The Merands

Isn’t she?

in philly at upenn

The photo credit goes to Robin.

When you make the decision not to drive a car, really, there’s a lot of handwaving about big problems that you’re going to face. Oh, groceries? No problem, I’ll just get some panniers! Great, for two bags of groceries. Great, if the grocery store is a five-minute walk away. Not-so-great if you have to go from Dorchester to Cambridge to get to the nearest co-op that stocks food that you can support buying. Not-so-great if you want to buy more than two, maybe three, bags of groceries. Definitely not-so-great if it’s the middle of winter, and you’re watching the kid, and you need to re-stock toilet paper in addition to getting five bags of groceries.

I’m jealous of the things that car-people don’t have to worry about. But I’m not jealous that they have to sit in a car while I’m out enjoying the weather (yes, even enjoying the rain or the sleet) and getting some exercise and not really spending any more time on my bike and usually going faster and not having to go to the gym so that my muscles don’t atrophy from spending all day in front of the computer.

The point is that we got a tricycle. We’ll probably get a larger one later, but we’re taking baby steps in the right direction here:

(Sorry for the crap computer camera photos). Just an enormous enormous gigantic front basket on that beast and we’re good to go! And maybe a trailer.

And when the time is right, we’re going to get one of these.

I’m proud enough of this to get over my internet-laziness and post a picture of the result! Here’s a JP sourdough, based on Breadtopia’s No-Knead Method (I used the sourdough, not the yeasted version).  He put the temperature too high, though, which resulted in a particularly crusty loaf. I’m going to set it lower next time I bake.

Here’s my Jamaica Plain sourdough:

it's tasty.

I posted this to Slashdot, but since nobody there is going to read it I thought I’d post it here too:

http://barcc.org/information/facts/stats [barcc.org]

“Nearly 60% of rape/sexual assault victims did not report their victimization to the police in 2006, according to National Crime Victimization Survey data.”

“95 percent of sexual assaults that were reported were determined to be substantiated with sound evidence.” – this according to the FBI

Before you make claims about how often false reporting actually happens, it’s worth looking at the statistics. Talk to somebody who works at a rape crisis center or DV shelter, and you’ll see that, while they typically agree with you that false reporting spoils our justice system for the VAST MAJORITY of legitimate victims (men and women), they’ll also cite the above statistics and many more which prove that it’s a rapist’s world, not a victim’s world.

Your friend’s story is moving, and the institution involved acted very prematurely in kicking him out. They likely did this because they’re so afraid to talk about assault openly that they’d rather stigmatize it using him as an example in the hope that it will all just go away and they’ll never have to think about it again.

Here’s a newsflash – assault won’t go away until we don’t allow it any more as a society. Go visit the link above. Think about those statistics, and then think about your behavior and how it might be enabling for potential perpetrators. Have you ever stood by and done nothing while somebody you know, or somebody at a frat party you were standing next to, made plans to get a girl drunk and “nail” her? You just allowed a potential rape to happen, and you’re at fault for not informing the fellow that he was planning a rape.

It’s time to stop blaming victims, and start talking about these issues openly and calmly instead of with the irrational bias of fear and uncertainty.

We’ve been negligent on the blog. We know this. I’ll post a few pictures to sum it all up.

We just got back from the honeymoon, and were happy and made… happier… by all the links to photo albums from our weddings in our inboxes! For those of you who haven’t sent us photos or links to them yet: you should! It is encouraged!

Naturally, we’ll post links to the official photos when they become available.

Michal’s Photos
Dawn’s Photos

And also photos of our honeymoon!

We’re getting excited about the wedding! You can tell from this:

Some people ride limos away from their wedding. We’re going to do something slightly different. Here’s a preview:

Walking Directions (~15 minute walk):

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(this is about a 10-15 minute walk)

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