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Why are people so freaked out about eating horse meat? Slate wrote a piece about this a couple of weeks ago, and it got me thinking about why,  as a society, we have no problem slaughtering pigs, cows, deer, whatever, but somehow eating horse meat is repulsive and cruel. Why the meat discrimination? Other countries don’t have this objection (think France), and horse meat is healthier and leaner than most. Why not ship them to slaughterhouses just like all the other large animals? There’s a system in place, and there’s a need (think empty food shelves and urban liberal ‘localvores’). As a journalist, I thought there's a story here, especially if I could find horse people out there who felt similarly. Apparently Oklahoma just passed a law allowing horse slaughter but in Minnesota it's long been illegal (they tried to pass a law allowing it in 2009). I reached out to a few of local breeders in Minnesota. All were surprisingly open to the idea but only one allowed me to co...

That's what my mom always said. She loved metal jewelry, metal mirror frames, stainless steel countertops (metal!). Well, here's a whole tree made out of metal! My sister and I saw it together on Tuesday at the National Gallery of American Art Sculpture Grden in Washington D.C. Yep. We were there since Saturday taking the trip that my mom had wished she'd made before she died almost two years ago. Well, if mom were truly with us she would likely have done a lot more history and famous buildings like e library of congress and who knows, the capital or the some other president related stuff. But Em and I had a good time. I left some of Mom's ashes at this tree because I know she would have grabbed my arm and said, "Jessie! Look at that! Isn't that wonderful!" or something like that.

Netta and Bailey told me they were 'sleeping.' But look closes, are their eyes closed? LIARS! And to add insult to injury they did this seconds later: I'm not if I'll ever be able to trust again.

Arthur and Lewis both danced amazing amount of inspired dancing. Bailey, Netta and a ratty plastic doll snuggling with Nanna

Bailey sees herself in Jessica's iPhone and is a little confused. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPUT24pDbQ8?rel=0]

Jessica is in Washington D.C. on a momcation with her sister Emily for four days. It's the longest she's ever been gone and it's a challenge for all six of us. My dear ma flew up from Arkansas to help on the home front while Jessica's away. Here she is in a nice relaxed greeting at the airport: Missing tooth inspection And this is a photo Jessica sent of her nearly being eaten by a Megalagon at one of the many gazillions of museums her and her sister are going to. If we're lucky Jessica will make a post about her trip so we can learn some of the stuff she did.

A crazy photo of Arthur wearing new sound muffling headphones we just bought on the way home from the hardware store. We got this idea from his friends Archer's family who have a couple pairs. Our house can get terrifically loud and Art often has to leave the room. But no more. I'm hoping this will give out sensitive little boy a little more control and comfort.

Some seriously good friends. I don't know what's going on here. Except someone is putting sugar in their coffee think, "What the hell?"

These are also posed on Facebook here with a little more caption detail. https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Art's good friend Archer turned 7 today. Here he is looking quite happy.

"Something amazing just happened. I was sitting here building with Lewis and I looked over and saw he was missing a tooth. I asked him about it possibly coming out when we were eating apples a minute ago. His response. "Yeah, I think it's in my belly now" I can't stop laughing!"

This is a classic moment in our house.  Some unexplained moment of slightly controlled chaos with a tired parent in the middle.  

photo by Jessica!

Hanging out in the kitchen with cousin Oscar.

Here's a fun photo of my step sister Jenny with her husband Sujit and Mira and Zach in North Carolina. Mira just turned a whopping 8 (Happy Birthday, Mira!). Jessica and I have planned a massive cross country trip east to the Meher Baba Center in South Carolina this July.  To see my family out there and spend time at the Center.  The last time were there was with Bubbe who fell in love with the place and her tiny little cabin. And Jessica was pregnant with Netta and Bailey. Here's a wonderful little video from that trip. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdQbEN2Ku_Y?rel=0]

I wondered aloud what we should have for lunch when we get home. Bailey answered me. "Noodles, soup, sour cream!" Mmmmmm?

This is AFTER I had cleared the sidewalk.  I guess I will reclear it later.-Jessica

What's going on here? Why are Art's (and Ben's) sneakers in the chest freezer? Because they left them right in front of the door after taking them off. It's called letting the consequences do the talking, Baby! Don't want to hang up your stuff or put your boots away? Then get ready for some cold toes next time you put them on! And you won't get much of a warning. When Ben went down to find the slippers Lewis had run down there in the morning (don't leave your slippers in front of the door, Ben!) he came back up with his crocs, running shoes and one boot. And speaking of Lewis, you better watch out because he loves running some odd piece of outerwear to that ice box. He almost threw my workout bag down there because it was in the middle of kitchen - while I was getting ready to go!