Unlce jay explains the news

Reverend Jim

So at age 35 I have finally entered the world of alphabet soup. Though unlike most who have earned the right to put an acronym behind their name I simply had to click a button on a web page. As of a month ago I became a reverend with the Universal Church of Life. I joined the ranks of the clergy in order to marry one of my closet friends. Last weekend I spent the weekend in NYC performing the marriage of my good friends Molly Findlay and Steve Perez. An act I could not have been more nervous for. If it wasn't for the ceremony being broken up by readings my shaking hands might have made the balcony we were standing on vibrate.

The ceremony was quite fun at the end of the day, not to mention it was my first public speaking gig since working on Das's failed County Supervisor campaign. I always like public speaking, and I have to admit given the opportunity I would do another ceremony. I wonder if it would be as fun if I didn't know the bride and groom for more than 5 years?

Molly and Steve deserve a lot of props for pulling this wedding off on short notice. The combination of Steve taking forever to propose and an unexpected terminal illness in their family they only had 2 months to put the wedding together (Can you imagine!). The ceremony was held at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe at 126 Crosby St on the Lower East Side (I may have neighborhood wrong?), a store which donates 100% of it's profits to AIDS research. Other than the Jagermeister at the Bachelor/Bahelorette party everything went smoothly.

Shipwrecks

This is where we used to go surfing every spring (haven't been in a few years)

The name game

Since holiday and baby season are upon us, I thought I'd take a moment to answer the various name questions that have come up recently.

My name is still Jodi Segal. I did not change it when we got married. Jim is also still Jim Taylor. If you want to address a formal letter, I recommend Mr. Jim Taylor and Ms. Jodi Segal.

The baby will take Jim's last name. Segal will be her middle name. So, her full name will be Violet Segal Taylor. It's not likely, but still possible, that she is actually a he. In that case, we'll have to come up with something beside Violet pretty quickly!

Bathroom Ceiling

After 6 months of carefully tiptoeing on ceiling joists, Jim finally put his foot through the brand new bathroom ceiling...

Now it matches the new downstairs hallway ceiling. We had to hire an electrician to fix a boo boo and he ended up cutting a hole in the ceiling that we actually paid someone to replace.

At least you can see the newly refinished wood frames around the windows. The kitchen will have the same wood around the 1 window and 4 doors. What you can't see very well is that the primer didn't stick to the walls, so the pait is peeling off in big chunks.

29 weeks down, 11 to go

I made Jim take a couple of photos, so I wouldn't have crazy person hair like the previous pic!

Maddyisms

You can frequently find our 60 pound dog barking and growling at her basket of toys. For some reason she is afraid of the basket and afraid of the air return next to the basket. If you move the basket or dump out the toys, then she digs through them until she finds what she wants and goes about her merry way. I can't imagine what is going through her head!

Her other amusing habit these days is sticking her head in the corner by the kitchen sink in hopes that food will appear there. It doesn't matter if we are doing dishes, preparing food, or just standing around. If we are near that spot, her face is buried in the corner.

The Great Flydidni

Santa Barbara on fire

Huge forest fire rages in Santa Barbara and Montecito.

100 houses burned so far and 5,400 people evacuated.  We know a couple of people who have lost their homes.  As far as we know, none of our friends have lost their homes yet.

Edit:
As it turns out at least one friend's house burnt down, Jeremy Lindaman lost his entire house. This photo was on the cover of the New York Times.

And then there were 3

Today is a very sad day at the Segal-Taylor household. Today we lost Kitty. He was 16 years old. He was born in either Massachusetts or Rhode Island, I can't remember. Either way, he ended up living in both states. I got him in November 1996 in Boston. We moved to California in 1999 where we were joined by Sweetie. The two of them were my companions through the divorce. Jim & I doped up the cats for a week and drove them, with our moms, to Ohio two years ago. Maddy came along last August and then we got Batman in June to perk up Kitty. We thought that a kitten would give him something to keep him busy, which it did.

He had the same looks and personality as Garfield - fat orange tabby, surly, pushy, and lovable. Just this morning he was trying to claim my breakfast as his own.

He had lost more two-thirds of his body weight, so the kindest thing we could do for him was to put him down. The vet said that there's no way that he's not in pain. It's just like an adult human weighing 60 pounds.

This picture was taken in March. Sweetie is on the left and Kitty is on the right. They are enjoying their second favorite activity, after food, which is laying on the heat register.

I miss you already, Kitty.

Daycare

We registered for daycare this week at a place called Little Dreamers, Big Believers.  We toured 3 diferent places and knew as soon as we walked in that this was the place for us.

They are very small and have 3 infants per teacher.  They teach baby yoga, baby sign language, feed organic food, and seem to really engage with the kids in a personal way that wasn't apparent at the other sites.

Being a small facility they are more flexible to tailor the care to the child than the corporate chains or larger places.   For example, we asked about cloth diapers at the first place and they said that they require disposables.  The second place said they can do it, but really, really don't want to because it's a big hassle.  This place said, half of our kids use cloth. It's easy - all we have to do is have a separate pail and the parents take them home.  Woo hoo!

Election

It's no secret that I'm an Obama supporter, so you can imagine that I'm quite happy that he was elected.  It will probably sink in after he's been in office for a year or two.

However, that's tempered by a few points:

1) He's a politician and I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.  I hope he will do as he says.  I'm a bigger fan of "primary Obama" than I am "general election Obama," so I hope he follows his original ideals instead of becoming a sell-out.

2) I don't agree with everything he believes, but think he is the best choice we have seen in a long time.  His position on equal marriage, the environment, and separation of church & state have a way to go for my taste.

Finally, I'm deeply saddened by the propositions that passed in a couple of states, namely Prop 8 in California which amends the constitution to limit the rights of adults to marry.  It's a sad day when our civil liberties are curtailed based on demographics.

Latest from SNL

McCain is a natural on SNL.  Maybe he should join the cast? :)

Carly - is this better?

Finally - pregnant pictures!

Finally, two pictures of me pregnant. I'm 5 months right now. Sorry for the camouflage, it doesn't really do it justice. I'll work on some more.

Debate spoof

This is one of the funniest SNL skit I've ever. I literaly hurt laughing. It's probably only hilarious to those of us who suffered through the last debate.

Domestic goddess

I've recent discovered a few products that nobody should have to live without. I thought I'd share the good word.

First is the Shark Steam Mop. This hand-dandy little tool steam cleans your floors. That means you don't have to buy any toxic, smelly, weird stuff. The only down side is that the terrycloths that do the cleaning get dirty pretty quickly before they need to be thrown in the laundry. Maybe if I mopped more frequently this wouldn't be an issue... Buy it at Bed, Bath, & Beyond.

Next is Melaleuca’s Healthy Dish Washing Detergent. You have to special order this stuff from an Amway type person (or maybe online?). We've seriously been using the same regular sized bottle since early May. That includes using it to wash hands. It's non-toxic, biodegradable, etc.

Finally, also from BBB is Cuisinart Green Gourmet nonstick pan. This nonstick pan is made from enamel, not from Teflon. So it's actually non-toxic. If you didn't know, Teflon and other nonstick surfaces are carcinogenic. Birds literally drop dead if you have this stuff in your home and most people aren't disciplined enough to avoid using metal cutlery on the pans to prevent major scratching or to throw them out after signs of peeling. Jim has been making us eggs every morning on the Cuisinart pans and they are turning out great. Be sure to add a little butter anyway or your eggs will taste a bit rubbery. Nobody likes rubbery eggs.

How big am I?

We still need to get some photos of me, but to give you an idea, people are surprised when I tell them how far along I am. The lady at Giant Eagle today said she didn't think I'd be able to stand up at 8 months...

I did gain quite a bit of weight last month, but I'm not sure where it's going. I don't look fatter and the baby weighs less than a pound. Maybe I'm growing a big cushion in preparation for a giant child?

On the other hand, being petite and having an arched back probably makes me look bigger than I am. The nurse at my doctor's office nailed it at 20 weeks just by looking at me, which seems like a better gauge than the deli lady!

The Great Schlep

Sarah Silverman in all her glory. Be forewarned, she's got a potty mouth.

I figure that I can at least post a muted version of my perspecive on the election with humor without getting in too much trouble.