Adam's Birthday Masquerade

Party pictures!! Grenz and Liz:

Andy and Christina:
Tobin:
Old Man Matt:
Zombie Smith and Adia:

Death on the prowl:
Kiesung and Adam:
Renate, Nicole, and Nicole's SO (to whom I say, the fact that I can't remember your name right now does not mean that I don't think you're a lovely guy!):
Adam and Joe:
Jess and Laney:

Renee:
Me, chillin' with the Beckhams:
Zombie Larry:
Sarah!

Rachel and Sarah:
Old Man Thorne and Old Man Murphy:

And finally, Rachel. "Hey, get a shot of this Army guy between my legs!"

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Today, my lovely husband turns 33 years old. Yay! According to Wikipedia, in October of 1974, the Grateful Dead stopped touring and Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman to regain the Heavyweight Boxing title. Obviously, I didn't know those facts before because next to Adam's birthday, they are completely unimportant.

In the past year, since turning 32, Adam has: built one and half pairs of speakers; almost completely finished redecorating the dining room; helped me build shelves for the computer room; prepared for zombie attack by reading both World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide; and started a new job at Welsh Companies. (AND, he's taken care of me through two foot surgeries for the last two months. If you want to know how awesome your husband really is, have two foot surgeries in two months. My husband is awesome!)

Happy birthday, sweetheart. You're my favorite!

Catching Up

Chapter Two: Happy Birthday, Arrow!

Arrow turned two years old on the 20th. He got a couple of new chewy bones, and a new ball to play with outside, but the big present will come today when we build him a dog house for out in the yard. After a month of rain every day it seems like a pretty good idea! Here's his two year old portrait. What a cutie!

Catching Up

Chapter One: The House of Foot Pain

The bunion surgery on my left foot was scheduled for Thursday, October 11. In honor of my right foot gaining strength and flexibility, Adam dropped a sheet of plywood on the big toe of his right foot. Do we know how to have a good time, or what? So, here is Adam's toe, in the process of turning a lovely dark purple. Thankfully, it's just the nail itself that's still painful. The toe seems to have escaped major injury.

Here is the x-ray of my left foot surgery, and then some pictures of the foot itself, and a lovely comparison shot of the right and left feet together. I'm so artistic. Here in the x-ray, you can see the two screws in the first metatarsal. In my right foot, they also had to cut part of the toe bone, but my left big toe straightened out easier, so they didn't have to mess with the toe. Raise your hand if you're like me and think that means less pain.... Yeah, no dice on that one. Just as painful as the right foot, sadly, with the added bonus of less stamina, too. Although I think it would probably help a lot if I were better at keeping track of when I can take more ibuprofin. At least I hope it'll help, because I go back to work tomorrow.

Oh, and the usual warning: These pics are pretty icky. Don't look too closely if you're squeamish.

Puppy Play Date

We got together with some theatre friends and their dogs on Saturday to have fun puppy play time. We were at the St Anthony Dog Park. From the left: Debbie, me, Amelia, John, Katie, Natalie with Layla, and Ben. (Photos by Adam.)


Katie and Natalie with Layla the Pug:
Sydney:
Ellie, who whined to go home the whole time:
Falstaff:
Arrow and Ellie:
Debbie and Sydney:
Arrow:
Ben, Me and Falstaff:
Seamus, King of the Water Bowl:

We Rule

TODAY it has been 3 years of kickass marriage. My wife is totally cool, and married life has been awsomely radical.

Also, Mel has been getting out of the aircast and into the sneaker. She can wear a sneaker all day long now, though it seems to make her sorry she did.

New Mel maintanance objective: More Sleep.

Gingerly, in the non-Rogers way

The walking-without-the-aircast update:





Ow.

Is this "in sickness" or "for worse"?

I know you've all been dying for more foot pictures! Now you, too, can see what Adam gets to look at first thing in the morning. You can see in these pictures that the stitches have been removed, but there's still some swelling and scabbing. The latest instructions were to start wearing a regular shoe on that foot for a couple of hours every day. This is the start of getting my range of motion back, as well as getting rid of the last of the swelling. I should be out of the aircast entirely about the week before my next surgery. Just in time to put it on the other foot!

Frankenfoot

The end of this post is not for the squeamish.

Before: You can clearly see the bunion where the joint of the big toe has separated from the rest of the toes. That's what the surgery is going to repair. Don't I have a nice sandal tan?

During: Here is the xray of what they did during surgery. Dr Pederson cut into the big lower bone, moved it over and screwed it back together. Then, he ground off the extra bone on the side of that joint. In order to straighten out the big toe, he took a wedge out of the smaller upper bone and you can see where it's wired back together.

Post Op Checkup 1: And here is what it looks like 5 days later. The xray from today looked good, and the foot itself is looking entirely normal, according to Dr Pederson. So, keep that in mind when you're thinking, "My God, that's disgusting!"

Footwork

So on Thursday Mel had her first foot done. Bunion work. I was all groggy after my wisdom teeth were removed, but when I went in to pick up Mel she was downright perky. She was alert and comfortable until we got her to bed. She said that she was starting to feel it maybe around 8:00, so she took a pain pill at that time. I think she took one or two more just before bed right around 10:00. She didn't complain about feeling ill, but she didn't want to eat much either.

Then, around 1:00 in the morning or so the local anesthetic finished wearing off, and she started waking up. It was kinda rough, peaking with a trip to the restroom and a dizzy spell on the way back. After that she stacked some ibuprofen on top of the vikodin (she says the doc said this was ok), and found a better way to elevate her foot in the bed. 4:00 a.m. and I was at least better able to get some sleep. I presume she was able to get a few winks as well.

This morning I called in to work and told 'em I had to look after Mel today. She stayed in bed, grazing lightly, sleeping lightly, and trying to stay to her 'ice the foot' schedule (20 min every hour). For my part I tried to get her to eat, and ferried her ice pack between her and the freezer. After lunch which consisted of about 2/3 of a cheesy-bacony baked potato I left her to try and get a half day at work.

S minus 2 and counting

Exactly two days from now, I will be having surgery on my right foot. It's a little scary, but I'm looking forward to having healthy feet. I don't know if my feet have actually become much more painful, or if knowing I had the surgery scheduled made me aware of just how painful they were in the first place. You can endure almost anything, if you haven't got a choice, but now that I'm only a few months away from life without bunions, I'm suddenly full of whiney self-pity. Go, me!

We spent last weekend down in Indianapolis visiting friends and family. Alex was in town for GenCon, so we had a nice lunch with him. My friend Douglas just moved to Indy, so we brought him books and other household miscellany. Adam's sister Erin and her husband just bought a house, so we spent time there talking about home improvement projects and playing cornhole (which seems to be the IN version of horseshoes).

Tonight and tomorrow will be spent cleaning and cooking in preparation for copious amounts of time spent laying on the couch. My parents supplied us with the DVDs of Planet Earth, which they enjoyed a lot, so I'm looking forward to watching those. Ah, if only Marc were still here, I could steal his Firefly series for another six months....

A Post About A Post

It feels a little MC Escher to post a post in my blog about a post I wrote to post on another blog.

But I couldn't resist writing that sentence.

The Teeter-Totter of Karma

Thursday
Adam can't find his wallet.

Friday
We have lovely drinks with Renate at Merlin's Rest.

Saturday
Adam scrapes his car against a telephone pole.
We get a free dresser from Renate.
We notice that the toilet upstairs is leaking.
We have lovely drinks with Jesse and friends for Jesse' birthday.
Leaving the bar, we find that the back passenger window of my car has been smashed, and my discman and fm broadcaster stolen.

Sunday
We replace wax seal on toilet for $1. It only takes us 30 minutes.

Monday
Adam finds his wallet.

We're all fine here. How are you?

Yesterday, for the first time in a year, I turned on the TV to regular channel programming, and all it took to get me to do it was the collapse of 450' of bridge.

I'm not going to post a whole ton of pictures or videos--you can find that all over the web, along with the lists of statistics that I listened to all night last night.

This was a bridge that we used fairly often. It was not the route that either of us traveled to work, so our commutes have not changed. It is the route that we took to one of our favorite breakfast restaurants, and to our usual grocery store and Home Depot. It was a very major North-South corridor in Minneapolis, and there are thousands of families who will be dreadfully affected, much worse than we will be.

We've heard from our friends here, and they are all safe. We are lucky, and very, very thankful.

Where it all falls apart

MimiSmartipants is a blog that I read now and again, not because I know the author, but because I always enjoy her writing immensly. She is hilariously irreverent, and she tells awesome stories about their adopted Chinese American daughter. But I have realized that I could not hang out with her:

'4. LT was watching some History Channel thing about agriculture and climate change in the Middle Ages (no shit) and I left the room after hearing the phrase "the most user-friendly potato." A girl seriously has to draw the line somewhere.'

Because that's the kind of program that you couldn't drag me away from.

Get out of my dreams, get onto my scooter

I had a nightmare last night, which is disturbing on several levels. One, I haven't had a nightmare in a long time, and I had actually thought that I might be done with them. But, this wasn't nearly as bad as some, so it might actually have to go in the "normal people have bad dreams sometimes" pile, instead of the "further proof that I am nuts" pile. Two, the dream featured people breaking into my house, which is actually a pretty large fear of mine, so that was an extra layer of creepy.

I dreamed that I woke up and went downstairs because I heard something going on outside. While I was looking out my front window (which, in the dream, was in a different place than it really is), a man crashed through my front door. And, of course, I was totally unable to push him outside or to yell or do anything forceful, because that's what happens in dreams. [On a side note, the only person that I've ever been successfully violent towards in a dream was a woman. Analyze that one, why don't you?] But, as I'm struggling with the man, Adam comes down the stairs and then the police come through the front door and grab the guy.

So, we're standing outside of our house after all of that (and the front of our house is different, but everything else on the block looks right) and we find out that the house breaker and an accomplice had started a fire at a house down the block. That's when I realize that the people standing around with us are my Aunt Alice and Uncle Steve, and they lived on our block and it was their house that had been on fire. And that's where we find our third disturbing level, because standing next to them was their daughter Janet, who died at 13 from complications from leukemia. And I miss her.

But what I don't understand is how that all ties in to what actually happened during the day yesterday, which was nothing more than Burrito Night at Chipotle and then some scooter shopping at Honda Town. Burrito Night is always good, but the scooter shopping was a total bust. Honda Town doesn't carry the type of Metropolitan that is moped legal in Minneapolis. If I don't buy a moped-legal scooter, it'll get registered as a motorcycle and then I can't park it at bike racks. If I can't park it at bike racks, then I can't use it to commute downtown, thus saving myself $80 in bus fare each month. If I can't save myself bus fare, then I can't afford to buy a scooter. And look at it! How can you not want one?! I want one. Sigh.

Manic Weekend

This weekend, the Crazy Index rose from Orange is the Funniest Color to Red as the Zit on Your Nose. I guess it really isn't easy being Green.



Adam and I spent Friday night doing something that I can't even remember now. It has disappeared into the midst of the rest of the craziness. We probably went out to dinner...oh, yeah! We went to have dinner at Brit's...no, wait. That was Saturday. I know! We went to dinner over by the Mall of Insanity, and then we went to REI and I bought a fabulous new backpack. This is my fabulous new handbag:




This is my fabulous new backpack (except the black parts are light blue and the dark blue parts are light blue with Hawaiian flowers outlined in dark blue and white):






On Saturday, I got up and went to work at the bookstore at 7:30. I was supposed to start at 8am, but I wanted to get done early. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past week, the last Harry Potter book came out on Saturday. I knew that being at the bookstore all day was not going to be pretty. I know what the Harry Potter fanbase is like. But even I underestimated exactly how much I would want to beat those fans with the very book that they were buying.


Favorite example of "You need therapy!" fandom: The girl who came up to the register, book in hand, with tears streaming down her face. She told me all about how the first book came out when she was 11, and she's grown up with Harry Potter, and what was she going to do now that the last book is out? What was she going to do?! *sniff sniff sob*


Favorite example of "I love to hate you" fandom: The woman who read the last page while I was counting out her change, and then told me the ending of the book. I am so not kidding. I am so over stupid Harry Potter.


That evening, Adam and I want to eat dinner at Brit's, which was tasty as usual. Then we headed to Patrick's Cabaret to watch our friend Xavier at Queer Boys' Night. Xavier did a beautiful rendition of Love For Sale and a hilarious piece with Mo Perry playing the part of his penis. We also got to watch a guy do a really funny piece as a Southern belle while completely naked (which, I pointed out to Adam was the only other naked man I've seen since we started dating), and we heard a poet reading several poems out of his latest book, and I really thought he was marvelous. It was a fun time, with a bit more nakedness than I was expecting, and I was glad that we were able to go.


Sunday morning we got in the car to go to breakfast, and Becky called. She and Marc were at a wedding with the rest of the Bismark kids, and she was calling to see if they could sleep in our guest room that evening. Yay, guests! After breakfast we hit Home Depot for the makings of a rip fence for the circular saw. We also tried to get decorative vent covers for the dining and living rooms, but we got the wrong size, so no dice there. I spent the afternoon doing laundry while Adam put the rip fence together and napped on the couch. After dinner, I went to a rehearsal for a friend's project and Adam did the grocery shopping and put clean sheets on the beds. Marc and Becky knocked on the door at about 10:30, and we all sat on the porch and had a beer. It was a lovely way to end a weekend that felt like it would never relax.

Some party pix

Hey, remember that awesome party we had on the 4th of July? There sure were a lot of people there. Who were they? I don't know, because hello! We didn't take any pictures. Sigh.



So instead, here are some pictures from Marc and Becky's party at Brit's when they were here! Andy and Christina:







Becky and me, and some weirdo:

Arrow Dog, stylin':

Monday Monday

I just need to gloat for a moment about how awesome my husband is: He brought me Godiva chocolates today just because he happened to be downtown. I win the marriage game!

3rd Annual 4th of July

Yes, friends, it's that time of the summer again. The time when our neighbors lay siege to our eardrums. The time when go, bocce and croquet threaten to tear apart our friendships. The time when we pillage the butcher shops for the perfect steak to grill under the disapproving eyes of the vegetarians among us. That's right....

It's Independence Day Party Time!

Thorne House

Wednesday July 4

6:00 pm - midnight

You should bring:
Yourself
Your favorite picnic foods
Your favorite summer beverages
Your favorite lawn games
Well-socialized dogs/children/friends/life-partners

We will provide:
paper plates
napkins
plasticware
grilling infrastructure
some lawn chairs

The party will relocate to Powderhorn Park at dusk to see the fireworks. Come have fun with us!

See the speakers I built?

So I've been building these speakers. Actually built them several months ago, but only recently did I get them painted up with the finishing touches and whatnot. So here you go have a look at them! They could have turned out better, but for a first project I'm pretty pleased.


I built them from a design I found online here. They are called "Needles" by the designer, a german whose online name is "Cyburgs". The driver is the Tang Band W3-871S. There is only one driver per speaker. Though the single driver is only 3 inches in diameter the whole thing manages to produce entirely respectable bass down to around 50 hz. They play loud enough to hear in other parts of the house, or to make conversation difficult in the same room, but they're limited for absolute loudness compared to most speakers. Only when I am in full headbanging fury do I wish they had a bit more volume.

The actual design calls for a notch filter to kill a driver resonance, but someone posted in the discussion thread an alternate method. Since my primary source for music for these guys is my computer, I use a convolution to accomplish the filter's job before the signal even makes it to the analog world. I would have been able to save about $30 on the build if I had skipped buying the filter parts, but the convolution filter wasn't posted until after I had put it together. I may be one of the first people to have actually run the convolution, as the guy who made the file was still waiting on parts to arrive for his build at the time.

Also, I modified the drivers in some simple ways to make 'em cooler. I used 2-part epoxy putty around the speaker basket / magnet junction for reinforcement. I used rope-caulk on the basket to damp resonance. I hot-glued felt to the inside of the stamped-steel basket to prevent high frequency reflections from the basket itself. Also, I shorted the negative terminal to to the basket and magnet assembly, though I've since heard that for bridged amplfiers (like my t-amp) the negative terminal is not ground like this mod wants, so this mod may not be helping out.

That brings me to the sound of 'em. They sound good! The old Dahlquist speakers I had been using have more authority in the bass, but overall I think I like the Needles better. A friend used to accuse the Dahlquists of not sounding very 'lively'. I was never quite sure what quality she was refering to, but the Needles portray vocals much better, leading to a better image of singers actually being present. Female vocalists in particular sound much more coherent through the Needles than they ever did with the Dahlquists. The fact that the Needles run with a single driver results in a very coherent sound. A number of different bass sounds come through in a very coherent way, without their high frequency partials being split off, pushed through some crossover phase angle, and then played by a different tweeter.

An excellent deal for the about $100 to make 'em.

My Car goes to Club Med

Mel had a picture of my car up a little bit ago, so I thought I'd tell y'all about it since I just got the call from Morrie's Nissan.

1) I got a recall notice. I like recalls, 'cause that means they're going to fix something for free! Wheee I like free. The issue was some engine behavior could trick the temp sensor into reporting an engine fault and the engine computer would shut the car off. So the recall involves reprogramming the computer. Cool enough.

While they had the car I asked them to check on some stuff:

b) A metal screech 'hoot' type noise when starting to move. It happens in forward and reverse. It happens only when disengaging the clutch - rolling around in neutral does not elicit the noise. Once moving it doesn't happen between gears. It is over with by the time the clutch is completely out. It seems more likely to happen if the wheels are turned. It seems more likely to happen if the car is trying to get up a hill.

Have you guessed what it is? No, guess! Seriously! Okay... Mmm hmmm, yeah that could be... Sounds reasonable... Well the Techs at Morries figure it's the flywheel - something about springs by it. Interestingly, I've been wishing I had a lightened flywheel to take some stress off my synchros. Think I should call 'em back and tell them to put in a racing flywheel when they pull it Monday? I'm thinking purely of mechanical longevity, here. BONUS POINTS - Is this covered by either the warantee or the extended warantee? A. YES IT IS! @$&! YEAH! They're gonna have to pull the whole transmission under warantee hahahahahahahah!

iii) Sometimes the car takes an obnoxiously long time to get itself started. Scenes like this can be so irritating:
Adam: Hey, check my rad new car!
Friend: Sweet!
Adam: Wanna go for a ride innit?
Friend: Totally!
*both get in car*
*key in ignition*
*twist*
*rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-brrooommbababa!*
Friend: So, uh, about that startup...
Adam: Shut up I don't want to hear a word about it everything is perfect you got me?
Friend: ... Sweet, a sunroof!

The tech on the phone told me this seems to be the fuel rail pressure regulator. Is this part covered under the warantee? IT SURE IS! *fist pumping and air guitar solo* HELL YES FIX IT YOU AUTOMOTIVE TECHNICIAN MADMEN! FIX IT FOR THE LOVE OF WHOLE, UNHINDERED MECHANICAL BEAUTY AND FOR NO OTHER REASON, BECAUSE I SURE DON'T HAVE TO PAY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So I got the call today because I dropped the car off yesterday. Since they've got my car (which in the most formal occations may be referred to as "The Dream of Flying" as a concession to those who name their cars), I've got a loaner. It's a Hyundai Sonata. It looks like either a 2006 or 2007. It's badging says it's got a V6. It's an automatic, with the + and - shiftgates. It's pretty nice to be in, but it's pretty clearly balanced for comfort rather than sport. I've gotten used to the nice booty-hugging security of my SE-R's sport seating. The big flat slab of a driver's seat in the Sonata elicited a "Crap, if I don't get my seatbelt on I'm gonna fall right off of this highchair in the first turn I take!" But you know, that's much less of an issue if you're driving the Sonata the way it likes to be driven. The lack of sportiness shouldn't be confused with a lack of power, it is quite confident at highway speeds. The shift gates are a little confusing to me - instead of rowing through the gears with "fwd, back, fwd, back" motions, gear plus is always forward, gear minus is always back. It sounds simple, but my years of ingrained driving reflex don't like it. It also leaves a beat of time in between your signal and the corresponding action. I've only tried it a little bit. Anyway, I've got it 'till Monday at least.

In other news, since I haven't written anything on here in forever:
- I've got a new job. It's at Welsh commercial real estate, in the IT dept. It's totally sweet and it pays way better. I'm very happy with it.
- I've been building stereo stuff from info on the web. I've got a pair of speakers which have been making sound since maybe Feb. I'm hoping to get finished painting and finishing them maybe this weekend or next. Also there's a small amp I've modified. It's been a lot of fun and sounds quite good.
- We're going to hoodwink Sara Ochs while she is in town from S. Korea and keep her for our personal amusement and that of our friends this weekend. Shhh, don't tell!

Tabetha doesn't know I'm posting this.

But she's so cute!

A drapery! Ni! Ni!

Well, you're all too late with those grand decorating ideas. Four thousand trips to Target later, we have the curtains we like.

Curtain Cage Match! These were the two finalists. At this point, we've looked at green sheers, this dark green silk, a light blue silk, and this lighter green cotton tab tops.

Surprisingly, I really liked the lighter, cotton curtains. It's hard to tell in these pix (because apparently my photography skills have gone to crap) but they're quite nice next to all of the different room elements. They pick up accents in the rug, they look nice with both the red wall and the cream wall, and they do well with the woodwork. Here's a contrast shot:

And, yeah, crappy photography. Oh, look, better pictures! Summertime is porch time:

And because you haven't seen Adam's car in a while, here it is behind my patchwork hosta beds:

The fabric of our lives.

Last night I was on the phone with my friend Cristin. We were talking about curtains for the dining room, and so I posted these in the hopes that she would have great ideas. She did, but I got too distracted by the fact that our dining room is a COMPLETE MESS. Adam said I could blame it on him. I always do anyway. So, here are some crappy pix of our dining room. If you have great curtain ideas, let me know!

Interpersonal on the Interweb

Every few years, it seems like someone brings out the Humans Have Too Much Technology And We're All Going to Lose Every Interpersonal Skill That We Spent 50,000 Years Evolving* trumpet and gives it a big ol' toot. I refuse to worry about that until the day that I can use Google to search on the topic: Books my mom would like for her birthday.




*Unless, of course, you're a Creationist, in which case you're more likely to blow the Humans Have Too Much Technology and We're All Going to Hell trumpet.

Saving the world, one basket at a time...

A friend from college, Melinda Van S., sent me the link to her fair trade website, Heart of the Sky. Melinda was a human rights observer in Guatemala several years ago, and she sent me an email that I have never forgotten. I hope she'll forgive me if I post an edited version:

"Late March, 2001
Dear Friends and Family,
Heidy-ho, friends and family. Tis I, Melinda.
Big news here on the South Coast of Guatemala. Using the parclance of our times, esta cayendo mucha pero mucha lluvia. That is to say, it has been raining. A lot. This is a good thing, of course, as now the people can get their crops planted.
On the day that the rains came I saved a baby pigs life. The saving the baby pigs life is directly related to the rains so if you will indulge me I will just continue. (I was also attacked by a duck that day, but that is neither here nor there.)

The day that the rains came started out ordinary (ly?) enough.... Around five the rain let up a little bit, so I rushed home, grabbed my Emergency Poncho, (that´s what it says on the bag it came in) and headed for supper. The Emergency Poncho quickly proves to be ill named as it is stylishly designed with holes cut in the side for your arms but what is the point of having a rain poncho with holes in it? Really. By the time I get to Maria´s house I am soaked to the skin, but remarkably I am not crabby because 1. Everyone else is as wet as I am. and 2. The mood in the house is EXUBERANT! It´s raining! Now we can get a head start on the corn planting!

When I finished eating I was stuck with a dilemma because it was still pouring. I waited around until 6:00, then I decided to go home while it was still relatively light. My Emergency Poncho proved yet again to be useless and I had to walk calf-deep in water and mud. As I came to the little stream, my heart sank. Three hours ago I had walked across it and didn’t even get my ankles wet. Now it looked like it would be waist deep. As I was standing there working up my nerve, I heard “SQUEAL! SQUEAL! SQUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAL!!!!!” or whatever it is that pigs say in Spanish. (Or Kekchi, as the Mayan language may be.) I looked up and saw my fifteen year old neighbor with her three year old brother under one arm and a piglet under the other. She started to cross the river, but it was almost chest deep on her, and as she got in the middle she started to lose her balance. “Melinda!” She half shouted/half laughed to me. “Help!” Bravely, without any concern for my own personal safety, (note the hearty sarcasm) I plunged into the river, positioned myself downstream, and yelled back to her, “Drop the pig! Drop the pig!” She dropped the pig in the river and repositioned her brother under her arm as I grabbed the pig as he was swept downstream. I stuck the little piggy under my arm and we walked to the safety of my neighbor´s house. We all had a good laugh and then I went home.

In non-swine related news, I had an extremely humbling experience the other week. I had had a horribly difficult morning. (In retrospect, it was my reaction that made it difficult, not so much the situation.) I had spent two hours at the women´s cooperative store trying to make a phone call, and the only reason the call wouldn´t go through was because the store lady didn´t know how to use the phone. (After dialing my number, she would press ´cancel´ instead of ´send.´) So I found my patience and my cultural sensitivity to be at an all time record low, and I found myself thinking the dreaded “I” word. Ignorant. “She is so IGNORANT!!!” I fumed to myself. Finally I just could not take it one second more and I grabbed the phone and did it myself using my infinite wisdom, no problem at all.

That afternoon a delegation from Witness For Peace came. For those not familiar with Witness For Peace, they are a top notch non governmental organization that works to change U.S. policy regarding Latin America. The have some stellar publications out. My favorite would be A Crude Awakening, which is an investigative report on the oil industry in Guatemala, the World Bank, U.S. policy, and how it all relates to each other. Top notch, I tell you. Anyway, they came with about fourteen college students, and two of them happened to stay at my neighbor´s house. They came over for a visit, and it was nice to get the news from home, ranging from the Navy sinking the Japanese fishing boat to Eminem winning the Grammy. As is par for the course, an entourage of neighbor kids came over to watch us and listen to us talk in our “dialecto.” One of the delegation people had a super sonic space age watch that told you what time it was in any number of countries. And I mean literally told the time. All you had to do was press a button and it would say, "It is 1:30 pm in Guatemala. It is 2:30 pm in New York." Etc. The neighbor kids were fascinated by this. One of the delegation guys said something to the effect that it was too bad that these kids did not know about something as simple as a watch.

After awhile the two delegation people got ready to leave and asked if they could wash their hands. I pointed to my water bucket, my little scooping bowl, and my soap. Now, my fatal flaw was that I assumed that they knew that you scoop out some water with the bowl, then wash your hands in the bowl. But no. They plunged their filthy hands into my water bucket, dirtying my water supply for the entire day. The neighbor kids gasped—they had never seen people who didn´t even know about something as simple as washing their own hands. “What? What are we doing wrong?” the delegation people asked. I explained, and they turned fifteen shades of red. “We just didn´t know. I guess we´re just ignorant.”

Ouch.

When they left I just sat there and thought about a phrase one of my professors was fond of using, “prestige knowledge,” which just means that we tend to judge other people by how closely their knowledge resembles ours, and how I need to be more conscious of that.

So this story is probably longer than it needs to be, (brevity is not one of my strong points) but it was a very important reminder for me. Reminding me that just because someone is computer literate in the first world does not mean that they know how to wash their hands in the third world. Reminding me not to confuse technology for progress. Reminding me that some of the most sophisticated, intellectual, analytical people I know cook over an open fire, eat with their hands, have never heard of Jennifer Lopez, don´t know how to use a phone, and tell time by the sun. Reminding me to always remind myself of that....

Sadly, there will be no full time accompanier is Nuevo Mexico after I leave, simply due to a lack of funds. I get nervous when people say, "But Guatemala is a country at peace. The Accords were signed five years ago. I´m putting my money towards where it's really needed." The statement about Guatemala being a country at peace is dangerously inaccurate. Threats and attacks on human rights workers and their families are escalating. Just ask any number of my friends. True, there hasn´t been a state sponsored massacre in six years, but it that really a comforting thought? And the soldiers implicated with that massacre weren´t punished. So much for justice. So much for peace.

Moreover, the fact of the matter is that the people of Nuevo Mexico want accompaniment. Having internationals in their community was a condition for their return. They fought for that right. They stood up and said, "We are not leaving the safety of Mexico unless we are ensured that we can have an international presence in our community." It pains and angers me to see Guatemala losing focus. After all they´ve seen, how dare we be so presumptous as to say to them, “Well, the Peace Accords have been signed, so see you around.”

“But now it´s a different struggle.” That´s what Nicolas, the president of Nuevo Mexico says. When I ask him to explain further, he talks about the obvious, such as despite the promises, there is running water for only two hours a day, the dirt road that links Nuevo Mexico to the nearest city is in deplorable condition and will only get worse as the rains continue, (It takes over an hour to go only eight miles. That may not seem to be overly important unless you are my friend Maria Gloria and you wake up one morning to find your baby grey and barely breathing, which leads me to my next point...) the nearest doctor is over an hour away, and that´s only if you´re lucky and there´s a truck right there handy. Otherwise you have to run up the road and hope to God that you find someone with a truck. Etc. etc. etc. Point being, the Peace Accords, while signed, are not being implemented, and the only way they will be implemented is through international pressure. And the only way for there to be international pressure is if the international community is aware of what is happening. And the best way for the international community to become aware of what is happening is for there to be international people on the ground. That´s why it is imperative that we are here. That´s why it is essential that this work be supported.

I'd like to share a quote with you that has been very powerful for me.

"The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you are alive and die only when you are dead. To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of the life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try to understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.” Arundhati Roy

That quote, in particular To never look away. And never, never to forget. reminds me of an experience I had not too long ago. I was over at Carlota´s house, just hanging out, shelling corn, and as I was heading out the door for home Carlota stopped me. “Melinda. If you are ever hungry, come here.” I thanked her and kept walking. She called me back. “Melinda. I don´t think you understand what I am saying. If ever, ever you are hungry, come here. If there is a war in your country and there is no food, come back here, to community Nuevo Mexico. And tell your family and tell your friends. If there is ever a war in your country and the soldiers come to your house and take your land you can come back here, and we will help you, because we remember. Tell your family. Tell your friends.”

Consider yourselves told. If there is ever a war, and if we have no place to go, and if we are hungry, there is a community of returned refugees on the south coast of Guatemala who will help us because they remember. They will never, never forget. And we must never look away.


Melinda"

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

A certain friend of ours--we'll call him Mr Smith (name accurate to reflect the guilty)--is looking for roommates to move into his house. We can vouch that he's a good guy, and the house is a nice house, and the neighborhood is a decent neighborhood. Let us know if you want more info.

Here's his dealio:

So... I'm renting out my house. Anyone need a place to live? I've got 2 bedrooms upstairs that are big and have walk-in closets. Nice bathroom upstairs as well. Main floor has living, dining, sun room and kitchen. I'll be in the basement, trying to fix it up and make it a bit more segregated from the laundry room.

Also, there's a 2 car garage out back. I have my boat in the 3rd outdoor spot, so your choices are to park in the garage or on the street out front. Rent will be $400/mo and if you want my spot in the garage it's $25/mo additional. We split gas, electric and water between the 3 (hopefully) of us.

Gas = $30(summer)-$160(winter)
Elec = $45-50 year round
Water = $40-50

June or July move in times, but if you want to move stuff in before then, that can be arranged.

Insert tired cliche song lyrics here

It is officially lawn care season. I know this because when I was trying to rake the boulevard and mulch it into my raspberry patch, it started to rain on me. It stopped raining sometime last night. Which was awesome for the grass seed that Adam has been putting down in the backyard, but not so great for my plans. It's a conspiracy.

Right now our yard looks like something out of a horror movie. Dead grass here, trampled flowers there, fence around flowers falling over, patches of bare dirt. It's really rather uninspiring. I don't need (or even want) my yard to look like it just stepped out of Home & Garden Magazine. Those yards are like Michael Jackson's face: unnatural. I just want my yard to not be the ugliest one on the block. I don't think it's too much to ask.

We've been talking about a lot of projects lately, like expanding our patio, or putting in a deck, or planting new trees, or putting in a different clothesline. But we've decided that we need to develop an overall picture of how we'd like our lawn to be. I don't want to lose the space to play yard games, but Adam's really interested in having more shade on the lawn and the house. I want the dog to be able to run around in the yard, but I also want some untrampled flowers. So we'll have to figure out what we really want, and then maybe we can do a couple of things toward that this year.

You know, once it stops raining on me.

Pacifying Adia

Adia says we should post to our blog more often. So, now you know what it takes to get us to update this: whining and nagging.

We're sick of winter. We have the new bicycle jogger to try out with Arrow, so we can all get more exercise. I have coffee grounds and tea bags to mulch into the raspberry patch. We are going to try to rehabilitate the lawn, and maybe plant some trees. We have our new outdoor fireplace to try out. It's time to stop having forecasts like this.

I'm in rehearsals for In the Basement's Burning Bright, which will perform through May. Adam is still enjoying the new job, and has been working on lots of electronics projects. So, now you can all bother him about an update.

Even my Dad thinks I'm old

Mel Turns 30

Come celebrate on Saturday March 31st

Nye's Polonaise

10:00 pm

Time's Person of the Year

Was you, if you'll recall. Especially if you post things on the internet. Like this:

Mikey made me do it

Right. The dealio is, I blog about 6 things that are odd about me. Then I tag six people, who blog about 6 things that are odd about them. Lather, rinse, repeat.

• TAG: smochs
• TAG: Angie
• TAG: Brian
• TAG: Stephanie
• TAG: Tabetha
• TAG: Brent [aaah! Brent's link no workie! aaah!]

Right. Six things that are odd about me.

1. In the year of my birth, my name was the 667th most popular girl's name.
2. I have never met another Asian stage manager. The closest I've gotten is Meredith, who dates an Asian guy.
3. I like to eat cherries, but not things that are cherry flavored. I like to eat things that are banana flavored, but not bananas.
4. I have the bunions of a 60 year old Chinese peasant.
5. I read at least 6 books a month.
6. I like you.

My boss the TV star

One of the news stations in town does an "I Wonder" feature, where they take viewer questions and answer them. This is the newscast of the I Wonder What Happened To The Weatherball.

The Weatherball used to be on top of the Northwestern Bank building in Minneapolis. It was destroyed in a fire, and the new building was a huge skyscraper designed by Cesar Pelli. That was about the time Northwestern became Norwest, and eventually Norwest bought Wells Fargo and took that name. When the Norwest Center became the Wells Fargo Center, they opened the Museum on the second floor, and that's where we have our replica Weatherball.

Watch the segment! My boss Megan does a great job!

Hibernation

Jeweler's Shop closed. I am back from three days of work meetings in CA. The Super Bowl is over. What can there possibly be to blog about?

• Adam's new job!
• Jane Austen movie marathons!
• Cleaning!
• Projects to get done before April!
• I turn 30!
• We see theatre!
• Tabetha meets yet another famous person!
• Brian posts more than Tab, Smochs and Thornes combined!
• What plant has Arrow destroyed today!
• New tires!
• Other expensive car maintenance!

Never fear, dear readers. Our intrepid heroes will come out of blog hibernation. You might even get pictures.