Crusty retired. Long live Cream Puff (suggestion of my oldest son for some strang reason! I am still wondering where he came up with that.) Its retribution for my rather odd son terms of endearment, like Peanut Buttkins and Pumpkin Butt hehe. Be sure to look for two tall turkeys with me around Thanksgiving.

I think of Halloween as my day for doing penance for long ago mistakes. I was the great trickster of Halloween. If people weren't home, I put dog poop in their mailboxes in the slit in the door. Not nice. Got lots of bad karma to work on for that one!

I did another penance today for past snottiness (and booger comments). This one cost me $25.00. Wild Women Don't Get the Blues and they support their WSP! Does this mean I get to swing upside down in the trees in Sylvester Park? Who's spotting? Please make sure you have a good back. I checked and I'm up to 115! I am so glad I don't have to train anyone in martial arts. I'll get in shape brake (break?) dancing on the grass with Jack Frost instead! Did everyone see the lawn this morning? It was like waking up to a fairyland!

I have to go get over the Halloween blues and yuck it up to some real ones.

I have some humor to preview here as well as some essays I need comments on!

If you need any antidefamation posters with Kiss Me on the back, let's just hang a  sign from my dog's tail OK?

Christie Cream Puff (my favorite dessert, hint hint, after donuts, and I HATE chocolate, hold the eclairs!)

US Senator Maria Cantwell's Tacoma office, with children's shoes, symbolic of Iraqi children who have died as a result of the invasion and occupation


Children's shoes arrayed in front of the US Court House, Tacoma WA


Shoes, tagged with the names and ages of Iraqi Children who have died as a result of war in Iraq

Link to more photos from today's demonstration: http://new.photos.yahoo...

From the BBC website:

In biblical times they said "turn your swords into ploughshares", now in northern Ethiopia a tradesman is bringing the saying into the 21st Century.

In his workshop in Mekele, just 120 km from Ethiopia's border with Eritrea, Azmeraw Zeleke is turning burnt-out shells into cylinders used in coffee machines.

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 The more people come up with different ways of looking at things the better solutions we will come up for this world.  So much of the time we will look at a problem or situation and make it far more complex than it should be.  Sometimes the solutions are so simple that they really are right under your feet

My housing uncertainty of October has neatly resolved itself just in time, hurrah! Thank you everyone who offered help.

I can report that it is true: there is more paperwork required out there, for most everything. A worker at one agency told me that their new forms are so badly laid out and confusing, that universally clients are filling them out incorrectly, even folks like me who can wrestle paperwork to the ground with one hand tied behind their back. The workers know that the forms suck, they know that about 80% of what they are getting in now is inaccurate, but they have to use these forms and they have to call each and every client to double check anything that is hinky.

OLYMPIA — Faculty members at The Evergreen State College have voted to form a union, the fourth at a four-year college in the state.

About 82 percent of those eligible, full-time professors who teach at least eight credits and instructors who teach classes at any of Evergreen's campuses, mailed in ballots during the three-week voting period and the tally was 55 percent yes, film professor and United Faculty organizer Laurie Meeker said Tuesday.

Marvin Schurke, executive director of the Public Employees Relations Commission, said the tally was 113 to 91 with 15 ballots in dispute and uncounted.

"We're legal, we're certified and we're looking to move forward with all our colleagues to form a strong union", Meeker said.

The Seattle Times

So The Seattle Times has a story in today's newspaper about a Fantasy Congress league internet site.  It seems kind've amusing, and something that can be checked on sporadically without requiring too much time.  I took the liberty of signing up for a league called OlyBlog, so if anyone is interested in trying this out, the password for joining this exclusive group is: olympia.  Cryptic, I know.

People around the world are now officially engaged in writing their hearts and brains and everything else out for the entire month of November. So brave are they, dedicated and diligent. Why, some would even say they are absolutely insane.

Each writer is dedicated to the challenge: 50,000-word novel in a month. Good, bad, indifferent.....the writing quality does not matter. This is all about cranking out the quantity. Which is quite a sneaky way to promote a certain truth about creativity: Do whatever it is, lots of it, rather than try to pre-edit before even putting pen to paper or brush to canvas.

Our own OlyBloggers are takin' one for the team. How can we support them? With constant prodding, questions, cheery obnoxious motivational speeches, stares of amazement, loans of laptops, lots of coffee and snacks, along with uproarious laughter. Be someone they can complain to, listen as they can talk through their mad dream of a plotless ode within a novel to starfish, hold their hands, and prevent them from nodding off over the keyboard.

The NaNoWriMo Oly Cheerleading Squad is now in operation.

UK Government Report released 10/30/06

United Kingdom: Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change (.pdf)