rss
President Obama
Tuesday, 4:30 pm
By Kate
Jan
20
2009
I thought I’d be in a fireworks kind of mood today, but, instead, I’m a blubbery mess. And relieved. And happy. I don’t believe I’ve ever enjoyed an inauguration like this one. My heart was in my throat during that walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, but it was so exciting to see the Obamas responding to the cheering crowds lining the streets.
I wish this day could last and last. All the good will and so forth.
Somewhat annoyingly, Katie Couric has been focused on Michelle Obama’s clothing, noting that she has a great deal of style for someone who doesn’t spend very much money on her clothes. But that’s probably a good thing in these economic times, she opines. But really, how hard will it be for the First Lady to live up to the pressure to carry off her style, etc., etc., etc. Katie makes it sound as if Michelle Obama will be completely done in by 8AM just by standing in front of her closet trying to come up with a stylish outfit every day. Seems to me there are more interesting, if not more important, things to talk about. But that’s our media.
By the looks of things, the mood in Washington is simply ebullient. The city hasn’t seen anything like it a long time. It must an amazing place to be today. But it feels like that in my house, too!
It finally stopped snowing!
Monday, 3:03 pm
By Kate
Jan
19
2009
Well, I think it’s done snowing. Here’s what I just love about the weather forecasts. They all said we’d get from 3” to 6” of snow yesterday and maybe another 1” to 2” last night through this morning. By my calculations, that adds up to a maximum of 8 possible inches. And you know what? The forecasts were so wrong. Not even in the ballpark.
There is so much snow on my deck that Abbie has to stand on her hind legs at the sliding glass door to see over the snow. There’s a good foot and a half of new snow out there.
I haven’t had to go anywhere so I’ve been putting it off, but now I gotta go shovel the wretched stuff. Naturally, the lad is away for the long weekend, so he gets out of shoveling what is probably the last snow storm of his vacation. Unfortunately, I did not make arrangements with the snow plow guy in time, so I have to do it. Possibly, when I do make arrangements with the snow plow guy, it will not snow again for the rest of the winter. It’s a nice thought, but instead it’ll probably snow harder.
I guess I’d better stop putting off the inevitable and go get it over with. Ick, ick, ick.
The Village Brains: Unoccupied territory
Sunday, 1:15 pm
By Kate
Jan
18
2009
This Washington Post article is vomit inducing. Is it possible that Washington DC is that fatuous? Looks like. The reporters, perhaps, don’t even realize how utterly insulting their article is. Or maybe they do. I can’t really tell. The Washington insiders probably have no clue, either. They just know they have a problem: They NEED to dig up some black friends for the new social season. Holy moly.
Birdie pics
Saturday, 9:03 pm
By Kate
Jan
17
2009
This isn’t a particularly good picture of the new bird cage, but it does give some idea of scale. As you can see, two little birds don’t take up very much room in it. Even with a whole lot of toys and things. Check out those brass door knobs. Real brass, Why couldn’t the casters have real brass??!
This is Lucy’s first portrait. Neither of them was thrilled with me poking my head in their cage with my camera. Lucy is the yellow one.
larger drop down image
And here we have birdie love. Dobby is preening Lucy’s head. She could spend the entire day doing that. I’m glad they like living together.
larger drop down image
Waste, waste, waste
Friday, 5:55 pm
By Kate
Jan
16
2009
Since the lad has been home, our electricity usage has gone up quite significantly. December involved Christmas lights and those little things eat up electricity like nobody’s business. But it was something I was willing to consume, although I’d still prefer one spotlight and lots of greenery. I’m still working on my neighbor to go with that idea one of these years. I was less careful with the lights than I was last year, but still more conservative than my neighbor wanted to be. She argued for leaving them on from dusk through 10:00 at night. I suggested 6:00 until 8:30. That’s what I did last year and it didn’t go over so well. We compromised and lit them at 4:30 and left them on until 9:00. And, of course, having an extra computer and a television for DVDs and instant Netflix viewing have added up. Also...I plugged the dorm refrigerator back in. I seem to live quite well without a fridge for most of the year. But with the lad’s cooking frenzy, we needed to keep some things cold. This winter has provided natural freezing, however. I stuck a cooler on the back porch and since the temps have rarely (like two or three times) gone above freezing, everything in it stays frozen solid.
There are days, however, when things go remarkably awry. When I checked the electric meter today, I was floored to note that we’d used nearly 12 kilowatt hours of electricity yesterday. I haven’t used that much in well over a year. I shouldn’t have been floored, really.
This morning I discovered the refrigerator door ajar. And I didn’t notice until this afternoon that the back porch light was still on from our wood fetching foray last night. Just about every appliance in the house was still on standby mode because I neglected to make the rounds to shut them all off before I went to bed last night. That drives me crazy. And on top of that, I discovered that my electric blanket was on when I went to bed last night. It must have been on for most of the day. Abbie apparently stepped on the control button. I have a hard and fast rule that the blanket goes on a half an hour before I go to bed to make it toasty and then I shut it off. Abbie evidently doesn’t appreciate my rule. I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose, but I am also sure that she especially enjoyed lounging on my bed all day yesterday. I should have been suspicious when she was on top of the quilt rather than underneath it. I’ve since moved the control out of her reach.
Yesterday really did little more than reflect enormous waste. I’m struck by how easily it happened, too. A little less vigilance than normal messed up my figures for the entire month. Nuts.
Happy birds
Thursday, 8:49 pm
By Kate
Jan
15
2009
The new bird cage has been assembled and the birds moved in. The process wasn’t without glitches, naturally. The first thing I did was drop one of the casters on the floor and...it broke. While the cage itself is magnificant, the stupid casters are made with a plastic housing. For crying out loud, of all the places to cut corners. Well, determination and desperation being what they were, I broke out the super glue and a roll of duct tape. That seems to have done the trick. I’ll probably replace the casters at some point, but they’re all holding steady for now.
The cage was super easy to put together. And it is substantial in feel. It should last a (human) lifetime. And it really is pretty.
The second disappointment was that no light fixture was included. I had thought one would be, but no. There is a place for one—I have to provide my own. No big deal. I popped over to Home Depot today and picked up a cheapo aluminum worklight, some chain, and a couple of small hooks. And a full spectrum CFL bulb. Cost me $9 and change. It’s fully hidden under the roof, so it doesn’t matter that it isn’t an elegant looking fixture. It works and the birds love it.
So. How are the birds doing in their new home? Well, I introduced Lucy first. She was overwhelmed by all the open space and the couple dozen colorful geegaws hanging all over the place. But when she spotted her heated perch, all was well. She was prepared to settle in when Dobby popped through the door. Oh my word. They have been inseparable ever since. Much time spent nibbling each other’s beaks and preening each other. Lucy curls her head up into Dobby’s neck and lets him preen her endlessly. She is soooo in love.
Periodically, Dobby says he’s had enough of that nonsense and flits around to check out the new real estate. He has poked, pushed, pulled, and tweaked just about every thing in the cage already. He really likes his new home. Lucy is a bit more reserved when it comes to exploring, but she does have her eye on a set of play rings. She hasn’t worked up the courage yet to actually touch them, but she will soon. I can see her bunch up her muscles, preparing to fly over to it, but she can’t quite bring herself to do it.
I have taken a couple of photos, but I can’t find the cord to hook the camera into the computer. The last time I cleaned and organized, I put it away where I’d know where it is. Well, I can’t remember where I put it now. So much for being organized. In the meantime, I’ll fool around with more pictures. The cage is so huge that it’s a challenge to find an angle where I can get a good shot. My house is tiny and this cage is one of the largest things in it. I love it, though!
___________________
In other news...it’s cold outside. Really, really cold. Frigid, even. It’s already down to 3° and there’s a lot of time left for the temps to fall overnight. I heard on the news this afternoon that the temps in MA will range between -7° and -30° tonight. We haven’t seen those kinds of temps in years. The house is staying reasonably warm without burning through a lot of wood. So far. Warming up the house over the last couple of days has helped tremendously. If this weather lasts for much longer, though, I think we’ll close the upstairs off. The lad seems willing to move his center of operations if it means being warm. I don’t want to waste too much wood trying to heat the upstairs when we can make other arrangements for a couple of days. This cold won’t last too much longer, I’m sure. I hope.