Please reference the picture listed here for my most recent self-portrait.

Bear. Gnashing teeth. Irritable. Grouchy. Nasty.

Folks, I've been a bear lately. Seriously. I wasnt aware, even already having been pregnant before, that in the eighth month, I would change species. Will Addison be born a cub?

I feel terrible. My sleep has been scarce, I pee every ten minutes, my body aches, my belly is huge and heavy and I have moments of complete irrationality. I think I need to start looking into that place where you can go stay for the last month or so of your pregnancy so that you dont drive your wife or partner crazy.

What do you mean there isnt any such place???

No?

You're sure?

sigh

Maybe I can do the loving thing and find a nice tropical spot for Jen for a month or so. She'd survive and come back feeling rested.

Anyone else out there roughing the last month or two of pregnancy?

US balks at backing condemnation of anti-gay laws

First, thank you so much to everyone for your responses to my last post. It was great to hear what everyone's gone through and I got some great suggestions. I'll definitely be talking more to Vee and Jay about a Bloglines account :) I'm having some problems posting links, although I think that it's more my laptop right now then Blogger. However, I read this article this morning, and it shocked me, but didnt shock me.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081219/ap_on_re_us/un_gay_rights

Please take a moment to read it, or any related article. I'm sure at this point in political time, there will be several articles out there on it. I'll be reading more a bit later. At first I was shocked that the US, such a 'progressive' nation as it were, refused to sign this. Then, as I read on, I thought, "Oh, ok, that's smart, make sure all of your legal ducks are in a row before you sign it". Then, I finished reading it and figured something out. They dont want to give Gays and Lesbians blanket civil rights in our country. Right now, each state has the right to decide these things on their own. If the US publicly decried worldwide discrimination against us, they would in essence, be forcing many states hands. They would definitely be forcing someone's hand at the Federal level.

While I'm bothered to the point of considering another country for the moment, it really says a lot. In the first moment, it spoke to me about all of the things that the last election said to us. Living in California, my shock level is sensitive right now. The US. We're supposed to be a forward moving everyone has rights nation, and we refuse to sign.

California. Supposedly one of the most progressive, liberal states in the country, and they want to take away my right to marry. In 2008.

Florida. They dont want us to have any rights. They dont want us to marry. They dont want us to adopt children. We're good enough to care for them, but dont let us form an official Family. I wont even mention the other states. Is our country moving backwards?

I know that a good number of people dont like the comparison of the African American civil rights movement to the Gay and Lesbian Rights movement. But arent civil rights, just that, Civil Rights? Basic human rights being denied to a group of people. A group of people. I also know many people however, who feel it's a group of people being denied in exactly the same manner. Does that mean that we're 40 or 50 yrs out of having safety and security for our Family's? Because this cant be 2008 can it?

Not only have we been slapped in the face over the last couple of months by states that some of us live in, but now, we're being told by the country we live in, one thing. You may live in a state where you have rights, but we still dont think that you have the right to travel freely amidst your own country with those rights. Neither will you live your life authentically while defending us. However, you are still free to give your life for us should you choose to do so.

A quick note on that. I was out and gay while I was in the Marine Corps, and my unit loved me because of my work ethic and who I was. They really could have given a crap less about who I was in a relationship with.

So, this is my initial rant and reaction to this issue. Has anyone else read about this or seen anything different? I hope that everyone's well and ready for Christmas/Hanukah or just the Holiday season in general :)

A question for our readers and visitors....

This is one of my wife's beautiful photos, untouched. No reason for it, I just like to pick favorites and show them off :)

I have a question for everyone. Let me set it all up first. I read 26 blogs. Let me say actually that I have 26 bookmarked in my blog folder. The majority I bookmarked purely out of interest that had been sparked from a link in someone elses blog. A couple of them, I really dont read at all, I just give them a quick look to make sure I havent missed anything interesting, and then move on to my favorites. I love to read, so I do love looking around and seeing what people have to say and what others are blogging about. However, it can become quite the cumbersome task.

I think that for the most part, the people whose blogs I really love, know it. I try to actively leave comments, and not because I want to be on the list, but because I have a genuine interest and love reading their blogs and seeing how their lives are going. Being a new blog ourselves is interesting. We have moments where we're glad that we dont have one of those 10,000 comment blogs. And then at times, it seems that it would be interesting. However, the more I read, the more I find, I think that I enjoy being where we're at. We have just enough interaction with just enough people, that we find ourselves in a place where we can easily keep up without becoming disengenuine.

So, my question is many fold, and I'll try to put as best as I can.

*Do you like the volume of people your blog attracts?

*Did you ever find yourself starting to try to read an overwhelming number of blogs?

*Do you enjoy your blog when more people visit, or do you like a closer circle of readers?

*What kinds of things did you experience during your first year blogging?
(ie; did you change to a different arena fairly soon (we switched from LiveJournal to here within a month), were you looking to advertise, attract more people, less? etc)

I could probably go on and on with this, but I think that you get the idea. I'm looking forward to reading about everyone's experiences. :) M-