O'Hare

Nice to know nothing changes. Oh, yeah, they have WIFI here finally, although you got't to be paying.

I needed to do a website tweak for a client, so I needed to be online. So might as well blog too. En route to LAX. Another glory hole of an airport.

Writers and Artists Snacking at Work - WASAW

I was doing a web search on Lorna Doone cookies (don't ask) and stumbled upon this site.

In the mood for snacks?

Of course you are! After all, snacks are one of the few things in life that can turn an enemy into a friend, a traitor into an ally, a cheap bastard into a cheap bastard with snacks.

But is there an art to picking a snack?

Hell, yeah. While most folks will pick the first - or, egads!, the cheapest - snack they can find when hunger strikes, most folks are morons. Hey, picking the right snack can mean the difference between scoring a huge tasty treat or winding up with something more like "bile in a baggy."

That's where WASAW comes in...

We are five members strong - originally co-workers with a bountiful office vending machine, we have since scattered throughout the country to provide you with a fairer representation of snacks in America. (And beyond, when our international friends send us snacks to review.)

After all, the snacks we discover at our individual places of work may have already found their way into your office vending machine or neighborhood Good Humor ice cream truck. You'll want to be prepared.

So be sure and check with WASAW before making your next snack investment. Our reports are easy to print and read, and hopefully entertaining, too. If all goes well, you'll learn from our mistakes and reward yourself with our triumphs... all in the name of quality snacking.

If you need further evidence of the greatness of this concept, check out the review of the Taco Bell Caramel Apple Empanada

Business Travel Haiku

Long Beach conference
I packed pantyhose and heels
Returning Friday

Recurring Themes

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
The Summer Day, Mary Oliver

Thanks, Char....

Tee Shirts and Swag

I have been gifted with stuff, of late.

At the debate rally, I was handed a Ned Lamont tee shirt. Which I am proud to own and wear. Yesterday, we participated in America's Walk for Diabetes, and received two more tee shirts (one for the Joslin Center team, the High Steppers, through the Hospital of Central Connecticut (formerly New Britain General) , and one a red ADA "Walk" tee-shirt for having enough donations. The Joslin folks also gifted us with baseball caps (when was the last time you saw me wearing one of those?) and a lunch Koozie.

Yesterday was pretty laid back - I did some personal yoga in the morning, then the walk-a-thon (where we connected with 3 friends, and Zippy ran into someone from the water aerobics class). Then we hung out, napped, raked leaves. I ran over to the office for a few hours of work at night. Then Audrey came by for a visit.

I'm gonna be frantic today - I am heading out for CA tomorrow. Which means I need to:

* Get my presentation together (powerpoint, handouts)
* Pack my work stuff
* Load my laptop
* Finish up a special report for Client S
* Do a trip report for my Long Island trip
* Get a couple of proposals out that should have been done last week
* Pack my clothes

I am gonna try to squeeze in a hair appointment and at least one session of yoga, and I have my meditation class tonight.

Basically, when I hit the airplane seat, I suspect I am just gonna collapse. I have a an extra day out there to chill - my presentation and workshop chairing responsibilities are not until Thursday. So I can hopefull catch up a little remotely.

Lacing Up the Rykas

I hit Jazz-x this morning, for the first time in close to a month. My meditation workshop conflicts with my regular Monday nights; and the good weekend weather has meant balloon chasing on Saturdays throughout October, and Sunday morning yoga is sort of a ritual. Today was an off day by dint of the cold front coming through - although right now its just spectacular out. I will probably be hit and miss for a few more weeks - the workshop is 1/2 way done, and ballooning will carry on - I'm in CA all next week, and suspect November will also be moderately busy.

It's nice to be missed, although truthfully I have way too many exercise and leisure activity options of late.

Sometimes I Crack Myself Up

Posted on a recent message board

We continue to field competing teams NCTE and NTAC farming pretty much the same piece of earth (to obfuscate and confuse, not unlike my mixed metaphors, unless the teams I was referring to were teams of plow horses, in which case the metaphor holds water. Oh wait. Damn.)

Someone should pay me for this sort of clever writing. Really.

Progressive Party

When one goes to a Halloween party where the primary attendees are (a) Librarians and (b) Unitarian Universalists, well, it tends to be a pretty liberal crowd.

When the host and hostess have a little New Orleans in their backgrounds, and the comestibles include gumbo, jambalaya, dirty rice, red beans, and cornbread, you are happy to have skipped dinner. (Said host and hostess also had a stellar costume concept - the "Host" came as a communion wafer, and the "Hostess" came as a twinkie. We were much amused.)

And when the House Majority leader happens to live down the street and comes calling in fabulous cowboy garb (methinks he moonlights as a country-western musician), well, its a partay!

Nurse Judy (my other costume concept, Yogi Bear, fell through for want of a bear mask or makeup and clean yoga duds) and Zippy the pinhead attended. And while Zippy did a core dump on health care to the Meriden cowboy, I am amused this morning to find (a) that Rep. Donovan is the House Majority Leader (and somewhat chagrined not to have recognized that last night, I am clueless on state government) and that his state website targets health care for the 2007 legislative agenda:

June 22, 2006
UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE
“The challenge before us is to provide quality healthcare at an affordable price that is accessible to everyone. It is a challenge the House Democrats are willing to take on – I view universal healthcare as a top priority for our caucus in the 2007 legislative session. The time has come to make healthcare available to all Connecticut residents.”

Rep. Christopher Donovan, House Majority Leader

Adding to the angst, a former GF (from back in the day, before a certain major life change, and who I was pretty thoughtless to in terms of breaking up and am mortified at my behavior to this day) was at the party. Thankfully, she is as classy as I am classless, and all went well, and Zippy has another ex of mine to have a crush on.

Before 7:00 AM

I had a package waiting from the Guitar Center when I came home yesterday. Among other things, new tuners and strap-buttons. I spent some time this morning installing the tuners on my old Ibanez. Needed to drill out the holes a bit. I need a little more work, but for the most part, the guitar has been successfully upgraded.

Creative Cocktail Hour

A rare appearance at the Creative Cocktail Hour - I was not planning on going but I got back from my day trip early, and Zippy was planning to go (an even rarer event) to see Bipolar Jukebox so I tagged along. Zippy met Andre the keyboardist at Tai Chi class, and we've seen them at Sully's. Interesting night. Zippy picked up their newish CD, and talked to Andre about the band elements (we recalled sax, missing this evening) - apparently the live band is pretty fluid what with work and life, they were pretty tight and full this evening.

The usual cadre of celebs and characters, I guess - the crowd seemed light at first but the parking lot was packed as we left (apparently some trouble with a Black Audi, condolences if your car got bashed or stolen or caught fire or something). I chatted with some folks, we enjoyed the first set of the band. One of my yoga friends and I compared notes about classes and workshops - she had befriended Andre at a community theater, but had never seen the group, and reported that Andre and Kate are friends and have collaborated, which I had not realized. The world is so freaking small.

Zippy observed that the creative cocktail hour was attended by people on the physical extremes, with a lot of tallish men and women (not counting the tranny's) and a lot of shortish ones. Not sure if thats true or just a fluke of observation. Maybe the tall and short people feel safer at RAW / CCH. Maybe there are just a lot of tall and short people out there, but being social outcasts we never notice 'em.

I partook of the creative cocktail (some vodka / cream / chocolate / kahlua concoction) and was accused of drunkdedness for the rest of the evening. Not entirely without merit, I drink so infrequently that I am a cheap date these days, and I was unusually not driving (thanks MP!) so I felt a little more free to imbibe. We took off somewhat early, 8 or so. Nice night.

Reproductive Rights

I spent a few hours yesterday morning digging through the electrical system of a Planned Parenthood office. I walked in to a vestibule where the windows were all bulletproof glass, it looked like one of those check cashing places in the urban areas - fortified for an assault. Two levels of buzzers to get into first the waiting room, then the offices. Sobering. Those who would use violence against women, the terrorists in a different sort of war, are out there.

I did not find much (sadly) - they had some interference on an ultrasound machine and it's not magnetic fields, it's not electrical. But as I reported my findings, the office manager was relieved. "Two of our staff members are pregnant, and a lot of our clients are as well, and we were worried about magnetic fields". I imagine those who would cast this organization more darkly would not choose to see or hear that sort of concern for life, that sort of reverence for reproduction. I imagine a lot of healthy children come into the world because of the free or subsidized care of offices like this.

I am not a huge fan of abortion. But if we want to reduce the number of abortions, we promote contraception, we teach kids about reproduction, we make safe spaces for women to carry unplanned pregnancies to term, we put in place a safety net for single mothers. The sorts of thing that happen in this office.

As I rolled my tool case out to the car, I stopped back into the managers office. "Thank you for the work that you do here". I do some good things in the world, I like to think. And I am sure my mere existence gets under the skin of some. But my life work does not force me behind bullet proof glass.....

Balmy Morning

There was an old joke out there, perhaps during the first gulf war, perhaps at the start of this one when we were pumped up on machismo and technological superiority. It went "What's the weather tonight in Baghdad? Balmy (bomb-ie)......"

Jokes on us, eh? While words like quaqmire and malaise have been in use pretty much from the start by those opposed to the war, it really does feel like that, these days. Having grown up in the Vietnam era, and watched the few minutes of footage and reportage, the crude maps and graphics of the era, and the body count, the news out of Iraq is damn near nostalgic. Sadly so. 74 dead Americans in October so far.

Fatique is setting in, with the red states trustfully sending sons and brothers and fathers to fight and planning to pull the Republican lever through their tears, and the blue states realizing that there is not much we can do without regime change at home - and focusing all of our energies on ousting every single war supporting senator, congressperson, and town clerk we can get our votes on.

No idea where this came from, I took the dogs out this morning and the mild October morning game me the word Balmy......

Debate Support

I took an hour off this afternoon to camp out at the Bushnell, to support Ned Lamont. Apparently, 200 others had the same idea (OK, the campaign made it an event, with an email and a few calls). It was a remarkable afternoon.

Lieberman Supporters. None. A few campaign staffers skulking, but no signs, no chants, no volunteers. Senator Lieberman himself skulked into the building (we were hoping to greet him) but by the time we got to the side of the Bushnell, his car was parked and he was gone.

Schlesinger Supporters. A handful. Maybe 4-6. I was hard pressed to be sure if they were real or actors - they seemed to be a bit "too" stereotypically nerdy young Republicans. But who knows. They got lots of cheers from the Ned Heads.....

Family. I met and shook hands with Ned Lamont's mother and father. Mom had a Ned Head button on.

Diversity. Bloggers were there, many with cameras or videotapes. But also seniors. Radicals. Men and women in workplace suits. College kids. Blue collar folks. Persons of color. Queer folk.

The Kiss Float. Finally got a good look at it. Humor.

I stayed until Mr. Lamont showed up, shook hands, went inside. Then back to my day.


Photo by Matt Stoller
- I'm in the middle

Some of Matt's Other Debate Photos here

Lamont campaign snapshots here

Southwest Airlines vs. Wright Amendment

Got the following email from Southwest Airlines this morning. I am a pretty big fan of Southwest, on a lot of levels - their flights are on time, their service is consistent, its pretty egalitarian (i.e. - one does not need to be particularly privileged to be standing in the A grouping). They are profitable; my tax dollars are not subsidizing business frequent flyers nor families with screaming kids going to Disney World.

After 27 long years, the Wright Amendment fight is finally over! The Wright Amendment Reform Act was enacted into law, which will ultimately repeal the Wright Amendment in 2014. But now it allows Southwest Airlines to sell one-stop (same plane) and connecting service to and from Dallas to many new destinations across the country, including: Baltimore/Washington, Chicago Midway, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, and San Diego. Now all of our Customers, including those who fly into or out of Dallas Love Field Airport, truly are free to move about the country!

Starting today, Southwest will begin selling one-stop (same plane) and connecting flights into or out of Dallas for travel beginning October 19, 2006.

For additional information on the history of the Wright Amendment and what the Wright Amendment Reform Act means for you, please visit setlovefree.com

Friday Night Lights

Matt Saracen = Hazel and Landry Plemons = Fiver. Or at least, it could go that way......

Bullet Dodged

Heading to Southington this afternoon for a dentist appointment (my third this month, a cleaning / checkup, a cavity, and a refill of some fillings). So I'm sitting here with an aching jaw, the new dentist (former VA dentist) has a bit of a heavy hand on the drill, although he is nice enough.

But en route, the old Saturn with 237,000 miles on it started coughing and gasping. It ran OK at low speeds, it ran OK at higher RPM (4th on the highway) but around 2000 RPM it was coughing, stuttering, feeling pretty bad. The Check Engine light was lit, then flashing.

Turned out to need a tune-up. $300 and change, for sparks, wires, all that stuff - but its back on the road and runs well. I was just thankful it was not something worse. With that many miles, I am waiting for the blown head gasket or worse that would end the car's life.....but, not yet.

Yoga Spam

I moderate comments here, mostly because the SPAM bots and worms have infiltrated blogland, but also because occasionally someone with an axe to grind will decide to be problematic.

Today, I got a comment on a post from back in April. Somewhere in there I mentione yoga. And so I get a comment:

yoga Do you know that in studying psychology anyone who is acquainted with the Sanskrit tongue must know how valuable that language is for precise and scientific dealing with the subject. The Sanskrit, or the well-made, the constructed, the built-together, tongue, is one that lends itself better than any other to the elucidation of psychological difficulties. Need more information? Visit yoga class

The post links in to yoga.publicinformationportal.com, which does not seem to be a commercial site except for 4 fairly discrete google adword listings. A few nominal links to text which seems a bit ethereal but not problematic.

Just goofy. Yoga spam. Makes me wonder if someone has set up a bot or worm to comb blogland looking for places to link in specific subjects - are the revenues from Adwords (which are only billed when one click on 'em) worth it?)

The adwords themselves are amusing - with a "Manifest Piles of Money" headline, and a Kundalini Ringtone, a Krishna Ringtone, and an intriguing IS YOGA DANGEROUS? come on that leads to www.yogadangers.com - which seems to be a Christian based site aimed at beating down the "salvation" competition. Rutro.....

That makes me a double abomination....

Mad Agnes at Roaring Brook

As one gets older, the years start tumbling over one another. I last saw Mad Agnes perform back in November 2003 - nearly 3 years ago. If feels like yesterday. Sheesh.

Adrienne, Margo, and Mark are my own local favorite harmony group - homegrown Roches (except Terre is a boy in this incarnation). As they prepped for a capella numbers, Margo would finger a chord on her keyboard, and joke that you could tell if was gonna be a traditional / cover song (minor key) or a Mad Agnes song (major key) and she demonstrated that about 1/2 the time. A mini music lesson, and funny.

I've loved Mad Agnes from the start - I saw Margo perform solo in the way early years (in my I am recently single and alone so going to folk music concerts is pretty much my entire social life period) and fell in love with her voice, her music, her spirit. And I have followed her through Madwimmen in the Attic (Margo, Adrienne, and Diane, who could have been in the audience at Roaring Brook, not 100% sure and its been years since I have seen here) which I loved, and finally into Mad Agnes.

They were, as usual, in fine voice and technique - they are all wonderfully talented, and its neat to see them trading off instruments (Margo and Adrienne share a bass, Mark bounces back and forth from guitar to dobro to mandolin, and Margo never seems to sit still on one instrument for more than a song - keyboard, guitar, travel guitar). It is overwhelming how skilled and honed they are - I have been listening to the new CD over the past day or so, and so many of the songs are pretty much exactly the same as they were performed live. In a lot of cases, people tend to smooth the rough edges, layer on effects, fill out the accompaniment in the studio. Not Mad Agnes - their live music is lush and perfect, and needs no studio wizardry.

It's funny, Mark seems to have come into his own of late; teasing Margo and Adrienne (and vice-versa), carrying an equal portion of harmony. I enjoyed his leg of the stool as much as the other two this time around. Margo mentioned "Mark has three instrumentals on the new CD" and sometimes that can be code for "we did not have enough content" or "prepare for self indulgence" but really his three tracks are fairly short (1 - 2 minutes) and delicate and tasteful and leave you wanting more. As I listened I thought I would like a whole CD filled with his instrumentals, I could practice yoga to them or just leave them playing in the background of my life.

The new CD is a mixed group of songs. Adrienne's songs speak of a relationship gone south - loss, pain, loneliness, hope (Chocolate, Everything I Needed to Know ABout Love I Learned from My Dog, Black Crow). But also, two pieces on work (Katie and Circuit City) and the eerie and beautiful mood piece Rabbit in the Moon which so perfectly uses the Mad Agnes harmonies and ability to shift temp and mood.

Margo's pieces are also diverse - Green is a self critical / funny musing on jealousy, Voyager is a mystical bookend to Adrienne's Rabbit in the Moon, and Make It Better is a gospel tinged song of hope that DAMN WELL BETTER BE SUNG FROM THE MAIN STAGE AT FALCON RIDGE SOON. (this is what we call aggressive positive affirmation)

Finally, two numbers (and a centerfold of snapshots) pay homage to Mark's mother's place in Maine, where the band goes to recharge, write, relax. A Place This Quiet (Adrienne) is gentle and loving. And In Maine, co-written by Margo and Mark as a birthday gift to Mark's mother on her 90th birthday, brought tears to my eyes - so much love, so much beauty.

I want people in my life like Margo and Adrienne and Mark. They are creatures of light and beauty, they are talented and hard working and hopeful.

Mad Agnes is overdue for some success and recognition. Buying their new CD Revenants when it is available (I picked up a copy at the show, not sure if its available online yet) and going to see them live is a start. And I am officially starting the GET MAD AGNES TO FALCON RIDGE campaign right now.

Weekend Recovery

Without realizing it, the weekend became a busy one. So I am only now recovering.

Friday was Kirtan, of course. Saturday morning was chores and shopping and hanging out, then the 3 hour yoga workshop that my pelvis is still discussing. Then home for sinner and then off to see Mad Agnes (more about them later) at Roaring Brook.

Sunday was balloon chasing - BB took a 4 person family from Southington to Berlin. Champagne and snacks after but no breakfast, then home for some more shopping and chores, then off to pick up MYA for the Rainbow Room. Meditated and more chores while she was there, then fetched her, we did dinner, took her home, and back to the house.

Monday was busy in its own right - work and zapping and a meditation group. And today - work, yoga, dentist appointment, work.

Somewhere there is a woman who has time to do her nails, who can watch television shows, who can find time to have a Second Life or chat online or play Sims or whatnot. But it ain't me, babe......

Susan Forbes Hansen

How does she do it. She was standing at the back of the house at Roaring Brook Nature Center tonight at the start of the Mad Agnes show. She left at some point at or before the break. She was on the air on WFCR (Valley Folk) at 9:00 pm. How, pray tell?

Theory #1: She tapes the show. Not hard to do - you sync your clock, you run through the show live, you roll the tape at the appointed time. It's not like there are traffic or weather updates on public radio on Saturday night. Walt Graham from WSHU would do that now and then for Acousticonnections, although I think he mostly ran live. Giving credence to this, in her concert announcements she mentioned Roaring Brook a few times, and one would think she would mention having just come from there. She might even just tape the first hour or so. In any case, we cleared the NAture Center around 10:10 and she was on the air - we got to hear We're About Nine and Girlyman, pulling our hair out trying to figure out who it was (we've seen 'em both at Falcon Ridge, and I in fact own CD's from both groups, though have not listened to either in a while)

Theory #2: She lives near Roaring Brook and is able to broadcast live from her home. Technologically sound, though pricey. Seeing as she does shows on a bunch of stations, not completely unlikely.

Theory #3: Magic. Or Dimension Drive.

Theory #4: She has a twin. Or a clone.