Justice

Ok, so today I heard a story on the radio about a woman who left her three children (the oldest of whom is 3) alone at her apartment while she went to try to see a Jerry Springer* taping. After FIVE HOURS, the oldest one knocked on a neighbor’s door for help. Police were called, charges filed, and the mother is spending 30 days in prison. (The kids will be entered into the foster care system.)

My question is: 30 days? I know nothing about this woman except this incident. Maybe she’s ordinarily a very loving and protective mother. Maybe she understands that losing her kids is the worst thing that could happen to her. Maybe serving 30 days’ time will convince her to get whatever help or support she needs (assuming, of course, that she can afford it).

But maybe not. I have to say, my gut reaction to this was that she deserves much worse. If she’d had the care of MY child, I wouldn’t be able to think of a punishment harsh enough for abandonment. And why should her children have any less protection than mine?

*The DJ’s punchline: “… and now Jerry Springer would like to have her as a guest on the show.”

Justice

Ok, so today I heard a story on the radio about a woman who left her three children (the oldest of whom is 3) alone at her apartment while she went to try to see a Jerry Springer* taping. After FIVE HOURS, the oldest one knocked on a neighbor’s door for help. Police were called, charges filed, and the mother is spending 30 days in prison. (The kids will be entered into the foster care system.)

My question is: 30 days? I know nothing about this woman except this incident. Maybe she’s ordinarily a very loving and protective mother. Maybe she understands that losing her kids is the worst thing that could happen to her. Maybe serving 30 days’ time will convince her to get whatever help or support she needs (assuming, of course, that she can afford it).

But maybe not. I have to say, my gut reaction to this was that she deserves much worse. If she’d had the care of MY child, I wouldn’t be able to think of a punishment harsh enough for abandonment. And why should her children have any less protection than mine?

*The DJ’s punchline: “… and now Jerry Springer would like to have her as a guest on the show.”

TiVo Review

Well, the TiVo has been in the house for (almost) a month, so I can tell you how great it is. Takes watching TV to a whole new level. Combined with the flat screen that I got Grape for Christmas, the two conspire to force us to watch more television than we probably would have otherwise.

I do have to say though that the initial set-up leaves a LOT to be desired.

TiVo requires a phone line to get all the program listings and other stuff that it has to download in order to work right. Ok, fine, but we have a Vonage phone line that runs through our broadband connection. TiVo’s onboard modem doesn’t play well with anything other than your standard POTS line from the local, overpriced carrier. Several attempts result in failure. Which would be annoying enough, but to add insult to injury, TiVo can work over broadband/LAN — my end goal, so I don’t have to worry about the phone issues — but the software version that’s loaded from the factory doesn’t contain LAN support. So to enable broadband support, you have to establish a login at TiVo.com and request that the LAN upgrade be sent to your machine.

But we haven’t even gotten to that point, I’m still trying to get through the initial set-up without throwing something at the wall. So, off to the online support group to look for suggestions. I get suggestions from both the TiVo forums as well as the Vonage forums since this is apparently a well-documented flaw. Eventually, through trial and error, I stumble across the settings to get the initial set-up done.

YAY!!

Bwah…

Still don’t have the broadband support, so have to keep forcing to dial-in to see if the upgrade is ready to be pushed down. Between the intermittant connection failures and the interminable time to download any sort of upgrade at 9600 bps, it’s another several hours before the software upgrade is downloaded, installed and rebooted.

Ok, off to CompUSA to buy a wireless access point and a USB wireless network adaptor to plug into TiVo.

Got it. Come home and plug in. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Damn, I checked the TiVo website and this f*ing adaptor is on the list, so what’s the problem?!?!? Aw, shit, the firmware revision on the adaptor is not the same as what’s on the list. In fact, this firmware revision of this adaptor specifically has a thumbs down next to it.

Ok, back to CompUSA to return that one and look for another one. Nothing there, so to Best Buy. After a while searching, I find an open-box return that actually has a “TiVo approved” sticker on it. That’s GOTTA work!

And so it did.

Once I got everything set-up, it worked great, but I opened the box on Christmas Eve (Friday) and it was mid-day Monday before I got the whole operation working right.

Actually setting it to record programs is way easier than the VCR, plus it’s like an video on-demand server, pick whatever is on there regardless of when it was recorded.

P.S. Talking about TiVo, two thumbs way down to Fox for the football playoff that ran late. I’m glad I was home to tell TiVo to extend the recording for an additional fifteen minutes in the middle of the recording. Try doing THAT with a VCR! Instead of watching the first hour of 24 as it aired, I was watching The West Wing, although I have to wonder why since that show has gone WAY down since Aaron Sorkin quit doing the writing. I’m starting to think they have every intention of dragging this election plot all the way out to the May sweeps. Maybe I’ll have to get my political drama fix from Commander in Chief instead which I watched for the first time last night.

Yesterday

5:45 am: Decide to get up a few minutes earlier than normal.
5:45 am: Use “extra” time to have peaceful breakfast. Read.
6:15 am: Realize that “peaceful” breakfast has now actually made you later than usual. Curse.
6:16 am: Raisin uses her internal radar to realize that you are already late. She wakes up earlier than usual, demanding attention. Curse (inwardly of course).
6:17 am: Husband takes over with Raisin, allowing you to shower. Relax a little.
6:30 am: Get out of shower and commence trying to dry hair and apply makeup with Raisin underfoot so DH can shower.
6:50 am: Self and Raisin both groomed, but both in pajamas. Dress Raisin.
7:05 am: CURSE CURSE CURSE. Raisin is dressed, but you are not. Work bag not packed. CURSE.
7:06 am: DH offers to take Raisin to daycare. Relax a little.
7:19 am: Finally manage to leave house, clothed and relatively put-together. Relax a little more.
7:40 am: Almost to parking garage. Realize can still be on time to work. Decide day will not totally suck.
7:41 am: Get honked at by idiot who thinks it’s your fault he’s blocking traffic. Curse.
7:45 am: Watch, shivering, from the bus stop as two buses fly by without stopping. Curse.
8:00 am: Arrive at work.
8:00 – 10:00 am: Work work work, meeting meeting meeting. Feel productive and hopeful. Project may be OK. Cheer up a little.
10:05 am: Attend Weight Watchers weigh-in. Realize have lost 4 pounds. REJOICE AND SING.
10:15 am: Return to work. All hell has broken loose with project. Curse.
10:15 – 2:00: Miss several meetings while scrambling to prepare for afternoon presentation. Project falls down around ankles, but presentation WILL BE READY DAMMIT.
2:00-3:30 pm: Give presentation. Unexpectedly, it goes really well. Cheer up quite a bit.
3:31 pm: Return to desk. Different project has run into problems. Curse.
3:35-4:12 pm: Work out new problems. Relax a little.
4:13-5:00 pm: Catch up on emails and phone calls. Leave feeling cautiously optimistic.
5:00-5:40 pm: Commute home and pick up Raisin at daycare.
5:43 pm: Set Raisin up with TiVo’d Sesame Street while DH cooks dinner and you start gathering trash for tomorrow’s pick-up.
5:55 pm: Finish with trash. Head out to trash can to deposit. Trip and sprawl spectacularly across deck. Twist ankle, bruise knee, and scrape hand. Curse.
6:00 pm: Put on pajamas. Cry a little.
6:02 pm: Suck it up.
6:04-6:30 pm: Eat dinner.
6:30-6:55 pm: Clean kitchen. DH bathes Raisin and puts her to bed.
6:57-7:09 pm: Talk to MIL on phone. Feel better.
7:10-8:00 pm: Watch Gilmore Girls on TiVo. Threaten writers that LUKE AND LORELAI HAD BETTER GET MARRIED DAMMIT.
8:00-10:00 pm: Watch TV, yadda yadda yadda.
11:30 pm: SLEEP. Thank God.

This is Jeopardy!

Grape and I were watching Jeopardy! last night when one Alex said there was a twist. Hmmm… What could it be?

In this case there was a category that had to be taken last because those items related to items that had been on the board previously.

One of the categories here was Geography. The clue was a picture of a peninsula and the description was “… a peninsula between the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okutsk”. I recognized it immediately as the Kamchatka peninsula and commented to Julie that all my years of playing Risk payed off.

In the ‘last’ category, one of the first clues was “In the Geography category, all the clues were related to territories in this world domination board game.”

Talk about irony.

Talking about irony, on Meet the Press on Sunday, Tim Russert showed a clip of when Dr. King was on that program in August 1967. The moderator asked Dr. King what responsibility the Negro (sic) had to better his station in life.

Dr. King responded that it was a cruel irony to tell a bootless man to pull himself up by his bootstraps.

WSJ commentary

MSNBC quoted an op-ed piece from the Wall Street Journal:

A Democratic communications strategist writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the Alito hearings spotlit “the heart of the problem with our party and its angry activist base… We think that if we simply call someone conservative, anti-choice and anti-civil rights, that’s enough to scare people to our side. But that tired dogma won’t hunt in today’s electorate, which is far more independent-thinking and complex in its views on values than our side presumes.”

One can only hope that this message will be received by the DNC leadership.

Loyal Opposition

Beware of the rant… read at your own risk…

This is somewhat of a follow-up to the Debate post from last week. I was browsing Wikipedia (don’t ask me where I started, this post is about where I ended up… plus I have no recollection of what I was looking for or why) and came across this entry about Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. Clearly the majority party (whomever that may be, but the current majority in particular) in Washington, D.C. would do well to remember this ideal that the minority party has a clear and important role to play in both legislation and policy making.

It absolutely, without a doubt, drives me up a f*ing wall when I hear Republicans whine about Democratic priorities by saying “Hey, if the Democrats want something, they should start winning some elections.” 202 Democratic House Members, 44 Democratic Senators (plus 1 independent) means to me that the Democrats have won elections. Not to mention a highly disputed Presidential election in 2000 and hardly a landslide in 2004.

Unlike what Mr. DeLay might say and get his lemming followers to believe, this is not a winner-take-all system in the sense that if your party controls the Congress ergo your party exclusively controls everything.

Alternately, the minority party would do well to remember that they have a role as the Loyal Opposition and grow and maintain a backbone and not rollover every time the White House raises the National Security or Protecting the Homeland flag.

Rant off. We now return to the regularly scheduled programming.

MLK Day

As today is Friday and even though I haven’t really thought about what to do this weekend, I’ve already given Monday some great thought.

Grape will most likely work on Monday — unlike me who has been told to spend one of my precious PTO days on Monday. Day care is open and Raisin will most likely go there for the day if Grape actually goes to work.

That leaves me the day to myself. With nothing pressing to do. I don’t get many of those — most of the days to myself are caused by an illness and result in me staying in bed all day.

So with a healthy day to myself, I’m trying to decide what to do:

1. Skiing Grape doesn’t like downhill skiing and I haven’t done it in a couple years (once in the past four)
2. Work on remodeling home-office
3. Watching whatever TiVo has recorded in the past week that I haven’t already watched
4. Something I haven’t thought of yet

Thoughts? Suggestions?

P.S. I’ve started to follow the Weight Watchers POINTS program since the doctor suggested I lose a lot of weight, lower my cholesterol and start working out, so options 1 and 2 have a certain preference over 3 (and 4, I suppose, if 4 turns into some sedentary ‘activity’ also)

edited to add P.P.S.

P.P.S. — Going back to the Weight Watchers thing, I’ve managed to come up with a pithy goal statement for this weight loss attempt.

“30 by 30″

Is that lame or what?!? My 30th birthday is coming up this year, so my goal is to lose 30 pounds by early-October. Seems doable.

Please Give Me Advice, Part II

My lovely and loving husband recently brought up an interesting point. Raisin is most definitely a mama’s girl. DH takes this really well, but it can be really frustrating for both of us. For him, because some days he’d rather just get a kiss instead of, “NO DADDY!!! NO NO NO NO NO!” For me, because some days there is simply no other choice but for Raisin and I to be glued at the hip. It’s the only way for all of us to keep our sanity.

Does anyone out there have any words of wisdom about this? We’ve been told before that there are “mommy” phases and “daddy” phases. So far, her entire life has pretty much been a mommy phase, with definite peaks and valleys — times, like the last two weeks, when she’ll hardly tolerate anyone else, and other times when she’s a very easy-going kid. Are the daddy phases still coming?

Also, even during the valleys, I have to admit she’s still pretty easy-going. She rarely cries when being left with a trusted caregiver. She enjoys daycare and seems to really thrive there. So, I’m not even sure this really is a problem, or if we’d be creating a problem by trying to force her feelings one way or the other.

Thoughts?

Debate

The New York Times: “In some of his most combative language yet directed at his critics, Mr. Bush said Americans should insist on a debate ‘that brings credit to our democracy, not comfort to our adversaries.’”
HOW ON EARTH do you have an earnest debate when the war’s supporters label ANY sort of disagreement as unpatriotic at best, treasonous at worst.

There is no debate that those war supporters are willing to have that will ‘… not comfort our adversaries…” in their opinion.

Where/When has this president shown any desire to actually have an honest discussion of how this war was prosecuted???