It's Moving Day!

I'm moving over to wordpress!! :D From here on out, you can find me at www.monicaraab.wordpress.com.

May I recommend....?

While I'm gathering together my pictures and whatnot, may I recommend taking a little field trip over to the True Womanhood blog? There's an exceptionally interesting discussion going on regarding a documentary and book put out by Ana Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin. Gentlemen, this discussion is quite germane to you as well since the Botkin sisters are trying to "reclaim" the father/daughter relationship. There are a lot of posts, but it's well worth reading through. This is scary stuff.

sigh.....

I've been so remiss about posting lately. Life has just been going by so quickly!! But, fear not, fair reader. Soon I'll have graduation pictures, garden pictures, bird pictures, book reviews, and yes, Becca, I'll even respond to your tag. :-) But for the moment, work calls....

There's always something to smile about

Summer Reading

Summer is here and so are my books. :-) Right now, I'm in the depths of Bleak House, When Presidents Lie, and Capitalism at the Crossroads. I just finished Zapp!, and I just started Fundamentalism and American Culture (which I'm terribly excited about).

What are you reading?

Please pray

Please pray for my boss's family. He passed away just a few hours ago. He left behind a wife and two boys, 12 and 10.

What love looks like

My First Lesson in Motherhood

Demerits in all their terrifying beauty

Find the video here.

Congrats, Anita!

Hooray! You made it! :-) Congratulations on graduating. Now you get to be a real grownup. Gotta go be responsible and get a job and all that.

You are officially old now. You can't fight it any more. Game over. Welcome to adulthood.

CHRIS IS DONE WITH LAW SCHOOL!!!

doin' a happy dance. oh yeah. oh yeah. oh yeah!

Happy happy birthday to Sonia!

Happy birthday, kiddo! :-) I hope your birthday is more of this than of this.
:-)

Just don't do it

It's not worth it. It never is.
34 Duke Business Students Face Discipline for Cheating

Right in the middle of the road

Yup. If I were a gator, that's where I would sit. Wherever I wanted to.

My celebrity look alikes

http://www.myheritage.com

WHY?!?!? WHY WHY WHY?!?!

How can anyone be this twisted and hateful?

Group Plans To Picket Va. Tech Funerals

When I remember that they do this in the name of my God who I know HATES this behavior, it makes me want to vomit.

Ban on Abortion Procedure Upheld

Praise God! I haven't sorted out all the details of beginning of life and end of life issues yet, but I can't imagine a time when carrying a baby to term and then crushing its head at birth would ever be necessary.

Ban on Abortion Procedure Upheld by Supreme Court in 5-4 Ruling

Contact your representatives, folks!

That greedy RIAA has done it again! If it's not enough to charge us $20 a CD, now they're trying to shut down web radio. They've gotten the Copyright Royalty Board to approve a sharp increase in the fees that webcasters will have to pay per play per song. The fee increase is significant enough that most webcasters will probably go out of business as a result, and our musical options will degenerate even further into mass marketed pablum. Find out more at http://www.savenetradio.org/about/index.html.

Feel free to use my letter (with the appropriate modifications) as a template for your own protest. The old wisdom said that paper letters were better than emails, but now with all the security stuff, paper takes so long to get into the Congressional offices that email is the only way to get something to your reps in less than two months. The text of my letter is below; you can find your representatives' names here.

Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

I was unpleasantly surprised to find out this morning that there is a plan put forward by the Copyright Royalty Board to drastically raise music royalty rates. It is my understanding that for most webcasters the new royalties will exceed their revenue, forcing them to stop webcasting.

I oppose this increase for two reasons. First, closing down webcasting services will sharply curtail the wide variety of musical choices currently available to me. And second, making it impossible for small independent operations to broadcast music from independent artists will without a doubt hurt the potential of young or unknown artists to break into the public consciousness. I'm no bleeding heart advocating that everybody with a guitar should get radio time, but I am a constituent who happens to love music and who would hate to see our rich independent musical culture degenerate into mass marketed pablum.

I respectfully request that you, my duly-elected representative, look into this matter and take action to prevent it. This letter expresses my personal concerns, and is my own composition, not a mindlessly forwarded form letter. Your prompt attention to this issue is essential. The new royalty rates are retroactive to January 1, 2006, and they will cause immediate bankruptcies if they become effective for even one day. You can find more information about this issue at http://www.savenetradio.org/about/index.html. I hope to hear very soon what actions you take to prevent this increase from taking effect.

Sincerely,


Monica Raab

True Womanhood in the New Millennium

The blog that was "got me a college gal" is now making a second appearance on the stage as True Womanhood in the New Millennium. Come by, stimulate your thinking, and participate in the discussion. We've had a lot of activity in the last couple of weeks and some very thought-provoking posts!

She has a name!

So, my new baby finally has a name. :-) On Saturday night, we named her Gwen. I was randomly thinking of Gwen Egolf on Friday, and then I thought of my new bird, and it just seemed to fit. Welcome to the family, Gwen!

She's doing pretty well. I was a little worried about her when I got back from Greenville on Saturday; she looked really skinny and kind of lethargic. And her poop didn't look good either. But yesterday she ate some bird seed (only a little, unfortunately) and lots of romaine lettuce and some fresh spinach. Both of those veggies are really good for her, and she's looking a lot better today. :-)

More pictures of my new lady

That mysterious lady....

Poor DeWitt is quite discombobulated. On Saturday, quite mysteriously and without warning, a new parakeet made an entrance at the Raab residence. A lady parakeet, at that. And poor DeWitt just doesn't know what to do with himself.



The first time that I had them both out together, DeWitt was doing all right for a few minutes, and then he tried to step on her back! Well, she didn't think much of that at all, and I didn't like the look of it either, so I immediately pulled him away from her and separated them to keep her safe.

But a few days later, shortly after the picture above was taken, he pulled the same stunt. Only this time, before I could react to protect her....she bit his foot! :-) Good girl. DeWitt was quite shocked. He shook himself, and backed off a couple of steps, and since then he has been much more respectful of her space.

They're slowly getting used to each other. DeWitt is almost a full year older than she is, so he's quite a bit bigger. I'm still not letting them be around each other unless I'm right there to intervene if needed. I don't think he's trying to hurt her or push her around, but he's kind of like a five-year old playing with a baby--he's gotta learn that she's not as sturdy as he is just yet.

Here's a close up.


So. Name suggestions, anyone? I don't know what to call her. She's feisty, but I think she's more of an introvert. You can't tell from this picture, but she's got a beautiful deep blue/green spot right above her tail.

More news about my mom

I talked to my mom yesterday. She's still in the hospital, and her leg is still giving her a lot of pain. Her heart finally kicked back into a normal rhythm, so they're going to let her go home soon. That's good, but the long term news isn't so good. :-( She's going to have to have open heart surgery soon, within the next six months or so, to replace a valve. We don't know when it will be scheduled yet. Please keep praying for wisdom for my parents: they have a lot of hard decisions to make now.

My poor mother

Please keep praying for my mom. She was back in the emergency room this morning with a blood clot in her leg. They got it out without too much difficulty, but she's going to have to stay in the hospital until Sunday. They're doing a full work up on her heart. They think that the clot was caused and/or shaken loose by atrial fibrillation. That's scary stuff; we're praising God that He did not allow it to land in her brain where it could have killed her. As it is, she could have lost her leg if they hadn't gotten to it so quickly.

Update

Mom's out of surgery, and they tell me she's doing well. When I talked to her, she was still pretty groggy, but she said the pain wasn't too bad. They put a rod in her shin, two screws below the knee, and two screws above the ankle.

Thanks so much for all your prayers! Please keep praying that she will heal well and quickly without much pain.

Please pray

Please pray for my mom. She fell yesterday while she was out roller blading with my two youngest brothers, and she broke her left leg in two places. She's in surgery right now to get a rod put into her leg.

Please pray that there won't be any complications with the recovery process or any problems with secondary infections!

More Pi Day Fun

It's Pi Day everybody!

Go eat some PIzza PIe, have some PIna colada, and gobble down some yummy PIe al a mode for dessert. :-) [ht: Thinkgeek Monkeys]

If you run out of other fun things to do the official Pi Day website can help you memorized more digits of Pi than you ever knew existed.

Happy International Women's Day!!

Stand proud, my sisters.

Celebrate the amazing women in your lives, my brothers.

Remember the ones who are hurting and abused. ((prayers))

International Women's Day Website

**breathing**

OK, so by providential arrangement, I came across a job posting looking for a motivational speaker. So tomorrow night I'm taping my audition speech. And Friday I send it all out--audition tape, resume, and cover letter.

And then I wait.

Please pray!!

I want one

I really need one of these.

Hello, Mr. Robin!

I saw a flock of robins yesterday. That's not all that unusual since they winter down here, but this flock was bigger than normal. And so I wonder... are they grouping up to fly back north? 'Cause that would mean that spring really is peeking around the corner!!! :-)

I can't wait for things to warm up permanently. It's about 70 degrees here today. I love being able to walk out the door and not flinch when the cold air hits me. But I opened all the windows and doors yesterday, and I'll do the same thing when I get home today. It's marvelous.....

Announcement

Excuse me, everyone. I have an announcement.

Winter is over. The end.

It is going to be 60 degrees outside today, and winter is over in my head. So from now on, it's all spring clothes. Cute hats. Flirty little scarves. Short skirts and sandals. I am going to bring spring in by sheer force of will and pretty dresses. No more cold for this girl. I am done with winter.

Thank you.

That is all.

See Spot Grow

And Tom and Jane and Sarah and Harry and....






Little green seedlings are popping up all over the place. There's at least one of everything peeking out of his or her comfy little peat pot. It won't be long now until they graduate to the big plant pots. :-)

Beware the LGSs!

The LGSs are coming! The LGSs are coming!

This is what they looked like when I left this morning:



And this is what I found when I went home for lunch!!!




We have growth in the flower, bean, cucumber (above), and herb (below) quadrants:

Starlog Entry 823472450sdliksg7b890werjg

[BEGIN LOG ENTRY]

Tuesday finished off fast and furious with the Little Green Seedlings (LGSs) popping up in several cells.



Overnight, the situation accelerated. Wednesday morning found the LGSs pushing ever closer to the roof of their domicile.



Great watchfulness and caution is called for now. The LGSs are on the move! It won't be long before the last of them break free....

[END LOG ENTRY]

UPDATEUPDATEUPDATEUPDATEUPDATE

Day Three of the Great Garden Gallivant:

The seeds are sprouting! We have growth in cells A2, E4, and A8 (per the charts in the previous post ;-)). A8 is still only visible through a tiny crack in the peat, so here are pictures of

A2


and E4.


Sigh....aren't they precious?

I know you all want to get some sleep tonight...

...so just in case you were wondering where each plant is slumbering in my seed tray, here's a diagram. ;-)

Snarky alert!

If you're not in the mood for snarky, read no further. 'Cause this just makes me boil.

Check out The Modesty Survey. I'm sure they mean well, and I'm truly not impugning their motives when I say this, but what are they thinking? How can this not turn into anything other than a list of arbitrarily defined rules drawn from a statistically invalid survey? Is this really anything more than one more stick to beat women over the head with? As if we all don't get beat over the head enough with the modesty stick and the submission stick enough already?

I am an ardent supporter of modest dressing for men and women, but I hate hate HATE the overemphasis on female modesty to the virtual exclusion of male responsibility. (And for the record, I'm not accusing the Harris brothers of doing this. I'm not.) It's a murky, self-defeating path. No matter what a girl wears or doesn't wear, somebody somewhere could "stumble." What are we supposed to do? Never come out of the house and--for goodness sake stay away from the windows!

Women ought to dress modestly because it reflects their worth as children of God. Women ought to dress modestly because it strikes one more blow against the sick idea of women as sex objects. Women out to dress modestly because it'll help keep at least some of the creeps away. And women ought not to intentionally provoke lustful thoughts in men not their husbands because that kind of behavior doesn't reflect the kind of love the body of Christ is supposed to demonstrate.

But strangely enough, the only one of those principles that gets taught and emphasized is that last one. The one that takes all the responsibility off of the men. The one that makes all women subject to the frailities of all men and in doing so makes all women subject to all men.

OK, breathe....

The following bit of genius, I'm afraid I can't lay claim to, but I was lucky enough to get permission to post it up.

What if ....we get turned on by a man in jeans that ride low on his hips or a tshirt that pulls across a broad back? Would we dare ask them not to dress that way JUST IN CASE they came across a girl that struggled with looking at nice figures? Would we ask them to wear their hair sloppy or not wear the latest fashions so we wouldn't be tempted to look? MEN--don't brush your teeth...cuz ya know what...I like a fresh mouth with pearly whites. I might actually look twice and think "nice teeth , cute lips." and you know where THAT will lead! Yessir...I will most likely SIN in my thoughts about your nice teeth and cute lips...and you don't want to make a sister "stumble" do you? And those forearms and manly hands!! What a serious weakness that is to many women I know. We'll often whisper to one another "Did you see his forearms ? They were huge! And his hands! *sigh* So handsome. Just a light dusting of hair." Men, did you know this was a big thing for us? And since you are so concerned with us girls covering up to keep men from 'stumbling'...you need to award us the same favors. Heaven knows when I see man's hands, I just can't stop thinking about them all day. It would help if you wore gloves. Seriously..cuz then we wouldn't see your man hands and we wouldn't be tempted. And the forearm thing...wear long sleeves. Even in summer. I know how you hate to do that in summer time...but all those muscle shirts just send us swooning. Which in turn leads to sinning. We can't figure out why men would walk around flaunting such things in our faces!

Just last week I saw a man with a broad back, a nice-fitting t-shirt that showed his broad back , and when I looked at his hands, he had them decorated with a watch and ring , his jeans fit perfectly to his trim hips and thighs. He smiled at me as I walked past and his teeth...wow. Even and straight and whiter than white. I could tell he was wearing lip balm because his lips were full too. He probably used the excuse of "dry lips" but we women know he does that so we'll look. WHY WHY WHY would he do that? Why would he go out in public just to stir us women up like that? He has got to know he's asking for it dressed like that. Women WILL hit on him. How can we not? He clearly is dressing and grooming to get our attention. And biblically speaking , that just isn't right. I could pull dozens of scriptures that show a man should only do those things for his wife.

Which brings me to bathing suits. The way those boxer shorts sit on low on those trim hips? Yum. ohmyohmyohmy. Something needs to be done about that. Not even a shirt to cover your nipples. And then you have to do some sort of sport to show your athletic prowess. Either volleyball or surfboarding. We see you. We watch you. We like it and you know it. We see you strut your stuff. All to get us riled up and make us “stumble.”

In the end the men are only hurting themselves by grooming and dressing fashionably. Sooner or later they will be hurt by the way they've been treating themselves. Let us women help you repent from your flashy, flirty ways. Let us teach you how to dress so we won't 'stumble' and stare. Sure it may not be as quirky , fun and individual , but that's okay....because you know deep down you want to please us. Your future wife will thank us for teaching you how to dress modestly.

Honest.

I'm baaaaack.....

I am very pleased to announce that it seems that my carpal tunnel has gone into remission. :-) Many, many thanks to all of you that prayed for me. I am very thankful that God has cleared that up.

I embarked today on the adventure that is my summer garden. Hooray! My seeds finally, finally arrived. (I will NEVER buy seeds from Burpee again. :-( It was a very, very bad experience.)

Here are the peat pots and the peat tray, floating about merrily soaking up hot water.

My happy little seeds! We have dahlias, impatiens, mixed flowers, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, oregano, thyme, basil, and cilantro.

And the fully assembled project.

The first seedlings should start peeking out in about a week. If I don't die of anticipation by then ;-), I'll be sure to post an update.

Hiatus

I know I've been gone for a while, but I'm afraid I'm going to be out of commission for a bit longer. My doc says that I've got carpal tunnel syndrome, so that means as little typing as possible for at least the next two weeks and possibly longer. Please pray that the braces heal it up! We don't want to consider the other options. :-(