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Be Careful What You Wish For

On the drive home tonight, Mike reminded me that I had once gleefully wished for gas prices to rise to $4.00 a gallon to punish drivers of SUVs and other excessive, unnecessary, penis-extension, fashion accessory, keeping up with the Joneses automobiles.
Its no secret that I’ve HAAAAAAAAAATED SUVs since they first started coming out in the early 90’s. I have always preferred to buy smaller cars with good fuel economy. We don’t own a hybrid, and I wish we had bought one, but at the time it seemed out of our price range. I agonized for weeks when we wanted to buy a slightly larger vehicle to accomodate longer trips and more stuff that having a child requires. Yes, we have a Subaru Forester, which is technically an SUV, but we can pull out 30mpg on the interstate, almost never drive it to work, and use it on weekends for errands and shopping to keep our Civic available for our high-mileage daily commute.
Anyway, with regular unleaded gas at $2.97, I realize that I may get my wish. I just wish that I didn’t have so far to commute and have to pay so dearly for it too.

NYTimes Photos from Katrina

See here, no registration required.

Katrina, NPR, and the Red Cross

According to what information I could find, Tulane University 11,400+ students pay $28,000 per year in tuition. Currently their web page looks like this!
Who do you feel worse for? The freshmen who could very likely transfer to another university, or the seniors and graduate students who can’t leave because that’s where their program is?

Of course, there are the thousands of kids from kindergarten to seniors who probably won’t be able to start school until October or November. Not that all these kids won’t be suffering from some sort of PTSD and be complete basket cases for months and years to come. Oh, and while I’m thinking about it, NPR let me down yesterday during All Things Considered. Afternoon anchor-woman whose name eludes me was talking to an evacuee from New Orleans whose house had been virtually destroyed, had a 9 day old premature baby with severe jaundice and was going to the hospital as soon as she got off the phone. The woman was clearly in shock, and couldn’t even think about what she was going to do past getting off the phone and getting to a nearby hospital in Mississippi. SHE JUST KEPT ASKING QUESTIONS!!!!! I thought the woman was going to cry. (honestly, I thought I was going to cry.) I secretly hoped that she’d snap and go off on her like that guy in New Orleans did to Shepard Smith.

What Would You Bring?

Imagine that you’re forced to evacuate from your home — perhaps because a Cat5 hurricane is bearing down on your slightly-below sea-level home, or some other predictable natural disaster is about to hit and will absolutely destroy your house. You have only your largest car to pack and you have to fit your family and your pets too. What would you save if you only had 12 hours to prepare? Where would you go (assuming you had to go at least 300 miles from where you are?)
Mike and I were having this discussion on the way to work this morning (topical, I know). I just realized I forgot about the cats. 2 screaming, howling cats for 300 miles! So we had the following:

Computers (or at the very least, the harddrives), digital cameras
Photographs and other pictures that are irreplaceable
Clothes (Cos they’re damned expensive to replace)
Some of Adam’s toys
Certain other electronics (space permitting)
Spike and Clio (cos you just can’t let your kitties drown)
Some food and water
An extra 5 gallons of gas.

I have small panic attack just thinking about this sort of thing.
Hope all the people in the Gulf Coast areas where Katrina is landing will make it out ok.
Also, is there anyone else who thinks the Superdome is one giant death trap?

Giving them ye olde flip test

A couple days ago I was shopping at our local Giant here in Ashburn Village with Adam when he did one of the funny things that toddlers are wont to do. I was pushing him in that behemoth of a kiddie shopping cart which he enjoys greatly. Mike hates them, but I do it because I choose to choose my battles with Adam. As long as the cart keeps moving and he can pretend to drive, he is mostly happy to sit and pretend to drive. When the time came for the dreaded check out, I ended up in the “No Tabloid, No Candy Aisle” which was an unexpected blessing until Adam caught sight of the crappy romance novels all at eye level. Stupidly, I had hoped he’d ignore books that were clearly not for children. I was wrong.

Howl at the Moon!

So last night while reading Adam Where the Wild Things Are, I taught him a new trick!
Adam can now howl at the moon, or at the very least make a squeaky ah-oooo sound. Its very cute — he points at the moon and goes ah-oooooo. If I could get a recording of it, I would.

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[acidfree:185]

In my attempt to avoid having my comments spammed, I used a security feature to disable automated commenting. It would seem, however, that puts a damper on free speech, so I have elected to do away with it. Comment away! Just don’t spam. I hate spam.

He Call 'em as he sees 'em

Quick, but funny story…

Mike and Adam were at Target a couple nights ago. Adam sees a large, yellow H2 in the parking lot.
He looks at with great interest, points and says BUS!

Yes, Adam, it certainly is.

S*A*F*I*A

Those of you familiar with Fark.com are probably very familiar with the phrase UFIA. If you’re not, UFIA is a lovely acronym for Unsolicited Finger in the Anus. If you’re unfamiliar with the Judicial (yes, JUDICIAL) origins of UFIA, click here for the Urban Dictionary.com definition.
So now you know and you’re wondering what the S*A* could possibly be. Why it’s SELF ADMINISTERED, of course! My sweet and adorable son, Adam, must name all body parts. When his diaper is off, he likes to name pepe (which sounds more like puepue) and buTTT. Naming pepe involves jamming an available index finger into said body part and surrounding areas (Guys… when does it start to hurt when you pound yourself in the testicles?). Naming and locating the buTTTT requires more acrobatics and the near miss of a SAFIA. I’m glad that the lower extremities are lower and come after the naming of the eyes and nose, otherwise I suspect I could end up with a big, poopy mess.

OK, ONE MORE THING and then I’m done for the night.
Attention LURKERS.
I see our monthly stats with visits from strange places I don’t recognize, and from places I do recognize, but where I don’t think I know anyone there. So if you are one of those people, drop a comment and say HI THERE — I stopped by.
Was that soooooooooooo hard? I didn’t think so.

Capitalist Pig?

Capitalist Pig
You are 85% Rational, 85% Extroverted, 71% Brutal, and 42% Arrogant.
You are the Capitalist Pig! This means that you are less emotional than most, focusing more on logic. You are also more selfish, greedy, and care very little for the well-being of others, hence you probably hold capitalistic political views. You are also an extrovert, like most of the people in the hallmark capitalistic country of America. Despite these traits, you are surprisingly not very arrogant, tending to view yourself as equal to others. Which seems strange given that you are so mean and brutal to others at times. In conclusion, your personality defect is that you are a bit too logical, rather unemotional, way too extroverted, and also very brutal in regards to others. You may even be a bit insecure about yourself, little piggy. So stop being so selfish and calculating and learn to see people as people, man!

To put it less negatively:

1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.

2. You are more EXTROVERTED than introverted.

3. You are more BRUTAL than gentle.

4. You are more HUMBLE than arrogant.

Compatibility:

Your exact opposite is the Starving Artist.

Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Smartass, the Braggart, and the Spiteful Loner. My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 73% on RationalityYou scored higher than 87% on ExtroversionYou scored higher than 84% on BrutalityYou scored higher than 40% on Arrogance

Link: The Personality Defect Test written by saint_gasoline on Ok Cupid

In 1771 it was never this hot

This morning Adam and I went to visit Claude Moore Colonial Farm in McLean, VA. This was probably a stupid move because the entire weekend is under a heat advisory with 100% humidity and temperatures in the 90s. We went anyway because it sounded interesting and I had an ulterior motive to go, but more about that later.
So the whole farm is run like its 1771 and has crops and livestock and the people who work their run around in bare feet and period clothing. One lucky guy gets to stay in the air conditioned gift shop — the rest are literally working out in the fields. The had 3 geese running around which Adam called DUCKS. They also had pigs, and tobacco fields, and turkeys, cows, and a poor shorn sheep attempting to keep cool in the shade.
The terrifying thing about the farm that they fail to mention is that it backs up against the back entrance to the CIA. So as you’re driving down this narrow road there are signs that remind you that you are only to be on government property with proper authorization. I started remembering all the stories I’ve heard and read where people innocently get lost around the CIA and stop or turn around and are met at gun-point. At which point I’d be thinking run away! I nearly turned around and did just that, but then I noticed a tiny little red sign directing me to Claude Moore farm straight ahead. Whew!

So anyway, I went there because I had read recently that a college friend, Jan Tilley, was working there as the farmer. A brief phone call to the farm confirmed it was exactly who I thought it was, although there probably aren’t a whole lot of Jans running around.
It was a bit awkward at first. After all, what do you say to someone you haven’t seen in 8 or 9 years? Anyway, after being ridiculously hot and sweaty and needing some lunch, Adam and I took off for Arlington in a nice air conditioned car.
It has to be said, those people who work on the farm 8 months a year are brave people. They wear period clothing, no one had any shoes on, they cook in an open-hearth stove in their hut, and everything that has to be done on the farm they do by hand.
I know they get a salary and benefits with that, but you’d have to pay me waaaaay more to do that then I’m sure they’re getting paid.

Busy Summer!

I can’t believe it’s almost the middle of August already. This means that autumn, blessed cooler autumn is on its way. Fortunately, Autumn warmth lasts almost all the way to Thanksgiving.

Its been a fairly eventful summer so far. We visited Madison in May, had my parents out in June, had Mike’s parents out in July so we could trek up to NYC and see Spamalot, which was very funny and has an excellent soundtrack.

We also got all new carpet and hardwood in the house! Its awesome, except that hardwood makes it easier for ants to trek across the living room and find things like cat food or bits of food Adam has tossed onto the floor. Note the lovely new hardwood beneath him.

And speaking of Adam, he’s going to be 2 next month. I can hardly fathom that he’s getting to be so old. I look at old photos of Adam and I can’t believe he’s such a big boy now. He’s even started to talk more and has an almost unnatural obsession with cars and trucks. Of course, he doesn’t call them cars or trucks, he calls them collectively “du-du“s. Except for busses — he seems to know that word quite well.

I’m looking forward to the end of 100 degree plus days, and the beginning of fall harvests, the Maryland Renaissance Festival, and all the other fun, festive, fall activities.

Corn Maze, anyone?