she's just saying...

Blogcation

(If trend-spotters can name the time-honored practice of staying home "staycation," I can coin the term "blogcation." I may not be the first but I'm laying claim.) That's why you haven't heard from me for a few days. I'm at our annual family reunion at my parents' house, before the rest of the family shows up.

I'm currently in the western hills of North Carolina (which sounds a lot more scenic than it is, IMO) after a disastrous journey that included an unplanned drive to Portland, an unplanned overnight in Atlanta (paid by me, not the airline) and a lot of chicken nuggets. Plus, the only way to return to Portland (and our car) is leaving the morning of the 4th. Whatever, we're here.

The weather here is much nicer than usual, i.e. my hair is only twice its normal size, not 4 times, and I'm not "glowing" with sweat. I've remembered the secret to hanging out with family in the South:  gin. So I'm cool. Henry is enjoying the pool and awaiting the cousins. I'm enjoying the quiet before the hordes. [Who I can't wait to get here, if you're one of my siblings. Really!]

What are your plans for the 4th? Are fireworks involved? As customary in Bend, we're waiting to see if the Butte catches fire again, but that's another post.

Busted with weed(s)

We take our weeds seriously in Oregon. My noxious garden and the kerfluffle around the dread orange hawkweed in our neighborhood made today's paper, front page above the fold.

I'm quoted a bit, ending with the phrase: "It's going to kill me [but] yeah, I'll spray. I'll be a good citizen." So I think I evaded the pokey this time.

Ask not what your county can do for you, ask what you can do for your county.

Never can say goodbye...

This one hit me hard.

Rest in peace, MJ.

They’ve got me located

Deschutes County

    1300 NW Wall Street, Ste. 200 Bend, OR 97701-1960

    Phone (541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 385-3202 - www.deschutes.org

 

NEWS RELEASE                        MEDIA CONTACTS:

Dan Sherwin, 322-7135

        

Bend, Oregon                            June 25, 2009

 

Noxious Orange Hawkweed Found in Bend Landscapes

Immediate Eradication Necessary

 

Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum), an A-rated noxious weed on Deschutes County and Oregon State weed lists, was found in approximately 10 local home landscapes yesterday in Bend. Discovery of the noxious weed outcroppings prompted vegetation officials to ask residents to eradicate the weeds immediately.

 

A Forest Service employee reported the invasive weeds to County Vegetation Manager Dan Sherwin last week. An investigation conducted yesterday by Oregon Department of Agriculture Noxious Weed Coordinator Dave Langland and Sherwin resulted in the discovery of the local infestations. One Hawkweed site is located at the corner of 16^th and Baltimore Avenue in Bend. Another site was discovered at the corner of Colorado Avenue and Broadway. Landscapers were notified and immediately removed the Hawkweed plants.

 

A noxious weed is any weed designated by the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners or the Oregon Department of Agriculture that is injurious to public health, agriculture, range, recreation, wildlife or any public or private property; any weed that impacts and displaces desirable vegetation, such as threatened and endangered plant species, wildlife habitat, and livestock.

 

What is Orange Hawkweed?

A showy alpine native of Europe, … [deleted]

 

 

______________________________________________________________________________

Deschutes County Government provides for the safety, security and health of Deschutes County's 160,000 citizens through public safety, human services, adult and juvenile corrections and many other valuable public services. For more information, please go to www.deschutes.org

Noxious.

I've been identified as noxious. Or at least parts of my garden are.

While I was at work today, my home was visited by the Integrated Weed Management Coordinator for the Noxious Weed Control Program from the Plant Division of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. He left his card and a brochure on Orange Hawkweed, titled: BEAUTIFUL INVADER ALERT!

Apparently the lovely wildflower I was so pleased to see returning in various places in my gardens is an invader. I quote: "This is a priority noxious weed; report sites to the Oregon Department of Agriculture immediately... Document site locations using either local landmarks or GPS coordinates."

The description of the flower is not so pretty:

 Orange hawkweed is a perennial weed with above-ground runners (stolons) that root at the tips. Roots are shallow and fibrous. The plant grows up to 12 inches tall and contains milky juice. The vibrant orange-red colored flowers are clustered at the top of a leafless stem. Stiff, black, glandular hairs cover flower stalks. Leaves are hairy, lance shaped, up to five inches long, and exclusively basal.

Frankly, anything with stiff black glandular hairs covering it is not welcome in my garden, so I have to dig it all up. Or use Round-Up. (You know when the Ag Dept. is advocating Round-Up, it's a nasty plant.)

I actually should feel pretty special, as this plant is very limited in Oregon, in fact: "a few ornamental plantings have been reported and confirmed in Deschutes County." I guess they mean me.  "Infestations are subject to eradication" though I notice they didn't actually do the dirty work themselves.

So, if you see this plant, (a.k.a. Devil's Paintbrush) call 1-866-INVADER immediately. I am not kidding. That's the number. You've been warned.

photo courtesy of Jim Schultz

TTT: iTunes edition

Last night I re-synced my iPod to my iTunes library (yes I have an exciting life. You knew that.)

My iTunes library is now at 65 gigabytes of music. That's 200 days of music. All legal, of course. Fair use and all that. Don't report me.

I was sorting through it all and came up with a list of the top artists in the collection, by number of songs. So, not in order, here they are:

1. Lucinda Williams
2. Grateful Dead
3. Bob Dylan
4. Cowboy Junkies
5. Everything but the Girl
6. Miles Davis
7. Lyle Lovett
8. Los Lobos
9. Elvis Costello
10. Beck

That list pegs me squarely as a baby boomer with alt-country tendencies. Only Beck saves me from being really predictable, and not by much. However, no Billy Joel in all 65 gigs, so that's something.

What are your top ten artists by the numbers?

My arms are short, but long enough to pat myself on the back.

One of the nice things about having a blog is that you have a place to brag about yourself with impunity. I mean, if you can't strut a bit on your own blog, where can you?

So, it's just 4 pm now, and I've accomplished the following so far today:

1. Took 3 boys to the High Desert Museum while I worked
2. Wrote a radio commercial
3. Cleaned out and washed the fridge
4. Made gravlax
5. Made yeast bread (alright, I used the bread machine)
6. Entertained 3, then 4, now 2 boys without video
7. Got my winter tires changed (it's the Solstice: I think I'm safe)
8. Stopped at the library and paid my fines
9. Went grocery shopping
10. Did two loads of laundry

I think I'll relax now. Right after I mow the lawn.

No comments necessary: I think I praised myself enough here.

"I lost half my body weight!"

As told by Bonnie Badger

Get fit for summer with the Badger Diet! 
[Note: not a diet in which you eat badger, a diet for badgers.]

When we last checked in with Bonnie, she was a bit zaftig, tipping the scales at her winter weight of 23+ pounds. The summer show season was coming up, and she could barely fit into her skinny harness. What's a mustelid to do?

Seen today, she's a svelte 14 pounds and is looking sleek and toned. Or at least less like an ottoman with claws.

How did she do it? Let's hear her describe the process:

"I emerged from my winter torpor and got more active. I actually ate more than I did all winter and still lost the weight! I kept to a steady diet of fruits and vegetables, raw meat for protein and dead mice for variety. The pounds just melted away!"

"I upped my digging regimen with daily workouts with my trainer (as well as calisthenics with that popular video, 'Badger, mushroom, snake' ). If I can do it, anyone can!"

Let's hear it for Bonnie and her fabulous new figure. She's showing it off daily at the Desert Dwellers programs at the High Desert Museum.

Pressure-eyes'd

eyeball sundae

If you've been reading for awhile, you may remember that I was diagnosed with glaucoma a couple of years ago.  No reason, no cause, no family history - seemingly a random roll of the dice. 

It is progressing, so today I met with a new doc at Devers Eye Institute in Portland who recommended I have surgery in July to alleviate the pressure in my left eye. It's a nasty surgery with a catchy name: trabeculectomy. I mistakenly called it up on YouTube and almost fainted watching it. 'Nuff said there.

Given that I need to maintain vision for another 40+ years, they've decided to be pretty aggressive about it all. (I was the youngest patient in the waiting room by about 20 years. About the only pleasure involved in having glaucoma is that the doctors keep emphasizing how young I am. Of course, they're all about 15 years old, so what do they know?) It pretty much means the end of wearing contacts, which in my vanity was the main obstacle I had to accept. I also won't be able to scuba dive again, but since I've logged over 500 dives in my career I think I'm good there. 

I'll faithfully blog from the operating table when it comes around, 'cause I know you want to follow every gory detail. Meanwhile, go get your pressures checked. I had no symptoms, no vision loss, no pain - if they hadn't caught it by chance, I'd be blind in about 15-20 years. 

Tonight I'm staying with friends, drinking wine and relaxing. This weekend I'm attending SpecFest and spending mad money on trendy peepers.

Geeking out, suburban style

So, like any self-respecting homeowner, after I mowed the lawn yesterday I cracked open a bottle of Mikes Light Hard Pomegranate Lemonade and came in to watch the Red Sox obliterate the Phillies on my not-very-big-screen TV. "But the game wasn't televised!" you say? It is in my house.

Game on TV (in Hi-Def of course):

Source of video: MLB.TV on my laptop, hooked up with S cable and multiple monitor mode:

I'm so cool.

Friday frylets

I've decided that Fridays will be frylets day. You know, those little french fries that get lost in the bottom of the bag. One last little tasty treat. Salty, too.

So I ran across this site yesterday while producing endless PowerPoint graphs. By the way, PowerPoint 2007 SUCKS. And I don't use that word often. It is the least user-friendly, most complicated, incomprehensible, annoying and time-wasting program I've ever dealt with. Including Excel 2007, which ain't so hot itself.

But anyway, here's something very funny. This site posts readers' charts of random items. For example:

I may have to start putting my graphing skills to better use...

Who's your daddy this year?

Notice I didn't ask who's your Papi.

Really? Snow? June 9?

I missed this weird little event as it didn't hit the Museum south of town. I hear that children were screaming on the playground. Everyone said it was hail, but it sure looks like snow to me. Maybe we just can't face the S word after May.

The hostas took a beating and I've lost all my irises in flower, but otherwise life goes on in the high desert. I'll take this over 95+ degrees any day. That's coming next, of course.

The "working" part of the back deck. I call that snow.

Top 26 Tuesday: Museum edition

 Random things I've done at work recently:

1. Took closeups of a chorus frog for the local paper
2. Approved a new radio spot after music editing
3. Set up a webpage to sell tickets to our Live Bats show
4. Analyzed the results of our visitor survey
5. Approved the layout of three print ads
6. Toured a photography producer and location scout
7. Wrote exhibit copy for our new Quilts exhibit
8. Ran the cash register in our store
9. Wrote a presentation for the next Board meeting
10. Bussed tables in the cafe
11. Negotiated radio and TV buys for the next quarter
12. Got to know the new pioneers at the Homestead
13. Planned press for the new spotted owl eggs
14. Wrote a positioning statement and new taglines
15. Oversaw video editing of our news coverage
16. Approved merchandise purchases for the store
17. Developed a new blog for the Museum
18. Sold Museum memberships
19. Worked on high-end donors for our Challenge grant
20. Uploaded animal videos to our Youtube page and website
21. Demonstrated how to play "pick-up sticks" to kids
22. Discussed the layout and colors of new signage
23. Attended live animal shows (owl, skunk, hawk, badger)
24. Wrote the creative brief for our new TV commercial
25. Stamped hundreds of toddlers' plump little hands
26. Pet our very gassy goat

Noah the Toggenburg Milch Goat

PS: I'm neither bragging nor complaining - just enjoying the variety!

I'm so confused

The Red Sox have a new look this year, and I'm very confused by it all.

Quoting from several sources here:

"The changes were done to put more of an emphasis on returning the visual elements that have made the Red Sox such an influential brand within the sport of baseball. The club will also go with the "Hanging Sox" -- which has been around since 1931 as the new primary logo, and it will be used more frequently and will be displayed on new caps that the Red Sox will wear with their alternate jerseys at home and on the road.

For long-time fans, the new road jersey will be a trip down memory lane, in that it will resemble the road grays worn in the 1980s during the days of Jim Rice, Dwight Evans and Bob Stanley.

The "retro roadies," as the Red Sox referred to them in a press release, will feature the word "BOSTON" in blue lettering across the chest.

"The origin of this was Turn Back the Clock Day in June of '07 in San Diego," said Red Sox COO Mike Dee. "Everybody thought the gray was a bluer gray because of the blue lettering. The bordering makes the same gray look bluer. Basically, we've taken what was the red 'BOSTON' on the front and replaced that with a blue 'BOSTON.'"

The alternate road uniform will be a combination of white pants and blue jersey with "BOSTON" in red lettering across the chest.

No changes have been made to Boston's primary home uniforms. The alternate home red jerseys will still be used for Friday night home games, and will now be accompanied by alternate hats which feature the new "Hanging Sox" logo. The alternate caps will also be worn on the road with the alternate blue tops for Friday away games.

"If you look at the outerwear that we wear on the road, we've pretty much gone to blue as a road color and red as the home color," said Dee. "This is really an exact continuation of that. We have blue dugout jackets on the road and red dugout jackets at home; blue BP jerseys on the road, red BP jerseys at home. This gives us a blue theme to the road uniform and then a blue alternate top."

The "circle Sox," which had been the primary logo, will now be the secondary logo and will now include better graphics and clearer font. The "B" will be the third logo.

"The decision to change [to "Hanging Sox" as the primary logo] was made given the long-time iconic stature of the 'Hanging Sox,' which possesses an instant appeal and recognition of the team," the club said in a press release.

All the changes were meant to be subtle in nature.

"There's several changes, but we think they're traditional in nature and aesthetically pleasing and will be warmly received by the fans," said Dee.

Of Mice and Monkeys

Now this is impressive:
 

Remember that little blogoversary contest I ran? Probably not. Well, I was very cleverly guilted in my last post into actually delivering the prize to the local winner, Chris K., a blog buddy. (I'd call him a bluddy, but that's not so cool, actually. That's his photo montage above, and I even stole his post title.)

For his patience, I tucked in a little surprise with the catnip mouse he won.

Its use temporarily stumped him, but he quickly figured out what it must be...

...a monkey poncho.

So now it appears that in addition to the whippet sweater and the poultrywear, I'm into simian wraps.

And you have another must-read blog to visit!

Top 10 Tues: social networking rant edition

So while I'm on the subject:

Social networking trends I don't much like:

1. Personal blogs that carry ads between posts.*
2. Calling your social networking followers your "tweeple." (OK, I liked it for about 3 days.)
3. Self-congratulatory Facebook updates.
4. Mom blogs that are actually about pushing product.
5. Flickr's latest homepage layout, especially as a paying member.
6. Facebook apps that are covers for crappy ads.
7. LinkedIn self-inflation self-importance.
8. Widgets that won't work.
9. Bit.lys, TinyURLs, is.gds, blip.fms, etc.
10. A list like this at the end of every post:

Addthis Ask Blinklist del.icio.us Digg Fark Facebook Google LycosMa.gnolia Mr Wong Netscape Netvousz Newsvine Reddit StumbleUponSlashdot Tailrank Technorati Wink Yahoo

*I defend your right to include whatever you want on your blog. I just don't like ads in the middle.

A twit no longer

I'm over Twitter.

I'm an admitted trend-follower. An early-ish adopter. I jumped on Twitter awhile ago, for work reasons, really. Turns out a lot of museums tweet about their exhibits and events.

So I got a personal account and started following/being followed, from locals to Obama. At the beginning it was cool -- you were supposed to answer the question "What are you doing?" I like the premise of brief broadcasts about what random folk are up to at a particular moment. Sort of like an in-the-present haiku. Almost zen, you could say.

But most tweets I receive now are not fun to read. In fact, they're pretty unreadable. Due to the limitations of length and the desire of most twitterers to promote something, most messages end up looking like a bunch of hieroglyphics. You can retweet, reply, hashmark, include shortened URL photos and links, all of which have their own code. So a typical message looks like this:

@jensmith RT @OR_150: Westward Oregon! A Sesquicentennial Celebration, comes to Bend May 29-30. http://bit.ly/zv3QL

This is one I actually sent the other day. Even I don't remember what I included here. [Note to Jen: I changed your last name to preserve your innocence. Ha.]

Here's another one from one of our local weathermen:

BMacNewsRT @AdamClark905: Detailed Bend Forecast is out: http://bit.ly/1os5n

From a local who shall not be identified:

excellent, r/t @turoczy Finally, trending by town. Here's Portland http://bit.ly/36s2qJ or follow @happn_in_pdx

From Major League Baseball:

MLB#Nationals just announced Grand Slam Flex Plan at http://is.gd/LJw6 as latest addition to MLB.com Fan Value Corner at http://is.gd/LJwJ

Who wants to read stuff like that?  Not me. I guess that actually makes me a trend-follower anyway, as there's a growing Twitter backlash abuilding.