Reaping the Whirlwind

What a month. What a summer. Where in the heck did it go? Because it is officially fall now. Sheesh. I had a wonderful time in SF with my sister the last week. Of the 10 days gone, I had to give 2.5 to a work conference (which paid for my ticket out there!!!). That was additionally beneficial because I WON AN IP.AD.

Yes, you read that right! One of the conference vendors donated a 32GB WiFi iPa.d. Not 3G capable, but who cares? No 3G phone service where I live anyway! So it's basically a larger iP.od touch, but oh, so much cooler! Also at the conference I got to meet up with Janet W for dinner. That was a lot of fun! She even brought me some books! Whoo-hoo!

I can't believe how much my nieces have grown! Especially G, the oldest. What a young lady she is. It's wonderful! We had so much fun playing, even if I had a few headaches while I was there. She was extremely understanding. She is a really good kid. Especially with her 1 year old sister. Very patient, and more gentle/tolerant than you might expect a 7 year old to be!

S, my 1 yo niece, is hilarious. Shy at first, but once she warmed up to me it was great. She walks holding on to just one of your fingers. Actually, it's not really a walk, more like a full-speed-ahead charge! When you give her that finger to hold onto you'd better be ready to move! She's chattering up a storm, and is a great eater. Particularly loves bananas. Her favorite person is her big sister G. Wants to have and do everything her big sister does. It's so cute. Gonna be interesting when she gets a little older. [g]

I even got to spend some one-on-one time with my sister, which was fabulous. Those moments are too few and far between. She is such a good mom, both kids are wonderful. She is also amazingly patient, although she doesn't think so!!!!

My bil was on work travel the last half of the week, and we couldn't have timed our flights any better. His flight had landed at the same terminal I was leaving from right before my sis was dropping me off. He walked up just as I was starting the goodbyes. Which was fortuitous because I hate saying goodbye in the first place, and saying goodbye to niece G is much worse! She was just starting the "I don't want Tia to go" and the "Why does Tia have to go" bit when she spotted her daddy walking up. :) A great distraction!!!

(Please pardon the exclamation points. I blame it on excessive tiredness and coffee)

Other People's Words

Found an interesting link on BBC today, about the difference between religious tolerance and freedom that I think is worth sharing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11200987

From there I found another link about the meaning of the word "liberal" that I thought fun. And confusing in a light-hearted sort of way.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-10658070

Just some things I'm thinking about lately. Especially the first one. It amazes me how people can believe in religious freedom so fervently, yet show very little tolerance. For me, they should be one and the same. I've been reading up on Is.la.m, and am finding (duh!) that the basic beliefs are extremely similar to Chri.sti.ani.ty (gasp!), J.ud.ais.m, and other religions. If people would just take the time to shut their mouths and use their brains to learn about what they don't know, instead of blindly following the loudest pack leader...

When Your Feet Hurt, It's Hard to Sleep

Apparently two days of painting makes my feet hurt really, really badly. And just as apparently, I have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep when my feet do hurt this bad. I'm sitting down right now and they hurt without any pressure on them. Yikes.

Shani, her mom (M), and her sister-in-law (A) came over Sunday and yesterday to help me paint the laundry room and kitchen. Oh, what a chore. But it really needed doing. I had taken Friday off, and really wanted to start that day and go through Sunday. I knew it was a big job. But I couldn't convince the others. Mostly M.

Traveling Tales

Finally, finally made the drive over to Pburg that I've been wanting to do for a long time.

Last weekend was the weekend I was supposed to go to K with my little sister and her family. I even had Friday off. Except we just couldn't see paying the high prices to stay two nights up there. It's prime tourist season, so...

We decided instead to head over to DL to see the old territory prison and museum. It's about an hour or so to get there, and is a nice drive. They were having a free-admission day, so it seemed a good day to go. Shani was doing some volunteer work earlier on Saturday, so we didn't leave until about 2pm. Which was plenty of time to get there and see the prison and the attached car museum, as well as the toy/doll museum across the street.

The prison was suitably creepy, having been built in the 1800's and subsequently added on to. The car museum was suitably cool. They literally started with the horse and buggy and moved up to the present day. Well, up to the 80's, I think. I had no idea it was so big. Every time I turned a corner, there was another room! They had some pretty nifty cars.

I must admit, I have never been all that into cars. But I was wandering through the room with the cars from the 50s-70s, and came upon the original Mustang. Now that is a very nice car. But it was the one just down from it that made my hear skip a beat when I saw it. Seriously. I have never reacted to a car like that. It wasn't even an original, but a replica Shelby Cobra. Blue and white just like the one in the picture I linked to.

Runaway, Tattletale

So I was sitting here last night, half-heartedly reading a book after catching the end of a truly disturbing documentary on the Green channel. (More about that later.) We're going through a cold front, so I'd had the back door closed all evening. I'd just openened it maybe 10 minutes prior, and the dogs were outside. Leia has this habit of running back inside like she's being chased, making a circuit of the living room, and then going back out. It's as if she's checking on me or letting me know she's still around.

Anyway. She ran back inside after being out only a few minutes, stopped just in front of the sofa, stared at me, then ran off. Except she came back within seconds and stared at me again. It really was as if she wanted me to follow her. So I did. She was soooo excited I was following her she twirled in place a few times. Then alternately led/followed me outside.

I called for Max because he is usually the one that sticks close, and Leia's behavior made me a little nervous. She was definitely acting like something was wrong out there. No Max. I called again. And then heard a little jingle from a dog collar, and saw a tiny shape running up to the fence...on the neighbor's side.

The front gate had gotten unlatched somehow (it's been a bit breezy shall we say?) and he went exploring. Leia apparently didn't like this. I've been practicing training them to stay in the yard when the gate is opened. I guess it's taking with her. (Too bad she doesn't understand this includes going under the fence!) She came to get me because Max had gotten out of the yard. Who knew?

When I brought Max back in the house and put him down, she jumped all over him, sniffing him, etc, making sure he was okay. LOL. Too funny. I still can't believe she tattled on him. :)

It's A Conspiracy

Sitrep: Perfect Cardio 1 - warmup, abs, stretches (~20min)

Stopped at Wallyworld last night to pick up some freezer bags, and lo and behold, they've moved the pasta and tomato sauce aisle front and center. [Sob]

The main aisle on the grocery side entrance runs straight to the back of the store, with the groceries on the right, clothes and rest of the store on the left. The recent reorganization puts all the pasta and pasta sauces right along this aisle. The whole length of the grocery section.

OMG. What am I going to do? It was so much easier to avoid when it was an aisle I could skip. Out of sight, out of mind, you know? I have no impulse control. No will power. Not when it comes to tomato sauce. Now I have to pass it to get to anything in the grocery section.

I should sue. ;)

Almost a month already?

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. Things have obviously been crazy busy here. We held our annual convention for work last week. It was a great success, but the weeks leading up to it were insane. I hate having the convention so close to a major holiday. Getting off early on a Friday and having a Monday off should be fun, not stress-inducing!

The 4th of July weekend was fun. On Saturday I cleaned like a madwoman, including renting one of those steam cleaners for my sofa. Little Sis' family came over to watch the fireworks, and we barbecued. Actually, I think it was the first barbecue of the season. That's how late summer has come to us! We had a lot of fun, especially Shanni's SIL. We introduced her to Sin.gs.tar for the PS2. I had no idea she loves karaoke so much.

Anyway. Fireworks were spectacular. No fires set by any neighbors, no runaway dogs...I was in bed by midnight and sleeping. A first for the 4th since moving into my house. It made me miss Scully, though. She hated fireworks and would bark all night long. Max and Leia aren't fazed in the least by the noise. A blessing!

That week a virus got let loose on our network (thankfully only affecting my laptop meaning I downloaded it! oops!) but it was a nightmare to clean up. Took three different antivirus/spam programs. The following weekend Shanni and I went rafting on the Missouri with a neighbor of mine. But that's a story best left to its own post.

Then the convention, which meant a week out of town working 15 hour days. Ughh. Last weekend I was pretty much a slug. Went on a puppy hunt (for someone else!) that Saturday, and mowed and grocery shopped on Sunday. This week has been all about playing catch-up both at home and at work!

Awesome Weekend

Sitrep: Gaining weight and not happy about it! But do you think I can make myself exercise? Nope.

Do you ever have one of those weekends where everything just seems to fall together? I just did. And it was wonderful.

Saturday I had a "free" day. Slept in, then headed down to the bookstore. Then I hit the used bookstore, then the independent bookstore downtown, and the library. After that I went home and read the whole afternoon. It was a beautiful day, sunshiny and breezy, temps in the 80's.

Have You Ever...

tried to take a pee sample from a skittish miniature poodle? I don't recommend it. Unless you like pee all over your hand and nothing in the jar. Except dirt. Did manage to get dirt. [sigh]

Leia has a bladder infection; doc gave her an antibiotic shot last week Monday, but she started licking herself again this weekend, and not in the usual dog-licking-themself kind of way. The vet had given me a sterile sample jar in case she got worse, not better. He wants to do a urinalysis. (Thank goodness I got that pet health insurance!)

She won't pee if I'm bending or squatting next to her, and it's hard to walk her in that position anyway. [g] And even as short as I am, by the time I bend down to stick the jar's cap under her (vet tech suggestion), she jumps away. I think I'll bring her in and let them get the sample. They offered to do that if I had problems. For some reason I don't like starting my day by getting peed on.

Nothing Doing

Didn't do much over the weekend. Was rather lazy. Didn't help that the lilacs are blooming. Ugh. It's pretty miserable the few weeks they are in bloom. Darn allergies. This year it's affecting my eyes/head. Minor tension type headache and sore/blurry eyes. Keep wanting to rub them which a) makes it worse and b) messes up my contacts.

Took Leia Saturday morning to the local "Strutt Your Mutt" fundraiser for the Humane Society. Didn't sign up for the walk because I'd forgotten about it until the week before, and with all the rain, wasn't sure I'd want to go. And let's face it. It keeps getting pricier each year. No wonder the turn out is smaller and smaller. Minimum $35 pledge to enter, and they want you to get additional pledges. And that's per person/dog. Not per family. Ughh. Knocks me and Shannon out of the running. I know it's a fundraiser, but I think it knocks a lot of people out of the running.

Anyway. The pet fair was free and I figured it would be good for Leia. Then we went to the farmer's market. She did beautifully with all the people and other dogs. Especially the farmer's market. It was packed. Turned out to be a beautiful morning. Even if the lady with the fantabulous banana nut bread wasn't there.

Sunday afternoon we had quite the storm. Dime sized hail. It even spawned a tornado in the eastern side of the state. Right in downtown Billings. Yikes. No one hurt, thankfully, but definitely some damage!

Last night my two oldest nieces called. Only got to talk for a few minutes, but I really liked that. :)

When Life Becomes Fiction, or Vice Versa

So I'm listening to one of my favs in the car, "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and read by Sissy Spacek. Really a fabulous rendering of the book on CD.

Anyway. Apparently it has seeped into my consciousness because last night I dreamt I was in the middle of a race riot. Ackkk. No wonder I'm tired this morning.

But the most startling thing is the revelation I had the other day while listening to the book. OMG, I think I'm "Miss Maudie". Except for the flowers! (Give me another decade, though.) LOL. Not that that's anything terrible. It's just really funny.

If you haven't read the book, you should. It's timeless.

I wanted to name Leia "Scout" after the little girl, but it sounds like "out" and that would be too confusing to the dog. Jean Louise was too formal, and "jean" or "louise" wouldn't work because I know a) a person or b) another pet with those names. Ah well. Leia works. Although I end up calling her Lei Lei a lot. ;)

I'm still chuckling over the Miss Maudie thing, though.

New Look

So they've got some new template and customization options available. Which is why I haven't blogged. Keep spending my free time "designing".

I'm not sure I really like this one. The light green background makes me squint. Maybe. It's very gray/cloudy out right now so I'm depending on just the flourescent lights overhead, and have been staring at different color options and layouts for way too long. My eyes may just be worn out.

Did a major project with Shanni over the weekend. Added a 4' deep x 8' wide patio in front of the house, to the right of the door as you enter. It's basically where the flower bed used to be. Bought these stones from Hom.e Dep.ot (they're more a whitish gray in person)

It was quite a challenge. Took us about 4 hours, and 3 trips to the store. That includes the original trip, a second trip for the remainder of the stones (couldn't take them all in one trip - too heavy) and a third trip because we needed another bag of sand.

Shanni and I did squabble, both of us being so hard-headed, sure of ourselves and stubborn. ;) But surprisingly it wasn't as bad as some projects we've done.

She thought I was being too "anal" about leveling the stones. Especially when it meant the last three stones of the last two rows had to be re done. It was slanted backwards toward the house. Which would have caused water to pool in the middle. Just not something I wanted to deal with. Better to fix it now than later!

Another Book, Another Day

Read an interesting book yesterday. Interesting enough that I stayed up an hour past bedtime to finish it.

The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos by Margaret Mascarenhas

It was a good book. Although there were some things that bothered me. The setting is in Venezuela, and the characters are constantly dropping Spanish words throughout the book. In the middle of sentences. Not a huge deal for me, I speak/read Spanish. But jarring enough. I mean, if the book was set in the US, it wouldn't bother me so much. But these people are in Venezuela and, I assume, speaking Spanish. So dropping Spanish words into conversation...doesn't fit for me. I dunno. Maybe I'm too particular. But at times it felt forced, as if the author wanted to remind you this is set outside the US. But I totally got that just from the style of writing and setting. Duh.

Definite flavor of South America. For me, anyway. Felt familiar, a little like being home, in Paraguay. The Spanish/South American culture is different. There's a different flow, way of being, speaking seeing. The premise of the story, the way it was written, all interesting.

Laugh Out Loud Moments

So last night I flip onto one of the news shows just as they are showing St.ev.e Jo.bs and his presentation of the latest iP.h.one. If you haven't heard already, they had some technical difficulties getting online. The suggestions from the audience were fun, and mostly in jest. The best, though, was when Jo.bs asked someone (his IT people, I presume) for a suggestion on how to fix the WiFi issue, and someone hollered out "V.er.izon!".

Total laugh out loud moment for me. Followed by a cringe. Laugh out loud because I've been griping for forever about these exclusive deals w/AT.T that A.pple sparked (no A.TT out here). Even the eReaders are doing this and it's extremely frustrating!

Cringe, because WiFi does not equal Cell Phone Provider/3G Wireless. Sigh. It's your local area network using a wireless router and a wired ethernet connection. Limited in distance. Internet access through your cell phone uses their cell towers. Which is why it's slower, but accesible wherever you have coverage.

But still a LOL moment for me. ;)

Book-a-holic Haze

I managed to read 2 books last weekend, even with a trip to B. tossed in. Good thing it was a long weekend!

Went to B w/Little Sis because car needed 80k mile service. I like to have the big service jobs done at the dealership, just in case. Costs a pretty penny, but oh well. They dropped Shanni and I off at the mall, which just so happens to have a Barn.es & N.o.ble attached. Oh, what hardship. We did some clothes shopping, and I didn't get cranky!!! Imagine that. A little tired, but no noticeable impatience. Shanni did well with her money, checking all the sales before settling on what she wanted. She got a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that look too good on her. Sigh. When did she grow up?

We "had" to spend several hours at the bookstore until the car was ready. Oh, the horror. Shanni was laughing at the stack of books I sat down with to give a "test read". But only 2 into the pile I was fascinated by the book I ended up buying:

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

The premise is what had me looking at it in the first place. It's about a woman named Libby Day, who survived a brutal attack on her family that left her mother and two sisters dead. She was 7 at the time, and became the star witness that sent her then 15 year old brother to jail for the murders.

Twenty-five years later, unable to really function in society and needing money, she's agreed to help a group that believes her brother is innocent. But they have to pay her for everything she does. A bit of a twisted concept. Most survivor stories are about truth and justice. This one is about survival.

The book is told from Libby's point of view in the present day, but has flashbacks of the twenty-four hours leading up to the murders. Those flashbacks are told from various family members' points of view. Mostly Libby, her mother, and her brother.

It's a pretty grim and unremitting look at a life of poverty. Both when she was young and now. Depression, anger, community biases, prejudices, all those things. "Dark Places" doesn't just refer to where she goes mentally when remembering what happened. Or the dark place her brother was in to have supposedly committed the murders.

The style of writing was captivating. It made me want to know.  It was very hard for me not to flip to the end and see who the murderer was. Maddening. That's not something I usually have problems with! But at some points I had to mentally "sit" on my hands to avoid flipping to the last few pages. The pacing of the book was great, I just wanted to know. [g]

The book is bleak, disturbing at times, but mostly just plain enthralling. Extremely well written. Lots of imagery (At one point Libby describes herself: "Draw a picture of my soul, and it’d be a scribble with fangs.")
 
One little development toward the end was too much too much, if that makes any sense. But I don't want to give anything away. The end, while fitting with the overall story, left me wanting a little more. Probably because I'm used to happy-ever-after endings, and with this kind of story there really isn't one. Can't be one.

The final truth was as startling as it was horrifying. But a strong ending to a riveting book. I'd definitely recommend it. I have the author's first book on reserve at the library. I'd buy it, but have already blown through my book budget and don't want to wait to read it.

Questions

I haven't blogged in a bit because I've been watching the mess in the Gulf. I've had the live feed of the underwater spill up on my second monitor for days now.

One thing that is driving me crazy is the comparison of the spill to Katrina. We're talking two different situations, here. I'm not quite sure what people are expecting the government to be able to do in this situation. I doubt they have the people or equipment on staff to stop the leak. Maybe more people on the ground to clean up the oil? But how many ships are there out there to skim the oil? So I did some research:

22,000: Personnel working to protect shoreline and wildlife (Department of the Interior)
1,200: Skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels being used in cleanup (Interior)
3.1 million: Feet of boom deployed to contain the spill (Interior)
840,000: Gallons of chemical dispersants used (Interior)
11.1 million: Gallons of oily water recovered (Interior)
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/27/gulf-oil-spill-by-the-numbers/

I just don't know. There probably should be more people on the ground to try to clean up. But frankly, I just don't see how they could have kept the oil out of the marshes. The weather didn't cooperate in the beginning (remember the storms, wind, waves that pushed oil over the booms?) There's just a lot of territory to cover and try to protect.

21st Century History?

I've been watching the History Channel's new series "America the Story of Us" the last three weeks. I have to say, I am very very disappointed. Usually the History Channel does a better job presenting things, even when they are covering a lot of history in a short amount of TV time.

But this series, well, this series seemed more to me an aggrandizement of the USA. It totally glossed over a lot of info. I realize it's not meant to be an in depth presentation of US history. But seriously. I think the total amount of time dealing with the Native Americans, especially during the Westward expansion, amounts to maybe a half hour! It's ludicrous. The role played by Native Americans was important from the first moments the white man arrived here. The US government's and people's role in the decimation of the Native Americans is part of our history that should have had more discussion than what was shown. The move of the Indians to the reservations was maybe a 3-5 minute segment. Lightly glossed over.

The way the series jumped over things and ran things together seemed to suggest one thing led to another when it really didn't. I also didn't like how the presentation of the Civil War made it sound like everyone in the South wanted to keep slavery and that's why they fought. It came to a head over the issue of slavery, but what prompted the secession of many of the states, and many of the men to fight, was that of States rights versus Federal rights. Do the individual states get to make the laws or does the Federal government? It's an important aspect. Something that is still at issue today.

Case in point: The Underground Railroad. No explanation as to what it was, simply that it existed and Harriet Tubman rescued slaves at her own peril. Images shown? Tubman leading slaves through a swamp and being chased by white men with dogs. Nothing about how extensive it was, the number of people involved, including many whites. Made it seem like it was pretty much Harriet Tubman alone and consisted of running through swamps.

Or the part on the Donner party. Made it seem like they perished on the shortcut they took. They didn't. They'd made it back to the main trail. Also, the number in the party, what happened, and the fact that the cannibalism hasn't been proven. In fact, in the last four years or so, researchers at the campsites didn't find any human bones. Dog, cattle, horses, deer, etc, but no human bones. Anyway. Not even a mention that the cannibalism aspect might be pure sensationalism after the fact. (Discovery Channel did a great documentary on this that I saw a year or so ago.)

Maybe it seems like little things. But I was uneasy from the first. Can't really explain it other than the "glossing over" of things. And a general feeling of "Wait a minute. That's not quite right."

And then the people they chose to interview. Actors? Musicians? Reporters? Authors? Huh? Where are all the historians? Oh, yeah. They were all out filming the Ba.nk of Am.er.ica commercials! Very bizarre.

All in all, a poor offering from the History Channel. From whom I expected more! I can only hope this doesn't become a school resource. Wouldn't that be a pity. I'm not sure I can bear to watch the rest of the series.

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Okay, more like knocked her over or something.

This insatiable drive I have to learn has finally caught up with me. Sometimes I wonder if it's just better not to know things, especially things you have no way of changing.

1) Food Inc: If you haven't seen this documentary, and like eating meat, don't watch it.  Okay, it's about a lot more than just meat. It's got some good info on how we get our food, and how the process has been changed. But disheartening overall. Did you know that something like 80% of the processed foods on the US market have genetically modified ingredients in them? It's just very depressing. And listening to what Mo.nsa.nto (for one example) is doing to the farm industry/individual farmers. You can't fight. No one has the money the corporations do.

But this definitely made me want to cut meat out of my diet (too bad that leaves me nothing else to eat, since I don't like most veggies).  The feed lots of the cows were ugly, ugly, ugly. And I thought I was going to puke when they showed the cow where someone had made an opening into her upper stomach (rudiment?) and kept it open with a plastic tube and cap. We're talking large enough for a man to scoop some of the food out that she was "digesting". OMG. Want to puke just thinking about it. And the chickens. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

I'm going to have to look up several of the books referred to in the documentary.

2) The Immortal Life of Herietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This one is a little harder for me to pinpoint. It's an astonishing tale on how one woman's cells made an impact on science. It's extremely easy to read, especially considering the science involved. But it's pretty light on that aspect. Enough to give an idea of what is going on, but no so much your eyes glaze over.

There's a suprising amount of interest for this book. At least at my library. I was number 5 on the waiting list, and there are 4 more people waiting for it. Considering it's the author's first book and was just released in February, I'm a bit surprised.

I'm not sure where I stand on the issues this book brings up. Ethical or unethical to use someone's cells without their consent? What about the commercial aspects? Shoudl they be able to make money off it? Off the top, my gut says "Hell, no, that's not ethical". But then I wonder where would science be? Medicine? It might be my cell, yet they're doing the work. But then there's the fact that it's my DNA. Pretty scary stuff to have out there for "all the world to see". So to speak. Tricky topic.

What definitely bothers me is learning that as of 2005

 "...the U.S. government had issued patents relating to the use of about 20 percent of known human genes, including genes for Alzheimer's, asthma, colon cancer, and, most famously, breast cancer. This means pharmaceutical companies, scientists, and universities control what research can be done on those genes, and how much resulting therapies and diagnostic tests will cost." [page 323]

One company owns the rights to the breast cancer and ovarian cancer genes, and charges $3000 to test for those genes. Insane!

"One survey found that 53 percent of laboratories had stopped offering or developing at least one genetic test because of patent enforcement, and 67 percent felt patents interfered with medical research. Because of patent licensing fees, it costs $25,000 for an academic institute to license the gene for researching a common blood disorer...and up to $250,000 to license the same gene for commercial testing." [page 324-325]

That's just to get permission to access the gene. Forget about the costs of the actual research! What the hell is going on here? How can a company be allowed to control our genes? Shouldn't this be open access for researchers and scientists and doctors? So everyone has access to the tests and cures affordably? And how has this happened with none of us knowing about it?

Miscellany

On the road again for work. Last few weeks have been busy. Worked 9 hours last Saturday on our server; OS drive running out of space. What I thought would work as a fix didn't due to our configuration. If only we had 2008 vs 2003. But alas, if we had 2008, we most likely wouldn't have this problem to start with as it would mean a new server for us. Not anywhere needed, so not going to happen. But I know of a software program - relatively affordable - that will solve my problem.

Anyway. Because of those 9 hours, I got off work early on Monday, and had most of Tuesday off. Then headed to where I am now for one of our 3.5 day seminars. That's going very well. New instructor started the institute. So far so good. He's doing really well.

I think I made a mistake, though. This hotel has a chocolate lover's break package, and it included chocolate covered strawberries. That was a huge hit. I think I might have gotten myself into trouble. They'll riot if I don't do that again. But so far it looks like it will be cheaper than if we did everything a la carte like before. We'll see. This is the test run.

Went to a "See 'Em Dead" restaurant for dinner. One of those places with big game animal heads all over the walls. But the steaks are to die for. (Like we ever go some place where they aren't!) And the atmosphere is very much like the stereotype/romanticized atmosphere of the West. Exactly what our instructor (from FL) wanted. His fiance came with him, and they are a hoot. So is the next instructor, who flew in yesterday afternoon and joined us. I can't remember ever laughing so hard or so much at a work function. We shut the place down! But it was fun. Three times a year I get to eat steak three nights in a row. All on someone else's dime. ;)

Papers, Please

I'm baffled, horrified, and yes, a little bit frightened by the new Arizona immigration law. Not that it will affect me all that much where I live. But the concept of the police being able to stop me because I "look" Hispanic and I would have to have papers on me to prove I'm a citizen. In Arizona. A US state. It's surreal.

Odds are I wouldn't get stopped, as I don't look extremely Spanish. But what about my mother? A legal immigrant and a US citizen for umpteen years? She looks Spanish. Very fluent in English, yet speaks with a Spanish accent.

In Arizona, she would have to carry proof that she is an American citizen. What the hell is going on with this country? And does anyone think that this is going to stop illegal immigration? Do you think these people are going to be scared of this? With the risks and dangers they face just to get here in the first place?

And what about those people of Hispanic origin, like my sister in law, or some friends of mine in CA, that are American born, American citizens? What about their kids, who look Hispanic? My nieces, nephew? They'll have to carry proof they're legal citizens if they're in Arizona or go there? WTF? And what is the proof? Social security cards? Birth certificates? Passports? All items we're not supposed to carry on us because of identity theft.

And those ID thieves will have a hey-dey. Anyone of Hispanic origin in Arizona will now become a target for mugging and theft, just for their identity papers. And isn't that a scary phrase "identity papers."  Hate to trot out the trite comparison with Nazi Germany. But there it is.

Are the cops even going to have the time or the will to implement this? I just can't see how this will be effective. Maybe it'll just be used on people that have been stopped for other crimes, serious crimes, not just traffic misdemeanors. I can hope, can't I?

If we are serious about immigration reform, we need to change our guest worker policy and the way we grant visas. Stop the "family first" and create a policy that responds quickly and efficiently to our economy and its needs first. Then we'll get in the workers we need, people will stand a better chance of getting in, therefore cutting down on need to come here illegally. Our current system and quotas are inefficient and dumb.

And personally, having been stopped by armed police in South America who demanded to see my passport and visa, it's a horrible feeling. Not something I'd want my mother, sil, nieces, nephew, friends or anyone else subjected to.