The HELL.

I can't believe I forgot to post the end result of the kitchen repair fiasco.  The maintenance guys, whose praises I was singing, totally failed.  Sure the drain line got fixed, but when it came to patching the walls & repairing the cabinet they punched a hole through, well, let's just say a monkey could have done a better job.  Two weeks and a new set of maintenance guys later, the wall was fixed properly, and I got the blue paint up.  I did wind up using the Behr ultimate fancy whatever stuff with the primer in it, and it only took two coats, but lordy did that black & white monstrosity cover a multitude of sins.  Now every crack, bump, and uneven spot in the plaster sticks out like a sore thumb, but at least it's a pretty sore thumb.

We're still not sure if we're going to paint the living room.  We got our bookshelves arranged and art on the walls, and if you keep your eye-line pointed somewhat down it's really not that bad.  The palm trees are still ugly, but they're ignorable.  We've really just lost interest in trying to make this house better.  Which is sad, but really isn't that how renting is supposed to be?  I can't even bring myself to garden.

Beyond the kitchen, I survived another adventure - flying to Seattle, picking up a 10-foot moving truck, loading up furniture and stuff that my sister had been storing for me for the past 10 years, and driving back to Ohio with Mom following in her car.  o.O  It really wasn't all that bad though, and we made it in one piece with Mom only getting lost once (and that was the last HOUR of the trip, when trying to get off the Turnpike to get to the house!).  She's staying in the apartment at the in-law's house for the rest of the summer, and it's been fun having someone to shop and craft and generally rat around with.  Of course it's so much better because she's not staying at MY house - and she agrees with me on that too so I can get away with saying it!  :-)

Work is... meh.  There might be something happening at the bookstore for me, and the work-at-home job is still waiting on further negotiations, so it's the whole "up in the air" thing happening all over again.  Which is really getting old. 

Other than the "life update" I don't have much else to talk about I'm afraid.  But Mom and I are going shopping for fabric today - I'm starting a big quilt project, so I'll share all of that.

Welcome to my (boring, insignificant) world!

Oh, the joys of a house.

 So, our main drain line is busted & leaking down in the basement every time we shower/flush/wash.  Thank god for maintenance guys!  They were here for a good 3 hours last night finding the leak, & they're coming back today to replace the line.  I will have a big hole cut in the wall of my kitchen, but thankfully it will be covered by the cabinets.  And considering the walls in the kitchen are an ugly-ass black & white sponge faux finish nightmare, it'll be painted soon anyway.  (Blue, if you want to know... "French Court" by Behr.) 

Put DOWN the sponge...

The living room walls above the chair rail will be painted too, a plain tan to go with the sage green bottom half (right now the top is a metallic gold faux finish nightmare with added palm tree wallpaper border hideousness).

The 70's called, they want their metallic paint back.

The maintenance guys, bless their hearts, also found where the dishwasher was leaking - ok, not so much "leaking" as "dumping" - the drain line had been taken out of the utility sink & tucked up out of the way when the basement was painted, so it was draining straight on top of my brand new washing machine.  Yuuuuuck.  I had to run an empty cycle with vinegar in the dispenser to purge the grossness.

To add insult to injury, Jake has stress-peed on the carpet in the living & dining rooms lord knows how many times now, since the carpet is dark tan and we can't see it.  But we can smell it for sure.  Amazingly, the cats haven't done the same.  I think I'll try a good coating of baking powder first before renting a steam cleaner, just to neutralize the smell.  We use a baby gate on the stairs at night to prevent more accidents and are getting him back on a set potty schedule too.  He'll snap out of it soon - this has happened with each move so we know the drill now.

Keep up the shenanigans, mister, and you WILL wear a diaper.

We have to put in a temporary fence in the backyard to keep Jake from visiting the neighbors - he's on a cable tie, but it's a bit too long.  Plus we found out that the property lines in our neighborhood don't go from driveway to driveway, but that part of our backyard is actually the neighbor's.  They don't care, thankfully, but our plans to rip out the overgrown area under the tree now have to be approved by them.  Argh.

And of course, our garage floor is still gravel.  It's only been 2 weeks so I know we need to be patient, but B's tools are still in our storage unit and we have to have a place to put them by the end of the month so we can close that expense out.  We're probably going to have to put some planks or sheets of plywood down in the garage or something.

My mantra right now is "Our lease is up in a year, just a year..."

Surrounded by Boxes

Between the somewhat more time-filling schedule at the bookstore than I had anticipated, plus the scramble to find a place to live in Akron so B didn't have to commute 45 minutes every day, and then the subsequent move... I'm away from my desk, please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.  If you need immediate assistance, press 1 for the operator.  Beeeeeeeep.

Long story short, we looked at seven different places in Akron, the first being awesome but too expensive, some in the middle that were just meh (and some that were yuck), to the last one which, strangely, has the same floorplan as the house we rented in Toledo.  It felt like home right away.  It has its downsides though - no fenced-in yard, so Jake has to be on a cable; fully carpeted; sump pump right in the middle of the basement floor (yick); neighbors literally rightherenextdoor; and no central air.  Which we thought would be manageable with the massive attic fan upstairs - open the windows at night & turn that sucker on, and in rushes the cool air... but unfortunately this only works when it's actually cool at night.  So we bought a portable air conditioner.  Emphasis not so much on the portable really, but easier than a window unit for sure.

But we're settling in, slowly but surely.  The cats stayed at B's parents' place until last night and are now exploring happily, Jake has "christened" the living room carpet already but at least it's a darker color so it doesn't show, we had some mildew on a few things from the storage unit that had to be cleaned, we finally got the basement carpet dried out after the homeowner's valiant effort with a steam cleaner, but most importantly, the beer glass collection is put away in the china display cabinet (which are almost identical to the ones we had in Toledo too).  We're still unpacking (the heat slowed me down a lot, plus the aforementioned crazy work schedule at the bookstore) and we have a wedding to attend this weekend so we probably won't get much further with it until late next week.  I'm off to Chicago for NeoCon on Monday & Tuesday, and B's new job leaves him wiped out when he gets home, so the non-essential stuff will just have to wait I guess.

There and Back Again

In case you missed it on Twitter or Facebook, B and I are heading back to Ohio this week.  It wasn't a simple decision - a lot of things were taken into consideration.  But it all boils down to finding work, and unfortunately we're not finding it here.  It's easiest to explain it this way:

1. Yes, we have a free place to stay here, which is awesome.  However...
2. ... it's over an hour outside the city, so getting a temporary job is impossible.
3. And no, we don't want to get a rental while we work temp jobs, that'd be pretty pointless.
4. Between the two of us, we've applied for over 40 jobs out here...  
5. ...and between the two of us, we've had THREE interviews, two for jobs that we didn't take for our own reasons, and the third, well, B got hosed.  It's been more than just frustrating, let me tell you.
6. My unemployment benefits run out at the end of January, so it's sh*t-or-get-off-the-pot time.
7. On top of all this, our free place to stay is COLD.  I don't mind the snow, but when it's below zero outside and we can't keep it warmer than 50 degrees inside... something's gotta give.

Now, back in Ohio:

1. We also have a free place to stay, which is also awesome.
2. This free place to stay is actually WARM, with a gas fireplace even!
3. It's also located right in the heart of the suburbs, surrounded on all sides by places to get temp jobs.
4. B already has a temp job lined up out there, at the ski resort he used to work at.
5. All of our stuff is still out there, so we'd actually be able to use our winter coats and snow boots, among other things.

But the kicker is this: the government is currently handing out millions of dollars in grants toward the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which means there are more watershed-type projects being started there, which means more jobs in B's field.  He's put in applications for a few already, including one with the group he did his internship with.  So the chances of B starting his career are pretty darn good out there.  And we've gotten the impression that the Northwest won't be hiring any transplanted Midwesterners anytime soon.

So we're loading back up, cats and dog and suitcases (plus a few more things that my aunt was storing for me), and heading back east.  I never would have thought it was possible to feel disappointed and excited all at the same time.

On and on

Not much new to report.  Mom headed to Arizona a couple weeks ago so we've moved into her little house, much to the joy of the pets.  Jake has the couch, the cats can play race-cars up and down the long hallway, and we have a real bed to share with all three of them.  It's staying warm enough inside (surprising, since we're relying solely on portable electric heaters) and there's snow on the mountains across the river today.

We're both still applying for jobs like crazy - the job interview in Bend went well, but afterwards I realized that I really wouldn't fit in at the company (six people, all hard-core liberal hippies, and me, an only slightly left-leaning Republican... kinda hard to hide your differences in an office so small), and that B would have to take a job completely outside his realm.  It would have been miserable for me and unfair to him, so we decided to keep looking.  So, here we are, still looking.  I have a handful of applications out that I'm really hopeful about, and B has a couple to apply for this week that would be awesome too.  We have days where we just ignore the fact that we're unemployed and essentially homeless and just sit with a book and a crochet project and veg out.  Then we have days where we just want to scream and give up.  Mix in a couple completely productive get-shit-done days and that's where we are.  It's draining.

But we've been spending time with my long-lost friends and family, getting reacquainted with my hometown, and enjoying the scenery, if not the inconveniences of living in the sticks.  We drove past the house I grew up in a few days ago, which I was incredibly nervous about.  Mom had to sell the house a few years ago when she realized she couldn't take care of it by herself anymore, and the impression I'd gotten was that the people that bought it we're taking very good care of it.  In reality, it was just a matter of different taste - they painted it a dark pine-green-gray color with white trim, as opposed to the light gray with blue trim that Mom and Dad had liked, and they fenced a portion of the side yard for their dog and to keep the deer out of their sizeable vegetable garden.  I was surprised to find how much I liked what they'd done to it.  

I drove though my college campus too, which has grown tremendously since I was a student nine years ago.  I haven't visited my old high school yet, and I kind of want to catch a football game there to try and catch up with the coaches and teachers that are still there that I knew and loved.  It's been quite a trip down memory lane, and exciting to see how much the city has changed.  To think, all those years ago I couldn't wait to leave, and now I'm actually glad to be here.

Mantras don't always help you sleep though.

I came to the conclusion the other day that goals really aren't worth having.  All they do is stress you out, make you anxious, direct your focus so tightly that you tend to miss out on a lot of other stuff, and ultimately disappoint you in some way.

Now, ideas and dreams - things we'd like to see or do or get, without hanging a lot of hope on and putting a lot of work into them, those are different.  They hang there in the air, and if the chance comes along to snatch them, then it's easy and generally painless and often more gratifying, in that you had no expectations attached to them.

Fate, I guess.  If it's gonna happen, it'll happen, regardless of how much I stress out about it.
It's an easy thing to think - not so easy to live, especially if you're a control-nut like me.  I need a plan.  I rarely leave the house to run an simple errand without a plan - where to go to first, can I save time by getting everything at one place, should I go here too while I'm out, blahdeblah.  And god forbid I don't have a list.

But when it comes to big things, like, say, moving across the friggin' country, it's so much harder to give it up to fate.  I want it to happen so bad that I fuss and stress and freak right the hell out, and I'm afraid that it's going to ruin the joy of finally getting to go.  Whenever that might be.  (Soon, dammit!)

***

B's been working on a research project for one of his professors back over in Bowling Green this past month, which has delayed us a bit but I'm not complaining because (a) it's money and (b) it's experience on his resume.  We've both been applying to every job we might be remotely qualified for, in every place in Oregon & Washington that we might like to live (Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, Eugene, Corvallis, and every little town in between) - I keep telling myself that competition in the job market is ree-frakking-diculous right now, that there are x-times as many people applying for all of these openings as there might be in normal economic times, and that every rejection email (or no response at all) isn't a reflection on us.  It's really hard not to take it personally though.

We still have some options open to us though, to just go and figure out the rest when we get there, but we still have some obligations here to fulfill.  Besides, driving through South Dakota in August is not my idea of a good time, so maybe closer to fall would be better anyway...

I just keep telling myself all of these things - let it happen... don't take it personally... we still have options... but it can still be overwhelmingly difficult to deal with sometimes.

Bonus: There aren't any assholes with loud stereos here!

We made it over to the Lovely In-Law's place in once piece - considering it was only a two hour trip, that's not really saying much.  But there were concerns about being able to fit in the truck and then in the storage unit, and there were concerns about getting the pets transported.  The first two concerns were valid - it was a tight squeeze, but we got everything into the truck or the FIL's van, and then into the storage unit or the IL's garage (we're refinishing our dining room set, and B is sorting through some of his stuff while we're here, so we had quite a load to bring to the house).  Granted, we couldn't find anything in the storage unit if our lives depended on it, but at least it's in there.

The cats, however... that's a more interesting story.  I got some sedatives from the vet a few weeks ago, mainly for Gyro.  When we made the trip to Toledo three years ago, he was a hot mess the whole way.  Drooling, yowling, peeing, hyperventilating - I did not want a repeat performance, for both my sanity and his health.  So first we made the decision to take the pets to the IL's a couple of days before our stuff to save them that stress.  I crushed up one of the little pink pills and mixed it with half a can of wet food, gave Gyro the dosed half & Lily the rest.  She'd always been fine in the car, curled up and quiet, so I didn't want to dose her.  Well, except I didn't take into account the fact that she's a pig, and she finished off the last few bites of Gyro's drugged food.  So Gyro got nearly a full dose, and Lily got a very small dose... and this time, Lily was the hot mess.  Gyro was quiet and relaxed, nearly konked out.  But Lily was stoned, and it scared her.  It was like The Exorcist in her carrier - she'd lay on her back and push off all sides with her feet until she was spinning around like a demented banshee, and yowling like one too.  She didn't pee, thank god, but she was in bad shape.  She finally calmed down when we were 20 minutes from the house, and once we got inside she was fine.  Beyond that, they've both adapted pretty well to the little apartment, and are enjoying the windows and the birds outside.  Jake, of course, is happy as a dog can be with a humongous yard to run in.  He's only gotten lost once or twice I think, which is pretty good.  His recall is getting better, although it still takes some raised voices to break his concentration when his nose is to the ground.

As for us, we still aren't sure what our time-frame is for heading out west.  We've got a free month of storage, so if we wanted to leave at the end of June we'd save ourselves some money, but I don't know if we're going to be able to swing that schedule.  B picked up a job for June, helping one of his professors from BG with a study on Lake Erie, so he's going to be spending a couple of days each week back over near Toledo.  So trying to work out logistics would be tough with that going on.  We're trying to sell a few more things too - we got rid of the extra bed last week, and B has ordered the parts he needs for the Buell so it can be sold too.  He might sell the Yamaha parts he has, but he hasn't decided if he wants to give up on that project yet.  The point is, our list of things to do before The Big Move is changing a little - not growing a ton, but definitely changing - so we might push it out a little bit.

We're both still job-hunting - B is getting frustrated with the hiring process for federal jobs - it's very slow and he's very impatient.  I applied for my dream job the other day, so I'm really crossing my fingers on it (Sustainability Director at University of Oregon!), and a few others too.  I really hate the job-hunting process though, it makes me feel horribly un-qualified.  My experience is so widely spread - I have very little in-depth in any one area.  It's making my enthusiasm for this whole idea start to fizzle.  And then I start thinking too much and worrying - we're 31 years old, neither of us have jobs, we don't have a home, we hardly have any savings, good god are we even fit to call ourselves adults?! - but then reality and common sense kick in and I remember - B sacrificed the better part of a decade to serving his country which required putting the rest of our lives completely on hold.  We don't have a mortgage hanging over our heads.  We're not tied down to a city that we absolutely hate.  We can find something to pay the bills until we find something that will help fulfill our goals.  It'll all work out.

I hope.

Smooth Move (we hope!)

Everything is still going as planned for The Big Move!  The cats are climbing all over the boxes we have stacked throughout the house, the final few fixer-upper projects are getting done, we sold and donated a bunch of extra stuff that we didn't want to move, we reserved a truck and a storage unit over near the in-law's for a month, and we're planning our route across the country for July.  Which, South Dakota in July?  Yuck.  But I'm not complaining as long as I get where I want to be!
 

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Mom is thinking about flying out at the end of June too, so I can have some company in the car besides just the cats yowling in the back.  (Thank god for sedatives.)  ( For the cats.)  (Although some for Mom might not be a bad idea either...)  (Kidding Mom!!)  If we didn't have the pets with us, we would want to take a side-trip to Mount Rushmore and some of the historical sites along the way, but it'd be way too hot to leave anybody in the cars while we were sight-seeing.  We'll just have to save it for another time.

In other news, I still have a little bit of hope for going back to work.  I called the financial company that manages our 401(k)'s to roll over the funds into an IRA with my bank, and they told me that I wasn't terminated after all - my company had accidentally sent in a termination notice for me to the financial company, but called a couple of days later to correct the mistake, but the financial company had already sent me a notice in the mail about rolling over the funds.  So, long story short, I'm going to try to schedule a meeting with my boss and the president for next week to talk more about the possibility of working remotely.  There's still a slight chance it could work out, and it would be the absolute ideal situation (aka, holy shit it would be frakking AWESOMESAUCE).  I'm outlining some ideas to talk about and planning my attack (tasteful-yet-low-cut-shirt, professional-yet-endearing-and guilt-rendering-demeanor, etc etc).  Wish me luck!!

Forthcoming, Ensuing, Impending

Poor blog... fallen by the wayside...

So here's what's happening.  Our Lovely Landlord put our house on the market a mere two weeks ago.  We showed it for her three times, and she is now negotiating an agreement with a Lovely Family to rent-to-own.  We really shouldn't have worried about the house not being desirable, because come on!

Bye, cute house!  If we could put you on a flatbed and haul you across the country, we would!

So... we have to pack up and move out by June 1!  We knew there was a chance it would be soon, but I think we were ignoring the actual number of days on the calendar.  Let the OMGWTF begin!

The plan is this: put our stuff in storage here in Toledo, load up the pets and a couple suitcases, and head for the in-law's place outside Cleveland for about month.  B promised he would help them paint their house this summer, so we'll spend June working on that and continuing the job search out west.  We've both put in quite a few applications out there already, in Seattle, one or two in Spokane, and all over Oregon, so if either of us line something up then we're golden.  If not, we'll head out there around the end of June/mid-July anyway and crash at either my Lovely Nephew's or my Lovely Mother's house north of Spokane until we figure out where we'll be living and working.

Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men.... but we'll keep our fingers crossed and pray against wrenches.

Sweat Equity and the After-Effects of Manual Labor

I've planted myself on the couch today, with no plan to move.  I didn't even do anything that exciting these past couple of days, but it left me a bit painful.

On Sunday I got a bug in my butt to finish the basement bathroom project that I started, oh, sometime last year.  (Or was it two years ago...?)  When we moved in, the floor was done in indoor-outdoor carpeting (which my cats decided would double as a litter box) and bright blueberry walls and cabinet.  So we ripped out the carpet with plans to put in vinyl tile, and re-painted it in cream and aqua with matching paisley curtains.  But the floor, it waited... and waited... and waited... until finally on Sunday I opened the box of tiles and started laying them out.  It really wasn't that hard of a project, except that (a) every wall in the room was crooked, so there was nothing to square the tiles up to, (b) the toilet was permanently affixed to a concrete slab, so I had to cut around it, (c) the rest of the floor was wood sub-flooring, which was fine except that (d) it wasn't level with the concrete slab, and (e) there was an access panel cut into to it to get at some of the plumbing.  So okay, it really wasn't that easy, but it's a tiny room so it only took me one day despite the challenges.  I still need to run a bead of caulk around the base of the toilet to cover the cut edges of the tiles, and the sink is still not functional, but it looks pretty good for what we were able to do.

I had some tiles leftover, so yesterday I decided to rip out the badly stained and fraying carpet on the landing inside the back door and re-do it with the tile.  I also went stair by stair, trimming the carpet to fit better and re-stapling it to the underside of each stair.  The carpet is still pretty worn out on the stairs, but it looks much tidier and the landing will be easier to keep clean.  I have one piece of trim left to install once B cuts it to size for me.  Not bad for a weekend amateur DIY'er like myself!

So after all this bending/kneeling/climbing/cutting/whathaveyou, I'm a little sore.  My hands are dry and cracked, and my back and legs complain every time I move.  You'd think I'd done something a little more strenuous, but I'm just that out of shape.

But the house is really starting to look sharp - just in time for us to move this summer!  But if it helps our landlords sell it, I'm all about helping.  They've been so understanding and such great people to deal with.  (And if anybody is looking to buy a house in Toledo this summer....!!)

Dear So & So, From the Couch Edition

Dear Workplace,
Why is it that I feel guilty when I take a sick day (or have to go home early)?  It's not like anybody says anything to me or looks at me sideways, so why do I care?  And for that matter, why don't more people stay home when they're sick rather than sharing their germs with the whole damn office?  There is something psychological going on here... hidden messages in our screensavers or something...

Sincerely,
*cough* *sniff* *coughcough* *hack*

***

Dear Self,
I swear I witnessed you latching the kitchen babygate last night.  So how the hell did the dog get in there, eat the cat food, eat the zucchini bread that was thawing on the counter, and shit in the basement?  Apparently head colds amplify memory loss or something.

So Much for Breakfast,
Me

***

Dear Dog,
Since you seem to have developed thumbs overnight, you can clean up your own shit.

No, You Don't Get Breakfast So Quit Dancing Around By Your Dish,
Mama

***

Dear Princess Fuzzy Butt,
Yes, I know the dog ate your food and the world is ending because your dish is empty.  LET. ME. SLEEP.  You are THIS close to being shut in a closet.

Get Your Fat Ass Off My Chest,
The Lady Under the Blankets

***

Dear Mother Nature,
Dumping six inches of snow on the day I stay home sick is a happy coincidence!  It's pretty, and I don't have to drive.  My favorite kind of snow.  Too bad I can't go out and take pictures.... or get groceries.  Oops.

Many Thanks,
The Smart Person Who Failed to Stock Up Before the Storm

Nap, please. PLEASE.

Is this the face of a terrorist?

The answer is, abso-friggin-lutely.  This psychotic, annoying little beast kept me awake ALL NIGHT.  She has it in for our humidifier, and no matter what I do she insists on trying to tip the damn thing over.  I'm a horribly light sleeper, so every time she gives it a yank it wakes me up.  Add to that her habit of jumping up on the bed right next to my face and demanding attention by standing on my boobs with her 20-pound feet... AND THEN when I booted her out of the bedroom and shut the door, she scratched at the carpet and the door, shaking the whole thing in its frame.  So I booted her down the stairs (I really had to refrain from throwing her at this point but I probably would have thrown my back out too) and shut the door at the top of the stairs and the bedroom door so I couldn't hear her attempts at taking it off the hinges.

Then there's this guy.

He's not a little dog, but he's usually allowed to sleep on the bed because of his wonderful ability to curl up into a ball the size of a pumpkin.  However the past couple of weeks, his skin has been dry and his ears have been bothering him.  He's kind enough to not scratchscratchscratch on the bed, but it means that he's getting up and down, on and off the bed all. night. long.  Last night he got the boot too.  Tonight, he'll be quarantined to his bed on the floor.

Needless to say I'm a bit tired.

Add that to the uncomfortable state of my girly-bits and I really wish I was back in bed!  I started reading up on the side-effects of birth control after reading this article by Amalah, and I thought that I would try going off my pills for a while and see if it improved my state of mind and energy levels.  So far, so good, but of course I totally forgot what it would do to me physically.  Bleah.

***

The bright spot today was the LEED Green Associate test this morning.  I spent most of yesterday evening cramming for it - because with my memory, it was utterly hopeless to try and study in advance.  Some of the stuff I was reading left me thinking, the last time I checked I'm not an architect or a general contractor... WHY do I need to know this stuff??  Apparently, they expect their GA's to double as HVAC experts?  Well, regardless, I passed it.  So yay for that being off my shoulders!

***

Christmas was nice and quiet, just B and I.  (Except when he woke me up at 6:30 in the morning, demanding pancakes.  There was some grumbling then.)  It was a pretty lazy day, and didn't entirely feel like Christmas, but it was good.  I had ordered a package of wild game steaks from Cabela's as part of our gift for ourselves, and I grilled the Nilgai Antelope for Christmas dinner.  (Random factoid: Nilgai is native to India, but is ranched for hunting in Texas... apparently there are now more of them in Texas than in India.)  It's pretty good, tastes a bit like pork.  We're saving the rest of the package (elk, wild boar, venison, & bison) for other special occasions.

I scored big points by surprising B with a circular saw (I know!  I managed to pull off a surprise!  I was so proud of myself.) and he scored big points by visiting the Brighton store for a pair of earrings & bracelet for me (canaries! squee!).  He also used his student discount to get me Photoshop Elements 8, which I've been playing with a bit.  I'll start posting some of my experiments with it soon.

Otherwise... yeah.  I'm pretty fried.

A couple more articles

Thanks to @ScottWGraves for posting the links to these articles...

Understanding Climategate's Hidden Decline

Climategate reveals 'the most influential tree in the world'

The science behind the controversy basically shows that the "hockey stick graph" created by Michael Mann was truly created - the data they used to estimate atmospheric temperatures pre-dating modern diagnostic equipment was essentially hand-picked in order to show the image of global warming that they wanted to show.  The tree article above does a good job of explaining it in simple terms; the first article above is a little more scientific in nature.

I don't want to spend too much time on a soapbox, so I'll sum up:  while climate change is a real thing, it's a natural cycle of the planet.  The world is not going to end in a big flaming ball of doom and destruction because of it.  The 'solutions' that everybody and their dog have come up with are good solutions... to other, more pressing problems. The media is good at making a mountain out of a molehill, and ignoring the news that doesn't support their agenda.

All the news that's fit to report... er...

So has anyone else been hearing about Climategate?

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.4101412&w=425&h=350&fv=autoPlay%3Dfalse]

more about "Daily Show: Scientists Hide Global Wa...", posted with vodpod

Basically it boils down to this: Al Gore is a marketing genius, but otherwise a damn fraud.  All the "science" and "data" pointing to anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change has been a bunch of bullshit all along.  Thank god for whistleblowers.

As for media coverage... wait, what media coverage??  Oh yeah, they're all tied up with Tiger Woods.  Comedy Central Scoops Network News on Climate-Gate Scandal

Here's the background:  Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists

[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/7945623]

Over 31,000 scientists have signed a petition agreeing that "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing, or will in the foreseeable future cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."

And where's Gore?  Climategate goes uber-viral, Gore flees leaving evil henchmen to defend crumbling citadel

To Whom It May Concern:

Dear Body,

Stop with the pain, please.  Right Shoulder, your constant aching and occasional stabbing pains are getting old.  Lower Back, I know you're having some 'internal turmoil' right now but I'd appreciate it if you laid off with the muscle spasms.  And Head, if I could remove you and leave you in a jar on the nightstand, I totally would.  You're all on notice.

Sincerely,

Ibuprofin Ain't Cuttin' It

***

Dear Northwest Airlines/Delta/Whoever You Are,

I hope you appreciate the effort I will be putting into packing this weekend.  I will even be weighing my suitcase.  Seven days, split between work and vacation, into one bag?  This might get ugly.

Cordially,

At Least Phoenix Will be Warm So I Can Pack Clothes That Weigh Less

***

Dear Subconscious Mind,

I'm really not sure what to do with you anymore.  You're kind of freaking me out, with the way you randomly spew things into my consciousness while I'm trying to brush my teeth and get ready for the day.  This morning?  The odd bit of the Jabberwocky poem that I remember from my freshman year of college ("Oh frabjous day, calloo, callay!" He chortled in his joy.), when I had to perform it in my drama class (which is another story altogether).  Seriously, STFU and let me put on my makeup in peace.

Thank you kindly,

Not Awake Enough For That Bizarre Shit

***

Dear Dog,

You seem to be the subject of a few of these notes.  I wonder why.  At any rate, please, please, PLEASE behave yourself next week while I'm gone.  I know B is a bit more lax about the rules than I am, but that doesn't mean you can take advantage of him.  Stay out of the damn kitchen, and keep your bathroom business in the yard, not the basement.  I'm tasking the cats with keeping you in line, and you know you hate it when Gyro gives you the evil eye.

Much Love,

Mama, aka the Keeper of the Yogurt

So how was YOUR weekend?

Me, I spent mine in the hospital. Nothing horrible, nothing major, but it's kind of a long story.  

My big black cat, Gyro, likes to beat the crap out of my smaller cat, Lily. I was working in my craft room when I heard them going at it in the bedroom (no not that kind of "going at it." Sickos.). I went in there to break them up right as Lily tore up into the shelving of the closet to get away, but Gyro must have grabbed her or she slipped or something, because suddenly she was hanging upside down from the wire shelf at the top, with one back leg caught in the wire. I grabbed Gyro & threw him out of the closet, and tried to grab Lily and hold her up with my left hand while untangling her foot with my right. She was (rightfully) REALLY freaked out though, and turned and latched onto my left hand and bit me twice before I was able to get her down. By this time I was (rightfully) freaking out too - blood was pouring out of one of the bites. B heard me screaming at this point, got me to the bathroom & we cleaned out the wound and got the bleeding stopped, just in time for me to almost puke/pass out on the bathroom floor.  

The last time we went to the ER, we went to UTMC, right around the corner from our house, but the wait was ridiculously long. Our landlord had recommended a couple of other places (part of the Mercy system), but we must have looked up the wrong location or something because when we got there, they told us we were at the wrong place. We finally made it to St. V's downtown, but their ER waiting area was overflowing onto the sidewalk outside. The security guard said they'd just had two major traumas come in too, and that the wait would be REALLY long. We were pretty frustrated at this point, so we just said "screw this" and went all the way back to UTMC so we would at least be closer to home. Amazingly, we sat in the waiting room for all of 10 minutes, then only waited maybe 15 for a doctor to see me. The doc ordered xray's and a consult from an orthopedist, and they decided to admit me to make sure that the bite on my knuckle didn't cause an infection in my joint (which would be VERY bad & result in surgery). I sat there waiting for a room to open up in the main hospital for longer than my entire visit put together, and in the meantime B went home to get my stuff (mainly, sweatpants... I was in shorts and a tank top and was freezing my butt off!).  

I spent the night Friday, getting dosed with antibiotics and vicodin - my hand swelled up at least twice the normal size and hurt like hell! Saturday, the orthopedic docs couldn't decide whether to discharge me, or cut my hand open to drain it. By the afternoon, the swelling had gone way down, the redness was gone, and a doc from Infectious Diseases came by & said I should go home with a couple different antibiotics to take. It took a few hours for that to be communicated properly to everyone else though, so I was finally released around 6 or so. Got my pills, one of which makes me horribly nauseous and the other tastes like battery acid, and now have very little swelling but still a bit painful, and can't bend my fingers all the way. I'll probably still go in to work tomorrow though... I'll just have to be careful when I take my pills so I'm not zoned out or camped in the accounting department bathroom all day.

B has been the BEST and only got mad when we were trying to find St. V's - the streets in Toledo are a pain in the ass! So that's the whole story. Aren't you glad you asked? :-)

Here's the notorious (and messy) closet - Lily likes to hide on the top shelf, but Gyro can't get his fat ass up that high. She was dangling from the spot where my hat is hanging in this pic.

Are you going to GLUE my life back together or something?

I finally grew a pair and went to a therapist today.  It's been a long time coming, and really I should have done it a long time ago!  But I'm stubborn and a bit of a control freak (shut up!) and have always been one to manage my issues myself.  I ask for help when it comes to moving something heavy or using power tools, but when it comes to my personal life... well, that's why it's personal.  But I've realized that I'm changing... and I don't necessarily like who I'm changing into.  So I'm hoping to nip that in the bud and get back to who I really am.  

But right now I'm not going to go into any detail about all of that - my point in this post is that I'm not too sure about this particular therapist, and I'm hoping to get a little feedback.  She's nice, and I felt okay talking to her, but I also felt mildly uncomfortable.  Not really with her, or her technique, or her personality, but with her office.  It was such a huge mess!  It appears that she works with children, or mothers, as there were toys all over.  I couldn't see the top of her desk at all - papers, books, mugs, drink bottles, dying plants, and just stuff (a random bottle of Elmer's Glue?) covered every horizontal surface.  Her chairs were horribly uncomfortable, and the clock was right above my head with a really loud ticker, and I couldn't find anything to focus my attention on except that stupid bottle of glue, so I kind of felt like I wasn't welcome or something.  In the back of my mind I was thinking, and she's going to help me get my shit together?  Looks like she could use some help herself!  Which is kind of mean I guess, but seriously, the state of her office kind of made me wonder about her professional abilities.

But since this was my first time ever visiting a counselor or therapist, I'm wondering if this is maybe par for the course?  Are the tidy, comfortable, zen-like therapist's offices only on TV?  Or should I be looking for someone new, with some level of organizational skills?  I know I should keep looking if I truly feel uncomfortable, but do I?  Or am I just being nitpicky and anal?  (Har har.  Shut up.)

I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest, but...

I'm not sure I understand why Dr. Tiller is being so deified and honored in his death. Yes, it is horrible that he was murdered, and even more so that it was in church in front of his wife. That itself is terrible. But I keep reading these articles, blogs, and Tweets that he was a "shining star," a "crusader for women's rights", and on and on.
Wait a minute. He performed late-term abortions, correct? At that point in development, a fetus can't be passed off as an "inhuman blob of protoplasm" anymore. There's so much web traffic out there right now, but I also read on Bill O'Reilly's website that Dr. Tiller also performed abortions on 10-15 year old girls, cases of rape and incest, and did not notify the police. His reason for performing late-term abortions? The women were "depressed." NO SHIT. How is that worth honoring?
I'm pro-life, to an extent. I do believe that people, mothers and fathers alike, should be held responsible for their choice to have unprotected sex. Cases of rape or incest, whether in minors or adults, or severe illness that threatens the life of both mother and child, are the only instances where abortion should be condoned in my opinion. It's not a matter of "women's rights" to me. What about the child's rights? Because they have no voice, they don't count? The child has to give up its right to having a potentially wonderful life simply because "it's not the right time for me to have children" or whatever the reason is? If a woman is not fit to be a mother, there are countless other women out there who are, that maybe can't have children of their own, or that are willing and able to adopt by choice. Just because someone was irresponsible and had unprotected sex shouldn't make abortion the go-to answer.
But that's not the point here. I don't think murdering Dr. Tiller was right by any means. But I don't think it's right to call him a saint either.

And yet, I'm still awake...

The critters had a very eventful weekend... or so you'd think if you were to walk into my living room right about now.  Lily is passed out to my left:

Jake is over on the other couch:

and Gyro is in the cat bed in the window (on top of the dog crate).

They're all racked out like they're the ones who planted all sorts of flower seeds, cleaned out the dead plants from last year, put fresh dirt in the window boxes, planted herbs in the cute little pots I painted a couple of weeks ago, washed the rug outside then dragged it back in & soaked it and the floor with Nature's Miracle to try to get rid of the cat pee smell (stupid little &$@#!'s), watered the gardens every evening, ran a million and one errands, did laundry, unloaded & reloaded the dishwasher, got groceries, cleaned the litterboxes, patched the grout in the shower... and still had time to blog about it.  

This isn't even half of what I'd initially hoped to accomplish either, but stripping wallpaper is not one of my favorite past-times, and I didn't feel like getting out the power driver to take down the coat rack that's going to be painted, so that's all been put off until next weekend.

(My herbies - Cilantro, Parsley & Basil.  The 4th pot in the back will have mint, and the tall branch is a cutting from our raspberries waiting for some Root-Tone.)

The haps

Life has slowed down considerably, and I'm having a hard time with it. We're at that weird season where the sun is shining but it's not nearly warm enough to work in the garden, but sitting inside makes me feel guilty about wasting a beautiful day! Work is still slow as hell too, so I get home at night and really want to do something, anything, but I just wind up on the couch again. It's kind of depressing.

***

This weekend we're having a party, and honest to god party, with people and food and games and everything! B turned 30 last month and I turn 30 this month, so we're having one party. Some friends from Cleveland and Columbus are coming, and a bunch of B's friends from school, and a couple of my friends from work too. I just hope the weather holds out! It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow, but be sunny and mid-50's on Saturday. A little chilly, but we'll have a fire, and when the sun reflects off the back of the house the patio stays pretty warm. I hope it turns out well, because I'm doing a ton of food and I don't want it to go to waste. :-) So if you're around Toledo and not doing anything after 4:00 this Saturday, come by!! Brats & beer! Whoo!

***

I'm starting another blog today. I know what you're thinking... geez Jen, you barely ever write on this one, what are you gonna do with two? Well the other one is going to be strictly focused on the whole 'green' thing that I'm doing, with product reviews, links to good articles, and stuff that I learn along my way that might be interesting to friends and family. I'm going to share with my co-workers too. Right now I write a little newsletter once a month, but I know there are some folks who are more interested in this stuff than others, so I want to be able to share more with them too. So once I get the new place all set up, I'll post a link to it.