Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A Day To Remember

I was so glued to the Inaugural events yesterday. I felt such joy at the whole thing and while I sure wasn't able to be in DC, I loved the pictures of joy on people's faces who were attending. You proud many!


Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Happy Inauguration Day

Well, lets see how this little revolution of ours pans out.  Adios, George.  Git yer ass gone and off to those new digs in Dallas.  Welcome to the White House, President Obama!  Today is all ceremony and stuff, but by noon, you'll be running the show.  Good luck and may the gods bless your presidency.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

I Knew It

I knew when the story about Abu Ghraib first broke that the US had violated the Geneva convention and had committed torture.  I was right!  Damn it.

Friday, January 09, 2009

So Far, 2009

So how is your year going so far?

My walking program is getting back on track. It was pretty well derailed throughout most of 2008 following two sprains to my right ankle and a bout with plantar fasciitis - all of which had me hobbling instead of walking smartly for about 10 months or so. Going from being able to walk 3 miles a day fairly easily down to half a mile or less really hurt and I was often in tears from the pain of it. My dog tolerated the reduced pace only because it turned out she was coming down with diabetes and didn't have the energy to walk and play either.

I took a test this week for employment with the Census Bureau. I think I will need to retest because I could not complete the darn test within the half hour time that was allotted. That's kind of embarassing too. It was a short test and I got caught up in trying to break down the logic of a couple of the questions as well as reading a table that went to one of the other questions. Getting tangled on three earlier questions left me unable to finish the last 4 questions in time.

Theres a raft of new books out that I'd love to buy, but with the economy the way it is I will have to wait and hope I get a gift card for the bookstore, or wait longer until they come out in paperback. Ah well. It isn't as though we don't have unread books around here. DH and I both have a book habit. Maybe the secondhand bookstores will see some improvement in sales given the economy.

With more and more newspapers scaling back or going out of business altogether, we really need to save the funny papers. A lot of syndicated cartoonists are losing chunks of income when a paper folds or cuts back on features. I think we need the funnies -- all the way from the stoics like Gasoline Alley to the creepiness of Bizarro and inbetween. We need to laugh, we need the bad puns, the slice-of-life charmers not to mention satire and political cartoons as well. I tell ya, kids today are being deprived!

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

More Soup

My sister, the 'magnetic' one and me were having dinner a few weeks ago at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant.  Over a bowl of steaming Pho, I told her that when I have ramen soup (which we all know is inexpensive and easy to make) that I liked adding some Vietnamese chili & garlic pasteand chopped baby bok choi to them to zip it up.  I told her, "It makes 'em kinda special."

She cracked up.  "Special?  That's kinda sad,"  she said wiping her eyes.

There I was thinking I was easily pleased because comfort food is never sad.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Knitting, Soup And Meandering Thoughts

So, I didn't really make any resolutions this year. There is no priority in my life greater than any other thus making it hard to choose. I will celebrate my 10th anniversary of quitting smoking on the 13th. It wasn't a New Years resolution - I'd just reckoned I'd quit after New Years.

I finished a knitting project, a 'shrug' on New Years eve. It took all of 5 minutes to join the parts that took it from a rectangle to a garment. It's one of those 'you knit it, you wear it' items that has at least one novice mistake in it, but ya just don't want to waste it either. I thought I should finish on something that felt satisfying and comforting. Gods know we need some of both these days.

Some friends have been talking about putting together a 'Stone Soup' feast. We've all done it with various groups of friends off and on over the years. I'm hoping we can get together to cook on Inauguration Day so we can celebrate Obama's swearing in too. That's gonna be so cool!

To me, Obama's inauguration culminates only some of the groundwork laid by the likes of Adelai Stephenson, JFK and his brother, Bobby, Dr. King, Malcolm X, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ralph Bunche, Maya Angelou and numerous others whose aspirations were spoken of in clarion voices throughout the blossoming years of my childhood.

Now America starts a new chapter in her history and it excites me! C'mon! Can we now go back to showing the rest of the world the best of us and not the least?