2 new words

I need to be more proactive.

Grace's 2 newest words are:

Kettle (the thing to boil water for tea)
Marmite (yeast spread that all English and NO American children eat)

Grace, can you say football or peanut butter?

A Curious Phrase I Keep Hearing

Lately, whenever I am put on hold in advance of speaking with a real human, I am told:

"We are experiencing an unusually high call volume, please be patient."

Why is Taconic Telephone experiencing an unusually volume of calls that result is waits of over 20 minutes? Is it that so many people are giving the gift of residential phone service this Christmas?

Sad but true Facts Dept.

Grace is now over 17 months old. Basically she has been alive for around 525 days.

Tonight is the first night that we have ever left her in the hands of a babysitter other than one of my sisters.

To put that in perspective, each sister babysat for one night when she was a tadpole.

We have to get out more. I must say, it was really nice seeing Sarah dressed up. She smelled nice too.

BTW, the babysitter was paid $10 per hour and Grace was asleep the whole time.

Shit Scary Story in today's NY Times

I haven't seen anybody else posting about this story but I read it on the way into work today. It's about a woman from Belgium who married a muslim and became radicalized to the point of becoming a suicide bomber in Iraq last month.

This is the future face of Islamic terrorism. European women (most Euro/American men don't tend to hook up with pre-radicalized Muslim women) who are in relationships with radicalized Muslim men, eventually become radicalized themselves to the point of suicide bombing. Women like this are so much easier to get into this country. It's not exactly easy to racially profile young western European women for this sort of thing.

Take a good look. This woman is the future of terrorism. In this country.


Click here to read the entire frightening story

As if you needed another reason not to shop at Walmart

Here is a heartwarming Christmas story that should easily convince you never to darken the door of Walmart again.

Click the link.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/02/Tampabay/Racial_profiling_fear.shtml

Really Great Webste

Here is a site I visit at least once a week. It's a posting of postcards that people write their secrets on. Some are horrifying, sad, pathetic, funny. Always interesting. Very much worth a look.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Random Ten

I saw this on another blog and figured I would give it a try. Here is a random ten songs that the Ipod spit out:

1. Sentimental favorite - Owsley
2. Dream Date - Neil Finn
3. Grieg- Lyric Pieces Opus 62
4. Still Aging - Soundtrack of Our Lives
5. Won't Make It Better - Del Amitri
6. Take the Long Way Home - Supertramp (Sarah asked for this on the Ipod)
7. Looking at The Sun - Matthew Sweet
8. A Living Prayer - Allison Krauss & Union Station
9. Hymn to Her - The Pretenders
10. San Antonio Girl - Lyle Lovett

Not bad. Country, Bluegrass, Rock & Roll, & Classical.