I'm ticked because I wrote a comment somewhere and it got lost. Because it takes me a while to write these things, argh. Not that I'm fooling myself that it will re-define the argument or anything...

Speaking of parenting:

The Bottom Line of Raising Kids: Parents Rationalize the Economic Cost of Children by Exaggerating Their Parental Joy

Any parent can tell you that raising a child is emotionally and intellectually draining. Despite their tales of professional sacrifice, financial hardship, and declines in marital satisfaction, many parents continue to insist that their children are an essential source of happiness and fulfillment in their lives. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that parents create rosy pictures of parental joy as a way to justify the huge investment that kids require.

...

The results were clear: Parents who had the high costs of children in mind were much more likely to say that they enjoyed spending time with their children, and they also anticipated spending more leisure time with their kids.

Eibach and Mock put their findings into a historical perspective: In an earlier time, kids actually had economic value; they worked on farms or brought home paychecks, and they didn’t cost that much. Not coincidentally, emotional relationships between parents and children were less affectionate back then. As the value of children has diminished, and the costs have escalated, the belief that parenthood is emotionally rewarding has gained currency. In that sense, the myth of parental joy is a modern psychological phenomenon.

Yesterday was a bad day, but I overheard something on the bus that made me smile. The setting - a fairly crowded city bus; the speaker - a mother giving her son what-for over being stupid in school. She said, "I don't want you going into a downward spiral like Charlie Sheen."

smonster, of course I didn't check the board, and I'm sorry I woke you up early! From now on, if you don't want to be woke up, you don't have to answer! It doesn't bother me to call; I'm up anyway. I'm glad the fundraiser went well.

Dear Fellow Board Members - I get that I'm the secretary of the board, and therefore do the minutes. what that does not mean is that you never have to write anything down or pay attention. It is a pain in the ass to type up shit for you for you to cut and paste or forward to someone else. When you say "I will take care of this list of things" WRITE THE FUCKING LIST DOWN WHEN WE GO OVER IT. Do not call me the next day and ask me to send it to you.

So, your board is made up of my students?

So I scrubbed the cat box.

and the cat decided to grab the cup with clean litter and scatter it down the hall

so I vacuumed and now

I have to change one of the belt because I smelled it burning

sigh

The ducks are chomping today, not nibbling, I see.

So I scrubbed the cat box.

I buy a new cat box every few weeks. Worth it. Cleaning litter doesn't bother me; scrubbing a cat box does. Besides, I can't do it outside in winter (no hose, plus, wimp) and I won't do it in the bathtub.

P-C, have you seen this?.