oh sarameg, that is brutal. How awful.

God, Sara, that's terrifying.

She helped us give birth, then she swaddled the babies and she gave mine a bottle. She gave DH's baby some broth.

Cute!

I don't know where she picked up the broth idea.

Huh. Is it OK to let indigenous peoples follow their own traditions, if that includes denying women the vote?

Some Mexican women lose right to vote

SANTA MARIA QUIEGOLANI, Mexico - Women in this Indian village high in the pine-clad mountains of Oaxaca rise each morning at 4 a.m. to gather firewood, grind corn, prepare the day’s food, care for the children and clean the house.

But they aren’t allowed to vote in local elections, because — the men say — they don’t do enough work.

...

...Cruz has launched the first serious, national-level challenge to traditional Indian forms of government, known as “use and customs,” which were given full legal status in Mexico six years ago in response to Indian rights movements sweeping across Latin America.

“For me, it’s more like ‘abuse and customs,”’ Cruz said as she submitted her complaint in December to the National Human Rights Commission. “I am demanding that we, the women of the mountains, have the right to decide our lives, to vote and run for office, because the constitution says we have these rights.”

ION, there are 82 million cats in the US, and 72 million dogs. It was around 2001 when the number of cats exceeded the number of dogs for the first time.

Yoiks, sara. That's terrifying and depressing.

I've done a ton of cooking this weekend: broccoli cheddar soup, roast with steamed veggies and special potatoes, rice and black beans, taco bake.

I'm TIRED and the week hasn't even started yet.

Oh my gosh, I'm tired just thinking about all that cooking. I can just about handle making the meals right before eating them. If I had to cook them all at once we'd be eating a lot more take out.

Franny's asleep now. She looks like an angel when she's asleep. Isaac isn't asleep yet because he has this new habit of trying to stay awake as long as possible, but dad's in the room putting on his soporific mojo.

Did anyone else watch Mansfield Park tonight? Am I alone in thinking it really boring and weird with total charisma vacuums instead of actors?

Haven't watched it yet, but I think that Fanny Price and fuddy duddy Edmund are pretty tough sells when it comes to charisma. The movie version of MP basically did a full personality swap on Fanny, and really I could hardly blame them.

Me, I can't get past the idea of casting Billie Piper as Fanny Price. I mean, what on earth were they thinking?