M just was ranting about the other members of his English class up at University of Colorado, Boulder.

Students in class were to buy a Faulkner book, specifically “Sound and the Fury”. They just finished reading Emerson. The other kids in the class (it’s a level 1000 class but still WTF??) complained to the teacher that Faulkner is/would be TOO HARD for them to read and the professor is considering changing books. 

Seriously CU? 

He’ll find out tomorrow whether they will change books or not. 

Updated: The students won out and instead of reading Faulkner, they were assigned “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac

Pita Pal Hummus - I didn’t like any of the 3 flavors I tried at all. No taste. Bought them at Sprouts.

and big turn from food to …

Gel 2root - Planters’ Pride - Stick cuttings in this gel crap and they are supposed to root. Nope. It could be I didn’t have strong enough cuttings. - Purchased this at McGuckin’s.

Mostly just a place holder to bitch about stuff I have tried and don’t like. Like this.. this was the absolute worse ever. Lucini Cinque e’ Cinque - Blech, blech, blech…Chickpea flour to which you add olive oil and water to. Bought this at Sunflower Market

“The Boulder woman did not choose to circumcise her two sons.”

Ok, that sentence bugs me.  Maybe, ‘The Boulder woman made the decision not to …’ or ‘The Boulder woman chose not to … but seriously? Did not choose? at first read I though, what she didn’t choose to, so someone else did choose? 

Did not choose = didn’t choose 

It’s just reads, IMHO, totally wrong.

Grammer snark - You betcha!

Just another reason the Daily Camera is crap.

(working on first cup of coffee)

I’ve been making this regularly since finding this recipe & having enjoyed the spicy ginger tea at a Thai restaurant in Boulder that charges about $4 a cup with no refills.

You will need:

Pandan leaves - Oriental market has them in the freezer

Sugar 

and of course, fresh ginger.

I usually make a bunch at once and have the simple sugar in my fridge at all times. 

If you ginger tea gets too spicy, you can dilute it with soda water. I have enjoyed this in the summer with a little bit of lime in it over ice. Refreshing! I’ve used this to make ginger ale too! 

All it is is a simple syrup steeped with pandan leaves. You can find pandan leaves frozen (and to my utter delight, sometimes fresh!) at any Asian grocery store. This heady, fragrant leaf (I’ve heard people describe it’s flavor and fragrance as coconut-ty and it’s even compared to buttered popcorn!). Sometimes called the Asian vanilla, the pandan leaf, in my opinion, has no substitute.

Here is the link to the recipe & instructions. Enjoy! 

Newsflash - Governor Hickenlooper has called an emergency special session to vote on civil unions AND SB-117. Please contact your representatives and urge them to vote against this bill. 

Here’s a great NORML page with how to do so. Go you, go!

How did your Colorado Senator vote for SB-117?

My State Senator, Rollie Heath, who is up for reelection, voted for this bill. I have contacted him and contacted him to get his reasoning on why he would vote this way, pointed out to him that I vote and as his constituent, would like it if he voted against this bill.

No response. Why is that Senator?

I’m calling on all those in District 18 which includes all of the city of Boulder, CO, Gunbarrel, Niwot, Hygiene and unincorporated Boulder County to contact Senator Heath and politely request he vote against this bill. May I also remind those of you in Nederland, Ward, Jamestown, etc, that District 18 is being redrawn and if Rollie Heath gets reelected, he’s going to be representing you! 

How can a state senator who is a big education backer be against Medical Marijuana or Marijuana at all when the money earned through taxing it will be such a win for the state. Amendment 64, which you can vote for this November 6, 2012, proposes to give the first $40 million of revenue from the taxes collect PER YEAR to the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund. That’s $40,000,000 per year. 

Here is the bill and how Colorado State Senators voted. If you follow the link at the bottom, you will also be able to see how the House of Representatives voted as well.

SB12-117 by Senator(s) King S.; also Representative(s) Waller—Concerning the penalties for persons who drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and, in connection therewith, making an appropriation. 

The question being “Shall the bill pass?”, the roll call was taken with the following result: 

YES 18 NO 17 EXCUSED 0 ABSENT 0

Aguilar N Guzman N Lambert Y Scheffel Y 

Bacon Y Harvey N Lundberg N Schwartz Y 

Boyd Y   Heath Y    Mitchell N Spence Y 

Brophy N Hodge Y Morse Y Steadman N 

Cadman Y Hudak N Neville N Tochtrop N 

Carroll N Jahn N Newell Y White Y 

Foster N Johnston Y Nicholson N Williams S. N 

Giron N King K. Y Renfroe N President Y 

Grantham Y King S. Y Roberts Y 

A majority of all members elected to the Senate having voted in the affirmative, the bill was passed. 

Co-sponsors added: King K. and Lambert

Source: http://www.leg.state.co.us/

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Rollie_Heath

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20597940/colorado-legislature-returns-monday-2nd-round-civil-unions?source=pkg

http://www.regulatemarijuana.org/about

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/economists-marijuana-legalization_n_1431840.html

#Boulder

#Colorado

A true story.

My friend Petra, who I know from when I lived in Germany (and here I’m going to count on my fingers just like MacKensie does on The Newsroom - you can be smart without knowing numbers immediately) about 22 years, called me today. 

She’s so wonderful, she always calls me on my birthday. Those friends are few and far between. You know, the really good ones that you can just pick up and talk to and it’s like no time has passed. 

She calls and she asks me how old I am. She goes on to explain that she can’t remember and everytime she would ask me, she says: 

“you would just say, ‘oh 28’ or oh, ‘32’ or say ‘what? I’m 29’ so I never remembered how old you are”

We haven’t talked for more than 2.5 years, as the last time I talked with her I was still employed. That puts it in 2009. (without using my fingers, that date I know)

When I met Petra I had two children under 3. She’s this gorgeous, white blond, dimpled outdoorsy, fun, aerobic teacher who had a american hockey player boyfriend so she knew perfect english.

I was thrilled. She loves trashy magazines, movies, and we hit it off. Just to be able to converse with someone in english was heaven. Plus, we totally bonded over the aerobic part. I was learning to teach and teaching my classes in Germany at same studio. We even “performed” at an event. Meant a lot to me that she liked my classes as she lived on Long Island for awhile and had seen some good instructors. I think I got her the job at SC. Anyway she works there and she is still on my side. My friends that support me and dislike him and her. I digress, that’s an entirely different story. Related but different.

The point with the phone call and her asking me and me replying with the magic number of 54, is it doesn’t even cross my mind right now to joke like that. Now, my usual line now is, I’m as old as Madonna and Prince. I’m remembering more really depressed birthdays than happy ones and trying to think back on what could have happened around my birthday. PTSD grief. 

I left my life in Germany with two small children (6 and 5), and 3 cats in August of 1995. I had decided where to live, Boulder, but had no house, no furniture, no car, no job. Two days after we arrived in DC (which includes Northern VA in my dictionary) I flew with my dad out to Boulder to look for a place to live. I was in Boulder on my birthday which was 2 days after leaving Germany.

All that going on - now combine it with severe panic attacks, untreated depression and no one in the immediate vicinity that supported me at all. My marriage of 8 years was over. My husband was living with this woman, whom I worked with, I had no idea what all was going on, I suspect the lawyer was paid to encourage me to sign papers. I had to be as much together as I could for my children and my parents were saying things like the below:

“You gave up too easy, you should have stayed and fought”

“It’s your fault…”

“Why didn’t you stay there?”

Yes, maybe this is a reaction to that. That was the worst thing I have ever gone through. Hell. It was absolute hell. Stress through the roof.

Keeping going, keeping going.

I also got a call from my daughter but she was tired because they didn’t get home until 3:30 a.m and had to get up again at 6 a.m. to work all day.  She said my son has been drinking a lot. That doesn’t surprise me. 

and of course, my BFF here called me. 

Dreading going to my parents for dinner. Dreading it. 

Dear fellow Coloradans and all others who have already done the right thing and registered to vote and verify that all addresses and names are correct so you can vote,

Do not be fooled by this big Mittens is failing in the polls and on the news. It could very easily be a plot to get people who would vote for Obama to think, hmm, he’s got this in the bag, I don’t really like him so I’m not going to bother voting. Everyone else will vote and Obama will get reelected, so I don’t have to. 

Not so my young Jedi. http://www.barackobama.com/

Don’t be that person. #VOTE

Proud to promote:

VotoLatino - http://www.votolatino.org/

FVAP.Gov - Voting help/assistance for Uniformed Service Members, their families and citizens living outside the USofA. http://www.fvap.gov/

and of course, Rock The Vote !! http://www.rockthevote.org/

The below is for Boulder County residents.

Register online and/or check your registration status/look up polling place:

http://www.bouldercounty.org/elections/register/pages/default.aspx

Oct. 9: Last day to register to vote or change your address on your current registration.  Make sure your friends and family are all registered at their current location.  If they are students and have permanent residency out of state, they can still register to vote in Colorado using their Colorado address and their social security number.   When they vote, they can use their student ID as their voter ID.  If you have a Colorado Driver’s license, you need to use it instead of your social security number to register to vote.

Once you get your ballot, navigate to the Amendment section and VOTE YES ON Amendment 64. Do it Colorado. Let’s be the first. 

October 22:  Early voting begins Mon-Fri 8am-6pm & Sat. 9am-3pm

            Clerk & Recorter, Boulder 1750 33rd St and

            Clerk & Recorder, Longmont, 529 Coffman Street

October 29-November 2:  Early voting continues at:

Clerk & Recorter, Boulder 1750 33rd St and

            Clerk & Recorder, Longmont, 529 Coffman Street

            Boulder County Courthouse, East Wing, Boulder, 1325 Pearl St

            University of Colorado Boulder, University Club, 972 Broadway

            Lafayette Public Library, Lafayette, 775 W. Baseline Rd.

            County Fairgrounds, Clover Bldg., Longmont, 9596 Nelson Rd.

November 1- Last day to safely mail in your vote by mail ballot, if you chose to vote

by mail.  If you miss this date, carry your completed ballot to your polling place on election day and turn it in there.

November 6- Election Day voting at the polls 7am-7pm!  If you have a mail in ballot

and failed to mail it in by Nov.1, take it to your polling place on election day.  If you are unsure of your polling place look it up on:

www.bouldercounty.org/elections/register/pages/voterinfolookup.aspx

NOTICE:  If you did not vote in the 2010 election, you are considered “inactive voter”,

That means you can still vote on election day or vote early, you can, but if you wish to vote by mail, you will need to request it again, even if you did so before.  Request it this way:

https://www.sos.state.co.us/Voter/secuRegVoterIntro.do or call county clerk to check: 303-413-7740

HOW TO REDUCE THOSE ELECTION PHONE CALLS:

            Vote early to get your name off the lists or

            Vote by mail and return it quickly to get your names off the lists

Register with a party rather than Unaffiliated because both parties call the unaffiliated voters!