Pet peeve #298

Duplicate mailings.

Really, companies, really? You can't buy software that cross references the people on your mailing list with their addresses to determine when multiple mailings are being sent to the same address? It's not enough that you're doing your best to destroy our planet by producing massive quantities of printed materials that don't garner you any business from me, you then send copies of the same thing to three different people - Mr. D. G., Mrs. C. G., and my personal favorite, Current Resident - at the same household. Or maybe you think that the onus is on me to recycle the extra copies I receive. So now, if that second or third copy of the same dang catalog hits the trash instead of the recycling bin, I'm the one responsible for global warming? Well, screw you, companies.

Book twenty-two: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

My expectations for this book were rather low. I didn't hear the hype about it and reading the inside cover did not excite me. A book about a 90-year old man reminiscing about his time working as a vet for the circus? This didn't really make me want to run out and grab a copy. So I checked it out from the library instead.

Gruen does a great job creating characters I was instantly emotionally attached to, and she does the same for the animals. In some cases, I ended up caring more for the animals than the people. It's filled with all sorts of tidbits about life on the road and provides an interesting look into the inner workings of a circus. It turns out, the circus folks are just one big old dysfunctional family.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although the scenes with animal abuse are tough to read. 22 down, 4 to go.

The cross stands

Because I've posted about this before, I figured I'd add a link to the final outcome. Ugh. I'm a little annoyed.

Operation Tomato Plants 2010 - The planting

Say hello to my little friends

Hey, Buddy! (Get it, it's a bud and I called it Bud-dy. Sometimes my cleverness astounds me.)

Returning to Netflix

With the recent closure of two local video stores, I've had to reconsider going back to Netflix. Thankfully, a trip to a video store I was going past on my way to do my chores this morning has convinced me to sign up again. Blockbuster is now charging $5 per video. It's not as if it is convenient either. The store I used to go to was a fifteen minute walk away. The video store I went to today is a 20 minute drive away. So, yeah, I'm going back to Netflix. I'm already feeling better about the move than I did when I signed up for the free trial awhile back because you can now watch movies on your Mac (this wasn't possible before). I'll still be sort of annoyed by the wait for things to arrive through the mail but I'll be happy not to be driving so far out of my way and not to be paying such an outrageous price. On a side note, I rented Descent 2, which I'm hopeful will be good, Avatar, and some Uma Thurman movie with this guy. Ah, Denny Duquette, how we miss you. But please don't come back as a ghost on Grey's because that was just plain stupid.

Tomatoes

My friend Jen, Gardener Extraordinaire, came over to help me prepare to plant my first tomatoes. At Costco the other day I overheard another shopper say, "These starts look great!" Um, they do? Sweet. I shall buy them. I've been wanting to try planting my own tomatoes for years and never have because I have a tendency to kill plants. I've managed to keep one plant alive but as soon as a second one enters the home, the first one perishes. We'll see what happens because I'm planting four - FOUR! - tomato plants. I actually bought a pack of eight but Jen explained that very large pots would be needed for each plant so I'm going to plant four and give her the rest. What I learned so far -

1. For our climate, try to find tomato plant starts rather than planting seeds.
2. You should trim the lower branches/leaves so they don't touch the dirt and end up rotting.
3. Each plant should be placed in its own large (16-20") pot.
4. Gently separate the plants when you go to plant them by wiggling your fingers into the soil and carefully untangling the roots.
5. The little hair-like fuzzies on the stalks are potential roots.
6. Starts should be buried so that the dirt is 1" to 3" from the lowest branch.
7. Trim the little stuff that is sprouting from the creases between the main stalk and branches.
8. A second round of fertilization and cages will be needed at some point. (When was that again, Jen?)

We've been speaking kind words to our tomato plants during their stay à la maison de condo and look forward to posting pictures of our glorious fruit-bearing plants in the near future.

Mexico wardrobe

Shopping for Mexico (and summer) clothing has commenced. We picked up a pair of See Kai Run sandals, two pairs of shorts, and several shirts. What I learned? Nordstrom will honor the company's sale price on their Mini Boden line. I just happened to mention to a sales rep that they currently had a 15% off sale (plus free shipping) and she was like, "Oh, I can match that." Woot! I still haven't decided if Huck is going to get a haircut soon. I do recognize the lad is in desperate need of one.

Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest

We hit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest today with Megan and Avery. What an awesome way to spend a few hours. You can't be near fields of beautifully colored tulips and not feel happy. Plus, we got to ride in cow carts over very bumpy farm land - seriously, the farm was SO bumpy they had warning signs - and eat the equivalent of carnival food. Of course, there were pictures...

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

On the photography front, the weather was so bright I had to set the ISO to 100 (it's the lowest setting I've got), the aperture to f/16 to f/13 (for most shots, some were at f/11) and increase the shutter speed to, well, really fast. All to get the light coming in down to a manageable level. Since Mexico is less than a month away and we expect the weather down there to be excellent, I may have to switch the lens on the camera and work on either the aperture priority or shutter priority modes to get good shots.

Book twenty-one: The War of the Worlds by Herbert George Wells

In 1816, Mary Shelley was hanging out around Lake Geneva with heavyweights Percy Shelley and Lord Byron (along with a few others), when the group came up with the idea, after a night of reading German ghost stories to each other, to create their own scary stories. For Mary Shelley, this was when she conceived the idea that eventually lead to the creation of Frankenstein. I immediately thought of this after finishing The War of the Worlds. It was written nearly a century later but I kind of think Wells would have fit in perfectly with this group. What a great story. I imagine the movie remake Cruise did in 2005 sucks in comparison but I may have to watch it anyway just to see the level of suckage.

Excerpt 1:

And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. ... Are we such angels of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?

Favorite line:

And strangest of all is it to hold my wife's hand again, and to think that I have counted her, and that she has counted me, among the dead.

21 down, 5 to go.

Seventeenth Wordless Wednesday requires rocks

Shutter 1/50 Aperture f/4.0 ISO 200

Reading on the iPad

I am nearly finished reading my first book on Lola (the iPad). Things that I like include the size and the fact that the book doesn't fold in on itself when I happen to be lying on my side and that I can lock the screen so it stays the same no matter how I move. I can change the font size, adjust the brightness of the background, and easily turn pages with just a tap of my finger. I can also see how many pages I have left in a chapter, a feature that usually encourages me to finish the chapter I'm on before putting the iPad up for the night. Things that are annoying include the weight - it's slightly heavier than a standard size book, and the potential for screen glare (I hear that's not a problem with the Kindle). So far, I've read my book all around the condo, at the DMV, in the car, and in the common room of our building and every time I've encountered glare, I was able to adjust the way I was holding the iPad to eliminate the glare. I'm not sure this would be possible, though, if I was at the beach and there was sun all around. To test this theory I suppose I should drive out to the beach and see how it works. It's now on my to-do list. I sort of thought I'd completely dislike reading on the iPad. I don't. And I think that's a good thing. I do wish there was some way I could share books once I buy them, without having to hand over the iPad, too. I am able to do this with a regular book I purchase so I'm not sure why there can't be a feature that allows one to do this. Perhaps there is an app for book sharing? Anyway, that's the latest on Lola. I'm still liking her a lot. I find it particularly entertaining - it doesn't take much - to send emails because I love to see that little "sent from iPad" signature at the bottom of the email.

An update on spying

I posted a little comment about this back in February and now that the investigation is on lots o' details are coming out about cameras that were placed in laptops loaned to students. First, I love that they use the word "allegedly" in the title of the article because, well, pictures have been found, which seems to knock any mere allegations right out of the park. Anyway, I wonder what they are going to do if they start finding inappropriate shots of the students they spied on - like kids undressing.

Consider for a moment that you have a laptop that sits on a desk in your home and you often leave that laptop open because that's what you do with laptops sometimes. Now think of someone remotely turning on the camera and viewing whatever private thing you are doing in your room, taking snapshots of your activities, and then sharing those pictures with others. A few of the IT staff members have been placed on administrative leave. I know I'm only reading part of the story but I imagine the school district - that has claimed all along that the cameras were only activated when the computer was thought to be lost or stolen - is going to pay a lot for this mistake. And rightly so.

Month Thirty

Dear Henry,

It's official. You are two and a half years old today. Running is still your favorite thing, closely followed by picking your nose and donuts with sprinkles. Your language skills have kicked into high gear this past month. Oftentimes we can't get you to stop talking. Talk, talk, talk. I've read that as the primary care giver I should be able to interpret what you're saying but probably around half of the time I have no idea what you're talking about. So I go on conversational fishing expeditions to try and hook the words you say using your toddler speak with the real words the rest of us adult humans are using. For instance, the other day while waiting for your pops after work you said, "Where's dat stowbrakes?" Stowbrakes? Stowbrakes? Um. I got nothing. Let me try, "Store bake?" Store bake? To which you replied (slower, louder, and with diction), "No. Stow-brakes." It was said in a manner very similar to how stupid people talk to deaf people - as if going slower and louder is really going to help. It took me a bit longer but I eventually figured out you were asking about the snowflakes that hang on the outside of the World Trade Center building downtown during winter. This, of course, lead to a discussion about the seasons. I swear, the world must be endlessly fascinating when you're a tiny human.

You love to assign us roles and genders lately. I've been a mama squirrel, mama otter, mama fork, mama pteranodon (you say "peradon"), and mama of a host of other creatures and inanimate objects. You don't like it when I respond to this by calling you a Henry squirrel, but you are okay with baby Henry squirrel or the shorter baby squirrel. I'm usually a girl, papa's usually a boy but you seem to go either way, sometimes wanting to be a girl and sometimes wanting to be a boy. During a recent trip to REI you pointed to the cashier and kept saying (softly, thank goodness), "It's a boy. It's a boy, mama. It's a boy." It was not a boy but a woman with extremely cropped hair and virtually no boobs. I can see how you'd make the mistake but ask that you continue to be discreet with your comments since sometimes you are wrong. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

There should have been a funeral because your last binky finally broke. I'm not sure you've completely accepted the loss as you continue to occasionally ask for it but we're moving forward sans binky. You seem to be just fine without it. I suppose the real test will come next month when we head to Mexico. There is a strong possibility that I'll buy an 'only-to-be-used-while-on-the-plane-to-and-from-Mexico' binky.
You are becoming quite the expert utensils handler. You still resort to the old two finger pick up when necessary but you'll try to nab anything on the end of your fork or spoon first. It's a bit messy at times, particularly when you're eating cereal or soup, but it's really awesome. Successful fork usage requires a sort of spearing of the food so you make smallish stabs at whatever you're wanting to eat until you manage to get a piece and then you're off and eating. Speaking of food - and I know most kids say this just like most kids say pasghetti instead of spaghetti - but you say "strawbrarries" and it's just about the cutest thing ever. I can't wait for strawbrarry picking.

Your frisbee throwing is spastic, Bean. I tell ya, being on the receiving end of those throws means you pretty much have to duck and cover and hope for the best. Your arm goes back, way back, and you twist and bend a little at the knees, and then, much like a slingshot, you whip the arm around and let go. You and your papa play airplane (he holds one of your arms and one of your legs and swings your around), helicopter (he puts you up on his shoulder and spins around), and the newly developed blimp (he holds you parallel to the ground and floats you around going "Blup, blup, blup. Blup, blup, blup,"). When you want to go higher or faster you add "too" before the action, as overheard saying while swinging, "too high, mama!" Although, really, if I push you any harder on the swing we're going to flip you around the top pole. Every once in awhile you'll do this little turn and pull movement with your head that you picked up from the movie Bolt. You love those pigeons. And you sat through your second full-length movie (How To Train Your Dragon) at the theatre.

Nights are hard. You don't want to sleep in your room anymore. Sometimes you'll scooch over so I can lie next to you in your tiny toddler bed, and when I get up to leave, you'll throw your arm over my arm and say, "stay right here, mama." Even if I leave the room, Bug, I'm not leaving you. So, GO TO SLEEP!

Love,

Mama

I totally rocked that Play-Doh

Yeah, that's my frog.

Does a toddler shit in the woods?

YES! This morning we met Miss Avery, Megan, and Turtle at Tryon Creek for a toddler hike. It's important to distinguish a toddler hike from a regular hike because they aren't the same. At all. A toddler hike takes nearly three times as long to complete and means you'll spend countless minutes every third step looking at leaves, throwing rocks (small ones), hiding, running back and forth across bridges, waving sticks in the air, and stopping to check out spiders, moss, mud, dirt, trees, fallen logs, flowers, and an assortment of nature's trail best. It's exhausting.

Which brings me to the moment when one Huck Finn decided, around the halfway point in the hike, that he needed to go potty. The last time this happened we were able to scoop up the kids and haul balls to the nearest business with bathrooms. That, however, was not an option for us this time.

Hen: Mama, I gotta potty.

Me, throwing out an idea that is sure to be met with scorn: Um, want to try going potty standing up like the boy in the book?

Hen, thinking: Yeah.

Me, WTF? Seriously? He said yes?: Okay!

You'd be amazed how fast you can scout out an acceptable outdoor peeing location, gather your toddler, pull down toddler's pants, and help aim (yes, help aim) when your kid tells you he has to go, particularly when you no longer have a wardrobe change that you carry around with you in case of accidents.

The first attempt was a bit of a mis-dribble. It's not like I have a twig of my own and know how to aim. The trajectory of boy pee is completely foreign to me. And then Bean turns to me and says, "I gotta poop."

Oh. Shit.

Poop is a whole other ball of wax.

Me, because, hey, he went for it the first time: Want to go poop outside?

<Hen mulls this over. I wonder if toddlers are like animals and can sense parental desperation.>

Hen: Yeah.

Me: Okay!

There's a log right by our location of pee attempt #1. I scoop up Bean, hold him in a way that I hope is going-poop friendly, and send up a silent prayer to the gods. And it works.

Bless her, Megan is over there silently cheering us on because as a mom she knows how awful this scenario could turn out if we can't get Hen to do his business when he really needs to go. And she's aware that any noise could distract the little man and leave him unable to complete the task. Since she had brought Turtle, she had an interesting poop scooping bag device, so I cleaned up the waste and we hiked our way out, eventually.

So, in conclusion, today a toddler shat in the woods.

Book twenty: Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson

I'm really, really glad I read this book. And, of course, now I'm going to have to go back and read Three Cups of Tea. I don't consider myself an overly emotional person but this book brought me to tears more times than I can count. Words like hardship and struggle don't come close to describing the way people in the remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan live. Many villages are up in the mountains so high that they are cut off from the rest of the world for six months out of the year. Six whole months. The governments are ineffective, the countries are war-torn, the people have little hope. It is too much to fathom, the problems seem insurmountable.

Then along comes this guy with an idea to start educating girls. So he starts building schools. The hook, he's working in the most isolated places he can find to help those with the most desperate need. With a ragtag group of employees, they manage to do the impossible and as word starts to spread of their successes, the requests come pouring in. Sixteen years later there are more than 130 schools.

One of my favorite moments is when Mortenson is trying to politely refuse a request from about twenty women in Ishkoshem, who are wanting a vocational center. Just as he's explaining they don't have the money for such a venture he receives a call from his wife. By the end of that conversation he turns to the women and says, "American wife-boss has announced that we must somehow find the funds for your vocational center...if I refuse this project, all the women in my village will be very angry with me--so we will request extra money from our board of directors."

A week after a school opened in an active Taliban combat zone in Afghanistan, the Taliban threatened action if they were to proceed. An ominous "night letter" was nailed to the school door with a warning that the school would be burned to the ground and the families of the daughters that attended would be "targeted for reprisal." The solution was pure genius. The elders appointed one of the most respected religious leaders in the community to be the headmaster of the school. This man met with the local Taliban fighters and explained that if they dared to harm anyone affiliated with the school, it would be an affront to Islam. And it worked. The night letter was mysteriously removed and no harm came to anyone who attended or worked for that school. Amazing.

Many thanks to Penny for recommending the book. 20 down, 6 to go.

Those bright days

It's been awhile since I took the camera out and practiced. We still take photos of Henry every day but I haven't done much playing with the Nikon since it went and died on me, causing me to spend nearly $200 on a repair. (Granted, a lot less than it would be to replace the camera but still, it's annoying.) All that to say, I grabbed the camera on my way out the door to pick up Bean from daycare. The oldest child there, J--, was the only one who stood long enough to get a nice clean shot. The rest of the toddlers look up at you for half a nanosecond before returning to their activity of choice. Argh. I could only shake my fist in the air in frustration. Shooting when there is enough light to close up the aperture is awesome because you get clear pics. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of the blurred background but it's also nice to sometimes see a little more detail. And at smaller apertures (that is, higher aperture numbers - it's so confusing!), you can get some great detail for portrait shots.

Shutter 1/50 Aperture f/10.0 ISO 100

Shutter 1/50 Aperture f/9.0 ISO 100

Shutter 1/50 Aperture f/10.0 ISO 100

Shutter 1/50 Aperture f/9.0 ISO 100

Shutter 1/50 Aperture f/9.0 ISO 100

Sweetest Thing

Last week I had an opportunity to finally swing by Sweetest Thing, a little cupcake shop in my hometown of Newberg. I'd been wanting to stop since my lovely sister-in-law mentioned it. In passing no less, like "Hey, Newberg's got a cupcake shop. Have you seen Nancy Grace?" And thank Zeus I did because this shop is easily on par with Saint Cupcake and blows Cupcake Jones out of the water. I know. I know. Many of you may be C. J. fans, and I would agree that they make beautiful looking cupcakes but the taste? Oy vey. The cakes are like bricks and the frosting is far too subtle for my taste. Amp up the sugar a bit, bakers, it's a CUPCAKE.

Bean and I shared a cupcake - he's no delicate flower when it comes to consuming cupcakes, let me tell you! - at the shop before heading back to Portland. His choice, the Blondie, a traditional vanilla cake with smooth and light vanilla buttercream. It sported super cute pastel colored sugar crystals sprinkled on top. How refreshingly spring! And in the box to go home, one Lady in Red (Southern red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting - serious yum), one Happy Day (chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream - yes, please!), and one Margarita (refreshing lime cake topped with tequila and lime buttercream, rock salt, lime twist and straw - I loves me some lime). I enjoyed my halves thoroughly, Darr was like, "Meh." He probably would have been more impressed if they had produced an Old Fashioned drink-inspired cupcake. Margarita, puh-lease.

Current cupcake rankings*:

First place: Cupcakes (Vancouver, B.C.)

Second place: Sweetest Thing (Newberg)

Second place: Saint Cupcake (Portland)

Fourth place: Cupcake Jones (Portland)

*Cupcake rankings include cupcake shops I've been to but do not include cake shops that produce cupcakes. Would it really be fair to the cupcake folks to add Piece of Cake to the competition? No. Because Marilyn's cupcakes are like dense little miniature cakes of happiness and all things good in this world topped with cream cheese frosting. It also does not include Ida's Cupcakes because, alas, I was not able to go away for the weekend like these other ladies I know.

Because a human went ka-choo

Dang. I gots me a cold and today when I was enjoying another round of Sneeze Fest 2010, I tweaked my neck. I sneezed. And hurt my neck. Egads.

One more year o' wisdom

Well, I'm one year older. A little over a week ago I met with some friends to celebrate the momentous event and they completely spoiled me. I got jewelry! And art! And a book! Plus, I got to spend an evening with the girls and feast on Kung Pao chicken and have a tasty beverage without the toddler in tow. Awesome! All of that added to the purchase of Lola - Happy birthday to me!, Piece of Cake that Darr got for me, and a card made this a really great birthday. Oh, did I mention I got to sleep in until after 8:00a.m.? Woot!

The iPad at work

I took Lola out for her first in-the-field experience the other day. The old driver's license needed to be renewed and that meant a trip to the good old DMV. If there is one place you are almost guaranteed to need some form of entertainment for the little ones, it's while waiting to get help in a government office. DMV is synonymous with 'this is going to take awhile so grab a number and park it,' is it not? Luckily, I saw this coming before leaving the house so I packed Lola. Since Henry fell asleep in the car on the way to the DMV office, I got to read a few chapters on Lola - The War of the Worlds (for free!). The weight is a bit heavier than your standard book but not annoyingly so, and, despite what I originally thought, I did get used to the inflexibility of the device. I love that the book looks like a book with a tease of a cover behind the layered pages. Awesome. What I miss is the feel of each page. Later, after Hen woke up and we went inside, I was able to keep him occupied with a rousing game of Peek-A-Boo Barn. He's quickly learning how to navigate the iPad, and enjoying the various apps I've downloaded for him. (These include the aforementioned Peek-A-Boo Barn, Magnetic Draw, Bee Book, and Bubble Snap.)

Saturday

While his pops is skiing down the mountain, Bean is napping with the cat on the couch.

Justice Stevens resigns

Bring on the liberal judges!

Book nineteen: Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

You can't pick up a book with a title that can be abbreviated to the acronym BFF and think it's going to be the read of a lifetime. It's not. Although you might recognize the author from In Her Shoes, which was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette. I was telling Darr the other day that the problem with reading really, really good books is that it makes the bad ones seem even worse. The clichés, the flowery prose, the contrived moments. It's all too horrible when you compare to something truly great. But, on it's own, the book was interesting enough for me to read it to the end. And it's still light year's better than this one book Darr had me read even though the ending was so incredibly awful it soured the rest of the book. (If I ever remember the title I'll share it so you can not read it and spend the rest of your life thinking about how bad that ending truly was.)

19 down, 7 to go.

Totally normal

I took Henry to the doctor's office this morning for a weight check. He's gained two pounds in the past six months and is also two inches taller. The gain still wasn't enough to raise him above the five percent mark on the growth chart but he's continuing to grow so the doctor wasn't overly concerned. She again mentioned that we should let Hen eat pretty much whatever he wants. (We do.) And have snacks available at all times. (They are.) Since the doc had a few extra minutes we got to chat about a couple of other concerns:

1. Bed time. Bed time is not easy at our house. This isn't to say we don't have the occasional night of good luck, we do. But generally speaking, Henry does not ever want to go to bed. And he's become exceedingly crafty in finding ways to stay up. Cries of "I'm hungry," or "I gotta go pee, mama," or "I need milk," are guaranteed to get him out of his room. Doc P. assures me this is normal.

2. Bloody noses. Huck has a lot of these. And it isn't pretty. Usually they occur after he's gone to sleep. He wakes up with the bloody nose and then cries. Loudly. Of course, by the time we get in his room, he's already been busy trying to divert the blood running down his face so he looks like a victim of some heinous crime - blood all over his face, in his hair, on his hands, etc. Egads. While I have caught Bean with his finger in his nose, his picking probably isn't the cause of the bleeding. More than likely, he's just a kid prone to nosebleeds. Doc P. assures me this is normal.

3. Nearly always answering "yes" or "no": I'd say that 95% of the time when you ask Henry a question, he answers "yes" or "no" regardless of whether or not the question was a yes or no question. She surmised that Bean is often so wrapped up in whatever else he is doing or thinking that he answers yes or no because he understands the questions construct and wants to comply but can't be bothered to actually listen and answer. Great. He's two and already blowing me off. Doc P. assures me this is normal.

4. Night terrors: Those 3a.m. wake ups Hen has are most likely due to night terrors. Kids have them all the time. As our doc is one of those attachment parenting hippie docs, she's into co-sleeping and encourages us to continue to allow Henry into our bed when, in the middle of the night, he's woken up by a bad dream. She views this phase as another attachment phase. I expect Henry to go to sleep in his room (most nights) but I have no problems with him coming to us in the middle of the night if he's scared. A typical night means we put Henry to bed around 8p.m. and he'll finally fall asleep around 9:15p.m. Doc P. assures me this is normal.

When all is said and done, our Bean is totally and wonderfully normal.

A sharing moment

John and Mary had never met.
They were like two hummingbirds
who had also never met.

Just thought I'd share.
Cartoon HT: Natalie Dee

The iPad update

I'm slowly getting used to this "keyboard". I have found that I don't do well if I try to hover my fingers over the letters in the same position as if it were a tangible keyboard so I've adopted a sort of typing meets pecking method where my fingers are held to the sides of the keys so as not to hide the letters and then my fingers move randomly to strike the necessary keys. It sounds more troublesome than it is. I watched my first movie on Lola this afternoon and was constantly reminded, as I had used my headphones, of this guy Darr told me about who complained about the placement of the headphone jack at the bottom of the screen. Um, dude, turn it over! I have yet to take Lola out of her protective covering (also known as the iPad condom) but I have found approximately 17 different iPad sleeves on Etsy that would be awesome to have. Had I not already contacted my mom to make one for me, I would totally buy all of them. A girl's gotta have her accessories, right?

On the usability scale, I'd place Lola at a solid seven. (One being lame and not user-friendly at all and ten being need this more than food and water to live.) Looking ahead I could definitely see the iPad taking over for my laptop if I got a kick ass desktop system to do the heavy lifting. Of course this would be after folks like Hulu.com got on board and changed to HTML5 so not having Flash capabilities wouldn't be an issue. I just typed this post using Lola, and while it took a little longer to complete than it would have if I was using my other computer I'm not annoyed or bothered by the extra time spent. More Lola the iPad at the condo entries to follow.

Henry 900

Henry - 900 days old

Top Nine Things You Don't Know About Henry

1. His new favorite stuffed animal is Petal the Bunny.

2. He says "strawbrarries" instead of "strawberries."

3. He runs twice as fast with his socks off.

4. He has discovered the snack drawer.

5. He's a whiz at frisbee throwing.

6. He can take off his shoes and socks on his own.

7. He has learned he can stand on things to reach higher.

8. He babbles at bedtime.

9. Henry now says four when counting but he says, "one, two, three, five, four, five, six..."

Some Perspective

Just a quick note about the CBO estimates for the recent health care bill, with come comparative numbers.


Legend:

• JGTRRA: Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 - Signed by George W. Bush, grew the deficit by, er, A LOT


• EGTRRA: Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 - Signed by George W. Bush, grew the deficit by something under 4 billion dollars.


• Iraq: yeah, I think we all know who shoulders this, grew the deficit by something south of 8 billion dollars.


• PPACA: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 - Signed by Barack Obama, shrinks the deficit!
  

GWB adds 12 billion dollars to our debt load and is fiscally responsible, while Obama reduces total spending and is sending this country to the poor house? Amazing. I guess it's all in how you sell it.

From Menzie Chinn over at Econbrowser.

An iPad Story

I got to play with my mama's iPad today. It has apps just for me. I love apps.

But I wish my mom wasn't always bothering me to look up. When I look up, I can't play me apps. Shortly after saying cheese, I lost my grip on lil' Lola and she fell, nicking the coffee table on the way down. My mama didn't even get mad. She said the flaw gives Lola character.

Book eighteen: The Healing of America by T. R. Reid

This should be required reading for every American who has the mentality that nothing in the world can be better than what we have here in the U.S. My goodness, when it comes to health care we are far behind nearly every industrialized nation on the planet. Oh, sure, you can find instances where a few cancer stats here are better than every other place but we're talking about specifics and when you review various health care systems overall and rate factors such as access to care, cost controlling efforts, and quality, we're NEVER in the lead. Reid concludes with one - he calls it the first - question: Is health care a human right?
As Professor Hsaio, a Harvard economist, states,

"If the people believe that medical care is a basic right, you design a system that means anybody who is sick can see a doctor. If a society considers medical care to be an economic commodity, then you set up a system that distributes health care based on the ability to pay."

Many Americans don't believe you can't get care. President Bush assured Americans that people can get health care by visiting the emergency room. In a sense this is true, hospitals cannot turn away true emergencies. They can, however, refuse to provide non-emergency care to patients unable to pay. We should do better than this for the citizens of our country. 18 down, 8 to go.

Happy Easter!

The menu was simple yet tasty - sweet potato pancakes with orange-honey butter, baked eggs with garden vegetable hash, and (thanks to my sister-in-law) fruit salad, along with cold, hard-boiled colored eggs for the kids, and mimosas for the adults (mustn't forget those). Anyway, we had an excellent morning and early afternoon. Henry and Amelia looked cute pretty much the entire time they were together, except when they decided the t.v. on the floor was a toy on which they could climb. (It's not a toy on which they could climb.) Of course there were pictures...

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

About an hour later - after cleaning up the house and getting started on dishes - we headed out to Newberg to visit with our out of town friends, Rick and Anya. (Who just bought a house in Seattle! Goodbye, condo living. Hello, backyard with garden potential!)

Anyway, as further evidence the world is truly a small place, I shall tell a long story and wind my way (eventually) back to the point. I went to school with both Rick and Darren although I didn't really know Rick all that well in high school. (I knew Darr because of his younger siblings and because he was in theatre.) Darr and I started dating when he returned from college and got a job at the store where I worked. Because of Darr, I met Sandy who is Rick's mom. Darr had worked for Sandy in the past, and not long after we started dating, I started working for Sandy. It wasn't long before we discovered that Sandy was best friends with my mom in grade school. Small world, eh? And in conclusion, Sandy, Rick, and the rest of the gang are very much like family to us so it's pretty cool when we get invited out to their big celebrations. I'd estimate there were between 30 and 40 people there. But since Sandy's house is ginormous and folks kept arriving with bundles of kids, the actual count could be much higher than that. We ate. Henry participated in an egg hunt and the adults got a treat, too, in the form of a burst your balloon, by sitting or stomping on it - game that yielded Darr and I $6 and lots of candy. Needless to say, Henry was a bit sugared out by the time we got home. After much protesting against wearing pajamas, that failed to keep him out of said pajamas, Henry went to sleep. Oh wait, I forgot to mention the Wii! We don't have Wii, and Henry is really far too young to enjoy one thoroughly on his own. But plop him in front of the screen with a few older kids playing some running game and he's on fire!

Paying their share

David Tepper - $4 billion ($4,000,000,000.00)

John Paulson - $2.3 billion ($2,300,000,000.00)

Kenneth Griffin - $900 million ($900,000,000.00)

Following math uses Tepper's income:

$600,000,000 tax - 15% (the above folks are currently paying)

$1,400,000,000 tax - 35% (at rate I pay)

$800,000,000 - net loss to country

Projected health care costs = (approx.) $1 trillion over next ten years

Find 100 of these gentlemen currently taking advantage of the 15% tax rate, get them to pay the 35% rate the rest of the "rich" folks pay, and you have health care paid for for THE NEXT DECADE.*

*I realize, of course, that this math is a bit fuzzy, but as Darr commented after making the calculations "things don't really work out that way in real life but it just goes to show the awesome power of some people's wealth."

Happy early birthday to me

I raced out of the house this afternoon and arrived at the Apple Store at 2:37p.m. We were in need of a new Mac Mini and, well, I mean, I had reserved an iPad, I couldn't not go and take a look. There was a line outside the main doors that wrapped around the building. The huddled masses yearning to get in - poor suckahs. I walked right up to the Apple employee playing gatekeeper for the day, gave him my name and was promptly ushered inside, right to the waiting arms of a salesman who whisked me over to a demo iPad. I quizzed the guy for about ten minutes, but not before he journeyed to the depths of the store to nab my iPad - reserved iPads were only being held until 3:00p.m. - because he wanted to make sure he had the type I wanted in case I decided to buy it. You know, just in case. I am typing this post to you now from Lola, our newest family member (and technical gadget) at the condo.

Will I?

The iPad is coming.

Health care models

The Bismarch Model - Germany, Japan, France, Belgium, Switzerland:

• health care providers and payers are private entities
• constructed like basic charities, they cover everybody and are non-profit
• tight regulation of medical services and fees provides cost-control for system

The Beveridge Model - Britain, Italy, Spain:

• health care provided by government and funded through taxes
• medical treatment is a public service (think fire departments and libraries)
• many (sometimes all) hospitals are owned by government
• some doctors are gov't employees some are private, all are paid by the gov't
• closest example to "socialized medicine"
• there are no bills
• government controls what doctors can do and what they can charge (using best practices)

The National Health Insurance Model - Canada:

• providers of health care are private, the payer is a government-run insurance program that every citizen pays into
• national or provincial insurance plan collects monthly premiums and pays medical bills
• no marketing, no underwriting offices needed to deny claims, no profits
• single-payer covering everybody able to negotiate for lower prices
• control costs by limiting medical services and making patients wait for treatment

The Out-of-Pocket Model - Countries too poor and disorganized (Cambodia, India, Egypt):

• rich get medical care, the poor don't
• medical care is paid for by patient, out of pocket, with no insurance or government plan to help

We use elements of all models in America.

For most working people under 65, we use the Bismarck Model - the worker and employer share the premiums for the health insurance policy. The patient pays a co-pay and insurance pays the rest.

For Native Americans, military personnel, and veterans, we use the Beveridge Model - patients never get a medical bill, doctors are government employees working in government-owned clinics and hospitals.

For those over 65, we use the National Health Insurance system, with some members receiving additional coverage through Medicare.

For the 45 million uninsured Americans, we're Cambodia. Folks in this category can access medical care only if they can pay out of pocket for it.