• Dear Mom - Today

    A Pleasant Good Night

    The weird warm weather continues. I’m getting the idea that it might be better to plan for a cool weather biking and walking vacation in late January than count on a cross-country ski vacation. We’re thinking of going someplace in Michigan, but plans are vague yet. After a lazy Sunday afternoon (David did go for a bike ride) we went to his dad’s so David could sign the mat for a photo he’s having framed for Shel. It’s another in a series of landscape photos – kind of high end “my kid’s art on the fridge,” if you will. It’ll…

  • Dear Mom - Today

    It’s Donut Day Somewhere, And I’m Having A Moms’ Day Here

    According to the Facebooks, my sister Timmy is enjoying the first major snowfall of the season up in her pretty Idaho Panhandle valley, and my sister Tudy reports a bunch of heavy, wet snow in Salt Lake. Today must be Donut Day, as we say in the fambly: the day Mom would make homemade donuts to celebrate the first snow of the season. Going to Krispy Kreme would not cut it; Mom used to make a fairly dense deep-fried donut that was a solid dunker, not one of those greasy loops of yeasty puff that Krispy Kreme makes. I remember…

  • Dear Mom - Today

    I Have Become The Mean Neighbor Lady I Hated As A Child #fb

    Once upon a time in my childhood, my year revolved around the “kid holidays;” the beginning of “school’s out” for summer, Halloween, and Christmas. In my candy-addled mind at the time, Halloween loomed pretty large – not quite as big a deal as Christmas, but one in which kids were kind of autonomous. We had to work for the biggest candy haul possible, whether we or our parents made our own costumes or had store bought ones. The year I was old enough to go out trick-or-treating on my own was probably when I was… 7 or 8, although I…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Funnies - Today

    How to Lose an Hour of your Life: Cat Bounce

    Tune in your favorite trippy space music or techno-trance Internet radio station Go to this link. WHAT time is it? I was in a hell of a mood before I found Zen in Cat Bounce. Be sure to make it rain now and then for extra-soothing cat bounciness. Cat Bounce is a website where you can make cats bounce. It’s totally mesmerizing and I’m pretty sure it’s an advanced hypnosis technology that was put in place by the cat army to finally have complete control. via Cat Bounce Has Been Sent From the Future to Ensure Total Cat Domination

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Politics, Schmolitics

    Eisenhower warns modern #GOP not to be negligible and stupid #FromTheGrave

    This excellent quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R-Reality) was buried in the comments of the Daily Kos post on the Medicaid issue gaining traction. It would be very interesting to see either Romney or Ryan squirm while attempting to comment on this. Their rigidly imposed frame of reference prevents them from seeing that the GOP is in danger of becoming just such a negligible, stupid party, if it hasn’t already. The original commenter’s blog is called Condemned To Repeat It “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Politics, Schmolitics

    Romney Social Media Staffer Bill Murphy Linked In To Fraudulent Profitable Tea Party Non-Profit

    This is juicy, if a little opaque to the non-Tweety, non-Bloggy, non-Facebooky clueless unlikely voter. The telling point is that he deleted his Linked In profile rather than answer tricky questions about whether his work for the organization would be part of his professional resume. Hat tip: OsborneInk Team Romney’s Social Media Director, Bill Murphy, is the former Director of the National Bloggers Club, a group under IRS investigation for soliciting donations while falsely claiming to be a non-profit organization. Although NBC filed incorporation papers in January, the organization is still absent from both the IRS and GuideStar charity databases.…

  • Connections

    Elderly Mom Still Advocating For Downs Syndrome Son, And Other Disabled

    There’s no better advocate for disabled kids and adults than fully engaged, lovingly encouraging parents. And when they’re no longer there for them, it’s up to the state — and some states are better advocates than others. From the moment Marjorie Sullivan Lee learned her newborn son, Kevin, had Down syndrome she became his advocate. Dismissing her pediatrician’s suggestion that Kevin be placed in an institution, Lee and her husband, John, decided Kevin would grow up at home with his five older siblings and be part of the community. That wasn’t necessarily the norm in 1960. Lee battled school officials…

  • Dear Mom - Traveling Along, We're Adventurers

    Grouse Mountain Lodge

    They open the doors for you when you arrive, and the warm welcome sets a nice tone. We had a double queen wheelchair accessible room; probably could change it now that the weekend is almost over, but won’t bother. The amenities, besides the golf course on-site, include a small conference center, a small but nicely arranged indoor pool, two jacuzzi tubs on the deck, and dining in a big lodge room with a 3-story river cobble fireplace. There’s screened deck seating and a deck bar when the weather is fine (and it has been). The food is very good although…

  • Dear Mom - Traveling Along, We're Adventurers

    So Far

    So far, we’ve Flown from Chicago to Seattle had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with boats explored the Seattle Underground with tourons and alleged rats hiked on a beautiful forested trail by a remote beach had delicious beers with friends had circus with bread, which is a little different than having bread and circuses. avoided Seafair, but not the Seafair Pirates driven to Idaho hung out with family walked on a rails to trails route been licked by dogs eaten huckleberry ice cream (me only) eaten Vienna Sausages (again me only) seen 2 deer seen innumerable ground squirrels and chipmunks driven…