archive puppy

I know, I hope things are different now, too--but this is funny

2009-04-21T15:31:00.003-04:00

Nelson P. Valdes offers a wonderfully satirical Cuban "transition proposal" to Obama.

"Please note that what follows is a request to you; it is not a demand. If there is something in this statement that your American Congress does not like, we will be delighted to delete it and offer our apology - beforehand. As Tomas Estrada Palma, the first president you put in charge in 1901, we know that you understand our interests better than we do. We are so lucky to be so close to your shores, so you can continue acting like our father or big brother. The laws of political gravitation and geography have certainly turned us into diplomatic realists. [We are so happy to be learning the terminology!]"

Cuba and Obama

2008-12-19T19:13:00.003-05:00

Read about continuing racism in Cuba and how Obama's victory has already brought change abroad: "Cubans are dizzy with excitement at Obama’s victory. 'I still feel my heart skip a beat,' Victor Fowler, a black Cuban, told Spain’s El Pais newspaper last month. 'I listen to Barack Obama … I look at my skin, I look at my children’s skin, I cry and I smile.'"

Plus, there is a practically unanimous chorus from Latin America calling for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Now then. Will Cuba policy change?

2008-11-10T14:22:00.002-05:00

November 10, 2008

Dear Cuba Policy Advocates,

November 4th marked an historical change for the United States of America. President-elect Barack Obama represents CHANGE on many levels, and many people expect CHANGE in a great many things: the economy, two wars, a planet in peril, etc . . . you know the list by now.

As in every post-election, there exists a window of opportunity to take our country in a new direction. And how fitting that we call for change in U.S.-Cuba policy by a president-elect whose campaign, at its very core, called for change.

There are several articles we'd like to recommend to you:

* An article in the British newspaper, The Guardian, on the hope of reconciliation between the United States and Latin America, starting with Cuba.
* An article reporting Brazilian President Lula's call to President-elect Obama to end the blockade on Cuba. His voice is part of a growing chorus from Latin America.
* A Wall Street Journal article detailing the open door for changes in U.S.-Cuba policy.
* A more sobering article in which Frank Sanchez, Obama's Latin America foreign policy advisor, reiterated the president-elect's Cuba policy: " …as president the candidate will move quickly 'within [the] possible and practical bounds of his authority' to lift the family travel and remittances restrictions. Anything more than that, Sanchez told the Miami Herald, will have to wait."

For the first time in recent history a President will take office on January 20, 2009, owing no political debt to the hard-line Cuban Americans in Miami-Dade County. After all, President-elect Obama won Florida without the hardliners' help which is an historic feat in itself and one we must use to finally change our policy towards Cuba.

President-elect Obama has several steps available to him. He can work with Congress to end the travel ban, change some travel regulations to the extent of his executive authority, while engaging diplomatically with Cuba in a way that respects its sovereignty as a nation. If we can achieve this, than we can expect that the impact on all of our Latin American neighbors will be profound. It would truly signal a new day for U.S.-Latin America policy.

This message is not a full presentation of strategy and actions, but rather a glimpse of hope and of the progress that we have yet to make. We will be back to you in the coming weeks with requests for your participation in efforts to call on the president-elect and Congress to do the right thing and open up our policies towards Cuba. This will signal that we are ready to chart a new course with the entire region.

Thanks for your partnership!

Sincerely,

Mavis Anderson
Paulo Gusmao
Latin America Working Group
www.lawg.org

Real v. Fake America

2008-10-21T23:17:00.002-04:00

Nothing says 4th of July quite like "Confederate Amputation"

2008-07-07T21:23:00.009-04:00

In our continuing quest to visit the strangest roadside attractions in the area, Jen and I made a pilgrimage to visit the burial site of Stonewall Jackson's left arm. Could I make this up?

Here is a dramatic diorama photo of the arm being shot up during the battle of Chancellorsville:

Here is a choice shot of one of the monuments (there are two, but the first one is just a big boulder) put up by reverent ex-Confederates near (but, as it turns out, not exactly on) the site where the shooting took place. (The bit about "mortally wounded" isn't exactly true...he died of pneumonia.)

Here is a photo of the roadside sign near the spot where the arm was amputated, in a field hospital a couple of miles from where Stonewall was shot:

Here are some photos of the bucolic spot where the arm forever rests in peace:

Okay, so it hasn't really rested in peace. They say (that's my favorite way to cite dubious historical information) that Union soldiers dug it up in 1864 when they were back near the Chancellorsville site again. They also say (even more dubiously, apparently) that Smedley Butler, a marine major general, had it dug up in 1921 when his troops were in the area, because they didn't believe it was really there (apparently it was). Some naysayers (poo on you, National Park Service guy) claim that there is little historical or archaeological evidence that the arm is still there, at least on the site where the stone is. I choose to believe.

All in all, a quality bit of quirky historical nonsense.

Blossoms and Edibles

2008-05-20T16:21:00.024-04:00

I bought all these pots with the idea that I would grow food in them. But I just keep finding flowers that I like. Also, it occurred to me that it's important to have some attractive things among the utilitarian things in the garden (not that edibles are unattractive, but blooms are different). The latest is the salvia:

The Gerbera daisies are doing well.

Plus, my African violet inside has gone crazy with the blooming. I think it likes the direct morning sunlight in the window.

On to edibles. We did lose the cucumber, for reasons that are unclear (at least to me). The plant bible says that cucumber seedlings are susceptible to cold temperatures, even those above frost. So perhaps the cool weather got to them--although they seemed to just up and die after we got three days of rain, when it wasn't too cold at all. Hmmm. So anyway, since Kathy is a cucumber fiend, we went ahead and bought new seedlings over the weekend. There are two lemon cucumber seedlings ("lemon" apparently refers to their yellow color--they don't have a weird lemon taste or anything) and one normal bush cucumber, all in the same pot. I hope they get along.

The monstrosity below is a broken plastic planter that came with the apartment. It's all cracked on one side, but being too cheap to throw it out, I fixed it all up with duct tape so that it doesn't leak too badly. Now it is home to sage (back) and spinach (front) seedlings, as well as a whole mess of lettuce seeds that I just planted today.

I also planted a sage seedling indoors, to see which one does better. Hooray scientific method!

Speaking of indoors, I now have three rosemary seedlings going. You thought I was kidding when I said that rosemary was slow-growing. No, my friends. This is six weeks of growth.

Maybe I'll have rosemary in October. (This, I think, is why they sometimes sell rosemary in little Christmas-tree shapes for the holidays. Everyone plants them in the spring and has to wait until December to get anything out of them.)

Tomatoes, on the other hand, grow about an inch per day. Here is the beefsteak, with his accompanying basil:

And a nice close-up of the happy basil:

Both tomatoes are getting this weird dry-looking brown spot thing on some of their older leaves. I hope this is normal (transplant shock, perhaps) and not some perilous bug or disease. Anybody know?

We also bought, at the farmer's market, a few supplementals. A red bell pepper, complete with first blossom [there are also new lettuce seeds planted in there with him]...

...some mint, which I assume will soon bully the surviving pansy to death...

...and a ridiculous amount of dill. If you can believe it, I gave away at least half the dill that came in the original farmer's market pot.

The strongest spinach got his very own pot. In another experiment, three of the spindlier cousin spinaches got dumped in a pot together.

The cilantro is also doing well. I learned that cilantro will quickly go to seed, so I'll have to use this soon. In preparation, I planted four more seeds in this same pot, and also transplanted another seedling to another pot. Of course, cilantro seed is just coriander, so if some does go to seed, I'm not going to be too upset about it. I'll just have to learn what to do with fresh coriander (dry it?).

The combo lettuce-green onion pot is looking very promising. Lettuce loves this cool, wet weather.

But I am, of course, proudest of the poblano pepper. Look at how big and strong he is. If only I had planted him a month earlier, he might be as big as the bell pepper. I also planted a bunch more green onion seeds around this pot. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to do this earlier. Oh well.

Someday I'll write more about my archival life. I've got a whole diary about it just for myself, so maybe that's why it's been absent from the blog lately.

Some links

2008-05-17T14:56:00.004-04:00

My good friends Versha and Jason just had a baby, Kiran. He's extremely cute, I think.

I wasted a few hours this week setting up my site on Ravelry. I'm not quite sure what the purpose of it is yet, but now I have a nifty spreadsheet-type thing of the knitting needles I have (size, color, bamboo v. aluminum, etc.), which could be useful.

Garden update coming soon. I think we lost the cucumber, which is very sad. I'll have to do a postmortem.

Dead-on Onion video

2008-05-13T17:44:00.001-04:00

It's so much fun to parody "living history" museums.

Historic â��Blockbusterâ�� Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past

It's starting to resemble a garden

2008-05-05T20:49:00.007-04:00

I bought four enormous pots, and need to get more dirt. However, I did manage to put a tomato, a cherry tomato, and a poblano pepper in three of the pots. In my new love affair with companion gardening (among other things), I have also put an herb or something in each of the big pots, so that the two plants can help each other.

Poblano (center) and green onion (tiny, front left):

Cucumber (complete with bamboo trellis and cone for watering):

Tomato, with basil in front, and cone-bottle contraption for watering:

Cherry tomato (haven't decided about his companion plant yet. Maybe sage or more basil):

I haven't decided about the cone contraption for watering, either. Mostly it seems to seep out really fast, while I thought the point was to seep out slowly so as to combat midday dryness. But what do I know.

I also got some gerbera daisies, which are my new favorite flower. They're so happy and bright.

Seedling update; also cherry blossoms and the pope

2008-04-20T21:53:00.013-04:00

First, the tulips.

Next, the seedlings. The tomatoes (in the front two rows are beefsteak and cherry tomatoes) are enormous; everything else is doing pretty well. At this point we've also got spinach, basil, poblano, cilantro, oregano, chives, rosemary, sage, and green onion inside. I gave up on the idea of growing mint from seed (mine were really, really small, and then I read somewhere that growing mint from seed is really hard) and bought a little plant from the farmer's market this weekend. Also, the green onion doesn't appear to be doing so hot, and I threw out the lettuce I had planted in peat pots, because it got a bit moldy. One of the cilantro plants got upgraded to a big pot. The lovely little terra cotta planter in the center is a nice self-contained herb garden, an Easter gift from dad. That's where the oregano and chives live.

Last weekend I planted green onion, lettuce and cucumber outside, figuring that we are probably past the last frost (knock on wood). The seed packet tells me that one is supposed to plant cucumbers in little 4-inch hills. I have no idea why. But, having never grown cucumber before, I just followed the directions:

I must have done something right, because today there was a little cucumber seedling! Luckily I already have a nice bamboo trellis all ready for it to climb on. I would have posted a picture, but it poured rain all day, and my dedication to blogging doesn't run deep enough to suffer through wet shoes. Maybe later.

Lessons learned: pack the little seedling pots full of dirt (of whatever variety), sans the paper wrapper if you use pellets. This is because eventually you will plant the seedling pots directly into the ground or container, and you don't want a gap. I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me earlier. Oh well. And for things that like cool weather (so far: lettuce, onion and cucumber), just wait to plant directly outside.

Finally, some DC-specific pictures. A few from the cherry blossoms--apparently they bloomed for two full weeks this year, which was a record. They're quite pretty, even when one goes on a cloudy and slightly windy day.

Here's my favorite memorial, the D.C. World War I memorial. It's so forlorn.

Who knew that DC occasionally hosts loons?!?!? I was very excited. [There are two in this picture; they are very small, but that's an unmistakable loon profile, and they were diving in the tidal basin, just like they do. I hope they didn't eat any scary fish.]

And here's a picture of the pope in the popemobile.

Sometimes I also go to the archive.

Spring

2008-03-08T11:00:00.005-05:00

Today is seed-planting day!

The ivy is an old friend. The norfolk island pine and the lavender (not really visible in this picture) are new acquisitions. And the thing on the right is like a seed incubator. The plastic top keeps in humidity.

I got these little pellets that you put in the tray cells, instead of peat or dirt. Then you dump some warm water over them and they expand, and you push a few seeds down in them. Not sure if I was supposed to tear the paper wrapping off them or not (the directions didn't say). The paper didn't seem very harmful, though. I'm sure the little roots will tear right through it.

I planted tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, spinach, green onions, cilantro, mint, and basil. I bought poblano pepper seeds too, but can't find them, which is very depressing since I was looking forward to both chiles relleno and ancho paste. But all that means is that I will be forced to make another trip to the garden center! I found a good one, luckily, and it's not too far away.

There's the lavender on the back right. He needs a transplant.

Seed-planting is a very good thing to do on a depressingly cold and rainy day.

Other signs of spring.

Dome Tour

2008-02-29T10:17:00.020-05:00

Kevin and Laura invited me to go with them on a tour of the Capitol Dome. It was pretty fun, if you like climbing a 30-story building before lunch. Luckily, I discovered that I do.

For background, here's the Architect of the Capitol site about the dome. A few interesting tidbits: the dome is made of cast iron, not stone, although it is made to look like stone. Cast iron is lighter, fireproof, and, in the 1860s, was cheaper than stone/marble/granite. The big outdoor columns that hold it up are also made of cast iron, and are hollow, so that some of them act as downspouts. Brilliant.

If you look at this 1859 drawing, you'll see that the dome is actually two domes, one set inside the other. The inner dome houses the rotunda. We climbed up between the two domes, occasionally emerging for looks at either the view or the pretty stuff in the rotunda.

This picture, although slightly fuzzy, gives you a good idea of the space between the two domes.

We first emerged to see the inside of the rotunda, and the pseudo-frieze that shows heroic- looking scenes from American history. Naturally, it starts with Columbus and ends with the Wright brothers.

Next we climbed up to be close to the fresco at the top of the inner dome. The acoustics up there are incredible.

The fresco depicts George Washington as a god, and the 13 original states as fair maidens. Gotta love the 19th century for shameless nationalistic melodrama.

From there we climbed up some more, and emerged outside into the wind. From up there, the whole L'Enfant plan of streets as spokes actually makes some sense. [Side note: I enjoyed this uncited little gem about L'Enfant from what looks to be an unofficial website about Arlington Cemetery: "As chief designer of the new national capital, L'Enfant quickly antagonized the three commissioners in charge of making sure the place got built. When they complained, he alienated his principal supporters, including George Washington, who reluctantly fired him. He spent the rest of his life dunning Congress for back pay, as lean and ragged as the dog that trailed him through the streets." Poor L'Enfant.]

The Mall, with Washington Monument at its other end, and Pennsylvania Ave radiating off to the right:

The Supreme Court on the left, East Capitol Street (with RFK Stadium at the end), and the Library of Congress to the right:

The U.S. Botanic garden in the foreground, a slice of the Potomac in the back left, and the beginnings of the Mall to the right:

The new [underground] Capitol visitors' center, under construction:

And finally, our view of the tholos, on top of which the Statue of Freedom (not to be confused with Liberty) stands:

We also enjoyed the graffiti scratched in the dome's windows. Some of it was dated 1861 (supposedly). Unfortunately my picture of that didn't come out. This one, however, is pretty good: you can see the graffiti in the clouds.

Dome tour: highly recommended.

Signs of flooding; eclipse

2008-02-21T21:53:00.005-05:00

Every once in awhile it's nice to remember that the federal government does some things well. For instance, I like this site.

And then there's New Orleans. I found that two things served for me as constant reminders of Katrina and the flood. First, water lines, which are everywhere:
You can see one here, crossing the outside walls and large front window. That's maybe 3-4 feet off the ground. There was one on the doorjamb of the house we worked on, too.

Second, the spray-painted markings left by emergency workers after they searched a house. These are visible everywhere. Some people appear to have purposely left them on the walls of their refurbished houses, while others have tried to sandblast them off. Here's a graphic that explains what they mean.

I noticed these two things in just a week of being there; I wonder how many other things serve as constant reminders for people who live there.

Day 3 of work in New Orleans

2008-02-13T21:40:00.005-05:00

Today was our third day of work here. My team (six of us, plus a staff project manager) is working on a smallish three-bedroom house near the camp (the camp is here), owned by a single mom who works at a bank. I'm not sure how many kids she has--at least two, I think. They are living in a FEMA trailer in their front yard right now. I haven't been able to meet them, since she is at work all day.

I haven't taken any pictures (stupid--should have done the before/after thing, but I wasn't thinking on Monday), but basically the house had been gutted, like almost everything has to be if it's going to be repaired. Apart from just plain old destruction, the mold is the problem--most of the homes sat in water for 2-3 weeks, in the heat, and so everything had to be thrown out. Everything--walls, furniture, floors, etc. From the water markings on her door, it looks like the water here was 3-4 feet deep at its worst point.

When we came in, there was a concrete floor and walls that had been freshly painted (probably the week before), but no appliances, no lights, and no water. We have spent most of our time on the floors--laying new tile in the two bathrooms and the laundry room, and new wood laminate in the kitchen, dining room, and living room. The project manager is a plumber, so he has put in all the fixtures and toilets and things for the bathrooms. It's clearly almost time for them to move back in, maybe next week, depending on how finished they want things to be when they move in.

I have been mostly brute labor, since I've never done any of this stuff before. I've helped to scrape the bathroom floors (they had some old glue or something on them, probably from previous flooring), cut the tile, grout around the tiles, caulk around a new back door and in the new bathtub walls, and paint. Very practical skills, compared to my normal daily activities!

Tomorrow we might finish laying the wood laminate floors, and we'll definitely finish most everything in the bathrooms.

Yesterday we had to stop work early because of big thunderstorms in the area, which caused both our worksite and the camp to lose power for a few hours. There was a tornado maybe 10-15 miles away, but we just had a lot of rain and wind. And then the internet at camp was out, probably because none of us knew how to reset it after a power outage. Tragedy! But today all is back to normal.

And yes, I am thrilled because Uno won the Westminster Dog Show, the first beagle to do so. Thanks to all of you who emailed me about this important news. :)

Tour of New Orleans, Day 1

2008-02-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

Today we got a tour of New Orleans from Diana's father's cousin and his wife. They are 91 and 88, respectively, and she was born and raised in New Orleans. I tried to make a map of where all we went, but I am not savvy enough. Not tonight, at least. So, you'll have to settle for some photos. [And a bunch of links to Wikipedia...sorry. I'm feeling lazy.]

We started in the French Quarter, then drove west and south near the Convention Center/Riverwalk and onto the Garden District on St. Charles Avenue (where there is once again a streetcar running). We turned right on Carrollton, left on Canal Blvd, and then...

For the history geeks: we went to Metairie Cemetery, where I enjoyed the memorial to/mausoleum of members of the Army of Northern Virginia.

There was a panel that had Jefferson Davis's signature on it, but I have since determined (through painstaking research on Wikipedia) that although he died in New Orleans, he is buried in Richmond, VA.

From there we drove through some neighborhoods near the levees that were breached after Hurricane Katrina. [Here is a useful article. Yes, it's on Wikipedia, but it has nice maps.] Others in our group who have been here in the past two years said that there seemed to be fewer FEMA trailers and more work being done on many houses, but there is still a lot of visible destruction, and many, many homes still abandoned.

Some people are clearly doubtful that the levees will hold if another storm surge hits.

And there are some very sobering reminders of the flooding, and of the suffering.

But, of course, it's still a beautiful city. And it was 75 degrees today. Lots of people were out fishing.

More tomorrow, after our first day of work. Or maybe Tuesday, if I don't get to it tomorrow.

week in Missouri; knitting update

2008-02-08T18:02:00.000-05:00

This week I've been in Missouri to celebrate dad's birthday and hang out with grandma. Tomorrow dad and I go to New Orleans to help with rebuilding; we'll be there for about a week. We're staying here.

In the meantime, though, we put grandma to work. (Don't worry, I helped too.)

I've also been knitting some baby hats, since so many friends are expecting babies this summer:

And here's a picture of the next one, in progress:

As is always the case when I get out the knitting, the cat was not far behind.

I also posted an amusing video of her fascination with yarn here. It's a bit long, but I find it amusing. I think I find her amusing because for 23 hours of the day she basically can't stand the sight of us. The other hour is spent asking for food or wanting the door to the backyard open, plus five minutes per day of wanting her head scratched, after which she bites you. She's a very odd cat.

Tea-boy

2008-02-05T18:10:00.001-05:00

Kathy sent me a marvelous invention called a tea-boy. It appears to be from Denmark. It looks like a penguin with a top hat, but its beak holds either a tea bag or a tea ball, like so:

You carefully pour the hot water into your mug,

and then you set the timer on the penguin's side to your desired steeping time. As you turn the timer, the beak lowers the tea ball/bag into the mug.

The tea steeps, leaving you plenty of time to admire the tea-boy from all angles.

When the proper steeping time has elapsed, the tea-boy gives a nice ring and the beak automatically raises the tea ball/bag out of your mug. I wish I had a movie of this. It's great.

Now, I worried that the tea-boy would not do as well with a taller mug, or with a pot. A quick height adjustment told me that tea-boy could adapt to many environments.

This, to me, is a perfectly ingenious invention. Not only does it give you a consistent steeping time, but it is made to look like a penguin, for no particular reason. It even has a bow tie and a top hat, which is even more extraneous, but makes it even more perfect.

I assume that everyone now wants their own penguin tea-boy. Well, I don't know where Kathy got it, but I only found one site where it's sold. And it's sold out. Sorry, everybody. You'll just have to come visit me so that we can enjoy the tea-boy together.

All-purpose update

2008-02-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

Hello again, faithful readers...

Ellen's Pie Odyssey has inspired me to restart things here at archive puppy. So, here are some assorted pictures from my comings and goings last fall.

Bo, me, Amy, and Rick, at Tom and Julie's wedding in August. It was extremely hot.

Me and Kathy serving up my birthday tart (vanilla cream with berries...delicious).

The scarlet oak we planted near my mom's grave, in October.

Jess, working hard even on her wedding day.

Helen gave the groom a good talking-to...

...while her husband indulged in a gourd-tini.

Kristen, Stacy and I crossed Lake Champlain (which is not a Great Lake) on the ferry boat.

And we ate some marvelous apple pie at Stacy and Matt's house.

Jon and Jen also visited one weekend in October, and Jen did the spokesmodel thing with the Mini-Poo.

In November, dad and I went to Maramec Spring Park. Unclear why they spell Maramec like that, instead of Meramec, which is how the same river's name is spelled closer to St. Louis. Or Merrimac, for that matter. Quite beautiful, though:

...and it also had a trout hatchery.

For Thanksgiving we were at Jon and Jen's, where Jon slaughtered the turkey. Well, okay, he just carved it. But this picture looks particularly aggressive to me. Maybe it's the angle of the fork.

In December we got a wreath to put on mom's grave. The cat found it very interesting.

Dad shows off part of his Christmas haul, a new nonstick skillet collection.

Somewhere in there I also went to Chicago for a few days with friends and family, to Nashville to finish up at the Southern Baptist Archive, and to Lexington for a weekend with Helen and Dave. But apparently I don't have any pictures of those.

Near New York

2007-07-22T22:19:00.000-04:00

Last week I was hanging out in beautiful Madison, New Jersey, at Drew University, where the United Methodists have their archive. Madison is one of those towns that used to be a real town, but has since been swallowed up in suburban sprawl. They seem to have done a pretty good job controlling it, though, as there's still a healthy, walkable downtown.

The Methodists keep a good archive, too--their archivists are friendly and amusing, they know not only their own records but also quite a bit about related archives, and they can even find most things that their finding aids claim they have. This, as any archival researcher can attest, is a rare and valuable thing. They even suggested "good" things for me to eat.

This weekend I've been in New York, doing some touristy things, seeing friends, and eating a lot of good stuff. Kathy, Alex, Lisa and I took the ferry to Governor's Island...

...where we took the walking tour, ate a picnic, got a little sunburned, and saw some weird art show. For me, the highlight of the walking tour was learning that what seemed like 90% of the buildings on the island were once military prisons.

I was also reminded of the story I've been telling everyone all summer. Earlier this summer I read Confederates in the Attic, which I highly recommend. The author went to Fort Sumter in South Carolina, where the first battle of the Civil War was fought. He took the National Park Service tour and went up to talk to the tour guide afterwards. The tour guide ends up telling him some of the funny stuff people have asked him on the tour over the years. The best question, by far, was, "Why were so many Civil War battles fought in national parks?"

Yeah.

Also, of course, there was the Harry Potter book release on Friday night. We went to the party at Books of Wonder, where they had REAL LIVE OWLS. It was excellent. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but I'm hoping that someone else will send along pictures. I have not yet bought/acquired/read the book, so please please please don't tell me anything about it. Karrie finished it in my presence tonight, and didn't say anything except that it was great. I like Karrie.

We did get temporary tattoos, though...

Food highlights:
Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwiches (I had the Classic, Raj had the portobello mushroom)
Pio Pio (I ate at least 3/4 of the ceviche, but Kathy and Lisa did a number on the chicken)
Once Upon a Tart (mmmm I could eat everything)
Shake Shack (I still feel a little bit sick...but that was a mean chocolate shake)
And, of course, the bagel shop across the street from Raj's apartment.

Also, two new (to me) software possibilities, if anyone is still interested:
Mozy (free online automatic backup)
Yojimbo (seems very similar to SohoNotes)

And last but not least, Helen and Dave got a dog, Edie! I'm very jealous.

I even go to historical sites for fun

2007-07-05T22:41:00.000-04:00

Today the parents and I drove down the Mississippi to visit Chester, Illinois, where my dad lived from 1946 to 1956. (I highly recommend looking at the Wikipedia site, since the third sentence is about as objective as you can expect from Wikipedia.) Here's a photo that shows all three types of transportation into Chester--railroad, river barge, and bridge!

Chester is a couple of miles downstream from the site of Fort Kaskaskia, which the French halfheartedly built sometime in the mid-18th century. If you don't feel like squinting to read it, the lesson of the plaque below is: most useless fort ever.

The French thought about building the fort for thirty years before they got around to it, it played no part in the Seven Years' War, the British decided to build their fort somewhere else, and the Virginians/Americans went for the village and ignored the fort during the Am. Revolution. The village of Kaskaskia, across the river, was home to a church that began as a Jesuit mission in 1675 (or 1703, or 1714, depending on who you ask--it moved a few times). The original village, however, washed away beginning with a flood in 1881, when the Mississippi changed course.

So now the village is entirely gone, and the fort is a bunch of grassy hills with a flagpole in the center.

They also have a big, new Lewis and Clark sign at every available spot (L&C recruited some people from the town of Kaskaskia). This makes me understand why people get their chronology mixed up.

It's a really interesting site, but the problem is that nowhere do the signs tell you who lived in Kaskaskia, why they lived there, what they did, why Kaskaskia was such an important village, what happened to the inhabitants when the village/fort changed hands, etc etc--basically all the interesting historical stuff. This is always my beef with historical markers, though. I'm just picky.

It's pretty, though, and there's quite a view--you start to understand why the fort was built on the bluff.

Oh, and today I learned a fun new word: freebooter!

The Road to Missouri

2007-07-04T00:29:00.001-04:00

Today I drove for twelve hours, from Austin to Joplin, Missouri. That's four states, since I snuck into a corner of Kansas. A sampling of the sights:
- armadillo roadkill
- a cow, wading up to its belly in a pond
- other cows obsessed with eating the grass on an embankment as close to the interstate and a state road as possible (Oklahoma has weird cows, I guess)
- an Arby's sign claiming that their new sandwich, the Baconator, "can smell fear"
- many rivers, including the Red, Arkansas, and Keosha, very muddy, moving fast, and flooding their banks
- the Cherokee casino
- the Shawnee community center and gift shop (it was closed...too bad)

Altogether, a good trip. I got off I-44 in Miami, Oklahoma, hoping to get a motel, but the National Guard was not letting anybody in. Just my luck to pick the town with the serious natural disaster. I was even listening to the radio for flooding news, but didn't hear anything. So I drove the back roads to Joplin.

The car is okay, although no one seems to know what's wrong with it. The garage in Austin looked into it and couldn't find anything wrong. My strategy is to never fill up the gas tank, since that seems to be the trigger.

Tomorrow, my mission includes driving to St Louis and finding sparklers along the way.

Still in Austin...

2007-06-30T20:25:00.000-04:00

Stacy and her family are being so nice to me, I decided to stay the weekend. Well, not exactly. The car is having a little problem, which I hope will be easy to fix. The car does not like it when I fill the gas tank and then get on the highway--when I do this, sometimes it does a frightening little shuddering/jerking thing. It's not pleasant.

So, I came back to Stacy's house on Friday afternoon, and because it was so late in the day no one could look at it. I'm hanging out here for the weekend (not a bad place to spend a weekend, really) and am really hoping that the mechanics will work their magic on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Also, while I don't recommend hearing funny noises that come from your car, this experience did give me a chance to peruse the Car Talk website, which I did enjoy.

Archival update: I skipped the Episcopalians entirely, which is pretty disappointing, but UT had some good stuff and the Texas State Archive was alright too. The lesson I learned from the Episcopalians is: never plan a trip to an archive unless you are able to either a) look at a finding aid in advance, or b) talk to an actual archivist about their holdings. I only talked to an administrator, who while being very nice and knowledgeable about procedure, also led me to believe that they had a lot more relating to my research than they did. So, lesson learned.

Truthfully, the archives here pale in comparison to the food. For lunch today I had a fish taco and limeade. Yum. We also did some Texas-style shopping. And by "we" I mean "Stacy." I have not bought any cowboy boots.

Eating and drinking in Austin...and, uh, researching. And whining.

2007-06-26T23:29:00.000-04:00

I have been running circles around the Episcopalian archive, trying to get them to let me see their records. They ignored me for a good six weeks. They also refused to send me their finding aid. Now I find out that there is actually a gap in their records, right around the time period I'm interested in (or, in which I am interested, for the grammaticians out there). I really wish I had known that six weeks ago...But, I can't be too mad, because their web site tells me that 2/7 of their staff positions are vacant, and the guy I talked to on the phone was very nice. Such are the travails of research.

At UT, things have been okay. I found one diary of an army private from San Antonio who was slightly quirky. There were a few colorful entries, including one about how he and his buddies sneaked off their boat when it was moored in Havana harbor, to go explore the city. And he wrote an entry about how seasick he was, complete with a ---------------- in the middle, after which he wrote "I just fed the fishes." Good stuff. I like quirky documents.

Tomorrow I will probably go to the Texas State Archive (I wonder if it is bigger than the National Archive, just because it's in Texas--maybe I'll ask) to look at a few things. I have one more box at UT, but it's being delivered from offsite storage and won't be there until Thursday. Then, since the Episcopalians are unhelpful, I guess it will be on to St. Louis!

Oh, and today Stacy took me to Draught House, for a post-archival drink, and then we went with her parents to County Line, for some TX barbecue. SDLB says that to really get a feel for all there is to eat in Austin, you need to stay for a month. Clearly, she is right.

Austin!

2007-06-24T17:32:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I drove for ten hours. It was a bit much.

But, happily, now I am in Austin! Not much to report, other than it's wonderful to be staying with real people rather than in a hotel. Today I'm trying to figure out what exactly I need to look at this week.

And I want to share two websites which help to distract me from work:
Daily Puppy
Paperback Swap

The South has great names for their towns

2007-06-22T22:57:00.000-04:00

Cuba, AL
Chunky, MS
Toomsuba, MS
Bovina, MS

...and that's just from today's drive, and just along I-20.

Had a lovely visit with Brian and his mom in Birmingham, where I got a great personal tour of the sites: the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Vulcan, the obligatory ice cream stop, and, of course, the mall. Well, actually, we just saw a movie at the mall. I assume it was a mall...hmm. I'm not very observant.

Brian is much more photogenic than I am! Especially when he is holding Yahtzee.

So, my dad is fine--he had gallbladder surgery on Wednesday, and is now home--and my car seems to be behaving, so I am going on to Austin as originally planned. I still haven't heard whether or not my application to do research at the Episcopalian archives in Austin was approved...although I can't imagine why it wouldn't be. I really think six weeks should be enough to get that done (I sent in the app May 9, I think). But what do I know. Maybe they need to get my FBI file or something.

Tonight I'm staying in Vicksburg, MS, right on the Mississippi River. The main industries of Vicksburg seem to be riverboat gambling and the Civil War.

Kentucky and Georgia

2007-06-20T15:14:00.000-04:00

Here's a nice picture from my side trip to Mammoth Cave. Isn't the cave exciting? It was even better visiting Helen and Dave, though, even if the peach ice cream experiment didn't turn out as well as we had hoped.

Now I'm in Atlanta, and as it turns out, the records at Emory are pretty much a bust. I photographed everything they had even remotely related to Cuba, but it only took me a day and a half, and I think it's mostly pretty dull anyway. Ah well, live and learn.

Tomorrow I'm off to Birmingham AL to visit Brian, and then I have to figure out where to go next. Rather suddenly, my dad is having his gallbladder out today, so I might head up to St Louis to see if I can lend a hand. Not in the surgery, though. Just around the house. Then, if the car holds out, maybe on to Austin, or maybe I'll head back to Nashville and from there to DC, and do Austin later. It's an awfully long drive to Texas. But I don't want to miss out on having Stacy as a research buddy! I am torn.

I'm sure this is all fascinating to everyone.

That's right, scandal

2007-06-15T23:17:00.000-04:00

Today I took 617 photos of documents. I think that's a personal best. Scandals are great because they generate a lot of records--I only looked at three folders today, but they were chock full of letters, reports, financial information, etc etc. This scandal seems to be a real classic, about money and control of a pretty valuable bit of property in Havana. Apparently the Cuban Baptists thought they owned it, and the US Southern Baptists thought they owned it. Yay, scandal!

Tomorrow I'm going to go visit Helen and Dave in Lexington, stopping off for a picnic and some spelunking at Mammoth Cave. I'm in the area--why not? For the geeks in the audience, check out their many fun brochures.

2007-06-14T22:05:00.000-04:00

Apparently everyone in Nashville except me is here for something called Bonnaroo. Some guy in my hotel told me that it was like Woodstock.

Today in the archive I ran across every historian's dream--scandal! Yay! More on that later. I didn't get through all the files today.

Side trip!

2007-06-13T22:49:00.001-04:00

Today I drove to Nashville, to go to the Southern Baptist Library and Archives. Turns out I only needed four days at Earlham. I am sad to move on, because not only do I miss out on my second helping of ratatouille tart that we made at Jon and Jen's on Monday night, but I will get no more daily updates on how the baby robins are doing. Sigh.

Oh, and things went pretty well at Earlham. Blah blah blah, research. 408 pages copied. I guess now I have to read them. Maybe I'll do that after I do some fun stuff in Nashville, where the waitress at Shoney's called me "sweet pea." I like Nashville.

And I hope none of you missed the no-hitter pitched by Justin Verlander, one of my beloved Tigers.

Hi Kristen!

I don't read blogs

2007-06-07T22:23:00.000-04:00

...but I like this one. I've only looked at it three times, but every time I get sucked in and read a whole bunch of posts.

Today Show in Cuba

2007-06-05T21:03:00.001-04:00

This morning the Today show broadcast live from Havana, and I missed it! There are a couple of surprisingly good stories on their website, though. Amidst the usual goofy ones.

Be sure to take the "what do you know about Fidel" quiz.

going on the road

2007-06-05T11:44:00.000-04:00

I'm heading out, probably tomorrow, for 3-4 weeks on the road to archives. Here's where I'll be:

Earlham College in Richmond, IN -- collection of Quaker missionary materials
Emory University in Atlanta -- has the records of a Methodist bishop who was involved in missions to Cuba
Episcopalian Archives in Austin, TX -- has a bunch of missionary records
UT-Austin Center for American History -- has three collections of papers of soldiers who participated in the occupation of Cuba

I'm staying with my brother and sister-in-law while researching at Earlham, and I'm hoping to visit Brian R. and his family in Birmingham on my way from Atlanta to Austin. Plus, I'll get to hang out with Stacy in Austin, and have a research buddy! Then, on my way back to DC, I'll visit my parents in St Louis.

Also, my secret hope for this trip is that somewhere on the road a stray puppy will find me and need a new home. One cannot abandon a needy puppy. I also hope to eat a lot of ice cream. Other suggestions are welcome.

Note-taking programs, and other random software, for Macs

2007-06-03T14:14:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some research on note-taking programs for Macs. I decided on SOHO Notes, but others might like something else (especially considering that once my 30-day trial is up, it will cost me $40). Many of these ideas came from Allison's blog.
VoodooPad
NoteTaker
Mori

I also use Zotero for keeping track of references, inserting footnotes, and creating bibliographies. It's free!

Also found a few other interesting software possibilities for other jobs, which I like the idea of playing around with. But realistically, I will never use them.
RapidWeaver -- for creating websites
Sente -- for keeping track of new journal articles, etc. in your field. I might use this someday
VersionTracker -- for keeping updated on, um, updates to your software
PDFShrink -- for making PDF files smaller. I have my own probably inefficient system for this
SuperDuper! -- for backing up. I really should use this
OmniOutliner -- I have several friends who swear by this
DevonThink -- I don't really know what this is; it seems to be a database, but from the way they talk about it on the website you'd think it's one of those better-than-human cyborgs or something. pretty funny.
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