I'm having a hard time with the way Toyota is being portrayed as a huge villain who deserves to be crushed.  Ford has significant failures and recalls all  the time. I know the one Ford truck we had had a computer chip on the engine that was prone to failing.  If you didn't get it replaced (and there wasn't big publicity on this), the computer chip ( Read more... )

Usually getting a garden catalog in the mail is a wonderful, wonderful event, but this year, the garden catalogs have been remarkably uninspired.  Many of the organic catalogs seems to have drastically cut back their inventory, offering the same things that can be found in every other catalog.  Since my criteria for those catalogs is not only the ( Read more... )

The boys have recently become interested in art history, which essentially means that they want to hear stories about thetheft of Edvard Munch's The Scream, Van Gogh's cigarette smoking skeleton, Frida Kahlo's distinctive eyebrow, and the woman who stumbled into Picasso's painting and tore the canvas.  Declan in particular was interested in The ( Read more... )

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When you are an outsider child, people are constantly telling you that you are strange, weird, gross, scary, unattractive.  If you are lucky, by your teens you have learned to avoid people who don't appreciate weirdness. You do it consciously in your teens, seeking out "kindred spirits", protecting and nurturing yourself by closing off avenues of ( Read more... )

"The seed starter trays are $7.00 at Menard's," I told Raphy on Saturday.
"You need to buy them then.  Every year you wait, and the price doubles by March," he reminded me.

It's so nice to finally have history that belongs to both of us.

Last week the insurance nurse came by to take my vitals.  She went easy on my weight, rounding up my height and taking off 7 pounds for "clothing" weight.  However, she wrote down my blood pressure as 160/100.  I thought that was weird, because my blood pressure is usually 120/80.  So I looked it up after she left and Web MD said, "Oh my fucking ( Read more... )

Even though the snow had stopped by 6 in the evening yesterday, they canceled school today.  They didn't even bother to plow my subdivision until 6 a.m.  I suspect the cancellation was more due to budget cuts for snow plowing than it was due to truly unmanageable weather.

Like most spoiled American children who have never had to go without a meal, my kids complain almost nightly about the food set on the table.  Although I do follow my mother's rule (no dessert unless you clear your plate), I never institute my father's rules (then you can go to bed without supper).  The other night we were watching the episode of ( Read more... )

I saw 17 of the movies that were released in 2009:

Hotel for Dogs
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Inkheart
New in Town
Coraline
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Watchmen
Knowing
17 Again
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Where the Wild Things Are
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Avatar

I can't say that I'd give ( Read more... )