I'm a Viking

Issues

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 21:58:33 GMT

Here I am, back to posting about my weight. Well, it's my journal. Deal.

I am back up to 185, 1 pound lighter than the heaviest I've ever been outside of pregnancy. I am so frustrated with it that I could...well, I don't know. Starve myself down to a reasonable size, maybe.

That's all I have to say, really. I'm frustrated. I'm not going to make a plan, becuase every time I think about food, I get hungry. We can't have that, so I'm just going to end it there.

By the way, I'm working hard on the Bob Brister campaign along with everything else, so please forgive me if I go a while between posts.

Stuck Up

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 17:30:14 GMT

I went to dinner with Bessie yesterday. We went to Rumbi Island Grill in Gateway, which I highly recommend. The food is great and the manager is extremely patient.

Bessie is fussy. Stuck up, even. She has no concept of how to treat people. For example, yesterday at Rumbi, she ordered a side of rice. She then promptly demanded a refund when a fly landed on it. We were outside. The manager not only gave her the refund, but replaced the rice. I wold have done one or the other, maybe, but he did both. She showed no appreciation whatsoever. I don't think I have ever heard a sincere "thank you" come out of that girl's mouth.

By the way, she got her karmic retribution when she dumped her Coke directly into her purse. But who ran to get the napkins? Me. She sat.

Bess, I hope you're reading this, and I hope you're offended. It's better than not paying attention to me as usual. Someone needs to tell you that you are stuck up and ungrateful, and it might as well be me.

Validate Me!

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:03:06 GMT

"Why do you feel pressure to marry at all? if he's fun to hang out with, makes you happy, all that good stuff, why not keep things the way they are? i've learned from my own experience and from others that there is no reason to keep pushing that relationship to the next level. take it day by day, and just enjoy being with each other."

Sarah left this comment on my last post, and she has a good point. There is no need to just keep going to the logical next step.

But I wanna, okay? I feel like I've been hardwired to get married and make babies (although there are no babies being made in this situation, let's be clear on that). I feel like I want him to validate me. I want to make his family happy, and believe me, they would be turning cartwheels if we walked that aisle. I am so obsessed with getting married lately, I feel like I just can't leave it. I have big plans for the big party. I'm on a runaway marriage train.

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:26:01 GMT

Well, now I'm glad that Linc was so hesitant to get engaged, because I've been giving it some thought and now I am too.

Lincoln doesn't plan on growing up any time soon. Frankly, he would not be a very good husband or a very good stepfather. He's fun to hang out with, but I don't know that I want to marry him. Let's be real here. I'm not going to "save" him by marrying him, and I don't really want to.

So the question is, does this mean we should "shit or get off the pot" (please excuse the expression)? Like, get married or break up? I can't imagine telling him goodbye. Maybe I need to, though. Maybe we need to call it a good run and just be friends. It's not that I'm just looking for someone to marry, but I need to get out from under the pressure to marry Lincoln and maybe be on my own for a while.

Marriage

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 06:20:26 GMT

A few days ago, Lincoln started talking in terms of "when we get married." It's fate, he says. It will happen. This makes me both insanely stoked and extremely nervous.

He's a bit hesitant to actually be engaged. He says he's afear'd (his word). I asked him, as we sat at Village Inn at 2:00 A.M., what he was afraid of. He told me that he didn't want to let me down. He wants to be a good husband. That just makes me want him more.

Robert Kirby once wrote about marriage this way: "The essential ingredients for marriage are there, you love each other and want to be together always. The rest is work." I think Linc and I are both willing to work at our relationship and be the business partners we call husband and wife. I think we each need to do some searching on what marriage means to us and what we expect of the other. We also need to look hard at practical matters, like his becoming a stepdad.

Lucretia Mott, an early feminist, nailed it right on the head when she said, "In a true marriage relation, the independence of the husband and the wife is equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal." We are each obligated to be a constant, loving presence in the other's life. We are committed to being loyal and faithful, both sexually and otherwise. We promise both to be trustworthy and to trust the other.

Blogger's Conference

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 18:55:45 GMT

Just a note: this is now my only weblog. I will leave my diaryland site up and keep the link to it on this page, but it's time to say goodbye to it. It had a good run.

I went to a blogger's conference yesterday. Fun stuff!! I was so psyched to meet other people just talking about what they do all day. There was a lot of advice on how to get traffic to your site and other things. Nothing about making your site bright and shiny and neat though. Maybe next time.

I really went to this conference to talk to other bloggers about Bob Brister, but there wasn't a lot of opportunity and I seemed to get shut down at every turn. I need to get better at this networking bit. I guess I can start by talking about Bob here. Bob Brister (Green party, of course!) is running for Congress in Utah's 2nd district against Jim Matheson(D) His website is http://www.bristerforcongress.org.

I am out of time to write. More later...stay tuned.

Bad Blogger

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 23:01:48 GMT

I haven't updated in more than a month. Bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger. Now that we have that out of our system, we can continue.

So I did some poking around, and here's what I found out. According to HUD, fair market rent for an apartment in Salt Lake County ranges from $526 for a studio and $690 for a 2 bedroom. The federal definition of affordable housing is paying 30% or less of your income for rent. I did the math, and a person working for $5.15 minimum wage would have to work about 80 hours per week to afford a studio and about 105 hours per week to afford a 2 bedroom. Ridiculous? You make the call.

If minimum wage were a living wage, a person who put in a fair day's work could expect to have a place to live. Right now, that's not the case. Minimum wage must be raised to $10 per hour.

This is Healthcare, My Pet Issue

Mon, 08 May 2006 05:31:18 GMT

I went to a meeting of the Citizens Healthcare Working Group yesterday. Good times! CHWG is a project created by legislation in 2005 (I think) to gather citizens opinions and solutions for the healthcare system in this country. It was Orrin Hatch's idea--who'd have thought? Anyway, I put the link in my list, so check it out and go answer the questions.

The discussion ranged all over the place. We were asked questions and then we broke into groups of eight to discuss them. Questions included things like "What is the individual's responsibility in healthcare?" (one of the interesting answers to this one was that everyone is responsible for having a living will), "How much more are you willing to pay to ensure that every American has health coverage?" and "How can we reduce the cost of healthcare?" We had a great group and I was glad to participate.

Go to the page and get involved. The meetings are mostly over now, but there are still questions you can answer on the website and there will be hearings in Washington on the recommendations of the working group.

Flummoxed

Thu, 04 May 2006 22:57:29 GMT

Well, I'm up for a raise. Maybe. I hope. It's a big raise, too, as far as I'm concerned. I'm thinking of putting it into our company's 403(b) plan, but I'm concerned that they don't have any socially responsible investing options. They do have an option where you can pick your own stocks, but I have no clue how to do that. I want to take advantage of my company's benefit, but I don't want my money going to Phillip Morris and Wal-Mart. What's a girl to do?

Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. It may or may not be what you would do, but tough.

If I get this raise (which I may not), I'm going to start investing in the 403(b). I will use the standard bunch of funds until January. By January, I will have made myself savvy enough to choose my own stocks. That's also when the company match kicks in (that's actually in the 401(k), where I will start putting my money, but the difference is mostly academic). Until New Year, I may be investing in nasty companies like Nestle, but at least then I can say I'm a shareholder when I write my nasty letters to them.

My Good Earth Deed For Today

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 16:40:48 GMT

Well, it's Monday, time to evaluate how I've done on goals for this week. As far as being enviro-friendly, I've done OK. I've only driven when absolutely necessary, I bought some containers and reusable dishes and flatware for lunches (at D.I., so extra points for re-using the reusable), I bought some containers for bulk foods, and I think I might actually end up going vegan. No, really, seriously this time.

I've also started a word-of-mouth campaign to try to get people to reuse their office paper, particularly their fax cover sheets, by using the back for scratch paper instead of throwing it away. Sure, we recycle already, but that takes water and energy and you might as well get all the use out of it that you can before doing so. It also saves a new legal pad.

This week, I'm going to ask Dennis to teach me how to drag and drop TIFF files into our server. That way, I won't even have to print my faxes, I can just save them. Up to now, I've been printing them from my e-mail, then scanning them so they would be in the right file format. This will make my life easier in more ways than one, and save maybe a ream of paper every 2 weeks.

Recycling is easy. This year, I'm going to focus on reducing and reusing.

Review

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 22:45:05 GMT

Hey look...Lincoln's restaurant got a review, Okay, it's not Lincoln's restaurant, he's not psycho enough to be a restaurant owner, but he IS the chef.

http://sltrib.com/contentlist/ci_3700438

The "in a nutshell" bit doesn't exude enthusiasm, but the story is good.

Solid People

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 23:50:48 GMT

I just came from the big march against HR 4437. It was solid people from Washington Square all the way up to the Capitol. There will be another tomorrow; I'll try to take some pictures out my office window. It was awesome. I wish Pete Suazo could have been there.

I would like to know more about the history of immigration laws in the US. What if the same laws had existed 150 years ago? The issues were the same: the Irish/Chinese/Whomever were "taking our jobs." What if my great grandfather had been turned around at the border? What if he were deemed "illegal" and not allowed to work? Almost every American could ask him- or herself the same questions. Why is it all of a sudden necessary to block every hope of becoming a U.S. Citizen? And Orrin, what's so wrong with amnesty, anyway?

Big Surprise

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:41:10 GMT

I didn't finish anything over the weekend. Surprise.

New American Dream sent me a big packet of stuff to distribute on Earth Day. I would love to, but the Earth Day party is being put on by one faction of the Green Party and other people would get uptight if I attended. Maybe I'll just set up my own table on the corner. I'll be the purple party. Purple goes with green.

I am SO over this us-against-us bit. It's stupid.

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 22:44:12 GMT

Well, no rants today, except that my Jeep won't start. It's a $12.00 part, but Jeremy can't fix it at the moment because he just had knee surgery and can't be climbing under my car. Oh, well. Good excuse to walk around, but it would be easier if it weren't raining.

So I'm getting ready to start my first knitted sweater. It's the Tempting pattern from www.knitty.com. I would like to use JoAnn Sensations Tesoro yarn, which is 100% wool, but treated not to felt. It is sooooo soft, and it comes in a very pretty peach color that matches the silk skirt I bought at the consignment store last year.

I'm racing the clock to finish a birthday present for my little cousin (I had to look this up--she is my cousin's daughter, which makes her my first cousin once removed, not my second cousin as I had thought). It's a crocheted poncho with a hood from www.coatsandclark.com. I also have a baby shower on Tuesday (at 10:00 P.M.--one of the waiters at Boho) for which I'm trying to knit a little hat. I am about halfway done with my office shawl, so maybe I'll have it done by July. And then there's the Mondrian blanket, which I've been just sitting on for a good year now. Sigh.

I don't have time to rant. I have to spend some time with my yarn.

Frustration with "The" Green Party

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 20:09:05 GMT

This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Why are there two Green Parties in Utah? How is the average voter supposed to know who's who? And why should they have to??? If the Greens are going to be divided against themselves, they won't succeed. They can't. Are they more about changing the country or fighting among themselves? If they can't work with members of their own party, how are they going to work with Democrats, Republicans and all the rest? I say shame on the Green Party (both/all of them) for putting their own interests ahead of the nation's. Really, people, you're as bad as the Republicans.

I hope you're all reading this. Julian, Bob, why should I waste my time supporting you if your parties (ostensibly the same party) can't agree on the color of the sky? I support your values, but I have one more to add: consensus building. Go for a common goal, and outside that, pick your battles. In congress, if you make it, you're going to have to throw down with the big boys. Can you do it if you're nitpicky enough to break from people with your own core values?

Greens, here's your challenge: lose the persecution complex. We all want good things for the country, and we're not going to do it if we can't stick together. Until then, I remain unaffiliated.

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 20:24:58 GMT

So I haven't been doing all that great on the waste-free lunches this week, although my son helped me with the sandwich effort by preparing FIVE CANS worth of tuna salad last night (bless his heart...he just went a little overboard). So of course I brought a tuna sammy for my lunch today, in a plastic baggie because I didn't have any containers. Yesterday I did the frozen entree thing, along with a Twix from the machine. I am not getting better with this. The office is ordering Chinese tomorrow, so I'll start the effort again on Monday.

I went to a Green Party Honk & Wave to announce the candidate for Congress, Bob Brister. My son went with me and asked if we could do another one tomorrow (awwwwww....). He held up the big green peace sign. He was ADORABLE.

I went to my first class on Monday. Fun stuff. I'm learning PowerPoint by setting up a mock "business plan" for Natural Fiber Arts. I am just generally all kinds of stoked about everything. I think it's all going to be O.K.

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 19:42:58 GMT

Okay, I know I made an entry not fifteen minutes ago, but I had another idea. Not my idea, really, it was sent to me by Co-Op America (I think...it might have been New American Dream).

Anyway, I'm going to start being better with my lunches at work. My current habit is to bring a frozen entree or a can of soup or chili and an individually packaged string cheese and/or yogurt. I eat these with plastic cutlery and a paper napkin. I also buy a candy bar or a soda from the machine with some frequency. None of these packages get recycled (well, sometimes the soda can does if I have the time and energy to walk to the breakroom and drop it in the bin). Currently, the only environmentally sound thing I'm doing is using my own coffee cup and water bottle at my desk.

It seems odd, if not plain stupid, that I would plan a large-scale Earth Abode (see my last entry) and fail even to cut down on my food packaging. Penny wise and pound foolish. So here's the deal: this is the small step to which I'm going to commit. I will bring a waste-free lunch to work.

This will require more time on my part at home, but not an unreasonable amount. I can take some time on the weekend to make soup in the crock pot and put it in jars. I can buy snacks in bulk and package them up. And no more candy bars from the machine. They're going to kill me anyway.

This will also require a monetary investment. I need some containers. D.I. would be a good place to get mason jars on the cheap (I figure mason jars will last longer than plastic containers) and I'll get extra green kudos for reusing them. I think I'll also get a place setting there to keep at work so I don't have to use plastic cutlery, and buy some bigger containers for buying things from the bulk section.

So if anyone has good ideas for lunches and snacks that can be packaged at home (especially if they're vegan, since I'm still considering doing that), I'm all ears.

I Want a House

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 18:53:06 GMT

I need a house. Okay, I have a place to live. In fact, I just moved in a month ago. But I need a house. One that I built all by my onesie, with solar panels and composting toilets and greywater irrigation. I think I'll skip the rainwater cisterns because, frankly, I live in a desert and there isn't any rainwater here. But maybe not. I need to look into it.

I've been looking at some sites about natural building, and there are several techniques that I really like. I was surprised, though. I have always been pretty attached to the strawbale concept, but it turns out that strawbale only saves about 15% of the wood vs. a conventionally framed home. Bummer. I really like the look of cast earth. It's basically dirt with gypsum added and cast into forms. It has the look of cut slabs of sandstone. I also like the earthship concept, where most of the home is dug into a south-facing slope and earth-filled tires are used as retaining walls. Any combination of these concepts can probably be used, and I'm looking forward to reading more about it.

The problem here is the money. Banks will not lend on these "unconventional" building techniques (I don't see what's so unconventional about them; adobe and stone masonry, for example, have been around since the dawn of time). So likely this would not be my first home. I would buy a regular house in a regular neighborhood (not a McMansion in a subdivision--rants forthcoming on that one), build my equity on that, save and invest the old-fashioned way, and then build by wonderful natural home with my own cash flow. Difficult, yes, but also worth it. Maybe I'll set my sights on 2029, the year I turn 50.

If you'd like to read about natural homebuilding, go to these sites:
http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/natural_building.htm is the essential primer on natural homebuilding techniques, from adobe to manufactured systems.
http://www.balewatch.com offers some amazing and innovative plans for strawbale homes, ranging from 400 to 10,000 square feet.

Welcome and Cast of Characters

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:59:18 GMT

Welcome to my Livejournal, folks. This is the companion to my Diaryland journal, http://kerenhappuch.diaryland.com. That's for more personal stuff, whereas this one will be mostly for my community/political rantings and ravings with maybe some yarn thrown in. Yarn makes everything better.

So, me:
26 year old divorcee, working as an accounting flunky at a way-big (but locally-owned) nonprofit corporation, here known as The Empire. I'm going to school to get a BS in Business Management, and I hope to get into human resources for The Empire or open my own business.

I like to crochet. I'm taking back my crochet roots from trendy knitties. I'm proud of my hook. That having been said, I'm getting into knitting too. And I like to sew, embroider...you name it. I'm even going to get into weaving when I can invest in the equipment. I like natural fibers and I have a grand fantasy of one day opening a yarn and fabric store to provide the Salt Lake market with fairly traded and environmentally friendly organic cotton, hemp, silk, wool and other supplies to assuage the consience and conceal the nakedness :) Look for it downtown or in Sugarhouse one day soon.

I'm also getting back into politics, though I'm no longer a Demo. I have been unaffiliated, rather fiercely so, for several years, though I'm leaning Green now and may even register that way. Healthcare is my sticky issue. Stay tuned for some major soapbox diatribes on that. I also get into labor issues and I oppose the war in Iraq. I don't have an opinion on everything because I like to check out the facts first.

My cast of characters:
Kid: 7 year old son. He's a little, um, spirited. Hyper. My little social butterfly. He can make friends with anything that moves. He's also a little prodigy on the 'puter.

Daddy: my best friend in the wide world. See his blog at http://www.mustard.com. Rhonda is his GF.

BF: My darling Lincoln, a professional chef with an ear for music and legs for making me stare and drool. We've been together for 10 months.

Best-friend-in-law: Lane, another chef, whose house is the party place where the wine is always flowing.

Ex: J.R., who for being of genius level intelligence, is sure an idiot. We're still cordial and sometimes even friendly, but we can't live together anymore. We separated a year ago and are now legally divorced.

There's more, like my imaginary friend Bessie and my not-in-laws, but you'll hear about them later.

Sit back, enjoy, try not to flame me.