Today went well, but it was a lot more work than yesterday.

Got myself up a little early and got everything ready for Boo and Girlie Bear’s day before getting read for work.  Boo asked where Mommy was when he got up, but didn’t have any trouble accepting “She’s gone away for a couple of days, and she’ll be back soon”.  We’ve prepped him, so this was more of a reminder than anything else.

Work was work, but I was a bit tired all day.  I’m fighting off a head cold, and I didn’t sleep well last night.  Luckily, today was mostly project planning and clean-up from my work this past weekend.

Dinner was bolognese sauce I put in the crock pot before leaving for work over pasta and whole wheat Italian bread.  Boo seemed to like it; he looked like an oompa loompa by the time he was done with his plate.  Girlie Bear ate and had a lot of good things to say about school.  She’s working hard to keep the good grades she got last quarter.

The crisis of the broken pinball machine was averted when I figured out how to get it out of the error state, which gave me something with which to reward Boo.  He just keeps feeding it quarters and trying to work the paddles.  Luckily, I own the quarters and the game, so all it costs me is time and electricity.

I’ve gotten the dishes done, done some laundry, got everyone else in bed, and I’m not far behind them.  Hopefully a little of Kentucky’s finest in hot water with lemon and honey will help me get some rest.

No sign yet of open rebellion on the part of the kids, but I’m keeping my eye out for any disturbances in domestic tranquility.

Tomorrow will be easier.  I’ve got everything laid out already, and dinner will be leftovers from the past few nights.  Hopefully things continue to go smoothly.

The 30 Days of Reagan are winding down.  What do you all think?  Keep doing blocks of quotes from notable people or let it go before it gets stale?

Today will probably be remembered as the easiest day.

I worked until late last night, and then worked for a couple of hours again in the wee hours of the morning.  I got the kids off to school, went to a couple of appointments, and basically just puttered around the house for the rest of the day.

Dinner was chicken fajita quesadillas with a salad and fruit.  Both kids ate heartily.  Supplies look good for the rest of the week.  Dinner tomorrow night will be spaghetti with sauce I’ve already made and thrown in the crock pot.  I’ll just put the crock in its cradle in the morning and make the pasta when I get home from work.

Girlie Bear has been a godsend.  She’s good at doing the big sister thing by making sure Boo doesn’t hurt himself or anyone else while I cook or clean up.  She’s currently putting the finishing touches on homework before she heads off to bed.

Boo had a “very active and happy” day at school, and he nodded off at 7:30 or so.  I put him to bed and he didn’t protest at all.  Before dinner, he continued to be both happy and active, and my living room looks like a bomb went off, but it’s mostly just toys and such that I can pick up before going to bed.

All tuckered out

Irish Woman made it to Iowa with no issues, which is good.  Last week the first group of her co-workers to go for this training had to return to Chicago after take off when the airplane cabin started filling with smoke.  Luckily her trip has been boring so far.  She has called a couple of times to talk to Boo, and he seems to be accepting Mommy being away.  We’ll see how he does in a couple of days.

Our one crisis so far has been that the pinball machine doesn’t seem to want to work properly.  When I turn it on, it goes into some weird error state.  Irish Woman knows how to make it work, and I’ll figure it out.  We use pinball as a reward for good behavior, and I had to resort to letting Boo watch Star Wars after dinner instead.  Note the light saber in the photo above.

So far, so good.

Irish Woman will be flying away on the big silver bird to the wilds of Iowa for training tomorrow morning.  Based on the amount of preparation and admonishing she’s done today, I think she’s expecting to come home to “Lord of the Flies”, with me playing the part of the pig with a head on a stick.

I’ve got a fully stocked larder, a set of menus listed out for what I’m going to cook, all the laundry is done, and the house looks better than it has in a long time.

Not saying this is going to be a piece of cake, but I think I can handle this.  The kids have to sleep sometime, don’t they?

Yeah, I know, pride goeth before the fall.

Watch this space for updates on how I handle single parenthood for five days.

H/T to An Ordinary American

Let’s hunt some prairie dogs!

The state of North Carolina has offered a settlement of $50,000 to people who were forcibly sterilized by the state prior to the program being shut down in 1974.  The principle subject of the article was sterilized in 1968 when a board of 5 people labeled her as “feebleminded” and decided she should be sterilized because they worried she might become promiscuous.  The lady was 14 at the time and a pregnant victim of rape.  This “feebleminded” woman has since gone on to graduate from school and be a productive member of society.  Draw your own conclusions there. 

This one hits close to home for me.   My family, like most, has members who are impaired in some way, either mentally, cognitively, or physically.  My sister has learning disabilities, I am an arthritic, and one of my sons is slightly autistic.  I’m a responsible, productive member of society, as is my sister.  My son may be one someday, if he can ever grow out of the case of the galloping stupids that every teenager goes into. 

My point is that under the standards that these boards, which were active in at least 30 states and sterilized 65,000 citizens, any of us could be considered genetically undesirable and sterilized. 

I’m not trying to Godwin here, but if the term “Final Solution” just went through your mind, then we have something in common. Eugenics, whether it’s done under the auspices of a fascistic regime in Europe or promoted by Margaret Sanger in the United States, is evil.

Can the state of North Carolina truly compensate Ms. Riddick for what was done to her?  Definitely not.  She was fortunate to have a son with whom she has remained close.  But thousands of others were sterilized before they could have children.  Money won’t do it.

Now the state wants to compensate victims with $50,000.  If only 2000 people who were forcibly sterilized in North Carolina are still alive, the state will spend at most $100,000,000.  That’s assuming they can find all of the victims and all of them take the check instead of taking it as the insult it is.  

But the road for the victims of eugenics could be smoothed considerably if the governments in question would make a true apology.  Ex-governor Easley issued a one line apology in 2002.  Governor Perdue and the state legislature, as well as the leadership of the other states who perpetrated this barbarity, need to make a public apology that does more than check the block and throw money at the problem.

Irish Woman, watching the end of “The Empire Strikes Back” with Boo – “Where’s Han Solo?”
DaddyBear, distracted by going through the monthly bills – “He’s frozen in carbonite.   Haven’t you seen this before?”
Irish Woman – “Well, yeah, but it’s been years.  So the rebel fleet just drifts around and the new DeathStar is chasing them?”
DaddyBear – “The new DeathStar hasn’t been started yet.  That’s the next movie.  There’s a gap of a few years between this movie and Jedi.  A lot happens in those years by the way.  Luke continues to improve his Jedi powers, Leia has to get her metal bikini body, Lando has to make all those Colt .45 commercials, and Chewbacca becomes a Ron Paul supporter.”

OK, this is making my brain itch, and I need your help.

I’m an upper Mid-West transplant, so Southernisms sometimes don’t work for me.

My question to the crowd:

When referring to the set of furniture in a given room, is it a “suite” or “suit”?

Example:

“We went to the store the other day and bought a new bedroom suit”

My mind says it’s “suite”.  But four different Kentucky people, including my lovely and long-suffering wife, say “suit”.

Also, when referring to the little shelf that sits at the base of a window, is it a “sill” or “seal”?  Again, several Kentucky people use “seal”, while I’ve always said “sill”.

Please help.  It’s making my head hurt.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is holding its annual SHOT Show next week.  Basically, it allows outdoor sports media and companies that deal in guns, gear, and all the rest of things that make life fun to get together for a few days, discuss new products and services, and hobknob.  It’s invite only, as opposed to the NRA Annual Meeting, which allows the general public to come in and look at products and talk to industry representatives.

For the past few years, more and more people from new media, such as gunblogs, have been invited to attend SHOT.  Recently NSSF put out a very gracious welcome to non-traditional media on their blog.  They seem to be very open to including gunbloggers into the fold.

A growing contingent at the SHOT Show is our Internet media. In fact, more than 600 Internet media representatives — bloggers, forum leaders and website producers — will be at the show this year. When we first started registering Internet media four years ago, that number was under 100.

Apparently, some of the more established ‘journalists’ have an issue with that.  Here’s the comment that started the kerfluffle:

Now the question is when you are going to start qualifying internet media?   We have to crawl over nobodies who can install wordpress and have nobody reading anything they write, It isn’t so hard to qualify internet media using Alexa.com and Compete.com.  Why do you waste the manufacturers’ time and make the real internet media have to deal with wish I were internet journalists who are just using your stamp of approve to solicit review guns and accessories?  You’ve created this giant gorilla in the room and we all have to deal with it, and you may think the industry takes your numbers seriously, but everyone sees things for what they are.  If you are serious about bringing value to your exhibitors, you need to vet the press list. — Paul, Helinski, GunsAmerica

What are my qualifications?  Well, I’m a gunowner and shooter.  I’m not Tony Tactical or Allen Quatermain, but  I enjoy the technology of guns, the fun of shooting, hunting, and fishing.  I’m an everyman.  I’m a suburban father, gun enthusiast, and news junkie.  My perspectives on these subjects reflect that, and people like me are a rising voice that more and more people are listening to.

Look, I’m not a professional journalist, and I never claimed to be.   I don’t do this to get free stuff or make money.  I don’t consider myself a hardcore gunblogger.  I don’t compare to Tam, Uncle, or Jay.  On a typical day, I get a few hundred unique visitors and pageviews.  Posts about guns and gun rights make up between 1/4 and 1/3 of what I do.  When I do reviews, it’s almost always on stuff I bought with my own money.  I’ve gotten very few freebies.  Once I got some ammunition from Lucky Gunner, I went to their blogshoot, and I’ve recently gotten some clothing from an outfitter company, which I’m currently evaluating and will have a review for in the next few weeks.  If manufacturers or resellers want to send me stuff, I’ll take it if it’s something I’m interested in, do an honest review where I make sure I’m up front about someone providing the blogfodder, and then get on with goofy humor and ranting.

Are there gunbloggers who are in it for potential money and free stuff?  Yep, just like there are journalists in traditional media who are too.  We call those people “jerks”, and they tend to be shunned pretty quickly.  I’m not attending SHOT, and honestly, I doubt I will.  I will probably go to the NRAAM this year, and if invited to attend as media, I will take the opportunity.  Will I be intruding on traditional media?  Maybe, but I do try to not step on toes.  If gunbloggers and other Internet media types are making it hard for others to do their job, then NRA and NSSF will deal with the problem.  All it takes is one year where issues with us unwashed heathens make NSSF or NRA look bad or not get the press they want, and we’ll be shown the door.  If we’re doing good work, even if we’re getting in the way a bit, then that will be recognized.

We’re all in this together.  Excluding people like me, the everyday guy who is interested in guns and telling people about it, is counterproductive.  If I’m acting like a jerk and making it hard for you to do your job, ask me to leave.  But don’t exclude a new, dynamic part of the gun culture because they don’t do it for a living or they don’t act like you do.  We’re closer to the consumers of the gun industries products and services than most journalists, because we are consumers.  Our perspectives on new guns, clothing, and gear will reflect that.

Don’t exclude us because we’re a bunch of dorks and amateurs.  That’s what gives us a powerful voice, even if individually we don’t speak to thousands of people at a time.