One of those things...

Let's say a person is buying less than 15 items at the grocery store, but five of the items are large bottles of wine. If the cashier alone is responsible for scanning the items, putting the bottles into individual sleeves, and bagging them and the other items with some attention to portability (in other words, double-bagging), can we really still call it an express lane? If the shopper behind that person, at first seemingly patient, looks like they need to pee really badly before the transaction has been completed, I'd say no.

Sippy Cups

My niece is coming to Wisconsin with her parents... they'll be here in about 12 hours! This is possibly going to be the best Thanksgiving ever. I have sippy cups, baby spoons, special chairs, jars of mush, and some normal people things, too, like good chocolate. And my boss let me off early today to boot.

I'm a little burnt out from work, frankly, so I really am looking forward to the long weekend. Management changes have been strange and awkward. Exhibit A: In which my 40-something-year-old well-educated white supervisor is discussing difficulty finding a desirable spot for his deer hunting trip - "I was really jonesin' the other day when we found out everything was already taken." Now I know just enough not to use the word jonesin', seeing as how I never really knew what it meant, and also because it's not something you generally hear around the office. But let's take entry #3, for instance, from urbandictionary.com:

an immense and incredibly emotional, mental, and physical need for heroin

Ok, I wasn't about to correct him or anything, but since he's been my supervisor for at least three months, I figured he would at least understand that I'd be the last person to sympathize with him on his deer huntin' troubles anyhow. I guess I'm hoping for way too much here. So needless to say, I expect a weekend with Kevin, my brother, sister-in-law, and of course my favorite bay-BEEE will do me a lot of good.

Whoopeeee!

And the Senate!!

Yeee!

First female House speaker ever! Hee heeee!

Go Vote!

Go! Vote!

The Game

It's funny how, even after four years of living in Madison, I am still struck by little reminders that I'm not on LI anymore. An announcement heard while shopping at JC Penney yesterday afternoon:

Attention JC Penney's shoppers - the final score from Camp Randall Stadium is Wisconsin Badgers - 13, Penn State - 3. Thank you for shopping at JC Penney.

Which was immediately followed by applause and cheers from our fellow shoppers as we stood, bewildered.

Milial Dermatitis And A Big Texas Hairdo

Unfortunately I had to work this past Saturday. Or to clarify, I offered to do about 1/2 hour of work, and then I got called for a problem that took all day to resolve. And I also did the 1/2 hour of work while I was at it. But before that, I helped Kevin tidy the apartment, vaccuumed everything, washed bedding, cleaned the bathrooms, baked an apple crumble (yes, the crust was homemade too), showered, and then went with Kevin to pick his parents up from the airport at noon.

The weekend otherwise went swimmingly. There were few arguments and many games of poker. Many meals were eaten out, and a good few leisurely strolls followed those meals. If I could change one thing, I suppose it would be the sleeping arrangements.

We give Billie her own room for a reason. But we put Kevin's parents in our room for the weekend, and imposed upon Billie so we could sleep on the futon. I spent three nights sleeping for 4 hours, and petting her every 20 minutes or so for another 4 hours. My right hand is just about shredded because she would get overly excited that I was paying attention to her. So as the days passed, I became less coherent and less patient. But I did well for having been generally exhausted.... at least from what I can remember. I even let Kevin's mom put my hair in rollers. Kevin returned from a lecture at precisely the right moment. After he greeted us and was asked for an honest opinion, his response was, "Mom - don't you think that's a little too tall!?" She had been teasing it up for a good couple of minutes.

Also, I took Billie back to the UW Vet Clinic yesterday afternoon to another dermatologist. Their final diagnosis was that she has milial dermatitis caused by environmental allergies. They could not explain how she developed full blown allergies over the course of one weekend. They were able to determine that their routine allergy screening would not give us any dependable results, so we will therefore need to perform some very expensive intradermal skin tests to find out what she's reacting to. Then we'll be able to give her a shot every day to help minimize her reaction to those allergens. Then there will be a chance that her skin will clear up.

¡Quiquiriquí!

My Favorite New Senior Citizen

Today my Dad turns 65. When I think about that, a lot of new sorts of feelings come up, and some old sorts. Nostalgia generally being my favorite of them, here are a few scattered pearls of wisdom I've gleaned in 26 years of knowing him...

• Always pack a change of clothes in your carry-on bag. If not a full set, at least pack a pair of clean underwear.
• Generally, how to fix a toilet, paint walls, rake leaves, climb trees, build a fire in the fireplace, make egg salad, and ignore siblings.
• Don't run with a ruler in your mouth. But also, don't run with anything in your mouth.
• Check the integrity of the electric cord of a power tool before you use it.
• (Sung half in an ascending scale, then descending) "First you make a wee-wee, then you take a bath." That one did slip my mind yesterday afternoon, actually.
• The value of a hot cup of tea... any time of day, any time of year.
• The value of "toast fingers". Especially when served with bacon, eggs, and a hot cup of tea.
• Yesterday, the meaning of Dollar Cost Averaging.
• Just keep taking the medication. Everything will be fine.
• Why you should keep your hearing aid on no matter what... oh, sorry. We haven't reached that stage yet.

In fact, my Dad is 65 and he still has a full head of red hair (with just a touch of grey). He looked just dashing in his tails & ascot at my sister's wedding last month.

H. B., Dad. Enjoy all your new discounts, and don't spend your $0.22 pension check from the British government all in one place.

I Love You, Wisconsin Local News!

Last night I succumbed to Kevin's new-ish addiction to Law & Order and brought my knitting over to the Trout's & Vicar's apartment to watch it with them. When it was over, we caught a few minutes of the local news. The top story being along the lines of "Boy, it's gonna get real cold... here... in Wisconsin." Ok, so they were right. It is kind of ridiculous that it was cold and snowing when I walked out of work today.

But far better was their second story (see the video from here - it's super). A hidden fire hazard that might be sitting in your living room at this very moment! Gasp! They cut to the in-studio reporter, standing, without a grin, next to a caption in big dramatic white letters, "Smoking Pot". Well, sure, we figured - smoking pot can indirectly lead to your home burning down.

The story was actually about a man who had brought a plastic flower pot to WI consumer protection, complaining that it had spontaneously combusted, nearly burning down his deck. Except that they found a cigarette butt in its remains. He had put it out into a pile of peat. Peat in a pot... which started to smoke. (A side note - in Ireland it was common to see my grandfather and other elderly Paddy's lay bricks of peat into the fireplace along with paper and coal. Because it burns, as expected. Also, he would try to convince his grandchildren that it was chocolate, and that we should try a bite.) The report concluded with a warning about proper use of potting soil. Then they flashed back to the reporter, standing next to his "Smoking Pot" caption. Those were the big stories from Madison last night. Kevin was nearly in tears.

Did you hear about the...

Giant Alien Bug in Germany????

Small Animal

This morning I started work at 6:30 so I could have a few hours to take Billie to the UW vet clinic. She's been crusty, scabby, and itchy since July, so we were at long last headed for Dermatology.

I had trouble following their directions, and somehow made a wrong turn into the 'Large Animal' area. I thought I might find parking around the back of the building. Instead I found a small herd of cows. After a quick turn round I reached some parking for the 'Small Animal' clinic.

I brought my 7 lb. Billie into the reception area, where her shock was something awful. She normally attends a quiet, almost peaceful clinic exclusively for spoiled cats much like herself. But today she found herself surrounded by some of the most enormous (and noisy!) canines I've ever seen in person. Though not an uncommon feeling for me, being petite, I felt dwarfed by these dogs. Billie was visibly offended, and she cowered and trembled when they began barking. To make matters worse, someone began running a vaccuum cleaner over the entranceway to pick up some fur... Billie's least favorite home appliance.

All in all the visit was successful. I got to see her blood cells, skin cells, and yeast on an overhead monitor as four vet students scribbled madly on clipboarded forms, and we brought home several bottles of pills and tubes of gunk. Billie is skittish, but has otherwise recovered. Tonight we begin yet another month-long regimen of treatment for my hyper-sensitive little friend.

Settling back in...

It's taken a week, and I think I might be getting sick... but I'm finally getting used to being back home again. Back home with nothing very stressful to do. I finished making this cat for my niece's birthday, though it's a week late.


I also wanted to remind myself that, though it was cold and kind of stormy, I did get to the beach while I was in NY. When I'm in Madison, one thing I forget is how good it feels to stick my feet in beach sand. I took off my shoes, rolled up my jeans, and stuck my feet in the chilly water. It was so nice that I stood there for ten minutes just thinking about it. Here's the shore on Fire Island:

I STINK!

For all of the repetitive tasks I have done in preparation for my sister's wedding, sadly "lather, rinse, repeat" has not been one of them.

From LI

Today my nearly 1-year-old niece learned to call the cops on speed dial. I'd like to think all the police who came to the house wouldn't have been quite so stern had they been able to hear the child cackling with glee from the kitchen. That's my girl!

Born and Raised on a Balcony

These are the first two successful tomatoes I've ever grown. I haven't tried them yet, but they are sure to be the best tomatoes ever. Because I grew them myself. My tomatoes.

Twenty-eight seconds of 'Aww'

The most cute you can get into 28 seconds ever to be seen on youtube... here

You Think Bush is Bad?

Virginia Senater George Allen hopes to be the Republican presidential candidate in 2008. Wouldn't we be lucky to have such an intelligent, witty, and charming man to run the country for a change? The kind of man who will call a person of color a monkey? And we thought international perception of the US couldn't get any worse. Boy, were we silly, silly people.

Knitted Titty

I recently discovered Knitty.com, an online journal with free knitting patterns and technique discussions. I was browsing through their pattern archives when I came across this jewel. Talk about resourceful. Really - read all her notes and warnings about the prosthetic knitted breast - she really put a lot of thought into this... and also it's funny. God forbid I ever get breast cancer, but if I do, I , too, will strive to have "a different titty for every day of the week".

Happy To Be Here

A few weeks ago instead of being asked to cat-sit by two friends while they traveled, I was instead asked to water their community garden plot. I knew they had one, but never knew where it was exactly. Little did I know there was a such beautiful sanctuary just on the outskirts of downtown Madison. I often enjoy Olbrich Botanical Gardens, and the UW Arboretum, but the community gardens lie somewhere in between the wilderness of the arboretum and the manicured feel of the botanical garden.

The Eagle Heights Community Gardens is one of the largest of its kind in the US, and has been there for almost 45 years. It is located next to the apartments at Eagle Heights, the low-rent, culturally diverse housing offered to UW grad students, faculty and staff - particularly those with families.

When you walk in, you no longer hear traffic - just twittering small birds, shrill hawks, and trumpeting cranes. Entering the gardens is not very different from what I'd imagine entering the Shire to feel like. People build stuff - little structures and things - out of branches and vines. There are bird houses all over the place with nests inside. And alongside the lake you can watch the cranes take off so gracefully. But when they land kind of nearby and you see that they are at least three feet tall, it's a little scary. But so beautiful all the same. And everywhere there are families taking care of organic fruits, veggies, and flowers. I enjoyed sampling green beans and sugar snap peas from the plot I was watering - there's nothing like ripe veggies picked off the vine.

Anyway, just look how cool:

More Colbert, Courtesy of YouTube

Ok, Stephen Colbert knows his Catholicism, and Stephen Colbert can ridicule a Georgia congressman. That's all great and I'm happy for him. But did you know that Stephen Colbert tumblecizes with Amy Sedaris?

The Great Bow of '06

As cool as our flooded parking lot was, check out the rainbow that appeared after last night's thunderstorms :





























I was telling a Baraboobian coworker about it this morning, and apparently he'd already seen it on the morning news. But as Kevin said, after I remarked how fortunate I felt for having noticed it, "it's seeing the rainbow that is the real pot of gold".

A Challenging Day

Kevin just called to tell me that each of the three things he set out to do this morning has backfired. 1. Pick up new frames for glasses: Clinic office is closed. 2. Purchase new bike tire: Forgot to take tire measurements. 3. Cash checks: Forgot to bring checks.

And while he's been driving around town gathering frustration, I've been sitting here for an hour and a half with my own dilemma. I'm ordering a cake for my sister's bridal shower next weekend, and there needs to be something written on the cake. I've googled, asked Jeeves, searched TheKnot, Brides, Party411, and Weddings, and even brought out Kevin's thesaurus ("happiness, n. 1. cheerfulness, gladness, gaiety, gayness..." 'Wishing you gayness' ? Nah.). Then I took ten minutes to think about the very idea of writing on cakes. An evil concept, to be sure. I ate lunch, then figured that if I'm stuck for words, surely a blog post would help clear the synapses. Either that, or I'll buy some colorful sprinkles and dump them on the top of the cake at the last minute to cover up my inadequacy. Sigh.

I would also like to note proudly that twice this week, I woke up on an entirely different planet. Kevin, having another one of his 'notions', as I call them, has been waking up at 5:30 am. I'm usually up around 6:15 and Kevin follows around 7 after much prodding and tempting with food and tea. But twice this week at 6 am I encountered Kevin in our living room, fully dressed, humming along to a concerto and folding laundry.

Deserving Of A Separate Post

Also today, we saw the film An Inconvenient Truth. Go see it - it's very important! Global warming is not a political issue, and Al Gore has not gone off the deep end. Want to see that much-anticipated WTC memorial before all of Wall Street is submerged in salt water? Watch the film and then go do something!

This message is sponsored by the Organization of Grapefruit Lovers For Tree-Hugging.

Fishes, As Promised... And Some Other Stuff

The trip to Atlanta went pretty well. I attended a technical conference there for a certain company that sells Business Machines, Internationally. I passed a certification test for a set of software that I use at work, which will help me get another job when we leave Madison. We also met up with a former coworker of mine who now works for said company, who asked if I'd be interested in coming on as a consultant. This could also be a cool option for my next job, but lots of travel. We'll see.

But more importantly, I visited the Georgia Aquarium. Wow! Whale sharks! Hammerheads! Saw-sharks, leaf sea-horses, big crabs, beluga whales, seals, sea otters, and oh, the little jellyfish! I would just as soon be attending the Georgia Aquarium Technical Conference than the one I was at. See!






























Also, Kevin & I bought our very own neti pots this afternoon after hearing such good reviews. Overall, a strange experience, but I'm feeling pretty clear right now so I'll keep it up and see how things go.

The Ice Cream Party

Here is a bit of conversation from work today, held over lunch. We had been discussing homemade ice cream. Personally, I like to pour espresso on a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream. But the conversation takes it's usual strange turn, as it does when you work in IT:

Me: Yep, just regular vanilla with a shot of espresso poured over it.

Boss: I love rootbeer extract mixed in with vanilla ice cream. My kids love it.

Coworker1: You know, I actually bought a blender attachment that goes on a drill.

Me: Wow, I bet you could make a lot of mixed drinks with that. (pause)

Coworker1: Well, I figured I could get some cream, fruit, and some liquid nitrogen and whip up some ice cream pretty quick. (everyone else nodding in general agreement) It's just that once you use the liquid nitrogen, you can't really put the ice cream in a regular blender, or mix it by hand or anything.

Me: Oh. Right.

The conversation continued with everyone talking about their favorite local supplier of liquid nitrogen, and their favorite containers for transporting it. Then,

Coworker1: This sounds like the makings of a good department outing. An ice cream party? We can all bring our favorite fruit!

Me: And I'll bring my camera.

Boss: I bet I could get permission to do it right here in the cafeteria...

Coworker2: I doubt it.

Boss: (indignantly) I can easily get permission to hold an ice cream party. I just won't mention that we're making it ourselves.

And so, probably before the end of the summer, this idea may well come into being. I will, as I said, bring my camera and do my best to explain how it actually works. I'm sure you will all want to try it out yourselves.

Birds and Fishes

I went for a short bike ride this afternoon because I was still craving sunshine after I played tennis this morning. Alongside Wingra Creek (as I rode waaaay on the right edge of the bike path!) were ten adult geese and dozens of little ones of varying sizes nestled beneath some shady trees. The babies were all fast asleep, spilling out onto the bike path and also down towards the water, and about half of the parents were awake to threaten unsuspecting bikers. The bike path was caked with smelly goose droppings, and still I thought "... how beautiful".

I'm only half looking forward to my trip to Atlanta next week for work, but I was recently informed by a certain bug-picking friend that the world's largest aquarium is located not far from the Hilton where I'll be staying. It is the only aquarium outside of Asia to house whale sharks, the largest fish in the world. I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get home.

A lovely cat.

And here we have Olivia just after her summer haircut:

The great flood of '06

Yesterday it rained so hard there were people swimming in our parking lot. They waded in shortly after I took this photo:

To A Deluxe Apartment in the Sky

So we made it through our move in about six hours, with a little help from friends. My guiltiest moment was when I tried to comfort Billie during her difficult time, and she peed all over me. She's never done that before, and had so far been entirely functional when it came to her litter box habits. I felt like a bad mom.

I struggled through the next few days, in the midst of two very busy and important weeks for me at work. And on Friday, when I had nearly made it to what seemed like an unreachable weekend, I wrecked my car just a little bit. There were men working on one side of the garage door, with their van taking up half the driveway. In my efforts to not run them over, I didn't give myself enough room on the right side of my car. And so it happened that I scraped the rear half of my passenger side along the frame of the garage door, breaking a plastic piece of framing from the doorway. And it will cost $1700 to fix my car.

Over the weekend I did the whole insurance claim thing as well as the last bits of our move, and on Monday, I wrote a proud email to the rental company stating that I had finished cleaning our old apartment downstairs, and was ready to hand over our keys to complete our checkout. And also stating that I had broken their garage door and my insurance company would be contacting them shortly to make sure any damages were covered. I was a little excited because we're supposed to get some money from our security deposit back, which is sorely needed at the moment. A week later, and no response from them.

How do you say... ?

We went to Devil's Lake State Park this weekend in Baraboo, Wisconsin. The question came up... are people from Baraboo called 'Baraboobians'?

If you feel like staring at photos of what I consider to be the best pizza in the world, see here.

Tales from the office

My boss was telling us the other day about his chipmunk problem. Here's a guy who claims to have been 'this close' to winning a Nobel prize. And 'this close' to attending a Nobel prize awards ceremony. But really, he's not so bad.

Or is he? He explained to us the destructive nature of chipmunks, and he crafted stories of rock walls crumbling, house foundations destroyed, and lots of little chipmunk-holes torn through back yards. So I get it... they're pests. And there exist several typical options for dealing with them. Poison, cat, dog, trap and release, etc.

I felt a moment of humane solidarity when he explained that he'd bought a bunch of rodent traps - the harmless kind. I thought, aww, he lets them go, just like in 'Curse of the Were-Rabbit'. Maybe there's a chipmunk sanctuary nearby where they can live in peace.

But he continued. When he catches a chipmunk (and he gets between 15 and 30 in a weekend), he approaches the trap, aims his pellet gun, and shoots it in the head. He explained that he occasionally misses (?!), and also occasionally, one will look directly at the gun and sniff the barrel with its little chipmunk nose before he obliterates it. Then, it's off to the carcass pile with the other unfortunate vermin. His young children are aware that he does this... I'm just waiting for the day one of them catches him at it. I wanted to puke up my inexpensive chimichanga.

***

Also, before I came to Madison, I had never heard of a cow magnet before. I thought, "Perhaps something like a chick magnet. The bull has some sort of contraption that encourages cows to come and mate with it." Nope. A cow magnet is a magnet that is fed into the cow's digestive system and attracts anything metal that the cow has inadvertently eaten. Then you simply pull out the magnet, and voila! Happy cow. Brilliant.

Good evening, and welcome to my blog.

For posterity, I'll begin with the details of here & now. Though they probably aren't of interest to most people, I might care some day what these are, and there is also that I will be the only reader - at least for a short while - of this blog.

At the moment I am sitting at my desk with a heating pad for my highly preventable back injury. So far, it's helping. I was engaged last October, became an aunt last September, and will be a maid of honor at my sister's wedding this coming September. My favorite city at the moment is Madison, WI. Favorite food? Grapefruit. I live with Kevin and our two cats. They're all great & I love them. In different ways. I work as a programmer / systems administrator at a student loan servicing company. I work hard at my job, but don't mean to do it for too much longer... at least two more years, but no more than four. I don't love it. I like to ride my bicycle, take walks, play tennis, watch Buffy, talk to the cats, talk to Kevin, cook, clean, pay bills (because I can), and play on my new computer.

We are about to move to another unit in our apartment complex because we've been hearing music from the store below our current apartment. Kevin and I routinely have violent thoughts about the store's owners, employees, customers, and even about the equipment they sell. We talk and laugh about these thoughts, but nonetheless, it is time to move away from the store.

I currently spend time worrying about money, the cats, Kevin, my family in NY, Kevin's parents in TX, my status at work, and now my back, too. And then there's the state of the country, and the state of the world. I hope things don't continue this way. In the meanwhile, Kevin and I have decided that the best way to do our part is to volunteer for progressive organizations. Kevin is working with Habitat for Humanity, and I just started at Action WI.

I am generally content with life, and with this post - so that will do for now.