Happy 19th birthday Jboy!

Cannot believe it's been 19 years. Jboy & I have the same personality and drive each other nuts, but I love that kid lots. Will love him even more when he gets a job!

big, big baby. May 1990

Paul Wellstone & Joey, 2000ish

Ruby and Joe on Mother's Day 2009

Whoops! Just realized I missed Macaroni's birthday! It was all over twitter - man, I am lazy!

Happy Good Friday

Every year we spend Good Friday at the one and only counter protest at Planned Parenthood and this year we were lucky to get PERFECT weather. It couldn't have been more beautiful. Had a nice dinner at Chatterbox afterwards...until I realized that my veggie burger wasn't cooked. I was so hungry I had already eaten half of it. Thank goodness it wasn't a beef burger!

I forgot to bring my camera and Mary couldn't figure out how to use the one on her phone so we didn't get any photos at the event or of my Mackie & my parents, but I had signs at home so we took this one afterwards.

Mackie's birthday party tomorrow. So. Not. Ready.

I am so lame. From a hundred years ago...

TGIF

Recession or Depression?

I know this isn't new to anyone who's brave enough to open their 401K statements, works in a bank or human services, knows more than 5 or 6 people or you know, has eyeballs, but the actual graph made me stop and think. And I'm not thinking anything good.

If you are having trouble reading the fine print: The blue line shows job losses in the 1990 recession; the red line is 2001, and the grayish-green line is the path we are on now.
To clarify, these are not projections. This is actual job-loss data.

Source: Swampland

Almost here! It's almost here!

Another fabulous Dollhouse video. I'm getting so excited. Now to get the frikken TV working.

25 Random Things

So lazy that I'm copying this from my Facebook page and calling it a blog entry. Thanks for the idea Lisa!


1. I've never cleaned my oven because I've been waiting for it to die since I bought my house 10 years ago.

2. I can still talk my 10 year old into cuddling on the couch and doing goofy things like singing the entire Dr. Horrible soundtrack or reciting every Strong Bad email with me.

3. My 18 year old thinks it's ridiculous that I'm on Facebook. I don't know how to use it but would never admit that to him. Look Jboy, I'm writing my very first Facebook note. Suck that!

4. I don't have 25 people to send this to so I'm just returning it. Heather, you sent me this, right?

5. I've been vegetarian for 18 years next month and I'm still fat.

6. I'm a comic book geek and already have tickets for this year's Comic Con in San Diego.

7. I procrastinate in ways the lazy can only dream of. My living room has been half painted for weeks. I've had a hole in my sunroom ceiling for years. The new TV I bought about a month ago is still wrapped in plastic, sitting on the floor in my living room and if they delay the switch to DTV it could be there for a while.

8. I LOVE to travel (5 trips to 9 cities in 3 countries in the past 12 months) and just wish someone would just pay me to do it professionally.

9. I have seven tattoos and plans for at least another five.

10. I'd love to write a book or open my own business. I just don't want to do all the work involved.

11. I've been a couple of classes away from my bachelor's degree for over a decade and have no plans to graduate any time soon.

12. I really need a pedicure.

13. I'm lucky to get four hours of sleep a night.

14. I've never been in love.

15. I haven't driven a car in almost 10 years.

16. I love not having a car, except when it's 30 below zero and I'm walking to the train.

17. I would love to live off the grid somewhere in a South American jungle or on an island off the coast of Scotland.

18. I want to go to Thailand and build houses with Habitat for Humanity.

19. I both love and hate my job, every single day.

20. Advocate's Close might be my favorite place on the planet.

21. I try to be open minded but I'm also extremely opinionated & stubborn.

22. I watch A LOT of movies. Drama, comedy, action, whatever. Love foreign films & weird indie flicks.

23. I'm probably the luckiest single mom ever (this time around anyway) because kiddo's got an awesome dad. Perfect balance of Macaroni Time and Me Time.

24. I've got 11 siblings (seven brothers and four sisters) but only know four of them.

25. I've got a lot of shitty music on my iPod because I'm too lazy to remove it.

Ewan at Sundance

Source

36th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade

Donating to Pro Choice Resources and attending a Planned Parenthood happy hour tonight in celebration of reproductive freedom.

Although the new administration is finally here reproductive choice is still in jeopardy all over the country. Just a few of the things that make me crazy:

• Something like 85-90% of all counties in the US do not have a single abortion provider. No need to make abortion illegal when you can just make it unavailable.




• There are bans on abortion that include criminal charges for doctors and laws are intentionally so vague that they can include birth control.




• And don't even get me started on pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control & emergency contraception. They should not only lose their jobs, they should be thrown in jail.




• Roe is just one vote away from being overturned.

Pro Choice = Pro Life!

Swag from happy hour

OBAMA!

It's a good day. I was out interviewing a client and could hear the applause in our lobby. Really regretting that I didn't take Macaroni out to DC for the inauguration.

Can't wait to get home and watch the coverage. Most disappointed about missing Aretha Franklin, love her. Oh, and Cheney in a wheelchair.

Good luck Mr. President!

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Happy New Year!

We might get around to sending out holiday cards.

Just which holiday remains to be seen, aiming for MLK Day.

Glad to see 2008 go. Although there were some great moments (Obama! DHSAB! Vacations!) this year pretty much sucked. Hoping 2009 brings lots of goodies...Dollhouse, a new niece or nephew, a job for Jboy...and an end to all the wars and economic troubles.

Nonstop Dr. Horrible

Spent all weekend watching Dr. Horrible. And I do mean all weekend. Love, love, love it. Commentary! the Musical??? Holy crap, I think I might love it more than the show. So good. Ten Dollar Solo is my current favorite, but just because that's the last song I listened to.

Luckily the boys are just as obsessively insane about the show.

42 minutes of perfection

Joss and Co. make #4 on the TIME Top 10 TV Shows

Amanda Palmer @ First Avenue

And because Blogger doesn't like my video (okay, because I'm too lazy to figure out how to change the format of my video) here's a link. Amazing show, still sleepy.

Thankful. And full.

We had a nice, relaxing dinner at mom and dad's. Lots of food and hanging out with family. Family which will be bigger next Thanksgiving, Bobby and Marie are expecting so I'll have another niece or nephew!

The boys all spent the day in the mancave, my mom spent it in the kitchen (of course) and the rest of us were entertained by the kids. Ruby is quite the dancer and we got to see another video of Katie's skating competition. She's awesome!

I only pouted a little bit about not getting to go to Tucson this weekend to see my sister. I was too busy eating to pout too much. I didn't take may photos (stoopid camera) but here's the link.

Tofurky dinner at mom's house. The photo is a little misleading
in that I ate the entire bowl of black olives, not just the two on my plate. And I took the photo before pouring on the vegan gravy.

My mom would be horrified to have anyone left with the impression that she throws a vegetarian only Thanksgiving, so here's proof. Not one dead animal but two!

She doesn't mess around people. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

So many things I'm thankful for this year. OBAMA! All my peeps* are healthy and happy. You are all happy, right? The economy sucks but I've got a roof over my head and can afford to heat my house. I can not only afford to feed my kids but also my ever-growing eating disorder. And seriously, I can afford a vacation (just as soon as the timing works out) so I've got nothing to complain about.
Looking forward to dinner at my mom's tomorrow. Boys, nieces and nephew and Tofurky. Can't ask for more than that.

Have a good one.
xoxo

* did I just type "peeps" in public? Sorry about that.

New furniture

Really kicking myself for not getting the floors repaired or painting the walls before the new furniture was delivered. Lazy at a professional level people, it's not as easy as it looks.

So here's the ugly-but-oh-so-comfy new living room set. Can't bring myself to take the tags off because that will mean they're really mine.

Oh and I have to add, because I'm an asshole, that I beat Macaroni's high score on Donkey Konga my first time out. Holding those damn bongos between my knees hurts the old lady arthritis like nobody's business but it's actually fun. Not Mario Kart on the Wii fun but I like having a game Macaroni and I can both enjoy.

Thank You Veterans!

I haven't been to work since Thursday. It's heaven. Well, heaven would have been taking that trip to New Orleans with the girls, which is what we had originally planned when I took the days off work. Or, possibly even better, laying on a beach in Mexico all alone for five days. But not being at work is close enough.

I'm so not missing my messy desk

Trying to get a few things off my To Do List today, so that I can reward myself with a movie. Going to see Zack and Miri Make a P0rno this afternoon. So far I've almost finished shopping for the foster care kids we're sponsoring this Christmas and finally got around to framing a couple of photos from my vacations. I still need to schedule several appointments; an estimate for repairs on our hardwood floors, a physical, an eye exam and a new tattoo consultation. I also need to clean my bedroom...the window ledge above my bed is so dusty I could hardly sleep last night. Yucky dust mite nightmares! I'm sure there are a million other things too, but I really want to see this movie and feel like sitting in the dark all by myself.

Golden Gate Bridge/SF and Advocate's Close/Edinburgh

I wanted to hang these in the bathroom but Mackie

thinks that's weird. There's a giant spider in the corner.