ez_mo

Here are the Flickr sets; I can only have 3 sets listed at a time so here is my chance to bookmark my old sets for posterity:

March 2005 (Ana falls asleep at the dinner table!)

Dorothee's Visit

Mother's Day 2005

May/June 2005

Mama's Birthday (today!)

Mykeru has a lovely recap of the speech with commentary. Such as:

So, I just couldn't help myself and peeked at the transcript of Bush's speech instead of actually listening to him, which is simply unbearable. To repurpose a joke from Gary Larson's Far Side cartoons, it reads like human speech as understood by a dog named Lies: "Blah-blah-blah lies. Blah lies blah blah. Lies, blah-blah-blah." But in particular this big flight of winged horseshit stood out for me in the text:

The troops here and across the world are fighting a global war on terror. This war reached our shores on September 11, 2001. The terrorists who attacked us – and the terrorists we face – murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance, and despises all dissent. Their aim is to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny and oppression – by toppling governments, driving us out of the region, and exporting terror.

To achieve these aims, they have continued to kill – in Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Bali, and elsewhere. The terrorists believe that free societies are essentially corrupt and decadent, and with a few hard blows they can force us to retreat. They are mistaken. After September 11, I made a commitment to the American people: This Nation will not wait to be attacked again. We will take the fight to the enemy. We will defend our freedom.

Yeah, OK. So, using that logic, that you can attack people who share the same ideology as the people who attacked you, must mean that if Bush was in office during the Oklahoma City bombing, he would have immediately sent troops into Michigan and bombed the living shit out of Kingman, Arizona.

and

...the policy of this administration is the kind of sadism one can expect when kids who torture small animals grow up to command armies.

He nailed it on the head for me regarding national guilt. It's a worthy read.

I just realized that the time between my first spinal i njection and my second injection will be nearly a month. Ouch! I am supposed to undergo a series of 4 injections at two weeks apart, but the specialist -- who has an incredible reputation -- was booked up through mid-July. I'm wondering how this will affect the outcome of this procedure. The first 4 days after the injection were sheer hell. I ached so bad 24/7 that by the 4th day I was fighting off tears. I was also up to 3 Happy Pills (percocet) per day. A few days after that really bay, my back started to calm down to the regular level of daily pain. By 10 days after the injection, my back was actually feeling pretty good! I was down to 1/2 HP per day! (RELEIF! I don't want to get addicted to the damn things!). Now, I'm back up to my regular pain levels and I still have 2 weeks until my 2nd injection. For added fun, I'm supposed to be doing physical therapy again, but due to the insurance company's predilection for 'adjusting' our accaount in their favor, I now have a balance due at the therapy hut and must wait until next paycheck goes through before I can consider resuming therapy. It doesn't help that I am consumed with fatigue. My bones feel too fatigued to move: heavy and aching. My brain is in overdrive while my body slumps and begs not to move. The HPs help quite a bit; if I can't feel the ache then I'm better able to get up and do my daily work of laundry and dishes and shopping and cooking and playing with the babies and completing project requets and checking my mail and.... I'd be tired even without the back issues!

My mom's birthday is Sunday. I was hoping to complete an embroidery project as a gift, but I overestimated my ability to complete it. Sadness, as I have no idea what to possibly give my mother. I might have to suck up and go for a cheesy bouquet of flowers. She'd love flowers, but I think she'd enjoy them more as an accompanyment to a 'real' present. I'm flummoxed as to a gift and I feel terribly guilty for it.

I'm still trying to finish composing a long letter to my dear friend, Chris. I haven't written to her in months and I'm sure she thinks I have forgotten her; I think of her every day. I mentally compose snippets of letters to her on a nearlt daily basis. Getting to a quiet space where I can write is wholly different matter! The children are asleep at the moment and here I am updating my stupid little blog instead of writing to her! Believe me, these quiet moments come along very seldom. I have several more letters to write, as well. My friend David is halfway through his hike and is expected to stop at his next checkpoint on Saturday. I have a letter (and cookies!) to send to him and I just realized that I will not be able to get the package there in time for him to get it. This is my life.

Now on to letter-writing....!