Puppy!!!!!!!!!!!!eleventy-one!

Puppy! Lacey 3.5 months old and relalted to Cally the Time-Share Dog, Already loves belly rubs and can spot suckers like me a mile away. I got puppy kisses that knocked both my hat and Bluetooth off. My glasses needed to be cleaned. The fact I had Quiznos for lunch might had had something to do with that. :)

That (puppy and being able to eat lunch) were the highlights of my work day. The rest? Waiting for an hour looking for a box which actually on my truck but mislabeled. Two stops that lacked critical information on the invoice. Waiting an hour for a hot-shot to pulled. Backing into the spot indicated by a customer, only to sink axle deep when their rock pad* turned out to be more of a ball pit. 9.5 hours. As I told the customer after being pushed out of the mire: "I hope this all leading up to a good game tonight!"

*Most cities frown on work trucks leaving long muddy trails on their streets. To prevent that, most sites have a patch of large smooth rocks, usually 5-6" in their longest dimension, set along the access points. The idea is that the rocks rub off mud of the mud and dirt, and the bouncing caused by the uneven surface shakes off much of the rest. Normally, these pads are no more than 5 inches deep. This one was 18 inches deep at the point I was stuck.

Now this is pathetic.

From that Grand Central Station of right-wing nuttiness, Conservapaedia, why traditional man-women marriage is allegedly better than same sex marriage.

The advantages of marriage between a man and woman include:

• the combined experience to raise both boys and girls
• enjoyment and interests in complementary aspects of childrearing
• having a partner with different, and complimentary, outlook and concerns
• in the absence of sexually transmitted diseases or infertility, the ability to have children from birth
• having a partner with different domestic interests and abilities
• the combined experience to deal with others
• an institution that has thrived for millennia
• less domestic violence due to very different physical strengths and different reactions to problems
• less tendency for partners to compete, and more tendency for positive reinforcement

Let's take these in order, hm? Every single parent I know looked at that squirming small person expelling various foul-substances and demanding food, shelter and a college education, and thought "I have no fucking clue what I'm doing." No one knows how to be a parent. You learn from your own parents and by trial and error. Assuming that just because I'm make I wouldn't know how to handle girls is an insult to every father of daughters on the planet. My mother, who is in fact female, handle my boyness quite well, and knew exactly what I was going to do before I was going to do it. More importantly, she understood when to let me slip the leash and get hurt. Parents are the important thing. I could go on at length on how my father never quite groked either of his sons, let alone his daughter.

The second and third are more of the same misogynistic claptrap. It assumes that a same-sex couple are going to be in idealogical lock-step. Bollocks. I know gay couples where one is domestic and the other is more interested in climbing trees. What brings people together is love. Kirsten is into things I have no interest in at all. Her fascination with the history of Russia in the 12th and 13th century can be described as non-existent. We come from different backgrounds and experiences. Our relationship got started because we both liked Dr. Who, but grew roots because we found that our differences aside, we were happier together than apart. Had we had children, those kids would have benefited from our backgrounds. If I were gay and Kirsten was Ken, it would be the same.

I don't know whether to laugh or scream at the fourth. I'm infertile, have been since chemotherapy. I'm also happily married and we could have adopted, or used donor sperm, to have children. Infertility is not a barrier to being a parent. STDs? Are you kidding? It is a freaking miracle I never got a STD. I was a fucking infantryman! I have slept with prostitutes, had unprotected sex with multiple partners, and engaged in other risky behaviors. I (and the doctors at Stanford Medical Center) are amazed I don't have AIDS. Millions of straight married people live with Herpes Simplex II. This is just more "diseased gays" bullshit.

"The combined experience to deal with others." Because gays live a cloistered existence in their fabulous monasteries. You learn to deal with others by living a life. I have a coworker how got married last year. He's a rather passive person to the point that the other drivers had to physically carry him to the boss' office and hold the door shut to get him to ask for a raise. He won't speak up at meetings unless someone prompts him. He's married, and honestly does not have any experience in dealing with others.

Slavery thrived for thousands of years. Kidnapping women and marrying them by force was a legal way to get a bride for centuries. Vengeance killings were acceptable in western civilization through the 19th century. Times change. And no one is saying that male/female marriage is going away. Just expanding. At the dawn of this nation, marriage was defined as being between a man and a woman of the same race and religion, providing the woman's family approves.

The abuse things? Ridiculous.

Opposite sex partners don't compete? News to me. More tendency to be supportive? Got a cite for that?

Andy Schlafly is a prat.

Game 1 in the books!

San Francisco Giants: 11
Texas Rangers: 7

Giants lead the best of seven WORLD FREAKING SERIES 1-0.

Torture was involved. On both sides.