Pi Girl

The Crystal Chords are competing in the Area 3 conference this weekend in Toronto. I had so much fun at International last November that I know this is going to be a blast. And then you throw in Toronto, which is one of my favorite cities ever. I feel a good weekend coming.

Let’s see - I’ll have singing, awesome people to hang with, good shopping, Canada in all its bilingual fun, singing, a clean city, and did I mention singing? Yeah, it doesn’t get any better.

All I need now are prayers for safe travel for everyone and that I don’t fall off the risers during the performance. Oh, and also that Jason remembers to give Kelsey his meds and feed and walk him. Maybe feed the cat too. If anyone is in the Horseheads area, feel free to stop by our house and make sure my animals are ok.

Kelsey update

For those of you wondering how my heart attack on 4 legs is doing, he is recovering nicely. The poor dog drove the vet nuts with his whining, and gave me a real good guilt trip on the way home. But he cleared right up when he discovered that he gets canned food for 14 days! And cheese with his meds! He’s so spoiled right now, I’ll never get him back to his normal diet.

Ithaca, my Ithaca

Jason and I went back to the alma mater last weekend. It was kind of cool to see that so much has changed, and yet, nothing has changed. The hallway where Mac’s is still smells like food. The bookstore still has cool stuff. But the classrooms in Friends Hall look so much nicer now. And the computer lab is styling (at least way more than it did when we were there). We didn’t stay long, but it was nice to stop by.

Doing my civic duty

I got called for jury duty this week. I thought about trying to get out of it, but then I figured they would reject me as soon as they read that both my husband and I work at the newspaper. So, I went. The first case - the guy pleaded guilty last minute so no case for us. Since I know next to nothing about courts (I just don’t think every other sentence out of your mouth should be, “well, on tv …” - it’s just not a credible source) I thought we’d be sent home. Nope, out comes the second case - I was a little alarmed when the defendant walked out in shackles and after wondering what horrendous things he had done to deserve that, I started to feel bad that he had to wear those things in court. Turns out, it violates the Principle of Law to bring out the defendant in shackles and prison greens - imagine that. A very upset judge threw that case right out. So, out with the third case. And this time, we’re going to see a trial.

So, I’m getting all ready to not get called up or just outright rejected. And what do you know, I get called up, and selected for jury. I was kind of worried it would clash with my schedule, but when I realized it wouldn’t (much) I got into this whole jury thing.

The case was quite interesting. A jail inmate was accused of attempted assault in the 2nd degree of 2 correctional officers while serving time in Chemung County jail. It was interesting because there was little evidence to go on, and in the end, we felt that the testimony of the officers was too inconsistent. We took to heart that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty, and we felt that the prosecution did not prove its case. So we gave a verdict of Not Guilty.

I did learn some very useful things during the case though. If you don’t like your cell and want to be moved to solitary confinement, you can provoke the officers by flooding your cell with a roll of toilet paper jammed into the toilet. But keep in mind, they might not like that very much. If you want to distract the officers so you can smoke your pot, you can stuff a little toilet paper and a staple (or paper clip) into a styrofoam cup and set it in the microwave for 1 minute on high. I do know from personal experience that the smell from that fire is not a good one (don’t ever put a loaf of bread in the microwave without removing the twisty-tie first!); but I hadn’t realized it was used so regularly in our jails. Which leads me to ask … why do they still have a microwave?

The impossible has happened. I got Kelsey to the vet this morning without a panic attack.
Kelsey had no idea anything was up until we were almost to the parking lot. That has to be a record. And I’m pretty willing to bet he will be over-unbearable for a good long while when I tell him we’re going for a ride.
Let me just explain that this dog always, always knows when something is up. If I go away for the weekend, even if I take him with me, he will mope the whole day before. I’ve tried putting off packing sometimes but that doesn’t work. At this point, he’s so used to me going away for the weekend, he just automatically mopes on Thursday nights … even if it’s the rare time when I don’t go away.
Car rides can be downright awful with him. Often, he will whine the whole way to our destination (which can really suck when we go to Maryland). But the car ride back? He sleeps so peacefully knowing he’s going home.
You may be able to understand now why I often refer to Kelsey as “my baby.”
So, I worried about how I would get Kelsey to the vet calmly for his dental surgery. With the exception of my mother’s cocker spaniel, I know of no dog that actually likes going the vet’s office, so I expect the anxiety to happen when we get to the office. But with Kelsey, I honestly expect he will die from a doggy heart attack or stroke with his panic attacks that start the night before.
Which is why I’m celebrating today. Go me. Nothing until we hit the parking lot this morning. But I had a few factors going for me.
1) His appt was made at work, out of Kelsey’s earshot. And I do believe I did not tell a soul he had this appt…not even Jason. I wonder if Jason will even notice the dog isn’t there this morning. Hmm … maybe I should worry if I don’t get any inquiries from him asking if I know where the dog is.
2) We took Kelsey to Park Station on Saturday, where we spent the whole afternoon hiking and basking in the sun. Kelsey even got some leftover barbeque scraps. How convenient that when we left home this morning, we went the way that looks like we’re going to Park Station.
3) I’ve been boarding Kelsey up at night in our bedroom. So when his food was taken away at midnight because of his surgery today, of course he didn’t notice. He has no access to his food anyway. Although he did look perplexed that there was no water this morning, but his morning routine usually involves going back to bed after his walk so he didn’t dwell on it.
This will not last. I can guarantee that Kelsey will hate any car ride that drives away from home for a very long time. I’ll have to start working on some extra tricks now.

While I enjoy reading the blog surveys that everyone does, I don’t usually steal them. But this was different enough that I couldn’t resist. Disclaimer - I don’t know if I had to take the first picture that popped up every time, but I did, which led to some interesting answers that need explaining.

Go to Google Images, enter in the answer to the following, and post a picture for it that pops up:

1. My First Car:
Wow, I expected a tv to pop up when I typed in Daewoo. I’m impressed.

2.The Place I grew up:
I assume this is located somewhere in B’ville but I don’t know. I don’t recognize it.

3. The Place I live now:
This is the one image where I did not take the first pic - I had some technical difficulties getting the image to show up, so I took the next one.

4. What shows up when I type my name:
Ok, this is not me, but the 2nd photo that showed up was of me.

5. What shows up when I type my grandmother’s name:
Virginia Schug did not exist in the system, so I used her maiden name, Smith. I can’t see the pic very well, but I’m pretty sure this is not her.

I am pretty sure my paternal grandmother was Eleanor Cassidy, but I could be wrong. Not sure what this is but I think there is a artistic Eleanor Cassidy out there based on the stuff that came up.

6.Favorite Food:
This was one of the instances where I really liked the other pics better, but this was the first one that showed up.

7. Favorite Drink:
See #6. I love my Diet Coke, but without the lime. Even if the commercials are mad cute. “Put the lime in the Coke, you nut…”

8.Favorite Song:
Tori Amos - “Winter” I made sure I typed in the Tori part because I did not need to see what came up if I just said “winter.”

9. Favorite Smell:
I don’t know if I have ever smelled a vanilla plant, because I did mean the extract that comes in those little bottles.

10.Favorite Shoes:
I love my slippers.

11. Favorite Color:
Ok, this is cool.

12. Favorite Place:
Not being from a big city, I’m still enthralled that all I had to do was type “London” instead of “London, England” and the right thing came up.

13. Person you hate the most:
Ok, I do not hate Hank Hill, I actually love that show. But this is what came up when I typed in “conservative republicans.”

14. First Love:
This was the only image that came up for his name. I don’t recall that he ever lived on the west coast or that he played lacrosse, but then, I haven’t seen him in 8 or 9 years, probably.