Race Appearance Question

A white woman and a Chinese man (or switch the genders - it doesn't really matter) have a baby together in America.

Does that baby only look more Chinese than white to me because I live in a country where our majority race is white?

Would the same baby look more white than Chinese to the people around her if she was instead born in China?

Shapes, Figures and Excuses

I went jogging today. Well, sort of. I went out with the intention of jogging today. What actually happened was more of a walk/something-slow-that-resembles-jogging mix. In the end, it tells me that I'm out of shape! Yeah, yeah, there's the possibility there for a string of excuses - it's ninety degrees out today...I just had a baby - but I don't really want to hear them. I think I've been relying on excuses for a little too long, this time. It's starting to get a little annoying that I haven't lost any more weight. I lost a bunch in the first two weeks after E was born, and since then I've lost zip. Which basically tells me I've only lost pity weight and that for whatever reason, my body (stupidly and wrongly) believes it needs this last ten pounds for something.

So, I'm stepping up the effort. Not like I've just been sitting around doing nothing all this time - I just don't want to stay trapped in the I-just-had-a-baby mindset. Because I didn't just have a baby. I had a baby three months ago. And whereas "just" is a pretty relative term, it's not that relative to three full months.

'Tis the Season

There's something in the air lately that's been giving me watery eyes and a stuffy/runny nose. Blech. Not to mention the headaches, itchy eyes, and itchy skin. And I think that whatever it is has been bugging Eleanor, too, because she's having similar symptoms. It's making me dread going to Portland this weekend just a little bit because there's something at Kelly's parents' farm during the summers that my body doesn't like either. I'm hoping this trip is different, though, because in all other regards I'm really looking forward to the trip. I don't know how people with serious allergies do it! It's only been a couple days of little problems and I'm already super sick of it all!

Ten years. Count 'em. Ten.

Well, my reunion is coming up this summer. In just a couple weeks, actually. Whenever I mention that, people ask either if I'm going or if I'm excited about it - sometimes they ask me both questions. Well, yeah, I'm going - to part of it, anyway. I would go to the other part, but I have family obligations that day. Excited? No, I wouldn't say that. I don't really know why I'm going...other than I was invited. I'm not excited. I'm not curious. I'm not hoping to reconnect with old friends. I'm not planning revenge on any of the popular kids. I'm not even expecting to laugh at all the people who have gotten fat (not that I would do that...it just seems to be a common thing I've heard of women doing at their reunions lately). I'm just going, expecting to have a nice evening. Maybe I'll laugh with people about high school stories, probably some that I'd forgotten about, and maybe I'll find that I have more in common with people today than I used to. Who knows? I think one reason I'm sort of ambivalent about the whole ordeal is that I'm pretty different from the girl I was in high school and I feel like I fit into a totally different crowd now. These days, I'm more liberal, less pretentious, more settled, less naive, more calm and less narrow in my views of myself and the world. I drink and swear more and worry less about screwing up. I laugh more and say yes more and am less inclined to sit back and watch other people being cool, secretly wishing that could be me. But, then again, I have a different definition of cool, now, too.

Anyway, it's been ten whole years. Ten. And I feel pretty good about those ten years. Good enough, anyway, that I bought a ticket...and now look forward to buying a rockin' cocktail dress for the affair. I may not be going to compare myself against the other people there, but when the people who go for that purpose sit and compare themselves to me, or even compare me now to me then, I want them to have to think for a while first.

Weirdest Mail Ever

I received the weirdest, most random mail ever Wednesday: one ticket to the Indianapolis 500 practice, one ticket to the Indianapolis 500 qualifications, a lunch voucher for the 500 Festival, and a schedule of events for the Friends of the Festival Appreciation Day - events that occurred last month - in a hand-written envelope from Indianapolis.

1. I make fun of racing and, to a degree, people who watch it - mostly this is limited to serious fans. I'm just being honest here (sorry Dad...but FYI I never make fun of you). And in my defense, my making fun of people is never mean and is mostly just in my head.

2. These tickets were for an event that happened a month ago!

3. To my knowledge, I know no one who lives in Indianapolis, let alone Indiana.

4. My name was misspelled on the envelope - a misspelling I've never seen before: Angelar. But my last name, the name most people mess up, was fine. As was the rest of my address.

5. I looked up the return address on line (it was provided sans name). Nothing came up on the white pages reverse directory and Google maps street view showed a residential neighborhood.

6. There have been no weird or unexplained charges on my checking account or credit card.

7. On ebay, these month-old tickets would score me $10. Maybe.

It's a mystery! Is anyone out there who thinks they may have an answer or at least another clue?

Solutions?

Anyone know any good solutions for keeping my couches clean? Kelly likes the dogs on the couch and I like them to not get the couches dirty. I would much rather have no dogs on the couch ever, under any circumstances, but I'm willing to concede that most of the time. In the meantime, my couches are dirty...and I don't want to vacuum (or shampoo, which is what they really need) every day. Anyone have a magic wand?

???

And, for your reading entertainment, a selection from an eighth grade research paper on becoming a teacher:

"To make sure not a non praiseworthy human being just in case, because human beings would not want to have their children educated by a scandal."

I don't know what it means, but I think it's funny.

IQ

Kelly says I'm just generally unimpressed with things out of principle, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Lately, I've been unimpressed with Pranav Veera, this six-ear-old boy with an alleged IQ of 176. (By the way, each link I'm posting is a different news article about the kid.) I say "alleged" because I've been unable to find who performed his IQ test and which test was done - both of which can make a difference. The only reason this makes a difference to me is because of the "genius" activities he demonstrates in the media: reciting the alphabet backwards, listing presidents by number, stating days of the week by date. I grant you that these are not normal feats for a six-year-old child, but they're not completey abnormal feats for someone who has worked at memorizing such facts - because that's all it is: memorization. I also say "alleged" because news reports claim that he has a photographic memory, which would make something like reciting the alphabet backwards a piece of cake rather than a sign of genius.

Something else that puts me on guard about this kid's story is how so many sources compare him to Einstein, whose IQ was guessed to be around 160. Guessed. That's right, Einstein's IQ was never tested. We think we know it today based on guesses and nothing more. In reality, because of the subjectivity of IQ tests, there's no way we can be sure of Einstein's IQ.

I'm not completely discounting this child's aptitude, nor am I saying he should be treated as a normal, bratty little six-year-old. I'm saying we need to take this with a grain of salt because, until he does something with his intelligence like cure AIDS or put a man on Mars, he's not telling us anything we can't already find in presidential trivia books. And if someone out there actually does want him to accomplish something remarkable with his elevated IQ, they need to stop telling him how smart he is and start encouraging his self efficacy - because just being smart will get him nowhere if he knows nothing more about being smart than cheap parlor tricks on the Today Show.

I'm still alive.

I got in trouble today for not posting for a long time, so I thought I'd leave a brief comment to say that I'm still alive. Around Valentine's Day I got the flu, which stuck around for about three weeks, and then Kelly had a silly-crazy time at work for two weeks (their major, annual, on-air fundraising event) that I helped out with and totally threw off both our schedules. Then I had the last week at school before spring break, during which I tied up all my loose ends and finished grades and cleaned my room just in case I don't go back to work after spring break (you know, cuz of the baby), all of which kept me busy, busy, busy and at times at work for hours after I should've gone home.

But now things are starting to be normal again, which is nice because the baby could literally come any day now and it would be all right. I'll post something witty on here soon, assuming the normalcy continues, that is. If I go another month, assume it's the baby's fault. That way I don't get in trouble again. :-)

Don't hound me.

This morning on my way in to work, I drove next to a police car for a while. Actually, he started out driving behind me, no doubt running my license plate number for a good reason to pull me over on my morning commute, which would have really started my day off on the wrong foot. But, finding nothing, he moved on to the car next to me. And then to another car in our vicinity. He followed - closely - five cars in my little area of the freeway, (my guess is) checking their plates and making sure he didn't have a reason to turn on his stupid red and blue lights. Finding none, he sped off to his next unsuspecting victims...And I do mean "sped." Whereas all of us were going exactly the speed limit, he found it necessary to rush off, probably exceeding the speed limit by an easy ten miles per hour, knowing full well there was no one there to pull him over.

Not fair.

I firmly disagree with police seeking out reasons to punish people. If they want the American people to think of them as benevolent, caring individuals who serve and protect the public, then they should be fair in their practices. Don't hound me, looking for a reason to cite me. Find someone out beating his wife or shooting up a convenience store to harass.

Lucy, the Pup of Many Vet Visits

Yes, folks, we had to take Lucy to the vet again yesterday. She broke another nail off in the bed, leaving it sore and bleeding. She is, again, on pain killers and antibiotics. She is, again, wearing her cone. The people at the vet's office thought it was cute that she not only has her own cone, but that we've started decorating it with punk stickers - bands and the like.

We've started wondering if perhaps friends and family could purchase us credit at the vet's office for Christmas presents from now on. It's a gift that would surely get some use. I don't know if the office does that sort of thing, but it's worth a shot. Gift cards, perhaps? Or, really, I suppose people could just send us more punk stickers.

We wondered aloud while waiting for her to come out of the surgery room yesterday how we ended up with this accident-prone dog. Kelly blamed me because she picked me to want to come home with. I blame him because I think she got it from his genes (whereas me and Radley are the healthy, non-accident-prone ones in the family).

Fish

I'm half-watching a PBS documentary on fish right now (the TV is still on after watching an excellent documentary on Truman and I just haven't turned it off since I've been typing). I'm not paying any attention to this show, but it's hosted by a guy who used to be on MASH and it has some interestiing up-close pictures of fish. They're kinda gross looking and make me happy not to be a fish monger.

In other fish news, we've been giving Radley fish oil pills on recommendation from our vet. She said it may help his skin rash. I've found that he treats it like a pill - choking and gagging to get it down - if we just give it to him, even though it smells like fish (which we thought would be motivation for him to eat it). However, if I just drop it nonchalantly into his bowl, he eats it with the rest of his food. Lucy, on the other hand, begs for one and acts indignant if she doesn't get one if she notices that he got one and she didn't. Except she won't just eat it - she will even pick it out of her bowl and take it to the carpet to eat it like it's a treat.

Now this documentary is doing surgery on fish to tag them or something. I can't help but think how smelly it must have been to make this film.

The weather outside is frightful...

but I don't seem to mind much. Somehow, I'm stepping out of the norm (for myself) and actually enjoying this cold, cold weather and tons and tons of snow. In fact, I was a little disappointed last Sunday when we stopped at just a few inches rather than collecting the ten inches that the weather forecaster said we'd get. Don't get me wrong, I wish I could take the dogs out for a walk this morning (and won't because it's not worth it to brave the ice) or that I didn't have to factor in at least ten extra minutes to any commute, but at the same time, I think it's fun and pretty and I know other people are really excited about all this white stuff, so that makes it a little more OK.

Conehead Lucy

Every once in a while, our pup Lucy needs to wear a cone...sores, stitches, broken toe nails...you name it. She's rather undaunted by the cone in most circumstances at this point, we think because she's had to wear it so often. (Incidentally, our other dog, Radley, has never had to wear a cone and we've had him for almost two years more than we've had Lucy.)

Here's some pics of the L-dog and me this November.

Ewww

I work with a kid a couple days a week after school. Social skills, life skills, stuff like that. Today was one of those days. And today I noticed that he smelled bad. BO, you know? And since he's fourteen, it was pretty obvious. Also because he's fourteen, and because it's my job, I had a conversation about it with him. It didn't quite go as anticipated.

Me: gently inquiring So...Did you forget to take a shower this morning?
Him: plainly Noooo. I take showers after school so I'll do that today when I get home.
Me: How about deodorant?
Him: slapping his forehead Dang it!
Me: Well, it's not a big deal, but it is something you really shouldn't forget in the mornings.
Him: Yeah...Actually, I don't think it's that I forgot to put on deodorant this morning. I think it's because I've had diarrhea lately.
Me: trying not to let him know that I'm a little shocked at his open admission and trying to not be grossed out at the thought of dried poo slime sticking to his butt So, just having a hard time getting clean, then?
Him: Well, it's just that when I have diarrhea it makes it too sore to wipe really good.
Me: Yeah...That's not something you should skimp on. Making sure you're clean all the time in all areas is very, very important.
Him: distantly Yeah...

Luna Love

I like to post stuff on here for the three and a half people who still faithfully check in on me that gives you tips on things I like because I think you might like it too. And today, it's Luna Bars.

I've had many different kinds of Luna Bars and enjoy most of them, but yesterday I tried something new. I tried the mint chocolate tea cake. And I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I mean, it wasn't earth-shattering or anything, but it was really, really good. I guess what I mean by "I haven't been able to stop thinking about it" is that when I've wanted a snack today, that's what I've wanted. But last night I only bought the one, not knowing just how yummy it would be.

So there's my recommendation for a yummy and fairly healthy snack. I may buy a whole box of them the next time I get a chance.

Skydiving!

Check out Kelly's skydiving video!

Dog Woes

Kelly and I were driving up to Home Depot today when we encountered a bunch of cars stopped along the side of the road and people standing around. I think both of us first thought "Aw, geez" at first, but then we saw why. In the middle of the road - in the center turn lane with two other lanes on either side - was a dog who had obviously been hit by a car.

There were already two women over at the dog, but they didn't appear to be doing much, so Kelly stopped. I stayed in the car because I didn't want to be one more person in the mix blocking traffic. The next thing I knew, Kelly opened the back of the Explorer and started throwing stuff into the backseat. I jumped out and without asking questions started helping clear a space. Thankfully, we travel everywhere with a yucky dog blanket, so I spread that down. One of the women was holding the dog - she looked to be maybe a German shephard mix - on the side of the road. The other woman was hysterical and kept saying over and over again "What do we do?" Kelly had the first woman put the dog in our car and she started talking about taking the dog to some vet office she'd seen up by Fred Meyer next to Pet Co. Well, after my experiences with our pups and our vet's office, I wasn't about to take this poor creature to some place in a strip mall I'd never heard of that may or may not be open on a Sunday. Because I have our vet programmed in my phone (because we've needed it spur-of-the-moment so often with Lucy), I called them to see if they were open and if we could bring in this poor dog. They were indeed open and said to bring the dog right in.

Kelly and I were incredibly worried about this dog because she looked confused and was drooling a lot, but it only took us about five minutes to get her to our vet's office. Three nurses met us at the door when we got there, one of them came out to the car with a stretcher. I think she saw something about this dog that we didn't - that it needed serious and immediate care and that it wasn't going to hurt her - and just left the stretcher in the parking lot, scooped up the dog and ran her inside. We followed her in to talk to the nurse in the lobby, who asked us a bunch of questions. I think they thought we hit the dog at first, but when we told them that we'd just gotten to the accident just after it happened and seemed to be the only ones who knew what to do and were the only ones not driving a sedan (not that being in the Jetta would have stopped us any) then they realized we weren't to blame, that we were just there to help. But then the doctor came out of the exam room with questions and he sounded pretty mad too, until he realized also that we had no real answers. I think Kelly was a little put off by him at first until we realized that he probably thought it was our fault and that if we were vets, something like a dog coming into our office after being hit by a car would upset us, too. Heck, we aren't vets and it still upset us.

They asked us to sit around for a little while in case the doctor had some more questions. While we were waiting, they found that the dog was chipped (thank goodness) and they called the owner to let her know they had her dog and what had happened. I gave them the name and number of the lady who we think hit the dog - the lady who was in hysterics at the scene - because she'd given it to me and asked me to call her when I knew anything.

We came home then and played with our pups, who had no idea the trauma we had just gone through or why we were both so excited to see them. I called the hysterial lady; she said she was at the vet's office, that she'd just gotten there. She still sounded like she was a disaster about the whole thing.

Later this afternoon, our vet's office called to let us know about the dog. They said that the owner had just shown up (this was actually about five hours later) and had refused x-rays, but that the dog was doing well and had really just suffered massive shock. They'd given her an IV for the shock and by the time the owner had gotten there the dog was alert and walking and doing well. Kelly thanked the nurse for calling us and let her know we had been worried all afternoon. I cried a little more when he told me the good news and we toussled the pups a little more.

And just a little while ago, because we haven't had enough puppy trauma for one day, I noticed a large, open sore on Lucy's leg. It's perfectly round like a nasty, popped blister. So, Kelly and I got to play vet for her, shaving her leg, washing the wound, wrapping her up and topping it all off with the cone she should at this point be so fond of (because she wears it so often). We'll keep an eye on it and in the morning if it looks worse we'll take her into our vet's office.

Honestly, I'm surprised we're not on a first-name basis with them at this point.

Just more evidence that Sarah Palin sucks...

Last night, your favorite lame-ass VP candidate and mine, Sarah Palin, was on Saturday Night Live. Here was her chance to do something cool, to speak up and have personality, to make people who despise her and what she stands for think that she's not so bad after all. And how did it go? Well, to put it simply, she merely verified what a big pile of poo I thought she was anyway. Given the chance to be fun and do something creative, she chose instead to stand there and let the SNL cast make fun of her to her face, with the only nice thing said to/about her all night being - from a cameo, mind you, and not even from a usual cast member - "You're hotter in person." No, he didn't say "Hey, you're not as dumb as I thought you were," or even "Wow! You're funny." He commented on the former-beauty queen's hotness. (For a basic run-down of the evening's scenes with SP, click here.)

The best part of the whole night, though, was the rap by Amy Poehler. I only hope I can be that cool when I'm that pregnant! She became a little bit of a hero to me last night.



I saw a clip on FOX News (of all places) that the rap had been written for SP, but she didn't want to do it...the cast liked it, though, so they kept it and gave it to Amy the Gem. Incidentally, the people at FOX News (the link didn't wouldn't embed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6ya39slPgs) liked Amy Poehler better than Sarah Palin last night, too. Huh.

See Spot Walk

Every year, the Idaho Humane Society puts on See Spot Walk, a fund raiser where dog owners gather at Julia Davis Park downtown and walk together on about a one-mile loop through downtown back to the park.

This is our second year seeing Spot walk and here are a couple pictures of our own Spots walking!




After the walk, back at the park, there's a couple of fun competitions you can choose to participate in. There's a dress-up (your dog) competition and one for the ugliest dogs. Lucy and I decided to participate in the musical chairs competition - the owner had to have a seat and the pup had to sit on the floor when the music stopped too. The best part was that Lucy learned the rules to the game in the first two rounds! I only told her to sit the first two times and after that she had it all figured out when I expected her to sit and she sat on her own! This came in handy when there were only five chairs left...My butt made it to a chair the same time as this old woman, but she totally had more butt in the chair than I did. I was getting ready to walk away when the MC stopped me and announced that I was still in the competition because my dog sat right away, while her dog wandered around the stage before sitting.



It came down to me and a little girl who had been sorta cheating through the game.



But I got the last chair fair and square, with my adorable, champion-sitting pup Lucy plopping down in front of me as soon as the music stopped. We won a $25 gift certificate to Zamzows, which has already come in handy for buying these guys some champion-sitting dog food.

When we got home, me and the spectator-dog, Radley, napped a little on the couch. It was a tiring day for all of us!