Senses on a Suburban Spring Evening

What I see:

1. at least a dozen kinds of trees growing both fresh and new, and strong and tall among the over two dozen trees surrounding us
2. a little dog's forest worth of ferns
3. a few plucky birds out almost past their bedtimes
4. lightning bugs
5. lots of lightning bugs
6. around an acre of freshly shorn, fresh, green grass
7. hot pink roses
8. clematis
9. vines and more vines!!!
10. flowersflowersFLOWERS!!!!
11. plants soon-to-flower and those which will not but are beautiful in their own right because of their million shades of green
12. the swooping bats which I always refer to as "my bats"
13. a freshly filled hot tub
14. a riding mower
15. the tranquility of the cemetery behind my house
16. the neighbor's child's child's play-set
17. ...and a few pink, plastic flamingos

What I smell:
see numbers 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 above
and
a grill in some nearby yard cooling down from the busy day
warm concrete

What I hear:
see numbers 3 and 12 above
and
children playing in a yard (catching lightning bugs?)
a nearby screen door--the old-fashioned kind-- opening and closing regularly with a "whoooosh," then a "smack!"
some creatures scurrying in the brush and plants around the house
very light Sunday night traffic on "my" two busy streets

What I feel:
warm concrete beneath my dirty feet and under my ample ass
a mosquito and some gnats lighting repeatedly on my skin

What I know:
my oldest baby boy graduated from high school today
I have the whole summer ahead of me with my boys, my dogs, my friends, and--for a week--the ocean
my boys are safe and having fun with friends tonight
I'm about to eat a tub of mashed potatoes and gravy and a few biscuits with honey for a late supper

What I taste:
joy

Help with buying a new Kindle, please?

I'm looking at getting a Kindle. I already own many Kindle books which I now have on my free version of Kindle for iPhone.
The new Kindle with Special Offers--henceforth referred to as KwSO to save typing--is only $114 dollars and is supported by ads at the bottom of the screen. It appears that the only difference between it and the regular new Kindle (for $139) is the ads, but with the cheaper one you get-wait for it--special offers (some decent sounding money savers which I would almost definitely use). Neither of these have 3G wireless, but with the wi-fi, I wouldn't much care. I'm not one to buy on the run when it comes to books, as it were.
For $189, the Kindle 3G + WiFi offers an extra 2/10 of and ounce in weight and a shorter battery life. Um, what? Okay, it also offers free 3G wireless with "global wireless coverage" in 100 countries and territories. (Is that really "global?" Anywho...) Since I don't "buy on the fly," as I mentioned, and the KwSO holds 3,500 books (the same as all of the other versions) this seems unnecessary. Am I missing any functionality that warrants paying the extra $50 to have the 3G other than the "need" to access more than 3,500 books on the go?
Lastly, there's the $379 Kindle DX. The extra $190 gets you a larger screen (which also means 10.2 ounces heavier and 5/100 of an inch thicker), an all around shorter battery life (wireless on or off), automatic screen rotation rather than manual for, I guess, the super-lazy, and... well, that seems to be it. Is the $190 worth, basically, just a larger page? (Especially when that means it will take up more packing space and also weighs in at over a pound, which seems a bit sucky for arthritic wrists such as mine...) Not to me, especially since I am currently unemployed and about to embark on an expensive journey to my undergrad degree.
So. The choice is KwSO for $114, Kindle WiFi for $139 or the Kindle 3G for $189 (currently being offered with a $25 gift certificate).
Have I missed any features?
If you were me, which would you buy?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE in repsonse to a question:
There is internet browsing ability on both the wifi and the 3G + wifi versions. So internet browisng on the go for the extra $50, yes. But I have an iPhone on which I do that now and it would be with me anyway.
From Amazon: "Special offers and sponsored screensavers display on the Kindle screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen—they don't interrupt reading. "

Weepy Patriotism

These past few weeks, I have been feeling blinding anger about the new TSA procedures which include the "backscatter" machines and the "enhanced" pat downs. (Remember the last time we added the word "enhanced" to something in the "War on Terror?")
I've been fighting the good fight, so to speak, over on Facebook because, apparently, a lot of people don't mind giving up their rights for an illusion of safety.
So I've been pretty exhausted as far as writing anything here. But I do want to state one thing unequivocally here for posterity.
Over my lifetime, because of my über liberalism, I have been accused many times of being the antithesis of a patriot, literally called a "traitor." Yet I doubt many of those people (who usually call themselves patriots) would say what I'm about to say and feel the truth of the emotion behind the words.

I would rather die with my Constitutional rights intact than fly "safely" without them.

My PSA for the day

I'm sharing this, not because I agree with the author, but so I can comment that sexual assault has many different forms and it isn't always for sexual pleasure or about committing violence. I, too, have been sexually assaulted, but I understand that sexual assault is about power; power being taken away from the victim and given wholly to the perpetrator.
Yes, the case of the mother who was not informed what was going to be done to her, nor allowing her to consent to it is sexual assault. Her breasts and her labia were touched without her consent and without any warning. It traumatized her. That's it. That's sexual assault. If a person came up to you on the street and cupped your groin and breasts and you called the police, they WOULD arrest the person who committed the act.

I understand some sexual assault is violent or more physically invasive than what happened to this woman, but we spend years telling our children, "If someone touches your 'bathing suit areas' without your permission it is not okay," then we tell adults, "Hey, touch away, no permission needed. It's open season on my vulva/scrotum. Have at it!"

• Voice of Dissent: It's NOT Sexual Assault, so Please Stop Calling it That.
• TSA - Sexual Assault
  

Paris Daydreams

A Facebook friend of mine (the incomparable Muffy Bolding) is looking for a sublet and a friend of hers suggested a site in which he invested start-up money, airbnb.
I decided to check it out because I have quite liked the idea of home stays rather than hotels for a while now.
Of course, for the destination I entered the one place I will always choose to go if it's totally up to me: Paris. BIG mistake. I'm about to take the joint AmEx and run away for a week or two or five.
The windows, the balconies, the tucked-in-the-eaves garrets with exposed rough-hewn beams and tiny kitchens tucked in corners and handheld showers in teeny tiny tubs and the artist's flare for decorating that many people who sublet because they travel a lot seem to have, especially when they travel with their ballet or theater company or antiquing journeys across Europe for their boutiques as many of the subletters seem to mention. The Nutella and croissant and baguette and cheeses displayed in many of the artfully arranged kitchen pictures. The views of Parisian rooftops and La Tour Eiffel and canals and La Seine and Notre Dame de Paris. The little cobbled lanes one must travel to reach the flats.
MUST. Go. Back.
SOON!