Loki Monday

Yes, I know, I missed Loki Sunday. But it wasn't a low key Sunday at all and so today has been proclaimed low key day. Here's the most recent official daddy portrait.

Spirits of Reality

I've been told that I am too German for my own good. Which is very strange because what Germanic family influences I have had were all environmental, not genetic. But the people of England, Scotland and Ireland tend to have a pretty wide streak of practicality and those are the DNA bits floating around in my makeup.

I've been hearing a little bit these days about business and job growth and government. Specifically deregulation.

Seems the right thinks that if we remove as much government regulation as possible, business will be free to expand and create new jobs.

And in SPIRIT, I believe this is true.

But the problem is with REALITY. Now, I'm no economic expert and I'm sure that anyone with even a slightly better understanding of the issue will roll their eyes at my ignorance, but here's what I see.

Reagan began deregulation in his two terms. It slowed some in the Clinton years and exploded again with W Bush.

At the same time, W Bush lowered taxes on the upper most reaches of income because then, in spirit, these wealth creators would be free to create business and jobs.

Um. Yeah. Okay. That's not exactly what happened. REALITY

They kept the money to themselves (which was their right to do), used it to create more wealth for themselves and their friends, then used it to co-opt media and politics so that they could keep the money train pulling up to their bank vaults everyday.

And the right is correct, the uber-rich and powerful have every right legally to do this.

But at some point, they began to hurt the rest of the country.

They sent our jobs overseas because it maximized their profit. They played shell games with our pensions because it maximized their profit. And when the whole house of cards came tumbling down, we were the ones losing our homes, losing our jobs, losing our futures while their life style didn't change one iota.

Deregulation worked, but because we humans are essentially nothing more than greedy smart monkeys and it is hard not to want to keep all our bananas to ourselves, it didn't work the way it was intended to.

So if business won't create jobs because it's more profitable to pocket the money, then we just need to make it as profitable to create jobs in AMERICA.

And as soon as those in power prove that they can act like adults and not children squabbling over who got the biggest slice of cake, maybe we can have fewer rules.

Thor's Day!

Nap, interrupted.

Oh, Hiking Boots, Why?

I'm no stranger to hiking.

I've hiked to little arches.

I've hiked to big arches.

I've hiked up mountains.

And, uh, down mountains.

I've hiked to find dinosaur footprints in stone.

I've hiked until rock felt comfy.

All with no problems. And today I walk three miles in my trusty hiking boots and I get a blister? Really?

On a side note, damn I freaking miss Utah!!!! Wanna go back.

And now, your moment of twosday:

Pants on Fire!

I told a lie this morning. Not a big lie in the context of the universe, but a lie none the less. And a lie about myself.

And it made me wonder, why did I do that?

This is how it went down: I made a comment on Twitter about being out of wine and having to put on a bra and go to the wine store.

The loveLY (inside joke) Andra Watkins joked that I should just go braless and let the girls swing free.

And then I told one of those girls lies, disparaging my body.

And it was a lie. For an old broad, I've got a pretty impressive rack, even braless, the girls have better posture than my spine.

It seems women in our culture have been brainwashed to tell these lies about ourselves.

Wow! You look great!
"I'm fat and my hair is a mess."

It's more than not being able to accept a compliment. It's more than fearing to seem conceited if we like our bodies. (We can like ourselves, just not our thighs, or stomach, or face, or hands, or feet) It's more than just the image we get from Hollywood or the fashion industry. I am well beyond the influence of those cultures.

So, why did I do it? I dunno. Seemed like I should have at the time. Then I got to thinking about one of Jason's fellow photographers, Diana Deaver. Diana is from Romania and a year or so ago, she did a project that involved the negative talk American women engage in about their bodies. She did a series of photographs of the body parts people liked best about themselves. Jason and I had even discussed it, and I had said that I would have chosen my breasts.

So, again, why did I lie? And again I have no real answer other than I responded thoughtlessly and only showed how insidious the negative self talk is.

And yes, I know this is highly ironic coming immediately after my post on the diet plan I've chosen to try to follow. But I'm not a size 8 trying to get to a size 4. I'm a 50 year old peri-menopausal, pre-diabetic, high cholesterol having, arthritis in my knees having woman with great tits. My diet/exercise plan is for health, not weight, although I'd not cry if my belly shrank a wee bit, you know what I'm saying?

Loki sez: You don't want to be in the saggy belly kitten gang?

Monday Morning, Suddenly Better

I was supposed to go to the endodontist this morning for an evaluation for a root canal. My toothache that I thought was a lost filling is actually a cracked tooth. My dentist wants to do a crown, but wants to make sure I don't need a root canal first.

Doesn't that just sound like such fun? And putting my tax refund to such good use?

But the endodontist is sick today, so I have to reschedule.

I'm hoping I won't need the root canal. I had one before and the pain (before) was horrible. This only hurts if I drink cold water and even then it's just a throb.

So now, instead of scrambling out the door, I am sitting back, listening to Neil Young and gearing up for a chapter edit on the WIP.

So, poor Jack LaLanne, huh? But at 96, I guess he had a pretty good go at it and made the most of it. I think I'll do an extra lap around the 'hood in his honor today.

I've decided that my diet plan will be: exercise (walking my 4 mile route at least 3 times a week, and if I don't spend all my money on the tooth, I want to get another TV and an Xbox Kinnect and some dance/exercise programs), eating a healthy low calorie meal/snack every two hours (and counting everything that goes into my face except water as a snack, that means you, wine), and trying to keep my daily calorie intake under 1400.

I've never been on a diet before, so am trying the calorie counting (which is already driving Jason insane) just as a means of looking realistically at what I am eating. (Biggest surprise was the mango key lime style pie that someone who isn't me or a cat brought home is over 300 calories for an teeny tiny sliver (1/8th slice).

Another thing I am going to try is to not weigh myself until my next doctor's appointment, which is in June.

This is what you walk in on in my house these sunbeam loving days:

Loki Sunday

I bought new shoes for work. So Loki got a new box to sculpt.
Previous Loki creations:

You Know What Day It Is!

It's the cutest kitten on the planet day!

Twosday!

Two things I'm doing:

Editing. I finished the first draft of what is looking like a trilogy. Wrote such a skimpy first draft of part two that it is more of an outline than a first draft. Now being a grown up and not letting myself fool around with part three or part two until I've done a serious edit/rewrite of part one.

On line browsing. Since we aren't taking a trip this year, I'm going to redo the bedroom. New furniture (so it all matches, like a grown up's house), paint, new bedding, ect.

Two things I'm working on:

Developing some sort of diet. I've never been able to follow a diet. I'm more of an eat less and move more kind of girl. But several people at work are following some different diets and I've been exploring the principles behind them and am trying to incorporate some of the ideals into my daily eating patterns. Trying the eat a small healthy snack every two hours thing and after a week, have noticed that I don't get hungry, have to remind myself to have my snack and eat smaller portions for my main meals. I was wanting to lose 30 pounds by next December (my annual physical), but when someone pointed out I'd probably have to give up wine, I decided on 20 pounds. Sorry, but there are priorities in life.

Getting back into my walking routine. I'm really ashamed that I had the discipline to keep up with my 3-4 mile walks 3-4 days a week all through this summer when the heat indexes were in the 110's, yet once it began to cool down, I let it slid until it had been almost three months.

The two reasons y'all keep coming back:

Loki Sunday

The whirling dervish:

Thor's Day!

Portraits by daddy:

Twosday

Two men I love:

Jon Stewart

Stephen Colbert

Two things that I worry about even though I know it's stupid:

Wearing a shirt into the store where I purchased it makes me worry about being accused of shop lifting.

Putting air in car tires, even watching someone else do it, makes me worry the tire will explode.

Two things that make me squee:

Loki toes!

Thor's bow and arrow stretch:

You Know I Gotta Say Something

First, my deepest sympathies to all the families and friends of those who were lost in Tuscon.

My best wishes for full recoveries for those injured.

May you gather strength from those who love you, whether you know them or not.

I saw a brief tidbit I think on my Twitter stream shortly after the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords and the others, to the effect of: "The left hopes it's a Tea Partier and the right hopes it's a Mexican or a Muslim."

And now, even that doesn't matter as we devolve into a childish morass of "your side does it too!" and "your side does it more!"

(Mom! He's touching me, make him stop touching me! Not touching you!)

The left, the right are treated like they are some sort of single minded Borg, every mind lock stepped with certain beliefs.

But, there are two things going on here:

1. The shooting.
2. Reflections on the shooting.

Okay? These are two completely separate things.

The shooting itself, and the information coming out about the young man who carried out this horrible crime, indicates that he was a young man in serious need of some mental help, who has been, for years acting out, essentially jumping up and down and screaming, "Hey y'all, I'm fucking crazy!".

And much like the young man who killed so many at Virginia Tech a few years ago, we wept, we gnashed our teeth, we rent our clothes and then promptly forgot all about what we said about needing more resources for mental health issues. (And these days, haha, good luck with that.)

The initial assumptions made in the aftermath of the shootings, linking it to Sarah Palin's "crosshairs" map that Congresswoman Gifford herself was uneasy about and other divisive political rhetoric and the tendency over the last couple of years to use more and more violent imagery in words and signs, may have been hasty applied to THIS YOUNG MAN.

But, even if neither left nor right rhetoric spurred him on, can we not discuss how awful it has become?

Just because it wasn't the reason he acted out, does that mean we can't say, hey, maybe this kind of violent imagery and demonizing fellow Americans could be, say, maybe bad for everyone's mental health and perhaps dangerous for those with mental disorders?

Can we just not say, yes, I'm guilty, you're guilty, let's stop counting how many times we each were guilty and start from here?

It's no secret that I lean to the left. But I have grown just as sick and tired of Olbermann and Maddow as I have of Beck and Palin. (And I have to give Olbermann credit for his speech apologizing for anything he may have said that used violent imagery, because we all know that apologizing in this country is one of those things we give lip service too - we pretend it's the honorable, noble thing to do, but once someone does, we think of them as spineless and caving in. So in my view, that earns Olbermann double points.)

But we need begin with stopping all the "the left does this" and "the right does that". We need to point to individuals who are saying violent and destructive things and tell THAT PERSON to stop. Don't click on that news story on whatever website you visit. If you are on mailing lists for pundits who engage in this type of behavior, ask to be removed. Look up your representatives' emails and when they say something destructive, write them. It'd take less time than you spend playing Farmville, I'm sure.

If you engage in political debate, consciously try to present your opinion without the code words that have become so common: libtard, conservaturd.

Let's act like grown ups people. And that means taking responsibility for yourself, your words and calling others on using destructive speech.

There is a vast difference between: I feel the tax cuts should be extended because...

and: All you libtards just want free money to give to welfare bums.

That's all I'm saying.

Thor sez: But doggies don't bury their poop!

Loki Sunday

Loki pep talk:


An hour later:


Sometimes you just gotta spell it out.

Loki vs. The Tail

Thor's Day!

It's a well known fact that Thor loves anything elastic. (Bra straps, anyone?) Last year, I found this going on when I came into the room to find out what that weird snapping noise I kept hearing was. (Like having a two year old in the house, it is a very good idea to investigate any strange sound or sudden silence.)

Twosday

Two things I'm thinking about:

1. My throat. (It hurts)
2. My ear. (It hurts)

Two things I'm grateful for:

1. Drugs.
2. More drugs.

Two things I should be doing:

1. Resting.
2. Writing.

Two boyz who make me feel better:

Living the LIfe Luddite

A few days ago, a fella in my Twitter stream asked "Does anyone use paper, hang on the wall calendar anymore?"

I was the only person to say yes. And he was slightly surprised that anyone said yes.

But I do. I don't know why, other than it's what I've always done. I get tons of free ones from various charities, pick the one with the biggest blocks and up it goes on the wall.

I even keep the old ones, filing them away for references as to when what happened. (Did I have my mammogram in January or February last year? I dunno. Let's look at the calendar.)

I don't work a set schedule so my calendar is mostly filled with bold black Sharpie penned "P"'s (for PM meaning 7p-7a). I put my doctor and dentist appointments there. Hair cuts and eyebrow waxings. Various classes and meetings.

All things I suppose more modern people put in a smart phone, more organized people put in their day planners. I don't have a smart phone. I don't carry a purse in which to put a day planner.

So I collect information on bits and pieces of paper and fill in the calendar when I get home. At home, I stand by the calendar, phone in one hand, Sharpie in the other, when I make appointments.

And there are other little symbols and signs that I fill in. Numbers and days shaded in pink that only I know the meaning of, and it isn't what you just rolled your eyes and thought you knew, so there, nanny nanny boo boo.

So tap the keys on your little smart phone, I may join you some day, but for now, I like my wall calendar. I like seeing my month at a glance in bold black letters and numbers, jotted notes and jumbles of names and times.

Loki sez: Whoa, slow down there Granny, don't rush on into the 20th century all at once.

The Battle of Thor and Loki

Brotherly love.

The Battle of the Cat Tree

In their minds, it's Valhalla.

Loki Day

Loki decides his tail is more fun than his brother: