What's this blog about, anyway?

I was telling someone the other day about a comment someone posted on the blog, and she said, "What do you even write about on your blog?" Except, that's not exactly correct... I am not sure what kind of punctuation or italics or whatever you could use to convey the subtext of her comment, relayed through her facial expression combined with the tone of her comment, which was what would I, personally, have to say on my blog, that even one other person in the whole world would care about? Why would anyone- anyone at all- care about the lame, "Dear diary" musings of a stay-at-home mom, she was clearly asking?

So, hurt feelings aside, I wasn't really sure how to explain. It's a lot of kid stuff, for family back in the states, and travel photos to make you all sorry you don't come visit more often, but... how do you describe Joel's post charting his job satifaction against our location? Or the look at government spending you were lucky enough to see this month? We're no Perez Hilton, but we have some Miley Cyrus coverage. We're not Fox News, but we do have quite a bit of campaign coverage.

Hmmm... looks like the odd ones come from Joel, so I guess I'm off the hook for explaining them.

Hyper Coasting

Well, those of you that know Joel know that he can be a man on a mission when he makes up his mind about something. Take hypermiling. He comes across this information, and then the next thing I know, we are coasting all over town- down overpasses (acceptable), into right turns (scary), and 100 yards away from stops (boring). Basically, you use extreme driving behavior modification to increase your gas milage. Like, take all day to get up to fifty, and then immediately shift into neutral and coast. And keep on coasting, right through turns and down exit ramps and whatever else you encounter while you still have momentum.

I don't know if it would be so bad in the U.S., but here, the Italian drivers will pass you if there are six feet of space between you and the car in front of you. They have no patience for this snail's pace driving, even if it is eco-friendly, which the Euros usually go for. And, I am terribly afraid of going over 15 mph around curved overpasses, so I lose on that end as well.

I'm planning on showing him this anti-hypermiling article, and see what happens. If he doesn't go for it, at least I have his Christmas gift picked out- as hard as he is to buy for, putting up wth his nutty driving may be worth it.

Your Tax Dollars at Work!

The Military-Industrial/CounterTerror-Industrial Complex is alive and well. The below chart is the enacted discretionary funding for 2008, as reported by the OMB. Specifically, it’s tabulated from “Table S–3. Discretionary Funding by Major Agency” of this document.

By the way, this doesn’t include any “supplemental” funding that Congress authorized for the Global War on Terror. For 2007, that was $173.6B. That’s 19.7% of the $880B Discretionary Budget, except that 19.7% isn’t included in the $880B Discretionary Budget; it’s additional spending. For 2008, there is a proposed supplemental funding of $108.1B dedicated for the GWOT. That’s in addition to the $479.5B that’s already slated for Discretionary Spending, for a grand total of $587.6B to be spent on defense this year.



Oh, and we’re operating at a deficient of -$410B this year. That’s an increase from the -$162B deficit that we spent last year of $248B.

I wish there was a joke here somewhere, but I can't seem to think of one.

Enjoy!

Puppets, as promised

These pictures kind of stink, admittedly. I took them in a dark theatre of a brightly lit stage full of fast-moving puppets, from six rows back. Not exactly ideal conditons. But forgiving that, check out these crazy puppets- what kind of show are they staging with these characters??

Canio, from Pagliacci:A James Bond villan:
The Gay Chinaman (he has a chinese-style skull cap with the long braid and wears a vaguely Asian tunic):Most racist puppet ever- I'll leave the specifics to you:

It's really a surprise that France is having immigrant trouble, what with their refined views of other cultures that they are imparting to their young, via PUPPET SHOWS. Dang.

Happy First Birthday, Princepessa

That's "princess," of course, although I'm not sure I spelled it correctly. I hear the Italians say it all of the time, but they don't exactly write it down for me. Anyway, here are some pictures from Ava's first birthday:

I'm Aidan, and I approve of these cupcakes.

Our Italian neighbors came by: This is reckless misuse of helium in a time of worldwide shortage:
I'm not sure why he's wearing a knight costume, either.

Ava tests the waters- "What is this pink smooshy food they are shoving at me?".....

....and decides it is yummy!

It was Bring Your Own Baby (of course, that's any military function):

Taking a ride on her brother's bike.My guess is she's calling her friends to report on the motherlode of pink dresses stacked up in her shopping cart. Also note the cute dress I made for her to wear (and my friend made the bow):
So, now it's like you were there! Without the 8 hour flight! You're welcome!