Thursday, September 30, 2004

Read Fafblog's post-debate pre-debate. It's exactly how I think this debate shit is going to go. I think Krugman is right; it doesn't matter how well Kerry does tonight, the Republican-run media will convince everyone Bush did better.
Rain, rain, kiss my ass. Seriously. One of the few benefits of living up here is that don't have to deal with hurricanes, so Jeanne should take her worn-out rain someplace else. Bitch better step off right now.

Hi. So yeah. I've been busy at work. It's what we call "crunch time" here at the office, because calling it "gritting your teeth, tearing your hair, and mainlining candy to keep up the frenetic pace" is kind of a downer. However, we are getting free lunch tomorrow.

Tonight is the first of three presidential debates. Since I physically can't stand watching or listening to our nation's current leader, I had plans to watch The Daily Show's live coverage at 11 tonight, but it turns out the nice rock show I am planning to go and see starts at 10. So something has got to give. Probably the TV/politics. The rock show is yet another of the excellent valley showcases held at the Iron Horse, and tonight it's Peel, Spouse, and Spanish for Hitchhiking. I don't know the order. It's only 5 bucks, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that at least 2 out of 3 of those bands are awesome. Like making you dance and cry and maybe even both at the same time kind of awesome.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

I suppose I should do an update on the ear thing. The nasal spray stuff seems to have worked, because I felt better a day or two after I began using it. Plus stuff started draining, so I think (I hope) that my ear problem was just sinus related. Knock on wood. I can still feel the tiniest difference in my hearing in my right ear, but it's almost back to normal. I am also sleeping with two pillows beneath my head because I read somewhere that you should to that if you're having vertigo issues, but my neck and shoulders hate it and I may return to a uni-pillow situation tonight. Thank you for your concern, my peeps!

Monday, September 27, 2004

The School for the Dead CD release show Saturday night was da bomb. I love seeing bands at PACE because everyone is quiet and paying attention and you can really hear the music. It was hard to not get up and dance, though. And I missed out on the activity pages, which were confined to the cafe area before the show began. Other than that I have no complaints. I loved the opening act, which was comprised of 13 musicians playing one song each, with the musicians playing in random order (names were literally picked out of a bucket; stressful for the musicians, superfun for the audience). Our little valley is filled with amazing talent and just plain good people. Our rockstars are not ego-trippin' assholes, is what I am saying.

SFTD played wonderfully as always. It's hard to come up with new things to say about them, because they're always great. Um, there were a couple of new song transitions. I dig that shit. I haven't listened to the new CD but I am enjoying the drawings (by henning!) throughout the CD booklet. Go get yourself a copy. The New You, it is called.

P.S. Scotty B also has a good take on the show, complete with many links.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

So, this morning I went to the walk-in, no-appointment-neccessary time at my doctor's office, where a nurse practitioner declared my problem not an infection but most likely just allergies or a virus. She was pretty sure that my estrucian tube or whatever was clogged and not draining properly, because my ear was fuller of fluid than it should be. However, there was nothing she could do about it. She said to take Sudafed (I have been, doesn't seem to work) and I asked her if I could try an antihistamine nasal spray and she said sure and gave me a free sample. (I used it, it was okay.) I just have to ride this crap out. I said I was worried I had Meniere's Disease and she said, "you don't have it right now ... will it turn into Meniere's? I don't know." Great.

It will probably just slowly clear up and no permanent harm will be done. I hope.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

I'm freaking out a little. I think I have Meniere's Disease. It's an inner ear disorder, I guess. It's marked by a feeling of fullness in the ear, a loud low buzzing (like tinnitus) with hearing loss, and dizziness/vertigo. And there's no cure, per se, though there are things that can calm it. I have been getting episodes of this about once a year (or less) ever since I used a hand-held metal grinder with no ear protection in college, because Mt. Holyoke had none. I should have sued those fuckers. I was deaf with tinnitus in my right ear for a week, though it slowly improved. I think that was the triggering event that created this disorder.

I've never barfed from the dizziness, and in fact it's usually been the kind of almost-pleasant floaty sensation one gets when one is battling a high fever. But the past two days have been pretty crappy. My hearing is almost back to normal but I've been feeling more nauseous. Not good. I hate rushing to the doctor just because my ear "feels funny" (see: an awesome Roz Chast cartoon about hypochondriacs) but this seems like a real and definable thing.

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Okay. Here are an unprecedented TEN photos this time, of the Franklin County Fair last weekend. And yes, I know the Big E starts this weekend.

There was an entire building filled with prize-winning vegetables and flowers and baked goods (and many runners-up). This carrot won for Longest Carrot! And I got to see it with my own eyes!




As I mentioned there was a Baby Animal Barn. And so here is a genuine pig pile:




This poor lamb is suckling on a metal bolt! Don't feel too bad, his mom is just out of frame. This lamb is just stupid.




And there were also baby goats. Very cute. I like this photo a lot.




But not all of the animals got to just laze around! These little pigs are pro RACERS! And man, could these little guys move. They ran and dove and swam super fast. All to get a couple of cookies.




And then it was time to walk around the midway! The rides are fairly safe, but only if you always listen to Mr. Safety!




It looks so sane and calm when it's like this, in broad daylight, not groaning and creaking and whirling.




This one was pretty.




Here's a shot of the underside of a ride that resembles a giant roulette wheel. It turns and twirls around and up and down like a spun quarter.




You could also put little girls on a couple of bungee cords and send them into the air.




And that was my day at the fair!

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

So I know my posting has been slacking a little. I've been busy, what with the county fairs and the singing and the apartment-cleaning and some very occasional TV-watching. Last night I got to see former local boy Ari Vais on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He was great, kind of nervous and flustered and talkative, yet well-spoken; the perfect kind of guy for the queer guys to play off of. The part after the queer guys leave and he puts the meal together is particularly hilarious. The "event" at the end of the "day" was a big show for his band, The Pelicans, after which he got some advice from a record label guy and a Rolling Stone writer. The advice was "write stronger material" and "look at the audience more." Okay! He's all set then. You can read a recap of the show here.

And local folks - including not-local-anymore folks such as Lord Russ and Ari (screen name: OhDee) himself, are talking about the show on Soundboard.

Monday, September 13, 2004

Operation Fair/Play is going along swimmingly. On Saturday I hit the Franklin County Fair up in Greenfield. It's a bit bigger than the 3-County Fair. They have a small barn that is nothing but baby animals [swoon] (though there were also some fancy pigeons. They may have been adolescent pigeons, though; who can tell?). I touched a goat. And a calf. And a bunny. This fair also had a better midway than the previous one; more rides, and a greater variety of them, though there were no wimpy-grownup coasters. We chose not to spend our money on tickets, instead heading for the long line of food booths with their siren songs of fried-food-smells and flashing lights and colorful signs. I was looking hard for some chicken on a stick, but there was none to be had. Gotta wait for the Big E for that, I guess. I got a semi-healthy chicken pita thing, and some Mountain Dew from a soda fountain machine that made the same noise the Showcase Showdown wheel makes when the contestants spin it on "The Price is Right." There were also onion rings. And a perogi. And soft-serve ice cream. Delish.

L and I also signed up to win a hundred bucks from some country music station. The catch was that you had to be there at the station's booth/trailer at the stated times in order to be in the running. They did five drawings; we made it to two. For the first drawing, the winner was there on the first entry drawn. For the second (half an hour later) it took about 15 tries before the chosen person was there. We had noticed that in the first drawing, the winner did not show any form of identification to get his one-hundred-dollar bill. So we figured we could just say "yep, that's me!" to whatever the next female name was. Unfortunately, we discussed this idea quite openly in the middle of a crowd of people also waiting to see if they'd won, so we thought it wise to not put the plan into action.

More details later, so I'll have something to say in my photo captions after I post said photos here.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

New bumper sticker: Vote Bush/Cheney OR DIE!!
Yesterday Cheney warned supporters that voting for Kerry would put the country in danger. I like that he's basically saying "Nice country you got here... You wouldn't want anything to, ah, HAPPEN to it. Because sometimes things happen, to nice countries like this one."

Man, I do not know what I will do if these assholes win in November.

I hope he gets called on this, and hard.

Borrowed from another political blog's comments (Atrios or Daily Kos), we see that Dick has resorted to terrorism, under his own definition. Let's find him where he hides and trains!:

USA-PATRIOT ACT:

(a) DOMESTIC TERRORISM DEFINED.—Section 2331 of title 18, USC, is amended....

(5) the term ‘domestic terrorism" means activities that
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion;

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Please check out Tallulah's blog over in the links, as my sister has FINALLY updated it. There's a special treat inside the post, a link to a short movie showing the baby making her growling noise. More! More!
Get out yer "my car is better than my wife" t-shirt and yer cowboy hat, because it's time for the Three-County Fair!

It was 80's day at the sheep barn.These two ewes were totally tubular. Note the lens flare from the super-shiny spandex:







And here's a mad-mouse-style roller coaster I went on. Note all of the structural parts they had left over:




Cool 70s-80s font here:




This ride was disappointing for the kids. It looks like you should be able to turn the cars around, since they're all rotating around the center at odd angles, but they were all stiff. The children had to resort to dangerous stunts to keep from being bored:





And here is a night shot of my spooky nemesis, a ride that has haunted me since the first time I saw it at a fair in the soccer field behind the local Catholic school. I cannot stop being amazed that people enter it willingly. It is what I am forced to ride in my nightmares. The Zipper:






Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Yo peeps. I added a couple of long-overdue links over there to the right. One is Dooce, for obvious reasons of rockingness. She really writes the way a diary-like blog should be written (i.e. awesomely). And the other is Jennifer Myzowski, a local blog-friend who is also unfailingly honest and blunt in her writing and usually quite funny to boot.

Dooce has been amazing this past week or so; her postpartum depression got so horrible that she checked herself into a psychiactric hospital. After I read her post about the decision, I was so sad for her that I was almost crying, and I was depressed for hours, worrying about her. I also had this awful feeling: if it can happen to her, it can definitely happen to me. Luckily I've never felt quite so low as that. Well, once I did, years ago, but I was still able to go to work (but do little else) and I was able to overcome my depression through other means. (Those means? Systematically hunting down and slaughtering those who had wronged me.*) Anyway, Dooce found a great doctor at the hospital, and things are looking optimistic. Thank god.

My birthday was swell, thanks. Lack of sleep and lots of driving made me so woozy for my dinner out that I felt I couldn't avail myself of any complementary wine. I did go to Cold Stone Creamery, but for an account of that experience you'll have to read Craftytown and Eye on Northampton. My birthday really started this past Sunday, when I opened all of my familial loot, and will continue into this weekend, when the three-county fair happens. (Two words: Demolition Derby. Aw yeah.)


*Just kidding! Ha! Ha! Do not worry, I did not kill anyone. No need to go poking around in the wetlands next to Stop n' Shop on King Street! Nosiree bob!