Fall Creek Neighborhood Association

I subscribe to the Fall Creek Neighborhood Association Listserv. I am about to stop. It is not good for my blood pressure.

I call it the "Pearl Clutchers Listserve" because a lot of the emails on the listserv are very much in the
"Won't someone please think of the children?!" vein of absurdity. Ryan and I started subscribing after we rescued a loose dog, took it to the SPCA and then discovered the listserv and used it to communicate with the owner of the dog, who was very grateful that we'd found her little dog.

Yesterday, I posted about a dog that had been whining and crying on and off for HOURS. I have heard the dog before, but never for hours. I thought that perhaps - because this happened to me when I first had Jeeves - that the owners were unaware that the dog was upset. It was Memorial Day, perhaps they'd all gone out and left the dog and she was sad.

I would want to know if my dogs were crying while I was out. This is the email that I sent:

Hi all,

There is a very sad dog that has been crying on and off for most of
today, somewhere in the vicinity of the corner of Lincoln and N.
Tioga. I've heard it cry before, but never for so long!

Beyond calling the SPCA, I'm not entirely sure what I can do, but it
is a little heartbreaking. Does anyone know if something can be done?
If you are the owners, perhaps you are unaware that your dog is so
miserable sometimes?

I got a lot of responses, most people said, "call the SPCA!"

I didn't call the SPCA because within minutes of that email being posted, the crying stopped.

Then today, I received this email from an "aztennenbaum":

Maggie is a wonderful dog we've had for nine years. If you knew her,
you would understand that the howling is just something she does, and
has done since she was a puppy because it gets such a prompt response
from the humans.  The howling crying tortured sounds start when she
wants to come back inside and stop the instant we let her back inside.
There is no ramp up. Usually she gets bored after about 5 minutes of
in the backyard and starts howling, so we let her back in.

Yesterday we were doing some gardening so we let her come out back
with us. The reason it was on and off was because we were continuously
moving stuff from the backyard to the front yard (crying starts) and
back again (crying stops). In spite of this, I think she had a better
time than she would have had we just made her stay inside, which would
have resulted in zero crying. Quite frankly it doesn't matter how
happy our neighbors think she is, only how happy she actually is.

The last paragraph, mainly the last sentence, suggest a certain amount of aggression that I felt was unnecessary, but I just chalked it up to "aztennenbaum" not really thinking about my perspective. Most people don't think about other people's perspectives.

Then, from the same email address, 15 minutes later, I received this:

Hi all,

There is a very sad baby that has been crying on and off for most of

today, somewhere in the vicinity of the corner of Lincoln and N.
Tioga. I've heard it cry before, but never for so long!

Beyond calling DSS, I'm not entirely sure what I can do, but it

is a little heartbreaking. Does anyone know if something can be done?

If you are the parents, perhaps you are unaware that your baby is so
miserable sometimes?

Isn't that weird? It's like they think I made a mistake not calling the SPCA on them. Or something. I don't know. I wrote back telling them I wasn't sure what they were trying to accomplish with that email besides being rude. I'm about done with the Pearl Clutchers. It used to provide me with some amusement but frankly, it's making me hate my neighbourhood and I didn't before.

Sweater Pattern

I love the moth eaten sweater look, don't you?

High School Validation

I guess it's validating when your therapist, upon discovering that she is, in fact, familiar with your high school, having done a fellowship at the university across the street from it, says, "That school sounded awful."

Lettuce

I pay more for lettuce. I realise lettuce can be cheap, but there's nothing so unappetising as cheap lettuce. Once, at Wegmans, I overheard another customer asking a stock boy where the iceberg lettuce was. He looked a little confused and then said,

"We don't carry that here."

Good for you Wegmans. Iceberg lettuce is revolting. I can't tell you how many horrible salads I've been served that consists of shredded iceberg, one mealy cherry tomato, a bit of shredded carrot and some revolting cornstarch-y vinaigrette dribbled unappealingly over the top. No wonder people claim not to like vegetables. 

Children get hurt sometimes.

The New York Times recommended to me that I read this article, on the subject of the dangers of sippy cups. 

This is the same newspaper that keeps publishing articles about how helicopter parents are raising a generation of namby-pamby spoiled brats who are incapable of filling in a job application on their own. 

My point is this: kids get hurt. They trip and fall. I sliced my wrist open when I was 4, running with a ceramic piggy bank. I still got into college.  

From the article:

“We think 1-year-old children are just learning to walk and run and are pretty unsteady on their feet and may be more likely to experience a fall,” said Dr. Keim."

It also mentions that a lot of sippy-cup related injuries that possibly aren't reported because they aren't serious enough to warrant taking to the emergency room or even a trip to the pediatrician. So the number of sippy-cup related injuries are actually higher than the study suggests. Shock-horror. Their are probably an awful lot of skinned knees out there, not being reported either. 

Baby Girl

People are so different. I found out I was having a girl and I bought books. Books on how to help me help her become a strong, confident little girl and then, strong, confident woman. Books on ways I could navigate all the pink and the princesses and the Disney garbage.

I made a personal rule (not that it would have occurred to me anyway) that she doesn't get called "princess" - I hated that even when I was a kid - my father would call me princess and I would say, "I'm not princess, I'm Alice." I want my daughter to be a productive member of society. That is my one goal.

My cousin-in-law who is expecting a baby girl a few months after ours?

"I bought a little outfit for her the day of the appointment and then the next day I couldn't help myself and got two more outfits! Next comes crafting her some hair accessories..." 

I haven't bought one outfit yet, all though I am knitting this sweater. I picked out a rich, navy blue in a wool/cotton washable blend.  

Favourite Children

I realise one is not supposed to play favourites with one's own children, but is it okay to have a favourite child of your friend's? Does it make a difference if it is the middle child?

Mason Jars from Pottery Barn

You can buy mason jar mugs from Pottery Barn.

I'm really not quite sure why anyone would do this. They are $24 for a set of 6, which means $4 per glass, plus tax. Ryan and I buy peanut butter in glass jars for $3.49 from Wegmans. The bonus for the peanut butter jars (besides the peanut butter that comes inside!) is that they work as more than just drinking vessels because they come with lids. I use them to mix salad dressings, store things like beans and spices (I write on them with a dry erase marker) and when they break, it doesn't matter. I have a replacement in the fridge.

The mason jars from pottery barn remind me of a roommate I had for a few months in college. She wanted to purchase breeze blocks (cinder blocks) and planks in order to make herself a bookshelf. I was met with a confused look when I suggested that she purchase a real bookshelf for less money from one of the 50 hundred thrift stores in town instead.

Baby Shower

How weird is it to have more males than females on a baby shower guest list?

Expectant Parent Workshop

Today I felt like I was in one of those awful neverending, unfunny, SNL sketches and simultaneously in a Christopher Guest movie.