Repressed Memmeries

Christmas Lists 2008

Sorry, guys. I know I said I would get this up last week, but I'm a hopeless slacker at times. So, here's the barebones version of the Christmas lists for which y'all asked:

Laura:

Clothes (size 18 in pants, 20 in dresses and 22/2X/3X in shirts), slipper socks; Spode Christmas dishes, new Steve Berry book, "Realities" perfume

Gift Certificates: Barnes & Noble, Borders, Macy’s, Sears, Penney’s, Outback, Logan’s, Olive Garden, Target

Jeannette:

Anything Barbie, any stuffed animals, any baby dolls and/or accessories, Wizard of Oz toys/dolls, jewelry (no earrings), lotions/bath gels

Alex:

Anything with "Family Guy", Playstation 2 games, books (especially Space, Science, or Animal), anything Star Wars, anything Transformers, Game Stop gift cards

John:

I actually *did* set up an Amazon wish-list under my Hotmail account address: memmer1814 at hotmail dot com (I wrote it out to keep the creepy crawlie spybots from picking it up for spam!). Other than that, I always like kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, gift certs to Best Buy or any store of that ilk, and I've really developed a love of family recipes. You know, things that your family makes that are yummy and loved by all, but may never have been seen outside of your home. Or recipes for little dishes you take to parties, food days, etc. I dig on that kind of stuff. :)

Update 12/18: Is it too late to add a couple of things? Colgone - always good, the wife liking Nautica the best (and really, it's for her, right?)  :) Also, my constantly sore neck is telling me that one of those recliner-type pillow/cushion/apparatuses for the bed would be most welcome. You know, something I can prop my carcass up against whilst watching TV or reading in bed? That'd be divine...!

A Decade Together Gets You A Yummy Steak (aka. funny things heard at Jim's Steak House)

Having already gone out for our 10th Anniversary Date last weekend while the kids played at Victory Academy, we ventured out last night en masse for our actual anniversary dinner. We ultimately settled on Jim's Steak House, one of the oldest and nicest restaurants here in Bloomington. Old enough and nice enough to have figured out how to make a damn fine steak, might I add.

After rolling in from the frigid winds outside, we only had a short wait - maybe five minutes - before we were seated on the main floor right next to the fireplace. The inside of Jim's is exactly what you would imagine a Mafioso's favorite steak place should look like - lots of dark woods, subtle, indirect lighting and fine artwork adorning the walls while snappily dressed waiters and hosts flit around the multiple-level eating areas like checkerboard butterfiles, lighting from one table to the next.

We ended up ordering the same steaks - the 10 oz ribeye, one for both the missus and myself and one to be split between the punkins. The first course was a hot, fresh loaf of crusty bread, which our ravenous progeny gobbled up before it had barely had time to settle on the table. Next came our salads with homemade dressings. The kids have actually started to incorporate salads into their diets, which we'll encourage as much as they want to eat. They're both lettuce & cheese kids at this point, and whereas Sissy likes to dip hers into ranch, Alex likes to roll it into mini Alex-wraps. But at this point, we don't care - they're eating vegetables!

When our steaks came out, they brought out a separate plate for Alex, as we were just going to halve it. They had already adorned the plate with a layer of au jus, so when they put it in front of the boy, he looked at it for a second, then lifted his eyes up slowly, and with just a hint of poutiness in his voice, he said, "My steak melted!"

Needless to say, that got a round of the gigles going, not only for us, but for the waitstaff that brought the food. However, once we actually got the steak halved between the two kids, it didn't take more than a bite to prompt this from Jeannette: "This is the best steak I've ever put into my mouth."

It wasn't long before they had completely Hoovered their respective dishes, and we even left a little room for desserts. Alex got a brownie-pie with ice cream and honey-roasted walnuts, whereas Sissy's got the mini-chocolate bundt cake with raspberry coulis drizzled under it. Mommy and I were more than happy to help them finish them off, of course.

Sure, it was a little expensive. But then again, how often do you get to celebrate your 10th Anniversary? We came away happy and satisfied, and we even got to be entertained by the house piano player who had broken into peppy renditions of Abba's "Dancing Queen" and Toto's "Africa" while we were enjoying our meals. Really - you can't beat that!

And since the kids hit their sugar cliff on the way home, we were able to get them right into bed without too much of a fight, and we did the same not too long thereafter. :)

Happy Anniversary, Honey! I love you!

California Prop 8, The Mormons, Churches and Taxation

In response to an invitation to join a group to petition the IRS to revoke Church of Latter Day Saints tax-exempt status after their shameful and disgusting - and sadly, successful (for now) - campaign to revoke the rights of gay people in California to get married, I started adding in my comments and realized quickly that taking up 10 comment boxes on Friend Linger's Facebook page was, well, rude. :)

So, I'm bringing it over here and expanding on it.

The argument from the outset was that we would give the tax-exemption to churches as part of a social agreement: in recognition of said church providing a beneficial service to the community - be that thru charity work or adressing personal "spiritual matters" - we, as a society, agreed to relieve them of the tax burden to allow more of their collected offerings to be returned to said community in the form the those services. The implicit agreement also said that this was allowed to happen - existing as a tax-advantage entity - so long as they didn't abuse their position of considerable influence and power in that community in matters outside their purview, including political activism. It's not that their members couldn't participate in political activities, just a recognition that a sizable religious organization in a tax-advantaged state couldn't use their power and wealth to create an unfair imbalance in political matters.

It was recognized at the very founding of the country that this imbalance would be disruptive and destructive to the democratic structure that was put in place to protect the rights of the individual.

Obviously, this has gotten overshadowed and forgotten over the years. What the tax-free status has allowed many of these churches to become tax-free corporations. Look at the megachurches and all the millions (billions?) of dollars that have been spent in the name of marketing their particular brand of religiosity. It's PR. It's all about having the flashiest facilities, the biggest amphitheater-style worship halls, huge sound systems , complete with fully functional coffee bars and recreational facilities. It's disgusting the way these churches flaunt their riches, and they don't even see the irony of how they've become just like the evil money-grubbers and charlatans that they railed against in the teachings of whatever little version of religion they believe.  Clearly, these churches have not only far exceeded both the scope and the intent of their tax-free status in gross ways, but they seem to have lost themselves and their original purposes in the process.

I do view these types of organizations a little differently than the 20 member Methodist church in Podunk, IN, for the smaller churches don't have the same ability to affect their communities in the same overwhelming manner that the big Rick Warren-esque (or Joseph Smith-esque) church corporations can.

In my opinion, there is a difference between the little old ladies holding a bake sale to beneift the local food co-op in Podunk IN and these huge churchcorps. Even as a die-hard atheist, I still think that these smaller, non-politically involved churches should be able to remain tax-free, because they haven't disrupted the democratic balance and they can still serve a public need. 

So, how about this as an alternate proposal: any church that has gross collections of, say, $500K annually would be subject to taxation. (It's just a number picked out of thin air, but you get the idea!) In return, however, by taxing them the same as any other corporate entity, they would have the same rights to participate in the political process. Alternatively, if these churches agreed NOT to participate in political activity - as was originally intended - then they would be exempt from the tax structure.

Frankly, I think the world we be a much better place if we could move on beyond these thousands of years-old fairy tales and magical ways of thinking, but I recognize that that probably isn't going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, it's time to recognize the changes these churches have gone through, their impact on society, and adjust as needed.

Sickie The Poo

Today I'm spending some quality time with The Girl, who's spending her second day at home thanks to some un-identified little bug that took up residence in her belly. Since I had to go to Chicago yesterday, Mommy got the first (read: the most upchucky and miserable stage for our little Princess) shift. Today, however, was my turn, which I was happy to undertake.

Fear not, though, dear readers - The Fabulous Sissy J is in much better spirits today. Her fever seems to have broken and she's been much more perky today. Good enough, might I add, to challenge me to a photo-finish game of Sorry in which I won by the pull of a single card! (I think she let me win...!)

Her appetite seems to be making a comeback, too. Today, she's had some pancakes, a small bit of mac & cheese and her current nosh of choice as I write this is a small bowl of chips and salsa. (Don't worry - we only stock the mild kind in the Repressed household!)

I think we'll see if she feels like getting cleaned up a little bit later on this afternoon to go to her CCD class tonight. If I'm feeling a bit nutty, I might whip up some hot cookies whilst I'm at it, because as you all know, there's nothing that makes you feel better than a plate of hot, fresh, cookies and a glass of milk...  :)

It's Time.

Vote.

And make it count.

Lookee, here - The New Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince Trailer!

The Truth About ACORN

By now, unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you've probably heard about ACORN, a community organization that helps the underserved low-income and minority portions of society get registered to vote. Their efforts have resulted in many, many new registrations for people that wouldn't otherwise have done so.

Obviously, this new influx of dark-skinned people have the Republicans all in a tizzy, going all the way to the top of their ticket with John McCain shamelessly plugging an outright lie on national TV in the last Presidential debate about how ACORN may be attempting to perpetrate the largest outright voter fraud scam in history blah blah blah lie lie lie Swift Boat Swift Boat Swift Boat... I mean, seriously, folks: after being shown in exhaustive detail how the GOP successfully stole the past two Presidential elections, how can anyone actually take what these nimrods say at face value anymore?

So, in response to the quaking-in-their-boots GOP Lying Liars, Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films has put together a succint video rebuttal that pretty much cuts the legs out from under the allegations being so casually thrown about by the likes of McCain/Palin and the GOP Liebots:

And if THAT wasn't enough, here's a video of Johnny Mac just a few short years back speaking at an ACORN rally in 2006 - as the keynote speaker - lauding the very same efforts he now seeks to condemn!

What more evidence do you require? I'll say this to anyone who tries to bring it up: show me. Show me your evidence. Show me where not only did someone somehow manage to get past all the safeguards built in place against fraudulent voter registrations, but they were successful in getting past the election officials at the poll and were able to cast their vote in such large numbers as to be any threat to the election itself, then you may have a point worth considering.

What's that, you say? You don't have any?

Color me shocked.

But, get ready, folks - this is the type of shit you can expect from the GOP and all their little minions starting a week from Tuesday. The only way to negate these criminal's efforts is to turn out. Turn out in droves. Make the turnout numbers so big that they can't steal it again, because they're already priming their pumps on the other side for a big fight. For, in the end, what it always comes down to is this:

Republicans can't win these elections honestly, and must resort to suppression, lies and theft in order to "win". They've done it before - successfully - and they're going to attempt to do it again.

For more about the hoax against ACORN, check out the tireless efforts over at the Brad Blog for keeping track of these and all the other voter shenanigans for the past 8 years.

Okay, so I didn't post from Disney World!

So sue me! :)

We really made an effort to squeeze as much activity out of our five days as we could, so by the end of the day, we were all BEAT and were asleep as soon as our heads hit the soft, comfy pillows in our lovely rooms at Caribbean Beach.

Here are a few choice gems I've pulled from our cameras so far:

 
I'm still in the process of getting pics uploaded, but if the few samples I've put up here aren't enough, go over to my Facebook photo album for more!

Face to Facebook

It seems like it has just come ot of nowhere, but in the last month or so, it feels like everyone and their 4th cousin, 3 times removed has a Facebook account. Some might even call it a viral spread, considering the speed with which this social netwrok tsunami seems to be sweeping across these great Intertubes.

That said, it is pretty cool to be able to find people you haven't seen or spoken to in years and see what they're up to nowadays. I've come across some old high school and college friends I have spoken to in 15-20 years. Some have really changed, some seem exactly the way I remember them. And while we don't necessarily have the same things in common that we did lo those many moons ago, thanks to this technological wizardry, we find ourselves having something new to share together.

There is a dark side to it, however; it's addicting. Now that you've found all these people and you've re-established this tentative new relationship with them, you almost feel obligated to respond in kind when they send you a Flying Karate Monkey or a Water Lily Plant to help save the rainforest. The applications on Facebook aren't perfect, and some of them are downright bug-ridden, but in the end, it's nice to blow the dust off of the braincells that went dormant regarding these folks years ago and have a little fun.

FYI - the chat function is terrible, so I'd recommend sticking with MSN Messenger or Yahoo for that.

SNL - At Long Last, A Flash of Brilliance Returns to the Show

Up until now, while I always thought she was kinda cute, I never really got Tina Fey.

Now I do.

Not only is her intonation and look a perfect match for Sarah Palin - to the point where I've had to stop and really look to see which one it was at times - but the fact that she largely uses Palin's own words as the inspirational kick-off point for her parodies.

We just watched tonight's SNL version of the Veep debate and it was truly a work of art. Unfortunately, YouTube hasn't had anybody post it up yet, so until then, here's a bit from her earlier skit with Amy Poehler as Katie Couric in "The Interview":

UPDATE: Here's last night's offering, for those that missed it!