Calling montgomery county residents...

I presume many of you are aware of this problem, but still might not hurt to send Randall Wertz an email or phone call.

I heard an NPR piece on this regarding ODU a few months back and this is the first VT related case I've seen. In a nutshell, the montgomery county registrar (and all local VA registrars) has been granted the power, due to vague state government language, to decide who is qualified as a resident to vote. Randall Wertz, the registrar, is purposely scaring away VT students so that they are unable to register to vote in Blacksburg. This clearly hurts Obama, but even if you are a McCain supporter it should be a bit appalling that VA is going against the spirit of a supreme court ruling in which students were granted the right to vote where they attend school. I can only presume that Wertz is in bed with the hedgepath cronies and is getting a high off this power because if VT students could vote in local elections, their good-old boy network would fall to pieces. Anyway, here a short blog about it...easy read. Seriously, at least send an email to Wertz telling him your a resident and think it tatics are a poor representation of the county and perpetuating the boss-hog style government that city slickers assume goes on in rural areas.

Work and less blogging

My level of work requirements has finally picked up. I knew it would eventually happen, and the time has arrived. I've provided my first document to folks and now my list of demands and deadlines is looming. So today's post is just a quick collection of random thoughts.

Debate tonight...I am growing weary of the campaigns. I long ago made up my mind to vote for Obama, so the further the McCain camps gets behind and the more they resort to nasty tatics, the less tolerant I become at someone voting for McCain. Palin has really taken it all over the top for me with her ignorance lacing the attacks. I realize that republican policies are completely legit and that I'm being completely biased and unfair, but it's still tough to remain accepting. Yes, both sides play mean, but it is well document that when one falls behind, out come the real playground meanies. I hope to come away from tonight without additional resentment. My hopes are low as I read predictions that McCain will come out swinging with the dirt as a last resort. Maybe I'll be surprised!

Had a good weekend in the burg...saw lots of friends and although lacking the intensity of a big game enjoyed watching the hokies live win a football game. My belly even made the Hokievision (jumbotron). Lil-M had a great time with her friends and the pumpkin farm. It's fun to be in the mountains around fall time. Although another week or two is probably in order to get the real leaf affect. Lil-M wined last night that we haven't raked up leaves to jump in yet...the fact that the leaves were still on the trees was no consolation.

Getting your kid is swim lessons in Raleigh is like getting tickets to a basketball game. Maybe I'll camp out when the next enrollment session opens.

The more I'm in this office, the more it's like The Office. The latest...on Friday the major street by campus was going to close at 5pm for some event. A request by one office worker to leave a little early so she could get off campus, which would be somewhat difficult with the street closed, was denied because someone had to be here to answer the phone!...seriously? Maybe the thinking is that when the economy tanks you can stop offering anything nice to employees?

I wonder if #2 will have a name and/or a bed to come home to. Not yet!

Bugs, bugs go away

I was relieved to read Traci's slug post and realize I'm not alone in my weariness. Last night was a beautiful evening to have dinner outside...fortunately restaurants provide this option and we took advantage. We simply cannot be outside at our house, even with bug spray, bug coils and candles, etc. I'm torn between loving our shade, grass, plants, etc. and despising the bugs it all encourages. Don't worry, the tree hugging-side of me will continue to win out, but for now I'm just anxiously awaiting some colder nights, so we can enjoy some outside air without the requirement of pavement.

Weekend Events

This was a nice pro-community weekend for us. Saturday afternoon/evening was a park party in our neighborhood. Just a pot-luck in the park, but extremely well-organized, rather more like a birthday party a super-mom would throw. The highlight was cardboard slides. They spread cardboard down a hill and then mostly kids used pieces of cardboard to slide down. Lil-M followed the big-kids and waxed her board prior to sliding. There must have been 75 adults and at least that many kids.

Yesterday we visited Carrboro, a small ultra-progressive town near Chapel Hill. We had been there in our previous lives to listen to music at Cat's Cradle, and buy goodies at the Performance Bike shop. This time there was a music festival. Many closed streets, more bands than one could possibly take in, and excellent kid activities. It was an interesting environment that was enjoyable. We had glimpses of a burg event in it, but with ridiculously more disposable income floating around, which has pros and cons. Lil-M whined much of the afternoon about not having ice cream like half the kids we passed and I whined about the heat, but overall we were glad we made the trek. We had a drop-in on my cousins whom I rarely see, and it was well worth the stop! I may have even contributed to the event. We were sitting on lots of random stuff, railroad ties, bricks, tree roots, etc. At some point I managed to make a nice tear and pretty near expose myself to all those walking behind me. I came up with the great idea of twisting my skirt, so only my hip was exposed....I wonder who out there is blogging about the "sight" they saw at the festival!

Putin

This image made me laugh out loud.

Surprise visit

Last night Nately J happen to be in town and unexpectedly had the evening free to hang out with us! We were reminiscing about "drop-in" friends and lamenting the lack thereof in our current lives. It was excellent to have a friend drop-in on us! Why do people seem to outgrow this wonderful aspect of relationships? I'm definitely not ready to give it up.

Will the economy seize?

The last few days I've been downloading the podcasts of the Diane Rehm Show to listen to at lunch time. It's a nice happy time (despite the topic) to sit outside, eat lunch, watch the campus foot traffic, and attempt to catch up on the government financial bail-out plan.

I only got through about 15 minutes of the show, but today's is excellent. In general I love this show, it's very critical without being partisan, at least the first half before the call-in questions start. Even that part is useful. They always give great explanations that are intellectual, yet not so politicized that I can't follow what's going on.

Today was a nice discussion of the potential disasters if congress does not pass a bail-out this week before they break for the year. They were not expecting doom and gloom, but certainly the worst case is quite disastrous. The gist that one guest was emphasizing, primarily via examples, was our dependence on credit in our own economy. Previous shows presented the impact of our credit structure on world economies and our ability to recover our own economy. A quick summary being if our economy faulters and we have enormous government debt, other foreign companies and governments will not have incentive to invest via loans and recovery will be exceedingly more painful and drawn out.

The expectations of today's guests was that congress would pass something, but it would most certainly include limits and guidelines on executive pay, relief for homeowners, and limits on the control of this new unbridled power of the secretary of treasury. They expect that a plan for next steps will not even be touched until 2009.

Anyway, if you want to get a good perspective of what's going on, I recommend checking out some of the last few shows. They are broken up into ~15min segments. The first two segments are typically the best. Diane Rehm is out this week, so they have guest hosts who both are very good. Today's 10am "Debate over Treasury Rescue", and Monday's 10am "Tresury Rescue Plan." You can stream them from the show's website or download a free podcast from itunes.

Legos at work

My job was fun for an afternoon. I just built a lego robot. It was critical that it be tested before the kits could be sent out for classroom use. I needed to figure out which parts to track the return of, and if it could be used in another class or not. I saw no other choice but to give it a test run.

This kit is super cool, and ridiculous, really. There are online communities of these Lego Mindstorm junkies. Anyway, I built this little robot with a claw for picking up stuff. It has all kinds of sensors: sound, light, and ultrasonic. Tomorrow I get to write the program to make both the robot and the claw move. Should me more excitement.

This year's flood

Traci's most post about spending gave me a thought that I decided was too long and off target to put as a comment. She was noting that finally in this financial crises you hear people talk about trying to control their spending.

It made me think about disasters that affect our communities, be they natural, human-implemented (war, terrorist, etc), or in current days, financial. I was just thinking how they serve as a modern-day flood. Whether or not one believes the biblical flood happen or not, you can take away from the story that people were messed up and the flood was used to set things straight and start new. How about the story of Joseph storing up food in the good times to feed entire regions in the bad times. These are obviously not new stories to our primarily christian society. It's fascinating to me that as a society we live beyond our means thinking the party will never end. If nothing else, the income party ends when you retire! It's difficult to look or plan for much of the future, and all though the bible also says to not worry about tomorrow, seriously, you have to do some planning as there will certainly be some floods and famines to face in our lives. Why is this concept so hard?

Well hopefully for the near future our country will learn to become slightly less careless about spending, but I'm sure it won't last long. I've already heard excitement over yesterday's slightly up market....seriously is their hope we'll bounce out that quickly. Let's all learn from Miller and "Live Responsibly" :)

Belly Tipping Point

Although it's been obvious to me for about 6 months now, it's officially obvious to the public I'm pregnant now. It's ramped up over the last couple weeks, but now nearly every random person I encounter is treating me differently. I walk up to a counter and if the person working is of the friendly type they ask when I'm due followed by the sympathic groan or excitement (I never know which I'll get) for a christmas baby. The other big change is the high rate of door holding. Honestly, I'll take the door holding and seat giving, especially in the coming months!

Professional Social Events

Seriously, why do we do this to ourselves. Socializing with work people is just a bizarre kind of work, not a social thing.

So there is this IE department dinner here that I'm considering attending. I am an alum of the department, but not otherwise associated with it. However, I may need to tap some resources there for my current job. Additionally, given my sporadic employment habits, I'm very reliant on others to get my random work. Random projects are not advertised, they come to you through connections. However, I hope that I don't need to find random work around here. Ahh...I suppose I should go, but I loathe the Engineering small talk. It will also cause me to have only about 30-60 minutes with my kid that day.

Dinner last night

How routine is that title?! Our dinner last night was not standard, but good. We helped cook dinner for some homeless families. There is a pretty cool national organization with a local arm here, WIHN. Although we've done a little when our church as sponsored in the past, this time we got to meet the families. We were really impressed with it all. It was a very easy, simple evening for us. We prepared a small amount of food and cleaned up at our church. Lil-M had fun playing with a few of the kids all evening. We really had no idea what to expect from the families. They were all very pleasant and enjoyable everyday sort of people, working to get back on their own. We have been amazed at how expensive it is to live around here. I can't imagine trying to support a family on a minimum, or near minimum, wage job. I looked at the stats and it's really unacceptable. According to the WIHN website, a worker making minimum wage cannot afford fair market rent anywhere in the US! I'm happy our church is participating and selected this as one of the few outreaches it can handle. Because of the small size it takes a fair effort from a large percentage of the people, but it's so simple to do and from what I can tell effective.

Abnormally Dry - the new drought status

I am abnormally hot and large. We had a fun afternoon at the lake yesterday. It was a huge relieve to be in the water. I am in a continuous mode of near explosion due to the heat. I suppose slight relief is coming sometime in the next month or two, but that feels very far away. Thankfully we have friends with toys who are willing to share and facilitate a day at the lake. Lil-M loves to tube, more precisely bounce all over the place in a tube.

Thanks to the various storms this summer, the lake levels are finally high. In fact so high that yesterday the lake was flooded into the parking lot. There is normally a beach, but instead we set up camp in the parking lot and walked through grassy waters to get to the sandy part of the water where we could play. It was a little strange at first, but turned out to not really make much of a difference.

It's a bizarre situation to have the lakes overflowing and still be classified as abnormally dry. I've heard that the ground water levels are still a little low. People tend to think, the lakes are up, lets waste some water. It's not easy to find much information on this. It's like a secret around here what's really going on with the water. After a little investigation this morning, we are still under some water restrictions, which seriously if they happen to be effective I'm in favor of having all the time. Really, why people should be free to waste as much water as they please is beyond me.

working mom

I just read a TNR article today about the Palin-style working mom and thought I'd write a bit about my recent new status as a working-mom. The article was interesting because she claims to do it all without ever missing a beat. However, she is able to "do it all" because her husband is basically a stay-at-home dad and she's loaded with other family around her helping out. Therefore, she has made some token efforts towards working parent concerns, basically only fair-wages for women, but none of the other biggies that count, like, affordable child-care and availability of accomodations at work for moms, i.e. breastpumps.

So, my recent job has been an overall good change for me, and I think the whole family. It's really great because it's short-term, so even if it was the wrong choice, it's only a problem for another 3 months. In the immediate term, the major plus for me is that life is easier. I'm not sleeping quite as much, but I get to sit all day! At 6 months pregnant, sitting in an ergo-designed chair is much better than the ground, park-bench, or just playing and constantly moving. The longer term plus is that I'm learning some new stuff and filling in the resume some so it's not completely blank. The negative is it's often boring and I have strict working hours. The working hours thing is completely ridiculous since I rely on noone else to do my job and only need an internet connection and a spreadsheet, maybe Word too. It's exactly the type of job that as a working mom they should be allowing some flexibility, but yep, that's not the case. As a consequence, there is little chance I'll come back to it after this contract. The little one seems to enjoy daycare and gets to play with much cooler toys than at home, do gymnastics, dance, music, and spanish, lots of fun stuff that she loves. The hubby is adjusting as well and doing a great job getting lil-M out the door every morning...not as easy as one might expect.

I appreciate the chance to mix things up for our family and give us all some different experiences. The sad part is that jobs which could be more accomodating to moms aren't. I could easily do this job part-time, from anywhere, but neither is an option b/c they are inflexible. At least it's only 4months long.

USA

The combination of September 11 and Elections has caused me mixed feelings. The 9-11 memorials on the radio today generate the need to love our fellow Americans (and people in general for that matter). In contrast the ridiculousness of the campaigning has me pissed at the stupidity of Americans. I'm appalled at the obsession over Sarah Palin. Seriously, I'm embarrassed to be a female these days. How can the same women who hate Hilary be in love with this hoochie mama. The obvious answer is that the suburban-mom identifies with her...do these women think they themselves could do a good job as VP?

What's with this logic of identification with our president? It worked for GW, he's just as ignorant as the majority of the country. Personally, I'd rather have someone smarter than most people as our leader. Because someone is smarter than most americans does not imply that they can't understand the problems to be addressed. The real problem is the lack of rational decision-making from the masses that the campaigns so effectively cater to. Last night a commentator suggested that in the debates Obama needed to tone done his orator style of speech to sound more like the general stupid american. Again, I appreciate that he can speak better than me! When he speaks with leaders from other countries, I prefer he be intelligent and sound that way than sound like the average american. Look how well that strategy worked for GW...wait he doesn't talk to other countries, just bombs them.

Weight of a nation?

It's only been more than a year since I've posted. Maybe I'll start again, maybe not, we'll see. Chew sent me the article linked in the title. In summary it's a US journalist suggesting there is a "black cloud" over gymnastics because there is suspicion that the Chinese government is allowing girl gymnasts under the minimum Olympic age of 16 to compete. This is a problem because such a young girl shouldn't have to bear the weight of the hopes of a nation.

Is it okay if they are 16? 18? 21? When is it appropriate? Who is generating such pressure? The government, the press, coaches, families? Seriously, does the general public as a whole care that much? I've been sucked into the Michael Phleps craze and can't wait to see if he can pull off another victory. However, do I feel like I am somehow superior because my country can generate an athlete who can win so handily. I suppose in the Chinese case, it's a legacy thing. They always produce amazing gymnasts, so maybe they can therefore somehow feel superior because it's in their blood or something.

Athletics certainly creates an emotion of pride and it's fun to get caught in the craziness. I suppose this craziness is somehow responsible for the pressure. In college, I remember being emotional about each competition, but I don't ever remember feeling like the hopes of an entire school were on my back. Even in higher exposure sports I don't see it. Although I love to see the Hokies win lots of football games, what foolish fan would place their hopes in say Michael or Marcus Vick. Even the guys I know who think about nothing but Hokie football don't in REALITY put all their hopes in it.

Forget the pressure. What I think is a sad black cloud was what I heard a commentator say during the coverage. One of the young girls was sent to the training facility at age 3. Repeatably asked to come home and was denied by her parents because they knew what a successful gymnastics career could do for their family. She was being praised for her determination (or something). This is the same logic of the successful business puke who buys his family everything they could ever want, but works 80 hours a week. It's really a simple principle we all know, but it's depressing to see it on the world level.

April is for biking!

It seems that each month is now dedicated to something, someone, some group, etc. Despite the excessiveness of this dedication system, it's not a bad technique for raising awareness.

In Blacksburg, April is the month for the bike challenge. Basically promoting cycling in all shapes and forms. In the bike challenge you log your miles for the month. The reason is simply to promote biking and the thousands of benefits...on the website they list a worthy top ten.

Check it out and register. If you need a bike, you can get one for super ridiculously cheap at the Blacksburg Bike Co-op. I can get you more info on that if you are interested.

Here is the bikechallenge site: bikechallenge.org.vt.edu

Spring Break!

Vacations always go by fast, and this was no exception. We had a great time with Killington, VT as our primary destination. Lil-M got to spend 4 days with her grandparents and we got to spend those days bound only to the schedule of the lifts. The first day we missed her, but we quickly came to appreciate the time and remembered how carefree a vacation can be without a kid.

Killington is a perfect combination of old-skol and modern amenieties. It doesn't have that canned resort "village" feel, yet the mountain is very nice. We stayed at a Vermont style Inn that included an amazing breakfast that even big-M appreciated. We also had one dinner there that consisted of venison and australian lamb. The place had charm, yet was nice. We spent our late evenings in the lounge with the innkeepers and one other couple learning about the local Killington politics...just in case, big-M is starting his mayoral campaign there already.

As a huge plus, all the public places are smoke-free, one of the few laws in VT, but in my opinion a great one. We visited a few different restuaruants and bars, with our favorite being a place called The Garlic. Yes, we crazy bad breadth that entire evening. All the restaurants we visited were top-notch and served up interesting food and drink.

The snowboarding....the first day was a mere -13 degrees with 20-30 mph winds. Cold, cold, cold. Our first ride of the day we swore the wax had blown off our boards during the ride up on the roof. However, turns out that snow just gets a bit sticky when the temperature drops to the point where you shouldn't be outside for more than a few seconds. We not only survived by riding the heated gondola all day, but it turned into a beautiful day of riding and a great start to the trip.

The next two days were a balming 5-10 degrees. It really did feel balmy and we were able to ride all the lifts and stay out indefinitely. These two days were really great. We covered at least a few runs off of each peak and found our niches. Our favorite was a run call double dipper. It was off the top peak and had these beautiful powdery moguls that seems to go untouched. The extreme cold made for great snow that remained nice and soft for days.

Vermont claims to be home to snowboarding, snowboard this, that, etc. It was definitely true with respect to the superpipe and other features. We spent a good portion of our time hitting jumps and the pipe. The pipe was impressive. It is definitely a step up from a snowshoe-style pipe...if they even had one!

In summary, great snow; wonderful accomodations; great local foods; but manageable temps; and no one to worry about besides ourselves! Also, note that my boots rock. I was a bit worried, after the first day, but with a few adjustments, I'm in love.

Snowboarding Boots

Today I ordered new snowboarding boots and they shipped today. Backcountry.com is amazing that way. I'm pretty much giddy and can't wait for our Vermont trip to try them out. My well-used K2 boots are 8 years old. I can't believe I've been snowboarding that long and I still can't get out of the pipe. I blame it on snowshoe for never opening their pipe until the last week of the season. My prediction is that they don't even bother to open it this year. They just taunt me with the phrase on their website, "opening soon," my ass.

Snowboarding has come a long way in the past 8 years. My K2 boots were the only women's boots I could find at that time, yet after I purchased them and did a bit more reading I found out that they were just men's boots with a women's tag on it. Sneaking marketing bastards. I'm grateful that I now have an abundance of brands and styles of brands to choose from in the world of women's boots. However, after further investigation, the shaft continues. This time although there are plenty of women's boots out there, it only matters if you have small feet. I wear a 10.5 and I found 2 brands, that make a women's boot over size 10. Even then, 1 of the brands only offers 10.5's in their entry-level boots. Seriously, this is ridiculous. I realize 10.5 is big, but I know I am not alone out here. Two years ago when I bought bindings I ran into the same problem. Companies make women's bindings, but not for boots over size 6, or some unrealistically small size. No offense ML, but often female athletes tend to not be petite little girls wearing size 6.

So big props to Northwave who makes a kickass boot and actually offers it up to size 11, gasp! I'm excited to finally get to play along in the world of women's snowboard gear.

Happy Valentines Day

We had a great evening last night. Big-M and I have the tradition of celebrating Valentine's Day with our friends. Every year this decision is confirmed as a good one.

This tradition of ours is obviously practical, as going out on Valentine's Day is ridiculous to attempt; that is, unless you enjoy crowded restaurants, higher prices, bad service (b/c they are so busy), and an environment of awkward relationships between all the people who only pay attention to their relationships on this one day every year. Big-M is my valentine all year long!! cheese I know, but true.

Not only is our tradition practical, but when we celebrate we love to have our friends around. Don't get me wrong, we thrive off our own little time together, but friends make a party and true celebration.

So anyway, thanks to our friends who spent their own valentine's day with us, enjoying specials foods, wine, and other friends. We love you all.