i gotta say, i love my grandmother. my mom attended today and she said mayor billings said “if i know pearl, she’ll want to say a few words.” he does know my grandmother. and i love it. i love that she has a voice in this world and she is not afraid to use it. i love that she really stuck it to the people who are apathetic:

“Do we really only have 15 to 25 percent of our citizens that care?” Rex-Hartzell asked.

“Why can’t we call up our neighbors on election day and say, ‘Do you need a ride to the polls? Have you voted yet?’ “

she’s 92 and she’s still got it.

way to go grandma, you tell ‘em!

Today I needed a break and I was torn between a rant about why I am almost ready to boycott all the wonderful doctors at Central Utah Medical Clinic simply because of their totally incompetent and I dare say unethical billing services (and I use the word “services” loosely) and something funny.

Heads you win. I’m going with something funny.

If you haven’t already, you must read Azúcar’s post about lowering the bar and being awesome.

Azúcar is one of the most awesome people I know and she can do that no matter where the bar is…she could probably do that even without a bar altogether.

But for those of us who need a bar, for whatever reason, this is even more proof of why the bar should be lowered. (Author’s note: I am not at all making fun of this poor woman. I truly feel badly for her and am grateful she was rescued and suffered only minor injuries.)

I hereby propose a ban on vacuuming out heating vents and scrubbing floor boards. (I’m sorry. I don’t have any actual evidence as to the inherent dangers of scrubbing floor boards, I’m just opposed on moral grounds.)

Everybody with me, say “Aye!”

Anything else you want to add to the ban?

I thought the comments to my last post were great, (in case you missed them, you can read them here). Thank you.

I want to address a couple specifically:

It was then that she learned a friend at school had shown her son how to access porn through his cell phone. Internet access on the phone was suddenly denied (she hadn’t realized that he could get the internet through his phone).

However, at school, a girl that E~ doesn’t like for reasons you will see came up to her and shoved her phone in Emily’s face with a picture…S*xting is real and out there.

(note: Thanks for the heads up–I had never heard of the term Sexting, but here is more.)

One of my children was first exposed to pornography while playing at a friend’s house. Actually, he probably doesn’t remember, but he was exposed even earlier when we got our first computer. My kids have a great interest in animals, particularly reptiles. Without even thinking about it we Googled “horny toads,” as we had just caught a couple out in the Uintah Basin. Big mistake!

Yes, we should do everything we can to keep our kids safe and make our homes as safe from sexually explicit media as possible, but I don’t think taking an insular approach to the issue is enough. Our kids will be exposed to it (the average age of exposure is 11 years old) on some level at some point. I was waiting at the doctor’s office just yesterday for an MRI and right next to the Better Homes & Gardens and Newsweek magazines were Cosmo Girl and Elle.

As for pornography specifically, the cell phone access is one issue. But don’t think you’re safe just blocking Internet access. I’ve blocked texting (before anyone comes undone over that, it’s because we can’t afford it, not because I think it’s sinful) and Internet access three times on our cell phones and my provider keeps putting it back on. There are URLs available that kids can use to mask access to adult-themed websites. And yeah, there is still the oversexualized advertising on sign-in pages, Facebook updates, and in TV previews for prime time that are advertised throughout the day.

I wonder if we need to take a more proactive approach and fight it. I know we’re all busy, but I think it’s important for some of the media outlets to hear from normal articulate every day people (as opposed to shrill extremists) that this type of advertising is not OK. Hit them where it hurts–in their pocketbooks–and take a few minutes to tell them why they won’t be seeing your consumer dollar. We’re all upon hard times. Maybe now is as good a time as ever to fight.

And what about our kids’ friends? The truth is no matter what we do at our own homes, at some point our kids will be likely hanging out with and potentially dating kids who have been exposed to these types of confusing media messages and pornography. How does their exposure–and how equipped they may have been to process it–impact our kids?

I particularly appreciated this comment:

Talking with your kids about how to deal with unwanted encounters with porn and bad ads is also important. Kids need tools to deal with those images. Because no parent has a 100 % perfect track record for avoiding a bad ad.

We need to have open dialogue not only about why these images are harmful and how to deal with exposure, but also about how to deal with others who might have different views of what’s appropriate entertainment, and about gender roles and how to treat others–particularly members of the opposite sex–appropriately.

Above all we can’t be complacent or put our heads in the sand.

Just my two cents.

For the last couple of months I’ve been really bugged about a computer problem I’ve been having at work. I sent the issue to IT and when they had a few minutes (it was low priority of course) they’d try different things, but they really had no idea what the problem was.

You have to understand something. As a tail-end Boomer, I’m new to the pc party. I graduated from college with a degree in English without ever having had a computer. (Although I do remember using my mom’s computer for a couple of research papers during my last semester–on WordPerfect no less). While I’ve learned my way around e-mail, blogs and chats and I’m generally capable of uploading and downloading (just don’t ask me to tell you the difference between the two) and I do speak a little html, I’m pretty technologically challenged. So I hate asking for anything from IT for fear it will end up being user error and I’ll look stupid–again.

Eventually the problem began affecting other computers in my department and my frustration over this issue mounted and I eventually submitted a trouble ticket and attempted the fixes they wanted to try. All to no avail.

A couple of months into it and knowing there were much bigger fish for IT to fry, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I did something I am good at.

I Googled.

And sure enough on some random message board I found a clue.

I tested my theory that the generic text printer was the culprit (still didn’t want to look stupid) and confirmed the problem and the printer were linked somehow. Then I sent IT an e-mail explaining what I’d done and suggesting they take a look.

They did. They discovered the problem. And they fixed it.

I’m trying not to be smug–but I did good, didn’t I?

The IT guy even brought me cookies (the kind you eat–see, I’m not completely stupid). I guess if a Boomer can trouble shoot a computer issue an IT guy can bake cookies.

In related news (and just so you know I’m an equal opportunity offender):

For those of you who cringe every time you hear me joke about Al Gore being the father of the Internets, you must know I was laughing just as loudly when I read that John McCain is, apparently, the father of the Blackberry.

Preface: As many of you know, it has been a life-long challenge for me to discover the zen in the art of homemaking. Sooooo…

Yesterday when they got to the part in Relief Society meeting in which the sisters shared good news I turned to my friend and admitted the following: “I can’t say this out loud, but my good news is I finally got all the laundry folded and put away.”

Trust me, the washing is the easy part

For those of you who have it together (that would probably mean all the rest of you), that may be a daily or weekly occurrence. But not chez moi. I’m really good at washing it, but then it just piles up waiting for attention. It had spilled out of the laundry room an into the family room in the form of a mountain of mostly folded towels sheets, odd socks and hand-me-downs gathering dust on our second-hand pool table. My goal for the weekend was to clean it off entirely, find a place for everything and put everything in its place, and match all the socks–with the added treat of tossing any that didn’t have mates in the trash.

One of the biggest challenges was the socks. I do believe the first thing out of my mouth when I get to the other side is, “Where are all the other socks?” I remember hearing my mother recounting a funny story about my dad when I was growing up. They went to the local appliance store to purchase a long-awaited new washer and dryer. (As there were six of us kids you can imagine she had even more laundry than I do.) The salesman asked my father what kind of washer and dryer he wanted–enumerating the virtues of many of the newest models. My dad simply said,

I want the one that doesn’t eat socks.”

Aside from the socks there were enough towels to mop up what’s left of Felix. I don’t know how we inherit towels, but between car washes, kids playing on our slip-n-slide, my propensity for saving things for rags as well my not being able to resist the brand spanking new perfectly white towels and washcloths my grandmother was giving away when she downsized into The Jamestown, I’m getting buried.

There are also an awful lots of items that are just sitting around waiting to go to D.I. and find a good home. These tend to hang around longer than they should because I can never seem to find a big enough bag or box in which to put them. Luckily I happened upon a roll of huge leaf bags and now there are two of them completely full of clothes (and even some of those extra towels) ready for D.I.

I’m happy to say the pool table is bare and ready for play. There is once again both floor and some counter space in my laundry room. And I now have a place to hopefully go to work on some too-long-put-off quilting projects.

I still have a couple of rooms (hint: ~j, you are not the only one) to tackle in my quest for some semblance of order. But there is some light at the end of the long dark tunnel. And that my friends, is indeed good news!