Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Indiana Anniversary

As of 8 January 2008, I have lived in Indiana for one year. Do you believe that? I'm not sure I do.

Well, Indiana will have to put up with me through April. I shouldn't have any trouble putting up with Indiana, especially with its weather, which is so much fun because it changes every single day.

Enjoy these last two days of January, and don't forget that we will be getting a whole extra day in February!! Start planning your February 29 parties now.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Thursday morning's adventure

Thursday morning I got up at 5:00 as always, had my lunch all packed and was ready to walk out the door right at 6:50.

Then I realized my keys weren't lying on the floor by my purse. In fact, they weren't in my purse either. In fact, they weren't in my coat pocket or yesterday's pants pocket or dumped on the closet floor or left on top of the microwave... they weren't anywhere!

I was getting worried for about five minutes of perplexed searching, till I remembered that spare car key I had had made (after locking myself out of the car the second time). Well, that was all right, then, as long as I could get to work! Just had to leave the door unlocked and hope Stacey was around or at least not out of the country when I got home. After that, it was just funny. Funny imagining what I would have done without any keys whatsoever, and funny imagining what I was going to do... laughing kept me warm all the way to work.

I was walking into the building when I noticed that my coat was hitting the leg rather more firmly than usual. Whoops... yep... there actually was a little hole in one coat pocket corner, and they had slipped all the way to the lining.

That was funny too, only not so funny as it would have been to not find them at all. Oh well.

2008 Presidential Elections - in Europe

That is, President of the European Council. And there must be a vice-president-type post along with it. Because, according to this Le Monde article from Thursday, French president Nicolas Sarkozy possibly has the brilliant idea of a Blair-Sarkozy ticket for these top seats of European power.

Unfortunately, not everyone is completely enchanted by this idea, one being former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who "didn't refrain from speaking all the evil he thought of it".

What evil? "The future president must be in sync with the majority of his own country, and belong to a country that respects all the European rules." The second clearly not something that the U.K. can overcome, seeing as they "practice the 'opting out' " regarding said rules - to use the journalist's expression (and yes, that's "l'opting out" in French. Doesn't that just hurt?).

But of course, the real evil is what Edouard Balladur (former Prime Minister of France) told Le Monde - credibility. Because, as Edouard Balladur (former Prime Minister of France) reminds us, the president of the European Council must have an attachment to the independence of Europe - and how, how, "how would Mr. Blair be credible to incarnate this ambition when, in the disastrous Irak affair, he always held zealously to the U.S. side?"

No, he's right, of course. A President of the European Council who sides with the U.S. is impossible. It would kind of defeat the whole point of the European Union.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Here we go in 2008

Life continues!

I guess I will give up those detailed updates I used to try.

2008 began like a a year should -- lots of snow to drive through between Iowa and Indiana. The trip was so interesting that I never got around to turning on the radio. Just like the trip out to Iowa, except that time I was having too much fun singing Christmas songs in the car.

I returned to an almost snowed-in apartment. So the first task was to clear out around the car's parking spot and the entrance to the drive, which had, of course, been liberally helped out our friendly neighborhood snowplow.

The next week, the weather decided to warm up, drastically. That is, it reached 64 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a 50-year record, and melted all the heaps and heaps of snow we had received, plus rained several days. So we have just had the worst flooding anyone has seen for a long time. Fortunately, Stacey and I don't have a basement. We did enjoy watching Center Lake lap up onto the parking lots as we drove by this morning.

Not much else exciting has been happening...

Stacey and I have not even set off the smoke alarm once this year, yet. We did make a whole crockpot-full of taco soup and have eaten every bite (practically) and it only took us a week.

Last night we had Kendra and Stacey's friend over and watched two movies in a row! Meet the Robinsons and Sahara. Our favorite line had to be from the second movie: the right-hand good guy hurling his rifle down and yelling, "I'm so tired of getting shot at!" Poor guy, I think he was really upset.

Chinese is getting more fascinating by the week. I think I can't resist studying it outside of class much longer, especially with the CDs Mommy got me for Christmas.

Well, that will have to do for this week. Time to run home and get ready for company!

Saturday, January 05, 2008

So fascinating, so slightly pointless

Is there anything more entertaining than sitting around and listening to media members sit around and speculate over the possible election outcomes that they, in their vast political experience and foresight, kindly deign to provide us?

And you sit here and wonder, "Friends in the media! By December, most of your year of 2008 will be rendered obsolete. Doesn't that hurt?"

The latest in dentistry logos

Crocodile.

This is an important question. "Is this a suitable emblem for a service which wishes to emphasise trust and hygiene?"


Christmas vacation report

In this lull of real life between the first caucus and the first primary...

Christmas vacation was a tremendous blessing. My kind employer and supervisor offered and encouraged me to take off the three days after Christmas. So I did, which made for over a week at home with my beloved family. That's the most I've seen them since last Christmas! (since the June Hoyt reunion was barely a week)

As mentioned before -- The drive home turned out to be an exciting race against oncoming freezing rain, which I won by 10:30 a.m. (Iowa time) and a good 4-hour margin. Then there was a nice short weekend with Ardith.

Driving from Cedar Rapids to the homestead was very interesting, with that good old Iowa wind blowing lots of snow -- one second whiting everything out, the next second clearing a panoramic landscape.

We had so much fun!

Christmas Eve was hunting up presents.

Christmas was, of course, kids counting down the minutes till presents... and testing out all three games Ardith gave the family, all day long... and watching a new Veggie Tales and then, of course, our new Christmas tradition of Narnia... oh, and there was a delicious dinner in there somewhere.

Wednesday was a shopping run for Mommy and Carolyn, which was fortunately extended with a $100 Goodwill gift certificate! Those that stayed home played more games. It was such a treat to make bread again (and pies, twice, though the crusts turned out abominably), and worked in the garage -- that is, Daddy did.

Thursday was Applesauce Day #2. Making applesauce is actually pretty involved:

1 - picking apples out of the boxes in the addition
2 - washing all the apples (with the smallest trickle of water possible that still has both hot and cold in it)
3 - halving apples
4 - coring apples
5 - slicing apples
6 - filling saucepans with apples
7 - cooking apples
8 - mashing apples in - that thing
9 - sugaring applesauce
10 - cooling applesauce
11 - filling containers with applesauce
12 - storing containers in freezer

Most of this is done on foot, so yep, it wears the old leg and foot muscles out, mostly from sheer inactivity. Ardith pitched in till she left for her home in the afternoon.

Friday - what did we do on Friday? I think the kids persuaded me to make that the Age of Empires MultiPlayer game day. Derek, Melinda, Carolyn, Ethan and myself, and it was a lot of fun, although I forgot to get out of the Stone Age (or some age) till the others realized I was getting wiped out in every skirmish. I think we finished on Saturday... that is, Carolyn, Ethan and I defeated Derek and Melinda.

Saturday was Mommy's and Kendra's night out, so I got to cook supper - spaghetti. All you need for good spaghetti sauce is tomato sauce (and meat) and some good spices to experiment with.

Sunday most of us made it to church.

Sunday afternoon we went sledding down the neighboring icy driveway! First we were just skidding down on boots... then we found out the sleds worked... then we hooked the two sleds together and went down five at once... then we tried four on one sled and made it down about 3 times, once with no wipeouts or injuries!

Monday night most of us kids made it back to church for the New Year's Eve party.

And New Year's Day was the day to drive to Indiana!

(...continued in a following post...)

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Today!

Do you know what today is?

It is a great day for any American who calls Iowa home, because --

1 - It is the very beginning of the U.S. presidential elections!

2 - It is the day that Iowa gets a showing at the top of BBC's home page, all day!

So we all, Iowans or not, wait eagerly to find out who breaks out of the gate first.