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I am about to share a letter from Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) but before I do so, I want to preface with a few things:

1. I don’t like telling people how their politics should lay out. Don’t tell me how mine should. If we can agree on that ground rule, we can talk.
2. I very strongly believe that even though the person in office is not the one I voted for, they still represent me and my interests. So when I write to that person, I do expect them to hear what I say and respect the gravity of their office and their civic responsibility to represent their constituents. You don’t only represent the people who voted for you.
3. I’m sharing this letter at this time in correlation to the recent “personhood” amendment that was shot down in Mississippi yesterday. Mr. Bartlett shares similar views as to what that state amendment was trying to legislate.
4. I do like Mr. Bartlett’s positive environmental work he has advocated. It would seem the environment is his strong suit and I would urge him, in the future, to focus on that instead.

In January, I wrote to Mr. Bartlett to express my disappointment in his co-sponsoring of H.R. 3. If you don’t want to click the link, it’s the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. To summarize, I don’t feel these issues really belong at the federal level and I felt it was an unwarranted attack on female reproductive health services. There are already laws prohibiting federal funds being used for abortions and the wording of the proposed legislation was clunky, at best, and dangerously vague at worst.

Unfortunately, I did not save the original text I had sent to Mr. Bartlett.  He sent me this charming response SIX MONTHS later:

Dear Mrs. Lathrop:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3).  I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

I am a proud original cosponsor of this legislation. H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, was sponsored by Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ). This bill would prohibit: (1) the expenditure of funds authorized or appropriated by federal law or funds in any trust fund to which funds are authorized or appropriated by federal law for any abortion or for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion; (2) any tax benefits for amounts paid or incurred for an abortion or for a health benefits plan (including premium assistance) that includes coverage of abortion; and (3) the inclusion of abortion in any health care service furnished by a federal health care facility or by any physician or other individual employed by the federal government.

I earned Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Human Physiology.  It is inarguable that life begins when the woman becomes pregnant.  I believe that abortion is the unjustified taking of human life.  The Constitution protects the freedom of the people to express their moral and religious views and their right to life.  I will continue to work to uphold the Constitution and protect the right to life.  I will also continue to work to restore the value of human life and fight for the rights of unborn members of the human family.

Thank you for contacting my office.  I hope you will continue to keep me informed on federal issues that are important to you.  In the meantime, I encourage you to visit my website http://www.house.gov/bartlett where you can sign up to receive e-mail updates regarding my legislative activity.  It is a privilege to serve you in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Sincerely, Roscoe Bartlett
Member of Congress

A brief summary of my opinions on his response:

1. Thanks, Mr. Bartlett, for summarizing the bill I wrote to you about. I think I knew what the text of the legislation included when I wrote you, otherwise, I wouldn’t have bothered.
2. Life begins at conception? “Inarguable”? Watch me. First, there must be agreement on the definition of “life” and already I see that he and I have VASTLY different ideas of that definition. A fertilized egg cannot survive outside the womb. Therefore, it cannot live, so it is not yet alive. And really, that’s where I’m going to leave it.
3. I apologize that I don’t have a fancy degree in Human Physiology. How nice to throw your education in my face as assertion of your “rightness.” Why do I feel like I got “mansplained” at?
4. Claiming to have Science as your support but then instead backing up your opinion with rhetoric about the Constitution and Religion is an affront to Science.
5. Whether or not to bring another person into the world is a personal choice to be made by a limited circle of people and the Federal Government is not on that guest list. Listen to me very carefully when I say this: BUTT. OUT.
6. I do not argue your right to express your religious views. Go on with your bad self. I do, however, argue the right of anyone to impose their own moral or religious views on others via legislation. There’s expressing your views and opinions and then there’s writing laws saying, “My views and opinions supersede yours. My religion says I’m right and you’re wrong.”
7. Mr. Bartlett, you really, truly and honestly lost when you fully admitted to your dedication to a personal crusade while fulfilling the duties of elected office. That’s not your job. Your job is to fight for and represent your constituents. As one of those, I’d much prefer you pay more attention to the needs and requests of the existing ones rather than the hypothetical-not-yet-born ones. Thanks.

Maybe I’m just taking crazy pills. Maybe my ideas for the way our representatives are supposed to work is completely backwards. But if I’m right. And they’re doing everything all wrong. Then the loud yelling of the crazypeople has won. And we’re all doomed.

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Photo by Katherine Gray - Build Your Wings Photography

Ok, not really of DOOM. But, oh the mishaps were very Lathrop-y.

Because it is so much fun and we have such a wonderful time with it at the Mocks, I tracked down a Beatles Rock Band Limited Edition bundle. It comes with a drum set, Hoffner bass controller, microphone and microphone stand. Buying all the pieces separately can easily creep to $200+. Sears.com has the Limited Edition bundle for $99. WIN! Rock Band 3 was on sale at Amazon (sans keyboard for now) and we were in business. It just all needed to get here. I hate both paying for shipping and being patient. I had to wait! Days! for these things to make their way to me. DAYS! In the five minutes we were snuggling upstairs, UPS came to the door and knocked a knock that sounded rather a lot like a cat running up the steps to us. Boo.

Friday we were supposed to go to Southern Maryland to pick up anniversary cupcakes and go fishing. Instead, we had to wait around for UPS to deliver us unto the Rock Band. . . More waiting! I checked the status of the package and they’d gotten it into their crazy heads my little blue house was a) a business and b) not open on Fridays so they would be attempting the delivery on Monday. This would not do. A very grumpy me called UPS and arranged to pick up my Beatles Rock Band. I was DONE with this waiting horseshit.

When we got there the UPS wage slave was very near a very painful verbal lashing when he hunched over his little computer attempting to track down its current status. Luckily I saw it behind the counter he was standing at (/faceplam) waiting for us to pick it up.

Rock Band achieved! Victory was assured. Fish remained un-retrieved from a lake for one more day.

We followed up with dinner at hibachi where not so tasty (tho very flashy) kerosene vegetables were served along adequate scallops. We scurried home to rock out the night as ‘Civilian Authority’.

Saturday included a plan of the orignally scheduled cupcake retrieval, a free exercise bike from the in-laws and the much-delayed fishing. Visit with the in-laws (all of them), exercise bike, and cupcake retrieval went off without a hitch. However the weather gave Trey’s asthma a run for its money.

Trey’s Lungs: *gasping for breath*
Air: You seek to inhale me? FOOL!!!
Trey and Jess’s fishing plans: *wither and die another day*
Fish: Yay!!

Sad and dejected, we wandered home and emptied the care of the spoils we had successfully collected that day. I convinced the husband the only cure for our sadness was delicious Mexican food. Ever the loving man, he humored his wife’s crazy notions and off to Mariachi restaurant we went. OH MY GOD THE EPIC NOMS LIVE THERE! Stuffed full of some of the most amazing food ever, we rolled home. Comic books and video games capped the evening as we battled food comas. (Oh my lord am I ever behind on comics. Ugh.)

Sunday, our actual anniverary, was nasty hot. We hid in the house. There was also a terrible excursion to the new Frederick Wegman’s that I have pretty much blocked out of my memory. Seriously, I almost moved by Sunday entirely with “We stayed inside all day and played video games and did nothing.” But, oh god, no, the Wegman’s. Huge. Beautiful Market. I think. I couldn’t see much through the ridiculous mass of humanity heaving through it back and forth. We grabbed the things we knew we needed right away and then ran away screaming. Never again on a Sunday. OMG No.

The rest of the day really was full of video games and slack. Dinner was seafood at the Cracked Claw. It was decent but we couldn’t stop discussing how we’d change everything about the decor, layout, landscaping, upkeep of the building and the food. So, while it was delicious, it left a bit to be desired as a complete dining experience.

Monday was a beautiful day. Perfect fishing weather! We didn’t go fishing. We went and met the littlest McCrady! I delivered unto them Steaming Hot Meat Muffins! Meatloaf baked in a muffin tin. Hat tip to Misha for that idear. Nom nom nom nom nom BABY! She was adorable as all get out. We both got to hold her and give Meg a break by giving her a bottle. She fell asleep in our arms mid-noms and was just about the best thing ever. We shooed ourselves outta there in time to get just out of range of the bulk of rush hour and let the family embark on their walk to test drive their new stroller.

The evening unfolded as an adventure to find HDMI cables for our new TV as I altered my intended destination three times before ending up at Costco and finding what I needed in five minutes but still wandered the store for another 30. Our weekend was capped off with tuna sammiches and more comics.

Tuna sammiches were about as close as we got to fishing this weekend, but our fishing spirit is not broken! Fish! You are on notice, bitches!

All in all we spent the whole weekend telling eachother, “Remember what we were doing this time last year?” and reminiscing on the whole thing. It was phenomenal. Definitely an adventure.

[Photo by Katherine Gray - Build Your Wings Photography]

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“Kitchen cabinets falling out of ceiling. Whee!” This was my post snippet to remind me to post about this stuff later. I should delete it to start in properly with what’s going on with the house right now, but that snippet really sums it up. What I should also do is change it to past tense, but that’s getting ahead of myself slightly.

When we bought the house at the end of 2009, one of the issues the home inspector brought to our attention was the kitchen cabinets above our sink island weren’t anchored securely into the ceiling. We instructed the sellers that they needed to fix this or else we no buy their house, kthxbye. A contractor came in, put some very heavy duty looking screws into the cabinets and everything seemed hunky dory from then on. Until Mother’s Day.

I had noticed the gap for a few weeks at that point, but it wasn’t until Mother’s Day that I became increasingly concerned. There was some caulk/glue along the back edge of the cabinets and as the cabinets pulled away from the ceiling, it created holes in the glue. Holes that I could see clear through to the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen. Not good. The husband and I swapped the heavy glassware from the sinking cabinets over to a more secure location and housed all our nice, light, plastic storage containers in the fail cabinets.

For the most part, our cabinets are just fine. Except the door style. They lack personality and are just bland bland bland. Blech. So, Superhusband (because he is my hero) told me to shop for different cabinets. That’s how we would fix the problem.

And panic set in.

I was convinced I would spend too much money on cabinets that I would not, in fact, like. I have several family members and friends with kitchens I adore. They have personality, style, FUNCTION. They’re all wonderful. I had worked myself up in a tizzy convinced that mine would not.

So, that idea went out the window pretty quick.

Instead, we opted to get someone to repair the falling cabinets. Superhusband was going to call a professional to pay to do it. This is, of course, ridiculous. We have a very good friend who is a professional and calling anyone but him first, is kind of silly. If it is urgent and he is unavailable, by all means, call someone else and pay them. We really do try our best not to take advantage of his goodwill because he is our friend.

So, Jim came by and we started taking down the cabinets to find out why they’re falling out of the ceiling and what needs doing to get them back up there and staying up there. In my head, I was fairly convinced that despite the contractor coming in and “fixing” the cabinets post home inspection, there was nothing on the other side of the drywall for the screws to hang on to and that was going to be the problem. We would need some piece of wood up there to reinforce the structure.

Jim cut a hole in the ceiling so he could place the wood he brought for just such a repair. He smacked at it with his hammer. Repeatedly. It wasn’t making a hole. Drywall isn’t the strongest of stuff. When you smash it with a hammer, it makes a hole. After further investigation and successful hole-creating, we found wood up there for anchoring cabinets!

So why were my doubly anchored cabinets pulling away from the ceiling?

This is where math comes in handy. Slide rules at the ready? We have a 1.75″ stile + .5″ drywall + .5″ plywood = potato?

No, not potato; 2.75″, akshully. The contractors must have thought potato, because they used 2″ screws. That plywood in my ceiling intended to anchor the cabinets was probably pristine and unblemished apart from where it was joined to the frame for hanging aforementioned drywall.

Not only did they use 2″ screws. They used 2″ screws TWICE! Different contractors! Used the same wrong screws! GAH!!!!

After fishing around in his toolbox, Jim found as many 3″ screws as he could find, my kitchen cabinets are now happily secured and not falling out of my ceiling.

Unrelated to cabinets at all, Jim managed what a previous contractor I had paid, could not. He made water come out of a pipe and make ice in my refrigerator. Sure, the ice was brown the first dozen cycles of the ice making system, but that’s not HIS fault.

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So, we needed to get our gutters cleaned. They were gross. It caused us problems during the Snowpocalypse of 2010 with hugemongous icicles forming on the side of our house. They dangled from the gutters and attached to one of the spare bedroom’s window.

And then it melted.

Into the window.

Onto a box of comics.

So, yes, needed to get that taken care of. We also had a few additional things around the house we wanted done like the light switch in our master bathroom needed replacing and we wanted our beer fridge moved to the garage.

A handyman was called, he came out and did an estimate for us and took a look at everything we wanted done and took a look around the house. He found a few extra things that we needed to have looked at and said he’d be back.

While cleaning the gutters, they found some fairly significant holes in the frame of our master bedroom window. While repairing the light switch, they found burn marks on the 2nd light switch and replaced it as well. While moving the fridge, they noticed that the window in the kitchen wasn’t terribly insulated and was leaking in cold air like a pro. While replacing the fan in our guest bathroom, they found mold in the insulation.

Everything they did, they found something else wrong with the house. Going to the doctor? Much the same thing, to me. I’m terrified of going in for something simple and being told I need a complete inner tune up and everything must go because it just plain doesn’t work any more.

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The mild-mannered feline pictured at left is my eldest and first kitty, Felix. I adopted him in Richmond when I was going to college there, much to my cat-allergic roommate’s chagrin. He wasn’t always mild-mannered, of course. And he still has some terrible habits. When he was wee, he would pounce my head in the middle of the night. Bored kitty was bored. He taught himself to fetch, and whenever I did two chores in particular, he tried to help me with them.

The first chore was laundry. When I sorted my laundry and emptied everything out of my hamper, Felix was in it the second the last sock was removed. Being a meanie, I would close the lid on him. He could care less. When I was feeling jolly, I’d throw one of his toys into the hamper just to watch him hop in after it . . . and then I’d close the lid on him.

That particular hamper is long gone, sadly, however every empty laundry basket since has been fair game for kitty-hopping. I suspect the motive is to inspect the vast emptiness such baskets provide and to contemplate it. Cats are very existential. . .

The second chore Felix liked to help with, and is somewhat related to laundry, is changing the bedsheets. I thought it was a particularly kitten-y thing to do. But alas, he still gets excited about changing the sheets to this very day, 10 and half years later.

Take the sheets off the bed and immediately, there’s a wide-eyed predatory Felix on the mattress pad, chasing invisible gremlins along its surface.

Putting the fitted sheet on the bed is an invitation for sheet spelunking and diving under before the third and fourth corners can be tucked into place. (I should mention here, I have made an entire bed with a big lump in the middle because he refused to come out from under the fitted sheet)

Adding the top sheet is like a declaration of war. Forget military corners, just try and get those edges tucked under the bed without coming back with a bloody nub.

If you’re the type who likes to fold over the top bit of sheet to cover the middle blanket, its best to just let Felix go diving at the fold. He prefers the sheet flat at the top and will let you know by attacking the fold, diving under the fold, and chasing the fold back up to the top of the bed until the fold has been vanquished.

Also, it’s not just me he likes to help with changing the sheets. So, yanno, if you need a good laugh and a simple chore to take three times longer than it ought to because a senior cat is recapturing his kitten-y youth, c’mon over.

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This year has been a crazy roller coaster of things! Some bad but most everything very good. We’ve been in our little blue house for a whole year now and married for almost 7 months. We lost a very sweet and beloved kitty but are looking to find a dog to round out the menagerie.

Games have been played both video and boxed. Crafts have been crafted. Comics have been collected.

2011 has quite a bit of adventure planned already but I’m still basking in the warm glow of this year. It’ll be hard to top but I’m sure we’ll do our best to try.

Hopefully one of those 2011 things will be me posting in this thing more often!

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Theoretically, I should really do a post about different events and chunks of the honeymoon. Likelihood of that? Slim to none. I may surprise myself and do something about the different snippets of awesome that comprised my honeymoon in San Diego.

Thursday was a travel day and can be summed up with a headache from pre-flight beer and high altitudes with a dash of cramped airline seats on Continental. If you are tall, flying Continental may not be a good choice for you. Research, research, research. (Yes, I know I am short, I can fit on any plane, my husband, not so much. His comfort is a priority of mine considering he already hates to fly)

Friday was a con day for us. We met some really nice people who work for Hasbro on the walk from our hotel to the con. They gave us the 411 on some really neat things to find on the con floor, like the actual Bumblebee car next to the transformed Bumblebee in the Hasbro booth. We picked up the majority of our free stuff from con that morning (as can be seen in the pic above). It was also the day we stood in line to get Gail Simone’s autograph on a comic and confess to her that we were at Comic-Con on our Honeymoon. She asked if we were nuts. We said we were.

Saturday was our second and last con day. We spent the day looking for some hard to find single issues and completing a few trade paperback collections. We were thwarted in finding Blackhawk #133, the first appearance of Lady Blackhawk, Zinda Blake. I was also unsuccessful linking up for The Guild panel after lunch, but got to see the DC Showcase with Trey instead. Thomas Jane spent the whole panel eating a sandwich and fries. He was a trip. I got horrible pictures of him, sadly. We ended our Saturday with the Fables panel, amiably hosted by Bill Willingham. It was amazing.

Sunday, we went to the World Famous San Diego Zoo. We spent all day there. Quite seriously. It was wonderful, as always. Trey had never been, so it was pretty important to me that he get to it this time around. Many aminals were seen and just as many photos were taken. They can be seen on my Picasa page.

Monday was a very slow day with checking out of the hotel and me losing my passport amongst all our crap and blaming its disappearance on the housekeeping staff. More than slightly embarrassed by that, but at least I found my passport. I really should have apologized all over myself to the housekeeping and hotel folks a ton more than I did. I will instead sing the praises of the Sheraton Suites at Symphony Hall in San Diego lots. It was a great hotel and a wondrous home base for our Comic-Con adventures. I highly recommend it.

That’s really the highlights. It was a really good time. We had a lot of fun and were really sad that the con had to end. Super nerdy honeymoon FTW.

Continue reading »]]> I am a bad blogger. I promised an update during the long weekend and didn’t deliver. I apologize. Lots. I even had a fun post about shoes drafted that I never bothered to post. Some day soon. Promises.

It has been super hot here the last few weeks. We haven’t hardly had a chance to enjoy our kickass patio set we bought because the heat and humidity has been so oppressive. Such is life in Maryland. Our in ground garden has been pretty productive now that we’ve fended off the deer and weeded it. Our container garden has not done as well. Note to other container gardeners: ceramic pots create too much heat and cook the roots of your plants. Next year we’re going to fork over the cash and go with some whiskey barrel pots instead.

The most exciting thing was the earthquake yesterday. It woke Trey and I both up at 5am when it happened. I remember my cat growling waking me up. Apparently, Trey woke up and asked why the headboard was shaking. I told him the whole house was shaking and that it was an earthquake and to go back to sleep (I do not remember saying this, but he swears I did). He told me it wasn’t an earthquake, this is Maryland, it was just a low-flying plane. When he got up and checked the Internet, my earthquake claims were confirmed.

It is a little known fact that there is a very large, dangerous fault line underneath the Eastern seaboard. It is often forgotten because it is not very active at all. We’ve been hearing a few more reports of other earthquakes steadily moving west. Like dominoes.

Next week, we head to San Diego for our honeymoon. This includes two days at the San Diego Comic-Con. We are very excited. Trey gleefully enjoys telling people where we’re going for our honeymoon. Then, even more gleefully, he enjoys telling people that it was MY idea to go to Comic-Con for a honeymoon. I am the nerd girl. It is true.

So, that’s really all I’ve got going on. Work has been picking up in busy-ness rather steadily the last few weeks. Planning for the honeymoon has consumed a lot of my leisure Internet time. Sitting down and writing has not been foremost on my mind, sadly. I hope I’ll have more to say post Comic-Con.

Continue reading »]]> It’s been quiet here in the country the last week or so. I’ve had to drive in to the office every day this week which is soul crushing and draining to say the least. There’s a very good reason I take full advantage of my ability to work from home.

Any of the time I’d normally use for blogging has otherwise been occupied with commuting this week. It stinks. I promise some fun stuff next week. There’s a bunch of different ideas floating around my head wanting out. And the spam has been hilarious the last two weeks too.

For now I just have to shout out to my friends who have unknowingly made this week bearable, the tiny victories of finding Chinese food that delivers and the caffeine consumed miraculously keeping me awake.

I would be a horrible wife for not also giving love to my husband who has suppressed his own bad day dealings to comfort me. His week has sucked just as much but he’s let me be the whiny one. I win at life because I married that guy.