Take time to smell the flowers...

Here is listener's granddaughter on her 2nd Birthday today. ♥

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Don't Mess With Me! What?!

Actually, listener's grandcat Emma didn't realise that the green ribbon was still atop her head, or she might have been very embarrassed to know that she sat there for about 20 minutes with a ribbon over her head. So here's a light moment, but don't get complacent because those eyes are glowing. =^. .^= I, listener, feel the same way right now: Don't mess with me. I'm out for a new Governor. Sure hope Howard Dean's old role can be wrested from the Republicans this time!! Yeeeaaaaagggggghhhhhh!


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Do not tempt the bears.

This is what listener's back yard looked like the morning after a bear came by to bust open the bird feeders and clean them out. The bear also broke into three parts a two-day-old squirrel-proof feeder.
So the feeders have been inside for nearly a month. Soon they will go back outside, but only during daylight.

Do not feed the bears.


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LET 'IM EAT CAKE!

♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEMETRIUS!! ♥

(Thank-you Ireland_Nicole!)

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Open Thread

Back to School Homeschool 3 T-Shirt by catofmanyhats
View more September T-Shirts

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Howard Dean endorses Office of the National Nurse!

Nurse Ratched interviewing Howard Dean:

Question: Preventative healthcare is a key component in the healthcare reform debate. What are your thoughts on a proposal that would make the Chief Nurse Officer of the United States Public Health Service the National Nurse? In your opinion, would establishing the Office of the National Nurse have any impact on health promotion or on healthcare reform?

Answer: As a lot of people know, I am a huge supporter of the Office of National Nurse, and since Congress has been slow to act, I am hoping some changes can be made directly by HHS while we await more complete action by Congress.

Complete interview is found here:
http://www.nurseratchedsplace.com/wp-content/uploads/howard-dean1.jpg


NOTE: Nurse Ratched gave permission for this to be posted.


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ALLY'S PARTY

listener's grandniece, Ally Mae, is doing well with her neuroblastoma treatments.
:-) So, yesterday her family gathered to celebrate. :-)
Ally was wearing the sparkly shoes that our own blogger Susan sent to her! ♥
listener was amazed to receive a High-5 from Ally (before Ally had to use Purell, of course).
The family is so deeply grateful for all the support from loved ones and loving strangers!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3156822&l=9492a1b857&id=637766753

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Benny the Magic Bunny Lives!

Can't sleep...again. Have the song "Benny the Magic Bunny" stuck in my head. It's one of the songs I danced to in the ballet/tap class I took when I was 5. The last time I got one of these songs in my head, it was "All I want is a happy hippopotomus", and I was disappointed not to be able to find it online--although at least I was reassured that I wasn't imagining things, and such a song did exist.

Benny, Rabbit Magician, by contrast, lives on. And groups of little girls are still doing the same dance moves to the song celebrating this trailblazing role model who was an inspiration to lagomorphs everywhere. They didn't have to settle for being merely props in magic acts. They could be the stars, baby!



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Happy birthday, Paul in Illinois

Hope it's a good one!





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Open Thread (with whining)

Featuring some shameless product placement/self-promotion.

Back to school? OH NOES by catofmanyhats
Many tshirt designs available at www.zazzle.com

That's our daughter's store, with items featuring her cat, Stevie. here's the link to our store at Zazzle. It still needs a lot of work, but we're further along with that than we are with E-Shirt, Skreened, and Spreadshirt.

The thing is, we spent a lot more time building up our store at CafePress than any of the other print on demand stores. First, the interface seemed a lot more straightforward, and secondly, it seemed possible to make a lot more money there. The recent changes limiting how much we can make on marketplace sales have really hurt our income. We still believe we can make up much of the difference by building up those other stores. But it's tedious work, and takes a lot of time. With the court thing hanging over our heads, it's been even harder to focus on that.

I had some of my best success actually getting some work done when I was away from home and could work on my laptop. I just have the hardest time focussing on anything at home, what with the stuff we have hanging over our heads (the court thing, and the fact that after that's over with, we still need to sort out Son's school situation for this upcoming school year), and both kids being home on break.

Our anniversary is this Saturday. Don't have anything planned yet. Frankly it's hard to feel especially celebratory at the moment. Of course, I'm thankful that we still have each other--for 22 years now.

I need to take off for the other side of town now, to teach an almost 5 hour long class. Thanks for putting up with my venting.


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A Kitten and a computer...

A purrrr-fect combination.

Photo from our friends at The Daily Kitten

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DEAN at DEANFEST 6.0

Larger than life, as usual!
HEY!  On the cover of his new book, he's wearing the whale tie!!


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+Gene Robinson's New York Times Interview

I've been pretty deeply absorbed in issues affecting my immediate family during the recent General Convention of The Episcopal Church, so while I've been happy about some of the developments, I haven't been in much of a writing mode. But yesterday, someone at Street Prophets posted a link to a New York Times interview with Bishop Gene Robinson, apparently the only interview he granted.

Just a small excerpt:

Now that we’ve done the, quote, unthinkable, the church won’t look much different than before. Opponents of marriage equality predict the end of Western civilization as we know it if gay couples are allowed to marry. And then when it comes, there’s no big whoop.

The rest here.

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PROCLAIMING THE GOOD ALLY NEWS!!!

UPDATE!  ALLY'S LEG LESIONS ARE GONE!!!  See details at Baby!

Friday, July 10, 2009 5:51 PM, EDT
We finally got word about Ally's scans around 4:30 today.

Her CT scan was the same (we expected that) and her MIBG scan showed less activity!!!

Back in February when Ally had lesions on her hips she wasn't showing the symptoms they expected. They just assumed at that time that it was neuroblastoma again. Now, they are not 100% sure about that. We are taking next week off of chemo again (good = another week off / bad = the chemo is working, we are worried 3 weeks off might set her back, but have put our trust in the doctors and hope they know what they are doing). On Thursday Ally's case will be discussed at the tumor board, and then next steps will be decided. Most likely another biopsy, which means surgery.

Good news for Ally's Daddy's Birthday today!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Great Aunt listener is laughing and crying at the same time and doesn't even care if it means she's insane! :-D

Thank you all so much for the prayers, vibes and caring!!!  ♥ ALLY LUIA!!! ♥

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Just waiting for word about Ally...

This is listener's cat, Emma, hanging out on the back porch, waiting for word about Ally.
(Well, truth be told, Emma was waiting for Mr. Chippy...who did not come by.)

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500 dogs taken from Texas "puppy mill"--donations needed

Found out about this via Twitter...

More than 500 dogs and puppies have been taken from what officials call a large puppy mill in Montague County .

According to the North Texas Humane Society, more than 50 volunteers worked through the holiday weekend to prepare for the arrival of the animals on Tuesday.

The canines will be temporarily housed at a warehouse donated by Chesapeake Energy.

Other companies have donated services, including connecting plumbing, electricity and air conditioning in the warehouse, officials said.

Additionally, PetSmart donated food and supplies for the animals.

To donate money and for adoption information, contact the Humane Society of North Texas at 817-332-4768 or log onto www.hsnt.org .

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Open Thread

Saw this at Target. It amused me because

1. Bottles and beaks just don't go together
2. Just-hatched baby macaws don't have feathers (click and scroll down to see examples)

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I'm home

Didn't really have time to post anything before leaving for the Ohio Episcopal Celebration at Kenyon, but I was sure I'd be able to get online at some point and check in. I was wrong. Once I arrived on campus, my GPS stopped working, as did my phone service/mobile web. Someone mentioned that I might be able to get a temporary account that would allow me to access the college's wireless web, but that too was wrong. I was then told of three local businesses that had wireless hotspots. I was able to get one of them to work, sort of-kind of. Meaning I could sometimes get access on my Blackberry, but never with my laptop.

I enjoyed the conference, but found it disconcerting to be unable to send a simple text message to my husband. And then there's the fact that I couldn't use the evenings, as I had planned, to prepare for the new quarter of teaching (which starts on Monday). But that plan really hinged on my ability to access the internet.

The upshot of all this is that I came home this evening instead of tomorrow morning, and I have to make up for lost hours of course prep, so I don't have time at the moment to share any details about the conference. But I did want to take this opportunity to say where I went, and how it is that I ended up being largely cut off from outside communication. I'd also like to thank Cat and puddle for making sure people could find the new comment threads when they didn't publish automatically.

Oh, and one more thing...

There's no place like home! ;)

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THIS is the link to today's thread.

THIS is the link to today's thread. . . .