On writing on Vagablogging

If you don’t get your fill of me babbling about writing and traveling here, today, you can here me babble about writing and traveling over at Rolf Potts’ Vagablogging….

It’s (probably) a girl!

We recently learned that it (as in our fetus) is probably a girl. The lady doing the ultra-sound said that she would put the probability of it being a girl at 80%. As long as it’s one or the other, I’m happy.

I’m in trouble. Just what I need, another girl in the house (Annie + the Cat + Princess Timmerman = 3 of them and 1 of me). I’m not in trouble in the sense that I’m going to have another female walking all over me and bossing me around – Oreo is the only one that does that – but because I’m not sure how much complete adoration for others in a single house one fella can muster before imploding into a tulip.

I had…

The sun is alwasy setting and rising

Somewhere the sun is always setting. Whether that somewhere is into the ocean, thunder clouds, a prairie, a desert, a city skyline, depends on where you are.

Lucky for us, the site Constant Setting takes us to where the sun is setting right now.

(I saw it on WorldHum)…

A Petition: Make "Coming Home Barbie" Available to Everyone

If you haven’t been following the recent discussion in the archives about “Coming Home Barbie,” you are missing out. In that discussion, Cindy Sue points toward this unbelievable petition:

To: Mattel Corporate Office

To: Mattel Corporate Office
333 Continental Blvd
El Segundo Calfornia 90245

We the undersigned, parents, grandparents, relatives and friends of children adopted from China and Asia, offer this petition to you and ask that you reconsider the decision to offer the “Coming Home Barbie” exclusively at the White Swan Hotel in China.

Many of us traveled to China and Asia to adopt our children prior to your introduction of the “Coming Home Barbie” available exclusively at the White Swan Hotel. Therefore were not given the opportunity to obtain one of these dolls for our child(ren).

We would like to have…

An Engaged Consumers Shoe Shopping Guide

I’ve yet to see a “fair trade” shoe that didn’t deserve a name like “The Blister” or “The Air Blister.” I don’t care where you stand as an engaged consumer, if you’re looking for a shoe that you actually want to perform, your options are pretty much limited to the big boy shoe manufacturers.

National Geographic’s Green Guide helps us determine which one of the big boys we want to support.

Do we want to support a company that publishes a list of the names and addresses of their suppliers, but places a higher volume of orders in non-union factories?

Or do we want to support a company that Oxfam notes “has probably done the most research and thinking” about living wages for Asian factory workers, but does not…

If Annie and I mated

Which I guess we did. Could this really be the result? Poor kid.

…

Is the Paul McCarthy that designed my book cover this Paul McCarthy???

GENEVA (AFP) — A giant inflatable dog turd by American artist Paul McCarthy blew away from an exhibition in the garden of a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a greenhouse window before it landed again, the museum said Monday.

The same Paul McCarthy whose Wikipedia page has one picture on it – this picture?

I can’t say for sure that it isn’t that Paul McCarthy, but I doubt it, seeing that my book cover is devoid of inflatable dog turds and Santa Clauses holding sex toys.

(Thanks Karly, for posing the question.)…

Indiana: Home of the world's tallest women

And some people say that Indiana is a boring place to live.

I had no idea that Shelbyville, Indiana, was the home of the world’s tallest woman. Or I guess I should say was the home of the world’s tallest woman because she just died.

Isn’t that just how life is? You learn that where you live is much more interesting than you thought, just after it becomes less interesting.

I wonder if the world’s former second tallest woman (now the first tallest) was glad to hear the news….

Adventures of an Engaged Consumer: Why Patagonia Rocks

An inquiry I directed to Patagonia’s customer service via their online form:

I’m about to place an order from your sale, but would like to know where
the items I’ll be purchasing are from. Could you tell me where the
following items were made:

1. Fezzman shirt
2. Go-fer Tee
3. Men’s all-wear cargo shorts

Thanks,

Kelsey

Less than an hour later their response:

Hi Kelsey,

The M’S FEZZMAN SHIRT, M’S GO-FER SHIRT, and M’S ALL-WEAR CARGO SHORTS are made in Thailand. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Have a great day!

Kelly
Patagonia.com Customer Service

After learning that they were made in Thailand, I visited their Footprint Chronicles feature and viewed a video of the factory they came from.

As an engaged consumer, that’s a company I can support….

Dave Barry at the Olympics

Michael Phelps is impressive, sure, but, in my eyes, the most talented American in China is Dave Barry.

Apparently, he’s picked his column back up for the summer Olympics.

For you my very special friend, a sample of his most recent performance:

If you’re the kind of person who enjoys shopping and lying, you would love the Beijing Silk Market.

He goes on to talk about what happens if you show any interest in the products the vendors at the Silk Market are selling:

If you respond by displaying any interest at all — and by ”displaying any interest,” I mean ”not walking briskly away” — the salesperson will thrust a merchandise item into your hands and make the following points:

1. The item is totally legitimate. If it’s supposed to be a…