iBeth

Mutated virus in our house

Poor Emma has the flu.  And it's flu A, the strain that this year's vaccine protects against.  I feel very sorry for her, but I'm telling her that she would probably feel even worse if she hadn't had the shot.  "Feeling worse" may mean little when she woke up with a 105.5 degree feever and when the doctor just shoved up a long swab up her nose for the test . . . but now that she has started taking Relenza, we're hoping that "feeling better" will be right around the corner.   And we're hoping that no one else succumbs.  We all get flu shots every year, but with a mutated virus living right in our house, that fact doesn't reassure me as much as it used to.

Love with an extra "V"

I didn't examine the dollar-bin bracelets too carefully when I bought the Valentine gifts at Target.  Guess I should have.

But I like looking at pictures of your kids

From the most recent Time magazine: Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies. 

7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this.

Actually, one of the reasons I "friend" people is to see pictures of their kids.  But overall, Time's reasons are right on--and very funny. 

How do you get crayon wax out of cupcake tins?

Family Fun magazine had a Valentine idea that was so cute--we couldn't resist trying it out.  Except that we couldn't find an affordable mini-heart mold.  So we just melted crayon stubs (mostly saved from restaurant meals) in regular cupcake tins and stuck the new crayons onto heart-shaped paper.  The girls loved this project. 

A few discoveries:

• The hardest step of this project is peeling the paper off the crayons. 
• The bottoms of the melted crayons are prettier than the tops. 
• The crayons don't stick well to the tape, so finished Valentines should be handled with care.
• Even when you use paper liners, the wax melts through to the cupcake tin itself.

Does anyone have a good suggestion for getting crayon wax out of the tins?  I'm hoping to rescue the tins without extreme manual labor.

Tallahassee--The Anti-Stimulus

Not only did Florida cut essential services to save money, but because we cut those services, we don't qualify for stimulus money in areas of critical need:

[T]he bill provides $87 billion nationally for Medicaid, the federal-state program that pays for medical care for the sick, elderly and poor. Medicaid enrollment in Florida is up by more than 10 percent.

But to qualify for the money, states are required to maintain the same level of Medicaid coverage that they provided in July.

Florida has taken several steps to cut its $16 billion in Medicaid costs by reducing coverage. And lawmakers had hoped to save nearly $500 million by sharply restricting the "medically needy" program -- which now covers thousands of adults who don't meet Medicaid income requirements but are seriously ill -- to 1,500 women and children as of July 1.

It's the same for education money:

Overall, Florida could expect about $2.4 billion. But there's a catch: To qualify, the state must spend at least as much on education as it did in the 2005-06 school year -- and Florida has cut its schools budget by $600 million since then.

At the urging of Florida's two senators, lawmakers inserted a provision into the final bill that would allow the Education Secretary Arne Duncan to waive this rule.

But there's no guarantee he would do that. And it appears there's no language requiring Duncan to rule quickly on the waiver -- meaning lawmakers might have to draft a budget without knowing whether the federal money will be available.

The Orlando Sentinel carries the full story.

So not only did our Tallahassee politicians make cheap cigarettes the priority for our state, but also they have cost us the stimulus benefit that is paid by our federal tax dollars.  Nice going.  The same stupid action leads to TWICE the harm!

I can think of two things we have going for us: 1. Florida voted for Obama and 2. Crist has pushed for the stimulus bill.  Let's hope those things are enough to get Arne Duncan to rescue us from our own incompetent state government.

Gay marriage at the dinner table

"Daddy," Amelia said, "Did you know that sometimes men marry men and women marry women?"

"As a matter of fact, I did know that," he replied.

"You did not.  You did not know that before I told you," she said.  Then, turning to me, she added, "Mommy, I wish you would marry a woman."

Of course she does.  Girls rule.

This story explains a lot

"2009 Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report: 276% Growth in 35-54 Year Old Users."  Now I see why so many of my middle-aged friends are already facebooking.  Wonder how long before we drive the young ones away?  I guess that depends upon how many of us insist on trying to "friend" our 17-34 year-old relatives.

[In other news, when the heck is typepad going to fix that category bug?]

Not Ready to Explain Why the Caged Bird Sings

Emma's Black History Month project is to research a contribution made by an African American and create a monument to honor that inspirational individual.  The individual assigned to her was Maya Angelou. 

"Everyone else wanted to do a sports person," Emma reported. "I think sports are boring.  So Ms. Von Trapp gave me Maya Angelou."  Naturally, this former English major approved of the choice.

But then daddy checked out Angelou's life story.  As wikipedia explains:

Angelou's first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, recounts the first 16 years of her life. . . . At age eight, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. She confessed it to her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was jailed for one day but was found kicked to death four days after his release. Angelou became mute, believing, as she has stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone..." She remained nearly mute for five years. 

Don't Mess with the Penguin

You know you've really crossed the line when your 8yo writes notes telling you off in Club Penguin code.  Daddy was the recipient of these babies:

   Fortunately for him, he was able to redeem himself.   

Urgent Hope

Not much in the mail today, but the Feminist Majority Foundation has clearly been thinking about me.  They sent me two envelopes: an "Urgent Response Needed," and a "Special Message of Hope."  Yes, both were donation appeals.  No, I am not familiar with this organization.