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Why?

Posted In: Everyday life — May 30, 2005 @ 7:00 pm — Stephanie

Ken is gone. Just…gone.

Peter and I are moving like zombies right now, neither of us sure what to do or even think. He was here and then, hours later, he was gone.

Hello, goodbye.
We loved you, but it was never enough.

More will be written later, when shock, disbelief, and anger ebb away long enough for us to write something and make some sort of sense out of this senseless tragedy. Right now, we have to take care of each other, and just try to not fall apart.

Yes, he had problems, and yes he messed up…but we loved him, flawed as he was. We never stopped believing in him, and always kept the faith that he could and would change into the Ken we knew he could be.

My supply
of tablets
has got to last for years and years.
I like them more than I like me.
It’s a kind of marriage.
It’s a kind of war where I plant bombs inside
of myself.

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Picnic at Peaceful Prairie

Posted In: Everyday life — May 22, 2005 @ 9:35 pm — Peter

Friday night we made a quick decision to trek out to the Picnic at Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary. We’ve been wanting to check the sanctuary out for a while now and this was a great event to attend for our first visit. We arrived right when things got started around noon and took a quick walk around the farm. After more people arrived, we got more brave about approaching the animals. I was very uneasy around some of these large guys, especially the ones equipped with horns that could do some damage if they got upset. We brought some produce with us to help us make friends and we quickly became popular with the goat crowd. One feisty goat named Michael was especially fond of Stephanie and kept following her around despite running out of carrots. I’m surprised we didn’t find him hiding in the backseat of our car when we got home!

Most important to me was the opportunity to get up close and personal with a cow. Well, in this case a bull. I’ve been vegetarian for 7 years now and vegetarian for longer… During this time, i’ve never had the opportunity to be around farm animals knowing I don’t contribute to their suffering. It was amazing to pet Sherman’s head and tell him “I would never eat you.”

I’m so happy we went to the picnic. After seeing how hard the crew works, we’ll massage our budget a bit and see about sponsoring a chicken next year. Thanks to Peaceful Prairie for giving these wonderful animals a second chance!

more pictures…

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12 weeks now

Posted In: Everyday life — May 21, 2005 @ 3:11 am — Stephanie

Today I had my 12 week appointment. It went well, although I’m more than a bit disappointed that my Dr. forgot that she said she’d give me an ultrasound. Or, as Peter says, we misunderstood. This is a possibility, I suppose, as I’ve been more than a little scatterbrained lately. The doctor went over the bloodwork from my last appointment and everything is fine. My blood type is A+, same as Peter’s, so I don’t have to worry about the Rh factor drama any longer. Such a relief!

The nausea and vomiting continues… Last night, I started to take my prenatal and while opening it, I had to make a run for the toilet. Ugh. I threw up two more times and tried in vain to get some sleep. Eventually, I passed out from sheer exhaustion at about 9 am, after lying in bed for hours and hours. It wasn’t a very restful sleep and I probably only got 2 solid hours of it. So what am I doing up now, at 4 am? Yep, sick again. Peter is snoring away on the couch, with cats piled all around him. Bastard!

I’ve gained 5 lbs back, which is quite strange to me since I’ve been puking all week. I have been able to eat a little better, though. Still haven’t had any cravings or sent a harried Peter off on any misadventures at odd hours in the morning. He’s been good to me. A little dense sometimes, but once you tell him 5-6 times that his farting makes you feel like you are going to vomit, he eventually agrees to do so in a different room. He still eats ALL of my food, though!

Someone (*hint to my mother-in-law*) should impress upon him the seriousness of eating the ONLY food in the house that his pregnant wife can eat without it returning shortly after consumption. As much as I love my husband, I’ve thought it a good idea more than once to throttle him for such infractions as: eating ALL of my Cherry Nirvana Soy Delicious, eating 1/3 of the BIG watermelon in one sitting, creating truly disgusting smells that cause one to awe at it’s ability to linger for hours and hours at a time, and insisting, despite my severe allergies and discomfort, on opening all of the windows to “air out the house”. That last bit is the one that takes the cake, though. I can’t take allergy meds and am experiencing rather nasty sinus pressure, awful sinus headaches, irritated eyes, constant sneezing, and post-nasal drip that worsens my nausea. Yes, he likes the breeze the open doors and windows creates, but I like to breathe and live without allergy discomfort. I don’t understand why he always wins this argument, since it causes him no suffering to agree to use air conditioning when it’s warm. He thinks I should get a prescription for an allergy med that is safe to take with pregnancy, but I can barely take the pills I’m to take now without throwing them up. It’s NOT fair!

I am going to try to sleep again. I’m tired and crabby. As Peter likes to say, my crab claw is out and snapping at the unwary.

Ps. I have a secret fair that my teeth will rot during this pregnancy…from all the vomiting and not being able to brush as thoroughly as I usually do (due to exaggerated gag reflex).

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Vegetarian BBQ!

Posted In: Everyday life — May 15, 2005 @ 8:21 am — Peter

Yesterday was pretty hectic during the day as I had 101 things I was trying to get done. Early in the morning, I got started on some homework and participated on the online course discussion forum. Shortly after I wrapped that up, I called my coworker Susan to see about paying her a visit to pick up a spare lawn mower she had. Our lawn was quite out of control and in some areas of the backyard it was nearly a foot high. She got back to me and we set a time for me to come by around noon. I was certain it would not take me that long and I would be back in Denver for the Vegetarian Meetup at 2pm. Turns out the drive to the mountains north of Boulder took alot longer than I had estimated. The route to her house involves taking the main drag through Boulder all the way through the city. This definitely added 15 minutes to the ride. After getting into the mountains, I was worried I had passed her house up. I went to call her but my phone was no longer receiving a signal. After a few more twists and turns on the mountain road, I found her dirt road. This was my first time visiting a mountain home and I must say, it was beautiful. She has several acres of land that is densely populated with trees wild flowers and even a rushing creek! I brought Iris with me and felt there was enough open space for her to run free. Susan has two dogs and they were very welcoming to Iris. At one point we took them down the creek and let the doggies splash around a bit. I took a few pictures of her house and surrounding scenery.

The lawnmowers were a bit of a pain. Neither of us were well versed with mowers in terms of their first start after being in storage. To add to the confusion, one of the mowers was missing the bar used for toggling the engine kill. After reviewing the manuals and messing with the various switches and buttons, we got them to start. I was surprised that we could fold the mower up and fit it in the trunk of the Civic without having to use bungee cords. Iris and I then cruised down the mountain roads and highway back to Denver for the Vegetarian Meetup. By this point I was pretty late and at best could only make it to the event for 30 minutes or so. As expected, I arrived at Wolfe’s BBQ at 3pm. The restaurant opened up during a time it is usually closed to host an all vegetarian BBQ buffet. There was smoked BBQ tofu, coleslaw, baked beans, cornbread, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Overall, I was very happy with the food and the vegetarian meetup bunch was very friendly. Hopefully next time I’ll arrive earlier and have more time to chat with people. There were 13 or so people total, a couple of which reside in the Denver area. Most of them are from Boulder or the surrounding suburbs. I’m not sure about Wolfe’s… The food was good, but on regular business days they serve meat also. The owner assured us that he has one grill that has been used for tofu only over the past 20 years. I’m happy to know he uses separate cooking equipment, but the smell of BBQ beef and pork might make me feel ill. I’ll give it a try sometime and see how bad it is.

After the meetup, I mowed our jungle lawn. The front was not so bad and I even mowed the neighbors lawn because it was looking pretty gross. The house north of us is owned by the Denver Housing Authority (DHA) and is under renovation. Since they are working so diligently on the house, they seem not to be concerned with keeping up the landscaping. The front lawn is small and it only took me an extra 10 minutes or so to trim it down. Our rear lawn was a major problem. Thankfully the mower Susan lent me is quite strong and it was able to power through the high grass. I may go over the lawn again later in the week to pickup the small clumps of grass that were left behind. Rather than attempt to mulch all the high grass, I bagged instead since I thought mulching might choke the underlying grass. In total, I had about 9 bags of grass. While mowing, I drank down two bottles of Red Hook India Pale Ale. I’m quite fond of the IPA brew as of late and I’ve been trying all the different varieties available at the local liquor store. At the rate I drink beer, I’ll be able to try a different brew every other weekend for the next two years!

Today is operation MSCT670 paper. I need to complete a 4-6 page paper regarding organization information security policies. I have a few research articles already but nothing written. On that note, I will get started….

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To whom it doesn’t concern…

Posted In: Everyday life — May 13, 2005 @ 5:02 pm — Stephanie

I realize that you know everything there is to know about motherhood…in Kenya, but perhaps if you allowed reason to guide your emotional outbursts occasionally, you’d see that there is NO excuse for leaving a baby in a plastic bag to die. They have public buildings, churches, etc in Kenya where a baby may be easily left so someone can FIND her. There is no reason to leave them in a plastic bag. I don’t know, maybe it’s the VEIL OF AMERICAN PRIVILEGE speaking, but to me, it seems like common sense for someone who had ANY concern for their own child.

There are poor people all over the world, including China. But Chinese women tend to place the baby on the steps of churches and public buildings rather than in a plastic bag. They do this to ensure that their child is found and will be cared for in a way that they can’t.

Oh yeah… you have such a worldly view. It certainly takes one to be able to stalk people going through weight-loss surgery and cleaning up their lives after living in squalor. Perhaps you need to take a look in the mirror to see what a rotten, miserable, mean person you’ve become.

I hope you realize that Peter and I take great pleasure in making fun of you, as you give us so much material. You are crazy. Get therapy…and some for your kids. They’ll need it. By the way, why don’t you take the kids for a walk, eh? Or maybe a bike ride? Or to the park?

Lots of love,
Hollywood Vegan

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