Tuesday, April 25, 2006

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.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

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.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

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.