Is this thing on?

I'm back!

I should start writing again.

I also need a job.

Shameless Bleg

Don't forget to vote for my Flash Mob Proposal, #82, at Iowahawk's $33.18 Steel Cage Art Death Match (I can't believe I had the only entry with uncovered breasts...). Danke!

What have I done?!?

The stray cat who has been crying outside my apartment for over a week has moved in. According to the neighbor lady who had been feeding her (assume it's a her; will ask vet to confirm), she and a B&W kitten were dumped in the parking lot one afternoon by two "skanks" (her word, and I'll believe it) who took off. The kitten stopped coming around a day or two later and is presumed dead. This one has a slight wound above one eye; apparently most of the "strays" around here are actually feral. This one, you can see where the collar used to be. I hate people.

I wasn't going to get involved, but while I was sitting on my dumpster futon eating dinner last night a group of five tweenage kids threw things at it and one of them kicked it; it scratched her and they ran off before I got outside (the children are our future...we're boned). It came over and sat next to me, and that's when I knew I was doomed. The neighbor putting out kibbles wasn't home last night, but was tonight--after it had already rubbed all over me, and now I have a second cat. That resists being picked up, but uses the Zen garden, thank God.

Found a cats-only vet near work to call tomorrow.

No, I don't know how I'm going to get a cat back to Milwaukee. Or what I'm going to tell Satan's Little Helper.

Metablogging

To quote Bob Uecker, I've been "longhand blogging"--keeping a paper journal--which kind of removes my need to bitch in length online when I have time/access. Sometimes I write "blog this!" at the top of the page, but hours or days later, I've lost interest.

I might also be a little depressed, between the fascism and the 800 miles from home and cat. And the tedium--the job is much less interesting than advertised. I've lost interest in food and fabric...I'm still trying to see as much new stuff as possible on weekends, but I'm tired of feeling like a cultural anthropologist every time I leave my apartment.

I'm still taking pictures, at least, even if I'm not uploading and annotating them like I used to.

Speaking of cultural anthropology, I'm not entirely sure what this sign from along the 1000 Islands Parkway in Ontario means--shape and color indicate warning, but it sure looks like an invitation to me... :)

Heh.

My second-favorite designated driver (meine bayerische Fruend) dropped by New York this weekend to take me to the 1000 Islands region and Ontario. Was quite lovely until we got back to the U.S., where the Border Patrol flagged us for a vehicle search. I had been joking all weekend about being on the DHS "right-wing terrorist" list (I DID attend a Sarah Palin rally last fall...), and there we were. Perhaps when they asked if we bought anything to bring back with us, I shouldn't have said "stuffed animals for my niece and nephews*"--but they're trained to recognize the signs that people are lying, right?

While we were sitting on too-small hard plastic chairs in a holding pen with no bathrooms, surrounded by smugglers and terrorists (who knows, right?), watching the agents drilling people between breaks, all I could think was, "I can't WAIT until this government controls and portions out all our healthcare."** I'm going to smack single-payer** advocates double-hard from now on.

Eventually we were released, and proceded directly back to Syracuse and the Dinosaur BBQ, where a bartender at least 10 years younger than I am carded me when I ordered a beer. I showed him my passport and thanked him for cheering me back up. :)

* Mooses dressed like Mounties. Very cute.
** And wow, did I feel like a nerd when I realized normal people don't have thoughts like that.
*** Unless the "single payer" they advocate is the person receiving the care or their legal guardian. I don't mind that sort of system at all.

Holy !*#&$(!

I finally get offline/no media (except SportsCenter this morning...) for 30 hours or so, and all hell breaks loose.

I figure Steyn is right, as usual, and I just feel sick and sad. And I hope it's not because of something about Trig's health.

Sigh.

My first NY wedding was lovely and fun. Friend's bride is a total sweetheart, wedding was sweet, resort and meal were fabulous. The fire alarm went off during the cocktail hour and the hotel had to be evacuated--so they just had their picture taken with the fire truck (false alarm, thank God). *grin* And my best moved-from-Milwaukee friends were there, we had a great time.

Still homesick, but less depressed. Onward.

I'll be damned.

Turns out Iowa really *is* flat. All those years, I never noticed...and then today I about fell asleep on U.S. 30 between Cedar Rapids and Tama.



View from my great-grandparents' farm.

Mildly crappy weekend due to travel re-arrangements beyond my control; missed the Rose Festival, but popped into Watson's Grocery and bought a pictorial history with a picture of my grandmother in elementary school (and had a nice chat with some octogenarian friends of the family and the guy who bids up all the State Center postcards on eBay...). And my niece and nephews are all here for the weekend in one sticky herd, which is fun.

All the buildings on Main Street that were empty when I was a child have stuff in them now; I'll have to come back sometime when there's nothing going on and just hang out.

(I would have taken an extra day off if I'd known about this.)

Meanwhile, in East Syracuse...

What to do this Saturday? I was originally planning to hit the Oz-stravaganza in L. Frank Baum's hometown of Chittenango--hit the craft show, eat some fried festival crap, see some original movie Munchkins (I preferred the books as a child, but hey, Oz). OTOH, Sarah Palin will be speaking in Auburn, at a festival honoring the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood (the Seward of "Seward's Folly" was born there). The towns are far enough apart I won't be able to see both parades, and the special tickets to have your photo taken with Gov. Palin are sold out...

(I had considered driving up to Ontario, where Red Green is having book signings, but he's doing it again next weekend.)

I will probably flip a coin tomorrow night after Taste of Syracuse (I would probably rather sit home alone sewing while listening to the Brewers, but I was invited and I can feel all this time alone without even a cat to talk to making me weirder than usual).

Sunday there's a postcard show in Oswego; don't know if the vendors out here will have the stuff I collect (places I've lived in the Midwest) but there's always something to see at a postcard show.

And I still haven't uploaded my photos from last weekend's excursion to the Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum.

The other guy on my project at work who was laid off in MKE with me (they laid off 30 more yesterday...) hasn't left the metro area since he got here. He watches TV and plays video games on weekends, and doesn't seem interested in anything else. I don't know how people live like that.

Hah!

Whoops.

I have to have a background check done by the FAA, including my travel and associations for the last seven years, fingerprints, and mental health records. It's not the same as a military clearance, but it seems almost as invasive. I completely understand the national security implications of letting the wrong people have access to technical data about aviation electronics (look what happens when you let untrustworthy individuals have access...).

...but DHS has already declared me a threat to national security, so this could end badly.

(I'm not actually against immigration; I'm against illegal entrance into the country and illegal residence regardless, but apparently that makes me just as bad.)

Semi-related, I finally got a paycheck and picked up the Mark Levin book; what sort of trouble will I be courting if I take it on my flights this weekend? I'm still in the "rise" part of The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich, but it's got a swastika on the cover, and I don't have the time/funds to deal with hypersensitive open-minded tolerance, so I haven't been taking it in public places. Sigh.

Saturday

If I had known before today that Hank Aaron was in Cooperstown yesterday, I'd have gone there. The Hall of Fame is in my queue of things to do, along with the Farmers Museum, but I promised someone I'd save it until he could visit. Ho-hum.

Where I did go was Sackets Harbor, to the Seaway Trail Discovery Center, where I picked up promotional literature for places all around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway and learned to always have my passport with me if I head north, since a lot of the islands are Canada. There is also a battlefield from the War of 1812, but the barracks and other buildings are closed until June (like most everything I want to see...).

There was also an exhibition about a Dutch woman named An Keuning-Tichelaar, who was part of the Dutch Resistance to the Nazis. As a Mennonite, she would do no violence, but she hid Jews in her house, smuggled ration books, and other errands. After the occupation was over, she cared for Ukranian refugees fleeing Communist persecution of Christians. The exhibition was centered around quilts made by Mennonites in North America to help these refugees, some of which An saved after the refugees left to resettle in Paraguay.

The quilts were unremarkable as quilts; they were mostly vehicles for the story, which seems kind of timely all of a sudden.

On the way home, I stopped at Robert G. Wehle State Park, along Lake Ontario. Its namesake was an artist and dog breeder who donated his estate to New York for a park. I got some nice pictures of Lake Erie, but I have a feeling you need a boat for the really stunning pictures of the limestone cliffs. Also collected some fossils aggregated in sandstone, and made a note to pick up my "Wildflowers of Eastern North America" book when I fly home next weekend.

Today I'm staying inside covered in aloe vera. I hate spring, summer, and sunlight.

Heh!

Graphic from the J-S Online.

They miss me.

Looks like I got out just in time.

Getting kind violent on the North Shore. Eh, I'm still going back.

Update: Work is good so far, I'm learning useful new things. I've joined a gym so I can keep lifting weights, and I'm signed up for an amateur adult art class in two weeks. Not much time for political blogging--can barely keep up with the reading. This might just be a geology/history blog for awhile. I got a lot out of the Wisconsin version of Roadside Geology, so I bought the NY version.

Look, Lake Ontario!

There appears to have been a tea party out here, but the headlines go to Gov. Paterson deciding New York should have gay marriage (if you click on that tea party photo...I really hate seeing people staple stuff to an American flag. Disrespectful. Bah.).

...and the sales tax is 8%. WTF. Well, if my brother can spend a year in Iraq, I can spend six months in New York. :P

On the road...

Going to spend a few days with my grandfather in Ohio before ending up in Syracuse to start work.

I'm really bummed about quasi-leaving Milwaukee, and not completely because Satan's Little Helper is staying here with his new best friend.

Well, it's official...

I've been offered a six-month contract pressing buttons in East Syracuse, NY, and since I don't have anything better to do, I'm going to take it. (I will be leaving just before Opening Day and returning around the playoffs, grumble grumble, but for $5/mo I can get Bob Uecker on XM radio, and they're paying me well enough I don't have to give up my Bratwurst Bobblehead Day tix, muahahaha). So, if you see a fat woman in a Brewers hat, puffing around the Finger Lakes or Lake Ontario with a camera on a Sunday afternoon, do say hello. :-P

I'm bummed I'll be missing the last half of my German class, and the Tax Day Tea Party in Madison, but I'm kind of excited about having a new region to explore, even if it doesn't have bratwurst.

Erie Canal at Seneca Falls, from my 2005 trip to the area:


I have a much better camera now. Muahahaha.

Whatever You Like.

Have been avoiding blogging because there's not really much I can say except "we're toast, we are so toast" (only usually with a string of profanity in two languages that makes the cat blush), everytime I read anything in the news. I should probably start avoiding news altogether, but I don't want to become the sort of low-information dimwit that gets talked into voting for people like Barry O 'cause they don't know any better...

I'll be offline for a couple of days at an interview in a different time zone (bonus: I'll miss Dear Leader's monthly television address to the serfs) and maybe I'll have something to say when I get back and maybe I won't.

Heh.

I got a call today from a staffing organization named after the protagonist of an Ayn Rand novel gaining new relevance in 2009. OK, he was a genius electromechanical engineer. But I really don't see him accepting an hourly rate to make money for some corporation for 6-12 months, with or without an option to go full-time upon completion of his contract. I admit to skimming through the 60-page monologue after the first five or six pages, but I think he'd already made his point...

They're a "certified woman-owned business." I'm trying to figure out why the practice of governments differentiating "women-owned" businesses irritates me. Perhaps because I resent being seen as a va-jay-jay to meet an affirmative-action quota rather than as a competent candidate, so I don't appreciate the world being encouraged to view me in that fashion with an official government seal of approval.

(Contra other women, I've never liked Brad Pitt, either.)

OK, back to the phones. Just got a good laugh out of it: professionals are talking about "going Galt" to avoid Pelosi-Obama's tax hikes on wages and businesses, and this "Galt" wants earn business income hooking me up with work (in one of those high-tax high-government coastal states I'm told is superior to any state in the Midwest...not that desperate yet). Bizzaro World.

I hate Web 2.0/Fun with Google

In preparation for a job interview, I'm Googling my name. There are over four hundred women with my first and last name on Facebook, and not all of the ones featuring photos of half-naked drinking have birth years and locations that make it obvious they are not me (especially the one from Milwaukee whose public profile states she is a fan of Barry O, Jim Doyle, and Gwen Moore, ugh).

According to HuffPo, women with my name gave over $1k to John Kerry in 2004.

Women with my name have also roasted Flava Flav on Comedy Central (I'm not sure I could pick him out of a lineup if everyone was wearing a clock), recorded several country albums, hold a Ph.D. in biochemistry, belong to the Toronto Bead Society, and play high school basketball here in Wisconsin. Also several brides with tacky dresses, a "genetic counselor", some graphic designers, professional cake decorators, graduates of UIowa--except for the brides, should be obvious they're not me if all you have is my resume.

Googling my whole name, which is on my resume, gets you my quilts, my Scrabble tournament results (my lifetime record is 29-28-0), and a photo I took of Freising, Germany. Also a midwife in Ontario and a couple of dead women in Australia who obviously aren't me, more chicks on Facebook, a mortgage in default in Seattle, and a real-estate agent who has done business under two additional last names.

I'm worried about someone assuming that Gwen-Moore-loving party chick from Milwaukee with no birthdate information is me and throwing my job offer in the trash. Sigh.

(I also got quoted at SteynOnline in 2007 and didn't even notice! Some superfan I am...)

Heh.

This cracked me up, although it shouldn't, because it's really very sad.

”Economy Crashes, Cupid Hardest Hit.”
Can you imagine the sheer horror of going to a park with your family and then facing the additional horror of having to watch a talkie with them?

As the comments note, if it's a treat that they're spending a day with the toddler, she probably has an awful life, mamma's diamond necklace from Tiffany notwithstanding.

I had time to craft fabric valentines by hand for my niece and nephews instead of buying them, is how I'm spinning it. (The cards didn't turn out like the image in my head. But kids under two won't notice, and the preschoolers like postcards of Milwaukee because it's MAIL! With THEIR NAME! so any card will be a win.)

Portland Nature/Scenery Photos

Portland Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, and some waterfalls and vistas along the Columbia River. I'll get to the city photos later...