Coloring for Wolves

Maybe you want to talk to your kids about that pretty lady in the glasses who is not Tina Fey and who likes to have wolves killed. Maybe not. But, if you do, this is fun.

Mookie (RIP) on Lolcats

moar funny pictures

Wind Power at Costco

Before, the most oddball thing they had on Costco.com was coffins, now they have a home wind generator, way cool! $1899.99 for 900 watts.

Tattooing Gone Awry

Is it just me, or does this guy's back look like the Trapper Keeper of that guy that sat next to me in 9th grade Government class?

From failblog.com via KTLA.

Our Next House

So it looks like we'll be moving, again, for a little more elbow room and a little more rent (ouch) but the good news is we will have some decent guest quarters and space to entertain (and places to hide our unnecessary crap) so please come visit - we only start charging rent after the first two days! No, I'm kidding...pretty much.... Anyway, we can keep Amelie in the same school. It's a little more on the noisy/odorous side of town but not such as you would notice, I hope!

Annie in Hollywood

It's a Hard Knock Life - Greg scored these awesome seats at the Kodak Theatre for "Annie". It was only about half full, but they put on a great show. His coworker got the same box 2 days later but had to give up his seats for a "VIP" - who turned out to be Michael Jackson and his two kids.

A little late, but how cute is this? She wrote it on the wall poster at the campaign office. I love the portrait!

Amelie's first slide

Video of Amelie's first time standing on a snowboard during her first lesson. Flagstaff, AZ, Jan 27, 2008.

More on Frosted Mini Wheats

OK, so, I have found another source for my vegetarian/vegan frosted mini wheats. So they are not organic but I am a beggar at this point so I can't be a chooser. They are at Whole Foods under the 365 label. And they are pretty durn tasty, thumbs up!

Also, for anyone new to this topic, regular ones are NOT vegetarian because they contain gelatin, which is gross. :)

Another option for symbolic adoptions - some of my favorite places by my favorite environmental organization - the Sierra Club:

Give a Gift That's Truly Wild! Now you can give a green holiday gift and at the same time help protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Yosemite, or another spectacular wild place. A Sierra Club Wild Places sponsorship is a special gift that also helps preserve America's wild legacy.
Sponsorship gifts cost as little as $25 and include a plush puppet and/or rucksack that will delight fledgling environmentalists as well as the grownup tree-huggers in your family -- and shipping is FREE! By giving a symbolic sponsorship gift, you can affirm your environmental values, while sharing those values with a family member or friend in a way they are sure to enjoy.
Give a Wild Places sponsorship today.

That Time of Year

Feeling not-very-consumery and fraught with worry about what we and ours have wrought on this small spaceship Earth of ours? Adopt a cute and furry thing from Defenders of Wildlife. You help the planet and you get something to cling to as you fret over our collective future. The selection is even better this year. I even have a discount code for ya. So cheer the heck up!

It's Heeeeeerrrrrre...............

FINALLY.

If you're going crazy like me, maybe you can spend the day at the movies. How about The Secret Life of Bees? The book was good, and the cast is excellent. And it should encourage everyone not to take voting for granted, see:
After President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act in 1965, Rosaleen goes to town to register, only to be confronted by three angry racists. When she dumps tobacco juice on their feet, she is beaten savagely and arrested. Lily springs Rosaleen from the hospital, and the two take off for Tiburon, the name of which is written on the back of an icon of a black Madonna, one of the few objects belonging to Lily’s mother that the child still has.


So VOTE! Then, I think it will be a late night - but I for one am hoping that we can turn in after polls close in Ohio - think that's too much to hope for? :)

Handy Dandy CA Voter Guide

This is a nice resource for anyone going to the polls tomorrow in California.

Don't forget to vote! Obama for President!!

For Arizona voters

I got this from Sandy Bahr from the Sierra Club. This is the craziest AZ ballot proposition yet, and that's saying a lot.

The witching hour is fast approaching; don't let Election Day become the 'Day of the Dead.'
Vote no on Prop 105.
If Prop 105, the so-called "majority rules" amendment passes those deceased who remain on the voter rolls would be counted as automatic NO votes. Is that fair?

http://proposition105.cmail2.com/l/565647/46tt6i3j/r

Happy Halloween

Be safe & have fun, everybody!

Help Esha Momeni

I came across an article on the L.A. times web site about Esha Momeni, a Los Angeles grad student who was detained while visiting her home in Iran supposedly because of her political activities for women's rights there. Amnesty International asks that as many people as possible send letters to the Iranian government as soon as possible asking for her release. Believe it or not, these letters work much of the time. Take a minute or two today and write an e-mail for Esha.

See Author Alan Weisman at ASU in Tempe

I wish I could go, but for folks in AZ, this should be very interesting:

A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe.October 29, 2008 - 7 p.m.Murdock Lecture Hall <http://www.asu.edu/map/interactive/?campus=tempe&building=MUR>Room 101http://www.worldwithoutus.com/http://www.worldwithoutus.com/about_author.html

Thanks to Jon Findley for posting that info.

I believe I recommended this book way back, but if I forgot to, this is also a chilling Halloween read! ;-)

Great Halloween Book for Kids

Getting into the spirit of the season? Tired of your routine bedtime stories and if you have to say "Goodnight Moon" one more time you will scream? Then run - run, I say- to your nearest bookstore and pick up Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex. We've had it for a year now and we read it all year round, but especially now it is perfection. Here is an excerpt:

And that's not even our favorite. We like the pages about the Phantom of the Opera who can't get "It's a Small World" and "The Girl From Ipanema" out of his head. Or, "Godzilla Pooped on My Honda" is a classic, though obviously scatalogical (photo included). Anyway, for kids 4 to 12, and grownups, it's a must have.

What election?

I'm stressed. I can tell because my nails are a complete mess. Can we just fast forward now through the next two weeks? And what is this feeling - hopefulness? The people now know who the real Barack Obama is, Sarah, and they seem to like him. Thank goodness.

Anyway, I'm voting in AZ because we're still not perma-Californians. Which means I can't vote against the California anti gay marriage bill but there's one of those in AZ too. Actually, the Arizona ballot is chock full of bad ideas, like prop 105. And Bob Lord is in a statistical dead heat with John Shaddegg! So, AZ Voters, vote no on just about everything, except for 202 and 300. And maybe my vote will matter on something. Wouldn't it be awesome if McCain lost Arizona? A girl can dream. I'm going to get this ballot in the mail. Yay, voting!

The Sequoia Saga

From Sequoia National Park and Aftermath


Maybe it was doomed from the start. Back in May, we went camping with my sis and bro-IL outside Kings Canyon National Park and had intended to spend part of the trip home on a detour through that park and Sequoia National Park/Monument. But THEN, james left his jacket - and wallet - on a rock at the camp site. Of course, we were all out of cell phone range, and, through a series of half-received messages and near-misses, we spent a good portion of the day on a wild goose chase. (James said it would have been very funny to have footage of us from above.) We vowed to return to Sequoia before the pass was snowed in.

Fast forward to fall, Saturday, September 6, 2008. We decide to attempt a day trip since the winter is fast approaching. We get a decent-ish start and get to the park at around 11:30. We enjoy a stop at the Visitor Center on the southern side of the park. We purchase a few souvenirs and head up to see the main attraction and reason for our visit, Sequoiadendron giganteum, the Giant Sequoias.

About two thirds of the way up the mountain, on a very narrow, very steep, very windy road, the Prius suddenly flashed three or four warning lights. Since they seemed to refer to the stability control which Greg was confident we would only need if we were going fast and braking suddenly on a slippery wet road, and as the car seemed to be otherwise operating normally, we decided it would be safe to keep going. We got to the Giant Forest a few minutes later (breathtaking - I barely remembered it from a family trip in the late 80s) and made it safely to the Giant Forest Museum. We turned off the car in the hopes that whatever the issue was, it would reboot itself and all would be well. We spent about an hour at the Gaint Forest Museum, which used to be one of hundreds of buildings in the Giant Forest until they tore just about all of them down (Suprisingly, pavement is bad for trees! Imagine!).

We got back to the car and turned it on...and ALL of the warning lights turned on. Plus, no start. Greg tried to see if there was ANYTHING we could try, but no, the car is like the opposite of user-servicable. So we started to try to figure out how we could get out of there. There is no cell phone service in the park, BTW. We had the Toyota roadside assistance, but we soon found out that only the first $100 of a tow is covered - and one quote came in at $1200. I spent an hour or so on the ranger's phone. She was so nice.

Finally they found us a company willing to come up for us, for what ended up being $380 ($280 for us). Amelie in the meantime read a whole chapter book, became a Junior Ranger, played hangman with the park ranger, and we all went for a nature hike. Where we saw bears. OK, that part was awesome.









So the guy gets there 2 hours later (right on time) and loads up the car, and we all pile into the seatbeltless truck cab with him and his girlfriend (cozy). Amelie on my lap, we head down that same, windy road, and not the straighter, RV-friendly long way back towards Fresno. Greg made friendly conversation. I hoped the guy was a good driver. At least he did go slowly.

About 8 PM we made it back to Visalia which was the location of the nearest Toyota dealer. We dropped off the car and had our friendly driver drop us at the closest non-hourly hotel which fortunately was a new Marriott. The people there were very nice, we walked a block to downtown Visalia (cute) after checking in, and got some actual food for the first time all day.

We got back to the room and settled in for the night. Luckily there was an Avis in town with Sunday hours since we didn't intend to wait around until Tuesday (or later) for the car to be ready. We got back at about 3:30 and it turns out my anxieties about the cats not being fed were unnecessary as they had not waited long to bust open their food container on their own.

We got the car back today. What went wrong? Greg's still not sure if the guy told him it was a short, or disconnected, or what, but basically they reset it and supposedly it's fine now but we're talking about Mini Coopers. I'm not the optimal Prius owner at the moment anyway, and he says he will "never trust that car again" - so, where does that leave us but kbb.com?

Anyway, that's my story. Thank you for sticking with me through my vent. Check the album above for some nice pictures of some trees.