CT Politics

If anyone is interested... good article in NYT magazine on CT politics, focusing on the Senate race.

I just don't get it

Cupcake Madness!

He's there, presumably, to manage the lines that snake through the streets of Georgetown, not to guard the baking secrects of the sisters who own it. There's almost always a line outside (rain or shine), not to mention the crowds that form inside, as people cram to decide whether it's a red velvet, salted caramel, coconut kind of day -- or a vanilla birthday, chocolate ganache, key lime kind of day. Decisions. Delicious, delicious decisions.

Maybe if I watch the show I might understand.

I'm kinda hoping not.

I don't get the whole cupcake thing

I never saw an episode of Sex and The City, which is probably why I don't get the cupcake thing.

My sister was hosting an abbreviated family dinner at her house last night ~ our parents, an aunt and uncle, myself and my sister. Six people. This, of course, meant that my sister made enough food to feed a battalion of Marines. Cheese ravioli (three pounds), sausage and peppers, chicken in tomato sauce, corn on the cob. Force of upbringing/habit I asked what I should bring and she asked for salad and bread. Now, when I cook, I cook for the number of people being served... not the 5th Army. I put together a spinach salad and baked a loaf herb bread. This was a bit of a disappointment to my sister. She was seriously worried there wouldn't be enough. I just laughed. There's no point in trying to make her understand she doesn't need to provide enough food to feed Mongolia... all you can do is laugh and shake your head at her insanity. I'm convinced she starved to death in a previous life. And, there was leftover salad and bread.

While baking the bread yesterday morning I did give a thought to dessert. My sister usually provides at least three choices (no, I'm not making this up), so, I figured that since she didn't ask me to bring something, she had the dessert issue covered.

Alas, no.

After I arrived and we started plating the hors d'oeurves (three different cheeses, two kinds of olives, six different varieties of crakers, pepperoni and bruschetta) she suddenly screamed OH SHIT.

No dessert.

Panic attack ensued. I am not exaggerating - complete meltdown. I kept telling her the last thing we needed was more food but she was freaking out because she had forgotten about dessert. I said I'd run to the store and get some ice cream. That wasn't enough. I won't bore you with the slightly demented conversation that took place, but what she wanted me to get was enough dessert for an Italian wedding... on a Sunday afternoon (profiteroles, gelato, cannoli... etc). She then decides she'll go to the bakery and pick up "something". I fully expected her to come back with their delivery truck fully loaded but all she came back with was her own SUV with... cupcakes. At $5 EACH! $60 of cupcakes, all different flavors and colors (and a dozen cannoli and a pound of cookies... only the Italian gods knows why). She then went on, and on, and on, waxing poetic about the wonders and joys of cupcakes. Me, I just heard waa waa wahh waaaa. Tuned her out completely. I cannot believe she spend $60 on cupcakes.

Our parents arrived and, as always, were stunned by the sheer tonnage of food cooking - our aunt and uncle were equally shocked when they arrived. I don't get why though. Gretchen has actually toned down the amount of food she sets out. This wasn't as bad it used to be. We all received leftovers for the week. No, I'm not exaggerating. I have seven containers of ravioli, sausage (with pepppers excluded), and chicken. I refused the insanely overpriced cupcakes took some cookies instead.

My sister needs to work for a food kitchen or feeding the military. As with everything else in her life she goes competely over the top with generosity when feeding people and it makes her happy.

Eff'ing brilliant

Salad Spinner Centrifuge

I spotted the above article this morning and said "Eff'ing Brilliant!" and decided to post the link.

In rural, under-served and impoverished parts of the world, a positive diagnosis for anemia is a critically important clue when looking for other health problems such as malnutrition, or serious chronic infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. Until now, blood samples taken in the field would have to be sent to a distant location complete with expensive laboratory centrifuges and electricity, while patients would be left waiting for the results — a lapse in time that can be deadly. Being able to diagnose the condition in real time with "Sally Centrifuge" would allow appropriate treatment to begin before before an illness progresses and a patient's condition deteriorates too drastically.

Congratulations to Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis, inventors of what they call "Sally Centrifuge". Well done!

~ ~ ~

Editing because I totally forgot:

Moon Landing

Is something Top Secret

if 854,000 people are in the know? Bizarre.

I am not surprised by the article.

Your Government At Work

The result, he added, is that it's impossible to tell whether the country is safer because of all this spending and all these activities. "Because it lacks a synchronizing process, it inevitably results in message dissonance, reduced effectiveness and waste," Vines said. "We consequently can't effectively assess whether it is making us more safe."

Feel safe now?

The following paragraphs are enligtening:

SCIF size has become a measure of status in Top Secret America, or at least in the Washington region of it. "In D.C., everyone talks SCIF, SCIF, SCIF," said Bruce Paquin, who moved to Florida from the Washington region several years ago to start a SCIF construction business. "They've got the penis envy thing going. You can't be a big boy unless you're a three-letter agency and you have a big SCIF."

SCIFs are not the only must-have items people pay attention to. Command centers, internal television networks, video walls, armored SUVs and personal security guards have also become the bling of national security.

"You can't find a four-star general without a security detail," said one three-star general now posted in Washington after years abroad. "Fear has caused everyone to have stuff. Then comes, 'If he has one, then I have to have one.' It's become a status symbol."

(ps: if memory serves top secret is the lowest classification... but still!)

See Top Secret America

You learn something new everyday

With Sketchpads and Guns, Semper Fi

The NYT article, by Carol Kino, is about the United Stated Marine Corp Combat Art Program. It's really amazing - I had no clue there were artists covering wars in the 20th/21st centuries (not including photographers).

“We’re not here to do poster art or recruiting posters,” Sergeant Battles, 42, said. “What we are sent to do is to go to the experience, see what is really there and document it — as artists.”

The program is not the only one of its kind in the United States military, but many regard it as the one most deeply committed to its artistic mission. Like those in the other services, it began after the attack on Pearl Harbor and scaled back after Vietnam. Somewhat unusually, however, it has kept at least one artist in the reserves ready to deploy. And while most of the services have reactivated their art programs since the start of the Bush administration’s “global war on terror,” the Marine Corps’s has been the only one to cover most of the major conflicts.

and

One thing that sets the Marine Corps program apart from those of other services is its focus on human subjects and experiences. That’s what has always appealed to Anita Blair, chief strategist at the National Security Professional Development Integration Office, who got to know the program when she was acting assistant secretary of the Navy for a year (2008-09). “When you go over to the Air Force,” she said, “the art is all airplanes. In the Navy it’s all ships. Army art tends to be more about the battle, and the Army loves trucks. They’re fixated on vehicles. But the Marine Corps is fixated on Marines.”

Unites States Marine Corp Museum

I'm just a cranky old lady

living on a farm. I tend towards being cynical even on Happy!Happy!Joy!Joy! dancing in mud puddle days... but this story about Bristol and Levi getting married strikes me as more about stickin' it to Mom than lovin' Levi. I hope I'm wrong and they stay happily married for 100 years.

I'm betting it lasts less than two.

When Nina Garcia twittered (yes, I'm on twitter) she was expecting baby number two my womb contracted. YIKES! We're the same age and I wouldn't want to be having a baby in my advanced years. But, I'm happy for her. I hope all goes well and both baby and Mama are safe, healthy and happy. Better her than me!

Editing to Add

Wanna bet it's true?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Rest in peace

George Steinbrenner has died at the age of 80.

... who rebuilt the New York Yankees into a sports empire with a mix of bluster and big bucks that polarized fans all across America, died Tuesday. He had just celebrated his 80th birthday July 4.

Steinbrenner had a heart attack, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Fla., and died at about 6:30 a.m, a person close to the owner told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not disclosed those details.

How sad. First Bob Sheppard and now Steinbrenner.

IPO & What dreams may come

Amazingly, even in this current economic climate, there are IPOs being launched. I guess I'm a pessimist; to me that's akin to shoving a help message into a cracked bottle and tossing it into a sea and hoping someone finds it.

Vera Bradley has launched just such a bottle. Their revenues last year were US$289 million and the IPO is hoped to garner US$175 million and I just don't think this luxury product does well enough outside it's niche to warrant an IPO. There aren't enough people who will be willing to buy US$68 tote bags when you can get something very similar at Walmart or Target for US$19. Of course I have no clue what the business model at VB is - they could well be launching a low-cost line which would be very profitable. Some of the IPOs, like this one, just don't make much sense to me under the current economic conditions.

But it was in tough economic times like these that Microsoft and other companies were founded and funded.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Unemployment & Other News

Who is LeBron James and why does anyone care where he'll be working when the US National Unemployment rate is over 9.5%?

And 19 nominations for Glee? I've never watched it. Is it that good or is it just because it's new? No noms for NCIS but the season was a bit lack-luster so I'm not surprised.

Hot July

Lawds I can't believe I haven't blogged since Saint Patrick's Day. Life, hectic as usual, plus some.

And yet, there is very little to report. The only important, and painful, thing to report, is that Raven died last month. He had developed stomach cancer and I just couldn't allow him to suffer. Gawds how I miss him. I can't talk about him

Pewter doesn't seem to really notice or care that he is now a single child... though he is enjoying his extra cuddle time. And, perversely, this insane heat spell. I found him lying in a patch of sunshine yesterday afternoon when I got home. It was 110 at the farm yesterday! I can't believe he didn't give himself heatstroke. He really doesn't like air conditioning but still!

Saint Patrick's Day

Lá Fhéile Pádraig

St Patrick's Day and the massacre of the shamrock at the White House!

Uhuh. That little bowl of shamrock, the "enduring symbol" of the relationship between Ireland and the U.S. is destroyed after making the long trip from Ireland.

CNN says White House security protocol dictates that any "food, drink or plant presented to the president be 'handled pursuant to Secret Service policy'."

As CNN points out that's "Secret Service-speak for destroyed."

I guess I can understand not passing on food or beverages to the President, but a little green weed? Seriously?

I've never been a fan of celebrating Saint Patrick's Day - green beer and bagels and rivers, an excuse for alcoholic excess... none of that appeals to me. I wish there was more concentration on, more attention paid to the history and literature and music of Éire.

And, frankly, I'm just not a fan of Patrick anyway, I prefer Saint David: gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd.


~ ~ ~


The Wearing of the Green
Rising of the Moon
An Irish Lullaby
Irish Rover
Rosin the Beau

hippo birdie to me

45

feeling older than dirt today... aw well, it beats the alternative.

That nor'easter was something else. Did someone on the Eastern seaboard cheese off the weather gods? Man, it's been some winter. There was a lot of rain and wind at the farm but no damage - I guess Easton is too far inland. My parents, in Westport, were mostly spared, just an enormous amount of branches down. They were in Manhattan all weekend celebrating Dad's 71 birthday (March 12) and no matter where they went they got completely drenched. They came back to a debris filled yard but no real damage, thankfully.

Last night my sister and I met up with the parents at Saint Tropez in Fairfield. It's been my birthday dinner pick for three straight years and it was yummy! I had the sauted shrimp in apple raisin curry... for the third year in a row! Yup, it's that good!

Chile

I was at my sister's home over the weekend and woke up to the news of the Chilean earthquake. We watched the coverage all day Saturday (why? I don't know... we were doing craft projects and just got a little obsessed). See Google Crisis Response for ways to donate and other information on Chile.

American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund

AmeriCares

Habitat for Humanity

Doctors Without Borders

Oxfam America

Water.org

Still in shock

and awe

and I have a sore throat

and I completely screwed up the afghan I'm working while I was watching the US beat Canada.

In Hockey.

Did the bebe Jebus show up too?

Looking at the game stats, you’d think Canada blew out the US team in the game, with a 45-23 advantage in overall shots taken. However, Team USA goalie Ryan Miller made 42 saves to help his team win. Now US awaits to see who wins the Finland-Sweden game. Depening on that winner, the US might go into their quarterfinals matchup as the top seed in all of the groups. Meanwhile, Canada who was a gold medal favorite heading into the Olympics has a must win game on Tuesday. This was not expected as the Olympics Hockey matches started for the 2010 Olympics.

Team USA is now 3-0 in the 2010 Winter Olympics. While this win has been compared to the 1980 Miracle on Ice, an interesting fact was noted. The well known coach of the US Hockey team in 1980 was Herb Brooks, who the current Team USA defenseman Brooks Orpik was named for.

Pet for Vets

Early morning web surfing, while drinking my coffee and trying to wake up, revealed a wonderful story about Healing and Homes for Vets and Pets.

"I used to not get out of the house at all," said Velez-Collazo, 37, whose 12 years as an Army combat battlefield nurse included deployments to Iraq and Kuwait. "Now I have to take her out. I get out of bed and put on some clothes."

That motivation to participate in normal daily activities is the goal of Pets for Vets, founded in 2008 by 27-year-old animal trainer Clarissa Black. The Los Angeles-based program matches homeless pets that may otherwise be euthanized with veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other ailments from their time in a war zone.

"A lot of times, these veterans who are coming home feel abandoned, and they have a difficult time adjusting to civilian life," Black said. "A lot of them tell me that they would just like someone to say thank you. Pets for Vets is that way to say thank you. Both [the veteran and the pet] have been through traumatic events, and together they can help each other heal."

Both Pets for Vets and the other organization Pets2Vets accept (and probably badly need) donations. So, if you have a few dollars to spare for both pets and vets, please donate.

~ ~ ~

In not so cheerful personal news... long story short my car had a fit on Tuesday and I need a new alternator. I'm hoping it will be ready today because I've been relying on friends and family and co-workers to get me about for two days. Living in the boonies has its draw-backs.

Snow Days

Yesterday was a snow day for me. I stayed inside all day, hair in a tangled, messy pony on top of my head, wearing my favorite faded jammies and holey socks, knitting and watching tv: Angel, Charmed, The West Wing, JAG and NCIS - in that order.

Nothing like life down on the farm, eh? If you are determined to remain single, unattached and alone in this life, re-read the paragraph above. Works for me!

Raven and Pewter were a little shocked by my mid-week interruption of their equally exciting lives. Every time I left the chair Raven would hop up and take over. When I shoo'd him he'd glare at me and then hunker down on the floor at my feet. Pewter showed his confusion by chatting at me all day (instead of sleeping) and dropping one of his meece on my feet for me to throw for him every half hour or so. They're probably shredding the couch as I type this. It's never a good idea to confuse cats.

I'd guess we got eight-something inches of snow at the farm. It's hard to tell because there was steady, howling gale all night and this morning. As soon as the drive was plowed it was recovered with blowing snow. Hopefully it will be cleared enough for me to get back to my little bungalow tonight. I have a spaghetti dinner at the nursing home to attend and won't be back before nine. Getting stuck out in the country, on a cold night, where my cell phone doesn't work is not my idea of a good time.

See the first paragraph for what is my idea of a good time.

Explosion

I had a television/computer free Sunday so it wasn't until this morning I heard about the Middletown Explosion. The footage of the damage was just horrifying to see. I feel so badly for the families affected by this.

It was strange to see the DC metroplex on the news trying to dig out of the snow this morning. They're just not ready for that much snow. I guess the weather gurus were right for a change. Late Friday afternoon I was online teasing friends in the DC area about the "snowpocalypse" and how they were wussies for leaving work early. They reminded me of my harrowing trip home last week and cried "pot, kettle, black"... all in good fun. Then I saw what they were dealing with today and see they're still offline. I hope they're warm and at least having some fun with the snow at this point.

More snow and possibly a blizzard for Tuesday into Wednesday - and southern New England might get hit this time. Think warm thoughts people.

For the love of the game

I spotted this story on Yahoo! this morning and thought I'd share:

Soldiers find time for hockey in Afghanistan.

My first love is baseball (go Yankees!) but my second is hockey (go Rangers!). I'm used to seeing stories about the armed services playing baseball but this is a first for hockey. Well, for me anyway. Leave it to the Canadians. I love how the soldiers have adapted the game for their environment and their attitude:

In fact, the teams don't even leave the rink. As the warning siren wails, they hit the floor and press themselves against the wooden sidings. Goalies aren't very mobile anyway, Stark said.

"It would be a bit of a challenge to run to a bunker with all that gear," he said. "As soon as the 'all clear,' the game picks up again and away we go."

Go Canada!

And speaking of Canada and hockey... is it me or does it seem the Olympics are late this year? I thought the winter games took place in January, not February. Seems Obama isn't going for security reasons - which must make everyone's life a bit easier.

Wolf Moon

Biggest and Brightest Full Moon of 2010 Tonight

A Wolf Moon. I noticed this morning (I'm up long before the sun) that the moonshine seemed incredibly bright but I thought it was just the reflection of the snow and ice on top of the greenhouses. Apparently not.

Driving home last night was Not!Fun! I left Stratford around 5:15 pm, headed for Easton. There were very dark clouds in the west but I didn't think much of it until, on the 8/25, I drove into a snow squall. Clear and perfect visiblity and then WHAM!Blizzard! That was a first. I couldn't see beyond the front end of my car. The roads froze over fast and by the time I hit the Merritt Parkway people were slip-slidin' away. I am an accomplished and confident foul-weather driver but that mini-blizzard scared the crap outta me. When I finally made it to Sport Hill Road the local roads were a sheet of ice and there was a huge crash/multi-car pileup on the Sport Hill. I got stuck twice trying to get up the hills and finally made it to the Farm an hour and a half after leaving Stratford -- door-to-door is usually 20 minutes. It was a nightmare of a trip home.

Driving in extreme rain, snow, wind, fog... not an issue for me. I'm pretty damn good at it, if I do say so myself. Ice? shudders Had I known what was ahead of me I would have thought twice about going home.

I could have used a shot of something when I finally reached my tranquil litle bungalow... tequila, scotch, bourbon, vodka. Sadly the house is free of alcohol. I will have to rememdy that deficiency post-haste!