Eyebrows McGee

The Sulphurous Bowels of Hell

2009-07-13T15:55:00.002-05:00

The baby was baptized yesterday, and as we always do in my family we were joking about the exorcism and going all, "Satan begone! Get out of the baby!" Today he's farting the stinkiest farts in history.

"Phew, his farts smell like the sulphurous bowels of hell!" I complained to my sister.

"Oh, he's just getting out the last of the Satan," she replied.

Some Cool Baby Stuff

2009-07-09T17:02:00.003-05:00

I've been neglecting my blog because I've been exhausted (and busy), so I thought I'd do a quicky on neat baby stuff we've found particularly useful, since pretty much everyone we know is pregnant, men included.

We got an Arms Reach Co-Sleeper, which is a bassinet where one side folds down and it attaches to an adult bed (still leaving about a 4" high barrier between the baby and the adult bed). This allows the benefits of co-sleeping -- having the baby handy for nursing, being able to watch and touch the baby all night, etc. -- without the terrible risks of having a baby in an adult bed. It was particularly helpful while recovering from the C-section so I didn't have to get out of bed to get him. We got the mini (in blue gingham).

If you get an Arms Reach, the Mighty Bright book light perfectly fits on the bar and makes a very nice nightlight for checking on the baby or nursing without waking up the non-dairy parent. I think this would be my new trick for any bassinet, finding a book light that clips onto it!

I had one of these color-changing light balls that I picked up at Cub Foods for $5 a while back, because I'm weirdly fixated on lights that change color. This thing turns out to be BABY CRACK. He will stare at it for minutes on end. I'm getting another to use as a nightlight in his room.

One of the neatest things I got is a Milkband (front page cycles through pictures, one of which has a nursing woman in case nursing boob is disallowed for your workplace surfing). This is a bracelet of the "live strong" type, with two little sliders and a series of numbers so that you can mark the last time you nursed, and on the outside it says "Left" and the inside it says "Right" and you flip it inside out so you know which side you last started on, instead of mucking around with paperclips on your bra or whatever. The "left" is lowered (debossed into the bracelet) and the "right" is raised, so you can even tell in the dark. This was perhaps the coolest $6 I spent, since the first few weeks I was waaaaaaay too tired to remember when I last nursed (let alone on which side), but writing it down after the first pediatrician visit just seemed tedious. (Also, Milkbands had a computer hiccup so my order went out late ... so they sent me five of them instead of one!)

Three May Enter, One May Leave

2009-06-26T20:17:00.002-05:00

I put three baby "lap sheets" (they're like 12x12" squares of a heavier cotton fabric, but lighter than a burp cloth; helps protect your clothes from baby orifices and their products) in the wash today. They were brand new, came in a package of three, I took all three out and unfolded them and put them in the laundry basket. Threw the laundry in the washer, then the dryer, then came back upstairs with it ... and there was only one lap sheet.

I have been all through the laundry area like four times now trying to figure out where the other two went.

Apparently my washer is like a death cage match for lap sheets.

ZZZZZZZ ...

2009-06-25T13:16:00.002-05:00

The baby is having some stomach trouble, which means the rest of us are having some sleeping trouble, which means I'm not real clear on what's going on, like what day it is or how to count to ten. I keep trying to count to ten (recording feeding times) and running out of numbers before I run out of fingers, so I know I'm missing one in there somewhere, but I can't for the life of me figure out which one. Probably six or seven, which have always been tricky bastards.

EDIT: Oh, look at that, my blog says it's Thursday. Who knew?

Great Minds Think Alike ...

2009-06-16T10:27:00.004-05:00

Eyebrows mass-texts the family: Flippy said "ga"!

Immediate return texts:

Aunt McGee: Aww. A clear attempt at 'Aunt McGee'

Grandpa: Cool! I think he was trying to say "grandpa."

Grandma: Short for grandma of course

Phone call from husband: I think he was saying my name.

They're all wrong. Obviously he was working towards "Mama."

The New Normal

2009-06-09T08:17:00.003-05:00

I woke up yesterday morning feeling like having a baby in the house was normal, instead of waking up and thinking, "When is your mother coming to pick you up, baby? Oh ... crap." or "OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG" or "I CAN'T DO THIS!!!!!" It helps that he seems to recognize us both now and interacts a bit more, so he's less of a newborn lump of neediness and pooping and more of a baby (still full of neediness and pooping but now with personality).

Then last night he slept between feedings instead of fussing and spaced his feedings about 3 hours (instead of ONE hour, which has been the story of the past few days and I thought I was going to actually die). I got almost six hours of sleep, in two-hour chunks, so I feel like people again. Tired people, but people.

I know this doesn't mean it'll all be sunshine and roses (as likely as not, tonight he'll be up all night and eating constantly), but at least I can see a light at the end of the tunnel when I'll no longer be a zombie. (A zombie that says things that endlessly entertain my husband, like, "Stop! I can't think and talk at the same time!" and a zombie that freezes in panic when asked an open-ended question like "What do you want for dinner?" because that's too many choices for my tiny zombie brain.)

Reflux

2009-06-03T10:27:00.003-05:00

Himself has acid reflux, which is interfering with EVERYONE's ability to sleep and leading to daily laundry loads from the astonishing quantities of spit-up. The pediatrician has him sleeping on an incline, which Himself is convinced is cruel and unusual punishment. (On the plus side, he's getting very good at scooting.)

My mother suggested that baby arms should come as an aftermarket add-on available after six weeks, because all they do until then is flail and get in the way. This sounds about right. Himself likes to get his fists up in his face when he's excited or mad or wound up, which is pretty much every time he's about to eat, and then he gets mad that he can't get the bottle or breast into his mouth because THERE ARE FISTS IN THE WAY, so he parks his fists more firmly in front of his mouth and gets madder.

Doing Well

2009-05-28T10:03:00.003-05:00

Baby (whom I'm tempted to call Pink Baby after someone was clever in the comments about my cat names!) is on the gaining weight side of the equation now, eating heartily, farting copiously (and making hilarious faces as he tries to manage it). I'm wiped out but recovering.

Looked at my incision with a mirror. Kind-of wish I hadn't, though I'm sure it'll look better as it heals more. Having been awake for a grand total of two hours, I think I need to go nap now.

Parenting, Day Three

2009-05-24T11:12:00.002-05:00

We're all still doing well. My C-section incision is healing nicely and I'm allowed to have real food again. I finally looked at the C-section incision this morning ... I got out of bed yesterday but I was afraid to look in case it was really gross or creepy and I passed out or something. But it just looks like my belly is very, very happy.

Baby has lots of hair and is fairly chubby right off; he has all the nice newborn characteristics and none of the ones that make them look like coneheads or Winston Churchill. He latched on at his first nursing attempt and while it hasn't been all smooth sailing, he's doing pretty well at it. Sometimes he gets so frantic looking for the food that when he finds it, he doesn't realize he's got it, and keeps looking, getting madder and madder. At 1 a.m. while full of painkillers without having slept much the night before EITHER when he started doing this, I became suddenly worried this parenting gig was going to be waaaaaaay too much for me. But eventually he goes back to sleep and looks adorable and I forget.

I actually went into labor right about when we arrived to the hospital for the C-section, and by the time I went in for the surgery, the contractions were as close as 3 minutes apart! But I only felt them for about an hour before the epidural came on board. I DID NOT like getting the epidural and I DID NOT like the sensation of having the epidural in me, but the C-section itself wasn't so bad. They had him coming out before I realized they'd really started (I could feel him coming out, the pressure as they pushed from the top). Then there was interesting him to watch being checked over while they sewed me up. They were so speedy I was almost done being stitched up when they took him to the nursery.

I'm uncomfortable and tired, but not unbearably so. Baby loves his dad already, and dad is a pro with him, swaddling like an expert, changing diapers, and soothing the baby when he's frustrated. And yes, baby does recognize his Frank Sinatra song when we sing to him.

(And I'm typing this from my hospital bed, because Proctor has wifi! Yay!)

I think this probably isn't very coherent because I'm still fairly drugged, but I seem to be using punctuation semi-correctly so hopefully it's at least readable.

Baby Has Arrived

2009-05-23T08:51:00.002-05:00

And I'm too sleepy to say much except that he's here, and I'm Sleepy, Dopey, Happy, Grumpy ... and a whole host of other dwarves besides.

C-section went off without a hitch and he's learning to latch on pretty well. 7 lbs. 13 oz., 18.5 inches. More later. :)

My REM Sleep Is Now Rare. And Weird.

2009-05-21T09:54:00.003-05:00

I'm pregnant enough that I don't get much REM sleep, because I wake up every couple of hours for a bathroom break and/or to host a dance party in my uterus.

Last night I slept long enough to have the first dream I've had (or at least recalled) in a couple weeks, which was my REM-y brain making a mash-up of "Tootsie" and "Mrs. Doubtfire." It was a surprisingly good movie, I have to say, though my brain was having difficulty sorting out whether Robin Williams or Dustin Hoffman was in the starring role.

Waking up from this required blinking at the ceiling for two solid minutes going, "WTF?"

Ass-Backwards

2009-05-16T18:03:00.003-05:00

My son is absolutely determined to enter the world ass-backwards. He was head-down at 37 weeks; and then on Wednesday I had such terrible pain from Braxton-Hicks and from massive, super-active fetal movement that I thought I might actually be going into labor; and on Thursday we went in for the 38 weeks position ultrasound ... and he had turned himself head-up! (Which is apparently what all that excruciating activity was.)

Flippy is in a frank breech position -- like a diver in the pike position, knees to nose. His butt is settled nice and low in my pelvis.

We went in this morning for Cephalic External Version, which is where they push on the abdomen from the outside, guided by ultrasound, and try to maneuver the baby into going back to head down. Flippy was quite happy to move his head and spine all around as directed by the doctor's pushing, but his butt is locked too firmly down in my pelvis and he just kept rotating on his ass. The doctor couldn't get him popped up, so the CEV was a flop (or at least definitely not a flip).

And, yes, the CEV was freaking painful (though not intolerable), and, yes, I now feel like I have been pummeled from the inside AND outside of my belly. So all I want to do is lie down ... and frantically prepare the house.

We weren't able to participate in our neighborhood garage sale today because we had to go in for the CEV, so I have a giant pile of STUFF I was planning to be rid of today that's, well, not gone. And a bunch of stuff around the house to do that I thought I'd have a couple more weeks to do, plus time recovering when I could sit still and do brainless tasks like sorting through old files.

Instead we're in a big hurry to get ready for a C-section for my ass-backwards son, which will occur earlier than anticipated, and then I'll have a longer and more difficult recovery than I'd hoped.

On the plus side, with enough frantic cleaning and frantic grading (to get all my grades turned in before the surgery), it's possible I can avoid thinking about the surgery until the last possible moment. I do not particularly cope well with sharp pointy objects, and if I were going to make a horror movie specifically to scare ME, it would definitely involve MAJOR ABDOMINAL SURGERY WHILE I AM AWAKE. I honestly think this is one of the most horrifying ideas modern medicine has ever come up with, up there with the brain surgery where they cut your head open while you're awake, poke at things, and ask you to say if anything happens (they do this one all the time on House). I thought the medical establishment would never inflict anything worse on me personally than that eye-puff glaucoma test (*shudder*), BUT I WAS SO WRONG.

My friends are generally of the opinion that I've had such a difficult pregnancy, culminating in him turning breech at the last second, that he will be an absolute angel child. My family is generally of the opinion that Flippy is exerting his contrary streak early and will keep on as he's begun. Given that my husband and I both have contrary streaks a mile wide, I have a sneaking suspicion my family is right.

I have been threatening Flippy that on his birth announcements, instead of "Flippy McGee: born 10 a.m. on date at place," I'm going to change the wording to read, "Flippy McGee: entered the world ass-backwards at 10 a.m. on date at place," but he seems unimpressed.

Stupid Cat Tricks: All Your Bassinet Are Belong to Us

2009-05-13T06:53:00.002-05:00

I've noticed cats are always crazy in the spring, but mine seem to be outdoing themselves this year, perhaps because Striped Cat is now a cat-years teenager and perhaps because the house is in a certain amount of uproar as we get the nursery ready and clean as comprehensively as possible.

The problem with a baby arriving is the cats suddenly have a zillion extra places to sleep -- bassinet, pack 'n' play, changing table, baby laundry basket, etc. Flippy will come home to a room pre-covered in cat hair just for him. I'm spending an awful lot of time chasing cats out of baby sleeping areas, which I kind-of feel bad about, because first of all, they're really perfectly cat-sized and secondly, they're just trying nap! Geez!

This morning I woke up to a strange, repetitive sound, and after I lay there for a few minutes, I realized it was the sound of someone rolling the toilet paper over and over. "Argh," I think, stumbling out of bed and to the bathroom. Indeed, it was not just someone but TWO someones, both furry, who were sitting there TAKING TURNS AND COOPERATING (sign of the Apocalypse #147) to unroll the entire roll. Very patiently and peacefully rolling and rolling and rolling the roll. Great.

This is a new trick. Grey Cat will on occasion take a couple swipes at the roll, generally when he's really bored and has been left alone too long (like if his people get the flu and refuse to get out of bed and play with him), but this was new. Guess I'll be turning all the rolls backwards today.

Carpets?

2009-05-06T15:10:00.001-05:00

Does anyone in the Peoria area have a carpet store/installer they particularly like?

Sympathetic My Ass

2009-05-03T18:55:00.003-05:00

My husband is having the most annoying couvade (sympathetic pregnancy) symptom ever.

I am exhausted, being at 36 weeks and having achieved the point of pregnancy where not only am I carrying around a lot of extra weight, but where I can only sleep for three hours or so before being woken by ninja fetus kicking the heck out of my tiny bladder. So he is sleeping 10 to 14 hours a night and requiring 1 to 2 naps a day. Because there's apparently nothing like rubbing it in that some of us get to sleep and some of us don't.

To be fair, he is doing a ton of yard and housework. But STILL.

McArdle Firing

2009-04-28T11:39:00.002-05:00

I know exactly as much as everybody else about the McArdle firing, as I'm not privy to private Board info until July 1. Peoria Pundit broke the story and has done a good job reporting it.

My thoughts are:

Proximity of firing to whistleblowing does not prove retaliatory firing; I can imagine a dozen scenarios in which the firing was justified, and a dozen scenarios in which it was retaliatory. The Board has information we do not have. Whether that information justifies firing McArdle independently of the whistleblowing on financial misconduct -- well, I imagine we'll all get to see it all during the lawsuits that are doubtless on the way.

If in fact McArdle WAS wrongfully terminated as retaliation for bringing up financial misconduct, I am absolutely furious and that is absolutely unacceptable. And regardless of whether McArdle's termination was justified, I certainly expect the Board and administration to act with the same speed and alacrity to fire those engaged in financial misconduct, as that misconduct is proved, as they have acted with in firing McArdle.

If, as the Journal Star is reporting, the District was first informed of the financial shenanigans six months ago and has failed to take action until now -- that in itself is appalling.

Journal Star coverage is here.

Things You Wouldn't Think Would Be Difficult

2009-04-26T06:57:00.002-05:00

So I was looking for a simple countdown timer for the left column there to count down to the due date, now that the question I get most often is, "What's the due date again?"

Simple turns out to be impossible. So if anyone knows of a widget that doesn't flash, doesn't count down in seconds, and doesn't involve a semi-creepy bouncing fetus (like the one I ended up picking) AND fits in the left column, I'd be much obliged.

Cats & Pregnancy

2009-04-24T06:23:00.003-05:00

Things Cats Dislike about Pregnancy:

*The disappearance of my lap.

*The appalling number of times I get out of bed in the night that does NOT result in someone feeding them (everyone knows the only reason people get out of bed is to feed the cats). The first couple times they patiently follow me to the bathroom, figuring it's a pitstop on the way to the kitchen. By time number four, they're vocally expressing their irateness.

*Rearrangement of furniture.

*My inability to refill their water bowls. I can no longer get down there and back up. I have to pour water from up high and hope my aim is good; they HATE this and refuse to drink out of them for a good ten minutes, just in case the terrifying waterfall comes back.

Things Cats Like about Pregnancy:

*The sheer quantity of things I drop, some of which are food.

*The space heater appended to my belly. I'm super-warm! They love to lean against me.

*Pregnant-lady-hormone-smell, apparently.

*My total inability to catch them. They're too fast and I'm too clumsy. There's no rule enforcement regime in this house anymore other than shouting "NO!" And definitely no vet trips.

*Morning sickness. I don't know why, but they seem to find this entertaining. I'm delighted I could provide this service for them throughout the ENTIRE pregnancy instead of cutting off the show after three months.

*Extra people naps.

*Boxes! Baby stuff comes in boxes! Cats love boxes!

Things I Dislike about Cats During Pregnancy:

*The underfoot game. I cannot step over them. I have to wait for them to move.

*Tails. See above. I step on them a lot. I miss Orange Cat, the tail-less.

*The smell of cat food.

Things I Like about Cats During Pregnancy:

*Purring and kicking. When they lean against my belly and purr, Flippy kicks like crazy towards the purring. I don't know if this is, "Get that thing away!" or "Ooooh! Neat sound!" but it amuses me every time.

*No litter for months and months and months. Thanks, toxoplasmosis!

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(Yes, I have successfully combined catblogging and mommyblogging. Yay me!)

Stupid Fur-Having, Live-Bearing, Milk-Making Animalia

2009-04-17T12:57:00.003-05:00

My primary objection to pregnancy is that it's just so mammalian. With the carrying around a live fetus for a ridiculous period of time and the LIVE-BEARING THE YOUNG, which is appalling no matter how you look at it, and then the milk-producing and breast-feeding, and the hormones -- oh, the hormones. Ugh.

I would be much happier if we could just lay eggs and be done with it. People keep telling me that sitting on an egg for nine months would be boring, and I agree that 50 years ago it would have been, but now we have the internet. I could sit still for 9 months and surf the web ... you could even telecommute!

When I told my husband I wished I'd laid an egg and how I'd be happy to sit on it for 9 months as long as I had internet access, he pointed out that if humans laid eggs, we would have been putting them in incubators for 50 years now. And I said he was probably right, except now there'd be a cadre of judgy upper-middle-class mothers who would insist that if you didn't sit on your egg 24/7 for nine months, you wouldn't be properly bonded to it and be simultaneously all holier-than-thou and martyr-y about it. And they'd make the rest of us feel like bad mothers and guilt us into feeling like we had to egg-sit whether we wanted to or not. But at least in our modern egalitarian society we could split the egg-sitting duties between parents, and we could be judgy at fathers who didn't do their share of egg-sitting.

Anyway, now every time I walk in the house, I'm trying to decide where we'd put the incubator if humans laid eggs. Would you put the incubator in the living room so everyone could admire the egg and you could keep it company? Or in the nursery so it had quiet and its own space? Or would the incubator go in the kitchen, because, well, that's where one keeps eggs?

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*Yes, I realize monotremes lay eggs. But it's a less-amusing post if I'm busy specifying placental mammals and marsupials for all you overspecific people out there.

It Just Isn't Dignified

2009-04-14T16:41:00.003-05:00

I've passed the point in pregnancy where I can look sharp-dressed or dignified. I can still look cute, but courtroom dignified is now beyond me. I can look comfortable and pregnant or cute and pregnant or slobby and pregnant, but those are pretty much my only options at this point.

Also not contributing to my appearance of dignity: The old-man noises I make getting in and out of chairs, and the crumbs all down my front every time I eat.

What next?

2009-04-08T05:35:00.005-05:00

So, woah, I seem to have won. My super-exciting celebration involved reheated pizza on the couch with my husband and then bed. Flippy's celebration involved a 4:30 a.m. dance party in my uterus, which is why I'm posting so early. I gave up on getting back to sleep.

So what next? Well, I cannot attend the April 20 school board meeting -- I have Lamaze class. I'm hoping to spend this month and next month meeting people, particularly those of my new counterparts whom I haven't met, talking to people, reading and studying up like crazy, etc. I'm hoping to do most of this quietly and behind-the-scenes, as I've never been 9 months pregnant before or given birth before -- Flippy's due May 29 -- so I'm a little hesitant to make firm plans for May or June. (I'm told fetuses are quite bad at reading calendars and showing up as scheduled.) But I'm going to do everything I can to be ready to hit the ground running July 1. (Edited to be clear: The term begins July 1. This is about my plans until that time.)

If you'd like to talk with me, you can reach me via e-mail (lpetelle AT gmail DOT com), twitter (on the left there), even instant messenger (PetelleLaw on AIM), or by that dinosaur, the telephone.

VOTE!

2009-04-07T07:22:00.001-05:00

Don't forget to vote today! Ideally for me.

Honesty, Transparency, Accountability

2009-04-06T09:57:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow, April 7, is the big day -- municipal elections, where I get to punch my own name on the ballot, which I'm anticipating will be kinda cool. I've been endorsed by the Peoria Journal-Star (endorsement). I just wanted to reiterate, briefly, some of my primary campaign positions. (Much of this comes from my prior post, here.)

The most crucial thing that I would like to focus on, if elected to the school board, is student achievement. That's a broad topic, and an easy thing to say, but it's clearly at the heart of what we all want for the students of District 150, and it's the purpose of the system. It's why we pay the taxes into the system. The District isn't a babysitting service. It isn't a jobs program for administrative cronies. It isn't a feeding trough for consultants. Its purpose is to educate, and District 150 should be a first choice, not a last resort. We have excellent students -- I teach some of them at ICC. We have excellent teachers. These students can achieve if we can only create the environment for them to do it. Some of the policies I would pursue include:

Free teachers to teach, as much as possible. Miring teachers down in red tape or forcing them to spend more time administering discipline than teaching is not a recipe for achievement. Obviously, there are constraints that neither the schools nor the district can change -- NCLB, for example. But within those constraints, the Board should do everything possible to create an environment where teachers can teach with a minimum of interruption and distraction and a maximum of support from principals, administration, and the Board. Micromanaging the classroom, however, is an inappropriate behavior from the School Board; teachers are professionals whose professional competency should be respected.

Create an alternative school for disruptive students. The small number of students who create real disruptions and discipline problems should not be allowed to continue disrupting the learning of those around them. At the same time, expulsion is an unattractive option, as it leaves students who are most in need of education and direction without resources to improve their lives. An alternative school -- a good alternative school, whose focus is to reintegrate the student into the mainstream and provide an excellent education until that's possible -- is necessary. Removing these seriously problematic students from the classroom will allow them to get the focused attention they need, and the other students to focus on their studies in a safe environment conducive to learning. This would be a high-cost initiative, but providing the high schools and junior highs the ability to staff a room five days a week for an "in-school suspension" as a first step is NOT a high-cost initiative, and can be effective intermediate step -- we can create one room for the high schools, one for the junior highs, at a centralized location for the cost of one superintendent salary.

Focus on "the next step" after high school. I've heard a lot of enthusiasm from current and retired teachers about improving both college prep and vocational education opportunities. Specifically, create a comprehensive college prep curriculum open to all high school students (if located at one school -- Richwoods has the most comprehensive current program -- we can cluster APs and college prep classes in the mornings and emulate suburban Chicago models where students are bussed to one school for morning APs and then back to their home school for the afternoon) and work with the unions to create a direct-entry vocational program for the skilled trades. The trades are graying, Peoria has great skilled-labor jobs available, and my plumber makes more than I do. This wouldn't be a throwaway voc-tech program, but a serious academic endeavor preparing students for demanding skilled jobs. (Bonus: Plumbers and electricians can't be outsourced or off-shored.)

However, we need to commit to programs and stick with them -- District 150 has done quite a bit of "we'll try this, no wait, now that," picking up programs and discarding them before they have a chance to work. There is no perfect program, and there are probably a variety of methods that will work to improve student achievement. But none of them will work if they're implemented for a year and then dropped; this creates confusion and waste.

A second set of issues, and ones that the Board is probably able to influence more directly, revolve around governance and communication. In recent years, there hasn't been a great deal of openness and communication from the School Board or the administration about various decisions. Stories change constantly -- "A longer school day is good for students, except when it isn't." I don't think anyone in Peoria is under any illusions about the financial status of the District, and that that constrains the District's options. It's up to the School Board to be open and honest about that, to set priorities, and to say, "Yes, that would be nice, but we can't afford it." It's up to the Board to be a voice for taxpayers and to demand accountability from the administration -- and that includes justification for expenses such as four (now three) superintendants and various consulting fees.

The simplest way to begin with the dire budget situation is to divide expenses into three tiers -- Tier I is everything that directly affects students and their education (instructional time, classroom size); Tier II is anything with indirect effects on students; Tier III is everything else. Tier III gets cut first, end of story. Tier I is cut last, if at all. Any expense on Tier II or III that wants to stick around is going to have to provide massive justification for its existence at the expense of any Tier I core functions.

The picture is less clear and less easy for buildings and maintenance, but a similar scheme can be considered. I also believe the District should consider performance contracting, a state program which updates buildings to increase their energy efficiency with no capital outlay -- the outlay comes from the state and the contractors, who are paid back out of the energy savings over time. The cost-savings take some time to appear (as they're initially paying back to capital outlay), but there is no capital outlay and the program is particularly effective with older, historic buildings that tend to be well-build, well-insulated, and nicely adaptable to modern energy efficiencies.

The closed culture of the Board and Administration has created an atmosphere of distrust. There are issues where the Board and District are legitimately constrained from public discussion -- issues that fall under FERPA, or various personnel matters that are legally private -- but this constant refusal to openly discuss issues that are open has created a situation where Peorians are no longer willing to believe the District when it says, "Trust us."

While one vote on the School Board can't change District policy alone, one person on the Board CAN communicate directly and honestly with constituents, and that would be one of my primary aims.

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On a personal note, regardless of the outcome of tomorrow's vote, I've really enjoyed running for the Board -- meeting so many people in Peoria who are so deeply invested in the future of our city, talking with my opponents, and really learning how much local democracy matters. It's been a real education for me, seeing this part of a functioning democracy from the inside, and by and large it's been a heartening experience -- watching America work the way it's meant to work, with people of good will working hard to improve their communities. Whatever the outcome, I am enormously grateful for that experience.

Being a Husband Is Hard

2009-03-30T22:45:00.002-05:00

"Ack! Stretch marks! Why didn't you tell me I have stretch marks??? You know I can't see that part of my belly anymore!"

"I thought I wasn't supposed to mention them!"

The Little One LOVES the Big One

2009-03-27T12:27:00.004-05:00

<---Pirate Cats packaged for shipping!

Thought I'd do a little update on Striped Cat and Grey Cat. I have never seen an instance of feline hero worship quite as dire as Striped Cat's worship for Grey Cat.

Striped Cat routinely follows him around the house ... any time we see Grey Cat on the move, we can be sure Striped Cat will be about 5 feet behind. Striped Cat likes to snuggle up against Grey Cat to sleep, but first he always checks to see what position Grey Cat is sleeping in and then mimics that position. Seriously. And if Grey Cat moves, Striped Cat checks and adjusts his position accordingly.

Striped Cat only wants to eat out of whatever bowl Grey Cat is eating out of. He will even half-hang on Grey Cat's back so he can eat the kibble Grey Cat drops. (Still not kidding.) He's lucky Grey Cat is pretty mellow about being messed with while eating. Grey Cat will switch bowls so Striped Cat can have the bowl Striped Cat is trying to share with Grey Cat, which results in Striped Cat following Grey Cat to the new bowl.

Grey Cat loves lettuce, particularly dark leafy varieties. Striped Cat does NOT love lettuce, but every time Grey Cat has lettuce, Striped Cat wants a piece, which he then eats, makes a terrible face that says, "Ugh, why are we eating this?" and then he eats the rest of it anyway -- or at least until Grey Cat stops eating HIS lettuce.

Grey Cat loves showers. He thinks we take showers just to provide him with sauna opportunities. Striped Cat, again, not such a fan -- the noise of the shower terrifies him, like it does all normal cats. At first he would pace outside the door while we showered and Grey Cat sat inside enjoying his schvitz. Then he started sitting against the outside of the door. Then he would sit half in and half out of the door, staring frantically around to make sure escape routes had not been cut off. Now he follows Grey Cat in and sits inside the bathroom for the whole shower, the entire time with this look on his face like, "Why is this supposed to be fun? PLEASE can you turn off the noisy monster sound?" But if Grey Cat is going to do it, Striped Cat is going to do it.

Grey Cat seems resigned to his worshipful shadow, though now and then he makes a gargantuan effort to have a nap to himself (it never works). Once I had to separate them when they were fighting, and I had to lock up Grey Cat because I'm too cumbersome to catch Striped Cat (who is speedy and slippery). When I came to let Grey Cat out of the bathroom after a cooling-down period, he refused to come out -- he was having such a peaceful, worship-free nap in there.

Life is hard on the pedestal.