The best thing I've read in ages!

In the meantime, Pines, whose day job is as an executive at Josephson Entertainment, has also launched the group Actors Give Back. He's looking to add a Musicians Give Back arm as well. "People want to do something," Pines says. "They just don't know where to start." Pines got the idea for WGB not just because he had free time during the strike, he says, but because of what he saw happening during it. "Joss Whedon had 200 fans show up on the picket line one day to support him," Pines says. "Imagine if Joss went to Habitat for Humanity and 200 fans joined him there. They would have had a Whedon house or a Whedon block built by the end of that day."

I was one of those 200 people! Although I think there were almost twice as many.

So now, instead of just going to Thailand with Habitat for Humanity for my 40th birthday (which I've been planning to do for years now) I want to go to Thailand with JOSS! and Habitat for my 40th birthday. And hey, why not Ewan too? Since it is my birthday and all.

I'd love to build a house with Joss anywhere though. Or serve meals or rock babies or pick up trash on the side of the road. Whatever Joss wants to do, I'd be there.

Holy Crap!

Look how fast Joss fans move.

Nickelodeon Universe

The girls are going home today. KK and I had so much fun yesterday while Shayne rested and tried to kick her cold. We spent about four hours at the Mall, something that would normally make me ill, but with KK it was so great! She did the wide eyed "wow" again and lots of "Look who I found Auntie Sunshine!" as we went from place to place.

KK met Dora and Diego and Spongebob and then on our way out we ran into Sharky! She was super cute and is so ready for Disneyworld. The rest of the photos are up here but these are my favorites.

Team Name Coming Soon!

Jboy, Macaroni, me, Meggan, Mandy, Shayne and KK

The seven of us raised over $800 to help protect reproductive rights! PCR hasn't released their total yet but I don't think they reached their goal this year. Here's hoping they got lots of last minute donations like Meggan, whose sister-in-law sponsored her by text while she was bowling. Thank you TONS to everyone who supported our team this year. Who wants to bowl next year?

Tired now

They're here!

The girls made it in safe last night. Saw them just for a few minutes while they were walking around the block. Shayne has a cold and KK was tired. KK was so cute, came running toward me with her arms out and a big smile, and then STOPPED. Very cute "who the hell are you?" look on her face. Wish I saw more of her. Which is why this post will be fast...need to jump in the shower so I can tag along to the park later.


Not ten minutes later Heather and E stopped by to drop off the jacket I made for E when Wes was born. Those are the emblems of all the teams E played baseball for. We're going to change the name on the front from Wes to little brother Nolan. We also discussed plans to go see the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum.

Looks like it'll be more Guitar Hero today, they just can't stop.

Can't wait!

Shayne and KK are flying in this afternoon and I'm so excited to see them. Not you know excited enough to get dressed...poor KK probably wouldn't recognize me without the pj's anyway. We should be cleaning the house but we're all being lazy.

The boys have been busy with Guitar Her0 and playing darts on the Wii. I've been messing with photos on Picasa2, it found photos I thought I had lost years ago.

Not much else going on. Macaroni hurt his left arm on Monday and it's still a little swollen. He says it doesn't hurt at all and his dad thought it was a hematoma (sp?) which apparently just needs time to heal. He's got an enormous bruise though and I want to take him to the doctor.

Any suggestions? Am I overreacting?

Oh yeah, we also cut off the mohawk last night...

Netflix review: Monarch of the Glen

I've only watched half way through the second season but it's so good that I ordered the entire series. For myself for Mother's Day. And I accidentally looked at that link...spoilers! Very cute family dramedy. Alister MacKenzie is delicious!

Happy 10th Birthday Macaroni

Double Digits! I can't believe how fast the past 10 years have blown by.

Super fun party today: laser tag, mini golf, bumper cars and arcade games. And no clean up for me! Awesome.

One of Macaroni's cousins, two friends from school and three friends from Mankato made it to the party, along with my parents, Macaroni's dad, aunt & her boyfriend and his grandpa Jack.

I love reading other blogs about how a child has changed so much from month to month, year to year. Such observant and/or organized parents who remember all those little details. I'm not one of those parents.

I think I'm much more thankful about the ways in which Macaroni hasn't changed. He's still sweet and thoughtful, willing to cuddle with his mom, funny as hell and brave enough to walk around with his mohawk down. And up for that matter. I love this kid.

Another one done

I finally got another jacket up on my etsy.com site. If you know anyone who might be interested in a hand painted jacket, send them my way. I haven't had any bites yet.

Flock of Fucking Seagulls

I wish these photos actually showed how insanely awesome Macaroni's hair really is. So 80's! I just about pee myself every time I look at him. Sort of reminds me of Lisa's lopsided hair in junior high.

New The Office tonight!

Inspired

Shayne's post about uploading photos inspired me to create an account for my parents. They've got a K0dak camera/printer combo and the printer is broken. They've never removed the memory card for the camera, so I brought it home and uploaded all 304 photos last night. I stopped counting, but there has to be at least 50 photos of the floor or my dad's knee or the back of Ruby's head. That last one is understandable, girl is fast.

Here's my favorite so far...

All he wanted for his birthday

The before photos:

And the after photos:

Baby boy's mohawk is so tall it barely stands up. It needs a little work, I think Macy underestimated just how long his hair was.

And probably the cheapest birthday present ever.

Oh, and happy birthday to my niece Katie!

Do something today

Anything, in remembrance of Du'a Khalil, the teenager who was murdered a year ago in the name of honor, while security guards stood by and onlookers recorded the stoning on their cell phones. The whole thing makes me so batshit crazy so I won't even try to explain my own thoughts.

How do you unlearn what you've been taught your entire life? How do you get other people to unlearn it? Obviously there are a lot of other areas where I'd like to see people unlearn stuff; racism, homophobia, those fuckers that terrorize abortion clinics.

But it seems like no matter what group it is, women always get the worst of it. So I'm going to link to this site that has lots of ideas for remembering Du'a and working to end honor killings. Uggh, honor. It's hard to even type that.

I'll also link to this posting that Joss wrote that made me aware of Du'a in the first place. And this book, which I think was primarily inspired by Joss's post, will soon be available. It might even be showing up in your Christmas stocking next year. And of course I'll always link to Equality Now.

I've signed the petitions and am telling you all about it. I suck at writing editorials but might try later today. I hate the helpless feeling, wish there was more I could do. Hugs to all my girls and the enlightened little boys.

Don't drink and link

Makes sure you're not drinking anything before clicking on the link below. I learned the hard way and now more keyboard is all sticky.
** whoa, just had a whole teenage boy/p0rn train of thought...gross.**
It's sticky from the tea that I laughed all over.

You've been warned. Click at your own risk.

This is why they hate Americans

I've been doing lots of emailing back and forth in an effort to save my photos from Washington D.C., both with the company who makes the card and with the GeekSquad. The girl Geek I just got off the phone with gave me the teeniest, tiniest glimmer of hope that there might-maybe be some geektastic magic they can do to save my photos. Quick! Light a candle, say a prayer, burp the alphabet...whatever it is you do, I'll take anything I can get.

Because I really, really want those photos. Photos of the freaking cherry blossoms! Photos of Macaroni all smiles and center of attention. Photos of us with a ginormous Albert Einstein! A photo of me holding the huge grasshopper-on-steroid looking bug that Macaroni was afraid of. Artsy fartsy photos that Macaroni took and then expressed an interest in growing up to be something other than an Olympic medallist.

**Warning: rant beginning now

(Because, let's face it...my baby isn't going to get an Olympic medal. Nobel Prize maybe, Olympic medal? Not so much.

Sorry if you're reading this Mac, put an ice pack between your legs and commit this moment to memory,

I'm sure your therapist is going to want every detail.

But for real, most of those medals are purchased. Not that the athletes aren't freaky talented, because I know they are, but how many families can afford the training and coaching and travelling involved in Olympic level sports? Huh? Even if I stopped vacationing and sold Jboy into slavery we couldn't afford it. What I wouldn't give to build a halfpipe, vert ramp and/or a motocross track in our backyard and send him off to the Olympic trials one day.

It's nice that he still thinks he can make it though...)

Deep breath and rant over**

So in the midst of all this I tried to put a little price tag on what those photos are worth. Which, of course, is impossible to do. How much am I willing to pay for the chance that they can save them? I'm thinking no more than $100. But like a gross, spoiled American pig-child I've decided that if they can't save my photos I'll start tracking the Last Minute Packages and just take him back to D.C. for another long weekend. Maybe Jboy will join us this time.

And here I thought Lisa had lost her mother loving mind with her dolls. I might as well buy an airplane at the rate I'm going.

It also occurred to me that I could take a vacation every month this year. Do weird things like that occur to everyone or is it just me? Like, "I haven't eaten a vegetable in five days...I could make it a week, or hey, even a month." Or, "It's one o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday and I've only gotten out of bed once to pee...can I stay in bed until Monday morning?" I won't even mention the competition I'm in with the nuns of the world. And now, my latest..."I've been on three vacations in three months this year, can I keep that up for another 9 months?!?!"

Oh my, the carbon offsets I'd have to buy just to ease my guilty conscience. How cool would that be though? There's a sweet little girl I really want to take to WDW and another one who's itching to go back to NYC. I think I could stay for free or nearly free in Fort Collins, Tucson, New Orleans, Edinburgh (Gee even offered!) and woo hoo Wisconsin...maybe Philly and SF too.

Damn, someone bitch slap me through the computer and wake me up already.

Poor man's scanner

So DC was a blast...until our camera broke. More specifically, until our expensive wireless memory card broke. We've got about 700 photos on the card and after talking to a guy at Ritz yesterday, I think we may have lost them all. Still waiting for an email back from the company that makes the card, keeping my fingers crossed.

We squeezed so much into 2 & 1/2 days! From memory...because I can't look at the photos to tell you exactly...we saw/went to/ate at/walked to/got rained on

the super steep escalators @ Rosslyn Metro Station

The Lincoln Memorial

The Washington Monument

The Capitol

Union Station

The Marriott Key Bridge Hotel pool

The National Museum of Natural History

The Hope Diamond

The National Sculpture Garden

The Smithsonian Castle

The National Air & Space Museum

Flight simulator!

The Albert Einstein Planetarium

The IMAX Theater

The Bureau of Engraving & Printing

The National Zoo

Pandas, Komodo Dragons and Anacondas, oh my!

The FDR Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Albert Einstein Memorial

The Reflecting Pool

The World War II Memorial

The Tidal Basin and Cherry Blossoms

The DC War Memorial

The International Spy Museum

We did pick up a disposable camera at the National Zoo, just when the camera started acting wonky. We got some cute shots but of course I forgot to have Ritz upload them to their website (which they do automatically with digital photos) so I had to take Shayne's advice and use the poor man's scanner. Photos of photos, I tried to crop out the Pizza Hut box they're sitting on. Here are the best ones, all out of order.

Macaroni @ the Lincoln Memorial, he's

that little black dot at the top of the steps.

Macaroni taking a photo of me taking a photo of him
@ the Jefferson Memorial

Macaroni @ Freedom Plaza

pretty sure I have a photo of his brother getting rained

on in this exact spot

Macaroni @ Constitution Avenue

Macaroni @ the Washington Monument

Macaroni @ the National Air & Space Museum

waiting in line for the IMAX show

Space Station 3D

Macaroni @ the National Zoo

Macaroni about to eat breakfast @ the Zoo

They had Boca Burgers! And he made the ketchup

smiley face himself. How cute is he?

With the digital camera and a new memory card...

Macaroni in the cab on the way to the airport

Maybe two minutes later

All in all it was a great trip. The weather was great until our last day when we got a steady sprinkle all day long. My feet are still killing me from all the miles we walked but at least it distracts from the knee pain.

On the plane to DC Mac said he just wanted to go to the Air & Space Museum, didn't want to see any "stupid buildings and monuments" but once we got off the Metro at the Mall he was so wide eyed. He said he didn't realize it would all be so big. We did spend a lot of time at Air & Space but by the end of the trip he was asking to walk out of the way to see another monument or statue.

We'll definitely be going back when Macaroni's a little older. We didn't do the Holocaust Museum or the National Archives. I feel like I'm never going to see the Declaration of Independence. I want to stand in front of it and sing the Preamble, School House Rock style.