My "Interesting" Blog

Russ

Last weekend, my copy editor and I went to a luncheon hosted by the Madison Civics Club. Our fine senator Russ Feingold spoke about Post-9/11 effects. I'm a fan of Russ. He was very much a politician, which irritates, but as politicians go, he's among the best. He also said a lot of interesting and important things about the world and Americans and war. I took notes, of course. Then I stopped being a story whore and just became a celebrity whore and had my picture taken with him. Too bad the hopeless chickie who took our picture didn't know how to use a camera. My boobs are quite grand, but I'd like to see our heads more than my sweet softness.


My Journey into Investigative Journalism

This week I dropped a bomb on the IT department at school. As the editor in chief of the paper, I get access to the higher-ups that an ordinary student wouldn't. When I find a problem, I instill fear in a way that an ordinary student wouldn't.

So I asked to meet with the VP of infrastructure (I was pleased to see a copy of The Importance of Being Earnest on his desk; he's directing the spring play – the Guthrie just couldn't hold him). I whipped out my laptop and showed him the megahole in security that I'd found. He said in a very face-saving way, "Cool!" Then he got on the phone and asked for three more people to join us.

My tape recorder died shortly after I started my little demo, but they weren't saying much. Their jaws were hanging too close to the ground. They asked a lot of questions to me and to each other, then told me that this would be a good story "some time." I assured them it wasn't my intention to embarrass the school or print damaging information that would cause problems for any students. They were much relieved, but over the next few days, reminded me that it would be a bad idea to show everyone how to do what I learned how to do. Nevermind I learned how to do it in about four seconds of trying.

Anyway, I have a phone interview with a VP of the software provider on Monday. It's all going to be in my story, published next week. My advisor was so excited he stopped talking about his buck for about half an hour. Wow.


Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a pleasant Thanksgiving, that you ate lots of pie, laughed with your loved ones, and plotted your shopping excursions. That's what we did. We didn't bust our butts cleaning our house – right? (Sorry, it just wasn't in me.) We had three kinds of pie, not nine, but what can you do? There was way more food than any of us could eat. My mom made a turkey, I made the gravy. I hope it was good; I wouldn't know. I've never made gravy from drippings before since I've never had drippings before. When I ate meat, I did enjoy Yorkshire pudding, which is made from drippings. Mmm. Fat and flour and salt.

So, our shopping consisted of going to Menards. Not very exciting. But we got a few things the kids wanted and a few things we wanted, and then we went home. We don't have any more money right now, so we didn't get too excited about sales.


Sammy the Rat

Our rat Sammy developed a tumor. We had it removed. Mistake. She chewed her stitches out. Gack. So we had her stapled back together, and as she started to chew her staples out, we took her back to the vet. They put an E-collar on her, like they do with dogs. It looked ridiculous and it drove her insane. She couldn't clean herself or eat by herself. We had to hand-feed her, including liquids. That's devotion, I tell ya. She was pretty upset by it all.

Today she got her staples out and her collar off. Except she has developed an infection, so we have to shove these pills down her throat. She does not like having pills shoved down her throat. I hope she recovers from all this. The tumor was easier to live with, and I don't think we'll have rat tumors removed anymore.

Poor Sammy pushed me over the edge last week. With Eric's crap and my crap, the Sammy crap was more than I could deal with, and I let fly a little on my blog. I want everyone to know, we are all doing well. Well, except Sammy, I guess. Thanks to everyone who sent their good wishes my way. I really appreciate the support you've given Eric and me.

Thanks again.