Jesse

My brother and sister-in-law weren't incredibly pleased with their wedding photos (Plus, it rained that day, so they weren't able to do outdoor photos as originally planned.) So, they asked Jesse to take some for them. And as always, the man does good work. These are a few of my favorites so far as I am editing.




I think this last one might be my favorite favorite.

Another Favor

I need to do a data analysis assignment, which means I need some data! If you feel like helping me out, follow the link below, take one (or both) of the tests, and then post your results in the comments section (and if you post an anonymous comment with your results, that is fine, but just please state your gender and race with it since I will need that data - or you can e-mail me if you'd rather not post your data in the comments section). Each test only takes a couple minutes. They are really quick.

There are 2 "implicit association" tests here - one about gender and one about race. Each is designed to uncover hidden biases. (Don't worry about sounding racist or sexist if you get high results...the majority of people will reveal some sort of bias.) For me, I show a "strong" bias for associating males with careers and females with family (which sucks for a feminist!!), and I show a "slight" preference for European Americans over African Americans. So there you have it, there are my unconscious biases.

Click here to go to the tests.

Just General Stuff

I can hardly believe October is already winding down. The holidays are sneaking up on me. Pretty soon, I will have to get all of our Christmas decorations out of the attic. Cold weater has a strange way of making me think about house projects. I guess summer keeps me busy outside, so I think about yard projects, then when it gets cold, I start looking around for what else we can do inside. I think the next two projects on the list are new windows and converting the garage to another bed/bath (and then eventually moving the driveway as well). Of course, whether or not either of those get done in the next year depends on how our tax return comes out... However, if early February rolls around and I start blogging about what home project we are going to do, please call me names and leave me dirty notes in the comments section. We promised ourselves we'd wait to do any house project/spend tax refunds until we know for sure what I am doing about grad school. Which makes sense. But it's not very fun.

Anyway, speaking of grad school and job stuff, it looks like Jesse may not be taking a leave of absence after all. When he applied for it, they were saying yes definitely, and then the various supervisors either misfiled the paperwork, or just ignored the request all together, and getting follow up has been really difficult... it's been nearly a month that we've been waiting, and in the meantime, two other employees have quit, which means they are now short on staff going into a major travel season, and it's unlikely they'll be willing to approve a leave. Who knows... it's not the most organized place in the world, but at this point, we are just kind of assuming the leave isn't going to happen, which pretty much puts us back where we started.

As for my job, it's going pretty well. I've been doing a lot of graphic design work as of late, which is always fun. I think I may try to pick up something alongside my regular job and work seasonally as well though. Discounts for Christmas shopping and a little extra cash sounds like a good plan to me. Although I don't really have much retail experience, so we'll see if anyone will hire me!

Horton's rash is finally going down. This vet decided to give him the pill version instead of the shot because the dosage could be better controlled. He still has a few more days on them. The vet listed/warned us about various side effects the pills may have, and I'm glad she did, because otherwise I might be a bit worried. For one, he pees all the time on these pills. And he is also much more excitable than usual, which has been interesting. A couple weeks ago, we had started a little exercise routine together (as in, I do jumping jacks or sit ups while watching tv, and Horton thinks it looks like fun, so he trots all around me and wags his tail all happy and I tell him good boy.) It's generally been fun, but since he started the pills, it has become too much fun for him (as in he tries to hump me while I exercise). The pills are basically straight steroids, so I guess it all makes sense, but needless to say, until the pills are out of his system, I exercise alone.

Abe is just his ancient self. I think he might be starting to lose bladder control now too. Mainly in the mornings, after he's been holding it all night, he tries to make it outside, but it's been getting harder for him. You just clean it up and go on... not much else you can do. You can tell that he is trying and that he knows where he is supposed to go, but his body just won't cooperate sometimes. All in all though, he still seems to be happy and mentally alert, so as long as he isn't in pain, then we are good. He does tug on my heart though. I just tell God all the time that I can't handle ever having to choose whether or not to put him down, so I ask that when it's his time, he can just go peacefully in his sleep, knowing that I love him and it's okay to let go.

Okay, let's think about happy things now.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are on their way. I got to wear a scarf twice this week. I heart Obama and elections are coming up. The house is clean. I have a bag of Dove dark chocolate. Mmmm. The leaves are so pretty. I could have a big cup of chai this evening. Jesse was super awesome to me all week long and gave me all kinds of fun surprises like notes and fall candles. All the leftover ham from Canadian Thanksgiving is finally gone. We have a new furnace that runs so much better than the old one. We got our "mini replica" brick that looks like our real brick that is going into the fountain at the U of N. And best of all, that gives us a really good excuse to someday go back to Kona. =) Ahhhh...life is good.

A Favor

If you are reading this and you have a free minute, I would be super happy and very grateful if you would click on the link below, which will send you to a contest for America's favorite animal shelter. Cast a vote for "Friends of Parkville Animal Shelter". The shelter with the most votes gets some cash. Friends of Parkville Animal Shelter (aka: FOPAS) is the shelter that I walk dogs at and I love this place so much! No kill shelter that is almost 100% volunteer run. Those pups get walks every single morning and every single evening, every single day of the year, and receive full medical care, no matter how major. I have never seen a shelter that takes such good care of the animals before. (Also, here's another plug for anyone who lives in the area - if you ever have old blankets, sheets, or bath towels that you need to get rid of, the shelter can really use them.) Anyway, click and vote and thank you thank you!

Are You Kidding Me!?!

Props to Dale for this video clip.

I don't even know what to say about this - seriously just disturbing ignorance on too many levels to count.



And poor John McCain. If his running mate didn't make his campaign look ignorant enough, it seems his supporters will gladly finish that job. (Not that McCain did himself any favors by implying that Arabs aren't decent family men.)

Surely humanity must be better than this. When will people get it - we are all the same....the exact same.

Better Late Than Never

We finally had our Thanksgiving! Jesse is feeling a lot better, but still has another week or so before his cough is totally gone. Anyway, I put the camera on the table in the living room to remind myself to take some pictures while people were here... and then I forgot all about it. But, we did snap a couple "before" and "after" pictures at least.

Me setting the table... Jesse wearing as much Canadian propaganda as possible. Also, showing me the Canadian themed drinks we bought - Molsen Canadian, and some wine brand called 3 moose because we thought that was a fun, Canadiany kind of name (or at least I did).
Throughout the afternoon, Jesse had a lot of drinks, and then later on, he and another friend busted out the whiskey. After everyone left, I was teasing him, and saying that I was surprised he wasn't feeling (or acting) loopy at all. I told him that I needed him to walk a line for me and touch his nose, at which point he immediately started stumbling around and acting like a drunk, so this is him giving me his best drunk pose. Anyway, for the record, he seemed more buzzed when he and his mother shared some world class margaritas one time when she down visiting.
To all our Canadian family and friends, wish we could have celebrated with you here as well!

Just Every Day Stuff

Well, we are not eating yummy Thanksgiving food with friends right now as planned. Jesse has bronchitis, so we decided to reschedule for next weekend. We also found out he is allergic to cefuroxime (an antibiotic). On top of bronchtis, he is now also itching with a rash thanks to the reaction. So, no bactrim for me and no cefuroxime for him... I should write that down somewhere so I don't forget. Anyway, Jesse has been pretty much confined to the couch for the last few days. I have been making Redbox runs for him and today I cleaned the house, washed all the bedding, and went crazy with the Lysol.

Sickness has been the big event as of late...otherwise, not really much to blog about. They came and installed the new furnace, so the house is officially ready for winter now (though I don't think I am). We also went and ordered some new glasses for Jesse before his vision plan at work runs out. They should be in sometime this week. We still don't really know what is going on with his leave of absence. We just know he should definitely be able to get it, but we don't know when it starts or for how long it is approved for.

Horton is sitting by me, and like Jeses, he is also covered in a rash. Poor dog. We think he may have developed a new allergy because we are having trouble figuring out what is setting this round off. I think we will have to get him a cortisone shot. We try not to do that when he breaks out, but if it goes on for too long or gets really bad, it seems to be the only thing that can bring him relief. He has started itching his hair off in some spots and I feel so bad for him. Abe has to go in for his annual shots this month anyway, so I am going to take them both to the vet this week.

I had finals on Thursday, so I have this coming week off and then it's back for the Fall II semester. Only 3 of these mini-semesters left. That's good stuff.

Well, I guess that's about all of the stuff happening around here. Maybe next post will be more exciting.

My First Ever Political Rally

Tonight, I went to my first political rally. Michelle Obama was in town, so I wanted to hear her speak. It was an interesting experience. I was surprised that as they began, a singer came out and her first song was something about "praise the Lord, praise the Lord"...and then next came some song from camp that I don't care for the tune all that much, you know that song, "You came from heeeeaven to earth...to shooooowwwwww the way...from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high" - that one. Anyway, religious marketing at its finest in my opinion. Then came little talks by local politicians, which were in all honesty, pretty lame because they were all just hype and very little fact or anything. Then of course, the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem, and then a prayer, which was also some very fine religious marketing, as the reverend prayed to the Lord and mentioned "all of the people from different religions" and something about us all being "God's people". I just thought it was really ironic that everything had a decidely "Christian" tone, but this little phrase thrown in there made the people happy. To me, it seemed more insulting to those who don't believe in Christianity that someone would even act like it would be okay to have such blatently Christian things and then pretend as if it's actually representing all belief systems, because it clearly wasn't. Anyway, I was getting kind of miffed over it all, because there was just no substance it seemed like - it was like hoorah hoorah blah blah blah.

Then finally Michelle Obama came out, and thank God she did, because it would have been a cheap experience otherwise. I enjoyed her speech, and she seemed to be one of the only sincere things within miles. She offered a nice mix of personal experience and facts during her speech, and my personal favorite part was when a lady up toward the stage passed out and Michelle Obama just totally stopped the speech and was like "We've got a lady down here! Can we get an EMT and some water?!" and after all the commotion, the lady must have been okay, and Michelle Obama offered some humor about how many times she's fallen over to make the lady feel better. Anyway, while I heard the speech loud and clear, I could barely see a thing besides the back of the people's heads that were in front of me. I wasn't really too far from the main stage, but being only 5'2 (on a good day) didn't really help me out any. I think at one point, I may have seen Michelle Obama's shoulder. I am pretty sure that had I stayed at the rally after her speech, I would have been able to see her up close and personal as she was mingling with the crowd, but I didn't really want to stick around too much later because I was hungry and my back hurt from standing the whole time. Wimp, I know.

Anyway, here's a few pics, though they just basically show a crowd...which is what I stared at for two and a half hours...



Here, I was trying to get a shot of me in my political propaganda for Jesse because he so thoughtfully bought me this shirt. But, I didn't really get much of the shirt in there...I tried a couple times and then stopped because I felt stupid taking pictures of myself. But, for the record, I am wearing some very fine political propaganda.
So, final concensus - would I attend another rally? Yes, but I'd show up late so that I could skip the hype and go straight to the main event.