Rob Lifford

This has got to be one of the funniest ad campaigns ever created. I found the link on Airbag. Is this running in the US at all?

Wow. That is one cute pregnant lady, am I right? Other things to report:

• Cheris reports that the kid is getting “pointier.” From some of the kicks I can feel from the outside, I believe I can safely confirm those reports.
• The poor darlin’ had to endure a bunch of needle jabs and get some blood drawn (she hates that) at the last doctor visit, but everything’s still fine and dandy, and she’s feeling much better now.
• She’s really, really just impossibly cute right now. I know I said that just above, and at the last update, but damn.

…and the bad guys are winning big. The bans on gay marriage in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah also prohibit any type of legal civil union arrangements for same-sex couples.

The people of those eight states have now successfully wiped their collective ass with their states’ constitutions.

All over those states, and all over our other states, there are thousands of gay couples who have lived together in committed, monogamous relationships for years or even decades. They contribute to the economy and to charity. Sometimes they adopt and raise children who go on to become productive members of society as well. They respect other people’s privacy and ask generally ask little more from society but that others respect theirs. Many of them even worship in the same churches as their “normal” neighbors.

And those neighbors divorce each other at staggering rates. They watch garbage TV like Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire. And they play their little game of Judge Thy Neighbor. They go to the polls to tell a group of their fellow citizens that they can never be, in the eyes of the state, what they truly are in eyes of any rational man, woman, or God: a married couple.

This morally repulsive act of mass bigotry was accomplished via the electoral process. Record numbers of voters came to the polls in those eight states and made it happen in a systematic, orderly fashion. This is actually what a majority of them want, and this is what they have done.

So it seems to me tonight that America is not broken. Americans are.

This may be another fine reason for the US to get the hell out of the UN: Why is Iraq giving $190,000 to Toys R Us? Or $321,000 to Colonel Sanders? Disgusting, if it’s true. A number of American companies come off looking pretty awful in the article, and it sounds like they deserve it too, but the UN is running this crooked little show and it needs to stop now.

I’m about two weeks into yet another attempt to wean my body off demon nicotine. As usual, Extra Polar Ice gum is making a great contribution to the cause. Just noticed and thought it curious that Wrigley has a “What Gum Is Made Of” link on that page, but I’m kind of afraid to read it.

The biggest help in getting over those smokey-fits, though, is regular exercise, so I’ve joined up with a little running club at work. (I need more peer pressure to get my workouts in than I can get at the gym.) Every Tuesday and Thursday, a bunch of us knock off work a little early and hit the streets. Today we did a 40-minute run, and I actually ran the whole dang way, surprising the hell out of myself. We covered about 4 miles, I think. Ten minutes per mile isn’t exactly the kind of pace I’d have been pleased with in my high school track days, but after nearly a decade of smoking and sitting on my keister, I’m feeling good about it tonight.

If I can lift my legs and move my joints in the morning, I’ll feel even better about it…

Has a whole month really gone by since we posted the late pregnancy pic and news?!? Naw, can’t be, that’s crazy talk… but here’s the proof: a snapshot of Cheris yesterday, just hours after her 24-week prenatal visit. The kid and the mom are both in tip-top shape, the doc tells us. Ain’t she cute?

Yesterday marked not only 24 completed weeks of the pregnancy but 104 completed weeks of marriage. We celebrated the 2-year anniversary of our wedding with one of our favorite dates, an evening at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. We saw a sweet, romantic, anniversary-appropriate movie… complete with killer zombies, of course.