WaterBear on MySpace

Dragon Mood? -- glad it's not me

My sweetheart, S, admits that she is not the most computer-literate person in the world. But we're SURROUNDED by computers, software, the internet and internet apps. Like MySpace!

There is a pretty funny video that S's son, Tim, took while up north for her side of the family, for their reunion. And of course, Tim has posted this on his MySpace. Which S cannot see unless SHE joins MySpace. Doesn't this sound all rather sinister, suck-them-in-before-they-notice, kind of????

She came home from Madison's birthday party at Caesarland (I HATE those places!) and was pooped. But she wants to see this video. So I offered to sign her up for MySpace. Which she agreed to. Somewhat reluctantly. With lots of caveats. And name spelling. Which S NEVER specifies name spelling. Egad! Yikes!

So here's S's new MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/waterbear56

My honey, a new MySpace rockstar!

This whole $700 billion thing

Dragon Mood? -- mad, angry, pissed off

Yes, this whole $700 billion bailout has got me pretty steamed! When individuals lose their homes, conservatives are quick to blame and to judge, "Loser! They should have made better choices. Poor decision-making. What were they thinking?" When Wall Street fat cats greedily drive their companies into bankruptcy, conservatives, quickly resort to fear and yell, "We must DO something or the economy will FAIL!"

Here's what Robert Kuttner opines in the Huffington Post (clearly not a non-partisan source):

[Secretary of Treasury Henry] Paulson's bill would give him carte blanche to spend up to $700 billion over the next 24 months to buy toxic securities from financial firms. This presumably would "unclog" capital markets, the financial economy would begin functioning normally again, and then the government would recoup what it could.

The plan is outrageous on several levels. It demands nothing from these firms in return. It holds the Treasury Secretary accountable to no one. And it extends the most generous terms to Wall Street while offering nothing to Main Street.

I hope Nancy Pelosi and company up on the Hill really hold Palson's feet to the fire on this one. I am PISSED!

Month-long hiatus

Dragon Mood? -- remembering in a travel-weary, but pleasant haze

Wow, it's been a whole month since I last posted. When I tell you what S and I have been up to, you won't be surprised! We have been scootin' around the Great Lakes area for the past three weekends. And I mean SCOOTIN'!

For Labor Day, S and I trekked to Madison to hang out with Carolina and the man in her life, Ron. We drove out late Thursday night, encountering construction, traffic delays (even at midnight) and the requisite Hi-we're-here-at-two-a.m. arrival.

Ron started off our Friday with delicious, tradition-creating omelettes. We poked around in a dusty, ramshackle place that could barely be called a store, filled with vintage record albums (remember those?). S found one after another that caught her eye, eliciting the comment, "Oh, put this one in the pile." I think she ended up with at least ten albums! It was fun to watch her excitement. We had other ambitious plans, but got 'sidetracked' and ended up in some bar called WTF (I thought it was you-know-what) but it actually stands for Weary Traveller F--- I can't remember what the F stands for. The rest of Friday afternoon is a bit hazy for me; I think we sort of drank our way through the afternoon.

Josh arrived Friday night. We celebrated by busting out the bar; Josh drank Manhattans, Ron, Lina and I sipped on dirty martoonis and Steph toasted with her favorite, Warsteiner beer. Friday was ANOTHER late night!

Saturday morning, Ron and Caroline toddled off to a tailgate party (beer, anyone?) before the first Badger game (cough-cough, ack-ack). Josh, S and I had a scrumptious breakfast at Marigold Kitchen in downtown Madison. Mmmm-mmm-good!

We managed to catch about half of the Farmers' Market and emerged with arms full and backpack loaded with veggies and fresh flowers and green things(!). I hit the Soap Opera (absolutely LOVE that place!) and then joined everyone else at the 'tree' bar where Corinne bartends -- honest to God, I don't know anymore about the place then that! [With the amazing power of the internet and Google, it's called Paul's Club ... and here's a review that captures what I noticed about it, as well:]

When you walk in it's super dark inside, carpeted (unusual for a bar), loungy couches, and a HUGE FREAKIN TREE in the middle of the place. Christmas lights round out the cozy vibe along with a killer jukebox.

Paul's Club most definitely serves up tasty drinks, nice variety of beers, and the BEST Bloody Mary I have ever had. Try it! Seriously.

Well, there is SOMETHING I would add: CORINNE, the very nice and very cool bartender from Seattle MAKES those BEST bloody Marys. They are truly the best bloodys I've ever drank. And believe me, I've drunk more than a few! All right, I'll quit mooning over the drinks; don't wanna sound like some LUSH or something! (chuckling)

Saturday evening we watched Michigan State get spanked by Cal. Darn!

Sunday was ALL about beer-brewing, watching little Abbey from next door and just hanging out with one another, relaxing. Oh yeah, and we all kicked in and fixed a killer dinner with marinated chicken breasts, S's Famous Celery Root dish, green beans roasted in olive oil and garlic, and Lina's oft-requested Cucumber Salad. It was a feast fit for kings and queens. Oh yeah, and we watched Cary Grant movies. Don't remember which ones ...?

Monday morning, Josh took off pretty early. S and I left by 2 p.m. for our journey back to Michigan. Thankfully, it was a pretty easy drive and with several stops, we were home by 11 p.m. We had Tuesday off which allowed us to sleep in, wake up slowly and do some errands in that neck of the woods.

While I had had some trepidations about Caroline having a man living with her now and how that would feel, it was a wonderful weekend. I felt like Caroline and Ron went out of their way to make both S and I feel welcome, comfortable and at home. Ron hit a home-run with S, with his recommending that old record shack. I was happy to see him be so attentive to my precious daughter and how happy she felt to me. 'Nuff said.

NEXT ... S's Family Reunion

AND EVEN LATER ... Dad's 80th Birthday celebration

Quote for the week

Dragon Mood? -- totally in agreement

Quote for the week:

Being a parent is like walking around the rest of your life with your heart outside your body.

Jejune in August, not June

Dragon Mood? -- curious

Do you know the meaning of the word, jejune?

I heard it Friday evening in Woody Allen's 1975 movie, Love and Death. He and Diane Keaton 'riffed' on the word. I looked at S, she looked at me. Do you know what that means? No, do you?

Jejune means "empty of food, hungry, meager." Here's Merriam-Webster's definition.

Saturday

Dragon Mood? -- rested and relaxed

It's another Saturday morning and I'm LOVIN' being at home (read, and NOT AT WORK!), relaxin', surfin' the Web and chillin'. All that activity without any ending 'G's.'

My high-energy, highly-focused boss was on vacation this week, so work was definitely a little more low-key for me -- not a moment too soon. The Olympic game coverage on late-night TV is killing me. I'm having a very hard time tearing myself away from the tube and getting myself into bed before 11! AaarghH! That's too late! This week I'll have to do MUCH better!

But this past week also felt like the dog days of summer. Not that it was so hot; it wasn't. It was just a slightly slower pace, a more languid pace that felt good. And there were a number of folks at work who were gone on vacations so the rest of us worker bees just buzzed along, doing our thing.

My most significant accomplishment this week was at the pied-a-terre. I single-handedly moved the treadmill from one side of the dining room to the other. Still not an ideal place for a treadmill, but now it's not shouting, "Hey, look at me!" when you first walk into the house. The larger question is, "Am I gonna use this thing again or should I just pay someone to haul it away for good?" I wish I could assure you, O Wise Web, what the answer is to that question. *sigh*

S and I are sitting here at the dining room table (now in the pine tree house), trying to figure out what we want to do today? It looks like an absolutely gorgeous day to go kayaking!

Keep you posted.

Whoo-hoo

Dragon Mood? -- elated to have the source of my embarrassment at NOT remembering GO AWAY!

Whoo-hoo! Yippee-ki-YAY!

S found our long, lost box of checks for the pokerdog account.

It's his BIRTHDAY!

Dragon Mood? -- not surprised he's a Leo!

To our next president? ...

Happy Birthday, Barack Obama!

He was born August 4th, 1961 and today is 47 years old. And here's the least surprising thing about learning that today is his birthday: he's a Leo!

New & scary word

Dragon Mood? -- curious

The last time I met with my doctor, Dr. Wendy, we talked about environmental factors in peoples' various illnesses. She mentioned a word that was unfamiliar to me: phthalates. I asked her to spell it, which she did, but I still don't know what she was talking about.

This morning phthalates was in the headlines: "Are phthalates in toys truly dangerous?"" But before reading the article, I decided I need to know how to pronounce this darn word. "Thal-ates" with the 'ph' silent. Actually, "THAL-ates," with the emphasis on the first syllable.

I Googled it and here's an excerpt from one source:

The chemicals are used to make plastics soft -- but what are they? ... There are dozens of types of phthalates, which are oily, colorless liquids that "have been used for about 50 years to make hard plastics softer and more flexible in such products as vinyl flooring and seat coverings, raincoats, shower curtains, garden hoses and even sex toys," as the L.A. Times put it, as well as in hospital equipment, nail polish and "new car smell."

Here's more from a non-U.S. source:

What are they used for?

Phthalates are primarily used as ‘plasticisers’ to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC or ‘vinyl’) plastic flexible. Ninety percent of global phthalates use is for this. Phthalates are a principle component in flexible PVC products such as toys, clothing, flooring, wallpaper and medical products.

They are used in cosmetics to add flexibility, to give an oily ‘moisturising’ film and help dissolve and fix other ingredients. They are also used as solvents in fragrances and to ‘denature’ the alcohol content of cosmetics (make it unpalatable so people won’t drink it). Alternatives to this potentially harmful phthalate addition, such as lavender oil, exist.

What is the problem with them?

Phthalates are the most abundant industrial pollutants in the environment, and are widely present in air, water, soils and sediments. Some have been measured in virtually all fresh water and marine environments including Antarctic pack ice and deep-sea jellyfish. Phthalates are released into the atmosphere during manufacture, can leach from products that contain them, can contaminate food and can be ingested, breathed or absorbed into the body.

Now that I've learned a little bit about this chemical, I'm going to pay more attention.

Maybe we should all pay more attention, huh?

More bad economic news ...

From CNN Money:

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The July jobs report is due out Friday, the same day that automakers report their U.S. sales for the month.

It's not a coincidence both are expected to show continued weakness for the U.S. economy.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that employers reduced payrolls by 75,000 jobs during the month. That would be the seventh straight month of job losses. So far this year, 438,000 jobs have been lost [my emphasis].

The unemployment rate is forecast to edge up to a four-year high of 5.6%, up from 5.5% the previous two months and 4.7% a year ago.

Meanwhile, auto sales tracker Edmunds.com is forecasting a 3.3% drop in auto sales compared to a year ago. That would mark the ninth straight month that sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis.

It's not surprising that $4 gas and concerns about their jobs have led consumers to slam the breaks on car purchases.

What might be less obvious, given the attention given to how much the economy has been hurt by problems in the housing and financial markets, is how important a healthy auto industry is to the overall jobs market.

Even after years of job cuts and plant closings by U.S. automakers, the automakers, along with their suppliers and dealership networks, are responsible for nearly 3 million jobs according to government figures for June.

But the auto sector has lost 67,000 jobs since the end of 2007, accounting for more than one in seven jobs lost overall during the current jobs slump.

Most of the layoffs have yet to be implemented. Many will come this fall when plants that normally would be gearing up for production of new trucks will be idled due to lack of demand. ...

 

Being a good listener

Dragon Mood? -- adjusting

Because of job demands, my partner, S, and I are embarking on another stretch of time where we will be living in separate houses; her here in the piney woods, me in the Detroit pied-a-terre. We're not exactly clear on how long this will be; it could be three months, six months or longer.

As we're only one week into the separation, I'm still adjusting. I notice how quiet the pied-a-terre is without her. I miss her presence, her spirit, simply her. I went the entire week without making a pot of coffee (I'm trying caffeinated tea in the morning instead). Being without coffee just wouldn't happen if S were there.

On Friday afternoon, we were reunited early. We went to a newly-opened Mexican restaurant for margaritas and dinner. Sitting out on the patio, S talked and I listened. I mean she talked ... REALLY. It felt like she stored up all her half of the conversations from Monday through Thursday that we had not had and poured them out that Friday evening. And continued pouring Saturday morning. And Saturday afternoon. Endless talk about work. Less but still lots of conversation about the new baby, about extended family, about the yard. She was sharing, she was decompressing, she was downloading. Initially impatient, I finally realized that. And I'm here to be a good listener. A patient listener, a good listener.

He's gotta go

Dragon Mood? -- embarrassed to associate myself with Detroit

Who's gotta go? Why, Kwame Kilpatrick! The mayor of Detroit is under criminal investigation for perjury, obstruction of justice and other serious felony charges. Residents of metro Detroit have become accustomed to one 'Breaking News' story after another about the mayor.

Here's what Nolan Findley of the Detroit News has to say in a Sunday front page editorial:

Enough, already. The escalating disaster that is the Kwame Kilpatrick administration must end now. One more day is one too many.

The Detroit mayor placed what should be the final stamp on his ruinous tenure when he got himself involved in a physical dust-up with a Wayne County Sheriff's detective trying to serve paper on Kilpatrick's favorite city contractor, Bobby Ferguson.

It doesn't matter whether the mayor's belly bumping rises to criminal assault. He had no business interfering with an officer of the law, and his city-paid bodyguards certainly had no justification for screening a county process server.

Kilpatrick acts like a thug, hangs out with convicted thugs like Ferguson and has projected an image of thuggery on the city of Detroit.

Amen to all that! I just fear that Detroit residents don't have the fortitude to throw the thug outta office.

Welcome to the world, Conner

Dragon Mood? -- amazed and happy

Baby Watch has now turned into Baby Announcement: Conner Matthew, born Tuesday, July 22, 2008, around 4:30 p.m. in Lansing. He weighs 6 lbs. 8 oz., is 20-1/2 inches long and already knows how to make smacking sounds with his mouth and insert his index finger, certainly a curious appendage, into his mouth. Mama and Daddy are doing fine, if a bit sleep-deprived. Conner is healthy, beautiful and like all newborn babies, a miracle!

Oh yes, Conner is a magnificent king-of-the-jungle lion, an astrological Leo. The planets turned, the stars twirled and he missed being a Cancer baby by less than 10 hours. His moon is in Pisces and his ascendant is Scorpio! Here is a description of a Scorpio ascendant:

Scorpio Rising gives you a strong physique and tremendous physical stamina. Far more stubborn than you seem on the surface, you assiduously stick to your goals as long as there is a chance they will be achieved. It is difficult to convince you to change your mind once a decision has been made.

Your emotional vulnerability remains concealed unless your natal sun or moon happens to be in Cancer or Pisces. You are are friendly and while you can be rather quiet, you have quite a gregarious personality and don't mind being in the spotlight. It is highly unlikely that you, as a Scorpio rising, have that sinister or mysterious personality which popular literature tends to associate with the sign of Scorpio, but you are a keen observer and a shrewd speculator.

Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, the transformer, and Mars, the warrior. Both planetary influences may be seen in your personality. Ambitious, energetic, you seek activities that are economically rewarding, as well as mentally or physically challenging. The jealousy associated with Mars and Pluto is minimal unless other factors in the chart support such a trait (say Scorpio, Aries or Capricorn Sun). You possess the cleverness and mechanical ability associated with Mars, as well as the innate resourcefulness associated with Pluto.

Attracted to others with strong, magnetic personalities, you are oriented toward gathering resources of all kinds. For example, you consciously or subconsciously tend to establish relationships with strong or powerful people in the belief such contacts may prove useful in some way. You can be quite secretive about personal affairs, a trait that often escapes the attention of most people you meet. You are so accommodating and pleasant that, unless others make serious attempts to probe beneath the surface, your real personality and activities may stay hidden indefinitely.

You have remarkable recuperative powers that allow you to recover from physical, mental or economic adversities that would destroy many others. When properly focused, your energy is formidable and you quietly keep going long after everyone else runs out of steam. A Scorpio Ascendant indicates potential for afflictions to the head and face as well as illnesses affecting the reproductive organs.

Interestingly enough, this Scorpio ascendant could be describing his daddy, Matthew. Oh my, what will happen in his lifetime?

Mamma Mia

Dragon Mood? -- dancing to the music of ABBA

We saw Mamma Mia Saturday night. It was ABBA's music that drew of us, of course, but the movie was filled with tremendous energy, quixotic plot shifts and lots of fun. I would definitely recommend it. And as a woman who appreciates womanly beauty, Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried are simply gorgeous. Beautiful, luscious women!

Greens

Dragon Mood? -- excited at trying new things

Saturday morning, I took myself to the Meridian Township Farmers' Market for fresh veggies. I bought kale, collard greens and Swiss chard, among other things. S and I sauteed garlic, onions and carrots before adding the greens. For my first time cooking as well as eating them, they were GOOD -- a bit mushy perhaps, but GOOD!

The second attempt, the next morning, came out even better: scrambled eggs with slightly steamed greens. Mmmm, yum!

Global, economic, ecological, cataclysmic

Dragon Mood? -- I am growing to LOVE Al Gore!

I read about this on Thursday or Friday and wanted to blog about it then. I hope people read about it, think about it and embrace it. It could make ALL the difference in our lives and the lives of future generations:

Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday urged the United States to wean the nation from its entire electricity grid to carbon-free energy within 10 years, warning that drastic steps were needed to avoid a global economic and ecological cataclysm. ...

He said the United States and the rest of the world were facing unprecedented problems, including growing demand for electricity, dangerous changes in the climate driven largely by emissions of carbon dioxide and political instability in regions that produce much of the world’s oil.

“When we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges — the economic, environmental and national security crises,” Mr. Gore said. “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change.”

His solution was to do away with all carbon-emitting forms of electricity production in the United States within 10 years, replacing them with alternatives like solar, wind and geothermal power, conservation and so-called clean-coal technology in which all carbon emissions from the burning of coal are captured and stored. It is a bold, and some say, unrealistic goal given the tremendous cost and the nation’s fractious politics. ...

Don't let Detroit die ...

Dragon Mood? -- nodding my head in agreement

Good Sunday morning to you all! A misty, rainy, VERY HUMID Sunday morning here! I'm in the weekend house, on S's laptop and I read an editorial from the Detroit News that I think has a lot of merit. It also has a lot of anger. And invective! Take a read:

A city must be awfully hard to kill. How else do you explain that Detroit is still breathing?

Detroit is down with a fatal case of chaos. The structure of government has dissolved, with every public institution in dysfunction and disarray. Last week's shouting match between City Council members and mayoral appointees looked a lot like anarchy.

And it was brought on by public officials who are all about serving themselves, rather than their people.

Kwame Kilpatrick once promised to leave a legacy as the boy wonder who gave Detroit back its dream. Now, his stubborn refusal to step aside despite facing perjury and corruption charges has assured he will be remembered as the man who strangled a city.

In other places, the City Council might be counted on to offer stability when a mayor stumbles. But this is Detroit, and the Detroit City Council on its best day barely rises above inept.

Instead of putting out the fire, the council poured on fuel by getting itself entangled in a federal bribery probe. The council can't very well yank the mayor for corruption when some of its members may be heading to the courthouse with him.

While City Hall is burning, no one seems to notice that the Detroit school board is at war with its newly hired superintendent. The school district has mismanaged its finances so thoroughly that it is just a bounced check or two away from insolvency. ...

Nolan Findley goes on to say that Detroiters need to get angry, rise up and take back their city. Gee, Nolan, here's where you lose me. I think Detroiters are so busy trying to keep their jobs (if they have them), not lose their homes to foreclosure (if they still have a home), keep food on the table (milk for $3.29 a gallon?) and oh yeah, put $4-plus a gallon gas in their aging, gas-guzzling SUVs, do they really have the energy, the fire in their collective bellies to clean up Detroit's messes?

I wonder?

the color of oh-so-kissable LIPS

Dragon Mood? -- a bit schizoid?

Lina and Yosh, my two chicks, my progeny, dearest to my heart, are at the farm in Texas this weekend. ~sigh~ Sadly, I chose not to go, so I'm experiencing these weird here/there feelings about it all. I've called them, hmm, let's see ... uh, five times in the past 24 hours? Yeah, I'm sort of a combination stalker and wistful, empty-nest mother.

SO-o-ooo, what can I do? What's with this photo over here?

This is the front door of the farmhouse. This is the door painted the color of some classy, sexy dame's LIPS. This is the door with a paint color selected by a MALE(!). This is the door that Paul and Aaron sanded, oh so lovingly, propped up against a tree trunk. This is the door I painted, oh so pleasurably, under a tree in the backyard. This is the door with the cool, soaring-swallows screen on it that Aunt Doris bought for her mama and daddy back in the day when money was tight, mama longed for nice things and daddy was too practical to spring for it. This is the door NEXT to the post that brought out the cursing, yelling part of me, all aimed at Aaron (another story that you'll never read here).

Isn't it pretty? Don't you wanna just KISS IT?

just a few shy of infinity

Dragon Mood? -- frustrated!

Ihave so MANY pictures to download off of our digital camera, it's not even funny. Like a zillion? Which as everyone knows is just shy of the cosmic, the unending, the infinite.

Are you familiar with the word, "ginormous?" Ginormous as in gi-gantic and e-normous? Curious word, isn't it? It feels like its been thrown together, a badly-made last-minute Halloween costume, you know, and then you wonder why people look at you oddly?

Well, given how little time (or is it inclination?) I have to spend time downloading digital pix off the camera, if I continue to procrastinate, these pictures will balloon into one ginormous beast of a task! Oh, save me from THAT beast!

[UPDATE]: So, now I have a ginormous number MINUS five (or is it six?) photos to download. This goofy one of me is one I downloaded and sepia-ized. Is that a word?

Twin day

Dragon Mood? -- happy for them and whooped for me

Today is THE DAY, twenty-six years ago, that S gave birth to the twins, the identical peas-in-a-pod twins, Mark and Tim. Mark Wilhelm and Timothy Louis, to be more exact.

And on a far less important and non-personal note, the news is full of headlines today about the Brangelina twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marchelina. Wow, what do you think of those names? And I thought Sunday Rose (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's just-born baby) was an unusual name!

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Mark and Tim!

More about our celebration of their birthdays in a yet-to-be post.