I have an idea....

Since members of Congress take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, why can't we require candidates:

1) to have verifiably read the Constitution and all of the Amendments to it;

2) demonstrate they UNDERSTOOD what they read;

3) to be able to quote from memory at least the first 10 Amendments, aka the Bill of Rights;

4) to be able to name the remaining Amendments by number and give a brief description of each.

It's not an impossible task by any means; I recall having to do just that in social sciences class back when I was in high school.

Then we wouldn't have situations like this:

Seriously? How the hell is she supposed to support and defend the Constitution if she has no idea what it says?

"Cynical Bastard" does it again!

I do enjoy reading Jay over at Cynical Bastard. I may not always agree with him on absolutely everything, but that's okay. Only reading writers with whom you're in lock-step is both boring and unenlightening. It's good to get a different perspective on things; sometimes we actually end up learning something. Which is why I try not to be one of the I've got my mind made up, don't confuse me with the facts types. Those people annoy the hell out of me, and I can't help but wonder whether they're secretly afraid they might have to defend their position and know they can't do it rationally. Without verifiable evidence, you don't have a fact, just an opinion, and opinions can be wrong. (Mine too, on occasion, in which case I adjust and adapt.) But I digress....

Jay's post yesterday was a particularly good one. Here's a bit of it:

So basically, I went through all that to say that America really needs to grow the fuck up. We talk about stopping the bullying in our schools but that's only going to happen if teachers, school administrators, local, state and federally elected officials and our "leaders" stop engaging in the very same behavior that our kids are. Seriously, enough with the demonizing of gays. It's old and tired. Enough with the acting as if gays are somehow sub-human. Enough with the "It's all a choice" crap. Just start accepting people for who they are and what they. Just like you people demand of everyone else. "Man up" and be adults.

Amen, brother. I couldn't have said it better.

Be aware

If you have a Sears credit card through Citi and you pay the bill online even once, THEY WILL AUTOMATICALLY STOP SENDING YOU PAPER STATEMENTS and you may not receive the electronic version. (We didn't.) They don't tell you that they'll do it, either. They pulled that shit on us, and slapped us with late fees. It's hard to pay the goddamn bill if you never receive it!

A bit of Mike Rowe

Well, actually, closer to 20 minutes. Worth watching.....

*sigh*

Apparently my link to WhiteCoat's Callroom (http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat) is causing Google's malware checker to flag/block my blog for people as well as well as his. The hotlink will go back up after the epmonthly.com folks can get things straightened out on their end. They know about it and are working on the problem.




Update (10/18)! Mark says the problem's fixed, so their link's going back in the blogroll list.

For the ladies

There's a good article on the CNN.com website, 5 secrets you shouldn't keep from your GYN. There's also a feed for great song by Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Karen Taylor-Good, called "The OBG Why Me Blues", about halfway down the page. I suspect anyone who's ever been in the stirrups will be able to relate to it.

Is anybody out there?

I know I only have a couple of readers, and maybe they've given up and gone away, but . . . is anyone out there?

sound of crickets chirping

"The God of Cake"

Thanks to Shadowfax of Movin' Meat for the heads up on this one from Hyperbole and a Half:

My mom baked the most fantastic cake for my grandfather's 73rd birthday party. The cake was slathered in impossibly thick frosting and topped with an assortment of delightful creatures which my mom crafted out of mini-marshmallows and toothpicks. To a four-year-old child, it was a thing of wonder - half toy, half cake and all glorious possibility.

The story is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time! I suspect that blog's going to be a regular read from now on. The stories are great, and the illustrations are- Well, just go see for yourself!

PSA: Bullying in schools

From Pam's House Blend:

This school year ‎76 million students will attend public school according to the U.S. Department of Education. In an average school size of 1,200 students, 240 students a day experience bullying and or harassment. Suicide is the second largest cause of death for people aged (15- 24) and on average, 5,000 teenagers a year take their own life according to the CDC.

The article's not long, but well worth reading.

Stereotypes (Or: The butler didn't do it)

If we're honest with ourselves, I think most of us would have to admit that we have biases and prejudices, either conscious or unconscious, based on our experiences and education. It's how we respond to others, based on those assumptions, that helps define us as human beings.

For instance, we have a good friend who has been acting for a number of years. He's a very intelligent and capable young man. He also has a mild physical disability. Anyone who spends more than . . . oh, two minutes with him realizes that he is no more defined by a slight impairment than is a person defined by wearing glasses, and yet some people judge him based on only that one aspect. Several years ago, he encountered a playwright who didn't want to cast him in a role; I fear he may have met our friend and, not being well acquainted with him, assumed that his physical disability meant he was somehow lacking in other capacities. The writer and then saw fit to add a line of dialogue "explaining" our friend's difference to the audience - something no other writer or director to date has felt the need to do. It was obvious to the audience that the unlucky actress who had to speak the line was uncomfortable with it.

I found myself wondering why on earth would the playwright find that reference necessary? In my more charitable moments, I hope that he meant no deliberate harm, although to point out a difference that made no difference was both insensitive and unnecessary. I can't help but feel it was done out of ignorance and/or prejudice, both of which this world has in excess. For evidence of that, one has merely to turn on the news, pick up a newspaper, or read any number of websites.

We have more than enough of both ignorance and prejudice in everyday life; for proof we need go no further than the daily news - but that's an issue for another occasion. Today we're discussing stereotypes.

This same friend recently has been performing in a murder mystery, one we attended over the weekend. (And no, I'm not going to mention the name of the play, it doesn't deserve the publicity. If you've seen it, you'll recognize it; 'nuff said.) As usual, the cast did an excellent job, although this time they did it with with less-than-stellar source material. The best description I can give you is that it was a seriously stereotyped who-dun-it, although for once the butler wasn't the culprit. The characters involved all had somewhat good motives for doing in the victim and possessed what could be termed the "requisite personality quirks" to make them somewhat viable suspects. I should have known who was going to be the guilty party when an issue was made of one particular character having utilized the professional services of a psychiatrist at some point in the nebulous past. In this case, it was for an anxiety disorder and a "type of claustrophobia".

WTF?

Since when does either condition indicate a potential murderer? That makes as much sense as saying that someone with acrophobia is more likely to be a shoplifter than the average person, - namely, none at all! And speaking of "the average person",

Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.

That's from the National Institute of Mental Health website. That's a lot of people. The term "mental disorder" covers a wide array of conditions, including depression, anorexia, bulimia, phobias, OCD, PTSD, ADHD, autism, and personality disorders, among others. We are your brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, your friends and your neighbors. Lots of people suffer to one extent or another from conditions that are technically in the mental illness category, but have never been formally diagnosed, and just live with it. Have a fear of heights? Of spiders or snakes? Of the dark? A touch of claustrophobia, maybe? Do you check and double-check the door to make sure it's locked before you go to bed? Have a "blue mood" that just won't go away? It doesn't mean you're crazy, but you too could be suffering from a mental disorder.

To stereotype all persons with mental illness* by thinking they're dangerous or "crazy" is nothing short of asinine. Most people with mental disorders are indistinguishable from anyone else you encounter on the street. We're just like you because we are you. Yes, there are those whose disorders are more obvious; that is often the result of inadequately controlled symptoms and/or extreme cases of illness. Finding the right medication(s) and the right dosage can take, quite literally, years. Sometimes nothing works, or the treatment comes with side effects that make it impossible to continue, or the medication is unaffordable. Sometimes the medication actually makes the condition worse.

Personally, I've suffered from clinical depression for most of my life, but it was only formally diagnosed in the last few years. There are a lot of us. According to NIMH,

Approximately 20.9 million American adults, or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year, have a mood disorder.

And, also according to the site, 14.8 million of those will suffer from a major depressive episode in a given year. I could tell you all about that state from the inside, but instead I'll direct you to DesertRose (of Human Equality blog fame), who has survived in far more difficult territory than I've ever experienced. I highly recommend reading all four articles in her "Crazy Does Not Equal..." series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4).

I go could on for pages and pages and throw out statistics and studies, but I suspect I'd lose anyone who's stuck with me this long, so I'd better just wrap up. What's particularly sad about mental illness is that it's still one of those subjects people hesitate to talk about because it's so misunderstood and stigmatized. It means that sufferers often don't seek help or have adequate support systems. We don't tell people about it, where we might if we had a more "conventional" disease like cancer or heart disease or endometriosis. We're afraid of being stereotyped and treated as if we're going to become dangerous or experience a break with reality at any moment. But the thing is, we should talk about it, we should educate people. Years ago, epilepsy was thought to be caused by demon possession. Now we know that it's based in brain chemistry. It's the same for mental illnesses; they're chemically based, and not caused by some character weakness or moral failure. It's time to break the silence.

--------------------------

*I phrase it this way because otherwise one can unconsciously confuse the illness with the person, e.g. a person who has cancer is not the cancer itself.

PSA: "Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning"

Here's a piece of potentially life-saving information from Mario Vittone's blog:

"Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life."

You can read the rest here. I highly recommend it, it could save someone's life.

I came close to drowning as a child, and I wish the asshat adult who stood just out of arm's reach and laughed at me had read and understood this. Some memories never go away....

Free speech works BOTH ways

I see the Westboro Baptist Church cultists are finally back in court as a result of their harassment of fallen hero Matthew Snyder's family at his funeral. I can't help but wonder how they would respond if those of us who think they're sick bastards would regularly protest during their 'church services', and maybe wave a few signs around saying "You're going to hell" and "Thank God for dead Baptists".

"Red Mass"? WTF?

"But I would remind them that, contrary to what they heard at the Red Mass about protecting rights granted by God, they are charged with protecting rights that come from a government made up by we the people to serve we the people."

If you want to read the rest of the post -- and I highly recommend you do! -- head on over to Shark-fu's blog.

I'd never heard of the Red Mass. As someone who firmly believes that church and state SHOULD be kept separate, I find this disturbing.

Optimism

Our tomato plant is refusing to give it up for the year, never mind that it's late September and about time for a frost....

My Political Views
I am a left moderate social libertarian
Left: 3.53, Libertarian: 2.82

Political Spectrum Quiz

You can find the quiz here if you want to take it yourself.

Hat tip to Mule Breath for the link.....

The latest zoosk.com ad is the bomb (and I don't mean "awesome")

I don't normally pay much attention to TV ads, but the latest one from Zoosk.com is really starting to piss me off. Not because it's for *yet another* dating site, but because it essentially ridicules people with severe allergies. The typical hayfever "sneezy" type allergies can be annoying, certainly; what I'm talking about here is an immune response serious enough to make someone swell up -- maybe not to the exaggerated extent shown in the ad, but swell up nonetheless.

Hives and tissue edema may seem funny (or at least the people behind the zoosk.com ad apparently want us to think so), but they aren't. Folks, if someone's swelling on the outside, it's an almost sure bet they're swelling on the inside too. Imagine having your throat swell shut so you can't breathe and your blood pressure drop low enough to cause your heart to stop. It's called "anaphylactic shock" and it's not funny at all. It kills people. Look it up and familiarize yourself with the symptoms and the treatment. See how long you might be able to wait for medical care to arrive before you pass out from lack of oxygen.

Most of us will never have a reaction like that, so we don't worry about it. Maybe we should. It's not the first exposure to an allergen that's dangerous, it's the second one. Or maybe the third . . . or the fourth. Maybe you never react at all. Or maybe that next bee sting, that next dose of penicillin, or the next bite of shellfish or peanut butter, will make you react. There's not much way to predict who will have a severe reaction and who won't. You or I may be next. It could be your spouse, a friend, or a stranger in a restaurant....

Or it could be your child fighting to breathe while their tissues are blowing up like a pufferfish. Still think it's funny?

Adendum

Many thanks to Athos for editorial help and additions....

Thursday Rant

I both love and weep for my country.

Why weep? Observations on a number of things being covered as news at present:

*Birthers and Truthers. Even in the face of reality, they continue to cling to delusions. Enough said.

*Tea Party zealots. They have a champion who drops lines about "Second Amendment solutions", ignoring the fact that what they're really doing is fomenting an armed rebellion against the legitimately constituted government of the United States. Can you say "treason"?

Maybe I'm mistaken, but from where I sit, these Tea Party folks don't seem to have planned anything beyond threatening to take the next election by force if necessary. Should their "Second Amendment solutions" really come to pass, as my husband has observed, the result might be far more like the French Revolution than the American Revolution. Proceed with extreme caution and think about what it is you're doing, people. This would not turn out well for the country you claim to want to protect. (As an aside, keep two things in mind: (1) when the second amendment was written, the government and the populace had pretty much the same level of weapons technology; (2) for those of you that think an armed rebellion here in the early 21st century has a chance, did you really pay close attention to the abilities of the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan? Go ahead and take your deer rifles out against M1 tanks, F-16s, or drones with Hellfire missiles. I'll bring popcorn.)

The Tea Party types want smaller government. Fine, which departments do they suggest we dispense with? The FDA, which oversees the safety of both drugs and foods in this country? Surely we can trust Big Pharma and the huge food conglomerates to do what is in the best interests of the public, not their own - can't we? The Department of Agriculture, which oversees the production of crops? Perhaps the FAA - no need to control airplanes; if a few crash and burn, well, that decreases the population. Maybe the DHS; after all, no one abuses children or needs mental health services in this country, why should we waste money on that? Or the Department of Transportation - why do we need roads or railways? Maybe we should eliminate the FBI, police departments and fire departments as unnecessary.

Are there problems in government? Yes. But it is pointless to sit there and say "we must take our country back"; back to what? becomes the question. Back to the days of Jim Crow laws, slavery, and women as second-class citizens? Back to the days of a theocracy, where half of the human race were mere chattels with no rights?

Or maybe just back to the days of the fictional "Father Knows Best", where children were seen and not heard, wives greeted their husbands at the door with a drink not an opinion, people of color "knew their place", and drinking and driving were the norm.

I know I would not want to live in that version of America. It is a fantasy at best, and a lie at worst.

*The immigration foes. I don't even know where to begin on these people. Unless you are full-blooded Native American, you have immigrant blood running in your veins. Unfortunately, anti-immigration sentiment is nothing new in the history of the country:

A PROMINENT American once said, about immigrants, “Few of their children in the country learn English... The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages ... Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.”

This sentiment did not emerge from the rancorous debate over the immigration bill defeated last week in the Senate. It was not the lament of some guest of Lou Dobbs or a Republican candidate intent on wooing bedrock conservative votes. Guess again.

Voicing this grievance was Benjamin Franklin. And the language so vexing to him was the German spoken by new arrivals to Pennsylvania in the 1750s, a wave of immigrants whom Franklin viewed as the “most stupid of their nation."

You can find the rest of the article here. I strongly recommend reading it.

Among those "alien" immigrants have been the Germans, French, Irish, Catholics, Quakers, Baptists, Italians, Spanish, and Chinese; the "involuntary" African immigrants; and now the Mexicans, our brethren from south of the border. We do not know or understand them, therefore we fear - or perhaps hate - them. We may view them as a threat to our own beliefs and way of life, possibly even as a physical threat to our very lives. In psychoanalytical terms, they are "the Other", that which is outside of or opposite to our own identity.

Othering is a way of defining and securing one’s own positive identity through the stigmatization of an "other." Whatever the markers of social differentiation that shape the meaning of "us" and "them," whether they are racial, geographic, ethnic, economic or ideological, there is always the danger that they will become the basis for a self-affirmation that depends upon the denigration of the other group. When a group claims to be "chosen by God," the danger multiplies, not only for the "unchosen" other who may be subjected to violence, but for the chosen group itself that is at risk of being undermined. [In other words, convenient though othering is as a way of propping up one’s ego, it has an inherent fragility because it must constantly led be fed by the illusory inferiority by the Other – and is thus constantly at risk of being discredited – MU]

Notice the line beginning with 'When a group claims to be "chosen by God"'. The three monotheistic religions we as Americans are most familiar with, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, hold this to be a truism. The ancient Hebrews and their descendants, the Jews, were the People of the Covenant, YHWY's Chosen People, from whom we have the Pentateuch or Torah. From the Jewish people came Yeshua, Christ Jesus, whose followers styled themselves Christians, the People of the New Covenant, who gave the New Testament to the world. Then around 610 CE, the Word of Allah, the Qu'ran, was given to the Prophet Mohammed, and Islam was born.

What a different place the world would be if the three People of the Book, as these religions are known, could have existed together in peace. But no, as each considers their holy text to be the true or final Word of God. The most dogmatic followers of each have traditionally believed in their own religion's superiority to all other beliefs and practices. One could write a lengthy dissertation on the number of religious wars that have resulted from this Weltanschauung. (Personally, I have never understood the seeming necessity for conflict over religion; can one means of approaching or understanding Deity be inherently 'better' than another, when in truth we are all blind men attempting to comprehend an elephant? But I digress.)

*Which brings us to: The anti-Muslim forces behind the current xenophobic uproar over Muslims and the building of mosques across the United States, particularly the proposed one two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.

No one is denying that the destruction of the WTC was carried out by terrorists, but should all Muslims to be blamed for the actions of a few radicals? Terrorism is defined as "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes". By that standard, Christians should be held accountable for the actions of those home-grown terrorists, the abortion clinic bombers. Their intent is to intimidate and coerce doctors and women to refrain from performing what is, after all, a legal act. Likewise, all Americans (or, at least, those radical anti-government, pro-militia, 'White Power' types among us) should logically be held responsible for the reprehensible actions of home-grown terrorists Timothy McVeigh and his co-conspirators. And what about those who perform violence upon places of worship, be it for political or religious reasons? That's terrorism too.

I fear we are in great danger of losing some of the most important freedoms enumerated in the First Amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.^[1]

Take particular note of the right of free exercise of religion and the right of peaceable assembly. There seem to be a growing number of people in this country who want to deny American Muslims both of these rights. This is dangerous ground, friends. If we deny Muslim citizens their rights, whose will we deny next? There are a multitude of religions and denominations in this country. (If you would like to see a listing of those denominations that have official web sites, see here.) Which of them shall we start denying the right to assemble and worship? The ones who are looked at as, ah, 'different' by the mainstream, the Scientologists, Mormons, Pentecostals, New Age Pagans, and Primitive Baptists? Maybe those who have chosen a simpler lifestyle and don't chose to live with modern technology, like the Amish and Mennonites? What about Sikhs, Hindus, and Baha'i? Maybe we should even restrict certain Christian sects, such as Greek or Russian Orthodox Christians? A radical notion would be to restrict the practice of any religion not native to this continent, and allow only the Native Americans religious rights. (Which might not be a bad thing, if you think about it.) Or maybe we should just ban churches with televangelists. Now there's a thought....

Where does it end, where should the line be drawn? If we permit the free practice of one religion, we must permit the free practice of ALL religions. Anything else is simply un-American.

Think about it.

Normal? What's that?

Things have been . . . interesting here. We got Dad moved into assisted living and he's doing OK. He complains about the food, but I notice he's put on a few pounds, so I assume he's eating. LOL We'd started packing up and clearing out the house, then had to go into panic mode when it sold less than two weeks after being put on the market. Yes, we got lucky to find a buyer that quickly. We had a little bit of back and forth negotiating on the price, but that's to be expected. That's why everybody lists high, right? It took us all of about three days to come to a mutually agreeable price and then . . . the deed was done.

Now we just have to arrange to have all of Mom and Dad's stuff that's still in storage moved up here. We acquired a trailer to haul everything home, only to discover that none of our vehicles can pull it at highway speeds with it fully loaded. Hmm. Inconvenient. So we may end up trading the trailer in for the slightly smaller one we almost bought and make a few more trips. Or maybe just let the professionals handle the move....

More crap you probably couldn't care less about:

* We finally got our three deceased cats buried. Two of them have been in the freezer since last winter 'cuz we couldn't dig a grave in the frozen ground, and this was the first chance Athos had to make another coffin and dig a grave. We've lost three cats and two birds in about six months. It sucks mightily.

*Squidboy finally got the chance to email us. He's been out of touch for a couple of months while the sub's been on station . . . who knows where. He can't tell us and we can't ask. All I know is that I miss him terribly. I'm still not ready for my little boy to be grown up and gone, but he is.

*My oldest cat may have cancer. We're waiting for the biopsy results. I really don't know if I can take losing another one this soon after losing the other three. The most recent death was exactly a month ago....

Squidboy update

Well, he's been deployed and will be out of contact for weeks (months?) at a time, which makes it hard on those of us at home who miss and worry about him.

On the "up" side, he's called us more frequently from Europe than he did from Norfolk. The caller ID has shown some really odd places for point-of-origin when he has called, including far inland states and from the opposite side of the planet. It keeps us guessing when the phone rings and we don't recognize the number.

Anyone remember....

Sam Kinnison? One of his old routines bears a striking similarity to reality these days.

"Guys? Guys? You love me? Do you? Do you love me? THEN KILL ME NOW!" ...followed by an ear-splitting howl of frustration and anger.

Blessed be the Pessimist...

... for he hath created backups. -Exasperated 4:17

Believe it or not, I had a nice, long, well-thought-out post all ready to go the other day . . . and my browser crashed on me. Said browser is pretty stable, and doesn't crash often, but there we were. Hey, no problem, Blogger auto-saves, right? Right?

Auto-save isn't working today either. *sigh*

Old post, never made it out of the drafts...

Well, it's a new week, and a new year. I have blog entries written (well, ok, more like partially written - LOL) that I couldn't post because of connection problems. Damn you Verizon, why couldn't you have left Alltel alone?!? Reading back over what I have, it's probably just as well that I couldn't post them to the blog--there's some serious editing that needs to be done. Ah, well.

I have learned some things over the last month-plus:

*I can continue to function with insufficient sleep for four days. Day Five pushes me over the top and I become extremely grumpy and irrational.

*I need to reassess my wardrobe in a bad way. My clothing comes in two sizes: too big or too small. *sigh* I discovered this after hauling a bunch of stuff that I can no longer wear, halfway across the continent.

*In a pinch, I can sleep in places I wouldn't have thought likely. Some of them are even surprisingly comfortable.

*CCU NURSES ROCK! And Gods bless 'em for it!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Nothing much new here, except for the snow and the ice. Mom's getting weaker and Dad's increasingly becoming a royal pain in the arse. Same ol', same ol'.

Update

Well, we had Mom scheduled to start chemo the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, but she decided against undergoing treatment. The oncologist told us that only about 25% of non-small cell lung cancers (the ones associated with NOT smoking) respond to treatment, and as bad as she already felt, well, I couldn't really argue with her decision. And honestly, I doubt I'd have opted for chemo if I were in her position.

So Thanksgiving morning I headed to Athos' mom's house to have T-day dinner with them, spent the night, and drove back to my parents' house Friday morning . . . only to discover that Mom was having major heart problems. Atrial fibrillation is NOT your friend, folks, and neither is a chest cavity full of fluid! Off to the ER we went. In retrospect, we probably should have called the ambulance, but her doc just said "get her to the hospital".

Almost two weeks later she was released to go home. Why home instead of to the skilled nursing facility she really needed? Well, by that point the big mucking chest tube they used to siphon off several liters of fluid had been replaced with a smaller indwelling tube -- and apparently no one was willing to take responsibility for dealing with it. Let's get this straight: A drain set-up that the average lay person could be expected to handle after a single walk-through is too complicated for a trained health care provider?!? Gimme a f***ing break! The damn thing has a one-way valve in it, so the likelihood of ending up with pneumothorax is nil. Ditto for infection if simple, common-sense wound care is used.

So we got her set up for hospice care and took her home, and my aunt and I have been trading off "duty shifts" so Mom's never alone for more than a few minutes. One of us has been sleeping in the room with her, so as to be available if she needs anything in the night, while the other gets the bed for some uninterrupted rest. That's been working out pretty well, although we've both reached the point where we're needing some "away time" to avoid burnout and my aunt kindly allowed me to take the first break. We'll be going back down in a few days, then my aunt will go home to spend Christmas with her family.

Why haven't I been posting? Well, it's like this: My parents' house has no internet access whatsoever, not even dial-up, and I have yet to locate any place with free wifi in that town. But I was smart -- before I left home I bought a wireless broadband card so I'd have 'net access. At least, I thought I was being smart. It took three weeks of off-and-on trial and error on my part, and over SIX HOURS of intensive attention by my wireless carrier's "experts" to get the damned device working. (Side note: I really really miss Alltel. I could dial *611 and talk to an actual person without having to wade through an almost endless number of prompts and menus, only to be told to "hang up and dial ___".)

But with any luck whatsoever, I'll be able to post once I'm back with Mom....