forum: vegans in hummers versus meat-eaters in hybrids

In summary:

• argument: people eat cows
  
  • subargument: cows produce methane
    
  • subargument: people are omnivores
    
    • counter: gorillas have sharp teeth & are strict vegetarians
      
    • counter: humans can live healthily making the choice to be veg

  • subargument: if we don’t eat cows, they will take over the earth
    
    • counter: quit with the organic crack, mmm-kay?

  • subargument: need calcium/protein/b12
    
    • counter: eating meat doesn’t automatically make a healthy diet
      
    • counter: veganathlete.com etc
      
    • counter: cows eat grass and they have muscles

• argument: hummers vs hybrid emissions
• argument: people eat not-cows
  
  • subargument: impossible to convince 6 billion ppl to be vegan
    
  • subargument: local cow vs imported soy
    
  • subargument: less cows bred
    
  • subargument: instinct of human vs instinct of puppy to kill
    
    • counter: puppies develop quicker than babies

  • subargument: eating cows is cruel
    
  • subargument: carbon resources needed to produce beef (or burgers)

My argument: Birth control.

• less people
• eat less meat and less vegetables
• less driving

Been a busy week, focusing on the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival.

Friday was setup, and I was the staff person designated as least busy and therefore nominated to be the spokesperson for a public service announcement on television. I got to work a bit after 8 am, but then it was canceled as we didn’t have enough people to bring as audience members.

Saturday was the first day of the festival, which began with a 7:30 am staff meeting, and, for me, ended about 13 hours later. In between was tons of directing people to go this or that direction, and how to do this job, and sign them up for shifts later in the Festival. The first six or seven hours of the day, I spent entirely in Festival/Volunteer HQ.

Sunday we began at 8 am for more of the same as Saturday, but only 11 hours of it.

Monday was slowish, so I got to go out and about, and wrote up my ‘staff pick,’ only to find that my favorite boat left on Sunday night! One of our long term volunteers bought me an ice cream cone, however, which is almost consolation, and I chilled a little in the beer garden before heading home.

Tuesday, presumably, was much like Monday, except that I ran away to go hiking with Alex and a couple of his buddies, down by Mt. Rainier. It’s about three hours to drive down there, so I still got up at sixish. Actually, I woke up at a quarter to six, due to kitten. I woke up a little, looked over, and she was curled up in a perfect circle by my head — with her head stuck under the pillow! I tried to get up very quietly to grab the camera and photodocument this oddity, but she woke up, and then she was monstery, so I just got up and made buttermilk biscuits for eating in the car. At the mountain we saw wildflowers, and several frogs (! — too fast for me to catch, though), but no marmots, and none of the big damage from the November storms.

Wednesday, last day of the festival, I was back in Festival HQ for a good chunk of the day, and ended up making a fair number of announcements, as we had no particular announcer. I got a lot of comments on how great I sound amplified, something I’ve never thought about before. I guess with radio show in high school, and call center experience, I modulate my voice pleasantly. People also seemed particularly taken by the last few closing announcements, which I phrased to kindly emphasize that at six o’clock the Festival was over, and that included the beer garden.

Spent an hour or two on cleanup, then had dinner with the volunteers, and chilled on the docks for the fireworks. Alex and I ended up sitting on the Pirate, which was at the end of the dock, and therefore a front row seat. The fireworks were lovely, included a few shaped as smiley faces, cubes and hearts, but were nowhere near as many as New Year’s in China. Very nice to watch them on the water, though.

The only thing we did wrong was to leave too early, and get stuck in traffic snafus on the way home. I’d asked Alex to come with car, so I wouldn’t have to bike home, assuming I’d be tired and tipsy, but even biking tired and tipsy we would have gotten home quicker!

Today, you won’t be surprised to hear, I took a long nap!

Kitten update:
Can jump out of bathtub by self (there goes that storage option)
Learning to come when called
Learning to stop when yelled at
Not yet aware that feet are attached to humans who don’t appreciate claws
Omnivorous (tofu, salsa, ramen, etc)
Hilarious with a laser pointer
60% monster / 40% cute

I got a kitten! Her name is Pippa. She is, of course, the cutest thing ever to appear on this planet, at least when she is sleepy. When fully awake and energized, she is a little monster. Walks on keyboards because the cursor moving on the screen looks so tempting. Actually stares intensely at my face, which is either at my eyelashes or my nose ring — either way it’s kind of worrying because it’s the same look she has pre-pounce on toy mice or pieces of string.

She purrs like a fierce little engine and has big blue eyes (which will no doubt become some other color) and is currently trying to chew on her own tail. She’s excellent at climbing up the side of couches and beds, but sucks at jumping, either up or down. She’s not afraid of anything, having been adopted from a home with a husky and a three year old in addition to cats. Sometimes she jumps on my head at five in the morning, but is always fast asleep when I get up at seven. I think she’s starting to teethe, and that’s why she keeps chewing on me, my quilt, and of course all the kitty toys.

Bike Commuter report:

This morning on my way to work I came up behind a guy who had a sock stuck on his butt. He had a velcro closure pocket on the derriere of his shorts, and a white sweat sock dangling from the velcro, swinging back and forth. After a minute I decided this was probably something grabbed from the laundry basket, rather than an innovative visibility device — after all, the sock wasn’t orange — and since I was passing him anyway, I figured I’d let him know. ‘Hey, you’ve got a sock attached to your shorts.’

He look a little surprised, but then he was behind me. At the next light, though, he caught up to me and said,

‘Thanks, I was looking for that sock all morning.’

I’m going to take a moment here to be a total 1950s housewife. That means glorifying two things: cooking and cleaning. Specifically the accessories that go with them.

The last week I got two special items especially for my domestic career.

Exhibit 1: Magical breadpan, made in France.

The bread is in the pan, and you want to get it out, so…

you unspring the pan! It’s magic!

It’s also longer than the other breadpan I have, so I can make bigger bread.

Exhibit 2: Brand new vaccuum, from Sears.

It’s new. It’s not broken. It’s in good working order. If it breaks it’s under warranty and they’ll fix it or replace it. It’s pretty and green. And, most especially, it is bagless, so we never have to figure out where to get more bags, or what size bags or anything.

And the dustbin cannister is clear, so we can see all the crud that is no longer in our carpet, which is just that much cooler. As you can see from the giant dust poodle collected from about six square feet of our carpet, we all three have long hair, plus there’s a cat.

It’s so exciting to have a new vaccuum cleaner. I’ve never had a new vaccuum cleaner before. Well, actually I’ve purchased one before, but I didn’t get to use it. This one is mine to have and to hold until it breaks after the warranty is out.