Tu veux vraiment savoir?

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/08/pawlenty_signal.html

I wasn't worried about this election until today. I think anyone who's ever lived in the South or in a state out west that keeps to its own (like Montana or Alaska) knows that this woman is exactly what a lot of people in our country want. Hell, I think that if she were a bit more experienced, she could have beat Hillary, or even McCain himself.

Obama's campaign released a solidly true statement (“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said in a statement. “Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same.”).... but most of America doesn't care about solidly true statements. They care about electing people that are exactly like themselves.

As much of a joke as she may seem like to intelligent (perhaps smug?) liberal voters, the following facts will go a LONG WAY with most of the people from my homestate (esp my family), and a lot of people everywhere, because politics aside, they show quite a bit of integrity in her and her family:
*In November, Ms. Palin spoke at a redeployment ceremony for the company of her husband, Daniel Norman, an Army sniper who was awarded a Purple Heart for shrapnel he took from a roadside bomb in Iraq.
*Ms. Palin is known to conservatives for choosing not to have an abortion after learning two years ago that she was carrying a child with Down syndrome.
*She took intense criticism from members of her own party for turning the spotlight on the failures of Alaska Republicans, some of whom had been beset by corruption scandals.
*She and her husband have been married for 20 years; they met in high school.
*Her oldest son has been deployed to Iraq.

And a little side thing: she was runner up for Miss Alaska, AND she was a feisty basketball player in high school. And she's not going to let pesky little polar bears get in the way of PROGRESS and OIL and JOBS (sigh).

Okay, panic button has been pushed. I'm going to buck up and go fight harder for Obama now. We're still going to win; it's just going to be really effing close.

Now, when it comes to vices, I consider myself a woman of incredible restraint. I've never smoked or drank and I don't tend to drink caffeine (mostly because I don't like the taste of coffee or coke, but I digress). I don't even eat meat.

And when it comes to desserts, I definitely indulge, but never in a pint-of-ice-cream-in-one-sitting kind of way. There's actually very little sugar in my entire diet. Except, my friends, I give you:

The OREO.

This magical, fiendish chocolate-creme disk... it's my most effective comfort food and I seem incapable of eating fewer than five of them in one sitting. I don't tend to buy them because I am well familiar with my weakness. Strangely, it's just as easy for me to walk by them in the store as it is for me to walk by poptarts or twixes or any other random (though delectable), commercial food item. But once I see or smell Oreos out in the open, in all their delicious and inviting glory, I'm toast. It's like an animal reaction. L bought some yesterday--double stuff, thank you very much--and once she opened them, a mere 24 hours later, I have eaten almost a whole row. Granted, I'm on my period, and, well... you know how that goes... and also, I haven't had an Oreo in probably a year. But damn. I could sit here and finish off that entire package and I'm not kidding you.

Is this simply because Oreos were a common after-school snack food when I was growing up? My grandmother kept an ever-flowing tin of them on her counter and I could help myself to one whenever I wanted. But in those days, I had more restraint! I never wanted more than 2 or 3!

So why am I such a maniac now? Does Oreo actually use heroin in their recipe? Do others feel this way?

I am a good baker and generally a lover of fine desserts, but in moderation: I will savor a slice of flourless chocolate cake for an hour and not want for more. The only other dessert that gets me even close to the Oreo level of unstoppable voracity is another totally commercial item: girl scout cookies -- samoas, then tagalongs, then thin mints. Sigh.

::catching a glimpse of the Oreo package::

Gotta go.

Though he is still (only slightly, though) the lesser of 3 evils, I'm starting to loathe John McCain's viability in this race, and I'll tell you why. I think he could win, and I think he's diabolical. While I do appreciate his views on the environment, he pisses me off because he's letting a lot of liberal democrats believe that he's an okay guy in all ways (I've said myself that I actually wouldn't mind him becoming president... that was before I knew the truth), while hiding his extremely conservative social policies. For example, in the issues section of his website, under "Human Dignity and the Sanctity of Life," a short blurb that reads like he's simply anti-torture for POWs, leads to a "read more" section that shows you - OH! - hat he's actually VERY anti-gay-marriage AND anti-choice.

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm

He's also against renewing the ban on assault weapons (why? why??) and will probably continue to put billions of budget dollars towards war and border security. I'm sorry, but he's not a Democrat's Republican. He's the same as the other guys.

I'm POSTING! Woohoo! And it's to seek advice.

I'm having SUCH trouble focusing at work lately, mostly because I've been assigned a task (synthesizing huge and dissimilar datasets, collected by several different people, into one datasheet useful for <*cringe*> statistical manipulation) that
a) I don't feel particularly qualified to do

and

b) (almost certainly linked to point a) I rather loathe doing

The data synthesis has to be done by the end of this week, when, if I've done a good job, I will likely be given another similar task... and another. So I need to learn how to deal with these large and distasteful elements of my workflow.

Of course, I have been happily completing my peripheral (often mindless) tasks, even if they are themselves distasteful, over the past few weeks... this includes cleaning the clogged drains in the greenhouse floor... But now I have that datasheet deadline and I'm forced to face several days solid of the task I find virtually untenable.

Do you guys have advice for completing one big, yucky task, and many smaller, doable tasks over a period of several weeks? My plan of doing all the small tasks and avoiding the big one until the end has proved less than satisfactory. And to top it off, I spend most of my days completely alone, in an entirely different building than my boss (who I see for about 5 minutes each day), where I am thoroughly tempted by online Scrabble whenever I'm faced with the data work. Sigh.

Wow.

Wow.

Congratulations, Mommy artemis44!!!!!

We can't wait to meet him!!!!

funny, funny, funny (especially that David Hasselhoff)

I had the most amazing weekend! I paddled on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, went to an incredible baby shower (we are SOOOOOOOO excited for you guys!), filled myself to bursting at our reception tasting session, met our ceremony guitarist (who is AWESOME), worked out hotel stuff, wrote a tentative program, and made some decisions about flowers. NOT BAD! :)

This is a cool alternative to launchcast...
http://www.pandora.com/

So, there is some crazy shit going on outside my window right now.
I felt it land - the ground shook!
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2006/04/crane_collapse.html

With as much glee as I've been having for my pregnant friends these days, and with all the wonder I've been feeling about the creation of human life, I do have to register some disgust at the recent decision in the SD legislature. I see so many young women taking drastic measures because of this... particularly in such a big state! How far will they have to drive to get a legal procedure done? Let's hope it gets challenged in federal court SOON.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/06/sd.abortionban.ap/index.html

A friend of mine forwarded me this cake recipe and oh, how I laughed...

Over the ages, I wonder how many brides-to-be (or grooms-to-be, or well-meaning friends) have attempted to make their own wedding cakes. I wonder how many of them have sliced into a glorious successes on their reception day, firm and glistening masterpieces with clean lines and unforgettably good taste. Now, rewind -- how many of them gave up after their first, second, even third attempts? I have my money on 98%, because professional bakers get married, too.
( Read more... )

Do you think it's a bad idea that I want to make my own bouquet??

In other news, while we were registering for gifts this weekend, L got a new part-time job. She started today. It's f-ing beautiful AND it pays well. Go ahead and ask her about it (because we know she won't be updating her lj).

Also, we have decided wholeheartedly on the reception site that we were mulling over before our visit this weekend. They are closing the place for us until 5pm, and they're even renting a dance floor (included in our quoted price) so we can have our jazz band! The place is not quite as fancy as we'd like, but the price can't be beat (D... we're coming out right about where you were). Gah! Life is good!!!!

Classes start tomorrow, and it's also back to the salt mine after a gloriously long weekend. With any luck, I'll still be singing the same tune come Friday. :)

Just realized that I'll get a bit of Harry Potter legend in with my trip:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/harry_potter/mainlocations.shtml

I just booked a flight to visit my cousin for 5 days at Oxford in March! I've never left the country before (except for a day-trip to New Brunswick - just over the border of Maine - which was exciting but barely counts) and I am *SO* ruddy excited. It's not ideal timing, what with the wedding coming up, but the RT ticket was only about $350 (though the bus from London is about $50), and your cousin is only at Oxford once, right??

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