Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Rob got straight As this semester - in fact, two "regular" As and one A+!

Good job, Rob Reed! Now Heather will really have to call you a nerd.

You worked really hard and really put in a lot of time and effort! Congratulations!

I don't know why the country is acting like it has to take care of women like they are helpless, but all of a sudden I'm constantly hearing things again about whether or not women should be going into combat. And this time I don't hear anyone complaining that they can't handle it or it's too physically demanding in other words, but instead everyone is acting like the overprotective dad of a teenage girl.

What the hell is going on in this country?

For God's sake, if a woman wants to join the army and go into combat and get shot at, let her. Goddamn it.

Check out our Flickr site for a couple of photos of the dogs on vacation in Colorado earlier this month. These are taken in Rocky Mountain National Park.

We have a ton more photos to put up so eventually that link will lead to more than dog pictures I imagine. Anyway. They look like they really conquered a mountain!

Listen, I care about as little as the next (normal) person about rich famous people and their woes, but even so, I have to say that these ladies seriously need to eat.

Listen honey, when even most of the public is making fun of you for being too skinny, you've definitely crossed a line.

Don't you all have something better to do with your time? Like hang around in your luxurious houses by your lovely pools and, you know, do whatever the hell you want? Do you seriously need to waste your time worrying about how to keep yourself weighing 85 pounds?

It's so very stupid.

I am so very sick and tired of hearing people complain because a judge strikes down a bill as unconstitutional, with the response being that judges are "out of control" and that we need to stop the judges who "aren't elected officials" from overturning bills that are passed by the oh-so-much-better elected representatives.

Listen, some people in government seem to need a history lesson. There are 3 branches of the US government. Let me review how they work for you.

1. The Executive Branch:

This is basically the President and the people s/he works with. The executive branch is responsible for executing the law. Thus the name. The President can sign bills into law or veto them. If the President vetos a law, the legislative branch can overturn his veto if they have a large enough majority (not just a straight majority, I think it's 2/3 or 3/4 or something.)

1. The Legislative Branch:

This is congress and senate. These people are responsible for legislating the law. In other words, writing and passing bills that become law. They have to pass these bills on to the President for approval. See above.

1. The Judicial Branch:

This branch is responsible for interpreting the law. That means, when a case comes before them, they read the law and decide what it means for the case at hand. They are not elected, but appointed. Federal judges anyway, I think actually lower court judges are elected sometimes but that might vary from state to state. The judicial branch can declare a law that state or federal representatives pass legislatively to be "unconstitutional" ie: they can look at the US Constitution and decide that this law that has been passed conflicts with some fundamental part of this document, and say that it is therefore invalid.

Now that we've all had a little lesson, let's discuss. The judicial branch does not make new laws. Don't be morons. Also, there's a reason they are appointed and not elected. It's so that they don't have to constantly pander to a stupid electorate, which is unfortunately often the case for reps and senators. They are supposed to be more objective and probably more well-versed on the Constitution than the other branches of government.

OK now I am going to talk about how incredibly stupid some people in Nebraska are. I just heard a story on NPR today about how an anti-gay marriage law was passed by reforandum (ie: the public voted on it, not just their reps) in Nebraska. Well, some people challenged it in court and a federal judge struck down the law as unconstitutional. So now the genius conservative reps in Nebraska are crying that 70% of Nebraskans voted for this law and that an "activist judge" is suppressing the "will of the people". Well, STUPID, in this case the "will of the people" is UNCONSTITUTIONAL which = ILLEGAL. Now shut the fuck up or go back and repeat your high school government classes. Goddamn it.

If you click on "writeback" for one of [[bio-heatherrose her]] posts you get a nicely formatted page like her main page while mine are generic! Whats up w/that, [[bio-robreed Rob Reed]]???

Just kidding, it's no big deal. But I did notice it. So now you'll have to fix it. ;)

Most people might take a road trip by driving for a day or two, staying someplace a week or two, and then driving another day or two home. Not us! We drive for 3 days, stay someplace 3 days, then drive for 3 more days. Well, kind of. Actually, if we had done that it would have been more pleasant.

Rob and I took Billy the dog and drove out to Kansas last weekend. We were supposed to leave early on Saturday, drive a full day, 12 hours or so, and then sleep over someplace in the midwest. The next day, Sunday May 1 we were supposed to drive the rest of the way and get to Heather's late that night. Then Monday we'd have plenty of time to rest a little, pack up and drive the rest of the way to Colorado.

Instead we left Sunday morning and drove straight through, needed to stop and sleep at rest areas in the middle of the night, so got to Kansas early afternoon on Monday and had to basically throw Heather and her dog Cleo in the car and go straight to Colorado. Similar insanity happened on the way back.

But anyway, other obstacles we faced included the fact that the woman with whom we reserved a cabin was MIA when we got there and we had to drive around in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar town trying to find a hotel that would take us and 2 dogs at least for the night. Fortunately we found something but unfortunately had to spend the next day looking for a place for the rest of the week. Once we finally got settled in, we had some fun.

This was a big "dog vacation". Billy and Cleo had never met before but luckily it only took them a couple of minutes to get acquainted. Billy is a bully as a lot of people know, and Cleo is pretty sweet so she put up with it. They mostly got along great except for a couple of spats over food, but even when that happened, Cleo did a good job of standing up for herself. She's a hound dog and has a crazy loud howl so she howled in Billy's face for a good 5 minutes any time he snapped at her. It was pretty funny.

They made it up a pretty long hike up a mountain and then dragged us running all the way down the mountain too - crazy dogs!

Pictures to be posted soon. It was the trip of a lifetime for Billy and Cleo!