This Week, I've Been Mostly Doing Laundry

I'm still at my old job as a Stay At Home Father, but now I got a promotion: taking care of two kids. All I can say is: People who take care of one baby shouldn't complain about anything. It's like Disneyland, only fun. Now, I'm not a mathematician, but I know how to count my fingers. How is it possible that when we had one kid I did a few loads of laundry one day a week, and now with two kids I do a few loads every day?

But look at them. Oy oy oy, shayna punim!

And it's not too bad, at least as long as Gargamel is chasing those blue monsters.

A friend of mine sent me this video of Bobby McFerrin doing a philosophical voice experiment thingy. Which just goes to show that a small percentage of emailed crap is actually worth checking out.


World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

I can't get enraged about the stuff too much. Can't even get sad about poor Gary Coleman. Sorry.

I wrote a blog review. I do it sometimes. My review included an essay about Australia, which is somewhere in the south, I guess. I did it before, and got to be mean to the people who pollute the web with giveaways, but this one was a very pleasant surprise. Go there and discover a new blog by a woman who treats truth with respect.

Look at this one (click for full size. It's worth it). These two guys left the Civil War Medicine Museum in Frederick, MD.

And finally, my mom and my sister came to visit from Israel. After they left, I tried to explain that they flew back to their house, on an airplane, and that we'll visit them in a few months. Liam asked if his grandma has gone back to Skype.

In Which I Keep My Hatred For the Truly Hate-Worthy

And then I thought, I don't hate the guy because he's a Republican. I don't hate him at all. I do dislike him, though, because he pretends to know his place in the world.

When I say this blog is about "me being confused and all," I don't mean that in a bad way, see? Being confused is a natural way of life for me; the only thing that makes any sense.

I've always been attracted to the confused, those who thought the world was confusing enough to laugh at and laugh with. I didn't dislike the guy because he was a Republican, but because he pretended to know what he was talking about. He pretended to know what it was all about. He pretended to know what "it" was.

I'm not a perfect judge of character. Sometimes people I trust disappoint me, and sometimes people I dismiss amaze me, but there's one thing I do know for sure. People who feel like they know what's going on around them and portray themselves as comfortable, bore me at best. At worst, they make me dislike them at first sight.

I'm not saying Hate. Know-it-alls aren't evil. Just pretending shit makes sense doesn't make you evil. It just makes you boring.

But Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted is evil.

In 2006, he refused to allow an Autistic kid to have Communion, because he couldn't swallow the host.

And now he has excommunicated a nun who recommended an abortion for an 11-week pregnant woman who was expected to die without the abortion. He also excommunicated the patient, because he was on a roll.

And of course it happened in Arizona, a place where teaching African-American studies is now considered anti-American.

(Sorry, Sebastien, but Arizona sucks.)

Two Days in Dover, Delaware

So we've just come back from Dover, Delaware, which is exactly like civilization, only less.

Imagine a church. Nothing fancy. Just a building with a cross. Now imagine a short drive from there you find a liquor store. Now imagine a car dealership next door. And finally, a moving company. Now imagine this pattern repeating itself over and over again along the most depressing road on the planet.

I'm exaggerating. This is only the most depressing place in America. Actually, it doesn't even look like America, because they must have taken all the American flags once the evil Commie Muslim usurper has taken over. Now they're just praying, getting drunk, and buying a car in the hope of getting the hell out of Dover.

Don't get me wrong. No one asked me to squeal like a pig, but that's just because people seemed too depressed.

We stayed at the Dover Downs, which also has slots. And apparently a bunch of small people beat up horses there every once in a while. I did push my way up to the 4th floor, past the breathalyzing great grandmas who've been sitting by the 1c machines since 1c was almost enough to buy you a ticket out of Dover, to find the Blackjack machines. Here's how it goes:

You sit with a few other people, just like you would at a regular blackjack table, only instead of a busty dealer giving you the cards, you have a video of a busty dealer giving you cards. For some reason, it felt even creepier to stare at her cleavage. Every once in a while, the virtual dealer pretends to see someone she knows. And she's always smiling, no matter how good or bad you do. The virtual dealers come and go, and when a cute one comes up, the other guys sitting with me say things like, "Yea, that's more like it!"

Hey guys, take a look at the view from our hotel window! Yep, it's the rooftop of the lobby!

When someone at the hotel saw I was there with a two-year-old and a month-old, she was nice enough to suggest a fun activity: go up and down the corridor!

And I tell you what. Baltimore always gets a bad rap. There's crime and heroin and racism and gentrification and parking is a drag and downtown traffic is messy and the harbor is dirty and sometimes life is not too easy around here, but coming back to Baltimore, you feel like you're finally in a place that makes sense.

And look, straight from Dover, DE, also known as the Hungary of the East Coast, to an open air concert in the park in Baltimore.

Ahhhhhh... Home...