There are some places in the world where there is a clear changing of the seasons, where a single day can mark the end of one season and the beginning of the next. Minnesota is such a place.

As most people know, Minnesota has four seasons. They are: Mosquito, Almost Winter, Winter, and Still Winter.

We had a cold January and a mild February. The days are getting longer, we have seen the sun, and we've gotten used to whole days where the temperature is near or even above freezing. Today was sunny and, dare I say it, warm. Winter is almost over.

Thursday will herald in the new season. Forecasters are predicting six inches of snow. Two days from today we will witness a changing of the seasons. It will be...

Still Winter.

I'll take a page out of Keith Olbermann's book and give you today's Worst Person in the World.

As reported in The Age today, Danny Nalliah, senior pastor at the hopefully-no-irony-intended Catch the Fire Ministries blamed the current Australian bush fires on the legalization of abortion in the state of Victoria. According a ministry media release, "He said these bushfires have come as a result of the incendiary abortion laws". The release goes on to quote him as saying "That His conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria".

OK, first, the fires were caused by a buildup of fuel coupled with hot, dry, windy conditions exacerbated by a 12 year drought, arguably influenced by global climate change and in some cases triggered by arsonists. There is no divine intervention here.

Second, even if you accept that the circumstances leading up to the fires, many of which predate the passing of abortion laws, were none the less divine in origin (don't get me started on the free-will-denying implication), this God-loving fire-and-brimstone hack is asking to accept that the ever-loving Almighty is collectively punishing hundreds of individuals, regardless of their beliefs, for an act of the Victorian state government. Why not only the pro-abortionists? Why the whole state? God loves you, but he's going to kill you painfully because of an act parliament?

So much for a personal God, this one is more interested in state politics.

I'm sorry Mr. Nalliah, but this is sort of religion I have no tolerance for. You are Today's Worst Person In The World.

Current Mood: frustrated

As I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard, there have been some atrocious fires in Australia in the past few days, scores killed and hundreds of houses destroyed. Entire towns have been wiped off the map.

And some of these fires have been started by arsonists.

I generally don't have much patience for the eye-for-an-eye style of justice, and I support Australia's abolition of the death penalty.

That said, I think anyone found guilty of setting any of these fires that resulted in human death should be burnt at the stake.

Current Mood: pissed off

The wedding is done, and I now offically have a sister-in-law. Welcome to the family, K!

The ceremony was fantastic. Atholl Hall is located on the bay with a view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The weather was great - cloudy but not rainy, the celebrant was wonderful, and everything went smoothly. The ceremony was outside, then the wedding party ran down to the beach for photos, then back up to the hall for the reception, where as best man (it's nice to have my natural status recognized with a title) I got to make a speech. Towards the end of the reception there were even fireworks across the harbour.

So M&K are off for their honeymoon today. Mom, Dad, and dixon_green are driving down the coast to have lunch with Dad's sister, then meander their way to Melbourne. I'm in Sydney today, then I'm doing a bus tour down to Melbourne starting tomorrow and arriving Friday night. Then Sunday I fly back to the US.

Just a quick note to any Australian readers, I'm currently in Sydney for my brother's wedding. I'll be here till probably Tuesday, then slowly make my way down to Melbourne, where I believe there is an MCC concert on the Saturday which I will be attending before flying back on the Sunday.

So if anyone in either of those cities wants to say hi, grab some lunch or something, feel free drop me a line.

I own a house. Or at least 10% of one, but I still get to live there.

Not that I'm living there yet. I'm posting this from my apartment. I've scheduled the big move for August 2, though I've got until the end of August to vacate my current premises. In the meantime, I've got painting to worry about. The exterior is aluminum siding, so no worries there, but pretty much the whole interior could use some freshening up. For the moment though, I 'm only worrying about the living and dining rooms, which need it the most and would be the hardest to do after I've moved in.

The ceiling gets a new coat of white. The living room will be a two-tone textured gold, not sure about the trim yet, and the dining room will be a pale green with dark green trim. The rest of the house will probably end up being a bit more restrained, but I couldn't bring myself to do these rooms in any variety of cream or off-white.

Besides the paint, I've got almost all of the utilities sorted out, and I still need to stop by the city office to tell them I am homesteading (what a word!) the property. New locks would be a good idea, and I need to look into security systems. There is one already installed but not currently monitored, so that's a starting point at least.

So then after I move in, there's the rest of the painting to do, then sand and seal the hardwood floor upstairs. It's been covered by carpet the whole time until the carpet was taken out a couple years ago - it has never been finished! And of course the windows need reglazing and repainting.

And then there's the lawn...

And here's the really, really funny part. There are two projects at work that both need my attention and both have severe time constraints. I only have time for one of them. My boss (to be fair, somewhat reluctantly and on instructions from his boss) asked me today if I would consider working on both, essentially putting in 60-80 hour weeks in exchange for some negotiated compensation, presumably extra time off later and/or extra money. Yeah. Sure. Actually, if not for the house (and fest!) I might have considered it, so I can't blame them for asking. But as it is, it ain't happening.

So, the inspections and repairs are done and the paperwork is all lined up. Closing on the house is tomorrow.

Yeep!

I had been hoping to be able to get away without painting before I move in, but it was pretty clear at the final walk-through on Sunday that I'll at least need to paint the living and dining rooms. I'm almost rethinking my decision not to pull up carpet as well (there's a hardwood floor underneath), but I think I'll still leave that for now.

So now I have to decide on colors.

Those of you who read dixon_green's journal will already know that I have recently purchased a house. Subject to inspection, which occurs tomorrow, closing is in just over two weeks.

As I'm sure any homeowner knows, buying your first house brings a range of conflicting feelings. In my case, it is happiness that I found such a nice house, relief that I found it quickly, and sheer terror at what I have gotten myself into. It is a 1940 three bedroom, two bath, one and three quarter story house with a full basement and a detached two car garage just off Theo Wirth Park. It is in excellent condition and, subject to inspection, looks pretty much ready to move in without additional work or even painting. I may need to finish the hardwood floors in the loft, and I'll probably redo the kitchen at some point, but I can take care of all that later.

Of course, thanks to super-agent-extraordinaire Barb Kampf of Edina Realty, who is something of a legend amongst an impressively large group of friends who have worked with her, and deservedly so.

One of the things I've been contemplating now that I'll own a house is that maybe I'll finally get myself a cat or two. Which brings me to the sad news today that dixon_green had to have her fuzzy kitty put down today. Poor kitty had been unwell, and it turned out she had feline leukemia. She was so very tired, and clearly suffering, and the only thing DG could do for her was to end it. For all the happiness kitty brought during her life it was a very sad way to end, but at least she was not alone. DG's apartment is going to seem very empty now.

Current Mood: sad

I’ve long been struck by a quote from Billy Connolly, who said: “I believe there’s no such thing as bad language, there’s just bad use of language.” In that vein, I have very occasionally shared in the use of some of Connolly’s more colorful vocabulary in this journal, but I maintain that it was never inappropriate, and certainly never bad use of language.

In an effort to maintain that lofty standard, I hereby refrain from sharing my current opinion of NorthWest Airlines.

As some of you may know, I had to fly in to Chicago yesterday for two days of meetings. I was scheduled to fly out at 6:55 tonight. The flight has been delayed until 9:40. Given that my meeting finished early, I could have already been home by the time my flight even takes off, assuming it actually makes it by its new and improved time, had I simply driven.

Worse, I forgot to bring my headphones with me, so I can’t tune out the inane babbling of conversion that fills a crowded airport. Some Latvian guy is threatening to sue Orbitz because he missed his connection due to weather delays and got put on standby on his new connection instead of immediately having a confirmed seat.

And of course, I can’t connect to LJ right now, so I can’t even post my boring rant until later (I do have internet access - is LJ down?).

Ah well. M&K are flying in through Chicago tomorrow. As long as I meet them there and not here...

Ironically, I was on the phone with dixon_green who was asking me whether any of the severe weather had hit me, and I said no, it hadn't.

Then the wind came.

It came out of nowhere and lasted about 20 seconds. It was a downburst, not a tornado, and as soon as it was done, the sun came out. And the fire alarm went off.

Damn, that fire alarm is loud.

So I made my apologies and hung up the phone, and went for a walk to get away from the noise. Wow. Five downed trees, one of which landed on a car, and lots of big branches, one of which also landed on a car. Siding got ripped off the side of my building, I found a piece of gutter about 100 yards away. I saw the shredded remains of a lawn chair spread over hundreds of yards. A bin for doggie doo got blown about 50 yards and landed in a pond, leaving a trail of plastic wrapped dog droppings to mark its path.

Sadly, there was one confirmed casualty. We found a dead squirrel near one of the downed trees.

Oif

Happily for me, for all the damage done here, we actually did miss the worst of the weather. The stuff further north and east tonight looks pretty vicious.