Someone got shot outside my apartment about 20 minutes ago. There is nothing I can do. The police are already here, they told us all to go back inside, I'm not a doctor, so there's nothing I can do. So I blog. I don't know what else I CAN do.

About half an hour ago I woke up to a man shouting. That's not abnormal for this neighborhood. We have some young art students that get drunk sometimes and shout. But this is different. This exuded sadness and confusion, and a little bit of anger.--read more >>

Indeed.

From the Washington Post.
Link:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/01/democracy_now_host...

By Holly Watt--read more >>

Okay, I need some advice. My new hubby of just a few week's best friend, who was also the best man at our wedding, moved back into town. Out of love, kindness, and togetherness we invited him over to our house for grilled meats and beer. All was fine and dandy until all the guests but the three of us (Mitch, Jerkass, and myself) remained. Mitch went into the bathroom, which left Jerkass and I alone on the porch.--read more >>

I try to positive all the time, but you can't be positive all the time. You have to blow off steam sometimes. So how about a game of "I hate it when..."?

"I hate it when": you talk about something that happened on tv last night, and someone else announces "I didn't watch it, I don't have a TV" all snooty like not having a TV makes them better than those of us that do have TV's.

This happened when I was talking about Obama's beautiful speech. It's not like I was watching All My Children. I don't watch All My Children, and THAT'S what makes ME better than those of you that do! --read more >>

My name is Valorie Engholm (I'm okay giving my full name on here because I'm also a musician and would like to promote my music, go to www.myspace.com/valorieengholm. Go go shameless promotion!) Okay, so my name is Valorie Engholm. That's the name my dad gave me when I was born. I changed it for a brief time when I was married the first time, but decided I really liked "Engholm", was really attached to it, and I wanted to keep it. But my aunt made this check out to someone named "Valorie Mitchell" and sent it to me, intending to pay for wedding flowers.--read more >>

I'm following you on twitter, and I know you are a hipmama, but for some reason I don't know who you are on here! Does that make me a bad person? Anyway, will Imaginarydana please stand up? I feel so lost!

We had grilled chicken, rosemary potatoes, and corn on the cob. Husband cooked the chicken, I cooked the potatoes, Son cooked the corn.

Quotes from dinner tonight:
ME: This chicken is really tender!

SON: mmMMmm!

HUSBAND: This is the best meal I've had in a long time!

Now, we didn't have anything special. Just your down home chicken/tater/corn dinner. I think it's the communal cooking that really did the trick!

What'd you all have for dinner?

I hope you don't mind. I went out with a friend tonight to a cabaret and it was so much frikkin' fun. Hubby stayed home with the kid, which is very nice of him since it's not his kid and we've only been married two weeks, but kid was asleep anyway. Anyways, nice hubby! Good hubby! So, I have a couple thoughts I wanted to share while I'm waiting for this buzz to wear off and I can go to sleep:--read more >>

I am going to send you to my myspace... http://www.myspace.com/violetjune17
Because I'm to tired (lazy?) to upload them yet again to photobucket and copy/paste the code here! Forgiveness? Check them out!

Read and form your own opinion, but... It doesn't say this in the article, but it seems to me that slavery is alive and well in America.

Link:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/slammed-lingerie-and-bul...

What Do Prisoners Make for Victoria's Secret?

NEWS: From Starbucks to Microsoft: a sampling of what US inmates make, and for whom

By Caroline Winter

July/August 2008 Issue--read more >>

N: My son left his homework at my house and it is due today. His fa-ther claims there is no time to swing by my house to get it, so I have to bring it to his school. In my jammies.
P: I got to see my son this morning! And he smiled at me! And he was so grateful that I brought him his work. He's such a good kid.

N: The girl sitting next to me in math class today told me that this class was stupid, then she prompted to work on her french homework. In math class. How annoying.--read more >>

I took this picture with Photobooth, which likes to show mirror images. So imagine this picture, only opposite! lol--read more >>

So I did.
http://startswithvee.wordpress.com

Read, enjoy, or don't. Whatever.

The background track to this feature film, not coming to theatres near you, is "Get On Out" by Soul Asylum. I had been in the car for about 5 hours when this film was made, and had another 6 hours yet to go. I was hungry, and also pretty crazy. Thank goddess for photobooth and laptop computers with somewhat reliable batteries!--read more >>

Yup. All the fam is here. My dad's here. My long-lost aunt from Florida is even here.

This is going to be a better turnout than my first wedding!

Pictures to be posted in the following weeks. Do I have to say that I'm very excited? Cuz I'll say it anyway.

I'm very excited. Very. It's gonna be so frikkin' beautiful I might pee my pants.

My cousin and her three kids came in for the wedding, a present in itself! Here we have my boy (the one in the middle) and his two cousins walking home from the park. I forgot how great it is to have family around.

My boy is going to look dapper in his little kung-fu suit.

That's right, I said "dapper".

That is all. Have a good day.

V.

I'm legally single for five more days! We got a target gift card in the mail from a well-meaning friend who could not attend, so we used it to buy a bookshelf. I have to say I'm really proud of my butch shelf for putting it together myself with extremely little help (Mitchy had to hold in place while I put in the screws at one point, and he also had to listen to me yell things like "jesus christ!" and "god dammit fuck!". He's a good man). I WILL post a picture of the sexy bookshelf as soon as my camera batteries are through recharging. I assure you it is lovely!--read more >>

So I got this free laptop from my work. No big deal. They were purging all their old junk and distributing it to interested parties. I have this crashed Dell laptop at home that I've been wanting to get the files off of but was too lazy and cheap to go out and buy the equipment I needed to do it. So when this free lappy op came up, I jumped on it!

Last night, a friend of ours came over while I was digging into the guts of old dead Dell. "What are you doing?" he asked?

"I'm switching out these hard drives," I told him.

"You know how to do that?" he exclaimed.--read more >>

Ok, but seriously... Why does it seem so important to everyone that I shave my legs and armpits for the wedding? Mitch isn't going to shave his, either, and no one seems to care. I'm not wearing make-up either, and that's bothering people. Mitch isn't wearing make-up, and nobody is giving him a hard time about it.--read more >>

You don't have to read this if you don't want to. It's another one of "those". I'm not looking for advice, but it you do choose to leave advice, try to be as honest as possible without the fear of hurting my feelings. Deal?--read more >>

So my friend came in from Tres Piedres to visit and asked if I'd come back with him. I said no, of course, that I have to finish school before I think of leaving Kansas City. Not that I don't want to go to NM with him. Poor lonely guy!

Anyway, I started thinking about how I've been wanting to relocate for sometime and I started looking around at NM after hearing him talk about it. I found a school in Sante Fe that offers a Master's in Eastern Classics.--read more >>

She's not coming, she's not bringing the kids, my son is very sad that is friend isn't coming and I'm kind of offended. I mean, why did you let him put down "4" on the response card if you're not gonna come?

Anyway, I'm offended and sad. Obviously there's more to the story, but seriously, does she have so much disdain for us that she can't even come to our wedding? For fuck's sake, woman!

Sexy Boyfriend and I have been having more arguments than usual lately. In the past we'd have a spat once a month maybe, no big deal. Currently, we're having deeper, more meaningful arguments like once a week. Here is what we've been arguing about:--read more >>