Fancy!

A friend of ours is visiting from New York City. The first thing I noticed was her new purse. She explained that she is a member of Bag, Borrow, or Steal. All of a sudden I feel like I'm in a Sex in the City Episode! Anneke, don't get any ideas--this purse is Just Visiting.

Fair warning

There's been a lot of talk lately about killer raccoons in these parts, but not nearly enough attention has gone to this issue. Emma and Anna-Lisa, this may be the most important thing you read today.

Eight months!

Two and a half more teeth than she had before! And didn't I say she'd be sitting up for her eight month photos?

With her good buddy, Barack Obama (long story. I can't actually remember why her glow worm has that name. but it's her absolute favorite toy. Thanks, Aunt Stephanie!)

My little bibliophile....

Our beautiful, happy baby.

Anneke Grace, you have transformed our lives in a most magnificent way. We love watching you grow.

Crawling

After 1.5 hours of fighting with Adobe Premiere Elements 7, we have this video proof of the arrival of the dreaded crawling stage of our beloved child's development.



My quick review of Premiere Elements 7:

• It's so slow that it is barely usable on my system that is only a couple of years old.
  
• I definitely know my way around a computer and I have edited a few videos in my time. After at least 4 hours of reading the online-only manual, I am using the program but still don't fully grock it.
  
• Did I mention it is slow? Man.
  
• It does work and can do more than I need.
  

Beating the PNW blues

The weather is soooo crappy right now. I was thinking I need to get one of those light boxes. But no. This is all I need to keep my spirits lifted.

God is not a Republican or a Democrat...

...just food for thought.

Today I found this blog entry by Sister Helen Prejean. I love her. She and Mister Rogers are my absolute heroes. I am fairly confident that we on the religious right and left, and those on the NON-religious right and left, might agree with this. I think. I don't mean to be presumptuous.

I'm treading carefully because I have lots of loved ones whose political leanings are different than mine, and I do love them.

That said, I just gotta say this: I'm disappointed that Measure One did not pass in Arkansas. I went to bed last night thinking I need to do more to support gay and lesbian rights in honor of all of my friends, colleagues, fellow parishioners, and family members who are just trying to live their lives and raise their kids and love their partners. I don't plan on using this blog as a platform for discussing this issue (okay, beyond this post?) because I know it's inflammatory, and I know some people who read this don't agree with me. But in my opinion it's also a civil rights issue.

Okay, all done. I really try to keep my mouth shut on this blog about this kind of thing, but y'all know me, and 'tis the season.

Happy Halloween!

As you can see, the pig costume turned out just fine!

Here we have the haunted family:

We went trick-or-treating with McMiller Pdx, and after little Miss Piggy was sound asleep, Dave and I settled into the man cave and gorged ourselves on popcorn and candy bars. It was easier to rebound from that kind of thing when I was ten.