Chag Atzmaut Sameach!

(Happy Independence Day!)

My friend Aliza wrote a particularly good bit about Israel in honor of the day. I can't say I agree with her 100%, but I also doubt I'll put up anything nearly as worthwhile to read, so you should go read her stuff instead.

Vote Tomorrow

There is a town election in Brookline tomorrow. On the ballot is a two-part override question regarding an increase in real estate and personal property taxes. The increase will go toward additional funding for police and fire departments, the public library, schools (including a longer school day), and maintenance of parks, streets, sidewalks, and town buildings. Part 1B of the question involves a slightly higher tax increase, which will also fund the World Language Program for grades K-6.

I know that by voting for higher taxes, I am totally losing whatever libertarian credibility I may ever have had. I still, in theory, would prefer low taxes for bare necessities and pay-per-service assessments for most other things. On the other hand, I really like my local library and plan to take advantage of the children's programs offered there for many years to come. I also appreciate this opportunity to participate in local politics, to be part of the process of deciding whether to raise taxes and where to spend the money. Tomorrow I plan to take advantage of this opportunity by voting YES to both parts of the override question.

The neverending Democratic primary season is slowly making me disenchanted with the political process - not that I was a huge fan to begin with. But politics, and government, don't exist only on the national level. Local elections bring about local results. There are real effects in our schools, our crime rates, our safety, and the beauty of our environment. If we don't participate, we lose credibility when we complain. Learn about and take part in your local government, and vote in every election for which you are eligible to do so. And if you live in Brookline, go out and vote tomorrow.

My 60-day Challenge

I've signed myself up for Round Two of Moxie's 60-Day Take Yourself Seriously Challenge. One of the challenges I've given myself is to post here at least three times per week, at least one of which must be substantial (defined as 100+ words). Because I'm a wuss, I'm counting this post as one of my three.

Costuming

We put lots of thought into our Purim outfitting this year, and have come up with some wonderfully subtle costumes.

I am dressed as an exhausted mother of twins. This costume is similar to that of an unemployed lawyer, but varies from the latter in that I am not carrying around a dog-eared law review and casually hidden stack of business cards with my contact information on one side and a miniature resume crammed onto the back.

My husband will be going as a working-from-home engineer. This costume is distinguished from that of a working-at-work engineer by the absence of an employee identification badge; all other aspects of dress and personal grooming remain the same.

My daughter is dressed as a boy, because when she woke up this morning, the cutest clothes remaining in the dresser were all in shades of blue. Never mind that we dress her like this on a regular basis.

My son is an abstract representation of a backyard organic vegetable patch, in that he is wearing a brown shirt with a carrot on it, captioned: "Home Grown." The effect is somewhat diminished by the presence of ice blue pants, but in order to enhance his costume we plan to allow all dirt that accumulates on his face and hands to remain there for the duration of the day.

Chag Purim sameach!

My Ki-gdom for a...

I have just discovered how difficult it is to live without the key to the left of M/to the right of B. Stupid opposite-of-old laptop.

A Special Kind of Dumb

Scene: Trader Joe's, me with the kids in their stroller.

Random woman walks up to me and says, "So I recently read that mothers of twins really get tired of people stopping them to comment on how adorable their children are." Pause. "Your children are adorable."

Oh, and then she kept talking...

Everything Old is New Again

As I'm sure many of you know, cloth diapering is gaining popularity among several segments of the population. There are the thrifty types who calculate how many thousands of dollars they will save over using disposables (especially for more than one child). There are the environmentally-conscious folk who want to keep disposables (and human waste! poop goes in the potty!) out of landfills - a worthwhile goal for most of us, though questionable for those who live in regions with lots of land and not so much water. There are the parents of babies with sensitive skin who want to keep perfumes, bleach, and various other artificial stuff away from their bums. And then there are those of us who just think that today's cloth diapers look cute.

Okay, fine, I'm a crunchy environmentalist, too.

The financial aspect doesn't hurt, either.

I'm also not a fan of perfumes and bleach, but we've been using Seventh Generation diapers and wipes since the kids were a couple of weeks old, so that was really a non-issue. We're not going all-natural here, either; for the kids' comfort (and our own sanity) we are opting to use a "pocket diaper" system, wherein a polyester fleece or suedecloth layer is closest to the skin, wicking away moisture to be absorbed by whatever sort of insert we stuff the diaper with.

Right. Maybe more details on the thought process later. This post is just to say that we have our six trial-run diapers (two each of three different brands), a few hemp inserts to play around with in addition to the freebie microterry ones that came with the diapers...and we are washed, locked, and loaded, ready to give thiings a whirl tomorrow.

Erm...today. It's pretty late, isn't it?