just in case you missed this Jon Stewart on Jack's Big Music Show.

And if you were to tape it for me--we don't have cable--that would be terrif.



*I actually don't even know if the show is any good--is it?--but Jon Stewart with puppets...

why? Sheila has chemo again today.

J.'s going to be at school until 9 pm.

No preschool for Baldo today.

I have an overnight review.

Why the fuck am I awake?

flu/virus New Jersey's deputy health commissioner recommends requiring flu and pneumonia shots for kids in day care; parents pissed off. Interesting.

Boy, you want to talk about a hot topic. Vaccination. Yep. We're somewhere in the middle (delayed schedule) but I'll throw down if I have to; even in the middle somebody's got to mind your business. I was nearly booted from a pediatric practice for my reluctance (not even refusal--reluctance) to pump a bunch of vaccines into a small kid with a big rash, like, already. And I think the chickenpox vaccine is crap. I'd much rather my kid have chickenpox at an early age (what, he's going to itch?) than later, the way I did. And he wouldn't need boosters the rest of his life. Oh, how those pharmaceutical companies love to make money over each person's whole lifetime.

Yet neither am I an anti-vaccine hardliner. I'm awful darn glad for protection from polio and tetanus. Yeah, buddy. And I am enough of a nutball to be somewhat anxious about a flu pandemic. Like, 4 out of 10 anxious. And these kids? Jesus, they're so ridiculously full of germs. You get a virus through a population of children, like bada-bing! And yeah, the parents get it too. I am reading the blog right now of a woman who has norovirus going through her daughter's preschool, and she's terrified that everyone in the whole population is going to get it. Nobody is going to be able to be quarantined as long as necessary because the parents have to work and the kids have to go to school. And that's the truth. Nobody has enough "sick time." Your employer will not allow you or your kids to be sick. 10 days? Forget it. (That's why we have the chickenpox vaccine, I believe--the American workplace won't make time for that illness among a family of one or two or three kids.)

So I don't know. I'm in the middle. Quelle surprise.

Dr. Doctor, can't you see I'm burning, burning? If anything can be done about my kid's skin, the supragenius pedi derm will find it. I'm sure.

Right now we are doing what seems a lot like what we've been doing. The difference is that we're going to do the same things (bath with plain water, no soap; Elta; Keflex three times a day for staph; mild topical steriod for the face and potent one for the trunk and legs) for one week, then do a consult by phone about how it's going. He asked me if I was open to using Protopic and I said I was. I asked him if he was open to using Singulair and he said he was, but I should ask our pediatrician to prescribe and monitor. I said okay.

There were a couple of interesting questions on our new-patient intake form. They asked me, the parent, if I had questions a list of topics, from the child's "difficulty sleeping" to anger and conflict in the family. I checked that shit off straight up. No shame in admitting it. That last question basically asked, "Are you insane from dealing with your kid's chronic health problem?" Not that it's the kid's fault--shit, he didn't ask to have it--but yes, it can be extremely stressful for a family. Never mind you're having difficulty sleeping.

"It can be extremely stressful for a family," Dr. Doctor explained.

"Yup," I said. "We're having a hard time."

So the social worker came in. (How dope is that? In comes the hospital social worker, which is exactly what should happen in a compassionate society.) The social worker asked me if I would be interested in a support group of parents whose children have skin diseases. And I started to cry like a little kid.

"Fuck, yes," I said.

She didn't react to that, which was nice. She presented me with her card so that we could talk privately. And then she asked me if anyone had validated my parking.

I need to talk in person to somebody who gets it. That's what it is. I meet people online who understand, but there is less dimension to our meeting; our kids can't meet and be itchy together. I'm still waiting for Baldo to meet another kid his age with really bad eczema. He knows teenagers and adults with eczema. No little kids. And in person I meet a whole lot of parents whose kids have little patches on their elbows and behind their knees that resolve easily. I also meet a whole lot of dipshit adults, like that cow who almost didn't let us on a flight. I'm starting to get really, really snarly as my baseline emotion again. There has to be another eczema family around here someplace. I want to meet them.

Dr. Doctor agreed with me that Baldo's skin was not acceptable and not managed. He was keen on UV therapy and wet wraps. Le sigh. You ever meet someone who was freaked out by wet cloth, in a nails-on-a-chalkboard kind of way? My kid has that aversion, and the last time we did UV treatments, I had to go in the chamber with him. The bright bright lights and the fan would be going, and he'd be climbing on top of my head, terrified, both of us in ridiculous goggles. Nice. It did seem to help the itching if not the rashing, but it was such a nightmare for all of us (including the nurse who had to deal with us) that we stopped going. Now he's almost five, and maybe we can get more out of the experience.

blog for choice Today Roe v. Wade is the same age I am: 34. It's also Blog for Choice day. Coincidence? Actually, yes.

For me being pro-choice is about recognizing the right of individuals to make their own private reproductive decisions: having a child or not having a child, loving a man or loving a woman or loving yourself. Reproductive freedom is about giving people--especially women--the tools to plan our own families. It is about supporting a woman who chooses to give birth, whoever she is; it is about supporting a woman who chooses not to give birth, whoever she is. It is about respecting the work mothers do after birth and beyond--not merely their physiological role in conception. And it is about respecting the work women do besides mothering. So there you go.

Here in my neck of the woods, the ever-delightful Warren Chisum, who previously sought to keep gays and lesbians from adopting or fostering, is proposing legislation that would pre-emptively ban abortion in Texas (except to save the life of the mother), effective if Roe were overturned. So the guy wants more babies, with fewer people eligible to adopt and foster. Yeah, that's a great fucking idea. People tend not to take Warren Chisum too seriously, but we shouldn't forget that there's a well-organized, rich, indefatigable network of these whackjobs.

mommy/blogging From the excellent Centre for Research on Mothering at York University, which has recently launched its own press:

**NEW** Call for Papers: Mothering and Blogging Practice and Theory

Deadline for Abstracts (250-300 words): March 1, 2007
Publication Date: Spring 2008
Demeter Press is seeking submissions for the edited collection Mothering and Blogging: Practice and Theory. Critical writing about motherhood has, in the last few years, begun to engage as a new form of communication. All over the Internet, mommy bloggers are commenting on the radical act of being mothers and women within a world hostile to both of these identities. What are some of the questions posed by this new context for motherhood? What are the implications for sites of marginalization and diversity within the blogosphere? This new book by Demeter Press will seek to interrogate some of the complexities of the mamasphere through both creative and scholarly submissions. We encourage applicants from a range of experiences, in both community and academic contexts. Acceptances will be made by May 1, 2007; accepted submissions due September 1, 2007. Completed papers should not exceed fifteen pages (3750 words) and should be formatted according to MLA guidelines. Please send inquiries and abstracts/proposals to: May Friedman and Shana L. Calixte (mayf at yorku.ca, shana at yorku.ca ).

cold/flu Breaking news! Ice forms on wet surfaces when the temperature is below freezing! Stay home from work! Don't use the phone! Don't answer the door! Avoid the garage! Don't even use ice cubes!

I went to see if there was anything MLK-related going on, and it's all "Severe Weather Alert!" and "Ice Storm 2007!" Beware the ice-covered branches!

Cold weather is a big deal in Austin because we don't usually have it and we're not equipped to deal with it, but please. Calm down. You want me to stay home? Okay. It's done.

We are warm inside because Baldo popped a fever. At first I was all Flappy Bird about it since a temperature above 101 is a Bad Sign on our discharge orders from the hospital less than a week ago. The doctor on call gave me instructions for the fever, which by morning's light appears quite obviously related to a flu instead of a stuck penis. But you have to ask.

Meanwhile as of this morning my mom was still stuck at MD Anderson, her overnight chemo session having turned into a four-day stay. She's had cancer in three parts of her body over the last year, and she was worried about my kid's fever. She is a rock-star grandmother.

locals only If you live in Wooten, Crestview, or one of the other Northcross neighborhoods of Austin--where the Buicks are slow but the trains and the property tax hikes aren't--please take this survey sponsored by the Responsible Growth for Northcross organization. Yes, you can choose to say "I have no concerns with the current plan" if you don't, but I sure wish my family and I could walk to our nearby retail without getting creamed on Anderson Lane. If the Wal-Mart goes in as planned, maybe the City should erect some of those "family crossing hurriedly" signs you find on Interstate 5 in southern California.

chemo/therapy Hello, Web-er-net.

My mom starts chemo today.

Anybody got any jokes?

cock/block Good news, interweb. The Boy's penis is All Better Now.

Apparently it just needed a good yank under general anaesthesia. Took about two minutes, and then the nurse called me back to Recovery, and Baldo was there, eating a Blue Bell Bullet and talking up a mess of words, mostly about the Rescue Heroes. The worst part of the whole affair was when he insisted on one last lap through the corridors on the ward's pedal tractor and was shut down. Sorry, kid. No straddle toys today.

Mom needs some straddle toys and a stiff drink, though. But she's got to go to work tonight.

For the record, we did a straw poll in the waiting room, and it was pretty much split 50-50 between circumcised and uncircumcised boys. One kid was in for his second recircumcision because his penis kept retreating into his body. Small boys are at risk of penis problems by dint of being small boys, I guess.

nonstop/excitement It's what every mother of a boy fears: paraphimosis. (Warning: pictures you'll not soon forget)

If we're lucky and pray to St. Ursus of Ravenna, we'll get away with the dorsal slit and not the circumcision.

the end of the holidays Because we are beholden to the Austin Independent School District calendar, our "normal" lives have yet to resume. Could have used some of that time off before Christmas, you know.

Instead we are v. v. tired of each other. That's why families socialize.

"I feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator," J. observed.

Where's the magical cooling mud when you need it? I think it's called "preschool."

Our hangover cure Potato, egg, and cheese breakfast taco + chocolate soymilk.

You're welcome.