Month: October 2008

Ladybusiness, News & Politics

From the Department of Duh

Shelly

From ABC News:

Sarah Palin says she doesn’t know why most women don’t support her candidacy or why others believe she is unqualified to be vice president, but she says that makes her determined to keep fighting.

Gee. It might, maybe, perhaps, possibly have to do with her being an anti-choice misogynist. I’m just sayin’…

A message for Ms. Palin: I don’t owe you a vote just because you’re a woman, especially not if you’re a woman who doesn’t believe that other women have a right to privacy and bodily autonomy. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of reasons why I won’t be voting for you.

Oh, and why might folks might think she’s unqualified? Maybe it’s because she didn’t bother to read the job description before applying for the job?

Uncategorized

Split Pea Soup

Shelly

I’ve never been a huge fan of split pea soup. I’ve only had it out of a can, and I really don’t like the sweet flavor canned split pea soup has. But! I bought some dried split peas to add to bean soup, and since I had most of a bag left over, and since I’m out of lentils, and since the weather is finally cooperating, I thought I’d try making split pea soup from scratch.

Mmmm.

I left it really simple, assuming that what’s good for lentils or beans must be good for split peas. Just split peas, some homemade veggie broth, onions, lots of fresh garlic, salt, and diced tomatoes. I let that cook in the crock pot for most of the day, then after the peas were tender, I added sliced carrots and diced potatoes.

Art, Drawings

Cat

Shelly

Tabby Cat
India ink and Neocolors II on 90lb Stonehenge paper
9 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches

This is for a coworker. Whenever someone has a big number work anniversary (20th, 25th, etc.), there’s usually a party and some sort of memory scrapbook. Since I cat sit for her two tabbies, I thought a cat drawing would be appropriate.

Music

Instant Review: J. River Media Jukebox

Shelly

In my seemingly never-ending quest to find the best solution for handling my music and my iPod without iTunes, I have been playing with J. River Media Jukebox.

I’ve been looking as much for a replacement for my beloved, much out-of-date, and long defunct MusicMatch Jukebox (R.I.P.). I’ve been using the same old piece of software for almost ten years, and it was time to upgrade. The problem was, there wasn’t anything out there that did everything I needed it to do. I wanted good, flexible metadata handling (including custom fields), playlists, drag-and-drop adding for folders and sub-folders, flexible multi-column sorting, ripping, burning, file conversion to multiple formats, iPod syncing (with cover art, if possible), and YADB or CDDB look-up. And it would help if it weren’t a ginormous resource hog.

J. River Media Jukebox does all of that. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and am impressed. It’s also free. More or less. I had to purchase an mp3 encoder, which cost US$10. And, for US$40 you can upgrade to J. River Media Center, which will allow you to run your TiVo/TV/sound systems through it, play music through your computer network, and other fancypants stuff, but I’m not really interested. The free version does everything I need, and it does it very nicely.

Pets

Good News Bad News

Shelly

I had to take Harriet back to the vet on Wednesday because her rash came back. I started thinking about the timing. It first showed up after she finished her initial course of post-op antibiotics. And then it showed up again after she finished the second course of antibiotics. Given that (and I told the vet this) the spots were filled with pus, the logical conclusion seemed to me to be an infection of some sort, not hives. And guess what? The second vet diagnosed a staph infection. She probably got it when she had surgery.

Harriet is on a 21 day course of cephalexin, with instructions to get a refill and leave her on it for a full six weeks if the rash is not completely gone in 18 days. I also got a bottle of antimicrobial shampoo for her. I haven’t used it yet, because I wanted to make absolutely sure that she was responding to the antibiotics first. Which she seems to be. The rash is almost gone again, except for a few spots on her knees, where the skin was pretty badly broken open. Those are healing nicely, though.

I would be more upset about the initial misdiagnosis, except that the course of prednisone did kick her pre-existing allergies in the ass. She’s not itching at all now, nor is she chewing her feet. I’m impressed! This is the first time in years that her feet have not bothered her. Now, to see if she stays itch-free after the pred is out of her system.

News & Politics

Grab Ass

Shelly

John McCain and Barak Obama

Just in case there’s anyone out there who has not seen this, I felt it was my patriotic duty to share. Aside from the fact that the man is foul on every level imaginable–and ignoring for a moment the question of why on earth he’s lunging at Obama’s ass–do we have any business electing a man to the presidency who cannot keep his tongue in his mouth? Dude, put that thing away!

Pets

24 Hours Accident Free

Shelly

Last week, Harriet had a bad allergic reaction to God only knows what. She broke out in hives. Because the hives weren’t going away on their own, and because she was starting to develop infections in a few spots, the vet put her on a two week course of cephalexin and prednisone. Prednisone causes the body to retain sodium, so common side effects include increased thirst and more frequent urination. Fun!

When I’m home, Harriet is having to pee about every hour or two. Not a huge problem, as long as I pay attention and don’t get sidetracked. I’m usually a light sleeper, so there’s only been one night so far that I’ve slept through her “gotta go out” restlessness. And I’ve changed my work schedule so that my hours are spread out over six days, instead of four. Even so, Harriet had an accident while I was at work on Monday. Yesterday, she managed to hold it until I got home, which made a full 24 hours accident free. A small but very important milestone!

One more week to go, and then I can hopefully start sleeping again.

(This also partially explains why I’ve been blogging Extra Lite. I just can’t afford to get side-tracked. If I do, I’ll be washing towels until the cows come home.)