1803 Getting ready for Thanksgiving

It's only Saturday, but it's time to start thinking about it. I'm going to move the 21 lb turkey into the garage refrigerator to thaw. We don't need two refrigerators for two people, but that side by side monster has been sitting there since we replaced it with a top freezer model. I need to find it a good home.

The dining room was dark faux orange (even the ceiling) and the window was draped when we moved here. Even now, it's a bit dark, but we love the view of trees, a creek and sometimes deer, not visible here--hence, no drapes, just plantation blinds.

Then I was browsing the Carnival of Recipes today and came across Shawn's recipe for Hummingbird Cake. I make pies for Thanksgiving, but this is also birthday week, so I'm leaning toward a cake. I'm always looking for something I can easily substitute Splenda for sugar, and this one looks pretty easy, plus it's got some healthy stuff, like crushed pineapple and mashed bananas, in it. Cream cheese frosting is a bit of a problem, however. So I went to the Splenda site and here's how you make powdered sugar substitute:

3/4 C Splenda
2 TBSP cornstarch
mix in a blender.
And that equals 1/2 Cup of powdered sugar.

Technorati tags: Thanksgiving
Splenda

1801 The most wonderful chair in the world

If I could've taken anything from my office when I locked it for the last time in 2000 (after walking around in the dark and saying good-bye to the prisoner made 1940s furniture, the musty stacks, and the cobbled-together equipment and computers), it would have been my Aeron Herman Miller chair.

In the spring of 1999 my arms below the elbow began to ache and my hands were tingling. I knew all about repetitive stress and also knew that my 1970s desk chair and my 1940s office metal desk were probably the incorrect height for heavy computer use. I thought maybe a new chair with adjustable arms and height would help. My line of command had recently been changed to the Health Sciences Library which had more pockets of special money than did my old reporting line, the Libraries, so my boss told me to go to an office furniture store and pick out a chair. After sitting in several, I thought the Aeron felt just about perfect, and I loved the design. I put it in the back of my van and went back to the office.

However much I enjoyed the chair and its support of my back and arms, the pain only increased. And it moved to my right shoulder. I finally went to the doctor who told me I had an injured rotator cuff, the clue being I could barely raise my right arm above my head without pain. For several months I went through physical therapy with all the OSU athletes. "How'd you get hurt?" they'd ask. "Lifting journals," I told them. The sports medicine doctor just shook his head at my lack of progress, and suggested surgery. That scared me, so I worked harder and eventually got back full range of motion.

But, I sure did enjoy that chair.

Technorati: rotator cuff, office furniture

1801 The Old School

Occasionally I drop in on the Davey family blog. They are Welsh evangelists in France. The adults are attending a special language school for foreigners, but their kids, Catrin and Gwilym, just attend a regular French school. Alan comments about this recently:

"The school culture is quite different here from in Britain. It is much more like school when I was a kid. For example teachers here do use the "You are no good and you'll never get anywhere" method of encouragement, children are hit by the teachers and the kids are encouraged to sort out their own problems of bullying etc."

And then he pauses to reflect that maybe things weren't so great in the good old days the way he remembered them.

1800 No one bowls alone in Cyberspace

Knitters are getting together at Knit Unto Others, a 2 week Knit Along for the charity of your choice. November 16th-30th, 2005; author wannabes like Hip Liz and Paula are furiously writing in the NaNoWriMo because in November they are suppose write a whole novel; all the smart and snappy ladies are hanging out together at the Cotillion where everyone is entitled to their opinion; Christian ladies group at Women4God; Bear Flag Leaguerounds up Californians and Ex-pats like me; Open Source Media has Blogjams; Homespun Bloggers features "Best of the week" and has radio broadcasts; the 96th Christian Carnival is up this week at Jordan's View; there's zest and spice at Carnival of the Recipes; and the photoblog and the audioblog people do their roundups, and it goes on and on and on. No one speaks or links alone in blogland.

1799 Complacency and Promiscuity

Apparently, teenagers are having oral and anal sex and SURPRISE! getting HIV and AIDS. Seems as though they too think that isn't "having sex" and constitutes abstinence. The media is full of this CDC report. I looked at yesterday's press release of the CDC and didn't see it--I'm sure it's there or maybe in an earlier report. But I did see that the rate of diagnosis has remained stable, that it is going down among blacks, but that half of all HIV diagnoses are among blacks. And guess what? Men are getting it from men and women are getting it from men. Seems to be a pattern here.

Call the teens silly and naive if you wish, but how could that be any sillier than entrusting your life and future health to a tiny piece of latex, expecting it to hold back virulent viruses and bacteria, and never fail or break?

1798 Cat abuse lands perp in the woods for a night

Judge Michael A. Cicconetti of Painesville, Ohio is known for his creative sentencing. Michelle M Murray has received a 15 day jail sentence for abandoning 35 mittens kittens in two parks. She has to spend the first night of her sentence in the woods without food or shelter (precautions have been taken for her safety, which is more than the kittens got). She also got a $3,200 restitution fine and can't own or care for animals for 3 years. I wish the courts were that tough on bad parents and in domestic abuse cases. Story is in today's Columbus Dispatch (no free on-line). If you Google this, you'll find a number of animal rights sites were watching this case, but in this judge's case, I don't think that made any difference. He sentenced someone who had called a policemen a "pig" to time inside a pig pen in public view.

If you kill a woman in Ohio while drunk, you'll only get 5 years (plus a few extra for a gun or abuse of a corpse) and no fine, and you'll probably get custody of the pit bull!

1797 The Ohio State vs. Michigan game tomorrow

The only time it is crazier is when the game is here. Last week Eric and my husband went to the OSU Northwestern game with 105,000 of their closest friends. Anyway, earlier this week I was writing about my husband learning to use some of our newer appliances, so I thought this joke I heard on 920 am this morning was pretty funny (and I paraphrase because I was driving and I'm just terrible at jokes).

The husband calls upstairs from the laundry room. "What should I do to wash a load of clothes?"

Wife responds: "Depends on what you're washing."

Husband: My "Go Michigan Beat Ohio State" T-shirt."

Wife responds: Use very hot water, a box of Tide, and four cups of bleach."

And be sure to read Mustang Mama's Go Bucks story.

1796 Put it on the opinion page

Yesterday a journalist in our local paper attempted to write a humor page about the various wizards you find in literature and movies, like Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (don't hold me to this, since I'm not a fantasy fan I probably have the titles wrong). The only part that got political in the entire not-so-funny piece was the Wizard of Oz with reference to "duping the good folk of Oz," "dimwitted country boy," Karl Rove "behind the curtain" and the "cowardly lion" Democrats. Ho, ho, hum. How funny. Does this man never read liberal blogs? That dumb country boy with strings attached to Rove behind the curtain has been done to death! No one laughs at these oh-so-tired jokes except the Michael Morons, and this guy's writing for a heavily Republican readership. So much for respecting your audience, huh? And your advertisers.

I think he'd had this idea burning a hole in his brain and really struggled to find other wizards so he could do a big spread and use the overworked Bush-is-dumb-and-controlled-by-Rove meme. Hose him down. Put him on the opinion page.

1795 Kissed by a trombonist

Trombone playing consists of three technical elements that must work together: blowing/buzzing of the lips (sound and flexibility), the slide (digital coordination) and the tongue (articulation and rhythm). From Online Trombone Journal

My husband says, you haven’t been kissed until you’ve been kissed by a trombone player. I’ll bet I’ve heard that line about 50 times in the last 47 years. I've been sick so long I haven't even had a hug in 3 weeks, let alone a kiss. But today I feel much better than yesterday, which was better than Wednesday, so we are planning on our Friday night date tonight.

And when my husband left this morning to lead the aerobics class (all female), I got a sanitary kiss on the back of my neck.

1794 Spending is out of control

under the Republicans. If you ever wondered why many Republicans don't consider George Bush a conservative, just read George Will's column of November 17.

Conservatives have won seven of 10 presidential elections, yet government waxes, with per-household federal spending more than $22,000 per year, the highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II. Federal spending -- including a 100 percent increase in education spending since 2001 -- has grown twice as fast under President Bush as under President Bill Clinton, 65 percent of it unrelated to national security

Read the "Grand Old Spenders." It's not a pretty picture.

1793 Need a memory refresher

Conservator had a link to a group that reshelves books from fiction to some other category at book stores. CNET article here. It seems to me that back in the days when I was a contributor/reader of misc.writing (Usenet), there was a plan whereby we were supposed to move the authors we knew (members of mwville) to the front. Somebody help me out here. . . Hip, Billo, Gekko, Doyle. . . I've forgotten the routine.

BTW, don't ever reshelve a library book (as this site suggests for bookstores). It throws off statistics and you'll probably do it wrong.

1792 Patriot Act extended but librarians are mum?

"Congressional negotiators reached a tentative agreement today to renew the terror-fighting USA Patriot Act, leaving the controversial law largely intact but with new restrictions on the ability of the FBI to gather information and new requirements for the Justice Department to publicly report on how the law is operating.

The agreement makes permanent most of the existing provisions of the law, which was approved after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, while two sections, including a widely debated records-gathering measure known as "the library provision," would expire in seven years unless extended." LA Times, Nov. 16, 2005

Apparently, the 7 year extension is considered some sort of "curb," or victory, but after all the whining and teeth gnashing by librarians the last several years, all the effort spent and pixels burning up blogs, columns and journal articles, I'm a bit surprised that I found no one mentioning this either as a victory or a complete failure at the ALA website or the LISNews.com. Of course, it's still early on the left coast. . . and Blake is redesigning LISNews and I'm having problems with some of the features, so maybe it is there . . .

BeSpacific says this came out from the ALA Washington Office, but I couldn't find it: "The House is scheduled to vote on the PATRIOT Act conference report as early as Thursday, November 17. The revised bill does not contain important civil liberties safeguards sought by ALA and other advocates...The revised bill sunsets at seven years (The Senate bill sunset was 4 years and the House bill sunset was 10 years) -- A four year sunset will make it possible to correct an abuse of Section 215 at an earlier date." Maybe it was a subscription item--librarians talk "open access" but don't observe it for their own publications.

Patriot Act
Librarians

1791 What should I do?

Listen to Bach, play with Norma's knitting, or take a nap? Naps win paws down.



cats

1790 Plame Name

The "secret" widens. Must have been an even worst kept secret than we thought--even Bob Woodward knew before Scooter Libby, but Patrick Fitzgerald's two year investigation never even got him in the cross hairs. What's going on! But Bob, who must be the only reporter who CAN keep a secret, didn't tell his bosses at WaPo for two years, and now they are mad at him!

"Fitzgerald [on Nov. 14] asked for my impression about the context in which Mrs. Wilson was mentioned. I testified that the reference seemed to me to be casual and offhand, and that it did not appear to me to be either classified or sensitive. I testified that according to my understanding an analyst in the CIA is not normally an undercover position." Read Woodward's full statement here, and ponder again how silly this all looks.

1789 Time for a new notebook

and I don't mean a computer--the old fashioned, use a #2 pencil, 6" x 8", spiral bound, hard cover, lined paper notebook. I don't write these blog entries out of the air, you know, (well, sometimes I do). I read and take notes in long hand, then I think and decipher my scribbles and look for links to see what American Daughter or Dr. Sanity or Jane Galt or Neo-Neocon and Barbara Nicolosi are writing about. Usually, they aren't blogging about my topics, but that takes another two hours. Anyway, a notebook can last for three months, but the last one was begun on September 1, and I had way too much to say about Katrina and the liberals who claimed the federal government should be the first responder. So by November 1, I only had 15 pages left. I actually ran out on the 14th, and was scribbling in margins and on the covers. So today, it is officially, NEW NOTEBOOK DAY.

New notebook on left. I think I bought it at Meijer's. The notebook on the right (Sept-Nov) was purchased at Wal-Mart and is one of two styles I buy by Day Runner that includes passages from the Psalms, King James Version, every 3rd page. It started with 3:3 and ended with 86:12

1788 Purchased any Sony CDs lately

with XCP Content Protection Technology? Like perhaps Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook or Billy Holiday’s The Great American Songbook? Buyers are furious and the law suits started. I don’t pretend to understand the technology, but I think I know it’s not right for Sony to assume I'm a thief and modify my computer when I insert a CD.

Here’s Sony’s apology.

The back ground, with links, is provided by Charles Bailey,The Sony BMG Rootkit Fiasco. Especially read the first link in his article. Your eyeballs will fall out, but hey, it's good exercise.

rootkit

1787 A Soldier's Funeral on Veteran's Day

Soldier's Mom writes about the funeral of SPC Tommy Bryd who was in her son's squad. Bring along a tissue. She is the wife of a career naval officer (retired), and mother of four--a currently serving career sailor (Norfolk, VA), a hazardous waste specialist (a Navy vet in upstate NY), daughter in medical school (VA), and a 3rd Infantry Division soldier deployed to Iraq in January 2005, WIA August 2005 and now recovering in the U.S.

1786 A very good list

of things she wished known starting out is over at Alana's Morning Coffee. Smart lady! Especially enjoyed these:

6. Live on LESS than you earn. Be radical in order to make this happen.

7. Stay the #%#% away from credit cards.

8. Have an emergency fund saved up so you CAN stay away from credit cards.

29. Find a way to give to others: whether time, talent or money. Be deliberate about it. You will be a better person for it.

47. Pray more. Worry less. Amazing how much God seems to care about the details of your life.

48. Get over yourself and don’t take yourself so seriously.

1785 Grown Up Land

Orange Judd Farmer, Young Folks column, January 14, 1889.

Good morrow, fair maid, with lashes brown,
Can you tell me the way to Womanhood town?

O, this way and that way--never a stop,
'Tis picking up stitches grandma will drop;
'Tis kissing the baby's troubles away,
'Tis learning that cross words never will pay,
'Tis helping mother, 'tis sewing up rents,
'Tis reading and playing, 'tis saving the cents,
'Tis loving and smiling, forgetting to frown,
O that is the way to Womanhood Town.

Just wait, my brave lad--one moment I pray;
Manhood Town lies where--can you tell the way?

O by toiling and trying we reach that land--
A bit with the head, a bit with the hand--
'Tis by climbing up the steep hill Work,
'Tis by keeping out of the wide street Shirk,
'Tis by always taking the weak one's part,
'Tis by giving the mother a happy heart.
'Tis by keeping bad thoughts and actions down,
O that is the way to the Manhood Town.

And the lad and the maid ran hand in hand,
To their fair estates in the Grown-up Land.

Orange Judd Farmer (Chicago, 1888-1924), then became Orange Judd Illinois Farmer, which merged into Prairie Farmer). Attributions in farm journals were sort of careless in the 1880s, but this poem is credited to The Pansy published until 1896.

1784 Teaching an old husband new tricks

We've been married 45 years and have a good system for division of labor--I do the easy stuff, he does the tough stuff. Even when I was a SAHM (1968-1978) in the midst of the feminist propaganda of the 70s about how downtrodden and overworked we women are, I sat down and charted the work loads of our family. The kids were given credit for "work" for each hour in school and homework and any little jobs they had around the house. My husband got credit for hours at work, travel time, meetings, continuing ed and work around the house like gutter cleaning, yard work, carpentry, small repairs, autocare and night time child care if I was out of the house at a consciousness raising group. I gave myself credit for time spent on the seven C's, cooking, cleaning, clothes care, car pooling, children's outside the home activities and clubs--VBS, Campfire, etc., cat care and child direct supervision (they were in elementary school and not at home from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. week days). Wow. How humbling. I was definitely the sluggard--working about half the hours of everyone else, which gave me time for reading, painting, watching TV and lunching with friends.

So I've never been too eager to include my husband in household chores. But being sick the past two weeks, I've learned we need some minimal instruction if I don't want him snapped up by some floozy in 6 weeks if something were to happen to me. I never thought about the fact that when we moved here in 2002, we had all new appliances, and I spent a little time experimenting and learning their foibles, all of which come without thinking now. But although he could load the dish washer (sort of), he didn't know the digital settings for heavy and light and times; he didn't know the digital settings on the ovens; he could put clothes in the dryer, but didn't know how to turn it on (4 setting and a bazillion choices for time and fabrics); and he knew how to buy bananas, but not apples.

Thank God he knew how to scoop the kitty litter because she was getting hair ball cat food instead of her usual diet!