Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle!

Dragon Mood? -- Confusion; what's blogging again???

The last time I blogged was Monday, September 19th. Today is Wednesday, October 5th. That's two weeks and two days!

Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle -- that's sixteen days without blogging!

So much has happened in the past couple of weeks, where to start?

Sarah and Matt are now an old married couple. They were married on Saturday, September 24th. It was a wedding with:

• humor (a "unity" candle that refused to light!),
  
• elegance (a ballroom replete with pearly pillar candles encased in hurricane lamps, red rose petals, hundreds of twinkle lights and finally, jacquard-sashed white-covered chairs),
  
• tolerance (S and I danced as a couple with the other "parental unit" couples) and
• loads of fun (mugging for the camera, drinking, smoking cigars and dancing til our feet ached!).

We partied until after three a.m. Then we crashed.

Sunday was more partying, hugging new "family" members, watching Matt and Sarah open wedding gifts.

For some, Sunday was hangover recovery time and/or travel time. Sadly, Yosh and Lina had to leave and head back to the "other side of the lake." (insert sad, frowning Mamacita emoticon here.) Lina avowed she was feeling fine and then hurried into the bathroom to puke her guts out. Then she again vowed she was fine! What a lying, denying wench!

Sunday evening was crash time, sleeping, wakening with that heavily drugged feeling, and then falling back to sleep for another twelve hours! It's safe to say I don't function well on four and five hours of sleep for three or four nights running!

Monday was all about preparation for S's surgery. Last minute errands, phone calls, handling details. Monday afternoon we spent with Sally and Grandma, including seeing the film, An Unfinished Life, with Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez. It was an unhyped film, but I liked its quiet, reflective feel. Themes included the idea of family and forgiveness.

Tuesday was S's surgery. Without going into a lot of detail, it went well. Better than I had dared hope. Thank you, God!

Wednesday, she was inundated with visitors. Fourteen to be exact, including me. Too many!

Friday, I brought her home, feeling like a mother bear who needs to protect a weak, vulnerable cub. Stay away! Leave us alone! OR I'LL RIP YOUR FACE OFF!

This past Saturday was the big game: Michigan State up against its arch, instate rival, U of M. (Heavy sigh) Suffice to say that MSU's field goal kickers blew not one, but TWO chances to win the game. Final score: UofM 44, MSU 41. Now we have to listen to all those blowhard asshole fans for yet another year! ArrrghhhH!

Yesterday, Matt and Sarah came out to visit and have dinner. Matt, bless his heart, cleaned the ubiquitous pine needles out of our gutters, and used the leaf blower up on the roof. He also clipped away some tree branches that were brushing the roof. We fixed burgers and a nice, mixed-greens salad for dinner. They left by 7 p.m. because they're in the middle of a big painting project at their house.

I downloaded 70 to 80 more wedding photos from friends and family of Sarah and Matt. I've got plenty of photo fodder for Photoshop. On-the-job training is how I'm looking at it!

Which brings me to today.

Relaxing, drinking coffee, surfing the web, and what else, posting to my favorite blog, calypsoDragon13!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Hey, I'm Wendish and we know all Wends have a little pirate blood in their veins. To that end, check out this site:

Talking like a pirate is fun. It's really that simple.

It gives your conversation a swagger, an elán, denied to landlocked lubbers. The best explanation came from a guy at a Cleveland radio station who interviewed us on the 2002 Talk Like a Pirate Day. He told us we were going to be buried by people asking for interviews because it was a "whimsical alternative" to all the serious things that were making the news so depressing.

In other words, silliness is the holiday's best selling point.

ArrrgghHHH! That be the truth, matey!

Sunday morning catch-up

Dragon Mood? -- catching my dragon breath! Whew!

I can hardly believe that I haven't posted since last Sunday (the previous post really doesn't count). I guess it has been a busy week!

Since last Sunday ...

• I worked 40 hours.
• Requested time off for S's surgery ... and now, there's some question as to whether it will happen (gulp!).
  
• Received 3 physical therapy treatments, including ultrasound and wonderful deep heat for my upper back.
• Took a three-hour lunch to accompany S to a local eyeglass store to supposedly pick out frames. She got an eye exam and three pairs of glasses; I got a cholesterol-laden lunch at Wendy's. Oh, well (...sigh). I guess that's what love is all about.
  
• Sat with my honey in our favorite plastic Adirondacks and watched the moon approaching, approaching, approaching its full moon status.
• Worked on Prelude III from Bach's English Suites. I have a long way to go!
• Assembled four (count 'em, four) pages of jokes and funny stories to regale Tom, the birthday boy, with at our evening out. Thanks to Lina and her friend, Ron, for those!
  
• Went to dinner with our pied-a-terre neighbors, Jan and Tom. We celebrated Tom's 59th birthday and (choke, choke) I bought our dinners.
• Struggled with my iPAQ, which is still not functioning very well. After its week-long strobe light activity, the battery seems anemic and doesn't hold charges for very long. I MUST call Hewlett-Packard customer support.
• Enjoyed a lovely, quiet evening with S on Friday night, replete with leftovers from our birthday dinnner the night before, watching "What Not to Wear" and Bill Maher's "Real Time;" AND ... taking a moonlit bicycle ride with the dog around the pine tree neighborhood. What a gorgeous night! The sky was this graduated color of surprisingly light blue to deep, dark blue. The moon donned her brightest dress for the occasion! It felt like a gift witnessing it.
  
• Bought cute, crafty little glass bowls and floater candles for the upcoming rehearsal dinner. They will be sitting onvery proper little white paper doilies and enhanced by floating red glitter sequins. Stay tuned for the post-rehearsal update!
• After three weekends of procrastination, we filled the entire bed of the truck with empty beer bottles and returned them all! I have yet to tally the final total but it was definitely over $30.00. That's over 300 beer bottles, folks!
  
• Watched a heart-pounding, chest-clutching football thriller between our beloved Spartans and Notre Dame. In an overtime that I still don't know or understand the rules of (and since when does college football have overtime???), MSU beat the Fighting Irish, 44-41! Hurray!!!
  

Now, as to what's coming up this week, here's a short list:

• Today, I give the dog a bath. The silly girl rolled in some "doggy perfume" and she stinks! Then, laundry, tidying up and some much-needed vacuuming and dust bunny-chasing, in anticipation of our house guests.
• I return to the pied-a-terre and work for 3-and-a-half days. S is on vacation this week, sadly chewed up by pre-op and CAT scan procedures for her thyroid.
• Two more physical therapy treatments.
• A haircut and styling Thursday afternoon. I want "soft and feminine" this time, not "summer short."
• Welcoming Lina and Yosh home late Thursday night after a nine-month long absence! I can't wait to put my arms around them.
• Also welcoming Sally and Grandma Thursday evening. We always have fun with them.
• Friday is the day before the wedding. Some last-minute stuff like taking the dog to the vet's for boarding, but I want to spend what little precious time I have with my sweet kidlets.
• Friday evening is the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Hopefully, that will go smoothly, the candles will float and burn, creating an intimate, "en famille"* feel and everyone will have a good time.
• Saturday is the BIG DAY! Matt and Sarah's wedding! We will caravan over to the hotel, settle in, and get ready for the big day.
• Camera, coffeepot, bloody Mary-fixin's, hangover bread ... I need to make a list! Don't forget band-aids for blistered feet not used to sexy, dancing shoes!
  
• Wedding at three, hors d'oeuvres at five, reception at six!
• Hopefully, next Sunday I'll post about S's upcoming surgery.

~ -------- ~ --------- ~

* I had to check my spelling and usage. From The Free Dictionary:

Adv. 1. en famille - in a causal way; at home; "we'll have dinner en famille"

Digital photography tips

From Top Ten Digital Photography Tips by Derrick Story:

You have a digital camera and have taken the typical shots of family and friends. Now what? Here are ten tips to make your next batch of digital images so impressive that people will ask: "Hey, what type of camera do you have?"

Guess what? It's not the camera.

post-bachelorette party

Dragon Mood? -- chuckling with amazement

Last night, I went to my first, my very first bachelorette party. What an experience! I told Yosh this morning on the phone, now I know what it feels like to be an anthropologist in some far-off place like Papua New Guinea, observing some exotic tribal rituals!

S and I got to Jody's house, the maid of honor, late. There were at least 20 or 25 women there, a much larger group than I was anticipating. Sarah, the bride, was opening "dirty" gifts, things like edible underwear, penis shot glasses and penis lollipops. By the time she was finished, Sarah was wearing a white fur-trimmed tiara with flashing lights, some other flashing-light thing around her neck along with several shot glasses on strings, a black feather boa and a bumper sticker saying something about cowboys and cute asses. Oh yes, and she had a hairband thing with two little red glittery penises swinging about on top of her head. Funny and amazing!

As all these women piled into a Big Daddy taxi van, S and I followed in our car and we headed to a country-western place called Cactus Juice. There were all of ten people in the joint when we walked in. But I was amazed to watch the cowboy bouncers and cowboy staff as they watched all these young, nubile women enter. I told Yosh it was like watching bees around a bunch of new flowers. They practically began buzzing with energy. (laughing) Sorry, that didn't sound very anthropologist-like, did it? The men staffers at this bar definitely took notice and an interest in all the young women.

The dance music was a little on the lame side, although S and I did dance to one Elvis song and another one where we tried to do the two-step. Jody and one other girl rode the mechanical bull which elicited everyone's interest. Sarah's mom bought two rounds of apple Pucker shots, which thankfully S and I bypassed. I stuck to Mich Ultra and S drank Coronas with limes.

Then we headed to a place near campus called the Silver Dollar. Any student who's ever attended MSU will know that name. As dead as the other place was, that's how jumpin' the Dollar was. It was crowded and got more crowded as the night went on. The band was awful. In a word, everyone said, "This band sucks!" When the band finished their set, that was when the real dancing began!

S and I danced, all the young women danced, everybody danced. There was dirty-dancing with lots of hip grinding, arm waving, butt thrusting and what I would call mild groping. Men who were strangers came up to women and began dancing, not face-to-face but behind them. S actually rescued Sarah's aunt who got groped by some young stranger.

One of the most memorable dances was towards the end of our evening. I had gone outside with one young woman, Carrie, who is about six or seven months pregnant and needed some air. So did I. I needed air and a reprieve from the loudness of the music. When we reentered, my mission was to grab S, say our goodbyes and leave. Instead, the dance floor was packed and everyone was singing along to some song that ended the chorus with "Pussy Control." And everyone dancing seemed to know the words, "pussy control."

Amazingly, I woke up with that music and those words in my head this morning: "pussy control." I since looked it up online and found it's a song by TAFKA (the artist formerly known as) Prince. Here's an excerpt from here:

... Now say it, Pussy Control (Are U ready?)

Aaah, Pussy Control, oh
Aaah, Pussy Control, oh

And the moral of this motherf---er is
Ladies, make'em act like they know
U are, was, and always will be Pussy Control (Are U ready?)
Peace and be wild (Aaah, Pussy Control)

Say what, huh? (Oh)
Oh no, don't U think about callin' her a ho (Are U ready?)
U juvenile delinquent
Best sit your ass down
Talkin' about Pussy Control
Huh, can U dig it?

Aaah, Pussy Control (Are U ready?)
Oh (Are U ready?)

Aaah, Pussy Control (Are U ready?)
Oh (Are U ready?)

So, I'm no longer a bachelorette-party virgin and I can say I had a damn good time. Better than I ever anticipated!

Early Saturday afternoon

Dragon Mood? -- Body-check: dragon system thrumming with energy!

I've been sitting here at the computer for TOO long.

I need to get my sweet dragon ass in GEAR!

I have one large, scrumptious zucchini quietly waiting in the vegetable drawer of the fridge. I want to make zucchini bread!

There are five turkey Italian sausage also in the fridge waiting to be made into my version of Zatarain's Jambalaya with fresh tomatoes, zucchini and yellow summer squash and of course, some heat!

The Spartans are taking on Hawaii on TV in a couple of hours. I'd like to catch at least a little of the game!

And ... it's a simply gorgeous day outside. I want to sit out on the deck!

In the infamous words of a ubiquitous bladder-control meds commercial: "Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now!"

I hope this is true

Dragon Mood? -- disappointed but stalwartly hopeful

I know that all the media pundits are saying that Schwarzeneggar is going to veto the same-sex legislation that passed both houses of the California legislature ... BUT, some day it will happen.

Here's an excerpt from an article that made me feel better ... and more hopeful:

Social conservatives in California are feeling pretty cheerful now that the governor has said he will veto the same-sex marriage bill. And yes, across the country, 11 states, including California, have passed bans on same-sex marriage.

But here's some advice: Enjoy it now. It isn't going to last.

The right wing is missing a powerful, building undercurrent. Simply put, at this point, much of the younger generation has probably gone to school with openly gay peers. They also see them in the workplace and even in their neighborhoods. And they don't seem that scary.

...[from] Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who wrote the same-sex marriage bill...

"Those over 65 oppose same-sex marriage,'' Leno says. "But those under 35 support it -- and more strongly than those over 65 oppose it.''

While the battle for legal same-sex marriage may rage for years, it seems clear there is a general shift toward support of committed relationships between same-sex partners.

I hope sooner rather than later. It can't happen too soon as far as I'm concerned!

More on Backpack

Dragon Mood? -- dragons love to COLLECT THINGS in backpack!

I find that I use Backpack most at work. S bought me a very nice iPAQ which I use when I have an "Aha!" moment all the other times. The iPAQis currently still in recovery from an almost terminal strobe-light attack (more on that some other time).

So, let me recap:

• I like to use Backpack at work because I'm already at the computer and online.

• I like to use my iPAQ for all the other times I need to capture something to remember, brilliant ideas to explore and/or just to play with the software. And, it needs to be said, the iPAQ definitely has its limitations, especially on data input.

Currently in Backpack, because I have a free account, I'm limited to five pages. For now, that is sufficient. I DO appreciate that the folks at 37signals allow people like myself to explore and play with their product. If it was a "pay only" thing, I know that I wouldn't.

My pages now include a page on medical prescription costs (which I'm trying to track for next year -- another post), a page of quotations that I like, a page on future job dreaming and envisioning and finally, a page on an imaginary world (when reality REALLY is getting to me). I think that is four pages. It seems like I read somewhere that the 37signals folk don't count your home page, which is very nice and generous of them.

Backpack also enables you to email stuff to each of your pages. Each page has an individualized address like "frederic78cynthia@calypsodragon13.backpackit.com" I've tested that functionality out a bit and it works (hurray!) and is useful (even better!).

I use to have an account at Squarespace which I have allowed to lapse. The creator of Squarespace has his own blog and he posted about Backpack. I'm not going to quote it here, but he did question whether Backpack is functional when you're working fast and furious and want to note something for future reference. He admitted that he usually uses Notepad for quick and dirty notations.

Bye Michael! Hello, Thad!

Dragon Mood? -- happy

Hurray! FEMA national director Michael Brown has been sent packing ... back to Washington D.C. In the words of Michael Chertoff, he has been relieved of his duties relative to Katrina and sent back to Washington to focus his attention on national duties of FEMA, including preparing for the next natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Replacing him is Coast Guard Chief Vice Admiral Thad Allen. I watched him at a news conference, and believe you me, even in that short five minutes, I felt like here's a person who can DO THE JOB!

The folks of the Gulf Coast deserve no less!

Comparing the blog looks

Dragon Mood? -- scratching my dragon temple

What do YOU think?


...or THIS one?

To strike or not to strike

Dragon Mood? -- ???

I just re-enabled added the ability to strike through text and I want to see if it is now enabled it works.

Dershowitz on Rehnquist

Dragon Mood? -- troubled dragon

S and I had just finished watching a video Saturday night. She had the remote. She was channel-surfing and landed on Fox News. YeeechhhHH! I hate Fox News! They were doing a phone interview with, of all people, Alan Dershowitz, the well-known, champion-of-the-underdog Harvard law professor. The ticker at the bottom of the television screen was announcing Rehnquist's death. Dershowitz' comment that caught my ear was "he was a Republican thug." I listened more, fascinated by Dershowitz' comments.

I wanted to hear more so today I googled Dershowitz Rehnquist fox. I found this posting on Ariana Huffington's website, again of all places!!:

My mother always told me that when a person dies, one should not say anything bad about him. My mother was wrong. History requires truth, not puffery or silence, especially about powerful governmental figures. And obituaries are a first draft of history.

So here’s the truth about Chief Justice Rehnquist you won’t hear on Fox News or from politicians. Chief Justice William Rehnquist set back liberty, equality, and human rights perhaps more than any American judge of this generation. His rise to power speaks volumes about the current state of American values.

Let’s begin at the beginning. Rehnquist bragged about being first in his class at Stanford Law School. Today Stanford is a great law school with a diverse student body, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it discriminated against Jews and other minorities, both in the admission of students and in the selection of faculty. Justice Stephen Breyer recalled an earlier period of Stanford’s history: “When my father was at Stanford, he could not join any of the social organizations because he was Jewish, and those organizations, at that time, did not accept Jews.” Rehnquist not only benefited in his class ranking from this discrimination; he was also part of that bigotry. When he was nominated to be an associate justice in 1971, I learned from several sources who had known him as a student that he had outraged Jewish classmates by goose-stepping and heil-Hitlering with brown-shirted friends in front of a dormitory that housed the school’s few Jewish students. He also was infamous for telling racist and anti-Semitic jokes.

The young Rehnquist began his legal career as a Republican functionary by obstructing African-American and Hispanic voting at Phoenix polling locations (“Operation Eagle Eye”). ... In a word, he started out his political career as a Republican thug.

Rehnquist later bought a home in Vermont with a restrictive covenant that barred sale of the property to ''any member of the Hebrew race.”

Rehnquist’s judicial philosophy was result-oriented, activist, and authoritarian. He sometimes moderated his views for prudential or pragmatic reasons, but his vote could almost always be predicted based on who the parties were, not what the legal issues happened to be [my emphasis]. He generally opposed the rights of gays, women, blacks, aliens, and religious minorities. He was a friend of corporations, polluters, right wing Republicans, religious fundamentalists, homophobes, and other bigots.

Rehnquist served on the Supreme Court for thirty-three years and as chief justice for nineteen. Yet no opinion comes to mind which will be remembered as brilliant, innovative, or memorable. [my emphasis] He will be remembered not for the quality of his opinions but rather for the outcomes decided by his votes, especially Bush v. Gore [again my emphasis], in which he accepted an Equal Protection claim that was totally inconsistent with his prior views on that clause. He will also be remembered as a Chief Justice who fought for the independence and authority of the judiciary. This is his only positive contribution to an otherwise regressive career. ...

Day Four of my four-day weekend

Dragon Mood? -- lamenting

... lamenting to S that not having to go to work is so nice! Not that I wouldn't work; just not having to.

Saturday was a lovely day. Irene gave me a massage which I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. Actually, I truly appreciated and gave thanks for the ability to take a hot, hot shower before getting my massage. I swung by the township's friendly farmers' market and bought some tomatoes for S; she LOVES sun-ripened tomatoes! I made a big pot of navy bean soup Saturday afternoon while S visited with our neighbor, Bill B. out on the deck. He's elderly and lonely and we enjoy talking with him.

Saturday night, we watched a couple of videos: newly released, "Guess Who," with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher (it made me laugh); and the classic, "Anatomy of a Murder" starring James Stewart, Lee Remick and Ben Gazzarra. It was directed by Otto Preminger and featured music by Duke Ellington. The movie was rather long, but I thoroughly enjoyed the musical score.

Yesterday, Sunday, was a long, languorous and lovely day. The weather was as perfect as one could ask for: sunny, about eighty degrees and just a little breeze. S and I sat out on the deck until it got too hot. I spent time sitting here at the computer, playing in Photoshop. I had a ball! You can see some of my work at flickr.

S went over to Mark and Lindsey's house to help Mark with a wood-repairing project. I finally talked with Dad and Evelyn around six. We had been playing phone tag for a week, trying to make contact!

Last night, we ate second-day bean soup (even better than the first day!) and watched two more videos: the infamous "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next" with the incomparable Jack Nicholson and "Ocean's Twelve" with George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. Loved the first one (I had forgotten the rather dramatic and sad ending) and was disappointed in the second one. I hope to Betsy there isn't an "Ocean's Thirteen!"

Today, I need to haul five 50-pound bags of water softener salt in and down to the basement. That will be my upper body workout for today! I want to shred a whopper of a zucchini and make some zucchini bread. I want to sit out on the deck and listen to the fountain some more!

Maybe talk to mijita and mijito?? I miss their smiling faces and how much we laugh when we're together!

Tonight, S and I will head back to the pied-a-terre for a short work week. Back to work and the salt mines!

Times-Picayune editorial

Dragon Mood? -- embarrassed by our Administration

Let me say, I wouldn't have been so kind. Or non-sarcastic.

As reported by CNN,

"The Times-Picayune of New Orleans printed this editorial in its Sunday edition, criticizing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and calling on every FEMA official to be fired:"

An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable. [my emphasis]

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

Hurray, California Senate!

Dragon Mood? -- dragon goosebumps

I was startled and then thrilled to hear that the California Senate approved legislation to legalize same-sex marriages! Whahhhh?

The California Senate approved legislation Thursday that would legalize same-sex marriages, a vote that makes the chamber the first legislative body in the country to approve a gay marriage bill.

The 21-15 vote sets the stage for a showdown in the state Assembly, which narrowly rejected a gay marriage bill in June.

"Equality is equality, period," said one of the bill's supporters, Democratic Sen. Liz Figueroa. "When I leave this Legislature I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I stood up for dignity and rights for all."

Here, here, Ms. Figueroa! Let's hope California's legislature sets aside ignorance, fear and prejudice and passes this bill! Gay people want and deserve equal rights to straight people!

Day One of my four-day weekend!

Dragon Mood? -- happy, but troubled

I'm home today, beginning the holiday weekend a bit early. Hurray! S and I got home last evening (me later than her), but we got our TV fix and channel-flipped between CNN and MSNBC and their coverage of Hurricane Katrina until midnight or so. Even after only a few hours of watching, I was on overload and tilt! I just can't fathom what all those poor people are going through.

This morning, I sat down here at the computer to surf. I immediately went to CNN and MSNBC. I found a journalist's blog on MSNBC that touched my heart. Her name is Hoda Kotb and she says this:

...It's really heartbreaking — this is a city that is so vibrant and so full of life.

...The pictures of the people on their rooftops, the pictures of the people being rescued — I don't know them, but I know just who they are [my emphasis]. Because New Orleans is a very poor city. It's a city that has a poverty rate of 30 to 40 percent and the people that you're seeing in those pictures are people who, I bet, had no way out. They just didn't. The house is all they have. So they're hanging on for dear life. And then suddenly, they're on the attic with an ax, cutting their way out, so they can be on the rooftop and pray that some stranger comes by and saves them.

When you look in the Super Dome and you see all those people in there, and you're wondering, “Why didn't they leave? Why didn't they just leave?” You know, a lot of those people couldn't. They don't own cars. They don't have means, they don't have money. They don't have anything.

There are some people who just decided, “I was born here and I'm going to die here.”

I think Hoda's comments are timely and should be well-taken. We aren't in those peoples' shoes and we have no idea what they're going through.

Contrast her comments with those of Michael Brown, head of FEMA, reported here:

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates [my emphasis again].

"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said.

"So, we've got to figure out some way to convince people that whenever warnings go out it's for their own good," Brown said. "Now, I don't want to second guess why they did that. My job now is to get relief to them."

So, why is he making those "I-don't-make-judgments" judgmental comments when he OBVIOUSLY has a HUGE JOB to do? Why is he yapping at the media folks when he should be DOING HIS JOB! Get to work, Mr. Brown! We, the taxpayers, are PAYING YOU to do a job!

On a lighter note, looking at the moon phase calculator this morning, I see that it's a new moon; good time for planting, as I recall. Maybe S and I will do some yard work this weekend?

Aaaaannd ... I played the piano for a bit this morning. I sight-read through one of Bach's English Suites preludes which I want to polish. Last Sunday, S asked me to also learn Debussy's "The Sunken Cathedral" or "La Cathedral Engloutie." Wow! It just struck me how timely or untimely that request is! She is a spooky one!

The two-wave theory

Dragon Mood? -- listening

This article is from New York Times columnist, David Brooks. I've heard him on NPR's MacNeill/Lehrer Report and while I don't always agree with his politics, I think what he has to say here contains a lot of truth:

Hurricanes come in two waves. First comes the rainstorm, and then comes what the historian John Barry calls the "human storm" - the recriminations, the political conflict and the battle over compensation. Floods wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done. They expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities. When you look back over the meteorological turbulence in this nation's history, it's striking how often political turbulence followed...

...We'd like to think that the stories of hurricanes and floods are always stories of people rallying together to give aid and comfort. And, indeed, each of America's great floods has prompted a popular response both generous and inspiring. But floods are also civic examinations. Amid all the stories that recur with every disaster - tales of sudden death and miraculous survival, the displacement and the disease - there is also the testing.

Civic arrangements work or they fail. Leaders are found worthy or wanting. What's happening in New Orleans and Mississippi today is a human tragedy. But take a close look at the people you see wandering, devastated, around New Orleans: they are predominantly black and poor. The political disturbances are still to come.

Hurricane Katrina and counting our blessings

Dragon Mood? -- appreciative

On a whim, I called S and said, "Let's go to lunch. I'll pick you up."

We sat at a family diner, new to us, near Twelve Mile and Van Dyke. We caught up on each other's morning, and suddenly S said, "Look!" Behind me, up near the ceiling was a television, with CNN showing footage from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Neither of us had seen any television since Sunday evening, before the hurricane made landfall.

We were appalled, horrified and dumbstruck at what we were seeing on the broadcast. These people in New Orleans and Mississippi are going through hell while we sit comfortably, being waited upon, eating our hot food and cold drinks.

S said, "You know, we have a lot to be thankful for. We have two houses, three cars, jobs we can go back to, food on the table. We have so much!"

And so, instead of kvetching about this person or that job, we took a moment and said our silent thanks for all the many blessings we have, those we notice and those we don't.

Eroding women's rights to self-determination

Dragon Mood? -- mad

I spotted this article on MSNBC. It probably is getting lost in all the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Gulf coast.

This makes me mad. Read this and see if it doesn't make you mad too:

Director of Women's Health Office resigns in protest over agency's delay


WASHINGTON - A high-ranking Food and Drug Administration official resigned Wednesday in protest over the agency’s refusal to allow over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception.

Susan Wood, director of FDA’s Office of Women’s Health, announced her resignation in an e-mail to colleagues at the agency. The e-mail was released by contraception advocates.

The FDA last Friday postponed indefinitely its decision on whether to allow the morning-after pill, called Plan B, to be sold without a prescription.

The agency said it was safe for adults to use without a doctor’s guidance but was unable to decide how to keep it out of the hands of young teenagers without a prescription — a decision contrary to the advice of its own scientific advisers.

“I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled,” wrote Wood, who also was assistant commissioner for women’s health.

“The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women’s access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions, is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women’s health.”

I hope women hear about this, pass it along to their friends, and get hoppin' mad at how this administration deviously erodes women's rights to self-determination.

aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

This was taken today, Tuesday, August 30th. It's an aerial photo of downtown New Orleans, taken by David J. Phillip. I got the image here.

I think the image speaks for itself. Recovery from this hurricane is going to take more than a few days or a few weeks.

Here's another one. The photographer claims these people are looters. The photo is from the same source.

Spotlighting blog changes

Dragon Mood? -- this dragon LOVES change

Since I have posted more this week than in the past six weeks(!), I thought I'd finish out the week with one more post.

I wanted to spotlight for all the hundreds and hundreds of readers (are you listening, Lina?) some changes to my blog:

• I have a new CalypsoDragon13 image replacing my Dragon-Mood Unkymood until www.unkymood.com reappears. Perhaps Mr. Unky is on hiatus?
• I added a new quote at the top of the left sidebar from, who-woulda-thunk-it?, Victoria Principal (an aging model) on choices in life. I heard her speak on Oprah's show one day about Epictetus and found her comments thought-provoking.
• Further down on the left sidebar, is a new, cropped image from algo at flickr. I thought this one was particularly lovely, cropped it for use in the sidebar and voila, there it is!
• Even further down on the left sidebar is an in-process list of what I am reading, say over the past three months. I didn't realize that I had read that many books. I guess playing Jawbreaker on my iPAQ hasn't cut into my spare time as much as I thought. I suspect that my reading time has cut into my knitting time!
• Oh yes, I am still monkeying around with the appearance of blockquotes and excerpts. The calypso green dotted side lines are a bit new. Still not sure if I like them or not. What do you think?
  

I guess that's all for now!

About Backpack

Dragon Mood? -- will a backpack ruffle my dragon scales? Hmm??

Once upon a time . . . there was a technology start-up called 37 Signals.

37 Signals is named after the number of radio waves we've received from space that scientists consider potential signals of intelligent life. Its creators build the kind of applications you didn't know you needed until you use them for the first time, at which point you wonder how you ever did without....

More recently, 37 Signals launched Backpack, a program that does just what its name suggests -- it gives users an easy, casual storage location on the Web, a place to scratch down important notes, draw up to-do lists, and store important files organized around specific tasks (say, all the stuff you need for a business trip).

You know, I started one of their free accounts about 3-and-a-half months ago. (Duh, read my posting here.) Then I got so darn busy at work I didn't have time to access it. Then I forgot. Does this mean I don't need Backpack? Can YOU look at my Backpack account if I want you to?

Adventurers and gypsy musicians in South Dakota

Dragon Mood? -- doing a gypsy jig as only a dragon can do!

...and since I'm in the excerpting mode, I found this quote from a Salon article by Garrison Keillor that I love. There's a quality of big-heartedness and hey-we-can-make-room-for-you that feels as true as true can be when I think of America:

...There are plenty of old grumblers in Mitchell [South Dakota] (and anywhere else) but deep down, we're all in favor of people living their lives as they choose and we are fond of true independents and adventurers and gypsy musicians. Red or blue, we agree that freedom is at the heart of American life and it's a big country and there's room for everybody. We all know that life is short and quickly ebbs to a close, so you should go ahead and take that ride down the rapids, fly to Australia, dye your hair, go in the Peace Corps, follow your star, so that when you must sit in the nursing home eating your corn mush and watching stupid TV shows, you have some vivid memories of big adventures. Everyone in this parking lot is in favor of this, even if they don't say so....

Yeah, you tell 'em, Garrison!

an exception to every rule

Dragon Mood? -- snorting fireballs of exposure

okay, I don't usually DO these, but in this case, I'll make an exception . . .

1. What is your occupation? designer and instructional developer
2. What color is your underwear? Peach-colored
3. What are you listening to right now? Meshell Ndegeocello (had to look up how to spell her last name)
4. What was the last thing you ate? a boring green salad with grilled chicken breast
5. Do you wish on stars? Yes
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? definitely the reddest red I could be!
7. How is the weather right now? cool and cloudy
8. Last person you spoke to on the phone. a friend's daughter about getting some physical therapy
9. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Absolutely! We've had some great times together!
10. Favorite drink? Iced green tea but at happy hour, bloody marys or wine
11. Favorite sport to watch? Are you kidding? MSU Spartan basketball!
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Not in a long time -- all that gray is ALL mine!
13. Do you wear contacts or glasses? glasses since I pushing 40.
14. Favorite month? December -- it's me & Jesus' birthday
15. What was the last movie you watched? The Thomas Crown Affair (on DVD)
16. Favorite day of the year? Halloween -- when all our inner "childs" emerge!
17. What do you do to vent anger? fold laundry
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? ummm, maybe tinkertoys?
19. Fall or Spring? enjoy 'em both
20. Hugs or kisses? love hugs, adore kisses
21. Cherry or Blueberry? love blueberries
22. Do you want your friends to email you back? Sure
23. Who is most likely to respond? I'm a hopeful person -- both?
24. Who is least likely to respond? not applicable
25. Living arrangements? in 2 houses with my partner of almost 19 years and one very furry dog
26. When was the last time you cried? Sunday night watching the last episode of "Six Feet Under"
27. What is on the floor in your closet? dust bunnies?
28. Who is the friend you have had the longest? My sister
29. What did you do last night? S and I put out loads and loads of trash; then we drank a beer with our neighbors, Jan and Tom, and talked about weddings
30. What inspires you? beautiful images and photography (like flickr); Thomas Newman's music
31. What are you afraid of? having a stroke and not being able to play the piano - OR - dying before I EVER get to see even one damn grandchild!
32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Spicy, please
33. Favorite vehicle? mini-Cooper
34. Favorite dog breed? in theory, a Scottish terrier, but I haven't had to clean up after one yet
35. Number of keys on your key ring? oh geez, about six or seven on one end and two on the other, detachable end
36. How many years at your current job? 2-and-a-half
37. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
38. How many states have you lived in? four
39. How many cities/towns have you lived in? seven, maybe eight depending on how I count
40. Chocolate or vanilla? if it's ice cream, vanilla, please, with Spanish peanuts on top
41. What is your favorite food? usually stuff that's not good for me, darn it! Ethnically, I'd also say Lebanese.
42. French Fries or chips? salt & vinegar chips, thanks to S
43. Chicken or Beef? Chicken
44. Morning person or night person? Night
45. Sneakers or sandals? sandals, preferably Birks
46. What kind of music is on your car radio? Jazz/classical
48. Beach or mountains? Beach
49. Favorite place to travel? I love to visit Oceana County. And... I'd love to visit Provence and nothern Italy
50. How many people will you send this to? just two ... at least for now
51. Favorite Movie? just one? How about Thelma & Louise? and don't forget those Wendish puppeteers in "The Sound of Music!"
52. Pet Peeve? People who belch and/or spit in public
54. Saddest Day(s)? The day I realized that I was truly alone in this world
55. Happiest Day? Many of them -- usually surrounded by people I love and who love me
56. Best gift you ever received. Be tolding I don't have to be perfect, just "good enough"

Time and our understanding of evolution

Dragon Mood? -- don't forget that dragons are much younger and cuter than dinosaurs!

In my early days of blogging, I quoted many different newspaper and magazine articles ... at length, because I actually don't like the practice of linking to other sites. I have poked on too many links that ended up as "page could not display," "check your link again" or some other derivation of dead-link-ness.
Hence, my practice of quoting an entire article or some portion of it right in my blog.

Lately, I've gotten away from that practice, not because my attitude has changed, but simply because I've been trying to incorporate more of ME into the blog.

But today, I simply must revert to my earlier practice and put this whole, damn article in here because I think it is well thought out, eloquent in places and even heartfelt (for a New York Times editorial opinion). It's on our understanding of time and evolution:

Grasping the Depth of Time as a First Step in Understanding Evolution
By VERLYN KLINKENBORG

Last month a team of paleontologists announced that it had found several fossilized dinosaur embryos that were 190 million years old - some 90 million years older than any dinosaur embryos found so far. Those kinds of numbers are always a little daunting. Ever since I was a boy in a public elementary school in Iowa, I've been learning to face the eons and eons that are embedded in the universe around us.

I know the numbers as they stand at present, and I know what they mean, in a roughly comparative way. The universe is perhaps 14 billion years old. Earth is some 4.5 billion years old. The oldest hominid fossils are between 6 million and 7 million years old. The oldest distinctly modern human fossils are about 160,000 years old.

The truth of these numbers has the same effect on me as watching the night sky in the high desert. It fills me with a sense of nonspecific immensity. I don't think I'm alone in this. [I completely agree with those words!]

One of the most powerful limits to the human imagination is our inability to grasp, in a truly intuitive way, the depths of terrestrial and cosmological time. That inability is hardly surprising because our own lives are so very short in comparison. It's hard enough to come to terms with the brief scale of human history. But the difficulty of comprehending what time is on an evolutionary scale, I think, is a major impediment to understanding evolution.

It's been approximately 3.5 billion years since primeval life first originated on this planet. That is not an unimaginable number in itself, if you're thinking of simple, discrete units like dollars or grains of sand. But 3.5 billion years of biological history is different. All those years have really passed, moment by moment, one by one. They encompass an actual, already lived reality, encompassing all the lives of all the organisms that have come and gone in that time. That expanse of time defines the realm of biological possibility in which life in its extraordinary diversity has evolved. It is time that has allowed the making of us.

The idea of such quantities of time is extremely new. Humans began to understand the true scale of geological time in the early 19th century. The probable depth of cosmological time and the extent of the history of the human species have come to light only within our own lifetimes.

That is a lot to absorb and, not surprisingly, many people refuse to absorb it. Nearly every attack on evolution - whether it is called intelligent design or plain creationism, synonyms for the same faith-based rejection of evolution - ultimately requires a foreshortening of cosmological, geological and biological time.

Humans feel much more content imagining a world of more human proportions, with a shorter time scale and a simple narrative sense of cause and effect. But what we prefer to believe makes no difference. The fact that life on Earth has arrived at a point where it is possible for humans to have beliefs is due to the steady ticking away of eons and the trial and error of natural selection.

Evolution is a robust theory, in the scientific sense, that has been tested and confirmed again and again. Intelligent design is not a theory at all, as scientists understand the word, but a well-financed political and religious campaign to muddy science. Its basic proposition - the intervention of a designer, a k a God - cannot be tested. It has no evidence to offer, and its assumptions that humans were divinely created are the same as its conclusions. Its objections to evolution are based on syllogistic reasoning and a highly selective treatment of the physical evidence.

Accepting the fact of evolution does not necessarily mean discarding a personal faith in God. But accepting intelligent design means discarding science. Much has been made of a 2004 poll showing that some 45 percent of Americans believe that the Earth - and humans with it - was created as described in the book of Genesis, and within the past 10,000 years. This isn't a triumph of faith. It's a failure of education.

The purpose of the campaign for intelligent design is to deepen that failure. To present the arguments of intelligent design as part of a debate over evolution is nonsense. From the scientific perspective, there is no debate. But even the illusion of a debate is a sorry victory for antievolutionists, a public relations victory based, as so many have been in recent years, on ignorance and obfuscation.

The essential, but often well-disguised, purpose of intelligent design, is to preserve the myth of a separate, divine creation for humans in the belief that only that can explain who we are. But there is a destructive hubris, a fearful arrogance, in that myth. It sets us apart from nature, except to dominate it. It misses both the grace and the moral depth of knowing that humans have only the same stake, the same right, in the Earth as every other creature that has ever lived here. There is a righteousness - a responsibility - in the deep, ancestral origins we share with all of life.

August is slipping away ...

Dragon Mood? -- feeling a bit guarded

I am at lunch.

I think to myself, "I'll post something on Calypso."

I open the (Blogger) Dashboard. What!?!... I haven't posted since August 10th! Where have the past two weeks gone? Where is the month going?

Which all reinforces the notion that life is flying by me, we're on the fast track, S and me, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better!

Twin A, Mark, is now a married daddy and we survived a rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception with thunder clouds of homophobia hanging over them. We can't pinpoint the source of the sudden emphasis on "tradition" and "family-values" language, but it was there; it was definitely there. And we do have our suspicions. Even S's ex-husband came to our defense as a couple. That was a lovely, unexpected silver lining in those clouds.

This past weekend, we attended a bridal shower for Sarah, #1 son's fiancee. Their wedding is happening in about five weeks. (Sigh!) The shower was a large, noisy, diverse affair and while some people were strangely silent, most everyone was warm and welcoming. It was a lovely contrast to the other family and thank goodness for that!

Then, yesterday, we met with Sarah again at the restaurant where their rehearsal dinner will be held. We had a drink, met with the manager and talked about entrees, desserts, booze and number of guests. It was all rather tiresome, but necessary attention to the details of their wedding.

S has really been struggling internally with what her responsibility is, as the mother of the groom, for paying for/contribuing to the liquor tab at the reception. I think she has finally come to peace with that and I hope she can "stay the course" (oh, geez, a #1 Bush-ism!) on this issue.

We also had an impromptu dinner with J & J and Kevin last night. Kevin fixed a tasty pork tenderloin and Jeanne fixed her mother's potato salad. It was a rather brief gathering, but I enjoyed talking with them all and catching up on what their summers have been like. Of course, we gave them the whole lowdown on Mark & Lindsey's wedding and all the trauma/drama inherent to that.

We didn't see our elderly neighbor, Mr. Browder, this weekend and I'm feeling a bit badly about that. We just didn't make him a priority because of all the other demands on our time.

We got home last night in time to videotape and watch the last episode of Six Feet Under on HBO. Things were moving fast, with lots of changes, closures and a dreamy, into-the-future ending for the show. I liked the ending. It felt rather peaceful and hopeful, which I appreciated. That show feels to close to life, with all its messiness and ugliness and hardness. The ending was almost like a gift.

Thank you, Alan Ball!

Random and important connections

Dragon Mood? -- nonplussed

• This morning I got a surprise phone call from Ruthie. She was on her way to a job interview! Good luck, Ruth!

• At lunch today, in a moment of spontaneous hilarity, Maria, the cashier lady in the cafeteria told me I was bunless . . . and we both busted out laughing. And I replied, "I have never been told I was bunless! I wish!"
  
  Maybe in my next life!

• And then I got a call from my sweet hijita, Lina, cycling around out in Spearfish, South Dakota. Thanks for the call, motorcycles roaring and all!

• But, where is my Honeybuns? my Sweetpea? my Snookums? Methinks she is enjoying her first day of vacation . . . I'm jealous!

Howling with laughter!!

Dragon Mood? -- apopletic with dragon-laughs



I don't know why this struck me so funny, but it did!

Absent-mindedness, cauliflower brains, "your insurance doesn't cover anesthesia," and the best line of all:

How'd your brain transplant work out?

Many, many kudos to Scott Adams and these funny comics. They can be accessed here, here and finally here.

Multiplying, we are .... (channeling Yoda)

Dragon Mood? -- dragon-wowed!

According to Technorati, as reported by the BBC, there is a blog created every second.

In its latest State of the Blogosphere report, it said the number of blogs it was tracking now stood at more than 14.2m blogs, up from 7.8m in March.

It suggests, on average, the number of blogs is doubling every five months.

Wow! That is some exponential growth! Read on:

Thirteen percent of all blogs that Technorati tracks are updated weekly or more, said the report, and 55% of all new bloggers are still posting three months after they started.

It also pointed to the growth in moblogs, blogs to which people with camera phones automatically send pictures and text.

Other services, such as the Google toolbar and the Flickr photo sharing website, have implemented "blog this" buttons, which also make it easier for people to post content they like on the web straight to their blogs.

The voices in the blogosphere are also sounding less US-centric, with blog growth spotted in Japan, Korea, China, UK, France, and Brazil.

I am simply amazed. And yet I'm not. Read Stewart Brand's book, The Clock of the Long Now, and neither will you.

a blogger named Fiona

Dragon Mood? -- recalling meeting a dragon named Fiona once

Still on my lunch hour, I happened upon a blogger named Fiona. I've seen her succintly-named blog listed many times before but never checked it out.

Today, I did. And this posting, quoted in part here, matches my odd and darkly dispirited mood:

You already think I'm weird, anyway

I don't think anybody can run away from the troubles that have befallen us any more, and I think that soon we're all going to be feeling the same pain. If you're thinking about moving to the northern wilds of Canada to become an organic farmer, forget it. What's wrong here is wrong everywhere, and it's all bleeding together so fast there's no point in moving. We're going to have to deal with the challenges from wherever we are, however we can. It's sort of like somebody walked in on humanity while it was in the john with its pants down. There may not even be time to wipe, people. We're deer in the headlights.

I've been ranting about how I hate religion since I started this damn blog nearly three years ago. But lately it just seems like my suspicions are confirmed. ALL of mankind's traditional religions are brainwashing schemes. They are all designed to instill fear and/or diminish critical thinking skills and increase obedient, subservient behavior. All of them, yes, even dear Buddhism. If it didn't start out that way, it's become corrupt. Now it's not about questioning or killing the Buddha any more. It's about romantic allegiances to self-proclaimed enlightened gurus, based purely on faith. . . . The scales have fallen from my eyes when it comes to modern American Buddhism. It has the same odor to it as Evangelical Christianity, in some cases. Time to wake up, yuppie Boulder Buddhists. Ye are being manipulated. Pacified. Conditioned to accept whatever.

Wow! Sounds like my kind of pissed-off person. I will definitely be looking in on Fiona again.

What would it take?

Dragon Mood? -- idly scuffing her dragon toes in the dirt

It's Monday, it's my lunch hour and I'm sitting here in my Dilbert-esque cubicle, longing to somehow purge whatever is troubling me out of my brain and onto this page.

I am feeling alone, lonely and disconnected. I talked with S about this, again, yesterday. She listened, responded with understanding and concern, and treated me especially kindly for the rest of the day. That felt so good.

I can't even tell what would help me feel better. Quiet? Noisy activity? Walking? Playing the piano? Drawing? Knitting?

I don't know.

But I'm here on this earth, God graces us with a warm, shining sun and it's a beautiful summer day. I am thankful for all those things.

Standing on the sidelines

Dragon Mood? -- sad

Yesterday, I told S that I felt sad and depressed. We talked about it, trying to pinpoint why I'm feeling that way.

She said it's because two of her kids are getting married and so much of our attention has been focused on that. You know, coming down after the big shower/barbecue last weekend. I disagreed.

I tried to find the words to describe my feelings. The picture that kept forming in my head was of me standing on the sidelines on the stage that is my life. Not the main actor on the stage, but sidelined, waiting in the wings.

I referenced the very clear sensation that I had while in Wisconsin of my kids being grown, fully capable and not needing me. I AM NOT NEEDED by them and that feels so bittersweet to me. That means I succeeded as a mom and yet I'm not needed as a mom, not really, not anymore.

I referenced my job, where over the past three months, I have been working diligently to meet a deadline. That deadline (just one of several yet to come) was this past Wednesday. When I talked with my 'leader' about additional things I could begin working on, I was rebuffed and told to spend some time reviewing the software. A time-killer, a go-away-and-don't-bother-me response. One of my peers told me he's gathering some "typing" for me to do. Yeah, that definitely contributes to that sideline feeling.

Add to that this whole parking debacle at work. I'm told-- you don't drive one of OUR cars, we're so busy trying to reassure ourselves that OUR cars are the best, that we want you to remind you daily that you're driving one of the OTHER cars. This is PRIDE for us, not punishment for you. So park in the back forty, IF you can find a spot, and meanwhile, we'll put construction trailers, piles of dirt, broken concrete and all other manner of impedimenta in your way just to remind you that you don't drive one of OUR cars, you second-class contract worker, you. But, hey, don't take this new parking policy personally, okay? Sidelined.

And then there's S. She is completely OCCUPIED with her job, and its unending demands. She is very OCCUPIED with this, that and the other thing of these two impending weddings. ("I need to call Matt." "I'm waiting to hear back from Mark." "I need to get this to Sarah.") In her spare time (read that with high sarcasm), she is obsessing about her growing fibroids, worrying, now that she has acknowledged them, that they are growing at a double-time rate. Not that I don't worry too. They are large, protuberant and causing more and more side effects. My nightmare is that she could develop a bowel obstruction before this surgery can happen. Then, it's crisis time and emergency surgery. I don't like the sound of that at all.

But, I digress. I WAS talking about me, and I sidelined myself. See what I mean?

S has a full plate and then some, which leaves very little room for me, as her partner. I told her yesterday that I don't get much in the way of nurture from her and I could use some nurturing right now. For whatever reason, I am feeling vulnerable these days. Tenderness, Love, Care -- TLC, they all sound pretty good to me right now. I don't expect and won't get it from S. But I sure could use some.

And ... if this sounds like I'm throwing myself a full-blown pity party, well then, it is what it is. In the words of an oldie: "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to . . ."

on Solitude

Dragon Mood? -- quietly alone

• "Solitude is sweet." -- William Cowper
• "Solitude is a kind of freedom." -- Umberto Eco
• "I'm single because I was born that way." -- Mae West
• "Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes life worth living."-- C.G. Jung
• "Shine alone, shine nakedly, shine like bronze..." -- Wallace Stevens
• "I was alone with all that could happen." -- William Gass

cheap wine by the NY Times

Dragon Mood? -- ho-hummmm...

I have finally gotten to a point where I can stop, take a breath and look around. I thought I would take a look at the NY Times and see what's happening in the world.

I found the following article, enjoyed reading it and thought I'd reproduce it here:

# # # # #

Who Knew a $10 Bill Had Such a Nice Bouquet?

By ERIC ASIMOV
Published: July 27, 2005

DECADES ago, when people in wine-producing countries routinely drank a few glasses with every meal, vast amounts of wine were made quickly and cheaply. It was sold for pennies - make that francs, lire and pesetas - to be consumed right away. Most of it was utter swill: thin and sour, or thick, raisiny and volatile.


The wine industry has changed drastically since then, and people tend to romanticize those days, as if the demijohns and jugs filled at the local merchant somehow contained the sort of honest artisanal products that are no longer available. Nonsense.

The fact is that today cheap wine across the board is far superior to what it was 50 years ago. It is not hard to find dry, refreshing, satisfying wines for $10 and under, as the Dining section's wine panel learned in a tasting of 24 bottles.

Why has the quality of cheap wine improved? Simply put, the standard of winemaking is far superior. The significance of something as simple as rigorous cleanliness throughout production is now understood and accepted. Technology of all sorts allows winemakers to assure drinkability, at the very least. They can control temperatures during production, adjust levels of alcohol and acidity, even dictate flavors and aromas by using particular types of cultured yeasts.

Those improvements make better wines, though not necessarily good ones: they simply help winemakers prevent flaws and spoilage. But the tasting panel was not willing to settle for innocuous wines. We wanted wines with personalities. We wanted to find pleasure in a glass rather than an absence of pain. And we did.

"I'm surprised, particularly at how well the whites showed: crisp and summery," said Fred Dexheimer, the wine director at the BLT group of restaurants in Manhattan, who joined in the tasting with a second guest, Paul Grieco, an owner and the general manager of Hearth in the East Village, along with my colleague Florence Fabricant and me.

We tasted 12 whites and 12 reds, and picked our top 5 of each. Of the whites, three of the five were made from the sauvignon blanc grape. A fourth tasted as if it were, but it was made from the colombard grape. The fifth was a pinot grigio.

What do they all have in common?

None tasted expensive. Each was fairly simple, and yet the flavors of the grapes were allowed to shine through. One of the great winemaking clichés nowadays is, "Great wines are made in the vineyard," meaning that you cannot make great wine without first growing great grapes. Yet many who pay lip service to the vineyard use cellar techniques like aging wines in new oak barrels, which masks the grapes' flavors rather than enhancing them.

Of course, new oak barrels are very expensive. Wines made to sell for $10 or less are never aged in new oak barrels. Instead winemakers, to get an oaky quality, can dip tea bags of oak chips into the wine, infusing it with aroma and flavor that, to me, always seems artificial rather than honest. Or the wines can be manipulated in less obvious ways. The wines we liked did not taste as if they were posing as expensive bottles.

During the blind tasting, we speculated freely about where the wines we liked were made. Most of us assumed they were European, particularly from areas that have not achieved high status in people's minds and whose wines have not achieved brand-name recognition. "They harvest the grapes, put them in stainless steel or cement tanks, and that's it," Mr. Dexheimer said.

Mr. Grieco agreed, saying that wines from the New World, primarily from California and Australia, are often tailored to appeal to specific markets. "I will surmise that the New World wines are the most correct wines: balanced, acidity adjusted, with something from a tree," he said. "Old World wines rock and roll in this category. They don't try to be anything more than they are."

As it turned out, though, our top white was from South Africa, and two others from the top five were from South America. Only our No. 3 wine, the Domaine Duffour, fit the expected profile of coming from a little-known Old World region. It was made in Gascony, better known as Armagnac country, from the colombard grape. In California the grape is still widely planted and used in cheap white wines, rarely achieving the direct liveliness of this French version.


Our No. 5 white was an Italian pinot grigio from Bolla, hardly a little producer. Yet it had more flavor than many bland versions that cost twice as much. Mr. Grieco called it "unbelievable bang for the buck."

To me, though, the sauvignons blancs were the most interesting of the whites. Each seemed to have character and personality that other wines in the tasting lacked. We tasted four chardonnays, for example, including one each from California, Washington, Long Island and the Languedoc. They were not bad; just inoffensive, without zest. It may be that because of its piercing flavors, sauvignon blanc is more adaptable to an inexpensive approach than chardonnay, a grape that can reach greater heights when treated to costlier winemaking.

The reds conformed much more to our expectations. Our two top wines were both from the southern Rhône Valley, long a source for good cheap bottles. The No. 1 red, a 2001 Côtes-du-Rhône from J. Vidal-Fleury, was a superb value at $8: fruity, earthy and balanced without the candied or too-sweet qualities that may make for great popularity in the marketplace but will not impress discerning wine lovers. Our No. 2 wine, the Domaine Lafond from Lirac, was, like the Vidal-Fleury, a blend of several Rhône grapes, in this case grenache, syrah and mourvèdre.

Two American wines made our list of reds. One was the '03 Big House Red from Bonny Doon, a perennial leader in inexpensive wines. Bonny Doon is not above winery manipulations, but somehow its leader, Randall Grahm, manages to produce honest wines. Our No. 5 wine, a Bogle zinfandel, struck me as a little too sweet; yet zinfandel deserves to be on our list, as it was for years a foundation of inexpensive California wine before it began to get fancy.

While we were pleased to discover all of these easygoing pleasures, $10 wines have clear limitations. Like inexpensive cars that with few thrills or creature comforts, these wines are fine for accompanying basic meals. They are not complex, and they don't have the cerebral or soulful appeal of much better and invariably more expensive wines.

Just as the cheap wines of old are occasionally romanticized, some people contend that what sets a $100 bottle apart from a $10 bottle is little more than pretension, reputation, hype and the compulsion of gullible people to pay the higher price.

For the most part, that's ridiculous. Better wine often costs more because it is more expensive to produce. Is it possible that you will like a $10 bottle better than a $100 bottle? Of course, and not just once in a while. After all, some expensive wines are as abysmal as others are wonderful. Are some $100 bottles of wine big, pumped-up frauds that depend on the willingness of fools to part with their money? Absolutely, and they are easy to find. But the argument that the price bears no relation to quality is often founded on a specious salt-of-the-earth desire that all wines should be created equal.

To me, the dismissal of all expensive wines reminds me of Wilde's definition of a cynic: "A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing."


Tasting Report: Why Plunk Down Good Money for Plonk?

WHITES

Steenberg South Africa Sauvignon Blanc 2004
$8
**½
Crisp, fresh, zesty and balanced, with unexpected depth. (Importer: Monsieur Touton Selections, New York)

Veramonte Casablanca Valley, Chile Sauvignon Blanc 2004
$7
**
Bone-dry and refreshing, with tart herb and mineral flavors. (Franciscan Estate Selections, Rutherford, Calif.)

Domaine Duffour Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne 2003
$7.40
**
Bright, intense fruit flavors, like sauvignon blanc except it's colombard. (Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, N.Y.)

Bodegas Salentein Mendoza, Argentina Sauvignon Blanc Finca el Portillo 2004
$9
**
Mild and refreshing, with citrus flavors. (San Francisco Wine Exchange)

Bolla Venezie I.G.T Pinot Grigio 2002
$10
**
Persistent melon, tropical fruit and honey flavors. (Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide, Louisville, Ky.)

REDS

J. Vidal-Fleury Côtes-du-Rhône 2001
$8
***
Earthy and balanced, with lingering fruit flavors and a great sense of place. (W. J. Deutsch & Sons, White Plains, N.Y.)

Domaine Lafond Lirac Roc-Épine 2002
$8
**
Balanced fruit and tannins, with a pleasing bitter flavor. (Wines of France, Mountainside, N.J.)

Bonny Doon California Ca'del Solo Big House Red 2003
$10
**
Not complex, but full of spicy fruit flavors.

Sumarroca Penedès Tempranillo Barrel-Aged 2002
$10
*½
Herbal flavors, decent tannins. (Frontier Wine Imports, Dover, N.J.)

Bogle California Old Vine Zinfandel 2003
$9
*½
Juicy and fruity, but a little too sweet.

# # # # #

Whew! made it through the weekend

Dragon Mood? -- still snorting with relief!

I am back at work and it actually feels like a relief to just SIT here at a desk and work on the computer. Getting a house and yard ready for a party is HARD WORK!

S and I held a combined barbecue/wedding shower this past Saturday for her sons and their fiancees, Mark and Lindsey and Matt and Sarah. At first, we planned for 50, bought food for 40, expected 25 to 30 and actually counted 31. Almost ten people couldn't or didn't come that we thought would be there, and about six people showed up that we didn't expect at all. But that's okay. It all worked out, there was food a-plenty for everyone and from everything we've heard, everybody had a good time.

I was primarily responsible for getting the interior of the house ship-shape, picked up, dusted and vacuumed and most of the food prepared. S was responsible for the outside of the house, including beating back the cobwebs, washing windows, cleaning the decks, mowing the grass (which she got a big helping hand from our sweet neighbor, Mr. Browder) and grilling the chicken and brats. Whew! It was a lot!

We were like a couple of Energizer bunnies when the batteries are half gone. We'd work furiously for a little while, and then one or the other of us would plop down and exclaim, "Geez, am I pooped! I must be getting old!" We laughed at one another and all the variations of the aforesaid complaints about our lack of stamina. High temperatures and high humidity sure didn't help our cause, especially S as she was outdoors. Thank goodness I was mostly able to work inside in heavenly cool air conditioning!

Three of the four soon-to-be wedded were effusive in their thanks and appreciation for our efforts. (I will leave it to those who may read this to guess who didn't say anything??) But it doesn't matter because S and I felt really good and satisfied that the party was a success.

So when's the next kid getting married?? Huh??

New additions

Secretary & Computer Armoire

Curio Cabinet

These two pieces of furniture are being delivered today ... in time to reorganize the seashell collection AND the computer desk before the party! AAAaaarrrgghhhH!

back in the salt mines

Dragon Mood? -- can a water dragon be a Ravenclaw????

Yes, it's sad, but true. I'm back at work. (sniffling, ragged sob)

But, all is not gloom and doom. I did buy a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince on Saturday.

To that end, I took a test ..............



I'm a Ravenclaw!


Honestly, I don't know what that means. I guess I'm happy not to be a sly, slimy Slytherin but I also don't get to be the hero/heroine sort of Gryffindor. Damn!

And .... I did manage to read ONE chapter of the book last night -- a treat for myself after all my hard work these past four or five days. I can't wait to read more!

at the tail end of the shutdown

Dragon Mood? -- confused and disoriented

I haven't posted in so long, it feels almost foreign to do so. Sheesh!

Today is the last day of my two-week shutdown period with work. (Sad face, grimaces, groans.) It has been such an odd time for me, fractured and broken up, that it may almost be a relief to go back to work.

S had to work through this shutdown time. She hated it! She's up against a big, brick wall of a deadline so she had no choice in the matter. Therefore, we had no vacation together which makes us both sad ... and mad ... and frustrated.

Since I posted last, I traveled to Madison via car, plane and bus to see mijita, Carolina, and mijito, Yoshkie. We spent a quick weekend together, drinking lots of beer, watching numerous videos numerous times and trying to stay cool. The temps were in the high 80s with loads of humidity to boot. We used Caroline's A/C liberally and necessarily.

I returned back to the Motor City late Monday night. S and I had a sweet lunch near the tower and then I headed home to the pine trees. I have been cleaning off and on (mostly on) since then, trying to get ready for the big barbecue/picnic/wedding shower that will be held next weekend. We're anticipating 40 to 50 people attending, including four to six house guests and a marathon euchre tournament late into the night after the party. It should be a wingding of a bash!

I keep talking to myself, trying to allay my occasional anxiety attacks about this party. It will be okay, everything will be fine and just try to relax and enjoy the process. (So much easier said than done, huh?)

Wednesday evening, J & J invited me over for dinner and a ride around the lake on their pontoon. Kevin was there and we had a lovely time. Unfortunately, S was still at work, trying to wrap things up. We both went back over there Friday evening, as well, had a few drinks, shared some pizza and sat out on their deck overlooking the lake. The sky was rather overcast but we hashed over the world's problems and Kevin, Jeanne and S did some birdwatching and bird-sleuthing. Joanne and I played with their dog, Buster.

Thursday was a mambo-jumbo doctor-visiting day which I'll post about in a separate post.

Last night, Saturday night, we got to babysit our new grandbaby, Preston, which was delightful and surprisingly easy. We played with him and talked to him for about an hour ... and then he conked out. I mean, CONKED OUT! S and I could only surmise that the pleasant coolness of the house after all the heat and humidity just knocked him out. He lay on the futon next to S, totally relaxed with his arms splayed up around his head. He has a beautiful face and looks so much like pictures of his dad and uncle at that age. We watched "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" on TNT and then channel-surfed until 1 a.m. Then we woke him up, loaded him in his carseat, put him in the backseat of my new (used) Protege and returned him home to his partying parents. Mark had already drunk too many shots of tequila and had thrown up. He looked quite rough. We wished him a "Happy Birthday" and headed home.

Fourth of July weekend

Dragon Mood? -- happy to be home

It's the day after the Fourth. Whew! What a fast-track weekend this was!

After working four ten-hour days, I left our pied-a-terre late Thursday evening to head back home to the pine trees. Friday morning was filled with cleaning out the Volvo, vacuuming, vacuuming, vacuuming mounds of dog hair from the back area of the wagon and using the Rainbow's crevice tool to get out seven years worth of crumbs, old movie ticket stubs and other detritus of the gypsy life from my old car. I must say it looked pretty good by the time I was done.

I picked up Ruth at a local shopping center after she had lunch with her sister-in-law, Carrie. Bless Ruth's heart, she was content with "running" with me Friday afternoon, to the Secretary of State's office for an instant title on the Volvo (where did I put that original title???), picking up the loan check from the credit union and listening to me worry and fret about getting the Volvo to the dealership in good running order.

We hit Meijers, stocked up on bloody Mary ingredients, as well as some sushi and headed home for happy hour! Yeah! Ruth made us some damn good drinks and we sat out on the deck, listening to the fountain and letting our hair down. Ruth laughed and said she was in nirvana. This was what she had been waiting for all week! S arrived a little later and she joined us for another round of happy hour drinks. Ruth and I talked and talked, like sisters do, until at midnight, we hit our beds.

Saturday morning, I took a couple of pictures of the old Volvo, we jumped in and headed for southern Michigan, near the Indiana border. Suffice it to say that the trip was uneventful (thank you, God!), we got there in good time and good shape, the new car was pretty much what I was expecting, we exchanged cars, money and handshakes and Ruth and I headed back. It was a gorgeous morning, cloudless and sunny, and I kept telling Ruth over and over how much I appreciated her going with me for this anxiety-filled transaction. I'm usually a much less-stressed person. For some reason unknown to me, I was really worried about the old car. I guess in mind, it had definitely crossed over some invisible line to an unreliable and overly costly state. What a relief to leave it there at the dealership.

We got back into town and immediately headed for a local department store that was having a sale on Fiesta dishware. Ruth bought twelve (12!) small dessert/cereal bowls in SIX happy colors. She also bought S and me four bowls, two in tangerine and two in shamrock green. (Hey, that rhymes!)

I dropped Ruth off at her in-laws house, where Paul was waiting for her and we said our good-byes. It was a great 24-hour visit! I hope Ruth felt, as much as I did, that each of our "wells" had been filled with sisterly love and concern.

Upon arriving at home, all my earlier anxiety caught up with me and I was ready to crash. I felt so-oo-ooo tired! To S's credit, she was understanding and patient. We took a nap for about an hour and then headed out to her sister's house, almost an hour southwest of us.

Becky lives in a quaint little town and has a lovely home that backs up to a river. It's really an idyllic setting. There were lots of folks already there. Grandma and Sally and Jim and Michelle had traveled downstate from Grayling and were camping in Becky's backyard. Andrew and Rachel and their two small children, Noah and Emily, came from St. Johns. Becky's older daughter, Tiara, and her fiance, A.J., had just arrived from Indianapolis. They were setting up a tent to spend the night, too.

We sat on camp chairs in Becky's lush backyard, drank beer, caught up with each other's histories, told stories and did a lot of laughing. About nine o'clock, we walked into town, to a local pub where Becky's middle son, Justin, is working. We drank more beer, ordered food, shot some pool and just had a high old time. S and Joe shared breaded gizzards and dared others to try them. I tried one and that was enough. (A bit chewy for my tastes.)

Little Lydia and Corey, in the nine-to-eleven year range, were happy enough after S emptied her pocket change purse out on the table and helped themselves to quarters to play foosball and buy animal stickers out of a vending machine. Even Grandma, at 89, seemed to be enjoying herself amidst all the activity. S and I left about 12:30 and headed home to the pine trees.

Sunday was a far more relaxed day. I slept in until 10:30 or 11:00, walked right by the computer here and headed out to the deck. It was gorgeously sunny, hot and heading for another humid day. We cleaned out the fountain which had gotten amazingly greener with algae and played in the water, keeping cool. I decided that we both needed new paint jobs on our toenails, so I got "Juicy Tomato" while S stuck with her traditional dark purple-y "Currant." The sun was hot and my white, white skin started turning pink rapidly. I got an okay amount of sun on my arms and legs, but the back of my neck and upper back got red. I later complained to S that that was her job to watch my back -- literally!

We wrote out a birthday card for little Lydia who, as a firecracker baby, was about to turn ELEVEN! (Caroline, do you remember going to the hospital with me on the day that she was born?) S ordered five grinders that we picked up enroute and headed back to Becky's.

This time there was another crowd, a whole different crowd of family visitors. Jim and Michelle had headed back up north, while Tiara and A.J. headed back south. Grandma and Sally were still there. Matthew and Sarah arrived right after us, with Tim and their pitbull puppy, Tonka, in tow. Then Mark and Lindsey pulled in with baby Preston. Everybody circled around the baby, oohing and aahing. Grandma held Preston while we took turns taking pictures of them.

Becky's neighbor has a great horseshoe pit so the guys started pitching horseshoes. The rest of us took turns holding Preston and talking about the upcoming wedding plans. S took Mark and Lindsey for a walk down to the nearby local park. She talked turkey with them about their upcoming wedding plans, finances and what they needed.

Later in the evening, Matt's friend, Joe showed up and a bunch of 'em started fishing from the river. Lydia and Corey were as excited as ten year olds can be! They pulled in little catfish and bullheads, one right after the other. Meanwhile, S and Tim had built a roaring campfire in the firepit and we sat around watching the fire. Iin Sally's camper, Mark and Lindsey took turns lulling Preston to sleep. It was a beautiful night, dark and moonless, with the sky full of stars. We could hear people setting off the occasional firecracker or Roman candle. The air felt full of family conviviality, contentment and an all-around sense of well-being. Those are the moments we live for.