This and That

First up, a Pew poll that shows more people believe in guardian angels than in humans' role in global warming:
http://rawstory.com/2009/12/americans-angels-humancaused-global-warming/ Awesome.

Next, a list of the Top Ten Video Games to Cross Off Your Kids' Christmas List. It's got the details on the games and various statements of outrage. But here's my thought: if it's rated M for Mature, might that be a parent's clue? Just wonderin'.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/ten-video-games-to-cross-off-your-gift-list/?em

Next, my new favorite site on the web: http://www.heyitsfree.net/ What with our one income and our now twice-paid-for deck out back (oh, the story of the drunken contractor will be coming soon), funds have been in short supply at Chez Haggis. So I've been doing my best to find ways to save and ways to earn. One involves selling our stuff on craigslist and ebay. I just unloaded a giant buffet that fit in our DC rowhouse but was enormous in our little cottage here. Eight-five bucks cash, the BBDD helped the guy put it in his SUV, goodbye giant white elephant. Then I used that money to buy end tables plus gave the BBDD $15 for pocket money. Cost-neutral home improvement, baby! I got such a rush from getting rid of this giant piece of furniture that has been plaguing me since we moved in AND getting money to get cute little end tables in the bargain, that I started looking around the house for other stuff we could sell. The BBDD was dubious--and slightly concerned--since he is pretty sure we need everything we've got at this point. And we probably do. But the second something seems even remotely ancillary to our purposes? It's on the market.

So this site, Hey It's Free, is right up my alley. Free samples galore, coupons, rebates, you name it. I simply use an alias name for the mailable stuff and use my hotmail account for the online stuff and it never gets mixed in with my real life. I've had free samples of cereal bars, perfume, coffee, dental floss. All free. The reason I love this site in particular is that the site owner vets the offers for you, so they are not bait and switch or scams.

And finally, for those of you unaware of the trashiest show on TV, it is called "Jersey Shore." It's an MTV reality show about, well, the Jersey Shore. http://www.mtv.com/shows/jersey_shore/series.jhtml It has been slammed by Italian-American groups for it's unflattering and stereotypical portrayal of Italian-Americans. I think, however, it is not about Italian-Americans at all. It's about THE JERSEY SHORE. Much the same as the New York/Long Island loudmouth = Jewish canard, I reject the notion that Italian-Americans from the Shore behaving badly at all reflect the reality of Italian-Americans who live elsewhere. They simply reflect the reality of that region, whatever your ethnicity. My two cents. So--in the spirit of the show, this guy has created a Jersey Shore name generator. Mine: "The Position." Fist Pump!! http://www.unlikelywords.com/2009/12/08/jersey-shore-nickname-generator/

Bambina's Baby Sister

So we are well underway in getting to Baby Sister and bringing her home. We got the LOA (Letter of Acceptance) from China last week, and it has been a total sprint since then. "Please return this letter by December 7th." Which meant pulling together a ream of documentation, filling in several new forms, making three copies of the entire packet and fedexing it--by the next morning. No pressure. I have spent more time than I can calculate at a) my desk, pulling all our documents and compiling new ones; b) Staples, copying and faxing said documents; and c) Fedex, shipping said documents. Literally entire mornings have disappeared doing those three things. I recognize that (as I like to say) it "beats an episiotomy," (and it does). But there is an exquisite and unbearable pressure involved in the knowledge that if you fill in one thing on these forms wrong it can mean several more months before you can meet your child and bring her home, which at this point is too much for me to even contemplate. We are also up against the Chinese Lunar New Year clock, which begins on February 14th. New Year is possibly the most important holiday in China, meaning that all government offices and, really, everything closes for two weeks. Almost everyone in China is traveling to get home, which means (as our agency put it) 117,000 people in line for tickets--and that is just the Guangzhou train station. So, if we don't get the paperwork processed and get in to China before late January, we are not going until late February. I know: a month, a month, only a month. But when you've seen her photo--and she is already one year old, you just really want every other month of her life to be with you from now on. So let's pray to the Homeland Security gods that they will turn our paperwork around and get us into--and out of--China ASAP.

From my blog to God's ears?

Keep the Santa in Christmas!

This is less of a post and more a request for advice. As my Dad used to say, "The Christmas season is once again at our throats." It's a holly, jolly time that we actually do enjoy even if we don't celebrate it ourselves. Bambina loves visiting her Christian friends' houses so she can see the trees and the lights. She has started a nutcracker collection. So we're down with celebrating the joy with our friends who celebrate. But here's the dilemma:

How do I explain to Bambina that Santa does not come to our house because---well, Santa is imaginary--without ruining it for her Santa-loving friends? I told her that we don't believe in Santa. But I can't and won't tell her that Santa is real, because a) he's not and b) then why would we not allow him to come to our house and spread joy? So I told her that her friends who believe in Santa really deserve to have a fun Christmas and it's not for us to tell them otherwise. But then I sound like I'm saying her friends are stupid or something, like, "Oh they believe in Santa, but we know better, don't we?" Which I don't want to do either. So what do we do? If we did celebrate Christmas, the Santa thing would have been over by now because Bambina is too aware of her surroundings to go with that myth. She just BARELY still believes in the tooth fairy, on the theory that no fairy in its right mind wants some kid's nasty teeth...and besides, where do they keep them all and what do they do with them? So we'd have a similar issue with "the magic of Santa" even if we weren't Jewish because she would totally pick apart the entire story, like, Okay fat man is not fitting in our chimney, and why doesn't he just knock, and how come I give the list to you if he's the present man? And how do the reindeer fly?

You want someone present at a police interrogation to pick apart the logic of an alibi? Bambina is your girl. You want a lawyer in the courtroom who can decimate a witness with a well-crafted logically-sound takedown? Bambina is your girl. You want her to believe that a chubby dude in red drops gifts down a chimney? She's seeing holes in that story from word one. [This is why I am so tired all the time, btw].

So--let me hear your comments and advice. Soon. Before Bambina begins The Great Santa Unraveling for her kindergarten class.

Gimme a K! Gimme an E! Gimme an N!...

It's Election Day here in Massachusetts; the special election to fill the seat of the recently-passed Ted Kennedy. Friends, a senatorial election without a Kennedy on the ballot? Me. Not. Understand. What. Box. To. Check? Me frightened and confused!

So, I voted for Martha Coakley. She's worked her butt off for MA for years, she's a woman (yeah, I said it!), and I think she has a chance of winning. I also liked Alan Khazei, but I just didn't see the numbers adding up for him in the end. So I went for Coakley. I mean, let's be honest here folks, it's not like any of the candidates were really different. This is Massachusetts. I've given up trying to find a pro-death penalty candidate I can agree with on 99% of the other issues. Can't be done. So I take the pinko with the liberal and consider my work here done. :) I know there is a Republican candidate but who knows what his name is. And I'm sure he's (and I'm sure he's a he) against the public option, which is a deal breaker for me.

So let's see how it shakes out. In any case, I'm missing Ted Kennedy.

War is Hell

Of all the times I've wanted to be Barack Obama's girlfriend, mini-me or clone, this week would not be one of them.

Let's discuss Afghanistan, and let's be honest: there is no way to a clear victory in that country. Old Man McCain offered his supremely helpful input that 'success is the real exit strategy." Thanks, Uncle Cranky Pants, but what the hell does that MEAN? How many American lives to achieve "success"? And what is your definition of success? Some have said it would be a return to conditions pre-Soviet involvement. Um, that was decades ago--and predating the Taleban and al-Qaeda. So I'm going to say that's well-nigh impossible in this post-9/11 era. Others say that success means getting out right now before that con man Karzai can swindle us out of one more US dollar. Also moronic. Others have ignored success metrics and instead slammed Obama's speech, counting the number of times he used the word "I" (44) and the word "victory" (0). Most moronic of all. First of all, counting the number of "I's" in a speech and equating them to narcissism is juvenile. (I am so awesome vs. I am delighted to honor these Special Olympians today = same number of "I's" = vastly different speech). Secondly, no president in his right mind is going to go on record promising, vowing or claiming "victory" in fucking AFGHANISTAN. You're familiar with Afghanistan? Warlords. Tribes. A constant state of civil war since the 1970's. Bordered by Pakistan (the real place we need to clean up, but--again--how the hell do you do that?), China, Turkmenistan, et. al. A country in which the West has meddled and fiddled since the 19th century. This is not a country that lends itself to "victory" in a way that Americans like to see it, with ticker tape parades and hot GIs kissing sassy dames at train stations. Afghanistan is work--and plenty of it. So you'll forgive me for being glad Obama didn't don a flight suit and declare mission accomplished to appease the Cheneyites of America.

My personal opinion is that Obama's plan has pissed off enough people on both sides that it is probably somewhat the way to go. When Michael Moore and Bill Ayers essentially disown you for becoming a "war president?" You're probably doing something right. When Robert Kagan, himself no stranger to cheerleading surges, says that Obama's decision is a lonely one, and one that he (Kagan) would not know how to make? You know you're probably doing something right.

Tiger is a Dog

I know it's annoying to talk about a golfer making the seksi time with women not his wife. But, let's do it anyway, shall we?!

Okay, let's don't. But do enjoy the Woods Family Christmas card.

Check Back Tonight!

Oh, there will be blogging.

Afghanistan.
Obama's speech about Afghanistan.
Obama's plan for Afghanistan.
John McCain's nonsense metrics for Afghanistan.
Oh--and
Tiger Woods.