Some of the states will be more funny to West Virginians than others, but all in all it’s awfully funny.

(via Not My Blog)

That is definitely an obsolete word.

Wet. Very very wet.

I took my camera down to watch the fireworks, because I want to play with the settings and see if I can learn to get nice pictures.

Didn’t even bother to get it out, it was so wet. Although part of me wishes I’d gotten a picture of everyone standing under umbrellas, watching the fire works.

But besides the wet, it was a good day. Crowded hot and humid in the house, but my aunt and uncle were visiting, and our friends Del and Kathy stopped by. And the food turned out well.

All in all, a good day.

As Kat has been hogging all the Friday Cat Blogging recently, Kit apparently decided she needed to make up for lost time.

Kit decided to sit (or lie) still for once, and let me get a decent picture.

When Susan left on Friday, she and Michael attempted to smuggle Kit into her bag. Grandmom’s opposition (as well as a probable issues with the TSA) stopped this plan.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Rules for Flying the American Flag

We met my brother and his wife at Parkersburg, and then continued together to Ripley. Most of what I ought I either bought right way or saw right way and bought later. My only mistake was not buying the dark blue hanging glass globe first thing, because I had to settle for a lighter blue one when I went back.

Michael somehow ended up with the camera while we were at the fair, so I only have a couple pictures.

The GPS says we’re off the road!

Because we were in the middle of a field.

Some of the sights in downtown Ripley.

We may have spent five hours driving today, but most of the trip looked like this.

Home. Made. Chocolates.

When I opened the package the cold packs had warmed, so I put everything into the refrigerator without looking at it. After dinner (and dessert–the last of the chocolate lava cakes) and getting my printer hooked up (my parents came over last night after dinner, for dessert, and we ended up trouble shooting computer problems for my mom) I went to the fridge to pull out the chocolates.

I am not worthy.

They’re in individual boxes! With paper ribbons! My eyes are tearing up just writing about it!

I haven’t even opened one yet, because I am stuffed from dinner. These chocolates requires that I savor the entire process from opening the package to eating the chocolate, and that’s just not something that should be done when one is uncomfortably full.

Meanwhile, I think I am lightheaded and may need to go lie down for awhile.

I sent out the address book. If you ‘d like to add more information to your entry (like birthday or something) e-mail me that information I’ll send out the address book again later this week or early next week.

And my birthday gift to myself? A color photo printer. I can’t wait to start playing with it! Think about all the awesome flower pr0n I can now share with non-geek friends!

Well, there are two reasons behind it.

First, as many of you know, I have suffered from depression since I was sixteen.

Second, my grandfather died days before my fifth birthday.

I know. Michelle, you’re thinking, that’s really depressing. Are you trying to relive your childhood or something to make up for past misery?

As amusing as that idea may be, no. See, it’s like this. After my grandfather died, my family made sure that his funeral would not be on my birthday. My memories of my 5th birthday are that I got an InchWorm and had a Holy Hobby ice cream cake. In retrospect I can see in my memories that people didn’t seem as happy as they usually were, but it was my day, and I had a great new toy (I have *no* idea how my parents got the inchworm from Baltimore to Morgantown, with a 5 year old, a new born, and a dachshund in the back of a Volkswagen bug, but that’s a subject for another time.). The point is that despite everyone’s misery, they made a point to let me have a happy birthday.

What I have learned from this, as I’ve grown older, is you have to take joy wherever you find it. Little things or big things it doesn’t matter. From checking the mail to new flowers to growing a year older, there are always things to enjoy, if I only stop and think about them.

Yeah, some days it’s hard. But the thing is that happiness can be a routine just like anything else. Even on days I’m feeling bad, I can feel my spirits lift, even if it’s just a little, as I go to the mailbox. Because until I open the mailbox and sort through the mail, anything could be there. A check, a new magazine to read, a letter. So how can I not be happy at the possibility of something good awaiting me? And if it’s a bill? I can be happy that we have enough money to pay our bills and live without worry.

Is this a foolish way to live? Perhaps. But I think it’s better than the alternative.

So if you feel up to it, do a little happy dance for me today. Just a small one. And if you make someone else smile, then you’re doubling the amount happiness in the world, even if just for a few moments.

Ilya
Tania
Anne
Tom
Nathan
Michelle
Jeri
Janiece
Vince
Shawn
Kim
Jim
Matt

If you want off, or have a secret restraining order on someone else on the list (like Nathan “Naughty Old Man” G.), let me know so I don’t give out your information. If you want on, e-mail me your pertinent information.

Happy Canada Day!

Please enjoy your celebrations. I don’t mind sharing my day with our Great Enemy to the North. And if you decide to hold a parade or have fireworks for me, that’s fine too.

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

YAY! YAY! It’s my birthday!
Time to do the birthday dance!
Time to sing a birthday song!
It’s my birthday! It’s my birthday!
La la la la la la la!

I’m having molten lava chocolate cakes for dessert, with fresh whipped cream and strawberries!

Awesome day for MEEEEEEEE!

So if you’d like your address shared with the rest of us crazy people, send me your address, and then I can send out the addresses to everyone who wants ‘em.

Lemme know in the comments if you want the address book and if an Excel file is an acceptable format for the addresses.

If you’d like your email address added to the list, e-mail me.

Boy were they excited!

But wait!

My dad came over and said, “You got a package delivered to our house. I know nothing about it.”

So I open it up and…

CHOCOLATE FROM VINCE!

Apparently I do have special powers!

(via Nathan)

I’ve actually had Andie MacDowell come up before in a features match.

(via Shawn)

decimate \DESS-uh-mayt\ verb
1 : to take or destroy the tenth part of
*2 : to cause great destruction or harm to

We’d been talking about Robert Parker’s Spenser books, and I remembered a throw away line where Spenser is sitting in an hotel room watching the news, and he notes that the anchors voices get deeper as the evening progresses, and if the trend continued, the midnight news would be read by… and there I blanked.

“Who’s the guy with the deep voice? He was around before and after the Civil Rights Movement maybe? I think one of his names starts with an R? Ro…? Ro…? Ro…?”

No one knew. However it came to me coming back from the airport.

Paul Robeson!

Unfortunately, I apparently had trouble keeping track of what I had already ordered.

Thus…

Is anyone interested in a copy of Steampunk edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer
or
A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon a mystery in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series.

Cuz I’ve got two copies of each. Haven’t read either book, because I’ve fallen behind on my reading. However, the previous books I’ve read in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series are excellent. Assuming you’re interested in mysteries set in Venice.

Anyone want these books? Let me know. First come first served.

Michael is 5′ 10″ if that gives you some perspective of how tall this plant has grown.

Here you can see the whole plant, and you might also notice that Michael didn’t get the supports up fast enough, so there is an “S” curve in the lower part of the stem. So theoretically this should be even taller.

Which is nuts.

Wet and wild hydrangea flower.

Astilbe. I still can’t get a really good picture of it. Next house, any porch/deck supports will be a neutral color, so as not to clash with my flowers.

The flowers on the Butterfly bush are so heavy that they’re now horizontal instead of vertical.

Susan is here for a weekend visit, because she came in for the retirement party for one of her professors. She was gone to the party most of the day, so I was thinking I’d get some things done during the day.

No, not really.

On the way to the grocery story, I asked Michael if he wanted to stop by Best Buy and look around.

We ended up buying Michael’s (early) birthday gift.

It was clearance time for laptops. And for the model Michael liked best he was available to grab the floor model for an even bigger discount. I tried to tell him that we’d have to put the laptop away for a month until it was really his birthday, but as you can see he was having none of that.

By the time we finally got home from shopping, Grandmom was starting to wonder what had happened to us, since we said we were going to take her to the pharmacy to get her prescriptions.

Just as we’re getting ready to leave, there’s a knock at the door, and it’s my brother!

So he visited for the afternoon and evening (Michael kept running out of the room to check the updates on his new computer.)

Pretty awesome Saturday, ‘eh?

Including the final book in Sarah Zettel’s Camelot series, which is NOT available in the US. AWESOME!

Little (Grrrl) Lost by Charles de Lint
Dingo by Charles de Lint
Double Feature by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly
Camelot’s Blood by Sarah Zettell
Territory by Emma Bull
Salon Fantastique by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Woo Hoo!

I may be in and out today. Or I may not.

Make yourselves at home in the meantime.

(Shamelessly stolen from Eric)

(Because)

Luckily for me, there is a key to my office here, I just had to borrow a key so I could get into the locked room where the spare key to my office is.

Let’s hope that’s the only thing that goes wrong today, or my class this afternoon might be ugly.

While we’re waiting for those, please go over and congratulate her!

Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get pictures after her next ultrasound. (HINT! HINT!)

Dingo by Charles de Lint
Territory by Emma Bull
Double Feature by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly

(B)reasts move on three different axes: from side to side, front to back, and up and down. The most motion is generated on the vertical axis. Naturally, the bigger the breast, the more momentum it generates. “Let’s face it—if you’re a double-A marathoner, you’re probably not going to get that iPod up and running,”

However, here’s something that isn’t fake, and why I was willing to believe the ball girl video was real.

Parkour and free running.

I can run fast, but not so good at lying still and playing dead.

(via Jim)

Just as an exercise in clarifying my own beliefs, I went to a website that listed the candidates positions and platforms, copied their list of important issues, and then filled in what I believe.

It was an interesting exercise, and I highly recommend it. Reading it you’ll learn something about me. Doing it on your own, you might learn something about yourself. (I, for instances, learned I have absolutely no opinion about “Infrastructure.”)

And if you want more of a why than I provided, feel free to ask.

Where I Stand on the Issues

Abortion
I believe that killing a fetus after two weeks is murder. However, I think a greater evil is wasting time arguing about the subject instead of doing everything possible to reduce incidence of pregnancy. I think money should instead be spent upon sex education and access to contraception. Additionally, killing another being in self-defense is not murder.

Energy & Oil
We should have started major research into alternative energy years ago. We also should have been working on alternatives to the automobile, and what it’s going to take to get people out of their cars and into public transportation. We need to focus on alternate energy sources, preferably ones that don’t pollute or damage the environment.

Homeland Security
In the name of freedom, we have somehow managed to restrict freedom. There must be some way to enhance public security without making travel onerous for the average individual. Safety and security are important, but they must not come at the cost of civil liberties.

Budget & Economy
The government should work with a balanced budget. Borrowing against the future and passing on the debt to future generations is simply irresponsible.

Environment
Safe-guarding the environment should be one of our primary goals. Climate change as a result of man’s activity is no longer in doubt. Much as we should not allow future generations to inherit our debt, we should also not allow our children to inherit a degraded environment. This means supporting alternate energy, non-polluting methods of transportation, and supporting individuals and companies that take steps to become carbon neutral. I would also like to see programs that discourage individuals from living in sensitive areas, including wetlands, barrier reefs, beaches, and other areas that serve to regulate water. I am also opposed to Mountaintop removal and clear cutting and others industries that cause great damage to the environment for a small harvest of natural resources.

Immigration
Two of my grandparents were first generation Americans. A third was an immigrant. We have a big statue in New York/New Jersey that talks about taking in the poor and downtrodden. America has no place being an elitist country that allows only “preferred” individuals in. Yes, there are unsavory individuals that we do not want to allow into the country because they are a threat, but keeping such individuals out should not stand in the way of allowing those who want to come here and work to do so.

Campaign Finance
If the campaigns didn’t last for FOUR YEARS campaign finance wouldn’t be as big a problem. First and foremost I think primary elections should be pushed back into the spring, and regional primaries should replace the helter skelter system we currently have. Additionally, I would like to see businesses and corporations out of the funding of political campaigns. Campaigns should be funded by individual donations, not corporate donations.

Families & Children
Families and children need access to health care. Parents need access to affordable day care, and the ability to take time off when their children are sick. I would like to see an initiative that encourages Senior Centers to become involved in after school day care for the benefit of the seniors and the children.

Infrastructure
I have no idea.

Civil Rights
Centuries of racism and segregation cannot be undone in a handful of decades. It is nice to believe that the US has moved beyond racism and has created a world where anyone can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Unfortunately, this is not so. Combating racism is important, but to continue equality we need to wipe out the poverty endemic to so many areas that feeds upon racism and continues a vicious circle of poverty and desperation. We must put resources into the communities to clean up crime and make sure education is truly equal, for the rich and the poor. Until we can do these things we cannot say that we have truly beaten racism and that we truly have a free and equal society.

Foreign Policy
America’s arrogance in assuming that we know best in all situations has caused a shift in world opinion from the shining city upon the hill, to a bully and oppressor who believes that their way is the only way. We need to recognize that we do not always know best, and we cannot dictate the actions of foreign governments. We have an embarrassing past of attempting to topple foreign leaders when we did not agree with their economics and their politics. We need to recognize that we have made mistakes in the past, and we must take the time to learn from those mistakes. The US has much to offer the world, and much for which we should be proud. But we need to allow countries to make their own economic decisions, even if those decisions may negatively affect us.

Iraq
We never should have invaded in the first place. Someone needs to stand up and say, “We made a mistake. We never should have invaded without the same level of support we had when we invaded Afghanistan.” Then we need to suck it up and talk to the other countries in the middle east and work with them to solve the problems that we have created in the region.

Corporations
Corporations are amoral entities and should be treated as such. CEOs should be held criminally responsible for the actions of their corporation. It should be assumed that businesses will look to their bottom line first, and screw the consumer and their employees whenever they can, and regulations exist and need to exist to keep this from happening. Caveat Emptor has been the way of the world for the past couple millennia. The government needs to keep a reign on corporations to keep them from taking advantages of consumers and employees.

Free Trade
We should trade with anyone who wants to trade with us. However, if we import goods from countries that do not provide their employees with health care, a tariff should be placed upon those goods, and used to help fund health care in the United States. If a company does not pay its employees a living wage, then a tariff should be placed upon those imported goods and used to fund poverty fighting programs in the US.

Principles & Values
Individuals should be trusted to make moral and ethical decisions. The government has no business legislating the morality of individuals. Religion has no place in legislation.

Crime
We need to recognize that placing individuals in prison serves only to entrench them deeper into crime. Although there are individuals who are a danger to society, many criminals who end up in the criminal justice system could be rehabilitated if the system could be made to work. Juvenile detention programs should be required to switch to a rehabilitation system. Although the short term costs of such systems are more expensive, their ability to reduce recidivism will save money in the long run.

Government Reform
Make politicians spend time doing the work of the government rather than running for reelection. Remove the influence of corporations and special interest groups by keeping these groups out of the halls of government. This starts with campaign reform, and continues through limiting the revolving door between special interest groups and government service.

Social Security
Don’t touch it! Don’t look at it! You’ll just screw it up! Look at what was done Medicare Part D for God’s sake!

Drugs
Legalize them all. Then place an exorbitant sin tax on them that will be used to fund treatment and rehabilitation programs. And that sin tax should include alcohol and tobacco. Legalizing drugs will solve multiple problems including overcrowding of prisons, the hold of gangs on many inner city neighborhoods, the danger inherent in drugs of unknown quality and unknown substances added into those drugs.

Gun Control
Checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those who have been involuntarily committed are imperative. Otherwise, people can buy whatever they want, but I’d like to see a small tax placed upon those purchases to fund gun safety classes in schools throughout the country.

Tax Reform
Like it or not, if we want to spend money we have to pay taxes. The problem with strict sales taxes is they place a greater burden upon the poor, who spend a greater percentage of their income upon taxable goods and services. If a family is living paycheck to paycheck, placing the burden of the common welfare upon the goods they need to survive is unjust in the extreme. Those of us who aren’t living hand to mouth just need to suck it up and take one for the team, so to speak.

It’s interesting to see who is coming from where and how often (Nathan, you’re my biggest referrer right now, but I have lots of links in from the UCF. YAY!).

But it’s also interesting to find new blogs who are linked here.

Book Fetish
Hillbilly Savant
Mythusmage Opines
Useless Drivel

I really don’t see myself visiting Useless Drivel, as the first thing I read was a pro-Bush post, but there you are!

However, that’s about all it doesn’t mention.

I didn’t even have to open the e-mail to know what the sport was.

Here’s to hoping temperatures aren’t as hot this year.

For anyone interested, I’ve got a nice pale crescent moon scar along the side of the finger, but other than that, no ill affects. And really, with my hands, one more scar was hardly noticeable. I had trouble bending the fingertip initially, but the scar tissue loosened up within a month, so it’s been fine since then.

However, every time I go to cut onions, Michael asks, “Do you want me to do that for you?”

Vaccinations are a subject that have been a hot button issue for me for awhile.

More and more parents are refusing to vaccinate their children, seeing it as a personal choice.

Unfortunately, it isn’t.

Vaccines are central to public health. Yes, they provide immunity to the individuals who are vaccinated, but they also provide herd immunity, which protects the community at large, including individuals who are incapable of being vaccinated, or for whom vaccines don’t work: individuals with immune disorders or with suppressed immune systems.

Herd immunity is actually an interesting thing. If you have 100 people, and none of them are vaccinated, when an illness hits, the illness will spread through the populations affecting everyone except with individuals with some sort of natural immunity.

However, if those 98 of those individuals are immunized, the remaining two individuals are also protected, because those around them will not get sick.

But if fewer individuals are immunized, say, 75%, then the disease may be able to get a foothold in the community, and those two individuals who cannot be immunized are now at serious risk for getting ill. And it is those individuals who can’t be immunized or for whom immunization isn’t effect, those are the individuals who are most likely to be severely affected by the disease.

So when 23 of those 100 individuals refuse to be vaccinated, they may actually cause the death of the two individuals who were unable to be immunized. Of course they may cause their own serious illness or death as well.

But that’s the point of public health.

And interestingly, parents refusing to vaccinated their children was not what the article was primarily about.

What the article was promoting was for parents who had concerns to talk to their pediatricians about alternate vaccination schedules.

Right now infants and children tend to multiple vaccinations in a short period of time, including single vaccines for multiple illnesses (like DTaP and MMR) I received the DTaP vaccine last year, and I have to say it was pretty miserable. I had no problems the last time I received a Tetanus vaccine, but the combination vaccine was harsh and made me pretty miserable.

I think physicians are in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t position here. When the vaccines are spread out, children are more likely to miss vaccines. But giving children multiple vaccines at once makes the children miserable, and may cause problems in limited individuals.

It seems like pediatricians should be able to offer parents a choice. Because vaccination is something that is mandatory for a reason. And doctors should be willing to work with parents to allay fears for their children, and if that is using an alternate vaccine schedule, then lets make it as easy as possible for those parents.

Of course

Pretty awesome, ‘eh?

Part of that is because it’s been raining so much, but another part is that masses of flowers seem harder for me to photograph than a single flower.

Ah well.

I must have taken 40 shots, trying to get some hot bee on flower action. But alas, this is one of the only pictures that turned out half decently, and there’s not a bee to be seen.

But it is nice to see all the bees and butterflies hanging around.

This is a different cultivar of coreopsis. I love how the greenery pretty much wipes out anything (weeds!) around it.

Although these too may need thinned lest they take over. I need more flower beds!

Finally! After two years of nothing, a hydrangea bloom! It will get bluer as it grows. This is WV after all, and we’ve got nothing if not acidic soil.

Astilbe. This seems to be doing much better since I moved it.

Daylily. This is only a single bloomer, so I have to enjoy it while I can. I’m also going to see if I can fix the overly blue color cast with photoshop. I mean, I’m not living in Kentucky!

For now, however, here is how my garden has progressed since early spring.

The front garden in Early April

Front Garden Late April

Front Garden Mid May

Front Garden Mid June

Everything is pretty filled out now. The day lilies (which badly need thinned) will bloom through the summer. Other plants will start to bloom soon, so I have a garden which blooms from April through September or October.

I opened the mailbox and GOT LOOT!

I got a postcard from John the Scientist from Paris:

Of course I can’t send him one back unless he deigns to send me his name and address. :)

And I got an AWESOME pair of earrings from Jeri!

There are few small joys in the world like going to the mailbox and receiving something unexpected.

Thank you all so much!

We finally ordered a new wood stove (back in April I shattered one of the glass panels on the old stove, and it really was not worth trying to repair). We went to a local business that sells pools and wood/gas stoves, and ordered a Vermont Castings Encore. Compared to the old stove, this thing will be amazing. Burn time of 10 hours, swing out ash pan, it can be loaded from the front AND the top, and it has a griddle on the top for cooking if you so desire. Plus I think it’s about a third the size of the monster we have right now. AND it’s the cleanest burning non-catalytic stove, which was also an important consideration. So that was more than the stimulus check for the deposit, and then another thousand in August when it arrives, and then installation. BUT this should heat the basement–and the rest of the house–much more efficiently, and with a whole hell of a lot less smoke.

Then if that wasn’t enough, I bought shoes for Kim’s wedding in September in Wyoming. (TRAIN RIDE!) Now, you have to understand that I hate shoe shopping, and I have a hard time finding shoes that are comfortable. So I went straight to the lady who specializes in comfortable shoes, and found a shoe I liked straight away. It’s leather, it’s black, and it has a heel, but it’s also comfortable enough that I should be able to wear it again and again (even with a pants suit).

Of course, I’ve now paid three times as much for the shoes as I did for the dress, but there is nothing worse than hurting feet to ruin a good time. And as I said, I can wear ‘em again.

Then since I hadn’t apparently spent enough money, I got a new pair of work shoes.

Of course both pairs of shoes had to be ordered, because she didn’t have my size in black (I tried on a different color) but since the wedding isn’t until September, I’m okay. And that meant I only had to pay half for those as well.

And OMG! The website has an AWESOME pair of boots! Want! Want!

So now I have spent a disgusting amount of money. But I’ll have wood heat in the winter, and an awesome pair of shoes to wear at the wedding and onward form there.

First I must walk over to the water bowl. Then I will walk over to you and bonk your leg with my head. Then I will walk away, then I will walk over to you and bonk your leg with my head.

BUT DO NOT PET ME!

Yes human? What do you want? You don’t like my bed? Why do you keep nattering on about spending money to buy a real cat bed with lambswool. I like this bed.

This ad has been sitting on top of paper boxes ALL WEEK.

(I do and was able to direct her accordingly.)

Nor would I be nearly as thankful for Arkansas and Mississippi as I am now.

When Chief Justice Rhenquist spoke here several years ago, he said the state was very lucky that Virginia had never challenged our statehood, because he wasn’t sure the cause would have held up in court.

Yet, despite everything, I fiercely love West Virginia.

Yes, we’re a poor state. Yes, we’ve got lots of problems. Yes, there are places in the state where ignorance thrives.

Yet the people are kind and generous.

In college I was riding around in the woods with my friend Andy, back from where we all would go camping on a regular basis, when he managed (through a series of unfortunate events) to destroy the battery in his jeep. We ended up not far from the kind of place that makes out-of-staters think of “Deliverance” and out in the yard was one of the biggest men I’ve ever seen. We explained the situation to him, and he went over to one of the trucks in his yard, pulled out the battery, handed it to Andy, and said, “Y’all go get a new battery, and just bring this back when you’re done.”

He wouldn’t take money or anything else. So we went to town, got a new battery, and then took his battery back to him.

Those are the kind of people you meet here in West Virginia.

If I get in my car and drive in any direction, within fifteen to twenty minutes I’m surrounded by trees, with houses few and far between. Sure, I’ll eventually come to another town or city, but for the most part you drive through woods, with shade and cool temperatures in the summer, and spectacular color in the fall. Even living in the center of town as I do I walk out on my front porch and see trees–most of the steeper hills in town are still wooded; it hasn’t been worth the effort to try and build on those hills, though I fear that may change in the near future.

And so despite her faults–and I admit we have many–I love this state, and am proud to live here.