babies, cereal killers, wedding, farm bills and girls' education

I thought i would have nothing to rival last post's gloriousness of an article about chinese people grinding up dino bones, that they actually thought were mystical dragon bones, for medicinal purposes. but then china executed their food and drug chief. they want people to know they are taking corruption and their reputation for craptacular goods seriously. BY KILLING SOMEONE. call me a life, liberty, and justice loving sentimental food, but i don't think that's exactly what the international community was thinking.

so another reason i love being home is that we are all breathlessly awaiting the birth of my best friend/quasi sister jennifer's baby, landon. in taiwan i missed 3 important births. and now, 2 of the 3 are actually pregnant again, and this time i'm here for the play-by-play. this is what home is all about, baby! i know, i know, so cheesy. i couldnt help myself. speaking of which, it's time for my mother's most recent bad joke: referring to lauren's supernatural ability to eat lots of cereal, "that girl, she's just a cereal killer" groan. but in a loving way, of course.

the bad thing about being at home of course is when friends who live far away have special times, like my friend andrea who just got engaged to daniel (who gets the julie inc seal of approval, by the way.) he asked her on his birthday. adooorable!
speaking of engagements, corinne is engaged (if i didnt mention it before) and very excitingly to a guy we and owen love. his name is luke owens. and owen's name is owen lucas. which means that eventually my nephew would be owen lucas owens. owen owens. while we see it as a sign, we also cry for him. anyway, corinne is planning her wedding already, even though they are aiming for 2009, and she has some great ideas. one of them: dresses that have an overlayer revealing a different tulle dress for dancing at the reception. not as cool: she may ask us, the bridal party, to do a choreographed dance. i shudder.

****social justice interlude******
so, now i will provide us all with some information that will help us help others quickly, you know, in case you ever get a sharp pain from feeling overprivileged or lazy about helping others. this is my rx for existential crises. go here http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=CA
to find your senators or here http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml to find your representatives and write them about things like the unfair 2002 farm bill, which you can read about at http://go.sojo.net/campaign/farm_bill From there you can copy the form letter and send it to your various representatives and senators above. in like 5 minutes.

or you could go to http://www.ikat.org/ and read about Three Cups of Tea or to donate money to build schools for girls' education in places like pakistan and afghanistan. i heard the founder speak on a radio program when i was driving down from julia's and i was totaly impressed by him and his passion for educating girls and for building schools and helping them become self-sustaining. the http://www.threecupsoftea.com/Intro.php website is a bit cheesetastic, ie his 9 year old daughter's "hit single" but hey.

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i know i'm a flaming christian liberal and everything, so i am predisposed to dislike bush and his administration, but i think even republicans will find this scary: http://news.aol.com/story/_a/ex-surgeon-general-says-he-was-muzzled/20070711111609990001

i find it scary how much time i devote daily to my traffic-fighting routine. how much pleasure i get from choosing the combination of lanes to get me through the golden triangle fastest. how good my math skills have become as i feverishly try to calculate how many miles per gallon i am getting. the high of potentially getting 30, the low of sitting in traffic and watching it dwindle to 24. the sense of failure as i watch cars in other lanes cruise by because i am fated to be in the one mysteriously non-moving lane. office space seems more relevant to my life than ever.