I'd be an idiot if I didn't blog today

I don't have pictures. I don't even have a long witty story to tell. All I have to say is that, I can't wipe the smile from my face.

I keep looking at today from two different angles. First, we usher out, one of the most awful and embarrassing periods in American history. George W. Bush, who woulda thought he could be that bad. Second, we welcome to the White House, not only the first African American president, but a man, so competent, it sort of blows my mind.

The fact that yesterday we also celebrated Dr Martin Luther King's birthday makes today's Inauguration especially sweet. Even the kids realized the timing. This morning at breakfast Alex said "you know, this wouldn't have been possible without Dr King" and Cassidy chimed in "And John F. Kennedy!" and Dylan, in all his 7 year old wisdom... "Mama, did you know, Dr King changed rules?!?! Did you know that African Americans had to sit at the BACK OF THE BUS? And Dr King helped change the rule? Mama, did you know Barack Obama is AFRICAN AMERICAN?!?!"

You could literally see the that realization on his face. That a generation ago, without Dr King, Rosa Parks, and a VERY long list of people of all races and backgrounds.. this day, would not be possible.

So Happy Inauguration Day America.  Today we celebrate. Tomorrow we get our hands dirty, trying to fix the last 8 years of mistakes and incompetence.

Talk about "bringing integrity back to the White House".

Twice in less than 7 days. Wow! Are you shocked? I am!

So, I'm still up on the post election high. President-Elect Obama. I love the sound of that. And, I'm extremely proud to have put all the time I was able to spare, into helping the campaign. I have very high hopes, but I'm not an idiot either. Things are likely to get worse before they get better... particularly economically. These times, they scare me... a lot.

In other news, we made frybread this weekend. Thanks to Laura for emailing me MY recipe when I found myself unable to find MY own damn copy! I did find it eventually, but now I have it stored in my email folders as well as on my cookbook shelf. Whew!

So we made up a single batch to go along with some chicken chili (no pictures because I'm an idiot) and it was an awesome pairing. We used this recipe.. sort of. A few things we did different were, dried northern beans from the pantry vs. canned ones. A WHOLE LOT LESS cumin than the recipe calls for because I hate cumin. No canned chiles.. instead we chopped up a jalapeño and cooked it with the onions. The final step of adding the sour cream was the secret to making this a fabulous dish. Its definitely a keeper!

Now one of the best things about making frybread, is the leftovers. They make awesome sammiches, and even better toasted the next morning for breakfast...

And if that isn't enough fat on a plate..

pair it with a bowl of steel cut oats, sprinkled with a bit of sugar, and a splash (or two) of half and half. Its my favorite breakfast, especially on a cold morning.

I also started a new project last night, mostly to escape some of the never ending knitting of this year's spinning guild holiday project, which I can't show you yet.. obviously. Its halfway done, and I have plenty of time. Don't look at me that way.. I needed a diversion!

You may remember this handspun (or maybe you don't - I'll remind you) I tried to knit it into the boutique scarf (rav link here) some time in the last year, but it wasn't the right yarn, and I frogged it. Then I tried to make a mini clapotis (rav link here) out of it unsuccessfully. But after picking up the new Interweave Holiday issue last night, I think I have a winning pattern: Hourglass Eyelet Scarf (Rav link here). I'm really loving it, especially the easy 4 row repeat. This represents only about an hours worth of knitting last night, so I can see it going pretty quickly, which is just the sort of diversion I needed.

Lastly, its Monday. And I totally fell off the wagon doing this...

I only heard about My Morning Jacket through my friend Kira (Hi Kira!) and wow, was I missing out. Its a bit jammy (and you know I like that) plus you can hear a bit of Coldplay in there, and definitely some Allman Brothers (Coldplay and Allman Brothers Band, never thought I'd put those two sounds together!)

Anyway, I really like it and if you do too, there is plenty more to be heard on imeem! ETA: I'm not sure why imeem hates me lately with the shortening of my embeds, sorry about that.. the full song is on imeem however.

P.S. Thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes!

"In the unlikely story of America there's never been anything false about hope."

- Barack Obama

It hasn't been called yet (officially anyway), but I couldn't ask for a better birthday present.

Expect more politics here.

I've thought a lot about my "lack of interest" in blogging over the past few months and I think I've come up with at least part of the reason. I segregated my blog last year, moving political discussion to liberalmom.com. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but looking back it really wasn't. It's just not me. Politics, or rather, progressive politics, are such a big part of my life. Only a hand full of friends read that blog.. and I appreciate those readers, when I do get around to posting there. But, by segregating my thoughts, its as if I was hiding my political leanings, and I don't normally hide. Shrinking Violet, I'm not.

This is a huge political year, probably the most important election season of my entire life - so much I could have written about, and didn't, because I thought no one would read. What a wasted opportunity.

I'm not sure what will happen to liberalmom, as I did invite others to post there with me. And thankfully they have had that soapbox when they felt a need to vent. So ladies, you know who you are, feel free to tell me what you'd like to do with that blog. I'll keep it if you'd like to post there. If not, I'll probably redirect the domain to come here.

So anyway... the past few days in politics have been interesting. That isn't to say that since the morning Sarah Palin was tapped as V.P. candidate, that it hasn't been. I'm still rather dumbfounded by that decision - as is every conservative in my personal life. Great job McCain, they all ran the other way screaming in horror. So thanks for that! Really!

So far I've tried to ignore McCain as irrelevant, because he sort of is. Out of touch, bad ideas, even worse decision making. But the fear cards being played this week by the McCain campaign... The racial undertones... the hate inciting...

From Dana Milbank of the Washington Post

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

and more..

Also from Milbank..

"I was reading my copy of the New York Times the other day," she said.

"Booooo!" replied the crowd.

"I knew you guys would react that way, okay," she continued. "So I was reading the New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago."

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama "pals around" with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin's allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

"Boooo!" said the crowd.

"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Emphasis added by me.

McCain/Palin campaign? You done pissed me off even more. I've never wanted a President Obama as much as I do right now. You sling the hate... and I'll spend all my time slinging hope. Reality has a well known liberal bias MY FRIENDS, and I think you know that, otherwise you wouldn't stoop to this sort of shit.

So, to close this with a smile...

I hope you found it as funny as I did.

There, I feel better already.

I survived not only getting one hat out to my first target, but I got to take out yet another unsuspecting HA2 player, Michelle (seriously, click the link for the funny death notice!)

Funny, the work in progress sent back to me from my original target, is nearly identical to the yarn I picked out for her. I hope that means she really loves it.

So, I'm still alive. It turns out that as of right now, there is not another work in progress heading my way, as someone downstream flaked out, hasn't sent a death hat to her target, much less responded to any emails. I now sit and wait for my death to arrive in the mail, or for a mercenary mad hatter (extra players, not really playing the game until The Oracle calls on them to "make a kill". I know this all sounds confusing and downright silly, but its a lot of fun!

Also last week, I finished up spinning, and plying, my guild holiday wool...

It didn't come out at all like I expected, and I honestly hated spinning this. Because of that, I'm having a hard time figuring out what to make with it for the holiday swap. I've already cast on 2 different projects with it, only to be disappointed. Ugh. A felted stockinette table runner is sounding really good about right now.

Life 'round here is still quite busy. Jill and Danny's wedding is on the 11th and my dress doesn't get fitted for alterations until Thursday. Not that I'm in any rush mind you... the alterations are costing nearly as much as the dress. Highway robbery in my opinion.  If my Bernina was working I could just do this stuff myself. Alas its not, and I'm stuck.

But, mark my words.. I will not ever, be in another wedding. I hate weddings. Huge waste of money, and only marginally fun to attend.  Everyone should just fly to Vegas and elope. Seriously, save the money, elope and buy a house, pay off a school loan.... or something else.  I won't even go into my disdain for the jewelry industry, who suggest men spend THREE MONTHS SALARY on a diamond, probably mined by children in a war torn country. /rant over.

I'm also gearing up to spend weekends traveling to northeast Pennsylvania with other local Obama supporters. New York is most definitely safe as far as delivering for Obama. Pennsylvania is still a swing state, so we're doing voter registration and such, helping out the Scranton/Wilkes Barre offices.

And speaking of my hometown...

Ok, its Fox, so this should be expected, but split decision? Looks to me like the only McCain supporter on camera is the reporter.

I have some pictures from the kid's first day of school. Even ones of Connor waiting for his school bus. He did excellent by the way. Not even a single tear... from him anyway!  But I have to get them off the camera yet, and I'm not really in the mood tonight. I promise.. tomorrow.

But I do have this ...

This is just screaming to be made into a bumper sticker.

If you don't know what Loving Day is, read here.

Loving Day is an educational community project. The name comes from Loving v. Virginia (1967), the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in the United States. Loving Day celebrations commemorate the anniversary of the Loving decision every year on or around June 12th.

I forgot to post about it last year. And while I planned to the year before, something else happened.

To borrow a paragraph from Devilstower at dailykos.com:

It's also a good day to remember that this kind of legislation, including the "Defense of Marriage Acts" now in effect in more than half the states, will one day be looked on with the same distaste as the law that put the Lovings in jail.

Now I'd planned to celebrate this day, much in the same way that Richard and I would celebrate our anniversary. However after spending the better part of the day at urgent care, I came home with a diagnosis of an anular tear in my L5. Pain patch, vicodin, mass quantities of motrin and ice packs. What a way to celebrate an anniversary, huh?

After a few weeks of stalling negotiation, I took the boys in for a haircut...

They literally begged for mohawks for weeks .. and in the end, I gave in. But at least they both think I'm "the cool mom". Geez, thats all it took?

And..

OUCH.

This means we're staying home this holiday weekend - A time when we typically travel down to Pennsylvania. Thank you so much President Bush. Your foreign and energy policies suck.