Space Shuttle Snapshots

The morning it landed at Dulles, WolfAlpha didn't hang around long enough to see it land, but when he got home it flew over his apartment:

That night this is what he saw when he got to work, and it's pretty much what I saw when I landed the other night:

...and this was the next morning:

Cool, huh?

Reporting From the Field

Wow, have we been busy!

Landing at Dulles around dusk Thursday night, we taxied past the space shuttle.  Am I too old to think it's totally rad, awesome, and tubular to see that thing live and in person?  I've gotta tell you, it must be huge; it made the 747 on which it was piggybacked, look like a toy!

We stopped by WolfAlpha's apartment to pick up a few last-minute things.  Nice, quiet, safe neighborhood, dull as dirt and close to work.  It was 11:00 when we checked in to the motel, so we hit Burger King and crashed out.  Yesterday a.m. we met with the realtor (could NOT have done better on that count) and headed for the hills.  Literally.  My dream home was already under contract, and I consoled myself by noting some rather noisy neighbors when we drove past.  It really was a nice house in a pleasant neighborhood, and we are in LOVE with this town!  After seeing ten-ish (seriously, I lost count) houses, we wrote an offer today, and we have second and third choices lined up in case we get out-bid.  Since it's a foreclosure, if we are initially out-bid, we'll get a second chance, as I'm sure the owner would thoroughly enjoy a bidding war.  We might go five or ten dollars above the list price, but it someone else wants it that badly, they'll get it.  It's at the top of our price range, but it's a great house that doesn't need much work.    And it's about a mile from the river.

Choice #2 is an amazing modified A-frame in the mountains, great decks, funky but do-able layout, and a gorgeous lot.  Two huge bathrooms, and a big garage/workshop, but we'd need to cut a few trees for a garden  - sad face.  # 3 is $18,000 cheaper and just about perfect (loudest noise in the neighborhood was the wind in the trees) - great yard for a food garden, the works.  But access is a bitch - my ears popped twice on the way up.  WolfAlpha would NOT enjoy the commute.  (OTOH, starting in January, he'll have enough annual vacation time to simply stay home any time the roads are bad.)

Tomorrow we'll do some drive-by's in a nearby town, in case we end up SOL on all three.  WolfAlpha is pretty confidant that he can judge a house for me if I've seen the area.  I have to keep reminding him that HIS needs take precedence over my whims, and we really are in agreement on priorities.  In our price range, we'll be lucky to get the basics.  Plus, our realtor is truly wonderful!  We've been communicating via email, and it only took him a few minutes in person to get a feel for our priorities - best described as "there are a few things we absolutely need, but we can be flexible in how those needs are met."  For instance, we need a basement unless there are already at least two bathrooms and a garage.  We need a garage unless there's a basement.  He said he enjoyed working with us, and I think he meant it; I think we're pretty good clients - not a lot of dithering and second-guessing.

Now it's time to eat and get some rest!

Nerves

Hoo boy!
I gave my notice at work this week - two more weeks left, and I'm starting to feel pretty sad about leaving.  6 1/2 years is the longest I've been at one job, and I'm going to miss the work and the people.  Today I filled out most of the mortgage application (WolfAlpha needs to go over it and add a few items) and I did the power of attorney so he can handle any negotiations without my signature.  Next week we go house shopping. *gulp*  We're fortunate in that we have several good prospects to choose from.  I even found my dream house and we can afford it, but it's probably not the house we need so we probably won't buy it.  It's a 1910 well-kept Victorian with a fenced yard, a few blocks from the "old" downtown business district. It even has a white picket fence in the front.  Basically it's the house I grew up in.  It's not out of the question, but we have several good reasons to stay out in the country if we can, so...

I've gone even deeper into Turtle Mode, I'm even having trouble concentrating.  On anything.  I haven't heard from Lance Criminal for a while, and his birthday was last week.  We sent a couple of packages and I still don't know if they arrived on time (I doubt it, but getting him to ask for what he wants is like pulling teeth!)  AnyProzac, if you happen to come across any random bits of my shattered nerves, please scoop them up and save them for me; I expect I'll be needing them soon.

Churchian "Science"

I've been debating a guy on the same thread at In Male Fide, where I picked up the Troll.   It has taken me several days to break down his "logic," to the point where I know for a fact that he's as irrational as I originally thought he was.  In summary, he claimed that gays are to be feared (self-evidently, no less) because they are "self-annihilators."  Apparently his survival instinct has ordered it so, and hey, "self-evident" and "self-annihilation" are words used by smart people, so who am I to challenge his intellectual premise?  Of course there's another reason for his "fear:" religion.  But this one was clever because it took him days to acknowledge it.  Perhaps he figured if he kept religion out of it, he could prove himself right with reason.  Except of course he's dead wrong, so in this case, "reason" isn't his friend.  Ironically his screen name is "thordaddy."  I had presumed he was an average fanatichristian, but maybe he's a pagan.  His god might be Thor.  I guess I should look up Norse mythology to understand his theology; no true Christian would practice idolatry so blatantly.  Certainly not a rational Christian, right?  But I digress.  Ooh!  I keep thinking of changing my blog's name, "But I Digress" would be so appropriate....

Anywhackjob, where was I?  Ummm, oh yes.  thordaddy's educated-sounding five-dollar-words brought to mind that goofy practice of the Christian/Evangelical/Fundamentalist recruitment gurus (There I go again, mixing religious terminology!)  wherein they attempt to disprove knowledge gained through the scientific method.  The most obvious and ludicrous example is of course Christo-paleontology, so that's the one I'm going with.  Plus it's an easy target, and if I do very much research, I'll get too angry to write.

Someday I'm going to visit the Creation Museum in Kentucky, but I'll be sure to bring a barf bag.  And a handkerchief to stuff in my mouth so as not to offend with my snorts and barks of mirth (in between bouts of nausea.)  I don't know if the above image is from said museum, nor do I give a rat's ass flying fuck, er, hoot. But yeah, the Creation Museum is one of those institutions that uses lame pseudoscience to prove beyond any doubt, that dinosaurs roamed the earth 2,000 short years ago.  (Jesus most likely had one as a pet.)  The dire need to do so, presumably arose from the renewed popularity of paleontology during the last few decades.  Thanks, Mr. Crichton, rest your soul.  I know you didn't do it singlehandedly, but you sure gave it a big honkin' boost.  You see, the Churchian Recruitment Coalition realized that those eeevil liberal scientists were getting away with teaching, well,  heresy, to our impressionable youth.  How could children possibly become devout Christians if they actually believe that the earth is more that 6,000 years old!!!!!  So the Churchians developed a strategy; they "got their story straight" by referring to the twelfth century "authorized" translation of that collection of historic texts, known a the King James Bible, and they searched for scientific evidence supporting their narrative.  Obviously they didn't do too well, so they pretty much had to make it up as they went along, borrowing heavily from technical dictionaries to make it all sound legit.

Here's some of the "evidence" they collected.  Remember the  "Fossilized Miner's Hat?"

If an industrial-era garment can fossilize in just a few decades, well dogonnit, so can a dinosaur!  Dinosaur fossils must be only a few thousand years old, exactly the same age as the earth, according to the Churchian Recruitment Coalition's Science Committee."  Of course, those "real" scientists (eeevil, liberal) have pointed out that the hat is not fossilized, it's petrified.  There's a difference.  Shocking I know.
"Shhhhhhh!" says the Coalition.  "Seeds of doubt, seeds of doubt.  That's all it takes, little seeds of doubt!"
Now they teach children that the fossil record, as (pfft!) "interpreted" by those (pfft!) "Scientists," is a rumor started by Satan and perpetuated by liberal universities.

Incidentally, the Coalition also has deemed carbon 14 dating to be entirely unreliable, due to its vast 400 year margin of error.  I know, I know, we all thought it was reasonably accurate, but we were misled.

Now this one, this one stands alone, as utterly undeniable evidence that man and dinosaurs coexisted.  (Trumpet fanfare, please...)  Cave drawings.  Yes, cave drawings of dinosaurs, and we all know that only humans drew pictures on cave walls; there is absolutely NO evidence of trained elephants performing tricks like that way back then.

I'm crying "foul!"  It's f*ing smiling at me!

OK.  Even if that thing was drawn by a real-life caveman, rather than a twentieth century third grader, does it really prove that cavemen saw actual dinosaurs?  p-p-p-f-f-f-HAHAHAHAHAHA!  No *snork* really!  I ask that quite seriously.  *ahem*  I gotta wonder if the Churchian Recruitment Coalition ever considered the possibility that maybe cavemen, like us, found, uh, dinosaur fossils, and were perhaps intelligent enough to render dinosaur "drawings" based on the shape of those fossils.  Hmm.

In conclusion, (yes, now I'm lecturing you...) this is a frighteningly perfect example of the kind of batshit crazy logical disconnect that the Churchians feel is required of a True Christian.  Seeds of doubt.  Little seeds of doubt.

Short Term Change

Sorry folk, the psycho-troll no longer amuses me.  I'm now moderating comments.  No word verification, they just won't show up until I approve them.

My Ducks in a Row

We have visitors on the pond.  At first glance I thought they were the hooded mergansers we had a couple of years ago.  Maybe?  Maybe female common or hooded mergansers?  Any idea what these guys are?  Crappy pix, I know, even though I crawled through the grass on my belly:

Awww. My First Troll*

*alternate title:  Get Off My Lawn!

A few of you may have noticed a couple of rather odd comments on my last post.  Sorry, I already deleted them. This, um, person (sort of) over at In Mala Fide
http://www.inmalafide.com/blog/2012/04/05/on-homosexuality/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inmalafide+%28In+Mala+Fide%29
"contributed" to a debate in the comments.  He was so off-the-wall that they actually deleted his final comment to me.  Now,the writers and commenters over there are rather uninhibited, to say the least; it can turn into quite the free-for-all.  I think they even made (sellout bastards) SPLC's "The manosphere is a hate group" list, and these days I'd call that a high honor indeed.  If you care to check out the post, you can only imagine how squirrely this cretin was becoming.  Then he followed my link and brought it over here.  I dunno.  Perhaps I'm the first person to acknowledge him in years, maybe he was flattered by the attention.  Anypsycho, in honor of my very first troll, this post is addressed to him:

"Anonymous," aka "drugsaregay,"

Did you actually believe I was going to debate you?  You???  I got into it with "Cynthia" because she's the kind of bint that gets under my skin.  I know I should be more dignified and let it slide, but sometimes I like to cut loose a bit.  Cynthia was actually attempting to pose a credible opinion.  Of course she's obviously an empty headed churchian, parroting  the in-crowd and hoping to curry favor with "the girls," but sometimes these gals are educable.  Plus, I'm a foolish optimist.  You see, the thing about your garden variety female amorality/irrationality, is that it's not necessarily permanent.  Millions if not billions, of Western women are so spoiled, so sheltered from the consequences of amoral and irrational decisions, that it's simply a default mode: They don't have to be moral or rational, and they have few role models who are.   However, sometimes they get it.  I was hopeful.  So sue me.

You, on the other hand, never even made a pretense at credibility; your maniacal ravings bring to mind the Unabomber's manifesto.  Not only are you dead wrong in your *insert eye roll* "facts,"  you. are. fucking. LOOPY!  A howling moonbat, gone 'round the bend.  A few fries short of a Happy Meal.  For all the sense you make, you might as well be barking at the moon.  The relatively quiet urgency with which you leak your twisted mental vomit, indicates a vast chasm between your mind and the real world.  It's actually a little scary.  I highly recommend medication.

 In the mean time, stay the hell out from under my bridge, you creepy little fucker!  

Happy Little (or big) Newsies

Yesterday was my birthday, and I kinda woke up on the wrong side of the bed, even though WolfAlpha was home.  I had a disorganized morning, and just as I was about to rush out the door for work,

Lance Criminal called from The Stan!!!!!


Just to wish me a Happy Birthday!  Needless to say, I was late for work.  He's doing well, very busy with extra duties, and I-was-just-so-happy-to-hear-his-voice!

Yeah, I had a great day.