North to Freedom

FML doesn't even begin to cover it.

elfbabe — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:12:43 GMT

So this morning, as intrepid houseguest Karl and I prepared to head out for a nice day at a Montreal amusement park, our apartment's maintenance guy knocked on the door. The apartment right below ours had just had a bunch of their bathroom ceiling collapse, and our bathroom was of course the most likely culprit. He opened up an area in one of the bedroom closets that led sort of into the wall behind the tub, messed with the plumbing back there for a bit, and decided it wasn't the culprit. No, no, it was the toilet. Great. Karl and I went to the amusement park as planned anyway, since we couldn't do anything and the amusement park DID have working bathrooms, and left poor Duncan (who hadn't planned to come along) to guard the apartment and provide updates.

As it turned out, some section of the plumbing under the toilet hadn't been properly tightened up, leading to 99% of every flush going into the plumbing and 1% going into the floor/ceiling. With the toilet removed and part of the ceiling fallen down, Duncan could actually SEE into the other apartment's bathroom! The handyman replaced the toilet, claimed things were (mostly) fixed and would be all fixed when he came back with some stuff to seal the edge of the toilet properly, and we thought everything was at least sort of almost kind of okay. At least in our apartment. Probably not in the downstairs one, poor bastards.

Until Karl tried to take a shower and there was no hot water. Oh, said Duncan, the guy probably just forgot to turn the hot water to the tub back on. So we popped the cover back off and shone a flashlight around in there... only to notice a trap containing an EXTREMELY deceased mouse that the handyman had apparently thought it was cool to leave back there. As well as some dishes of rodent poison. One of which had been slightly spilled today, tipping a couple of pellets into the closet... a closet that our very mammalian pets have access to.

Oh, and the hot water? The plumbing in the closet didn't have anything to do with it. It's still out, for no apparent reason. In the whole apartment.

elfbabe — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:43:47 GMT

Obama: "Please start obeying the Fifth and Eighth Amendments again, everyone."
Liberals: "aahhhh Obama is the awesomest thing ever aahhhh all of our faith in him is justified"

Our expectations are so low!

My absentee ballot

elfbabe — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:27:20 GMT

Probably boring.

STRAIGHT PARTY
DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLICAN
WISCONSIN GREEN
LIBERTARIAN

FEDERAL
PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT

BARACK OBAMA
JOE BIDEN
(Democratic)

JOHN MCCAIN
SARAH PALIN
(Republican)

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY
ROSA CLEMENTE
(Wisconsin Green)

BOB BARR
WAYNE A. ROOT
(Libertarian)

BRIAN MOORE
STEWART A. ALEXANDER
(Socialist Party USA)

GLORIA LaRIVA
ROBERT MOSES¹
(Party for Socialism and Liberation)

RALPH NADER
MATT GONZALEZ
(Independent)

CHUCK BALDWIN
DARRELL CASTLE
(Constitution Party)

JEFFREY J. WAMBOLDT²
DAVID J. KLIMISCH³
(We, the People)

CONGRESSIONAL
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS - DISTRICT 6
ROGER A. KITTELSON
(Democratic)

TOM PETRI
(Republican)

LEGISLATIVE AND STATE
STATE SENATOR - DISTRICT 20

GLENN GROTHMAN
(Republican)

CLYDE WINTER
(Independent)

REPRESENTATIVE TO THE ASSEMBLY - DISTRICT 59
DANIEL R. LeMAHIEU
(Republican)

SHEBOYGAN COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
JOE DeCECCO
(Democratic)

COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
JULIE GLANCEY
(Democratic)

TREASURER
LAURA HENNING-LORENZ
(Democratic)

REGISTER OF DEEDS
ELLEN SCHLEICHER
(Democratic)

ADVISORY REFERENDUM
COUNTY
Do you support continuing to pay property taxes to finance the bookmobile service?
YES
NO

¹I don't know if they mean this Robert Moses, this one, or another one entirely, because their website says their VP candidate is 22-year-old Eugene Puryear.]

²Crazy Wisconsin-only party, so no Wikipedia page for this guy. I THINK this profile is him.

³Ditto.

PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT
BARACK OBAMA
JOE BIDEN
(Democratic)

Like most people in Canada, I hate freedom and love terrorists.

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS - DISTRICT 6
ROGER A. KITTELSON
(Democratic)

Tom Petri sucks.

STATE SENATOR - DISTRICT 20
CLYDE WINTER
(Independent)

Glenn Grothman has kind of a crappy conservation record.

REPRESENTATIVE TO THE ASSEMBLY - DISTRICT 59
(no vote)

Daniel LeMahieu introduced a bill to take away free birth control for poor 15-17 year olds. Screw him.

SHEBOYGAN COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
JOE DeCECCO
(Democratic)

Bad: Charged the male member of a same-age minor couple who had apparently-consensual sex with assault. The two moved in together with their parents' blessing and had a kid. In principle I disagree, though I could see how this might actually be warranted.

Good: Donated to Russ Feingold, made what I think was a good but tough decision on charging a mom who stabbed a guy who molested her daughter... well after her daughter was safe and the police had been called. Admitted (PDF) a minor ethics violation (sending a re-election press release from work computers), preserved the evidence, and generally comported himself well. On the other hand, ethics violation. But I like accountability in my government officials lately. Eh, I guess he gets it.

COUNTY CLERK
JULIE GLANCEY
(Democratic)

County clerks do a lot of work and people should be nice to them. Unless they are bad and suppress votes or something. But I don't think she has.

TREASURER
LAURA HENNING-LORENZ
(Democratic)

Treasurer is a pretty boring job and I guess if she wants it she should get to keep it.

REGISTER OF DEEDS
(no vote)

Darlene Navis was an awesome register of deeds and no one can live up to her!

ADVISORY REFERENDUM
COUNTY
YES

I like books and do not own property.

elfbabe — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:22:32 GMT

Not fake, I swear.

A political entry

elfbabe — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:08:12 GMT

If McCain is, how you say, unable to discharge his duties at the scheduled debate this Friday, maybe Palin, prepared and qualified as she is, should step in.

I would enjoy seeing that.

Ways to feel dumb

elfbabe — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:43:29 GMT

1. Call Ottawa Wood Pellets to ask if they sell... uh... wood pellets.

For an encore, I plan to call Canadian Tire and ask if they have tires.

elfbabe — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:53:22 GMT

Our noisy screaming stomping non-shoveling downstairs neighbours have been replaced by quiet childless semi-vegetarian mountain bikers who don't have a car but have volunteered to help us shovel the driveway in the winter anyway.

I've never been so happy.

NYT cookie baking trip report

elfbabe — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:36:23 GMT

I am making ridiculously complicated chocolate chip cookies as described in this NYT article and Sean's LiveJournal entry.

- If you can't find cake flour, ask. Pillsbury Softasilk cake flour comes in a box that looks like a cake mix box, has a picture of a cake on it, and at least at my local grocery store, was grouped with the boxes of cake mix.

- Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips are actually bigger and flatter than standard chocolate chips, so I'm hoping they're a suitable replacement for disks.

- You can put your eggs in a bowl of slightly-warmer-than-room-temperature water to warm them up faster.

- Sometimes your sugar won't dissolve in the butter at ALL. This is sad. Maybe my mixer just sucks.

- The people who are around when you make these will get irritated because you have taken over the kitchen to make cookies, but nobody gets any for two days.

The dough is refrigerating now. It's hard to wait.

Great big one

elfbabe — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:45:51 GMT

We're in a motel outside of Cleveland, on our way between Ottawa and Wisconsin. And while I'm not going to give you anything interesting like Niagara Falls pictures yet, I WILL tell you about this.

Me, figuring out where we can get food before hitting the road: "Okay, I figured out that there's a Giant Eagle near here."
Duncan: "...what?"
Me: "After we leave, we can go to the Giant Eagle."
Duncan: "..."
Me: "Giant Eagle is a grocery store."
Duncan: "OH!"

car

elfbabe — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:36:59 GMT

My muffler fell off!

... but not the good kind of falling off where you can pick it up and put it in the back of your car and drive away, albeit noisily. The bad kind of falling off where it's still attached in one place and you can't get it off but it will still drag on the ground.

Yaaaaay.

Pyrop will understand this entry.

elfbabe — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:50:58 GMT

Today, Duncan and I went to a local folk cafe that's closing (for quite horrible reasons, see here) to pick up some of the furniture that they're giving away so he could bring it to his mother. A few other people were also there getting things. One older woman, fairly small but assertive, with salt and pepper hair in a braid, wearing a plaid shirt and turquoise pants and a pair of non-matched dangling earrings with polished stones, told me that she was picking up some of the furniture for her church, which was going to store it until the local Aboriginal Women's Centre needed it.

At this point, I mentally went "Hmm. I'll bet she's a Unitarian." I mentioned this to Duncan as we were out putting stuff in our car. He was a little confused and didn't really see why I was so sure. Then, as we helped her take furniture out to her car - an old, rusting minivan - we saw her two bumper stickers: "FAIR TRADE not FREE TRADE" and "Witches Heal".

At that point it was pretty much certain, but I still asked. She was thrilled that I could tell and we had a nice conversation about being UUs and I'll probably go to church this Sunday. I was already thinking of it because of the shooting, but this is just another reason.

She also showed me a t-shirt she'd gotten when Ottawa hosted the Canadian Unitarian Council meeting this spring - the front graphic was a bunch of rainbow stick figures holding hands in a circle interspersed with maple leaves, and the maple leaves had chalices in them. It was incredibly typical, but in a good way.

Edit: Oh, and the back of the shirt explained what a UU is, I guess so you don't have to pull out your wallet card when someone wants you to explain your religion.

oh god what a difficult decision

elfbabe — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:37:09 GMT

View Poll: the bat-man

This is hard. Help me, internet.

Edit: We bought our tickets - Sunday, 10:30 PM, IMAX. It better be extra-good!

Somewhat-inauthentic rice and black bean burrito filling

elfbabe — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:43:26 GMT

Mandatory ingredients
2 cups (dry) of rice (any kind, but I like using basmati)
4 cups vegetable, beef, or chicken broth, water, or some combination thereof (I use 3 cups broth/1 cup water)
19 oz/540 mL can of black beans (approximately - don't worry if the cans at your grocery store are slightly smaller or larger)
5.5 oz/156 mL can of tomato paste (approximately)
1 tsp each oregano, basil, cumin, coriander
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tsp chili powder (less if you are a wimp)

Optional ingredients
cilantro
chopped sundried tomatoes, regular tomatoes, green onions, bell peppers, jalapeños, nopales, or other vegetabley things that seem interesting
strips of cooked chicken or beef
vegetarian meat substitutes
shredded cheese (jack or cheddar) - shred it yourself rather than buying pre-shredded, the flavour is better
tortillas!

Mix tomato paste, spices, garlic, and broth in a large pot - at least 10 cups. (tip: use the broth to help rinse the last of the tomato paste out of the can) Stir well to break up the tomato paste blobs. Bring to a boil and add the rice, after rinsing if recommended for that variety of rice. Stir again, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow to sit for 12 minutes more. DO NOT LIFT THE LID WHILE THE RICE IS COOKING, YOU PHILISTINE, YOU WILL RUIN IT.

Drain the beans, rinse with hot water, and add to the pot. If you're using frozen cilantro cubes, sundried tomatoes, canned jalapeños or nopales, or other non-fresh stuff AND everyone who will be eating the burrito filling likes them, they can be added at this point. Stir well and re-cover for another couple of minutes to let everything get to the same temperature.

Put filling on tortilla. Add other optional ingredients as desired. Wrap. Eat.

The recipe is pretty easy and takes about 45 minutes to prepare. It keeps and reheats VERY well. As given, it's very cheap, low fat, high protein, and high fiber (and low sodium if you use a low sodium broth)... but watch out for the cheese, meat, and tortillas if you choose to use them, as they can run up the expense and fat content.

Let me know if you make this and what you think.

Science + kids + charity + internet + clicking on stuff

elfbabe — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:42:37 GMT

If you go here, register, and vote before midnight central time on Monday, you can help poor kids look at cool stuff through telescopes.

That is all.

Emo

elfbabe — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:25:17 GMT

I cut my wrists to feel aliiiiiiiive!

Or, more accurately, I do it in the process of installing a window air conditioner so the ferrets don't die. Stupid sharp heat-dispersal fins.

elfbabe — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:10:19 GMT

Whenever researchers refer to multiple-variable analysis of variance as MANOVA, it makes me giggle.

Barfday

elfbabe — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:48:11 GMT

For my birthday (September), I would like the following:

SNOW TIRES SERIOUSLY JESUS CHRIST

I am going to forget this and want something fun like a video game or a cell phone or something like that. Do not let me forget this. Say something like, "Marissa, remember that day when you were supposed to drive down to Ogdensburg and pick up your laptop after it got repaired, but instead you almost got stuck just getting into the parking structure at Carleton?"

Of course, at my current rate, this entry will still be on the front page of my LiveJournal. Maybe that'll help.

Imaginary You

elfbabe — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:10:42 GMT

Last night, Duncan had fallen asleep on the living room floor while I was still up, working on stuff on my laptop and sitting on the couch. Then he woke up.

Duncan: "Look behind imaginary you."
Me: "... look behind... imaginary me?"
Duncan: "Imagine that you played that tune for a gathering of imaginary animals. The idea is that you played a bunch of chords that are used very commonly in..."
Me: "*starts laughing*"
Duncan, very irritated: "NEVER MIND..."

Now I'll never know how to entertain the imaginary animals. :-(

Threesels

elfbabe — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:26:27 GMT

In an attempt to keep Roxy happy and healthy in the absence of her former cagemate Sassy, we got two ferrets from the local ferret rescue this past Sunday, Laurel and Hardy.

Unfortunately for a pair with such cool names, they are named in reverse of what they should be, as the names got switched at some point early in their care and stuck like that. So Laurel is a large, hefty guy and Hardy is a little skinny one.

They're really cute. Pics are here.

elfbabe — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:47:50 GMT

Sassy died, last night or this morning.

She was the healthy one, and we weren't expecting it at all.

So much snow. So much fucking snow.

elfbabe — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:40:52 GMT

Nicknames

elfbabe — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:26:42 GMT

Duncan has begun referring to the two distressingly noisy children who live below us as "Run and Stompy".

Sometimes, I am reminded of exactly why I love that boy.

Further bulletins if wolves after me.

elfbabe — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:43:02 GMT

Reason number n of m to avoid moving in the winter:

Your asshole soon-to-be-ex-landlord might realize that he can get away with turning the heat down below legal minimums if you're leaving in less time than it takes to file a complaint.

Numb fingers are not very compatible with packing.

elfbabe — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:05:52 GMT

Duncan had his (impacted and fused-into-jaw) wisdom teeth removed today. He's still bleeding an uncomfortable amount, so we took the advice of several dental-office websites and used two moist teabags in an attempt to stem the bleeding. The combination of the swelling, the mouthful of tea bags, and the dangling strings makes him look like some kind of terrifying tea walrus.

The following is copied directly from the notepad file he's been typing into instead of trying to talk.

COO COO KACHOO

Another installment of "food and drink being used for its unintended purpose" tonight on BBC.

This is fucked up! All I can taste is tea and blood!

It's like some weird british horror film.

I suspect this is something like the zombies in Shaun of the Dead.

"Cuppa?" "Yes, please. *sip* BRAAAAAIIIINNNNNS"

HOLY SHIT ITS GETTING WARM. I AM BREWING TEA IN MY MOUTH OH GOD.

Hey, that swallow wasn't so bad. I'm serious, I am ACTUALLY BREWING TEA IN MY MOUTH WITH MY OWN SALIVA AND BLOOD.

Also, pictures:

elfbabe — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:49:43 GMT

(malerin inquired about how Duncan is doing, and if he is "still hot")

Malerin: I'll bet you I still think he's hot. I totally lusted after him! You are a licky lady.
Malerin: Er. Lucky.