sunny blizzard

Seriously? OK, maybe I exaggerate a bit but trying to throw shovelfuls of snow over my head is ridiculous. I do like the sound of the snow squeaking under my boots. One must find pleasure where one will.

So this must be what straight men are presented with every minute of every day of every week of every - well, you get the idea. I could live with seeing ads like this everywhere. Let's ditch all the naked lady ads and replace them with these!! I enjoy how the leg covers his genitals, leaving us titillated and wondering what, exactly, he's hiding. We get just a taste of his bare buttocks. Via Feminist Law Profs.

~E~ I haven't been posting deep thoughts lately. I hope this will make up for it. This woman is amazing, not to mention freaking adorable, and I smile through all of her videos. Look her up on youtube - Julia Nunes.

~E~ I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. I think it's an, ad based on the last frame, but.. He dances better than I do.

~E~ Bwhaaa...?? That's what gas is today. Every time I see a lower price I do a double-take. It seems very surreal. I know it won't last. And one cannot hoard gas. Here's to public transportation!!

~E~ Thanks, popster. The following is written by my dad, who was in the Korean War. The Essence of War I watched as the giant Globemaster transport plane touched down on the runway, as gently as a leaf drifting to earth on a brisk fall day……….. It was early July. Truce talks aimed at ending the Korean War were finally being taken seriously. To improve their positions prior to a settlement, Chinese and North Korean forces had conducted a major offensive against “Old Baldy” and “Pork Chop Hill.” ……. The bloody battle surged back and forth across the slopes of the two hills. After five days of violent, often hand-to-hand combat, friendly troops recovered the lost ground. As in most battles, the only accomplishment was the death and maiming of thousands of young men. The sheer number of wounded mandated that only those who could not be safely transported would be treated at MASH or divisional facilities. The rest were treated on the battlefield, rushed to the nearest airstrip and loaded on...

~E~ The child seems to be improving. No longer must he arise every hour on the hour to douse his eye with antibiotics. No longer must he visit the kind physician every day. He has to go back in two days for a followup and he'll see what's up then. He does look very handsome his new glasses, I must say. It'll be even better when his eye stops glowing red.

~E~ Yes. Yes, they do. Know what else sucks? When the editorial page of your local newspaper has four columnists write about how awesome it is that Obama was elected - and NONE of the columnists was a woman. After having a woman make a darn good run for the presidency (and reveling in the fact that there might be someone high up in government who would inject some inkling of the fact that women make up over 50% of the population) it feels especially painful to be poked with that stick. I always noticed things like that before but I somehow thought that after having Clinton and Palin running for high office we could actually acknowledge that women exist. Nope. We're still invisible. And frankly, women are a big reason that Obama was elected. Perhaps if Mr. Obama finally does make an effort to bring women's issues to the forefront it will trickle down? P.S. I strongly believe addressing 'women's issues' will make the world a better place for everyone. And someday ...

~E~ He did it! He won!!!!

~E~ I'm scared for my son. He has an ulcer on his cornea and a very bad eye infection. It started last week, I took him to the doc on Saturday (we were sent straight to the hospital from there) and it's not improving significantly yet. It's bad. If it doesn't get better, he could lose his vision in that eye. I can't save him from that and that hurts. This is what his eye looks like; warning, it's gross. It didn't really hit me until today just how serious this could be. I hope this clears up.

!E! Click here for some great Obama and kid photos.

~E~ This is the sort of thing that fascinates me. This tree may be 1500 years old - amazing! Towering over 65 feet high, the Angel Oak has shaded John's Island, South Carolina, for over 1400 years, and would have sprouted 1000 years before Columbus' arrival in the New World. Recorded history traces the ownership of the live oak and surrounding land, back to the year 1717 when Abraham Waight received it as part of a small land grant. The tree stayed in the Waight family for four generations, and was part of a Marriage Settlement to Justus Angel and Martha Waight Tucker Angel. See more here . When I see old people ... I see them young and climbing the branches of this tree. It sometimes makes me sad when I realize how much humans have changed the landscape, how little many of us seem to care about the future. We no longer build things to last. We build a store that gets torn down 18 years later and then build the same store two blocks away. There is a university library out east...

~E~ Can you see faces in your broccoli? This is bizarre! From this blog. You know what I'm going to be looking at next time I go grocery shopping.

~E~ It is the new catch phrase for the Blizzard family. It translates as "cricket being", which captures my fancy. Now I want to learn Dutch. Spanish, French and Irish: Grillo = cricket Grillon = cricket Cruicéad = cricket I still think krekel beats them all.

~E~ Ah, yes. Why not take the whole family in for a tattoo? I had offered Al's mom a tattoo for her birthday, rather half-jokingly, but she jumped at the chance! Al and his brother decided to get in on the fun as well, so we all went together to "mark" them. I declined, lest you think you should ask to see mine, thank you. It seems like it should be a momentous occasion, getting your first tattoo, being marked for the rest of your life. It really wasn't. The artists came up, asked if this was the one you wanted, then took you back and buzzed away. It was all over in less than half an hour. Al's forever marking: His brother's forever marking: I didn't get a pic of his mom's. Too bad, since she was the impetus for all this craziness. Sunday I spent with my friend M, looking at an art exhibit about 'Mami Wata' and giving her birthday presents. YAY presents! I tried to find a good link about Mami Wata (Mommy Water, basically) online but there reall...

~E~ People please, let's be careful out there.

~E~ Sometimes, you just know . Shopping with Al yesterday, I knew I should buy that $1 lottery ticket. I didn't win the top prize, but I did win $20. I think my friend would approve. Now I have to figure out if there is something in particular I should do with $20.

~E~ Some strange sound woke me up last night at 3:30 am. The cat heard it too, and leaped off the bed to go see what it was, but then she turned and stared at my bedroom window for a while. Not fun. We heard no other sounds, although I did get up and turn some lights on and off just so there were signs of awareness in the house. Makes me wish I could borrow a big dog at night. This morning I unlocked the back door and as I pulled it open the handle came off in my hand. Errrr, not cool. The handle is separate from the lock so I'm safe, and I think it's entirely coincidence, but I hate stuff like that.

~E~ Because blogger wouldn't let me post all the photos in the other thread: This cake was for a picnic put on by her Irish dance group, and needless to say it was a BIG hit! To the point of everyone ooh-ing and aah-ing, and wanting to take a picture. Good job, daughter!

~E~ Daughter has for some time expressed an interest in cake decorating. Following is her first attempt. (Imagine I'm saying that in a golf announcer's fake whisper):

~E~ When I see old people, I see them at the age of 20.

~E~ It started as just background noise in my head, and by the end of the day had grown so loud that I had to look it up on youtube. I found it. Since then I have been obsessed with it. I suspect it's partly because the guy is reminiscent of what Al looked like before I met him, long hair and a beard. As with all obsessions, I searched the internet to see what I could find. These two are Dutch. He is known as Big Mouth, but his real name is Willem Duyn. He was born a really long time ago, in 1937. He is dead now. Her real name is Sjoukje van't Spijker but she goes by Maggie Maclean. She is still alive and singing. This has been the first installment of Obsession Corner.

~E~ When I see old people, I see myself.

~E~ So there.

~E~ When I was a kid I had a few classmates ask me if we were 'poor'. I felt vaguely ashamed and I really can't remember what I answered. It seemed, though, that more than a few of my classmates were in the same economic class. Looking back, damn straight we were poor. I really don't know how my parents coped. My mom added up the price of food as we went grocery shopping so she would stay in her budget; even a candy bar was a big deal to us back then and it was a rare treat, as was fast food. Dinners often consisted of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese dinner. Period. Or pancakes, or rice-a-roni with a few breakfast sausages tossed in. My mom had a few really horrible recipes that I could barely choke down but it was either that or nothing. One thing she called "Collinsburgers" was especially gross. She'd mix cheap hamburger with catsup and mustard, spread a thin layer on a bun and broil it. Gag. She also did this thing where she'd line a cake pan with meatba...

~E~ How cool is this - bees can count to four? Check it out! "We find that bees can count up to four objects, when they are encountered sequentially during flight." What does this mean for humans? We are not the only intelligent species on the planet. Even bugs are smart! And even bugs who we claim should not be able to fly , according to the laws of (human) physics!

~E~ I thought this was funny. Be patient and watch it all the way through.

~E~ I would make a terrible pioneer woman. Get up at the crack of dawn, start a fire, feed and water and milk the cow, make hotcakes, haul water, do laundry on a washboard, hoe the garden, can some vegetables, churn butter etc etc etc. Nope, ain't gonna happen. Secret service agent? Nah. I'd scan the crowd for five minutes, then get really bored and distracted and start putting together a dance routine in my head for KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the way I like it". And I'm not taking a bullet for anyone not related intimately to me. Artist. I have these great ideas in my head that I can never translate into any sort of attractive or meaningful medium. Stuff always comes out ordinary or ugly. Big sigh. Although who knows, maybe that's the next big thing? I used to think I would suck at being president, but now I think I'd do a bang-up job compared to... some. I'd really suck at being a religious leader because I'm a terrible liar. Al...

~E~ A post about psychics, or 'side kicks' as Number One Son used to say when he was five. Do you ever just know something? Can you predict the future? Every now and then it happens to me, but I can't say that it happens with anything that matters. I'll be 100 percent certain I'm going to win this game of Solitaire that I just started, but I haven't yet predicted who will win the next election. So not especially useful. Recently a coworker's birthday was coming up. I knew she would be wearing green that day, despite having no reason to have a clue what she would wear so I did wore green as well in her honor. And yup, she was wearing green. I amaze myself, I swear. haha Another Incredible Future-Predicting Incident happened with my niece when she was about three. I had a favorite pair of sunglasses and as we were sitting there playing I suddenly just knew she was going to break them. I didn't freak out, I knew it was inevitable - it's weird, it'...

~E~ My friend R sent me an article that seeks to report on how women are doing at the office. The author began with the premise that women are hindered in their communication on the job for various reasons and wanted to figure out how women are hurt and how they could improve. She quickly realized that women seem to be doing much better than previously thought and changed her direction. Ultimately, Ford says women don't need to "improve" their ways of speaking because they are already strong participants. It's interesting, give it a read . Thanks, R.

Sigh.

~E~ This is a dining table. The top is made of river rocks embedded in acrylic. I Want This Table.

~E~ I'm sitting here listening to Rudy (911) Giuliani saying that it is appalling the sexism that S@r@h P@lin is being hit with right out of the gate. It's unprecedented. No, it's not. Have you not been paying attention since Hillary Clinton entered the race? I knew the Republicans would stick up for there own in a way that the Democrats would not. Thanks, Democrats. You have proven you are not the Big Tent party.

~E~ This sounds like a lot of fun. Basically, women get together, someone brings an hour and a half of dance music, and everyone just dances. The three rules are 'no boys, no booze and no judgement'. I want! And they make a seriously big deal of the “no judgment” part, making it clear that if you even look like you’re judging someone else, you’ll be out on your ass. Nice! ...There’s also a fourth rule they don’t mention on the website: No talking. Naturally, when I first heard this, I panicked. WHY DON’T YOU JUST ASK ME NOT TO BREATHE FOR 90 MINUTES? But once we got started, I realized how brilliant that rule is. If I’d been allowed to talk, I would have spent the first ten minutes giggling nervously... This would be so much fun! I loved to go out dancing and would love to do it again. It's a high, it really is.

~E~ Where was Mr. Rogers coming from at the beginning of the show? And where was he going when he left at the end? I always thought he was coming home for lunch, but I just read somewhere that the house isn't his, it is supposed to be a "TV" home where his TV kid friends can visit him. Hm. I think that's a bit too deep for your average 4 year old.

~E~ I saw a truck that had truck nuts on it today. Daughter was rather perturbed. I told her guys who have those are very insecure. I'm feeling strangely attractive and confident today. Odd, after that horrid hair cut. I've been getting a CSA box for about 12 weeks now. It's cool to support a local farm, and to try new veggies, but I don't think I'll do it next year. We don't get enough of any one thing to really use in recipes; and we get one or two of so many different things that it's hard to consume it all. I feel like too much gets wasted. I am going to take a mosaics class with the mom. That, or take a day trip somewhere fun. She has to let me know which she prefers. It will be my birthday gift to her - is it a good gift if she can't stand the sight of me? har har, just kidding. I have a couple of deeper posts brewing in my head. Promise.

~E~ Al and I went in for our five-times-a-year haircut this weekend. My stylist was off so I saw someone else. Not a good idea. As we were waiting for our cuts, I mentioned to Al that I saw several women leave with really shitty haircuts. I, however, still felt secure. C introduced herself and took me to her station; she was a really funky-looking person so I still felt secure. We discussed the cut. We agreed that she would cut 1 to 11/2 inches off the length. We agreed she would do some layering around my face, with the layers to start about jaw level. She washed my hair and started cutting. I still felt secure. I felt a little bit like she was rushing, but not enough to worry. I had to take my glasses off so couldn't see what she was doing, but still I felt secure. She cut, she trimmed, she blow dried, she styled. She was finally finished. I put on my glasses and looked at myself in the mirror. My first thought was, "are you serious?" I couldn't think of anything to...

~E~ Here it be, mates! I still have to hem the bottom of the shirt but I'm thrilled with it. It even has a lining. (hint - click on the picture) Here's a previous costume:

~E~ Since elementary school, I have had countless nightmares involving driving on raised roads that suddenly end, or have no barriers on the side, or the car dies and I have to somehow climb the rest of the way because the roads are steep and scary. These were and are truly nightmares. I wake up shaking and scared. For ages I couldn't figure out why I was having these dreams. Then I went to Milwaukee. Mystery solved. Apparently my class went to Milwaukee for a field trip and these roads freaked me out so much that it has stuck with me. I still hate driving in Milwaukee.

~E~ When I got into the car this afternoon to head home (taking sick day. poor me) the radio was tuned to Air America. The Ed Schultz show was on, and I really don't care for him, but I listened for a bit anyway. He was talking about the J0hn Edw@rds 'scandal'. I should have changed the station. It's all women's fault, you know? He actually said that forty-something year old women KNOW how to prevent pregnancy, so it sure smells like entrapment to him!! Good lord. Doesn't he think that forty-something year old MEN know how to prevent pregnancy? Is he aware that contraceptives fail? Poor John, that woman took advantage of him. Male caller number one, after that comment: All Democratic politicians must beware of every woman that flirts with him (women, apparently, are not politicians), because these ebul wimmen could very well be on the Republican payroll and trying to trap the poor men in a political sex scandal. Male caller number two: The woman he had the affai...

~E~ I just found this really amazing website about verbal abuse. Every woman should read it. I was reading along and thinking YES! Yes, that's exactly it! I would suggest taking the time to listen to the recording of the conversation the woman has with her (EX) boyfriend, and read along with the transcript, to see how abusive people work. This was almost triggering for me to listen to. How he belittles her feelings, refuses to listen to her points, changes the subject every time she makes sense, accuses her of the behavior HE is engaging in, making everything about himself and how he is the victim in this whole thing. Just wow. Here.

~E~ Daughter just finished up an Irish step dancing class, and now will be able to perform at a large festival in front of hundreds of cheering fans! She's quite excited, as am I, and I'm frustrated because we weren't allowed to watch class. It will all be a surprise to me! Daughter was aglow after the rehearsal today, and assured me it would be a fine performance. I can't wait!!

~E~ In Germany, someone took into account the fact that lots of women are police officers, and most of those women wear bras, and off-the-rack bras can be dangerous! ""The impact of a bullet can push the metal and plastic bits of the bra into an officer's body, causing serious injury," said Carmen Kibat, an adviser on equal opportunities for the Hamburg-based Bundespolizei - Germany's federal police force." I think this is pretty cool. Not only are women accepted in the force, but situations that affect only women working as police officers are noticed and acted upon. THAT is a huge step. It means women are being taken seriously in their jobs. Linkie

~E~ I love to read. He mocked me for reading, he thought it was stupid and a waste of time, I should be doing other worthwhile things like knitting. I don't knit. Strangely, if I just sat there for hours, motionless, staring at the TV he was fine with that. I wanted to start a vegetable garden because I think digging in the dirt is fun and relaxing. He mocked me for that and insisted that it was cheaper to just buy vegetables at the store. Miss the point much? His time was so valuable that you couldn't put a price on it. After becoming a mother, I almost never got alone time. I would ask him that day or a day ahead to stay home with OUR child so I could go to a movie, or just kick around town a little. He would refuse, and demand that I give him more notice. I would then ask a week ahead of time, he would agree, but as the day got closer he would get angrier and angrier and start a huge fight with me about his 'valuable' time and ultimately I would not get to go out wit...

~E~ This is a fun little website. I made this! Lets see what you can do!

~E~ I was reading a news story recently about a man who killed his wife. The police gave a statement that said they don't believe this was a serial killer, so you're all fine. That's bullshit. Women ARE serially killed every single day by their male partners, boyfriends, stalkers, husbands. Just because they are all killed by different men makes it ok in the eyes of the law, they were killed by people they knew, so other women are 'safe'. Because they were killed by different men each killing is an isolated incident. But it's not isolated, men are killing women in huge numbers and I think that matters. I think that should be said out loud. I think that should be screamed on the news every single newscast. There should be a tally of how many cowardly men killed a woman every day, just like there is a tally of how many have died in the Iraq war. These killings are not isolated incidents. They are part of a huge pattern of men feeling they have the right to a woman...

~E~ On the radio the other day, the host was talking about Obama's overseas excursion and the press who were tagging along. Obama's people gave the press a 'dress code' for their time in the middle east. The press howled. The radio host said that the press do not like to have anything shoved down their throat and Obama may have offended them by giving them a dress CODE and not dress suggestions. Dear Press, For the last 7 years you have been opening wide for the Bush administration to shove whatever it wanted down your throat, so I call bullshit. Also, and most importantly, it's not about you. Got it? Regards, Sunny Blizzard

~E~ I finally ran into this year's mass of baby spiders. It happens every year, I find a just-hatched batch of the wee things and get creeped out by it. Usually I find them on my deck just outside the back door, but this time they were in the garage. I have spiders in my garage. I don't like it, but I live with it. I've noticed a fat black spider for the last week or two who had two little balls in her web. I was hoping it was her dinner. It wasn't. Yesterday one of the little orbs was surrounded by little pinpoint beings who were startled into movement when I blew on them. I did not lovingly provide them with microscopic binkies - I scooped them up with the broom and took them outside. Live free, little spiders!