words spoken last night

Evening, on the couch. Me, tired red eyes, messy hair with about three inches of regrowth. Him, stroking my cheeks.
"Mum's beautiful eyes...mum's beautiful face....mum's beautiful hair..."
*
Dinnertime, at the kitchen table. Me, flourishing a dish that has taken several hours to prepare. Him, turning up his nose without even a trying a single mouthful. Expressed with the polite regret of a five star maitre'd,
"Harley can't eat that one."
*
Late evening, on the couch. Me, reading a book called I Love Cats.
"I love cats. Stripey cats. Spotty cats--"
"I love dogs."
Me, crafty.
"Oh, that's nice. And do you love your mum, too?"
"Love dogs."
*
Late evening, in bed. Him, sleepily looking at photos.
"...and we'll see your dad again soon, too."
Grin.
Me, teasing. "Who loves his daddy?"
Big grins. "Harley loves Daddy."
Then, casually: "Harley loves Mum."
Ahhh! Ain't coaching grand?

argh

So much to say, so little time. I'm sure I'm the most frustrated writer in the world right now. And it seems to be getting worse. For the past few weeks I haven't even been able to find the time to read a newspaper, or catch more than sniplets of the telly news, though I'm amazed at the way my ears prick up and I can stop whatever I'm doing whenever I hear the words "John Howard". He really is the Prime Minister I love to hate. I really heart John Howard after all, in some weird dysfunctional way.
(My son made me laugh the other day when I attempted a quick switch from a Wiggles DVD to Parliament and, after strangely tolerating it for a few moments he said, a little hopefully, "Big Brother?". Ah yes, it's a little embarrassing, but he's only two years old and he's already addicted to reality TV. The problem with Big Brother of course is that there's a lot of required viewing involved if you want to be able to properly overanalyse it to death. And as I'm sure any parent of a small child will tell you, seven in the evening is a really bad time.
Anyway, I still remember my Blogger password, so that's good. Back soon with some stuff. I live in hope.

show me the money

I thought we only had three dollars left to our name right now, but hey, we're rich! So, where can I dump this stock?

My blog is worth $45,163.20.
How much is your blog worth?

(via Gerry.)

PS. Go ahead, make my day...

chicken soul for the soup

A friend tells me he's helping out in a mate's chicken factory. I think he must mean the kind of place where desperate creatures peck themselves to death. But he reckons these particular birds, farmed for meat, have a comparatively good life. "All they do is eat and sleep, eat and sleep. They're happy enough."
I say it reminds me of something I read a few months ago, how scientists have found a way to grow steak in the lab. "Wouldn't that be the solution to all the cruelty?" I wonder.
But he shrugs. "I dunno. What if we're consuming more than just flesh when we consume animals?"
"You think we're consuming soul?" I say. He says maybe.
"Well, maybe the soul grows with it," I say.
Is it a soul worth savouring, though, if all the poor critter's doing is eating and sleeping all the time? (I'm jealous. Especially of the sleeping part.)
Later I dig out the clipping. Sun-Herald, undated, entitled "Fries with that lab burger?" It reports how, according to the journal Tissue Engineering, scientists at the University of Maryland in America have developed a technique of "scattering adult skeletal muscle satellite cells on a scaffold or carrier, such as a collagen meshwork...on thin membranes. Layers of flesh could be harvested to create edible steaks. Fish and poultry could also be made using the technique."
It's not quite GM green eggs and ham, but it's close. Actually it's closer to Gary Larson's Boneless Chicken Ranch, or that urban legend involving the fastfood chain using farmed mutant chicken torsos. But anyway...would you eat it, Sam-I-Am? I reckon I would, if it meant an end to animals suffering for us.

blog's not dead, it's only sleeping

Which is more than I can say for me and my insomniac two-year-old. Life's been...er..challenging for the past few months but there's light at the end of the tunnel. Hope to be back tending my blog very soon. I've been dwelling on the childcare debate (don't you hate the whole faux "mummy wars" thing? Talk about divide and conquer) and on the John Howard Party's problems with cloning Johnny Howard. Also enjoyed the schadenfreude courtesy of the Queensland conservatives last week, as I'm sure others did...So anyway, more of the same soon. Probably insanely boring to some, but as a blogger I get to please myself!
Hope you're all well.