Aqueduct

Posted by amy at April 8th, 2008

Take me out to the ballgame, or at least let me get away with streaming the game online today at my desk. It is opening day for the Red Sox and I’m going to be cheering for the home team.

Posted by amy at April 6th, 2008

(.)-(.)

3 beers over 7 hours and I’m a bit hung over. Pathetic, no? Congrats to Ali Benjamin on a fantastic event, Northern Berkshire Nursing Families raised just shy of $19,000 last night, Eric and Eric, the evening’s mcs were fantastic. I hang my head in shame for thinking that Thomas Paine and not John Jay was an author of the Federalist Papers, but saved some face by being able to name Marge Simpson’s maiden name. She shares it with a former first lady, can you name it too?

Thanks Molly Kerns for inviting me to join the best table in the room.

Posted by amy at April 4th, 2008

Needed to get a post in before I left for work, had nothing to write about so I spent a few minutes in Flickr.

Photo by Fort Photo
This photo is available under a Creative Commons agreement, which is how I can share it with you today.

Posted by amy at April 3rd, 2008

My children are eating cheerios, watching the Flintstones while we wake up and get ready today. Turn the clock back 35 years and it could easily be me and my brother.

In other news, I’m competing this weekend in Northern Berkshire Family Nursing’s trivia contest at the Williams Inn on Saturday. This is a cause very close to my heart. Nursing doesn’t come naturally to some women and babies and having a free support system in place is beyond invaluable, especially in an era where the most likely source of support, your own mother, probably didn’t nurse.

I spent most of the first 12 weeks of Cate’s life working with a very expensive lactation consultant before surrendering to the reality that she was going to be a bottle baby. Alex took to it much easier, and I think still has moments when he remembers the comfort he got from it, even though we stopped three years ago.

Posted by amy at March 31st, 2008

It isn’t that I’m not blogging regularly, I am, just not here.

Which makes me sad. I love my blog, I miss my blog, I just haven’t had much to say.

Posted by amy at January 21st, 2008

about the history of the civil rights struggle and MLK Jr’s role in it, I give you:

Posted by amy at January 12th, 2008

From Richardson’s last email:

Running for president brings out the best in everyone who graces the stage, and I have learned much from the other candidates running. They have all brought great talents and abilities to the campaign.

Senator Biden’s passion and intellect are remarkable.

Senator Dodd is the epitome of selfless dedication to public service and the Democratic Party.

Senator Edwards is a singular voice for the most downtrodden and forgotten among us.

Senator Obama is a bright light of hope and optimism at a time of great national unease, yet he is also grounded in thoughtful wisdom beyond his years.

Senator Clinton’s poise in the face of adversity is matched only by her lifetime of achievement and deep understanding of the challenges we face.

Representative Kucinich is a man of great decency and dedication who will faithfully soldier on no matter how great the odds.

And all of us in the Democratic Party owe Senator Mike Gravel our appreciation for his leadership during the national turmoil of Vietnam.

I am honored to have shared the stage with each of these Democrats. And I am enormously grateful to all of my supporters who chose to stand with me despite so many other candidates of accomplishment and potential.

Something happened on early last week, between the last debate and the misty Clinton diner moment, which is that Clinton went from a candidate I wouldn’t back, to a candidate I’m now rooting for. There was a moment in the debate where Clinton talked about the economy and her hope that by really looking to solve our energy crisis we can create a new economy that will essentially buy our way out of the recession. We can’t look to consumers to do it, we can’t look to the fed to continue playing with interest rates in some kind of giant ponzi scheme, we must look to what we do best, which is innovate. I must say, an economic plan that doesn’t rely on consumer spending is a refreshing idea. And though I’m the first to resist big government spending, this is a plan I could get behind, this is a debt I’d be willing to shoulder, if it meant we didn’t have to wage wars in foreign lands over substances that are slowly but surely poisoning us. One of the great successes of ancient roman empires was their indoor plumbing, I’ve heard rumors that one of the reason of their downfall was lead poisoning from said plumbing. Our dependence on oil seems to be similar.

And while John Edwards can proudly rail against greed and be an advocate of the downtrodden, I’m enough of a realist to recognize that a little greed is good. The connections between corporations and wall street and pension funds for state workers is clear in my mind. Innovation and rewards are good, people want to be recognized for the work they do, you want your pension fund manager to invest in companies that will make money so that when you retire, you don’t have to live on cat food in a cardboard box under a bridge. And it doesn’t mean that we have to settle for blind investing, fund managers for socially-minded investors had a greater return on their investments than traditional fund manager over the last 10 years.

And what can I say about Obama, if he is the nominee, I will pull the lever? George Bush said last week that if he were running for president right now, even he would be running on a campaign of change, but change into what?

I still hope to see Bill Richardson’s name on my front lawn come November, albeit in smaller letters and under someone else’s name, but for the short game, I’m going to be watching Hillary.

Posted by amy at January 6th, 2008

Every since reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail in college, I’ve been a bit of a primary junky. I remember sitting in my car, long after arriving at my destination, to keep listening to one more chapter of Primary Colors (audiobook). I’m seldom vested in any one candidate, but enjoy the sport of it.

This year, I picked Bill Richardson, current governor of New Mexico, as my candidate to follow. I picked him because because of this YouTube video:

I signed up for his email updates and have followed his campaign on an almost daily basis since last spring. I’ve been blown away by his internet strategy, his team has done a fantastic job of making me feel like I’m part of their revolution, and has kept me more in touch with the campaign trail than any of my regular news sites.

A couple of weeks ago, I realized I should probably compare his campaign’s tone to the others, so I signed up for Obama, Clinton and Edward’s sites as well. They pale in comparison, Obama and Edwards send out the occasional email, Edwards has become more agressive since Iowa, but they miss the personal connection that Richardson’s team seems to excel at. Clinton’s team has totally dropped the ball with their email communication. The few I’ve gotten haven’t been engaging or informative.

I’m fairly convinced that Richardson won’t win a damn thing, but hope he stays in the race long enough to be a top contender for the vice president’s spot. And when his campaign runs out of money, I hope that someone snaps up his internet strategists and continues the torch of daily emails that have gotten me excited about presidential politics again.

I’m horrible at reading tea leaves, but I’d vote for Obama/Richardson ticket in 08.

Posted by amy at December 11th, 2007

Cate with her namesake, my grandmother Catherine

Several months ago, Cate’s teacher asked if I would come in during the holiday season and talk about our family’s holiday traditions. She showed me the list of available dates, one of which was Cate’s birthday, so I grabbed that spot. Then I panicked. Holiday traditions? The only thing we really do annually is run up a huge credit card bill. I’m not sure kindergartners want to hear about our debate over interest rates -vs- cash flow issues. Then I remembered that for the past few years, we’ve brought holiday cookies to the neighbors. Perfect.

In addition to making a three tiered mermaid birthday cake, and throwing a mermaid themed birthday party for 20 six year olds, I managed to squeeze in several rounds of cookie making over the weekend. Yesterday, I assigned Dave the final task of making the gingerbread dough so it could chill, and I rolled out the cookies last night. The first two batches were a bit too thin and crispy for a 6 year old’s refined palate, so I rolled the second half much thicker, the men and women were puffy and soft, and quite yummy. I painstakingly hand painted each one with a glaze and then left them on their drying racks and went to bed.

And now, for the rest of the story …

I awoke to the sound of the fire alarm this morning, and then heard the heavy footsteps of my husband’s feet running up the stairs. He bursts through the bedroom door, and without even so much as a cup of coffee to cushion the blow he says:

Did you hear the one about the woman who put her laptop in the oven to keep it from getting stolen, then she turned on the oven and burnt the laptop?

My mind immediately went to precious Mac PowerBook G4 that was sitting on my desk when I went to bed. My Laptop? What did he do to my laptop? I’m going to kill him if he killed my laptop.

Well, I didn’t do that. But I did put your cookies in the oven last night to keep them from getting eaten by our resident mouse. And then I forgot about them, and turned on the oven this morning and, well, your cookies are toast.

My cookies! All that hard work! I came down and looked at the cookies, and realized that we are now even. He can no longer hold that ill fated kayak trip against me — the one where I flipped the boat and lost his gold plated fishing rod into the Atlantic Ocean. Payback is a bitch.

Posted by amy at December 5th, 2007

This is Cate in her first stage performance ever.