Author: kakakakaty

So That Happened

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Nearly 6 weeks ago this bundle arrived:

M.A.D.
Born 4/17 at 3:45 PM
8 lbs. 1 0z
21 inches long

And since then I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. Well… I’m still on Twitter since 140 characters is all I can muster these days.

Today he looks more like this:

His birth was amazingly fast and relatively easy.  I was again able to go drug-free, although my will to do so faltered greatly this time.  He was fast but he was painful.  I’ll do a full post about his birth if I ever have the time to sit down to type it all.  Right now my free time is spent napping.

M adores her little brother and everyday her interactions with him melt my heart a little bit more.

Things are pretty great around here. Who knows when I’ll get back to this blog…

My Girl

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As we barrel towards the arrival of our new family addition (arriving 4/17 via induction, in case you haven’t heard) I find myself marveling at our first born.  All of a sudden she seems so grown up and I know this feeling will intensify when the baby arrives.  But, this kid, I just love her so much.

For spring break her daycare/preschool was shut down for a week and a half.  We swapped days with another family so no one had to take more then 2 days off.  But having 2 days to spend with this amazing child was just what I needed.  In keeping with my motto “if kids aren’t IN the house, they can’t mess it up” we had lots of excursions.  We went to Preston’s Hope Playground, made brownies for snack, hiked at Shaker Nature Center, traveled out to Playground World for the morning and spent a glorious afternoon at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Her partner in crime was a friend’s son who attends the same school is about 6 months older then her – they’ve known each other since birth.

What was so fascinating about these couple of days was just watching how M interacts with other kids.  We don’t do many playdates (with the whole full-time-working, crazy weekend thing) around here, so watching and listening as I waddled my pregnant self after them was eye opening.  Seeing her adjust and change on a dime, negotiate who got to do what first, when she decided to play by herself rather then play with him, the painful twinge in seeing my own shyness manifest itself in her around unknown children… it was all just really cool to see it unfold in front of me.

Back at home she’s been so attentive and cuddly.  She’s prone to crawl in my lap and proclaim me the “best mama in the world” at any moment.  She’ll stop what she’s doing just to tell me she loves me.  She’ll run over to me mid-dance to give me a kiss and will then kiss my belly.  I get gifts of dandelions and pretty leaves every evening and each morning she lifts up my shirt and tells the baby ‘good morning’.  This is not to say that she is some magical perfect child – oh, no way! She still has her tantrums, doesn’t listen and tends to ignore you if she doesn’t like what you are saying.  But the good is far outweighing the bad right now.

With spring here we spend a lot of times outside and she’s so interested in everything around us: “What kind of tree is that?” “What’s the name of that flower?” “What kind of bird is singing?”  She comes home from school and retells elaborate, detailed stories about her day. She can spell her name and write the letters (more or less). At her swim lessons she plunges fearlessly into the water and is getting quite good at propelling herself underwater.  Her memory is amazing and she will randomly compare something she sees/hears to something that happened over a year ago.  Every night, after an epic and sometimes comedic period of stalling her bedtime, she will lay in her bed and talk or sing to herself for up to an hour.  While I can get a tad annoying when she’s still up at 9:00, I also can’t help but giggle a little at everything I hear. 

There is truth to the saying “every age is the best age” and I have certainly felt that myself.  She’s getting so grown up so fast. But right now there are several moments each day that my heart just feels like it will burst with love and pride for this girl and I want to remember every second.

Elsewhere

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I have a guest post up at Work It, Mom.  It’s all about potty training when your kid is in daycare.  Please go check it out and leave me a comment or 2!

Also, today is my older sister’s birthday.  She gets to spend it on vacation in Hilton Head – lucky girl.  Happy Birthday, Jill!!

Make Me a Match

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I’ve mentioned before that M attends a Jewish-based preschool/daycare although we are not Jewish.  We made this choice for several reasons and she has flourished since she started there almost 2 years ago. 

One of the fantasic side-effects of this choice is that Mark and I are learning a lot about the Jewish faith and culture.  This year we studied up on Hanukkah and lit the candles on the Menorah M made at school.  Last year was my first experince of Purim and we also helped her class decorate their Sukkot.  M has taught us parts of their weekly classroom Shabbat ritual. 

More recently we’ve noticed that M checks out food lables to see if the product is Kosher.  Her school is not fully Kosher but many of the children who attend are, and any class snacks must be marked as such.  Apparently she has picked up on what to look for!

This week her class has been cleaning their room in preperation of Passover.  They have been talking about the story and rituals of the holiday and having practice Seders before the school-wide Seder which was held yesterday. 

A couple of days ago I got an email from daycare while I was at work.  They wanted to share a photo of M and a classmate as they practiced for Passover:

My first thought, after a loud “awww!” escaped from my lips was of Tzeitel and Motel in Fiddler on the Roof…

I’m pretty sure there is a Yenta nearby!

On Privilege & Health

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This post has been rattling around in my head for days, keeping me up at night.  It took a Canadian to give me the courage to finally put it all in writing.

One year of debate. Over 200 of their amendments added to the bill. 1,003 changes overall. And yet the GOP still cries that this bill was “shoved down their throats” or “pushed through too quickly”. Shouts of “You Lie!” and “Baby Killer” during speeches. 10 states spent tax-payer money in preparation of suing the government before the bill passed into law even though almost all Constitutional lawyers have said those lawsuits will fail.

Like it or not, this is how our government works, and for 8 years half of the country sat, feeling as hopeless as you do now, watching our government get bigger and bigger while we felt our civil liberties were whittled away. I understand where you are coming from, I really do.  But grow up already. The pendulum swings back and forth, so the GOP will get its chance to go back to eroding basic liberties, making the rich richer and messing with the economy again in the future.

Yes, I am liberal; an independent liberal. I vote on issues and platforms, not party…shocking, I know. I research, I think, I question. And I believe my grandfather, a lifetime politician and proud member of the GOP, would be ashamed of what is said and done in the name of his party today.

No, I am not a church-goer. But, I was raised in a conservative, politically-active, church-going family so I have been on both sides of the aisle. I lived in great neighborhoods, attended fantastic public schools, and never had a need go unmet. As far as I know, my parents never lived in abject fear that a slip, accident or unwelcome diagnosis would derail their children’s future.

As an adult I now realize that I was born armed to the teeth with privilege. Wealth, even moderate wealth, brings privilege in the US. Yes, my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents worked very, very hard to provide the next generation with a boost up the ladder of life. Not everyone starts out on the same rung and no matter how hard they work they might not ever reach a comfortable lifestyle. And for all of you shaking your fists and yelling “I pulled myself up by my bootstraps!” I shake and yell back “bullshit! Someone, somewhere gave you a boost along the way”. I am willing to give up a tiny little bit of my privilege to give someone else a boost.

And for all the name calling being thrown around: “Socialism”, “Communism”, “Totalitarian Regime” – I think people need to get out their dictionaries and return to civics class.

We are a long, long way from joining the rest of the industrialized world with universal health care. And if you look at the law itself, and not listen to all the talking heads, you will realize that this law does little to healthcare itself and is aimed mostly at regulating the insurance industry. NOTHING in this law as far as I can tell (other then the abortion language, but that’s a whole other post) specifically directs what a doctor can and cannot do. Don’t worry – insurance companies already do that for you. It doesn’t say who you can see or what for.

What it does is make it accessible and affordable for everyone to have health insurance so that those of us with coverage already will pay less for those who don’t. Because in case you didn’t know it, every hospital has a huge budget set aside for “uncompensated care” and those who have insurance or can afford to pay out of pocket are the ones who feed that budget. More insured = less uncompensated care *should*= less cost for all.

And if you don’t want to opt in? Fine, pay you share into the system and then do your own thing (just like we all do for education).

This law is not perfect. It’s not complete. But it’s a step in the right direction. Sure, I would love it if we lived in a world where “helping each other out when things go wrong because we’re human and we’re all in this together” was the norm. But we don’t so our government is giving us a collective shove in that direction. We live in a big, scary world where one second you’re a young, healthy person in an aerobics class and the next you are not. But now, there is hope that if you survive a crazy incident you won’t be financially ruined as well.

I Hate Rita

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The county in which I live is part of a Regional Income Tax Authority (RITA).  This is a collective regional tax that pays for shared services (such as mass transit) but also is a collection agency for municipalities who don’t have the budget/staff to have their own City Tax Office. RITA collects the city income taxes and distributes them back to the city in which you live.  I have no problem at all paying my taxes but this system is insane and I just don’t understand it.

We moved in to the system in December of 2007 and had no idea about RITA.  I just assumed that like at all my previous employers the appropriate local income taxes were taken out of my check.  Fast forward to early 2009 when we got a summons to appear at RITA for back taxes missing from 2007.  Apparently because the county has so many cities and each city has a different tax liability, most large employers don’t take RITA taxes out of your check and leave the responsibility up to you.  We were told this was common. Plus, you pay taxes not only for the city in which you live but the city in which you work.  That means we owed taxes for 3 different cities and what you pay in one city will impact what you owe in another.

We gathered up all the needed paperwork and arrived at the scheduled time.  A RITA representative went over everything, explained what we owed for the 2 ½ weeks we lived here in 2007 and we wrote a check for less then $100.  She said it was all we owed; we were now current and paid in full.  She then told us that she set everything up in the system and we would get quarterly reminders from then on and that since the taxes were paid in arrears all the funds paid in 2009 would be for the 2008 tax year.  When we got them we promptly paid them – each of the bills was only a few hundred dollars. 

Fast forward again to early 2010 when we again receive a summons to appear at RITA for back taxes.  This time I was pissed off – we went last year! We paid every bill they sent! What the heck did we do wrong now? So several weeks ago we both took the morning off work and went through the motions again.  This time, the RITA employee said we owed thousands in back taxes for all of 2008 and 2009.  I showed her all the paperwork from the previous meeting, told her we paid all the bills we received and didn’t understand why we owed so much more.  She plodded away on her lap top, compared my paperwork to her screen and finally told us that the woman who helped us in the previous year entered horribly flawed information which meant that we only paid a tiny fraction of what we really owed.  And to make matters worse, the previous woman flat out lied when she told us the taxes were paid in arrears – they are actually paid for the current year! And we had no recourse…after all it’s our responsibility to know what we owe …and even though their own employee had done the calculations and signed off on them we were left to pay the owed amount (fine) plus interest and a penalty (not fine, but we had no choice).  

So, at the suggestion of this new woman, we wrote a modest check that day then took the paperwork she had helped us fill out and went home register for their on-line reminder and payment services.  She said that when we logged on the full amount we owed would show up and we could pay it on-line.  We could also sign up for email reminders for upcoming quarterly payments since it turns out we were only sent 2 reminders the previous year (a “quirk in the system” we were told).  She suggested we wait a few days so the small payment we made would be deducted from the amount owed, then to pay the full balance shown online and we would be up to date.

We did just that and the numbers online matched the paperwork she gave us.  We paid the full balance and, per her oral and written directions, thought we were finally current on payments for all of 2008, 09 and the 1st quarter of 2010 and would receive the next reminder for 2010 taxes by early March.  Last week we got our reminder, which again says we owe well over a thousand dollars, including new interest and penalties for unpaid 2008 taxes.  WHISKEY. TANGO. FOXTROT?!

I don’t get it.  I don’t understand this system at all.  I understand taxes – I do my own state and federal taxes every year.  But this? I just don’t understand.

The Name Game

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When we were pregnant the first time we debated names. Since we didn’t know what we were having we had to pick 2. The boy name was set in stone as it’s a combination of family names that I’ve wanted for years; I even had to fight my sister for one of the names. I won, the name is mine – she got the hutch from our grandmother’s dining room instead.

For the girl, the middle name was chosen already (it’s a family thing) but first name was up for debate. Sophie was usually at the top of the list, but I can’t remember the others. But neither of us were married to any of them. Towards the end of the pregnancy, Mark brought up the M name and it stuck. When we learned in the delivery room it was a girl, Mark rattled off the chosen name immediately. And now at almost 3 ½ I can’t imagine her as anything else. She is named perfectly.

So here we are, pregnant with a boy and we’ve known from that ultrasound what the name would be. However, the order of the names – which would be the first name and which would be the middle name – was up for debate. The order that I had always had in my head is now troubling me for a few reasons. First of all, the name I fought my sister for, the name I always imagined being the first name is an extremely popular boy name. It has been for years and is likely to be for years to come. Given the commonality of our last name, I fear that using it as the first name will be akin to naming him “John Smith”.

The next concern is that this name also begins with an M and having 2 kids and a husband all with M names makes me cringe. I know plenty of people do this on purpose but I find it silly. But is this enough reason not to use the name? Will I eventually get used to having two M children?

The other name – the one originally slated for the middle name – is much more unique and can be heard as somewhat ethnic. The nickname especially is one you don’t hear too often in our neck of the woods. I like that, but it might drive the kid nuts.

I know we could always go through with the original combination order but call the kid by his middle name. Mark went by his middle name as a child and my brother has gone by his middle name for his entire life. But then why not give the child the name you want as a first name to begin with?

There is one last thought – the initials. Using the M name as a first name would produce the initials MAD which I think is awesome. AMD is not as awesome and also brings to mind the image of some obscure multi-national company.

So help us decide – what would you do? Would you use the M name so 3 out of 4 in the family have M names? Call the kid by his middle name? Or would you reverse the order and have what was always thought as the middle name become the first?

M’s Birth Story

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I swear this isn’t going to be an all-birth/pregnancy-stories-all-the-time blog, but I’ve been revisiting things I wrote in the last weeks of my previous pregnancy and first weeks of being a parent.  It’s what’s on my mind right now, so bare with me as I remember and share some of these stories.

M was due on 9/15.  My midwife, Abby, was a bit concerned about the amount of amniotic fluid (I had too much).  That along with a period of days with no midwife on-call at the hospital and already being dilated several cm prompted me to have my membranes stripped on 9/15 in the hopes of jump starting labor.  We went into the office early on Friday morning for the procedure and came home, hoping to head to the hospital at anytime.  By late afternoon, with not one contraction, we figured it wouldn’t happen.  I returned to work on Monday, trying to work as much as possible in an attempt to extend my maternity leave to the holiday shut down in December.  We returned to the midwife on the afternoon of 9/22 and decided to have my water broken the next day.  An ultrasound said that “Baby D” was just over 8 pounds and the amniotic fluid had reduced to a more normal level.  Abby tried stripping the membranes again, in the hopes of getting things started (it failed, again).

Saturday morning arrived and we went to iHop for a big breakfast.  I was admitted to the hospital very close to our house in Toledo around 8:15 and we were lucky to get the birthing suite with the labor tub as we requested.  We settled in while our nurse, Velma, asked all sorts of questions and took my vitals.  I even requested for the TV to be on so we could watch college football – Michigan vs. Wisconsin (yes, I’m that much of an awesome wife)!

Abby broke my water at 10:15 AM and I was immediately happy this had not happened at home and that I was in a place equipped to deal with the mess.  Mild contractions started within 15 minutes.  I felt better while I was up and about so Mark and I spent a lot of time walking up and down the hallway of the labor and delivery ward, having mild contractions and hoping things would get moving.  Every time I laid back down, contractions stopped.  Around 12:30 I laid down and rolled to my right side and I was struck with severe light headed-ness and nausea.  Mark helped me to the bathroom and I got sick and felt better, but realized I was very hungry.  I had some crackers, jell-o and ginger ale to get my blood sugar back up.  After I was feeling better, Velma filled the tub and I got in.  It was very relaxing and the contractions, which had been getting stronger, felt so much easier but came faster in the warm water.  After about 20 minutes in the warm water, I got the urge to push and things got moving.

Again, lying down on my back felt uncomfortable and stopped the contractions, so Mark helped support me as I semi-squatted and pushed while standing.  Abby suggested that I labor on my knees and adjusted the bed so I could kneel on the end and support my upper body on the top of the bed.  I was an odd position, but it worked very well for me.  Contractions started coming faster and the pushing, while it hurt, was not nearly as bad as I expected.  Mark was great, getting me water when I needed it, keeping a cold washcloth on my neck and encouraging me to keep going.  Abby was great, explaining to me what was happening and what I needed to do.  After about 30 minutes, Baby D started to crown and I lost my will to go drug-free, saying “I can’t do this” and  “This needs to be over”.  The pain was intense, but between contractions was all calm.  Abby, Velma & Mark were all very positive and encouraging as I proceeded.  Abby worked me through the crowing and I felt the head come out.  Two pushes later and I heard Mark say “it’s a girl!”.  It was 3:03 PM.  I was shaking and disoriented as they placed M on the bed between my arms.  I was scared to hold her as my hands were shaking and my arms were half-asleep from leaning on them.  Mark helped wipe her down and he cut the cord.  Velma and Mark took her to the warming table while Abby helped my turn over and lie down.  I started shaking again and Velma brought me M.  I was overwhelmed – tired and excited all at once.  I couldn’t believe I had just birthed this little baby, all without any drugs and it happened so fast.  It all seemed a blur.

All of a sudden I felt the need to push again and out came the placenta.  Velma and Mark took M to weigh her while Abby gave me three stitches. They brought me M and I tried nursing but she wouldn’t latch on.  She finally did but only stayed on for a short time.   Mark, M and I hung out for awhile while we continued to try to nurse.  Mark made phone calls to family and friends announcing the news and we just kept staring at this tiny baby, who weighed in at 7 lbs 1 oz.

About an hour and a half after the birth M and I were wheeled down to the postpartum rooms.  M went to the nursery with Mark for her first bath and I went to the room.  I settled into the room, took a shower and tuned into the OSU game while the nurse brought me dinner.  Mark came back and M followed about 30 minutes later, after being under the warmer post-bath.

My parents, who were at a BGSU football game, came to meet their granddaughter and stayed for a short time.  That night, Mark stayed at the hospital with me after running home to let Mac out.  Although I had been adamant pre-birth that M stay in my room all night, I finally did have a nurse take her down to the nursery since every tiny move and noise she made kept me awake.  Other then being a little tired I was fine – no pain or anything and M became a champion nurser in no time.  My sister and brother visited the next day and we all just sat around the small hospital room chatting and staring at M.  I insisted Mark go home that night so he would get one last night of good sleep while I again sent M to the nursery and a nurse brought her to me for feedings.

The next morning, exactly 48 hours after my water was broken we arrived home as a family of 3.

Labor Rant

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With my due date 10 weeks away, I’ve obviously been thinking a bit about labor and delivery.  Of all the things that can go wrong, the scary stuff, my hopes and our fears.  But I’m healthy, the baby is healthy, I’m having a good pregnancy and there is no reason to plan for any medical interventions.  They are there if necessary, but given my history with M there is little reason to believe I will need them.

So, yesterday I got a bit riled up when not one but 2 birth-related things surfaced on my interwebs.  The first was a link to this People Magazine article about Gisele Bundchen’s birth experience and the reaction was to lash out at her for being awful. I’m the first to admit it’s totally over the top to believe that she felt no pain.  But to assume she’s a liar-McLiarface because she had a low pain and easy birth experience? I just don’t understand.  I did much of my labor in the water with M and, as Mark can attest, while in the tub my pain level went way down.  It’s not much of a jump for me to see how a water birth would have been pretty low pain for Gisele. (Okay, okay I will call her a Liarface on her quote that says she does her own dishes – riiiight).

Then later in the day an old high school friend posed on Facebook asking other mothers about birthing classes. Within just a manner of minutes, there were a dozen comments all basically chanting “Forget the classes, get the epidural! Get it before your water breaks! All you need to know is E-P-I-D-U-R-A-L!”  So I posted the following:
“…And you don’t need an epidural, I opted to try without one (always having the option to get one if I wanted) and found I didn’t need/want it. Everyone’s different and you never know what you can handle until you’re there.”
And of course that was followed by a chorus of “you must be superwoman!” and “you’re a superstar for trying” and the like. Those comments, while said with good intentions drive me nuts because I just know that while they are saying it they are thinking “what a crunchy-granola-eating-hemp-wearing hippie freak”. I’m not a superwoman or a hippie – I’m just a woman who trusted the medical staff with whom I had worked with for 7 months and my own body to do what needed to be done and react to things as they happened, not before they happened.

Was my labor with M any less truthful or real or gritty because I was able to do it without any medication? Is it less meaningful because I didn’t have any intervention or last minute scares that I could share with everyone in the months after her birth? Why should I feel like I have to whisper that I enjoyed her birth and it really didn’t hurt all that much?

I went into having M with my eyes wide open and I know I was lucky in that it went so well.  I knew the risks and possibilities involved, but I also knew that it was an experience I had never had before so there was no medical reason for me to take measures to prevent something that we weren’t sure would even happen (i.e. intolerable pain). I don’t get up every morning and take a Tylenol “just in case” I get a headache later, why would I take medication in at the start of labor before I knew how bad the pain was?

Look, I totally understand that everyone has their own tolerance for pain and has their own medical history and assorted fears/issues they bring with them to a labor ward.  But I really and truly don’t understand the condescending backlash and accusations of being a liar against woman who admit that 1) labor wasn’t all that hard/painful for them or 2) was actually kind of wonderful and not at all as scary and harsh as they had anticipated? And yes, asserting that someone is a “superwoman” or saying “I could never do that” is condescending to all involved.  How do you know you could never do it until you tried?

Just so we are all clear I am far from an earth-mama hippie. Yes, I had a medication-free birth with M by choice/luck/effort/education and hope to do the same again.  I also have eaten sushi, soft cheese and had an occasional glass of wine while prego and sometimes let the TV babysit the girl.  Yes, we use cloth diapers, breastfeed, use non-toxic cleaning products and recycle.  But I will also drive to the grocery store 3 blocks away instead of walk if it’s cold or I’m tired. I also use probably highly toxic extra-strength deodorant, not a rock, and hate the smell of patchouli.

Things I’m Digging Right Now

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Gah – It’s been over a week since my last post…what can I say other then I’m a bad blogger.  I seem to only have the patience for 140 characters right now so follow me over on Twitter if you really feel the need to know what I’m thinking right now.

That said, there are some things rattling around in my head lately, mostly little things in life that make me smile.  Not the biggies like my husband or the hysterical kid M is turning into.  Little things, product things that I have recently discovered.  These might be old-news to some but here are some items I’m loving right now:

Charlie’s Soap. I cloth diapered M and plan to do the same with the little man baking in my belly. [Yes, I plan to cloth diaper the baby which I know makes me a dirty liberal hippy. I don’t care; its way, way cheaper then disposables and we’ll end up using a mix of the two like we did for M. Plus cloths are cute and don’t have Elmo all over them.] However, you have to be choosy when picking detergents for cloths because so many leave a residue and then the diapers leak. I liked the brand we used for M but didn’t like that I can’t find it locally and shipping costs are killer.

Enter Charlie’s Soap… I’m in love with this stuff. We’ve only used a couple of weeks and of course no dirty diapers yet but I think I’m a convert. You use only a tablespoon for an entire load, it rinses totally out of clothes and it just smells clean – no fragrance or perfumes. I’ve also noticed that some of our older tshirts that were kinda stinky under the arms now have no stink after a couple of washes. No enzymes or brighteners which can bother sensitive skin and cause diaper rash in cloth babies, either.

I ordered directly from the company in North Carolina – everything is made in the US and they have other non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning products, too. I got a kit that also had the all-purpose cleaner which I’m also digging. I usually just use vinegar and water, but this is doing awesome on grease in the kitchen.  So far I highly recommend it!

Eucerin Calming Body Wash Daily Shower Oil.  Winter is always hard on my skin.  We live in an old house with radiators so humidity in the air is nonexistent.  Plus, I’m starting to get the tight, itchy pregnancy belly with is annoying.  I picked this stuff up at Target on a whim and I love it!  I thought it might be too oily but it’s perfect.  It’s not overly scented and my skin feels so much better since I started using it.

Chia Seeds (salba).  I mentioned these when I talked about my new morning smoothie ritual but now that I’ve been using them for a few weeks I want to gush about them a little.  They have 6 times more calcium than whole milk, 3 times more iron than spinach, the potassium content of 1.5 large bananas, 15 times more magnesium than broccoli, as much vitamin C as 7 oranges, and 3 times the antioxidant capacity of blueberries. On top of that, salba contains natural folate, B vitamins, zinc, selenium, and vitamin A and has more protein than soy.  Here’s the bonus – since they absorb so much liquid, when in the stomach they slow down digestion which stabilizes blood sugar and makes you feel full longer.  I’ve found that on “smoothie mornings” I am not hungry for a solid 5-6 hours after breakfast.  And since ounce for ounce they have the highest dietary fiber content of any plant food they do help with some other pregnancy-related symptoms. (Ahem)

Jon Stewart.  We DVR the Daily Show since it’s on so late and usually watch several episodes at once. Every time we do I find myself not only laughing but shouting “thank you!” at the TV. I don’t care which side of the aisle you are on; Jon Stewart is as funny as he is right.  He calls BS where he sees it in the political world (which is just about everywhere right now) and isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions and challenge his political guests.  He’s the closest thing we have to “fair and balanced” news on TV – which is kind of sad, considering he’s considered a comedian. If you can watch a show without laughing and agreeing with him on at least one topic, I don’t think I want to know you.

How about you? As we head into the deep freeze, gray month known as February what is making you smile?