Learning to Ride

Here's a bike riding tip I picked up last week. Take the pedals off the bike and lower the seat until the child can place her feet on the ground. Then the child can become comfortable with balancing without having to worry about pedaling.


First, Mia only took her feet off the ground for a few feet:


But pretty soon, she was coasting all over the place:


We're going to put the pedals on this weekend and see what happens.

Class Cancelled On Account of Beautiful Weather

The weather forecast was sunny and 75 degrees for today, with rain later in the week. So, I did that flexible homeschooler thing and took the kids to the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. I've been meaning to check it out for awhile, but it always seemed so far away. In fact, it took us less than 15 minutes and was well worth the trip. They have a great water garden where we saw a frog, a lizard and various butterflies and dragonflies. Sidewalks ran through all of the gardens, making it easy to take the stroller. The baby loved the streams and waterfalls that ran close to the path.

Naturally, I discovered the camera battery was dead and didn't get one picture. But here is one shamelessly pirated from their website:
A good time was had by all and we even got home in time to do math.

Olympic Byproduct

We've been watching a lot of Olympic coverage. We experienced an immediate rise in jumping off furniture, somersaulting across the living room and sprinting down the hall. No problem. I expected it. I did the same thing when I was a kid. But I did not expect to hear this: "Mom, can I have some Coke with lunch? So I can support Olympic dreams".

First Day Done

It went as well as it could have. The baby slept late, allowing me to take some first day pictures and give Mia her schuletute.


Mia did a handwriting worksheet as I nursed the baby. We read a poem. After completing all the readings for Animals and their Worlds she stated "I've had a lot of stories. When are we going to do school?" Hmmmm. So I broke it up by showing a video of a blue-ringed octopus on the net.

We made brownies (definitely the highlight of the day) and the bowl was licked to the first chapter of Our Island Story. Lunch was prepared and eaten to an audio recording of Charlotte's Web. We read a story from the James Herriot Treasury while we waited for the baby to take a nap. At nap time we worked on math for about 20 minutes. It was 12:15 and we were done.

Peter Pan

We got a jump on the school year by reading Peter Pan. I'd never read it. It's quite short and an easy read. Very worth the effort. Don't report me to the Charlotte Mason police, but after finishing the book, we watched the Disney movie version. I tried to make it edifying by asking Mia if she noticed any differences between the book and the movie.

Tomorrow's The Big Day

We start first grade tomorrow. I wanted to do something to mark the occasion. I finally settled on a schuletute, which is traditionally given to German schoolchildren on the first day of school. Ours is filled with plastic jungle animals and Skittles:


Some of the books we will be using this year:

So, Do You Respond...

to a comment left by an unmedicated schizophrenic on a post you wrote four years ago?

YEP THAT IS YOU, NOT ALL AMERICANS. HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE FLAGWAVING IS NOT FASCISM! NO WMD, JUST RACIST ATTACK OF A SOVEREIGN NATION WHOSE DICTATOR CONVEINENTLY WAS A PUPPET OF THE NAZI'S BUSH EMPIRE. YOU ARE A BETRAYOR OF THE CONSTITUTION AND EVERY TIME I SEE A FLAG WAVING IT REMINDS ME OF THE FOURTH REICH THAT HAS TAKEN YOUR MIND AND YOUR SOUL. REAL AMERICANS DON'T FLY FLAGS, WE PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION. EVERY PERSON WHO FLYS A FLAG IS LETTING THE GOVERNMENT KNOW, "I SUPPORT THE DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA" AND "I AM A MINDLESS, THOUGHTLESS, SOULLESS SUPPORTER OF EVIL". GODBLESS THE CONSTITUTION AND THE REAL PATRIOTS, WHO ARE LOYAL TO TRUTH, INTEGRITY AND THE HUMAN RACE. THE AMERICAN FLAG IS A WHITE SUPREMIST SYMBOL. THE CONSTITUTION IS FREEDOM. WAKE UP. HEIL BUSH!

I'm thinking "No". I wanted to edit it for brevity, but it's so packed full of whacky goodness that I just didn't know where to start.

Choosing Charlotte Mason

School planning for fall is almost complete. I've decided on a Charlotte Mason approach which might amuse you, if you knew us. All that nature walk, spend 6 hours a day outside stuff is probably (definitely) not going to happen. None of us are outdoorsy. We are, in fact, devoted indoors men. In the words of Scott Adams, "if I wanted anything that was outdoors, I'd hire someone to bring it inside where civilization lives."

Having said that, it is a goal of mine to get outside more, so I've come around regarding the outdoorsy aspect of CM. I think it will prompt me to get outside even if I can't follow all her recommendations fully.

But what actually attracted me to CM was the combination of twaddle-free books and narration. My daughter has fine-motor delays which cause great difficulty writing. However, she has no cognitive delays and is actually a quick learner. Every rigorous curriculum that I looked at (and those not so rigorous) required a tremendous amount of writing for even the youngest child. Workbooks, copy work. It's just not possible for her right now.

Last year, I bought a kindergarten in a box program, thinking I would shoot for the middle and modify. Well, that was $100 I might as well have flushed. The writing was still too hard and everything else was too easy. And the curriculum was so integrated that I found it impossible to modify. I had the frustrating feeling that we were falling behind in areas where she could excel because she couldn't keep up with the writing.

Imagine my joy upon finding Ambleside and discovering that CM didn't even recommend written narration until the 4th year. I love that the non-writing aspect is integral to the program, not something I'm trying to jerry-rig. I don't really have the confidence to do major modifications to a program and, with a baby in the house, I don't have the time.

I'd already decided to do Winter Promise's Animals and Their Worlds, because Mia loves animals and I love a schedule all laid out. The best part: AW has a option for K-1 and another for 2nd and up all included on the same schedule. You just buy the schedule and a different book package for whichever option you choose. So naturally, I bought the schedule only and a mix of books from each of the options to cover our needs. I'm very optimistic about this program.

I'll be covering history, geography and literature with Ambleside Year 1. We'll substitute the recommended copy work, with our handwriting program (HWT) and, hopefully, some poetry memorization.

Add in Math-U-See: Alpha and we're pretty much done.

If that goes well, there's art, music, foreign language and probably more to add in later. We start officially on August 18th, so wish us luck.

My Brush With Fame

I forgot to mention my opportunity to shake hands with former Virginia governor, Mark Warner. His campaign for Senate took him to the same restaurant in which I was lunching. My sister, an actual Virginia resident, recognized him right away and he came over to chat.

He's all about cutting through party politics to get things done. Aren't they all? But he seems to be making it work. None of the (albeit) small sample of people I talked to could remember his party affiliation.

Update: I guess they'll know he's a Democrat now.

Phobia I Didn't Know I Had

I never knew I was afraid of bats, until I found one on the third floor of my sister's old Victorian flopping around between me and the only exit. Just like in the cartoons, I pointed and soundlessly mouthed the words "Baaaa, baaaa, baaaatttt." It was sad, really.

So If you're ever in Pearisburg...

My dad's coffee shop in Pearisburg, VA got a write-up in the Roanoke Times. So, if you're hiking the Appalachian Trail, stop by and say hello.

Update:

"Mom, that lady has a tattoo on her face"

says my 7yo at top volume about a lady who was twice my size and, in reality, had piercings on her face. Okay, let's go over it again. We don't make comments about how other people look because we might embarrass someone (or get mommy beat up).

Un-freakin-believable

Did you see this? I have a baby about this age if something like this happened to her, the only thing keeping me out of prison would be my husband's restraining influence. Although in this case, I think I might be able to beat the rap.

Really, are teenage boys expected to be this stupid? I can't imagine the shame I would suffer as a parent if I raised a child to the age of 16 only to find he was capable of something like this.

Sweeney Todd

What was I thinking? Oh yeah, I was thinking I love me some Johnny Depp. And some Tim Burton. And it got good reviews. And, technically, it was good. But yikes! That movie had more arterial spray than three seasons of CSI. The ending could have been poignant, but by then, I was too busy wishing it was over to care.

My Big Fat Carbon Footprint

I have a standing shipment of protein bars that comes from Amazon once a month. It's just a small box, so I thought I would save the planet by combining that order with a few books I wanted. So I ordered the books and hit the "combine orders" button. Sorry, these orders cannot be combined. But wait, now I have 2 small orders being shipped separately. Let's order another book I was going to order eventually and combine it with the second order to justify the shipping. Sorry, these orders cannot be combined. Well, less than 30 seconds have passed. Let's just cancel that extra book. Sorry, we're already working on this order. You can't cancel it. Of course, they shipped some items separately, so received 4 shipments in three days. The UPS guy is going to think I have a crush on him.

Priorities

Says Charlotte Church, mother of a nine month old and pregnant with #2: ''We want to have our babies young and then I'm going to get married and look fabulous for that."

She wants up to 6 kids before 32. Does she think she's going to look more fabulous after 10 years and 5 more kids than she does right now? Well, I guess she has enough money to buy her body back, but still. No time to squeeze in a wedding between #1 and #2? I've heard lots of excuses for putting off a wedding, but waiting until after the birth of all the kids you're ever going to have is a new one.

I guess no one cares about illegitimacy anymore. I can't say I care a lot. I have a youngish female relative who is expecting, but not planning to marry the father. My mother (in her 60's) is horrified that they won't marry "just to give the baby a name." Can't say I even thought about that. But I wouldn't continue to have kids with a guy who wouldn't marry me, or who I didn't want to marry. Terribly old-fashioned of me.

Dog Party

Mia wanted a dog-themed birthday party. Check out these cute dog cakes I got from Target:


They're each made from two jumbo cupcakes. The day I picked these up, they had a lion in the display case that was so cute, it made me wish we'd done a jungle theme. $4.99 a piece.

Softening Michelle's Image

The NT Times has an article out today trying to rescue Michelle Obama's image. It's not working for me. She really has to stop saying what a trial it was to go to Princeton. That's a trial only a few have the privilege of suffering through.

The author notes she was one of 94 black students in a class of 1100. Hmmm. That's nearly 9%. Since blacks are around 10%, I'm not sure why she feels the situation was so unreasonable.
Maybe her perception was a little skewed. From the article:

“Diversity can’t be taken care of with 10 kids,” she says. “There is an isolation that comes with that.”

10 kids. Or 94 kids. Or (94 x 4 classes) 376 kids. Whatever. It's all bad. And I guess that's my issue with her. Everything America has to offer has been laid at her feet. And she's still not happy. 95% of the people her husband would presume to govern have less than she does. It's just unseemly to whine about it.

Going Green in Greensburg

Remember Greensburg, Kansas, wiped of the face of the map by a massive tornado last year? Well, the town elders decided to take the opportunity of a blank slate to rebuild the town in an entirely green fashion and, what the heck, do a reality show for the Green Channel. Who knew there was a green channel? I didn't, until this weekend. It's one of Discovery's many channels.

Anyway, I found the first episode interesting and, even though it is a Leo DeCaprio production, I intend to continue watching. He may be putting his money where his mouth is this time. And I'm curious to see what solutions they come up with. I live in an area undergoing rapid (sub)urban sprawl and it never ceases to amaze me that subdivision after subdivision goes up with no obvious concern for energy conservation. You'd think a house that was cheap to heat and cool would be a big seller, at least here on the plains.

Ladies First

A guest on a local public affairs radio show just related this story her grandmother told about arriving at Ellis Island from Slovenia. When an official came around with a basket of apples, all the men pushed forward. The official said "Now, now. Ladies first." When the women figured out what he meant, one of them said "God bless America, where ladies come first."

Mini Frittatas

My latest self-improvement project involves cooking better meals for the family. Alas, they have excluded so many foods that I might as well have decided to climb Everest. In pursuit of my impossible dream of eating from all four food groups, I've taken to checking out what's on Food Network and recording shows that look like they're featuring something my family might eat. I watch the shows when the mood strikes and, if a recipe looks good, I can get it from the Food Network website.

Here's one that actually worked: Mini Frittatas. You can substitute any kind of meat and cheese. I used bacon bits and shredded cheddar, because that's all I had. It was hard to pour out. Next time, I think I'll placed the cheese and meat in the muffin cups and pour the egg mixture on top.

Another First

The Jetta takes premium, so I had the privilege of paying over $4 per gallon for gas for the first time today; $4.12 to be exact. Luckily, the Jetta gets pretty good gas mileage. Couple that with me not driving terribly far and it should be 2 weeks before I have to do that again.

Coincidentally, while I was waiting to pick up Mia from camp, the local public affairs radio show was discussing a plan for light rail in the KC metro area. The mayor of KCMO mentioned how those people in [my part of town] make enough money to not be terrorized by the price of gas. I guess he's right. I'd rather drop $50 on something else, but it's just a bummer, not a budget buster (yet).

Ouch

Bill Bennett:

And thus the Democratic party is about to nominate a far left candidate in the tradition of George McGovern, albeit without McGovern’s military and political record. The Democratic party is about to nominate a far-left candidate in the tradition of Michael Dukakis, albeit without Dukakis’s executive experience as governor. The Democratic party is about to nominate a far left candidate in the tradition of John Kerry, albeit without Kerry’s record of years of service in the Senate. The Democratic party is about to nominate an unvetted candidate in the tradition of Jimmy Carter, albeit without Jimmy Carter’s religious integrity as he spoke about it in 1976.

Chinese Culture Camp

We're lucky to have a branch of the University of Kansas' Confucius Institute a few miles from our house. They offer various summer programs for kids and today was Mia's first day of Chinese Culture Camp. She liked it so much she wanted to go back for the afternoon session, in which, alas, I did not enroll her, never dreaming she would tolerate that much camp.

She did Chinese skip jumping, learned a few Chinese words and did some drawing. She also learned that China was near France and Egypt. Hmmm. I wonder what they were actually trying to say.

If she's still loving at the end of the week, I'll enroll her for Chinese language camp later in the summer. Alas, there is no prayer of me helping her with her Chinese. She's on her own for that one.

Make Your Own Graph

Some of these are pretty funny:


more graph humor and song chart memes


more graph humor and song chart memes

Craft of the Month

I'm not very crafty, but crafts are something I feel we should do, so whenever I see one that looks easy, we give it a go. Result: Mother's Day cards for the grandmas:


The flower on the outside comes from Kids Craft Weekly. They send out an email with lots of great crafts, but I'm embarrassed to admit that most of them are too difficult for us. We lack both fine motor skills and patience around here, but we are working on both.

America's Most Overrated Product:

the Bachelor's Degree.

Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later... Yet four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year!

...[E]ven those who do manage to graduate too rarely end up in careers that require a college education. So it's not surprising that when you hop into a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high-school dropout.

I tend to agree. I didn't need my degree for any job that I held after college, although it would have helped me advance in a few of them. Luckily, I went to the University of Kansas back when it was still a great deal, so I didn't have a lot of debt, but I could have been working all those years.

Homeschool Convention

I actually secured a babysitter for five hours and the in-laws for the rest of the time and drug my husband to the local homeschool convention. We heard some lectures in the morning, tooled around the vendor hall in the afternoon and made it home by 3:00.

I wish we hadn't have been so rushed. Thinking back, there were a few things I would have bought, given a little time to reflect. But we still did pretty good.

What I bought:

Math is not going particularly well, at least partially due to my lack of mad math skillz. So we picked up Math-U-See and we'll see how that goes. This visual learner loves the manipulatives and the DVD that shows parents how to teach it. I also bought the skip counting CD.

Everyone complains about Math-U-See being expensive, but so far, I don't see it. I paid $85 for the alpha level and a set of manipulatives. I paid nearly $50 for Horizons K and didn't get any manipulatives or a DVD to show me how to teach it. Also, I wasn't thrilled with the Horizions teacher's guide. It said stuff like "Teach dimes." Gee, thanks. I gathered from the dimes on the workbook page that we would be "teaching dimes." I had hoped for a few suggestions on HOW to teach dimes if your kid doesn't instantly get it (which mine didn't). Not a math person here, remember. Not full of clever ideas for how to "teach dimes."

A good sign: As soon as I showed Mia the blocks, she pounced on them and played with them for an hour.

Well, babe is in arms again. More later.

And Then, My Hard Drive Died

keeping my off the computer for nearly two weeks. And I lost all the pictures from newbie's early infanthood :( except the few that I had e-mailed to others.

I actually am on the computer frequently, but I usually have a babe in arms, making blogging a near impossibility.

Feeling My Age

So I was chatting with one of the workers we have here fixing up our water damage. He was telling me about how his little girl was a big surprise, a "gee, the doctor told me I couldn't have children" kind of surprise. He went into great detail about how hard it was on his wife who was really too old to be having a baby and who found it hard to spring back at her age, etc. How old was this elderly woman when she had this baby? Yep, one year older than me.

Did This Ever Happen To Charlotte Mason?

School has gone straight to hell in a hand basket since we lost the kitchen/school room to the flood. But I thought it would be a good opportunity to try a little Charlotte Mason, as I have been meaning to do. I have a book that purports to work on narration and picture study for those of us too obtuse to figure it out on our own.

So, as per the instructions, I explain to Mia that we will be looking at the picture and talking about what we see. She looks me in the eye and says ernestly "But I already know how to look at pictures." Sigh.

She humored me, but it was clear she thought it was lame. And you know what? It was lame. I'm beginning to acquire quite a little pile of resources that must have worked well for someone, because they came highly recommended, but didn't work for us.

Homeschooling often reminds me of that Moltke quote "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

Picked A Bad Day To Start Blogging

So I just started blogging again when Mia woke us up one morning saying "You forgot to turn the water off." Well, not exactly. A connection to the water filter under the kitchen sink had broken some time in the night and flooded the kitchen. They tried to save the floor with these nifty rescue mats that force air into the floor:

They failed:

Of course, much of the water ran into the basement:

So we're getting a new kitchen floor and Mia is getting to observe carpenters, plumbers, painters and other assorted tradespeople in lieu of actual schoolwork while I deal with all this.

Borders Home Educator Card

If you are a teacher or a homeschooler, you can get a card which gives you a 20% discount on items purchased for educational purposes. I brought the advertisement Borders had placed in The Old Schoolhouse magazine, but no one asked to see it or asked for any proof that I am a homeschooler.

Education Savings Days: April 2-8, Borders will be offering educators 25% off most items. personal or professional.

However, I must note that after I left Borders, I went to Costco where I found the same book I just bought for $11.99 (including discount) for $8.49. I snapped it up again at the lower price and will exchange the Borders' copy for something else.

My First Push Poll

Thanks to caller ID, I don't answer the phone very much, but finally, out of curiosity, I picked up for a call-bot that had left several messages indicating it was conducting a poll. And thus I was able to experience that venerable American political tradition: the push poll. Of course, I'd heard of them, but couldn't quite imagine how they worked.

First, the call-bot asks you several questions of a general nature, such as "Do you consider yourself a Democrat?" and "Are you voting in the Feburary 9th caucus?"

Then it begins to narrow it down: "Would an endorsement from the Machinists Union influence your vote?" No. "Is illegal immigration an important issue to you?" Yes.

Ah ha! Yes, well, then: "John McCain led the charge on amnesty and Mitt Romney signed sanctuary laws. Does this information make you more likely to support Mike Huckabee who's tough on immigration?"

"Do you consider yourself pro-life?" Yes. "Mitt Romney is a shifty SOB and John McCain eats live babies? Does this information make you more likely to support God's representitive on earth, Mike Huckabee?"

Well, there was something about McCain and live babies.

Update: Besides the push poll, Huckabee called, John and Cindy McCain have called and someone just called asking if I'm voting in the Kansas caucus tomorrow. But (true confessions) I'm not a registered Republican. I'm not eligible to vote in the caucus. Why are they calling me?

Here She Is

...the reason I have abandoned my blog for so long:

I really respect those ladies who blog through pregnancies and newborns. And this one is a good baby, already sleeping through the night at 2 months.

One Month of Homeschooling: What's Working, What's Not

Working:

My Body: This is a huge hit. We traced Mia's body on butcher paper. The book provides organs to copy, color, cut out and place on the body. We do one organ each day, which provides great motivation to get to the school room and get started. I don't know what I'll do when we're finished (which will be tomorrow). The book contains blurbs about each organ, but we're using different library books, such as Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body, to add more depth. Since the book is reproducible, I'm sure we will revisit this project in a year or two.

Horizons Math: So far, we both like this even though it's largely been review to this point. We're 24 lessons in and haven't run up against much that is new. But they are beginning to introduce money, time, and addition, so we'll see how that goes.

Graded readers: Mia can read about any word you put in front of her, but needs lots of practice with reading fluency. After wasting $18 on the sweetest little set of hard cover phonics readers that she absolutely refused to read, I discovered that the Step Into Reading and All Aboard Readers that we already had (or that the library has by the hundreds) were the way to go. All that repetition in the phonics readers is just coma-inducing boring. Apparently lots of kids like it, but not mine.

Not Working:

History for Little Pilgrims: I was looking for a simple overview of history, since Mia has no interest in the various historical periods like pioneers or ancient Egyptians that seem to interest so many other kids. This book seemed to fit the bill, but it is way too religious for us. Mia's been traumatized by the continual mention of "your history, which will end when your time on earth ends..." Seriously, do we need to dwell on death with a kindergartner? It's a strange combination of too old for her (heavy theological concepts), and too young (not enough detail). Written for the four-year-old future divinity student.

Update: Body project complete:

I Should Be So Lucky

From the BBC: Woman Has Baby In 8 Minutes.

Well, maybe I don't want to be quite that lucky. I think my poor hubby would stroke out if he actually had to deliver the baby. But I'd settle for 8 minutes after I got to the maternity ward.

High School Bans America Flag

Not to turn this into the 1001 reasons to homeschool blog, but...

On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American flag.

And from the moral midget who runs this school district:

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

Gee, how about the flag of the country whose citizens pay your salary.

Via Weasel Zippers

The Two America's of John Edwards

Apparently, there are two Americas: The America that would give John Edwards a standing ovation and the America that would laugh him out of the room. I belong to the latter.

Here's what happened after Edwards said he would tell Americans to give up their SUV's:

Edwards was asked during his appearance how he explained the contradiction of asking Americans to sacrifice while he’s living in a 28,000-square-foot mansion.

He said he came from nothing, worked hard all his life, has always supported workers and fought big corporations as a lawyer.

“I have no apologies whatsoever for what I’ve done with my life,” he said to loud cheers.

Well, la de da. Edwards always pulls out this "I worked hard and can do whatever I like with the fruits of my labor" argument. Great. I agree. But apparently he is the only American who came from nothing and gets to do whatever he wants with no apologies. It's the rest of us that owe him an apology for only being successful enough to buy one or two cars, not successful enough to have a car for every occasion, or, as I'm sure Edwards does, hire out all hauling and landscaping and moving that needs to be done.

We use our truck all the time and have a hard time seeing how people get by without one. I have my tiny, fuel efficient Jetta, but once the new baby arrives, it will no longer qualify as a family car since, with the rear-facing car seat, there will not be enough room for an adult in the front passenger seat. But when you let the servants deal with the children, I guess you don't have to take such things into consideration.

Update: Allah's got more, including this lovely quote:

Campaign spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said the Edwardses, who have two small
children, use the Pacifica when they need more than two seat belts in the back, and the truck when they need to move furniture or haul something.

Edwards has good reasons. You? All you've got are lame excuses.

First Day of School

Technically, today was the first day of school for us. Actually, we started yesterday, because Mia demanded to "do school. Right now". Who am I to object? But today we did all the subjects I had planned, including this: The Body Project.
This is a tracing of Mia's body. Each day, we will read about another organ and she will color and cut it out and glue it to the body. This was a big hit. We also did penmenship, math and reading. Then we read and acted out The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Mia's idea). All that took less than 1.5 hours. I want to add in some grammar and history on alternate days once we settle in.

I've Been Fired

My midwives let me go. :( Seems this latest complication is more than they can handle. Now I have to see the doctors. There's pretty much no chance of meeting them all before the big day. I can't tell you how excited I am about some random (knife-wielding) stranger delivering my baby. Also, my chances of getting a C-section just doubled and my chances of being induced... well, pretty much 100%. I was sort of looking forward to actually going into labor with this one.

School Started Last Week

and Mia didn't go. I've decided to homeschool her indefinitely. That went over big with the in-laws. My own fault, I guess. I knew the decision wouldn't be popular, so I never said a word about it until they asked. Of course, I obsessed over the decision and spent crazy amounts of time planning everything, but they don't know that. I think I left the impression that I just forgot to enroll her.

Anyway, we've had our first happy result and we haven't even started school yet. Last week we drove to Chicago for a family reunion. Mia met a bunch of cousins I didn't even know she had. I saw family I haven't seen in 10 years. Since school started here last week, if she'd been enrolled, we wouldn't have been able to go. Ah, sweet freedom.

Life's not fair, part 234

When I was a kid on a family road trip, my parents made me listen to Country Gold on the AM radio. Not much else was available. On our latest road trip, did Mia have to listen to my choice of radio stations? No. I had to listen to hours of Rock and Learn DVDs. It almost made me wish for the good old days of AM radio.

Criminals Are Many

Cops are few.
Criminals have guns,
Why can't you?

--Sign in a cornfield in central Illinois

Baby Pics

Here she is: the little person who has put a complete stop to my blogging. The top one is a profile, the bottom one, a little leg. I have a low lying placenta, so I should get at least one more round of pics, maybe more. I planned my life around having the same complications I had with Mia. Turns out I'm experiencing a whole new set of complications with this one. Who knew?

Special Edition Barbie: KC Area

I just got an e-mail pictures of Barbie's representing various areas around Kansas City. Here's mine:

The caption reads:

Overland Park Barbie: Yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, American Express card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.

I wish.

I my neighborhood, it's more like this:

Leawood Barbie: Modern Day Homemaker Barbie is available with Ford WindStar Minivan and matching gym outfit. Gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately.

Oddly enough, we tried to move to Leawood, but couldn't quite afford it. Now I find out I'm supposed to have a Hummer. Well, I must admit, when I drive around in my wee Jetta here in OP, I'm in danger of becoming road kill beneath the wheels of a full-size something or other.

What I Love About The Health Food Store

Besides the Back To Nature Mint Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, the best thing about the Wild Oats is that when you roll out of bed in the morning and decide to throw on some sweats, a headband and no makeup to run out for some milk, all the other women there look like they did the same thing.

That Christian Jihad Thing

Bryan Preston really stirred the pot yesterday with his post taking Glenn Reynolds to task for suggesting that fundamentalist Christians will eventually follow the Muslim example of using violence and intimidation as a way to get their demands met. The thread currently has 277 comments.

I had some instinctive feeling that Bryan was right to be annoyed, but couldn't quite put my finger on why until I read Glenn Reynolds' rebuttal:

Bryan Preston says I'm wrong, and that Christians won't do such things. I tend to think that conduct that's rewarded gets engaged in more. We'll find out which one of us is right, soon enough.

I'm surprised Glenn is trying this lame excuse. Palestinians get rewarded every time they take out a pizza parlor or a busload of old people and children. "Oh, look how aggrieved they are. Let's give the poor things more money and concessions." But have the Israelis started imitating them? Of course not, and for the same reasons that Christians will not.

This behavior will never be widespread in the Christian community precisely because Christians know they will not be rewarded for it in the manner that Muslims are. Of course self-detonating Christians wouldn't get sympathy from the media since they aren't an approved minority with an approved grievance. But it is so much more than that.

Terrorist Christians would not get sympathy from other Christians. Unlike Muslim terrorists, Christian terrorists would not benefit from world-wide excuse making, fund raising, and network forming. Can Christians produce one-off nut jobs who do terrible things? Of course. But that's all it will ever be. To paraphrase Mao, there's no sea for the Christian terrorist fish to swim in.

Timothy McVeigh, far from proving Reynold's point, is the perfect example of what I'm taking about. McVeigh pretty much single-handedly destroyed the militia movement. After Oklahoma City, moderates (normal people who liked target shooting and playing paint ball in the woods) were so horrified that they left in droves, leaving behind only the compound-dwelling freaks. Outside of those (famously anti-Christian) compounds, no one defended McVeigh. No one said "Well, the ATF blah blah blah." The most I saw was, "Well, I hate the ATF as much as the next guy, BUT NO WAY is murder acceptable." The rejection was unequivocal.

I'm sure Glenn was just making a joke and doesn't want to get into an existential debate, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist (or a law professor) to see that there's just no pay-off for terrorism among Christians.

So I Did Learn Something in Jr. High

All these years, I thought it was a total loss:

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

Via Bookworm.

Rorschach Test

Actually, this is a picture of the little person that's been trying to kill me for the past two months. Apparently, it doesn't understand that if I go, it goes too. I wasn't half this sick with Mia, and it's really thrown me for a loop. Let's just say that my blogging isn't the only thing I've let slide. I just hope this inauspicious start doesn't foreshadow the next 18 years.

To KS Gov: Less Whining, More Leading

As a new transplant to Kansas last year, I voted for Sebelius on the grounds that she's very popular with the locals, who knew more about it than I did. Doubt I'll make that mistake again.

I was annoyed when I heard her, 3 days after the devestating tornado, whining on about how the national guard didn't have this or that. I felt that at such an early stage of the disaster, she shouldn't be carping to the press and pointing fingers. She should be on the phone getting done what needs to be done.

To find out that her accusations weren't even true, really put me over the top. Turns out Senator Brownback, being the sort of leader that picks up the phone to get results, not to call a press conference, rang up the national guard to find out just what they needed with the intention of getting it from the local military and air force bases. They turned him down, telling him they had everything they needed.

I'm very disappointed in Sebelius. That sort of conduct from someone who claims to be a leader is just outrageous.

Much more over at Hot Air and Confederate Yankee.

You Know You've Been Out Of Touch...

When you read about a major local event at Ace of Spades. There's been another random shooting spree at a local mall. I go to this mall 4-5 times a year and from the description in the paper, it appears the shooter walked from one end of the mall to the other, firing randomly, yet "only" managed to kill the first two people he shot while still in the parking lot. Bad as it was, this could have been a lot worse.

V Tech Shooting

Oh God. My niece goes to Virginia Tech. I know there are 25,000 students on that campus, but I'd still like to know she's OK.

Update: My mom just called. My niece was on her way to class in that very building when the police stopped her from going on. Now she's got one of those "If I hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee..." stories.

Update: I just talked to my sister. She's just back from a funeral that could have been her daughter's. My niece actually had a 10:00 Spanish class in the same room as the French class that was attacked. She usually got there early and sat in the hall. Sometimes she even sat in on the French class. But since her 9:00 class got out early, she decided she had time to get a cup of coffee. I had been thinking she was stopped by some sort of cordon, but the shooting was in progress when she arrived and the police yelled at her to get back.

Here's a photo of the now famous coffee cup with her message to the victims. It reads:

If it had not been for this coffee cup, I would have been in Norris 251. I can't thank God enough for saving my life, but I will also never understand why yours had to be lost.

You know what's so scary about these random shootings? He could have decided to shoot up the coffee shop and then she would have been in the wrong place. There's nothing you can do and not much you can learn from these things.

Incomprehensible Truthers

There's something I'll never understand about the Truthers' fascination with WTC7. Rosie, in addition to her groundbreaking scientific discovery about steel being impervious to fire, also stated that while planes did fly into WTC1 and 2, WTC7 was brought down by explosives. What are we supposed to believe about this? That the government somehow managed to have planes flown into the Twin Towers, but figured their evil plan just wouldn't be complete if they couldn't bring down that much smaller building that no one outside of the New York area even knew existed? I guess this is why Truthers flood the zone with details of little relevance. Their big picture just makes no sense.

Can't Hollywood Even Make A Decent Action Flick Anymore?

My long suffering husband will sit through the occasional chick-flick with me, but, lest I abuse his good nature, I'm always on the lookout for action/adventure movies that we can both enjoy. I was hoping that Mark Wahlberg's new film Shooter would work for us. Alas, according to Libertas, this film goes deep into moonbat territory and never finds its way out. The movie sounds like a nightmare, but, at least the review was entertaining.

Another Thing I'll Never Live Down

Yikes. My twin nieces' 3rd birthday party was today. Alas, I thought it was next week. Since we were already late when they called to see where we were, I just sent Brian and Mia rushing out the door. I wish I could say this was the first time I've done something like this, but....

At least it gave me the opportunity to watch this fascinating video that Bookworm posted about the nihilism inherent on the left today. Good stuff. I suppose it's a little narcissistic, but I always enjoy hearing conversion (to conservativism) stories that mirror mine and Evan Sayet tells one at the beginning of this video.

Suburban Redneck In Training?

Is it possible to raise a red neck in the middle of suburbia? Because I think I'm doing it. When Mia hears Hillbilly Deluxe (Brooks and Dunn), she comes running to dance. At first I wasn't concerned. It is an easy song to dance to. But then she said she likes it because there are monster trucks in the video. Monster Trucks? Excuse me? What? My 5 year old girl likes monster trucks? I blame her father. Their special thing to do every Friday is watch "Trick My Truck."

The Core Program

In my perpetual quest to get my act together, I discovered a book called The Core Program by Peggy Brill. She's a physical therapist and has designed this program to cure women of their various aches and pains.

I'd been walking on the treadmill 3 times a week for a few months and I hadn't lost an ounce. I stopped gaining so I guess that's something. But I also had debilitating headaches, felt achy and couldn't sleep.

I've been doing these Core Program exercises for about a month with great results. I feel much less achy, sleep better and have only gotten one mild headache instead of my weekly bout of violent pain.

The exercises are pretty easy to learn and pretty easy to do. You can increase the intensity as you go along. I've always had a hard time finding an exercise program that wouldn't injure one of my weak spots. So far so good with this one.

And an additional benefit: I've lost 5 lbs, 2 inches from my hips and I am fitting back into a smaller clothing size. Not a small size, mind you, but a smaller size at least.

Just thought I'd throw this out there for anyone with back or neck problems.

Is My Give A Damn Busted?

Remember that song from a year or two back about the girl whose man had treated her so badly that he broke her ability to give a damn about him? Cute song, but is it becoming a lifestyle for me?

The drummer I blogged about a few weeks back took a three week break from drumming. I thought his parents had finally decided to show a little courtesy towards their neighbors. More likely he just sprained a wrist because he started drumming again on Monday. The next day he drummed for about 30-45 minutes after school. Well, about 5:15 he started up again. I declared to myself that I had shared my last evening with that little s**t and called the cops on him without a second thought. My give a damn is definitely busted in regards to these neighbors. In January, it took three months of 2-3 daily drumming sessions, 6-7 days a week to drive me to calling the cops. In February, it took three sessions over two days.

Then today at school I had another shockingly (for me) assertive moment. Normally, the parents just wait in line and pull forward as the teachers get the kids out of the cars, but today I had to run inside to take care of a few things. There are two parking spaces near the door for this eventuality. There is a narrow spot in the parking lot where the line snakes through, but two cars can just pass. At least they can pass if some moron in a giant SUV isn't parked smack dab in the middle of the road. So in the few seconds it took me to drive up, I had to decide if I would 1) wait 5 minutes for the teachers to start the drop off procedure so the moron would move forward and I could finally get around, or 2) somehow convince genius girl to get out of my way.

I can guarantee that last year (maybe even last month), I would have waited. But today, I stopped about 4 car lengths behind her, rolled down my window and gave a little honk. When she rolled down her window I asked her (politely, I swear) to scoot over as I needed to get through.

She: I'm in line.
Me: I know, but I need to get through.
She: blah blah there's a line.
Me: I'm not waiting for the drop off. I need. to get. through.
She: Well, I don't know what you want me to do.
Me: (slightly less polite) Well, back up and scoot over so I can get through .

She eventually did this and I went about my business.

I know these aren't earth shaking incidents for normal people. But for a stereotypical doormat like myself? Deciding that a peaceful evening for myself is more important than anything some little punk could have going on? Calling on the police to do my bidding? Confronting someone with a request (a demand really) that they do something for my convenience?

Completely foreign territory.

Idiocracy: Much Funnier Than .5HNH

Okay, maybe that's not a ringing endorsement, but we did laugh and laugh through this silly little movie. Our protagonists, chosen for their utter averageness, have been frozen in a cryogenic experiment. Forgotten for 500 years, they awake to discover that, due to rampant breeding of low IQ types, they are the smartest people on earth.

Warning: much naughty language and crude humor. But at least it's integral to the story. It demonstrates how degraded language and culture has become. A positive review here.

Misc. Thoughts on Global Warming

Coincidentally, I finished listening to State of Fear by Michael Crichton just in time for the release of IPCC report and the resulting media coverage, so my level of skepticism is high.

Regarding the book: I liked it, but I think a large part of its appeal was it's iconoclastic approach to environmentalism. Crichton mercilessly mocks "limousine liberals," which was great fun, but I was sometimes given to wonder why the secret agent guy was dragging civilians all over the back of beyond with him and how said civilians managed to nearly die of exposure, be struck by lightening, be swept away in rushing rivers and be poisoned by (I don't want to spoil the surprise) and then jump up then next day to attempt more daring deeds. And some of the exposition might be deathly dull if you aren't interested in global warming. But on the flip side, the novel is a fun way to slog through potentially dull statistics. If you do read it, don't skip the appendices. Good stuff on previous occurrences of "science" induced hysteria.

Favorite quote (from memory): "Ted, you think civilization separates us from nature. But, in fact, civilization protects us from nature." Amen, brother.

Glenn Reynolds has a post on GW that makes a lot of sense, especially this part:

One thing that I think is important: Energy conservation needs to be something positive. Nothing sells on a "suffer for the future" model very well. Too many environmental activists are hair-shirt types (at least when the hair-shirt is for other people) and that stuff is poor salesmanship. Martin Eberhard, of Tesla Roadster fame, is right when he says that many early electric cars were "punishment cars," predicated on the notion that driving was inherently suspect. Make electric cars fun, and useful, and people will want them.

Absolutely. Often environmentalists give the impression that people are a scourge on the earth and unicorns would rule the planet if only there were a whole lot less of us. I can't help but question their motives when they are practically drooling over the thought of world-wide famine and the drastic population reduction that would follow.

As if to underline Glenn's point about going after the low-hanging fruit, the first High Efficency Wal-Mart just opened in Kansas City area. It uses 20% less energy than the typical Wal-Mart. It took all of one year to achieve that level of reduction.

Ted Koppel Almost Makes Sense

So the clock radio goes off this morning and I find myself listening to something I cannot believe: Ted Koppel sound like a war blogger and making sense. And then, just when I begin to wonder if I'm still dreaming, he turns it around. He's still too liberal to get his own point

Check it out:

The administration is right. The consequences of a premature U.S. withdrawal would have disastrous implications for the region. And the region, in case anyone has forgotten or is too polite to mention it, is the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

So setting benchmarks for Iraqi achievements and behavior is nonsense. What are we saying? It's too dangerous to leave because of possible consequences to the region; but if the Iraqis show that they're incapable of preventing anarchy and chaos by not meeting our benchmarks, then we're going to leave?

I think what we ought to be saying is that U.S. troops will start withdrawing as Iraqis do meet the benchmarks.

Right on, Ted. He's getting more liberal here but watch him give Nancy Pelosi and company the back of his hand:

We've been given so many bad reasons for why we went to war in Iraq — those weapons of mass destruction, Hussein and his neighbors, Hussein and al-Qaida, establishing democracy — that we've actually convinced ourselves that we did it for them… for the Iraqis; not because it served the U.S. national interest.

That makes it easy to depict the Iraqis as a bunch of underperforming, ungrateful retches; and if they don't start shaping up, we're pulling out.

Yeah Ted. It is about U.S national interest. And treating the Iraqis like a bunch of teenage slackers is stupid. Too bad the Democratic leadership keeps doing it. But wait. It gets a little vague after that so I'm not wedded to this interpretation, but in going on to say the democrats are equally dishonest he seems to imply that the "tough love" approach he finds so silly is Bush's doing. He thinks he's back handing Bush.

He's so sure that Bush can't say anything worthwhile that it has completely escaped him that he has offered the exact same policy. Can anyone tell me the difference between these two lines:

-- "I think what we ought to be saying is that U.S. troops will start withdrawing as Iraqis do meet the benchmarks" --Ted Koppel

--"When the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down." --George W Bush

It's almost as if he attributes every stupid idea, no matter how many times the Democratic leadership utters it, to Bush. Fascinating

Meme Propagated

We have a fabulous public affairs radio show here in KC called Up To Date. I really like the host. He asks intelligent questions and actually lets he guests get a word in edgewise. But I guess they were short on guests this week because they did a program where they invited four of the areas "most interesting and diverse personalities" to basically BS about whatever.

They very first question was to one Nicholas Segura who runs a marketing/design firm. What's the best movie he's seen recently. Loose Change. Seriously, that's what the guy brings up. I'm sure he thinks it's all edgy and hip. Just like him.

As if this hasn't been debunked numerous times.

Of course, he goes on to mention the fascinating Noam Chomsky book he downloaded from the internet, so Loose Change is par for his course.

Behold: The Power of Fries

Mia developed some sort of mental block about reading for her teacher. She'd never done it and when her teacher would bring it up, she would cry. Now she will read to strangers on the street, so I don't know what the problem was. But after months of waiting patiently and weeks of cajoling, I brought out the big guns. Yesterday, I told her that if she read for the teacher, I would take her to McDonald's for a happy meal. Today, she read for the teacher.

John Kerry Defined

Why does Mark Steyn have so many devoted fans? Well, here's how he describes Kerry:

If Karl’s Rovebot laboratory had spent years constructing the perfect candidate to run against, it would have looked pretty much like John F Kerry – a vain thin-skinned self-regarding tone-deaf francophile insecure not-quite-blue-blood incoherent anti-war war-hero from a Swiss finishing school with nothing to show for 20 years in the Senate other than getting wrong every foreign policy question of the day and so alien to the habits of his electorate he’s unable to engage in as routine a photo op as eating a hot dog without looking like a Grand Duchess dropping in on the village idiot’s hovel.

Alas, as is typical with Steyn, it's a good thing he's making you laugh or his larger point would make you cry:

And yet the media came within a whisker of pulling him across the finish line. If it’s a 50-50 nation with John Kerry dragging down one half of the seesaw, what would it have been with someone marginally less unlikeable on the ticket? A blowout?

I wondered that myself at the time. And I just pray that the Dems don't nominate another empty suit (John Edwards, for example), because I have a feeling that at least 51% of Americans are ready for a change.

Oil As Strategic Weapon

So, the Saudi's are increasing oil production, causing a drop in price, presumably to squeeze their current enemy #1, the Iranians. Says Allah:

Someday that mullah mushroom cloud’s going to spout over Manhattan, but I promise you this, my friends: by the time it does, gas will be at 35 cents a gallon.

Ha, ha. But I've always wondered why we can't do this. Oil prices would drop if we just started looking for oil off our coasts. We wouldn't even have to actually drill. Of course, neither environmentalists nor oil companies want to see low prices. But couldn't they just suck it up so we stop pumping our money directly into the pockets of our enemy?

Is This Nifong's First Trip Off the Reservation?

Seriously, do you go this far over the line on your first try? How many people without great legal teams and tons of press interest has this guy railroaded?

So, I finally did it.

I finally called the cops on my neighbor, the drummer. He's been drumming on average for 30-50 minutes, 2 times a day, every day for the past month and half. Yes, that includes Christmas day. Occasionally he only drums once a day, which doesn't bother me. Hey, a kid has to drum. But often, we get three sessions which I just cannot tolerate.

But I have been tolerating it, because I'm loathe to make any waves. But tonight, he had a 20 minute drum session during our dinner (as always. How does he know?) He later commenced with a session that has been going on for an 1.5 hours. I called the cops after 65 minutes.

Doesn't this kid have parents? Do they have no consideration for their neighbors? Or do I just have too much consideration? I would strongly discourage Mia from taking up drums, would make her practice in our windowless room, and would never let her drum on and off all day. But maybe I'm just to into what everyone thinks of me.

Ohhh, silence. Maybe the police have arrived. But I'm way to into what everyone thinks to risk looking out the window and giving away that it was me who called.

Nerd in Training?

At one of the many after Christmas sales, I found a great price on Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek, a program to teach beginning Greek to little kids. Even though Mia's not quite ready to use the full program, I think she can easily learn to say the Greek alphabet and the price was unbeatable.

Well, Mia saw me ordering it and is absolutely beside herself waiting for it to get here. Why? Does she even know what Greek is? Brian got a package today and when she saw it wasn't her Greek, she cried. She's going to hound me about it every day until it gets here. But who knows when that will be? With the weekend and the holiday and the day off in honor of President Ford, the package probably didn't even ship until today. And it's probably coming by donkey cart, since the shipping was free.

I had hoped she would like it. She likes to learn German phrases to say to her opa. But I never dreamed she'd be this excited about it. Now I'm worried. She's either going to be disappointed when she sees what it's all about, or she's a nerd. If her parents are any guide, it's the latter.

Cleaning Up Our Act

New Year's Day Impulse Buy = Hoover Steam Vac:
I could never figure out a convenient time for the carpet cleaners to come, so when I saw that I could buy one of these for less than the cost of 2 visits from the pro's (not including stairs and upholstery), I said "what the heck."

To be sure it worked, I cleaned a small room. That's all I really planned to do today, but Brian is really into it. He's done part of our bed room, the dining room, the stairs and is starting in on our hand-me-down recliners. I should bring home cool cleaning toys more often.

Review: Sleeper Cell

We just finished watching the first season of Sleeper Cell last night. I thought it was excellent. I was concerned that most of the terrorists being white would stretch credibility to the breaking point, but it didn't. For me, it just added to the scariness. In fact, that is my problem with movies like Sum Of All Fears, where the screen writers replace scary Islamists with boring neo-Nazi's or even more boring Haliburton executives. They take away the scary for the sake of political correctness.

Also, the acting was great. The accents were amazing. Or maybe my standards were lowered by having just seen Lantana. Anthony LaPaglia's on again, off again Australian accent was just a distraction in an otherwise good movie.

My only complaint is that I cannot recommend this to my mother because of the graphic sex that shows up in almost every episode. It's actually more graphic than the violence, which, considering the topic, is strange.

The Most Patient Man on Earth

Did you see this clip of Tony Snow dealing with the White House press corps' bizarre fascination with Laura Bush's skin? I guess it's their job to wildly shake the tree and hope that something falls out. But I wonder if they take themselves as seriously as they appear to. How could they? Do they really that annoying the press secretary enough will cause him to admit the whole ChimpyMcHitlerBushHaliburtonImperialWarForOil Conspiracy. Which apparently now revolves around Laura's skin condition. Whatever they're paying him, it's not enough.

Anti-Jihadi Rap

Hot Air has a rap video that is making me alternately hopeful and nervous. The lyrics are here for those of us that don't speak rap. First verse:

I speak peace when peace is spoken, But I speak war when your hate is provoking, The season is open 24-7-365, Man up yo time to ride, No need to hide behind slogans of deceit, Claiming that you're a religion of peace, We just don't believe you, We can clearly see through, The madness that you're feeding your people, Jihad the cry of your unholy war, Using the willing, the weak and poor, From birth drowning in propaganda, rhetoric and slander, All we can say is damn ya

That's the part that makes me hopeful. If Joe Rap Artist on the street can see the problem, maybe all hope is not lost for Joe Politician in Congress. Now the part that makes me nervous:

I'm wild with mine, Bring that style with mine, F**k with my family I'll end your line, Just the way it is, Just the way it be, Do you understand? No matter if you're woman or man, or child, My profile is crazy, That s**t you do doesn't amaze me, I'm ready to blaze thee

I certainly understand the sentiment. But I hope Joe Politician gets clue before the situation spins out of control. I don't think we terribly close to pogroms or even vigilante justice. We're relatively safe from that here in America because we perceive that our government is strong enough to take care of us. But what if that perception is shattered? Consider the performance of all levels of government during Katrina and then consider how long it would take faith in government to falter after a major and/or sustained terrorist assault on our country. No one knows what the tipping point is, but I'm sure there is one.

The Cinnamon Bear

Living Books For The Ears is devoted to making available online old radio show from the 40's. I listened to a dramatization of the Time Machine tonight while I was making dinner. Pretty entertaining, only 1/2 hour time commitment.

They have also made available The Cinnamon Bear, a 26 episode fantasy story for kids. Each episode is only 15 minutes long. The idea is to listen to one episode each night until Christmas. I played the first episode for Mia tonight, but I think it will take a few more days to see if she's following along. Anyway, if your kids aren't too media savvy (it's very Leave It To Beaver-esque), they might enjoy it. It has to be more edifying than A Very Minty Christmas.

(Via Praiseworthy Things)

Update: I told my mom about The Cinnamon Bear and she remembers listening to it as a little girl. Cool.

Interrogation

Mia's really grilling me about Santa Claus. She doesn't want him coming down the chimney. What if there's a fire going? Way to dangerous. If he does come down the chimney, how does he get back up? If he's magic, why doesn't he just come through the door? She's very concerned about the sleigh landing on the roof. She doesn't think that's practical, but we have a lot of landscaping in our yard. No room for a sleigh. I don't think she's suspicious (yet). She just really wants to know how it works. But at this rate, this may be the last year of Santa :(

A Montessori Thanksgiving

Mia's school had a really great Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday. The kids broke up into groups and helped prepare all the food. Mia mashed sweet potatoes. Other kids made green bean casserole, cornbread, cookies, fruit salad and even butter from cream. Now she's devoted to the idea of helping me in the kitchen. Yes, it is more work for me in the short run, but here's hoping it pays off with Mia doing some solo cooking in a few years.

They also made their own Pilgrim and Indian costumes. Mia's not in this picture, but this is the only one I got with both Pilgrims and Indians.
The kids were also instructed carefully in saying "Yes, please" or "No, thank you" when they were offered something. Alas, Mia said "No, thank you" to everything but the corn bread and cookies. At least I won't suffer the trauma later today of hearing "Ewwwww, Yuck" over some delicacy grandma has slaved over.

Well, It Beats Rammstein

My husband is playing Peter Schilling's Fehler Im System for Mia and they are dancing around the living room like robots. That European electronic stuff lends itself to robot dancing. I'm not sure this will help her fit in with the other kids, but I'm sure it's more edifying that the Rammstein he plays for her on the way to school. On his agenda for tomorrow: Kraftwerk.

Getting A Jump On Christmas

Not me, of course, but all my new neighbors. Brian called me out onto the back porch last weekend to show me a Christmas tree in a neighbor's window. Since then, two houses have their outside lights on and two more Christmas trees have been added to front windows. That's just what I can see from my yard.

I always thought I started freakishly early by putting up the tree over Thanksgiving weekend.

Here Come The ABC's

If you have a preschooler, I highly recommend the DVD Here Come The ABC's by They Might Be Giants. I have a low tolerance for children's music, but this one is just the right amount of quirky. The more we listen to it, the more we like it.

Also popular with mom and dad: John Lithgow's Singin' in the Bathtub. Alas, we don't care for his new one.

I Feel Left Out

There are no big national races in Kansas. And since I moved out of Missouri a few months ago, I can't indulge in my election day ritual of going to the polls to cancel out my sister-in-law's vote.

Well, at least we have the hotly contested and very ugly Kline v. Morrison attorney general's race to get us motivated.

One Cool Thing About Touch Screen Voting

My five year old can help me vote. I point to the candidate and she presses the screen 'till it beeps. Pretty fun.

Waterboarding 101

I just got around to watching Steve Harrigan get waterboarded. My first thought was that teenage boys all over America are asking their mom's where the saran wrap is. Seriously, I was tempted myself.

One of Allah's commenters wonders if Amnesty International has done controlled experiments on waterboarding given how emphatically they insist that torture never gets good information. Now that would be one sweet science fair project. Subject A (my best friend Joe) and Subject B (my little brother)...

Happy Halloween

Mia already has an insane amount of candy from trick-or-treating at school (on a university campus where the kids visit various offices) and then the mall where I took her because I thought it would be to cold to go out tonight. But she still wanted daddy to take her around the neighborhood. I could get away with not buying any candy at all. I could regift from Mia's massive stash.

French Bus Burnings

When I read about the bus burnings in France last week, I figured it was only a matter of time before "the youths" stopped emptying the busses of passengers before setting them alight:

A group of teenagers set one bus on fire Saturday in the southern French port city of Marseille, seriously wounding a passenger. Three others suffered from smoke inhalation, police said.

No Pasaran says the wounded passenger was severely burned and is clinging to life. But never fear:

Six police were injured and 47 people were arrested, ministry officials said. Still the Interior Ministry described the night as “relative calm,” noting that up to 100 cars are torched by youths in troubled neighborhoods on an average night.

They're are on the verge of a busload of French citizens being burned alive and they call it "relative calm." Perhaps they're waiting for a "real" atrocity to do something about this problem. Or perhaps, there is nothing they can do. I'm afraid we're about to find out.

Islam -- Controversial Literature

While searching my local library's catalog for The Truth About Muhammad, I discovered a new (to me) subject heading. Islam -- Controversial Literature. They might as well have called it Robert Spencer -- Books By since he authored half of the books returned by that search.

There Are Always Two Sides To My Side Of The Story

Heard a good one today on NPR. North Carolina has a program to send elected officials to Mexico to help them understand the plight of illegal immigrants. They interviewed the program's director and program graduate that saw the light and changed his position from trying to get rid of illegals to trying to assimilate them. Next they covered the various assimilation efforts. Then they covered the "other side" of the story. "Yet, not everyone is impressed...."

As I'm sure you've already surmised, the "other side" was someone who felt North Carolina wasn't doing enough to cater to illegals. Apparently there is no one in North Carolina who wonders why poverty and corruption in Mexico should dictate local policy in the U.S. No one wonders why their elected officials are putting the interests of foreigners over the interests of the people who elected them.

Leave it to NPR to cover the range of opinion on illegal immigration, from those sympathetic to illegal immigrants all the way to open border advocates.

A Crunchy Con Thing To Do

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law and I ordered a pasture-raised, organic hog from a local farm. We picked it up yesterday. 97 pounds of pork. I think, at $3 a pound, it was competitively priced with regular pork, but I know it was vastly less expensive that organic pork from Wild Oats. Of course, you have to buy parts of the hog you might otherwise pass up. Pickled pigs feet anyone?

I recently read Real Food: What To Eat and Why which convinced me of the benefits of pasture raised (not necessarily organic) meat. These animals really are what they eat. But the price of organic meat in the store? Ouch.

Foley-induced Flashback

This Foley incident reminded me of something I hadn't thought about in over 20 years. When I was a young teenager, my grandmother had a boyfriend who was active in Democratic party politics. At some family gathering, he mentioned the page program, then looked at me and said "Hey, maybe you could be a page." Something like the following conversation ensued:

Me: Cool!

All my male relatives: No way!

Me: Why?

All my male relatives: {embarrassed silence}

My mother: Well, you can't trust those old men around young ladies.

A bunch of Midwestern small-fry knew this was standard congressional conduct 20+ years ago, but, by all means, let's pretend to be shocked! shocked! about Foley.

You Might Be a Nerd....

if you watch Dancing With the Stars and the only "celebrity" you recognize is Tucker Carlson.

Obsession

I attended a screening of Obsession:Radical Islam's War Against the West last night. I saw a brief note about it in the local paper, so I headed over. I was lucky to get in. The auditorium, which seats about 300, was packed. I was by myself, so I got to slip into the last empty seat. The paper made it sound like some local poly/sci professor was screening it for his class, but in fact, the event was sponsored by the Unity Coalition for Israel. Hence the large turn out.

Frank Gaffney also spoke. He mentioned that the producers were still trying to get a distribution deal which is why the movie hasn't been released on video and is still being screened in auditoriums and passed around Samizdat style. He thought they were close to a deal. I hope so. This movie deserves at least as large an audience as Fahrenheit 9/11 had. Hmmm. Think ABC will be willing to take on the Dems again?

The movie was excellent, although much of the information won't be news to LGF readers. It dealt effectively with separating Islamofascists from the general Muslim population both by having a disclaimer of the "most Muslims are peaceful" variety and including the comments of three anti-Islamist Muslims in the film.

There was plenty of discussion from Western analysts, such as Caroline Glick and Daniel Pipes, but by far the most compelling commentary came from the Islamists themselves. There were suicide-bomber inductions, goose stepping troops and music videos (?!) from Iranian TV featuring George W. Bush on screen while the singers chanted "Satan, Satan." But the really bone-chilling clips were the ones that didn't need translation. A British imam in London explains why it's fine to kill the unbeliever. British jihadis in Pakistan explaining, in perfect English, why they would be happy to kill British soldiers.

As a matter of fact, after the film, Gaffney took two separate questions on why we haven't nuked Iran yet. To paraphrase, he said "How much would it help to nuke Iran? The enemy is among us."

Hard to Believe

On 9/11/01, I slept late due to a colicky three-month old. I flipped on the radio and caught the tail-end of the action. A reporter was telling the radio host that she could no longer see the building. It was gone. The host tried to clarify. "You can't see it because of all the smoke?" "No," the reporter replied, "it collapsed. It's gone." I made haste to the TV to see what was gone.

Today, I was reminded of how incomprehensible the events of that day seemed. Since I missed it the first time around, I watched a little of CNN's replay of their coverage. I tuned in just before the second plane hit. It was odd listening to the anchors try to digest the second strike. Anyone watching the video could see clearly what had just happened. Yet the anchors, probably not watching the feed, thought that the first plane inside the North tower had exploded. They couldn't accept what their producer was telling them until they ran back the video and saw it for themselves. They they went on about a possible glitch in the navigation system leading the planes into the towers.

What had just happened was simply unbelievable.

Frank Gaffney at JCCC

On Sept. 11, Johnson County Community College (Kansas), is showing the film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. In addition, Frank Gaffney, author of War Footing: Ten Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World will be speaking and taking questions.

I wanted to see that film since I first heard about it, but thought I would have to wait for the video. Apparently, they're having trouble getting a distributor (surprise). I also happened to grab Gaffney's book off the "New Book" shelf at the library a few weeks ago and am finding it quite interesting. If I go into skim mode, I think I can finish it by Monday night.

Mortgage Moms?

Are went meant to take seriously these media characterizations of each election cycle's most important group of swing voters. "Soccer Moms" seemed possible, "Security Moms" seemed obvious (to me, as I was one), but "Mortgage Moms":

In a year when politics is being roiled by angry debates over the Iraq war and immigration, it might seem odd to imagine the midterm elections being waged over
square footage and closet space. But these are parts of a lifestyle that Sharon Condit, a deputy clerk of court, describes as dogged by a sense of limits: "We have dreams of this future, but we can't get it right now."

Mortgage rates hit a four-year high of 6.80 % in July and are now back down to 6.44%. That high is about .1 percent higher that we paid 8 years ago on our first house, and the current low is about .1 percent higher than we paid for our most recent house. Sure, lower is always better than higher, but is .1% really crushing people's dreams?

But wait. More from the article:

A less obvious but powerful variable is the interest paid by people carrying credit card debt or mortgages whose monthly payments vary with interest rates. People buffeted by these trends have given rise to a new and volatile voting block.

Okay, so this isn't really about mortgage rates. It's about people who used low interest rates to buy a lot of stuff or leverage themselves into houses they couldn't otherwise afford. But I guess "Adjustable Rate Mortgage Mom" just isn't catchy enough.

Intolerance of Intolerance

Mia recently discovered on-line computer games. She loves to play them, although she often misses the point. Yesterday, she was playing one based on Arthur, a show for elementary school kids. Arthur's friends have demanded that he settle a debate. One likes Mozart and the other likes Binky (a pop band). You have three choices, side with one of the friends or choose the more enlightened path of telling the friends that neither was better, musical preference is just a matter of taste.

Well, Mia is five. She picked Binky because she thought the name sounded funny. Her punishment, well Arthur's punishment, for being a proto-fascist and deigning to designate one form of music superior to another was to stay home from the Yo-Yo Ma concert while the rest of the characters went, even the Binky fan.

This is not an anti-PBS rant. The topic of that post would be the snotty little sayings Mia has picked up from watching some of those shows. I just found it amusing that an exercise transparently designed to teach children respect for the choices of other, would display so little respect for her choice. Don't worry, Mia. You have 13 years of education ahead of you to ensure you learn the proper responses to these questions.