Sorry, Jess.

Also, you had a recipe for vegetarian Cincinnatti chili, and I printed it out and tried it and it was really good, but I lost the printout. Do you still have that recipe up online somewhere?

I can't imagine having 17 siblings AND being home-schooled. I'm tempted to call my parents and thank them for not being religious whackaloons.

so God is cool with hitting infants, not-breast feeding, over populating the earth, but NOT contraception. got it.

Do you still have that recipe up online somewhere?

That website got accidentally trashed when I switched webhosts, but I was able to find it on on the Wayback Machine. Woo hoo!

[edit: Looking at that recipe again, there's one thing in there that doesn't actually reflect how I make it anymore - I usually just use one 28-oz can of diced tomatoes and skip the tomato sauce entirely. The rest still looks accurate.]

Where do all the neurotics live?

On the East Coast, of course. A psychological tour of the United States, in five maps.

WE ARE ALL familiar with the rough geography of the United States - the slash of the Rocky Mountains between two great coastlines, the bulge of Maine, the Florida peninsula, the Great Lakes, set in the heartland.

But what about the country's psychogeography? You know, the great river of extroversion that flows roughly southeast from greater Chicago to southern Florida? Or the vast lakes of agreeableness and conscientiousness that pool together in the Sun Belt, especially around Atlanta? Or the jagged peaks of neuroticism in Boston and New York?

...

Interestingly, America's psychogeography lines up reasonably well with its economic geography. Greater Chicago is a center for extroverts and also a leading center for sales professionals. The Midwest, long a center for the manufacturing industry, has a prevalence of conscientious types who work well in a structured, rule-driven environment. The South, and particularly the I-75 corridor, where so much Japanese and German car manufacturing is located, is dominated by agreeable and conscientious types who are both dutiful and work well in teams.

The Northeast corridor, including Greater Boston, as well as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Austin, are home to concentrations of open-to-experience types who are drawn to creative endeavor, innovation, and entrepreneurial start-up companies....

...

So regions like Silicon Valley or the high-tech Route 128 corridor around Boston succeed not just because they have great universities and highly educated people (some of the greatest high-tech entrepreneurs of our time are college dropouts), but also because they are magnets for highly ambitious, highly curious, and highly open personalities.

Thanks!

so God is cool with hitting infants, not-breast feeding, over populating the earth, but NOT contraception. got it.

Well, they can find biblical proof texts for 3 of the 4. You've got "spare the rod and spoil the child," "fill the earth and subdue it," and the one about how a man's sons are like arrows in the hands of a mighty warrior, and blessed is the one who has a full quiver of them. Granted, there are those of us who manage to be Christians without interpreting any of the above literally.

"spare the rod and spoil the child,"

Is that one actually in the Bible? I always thought it was a more recent proverb.

I kind of hate that woman.

Kat, Tree Pose Noah is adorable!! Speaking of which, do you want a copy of Itsy-Bitsy Yoga that Ethan got free from work? It might be a bit dumbed-down for you, but it's all about doing yoga with a toddler.

YES! I can't wait for Noah to be old enough to go to yoga to do it! There is a toddler class at one of the 4 studios I go to.

K and Noah are at the beach today (after dropping me off at work). Keep in mind it's way overcast and chilly. But she called me to tell me that she saw a guy catch a shark (!!) and try to wrangle him off his fishing line and back into the ocean. Then she called back and said she saw a pod of dolphins.

I'm so jealous of her beach going experience. Stupid work.

Hm. I googled. The exact quote is different, but the spirit is the same: "He who spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24)