Nope. This is an ad for better freaking parenting.

Seriously, dude. Grow a pair and discipline your kid.

I think I’m annoyed because this ad seems to basically say “having kids is bad.” The tag-line isn’t “be careful,” or “wait until you’re ready.” It’s “use condoms.” As if there could never be any situation, besides an accidental one, in which someone would put themselves through the terrible tragedy that having children must surely be.

Except that most of the parents I know will tell you that having children was and is the single most mind-warping, awe-inspiring, life-changing, beautiful thing that has ever happened in their lives.

What a wickedly crazy last month. I spent a few weeks with a regular ol’ head-and-chest cold (not swine flu, but still not fun). I staffed the Diocesan Convention for Olympia in Vancouver. I went to Steam-Con in Sea-Tac.

More recently, I was towed under not in a physical, but emotional sense when my dear, sweet cat, Planchet, passed away a week ago. He succumbed at last (I say “at last” because I had been warned of it so long ago) to his extensive health problems. I’m so thankful, though, for all of the kind words you’ve all offered. I knew it would be hard, but it’s a lot harder than I expected, both on me and on Pwca. It doesn’t feel so much like an emotional roller coaster as an emotional drop tower. But even those stop falling sometime, right?