Patia Stephens :: Missoula, Montana

Through the cracks

For Poetry Thursday ...

I shot this old storefront window in Butte. In addition to marvelous poetry, the installation contained wild string art that webbed across the storefront at least 20 feet into the depths of the otherwise abandoned space. See a couple more pictures here and here.

Bravo to whoever created this fascinating space.

Shame on you, Sen. Burns

Dear MoveOn member,

Your senator, Conrad Burns, was the deciding vote AGAINST Internet freedom during a key vote yesterday in the Senate Commerce Committee.

The committee voted 11 to 11 on the Snowe/Dorgan proposal to preserve Net Neutrality -- one vote shy of passage. Your senator voted to let companies like AT&T put tollbooths on the Internet and gain more control over what you see and do online. The fight to preserve the free and open Internet now moves to the full Senate.

Please call Sen. Burns today and say "shame on you" for opposing the Snowe-Dorgan Internet freedom proposal. Tell him to oppose any bill in the full Senate that doesn't protect Net Neutrality. Here is the number:

Senator Conrad Burns
Phone: 202-224-2644

Senator Burns took $162,600 in contributions this election cycle from big telecommunications companies, according to www.opensecrets.org, and then sided with them in yesterday's vote.

Senators who voted yesterday had a clear choice between siding with big money or siding with their constitutents. While 1 million everyday people petitioned Congress to save Net Neutrality, big telecommunications companies like AT&T gave nearly 1 million dollars in campaign contributions to members of the Senate Commerce Committee this election cycle. Politicians need to be held accountable for making the wrong choice.

How Net Neutrality affects you

From MoveOn.org ('cause I'm too lazy to write it myself).

Introducing my new smile ...

What a long, strange trip it's been

Today is my last day in braces. I go in for de-bracing tomorrow morning. Excited is an understatement. I've been looking forward to this day for 21 months. Longer, really, if you consider that I've wanted straight teeth since I was a kid.

My friend Susan is on her way down from the Flathead to help me celebrate -- and take pictures! I will post some shots of my new smile as soon as I'm able to.

A few things I won't miss: picking half my meal out of my braces, wires and brackets rubbing my flesh raw, spending 20 minutes threading floss between each tooth, accidentally spitting on people, and looking like an overgrown tween.

At this time tomorrow, I hope to be able to say it's all been worth it.

Here's a look back at my journey through posts in roughly chronological order. I thought it might be helpful for a friend who is having the same procedure in September, and anyone else who comes along looking for information about adult orthodontics and orthognathic surgery.

Barbed Wire Series #9

Too busy for blogging, but here's some eye candy to tide you over ....

My mutant twin

Via Sharon at Watermark, these are my (remarkably apt) results from a quiz, Mutatis Mutandis. The quiz appears to be mainly a clever gimmick for an upcoming novel, but is nonetheless strangely compelling. Emphasis on strangely.

Sunday morning

'Cause I know y'all are probably getting tired of looking at my feet.

Friday foot worship

I've written a guest review of Avon Nailwear nail enamel -- and an unabashed paean to my feet -- at one of my favorite blogs, Beauty Dish. Birdie is simply one of the coolest bloggers in the universe, not to mention the most unconventional Avon lady you'll ever meet. Go say hello.

101 Things About Me (a work in progress)

I've just updated my About Me page with an incomplete list of 101 Things. I don't know where the "101 Things About Me" concept started, but it appears to have become a trend among bloggers, and anyway, I rather like the idea.

I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to read the whole thing, so here are a few highlights:

20. People who know me well forget that I am shy.
24. I do not own an umbrella.
46. My dream trip is to follow the path of Western Civilization, like my art history textbook: Egypt to the Mediterranean islands to Greece to Rome to Europe ....
51. I am not an aggressive driver. Just a very assertive one.
74. I am surprisingly strong.

Fixed!

My site is now working again in Internet Explorer, thanks to the kind folk at css-discuss.org. Turns out it wasn't a "float bug," it was a "code bug." In other words, operator error. I had an unneccessary quotation mark in my code. Duh.

Oh well. They also gently pointed out that my code is a mess. Which I actually knew, but have been too frightened (and busy) to confront. Maybe I'll try tackling it this weekend.

OK, I need help

After much futzing, I have been unable to fix my site's Internet Explorer display problem. I'm frustrated because I think I have dealt with this before, but I can't think of how I fixed it (or how I broke it again).

I'm pretty sure it's one of IE's notorious float bugs, but I have gone over my (admittedly messy) style sheet with a fine-tooth comb to no avail. It's probably something simple that I'm just too CSS-inept to figure out.

Also, since I'm on a Mac at home, and the problem only occurs on a PC, I need someone who has IE and a PC to tell me if what I'm doing makes a difference.

Any code wizards out there want to give me a hand?

Update: Dang, now my comments have quit working. Let's see if re-publishing helps ...

Turns out I have rocks in my head

Actually, we all have rocks in our head, but mine may have come loose, or something. Yes, it's true -- apparently there are some sort of crystals floating around in our eardrums that, when disrupted, can cause vertigo. That's one possible explanation for my dizziness, according to the doctor I visited today.

Another possibility is that I'm in the early stages of an ear infection.

Or, possibly, I'm just a head case.

Anyway, I'm now on a heavy-duty antihistamine/anti-vertigo drug. Hopefully this lovely rocking will soon subside.

Trivia: In another life, years ago, I spent a lot of time on boats, even living on one for a short period. Between the rocking of the boat and the lapping water sounds against the hull, I slept better then than I ever have before or since.

Site problems

A watchful reader just alerted me that my site is no longer working correctly in Internet Explorer. It may take me a while to fix it. Stay tuned.

Sunday bits and pieces

Luna playing cat and mouse ... with deer!

Here's Luna this afternoon, playing cat and mouse ... with deer!

~

I saw my first fawn of the season today. Too far away for a picture, but it looked brand-new on its little bendy legs.

~

I've spent the better part of the day futzing with my site design. Lost the "Creative Communication," changing the site name to simply "Patia Stephens, Missoula, Montana." Changed the blog name from "Montana Musings" to its former subtitle, "A Drivel Runs Through It." Changed colors and fonts a bit. Updated the Links and Writing pages.

Please tell me if anything doesn't work for you.

~

I'm still dizzy. (Hey! No dizzy brunette jokes!) Maybe because my Benadryl expired over a year ago?

~

Having seen skunks trundling about at dusk the past two evenings, I'm pretty sure that's what moved in under the old chicken coop.

Dizzy is as dizzy does

I have no idea what that headline means, but it sounds good, don't you think?

I have been feeling dizzy since Tuesday or Wednesday. It's just mild dizziness, as if I'm on a boat. Swaaaaay, rockkkk, swaaaay. And Thursday when I went to give blood, they wouldn't let me because, it turned out, I was running a temperature (99.8). I felt fine, though, aside from the dizziness and the fact that I'd had to endure a fingerstick for nothing.

But this morning, as I swayed and rocked in the shower, I finally remembered that I'd had a similar bout of dizziness a few years ago. The doctor with her magic spy scope had diagnosed me as having water in my inner ear and prescribed OTC antihistamines.

So I started taking Benadryl this morning. Hopefully I will regain my solid footing soon.

Wild roses

It's all about meme

Made possible with support from Vanx at Verb-Ops and Barbie at Barbie2Be.

5 Items in my fridge:
1. Brita pitcher
2. Silk soy creamer
3. Bulk, organic, creamy peanut butter
4. A Costco-sized block of pecorino romano
5. Good Eggs

5 Items in my closet:
1. Clothing that makes me feel fabulous. (It's a personal rule.)
2. Two mesh folding laundry bags
3. A gigantic rolling travel duffel
4. A box full of old letters
5. The too-small neon-orange windbreaker I wear only during hikes in hunting season

5 Items in my car:
1. A United Nations flag window decal
2. A plastic bat ring (because my car's nickname is Bat Out Of Hell)
3. A brand-new road atlas from my insurance agent
4. A trash bag. Every car should have one
5. An emergency first-aid kit and reflective blanket

5 Items in my purse (or pockets if you don't carry a purse):
1. More antibacterial wipes and gels than you can shake a stick at
2. My Palm Treo 650 (combination phone, PDA, camera, alarm clock, etc., etc., etc.)
3. A large plastic tote with dividers for carrying a notepad, homework, paperwork and reading material
4. A packet of Blue Diamond wasabi almonds
5. Everything else I might possibly ever need

5 People I tag:
1. Neva, at Neva, Miss Feva, Blogging
2. Mary, at Prairie Mary
3. Nancy, at Now you listen here
4. My boss, at Switchbacks (She's gonna kill me!)
5. You

The Grayness of Place

(For Poetry Thursday)

I lie at dusk on a broad plank
under a slate envelope of sky.

A few petite raindrops patter
against my face, my bare legs.

An indecisive wind whisks
the day away from my skin

While blessed coolness wafts down
from sage- and grass-scented hills.

Less than two feet from my eyes
a bat flicks sideways, then skyward.

The heron was here again tonight;
my breath lifted up with it.

I don't believe in portents but
a river bird in this dry place?

Perhaps, like me, it is only
on its way to someplace else.

Cheap to good home

iMac 4 Sale ~ Best Offer!

Indigo G3 iMac
20GB hard drive
512MB RAM
OS 10.1
Includes instruction manuals, system CDs, keyboard and
Kensington mouse w/retractable cord.
Very good condition.

I would like to sell this locally so I don't have to deal with shipping.

Planting advice needed

Well, I missed market again this morning. It wasn't raining, but it was sort of gray and dreary, and I was more interested in coffee than bedding plants, apparently.

Hmmmm. What should I put in my flower barrels this summer?

They must be deer-resistant, earwig-resistant and patia-resistant. (I tend to be a little feast or famine about watering.) The location gets mostly morning and some mid-day sun.

Rain, rain go away

Come again some other day.

Please please please let the weather be decent for farmer's market in the morning. I really need to go native plant shopping and it's rained the past few Saturday mornings.

Not posting much lately. Just haven't been in the mood.

Eh. Whatever.

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