Memnison Journal

The carpet fan is whirring away in the background, and I think we dodged the bullet on this one, at least as far as  It Could Have Been Worse.  The major damage that isn’t replaceable is a small stack of papers I’d set aside for scanning, which were on the floor in my office.  I’m [...]

This was a very odd Christmas for me; some really high points and low points. Some old traditions unexpectedly brought back, and some things mucked.  Julbord and full holiday report after the cut:

The last GM plant in Dayton / Moraine City shuts down, where my Dad, Mom and Granny worked (when it was a Frigidaire plant (they shifted to pickups and SUVs in 1979)).  The local officials are trying to figure out what to do next, and the workers are cut adrift.   As are the plant’s myriad [...]

Went out and got prescription reading glasses today; my prescription is +1.75, and they work very nicely.  Worst part was slipping and falling HARD on the slick tile floor just inside the Vision Works store; as I’ve said before, with my cruddy balance, I learned long ago to fall down the best way I can [...]

I have been having a LOT of problems with my eyes recently in regard to reading things, and set up an appointment a while back with the eye doc that the rest of the family sees.  (I’m the only one who didn’t need glasses to function; Susan had LASIK surgery a while back, and does [...]

I’ll sit down and go over the Presidents Thang in a day or so.  Right now, I’m busy fishing the big Digital Organization, to be followed up with more organizing tricks tomorrow.  So I’m Really Busy As Heck with that stuff. 
Meredith had a good deal from Sinterklaas, with lots of pepernoten / kruidnootjes and [...]

A slight correction - Susan is making Pumpkin Pie, the Squash Casserole mentioned in an earlier post, and the Paula Deen version of Oyster Dressing.   Meredith and Connie are helping, and I’m in the basement, making CDs for Marlyce and Connie of some Christmas music Oprah Winfrey had on her show.
As to Pumpkin Pie, Susan [...]

This works for either me or Meredith.  There’s some question as to whether Susan has been in Mexico; if she was, it was to take two steps over the border in Tijuana or something.

This is Mere’s states.  California from when we brought her home, Massachusetts from a trip to the Boston Worldcon, and the rest [...]

I’m actively interested in your poisition on this matter.  Feel free to sound off inside *politely*.
My own struggles on this:

More excerpts from the journal, this time from the day we actually adopted Meredith (the day after we got her).  Again, see some pictures of the day on Flickr - the picture below is something the Jiangmen paper later got out of the files of the orphanage when the paper was running that stupid ‘Dick [...]

Today is/was the eighth anniversary of our adoption of Meredith in Guangzhou, China - and it’s a big day around here.  As you may have guessed, she’s the center of the household, and we all love the stuffing out of this wild, brave, wacky child. Below is some material from the Journal for the day [...]

Going back to my response posts,  I want to stress that I never assume that anyone voting against Obama is a racist, or that Republicans are racists, or that either on the Republican ticket is a racist.  I know better.
I’ve lived with serious racists, had racism and sexism used against me and mine (you do [...]

Recently, a good friend of mine who I disagree with politically laid out his concerns and objections around the present electoral cycle. I started to reply as a comment to his posting online, and then I quickly found that what I was saying was waaaaaay too long winded to work as a comment. For [...]

New Flickr set of my Mom’s scenic photography from the 1990s.  Here’s an example of a storm in New Mexico (taken while she was on a trip to see a friend out there):

Another article from my mother (circa 1995) in the Findlay Times about the rare qualities of peace and quiet…
jarandolph_findlaytimes_peace_and_quiet (PDF, 700k)