My mom kept lists every year of the cookies that were baked for the holidays, with notes about which of us kids helped with which cookies. Some years, those lists had 30 different cookies on them, I swear. Usually it was more like 10 or 15, but there were a few years that had super long lists (or do you think 10 or 15 is already super-long?). I' ( Read more... )

Thing One, who is in her first year at college, has an assignment for art, for which she is covering herself in Sharpie drawings. (She says it's like Yakuza tattoos, except in Sharpie. I don't imagine they'll be anything like Yakuza tattoos, but I'll let that slide.) (And I don't know what the actual assignment was, just her interpretation, ( Read more... )

We are in dire financial straits. Like, about to lose the house and have to live in our minivan type dire. So, we've started an Indiegogo campaign. If you could at least spread the word, we would be incredibly grateful.

"Cry 'Havoc!'" is a campaign to help a family get back on their feet, so their dreams can take off running.

I have presents for last Monkey Day for my sisters-in-law, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew, and birthday presents for one of the SILs and for the BIL that really need to get wrapped and mailed. I was not actually finished making them all until March, but that still means they've been sitting around for about two months ( Read more... )

And I'm not talking about the ill-fated revamping of Betty and Veronica.

The group One Million Moms, part of the American Family Association, is trying to get Toys 'R Us to remove Life with Archie #16 from their shelves, because it depicts gay marriage in a positive, non-threatening light. Of course, according to that blog post I linked there, ( Read more... )

Maybe not completely, but I know I haven't been posting or commenting much. I've just not been feeling very talkative. And recently I've had more reason.

My mom died on October 16. It was sudden and unexpected. She was 82, so it's not like I expected her to be around for a long time yet, but I still hoped she would be. I'm mostly okay, for ( Read more... )

The Rapture will be on May 21, 2011.Of course, Harold Camping predicted it would happen on September 6, 1994, too. It didn't happen, you might have noticed (at least, not in this reality). That time, he bought back his books if people complained to him (not much help if they were also people who sold all their worldly possessions in preparation ( Read more... )

You may not be aware of this, but the_original1 is a stay at home dad. It just worked out best for us. We're trying to change that now, which is difficult enough with the economy the way it is, but it's even worse because people still have bad attitudes about men who stay home. He's complained about being in conversations where someone will ask a woman what ( Read more... )

A woman's same-sex partner has been granted parental rights over her adopted children. They live in Montana, which does not allow same-sex couples to adopt, so only one partner was listed on the adoption papers. The couple broke up in 2006, and the partner whose name was listed has since married.
"To discriminate further against Ms. Kulstad [non- ( Read more... )