UPS and My I Can't Believe This Rant

I might scream.  Seriously, I might.  You'll have to forgive me if this post is a grammatically compromised rant because I am angry.  Very,  very angry.  You may remember this post, describing my.... feelings... about the United States Postal Service and how they've lost so many packages these past months that they are driving me insane.

Why aren't you tracking these packages you might ask.

You see, about 30% of my business is in Europe.  I would say closer to 90% of my higher priced snoods go to Europe.  I really appreciate the business that has come my way from across the pond.

However, the USPS informed me it would cost about $10 more per package to send a package, with a tracking number, to Europe.  Now most people aren't willing to pay $13 in shipping for a $25 snood, so... I haven't added tracking options and raised prices (although I may have to add that option now and say it's the only way I can ensure delivery because things are so out of control).

After the USPS lost a number of packages this spring, I was desperate to figure something else out that would involve my customers actually receiving their shipments.  Now I should add, I've been shipping from California for years and I have never had a problem.  But the behavior of the USPS in Florida has been pretty horrible.  We'll receive a "hi, pick up your package that would have easily fit into your box at this warehouse 5 miles away, between the hours of 10 and 3" and then, upon picking up said package, will discover that it was received by the warehouse 7 days earlier.  Or in the case of Christmas, they delivered one of the presents that my sister sent the girls, and not the other, and then were baffled when we appeared at the warehouse when they were open again, and asked if there was a package (there was), because we couldn't have possibly have known it was there (and she had shipped during the "guaranteed" time period before the holidays).  Let's just say that it doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

I try to sympathize with the fact that the USPS is having problems.  Really, I do.  But at the same time I find myself constantly amazed by the level of incompetence they've demonstrated this year.

The lost packages had me feeling pretty desperate about my international shipments, however, when we left Florida.  I had a custom order that needed to go out, and after much debate, I went to the UPS store and paid $10 to ship the package.  I put the receipt in the cubby between the two car cup-holders, and proceeded to forget about it during the move west.  After all it was UPS.  I trusted (note the use of the past tense) them.

Today I received an email saying the package hadn't arrived yet.

Initially I was annoyed with UPS (and with myself when I realized the receipt had been tossed out).  I paid $10 to ensure it arrived, which was a definite shipping loss, and eight weeks later it hadn't arrived?

I looked up the number of the UPS Store we'd used and called.  I'd lost my package but could they use my info to track it?  Sure they could!

But our phone number didn't bring up the info.  Neither did Paul's name (he shipped it for me, while I waited in a fully packed car to get on the road).  And the recipients name didn't bring up the info either. I was starting to feel nervous.

Then he asked how much it had cost to ship the package.  I said $10.  And here's the part that has me furious.

"Oh, $10!  Yeah, we wouldn't ship to Germany for $10.  What we would have done was take the package to the post office and ship it through the US Postal Service for you."  For $3.

Are you kidding me.

I didn't yell, because I realize that the young man I was talking to wasn't responsible for this ridiculous turn of events.  Instead I thanked him and got off the phone before my head exploded from the stupidity.

I'm still trying to get this straight in my head:  So I took a package to UPS to avoid the USPS, and they took it, along with 3x more the amount it would have cost to ship it from the USPS, and then they went to the post office and shipped it from the post office instead of shipping it themselves.

I don't use Fedex because they've already told us that they ship through the USPS in Southwest Florida (if you ship us a package through Fedex it comes through the USPS and is just as unreliable).

And it looks like the USPS has lost yet another package, bringing the loss via the post office, in the past four months to $200.

This is ridiculous.  I have to change something with my international packages.  I just don't want to have to charge ridiculous prices because our local office is apparently ridiculously incompetent.

An Idea for a New Project

Yesterday, after pinning a few more snoods and headcoverings, I decided to try something new.  I made a note of what time it was and started to sew a new dress.  This was the outcome:

It has french seams (so the seams are enclosed) and looks quite professional on the inside as a result.

And can't you tell that Mae is enthusiastic about modeling it for me.  She may still be a little bitter about being told that she absolutely is not to eat any spiders that she finds when she's playing outside.  

After seeing the outcome, I began toying with the idea of selling these too.  You see, I'm slowly building my confidence towards someday maybe possibly adding princess dresses and nun habits to Sadie's Saints... I'm not quite there yet since I do fittings when I make them for my girls, and I need to really nail the pattern (okay, right down the pattern, instead of just winging it) before I sell them in my shop.  And also because each princess dress takes about 6 hours (with the habits being around the same price) and I'm not sure the amount I'd have to sell them for would be reasonable.

However, when I used my handy calculating strategy to calculate the price of this style of dress I came up with $18 plus shipping and handling.  

Of course, I'm still a ways away from selling them (I'd like to have quite a few made and be back in my sewing room at home before I list them)... but what do you think?  Is $18 a fair price for this little girl dress?

Things I've Learned as a Etsy Small Business Owner

Over the past couple of years, I've spent quite a few hours learning the ropes of selling homemade goods online.  While I still learn quite a bit every single month, I've decided to write a post about what I've learned so far, which was inspired by a conversation last month at Joann's with a mortgage broker who told me that she really wanted to quit her job and start selling her crafts online, after she eyed my overflowing cart full of fabric, inquired as to what I was using it for, and then asked for tips on how I got started and what had worked for me.

Right now I have three shops.  Two of them are online and one... well... I had plans for rapidly growing Full of Grace Creations this summer, but a bad blunder involving leaving both a key box of supplies (beads aren't a whole lot of good without wire, and I just can't bring myself to buy more when I have so much at home) and my entire stock of chaplets and rosaries (packed and ready to go, waiting in my sewing room to make it into the van...) meant that I decided to focus even more energy on my other two shops until I get back to Florida.  

That however, is just as well, because right now I'm trying to focus half my time on Sadie's Saints and growing my selection there... which brings me to my Etsy advice.  I know there are quite a few Etsy shop owners out there, so feel free to add your own advice (or even links) in the comment section.

Now, on to what I've learned these past few years:

Learn the Rules and Regulations Where You're Selling

One of the most helpful things I did when I first looked into opening Full of Grace Creations, was sit down and read through the Etsy instructions for opening a shop.  It was boring.  It involved sitting, reading something that wasn't really "fun" for quite a while.  But it was important that I knew the rules for selling before I started.  After looking over the rules I checked out quite a few shops to see what their shop policies and shipping policies looked like, and then came up with my own rules for my own shop.  It isn't the funniest part of starting up a small craft business, but it's important, and it was nice to have it out of the way.

Keep Prices Competitive through Smart Shopping

Setting prices can be difficult and when you're looking at handmade goods there can be a wide range of prices available.  When I began making rosaries and chaplets, and later headcoverings and dolls, I had a choice.  I wanted the products I made to be accessible at reasonable prices.  I wanted to make beautiful creations, but I didn't like the idea of selling a rosary for $150 when it had only cost me $10 and a couple hours work to make it.  

On the other hand, I still wanted to offer quality goods, which required quality supplies.  

This is where shopping sales became critical.  I buy my beads in bulk and I usually only buy fabric when it's more than 50% off.  I love 10% (or more) "off your entire purchase" coupons.  And if I find a warehouse with fantastic prices, I stock up.  

Craft and fabric store prices are often ridiculous without sales.  Here's an example.  When we were traveling I found one of those awesome fabric warehouses.  This one had a table of cuts of fabric that were labeled $2.99.  I found two giant pieces of unblemished minky on the table.  One was four yards and one was two.  They would have been $14.99 a yard at the fabric store I usually shop at.  When I combined it with fabric I'd bought at another sale the blanket I made Mae cost about $6.  If I'd paid full price it would have been over $30 and it would likely have been less to buy it then to make it.  

Sale shopping is key when you're a small business owner creating your own product.

Setting your Own Wages

The second difficulty, when I began pricing items, was figuring out how much I needed to sell each item for to make it profitable for me to be in business.  This became even more important when Paul started law school and I became the sole breadwinner for 10 months of the year.  

This part of pricing can be a balancing act.  I finally came up with a strategy that works for me, and helps me decide if it's worth it to carry a creation in my store.  I decided to pay myself $10 an hour for each individual product.  Now that's not the best wage in the world (especially since I don't add in the computer and listing time), but it was important to me to keep my prices down, and it's also not a bad wage either, especially since I'm working from home and naming my own hours.  So when I make a product I multiply the number of hours by 10 and add the cost of materials and voila: I roughly have the price rang for my product.   

In my experience finding a pay range that works for you can make pricing much easier.

Dealing with Uncertainty

Uncertainty is the downside of running my own online business.  I don't know it I'm going to make $0 or $1000 in a week.  I might work 55 hours in a week, but that doesn't mean anything is going to sell.  Or I might be completely lazy and make nothing, and have sales flood in.  

I do know there are times of year when I'm going to be insanely busy and spend hours late into the night sewing... and there are going to be times when I post and post and post new orders and nothing comes in.  My latest goal is balancing the slow times, and sewing like crazy during those times, so I'm prepared when the busier seasons arrive.  

Competition

In the beginning I worried so much about how my prices compared to everyone else's and how my products compared.  

The past year I've gained confidence and realized that all I really need to do is focus on what I'm making, and do what I do well, and trust that things will fall into place.  It can also be important for shop owners/crafters/artists to remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (and repeat that to yourself frequently).  There's a good chance that, if you make something beautiful, you'll suddenly see it popping up all over the place.  Take a deep breath, ignore it, and focus on making your own products awesome.  

Posting

This is another important aspect that I didn't realize right away when I opened my business, but frequency of posting can be important.  I try to post something every single day.  This gets easier once you have more products.  Frequent posting keeps people looking at your shop, and hopefully while they're looking they'll find something they like!

Shop Size

I definitely notice that the amount of business I get is directly related to how many listings I have posted.  Variety can definitely help boost sales.  For me, having over 100 items posted seems to be a turning point where sales becomes somewhat regular.  Getting over 100 items made and photographed and posted can be a struggle, but I have noticed the flow of sales definitely increases in direct proportion to the number of items I have posted!

And now, in the interest of not making a handbook size advice column, I'll stop for today.  Maybe I should make this into a series, posting whenever I learn something new (or when I remember something that's helped).  

And hopefully this will help someone! 

This Week's Work Link Up Party- #2

I survived finishing up Mae Bae's presents, despite a freak illness striking the birthday girl the night before her birthday, which meant that very little got done in the way of preparations that night.  Thankfully she was feeling much better in the morning.  Her favorite present seemed to be the felt play oven mitts I threw together last week.  

Here are some of my other projects this week:

Mae's Bracelet (this was a big hit too)

Mae's Necklace (did I mention that she's really into accessories at the moment)

Mae Bae's Completed Saint Catherine Doll

A Custom Order!

The last piece of one of my most popular fabrics was used to make this convertible cover:

I love brocades.

White stretch lace is finally here!  It only took two years!

And since I was on a roll I finished a brown stretch lace cover too.

This one is so incredibly soft.  It was my first try at sewing chiffon!  And it was a success!

More sparkling organza:

Some coverings I haven't photographed for the shop yet.  A convertible lace and dupioni and a narrow dupioni headband:

Three more convertibles just waiting to be photographed and listed.  Can you tell that I'm trying to efficient by sewing a bunch of coverings with the same bobbin thread at once so I'm not wasting a ton of time changing colors?  Hence all the blue and purple.

I used the leftover flannel to begin making a rag rug (something I'd never tried before).  After the flannel ran out I began scrounging up linen scraps.  I'm not sure how this is going to turn out.  I think it might be a little too tight since I was too impatient to wait until I had an appropriately sized crochet hook:

Before I could write tonight's post I had to cut off Paul's rapidly growing hair before it turned into a giant curly puff of spirals.  After cutting his hair for a couple of years we've saved at least a couple hundred dollars.

Sadie in her birthday apron (from a few weeks ago) eating tonight's creation, my personal (and easy) cheese enchilladas.  I'm planning on posting the recipe soon.  

Mae Bae, who has suddenly become a finicky eater (did I really think I could dodge that toddler stage?), will only reliably eat beans.  She loves kidney beans, black beans, white beans, pinto beans and especially chickpeas.  She likes them with chili pepper, garlic powder and cumin.  Kind of strange for a two year old!

The finally finished blanket (my pinkie has been numb on and off all week since I finished it!  It was a LOT of cutting!).

Now it's your turn!  What have you been up to this week!

_____________________

And the winner is...

I just drew the winner of the saint peg doll giveaway from Sadie's Saints and the winner is...

Joe S!

Congratulations Joe!  As soon as I hear from you about your choice of a saint doll I'll get it made and in mail!

From Communist to Conservative: My Story (part 2)

This is Part 2 of this series.  Read Part 1 first, here.

I’ll begin to explain my political transformation, by trying, in my own small way, to bridge a bit of the understanding gap that exists in our nation.  I’m sure plenty of my conservative friends saw their facebook news feeds light up after this week’s Supreme Court ruling with comments about how we hate women and children and poor people and how we just want rich people to get richer (and while apparently it’s not cool to be offended by anything, I’ll freely admit that I am offended by the obnoxious name calling that goes on in the name of politics).  At the same time I know it’s tempting for conservatives to think that liberals just want to take everything they’ve made and spread it around to everyone, until the entire country is bankrupt. 

I think a good starting place in creating understanding, is to begin by giving each other the benefit of the doubt.  Neither side is trying to destroy our country.  However we do see the same problem and we’ve come up with very different solutions to that problem. 

Liberals, in the United States at least, tend to see problems and see a government solution to that problem.  Conservatives tend to look at the same problem and see a more local solution, or a private sector solution. 

Let’s take the problem at hand: the sorry state of health care in our nation.

I doubt there are many on either side who are going to deny that there is a problem and that something has to be done.  However the solutions are quite different.  Obviously a number of people, although according to every survey I’ve seen, less than 40%, believe that government funded health care is the solution.

Once upon a time, I would have agreed wholeheartedly and thought that the Supreme Court ruling was the greatest thing to happen in our country in a very long time.  Yet after spending half of my life paying attention to politics, I have to say, I wouldn’t trust our government to take care of my cat, much less my health.  I do not believe that health care should be managed by a government that has proven over and over again that the only thing it really excels at is giving scandal and partisan bickering. 

I’m actually not against Medicaid or any number of other state run programs that help the poor (even those that receive federal funding).  I do believe that there should be a safety net for those who have fallen upon hard times.  But having experienced Medicaid first hand when Paul lost his job after Sadie was born, and having marveled for a year and a half at the mind boggling level of incompetence that was repeatedly demonstrated (it took me a year and a half to get a person to talk to me, despite my repeated calls…), I have to say I’m not enthusiastic about turning over the health care of the entire nation to our federal government. 

You see, I think that we could come up with alternative solutions to the problem at hand that wouldn’t involve creating a giant bureaucracy, which is bound to have the same flaws our current government has.  I think our country would be much better off if the government didn’t continually kneecap charities who are working to serve the poor.  And, I believe that we might have tried encouraging interstate insurance competition to drive down prices, along with legislative action to crack down on frivolous lawsuits that drive up malpractice insurance prices, and drive up the cost of health care.  Because let’s face it: my c-section didn’t cost $64,000 and the fact that that was what our private insurance was charged (they passed on a $17,000 bill to us) was ridiculous. 

I also don’t believe that excessive taxation is going to stimulate our economy and send us, as a nation, in the right direction.  I don’t see individuals having less to spend, and the federal government having more, as something that’s going to send businesses hiring back the workers that they laid off 4 years ago.  And I do believe that a thriving economy is the best way to help the people in this country who are struggling to survive and put food on the table each month. 

So the next time you encounter someone who is against the mandate you might consider that it isn’t because they enjoy seeing children without access to medical help.  It’s much more likely that they believe the old saying: “you can give a man a fish so that he can eat for a day, or you can teach a man to fish, so he can eat for a lifetime,” has more than a little truth to it.

From Communist to Conservative: My Story (Part 1)

Some of you probably know more than others about my political history, which inevitably played a roll in my search for truth, and my eventual conversion to Catholicism. 

The casual reader would likely stumble across my blog and could easily make a handful of assumptions that would be patently false.  They could see the headcoverings and the long skirts, with the clinging sticky sweet baby hands, and the cyclically growing and shrinking baby bump, and come to the quick conclusion that I was an over-sheltered, mindless breeder who simply accepted what I was told at face value, parroting Church teachings and conservative values and hardly setting foot outside of my own door. 

That stereotype, of course, would be a dramatic misunderstanding and mischaracterization of the cradle Catholic women who I’ve been blessed to meet these past years, women who embraced the rare gift of faith that their parent’s had nourished.  These women have successfully lived their beliefs through those turbulent years when the temptations of the world sing a siren’s song that few escape.  And while I’ve admired and hoped to learn from these women, I cannot claim that I have spent my life as one of them, and cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, claim the label “sheltered.” 

I arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, a sheltered country girl, already politically liberal, although I had grown up in a Southern Baptist church, my head full of King James’ Bible verses and dreams of changing the world.  I quickly swallowed the “wisdom” of nearly every professor I encountered, as they taught, day after day, the value of socialism and communism and how communism just hadn’t worked yet because the failed attempts of the world’s communist nations just hadn’t met the conditions needed for a communist society to succeed (after all, how could we expect communism from peasants, when what it needed to grow was an industrial nation…). 

I volunteered at Planned Parenthood and at a women’s shelter and even toured townships in South Africa when I lived in Cape Town and saw the wrongs that desperately needed to be righted, first hand.  Actually to be honest I didn’t see many wrongs that needed to be righted at PP.  Most of what I saw were upper middle class kids getting free pills and condoms and stockpiles of emergency contraceptives and walking out with little brown bags stuffed full of goodies… but in the women’s shelter and township, and especially in the friendships I formed on my rugby team, I was given a glimpse into a world in which help was desperately needed.  And I was told that the government, particularly a socialist government, was the answer to those problems.

Simultaneously I was casting about for answers to questions that the Bible alone couldn’t quite answer (at least not without major logical leaps I wasn’t comfortable making) and considered myself to be agnostic for a while.  I played along as my friends dabbled in Wicca and labeled themselves “pagans” before beginning to devour everything I could find about Mahayana Buddhism. 

After graduating from college with a degree in politics I went to work for a non-profit in Berkeley.  My job was fundraising so our lobbyists could continue to pester our representatives and while I was good at my job, I hated it.  At 22 I felt exhausted and jaded. 

I began to pray, the words dry on my lips.  Each night I would begin again, casting about for whatever it was that was missing, that shouldn’t have been missing, since I was free and liberated and out on my own.  For months those prayers remained the same, falling from my lips with the same brittle lack that is hard to describe, and hard to imagine unless it has been experienced. 

Eventually there was a spark and a change and a year later I was engaged to Paul.  Two years later I found my way home to the Catholic Church, recognizing truth for the first time, after years of blindly swallowing the answers that academia had offered up as solutions to the world’s problems. I found that the authority of the Church, bestowed with Peter by Jesus, answered the questions I'd been casting about for half a decade earlier.   

Of course, becoming Catholic didn’t cause me to have a sudden change of political persuasion.  Logic, however, did. 

Read more in part 2 (tomorrow!)…

7 Quick Takes Friday

--- 1 ---

No bear sightings this week. Yet. For the past month, whenever I lulled into a false sense of security by a full seven bear-less days, she pops back up with frightening proximity. So we’re due for another bear visit any day now.

--- 2 ---

While I was upstairs getting ready this morning, Nani heard Sadie’s announce: “Nani! Mae Bae has a frog!” Nani turned to find Mae Bae sitting on the ground, holding a frog in both hands.

 Tonight Sadie carried a spider over and tried to hand it to me. I have apparently not instilled an appropriate fear of creepy crawly things in my girls (okay, the frog is okay… but the spider… I shudder just to think about it).

--- 3 ---

I’ve ordered a new mouse, since, at the moment, my keyboard is working again. I’m hoping the mouse helps my computer limp through the next few months. I am leaning towards (stalking) the Apple website for refurbished laptops. I’m not taking this one in for repairs since every time I’ve brought a computer in to our store they basically tell me it’s time to toss a little dirt on the computer and buy a new one… I like the refurbished idea though. Hopefully this one will last for a few more months.

--- 4 ---

Mae Bae thinks she’s quite grown up now that she’s a big two year old. And she looked quite a bit older when she tried on the white dress I made her. I really wish I had made a pattern when I cut out this dress, because I’d love to make a dozen of these dresses. Maybe I can reproduce it:

--- 5 ---

It can be tough living with two princesses. Especially when the older princess not only has to change dresses fifteen times a day… she has to change hair-styles now as well. First she needs two buns. Then she needs one. Then she needs a Snow White bow. I feel like I’ve enrolled in beauty school.

--- 6 ---

I’ve never seen two girls who were so bad at a watermelon-eating contest. You would have thought they were being poisoned:

--- 7 ---

I just finished up a post for tomorrow about my political evolution, from a communist to a conservative. Because this:

used to be my favorite t-shirt…

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Why Seeing Planned Parenthood's Booth Yesterday Made Me Feel Hopeful

The town we’re staying in this summer is my very favorite place in the entire world on the Fourth of July weekend.  It’s picturesque year round, but on the week of the Fourth the town bustles with activity.   There are fireworks and a kids’ day in the park with races and games, food stalls and vendors in the days leading up to the Fourth.  Then Independence Day arrives and the streets are crowded with people, a steady stream of red, white and blue, moving up and down Main Street, enjoying the pie at the ice cream social next to the meadow and waiting for the parade to begin. 

This year we arrived downtown about half an hour before the rest of the family and decided to walk around the various stalls in the meadow until everyone arrived and was ready to meet.  I walked past three stalls with beautiful aprons.  Minkie baby blankets and tulle tutu skirts are also quite popular at the moment.  And as always, there are plenty of choices for those looking for tie dyed outfits or wood carvings.  A girl had just begun to strum her guitar when we rounded the corner and I saw a booth that made my eyebrows jump:

A woman with grey hair was sitting at a nearly empty table with a sign that read “Planned Parenthood” in large letters. 

For a moment, as we continued to walk and I pointed out a pink puffy princess dress at a neighboring stall, I was confused.  I could remember with perfect clarity reading that the town’s Planned Parenthood had closed down.  After all, when that sort of thing happens, people rejoice and I remember feeling pretty joyful upon receiving that news (and after my time at PP, I felt especially thrilled). 

Then I realized that only the branch in our town had closed, and that the woman was likely from the main branch, which is around two hours away.

And that seemed odd to me.  It was the only stall there that wasn’t selling food or homemade goods.  And there didn’t seem to be anything on the table that she was handing out. 

As we walked around the loop, waiting for the phone call that would bring us over to the ice cream social, and keeping the girls moving so they wouldn’t get too impatient over the highly anticipated cherry pie, I had more time to think and observe. 

For most of the time, the aging woman sat alone.  On one occasion a small group of similarly grey haired folks stood in front of the table and spoke with her.  No one else approached the table.  Later, after pie and ice cream, when we walked through the meadow again with Nani, the situation was the same.

In a way, yesterday echoes my experience in Florida this past year.  Most of the workers we see outside Planned Parenthood are aging women, who seem horrified by the fact that there are quite a few young women these days who want to throw away the right to murder our children, which they worked so hard for.  If a person is going to make a crude gesture and hurl and insult my way while I’m praying, the vast majority of the time it will be a female retiree glaring with amazing malice. 

And there are always those polls, that show, with increasing certainty, that the majority of Americans really don’t think we should be allowed to murder the unborn. 

All of these signs point in a direction that makes me feel rather hopeful.  Increasingly clear technology has shown the world that a child is a child, even when nestled in the safety of his mother’s womb.  Some young people realize that they very well could have been murdered, as so many others were (and continue to be…).  You see, quite a few people in my generation don’t get warm and fuzzy feelings when they think of abortion.  Many more are willing to speak out against the atrocities that are being committed inside ordinary looking clinics across the country. 

When I compare the women I generally see supporting Planned Parenthood with the faces I see when we pray outside of Planned Parenthood, the contrast is apparent.  Those praying span every decade, from babes in the womb to toddlers with sippy cups, to teenagers who are truly shocked when a sixty year old woman honks at them and makes a crude gesture.  There are always plenty of graduate students, adults with and without families in tow and retirees.  And those praying generally span ethnic groups and income levels. 

Yet the angry faced women glaring as they rush out to hold umbrellas in front of every woman who pulls into the clinic are remarkably similar (and whenever I think of them I marvel at how they always let the women walk back out alone and unprotected, sitting in their chairs, umbrellas folded as another vulnerable looking woman trudges alone back to her car, the deed done, her money safely in Planned Parenthoods coffers, somehow not quite as important as she was an hour or two earlier…). 

You see, I truly believe that those glaring eyes and the empty table at yesterdays celebration, are simple indicators of a lie whose times has come, as the ugliness of the evil that is abortion is exposed by ultrasounds that let all of us know that a human life is always far more than a “clump of cells.”  These staunch defenders of murder must sense that the tide has turned against them, that the evil they have fought for has begun to unravel, and they are angry and confused as they shake their fists and talk about their “rights,” still not understanding that one doesn’t have the right to extend their own fist at the expense of someone else’s nose (or in this case, we don’t have the right to tear one another limb by limb).

Will abortion ever be illegal in our country?  I honestly don’t know.  I pray that it is.

But I do believe that the heyday that these women are clinging to is passing away, as the mask is pulled off to reveal the loss of life that has taken place over the past few decades. 

And that is why, yesterday, as we celebrated one of my favorite holidays, the sight of the abortion giants’ sign was not entirely unwelcome: for the giant wasn’t what it once was, and it seemed to teeter a bit as we walked away to spend the day with family and friends, forgotten by nearly every person as they turned their eyes to celebrate the good that still remains, alive and well in our country. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Mae Bae!

Happy Independence Day and Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Own Little Firecracker!

Computer Catastrophe

I'm afraid that my computer is on its last legs.  It still hobbles around from website to website, most of the time, but the mouse pad has failed, and the plug in mouse only works half the time, and the other day I had to restart the computer to get the keyboard to start working again, which makes me think that the hardware is failing, little by little.  Yesterday I managed to backup almost everything on it (all the pictures and documents made it onto the now nearly full drive).

Sigh.

After being a loyal Mac customer for years I'm afraid I'm going to have to go a different route, because at this point I really can't justify shelling out $2000 for a computer that's only going to die after three years (I know that's probably a long time for a lot of people, but we're a family who replaces their "free with the plan" cell phones every five years and so three years for a computer to die of hardware problems just doesn't feel all that long to me).

Don't get me wrong, I've loved my MacBooks, and hopefully someday, after Paul is done with law school and hopefully gainfully employed, I'll stroll back into an Apple store and make an appointment to buy a computer.  Unfortunately it's pretty clear that the computer that is managing to type these words right now, whose little mouse I've only unplugged and re-plugged in a dozen times this morning, isn't going to last that long.

So I'm going to break the promise I made to only buy Macs after a computer disaster, and start looking elsewhere.  You see, when I was living in Cape Town, I was working on a paper/ research project on women in sports that was worth nearly two classes worth of credits.  I'd interviewed people and done polls.  I'd researched and written nearly 100 single spaced pages.  And then my Dell died.

Technically it would still start up.  An acquaintance at the time, who worked in IT for Parliament, couldn't figure out what had happened.  The computer had just reset itself to its factory settings, and acted like it was brand new.  We contacted Dell who said it sounded like a software problem.  In fact, every company involved said it just wasn't there problem.

At the same time I had a friend whose Mac crashed.  He took it to the Apple store and it was rushed to LA and fixed within a week.

Three months and $500 later my computer was also up and running.

The experience pretty much sold me on Apples customer service, which we have been happy with over the years.

Alas (can you tell I'm being dramatic this morning over the loss of my computer? Yeah.  I know.  It's a bit over the top...), I think I'm going to have to take my chances and make sure that this time I back everything up frequently.

Does anyone have a reasonably priced computer brand/model that they love?  Has anyone tried just using a tablet instead of a computer (and can you plug a tablet into a good old fashioned keyboard, because I'm afraid not having a keyboard would drive me crazy?)?  And if you have any other laptop buying advice I'm open to suggestions... I'm really hoping that this little guy keeps working for a couple more months...

No Way Women "can vote Republican?"

We've once again reached that lucky time of year when Hollywood feels the need to bestow political "wisdom" upon us.  Don't you feel fortunate?

Anyways... Eva Longoria has reportedly announced that if you're a woman there's no way you can vote Republican...

 I imagine quite a few women will disagree with that statement...

I know I do.  Enthusiastically:

I readily admit that the party doesn't reflect my beliefs perfectly.  But we have a choice to make and honestly, when I go into that little cubby to pull the lever (or in the case of voters here, fill in the little dot very carefully with a black pen) I don't hesitate.  I'm not even vaguely tempted to support the alternative.

Darn.  I guess that means I'm just going to keep falling short of Hollywood's expectation for woman-kind.

21 Weeks!