the wrong larry

A printing company printed Larry Craig's face on this Idaho Democrat button promoting Obama for president and Larry LaRocco for U.S. Senate. The brite ran on the front page. It made me giggle.

i just heard thunder

I just realized a bit of time has lapsed since my last post. The hot summer weather has kept me outside and busier than usual. And I'm punching a few more hours at my second job lately. Which is good because I think they like me. Minimum wage just went up, so now I'm making a few more pennies at the store.

A storm is rolling in to Boise at the moment and the northeastern sky looks almost black. Here's a couple pictures:
My grape tomato plant is producing:
This is an itty-bitty cabbage start:

three little victories

First, I harvested the first two tomatoes from the grape tomato plant the other day.

Second, the AC repair man visited this morning and fixed the AC. Thank goodness.

Third, I was reading my newspaper while waiting for the AC guy to show up when I see the headline, "Washington appeals court rules against WSU dorm patrols."

Yes, the court ruled that police cannot walk through the halls of dorms, saying students have a certain expectation of privacy in those halls that connect their bathrooms and bedrooms.

"You would think an institution of higher learning would be dedicated to the rule of law," defense lawyer Tim Esser said. "For WSU to think it can rewrite some regulations to get around the Fourth Amendment is bizarre."

Read the story here.

This is a story we covered at the Evergreen and I also wrote about for Washinton State Magazine (which to my chagrin, I cannot find online). It's good to see we weren't shining light on an issue to no avail. I'll be looking forward to seeing how WSU amends it's policy as promised in a news release since the ruling. I'll also be interested to see how the Evergreen follows up on the issue.

this is the bike that george bought

Thank you mr. president. I've been hording the last portion of my stimulus check in a drawer until last night when I bought this:
I got it used from a friend who put a lot of work into customizing it but has since upgraded to a newer, more expensive set of wheels.

The best part -- it has a bell.

Biking has become a hobby and alternate transportation since I moved to Boise. I've been trying to ride to work at least once, but preferably twice, a week to save on gas and get some fresh air. There's a beautiful tree- and river-lined greenbelt route to work. And the ride home is on lit sidewalks, downhill the whole way. It's become a great way to decompress after a 10-hour shift.

Now if only I could do something about the uphill ride in 95-degree weather, I would ride everyday...

this is why I shouldn't go to the bookstore

I went for one book and ended up with six.

I just finished the sixth Harry Potter and am about to begin 759-page series finale.

i am sunburnt

It hit 102 on Sunday. My air conditioner is not performing as it should and the AC maintenance guy is booked up, so it' s time for some swimming. Here are some not very good pictures from my "weekend."

This is Lucky Peak Reservoir, about 8 miles east of Boise.
This is my roommate and I.

This is pretty much a terrible picture, but I posted it to point out that I swam out the that platform and back twice.

Below are a couple shots from Roaring Springs water park. My friend Diana got a couple free tickets. We were possibly the only childless people in our demographic at the park that day. We had fun regardless.

a shift in my paradigm of breakfast food

Disclaimer: This post is about cereal. I have invented a new tag for it called 'basically nothing.'

I have long assumed two things about cereal:
1. They stopped putting toys in the box when I was 12. That, or I stopped eating the kind of cereal you would expect to come with a toy.
2. The healthier the name sounds = the better for you.

I am wrong on two accounts.

1. This is Speed Racer. It came in my Cheerios.

2. Since I became a vegetarian (or pescetarian if you want to get technical) two years ago this month I have become quite the label reader.

The other day I was out buying more Cheerios when I spotted a coupon for buying three boxes of General Mills cereal. I don't really eat THAT much cereal but I figured why not.

I picked up my Cheerios, a box of Lucky Charms and then decided to go with something healthy looking for good measure. So I bought Oatmeal Crisp.

It wasn't until I got home and lined the three boxes up on my counter that I read the labels. Much to my dismay, one serving of the healthy looking stuff has twice the calories and fat content of the Cheerios. But the kicker is the Lucky Charms have less sugars, fat and calories than both Cheerios and Oatmeal Crisp. I feel so cheated.

I should have bought three boxes of Lucky Charms.