years was spent not delivering $40,000 worth of preorders. He's also relisted on Ebay - although I see that he's sold two items and one of the items never reached the buyer.

Oh, and guess what - on entertainextreme.com he has a section for preorders! Get yer ice-cold ripoff here!

I wonder if his parents are aware that he's back in the Internet fraud business.

Oh, and

2006-12-11T08:35:00.000-08:00

The last eight weeks have been about as stressful as life can get without someone dying. More later. I've got a stack of stuff I've been planning on writing about, but haven't had time to. I even had a post in my head for Thanksgiving mentioning that I was thankful that we had so much paying work that I hadn't had time to think about blogging, but I didn't have time to post it.

Waah freakin waah

2006-12-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

I've never been so happy to hear that someone is being driven insane...

Quote: "Using solitary confinement, Supermax is designed to inflict as much misery and pain as is constitutionally permissible."

I'd be disappointed if it wasn't.

More bodies than morgue space...

2006-11-12T18:19:00.000-08:00

...in Baghdad.

And we want to offer a timetable to pull out? Are the Dems f'ing NUTS? We shouldn't be leaving until the only bodies showing up in morgues are the bodies of 'insurgents'.

Silly Parenting Tip #2

2006-11-12T16:55:00.000-08:00

If you unbuckle your baby from his/her carseat for comfort while you're waiting someplace, clip your keys to the carseat. That way, you remember to buckle the baby back in before you go driving off somewhere.

Don't ask how I know this one.

Voting wait times

2006-11-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

There's a three hour wait at the Thornton Rec Center, but there is a fifteen minute wait at the firehouse at 140th and Colorado Blvd.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, part 2

2006-11-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say that John Kerry made his comment about the intelligence and work ethic of our troops, and continues to press the issue, to sabotage all the gay rights bills on the ballots across the nation in this election. Kerry didn't show up for the vote on the Defense of Marriage Act in '04, and his recent remarks are a way of mobilizing the right to show up at the polls, and, as a consequence, sink every gay rights bill. You know, since so many conservatives were saying they were so disgusted with the state of things that they weren't going to even bother showing up to vote.

(h/t: Ace of Spades)

If I were a conspiracy theorist, part 1

2006-11-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd go out and fill all my cars up today, because gas prices are controlled by Chimpy McHitlerburton and the cost of filling up my gas-guzzling SUV will be going up like my husband jumping on a chair to avoid a spider.

Waah! My Senseo is dead!

2006-11-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Or at least on its last legs, anyway. Everything breaks down a month after the warranty expires, or if it is still under warranty, it's impossible to actually get it fixed (yes, I'm talking to you, CES Covina).

The Senseo just suddenly stopped forcing water through the pod. Enough water will come through when there's no pod in it, but as soon as I put a pod in, it only fills my mug a third of the way.

I'm thinking about buying a SimpleHuman Pod Brewer, but there's not the instant gratification of having my coffee RIGHT NOW - or even this week, possibly. Thursday seems like about as long as I'd want to wait. But there's no way to tell how long it takes SimpleHuman to ship. UPDATE: Crate and Barrel actually carries it in store!

I guess this solves the problem of my bimonthly coffee delivery from Cool Beans not being here yet. I was grousing about that this morning, as I'm out of my favorite brews from them, Midnight Blend and Sumatra Mandheling. The *really* odd thing about it is, they charged my card on the 31st, but I still haven't received a shipping notice. Not typical of them.

Silly Parenting Tip #1

2006-11-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

When we just had one kid, it was easy to handle medication dosing - one person (usually me, since I'm the stay-at-home parent) was in charge of medication and keeping track of when the last dose was given. With two kids, the lack of time, and the lack of sleep, my husband's reluctant to wake me up to ask just when was the last time I gave Boo a dose of ibuprofen for his ear infection? And what's his dose again? And am I really giving a coherent, accurate answer when I'm not awake?

I bought a dry-erase board that's designed to go on the inside of a locker, so it has magnets on the back. It hangs out on our refrigerator. The dosages for every medicine that the kids could possibly need is written on it, and when we give one of the kids some medicine, we write the date and time on the dry-erase board. The important thing to remember is to write the date and time on the board just before giving the medication, to ensure you're checking the last medication time before dosing.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a link to the dry erase board I bought, and most of the 'magnetic' dry erase boards just seem to accept magnets rather than being magnetic themselves. I would think that magnetic tape could be bought to be stuck to the back of a lightweight dry erase board. The board I bought is really only big enough for two kids worth of medication anyway - if I were this gal, for instance, I'd probably need at least an 11x14 board. (Chris has a fantastic blog, hop on over there if you haven't read it.)

Another priceless headline

2006-10-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

The question is, a hit of what?

2006-10-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

Yep, this is why we want undocumented aliens coming across our borders unchecked.

Chicken with Chicken Gravy

2006-10-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

Mudbug tried Gerber Chicken with Chicken Gravy out this morning. The cats liked it much better than she did.

Band on the Run

2006-10-22T07:08:00.001-07:00


Boo's interpretation of the Wings classic, Band on the Run.

He calls this the 'owie dance'.

2006-10-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe for some really awesome chicken. We made it last weekend, even though there were no lemons in the store so we had to use bottled lemon juice, and it was still really tasty, tender and flavorful. I've got the real thing with real lemons (although I still didn't get around to brining the chicken) cooking in my oven right now, and my stomach is rumbling and my mouth is watering from the smells coming from my kitchen.

Plus the recipes on this guy's site make me laugh. I just wish he'd get around to posting his Hollandaise recipe, or at least make an email available so I could ask him if really good Hollandaise tastes like the stuff I had at the Delectable Egg or more like the crappy yolkey-tasting stuff that I've had the misfortune to have at a couple of restaurants and created in my own kitchen. He promised he'd post his Hollandaise recipe someday in his Eggs Benedict recipe, and I want it now, dammit!

Hyperreactive bronchial airways

2006-10-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to find that this Google search only has one hit. Am I the only person in the world who develops a persistent cough after any kind of respiratory illness?

God hates Westboro Baptist Church

2006-10-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

As much as I dislike most of the causes the ACLU takes up, I understand their purpose - someone has to take the extreme position. I think they've gone too far this time, though. The ACLU is filing lawsuits on behalf of Westboro Baptist Church in three states to challenge laws designed to keep protesters like the ones affiliated with Westboro away from funerals, and is conducting an inquiry in Illinois as to whether the law to keep hate away from funerals is being properly upheld. Apparently the ACLU doesn't consider phrases like "God hates fags", "God hates your tears", "God hates America", and "Thank God for dead soldiers" fighting words.

Half of the Phelps family are ministers (if they can be called that) in Westboro Baptist Church, the other half are lawyers - does the ACLU really think they can't take care of themselves?

The Phelps family also recently threatened to picket the funerals of the Amish girls murdered in Lancaster, PA, claiming the Amish brought it upon themselves by practicing a false religion, unless someone agreed to give them air time to spew their hatred. In effect, they were holding those little girls hostage again. They picketed the Sago Mine funerals, and Coretta Scott King's funeral. Apparently no one but members of this cult are exempt from hate.

I remember years and years ago when the Phelpses would come down to Oklahoma City to protest at the funerals of people who had died of AIDS-related illnesses. Back then, a lot of people thought it was funny. Is it so funny now?

On a side note, if any of you are thinking about voting Democrat to keep people like Phelps down, please consider that Fred Phelps was a delegate at the '88 Democratic convention, for Al Gore, and has been very active in fundraising for Gore. Plus Gore invited Phelps to both of Clinton's inaugurations. The Republican Party may not be fighting for gay rights, but they're not pretending to be on your side while stabbing you in the back (yes, Clinton, that's directed at you and Don't Ask Don't Tell too).

(h/t: Discarded Lies)

Udi's and Saxby's

2006-10-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

I'm usually wary of sandwiches in plastic boxes, especially sandwiches with mayonnaise - to me they're reminiscent of that nasty egg salad sandwich that's the only sandwich left in the vending machine, that you don't dare eat because it's been there for six months. Plus I'm just not that crazy about mayo. But I skedaddled to a coffee shop* to get some work done today, and I was tired of bagels, so I tried an Udi's Curry Chicken Wrap. This sandwich is *really* good.

Interestingly enough, the Saxby's I frequent isn't listed in the store locations on their website, even though I am certain the storefront picture on the website is this location. It's a shame, because this is a pretty excellent coffee shop for a chain. The coffee's good, they use Monin syrup (which is the only way to go if you like sugar-free syrups), the staff goes the extra mile, and they keep your freebies on their computer so you don't have to carry around yet another coffee card.

UPDATE: My Saxby's quit carrying Udi's. They got me hooked on the Curry Chicken Wrap, and then they yanked it away from me. Waah!

2006-09-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

If it were me, I'd be asking the ad designer for my money back.

Happy (late) birthday to me!

2006-09-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

I think I had one of my best birthdays ever yesterday, even though it wasn't a terribly remarkable day.

We started off by dropping Hubby off at work since we had evening plans. I was planning on taking the kids to breakfast at either the Delectable Egg or Racine's, but I had an abrupt change of plans. Since it was too early to go to lunch, we went to Colorado Mills mall, where we found this little gem in black for Boo. Of course, the best part about it for Boo is that it has a nice, long, soft tag. He has a thing for tags, running them through his fingers constantly, even in his sleep, even to the point of asking me to hold clothes in the dressing room at the mall so he can play with their tags. We also found a pair of light-up shoes since he's just about outgrown his last pair of sneakers.

Then, off to lunch! We had taken Boo to Casa Bonita for birthdays one, two and three, but we were too tired after three hours of bowling to make it there for birthday four. Hubby has never understood my fascination with this place, but we went there for birthdays almost every year when I was growing up, and so even though the food is not great, it still tastes exactly the same as it did thirty years ago, and it tastes like a special occasion to me. The Casa Bonita that was in Oklahoma City has nothing on the Denver Casa Bonita - the Denver Casa Bonita is over 50,000 square feet, complete with a waterfall, cliff divers, a (fake) gorilla, and a mariachi band. It was slower than I've ever seen it yesterday - normally we end up standing in line at least 45 minutes to get our food and be seated, but apparently once school is in session, their crowd drops noticeably.

Boo thought Casa Bonita was the coolest place ever, looking around with his eyes open wide and his mouth agape. He loved the cliff divers, and was thrilled when one came over to talk to him. All he talked about afterwards was that mommy got to see divers and a gorilla and a man with a net (to catch the gorilla) on her birthday. Mudbug had no comment.

After Casa Bonita was Little Gym, where Boo is taking a sports skills class on Wednesdays. They're currently learning soccer, and Boo got to be the goalie!

Then it was off to the Rapids game, where the Rapids handily dispatched the Chicago Fire, 1-0. For once, Joe Cannon just didn't have that much work to do - the ball rarely even approached the goal. Mudbug amused everyone by trying to grab for my Italian Sausage dog, and Boo was his usual charming self.

After the game and putting the kids to bed, I got the coolest birthday present money could buy - a pair of fuzzy zebra skin Chuck Taylors. I mentioned several months ago that I had my eye on these, but had refrained from buying them since I knew Hubby was making notes for birthday presents. Hubby had to hunt all over for them, because they were made in an extremely limited supply and everyone was sold out of my size by the time he got around to shopping for them. He found a shop in
Canada that specializes in out-of-manufacture Chucks, and fortunately, they had a pair in my size.

I also got the best present money can't buy - a day with near perfect behavior from the kids.

Joe the Spider

2006-09-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

My husband is terrified of spiders. It's probably his biggest fear, right up there with flying and water and illness. When I worked in an office, I had a coworker who would bring me spiders, and I'd keep them at the office in a terrarium because there was no way I was going to torment my husband with arachnids.

A few weeks ago, I found a pretty good-sized spider in our house. Wasn't sure what it was, so I scooped it up in a jar and took it out to our flowerbed. In the process, I accidentally lopped off one of his legs.

Last night, when Hubby came home, Boo greeted him at the door with, "Daddy! Watch out for that spider by your head!" Sure enough, there was a pretty good-sized spider on the curtain, mere inches from my husband's noggin. He jumped away, I went to get a jar. I scooped up the spider and asked Boo if he wanted to accompany me to take it outside. He said, "Mommy, we can't take him outside! He's my friend, and his name is Joe!"

So off I went to the pet shop for a terrarium and some crickets. When I had spiders at work, I'd order lunch delivered from the BlackJack Pizza next door to the pet store and have them add a couple dozen small crickets to the order, so I rarely had to go out to pick up crickets. That pizzeria doesn't deliver to my area, and the pet shop closed down anyway. Looks like I'm going to be making a weekly trip.

2006-09-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

I really want to post something profound and wise today, but I just can't find any words.

I listened to the CNN rebroadcast of their 9/11 coverage today. The only bright spot in it was Tom Clancy chastising a reporter for the mainstream media's lack of support for the government and the intelligence community.

I find it interesting that Slashdot, which was one of the few websites that had any news that also had the bandwidth to handle anything five years ago today, was strangely silent today regarding the September 11 attacks. Apparently the attacks are no longer "stuff that matters", at least in the eyes of the Slashdot editors.

I pray that my children will never have to see something like the September 11 attacks, that someday the need for a war on terror will be as remote to them as Pearl Harbor is to us Gen-Xers.

2,996

2006-09-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

There's a wonderful tribute to the victims of the September 11th attacks happening at The 2,996 project. Unfortunately, I don't have much spare time over the next week to research a victim - but I'd like to at least help get the word out about the project so that some of the more prolific bloggers can join in.

A bucket.

2006-09-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

This article wins the prize for best picture caption. And I am mighty glad they made the decision to use the picture they did instead of the picture they could have used.

Pluto not a planet anymore?!

2006-08-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

I'm tempted yet again to put WTF?! in the title of my blog entry.

What kind of name is USB313? Why in the world would you call something that kids are going to have to learn in first and second grade a name with a subscript? Given the enormous stress that teachers are already under, why would you force them to also teach kids typesetting and fonts at such an early age?

The new definition of 'planet' says that, in order to be a planet, the thing must have cleared its orbit of other objects. Since Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit, and Neptune hasn't cleared Pluto from Neptune's orbit, does that mean that Neptune isn't a planet either?

This also means that we're never going to have a super-cool planetary collision when Neptune and Pluto's orbits finally bring them into contact with each other. Planetary/dwarf planetary collision just doesn't sound super-cool.

And who's going to pay for all the poor school systems to update their planetary charts? Is the new standard of how current your science textbooks are going to be how many planets are listed? Will this be the subject of news stories discussing how woefully out-of-date a school's textbooks are? And what about all those stores selling orreries? Are they going to have massive fire sales to clear their shops of outdated solar system models? Did the IAU even THINK about the shopkeepers? This is an outrage, I'm telling you!

Kaiser lies, lies, lies

2006-07-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of what the Denver, Colorado Kaiser Permanente's customer service department has lied to me about, so far. Keep in mind, we have been members of Kaiser for less than a month.

In my phone call with Stacy, I was told that the two medications I take, Synthroid and Lactocal-F, were on Kaiser's formulary. They're not. The generic for Synthroid, levothyroxine, is in their formulary, but the brand name is not. Since my previous forays into taking levothyroxine in an effort to save a few bucks backfired badly (my TSH went from 0.01 to 7 in the space of a month and a half), taking the generic is out of the question.
In my phone call with Stacy, I was told that our $15/$40 drug benefit meant that there was a $15 copay for drugs, or $40 for a three months supply. It turns out Kaiser did away with their three month plan last January, and the $15/$40 drug benefit is $15 for generic, and $40 for name brand. When we planned our flex dollars, we budgeted both my medications (which aren't going to be covered at all, let alone at the $15 rate) and any prescriptions for Boo's ear infections at the $15 rate instead of the $40 rate. This is probably going to cost us a couple of hundred dollars.
In my phone call with Stacy, I was told that Kaiser had 24-hour urgent care at the Exempla Good Samaritan hospital. I think having 24-hour urgent care is pretty imperative when you have two small kids, especially when one has a tendency toward ruptured eardrums. There's no 24-hour urgent care at Good Samaritan - their after-hours care is only from 6:00 to 10:00 pm, and they triage quite a few of their problems to the ER. How did I learn this? See point #6.
In my phone call with Stacy, I was told there was no charge for meet-and-greet appointments to find a physician. This is the case with pediatricians, but not with family practice doctors. With family practice doctors, you pay the copay - even if the doctor is more interested in her computer than she is in your symptoms, and feigns knowledge of your medical conditions even though it's obvious that she doesn't, for instance, know what a normal TSH level is, or how to help a mother keep breastfeeding when her milk supply is drying up (Dr. Sarah Goldberg).
When I called to set up meet-and-greet appointments for the family, Rich and I decided to find him an internal medicine specialist because of the undiagnosed pain he's had for years. I was told by the customer service rep I spoke with that it would not be a problem for me to set up a visit with an IM in my name, and interview the doctor for my husband if he wasn't able to make it, since he works downtown and the clinic is by our house - a drive of up to an hour from his work in normal traffic. I showed up for the visit, and was first told that Rich needed to sign a HIPAA form before I could see the doctor (Dr. Gauri Aggarwal) for him. After the customer service rep faxed the form to the wrong number, and we finally got it signed and faxed back, the doctor refused to see me.
I called yesterday at 12:32 to set up an appointment for some female pain and fever. Kaiser has a department specifically for female advice, appointments, and concerns. I was told that everyone was out to lunch but that I would be called back when they returned. At 3:30, I still had not received a call back, so I called and was told that there was a four hour window that they considered an acceptable time period for a callback. At 4:35, I received a call back and was told that I couldn't be seen that day, but that my symptoms warranted a visit to Urgent Care. I was told that if I had gone to the Westminster clinic during the day, they have an Urgent Care facility there, but that it closed at 6:00 pm. I asked where the nearest Urgent Care facility that had evening hours was, and was told that it was at Arapahoe and Holly - an hour's drive in the middle of the night, and more like an hour and a half during the hours the facility is open (6 to 10 pm), or I could go to the Rock Creek Good Samaritan hospital, at 200 Exempla Circle (this is directly from my notes), and their ER also triages to after hours care. A person representing herself as a nurse supervisor called back about 15 minutes later and offered to make me an appointment for the next day, but considering how much worse I felt from 12:00 to 4:00 I decided to go on in to urgent care and fork over the extra $25 for an urgent care visit, and the 'nursing supervisor' agreed that I needed to be seen ASAP. I went to Good Samaritan's ER, told the front desk I was there for an urgent care visit, and also told the triage nurse that I was there for an urgent care visit. I didn't find out that I had been triaged as an ER patient until after they were done with the pelvic exam, which means I was stuck with a $200 ER copay instead of a $50 urgent care copay. Apparently Good Samaritan NEVER triages anything requiring a pelvic exam as an urgent care case. After calling Kaiser back today to find out why I was sent to a facility that doesn't treat female issues as urgent care, I found out that the person who I spoke with on the phone at 4:30 wasn't even a nurse, she denies giving me directions to Good Samaritan or to the facility on Arapahoe Road, and she claims that the person I spoke to at 4:45 is not a nursing supervisor. A customer service rep also informed me that there is no daytime urgent care at the Westminster Kaiser clinic. I can't seem to get a supervisor on the phone, and so far I'm not getting calls back. I'd really like someone at Kaiser to listen to any phone recordings of my calls yesterday, but the not-a-nurse who directed me to Good Samaritan claims that, despite their message that all calls are recorded for quality control purposes, there are no recordings to review.

There have been a few bright points in our road trip to Hell with Kaiser - Dr. Susan Merrill seems definitely interested in clearing up Rhys's ear infections and getting him speech therapy if it is deemed necessary. Dr. Michelle Glasgow seems to have a good understanding of hypothyroidism - she even told me something about bone loss and hypothyroid treatment that I was unaware of, she is willing to maintain my TSH at a level where I feel good, and she seems very supportive of our decision to breastfeed WeePeep (Mudbug's current moniker) through next winter to minimize the likelihood of ear infections. I'm not sure a couple of good doctors, surrounded by a morass of incompetency and bad information, is going to be enough to make Kaiser Permanente an insurance plan worth keeping.

News blackout?

2006-06-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Israel just, for lack of a better word, invaded Gaza, and the TV stations CNN, Fox News, and Headline News are saying NOTHING. WTF?!

New CD, please

2006-06-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

For once in my life, I want AOL or Earthlink to send me a sign-up CD. I need a new coaster for my desk.

I've had it with these motherf#@&ing snakes on this motherf*$^ing plane!

2006-06-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to Samuel Jackson's new flick,Snakes on a Plane. Even my husband's looking forward to it, and he hates flying. The only way the movie could be more of a nightmare for him would be if it was Spiders on a Plane...over the Ocean. Maybe that will be the premise of SoaP II.

Time had a great interview with Samuel Jackson a couple of months ago, that I've been meaning to blog about but haven't had the time. I'll just say, I'm glad they left the title the way it was, and I admire Samuel Jackson for standing up for his artistic beliefs.

Oh, and if anyone feels gifty, I wouldn't mind having this.

Now...why did I choose now to mention SoaP? Because this poor pilot had it happen - for real. All I can say is, if he "sure like(s) to know where they are", he should have kept Mr. Wiggly instead of setting him free.

(h/t Ace of Spades)

2006-06-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Another reason why it's bad to give your toddler alcohol (as if toxifying your kid wasn't enough): your kid might like it a little too much.

A good Hollandaise makes my toes curl

2006-05-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

A good Hollandaise sauce does it for me. And I hadn't found one at a restaurant here in the Denver metro area until today.

We had brunch at The Delectable Egg in Westminster this morning. I finally got brave enough to try their Hollandaise sauce - I was starting to think that Denver had a different definition of Hollandaise than the rest of the world, cause everywhere I'd had it it was sour or clumpy or way too runny, so I've been avoiding ordering anything with Hollandaise sauce unless I really trusted the kitchen, and even then it was bad (shame on you, Racine's!). This Hollandaise was divine - every mouthful had me closing my eyes to savor it. I could have eaten two plates of Quiche Lorraine crepes, it was so good.

2006-05-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

Is it bad when the only nice thing I can say about my bank is that, since I've had to go in so many times to fix things they've done to our accounts, find out why deposits haven't been credited, why accounts are locked, etc., they know me by name enough to cash a check for me when I can't find my wallet?

A sign your kid watches too much Food Network

2006-05-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

"Welcome to Iron Chef America. Today we're going to make carrot soup and learn about the color black."

2006-05-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

I actually got a call back from a Kaiser administrative assistant straight up at 8 am this morning...who unfortunately wasn't able to help me. She said she would have a rep call me back by mid-morning. It's mid-morning, no call back. So I can't run any of the errands I needed to run until they call back, I can't even go out to work on the yard since our cordless phone is on the fritz (one of the errands I needed to run today was to pick up a new one).

Why did I put this off until a few days before I needed to have this taken care of, you ask? Well, the goal was to get this done last week, but I had to go out of town for the funeral of my great-uncle. He was a wonderful man, and he is loved and missed by everyone who knew him. How many men do you know who would take on the full-time care of two great-grandchildren? He brought a smile to the face of everyone he met. He volunteered as transport for the sheriff's office, and took the opportunity to minister to the over 1,000 inmates and juveniles he transported for the county - but he never came across as preachy, at least not to me or anyone else in my family. He co-founded the mounted police for his county, and they were gracious to retire his MP number upon his death. Uncle Bob, you are missed.

Update: after a few more calls, I got a call back from a rep who was actually HELPFUL! And who answered my questions! Thanks, Stacy!