Adventures In Baby Swinging

Getting off to a young start in alternative lifestyles? Nope. A weird new Internet phenom.

Change We Can Believe In

I've been itching for a while now to give the blog a facelift and decided it's finally time. Hope you don't hate it too much.

Happy Halloween!

In honor of one of my favorite holidays and since I won't be dressing up tonight…

Margaret and Helen

I just got turned on to a relatively new blog written by a couple of saucy octogenarians who live in separate parts of the country, but who have been friends for nearly 60 years. It's a fun read; go check it out.

Choice cut:

What was I thinking when I called Sarah Palin a bitch?
I am surprised that some of you are up in arms about my calling Sarah Palin a bitch, or John McCain an ass or even George Bush a jackass. I read your comments about how I should be more respectable and not call Sarah Palin a bitch. Some of you are actually praying for me because I called John McCain an ass. In particular I am struck by the comments that suggest the problem with our country is that we can’t have an intelligent conversation to solve our problems without resorting to name calling like when I called George Bush a jackass.

Well this old broad is hurt. Clearly I didn’t start this blog to call Sarah Palin a bitch…or John McCain an ass… or even George Bush a jackass. I am so sorry if I have offended any of you. What was I thinking when I called Sarah Palin a bitch?

New rules:

I will stop calling George Bush a jackass when he stops calling me a terrorist: Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

I will stop calling John McCain an ass when he stops calling Barack Obama a socialist at every dog and pony show on the Straight Talk Express tour.

I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer. And I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling the parts of the country where I don’t live more Pro-American than the part of the country where I do live. And I will definitely stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops acting like a bitch.

I’m old enough to remember the Republican party of Barry Goldwater - when the party stood for fiscal responsibility, small government and personal freedoms. I remember when I could talk with friends about politics and just agree to disagree. And then religious nut cases decided that if you didn’t agree with them you were immoral. So they went and elected George Bush President so he could take the Republican Party from being a party full of respectable people to a party filled with asses, jackasses and yes - bitches like Sarah Palin.…

It goes on from there. They're great. 

Best Epic Fail Ever?

Jeff Is…

Not sure whether to be embarrassed by the fact that there are two Macbooks, two iMacs, two iPods and, now, two iPhones in his home. 

That's right, I finally broke down and bought my first iPhone today. My contract with the unbearably lame U.S. Cellular ended this month so I figured the time was right. 

Anyway, I have no love of brand loyalty, but, goddamn, Apple makes a superior product in every conceivable way. So how I not support that?

Jeff is…also incredibly grateful for the abundance in his life. 

Cute

"My Dogs greeting me after returning from 14 months in Iraq"

That's My Wife!

Am I lucky or what?

Skunked!

Poor, Bella. As we were out for our usual 2 a.m. walk last night, I noticed her bolt after something. She normally doesn't go after anything at night, but it's not unheard of either. I figured she was after a raccoon or a neighborhood cat. I called her back to me and she came pretty quickly—I was pleased she responded so well. But within ten seconds I was hit with a brick wall of olfactory nastiness and realized she didn't come back quickly enough to avoid being sprayed by a skunk. 

Let me tell you, this is a thing to avoid. I generally don't mind the smell of skunk from a distance, but up close, at ground zero, it is one of the most repellent and nasty scents I can imagine. A combination of burning rubber and boiling acid. It's interesting, though, a split second before I could track what I was smelling, I had a repulsion reflex. It's like my body knew to recoil before my brain registered what it was recoiling from. 

Anyway, I began running to get away from the smell. Once away, I double-checked, and she had indeed been hit. It was a pretty chilly night last night and I didn't really want to make her stay outside, but she was so nasty with the funk, I couldn't bring her into the house. Even my clothes smelled a bit and they didn't get any of the skunk's oil directly on them. Unclear how best to handle it, I woke Annie up. She'd dealt with this before and I thought she'd know what to do. We agreed not to bring her in, so we put her bed out on the patio with a couple of towels for padding and warmth. I felt terrible about her sleeping in the cold, but our house would reek for days if she'd come inside. 

This morning Annie got some cleaning stuff from the Grange and I showered Bella: first I washed her with skunk odor removal stuff, then I rinsed her off. Then I shampooed her, and gave her another rinse. Then some more odor removal stuff and another rinse. Then another shampoo and another rinse. Though it was dramatically reduced, the smell wasn't completely gone even then. But I'd run out of the odor removal stuff, so we let her outside to dry off and play in the sun. 

Twenty minutes later, I bent down to pet her… and immediately pulled away. She still had enough of the skunk smell on her to keep my distance. 

I suppose it's lather, rinse, and repeat again tonight. Poor thing.

*******

Speaking of odiferous and repellent, here's some video footage of PUMAs and other assorted bright lights who claim to be or have been Hillary supporters who just can't—can't, I tell you—support Obama. Enjoy! 

And this:

Kudos to Matthews for not letting this troglodyte get away with a baseless and tired smear. (Notice how xenophobes like her use the word Muslim as a weapon. FOX-tastic!)

And then there's this, which just defies words:

Schooled By Opus

Point taken, penguin. 

I Want To Pay Off Every Bit Of Your Debt

There was something about that subject line that I found impossible to resist. The pay off to opening the spam was this brilliant piece of writing:

Everyone is in debt since the gas pricing and the economy although I know the secret to make it through including I can tell you the answer for no cost. You'll be free of your hard times quickly.

Love it.

Cleanse…Or Torture?

Day seven of our detox cleanse and I'm hurting. Major headaches and all I want to do is sleep. Very little energy. This sucks. 

Week one went much easier than expected. I was surprised by how little I missed my normal foods and actually felt pretty good about what we were eating. It wasn't that much of a stretch really. Sure, we had to give up caffeine, refined sugars, salt, eggs, most grains, red and lunch meats, dairy and processed foods. But we could still eat chicken, veggies, fruits, beans, rice, oats, rice cereal, rice milk, and best of all, I could keep using agave syrup as sweetener. 

Now, having given up caffeine cold turkey before to ill effect, I knew better than to attempt it now. Instead I tapered off my caffeine intake by drinking green tea for a week. This has two benefits: 1) no screaming headaches and moroseness, and 2) way smaller sugar intake. 

So far, so good. 

Then came today. Today began the deep, intense part of the cleanse. From now through next Sunday, Annie and I are eating no breakfast except a rice powder protein drink, no more meat, and less of everything else. I could live without the meat, I guess, but the lack of cereal is a blow. I love eating cereal, it's a comfort food for me. 

Worse, I stopped drinking green tea yesterday. I didn't experience any headaches then, but had very little energy. I was incredibly sluggish. Today was worse, though, as I had persistent headaches and even less energy. I mean, I can't believe how tired I've been today. In addition to sleeping in and finding it near impossible to get out of bed, I've had two naps. As I write this I'm nearly falling asleep. It's 10:30 p.m.

These are all normal symptoms of a detox cleanse, of course, and I'll tough it out. But this sucks. 

The most remarkable thing I've noticed is just how much I rely on caffeine and sugar to just get through a day at what feels like a normal level. I guess I really am an addict. 

Checking In

Well, I'm back. Checking in with exhaustion, gratitude, joy, and relief. 

What a weekend! I'm still physically spent from it. I went into this past weekend with a great deal of fear. Fear of fucking up, fearing of looking stupid, fear of having to be responsible and accountable, fear of being bored in down times, fear of the discomfort of being out of my comfortable life. But I just leaned into it and pushed through. And I came out feeling proud, excited, grateful, happy, and, most of all, relieved.

Seeing the weekend from the other side was intense and instructive. Tons of effort and energy goes into making it all go smoothly for the new men. It was a blessing getting to work with such smart, powerful, caring, and cocky men in the service of helping other men deal with their (sometimes very substantial) shit. 

It was my third time going up to Wa-Ri-Ki and by far my favorite road trip. Will and I had a blast and I really loved getting to know him better. We didn't listen to music once (well, we tried once, but suffered from technical difficulties that I just wasn't interested in resolving), and I hardly noticed. I'd road trip with him again at the drop of a hat.

By all accounts my dear friends who's initial weekend it was had the heart-blowing experienced I'd hoped they would. I was honored to be a part of the deepest pieces for one of them. It was a deeply satisfying and pleasing thing to see both of them shining bright on Sat. night and Sun. morning. 

There is serious magic that happens on those weekends. It's awe-inducing. I am impressed beyond words at both the processes and the men who facilitate them. I'm just blown away. And grateful to be a part of it. And honored. And proud of myself. 

And it's damn good to be back!

Ciao

Well, looks like this will be my last post in a while. I'm heading up to Washougal, WA to help staff a weekend for the New Warriors. I'll be completely offline for four—four—mother fucking days! Yeesh. Enjoy the blogosphere without me. See you soon.

Horses And Their Pet Frenchman

Unbearably pretentious, astonishingly beautiful, irritatingly impressive, strangely endearing. And so very…French. I love it. This one's for you, Annie.

Lorenzo : the Flying French Man...
by alatebo

h/t: Daily Dish

Gobs Of Love

I've been noticing something lately that really hit me last night and again tonight: I truly adore my friends. 

Last night, I went to Eric's house warming party. After the neighbors left, it was down to Rhys, Jennifer, Eric and I hanging out, enjoying each other's company. What was so great was that I felt so totally in synch and relaxed and content and happy. We've been through so much, both together and individually—including times that were strained where we weren't so connected—that to feel so in tune with them now, feels…just amazing. I couldn't have been happier.

Until tonight. Eric and I went to see AnnieMac at 4 Daughters in Medford (a very cool new Irish pub, which I recommend checking out). There, we met Jennifer, Terry, Pete, Cindy, Mike, Goa, and Shanti, and again, I felt completely in synch, etc., with everyone. We all had a blast dancing and shooting pool and people watching and just hanging out. 

I've been grateful for my friendships for some time now, so that's not exactly new. But what is new is how comfortable and compatible I feel with everyone now. Maybe something's changed within me or maybe it's all of us or something else entirely, I don't know. 

What I do know is that I think I'm actually in love with my friends. That sounds absurd, but hey, it's how I feel. I'm truly lucky/blessed/rich/whatever to have such amazing people in my life.

Thank you all. 

Links That Stink

Grumbling About the Misuse of Hyperlinks on News Sites. I'm glad I'm not the only who's notices and hates this.

Pangea Day

Is May 10 of this year.

What is Pangea Day?

Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion while uniting millions of people to build a better future.

In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that - to help people see themselves in others - through the power of film.

On May 10, 2008 - Pangea Day - sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro will be linked live to produce a program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music.

The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.

Of course, movies alone can't change the world. But the people who watch them can. So following May 10, 2008, Pangea Day organizers will facilitate community-building activities around the world by connecting inspired viewers with numerous organizations which are already doing groundbreaking work.

Go to the website for more info.

Craigslist Hell

This absolutely sucks. Can you imagine? I hope that they can track down whoever posted the ad and throw the book at them.

Oregon man's property ransacked after Craigslist hoax
JACKSONVILLE, Ore. -- A pair of hoax ads on Craigslist cost an Oregon man much of what he owned.

The ads popped up Saturday afternoon, saying the owner of a Jacksonville home was forced to leave the area suddenly and his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking, said Jackson County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan.

But Robert Salisbury had no plans to leave. The independent contractor was at Emigrant Lake when he got a call from a woman who had stopped by his house to claim his horse.

On his way home he stopped a truck loaded down with his work ladders, lawn mower and weed eater.

"I informed them I was the owner, but they refused to give the stuff back," Salisbury said. "They showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did."

The driver sped away after rebuking Salisbury. On his way home he spotted other cars filled with his belongings.

Once home he was greeted by close to 30 people rummaging through his barn and front porch. 

[…]

E-Spleen Venting

Speaking of catty behavior, you know what I can't stand? People who get all fucking uptight about including their e-mail address in with others in the main address field instead of the bcc field. I mean, I generally try to respect the unwritten rule of bcc'ing addresses for large e-mailings. But every once in a while I screw up. 

And when I do, you better believe I hear about it. 

The thing is—and I hate to break it to these privacy freaks, but apparently I must—if you've got an e-mail address, it's public information. Anyone who can use Google can find it. Easily. It's not like I've just spilled state secrets here. So back the fuck off, cyber-cranks, and stop the damn scolding.