On Food:
Last night I sampled the brie truffle. Yes, you read that right. The inside of the truffle was dark chocolate with brie invisibly mixed in, and the whole thing covered in black sesame seeds. I didn’t taste the brie until taking a whiff before the second bite. And then, wow.
Hmm. I wouldn’t eat a […]

Screw you.

I wanted to respond to Saying Grace’s comment about yesterday’s presbytery meeting, but decided to do it separately since the response got long, and that post was all, like, idealistic and nice and stuff. Rant ahead, proceed with caution.
(Non-Presbyterians, I’m sorry for the inside baseball, but it’s hard to explain and be concise)
So we have […]

Dear Emergent Guy,
I had the opportunity to hear you speak the other day on “Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier.” Let me first thank you for being direct, honest and prophetic, which many of us sorely need. In my experience of the conference up to that point, it seemed clear that many of us mainline folk […]

After saying this:
I heard a spokesman from the National Gun Owners Association say yesterday that if people were allowed to carry concealed weapons wherever they went, it would serve as a deterrent to shooters.
Of course in this situation, the person ultimately turned the gun on himself… so someone please tell me why that argument isn’t […]

but a whimper, as two girls and one of their parents have what appears to be food poisoning. I will not reveal which parent, to protect the identity of the ill. The girls are much better, but the parent may have been overheard praying for a quick and merciful demise.
Girls and healthy parent will fly […]

First, a brief update
You might remember my frustration with the Crankypants Monthly e-newsletter. I had offered some feedback to the editor that the contributors were pretty darn old and pretty darn male, with few exceptions. They’re all lovely people, but still.
After having a conversation about writing book reviews occasionally, then being told a few months […]

what the fucking fuck is up with the world and our weapons-choked so-called “culture” that some sick bastard has to kill not only his sad mentally ill self but has to fucking take as many people with him as possible and this isn’t even an isolated incident this WEEK let alone this year and where […]

First Friday of May, 2006 –
I receive my electronic copy of the Crankypants News Monthly, which contains articles written by members of the presbytery. The articles are written by two women and three men, all middle aged or older and white. One article is written by a retired minister, entitled “If I were twenty years […]

Senate of Southern Commonwealth
The Office of Senator Earnest P. Pontificator Reverend Senior Pastor
Suburban Presbyterian Church
Suburb, Commonwealth
Dear Reverend Senior Pastor,
I am writing to ask your help with one of the most important moral and legislative issues of our time.
Oh, my gracious!
You must be referring to the two million children in our state who lack health insurance!
Or […]

2:30
miss m awakes for reasons unknown, goes back to sleep after 30 minutes of nursing
4:45
GOOD MORNING WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5:00
I write a bit on a project I’m working on, get a crummy half page written in between handing her toys and comforting her after she bumps her head on the couch.
5:45
She’s no longer self-entertaining. Time to work out. […]

ExhausTed.

The divine crawling m woke up at 4:55 with a nurse-nurse-nurse and a “ba-ba-ba!” Gah!! She also woke up twice last night, requiring minimal management (R’s theory is that she’s dreaming), but still! Gah!!!!!
VBS is going fairly well, although I collected my kids yesterday from their class, then the nursery, and came back to my […]

This is one of mine…
Yesterday’s post about the Strunk and White (and I’m told the image didn’t show up, although *I* could see it–anyone else?) got me thinking about grammatical pet peeves, which got me thinking about other pet peeves. And so…
1. Grammatical pet peeve
I abhor misuse of the apostrope.
Hot dog’s for sale (hot dog’s […]

Wow, you’re up early for a Saturday, RM!
Yes I am, Contrived Writing Device. I’ve been up since 4:45, in fact. That’s after being up from about midnight to 1 a.m. A new low in the reverendhousehold these days.
Wow! What’s the little angel up to now?
Let’s see, shrieking, whining, flailing, squirming and pursing lips to avoid […]

A quick update from Baby Central. How “quick” it is depends on the length of this nap currently in progress. You’ll know when the divine miss M has awakened because this post will come to a quick and abrupt en—
Just kidding.
So the other night I had that old dream about being in college, having signed […]

“Some women having second or subsequent babies have periods of progressing contractions that come and go for days before they settle into a continuous pattern.”
–from Penny Simkin’s The Birth Partner
Penny, I’m sure you’re a very nice person, and your book is exhaustively detailed and helpful, but it’s 5 in the morning AGAIN, so if you […]

R and I had our hospital tour last night.
Pre-rant caveats (does it invalidate the rant to do this? oh well): It’s a fine hospital. All the rooms are private, which isn’t the case everywhere. The tour was informative, and it’s exciting to take this step, which makes the birth seem even more real, and imminent! […]

Jon Stewart’s Daily Show used to have a helpful segment called “Mark Your Calendars,” that provided information about commemorative events like National Hug-a-Tree Day or somesuch. Unfortunately, they don’t have that feature anymore, otherwise I would have known that Talk Like a Pirate Day was two weeks ago.
Another one I missed: this week is Screw […]

I certainly do enjoy the interactions on this blog. I like when new people stop by, but I must admit I’m glad things aren’t too busy over here. This blog is sorta… down the dirt road, past the abandoned gas station, and I like it that way. Seems like the bigger you get, the more […]

That’s Sorry-Ass Tiny Little First-World Problem.
You know, like “This latte is too foamy!” or “My favorite massage therapist is moving to Tennessee!” (That one’s actually true of me. She was a member of the church and she did it for free/reduced. Sob!)
OK, so this is a rant, not a cry for help. Bear that in […]