We are on a short vacation in Lincoln City Oregon.. Getting here was not uneventful, I got into a rumble with Budget Car Rental over their new policies so we wound up renting a car for the trip from Enterprise instead. I have been a Budget customer for years, I have used their trucks for every move I have done myself, so I was dismayed to discover they now require a credit check at the very moment you rent your vehicle. Knowing my run in with the IRS back in feb placed a blotch on my report I tried to find out in advance if it was going to stop me from renting a car, and they refused to do the credit check prior to opening the rental contract. I didn't want to find out on the day we were to leave that I could not rent a car so I went shopping, and found a better rate, a lower debit card hold amount, a free pickup and I got straight answers through Enterprise Car Rentals.
Our space ship for the trip:
We had dinner out last night at a very nice Mexican restaurant, we gathered sea shells, and driftwood this morning, hit the Outlet Mall this afternoon, and will do some tourist shopping at the beach shops tomorrow. We plan to go see Wall-E tomorrow night at a vintage theater here. So far the fog is staying off shore, so we should be able to see the city fireworks display from out the living room windows in the condo we rented. It is great to get away from Portland!
I am very disappointed in Senator Obama, and I don't want to be. I wanted to believe him capable of being our great hope for change but he is acting more and more like a hundred years of lying politicians before him. Dammit all to hell.
He supports expanding federal funding of religiously based non profits ( what in the hell happened to separation of church and state???)
Obama now supports the FISA legislation that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies for Illegal wiretaps
Who knows what else he is gonna change his mind about? He promised to be real and I'm not seeing it.
The experts (whoever they are) now claim he is doing this to prove he is a man of deep faith, that he is a man who loves this country even though he didn't wear a flag lapel pin or something equally insane. I want to hurl... it's like being served a political latte with religious cream added and being forced to drink it against my will. I like my coffee and my politics neat, nothing added. I want to taste them both for what they are. I am tired of all this say anything to get elected crap. Senator Obama pull on your big boy pants, tell me who you are and why you won't disappoint me or I am staying home on election day. If you can't pull it together, figure out what you really stand for, claim it and stick to it, I have to assume that what we are in for is just another year of picking between the same old crap and some dressed up crap... and me...well, I'm over 50 and it's safe to assume I've had enough crap.
It took me until 5am to fall sleep, I woke cranky. Not sure yet if I am going to the storage locker this morning or tonight, probably tonight, haven't stepped outside yet but it is not currently as hot inside as it was yesterday at 10am. I'll make the decision on this by 11. Thankfully we are cooling off tomorrow a tad.
Ramie sent this software link to me in an email, it looks rather fun. If you draw at all it might interest you. If you love music you might also like it. It's a program called HighC, it allows you to draw music. I haven't played with it yet but I have downloaded it... I wonder what my suns will sound like.....
My brother is getting legally married to the love of his life on Tuesday, July 1 at 10 a.m.
I have to say that they are without a doubt the happiest, most devoted couple I know. They met in college in the 70s and have been loyal and dedicated to each other through sickness and health ever since. Greg is much better at the compromises needed to make a relationship last and get stronger than I have ever been. In fact I am pretty damn lousy at it. Theirs is a marriage that is long over due, in fact it is 30 years late. I can't be there in person, but I will be there in spirit. They have been one soul for over 30 years, an unbreakable spirit, without a single exception. To some people a marriage is just a piece of paper, to them it is so much more, it is a documentation of what they are to each other, a legal public acknowledgment that the past 30 years earned them rights other people take for granted. OMG, I guess this means their dogs will no longer be illegitimate. :)
There are people in my life, people who I care about who will never understand my joy for them, people who think the fact they are gay is wrong. In reality gay is what and who they are, ( not some separate issue, not some flaw to be corrected). I love both Greg and Dave, as they are... a loving couple who gives of themselves to others in need and to each other, always. I could not be prouder of them or happier for them.
That said, I need iced coffee.....
Anyone who thinks temps at 104 in the shade is seriously not a terrorist attack is certainly no Oregonian.
Good gawd, who ordered this crap?!? I was as tired of the cold extended winter as anyone this year, but this is not what I wished for.... and to ride it out in a 1979 single wide trailer with broken A/C... OMG.... just picture a tin can laying in the desert, say...death valley...for days.... it is now 303 am and outside it is 83, inside it is 90... I sure wish it held heat like this during the winter I can tell ya.
I cannot sleep, it's too hot.... if I had enough ice cubes to fill the tub I would nekkid and cuddling with ice cubes right now. I do not do heat well.
I did sew a bit today, the outcome of my efforts the last week will be posted on Monday.
I need chocolate...and iced coffee..... here amuse yourself with being amazed by the art of this cool gourd sculptor
"Spoonflower" , a new brainchild that has potential to go places, if you are invited to join the beta, you can print your own designs onto fabric. If you do original designs, this opens up new options for sales... fabric panels to be used in quilts, pillow designs, blocks for embellishment in purses, etc. In my case, it would make adding my suns to clothing and bags super simple.
If this interests you, go to this page and sign up, only a handful of invites go out each week for beta memberships, once word spreads on what they are doing the list is going to get long fast.
The cost of a yard of fabric is a tad high, ( 1 yard (42" x 36") $18.00 ) but it beats the heck out of screen printing and it opens up options not currently available if you want your original art included in something you make, or you want to design original art fabric for a quilt you are working on). If you print fabric panels to resell by the yard and separate the panels, resale should be a viable option while leaving room for a profit.
I see a thousand possibilities for having this option open to me. I can hardly wait to get invited!
The upswing of people viewing porn on iPhones is apparantly a big blogging target right now. My trend tracker pointed to this google trends page.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=iphone%20porn&ctab=0&hl=en
The page had a breakdown by cities which had an unusual oddity:
DC is number one, no surprises there. Finally congressmen can look at porn from the Senate floor.
But look at #3. Richardson Texas? Where is Richardson Texas, and why does it create more hits for iPhone porn than *either* Las Vegas or Los Angeles?
Wikipedia says that the population is around 100,000 people, so more people can't be the answer... The answer must be... more iPhones per capita. Why do you think that is? Well, Richardson is home to 600 high tech companies, including telco companies, like Nortel, Ericsson, Texas Instruments and.... AT&T. An added advantage of the 3G network, clearly!
Other surprises are Irvine and Pleasanton both placing ahead of San Jose or Cupertino, so Apple is clearly able to keep a handle on the illicit porn.
So I am foster mom to 5 cats, 2 kittens and one raccoon..... they all seem to tolerate each other. I was walking the trash out yesterday and glanced down to see if the food bowl I keep outside for the stray cats needed filling...there sat 2 kittens and one raccoon, feasting together. I am beginning to think Rocky thinks he's a cat.... according to the neighbors everyone feeds him... (now we know why he is so big), he walks the back row of homes and hits everyone up for a snack. he's not picky, he eats with dogs, cats and ducks. When he saw me, he jumped on the garbage can and sat up on his back legs, raised one front paw as if he was waving goodbye, and he dove under the back deck steps. Then he turned to see if I was watching...that's when I snapped the picture with my cell phone.
He is quite a character. That was yesterday, this morning he scratched at the hall window by standing on the garbage can...the bowl was empty outside, I am quite sure the cats put him up to it... the begging I mean. he seems really friendly and rather tame to people encounters. The neighbor said he is harmless, his mommy was killed on the highway a couple years ago, and the park has been parenting him ever since he was little. Odd I have never seen him before this.
Anyway, I took out cat food, fresh water and a small plate of cut up fruit that needed eating a few chopped veggies and some nuts... Rocky loved the fruit and nuts. He snubbed the veggies..... clearly we need to have a chat about this....
I've been busy sewing and painting...hoping to get some things into my etsy shop and get it started this week. My last 2 packages were mailed last night... thank gawd.... I hate getting behind on things, but one item was damaged while ironing it...I got distracted and fried the finish before I realized it so in a tearful effort I made another. I cannot post those things here, they are surprises for people who watch my Vox blog from time to time. I'll post them when they arrive safely.
I am SOOOOOO busy right now. But I am taking a break and posting this real quick. It's another case of post it while I'm semi-happy with it, because I've been working with it for many days and I'm not doing anything else.
I don't watch a lot of TV, in fact before I moved to Portland I lived without a TV for 3 years and loved it. BUT, tonight I found shows I truly enjoyed watching.
How did I miss out on John Caparulo and his gem of a make-over show called Mobile Home Disaster???? John may not be anything like Ty Pennington, in many ways he is cuter and more loveable. The show is much more down to earth than ABC's Extreme Makeover. What I found refreshing about MHD was it was realistic in what it does.... giving simple solutions and rational fixes to people to help make their lives better. And you know what? No one in the family seemed disappointed that they got practical furniture, paint and things to make their life better instead of uncomfortable furnishings and over priced decor. It's a very refreshing show.... I didn't miss the over-acted team crying on the bus one bit... and talk about down to earth vacations, they sent the family camping in an empty lot across the street during the makeover, it was a riot.
Just like I think HGTV's CEOs need to get their collective heads of out their botoxed "let's do lunch" hinnies and stop being so uppity. Shows like Extreme Home Makeover and the makeovers on HGTV seem to endorse anal compulsive consumerism, and living beyond one's means. Take HGTV's Dream Home contest... they build a house no one can afford to win, and they admit they know the winner is going to have to sell it... so why the hell bother ya know? How about truly embracing the idea of "Restore America", and find 4 houses in different parts of the country each year that need fixing, do it rationally so the 4 winners can afford to own the houses... let your designers have fun doing them while showing off their talents... and actually put 4 families in homes they can keep. Seems that would be a better draw for viewers than dangling a key in front of one family's face for some over priced and poorly designed monstrosity and then saying "gee, don't get too comfy you are too poor to live here suckers" when the camera's get turned off. Truly, no one NEEDS a $2500 bathtub, honest.
Anyway, be you a mobile home dweller or no... Mobile Home Disasters is a fun to watch show, not one ounce of uppity in it. It's on CMT and quite entertaining. Don't expect any hard luck stories, they help hard working folks so busy making their ends meet they can't seem to squeeze money for major repairs out of the budget. I like it when the working class gets help just because they need it. heck, I'd be thrilled if they helped me fix the 34 year old single wide I call home.
I also watched Psychic Kids: Paranormal Children on A&E. Very interesting show, even if you are a non-believer in such things. See if you can explain away an 8 year old girl knowing the name of a boy who died at age 8 over a hundred years ago, the name of his mother, and the name of his aunt unless they really are communicating with her....
A&E's Paranormal State was also rather intriguing.... yep, I gotta say, Tuesday night TV is looking up.
I am really struggling to function, so my pal Sherry came by and brought me another dose of B12, after 3 shots in the last 4 weeks my level has only climbed from 87 to 95...still well under normal. I am doing another shot this coming Saturday. Everything I find online says a level as low as mine should have started with a loading dose of one shot a day for 5 days...I hate HMO's and the way they do things...I need to be up and running, NOW, not dragging, numb and confused. Anyway I am taking this situation into my own hands, I don't have the patience to wait a year to get back to normal. I cannot function the way things are, not at all.
I did get one package into the mail yesterday, and the Tribal Sun collage is going out by Friday, with an extra special sorry for the delay gift included. I had the bonus gift that goes with it nearly done 2 weeks ago and went to press it and fried it with the iron when I got distracted, so I had to start it over. I sobbed for hours, this is not like me at all. I am not committing to doing anything else until I feel better. Did I mention I crock-potted chicken breasts for 2 days before I remembered I even had it cooking? I have reminders set in my phone to remind me to eat, lately Viola, my 83 year old Alzheimer's client is more on track than I am, she finds it funny. I do NOT.
If I could just get my brain and energy back life would be good, I am really tired of being tired all the time... off the chart fatigue with an almost semi-dementia. It's been maddening. I now know I am not going to age gracefully, when my mind goes for real I have decided I am just checking out.... I hope I remember when the time comes.
The other major dumb thing I did was, I am in this group on yahoo, we make themed 13"x13" art quilts on a schedule, somehow I got the schedule muddled in my brain and got well into the one for coffee before I realized I was suppose to be doing the sun theme....argh!!!!!!!!!!!!! On the plus side, I am well ahead of schedule for the coffee one that is due in August.
I wonder if I am even safe to be driving the way my brain is not working these days... I am keeping my jaunts close to home, but we are suppose to go to the coast with Sherry for July 4th, and I am suppose to drive.... Karina may need to co-pilot, that's a scary thought.....
