Sugared Harpy

Karen at Chookoloonks is, and I quote,

in DESPERATE need of fiction, under the theme “Imagine.” If I don’t get any, I’ll have to seriously delay publication of Indigo Leaf, and even consider canning the project altogether, I so don’t want to do that.

Her publication, Indigo Leaf, is awesome. So awesome that you want to be in it!

Please, I’m telling you to submit for her. I would if I had something ready, but I’m the queen of half-finished projects and I need to work up one for her. She asked. She deserves it.

Send something to her! I know you people write!

You may have noticed a little link in the sidebar for DotMoms. Yes, people, I am now a DotMom!

I’m so excited to start writing for them and I hope I can get close to the caliber of mama-writers I’ve been reading all this time.

My first post is shaky, split infinitives and excessive dashes plague me, but it’s up RIGHT NOW.

In another fit of goodness, I started making t-shirts. It’s ridiculously fun. I’ve added a link to my little shirts in the header and you can find them HERE. The first one? Yeah, that’s an ode to my sister, Lindy.

It has happened.

Mike won a new job. A new job with great insurance, wonderful people, an upward ladder, better pay, a five-minute commute, and it’s at the same company where my sister works.

That five-minute commute means that Mike will drive six days of work to equal what he now drives in one day.

It’s a bittersweet deal for Mike. He loves his current job at his fabulous institution, but the pay is low, it’s a long commute, there’s no promotional ladder and he’s bored a lot of the time. The people he works with are fantastic. They care about him in a warm, nurturing way. But it was time to move on. When he told them about the new job, they were genuinely happy for him. Sad to lose him, but knew this was best for him. It’s hard to leave people like that.

You know what else the new job means? It means that our baby ticker has moved. Behold.

Someone teach me about preconception. Please?

I wanted you all to know that I love you.

And, since I love you for being here, I want you to know that you deserve free Oracle readings.

Email me if you want one!

(Okay, so everyone gets a free one at first. But I wanted you to know that YOU get a free reading too.)

1) Fuck the hell out of Jon Stewart.

2) Look at the pretty pictures in my art history books, but not have to study them for a while. Maybe just roll around on top of the them. Fully clothed, you know, papercuts.

3) Sniff a new baby’s head. Or, chase down my two boys and see if they’ll let me sniff theirs for a while.

4) Listen to old school Beastie Boys or Red Hot Chili Peppers for a few hours.

5) Nap.

6) Make everyone tell Melissa at Suburban Bliss that she rocks so hard it makes the rest of us pale in comparison.

7) Fuck the hell out of Melissa at Shakespeare’s Sister. She is just so smart and funny.

8) Travel. Anywhere.

9) Plan my sister’s bridal shower and bachelorette party. High tea anyone?

10) Spend the day in bed with my husband. Sun pouring in, soft sheets, sex, sleep, and a baby cat nuzzling next to me.

Planned Parenthood emailed me with this story, asking for all of us to spread the word about this heinous act.

Ahem.

An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend to one of Indiana’s Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a so-called “crisis pregnancy center” run by an anti-abortion group, one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic and was designed expressly to lure Planned Parenthood patients and deceive them.

The group took down the girl’s confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their “other office” (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby). When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there. The “crisis pregnancy center” had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.

The “crisis pregnancy center” staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl’s home and calling her father’s workplace. Our clinic director reports that the girl was “scared to death to leave her house.” They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.

The anti-choice movement is setting up these “crisis pregnancy centers” across the country. Some of them have neutral-sounding names and run ads that falsely promise the full range of reproductive health services, but they dispense anti-choice propaganda and intimidation instead. And according to a recent article in The New York Times, there are currently more of these centers in the U.S. than there are actual abortion providers. What’s more, these centers have received $60 million in government grants. They’re being funded by our tax dollars.

A bill has just been introduced in Congress to stop the fraudulent practices of fake clinics, but it desperately needs more support. Tell your representative to take a stand: anti-choice extremists must not get away with this any longer!

Go to: http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fakeclinics.

Those aren’t my words, but those of The Phoenix.

The first part of his post about me is up right now. I’ll let you know when the podcast is up. Do you see that card? That sucker came up in his reading, as his kicker-finale card. A little Phoenix-y, eh?

***

Soooo, le podcast is up! Go listen NOW.

I’ve redesigned a bit again. The header image is Cupid and Psyche by François Gérard. I love the interaction between the two figures and those wings are stunning. I loved the previous Barocci but oy, do I see a lot of Barocci at work. I think Citrus Moon’s pattern works nicely with the Gérard image and provides a lovely bit of color right now. I used this fantastic tool to get the font and design colors from colr.org. You give it the url of an image and it tells you the codes for the colors used in that image. So this blue and that tan color? They’re actually from Cupid and Psyche’s digital image. This is the most (two-handed) fun you’ll ever have with an image.

In other news, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by The Phoenix. I did a podcast interview with him about my side project, Avalon Oracle. He runs an interesting blog exploring things heard or read about and injects a healthy dose of skepticism and science into an open minded attitude.

He’s such a nice guy. So, so nice and sweet. I think we got along naturally and easily, making the interview fun. This the first time The Phoenix had received a reading. I’ll let you read about how it went. Click HERE and frantically hit refresh until he posts it.

As a bonus, you’ll be able to hear my dorky voice and how I cackle when I laugh.

Just go read this post by our favorite patriarchy blaming Auntie.

I’m floored. Just floored.

I don’t even know how to react yet, there is only horror.

So, I’m trying a new spam blocker that is supposed to be da bomb.

I hope it is.

If you hate registering, like I do, just to comment or read comments…you are in luck. I’m going to turn it off again and see what happens.

Of course, if you like that registering saves your name and email address for you each time, you are more than welcome to continue to register.

If I get the spams of the world again, I might have to make you register. But I’m shooting for the perfect combination in life:

easy access and no potted meats.