Obviously...

...no blogging for me this week.  Work, busy, blah blah blah.

This may actually be the greatest website of all time

Look at this: Covered.   Artists do their own versions of comic book covers.  I want to try this so bad I may just dig out my drawing stuff tonight.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Jimmy Giegerich covers Lobo 2 
One of my favorite covers of my favorite ever.  I have to say though, I really prefer Bisley's original.  But I like just about anything Bisley does.  Giegerich has that sort of Superjail! gross-out style that is kind of played out these days.

Robert Goodin covers Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 211
I am in love with this.  Ducks!

Roborock covers Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Anventures 6
Seriously, how cute is Michelangelo?

Simón Wilches covers Adventure 299
I'm a sucker for anything that vaguely resembles Mary Blair's style.  And you just have to love that face.

Brian Butler covers the Maxx 2
I am genuinely torn between which cover I like better.  This was such a great comic and show.

Jon Adams covers Avengers 221
This just makes me laugh.  There are several iterations of this cover but this is definitely my favorite.

Corentin Pruvot covers Green Lantern 10
Love, love, love this.  It's just perfect.  I want this on my wall.

Justin McElroy covers Usagi Yojimbo: Daisho
I love how McElroy makes us think of Usagi Yojimbo in this way.  It makes so much sense you wonder how you never looked at him like this before.

Mama Thursday: The Orange Angel/Devil

Lily's teeth are coming in at a rapid pace. It started with one on the bottom left side, then the two front bottom teeth popped out a couple of days later. She has been taking it in stride, only having a few tantrums, if you could call them that, and having just a little bit of trouble at naptime. She's not that fond of chewing on teething toys, cold washcloths, or really anything at all other than my finger, and those teeth could break skin at this point. We had to find something else. After reading a lot of scary things about Baby Orajel, I decided that we'd try something a bit less disturbing. I went with Humphreys Teething Tablets. You dissolve two or three in a 1/2 tsp of water and rub it on baby's gums. I was skeptical even after reading tons of positive reviews online. I was sold after the first use. She went from squirmy and squealy to totally calm and laughing in about 30 seconds.

Once she was happy again it was time for that night's solid food meal. This week we've been trying carrots. I steamed carrots in the microwave until they were super mushy, pureed them with my stick blender, and froze them in an ice cube tray. She's in an every other day love/hate relationship with carrots. She always makes a hell of a face with every spoonful. She'll eat two cubes' worth one day, then the next day she'll only take two spoonfuls and act like carrots are The Devil. Today she refused to swallow them. She left the blob on her tongue, kept her mouth hanging open, and made gagging faces. I should have had the camera handy because we'd totally win ten grand on America's Funniest Videos.

Next up: peas. This should be interesting.

DO WANT

Look at this magnificent cheese tasting set you could win.  No -- I could win.  You go away.  Mine!  Mine!  Mine!

Little latin boy in drag, why are you crying?

I'm not the biggest Patrick Swayze fan, but may he rest in peace.

See ya later, Miss Vida.

Foodblogging: End of Summer Fruit Beers

Husband came home from Sinful Wine & Spirits the other night bearing a make-your-own sixpack.  Hit this up if you've never done this before.  They've got a giant cooler full of microbrews and a stack of empty sixpack holders and you can go to town.

He handed me two fruit beers.  Because I'm a girl.  And I like fruit beers, so nyah.

First up was Blue Dawg Brewing's Wild Blue Blueberry Lager.  And by Blue Dawg Brewing I mean Anheuser-Busch.  I'm not even going to comment on this little bait-and-switch.  Back to the beer.  It's good!  They left the lager slightly sweet and you can really taste the blueberries, but not in a fake blueberry flavor kind of way.  When it first hits your tongue you get the slightest bitterness of lager, then as hit rolls around your mouth you get blueberry.  It finishes smooth and surprisingly clean.

Next was Dark Horse Brewing's Raspberry Ale.  (Note to Dark Horse: check your <title> tags…or get your money back from K2 Medialab LLC.)  (Also, "Bee's"?)  I didn't like it quite as much as the Wild Blue but it's a strong contender.  It differs from your average raspberry ale in that the raspberry flavor is there as almost an afterthought.  You take something like Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss, and you can tell that the raspberry flavor comes in syrup form.  It's almost like raspberry Kool-Aid mixed with beer.  Dark Horse's Raspberry Ale is a strong ale with just a hint of real raspberry flavor to finish.  It's not the smoothest of ales.  What's odd about it is that it's extremely dry.  So if you're into that, there you go.  I personally am not into the feeling of not having drank anything at all after drinking it.  It would make a great shandy with freshly squeezed lemonade.  I could see drinking a whole bunch of those on a hot summer day.

Yay, beer!

Toof

I was just informed that Lily's first tooth has popped through today.  Wheee!

Scooter commuting is saving my sanity

Save Money Commuting by Motorcycle? Not So Fast!

Now this is interesting. I crunched my real-life numbers. It's important to note that I overestimated everything and I assumed gas averaged $2.75/gallon.

I ride generally around 24 weeks a year. I estimated starting May 4 and ending October 16 this year. Some years I ride more than this, depending on the weather on each end.
I fill the tank in my scooter every week and it usually costs right around $3 when I do so because I get mid-grade gas.
So 24 weeks times $3/week for gas is $72 in gas for the whole season. My insurance is around $150 for the year (actually I think it's closer to $130 but I'm not 100% sure on that). I'm overestimating that I spend $100 on oil and maintenance for the scoot every year. That brings everything to $322 for the entire riding season. I've already taken the motorcycle safety course and have all my gear so there are no extra expenditures there.

In the colder months I drive to the train station (4 miles round trip) and take the train in to work. Don't judge me to harshly for not taking the bus to the station or taking the bus all the way -- I'll get into that more later.
It costs me $2.25 per day to ride the train due to discounts from work.
My car supposedly gets around 20 miles per gallon (debatable). If I were to drive/train in instead of scooting during these 24 weeks (480 miles total) it would cost me $66 in gas alone. All that comes to $336 for those 24 weeks, and that's not taking into account any car insurance (which I'd be paying anyway) or maintenance (which I'd be paying anyway). And my car probably doesn't actually get 20 MPG due to its age and condition and the fact that I'm driving in town.

Then there's the matter of time saved. Depending on the stoplights, it take me 10-15 minutes one way to and from work on my scooter. I get home with plenty of time to put Lily's milk in the freezer, feed the cats, let the dog out, and maybe grab a snack before I go pick up Lily. I can leave the house at 6:30 and I usually get home around 4:05 or 4:15. It also means I can have a decent breakfast in the morning at home without getting up at 4:30 AM. When I take the train I have to leave the house around 6:00 and I get home around 4:20 or so. I have to dash around to put the milk away, let the dog out, and feed the screaming cats before I hop in the car to get Lily. If I were to take the bus to the train station or take the bus all the way to work and all the way back I can expect to tack on an additional 20-30 minutes to my commute every day. The time that I save when I ride my scooter is priceless.

On a related note, it will be a happy day when construction on Chicago Avenue is finished and the degenerate 5 bus stops rolling down Portland Avenue.

Intersex in the news again

You may have heard about Caster Semenya, the South African runner who was forced to take an invasive test to determine her sex after, well, winning and looking mannish or whatever.

The results are back and Caster is intersexed. I always get excited whenever intersex topics hit the news because it give everyone a chance to discuss a topic that is fascinating to me: gender vs. sex.

There are some great comments here, including thoughts from other IS folks and a doctor.

It is absolutely insane (and ignorant) that anyone would call Semenya's IS status "deadly." I'll give you "potentially deadly," but as much as possessing breast tissue is potentially deadly in that you may one day develop breast cancer, or as possessing testicular tissue is potentially deadly in that you may one day develop testicular cancer, or as possessing a brain is potentially deadly in that you may one day develop brain cancer. Hell, getting out of bed in the morning is potentially deadly.

I applaud Semenya's cheery attitude about the entire situation. She has even dolled up for a magazine cover shoot. As for her running career, I wish her well and hope that concessions will be made.

Gender is gender and sex is sex, and sometimes they overlap and sometimes they do not. In the end what defines us all is our humanity.

Veggie Time!

I am, once again, a vegetarian. Technically I'm pescatarian, but why split hairs. I'm no longer eating bird or mammal.

I've been rolling along since I got pregnant last year waffling between eating a lot of meat and a little bit of meat. I didn't feel great about it, but when I was pregnant that's what my body decided it needed and after that it was just easier to keep going.

The other day I saw a picture so horrifying and terrible that I can't even think about it, much less talk about it. The vague memories that remain after trying to wipe the image from my mind make me start to shake, sweat, and I get an upset stomach. I'm not even joking. I'm not exaggerating in the least.

Happy thoughts! Happy thoughts! Daffodils! Kittens! Unicorns! Flowers! Lily!

OK. Anyway, I'm not eating bird or mammal. This time it will probably stick for good.

Mama Thursday: Let the Toy Avalanche Begin

It's week 23. Lily has reached the point in her life where all her toys are dumb and boring and therefore Mama had to take a trip out for replacements. I managed to score a couple of things that I will no doubt be more excited about than my daughter. The items in question are two Little Golden Books: Richard Scarry's Chipmunk's ABC (the 1963 printing in near-mint condition) and Baby Animals by Garth Williams (I assume it's the original printing and it's also in near-mint condition). I will henceforth be scouring all the local thrift shops in town for more vintage LGB. Awesome! I also got an Exersaucer for a decent price. Lily's been all about putting weight on her legs so she's pretty happy about this.

Like I said, Lily has been fairly finicky about toys lately. We'll hand her, say, a rattle, and she'll touch it to her mouth for a second before tossing it across the room. Soft toys garner a, "What the hell is this?" look after being tossed. The only thing that she really likes is this butterfly/dragonfly thing that makes silly noises and has blinking red cheeks.

There's no new news on the teething front. She's still got molars just under the surface. The drooling has gone down considerably.

I need to get a food mill so I can start making baby food. We're only occasionally giving her rice cereal now since she decided that her highchair is The Devil. I'm trying to warm her back up to it by sitting her in it and giving her toys. But now that all her toys are dumb and boring it's getting tough. She'll take a couple of mouthfuls of rice cereal if it's thick enough (apparently watery cereal is for babies), then she'll get bored and start screaming.

The screaming. The screaming! She found that screaming = get Mama and Dada to pick the baby up. At least I think so. She's technically too young to grasp cause/effect now. Anyway, the screaming is at a register that instantly causes you to stop in your tracks and cringe, moments before your brain shuts down and instincts come down straight from your brain stem that make you do anything to stop the evil noise. I don't know what we can do to discourage this since I revert to a primative animal every time it happens.

She makes up for it by being adorable and cuddly so I suppose we'll manage.

THIS

This couldn't possibly get any more THIS.

No, this is the latest battleground, because America, its discourse and its governance has, to put it as tersely as possible, become all but enslaved to the stupidest, most uneducated, trashiest, most fanatic, most incompetent, most mentally unbalanced, most flat out fucking dumb set of people to ever manage to walk upright.

Jesus fucking Christ, Ohio.

Schools to skip Obama's speech

Mama Thursday: Five Months Old

Lily has been with us for five months. 22 weeks. Wow.

Her sense of humor is starting to come out now. For some reason she has always found my hair to be hilarious. Now she thinks that dogs playfighting is the funniest thing in the world. Some friends brought the dog that they were dogsitting over the other night and when she and Bindi started playing around Lily just busted up laughing. I'm excited to see what she thinks of the dog park.

Because of this, I can't help but see a tiny evil streak in her. That's my girl!

She's already a little counterculture child. Most babies get the two bottom two teeth in first. She's getting her bottom left molars. I'm pretty excited about this -- and so are my nipples.

We took a walk in the stroller without the car seat for the first time. She got to sit in the big seat like a big girl. The shoulder straps are a bit too big, but it's not like I'm taking her out to the racetrack with the thing. She was very happy to be able to stretch out and lay down fully.

Another first this week was Lily's first foray into the world of solid food. She has been very interested in people eating food around her for about a month now. She'll follow my fork to my mouth with her eyes and make little lip smacking noises. So finally we pulled out the highchair, set her up with a bib and her plastic bowl and plastic spoon and she got to experience some very watery rice cereal. She took to it like a champion. She opened her mouth like a little guppy the moment she saw the spoon. I'd say about half of the cereal stayed in. Victory!



I saw some pretty horrific things at the State Fair last week, but two really stick out in my mind:

1. Giant grandma (mother?) in a rented (mobility) scooter right next to 12-year-old (or thereabouts) in rented scooter. The child was perfectly healthy, perfectly non-obese, and perfectly able to walk on her own two feet. Not for long, methinks.

2. Kids who were entirely too old to be in a stroller in a stroller. At first I thought that maybe these kids had younger siblings who belonged in this double stroller and were just taking a joyride, but no, these were seven- or eight-year-olds being wheeled around.

Sorry Lily, but when you're old enough to be in preschool, your ass is walking.

There were quite a few of these contraptions at the fair. I'm conflicted about these. They're kinda cool, I guess, but what's with the seat belts? Does everything need to have cupholders?

Remember the old metal wagons that you'd turn the handle around and fly down hills in?

I like the sun shade idea in theory, but I already use a gallon of sunscreen on Lily every time she goes outside as it is. And how would she ever be able to see the world around her if her entire field of vision consists of Mama and Dada's legs and a sun canopy? Does anybody's kid know what the sky looks like anymore?