didionville

lots going on over here, and as usual, the blog suffers … but if you think sir charles has got problems, check this out: poor little didion was super-duper uncomfortable yesterday. the best we could diagnose was a really bad episode of gas and constipation. the last time we saw him so uncomfortable and upset was when he ate jalapeno-flavored breastmilk (my bad). we finally got him calmed down last night, but the intermittent sobbing was long lasting and absolutely heart wrenching …

beyond our decidedly inexpert diagnosis, i also think we are — finally — seeing teeth in his bottom gum. just now i saw two tiny white circles. his teething episodes really have never staved, but the teeth have been slow to show. let’s hope that we have breakthrough soon. i suspect that tummy discomfort and general displeasure are more than loosely related to those damn teeth.

poor little guy.

in the meantime, our new hero, ames, has a great write up about yesterday’s ruling by the california supreme court on the legality of gay marriage. at first i thought, “crap! the timing is horrible! why couldn’t they wait until AFTER the election to bring this up!” i was sure the evangelicals would finally circle their wagons around mccain, assuming mccain adopted the same scare tactics karl rove so very much favored in 2004, but like me, ames is surprised and heartened (???) by mccain’s subdued response to the ruling.

boy, am i lovin’ this holiday! it helps that didion and his daddy are so smart … they were well prepared to pamper mommy … mimosas, bacon and eggs, lots of laughs and hugs …

but bliss, at least for me, never comes without some reflection. jenna bush got married yesterday at her daddy’s “ranch” in crawford, texas. i certainly would never deny a parent’s right to feel happy and proud at his or her son’s or daughter’s marriage. i cannot help but be reminded, though, of another time the crawford ranch was front-and-center on the news front … cindy sheehan will never be able to beam with pride and love at her eldest child’s wedding … her son, casey, is, simply, no more.

so as “spectacular” as jenna’s wedding might have been, i want to hope that somewhere deep in our president’s heart or — dare i hope — brain there is some consideration for the american mothers who have lost sons and daughters in our war in iraq (and in our — more justified, yet often ignored — fighting in afghanistan). i also hope there is even one iota of consideration for the iraqi and afghani mothers whose families are innocent casualties. i suspect, though, there is no such consideration, no hope for empathy … or sympathy … or any other sort of “pathy” (excepting “sociopathy”, that is) …

i deeply support our troops. i deeply support their families. i deeply support anyone willing to sacrifice so much to serve his or her country. i will certainly and fervently support my son should he choose to build a career in the military. BUT I PUT ALL FUTURE PRESIDENTS ON NOTICE: while i support our soldiers, i do not support vanity wars, and i dare any one government leader to try to send my son on any ill-conceived mission.

that said, i am having a wonderful mother’s day. being a mom is an incredibly complicated, bittersweet vocation, but as complicated and as bittersweet as it is, it is also the most beautiful and rewarding adventure imaginable.

Leslie is amazing. You have already read about many of her great culinary accomplishments. But to me, one of her most impressive skills is her ability to make a meal out of “nothing.” Often, when the refrigerator appears empty to me, she will whip something up, and we will have an excellent meal. Today was another example.

There were a couple of chicken breasts in the fridge, and to my eye, not a whole lot else. Some scraps of challah and homemade pesto emerged from the freezer. Add miscellaneous condiments, the grill, and about 20 minutes and we ended up with fantastic sandwiches. Not a combination I could have come up with, but they were so good we ate them standing up at the kitchen counter.

i thought it worthwhile to post the follow up to yesterday’s lesson …

pure genius. (of course, original stuff here.)

***

on another front … i have been writing comments here and there on a few blogs and have realized that i am making typos all over the place. YIKES! anyone who knows me knows what a grammar freak i am (yes, in spite of the fact i write in all lowercase, except for those random intervals when i binge on all caps and exclamation points). i’m afraid people are going to think i or — worse — didion is illiterate.

enough whining … back to cleaning the bathroom and doing laundry …

lordy, do we love us some scott adams over here. his seemingly limitless ability to identify and isolate the inanity of bureaucracy and corporate operations is truly a gift to anyone living in a post-industrial world. when i saw today’s strip, i thought, “yep. that’s how it is.” but then i also had the jarring realization that dilbert’s new m.o. is exactly what dick cheney has operationalized effortlessly and unfailingly in the bush administration for the last eight years …

it’s simple. you really can make your own truth. and then you can expand deficit spending by several orders of magnitude … and launch wars that are fun for your business friends to play … and ignore with hatred and disgust any living organism that dares disagree with you …

(if this site actually got any traffic, i would likely get in trouble for posting today’s dilbert without permission. you can visit scott adams and his pantheon here; though, we at didionville sure are unhappy with the dilbert site’s new interface.)

lately, didion has had turned it up to eleven all day, every day … during business hours, that is. when steven comes home, didion has usually calmed down from his busy, frenetic day, and i suspected steven didn’t fully understand how exhausting it is to entertain and feed and change and soothe and entertain and feed … yadda-yadda … a baby 8-10 hours straight. last weekend, i thought steven would finally get to see our tasmanian-devil spawn in action and would, therefore, find “frazzled mommy” an entirely appropriate persona. but last weekend, didion outsmarted me by taking naps on both saturday and sunday … and not short naps, mind you … they were three-hour naps.

but today, didion was even extra on fire, and he didn’t slow down when steven got home. steven finally had the opportunity to fully experience “didion as supernova” … bouncing, kicking, singing, howling, jabbering, eating, peeing, lookin’ around … doing all of it over and over, and — i swear — a couple of times, all at once …

steven asked me with innocent wonder in the inflection of his voice, “has he been like this all day?”

…

i can happily attest that steven, right at this moment, looks as beat down as i do.

a kid … i say that because he is, like, 24 (???) or certainly not much older … has an amazing, amazing, amazing blog … (click on image) …

he’s an nyu law student and — as we found out on facebook — a rice alum (go owls) … his intelligence and analytical skills and writing style are all impressive … grandpas jer and chuck, i think, will really appreciate ames‘ writing. apparently, he just started the blog — seriously, like in late april — and already he is tackling the big philosophical, political, and legal issues that mainstream media won’t dare blink at …

i only hope he is able to keep up with the blog. i can’t imagine he doesn’t have a lot on his plate. in fact, i’ll be surprised if we don’t see a lot more of him in the future in non-blog arenas … he has “going places” written all over him.

Last weekend, I bought some new seed for the bird feeder. (It was a long winter’s drought for the poor birds.) Since spring arrived, though, we have seen quite an array of birds around the neighborhood: robins, cardinals, mourning doves, various finches, starlings. Ergo, it was time to fill the feeders. All weekend, I watched. And waited. And watched some more … And nothing. Zip. Nary a bird in sight. Then tonight, Didion and I saw a cardinal couple eating and scaring off the other birds. (Cardinals are not as friendly as gold finches.) We managed to get this picture from inside the house:

We decided we needed some better shots, so we sat on the porch, but, sadly, the birds deserted us. I did manage to get this excellent shot of Didion:

And now for some photos worth looking at….

An ingenious astronaut figured out how to build a camera that could take sharp nighttime photos from the International Space Station — a mean feat considering the long exposure times required, the speed the space station travels, and the fact that he supposedly did this from “spare parts” he found lying around the station. The story, some great photos, and a neat video are here. Seriously, read the article; watch the video. The guy controls the camera’s movement with a cordless drill (!!!).

Something telling: The Las Vegas Strip is the brightest spot on earth. Says a lot about what is important.

i just found a really cool blog by a guy in raleigh, north carolina.

mr. mcCord seems like a man who is trying to do similar things as steven and i: raise a healthy family, behave responsibility, be kind to others and our earth, and indulge in good food and good humor.

here’s a funny video from his site. it’s an oldie, but a goodie … one that never fails to elicit a laugh and more than a few reminiscences, however hazy they might be.

oh, and he posts interesting recipes. here’s one for beet cakes, which sends me all atwitter. though, it will surely make lisa retch.

Spring has deserted us. It rained all today. It was so cold at IBM, I stayed bundled in my emergency office coat all day. Didion is back in footie pajamas, and Leslie and I are huddled under a blanket. More of the same is forecast for the rest of the week, just when we were getting into enjoying the warm and sun.

Enough about the weather. Here’s something to contemplate on this cold spring night … Leslie mentioned the other day that baseball is a very lonely sport — you are by yourself on the field and have no teammates around when on base. I countered that it is probably the sport in which you must rely on your teammates the most: Once you are on first base, you need someone else to drive you home, so you aren’t really alone. Maybe there is no conflict in our points of view. Thoughts?