kate walsh the singer, not the doctor actor

i heard this gal on public radio about 10 am this morning. she has a sweet voice that reminds me a wee bit of harriett wheeler (former sundays lead), but less forced. she does have a sugary voice, but it's totally tolerable. we all need sweet every once in awhile...maybe. i do anyway, hell with all these mean girl hormones raging through my body every day.

anyway, if you like harriett, elizabeth mitchell or very early shawn colvin, you will like this kate walsh girl. check out her little place on verve rekkids. quite loverly. paul, i will be stealing your itunes cards soon, so you bets finds em.

photo swipered from verve.

Karl Rove can Kiss Our Ass!

photo by the super gergy McGerg Huma Abedin

I'd been grappling over who to vote for in the Ohio primary elections for a few months. I love Obama's optimism and am inspired by his words...and of course, those who love him. We have his photo on our fridge and his book on our shelf. And we dream of him taking the White House back from the good ol' boys. I love Michelle and her ease with talking to the people. However, I also love all of the good about Hillary Clinton...and ALSO dream of her taking it all back and cleaning stuff up. Karl Rove said that women wouldn't vote for her. Well, I told myself many years ago that if Hillary ran, I vote for her. I know that for some, she's part of the problem--and not at all part of the solution. But for me, she seems to have some good solutions, including health care for everyone. I agreed with the sentiment of a friend that I just couldn't look myself in the mirror and not vote for a woman--especially now that I'm having a girl of my own. So Tuesday, Hillary got my vote.

The Ohio Primary Rally was held Tuesday night in downtown Columbus--and quite perfectly right next door to my office building--so no parking! I jumped in around 7:30 pm and took it all in for a good 3 1/2 hours before she arrived. I was impressed by the good mix of women and men at the event. I took an opportunity to find a few of those men and capture their images (sorry for the poor quality of a few of them). There was definitely a lot of women of all ages in attendance. I had a chance to sit with a group of iconic middle aged broads for Hillary. Go hot flashes! I was pretty tired the day after, having stood for a good 2 hours with available seating now and then. But it was an wonderful time to be in Ohio Tuesday night with the growing baby girl in my belly, dancing around to the cheers and noise and probably wondering who the hell let all that extra estrogen in.

press in the hizz

NBC's Andrea Mitchell in the hizz

chiseled menz for the Hillz

more awesome menz for the Hillz

prego me for the Hillz

Octo-Astro for the Hillz

the Hillz...Killz!

Happy Birthday, Ol Man

Dear Sweet One,

You're still shiney and sweet after all these years. I'm so glad to know you.

xo,

Your Wifey Wife

oh tina fey, why must you make me think even more?

Robin Morgan's well-travelled words on Hillary Clinton first jolted me a bit from my leanings to Barak Obama. I know too many women who are in my place...feeling the need to support her, but unsure. I do know that I hate her ever so slight anti-choice leanings she started on to gain more support from conservatives. I also hate that she voted for the war in Iraq. I also hate that she's played it old school to get political power. But I still don't know all about her. Or him for that matter. There's plenty to read, and I need to do it now, in order to get myself right about these two.

Tina Fey didn't help me last Saturday night though. She is right...bitches get stuff done. But will it be the good stuff? How can we tell? Looking at her track record, she did throw a lot of weight around during Bill's presidency. But is it enough? What do we really need?

Bear from cafepress.com/gigglechick

dear tiny-baby-girl-yet-to-be-borned,

i do not have enough hours in the day to sew you pretty embroidered dresses...well, as splendid as this one anyway. i should secretly have your gran buy it. but i will learn soon. just taking a peek into the world of wee-girl-wear facinates, terrifies and delights me all at the same time. embroidery classes await me!

xo,

your lady above

we'll be great in 2008

here we go again. i'm going to try my bestest to keep up with writing. being pregnant (but in the second trimester, thank goodness), having a full-time job, a 3-year-old and a super duper husband to tend to takes up quite a bit of time. but it's good to write. i need to write...more. it's good to write...write...write. if only the screen sounded, felt and looked like paper.

i'll be back!

best news of the day

One of my all-time favorite bands, Ida, will release a new album at the end of January '08. According to Pitchfork, the band recorded the Lovers Prayers album in the Catskills-based home of Levon Holm (who used to play in The Band). I can not wait until January to hear this sweet music. Hopefully a well-connected-to-the-music-world fairy will send me one in the mail. Otherwise, I'll have to wait in agony!

sew, mama, sew! handmade holidays

so very excited about all of this! if i only had all day long to craft and craft. i wonder if the fabric store will let me barter mopping the bathrooms for fabric...

it's coming, it's coming

we've decided to hand make most of our christmas gifts this year instead of running up ridiculous amounts on our credit cards. so the weekend of hollerday crafting will begin tonight! i've been getting some inspiration from uncommon grace and soulemama lately. i also found a handy list of diy holiday gifts over at family fun. and now that i'm over my fear of sewing, i think i'll be ready to dive in and make all sorts of goodies. yippie!

even a 12-year-old knows how to pull a burt reynolds

to the left, my son parker. to the right, my nephew wesley--in disguise. he is probably the coolest 12-year-old around. smart, witty, so so so kind, generous, best friend to his sister, and moreso, friends with everyone. one of the most wonderful persons on the planet.

these were taken this summer at their joint birthday party. one of parker's gifts from me was a set of mustaches for accentuating his pirateness. note the pirate t-shirt from wesley's mom jen...matches perfectly with his friends in low places hat. anyway, we finally downloaded photos from that day this week and they've been a blast to look at. it was a pretty poignant day for me (i was in the middle of a miscarriage) but the photos of these terrific boys help me to remember just what a great celebration that was...and how awesome it is that they are here in this life with us. their existence is a true gift.

The Swedish Chef vs The Chicken

thank goodness for both the chef and the pigs in space!

decor8: Calendar Round Up 2008: Part One

calendars make me oh so happy. i only wish i could look at each of these right now. please see part two as well.

back to work.

decor8: Calendar Round Up 2008: Part One

if you teach him to fish (a.k.a. juvenile post for sunday)

last year we took our son to the hog calling contest at the circleville pumpkin show. we finally got ahold of the images that he took while standing with us in the crowded audience. i gave him my canon powershot camera to play with--i know, bad mother. anyway, he eventually dropped the camera, then picked it up and smashed the lens in. it rendered it useless and we've been without a real camera for a year. we've been using a video camera that "take photos, too!" but it ain't the same. i might as well be using a shoe to take a photo. anyway, back to those butts. we didn't know that while below he was getting some booty shots. here are a few to enjoy. feel free to provide captions.

sweet november

next week will be the third anniversary of our wedding reception, what i like to call our "second wedding" and what i consider was our real wedding. we had a shotgun ("with child") wedding with family and two friends (adamant about being in attendance) in march of 2004. we didn't have enough time to throw together a fancypants party, so we thought we'd wait several months. boy was it crazy. i had no idea how insane it would be trying to plan a wedding reception diy style with a 2 month old. i do not recommend it, unless you're a nihilist.

so on november 6, 2004 we held a renewal of vows and blessing of the family before all of those we loved. the ceremony/party was held at a barn outside of town. friends helped us throw the event together. a local vegetarian restaurant catered it with comfort soups, salad and bread. my mom put together the floral arrangements. and tons of people showed, despite the country location.

there were a few sour notes to the day. i was late, having been caught in a baby feeding call as i was on my way out the door. and, unfortunately, it was just a few days right after bush won his second term. for some, it was a very bitter time and no one was really up for celebrating anything. despite that, the whole day was lovely and the weather was perfect. it was an honor to celebrate with our friends and family. it was dreamy. i had wanted a full scale bourgeois martha stewart wedding for many years and struggled that this wasn't going to be the perfect one--but the event turned out to be quite the opposite. everything i wanted. color. food. loved ones. sunshine. music. sweet cake. we had it all.

i love to look at the photos from that day each november. they always remind me of how wonderful life is and how lucky i am to have experienced this day.

the randy's

paul and me. (that baby is now in kindergarten, i think)

flyboy looking for food

folks dancing with the bubbles

the photographer and oh so midwest modern jessica miller

all things on my mind

tree trimming way overdue

babies don't eat kimchee is due at the library

electrical work

wee horses

preschool class picture, so cute

soccer in the spring

snow tires this year

insurance

will the car die?

broken hearts/angry hearts

amy butler trunk show next week

halloween trick or treating

fall leaves swirling around my neighborhood

purl soho

gratitude for a toddler in my lap at the sewing machine

gratitude for sea kelp and iodine

jen and brian's wedding ceremony

grace

peace

my own forgiveness

chicken in the fridge that is almost a week old

cook it up!

he's the real deal

we're worried about his sword holding abilities, but it might be okay. as long as his sash don't fall down, it will all work out. see him next week when he's working down the panama canal.

code pink on condi

Code Pink member Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz confronted Condesleeze Rice yesterday at a House Foreign Relations Committee hearing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, telling her she was a "war criminal". I'm totally in awe of this woman who went out on the line to have her voice heard--bloody well heard. Sadly, the committee chair ordered all of the Code Pink members in attendance out of the hearing. (WTF?) Those who were kicked out didn't go down without a fight. Towanda! See the footage here.

dylaney miller as amy winehouse

This is Dylaney Miller. She's about 65 dog years old. She lives in Silver Lake in LA. Her longtime companion, Jessica Miller is one of my best ever friends and is a rising star in the photography scene (commercial and art). I'm going to petition that she does more work on this lovely houndlady. Isn't she photogenic? Happy Thursday.

my little pirate

my son has decided that he wants to be a pirate for halloween, which for him is every day this month. so he's a pirate right now as i write. the character he took on, "parker the pirate", has actually kind of bloomed in the last week. it started with a full weekend of pirate hat and eye-patch wearing the weekend before last. it's now moved to being a full-time pirate, with or without the garb (or, as i should say, "garrrrb").

so what's the behavior involved? a lot of arrring, especially at strangers walking down the street. randomly. like a social psychology experiment to see how they respond to random verbal attacks by local 3-year-old pirates.

this weekend we visited a local park ("parrrk") to catch the last showing of a garden sculpture exhibit (made coincidentally by a guy who looks like a pirate). at one point my husband had to fetch himself to the restroom. parker and i decided to wait at a bench along a walk close to the entrance. after helping me devour a sweet banana ("banannarrrr"), parker the pirate decided that he'd pass the time by harassing passers-by, shadowing them with fear and pirateness. he decided to perch himself in the middle of the asphalt path with his hands on his hips, legs out (you know, to stop anyone being able to go the full 4 feet around him), chin down and a scowl on his face.

grown adults and individuals who approached were met with a very loud "AAAAARGH". most greeted him back with their own "aaaaargh"s, which he ignored as insignificant to his reign over that spot on the sidewalk. he'd hold his pose and let his eye follow them as they passed--which was hilarious. the whole thing brought me lots of joy. one woman tried to politely and quickly slip by without an acknowledging "aarrgh" back and instead giggled with tight lips. everyone on the walk during that 10 minutes was amused by my little pirate. oh i love him so.

we went to a local outdoor mall yesterday and it his terror trip was met with less of a response from the shoppers. he still managed to bring out smiles and chuckles, if not responding "arrrghs".

i haven't had a good working digital camera in awhile, but once i get one (soon, i hope) i will post pictures of my pirate and his horse "pencil". this whole pirate thing is definitely the most fun we've seen him have with himself--and makes the defiant three's so worth it.

perfected Jews?

Jesus probably wouldn't want to break bread with Ann Coulter, the bad PR she's giving him these days. Ugh. Will this woman never die in a freak accident?