Give Me a Grapefruit

Two NYT columns for this? Really?

2010-06-08T20:41:00.003-05:00

Look, here's a NYT columnist who thinks he's both courageous and original for suggesting that women aren't as good as men at math and science:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/science/08tier.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Brilliant! To that I say -- great. Thanks a lot, you brave, original douchebag.

But in earnest, why does this one small section of science & technology legislation deserve such thorough discussion, in two separate columns from one writer? What is so troubling about requiring Federal science agencies to hold workshops to raise awareness about gender bias in research grant awards? Heavens, no! Not workshops!!

If other countries can be highly competitive in math and science while maintaining less of a gender gap, then surely our country can, too. Dude, there is an institutional bias in these areas. If all you can come up with is to contest the existence of a bias, with no thoughts on how to remedy, don't write the column. It's not helping.

belated holiday cheer

2010-01-12T19:36:00.002-06:00

I know it's a little late, but maybe I'll come back and read this next year and enjoy it.

The Saturday before Christmas Kevin and I were running errands like mad before we headed out to his parents' house for dinner. When we got to the post office where I needed to buy various denominations of postage stamps, there was a line just to park. Kevin left me there so he could dash off to do some more shopping while I waited to buy stamps.

After about 45 minutes of standing in line, I finally entered the actual office part of the stuffy P.O. and was feeling a little hopeful to be able to see the clerks. A few minutes later, a woman several places in line behind me began humming loudly - the tune of What Child Is This? - with her eyes closed. It was a little odd, I thought, and it made me feel kind of uncomfortable. Her humming grew louder.

I wasn't sure what to think of this lady. On the one hand, there were all sorts of people at the post office who may not be celebrating Christmas like she was, and maybe they just wanted to mail something in peace. But on the other hand, when I considered how long I'd been waiting, it seemed unlikely that people might be so patient if they weren't sending cards and gifts to loved ones. So maybe I was just being too sensitive. But another part of me also thought she might be armed and dangerous.

Anyway, she then started to sing Silent Night out loud, and shortly thereafter a woman and her daughter joined in harmony with the first woman -- loudly, clearly, and perfectly tuned. It was lovely, actually. They laughed at the end, and continued with Jingle Bells, inviting others to join in.

And the next thing I knew, the 40 or so people crammed in the room with me were all singing and laughing together as we waited. The clerks seemed happy enough with it, and finally I reached the desk. The woman helping me said that she'd never seen anything like it happen before, but yelled out to the crowd that she'd been waiting for something like this!! I wanted to stay and listen for a while, since it had started to feel kind of like a Capra film, but needed to send out my greetings and hurry off. Outside people were honking horns and fighting over parking spots (I actually saw a woman get out of her car and bang on the driver-side window of someone who was blocking other drivers). But inside people were happy, singing, and enjoying something beautiful.

Oh, the carnage!

2009-06-03T20:22:00.004-05:00

When Olivia doesn't like a toy we've humbly presented to her, she won't play with it. Billie, however, not wanting us to mistake her rage for simple indifference, takes a more direct approach...

Exhibit A - The orange pom-pom ball:

Exhibit B - Billie looking plainly self-satisfied:

clumsy on a good day.

2009-02-16T21:31:00.003-06:00

I shouldn't have been offended when a wii fit on loan from a coworker asked "Do you trip a lot when you walk?"

Only a few days later on a friday night at 1 am, I painfully introduced my face to the corner of the living room wall. I was not intoxicated, only tired.

I'll have what she's having.

2009-01-30T21:45:00.004-06:00

There's a new gym on the ground floor of our apartment building, occupying the space that was once one-half of the music store, before they downsized. I like to hit the treadmill fairly late in the evenings to avoid the after-work rush. I also prefer to avoid the grunters, those who are looking for a date, and even the gym employees - they're a little annoying as well.

I finished tonight's run around 8:45 or so, and grabbed a mat to stretch on. I looked around and noticed there was one person remaining - an older lady on the elliptical machine. I went about my routine over in a corner on the floor. The lady gradually increased her speed after a few minutes, and began to grunt a little..... then moan a little. She was muttering a few things that I couldn't quite understand, but it sounded like either she had a bad cramp, or else maybe she was having a really good time.

I realized she probably figured that she was alone. So I thought about clearing my throat or coughing - loud enough so that she'd hear it over the television, the radio, and her headphones. But to do that when you're carefully balanced on one elbow and one knee could only end in disaster. So I continued stretching. And the lady became a little louder... a little louder.... and then, out of breath, she stopped the machine and got down.

Then she saw me and started explaining away - that she didn't think anyone was left, and that she wouldn't have been huffing and puffing quite so loudly otherwise. I told her not to worry, and we briefly chatted about how great it is to get through a really tough workout. But the whole time I was thinking, "did she just... ?", and "is that even possible... just from the elliptical machine?". And finally the only thing I could say was "at least you know you'll sleep well tonight!" And we parted ways.

But seriously - I salute you, elliptical machine-orgasm-enabled lady. When in just one hour of your Friday night you can get in a solid workout, watch some television, and take care of business, I say you're probably doing better than most of us.

A few things I appreciate...

2008-12-28T21:48:00.002-06:00

A great recipe for pumpkin cake, recommended by a fellow blogger and baker. Not so good for you, but it calls for homemade caramel, which is really fun to make. And it's really, seriously delicious.
A very odd, very warm front that made its way through yesterday, melting about a third of the snow on our balcony. Now we can almost pretend that there has only been a moderate amount of snowfall this month.
A really nice day with the in-laws yesterday. And 3a) their new Wii. Much extra gratitude for their new Wii.
The big mess on my desk which serves as evidence of having written Christmas cards to almost everyone I'd wanted to, almost in time for the holidays. That's right, Kevin. I appreciate my own mess - let me know if you are able to make sense of that.
Not having had time to put up our Christmas tree. And therefore not having to take it down again.
Our new best friend, the television.

Don't forget to take out the junk first...

2008-11-30T09:13:00.002-06:00

Hi there, blog. I'm sorry about the ongoing neglect. Anyway...

I cooked a whole turkey for the first time this Thanksgiving. When I mentioned my plans to a coworker on Wednesday, he told me to "just remember to take out the junk first." And I did remember, kind of.

While prepping the bird I found a meaty neck tucked into the cavity, and I put it in a container for future soup purposes. But the cavity was otherwise empty, unlike those of chicken I'm used to cooking, which would contain a variety of small visceral organs. Doubting that there were none included with this turkey, I asked Kevin to shine a flashlight up the bird's butt so I could have a better look, but still we found nothing.

So, feeling safe, I went ahead with roasting, and it came out really well. Then I started to carve. I cut right into a neat little pocket of neck skin that they'd tucked the organs into, wrapped in paper. Dammit. Was it safe to eat? Kevin's mom hurried over to say that the meat should be fine, but we just shouldn't eat the organs. I wondered who would have turned down a leg for, say, a nice chewy heart... but I didn't ask. So we ate it anyway, and it tasted fine, and no one got sick. I still don't fully understand why it's dangerous to leave the junk in, but it would be nice if they didn't hide it so well. At least now I know where to look.

Moutarde

2008-10-05T20:25:00.008-05:00

Yesterday we went for a drive to Mount Horeb & New Glarus, just to get out a bit while the weather still feels nice on the skin. The Mustard Museum was pretty cool. I wish we hadn't been so stuffed when we got there, since there were lots of things to taste in the gift shop. We did come away with a nice Poupon U souvenir mug.

Here were a couple that reminded me of home:

We also walked through the Mt Horeb Fall Festival and I tried to befriend some llamas... but they weren't having any of it. I love the cool rocker-llama hairdo, though.

Random Parade

2008-09-07T12:29:00.005-05:00

From our balcony this afternoon we watched an impromptu celebration (of something that remains unknown) marching along the bike path across the street. The music was actually pretty catchy. Part of me felt like running out to join them.

Like a Tree Frog

2008-09-04T17:23:00.002-05:00

When asked to describe her aunty's appearance, my 3-year-old niece listed the following physical characteristics:

black hair
boobies
a nose
no teeth
red eyes, like a tree frog

I'm thinking maybe I need to see her on a more regular basis, at least so she knows that I've lightened my hair.

Newly Discovered

2008-08-27T17:09:00.003-05:00

Jogging. I've been going for roughly 2 months... 1/2 hour a day, every other day. Feeling awesome, but having trouble keeping my hands off fried food and ice cream since I started.
Another Lol-ish blog. I particularly enjoy the Cate Blanchett, Javier Bardem, Cindy McCain, and Posh Spice look-alikes.
And another blog
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was awesome. I haven't enjoyed a Woody Allen film this much in years. In fact, I'm going to see it again this weekend.

Fasten your seatbelt, slutpuppy, this ain't gonna be no cakewalk!

2008-07-22T16:44:00.004-05:00

A fond farewell to Estelle Getty. As much as I love Bea Arthur, Sophia was always my favorite Golden Girl. It's never a bad time, though, to stop and appreciate how awesome a television show The Golden Girls was. So go ahead - take a moment...

Not a gripping news article....

2008-06-12T20:43:00.005-05:00

...but what an awesome headline!

http://www.madison.com/tct/top5/291166

.

f-r-e-e-d-u-m-b

2008-05-17T18:20:00.006-05:00

Yay for late Spring! We joined a CSA this year for our veggies. Our second box came today with lots of greens, plus a few herb seedlings to grow on our own:

I stopped at the Co-op to get some mushrooms & sat outside for a few minutes with a smoothie to enjoy the sunshine while it lasted. Across from me sat an aging hippy wearing a bright orange safety vest. He kind of just started talking, and I took note of the following points from the conversation, though I was only rarely able to get a word in edgewise.

He was an ex-con back in the seventies
Upon his release from prison, he was immediately drafted. Essentially, he could go to war or go back to prison.
He had trouble getting a job when he returned from Vietnam, "because all the veterans were treated like criminals!!" [I thought, "all the veterans? Or just the ex-con veterans?" Though I know that was generally true back then. ]
In this country, we have no rights. And, "freedom is spelled f-r-e-e-d-u-m-b"!!
He was once married by common-law without realizing it and was later ordered to pay child support for a child who may or may not be his.
His wife left him for a woman, and his son, at age 16, escaped from a mental institution and came straight to Madison to find his dad. The young fellow had a tatoo that said "I kill hippies", as well as a nazi symbol tatoo and some metal spikes embedded in his head. He wanted his father to buy him beer.
He appends "the Bike" to the end of his name (which rhymes with bike), because he fixes people's bicycles. In fact, his bicycle has a large wagon hitched to the back containing other bicycles that he's working on.

He was interested to know when I usually hung out at the co-op so we could catch up again. So I did enjoy listening to the guy. But based on his reaction to a reference I made to my husband ("Well, I guess this conversation is over!"), I'll probably keep my distance from the co-op on Saturday mornings for a little while.

No really, I'm fine.

2008-05-07T16:50:00.005-05:00

Not to say that it's an excuse, but I'm having a relatively sleepless oncall week, and had time to make a travel mug full of strong coffee this morning, but not lunch.

So, starving and jittery, I bought a cheeseburger and fries at the cafeteria at work, and I'd made it up the first flight of stairs on my way back towards my desk. Then the door to the first floor opened behind me and distracted me enough to trip on the next step. The next thing I knew I was on all fours on the steps, surrounded by crinkle fries and my upside-down cheeseburger. A couple of alarmed people entered the stairwell, and as I turned around to tell them I was okay, I realized my face was covered in ketchup. One of them handed me a napkin she happened to be holding, and I mopped up my face while scrambling to pick up my fries and excusing myself repeatedly. Miraculously, nothing got on my clothes, but I was told a few minutes later by a coworker that I had a small glob still on my eye.

Fortunately, perhaps because I'm so tired, I am more entertained than embarrassed. At least I got to hear a good spell of trademark Kevin-Laughter upon relating the story. Totally worth it.

new toy!

2008-04-14T21:53:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite takeaways from having gotten married is my new (or, sorry - our new) kick-ass camera. While I'm busy writing thank-you notes, here are some of my first pictures for your enjoyment. What's that you're demanding? Wedding photos? All in good time. Perhaps even by next week.

Poor Julie...

2008-03-28T12:03:00.010-05:00

As I was leaving for work this morning the phone rang. I had the following conversation - not kidding:

Me: Hello?
Caller: Heeeey, what's uuuup!
Me: Who's this?
Caller: It's Jack! I got your panties!!
Me (glancing downward briefly): Huh. I think you might have the wrong number.
Jack: Oh. Uh, I was calling for Julie.
Me: Nope, not Julie.
Jack: Oh... I got her pink panties!!!
Me: ....
Me: That's great! Well, bye!

And it was the awesomest wrong number ever.

Building my vocabulary

2008-02-09T23:06:00.000-06:00

A few new words and terms I've picked up this week:

Heavy freezing spray
Local ground blizzards
Thundersnow
Blowing snow advisory

Is it just me, or does a local ground blizzard sound way worse than the normal kind of blizzard?

Ok, ok...

2008-02-08T20:32:00.000-06:00

Here, Kevin. Here's how much snow was on our balcony by Wednesday night, and also a shot of the yahara river, which was pretty:

And in other news, I have a new nephew whom I'll be meeting at the end of this month. He looks very small and sleepy from his photos. Happy birthday to Gavin!

Around Christmas I taught myself to crochet, which is fun so far. I have about a third of a blanket that is just long enough to keep me warm while I'm working on it... so I guess I don't really care what it looks like when I'm done. I can also make coasters!

Whatever. To be honest, I have such awful winter blues right now. I hate February. Did you hear that 2000 vehicles were stuck overnight on the interstate like, 20 minutes from Madison?? Anyway, I'm going to zumba classes with Gwen and I made an appointment with a therapist. I can't wait until the snow starts melting.

Ode to Soldier Bear

2008-01-27T14:27:00.000-06:00

Here's to the brave and noble Soldier Bear, who fought in WWII. "He drank a bottle of beer like any man". Be sure to watch the archival footage of him wrestling with his fellow soldiers. You think he's trying to eat the guy, but he's just playin' around.

A lesser babka

2007-12-08T21:18:00.000-06:00

Kevin & I put up our tree this evening. I haven't posted in a while, so I figured this is as good an occasion as any. Over the two weeks before Christmas every year, the people in my wing at work coordinate to provide an abundance of sweets and snacks in a constant stream. Like, enough to make you feel like complete and total crap in time for the holidays. I feel like making babka, but I'm not sure I want to commit. It would be my first babka. Last year I brought in homemade tapenade on toasted french bread, which was great, I thought. I just found an email that I'd sent to Kevin on that day. It's a collection of verbal reactions to my tapenade from various concerned coworkers:

"What is this stuff? Why does it look like chocolate pudding?"
"When I eat anything crunchy my filling always pops out & it's 1/2 of the tooth... so I have to be careful."
"This might be a little too exotic for this group."
"Did you talk to Fern about this?" (Fern said the first 2 ones)
"People usually get this sort of thing in jars."

Gosh, I don't know what to bring. Anyway, I did finish my hobo gloves, as Kevin calls them. Here they are.

And also, here's a buttload of snow on our balcony. And just for the hell of it, our little tree. I just figured out how to work with exposure time on my digital camera, so bear with me. I kind of love it.

Holiday Notice!

2007-11-21T16:55:00.000-06:00

Something to be thankful for? How about three inches of snow + another Anne of Green Gables marathon on WI public television? By the way, it starts at 7:30 am and finishes at 5:30 pm in case you're interested. :)

2007-11-18T17:10:00.000-06:00

While I was driving down University Ave this evening I saw a young man holding a big sign that said, "Everybody sucks except for me!".

Rocky mountain... high?

2007-10-29T17:55:00.000-05:00

Last week I went to a software conference at a ski resort in Colorado with a couple coworkers. I enjoyed it, but I was a little surprised (and disappointed) by how few women were there, at least compared to other technical conferences I've attended. Perhaps for this reason, I seemed to be meeting new people at an alarmingly faster pace than my male coworkers.

Everyone seemed pretty nice, though there were a couple of suspected creeps, and at one point I found myself invited to the annual hot tub party that the regulars throw at the end of each conference ("Entry fee is a bottle of malt scotch + eligibility to vote!"). As you can imagine, I spent all my free time either hanging out with the handful of guys from my company, or alone in my hotel room with my door bolted. It was on one of the latter evenings that one of the guys I used to work with smoked a little something with the hotel employees and then went out drinking. Ambling back to the hotel at 2 am, he fell into an icy pond and lost his driver's license. I'm not actually sure if he made it back or not, without another photo id to board the plane. Anyway, here are a few photos. The first one is the view from my hotel room. And the third one was just a cool truck that I liked. Honcho!

Produce

2007-10-13T15:31:00.001-05:00

Last week we tried fractal broccoli, a.k.a. broccoli Romanesco for the first time. We steamed it & it was sweet & yummy even eaten plain. And it's aesthetically pleasing:

I also need to say that if you haven't ventured to the farmer's market & picked up some apples from the crotchety old "we-reserve-the-right-to-refuse-service-to-anyone-who-bruises-our-apples" couple, you need to do that as soon as possible. It's worth the standing in line for 10 minutes.

No thank you, Sigmund.

2007-10-11T21:10:00.000-05:00

Some of you already know that Kevin has been reading a lot of Freud these days in preparation for writing one of his chapters. So naturally he's getting excited about dream analysis just at a time when I've been coming up with some crazy shit while I'm sleeping. For instance:

1. We're at my Mom's house in NY and Kevin is enormously pregnant with our firstborn. It's beautiful - reminiscent of those expectant wim in Egalia's Daughters, he's glowing, strong, upbeat, and frighteningly calm. Kevin decides that it's time, and gives himself a C-section. He presents our son, and we both cry. Then I realize that the child needs to eat, and since Kevin has no breasts, that one is my responsibility. I start searching frantically for my sister's copy of What to Expect.. to see if it will tell me how to nurse. Thankfully the dream ended shortly after that point.

2. I'm walking along a mountainy beach with a bunch of people I supposedly know, when a giant robot-thing starts to attack the area. I run into a cave in one of the rock formations, but something explodes nearby and I am slowly buried in gravel. Despite struggling, I can't seem to get out. I fall into an opening where a sage of some sort gives me some herbs to chew on, and a giant wasp appears and begins to chase me. (Ok, despite Kevin's immediate attempt at psychoanalysis upon my relation of this dream, we soon realized that it is directly related to an episode of Babylon 5 that Kevin made me watch, in conjunction with an episode of Bones that I had watched voluntarily. I had warned him during the B-5 episode that I was going to dream about it that night, which I did).

3. In short, a horrible nightmare that ends with me angrily, but inadvertently injuring the cat we had when I was growing up. This was related to my anxiety about bringing Billie to the dermatologist today for an allergy screening, for which she was anesthetized. When the doctor saw the state of her skin after shaving some fur, she decided to biopsy several areas. Billie came home a half-shaven, polka-dotted, holey, stitched-up, groggy mess. She alarmingly resembled the beat-up old cat in my nightmare.

Here's hoping for a good night's sleep tonight...

Odds & Ends. But mostly odds.

2007-10-01T17:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we're not in short supply of silly pictures of Kevin lately, but I can't help myself. Here he is trying on the cardigan I knit for my sister's child-to-be. And I don't really know what's going on in the other one, but we were playing a board game.

Yesterday I went sailing around Lake Mendota with a coworker. Surprisingly, you can sail around to different places for a good 3-4 hours and it's still really fun... especially if it's windy, and even more so if you're allowed to steer the boat.

Also, a while back I'd meant to post about a movie we'd watched called The American Astronaut. It's not a well-known movie, and it was made back in 2001, but it was so good. It's my new favorite movie. Filmed in black and white, it is a space western rock-opera with a very odd, confusing plot. I had a hard time figuring out what the hell was going on most of the time... but overall I was really entertained.

They're thinking too hard about this...

2007-09-24T17:34:00.000-05:00

Researchers study software gender gap

Often when I go to software conferences I get asked why there aren't more women in Computer Science. Knowing only my own reasons for following this path, I never really know what to say, though it's at that point that I appreciate the remarkably short line for the ladies' room for some reason.

But when I read something like this article it makes me cringe more than a little. I can't imagine that a woman's low confidence level when using a piece of software is anything more than a symptom of the real problem. It's not the cause. It can't be the cause. At least, no more than it's the cause of me shying away from, say, literary theory. The real cause is unfamiliarity, and it all goes back to childhood in the case of computer software.

Most of my female friends growing up did not play video games, program the VCR, or take stuff apart and put it back together. Most of my brother's friends did. If I hadn't been so busy trying to compete with my brother, I probably would cower at the term 'debug' as much as the next woman. But I was curious about how stuff worked, so I followed my brother around, and I followed my Dad around. I started to play the Atari games, and when my Dad finally bought a computer, I was ready for more. Luckily there was a computer club at my elementary school, and a very decent typing program. And then came the shining moment when my high school guidance counselor revealed to me that if I really enjoyed spending time messing around on our home computer, I could by all means do that for a living.

But back to my point. I can't believe that the solution lies in software redesigned for people who don't know what the right-side mouse button is for, or coaching young girls to understand Computer Science's practical applications to topics (like media!) that they would be more interested in. I decided at the last conference I attended that the solution lies at home. The inquiring men at these conferences need to go home and show their daughters what they're doing - on their computers, under the hood of the car, inside the toilet tank - how it works, why it works / doesn't work. Confidence needs to be built by early experience, not by over-designed software.

R

2007-09-19T16:59:00.000-05:00

Ahoy! My day was generally crap until I took a glance at today's wikipedia notes and saw that today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! A quick message to select members of my department, along with a link: http://www.piratequiz.com, and my day was crap no longer! I, Cap'n Jenny Flint, care nothing for long meetings, slow applications, or broken server communication links! Aye, methinks my crew could benefit from ITLAP Week...

Floating squeegee

2007-09-17T16:05:00.000-05:00

Today at work I was standing next to my third-floor window, talking to my cube-neighbor when there was a sudden thump on the glass. A window sponge had been lifted up on a 3-story long handle and was scrubbing away the grime. It was then followed by a similarly long-handled squeegee that scraped away all the suds. We were surprised because they've always sent up a guy on a ladder, so we were used to seeing a person attached to the sponge /squeegee combo. This morning the cleaning equipment seemed disembodied, almost as if they were wiping the windows on their own. Like they were right out of the animated furniture-servants in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Very odd.

I realized after this weekend's thirty-something degree weather that neither my gloves nor my mittens will last through the winter, so I'm knitting a new pair of combo glove-mittens. They're going to be awesome. Pictures to follow. In the meanwhile, the Fall issue of Knitty is published, and I found a really cool website from one of its contributors. She makes knit toys like this, & posts free toy patterns:

How to sell an industrial blender...

2007-09-05T19:50:00.000-05:00

I typically don't go for this sort of thing, but I found this inexplicably entertaining. My favorites are the iPhone and Spam & Eggs. I'm sure the approaching autumn will bring some more thoughtful ramblings than my recent "hey, look at this!" posts, but for now it will suffice.

Is Saturday the first of September??

2007-08-30T19:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess summer is just about over. It's been busy. To sum up, I went to NY for a few days, I started taking piano lessons, work has been crazy, and I made a cardigan for my sister's soon-to-be first child. I forgot to take a picture before I sent it to her (the sweater, not the child). I bought the first two seasons of Veronica Mars on DVD, which was an awesome TV show. At some point, my computer crashed and I rebuilt it. And Kevin & I started exploring the possibility of getting married sometime this decade.

It took me a good 15 minutes of wandering around in Borders to find the wedding books. I thought I was stumped, but once I stopped to think, I realized that it was visual recognition rather than logic that was going to help me locate the appropriate section. I peered around for pink and white books, and found several shelves of them next to some etiquette guides with titles like How to Be a Lady. I'm generally not nervous at the thought of planning our wedding, but in that single moment it hit me pretty hard. My stomach turned as I flipped through $40 frilly, pink binders that ironically promised wedding savings for the bride on a budget. Luckily I found a couple of books that seemed to be based in reality. The panicky feelings passed and they haven't yet returned. Really, we still have almost two years before the big day.

I guess that's all I can manage for now, but here's a video of Billie going into the closet for a snack right out of the bag. Evidently she can no longer suffer this concept of mealtime and has taken matters into her own paws.

Ah, Nature

2007-08-14T07:06:00.000-05:00

There were a bunch of strong thunderstorms last night, and I didn't sleep much. I noticed Olivia acting more perplexed than usual while watching the birds out on the balcony, so I went over to the sliding door and found this:

It's about six inches long from head to tail. I guess we have to do something with it before it starts to smell. Too big for the toilet, though... it'll have to go in the garbage. I have more to blog about, but things have been kind of crazy. This morning just follows suit.

Yakkety Yak

2007-07-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

Tonight we went out for dinner at a restaurant across the street where I ordered a yak burger. It was made of yak meat, which I'd never tried before. But more notably, the meat was from a Wisconsin breeder called the Green Bay Yakkers. It was quite tasty and very well seasoned.

Exchange with Woman II

2007-07-09T23:39:00.001-05:00

There's a woman at work who sits in my wing, but who is part of another department. I've worked with her briefly once or twice. She's always nice, but has sort of an urgently distracted air about her - one that seems to go along with being a project leader or supervisor. So she never would stop to chat or anything when I'd say hello, but I sort of admired her for it. Always importantly busy.

The day we were leaving for Texas I was heading out of work early. She was walking downstairs behind me and was suddenly compelled to strike up a conversation... about the size of my waist. Now she's probably in her late 30's to early 40's, and I always thought she was perfectly attractive for someone who worked a full-time, sedentary office job. But for some reason my waist bothered her. "You're so tiny! Every time I see your waist, I think, 'Ahh, I can't look at you!' ", she said that day.

These conversations make me very uncomfortable, though I haven't had to deal with them since my early college years. So I was wholly unprepared to respond and was just able to stop myself from apologizing outright. But all sorts of inadequate responses came pouring into my head as I stammered lamely. I always feel compelled to explain myself, or to act like I know exactly how she feels, though I don't think I've ever consciously resented a woman for being more fit than me, or of a more attractive size / shape.

I don't mean to sound over-confident - I'm very self-conscious and often insecure about how I look when I'm at work. It's just that I've always been a fairly small person who thoroughly enjoys a good tennis game, bike ride, or the occasional jog. I could try to put on more weight, but it would involve not doing things I enjoy and things that make me feel good. I wondered if I should explain to her about my thyroid disorder. I decided instead to complain about how my pants don't fit at the end of the summer from all the bike-riding I do. "Hehe... I guess you just can't win", I simpered. I felt like such an ass, but thankfully she laughed and started talking about baking pies and eating them. I don't think she was really convinced that I could relate on that topic, but maybe if she keeps talking to me she'll discover that I also genuinely enjoy baking and eating pies, and that I'm not starving myself in order to make people feel bad about themselves.

Exchange with Woman I

2007-07-07T23:21:00.000-05:00

Just before we left for Texas I set my bike down on top of my inexpensive sunglasses and broke them. So after running my last few errands downtown, I decided to take a peek around for a new pair and perhaps stop for some ice cream. I went into a store called Tiger Lilly 2, where I'd never been before. I was immediately greeted by a very friendly young woman who seemed bored by her empty store. The sunglasses were right in the front, so I explained to her that I already found what I needed. She asked if she could show me the new Dolce & Gabbana's ("I make everyone try them on! Heehee!"). I tried them on to humor her, though they were roughly 3/4 the size of my face. When she told me the price - $250, I explained further that I was just hoping to replace my old four-dollar pair from Target. She said, "Well, we'll be upgrading you to a $12 pair, but I'm SOOOO good at picking out sunglasses for people", so I decided to give her a shot. I'm sure she was being honest with me, but I think her fashion sense was seriously conflicting with my sense of practicality (which generally fills the void where my fashion sense would otherwise be). It was terrible and awkward and I hated everything she made me try on. I tried to explain about the non-mirrored, oval-shaped lenses, the reasonably small size, the plain brownness of the frames. She argued with me that if sunglasses are too small, they make you look "squinty". I wondered how anyone could call me squinty if my eyes were hidden... but I just shrugged my shoulders. Finally she relented, "well, we have another store down the street that has a much bigger selection... ". The other store was to the right; my car was to the left. So I thanked her, told her I'd head over right after I got myself some ice cream, and exited to the left. I got the ice cream and I drove straight to Target, where I bought two $7 pairs of sunglasses. An upgrade, I'll admit, but I'll pay the extra money to retain my dignity and shameless practicality.

Shit.

2007-06-19T17:26:00.000-05:00

I did it again! I smacked my car into a structural component of our underground garage. It was remarkable for several reasons, besides that this is the second time it happened.

First, I can partly blame Kevin for handing me a new cd to listen to on my way out the door this morning. I was in the process of opening it with one hand and reversing out of my spot with the other when I ignored the huge cement post adjacent to my car, steered to the right, and crashed the front driver's side into the post. I was looking behind me, but not glancing to the left as I normally would. Dammit.

Moments later, after checking out my car & hopping back in, I proceeded with caution as I was feeling a bit nervy. Had I not been jerked back to being a careful driver, I would very likely have collided head-on with a woman who came flying through the garage door on my side of the entrance. I slammed on the brakes just in time. You see, much like the last time I banged up my car, there was a service van parked and blocking half the driveway. So it could have been way worse... but isn't that weird?

Third, I recalled a conversation I had first thing this morning when Kevin sleepily tried to convince me to stay in bed a little longer. I told him I needed to get moving so I'd have time to ride my bike to work, when he said "what do you have, a meeting?", and then I realized, yes I did have an early meeting. I had no time to ride my bike to work... but then when I got in, my boss had postponed the meeting anyway. So I can partly blame my boss for the short notice - otherwise I would have ridden my bike to work and kept my car intact. And again, I can partly blame Kevin for reminding me of my early meeting in the first place.

Still need those...

2007-05-26T17:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning I was tired because I'd gone to bed kind of late, then got called for work at 5:00 am, then tried to sleep till 6:30 but in waking Kevin, I'd also jump-started his early morning cough, which went on for an hour or so. When I was about to stagger into the shower I happened to look behind me, and noticed that I'd thrown my pajamas in the garbage. I don't remember doing it, and it's not next to my laundry basket or anything. I just threw them away. The day continued mostly in that fashion.

"The Flim is Okie Dokie"

2007-05-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

This weekend we saw Spiderman 3. While it wasn't necessarily a good movie, we watched it at the IMAX theater... so it was, at least, real big. We also rented Grizzly Man, which was funny. I went through many levels of discomfort and uneasiness throughout the documentary, but overall I came out with the feeling of having enjoyed a good comedy. Not too bad for a film about a man mauled and eaten by a wild bear.

Balcony Garden, Take Two.

2007-05-11T16:41:00.000-05:00

Look, I started growing stuff again. Since my tomatoes were pretty successful last summer, I've expanded to other pursuits. Besides more tomatoes, there's basil, cilantro, strawberries, and the seedlings are green onions. I've never had anything survive past seedlinghood when I start from scratch, but maybe these will be different. I'm optimistic.

Thank You, WPT!

2007-05-05T12:38:00.000-05:00

Just in case anyone is interested, tomorrow, May 6th, Wisconsin Public Television is airing four hours of the 1985 miniseries Anne of Green Gables. It starts at 3:00 pm and doesn't stop until 7:00 pm! It's too bad it's not on today, when it's all crappy outside. Whatever. I'll stay in & watch anyway.

I thought cats had rules about this sort of thing.

2007-04-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

Billie's skin has cleared a little since we moved Herman outside. But while we wait for further improvement, I decided to switch to a hypoallergenic litter. Most clumping cat litter contains bentonite, which ends up in the litter dust that gets into the air in your home whenever you scoop. It's a carcinogen, and many cats suffer respiratory allergies from it as well. If I'd realized that before, we would have switched a long time ago... but there it is.

I went with World's Best Cat Litter, which is made out of corn, is flushable, biodegradable, and dust-free. Billie seemed really excited about it when I brought home a 17 lb. bag. She went to work trying to rip the bag open while I cleaned the old stuff out of her box. I appreciated her enthusiasm. But as I found when I filled her box with the new stuff, Billie thinks that the World's Best Cat Litter is actually the World's Best Dietary Supplement. She has yet to make a deposit, but she's been snacking on it since the first pour.

So I brought Olivia in, thinking, if she poops in it, everything will be better. She also thought it was delicious, so I sent her away. Hopefully I won't find any surprises in their food dishes this evening.

A Buncha Stuff

2007-04-16T21:22:00.000-05:00

Wow, I happened to check back on my earlier posts just now, and found that my blog is one year old today. Yee! Today I brought Billie in for a checkup with her regular doctor, who is awesome. Their clinic just moved to a brand new office and the exam rooms have little shelves staggered across the walls for the cats to jump on. Very clever. But they also have a garbage bin stored under the counter with a Billie-sized hole in the cabinet door to throw things in. While I was filling out forms I turned my head for a couple seconds, then looked up to find Billie - hind legs on a stool, half her body hanging in the hole for the garbage bin. She wasn't impressed by the thoughtfully arranged wall-perches.

I was thinking about jury duty again the other day, and remembered that a couple of the guys on the jury were avid hunters. They both occasionally wore flannel collared shirts with patterns of illustrated game on them. Like, a dark green shirt with little flying ducks, or a maroon shirt with scattered elk wandering across it. I'm not what I'd call a fashion guru or anything. Far from it, in fact. But what statement does one of these shirts make, exactly? "Yes, here are some trendy animals I like to shoot and turn into sausage". What I loved was when one of them would use the term 'harvest' when referring to shooting a creature, bleeding it, and slicing its guts out. Really now, isn't that just fooling yourself? Harvesting sounds like such a non-violent activity to me. "This brown bear frolicking across my gut may compliment the color of my eyes, but he's nothing compared to the fella I harvested last winter". There's something going on here that I just don't understand.

Here's a picture of the intersection in front of my sister's house after the nor' easter hit NY the other day.

My Experience with the Justice System

2007-04-10T18:31:00.000-05:00

So my sitting-with-a-book jury duty quickly turned into hearing-a-murder-trial jury duty, which I found to be unpleasant, but interesting. I learned all about stuff like the physics of blood, how to interpret blood/flesh spatters, how to recognize a revolver, the difference between a semi-automatic and a fully automatic gun, and the general value of cocaine.

I found that if you stare blankly at an idle lawyer during trial, you will be rewarded with a dazzlingly charming smile. I tested it several times on all the lawyers at intervals throughout the presentation of evidence - it never failed.

I also came out with a generally favorable impression of bailiffs (sp?). Since we were there for about a week & 1/2 we decided to have a potluck luncheon to break up the restaurant food monotony. Our bailiff showed up with a homemade smoked pheasant cheese ball with a pecan crust. It was awesome and I was so impressed. On another day he just showed up with a huge fruit plate for us. It was remarkable since he tended to be gruff and grumpy, to the point where several people in the jury would laugh every time he spoke.
The deliberation part sucked. It took 17 hours and went straight through the night. I felt ill with all the coffee, soda, and chocolate I drank & ate to stay awake. We got to leave early in the morning to sleep, then had to return for more deliberation. People are damn stubborn sometimes. All in all, I hope I never get picked for a trial again... but I was really excited about going back to my regular job when it was all over.

Madison Metro Transit

2007-03-27T20:15:00.000-05:00

So this week I have jury duty. And I can't say much about it at the moment, except that since our sunny, 80-degree weather has passed, my morning commute to the capitol square is now accomplished via city bus rather than by bicycle. Kevin very patiently (very patiently!) explained the required bus route to me, and off I went this morning with a dollar and two quarters in hand. Delightfully, the Madison buses play a very peppy recorded announcement of the two cross street names of every stop you pass on your way. At least it's delightful up to a point. I live very close to one Jenifer Street which makes up a part of my route downtown. So for this stretch of the way I had what felt like a very personalized update of my own progress through town. I start hearing

"Jennifer! at Baldwin!"

and

"Jennifer! at Few!"

followed by

"Jennifer! at Ingersoll!"

until I started to feel like yelling something back in the affirmative... some sort of confirmation of the recorded announcements. Thankfully it didn't go on for too long, but on my way home it felt kind of surreal after the tiring day of civic duty. Maybe tomorrow I'll bring some music & headphones.

It's just a children's song, right?

2007-03-24T15:28:00.000-05:00

I found myself humming 'Pop Goes the Weasel' as I was getting ready for work the other morning, and I started to think about it a bit... maybe too much. So now I'm curious. In your head, what is happening to the weasel at the end of the song - when he goes 'pop'? Why would a weasel go 'pop'?

2007-03-20T07:45:00.000-05:00

Did anyone else watch Dancing with the Stars last night? I was completely fascinated by Leila Ali (also a professional boxer). Something about the way she spoke, and was nearly six feet tall, and could crush anyone... but then pulled off the foxtrot with no problem. Wow. If I were to marry a woman, I would marry her.

neat-o!

2007-03-12T21:27:00.000-05:00

As of today, our balcony is snow-free! And I found my trowel underneath all the slush. Now I can more efficiently work on re-potting Herman. And there were no major DST issues at work yesterday or today, thankyouverymuch.

A Theory

2007-02-18T12:39:00.000-06:00

On Friday night while I was on the phone chatting with my sister-in-law, I caught Billie trying to snack on Herman's (the Houseplant's) potting soil. On closer inspection I could see that the potting soil had turned somewhat moldy - with a bird-shitty sort of mold, and was at a much lower level in the pot from what I'd remembered it to be.

The people who used to live in our apartment had something of a greenhouse in here, though they had two cats as well who seemed ok. Kevin is convinced there is remnant pollen (and who knows what else!) circulating in our air. So now I have this theory that Billie has been eating moldy potting soil for the last seven months, which could explain her skin condition and potentially the more recent hershey squirts. Part of me hopes it is not that simple an explanation... but most of me would be very relieved if it was.

2007-02-17T13:22:00.000-06:00

Today Kevin made me lunch, even though it was his birthday!

Another random event - last weekend I spotted my license plate almost-twin. I was navigating a difficult parking lot when it sort of jumped out at me. Identical but for having two letters switched - the twin ended in JGH, instead of GJH which is mine. I actuallly parked the car and got out to compare because I was almost certain someone had copied my plates. Weird.

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

While we're waiting...

2007-02-07T20:15:00.000-06:00

I can't say that I'm bored right now, because I am keeping very busy despite the crummy weather. But there's nothing very interesting going on, is all... so not much to write about. In the meanwhile, I thought I'd just start throwing out some random memories as they come to mind. I have this habit of suddenly remembering not-so-significant bits of my life at odd times. It kind of feels like television. And then I say to myself, 'huh', because it's not all that interesting. So while I was getting ready for work this morning...

My freshman-year roommate kept a giant calendar spread out across her desk. She used it to write down every detail of her outfit - every day, in each big square. I noticed, but said nothing. Who was I to judge?

At the end of our orientation week we were sitting in the room of her new pal. The pal was writing some things down in a notebook with a bunch of markers. She would switch colors every few seconds. My roommate took a peek, and happily asked, "you write down what you wear, too?". Sure enough. I asked if they were joking, and they just stared. "How else can you keep track of your outfits, so you don't wear the same thing?", they wondered. And they were close after that, as I found myself with less and less to talk about with either of them. If flannel pajamas could keep me warm enough in the computer lab, why should anyone care if I wore the same pair every day?

2007-02-03T11:57:00.000-06:00

This morning the cats were pretty mellow, so I got out some yarn and they actually played together. We all hung out & it was fun. Don't let the pleasant sunshine fool you... it is 0 degrees in Madison right now. I've also started eating grapefruit again after a long break from it. Yum.

Superbowl, shmuperbowl

2007-01-21T21:48:00.000-06:00

Hillary Clinton is going to run for president. And before she does it, she "will be introducing legislation to make quality, affordable health care available to every child in America". Go ahead - call me naive, but I totally believe her. I'm going to vote for her some day, and she's going to be the president. The world may implode shortly after, but dammit, it's going to happen.

Annual Mid-winter Funk

2007-01-17T20:21:00.000-06:00

I guess I haven't posted much since before the holidays. It wasn't to bother anyone... but I never have too much to say after visiting family without delving deep into some more involved, emotional topics... or at least without maddening frustration. Not for today, anyway. But to sum up, we went to Tex-ass and I went to see my family in NY. We went to the pediatrician for some vaccines for my niece, and I was crying by the third needle. Met my sister's nutty dog whom she smuggled in from Costa Rica. He'll bite your face when you meet him - it's great! Hung out, shopped, ate good food. We saw The Queen, which was very entertaining.

I took a day off last week to hang out with Kevin, and that was awesome. We went to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, walked by the lake, argued, went out to dinner, and finished up at Mother Fool's cafe where Dakota Dave Hull was playing some really old guitars. I'm not much of a guitar person, but as Kevin said Friday, this guy won my heart. He was an older man with a good midwestern-length beard & spectacles, and he wore this crazy black button-down shirt with neon pink, purple and yellow planets all over it. He played ragtime, folk, blues, and a couple oldies, and it was a really cozy setting with only 20 people or so. When it was over he put his guitar down, went to sit on a couch, and clapped with everyone at the empty stage. The whole thing was lovely and everyone was charmed.

With my Christmas money from work I finally had enough to get the dent in my car fixed. Wow, that was from May of last year. I like my rental car though. Compared to driving my minivan, this car makes me feel like a much larger-sized person than I am, and it's kind of thrilling to be so low to the ground when I'm driving. Also since about a year ago, Kevin's ring size decreased by two. And speaking of Kevin, he came home with two lovely silver lamps from JC Penney this afternoon. I really appreciate the lamps... and they really are lovely.

Also, here's a baby slender loris - he's in a story on BBC news.

Hang On A Second

2007-01-09T19:23:00.000-06:00

With all the talk lately about the best movies of 2006, I feel the need to bestow my own honorable mention upon the film Shortbus. If you can get past the actors having actual sex of all sorts all over the screen, there's a heartwarming, sentimental story which I found very enjoyable. I may never forget the national anthem scene for as long as I live - I laughed myself to tears. And it culminates with the heroine of the story finally achieving her long-awaited orgasm. What's not to love?

One of those things...

2006-11-30T20:03:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-22T20:44:00.000-06:00

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!

2006-11-08T21:57:00.000-06:00

And the Senate!!

Yeee!

2006-11-08T07:12:00.000-06:00

First female House speaker ever! Hee heeee!

Go Vote!

2006-11-07T08:13:00.000-06:00

Go! Vote!

The Game

2006-11-05T08:31:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-01T21:04:00.000-06:00

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

2006-10-15T17:21:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-10-11T17:35:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-09-30T00:23:00.000-05:00

Giant Alien Bug in Germany????

Small Animal

2006-09-19T21:43:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-09-10T10:26:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-08-31T00:18:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-20T20:50:00.000-05:00

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'

2006-08-18T17:37:00.000-05:00

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

You Think Bush is Bad?

2006-08-15T18:26:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-11T18:07:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-05T08:16:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

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

2006-06-26T20:54:00.000-05:00

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

2006-06-24T12:47:00.000-05:00

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

2006-06-18T21:35:00.000-05:00

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

2006-06-18T21:11:00.000-05:00

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

2006-06-08T20:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-06-04T15:41:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-05-25T17:32:00.000-05:00

And here we have Olivia just after her summer haircut:

The great flood of '06

2006-05-25T07:43:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-15T20:00:00.000-05:00

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... ?

2006-04-25T20:10:00.000-05:00

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

2006-04-23T19:41:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-04-16T19:44:00.000-05:00

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.