On presidential politics

Yesterday, John Edwards dropped out of the Democratic race for president. I tried to find a good story to link to about that, but then I figured that if you care, you already read it; if you don't, really all you need to know is that he dropped out.

I have a political science minor and a degree in rhetoric, so I've always been a sucker for presidential politics, which to me are the most interesting kind. And this year, I think the presidential race has finally gotten really, really interesting.

My personal policy is that I don't start paying real attention to the candidates until the primaries are far enough along that all the joke candidates have dropped out. My time is precious, and I do not want to waste it cutting through the clutter of Sam Brownback to find out about John McCain, for example. (The Democratic version of that would be, "cutting through the clutter of Chris Dodd to find out about Barack Obama.")

But now...the Democratic race is down to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and the Republican race (despite the best efforts of Chuck Norris) is pretty much down to John McCain and Mitt Romney. What I find so incredibly wonderful about this is that there WILL BE a woman or an African-American major-party nominee for president this year. And I really think either of them has a good shot at winning. It's hard to explain, but I feel like we're living history right now; someday, my daughter is going to ask me about this very moment in time when she has to write a history report on the 2008 presidential election.

Personally, I'm pulling for an Obama v. McCain campaign, for several reasons. One, I think they are both sort of "Washington outsiders" - Obama because he hasn't worked there very long, and McCain because he chose to be. I think they're both intelligent and dedicated (can't say that about every nominee in my lifetime!), and I would LOVE to see them debate. The contrast of older maverick and younger upstart is really intriguing - there would be real, tangible differences between the candidates. And most of all, right now at least (I do need to do some more research), I feel like the country would not be totally messed up if either of them won.

Don't get me started on Mitt Romney, though. Wow. I want to be clear that it doesn't concern me that he's Mormon. I mean, I don't actually care...whatever religion you are is up to you. But it does concern me that he's...maybe "out of touch" is the nicest thing to say here. If you haven't seen him "relating to the people," well...



I'm just saying...Obama and McCain would make for a really fascinating election. Mitt Romney as the Republican nominee would just sort of make me...sad. (Or happy that the Democrats would have a great chance of actually winning...)

Last night of freedom

A funny thing has happened: I forgot to get nervous about going back to school. I start back tomorrow and I've hardly thought about it. It occurred to me last week that I should do something about getting my books (I ordered them on Amazon...the deal was good, but I'm not entirely sure I got the right textbooks. Guess I'll find out soon) and then it occurred to me yesterday that I probably needed to buy some new folders and stuff.

What happened to the freak-out girl from August/early September? I guess making it through the first term with some success means a lot.

This semester I'm taking a night class (6:30-9:00) every Monday and another 5 1/2-hour marathon class every other Saturday. In the twisted logic of my brain, I've decided this has the potential to actually feel like less work than last semester. I'm probably wrong about that, but I'm going to try to keep up the delusion for as long as possible. I am keeping positive by reminding myself that, after this semester, I will be 1/3 done with my graduate degree. That's pretty exciting. :)

So hopefully class will go well, I won't experience too much guilt about being away from home every single Monday, and the professor (I have the same one for both classes) will be good. And I'm really happy I'm not giving up every Saturday this semester. That was pretty brutal last semester.

Wish me luck on my first day back!

A is for Awesome Acura

YOU CAN TALK TO MY CAR!

Brock went out to set up my hands-free/Bluetooth capability in the car this evening, since it got above 30 here and felt quite nice outside. So he called me from inside my car in the garage, telling me that my car was awesome and I had to come outside.

So I did...and it turns out the car recognizes a bunch of voice commands. You can practically have a conversation with it. At the very least, you can order it around, which is pretty fabulous.

Remember how I said it was kind of awkward for me to reach the rear defroster button? Nevermind now...I'll just say, "Rear defroster on" and the car will turn it on for me. Who needs a stupid button, anyway?

I am upgrading my overall rating to 9.8/10.

What a crock of chili!

I know that there are a million recipes for chili, and that many of them are for crock pots, and that what I'm about to put here is not an earth-shattering culinary achievement. But it was our first attempt at using our (seven-year-old, wedding present) crock pot to make chili, and it turned out to be quite delicious so I thought I'd share.

Crock Pot Chili
(A modified version of a recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook)

1.5 lbs. ground beef
2 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
Two 14.5-oz. cans diced tomatoes, undrained
One 15-oz. can tomato sauce
One 15-oz. can whole kernel sweet corn, drained
4 or 5 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cook ground beef, onion, bell pepper and garlic in a large skillet or Dutch oven until ground beef is completely browned. Drain. Combine the ground beef mixture and everything else in the crock pot. Set to low and cook for 8 to 10 hours. Enjoy the fact that when you come home from work, it smells like someone has been cooking for you. Top with more raw chopped onion, sour cream, shredded cheese and oyster crackers if desired. Yum!

Note: I put in corn because my friend at work did this for a potluck lunch, and it was really good. Also, we are not big fans of beans in chili. But if you want to use beans, the original recipe just said to use two cans of drained kidney beans. The original recipe also did not have cumin in it, but I just like the flavor of cumin so I went for it.

Review of Acura RDX

I was inspired by Brock's review of Assassin's Creed to actually try to use my blog to convey something that might be useful. :) Since we just bought a new Acura RDX about three weeks ago, I thought I would provide some insight on this car.

First, let me say that this is my first foreign car. I refer to myself as "GM spawn" in that I am from a GM family - Dad's retired from the factory, Mom works at a GM dealership. I've only ever had Chevys. I had to work very hard to get over my GM bias to even think about buying an Acura. It helps that it looks cool and has tons of great features. Also, this model is built in Ohio; thus, I am calling it my Japanese-American car. It eases some of the genetically encoded guilt.

Anyway, on with the review. The model we bought is the 2008 Acura RDX with Technology Package, so everything I'm about to say is based on that.

What I LOVE:

• The headlights. If you said, "Hey, nice headlights" to me as I was driving my Acura RDX, I wouldn't be offended as long as you were talking about the ones on the car. They are Xenon High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights, and they rock. The beam focus is really tight, so that when you turn on the headlights you can see a perfectly straight line of light ahead of you. I don't have great night vision (bad eyes to begin with, plus contacts give all the lights that "halo effect") and I can see much, much better with these lights than any other headlights I've ever had. I am more comfortable driving at night because of them.
• The navigation system. I have a bad sense of direction. Actually, no sense of the direction. The nav system has an excellent sense of direction, and together, we make a great team. I confess I used it to find my way out of the mall parking lot one day. It's pathetic, I know, but it's great for me. Also, if you keep the subscription to XM radio after your three-month trial expires, you get updated traffic information in several major cities. Which brings me to...
• XM radio. I'm still in the free trial and I have become quickly addicted. I'm not proud of this; I always thought satellite radio seemed frivolous. But it is really nice being able to listen to actual music anytime you want, without being at the mercy of talking DJs all the time. And yes, I know I could just load up the 6-disc CD changer or plug in my iPod and listen to those instead. I didn't say it was rational.
• The rearview camera. When the car is in reverse, the nav screen shows you the view of what's right behind you, but too low to see through your back window - the scary blind spot in any SUV. This is one of the features that actually sold me on this car. I've always thought it would be so easy to hit something backing out of the driveway, because there's that spot that you absolutely can't see...without a handy rearview camera. And because lots of kids walk past our house to the school bus stop, I think this is an extra-good feature. It's also really nice when you're backing out of a parking space.
  
• The seats. Not only are they leather, which is just nice, but they are heated and they're designed so they kind of cradle you on all sides. It's hard to explain, but they're really the most comfortable car seats I've ever sat in.
• The driver controls. Okay, you can run quite a lot of this car from the steering wheel. I couldn't do that with my old car. So not only can I deal with cruise control, but I can change the radio station and adjust the volume, and flip through one of my favorite features, which is...
• The driver information center. This car will tell you, right on the dash, if your tire pressure is okay, how many miles per gallon you're getting, what your average speed is, how long you've been driving, how much power is allocated to each of the wheels (it's got all-wheel drive) and more. It is so cool. Just having the car tell you a tire is low is such a fantastic idea. I think it will also tell you when your car is due for service...or maybe that comes through the nav screen. I'm not sure, but this car is smart.
• The safety ratings. The Acura RDX has scored the highest in just about every safety test. I really, really like that.
  

What I Don't Love, but Can Totally Live With:

• The console controls. There's a lot going on in the console of this car, mainly because you have to control so many things (nav system, sound system, defroster, etc.). But some of the controls are kind of hard to reach from the driver's side, like the rear-window defroster button. And maybe when I've had it longer I'll be able to more intuitively hit the buttons, but right now I find I have to sort of search for things and really look to make sure I'm hitting the right button.
• The headlights. Not the lights themselves, which we've established I LOVE. No, what I don't love is that they aren't automatic. And this is because my last car had automatic headlights, so I got completely out of the habit of turning on the lights when it was dark. I have to really think about it now to make sure I don't drive around like an annoying person with just my running lights on. This is most likely to happen in a well-lit parking lot. It's a small thing, but with a car that does SO MANY things, it seems like they could go ahead and make the headlights come on by themselves, too.
• The rear window defroster. It just doesn't seem to have enough juice, somehow. I mean, it works, but I would appreciate some faster defrosting action.
  
• The size. While I like that it's a little smaller, and shorter, than my old SUV, I do miss being up a little bit higher while I'm driving. And while the loss of cargo space vs. the old car has not yet been an issue, I still wish it had more. However, this is totally mitigated by the fact that I'm really enjoying all the benefits of driving an SUV in an easier-to-maneuver vehicle.

What I Haven't Tried:

• The hands-free phone thingy. You can set it up so you can use your cell phone through the car's sound system. This sounds very cool, but it requires reading the instruction manual and syncing up some stuff, and I just haven't had time to do that yet. Also, it's been really, really stupid-cold here lately, and who wants to sit in the garage and set everything up when it's 2 degrees?
  
• The iPod connector thingy. I just got the cable for it, so I'll have to give it a go.
• The paddle shifters. I can't imagine I will ever use these. I don't even know what they do. But they're there, so if you're into paddle shifting, this car's for you.

Random Notes:

• There aren't that many colors to choose from in this car. Mine is "Royal Blue Pearl," which is a very pretty, very dark blue. I like it a lot. But other than that, you've got red, white, black and about three variations on gray.
• I don't see a ton of these cars on the road, at least around where I live. The MDX seems to be more common, probably because it's bigger. But I actually like that because I just traded in a Chevy Equinox...and I passed about 10 of them every single day on the way to work. And if it wasn't an Equinox, it was another GM variation on the same theme, like the Pontiac Torrent or the Saturn Vue. That got kind of annoying after awhile.
• I haven't really said anything about how the car drives, but I think it drives very nicely. And Brock had to drive it back from Indiana in blowing snow the weekend after we got it, and he said it handled fine in those conditions. It's a 4-cylinder "turbocharged" engine; I think I would still prefer a 6-cylinder, but it seems to have plenty of power. I mean, I only drive around the suburbs, anyway.
  

Overall Rating:
9.5/10

I really love my new car. :)

I'm over it

For those of you concerned about my mental and emotional well-being after the Colts' ridiculous loss to the Chargers yesterday, worry not - I'm over it. This is because I knew in the 3rd quarter that they were going to lose, so I had the whole rest of the game to get used to the disappointment. The precise moment I knew it was over was when the Colts "defense" allowed the Chargers to come back from a very long 3rd-down situation they'd gotten themselves into with such stupid penalties as 12 men on the field and delay of game. If your defense is going to let something like that happen, you're not going to win. Nay, you don't deserve to win. And don't even get me started on "Playoff Peyton."

Mostly, I'm just confused. I really thought the Colts were going to walk away with that game. They're good! Their defense has been good all year! Their offense has done well despite a - literally - crippling number of injuries. I don't know what happened, except that they're the Colts, and nothing they do surprises me.

So, while it might seem harsh that I wrote the Colts off in the 3rd quarter, let's all remember that they weren't really playing like a team that was going to the AFC Championship. For the whole game. Toward the end, the Charges didn't have Philip Rivers OR LaDainian Tomlinson, and the Colts defense still looked completely befuddled.

As a side note to Bob Sanders: that taunting penalty was really dumb (if you missed it, he slapped the Chargers kicker on the back after he missed a field goal). You are so much better than that!

And as a side note to Philip Rivers: I hope you are privately a nice guy, because yesterday you kind of seemed like a jerk. I know the Colts fans were ribbing you, but you seriously don't need to yell back at them. I would say the same thing if Chargers fans were giving Peyton Manning a hard time. That's one of the fans' most important jobs, after all. Also, I am annoyed that you wear my favorite number, 17. I wish you would get another number. But anyway.

However, I would like to say congratulations to Adam Viniateri for making what I believe was his longest field goal of the season. So that's something.

My coworkers were quite concerned for me today, and I appreciate that, but I'm really over it. I have a lifetime of being a Colts fan behind me, so if there's one thing I know how to deal with, it's disappointment. But I also hope they come out swinging next season! :)

Kickin' it

Today was one of those days that, if it were not against my personal policy (and all good sense) to blog about work, I would have a LOT of things to say, probably involving many words in all caps, lots of indignant exclamation points and several variations on the word "stupid."

But I don't blog about work, so you'll just have to wonder why my day was so annoying.

What all that frustration did do was remind me why I love cardio kickboxing so much, because it just so happens that Thursday is cardio kick night. Today's class coincided nicely with my exasperating day. I hadn't been to class in about a month because of Christmas parties, cavities and traveling, so I was a bit rusty...but my ability to visualize things as I'm punching and kicking the air is as razor-sharp as ever. And man, did it feel good.

Because I am a pacifist, I figure this is the best way for me to safely work out my aggression. Also, cardio kick is better for me than actual kickboxing, because I don't think I could actually kick or punch anybody, no matter how much protective gear was involved. Our instructor is really good, and she does a good job of pushing you in an encouraging sort of way. So you get a good workout AND you get to purge a lot of stress.

And in my case, I could work off the therapeutic cheese fries I had for lunch. It was just a cheese fries kind of day.

Yum

For my bridal shower many moons ago, one of the things the organizers did was have all the ladies bring recipes to put in a book for me. I confess that I got rid of a lot of them because I knew I would never, ever make them - but I won't say which ones, so if you were at my shower 7 years ago and brought a recipe, you'll never know if yours was one that didn't make the cut! Ha! But I kept a lot of them, too...it's actually a very cool idea for a bridal shower, especially when the bride (like I was then) is very young and just starting a household.

This is one that I still make fairly often, and also make for friends on occasions when the nice Midwestern girl in me knows you should "bring a covered dish" - like surgeries, or births or deaths or whatever. I just made it yesterday and I've decided I shouldn't keep it to myself any longer. Props to my friend Lisa from high school for this one:

Taco Casserole

2 c. crushed tortilla chips
1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 packet taco seasoning
8 oz. tomato sauce
8 oz. cottage cheese
8 oz. sour cream
8 oz. bag shredded cheese (cheddar-jack is really good)

Preheat oven to 350. Brown the ground beef, remove from heat and drain. Stir in onion, taco seasoning and tomato sauce. Set aside. In separate bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese. In 2 qt. casserole dish (greased or sprayed with cooking spray), layer half the chips, half the meat mixture, half the sour cream mixture and half the shredded cheese. Repeat layers. Cover and bake for about 30 minutes or until heated through.

It is SUCH good comfort food. What I especially love about it is that you can go buy all the stuff for it in the pre-packaged quantities you need, so you don't even have weird amounts of leftover ingredients. Delicious AND efficient. Yum, yum, yum.

You rock, Barack - Part 2

Barack Obama has won the Iowa caucus. Wahoo!! Go, Barack. Now I feel motivated to go back to reading your memoir rather than "I Am America (And So Can You!)" by Stephen Colbert. Such is my unique perspective on life that I asked for both books for Christmas. :)

Mike Huckabee won the Republican caucus...which is massively startling but just shows that our political process is never boring. On the news, they showed a clip from his victory speech, and his new best friend, Chuck Norris, is smiling like a kid on Christmas behind him. It was kind of cute. I wonder if they can attribute the victory to this ad?

Can't wait to see what happens in New Hampshire...

2007 was good to me

Happy New Year! I always like New Year's; it's like a little extension of the festivities of Christmas, and then it's another year and it seems okay to have to get back to work and get back to normal. The only bad thing about it is this persistent need for people to eat cabbage. According to this grocery store chain website, people eat cabbage on New Year's because cabbage leaves are a symbol of good luck. I assume they got that info somewhere, but I confess to a very quick and not too enthusiastic Google search, and it's good enough for me. However, I hate cooked cabbage passionately, so even if it is good luck, I'm not eating it. This New Year's, I had leftovers from an Italian restaurant. Mmm, yummy!

Anyway, I didn't eat any cooked cabbage in 2007 (avoiding cooked cabbage is not just a New Year's resolution; it's a goal for my entire life), and I still had a pretty great year. In fact, I loved 2007. My family stayed pretty healthy. My dad's surgery was a complete success. I went back to school. I got a new car. We got a new floor in the house (even though that killed a bunch of appliances...a down note). I had jury duty and got sequestered, which was awful, but it was also an experience that I think made me more appreciative of our judicial system and how hard that "jury of your peers" really works. (I know that last sentence was cheesy, but it's true, so too bad.) I had a good year at work. My daughter is turning into a pretty fantastic person and even says please and thank you most of the time, if you remind her. My husband loves me. My cats are great. I got my thyroid medication straightened out. I did the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer AND I learned that I love cardio kickboxing, ending years of a self-imposed ban on exercise. I finally got the bedroom re-painted. Life's good.

I'm not bragging. I'm just being publicly thankful for the good year I had.

So, with all that in mind, here are some things I'm going to attempt to do in 2008. I don't think of these as resolutions. There's not a lot I want to change about my life. It's more like my proposed "to do" list for the year:

• Give more to charity. Our charity giving is pretty unstructured...I'm sure we could do more.
• As an addendum to the above, I would like to find a good place to donate Hannah's used toys. They're in great shape, and we wanted to give them to a toy drive this Christmas, but most of them only take new toys. I would rather just give them to a place or organization that could really use them than sell them...I'm open to ideas.
• Get more organized. This would not take much. I used to be organized, but that's over now. So working a little harder on organization is probably a good idea.
• Try to cook from scratch a little more often. Not always, because that's just unreasonable. My life would be infinitely more complicated without frozen chicken nuggets.
  
• Encourage more of my faraway friends to start blogs. This is the easiest way on earth to keep up with what people are doing. If all my friends from college had blogs, life would be much simpler.
• Try not to be so snarky. While sarcasm makes me who I am, it's the snarkiness that I never say that's really the problem. I guess what I'm saying is that I would like to "think nicer."
• Try to finish praying before I actually fall asleep at night. But I've been falling asleep during prayers for years and years, so I am left to simply hope the good Lord understands. Somehow, I think he probably does.
  
• Remember to use my new reusable grocery bag.
• Remember to use our new cloth napkins.
• Remember to water my plants (when it's actually summer, that is).
  
• Potty train Hannah. (This is a given. This will happen this year. Period.)
• Take another family vacation.
• Try not to freak out too much about turning 30.
• Actually join LinkedIn. I've blown off two invitations now because I'm just being lazy about it.
  
• Figure out a really great birthday or Christmas present to get for Brock. He always totally trumps me in gift-giving; maybe this is my year to come up with something really special.
• Continue not eating cabbage. Or carrots. Or haggis.
  
• Eat more dark chocolate. It's good for me!
• Enjoy the knowledge that this will, without question, be the last year we have to endure George W. Bush in office.
• Vote well in the presidential election.
• Hope others vote well in the presidential election (pssst...no Rudy, please!!)
  
• Listen, and laugh, and love...a lot. :)