| Joke - For KS folks |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|01:37 pm] |
After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New York scientists
found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion
that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed a
California archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after a story
in the LA Times read: "California archaeologists, finding traces of 200
year old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an
advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New
Yorkers."
One week later, The Kansas City Star, a local newspaper in Kansas
City , Missouri , reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30
feet in his pasture near Cedar Vale, KS. Bubba Brown, a self-taught
archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore
concluded that 300 years ago Kansas had already gone wireless."
Thank heavens for Bubba . . .Who said Kansans are hicks? |
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| Joke |
[Jun. 13th, 2009|08:55 am] |
GOD ENJOYS A GOOD LAUGH!
There were 3 good arguments that Jesus was Black:
1. He called everyone brother
2. He liked Gospel
3. He didn't get a fair trial
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:
1. He went into His Father's business
2. He lived at home until he was 33
3. He was sure his Mother was a virgin and his Mother was sure He was God
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:
1. He talked with His hands
2. He had wine with His meals
3. He used olive oil
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian:
1. He never cut His hair
2. He walked around barefoot all the time
3. He started a new religion
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was an American Indian:
1. He was at peace with nature
2. He ate a lot of fish
3. He talked about the Great Spirit
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish:
1. He never got married.
2. He was always telling stories.
3. He loved green pastures.
But the most compelling evidence of all - 3 proofs that Jesus was a woman:
1. He fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was virtually no food
2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it
3. And even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was still work to do
Can I get an AMEN!! |
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| April Rose is fake |
[Jun. 12th, 2009|04:18 pm] |
This will be, admittedly, a long, emotional, rambling, tedious post. Skip now if you want.
Every morning, when I get to work, I start my day, but reading the news online. (Yes, I know – just move on, OK?) I start with the Chicago Tribune, proceed to the local Pantagraph and then hit the Guardian in the UK, as foreign journalism seems more balanced than our own.
Today I was a bit out of order, and started with the Pantagraph. Yesterday I had jury duty, but instead of trial stuff, or grand jury stuff, I was empanelled as a member of the coroner’s inquest jury. She determines the cause of death and the jurors determine the manner of death. Only 2.5% of the time does Beth the coroner (yes, it is really this very nice, well-dressed woman named Beth) need an inquest and she calls for them when she cannot see a clear manner of death or if there is a disagreement between the family and herself.
So yesterday was a day off of work. I get downtown, park the car, go to the wrong building, head to right building and get where I need to go. We have instructions and are told that there are 2 cases today, both of which were in the media. We were then given press instructions.
I was not empanelled for case #1, but I stayed to listen. His death was ruled accidental and I certainly agree. The clear, visible relief from the family that their loved one died in this manner made me glad that jury reached that conclusion (he did not kill himself). The second case started shortly thereafter and I was not chosen for that one either. I was free to go, but I did ask if I could stay and hear the name of this case before I left and coroner Beth was OK with that.
This case was on the front page of the paper this morning, which is why I went to the Pantagraph. It took them 2 hours to deliberate, after an hour of testimony, which means they went until like 3:30 with no food. That guy was found to be a justifiable homicide (well, stupid, wave a gun around a bunch of police officers after robbing a bank and yes, they shoot you).
After finishing with the Pantagraph, I then headed on over to the Trib. The front page story was about a woman who blogged about her adverse diagnosis pregnancy for months, revealed the delivery in her blog and posted a picture of a doll as the ill child. I am not making this up. Google “Little April Rose” and it comes up. The Trib article has some problems with it, but the crux is that this 26 year old woman had this blog that put forth her faith in trying to carry this child despite adverse diagnosis. And she was FUCKING LYING.
Any of you that know me, and some of you know me in real life and were even present for what I’m talking about, know that I have been down this road. I have received an adverse diagnosis. I have gone to the ends of the earth to save my child. I refused to end my pregnancy because I felt very strongly that I could not play God, and frankly that was His job. Our family was on prayer lists and people were there for us. For those of you that knew me then, there were email updates as we went down those very long 29 weeks of our lives, because blogspot didn’t exist then (hell, Google didn’t exist then) (actually it started about the same time as this pregnancy). This type of life experience leaves a pretty lasting impression.
So naturally I was drawn to the headline. What went on? Was the baby fine and she was just mucking it up? Did she just overreact? What is going on?
Nope, she’s not pregnant at all and it’s all lies. And she had thousands of loyal readers. And she used other names to comment on other blogs and drive traffic to her site. And it was working something fierce, until she posted the doll picture (I’d love to see this picture!).
Overall, there are 3 main bloggers that championed this story. All of them have real life harrowing stories of their own. 2 lost children shortly (hours) after delivery to birth defects, which sounds incredibly like my story. 1 had a child who is alive today, but she was told during pregnancy that he would die. He has issues, but nothing as bad as they said it would be. That family is eternally grateful for not terminating. None of these women would have terminated, and all have great compassion. So when they heard the story of little April Rose, they were drawn in.
Now they are all duped. But despite being angry, they are asking for prayer for this troubled young woman. Which is far more Christian than I feel toward her right now, so more power to them.
So of course, this being an emotional topic, I’m pretty much toast for the day.
So I looked at the 3 womens’ blogs. And read the stories of their lost children. And the success for that one mom. And I’m crying in my cube.
I’ve been there. Oh, I’ve been there. How to cope with the other children in your life (these women all had older children during their bad time – I had no other children, but Erick was mighty confused). Headstone ordering. How tiny the coffin is. How to manage at the funeral. How pissed you are that you didn’t get to hang out with your kid longer. How to handle birthdays. Bad doctor visits. How to channel your sense of loss into something positive. How grateful you are to have had this experience. How peaceful you are when it is actually happening. How nothing is ever a big deal any more. How you don’t care when your other kids make a mess/eat too much candy/wave good-bye to you at camp (this was my new experience this week – “you can go, Mom.”). How grateful you are when your children reach key milestones effortlessly, because you know it can really be a struggle for other kids.
Anyway, I’m not in quite a Christian frame of mind towards this woman for one reason. Being a bereaved parent is not something we all aspire to be. It is not a club you want to belong in. We do not have a mark on our forehead to show you we are bereaved, so many many times we suffer in silence at other’s stupidity (adopted people don’t have that mark either, so watch what you say – we don’t tolerate stupid well at all). However, once you’re in this club, you silently wish peace and grace on any new members or repeat members.
And this woman toyed with this very concept. This is not a fucking joke. This is, for those of us who are members, a big deal. We treat our membership with reverence, even if we had children that were just built wrong and we actually ended up with the easy end of it with our child dying. I’m here to tell you that the vast majority would rather deal with a sick kid than a dead kid. I signed up for this gig and I was ready to do so. (Ted too of course, but he doesn’t know about my day yet, because he was having lunch at camp.)
Don’t joke about this, woman. There are some seriously mad people because you hit a nerve. Yes, fiction is a perfectly fine medium, but she never declared it as such. She was confronted in private by one person and denied it. That person tried again with 2 more people with her and still a denial. They were trying to get her to resolve the story and the inconsistencies in a peaceful manner and just state that she was having a hard time coping with a prior pregnancy loss. Hey, all of us would have understood. We’ve all been there. But no.
So she was outed today in the Trib. And I’m a mess. And even though I really need to go for a blood draw and I have a case to do for class, I’m going to go home and hug my kid a lot. For some unknown reason to me, she was the only one of my 4 children to survive. No one knows how she made it and no one knows why. And frankly we just don’t ask and are just grateful. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 12th, 2009|02:58 pm] |
Happy Easter!
Ours was sponsored by Market Day. The only way to go - heat and eat. |
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| Sad discovery |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|07:48 pm] |
Today it was reported that Duncan and Jack Connolly (now going by their mother’s last name Leichtenberg) were found in a remote part of Putnam County, IL (near LaSalle-Peru). They have been missing since March 8 and are from LeRoy, a small sleepy suburb of Bloomington-Normal. They were ages 9 and 7 and were discovered dead in their father’s car. He was also found dead. The Sheriffs’ Departments (2 counties working together) have described this as a double-murder, homicide, ruling out the idea that they were killed by a stranger.
These children have been a nationwide Amber Alert. Their case was on America’s Most Wanted. They were killed 75 miles from home. The mother has been at the McLean County Sheriff’s Office every day, crying her eyes out, missing her boys.
The discovery was made yesterday afternoon and out of deference to the LeRoy Elementary School, the story was not made public until the school got to tell the kids and the parents. (One of our better acts of discretion – our paper doesn’t necessarily exercise discretion often, but this time, they got it right.) The school has chosen to be 100% open with the kids throughout this whole ordeal, holding support days and making their desks into shrines/shows of support (lots of Beanie Babies were involved).
Judge Souk ordered unsupervised visits, DESPITE an order of protection that the mother had against this guy. If her life is in danger, what makes anyone think that this whack job would not hurt his children, despite making statements to the contrary? Judge Souk, may the mother sue your ass right off the bench. Guess who I’m voted against next election? Damn, I just found out he’s appointed. |
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| Roland Burris is a tool |
[Feb. 17th, 2009|09:27 pm] |
EDIT: this as written this afternoon.
Roland Burris is an asshat and should resign. He paid to play.
We need a special election now to get a new senator from IL.
IL is sinking to new political lows every moment, and the fact that the President is from here cannot even solve it.
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| Good news |
[Jan. 29th, 2009|06:17 pm] |
I have a 5 page paper due and I want to get it done before the Super Bowl for my mental health, so I'm off to do that in a minute. Actually our group has this due, but whatever.
But quickly, I am HAPPY TO REPORT that Rod R Blagojevich is no longer our governor and is banned from ever holding public office in IL ever again. We gladly welcome Pat Quinn, our Lt. Gov., to the big house and he's already been sworn in. We all really like Pat Quinn; he's the rare public office holder who just calls it like he sees it. He has for years and assures us it will not change.
It's not a sad day in IL, it's a GREAT day here in the Prairie State. |
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| Inauguration Day |
[Jan. 20th, 2009|10:24 pm] |
I'm proud to be from Illinois. While we can claim Grant and Reagan as presidents from our state, it's really all about Lincoln. We are the Land of Lincoln after all. At least that's what it says on my license plate.
And now it's about Obama. WOW. |
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| Lucky me |
[Jan. 12th, 2009|05:30 pm] |
I'm off to class (now that I remembered what room I'm in). We're under some sort of winter weather advisory/blizzard thing.
Lucky me. |
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| Gravy is a beverage |
[Dec. 28th, 2008|07:45 pm] |
And let's just leave it at that.
Packrat is now fun again on Facebook. They went ahead and did a ton of changes that made it un-fun and then they brought back the fun elements. So now it's more of a hybrid - not quite a best of breed, but still a nice combo. So back into that foray I go.
I woke up this morning feeling puny and frankly I still feel puny. So I'm not doing too much. I realize that I have a zillion (more like 100) UFOs for quilting and related craft projects and I really need to finish some things off. So I've decided get 5 quilts ready for the actual quilting part of the process and I'm going to put them upstairs next to that sewing machine for quilting. My machine quilting looks like a mattress pad (I suck at anything more than straight lines), so they will not be glamorous, but they will get done. For each 5 I finish, I can make a new pile of 5. The 5 I'm getting prepared right now include one I started yesterday (it was a Christmas mystery), one I started in August, one I unearthed from the garage, one I started in like March and one that will be made from something like 60 blocks I have and I have no idea what to do with them.
I may actually make the pile 10 or 15 quilts. The goal is to have a huge pile ready to go when I go back to school on the 12th and then I can quilt in between study sessions. The piecing process requires precision, cutting and acuity, things I do not possess during the term. Quilting requires shoving the fabric under the needle. That I can do. So the more I have ready to go on the 12th, the more I can get done. To put this in perspective, during this past fall term, only 1 quilt got done. I cannot NOT quilt. This makes me very cranky, as this entire household will attest. So this is what my latest harebrained scheme is.
I can safely say that I will not be buying a new machine or any fabric any time soon. There are one or two projects that have very specific needs, and when I get there, I'll buy, but overall, there is no point in buying while i'm not sewing.
Plus, in a necessary effort to get at least one car in the garage, everything that was deemed for me to go through is now in the living room. Ted had left it in the garage, but the weather forced it in the house. Much of it is donations, and that makes the process quicker, but like unpacking, there's only so much one wants to do. And in this process, I unearthed no joke 100 yards in all 6 colors of the rainbow from my cousin Becky. (I have now probably taken in over 500 yards from Becky, so why in heaven's name would I need to shop ever again for fabric???) But also in all of these boxes and bags from the garage are the UFOs that never made it into the house. Oy.
I'm overwhelmed. |
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