names

Right now I’m on the couch with Damien – he’s napping in his faux-Boppy and I’m watching House Hunters. Today is one of our Home Alone days, when Dan is working and my parents/Kassi are in school, and this is actually the first time I’ve made it out to watch TV (don’t ask me how this works, but little things are surprisingly difficult when you have to accomplish them whilst carrying around a newborn.) (Which, eee, I have to mention that Damien is only considered a newborn until the end of the week. Crazy!)

So anyway, on to the title content: I found a website where you could track a name’s popularity over the last 100 years or so. I put Damien’s name in out of curiosity, then I realized you could add another name to compare them, so I added Damian.

I’m not sure if I’ve included the whole name story here, but here’s a recap: from the time we started dating Dan and I knew we liked the name Damien for a boy. After we got pregnant I bought a baby book and we went through the entire thing, only to discover… we couldn’t really agree on a name other than Damien. Well, that was easy, right? That’s what we assumed, until we realized we were having a little misunderstanding – Dan assumed the spelling was DamiAn, and I liked DamiEn. (Obviously I won lol, but only because I made a bunch of crafts with that spelling on it. Also probably because he was such a pickypants about the name choice that I deserved something easy…)

As it turns out both are valid spellings, but I was at least a little validated to discover their popularity isn’t THAT different:

Not sure if there's no information on the 2000's, or if this is just a really unpopular name these days...

Then I got curious and decided to look up the various forms of my name. Laeci, of course, didn’t exist, but here are the rest of ‘em:

Funny that the closest to my name is the least common...

So apparently my name was popular in the ’70′s but not really at any other time… lol. Oh well, I like having a unique name. :)

haircut update

I wrote about my accidental mom haircut here. Actually, it’s growing on me (haha literally but that’s not what I meant… shut up.)

Anyway, I was amused to find a sequel to the previously-posted Anxiety Cat that perfectly describes my situation. Oh, Anxiety Cat, you know me so well…

(p.s. My college experience, right here… which is why, sadly, it’s not yet over.)

 

name fun

Someone on my pregnancy message board linked to HowManyofMe.com, which tells you how many people in the U.S. have the same name as you (or whichever name you search.)

According to my search:

• Dan: There are 1,526,358 people with his first name (it’s the 16th most popular name), 1,773,210 people with his last name (3rd most popular), and 8,680 people with his combined name.
• Me: There are fewer than 1,599 people in the U.S. with my first name (it’s not common, so there aren’t exact stats for it for privacy issues), and the same stats as Dan for the last name. My combined name is shared with 9 or fewer people (if you use my maiden name, it’s 1 or fewer! Right now, ‘fewer’ is probably right… There are 11,983 people with my maiden name in the U.S.)
• Baby: I’m not quite ready to share baby’s name, but we’re pretty sure we’ve made our decision. In all events, there are 21,827 people in the U.S. with this first name, and 124 with the combined first and last.

Of course, having a completely boring and common last name really increases the chances that we’ll share a name with anyone,

Here’s the rest of my family:

• 55 people with my dad’s combined name
• 5 people with my mom’s combined name
• 1 person with both Kaeli and Kassi’s combined names (again, unique names screw up the individual stats)

I don’t hate you

Your Aperture Science Cooperative Testing Type is:

Weighted Companion Cube

Stalwart and dependable, you’re always willing to give a friend the shirt off your back, a shoulder to cry on, or a step up. Compatible cooperative test partners include shirtless people who can’t stop crying while they use you as stairs.

(from portal2 via @donnamatrix – RIP Companion Cube!)

hooray for Planned Parenthood

Chances are if you know me, you know I’m a Planned Parenthood supporter. They’ve been my main source of medical help for the past three years, since I lost my health insurance. Here’s what PP did for me: provided birth control at a cost I could afford, did initial screenings for PCOS, and gave breast exams, pap smears, and other preventative healthcare measures. Here’s what PP didn’t do for me: provided an abortion. (Actually, the PP in my town doesn’t even DO abortions; when I had to have a D&C after my miscarriage I had to look elsewhere.)

This morning, I read a lovely little email in my inbox from PP, saying the senate voted to keep Planned Parenthood funded. Which is awesome for everyone, really, because 1) federal money doesn’t pay for abortions, it pays for preventative healthcare, and 2) preventative healthcare = stopping expensive things from happening (like cancer, or babies) =  less federal money needed! It’s win-win!

Anyway. Included in the email were links to two funny Planned Parenthood-related videos, which I just had to share:

Jon Stewart on Planned Parenthood attacks, aka, “Why 90 is a Really Confusing Number”

I get those numbers mixed up a lot. 90%, is it 3%, is it 90%… I’ve been buying 90% milk. Very hard to pour; you have to eat it with a fork.

Stephen Colbert on Planned Parenthood attacks, aka, “Pap Smears at Walgreens”

Republicans gave up cutting all funding to Planned Parenthood. What a waste of money! Who plans for parenthood? You chug five wine coolers on New Year’s Eve, wake up in a strange bed, then come September you’re hanging a ducky mobile inside the walk-in closet the way God intended!

And one more Jon Stewart quote:

For instance, if I were to say John Kyl spends 90% of his time in the Senate drooling and farting, I don’t mean that as a statistic of fact, I mean that at times, he probably produces saliva and methane. Breaks wind. Which is not surprising for a man whose body is 90% fecal matter.

Yes, indeed.

quote (presidential edition!)

My parents and the junior/senior classes recently went to Washington, D.C., and I’m working on a bulletin board for my dad’s classroom about the trip. I’m looking up presidential quotes for the board, and I found this Obama one I really liked:

But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace. That’s what I strive to do, that’s what I pray to do every day.

-Barack Obama

(from brainyquote.com)

Liver-licious

I took a “What Internal Organ Are You?” quiz (intriguing title, right?) and got Liver. And thought, “eew, gross.”

But then I read:

You are a very versatile, adept person. You are able to do many jobs.
You seek balance at all times. You are good at adjusting yourself to keep things level.

You are able to counteract bad influences. You can neutralize anything toxic.
You are resilient like no one else. You can rebuild yourself completely if you need to.

And I decided being a liver isn’t so bad, since hey, that’s pretty accurate.

I will strive to be more liver-y in my life from now on… as long as I don’t have to look like one.

quote

While downloading the entire internet today, I found this quote, which is really similar to my current favorite quote and may even surpass it:

We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. -Sam Keen

(from It Works For Me!, which – you guessed it – features a pretty free printable of the quote)

seriously…

(via soberinanightclub)

tasks

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

-Helen Keller

(from 320 Sycamore)