Some encouraging news out of Seattle's Mars Hills Church from Mark Driscoll, by way of Benjamin L. Cory at Formerly Fundie:

Mark Driscoll, it appears, is repenting.

 

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Wow! Check out Kid Cudi on Arsenio, saying it's time the whole "Money, cash, hoes" mantra dies.

K binged watched "House of Cards" this weekend, polishing off the first season and getting into the second. (His response to the shocking twist in the first episode? "About damn time".) I am of course, thrilled that my Love has gotten into it without my having to Sherlock him, because it really is a great show. Don't believe me? Let's hop over to my Blogger Buddy Binks Webelf at Free Canuckistan (oh, Canada!) for his excellent take:

IT’S JUST ABOUT a perfect show: each episode filmed, written, envisioned, performed like a work of art. It’s a refreshing joy to see such well-done and serious TV as House Of Cards.. not via the Networks, but NetFlix, with 100 million viewers and rising. Network TV literally would never make such a show: their political masters would not allow it.

 

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From Maria Popova at Brain Pickings, this adorably sweet post chock full of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang:

 

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A painting I started yesterday.

I pulled out the brushes yesterday evening and started painted. Mug of coffee and almond milk keeping me company, I used autumn colors (I might be obsessed with them). My mood the last two days has been a bit cagey. I haven't been barking at K or Z, I just felt restlessness in my spirit. Could be I spent the past week inside because of Zoe, and than me, having a cold. I don't know.

Anyway, this morning, while doing dishes (I'm starting to feel I live half my life standing over that sink), I watched this wonderful documentary focusing on Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon". Full of sharp lines, sudden curves and inspired by the natural beauty found within African sculpture, I felt somewhat imspired. And less restless. Check it out below:

Okay, maybe he wouldn't blush, but he wouldn't give all these the stamp of approval. My friend Wafi passes on this link to Pickshur:

In the present age of marketing, advertisements often tend to cross limits in a race to elevate the sales or to get the limelight of media. Advertisements often use lies and exaggerations as their main tool for grasping the attention of the masses. But what line did advertisements cross in the past? The answer lies in these offensive, racist vintage adverts:

 

Ha ha, we broads are so annoying, you just can't blame a guy for asking, right? Is it always murder? Or justifiable homicide? Although I'm not quite sure what this has to do with postage meters...

BBC Two

Yesterday I read part of a post at The Daily Beast with a pretty negative future outlook for we Millennials.

Are Young Americans Becoming Herbivores?

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Happy Saturday, folks. The picture above is a cropped bit of the results of my bloodwork taken at Northwestern and sent to the Mayo Clinic. Thanks be to God, the results showed no evidence of cancer! I got these Tuesday and would've posted them sooner, but Zoe caught a cold this week and promptly recovered, but not before passing it on to me. Unlike my daughter, I'm still simultaneously runny and stuffy and feeling dragged down. It's not an out and out bug or flu. I have no fever and have not vomited, again, thanks be to God, but it is annoying and combined with Zoe's epically bad two year old behavior (I'm starting to say "You're getting a time-out" more than "I love you"), I haven't been able to blog. My bad. However, I do post links to interesting stories on the Facebook page everyday and am on Instagram, so if you're on those, you can continue to get a daily dose of me... which is pretty scary, now that I think about it.

(H/T: JB Clayborne) In memory of my late grandfather and all the other men and women who served, Happy Veteran's Day.

Happy Saturday, Folks! Pretty good week for me. Cooked almost every day (except yesterday when I had plasmapheresis which usually leaves me feeling wiped; it didn't though-woohoo!- but we still picked up something anyway). Took little Miss Z out in the stroller a few times, and got to hang out with my favorite not-so-little guys on Wednesday thanks to schools being closed. There's Nate and Justin above chatting with Z at the park. And yes, I'm a fantabulous auntie to get them all stuffed with Mountain Dew Red and Andy Capp fries and then send them home. Hey, I've been spoiling them since their births and have no intention to stop now.

So let's get to the links, shall we? First up, "Is Feminism Making Women Less Happy?" (H/t: Prufrock)

I saw the above adorable picture of Jay Z and daughter Blue Ivy over at Global Grind where they called it "the most adorable photo... of all time." The picture came courtesy of Beyonce's Tumblr. Well, excuse me Miss Bey, but I snapped my own Daddy-daughter photo in September 2012 that is at least as cute as yours.

Zoe's already had two tantrums this morning... and it's only 10! So how about a little holy humor?

Yesterday, after destroying the apartment, Zoe tucked herself in using my scarf.

Happy Saturday, Folks. No traveling this week. In fact, I only was in a car one day this week. Nice change.

Me, window gazing in May 2008.

At High Hill Farms in Virginia.

Just a week after K and I married, we took my nephews, Justin and Nate trick-or-treating. This was a rather new experience for both K and me. Growing up in Trinidad, Halloween isn't celebrated (All Saints Day on November 1st is another matter). Growing up in a rather strict Pentecostal home, we were forbidden to go door to door for candy. That was for "the world" and "worldly" Christians who were not Holy Ghost-filled. I did manage to get a Hallelujah party going for a few years, though. I was quite persuasive, even at 9.

Anyway, while taking the boys around my sister's neighborhood, we ran into a few Christian homes with signs on the doors that had the same attitude my parents put forth to us. Taped to the front door were signs that said something like, "We in this home are born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and do not celebrate the devil or occult. Therefore, we do not give out candy, but instead this encouragement to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and life." There were a couple of Bible verses in parentheses.

Wall Street Journal

I'm not surprised by this story, but am still appalled. From The Wall Street Journal:

We got back to Dirty Jerz at some unGodly hour on Saturday morning. Safe and sound.

Friday was crazy. My feelings of dread on Thursday turned out to be well warranted. By the end of my appointment with Dr. Allen, I was sobbing loudly.

Today's song- which played on the Adult Rock station that K has uncharacteristically (oddly?) been listening to while we've been in Chicago- is The Beatles' classic, "Yesterday"". It's fitting my mood to a "T".

Yesterday, I was all "Kiss the sky", feeling hopeful about all these tests I've been undertaking. Today? After being electro-shocked and stabbed with tiny needles by way of an EMG and Nerve Conduction tests, I'm bitterly humming, "There's a shadow hanging over me," with Paul.

Happy Fifth Anniversary to you, my amazing husband.

You are a wonderful provider, earnest, hard working, and a loving father to Z, your female doppleganger.

This afternoon, I met with Dr. Burt of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. I was so nervous my heart started racing. In recounting my medical history, I wound up in tears. Not out of sadness, but fear. Fear that I've gone through twenty different doctors and now traveled 800 miles just to be told "No". As I suspected, I am on the higher- or functioning- end of the CIDP spectrum. Make no mistake, I am far from "normal", but the fact that I walked in there unassisted, with no cane or leg braces, is a positive sign. But at Dr. Burt's making note of that, I broke out in tears.

"I'm only 31 and have a two year old... I can't wait until I have no other choice! She deserves more. I want to fight this... now."