Olympic Peninsula day trip

So I'm sitting here looking at our camera, that has some really nice pix of our recent weekend trip out to the Olympic peninsula....

But i don't have any idea where the cable is that connects the camera to the puter, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was lovely, green, pretty, stormy, and fun.

The first place we tried to see, Hurricane Ridge, was actually closed due to snow. So, the ranger suggested that it'd be a great weekend to do some storm watching out on the coast.

Took his suggestion and headed out to La Push to watch some massive swells roll in.
Of course, since it was early November and stormy, almost no one else was around, so we had a grand time hiking around the coast and then the national park all on our own.
Quite rejuvenating, actually.

Even with the hail and lightning. :-)

If I ever find that cable, I'll post some pix.....

ROCK!!!!!!

We ROCKED!!!

Just had a show at seattle's Rendezvous club - sold out show, standing room only, TONS of fun, people up and dancing (that was a first), and we totally ROCKED the place.

:-)

Trying to find some good video and photos, but it was about 30000000 times more fun than I could have imagined playing out would be.

We had an awesome crowd.
Yay fans!

Sold my Pony!

Even though you may not have known it had a name, you undoubtedly knew I drove a cute purple car for the last 16 years.

She was The Pony (Blue Highway reference), and today she moved to a new family.

The new owners were very pleasant people, and I feel good about her new home, even if a little misty at this passing of an era!


Oh, and the official name for my new car is Binky.
In a series of oddly funny novels, Death's horse is named Binky, an obviously cute name for a transport of such gravity.
Binky is also smooth and quiet, which fits the hybrid engine quietness really well.
Lastly, Binky the horse is white. And, while my car isn't stark white, most white horses are actually just light gray ones. So, my light grey car fits there, too.

This is silly and pointless, but I'm not sure naming a car should be anything else, so I'm having fun with it!
:-)

How I Celebrated Labor Day

.... by deciding it was damn well time I stopped thinking that it is obvious that we should have a national health care plan. Smug self-assurance that everyone would eventually see the correctness of my view is the bane of the left, and it breeds apathy and - ultimately - failure.

So, I spent the morning sending letters to the President, my Senators, and my Congressional representative.
Below is the one that went to the White House:

Dear Mr. President,
Hello.
I am writing today to clearly communicate my support for the inclusion of a government backed health plan as part of national health care reform.

Below I will say why I think this is a critical element, but first I want to give you my background:
I'm a married woman, have a master's degree, and am employed full time. My employer provides 100% of my medical insurance payment, though none for any dependents.
My spouse is working full time for our small business (cakes and cookies).

I support a government-backed option for the following reasons:
1) As the costs of healthcare increase, those with employer-provided insurance (like myself) will continue to see our benefits reduced or even totally cut unless insurance companies are forced to truly become more wisely competitive. Costs increase = fewer insured = forseeable future where only an elite class has any coverage. This 45 million uninsured figure will be peanuts compare to what's around the corner.
2) I'm a spirited proponent of fair market competition, and am deeply dubious of any insurance company that thinks it can't do better than a basic plan offered by the federal government. The model of the government being involved in an industry - but not dominating that industry - is sufficiently proven through history to be one that provides consumers choice AND allows private companies to offer alternatives for a profit. Everyone wins.
3) I firmly believe that this nation is a creative powerhouse, and if we are committed to goal we can not only do what other nations have done, but we can learn from them and do it better. It is also embarassing that a nation with our wealth and stature has yet to meaningfully prioritize caring for all of its own people at some minimum level.
4) I believe it is in every American's economic self-interest to want this plan: I should not be required to be employed in order to have coverage. Most Americans want stability, and guaranteeing that we do not lose health care when we change employment would be a critical stabilizing effect. Reasons for changing employment are many, and Americans should NOT be punished for them: Need to care for a family member, desire to start one's own business, being laid off, desire to seek different/additional training for career change or enhancement, etc.
Creating a safety net for Americans to make these choices will undeniably promote a more vital, dynamic economy!
5) The fear-mongering that is being orchestrated by health care opponents is, perversely, an indicator that a government-backed plan is the right thing to do.
We are sometimes defined by our adversaries, and their incoherent logic combined with their volume suggests this is really a fight worth having. And winning.

If volume would win the day, your argument must be louder. If logic would win, then you must be smarter. As President, you have the unique opportunity to be both on this critical issue.

Thank you for taking to time to consider these points, and please know that there are a lot of Americans who want this plan and who think it's just logical that it should exist.

On a personal note, I'm scheduled to get an MRI tomorrow because my knee has really been giving me some grief over the last year or so. Chances are I'll have to pay for much of it, and they aren't cheap. It'll be an interesting time to listen to the debate on reform.

Hope you are healthy and well!
And, if you support a federal option (not as a mandate, but as an option), make sure to tell your representatives! It's far easier than building a time machine to go back and let them know what you wanted once the debate is over.

Inexcusably long post

My blog allows for the most recent 5 posts to appear on the front page, and I'd delayed posting anything new for a while because it would mean that the post about my grandmother would be moved off the front.

It surprised me to come to that realization.

I guess it's all been a little reminder that life can't be put on hold forever, and continuing to live doesn't mean I loved her any less.
Still, I miss her.

Thanks to Paul who has managed to transfer an audio recording of a conversation I had with her last year - I'm excited to give it a listen.


But now, to catch up to the present:
I did get a new car, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid mentioned in an earlier post.
That's right, baby, I'm driving car a from the future!!

I'm getting just over 41 mpg, which is nice, and it's a very comfortable ride. It was a bit more than I was expecting to spend, but it was the only car that combined some form of alt-fuel technology, physical comfort (oh for shame, VW, for shame...), and an engine that doesn't make me want to apologize for asking it to go up a hill.

As alluded to in an earlier post, I would NEVER have thought I'd be a ford owner, not after the 1972 Torino (apparently a good car, ugly as sin), the 1985(?) Thunderbird, and 1990-something Taurus our family had. That Thunderbird was.... a stunning POS, the Taurus, nick-named the white whale, had a variety of issues. And all the other Fords I encountered along the way just illuminated the trajectory of a company that had given up making decent cars and was, in fact, in business to pay its employees to stay busy.

So, imagine the surprise to stumble on the Fusion, almost as a lark, and find it was the best in its class (for my criteria, above). Lots of good automotive reviews, a glowing demo on Jay Leno's garage, and an experimental road test that showed hypermiling could get the Fusion to reach 1,400+ on a single tank of gas.

I'll miss my pretty purple car, which is admittedly far more fun in appearance than a staid, grey sedan. But the comfort, mileage, and safety features are really really nice changes.


"That's great, Liz" you say, not caring one iota about a new car, "but hasn't anything else meaningful happened lately?"


Well, the big news is that Paul left his job at the end of June to focus 100% on our cake biz. It's a weird time to be jumping in like this, but we have a few goals in mind:
1 - Really commit to the business for some time, rather than always keeping it at the margins. We'd been turning down cakes because we had too little time - and were too burned out from the few we could fit in, between both of us working full time at day jobs.
2 - If we end up not staying in our current space (still working on ways to buy it, mortgage market not so friendly these days), then we need to decide by next June if we need to find a space *with* enough room to run the business or not. Since that's such a huge difference, it's important to us both to take this time and really figure out if this business thing can fly.
3 - We've invested some great sweat equity already, and we'd like to see it pay off. We have fostered some great personal connections, have a great company truck with our logo and everything, and would like to see if the investments we've made so far will bring some returns.
4 - Paul and I needed to begin living a more balanced life, especially after he'd become physically ill after the last few deliveries because of how much stress even one cake added. It was really clear that the current model was not sustainable.

Strangely, we've been getting a lot of people contacting us recently, and it feels like the universe's way of saying this was the right move! Kind of nice.


There's more, but it's probably dull and this post is long enough.


So just one last thing - YAY SUMMER!!!!!!