Sudden Politics Nerd

I am about to share a letter from Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) but before I do so, I want to preface with a few things:

  1. I don’t like telling people how their politics should lay out. Don’t tell me how mine should. If we can agree on that ground rule, we can talk.
  2. I very strongly believe that even though the person in office is not the one I voted for, they still represent me and my interests. So when I write to that person, I do expect them to hear what I say and respect the gravity of their office and their civic responsibility to represent their constituents. You don’t only represent the people who voted for you.
  3. I’m sharing this letter at this time in correlation to the recent “personhood” amendment that was shot down in Mississippi yesterday. Mr. Bartlett shares similar views as to what that state amendment was trying to legislate.
  4. I do like Mr. Bartlett’s positive environmental work he has advocated. It would seem the environment is his strong suit and I would urge him, in the future, to focus on that instead.

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Random Doodle July 5th

I had written out some stuff about being a sucker for new pens, blank notebooks, and wishing I could draw rather than doodle. But I feel like just sharing the doodle. 🙂

Wedding Anniversary Weekend of DOOM!

Photo by Katherine Gray - Build Your Wings Photography

Ok, not really of DOOM. But, oh the mishaps were very Lathrop-y.

Because it is so much fun and we have such a wonderful time with it at the Mocks, I tracked down a Beatles Rock Band Limited Edition bundle. It comes with a drum set, Hoffner bass controller, microphone and microphone stand. Buying all the pieces separately can easily creep to $200+. Sears.com has the Limited Edition bundle for $99. WIN! Rock Band 3 was on sale at Amazon (sans keyboard for now) and we were in business. It just all needed to get here. I hate both paying for shipping and being patient. I had to wait! Days! for these things to make their way to me. DAYS! In the five minutes we were snuggling upstairs, UPS came to the door and knocked a knock that sounded rather a lot like a cat running up the steps to us. Boo.

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House Stuff and Math is Hard

“Kitchen cabinets falling out of ceiling. Whee!” This was my post snippet to remind me to post about this stuff later. I should delete it to start in properly with what’s going on with the house right now, but that snippet really sums it up. What I should also do is change it to past tense, but that’s getting ahead of myself slightly.

When we bought the house at the end of 2009, one of the issues the home inspector brought to our attention was the kitchen cabinets above our sink island weren’t anchored securely into the ceiling. We instructed the sellers that they needed to fix this or else we no buy their house, kthxbye. A contractor came in, put some very heavy duty looking screws into the cabinets and everything seemed hunky dory from then on. Until Mother’s Day.

I had noticed the gap for a few weeks at that point, but it wasn’t until Mother’s Day that I became increasingly concerned. There was some caulk/glue along the back edge of the cabinets and as the cabinets pulled away from the ceiling, it created holes in the glue. Holes that I could see clear through to the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen. Not good. The husband and I swapped the heavy glassware from the sinking cabinets over to a more secure location and housed all our nice, light, plastic storage containers in the fail cabinets.

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DC Comics’ BIG Announcement

I would be horribly remiss in not posting anything about this topic (but what else would be new, there?), so here goes. Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC Comics broke the news to USA Today they are rebooting the DC Universe and relaunching some 50 titles at issue #1.

I have relatively mixed feelings on this. One is I am insanely behind (going on five and a half months worth of comics) reading my comics, so this news lights a fire under my butt to get caught up and get the existing comics collection sorted before the reboot. The other is knowing that this could either go really well and be really good or turn out completely horribly and my favorite comics publisher will suffer and I won’t get to read the stories I love so much (not that I’ve been keeping up even though the pile we have is growing) anymore.

Reboots are not uncommon in comics and least of all for DC. Recently, however, DC has been King of the Crisis. Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Countdown to the Final Crisis, Final Crisis . . . Every two years there was another freaking crisis. Seriously? Having a crisis so often really cheapens the impact of those that came before it and numbs fans to the whole idea. After every crisis is some flavor of reboot.

I’m unsure on the idea of resetting comics numbering back to #1. For some titles like Justice League of America, Green Lantern, and Birds of Prey (the first is confirmed to be in the 50, the latter two I’m sincerely hoping will be among the chosen) have been reset to #1 a couple of times now. JLA most recently in 2006. Whereas Superman, Batman, and Detective Comics all number in the 600+; having runs continuing from the 30s and 40s.

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The Power Outage Effect

The Power Outage Effect is having the all-consuming urge to heat something in the microwave, charge my phone, or check the internet when the power is out. I’m having the same effect with the looming government shutdown and associated furlough.

I am potentially about to be without a paycheck and there are things I want to buy. BUY ALL THE THINGS!

There are purchases I wanted to make with my savings/tax refund to beautify my home and instead I will need that money for exciting things like my mortgage and other house associated bills.

But damned if I don’t want to be out buying the computer parts I need to fix my other desktop or ordering the furniture I want for the basement. I just know it would be monumentally irresponsible to do so. Ah well, this too shall pass.

Speaking of passing things, Congress (hint hint).

This Is Why I Don’t Go To the Doctor

So, we needed to get our gutters cleaned. They were gross. It caused us problems during the Snowpocalypse of 2010 with hugemongous icicles forming on the side of our house. They dangled from the gutters and attached to one of the spare bedroom’s window.

And then it melted.

Into the window.

Onto a box of comics.

So, yes, needed to get that taken care of. We also had a few additional things around the house we wanted done like the light switch in our master bathroom needed replacing and we wanted our beer fridge moved to the garage.

A handyman was called, he came out and did an estimate for us and took a look at everything we wanted done and took a look around the house. He found a few extra things that we needed to have looked at and said he’d be back.

While cleaning the gutters, they found some fairly significant holes in the frame of our master bedroom window. While repairing the light switch, they found burn marks on the 2nd light switch and replaced it as well. While moving the fridge, they noticed that the window in the kitchen wasn’t terribly insulated and was leaking in cold air like a pro. While replacing the fan in our guest bathroom, they found mold in the insulation.

Everything they did, they found something else wrong with the house. Going to the doctor? Much the same thing, to me. I’m terrified of going in for something simple and being told I need a complete inner tune up and everything must go because it just plain doesn’t work any more.

Kitty Tales – Felix and Housework

The mild-mannered feline pictured at left is my eldest and first kitty, Felix. I adopted him in Richmond when I was going to college there, much to my cat-allergic roommate’s chagrin. He wasn’t always mild-mannered, of course. And he still has some terrible habits. When he was wee, he would pounce my head in the middle of the night. Bored kitty was bored. He taught himself to fetch, and whenever I did two chores in particular, he tried to help me with them.

The first chore was laundry. When I sorted my laundry and emptied everything out of my hamper, Felix was in it the second the last sock was removed. Being a meanie, I would close the lid on him. He could care less. When I was feeling jolly, I’d throw one of his toys into the hamper just to watch him hop in after it . . . and then I’d close the lid on him.

That particular hamper is long gone, sadly, however every empty laundry basket since has been fair game for kitty-hopping. I suspect the motive is to inspect the vast emptiness such baskets provide and to contemplate it. Cats are very existential. . .

The second chore Felix liked to help with, and is somewhat related to laundry, is changing the bedsheets. I thought it was a particularly kitten-y thing to do. But alas, he still gets excited about changing the sheets to this very day, 10 and half years later.

Take the sheets off the bed and immediately, there’s a wide-eyed predatory Felix on the mattress pad, chasing invisible gremlins along its surface.

Putting the fitted sheet on the bed is an invitation for sheet spelunking and diving under before the third and fourth corners can be tucked into place. (I should mention here, I have made an entire bed with a big lump in the middle because he refused to come out from under the fitted sheet)

Adding the top sheet is like a declaration of war. Forget military corners, just try and get those edges tucked under the bed without coming back with a bloody nub.

If you’re the type who likes to fold over the top bit of sheet to cover the middle blanket, its best to just let Felix go diving at the fold. He prefers the sheet flat at the top and will let you know by attacking the fold, diving under the fold, and chasing the fold back up to the top of the bed until the fold has been vanquished.

Also, it’s not just me he likes to help with changing the sheets. So, yanno, if you need a good laugh and a simple chore to take three times longer than it ought to because a senior cat is recapturing his kitten-y youth, c’mon over.

End of a Very Busy 2010

This year has been a crazy roller coaster of things! Some bad but most everything very good. We’ve been in our little blue house for a whole year now and married for almost 7 months. We lost a very sweet and beloved kitty but are looking to find a dog to round out the menagerie.

Games have been played both video and boxed. Crafts have been crafted. Comics have been collected.

2011 has quite a bit of adventure planned already but I’m still basking in the warm glow of this year. It’ll be hard to top but I’m sure we’ll do our best to try.

Hopefully one of those 2011 things will be me posting in this thing more often!

A Tale of Two Kitties

Two weeks ago, my 9-year-old cat, Fiona, was acting most unwell. She was very lethargic and didn’t appear to be eating, drinking, or using the litterbox. I took her to the vet and after a quick exam, some blood was drawn and an xray was done.

Her test results did not come back with good news. She had anemia and it wasn’t clear why. After another trip to the vet, she was admitted to an emergency hospital for monitoring, additional testing and a blood transfusion.

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