Mary

I ran across this the other day.  It is a long but good read. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?em  (This one does not seem to require sign in.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink (Same article, but this link is theoretically permanent--seems to require login though.)

They have re-designed the REI Quarter Dome tent, and it is absolution genius! My biggest complaint with the Quarter Dome we have (the model from 3 years ago), is that there just isn't nearly enough head room. More height would be nice, but what I really wished it had was more side-to-side room. Check out the picture, what they have done with the poles is fracking brilliant! Why didn't anyone think of that before? Why didn't I think of that before?

I guess I should have let Josh recycle the REI catalog without opening it. I want a new tent now.

Mmm... Maggots...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5580825/

This is pretty awesome: Prom outfits... made entirely of duct tape.

http://www.stuckatprom.com

A decision about compost has been made. It should not put me in any danger of eviction or divorce. The first bag is in the freezer already. We'll see how it goes.

http://www.dfwnetmall.com/earth/compost-condo-apartment.htm

I think I'm allergic to something. It seems to affect my eyes for like a week or two in the early spring. I experienced it my junior and senior years at Mudd, last spring, and I'm experiencing it now. I do not remember whether I experienced it while we lived in Evanston. I know I should be careful what I wish for, but I wish it was regular allergies instead. I think I'd deal with that better than I deal with the pain I get in my eyes.

Mostly unrelatedly, except I happen to be remembering it right now, the bridges in Chicago smell like chocolate. There was a thing on the radio a few weeks ago about how the bridges in Chicago smell like chocolate, and Josh and I were, like, "Yeah, right." Then they went on the explain that it is because of this little chocolate factory along the river, and how someone complained and they got in trouble for excessive particulate emissions, so it's getting fixed and now the bridges in Chicago aren't going to smell like chocolate anymore. We thought it was silly and a bit unbelievable... and what with it getting fixed, we wouldn't even be able to experience it ourselves. But then when we were on our way home from Midway, walking from the loop to Oglvie (sp?), past the Lyric Opera House and over the river, I made a comment about how the bridge didn't smell like chocolate, and how I thought it seemed like a pretty tall tale. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when a little puff of wind blew by... and sure enough it smelled strongly of chocolate! It was just one of those perfect surreal moments. So yes, I can personally verify that at least one bridge in Chicago at least used to smell like chocolate, and I was there and I experienced it.

And that's just awesome.

I live where the bridges smell like chocolate.

Maybe next I'll live where the houses taste of ginger bread.

Um... and because I know how to google, you can listen to the radio segment if you want... it's This American Life, and you'll want Act III. http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/06/307.html

Important stuff. Read it. It's your civic duty.

http://iainuki.livejournal.com/108901.html
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/09/legalization-of-torture-an_115945829460324274.html

Am I the only one who increasingly finds herself talking about the news, at home in bed with her husband, and expressing a strongly held feeling about the current political situation, only to stop a moment later and think... "God, maybe I shouldn't have said that out loud?" I don't know what to do, and I am scared.

I enjoyed this article on romantic love

http://www.nickyee.com/ponder/love.html

This is an article about landscape backdrops like the one Josh and I got married in front of at the Kinton Grange! Cool, eh?

We, The Kinton Grange Players, found the backdrop which Josh and I used in our wedding, and another one, when we remodeled the stage for our last performance, "Snow White and the Seven Riding Hoods." Long story short, when we got to the Grange, the stage was boxed in with three little entrances, and we'd gotten fed up with working with them and wanted a real stage with some semblance of wing, etc, so we removed the inner walls and ceiling, and up in the attic, inaccessible without removing the ceiling, were these two amazing curtains... thus we concluded that our remodeled stage is probably much more like the original than the boxed in stage was. They were (and are) in excellent condition, and so old that the phone numbers on the ads (the one we didn't use for the wedding had ads for local businesses) were only 4 digits!

( The backdrop from the Kinton Grange (right before our wedding) )

( The Curtain Rises on Old Vermont )