Outrageous!

A friend at work just told me that stamp prices are about to be raised from $0.39 to $0.41. Didn't they just raise them from $0.37 to $0.39 recently? Oy. The new prices go into effect on Monday, so send all those letters/bills/mail-in rebates in the next few days if you don't want to have to purchase a bunch of $0.02 stamps to go alongside your shiny almost-new $0.39 ones...

There's been a lot in the news recently about theatre and banning things, from cigarettes (harmful smoke) to guns (post-Virgina Tech) to any kind of weapon (unless obviously fake, like a cardboard sword). There's also the issue of warning the audience ahead of time, which I guess I can understand in the case of strobe lights (in case an epileptic person is in the audience), or smoke (if a severely allergic person is in the front row?)...but in this case, a theatre is warning its audience about a CHICKEN!!! Not a live chicken, mind you, but a roast chicken. Apparently one of the actors eats some chicken in the play, and they don't want to offend any vegetarians. This is possibly one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. In my life. Ever. Seriously.

There's a whole bunch of discussion going on in the science/baby world about prenatal testing for Down Syndrome. The testing is all controversial because parents can decide to abort the baby if they find out it will have the disease, and many people (both pro-lifers and parents of Down Syndrome kids) don't think that's right. There's even more controversy because some people feel doctors are either A) convincing people to abort by listing all the potential health problems, financial stresses, social nonacceptance etc. that come with having a child with Down Syndrome or B) pressuring people to keep the child by introducing them to families that have a child with Down Syndrome. There are problems with both of these, which this article points out: there are apparently ways to make the health problems less of an issue (like infant heart surgery and such), and there are government laws of some sort to promote social acceptance; but also, it appears that many doctors are only introducing potential parents to families with very well-adjusted Down Syndrome children, and not showing children who have developmental difficulties that are more severe. I don't know...it's a tough issue. Having babies is scary, and this sort of thing only further reminds me that I am nowhere near ready for kids. I don't know what I would do if I found out my tiny little fetus (read: not fully formed human life) had Down Syndrome. I don't know if I could abort, but I don't know if I could emotionally, physically, and financially handle raising a child with it. Like I said, all the more reason to not have kids yet. You hope that they'll come out happy and healthy with 10 fingers and 10 toes, no disabilities and no complications, but I know it just doesn't always happen that way. And I'm generally a pretty paranoid/neurotic/type-A sort of person when it comes to this stuff...moral of the story: no babies until I know I can handle any and everything. Ha.

On a lighter note, here's an article about how you can stock up your kitchen with all the best stuff, without spending a lot of money (though the article's budget is still above my means). And no, it's not from The Simple Dollar.

Last but certainly not least, my friend Brian is competing in the IDEA Health & Fitness Video Contest. Check out his awesome jump roping video and click "vote" to help him win! He could win a year's supply of vitamin water! And that's just second place! It's seriously a fun video and he's a fantastically talented jump roper. Really. Check it out. You can vote once every 24 hours until June 20th. Go to!