(no subject)

Today feels a bit like running in place. We've gotten a few things done, but everything seems to take twice as long as it should and be more complicated and confusing than necessary.

I'm remembering why it's difficult to have a spouse with a badly sprained ankle. Instead of help, I have more work.

Still, I know it's harder for him. If he takes pain meds, he can't work all that well. (He also babbles about code nonstop and fairly incoherently. It's half cute/half annoying.)

If he doesn't take pain meds, then he's in pain. Lose/lose.

Daniel has been crying lately over the silliest things. I tried to talk with him about it. I said something like, "You've been crying a lot lately over really small things. Sometimes people do that when there's a bigger thing bothering them. Is there something on your mind you want to talk about?"

I didn't get a response. Psychoanalyzing your kids is best left to the professionals, I am sure, but I wish I knew why he's been feeling so weepy. Maybe it's just a stage he's going through.

*sigh*

I still have terrible post-nasal drip, but I'm hanging in there.

As I was writing this, Daniel was hacking into a plant outside and got its sap all over his arms and hands. The sap turned out to give him contact dermatitis. We rinsed it off and he seems okay now, but it was a tense few minutes with him crying and yelling and totally freaked out and me trying to figure out what was going on.

Much thanks to bard_bloom and shaterri for their quick response to my request for poisonous plant websites. I now know more than I ever expected I would about philodendron selloum, or lace leaf philodendron. But I was having serious trouble id'ing the plant until they stepped in and helped.

I really need a vacation. Much like Daniel, I am feeling rather stressed over minor things.

Let Them Eat Bombs

by Terry Jones, found on commondreams.org, ganked from gleefulfreak.

A report to the UN human rights commission in Geneva has concluded that Iraqi children were actually better off under Saddam Hussein than they are now.

This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and blow up hospitals, schools and power stations. ( Read more... )

Here be dead babies.

mind_traveler and I were in a conversation about how much we hate our neighbors.

"Except for the homeless-looking guy," he said. "I like him okay."

I concurred.

Yes, we have a neighbor who roams around with his own shopping cart, disheveled greasy hair and the same clothing day-in and day-out. Except he's not homeless. He lives across the street from us. His house is on a lake, actually, and we live in a pretty nice neighborhood.

And, yes, he's our favorite neighbor.

So, we were driving down the road talking about this, passing the nearest shopping center, when we coincidentally saw the aforementioned 'homeless' guy talking with a woman holding up a large placard.

The sign read, "Babies are killed here."

mind_traveler and I exchanged puzzled looks.

"Maybe I don't like him as much as I thought," I said.

"He could be trying to change her mind. You remember when we were working voter registration for the College Dems and people would come up and talk to us about it."

"Yeah, but listen. There's no women's clinic there, is there? What's she talking about?"

We pondered this for a bit.

"There's an LA Fitness," mind_traveler offered.

"They must really be working those pregnant woman hard," I said.

"Winn Dixie," mind_traveler said, in a twisted stroke of inspiration.

The sub shop? The wing shop? Blockbuster's? In the end we decided it must have something to do with Walgreen's and emergency contraception, though we still weren't sure.

Is it me, or are the conservatives in my area unusually cryptic?

Maybe it's just me.