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"The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults," - Alexis de Tocqueville. |
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"Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you. I loved you so. 'Twas heaven here with you."
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Sometimes life is so much harder than it should be. We've been trying to acclimate ourselves to the idea that our sweet Emma will not be with us for much longer. We've also had concerns about our foster dog, Roxy. We've been taking care of her for my friend Jade who is living in Australia for 2 years. I have known Jade and Roxy for 10 years, and love Roxy as much as all my fur kids. Roxy had a massive stroke overnight last night. She woke me up at 4:00 this morning with a horrible keening sound. I took her to the vet this morning and got the bad news. She cannot walk or swallow. She will suffocate on her own saliva unless we have her put to sleep. I had to call Jade in the middle of the night to tell her she would not even be able to say goodbye to her baby. I'm so devastated. Cat was on her way to visit her grandfather today, but has turned around and is heading back now. We have an appointment for 5:00 this afternoon, so that we can be there holding her when it happens. I have been crying for hours, but I know we can't let her suffer.
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We can't wait for someone else or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for.- Barack Obama 2/5/08
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Happy Birthday turtleofwrathI hope you have a great one, Baby Sapling, and that you're feeling better.
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I've been feeling something in the last couple of days that I have not felt in almost eight years- hope. Hope for the future of this country and its place in the world. We've had eight years of division. Eight years of incompetence. Eight years of the politics of fear ,where we've been bombarded with appeals to our most base instincts and never to our better angels. We finally have a chance to turn the page, and in doing so, make history. We've heard the line in Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream " speech for years, in which he wished for a chance that someday people would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Thursday night, voters in 97% white Iowa did just that. They voted to send Barack Obama to the White House. I was moved and thrilled. They chose hope, not fear. The future, rather than the past. And they chose a good man. It's a long way to November, but I've never been so optimistic about what is actually possible. I, Too, Sing America. I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-- I, too, am America. --Langston Hughes
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Not only are my brother and brother-in-law going to see Wicked on Broadway next week, my grandmother told me yesterday that her nephew is taking her on all expenses paid trip to New York in three weeks, which will also include Wicked. So today, I'm going to buy her a CD, so that she can be familiar with the music before she sees it. this is downright depressing. If anyone else I know and love is going to New York to see Wicked, don't tell me about it. *pouts*
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http://www.glumbert.com/media/irack Thanks to sewinggoddess for getting my weird sense of humor. ;-)
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Congratulations to turtleofwrath on her graduation today!!Sorry I didn't get a chance to see you before you head back to Virginia. Have a safe trip and stay in touch. |
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Remember Violet Beauregard and the three-course-meal-gum? At work the other day , a co-worker wanted me to try one of her Doritos. They came in a black bag and are apparently part of a contest where consumers are supposed to try and guess the flavor. Mandy had guessed "Big Mac" and wanted me to verify. It was the freakiest thing I've ever tasted. It tasted exactly like a Big Mac. The whole "two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun" thing. You could literally taste all the flavors. I only had one, but it freaked me out for hours. I have not had a Big Mac in years, but you never forget the taste. If I'm going to consume nearly 50 grams of fat in one sitting, it's gonna taste better than a Big Mac. |
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When I said I thought sky diving would be fun and flying exhilarating, I didn't think I'd be a swan.
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This guy is channeling my thoughts. I love it! An Egghead for the Oval Office By Eugene Robinson Al Gore has been in town launching his new book, "The Assault on Reason," and you could have predicted the buzz: Is he about to jump into the race? What you probably wouldn't have predicted is the counter-buzz that Gore, poor fellow, is just too ostentatiously smart to be elected president. In the book, you see, Gore betrays familiarity with history, economics, even science. He uses big words, often several in the same sentence. And in public appearances he doesn't even try to disguise his erudition. These supposedly are glaring shortcomings that should keep Gore on the sidelines, rereading Gibbon and exchanging ideas about the structure of the cosmos with Stephen Hawking. Leave aside the question of whether Gore is even thinking about another presidential run, or how he would stack up against the other candidates. I'm making a more general point: One thing that should be clear to anyone who's been paying attention these past few years is that we need to go out and get ourselves the smartest president we can find. We need a brainiac president, a regular Mister or Miss Smarty-Pants. We need to elect the kid you hated in high school, the teacher's pet with perfect grades. When I look at what the next president will have to deal with, I don't see much that can be solved with just a winning smile, a firm handshake and a ton of resolve. I see conundrums, dilemmas, quandaries, impasses, gnarly thickets of fateful possibility with no obvious way out. Iraq is the obvious place he or she will have to start; I want a president smart enough to figure out how to minimize the damage. I want a president who reads newspapers, who reads books other than those that confirm his worldview, who bones up on Persian history before deciding how to deal with Iran's ambitious dreams of glory. I want a president who understands the relationship between energy policy at home and U.S. interests in the Middle East -- and who's smart enough to form his or her own opinions, not just rely on what old friends in the oil business say. I want a president who looks forward to policy meetings on health care and has ideas to throw into the mix. I want a president who believes in empirical fact, whose understanding of spirituality is complete enough to know that faith is "the evidence of things not seen" and who knows that for things that can be seen, the relevant evidence is fact, not belief. I want a president -- and it's amazing that I even have to put this on my wish list -- smart enough to know that Darwin was right. Actually, I want a president smart enough to know a good deal about science. He or she doesn't have to be able to do the math, but I want a president who knows that the great theories underpinning our understanding of the universe -- general relativity and quantum mechanics -- have stood for nearly a century and proved stunningly accurate, even though they describe a world that is more shimmer than substance. I want him or her to know that there's a lot we still don't know. I want the next president to be intellectually curious -- and also intellectually honest. I want him or her to understand the details, not just the big picture. I won't complain if the next president occasionally uses a word I have to look up. The conventional wisdom says that voters are turned off when candidates put on showy displays of highfalutin brilliance. I hope that's wrong. I hope people understand how complicated and difficult the next president's job will be, and how much of a difference some real candlepower would make. I don't want the candidates to pretend to be average people, because why would we choose an ordinary person for such an extraordinary job? I want to see what they've got -- how much they know, how readily they absorb new information, how effectively they analyze problems and evaluate solutions. If the next president is almost always the smartest person in the room, I won't mind a bit. After all, we're not in high school anymore. |
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The store will be having a big release party for the new Harry Potter book in July. All the kids are really excited about it, and there is a big push to get me to dress up. so the question is this: who should I be? Snape, Professor Trelawney or someone else? I'm tall enough to pull off Snape, and Cat has been hot to trot to make me that costume for a while. I think Trelawney could be hilarious as I could just go up to people with a crystal ball and say, "I'm sorry but you're going to die." |
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The long awaited bathroom renovation is finally completed. In a bid to get away from crass materialism, I decided to renovate my parent's master bathroom as my Christmas present for them. It was, by far, the most complex job I've ever attempted, but I'm very pleased by the results. Yes, I said Christmas, and yes it's May. I had to work on it on my off days from work. All it lacks is to strip the wallpaper and repaint it, but my job is over. This is what I started with: This is the completed walk-in shower: Here's the entire project:
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We watched Little Miss Sunshine while on vacation, and it's one of my new favorite movies. I want a little nerdy kid like Olive. She's so freaking cute, and does a mean dance to Superfreak. In fact, Little Miss Sunshine has now been added to Princess Buttercup as a regular nickname for Sasha. |
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This evening we went to check out St. Joseph Peninsula state park next door to the complex. What an incredibly beautiful place. It was amazing how close we were able to get to the deer. No actual alligators were spotted though.
Check out the photos: St. Joseph Peninsula State Park
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Even when I'm on vacation, I can't get my mind to entirely shut off. I read two articles today that disturbed me. First, Barack Obama has been granted Secret Service protection for his campaign. It is by far the earliest protection has ever been granted to a candidate. Usually, it is reserved for the presumptive nominees of each party. But it seems the Secret Service was alarmed by both the size of the crowds thronging to hear him and by some disturbing and threatening chatter on white supremacist and ultra right-wing sites. Some of the threats have been deemed credible. I'm thrilled that this country is finally at a point where an African American candidate is truly a viable and electable candidate. But I confess, I've been worried about something happening to him from the time he first announced he was running. Does he have the substance behind the rhetoric to be president? I don't know yet. But he does have a vision for the country that is inspiring. I've read both of his books, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams of my Father, and he is an impressive, highly intelligent and thoughtful man. He reminds me very much of Bobby Kennedy. No, I'm not old enough to actually remember Bobby Kennedy, but I've read extensively about him. He was very progressive and bold in his vision about what could be possible in this country and how to achieve it. It speaks to me since I have a tendency to be an idealist and believe ultimately that mankind can achieve great things. But what discourages me about the threats on his life is that they have nothing to do with his vision or policy ideas, but are motivated solely by his status as african american. It would be a horrific tragedy if something happened to this man. Secondly, a Louisiana State University college student was arrested for threatening to kill Hillary Clinton when she visits the campus this weekend. Granted, I'm not a great fan of Senator Clinton but I am thrilled that a woman is finally a legitimate candidate for the nation's highest office. But every time I start to feel optimistic about the potential for progressive change in this country, it is derailed by small minded bigots intent on an agenda of hate and repression. We should be better than that. I watched a little of the first Republican debate last night. It was so discouraging. It was a stageful of older, wealthy, white men intent on trying to outmacho each other. Haven't we had enough of faux testosterone with Bush? At least in the Democratic debate, there was a female Senator, an African American Senator and a Hispanic governor, all with a legitimate shot at securing their party's nomination. It was so much more representative of America as it is and as it can be. Then to top it all off the House of Representatives voted to authorize new Hate Crimes legislation that would add sexual orientation to the roster of protected groups. Under pressure from right-wing religious groups, the White House has already promised to veto the bill. Lord forbid that we acknowledge the inherent humanity of gays and lesbians by offering the same protection afforded to other minorities. Reading the writings on this of groups like the Family Research Council and Dobson' s Focus on the Family is like immersing yourself in hate. It's not about "protecting marriage and the traditional family", it's about suppressing a minority and limiting the rights and freedoms granted to all others by their citizenship. It's almost a pathological hatred in people who claim to represent Jesus Christ. Amazing. Yes, I realize this is rambling and sort of stream-of-consciousness, but it's been weighing on my mind. And now back to my regularly scheduled vacation. |
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