The only constant thing is ...

Yes, I know the old adage but I tell you, it can be a bit tiring having so many things change at once. I'd like plain old boring for at least a LITTLE while please.

Since January, just 6 short months, it's been such a whirlwind with a growing child, broken bones, damaged nerves, the challenge of job changes, keeping our marriage intact despite my craziness and our stress, and other sundry family upheavals. I'd like this crazy roller-coaster to just pause for, say, maybe a week. I'd re-charge my batteries and remember how it feesl like when I could tackle the stresses of these days.

Until then, I'll take what I can, do my yoga when I am able (YEAH!), take the time to visit with friends and family, remember to breath, and remind myself that people less-equipped emotionally / financially can do what we need to do in order to move on.

So cool!

Check this blog out! It makes me yearn for my "lost" career in librarianship. When I was in library school, I loved many aspects of librarianship (teaching, cataloging, reference materials). But I particularly loved my classes on the history of the book and archives. I love old books! I actually purchased a copy of the Lindisfarne Gospels because I enjoyed it so much! I'm such a geek!

What a weekend!

It was a whirlwind, and quite successful! Zac and his bride, Erin, were married Saturday at the Weidner Center. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! (finding pictures to post)...

My 2 cents

I found this quote so ironic:

As this debate goes forward, every American deserves to be treated with tolerance and respect and dignity. On an issue of this great significance, opinions are strong and emotions run deep. And all of us have a duty to conduct this discussion with civility and decency toward one another. All people deserve to have their voices heard and a constitutional amendment will ensure that they are heard.

Do you recognize it? It's Pres W Bush on his stance on what he calls "the Marriage Protection Amendment".

Are you kidding me? What part of "tolerance and respect and dignity" does W and right-wing supporters show towards homosexual committed couples who want the same financial, political, social responsibilities and benefits as heterosexual committed couples? I don't know about you, but I was taught that denying obligations/responsibilities/benefits based on certain aspects of a person's life is wrong.

What's the deal people? People don't CHOOSE who they love. It is without a doubt easier in today's world to love someone of a different gender than you. Why would anyone want to forever fight in their workplace for insurance benefits? Endlessly having to "tone it down" when going out. Trying to constantly remember who in the family "approves"? It's not easy! It's not simple! And no one tries to go out and fall in love with someone of their same gender.

As Joann Elder puts it, "This amendment is divisive … This amendment is unnecessary … This amendment is un-American..." I'd also add Russ Feingold's words. This is MEAN-SPIRITED. Leaders and decision-makers who base their work on hate and mistrust and obvious intolerance should be voted out of office. Where in the world are the leaders who work for the GOOD of the nation? What happened to people wanting to do good for each other?

• Wisconsin's US Senator Russ Feingold has a pretty detailed statement against this amendment.
• The Fair Wisconsin's No On the Amendment Blog has a LOT of resources and documentation.
• Love is Love is Love. com is Margaret Cho's Marriage Equality Resource Site. Good links!

So you think you know how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors?

HA! There's more to it than the old RPS. How about SPONGE, or MONKEY, or even ALIEN? LOL How does it work?

Check it out!

Our world....

It's been crazy around our house lately.

• Maddy's been sleeping in the BIG GIRL BED now, and to our surprise and delight, it's working! Ok, naps are still a bit of an issue, but the plan is to continually wear the little girl out.
• Haven't quite figured out how / when she'll be able to give up her nuks. We've weaned her down to only at naptime and bedtime. A HUGE accomplishment. But now I'm not so sure she's ready. I kept on saying "by he UnBirthday June 23", but I don't think it's going to be that soon. Any suggestions?
  
• Joe's been working at finding a job. There are some good leads. (Cross fingers)
  
• Haddy Bell, William and my folks came to visit last Sunday. It was HOT. It was nuts. It was a delight however to see HB, W and M enjoying each other's company. HB and W are becoming such country kids! The sight of them going up and down the sidewalks with their little scooters was a hoot. It reminded me of my sisters and me, going to Edendale to visit Nana. She lived on a dead-end street, with sidewalks. Such a different sky than in the boonies where we grew up.
  
• We're having yet another "Hasta-la-bye-bye Weidner Party" at our house Friday night. Invited the neighbors so they wouldn't be TOO upset with the weirdos coming to the house. It's going to be a crazy night.
  
• Had my last therapy appointment for my elbow this morning. After 7 weeks (!), I have gained a lot of motion, some strength, but that damn ulna nerve is still causing me problems. I'm a bit troubled by the fact that it takes days to recover from "over-doing it" (like gardening, picking up Maddy, vaccuming). But I was reassured that it will get better over time. I just have to be patient. Looking at taking a yoga class somewhere this summer to really be able to work at strengthening.
  
• Started more therapy this week. This is focused on my back. When I fell, I really did a number on my elbow, but I also pulled muscles in my back. They haven't been quite the same since. So I'm seeing "Sven" to help me loosen up. Ugh. After the first day, I had a headache for 2 days. Wish me luck!

Cheers!

The grand experiment

We got the seeds in the garden! It's official - the start of Stacey and Karen's vegetable garden 2006! Stacey's yard isn't that big, but Joe and I have a HUGE area that gets lots of sun, so we've opted to experiment with a communal garden. We wanted a much larger size plot, but only got half of it tilled last fall (about 13 x 11). Let's see...we planted:

• broccoli
• corn
• carrots
• onions
• tomatoes
• beans
• peas
• squash
• peppers
• cucumbers

I think that's it. Grow, seeds, grow!

Our wonderful weekend!

Friday (we BOTH had the day off!)

• Bought one of these at a rummage sale! We've already dusted off our respective bikes and have been on 2 bike jaunts already!
  
• Did some more work around the yard. So very wet still from the recent deluge, but the flowers and plants are loving it!
• Had a dear friend and his 11-year daughter over for dinner, then fire in the driveway. Did I mention I love my house?

Saturday

• Joe and I (and Maddy) celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by spending it up in Fish Creek at another wedding. It was a beautiful day with a beautiful couple.
  
• Maddy was as cute as ever, although she really doesn't understand that the object of mini-golf is to putt the ball into the hole. In the Maddy-verse, the object of mini-golf is to run around, chase after Mommy's ball and throw it in the river and (maybe) in the hole.
  
• Maddy decided that a poor young not-even-two-year-old boy needed to dance with her on the dance floor. She went up to poor said boy and strongly encouraged him dance with her. I don't think he knew how to say "no thanks", so after the first time, he kept running away from her! Pictures to come!
  

Sunday

• Cool, but sunny.
  
• Maddy let us sleep in all weekend! WooHoo! (We slept until 9am on Sunday! She/we was/were so pooped from Saturday.)
  
• Went for a long bike ride on the Fox River bike trail! Saw a beautiful pelican, a hawk, many geese and ducks.
  
• Started outlining the plots for the vegetable garden. Glad we (Stacey and I) haven't planted the veggies yet. Frost was expected for much of the NE of WI.
  

Websites and blogs I've recently discovered...

Owen & Mzee's Web Log

Remember the baby Hippo who, after being orphaned in the Tsunami on Dec 26,2004, was given shelter at Haller Park in Kenya? Baby hippo Owen was quickly adopted by Mzee, the park's 130 year-old tortoise. Their friendship is captured in new books, as well as a documentary recently shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

Daddy Types

The Weblog for New Dads! Well done blog, not only of items to make parenthood better and more stylish, but also thought-provoking parenthood commentary (though I don't think necessarily agree with his Eric Carle as Communist theory).

InkyCircus

"Life in the Girl Nerd World". Need I say more?

And because I am a devote LOSTie....

• The Hanso Foundation (it takes a long while to load)
• Let your compass guide (it takes a long while to load)

Enjoy!

ALA wishlist

If I were to go to ALA National Conference in New Orleans in June:


I would LOVE to see Madeleine Albright.

I would LOVE to see Neil Gaiman accepting an award!

Eavesdropping

I don't really understand the surprise some have felt over the recent reports that the GWB administration eavesdrops on domestic calls.

(Fear not, I'm not going to step on my soap-box and publicize (again) my personal political philosophies.)

What I WILL do is express my own surprise that it was addressed by, of all possible media, USA Today, the Readers' Digest equivalent of newspapers!

Oh, and I noticed something a bit odd today....

I use yahoo's MyYahoo feature - where you can have headlines from various news sources on one page. Strange that this is what CNN.com's headlines first said (until very quickly correctly): (click on it to see it full-size)










and this is the CNN.com's "correct headline".

Family Pictures

All Smiles! Isn't Maddy just adorable?













Maddy took this picture! Well, I pointed the camera and she pushed the button.








I like this picture a lot.

Family picture

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming....

I had recently posted the "Dear Mr. President" song... Now, here's something for his wife.

Jasmina Tesanovic: Letter to Laura Bush on Mother's Day

Powerful. via. BoingBoing

Please stand by as we assess this blog....

Does anyone read this? Has anyone tried commenting but have had troubles? Let me know if you've had a problem!

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!

It's rained since Thursday. I'm tired of it! 2.47" so far. More in sight.

Our friends Tracy and Chris are getting married on Saturday. Happens to be OUR 6th wedding anniversary! Two days before the date, it hailed and thundered as the tent was being set up. With any luck, May 20, 2006 will be like May 20, 2000 - absolutely beautiful sunshiny and WARM. Someone ought to do the sun-shine dance!

OMG! He's been an undergrad for 12 years!

12-year Undergrad! He beats my record! I just went to school, let's see...from 1989 to 1993 @ UW-Eau Claire (4 years)...1996-1999 (3 years). So "only" 7 years for my Bachelors, then "only" 2 more years for my Masters! HA! See Mom. I'm not a record-breaker!

How to get a professional librarian's undies in a bundle....

There are many occupations that have been historically filled by women: teachers nurses, librarians for example. I received my Masters in Library Science (MLS) in 2001. I knew that job placement was risky. There aren't many library positions available, especially in the place we ended up (NE WI). I've worked professionally as a librarian in two jobs. One job was frustrating because of lack of funds and working conditions (MOLD in the stacks!). It was a good job, and I liked what I did, but Joe and I needed to find a place where we both could find employment. So we moved to NE WI. 9 months after searching for a library job (a very very long 9 months), I was hired at my second professional job. From the very beginning, I knew it was going to be a challenge. My boss was horrible. She couldn't supervise worth #$#$#&. Shortly after I became (happily) pregnant with Maddy, I was let go/fired/excused from that job. It actually was a blessing. It was majorly stressful trying to keep up in such a taxing work environment, let alone trying to "play the game" while pregnant.

There aren't many professional jobs available for those who have their MLS, so imagine the surprise when staff at the Madison Public Library find out that not one, but TWO job applicants were hired even though they didn't have an MLS. It was written into the qualification section! No wonder they are irate!

What a beautiful woman!

Had the opportunity to see Marlee Matlin last night at the Weidner Center. I took Michelle - a former fellow SLISter, who I just happened upon at the grocery store 4 months ago! We had a fantastic time! What an inspiring, down-to-earth, REAL woman! Ms. Matlin was asked a number of strange questions: "Did you want to have deaf children?" for one! How absolutely bizarre that anyone would want to have a deaf child! What answer did they want to hear?

Kudos to the beautiful 6th grade girl with aspirations of her own. It was sweet to imagine Mr. Winkler saying those same words to Ms. Matlin so many years ago.

London's Elephant

IMG_1336
Originally uploaded by SW-1.

Wow! I so wish I could have been in London to see this 40-foot wonder! How cool is this!

Princess obsession

I blame it on Pampers(TM), Disney,her older girl cousins, and, yes, her Nana Sue.

I'm an avowed feminist. I don't want my dear daughter to grow up thinking that her life is complete only if she finds a husband. I want her to be happy, fullstop. If that means being single, so be it. I want to expose her to all sorts of ideas of what girls and women can be, of what she can be, other than needing a male figure to "rescue her". I have even started my first term on a board of an organization that promotes racial and sexual equality! This is a big deal for me!

But then they started creeping into our lives. Their pictures are on the PullUps Maddy started wearing a while ago. I called them "ladies". When we visit her cousins, they love to dress up. I called it dressing up "fancy". Princesses are everywhere! On cute clothes - her favorite pjs have the word "princess" on it, but thankfully it's a pic of a cute puppy.

I've tried to "fight" back, not making a big deal about her liking the movie, Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella. I encourage Finding Nemo as much as I can. At age 2, she's an avid reader, so I'm starting to try to open up her literary world as well. Well, now Maddy is obsessed with 6 little books, all based on various Disney princesses given to her by Nana Sue a few weeks ago. There's Cinderella, Jasmine, Aurora, Ariel, Snow White, and Belle. She loves them! I'm hoping it's because they are small. I just can't wait to introduce her to MY favorite princess movies, Ever After, and The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride because it's hilarious. Ever After because Danielle didn't need the prince to rescue her, only to see her as who she is.