So we’ve I’ve moved our website to a new host, and reinstalled the blogging software (wordpress). So the blog works again (and someday it might be pretty again, but don’t hold your breath on that one).

And everytime I sit down to write a post that involves the kiddo, I pause. What are the ethical implications of blogging about my child? What topics are off limits? What level of privacy do I owe her?

If you haven’t seen it already, read this article and then visit this site - stories of people dying of cancer along with photos of them near death and on the day of their death. It’s beautiful, sad, haunting, thought-inspiring. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the lady who worked in the soap factory.

Hey all, sorry not much posting lately. Before we get to the update, check out this link. Collateral damage? We can hide behind the euphemisms all we want, but people are people and war is ugly. Anyway, I digress.

Still matched with the birthmom. Start lamaze classes with her this weekend and they last until July 17. Had our official match meeting. Things seem to be going well. Fingers and toes are crossed that this one works out. If it doesn’t, we’ll be hanging up our open adoption hopes for a while and taking a very long vacation (I want Amsterdam, not sure about Brian).

Still haven’t made sure birthmom is okay with our website. Maybe we will do that this weekend after lamaze classes. Or maybe we will just procrastinate some more. I’m not sure.

Send us some positive thoughts and prayers.

Hope y’all like the new look. Thanks to Kathy at blogmoxie for making it happen. We love it, so we hope you like it too.

We also moved to a new hosting provider, and lost a few of our recent entries (about Ayden, frustratingly enough) and comments in the move. I’m trying to get them back, but no gaurantees.

Also, after much debate, we’ve made the blog the entry point to our website.

Any permalinks that you had archived are now broken (sorry) because we renamed the directory from mattweblog to blog.

Our friend Patrick took some new shots of us this weekend for use in updating our birthmom letter. He’s managed to get them posted online before us (damn those mac users), so check them out.

He’s also, apparently, talented. Check out this movie he made about the day we got married in SF. (it’s in quicktime format, and kind of big, about 20MB, so if you are on a dialup connection it will probably take a while to download).

The following was sent to me via a friend. I liked em a lot, but I don’t take credit for them. Author unknown (to me, at least):

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.

“Standing Tall for America” means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.

A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans’
benefits and combat pay.

Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won’t have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy.
Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

Global warming and tobacco’s link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a “we can’t find Bin Laden” diversion.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

The public has a right to know about Hillary’s cattle trades, but George Bush’s driving record is none of our business.

You support states’ rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the ’80s is irrelevant.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

I step away from the weblog for a while… okay a few months… okay maybe a little more than that… and the whole freaking world goes to hell. She’s having serious drama. Money, deportation, yeah, um, I’d be beyond mental. He moved to a teeny tiny town in Florida. And became a Scan Coordinator Assistant at a grocery store. This is not right.

She’s sounding kind of bleak. Not her usual zen, I’m gonna make it through this, I will survive kind of mantra. But she will.

So I’m sending out good thoughts for y’all. For all y’all. I hate being the stable one. It just feels, well, wrong.

Mine will be blue. Unfortunately, that rat bastard known as Steve Jobs, pre-announced the product, so I won’t be getting mine until February. Make it quicker, c’mon already!!!!!!

As a former Apple education employee (2 years as an intern, 6 as an employee), I was so thrilled not to be an employee in the education division today. One of the reasons I left was my dissapointment that the company was focusing on solutions for consumers, not on solutions for education customers. And today’s announcements pretty much reinforced that. I’m glad as hell that I’m not having to spin why Apple’s invention of garage band software is proof positive of our committment to curriculum solutions in the K-12 education arena.

As a consumer, I love the products Apple builds. But if I was a K-12 school district… well let’s not go there. My former customers still use Macs, and love them. And I love (most) of my former customers.

Did Bikram style yoga tonight. Class was super crowded because of all those pesky new year’s resolutions. Which made the normally hot (on purpose) room insanely hot tonight.

But it felt good. It really did.

Hilarious. Freaking hilarious.

I’m a unitarian by choice. Of all the services I’ve attended, it is the one I’m the most drawn to. That said, I’ve really never been to a service that isn’t derived in some way from Christianity.

But lately I’ve been drawn a lot toward buddhism. One of my pet peeves about being a unitarian is that the experience and the sermons, in particular, speak to my head. Sunday mornings are food for thought, but not necessarily food for the heart.

Unitarians, in my experience, get a bit squeamish when it comes to the intangibles. Not that we are squeamish about faith, or our beliefs. But unitarianism, to me, has the feel of a WASP religion that feels safe in the exploration of ideas and experiences. For whatever reason, my primary complaint about it has been that it has spoken to my head and never as much to my heart.

But something tripped when I went and did a meditation session at the SF buddhist center. It wasn’t some cult-like drink-the-kool-aid moment. But it felt like the right place at the right time. Or the right thing to be doing at the right time.

I’m a carnivore, so I’m not making any plans to give that up. But I’m definitely open to exploring the buddha thing a whole lot more. For whatever the train that is my life has pulled into the buddha station, so we’ll be staying for a while to explore.

And oh yeah, speaking of boy meets boy, my vote is that Franklin is the straight boy. I don’t know why, I’ve just had that vibe since day 1. I guess we’ll find out next week.