You know you're dedicated when...

Your alarm goes off at 7:15am on a Saturday morning and it's not a tragic misunderstanding. You get up get dressed and you head out the door to drive two hours in the rain behind what I told myself were just big coolers but on closer inspection were actually burial vaults. Heavenly Homes indeed.



To sit in a ball room just so you can say Yay or Nay for three or four or five hours.

But before you do that, you have to get signed in



And after you get signed in you get your offical bag



And then you see all the stuff you can buy to fill your official bag up. If there was an election realted thing or more specifically, if they could get Obamas' name or image on it, they had it. You want a hat? They had hats, you want an item of clothing? They had your size.




But the real reason we were all there was to buy buttons.





But before we could get to the heady business of electing delegates, we had to be called to order, sit through a very, very, very long invocation, because like the GOP, Democrats worship God too! and pledge allegiance - New for 2008, we brought a Flag! No pledging our allegiance to some guys tie for us this year, this year we brought our own flag, because like the GOP, we love 'Murica almost as much as we love God!



You are saying Yay or Nay for three hours so you can send fellow Democrats to Denver to the convention. I think we sent everyone but me and one man who approached the woman sitting next to me, to announce he was "done with this party" and then flounced off, he did the straight man flounce, but he flounced. I don't know how he managed to not get elected, we elected about 45,000 people go. It did help if your name was printed in bold on the list, because those people got elected. I guess the guy was not a bold faced name. He flounced, hardly how a bold face name would conduct themselves at a party convention. After he flounced off, the woman sitting behind me said "Well, there goes another McCain voter".

This year in an attempted to get more members of the Young Democrats into the big league, each section was assigned it's own YD member to act as a lobbyist for their delegates. Our lobbyist was the most obnoxious young woman I have ever met. I really didn't like her and I on purpose voted against the YD she was braying at us about, Vote for himmmmmmmm! You have to vote for Braaaaaadllyy! He's a YYYYYDDDDDDDDD, You Haaaavvvvveeee to voooottee for himmmmmmm! Noooooooooo, yoouuu cooowwwwww, I dooooonnnn't haaavvvvveeee tooooooo!. I think he was the only Bold Face Name who was not elected. I blame her.

It was to our benefit to vote with the majority for a candidate. If the voice vote was too close, we were forced to do it by poll, this stopped the proceedings cold. Each of the 94 counties had to poll itself individually, and then the county chair had to go stand in line to turn in their ballots. This stopped the proceedings cold for about 35 minutes. Fortunately, this only happened twice. Some of us are slow learners.

Once this was done, we were onto the Platform and the vote to just approve it and move on so we could go home. First we had to debate it. A ballroom full of people do not engage in "debate" in an efficient manner. For every resolution, a line of people who arrange themselves behind the microphones to plead their cases. There were 73 resolutions, lucky for us the moderator moonlights as a auctioneer. and those resolutions were those that the resolution committee viewed as "noncontroversial" resolutions that could be voted on without discussion. HA.

These were the resolutions praising our troops, ecology, mass transit and election reform. Resolutions for improved health care access, Habeas Corpus rights for detainees at Gitmo. Resolutions concerning the removal of mercenary forces overseas AKA The Blackwater resoultion, and one outlawing military recruitment of minors.

So that you don't get the impression wwere hate everything, there was one in praise of NASA. We then condemned "plan Columbia" which in reading sounds like what we were doing in Nicaragua. There were two resolutions about instant run offs on for and one against.

And finally, you really know you are a Democrat when up for recommendation for discussion under Miscellaneous Concerns is the following:

Resolution 82, Urging the NC Democratic Party to Support Creation of a Federal Department of Peace and Non-Violence.

Whereas the proposed legislation to create a United States Department of Peace and Non-Violence department that will be headed by a Secretary of Peace and Non-Violence. who will advise the President on issues both domestic and international in scope, giving peace building a chance, a voice and a budget at the highest levels of government... Long resolution short? see the text of House Bill 808

I don't know know how that one got voted on. This wasn't my first convention, I left before the real debates over resolutions started. I'm dedicated, I'm not demented.

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!

Friday Cat Blogging

In the Garden of Good and Ennui

I'm worried about my peppers. The plants seem okay, there are no obvious signs of insect infestation, the leaves aren't yellow or chewed on, the plants themselves are tall and straight. They look great. They just aren't doing anything.

Sure, the make cute little flowers that cruelly get my hopes up, but no cute little peppers have followed. I checked my veggie manuals and the variety I planted isn't listed. This can't be a good thing and even worse? When I went out and looked at their tag, it says it takes 78 days to do it's thing! 78 days! That's all summer! The other varieties the book does mention are around 50 days. A good round, achievable number. 78 days! Do you have any idea how many very bad things can happen to a plant in 78 days? Approximately 267,324 and that's just the bug catastrophes. There are fungal infections, drought, floods, birds, the dog, Me!! I mean the longer those things are out there unprotected the better the chances that they are never going to live to produce.

And of course, I have takers for the peppers. I all ready know that no one I know wants my eggplants, but that's not a huge problem as thus far there has been no movement towards setting fruit on those plants either as they are obviously in league with the peppers. The squash won't have any takers, again, not a real problem since as yet there are no squash. The collards, the cucumbers and the tomatoes are at least trying but I'm not sure that any one wants those either.

Do the plants know? Can they tell? Am I giving off an ambivalent vibe? Do they feel unwanted? Are they depressed? Should I be out there reading to them from vegetarian cookbooks? I've weeded and watered and fertilized and they are in the only sunny spot on the property, WHAT DO THEY WANT FROM ME!!??

The tomatoes on the other hand seem happy, the smaller variety is all ready turning red and the larger variety grows larger every day - So I know they don't all hate me. My tomatoes love me, why can't I make it work with the others? Is there some sort of therapy we could be trying? Does Mr. Green Jeans do house calls?

I looked online and found that my peppers are completely normal run of the mill peppers, and actually they are a version of a variety they did mention, but still they should have mentioned them by name. People who know what they are doing and can differentiate between varietals do not consult manuals and they most certainly wouldn't be consulting The Miracle-Gro Complete Guide to Vegetables and Herbs no matter how informative or useful it is. It's strictly for bourgeois neophyte gardeners and they can't make any assumptions about how stupid we are about plants! we need answers about our pepper varieties!

A quick check of the veggie manual lets me know that maybe the reason my peppers aren't very peppy is that it may be too warm for them. It's not even summer yet, it can't be "too warm". Hell, it's North Carolina! even when its hot, it's not too warm. I know from too warm and it ain't too warm. I'll let the peppers know when its "too warm". Damn it. The manual also has informed me that what I thought were squished baby squash were most likely unfertilized female squash flowers or maybe they were unfertilized female cucumber flowers, it's hard to tell - Squash plants and Cucumber plants are both viney and they both have showy yellow flowers. If I have boy flowers and girl flowers why am I not racking up so few baby anythings?.

Photoblogging

Monday evening I went to unlock my door and the key broke in the lock. There was briefly, wailing and gnashing of teeth. I decided after I finished wailing and gnashing. that this whole broken-key-in-latch thing was going to have to be temporary. At first, I pawed at it. This was not making it a less temporary. If anything, I pushed the key piece further in. More gnashing and wailing ensued.

I decided to call in the big guns. I went to see what my tool box might have to offer.



And it said This job calls for a more specialized tool than your fingers. This job calls for a more refined tool, perhaps like these:



I used these. They did not work, obligatory gnashing and wailing.I need something that was like what I had been useing but even smaller .Gnash, gnash, wail, wail.. But then I had an idea. I stopped gnashing and wailing and looked at my other "tools".



A little poking a little prying and little wheedling, very little gnashing and no wailing.



And moving on to Tuesday, we have already discussed my big brass ovaries.

Wednesday. My home or as I now call it The Island of Chronically Ill Pets. My vet got back to me and confirmed my suspicion's. The Kitty's thyroid numbers were indeed high. My vet took her time getting back to me so I had some time to do research. Weight loss, increased appetite, thirst and activity. Check, check, check! There are three treatments. One is too expensive but it fixes the problem once and for all, the second is a surgical solution but it has a rather shocking mortality rate, and the last is a life time of pill taking.

I went to Sam's after work to pick up The Kitty's new prescription and they didn't have enough of it, I asked for a refill of one my prescriptions but my insurance said I was asking too early. No Gnashing, gnashing would hurt. Wailing, there was wailing. My plan had been to do get all my pharmacy going taken care of at once, fewer trips, less gas, all these good things. It wasn't to be. I get to go back Friday. Yay.

Oh, and for the cake fetishist?

Getting to the root of the matter

I got up, I went to work, I went to the dentist, I had a root canal. During the course of the procedure my jaw slipped out of alignment which caused the normally, fairly pain-free procedure to hurt like hell. A root canal requires drilling, and everytime the kindly endodontist drilled, and he drilled a lot and I hurt a lot. The kindly endodontist finished up his drilling and very kindly put my jaw back where it belonged, then I went back to work. I have ovaries of steel.

And now my ovaries and I are making tiny pink cupcakes for Tiny E because she requires cake, and we all want you to look at these pictures






http://megjac.fotopages.com/?entry=1580924&back=http://megjac.fotopages.com/

Veggiemite

Dear MoveOn Member,

This weekend, we're kicking off a history-making general election season with an event for the ages: nationwide "Hungry for Change" bake sales to raise money for MoveOn's innovative (and massive!) campaign to help elect Barack Obama and other progressives this fall...The money we raise will go to our cutting-edge campaign to elect Obama—and win enough seats in the House and Senate to give him the votes he needs to end the war, pass universal health care, and make real progress on the issues we fight so hard for.

Okay, I would argue how “cutting edge” holding a bake sale is or how very sad it is that we are going to war armed with chocolate chip cookies. I fear for us if we are funding the progressive movement with bake sales, are we all going to join hands and sing One date bar at a time sweet Jesus?

How do you do a “cutting edge” bake sale? Is it all organic? Vegan? The bakers promise to use only Certified Free Trade frosting? I don't care! I wanna do this! I wanna make pink cupcakes! I want to make pink cupcakes with chocolate icing! And sprinkles! Pink sprinkles! Damn the democrats for scheduling the state convention the same weekend. I mean, it's not fair! bake sale! convention! bake sale! convention! bake sale! I can’t do both. You would think Moveon.Com would have checked, made a couple of phone calls asked or something! There are a dozen pink cupcakes out there that will never see the light of day now. I have been desperate to bake something and this could have been my chance! I blame this on Tiny E. She said “cake” the other day and now I hear this tiny voice begging for cake!cake!cake! all the time. No cake for Tiny E, no cake for Obama. Damn you scheduling Gawds!

There will however be vegetables for Tiny E. Lots and lots of vegetables. I decided it was time to stop consulting books on flower arranging for advice and get serious and look for books about actual vegetable gardening. Books as in plural. Oh, yeah, that’s right. I’m hard core now. This gardening thing is bordering on an investment now.

I had questions and for a fee, they had answers. Lots and Lots of answers. Answers to questions I didn’t even know to ask, like why the carrots I grew in the past all suffered from awful deformities not at all like the ones in the stores, answer : Evil Corporate Carrots. I learned that not all plants need bees to do their dirty work for them and that I need to have some patience with my plants, I need to stop begging them for grandveggies and let nature takes it’s course. The neighbors will appreciate a break from the Barry White I’ve been blasting at my plants 24-7 in hopes it would get my plants in the mood.

I also learned that should have provided trellises for my cucumbers to climb on and I haven’t used as firm a hand with the squash as I should have, and I should have planted my collards in the fall, not the summer, but I could start harvesting the leaves at anytime and of course, if I were a “real” farmer of collards I would have planted more than four plants, Oh well. If I were a real farmer I would have more than four feet of arable ground to cultivate.

I have other questions for the books. Like who killed my baby squash?, I had a baby squash and then I didn’t have a baby squash. It was there and then it wasn’t -Something squished my squash! It was like a vegetarian chuchabra came along and sucked its little squashy essence right out. It made me fear for my two or maybe three tiny cucumbers, I now where two are and I think I had another, I can’t remember! I am a bad vegetable mother! I think someone cold cocked my cuke! I haven’t seen anything wandering around, but it could have been anything in the nasty, gnarly bug family. They are all nasty and gnarly but only a select few truly suck and that’s what it looks like something did to my veggies. I’m only going to have a very few of them total, you would think Mother Nature would be cooler about it.

Caturday

I was a good little citizen on Saturday. Despite the fact it was hotter than hell outside and humid enough to make the wallpaper curl and I was forced to miss Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me! on the radio, I attended The South Central CAC Community Festival, which was held at noon, outdoors and staged on a parking lot. I was introduced to someone as, You know her, she's the the white girl with the dog. It was all good though. I got a free hot dog, a complementary tee shirt and a chance to pet a police horse out of it. It was a nice change from the last time I was around police horses, they was in full riot gear and petting was not encouraged.

Earlier on Saturday they held the annual Race for The Cure in Raleigh. It drew about 24,000. I know it was for a very good cause but I saw them 24,000 strong monstrous, many tentacled detour of pain-in-the-assedness. "Fun" runs are great fun for the people who are participating in them, but no one else is having fun. I would prefer these things to explore their running track options and other places that do not require me to drive miles out of the way. If you can have "fun" running down major thoroughfares and blocking traffic for hours, you can have a blast running around and around and around a track as well. The last time I had a Saturday vet appointment was the weekend when Dogger was trying to die and we got held up by a run that weekend too. I have yet to have fun at a fun run.

The Kitty had his quarterly vet appointment for his blood draw/blackmail. If I don't take him in and let them draw his blood and my money, they won't give me a prescription for his pred. They called me last week to let me know if he ended up needing to be anesthetized for the blood draw that I would have to make another appointment and come back. I assured them that The Kitty has his very own muzzle and that has work out well in the past. What I did not say was with gas hovering around $4 a gallon, I don't come back and I am not making any second trips. We were going to do this on the first try or we were going to assume that if he is healthy enough to fight, he's healthy enough for three more months of pred.

He has lost weight and oddly, the vet did not seemed happy about it. The vets in the past have always been happy about it when he has lost weight because he has always had so much of it to lose. I point out that he was at 21 pounds and after much dieting/torture he was at 17 and then he got very ill and stayed that way for a while and he was down to about 11 pounds, which really was skeletal for him by the time my ex-vet tested and tested and tested for everything in the entire world and ultimately put him on the very healthy, Birkenstock-granola-lifestyle-gluten-free food he's on now, which worked like magic, but maybe too healthy over the long haul. I'm hoping that all it is, that all he needs is something with a higher fat content. Do they make gluten free cat treats?

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!

Wow.

Des Moines being evacuated

"It seems like we're having the hundred-year flood every four years. It's absurd"

Friday Cat Blogging

Smoke gets in my eyes and in my hair...

Triangle may get whiff of blaze

With wildfire still burning in Eastern North Carolina, Triangle residents could smell smoke today.

Thursday morning they were comfortable with could. They could have asked me, I would have told them I smelled it last night and that what I saw coming in Wednesday night and confused with storm clouds wasn't clouds, it was smoke.

Smoke Moves In

Callers clogged the 9-1-1 emergency communications center in Raleigh this morning to report the smoky haze and acrid odor that moved into the region overnight from the wildfire at the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern North Carolina.

The smoke smells like burning rubber and that confused me, I thought that burning trees would smell like burning wood, not this rubbery mechanical-y odor that has drifted in; and while it did take me a while to put 2 and 2 together when I began to smell something off , I didn't feel compelled to call 911 about it while I was thinking it over. I don't know what kind of trees are burning at that refuge but the smoke smells like a tire dump is on fire. It is the same odor one might notice after forgetting to take the emergency brake off and then driving for a while. At speed... Not that I would know about leaving the emergency brake on, But I have read detailed accounts of others experiences and they describe an odor very much like the one we are experiencing now.

Speaking of petroleum by-products, I went to check out the vintage clothing store I tried to visit last weekend. I was looking though the racks and I ran across a Mexican wedding dress that was as nice as the one that I and every other girl and woman in Texas had three of in 1982. I was like Yeah. It's nice but I had one just like it, it's hardly "vintage". I learned also that in today's world, polyester double knit pants are sold as vintage and I guess if you were born in 1983 they would be. I am so old.

The smoke doesn't seem to be having a negative impact on the garden. I found a new blossom, that might be an eggplant - I can't tell really, I know it's not a squash as they seem be yellow flowers and it's too big to be what I think are sweet bell pepper flowers and, I see a hint of aubergine or it may be a squash with issues. I don't really care, at this point anything reaching maturity would be very exciting. Do they have books like What To Expect when You Are Expecting for first time gardener's? The Girl Friends Guide to Urban Farming? Not Your Great Grandmothers Victory Garden! or even, The Dummies Guide to Growing Things?. I found that I do have a book about gardening but it seems to take for granted you come equipped with a sizable budget, a yard the size of a soccer field, and a staff.

When I laid out my garden I just looked around for the flattest sunny spot in the yard and said there, scraped the ground, dumped in new soil and planted my plants (too many, too close together). Next year bigger garden, fewer plants. According to the book I was supposed to carefully plot out where I was going to put everything and make grids and in general plan a lot more than I did.

Also, according to the book, if I wanted to start a garden I should have started in February and the fact I waited until April says I am an amateur and shouldn't be allowed near as much as a garden salad much less a garden of my own.

The book also thinks I should grow everything from seed. I lied to the book about planting seedlings, I couldn't bear it's further disappointment. In my defence, I didn't know that I was supposed start everything from seed or that gardens were supposed to be geometrically perfect or that it is important to "pre-treat" the soil or even that I was supposed to be pruning my tomatoes. The book would not approve of the tomato tree, a tall tomato plant is a very bad thing and is the mark of an undisciplined garden and a bad gardener.

You discipline a tomato plant and not walk away feeling dirty.