It is done.

Can't say what because I don't want to jinx it, but everyone keep your
fingers crossed. (And no, it's not that, i.e. an addition to
the Rosenbaum clan, it's this other thing that I should have been doing
for a while, haven't done and just did. And it is not writing the brief
that I absolutely, positively hate and need to get done this weekend.
Again, just want to mark the day and time so I can either celebrate
later on or look back and say, damn, what was I thinking????

Happy Birthday Chrissie

or, Hau`oli la hanau!

Sobering Statistics

This is Josh's email, and he's damn right:

Everyone should be forced to read Innumeracy. So on the car ride in this morning I asked Kat if she knew off the top of her head how many total people Saddam Hussein was accused of killing during his reign. I didn't know either but was guessing lots and lots. It turns out that after only about 5 minutes of researching this I was able to get all my statistics put together:

According to the Whitehouse's website:

a. 40 relatives
b. 30,000 chemical attacks against villages
c. 100,000 Kurds (The site says between 50 and 100,000, and it is not clear if this number includes the above numbers. For practical purposes, we'll just say 100,000 and that it is different than the above incidents).
d. 250,000 during religious uprisings (Again, it's hard to tell if this number is separate from the above. For practical reasons let's just say sure, it's different.)
e. 400,000 children due to malnutrition. (I'm having trouble with this one because there are any number of countries that face this same problem. But sure, we'll include them.)
f. And he executed 9,775 prisoners.

No doubt, Saddam was a homicidal maniac. So I am in no way excusing this behavior. It's a deplorable human rights record for a country. He was in power from 1979 to 2003 (I'm curious how these numbers look for Iraq for his predecessor. . . Is it Iraq or is it Saddam?)

Anyway, I digress: that's 24 years which comes out to 32,909 a year.

Unless we don't include the 400,000 children for malnutrition (theoretically those children are still starving now since there's not much electricity in cities and the infrastructure has been destroyed). Then it becomes: 389,815 total or 16,243/year for 24 years.

So go on over to www.iraqbodycount.org/, which includes all casualties (death not injuries) from the war not including US and British soldiers.

As of today, we're at between 62,144 to 68,141. Let's be conservative and say 62,144 with the war running from 2003 to 2007. That comes out to 15,536/year for 4 years.

16,243 deaths a year vs. 15,536: Y'up, the Iraqi people really are better off today than they were 5 years ago! Thanks, W!

First one ear,

and now, for the love of Ch@#$t, now the other one is starting to feel blocked up. All was fine, save the lack of hearing on the left, today til I went to the doctor. Bad idea, more crying and something out of Star Trek: Wrath of Khan being pulled from my ear later, now both ears hurt. Josh said he's going to have me put into a medically induced coma if the pain comes back and I've signed the living will to prove it. I can see how you could be in therapy for life if your parents ignored your ear infections. Having never had them, other than the run-of-the-mill swimmer's ear, in two words let me sum up: THEY SUCK. Let's just hope they invent a way for me to be put completely under for childbirth or it hurts less than the ear infection. There's not enough vicodin at urgent cares or ERs in the greater metropolitan area. Did I mention that the pain SUCKED.

Random surfing brought me to this site

Very cool idea: http://friends.imagini.net/

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Gallery o' Peeps

Gallery o' Peeps
Originally uploaded by kckellner.

Josh yet again out did himself in terms of finding the perfect gift. I love Marshmellow Peeps. I REALLY love Peeps. They meet all standards for absolute cuteness/adorableness/likableness: 1) made of sugar and/or covered with sugar, 2) bright happy colors, and 3) simplistic, nay iconic, design with requisite cute, minimalistic details. And bonus, peep is an anagram for extra cool factor.

They are, quite simply, one of the most perfect candies. And yes, there are those that do not like, or fail to appreciate the awesomeness of, the Peep (for reasons unexplainable to me) . . . but that is because they have not discovered yet the uber-goodness know as Cocoa Peeps. New to me this year, courtesy of Target, they taste like the smell of the old school chocolate scratch-n-sniff stickers. In a word, yum.

But I digress. The awesomeness of Josh's perfect gift finding prowess was this time, his discovery of the Peeps pictured here. Specifically, the blue basket Peep in the middle. Forget the other candy, the yarn shop gift certificate . . . all attention was focused on the perfect Peep basket. So, after much candy and several Peeps, we then ventured out and swooped up the after-Easter sale of Peep-stuff galore (another Peep basket, and bigger toy plushy-Peeps.) Later on, in the 70% off Joann's sale, I discovered Peep travel containers. For those lucky folks next year, your Easter basket may well contain a Peep-product or two.

So, while Easter snuck up on me this year and thwarted all decorating efforts and intentions, next year it is the year of the Peep. But these guys are so cute, I think they might just have to say out all year long. And, I think I better go buy Josh a present - but it is gonna be hard to beat the Peeps.

One of my fav Melo pictures

IMG_3206
Originally uploaded by kckellner.

Of course, right now she has 70% less fur and looks like a lamb crossed with Falkor the luck dragon from Neverending Story - very spritely, but I love the furry Muppet version of Melo. Time for some Melo snuggles

Happy Easter/Spring/Passover

IMG_3207
Originally uploaded by kckellner.

This is pre-spring shearing, and taken while Josh was away at Brainshare since there's no way he'd let me use the nice camera to take this sort of shot. He may also have tried to intervene on Melo's behalf to save her from the polka-dot headband/flower monstronsity. In my defense, I really missed Josh while he was gone and had to do something to console myself.

Knute, you've got some competition my friend

So cute, I could plotz: sea otters. Other than polar bears, and Melo of course, these are about the cutest darn things ever. Now if I could only get zoos to put the polar bear exhibit closer to the sea otter exhibits, we could have a cute zone in a zoo free of monkeys, which are not cute and give me the creeps to watch. Plus, they smell. Sorry, not a monkey fan. Good thing Josh has the ZooKeeper game - I can have all the polar bears and sea otters I want!