Okay, so I intended to post the article I wrote for the Prolific Reporter on our trip to NOLA today, but my laptop (and article) is at school, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. In the mean time, I found a video that Nick and I saw at the Telluride Film Festival a few months ago. It’s short and it’s brilliant. Definitely a keeper.
Every time I see amateur campaign videos, I’m thankful for technology like computers and the internet. Here’s the latest campaign roundup, good for a laugh or two.
Hillary Clinton
Eisenhower never had songs like this one:
This is what happens when Hillary meets The Beatles:
For the James Bond fans out there:
This isn’t a music video, but it’s a funny remix of Jack Nicholson’s campaign video on behalf of Hillary Clinton:
Barack Obama
If girls can endorse Hillary, guys can endorse Obama:
I was really digging the lyrics, then the harmonica player put me in stitches:
Tom Willett (aka Featureman) has done an entire collection of campaign videos with a nod to Johnny Cash. Here’s one for Obama:
If a dance beat is more your thing, close your eyes and rock out to this one. (I almost didn’t post it, but I couldn’t help bobbing in my chair the longer it played.)
Let’s not forget the kids; never mind old piranha, woolly mammoth, or iguana. Obama, Obama - we got the mo mamma!
John McCain
Another favorite from Featureman:
McCain (a parody of Clapton’s Cocaine):
Bomb bomb bomb...bomb bomb Iran...you got me hidin’ in my bunker cryin’ for my children...bomb Iran:
Rainin’ McCain (honestly if this is the best his supporters can do, he’s gonna lose the election):
Runners Up
Okay, so Huckabee’s not in the race anymore, but somehow I missed this one in the first go round. If you like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, you’ll go a little Wierd Al over this one:
Then there’s one for Ron Paul. He’s still in the race, right?!
What do sex offenders, enchilada sauce and plungers have in common? They are the subject matters of my three most important revelations this weekend.
Revelation #1
On Saturday we got a notice from the Kirkland Police Department informing us that a Level II sex offender would be moving onto our street soon. I didn’t think much of it at first, until our neighbor, Josh, stopped to talk to us about it. He’s concerned because this person was convicted of raping a child, and he has two daughters and a wife who are home by themselves most of the day. Unless the sex offender is moving into a condo at the end of the street, he will move into the house next door (which recently sold) and become our neighbor.
Now, admittedly, I’m not too concerned about borrowing a cup of sugar from this guy until I’ve had a chance to meet him. At the same time, this is the proverbial straw that lead me to my revelation: we truly live in ghetto Kirkland. Between all the recent police activity at the rental across the street, our own two break-ins, and now a convicted felon moving in...I can’t see how it could get much worse.
Revelation #2
This isn’t nearly as profound as revelation #1, but important nonetheless. I was bumming on my dinner options this evening - basically leftover Cock-a-Leekie. It was bland last night, and I knew another day wouldn’t improve it much. While I was staring in the fridge for something else to eat, my solution presented itself. Homemade tomatillo enchilada sauce! Why the heck not? I put some in carrot soup earlier this week, how bad could it be with flavorless Scottish stew? I stirred a bit into the soup while it was heating and PRESTO! it turned blah into brilliant.
As I was munching on dinner, I had revelation #2: tomatillo enchilada sauce makes everything better. Thank you tomatillo enchilada sauce!
Revelation #3
Did you know that a plunger is a useful tool for unclogging sinks as well as toilets? I sure as heck didn’t until this afternoon. When I woke up this morning, I noticed that there was a bunch of gunk in the sink. I didn’t think too much of it until later when I tried to run the water for washing dishes. The sink started to fill up and running the disposal did nothing but swirl the water and add ground up potato peelings to the sink soup. I was going to wait until Nick got home and ask him what’s up with the sink. Feeling the need to procrastinate a little longer before diving into my Torts reading, though, I did a quick internet search to see what alternatives there might be to chemical drain cleaners.
This is the point where I stand up and shout “thank you Google!” for helping me discover that a plunger (the cup style, not the flange style used in toilets) can unclog a sink. We happened to have one, so off to the kitchen I went. My first plunge didn’t produce any results - the rubber cup just suctioned to the sink bottom. Neither did my second. A little more water and about 10 vigorous plunges later the sink was fixed. I can’t believe at 32 years old, that this is the first time I’ve ever used a plunger on the sink. Won’t Nick be so proud of me when he gets home today!
A quick side note...if you’re going to try this on your bathroom sink, make sure you’ve taped over the sink overflow and removed the drain stopper.
After hours of prep work, I finally did the spring planting for our kitchen garden. The hardest part was building a retaining wall out of “one woman” rocks. Keith gave me about half the rocks I needed and a quick trip to Alpine Rockery filled in the holes. All in all, I used about 1,000 pounds of rock for the wall. I must have lifted each stone about 5 times before it settled in its permanent home (once to put it in the car, once to carry it from the car to the garden, and at least three times to put it in the right spot). My arms are quivering just thinking about it.
This year we planted Quinault strawberries, which will hopefully last for many years to come. I also planted four varieties of tomato: Sweet 100, Sun Gold, Cascade Early, and Black Plum. We’re trying peas and radishes from seed. (The trick will be to keep the cats from digging up the seeds.) And if that weren’t enough, I dropped in a thyme and sage plant for fun.
I’m trying a new tomato technique this year. I have it on good authority that burying 80% or so of the transplanted tomato (up to the top leaves) will help the plant sprout lots of roots and grow up big and strong. So far so good, although the tomatoes look very small compared to their potted stature. I will also be plucking any flowers I see until the plant is about a foot tall. This is so the plant does not devote energy to forming fruit before its roots and foliage have filled out. Nick has assured me that he will water the tomatoes religiously while I’m in Olympia this summer, so we should have a great crop!
Okay, so maybe I have time to post meaningless YouTube vids after all. This has absolutely nothing to do anything important really, but it’s cool as shit. As someone who’s just interested in things, it is kind of awe-inspiring. Makes me want to go watch Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” while drinking cosmos.