Law of threes... great

So, I'm having a string of bad luck, it would seem. Yesterday I left my headlights on, so when I got back to my car, the battery was dead. Moreover, the jumper cables were at home, so I had to wait for DH to rescue me.

Tonight I burned the livin' f$@k out of my left hand. I was baking a pork tenderloin in one of my All-Clad skillets, and it was in the oven for about 35 minutes at 450 degrees. I took it out of the oven, and set it on the stove so I could saute it a bit more, and without thinking I grabbed the handle to shake the pan - without an oven mitt. I've had ice on my hand for the last 3 hours, and it still hurts like a mother.

I probably should just crawl under a rock for 48 hours until this mini-curse passes.

Frickin' A - typing with one hand sucks.

Wii love it

I have to admit that I was pretty skeptical about this whole Wii thing, but it turns out that it's pretty darn cool. I'm addicted to pool and golf, DH is addicted to tennis, and coolest off all, I'm typing this blogpost from the Wii. It comes with the capability of surfing the 'net through Opera, which is pretty darn cool.

This is taking a long time to type, so I'll just end this post abruptly. Wii is cool!

So I guess I know what we're doing on a rainy day

The forecast for this weekend is miserable, and it's really frustrating to have such crappy weather when I have soooo much yardwork to do. But c'est la vie, there's nothing we can do about the weather.

In anticipation of the crappy weather this weekend, and being inspired by our visit last weekend with Steph and John and baby Sarah, DH has decided how we're going to spend the rainy day: he bought a Wii.

This was no simple task. Reportedly he called around to over a dozen places, none of whom had any in stock. He discovered one last remaining system in a little game shop in a kinda icky shopping plaza. When I got home, he had it sitting out on the table, just waiting for me to comment.

I noticed that I had finally gotten my replacement passport first.

In any case we spent most of this evening creating Miis and playing the sports games that come with the system. They're fun, although I must admit that I am rebelling a bit against the whole "get off the couch and move" concept. Not because I'm lazy, but because I wanted to prove that this isn't the great fitness tool it's sometimes extolled to be (it isn't) and that you can be successful at winning the games without running around the room like a crazy person (haven't proven that one yet).

At the very least we figured if we got bored with it we could always eBay it for more than it cost us.

Not quite yet, but almost

Sometimes the news that I read makes me just want to check out of the "normal" life and go off on a sailboat, leaving the insanity that is "civilization" and society behind. I just cannot fathom how reasonable people advocate for decisions that are just so bad. This morning's trigger is an article in the Washington Post discussing the US Fish and Wildlife's internal discussion of whether to demote the manatee from "endangered" status to simply "threatened." Florida's Fish and Wildlife Service has already made that decision (which the article helpfully points out was push through by Jeb Bush appointees).

There may be actual scientific merit for the discussion; being a Fed allows me to recognize that these discussions rarely happen in a vacuum, and that there are lots of other Feds truly devoted to their work - particularly somewhere like Fish and Wildlife where it's pretty easy to believe in your cause. However, being a Fed also allows me to recognize that the current administration, and their political predilictions, do have great power in decision-making. The heads of all these agencies are Bushies; this adminstration has made it clear how they value "friendly" folk rather than necessarily qualified folk (Brownie at FEMA, anyone).

When you see decisions that don't pass the laugh test (manatees are certainly not common in Florida, the boating and development restrictions that have brought them back from the brink of extinction are working/have worked, and the last thing that Florida needs in an age of increasing hurricane activity and ecological sensitivity is more coastal development) being earnestly advocated for, it's just mind-boggling. Frankly, it makes you just want to strike out and see the world (for me, it's the ocean world that is my highest priority) before the dunderheads inside the Beltway make a decision that dooms us all.

Life -n- Stuff

So yeah, it's life. The weather is turning cold for some inexplicable reason (actually, there is a meteorological reason and working for NOAA, you'd think I'd know) and my newly sprouted lettuce and newly planted blueberries are at risk. Work is a total roller coaster; one day I'm twiddling my thumbs begging for work, and then next day I'm inundated with it.

I just got word that one of my grad school professors died. Ambassador Thomas Weston, who worked extensively on the Cyprus conflict, passed away. I had a class with him, and he wasn't a bad professor. Like most of the professors at Georgetown SFS that became professors based on their field experience rather than being professional academicians, he relied a lot on his personal experience as a teaching reference rather than grandiloquent theories. We heard an awful lot about Cyprus as a result. I think the class was Multilateral European Diplomacy or something like that. Anyway, he was too young (only 62), so that's sad.

On the bright side, my absolute favorite TV show ever, Friday Night Lights, just won a Peabody for excellence in television. If you haven't watched this show yet, you simply have no idea about the brilliance you are missing. Next week is the season finale - Wednesday at 8 EST on NBC. Don't miss it!

Guess it's Jersey this weekend for me to visit family and all that jazz. Yippee. I love Jersey. Argh.