No commie coffee for me please

A Zogby poll shows that liberals, progressives, and urbanites prefer Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts, while Dunkin Donuts is more popular among senior citizens, rural Americans, and those on the East coast.

I'll keep drinking the official coffee of the world-series-champion Red Sox, thank you.
[who are coincidentally up 5-3 over the "Evil Empire"in the bottom of the 7th]

HT: Catholic Light

Meow, meatballs, and other firsts

Agent 004's first English word was "Mama."

Okay, that is a Russian word too, but she really does know what it means. She says just those two syllables, then giggles whenever I kiss her belly during a diaper change. I may be deluding myself, but as a first-time mother I have that right and I am going with it. The kid knows my name, and I eat it up.

Her second word was funnier. That was "meow." Not meow pronounced like a person reading the written word, but an exact copy of Janice's incessant cry. You honestly need to look to see which four-legged creature the sound came from. Sometimes, they converse back and forth in indistinguishable screaches. I am not sure if either has figured out that they belong to different species.

Now for those that know me, Agent 004's first sample of table food will really shock you -- she ate four entire (but diced) meatballs from last night's spaghetti and meatball dinners at Grammy's house. The near-vegetarian mother and her carnivore daughter. She has since eaten toast, a carrot chunk, and fork-mashed peas. Now that is a girl after my own heart!

The calm after the storm

This is not a post about hurricanes. I have nothing meaningful to add to the discussion of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina other than to wish some mercy on the people of the Gulf Coast for the remainder of the hurricane season.

The post is about real life. My real life. My real life with a husband and two kids in a suburban farmhouse in New England. A real life in which my job is to watch out for the well-being of two small but independent beings who call me Mama.

After three years of wishing for children and working towards their adoption, after two years of heartbreak and delay, after a summer of frantic transitions -- they are finally here and finally "real".

Even the first few weeks weren't "real;" it felt like a movie plot that we were acting in. We went from no children to one child to two children and from apartment guests to hotel residents to family visits to home with everything a blur. Those first few weeks were about getting by, not about "living."

Life is still chaotic, but it is now the chaos of everyday life. It is the screams of stolen toys and sleepy wimpers, of spilled lunch and bumps and bruises. I am coming to terms with this as my reality. I am overstretched,exhausted, and sometimes frustrated, but extremely content. This is my reality, and I love it.

Update: to highlight the chaos that I call my life, note that this post was written last Saturday, but saved as a draft because I was distracted by a small person's whimper. Sorry about not publishing it sooner.

Tuning out, Tuning in, Starting over

As any new stay-at-home parent well knows, it is very hard to get a moment alone to read a newspaper, watch the news, or check blogs. You don't even have the "luxury" of a commute to work in which you can listen to the radio uninterupted.

Anyone who reads this blog understands that I am a bit of a news freak, so it was a major blow to be so out of the loop.

Last night was my first attempt to read blogs since May. I had over 7000 unread posts accumulated in my RSS aggregator. I tried to skim, I tried to prioritize, and then I just decided to start over.

Note to friends virtual and real -- if you have posted anything in the past three months, I probably haven't read it. Sorry. But in order to move on, I have marked all as read.

...And I think that I will be cutting back on some of the 129 feeds.....