100 things: 81 - 90. Define this!

I don't know how well I fit into a two-party political mold. My guess is that few people do.

81. I support women's rights.

82. I support gay rights.

83. I believe in social safety nets to help people.

84. I do not believe a social safety net equals a free ride in life. You should not get public assistance if you are not helping yourself to earn money, be healthy, or otherwise contribute to society.

85. I love how diverse this country is and how non-U.S. citizens still want to be here even though many of us citizens think it is so awful. I do think you should be able to communicate in English to get a Green Card or citizenship. Especially citizenship.

86. I would probably be considered somewhat fiscally conservative, but see #83 above. I do think that paying taxes is crucial to the country's well-being. Also, I still don't understand quite the rationale behind tax breaks = increased jobs. Anyone have a good explanation?

87. I think our troops and the sacrifices they and their families make are incredible. We owe them a lot.

88. I think a lot about what I can do personally to make where I live better - plant flowers? do something for the schools? conserve energy and water?

89. I have no problem requiring people to have health insurance. My understanding is that one problem with the health care system is uninsured people being treated in ERs and hospitals trying to recover those costs, for example. In fact, if you are on unemployment, you should automatically be enrolled in an insurance plan that is deducted from your unemployment check. That is how it works when you have a job!

90. I do not understand how it is legal for new political leaders to finagle ways to break union contracts. I have a lot of issues with my perception of how unions actually run (not the early intents of why unions happened). But, dude. Aren't contracts legally binding? If not, what's the point of having contracts?!

Hmmmm...maybe it is not so difficult to sorta pigeon-hole me into a political category. However, many of my liberal leanings come with a strong dose of people-should-be-good-people or how-do-we-make-sure-people-don't-take-advantage-of-our-system.

And I wait

I resubmitted an application for a training grant this past spring. The original reviews were generally quite positive about my research plan, and the negative comments were about either research that I have now completed or my mediocre undergraduate grades from ten years ago.

My supervisor is optimistic about the resubmission because of the new data I have and the changes in the proposed research.

I am cautiously optimistic.

The grant applications were reviewed last week, so of course I am obsessively checking the status to get the score and feedback to have an idea about whether they felt the application was improved, and hopefully fundable. Every time I log in, my stomach does a little somersault.

It would be nice to know this before I head out for a long weekend Thursday morning so I can stop worrying.

Fresh air (updated)

Update: I kept fixing the grammatical errors in the post. And then I was going to see if I could catch fireflies with my camera and discovered other photos I had taken over the weekend and added them in.

The flowers are a little behind this year, probably because of the cold spring. Check out what my yard used to look like.

Now it has been blossoming over the past couple of weeks though. These are perennials a previous tenant planted. Behind this one is some mesclun I planted.

The sunflowers I planted continue to grow! There are the two giant ones in the middle, a few smaller ones around, and then marigolds around the edge. The marigolds are blossoming now. The sunflowers got blown over a bit in the storm we had yesterday. When I got home today I put some sticks in and tied the flowers up so they will not get irreversible damaged. I want flowers!!

Over the weekend, I was quite productive. I did a few hours of work each day in my outdoor office. I did laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc. in between as breaks. The flower bed to the left is the one in this previous post too.

I had some visitors during my afternoon.

Some helped out.

Others were busy eating. Looks like you don't have to be early to get the worm!

Others hitched a ride in on my laundry doing unspeakable things (i.e. making little baby fireflies).

AND it is strawberry season. CF and I picked ~12 pounds in maybe 20 minutes. If I had space and the canning jars, I would have picked more and done some canning. Instead, I have had strawberry shortcake with homemade biscuits almost twice a day every day this week.

I proceeded to dump them on the floor. I stepped on one. Oops. I cut them all up and froze them in small batches so that they would not go bad after being bruised.

IDIOT?!

The idiot is me. I ALWAYS worry that I am going to make flight reservations wrong and triple check things. I screwed up this time though.

So instead of getting an extra day after my brother's wedding next weekend, we are flying back home at 12:30 AM on Monday and getting home on Monday instead of having the day to do stuff on Monday and getting home Tuesday morning.

Stupid red-eyes and getting all PM and AM mixed up. I am so MAD at myself right now. :-(

TMI?

I mentioned this a while ago...I would do this man in less than a heartbeat.

Sorry, CF.

Happy Friday.

P.S. This is not my picture. I do not know where I got it. I did not alter it. Etc., etc....