Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Randoms.

* My cats woke me up before getting-up-time this morning to point out a big centipede on the wall in my bedroom, which then scurried behind the pile of crap on my dresser. I am choosing to believe that it was not interested in my stuff and instead continued down the wall and out of the apartment. Mr. P was valiantly ready to catch it with a tissue (ick) when it emerged from behind the dresser, but it never did. The fact that I have not already moved out shows just how far I have come in my acceptance of the insect world around me.

* I've watched the Laura Ingraham video that everyone is talking about, but what I see is not a horrible person, but a professional who is trying to do her job and totally, utterly prevented from doing so by a team of incompetents at FOX "News." I probably still hate her, but in this, she has my understanding.

* Why is it that the entire state of Minnesota seems to have shut down all childcare options (except the ones no one can afford, the ones that cost $300+ for two days) for the last two weeks in August when school doesn't start until September 2?!

* I am annoyed beyond belief at the news (rumor?) that Hillary will be nominated at the convention. Bad move.

* Along these same lines, I'm annoyed at 1) a Hillary supporter I met who was incensed that anyone would suggest that some Hillary supporters have said they will vote for McCain and who believes that the very idea is a fabrication made up to discredit Hillary supporters. I know a few of these Hillary-McCain voters. I'm not making it up; and 2) Hillary supporters who are now voting for McCain who are claiming that McCain isn't such a bad guy. Sheesh. Who do you think you're fooling? You want to be spiteful? Go ahead. But don't expect me to buy that you supported Hillary and you are somehow in line with the McCain plan for America.

* I'm horrified by the NPR report I heard yesterday (while driving in my air-conditioned car in the sweltering heat) that in the next century, temperatures in the Midwest and in parts of Europe and the Middle East will reach the ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTIES. And that the solution is to 1) try to cut down on emissions (my emphasis), and 2) to make air conditioning more widely available to poor people. Not that this last isn't vitally important - but isn't "trying" to cut down on emissions a pretty useless response, and doesn't increasing the number of operating air conditioners actually add to the problem? Shouldn't we work on keeping the temperature from rising? (I am feeling self-righteous in my 80-degree (at 11:30pm) apartment. Self-righteous, and hot.)

* I have been told that Colin Ferguson, Thomas Jane (who looks nothing like that photo, by the way), and Mark Valley are not the same person, but I don't believe it. Also, Gary Cole and Marc Singer? Totally the same person.

* I am pretty sure we're hated by the neighbors for letting our lawn die (well, not actually my fault as I was gone for a month). Also, I think I violated the watering restrictions by watering tonight when no one else was - they seemed to all do it last night. We are *that* family. I am going to be a terrible home owner. I need to start saving now for a lawn service.

6 comments:

Wide Lawns said...

Plains Feminist I'm glad to see you're back after a break. I was wondering if you've heard about the food instead of lawns movement? There's a book and there was a great article in the New Yorker a few weeks ago about how we were all brainwashed into having lawns in the first place and how truly horrible lawns are for the environment and culture. So I say plow up that yellow grass and plant a garden. That would really make your neighbors hate you! I'd do it myself but I don't have a yard so I've got a pretty substantial container garden growing. But glad you're back and I'd love to hear more about Mexico if you want to share. I went on a similar trip myself a few years ago and was annoyed at people photographing poverty and people's houses there too. That should be an entry on "Stuff White People Like" I swear - pictures of quaint poor people.

Plain(s)feminist said...

I haven't heard of that movement, but I am not a big fan of lawns as a concept. Sure, it's nice to run around in soft grass, but I feel pretty guilty wasting water on it. I would never use chemicals. I think crab grass is pretty.

I am not really interested in gardening, so I don't think I would replace my lawn with a garden (though I may do a very small veggie garden next summer).
Also, I rent, and I'm not sure the landlord would allow me to do something that radical. But if I could, I'd be inclined to do some kind of rock and indigenous plant thing - with the help of an actual gardener - that I wouldn't have to worry about gardening or doing much to take care of.

So much has happened since Mexico that I don't know if I remember anything to write about. Not that it's been exciting stuff, just that I've spent nearly a month with family and I'm wiped out.

CrackerLilo said...

*I'd love to have a lawn, or better yet, vegetables and flowers and fruit trees.
*I hope the centipede's gone, too.
*If you read anything Laura Ingraham wrote, you have lots of good reasons to hate her.
*That sucks about your childcare!
*The Harridans for Hillary are annoying me witless, and I hope we don't actually get a repeat of the 1968 convention, despite what some idiots want.
*Climate change scares me, and I'm *trying* to limit my A/C usage.

Dw3t-Hthr said...

The Clinton-McCain supporter I know I ... do not understand how she makes her politics work. Or a lot of anything else, honestly. (She's of a religion that highly values independence and iconoclasm, and keeps chasing after Authority Figures ...)

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! Just had lunch w/ a beloved HRC supporter who said she didn't think she could vote for Obama...fortunately, her peer jumped her before The Former-Chair and I could, but the argument that I made was this: This election isn't about your mother, or you, or Hillary -- it's about Thing #1 and Thing #2 (read: Bean). And I'm sending her their pictures on Nov. 3 to remind her. TF-C (who was also pro-HRC in the day) rapidly concurred. Don't know if it worked, but I have faith that at 22, she's not yet someone who would vote against a school levy because she doesn't have kids.

cp said...

Glad to have you back on.

I was familiar with Laura Ingraham's work back when I was in grad school at Dartmouth in 1982. (I think she had just graduated and was still writing ugly, mean editorials for The Dartmouth Review.

After all the suffering Laura has caused, it gave me extreme pleasure to have her personally experience what we have watched happen for the last eight years-- what happens when people are hired on the basis of their loyalty instead of their skills, experience, and professionalism!

And, since we're seeing this tape, maybe their loyalty wasn't so hot either!

As Mike Meyers would say, her agony was goooooredgous!

Joy!