Hello Again, Hello

There's been a lot going on over here, and I feel bad for not blogging about it. I mean, I blew past all sorts of news and just never got around to posting. I'm not sure if I didn't know what to say or if I was just keeping things quiet and personal for a while. Beyond any holiday posting that could have happened I've had one thought on my mind that I've wanted to mention for a while.

Jeff and I found out last October that we were expecting, and we've been excited ever since. This is our first child and other than making sure that our family and friends knew first, I wasn't quite sure how to handle the baby debut into the blog. Blogging about knitting or movies and books, or even a party that I went to never seemed too personal to me, but all of a sudden this seemed like very private information about my family and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to share.

Still, not blogging about the baby has led me to not blog about other things as well. I think I've been somewhat avoiding the blog so that I could avoid the subject altogether, and that's just silly. I plan to keep blogging and if I'm going to keep blogging then I know our growing family is going to come up sooner or later, so here I am to get the ball rolling.

We went for the 20 week ultrasound on February 9th and I can now share with you that we are expecting a baby boy, and he's due sometime around June 27th. So far everything is looking great and right on track.We're also in the midst of hunting for a house. We've been living in a rented duplex for the last 5 years, and I just don't think it's big enough for all of us. Or at least it's not big enough unless I get rid of some furniture, and boxes of books, and maybe some clothes. This is the big time sink that has been eating all my remaining brain cells and consuming most of my free time. Well that and trying to clean/organize/reduce what is currently in our home to try and make moving a little less painful when we get to that point. So when you see me at a social gathering and all I do is babble about house hunting, know that deep down I'm sorry.

Coraline

I am really looking forward to seeing Coraline. It was a fun book to read, but the art I've seen so far in the snippets is beyond what I had in my imagination. It's so beautiful, and spooky, and cool, and just awesome. If you can't wait until February of 2009 then check out the website, and use these codes to get a peek.

stopmotion : the Biggest Smallest movie ever made. (this is so pretty)
buttoneyes : Meet the cast...
moustachio : Bo Henry, art director of Coraline, shows off his remarkable moustache tricks. (beware men may find themselves needing to grow a large mustache)
armpithair : Every hair in the film was placed there by hand... (boggle!)
puppetlove : Director Henry Selick explains what it must be like for the puppets in the film. (this one was a bit weird)
sweaterxxs : Micro-knitting. (even non-knitters will be a amazed)

After that you need to go check out the Knitty blog. There are said to be 50 boxes sent all over the net containing various movie memorabilia, and Amy did a great job photographing hers to share. Not all of them have been sent to knitters and I found a great post here with links to other boxes that have appeared online.

It's times like this when I wish I were famous, at least internet famous, even if no one locally knew who I was. As much as I appreciate all these folks sharing their presents virtually with the world, I wish I could touch them. I'm sure there will be some cute merch released with the movie and I will just have to support the economy when the time comes and get something of my own.

We Can Has Bucket

We came home last night to find our new recycling bin waiting for us, as well as the gigantic list of what we can now put in the bin. I have my pickup schedule up on the fridge and I only wish I had more empty containers to put in it. Our first pickup is next Monday, and it's going to be woefully not full.

Sometimes Life is Not Fair

I just found two pairs of Converse that I adore. I would love to be concerned with which pair to put on my Amazon wishlist* but it doesn't matter. Neither of these shoes comes in my size. I mean, it's not even close, not even 4 pairs of socks close. The smallest size that they come in is the equivalent of a US women's 10 1/2. In case you ever want to gift me shoes I wear a US women's 7 1/2. There's no way I can handle a shoe 3 sizes to big. The pair of Converse that I own in a size 8 (whole sized only on that one) are still so big that I barely wear them, lest I trip over my own feet.

Still I shall share my finds with you, in case you are gifted with larger feetsies than myself.

These are both from the Project Red collection. The Converse site says 10% of the net wholesale price of these CONVERSE (PRODUCT) RED™ shoes will be paid to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Geneva, Switzerland). Pretty nifty to get cool new shoes and donate to a good cause I think.

Without further ado I present to you:

1 Hund(red) #30 Jeremyville
and 1 Hund(red) artist #34 Ana Ventura
Don't feel too bad for me though, I did add a lot of Mary Jane style shoes to my list. So I am not completely devoid of the possibility of new shoes.

*You should check out the new ability to add anything from the net to Amazon lists, it's cool. I've been able to finally add many of the other items I've coveted for years, but have never splurged to buy myself.

Unbelievable

I just had to enable the word verification on comment posting, and delete two comments that were Viagra ads. Stupid fraggin spammers.... Anyway, good night it's way past my bedtime.

No Content

Well since I don't have anything else to post right now, here's a link to a silly Olbermann mash up. It made me laugh, and it's only a minute, so go ahead and check it out.

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Out of My Depth

I don't normally post about politics. I consider myself "kind of informed". I mean, I listen to NPR most mornings/afternoons (even on purpose sometimes), and I watch some news-like programs on television. However, I don't feel like any sort of authority on any issues. I don't do massive amounts of reading online or in newspapers about politics, I've always hated history and therefore never bothered to remember any of it, and in general refer to the political blogs Jeff peruses as "boring political crap". So, I think kind of informed covers it. I'm not up there in my knowledge, but I'm not completely out of touch either.

I support and have voted for Barack Obama. I don't talk about this much at work because I am surrounded by the sort of rabid republican that would start foaming at the mouth if the subject came up. I tend to duck out of conversations when politics comes up, because I can't argue the finer points of either candidates positions. Although the more I listen the more I realize they can't either.

I've been amazed lately by the crap that I've heard coming out of their mouths. I don't understand how they can believe it without question. One person last week was pissed because she's sure Obama is going to win, and she'd just found out that the 401K she'd been saving was going to be taxed an additional 15% by Obama, even if she waited to make a withdraw until she was 60. Being a rational person, who's listened to at least some of the debates this sounded dubious to me, so I googled it. Apparently people are twisting a raise in capital gains tax into having anything to do with 401K (which it doesn't, in case you're curious 401K withdraw is taxed at the regular payroll/income tax rate dependant on your income, not at the capital gains tax rate).

Today I heard that Barack wants to bankrupt coal companies. An odd statement to be sure, so again I ducked to my office and found it came from an interview with SFGate.com. They way I understand the statement is that whoever creates carbon/greenhouse gas emissions should pay for them and the revenue collected would help create newer tech to reduce these harmful emissions. If people want to continue to pollute, they are free to do so, but they will pay for it, and if they don't try to reduce their emissions then they will bankrupt themselves. It's not a statement of intent (as I see it) more a statement of eventuality. If you can't afford the fees, and your refuse to change, then eventually you will run out of money.

The final straw though was when I heard that, you'll love this one, Barack Obama isn't black. I'm sorry, but have your little ones cover their eyes because I'm going to swear here. For fuck's sake! First he wasn't white enough and now he's not black enough? And if one more person talks about how he's a muslim like it's true, or that it would even fucking matter to me....

There's a reason why I talk about working with redneck, hillbilly, rabid republican dipshits. Very few of the people that talk politics around me seem to know jack about shit. I mean, if I heard a report that John McCain had plans to raise the tax rate of people making $15K-45K by an additional 5% and giving that money to their employers to help pay for health care I would freakin' doubt it. I would look into that shit a little closer and not just go spouting off about how terrible he would be for our country, and how he's out to screw the little guy.

Okay I'm done. Screw these not-hippies, I'm going home.