Little Lucy has arrived!

And she's doing great!















She eats A LOT. We have to keep a strict eye on her diet or she'd eat us out of house and home! She eats mostly vegetables (she hates lettuce, though), some dog food, diary like cottage cheese and yogurt, nuts, fruit, and grains. Her two favorite foods are wet dog food and cheese soy crisps. Oh, and graham crackers. And goat's milk.















She's still pretty skiddish when we try to pick her up, but once we're holding her, she's very cuddly. I stuffed her in a pocket and took her to the store with me, and she feel asleep with her head poking out.














She sleeps much of the day. Pretty much all she does, actually, is eat, sleep, and poop an enormous amount... until 11 PM, when she wants to play and make her little corner nests and chew on stuff. She's stolen our clothes and claimed her toys already. And she's pretty good at using the same area as her bathroom... she just needs work on her aim. Fortunately, she avoids pooping ON us. She'll wait until we put her down, and she'll run to her corner. So considerate! At only 8 weeks!
















So sleepy! Don't let her fool you. She wakes us up at 2 am to play with her... and although it's annoying waking up in the middle of the night to play with a pet, you just CAN'T get mad at such a cute little ball of fur. You can't.

Four days left and counting...

So, we get little skunkie on Friday. Yay for Friday!

Koalas have fingerprints, too.

The fingerprinting lady said I have lovely ridges.

Check this out!

This is where I will most likely be doing my student teaching:













http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools-c/profiles/?id=217

I took a 6-hour nap today...

...because my poor body was so tired from running around for a week! The fun I had in New York was worth it, though.
My parents live in the Hudson River Valley (art buffs: Hudson River School's Frederick Church's estate is not far from them), about an hour and a half northwest of the city. They take the train in. And while it is a long commute, the views make it more manageable:















After the train stopped in Hoboken, New Jersey, we had to take another train into the city or take a ferry over. By the time we got to the city, we were starving! I introduced James to a fabulous place called Pick-A-Bagel. Don't let the name fool you, friends... they serve a kajillion things! The bagels are still my favorite, though... you can't find anything as good on the west coast, sadly.



















We went to Chinatown, one of my favorite places to visit.






























Aren't these lychees beautiful!?




















This is the restaurant we ate lunch at. I had sweet and sour duck with peppers, pineapple, and lychees. Oh oh oh so good!!

And Little Italy was great, of course. We got gelato in a little shop... I got pistachio gelato--I've never had pistachio ice cream before! Yum!

You know you're in Little Italy when...





































So much cheese!!!

















And of course, Central Park. I took off my shoes and we cuddled on a hill. The weather was perfect!

My favorite museum!

One of the first places we went was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For a small donation (technically, you can get in for free, but that would be rude), you can see some of the most awesome things in the WORLD!



















First, we saw all sorts of cool mummies and stuff. This tomb was probably 8 feet tall and 4 feet deep! They've also transplanted an entire Egyptian temple into a big window-walled chamber in the Met. Why didn't I take a picture of that?!




















Aaaa!
















A Rembrandt self-portrait.




















"The Oath of the Horatii"
















This is one of my favorite paintings. The fabric looks so real, and smooth, and wonderful... this picture doesn't do it justice, but whenever I'm there, I just stand in front of it and stare and stare... and the painting is very big, so it's almost life-size.




















"The Abduction of the Sabine Women", or, "The Rape of the Sabine Women"















I also had a special surprise for my hubby... a detailed Seurat study of one of his favorite paintings! Dope.
















Among these, we also saw one of Beethoven's pianos (I'm dumb and didn't take a picture!), several Stradivari violins, some Picassos, Rothkos, Klees, Branscusi, and a Jackson Pollock. And so much much much more! Rembrandts, Van Goghs, Monets, Manets, you name it....

Boston?

On Saturday and Sunday, my parents drove us up to Boston. We saw where Paul Revere rode, and visited the Battle Road where the Battle of Lexington-Concorde was fought that sparked the Revolution. Old stuff is dope.

Near the battle sites, there's an old cemetery:










In it is buried Nathanial Hawthorne...










And Ralph Waldo Emerson...















And Thoreau, and Alcott... But no Walt Whitman, alas.

Here is James sitting by the Old North Bridge, where the Lexington-Concorde battle began.















The river was so swollen! This sign reads, "Follow path to Visitors center" + arrow. Uhhh... no thank you. I'll go around.




















James and I standing on the Battle Road...















On Sunday, we were going to make a quick run to see Fenway Park (no scheduled game), and then do a historic tour downtown... but serendipidously, the Sox were having a make-up game! Yay! What great luck!






























I'm glad my super hubby got to see a game in Fenway Park. I had a blast! We had hot dogs and ice cream in little helmet cups. Did you know Fenway still has the original wooden seats?

Whirlwind tour

Pictures really don't convey the sort of fun we had... but at least they'll give you an idea of where we went.




















This is a statue across the street from the stock exchange, shown below.
















Aren't we having fun? It's only 11 AM and we've already been in a car, a train, and a boat, and we've seen the Statue, Ellis Island, south Manhatten, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Staten Island Ferry, and Wall Street.































This is a view of the Statue and Ellis Island from the Esplanade, south Manhatten, where we'd catch the ferry back to Hoboken, New Jersey. This is the view coming FROM Hoboken, earlier that morning:















I decided we ought to take the more expensive, yet more entertaining, ferry as opposed to the subway. It took us all the way around the southern tip of the city... something I make a point to do every time I'm in town, and I knew James would appreciate it as much as I do.











And we made new friends! Seems like New Yorkers have replaced half the pidgeon population with finches. Much cuter. I wanted to name them.

The Story Told Backward

And here we have the worst hair EVER:















This fellow was waiting for a flight in the Newark Airport. On one hand, I'm relieved I saw him in New Jersey, not Portland. On the other hand... it might have been the PDX flight he was waiting for. Let me know if there are any sightings.

Ah, my family....

Spring Cleaning

Time to clean out my desk,

my home,

my life,

my soul!

*sigh*

I'm worried about my grandpa. He's not doing so well.

Every summer growing up, my family and I would pack ourselves into our Volkswagen van (the blue ox) and travel 6 hours through southern Idaho to see my grandparents. Six hours isn't so much now, but when you're a kid, it's ages! Especially when the only interesting point during the trip is Arco, home of the first nuclear power plant. Once, in a desperate attempt to subdue us kids (there's four of us, I'm the youngest), we actually stopped and got the tour. In our anticipation at arriving at Driggs, we would see who could spot the Tetons first. (Quit laughing, Kadra.)

During those trips, Grandpa would take us fishing on the Teton river in his big red boat. Once, a fish jumped in! (I am NOT lying!) We'd go hiking up Cascade Canyon, and have lime freezes at drugstore that my uncle owned (now his daughter, cousin Sally, owns it). We'd make trips over to Yellowstone and watch Old Faithful, and look for elk and moose and buffalo. Every night as we ate dinner, Grandma would encourage us to eat everything, or we'd "be eating it for breakfast!" She always had raspberry freezer jam, and Grandpa would make "flapjacks." Other family would stop by, like Aunt Joyce (my mom's sister, who is a journalist and very funny). We'd have barbeques in the backyard in the brick oven, and play badminton by the lilacs, and go on drives up to see the ghost towns across the valley.

I haven't been to Driggs in a few years. While I was at BYU, I often drove up for Thanksgiving with a cousin or two, or I'd go visit during the summer. The last time I was there might have been when I graduated, three years ago. That's the longest time I've ever gone without seeing Driggs or Teton Valley or my grandparents, and I miss them.

New Favorite

All hail Uncle Walt!

"Here is the test of wisdom,
Wisdom is not finally tested in schools,
Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it,
Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,
Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content,
Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things;
Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the soul. "

If you had a band...

what would it be called? (Mine would be "Phineas", an homage to my schooling.)

20 years...

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, I admonish you all to reflect on what happened and remember how precious life is and how blessed we are.

This is a picture of the "Elephant's Foot," a small portion of the fuel that still lies entombed within the sarcophagus. It looks glassy because the fuel mixed with and melted the sand that was used inside the reactor.



http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/afterword.html

Thief!

This little fella is a thief!

Well, not this exact same squirrel. A different one. But he looked like this!

A couple days ago, I sat in horror (and pure amusement... I must be honest) as I watched a squirrel steal a shirt off the neighbor's balcony. The shirt was hanging on a wire hanger on the back of a chair. He would try to stuff the whole thing in his mouth, as squirrels do when they transport things, and he'd get quite a bit in there before he'd hit his limit and spit it out. Then he'd run to the edge of the balcony and look around to see if anyone was watching. He looked totally guilty. After about 10 minutes, he managed to squeeze the shirt through the top slit in the chair, and miraculously, the hanger un-hung itself. So he pulled the whole thing across the balcony, down the tree, and across the yard to his secret lair. Every few feet he'd repeat the shoving-it-in-his-mouth and looking-around-for-onlookers procedure. Hilarity! I want a pet squirrel. I can teach him to steal clothing!

Quarter of a century...

For those of you fortunate enough to know The Samples...
They came to Portland on my birthday! It was my fourth show, and in my opinion, the best I've seen. Sean was fantastic. Thank you to James, for rocking out with me and knowing the words (he's been listening to them without me! Now he knows oodles!); and thank you Kadra, for appreciating both the music AND the fact that I know Jacques the sound guy; and for Bryce, for rushing out all the way to Lola's after Skye's concert. After the show, Sean wrote me a happy birthday note on the back of the set list that James had swiped, and he took a picture of us together to email to me later.

Thank you, Kadra, for the delightful sock puppet book! Oh, what fun times I've had at work this week. Mr. Crumplesandwich is my friend!

Bad moods and passwords

I love my friends and I love their adventures and I love their minds!

Does it seem to anyone else that people are having a harder and harder time empathizing with others? And I don't mean just understanding their feelings... I mean just simply stopping and thinking for just a second where the other person is coming from. This rant is coming from a recent string of beratings I've been the recipient of, due to the credit union enforcing security measures that actually have always been in place. Please, consider the following dialogue:

Credit Union Member: "Hi, I'd like to make a deposit and get cash back." (Member stands there, failing to produce anything that resembles an account number, an ID, or something that can be deposited.)
Audrey: "Okay." (I think it's funny to stand there, just like them, until they produce something that can be of any use to me. Maybe I shouldn't do it, but I'm sick of them expecting me to read their minds... So I wait.)
(Member gets debit card out. I swipe it, pulling up their account.
Member: "I'd like to deposit this check (produces it, miraculously) and get three hundred back in cash."
Audrey: "I notice there's a message on your account (that the MEMBER puts there, not us) to ask you for your password for transactions."
Member, getting irritated: "But I'm making a DEPOSIT. I don't need to give you my password."
Audrey: "The message doesn't specify, so I'm assuming the password is for all transactions."
Member: "But I'm making a DEPOSIT."
Audrey: "I still need the password."
Member: "This is rediculous. Why do I need to give you my password?"
Audrey: "If you'd like me to take the message off, I can do that, but I'd need to see your ID. I'm just following your instructions you put on your account. I'd be glad to change it if you want."
Member: "No, I want it on there. Don't do anything with it."
Audrey: "Okay, I won't change it."
(We both stand there for a minute. Apparently he's forgotten I need the password.)
Audrey: "So, I'll deposit this check and get you $300 cash. What's your password?" (I say this with renewed cheerfulness; perhaps he'll forget the previous conversation.)
Member, rolling his eyes and sighing, gives me his password. Apparently he forgot that he WAS getting cash back, and that maybe the deposit didn't cancel it out or something. But really, it took 3 minutes to argue about giving me the password, and one second to actually SAY it. Are people TRYING to be difficult?
Marjene, the lead teller (who coincidentally attended high school with James), made a good point: they should make a sitcom about us. Sure, a show about a CREDIT UNION doesn't sound too exciting, but let me tell you, we see the most ignorant/hilarious stuff every day. People try to convince you to do stupid stuff. Like when checks aren't made out to the account holder, and they say, "This person told me it was okay to deposit their check into my account." Oh, okay, I'll take your word for it! Would you like the 2 grand in cash or in your checking account? Or when people get super annoyed when I ask to see ID when they're withdrawing from their account. Um, okay, so I guess you don't CARE if anyone else takes your money? Sweet! I'm rich! Oftentimes we laugh out loud when people leave. Is this mean?

*sigh* My wish is that people, especially rich people, because they're the most entitled, would step behind the counter and do my job for one day. ...and grab an apron and be a server for a day, or pump gas for just an hour. Why don't people treat others with respect? Is everybody in a really bad mood or something?

Favorites...

Some of my new favorite things:

Wikipedia. Did you know you can edit the entries? Power is mine!

Engrish. www.engrish.com is hilarious, and I enjoy making my OWN Engrish and posting it in inconspicuous places around my work.

"Yahoo! ANSWERS". An unending wealth of ignorance, bad grammar, and suspicious activity. One person asked, "How do I kill a tree quickly (in 2 months) and make it look like it was diseased? It's my own tree." So many questions remain unanswered.

Join me!

I'm in!

They love me! I hadn't been in the interview for five minutes before they said, "You'll be great! We're very excited to have you here!"

I'll be starting school in June. My endorsements will be in Biology and Advanced Math, which they say is in such high demand that there are not enough teachers in Oregon qualified to fill all the jobs. (Calculus, I guess, isn't that exciting to teach.) I expressed interest in switching from Bio to Integrated Science (kind of a miscellaneous thing), and they said they'll try to work something out that I can get three endorsements, even though, they said, "It's never been done before." Um, whoa! That would mean I can teach all high school and junior high math, PLUS almost all the sciences. I am very very very excited. Very. Excited.

Please, celebrate with me!

Virent Ova! Viret Perna!

Two things:

First, I had a dream last night that I was thrilled at the opportunity of watching a high school dress rehearsal for Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." The costumes were terrific.

Second, Dr. Suess's editor bet him that he couldn't write a book using 50 different words. The result: Green Eggs and Ham. Number of different words: 50.

Check out this very scholarly summary:

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
There are two characters: one named Sam-I-am, and a second who is never named. Sam is filled with energy and enthusiasm; his opposite number is morose and irritable. The plot revolves around Sam-I-am's efforts to get his friend to try "green eggs and ham" (as described above). The friend refuses to eat the dish, and only wants to be left in peace. Sam-I-am goes through a variety of locations (house, car, tree) trying to persuade his friend to eat, but without success.

The triumphant conclusion of Seuss's tale occurs when Sam-I-am's friend, standing in shallow water after a train crash, surrounded by various people and beasts, finally agrees to try the dish and turns out to be a great enthusiast. The instant turnaround in the anonymous character's attitude is somewhat similar to that of the Grinch, whom Sam-I-am's friend physically resembles except in having floppy ears.

Also, the book is also available in Latin now. I want! I want!

thank you!

First: Thank you, my brilliant friend Blair (when have I ever called you brilliant? Cherish this moment! ha ha), for introducing me to the Chernobyl site. For those of you unfortunate enough to NOT know Blair and to have never visited his blog, I shall share with you the website to which I am referring. http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html
In five minutes of browsing Elena's travelogue, I learned more about Chernobyl than I ever knew before. Terribly interesting, terribly sad.

Also, thanks to those of you who helped James and I move... namely, Gage and Paul. You made our lives a little easier!

And finally, thank you, world, for giving me little gifts every day as I commute to and from work. Like the guy with the groceries and the clown nose, and the girl looking up at the tree, and the person with the huge pinwheel... I hope others see these things too!

stop and smell...

the roses!
Thank you, hubby, for helping me appreciate once again how beautiful roses are...

Congratulations to Blair and Katrina, who were married on the 17th. You both looked faaaabulous!

Still waiting to hear about grad school.... it's agonizing! Every day I check the mail twice, thrice!

We're moving on Saturday. Yipes!

stoking the fire once again...

I ran across an article about Guantanamo Bay on new.bbc.co.uk. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4708946.stm)
Some highlights to peak your interest:

"During the past few weeks there has been a widespread hunger strike among the prisoners there [Guantanamo Bay]... The hunger strikers were strapped into "restraint chairs" and forcibly fed. The Pentagon says the tactics used were humane and compassionate.
According to American lawyers representing some of the prisoners, one of the methods was for riot control soldiers to hold the prisoners down while long plastic tubes were inserted into their nasal passages and down into their stomachs.
A Washington lawyer who visited Guantanamo last week called it "a disgrace". ...They claimed that they had no link to al-Qaeda or other extreme Islamist groups, and were demanding to be released. a thorough analysis by an American law professor and a defence lawyer of information released by the US defence department revealed last week that 92% of the 517 Guantanamo detainees had not been al-Qaeda fighters.
Of these, 40% have no clear connection with al-Qaeda, and 18% have no connection with either al-Qaeda or the Taleban.
In total, 60% are there because they have been accused of being associated with a group which the US government regards as a terrorist organisation.
Most detainees are regarded as enemy combatants.
Among the criteria reportedly used to define an enemy combatant are these: possession of a rifle; possession of a Casio watch; and wearing olive drab clothing.
According to the Pentagon, 95% of them were not captured by the Americans themselves.
Some 86% were handed over in Afghanistan and Pakistan after a widespread campaign in which big financial bounties were offered in exchange for anyone suspected of links to al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
The US lawyers quote the text of one of the notices the Americans handed out: "Get wealth and power beyond your dreams... You can receive millions of dollars helping the anti-Taleban forces catch al-Qaeda and Taleban murderers.
"This is enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life."

Let's recapitulate briefly. According to the US Department of Defense, only 8% of the prisoners at Guantanamo were al-Qaeda fighters, and only 5% of them were captured by the Americans themselves.

Gahhh!!!!

To those of you who do not care:

(and in response to the comments on the previous post)

This is ignorance, pure and simple. And, I emphatically add, UNChristlike. I cannot imagine a god who would not be weeping by witnessing the atrocities that happen daily around the world. They are His children, our brothers and sisters. It is not just the Middle East that is experiencing death, sorrow, and violence. It is the world, my friends. Are so few of you aware? Do none of you read the news, aside from what is broadcast from American television and printed in American papers? Alas, we are so egocentric!

Do none of you know that Russia has restricted oil supply to the Ukraine, and it is winter! It is cold! People die! They have no food!

Do none of you know that the US has cut down financial aid to Bolivia by 96%… because of some bullshit excuse that somehow doesn’t “apply” to five other countries in the same circumstances… and this is coming only weeks after the election of a new president that cut his salary in half because he doesn’t “need the money.” He now makes about the same amount as my husband does. And he’s a president. Of a country. That, friends, is integrity! And we punish him!

Do none of you know that the bird flu has now spread to Africa, a continent poorly equipped to battle such a threat? And if you think, “Who cares? It’s Africa.” I’d like to hear what you say after it has spread to the States and kills a friend.

Do none of you know that there are wonderful, loving, kind, Christlike, beautiful people everywhere? Yes, even in the Middle East. Even in Iran. Even in Nigeria. Even in the States. Who are we to decide who should die? Who are we that can afford to not care?

Why be apathetic? If it’s inevitable, it doesn’t mean I can’t be angry that we are the cause of it. I’m not going to kill myself because I know I’ll eventually die. And I’m not going to ruin a county because it already has problems, or I don’t my neighbors don’t agree with me, or because they have something I want. And I’m certainly not going to feign righteousness so I have an excuse not to do something about it, or because I’m afraid to feel pain.

Shame on you… those who do not feel, and who rationalize it by saying it is inevitable. God would never do that, and you use His gospel as an excuse for tolerating violence. I am sure He weeps for your apathy. That is not the way to salvation. Charity, love, and compassion are godly traits, not apathy.
Let me ask you: Who will pity YOU when YOU are a victim?
I have a selfish wish, a wrong wish: I hope someday you will feel just a fraction of the anguish, suffering, and abandonment that these innocent people suffer daily… and suffer for OUR mistakes, OUR greed.

We live in a great country. Most of us (and I dare say, anyone who is reading this) live comfortably. We're not worried about what we'll eat tomorrow, or about being cold, or if a suicide bomber will kill your husband or girlfriend tomorrow. We are lucky. There is a price we must pay for such luxury... since we can afford to care about others, we must. That is why we are so blessed.

Let me say that I have a testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I live my life according to its principles, as best I can… and I feel peace in my heart. Anyone who cannot or will not feel for the suffering around you, I call you to repentance!


Many of you will be shocked by such gall, such sprite, such conviction. Let me tell you that I felt the Spirit as I wrote this. So, I thank you for reminding me of what I stand for, what I believe, and what I live my life for.

Is anyone else angry?!

From the New York Times:
Iraq Utilities Are Falling Short of Prewar Performance
By JAMES GLANZ

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — Virtually every measure of the performance of Iraq's oil, electricity, water and sewerage sectors has fallen below preinvasion values even though $16 billion of American taxpayer money has already been disbursed in the Iraq reconstruction program, several government witnesses said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday...

...In addition, two of the witnesses said they believed that an earlier estimate by the World Bank that $56 billion would be needed for rebuilding over the next several years was too low.

At the same time, as Iraq's oil exports plummet and the country remains saddled with tens of billions of dollars of debt, it is unclear where that money will come from, said one of the witnesses, Joseph A. Christoff, director of international affairs and trade at the Government Accountability Office.

And those may not be the most serious problems facing Iraq's pipelines, storage tanks, power lines, electrical switching stations and other structures, said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an independent office.

In one sense, focusing on the plummeting performance numbers "misses the point," Mr. Bowen said. The real question, he said, is whether the Iraqi security forces will ever be able to protect the infrastructure from insurgent attack.

"What's happened is that an incessant, an insidious insurgency has repeatedly attacked the key infrastructure targets, reducing outputs," Mr. Bowen said. He added that some of the performance numbers had fluctuated above prewar values in the past, only to fall again under the pressure of insurgent attacks and other factors.

wink!

Last week, as I got into my car to go to work, the sun winked at me!

I am ashamed that I didn't immediately post it on my blog. I guess I didn't think many people would understand.

What I found out, though, when I told people that the sun winked at me, was that more people believed me than I thought... and come to find out, I wasn't the only person the sun winked at! I am thankful for all these sun-winks.

The next morning, as I was on my way to Emily's super-fantastic yoga and breakfast festivity (an hour late, sadly), I turned on my radio to the jazz station. They were playing old-tyme jazz from the 20's, the kind flappers would enjoy. Well, as soon as the music started, so did the rain, and boy, did it dance! So did all the cars on the road, and the trees, and the stoplights, and my wipers, and the clouds! The world was dancing! Thank the heavens for sending dancing rain!

And you know what inspired me to write this blog more than anything? I wrote it for those people who see the rain dance too. Ariana, I know you are one of them, and I hope that day the rain danced at your house as it did at mine. You are one of the few that notices when the world is alive.

I Heart ABBA

Tonight the
Super Trouper lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun
(Sup-p-per Troup-p-per)
Smiling, having fun
(Sup-p-per Troup-p-per)
Feeling like a number one!

Revolution in Bolivia!!!

Bolivia leader halves his own pay

The Bolivian new left-wing President, Evo Morales, has cut his salary by more than a half to a little over $1,800 (£1,012) per month.
The decision means that the salaries of all Bolivian public sector employees will be reviewed, as no official can earn more than the president.

Mr Morales said the money saved would be used to increase the numbers of doctors and teachers.

Mr Morales suggested that members of Congress should cut their salaries too.

During the campaign, Mr Morales had pledged to halve his own pay if elected.

The move announced after his first cabinet went beyond that, with a cut of 57%.

BBC South America correspondent Daniel Schweimler says many voted for Mr Morales believing that he was different from the more conservative politicians who have governed in the past.

The former llama herder and coca leaf farmer was inaugurated last Sunday as Bolivia's first indigenous president.

He has promised to fight corruption, introduce a new tax on the wealthy, and renationalise energy companies.

From the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4652940.stm

And does everyone know that Chile has just elected their first woman president, a doctor and single mother? If you're interested, go to news.bbc.co.uk and click on "americas" in the news column.

insanity!

How can you tell if you're crazy?

No, that's not really the start of a joke. I really want to know.

I'm an idiot.

So, I work for a credit union now. I love all the people I work with, and we have stimulating conversations daily. Usually this is because it's slow, and there isn't much else to do but google and read the Times. Not that I'm complaining! For instance, I've been doing some research both on Egyptian gods AND ambergris. I started with ambergris, and moved on to the gods, thinking they'd be more exciting... but I was quickly bored and moved back to ambergris. For those of you who don't know, ambergris is a legendary substance found on the sea that is an expensive and rare ingredient in some perfumes. Only recently have they discovered what it really is. A story:

Bernard, the sperm whale, is on a trip around New Zealand when he comes upon a squid. Delicious! Bernard devours the creature after using his powerful fins and tail to chase it down, Discovery-channel style.
But... oh no! Bernard loves squid, but he forgets that squid bones agitate his stomach. He produces a greasy, foul-smelling, black, tar-like substance to help his poor tummy.
After he digests the squid, he pukes globs of this chunky stuff into the ocean. For years it floats around on top, and finally comes to rest on a beach thousands of miles from where he puked it. It ferments and hardens in the sun, and someone picks it up and smells it and lo and behold, it smells delightful! "I think I'll rub this stuff all over my body, it smells so sweet and lovely!" And Amber oil is born.

Lots of people prefer to rub it all over with patchouli, which is extracted from a plant that is from the east Indies. This is supposed to make them attractive to the other sex, or sometimes to the same sex. Sometimes these people are hippies. Hippies are people who believe in peace and love, and are hated by lots of yuppies, who believe in capitolism and money.

Rebecca and Ji

Last night I went to a fantastic concert at the Old Church. Rebecca and Ji, for those of you who don't know, are the daughter and son-in-law of Russ Sanborn, who hosted our wedding reception. They released a cd yesterday... I can only describe it as a combination of Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, and Sinead O'Conner... and after the concert we retreated to Sanborn's for great food, great company, and great music... I'm lucky that I have such talented friends, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to support them.
If any of you are interested in hearing them, come by Sanborn's this Saturday night for dessert!

This blog is dedicated to Emily Neaman...

Yesterday my love and I went to the woods by the river and made a fire while the air grew chilly and the sun sunk lower in the sky. As we drove home, the sky was the most brilliant warm colors...
We went to Skye's birthday party, unfashionably late, and stayed up past my bedtime talking about what it is to be friends, and to be sober or stoned, and married and single, and lucky and unfortunate. Oh, how I appreciate what I have. My friends, whom I love, my husband, whom I love more, and my life, which never ceases to bring surprises.

Please, read the news. On the right side of this page is a link to the New York Times. Be aware of what's going on around you. Appreciate your life!

hm...

I love stuff.

Check out what this dude did:
http://skepdic.com/forer.html

ha ha!

veeeerrry innnteresting...

Thought I'd pass this along... from the AP:

Britons Face Trial Over Claim Bush Spoke of Attacking Arab TV

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 10, 2006

Filed at 6:37 a.m. ET

LONDON (AP)--Two U.K. men were ordered Tuesday to stand trial later this month on charges of leaking a government memo in which U.S. President George W. Bush reportedly discussed bombing the headquarters of the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera.

Civil servant David Keogh and Leo O'Connor, a lawmaker's former researcher, were charged in November with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Both men are free on bail as they await trial.

Judge Timothy Workman said the men's trial would begin with a preliminary hearing at the Central Criminal Court Jan. 24.

Prosecutors allege Keogh passed the document to O'Connor between April 16 and May 28, 2004.

Details of the alleged document were reported by the Daily Mirror newspaper, which claimed the memo revealed details of a conversation between Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004. According to the newspaper, Blair argued against Bush's suggestion of bombing Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The Daily Mirror said its sources disagreed on whether Bush's suggestion was serious or not.

Blair has said he had no information about any proposed U.S. action against Al-Jazeera, and White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the newspaper's claims "outlandish and inconceivable."

Keogh, a former communications officer at the Cabinet Office, was charged under Section 3 of the Officials Secrets Act with making a "damaging disclosure of a document relating to international relations" without lawful authority.

O'Connor, who worked for former governing Labour Party lawmaker Tony Clarke, is charged with receiving the document. O'Connor indicated at an earlier hearing he intended to plead not guilty. Tuesday, Keogh didn't say how he intended to plead.