Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Death Panel Advisors - watch more funny videos

(found on Ezra Klein's blog)

For Sound of Music Fans...

...a promotional event in Antwerp.

"Your Local Computer Expert"

You mean I don't have to depend upon Brett anymore?

Gratitude

I am attempting to follow my own advice and practice gratitude on a daily basis. When I don't do it, it's because I'm forgetful, not that I'm not thankful.

Today I am grateful for my own sweet husband. Last night at Lara's party I was teasing him about getting into irreparable trouble at BYU (I still expect it every semester), because of his tendency to make whatever joke possible at every opportunity, the raunchier the better. And I still don't remember my dad and brothers ever being so--so irresistibly attracted to 14 year old humor. But it's a small price to pay for my sweet-natured, hardworking, loving, thoughtful, interesting John's company. And he has to put up with a lot from me too. In fact, as he said soon after we were married, "If you didn't laugh just a little, I wouldn't do it." I'm not sure that's true, but...

So here's to my John. May we have 32 more years of inappropriate jokes and wifely disapproval.

Why It's Important Not to Give Up

As I commented on Dave's immigration blog:

It's so discouraging to see the administration abandoning the public option. I have begun to mistrust the words "stakeholders" as much as I now mistrust "family values"--it means something different than what appears on the surface. At this point, "stakeholders" as it applies to health care reform, means "the companies who have made an obscene amount of money over past decades and want to put off true reform for at least another decade of obscene profits." It's also very disheartening to put one's faith in a a party and politicians, and discover (as one suspected all along) that they really are bought and paid for by industry lobbyists.

And as Dave reproved me:

who is this lurker? :) thanks for commenting! you should know as well as anyone the machinations of the insurance companies, fighting them as you do and having uninsured and underinsured children with children of their own.

i realized tho that the party isn't very good, but i think obama is trying to move things forward. he can't do it on his own, tho--we have to make the change ourselves, we have to be the change we want to see. no one else is going to do it for us.

Why I Love Dan Froomkin and the Washington Post Was An Idiot for Firing Him

Let's be blunt. The public option -- emphasis on the word "option" -- is a way to hold the insurance companies accountable should they (entirely unexpectedly, of course) fail to live up to their promises, ignore the rules, and keep doing things the way they have for the past several decades....

The public option is a grave threat to the regime of obscene profit-making that has left the health care industry with plenty of cash to now throw in reform's way. The growing "opposition" to the public plan is a direct result of that money. This is -- remember -- exactly how money works in Washington. It buys congressmen. It buys message. It generates publicity. It even makes presidents flinch....

Are you really confident, for instance, that the insurance industry will work hard to control health care costs? Our health insurance chieftains have been talking about that for decades. But rather than do it, they seem perfectly happy taking a big cut of an ever-bigger pie -- and focusing their cost-cutting energies on denying coverage to people when they need it. This seems to work for them. Changing the rules under which they operate may have some modest impact on their behavior, but not nearly as much as will looking over their shoulders and seeing a government-run program bending the cost curve, lowering rates, and improving service.

The presence of an alternative -- a choice -- is critical. It's also about as American as apple pie. The insurance companies themselves understand this very well. The industry-backed PR firms that are bankrolling and inciting ostensibly "grassroots" protests understand this. That's why they encourage talking points about a "government takeover" of health care, rather than anything based in reality.

Dan Froomkin

Amen.

Interestingly, I have not met one actual health care provider who does not believe that single payer, universal health care is the economical, sensible, eventually inevitable, and moral way to go. I could talk about the frustrating hours every month that I spend dealing with insurance companies. I could talk about hidden deductibles in the thousands of dollars, premiums that cost 50% of a family's income, people trapped in jobs solely for the health benefits, treatment decisions made by insurance demands rather than by the needs of my patients. But worst of all are those who get no health care because they have no coverage.

I understand that Medicare recipients are afraid that if others are cared for, they will lose their own fragile health security. I blame the insurance and drug companies for fanning those fears. If we lose this battle, those companies will be able to rake in the profits for another decade or so--exactly analogous to the tobacco companies fighting regulation through years and decades while they sucked up every last possible drop of money.

Moms and Daughters

I took the babies down to The Farm while we were watching them this weekend, and visited with Tena, Teane, and Grandma E.
We were so busy I didn't get many pix of the beautiful babies. But here's one of Johnathan on his favorite place at The Farm:

Wisdom Teeth B Gone

Chris is holding up pretty well with lots of ibuprofen and ice packs. His friends come over with smoothies and to cook for him, which also helps.

Car Camping

...at Granite Flats and canoeing in Tibble Fork Reservoir (up American Fork Canyon).

John and Betsy:

The RBs in a raft:
in a canoe:
in a raft again--Rob and Johnathan:
John likes his canoe from Uncle Bob. He paddled around for over an hour.
I sat with the cutie Ethan (my knees don't really bend enough to fit in a canoe).
Back at camp we burn marshmallows:
Colette eats her salad with a stick fork made by Rob. We did have plastic forks, but the whittled one was more interesting of course.
I heard whispered drama going on behind the rock. Colette had rock characters acting out a life-or-death situation involving horsies.
Nicolle, Johnathan, and Betsy:
Ethan and Uncle Chris:
John was cook and all-around camp facilitator:
Colette emerges from her tent:
We want to go south for a car camp in October--maybe to Capitol Reef. Tibble Fork is half an hour away going slow in a pickup with a canoe tied on top. We live within an hour or two of the best camping places in the universe.

At B&Bs

Ethan loves his daddy.


Betsy gets organized. "I organize for fun," she said. She organized and I sat around holding Ethan and giving advice. He still is ambivalent about me, doing a cute (and disturbing, to me) smile/frown/smile/frown/cry-desperately-for-mom face when I'm up too close. Betsy thinks it's because we look and sound a little too much alike. "What have you done to my mother! You've aged her by 24 years and added gray hair, wrinkles, and [censored] lbs!" So now I am the Ambivalent Zombie Grandma Karla (and also because when Ethan growls, which he does--convincingly like Chris at that age--as well as slobber and bite whatever skin is exposed, see him taking a chunk out of Brett's arm, above, I growl back).


Five Guys tummies (well, we can't blame Ethan's tummy on Five Guys).

Oh My Gosh Cute!

I can't resist stealing this picture from Betsy. Stop me before I post again!

News From the Dark Side

For those interested in preternatural issues, my avatar/character/delusion(?)--Claire R. Wallace, Ph.D.--has been posting* more frequently. It's amazing how parallel our universes are.

*Credit to Nicolle for the faery pix

Fam. Hist.--Dave at Ethan's Age

I recognize the look on Ethan's face as one I've seen on Dave's (here with Auntie Cindy).

He put up with a lot of kissing etc.

And of course he had a very cute grin, like Ethan does (see post below).

Baby Ethan--David Redux*

Ethan looks so much like Brett, but as Rob says (and he didn't even know Dave as a baby of course) Ethan is so reminiscent of Dave. Some of it is in the way he looks, but more of it is his sweet little personality.

Ethan with Uncle Rob:
With Auntie Amy (silly friend Joel in the background):
With a slightly worried Dave-type look:
And his cutie grin:
*I stole these photos from Betsy's blog. And I do like the word "redux." I think I'll write a novel called "Vampire Redux."

Mike and Amber and baby Conner

Today we went to baby Conner's blessing, and then to lunch at the Wilsons.

Good times. Our family and the Wilsons have many good memories. I must tell the grown kids that the little ones now think that "Stinky Pig" sounds like a silly game, and nobody remembers how to play Father-and-Child Dodge Ball (AKA "Hit the Little Kids and Make Them Cry")* anymore.

*As Susie reminded me, eventually the game evolved into "Hit the Daddies and Make Them Cry" at which time the dads refused to play anymore.

Sea World Redux

...in the dry seats with Johnathan (above), while Chris, Rob, Nicolle, and Colette got soaked. See Nicolle's blog for photos, hopefully.

Sesame Street is still a biggie for Colette.

And of course the Clydesdales. Everybody else got to stay for an extra day this time and go to the beach while I had to come home and work. It's OK though. That may be the end of Sea World for awhile for us.