Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

...of things you can hate about Boston. Good thing John Kerry almost threw out his back to force the NFL to broadcast the Pats/Giants game nationally today. Given that at the moment the score is 22-28 Giants.

Oops.

ETA: OK, so they actually won. But that's only because it was fixed. Seriously, I don't even watch sports normally, but did you see that game? That was ridiculous.

There is a crazy old woman in the Borders I'm at right now who just finished making a couple of cell phone calls and not only was she herself talking too loud on the phone (a common problem with just about everyone on cell phones in public), she had the volume turned up so loud on her phone that I could clearly loudly hear every word the person on the other end was saying. I mean it was almost so loud that I thought she had the phone on speakerphone mode, but not quite. Which means she's either half deaf in which case she should get hearing aids or she's just so crazy she doesn't know how to use a cell phone, in which case she should go home and never come out again.

Also, perhaps predictably, her conversations were about how someone in her family, I think her nephew, was avoiding getting back to her about whether his family was coming to her place tomorrow or something. I think there's a reason, crazy. You're crazy.

People of the world, I can not tell you often or loudly enough skinny jeans are hideous. ON EVERYONE. (Please make note of how unflattering they look on this model who essentially has no hips or body fat. Let's discuss how bad they will look, therefore, on the rest of the population. Not because there's anything wrong with hips or fat! Because this is a universally unflattering fashion.)

You should know from the description, "Lux Menswear Onsie" that there can't possibly be anything good about this. I mean honestly, this is so ugly it astounds me.

These are a flashback to middle school. These never should have existed in the first place and I don't know what kind of mental disorder is making people resurrect them, but apparently it's contagious and it also compels you to abandon all common sense. There are so many ugly things going on here I can't even address them all in the space available to me here.

And last and perhaps most ugly of all, black satin stirrup pants. I'm not sure if these or the acid washed jeans are more ugly but the fact that they both exist in the same dimension of reality is pretty upsetting to me. I mean, I like looking at aesthetically pleasing things, don't you? Who are the people who like to torture themselves by not only, I must assume, surrounding themselves with ugliness, but also wearing it?

I took a book quiz and got this interesting result:

You're Watership Down!
by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Especially interesting because I've never even read this book, though I understand that I should have. I used to read constantly. Why am I so severely lacking in my reading of so many of the classics? Well, whenever it comes up I blame the whole going to high school in Ohio thing.

I like the part where it says "You might be one of the greatest people of all time." Ha ha.

As certain other parties have already made note of, Hester Willa was in rare form last Sunday when I had lunch with her and her moms at The Border Cafe.

Operation Leg Warmer was revealed, which Clementine and I had been planning for months to surprise Hashbrown with. Excellent! Yummy food was eaten, gifts were opened (including an embroidered.unicorn.t-shirt. - this deserves its own post), and Hester did her best to entertain us all.

Here she models the leg warmers I made for her.

Here she chews on the tights that go with the dress my parents gave her for Christmas.

Here she is pretending to be all sweetness and light, just before she attacked me with her toy. She's all, "Why, hello, Auntie Jenny! I didn't know you were back there!"...

... then she's like, "Psych! I got you! Ha! You didn't see that one coming Auntie Jenny!" (Unfortunately, I then proceeded to permit about 20 more face-smackings because she's just so darn cute and funny.)

Next we moved on to a dental exam. This included scraping of my gums with her nails. Thanks Hester!

And finally, after downing all 3 margaritas, Hester crashes. OK, not really, of course nobody gave the baby any margaritas! But the picture is pretty hilarious. What she's really doing is probably licking the table.

For those of you who might not already know, this lady is ALL CLASS.

So recently robreed informed me of the existence of this magazine, thinking my nerdy crafty self would be interested. He was correct.

We bought an issue this weekend and I've barely started reading it and already am hooked. Make your own party dress! Make your own jeans (for only $45)! Cool fun new crafty blogs and such to read!

Check out the fruit head gang dolls! Or the awesome hand-dyed merino wool yarn! (Speaking of which, don't forget about this other fantastic hand-dyed wool yarn I discovered recently. And in fact, my mom gave me tons of this beautiful yarn for Christmas, which I'm so excited about!)

Nerdy crafty heaven.

By the way, I did finally read a Kurt Vonnegut book over the summer, specifically Cat's Cradle.

I am way overdue for talking about it here, but just was reminded when I saw how sorely lacking my "Books" category is.

Anyway, I loved the book. It's the first Vonnegut I've read so I'm sure I'd like others as well. I think I read somewhere that this was his thesis in school. In any case, if you haven't read it, I'd highly recommend it. It's really strange and in some parts hilarious, and also, as I gather all his books are, quite a commentary on society.

From L.L. Bean, I love these boots. I was admittedly sad at first because my first choice for boots were these from Lands End and they were sold out in every acceptable size and color combo, even the mens' version. (Note: apparently everyone in the country bought these boots as they don't even show up in the womens' selection of boots anymore... but I was going to get them in a fun bright pink/fuschia.)

But, turns out I love my LLB boots anyway. They're very warm, very lightweight, comfortable, and have done great so far even trudging through nasty slush thanks to the fun variation in weather in New England. They're not hard-core waterproof, because the upper part is just layers of fleece, not suede, so I wouldn't take them snow shoeing or submerge them completely too often, but for tramping around the city in the winter, even in the nastiest weather, they do great.

So this video seems to show the lighting ceremony for the tree on the Boston Common this year.

But how come when I walk by this spot I see a tiny Charlie-Brown-esque tree, pathetically surrounded by gifts almost bigger than it is and an unnecessarily gigantic circle of fencing?

At least that's true as of the end of last week, unless there's been a change since then. But the lighting was supposed to be November 29.

(Picture to follow when I get a chance to stop by and snap one.)

What happened? Anybody know?

ETA: I'm a MORON. Yesterday I saw this tree with Rob. There IS a small Charlie-Brown like tree closer to the street, which is inexplicably surrounded by a large fence and too large presents for some reason, but the big tree is there, it's just farther back from the street.

This game freaking ROCKS.

Today I was walking over the the local UPS store to drop off a package I was sending out (something we sold, nothing exciting like a gift) and it already had a label that I printed at home. The place closes at 4 and it was like 3:55 when I arrived. Outside there was a UPS driver who had just pulled up to, I assume, pick up the day's packages. He saw me and here's what happened:

UPS Driver: "Well, you waited a long time." (said in a disapproving tone)

Me: ignoring him, walking into the store

Driver: "Next Day Air, too? You waited a really long time!" (even more disapprovingly)

Me: ignoring him and handing my package to the guy working the counter "Here you go, it's all set. Thanks."

Hey, Mr. Overconcerned Driver, guess what? Did I make the dropoff time? Yes. Did I interefere with your ability to do your job? No.

Do I know you?

Then keep it to yourself. Nobody needs your incredibly useless commentary. Just deliver my package.

Has no one in the Spears family heard of birth control?

Seriously!

And look at this guy that knocked her up. Nice Abercrombie shirt, stupid.

I really don't think we need any more of this gene pool in the population, folks. Can some health professional please have a sit down with Britney and Jamie Lynn? Maybe they should watch more of The Family Guy.

"Hi everyone, it's me, Emily! Aren't I sweet and innocent? Don't you just want to pick me up and Lenny me? How can anyone resist? My mommy tried to just now, but she ended up with me in her lap, as I knew she would."

Wow, I really wanted to like this movie way more than I did. There were redeeming qualities, but the end was very weak and a lot of stuff went unexplained.

Sounds like they would have done better to keep the book's original ending (warning, there are spoilers if you want to read the entire article, so only do it if you've already seen it or you don't plan to/don't care).

The book's original ending is SUCH a better explanation for the title, and a better, more interesting twist instead of the weird God twist they put in the movie.

And... (one spoiler below)

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New Jersey gets a bad rap. There actually are some nice places there. I've seen them with my own eyes. But I have to admit it's low on the list of places I'd like to live.

However, they did vote to abolish the death penalty so I have to give them some credit there. Just don't bring it up with my dad. It will only start a fight that nobody can win. Brian, you know what I'm talking about.

Good job New Jersey. You just jumped a couple places up on my list. You're now above Florida AND Ohio!

I'm long overdue to post all of these.

First, some baby Hester photos from earlier in the fall.

I can't even handle this face she's making...

and this one isn't much less crazy! She was making hilarious faces the whole time. I think she was really hamming it up for the camera.

And here she is looking very "surprised" at Bella Vita Cafe. She's so funny with the camera. She cracks me up every time.

Now some pet photos...

Cleo was "helping" by cleaning out the crumbs in this box. She actually wasn't distressed at all, which is why it's OK that we left the box on her head and took a bunch of photos. Yes, that's her mommy laughing at her in the background.

Our kitty Emily is seriously crazy. She'll shove her head in any glass or mug around to see if she likes the taste of whatever is in there. Water is one thing...

... but Diet Dr. Pepper? I mean, it's my favorite, but I don't think it's for kitties. The funniest thing about this incident is that she was being very ladylike for once, dipping her paw in and licking the soda off instead of shoving her face in the glass like usual.

Just a normal day around here. I promise she's shoved her head in at least one glass today.

OK, Uncle Will, I promised you I would post some awesome photos of you, so here you go.

Please make sure to view all 3. I'm sure there are others but these were the best three I came across on a first perusal of my parents' photo albums.

Let's make sure the girls see these please. I'm sure they will enjoy them.

OK, not really a shore but it's a line from some Christmas song. I'm visiting my parents in Knoxville. I got in yesterday afternoon and my mom picked me up to take me to her office and meet everyone she works with. They're all these sweet southern women (and one lone man) who all call each other "Miss Phyllis" and "Miss Susan" etc. They were very nice and my mom predictably dorked it up. Then we went to a yarn store and she got some yarn for me to make her a scarf and also to make myself a scarf.

For her we got chunky weight baby alpaca by Plymouth Yarns. This stuff is ridiculously soft. We got two colors and I already finished her scarf - held the two strands together and crocheted it with a huge hook I had with me. She says she thinks she might have to get a whole lot of this stuff and have me make something bigger like a blanket.

For me we got this really cool thick/thin hand dyed wool yarn that I'm going to make an awesome scarf with too. I've been wanting something really colorful and funky to make a scarf with, so I'm excited. It's a beautiful blend of bright blues/turquoise and shades of green and purple. I think it will be really awesome.

We had a big dinner out with my dad and then came back to their house and looked at some photos from their vacation earlier in the summer to Europe. I spent a little time holding their kitty Simon against his will but he's warming up to me. He came to see me this morning while I was getting ready all on his own and even let me rub his belly for a second.

That's it for now.

I just was reading an interview online with one of JFK's speech writers - the subject was Mitt Romney's speech about religion (specifically his) today and how it compared with Kennedy's in 1960.

Here's an interesting quote:

I don't think Mr. Romney should be denied the presidency because of his religion. Just as I don't think Senator [Barack] Obama should be denied because of his race. Or that Mrs. [Hillary] Clinton should be denied the presidency because of her gender. This country is in deep, serious trouble, and thoughtful citizens surely are going to make up their minds based on the major issues confronting the country and the major qualities of the candidates and not on such superficial tests as religion, race, or gender.

First of all, of course I agree with him overall here, but a few points:

1. How many evangelical folks out there are going to appreciate religion being called a "superficial test"? The point is, some people unfortunately think that religion is one of if not the most important issue determining things like who should be president.
2. I don't think Mr. Romney should be denied the presidency because of his religion, I think he should be denied the presidency because he's a conservative nut.
3. I really wish thoughtful citizens were making up their minds based on the major issues confronting the country. Wait, let me rephrase that - I'm sure that thoughful citizens are doing this. Unfortunately, as I witness on a daily basis, the majority of the public is not made up of folks I would label as thoughtful citizens by any stretch. How else do we end up with GW in the White House for 8 years?

I'll leave you with this Q&A which about sums up the difference between the Camelot Years and now:

Q. Romney discussed his views of Jesus Christ, something that Kennedy avoided. Why did Kennedy avoid discussing his religious views?

Sorensen: Because [Kennedy] began the speech by saying his private religious beliefs -- his relationship with God or Jesus Christ or anything else -- was not a matter of public discussion. He did not think the election should be based on -- as he said, it's not what kind of church I believe in, the question is what kind of country do I believe in.

I got this awesome spam email just now, from "Mrs. Mark.W.K." It's half in Japanese, and then this part in English:

THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE RELEASE OF LARGE SUMS OF FUND TO YOU. GET BACK 4 DETAILED INFO BY MY BOSS BY EMAILING BACK ON (fromadbank_20007@yahoo.co.kr) OR CALLING +234 14342164. MRS. MARK, SECRETARY TO THE PRESIDENT,AFDB

• MRS MARK.W.K

Wow, I'd better call her right away! Feel free to call her yourself, if I'm not fast enough to act on these "large sums of fund", I deserve to lose it to you, my lovely reader.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

Marie Curie

I just read this quote from Katherine Heigl about "Knocked Up":

It was a little sexist. It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. ... Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie.

and it made me sad. We just rewatched this movie over the weekend with Heather, who hadn't seen it before and I think it's really funny and sweet.

I don't think it paints the women as shrews - I think the women in the movie are somewhat intolerant of crazily immature behavior like farting in each other's faces for instance, but I hardly think that makes them shrews.

Also, I really think in general people do too much "interpreting" of movies - apparently even the actors in them. It's just a story about a few people. It doesn't have to represent all of humanity. If the guys in the movie are goofy, it doesn't mean all guys are goofy. I don't really think the guys in this movie are supposed to represent the average American guy either - the group of friends living in a trashy house supposedly working on an internet startup for years, smoking pot constantly, etc. I don't know any guys like this myself. That doesn't mean they don't exist.

I just think it's a silly comment and it made me sad because I like that movie a lot and I think it got too much flack for dumb reasons. (Another of which is supposedly that it has a strong pro-life message... why, because the woman who gets pregnant doesn't have an abortion? Is every pregnant woman who has a baby now anti-choice?) Come on people. For Pete's sake, it's just a funny movie. Enjoy it.

I know you will be very shocked to learn this, considering all my other thoughts about the T (to prove my even-handedness, there is a post in there where I give them credit for running on time in a snow storm).

Saturday we made the (apparently) horrible mistake of deciding that rather than walking to Cambridgeside Mall from our apartment on Beacon Hill, like we typically do for numerous reasons, since it was about 19 degrees out, we would opt to take the T.

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Dear Sudan:

You are fucking crazy.

love, Jenn

Really. This guy built a Tesla Coil. Not sure exactly why, but being someone who's always had weird issues with thunderstorms/lightning/tornadoes, this is strangely fascinating.

I'm not sure if they show it on this video but on one I saw they show the guy's checklist of what he double checks before turning it on and one of the items is "dogs inside". I'm glad he's not electrocuting his dogs with his lightning machine.

Since I have such a vast readership, you may not all know this yet - my parents are moving early next year.

Here.

Um, yeah.

I will be accepting reservations to visit them beginning in early 2008. Please contact me early as Casa de Martinelli may book up fast. (Preference given to immediate family and pseudo-family.)

Hey, Coen brothers, we get it. Life is random. Everything is pointless. You never see what's coming next. The hero doesn't always win. The bad guy doesn't always get caught.

WE GET IT ALREADY.

Jesus Christ, do yourself a favor and DO NOT see this movie. No matter what lies the critics are telling you. Seriously. Unless you like being bored, annoyed, and disappointed. In which case, hurry up and get a ticket!

Spoilers below if you care.

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Today is the day Clementine and Petunia finalize Hester Willa's adoption in court. It's a day of some mixed emotions, but I'm so happy for them to finish this process and legally be a family, though of course they have been already for so long.

Congrats Clementine, Petunia, and my little Hester!

I just have to say this because it's really been bothering me more and more lately.

What is up with all the smoking, folks? I mean, I feel like about 85% of the people I see on the street on any given day are smoking. OK, even if you're in denial, everyone knows it definitely causes cancer and lots of other problems, right? I mean, at the very least, you lose all sense of taste and you walk around smelling like a stale ashtray. It's really gross my friends.

I'm not saying smokers are bad people or anything like that, or that if you smoked a cigarette once at a party you're an asshole. I'm just saying I can't believe the vast number of people who smoke and I can't conceive of what they could possibly be thinking.

Can we just get over it already? It's astoundingly stupid.

Cold turkey everybody. Just do it.

...at the moment. Sorry.

Just wanted to let all my devoted readers know that it wasn't their fault, it's related to our server upgrade. I'll try to put a note up again when it's working again.

At least my site is up and you can enjoy reading all the wonderful things I have to say!

Holy crap, why in the world am I purposely leaving a terrible paid advertisement for some CD collection called "Flower Power" on the TV so I can hear 10 seconds of all the 70's songs? Why do I apparently not just like but love about 85% of this music? Granted, some is really terrible, but hello:

• Your Song - Elton John
• Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane
• What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye
• City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie
• Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens
• Summer in the City - The Lovin' Spoonful
• San Francisco - Scott McKenzie
• Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
• Here's To the Music - The Doobie Brothers
• California Dreamin' - The Mammas and the Pappas
• Abraham, Martin and John - Dion
• Leaving On a Jet Plane - Peter Paul and Mary
• Turn Turn Turn - The Byrds

I love this stuff! It's true.

So this year Melissa and I got a new victim, er, participant, Amy, and our theme was the 1960's. I was going to get all crafty and make a pillbox hat but that just didn't work out, so Melissa teased my hair and styled it quite beautifully. The photos don't quite do it justice, it's more impressive in person, as are her hair and Amy's.

I heart Halloween and I'm glad we've come up with a theme that's easy to follow from year to year. We're already planning for the 70's next year. Of course, at some point we might catch up with ourselves... then what happens, I wonder. Do we try to jump ahead in time or start a new theme? Hmmmmm.

See below for this Halloween and years past.

Melissa, me, and Amy, 1960's

A closer look at my hair. Things I have learned today about 60's hair and makeup:

1. It really takes a lot to keep that hair so high! Mine has plenty of body to spare but had to be repaired a couple times and has fallen flat again now at the end of the day. I think I probably should have slept in rollers or something crazy like that.
2. Gold eyeshadow gets everywhere. Like on your black dress for instance.

Melissa and me last year, 1950's

Melissa and me in 2005, 1940's

You seriously sentenced a guy to 10 years in jail for having sex with a 15 year old when he was 17?

What the hell is wrong with everyone? Don't we have bigger things to worry about? According to this story it sounds like two high school kids had consensual sex. If that's a crime then you'd better put just about every person I know in prison.

This is just so stupid I don't even know what else to say.

We are going to be upgrading our server shortly, probably tonight, so my blog may be offline for a while.

We'll get it back up as soon as possible!

I would love some 30% off suiting options.

Unfortunately, 30% off $300+ doesn't help me much at the moment. SIGH.

But I do love your suiting dress which is, by the way, not part of the sale.

Very nice. As all my faithful readers should know by now, I love pretty dresses. Apparently it is my new thing.

OK, from Pink Shoe Diaries I am going to attempt her meme from yesterday because it seems fun. I tag Clementine, Hashbrown, and MisaGracie, who will probably play and Heather, who probably won't.

Five Things I am Good at:

1. Microsoft Word. I know this is a boring one but I've been working in various admin roles since (and during) College and I've fairly thoroughly tamed this beast. If you need help figuring something out, I can almost certainly help you! Think outlines, style formatting, forms and auto-fill fields, mail-merges, etc.
2. Knitting. I can get you to purl, Sarah. Or, if you just can't do it, how about you learn to crochet? Hint: It's faster than knitting.
3. Drawing/Making Crafty things. OK, so I was an art major, and I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil. Not really related to my current job or line of work, but I try to keep the artist inside me from dying by making fun cards for friends and family, doing fun knitting projects (see above), and I'm working on my computer illustration skills. I haven't done enough of it lately, but I used to draw cartoons all the time on family vacations and at work. I think I need to start that up again, big source of amusement for others. Just have to be careful the work-related ones don't end up in the wrong hands.
4. Math. Maybe I should have been a math major instead - potentially more lucrative. I hated math in high school but was always good at it. I had to take Calculus in college and found it surprisingly fun in some ways. My boyfriend is in grad school for CS and has had to take some math-y classes, and I kind of like helping him study. Is that sick?
5. Fixing things. I have a little background in construction and construction management and growing up my mom more often fixed stuff around the house than my dad (she was home more and not one to make lists for my dad, she'd just figure it out herself) so I guess those things combined created Jenn fix-it. I'd rather take something apart and figure it out myself than pay too much money for someone else to do it. I can replace a lightswitch or outlet, refinish doors and windowsills rife with cat and/or dog clawmarks, patch holes in walls, hang things from hollow ceilings and walls with anchor bolts, etc. This doesn't mean I'd do something foolish like disassemble the dishwasher or rewire my apartment, but it does mean a leaky faucet doesn't have to turn into a $300 plumber bill.

Five Things I am Bad (and in some cases atrocious) at:

1. Confrontation. I am a peacekeeper by nature. I don't really do a good job confronting people about much of anything. I have done it sometimes but it really takes a lot out of me and I have to feel pretty upset about whatever it is to attempt this. I'm getting better at least at confronting strangers about simple things like their rudeness etc. I guess I'll work up from there.
2. Being a morning person. I don't think any tips will help this. I'm just not. For the first little bit, even if I'm in a pretty good mood, if someone crosses me in the morning I'm instantly furious. Also, I'd much rather live in a world where I could get up at about 10am and stay up till about 3am. That's a more natural clock for me. I think I can at least manage to force myself to get up earlier and go to bed earlier, but I don't think I will ever be a "morning person", waking up chipper and happy to start the day.
3. Exercising. As in, I never do it. Well, this isn't 100% true, I walk my ass all over the city (almost never use the T - as in, use it like 4 times a year), which is a good thing, but that's it. I don't run, belong to a gym, do fitness walking, play any sports, or even do situps or pushups (girl pushups) on a regular basis. I don't have an original excuse... no time, don't remember, don't feel like it, don't keep up w/it well enough to see results so I stop, etc. I am aware in my brain that it doesn't really take much, but I'm bad on the follow-through. Also, I'm no athlete, let me tell you. The only things I really like doing aren't so year-round in nature - biking and hiking. And hiking requires going somewhere worth hiking, which requires a car basically, which I don't have.
4. Seeing both sides. While at times I think I'm very good at this, I recognize that if it's something personal or of great personal importance to me, I'm pretty terrible at it. I guess this isn't always a bad thing - I guess it makes me a loyal friend. But if I think someone's wrong I can pretty much shut out any possibility that they have any kind of valid point.
5. Taking criticism. I'm bad at it. Period. I take things very personally usually. Even when I try really hard not to.

Tip time:

Using columns in Word: If you only want a portion of a document to be divided into multiple columns, enter all the text first, including any text before and after the column-divided section. Then select just the portion of the text you want to divide into columns and tell it how many columns to make. If you don't like where it breaks the columns (ie: it's a list of contacts and it breaks in the middle of someone's address), you can insert manual column breaks from the insert menu to force it to do what you want.

Not sure what it is exactly about this sweater, but I must have it. Unfortunately, it costs $180. Which means I cannot have it. So, what are the chances I can copy the design and make one myself? Pretty slim my friends. But I may have to try anyway.

Guess what? I don't even care if anyone else likes this sweater. I love it for some reason I can't explain. Maybe it's a combination of the color (which I always inexplicably love in sweaters) and the coziness of it. It seems like I should be sitting in front of a fire in it and sipping hot cocoa or something.

So, this sweet angel:

bit me in the face Saturday morning! Nice, right? Don't worry, he wasn't trying to bite me really, just snapping at me and I got a little nick on my cheek.

But I was pretty pissed! Do you think he was sorry after? For about 8 seconds. Then back to his grumpy self.

He had fallen on his ass going up the stairs because he's old and crotchety and his back legs don't work so hot sometimes, so I was helping him up and apparently that earned me a bite. I presume he doesn't enjoy the undignified process of falling ass-backwards down the stairs and then being picked up like a baby.

Fun times as always on Anderson Street.

I will of course humor Clementine and play along, but I have a fairly long middle name and like 2 other friends who actually have blogs so... I'm only tagging Melissa because she's the only one I think will play, though Heather is welcome to if she so pleases.

R: Right. I am this all the time. OK, not really, but I'm kind of stubborn sometimes. Also, if I am certain I'm right, I'll never back down. Ever. I might shut up about it but I'll go around with it in the back of my mind forever how wrong you are about whatever it is. Think of it as a part of my charm. When I was a teenager my dad and I used to argue a lot because we are BOTH right all the time, and when we disagreed this caused strife. Poor Keyrock.

E: Eating. Is it sad that this is the first word that popped into my head? It might be. But it is, so, there you have it. I love eating. As I said last weekend at my uncle's house while shoveling hors d'ouevres in my mouth, "Don't worry, I'm a Martinelli. There's still room for dinner." This was later proven.

B: Baking. It's getting to be cooler and that makes me want to bake. Like every day. Even though it's time-consuming, messy, and the cookies/pie/cake whatever get(s) eaten way too fast. I love making yummy treats... to Eat. See above.

E: Come on, another E? How about Equine. Clementine will love this one. As in hello, as a little girl I LOVED HORSES. I wanted a horse. I wanted a whole horse farm probably. I was in 4H and went to horse shows. No joke. I had horse posters in my room. It is my sincere desire that Hester Willa will share this love of horses. Oh, and unicorns. I still actually would be perfectly happy to have a horse or a stable full of horses. But I don't plaster my walls with them anymore.

C: Cavities. As in I've never had any. Well, I had one, but it doesn't count because it was diagnosed by Gentle Dental in Porter Square who we later realized had lied about Rob's alleged "several" cavities and about the need for him to have his wisdom teeth removed (luckily we found out these claims were untrue before doing anything about any of them). So I judge this cavity and filling as illegitimate. Still, only 1 cavity my whole life is pretty freaking good, right? I'm a total neurotic freak about my teeth. I used to have nightmares about my teeth crumbling or falling out.

C: Caretaker. I can't help it, maybe it's being the oldest child and the only girl, but I pretty much "Mom" everybody I know. I worry about them, check up on them, bake them things, run to the store to get them things they're too lazy to get themselves [or, sometimes, don't even want that badly] (note to Rob and Heather, this started in high school, it's not limited to you guys), hold their keys, hold their hair when they puke, clean up their messes, etc. This includes both human beings and pets. The good news? I might not ever have to actually go through childbirth because I think I've almost used my Mom gene up. I reserve the rest of it for Hester Willa.

A: Athlete. I am NOT this. Not that I'm lazy because I'm really not. But I don't have a natural athletic bent. I do love riding a bike and I love hiking and I don't mind walking my ass from one end of the city to the other. But going for a jog? No thanks. Joining a gym? Ha, that's hilarious. Being in some kind of organized sport-related venture? Funnily enough, I was on the ultimate frisbee team at Smith in its very early days, but when that started taking up too much time I quit. It's a big joke among my friends from college that when one of them first met me she thought I was an athlete. Principally because I wore sweats and sneakers a lot. I laughed hysterically when I heard this.

I guess that a lot of parents are now deciding, based on what evidence I can't figure out, that vaccinations are more dangerous for their children then the chance that they might get the disease the vaccination is supposed to protect them from.

I'm no expert or doctor obviously, but at least from this article the concerns seem pretty illegitimate and the parents sound a little wacko.

Clementine, what do you think? I know Hester Willa has already had some vaccinations so I'm pretty sure I don't have to decide you're nutty.

Do these people have a point? Or are they in the same boat with folks who enjoy having colonics? (ie: the boat full of crazy people)