here you have it

april, where did you go?

thanks to mike...

you are violet #EE82EE

Your dominant hues are red and blue. You're confident and like showing people new ideas. You play well with others and can be very influential if you want to be. Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

it's blustery outside. maybe going to rain, maybe not. appropriate weather for the first softball practice of the year. awaiting the event, i am currently cuddled up on the couch with a warm blanket, trying to type around the cat who is napping on one of my arms, between me and the keyboard. mayhaps waiting her turn.

food and goodness

i am healthy. i think that i am more healthy, in many senses of that word, now than i ever have been before. i am well nourished. i eat good food, organic and vegetarian. vegetables, even! fresh ones, and i know how to cook them. i even eat on a regular basis. my body feels good. i ride my bike. a lot. i commute to work by bike when it's warm and dry enough, which is getting to be about half of the time and increasing as we slide into summer. i am fairly pleased with myself, who i've become, and the direction my life is going to take in the next year or so. my mind feels clear and open.

tonight i got home from work a little bit early because the basic life support class that i have to take to keep up my licensure let out a bit early. since we had some mooshy bananas i decided to make banana bread. i've never made banana bread before, but armed with a copy of the joy of cooking i set to it, altering my plans only to exclude walnuts and to put the batter into muffin tins because i failed to realize ahead of time that i don't actually own a bread pan. what would i ever have done with a bread pan? so as the banana breadmuffins were happily baking away, i remembered that abby and i had gotten some fresh coop strawberries this weekend, in the hopes that some shortcake baking would happen. i must have been inspired by the spirits of my grandparents or something, because after those breadmuffins came out of the oven, i was wrist deep in dough, busy making up a batch of shortcakes. and they were the tastiest shortcakes i've had in years.

memories.

spirits.

now playing:
abby typing away at her grand master project in the kitchen. she got rearended tonight while she was waiting to make a left turn. send her some relaxing thoughts.

stompin'

today i convinced abby to go with me to run some errands. to the mall. bless her soul. long story short, we went to REI so that i could use my birthday money on some awesome backpacking boots. i was a little bit disappointed at the smallish selection, but as i tried a bunch of them on i realized just how different they all are. i ended up getting ones that involved more money and more leather than i had intended, but damn, they fit sooooo nice. i'm going to climb mountains in these boots. thanks, mom and dad.

pictures!

so i was just fiddling with my camera (which abby found this morning in my lunchbox, for those of you who were involved in the search last night) and i decided to put up some pictures i've taken in the last few days. enjoy!

captain abby guides us down the wisconsin river. 4/15/05

mark-the-lab-guy changes the filter. again. 4/15/05

i was particularly enchanted this morning by the flowers that are popping up all around my house. 4/17/05

i call this... *orange flowers.* brilliant. brilliant. 4/17/05

daffodils are my favorite! 4/17/05

happy spring!

EDITED TO ADD:
abby has posted more wisconsin river field day pictures and some pictures from my birthday weekend here. enjoy!

birthday weekend: saturday

wow. that was awesome.

went to the casbah for dinner with abby, molly and paul, and simmi and mike. it was awesome. it was super nice to have a chance to sit and talk to all of them over dinner, which was a little bit more expensive than i had anticipated, but the food was excellent and so was everything else about the place. there was even a guy sitting in the middle of the room playing very soothing guitar music. after dinner, abby broke out her secret weapon of mass destruction cake that was so good that simmi actually started drooling. if you don't believe that chocolate is a drug, you've never had abby's chocolate cake.

after the casbah, we came home to chill for a bit before embarking on the bar scene for the remainder of the evening. we met a whole slew of people at genna's and later headed to the club for free birthday cover and some free birthday alcohol. it was awesome when terri, the bartender, saw my bright purple birthday glowy thing, yelled "happy birthday, bitch!" across the bar, and poured us each a shot of strawberry tequila. another shot of that sweet stuff, a huge birthday flask of coke colored rum, and some very uncoordinated drunken "dancing" later, it was time to call it a night. unfortunately, we had missed a few people who had showed up late to genna's (my apologies to you) but all in all i had a great night, surrounded by great people.

this morning was filled with even more greatness. we slept in until after 11, then met ryan, drew, and asia for breakfast at the fabulous monty's blue plate diner. hot damn, that stuff really hits the spot. so does being stretched out on the couch with sunlight and random quiet neighborhood noises. mmmm.

since i was so indecisive about what i wanted for my birthday, and since i'm going to be storing all my stuff in august and moving to new zealand for a year, my parents sent me a big chunk of birthday cash in the mail. i'm thinking i'll use it to buy some sweet hiking boots and a really nice case to carry my laptop in. both of these things will be infinitely useful for the trip. i wonder if there is anywhere i can get really good quality and rugged hiking boots that are vegan. hmm...

on the menu for today:
*one of my coworker/friends is also having a birthday today, and is celebrating by having a potluck type party at her house. i really should get off of my lazy (and still slightly hungover) butt and go, but it's really nice to be sitting here in the calm and relatively quiet.
*jessie just called to see if i want to go see a band with her at the harmony later. they will be playing while abby is teaching so i think i'll go do that.
*birthday gifts from abby!
*watching the L word at joy and becca's.
*eating the rest of my sinisterly delicious chocolate birthday cake.
*anything i want. it's my birthday :)

now playing:
the downstairs kids playing in the front yard.

yaaaaaawn.

streeeeetch.

aaaaahhhhh.

in other news:
CONGRATULATIONS TO SIMMI who not only recently joined the blogging community, but also landed herself a jobby-job! three cheers for simmi! hooray, hOOray, HOORAY!

birthday weekend: friday

i so totally sunburned my head. ouch. i took the day off of work so i could go out on the boat with abby and mark (the lab guy) and collect water samples fo abby's research. it was really cool to see how the samples are collected, but mostly it was fun just to hang out on the boat all day with abby. it took us forever to get all of the samples dealt with once we got back to the lab. we left the house at 7am and didn't get back until 8:30pm. the only breaks we really got were in the car on the way to and from the river. it seems like i always do more work on my days off of work. but sampling the river and squirting acid into little bottles is way more fun than my job.

then we went to the all the pretty horses show last night and it totally sucked. maybe it was because abby and i had just put in a 13 hour day, maybe it was because it was at union south, maybe it was because NOBODY SHOWED UP. the event was apparently put on by madison's transgender association, who apparently don't know how to advertise. i was downright embarassed that they got such an intense band to come here to play, and didn't advertise. it totally felt like i was in one of those scenes from hedwig where they are playing their hearts out in these crappy obscure restaraunts to audiences of obscure old people. sigh.

saturday so far:
slacked off and slept in while abby went to the gym and back to the lab. as soon as i'm done with this post, i'll probably spend a few hours cleaning. we seem to have an ant problem all of the sudden, and it needs to be taken care of before it gets bad.

later:
dinner with some friends, take back the night rally, party at genna's. you should stop by.

now playing:
bill and ted's excellent adventure

random thoughts in no order whatsoever

so much going on...

someone accessed my blog today by googling for ralph ovadal. creepy. i wonder if he and his cronies have picked up on my homo-happy space.

as i was leaving work today, i contemplated not posting about this for fear of being dooced (also see my sidebar for dooce herself - do not read with a full bladder), but i decided i was going to write it anyway. yes, it pissed me off *that* bad. so today i was minding my own business, when one of my coworkers sticks his head in the room and tells me that someone had called for me. since i very very rarely get personal calls at work, i was on the edge of my seat (never mind the fact that i was not, at the time, seated). "who was it?" i ask. to which he spends a few moments chewing on his ever-present, must-be-a-day-old-already toothpick and mutters, "ummmm, yeah... i don't remember. sounded like they were from a state agency or something. hmmm, yeah..... ummm, yeah, i can't remember." aaaaah! you asshole! it doesn't take a freaking rocket scientist to take a freaking phone message, you arrogant bastard! to completely understand my frustration, you must understand that this is the guy who goes out of his way on a daily (almost hourly) basis to piss people off, and nobody will do anything about it because he's got more seniority than all of our managers put together. he goes out of his way to put trash in the recycle bin, and recycleables in the trash. he hides his coffee in the dark room because it is against the rules to have cups without lids in our work areas. he hides from doing work.... ok, i'll stop now. gah!

nothing makes my frustrations go away like coming home to abby and an evening full of sun. we decided to walk to the park to swing on the tire and hit some softballs. with softball season quickly approaching, i was worried that i had forgotten how to swing a bat. turns out i have not forgotten, and all is well. i even taught abby how to throw the ball up in the air and hit it. so she was hitting and i was fielding and it was great fun. until we switched. the second ball i hit hit the ground in front of her, bounced up, hit her glove, and smacked her right in the face. *doh!* i guess i should have given her a small tutorial on using both hands to catch. oops. she's doing fine though. in fact, i don't even think she'll bruise.

so earlier at work today, there were a whole bunch of anesthesiologists sort of hanging out and talking about a patient that had had a specific kind of cervical cancer. i wasn't really paying attention up until the part where one of them said that a kind of cervical cancer is cause by a specific virus, hence a blood test that detects the virus can also determine whether a woman is at extra risk for cervical cancer. reason number 684 why glad i'm a lesbian is that apparently this virus lives on penises. it doesn't cause penile cancer, it just lives there, gets transmitted to a woman, and gives her cervical cancer. i haven't done any research on this, it was just a conversation that was had today. maybe if anyone has more info, you should leave a comment.

on a side note, i just feel the need to say that molly is great to have around. i don't even really have a specific example, except that if i ever have an obscure question about something related to sex, i can ask my roommate. right here in our livingroom. thank you, a woman's touch, for adding a whole new dimention of helpfulness to my roommate.

the birthday update!
wow. so, uh, my birthday is coming up soon! that's all i've got to say, i guess. anyone wanna go out friday, saturday, or sunday? on friday night, i am planning on going to see all the pretty horses at the union south at 10pm. then on saturday night, i am planning on going to the take back the night rally at the capitol at 7pm. if you were there last year, you will know to bring some sort of projectiles with you this year to take care of the drunken frat boys screaming "rape rules" from the rooves of their houses.

cool stuff you should totally go to:
all the pretty horses 4/15/05
union south, club 770, 10pm
other bands start at 6:30ish, plus a whole bunch of other cool stuff to celebrate transgender awareness week.
"different by nature, proud by choicel."

take back the night 4/16/05
capitol steps at state street, 7pm
because violence and discrimination of every kind needs to be squashed and it has to start with me and and it has to start with you.
"many voices breaking silence demand an end to sexual violence."

ellis 4/29/05
cafe montmartre, 9:30pm
what can i say? *swoon*
"staring down my own reflection, hearing my voice, shedding fear."

girlyman 5/5/05
the annex, 9pm
a totally awesome (physically and acoustically) trio from the east coast who will rock your socks off.
"if you were a storm, this is how you would feel."

see you there!

faith in humanity falling to dangerous levels

dear humanity,

do you really think it's necessary to hunt and kill EVERYTHING?

you can read about it here and here because i just don't have the words.

"I am very happy that a greater number of the public is suddenly concerned about the decline of song birds, game birds, and other small mammals," Wenholz said. "However, to suggest that feral cat predation of these organisms is a significant reason for their decline is quite inaccurate. The destruction and loss of habitat is far and away the primary reason... More song birds, game birds, and other small mammals are likely destroyed by lawn care, including excessive mowing, pesticide applications and other domestic and land practices."

so since humans are an invasive species that have been proven to deplete resources and destroy habitat, where can i sign up to get a permit to hunt them?

sunday, sunday, sunday.

wow. the warm weather has struck. people are in good moods, the birds are back, and so is the sun. yesterday i took to the back porch with a mop and a vaccum cleaner, and now it's a dust and spider web free chill space. when we moved in, we were a little disappointed that we don't have a front porch like the rest of the houses on our street, but since it's on the back, it gets awesome afternoon sun. the only thing i'm a little weary about is rain water. abby's futon matress has found a welcome home here on the porch, but will the porch be so kind? i'm not sure. in any case, it's actually *so* cozy out here that i'm afraid i'm going to be waking up on many nights this summer to find abby, a fan of snoozing in the open night air, sleeping out here instead of with me, a fan of fuzzy warm blankets even in the summer. i guess if this is the only place i'm in danger of losing her, i'm pretty lucky.

in other news: the high school speaking gig went swimmingly well! as you may remember, i was last freaking out about being asked to be a guest speaker to a local high school social studies class to talk about gay marriage. since i'm not an expert at anything, i stuck to the basic legal stuff of what it means to be married and what the terms civil union and domestic partnership mean, especially in terms of wisconsin's proposed constitutional amendment which would effectively ban all legal recognition of same-sex partnerships in this state. so i talked for about 15 minutes and left the rest of the 50 minute class period to answer their questions. at first, they seemed hesitant, but after a question or two, i could hardly keep up. one of them said that they had no idea that civil unions were so different from marriages, another said that they had no idea that this was such a legal battle. it felt good to clarify for them that the same-sex marriage debate is about more than good vs bad, right vs wrong, the bible vs the state. it's about rights, it's about the law, it's about the constitution protecting people.

porch update: the cat just ventured onto the porch and has since been rubbing her face on everything, doing laps around the windows, and mewing. it is very amusing.

it seemed like i was going to write about something else, but i am so distracted watching the cat explore and mew that i can't remember what it was.

on the menu today: eat some food, clean a little bit, bring up the futon frame that abby just found on the curb a block from our house, hang out on the porch.

helloooooo sun.

public service

so i've been volunteering for a while now for a group called action wisconsin. it started last summer when lobby day back in january, and went to a speaker training to learn more about how i can talk to people about why the amendment should be voted down when it goes to referendum. so last week i got a call from aw, asking me to speak to a high school class about the amendment. eek! apparently there is a social studies class at one of the high schools in town discussing the politics of the hour, with an assignment to write a letter to a politician or local publication expressing their opinions on the issue. so i'm going to talk about why the amendment is bad. who is my opposition? the family research institute. i spent most of this afternoon perusing their website and thier publications and am thoroughly maddened by its' content.

no joke. this is their icon. i am having trouble forming words for how frustrated i am.

ohmigawd, i am going to speak to high school kids tomorrow! eeep!