Zafu

I found this site zafu.com that recommends jeans for you, depending on waist definition, thigh size and caboose prominence. I own a pair of jeans that they say would fit me well, and they do indeed, so I'm curious about how the best fit ones will do. I might be able to find some of the jeans at a non-mall store near me, so next time I need to get out of the house and not deal with crowds, I might check them out.

Hells yeah!

I wear a strange bra size, so when I find bras in my size, it's a banner day. It's even more of a banner day when I find a Chantelle bra and a Wacoal bra *on sale* in my size. Although the saleslady seemed surprised that I owned bras from Chantelle and Wacoal already. She must not have looked at my size, else she would have realized that I can't buy bras from most places. Of course, when 80% of women wear the wrong bra size, I guess it's not as surprising.

In other good news, my paper got submitted last Sunday. It was nice. I hadn't submitted a paper in too long. Makes me think that I might actually graduate at some point. :)

where's the beef?

I like to think I'm well-informed, so, when I read from multiple sources that much of the food at conventional grocery store is from an industrial farm, I'll believe them. But what I don't understand is where all the milk and beef and corn from the farms I see both here in the Midwest and back at home goes. I've never seen a big factory beef farm, but I have seen lots of cows munching away on grass or their cud, doing their cow thing. Is what I see just such a small fraction of what's going on that I'm getting a sampling error? And where can I get these people's food - only at farmer's markets and co-ops and community farms? At a store, it's *hard* to find grass-fed beef, but pretty much everywhere I've ever lived, I could find a cow at pasture in less than an hour in the car. I just don't get it.

Wow

I finally caught HBO's Hacking Democracy. I didn't learn anything new, nor was it intellectually surprising (well, except for the Ohio workers saying "random" means their random) but actually seeing the hacks was startling.

Icky

Today is a lazy, icky day. It's raining with the rain slowly turning in to snow. It's in the upper 30s/ lower 40s. It's gray. It's icky. And I feel slightly icky. So I decided today is an excellent day to work from home. I think my kitten would agree.

A New Chain Specialty Grocery Store!

My town got a new Chain Specialty Grocery Store. It opened in the middle of last month, but the shoppers still have the "Ooh, we're shopping at this trendy new Chain Specialty Store" vibe. It's kind of funny. It'll be nice once people calm down and the newness wears off; I hope the crowds will thin down a bit and people will shop faster. I feel kind of bad shopping there, since I try to shop at locally-owned stores, but it has products I like and the price is right, so it leaves me kind of conflicted.

Life in the NICU

What's up with my friends and the NICU? I don't know that many married couples, much less that have had babies, but two of the couples have had babies born 6+ weeks early. It's infuriating. These are couples who had done everything "right" - good prenatal care, no alcohol/ drugs/ high-mercury fish/ cold cuts, etc. But still, two have ended up with babies in the NICU. It's disheartening. On the plus side, one of the former preemies is now a perfectly healthy 3 year old with no lingering effects, and the other just graduated from the NICU. She's still <4 lbs (do you have any idea how *tiny* a 4lb baby is?!), but she can regulate her temperature, breathe on her own, and eat without problems, which are the requirements for the baby to get out.

These feelings also combine with some guilt about me complaining - my friends and I are really sitting in a position of privilege. We have 2 NICUs in town. We have good doctors that we can afford to go to (thanks to our health insurance). The health insurance is great, so the babies' extended stays in the NICU haven't hurt the couples financially. We have access to fresh, healthy food and know enough that even on our grad student salaries, paying for it is important. We're all (over)educated. We aren't immediately cowed by our doctors. The list goes on and on...

Kitty has a new bad habit

Well, two really.

1) Sitting on my open laptop. Maybe because it's getting colder? But it seems to have gotten worse.

2) Trying human food. The people she stayed with this summer had a dog. The dog gets a Kong with peanut butter in it. I think she sampled the wares, if you will, because ever since I've been back, she's been very willing to lick my plate, bowl, knife, etc, and "clean up" if what she tastes suits her. For instance, she just finished licking out my (empty) bowl of oatmeal. She's an interesting little beasty.

I've been a bad, bad blogger

So this post will be a few updates/ musings.

1. We found out yesterday that my grandmother has Stage I lung cancer. We're worried but optimistic, since the cancer was caught early. I've been reading up on lung cancer, and it seems that her age shouldn't stop the doctors from treating the cancer aggressively. We'll see what the radiation oncologist says on Friday.

2. I was out of town last week, visiting Boy and working with the people I worked with this summer. We're trying to publish the work. We didn't get as much done last week as my advisor would have liked, but I think we'll still be okay. I hope.

3. On a completely flaky note, I enjoy watching the show Project Runway. This season, one of the contestants got kicked off for cheating - he had pattern books when they were specifically prohibited. The season's third-to-last show was a reunion show, and the producers brought the guy back. The hosts asked the cheater if he thought the result was fair. He said no since he didn't like the outcome. That statement has really gotten to me - he clearly doesn't understand
that's there a difference between what is fair and what you like, and I fear that he's one of many in our society who doesn't understand the distinction either. I really wanted the hosts to clarify the point for him, but if they did, it wasn't shown.