October 24, 2020

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

[link:https://www.indiewire.com/2020/10/borat-2-review-1234594290

This is a BRILLIANT comment on America today. Laughed myself silly but there’s much more than silly humor here. Rudy is just a tiny part of it. The most amazing part is the people he caught in action that weren’t actors but just regular people thinking they were dealing with a guy who didn’t speak English well - and letting their true selves speak. The plastic surgeon and the “crisis pregnancy clinic” pastor (the funniest bit in the movie IMO) were particularly awesome. I’m going to watch it again to catch what I missed the first time.

October 13, 2020

Traitor Joe (not Biden)

Got a robo-call from our favorite former veep candidate, the guy single-handedly responsible for the lack of a public option, Joe Lieberman. Asking me to please vote for Brian Fitzpatrick, the REPUBLICAN candidate for the hotly contested PA-01 House seat. I knew the guy was shady but this!? Grrr. Just venting.

September 27, 2020

If you request a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania, can you change your mind and vote in person?

[link:http://www.wgal.com/amp/article/if-you-request-a-mail-in-ballot-in-can-you-change-your-mind-and-vote-in-person-in-pennsylvania/33648018|

The quick answer is, I wouldn’t - your name will appear on the voting rolls (the page you sign at the polling place) as having requested an absentee ballot and you will be required to vote by provisional ballot, which will not be counted until up to 7 days after the election.

August 15, 2020

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

This used up almost a whole huge zucchini

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 cups grated zucchini (unpeeled) I did the zucchini in my mini food processor

Stir together all dry ingredients. Add eggs, applesauce and oil, mix thoroughly with spoon (do not use electric beaters). Stir in grated zucchini. Pour into prepared Bundt pan, 350 degrees, 50 min. to 1 hour.

This came out moist, delicious and it’s even sort of healthy. I did not frost, just sifted some 4x sugar on it to look pretty. Next time I think I’ll omit the cinnamon, it detracts slightly from the chocolatiness. And there will be a next time as daughter’s garden has LOTS of zucchini waiting.

July 6, 2020

Hard boiled eggs in the air fryer

It worked!
Put your eggs (I did 6) in the basket and air fry 17 min or so at 270. Immediately put the eggs in a bowl of ice and ice water for 5 min, then peel. The shells will slip right off. The cold water bath makes the eggs shrink a bit from the shell making them easy to peel.
The grandkids love hard boiled eggs and we love egg salad so I’ll be doing this a lot.

March 15, 2020

So can Trump be impeached (again)?

For the delay in getting tests which could cost thousands, maybe millions of lives. Talk about a high crime.

May 11, 2019

This sums it up perfectly

Stolen from a comment on Quora by Sarah Geer. This is 100% spot-on.


...well for starters the real issue ISN’T whether a
fetus is a human life or not. The real issue is bodily autonomy rights.

Even if one were to pretend a nonviable, nonsentient fetus is a full person due rights under the law, the bodily autonomy issue remains: no person in our society is allowed to use the bodies or organs of other people unless they have that person’s EXPRESS POSITIVE CONSENT, not even to save their own lives.

A man on the transplant list cannot force another man to donate him a kidney, even if that second man is the only match and the first will die without it.

A doctor may not take blood or organs from a corpse without that person’s prior consent to posthumous organ donation, even to save the life of a dying child.

Thus a fetus cannot use a woman’s body and organs against her will and without her express consent. Contrary to popular claim by conservatives, sex is not consent to pregnancy (my consent for a man to have use of my vagina is NOT consent for a third party to take over my uterus and use my entire body for 40 weeks), and POSITIVE INFORMED consent is required for organ donation or use to begin with.

And the reason there is so much “hate” on this issue is because one side believes women are simply THINGS the moment they have sex; that they are nothing more than incubators who must risk their lives and health whether they want to or not in order to give birth. That they give up their rights to their bodies the instant they have sex.

The other side thinks women are actual people.

November 26, 2018

Thoughts on retiring - update!

Today I am telling my boss of my intention to retire at the end of January. I am going to be the FT caregiver to my 3 grandchildren when my daughter goes back to work after her maternity leave. The baby girl will be 3 months then and the other kids are 4 (in preschool) and 8 (3rd grade).
I fully understand this is the definition of a first world problem. I have been payroll and benefits admin for a PA school district for 14 years. At 62 I qualify for “full retirement” in PA public schools. Plus here in PA, public employees qualify for full SS as both sides contribute.
My husband (age 60) has a good secure job; of course no job is really secure these days but he’s been there 15+ years, it’s a stable company that treats their people well. I will go on their insurance for the next 3 years. It’s a good Blue Cross PPO, comparable to the Aetna I have now but more expensive for the employee. Not a high-deductible plan (thank God).
The only debt we have is the mortgage. Paid off my car loan and the rest of the Parent Plus loans we took for our son. No credit card balances. We can afford to live on his pay and my pension. If I have to I could start my SS too but would rather wait on that if we can.
I like my job and I’m good at it, but I don’t define myself by my career. I play in and I’m business manager (volunteer) for a community concert band. I’m very active at my church. None of those things will change.
But I’m terrified to do this. I’ve been putting off telling my boss for a while now. I told her I would give her lots of notice when I decided to retire. At my last review she basically begged me not to retire but she knows how old I am and that this day is coming sooner or later.
Am I an idiot for giving up a good job with great benefits, a short commute, that I can pretty much do in my sleep? Am I an idiot for trusting my husband’s employer to keep us afloat for the next few years?
But...I promised my daughter. And I love my grandkids more than anything in the world. I’m healthy. I don’t want the baby going to daycare and getting sick all the time like my kids did. Kid #3 is their last so I can really retire in 5 or 6 years. I was never a SAHM with my kids. Here’s my chance to be a SAHG. I’ve been doing the “business world” thing for almost 40 years. I’m looking forward to going to “work” in jeans and a T-shirt and no makeup.
Yes this is a first world problem. Tell me I’m doing the right thing.

***update****
I just told my boss. I did it. She was very nice and understanding. I have a lot to do before I’m gone. So relieved I got that over with.

July 5, 2018

It's the sexism, stupid

... the thing to understand about the right's long-term obsession with "family values" is that they were never meant to apply to straight men in the first place. All these sex rules are about controlling women, LGBT people and people of color. When it comes to straight white men, red America has always tacitly understood that they get a pass to do what they want. Which is why, for instance, the same people who shake their fingers at college girls for wanting birth control will rush forward to make excuses for young men accused of rape — even though the latter is not just about sex, but is also a violent crime.
As for why red staters get divorced more, the answer is stunningly simple: They get married more in the first place. They marry younger and marry more quickly after meeting someone, and then they are more likely to find themselves in bad marriages that need to be dissolved.
Ultimately, the thing to understand about Trump is that his life doesn't conflict with red-state "family values" in any way, and not because people in those places lead "messy" lives. It's because his career of serial marriage and adultery conforms to traditional gender roles, where wives are decorative and function as support staff, and mistresses are there to relieve men's sexual urges -- which women aren't really allowed to have.
And more. Truly great read. [link:https://www.salon.com/2018/07/03/so-much-for-donald-trumps-purple-values-his-red-state-support-stems-from-flagrant-sexism|

June 25, 2018

Conversation in the pew Sunday

Yesterday we had Hymn Requests and someone always asks for one of the patriotic ones at the end of the Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELCA) hymnal. After we sang "America the Beautiful" the woman sitting in front of me turned around and whispered "I hate what Trump is doing to this country." Told her I couldn't agree more. My fellow parishioner is an 80-something widow.
That conversation made my day.
I play in a community concert band and for our many summer concerts we play a lot of patriotic stuff which the audience loves. I have never in my life felt less patriotic.