I thought this a very fitting horoscope as I'll be in a public place nearly all day. I sure hope I find a new hair style; I am seriously bored with the one I have now.

February 28, 2009

1. Capricorn (12/22-1/19)

   Whenever you are in a public place today, enjoy the show! The people watching will be something to behold -- the array of unique fashion statements and goofy behavior will make you glad you have the time to sit and watch the world go by for a few minutes. Your observations could also be educational -- and even inspiring. A tidbit of overheard gossip, lingering eye contact with a cute stranger, or a new hairstyle could get your mind going in new directions. Let the outside world influence you.

Come OUT!

Stop US Occupations & Torture for Empire!
Sunday, 15 February 2009

© 2009 - World Can't Wait

Olympic Trials

I've been in Denver for the last few days, volunteering for the US Curling Olympic trials. Not a lot of people attending. It's been fun watching all of the teams. There are 39 people from Minnesota in the trials; I think about half are from our St. Paul club. I worked 4 hours on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday, pretty easy work, just guarding the entrance to the ice. No streakers so far. I'm scheduled to work again Thursday but only if there is a need for tie breakers. The semi-finals are Friday followed by the finals on Saturday. Because we've volunteered we can get into the events for free! I like free.

The weather in Denver has been fantastic, today it was 63 degrees! Went for a couple walks, one to the market for groceries and the other along the Cherry Creek. Very nice. Dinner was at Vesta Grill, excellent food and great ambiance.

We head up to Boulder tomorrow and have an apartment rented. This should be fun, we have 5 of us staying together. Margeaux, Loafy and I will check in tomorrow, Amy and Hannah arrive on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to our stay in Boulder, the weather is supposed to be good and I plan to go out riding. The place we are staying has three bikes, if one of those don't work for me I'm going to rent one and hopefully go for a nice long ride. Nothing like fresh mountain air to cleanse the soul. I also plan to get up into the mountains, either Frisco or Breckenridge. I have a friend in Breckenridge so that may be the place to go...

Connie Talbot

Mile High City

Spent the day traveling to Colorado. Loafy arrived at my house about 0520, Margeaux arrived shortly thereafter. We packed up the VW and were on the road at 0600. Loafy did a superb job of driving, I love it when I don't have to drive. We made excellent time arriving in Denver around 1930 central standard time, a quick 13.5 hours. We located the house, unloaded the car and cracked a bottle of wine, ahhhh. Pizza and beer for dinner, a game of scrabble and off to bed we go.

G'nite

Gay Education

Quote of the Day

I read this quote the other day and it seemed very fitting for me and where I am in the world:

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start; anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."

- Carl Bard

I'm workin' on that new ending...

GoGirl

Simply put, GoGirl is the way to stand up to crowded, disgusting, distant or non-existent bathrooms. It’s a female urination device (sometimes called a FUD) that allows you to pee while standing up. It’s neat. It’s discrete. It’s hygienic.

GoGirl is made with medical grade silicone and easily fits in your purse, pocket or glove box. You can dispose of it after use or clean and reuse it as you like. Now that sounds kinda nasty to me but I love the concept. I can't tell ya how many times I've had to pee in some not so nice places. With GoGirl I would not have to worry.

The best part is; they're cheap only $4.99 each or 3 for $11.99 that's less than a latte. I've already put in an order for a three pack. What the hell, I'll toss them in the car and who knows, it sure beats having to pee in a nasty port-a-potty. Maybe if I practice I can write my name in the snow some day :o

OOPS!

Ok, I have no excuse for not posting the last several days other than I was busy. Let's see...

Went to the United States Women's Curling Association (USWCA) National Championship games in Wauwatosa Wisconsin, Wednesday through Sunday. Great fun and merriment. We piled into Kim's truck Wednesday afternoon and drove 5 and a half hours to Wauwatosa, or 'Tosa as the locals like to call it. We found ourselves a little misplaced when we first arrived but we stopped for directions and found the curling club. We attended the kit party for a spell then headed to the hotel, got ourselves checked in and dropped our luggage in the rooms. The four of us, Kim, Brigid, Tracey and I met at the hotel bar and proceeded to have many, many cocktails. We met ourselves a couple entertaining fellows, Jim the China pornstar, Ray Ray the bartender and Mustache Man. Between the three of them I don't think I had to pay for many drinks. We all stayed up way too late as we had to curl at 0730 Thursday morning. Not sure what time I finally crawled under the sheets but I know it felt like I had just drifted off to sleep when the alarm went off. 

Thursday we found ourselves on the ice at 0730 tossing out the first rocks against a team from Bowling Greens. We had a mighty fun game, we did not win but I think for it being the first time the 4 of us had ever played together we did pretty well. It came down to the final rocks in the 10th end. After our game we hung out with our opponents and had a chance to know them better. 

Thursday night was the banquet, a nice opportunity to meet more people and find out about the USWCA. After the banquet we headed back to the hotel bar and low and behold Mustache man arrived again this time bringing Tom Tom with him. Three other co-workers of Mustache man stopped by for drinks as well. We met an Italian porn star on Thursday nights adventure. We spent a few more hours at the hotel bar then called it a night. 

Friday we had a 1010 draw time playing against the Mayfield team. This time our game went into an extra end, whew 11 ends! We did not win this game either but it was fun and we again met some great women curlers. After our game we chilled at the club for a while, then headed out to Milwaukee to check out the Harley Davidson museum. We arrived at the museum a little too late to be able to take the tour so we checked out their retail shop and had dinner at the Motor restaurant. Good food, excellent beer and delicious dessert, I think I could have used wheelbarrow to get out of there. 

We had a second game Friday  night at 2050 against a St. Paul team. Yay! we finally won a game, again it came down to the final rock, they had a chance to tie us. Whew. The club was shutting down after our game so everyone headed back to the hotel and we all gathered in the hospitality room for socializing. It was nearly 0330 by the time we called it quits. 

Saturday's game was at 1010 against team Nutmeg. This was not one of our better games, we just couldn't seem to get it together. This loss meant the end of our curling for the weekend. We met our third porn star on team Nutmeg :) Boy 'Tosa has a lot of porn stars.

Saturday evening we had dinner at the hotel then went back to the club to watch more curling. We found ourselves sitting with some fellow St. Paul curlers and partied the night away. 

Sunday we headed to the club early to cheer on the team from Bowling Greens, then started our trek back home. I can't speak for anyone else but I sure had a fun time. I was able to meet a lot of new people, had to opportunity to get to know Tracey, Brigid and Kim better. And the ability to be able to play in this type of tournament was wonderful.  I would love to do this again next year. And Tracey, she made me laugh, what a riot, I seriously need to hang out with her again. 

Tracey, Brigid and I have decided we are getting curling rock tattoos, Kim's not much interested but says she'll watch us. Now we just need to find a good picture of a rock.

Val, Tara and Raleigh came over last night, we had a couple beers and caught up on what was happening. Tara is getting laid off, bummer. She will work until the end of March and collect severance pay until December but then she's on her own. They should be fine, Val makes more money than I do and I know their mortgage is less than mine so I'm sure they can handle it for a while. Plus Tara is collecting a pay check until December so she should have enough time to find another job. 

Boy am I tired today, I was up at 0430 and at work at 0600. I was the only person scheduled and it was a mess! Dave had to work alone the last 4 days while I was out of town and there is no way one person can get everything done. I walked into a lot of work this morning but I have to say I did some serious damage on it. There is only a few things for me to get caught up on tomorrow. I had dinner with Ann Marie and Jody and now I need to start thinking about my Colorado trip. We leave Friday morning.  

Ok, time to call it quits. 

$3 TRILLION !

$3 Trillion - WTF!

I thought $800 billion had a lot of zeros in it. Wall Street investors sent stocks plunging! What? Now they're holding the government hostage? Give us more money or we fuck over the stock market!

$1 trillion to make loans more widely available to consumers - isn't that what caused this problem in the first place? People not able to pay on their loans?

Political Urgency!

Bush ran us headlong into war with Iraq.
Obama is running us headlong into??? Bankruptcy? Where the hell is all this money coming from? China?

Funds for school construction? Where? Schools in the cities are closing, we don't need more built.

$50 billion to help homeowners facing foreclosure - what about those of us paying our taxes, paying our bills, on time I might add. No free money for us. Hell NO! If you pay your bills, your reward is more taxes.
Overspend, pile up your bills, foreclose on your house, file bankruptcy, here comes the cash cow to save the day!

$500,000 limit on annual compensation for top executives - oh okay I feel better now, they only get a half million dollars, poor bastards how will they ever survive?

Give me a break! This is some crazy shit we got going on.

New Year's Resolution Addendum

I almost changed my New Years resolution tonight, but thought maybe I should just make an addendum to it. While I was checking out the bicycling.com website I came across an article in the Boulder Report about a man who was killed while riding his bike, the first person killed this year in the area and after reading the article I thought; "that should have been my New Year's resolution, stop talking on the phone and text messaging while I drive." I don't text very often but I cannot say that I don't ever do it and I do talk on my cell phone while driving. It's usually on speaker because I drive a manual transmission and need to shift and steer at the same time so I can't very well hold the phone to my ear too.

So in addition to my original New Year's resolution, I resolve that I will not text message or talk on my cell phone while I am driving a motor vehicle. Notice how I did not say "my car," I said motor vehicle, that way no matter what I am driving I am committed to my resolution. And I thought posting on this blog every day was going to be difficult. I think this resolution is going to rank right up there with giving up cigarettes and diet coke.

Iron

As a non-meat eater, I need to be careful to make sure that I get enough iron in my diet. Even when I was a meat eater I would sometimes be low on iron so it's something I need keep an eye on.

Many people believe spinach is a good source of iron and it is but it needs to be cooked first. Vegetables such as spinach are non-heme sources and need vitamin C for absorption. Spinach contains oxalic acid (oxalate). Oxalic acid binds with iron, inhibiting absorption.
1 cup cooked spinach = 3.5 mg iron
1 cup raw spinach = 1 mg iron

Iron absorption enhancers:
meat, fish poultry, oranges, orange juice, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapefruit, and other vitamin C rich fruits, tomato and tomato juice, broccoli, brussel sprouts, green and red peppers and believe it or not white wine.

Recommended iron intake for men and post-menopausal women is 8 mg, pre-menopausal women is 18 mg.

Saturday night

Just a quick post to keep with my NY resolution. No more closing the curling club on a Friday night. I sleep too late on Saturdays, today I did not get up until after 0800 which cut into my ability to get my chores done. I was planning to attend the Royal Slacker Grand Match this afternoon but didn't make it. I spent most of the day cleaning and doing laundry then ran errands, made dinner and worked out. Man are my muscles sore, I guess that means I'm doing something.

I'll be heading out of town in a couple days so I'm trying to get everything done before I leave. The next three days are going to be hectic.

I think we finally have our Denver plans set. We leave February 20th and return sometime March 1st. Loafy says she loves to drive so I say let her. I cannot imagine what it will be like to spend 12 hours in the car with Loafy and Margeaux it will either be fun as hell or we'll drive each other crazy.

Ok, I gotta get to bed, I'm exhausted, my body hurts and 0430 comes around real quick. I am seriously getting old, it's only 2115 on a Saturday night and I'm talking about going to bed.

My Life

I was a little late on my weigh in this morning. I like to get it done right away in the morning before I have anything to eat or drink but this morning I got caught up in a few things and didn't realize until it was after 1000. Oh well.

10:15 AM = 138 pounds. I thought I was going to weigh in higher, I haven't had as much exercise this week as I had planned, but I think the stress from work may be helping.

I just had another case dumped in my lap on Wednesday. My last case or should I say cases, were resolved in the grievant's favor. She got her job back and full back-pay! YAY, I knew management fucked it up. It's just too bad it took so long, the woman was out of work since last July.

The case I have now is going to be even tougher, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) is involved. Under the Bush administration the OIG was put into place under the umbrella of Homeland Security to take the place of or work alongside the Postal Inspectors. Anyway, these guys will get an employee in a room and scare the hell out of him/her.

That is exactly what happened with the guy I'm representing. They took him in a room, closed the door and talked to him like they were his best friend then put down the hammer on him. By the time he realized he was in trouble and asked for a union representative he had already incriminated himself. Now I get to pick up the pieces.

This is going to be an interesting case. In all my years in the PO and as a union representative I have seen and defended a lot of people for everything under the sun. I have represented guys in fist fights, threatening co-workers, attendance violations, viewing pornography while at work, intoxication etc. and the union has been successful in saving the person's job. The one thing I have never seen success on is when someone steals from the PO, and that is exactly what this guy is accused of doing.

I thought when I represented a couple guys who had gotten into a fist fight on the docks and I was able to get them their jobs back at Step One of the grievance procedure, that was setting the bar high. It was the first time in the Mail Handler union's history that anyone had been able to get one person's job back at that level and I was able to get two people their jobs back!

Now this, wow, have I got my work cut out for me. I spent most of Thursday reading, reading and reading. The man is a 10 point Vietnam veteran, the OIG is involved and postal management. I have three avenues I have to cover. On one hand I'm happy I have the case, it will be a challenge, I get to interview Special Agents and I will learn a lot, on the other hand, this is going to keep me up at night. But as I always like to say: Bring it!

The Word of the Day for February 05, 2009 is:

girandole • \JEER-un-dohl\ • noun

1 : a radiating and showy composition (as a cluster of skyrockets fired together)

*2 : an ornamental branched candlestick

3 : a pendant earring usually with three ornaments hanging from a central piece

Example Sentence:

"I sat in my usual nook, and looked at him with the light of the girandoles on the mantelpiece beaming full over him…." (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre)

Did you know?

The earliest uses of "girandole" in English, in the 17th century, referred to a kind of firework or to something, such as a fountain, with a radiating pattern like that of a firework. Such a pattern is reflected in the word’s etymology: "girandole" can be traced back, by way of French and Italian, to the Latin word "gyrus," meaning "gyre" or "a circular or spiral motion or form." By the 18th century "girandole" was being used for a branched candlestick, perhaps due to its resemblance to the firework. The word’s third sense, referring to a kind of earring, did not appear in English until the 19th century.

Mileage Tax

The state of Minnesota might replace the gas tax with a new tax on the miles you drive. At first glance this seems to me like a good idea. Gas tax revenues are running about 3 to 5 percent below expectations, despite gas tax increases since last April totaling 5.5 cents per gallon. It appears that the gas tax won't be an adequate source of revenue so the state needs to come up with another way of funding the transportation systems.

A mileage tax recognizes that future vehicles may use less gas than today's but still have an impact on roads and bridges. Heavier vehicles would pay a higher tax. A mileage tax would likely be assessed using satellite tracking, in addition to tracking mileage the system would involve communication of safety information between vehicles and roadside devices. Global-positioning technology to track individual drivers; this is where the idea gets a little scary. I'm not a fan of big brother watching me.

I drive a small, fuel efficient vehicle and I do not drive a lot of miles in a year so for me I would probably come out better than most on this type of tax, but the idea of a satellite tracking me, I'm not sure I like that.

Octuplets'

Something about this story disturbs me, a 33-year-old single mother, already had six children ages 2 to 7 when she gave birth to her octuplets (8 babies) on January 26, 2009. Nadya Suleman gave birth to six boys and two girls a week ago. How did this happen? Humans are not supposed to have litters. The woman had embryos implanted, who in their right mind would do such a thing? And what doctor would go along with it? There is something wrong here. She already has 6 children, how on earth can she take care of them? She obviously doesn't work for a living, there is no way you could hold down a job and have that many babies, you would be pregnant all the time.

Today I read that this woman is being "deluged" with deals, book deals, TV shows and other business proposals and to top it all off she has hired a spokeswoman! WTF? OK, did someone forget to tell her that there is a problem with the economy? I try very hard not to judge people, except politicians and religious leader, but sometimes the things people do just amaze me. I am just blown away by this story. Who is going to care for these little babies, there are 8 of them! Plus the other 6 at home. Fourteen children and she is only 33-years-old. I can tell this is going to be one of those stories I'm going to get obsessed with it.

Lesbian Paradise

THEY called it a lesbian paradise, the pioneering women who made their way to St. Augustine, Fla., in the 1970s to live together in cottages on the beach. Finding one another in the fever of the gay rights and women’s liberation movements, they built a matriarchal community, where no men were allowed.

Lesbian Separatists, women or maybe I should say womyn who choose to live in a separate lesbian world. It was the summer of 1988 the first time I heard of lesbian separatists; I was at a womyn's music festival in Michigan. I learned so much that week, what an eye opener. I believe they still have the festival every summer and I recommend it to anyone who has not experienced it. There's nothing like an entire week of naked womyn, music, food, fun and laughter.

There are about 100 below-the-radar lesbian communities in North America, known as womyn's lands. I don't think, no I know I couldn't live that lifestyle. Being separated from the rest of the world is just not my thing. Now as a retirement place it does not sound bad, a plot of land in the woods, I could handle that. It seems these types of places are not surviving though so I don't think it will an option when I can finally retire.

Sometimes I Just Don't Understand...

One minute my life is moving along nice and easy and the next minute I have people getting all pissy with me. In the last week I have had people get angry with me for things I have absolutely no control over. Now how do you defend yourself when you have no control of the actions of others. I'm not one to defend myself anyway, I figure if someone is mad at me then they need to deal with their feelings and we can resolve the issue when they are no longer angry. I do not like being blamed for things I did not do and for things other people are responsible for. And then instead of talking to me, they just send nastygrams, not even a phone call. Do NOT send me an email if you are upset with something you think I have done, you need to at least pick up the phone. Or better yet talk to me face to face. Passive aggressive behavior drives me nuts! If you cannot say something to my face then do not send it in an email, do not say it behind my back, just keep it to yourself and deal with your feelings. 

Anger to me is just a cover up for other feelings, find out what they are and handle it. Whew, I guess I'm a little pissy now. I need to let it go and allow them to deal with their issues. 

Steelers just won the SuperBowl! YAY, I bet Marlayna is a happy camper, I'll have to give her a call. Val's going to be bumming, she put money on Arizona. I'm happy they won, I like Pittsburgh. I did not watch much of the game and I spent a considerable amount of time getting set up for it. I hauled the TV and the cozy chair upstairs so I could be comfortable. My big TV is in the basement and it's too cold down there. I should probably have ridden my bike for a while and watched it that way but Sunday's are my relaxation day and I wouldn't want to mess up my system by exercising out of order ;) I drank way too much beer this weekend so I've probably gained back the three pounds I just lost. 

I have another busy week ahead of me so I am off to bed early tonight.