Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

10 things that made me happy lately
1. Finding my working headphones after weeks of deciding that they were lost FOREVER
2. Finding $10 in a coat pocket
3. Getting pasta salad juuuuust right
4. Getting a lamb dish just right and pairing it with a glass of wine
5. A phone call from a hard to get ahold of friend
6. Finding my wallet that fell in the gutter
7. Meyer Lemoncello
8. Sitting and chatting with a neighbor as they were packing up
9. Brething out of both nostrils (I'm getting over a horrid cold/flu)
10. Sitting in the comfy chair, looking out my window and enjoying the street drama (or lack thereof) outside

5 things that have made me happy
1. A wonderous sight to the eyes (a great landscape, a cool design of someone's living room on a dark night, etc)
2. Accomplishing a project that I can look back on and point to the results.
3. A really good meal
4. An awesome hymn that I get to sing (as opposed to just the choir or cantor singing) that's arranged just right that might have and accapella part to it or bridge
5. Compline at the end of the day

Christianity and Democracy both had idiots

American Christians are biblically illiterate. I'm semi-literate. But pointing out as a few weeks ago, as the press did, that many Christians don't know a lot about their faith is a little off. It doesn't take much to point out how many registered voters don't know the name of their mayor, or state legislative representative, or senators. And they probably voted for the person! Yet voter ignorance does not negate democracy, or suffrage. It's just part of the deal of universal suffrage, and laws against poll taxes, that dummies will vote.
And likewise, the unwise pray.

Dropping the Spinster and Thoughts on Prepping/Survivalism

I've decided to drop the happyspinster url. I'm letting it go. It will no longer be mine after tomorrow. If you want ti grab it before some site squatter does. My host keeps sending frantic emails but meh.

Okay. September is preparedness month. Don't believe me ask FEMA. I pondered putting something up on the popular blog but there are things that need to get done before the fiscal year ends, so maybe next year. Off and on I'd been reading The Chatelaine's Keys, a blog by a Jewish farmer lady, whose thing is peak oil, and that's why she's prepping. I think I found her for the canning and gardening tips. Then this year I came across a fellow named Jack Spirko and his Survivalist Podcast. We (me, the Help, and my libertarian leaning Buddhist cousin) listened to several of his podcasts while driving to and from western Virginia. His language is salty and we enjoy it when his Pennsylvania/Jersey accent peeks out from his adopted Texas/Arkansas one. He has a near daily podcast and it is informative. I've learned about biltong, and then found this lovely biltong box from Ikeahacker. I am very interested in food preservation and food security and growing, not because I fear the black helicopters (there are helicopters flying over my house but they are navy and white and they &^#!-up my TV reception) and peak oil. No. I need to free up space in the freezers and I sometimes like to be very lazy and not have to go to the store or market every week. Also there are minor set backs in the system. Old power lines go kablewy and we lose power for 1-16 hours. I think once we lost power for a full 24 hours. If it snows, more than 2 inches, the city loses it's mind, Metro stops working and the end of civilization is nigh. This is why I try to keep enough TP in the house for a 1 month seige.
These prepper/survivalist things just inspire me to can and preserve food from the farmers markets and whatever I grow if I get anything. Have bulk supplies of stuff I eat. Have a month or so supply of food on hand. Right now I can eat rice and tomatoes, and pasta and tomatoes for a month if I was trapped in the house.

Letting the Spinster Pass and catering update

In a few days I'm going to let the happyspinster.com url go into the great beyond where someone else can buy it up and use it since no one has asked for it. I'm keeping crappychristian.com
Now on to wedding matters. We are pondering a caterer. He's really not a caterer but a former chef. A former 4 star chef. I mentioned our price constriants. When I brought him up to the Help, he also wondered if we could afford him. I Googled him, he almost hit celebrity status. Worked at restaurants I can't afford. Okay, normally can't afford. I'm re-reading my email to him and I told him what our budget is and that I think he's worth more than what we've budgeted. I ran into him and he said, no problem he's not that busy at that time of the year.
Still, worried about the afford part. Because I know he has that 4 star chef desire for great, fresh, and local ingredients. And everything will be out of season.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

“Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit” Matthew 5:1-13
Well the biblical commentary on this says one thing but I've been pondering another. The material poor who also lack skills and imagination.
I am thankful to the US Army as it did not send my father to Vietnam to be a name on the wall or a nut case. Instead he wound up in Germany and was trained as a mechanic. He took those skills learned in the army got a job, then made a business that at times fed us. I say at times, because daddy is a crappy businessman, decent mechanic and plumber, craptastic businessman.
Mummy, can sew and crochet and has a few other skills, but hasn't really made any money with them. They make her happy and lets her make other people happy. The girls like it when grandma sews them something.
But let me get back to my initial thought, the material poor and poverty of the spirit. We were lower middle class in a poor neighborhood, but rich in spirit. We had our Lord and we had our creativity to create and do. Though some of the doing didn't create a lot of money, like lilly dillys, frozen Kool-Aide on a stick in a tiny Dixie cup. But there was creation and doing and worship. Now I worry. There is less worship. Complete lack of creation that has been replaced with consuming, and the doing is becoming more criminal.
Not only are people poor in material goods they are also poor in spirit.

TV-Outlaw

It sucked.
The first 20 minutes I decided the show was crap and insulting. Insulting because the main character played by Jimmy Smitts is a Latino US Supreme Court Justice who quits and turns from supporting conservative issues and to liberal causes. As a conservative person of color that was just too insulting as the show's writers made it that he was only supporting conservative causes because a big bad conservative white guy was bullying him. It would have been fine if he was a liberal justice who decides he'd be doing more good as a lawyer, which would have been fine.
But it seemed to be that the writers went out of their way to say that minority conservatives aren't genuine. If we’d only be our true selves then we’d hop on the left’s side. If it weren’t for pressure from the white conservatives, if we were free we’d see the errors of our ways. Bull! And that was insulting and offensive. So, I won’t be watching this drivel. Of course, there were other things I thought were stupid too. His staff, too few and too stupid.
Well at least it appears they shot it in DC.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

Dogs are a man's best friend but you can't pawn a dog.
Yesterday, on a whim I bid on ebay for a diamond. A loose diamond. I want to start a small collection, so I can put them in a black velvet bag and take them out occassionally and pretend to be a Bond villian.
I'm not getting any diamonds to wear. The Help and I went ring shopping and decided on plain wedding bands, no diamonds. There is a practical reason, diamonds scratch things. I'm thinking of iphones. I nearly bid on a phone but apparently it had a scratch from the user's diamond earring. We will be getting plain bands from the kiosk at the mall. Maybe on our 5th we'll upgrade to plain Tiffany bands.
But I still want diamonds, just in a bag, that I can say in a deep voice, "Well, Mr. Bond, will you trade these for the microfilm?"

Living apart- shocking

We announced our engagement to some aquaintences we've known over the years and when asked where we are living, the Help said he's in Beltsville and I'm in DC, and the person had a look of mild shock on her face. Following questions and answers made it clear that no, we aren't going to start living together until we're married. I'm just getting a thrill by shocking someone with our unconventiality.
There is a very practical reason why it is best that we live apart beyond the living out our faith. The new roommate will help raise a couple thousand bucks for the wedding. Second, I hate to be unromatic but this house is my largest asset and is the reason why my net worth is a positive number even after factoring in the mortgage. It seems unwise to have someone who will claim the property moving in before he has a legal right to it.

A Good Compline Spoiled by Praise Music

We're going to give a church one more chance. The Help and I are seeking a church we can worship at together. His landlords suggested a CANA church and so since one was in walking distance, we walked this sunday to one. Unfortunately they were without a priest, so that was a problem right there. So there was a bit of free form. There was a program that had things that appeared straight out of the Book of Common Prayer. I really like the BoCP. Yet in between BCP parts there was ad-libbing. I dislike ad-libbing in worship. It's a style thing, nothing theological and that's where the Help and I depart in worship. I like my prayers time tested by at least several decades if not hundreds of years. He likes the personalization and timeliness, blah, blah, blah (I love him) and really G-d hears all prayers.
So I muddled through the break out prayer groups where we were to discuss what was on our hearts and have the small group pray for us. You know, as many years that I was a Baptist, I managed to avoid this sort of thing. As a Episcopalian that sort of thing wasn't done at the churches I attended. And as a Catholic, I'm really really ok with having the priest in charge, less work for me.
The second half was better it was like compline. I love compline. Yet the other matter was that a lot of the music came from the past 15 years, P&W music. The Help dislikes modern worship music. Me, not too much of a fan as when it is sung the male voices seem hard to hear and it sounds like a young women's choir. I love hearing male voices, strong male voices. Only in one song did I hear the male voice strongly enough.
We'll give it another chance, when the priest has arrived.

Wedding Dresses

Today I plan to look for fabric for a wedding dress.
I have pondered buying a dress however about 80% of the wedding dresses I see make me want to puke.
I find them to be tacky. Also I dislike the whole princess for a day vibe that they have. Seriously, when do you ever wander around in a floor length dress with sequins? Okay, yes, you have that lovely drag show, but for the rest of us, when do you wander around wearing a sparkly dress? I don't. And wearing a dress that I can never concieve of wearing again in any other context seems so untrue. I'd be just as true wandering in dressed as Princess Leah with two danishes on the side of my head.
Umm, danish.
Well once again, if anyone wants the happyspinster.com url, contact me. I'll give it to you for free.

Sucky Surveys

A few days ago I got a phone call for a survey. The way the questions were written I'd say the sponsor of the survey wanted to get supported for an all powerful regional quasi-government group to take over metro and determine the transportation. As the questioner was asking I did tell her that they were some badly written, horrid, survey questions. They were almost in the territory of when did you stop beating your wife? Recently? Not too recently? Hardly ever or not that often?
I answer my phone so I get asked survey questions. There are some surveys that are political that I answer as truefully as I can. Some I just lie about, particularly on hot button issues, where I don't trust that the answers will be used properly or where individual information will get out there. Also on hot button issues my opinions are nuanced. Not 100% enthusiastically for something nor 100% seething with hatred and bombing making material against. Unfortunately, the survey writers can't seem to imagine something that isn't at the poles.

URL 4 SALE

The renewal for HappySpinster.Com is coming up in September and well, I won't need it. So if I know you and you want the URL I will give it to you if I can transfer it prior to the renew date.
Oh and for those who don't know, I'm engaged. So in about 5 months I will no longer be a spinster. So I'd like to pass it on to someone else who is okay will being single or a DJ or band of that name. I may renew it and I'll charge whomever wants it for $10 or 10% above costs.

I wanna generator

I didn't loose any power in the last storm. And I can't remember when exactly we had that 8hr power loss in the neighborhood, either earlier this year or Fall last year. But hearing that people still don't have power in MoCo after 2 days makes me think, I should get one. Problem or problems:
1- Where the heck would I put it?
2- Where would I store the fuel for it?
3- What would I get?
4- How do I keep it from getting stolen?
That last question comes from chatting with a childhood friend in Florida. Generator theft is high there. Understandable as it's Florida, there are hurricanes and their spin off tornadoes and those things have the annoying habit to wacking out the power lines. More people have them and lots of people need them adn they are portable, thus theft. Here the problem isn't so much tornadoes, though we have them, but rather an aging grid. I can pretty much say that I'll lose power once a year, but for how long is unknown. A few hours to a whole day has been my experience.
I'll wrap it up in the basement fund.

Just like Scarlett O-Hara, but black and in the 21st Century

It has been a while since I've watched Gone with the Wind, but I think my desires kinda fit this movie. I want land, red earth, I want Tara. My Tara, which in my mind is a 4 bedroom townhouse near downtown with a bitching backyard.
About a week or so ago I got a call from Bob M. the Realtor who sold me the house in Florida. He was looking for business and wondering if I wanted to buy more property. Yes, I want to buy property. I can't buy more property because I have no money. I need to fix my roof and I really, really need to address my basement. What I need and what I want are two different things right now.
Also I've begun sorta looking at wooded lots in Virigina and imagining buying something out in the country. I'll put that in the fantasy box with an investment property townhouse in Baltimore.

The Message

First off I want to thank Nora Bombay's ex-roommate, the hardest working lesbian ex-Episcopal priest, for whom this post would not be possible. When NB's roommate left NoVa for NYC she left behind bibles and other religiously themed books. Those books wound up with me. Some I sold, some I gave away, and some I kept. Of those Bibles is 'The Message', which is like the regular Bible but on crack, or drunk or off its meds. Don't get me wrong I like "The Message" but sometimes I compare it with the normal NIV and think, 'Gad this is wacky.' For example (via Biblegateway):
NIV- The Cost of Following Jesus

18When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."

20Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

21Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

22But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Now the Message-

Your Business Is Life, Not Death
18-19When Jesus saw that a curious crowd was growing by the minute, he told his disciples to get him out of there to the other side of the lake. As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. "I'll go with you, wherever," he said.

20Jesus was curt: "Are you ready to rough it? We're not staying in the best inns, you know."

21Another follower said, "Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father's funeral to take care of."

22Jesus refused. "First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life."

In this example our Savior is being hard. The translation is, ah, different. No birds with nests in the Message, just we're camping and leave your father.

Wussman I love

The Help is a bit squeemish regarding some food. His last girlfriend has some severe food allergies and barely ate anything. I on the other hand believe if it bleeds I can cook it and eat it. He likes the openess I have towards food but sometimes I am a little too open. I had him cleaning mussles for a dish, at some point he noticed the mussles making noises and I made the mistake of telling him they were alive. Oh, the little remarks I had to endure after that.
Before the mussle incident he would proclaim that he didn't want to eat anything with a head on it. He would eat meat or fish, just as long as there was no head on it. After the mussles he's included them in the list of things that look back at him. Dang it, I want to cook and eat blue crabs! I don't want to hear bitching about food that can attack you.
Then there was the time with the rabbit. The rabbit had no head. But there I was cutting it into parts for browning and he walked into the kitchen. The way he describes it is that its little legs were all sticking up and then I cracked the ribs. Upon the rib cracking he turned on his heel out of the kitchen. He also likes to avoid me when I've got a knife in my hands.
He's quite happy to eat what I cook, but I could deal without the wussiness of his meat eating. With further discussions we decided if push came to shove and if he had to live off the land like his hero Daniel Boone, he'd toughen up and eat things with heads and faces. Until then he's the 21st Century equivilent of the bespeckled man in the bowler hat who steps off the stagecoach in dime store Westerns.

Fun Anglican Website

Considering I left the Church of England for the One True and Most Holy Mother Church (I kid, I'm just Catholic), I still keep looking back at the train wreck. I sometimes wonder if I left too early. Sigh. Anyway, Anglicans in Texas are a hoot. I subscribe to Wannbe Anglican and just found The NEW Anglican Firearms "Enthusiast". No I'm not doing this to scare the crap outta of my Jewish/Atheist liberal friends. A lot of people I know and like dislike my Lord and my G-d and are highly distrustful of guns and particularly conservatives with guns. However, being a separate person with my own mind and an American I am free to practice the 1st Amendment and maybe one day the 2nd, as the Help suggested we go to a shooting range for date night. Oh, kiss, kiss, bang, bang.
But anyway on Anglican sites, I found the Anglican Firearms Enthusiast, via Bad Vestments a blog about typically Anglican, sometimes Catholic, vestments that should be set on fire, 'cause sometimes service can get too colorful.

What we don't know

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know. - Quote by Don Rumsfeld

I'm sitting here with my lunch, farmer's market gespatcho and Mexican Fruit stand avocado and I got to thinking about food. Particularly a question I asked the vendor who sold the soup a long time ago. I asked him if it was vegan. It must have been Lent when doing vegan Fridays (never again!). He said that the bread used was vegan. I was doubtful but bought it anyway. I never made bread and always figured it needed eggs and milk. I must have been confusing it with cake. But that was an illustration of what I didn't know. I didn't know that bread is flour, water and some sort of yeast or rising agent.
There is a lot we don't know about food. There is probably even more that we know that we don't know about food. There is probably even more than that which we don't know we don't know about food. The food unknown unknowns. As a society there is a lot we will know about what is trendy to know about food but will increasiingly loose knowledge about old foodways of cooking and food prep and food saftey because they are not as trendy.

Ah to be a free black woman

My goal one day is to own my house free and clear and have a decent FU fund. Financially I'm still slogging through. I don't know why it was a slog. Anyway the goal is freedom. I want to be free to run off to Florida and do absolutely nothing. Of course after 3 days I'll get bored and come back here seeking to be free to work on a project.
I want to be free from my stuff. Really do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you? Current goal is to clear out the basement. It would help if I didn't put anything else down there. The Goodwill box is filling up with clothes that I have finally come to admit, I probably won't wear, again.
I want to be free of burdensome expectations and duties. There are somethings I do because at some point I will get a reward, be it warm fuzzies or a fulfilled goal. There are things that don't relate to a bigger goal and I'm getting better at saying no. I don't have it down pat, but I'm getting better. And this also relates to being free of someone's or some group's idea that I owe them. Draw up the bill, itemize the services and I will pay legitimate debits that I incurred, but I will not be in perpetual servitude for vague concepts.
Going back to finances, I want to be financially secure. I don't want to be in a position where someone can dangle some half rotted carrot and I feel obligated to jump. Like with the way many colleges do with tenure and young PhDs. Luckily there is not much carrot dangling where I am, but I'm close enough to others where it is, and it ain't pretty.

Wash Post's "Barney & Clyde"

is almost as bad as "Judge Parker". Not even as good as "Mark Trail" and the drawing for "Mark Trail" is horrid. I'll read the comics in the Post and the comics are one of the few reasons why I still subscribe to the paper. Sadly, unlike religion, if I don't like it, it's not like there's another church around the corner that I can go to instead. Yes, there is the Washington Times, but that's akin to being really annoyed with your Anglican Church and the only other churches in town is the Greek Orthodox Church and a bunch of storefronts. Thank goodness for "Zits" and "Baldo" and "Dilbert".
Now why do I hate "Barney & Clyde"? So far it has failed to make me laugh or even smile. I don't care about the characters because they are 1930s types in a 2010 world. The last time I was on the feed the homeless of DC truck, the homeless didn't have patches or fedoras. "Dan" (I think his name is Dan) or as I've thought of him "ZZ Top" the homeless guy near the Archives/ Navy Memorial station is a baseball cap, moderately worn jeans and T-Shirt wearing dude. A few years ago he was clean shaven but now he's sporting more of the motorcycle gang member look. And then you've got the crazies. Those are the ones with the ripped clothing and the busted shoes. I think it is a great testament to all the various churches and non-profits that offer free clothing, food, and counseling.
I ran into a homeless fellow I knew from the late 90s. I would see him everyday when I was working at the museum, and give him fruit or a yogurt, but never money. Anyway about a month I ran into him on my way to lunch at Oyamel. He's also a beared baseball cap man. He's also a vet. I did notice he was wearing those socks/stockings diabetics need to wear and gathered that's from the VA. He's mentioned his trips to the VA for various medical services. We had a nice long chat about the oil spill in the Gulf, slavery (modern and 19th cent), and the weather.
Sadly I don't know any billionaires personally. That I know of. I'm separated by 2 or 3 degrees from that amount of wealth. And if I were a person of wealth I'd spend a great amount of time on foundations and charities. I'd set up the CR Murphy and the Tom Bard Scholarships for mediocre students (there's enough money for genuius) of Irish decent and for guys named "Tom" or "Thomas" or some variation who are over 6'1" but under 7'. I would not be as the comic's billionaire moping around.
Simply said, Barney and Clyde suck.