By the way

the answer is no. God does not have a wife.

Does God have a wife?

That was the question of the day in Children's Church today. It was then suggested that he might be married to Mother Nature. I suppose it's a logical question...

Happy Thanksgiving...

With a touch of Christmas... Enjoy the fun filled pictures of the windows at Macy's, bratwurst at the Christkindlmarket and pictures of PJ being a bad kitty and hiding in the cabinet above the counter. By the way, we did not install the wrinkled shelf paper.

Trying to kill the battery

I'm trying to drain the battery in my laptop cold so that I can give it a good charge for its cord-free excursion tomorrow. I need it to be wireless and outletless, so I thought I'd drain it down. Amazingly, the old girl has a lot of spunk and is holding out on me. It has given the 0% warning, but it's still going strong. I think that was about 15 minutes ago. The battery meter isn't exactly what you'd call accurate (obviously). At some point, I'm going to need a new computer. But it's really hard to say goodbye to my trusty ThinkPad. It's taken me many places (Germany included) and never failed me. Ok, so it does freak out whenever it tries to go to sleep, but I just turn that off and it's fine. What a happy little computer it is.

So anyway, after looking at a bunch of old pictures, playing solitaire, and reading blogs, I decided to post my own. Here goes...

Have you ever transcribed an interview?

Until this semester, I had not. Let me just say, that everyone just needs to talk much more slowly. Naturally, we got the person who talks as quickly as I do. It was a really fascinating interview of a retired judge, and I'm just happy we had someone who didn't mind talking to us. On the other hand, even at 50% speed, the slowest I can make it, she still seems to talk really quickly. And so do I! No breaks from interviewer or interviewee.

I'm nearly finished with the first run-through, though, which is great. Then I have to listen to it again. And again. And again. Then we'll each listen to each other's parts. Again. And Again. Eeek. Have I mentioned I also have to write a rough draft for my Jello paper by next Tuesday? Yeah, so Thanksgiving is going to be a day of me giving thanks for having a computer to type on. :)

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Don't miss a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on Monday night (ABC). It's on at 7 here, so 8pm for all you EST people. And, to get into the real Charlie Brown spirit, send a Snoopy e-card from Snoopy.com. A Charlie Brown Christmas will be on November 28, also ABC.

An interesting post from a fellow blogger

Isn't the internet great? I clicked on Alan & Beth's blog, then clicked on their comments and found someone else's blog. I thought maybe I knew the person, but I was wrong. In any case, he had an interesting post about the election that you might want to read. It talks about the role of religion in voting. I found the link to the MSNBC story particularly interesting. It notes "People really care about right and wrong more than right and left, and their antennae were up about corruption and the war in Iraq and kitchen-table moral issues -- health care and poverty." In my opinion, don't associate yourself with a party just because it claims to be "moral." Think about the things you are concerned with - hey, like feeding poor people - and vote accordingly based on individuals. I hate this party stuff. Give me a middle of the road guy or gal who isn't saying crazy things just to get noticed. The Lieberman election is an interesting example of Andy's comment that the primaries are ruining this country. Ok, that's not what he said - I exaggerated. In any case, you get the crazy uberdemocrats and uberrepublicans making it so that only other uber party members can win the primary. Or you get stuck with John Kerry because the people of Iowa are strange. If you're lucky, you can find someone middle of the road in the independent category, but not usually.

Come on, America, let's shrug off the lemming mentality and vote with your gut in 2008 instead of voting with the people of Iowa and New Hampshire. By the time you get to the North Carolina caucus, the primary races should not have been decided. Maybe the primaries should all be on the same day? Then 2 states wouldn't determine the fate of our nation.

By the way, this was written without a ton of thought. Don't freak out on me people.

I'm not joking around here

I'm really addicted to The Clarks. You should totally buy their CDs. Or at least listen to clips of their songs. I suggest "Fast Moving Cars," "Shimmy Low," "On Saturday," "Gypsy Lounge," oh what the heck - I recommend them all - except "Cigarette," but it's not a choice anyway.

Things I've noticed

1. When you cross the border between Maywood and River Forest (yes, Andy, a little corner of River Forest actually touches Maywood), the roads get incredibly smooth. Obviously all those property taxes pay for more than schools.
2. Drivers in Chicagoland are much nicer than the drivers in any other city I've driven in or ridden in. Sure, there's beeping, but I think we're all just so completely aware that it will take us 5 hours to go somewhere anyway that letting one more car in front of us really won't make that much of a difference. Here's for resigned indifference.
3. I used to write much more interesting blog posts.
4. Dishwashers are really important to me. I've actually considered bringing a dirty dish with me to work each day and sticking it in the dishwasher there. Unfortunately, that would mean putting my initials on everything. I think that might ruin the look of our stunning glasses (which I found replacements for at the dollar store a little while ago - I'm not sure whether I'm happy or sad that our glasses were at the dollar store).
5. When I'm working, I really don't like it when kids come up and ask a question and then proceed to go around the desk and watch me search. Ok, maybe they can consider it a learning experience, but I really don't need their suggestions, like "why don't you search for 'fast cars'? That's what I'm looking for." Just an FYI, "Fast Cars" is not a Library of Congress subject heading and unless someone called their book "Fast Cars," it would not help your search one bit.
6. I need a PDA. I never ever in my wildest dreams wanted a PDA. But I have too much to keep track of, and I'm just not writing anything down in the paper calendar. Unfortunately, the thought of spending more than $100 on something that I would just use as a calendar seems excessive. Just like an HDTV. Our TV works, mostly, so why get another one? Darn Yankee/New England Puritan values. :)

In case you were interested

I'm addicted to The Clarks.

on an unrelated note

my professor graded my Master's Essay. I will now be able to graduate. I even got an A!

terrifying experiences

So this doesn't compare with actually getting hit, but have you ever been in traffic, then had to come to a sudden stop, and watched the car behind you in your rear view mirror come insanely close to hitting you? Well, this happened to me today. Frankly, the way things go on the highways here, I'm surprised that it doesn't happen more often (but glad it doesn't). Here's the way traffic usually flows on the Eisenhower: slow, slow, slow, drive really fast, slam on your brakes, wait 5 minutes, slow, slow, drive really fast... i think you get the point. I have no idea what causes traffic that was previously moving just fine come to a complete stop. I am really curious about this. It's not as if you go ahead 500 feet and see a dead skunk in the road or something (actually, we are totally free of most dead animals here, since there isn't a lot of grass or forest where animals could live in the first place before being slammed by a speeding car). In fact, you will slam on your brakes, drive ahead, and see nothing. Absolutely nothing. What causes this?! I would really like to know.