Seems impossible. I eat as low on the food chain as you can get. I exercise and try to take care of myself. But about three weeks ago I lost my appetite and started having pain in my abdomen…
UPDATE: I’ve moved the cancer story here.
A whole lotta horsing around
Wren and Reiley really amazed us (and their trainer!) with how quickly they picked up horseback riding. With only four lessons under their belts, they entered an all-day horse show on Saturday. They were awesome!! The event was great too – about a half an hour straight into the country, we entered another dimension full of cowboys, country music, horse trailers, and really really nice people. We sat in our folding chairs under a canopy someone else shared with us (it was a bit cold, a bit rainy, a bit windy all day, but still really nice – especially when you wrapped up in our super-warm Scotland gear for a quick afternoon nap). The girls did cloverleaf patterns and potato drops and barrel racing and pole runs and all kinds of stuff for which I am sure I am getting the names wrong. Andrea even had a Dr. Pepper, for old time’s sake (her regular drink at the stables when she was but a wee bairn).
I took a ton of video, as soon as I get some skillz I will drop them here. I promise. Way to go girls!
MoveOn.org kickin’ it
If you want to rein in the reign of King George and his cartel, get on over to MoveOn.org and sign up to call voters in swing states this November. They have a website that steps you through the calls. You have to make them on your own dime, with your own phone. I thought about killing my caller ID, then said screw it, I’m ready to shout it out. And with most decent cell phone plans, an hour of long distance a week is no problem. It’s empowering – even if America continues to so*o*ize itself this November, at least you can say you officially objected.
9.0 Good Will Hunting
Sorry I missed this the first time around – I guess I avoid hype. My New England homies from across the Hudson were great fun to watch 10 years later – Ben Affleck’s track suits alone make this a must see. It’s good, if you haven’t, see it.
Raleigh Chalk-a-thon
Raleigh had a fun event a couple weekends ago, where local artists were assigned sections of downtown roadway and sidewalk, given a theme (urban renaissance), and a bucket of chalk! Every section had a milk jug next to it, and you’d vote with your change for what you liked best. Our neighbor Kim earned a couple bucks from us with her entry, we liked it.
And it wasn’t limited to the artists – anybody could grab chalk and mark up one sidestreet, until it overflowed with creativity. The girls made some nice contributions:
Building Together
We got a kit to build a small brick house using a sandy gluey mortar, and spent a couple summer weekends on the back porch and kitchen table laying bricks. It was great family fun. We were all into it and worked together off and on until it was done. Our final creation!
8.5 Tom Petty: Saving Grace
A classic road song from his new Highway Companion CD, produced by Jeff Lynn. Also try “Big Weekend”, Travelling-Wilburys-style fun – takes me back a couple weeks to my trip down to see my brother Dan. We may have arrived at the LAN party place too late, but we saw “The Bodies” exhibit at MOSI in Tampa, fixed his computer (power supply was bad), ate 10 lbs of cookies dropped off by mom, visited Andrea’s dad in the ICU in St. Petersburg (he’s doing much better now), and played entire days of Empire At War.
He and Val and Bailey are in Germany right now, visiting Niki (congratulations, newlywed!), and having even BIGGER adventures. Whoop!
“The Bodies” exhibit was full of real human bodies, displayed right in front of you, a hundred or more, posed and dissected in different ways for better views. They are preserved by replacing water with acetone, then replacing the acetone with silicone. There were whole bodies, bodies made only of muscle or arteries or the nervous system or the digestive system, bodies cross-sectioned into a couple hundred “disks”, fetuses at every stage of development, etc. etc. Amazing AND creepy!
9.0 Dead Man
If I were a rich patron of the arts, Jim Jarmusch would get my money. Kick back and enjoy another of his classics.
STRATFOR on target with terrorism analysis
STRATFOR summarized my thoughts nicely, regarding how we are letting terrorists “win the war”, in their latest report. We need to shake it off and stop letting them call the shots (read: Impeach Bush Now). Excerpt:
Terrorism: Psychology as Force Multiplier
With that psychological component in mind, terrorist acts do not
have to be tremendously successful (in terms of physical casualties
or damage) in order to be terribly effective.
Continue reading “STRATFOR on target with terrorism analysis”
9.5 V for Vendetta
Effortlessly the best action movie of the year. You have to pay close attention to hear all the details of V’s pontifications, revealing how much we all lip-read without knowing it, but the quips are often worth a rewind. The best “big” movies have rich tapestries of backstory, introduced through classic novels, supporting short movies, cartoons and pulp fiction, or graphic novels (in The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Star Wars, and this one, respectively). And we need more commentary on the subject of terrorism vs. fascism, it’s the most relevant subject of our time.
