Harry & Me

I should've written a blog entry last weekend, but "Harry Potter and the whatever" came on Saturday afternoon. I am up to page 360 or so, still enjoying it.

Contrary to all the blathermeisters out there, I really don't care what happens in the end, who gets offed, or any of that. I have read enough YA (young adult) fiction to recognize that the endings aren't the strong point in the genre. Kind of like real life, in that way.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

All about Me, Me, Me

I stumbled on an interesting website at work. The Doe Report provides resources attorneys use to educate juries. Their materials appear to be used by plaintiffs’ and defense attorneys. They have a great diagram for the Kocher maneuver. This is part of the surgery technique for removing an insulinoma. It’s followed by prodding a sonogram wand all around, and then what ever slicing and dicing is necessary. Seeing this diagram somehow helps me feel more comfortable having stomach aches all the time. It somehow helps me feel justified to be a bit of a wreck sometimes.

I guess it would be a little corny to describe my reaction as visceral.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Stupid Link of the Day – Kirk Versus Picard

Kirk versus Picard. The controversy lives on. Wil Wheaton, of Wesley Crusher and “Just a Geek” fame has been captured Channeling Kirk and Picard. This is moderately amusing, in a geeky way.

An Extra Day for Laziness

There is little else in life as pleasant as a day taken off from work with no plans in mind. Today is that day for us. Since I was up late playing for the fireworks show last night, we decided to take a vacation day. Slept late, went to the library in the morning, had lunch wit the MIL, and now we’re spending the afternoon at home since it’s too hot to do much outside. I thought about seeing a matinee showing of Sicko, but I decided that would be too much like going to work. Instead I have been lolling in my reclining chair and watching ”The Two Towers”. The reclining chair is one of my favorite remnants from my “very sick days”.

A day of like this makes apparent what a drag it is going to work every day. I don’t seem to have any trouble filling a day with activities that are pleasant and at worst no more destructive than a day at work. All this even without banal self-improving activities like exercise, and other puritanically approved hogwash.

Last night’s pre-fireworks concert was a success, although it was really hot before the sun sank below a line of trees. I managed to drink 42 ounces of water over about two hours, without a single trip to the john. It must be summer in Sacramento again. We fell a little behind schedule, so the fire works started a few seconds after we began our encore of Stars and Stripes Forever. This was made a pretty cool effect. Being a pop concert, we played an arrangement of Glenn Miller tunes. I could not help but notice that the fireworks crowd simply didn’t “get it”. The crowd was mostly young adults with kids and teenagers, the adults in the crowd may have had an average birth year around 1970 if not later. From that younger viewpoint, Glenn Miller isn’t a lot more relevant than anything else from the first half of the 20th Century, however it works well for a symphonic band. Good thing most band concerts are well-attended by the over age 70 crowd. In any event, I don’t see changing the pops repertoire to include arrangements of punk rock or hip hop tunes any time soon. That would really suck.

Day at Point Reyes, A Break From My Everyday Exciting Life

A Day at Point Reyes, A Break From My Everyday Exciting Life

We drove out to Point Reyes National Seashore for a hike yesterday. The weather was beautiful, although a little warm for the coast, with no fog, sunshine and a high temperature around 70 except within a few hundred feet of the shore.

We decided to hike the Bear Valley Trail , since this trail is wide and levelly paved. I needed a non-rocky trail since I managed to break a toe Thursday night. This link has great pictures from the trail. The path alternates between warm grassy meadows and cool fern-lined gullies. This made a very pleasant hike just under nine miles. The walk begins about 4 miles from the ocean, going through a series of hills, ending at a promontory overlooking the ocean, which makes a perfect place for a windy lunch and watching pelicans fly about 100 feet below. The gullies had several large annual plants that can only be described as resembling illustrations for Dr Seuss books.

The drive both ways was uneventful, which is a relief because we were traveling under the threat of traffic from a NASCAR race at Infineon Speedway . Apparently, we missed the before and after race traffic. You can no longer call this an elitist blog, since I’ve added two links to NASCAR. Just don’t ask me to spell out the NASCAR acronym.

I broke my toe in the classic way. Got up at about 11:00 PM with a stomach ache, got up and read in the living room for a while, then turned out the light and walked back to bed. I suffered the immediate pain silently, in order to spare Kathleen and the cat from the toe-clutching-middle-of-the night howling in the hallway that haunted my childhood.

That’s all my excitement for this weekend, until I go to the DMIL’s house to watch this evening with dinner. We have dinner and watch Sherlock Holmes and Midsomer Murders
Mystery shows “Tivoed” from the Biography Channel. I don’t know why among the Biography Channel’s most popular shows are mysteries. I also don’t know why the rural Midsomer area hasn’t run out of population to murder yet. The high prevalence of adultery might somehow contribute to providing future murder victims.

Next weeks major excitement involves band. I am in a group that will wind up practice on Monday and Wednesday to play a Sunday night concert at Carmichael park. And we’ll play at a local fireworks show. Fireworks shows are a unique experience. We play before sundown, while five or about five thousand people are in the park setting up chairs and laying out blankets, trying to keep track of their kids, and wondering how they ever let their kids talk them into this in the first place.

We are playing the typical fireworks show pieces, including the 1812 overture (really just the last third of this ponderous piece and, of course, ending with Stars & Stripes forever. We are having a vocalist sing “Old Man River” and another Patriotic song (maybe the Battle Hymn, but I can’t remember).

That’s my story an I’m sticking to it.

I Communed With Saints (of the Latter Day variety)!

OK, OK, Calm Down! I spent last Sunday morning with a few hundred Latter Day Saints. Of course, I politely refused communion. The communion consisted of white bread and water served by teenage boys wearing dark slacks, white shirts, and dark ties. Why are these details not a surprise? I used the official Catholic – approved gesture for refusing communion, which involves silently crossing your arms, and gently tapping each shoulder simultaneously with the opposite hand. I think this confused the boy priests, I hope they didn’t think it might be an obscene gesture. From listening to the service, I think that Mormons do not believe in Transubstantiation.

My ensemble played for the Sunday service, since one of our members is a member of that church. The service was not terribly exciting. The talks, given by the congregation’s men (all priests, of course) were pretty dull. Fortunately they didn’t harp on too much weird stuff, however, several verses were quoted from what I believe were Jesus’ sermons to the Incas, straight from the book of Mormon (I think). We also heard a lot about how hard work will make a man great, that we must never lose hope, and other surprisingly standard Protestant themes. It was somewhat comforting to observe that Mormon teenagers are equally bored in church as any other kids. Whatever.

The overriding feel of extreme patriarchy surrounding and throughout the whole environment was beyond belief. I cannot clearly describe any of the myriad of small patriarchy – reinforcing words and actions, but the cumulative effect was beyond anything I could have conceived. Ok, everything I could have conceived excepting plural wives. I was a little freaked out.

I talked with several church members, and everyone was nice. They were perfect hosts. No one asked me “if I was interested in learning more about their church”. Most important, no one offered me any me green kool-aid.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Disappearing Act

I have been lazy about making blog entries. My sole lane excuse is that work has been on my mind a lot the last few weeks, and it isn’t blog-worthy. It’s a combination of boring and public policy issues. I don’t want to talk about it, and nobody wants to hear about it.

I have also been busy on the weekends, although I have no reports of peaks climbed or a thrilling social life that I can boast. I have spent most of my time obsessing about work and doing a lot of Recorder society stuff, mainly mundane board of directors business. Getting the new board of on the right foot and dealing with work has made me tool dull to blog.

Some of My Best Friends are Vegetables

Saturday in our neighborhood is Farmers Market day. The local California Farmers Markets differ from the Madison, Wisconsin Farmers Market of my youth and young adulthood. California Farmers markets are more about serious grocery shopping and the occasional mariachi band, and less of a celebration of the short and intense pleasure of the glorious summer like Madison’s Farmers Market.

I bought a giant head of romaine lettuce, green beans, red and gold beets, and several pounds of peaches, apricots and Pluots. Pluots are a plumb-apricot hybrid that resembles a plumb in feel and appearance, but combines the tart lemon-like plumb flavor with the apricot’s flavor and fragrance. I have rarely seen pluots except at farmers markets.

I boiled the beets, steamed the beans, and washed and tore the lettuce as soon as I got home. I try to keep pre-cooked vegetables in the refrigerator for grab-and-go eating all week. I love getting my hands into the vegetables this way. Life is somehow merrier with a fridge full of fresh food ready to enjoy.

The farmers markets are the only place in my life where I can experience the benefits of a real free market economy. I can buy peaches from my choice among about ten vendors, all within about 100 feet of each other. Amazing how this arrangement assures quality and price. I can’t say the same for Safeway.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Memorial Day

Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.

-Kurt Vonnegut

I have to agree with the crusty old Hoosier on this one, although I like a parade as much as the next guy. Let’s have more well-oiled brass and woodwinds (at least well-oiled musicians), and fewer guns. I cannot help but muse upon the shameful expropriation of peoples’ lives and labor that is what passes for war in today’s double-speak. It is sobering to think about what other services might be provided with the resources spent in the seemingly endless fiasco in Iraq. Medi-Cal can provide healthcare for around seven million Californians for a cost of about $12 Billion per year. Compare that to over $100 Billion to continue the fighting in Iraq though early autumn. That doesn’t even begin to account for the devastating cost of loss of life limb and civil rights.

I usually visit our local cemeteries on Memorial Day. It’s our family tradition. The Spanish – American war veteran’s cemetery in Sacramento has a monument made from relics from the USS Maine, as well as my wife’s grandfather’s grave. The Spanish – American War Veterans Association in Sacramento became a massively powerful civic organization from the 1920s through the 1950s. From reading scrapbooks of clippings, it seems they were like a combination of the Kiwanis, Elks, and Rotary, with a little of the Klan mentality thrown in for a spice. I am glad all those veterans were long gone by the time excavators determined that the Maine’s explosion was not due to sabotage. But we get to keep Puerto Rico anyway. A war predicated by deceit? By George, I can’t believe it.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Home Improvement

We had our carpet taken out and the floors refinished last week. The only thing left to do is move the heavy furniture back from the garage and put all the books back on the shelves. We are expecting reinforcements for the furniture moving at 7:00 tomorrow morning. The house looks and feels good, however we need to let the finish cure for a week before putting out area rugs. I have a bokhara rug that’s been waiting for this moment, rolled up in a closet for years. We finally have the house in shape, hopefully no more projects for the next several years.

The house has a different resonant sound quality without the carpet, hopefully bringing the upholstered furniture back in will dampen things a little. We have a slight echo indoors.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Card-Carrying Bureaucrat

It’s been over a week without an entry. Work and other things have kept me busy, responding to the Administration’s budget request. We also have had a Band concert last week. We sucked, but I say since admission is free, who cares?

P .S. the six-pack referred two in the previous entry is delicious Verners Ginger Ale. However, beer in cans would have fitted just as well. It’s typical of the corporate mentality to design drawers that do not fit micro-brewery bottles.

Speaking of band concerts, we will be playing at this year’s July 4th fireworks in Carmicheal. This is fun, we can play lots of marches that everyone already knows, and a parking space close to the exit, since as stage manager, I’ll be among the first to arrive. I did this a few years ago and enjoyed it. The only drawback is that temperatures tend to be hot while setting up in the early evening.

The only upcoming event on the Sine Nomine radar is playing at a LDS service in June and a UCC service in July. I want to find a big button that says, “kiss me, I’m a gentile” for the Mormon service. I am hoping the Mormon service will be memorable. I have never been to one. We have played at the UCC church in the past, they have the typical liberal protestant service, with nothing out of the ordinary (Catholics – no pun intended).

Now, the lead story. My Union Card came in the mail! It’s even laminated! I feel like going out and smashing some fascists bosses (are there any other type?)

Here’s what’s written on the back of the card; “Members of SEIU Local 1000, CSEA are united – in our workplaces and our communities - to protect and enhance public services. Together, we will build a better future for ourselves, our families, and all working people.”

It could go on to state; “We will protect the brain-dead and incompetant at all levels of State employment. We work diligently to preserve the right of any worker to a two hour nap at the time of the worker’s choosing. We universally reject the so-called right of employers to demand any noticable effort from employees; after all, this is the State, dammit!”

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Zero Tolerance Policy

Desk
Drawer
Exact
Height to close
Over a sixpack.
Not a centimeter extra!
Conspiracy or
Yearning of
Office
Day
Dreams?

Hooked on Sweet Things

Sweet thing No.1

Alright, readers, it’s time to come clean. On and off over the past couple of years, I have been reading the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. The stories take place in Botswana, and are so shamefully sweet I am sickened that I both play recorders and have read these novels. Sometimes I fear there is an old lady inside me, struggling to get out. Hey, just a minute, did I steal that from Alfred Hitchcock (Norrrrmannnnnn)? These books are so sickening sweet and moralizing that even my m-m-m-mother doesn’t like them.

The series follows the life and work of Botswana’s first female private detective, Precious Ramotswe, who is “traditionally built” and prizes old-fashioned Botswana values. Her idea of traditional Botswana values is suspiciously like all that blather the British Torries spewed about Victorian values during the dark days of Margaret Thatcher. Precious’s life is intertwined with that of the conspicuously honest auto mechanic and garage owner, Mr. JLB Matekoni.

In each of the six books, Precious solves small problems in people’s life while slowly chipping away at the major mystery. As each mystery is resolved, both the major and minor puzzles, precious works out her own resolution to the problems she uncovers.

There is something amazing about these books, possibly in the writing style. I cannot come up with a good reason why I like the books, but I do. They are the ultimate feel-good escapist experience, although there are crimes involved.

Sweet thing No. 2

A couple of mourning dives have set up a nest in a poodle-trimmed bonsai tree in my neighbor’s side yard. The bonsai tree gives us a great view of the nest, we’ve watched them build the nest, sit on the eggs and deal with the baby birds, who are nearly two weeks old. The nest is about 10 feet from the neighbor’s living room window, so we can watch the action with binoculars from her house. Even a “trash bird” becomes attractive in this view. I suspect the bird has somehow arrived at the command of Maximon.

Our neighbor will remove the nest once the dovelets leave the nest, probably next week. Doves can have broods 6 or 7 time per year. That’s too many doves and too much guano.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Naked Brunch

He sat by the computer, realized his life is so pathetic there’s nothing worth writing about. Time to write about nothing.

It just appeared, right in a downtown parking ramp, the camper van. A big camper, with urban styling – tagged on the back. Why is this my camper? Where am I going? How can I fit this locomotive-sized thing through the parking ramp exit? Squeeze to get out, must be a weekend day – no one there to collect a parking fee. Driving on the road, going nowhere, why does this look like Parking Lot 60 in Madison, WI? Where am I now? What am I doing here, by Cabella’s in their campground? I don’t even go hunting or fishing. Damn it, fell into another wormhole of the mind. Who would think a wormhole could connect you to western Nebraska. The store closes at 9:00, frantic rush to buy ammo, sandhill cranes flying over soon, begging to be shot. Ancient Japanese scribes wrote that killing a Crane leads to 30 years bad luck. Damn, the secret to immortality! Haven’t killed one in 28 years, time to get to work. Oh no, here comes Jesus, wants to know where he can get his nails done. The end of times is near, careful with that flaming sword, josh. Are you trying to burnt he place down? Who wants to start eternity with a torn cuticle, he asks while sucking the tip of his pinky.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Vernal Pools!

We walked among vernal pools today!

We toured vernal pools this afternoon. Vernal pools are small seasonal marshes that form each winter in the little that’s left of native prairie in California’s Central Valley. The pools lie in poorly drained areas, so the pools are ponds in the winter, and slowly dry out in the spring. As the pools dry out, some beautiful plants seen nowhere else pop up.

The tour was led by the California native plants Society. Our docent was a youngish graduate student who is specializing in studies of invasive vegetation in vernal pools. He appears to be very focused in his advanced studies. I had to prompt him when he couldn’t remember the latin name for the California poppie, eschultsia sespitosa. Who could forget an official State flower whose name brings to mind imaged of the underside of an outhouse? He certainly knows his vernal pool biota, however.

When we first stepped out into the grassland, we could see the vernal pool culverts in the distance. They can be recognized by the blue downingia or the beautiful yellow flowers.

Those who demand facts from respectable sources can get the official story about vernal pools here.

The local vernal pool society publishes photographs of plants in the pools we visited. Latin and common names are included for the botanical minded.

Today’s weather was sunny and very windy. The blustering wind provided clear views in all directions. I could see the Sierra summit to the east, and Mount Diablo to the southwest. We don’t often get such fine views.

We went with three of our neighbors, so we had tea and tea sandwicheds after the trip. One of our neighbors (the very same neighbor who lives with maximon, the Guatemalan God-idol) just loves cut-out and fussy British tea sandwiches, so we acquiesced and made some. A good time was had by all.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Through The Looking Glass

Through The looking Glass

Two short quotes

“If you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.”

“Curiouser and curiouser!”

I find myself looking to this classic lately. You can find quotations from wonderland here. The older I get, the more I take away from this book. Lewis Carroll must have had some experience with corporate or other bureaucracies.

I am aware of stories, some possibly true, about the disturbing nature of Carroll’s relationship with Alice Liddel. Shame on him. A lot of losers have written very good books, and he is dead so he can’t hurt anyone now. So there.

I am done traveling for a while. I had a one day very short examination of an auditor’s work papers in Los Angeles. A relatively painless same-day trip.

We are hoping to have our newly radioactive cat back home soon, however she won’t be able to sleep in our bed for a couple of weeks, to protect our health. By now she probably hates us anyway. The animal hospital says she is dong fine, and approaching a safe level. Radioactive cats; welcome to wonderland.

Tuesday morning had the longest security line I have ever seen. I am amazed I made my early morning flight. Fortunately, a couple of cheerful and humorous young women were directly in front of me for the forty minutes we had together in line. Passengers moved very fast through security. I was surprised to make the flight. Otherwise it was uneventful travel. I just found out my hotel was over the State’s limit for Orange County. We had to pursue a Division Chief to get the necessary forms signed. Travel reimbursement takes over a month, and about two hours of my time per trip. However the meals per diem allowance is reasonable. What a hemorrhoid this all is.

Speaking of hemorrhoids, I had my physical Monday. My only issue with my female doctor is that she needs to cut her fingernails shorter (at least one of them). I tested out OK for everything, and my Rx is extended for another year. I was surprised when she suggested politely that I might benefit from a “checkup from the neck up” but she’s probably right. Maybe I should see a therapist type person. However, I know several, and it concerns me that they are mostly loonier than me. I have a new doctor because my previous doc, an active younger guy, now works for Doctors Without Borders in Guatemala. He has already met a French doc there and they’ve married. Guatemalans probably needed him more than I do, so I guess its OK.

I need to think or do something more exciting next week to provide more interesting reading.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Travel, Travel, Travel

Next week will be my third week in a row with travel for work. Yuk.

I have somehow ended up involved in an onsite audit project that never seems to end. This is the first time in my life I have done onsite audit work, so it was interesting the first visit, the week before last. Last week I was away Thursday and Friday, and I’ll be onsite at a different location Tuesday this week. The strain of travel is dragging me down. One of my motivations in taking this job was the supposed little need for travel. It’s been decided I am the person needed to add professionalism to the audit function. Good for the taxpayers and beneficiaries, not so great for me. I always seem to get these things wrong. I should’ve acted less competent from day one.

The only reward has been the site and hotel are within a half hour drive of a southern California beach, and the audit team is pleasant, and the per diem meal reimbursement is reasonable, especially if you have a picnic on the beach at dinner. I need make sure this doesn’t become a lifestyle. I am left a little tired burnt out on the weekends. I feel like I am running out of energy. Phooey.

The general roles I have fallen into at work, in an archetypal sense, seem to resemble “Socrates” and “the hero’s helper”. Note, both characters consistently end up dead before the day is saved. I’ll say it again, I always seem to get these things wrong. I had better start buying lottery tickets. (Lola – you’ll know that I’d make a lousy noonaught)

I had a harmless eye hemorrhage last week, so the white of my left eye looks red and gross. I hope it intimidates the folks we are auditing, and I got to meet an ophthalmologist with a quirky sense of humor. He gave me a vision exam as well as looking at my eye, and I don’t need new glasses!

Our cat had her radiation treatment yesterday, hopefully we’ll be able to take her home next week. We’ll have to practice special safety precautions with the litter box for a week or two, until she eliminates the radioactivity.

We are having perfect weather, highs in the 70s and sunny. Kathleen is practicing for all her choir’s Holy Week music – they have 5 or so big masses the building up to Easter. They always do a great job, I’m sure they’ll nail it (heh, heh).

I volunteered to be elected Vice President of the Sacramento Recorder Society , however, I let myself get talked in to sharing the President position. The other co-president and I are already agreeing to ways we can make this as easy as possible next year, since we were both railroaded into this. We’ve already delegated doing the monthly newsletter, and we have an experienced treasurer, so hopefully, there will be little that we need to do beyond contracting teachers for our monthly playing events and planning one or two more major events. Plus board meetings that I already attend and putting up with everyone in the group. Robert (co prez) and I have discussed outrageous proposals we might put forward before the election, with the hope of generating opposition to steal the election. My idea was to require all event attendees wear their underwear on the outside memorize three Madonna songs on their choice of recorder. In reality, since there have been no contested elections for over a decade, we have no way out.

On the fun side, I’ll be grilling chicken tomorrow for an April fool’s day party with some of our neighbors. They beg for my grilled chicken, they love it. My secret is dong nothing to the chicken beyond sprinkling with a salt & pepper & garlic powder rub. Twenty minutes per side in a Weber kettle does the rest. Sometimes simplest is the best.

OK – after all this bragging, I admit I messed up grilled chicken once. I forgot to open the vents before closing the kettle. However, the pizza I ordered was yummy.

Yep, although life is full of work with its travel and nasty politics, yes, Virginia, there is still the occasional grilled chicken on a sunny afternoon.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Back Again, Hopefully to Stay This Time

Back Again, Hopefully to Stay This Time

It’s been nearly 6 months of state employment for me.

I have come to realize that my employment provides less than nothing in the way of creative outlets. I have also discovered I need a creative outlet not related to work, where the manifold sources job-related sturm und drang und angst cannot be safely discussed here. (Believe me, they are not that interesting, anyway) I wonder why the words for these feelings mostly come from German. May be a topic for another day.

So there, ladies and gentlemen, it’s back to the blog. I will attempt to post at least once a week.

Catching Up

My most recent previous entry is from early December 2006. I have been working since then, and trying to have a real life.

Last week and the next few months will feature some work-related travel, doing onsite work around the State. I am traveling with an enjoyable team, and the per diem reimbursement for meals is workable. Traveling really drags me down, I felt exhausted all day Saturday. I awoke Thursday in Southern CA with half the white are of my right eye bright red. Went to the doctor Friday AM and had some blood tests. I suspect the eye issue may be related to three pints of beer I had Wednesday night. In any event, it doesn’t hurt, isn’t completely abnormal, it just looks terrible. Traveling exposes my remaining physical issues. Just working and playing in my music groups, without travel stresses, wears me out sometimes. I will have to deal with that. I do not have the energy resources that most other folks have. Every day, returning to slackdom seems a better and better idea.

One more harp about working, in double Fibanacci form:

Spring
Is
Here now
Flowers bloom
Sunshine, wear T-shirts
Open windows, breeze, fresh indoors
Make working feel like
Murderer
Of joy
In
Life.

This is a pretty honest expressing of my feelings.

Ok, let’s get over work.

I have gotten more involved in the Board of the Sacramento Recorder Society. As of late, I have been getting less involved, since they are looking to replace the president. We had a successful workshop, which means we had enough paying attendees to clear costs. You can read about the details in my previous entry, or hopefully in a future issue of the American Recorder Society’s Magazine, which apparently isn’t available on the internet. I wrote a short article about the experience, including a totally irrelevant discussion of contemporary modifications to baroque trumpets.

We have had our bathroom totally and radically redone, it looks like a pricey hotel, brown style that looks like stone and all that comes with it. Once we figured out the shower area was leaking behind a wall, it became a priority. Next come the wooden floors.

Veterinary Woes

A more significant bummer is that Evita, our cat, has developed thyroid problems that pills can’t cure. It has been a bit of a sad drama, with the cat taking to spending almost all her time in the linen closet. We are taking her to a specialty vet for a radiation injection treatment next week. She’ll have to stay there for around a week, and she should be back to normal after that (this works for the vast majority of cases. Even after the treatment, I imagine we’ll have her for four or five more years.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Back to the Blog

By popular demand, I present to you an update to hangininsac. I am proud to say that reader requests were received by 100% of hangininsac’s readers (thanks, Lola).

It’s been a busy few months, since my last posting on October 10. I’ve been a full time Government employee as of about October 20. I am sorry to say I will not be able to rant, kvetch, moan, whine, snivel or otherwise discuss work at length, since work relates to public policy. However, I can say that, purely by luck, I have a great cubicle, and, even better, I have found a dive with great $4.00 Chinese take-out. I am a member of the mighty SIEU, through whose awesome might I will receive a (the bad news) 2.5% pay raise next year, whether or not anyone thinks my work adds value (the good news). POWER TO THE PEOPLE RIGHT ON!

I am finding life as a beaurocrat to be fascinating. Check out item number 12 in Shostakovich’s Beaurocrat’s Dance to hear a rather accurate interpretation. By the way, note this sounds like it is band music. Yeah!

Life is not about work alone. We are having the house painted along with some other interior work that needed to be done. I am so glad that we do this only once every 20 years or so. Next week it’s the bathroom and bedroom, so we will shack up with the DMIL. Good thing we get along so well.

K’s brother and his tribe came here for Xmas. The stayed with the DMIL, but I did most of the cooking for a big Xmas dinner. Turkey, ham we ordered from Nuesky’s in Milwaukee, buttery green beans, stuffing, mashed potatoes, jell-o “salad”, candied yams, green salad (made by someone else) and three pies (Other folks provided the pies). We are just getting through the leftovers (note – we finished the pies first). I think a 17 pound turkey and 7 pound ham might have been a little much for 11 people’s dinner.

I stuffed the turkey, even after reading Anthony Boudrain’s column in Salon.com, assuring me that this traditional and outmoded cooking method was certain to fatally poison all living creatures within 100 miles of the kitchen. I say, “bah humbug”. The food fascists will claw that stuffed turkey from my cold dead hands. I am glad to say there were no reported deaths after the dinner, which is pretty darn good, given two of the diners are octogenarians.

Once again, I gave in to DMIL pressure and basted the turkey. I am sure this is a total waste of time, but I am also sure that a few minutes spent basting is an age of peace bought cheaply.

Well, it’s New Years Eve. We are going over the neighbors’ (after watching the Packer v Bears game, of course – unless someone else there is interested). We all agreed we’ll celebrate the New Year with the Midwesterners, or possibly the Easterners, because we are a pathetic lot. Once again, I will be the sole representative of my gender at the event. I hope one of these days a gay male couple moves nearby, to even up the local m/f ratio.

The Recorder Society keeps me busy, both playing and board business. We are having an all day workshop in February. Read about it here Be there and party like it’s 1699. The teachers are great and somewhat renowned. Eileen Hadidian is famous for “healing music”, and has recorded a lot of new age-ish type cds. The sessions will feature 17th and 18th century northern music, so worries about being unexpectedly healed. Hanneke Van Proojdij H9ollands greatest contribution to northern California early music, will teach as well. She is one of my favorite music teachers. I have one of her recorder ensemble cds. Hanneke is the one with protruding tongue .

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I Am A Lazy Slob At Heart

I finished my project at le funque yesterday at noon, so I’ve had yesterday afternoon and today off. If you’re expecting a list of accomplishments, you‘ll be disappointed. My main accomplishments from this recent and possibly almost my last time off are (1) I took a great nap yesterday afternoon, (2) I went to band practice last night, (3) I went to a yoga a class at the health club this morning, and (4) at 4:30 today, I am finally writing a blog entry. I have been preoccupied over the last several weeks in activities best not shared through the blog medium. My two readers know what I’m up to anyway.

I finished reading a book about Greek and medieval science, “The Beginnings of Western Science”, by David Lindberg. I thought it was interesting, but I am pretty strange. The author’s main point is that these folks were not as stupid as we lie to think they were, and it’s likely we are not as smart as we think we are. I learned a bit about Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy. I was able to figure out (on my own) that the Newton – Apple incident is definitely a pile, since there’s a perfectly adequate explanation for falling apples that doesn’t require the creation of a new force in the universe, like gravity. The classical Aristotelian explanation would go something like this; the apple’s main elements are earth and water. It is their nature to exist below air (ever seen the ground or a lake above the air?). The tree took “heat” (we’d call it energy) from the sun to transport the elements to a position above their natural state. Once the apple is separated from the tree and its “heat”, the apple will seek its natural position in the universe – below the air. What could be simpler? This certainly makes a lot more sense than a magical force by which masses exert influence upon each other without even touching or emitting projectiles. By golly, if I was a legislator in Kansas, I’d introduce a bill requiring disclaimers for textbooks teaching this so-called theory of gravity. So there.

I found a pretty funny review of a Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG, as it’s known among geeks) Episode, written by none other than Wil Wheaton . A Dopey TV Website has the blog. This was the episode where the Ferengi were first introduced. They were intended to provide an enemy as good as the Klingons in TOS (the original series). He takes savage cuts at the Ferengi, as well as the great Star Trek Dialogue. However, he does credit Armen Shimmerman for creating an interesting Ferengi race in DS9.

Disclaimer: While writing this entry, to the best of my knowledge I wrote no explicit IMs to any Blogger pages, or anyone else for that matter.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.