Oh my Congressman will hear about this.

Freakin security. The Pepsi dude was stopped from coming into our building because he lacked some sort of security crediential. My beloved Diet Dr. Pepper and most diet drinks are missing. I was forced to get a diet peach flavored green tea. Yes, it's as horrid as it sounds.

The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Blogging.

We’ve been participating in a research project concerning adoptive parents, which has led to a lot of navel gazing. As gay parents we continuously reimagine and contextualize our parenting styles in a society not yet ready for us. This study has caused us to look at what we’re doing even closer. Between the social workers, pediatrician visits, parental updates, we are one well-examined parental unit.

The biggest adjustment for me has to be my continuously tested and battle-forged patience. His latest trick is the banshee scream. At random points in the day, he’ll let out this eardrum shattering screech. It’s an awe-inspiring volume of sound from such a little frame. He must pull from his toes to reach such a capacity. The dog stays far from E and I can completely agree with that. My research reveals that little ones are just testing their voice. They are moved by the “joie de vivre” of it all. Ha ha ha. It’s important to focus on that dear friends.

I’m reaching my center. Just like the biting phase this too will pass.

I’ve decided next month is Guatemala month on the Turtle blog. I’ll be posting pics from our travels and highlighting some charities involved in humanitarian efforts down south. It should be a lot of fun. Well, I’m excited so just nod and look pretty if you can’t join me.

In your face, Rothko!

It's true. He's a genius. Just look at those brush strokes:

I feel loooooooooooooove!

The day before a holiday in a federal office building is always a lonely place to be. In my new schedule, I’m up in the dark and rushing to the office as quick as I can. My goal is to pick up E as soon as possible to ameliorate some of the guilt for dropping him off at daycare. The traffic was very light this morning. I was zipping around the city with incredible ease. I feel like I’ve been mentally checked out this whole week to be honest and I’m looking forward to the holiday.

Thanksgiving is very cool in our house. You see we left to pick up E the day after Thanksgiving. It’s hard to believe its been a year now. There are certainly days that I with I could just walk out of the house, just grabbing my keys and head to a nice restaurant but each day brings a new surprise…. Just this week, the little boo has started saying “I love you.” OK, you just bought yourself a whole lot of fits on that one. That’ll maybe take you to age 12 or 13.

When you think about it Thanksgiving is a pretty bogus holiday but now we’ve got the best reason to celebrate.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

/ Management is not responsible for extreme mushiness of this post. Medical staff is on hand to care for any sugar overdosage should it occur.

Rude Drug Addicted Decorator/Bloggers Strike Back!

More from the ever so quotable Michael Savage:

"I told you to be aware of the homosexual agenda; how powerful the homosexual movement is in this country as witness the fact that you never hear any criticism of them. You see? So, now let's move on. I don't even want to talk about it. I'm giving it to you as an example, and I know it's going to wind up tomorrow in several of the blogs run by gays -- and they think only of that 'cause they're like drug addicts."


Oh Michael you know me so well.

Ye Olde Bloggeth

A storm has knocked out our modem at home and so I only have limited connectivity. The weekend was a busy blur with shopping for cabinets, playing with E, and getting ready for a visit from another Guatemala adoptee family.

One thing that struck me is how much at odd moments I’ve come to rely upon the online world for info when I want it. If I want the weather, I go to the Web, if I need directions back to the Web. I was feeling positively Flintstonian without it. I was looking for a bird and a big shell so I could construct a computer.

With Thanksgiving coming up we have lots of shopping and food prep to do. It may be another week or so before I can pick up a new modem. In the meantime I may use my green stamps to buy a new gingham dress pattern. I hear there’s a new shipment of jam down at Oleson’s Mercantile we may need to check out too.

The power of Yes

Can I just share with you for a moment and wonderful and beautiful the word Yes is. It’s affirmation. It’s joy. It’s knowing that you are providing. E started saying yes about three weeks ago and now he’s to the point that he’s using it correctly with near 100% accuracy. His S tends to come out like a slow leak so Yes and Bus have a little party at the end. Yessssssss and Bussssssss.

The first time he answered me was a shock. “Do you want a drink?”

“Yesssssss.”

Wow! Holy cow. We’re talking.

My co-workers probably think I’m insane when they hear me respond to their questions with a Yesssss. It is more fun to say it that way. Try it out. I’ll wait.

….

See what did I tell you? I bet that explains that whole rolling R thing in Spanish.

We’re toying with the idea of trying the Happy Feet movie. It would be our first venture into a theater. Hopefully it will be a successsssss.

the cold November rain

I am feeling the weather today. It is dark and gloomy with vast stretches of rain. We are currently under a tornado watch which in this area is a rare thing and even rarer for November. Which came first the weather or my mood? Whatever it is has left me uneasy.

It’s the perfect weather for crawling up under a blanket and watching a movie. I can’t wait til E can be still long enough to watch something. Per the pediatricians advice we’ve cut off the tv during his waking hours so I’m not exactly sure when that will be.

The renovations have been delayed til after Xmas which is good because it won’t interfere with xmas but on the other hand I’d like to just get the pain over with.

Thanksgiving has been a moving and now it seems we’ll be spending it with L’s sister’s family out in the hinterlands of Virginia. I’m really not looking forward to it. I’m a worrier by trade and part of me fears for something happening to us while we’re in VA. I construct elaborate scenarios of not being able to see L in his hospital bed or my relationship to E being challenged. It’s not always healthy of me I know.

Me, I’m looking forward to Xmas this year. It’ll be the first one in our new house and I think E will get it this time. He was just a happy blob last December. I know where the tree will go and I’ve already put my request in for an xbox 360. (I shun practical presents.)

Hopefully this rain will be ending soon and yeah I’m even trilled at the idea of our first snow… E’s first snow. I can’t wait.

There's nothing worse than a rude decorator

From the November 13 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

MICHAEL SAVAGE: And I want to tell you something, and I'm going to say it to you loud and clear. The radical homosexual agenda will not stop until religion is outlawed in this country. Make no mistake about it. They're all not nice decorators. You better get it through your head before it's too late. They threaten your very survival. They went after the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is now caving into the homosexual mafia. They will not stop until they force their agenda down your throats. Gay marriage is just the tip of the iceberg. They want full and total subjugation of this society to their agenda. Now, if you want that and if you don't think it's a threat -- believe me, that is what's going to occur in this country.



Can someone send me the new agenda? I seem to have lost my copy.

Project Runway big hit - check.

Tom Cruise getting married - check.

Carol Channing going batty - check.

Dems taking Congress - check.

Doogie Howser coming out - check.


Mwahahaha! Our plans are nearing completion.

Cleanup Tramline 3

That idiot on the escalator who doesn't know where to stand? He's everywhere:

Where's my parade?

We had a friend visiting us for the weekend and I’m afraid I’ve become a terrible host for your single gay man. First, we live in a cute little town while quaint, it’s not exactly full of bars or clubs. When asked about a liquor store, I didn’t know where the nearest one was. I think we have one bottle of vodka in the house that’s been a quarter full for a couple years now.

I’ve also missed the phenomenon known as Manhunt. My computer was having trouble with the messaging system and my friend was spending hours trying to get it to work. I finally had to pack him off to the local café for its wifi so he could check his mail. I get the appeal and coming from a smaller town it must be like xmas only with half-naked men but yeesh give it a rest for a couple of days.

I’m feeling terribly out of touch with my community. I’m sure that average parents also feel that disconnect between their single or childless friends but the divide seems more acute for gay parents. I’ve heard gay people complaining about strollers invading Dupont Circle and comments about the breeders and it just irks me. Are we so rigid in our gay rules that we can’t tolerate a little diversity. I don’t want to withdraw further from my people but it seems the choice is being made for me.

Democrats Sweep Election!

I love each and every one of you. mwah mwah mwah!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”


- Margaret Mead

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Welcome to the party

Congratulations to Neil Patrick Harris!



"The public eye has always been kind to me and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life," Neil Patrick Harris, whose big break came playing teenage genius Doogie Howser, M.D.in the early 1990s, told People.

"[I] am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love," he said.

Update on the self-hating evangelical!

Haggard told CNN affiliate KUSA-TV on Friday that he received Jones' name as "a referral" from a hotel where he was staying in Denver.

He did not name the hotel. "I did call him," Haggard said. "I called him to buy some meth, but I threw it away.

"I was buying it for me, but I never used it. I was tempted, I bought it, but I never used it.

"He told me about it. I went there for a massage."


...

Riiiiiight. Well at least he's married and didn't have to try the "I've got a girlfriend, um, in Canada."

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning

From the Washington Post:

“One of the nation's most influential conservative Christian leaders, the Rev. Ted Haggard, resigned yesterday as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and temporarily stepped aside as pastor of a Colorado mega-church after a self-described male escort accused him of paying for gay sex.

Haggard, an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, vigorously denied the allegation. "Never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife," he told a Colorado television station, KUSA.

But in a statement issued by New Life Church, his 14,000-member congregation in Colorado Springs, Haggard said he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations," which were first made public on a Denver talk-radio station yesterday morning.

Although he has avoided endorsing political candidates, Haggard has been a staunch ally of the Bush administration. Some political observers said his resignation was more bad news for Republicans trying to rally their conservative Christian base to turn out for the midterm elections.

"This is one more factor that could increase the disillusionment of evangelicals with prominent leaders on the Christian right and with the political process as a whole, and some may conclude that perhaps their forebears were wise to be wary about politics," said William Martin, a professor of religion and public policy at Rice University and a biographer of the Rev. Billy Graham.”

...

There is something immensely satisfying in hypocrisy exposed. Down in the trenches out gay men and women are struggling for equal rights and reversing discrimination… meanwhile this closet case is preaching hate to thousands while he skulks using crystal meth and visiting hookers.

True these allegations have not yet been confirmed but come on, the whole “never had a gay relationship” smacks of code. It was years before I had a relationship too but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t knocking boots. (I love that phrase knockin boots.)

If the Foleys and the Haggards want to spend their lives locked in torment I suppose that’s their right. However, don’t pull me and my family into your unhealthy descent.

So to those who cast us into damnation and hellfire I think you’ll find there’s a special reward waiting for you.