Thugz in Sepia

The 1920's Mystery Dinner

Last weekend I went to a dinner party hosted by some friends on my soccer team. It was one of those mystery dinner's where everyone is a character and you dress the part. The story was set in the 1920's in Gangster Chicago. It turned out we were all very suspicious characters. We were trying to find out who killed Al Capone.

The Millionaire, Tommy-Gun Totin' "Shady Lady"

and Pro Ball Player

The Brothel Owner and the Pro Golfer

The New York Socialite and the Corrupt Politician

The Sneaky Reporter and the Millionaire

It turned out that everyone knew how to use a tommy-gun except my character, but I was the one who killed Al Capone. For the record, I snuck with Capone into his vault and used his own gun to shoot him. Then his henchmen unknowingly smuggled me out with some contraband hooch.

Weekend at Dad & Elaine's

I hung out at my dad's house a couple weekends ago to spend some time in beautiful Stanwood, Washington.

I had Muppet and I was dog-sitting Fuzzy Slippers, my mom's pooch. My dad has two outdoor dogs, one indoor dog and one smart dog. If you're not counting, that's six dogs.

I wrote in my blog about Sparkle when she was a puppy last winter. She's all grown up now and is a little fireball. She was just groomed and s0 here is a photo of her all dressed up.

Sparkle on Broadway

Steve is the smart dog. He lived down the street and chose to live with my dad and his wife. His rightful owners came to my dad's house and said, "Hey! That's my dog!" My dad said, "Ok, take him." The next day Steve was back and the neighbor never came looking for him again.

Steve LOVES car rides. We were leaving the house and when we weren't looking he jumped in the back of the car and pretended to be invisible.

Steve the Stowaway

At the end of the weekend my mom and her man came to my place to pick up Fuzzy Slippers.

There was much rejoicing!

(What is it with me and Dogs?)

One of Muppet's favorite toys is a pink feather duster.

I would dust more often, if ever... but who am I to deny my dog the duster?

Would that not hint of animal cruelty?

Let's Get Domestic

My hand-made, stapled curtains were so nasty that when I unexpectedly came across some repro, 1940's fabric, my fate was sealed. I had to learn how to use my sewing machine.

I begged my mom to come over and help. It was the only way my mission would be accomplished. She had given my sister and I sewing machines a year ago, but rather than befriend my new, old adversary, I avoided it because I was intimidated by its power over me in the past.

Thanks Mom!

Projects left unfinished make me cringe. I had to overcome the curtain dilemma so I could walk around naked in my house. (Don't act like you don't streak in the kitchen when no one's home.)

And so the uphill battle began, or so I thought. Turns out, my sewing machine is very easy to use and the buttons and concepts are the same as my mom's old 50 lb. machine.

We made curtains, I strut freely through the house, end of story!

Forced Philanthropy

Have you ever been forced to “volunteer” or “donate” time or money by your employer? I’m running into the same issue at my current job that I had in my last job; forced philanthropy.

As a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) I spend between 5 and 20 hours per month volunteering my time to help my two CASA kids in their struggle to be adopted. I spend time with the kids, their foster parents and their social workers. I write reports to the court that are disbursed to the children’s parents and their attorneys. I wait in Juvenal Court for up to four hours until my case is called and our hearing takes place. This is something I want to do, I volunteered.

I used to work in a law firm. I guess October is the month charities generally ask for donations because it’s after summer and before Christmas. For one week I, along with everyone in the firm, was hounded by email and pressured to donate money to United Way. There was a way to donate using our intranet and deduct our donation directly from our next paycheck. By Thursday I hadn’t donated, and I began to get emails “reminding” me to. Creepily, the email appeared to have been sent to only me, from someone in HR. After a minute I realized that he simply bcc’d everyone, to make it appear as a direct deman, er request.

I didn’t have anything deducted from my paycheck, but there was a coin drive and I tossed in a few bucks a few times. On Friday there was a big “Party” for the firm. There were gift baskets auctioned off for the benefit. I bought something for an auction basket too. And then I ended up “winning” an auction basket. It was a couple hundred bucks and my name didn’t end up on the list of people who donated. Not that it’s why I helped out, but when the thank you letters from United Way came out the following month, I didn’t get one.

Some people feel that the United Way spends too much money on administration and not enough on the people they aim to help. I haven’t researched it, so I can’t confirm or deny this allegation.

Tomorrow my current company is paying anyone who will “volunteer” to go out and help some local organizations. Initially, I was skeptical about being paid by my company to volunteer for another. We are to rake leaves, paint a fence… whatever, and if I don’t participate, everyone I work with will know and call me Scrooge McDuck. And that’s what these organizations prey on; people feeling guilty. So, they pressure, guilt trip and bully to get time and money.

I’m not opposed to helping out tomorrow, but it’s mostly because one of my CASA kids plays basketball at the Boys and Girls Club we will be cleaning and I’m kinda neurotic about cleaning. I like cleaning and I like things being clean.

Tomorrow I will be volunteering and I’m getting paid for it.

My Dad vs. Katrina

My dad sent my family this email about Katrina and since I don't have anything intelligent to say, I'm pasting it below. My dad retired from Metro Transit in July. His professional life was dedicated to providing safe public transportation in Seattle. He's no show off, just one of the many people who work behind the scenes for the greater good. At age 19, he began driving public busses. Eventually he was promoted and tested and promoted again. I always said that "my dad tells the bus drivers what to do." He's been on all kinds of safety committees. He works for the city and he hates lawyers. Go Dad!

Hello,

I just felt that I in the light of the current disaster in New Orleans that I had to say pass on these thoughts to my family and friends. During my last 10 years of working with King County/Metro I was a Transit representative to the King County Emergency Response Center, I also worked with the cities on the East side, particularly with Kirkland and Bellevue Emergency Operations Center's. I have participated in many drills and exercises for emergencies. Including two separate weeks of extensive training with FEMA in Washington DC in Emergency Response and Management.

One of the main things FEMA and Emergency Managers always say is that during a major emergency of any type you can not expect help to respond immediately. It will take a number of hours for Police, Fire, National Guard everyone to organize and get to you. People have to be able to take care of themselves for at least 72 hours before they can reasonably expect help. THIS IS A MINIMUM. No one expects to be caught in a disaster of this magnitude and the chances are that you won't be. But you can be prepared for it just in case. Please look into getting an Emergency Preparedness Kit, this is a 3 day supply of basic things to help you survive until help arrives. There are many places that you can get them or you can put a kit together yourself. If you go to the Red Cross web site at http://www.redcross.org/ you can buy a kit directly from them or just look and see what's in the kit and put one together yourself.

All of the current finger pointing about the Emergency Response to Hurricane Katrina is just politics. The response is exactly what we could have expected to a disaster in any part of the country. This is a huge disaster that will take many, many years to work though. Things could always be done better but the people who are responding are doing everything they can. Response takes time. Rescue takes time. Recovery goes on for years. For instance the official recovery effort for the Mount Saint Helens eruption ended about a year ago.

One other duty I occasionally had with Metro was to review tape recordings of Emergency Responses to things that happened on the buses. The recordings were digital and had the time line imprinted on the recording. One thing that was consistent was that time compresses for those experiencing an emergency. Things move very slowly and people get very frustrated that they don't get a faster response.

One of the last recordings I reviewed was when a man was having a heart attack on a bus out on the East Side in the County. They were not within any city jurisdiction. In the review I found that within three minutes Police, Fire Medics and a Medic One and a Metro Supervisor had all gotten to the scene and had transported the person away from the scene and cleared the bus. But the bus driver who made the call for help was very upset with how slow the response was. Emotionally he felt it took 30 to 40 minutes for all this to happen. Intellectually he knew how fast it was because he wasn't really even late on his route. I met with him and reviewed the recording and the response. He was absolutely dumbfounded and couldn't believe how far his perception was off.

In New Orleans they are actually up to their asses in water with the Alligators. It is a horrible situation but it will get better. Please support the emergency response and not join in criticizing those who are doing everything they can to help. That unfortunately is just politics.

I could go on and on but I won't. I love you take care of yourselves.