Birthday books

Fiction:

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, set in the same universe as A Fire Upon The Deep

Freehold by Michael Z. Williamson, the events in The Weapon told from a different point of view

Non-fiction:

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! 

Six Easy Pieces

Six Not-So-Easy Pieces 

Turning 46

Happy birthday to me. Breakfast in bed, yum. Diana had scattered half a dozen new books around for me to stumble across as I went through my morning resurrection. A "Run Like A Dog" exercise shirt from Josh, woof! When I got to work, on my desk were several thousand calories of jelly beans, sugar cookies, and more.

I've gotten congratulations in my innovative use of alternative power sources, i.e. using birthday candles to heat the house; and I've been compared to that famous Chinese scholar, Yung No Mo.

Dinner at the Mayflower Cafe on 34th Street, which is a Turkish place. Hummus and fresh pita bread, and something made with phyllo, feta and spinach. Very good, and quick; we'll be going back again, possibly as soon as lunch tomorrow.

Tax Day Tea Party

A Tea Party is planned for 11:00 - 1:00 on April 15 at Town Center, Virginia Beach, across from Senator Jim Webb's office.
Note: If you're in Virginia's Fourth District--Chesapeake, Suffolk and parts west--you are fortunate to have Randy Forbes (R) as your Congressman; Randy is one of the few to have voted against all of the half dozen major Bailout / Porkulus bills. On the other hand, if you're in Virginia Beach, that's Second District and Glen Nye (D) is your Congressman.

If you don't know who your rep is or what he's up to, check GovTrack. Elected officials are like three year olds--you need to keep an eye on them.

Serenity

"They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people better.

I don't hold to that. So no more running--I aim to misbehave."

--Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity

Spring in the Marsh

The dividing line between winter and spring is that you can now look over the marsh grass and, by exercising an optimistic imagination, persuade yourself that there's an underlying tinge of green to be seen.

"I support the troops, but..."

Once again today I saw someone say "I support the troops, I want them to come home". I wouldn't complain if he'd said "I wish we hadn't gotten into this war, but since we're in it, I want to win"; but what he was saying was "I want to quit now".

No, you don't support the troops. Our troops are all, every single one of them without exception, volunteers. They signed up knowing that their job was risky, and that they were offering to carry out the lawful orders of our government despite that risk. That is what they are doing. Undoubtedly, they all want to come home--but the honorable ones want to come home after they finish their job. If they come home before they finish their job, well, the word for that is "defeat". If you are advocating defeat, you are not supporting the troops.

Spring

I'm hardly a carpenter, and it shows, but the gardening boxes are built. Now we just need to haul 20 cubic feet of compost, topsoil, peat moss, perlite, soda cans, sand, whatever, and fill the boxes, mutter about pH testing, then start planting. Except tomatoes, which will wait a few weeks--Last Frost for this area is supposed to be mid-April.

Meanwhile the Bradford pear trees are in bloom, dark gray trunks showing off the chalk and ivory blossoms. The water elms are starting to show leaves.