A Civilized Response

I can't say anything other than I loved this article about this woman in the NY Times yesterday.

My Big Not So Fat Magnolia Tree

We live in a northern climate, and I was surprised that our house had a magnolia tree in the backyard.  I grew up in this same northern climate and had never seen a magnolia tree until we moved south right before I left for college.  Over the years we have observed our tree to get confused by our weather.  It sprouts buds during weird warm spells in November/December and then doesn't have much energy in the spring/summer to blossom properly.

When it does flower

it's very pretty.

But, inevitably, we have a huge thunderstorm, with hail and this is what happens to our blossoms

which is what happened last night and this is the aftermath.


This tree is being set-up to fail.

V Is For Vitriol

We need a little of this in our water supply.  Some of you have heard me say this when people in my orbit or people that I read about go a little bonkers about an issue.

Unfortunately, the joke's on me because there are drugs in our water supply - just not enough of the right kind to keep us more thoughtful in our discourse.

I am deeply saddened and disgusted that citizens of this planet were spitting on men who risked their lives for the civil rights movement, or are openly gay and serve in the legislature.   I am disgusted by the behavior of these elected officials:

And I couldn't agree more with Maureen Dowd's assessment of Joe Wilson's hateful outburst of "You lie!" (boy) toward President Obama.  A white president would NEVER have had any legislator yell at him.  NEVER.

What the hell is wrong with these people?
Why are they so scared that they use rage to cover their fear?


Why do people scream and shout at libraries and schools to ban books that the screamers have NEVER READ?


Maybe medical marijuana is the answer.

I'm calling the Governator right now.


I'll be back.**

PS.  You know what (you ignorant cowards)?  YOU LIE!


**Extra bonus comment points for knowing that pop culture reference.  I'll even let you scream at me about any issue you're uninformed about.

Unblocking the Blogger's Block

I'm back.
I was unblocked by this.
Now I can't remember what I wanted to say about it.  I do remember wanting to write something about how my local ice cream joint has a Facebook page and I couldn't figure out why....even after looking at the page....I couldn't decide why anyone would really want to visit their page unless there was a coupon/discount code involved.

I am an official Facebook lurker.  I'm on it under an alias thinking that my kids would allow me to link to them without being obviously ID'd as their mom.  The Boy won't have anything to do with me, although I can be a friend to his band's page.  The Girl, 7th grade, cannot be on Face book yet.   It's just another avenue for spineless bullies and the crap texts that she gets periodically from other kids are enough to deal with.  And don't get me started on the 300 (total) students from my high school that are looking for people like me.  I don't want to be found - I'm in touch with the people I care about thank you very much.

Of This and Of That:

 Mrs. O's eyebrows are still bugging me.

And, if you are a RHOC fan, this site is brilliant.  My friend and I were talking about how we'd love to buy a print, but I'm not sure I want to own one forever...but I love the concept and execution.

Crossover

There was a big crossover moment in our family last night.

The Girl, 11, is now a young woman.

It's not what you think it is.

It revolves around this Dress.*

I returned this dress to Target last night, after deciding that all the alterations in the world won't make it work on my body. (The only saving grace was that I was trying to make an L a M+)

The Girl is looking for a dress to wear to a teacher's wedding next week.

We picked over the leftover L and XL sundresses (the S's got the goods early).

We skipped the bursting racks of maxi-dresses (ugh - please make it go away!) and resigned ourselves to looking elsewhere for an inexpensive, going to be worn once, dress.

Then we stumbled on a secondary rack of Tracy Feith for Target.

The Dress was there, in an XS.

The only piece in a ragtag assortment that no one in The Heights is going to wear.

I pulled it out and asked The Girl if she wanted to try it on, assuming she'd say "no."

She said "sure."

She tried it on and she looked beautiful.

She said "I love it!"

It was twice what we had budgeted, but it will work for a cousin's fall wedding too.

We bought it.

In the parking lot she marveled, "Mom, this is a designer dress!"

On the way home we laughed at the serendipity of this dress.



*modeled, as she suppresses gas, by Ally from The Hills.

Today's Daily Double

"Gotta share.....gotta share!"*

I read an interesting article on a parent's search for a kindergarten that did not assign homework and let kindergarteners play (because that is their work - thank you, Montessori.)

This was my favorite paragraph:

"I came late to motherhood, so I had plenty of time to ponder friends’ mania for souped-up childhood learning. How was it that the same couples who piously proclaimed that 3½-year-old Junior was not “developmentally ready” to use the potty were drilling him on flashcards? What was the rush? Did that better prepare kids to learn? How did 5 become the new 7, anyway?"

Now that we're in the thick of the ridiculousness that is "my kid is taking more high school AP courses than your kid," it seems that Grade 9 is the new Grade 11 with lots of $80 a pop AP testing going on to discern what's in a 14.5 year old's mind that might qualify as college credit.

So we've gone from Doogie Howser's to faux-college-credit earners?

After watching friends and family take 4.5 - 5 years to complete their state university educations, because classes were so full that they had to go in the summer or an extra semester here and there, I've decided that it's all a bit of a sham and that AP credits are only useful when you are going to a state university and the credit gets you out of a basic requirement class that is always full when you try to get into it.

The Boy, who did not test into freshman AP courses, but aced the regular curriculum this year so he's going the AP route next year, is starting to feel a bit of sting from his friends that are off taking the $80 tests this spring. I witnessed a joking, but slightly stinging exchange between him and a friend in the 'high' math class. After the friend was out of the car, The Boy vented a bit about it and his vent contained the phrase "I engage in higher-level thinking" and he went on to share how well he did on an impromptu in-class essay assignment earlier in the week.

I was smug mama the rest of the ride home - he gets it and he's going to be just fine.

In the same article (here's the double) I clicked on the photo credit and discovered the photography of Julie Blackmon and I love it! I hope you'll enjoy it too.

*Singin' In The Rain is in my head

Toto, We Are In The White House

One of the blogs that I read regularly is say la vee and she highlighted the official White House Flickr photostream in one of her recent posts and as I scrolled through the images I felt like I was living a mini history lesson right there.

Yes, the pics are all part of the 'we the people - you the people - this house is our house - this house is your house' message that the Obama administration is pushing out. Oh, and the message? It matches the campaign rhetoric - they are pulling the curtain back and we do see the Wizard and Wizardress in there.

But we also get to see much more.

Crowded meeting rooms full of important people - and not always the image of that meeting that you'll see in Time magazine.

The art that he has chosen to hang in his office.

The comments that accompany the pictures, written by 'we the people.' Some are insightful, some are juvenile. Commenters begin to then comment on each other's comments and so goes the viralness of the web.

The White House PR and Tech plans mesh at this point. It's another chapter in the Axelrod/Obama guide to the Internet and the common web-connected (wo)man.

I'm going to (try) add it to my list of sites that I drop into.

It's my homework.