Living In the World, Not on It

When Luis and I first moved in together we made the mistake of telling his father, who promptly turned around and with only the dopey "let's hide the embarrassment of my good Roman Catholic son shacking up with someone", he told the whole family we got married. He might have clued us in on the secret - if only so I could of squashed that idea before it hit the masses, but no. And since he never saw fit to tell us, I ended up sending out thank you cads to all for the housewarming gifts but, no, we are not married. Someday we might get married, but not for a long time. Twenty-two and a half years later, here we are. Still happy, still (much to the consternation of practically the whole Gómez clan) not married. Neither Luis and I nor Anna and Kirk have gotten formally married and none of us have any plans to have children! GASP! Yes, isn't that something. I believe that Luis Senior has come to terms with it, but I know his siblings rub in how many kids and gra...

I watched a particularly effective episode of Harry's Law , a show that airs on Wednesday nights on NBC at 21:00. This is not your typical offering and I will also admit to being a big fan of David E. Kelley's shows. This is another law show, but not just another law show. It has its serious topics and its less serious topics but it is a lot more interesting... the scenarios posted and the responses to them. Last Wednesday, on 9 November, the episode centered around two things. Harry goes on vacation in a Mercedes Benz truck where in the town of Langford, she is pulled over. The reason? The mayor of the town (well played by George Wendt) made an ordinance that no one shall own, operate or otherwise bring a foreign-made vehicle into their town. They wanted her to pay $1,000 fine for this ridiculousness and she wouldn't. This is not where I am going with this. The second case that comes to the office is the less amusing side of the story. A couple from China c...

Welcome to The Queen's Meme 7 Royal Questions on Tuesday The first meme I ever did was The Book Meme in October 2006, tossed from the Philippines by a blogger named Lizza who turned out to be one of my best online girlfriends ever, even after all these blog years. She received it from a guy in England who talked about his underpants. Eventually I was crowned Mimi Queen of Memes by a man who wore underwear on his head. But I digress. The first meme I ever created was The Peace Meme . I asked people to tag 5 other people and we were on a roll. So to speak. Tagging is not so much an internet sport anymore but it sure was back in the baby days of blogging. Then I did the 9 Weird Things Meme in which I attempted to list 9 weird facts about myself. I thought it was scandalous but most people did not think I was weird enough. #1 was "I hate clocks." See? Not weird at all. Boy, have memes come a long way since! **I know. You're wondering...will she eve...

Welcome to Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants’ posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! 1. Have you and a friend ever have an argument because you were attracted to the same person? Has there ever been a time when this did not come up as a topic among close friends, especially teenagers? The answer is yes. In this case, it was my cousin and I who quarreled over her next door neighbour's son. Renee had always thought he was cute. I did too, and one time hiding under a bush, he kissed me for a couple moments. I guess we were around 15 or 16, which means Renee would have been 13 or 14 (she's 2.5 years m...

For the last two weeks I had the poll up that asked this question: "Do you think people like Kate Gosselin and the Duggars should parade their children on television to make a buck?" I was more than happy to see that the poll had 6 responses. Here is the breakdown: Yes - they are living the American dream (1 vote, 16%) No - it is potentially damaging to the children (4 votes, 66%) I would do it in a minute if I thought I could get rich (0 votes) I don't know (1 vote, 16%) I was gratified to see most people went for option number two. The first and third are disturbing, and the last one is at least honest like the second one. For some, the idea would not be just to get rich, but to possibly look at it from the standpoint of supporting all the children and ensuring that most, all or any who wish have the option to go to college or some kind of tertiary education. For many parents, that is important. This was an interesting poll to do - most people, I think, had a good feel ...

Let's bring the stakes up to something just a wee bit more personal that almost anyone anywhere can have an opinion. This should be quite a bit easier, since many people do have kids and really would do anything to see them protected and raised right. So this new poll, for the next fourteen days, is: "Do you think people like Kate Gosselin and the Duggars should parade their children on television to make a buck?" (That sounds like I'm skewed in my opinion, but those of you who read my blog already know that.) Answers: Yes, they are just living the American dream. No, I think it is wrong and potentially damaging to the kids. I'd do it in a minute if I thought I could get rich! I don't know. (I figured there should be one token answer that was not so tongue-in-cheek.) So there you go. Hopefully everyone will come out to vote and give their opinion, too!

I'm watchi ng WarGames , which was made in 1983. I was fifteen when this came out. I saw it in the movies with my parents. When they were watching the video of Dr. Stephen Falken, Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) asked if David (Matthew Broderick) could just write to the doctor. He said he couldn't because the doctor was dead. She said he was young, and David said no, he was old. When Jennifer asked how old he was, David said, "Forty-one." Good gods. I'm forty-three. How did that get to be old?! I always find it incensing when people say, "So-and-so was 72? He was young!" Now, let's not get carried away. The average life span of the male human is still 70. The average life span of the human female is still 77. This is NOT young. And it seems that rather than rising, the number is now beginning to drop. Unsurprisingly, a life of drinking alcohol and soda and eating processed foods is taking its toll on the human race. I'm not saying one has to suddenly thro...

Remember this morning's lofty goals? Not happening. There is no way to find enough topics - and the time - to put up as many meaningful posts as I'd like. The days are too long and tonight has proven to be the standard in full-moon fare. Don't misunderstand; you don't need just crazy people to make the full moon nights what they are. Sometimes it is all medical, sometimes it is all substance abuse, most of the time it is a mix. It's just more. So tonight we had one medical call and one CO alarm, which undoubtedly the fire district at the scene is still playing with - people do the strangest things. I'll just leave it there. CO alarms are normally a show-up-and-get-dismissed-immediately kind of thing, but tonight we were standing there talking and talking while the firemen were in and out and doing things. This is a standard stanby at a scene where the firefighters have the work. Still, that is about 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back. Guess that be...

This is a cheesy tidbit, but I was never a fan of this guy anyway. "Jon & Kate Plus 8 dad Jon Gosselin is admitting he "showed poor judgment" by leaving a bar at 2 a.m. with a mystery woman and without his wedding band -- while his wife Kate was across the country promoting a book."Like most people, I have male and female friends, and I'm not going to end my friendships just because I'm on TV," the dad of 8 tells Extra. "However, being out with them late at night showed poor judgment on my part. "What makes me sick is that my careless behavior has put my family in this uncomfortable position," he continues. "My family is the most important thing in my life and it kills me that these allegations have hurt them." A clubgoer tells that Jon "could barely walk" after spending nearly three hours with a mystery woman he referred to as "babe." After being spotted by photographers, the two hastily sped off in a c...

How often do I want to blog weekly about a show? So far, though, I think I have had something to say about most of the episodes. And I have never been a fan of Donald Trump - there is no denying his prowess as a business man, however, tycoons rarely appeal to me and his employment practices where the show is concerned bother me. Yes, I know... it makes better television and apparently the normal employment laws don't quite apply to this sort of thing. Still... I've posted "Just Fire Dennis Rodman Already" (30 March) and "Celebrity Apprentice 2009" (20 March) - I thought I had said more, but apparently not. I'd thought I had posted about the wedding dress episode but I don't see anything. Well, onto the last airing (Sunday, 5 April, 2100)... Clint Black and Melissa Rivers faced off as team leaders in the last episode, entitled "Trump Makes a Surprising Decision". They have the rather unenviable task of developing a "viral video", ...

Springtime is here, and with spring comes mass insanity for me where work is concerned. So much so that there is little time for casual reading. So this morning, my first completely inactive morning in ages, I am just sitting around, listening to my iPod playing Slainte Math by Marillion, and looking through some older issues of People while (now) blogging. This one is not too old - the 30 March issue with Natasha Richardson on the cover. Oh, now... that is a topic worth blogging about. Here is something that hits close to home for those in the emergency services. I'm always telling people to go to the hospital to go get checked out - even if it seems minor. If someone called 9-1-1, it was not major to them at that time. And Natasha Richardson, had she not refused medical care, might have lived. In her case, it seems a very strong likelihood that she would have survived. And now, three weeks later, all kinds of blame is being assigned to different things by the survivors. I guess ...

February 20, 2009 Four For Friday Q1 - Home Remedies: If it's February and you are sick, chances are it just might be the flu. Whenever he feels like he's getting sick, a friend of mine slathers his chest and the bottom of his feet with Vicks VapoRub, and sweats it out in bed while wearing three T-shirts, sweatpants, two pairs of socks, and a hooded sweatshirt. How about you... do you have any unconventional home remedies for dealing with the flu, common cold, headache, upset stomach, etc.? Yes, apparently I do. I just let the illness run its course for the first three days and then if I'm not improving, I will treat the symptoms empirically. This seems to be unconventional due to the fact that too many people start taking drugs immediately to dispell the discomfort. I am more of a believer that allowing your body to fight it is healthier. But after three days, it is time to call in the cavalry. Q2 - Give it Up: I've had the same pocket wallet for nearly 25 years, and ...

ATLANTA – Mississippi now has the nation's highest teen pregnancy rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, according to a new federal report released Wednesday. Mississippi's rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The teen pregnancy rate in Texas and New Mexico was more than 50 percent higher. The three states have large proportions of black and Hispanic teenagers — groups that traditionally have higher birth rates, experts noted. The lowest teen birth rates continue to be in New England, where three states have teen birth rates at just half the national average. It's not clear why Mississippi surged into first place. The state's one-year increase of nearly 1,000 teen births could be a statistical blip, said Ron Cossman, a Mississippi State University researcher who focuses on children's health statistics. More than a year ago, a preliminary report on t...

It grates on my nerves all the time that many, many people on Facebook put their kid(s) image up as their identifier. Proof that the feeling of no identity as their own individual, to me. I know, many don't agree with me. But I see the proof everywhere. Oddly enough, most of my age group have toddlers or small kids. I figured at age 40, most of them did their procreating years ago, and some have. Or else they are putting up really old pictures of their kids... but that seems unlikely. In any event, most people do give up their own identities when they have children and I find that sad. I have a few select friends with kids. The reason I am still friendly with them is that they don't subscribe to that worldview - good thing. How unbelievably limiting it is to feel that you have to sacrifice that much of yourself to do this. When Luis and I go to his company's event, all the wives do is talk about their kids. Except for two employees, neither of whom talk to one another, the ...

It's my worst nightmare! 'ROGERS, Ark. – An Arkansas woman has given birth to her 18th child. Michelle Duggar delivered the baby girl by Caesarean section Thursday at Mercy Medical Center in Rogers. The baby, named Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar, weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long. "The ultimate Christmas gift from God," said Jim Bob Duggar, the father of the 18 children. "She's just absolutely beautiful, like her mom and her sisters." The Duggars now have 10 sons and eight daughters. Jim Bob Duggar said Michelle started having contractions Wednesday night. She needed the C-section, her third, because the baby was lying sideways. Jim Bob said both baby and mother were doing well Thursday night. "We both would love to have more," he said. The cable network TLC broadcasts a weekly show about the Duggars, called "17 Kids and Counting." Chris Finnegan of TLC — which handles public relations for the Duggar family — said the show...

Where my mother's family made huge strides forward this weekend, I realised how lucky we are to have Luis as he is. His family is... well... I just don't know. Staggeringly religious. Enormously right-wing conservatives that make the conservative people I know raging liberals. It was an educational and scary evening. Anna and Kirk were the first to get here this afternoon and it is always a pleasure and treat to see them. We were chatting about different things when Luis' and Anna's father, Luis Augusto, came up... that must have been around 1630. He and his siblings, Lucia, Isabel and Iggy, had gone into NYC Friday night and yesterday and when he got in he took a nap. He was very late for his nap - he usually takes it around 1230 and gets up around 1400 but this time he got in later than his wake up time. When he came up we started a new conversation. We were rolling along with that when Iggy came with Lucia, Gustavo and Stewart. Lucia is Luis' and Anna's aunt,...

This doesn't make you unique... and it certainly won't make the other drivers better and more cautious - sorry, just cautious - than if you did not have a baby on board. Seriously, what is up with that? I suspect strongly that this is a form a bragging. I hate to disappoint anyone with my normally cynical attitude about the procreational process. And I am not saying that your kids aren't special and that they aren't great. But bragging that you had a kid? Again, not something unique. More people have them than don't and I'm sorry, but anyone can do this - for the most part. In fact, I'm surprised at how many people just, oops, get pregnant and then decide, why not, I guess I'll have it. What kind of attitude is THAT about a huge, life-altering decision that you have to live with for the rest of your life?! I can't believe that. What a stupid thing that is. It is one thing to plan for this but I have found throughout my life that most kids are not pl...

This is the best site to really see if this is what you want. I'm not talking you out of having kids, I'm saying think about the undertaking that it is. Check out this site, especially the Child Prep tests: Child Prep #1. Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems: Buy an octopus and a string bag. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that none of the tentacles hang out. Time allowed for this: all morning. Child Prep #2. Get completely ready to go out. Then, wait outside the bathroom for half an hour. Go out the front door. Come in again. Go out. Come back in. Go out again. Walk down the front path. Walk back up it. Walk down it again. Walk very slowly down the road for 5 minutes. Stop to minutely inspect every cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the way. Retrace your steps. Scream that you've had as much as you can stand, until the neighbors come out and stare at you. Give up and go back into the house. You are ...

"If the government can prevent women from exercising the choice not to have children (by banning contraception and abortion), what's to stop the government from preventing women from exercising the choice to have children? Even under current circumstances, the latter sometimes happens. CNN reports on a case in New Hampshire where a judge has ordered a couple not to have any more children: Monroe County Family Court Judge Marilyn O'Connor ruled March 31 that both parents "should not have yet another child which must be cared for at public expense. The facts of this case and the reality of parenthood cry out for family planning education," she ruled. "This court believes the constitutional right to have children is overcome when society must bear the financial and everyday burden of care." They aren't being forced to use contraception or abortion, but they can get sterilized free of charge and if she gets pregnant, they'll be imprisoned for conte...

...Because They are Not Eco-Friendly! Wait until you read this... don't worry! I will have many, many comments! Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers - and a voice calling her Mummy. But the very thought makes her shudder with horror. Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet. Desperate measures: Toni Vernelli was steralised at age 27 to reduce her carbon footprint. Incredibly, so determined was she that the terrible "mistake" of pregnancy should never happen again, that she begged the doctor who performed the abortion to sterilise her at the same time. He refused, but Toni - who works for an environmental charity - "relentlessly hunted down a doctor who would perform the irreversible surgery. Fi...