RIP Sen. Edward Kennedy.

I have no idea why his death is touching my heart. He was not particularly radical. I suppose his staunch defense of his opinions makes me admire him.

I got another 2 dozen snap beans from the garden and have lots of dill for the winter already frozen. Yes, you can freeze dill. You don't thaw it to use it; you just cut it right into the pot. The guys played in the sprinklers and the new clothesline is up and running. Both of the old clotheslines snapped and broke last month. Of course they were full of clean laundry at the time. They broke 10 minutes apart, just long enough for me to get the clean clothes from the broken one on to the (then) unbroken one. No matter, all is well in sun-powered drying device land now.

The caught and relocated woodchuck total stands at 7, and I sincerely hope it remains there. None the less I have the trap still set up and ready to stop any intruders. The broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, tomatoes, and spinach are all growing nicely. It's amazing how much you can do with water, compost, and sunlight when there is no interference from rodents.

Dinner was consumed. A movie was enjoyed, and a beer is now in order. I hope that later some yummy strawberry-rhubarb compote on a biscut will be in the offing.

Life is good.

Someone looked at the house in New Orleans today. The realtor said she is very interested. She is going to have her boyfriend come and see it. I cannot say how much I want that house sold. It would be such a relief. I'm afraid to get my hopes up, but then again, they are up already. When Ethan heard about it he said, "It's 70% sold already." I love his optimism.

OK folks, start lighting candles and making offerings to the deities of your choice. I really need this house to sell.

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It may just another Tuesday in most of the world, but in my little corner of New England, it's Mardi Gras!

We finally have a president!

*does the happy dance*

Isabella Pinto organized her own election. Here's a bit from the Waterbury Republican-American (Connecticut):

Isabella Pinto, 8, was so disappointed to learn she was too young to vote, she organized her own election. The young political junkie and contemporaries from her recently launched Children's Right to Vote Committee on Tuesday will address what they consider an injustice. They will oversee their own presidential election, one open to even those born after iPods first hit store shelves. "It's not fair that we don't get to vote," said Isabella, an aspiring commander-in-chief (and lawyer and scientist) from Thomaston. "People say 'We the people,' and children are people, too."

The rest of the article is here: http://www.rep-am.com/News/376850.txt.

When we told Ethan about this, he said he had to go to Thomaston and vote. It's about an hour drive from New Haven to Thomaston, but that didn't deter him. After Esther and I cast our votes for Obama, we piled into the car and set off for Ethan to vote. Ryan said he was not going to vote because it didn't count anyway. I can understand that.

Ethan was so excited to get to vote for Obama. He said he wanted to vote because Obama was against the war and would help people who don't have a lot of money. He said he thinks it's great that Obama wants to "spread the wealth."


Once we got to Thomaston, Ethan had to register, and get his ballot.


Next he went to the voting table and marked his ballot.




Finally he put his ballot in the ballot box.


He was very happy to get he chance to vote. He even got an I voted today sticker which he put on the calendar along side ours.


Lucky for Ethan, he got his election results already:

Presidential Winner: Obama - 66, McCain -53, Nader - 4

Total Voters - 123

Now let's hope the nationwide vote follows this one!

Ethan, Ryan, Mimi, and I were watching Shrek. Sadly, the disk from Netflix froze. While Mimi was trying to get the movie to play again, the following conversation took place:

Ryan: Why did Shrek put on that helmet? He shouldn't have put that on and then she (the princess) wouldn't have yelled at him to take it off.

Ba: Shrek didn't want the princess to know he was an ogre. He didn't want to be afraid of him.

Ryan: Why are people afraid of ogres?

Ba: In most fairy tales ogres are monsters who eat people -

Ethan (cutting in): Yeah! And drink their body fluids!

Ryan: What are body fluids?

Ethan: Honestly, I have no idea.

My guys crack me up.

It's a new season, so it's time for a new look. Halloween is coming, the days are getting shorter, and the Mets aren't in the play-offs. Out with the baseball theme, in with the haunted house!

So, for those of you who are confused about the current candidates for president. Shamelessly ganked from Michael Tomasky in the Gaurdian.

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers -- a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track -- you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend five different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend three years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a constitutional law
professor, spend eight years as a state senator representing a district with more than 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, four years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner-city community,
then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude," with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

She had a TIA (transient ischemic attack aka mini-stroke) on Saturday. Hopefully they'll let her out on tomorrow. They found a hole in heart that apparently lets small clots pass into her bloodstream. She's had it since birth, but it's never been a problem before. She's OK, but they need to figure out medication for her. Everything and everyone's out of synch around here.

On a happier note, I found a good picture of Shaun the Sheep to use as an icon. These days Shaun's an excellent diversion.

Hey jeff! This one's for you.

"All you have to do is track down the fugitives and haul their asses over to a portal of Hell. Easy. -What do you mean by 'portal'? -Well, any place that seems like hell on earth is Hell on Earth. You know, like the DMV on Union Street?" -Ray Wise (The Devil) & Bret Harrison (Sam Oliver) from Reaper

You can download the actual sound clip at: http://dailywav.com//0908/DMVonUnion.wav
I wish LJ would let me embed sounds, but they won't. *sigh*

Funny, but also sad, and strangely for The Onion (mostly) true:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/6_year_old_stares_down_bottomless

( The article itself in case it disappears )
Mine will spend their school days learning at their pace outside in the world where they belong Sundays included.

Gustav is heading toward Louisiana, Iberia Parish or maybe Vermillion. It's a tropical storm right now. Three years ago tonight, people were going to bed thinking the worst was over. I was in a hotel in Montgomery, AL. I didn't watch the news. I just went to sleep. Fatalistic perhaps, but I knew that watching wasn't going to change anything.

The house in New Orleans is still on the market. Nothing will sell at the height of hurricane season. Even as a category 3 Gustav won't do much damage to it. Some rook damage maybe, or a downed tree. Then again, Katrina itself didn't do much damage to our house. A new roof and some work on the laundry shed. The water did the most damage. If the levees hold, the house will be fine. The levees didn't hold three years ago. The house shifted over on its piers. Now the cracks are filled in and it sits 3 inches to the south of where it was built. New piers stand next to the old ones.

New Orleans is on the rainy side of Gustav. The water will back up and flood the usual places. The power will go out. If the levees hold, that's, at most, a two day problem. The levees didn't hold back the last hurricane flood. Our neighborhood was the one of the first to flood. The water ripped under the house and tore away the wiring and the plumbing. It rushed into the cottage and left a field of mold growing up the walls. It left a stench and rotting books, molding walls, and ruined furniture. The inside of the cottage is empty now, but the walls are still covered in mold. The crack that runs from the roof to the cement foundation isn't worth fixing. At least the main house is fine now.

Gustav won't make landfall until Monday or Tuesday. Until then, it could land any where along the coast. Katrina isn't a distant memory. It's a reality of everyday life. Gustav is an unknown, and it'll be forgotten if the levees hold.

The American Family Association has created a form to tell those godless, gay-loving heathens at Hallmark how...well...godless and gay-loving they are for creating gay marriage greeting cards. They want to fill Chairman Hall's inbox with hate.

There is a form, editable by anyone, that sends email (for the purposes of hate speech, preferably) to those in charge of making this gay-friendly decision.

So, it's action time.

Step One: Click https://secure.afa.net/afa/activism/TakeAction.asp?id=329

Step Two:  Erase what's written for you and say your piece.

Step Three: Send

It's just that easy.

I realize that homeschooling is not for everyone, but here is a good reason to think twice about letting strangers teach your child science or anything else.


What boggles me about the report is that town seems more concerned about the Bible in the classroom than about the scarred child.

I haven't felt well all day and it shows. I managed to do the laundry, hang the blow-up planets in Ryan's room (with Mimi's help), bake a loaf of rye bread, and get the osso busco in the oven. Oh, and make this cool new user pic! Ethan gave the card a while ago because, well, I am Ba. My attacks are Tackle and and Supersonic. Flip a coin. If heads, the defending Pokemon is now confused. How perfect is that?!

There was no way I could resist a change in format for the blog when I found this layout. Now if I could just figure out how to tweak it to include Mets colors and logos and such.

I can now tell everyone not only how to get from here to there, but also that the distance between them is exactly 826 km by car. You can see for yourself:

Right here.

 This has been going around on the web. I have no doubt that it has never appeared in PC Magazine, but it's a laugh out loud meme none-the-less.