Between all the hype surrounding the elections in the US yesterday, the SF Giants winning the World Series (congrats Tim Lincecum - local guy!), and the delay of the shuttle launch from Monday to tomorrow (hopefully), there's not a tremendous amount of ground that hasn't already been covered and beaten into the ground around the interwebs.
I do have to report in that my girls' desire to be a construction crane and concrete mixer was successful over the Halloween weekend.
They had a great time going trick-or-treating in their costumes and big sister as a construction foreman helped out with ringing doorbells or knocking since their arms had limited reach. She was also good for reminding them to say "thank you" and was quite agreeable to helping since she knew we wouldn't let her go trick-or-treating otherwise.
I do have to say that there was a lot of agony trying to figure out how to make their costume ideas work, but a lot of fun once I got a plan and got going.
My original idea for the concrete mixer drum was to get a large balloon and paper mache, but I ended up going with a paper lantern that I got at an Asian gifts store and that worked quite well.
It did help tremendously that they were quite excited at the process and the finished product. Positive reinforcement for Mommy!
All-in-all it was a successful costume creation, though I have no intention of letting them pick such bulky costumes again. Talk about a traffic jam at doorways!
So this post is going to have the overarching theme of: VOTE!Next Tuesday is the mid-term election in the U.S. and people need to make sure they cast their ballots.I’m honestly of the camp that I don’t care who you vote for as long as you get out there and do it.I’ve been interested in politics since high school, but never on the level to seek elected office or even major in political science.I’m just interested enough to make sure that I vote in every primary and election from the time I turned 18 (7 days after a major presidential election - grr!) until now.I think the hardest part is keeping up with the initiatives!Even the nonpartisan positions you can generally get a sense of the people running, but initiatives are so fully loaded, that it’s hard to figure out what you really want.
For example, in Washington State, there are two initiatives that are meant to overturn the Prohibition-era laws that allow the state-run liquor stores (1100 and 1105).We can only buy beer and wine in grocery stores; the rest come from specific liquor stores that have specific hours of operation and prices set by the state.One initiative is sponsored by Costco who want to be able to sell and price the alcohol as they do in many other states.The other takes a slightly different approach, but has the same general idea.The concept of getting the state out of the liquor selling business so they can concentrate on enforcement of liquor laws I’m all for, but I don’t think either of these initiatives are going to be the way to do it.Why not have the state sell the liquor stores rather than forcing them to close?Let’s get some money into the state coffers first if you’re going to do away with future income.I’m also following this one because of the new issues regarding the energy alcohol drinks that are gaining popularity.If one can of Four Loko or Joose is the equivalent of 5 beers and then also adds enough energy that instead of passing out, you can keep drinking until you get alcohol poisoning, that’s a red flag right there.And I’m sorry, but the brightly colored cans are absolutely aimed at minors.I’m sure if these products had come out 10 years ago I’d feel differently about them, but I’m an old fogey with kids now.
Another initiative is to add income tax to the upper income brackets in the state (1098).I certainly don’t make over $200,000 as an individual or $400,000 as a couple, but I’m still not really in favor of opening the door for an income tax in the State of Washington.I know the initiative says that it’s unlikely to happen, but there have been too many that have passed recently that have been put “on hold” or changed by the legislation and I would prefer that not to happen on this one.
What’s funny is that in having grown up in California, I always thought it was strange not to have liquor sold in regular grocery stores and income taxes were just how things existed, but now having lived in Washington State for the majority of my adult life, I’m not quite ready for the whole state to go those directions in the way they are proposed in this election cycle.As I said at the beginning of this blog post though, I really just would prefer everyone to get out and vote!It’s much easier to feel good about the outcomes when you know that everyone gave their say rather than just skip out and whine about the results when they don’t like them.
I know there are other initiatives out there in other states that people have opinions on – what are some hotter-button issues where you live?Are you going to vote?
(Apologies for the delay in posting this one. I had it all written out and then couldn't access my blog server to get it posted!)
I’m a little perplexed by the arguments that are being given for the ruling regarding gays to serve openly in the US military.The judge ruled that it’s not okay for the military to discriminate based on sexual orientation, so the military told its recruiters to allow openly gay people to enlist.Fair enough in merits, but then others are telling already enlisted service members to not come out yet since there’s still a chance that this might be overturned and DADT would be back in place.Also fair enough, but that puts the new recruits in a tough position if it is.I can see that there’s a little confusion for now, but this is a law being overturned, so it always takes a little while to figure out how things will all shake out.
Opponents are saying that there’s too much confusion, so everything should be put on hold.If I agreed with DADT I would probably say the same thing, but the only reason it’s confusing is because there are people out there that are going to appeal the judge’s ruling.It would be much less confusing if the military had seen this coming like three YEARS ago and started getting ready for the eventuality. How hard is it to say “everyone can and will be a part of the team and treat each other with respect”?Maybe the gay service members can teach the others a thing or two about being tortured since we all know they have gone through their (un)fair share of teasing and bullying.
Why in the world should the military be turning away and discharging the VOLUNTEERS that make up its ranks when we’re in a war?I realize it takes time to assimilate new groups of people into the rank-and-file, but this isn’t like adding women into the mix where there is a distinctive physical difference.This is much simpler – no new barracks or bathrooms required!Let qualified and willing people serve. Period.I’m eternally grateful to those soldiers who have been willing to enlist to serve our country.It is something that I was not personally cut out for, but am fully supportive of those who are.I don’t draw the line at people who look, act, or feel differently than I do.
I laughed when I read that Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said that “overturning this law will be enormously disruptive for the men and women who defend our country.”Just like adding black servicemen or women was?Does that mean we should have not allowed those things to happen?Isn’t it disruptive to keep trying to “out” fellow soldiers?Isn’t it disruptive to keep having this conversation about people who have already shown their ability to serve in combat and otherwise?Let them serve and get over yourself already.
As an aside: Since we aren’t going the way of Israel yet and having everyone at a certain age go through Basic Training (i.e. we’re a 100% volunteer army), I can see this coming back to bite the military if they ever need to use a draft again.How many people who don’t agree with the war would engage in just enough gay activities as to be either denied entry into the military or kicked out?Fastest way to get out of a draft without getting in legal trouble?It’s just something to ponder since I really have no idea what the answer to that would be.If we’re in a draft situation and desperate for enough bodies in the military, why would you exclude that portion of the population?If you need able bodies, don’t turn away the willing and able.And if your answer is different for 100% volunteer versus a draft, maybe you should think about your volunteer answer a little more.
I've been following the ordeal off and on since August 5th, but the last 18 hours have been riveting for me. To see that first rescuer go down the shaft and start loading the guys up - definitely makes you appreciate your family and the conditions we are privileged to work in here in the US. I've had the streaming video feed online since they started and just watched as number 26 emerged from the top of the shaft. I'm incredibly impressed by the effort and diligence that has gone into this rescue effort. I'm also grateful that NASA was able to contribute their knowledge base as well - it seems like a great application of everything they've done in the last 50-plus years.
Though the mining operations around the world have little to do directly with my day-to-day life, the rescue of these guys is definitely a story that applies to everyone and I decided that if I was going to watch the first guy, each of them deserved the same respect. I missed a few for work and sleep, but they all are equally amazing for surviving thus far and I really hope they get all the support they need to get readjusted to live above ground.
Just seeing the top of the capsule emerge with the first miner was enough to make me cry, let alone seeing him be reunited with his family. Later when my husband came home in time to see the second miner, he commented on how he's not sure how the guys can bear to let their families go once they start hugging them. I'll continue to watch until all the rescuers are out as well as the 33 miners and until then...
I realized I haven't been writing much about the twins on my blog lately. They're very much enjoying life as 4-year-olds, figuring out the way that the world works and making sure the world stays the way they think it should be. We're constantly asked "we're still 4?" by both girls ever since their birthday a month ago.
This weekend I had the opportunity to take them to the Wilcox egg farm for a look around the farm museums, a tour of the farm while riding on a tractor-pulled wagon, a fresh omelet, and they were also able to ring the schoolhouse bell. High times for a preschooler! They enjoyed seeing the free-range chickens as well as sitting on the hay bales for the tour around the farm.
Since I now work more than full-time with a long commute, I haven’t been able to do as much with them lately outside of tucking them into bed at night. This farm tour was a way for me to take them out again and give their dad a good block of time to himself – he even got to take a nap while we were gone, the basic need for any parent of young twins. :) The other reason I wanted to spend the extra energy time with them was because I’ll be leaving early on Wednesday morning for a business trip to the Mid West and won’t be back until Friday afternoon.
This morning as I arrived at work I discovered that we were the victims of a hit-and-run on our civic hybrid.We’re approaching seven years of having the car and this is the first “accident” it’s been in.Through basic reasoning, we know it happened last night while parked outside the tae kwon do school that my husband goes to.We just didn’t discover it until this morning since it was dark when my hubby came home from tae kwon do and it was dark when I got in the car to drive to work.(And it was parked in the driveway last night, so we know it didn’t happen at home.)
What a way to start the day!It was a classic parking lot accident with the damage to the side rear fender and bumper, but it’s not just a little scrape so this isn’t something that someone distracted by kids or a cell phone could have missed doing.The driver knew and still drove away without leaving any note to apologize or acknowledge the accident.
The sad part is, it’s very likely we know the people who did it since our car is fairly distinctive and everyone at that school knows it.I’m assuming that the guilty party was a parent of one of my husband’s students and too embarrassed to say anything.I don’t care if you can’t pay for the damage you caused, at least show some responsibility and own up to it!
I’ve been a bit distracted today in debating whether or not it’s even worth reporting to our insurance for fear that they may raise our rates and it won’t cost too much more than our deductible.Darn insurance – what do I pay you for if I’m too cheap to make a claim with you?!Hence the title of this entry: Blog and Run.Any topic I may have thought I was going to ponder today went out the window and now I’m ranting about my car.Since rants are rather one-sided, I’m going to keep this one short.
Have you ever been the victim of a hit-and-run?How did it get resolved?
Sunday marked a turning point for our little family: my oldest daughter got her first cell phone.We’d been debating the issue for quite some time, but finally gave in after she spent the summer in our good graces and got a job helping out with a friend’s dogs everyday that gave her enough income to chip in for the monthly phone costs.Since we already had a family plan for my husband and I, it was only another $10 per month to add her.We also decided to add texting which we never had before, so she’s chipping in $10 of the $30 for that monthly cost.Luckily she was desperate enough that she immediately agreed to the terms: parental controls that turn it off during school and after 8:30p, spot checks on texts just like emails, and notice to any friend that she gives the number out to that they can and will be blocked if they send her inappropriate material.We’ll see how that last item goes since I know full well that she’ll be deleting a lot before I get to it, but she’s on the honor system for now.
Of course, it didn’t hurt her cause to have her mother really needing a new phone and lusting after a smart phone.I’m ready to chuck my old flip phone out the window for how many times it’s decided to not be a phone for a little while until I can pull the battery and get it restarted again.I still haven’t gotten a new phone yet, but now that I’ve taken The Kid in to get hers, I can just order mine online and save some money and time.
How’s the experiment going so far?Well, she’s averaging about 65 texts per day which occur in the one hour before school starts and the 6 hours after school gets out that she’s not doing homework, riding her bike to her “job”, playing soccer, or going to tae kwon do.She pumped out almost 35 texts this morning just while waiting at the bus stop.Not the ideal scenario, but I’m hoping she calms down a little next week.And so far other than her parents and other relatives, she’s really only texting with 3 or 4 of her classmates, most of which we know and are nice kids.Phew!Good start.
And what of my search for a new phone?I still want that iPhone 4, but may go with a cheaper android phone that doesn’t require a data plan.The whole reason we got cell phones in the first place back in 2001 was because we’d gotten jobs and were commuting across Lake Washington to work.Now I’m not commuting across the Lake, but I am driving almost 45 minutes each way now – about 10 times longer than I’d prefer my commute to be.This morning there was a tanker that fell over and blocked all lanes of the major highway I take to get to work – it certainly would have been nice to have a smart phone with traffic maps, but at the same time, it wouldn’t have been safe for me to use the phone while I was driving to find the best alternate route since speeds never got slow enough for me to pull out my phone.Plus, I can check traffic before I leave home or the office on the way to the other.
I titled this blog post the technology in my family’s life because I was also going to mention that my desktop computer finally dinosaured out and will be used no more.We’re down to one laptop and one netbook for the family.I’m tempted to get a docking station so I can hook up the netbook to the bigger monitor that we had been using on the desktop computer, but we’ll see when I can find the time to research that!
Also of note is the fact that my husband and I might finally be caving in on getting a gaming console in the house.I’ve been wanting a Wii since they were first released a few years ago and now we’re thinking it might be a good “family” gift for Christmas this year – much like the digital piano we got last year has been fun for everyone.We’ll see if that one actually happens, but it’s in motion.
Anyone have any great words of wisdom for me in my quest to find just enough phone for my needs and not go over my (small) budget?And where’s the best place to get a Wii when I know I’ve got months before I need it to actually arrive on my doorstep?
I'm starting to get more excited for the fall premieres of TV shows and it totally got me thinking about things that I enjoy that are out of the typical range of geeky engineer types.I really try not to get into TV shows since I don’t have a lot of free time that I want to spend in front of a screen, but I’ve always gotten into one or two shows and stuck with them.West Wing was big for me for a long time, then Grey’s Anatomy, and now Glee has joined the list (and thank goodness West Wing “retired” or I wouldn’t be able to keep up with all of them!).My mom wants me to watch Modern Family since she knows I’ll like it, but I’m trying really hard to resist.
But Glee, oh Glee, how you are my guilty pleasure.How do I know this?Because my husband won’t watch it with me.He watches a lot of things that I don’t and even submits himself to silly romantic comedies that I borrow from the library, but he generally draws the line at musicals.My sister-in-law gave me the Glee soundtracks from the first half of the season and I’ve gotten the rest from the library.I love listening to them in the car on my way to work since it’s much lighter fare than the rude guy trying to cut across three lanes at the same time and almost side swiping me.
I think if I didn’t follow the cast on twitter I’d have enough time to watch another show, but they are so much fun!The set pics are always good for a giggle.I think at this point I’m also rooting for my home-town guy: Harry Shum, Jr.Turns out he went to my rival high school – which I found out when he mentioned via Twitter that he went to the same HS as Zac Efron.Now I’m cheering for “the dancing Asian guy” to get a bigger role in the show because he’s from SLO County!And as much as there are serious moments in Glee – and oh my goodness how much do I love the scenes with Mike O’Malley as Kurt’s dad – it’s really a fun show and the musical numbers are great.
I also think I need to watch Glee to balance out the fact that I can probably count on one hand the number of Grey’s Anatomy episodes that I’ve made it through without crying.And yet I can’t stop watching it!Grey’s I started watching because I enjoy Sandra Oh and gave it a try.The fact that it takes place in Seattle didn’t hurt, either.Six seasons later and I’m still looking forward to the season premiere coming up next week.Grey’s was the one show that I had to watch when I had newborn twins.Don’t ask me why since the writers love to have crazy-sad birthing stories, but it was my way of trying to feel human again: If I could stay awake long enough to watch one hour of TV a week, I was still my own person and not just a stressed-out new mom.(They were 3 weeks old when the season premiered back in the fall of 2006).
Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t seem as “guilty” of a pleasure as Glee even though they are both highly-rated shows.I think it’s because it hits a different aspect of my geeky side, and not one that has to do with math or computers.What’s your guilty pleasure and how did you “discover” it?
Just over a year ago on my dad's birthday in August I decided it was time to get over my hang-ups and donate blood. What in the world does my dad's birthday have to do with blood donation?For those who don’t know me in real life, my dad was a major blood donor until he was diagnosed with cancer.After he passed away he has been remembered in the community – through a local race being named in his honor or the scholarship awarded at the high school he taught at.But neither of those things were a personal tribute from me regarding my dad.
Before he passed away I weaseled out of blood donation by reasoning that he gave for the both of us – my dad and I have the same (semi-rare) blood type of A-negative.He was in the blood center every 8 weeks doing his donation, modifying his running workouts around his donation schedule.But me?I couldn’t find my arm veins and knew that it would be hard for the needles to find their mark if the veins were hiding like that.I knew for a few years after his passing that I should go in and continue his legacy, but I wasn’t ready yet.Apparently parenthood changed more than my mentality, as my veins are easier to find now!With the resolve coming from my dad’s birthday passing, I made my appointment to go in and donate at a Puget Sound Blood Center last year just before Labor Day.It was super easy and fast, everyone was really nice (not that I thought they wouldn’t be, but it was good to experience all the same), and I ended up going back 8 weeks later to do it all over again.
For my third donation, I was recruited to try double red blood cell donation where they separate out the red cells from the rest of the blood and returned the “unused” portion back into my arm.I think if it wasn’t all done with a single needle I would have said “no,” but it was just as easy as whole blood donation.It takes longer, but I only need to go half as often, so it’s a good trade-off for me as a busy working mom.I’m a month away from being able to go in for my third double red donation and you can be sure I’ll be there.
Ultimately, my dad was never able to donate his organs due to the melanoma, but he did donate many, many “gifts of life” over the years and now I can continue the blood donations and be registered as an organ and tissue donor as well.I can’t think of a more appropriate way to honor my dad than continue giving as he did.I make sure to post on Twitter or Facebook every time I donate to raise awareness that anyone can do it, but I also note that it was done in honor of my dad.Without his being a blood hero, I would have never had the courage to become one myself – and that is the true legacy of my dad.
As a quick aside before I get to today's post, I wanted to say that I am now a "regular employee" at my current job rather than just a temporary one. The biggest thing that changes is my benefits package, so that's a good thing. Now I just have to get my commute shorter. Also in household news: my oldest started 7th grade this week and the twins are about to turn FOUR YEARS OLD. Um, for as long as each day can be, those years really are flying by quickly. And now onto today's post...
Today was the day that NASA announced the 150 people who won the lottery to attend the November 1st launch of STS-133. Sadly, I was in the majority of the 2,700 entrants to not get a pass to witness this event in VIP style. I had another blog topic chosen for posting today, but couldn't bring myself to finish it today - it seemed like I kept thinking about how large of a role NASA has played in my life considering I've never worked for them. I was almost 2-1/2 years old when STS-1 launched in 1981, so I've never known a life without space shuttles. I certainly remember the day of the Challenger explosion, if not the exact moment it happened. I loved the movie "Space Camp" growing up because it was so cool and the character Tish always made me laugh (good old Kelly Preston!). Even "Flight of the Navigator" was awesome in my book. I grew up near Vandenberg Air Force Base where they launch rockets from time to time. I wanted to be the first woman on the moon! By the time Columbia didn't make it home in 2003 I was already resigned to the fact that I would never get a ride.
Even through college I typically had one wall of my room dedicated to NASA posters and my collection of mission patches is embarrassingly large. So why did I go into structural engineering instead of astronautics? I'm not sure, really. Maybe it was my high school physics teacher being an idiot and my drafting teacher guiding me more towards structures. Maybe it was my lack of desire to get a master's degree. Maybe it was my husband voicing his nervousness over ever seeing me out on the launch platform and having to watch. Either way, I realized a while ago that even if I had taken the proper track to become an astronaut, the shuttle program was going to end before I would have a chance to ride it. I used to joke that I could still get into the space program as a structural engineer because someone needed to build the structures on the moon, but the moon seems to be out of reach as well.
My last hope? The entry on my bucket list to watch a space shuttle launch from Kennedy Space Center. I got to go there in the summer of 1986, but due to the tragedy in January of that year, the possibility of seeing a launch wasn't even on the radar. There are only two launches left on the schedule before the shuttles are retired and the next generation of American space travel isn't ready yet. I didn't make the #NASATweetUp list for STS-133 in November, but I still have one last hope to be in a position to watch STS-134 in February of 2011. A girl can dream.
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