Only a crazy person would...

...move office and home within 36 hours of each other.

...move into a new apartment on the snowiest day of the winter (at least a foot of snow, plus a little bit of sleet added in for good measure; I really couldn't tell you the measurements, but it was a lot).

...ok, so this might just be unlucky, but only an unlucky person would have the U-Haul company lose their reservation, causing them to give us a smaller truck, causing us to have to make two trips. In said snow.

...follow a friend driving a Honda S2000 w/ summer tires in snow, watching him drive sideways the entire distance (a few miles).

...stay up until all hours of the night both Saturday and Sunday, just to get rid of the overwhelming number of boxes.

...get a sore throat.

...skip an orchestra concert because of a sore throat.

...go to IKEA for the first time.

...be the recipient of a drive-by witnessing (as I'm calling it) from a couple of Mormans in a Target parking lot on a Sunday night. (I am not making that up. Really? You're cruising the Target parking lots now, and you can't get out of your car? And you're still wearing the ties and suits?)

...steal a parking spot that someone else already dug out, thereby blocking three more "free" parking spots (that were impossible to get to due to snowplow banks; thought I might call that mean wily and survival of the fittest instead of plain ol' "crazy".)

...take a job that on the first day, a committee meeting is called to start at 6:30pm. (The good news is that the street *might* be plowed or half-plowed by the time I get home this evening.)

Craig Westover Strikes Again

So, the MN Legislature has been debating per diem for a lil' while now, and the debating was rather heated in the Senate about a $30 per day increase. In response to the increase, Mr. Westover has an hilarious take on the situation and calls on Minnesotans to Adopt a State Senator.

Like most Minnesotans, I have lain awake nights tossing and turning over the plight of our state senators who suffer under the burden of an expense allowance of but $66 a day. How would you like to feed yourself on just $66 a day? And now, like Oliver Twist asking for a little more gruel, our senators humbly beg for a 45 percent increase to $96 a day, and some would deny it.

"What an ungrateful wretch I am," I think while staring at the ceiling. I shudder at the thought of what a mess I might make of my life were it not for those dedicated souls in the state Senate looking out for my welfare. And what, pray tell, have I done to thank them? Not a damn thing other than to have packed my lunch and provided my labor to help create the wealth necessary to support their good works. That is not enough.

Therefore, I am initiating an "Adopt a State Senator" campaign...

Continue reading it here.

I'm moving on up by moving on down.

As if my life weren't crazy enough...

I am not only moving house, but also office. That's right: I have a new job. At least it's still with the Senate, so I'll only be moving a short distance (my office will be downstairs from where I am now), but it's a great opportunity in our caucus research department (hence, the upward movement), and I'm very excited about it. Effective Monday, I will be the researcher for the committee nearest and dearest to my heart: Judiciary.

See you when session ends. But I hope before then.

Uncle Harm

Harm Nienoord, married to my father's oldest sister, Ione, passed away on Wednesday, February 14th. Many members of my family are travelling to Michigan for the funeral, including my parents. Please pray for them that they have safe travels.

My uncle was a believer, and I am grateful for that and for his testimony to our family all these years. Just this last week in Bible study, we were studying Paul's message to the Philippians, and what death was to him: to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21). How comforting to know that my uncle believed that to die is to be with Christ, which Paul tells us is "far better" (Phil. 1:23).

Grand Rapids Press, February 16, 2007

Mr. Harm Nienoord, Jr., aged 88, of Kentwood, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday, February 14, 2007, and went to be with his Lord. Harm retired from John Deere in Waterloo, IA, after 23 years of service. He was preceded in death by three brothers and six sisters. Surviving are his wife of 63 years, Ione; his children, Joanne (Larry) Sonksen, Sue (Ken) Zylstra; grandchildren, Kendall (Whitney) Zylstra, Kevin (Mary) Zylstra, Michael (Wendy) Zylstra, Andrea (Michael) Reiffer, Derek Sonksen, Kirsten (Milo) Bonnin, Keri Zylstra, Chad (Michelle) Sonksen; 14 great-grandchildren; sisters, Minnie Lerum, Viola Schweertman; sister-in-law, Jean Nienoord; seven brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law; several nieces and nephews. The Funeral Service will be held 2:00 p.m. Saturday, February 17, at Covenant Christian Reformed Church, 7171 Willard SE, with Rev. Calvin VanderMeyden officiating. Interment in Blain Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be given to Mel Trotter Ministries. The family will meet with relatives and friends on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home and Saturday before the service at the church from 1 to 2 p.m.

I've always wanted more body in my hair...

...but I'd prefer the cause of said body in hair not be from static electricity.

St. Paul Girl No Longer

The rumors you've heard are not much exaggerated. I am leaving St. Paul. To be sure, I'm only going down the road, but the rivalry between Minneapolis and St. Paul continues. At the end of this month, I am leaving the slower, historically character-filled St. Paul (and the five minute commute) for its fraternal twin, the faster-paced, modern Minneapolis (with a slightly longer commute and more headaches during rush hour traffic). I will be saying goodbye to the high(-ish)rise building in which I now live with its great view of downtown St. Paul and the Capitol, and hello to an historic brownstone in a very trendy area of Minneapolis.

I am excited about the move, but I am not looking forward to packing up my stuff (blech). Wish me luck.

When it's cold and snowy outside...

...a girl just wants to stay in by a warm fire with a good book. I have no fireplace, so I guess I'm stuck with a candle. Close enough.

What I read last week:

What I'm going to read this week (finally!):

Don't forget the wind chills.

60°F above zero: Arizonians turn on the heat. People in Minnesota plant gardens.
50° above zero: Californians shiver uncontrollably. People in Winona sunbathe.
40° above zero: Italian & English cars won't start. People in Minnesota drive with the windows down.
32° above zero: Distilled water freezes. The water in Rochester gets thicker.
20° above zero: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats. People in Minnesota throw on a flannel shirt.
15° above zero: New York landlords finally turn up the heat. People in Minnesota have the last cookout before it gets cold.
Zero°: People in Miami all die. Minnesotans close the windows.
10° below zero: Californians fly away to Mexico. People in Minnesota get out their winter coats.
25° below zero: Hollywood disintegrates. The Girl Scouts in Minnesota are selling cookies door to door.
40° below zero: Washington DC runs out of hot air. People in Minnesota let the dogs sleep indoors.
100° below zero: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Minnesota gets upset because they can't start the Mini-Van.
460° below zero: ALL atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale.) Hell freezes over. Minnesota public schools will open 2 hours late.

Global warming? So THAT'S what this is...

Remember this old post about global warming? Yeah, I specifically had to go look it up again because of the cold we're experiencing here in Minny these days. I found it extremely interesting this morning that the Strib's front page top two stories are rather conflicting. One is entitled "Icebox Weekend Ahead" and the other is "Climate report: centuries of warming ahead". huh?

The temperature is currently -7° as I write this, and we're not expected to get above 0° until Tuesday. (That's 0° F for you non-Americans. Don't expect me to change it into Celsius. I can't ever remember how to convert it.) I don't even want to know what the wind chill is, but I believe it's somewhere in the -20's.

I'm supposed to walk in the St. Paul Winter Carnival's Torchlight Parade tomorrow evening with the MN Boat Club, but they're talking about cancelling the entire parade due to extreme weather. Granted, I don't want to walk around and freeze my extremities if it's going to be that frigid, but I do see the irony in cancelling a winter carnival event because of cold temperatures.