Healthy Skepticism

Some days just require more food...

2012-01-22T04:02:00.000-05:00

I blew through my calorie goals for today, but I'm having trouble feeling bad about it, since today started roughly 21 hours ago, and over 16 of that was at work. Other than the sorbetto, I feel pretty justified in my food consumption. I ate pretty big meals, but I was also pretty damn hungry. Large breakfast to start the day around 8am, which kept me happy well past noon - I didn't start getting "where's my lunch at, yo?" signals from my stomach until about 2, which was fine, we took lunch at 3! Chipotle for lunch, and I ate almost all of the burrito bowl, but stopped when I was full. Water to drink - diet soda is gross, and I can't bring myself to consume the sugar in any of the soda/juice/carbonated juice type beverages. I used to always have chips and apple juice with that burrito bowl, but not today. (Also, they have a brown rice option now, which I was pleased to see. I'm not sure how new an option this is, as I'm not sure when I last ate at Chipotle, but good for them!) There's always something a little bit anti-climactic about eating there for me - I eat black beans and rice/quinoa/similar so often at home! I do like the corn and hot salsa though.

It had been billed as a very long day that would afford lots of opportunities for sitting about drinking coffee, so I took my computer, hoping to do some other work, but it turned out to be a fairly steady work day, at least until after the party was in full swing around 9. We were invited to partake of the catering, and I tried to be judicious in my choices - I did have rather a lot of sushi (yum), and an excellent lamb kebab. Perfectly al dente carrots and tender asparagus. They had little pulled pork bbq sandwiches, and I LOVE pulled pork, so I asked for a spoonful of just the pork, so I could have a taste of it without all that bread. (Good, but nothing to write home about - they have better there.)

The choice I don't feel so good about was the raspberry sorbetto. Talk about a sugar rush! Woah Nellie! I've been off the sugar and (mostly) the white flour lately, and that hit me like a truck! Though not an entirely unwelcome truck, at about mile marker 13.5 of a 16 hour day - I think the sugar high powered me through the strike, and the inevitable crash came about half an hour before we left. The thing that was most interesting to me, especially in light of my recent reading, was how noticeable the impact of the sugar was when it's not a regular part of my diet. (Also, as a result of recent reading, I found myself thinking about the specifics of the metabolic reaction while I was eating the sorbetto, which I think kept me from eating more than half of it.)

I'm having a large hot chocolate as I write this, around 4am, thawing from this first snow day we've had. I used half the chocolate syrup called for (and still feel weird about the sugar - seriously, this book is scary, y'all) and it's perfect. Warming and filling and delicious. So yes, 2200 calories is more than I usually eat, but 16 hours is more than I usually work, and 21 is far more than I'm usually awake. If the worst thing that happened today was half a cup of raspberry sorbetto, well, I'll take it.

Hey thanks, Whole Foods, you're awesome sometimes.

2012-01-21T01:19:00.002-05:00

I got to go to the farmer's market today and collect a whole bunch of wonderful things, and amuse myself to no end by going into the McDonalds to get cash so that I could then leave the McDonalds and buy grass fed beef from the farmers market. (A friend points out that the irony should have been fatal.)

The one thing I needed and was not successful in obtaining was milk - the dairy I like only hits Union Square on Saturday, and I'm working ALLLLLL day tomorrow, so no shopping for me, and the Whole Foods at Union Square only had chocolate from Ronnybrook. I had to rush home to put away the groceries and make some dinner before getting to go see The TEAM's "Mission Drift" (recommend highly, running through Feb 4th (ish?) at the Connolly Theater, you should go.) Dinner was quick and excellent, and I made it to the show in good time to get a decent seat (the sound designer tells me that the mezz is awful, and I'm inclined to believe him) and after the show, remembered that there is a Whole Foods down near the 2nd Ave F stop, so I swung in, increasingly hungry, to buy my milk. I avoided all the snack food, the baked goods, the energy bars, everything, but was just wishing for a piece of cheese or something.

And then there it was, in the fridge next to the check out. A basket of one and two ounce bits of various delicious cheeses.

I'm counting that as a cheddar cheesy win.

Win some, lose some.

2012-01-21T01:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday could have been a lot worse, but sure could have been better. (Pretty much across the board, really, from productivity to food choices...) I got up just a little bit later than I would have liked, but made time to make eggs and hash browns again (no cheese, no blackening, just salt and pepper, still delicious) but left the house in a hurry and forgot to fill my water bottle and grab some fruit for a snack. Whoops. Texted a friend who was working the same 9am call, to see if he was stopping by the coffee shop, but he was also running late. (Later than I, as it turned out.) The tea from breakfast would have to do.

The morning section of the call was frustrating, the more I know, the less I know about this show that we are supposed to start teching on Tuesday, and the building seems to make little to no progress every time I check in. Fortunately for me, the other guy on the call offered to get me that coffee when he went out, so that improved my outlook, if not my efficiency. At noon we switched over to helping the head in the next space to open, which is a modular pain in the ass. It's got limitless possibilities and an equivalent amount of headache. Brief spurts of activity, followed by being stymied halfway through a project by construction/gear/other departments/rental crap/what-have-you was the name of the day. On a ten minute break I ran across the street to the Food Emporium and bought a big bottle of water and an apple, which was a good move - since it was a weird split day, I wasn't on a meal break until 4, by which time I was VERY hungry. My friend who is the head over at my old job, just down the street, was scheduled to come join us at 4, and brought my other friend back with him, so the three of us went around the corner to Landsdowne for dinner, where I made a pain in the ass of myself by sending back the dressed salad. (I really appreciated that salad was an option instead of fries, I just didn't think to ask if it had dressing...) Eventually I ended up dismantling my buffalo chicken sandwich and tossing that over the new, dry salad the bartender was kind enough to bring, and I was surprised by how good it was. I don't have high salad expectations from bars, generally speaking.

After the whatever-you-call-a-meal-at-4pm break we floundered, lots of moving things from one place to another, but not sure how much progress happened. Instead of continuing until midnight as planned, we ended up calling the day around 8, and as we left, my friend made the universal sign for "let's go get a beer" and I am notoriously weak-willed when it comes to beer with friends! We managed to, not entirely on purpose, collect most of the crew as we walked over there, but I ended up at a table with my two dinner companions anyhow, and drank too much, and really enjoyed the nachos we ended up splitting. Could have been worse. The last straggler (I, also, am capable of being a bad influence) and I went next door to buck slice - the cheap, ubiquitous New York phenomenon of the $1 slice being the salvation of many a drunk train ride home - and I passed on pizza, but did steal three bites of his, it just seemed so wrong to NOT be partaking!

Is this... Momentum?

2012-01-17T23:35:00.001-05:00

This tumblr thing was a really good idea! I'm finding an unexpected sense of satisfaction in scrolling down the sidebar and seeing all the yummy and mostly sensible things I've eaten recently. Today's sprouts are particularly attractive, if I do say so myself.

Back to work tomorrow, which presents a more complicated set of challenges, especially as we get busier. Tomorrow should be a relatively simple day, only lunch break with which to contend, and packing fruit for snacks will help out, but Thursday promises to be a danger zone of long workday and no way to heat up food in the new building yet. (I'm not above visiting my old theater to use the microwave... They like me and I still have keys.) I expect to be there 9 am to 12 am, which means at least one meal is likely to be eaten out. I'll have to remember to photograph it and try to make the least destructive choices. (No cheesesteaks!)

We start tech next week, Tuesday - on my birthday, not that anyone's counting - in a building that is not yet complete. Tech is a challenge to healthy living every time, and many are the good runs of eating well that I have totally blown on a tech week, but I expect it to be more so than usual this time, as we will be trying to get everything done at the same time. Too busy to eat presents problems of its own! Of course, at least I don't have to worry about birthday cake!

Food on the Brain

2012-01-16T17:25:00.000-05:00

One of the worst parts of conscious eating for me is that once I start critically thinking about my food choices, I can't stop. Not in a good building-better-habits sort of way, no, in a catch-22 I-am-totally-obsessed-with-food kind of way. I can have just eaten, be totally replete and still be incapable of thinking about anything other than when I get to eat again. It's totally in my head - the food is good, and filling, and there's more of it later when I want it. I'm a decent cook, I enjoy eating what I make, it's not like I'm not going to get to eat again and it's not even like I'm hungry at all, but there is a corner of my mind constantly thinking about food. This does not happen when I'm just eating whatever crosses my path. I eat whatever it is, and then, when I'm hungry, I start thinking about food again.

I don't know how to shake this, and I am very frustrated by it.

In Which I Employ an Excess of Superlatives (or, Who IS this Super Positive Person and When Will She Go Away?)

2012-01-16T01:14:00.002-05:00

Last night I went to bed around 12:30 feeling totally down, just dejected and lonely. I wasn't even especially tired (I thought) and mostly went to bed because I didn't see any way that it would improve, so calling it quits and expecting better of the following day seemed the logical course of action. (It was that or emotional overeating, let's be honest.)

I don't say this to elicit sympathy, or to make you feel like I am a sad and lonely person (by and large, I'm not) but rather to highlight how brilliantly this plan worked!

Today was marvelous in nearly every way. I slept until about 10:30. (Remember how I didn't think I was tired? I was wrong.) When I went to bed last night, the radiator was simply CRANKING, the little one in my bedroom is off (when I moved in, my friends found that it was leaking and closed the valve - I'm certain that if I were to point this out to my landlord, he would fix it, but the truth is, it suits me just fine for that radiator to be off anyhow) but the big one in the living room keeps it uncomfortably warm when it's blazing away, so I had cracked the window right next to it. When I woke up this morning, the radiator had clearly eased off hours earlier. I'm informed that it was somewhere in the 18ºF range this morning. My apartment was SERIOUSLY cold. I got up, shut the window, and then just got back into my marvelously toasty bed and read for a while, until hunger drove me out of the nest of warmth. The luxury of being able to read in my down cocoon with no urgent need to do anything was so relaxing!

By the time my desire for breakfast overcame my disinclination to be cold, the temperature situation was beginning to rectify itself, so I got dressed and made myself a slightly larger than normal breakfast - two poached eggs, blackened hash browns with cheese, and a cup of tea. (One of these days, I really should consider a tea pot - but the 2c pyrex measuring cup works pretty marvelously for brewing loose tea, and has the added advantage of already taking up room in my overcrowded excuse for a kitchen.) I got to sit at my table, back together and returned to its rightful place in the window now that the Christmas tree has been (forcibly) evicted, and eat my breakfast in the sunlight. I didn't realize how much light was being blocked by the tree! It's like a whole new apartment!

Breakfast consumed (blackened hash browns were a perfect plan), I settled in to play a little bit of World of Warcraft, kill a few dragons, the usual. I haven't seen my dear neighbors in weeks though, so I texted to invite them to dinner - may as well give the newly resurrected table a work out. Not only did they think that a good plan, they were making a run to the Flatbush Food Co-op, of which they are members (and I am not), and did I want to come along? Well, sure. I could always use some good produce and some bulk beans. The Co-op taunted me with their special on organic avocados - I love avocado. It does not love me. My neighbors great people with whom to go shopping - they have the same appreciation for the variety and abundance in the produce section as I do. A trip to the Food Co-op isn't just an errand, it's an outing!

At home, groceries in hand, I decided to deal with the Indigo Girls song stuck in my head in the only way I could imagine - listening to them. I've been a fan of the IG for over twenty years and they are one of my first musical loves, and cooking dinner for my friends while listening to music that's been with me my entire adult life was a beautiful thing, filled with joy (and garlic. Which is sort of the same thing.) The neighbors showed up, with excellent green beans to contribute, and we sat down to a sumptuous meal of cheese tortellini in spicy vodka sauce, green beans, and fresh bread with roasted garlic. We are so fortunate to be able to have such abundance available to us, and to know what to do with it!

We played Bananagrams, chatted, and listened to music - generally had a delightful evening, and topped it off with some ice cream I can't recommend enough, Mexican Chili Chocolate from Steve's Craft Ice Cream.

I can't think of anything about this day that was not in every way superior to yesterday. Nearly perfect!

Calorie counting is the wurst

2012-01-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

On the food front, today was a mixed day - I tried the whole take-a-picture-of-everything plan, and was mostly successful, but I missed the knockwurst and beer I didn't mean to eat for dinner! (It was good, and cheap, and by restaurant standards impossibly rationally sized, but it was still a fatty sausage and a beer.) I stopped by Whole Foods on the way home to get some milk, honey, salt and split peas (that leftover ham is burning a hole in my refrigerator) and ended up buying a bag of these tasty chips I tried earlier in the day - snack food I really don't need!

I'm frustrated by it because when I got home today, once I'd added up the day's consumption, I was pretty much on target for caloric intake, but I was still hungry. I had a glass of milk and an orange, which put me over for the day. I feel like it was a pretty decent day, wurst aside, but it was also a heavy day from a work perspective, and I worked HARD, lots of moving heavy things from one place to another, lots of pushing things around in the cold (really should have worn a second pair of socks for unloading that truck) and a ton of running up and down stairs. I got off the train too early on the way to the Whole Foods (rare google maps fail) and ended up walking almost a mile to the store. Being hungry seemed totally legitimate. The milk really did help, the nice protein and satiating fat, but mostly just took the edge off. Going to bed now, feeling still slightly as though I wish I had eaten something else. I'll be interested to see if I am starving in the morning. The eggs will be welcome at least!

Could have used a little more skepticsm, those guys.

2012-01-04T21:21:00.000-05:00

I saw this on a blog when I got home from work tonight - a runaway Dallas teenager, missing since late 2010, turned up. In Columbia. The country to which this African-American non-Spanish speaking kid was deported. From what I can tell so far, she ran away, was picked up for theft, and gave a false name - a name which turned out to belong to a 22 year old immigrant with warrants for her arrest. So Immigration and Customs Enforcement got involved. And deported her. Apparently they fingerprinted her, but did not fully investigate her identity, or consider the possibility that this lone teenage girl might not be telling the truth about her name.

Now, I'm not entirely sure how they got through the whole deportation process, without at some point the kid saying, "Hey, wait... I'm an American" and SOMEONE believing her - or at least looking into it. It's not impossible that she never told them that, but I know that no matter how much I felt like I had fucked up, I would have piped up at some point before being ejected from my country of birth under a false name.

So much advice...

2012-01-03T21:51:00.000-05:00

I've been threatening to become a food blogger (and probably a bad one, if past performance can be any indicator of future achievement) for years, and I think that may have finally happened, only in a different way than I had anticipated.

I've been reading the unfortunately named Good Calories, Bad Calories, a book about which my mother was talking while I was home for Christmas. The title makes it sound to me like a diet book of the most banal sort, but that turns out to be misleading. So far, and I'm just starting out (my kindle tells me I'm 10% into the book), it is as much a book about the recent history of nutritional public policy as it is about food I should eat. Science writer Gary Taubes applied journalistic research and scientific skepticism to the piles of assumed information about human nutrition and disease prevention, hoping to find the science on which current thinking is founded, or to disprove it. It's making me question a lot of the assumptions I absorbed as a young person - maybe that grain heavy food pyramid wasn't such a good plan. Maybe the research doesn't back it up at all. Is there really a causal relationship between cholesterol and dietary fats and coronary heart disease? I found myself, on the train the other day, talking back to the book. (Fortunately using my internal voice, though it IS New York City, people probably wouldn't have noticed if I'd spoken out loud to my book.)

I realized, as the author talks about the funding for the studies and the alliance between industry and research, that I've grown skeptical of everything these days. Do you really believe what you just said, or are you saying it because your statement has been bought and paid for? What is real? What is believable? I question everything. And that's probably all to the good, skepticism keeps us honest and critical, and I can hardly consider that a bad thing!

My family and I have used SparkPeople.com on and off for several years now (apparently I joined in February of 2006), to motivate ourselves and to track our food and exercise, and my brother sent out an email yesterday, encouraging us to join him there again. Spark is a lot like WeightWatchers online, without the points gimmick, and without the price tag. Lots of forums and "teams", blogs and trackers. I do find that when I track what I'm eating, I both eat less of it and am more critical of it, so it can be a very useful tool for weight loss and general health. Unfortunately, I am LOUSY at it. I constantly forget to track, forget what I ate, forget a snack... Of course, there's an app for that. But I'm pretty bad at that too. What I DO enjoy is constantly taking pictures of my food. I mean, all the time. Made some delicious ham? Text someone to taunt them about it. Really pretty pot pie? Belongs on facebook. I do it all the time. I'm also pretty good at keeping up with social networking. It doesn't bother me in the slightest to check Facebook, Twitter and Google+ multiple times a day. (An hour?) So I've started a tumblr feed, to post all the food I eat. This is, I am aware, going to interest pretty much no one but me, so I plugged it into the sidebar here... Because sometimes it can be visually appealing, and because now, when I want to track what I ate today, it's all right there. In technicolor.

So I think this blog is going to become a lot about food. And health. And, inevitably, how frustrating weight loss is. But also about the preparation of food, the production of food, even the politics of food. Because there is a lot of information out there, and most of it disagrees. As of this writing, I prefer local to organic, whole to skim and real to processed. This could change at a moment's notice. And likely will. I welcome your thoughts and information, feel free to send me interesting links and articles, I'll probably repost them, and possibly argue with them.

And I'm not ruling out silly stories about life in the theater either. Those don't even have to do with food at all, though often they do.

Tumblr.

2011-07-06T20:14:00.000-04:00

My friend Mia suckered me into tumblr. She did it so that I could post some of the hilarity at work to the theater's tumblr account. (WTF - if you're curious. And like stupid. And hilarity.) That part was perfectly reasonable. The part where I might actually use it less so, it's just that it is shiny and new. Unlike this beat-up old blogger... or the elderly livejournal... or the good old days of actually generating my own crap. Yeah. I'm aware of how absurd this is. I do like the somewhat scrapbooky nature of tumblr though - it is very easy to paste together tidbits. It's somewhere between proper blogging and tweeting. With some sociability but no irritating games.

Meh

2011-07-06T19:52:00.000-04:00

I don't like this title, this layout or most of my content. Unfortunately, I also don't feel in any way inspired to fix any of that. I feel like I was better at this when it was all just hand coded crap-ass html in college...

#besttwitterconvoever

2011-03-15T19:47:00.000-04:00

I like mocking hashtags as much as the next person. (Though probably not as much as Pluta, who says things like "Oh hi, hashtag. Why so sad? #youwerereallymeantomeyesterday -I was real lyme ant om eyes terd, ay? #youreadick", but, you know, like a normal hashtag mocking person.)

That said, this conversation justified my generally lackluster twitter existence. Irritatingly, the "show conversation" option is set to most recent, so it will make more sense top to bottom:

For the record, no, I do not recall when the drunkest I ever saw him* was. Sorry. Maybe next time he comes to town we can rectify that situation. The front runners right now are the night he ended up wearing someone else's boxers and the night he puked on my couch, but there are so many options...

*He's actually a really great person and not the drunk this blog would lead you to believe, but don't tell him I said so, I'll call you a liar.

Nigeria Bound

2011-03-07T05:23:00.000-05:00

I've resurrected this blog for one really good reason.

I'm not saying that I might not keep up with it after, but let us be honest here - I don't exactly have the best track record with regard to blogging consistency. Unless you consider "mushy" to be an acceptable consistency.

I got an email a few months ago from a friend and colleague, the Tony Award winning sound designer of Fela!, with a really compelling first line:

"Are you interested in a little trip to Africa?"

Am I?

AM I‽‽

You bet your sweet ass I am.

So I will be going with the show to Lagos, Nigeria, at the very end of March, and returning the first of May, for a month of, most likely, utter insanity. Yes, I am terribly excited. Yes, I have been vaccinated against a laundry list of baddies (and yes, I am one of the 25% of yellow fever vaccinees who enjoy flu like symptoms afterwards, thanks for asking.) No, I will not be sending anyone (including my mom, so don't feel bad) constant status checks. I will be updating this blog regularly while I am there, and I hope to at least have some pictures to show. My contract, amusingly enough, explicitly states that internet connection charges will be covered by the company (it's in the clause with my hotel room), so I anticipate at least a passing relationship with the internet while I am there. Not bad for a developing nation, I'll take it.

I haven't even started to prepare for the trip, other than to take an absurdly expensive trip to see a travel doctor and get my battery of shots. I can't get into Nigeria without the yellow fever vaccine, but in addition, I got typhoid, hepatitis and meningococcal meningitis, as well as boosters for polio and that old standard, tetanus/diphtheria. Together with what I am told is a very spendy prescription for Malarone for malaria prophylaxis and a precautionary antibiotic prescription, I am all set. Or will be when I get reimbursed for the doctor's visit and can contemplate purchasing the Malarone!

Since I'm in previews with a show at Playwrights right now, I'm still quite busy with my ordinary, domestic life, and I have not yet broached the subject of packing, even within the confines of my skull. I just know I need to buy some jeans. I seem to have two pairs, and I don't quite think that will cut it.

Food porn incoming

2011-02-28T15:06:00.002-05:00

My brother sends food porn pictures to a group of us with terrifying regularity, and it's mouthwatering. Now you too can join in the drool-fest, because he's been coerced into bloghood.

Check out the om nom nom at thomasfeed.

I feel like a slacker now, not stepping up to the food porn mat!

Time for a redesign, methinks

2010-09-03T21:20:00.004-04:00

I've just been reminded that I HAVE a blog, by my friend Aaron, who just started one. How dreadfully out of date mine appears to be!

I've spent most of the last year journaling privately, in one of those terribly stereotypical black moleskine notebooks. It seems as though all the writing I have felt any compulsion to at all is self-absorbed, narcissistic drivel. Confronted with the blank space in my web browser now, I find myself at a loss. What did I blog about? Do I have anything to say? And where did all those spam comments come from anyhow?!

Small Can Be Big

2009-01-21T15:33:00.004-05:00

Wow - what is this update page? I haven't seen it in so long, I barely remember it! I've been busy and not as connected as is customary, so my blogging has suffered considerably but I wanted to take this chance to introduce you all to my new favorite way to help folks in need. Similar in some ways to Kiva.org, though this is for donations and not microloans, Small Can Be Big uses local charity organizations to find families with a specific, fundable need. You get to pick the family you want to help, and any size donation is added to the pot, until the need is met. Then they turn the funds over to the sponsoring charity to pay the medical bill, or the heat, or the security deposit - whatever relatively minor cost is standing between that family and security.

In these insecure times, I've been very fortunate despite my intermittent work life. None of my colleagues are having to decide what bill to pay. (Yet.) None of my friends and family are going hungry. (Yet.) None of my loved ones are in danger of losing their homes. (Yet.) The people Small Can Be Big is trying to reach out to are people just like the ones you and I love, just a little less lucky. If you feel similarly, skip that lunch out at work, or that trip to Starbucks, and spend that money instead on helping someone at Small Can Be Big.

Disclosure statement: One of my old friends is partially responsible for Small Can Be Big. So yes, I'm biased. And more to the point, quite proud of him,

Photos.

2008-12-13T01:18:00.004-05:00

Day 39 ~ 12/12/08

Yikes. Working "Tappy Holidays" at Symphony Space. Shoot me.

Day 38 ~ 12/11/08

My favorite piece of ad work - the poor, huddled statue makes me want to give her the coat off my back. This shows up each year around this time, in support of the NY Cares Coat Drive.

Day 37 ~ 12/10/08

Sometimes the traffic really does just look like a puzzle game.

Day 36 ~ 12/09/08

What a cheerful sight to see on my way in from the cold!

Day 35 ~12/08/08

So pleased was I to see even a little snow, I had to stick my hand in it.

Day 34 ~ 12/07/08

Looking out at the church window. I can't shake the oddity of this space.

Day 33 ~ 12/06/08

Detritus of a birthday party (a very LOUD birthday party) outside the church/theatre.

Day 32 ~ 12/05/08

Rushing out to buy a tree before another day of tech rehearsals.

Day 31 ~ 12/04/08

9th Avenue as seen through the Christmas tree stands.

Day 30 ~ 12/03/08

Here's a stop that could use some mosaic. This is the dreariest station in the city. The E at 50th.

Day 29 ~ 12/02/08

What's greener? Fake trees or real? I say real - I'm always in favor of oxygen producing factories!

Day 28 ~ 12/01/08

Sky outside Ikea.

Day 27 ~ 11/30/08

Can anyone explain my obsession with the fire escape when it rains?

Day 26 ~ 11/29/08

Things are coming together at work. Just about ready for tech.

Day 25 ~ 11/28/08

Sadie the Sleepy Dog grabs the Comfy Chair.

Photos.

2008-11-28T20:49:00.003-05:00

Day 24 ~ 11/27/08

Sadie gives her "uncle Dave" a kiss.

Day 23 ~ 11/26/08

Finally had to take down the map...

Day 22 ~ 11/25/08

A picture of pictures. I liked the light in my living room.

Day 21 ~ 11/24/08

Last day at Baruch! A planter out front.

Day 20 ~ 11/23/08

Window at St. Clement's, a theatre/church.

Day 19 ~ 11/22/08

One of the ubiquitous water towers.

Day 18 ~ 11/21/08

More art - above ground. These tree houses are an installation at Madison Square Park.

Day 17 ~ 11/20/08

This is one of my favorite subway mosaic - all up and down the platform are these hats, coupled with a tile showing the name of the famous person to whom the hat belonged. I suspect that the hats are all at the height of the person who wore them.

Day 16 ~ 11/19/08

A pencil case with speaker boobs.

Pies are squared

2008-11-27T03:08:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow's meal should be excellent, though I certainly reserve the right to totally screw it up between now and then. Today I did as many of the advance things as possible, in hopes that tomorrow morning won't be totally crazy. (Ha!) I went ahead and made the dough for rolls, since it wants to chill in the fridge anyhow, though I'll have to shape them tomorrow. I'm not crazy about the wine I ended up using in the wine jelly, so that might be a flop, but the custard to go with it is just now off the stove and cooling, and that will be outstanding. I've never bothered with green bean casserole before - I love green beans, but I usually just saute them with some shallots and garlic (in the wok for thanksgiving - it's really the only pan the right size for a serious mess of beans). This year I'm branching out. I saw an episode of Good Eats in which Alton made a version of the ubiquitous holiday dish using actual real food. And it looked really GOOD. Which wasn't something I expected from green bean casserole. So I had to try it. It's looking pretty good in my fridge right now, all sexy in its cast iron skillet, just waiting for some last minute oven time.

One of today's tasks was the bourbon pecan tart. I'd actually decided against making it, because Dave's mom is bringing two pies, but I really like it, and neither of the pies is pecan, much less pecan with bourbon. I tried something new this time, using bourbon as the liquid in the crust - it certainly made a nice smelling and easy to work with crust, tomorrow will tell about the taste. It probably won't matter, since the filling is pretty intense, but it was fun. I did find myself doing pie math though. Seriously. π r², quite literally. The recipe is for a 9" tart pan, and I only own an 11" tart pan, so I needed to figure out the amount to increase the filling. Turns out, in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation, to increase a tart from 9" to 11" (assuming the same height), you need one and a half times the filling. I'm bad enough at remembering to straight double or halve things, so I'm sort of impressed that it turned out so well. I really should just recopy the thing with the right measurements for the 11" pan. It's not like I'm going to get another tart pan, well, ever really.

But yeah, thanks geometry. Way to help out with the holiday dinner!

Photos.

2008-11-19T00:57:00.003-05:00

Day 15 ~ 11/18/08

Candles seem to warm away the winter chill. Or maybe that's just the stove.

Day 14 ~ 11/17/08

Leaving home on the way to work. I hate winter in some ways. I miss daylight.

Day 13 ~ 11/16/08

There have been a lot more soldiers around the National Guard Armory lately, which is fine, it's the armory after all, but this scene, with the military vehicle and the ordinary life all around it made me think a lot about the Army unit assigned to domestic duty. It seems to blatantly defy the Posse Comitatus Act. I can't even have a simple photo project without getting all political. Sheesh.

Marriage Equality Rallytime!

2008-11-16T14:28:00.008-05:00

Yesterday afternoon (at least, it was afternoon if you were in eastern or central time) there were rallies in 300 cities in all 50 US states as well a several other countries, supporting marriage equality. While there were plenty of "Shame on you, California" signs still about, the focus of the rally here in NYC was largely on the positive of what we want, not the negative of Prop 8 and its brethren.

Here are a few of the pictures that I took yesterday, though none of them are especially fantastic, at least it can give you some idea!

You know how I adore the constitution!

This was one of my favorite signs. ("Whoever said that orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed.")

This girl had the right idea! Climbing on something seemed the only way to even see where the stage might be!

Another good sign. I like the positive ones best.

Of course, some negativity is pretty funny, especially when it's Wizard of Oz related!

There was something especially affecting to me about this girl. She seemed very intense to me.

While it's hard to argue that the Mormons are not an excellent lightning rod, I think that focusing on them is ultimately a losing battle.

The police had cordoned off lots of areas like this, which made me think of Naomi Wolf's "Give Me Liberty", in which she laments the limits placed on public assembly.

Photos.

2008-11-15T21:17:00.003-05:00

Day 12 ~ 11/15/08

I'll have a separate post with pictures from the marriage equality rally, but in the immediate aftermath, this scene struck me as especially poignant.

Day 11 ~ 11/14/08

Every night when I walk past this clock I find myself wondering why it is that the 8 and 10 are red and blue.

Photos.

2008-11-13T18:58:00.003-05:00

Day 10 ~ 11/13/08

More subway. This is at the Dykeman St stop on the A line. Yes, the first panel says "WE HOLD". The last panel is blank now, but apparently on election day it said "VOTE".

Day 9 ~ 11/12/08

This will probably be a recurring feature, as I love the mosaics in the subway tunnels here. This is at the E stop at 53rd and Lex.

Day 8 ~ 11/11/08

I was attempting to capture my utter apathy for going to run the show, but I think this is even worse than I intended it to look.

Sadly, the Belgian Beer Bar closed at midnight

2008-11-11T00:36:00.001-05:00

But Dave (the second elec from Walter's tour, NOT my Dave) just said that Eeyore (sp?) was his favorite character from Winnie and the Pee-nee. In the context of his questionable sexuality. The PEE-NEE?!

I hope this is half as funny to you as it was to us.

Basement Blogging

2008-11-10T19:58:00.003-05:00

Juno really is a pushy little girl.

I put some sliced apple down on the wooden box there in front of them today and she literally walked all over poor Jupiter to get to it. Look at his squashed little ear! He doesn't seem to mind at all however. He's had his share and is just ignoring Miss Piggy there.

This show that I'm running right now (boring light board - I'm remembering why I've tried to make a break with the electrics) has Monday night shows. Who does that? Honestly. This is New York. We have standards! It's weird to get up on Monday, after a few two show days, and know that you have to go to work. It's like working Saturday (and Sunday) if you had a "real" job. Gugh.

Walter is back in town, but staying in a hotel in Manhattan with tour friends, so I met up with him and his friend Dave this afternoon at the Apple store (where, no, I did not buy anything) and wandered down Fifth Ave to Rockefeller Center. I rarely go down that way - no real reason to go there and millions of touristy reasons not to - but it was a fun excursion. We stopped in the Disney store, where I was actually a little disgusted by the absurdity of some of the Disney paraphernalia, and the Nintendo store, where Walter played Wii Music to my very great amusement. I think that the appeal of the Wii is that so many of the games make an art form out of turning stupid concepts into great fun.

I dragged them down to Thom's for dinner (I wanted meatloaf ) and it was fun to be there - I've not been by much since the Sox lost game seven of the ALCS and my baseball season ended. I just don't care much about football and Thom's isn't exactly close to my house! I'd like to meet up with them again after the show, but we'll see how I feel when we get there. The dark of the basement here at Baruch is making me sleepy! The theatre is on the third or fourth basement level and for some reason the dark of this theatre is somehow darker than theatres above ground.

The wifi down here is cleverly named "crystalset" because at one point in the show the lead offers to get parts and a crystal set so her hidden Polish Jews can make a radio. Our network, like the radio (and the Jews for that matter), is hidden, so it seems even more appropriate. I like a cleverly named wireless access point. None of this "linksys" nonsense! Ours at home is sort of blah - it's twostep because we live on the second floor and Dave is a big Dave Matthews fan. I'll have to work on that...

Photos.

2008-11-10T19:26:00.004-05:00

Day 7 ~ 11/10/08

No wonder I don't like getting out of bed - this is the window view from my pillow.

Day 6 ~ 11/09/08

Why yes, anxious stage manager, I am multi-tasking.

Search String of the Day

2008-11-09T13:52:00.003-05:00

langston hughes bunny rabbit

If you, oh searcher, return, I'd love to know what you were looking for with that search string.

(h/t to Laura, who has been producing ssod's much longer than I have.)

Photos.

2008-11-09T01:46:00.005-05:00

Day 5 ~ 11/08/08

I hated every picture I took today. I hated these leaves the least.

Day 4 ~ 11/07/08

Dave was sick, and spent a great deal of his time on the couch. Poor Coco here seems to have caught the bug.

Day 3 ~ 11/06/08

Visiting with Jovi, who's people are out of town. She was rather put out with me because all I pulled out of the fridge was the water pitcher, not the wet cat food. Miss Picky.

Day 2 ~ 11/05/08

Rainy day fire escape. I kept staring at the wet leaves all day.

Day 1 ~ 11/04/08

The beautiful, blue Commonwealth of Virginia, as colored on my dining room wall.

Project 365

2008-11-08T14:57:00.003-05:00

About a year ago, in a bar in Jamaica Plain, I ran into my best friend from camp. He's from North Carolina, and camp was (and still is) in Virginia, so the Boston area was about the last place I'd expected to find him, having not seen him in nearly ten years. Turns out he was moving back there to take a new job and had been spending the day house hunting. He was stopping by the bar to celebrate his triumph. Dave and I were doing nothing so interesting. We were just there for a beer.

My friend, Matt, has been doing this photo project this year, taking a picture everyday and posting them, semi-regularly, on his blog. It's a nifty idea, and I've been toying with it for a while, so on Tuesday, with that crappy camera phone shot of my blue, blue, blue Virginia, I decided to start. They might be awful pictures, but I think that it will be fun, or at least interesting, and if I can keep it up for a whole year, a fascinating (or not) chronicle of the year.

Feel free to join me in this - might be fun to compare! If you're interested, there's a good overview over at Photojojo, or have a look at Matt's.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the great Commonwealth of Virginia

2008-11-04T23:52:00.001-05:00

2008-11-04T11:32:00.002-05:00

Go Vote!

RIP Madelyn Dunham

2008-11-03T18:42:00.002-05:00

Now I'm really glad he went to Hawaii.

My heart goes out to Senator Obama. How heartbreaking to lose her, the day before tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, you know where to go to vote right? And you're going there?

This Obama ad just made me happy.

2008-10-31T20:16:00.002-04:00

And how often does that happen? Political ads aren't generally known for spreading happiness.

The serious part here is this:

Find your polling place.

Get out and VOTE.

Mmm... iced voting. er... voting cream... um...

2008-10-28T22:59:00.004-04:00

If you live in the US, don't forget to vote next Tuesday (or earlier), even those of you who got this flier from some troublemakers in Hampton Roads. (I cannot TELL you how much it irks me to have to link to the stupid Pilot instead of dad's paper, but I assume this was predominantly a southside episode.)

Voter fraud aside and regardless of your feelings about the health of our republic (or, for that matter, the health of ice cream), it's hard to say no to a free scoop of ice cream, no?

I just ran across this, and now I need to figure out where the nearest Ben & Jerry's is! I don't think they have a store closer than Rockefeller Center, and since we're having a party that night (you are coming, right?) that may not work, but I'm going to check. Details here. (And store locator.) I'm Sarah Gates and I approved this ice cream!

Best Toys Ever

2008-10-27T11:24:00.003-04:00

There are lots of dumb toys you can buy for your rabbits, and rumor has it that they like hard plastic baby toys too, but my rabbits' favorite activities are practically free. They have a large cardboard box filled with crumpled, heavy paper, and they've gnawed their own entrance and exit holes for the box, so now Jupiter loves to go into the box. I think all he does anymore is just move the paper around, but it entertains him for hours. Juno's favorite is shredding. We gave her a phone book, but she mostly ignores it.

Juno prefers magazines. Newsweek is a particular favorite. Here she is, shredding Sarah Palin's face. (I frequently have this urge myself, but, not being a rabbit, I restrain myself. Sometimes with great difficultly.)

It's amazing how fast one reasonably small rabbit can totally demolish a magazine. Honestly, if I had sensitive documents, I'd just hand them off to Juno. No one would ever be able to piece them back together - especially when you consider that every so often she eats some of the source material! Sometimes Jupiter gets in the game too, as I imagine all that tearing and clawing is nigh unto irresistible, but he's not the pro that she is. When she finished with Palin's face (and the rest of that week's Newsweek), Juno moved on, taking out a spread in Sports Illustrated about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. (Hear that Phillies? She's totally on your side. Don't let her down.)

Props on Prop 8 to Apple

2008-10-25T12:48:00.004-04:00

Way to go Apple!

I gave Google a shout out when they came out against California's bigoted Proposition 8, so I can hardly do less for Apple, another California giant with products I really enjoy. (Have I mentioned how much I love my mac? I love my mac! Why did I wait so long? And the PC really is happier as a Linux box...) Even if I didn't like a damn thing Apple had ever made, I like this stance.

From the Apple website, right under the fancy-pants new macbooks:

Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.

I know a proposition in California seems on the surface to have very little to do with me, a Virginian living in New York, but on issues of this sort, as California goes, so goes the nation. They've long been leaders in the fight for marriage equality, and to see Prop 8 pass there would give strength to bigots the nation over. It's embarrassing to me that Connecticut beat New York to the punch on this one, and even more so that my beloved Commonwealth of Virginia passed that abhorrent constitutional amendment - as far as I know, the most comprehensive of its ilk. I hope that Californians stand up to this and sent it down to a miserable defeat.

Michael Lewis's next book: Moneymedicineball?

2008-10-24T18:22:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure I can stand a world where Newt Gingrich and John Kerry are co-authoring NYT op-eds. Unless they are joined by A's GM Billy Beane. Then, somehow it becomes almost farcical.

The odd trio actually has a good point, and I'd recommend reading it, but it's still odd.

Book Club?

2008-10-23T20:33:00.003-04:00

Hey out there internet land!

I think it would be fun to have a book club. One that reads stuff I find interesting and then talks about it on my blog.

While I know I am not nearly cool enough for that sort of thing, I'm going to try it anyhow.

I'd like to start a book club here, reading mostly books relevant to current affairs. (No objection to relevant fiction, please note.)

Would anyone be into this? If so, what would you like to start with? I'm inclined towards Hot, Flat and Crowded or The End of America. I'm also interested in Depletion and Abundance, The Deserter's Tale or The World Without Us, and Jupiter seems to think we should start with The Audacity of Hope, or so I'm taking his chewing to mean.

A "stunt" I wish I'd pulled

2008-10-23T16:57:00.002-04:00

I read a lot of blogs, most of them progressive, but I like to keep up with the wingnutosphere as well sometimes, just for the humor value, and today I read something I found offensive and just couldn't shake.

The right wing's wingnuts are claiming all sorts of nonsensical self-serving explanations for Obama's brief campaign suspension (note: not really a suspension if everyone else is still stumping, but whatever.) Some are humorous - the idea that he's actually going to Hawaii to deal with a lawsuit related to the old birth certificate nonsense, for one. But mostly they were cynical. The one that really got me was the claim that taking time off from his campaign today and tomorrow to fly back to Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother is a stunt.

A stunt?

A few years ago I was on tour when my grandfather, pictured here the previous Christmas, fell into his last struggle with cancer. We were incredibly lucky - he lived for much longer after the first bout than we had any right to expect, but when he was dying, I was on the road, and didn't have the chance to visit him. My tour ended just in time for me to fly home for the wake and the funeral. Fortunately, my grandmother, my mom and all her siblings were there with him, and mom says he might not have even known that I was there had I rushed back, but I still regret that I didn't just leave the tour to go see him - I thought I would have enough time, I thought the extra week wouldn't matter. It did.

I hope that Barack Obama's grandmother lives many more years, but if not, I'm glad that he has his priorities straight.

Summer's End

2008-10-20T04:06:00.004-04:00

It's 4:07am and I've just gotten home. I've been dragging my heels ever since the last out of the Sox ninth in Tampa Bay. It's as though, by arriving home and calling this day over, I am tacitly acknowledging the end of the summer. The end of baseball.

I didn't leave the bar, instead sharing a shot of Jameson's "to next year" with my friend Mel and our newly acquired friend Patrick and then settling in to a protracted discussion of the season so newly past and the one ahead with Patrick over several more Guinnesses. We only left when Chris asked ever so politely if he might close out our tab. Then, instead of taking the arguably faster L, I walked from 2nd Ave clear across to 8th Ave to catch the E home, and even after a half hour on the train, continued to take my sweet time with the walk back to my apartment.

I just don't care if the Phillies or the Rays-formerly-known-as-Devil win the World Series. It doesn't matter. For me the offseason has already begun, bringing with it the cold wind of winter.

Someday I'll learn to care about football. Or maybe hockey.

We don't need no stinkin' omens...

2008-10-16T00:48:00.003-04:00

I got a text tonight from a friend who said that she thought the fire at Fenway's Citgo sign today was a bad omen. The Boston Globe seems to agree with her.

To that I say, bah. What it really means is that our bats are going to be ON FIRE for game four!

Where's my sticker?!

2008-10-07T20:58:00.003-04:00

There are a few things that are less satisfying about voting absentee. For one thing, I don't get a sticker.

For another, one of the coolest things about voting in my home district in Virginia was always how the poll workers who checked my name off on the list would always tell me which other members of my family had already been by. Not that I'll get that when I finally accept that I might actually be a New Yorker and register here, but it did always make me proud to be a part of the process, and a part of my family.

One thing is just as much fun though. The ballot. The act of voting. When you vote absentee in Virginia's first district, you get a big fat envelope with a bunch of other envelopes in it. The ballot is sealed into one of them, and when you have your witness to hand, you open it, unfold the big scantron sheet and use your trusty #2 pencil to fill in the dots for the candidates you like. Then you refold the ballot, insert it into the smaller envelope and ask your witness to sign it. That assembly goes into yet another envelope, pre-addressed, and you stamp and mail. The whole process gives me great joy.

But I still wish I got a sticker.

The Melting Point of Aluminum

2008-10-05T16:46:00.002-04:00

In case you were curious, the melting point of aluminum is 933° Kelvin. That's 1220° F, or, for my Canadian friends, 660° C.

Why do I know this, you might ask?

We've had an interesting day here at the closing show of Fela! Everything was fine until about one hour, when I came down to the backstage area after dropping the queens mics on 3B, but I walked in and started to unpack my computer when I smelled something oddly like burning. I stuffed the computer back into it's bag and went out onto the stage where there was a group of people clustered around the far wall where the hazer is stashed. With a fire extinguisher. And a lot of smoke. Danny was climbing up into the wall and Jon had seen actual flames, as opposed to the last time we smelled smoke (battery pack under the stage for an effect that had been cut) when it was just smoke. The hazer, the clear source of the problem, was excavated and rushed out to the street, but there was still smoke and a concern that the fire had spread, so they called for the fire department and evacuated the building (including the full house for the show in one of the other theaters.) Many of the crew hovered around the still smoldering hazer, Mel (who was only in for the one show, covering for Dave) with the fire extinguisher close to hand, until the house staff shooed us across the street with the patrons. I still hadn't seen the queens come out of the building, so even though the building is a big concrete box and I knew the fire was small and localized, I wasn't totally comfortable until I started to see the wardrobe crew spill out the far doors, queens in tow.

While we stood about blocking traffic, four fire trucks showed up, and the firemen rushed in to check it out. Someone jokingly gave a fifteen minute call around twenty til our three o'clock curtain. The audience members from the other show saw us hanging around and acting like we had somewhere to be, so they thought we might know something about the cause of the fire and started peppering us with questions. We had nothing useful to tell them however, and I was reluctant to give them any information.

One of the engines that showed up had lettered across the windshield "NEVER MISSED A PEFORMANCE", which, while not terribly surprising since we're blocks from the whole Times Square mess, did strike us all as quite funny, still wondering if we would be doing our closing show.

We got back into the building, no real harm done, around 2:45 and put it around that we were aiming for a 3:30 go, in an attempt to hurry the actors along a bit and actually get a 3:45 curtain. The women were largely ready by then, and I went downstairs as soon as they were all out of the dressing room, hoping to catch the lead before he went on, as stage management was anxious about having an audio sub responsible for his mic. No worries there. Amazingly, we were still waiting for the house. Honestly, if you're showing up at 3:45 for a 3pm show, you deserve to miss some. (Looking at YOU, Chelsea Clinton.)

We found out in the middle of act one that the heating element in the hazer had malfunctioned severely enough to melt the aluminum, which leaked out, extremely hot, to start the fire. How hot?

That's why I happen to know the melting point of aluminum today.

I always knew I liked them...

2008-09-27T22:03:00.003-04:00

I've always liked Google (or, for those of you supporting McCain, "the google" - keep using those Video Professor CDs, you'll get there eventually) for a number of reasons. Mostly that the products they produce are so darn useful. I blog here, I've used Gmail since I first managed to wrangle an invite (remember the beta? When users had like 6 invites?), Google Reader is my preferred RSS reader both at home and on my mobile, Google Maps takes Yahoo! to school and while I've never really needed Google Earth, it's awfully fun to play with...

They're also a very cool company. They encourage employees to use 20% of their work time to pursue their own projects, some of which have turned out to be more cool Google products. And don't get me started on the Googleplex. I want to work at the Googleplex, and I don't do anything even remotely useful to them. Those kids play areas filled with multicolored balls? I didn't encounter on until I was just over the height restriction for it, and I was quite resentful. Google? Has one for the Googlers. They're just fun. They feed the Googlers quite well and have snack and drink stations every five feet (hyperbole alert)!

So now I have one more reason to like them. They have taken an official stance in opposition to California's reprehensible Proposition 8 (constitutional amendment banning gay marriage), claiming that,

"it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love."

See the Official Google Blog for the full statement.

Way to go Google. Thanks for being a standup sort of company. And Happy Tenth Birthday!

Warning - cute fuzzies ahead

2008-09-26T15:12:00.003-04:00

It's just occurred to me that I haven't tormented you with any pictures of the rabbits lately, so here's a few. Jupiter is very much Juno's bitch - here she is demanding grooming from her bunny by shoving her head under his. (Just after crawling over him to get up the ramp. She's totally bossy.) We've moved their house to the dining room, mostly so that the occasional kicked out poo would be easier to clean, and because we can less obtrusively pen them up when we're out, so that she doesn't use the couch as a litter box. Most of the reading that I've done has suggested that limiting the amount of space available to the bunnies helps them to learn that their litter boxes are the only places to poop, so we've been penning them up while we're out, and it does seem to be helping. I expect the hardwood floors in the dining room are also less attractive than the nice hay filled litter boxes too. Last night I was able to leave the two of them free to roam and when I woke up there were no piles of poo anywhere other than the litter boxes. Of course, since they haven't been out in the living room unattended recently, I hadn't been as vigilant about keeping the backside of the red chair blocked, and when I got up this morning Jupiter had managed to trap himself up inside the underside of the chair again. Fortunately we've had that happen before, and this time he hopped right out as soon as I tipped the chair. Last time we thought we'd lost him!

Jupiter is a well trained bunny though - here he is grooming Juno's ears as per her demand. We have little unfinished wooden boxes in their cage to reduce the grade of the ramps from level to level, and in addition to making them both more comfortable climbing up to the penthouse, Jupiter has also discovered that they are great for gnawing on, which was his only bad habit before he had the boxes. We'd presented all sorts of things to him for his chewing needs, none of which met with his approval the way that the living room baseboard did, until now! He never uses anything other than his litter box and is really quite the little gentleman.

Unrelatedly, Alison is the only one participating in the "Name that room" debate, and she could use some help...

What's that in the keyboard tray?

2008-09-24T01:47:00.004-04:00

What, you may ask, is that thing in the keyboard tray? It's a laptop. A third laptop. My desk is stupid. And the worst thing is, I really enjoy how stupid it is.

The third laptop, in all fairness, doesn't belong to me. It's Dave's $200 Craigslist special that he bought to have a beater for tour purposes. It's perfectly adequate for web purposes, but otherwise, well, a OLPC would probably be a better computer. (And far niftier. If I were going to allow a fourth laptop to come live in my desk area, it would have to be a OLPC.) Come to think of it, perhaps I should make one of these spare laptops a Linux machine. It would have to be my old computer (the Dell XPS, left) because there's still the chance that Dave might want to use his mostly abandoned laptop, and he'd probably expect it to still be running XP when he did.

The XPS, now that it's been supplanted by the mac, really doesn't do anything except sync with my windows mobile phone for backup purposes (I don't really want to waste the space on my windows partition on the mac with Outlook, not when there's this perfectly good computer that already has that job) and run Azureus. The keyboard tray computer has only one task, and that's to sync up with the scanner for my part-time extra money gig. You would think that the two things that need to sync with a PC could share, but no, it turns out that they both want different versions of active sync (the scanner is seriously old) and the two versions refuse to coexist. Jerks. So that's why it lives in the keyboard tray, it's not called upon all that often.

I think the only way to make this less lame is to either get rid of one of these or install Linux on the XPS. Otherwise this is just stupid. (But neatly so. I even have a little black stool for the XPS to live on.)

Name that room!

2008-09-23T03:16:00.005-04:00

I've never really looked into the whole Feng Shui thing, but I do notice that changing simple things about a room's layout really changes my attitude towards that room, though it might just be that changes like that most often happen at the same time as basic cleaning and clutter removal. I'll have to experiment further, eliminating the cleaning variable.

In any event, today I cleaned up my hallway bookshelves, picked up a used shorty Ikea Billy for the spare room and shuffled a lot of stuff (and dust - whew) around, and now I like this room more than I did before. Some of that may be the rug no longer trying to trip me upon entry however. I'm not much of a rug person, I like wood floors, but Dave's a fan, so we have big rugs in the living room and the spare room.

I really need to think of a better name for the spare room. It used to be our bedroom, back when we had another roommate, but when Jon left us, I moved us into the smaller room. Now I have the absurd luxury of a room that is entirely for bed related activities. And for clothes. It feels really decadent to not have to cram a desk and some bookshelves and perhaps a TV into the "bedroom". It's just the bedroom. The old bedroom needs a new name though. It's become a sort of second living room, with a futon in case of guests and the old TV, on one side, and the computer room on the other. The office? The study? (I've always wanted a room that I could call "the study", but honestly, what am I studying? w00t?) The den? The spare room is just so lame, as names for less-obvious rooms go. Any suggestions?

I swear, I'd come to the Delacorte just to lie in the hammock.

2008-09-19T14:45:00.002-04:00

Blissed Out Lunch Break

2008-09-18T13:29:00.003-04:00

This week is starting to wear on me, and after a breakfast sandwich at our eleven o'clock coffee break, I wasn't terribly hungry when lunch was called at one, so I've opted to skip lunch in favor of a nap in the hammock. It's the most wonderful feeling, just lazing here between these two trees, on this wonderfully solid hammock (hung, no doubt, by carps many seasons ago, given the growth on the trees.) I almost wish I had a little blanket or a hoodie, because while the trees still look like summer, the breeze here in the shade and in the lee of these glacially formed Central Park boulders speaks of autumn.

It's easy to forget you're in Manhattan here, with the pond behind us and the trees surrounding, the Delacourt could be any one of a thousand outdoor theatres anywhere in the country. The sun is warm, the breeze refreshing and the work seriously dirty!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pull the brim of my baseball cap over my eyes and let the birds and the half-heard conversation lull me to sleep.

That's one efficient pickle!

2008-09-17T20:41:00.003-04:00

I'm doing double duty this week, mild-manneredly working the audio strike for Hair/Hamlet at the park for the Public by day, rocking out with Fela! at night. Since the strike at the park is 9-6 and our show call is 6-11:30ish, Reid and I have been grabbing a cab from the park, and Dave's been hustling to cover our asses, and as you can imagine, I'm not getting as much sleep as I'd like.

Which makes it a great week for me to train to mix the show, right?! Our show extended for two weeks past our anticipated closing date (originally this coming Sunday) and Dave had already accepted work for a few days next week that conflict with our show schedule, so we're training a sub for him this week. Reid, wisely, decided that it would also be a good chance to train his sub, which turns out to be me. I'm concerned that I don't possess sufficient ego to sub for the A1. Mixing a large off-Broadway musical seems to require a certain amount of unflagging faith in one's own infallibility, something I'm not sure I have, especially after being told that my strengths lie in electrics, not sound...

In all seriousness, I'm excited to get to mix the show, and the work is the park has been a lot of fun. The raccoon poo aside. (One of the joys of outdoor theatre is always the invasion of unwanted flora and fauna, in this case represented by the raccoons. They seem to like the warmth of the amps and power distros, so they make nests above them, and they poop. Everywhere. Raccoon feces look a lot like larger, sloppier rabbit pellets, but rabbits eat mostly clean stuff, whereas the raccoons that live in Central Park eat, well, anything, and it shows.) The people in that crew are great though, so it's still a lot of fun. Today we electrified a pickle.

A few years ago, when I was MEing and then ASMing for an opera festival in Virginia, I first encountered the electric pickle. I found a nasty old piece of cable with a male edison plug on it and two rusty drywall screws connected to the bare wires. It looked like an especially nasty method of committing suicide to me, but I was told that it was an important piece of gear for opening night. It was the pickle wire. The opening night tradition was to light up a pickle on opening night.

The audio head at the Public had never heard of this until yesterday and I have no idea who brought it up, but at first people didn't believe it. I lent my assurances that, in fact, the pickle does light up as advertised. So he decided that he needed to see it happen, and was all set to order some pickles from the deli from which we order our coffee break food, but we decided that they probably wouldn't deliver an order of two large pickles and nothing else! Today, after coffee break, we put the theory into action, and, sure enough, science still works, and the pickle still glows. (In case you were curious, the brine that the cucumber was pickled in is the source of the orange glow.) This was much more fun than doing it with a full cast and crew though - with just the audio geeks and a few carps wandering by, we took it all out. Lots of jokes about EQing the color (if you really want a different color, use a different kind of sodium, but don't eat that pickle) and someone decided to put a multi-meter on the pickle to see what the resistance of a pickle was.

Turns out, about 1 Ohm. That's one efficient pickle!

Perhaps Crackpot isn't a bad word afterall... er... Crockpot...

2008-09-14T22:11:00.004-04:00

Growing up we never had a slow cooker, so this small appliance, like the toaster oven, has just never seemed terribly useful to me. I scorned it, and its cousin the breadmaker. Dave, it turns out, has always wanted a breadmaker, and while I thought it was sort of silly, he decided we should buy one a few months ago and picked up the 2 lb Cuisinart model with Amazon rewards cards. After a few months, I am being forced to eat my words, but since Dave makes very nice honey wheat bread, at least I can make a sandwich of them. The bread maker is really rather cool, the sandwich bread we make is so much heartier and tastier than the store bought variety and I enjoy knowing exactly what went into it.

Earlier today Dave and I were talking about what we could possibly do to reduce our energy usage further. We already use CFLs in all but a very few of our lamps (I can't take the color temperature of even the best CFLs in the bathroom, and the short duration of use there makes them less useful anyhow) and LEDs just aren't quite there yet, I don't think, though I would like to switch when they arrive at a reasonable price/utility balance. We don't use air conditioning during the summer, and we're conservative with our use of fans to replace it. We keep the heat decently low in the winter and with the advent of the new windows, we should be able to do even better this year on that score. Our refrigerator is a hulking energy beast, but since we rent we have very little control over that, alas. It probably accounts for at least half our power bill all by itself! ConEd has had ads on the subway with energy saver tips, encouraging you to visit their website for more tips. Now, I'm pretty savvy, but there's always the chance that I've missed something or forgotten something, so I went to check out the list.

The majority of the list is concerned with heating and cooling (as it should be, those are major energy sinks for most households) which I can't do much about; appliances, which for the most part I don't have (hulking refrigerator aside); and lighting, which I've already addressed, but they did suggest that using a slow cooker instead of the oven was more efficient. It seems that seven hours of slow cooker time uses less than half the electricity of an hour of electric oven. Now, I have a gas stove and I neither want to do the math to compare BTUs to kWhs, nor to delude myself into thinking that the energy savings would be significant, given the amounts involved, but it did get me to thinking. The bread machine is pretty nifty because we can throw all the ingredients in and set the timer, coming back hours later to fresh tasty bread. It seems to me that the slow cooker would do the same thing for soups and roasts and chili. All things I like to eat as the weather turns cooler. Maybe we should get one...

Dave, it turns out, is very brand loyal to Cuisinart, due to the longevity of his college toaster oven. (Another small appliance I never had, and therefore never thought I needed. We still have his college toaster oven though, and it is a perfectly nice item, I freely admit.) Therefore, the Cuisinart 4 quart cooker, pictured above, is the obvious front runner, but I would love your insight. Do you use a slow cooker? What kind? What size? And most importantly, what do you make in it?

I R SMRT

2008-09-11T01:21:00.006-04:00

I admit it, if I had more money, I would be an alpha consumer, at least of gadgets. (I'll never be an alpha consumer of, say, fashion items, no matter how much money I have.) I like Apple, I like every product of theirs that I've owned, and I pay attention to the products they release. I'd buy more of them if I could afford it. So obviously when they announced the new nanos, I looked at my second generation nano and wished it were sexier. However, the thing that most intrigued me from that announcement was not hardware related at all. The sexy new gadgets play with iTunes 8, and iTunes 8 has a neat new feature, Genius.

I've been known to waste a stupid amount of time cleaning up and relabeling my iTunes library, but I've never been one for the creation of playlists - I get distracted too easily by listening to the songs I'm considering that I never actually accomplish anything. Genius was made just for me, clearly. You pick a song from your library, hit the little atom icon, and presto - a 25 song playlist culled from your library to compliment the seed song! My first three tries produced very reasonable and listenable lists. A Cathie Ryan song produced a very mellow list, with Loreena McKennitt, Dougie MacLean and the Chieftains featured prominently (Enya and Ray Lynch I can see too, but I question the inclusion of Rosa Passos...) but iTunes doesn't know Battlefield Band at all, which I would have liked to have associated with the general Celtic-ness. It made me a nice Christmas list when I planted The King's Singers version of "Veni, Veni Emmanuel", focusing mostly on similar choral and sacred music, but with a bit of Dean Martin for fun. It even made me smile by including "Tessie" and "Dirty Water" in a playlist based on the Dropkick Murphys "Shipping Up to Boston".

I suspect that the utility of this feature is directly proportional to the size of your library. With my 60G library, it has lots of options, with a smaller library it might return stranger matches, forced to stretch a bit.

The system has some faults - it doesn't like the Beatles, for one. (Honestly, who doesn't like the Beatles?) The Beatles are notoriously NOT available for download on iTunes, so it seems that it's not sure how to deal with them, as they aren't built into its initial knowledge base. Clearly the goal of Genius is to sell more music on iTunes - even for Battlefield Band and Fela Kuti, on which the Genius list choked, it lists top albums for download and "Top Songs You're Missing" in the Genius Sidebar. As such, it has a skew towards things that are available on iTunes, and is less able to deal with more obscure tracks. The true test is going to be in its ability to learn these artists from association. This feature is not for the privacy anxious, as it learns based on your listening habits and those of all your fellow iTunes minions, uploaded and presumably cross-referenced, but I'm hoping that as the user base grows, iTunes Genius will learn Battlefield Band, Fela Kuti and maybe even the Beatles.

What is this productivity you speak of?

2008-09-08T20:16:00.004-04:00

Dave worked an all-night/all-day fashion week gig last night to this evening, and my goal was to get to bed at a reasonable hour and then get our apartment back into some sort of order. I didn't do very well...

We still have this sort of permadirt left from when our landlord had the new windows installed. The old windows were original to the building - impossible to properly clean and essentially nonexistent in the insulation department. When it got cold outside I could sit at my desk and feel equal parts heat from the radiator and cold from the windows! Our landlord, as the oil prices get higher and higher, has grown more and more agitated about the heating costs (one of the best things about NYC is that most apartment rentals include heat, so if the apartment isn't energy efficient in that regard, the right person is footing the bill for it) and we've pointed to the terrible windows several times, not expecting any response.

So we're pretty darn thrilled to have them, but getting the work completed was like pulling teeth. Poor Dave was stuck with doing that dental duty as well, as I was busy that week. It was a pretty neat thing to watch, but getting them to clean up afterwards was just a hopeless task. What had been billed as a one day project turned into nearly a week of pestering the contractor and moving all our stuff around. They literally ripped the old windows out of their seat in the wall and then mounted the new ones in their place, which created a great deal of plastery white chips everywhere and powdery dirt that got into everything. They patched everything back up, but didn't do a terribly neat job of it, which left yet more dust and grime.

Today I think I may have finally gotten the best part of it out of our bedroom, which is great, but the spare room has been on a messy downward spiral since the construction, with the bicycles everywhere (there are only two of them, but it feels like they're everywhere), bunny stuff spilling out of the closet and piles of crap on the futon. There are empty boxes living next to my desk, piles of who knows what all over Dave's desk and every flat surface is covered. I don't even know what's at the bottom of some of these piles! I was really hoping to get that dealt with today, and all I seem to have accomplished is the area around Dave's (much neater) desk. I'm actually quite proud of that 5 foot square, and I did get the laundry all done!

Sadly, my cleaning streak ended when I turned on the Sox game, and now here I am, wasting time talking about the cleaning I'm not doing. I did finally come up with an excuse for posting some of these window pictures though!

Never a dull moment

2008-09-07T02:29:00.003-04:00

We had our first two show day on Fela! today, and boy did it suck! The air conditioning at 37 Arts is never the most reliable thing in the world, as I know well from last year, and today was apparently one of its off days. It was stupid hot on stage for both shows, and keeping mics attached to actors (where by actors I mean crazy-ass dancers who sing) was a constant challenge. The ladies were so humid in the dressing room that it was hard to even tape them up initially, and once they get to serious sweating, no hope.

The ladies weren't the real problem though, the real problem turned out to be Sahr. Sahr plays the lead, Fela Kuti, and he, quite literally, does not leave the stage during act one. Not once. There's not even a way to sneak him off while something else happens, because nothing else happens. It's completely and totally the Sahr show. (This theme continues into act two, but there are two quick changes, one of which can be made to afford us about a minute if we need to repair or replace something.) Since there is no way to get Sahr off stage, and the show is set in a club to begin with, the emergency back up for his mic is the handheld 58 that he uses for the intro and subsequently leaves on a stand with the band. As I'm sure you've guessed by now, we lost Sahr's mic, victim of the excessive heat induced sweat, in the beginning of the matinee's act one, and had to scramble to work around the handheld for some of his onstage actions. (Hard to roll a joint with one hand, right?) At intermission we changed out the entire thing, as Reid had heard some popping as well. New transmitter, new cable, new element - with freshly sewn on (by me) windscreen. New everything. The switch was smooth, the fix effective. During act two I lost a transmitter on one of the key women, Nicole, but nothing drastically out of the ordinary, and easily fixed on a costume change.

We wrote the whole thing off. At least it was the matinee. Fixed Nicole up, and headed out for dinner. Apparently it was monsoon season in NYC this afternoon. We were totally soaked before we'd even gone half a block! Dripping, we ate our tasty kebab rolls from the Pakistani place and rushed back to reset for the second run.

All was well at RF check, no problems. Sahr's old mic, given time to dry out and a brisk squirt with canned air, was miraculously revived, but we opted to stick with the new-brand-new one. Better safe than sorry.

We thought.

This time it went by the end of the first number. Same thing. Sweat rolled right down into the element and this time there was no salvaging it. Total goner. I'm quite sure that's the shortest life of any E6 I've ever encountered. Less than two hours. So again, Sahr spent the first act on the handheld, with some adjustments around it. And again, we swapped out at intermission. This time we were forced to go back to the earlier mic, as we were totally out of spares at that point (we lost another yesterday and haven't received replacements yet), but we got lucky and it sounded ok. We did err on the side of distance from his face, in an attempt to avert further disaster, and that lead to a lot of breath noise, that would have made me crazy, if I hadn't already been there.

Fortunately, Sahr is a total pro and takes everything in stride, including the appearance in the audience of Beyonce and Jay-Z, which pretty much tripped all the women out. (They said it was good though, that they were so tired by then that having celebs added energy to the show for them.) I'm not a big fan of either myself, but I now have a positive impression of them both because they made a point of staying around after the show for a meet and greet (and some photos for our cast) with the company. It's always nice to see celebrities engaging like that, rather than running off after the show in order to avoid the paparazzi. (Looking at YOU, Katie Holmes. We totally saw you do that the other day.)

After the show, while Reid was talking to folks about our show (awful), the real Fela Kuti's manager talked to him a bit about the PA that they had cobbled together for Fela back in the day, and that no matter what anyone else said, it sounded great, just like Fela would have wanted it himself. I was really glad to see Reid get that sort of affirmation, because his job in mixing this show is an absolute beast and I'm not sure how much anyone realizes that.

There really wasn't anything we could have done differently today, so I'm not going to dwell on it for long. AC craps out, actors sweat, gear fails. Nothing to be done about it.

I still felt like an asshole though.

Raindrops on roses... or at least houseplants.

2008-09-06T00:46:00.004-04:00

We walked off the train into the first few drops of a lovely rainstorm - at least now that I have dry clothes on I think it's lovely! That's not entirely true. I like walking in the rain a great deal, but I'm not really a big fan when I'm still carrying all my stuff from work. Anyhow, within a block it was coming down pretty hard and we got good and soaked.

When I got home, I had to water the plants. I know this is silly, and certainly a case of me anthropomorphizing totally inappropriate things, but I feel bad for houseplants when it rains. It seems as though they know that the rain is coming down and can't figure out why they aren't getting any. (This is not totally absurd, since the changes in the air probably to key them in on some cellular level to expect water. Feeling disappointed for them, however, is a little bit daffy.)

Today was, as I expect you noticed earlier, Dave's birthday. We didn't do much celebrating, as we had a show call at 6 for Fela! and two shows tomorrow puts a damper on going out post show. I did at least take him out for an early dinner and we went down to Tekserve to pick up his birthday present. I'd been at a loss all week - the only thing he really wants is a macbook, and that's just slightly (ever so slightly) out of my price range! Last night on the train he was listening to his iPod and said something about how he'd not had the headphones out of the jack since he got it, two years ago. Those awful little earbuds that come with the iPod. (If anyone needs some, by the by, I have three sets in my desk drawer. I really have no idea where some of them came from. I don't have enough iPods to justify this. There's no reason for it.) I hate those things. I hate them especially much on other people who are near me on the train, but I hate listening to them too, and it occurred to me that Dave might likewise dislike them. So I asked if he'd ever considered getting a better set. I have the old Shure E3c model and I love them. He said he just hadn't wanted to spend the money. Perfect! A luxury item you wouldn't buy for yourself? Bingo! Birthday present! Now, I'm not made of money, far from it, so he has to settle for the SE110s, but he seems to like them, and they are a great deal better than the ones he has.

Note to Steve Jobs: You could do a major public service for transit riders everywhere if you would just include a slightly better headphone with the iPod. The ubiquity of the iPod, in all its many incarnations, means that you could single handedly reduce the irritation level of all the people who do not want to hear other people's tunes! It can't be that expensive, I'm not asking you to include Shure SE530s or anything, just something like the junkers that came with my xm radio. Slightly isolating. With similarly meh sound quality to the current iPod buds.

Just a note...

2008-09-05T03:22:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday, Dave!

Fudge/Umbridge '08

2008-09-05T03:12:00.002-04:00

I'm a day late, and always more than a dollar short, but I'm finally watching Sarah Palin's snarky speech from yesterday at the RNC. Ten minutes in, I found myself wanting to throw things, and then I realized who she reminded me of.

Dolores Umbridge.

I thought I was just terribly clever, but it turns out that quite a number of other people had come up with the idea as well. I googled it, and found a Facebook group and a Yahoo question on the subject. So much for my independent cleverness. The Facebook group even suggests that perhaps McCain, old and out of touch, could perhaps be Fudge. I think that one's just a stretch to match the Palin-Umbridge connection, but it made a good title...

Capitalizing on... an ad?

2008-08-18T09:59:00.003-04:00

I was just asking the google to find me a new laptop sleeve when I came across this, the Steve Sleeve, from Timbuck2. I thought it was the funniest thing I've seen all day (full disclosure, I've only been up for about an hour, since the Keyspan guys came and woke me up wanting to see the meter.) Though it looks just like the manila envelope of Apple Macbook Air advertising, it is actually a recycled plastic case for your Macbook Air (a computer, by the way, which I would never buy, given how sleek and small the average Macbook already is.) Named, of course, for Steve Jobs of Apple fame, who introduced the ultra-thin Macbook by sliding it out of, you guessed it, a manila envelope.

Is this worth the $50 Timbuck2 wants for it? No, not by half. Is it clever and funny? Why yes. Yes it is.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

2008-08-11T22:19:00.003-04:00

After our all-too-short trip to the Outer Banks, all of the members of our household are home. Dave and I got in this morning around ten, but Juno & Jupiter just arrived home about an hour ago. We weren't able to pick them up earlier because their hosts actually have to work for a living, poor souls. (Oh, wait. I'd like to do that. Note to self: Find job.) Our rabbits were apparently good house guests and are welcome back anytime, which is nice to hear, not that we're going anywhere anytime soon. Juno's snout, as expected, is healing quite nicely, though we do need to continue giving her meds through Thursday. They were both thrilled to be home, hopping around like mad to make sure everything was just as they'd left it. After about half an hour though, they had found their usual spots and were quite relaxed. They don't seem to be bearing us any ill will for ditching them for a week, forgiving little critters.

We returned to a note from our former upstairs neighbors, asking would we mind collecting any mail that they received and sending it on to them (in the thoughtfully provided addressed and stamped envelope, of course), and inviting us to come see them any time we happened to be on that side of the world. I know that they will be happy to be home in Ireland, but I'm quite sorry to lose them as neighbors. Aside from my suspicion that her son was actually a small elephant in disguise (or perhaps he simply had more than his fair share of gravity), Karen was a wonderful person to have in the building, always a kind word and a friendly face. The tenants I like never stay. The ones I don't... another story all together. Fortunately, they did come in once more before heading to the airport, so we did get to say goodbye to them properly. (And they were kind enough to give us a great fan!) I wish them all the best, and I'm glad for them to be going home.

I remembered today why it's always best to clean before you leave on a trip - getting out of the car after ten hours to a pigsty is quite disheartening! It's not much better now, but at least the floors are clean and the dishes are mostly done. I did a few hours of the scanning work today, though I was pretty tired and my heart wasn't in it. Or is that my brain? I threw stuff into the bread maker for a loaf of honey wheat as soon as we got home, so now I just need to make some turkey sandwiches for tomorrow so that we don't spend money eating out. Work is more precarious than ever, for both of us, I suspect, and we need to pinch our pennies harder. Make those pennies squeal!

To go with my turkey sandwich I have the most wonderful souvenir from Duck though. No t-shirts or coffee mugs for us, no sir. Before we left yesterday I made a point of going to the farm stand and buying a big bag of South Carolina peaches. What utter bliss. I intended to eat one on some cereal for breakfast in the morning, but I've just realized that we have no milk. Never mind, I'll just make oatmeal and eat the peach anyhow. They're like eating solidified, slightly tart sunshine. The firm but slightly yielding flesh, the rich colors, the smell! Why is the internet not scratch and sniff yet? Oh how I wish I could share this with you. There are peaches here, lots of them, but none of them measure up. The local ones, not through any fault of their own, are from New Jersey, which is simply not as warm or sunny as parts south so the trees haven't any chance to produce such wondrous fruit. The peaches imported (in the usual fashion, not tenderly in the side compartment of the Prius's trunk) from that same land of sun, were all pulled rudely from the tree well before it had time to impart all of that delicious sunlight it had been lapping up, in the interest of travel. You just can't get peaches like this here, and my taste buds will still be at the beach just as long as they last. (Not very, I expect.)

Beach! Beach beach beach!

2008-08-08T22:32:00.002-04:00

We're happily ensconced in our usual Duck House (yeah, not the most creative name ever, but we just rent it, don't blame us) and I'm only sorry that we can't stay here all next week as well. My parents have taken to renting the house for two weeks, rather than the old one, and that makes for a delightful vacation. The first week is largely spent visiting with lots of my maternal extended family, and then the second is the laid back immediate family week. It was a stroke of brilliance on their part, I must say. This year the extended family portion was more intense than usual, as my mom's middle sister, Susan, rented a house just up the street with her husband and their two kids (plus my cousins' significant others.) I hear that it was especially nice because mom's younger sister and her family (husband, three youngish boys!) stayed at that house while my grandmother, three uncles and one other cousin (with boyfriend) stayed here. The Duck House isn't really that large, two queen rooms, a bunk room (sleeps four) and a two twin room. All of those people used to stay here for a few days! One year Dave and I were on the porch on an air mattress on the first night we arrived! That was actually quite lovely, and if I'd been smart enough to bring the aerobed with us, I might try it again this year. As long as there isn't rain, it's really peaceful to sleep under the stars.

Our poor bunnies are not happy with us, I'm afraid. They knew something was up when we started dismantling their house before we left, and they were not best pleased when I scooped them up and tucked them back into one of the boxes they'd come in from the pound. The car ride was surprisingly calm though, I expected them to be extremely unhappy, and while Juno cowered a bit at first, Jupiter had his head up at the first opportunity, trying to see where we were going. By the time we reached Brooklyn they both seemed fine with the situation. While we would have to come up with a better solution for any long trips, I'm encouraged by their placid reaction to car travel.

We set them up in Angela & Zach's living room, and once the cage was assembled we pulled them out of the carrier. Dave said that Jupiter was clinging to his shirt, as though he knew we were leaving them, and I've never seen Juno so happy to be picked up, and so reluctant to be put down. Rabbits typically do not like being picked up at all, so this was odd behaviour for them. I suspect they are being spoiled terribly and won't even want to come home with us on Monday!

Poor Juno did get into a bit of a scuffle with the resident rabbit, Greta. Greta had plenty of time to get used to being the sole rabbit in her multi-animal household, and efforts to bond her with the newer rabbit there, Artie, have been less than successful. I can't imagine she's happy with the current situation at all, so I can't say I was all that surprised to hear that she and Juno had come to blows. Somehow they managed to get at one another through two spaced out pens, being persistent animals, and I suspect Juno was shoving her nose through the bars for all she was worth, since she did that to us all the time before she became an outside-the-cage rabbit. Evidently Greta took exception and took a good nip at Juno's lip. Our good bunny sitters took her off to the vet, and say that she seems fine now, no trouble eating or anything. Jupiter has been quite solicitous towards her, Angela says whenever she's gone to medicate the cut she's had to move Jupe out of the way first. He's a good little guy, and fairly unflappable. I'm not worried, and I'm sure she's being spoiled even more than she was before! I will be terribly glad to see them both when we return though.

Vacation Time!

2008-08-04T23:04:00.003-04:00

The bunnies get to have a new adventure this week. Dave and I are going on our annual trip to Duck, NC to vacation with my family, and Juno and Jupiter get to go visit our friends Angela and Zach. And the rest of their menagerie. They share their apartment with two humans, two dogs, a maniacal cat and two rabbits. Our pair are going to be beside themselves, but we're very thankful that Ang and Zach are so kind as to bunny-sit for us.

There was a great deal of uncertainty about whether we were even going to go on vacation this summer, as work has been slimmer than usual, especially for Dave, who got far less hours than he was given to expect in July, putting us both behind. Mom & Dad, of course, offered assistance in getting to the beach, but since they already foot the not-inconsiderable expense of the beach house rental itself, nevermind the mountain of food that the clan consumes, we were extremely reluctant to take them up on their offer. However, we did feel obliged to GO after they made the offer, and so we planned to leave for a week and a half.

For the second year straight, our friend Reid has rescued the long, dark teatime of our summer. Last year it was the crazy barge gig, a desperately needed week of work. (And a very odd show. On, as I mentioned, a barge. With the audience and half the sound system on a pier.) This year, he's head audio on a big off-Broadway show, and he's already hired me quite a bit for it, starting with the shop build back in May/June. (I do love a good shop build. All that titchy little stuff...) He's asked me to join the show as the A2 when the current guy leaves, and in the meantime he's been getting me on as many of the work calls as I can take. I had to turn him down there for a while because I was busy at LCI for summer session, and didn't feel right ditching them, but now we're in the true doldrums, and there is no such impediment. Lucky for Dave and I, they've just realized that they need two sound crew persons every day for the next three weeks. Which gets me right up until the time I would take over as A2. Good stuff.

Of course, this prompted some discussion about skipping the beach trip in favor of the work, and while that is probably the practical decision, I really wasn't about to cancel on my family with three days notice. Fortunately, Dave decided that he would come too, so the beach trip is abbreviated, but not abandoned. We were leaving earlier and returning later initially, but we're still getting our beach (and more importantly, family) time in, and that's what counts to me. The bunnies may feel differently...

Goodbyes

2008-07-31T23:15:00.002-04:00

Manny is now going to continue Being Manny for the Dodgers. I really don't have anything to say about this. I'm just sad. Nothing against Jason Bay, but I think the deal stinks.

Thanks Manny. Thanks for the rings. Thanks for the dongs. Thanks for the high-fives, the dreadlocks, the antics. Thanks for being a Red Sock.

Happily Bonded Bunnies

2008-07-30T12:54:00.007-04:00

I haven't said much about the rabbits lately, and that's largely because there really is no news on that front. Juno and Jupiter are very happily bonded, and aside from wishing that Juno would do a better job grooming Jupiter (he looks like a patchwork rabbit, he's shedding so oddly), we're all very pleased. We've dismantled one of the cages, and they now share the same, expanded cage. It's got multiple levels, and I don't really expect Juno will ever venture up to the upper reaches, but Jupiter has been enticed up once with a carrot, and I expect he will soon find those upper platforms to be his own spot when they are in their house. Right now, they generally aren't in their house much, so there's been no need. They have the run of the house these days, but we are going out of town next week, and they will be going to stay with our good friends (and fellow bunny parents) Angela and Zach in Brooklyn, where they will be expected to spend a great deal more time in their house, or in a pen attached to their house.

Here's a bit of video of them sharing a carrot. Now that's love! The quality of the video is pretty bad, having been taken in low light with our older camera, but it's still pretty cute.

They have both staked out places in the apartment that are their own territory, though they share the rug in the living room, and spend most of their time there sprawled out next to each other. Juno is a kitchen and bathroom bunny and spends her alone time either on the rug in front of the sink, or halfway in the doorway of the bathroom. I understand the current attraction of the tile floor in the bathroom, as it's been quite warm of late and we don't use the air conditioning at all, but we do have to warn overnight guests not to step on her if they need to use the facilities at night! Jupiter owns the couch. He likes to perch on the back of the couch, especially if Dave is watching TV. Honestly, Jupiter seems more and more catlike the better we get to know him. Both rabbits have really settled in and are much more comfortable with us, with each other, and even with guests who come in for the evening or for a few days. Juno won't do her full-on "dead bunny pose" when there are guests, but Jupiter is perfectly happy to hop right up on the couch or the red chair with them, startling them just as much as he does Dave!

Help me Manny Being Manny. You're my only hope!

2008-07-29T20:56:00.004-04:00

I was going to weigh in on all the Manny kerfuffle over the past few days, but honestly, my imaginary friend Jere pretty much covered it over at his blog in, "Red Sox Fan meets Voyce O'Reisen".

It's a funny read, even if you don't really care about Manny and his relationship with the Red Sox.

Speaking of Jere, I've just had the pleasure of reading a review copy of his soon-to-be-released novel, "Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery", co-written with his mum, and I'll be posting a proper review soon. If you want to take my word for it though, go ahead and pre-order it. It's due out September 1, which is sort of a bummer, as it would be a perfect read for that last weekend of summer.

Tip of the hat to Ish for the exceptionally dorky title. Love. Much love.

Blast from the Past

2008-07-28T15:13:00.003-04:00

I saw this lying on the sidewalk at 120th and Claremont Ave last week when I was walking back to the van from Columbia. Even years later, the logo jumped out at me. Not terribly useful there, I don't think.

I haven't even been to Busch Gardens in at least five years, and it's been more than ten since I worked there, but it still bubbles up to the top of my mind from time to time. I was playing Mario Kart Wii the other day, for example, and there was a level that, for some reason, I felt should be in the park in New France. Maybe it looked like a Nintendo stylized log flume. Beats me.

SAT prep suggestion

2008-07-27T21:44:00.002-04:00

I dislike commercials. One thing you will never see me doing with my blog is taking Google up on their AdSense offer. No ads here, thank-you-very-much.

That said, the ads on ESPN tonight during this baseball game are irritating me more than average. There's this one ad that they keep cutting off (they've done it three times so far), not that I mind not seeing it - it looks particularly annoying - but it's weird that they keep cuing up that ad and then cutting it off at the same point. I suspect that it's an ad that can't afford Sunday Night Baseball, but is still stuck in the queue from whatever was on earlier.

The two that really set me off however, were back to back ads from Exxon and the US Army. Not my favorite companies to begin with, these are particularly foul bits of advertising. The Exxon-Mobil ad is blatant green-washing, attempting to make them seem like a positive energy source (!) and the US Army ad is bragging on Truman's Executive Order 9981 (equality of treatment/opportunity in the US Armed Forces - more at the Truman Library Site if you're interested.)

They really seemed like the same thing to me.

Exxon-Mobile : Environment :: US Army : Minorities

This came up on the game thread over at Joy of Sox (because I tend to sidetrack easily), and the conversation was quite correct in pointing out that the minority status isn't as significant as the economic and educational status when it comes to recruiting targeting, but since the have-nots who are being targeted by this ad ARE minority have-nots, I think the correlation stands.

Sadly, the ones who need this, aren't TAKING SAT prep anyhow.

Here at the Bed & Breakfast...

2008-07-27T20:38:00.002-04:00

It feels like we've had a lot of company lately, or maybe it just feels like I've been cleaning up for company a lot lately!

We were lucky enough to have the great Angela and Zach over for dinner on Wednesday, and then our friend Reid came over Thursday night to drink some lovely cold beverages and try to talk me into taking an A2 gig (I should) and Friday morning Dave's best friends from high school (and before) showed up for the weekend. Fortunately for me, one of those friends is a rabid Sox fan, so I had no trouble planning our weekend around the Sox-Yankees series. Sadly for me, I could have ignored the first two games completely and possibly had a better time. (As I type, they are removing the tarp at Fenway, so the third game should start soon.)

I wish I could enjoy just feeding Dave as much as I enjoy feeding all the other people who come through our hotel here. We'd eat much better if that was the case. Wednesday was roasted veggies and a simple tomato sauce over pici pasta. (Alas, the last of that. I'd been hoarding it.) Thursday, nothing special, though since Reid had come straight from work, I threw together a plate for him. Friday we made homemade pizza before the ballgame, Saturday was french toast in the morning and hamburgers, corn and watermelon for dinner. (The corn, oh, the corn... so good. Just all of the things that fresh corn on the cob should be.)We never eat like that when we don't have guests anymore. (Tonight, for example, is leftover night.) I should get on that.

It's been a fun week though, and tomorrow I'll be all set for more guests. Anyone want to make a reservation?

this is a test, this is only a test

2008-07-24T23:02:00.004-04:00

In the intrest of rampant consumerism, I'm just looking to see how difficult it would be to update blogger from an iPhone.

The answer is, the keypad (or lack thereof) takes some getting used to, but the browser. Makes. Me. So. Happy.

Part of that may be that the web browser on my dumb windows mobile 5 Q is lame and won't play with blogger at all

Best Game Ever

2008-07-24T00:15:00.002-04:00

I'm obviously coming a little late to the party here, but I've just seen my new favorite Improv Everywhere mission. If you don't know Improv Everywhere, take a second and check out their website, because they really are more fun than should probably be legal. Every year they bring us the No Pants Subway Ride, among other absurd stunts, all of which increase the sum total of joy in the world. Because I was not paying attention, I missed this one:
Brilliant.

Thanks to Zach for the email!

Prickly Zuchini and other Wonders of Summertime

2008-07-20T01:05:00.003-04:00

Thursday is greenmarket day outside of Lincoln Center, and since I'm frequently there on Thursdays, I try to take advantage of it as much as possible. There are lots of wonderful things, and people, at the market each time I go there, and I want to take it all home. That said, I have both finite funds, and finite shopping totes. This most recent Thursday, my list looked like this:

Honey
Eggs
Lettuce
Carrots
Some green thing for the bunnies

Honey and eggs were easy, there's an apple outfit that also brings along a number of items from their neighbors. They were kind enough one week to bring me some apple branches as chew toys for the rabbits, at no charge - they seemed to think it was a great lark. We've been going through honey like mad lately, as Dave has been making lots of honey wheat bread. And toasting it. And covering it with, you guessed it, honey.

Sadly, the people from whom I prefer to buy my carrots, Stokes Farm, had none this week, which meant that the fantastic (and free) bag of discarded carrot tops was also unavailable. (Most carrot purchasers let the folks there take the tops off for them, and he woman who usually mans their stall is always happy to give me as many of the carrot tops as I can carry, which is great, as the bunnies love them.) I had to buy my carrots elsewhere, and I must say, I was not as pleased with them. I still got my lettuce (and some sorrel) from Stokes, and I also found some perfect small summer squash. I got two yellow and two zucchini, and they were so fresh and so close to their planty root (no pun intended) that the stems still prickled when I selected them. I'd forgotten just how spiky squash ARE when you pick them. It's been years since my mom had a garden, and I certainly have no room for one here, but those little spiny caps made me wish yet again that I did. There's nothing like fresh squash. Nothing.

Except maybe fresh corn.

Or fresh tomatoes.

Or...

I sauteed them, with some onion and some garlic, in just a little olive oil. So perfect.

Winnable Flame War?

2008-07-17T23:41:00.004-04:00

While I'm pointing you around the Internet, check out this guy. His name is Sean Tevis, and he's running for State Representative in Kansas. Why should I care about Kansas, you ask? Well, really no good reason. Kansas is too flat for me. But this guy is just the sense of humor I wish we had more of in politics.

Running for Office: It's Like A Flame War with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner

The weblog is an engaging look at the process of running for state office, and if you've got that $8 bucks to throw his way, do it.

Moonshot

2008-07-17T23:08:00.004-04:00

Everytime I hear Al Gore speak, I lament that he was never our president. If this Al Gore, the passionate, articulate, engaging climate warrior Al Gore, had been the one running for president in 2000 he would have won by enough that the election couldn't have been lifted in a Floridian bank heist. He's found his voice in his cause and has become so much more than an ex-Vice President in the process.

That said, check out the speech he gave today at Constitution Hall in DC:

He's right. We can do more, and we should do more. The solution doesn't lie with individual choices, though I certainly advocate your making wise ones with the environment in mind, but rather with public choices. Policy, and the political will that drives it, is the only way forward. The US used to be a world leader. We can't just sit around playing Risk while the rest of the world worries (or doesn't) about this crisis. Some of the things he argues in this well written and superbly delivered oration are things that I've talked about, as recently as this morning.

"Yet when we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges — the economic, environmental and national security crises.
We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.
But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we’re holding the answer to all of them right in our hand.
The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels."
-Thanks to Climate Progress for the transcript

I highly recommend taking the time to watch this speech, and then calling your elected officials and candidates for office about it. Then think about it, remember it, when choosing where to bestow your vote in the fall. This is the sort of thing that we CAN do, as long as we DO it.

I hope I'm in a better mood at the end of October.

2008-07-16T22:52:00.002-04:00

Because right now I'm in sort of a lousy one, so the All-Star Break and its attendant, well, break, is making me cranky. I miss baseball. How is Kevin Youkilis supposed to cheer me up with a grand slam if there ISN'T ANY BASEBALL?!

The All-Star Game was fun and all, but, like most of the east coast, I had work in the morning and had to give up on the tie game in the 13th inning and go to bed. I could only be more pleased with it if it had been my hero Youk with the MVP level game, rather than J.D. Drew. (Not to say that I don't like Werd, because I do, and he's been a very effective Papi stand-in. I just have a soft spot for Youk.)

Wow am I pathetic. Seriously. There will be baseball again on Friday. It's not like it's the end of the season or anything. My team is in first place (by .5 games, granted, but they'll deal with that in good order), the Yankees aren't even in second, there's still months to go. I even have nice cold beer in the fridge. I feel pathetic, but even when I'm glum, a nice baseball game really takes the edge off. It's an addiction. If I'm still feeling this underlying sadness come October and the end of the season (may it be LATE in October...) I just might have to do something drastic.

Like watch hockey.

Fun with Stat Counter

2008-07-14T01:32:00.003-04:00

Today's random search string brought someone to my Happy Creation Day post from a few years ago. It was:

6012th birthday on october 23.

I am dying to know who was searching google for this. And more to the point, why? Whoever you are, thanks - I'd forgotten about that, and it made me laugh all over again!

The Baseball Project

2008-07-13T16:17:00.002-04:00

I have this irritating tendency to forget that I have an emusic subscription, so I either waste a month's downloads, or I find myself scrambling at the eleventh hour to select 90 tracks. Which is what happened to me last night. I got some older Cathie Ryan, the cast recording of In The Heights and some assorted other stuff when I found this.

The Baseball Project turns out to be a collaborative project between Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, Miracle 3) and Scott McCaughey (R.E.M.) who discovered a mutual obsession with baseball and casually discussed a baseball based musical project for several years before actually settling down to work on The Baseball Project, Volume One: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails last year. It's rare that I'm on top of something so quickly, but the album was just released last week, and on a lark, I downloaded it in it's entirety.

It's quite good. Largely story songs about some of the great or quirky baseball stories. (Plenty of material there for several more volumes!) Musically, it's easy and accessible, nothing earth shattering, but well worth the listen. Lyrically it's much more compelling. In Harvey Haddix, an argument for the inclusion of Haddix on any list of perfect game hurlers, they manage to use the names of all 17 pitchers to officially perform that feat without sounding at all stilted. For those of you to whom that made no sense, Haddix, pitching for the Pirates, took a perfect game into the 13th inning only to lose the game. It's the longest perfect stretch in one outing, and yet, since he did eventually allow one hit, not a perfect game. He did, however, pitch the 27 up, 27 down that the others did, and then again a third of a game. An interesting argument, and a fun song.

I particularly enjoyed Ted Fucking Williams as well, and The Yankee Flipper. The album as a whole is a love letter from some total baseball dorks who just happen to be first rate musicians to the sport they follow religiously. Critical in places, such as Gratitude (for Curt Flood), about the Gold Glove center fielder who's unsuccessful challenge to the reserve system opened the door for free agency (and today's sky high salaries), but still reverent and joyful.

And did I mention that it's just fun to listen to? I want to take it out for a drive!

I'll bet Video Professor could help you out with that, McSame...

2008-07-13T02:07:00.002-04:00

Every single time I see those Video Professor (no link - if you can read this, you don't need it) commercials, I either mock them mercilessly, or I shake my head and ponder the poor fool who needs to be taught anything past "click here" for the internet.

Who could that lamebrain be?

Why, the Republican't nominee for President!

"I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself."

Honestly, what person under the age of 80* can possibly take him seriously? I'm willing to allow that he probably hasn't ever needed to figure out email, since there are plenty of people around him to do it for him, but web browsing? He'll have that down "fairly soon"? Really?

*My grandfather is over 80 and totally has this down, but in all fairness, my grandfather is also FAR smarter than McSame.

Friends and ancient history

2008-07-12T20:39:00.003-04:00

Thanks Youk!

I was having a pretty crap sort of a day, but Kevin Youkilis has totally got my back. His cheer-me-up bid was a lovely grand slam, and the Sox are steamrollering over the poor O's right now, which is quite the mood alterer.

Night before last I was up too late chatting online with Walter, and somehow ended up hitting the Wayback Machine to see what lingering bits of my early blogs are still preserved there. There's something dreadfully narcissistic about rereading your own journal from nine years ago, but it's also quite fun. The word blog wasn't even in use when I started. I can't seem to find any entries from before Dec. 1999, but I started in Jan of that year. I've only kept it up intermittently though.

The thing that struck me most is that the friends I mentioned most often in those days are still the friends I go to when I'm feeling blue these days. I was feeling pretty low in one of those late 1999 entries, and my solution was to go out with my good friend Jess. Today? I called Jess and Jeremy to have them over to dinner. My mom told me once that her friends that she made in college were the ones she ended up keeping forever, and that seems to be true for me as well. Though there are a number of my high school friends with whom I am still close, and of course there are others since college. I wonder though, what it is about college that makes such long term friendships.

Whatever it is, I'm glad of it.

What should I do next? I know! I'll run for Congress!

2008-07-05T23:33:00.001-04:00

The Democratic candidate for Congress in my home district (VA-01) suspended his campaign the other day, citing "past financial difficulties". He didn't have any real chance of winning, I'm sorry to say, but even having a Democrat on the ballot is fun - so often this seat isn't even contested. The incumbent won a special election last year to fill the seat of the late Jo Ann Davis, a very conservative Republican who had held the seat since 2001. Voting against Jo Ann Davis was such an exercise in futility - I think I wrote in my dad one time! Anyhow, Hummel didn't really stand a chance, but I'm sorry to see that he's suspended his campaign.

Since it's a loser anyhow though, heck, I'd run.

Except I don't think the bunnies want to move to DC, so I guess I'll skip it.

Holes in the 50 T-Shirt Strategy

2008-07-03T21:49:00.002-04:00

The news, pundits and blogosphere have been making great hay out of the Obama campaign's much touted "50 State Strategy" and before you get the wrong idea, let me go ahead and say that I think it's a great plan. By spending time on every state, not only is Obama building momentum for his own election race, but he's substantially improving the chances of down ticket candidates. In the long run, I feel like the down ticket races are where the real change (anyone tired of that word yet?) can be effected. If we can send a bunch of better, more progressive congressfolk and senators to Washington with Senator Obama, then the chances of enacting a progressive agenda are substantially increased. Not that you can tell from the current roll-over-and-play-dead congress, but the legislative branch is capable of being either the sitting president's best ally or most implacable foe.

In the long term, party building of this nature is crucial if we want those 'red' states to turn purple and even blue. My beloved home state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, is increasingly blue (Obama leads in current composite polling data and we're about to replace an old guard republican senator with a wildly popular democratic former governor). Some of this shift can certainly be attributed to the growing population in the more liberal northern part of the state, and to the abysmal approval ratings of the Resident's administration, but a lot can also be laid at the doorstep of that popular governor's campaigning, and that of his successor, and at the foot of the huge netroots effort to elect our junior senator, Jim Webb, in 2006. Each successful race (and even the unsuccessful ones) that competes in the state enlarges and energizes the base. The 50 state strategy does this on a national level, even in places like Utah, home of the most republican congressional district in the country. (Utah's 1st District, in case you were curious, an R+26 district.)

That said, you didn't come here to hear me spout off nonsense you could have gotten at dKos. You came here to hear me spout off more trivial nonsense!

The Obama site has, as you would expect, an extensive collection of campaign related gear and garb you can buy. One prominent category is "State Shirts". I went looking for a Virginia for Obama shirt, which I would probably not have purchased, but nevertheless, I wanted to know it existed.

It doesn't.

Virginia, a state that hasn't voted for Democrats on a national ticket since supporting LBJ in 1964, is currently leaning towards Barack. Not hugely, certainly within the margin of error, but the trend is continuing, and I look forward to casting my (absentee) ballot for the first democratic candidate to win the state in my lifetime. (Voting for Clinton was fun, since he did win, but since he didn't win the Commonwealth, this has the potential to be fantastically better.)

There's no shirt for Virginia? He won the primary there handily! He's contesting the state. McCain actually just made an ad buy for Virginia, for crying out loud! Republicans never have to do that! No shirt?

So that made me curious. What other states have been left out?

-Iowa (McCain 41% Obama 45.8%)
-Louisiana (Solid McCain)
-Maine (Solid Obama)
-Maryland (Solid Obama)
-Mississippi (McCain 50% Obama 44%, Rasmussen)
-Nebraska (Solid McCain)
-Nevada (McCain 45.2% Obama 41.8%)
-New Hampshire (McCain 39.4% Obama 50%)
-South Carolina (McCain 48% Obama 39%, Rasmussen)
-Virginia (McCain 45.1% Obama 46.5%)
-Washington (Solid Obama)
-Wyoming (Solid McCain)
(All poll data is composite from pollster.com, except when noted. Margins greater than 10% are considered solid.)

A bunch of these states are shaping up as battlegrounds. Hook it up with the Cafe Press already! Wouldn't they like to see those states showing their support on their torsos?

But don't worry. You can get your Guam or Puerto Rico shirts. Perfect for the non-voter in your life.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Big Bunny Breakthrough!

2008-06-29T13:28:00.007-04:00

For the past week or two we've not attempted to get the bunnies together, relying on less direct contact between the two of them. Their cages are only about a foot apart, so they have plenty of opportunity to see and smell the other rabbit, and they both use the same room as a play area, so the territoriality was limited pretty severely. At first the two of them would leave each other little "this is mine" poops around the living room (keep in mind that rabbit feces are small dry pellets, and that becomes a much less disgusting image), but in the past week that's largely stopped. We got into a routine where we would alternate who came out to play first, and after half of the allotted play time had passed, we would surround the first bunny in the pen, and let the second bunny out to romp. They could get close enough to sniff noses, but we supervised to make sure that this never ended in nose biting, which was a danger at first. We even encouraged them to spend time near the other rabbit by placing tasty treats on both sides of the pen, as you see above. Bunny bribery is quite effective.

We, and they, had become so comfortable with this routine that when Jupiter hopped up on top of Juno's house it didn't surprise or worry anyone, Juno included. While Juno was out last night she was as relaxed as we've ever seen her, sprawled out on the floor next to Dave's home base on the couch. I've been reluctant to get the two of them together because everything had been going so smoothly, but we decided that as long as she was so chill, perhaps it would be a good time to try it out. They largely ignored one another at first, with the exception of one three foot chase scene where Jupiter was startled and ran after Juno very briefly before growing disinterested. We were entirely pleased by that reaction, since ignoring each other is a very peaceful reaction from critters that are very territorial by nature. We fed them each a carrot while sitting right near the other, and thought it was a pretty good evening. We were still sitting on the ground with them, petting and talking soothingly, when Juno slipped over to Jupiter and started trying to groom his hind legs for him. (He needs some help in that area, I must admit.) The first time she tried it, he immediately hopped up and moved a few feet away, but Juno has definitely decided that Jupiter should be her bunny, and determinedly tried again. The next time, Jupiter put up with her attentions for a while, only moving when she moved up his back with her licks. We were delighted.

We figured that the night was over when Juno headed back to her house, but before we could grab him, Jupiter had hopped right up in there with her. We were all set to grab him and pull him out, as we had no intentions of stretching their tolerance that far, but Juno was completely unaffected. We cautiously let things continue, and Jupiter hopped up on Juno's ledge with her. She still didn't care. She already seems quite fond of him!

Things backtracked slightly this morning while I was making breakfast. Dave let both of them out, and they were fine together, but Juno decided to go visit Jupiter in his house, which he did not especially appreciate it. Dave hustled her out of the cage (Jupiter was right behind Dave with his own ejection plan) and we shut his front door but left his top open. Jupiter is a much springier rabbit than Juno, and has no problem exiting via the roof, but Juno can't get up there to get in. At the moment they are both sleeping in their own houses, but the doors are both open so that they can go visiting if they like. Eventually I would like them to both live in Juno's expandable house, so it's very encouraging that she has so little objection to his presence.

Fangirl?

2008-06-28T22:11:00.004-04:00

So good luck with your elections, I hope you win. - Eddie Izzard

I'm usually not a big fangirl type, but I do really enjoy Eddie Izzard, and I was quite jealous of my friend Eliza, who had birthday tickets to see him here in New York. I hadn't even considered going myself - money's tight enough without paying for event tickets to, well, anything. Especially anything at Radio City Music Hall.

Did I say I was jealous of Eliza? Because this is nothing compared to my jealousy of my friend Ben, who is on the tour bus with the Izzard tour. He somehow tripped over the gig as Lighting Director, and it couldn't have happened to a better guy, as Ben is both a very talented and skillful person, and a great friend. Still, I am quite jealous. Evidently Eddie is a very nice guy, down to earth, and whenever he gets special treatment, he expects that everyone with him gets it as well.

Big Time Promoter Dude: Gee, Mr. Izzard, we'd love to take you out for this swanky swanky five star dinner.
Eddie: Excellent, there will be seven of us.

About a week ago I got a text from Ben asking if I was coming to the shows this weekend, and I replied that no, it was a bit rich for my blood, and also a bit sold out. His reply? "Comps, Bitches!"

Not just any comps, it turns out, third row comps. And passes to the reception afterwards. Open bar, Eddie Izzard, surprisingly small group of attendees. Very cool. Eliza and her friends were trying to get a picture with Eddie, and once they accomplished that, I took a moment to thank him for waving the Obama flag throughout the south. (He encouraged the New York show to vote for Obama, but that's not anything impressive. Ben tells me he'd been doing it everywhere though, and I thought that was great.) Somehow my brief mention turned into a very cool conversation about politics and history and the oddness of growing up liberal in a largely conservative environment. Dave said that he really liked how Eddie kept looking to include him in the conversation, even though Dave himself had nothing to say.

It's always nice to hear that your favorite artists, athletes or entertainers really are the nice people you want them to be, but it's far better to find it out first hand.

Um... Squeee?

Paint the bunnies. No? Egg the paint? Um...

2008-06-21T15:26:00.002-04:00

We've taken a step back in our rabbit matchmaking, and it seems to be successful. When the visiting dog departed last week, we moved them back into the living room and rearranged enough that they can live side-by-side in their respective houses. We haven't gotten them out together since then, but we're letting one rabbit out to romp, then after a reasonable amount of free-range romping, herding that rabbit into the pen and then letting the second rabbit out. This way they get a chance to interact in their common space but don't really have the opportunity to do any hard core chasing. They've responded really well. Now they like to stick their noses through at the other bunny and they both sniff in a very friendly manner. At first we had to watch them very closely, as noses are very tempting tooth targets, but now we trust them to behave well, and they like to lie on the floor together in their seperate areas.

It's tempting to bring them closer, but I think we'll stick with this for a while longer.

I started the paint-the-apartment project today, and I'd forgotten how tedious painting can be. Today all I accomplished was to sand and put a layer of Killz on the bedroom walls. I was reminded yet again of how poorly all the repairs and maintenance here are performed. The last time the apartment was painted was when Dave moved in, five years ago, so it's pretty grimy, especially in that room, which has been a revolving door for the past five years, starting with Dave, then Laura (and subsequently the addition of her boyfriend), then the Soap and Candle Guy, then Comic Book Guy, then Tom and most recently Jon. Each tenant has moved furniture in and out, placed beds in different spots (and therefore put their feet on different parts of the wall) and punched their own holes in the walls. It's justifiably gross. None of that really bothered me. The unfortunate bits were the parts under the old paint. The spackle that wasn't sanded before painting, the nails that weren't removed, the poorly patched holes in the wall, the cracks. I really hadn't gotten that close to the walls before, and now that I have, I'm glad it's not my foundation that those cracks are pointing out!

We haven't yet picked the color that will go on top of the Killz I applied, but at least now when we do pick it, it won't have the dirty bleed through from who knows how long!

In other news, I ate the most amazing scrambled eggs this morning. I realized on Thursday while at the farmer's market to order apple twigs for the spoiled bunnies, that the purportedly free-range eggs I buy at the store aren't any cheaper than the local eggs at the farmer's market, so I've changed my egg buying. It's so worth it. The local eggs have a much brighter shade of yolk and the most wonderfully rich almost buttery taste to them. I can never go back! Now I just need to find some real butter...

Congratulations Are In Order

2008-06-16T18:56:00.003-04:00

As some of you may remember, I spent a good portion of last summer on a walking truss at 37 Arts, running followspot for an up and coming Off-Broadway show. The patrons were always either amazed or terrified by our assent (in full fall arrest harness) to the truss on a "rope" ladder made of aircraft cable, but once we were up there, it was surprisingly comfortable to sit on the edge of the truss rail and lean against another pipe until the show started. It was a fun show to run, challenging to learn at first, and I never quite tired of it.

The show closed in mid July so that it could revamp and head to Broadway, where it opened earlier this year, and last night it won the Tony Award for Best Musical! The team also picked up Tonys for Choreography (Andy Blankenbuehler), Best Original Score (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and Best Orchestration (Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman). While I don't know Andy or Bill, Lin and Alex are two of the nicest guys ever, and totally deserving of the honors.

Though the show touches on some legitimate issues - what the gentrification is doing to the character of New York neighborhoods for example - it is largely big, fun musical theatre in the best way possible, couched in a love song to a single upper Manhattan neighborhood. The music and dance are heavily influenced by latin and hip-hop styles, and it makes for a very engaging show and eminently hummable score.

While I had nothing to do with the Tony success, this is the first time that a show on which I've previously worked has been nominated for major awards (13 Tony nominations) and I'm very happy for all of the people who are still with the show. They deserved every bit, and I'm proud to have been even such a small part of a show.

A Bump in the Road to Bunny Bliss

2008-06-14T18:27:00.007-04:00

We made the mistake of letting the bunnies have too much space to play in for their last date, as they had been getting along reasonably well in the confines of the pen, and it ended in flying fur. Just a little, and no injuries, but it's back to the pen for our furry friends. Interestingly, the dynamic appears to have changed significantly when we let them have the whole room. Now instead of Juno trying to be the dominant rabbit, Jupiter is chasing her around the room! He tugged out a small hank of her fur, but since she's shedding quite a bit, he didn't actually do any damage, just grabbed some loose fur. She's pretty mellow towards him, just doesn't want him thinking he's the top bun. Once we put them back in the smaller, more restrictive pen, they were reasonably content to sit near (but not too near) each other and ignore.

They won't be having a date today, as they are having a rough enough weekend as it is. Dave's brother and sister-in-law are in town this weekend, with their dog, Sadie. She's a big scary predator, though she wouldn't hurt a fly, and the rabbits have been moved to the spare bedroom to distance them from the terror. Since they've been moved however, their houses are now close enough that they can see and smell each other but cannot touch, the hope being that they grow increasingly comfortable.

We found the perfect rabbit carrots today at the Union Square Greenmarket. One of the farm vendors from whom I was buying a bunch of kale and lettuce for the greedy little lagomorphs had these young carrots, very long and thin, with the entirity of their extravagant tops still intact. Unlike the fully mature carrots that are marketed at the supermarkets, these are just the right size for a bunny portion, and were a big hit. I'm an advocate for eating locally and supporting local farmers, so I'm glad that I can feed my bunnies accordingly!

A Very Happy Birthday to One Of My Favorite Bloggers

2008-06-13T12:57:00.002-04:00

If you don't currently read we move to canada, you really should. Laura is a native New Yorker happily transplanted to the greater Toronto area. Her posts are thoughtful and informative on a number of progressive topics and well written and entertaining regardless of the subject. Also she has two very charming dogs, and she sometimes posts pictures of them. I'm just sayin', is all...
It's her birthday too, so if you head over there, please wish her many happy returns of the day!

Happy Loving Day

2008-06-12T23:11:00.005-04:00

Today is the anniversary of the landmark supreme court decision in Loving v. Virginia(1967) which ended race based bars to marriage by declaring Virginia's anti-miscegenation statutes to be unconstitutional. In this case, a interracial couple, Mildred & Richard Loving, were married in D.C. and then returned to the commonwealth to live. At the time, there were laws on the books in Virginia stating:

"If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than five years."(Virginia Code § 20-59)

And:

"If any white person and colored person shall go out of this State, for the purpose of being married, and with the intention of returning, and be married out of it, and afterwards return to and reside in it, cohabiting as man and wife, they shall be punished as provided in 20-59, and the marriage shall be governed by the same law as if it had been solemnized in this State. The fact of their cohabitation here as man and wife shall be evidence of their marriage." (Virginia Code § 20-58)

When they returned to Virginia, they were charged with violating these statutes and pleaded guilty, being sentenced to one year in prison, which was suspended conditionally as long as they left the commonwealth.

So they left. They moved to D.C. and made friends with the ACLU, who drove the legal train to the Supreme Court.

The court reversed the convictions, with Chief Justice Warren stating in the majority decision that:

"The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.
Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942). See also Maynard v. Hill, 125 U.S. 190 (1888)."

I'm sorry to have to say that it was a suit brought against my own beloved Commonwealth that occasioned this change, but I do find it encouraging that now, forty years on, this particular form of discrimination seems so antiquated. It gives me hope that soon we will find our current marriage related bigotry quaint and old-fashioned. Perhaps the next iteration of Loving v. Virginia will be a gay couple suing the Commonwealth for not recognizing their Californian marriage.

This is another reason why we need to elect Barack Obama. Can you imagine the current court, or even worse, the court after four more years of Bush (as played by John McCain), making a decision based on "the broader, organic purpose of a constitutional amendment" rather than the "passage of specific statutes"? I can't.

And yes, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a card-carrying member of the

In Which Some Introductions Are In Order

2008-06-10T23:35:00.004-04:00

This latest development will amuse anyone who knew me as a bunny mad child - my best friend and I wrote a newspaper based on the exploits of our stuffed animals called "The Bunny Press", for crying out loud. (Yes, I was a nerd, thank you very much.)

Dave and I have adopted two bunnies from the Manhattan Shelter of NYC's Animal Care & Control. We went intending to adopt only one rabbit, if that, but we both fell in love with separate bunnies, so we decided to take both of them. On the left here is Jupiter, Dave's selection (and now my favorite, if I can be said to have a favorite - they're both pretty great) and below on the right is my selection, Juno. (The Roman goddess, not the movie, just so's you know.) Juno is now Dave's favorite, being the more mild mannered of the two. I was actually starting to worry that Juno was too forceful a name for such a sweet and friendly rabbit, until the two of them met on their first bunny "date". Turns out that our sweet girl is quite the dominatrix!

I say "date", but the process of bonding two rabbit strangers promises to be quite the challenge. You can read more about bonding rabbits, or house rabbits in general, at the House Rabbit Society. The first time they met, Juno tried to exert her dominance, which, despite her size advantage, I didn't expect, and Jupiter resented it. Yesterday was their second date and they seemed to get along better, he mostly ignoring her and her attempting occasionally to groom him. Tonight we decided to skip the date, as there was a storm and both bunnies were a bit edgy.

So there they are, our new rabbit friends, Juno & Jupiter. Expect to see a good deal more of them as they learn to be friends with each other as well as with us.

Boy am I stupid...

2008-03-18T18:31:00.000-04:00

I can't seem to keep track of my phone today. I left it at home this morning when I left, but both our shows were out on Long Island today, so I swung by the house on the way to the first school to retrieve it. I was even smart enough to bring the charger.

Then I left the damn thing in the van when I parked it in the garage. I realized this only AFTER fighting my way to the 59th Street Bridge, so it's going to spend the night there.

When are we getting those phone implants?

edit: crap. Just realized that my phone IS my alarm clock.

Hey! I should be able to steal from my brother if I darn well want to!

2007-04-18T23:41:00.000-04:00

I got home slightly too late to listen to the ballgame I was particularly interested in, though I did listen to the last two outs on the way home from the train. I haven't broken down and subscribed to either the cable Extra Innings package ($$$ but high quality) or either of the mlb.tv packages ($$ but medium to low quality with crappy support) but my brother got tagged by mlb's auto-renew on his subscription to mlb.tv from last year. (I avoided this fate only through the cunning loss of my debit card and subsequent replacement last fall. Clever of me, no? And quite foresighted as well. How did I know in October? Must be psychic!) Sadly for Thomas, he has the World's Worse Web in his apartment (or possibly a faulty network card) and isn't capable of utilizing said subscription. Besides which, with tonight's Sox game in the books, he probably wasn't watching anyhow, so I decided I was intrigued by the 13th inning Nationals/Phillies game and tried to use his log in.

There are two different levels of mlb.tv this year. The basic 400K version and a theoretically much better 700K. Thomas has the 400. So I click on the 400K link and am redirected to a page telling me that "You have reached this page because your current subscription does not authorize viewing 700K streams" and giving me only one option - pay them $30 more (presumably of my brother's money) to get the 700K. I tried it again. Logged out, tried again. Asked for a different 400K game (MIN/SEA - I really didn't care.) Same thing.

Apparently there were no 400K webstreams tonight. Screw you guys who didn't want to give big greedy MLB more money. MLB.tv is run extremely poorly, so I can't say that I'm surprised, but it sure doesn't make me want to subscribe. I think I'll be listening to my Sox play on XM, or I'll pony up the cash for cable.

Now, on with the countdown...

2007-04-17T20:01:00.000-04:00

I'm listening to the Sox game on XM, like you do when you don't have Extra Innings. (I'm still seriously tempted by it - cable had a free preview on all last week and I loved getting to turn the game on and watch in on TV. (Wow. I feel like some sort of freakish throwback to maybe the 50's... "Holy Toledo, Mabel - we can watch the game on that thar television.")

Sometimes, during the commercial breaks, they play ads for other XM stations, and I swear I just heard one for Casey Kasem's American Top 40. "Do you remember waking up and knowing it was Sunday morning because you would roll over, turn on the radio, and hear Casey Kasem say, 'Now, on with the countdown.'" Why yes. Yes I do. I remember the little red radio I had too. It was rectangular, about 8 inches wide by maybe 6 high and few inches deep, rounded on the sides, and bright cherry red. With a handle on top. I remember going outside at the old house, setting the radio at the base of the big tree, and swinging on the rope swing for hours.

It's funny, because I was never actually that huge a fan of the countdown. I didn't care especially where Madonna hit, or anyone else for that matter. Sometimes I would tape the countdown because I knew that a song I particularly wanted a copy of would be in the top ten or so, but generally it wasn't a big deal to me. But it is evocative of the 80s for me, the way I imagine VH1 would like "I love the 80s" to be. Just hearing that quote made me virtually able to smell the spring grass in the front yard, and feel the thump of the hard packed earth under the swing where my siblings and I had worn away the grass with our feet on the swing.

It feels like a long time ago.

I just want to DO something with my life

2007-04-16T14:02:00.000-04:00

I need to change.

I like what I do for a living. It's fun. It (mostly) pays the bills. The people are pretty great.

I don't feel fullfilled anymore though. I feel like I'm just muddling through, doing the work. I'm not accomplishing anything. Increasingly, I feel as though I should be doing something that has impact. I should be living a useful life. I should be helping people, or changing things. Perhaps I should just sell everything I own and join the Peace Corps.

Except that the Peace Corps doesn't want me. Remeber that college degree I set out for? I got distracted by the lure of work in my field and I have't much regretted that. I finished three years of college, and I got out of it what I wanted - good training and experience that helped me get an apprenticeship in technical theatre. Since then, I've been working continuously in a field where it seems like all jobs are transient. I can't complain. But it's hard to switch careers (assuming I can think of something I want to do) without a degree.

I thought about going back to school in VA, get a job at the nifty performing arts center there at CNU, spend a few years there doing the part time student thing. I just don't really want to move back to VA. There were, I thought, two good reasons to return there to finish. One, the director of the theatre department would be very helpful in getting me credit for lessons learned elsewhere (for example, he doesn't think that I really need to sit Lighting Design II since I've designed professionally) and two, going to school in VA seemed like it would be a cheaper prospect than going to school in NY.

Those advantages aren't what they used to be. I don't really want the theatre degree, unless perhaps it becomes an arts administration degree - for the technical applications, my work experience is far more importaint. So the additional credits for life experience at CNU are only useful insofar as they get me closer to graduation, with a degree I don't really want anymore. (Dave points out, accurately enough, that if I finished that, I could go to grad school in something totally different.) It turns out also that in-state tuition at CNU (I've been faithfully paying income taxes to VA while on tour and in random other places for that status) is almost twice as expensive as in-state tuition at CUNY. I should apply to City College and see what transfers. Especially if we're going to move to upstate Manhattan next year!

Problem is, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I always thought I would have that sorted by now!

Date Blue?

2006-11-14T20:10:00.000-05:00

I am seriously amused by this.

Especially the statement that, "For the price of one month on Republican-owned Eharmony, you get a full year of liberal dating choices on Democratic Match!"

In case you were wondering, that showed up as a gmail ad link with my Weekly Grist email.

Macaca!!!!!

2006-11-07T17:12:00.000-05:00

Have you voted yet today? Go! Go now!

And if you are in Virginia, please, for the love of all that is holy, don't vote for George "Macaca" Allen. Webb's our boy...

Rather like living in a menagerie

2006-11-07T10:42:00.001-05:00

Albeit a fairly unoriginal one! The dog howls downstairs and the cat upstairs cavorts constantly from one side of the apartment to the other, giving a drumroll effect to those of below.

I like animals. I wish I had some. I just get none of the cuddly benefit of these two and all of the irritation, so I'm pretty tired of them. (I almost amended my 'all of the irritation' statement to reflect that I don't have to deal with pee in inapropriate places, but then I remembered how the hall downstairs smells!)

What ever happened to me?

2006-10-29T01:22:00.000-05:00

Much as I love the convenience of modern blogging, be it livejournal, myspace, blogger, vox or what-have-you, I think I have lost something. Somehow, the work involved in coding (badly) my own html pages encouraged a higher quality of writing as well. I enjoy the minutiae of my life that get recorded in the fast food blogging style, but I miss the obligation to think about what I wrote. I never write stuff like this anymore.

Five years later, that is the sort of thing that resonates most.

elusive sleep

2006-10-29T01:33:00.000-04:00

I can't seem to get back to sleep. I drifted off around midnight and was awoken (though not enough to answer the phone) by a not-terribly-drunk dial from Walter. We're getting old now. The drunk dials aren't so drunken and instead of interrupting other drunken reveling, they interrupt sleep. I can't even call him back because he indicated that he was on his way to sleep. I sort of miss my mid twenties right now.

I blame my inability to sleep on the howling from downsttairs. Tonight it is coming from directly under my head. That must be the room where they put the poor devil at night. The irritating thing is that he started up almost immediately upon my turning out the light to sleep! The forty five minutes I'd been lying in bed reading prior? Silent. I hate that dog so very much.

geo-meme

2006-10-27T22:47:00.000-04:00

This was suprisingly entertaining...

Or maybe I'm just a dork. I do recommend doing it with a real mouse though. It was harder to get the states where I wanted them than it should have been with my laptop!

50 States Game

Score: 94% Avg Error: 4 miles Time: 253 seconds

oh Canada!

2006-10-24T18:37:00.001-04:00

Dear Canadians who record and upload Studio 60 on Sunday nights, you are my favorite people! I had to go to bed before it aired here last night, and now I am sitting at work waiting for my first color change in the dance show and I'm watching last night's TV while I'm doing it. Yay!

Happy Creation Day!

2006-10-23T19:59:00.000-04:00

No seriously. (Ok, I really couldn't do that with a straight face, so it's a good thing you can't SEE my face!)

According to church scholars (with the use of a list of equinoxes and a DART), God made the world on October 23, 4004 BC. At noon.

My question is, noon in what time zone?!

And, of course, the year may be off by one because when they did this precise math, they hadn't yet run into the clever arabic concept of zero, and therefore failed to account for the year 0. There is also that niggling little issue of Herod and Jesus overlapping, that probably skews things by at least three or four years.

So the year may be a bit off, but the date, we're good on that. October 23. At noon.

So happy 6011th birthday weirdo religious earth. Or maybe 6012th... Hardly matters, we're still not giving you an intergalactic drivers licence until you turn 7000, so keep doing those loops until then.

Thanks, Dad...

2006-10-22T23:11:00.001-04:00

Check out this editorial from the good old Daily Press! (Shamelessly republished here without permission so that in three years when the link is broken or consigned to some lost web archive I will still know what I was talking about. Copyright 2006, Daily Press.) And, though obviously it amuses me to title this post, "thanks Dad", just as obviously the confluence of my opinion and that of the paper is no more than happy circumstance. Just in case anyone is dumb enough to think otherwise.

Say 'no'
The 'marriage' amendment protects nothing and harms us all
Daily Press - October 22, 2006

We Virginians have a remarkable opportunity. We can make a statement that will resonate across this nation - and that is no exaggeration.

If we go to the polls on Nov. 7 and reject an effort to sully our state constitution with the words of a misguided effort to "protect" marriage, then we will have reminded Americans what constitutions are for. They are not for limiting human relationships. They are not for restricting freedom. They are not for muddling and meddling in the intimate questions of who may love whom and how that love is to be protected and nurtured.

The Marshall-Newman amendment - more typically referred to as the amendment to ban same-sex marriage - is a legislative train wreck waiting to happen. If allowed to leave the station on Election Day, it would amend the Bill of Rights of the Virginia Constitution with language that is, at best, ambiguous in terms of its legal effects and, at worst, mean-spirited and bigoted.

Let us look instead at Section 1 of Article 1 of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of Virginia:

"That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

Entering into marriage is most assuredly a way of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Yet the lawmakers - content though they may have been to leave the word "men" unamended, thereby failing to recognize the other half of the population - would define marriage as "only a union between one man and one woman."

Never mind that Virginia law already prohibits same-sex marriage.

For proponents of this amendment, the law is not enough. They must carve into legal stone their effort to protect them from ... what?

Activist judges in other states is the usual answer. Unnamed robed people who would impose their values on Virginia.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

But at the core the truth is that this amendment speaks of two things:

A deep-seated prejudice against gays and lesbians.

The reality that there are among us, always, people who seek to use fear and prejudice for their own political advancement.

Let's be clear: The vast majority of Virginians who will vote for this amendment - 99.9 percent of them - are good, decent, honorable people. They will not vote for it because they "hate" anyone. They will believe they are protecting marriage, which is a noble motive. Nonetheless, their support of this amendment will be a mistake, one that, should the amendment pass, will be corrected by their children or grandchildren who will, some day in the future, wonder how we could have been so ignorant.

But until the day of correction comes, unnecessary pain will be inflicted on the many Virginians who are gay or lesbian and who would like their relationships, the families they make together, to have the public and legal sanctions associated with marriage. This amendment would cruelly deny that - nor will it even allow such relationships under another name, such as civil union.

State law already outlaws civil unions, and the constitutional amendment would put an unnecessary exclamation mark on that prohibition. This newspaper has argued for civil unions, because they would allow the legal protections associated with marriage that gay and lesbian couples seek. They would offer a compromise, as imperfect as all parties might see it.

But amendment proponents do not want compromise. And it is in their insistence on sealing every opening to the possibility of legally recognizing gay and lesbian relationships that they overstep and invite rejection of this amendment in a state where voters would surely have accepted, by large measure, this first sentence of the proposed change:

"That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions."

That would have made the point. That would have been sufficient. That would have left the door open for civil unions. But no, they insisted on this language as well:

"This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage. Nor shall this Commonwealth or its political subdivisions create or recognize another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage."

Those 62 words are the command to open a Pandora's box. No one knows what they will mean to all number of relationships - including heterosexual relationships that might "approximate" marriage, or various stage-of-life agreements. The legal issues are too many to examine here, but those words will give individuals a new set of tools to inflict pain on each other. They will tear down, or at the very least expose to attack, protections, relationships and agreements that already exist.

A BARRIER TO CHANGE

Make no mistake, this amendment goes beyond its stated intent of protecting marriage. It hurts gays and lesbians. It will hurt unmarried partners regardless of their sexual orientation. It will hurt us all.

And for what?

Society's attitudes toward gays and lesbians are changing, and the change, for the most part, has been for the better. The amendment is an attempt to stop that change, to put up a barrier that says, "this far, and no farther."

But there is no evidence that gays and lesbians who seek marriage - or civil union - do any harm to marriage or society or themselves. All, in fact, are strengthened by committed relationships. Commitment should be encouraged by society.

It is the cheapening of marriage by heterosexuals that threatens society. It is the birth of children outside of stable family relationships that is so problematic.

And it is simply irrational to think that same-sex marriage has any relationship to these problems. Passage of the amendment might even make them worse because it could threaten the stability of families headed now by two women or two men.

Differing faith groups have differing views on this amendment. No faith group needs a constitutional amendment to instruct it on how to define marriage, nor could any faith group be compelled to accept same-sex marriage if it did not want to.

Across the nation, 20 states have adopted amendments similar to the one proposed for Virginia. Some people point to that acceptance as justifying the effort here in Virginia.

How much better it will be for all Americans, not just Virginians, if we in this state point back on Nov. 7 by rejecting this amendment. Doing so will not legalize same-sex marriage or civil unions. But it will be an emphatic statement that the language of this amendment goes too far. That it is unnecessary. That it is mean. And that it has no place in the constitution of Virginia.

We Virginians have a remarkable opportunity on Nov. 7. Let's reject this amendment and show the nation the path back to common sense.