Paltrow Swigs Stout

From the Boston Herald:

The Oscar-winning mum-to-be Paltrow has tongues wagging after she downed a Guinness at a hipster Manhattan restaurant - a sushi place no less - while five months pregnant.

Evidently in the UK they think Guinness is a good source of iron. Right.

Read more...

Game of Shadows

The sports radio station I listen to has been buzzing for weeks about the new book Game of Shadows which talks in detail about the steroid use of Barry Bonds.

Today it was announced that the baseball commissioner has decided to get serious and investigate the allegations in the book. In addition to confirming what was said about Bonds, they're also going to go after Gary Sheffield of the Yankees and some others, like Sammy Sosa and presumably Mark McGwire.

I sense a certain reluctance in baseball's hierarchy when it comes to really investigating this. The McGwire/Sosa competition in 1998 generated a lot of money for baseball. The Giants' games sell out because people want to see Bonds hit home runs.

There's talk of taking away the homerun records set by Bonds, McGwire and Sosa. The problem with that is, how can we pretend it didn't happen? Don't you still have to not strike out when you step up to the plate? It's not like you could grab just anyone off the street, juice them up, and expect them to duplicate what these guys did. Even if you hate these guys, there was talent involved.

Then there's another problem -- why stop with them? How many career homeruns of Palmeiro, Sheffield and Giambi do you take away? What about the pitchers like Clemens and Schilling who are alleged to have taken steroids? How many of their wins do you take away? What about those glaring one season wonders like Brady Anderson who hit 50 homeruns in 1996 when he'd only hit 16 the year before? Or Luis Gonzalez with the inexplicable 57 homeruns in 2001?

Lastly, what about the trainers, managers and general managers who had to have known that their players were on steroids? What do you do with them, nothing? If their players can be punished even though they never failed a drug test (with the exception of Palmeiro), they should be punished too.

It's a house of cards. I want to see if they really intend to follow through.

I have my doubts.

Week 38

Nothing new to report from last night's OB appointment. The baby still hasn't decided to move down. There's no dilation yet. The doctor still thinks it's going to be a C-section. She says it's up to me if I want to wait past the due date to see if the baby decides to move into position on its own.

I'll think about it a bit.

Immigration Reform

This is an interesting debate for me. My parents can here as immigrants from Panama -- legal immigrants. They met and got married here. I was born here. They went to college here. They became citizens and they've never been on welfare. They pay taxes. In fact, my father worked as an IRS agent for over 30 years.

But enough about me.

The focus of the current immigration debate is whether to deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, or allow them to stay here as "guest workers" for the next six years after which they must leave the country, then apply to come back in.

Neither of these proposals seem doable to me.

How much manpower will it take to find, confine and deport the 11 million illegal immigrants? And how much will it cost? What happens to their children who were born here? Do you potentially add millions of children to the foster care system?

As for the guest worker idea, if it was me, why would I voluntarily leave here after six years? And isn't this amnesty a slap in the face to everyone who followed the rules and applied to come here legally?

Moussaoui: I was supposed to fly 5th jet

From Reuters:

Zacarias Moussaoui said on Monday he was supposed to fly a fifth airplane into the White House as part of the September 11 plot and knew two other planes were to fly into New York's World Trade Center.

Taking the stand at his sentencing trial, Moussaoui -- the only person charged in the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks -- said "shoebomber" Richard Reid was to join him as part of the crew in the suicide mission.

Huh?

Why would he admit to this? Why did he even take the stand? I think he wants to get executed.

Very fishy...

Read more...

Afghan Christian Should Be Released Soon

From AP:

KABUL, Afghanistan - A court on Sunday dismissed the case against an Afghan man facing possible execution for converting from Islam to Christianity, officials said, paving the way for his release.

Well, that's a relief. They were actually going to kill this guy for doing... what, exactly? But someone has to get him out of the country, I would think.

Read more...

Attack of the Name Game

I'm set on a girl's name (Ariel Francesca Pessoa), but I still haven't made a decision about a boy's name.

I keep playing around with different variations:

Bryce Orlando Pessoa
Raphael Orlando Pessoa
Orlando Raphael Pessoa
Bryce Edgar Pessoa
Orlando Bryce Pessoa
Raphael Bryce Pessoa

And so on with the permutations. Down the road, will these names look bad on a resume or a loan application? I'm not sure. :(

I also have to think about the initials:

B.O.P.
O.R.P.

Are these funny? Would the child be teased if I put these initials on his backpack? I'm not sure.

I can't decide. :(

What Would You Do?

Primetime on ABC last night devoted an hour to various ethical scenarios largely involving race and hidden cameras. That's always amusing.

Scenario 1: Three elementary school bullies gang up on a fat kid in a park.

Two interesting things emerged from this scenario. 1) Women are more likely to intervene. 2) When the young actors portraying the bullies dressed "tougher" (i.e., wore hoodies and backwards baseball caps), people were more likely to quickly intervene.

Nevertheless, it was pretty sad to see grown people stand around and do nothing while a bunch of ten-year-olds terrorized another kid. 66 people walked by, looked concerned, but kept going. 18 people stopped, 11 of whom were women.

Both the bullies and the victim were white, so race wasn't an issue in this dilemma. I would've liked to see if people would've intervened quicker or slower if the bullies had been black and the victim white and vice versa.

Best intervention: A woman carrying a newborn baby marched over, screamed at the bullies, and escorted the fat boy to safety. She made everyone else look like a punk, basically. ;)

Scenario 2: Black couple arguing in a suburban park in Georgia.

Primetime did this scenario last fall with a white couple in New Jersey. In both cases the "boyfriend" is clearly a threat to the "girlfriend." He grabs the woman's hands, grabs her clothes and swings her around, puts her in a choke hold, berates her, etc.

The response rate to the woman's predicament was piss poor. Only 15 out of 58 passersby stopped. However, that was three times as many people who responded for the white actress in Jersey. Hmm? What does this mean?

But the response was still questionable. The people that confronted the black boyfriend told him "take it someplace else." In other words, we don't care if you assault your woman, just don't be crass enough to do it in our park. Nice.

When the people who'd walked by were interviewed, they were honest about why they didn't intervene -- they were afraid that the black man might have a weapon, so the black woman was just assed out. Mysteriously, most people didn't even seem inclined to call 911.

Best intervention: One woman walked over to the man and told him to leave. She shamed some other passersby into using their cell phone to call 911 and she then escorted the black woman away from the boyfriend.



Scenario 3: Racist cab driver. One white, one black, one test done in New York, the other in Savannah, Georgia.

Almost everyone failed this test. Both in the North and in the South, once the racist cabbies started making their comments, people affirmed his views and added their own or at best remained silent. Only 7 of the 49 passengers confronted the cabbies.

A Puerto Rican woman gets in the white racist's cab. "People with brown skin shouldn't be allowed in the country," he says. She says that's not true, everyone's allowed in this country, etc. Then she negates everything by saying that Asians are bad drivers because "They can't see right or left." She was totally unapologetic when interviewed after getting out of the cab.

A young Jewish man and two Latina girls survived the ride by laughing and smiling and trying not to be confrontational.

Nastiest Northern Passenger: An old Jewish woman in the cab with the racist black driver followed up his anti-Arab statements with this gem: "If it were up to me I'd put them all on a plane and send them to Ali-Baba," whatever the fuck that means. She insisted that she wasn't a racist when interviewed at the end of her ride.

Obvious Southern Redneck: This was a given. The night wouldn't have been complete without the Southern white guy who said, "I'd like to go target hunting Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. What I hate worst is a lazy ass nigger, especially a Savannah nigger. They don't have to work for that paycheck and there's white trash that feel the same way."

Obviously he's not white trash.

When interviewed afterwards he, of course, said he was not a racist. "It's just a joke. We're all children of God."

Most Troubling Southern Passenger: A woman visiting from Arizona started by saying how multicultural her state is. Then she fucks it up and says that Atlanta where she grew up is "like Cuba" and people don't speak English. And she agrees with the driver that Jews control everything and the black driver shouldn't expect a tip from them.

The kicker?

She serves on her company's diversity committee.

The Routine

I've quickly fallen into a routine now that I'm at home.

I get up at 5:30 and turn on Good Day New York. I fall asleep again and watch the last hour of the news from 8 to 9.

From 9-10 I watch A Baby Story on TLC. From 10-10:30 I watch Bringing Home Baby on TLC, then at 10:30 I watch the last half of the Montell Williams show.

From 11 to 12 I watch The Price is Right, then at 12 I watch Eyewitness News for half an hour. From 12:30-1:00 I watch Geraldo at Large.

From 1-2 I watch Divorce Court, then from 2-3 I watch Judge Mathis.

From 3-4 I watch Judge Hatchett, and from 4-5 I watch Judge Judy. At 5 I watch Eyewitness News again.

YAWN!

Wily coyote leads police on chase through Central Park

From Newsday:

A wily coyote led sharpshooters armed with tranquilizer guns on a wild chase through Central Park before being captured Wednesday. The coyote proved to be quite adept at avoiding capture, jumping into the water, ducking under a bridge, and scampering through the grounds of an ice skating rink after authorities thought they had the varmint cornered Wednesday morning.

They're saying it came over from Westchester County. I had no idea that Westchester represented the frontier, but I guess I was wrong. ;)

Read more...

Bassinet

I didn't get much done today, but I did put together the bassinet.

So cute!

Week 37

At my weekly checkup tonight the obstetrician said that the baby still hasn't descended into the pelvic area. At 37 weeks the baby should be further down. She warned me that if the baby remains so high up by week 40, she would schedule a C-section.

I don't have any problem with this. The obstetrician seemed to think that I'd be disappointed if I didn't have "natural childbirth." I so don't care about that. I just want the baby to be healthy.

Black. White.

I've been watching a new reality show on FX called Black. White. Two families, one black, the other white, are sharing a house. With the help of makeup artists, the black family passes for white and the white family passes for black. They're supposed to experience how the other half lives then come back to the house and get on each other's nerves.

With the exception of the white daughter, Rose, the transformations into the other race don't look too realistic. None of the black people look white, though they do look vaguely Hispanic. At a distance the white father could possibly pass for black, but up close, the makeup for the white parents was a bit off. Their "black face" is more convincing than the white makeup for the black people, however.

The first two episodes have been pretty predictable. The white father, Bruno, is determined to prove that any racism that black people say they've experienced is in their mind. The black father, Brian, working as a white bartender, wants to hear white people making racist comments when they think they're not in mixed company. The white mother, Carmen, is extremely self-conscious and has a tendency to blurt out things that offend the black couple, such as calling the black mother "bitch" and referring to the one of the young black women in white daughter Rose's poetry group as "a beautiful creature." The black mother, Renee, came to the project convinced that white people are insensitive and misses no opportunity to hammer Carmen every time the latter opens her mouth. The black son, Nick, seems to be bored with the whole project. He claims that people of his generation don't see race, so he has nothing to prove and he isn't interested in learning anything either. The producers don't seem to know what to do with him.

Of the six individuals, the white daughter, Rose, is the most interesting. She doesn't seem to have a lot of racial baggage, but at the same time she knows that she doesn't know much about black people. To her credit, she doesn't try to alter her speech patterns, clothes or mannerisms to "act black" the way her parents feel the need to do. She becomes involved with a black poetry group and the fact that she's in blackface really starts to bother her and get in the way of the "realness" she wants to bring forth in her work. She comes clean and at the end of the show it looks like there's the possibility of some real friendships forming between her and some of the other poets.

The show doesn't suck, but it doesn't seem that both families have equal opportunities for learning while doing this masquerade. What can the black family learn while masquerading as white? If they apply for a loan, they might get a better rate. That's about it.

As for the whites masquerading as blacks, a lot more could happen to them, but since the show is set in a large multicultural city -- Los Angeles -- they're not likely to come across really threatening white people that could give them the racist experience that they (really Bruno) seem to want to go through.

Unless, of course, they get stopped by the LAPD.

Mr. Rogers, Navy Seal

I overheard this hilarious urban legend tonight at my cousin's birthday party:

Mr. Rogers was a U.S. Navy Seal, combat-proven in Vietnam with over twenty-five confirmed kills to his name. He wore a long-sleeve sweater to cover the many tattoos on his forearm and biceps. A master in small arms and hand-to-hand combat, he was able to disarm or kill in a heartbeat.

LOL!

Well, it turns out not to be true. :(

According to About.com:

After graduating from Rollins College in Florida with a degree in music in 1951, he immediately embarked on a broadcasting career — a career that went uninterrupted for nearly 50 years, even while he studied for a Bachelor of Divinity degree, eventually becoming an ordained minister in 1962.

Snopes.com also had this to say.

Not only did Fred Rogers never serve in the military, there are no gaps in his career when he could conceivably have served in the military — he went straight into college after high school, he moved directly into TV work after graduating college, and his breaks from television work were devoted to attending the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1963) and the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development. Moreover, Fred Rogers was born in 1928 and was therefore too old to have enlisted in the armed services by the time of America's military involvement in Vietnam.

It would've been pretty freaking cool if it had been true, though!

Packing for the Hospital

No, labor hasn't begun, I'm being proactive. I've packed my bags. I have two small bags, one with the cord blood collection kit and baby clothes, the other with a change of clothes for myself, nightgown, socks, underwear, a sudoku puzzle book, a couple magazines, an MP3 player, slippers and toilet articles.

I also packed a booklet from the birth class since I've forgotten everything they told me already.

I guess I'm as ready as I'm going to be. The only thing I haven't done yet is install the car seat in the car. That's a sticky issue. My gut tells me that the best thing to do is put it in my car, but that means that my father will have to drive my car to pick me up and he'll change all the mirrors and adjust the seat in a way that will throw me off. But when I asked him about putting it in his car, he seemed to think that was going to be difficult to do (???) and more importantly, we can't put it in there because he thinks that will make someone break into his car.

*SIGH*

The crib and the dresser/changing table were delivered on Tuesday. The room is painted. Other than putting up the wallpaper border and putting away the baby's clothes, the room is pretty much done. I always hated that room, but it looks really pretty in there now. I'll take a picture after I put everything away.

One last note -- I'm going to close the baby pool on Monday, since the earliest birthday guess is Tuesday, March 21. If you haven't already entered your guesses for the baby's gender, weight, length and birthday, it's not too late!

Go here to submit your guesses and vote on the baby's name!

Grizzly Man

I saw a very disturbing documentary called Grizzly Man about two weeks ago. The film was about a naturalist named Timothy Treadwell who was so enamored of the grizzly bears in Alaska that he dedicated his life to studying them and living so close to them that they eventually killed him.

Treadwell is alternately portrayed as a caring, child-like soul and an egomaniacal asshole. The film combines footage shot by Treadwell himself in the months (and hours) leading up to his horrific death with interviews with friends and family shot by director Werner Herzog. The director tries hard not to be judgmental, but one can see that he views Treadwell's death as senseless.

Treadwell's pre-naturalist life seems senseless as well. He was a drug abuser, and he had tried his luck as an actor, narrowly losing to Woody Harrelson for the role on Cheers. Evidently losing that role was so devastating to Treadwell that he retreated from reality and sought solace as far away from civilization as possible -- with wild animals in Alaska.

The footage shot by Treadwell is really impressive. Over the years he had built up such a (misguided) confidence in his ability to approach bears, he got REALLY close to them. In many scenes he's, oh, 10 feet away from a full-grown male grizzly that is not tame. Probably the creepiest part of the movie is when he's talking to the camera about an older bear who has been having difficulty finding food and is starving. He warns the audience that this is the sort of bear that kills people and he jokingly says over his shoulder to the bear, "How about it? Are you the one that's going to kill me?" And of course, that is the one that eventually kills both Treadwell and his girlfriend.

The mauling, which is, admittedly, what everyone deep down really wants to see, is not in the film. Herzog surmises that the attack by the rogue bear happened so fast that Treadwell and his girlfriend never got the lens cap off of their camera. However, the camera was on in Treadwell's final moments and the audio of the attack was captured. Herzog doesn't let us hear that, which is for the best, I think. He does listen to it himself with headphones and also plays it for the coroner. They both react with horror, as you would expect. Evidently the bear bit Treadwell in the head and briefly released him. Treadwell was too badly hurt to get away, but he tried to tell his girlfriend to run. She didn't. She tried to attack the bear with a frying pan, with predictable results.

I wouldn't call this a great documentary, but it is thought-provoking and worth renting.

Penny Pinching Airlines

From Reuters:

Bankrupt Northwest this week unveiled a program called Coach Choice in which the carrier will save some preferred coach seating on the aisle or emergency-exit rows until check-in. Passengers can pay $15 per flight to sit in those seats, which may offer more room.

Actually, I have no problem with this. If I want an aisle seat, $15 more isn't much to pay. I'm certainly willing to pay for the convenience of a meal. The one thing that would bother me is paying for the weight of the luggage. That could add up to a lot.

Read more...

Gooden arrested again

From Newsday:

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) _ Former New York Mets and Yankees pitcher Dwight Gooden was arrested Tuesday on charges of violating the terms of his probation. The 41-year-old pleaded guilty in November to speeding away from police after a DUI traffic stop in August 2005 and was sentenced to three years probation. On Tuesday he went to a regular meeting with a probation officer and admitted using cocaine, said Jo Ellyn Rackleff, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.

I remember when Dwight was considered "clean cut." Now neither he nor Strawberry can stay clean.

Read more...

Laundry

This is very ghetto, but I'm excited because for the first time I have my own washer and dryer in my house. These are portable, mind you. Since I live in a duplex there's no dedicated place in the apartment for a washer and dryer. We're supposed to use the machines in the basement, but the dryers are very bad and there's an individual in the building who acts like she owns the washers and she'll leave her clothes down there for days.

Nasty.

Anyway, we bought these portable machines last week and we attempted to use them for the first time today. The washer attaches to the bathroom sink and there's another hose that pumps the used water into the bathtub. I told you this was ghetto, right? Still, I found it very exciting.

While the washer was doing its thing I read the manual for the dryer. Everything looked cool until I realized that we need a hose to vent the dryer -- and it didn't come with one.

GRR!!

So, my first attempt to do the laundry in my house ended with me having to go down into the basement anyway.

Another thing to buy. :(

World Baseball Classic

The weather the last few days has been unseasonably warm (YAY!) and with that comes thoughts of Spring -- and baseball.

I spent the day shredding old bills and watching one game after another in the World Baseball Classic. I missed most of the first round last week (I guess it's for the best that I didn't see Panama get owned), but the level of gameplay I saw today was pretty good. Cuba vs. Venezuela lacked intensity, but the relief pitcher, Lazo, was really good. He came in with the bases loaded and no one out and shut Venezuela down. How long before he defects? A lot of clubs would want him.

Next, I watched the U.S. vs Japan. That was good until the U.S. stole the game. Shameful! The score was tied 3-3 in the eighth inning and Japan had a man on third. A fly ball was hit deep and the Japanese player tagged up and scored easily from third. Then the manager for the U.S. complained to the umps and said that the guy had left the bag early -- and they overturned the call! The U.S. went on to score in the bottom of the 9th and "won" the game. CHEATERS!

Right now I'm watching Puerto Rico vs. the Dominican Republic. The crowd is pumped up because Puerto Ricans and Dominicans have a "rivalry" (i.e. they don't like each other). I thought the Dominicans would be running away with this game already, but so far Puerto Rico is ahead, 4-1.

So, the WBC seems pretty good so far. Of course, the minute a major leaguer gets hurt, there will be problems.

BSG: Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2

It's official. This show is no longer on my "must see" list.

The new season won't start until October, but it won't seem like a long wait because I don't care what happens anymore. I no longer like any of the characters.

--

The attack on Kara's people and Anders' group ends and after about 18 hours the humans come out and discover the Cylons are gone. Brother Cavil (Dean Stockwell) declares it's a miracle. Of course, since we know Cavil is simultaneously on the Galactica, we know he's a Cylon. Tyrol ID's him when Kara's group arrives back on Galactica. Cavil says he has a message -- the Cylons have abandoned Caprica and the Colonies because "the heroes of the Cylon" -- Sharon and Number Six -- have persuaded the race that they were wrong to wipe out humanity. Gee, that was easy!

Laura meets privately with Baltar and urges him to make a joint statement with her tabling the talk of settling on New Caprica until after the election. He refuses and sees it as a sign of desperation on her part. Before he goes she reveals to Baltar that she saw him on Caprica on the day of the attack with "the blond Cylon." He denies it.

The presidential campaign is over and the votes are being counted. Surprise! There's voting fraud, but guess what? It's Laura's people who are behind it. Innocent Gaeta discovers that the ballots from one of the last freighters to be counted were frauds. Amazingly, the conspiracy involved Laura's campaign manager, Col. Tigh, and Dualla -- a very unlikely group. Gaeta, distrusting Tigh, reports the fraud directly to Adama, and Adama comes to Laura with the news. She admits that she knew her campaign manager was going to try something if the votes got too tight. She tells him about Baltar and his connection to the Cylons, and urges him to help her go ahead with the fraudulent election. He talks her out of it and Baltar is contacted to let him know he's now President.

Baltar celebrates by going over to the Rising Star to screw Gina, the Pegasus Number Six. She celebrates by detonating the nuclear bomb he gave her, destroying the Rising Star and killing God knows how many more innocent people.

Suddenly it's a year later.

WTF?

President Baltar, bored but still whoring, is dealing with a union strike. Only a handful of people are still on the Galactica and the Pegasus with the rest now living on New Caprica. Laura is a school teacher again. Callie is pregnant with Tyrol's child. Kara has married Anders, who spends his time playing pickup ballgames in the mud while fighting off pneumonia.

Guess what suddenly happens?

The humans are caught with their pants down once again as Cylon raiders fill the sky. The two battlestars and the rest of the fleet jump away, leaving those on the planet on their own. Some human Cylon models march into Baltar's office and he quickly surrenders on behalf of what's left of humanity.

End of season 2.

Things I Liked

• Nothing.


• Okay, I liked the fact that Laura didn't go through with stealing the election.

Things I Didn't Like

• The flash forward to a year later was bullshit. It's an obvious dream sequence coming from Baltar's mind. I thought the writers of this show were above cheesy sci-fi "twists" like that.

UPDATE: This may not be a dream sequence. Read more here.

Texting for Help, Part 2

The story today is that the girl met this 19-year-old guy on myspace.com and she's gone to see him at Newport Centre mall several times. She voluntarily met him on the street on Monday, cut school and went to his house.

Though the guy may end up being charged with statutory rape, the case is very different than what was first reported.

Texting for Help

Another weird case today in the New York/New Jersey area. A family whose daughter never made it to school on Monday contacted the media yesterday to tell them that she (or someone) has been sending mysterious text messages indicating that she was being held against her will. The family insisted that the girl, Natasha Browne, wasn't the sort to be involved in a hoax and that she must really be in trouble.

On the news at noon today it was reported that the girl turned up in Brooklyn and she's been reunited with her parents.

I think it's great that the girl's back home safe and sound, but the whole thing sounds so bogus to me. What are the odds that someone would abduct you, hold you for days, molest you, but not take away your cell phone? And how come she could send text messages but not call? Is this simply a case of a girl who stayed out past her curfew and decided to come up with an elaborate explanation so that she wouldn't get in trouble?

Read more...

St. Guillen Murder

A murder has been consuming the New York media for the last two weeks. On February 25 a young woman originally from Boston was in a bar with some friends. Her friends wanted to call it a night, but she didn't. They left her and she stayed in the bar until the wee hours of the morning.

Imette St. Guillen never made it home. An anonymous phone call tipped off the cops as to where her body was hours later. Evidence shows she was raped. The body was wrapped in a sheet, there was duct tape on her, a sock was stuffed down her throat, etc.

The latest update on the case is that a bouncer at the club is the prime suspect. He was on parole and, with a 9 p.m. curfew, he was never supposed to be working at a bar at 4 a.m. anyway. It looks like they may have the guy.

But my thing is this:

• Did she really need to get her drink on so bad that she just had to stay out all night by herself? That's just not safe.

• She had some shitty friends. How could you leave your drunk female friend alone in a bar?

Read more...

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Stolen from Barriss Offee's Meme Blog:

You Are a Prophet Soul

You are a gentle soul, with good intentions toward everyone. Selfless and kind, you have great faith in people. Sometimes this faith can lead to disappoinment in the long run. No matter what, you deal with everything in a calm and balanced way. You are a good interpreter, very sensitive, intuitive, caring, and gentle. Concerned about the world, you are good at predicting people's feelings. A seeker of wisdom, you are a life long learner looking for purpose and meaning. You are a great thinker and communicator, but not necessarily a doer. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

I must've messed up somewhere. This doesn't go with being an evil princess.

R.I.P. Kirby Puckett

Nooooo!

How can Kirby be dead? :(

Baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, who helped lead the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991, died Monday after suffering a stroke over the weekend, the team announced. He was 45.

Puckett was in a Phoenix, Arizona, hospital after suffering a stroke Sunday at his Scottsdale home and undergoing neurosurgery.

He "was given last rites and passed away this afternoon," said a statement issued by his family. "Kirby's family and friends thank his fans for their thoughts and prayers."

Read more...

Taxes

I did my taxes yesterday. I used Turbo Tax, as I have for the last seven years or so. I kept better records this year, but it still took about four hours to enter all of the deductions. I'm getting a decent-sized refund which will probably get blown away quickly when the medical bills come and I have to buy disposable things for the baby -- food, diapers, etc.

The only unfortunate thing, tax-wise, is that this pregnancy spans two tax years. I was just short of the amount of medical expenses needed to deduct them on my 2005 taxes. I'll probably incur enough medical bills to deduct them in 2006, however. And then there's the Child and Dependent Care Credit. I think I can claim to be "head of household" as well? Not sure.

Last Day

I made it through my last day of work yesterday.

It really wasn't too bad. The day went by fairly quickly and I was able to finish documenting the things I'd set out to do and leaving things in a state where others can pick up (hopefully) without too much trouble.

There was a shower thing at the end of the day which was less stressful that I'd imagined it might be. I couldn't really eat much of the cookies, pecan pie and cupcakes, 'cause I'm not much of a dessert person, so I took those home. Mom has more of a sweet tooth than me.

I received two gifts -- a gift card for Buy Buy Baby (I'll use that to get the breast pump) and a preemie-sized gift clothing set from Marlon, one of my many cousins.

The only thing weird about the shower thing was this guy that I've never spoken to who showed up. We had a pleasant conversation about baby names and he complimented my choices and I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THAT GUY IS.

I assume he wasn't a figment of my imagination (someone would've said something if I was talking to myself for fifteen minutes), but that was just weird. I guess he came for the cookies and iced tea.

BSG: Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1

The Colonials have inexplicably decided that now's a good time to act on Kara's information about the resistance on Caprica. A volunteer group of pilots is briefed by Starbuck and they plan a series of jumps to take them back to their homeworld.

Meanwhile, the presidential candidates engage in a series of debates. With Baltar trailing in the polls, he needs to latch onto an idea that will propel him past Laura. His chance comes when one of the raptors in Kara's group jumps to the wrong coordinates and accidentally finds a habitable planet. Baltar, at the urging of Six in his mind and Zarek in real life, advocates that the fleet should settle here and give up the search for Earth.

On Caprica, Kara finds her lover Anders' group with ease, but moments after their reunion, a Cylon ambush erupts.

Things I Liked:

• The priest (Dean Stockwell) counseling Tyrol seems interesting. His no-nonsense approach was refreshing. Maybe he'll become a recurring character.


• No Lee and Dualla scenes, thank God.

Things I Didn't Like:

• The violence against Callie was truly senseless. That didn't advance the storyline at all.


• There needed to be an episode before this showing how the crew of the Pegasus has reacted to three commanders being killed and having the son of the Galactica's commander being put in charge. They can't be pleased.

Fears:

• I hate to say it, but this series is starting to get tired. What's going on here isn't compelling enough for me. Next week's 90-minute season finale has to do a LOT to impress me.

Pediatrician Interview

After work today I had an appointment to interview a prospective pediatrician for the baby. This is something that the maternity books say you have to do prior to the baby's birth, since the pediatrician will assess the baby within 24 hours after its birth.

Who knew!

I came prepared with a list of questions that I pulled off the babcenter.com website and the doctor was generally cool about answering them. The location of the practice is great -- it's in the same building on the same floor as my OB/GYN. It's easy to get to and there's a parking garage. The doctor and the receptionists were friendly.

Only one thing bothered me -- the waiting room and the carpets were dirty! There were Cheetos on the chairs!

Did I catch them on a bad day? Is that typical of what most pediatrician's offices will look like at the end of a long day with lots of kids coming in and out? :(

Anna Nicole Smith

I think she's going to win her case. There isn't any law against throwing away one's money. If the old man wanted her to have his fortune, hey. Maybe his son was a bastard and he wanted to teach him a lesson.

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