I took a couple of pictures of our favorite tree ornaments the other night just after we'd decorated. I thought I would share, and put out an open invitation for my readers to do the same on their own blogs. Can't wait to see your special ornaments! (Provided of course, that you are as lazy in the week following Christmas as I am and haven't already taken your tree down, or that you just happen to already have the appropriate pictures.)

This baby is my favorite. I got it for Ryan the first Christmas after we started dating. It's a Hallmark, and it's called "Stuck on You", which very much described our budding relationship. If we weren't physically stuck to one another, our minds were stuck on each other. I'm amazed that we both made it through that period with our jobs intact. Totally and completely driven to distraction darn near 24/7.



This here is Monkey's favorite. This year, as soon as we dragged out the boxes of ornaments, she was searching for it. I was surprised that she remembered it, because she hasn't ever made a big deal about it in the last couple of years since it was given to us, but apparently she finds it very special. It was given to me by an online friend as part of an ornament exchange the year that we all moved in together.



That's it for now, but I'll finish with a picture of our massive tree all decorated - I know I'm a couple of weeks past showing off your tree time, but we got a late start.

I'm crossing my fingers as I hit the publish button, because I'm not sure if my formatting is going to work out. If the pictures are on the left, and most of the writing is on the right, I'll be ecstatic. Simple minds, simple pleasures.

Funniest Flash animation ever. Not safe for work or small children. I never get tired of this one.

End of The World

Posting from my new toy!

That's right folks, we've finally invested in a laptop.

It's going to be immensely useful for me for school - instead of coming home between classes to use my desktop computer and wasting time and gas on the drive, I can just set up anywhere at the college and work away. Most of the campus is wireless, so I'll even be able to get online.

Yay!

My Christmas Dinner Contribution

Here's the recipe for the lentil loaf I took to Christmas dinner. I would cook it for a little longer than it says, because mine didn't really "loaf". It was more of a lentil slop. Tasty lentil slop, but slop none the less.

1 onion
1 clove garlic
2 stalks celery
2 teaspoons sage
3 cups cooked lentils
3 cups cooked wild rice
1/4 cup dry whole wheat breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 eggs (Use egg substitute to make this dish vegan).
2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
fresh ground black pepper
sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Chop onion and celery finely, and crush the garlic clove.
3. Spray a frying pan with non-stick spray, and saute the onion, garlic and celery until onion is translucent.
4. Add the sage.
5. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
6. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and fill the loaf pan with the mixture.
7. Press down.
8. Bake 30 minutes covered, 10 minutes uncovered.
9. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

I served it with Mushroom Gravy, which is so disgustingly simple to make, and extremely tasty.

Merry Christmas from a bad bad blogger

Hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas!

See you sometime later this week once the sugar buzz and Christmas dinner hangover wears off!

A sigh of relief and a brag

Another semester almost over. My final portfolio of papers for Contemporary Moral Issues is one (or maybe two) editing sessions away from being complete, and when I hand that in at 3 o'clock on Wednesday, I will officially be on 'winter break' (which really just means more time at work, but at least my evenings will be a little clearer).

I've been obsessively checking the college's web site to see if any of my marks have been posted yet, and sometime this afternoon my mark for Auditing went up. 97%. Yay me! Seeing that kind of number pop up really makes all of the homework and studying and lost sleep feel much more worth it.

And now, I must sleep.

Hopefully we'll get the monster Christmas tree decorated tomorrow, and I can share some festive pictures with you all.

Some light reading and a reminder link for myself...

Just got through reading this article, and I thought I would link to it both for the enjoyment of (some of) my readers, and as a way to remind myself to try the recipe which comes at the end of the article. It's an oldie but a goodie by Peter Singer.



If you're not a vegetarian, interested in animal rights, or open minded in any way about the aforementioned topics, you might want to just skip it.

The Plague

The Husband and I have recently found ourselves struck down by the plague.



You know what I'm talking about - that nasty head cold that goes around during the Christmas season that leaves you feeling like a walking snot machine with a vice clamping down on your head and a tourniquet ever tightening around your throat.



And it's right on time to interfere with exams and getting ready for Christmas. You'd think I would have figured out by now that this will happen EVERY YEAR but apparently I'm not that quick.



Wugh.

Grammar goodies

Most excellent.

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).



Are You Gooder at Grammar?

Make a Quiz

Now take it and tell me what you scored. Make sure to post the results on your own blog to spread the grammar love.

Nothing like a little public humiliation...

This is several months old, but I just came across this picture and thought I would share.

For your viewing *ahem* pleasure, a picture from my bachelorette party. Yes, I am drinking out of a diamond shaped ring shot glass. Yes, I am adorned with many shiny sparkly things. Yes, that is in fact a veil made of bar bathroom paper towel.

This is the first time any of the pictures have been put out to the internets, as far as I know, and it may be the last.

The party was a blast, and I was surely and soundly humiliated by my dearest and closest friends, as per tradition. And I can't wait for the rest of them (you know who you are!) to get married so that I can return the favour. Bwahahahahaha.

In all fairness, I did get off quite lightly, compared to some of the other poor girls I've seen dragged around town in horrid getups. In fact, I fared far better than my husband - he may have made an even prettier woman than I did that night. But I'll save those pictures for another day...

Performancing

Becky at Savvy Mom posted a great Firefox extension for her contribution to Works for Me Wednesday (Hosted by Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer).

It's called Performancing, and it's a great little blog editor that sits right inside your Firefox window, and does all sorts of neat things like accept drag-and-drop formatted text from webpages, and allow you to take notes to save for later.

Very easy to set up and use, and in my humble opinion works a smidge better than the Blogger Beta interface. It supports a wide variety of other blog platforms as well.

Enjoy!

Getting to Know Your Friends - The Holiday Version

I was tagged in e-mail, but I decided to answer here rather than by e-mail. I am *much* more likely to post on my blog on any given day than to answer e-mails, although I have no good reason for that.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog. Preferably with spiced rum. Or Hot Chocolate, with Mint Chocolate Baileys. I'm not really that picky, as long as there's alcohol.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Coloured on the tree, none outside. Blinking obnoxious coloured lights on the tree, to be exact.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Tree goes up whenever we get around to getting a tree, which usually means we wait until The Husband's parents get theirs, and tag along with them. Decorations go up as we get around to it. Sometimes, they don't even make it up. It's strange, considering how much I love Christmas, but the decorating thing just doesn't get my mojo going.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Squash and cheddar casserole.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? When my brother knocked over the Christmas tree when I was 2 or 3.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I have no idea. I think my mother's handwriting on Santa's tags gave it away. Hence why I don't put tags on Santa presents now.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Monkey always gets a book and a set of PJs. Nothing for the "big kids" (aka The Husband and I).

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Tons of lights and as many decorations as will fit.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it love it love it. We don't get much here, but we're under a heavy snowfall warning right now and there's already over a foot on the ground and I'm ecstatic.

12. Can you ice skate? Have you ever fallen on the ice? Not well. And yes, a lot of falling.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My parents got my brother and I our own shared phone line, which then became my own line when he moved out. I absolutely loved it.

14 What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being a kid again with my daughter, and spending quality time with family..

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? I have no idea. Probably peppermint cheesecake.

16. What are your favorite holiday traditions? Crafting and wrapping.

17. What tops your tree? A star.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving. Especially when it's a homemade gift.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I have way too many favorites. I love them all. I'm a total Christmas music junkie.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or yum? Yuck! Yuck, unless they're crushed and put in hot chocolate. That's a yummy treat for by the fire on a cold night.

Now I tag Andrea, Birch, Bryan, and anyone else that wants to play along.

A much needed chuckle...

Breasts and why we should be filled with shame for using them.

I love me some finslippy today. Make sure you follow the link to the full article - I just didn't want anyone to miss the Irony Overload bit.

I'm crawling back into bed now. Some strange bug has taken over my body and is making being upright for more than 10 minutes at a time very unpleasant. Great timing, considering we have a parent-teacher interview at Monkey's school in 2 hours, and I have a 3 hour class tonight (that I'm probably only going to go to long enough to hand in my homework and get the next assignment), not to mention the 7 hours of worked I missed today.

Which Sports Car are You?

I'm pleased with my result. The exact word out of my mouth was sweeeeeeet. And anyone who knows me shouldn't be the least bit surprised by that.

I'm a Ford Mustang!

You're an American classic -- fast, strong, and bold. You're not snobby or pretentious, but you have what it takes to give anyone a run for their money.

"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

There's more than one of me!

Someone needs to make one of these for Canada, if there isn't already one. Very cool.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 16 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Potato Leek Soup

Now, I never wanted this blog to turn into a "what I had for lunch today" blog, and in fact I've seriously considered buying Maggie's book to ensure that doesn't happen, but as you all know, I love food, and I love cooking, and occasionally I'm going to have to share my creations and recipes with you. Today is one of those occasions.

Potato Leek Soup (Vegan friendly)

10 cups cold water
1 leek
Olive oil
4-6 medium potatoes
1/2 bulb garlic
Sea salt

Clean and chop the leek into thin slices (some people suggest only using the white part, but I love to throw it all in for the greeny goodness) and saute til slightly browned in the olive oil. While the leek is browning, peel and dice the potatoes. Add the potatoes and leek to the cold water and bring to a boil. Smash and mince the garlic (you may want to reduce the amount slightly, but I'm a garlic fiend so I use tons) and add. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Now, at this point you could call it done and just give it a good stir, add salt to taste, and serve, but I prefer to cream the soup with a hand blender and then add the sea salt. Top it off with some freshly ground pepper just before serving.

Bon appetit!

Nine Shades of Weird

Tag! I'm it.

1. I hate having other peoples feet touch me, and I hate it when my feet touch other people. Frankly, I hate it when my feet touch anything, which is why my favorite TV watching position is sockless-with-feet-over-edge-of-couch. My family thinks this foot issue of mine is hilarious, and they'll often try to be sneaky and put their feet on me without me noticing, but it never works.


2. I love shoes. Totally in contrast to number 1, of course, but I figure if I must confine my feet, I may as well do it with shoes that I love.


3. I'm incredibly cheap. Totally in contrast to number 2, of course. I spend a ridiculous amount of time coveting the shoes of other people (particularly TV characters), but never actually buy the shoes I love for myself. This is also why I'm still walking around in several pairs of shoes with broken or worn down heels.


4. I don't answer my phone unless I know the caller. Thank goodness for caller ID! This one drives The Husband mad, because I'll run across the house with a ringing phone to make him answer it if I don't recognize the number. When he's not home, I just let the machine take it. I figure, if it's important, they'll leave a message. So always leave a message if you call me from a number I might not be familiar with.


5. I love spreadsheets. Yes I do. I think Excel is a program designed by the Gods to make my life more pleasurable. The more things I can think of do to with Excel, the better. While planning our wedding, I had spreadsheets for just about everything, including the shopping list for alcohol, on which the taxes and deposits were automatically calculated so that I knew what we were spending to the penny. That's right, if you didn't already know it (but who doesn't...), I'm a total nerd.


6. I hate odd numbers except for multiples of 5. If I'm listening to the radio and the volume control is numbered, I have to set it to an even number, or a multiple of five. Same with watching TV. Sometimes, I swear that The Husband puts it on an odd number just to torment me.


7. I love food, and I will try just about anything once, but I also have some very strange food habits. I hate for my food to touch, and if it does touch I must separate it before eating it. Sandwiches are eaten in layers, pizza pops are disemboweled and each type of ingredient eaten separately, cake is eaten from the inside out (cakey part first, filling second, and icing last), etc. This behaviour has been labeled odd by some, and totally disturbing by others.


8. I eat paperclips. Well, not really, but at any given time you could walk into my office at work and find me with a paperclip in my mouth. Sometimes I play with them with my tongue, and other times I just chew on them.


9. I only shampoo my hair once or twice a week. I wet it down and style it just about every day, but I don't actually put soap on it unless it's really full of styling cack. Now, you folks with straight hair are probably totally grossed out by this, because people with straight hair often *need* to wash their hair every day or it gets greasy, but that's not the case for *most* of us with frizzy/curly hair. Plus, frizzy hair is even frizzier when it's squeaky clean, which is generally not my preferred look.
   

I'm now supposed to tag nine other bloggers to do this on their own blogs, but I don't think I even have 9 readers, so I'm just going to tag Andy and Birch and if anyone else wants to play along, just leave a link to your post in the comments.

Happy Birthday Monkey!

Monkey's 6th birthday is later this week, but we're celebrating this weekend because she will be with her dad for the actual day and the following weekend.

Can't believe you're six already baby!

Love you much.

Mom

Sexism in the Sandbox

Environmental Groups vs. Rona Ambrose

I understand the cause, I understand the passion, and I understand the desire to use language that is going to catch people's attention, but this is unacceptable. What are the chances that the same comments would have been made about a male in her position, regardless of how lovely his hair was?

Chameleon Blog

The blue was too dark, I think.

I'm not sure if I like this scheme either though. We'll see if it grows on me.

Article on Ecofeminism and Vegetarianism

Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals - Carol J Adams

I'm not going to comment on it yet, unless anyone wants to discuss, but I read it and found it interesting, so I thought I would share. Enjoy!

The Mystery of the Possessed Ceiling Fan Light Solved

So yesterday, the light in the ceiling fan started acting very strange. I turned the light on from the wall switch (it has a remote as well), and within a few seconds the light started cycling from really dim to really bright over and over and over again. C & D were over, so I called them both in to see it. There was some ponderings about whether it indicated pending lightbulb failure or paranormal activity.

I considered leaving the light on and seeing how long it would take to burn out, but I wanted The Husband to see it, so I turned it off and left it off until he got home.

I dragged him into the bedroom (get your mind out of the gutter!) as soon as he got home, and we both stood there and pondered the behaviour for a minute. Then R suggested that I turn the light off, and rather than walking to the door and flicking the switch, I picked up the remote. It was then that I noticed that the "Light" button was depressed and the LED that indicates that the remote is communicating was flickering.

Turns out that the light has a built in dimmer function that we hadn't realized was there, and if you hold the button down instead of just pressing and releasing, it changes the brightness of the light.

The really cool thing about that is that since we moved into this house, we've been cursing how dim the bedroom light is. Turns out it was just on a dim setting. So now we've got it turned up and can actually see things in the room, and all is well.

This post was *way* more interesting in my head than it is on screen.

It amazes me

how indignant some drivers can be, when they're actually in the wrong.

Case in point. I'm coming up 17th street tonight (which of course means nothing to the non-Valley people, but whatever), and I have a green light. I start to proceed through the intersection. The driver across the intersection who is waiting to turn left starts to go as soon as her light goes green (solid green, not a flashing green arrow), and then slams on her brakes and her horn simultaneously and shakes her fist at me. Now, I quite clearly had the right-of-way. What I'm really curious to know is if she realized her mistake and now feels like an idiot, or if she's off posting at her own blog about the crazy lady who ran the red light (as she must have presumed I was doing in order for her to have the right-of-way) and almost drove into her. I didn't notice if she had anyone else in the car, so whether there was an unbiased third party to point out to her what she had done wrong is unclear.

Interesting to ponder.

Waiting on the World to Change

The title of this post is the title of a John Mayer song that is getting massive airtime right now. Here's the lyrics:

Waiting On The World To Change

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want

that's why we're waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

and we're still waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

Now, I immediately found myself liking this song the first time I heard it. It's catchy, it touches on the media control of the right wing, and it talks about the strength of our generation's conviction that things need to change. But then I listened to the song a few more times... and a few more times... (It seems to be on on Sirius Hits 1 every time I'm in the car, which is impressive considering I spend at most 30-40 minutes total in my car out of every 24 hours). The more I listen to it, the stronger the message becomes that our generation shouldn't fight for change, because we're not going to win. That we have to sit on our laurels and wait for all the old codgers in power to die off before our voices can be heard. Not only is it an extremely defeatist attitude, but I just don't think it's accurate!

Do you?

An Official Request

I would like to request that the phrase "over-reacted" be struck from common use.

Guys, nothing good can ever come from telling your wife/girlfriend that she over-reacted.

Particularly when you follow that up with "just like you over-react to everything".

That is all.

Baby shower at my house today for a friend, so I won't be posting again until much later today, if at all.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Monkey and I had these for dinner tonight.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 cups flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp cloves
1 1/4 cups buttermilk/sour milk
3/4 cup of canned pumpkin
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon oil

Combine all ingredients till smooth. Fry on a hot griddle.

From here.

If you're reading this...

let me know.

I'm curious to know who my readers are. And if you have a blog that I don't know about yet, feel free to link. I've got a wicked new extension for Firefox that is making it super easy and quick to check all of my favorite blogs daily.

Salut, mes amis!

There simply aren't enough...

hours in the day to complete everything I want to do.

Everything I *need* to do - maybe. Honestly, if I didn't have any interests outside of school, work, and family, I think I'd be doing just fine. I've learned (as unhealthy as it might be) to cope with little sleep and virtually no "down" time, in the interests of getting done what needs to be done.

However, there are too many things on the list of "wants".

I've developed an interest in Feminism, and trying to sate my desire to understand Feminism both as a theory and as a movement involves a mountain of reading and research that I just don't have enough time for.

That's just one example. I'd put down all of the rest, but I just don't have enough time tonight!

And then there's the desire to reach out and reconnect with friends and family that I don't spend nearly enough time communicating with!

I need to replicate myself.

I think my heart skipped a beat

Along the same lines as my last post...

A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to Cosmo Radio on Sirius (I know, I shouldn't subject myself to that sort of crap, but there was nothing else decent on). They were doing a bit where they were inviting men to call in and talk about what they find attractive in a woman. There was the usual string of "I like great breasts" and "I like a nice firm butt" and even a few "I like a girl with a great set of eyes".

Then this guy called in and was talking about the size of girl that he's into. He starts off okay, saying that he likes a girl who is trim and firm and obviously works out, which I can't say anything negative about, because everybody has their own preferences and that's okay. But then he goes on to say that "it's okay if a girl has a little bit of extra weight, you know, some curves. A girl could weigh even as much as 120 or even 130, and that'd still be okay."

I was flabbergasted. 120 or 130 lbs is 'extra weight'? Seriously? I'm average height, and at 120lbs I look practically skeletal. Anything under 120lbs is considered underweight for my height and frame. How have we gotten to a point where someone being in their healthy range is considered 'extra weight'?

Photoshopping, that's how. It's both amazing and scary how processed the images in our media are. I wish I still had the address to this site I saw a couple of months ago that was before and after retouching pics of celebrities taken for magazine spreads. The amount of 'extra' flesh that was edited out of these photos for the sake of 'beauty' was astounding.

Edited to add: Nevermind. I found the site I was thinking about, but the 'artist' has since taken the befores out of his portfolio. I have to wonder if it was because the celebs were less than impressed with the public being able to see the unretouched versions, if maybe he got a whack of feedback from people telling him how 'wrong' his work is, or some other reason. Much to ponder...

Edited again: But I found an article that has links to several other retouching sites with good examples of what I'm talking about.

These videos hit a cord as a mother of a young girl, but also as a female and simply as a human being. We have very far to go to turn this around.

Ignore this post

I'm only blogging this because I don't have speakers on my computer, and I want to remember to go to this site another time when I'm on a computer that does have some. Lazy, I know. More and more, I'm using this blog as my own personal bookmark page.

Very Funny Ads

But go ahead and click it. You'll probably have some fun there too.

Randomly appearing items of clothing

Whilst searching for a hat to wear to the store (shut up - I didn't want to spend 20 minutes doing my hair for 20 minutes of grocery shopping), I found a sweater in our front hall closet. It is black. Size small. Gap. It is definitely not mine, although I covet it. If it is yours, or you know who it belongs to, send a $50 ransom at your nearest convenience and I might think about giving it back. Neither The Husband or I have any idea how or when it took up residence. I'm hoping it came from another dimension. Wouldn't that be fun!

Ways to avoid housework...

There will be eight or so people here for dinner tomorrow night (I was hoping we'd pick up more strays - the more the merrier! - but so far it's just close family) and while my house is not a total disaster, it certainly isn't meeting the cleanliness standard I generally aim for (which some may describe as neurotic, but let's not go there). I'm having trouble finding motivation to clean, and in pondering my lack of motivation, I decided to procrastinate further by posting a list of things I have done thus far today to procrastinate (in no particular order).

1. Visit Sybermoms. Several times. Nope... still no new posts. Try again 5 minutes later? No. Maybe if I keep hitting the New Posts button every 90 seconds I'll find a good time suck thread? Nope. Damn.
2. Visit all of my favorite blogs (see list to the right and down). Read the last several months archives on a couple of them. Refresh repeatedly to see if Heather has posted yet today. Nope, not yet.
3. Check e-mail. Repeatedly.
4. Play with child
5. Bathe child (this didn't really help the procrastination though - as I cleaned the bathroom while she was playing in the tub).
6. Make breakfast for child (made more mess doing this).
7. Make lunch for child (and this).
8. Pack for child to spend a week at her dad's (yay! some laundry "put away").

Now, I have done a couple of loads of laundry and a load in the dishwasher, so I'm not really that bad off. The Husband has been helping me out with keeping the house in shape lately, which is always needed and greatly appreciated - between work, school, a doozy of a migraine on Thursday, and a general desire to spend just five minutes doing *nothing*, I've really needed the extra help. What I really need to do right now though is write a shopping list of stuff to pick up for tomorrow. And The Husband had to work today, so I'm SOL on getting his assistance on that one. Time to stop procrastinating by posting about procrastinating. *Sigh*

So I've decided to give up meat... again...

Alright, so I'm probably not going to go cold-turkey (pun somewhat intended) - it's going to take some time to revise my cooking habits, meal planning process, etc. Especially since I have two other people to think about, neither of whom I'm comfortable enforcing my own ethical decisions on 100%, so there will have to be some compromises made. For myself, I'm going to work on cutting out meat - substituting w/ meat alternatives. For the rest of the family, I'm going to start buying meat products from local farmers that use more humane methods of raising and slaughtering their animals.

This hasn't been an easy decision. Prompted by a paper I had to write for my applied ethics class, I had to look closely at my own views on eating meat. When I started out writing the paper, I was of the mind that eating meat could be an ethical action, dependent on the treatment of the animal. Through lots of reading, pondering, and lengthy discussion/debate with Andrea and Birch, I came to realize that my lines of argument on the issue were flawed. I'm not saying that I am 100% confident that I've come to the absolute correct conclusion, but I do think I'm a lot closer than I was a week ago.

Here's the final draft of the paper I submitted (and yes, it's very short - we're only allowed 260 words to state our argument, support it, object to it, and refute the objection):

Eating non-human animals is ethically wrong because it causes unnecessary suffering in a sentient being. When we eat meat to satisfy a preference, or because we choose not to use other alternatives, we are causing unnecessary suffering. We do not need to eat meat to have a healthy diet, and when we choose to, we are assigning more value to our taste preferences over the preference the animal has to continue to live and to not be inflicted with harm. How can we possibly argue that our dietary preferences are worth more than an animal’s right to life and freedom from unnecessary suffering?

One could try to argue that an animal can be raised in such a way that reduces it’s suffering, and perhaps even allows it to live a “good life”, and in that case killing the animal (in a humane way) for human consumption would not be wrong. However, while this may be a convenient feel-good argument, it does not change the fact that the animal is killed long before its life would have naturally ended, and that cannot be said to satisfy the interests of the animal. Also, we need to ask ourselves what right we have to determine when an animal has lived a long enough life, whether it be good quality or not.

Mmm Mmm Good

There is no better nacho than a Doritos Sweet Chili Heat. That is all.

First Day of Grade 1

First Day of Grade 1
Originally uploaded by allyson_hamilton.

Well, this is going up a couple of weeks too late, but I just got around to actually plugging the camera in. Doesn't she look so grown up?

We're going through clothes like mad these days. This morning, she tried to put on a pair of jeans that were HUGE when she got them for Christmas last year, and they don't fit anymore.

I'm either going to have to get really good at finding steals on eBay or take out a line of credit to keep her in clothes for the next few years!

Wow. Just. Wow

I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

FYI

So, I was reading one of my favorite blogs tonight (for the first time in months... damn my short attention span!), and I found something will probably leave me shaking my head for days.

It was a post full of hate mail the author has received from her readers. Many of them resorting to the same lines: "blah, blah, blah" "your blog is crap" "get off the internet" "you're boring".

Now, I have to wonder what kind of wierdo goes to the trouble of e-mailing a blogger to tell them that they don't enjoy the blog. Why bother? Why not just move on? It's not like there aren't another billion blogs out there!

So here's the FYI point: If my blog ever bores you, don't waste your time and mine telling me so. Just stop coming. If you think I've got nothing notable to say - don't read it. It's really that simple.

Now, if anything on my blog excites you or incites you, I wanna hear about it. But don't come crying to me if what I have to say just doesn't interest you.

Added: It came to me as I was falling asleep last night that there was one more thing I wanted to say. It's free. So STFU. ;)

I Like Like

defective yeti: I Like Like

Like, me too!

It's all about the vagina...

vagina-info.gov

Loved this.

In the defense of feminism?

I didn't intend to start out this blog by discussing anything deep, but a thread on Sybermoms incited what has been a several hour trek through the blogosphere, and I felt the desire to bring my own spin to it.

This thread linked to this article on Salon that summarizes a debate currently raging regarding this
photo of a popular feminist blogger posing with a group of other popular left-wing bloggers and former President Bill Clinton.

Some are criticizing Jessica for even attending the luncheon - they question why someone who describes herself as a feminist would choose to meet with a "sexual harrasser". Many of these people feel that the Lewinsky scandal trumps all of President Clinton's extensive work in promoting women's equality. Of course, whether you hold this view has much to do with whether you feel that what happened with Bill and Monica was between two consenting adults and thus is none of our business, or if you feel that he abused his position of dominance and thus was engaged in harassing behaviour.

Worse than that criticism though, are the folks that are chiming in regarding Jessica's physical attributes. I won't go into detail regarding the comments, as you'll read them yourself if you follow the links, but I was disgusted to read some of the cattiness coming from other women - most of them purporting to be feminists themselves. Particularly Ann Althouse, the one that started it all. Her comments are downright abusive and she should be ashamed of herself.

I must say that this morning's reading has inspired me to dig deeper into the finding out what the feminist movement is all about, both in terms of the political movement and philosophical theories of feminism. If anyone has any particular sources they'd recommend for reading, let me know in the comments.

I have more to say, but I'm tired and my brain is slightly jumbled from too much coffee and not enough food, so I'll continue later.

Added: Wow, I just read a comment on another blog that says what I've been trying to say in a much clearer way, so I'm just going to link you straight to it: comment by geoduck2