Comics give Chris Rock their advice on how to make the award show really great this year.

My favorite?

As with the State of the Union address, the Oscar winners should be followed by a rebuttal, says Fred Willard, the deadpan scene-stealer in the movies Best in Show and A Mighty Wind.

He'd like to see "a brief 'slam' moment after each award where an anonymous artist in the same category says something negative about the winner."

That could be far more interesting than anything the actual winners had to say...

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  Aren't these gorgeous? Snow really is beautiful, and proof that God is an artist.

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  This article just really made me sad...

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  This looks like it could be a lot of fun! Every month they give you a new theme, and you create something crafty and send them a picture of it. They display everyone's pictures together in a gallery, and you get to see what everyone else's take on the same theme was. This month it's "Alice's Wonderland Revisited."

I poked all through the site and it seems family friendly, non-competitive, and just there to stoke your creativity. What a neat idea!

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  I was worrying earlier about what to do for Davin for our anniversary, but I saw this on Dave Barry's Blog, and I think it may just do the trick!

Ta Da, Bacon Whores!!! Quote: "Because the only thing better than bacon is someone to cook it for you."

This would make us both happy, really. How can you miss when girls, who can best be described as Hooter-esque, come to your house, cook BACON of all things, and then clean up the unholy mess left behind? I file that under "Something for Everyone."

This is waaaaaay better than lace!

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  Next month, Davin and I will have been married thirteen years.

Anniversaries always cause me to reflect on all of the amazing things Davin and I have been through in our marriage, from the miraculous to the tragic. I met Davin when I was 15, and he's been my best friend through everything, including Anya's premature birth and 4 months in intensive care, the loss of our unborn baby, the high risk pregnancy/bedrest with Maya and Sage, and Tiernan's frightening skull surgery and the aftermath of infection. We've stuck together through the times when we had money, and the times when we had to explain to a judge why we didn't. No matter what it was, we weathered it side by side.

We've got four great kids here with us on Earth, and one waiting in Heaven. We've got a super life together, and we share the same values and goals. We work hard to make life run smoothly and to make each other happy.

We were too young, too broke and too inexperienced to get married, but we've made it work, and we're still in love and still committed to each other. We're older and more experienced now, but apparently we're never going to get that money thing figured out! Which brings me to my next point...

How does one celebrate an anniversary with such a great guy without spending a lot of money? I looked at the traditonal and contemporary wedding gift list for the 13th Anniversary and came up with lace, textiles and furs. Wow, how completely underwhelming! "You mean the world to me, here's a doily, a hanky, and something we just won't be affording this year!" Besides, what do you buy for a guy that's fur? He's just not into the whole pimp daddy thing, although I guess that would make buying the "gold jewelry" for next year easier, I could just get him something for his "grill".

Then, I thought of a romantic getaway, and I found this neat list of Bed and Breakfasts in Colorado. Then, upon further inspection, I realized we wouldn't need babysitters because we'll need to sell the children to pay for a weekend at some of these places, yikes! :-0 We could probably find somewhere cheaper, though, and round up some sitters for the teeming horde, and it could be a fun weekend...

Does anyone have any better ideas? I'm open to suggestions. Call me, email me, leave a comment, whatever. But, if you know of something Davin's planning, don't tell me (OK, that's a total lie and you know it! Tell me all about it and I promise to act surprised!)

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  Hunter S. Thompson killed himself today.

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  Yikes!

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  Find out with this quiz!

I scored 45% Yankee, "barely a Yankee." It's interesting, a lot of the answers pegged me as being from the Great Lakes region, when I moved from northern Indiana when I was 10. Apparently that short period of time marked my speech forever!

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  A group of physicians and families are asking for warnings to be placed on ibuprofen. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe that people should think more about the medications they're taking, and especially giving their children, but this seems kind of out of the realm of reason.

This article states that the concern is over a little known, little experienced syndrome called SJS.

Quote: The group filed a petition with the US Food and Drug Administration asking it to strengthen labels on Advil and other ibuprofen-based drugs to warn doctors and consumers that the widely sold products can increase the risk of skin reactions, including serious conditions like Steven Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN).

SJS occurs in approximately four in every one million ibuprofen users. Those who continue taking the drug can develop TEN, which causes severe skin sloughing and is fatal in nearly one third of affected patients.

Maybe I'm wrong here, but we're talking about a skin syndrome that occurs in .0004% of the people who use ibuprofen right? And then, if you ignore this, you might possibly go on to develop TEN, and then still have a 2/3s chance of survival. Does this really warrent a warning on the bottle? Surely there are other problems with ibuprofen that are far more common that should be listed if we're digging that deep in the barrel... How about if we just have parents sign a waiver at the hospital when they give birth that states that even though medications are available over the counter, it doesn't mean they're candy, and if your kid's skin starts falling off you should stop administering it?

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  Isn't there someplace she can go?

Quote: More than a year after Sarah Nome was deemed healthy and given her discharge papers, the 82-year-old woman stubbornly refuses to leave her hospital bed. Nome admits there is no reason she should be racking up unpaid medical bills — which have now topped $1 million — but says she has nowhere else to turn.

Apparently she can't go back to her nursing home because she's suing them for sending her to the hospital in the first place, and because she's bedridden the hospital won't just toss her into the street, so she's staying.

There must be some facility that will take her that doesn't cost over $1M a year and refuse her newspapers and TV... What's going on here?

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  How's this for cool? A DJ spliced together The Beatles' Paperback Writer and The Monkees' I'm a Believer into one fairly coherent song/video, Paperback Believer.

He's given the same treatment to many other songs at his website (no video that I can find, though). I was also pretty impressed with Rapture Riders, a mix of Blondie and The Doors. This one still has too much Madonna for my taste...

Thanks to NightBazaar at Macca4Ever!

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  Wow. I can't even imagine.

The person who did this to her only served six months, that hardly seems fair. I know that happens all the time, though.

What a blessing this has been to her and her family, I pray she continues to recover.

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  Stories like this always make me really sad, but at least the baby is OK. These stories, of babies found dead and abandoned, absolutely kill me.

Still, it's amazing how much one person can do, isn't it? Debi Faris, founder of The Garden of Angels, initiated and pushed legislation to create the safe abandonment law in California, so that babies could be left at hospitals and other designated drop areas without their parents getting in trouble. It's an alternative to tossing them in a dumpster. Here's just the first story of a life saved because of her actions.

Colorado also has this law. You learn something new every day!

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  Tiernan has had some really weird issues about his diaper lately. He's been asking me to change it constantly, like it's bugging him. I just figured, Great! He's ready to get serious about potty training!

But, then last night he started crying during a diaper change, and was inconsolable for about 45 minutes. He kept saying, "My penis hurts, owie owie owie!" I offered to let him go naked, but he wanted a diaper on, even though he couldn't seem to get comfortable in it. Finally I stripped him down and tossed him in the tub and that seemed to help.

This morning he started crying and saying his penis hurt again, so I called and made an appointment to see the doctor. There was an emergency at the doctor's office so we waited 45 minutes before we could see anyone (did I mention I ended up babysitting my friend's son at the last minute, so there were 6 of us in an exam room the whole time?) The doctor came in and said that everything looked fine and that he wanted me to get a urine sample from him before we left. Good thing Tiernan's pretty happy to pee in stuff!

I took his diaper off and threw it away so he'd have to use the cup, and I was giving him cups of water to drink. Every 10 minutes or so he'd say he was ready to pee and we'd truck down the long hallway to the bathroom where he'd say, "I all empty!" and then try to play with the faucets. After a couple of trips, we were back in the exam room when all of a sudden he said, "MOMMY! CUP!" and I saw him trying to unscrew the lid and pull down his pants at the same time...

I got the cup open and he immediately started to pee in it, RIGHT THERE IN THE EXAM ROOM. I watched the cup fill higher and higher and realized, oh crap, if he overflows this thing he's going to end up peeing on the doctor's carpet! I asked the other kids to grab me another specimen cup, as if there were really any hope of making a smooth transfer, but luckily Tiernan stopped just short of the top. That's my boy!

The nurse took the cup and said she'd be right back with the results, and I went to put another diaper on Tiernan and I didn't have any! All I had was a Little Swimmer! So, I put that on and then spent the next 30 minutes while we waited for the results explaining to him that, no, we weren't going swimming. No, we're not going to go swimming. Yes, Tiernan, I know you're wearing a swim diaper, but we're not going swimming. No swimming today. You get the picture...

The doctor finally came back (we were in the office 1 hour and 45 minutes at this point) and told me that the urine sample was just fine, no infection or anything. He said that boys Tiernan's age are starting to get erections, and sometimes it freaks them out a little because that's unexpected. He explained that, when your arm hurts you rub it to make the hurt go away, but when this happens to boys rubbing it only makes it WORSE and then compounds his anxiety and frustration. It's not painful, just worrisome.

I just stood there feeling so completely shocked that I'd just spent $20 and nearly 2 hours to find out that Tiernan's just a "regular guy" that I forgot to ask what we're supposed to do when this situation "pops up" again? Saltpeter? A cold shower?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we went in so that we know he's OK, and I'm glad he doesn't have an infection and isn't in pain. But, MAN this boy thing is weird. Everyone says girls are more difficult, but everything they do at least makes sense to me....


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  OK, I'm not big into shoes with laces, much prefering my comfy broken-in hippie sandals, but I do have a shoe-tying story...

When I was 18 I moved out of my mom's house and into a roommate situation I'd found in an ad in Westword. I was the youngest member of the household by at least 7 years, and I was so impressed by how worldly my 25+ year old roommates seemed! Mind you, at the time I was eating ramen three meals a day and I couldn't buy beer, so I was definitely lacking in the "grownup" department compared to the others.

But, with all of the really cool things it seemed like they were doing at the time, the one thing that still blows me away now that I don't get carded even for sympathy any more and I can afford nutritious groceries, is the amazingly fast method of shoe tying I learned from my roommate Dave.

Imagine my surprise to find it lovingly detailed right here on the world wide web! You, too, can learn it for yourself! This guy has an entire website dedicated to shoelaces, and apparently came up with this method on his own somewhere along the way. I don't know if Ian's method reached Dave in Denver all the way from Australia, or if this is just one of those freak human ingenuity things, but it is a darn sweet method of shoe tying and well worth taking the time to learn. Enjoy!

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  This article is interesting. It states that a recet study shows that people who stay slim in their forties are the same people who brush their teeth after every meal.

Their reasoning is, "It's a sign that these people are careful about their health -- they want to maintain the appearance of their teeth and prevent bad breath," the paper said. "We think actively encouraging the habit of toothbrushing would play a role in maintaining health and would help prevent obesity."

But I think maybe it's just because they have a definite demarcation between when they're eating and when they're not eating. Think about it! After you brush your teeth you don't want to wreck your just-brushed freshness by grazing on something. Maybe they just spend so much time being minty-fresh that they don't have time to get fat?

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  As you can tell from my recent entry I am Serenity Sonic-De'ath!, I love name generators.

I am happy to have found a site that will generate names for both Elves and Hobbits! So, I let 'er rip and here we are!

I am Alatáriël Eledhwen-Telemnar or Marigold Brandybuck of Buckland
Davin is Elessar Eledhwen-Telemnar or Till Brandybuck of Buckland
Anya is Lúthien Eledhwen-Telemnar or Rosie-Posie Brandybuck of Buckland
Maya is Ireth Eledhwen-Telemnar or Primula Brandybuck of Buckland
Sage is Eldárwen Eledhwen-Telemnar or Ivy Brandybuck of Buckland
Tiernan is Maeglin Eledhwen-Telemnar or Todo Brandybuck of Buckland

If you try it, put your results in the comments if you would. I'd love to get to know you by your new names!


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  I love the headline on this article, School's Out For Ever! Hee hee!

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  I am really fascinated with the idea of house churches, or gatherings of believers that spring up without benefit of clergy or church buildings. In his book How to Meet in Homes, Gene Edwards talks about how each house church should have the "flavor" of the people who worship there.

I think this "house church" is a prime example of that. It's called Bar None, and they meet each week in a pub in Cardiff, Wales. Their FAQs give a pretty good idea of where they're coming from and what a regular week is like.

I didn't actually find this on the web, I read an article in an actual piece of print media (ooh!) But, this magazine does have a website and you can find it here, house2house.

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  Check it out! What a cool idea.

This came from ClickSchooling, which is a pretty neat yahoogroup. Here's the description: ClickSchooling searches the Net to bring you one, terrific educational website each day: Monday-Math; Tuesday-Science; Wednesday-Language Arts; Thursday-History Social Studies; Friday Virtual Field Trips; and Weekends are for Electives -- Art, Music, Foreign Languages and more!



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  Could it be true?

Quote: Taking advantage of its position in the Trek timeline as a forerunner to the days of captains Kirk, Picard, Sisko and Janeway, Enterprise "dealt with the roots of Vulcan logic, the founding of the Federation, and it will soon even air two episodes explaining why the Klingons didn't have bumpy foreheads in the original series, but do now," Sparborth said. [Emphasis mine]

Ooh, now that would be worth watching. Even though it was obvious from the beginning of The Next Generation, it wasn't until Worf brushed it off in the episode Trials and Tribble-ations, saying, "We do not discuss it with outsiders," that I really thought at all about it. Even though it's all fiction and ultimately means nothing it would be good to put it to rest finally!

OK, back to the real world now...


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  This documentary ought to be interesting. I think I would watch it even if, nay ESPECIALLY if one of my loved ones was on it. It's so rare to get some idea of what happens in those last moments...

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