A New Year, and yet so little has changed.

After not posting for a short eternity, I'm back. We had a very successful fundraiser at my work, which kept me off of the interweb for about 3 months, so now I'm back. I've decided to broaden my commentary horizons in the New Year and not focus solely on the abortion debate. That said, I was really surprised yesterday to hear THIS on NPR. Perhaps because I live in O-hia-a, or perhaps because my work is in and around a children's hospital, I often feel like the only pro-choice person that I know.

Please get involved...the hearings for Sam Alito are coming up soon. NARAL and NOW are great places to contact your senators. Although I can tell you that I wrote to my republican senator about the last nominee and he wrote back to tell me what an honor it is to be involved in the Bush administration. ARGH. Insert projectile vomiting here.

And also on the political front...can anyone explain to me why the postal service is raising rates to 39 CENTS? Why the heck don't they just make it a dollar to mail a letter, turn a profit, and stop with all the crappy one or two cent rate hikes. This dates me, but remember when it was a quarter to mail a letter? My parents will tell you that they remember when it was a nickel. I don't understand why so many rate hikes in recent history. Is there a law against the postal service being a moneymaking operation? Why not privatize it? If you really want to ship something, you use FedEx and UPS, don't ya? Almost everything I buy on the web comes to me via a private mailier. So I don't get it.

So on to other things, congrats to my friend Jen who gave birth on Dec 30 to beautiful baby Olivia, welcomed to the world by sister Sam and daddy Mark. Jen doesn't know it, and I don't think she reads my blog, but I'm working on a pretty blanket for Olivia, with a washable acrylic variegated yarn in lovely pastel shades of yellow, blue, green, and purple. Very gender-neutral. I think Jen will like it. If you do read it, Jen, the secret's out. Although you knew I was going to do that. I think. And then Fred and Nikki are having a baby this year too, I found wonderful yarn at Dream Weaver Yarns for the baby blanket that I'm going to make them. People's faces when they open a hand knitted baby blanket are so wonderful. Makes all the hours and hours of knitting worth it. Cause let me tell ya folks, it takes me about 6 weeks of knitting in every spare moment that I have to make a baby blanket. I've been investigating Project Linus recently, what a great thing to do if you like to make baby blankets. Check it out. projectlinus.org