I'm going crazy with all the propaganda floating about.
There's a "Measure B" on our ballot for next week that talks about "letting the voters decide" on traffic patterns which as near as I can tell is the Planning Commission abdicating their responsibilities in favor of mob rule. I have received aproximately a dozen "we're voting for B, so should you" fliers all printed on thick, glossy, very well funded NON-RECYCLABLE stock. All of these people claim to care about the environment, but they've flooded at least 200,000 of these landfill bound things into the neighborhood. And not a one of them says anything specific about what Measure B will actually do. As near as I can tell, it's some back door way of preventing the H.ome De.spot from driving out a local harware chain. Well, morons, just don't give them a damn building permit and be done with it. The uninformed masses should vote for people they trust to make considered decisions. The specifics of the decisions should not be put to the vote. But their mantra is "the voters should decide" and they couldn't be more wrong.
Another person who couldn't be more wrong is HRC. (When I see that, I always think "Her Royal Clinton.") She wants the voters from Michigan and Florida to be counted. Well then, she shouldn't have agreed at the START of the election not to count them. She claims she would have the lead in Michigan. That's as may be, but she ran on the ballot unopposed and still over 40% of the people or more voted "other" instead of voting for her and 12% voted for Edwards. That's more than 52% AGAINST (got the stats from the newswire yesterday. Because while both she and Barack AGREED (did I mention they AGREED?) that this vote would NOT COUNT from the outset, he pulled his name from the ballot and she didn't. Only someone extremely desperate could count Michigan as a win under these conditions.
One reason for staggered elections is so that less funded candidates without celebrity name recognition can get some stumping done in places that aren't as expensive or populous. With this, they can start to "build their brand" and gain momentum in name recognition and fundraising. Then, when they get to the bigger states, they're on more equal footing with someone who started out with a big bin of cash and a series of cover shots. This allows them to run more on issues and less on "oh, that name is familiar". Because Michigan and Florida can be swing states with a significant number of votes, the Democratic party wants their primaries to be a little later in the season. CA moving up is also a problem for these reasons.
The reason I bring this up: when the early michigan and florida votes were held, Obama was the lesser known candidate. I've personally been a fan since his speech at the DNC in 2004. I've actually been surprised that more people didn't know him because his speech caused some minor celebrity action and the start of murmurings even back then about a presidential run. But it turns out that plenty of people missed that one breakout from obscurity, but they are familiar with HRC. So you have a vote early in the season that both candidates agree not to count, AGREE NOT TO CAMPAIGN in that state, where one of the candidates has major celebrity and the other is some new guy with a funny name and substantially less funding - how is the result from that vote a legitimate indicator of anything other than the fact that people recognize Hillary's name? Sure, plenty of people voted in good faith. But they voted based on incomplete disclosure, which is like asking a jury to convict someone based on half the evidence: invalid.
But now the race is "so close" even with Obama ahead, that HRC is trying to weasel in these false votes and claim them for her own. And what's worse, is the Democratic party is trying to let her. Someone needs to cowboy up and speak some truth and just say no. Those votes were disallowed from the start, the states and the candides knew the rules and the consequences and the states broke the rules anyway. And now they won't be held to the rules that the other 48 states followed. Either enforce the rules as stated or just don't have rules. By "counting" these 2 states, you're disssing the other 48. Did you think of that? I am running completely out of patience with the "if you do that one more time..." x12 method of discipline.
So I'm sitting here disgusted by both national and local politics and I'm floored at how little airtime the people who agree with me are getting. I need to write some letters to the editor and to my reps. After lunch.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Free Mexican Air Force
Along with dealing with docs, I had busy evenings this week too.
Wednesday, the date got free tickets for a Dodgers baseball game. They were really good tickets. We went with 2 of his friends who wound up being pretty fun. And the game itself was more fun than I remember games being - usually I like baseball best on radio because they fill the downtime with stats and other patter. But this game moved quickly, the screen showed everything that we needed to know, the screen on the other side had ads and whatnot, we had seats right behind home plate, and the Dodgers beat Cincinnati 5 to 2.
The outrageous prices of concessions were the only negative. $10/beer, yikes! $62 spent on snacks for 4. Granted, the price per ounce of the bud light was actually lower than at the strawberry festival and I didn't pay so I am annoyed only in sympathy.
The other funky thing was the weather. The air was swirling through the stadium with near gale force. Every so often, it would pick up a plastic bag and toss it through the infield, but for the most part it swirled around. See how the flags are standing almost straight out? The air was going the opposite direction at our seat (clockwise). At one point, the people in the high/balcony seats above us all let loose their lightweight trash at once and it all swirled around like confetti making quite the show before it finally settled.
Thursday, the date bought us tickets to a show in Santa Barbara after hearing some of the tunes on a sunday AM alternative show. It was about the same distance but the opposite direction on the 101 from the ball game. And about 30 years away in mindset. The concert was a collection of aging hippies singing tunes about the state of the world and various other things. The first guy, David Linley, was my favorite and the date bought a CD, so I might hear him again. Best described as grizzled ol' coot with a yen for stringed instruments, he could really fill the Lobero theater with enveloping sound.
The headliner I didn't like as well, but it was a new experience. We were probably the youngest people in there. There were a few folk in their 40s but the rest was all pretty well in their 60s. A few went out and got baked at intermission, and I'm sure it improved their enjoyment of the show. The story he told about the Free Mexican Air Force song involved an old airplane being pushed off a cliff and the other guy taking a toke and saying, "Dude, YOU drive." as part of a hippie spiritual quest for meaning. Entertaining. Different.
---
Not as entertaining, I also found out that the sample I dropped off with the doc last week came back *still* positive for a bladder infection, and is probably why I've been feeling so bad. For nearly a MONTH. The burning sensation has kept me from sleeping. I'm now on antibiotic round #3 and they think this will work. We'll see. The thing that confuses me though is how I got it. I view hygiene as very important. I haven't really done anything different, or more to the point, worse, since moving here. I got my first infection ever a few months ago and this is number two. I'm not doing anything new that would cause it. So what's up?
My current theory is automatic flush toilets. They're a plague and they're everywhere, including at work. They wouldn't be so bad if they didn't flush early and often and generally, despite hundreds of years of toilet technology at our disposal, kick up water while flushing. You can't get an STD from the seat (except crabs, says the book I read today at B&N), but I'm pretty sure you can get E.Coli from the water in the bowl being splashed on your undersides. From now on, whenever possible, I'm going to use the toilet at work that doesn't flush early.
Each toilet stall in my building has some issue, all different.
#1 is good but flushes any time I shift my posture to so things like lean my elbows on my knees, grab TP, etc...
#2 doesn't flush early but also doesn't fully so one has to push the button 3X to make it work and hope for the best
#3 has a huge gap between the door and support so people can see in
#4 is least likely to flush early, but the latch sticks and sometimes doesn't catch when one is in a hurry...
#5 (yes! 5 stalls for women!!) is the handicapped one and the purse hook is very far away from the seat so if you bring supplies... plus the seat is higher and I prefer a lower seat. Now you know.
While I'm still on hygiene and personal grooming, I found these two products at the store today.
These products are the same but for the color of the outer casing and the marketing on the package. The women's is white with a clear cap, then men's trimmer is black and grey. The women's talks about being "pain free hair removal" and shows a pretty woman. The men's talks about "50% more power!" and shows a cutaway drawing of the electromechanical innards. To the best of my knowledge, these innards are exactly the same in both products. Fortunately, unlike getting haircuts by a professional, the prices were the same for both the men and women.
I was at the store to buy sheets though. I had some notion of using my recent bonus money (that I didn't spend on rubber band guns) on high thread count sheets. Unfortunately for me, all the high thread count sheets are made in really boring non-colors. All of which don't go with either bed set I have. I finally stooped to a 250 thread count something or other in dark purple and some 300 sateens in just the wrong shade of dark pink.
Have a happy long weekend, if you have a long weekend. I'm going to go do more Penrose Slitherlink Puzzles now. And get some hot dogs for monday.
Wednesday, the date got free tickets for a Dodgers baseball game. They were really good tickets. We went with 2 of his friends who wound up being pretty fun. And the game itself was more fun than I remember games being - usually I like baseball best on radio because they fill the downtime with stats and other patter. But this game moved quickly, the screen showed everything that we needed to know, the screen on the other side had ads and whatnot, we had seats right behind home plate, and the Dodgers beat Cincinnati 5 to 2.
The outrageous prices of concessions were the only negative. $10/beer, yikes! $62 spent on snacks for 4. Granted, the price per ounce of the bud light was actually lower than at the strawberry festival and I didn't pay so I am annoyed only in sympathy.
The other funky thing was the weather. The air was swirling through the stadium with near gale force. Every so often, it would pick up a plastic bag and toss it through the infield, but for the most part it swirled around. See how the flags are standing almost straight out? The air was going the opposite direction at our seat (clockwise). At one point, the people in the high/balcony seats above us all let loose their lightweight trash at once and it all swirled around like confetti making quite the show before it finally settled.
Thursday, the date bought us tickets to a show in Santa Barbara after hearing some of the tunes on a sunday AM alternative show. It was about the same distance but the opposite direction on the 101 from the ball game. And about 30 years away in mindset. The concert was a collection of aging hippies singing tunes about the state of the world and various other things. The first guy, David Linley, was my favorite and the date bought a CD, so I might hear him again. Best described as grizzled ol' coot with a yen for stringed instruments, he could really fill the Lobero theater with enveloping sound.
The headliner I didn't like as well, but it was a new experience. We were probably the youngest people in there. There were a few folk in their 40s but the rest was all pretty well in their 60s. A few went out and got baked at intermission, and I'm sure it improved their enjoyment of the show. The story he told about the Free Mexican Air Force song involved an old airplane being pushed off a cliff and the other guy taking a toke and saying, "Dude, YOU drive." as part of a hippie spiritual quest for meaning. Entertaining. Different.
---
Not as entertaining, I also found out that the sample I dropped off with the doc last week came back *still* positive for a bladder infection, and is probably why I've been feeling so bad. For nearly a MONTH. The burning sensation has kept me from sleeping. I'm now on antibiotic round #3 and they think this will work. We'll see. The thing that confuses me though is how I got it. I view hygiene as very important. I haven't really done anything different, or more to the point, worse, since moving here. I got my first infection ever a few months ago and this is number two. I'm not doing anything new that would cause it. So what's up?
My current theory is automatic flush toilets. They're a plague and they're everywhere, including at work. They wouldn't be so bad if they didn't flush early and often and generally, despite hundreds of years of toilet technology at our disposal, kick up water while flushing. You can't get an STD from the seat (except crabs, says the book I read today at B&N), but I'm pretty sure you can get E.Coli from the water in the bowl being splashed on your undersides. From now on, whenever possible, I'm going to use the toilet at work that doesn't flush early.
Each toilet stall in my building has some issue, all different.
#1 is good but flushes any time I shift my posture to so things like lean my elbows on my knees, grab TP, etc...
#2 doesn't flush early but also doesn't fully so one has to push the button 3X to make it work and hope for the best
#3 has a huge gap between the door and support so people can see in
#4 is least likely to flush early, but the latch sticks and sometimes doesn't catch when one is in a hurry...
#5 (yes! 5 stalls for women!!) is the handicapped one and the purse hook is very far away from the seat so if you bring supplies... plus the seat is higher and I prefer a lower seat. Now you know.
While I'm still on hygiene and personal grooming, I found these two products at the store today.
These products are the same but for the color of the outer casing and the marketing on the package. The women's is white with a clear cap, then men's trimmer is black and grey. The women's talks about being "pain free hair removal" and shows a pretty woman. The men's talks about "50% more power!" and shows a cutaway drawing of the electromechanical innards. To the best of my knowledge, these innards are exactly the same in both products. Fortunately, unlike getting haircuts by a professional, the prices were the same for both the men and women.
I was at the store to buy sheets though. I had some notion of using my recent bonus money (that I didn't spend on rubber band guns) on high thread count sheets. Unfortunately for me, all the high thread count sheets are made in really boring non-colors. All of which don't go with either bed set I have. I finally stooped to a 250 thread count something or other in dark purple and some 300 sateens in just the wrong shade of dark pink.
Have a happy long weekend, if you have a long weekend. I'm going to go do more Penrose Slitherlink Puzzles now. And get some hot dogs for monday.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Three Docs Down
I would have posted this last night but my internet connection was all kinds of faulty and fixing it was more than I had patience for because I was vewy, vewy sweepy. I did not sleep well sunday night and slept through my alarm. I called the acupuncturist but didn't get an appointment right away. I was tired yesterday and tried to go to bed early at 9:30 which is about 3 hours early.
The rest is TMI, so stop reading now if you're squeamish or just don't need to know this about me. Skip to the line ------- for weekend deets.
Last night I took my allergy meds so I could breathe at least a little. I slept fitfully for a bit then realized I had some abdominal pain (perhaps residual bladder infection, I have samples at the doc's for evaluation), so I got up and took some ibuprofen so I could sleep through the pain. That worked for an hour. Then I couldn't sleep so I tried reading until I realized my problem was that occasional side effect I get from ibuprofen - restless legs. Turns out one of the best things for RLS is quinine, and the best availability of quinine is in tonic water. Since my mom was here and we went on the quest for quinine, I knew I had some. (She gets restless legs from eating beef. Now I know.)
Even though they add some sugary substance to tonic water, it's still foul stuff, unless one adds the appropriate amount of gin. Sconome's SO can make a mean G&T. I can't. I've yet to determine that amount of gin to make a good gin and tonic. So I added half a lime to try and make it ok. That did help it go down and my legs stilled enough that I slept for about 90 minutes. At which time I woke up suddenly with bile in the back of my throat. Given that the last time this happened was after I had orange juice just before bed, I think it was the lime. But the allergies were not helping. It took about 15 minutes to clear out the bile and post nasal drip from the back of my throat and it burned like fire the whole time. I think I can still taste it. Ugh.
Everyone knows that crackers and tums and dry nothings help to settle stomachs. I don't keep tums around - I ran out of the ones my friend left in Boston - and it turns out I don't have crackers either. So I made some microwave popcorn. Between that and propping myself up for a while to settle the stomach, I was able to read some of Janet Evanovich's "Lean Mean 13" and LOL at the "squirrel bo.mb" until I was finally able to sleep around 3:30 or so AM. Then I slept through my alarm again. Sheesh.
So today I went to the acupuncturist for lunch, then after getting a recommendation from my boss, called her allergist at 4 and they could fit me in at 4:10 for an initial case history. The allergist is around the corner from the chiropractor so I made it in just before closing. He would be happy that I came home and did my neck exercise, but not so happy that I then passed out on the floor for 20 minutes. How did I get to be such a wreck?
I don't want to dwell, but whatever's going on is really intruding on my energy level. I slept a lot more than my visiting friend in an off time zone. I try to eat right. I still eat too much, but I'm working on portion sizes. The big problem is that I only have energy until I leave work and then I wilt. Literally can't lift myself off the floor. I'm hoping I can work out some deal where once I week I can go to the gym at lunch when I have energy. I'm hoping the acupuncture helps my sleep. I'm hoping the cortisol test tells me something I can use.
Ok, that's enough of the crap.
--------------
The weekend was nice. I made a lot of vitamin D.
My friend and I had a good time, although I didn't realize I was so verbally critical of her driving until she told me she knew I wasn't "nice" but likes me anyway. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but hey, I got to see scenery for once. We saw a funny sign at a vendor booth at the strawberry festival that said, "I'm not bossy, I just know what you should be doing." She also said the sign would be redundant for me. I find this odd since it's so tough to be decisive about myself. Then I bought both a long and a short tie-dyed dress at the festival and took pictures of my friend trying on hats.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy played at the festival. Big Bonus! I would say they rocked, but they're a swing band. I love me a stand up bass. And swing dancing too, but not in full sun in near 100F heat when 20oz of water costs $3. These people were nuts.
Did I mention it was sunny and hot hot hot? My sunscreen started to fail after 4 hours and I tucked a piece of newspaper into my hat to keep my neck from burning during the concert. To keep my toes from burning, I made them some origami hats.
The lady next to me volunteered to let me use her sunscreen...
And it turns out that even sharing this treat with my friend, it might have helped me to add the one pound I gained this week. Strawberries and funnel cake. Mmm. I would have eaten a LOT of bad food but everything cost $7 so we stopped after this and some fried artichoke hearts and switched to $7 strawberry daquiris and $6 half pints of beer. The prices made the $5 big gulp lemonade at the LA Festival of books look reasonable. At least this tasty treat was for charity.
We also managed to take in some cooler weather in the form of a Santa Barbara evening on friday. My friend took off on saturday night to have sunday to recover from driving me around. I did some errands, hit the library, and read by the pool. Despite the body going to hell in a handbasket, I'm enjoying myself out here in SoCal and can't help but love this weather. If you need me, I'll be drowning my sorrows with hand squeezed lemonade by the pool or at the beach.
Ok, really I'll be at work, or lately at the doctor, but it's still good.
The rest is TMI, so stop reading now if you're squeamish or just don't need to know this about me. Skip to the line ------- for weekend deets.
Last night I took my allergy meds so I could breathe at least a little. I slept fitfully for a bit then realized I had some abdominal pain (perhaps residual bladder infection, I have samples at the doc's for evaluation), so I got up and took some ibuprofen so I could sleep through the pain. That worked for an hour. Then I couldn't sleep so I tried reading until I realized my problem was that occasional side effect I get from ibuprofen - restless legs. Turns out one of the best things for RLS is quinine, and the best availability of quinine is in tonic water. Since my mom was here and we went on the quest for quinine, I knew I had some. (She gets restless legs from eating beef. Now I know.)
Even though they add some sugary substance to tonic water, it's still foul stuff, unless one adds the appropriate amount of gin. Sconome's SO can make a mean G&T. I can't. I've yet to determine that amount of gin to make a good gin and tonic. So I added half a lime to try and make it ok. That did help it go down and my legs stilled enough that I slept for about 90 minutes. At which time I woke up suddenly with bile in the back of my throat. Given that the last time this happened was after I had orange juice just before bed, I think it was the lime. But the allergies were not helping. It took about 15 minutes to clear out the bile and post nasal drip from the back of my throat and it burned like fire the whole time. I think I can still taste it. Ugh.
Everyone knows that crackers and tums and dry nothings help to settle stomachs. I don't keep tums around - I ran out of the ones my friend left in Boston - and it turns out I don't have crackers either. So I made some microwave popcorn. Between that and propping myself up for a while to settle the stomach, I was able to read some of Janet Evanovich's "Lean Mean 13" and LOL at the "squirrel bo.mb" until I was finally able to sleep around 3:30 or so AM. Then I slept through my alarm again. Sheesh.
So today I went to the acupuncturist for lunch, then after getting a recommendation from my boss, called her allergist at 4 and they could fit me in at 4:10 for an initial case history. The allergist is around the corner from the chiropractor so I made it in just before closing. He would be happy that I came home and did my neck exercise, but not so happy that I then passed out on the floor for 20 minutes. How did I get to be such a wreck?
I don't want to dwell, but whatever's going on is really intruding on my energy level. I slept a lot more than my visiting friend in an off time zone. I try to eat right. I still eat too much, but I'm working on portion sizes. The big problem is that I only have energy until I leave work and then I wilt. Literally can't lift myself off the floor. I'm hoping I can work out some deal where once I week I can go to the gym at lunch when I have energy. I'm hoping the acupuncture helps my sleep. I'm hoping the cortisol test tells me something I can use.
Ok, that's enough of the crap.
--------------
The weekend was nice. I made a lot of vitamin D.
My friend and I had a good time, although I didn't realize I was so verbally critical of her driving until she told me she knew I wasn't "nice" but likes me anyway. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but hey, I got to see scenery for once. We saw a funny sign at a vendor booth at the strawberry festival that said, "I'm not bossy, I just know what you should be doing." She also said the sign would be redundant for me. I find this odd since it's so tough to be decisive about myself. Then I bought both a long and a short tie-dyed dress at the festival and took pictures of my friend trying on hats.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy played at the festival. Big Bonus! I would say they rocked, but they're a swing band. I love me a stand up bass. And swing dancing too, but not in full sun in near 100F heat when 20oz of water costs $3. These people were nuts.
Did I mention it was sunny and hot hot hot? My sunscreen started to fail after 4 hours and I tucked a piece of newspaper into my hat to keep my neck from burning during the concert. To keep my toes from burning, I made them some origami hats.
The lady next to me volunteered to let me use her sunscreen...
And it turns out that even sharing this treat with my friend, it might have helped me to add the one pound I gained this week. Strawberries and funnel cake. Mmm. I would have eaten a LOT of bad food but everything cost $7 so we stopped after this and some fried artichoke hearts and switched to $7 strawberry daquiris and $6 half pints of beer. The prices made the $5 big gulp lemonade at the LA Festival of books look reasonable. At least this tasty treat was for charity.
We also managed to take in some cooler weather in the form of a Santa Barbara evening on friday. My friend took off on saturday night to have sunday to recover from driving me around. I did some errands, hit the library, and read by the pool. Despite the body going to hell in a handbasket, I'm enjoying myself out here in SoCal and can't help but love this weather. If you need me, I'll be drowning my sorrows with hand squeezed lemonade by the pool or at the beach.
Ok, really I'll be at work, or lately at the doctor, but it's still good.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Strawberry Fields Forever
Breaking radio silence to mention that I've got a friend in town. She came in on thursday night, I worked a half day friday, and when I woke up today I thought it was sunday already. But it's not! I still have a whole weekend!
Yesterday I had a couple appointments that kept us close to town early in the day so we hit up the outlet malls and tried on shoes. There was a heeled thong by Carlos Santana that I liked rather well but couldn't justify. I wound up with 2 new pairs of work shoes in black and brown that are at least a little trendy in their closed-toe-closed-low-heel-ness. After that I had a chiropractor appointment and the massage lady there had a concurrent appointment open, so I signed my friend up for that only to find it was her first massage. I'm not sure she *liked* it as such, but she did say it got her over her fear of massages.
After that, we joined half of LA and drove up to Santa Barbara for a little walk along the beach and pier, lots of picture taking, watching boys at the skate park (since I've moved here, I've only ever seen 1 girl in a skate park) and dinner at my regular place. It's the first time I've ever sat at a table there, I think. Every other time a place at the bar opens up in 5 min or so, especially later in the evening. But last night it was packed to the gills at 8:30. And 9:30. Presumably the weekend was so nice, everyone took their boat out until sunset and then needed dinner. Worth the wait for the beer-boiled shrimp though. And fried scallops and the seafood pasta that they served in two bowls when we said we were splitting it.
This morning my friend from the east coast got up for an east coast morning even though we got in around midnight. She's gone off in search of coffee and chocolate at Choclatine down the street while I wake up. I think I'm awake now though and it's about time for us to hit up the annual Strawberry Festival. Last year there was a booth for all-you-can-eat strawberry shortcake, and I bought that excellent steel table for my patio. I hope she enjoys it and we don't overspend. I think it's likely we will overeat though.
Yesterday I had a couple appointments that kept us close to town early in the day so we hit up the outlet malls and tried on shoes. There was a heeled thong by Carlos Santana that I liked rather well but couldn't justify. I wound up with 2 new pairs of work shoes in black and brown that are at least a little trendy in their closed-toe-closed-low-heel-ness. After that I had a chiropractor appointment and the massage lady there had a concurrent appointment open, so I signed my friend up for that only to find it was her first massage. I'm not sure she *liked* it as such, but she did say it got her over her fear of massages.
After that, we joined half of LA and drove up to Santa Barbara for a little walk along the beach and pier, lots of picture taking, watching boys at the skate park (since I've moved here, I've only ever seen 1 girl in a skate park) and dinner at my regular place. It's the first time I've ever sat at a table there, I think. Every other time a place at the bar opens up in 5 min or so, especially later in the evening. But last night it was packed to the gills at 8:30. And 9:30. Presumably the weekend was so nice, everyone took their boat out until sunset and then needed dinner. Worth the wait for the beer-boiled shrimp though. And fried scallops and the seafood pasta that they served in two bowls when we said we were splitting it.
This morning my friend from the east coast got up for an east coast morning even though we got in around midnight. She's gone off in search of coffee and chocolate at Choclatine down the street while I wake up. I think I'm awake now though and it's about time for us to hit up the annual Strawberry Festival. Last year there was a booth for all-you-can-eat strawberry shortcake, and I bought that excellent steel table for my patio. I hope she enjoys it and we don't overspend. I think it's likely we will overeat though.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Going Down to Liverpool to do Nothing
Free Food Friday went off pretty well except I learned that I can't eat pizza with onions even if I pick them off. Onions are out, unless cooked to the point of carmelization. Three cape codders at our after work celebration worked wonders on the digestive upset. I took a quick nap then headed off with the date to see The Bangles play a benefit concert. I mentioned that we got lawn seats and he showed with chairs, blankets, and wine. Not bad. We had to drink the wine in the car then head in due to it being a high school benefit. These ladies put on a great show. (One of them has a kid at the HS.) They remain Professional Rock Stars and did something of a greatest hits show for a multi-generational audience. Everyone seemed to love it. Probably the most laid back, yet high energy, rock show I've ever been to.
Lightweight weekend this time, no visitors, didn't need to clean much. Had to work for a couple hours but then nada. So I read a book (Voodoo River), started reading another book but got fed up with the hero being stupid. I went for a run. I took pictures of ornaments I need to sell. I surfed the web.
After work saturday, I had been driving around talking to friends, and needed to move. I parked at a beach and started walking down the bike path. But I hate walking by myself, it's boring and too slow. So I loped into a run for a while and walked some more until I could run again. I did this a few times, and walked back along the surf, which was treacherous enough footing to make it an interesting walk. I stood on a pile of rocks that jets into the ocean - they have these built at intervals along the coast - and stood still for a while. Then I needed more running so I did that. I skipped a little too. I might have looked like a maniac, but it felt good.
Today was very different. I slept a lot. Aside from a handful of strawberries and some hand squeezed orange juice, I didn't really eat anything until dinner. It's a little strange. Aside from the sleeping and reading, I've been surfing the web. Through a friend's blog I found this post which, considering I had just been reading about the ineffectiveness of anti-drug education made me LOL.
To summarize, if you're like me and don't always click links: God says, "Don't swallow poison". Blogger says, "Is it ok if I just swish it around in my mouth a little bit?" And while trying to come up with a title, some old titles popped up like "A Mounds is NOT a Sprinkle". How can that not make me smile?
Lightweight weekend this time, no visitors, didn't need to clean much. Had to work for a couple hours but then nada. So I read a book (Voodoo River), started reading another book but got fed up with the hero being stupid. I went for a run. I took pictures of ornaments I need to sell. I surfed the web.
After work saturday, I had been driving around talking to friends, and needed to move. I parked at a beach and started walking down the bike path. But I hate walking by myself, it's boring and too slow. So I loped into a run for a while and walked some more until I could run again. I did this a few times, and walked back along the surf, which was treacherous enough footing to make it an interesting walk. I stood on a pile of rocks that jets into the ocean - they have these built at intervals along the coast - and stood still for a while. Then I needed more running so I did that. I skipped a little too. I might have looked like a maniac, but it felt good.
Today was very different. I slept a lot. Aside from a handful of strawberries and some hand squeezed orange juice, I didn't really eat anything until dinner. It's a little strange. Aside from the sleeping and reading, I've been surfing the web. Through a friend's blog I found this post which, considering I had just been reading about the ineffectiveness of anti-drug education made me LOL.
To summarize, if you're like me and don't always click links: God says, "Don't swallow poison". Blogger says, "Is it ok if I just swish it around in my mouth a little bit?" And while trying to come up with a title, some old titles popped up like "A Mounds is NOT a Sprinkle". How can that not make me smile?
Thursday, May 8, 2008
So I Read This Study...
Anyone who's had a conversation with me has probably heard those title words come out of my mouth. I read a lot of news articles related to health, science, and technology studies. Some of the stuff sticks. One of my favorites was a study where someone gave monkeys either a grape or a cucumber slice for doing a task. When two monkeys did the same task for the same reward, everything was fine. But if one monkey got paid a cucumber and the other a sweeter, and thus better, grape then the cucumber monkey would reject the payment, sometimes hurling it back at the researcher.
The way I understand this is that a sense of fairness is ingrained deeply in our brains, in the mammalian pre-human parts. To treat or be treated unfairly is something we understand without question, without thinking, we just know. I don't know if fairness is like pornography in that you know it when you see it and everyone has a different threshold. But if monkeys recognize fairness, then the concept got hardwired for mammals in cooperative social groups before the ape-monkey split which was a long long time ago. I know not everyone reacts the same to unfairness. But to ignore unfairness or perpetuate it knowingly can cause a rejection that comes from so far down inside our intrinsic selves that the situation and response can wreak havok on relationships of all sorts.
And now I have a phrase for this: inequity aversion
because I commented (nicely this time) on the Freakonomics blog call for questions to primatologist Frans de Waal, happened to get in the 2nd question, and he chose to address it. And since it was about one of my favorite "studies", this thrills me to no end. Even if he didn't address my sub-question about whether the grape receiving monkey every shared with cucumber monkey, I'm going to have to get his books. He's one of the few, like Malcolm Gladwell, who know that writing science for a wide audience isn't "dumbing things down" but rather "speaking to the audience" so as to be entertaining and understandable, something a few of the commenters haven't yet grasped.
But I'll have to get the books after I finish glomming Robert Crais, and probably after the next Suz Brockmann, Into the Fire, comes out in July. Back to the Sunset Express...
---
Actually, I have to mention a couple things to get them out of my head. And because they're happy things. When mom visited, we managed to call up her home email account (as opposed to her yahoo account) and get her logged in to it for the first time that wasn't at her home computer. Go us.
Mom also brought an unwieldy decoration since it was proving difficult to ship. It's a funky carved wood rising sun in the exact shade of green my "hallway" is painted in. It's got a great face - mom has a thing for faces. (The "kim's pottery" in my sidebar has great faces too.) I'll post a picture of the sun. Just not right this second.
Tomorrow I get "free" food all day, but need to maybe adjust my chiropractic appointment. Breakfast is bagel club, lunch is a meeting providing pizza, and dinner is the general manager buying us food and "please try to limit yourself to two drinks" for beating an important milestone at work. Our general manager and the managers in my group are really good about using their discretionary awards.
I'm perpetually grateful to Cooks Illustrated for recommending the vinegar wash. I wash all my incoming produce except mushrooms and corn with 1 part vinegar, 3 parts water, then rinse and dry. (The corn I cook immediately to prevent the sugar from turning to starch.) With rare exceptions, my food lasts until I eat it, it dehydrates, or I get sick of looking at it, rather than until it goes moldy. One of the farmers' market stalls was selling 6 pints of strawberries for $5, so this vinegar wash buys me more time to eat them fresh and decide whether to cook or freeze the remainder. It's a LOT of strawberries. Still not worth the $24 that someone else was charging. Those must have been the strawberries pre-digested by marsupial cats on Madagascar or something. Speaking of which
The way I understand this is that a sense of fairness is ingrained deeply in our brains, in the mammalian pre-human parts. To treat or be treated unfairly is something we understand without question, without thinking, we just know. I don't know if fairness is like pornography in that you know it when you see it and everyone has a different threshold. But if monkeys recognize fairness, then the concept got hardwired for mammals in cooperative social groups before the ape-monkey split which was a long long time ago. I know not everyone reacts the same to unfairness. But to ignore unfairness or perpetuate it knowingly can cause a rejection that comes from so far down inside our intrinsic selves that the situation and response can wreak havok on relationships of all sorts.
And now I have a phrase for this: inequity aversion
because I commented (nicely this time) on the Freakonomics blog call for questions to primatologist Frans de Waal, happened to get in the 2nd question, and he chose to address it. And since it was about one of my favorite "studies", this thrills me to no end. Even if he didn't address my sub-question about whether the grape receiving monkey every shared with cucumber monkey, I'm going to have to get his books. He's one of the few, like Malcolm Gladwell, who know that writing science for a wide audience isn't "dumbing things down" but rather "speaking to the audience" so as to be entertaining and understandable, something a few of the commenters haven't yet grasped.
But I'll have to get the books after I finish glomming Robert Crais, and probably after the next Suz Brockmann, Into the Fire, comes out in July. Back to the Sunset Express...
---
Actually, I have to mention a couple things to get them out of my head. And because they're happy things. When mom visited, we managed to call up her home email account (as opposed to her yahoo account) and get her logged in to it for the first time that wasn't at her home computer. Go us.
Mom also brought an unwieldy decoration since it was proving difficult to ship. It's a funky carved wood rising sun in the exact shade of green my "hallway" is painted in. It's got a great face - mom has a thing for faces. (The "kim's pottery" in my sidebar has great faces too.) I'll post a picture of the sun. Just not right this second.
Tomorrow I get "free" food all day, but need to maybe adjust my chiropractic appointment. Breakfast is bagel club, lunch is a meeting providing pizza, and dinner is the general manager buying us food and "please try to limit yourself to two drinks" for beating an important milestone at work. Our general manager and the managers in my group are really good about using their discretionary awards.
I'm perpetually grateful to Cooks Illustrated for recommending the vinegar wash. I wash all my incoming produce except mushrooms and corn with 1 part vinegar, 3 parts water, then rinse and dry. (The corn I cook immediately to prevent the sugar from turning to starch.) With rare exceptions, my food lasts until I eat it, it dehydrates, or I get sick of looking at it, rather than until it goes moldy. One of the farmers' market stalls was selling 6 pints of strawberries for $5, so this vinegar wash buys me more time to eat them fresh and decide whether to cook or freeze the remainder. It's a LOT of strawberries. Still not worth the $24 that someone else was charging. Those must have been the strawberries pre-digested by marsupial cats on Madagascar or something. Speaking of which
Sunday, May 4, 2008
What Mom Did on Vacation.
My mom called from Minnesota last weekend. I told her it was 95F and sunny her. She said it was 33F and threatening to snow there. I told her she should come here where it's nicer out so she did. It was a pleasant 75F this weekend and didn't snow like it did on her first visit.
I'd gone on a date to see Lewis Black. I got the shuttle to drop mom off at the Claim Jumper during their late night happy hour and greeted her with a hug and some tri-tip sandwiches. The date wheeled and carried her bags back to my place for her, which was nice of him. Mom woke up before I did and proceeded to clean the place from top to bottom with whatever cleaning implements were at hand. She did a better job than the hired ladies did a couple weeks ago and was much faster and quieter at that. Believe it or not I actually cleaned up for a couple hours thursday night before she came, but apparently my rug-shaking skills are lacking because she did it again.
After I stumbled awake in a cleaner condo, we had breakfast outside and I drove her through horse country because I know she likes horses and architecture. We picked oranges, lemons, and kumquats from a friend's backyard. We made fresh squeezed orange-lemonade that made my eyes roll back in my head with pleasure and went to the local fair. It was very old school with spinning rides and throwing games and reminded me of a fair we used to go to as kids in my dad's hometown where they served really excellent orange-lemonade from the beer tent. We watched the horse danceline perform for a while. They had one tented area for vendors and apparently I inherited my swag collecting gene from mom's side of the family. We came out with one of every free thing, and the name of an eye surgeon who's done about 40,000 procedures including pro athletes because I'm thinking about that and don't want to go bargain basement on my eyes.
For dinner we drove out to the Ventura Harbor which wasn't stinky this time and had beer boiled shrimp and other fine food at the Brophy Brothers bar where we could watch the bartenders shuck oysters. Dinner and a show. We walked on the beach, watched the waves, watched the sunset and tooled back home where we proceeded to kill a bottle of riesling. My mom insists that we split it 50/50 but I'm pretty sure it was more like 30/70. She didn't really drink much or often when I was a kid, so I figure she's due.
Today we walked to the donut shop. It's just lucky that the closest donut shop is also the best donut shop. From there we walked off our donuts at the Gardens of the World where the Docents got talking with mom about plants and flowers. One of them had a son that went to the same school I did. His job is top secret. My job is making chips for cell phones. I'm ok with that. I like to talk about things. We took a lot of pictures of flowers and each other while we stopped and smelled the roses.
We managed to cram some oranges and lemons and kumquats into her baggage, have a fresh salad, actually made by me, out on my porch where we watched a bug fly in abrupt, square flight patterns about 2 feet away. The bug never bothered us but kept flight in these tight formations over and over. Afterward we headed for LAX and didn't get stuck in traffic. Dropping someone off at LAX feels like you're kicking them to the curb saying "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out", so I hung out at the beach nearby in case she needed to recall me for some reason. I sat on the cliff side near the car and read for a while but it was chilly. I went back to the Stick-n-Stein and the fabulous Darlene served me a drink and those great fried zucchini and let me read in the booth with sunlight for as long as I wanted.
The drive back went well. I had the sunroof open, all the windows down, and the mix CD cranking. I've kinda been zoning out since then. If I told you I'd do something, I'll probably do it tomorrow. I'm going to start the next book in the series, but I think my eyes will drift shut soon. I love my mom but I am worn out from the constant companionship. It kind of makes me wonder about dating when I am so in need of my own space. Mom and Dad called a little bit ago and she made it home just as my dad got off shift at the airport so that worked out.
I'd gone on a date to see Lewis Black. I got the shuttle to drop mom off at the Claim Jumper during their late night happy hour and greeted her with a hug and some tri-tip sandwiches. The date wheeled and carried her bags back to my place for her, which was nice of him. Mom woke up before I did and proceeded to clean the place from top to bottom with whatever cleaning implements were at hand. She did a better job than the hired ladies did a couple weeks ago and was much faster and quieter at that. Believe it or not I actually cleaned up for a couple hours thursday night before she came, but apparently my rug-shaking skills are lacking because she did it again.
After I stumbled awake in a cleaner condo, we had breakfast outside and I drove her through horse country because I know she likes horses and architecture. We picked oranges, lemons, and kumquats from a friend's backyard. We made fresh squeezed orange-lemonade that made my eyes roll back in my head with pleasure and went to the local fair. It was very old school with spinning rides and throwing games and reminded me of a fair we used to go to as kids in my dad's hometown where they served really excellent orange-lemonade from the beer tent. We watched the horse danceline perform for a while. They had one tented area for vendors and apparently I inherited my swag collecting gene from mom's side of the family. We came out with one of every free thing, and the name of an eye surgeon who's done about 40,000 procedures including pro athletes because I'm thinking about that and don't want to go bargain basement on my eyes.
For dinner we drove out to the Ventura Harbor which wasn't stinky this time and had beer boiled shrimp and other fine food at the Brophy Brothers bar where we could watch the bartenders shuck oysters. Dinner and a show. We walked on the beach, watched the waves, watched the sunset and tooled back home where we proceeded to kill a bottle of riesling. My mom insists that we split it 50/50 but I'm pretty sure it was more like 30/70. She didn't really drink much or often when I was a kid, so I figure she's due.
Today we walked to the donut shop. It's just lucky that the closest donut shop is also the best donut shop. From there we walked off our donuts at the Gardens of the World where the Docents got talking with mom about plants and flowers. One of them had a son that went to the same school I did. His job is top secret. My job is making chips for cell phones. I'm ok with that. I like to talk about things. We took a lot of pictures of flowers and each other while we stopped and smelled the roses.
We managed to cram some oranges and lemons and kumquats into her baggage, have a fresh salad, actually made by me, out on my porch where we watched a bug fly in abrupt, square flight patterns about 2 feet away. The bug never bothered us but kept flight in these tight formations over and over. Afterward we headed for LAX and didn't get stuck in traffic. Dropping someone off at LAX feels like you're kicking them to the curb saying "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out", so I hung out at the beach nearby in case she needed to recall me for some reason. I sat on the cliff side near the car and read for a while but it was chilly. I went back to the Stick-n-Stein and the fabulous Darlene served me a drink and those great fried zucchini and let me read in the booth with sunlight for as long as I wanted.
The drive back went well. I had the sunroof open, all the windows down, and the mix CD cranking. I've kinda been zoning out since then. If I told you I'd do something, I'll probably do it tomorrow. I'm going to start the next book in the series, but I think my eyes will drift shut soon. I love my mom but I am worn out from the constant companionship. It kind of makes me wonder about dating when I am so in need of my own space. Mom and Dad called a little bit ago and she made it home just as my dad got off shift at the airport so that worked out.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Red Red Wine
Had a fun little "chocolate and wine" social with my SWE group today. The purported reason for the gathering was to have someone from the Regional board come out and give us an overview of how the larger society structure works and what resources we can command from it. I decided to take both chocolate and wine. The chocolate being cookies with chili powder and the wine a red from Chili. I made the cookies last night in the little top oven which preheated in roughly 3 minutes. The cookies were great. The wine was grape juicy.
First I picked up the kitchen and ran the dishwasher to get stuff out of the sink. I run it once or twice a week depending on how often I eat at home. I scrubbed a little grout in the countertops that was looking grotty. I cleaned everything up. Then, I proceeded to fling chocolate cookie dough over half the kitchen in the process of making the cookies. At some point during sifting the dry ingredients went whumpf and scattered about a teaspoon of flour, cocoa, and ancho and chipotle chili mix over a 3 square foot area with lots of recently cleaned grout.
Then I chose a bowl for mixing that was small enough to get some good creaming going. It was great for that. It was not as great when I added in the melted chocolate and the recalcitrant flour mix. Then mini-chocolate chips and pecans? Fuggedaboudit. Small miscalclulations with the blender sent about 2 cookie's worth of dough flying in various directions. But I didn't overcook them and they came out GREAT. I would post a picture, but being dark brown they don't photograph well and the dough looks like something you'd rather not eat. Trust me though, they're the best chocolate cookies evah. I have the recipe in text or .doc format if you want a copy. Or just come to a cookie party.
It was a pretty good day.
First I picked up the kitchen and ran the dishwasher to get stuff out of the sink. I run it once or twice a week depending on how often I eat at home. I scrubbed a little grout in the countertops that was looking grotty. I cleaned everything up. Then, I proceeded to fling chocolate cookie dough over half the kitchen in the process of making the cookies. At some point during sifting the dry ingredients went whumpf and scattered about a teaspoon of flour, cocoa, and ancho and chipotle chili mix over a 3 square foot area with lots of recently cleaned grout.
Then I chose a bowl for mixing that was small enough to get some good creaming going. It was great for that. It was not as great when I added in the melted chocolate and the recalcitrant flour mix. Then mini-chocolate chips and pecans? Fuggedaboudit. Small miscalclulations with the blender sent about 2 cookie's worth of dough flying in various directions. But I didn't overcook them and they came out GREAT. I would post a picture, but being dark brown they don't photograph well and the dough looks like something you'd rather not eat. Trust me though, they're the best chocolate cookies evah. I have the recipe in text or .doc format if you want a copy. Or just come to a cookie party.
It was a pretty good day.
- Another engineer and I were able to walk to lunch where I ate a tasty avocado hamburger. It was nice to be out in the fresh-ish air (we crossed the freeway) and sun.
- I have permission from the finance guy to buy a high value consumable this quarter and do not have to beg and finagle for the timing I want, but will actually get it early.
- My antibiotics seem to finally be beating my infection into submission and the cramping has stopped.
- Wine and chocolate and hanging out with friends.
- I got all my laundry done, including the guest sheets.
- My mom is coming tomorrow for a quick weekend in the sun. Due to the nature of things related to my mom and vacation weather, we can use any and all prayers and good wishes for no frost. On her first visit out here, it snowed in Malibu and the oranges died. Hopefully the warm weather will hold long enough to raid the neighbors trees for fresh fruit.
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