What I Like About …

Yes, I used capital letters twice in my headline but that’s because this costume is actually clever.  I would never do it to Atty the Wonder Dog, but still this is awesome.

‘Cause it’s TWO pirates with booty on one dog.

One dog dressed up as two pirates carrying their treasure. I hate this kind of thing, but there's a thin line ...

h/t Buzzfeed

One of the most maddening things about rock and roll in the 80s and 90s was how irregular some of the song writing was, with bands just on the verge of greatness unable to put together a run of songs and albums that broke them.  The Meat Puppets, led by Curt Kirkwood, were exactly that disappointing band.

Kurt Cobain said they were his favorite band, and covered the brilliant Lake of Fire from Meat Puppets II on MTV Unplugged. The songs were occasionally brilliant, and the three albums below are solid American rock albums. But somehow they never quite put it together, and while there are a lot of tunes from the Meat Puppets I love, I think of them as inspirations for brilliance instead of being brilliant themselves.

This is a live and then album version of Scum from No Joke, a phenomenal driving song. Driving with two windows down at 40 miles per hour on a winding road can only get better with a song like this playing.

Recommended Albums (criminally none on Amazon MP3):

Meat Puppets II
No Strings Attached
No Joke

On Sunday my daughter and I were gardening, which means she and her friend planted marigolds on soil I’d prepped for them and I bagged all the stuff I’d torn out. And deeply scratched my cornea. The doctor says I’m not allowed to spend much time on the computer, or watching TV, so this is my only post this week. Sad.

Kendy and her friend had a lot of fun planting marigolds ...

... and I scratched my cornea. Sorry for the low posting this week.

Ryan, his mother Daniele and father Kevin

On this Mother’s Day Connor’s House is celebrating the moms who go the extra mile. Moms like Daniele, pictured to the right with her son Ryan and husband Kevin.

Ryan was born 28 weeks early and from birth relied on a ventilator to breath, a central line for food and blood products for anemia. But he was dearly loved and cared for by Daniele and his whole family. She spent countless hours reading and cuddling with Ryan, playing with Thomas the Train Engine and Littlest Pet Shoppe Toys.

Ryan did not have a long life, but every day he knew he was loved by his mother. Always loved.

Donate to Connor's House in Honor of Moms

Sadly, Ryan and Danielle are not unique. There are currently two million children in the U.S. who suffer from life-shortening illnesses, nearly 400,000 of which require round-the-clock care. Many of these families face incredible personal, familial and job stresses – and often failures — because there are few, if any, care and support services readily accessible to desperately ill children outside of strict hospital or long-term settings.

Please consider making a tax-deductible Mother’s Day gift in honor of Danielle and Ryan, or any of the other wonderful moms in your life. Your gift will go a long way to helping these families ensure that love, warmth and comfort is there for every day of their children’s lives.

P.S. You can learn more about Danielle and Ryan and many of the other Connor’s House families on our website at http://connorshouse.org. Please stop by and read these heart-warming stories and see how Connor’s House is making a difference in these lives.

The past couple days once again hammered home to me that sexism is not dead, not even a little.  For all the coolness of having powerful women like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, my daughter and I still have to deal with Target and McDonalds.

The Star Wars t-shirt made for boys, completely missing hero Leia Organa

Kendy and I watched the Star Wars movies together, and she loves them.  She’s a huge fan of the droids, but also Luke and Leia and Padme and even Darth Vader. So when we walked past the boys’ clothing section in Target and saw a Star Wars t-shirt she asked me to get it.  For $7, it was a steal.

That’s her in the shirt, over to the right. The t-shirt with the male Chewbacca, male Luke Skywalker, male Ben Kenobi, male Han Solo, anonymous male stormtrooper, male Darth Vader, male Boba Fett.

Notice any major character from Episodes IV, V and VI?

Yeah, the female Leia Organa.  Because Target and StarWars.com apparently think that boys won’t wear a shirt with a giiiiiiiiiiiirl on it, even a smart, powerful and kick-ass girl like Leia who shoots lots of bad guys.

Of course, they don’t have Star Wars shirts for girls, though as you can see to the right the t-shirt only for those children with Y chromosomes fits pretty well on my kid who has two Xs.  About the same as it would on the other sex.

And yet they had to excise Leia from the shirt.  WTF?

However, my kid really likes Star Wars and wanted a Star Wars t-shirt and there aren’t any Star Wars t-shirts with a girl — even a smart, powerful and kick-ass girl like Leia — so I got her this one.  But I wasn’t happy about it, not at all.

Kendy was, though. She’s wearing it to a birthday party today.

On Friday nights we always get take-out.  It’s a way of rewarding the kid for eating asparagus, blackened swai and the other grown up stuff we give her during the week.  She always asks for McDonalds, and since I am on a diet (almost 40 lbs down!) I always say no.  Well, this time I said yes because I was cranky about the t-shirt and we just told her she couldn’t have the puppy we just considered adopting.

So I drop her off at home and head off to Mickey Ds to get a Happy Meal with chicken McNuggets for her and then pick up a vegetarian pizza for my wife and I. (As an aside, the best way to eat only two slices is by piling on onions, tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, etc. to fill up your tummy.)

So I order the Happy Meal and the woman in the box says, “Do you want the boy’s toy or the girl’s toy?”

“The spy toy,” I said.

“So you want the boy’s Happy Meal?” said the box.

“No.  It’s for a girl, but I want the spy toy.”

“For a girl?”

“Ever heard of Mata Hari? Hedy Lamar?”

“Who?”

“Just put the spy toy in the box.”

“Is that all? One boy’s Happy Meal?”

“Yes,” I said. I know when I’m beat.

I swear, the corporate world is out to pigeon hole my daughter, and I am powerless to stop it.