resistance is futile

so, i went to houston for thanksgiving. it was nice and relaxing as it should be. i partook in excellent thanksgiving fare in addition to the requisite tex-mex and bbq outings later in the weekend. i even saw an old friend while i was in town. quite surprising since none of my old friends live there anymore. i guess great minds think alike... as they say.

one of the highlights of my journey down south was getting to spend some quality time with little miss squiggly pants. at 4 months her personality is bubbling over with giggles and cuddles. she's so sociable that she has a hard time falling asleep for fear of missing something more exciting. even when sleepy, she offers coy smiles and warm snuggles. i must admit that i was a little jealous when my brother & sister-in-law whisked her back to california. my mother and i briefly planned an abduction, but we figured we'd be found out. i guess we'll just have to wait till their next visit. in the meantime the tick of that incessant little clock is getting louder, but i'm doing everything i can to quell the noise. i've got hawaii to look forward to... and mil's acceptance to med school... neither of which make this a particularly good time to increase the size (and expense) of our family. i've uploaded a video of lmsp to youtube.com, but it's private, so if you want to see it, send me an email with your youtube id, and i'll add you as a friend. it also co-stars the screen-stealing stylings of our very own milhouse vanhouten. you know you want to see it...

from my turkey to yours

happy thanksgiving, ladies & gents. i have much to be grateful for this thanksgiving. in addition to my personal good fortune (good family, good friends, great husband, nice life, pain-in-the-ass bird...), i'm also grateful that come january, we'll have a democratic(ish) congress. and while i doubt that means we've wiped corruption out of the house and senate for good, at least we have a few more checks and balances than we've had for the last 6 years, and almost anyone can be grateful for that. one of the things that i hope to be grateful for next thanksgiving though, is an end to the genocide in darfur. the images and stories that come out of that region of africa are nothing short of horrifying. i'm going to be bringing it up at our thanksgiving table, and i hope you will, too.

savedarfur.org has a post called "materials for thanksgiving action" that's worth checking out...

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and here are some photos to get you in the mood for the holidays... (larger versions are on flickr)

playing catch-up

so it's been over a week since my last post... and that wasn't much of a post. i think i'm not much of a blogger. i try, but sometimes the words just don't come, and i'm not one to force such things. life is busy... there is a great deal of knitting to do and several good shows in our netflix queue... and "heros" and "studio 60" (or "60 rock" as i tend to call it) and "the office" and "america's next top model" (don't ask me why). i think i've become a little slow thanks to watching all this television, and i still want dvr... what's wrong with me?

mil's dinner

meat
Originally uploaded by atb20.

hard to believe that a man who calls this "dinner" would marry a onetime vegetarian.

just what we need...

from bbc.com:

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said earlier this year the US was losing the propaganda war to its enemies.

The newly-established unit will use "new media" channels to push its message and "set the record straight", the Pentagon's Mr Ruff said.

"We're looking at being quicker to respond to breaking news, being quicker to respond, frankly, to inaccurate statements," he said.

A Pentagon memo seen by the Associated Press news agency said the new unit would "develop messages" for the 24-hour news cycle and aim to "correct the record".

The unit would reportedly monitor media such as web logs and would also employ "surrogates", or top politicians or lobbyists who could be interviewed on TV and radio shows.

i love the strategic placement of the quotes.

the flight of thought

it's amazing. two seconds ago i had a brilliant idea for a post. but between the time that i got up off of the couch and the time that i logged onto blogger, i completely lost that thought. scary... i think it's the whole not working full-time thing. five out of seven days a week, i wake-up when i feel like and do what i feel like. so far, i have not felt like cleaning my apartment, and only once this week did i feel like going to the gym. sad.

oh, i remember what my "brilliant" idea was... i was going over to the bird to give her a kiss on the head and she turned and bit me on the lip. it made me realize that i need to find a bird whisperer. my bird is that pink maltese, kisses, from the dog whisperer. she's pink and she's a little pain in the ass. she pecks at my feet and turns on me at the least provocation. i need to learn how to be the leader of the flock... anyone have any ideas? mil's suggestion is the spray bottle, so we now say "no" and spray her when she's doing something she knows she's not supposed to do (e.g., pecking on toes or playing in the refuse underneath her cage). it doesn't work too well because she knows when we've got the water bottle and when we don't, so she decides when she's going to listen and when she's not. then again... she's a bird, not a dog. so maybe i'm just stuck with a pesky cockatoo.

we're going to hawaii!

we just booked our tickets and condo in kauaii for next summer. woohoo! now if only i could find the job, so we can afford it...