... and THIS is why ...

Evidently my last post hurt some feelings and caused some folks in my life to get upset. This is why I don't normally blog about politics. I was concerned that my last post would ruffle feathers, and it did. That was TOTALLY not intentional.

My Dad's a staunch Republican.

My Uncle's a strong Democrat (I'm truly VERY sorry if calling you a liberal was a faux pas -- evidently I don't know what's the difference between a Liberal and a Democrat -- yet ANOTHER reason I should just stay off this topic).

I love both of these men dearly.

Even so, I truly feel that when it comes to government, IN MY OPNION, "less is more". I'm not one of those "drop off the grid and move to Montana and build my own compound" libertarians, but I really do think that the Libertarian philosophy meshes better with my current point of view.

Heck, at this point, if I was still a Republican, what good would it do? When was the last time NY went for a Republican president? I think we're pretty darn blue around these parts. I know it's not PC to say "my vote doesn't count", but in New York State, when it comes to national elections, it really doesn't. The state will go overwhelmingly Democrat whether you like it or not.

So that's it. Probably my last political post. I won't make any guarantees, but I don't think I want to ruffle any more feathers.

(I never thought changing political parties would make so many people so upset. I guess I was naive.)

In closing, I will remind everyone who was so upset at my last post of a quote that is thought to summarize Voltaire's point of view: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." (Specifically, it was written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall (pseud. S. G. Tallentyre) in the biography "The Friends of Voltaire" in 1906.) I just hope the people in my life can find it in their hearts to give me this latitude. I am, after all, a work in progress.

Coming out of the (POLITICAL) closet...

Well, I was raised in a Conservative Republican Home. My dear uncle (I really do love him dearly) is a raging (raving?) Liberal. I actually really like hearing both sides of the debates and issues. I don't only want to hear things from people who agree with me. It gets boring.

Although I've been a registered Republican for 20 years, I've come to believe that NO single political party really "fits" my beliefs. I have been feeling a bit of "drift" away from the Republican party line for quite some time now, and didn't feel comfortable still officially carrying that label. And I have always known I'm not a Democrat.

I did some research. I did some soul-searching.

And I came to the conclusion that I'm a rare breed: a pro-life Libertarian. And yes, I think you can be both pro-life AND a Libertarian.

You see, I believe that abortion is wrong. I really do believe it is murder. HOWEVER, I don't believe I have the RIGHT to press that belief onto someone else. This issue was the LAST thing tying me to the Republican party, and a few months ago, I realized that my belief that you can have a moral belief without trying to legislate and impose that morality on others is exactly what makes me a Libertarian (in my opinion).

And I don't believe that repealing Roe v. Wade is the way to reduce the number of abortions performed in this country. Personally, I believe that the BEST way to reduce the number of abortions in this country is education (including pregnancy PREVENTION first and foremost). And I REALLY think that everyone involved -- both "pro-life" and "pro-choice" -- would agree that everyone would be better off if we could reduce the number of abortions (no one LIKES abortion!).

I think that before someone has an abortion, they should have a sonogram (preferably one of those newfangled 3-D sonograms) so they KNOW what they will be aborting. A woman should know exactly how developed her baby is (what organs have formed, what functions and processes have already started in its tiny body, etc) so that she can make an informed choice. I believe that funding for places like Planned Parenthood should not exceed the funding for places like CareNet (http://www.care-net.org/). In fact, I think everyone would be well-served if these two groups could find a way to work together.

The funny thing is, I remember when I was a kid, my friends' dad was a Libertarian and we thought he was NUTS (politically). What irony.

I am APPALLED.

When I'm going to eat fast food, I frequently opt for Burger King, because I know it's flame broiled, and that makes me think it's a teeny tiny bit better than fried burgers.

Well, I have been disabused of that notion. I went to the BK web site and looked up two of my favorite sandwiches, the Whopper Jr. and the Big Fish.

Well, The Whopper Jr’s 370 calories! If you skip the mayo, it’s 290 calories. And that’s before you add fries or a drink!!! And I NEVER skip the mayo.

The Big Fish is 650 calories!!! That’s half a day’s calories in ONE sandwich! Ack! I’m ruined!

That’s AWFUL.

Rant over. Back to your life.

PARASOLS!

Well, my cousin Seth is getting married soon, and Laurel and I weren't able to make it to Amanda's shower. Aunt Lucille sent me parasols (the favors) so we could take some photos with them. Here they are:

Deep Thoughts...

OK. Sometimes weird things occur to me. They're quite random.

Today, when I was getting ready for work, I was thinking of words that end in "-ender". Think about it... there are quite a few words in the English language that end in "-ender".

A
B - bender
C
D - dender? not so much.
E
F - fender
G - gender
H
I
J
K - not in English, but in Danish kender means "connoisseur"
L - lender
M - mender
N
O
P - pender? one who pends? (not really a word in English, but it sounds like one)
Q
R - render
S - sender
T - tender
U - Upender (thanks, Auntie Lu!)
V - vendor (I know, it's not spelled right, but it sounds the same)
W - wender? one who wends? (not really a word in English, but it sounds like one); Weekender! (thanks, Auntie Lu!)
X Y Z

Oh, and two for the price of one: fender-bender! (thanks, Auntie Lu!)
I know... I know... I'm a dork. (haha)

Gardening with Cory and Camryn

OK. So Laurel was the one who was really gardening. I don't garden. I avoid it like the plague. (I hate all the weeding!) But, I helped with the girls while she did all the shoveling. Hey -- don't judge me. It's HER house. (tee hee!)

Camryn was playing camera-shy, and Cory was in a good mood (and trying to "make fire"; I guess she learned about flint recently). It made for an interesting afternoon.

And then came the bubbles. We love bubbles. The second pic of Cam blowing bubbles is kind of fuzzy, but it's the only one that I was able to catch her making decent bubblage.

It's the littlest things, sometimes.

Sometimes, the littlest things make me happy.

And sometimes, I don't even realize HOW happy they'll make me until after the fact.

I knew I wanted to pick up a new shower curtain liner. But I kept forgetting. Well, last week I remembered. And I was right. Every time I get in the shower, I smile because I have that nice, new, shiny shower curtain (no, it's not really shiny).

It's SUCH a great spring cleaning item -- takes almost no time at all, and it's almost not worth the time and effort of trying to get the old one clean again! I recommend it highly! :)

Religion.

Well, now that I've blogged about politics, why not religion? :)

Well, we had a bible study last night, and part of the class we discussed the word "religion". We read different dictionary definitions, and those all seemed... inadequate. Then, Bret quoted this statement:

"Religion is practical piety, rightly directed"

I really like that one. I'm not sure where he found it, but I think it's a good start.

The first chapter of James has one of the most useful discussions about "religion" I've ever found.

19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen,
slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

I've bolded the bits that I think are most salient.

• Be quick to listen.
• Be slow to speak.
• Be slow to anger.
• Get rid of the moral filth that's crept into your life.
• Accept the Word.
• Don't just accept the Word as a concept, DO it.
• Control your tongue.
• Take care of others - espeically those who are less fortunate and the helpless.
• Keep yourself pure. Be careful about those slippery slopes.

That's a tall order, but it's do-able. Almost all of these involve self-control when you think about it.

Well, I'm no scholar. I don't think I have any answers past this point.

Politics...

OK. I don't usually blog about politics.

However, there's one issue that's really getting to me lately. That's Hillary's backing of the "vacation from the federal gas tax". Um... can anyone say PANDERING? Seriously.

The federal gas tax is $0.18. Yes, that's right. Eighteen cents.

Lifting that tax wouldn't do much for anyone's budget. If you have a 12-gallon gas tank and fill your car twice a week, it amounts to less than $5.00 per week. That's really NOT a significant amount, and if you fill your 12-gallon tank once a week, it's around $2.16.

Since I'm a once-a-week tank filler, Hillary's grand scheme MIGHT allow me to go to the movies once a month. Really, now, we're talking about $9 per month.

Finally, who ever said that the gas companies would pass the savings on to the consumer? They are in business to make money. I would be shocked if they actually passed those savings on to us.

And, when it goes back on in the Fall, it's going to HURT for prices to go up $0.18 all at once.

Just my opinion...

Some new pics at the Carousel

It's April 2nd.

April 2nd. It's my mother's birthday. She should have been 65 today.

Instead, she's been gone for almost 15 years.

It's a rough day.

More snow.

This is my second Spring in Central New York.



I'm still not used to snow in April. (I know it's still March, but you get the point.)



This was a pic I took while driving to work this morning. Don't worry. I was stopped at a traffic light.

Easterish 2008

Well, I saw Chris, Gina, and the kids the Saturday before Easter (March 22). Here are some photos of the day:

Matthew dyeing an egg:

Erik, Heather, Adam, and Elizabeth's elbow:

Gina, Matthew, Erik, Heather, Adam, and Elizabeth:

Elizabeth:

Erik:

Adam:

Gina & Heather:

Heather, Adam, Erik (trying to look scary), and Elizabeth... all squishing in:

Adam, Heather, Elizabeth, and Erik on Erik's new bunk bed:


Aunt Laurel sent TWISTER! They had a BLAST!

Oh Good GRAVY!

Did you see my post about the statue with the snow on it a couple of posts ago?

Well, someone STOLE HIM from campus!

There was another statue on campus, and they stole that one, too!

What is going ON around here???

Snowfall Totals

Well, I just found a list of snowfall totals in our region online.

SNOWFALL TOTALS
Redfield 370.0" as of March 10
West Leyden 178.6" as of February 28
Point Rock 177.5" as of March 12
Westernville 147.4" as of March 11
Syracuse 107.1" as of March 10
Salisbury 105.7" as of February 28
Dolgeville 100.4" as of February 28
Utica (Official) 90.8" as of March 10
Whitesboro 90.5" as of March 10
Port Leyden 88.5" as of February 6
New Hartford 86.3" as of March 10
Steuben 83.9" as of January 22
Sherburne 76.5" as of February 28

So, my town has had over 90 inches of snow so far. That's more than 7 FEET of snow. And last year, we had snow through mid-April. We could still break the 100-inch mark! (I hope not!!!!)

Oh, and have I mentioned how HAPPY I am that I don't live in Redfield???

Yay!!! Diet Sprite!

The lunch cart that's down the hall from my office has a somewhat limited selection. It's just a lunch cart, after all.

Well, if you don't want to drink regular soda, it's even worse. The ONLY choices were diet Coke and a diet tea drink that was over $2 a bottle. Or water. I don't buy water by the bottle; I buy it in bulk at the supermarket.

I've been asking them for months to get some other type of diet soda in the cooler. I mean, even in the soda machines, all they ever have is diet Coke. There's ONE machine on campus that sometimes has diet Dr Pepper, but at least one time, I went to get diet Dr Pepper and got full-sugar VAULT. Blech!

So, I went down the hall to get something for lunch today, and they had DIET SPRITE in the cooler! WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!

I am a happy woman! (And evidently easy to please! ha!)

Kid Logic.

If you know me, you know I love language, and I love words.

Well, Cory came out with a new one. She was trying to say "last night", but it came out as "yesternight". I love this! When I asked her to repeat it, she said, "Aunt Lynn... you know... yesternight. Like yestermorning and yesterday".

Gotta love that kid and her 5-year-old logic!

HA! I know this guy!

OK. Here's another YouTube video. HOWEVER, in this one, I actually know the guy who's playing the sheriff! (I have no idea who the guy being arrested is!)

His name is Craig, and he used to go to my church before he moved to Arizona. Looks like he's enjoying himself, doesn't it?

Happy Leap Day!

Well... here we are. Another Leap Day.

Yesterday, I was watching the CBS morning news, and they had a couple on air who were full-term with their first baby. The wife was born on Leap Day, and she was going in on Leap Day to have the baby induced.

Interesting. I always thought it would be cool to be born on Leap Day. Now I'm not so sure. When I was a kid, I already complained about sharing my birthday with my sister... I can't imagine how much I would have complained about sharing it every four years! (ha!)

I read that the Greeks consider getting married in a Leap Year to be bad luck. Go figure. (http://news.wedding.auz.com/rumors/greek-leap-year/) I wonder if that's true? Anyone know? Anyone care?

Did you know (random Leap Year factoid) that Leap Years are not held exactly every four years? A year is NOT really 365.25 days long. It's actually about 11 minutes and 14 seconds short of being "exactly" 365.25 days long. So... to make up for it, they skip it three times every 400 years. I just KNOW you're dying to know HOW they do this. Well, a century year can only be a Leap Year IF it's evenly divisible by 400. So... 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not Leap Years, but 1600, 2000, and 2400 are (or was/will be) Leap Years.

The easy way to remember it is:
if a "regular" year is evenly divisible by 4 (evenly), it's a Leap Year.
if a "century" year is evenly divisible by 400, it is a Leap Year.

So... at this rate, the calendar year and the solar year are only "off" by 30 seconds. At this rate, it will take about 3,300 years until the calendar year and the solar year are "off" by a day.

Fascinating stuff, right?

Snow on a Statue

The school put up a temporary statue that I can see from my office. In the most recent snow storm, he collected an interesting amount of snow. It looks kind of like a snow afro.

Mor Mor's Needlework

My maternal grandmother made an absolutely gorgeous needlework wall hanging back in 1938. It is amazing. (Mor Mor in Swedish means "mother's mother"... "grandmother") After she passed away, my mother hung the piece in our family home.

After my mother passed away, the piece got put away... it was very hard to look at. At the time, it felt more bitter than sweet.

Very unfortunately, while it was in storage, there was damage made. Some of the damage may have been from insects (although that doesn't make much sense to me. It was indoors, and nothing else had insect damage), and some of the damage may have been due to improper framing. (The person who framed it placed the glass directly on the fabric, and didn't use all archival-quality materials.)

So, in the end, there was damage done to the far right side of the piece.

I *WISH* I had taken a before photo. I'm kicking myself that I neglected to do that! But... here are some "after" shots. There are close-ups of each side, so you can see the damage and how the restoration compares to the unaffected side, and a photo of the entire piece.

I'm sure once I get it reframed, you won't even notice the restorations! I'm THRILLED with the work that was done!





You can click on this image if you want to see a it enlarged.

My New Desktop Sorter!

Well, we were reorganizing our office at work to make room for a temp who will be here for about eight weeks. One of the things we "got rid of" was a gnarly old metal desktop sorter thingie. It was scratched, rusty, and, well, gnarly. I kind of loved it as is, but I saw some potential in it to be pretty, too.

So, here it is... in UC colors (blue and ORANGE). There's some pink on it, too, but it's mostly blue & orange.

My goal is to get people to use the orange section as an inbox... hence the big huge honking "IN" with arrows.

Products used:
Bazzill cardstock
Chatterbox paper
Tim Holtz/Distress ink - black soot
Heidi Swapp ghost frame
Basic Grey chipboard letters
Chipboard arrows... ????
Ranger spray ink (on chipboard)
Glossy Accents (on chipboard)
Matte Accents
Rhonna Farrer flourish stamps
Staples
Grosgrain Ribbon
Elmer's spray adhesive

I used Matte Accents and glue dots to adhere the chipboard letters. The spray ink kind of warped them, so I had to also clamp them down while the glue dots "dried".

Another COOOOL YouTube video!

I saw this video on the morning news, and decided I just HAD to post it to my blog! The news folks said specifically that the dolphins just did this naturally; no one taught them to do it. Enjoy!

Find Your Candidate!

Are you still undecided? There's a pretty cool Q-and-A that can help you decipher which candidates are closer to your personal beliefs.

My Word for 2008

OK. There's a "thing" that some scrapbookers do at the start of a year. They choose a word that is supposed to be their "theme word" for the year.

I didn't do it last year; I thought it was hokey.

This year, I actually have a word in mind.

REBUILD.

In sports, they have "rebuilding years". Usually for a college team, it's when your star players have graduated and you have to start from scratch again.

Well, that's kind of where I am.

When I moved to my new area, it took me several months to find a job. I tried to start my job search before I arrived here, but no one really wanted to talk to me until I arrived. And once I arrived, I couldn't find an opening -- not even at WalMart! I finally found a good job, and I really like it, but being out of work for so long was rough financially. I'm digging out, but I will be OK.

I am also rebuilding relationships -- I have a new church that I'm getting acquainted with (and really enjoying), and I am making friends. I'm getting to know my coworkers. I'm getting to know my colleagues in other offices, and have already participated in a search committee to hire a new staff member in my office.

This whole year is a fresh start for all that and more. I'm really excited to see how it all shapes up!

Cool Quote

I found this quote on Ali Edwards' blog. I thought it was really cool:

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.

William Henry Channing