My Fortress of Solitude

First thing, before I dive into my recap of my weekend - Why are we making movies about 9/11? Nic Cage is starring in one, I read that they are going to make one about Flight 93 (the plane where the passengers fought back) and I just think it is waaaay too soon! I mean, I think we are still raw about this topic on many levels. Case in point - MSN put up a timeline of events on 9/11, but as soon as the day ended all video links ceased to work because they pulled down the content - but they left the timeline up. Why can't Hollywood allow us to put a little more distance between the event and their film efforts? Oh, I guess four years counts as distance, but I think they could have a little more respect to the families of those who perished. Let's say a DECADE?! At a minimum? Okay, that's enought of that.
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Saturday Morning: 9/10, 08:00am - I awaken to the sounds of my two year old singing 'Happy Birthday to Me' and it makes me smile. We rushed about, getting ready for the party and head out the door to go to Sam's Club. For the record, when I buy a cake I go to Costco. They make great cakes - but they don't make cupcakes. Sam's Club (and Walmart for that matter) make crappy cakes because they use frozen sheet cake and it tastes like BLECH but Sam's does make cupcakes. And they make them fresh (especially when you order them special). Mindy ordered them for pick-up at 10:30am and they looked fresh and smelled GREAT! Once we picked them up we headed over to the mall. I had my hands full with a box of cupcakes and goodie bags for the kids. We dropped them off at Build-A-Bear and headed over to the carousel to eyeball the table situation. While we there, our friend Mary showed up with her granddaughter. Now Mary is a journal entry of her own, so I won't go into details right here right now, but she is such a sweetheart.
We headed over to Build-A-Bear and I waited out front to spot folks coming to the party. In all we had about eight kids total, so they got started by picking out their bears (they had a choice between two different bears) and marching over to the stuffing machine. After that they had a little heart stuffing ceremony with the kids sticking multiple hearts into Emily's Birthday Bear. Then they all got sewn up and the shopping for accessories began. Emily got a pink princess t-shirt for her bear (how appropriate). All the parent picked up the tab for any accessories, and in the end with all the bears and Emily's accessories we paid $97, which I am thinking would be about the same at Chuck-E-Cheese except the food is included with their party. I think it was fun for the kids, but Emily got a little shy and clingy - there were lots of people in the shop so she might have felt a little overwhelmed.
After the Bear experience we walked over to the Carousel and had cupcakes with the kids. Slowly the guests began to leave one at a time, and once we were down to the last one Mindy realized she forgot to give out the goodie-bags. Uh oh! So this morning I dropped off the bags to Emily's school friends and deposited bags on the desks of my colleagues who attended with their kids. In all, everyone seemed to have a good time. I think in the future I would recommend that if you want to do Build-A-Bear, make sure your kids can handle the experience.
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Yesterday I took Emily to the park while Mindy was doing stuff in the kitchen. Here in Kernersville they had closed down the park closest to us, Fourth of July Park, in order to renovate it a bit. Well, they have since opened it again so that is where we went. I have to say, I think they did a great job! There is a skate park for the older kids, and that was getting plenty of use while we were there. The playground was perfect! They had a smaller set for the little ones, which Emily enjoyed, and a HUGE play set for the school age children that was swarming with kids. There is a basketball court, tennis courts, and nature trails that we enjoyed as we walked by a creek. Daddy & Daughter time at the park was a joy, and I know Mommy will want to tag along the next time we go so she can enjoyed our renovated park.

Dear U.S. Media,

Yesterday while at lunch I was watching CNN regarding a law being proposed in Texas about children and Gay adoptive parents. The issue was being discussed with an anchor woman, a member of the Gay/Lesbian Lobby and by some deluded woman who claimed that children who live with Gay Parents are 11 times more likely to be abused than children living with heterosexual couples. Firstly, the fact that CNN let this woman throw out such a ludicris statistic apalls me. Second, that they even let her narrow minded views on television upsets me. Third, that I am unable to find any additional mention on the CNN website about this story disturbs me.

Why is it that I am able to find stories about a woman being arrested for a finger in her chili and a story of an off duty cop (in Texas of course) dropping his gun and expelling two rounds in a bathroom stall, but unsuccessful in finding a story that affects a segment of our population? To provide more detail, a story about a proposed law that is based on bigotry and promoted by overzealous right wing religious fanatics in a state that has the highest level of prisoners put to death under the death penalty and some of the lowest scores in all of basic education in the country?

To all media outlets - lose the fluff and give us some unbiased reporting! There is something called Freedom of Speech, so why not stop bowing the right and use your constitutional Freedom of the Press rights and enlighten us with some REAL reporting. To all my friends who live in Texas, this is in no way a dig at you.

Signed,

A Concerned Citizen Against Bigotry in Texas Politics