Here

... but really fucking tired. And since my boss reads this blog (hi Dana), I won't be able to post from work, even when finally get a computer in the office. Because of course I will always be working.

I miss Peanut so much when I'm there that it hurts.

She has chosen the last week as the appropriate time to

1) Start talking.

2) Stop sleeping.

She ask for Mama now, and she says quack and knock-knock and Ow for meow. She pants when you ask her what a dog says, and she sticks out her tongue and hums when you ask her what a cow says. This makes sense once you realize that her major exposure to cows has been from this book, which my mother makes lick her. She uses sign language for cracker and cheese and milk and all-done and want and eat and sometimes please and more and banana and applesauce, as well as for some other things I can't figure out yet. She can make the signs for a lot more stuff, but hasn't felt the need to do so after the one day she showed me she could. I guess that makes sense. While this is nowhere near what most kids her age can do, when you consider she said nothing but an occasional mamama and had only three signs in mid-June, I'm feeling pretty pleased.

Tomatoes, Tomahtoes

Who Would Jesus Kill?

Salt Mines

I am back to work. The fact that Peanut seems to be adjusting well is because she is so securely attached to me that she isn't concerned that I'm not coming back, especially when Grandma is so much fun in the meantime, right?

Uh, What's The Book Award Called?

This is why I have no college degree.

I'd have won a Pulitzer by now, if it weren't for Mug Night at the KK every Monday, I swear. Oh, and 6 for $6 Molsons on Wednesdays at Brats, and the Long Island Iced Teas at the Red Shed, and knowing the (male) bartenders at various establishments throughout the campus area. Or a Nobel. I would have a Nobel, really, I would.

Everybody Here Is All Right

I'll update, as now the news is getting out about how much damage was done by these tornados, and people are emailing me.

The worst of the storms went just north and just south of Madison. I hardly had any wind, just heavy rain. The tornado sirens went off four times in an hour. I used to be an EMT so I listened to the emergency radio traffic to hear about the damage, and in southern Dane county it was a swath at least 11 miles long. Houses have been flattened, crops destroyed, power lines down everywehere. People were describing a wedge-shaped tornado that threw debris for miles, and people were reporting finding paper and building debris sixty miles to the east (including TJ, who commented on my last post). A retired meteorologist who had worked in Oklahoma called into the news station I was watching and said that he saw the tornado, and it resembled the ones that hit Oklahoma City several years ago, and he guessed it was at least an F3.

The television meteorologists have a neat new technology that allows them to see the direction of the wind on the radar screen. It shows up as red pixels in a sea of green pixels when the wind is rotating, the red being the wind moving one direction and the green another. This is what the National Weather Service means when they say "radar indicates a possible tornado". The meteorologist I was watching would highlight an area where he said there was possible rotation, and within minutes the siren would sound and there would be a report of a tornado. It was amazing, and I believe that it probably saved lives, because up until that point all the attention was focused on the storms to the north, as they had a history of serious damage (the wind took out nearly every tree in one small town). Stoughton is to the south, and an hour previous looked like it was barely going to get rained on.

Anybody looking to donate, the Badger chapter of the Red Cross is helping the victims.

This Is Why I Live Here

Tornados hit around my city this afternoon. The destruction was pretty bad--whole subdivisions lost, a swath of damage miles long, one man killed in his basement by his falling chimney. But it could have been worse:

The roof was torn off the Stoughton Country Club, said the club's executive chef, Lenny Peaslee. As the storm approached, golfers started coming off the course, and about 40 people huddled in the club's basement and waited, he said.

"We were ... hiding behind the bar," Peaslee said. "We had beer, anyway."

It's Just The Way It Is

Peanut, when you are told that the object you are holding does not go into your mouth, rest assured that it probably doesn't go into your nose, either. Nor is it likely lickable instead. This goes double for expensive electronics.

I'll Turn It Off Now (And One More!)

Questions I have been pondering:

• What kind of animal is Uniqua in The Backyardigans? There is a moose, a penguin, a hippo, and a kangaroo (I think), but I don't know what she is supposed to be. A lizard? And how do I get this song out of my head?
  

• Why are there talking dogs dressed up like people in Arthur, yet Arthur himself has a pet puppy?

• Why is Piggley's mother anatomically correct for an adult woman when she's a pig? Dannan doesn't have fingers, after all; she has feathers instead. Will she grow breasts too as she gets older?

• I don't know about yours, but my cats would have eaten George Shrinks rather than made friends with him. And what is up with his parents, anyway? He's about three inches tall, but they don't seem to know where the hell he is most of the time.

• Are the people who thought up Boohbah smoking the same stuff as those that did Hr Pufnstuf and Lidsville, or something different?

• Why do Little Bear's parents wear clothes, but Little Bear doesn't?
  

At Least I'm Not Snape

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Oh Yeah I'm Pissed

I find this* so incredibly disgusting I have no words. This is what is being done in your name, people. This is what being American means now:

Foreign citizens who change planes at airports in the United States can legally be seized, detained without charges, deprived of access to a lawyer or the courts, and even denied basic necessities like food, lawyers for the government said in Brooklyn federal court yesterday.

The men in my family that were eligible have all served in the military, and despite my liberal political bent I seriously considered serving too, but was denied because of health problems. Instead, I have served my country by serving people in need, volunteering and working with poor families and for a local Emergency Medical Service. We always put up the flag on Memorial Day and other holidays, my grandfather teaching me how to treat it respectfully. My grandmother insisted that voting was one of the greatest privileges and responsiblities I would ever have, and reminded me to vote in every election, no matter how small, and I have only missed two elections since I turned 18. I take my role as a citizen of this country very seriously, not least because I know how many people sacrificed themselves so that I can have the life that I have now. So when I read about what this government is trying to do, for the sake of the American people, it makes me more than a little angry.

It is no longer good enough to say, "Well, I didn't vote for him". It is no longer good enough to write in a blog about how badly these people are screwing up, to watch The Daily Show and laugh at how dumb the president is. It is time to DO something about it. It's time to get active, to give money if you have it, time if you don't. I'm just as guilty as anyone, and I will attempt to change that in the next few days. Wouldn't you want other people doing this for you?

You know that old chant they use against people like me--If you don't like America, then why don't you just leave? I am not leaving because this is MY country, and I have every right to be pissed off. I don't want to live in a country that thinks that it is okay to treat people in this way, and if you don't like it, then maybe you should leave. Plenty of dictatorships around that should suit you. Please. Get the hell out.

And if you think it couldn't happen to you, because you are an American citizen, you're wrong. Is this what you stand for? Is this what you're proud of? Because I am not, and I'll be damned if I let anyone make me ashamed to be an American.

*via Making Light

Memo To Peanut

We play Honk the Nose in this house, not Honk the Nipple. At least when your daddy isn't home.

She slept through the night last night! Yay!

Sooo Tired

I have wanted to write about how great things have been with Peanut since her cast came off, but things have not been great. I am here now because I am escaping her crying, which has continued on-and-off (though mostly on) for the last two hours because I won't pick her up and carry her around all night long. This has been an issue, both day and night, for the last week. First, we thought it was pain in her leg, because as soon as you brushed her foot she would cry inconsolably for a good half an hour. Yet just before that happened, we could be touching and playing with and moving that foot, so while it could be some nerve pain, I don't believe it is cry-for-30-minutes nerve pain. Then, we realized that she had a little fever, and a molar coming in, and also seemed to cry when she wet her diaper. So we took her to the pediatrician, who said she maybe had a UTI but couldn't tell without more invasive testing, and maybe it was teething pain, so just keep giving her pain meds and watch to see if she cried when she wet. Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't. Most often, she cries when she wants something she can't have, but then she cries and cries and cries, as much or more as when she was a newborn. So stress, teething, some leg pain, all of these are probably contributing. None of this helps when my muscles are seizing up from holding her and she is refusing to go to sleep.

Oh, and it looks like I'm going back to work full-time in a couple of weeks. Perfect timing.

To Peanut, At 18 Months

Peanut, I want to thank you for a gift that you have given me. Because of you, I have truly been able to let go of past regrets over choices I have made in my life. All the wrong turns I made were in reality the right ones, because without them, I might never have had you in my life. I too now understand why some parents are always pushing to be made grandparents. One of my greatest wishes for you is that you are able to have a daughter or son someday and feel the tremendous love for them that I feel for you, because it is the greatest gift I have ever been given. You rock, little girl.