Well, it sure is February all right.

Quick question: Do you say February with both rs, or with only the second one?

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TEXAS BOARD APPROVES TEXTBOOK REVIEW RULE CHANGES

Well, hallelujah.

http://bit.ly/1bhfVQZ

Israeli army preventing Palestinian from sowing land near settlement

Army evading obligation to escort and protect Fawzi Ibrahim while he farms his land, rights group says.

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-1.571172

Hate Crimes Against The Homeless
America’s Growing Tide of Violence
August, 2010

http://bit.ly/1iYDyTd

Wal-Mart Stores warned Friday that cuts to the nation's food stamps program late last year will hurt its bottom line.

Just imagine how much more it would "hurt" them if they had to pay their employees a living wage!

http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/31/news/companies/walmart-food-stamps/

Sex with Neandertals Introduced Helpful and Harmful DNA into the Modern Human Genome

http://bit.ly/1klcHyD

When HIV jumped from chimpanzees to humans sometime in the early 1900s, it crossed a gulf spanning several million years of evolution. But tobacco ringspot virus, scientists announced last week, has made a jump that defies credulity. It has crossed a yawning chasm ~1.6 billion years wide.

http://bit.ly/1fiUf6i

My Fox News Nightmare: How I Tortured Myself with The Propaganda of Ignorance

I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU, so here's what happened when I watched 3 hours of Fox every day for a month.

http://bit.ly/1bh9L3i

Cameron unhappy newspapers still printing Snowden data leaks

http://reut.rs/1ijsUUq

CSEC used airport Wi-Fi to track Canadian travellers: Edward Snowden documents

http://bit.ly/1bMFiH8

Why Norovirus Is Such a Menace

http://slate.me/1loWFI1

Are Fitbit, Nike, and Garmin Planning to Sell Your Personal Fitness Data?

http://bit.ly/1n3akA7

(no subject)

Hah, so one of Ana's friends' mom drove me to Costco a few weeks ago. She's turning out to be a real friend, which makes me wary of taking advantage of her good nature. She tricked me there, didn't tell me in advance that payment has to be done via cash or Costco credit card, ended up paying for the whole shebang. And that's not the least of it, so I felt I really had to reciprocate. (And let me just say, "don't worry about it" is about the most annoying thing you can say to me if I say I'll pay you back. I never know just how sincere that is. Like, is there a percentage? Or a certain amount by which, at that point, they're just being polite and you really do have to worry about it? The social rules of this situation escape me totally. If you really don't want to be paid back, just say "okay" and then lose the receipts before I can get a good look. Otherwise, I worry. But I digress.)

So I decided to use some of the butter and flour and huge bottle of vanilla extract I picked up to bake the aforementioned cookies. I baked six varieties ultimately - chai oatmeal, lemon cornmeal, peanut butter with chocolate chips, chocolate cream cheese, ginger snap, and raspberry thumbprints, which turned out disappointing. I used a different shortbread recipe from my normal guess and gosh version, and it was blah.

And it's a good thing I did, because when I passed her the heavy tin full of cookies she passed me a birthday present - four pounds of butter and some walnuts! LOL! I think the girls eat butter by the stick right now, which is concerning because we never have been entirely sure if the dairy thing totally cleared up, and also it costs a lot of money. The good thing about this is I can reciprocate *that* next Christmas or whenever her birthday is, and it is the thought that counts when it comes to birthday presents, absolutely.

Her trip to Costco, incidentally, meant I could take the money I saved there and order $50 worth of cat food (with a coupons so it came to only $40 and free shipping), which should last us at least another 2 months. That is a weight off my shoulders. One of our cats is huge, and seems to be constantly eating, and I know for a solid fact that at least two other sets of people feed him!