Madeline Takes Over!

Bonjour tout le monde!

Mommy said I could take over her blog while she does her taxes, even though I'm getting cat hair all over her keyboard. So on Friday Mommy worked late and I got really bored and decided to play with all my toys and make a big mess:



It was fun! But Mommy was a big party-pooper - she had to go and put all my toys away. How boring!



Mommy also lent me her digital camera so I could take pictures of some of my favorite things:


(I love to sit in the paper recycling bin. Fortunately Mommy keeps the paper shredder unplugged)


(yummy!)


(Mommy has me on a diet, but I don't complain too much.)


(My place for a good scratch and hit of kitty weed...which reminds me of a funny T-shirt Mommy saw. It said "If you don't talk to your cat about catnip, who will?")

Another one that makes me mad...

I meant to blog about this a few days ago when I first heard about this conservative evangelical's blog, but here's a recent article from The Post. This is so ridiculous that I almost don't know what to say. Like Kate commented, it disgusts me how much time and energy is wasted on issues like this when there are so many more pressing issues. Like instead of worrying about whether a baby is going to be born gay and how to prevent it from "becoming a sinner", we could focus our resources on troubled and disadvantaged kids so they don't grow up to become addicts, criminals, or poor. Or whatever. But our society and media insist on pushing sexuality to the forefront. Just skimming The Post's site today there are three articles on sexuality: the one above, this one on Clinton and Obama, and this one on school curriculum.

I had a nice weekend, something that hasn't happened in a while due to certain people hurting me. I had a friend over for dinner (cheddar tomato soup, salad, bread, merlot) and a movie (Invincible) on Friday. On Saturday I went running at Kickapoo State Park - and I wish I'd had my camera with me! I saw two indigo buntings, a red-headed woodpecker, lots of deer (of course), and...three river otters!! They were adorable - they were really close to me, and kept poking their heads in and out of the water, looking right at me. I could've gotten the cutest photos, but who goes running with a camera? Oh well. Then my cousin Gail and her husband Mike came to visit me (thank you guys!). We hit the local coffee shop and international food stores and then met up with some of my friends from work at Mike & Molly's bar for St. Patty's Day. I had Bailey's and peppermint schnapps - yum! After Gail & Mike left, I went with a friend to see the Bratpack, an '80s cover band, at Chiefs. On Sunday morning I somehow managed to get up at 6:30 so I could run at Forest Glen with people from my running club. I'm glad I made it - it was an absolutely gorgeous day at a gorgeous park. Again, I wish I'd had my camera. Illinois DOES have REAL hills! I seriously felt like I was back in PA or western MD. It had so many steep hills (and stream crossings) that it took us over 2 hr to run 11 miles - it was quite a workout. But afterwards we re-carbed at the park's annual Maple Syrup Festival - all the pancakes, sausage, and real maple syrup you can eat for $5. Yum! Then we took a quick tour of the sugar shack before heading back to Champaign.

Well, no river otter or Forest Glen pictures, so instead here's a random, happy picture to show off that I took at Yellowstone back in '98:

Oooh this makes me mad!!

I've always hated the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy, and this article makes me so angry! How can you call homosexuality and adultery immoral when you're a Marine general? How can a Marine general say "we do not condone immoral acts."!?! You're responsible for killing people!! Lots of people!! So war is moral but being gay is not? Kudos to Rep. Meehan and supporters for introducing legislation to reverse this ban. I was once told by a certain Navy reservist (who may be reading this - let me know if you've changed your opinion since then) that he supports the ban because some people would feel weirded out and distracted if they had to serve alongside a homosexual. That's too ridiculous for words. We meet such a wide variety of people in life - you may not like everyone, but sometimes you have to find ways to be accepting, grow up, and get along. Plus, don't our troops work w/ other countries' troops in coalitions or whatever? Other countries who allow gays in their military because they're not conservative tight asses like the U.S.. So our patriotic homophobes may find themselves working alongside a gay person anyway! Grrr, this frosts Sandra Cookie's cookies!

Delta Zeta in the news again

Here's an Associated Press article about DePauw University kicking Delta Zeta off its campus. Heck, they only had two members left anyway. And here's the statement from our National Headquarters. I guess I do feel kind of bad for our national officers having to deal with all this publicity. But I still think their idea of a "strong commitment to recruitment" in this situation probably included how much make-up you're willing to wear, how many pounds you can lose, how stylish your clothes are, and how much of a social butterfly you can be. When your sorority is known as the "doghouse", academics, philanthropy, and sisterhood just aren't gonna bring in new members.

New Artwork

There was a large mirror above my TV and it fell off the wall and broke, leaving a big white space. So I moved my Van Gogh print to over the TV and decided to buy something nice to cover up the white space over the futon. I went to Ten Thousand Villages and found this, a coiled wool tapestry from Peru. I like it a lot because of the soft, warm colors, and it goes with my "fabric themed" living room - I now have cloths/ tapestries from Niger, Equador, India, and Peru.



Changing subjects, does anyone out there, besides Kate, like marshmallow peeps, which incidently are made in Bethlehem, PA? I didn't think so (sorry, Kate, I think they're gross!). But now I have an excellent reason to buy them:
The Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest!
Just another reason why this newspaper is so great. But the competition's going to be tough. Scroll down and see "March of the Peeps" and "Spinal Peeps" from an earlier contest (yeah, the Post swiped the idea from the St. Paul Pioneer Press). Peeps look so much like Daphnia that I'd like to make a diorama of a pelagic ecosystem, but I have a feeling only me and a few other people would get it.

Idiots Keep Me Entertained

This week it was this idiot. Another entertaining headline (but I'm not calling them idiots) was this: Swiss Army Accidentally Invades Liechtenstein. Also, here is another article about my sorority. Okay, lunch break over, time to get back to work.