Vote YES on Prop 8

My issue with voting "NO" for Prop 8 has nothing to do with being outspokenly Republican, conservative, or a supporter of family values. It has nothing to do with the homosexual issue, whether people are born gay or straight, whether or not society will crumble because of gay marriage, or how I feel about the subject being taught in schools. No, my issue with it is simple. Doing so will let the California State government and the Supreme Court of California know that they can do whatever they want to do.

Checks and balances? Out.
Democracy? Overruled.
The voice of the people? Insignificant.

Attorney General Jerry Brown suggested the following as verbiage for this November's ballot:

LIMIT ON MARRIAGE. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: The measure would have no fiscal effect on state or local governments. This is because there would be no change to the manner in which marriages are currently recognized by the state.

Instead, California's Secretary of State revised it to read:

ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Changes the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. Provides that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Fiscal Impact: Over next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact on state and local governments.

Talk about some creative spin-doctoring.

Why start with such a strong active word like "eliminates?" Not a single ballot measure has used such blatant verbiage in the last fifty years. The way I see it, Prop 8 has nothing to do with bigotry or hatred. It has only become that way because the media, liberal Congressmen and Congresswomen, and evidently, the Secretary of State have all portrayed it as such. And surprise, surprise - the dramalama they're getting is exactly what they wanted. Congratulations on the fantastic PR job, Prop 8 opposers.

Remember, the 14 words (which are the EXACT SAME words that Californian voters approved in 2000 with Proposition 22) "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" are all you should be voting on. Not creative verbiage. Not what the media tells you. Not PR. Not hype. Not lawn signs. Not because you're scared that if you vote "YES," you'll be perceived as a bigot. Those are not the issues at all. Exercise your right to vote for whatever YOU believe in. Or to keep the courts in check. Or just to prove a point.

-10-key princess

PETA Strikes Again

A quote taken from a letter from PETA's EVP to Ben & Jerry's cofounders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield:

If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits. Using cow's milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health.

The breast is best! Won't you give cows and their babies a break and our health a boost by switching from cow's milk to (human) breast milk in Ben and Jerry's ice cream?

Ew. Just, ew. Ew. Ew. Ew.

-10-key princess

Forced Charity

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone tells you that it's your turn to do something nice for someone else. This happens a lot in our church: when someone new moves into the area, she's assigned a friend; when someone's pregnant, a sign-up sheet goes around to babysit her other kids; when someone has a baby, a week's worth of meals are assigned out to make sure the new mom is taken care of.

Well, I got one such phone call about 42 hours ago.

A little background information on this family to whom I was asked to give forced charity. They just had their fifth baby under the age of eight. The wife is 30 and the dad is a high profile attorney at a law firm downtown. He makes a decent income and has 90 days of paid paternity leave. There is absolutely no reason he shouldn't be able to a) make dinners for his family, b) order takeout, c) fly in a grandparent to help with the cooking, or d) call Domino's.

Here's how the conversation went:

The assigner of forced charity: "Hi, SM, this is Rae. Kristy had her baby a few days ago and has asked for three weeks worth (are you kidding me?!) of meals to help with the transition. Would you be willing to take a meal over tomorrow night?"
Me: "Well, actually..."
The assigner of forced charity: "Great, thanks. I'll tell her you'll drop off the food at 5:30."

I was guilted in.

So yesterday came and went. Before I knew it, it was 5:30 and I hadn't taken anything over. I was tempted to not even go, but I knew that if I didn't, I'd feel the pending guilt for weeks. So I put together a decent meal and drove across town.

The husband (who, let me remind you, brings home lots of money and has 90 days of paid paternity leave but was, for some reason, still in his pajamas at 6:00 p.m.) answered the door with the rest of the clan not far behind. I apologized for being a little late. It's fine, he said sternly. I handed over the food.

The husband: "Do you want me to help you get the rest of the food from the car?"
Me: "Actually, this is it."
The wife: "Oh, SM. I guess you don't know what it takes to actually feed a family of seven."
Me (in my head, but so should have been out loud): "Oh, Kristy. If you have the nerve to ask for three weeks worth of meals from other people, I think you probably have the nerve to throw some chicken nuggets in the microwave for your five kids. By the way, here's a pack of condoms."

Forced charity. I love how it gives me the warm fuzzies.

-SM

Oranges, Part 2

Earlier I mentioned that my husband and I get into silly disagreements over trivial things. Well, today is no exception. I went to the city today and ended up locking myself out of the car. Yes, I'm that dumb.

Regardless, I handled the situation in spite of a not-so-helpful Chicago cop and a guy who tried to slim jim my car using a wire hanger. Neither of them got me into the car, so I ended up calling for roadside assistance, who came to my rescue using an assortment of break-and-enter tools I'd never seen before.

You would think the story ends there, but allow me to vent for a minute.

I called my husband to tell him what was going on. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: "I locked myself out of the car. Don't worry, roadside assistance is coming to help. I just wanted to let you know what's going on."
Him: "Okay. I gotta run. The kiddo is acting up." Click.

A couple of minutes later, he called back.
Him: "Did you get into the car yet?"
Me: "No, not yet, but they just called and someone's coming soon."
Him: "So I don't have to go out to the city and rescue you?"
Me: "No."
Him: "Thank goodness. Okay. Bye."

At this point, I'm really feeling the love.

When I got home later in the afternoon, we wrapped up the conversation:
Him: "So did roadside assistance slim jim the car?"
Me: "No. Actually, someone did try to break in using a bent wire hanger, but that didn't work so that's when roadside assistance showed up."
Him: "What? NEVER, EVER, EVER let anyone ever do that. That can really mess up the mechanism of the power locks."
Me: "Um, it didn't mess it up."
Him: "It's just common sense. Don't let anyone do it again."

The best part? He just poked me on Facebook. As if that will make me want to speak to him right now.

-SM

Extreme Foreclosure

More bad news for the economy: foreclosures are still on the upswing. Even free houses are going into foreclosure.

The Harper Family of Lake City, GA, had their bacteria-infested house razed and a mini castle built in its place by the good people at ABC - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Beazer Homes (who are amid their own little crisis right now, but that's for another post). Now, it seems they're on the verge of losing it all and going right back to their minivan because of their poor business acumen.

I can't decide whether I feel sorry for them or not. On one hand, theirs was truly a sob story. On the other, well, they're only adding to the "Stupid Americans" stereotype. Hmm... decisions, decisions.

-10-key princess

This is JT in da Chi-town

Just wanted to, as they say in the radio business, give a quick shout-out to my bri-ish mum this morning. She's having a few horrible procedures today and is pretty down. And to see my drill sergeant-like dad show compassion yesterday and today was both shocking and incredibly nice to hear. Mom - we're all thinking about you and you'll be feeling better in no time.

-JT

The Good Wife's Guide

I don't have much time to do a full commentary right now, but I just got this in an e-mail from a colleague. Click on the picture to read it up close and personal.

Like my mother always said to me, "You should be grateful you weren't born in the 40s." And this is exactly why.

-10-key princess

Deceptively Delicious

Like every other parent on the planet, I've been having issues getting my son to even contemplate trying vegetables. No, I shouldn't say that. He likes those plain peas, carrots, and corn you get in a bag for $0.89 at the Jewel. But when it comes to fresh broccoli, cauliflower, squash, bell peppers, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, or zucchini, this is what he says:
"Mommy, when I was a little baby, I used to eat those things. But not anymore. I'm a BIG BOY!"

So the challenge to incorporate healthy foods into his diet has begun. So I researched, and looked online, and watched Oprah - of course.

Jessica Seinfeld (wife to Jerry) was featured on Oprah with her new-ish recipe book called "Deceptively Delicious." Essentially, the concept is that if you puree vegetables and mix them into foods like brownies, muffins, cupcakes, pizza dough, chicken nugget coating, deviled eggs, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, sloppy joes, etc., then your kids won't know they're eating them.

I have two issues with this.

First, I want my kid to KNOW that he's eating vegetables. I want him to grow up understanding that it's a healthy part of his diet. Hiding it in his food isn't going to do him any favors when he goes to college and says, "My mom never made me eat vegetables," when really, I did all along, but he just didn't know it.

Second (and seriously, this is where the rant comes in), I'm sure Jessica Seinfeld wasn't the first person in the world to think of hiding vegetables in food. I mean, come on! Just because you have a famous husband and a celebrity last name, you get the rights to selling pureed food in cookbook form?

Rant over. And now I'm off. Off to try this particular recipe that looks super duper appetizing: Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes with Yellow Squash and Beets.

Yum.

-SM

Now It All Makes Sense

I was 14 when I had my first boyfriend. We'll call him "Michael." This wasn't middle school stuff. This was summer-after-middle-school seriousness. We held hands. We went to dances. We ate lunch together. We hung out after school. We went to the library. We went to a couple of GOP events together with our parents in 92. We were in love. Until we broke up 4 months later. We hardly talked after that. We graduated, and off he went to USC.

We never kissed. And the whole time, I was like, what the hell? Why won't he just kiss me? Well, today I got my answer.

Out of the blue, I got an e-mail from a high school friend who told me that she went to his wedding last November. Yes, Michael got married. To a guy. In southern California.

Now I don't know how legitimate this wedding was, since it was only yesterday that the California Supreme Court announced its decision to overturn the state's ban on gay marriage. But I have no doubt that Michael and his partner will seek to legalize whatever union they participated in... as soon as possible. Which looks like it'll be mid-June.

I love it when things come full circle - 15 years later. I guess Michael isn't affiliated with the Republican party anymore, huh?

-10-key princess

Ordering a pizza in 2010

This video about what it will be like to order a pizza in 2010 is funny and creepy. And probably more likely to be true in 2030.

-JT

A side of pandas rarely seen...

An awkward moment between mother and son

In keeping with the advertising theme, there's a new commercial that's out for m&m's that I just love. I've probably watched it about 15 times in the last few days, and each time I laugh as if I were watching it for the first time. Yeah, I know...I'm really cool.

Anyway, take a look:



-JT

Oregon Takes the Cake

Two "weird news" labels in one day? Oregon's on a roll.

-SM

Baby for Tweak

I'm speechless.

-SM

Dream Big

Remember those days in school when we'd each go around and tell the rest of the class what we wanted to be when we grew up? And response after response would be the same? "Baseball player." "Doctor." "Firefighter." "Lawyer." Each one more cliche than the previous one. Well, not anymore.



Could you imagine being the teacher whose student showed her this? If nothing else, at least she can take comfort in the fact that kids still look up to their parents. Mom must be so proud.

-JT

Desperate Princesses

-SM

Splurges for Mom

I found this article on Babycenter's website entitled "6 Splurges that are Worth It." Taking a bubble bath, buying a nice new outfit (sans stains), a DQ blizzard, mani-pedis, getting a sitter and going on a date, and going to a movie alone were some of the highlights on the list.

I'm taking it upon myself to add a few things to this list.

• Go on a trip with girlfriends only - and don't talk about the kids back home!

• Get Tivo. Record your favorite non-PBS shows to watch late at night with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Mine include House, CSI, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing With the Stars, and Divine Design.

• Join a gym with free child care. Go often, even if it just means you're going to sit in the locker room and watch Oprah and The View back-to-back.
• Get an iPod. I put in my earbuds whenever I'm doing laundry, cleaning the toilets, scrubbing the showers, or vacuuming. Makes chores fun and tunes out the kiddos.

• Once-a-Month Cooking. Cook everything you need one day a month. You can go to places like Dinner by Design if you don't like the prep and clean up.
  
• Get a pet. Goldfish, bird, dog, cat, whatever. Apparently, it's good for your health, too.
  

• Splurge on home decor. If you want a Restoration Hardware Parisian Armchair, get it!
• Get a DSW frequent shopper card. Enough said.

We deserve it! Moms, let's get a bit decadent and indulge!

-SM

Lost in Translation

I'm a first generation American. My mum's Bri-ish and my dad's from Israel. It's an unusual mix to say the least. I've had many interesting conversations and countless anecdotes over the years, so allow me to share one with you that I recently was telling a friend about.

A few years ago, my sister was in town from D.C. visiting my parents, and so I went up to my parents' house as well. We were all sitting around talking when my mom starts telling my sister about what an old friend of hers is up to. My sister lost touch with the girl, but since my mom's still friends with the girl's mom, she was filling my sister in. It was nothing too great, from what I remember, and my sister's response was, "Oh well. She gets an 'A' for effort."

The conversation moves on, we're talking about other things, when maybe two minutes later, my dad, looking at my sister all quizzically, interrupts with, "Wait. Doesn't effort start with an 'E'?"

My sister, my mom and I about lost it right there. We were cracking up. My dad didn't understand what was so funny. When we finally were able to catch our breaths, we tried explaining things, but I think he ended up more confused.

In all fairness, my dad has a pretty good grasp of the English language. And his question was valid. But what makes the story priceless, at least in my opinion, is the fact that he waited so long to ask the question. You could practically see the gears turning in his head as he was trying to figure out how "'A' for effort" could make sense. Poor guy.

-JT

Happiness is a Journey . . . Not a Destination

Thanks to my dear sweet aunt for mailing me a sweet card along with this poignant quote by Father Alfred D'Souza tucked inside. She intuitively knew I needed a big mail hug more than ever this week. I love you, Auntie L!

-10-key princess

Cop's 3rd Wife = Murder Victim

Kathleen Savio's death has been ruled a homicide. I'm sorry if I'm jumping to conclusions, but how has Drew Peterson not been charged with murder yet?

• This guy is 53. His fourth wife (Stacy, who's missing) is 23.
• They met when she was still a teenager as a motel clerk.
  
• He was still married to his third wife, Kathleen Savio, while courting Stacy (then still a teenager.)
• Kathleen was found dead in an empty bathtub with a gash wound to her head just before their divorce settlement hearing. Drew was first on the scene. It was ruled an accidental drowning.
• There was a life insurance policy of $1 million on his third wife.
• Kathleen's body was exhumed to investigate further. In the meantime, a local minister reveals that Stacy told him in confidence that Drew came forward and told him that he killed Kathleen.
• Drew's stepbrother claims he was paid $2,000 to help Drew move a blue barrel, warm to the touch, the day Stacy went missing. Drew claims his stepbrother is mentally unstable.
• Drew says in an interview that Stacy left him (and their two children) for another man with a bikini and passport. As if he had the chance to inventory everything and declare that those were the only two things missing.
• In a Today Show interview, Drew laughs when he's asked what he would tell Stacy if she could hear him right now. "Come home," he laughs. (This is actually a really interesting take on how he's perceived among 300 Americans, men and women, by Mediacurves.com)
  
• And now, today's news, that Kathleen was murdered. I wonder who dunnit?
  

But ladies, if after all of this suspicious behavior you still decide you want some one-on-one time with Bolingbrook's most notorious ex-cop, you can still call Chicago's WJMK-FM to petition they bring back their contest, "Win a Date with Drew Peterson." I mean, who wouldn't want a chance to be his 5th wife? Though, I'm assuming it would help if you were underage and unable to defend yourself. Sorry 10-key princess, but it looks like you're out of the race. After all, you have a Taser.
-SM