Home Improvement

I have been a very handy girl lately. These things come with the territory when one moves into a new house. There are a zillion little projects. Most of them are nagging little things that are easy to ignore once the place is really home and you've left your mark. We're not there yet. These things are not so easy for me to ignore -- though I think Buster could care less. He's not as picky as I am.

Some wives make a honey-do list then wait patiently or nag until their husbands take care of it. That's definitely not my style. I'm proud of being a handy girl and I don't like waiting or nagging. Besides, if I do it it'll be done my way, and I like that. Don't worry, Buster has plenty of his own projects.

I started my extra long to-do list a week or so ago and took most of the day off work today to tackle a few more of these little buggers.

The thermostat was digital, but not programmable so I installed this one last week:


To be honest, it was a lot easier to install than to program. Might have to replace it with something a little less obtuse sometime in the not too distant future.

The bedroom windows were all covered by nasty old roller shades, some of which were not exactly functional. Yesterday I started hanging curtains in the master bedroom. I still have to do the two smaller windows, but the big window is all done:

No, we don't have astro-turf for bedroom carpet, but it is the same color. That's on the list of big money projects. We're not ready to tackle those yet, sadly.

Today I started in my office. The dimmer switch no longer dimmed, it just turned the light on and off. I replaced it. Now I can have the right amount of light for any occasion, and the switch looks much nicer, too.


Moving on to the livingroom, this dimmer switch worked, but it was.. well.. backwards:

When I turned the dial it would click on to the brightest setting then dim as I kept turning. I know plenty of people wouldn't think twice about this but I found it really irritating. So I replaced it. Turns out that the installed dimmer was actually meant to be a fan control, not a light control. Maybe that explains the backwards operation.

This was the only project that gave me any trouble. You see, I've been stubborn and I refused to turn off the electricity to do any of the electrical work. The breakers aren't properly labeled and it's always an adventure (rebooting computers and resetting clocks) when I need to turn off a breaker. Anyhow, as I was hooking up the new switch, it bit me. It was just a little jolt to the thumb and I'm not really sure how it happened because I don't think I was even touching anything with that thumb! No harm done and I managed to finish hooking up the switch without any more zaps. It works like a champ.

In case you might think I learned a lesson from that project, I moved right on to my smoke alarm project without even thinking about flipping breakers.

The old smoke alarm seemed non-functional. I wasn't going to test it with actual smoke, but the test button didn't work. That was making me a bit nervous.

I've never had a smoke alarm that was wired into the house electricity before. Regular battery powered smoke alarms are super easy to replace but I wasn't sure about the wired kind. No problem. Turned out to be a piece of cake. No zaps this time and the new smoke alarm nearly deafened me when I hit the test button:

It's also got a "it's not a real fire, I'm just cooking" button. I need one of those.

Next up, the blinds in the bathroom.


Those are standard aluminum blinds, but that is not a standard bathroom window. It comes down a lot lower than bathroom windows should. There is no way to open those blinds without completely sacrificing all modesty. So I replaced them with a top down pleated shade.


Now we can enjoy natural light in the bathroom without sitting naked in front of our neighbors. And, the new shade is very pretty. You probably can't see it in the photo, but it's got a very nice little leaf pattern. I like this shade so much that I'm thinking about ordering more for windows in the livingroom and guestroom.

Tomorrow I have the day off work (it's my birthday) so I'll work on the rest of my list. I still need to

• Hang a top down shade in the other bathroom
• Hang the rest of the bedroom curtains
• Put up a second smoke alarm (no wiring for this one)
• Put up a CO alarm in the basement (furnace 10+ years old? Get a CO alarm.)
  
• fix a bathroom faucet (ooh! plumbing! this should be fun.)
  
• Install some GFIs (none of the bathroom or kitchen outlets are GFIs -- maybe I oughtta find the right breakers before I tackle this one...)
  

And that's just the stuff I already have parts for. If I can get all those things done I might go buy some paint -- that's when the real fun starts!

P.S. Sorry for the dark photos. I used my new iPhone (Thanks, Mom and Dad, this thing rocks!). As soon as I remember where I put away the cable for my real camera I'll start using a flash indoors again.

A New Home

Departing from politics for a bit....

We're all moved into our new house.


Sorry, it was pretty cloudy when I took that picture so it looks a wee bit ominous. I promise, the house is not quite so imposing. It's warm and welcoming and bright and I like it very much. I especially like it now that I've gotten most of our stuff out of boxes...

Most. Not all.


Too many books. Not enough shelves. I need to fix that. Also on the list of things to fix:

• My office has no doors (once a dining room, then a den, now my office).
• Our dishwasher, garage door openers, and window shades are all so old I think Cleopatra may have been the original owner.
• Our cooktop is electric (EWWW! the horror!!).
• The bathrooms are painted in flat white (flat paint in a bathroom = dirty walls).

We still own the old house and until that's sold, we don't have the extra cash to do too much on our to do list. We've had a fair number of showings and we're reasonably optimistic that it will sell, perhaps early next year, sooner if we're lucky.

In the mean time, winter has arrived.


The first snow of the year is clinging to the grass in our back yard. With a heavy heart I declare the end of my 2008 road biking season. I'm going to get my mountain bike tuned up and see if I can't find warm enough clothes to spend some time exploring the many dirt roads near my house this winter. I'm also planning to spend lots of time at the gym. I want to start the 2009 road biking season strong!

Conservative Fundamentals

Thank goodness, the election is over. For the first time ever the American people have elected a racial minority to the highest office in the country. That's very exciting! He happens to have been the most liberal Congressman in the Senate. That's not so exciting. I hope the conservative media are wrong about Obama. I hope he turns out to be more moderate than expected. I hope he's able to unite the country and keep taxes reasonable and improve our foreign relations and do many of the other things he's promised.

I have many fears and hopes for the next two years while the Democrats rule the roost, but that's not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the Republicans, a party that, with a good deal of personal and ideological compromise, I've recently embraced. I want to talk about the future of conservatism and my hopes and fears on that front.

Jed Babbin wrote:

Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) got it right last night. He said the Republicans need a housecleaning. They need to reclaim the title of the “party of big ideas.” Those ideas have to be conservative ideas: smaller government, strong defense, and individual freedom.

This is a popular notion among conservatives right now. Get back to fundamentals. Get back to conservative idealism and reform: Small government, strong defense, individual freedom, and a strong commitment to the Constitution. Boy, does that ever sound good! A small government that allows capitalistic free markets to function with little or no interference. A government that provides for the defense of it's citizens and defends individual freedoms. A government that focuses on staying small so taxes can stay low across the board. A government that seeks to reduce it's responsibilities rather than grow it's power. A government that seeks to abide by both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. It warms my libertarian-leaning heart.

The problem with the Republican party arrives in the baggage. In recent conservative ideology, individual freedom doesn't appear to include the freedom to marry someone of the same gender. Nor does it include a woman's reproductive freedom. The Constitutional tradition of separation of Church and State doesn't seem to stop the far right from endorsing the ridiculous notion that the public schools should teach creationism. This is all baggage that the Christian Coalition dropped on the Republican Party. These three ideas in particular don't fit on a true conservative agenda.

For some reason a vast majority of conservatives have jumped on the anti-gay marriage band wagon. Not one single person has given me a good solid reason why we should disallow two people from marrying no matter their genders. People argue that a marriage should be about the potential to have children. If that's so, then why are infertile people allowed to marry? Or women past menopause? Technology and adoption allow same sex couples to have children just as they allow infertile hetero couples to have children. Others argue that the traditional family (man, woman, children) is the backbone of society. To that I say look at the rising divorce rate, look at all the single parent homes. Divorce is causing a lot more damage to the traditional family than gay marriage! Would it be right to ban divorce to protect the institution of marriage? I don't understand how people can oppose gay marriage for any reason other than pure bigotry. This is in direct opposition to the notion of personal freedoms.

Abortion is a tough issue and I don't believe that either party has it figured out. The folks on the far left want it flat out legal even when the baby is already half born. The folks on the far right want every abortion banned even when the mother's life is at risk and the baby has little chance for a meaningful life. Both sides take it too far. Either way I personally think decisions about abortions should be left to individuals and their doctors. Until we can objectively determine at what point a fetus becomes an individual human being, any legal restrictions on abortions should come at a state or municipal level where local custom and the local moral majority can decide for themselves. If we really want to minimize government and maximize personal freedoms, such questions should not be handled at a federal level.

The ridiculous notion of creationism is just that: ridiculous. How any right thinking intelligent person could embrace such an idea is beyond my comprehension. How anyone could want such bull-hockey taught to impressionable children is again beyond my ability to comprehend. In any case, the first amendment to the Constitution guarantees your right to practice whatever religion you like. There's a tradition of separation of Church and State in this country (contrary to popular belief, the separation of Church and State is NOT part of the constitution, but a concept adopted to help uphold the first amendment). Creationism is a religious concept, NOT a scientific one. If you wish to teach your children creationism, you are free to do so, just don't ask the public school to do so.

When faced with these issues I'm embarrassed to call myself a conservative. On nearly any other topic I'm likely to agree with the conservative point of view. Smaller government, strong defense, individual freedoms, free market economics, flatter taxes, fewer social programs, patriotism, tradition, and strong adherence to the Constitution, these are conservative notions I can get behind. If the Republican party is going to make a fresh start perhaps it should shed the anti-gay pro-life creationist ideologies. Such ideas are contrary to the most fundamental of conservative ideals. I'm all for getting back to the fundamentals.

As far as President-elect Obama goes, I'm planning to give him the benefit of the doubt across the board. I will set aside my concerns about his past and judge him based on his actions from this day forward. A clean slate and a fresh start. I hope that we can look back in 20 years and remember our first black president with pride and honor.

Journalism, Politics, and Sci-Fi

We're moving this weekend to that new house I mentioned a while back so I really don't have time for a nice long well thought out piece here. But a friend of mine sent me this article: Would the last Honest Reporter Please Turn on the Lights by Orson Scott Card and I wish I could read it aloud to the whole country. Everyone should hear this message. It's a call for a return to journalistic integrity and honesty. Card discusses the reporting of the mortgage crisis and the current presidential campaign and shows how very biased the media has been. He seems to be specifically directing his message to newspaper reporters but I believe the mainstream television media is even more guilty. It's important to note that Orson Scott Card is a Democrat. He's also an award winning sci-fi/fantasy author, loved by his fans and respected by his peers, a majority of whom are also Democrats.

These two paragraphs from Card's article really struck home for me:

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.

How can we, the consumers of the media, hope to learn what's really happening in the world? How can we hope to make a well informed decision at the polls when our media, our supposed watchdogs, have taken it upon themselves to make our decisions for us? We should be outraged.

The best we can do is watch Fox News in equal doses with MSNBC and CNN, read humanevents.com to balance out what we read at nytimes.com and washingtonpost.com, listen to Micheal Savage and Thayrone on the radio to balance out the major networks' nightly news broadcasts. It takes effort and judgment and a discerning ear to sort through the bias leaning to both sides. And, sadly, there's no guarantee that you'll actually discover the truth.

I'm off to pack. Go read Orson Scott Card's article. It's also available here.

Senator Government

Now that I've opened this can of worms I might as well keep going.

My favorite part of the entire presidential debate last night was when McCain slipped up and called Obama "Senator Government". Ahh, here we have the biggest difference between the candidates.

Senator Government, true to the ways of a far left Democrat (is there actually a difference between a far left Democrat and a Socialist? really, not so much), wants bigger government, more programs, more mandates, more taxes. "Big Daddy government will come take care of you, just give us all your money and play by our rules. Oh, you don't have any money? That's ok. No, no, don't get off the couch, we'll just go get money from your hardworking neighbor to pay your bills."

As a moderate Republican, McCain is planning to cut taxes across the board, shrink government, and reduce pork barrel expenditures. Ahh, just the mere thought of a smaller federal government warms my little libertarian leaning heart. I thought I was falling in love with the old man when he called himself a federalist (he's using the contemporary "New Federalism" meaning of the word here which is actually anti-federalism -- It's a Bush thing. Bush. words. stumble. You get it.) and discussed giving more power and autonomy to the state governments. Boy, that's just too good to be true.

I was pretty upset, however, when both candidates started talking about bailing homeowners out of bad mortgages. And who's money do you plan to use to do that, gentlemen? Mine? I sure as heck hope not! I didn't take on a loan I can't afford. Foreclose that house and let the bank sell it to someone that can afford it. Or let the local community buy it and turn it into a park or a community garden. I heard a brief snippet of something on NPR the other day about people doing just that in Flint, MI. Wow, what a great idea. Keep it local, though. I do not want to see federal government involved in this! Property values in Flint plummeted long before the rest of the country started to feel this downturn. Auto companies had shut down plants and people had left and there were too many houses and no buyers. This community project reduces the supply of properties on the market -- basic supply and demand economics; and it intrinsically increases the value of the homes in the neighborhood -- more green space tends to do that. It's a win-win so long as your not picking the pockets of folks that live hundreds of miles away to make it happen.

Back to the big government thing here. Even if you don't believe that Obama's very very scary past has any relevance, how can you buy into his idea of an ever expanding government? Big government needs big money and that means big taxes. Obama may be talking about cutting taxes now, but he's going to find his scalpel isn't sharp enough to keep all the programs he wants, add more programs, AND reduce the budget. It's a logical impossibility. Bigger government ALWAYS means higher taxes.

If you really honestly think you want Big Government, take a really close look at some place that already has it. Really check it out first because once you start nationalizing it's nearly impossible to reverse course. Let's use a fairly benign example like France. France has big government and I'll readily admit, big government yields mighty fine wine. However, I would never want to actually become a French citizen. In France it's extremely difficult to get a job. Why? Because France has a slew of "labor friendly" laws preventing people from getting fired even due to poor performance... even when small reduction in force would prevent an entire company from collapsing. Employers are honestly afraid to hire folks because it's so difficult to fire them if things don't work out. Oh, and enjoy all the labor strikes. Get to know the entire Metro map well because at any given time one of the lines will be shutdown due to a strike. If you by chance own a vineyard, you will grow what the government tells you to grow. It matters not if the entire world has decided to stop drinking Chardonnay, the government mandates you grow those grapes anyhow because that's what grows best in your climate and soil. Good for wine, not so good, perhaps, for your bottom line. And if you get sick, I mean really sick, good luck. A nationalized health care system can't afford the state of the art equipment or the specialists that might be able to save you. Better find a way to get to the US where we still have semi free market medicine... unless you vote in Obama, then I think you just might be screwed.

Seriously folks, do you really want Big Daddy Government to take care of you? Or do you want a chance at the American Dream, earning a good living through hard work and smart choices, unfettered by overwhelming taxes and government mandates? Do you deserve to keep your own money spending any excess as you see fit to help out those you believe deserve your help? Or do you want the government to redistribute your hard earned wealth as they see fit, through an expensive bureaucracy and on to programs that you may or may not wish to support?

It's up to you. Vote with your brain, folks.

On no! Politics!

oh dear... I can't hold it in any longer. I try to avoid talking politics in public because I have a lot of friends on both sides and about half of them might not like me anymore after reading this.

In general I don't like radicalism. The far religious right with their creationism in public schools, anti-abortion, anti-queer, anti-science outlook incites the same level of rage in me as the far left that think it's the government's job to ensure the same level of comfort and luxury to everyone no matter how hard they work or how valuable their skills. The far right wants to legislate morality, the far left wants to use my hard earned money to pay someone else's bills.

Barack Obama is about as far left as left gets. John McCain is a moderate Republican. Can you see where I'm going here? Is it clear who I'm planning to vote for?

Here's why I fear Obama:
- Health care: Obama has said outright that he believes that health care is a RIGHT. Health care is NOT a right. It is a service provided by highly trained and highly skilled individuals that deserve to be well compensated for their work. You may not agree with me here but nationalizing health care will shred our world class medical system.
- Ayers: Obama says he was only 8 yrs old when Bill Ayers was blowing things up. Obama says he was just a neighbor. But Ayers hosted the party when Obama launched his political career. Obama and Ayers worked together on an education project in Chicago. Ayers is a radical leftist with a history of violence and even if they aren't buddies, he and Obama are definitely running in the same circles. And the "I didn't know" defense doesn't work here either. As a politician you really should know who you're associating with.
- Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Obama's own pastor, his teacher in spiritual and moral matters, is a scary scary man. He preaches anti-Americanism and spews hatred from the pulpit. I really don't understand how Obama weaseled away from this one. Even the media, so clearly in love with Obama, thinks that Wright is wrong. How can everyone simply shrug this off?
- Acorn: Obama was their lawyer. Maybe it's not a huge conspiracy. Maybe the folks that run Acorn are just too stupid to teach their canvassers that registering false voters is against the law. And that's not the only scary thing Acorn has done. They also strong armed banks into giving home loans to low income folks, most of whom couldn't actually afford to make the payments. Now the entire world economy is suffering in part because of such loans.
- Citizenship controversy: Phillip J. Berg, a lawyer and a Democrat, has filed a lawsuit against Obama asking Obama to produce proof that he's a natural born US citizen (a constitutional requirement for the presidency). Obama has yet to produce more than a short form copy of his birth certificate and the short form will not hold up in a court of law. Obama was apparently born in Hawaii (though his grandmother claims to have been present at his birth in Kenya). Even if he was born in the US, there's evidence that he had forsaken his US citizenship so he could attend school when he lived with hist stepfather in Indonesia. In order to attend school in Indonesia at that time you had to be a citizen of Indonesia and neither Indonesia nor the US allow for dual citizenship. His school paperwork claimed he was a citizen of Indonesia. That would mean he returned to the US through immigration and is now a naturalized citizen (NOT a natural born citizen) or an illegal alien. Berg's website all about the lawsuit is here. Maybe it's all a big conspiracy theory. If it is, why in the world won't Obama just get a legal copy of his birth certificate and render the whole thing moot?!?

Obama has me shaking in my boots. He associates with some people and organizations that are downright frightening. Buster noted something rather astonishing while we watched Obama on TV the other day. Obama delivers eloquent oratory. He has the ability to inspire an audience and make people want to agree with him and believe in him no matter what he's saying. Buster said it reminded him of Hitler. I was initially shocked by the comparison but I had to agree. Obama's charisma has carried him past the controversy with Wright and it seems to be floating him by Ayers and Acorn as well.

Now, I believe people can change over time. Once upon a time I was a practicing Lutheran. Later, in college, I became an atheist Objectivist Libertarian. Now I'm an agnostic independent. But I do find that my past informs my present. I still have libertarian leanings and I still rely on a personal moral code taught to me by my parents and reinforced by my childhood church.

Obama is trying to sweep his past under a rug. He's trying to tell us all that Ayers and Acorn and Write are all "distractions". Perhaps. But perhaps his past informs his present. How could it not? At the very beginning of his political career he associated with a man so far to the political left that he was willing to bomb buildings and homes to make his point. Obama was a lawyer for a far left organization with a sketchy past and fraudulent present. And Sunday after Sunday Obama sat in a pew and listened to his spiritual leader preach anti-American sentiment, hatred, and reverse racism. And he seems reluctant to produce documentation to prove that he's constitutionally eligible to hold the office of president. Could that mean he's willing to bypass the constitution to get what he wants? How can all this be irrelevant?

Here's what I really think: Obama is so far to the left of left that you might as well call him a radical socialist. And that, all by itself, is enough to make me run screaming.

McCain is not perfect. I don't agree with his stance on abortion but I know he can't really do anything about it so I figure that one is a non-issue. What I know of his health care plan sounds sketchy if not worthless, but at least he's not trying to socialize medicine. He's getting up there in age, and he's chosen a VP without a whole lot of experience. But I think I can trust him to choose good advisers and I believe that Palin would maintain those advisers if she had to take over the presidency.

I do like McCain's plan for Iraq. And I do believe that even though McCain helped to write the economic bailout plan that eventually passed congress, he would work to restore free market banking.

Most importantly I believe in McCain's integrity. And that, more than anything else, is why I'm going to vote for him.

a little news

I wish I could tell you that I've had nothing of any interest to write about and that's why it's been so gosh darn quiet around here. Truth is I've had plenty to write about, I've just been lazy! So, here are the two biggest events of the last month:

Baby K:
Baby K was born while I was away on dalmac. He's absolutely the cutest little guy I've ever seen, but so far I've only seen pictures! I've been so busy over the last month that I haven't had a chance to see him in person. I'm planning to fix that this evening. Sadly I'm still a few days away from finishing the little present I'm making for him. I'll have to mail it... or just drive over to see him again soon. Pictures of both the baby and the present are forthcoming.

Our anniversary present:
The traditional second anniversary gift is cotton and the modern gift is china. We shrugged all that off and bought a house instead. This is actually something we've been working on for about a year now. We finally have a signed sales agreement and we just need to do the inspection. Looks like we'll be moving in about a month. The new house is in a very nice area just outside of Saline. It's bigger and better laid out than our current house and it has a much bigger yard. It also has an extra garage for Buster's toys and a much larger space inside for my office and Buster's fly tying.

Once we move, we're going to replace the carpet in our old house and put it on the market. We know that buying another house before we sell this one is a risky move. But it's a calculated risk. We have a very old kitty that is prone to accidents and as long as that cat is in the house I know we'll have a terrible time selling. Also, we're prepared to sell below market price for our area so we should be able to sell quickly. Hopefully the recent economic upheaval won't screw us up too badly.