June

Poor month of June. We barely knew ye.

... or at least this blog barely knew ye.

Danburite

I love geology. I love rocks. And I definitely love crystals. Something about the purity of the molecular structure is just so beautiful. This is not me-as-a-New-Age-hippy talking.... this is also me-as-a-trained-geologist.

So I want to talk about one type of crystal that has been "speaking" to me recently: Danburite.

Danburite was first found in Danbury, Connecticut not far from where I grew up. While it looks a lot like quartz (in that both are perfectly clear), Danburite has a beautiful shovel / spade shape to the crystal. And the cross section, instead of a quartz's hexagon, a flattened diamond is found.

I just find the clarity of the crystal to be so calming. I like how it's a bit of an underdog compared to the ubiquity of quartz. In all, it is beautiful, soothing, and calming. And heck, those are definitely qualities I want in my life.

Half Bath: Remodeled!

The house is a never ending source of things to do. Right now I've been focusing on a lot on the outside property. Especially weeding. I have realized that by removing the lawn and making every part of my property programmed for something.... I give weeds a much greater opportunity to thrive. But I digress.

To keep sane, I need to take a moment and look at accomplishments. I tend to focus on what needs to be done without allowing myself recognition for the work I have already done. So it is with great pleasure that I share the following photo with everyone:

Behold my half bath. Located under the stairs, about everything you see in that picture is brand new. First let me list off the problem of the old bathroom:

1. The old sink was 17 inches out from the wall and took up nearly half of the width of the space.
2. The shut off valves on the old sink did not work.
3. The water flow in the sink was low.
4. The toilet would take at least 5 minutes to stop refilling.
5. The water flow in the toilet was low (see item 4).
6. The toilet itself was from 1981 and had a huge, water-wasting tank (see item 4).
7. There was no shelf space.
8. The light fixture was too large.
9. The mirror was too small.
10. There was no storage space.

Phew. That old half-bath SUCKED. So we rounded up our friend J_Ro, an expert at these things, and got to work. We ordered a cute 9" deep sink and new toilet. J_Ro helped replace a lot of the old, corroded piping with shiny new copper pipes, and also helped re-set the new toilet. What a guy!

The old lights were removed and a new light fixture was installed (again thanks to J_Ro). The new lights were from Edward Joy Electric, a local lighting store and "a wonderland of lighting."

The mirror was found at ReStore on the Near Westide (or Salt District, if you prefer). It was a salvage mirror and has one tiny nick in it.

I picked up some plywood and cut the shelf. It's only a few inches wide under the mirror wall, but I've found it to be incredibly useful.

(Not shown: above the door, M and I built a new shelf for long term storage for paper towels, TP, and cleaning supplies.)

Finally, the repainting and original artwork courtesy of Hypersteve. That's right. I own the original artwork for the Magic Card "Merrow Commerce." Be jealous.

Housing Trends

Syracuse Real Estate

I think that graph says it all.

Back in 2006, when I bought my house, I knew Syracuse was a good place to buy a house. Why? The simple reason that there never was a housing bubble here to burst. This past year has seen the prediction come true. As housing prices tumble around the country, Syracuse remains.... well... not "strong" per se.... but stable. Syracuse remains stable, and slowly rising. The trend especially becomes visible when you click on the "10yr" button above.

(Thanks goes to Zillow for their handy graph.)

The Late Night Buzz

No, I am not referring to coffee in my title. I am referring to a sound that woke me up a 1:37AM last night. Something.... buzzing. My little feline was pretending to be night hunter and swatting at something near my head. Half-awake, I look over and see a large blackish object flitting about, banging into the nearby window. I watch for a few minutes, unable to make our what kind of insect it is. Resigned and awake, I move to turn on the light.

I see this:A yellowjacket. A large - yellow - buzzing - stinging - yellowjacket. And I am in my skivvies with lots of vulnerable, fleshy, half-awake body to tempt the offending intruder. And I do not like this.

I back away and dress myself. Jeans and long sleeves. Protect the skin! The yellowjacket has taken a fondness for the mattress and the wall next to our bed. I also note with scientific fascination, that the insect is attracted to the light of my reading lamp. I pray the wasp gets burnt by the halogen lamp, but it seems unaffected.

Still, I hesitate. I don't really enjoy killing things. Especially not when I might miss and enrage the stinging beast. So I leave it to our night hunter, our prowling cat Morgan.

Morgan, for her part, is fascinated and bored at the same time. Honestly, I don't know what else I would expect from a cat. She would stare at it... bat at it for a bit... then walk away as if she found something better to do. She once put her paw on it and then jumped back, as if surprised that it was moving. After watching the pathetic dance between cat and yellowjacket for a few minutes, I got impatient. Clearly my cat sucks as a hunter. I grab a notebook and wham it against the wall. The ensuing crunch is both satisfying and horrifying.

Here, for you all to review, is the yellowjacket that disrupted my precious, precious sleep And if you think I've just got some super-zoom thing going on, here is our friend with a quarter. Notice how this thing is ALMOST THE SAME SIZE AS THE QUARTER:
It was 2:13 by the time I had taken pictures, rearranged the furniture, and disposed of the body. Morgan was happily purring as I settled into bed.

Mike, for his part, had fallen asleep in the office and missed the whole thing. Jerk.

Tomato

You call that a tomato?


Now, this.... this is a tomato!


Yes, that is my hand holding up that beast. This puppy was one of the heirloom tomatoes I harvested from my backyard last year. I think the warm weather is making me nostalgic....

Marriage Equality

The following is a letter I wrote to my state senator, David Valesky, upon encouragement of a friend of mine. Senator Valesky supports civil-unions, but not same-sex marriage. If you are in New York State, or know someone in New York, please encourage them to write their state senator. Check out the Empire State Pride Agenda's website for a form letter submission.


Senator Valesky,

Thank you for your response. I've actually been following your campaign for sometime now. I voted for you back in 2004, and I remember it was a close race back then. I was happy to help you unseat the Republican incumbent. So now I guess I am asking a favor back from you. I don't know if its fair for me to ask a favor, but as I've learned, it never hurts to ask.

This "same-sex marriage" issue is about much more than a form letter for me. I am a man married to man. I think people call us one of the "California 18,000" or whatever. I had always planned on marrying my boyfriend and then a convergence of events happened. My boyfriend had gotten into SUNY Update Medical and we planned a vacation to California to celebrate. Then we heard about the CA court decision, and Patterson's decision to recognize out of state gay marriages. It felt like God himself was giving us his blessing. So I called over to Poland to ask my boyfriend's mother for her blessing in our marriage (God's blessing was good, but my future mother-in-law's blessing was important to me too!!). So we turned our vacation into an elopement, with my husband's brother acting as our witness.

During this past year I've been living with the strange double-standard of being in a same-sex marriage. When getting him insurance through my work, I was repeatedly asked to fill out "domestic partnership" forms. One question in particular on these forms asks "Are you married?" I felt it was insulting and refused to sign them. I was legally married and should not have to do anything different than any other legally married couple. Now I am a realist here, so I brought in a copy of our marriage license as additional proof of our marriage, but I refused to call him my "domestic partner" or any such thing. We are married and he is my spouse. Eventually, after calling over some people's heads, I was able to get him on my insurance.

It all sounds so banal now, but every time someone treated my marriage differently, and tried to call it a different name, if felt to me that my love for my husband was being demeaned. I was as if our love was somehow different because our bodies are different. It was stressful and hurtful. This is why I feel so strongly that love is love and marriage is marriage. There is not a difference, and anyone who cites religion is hiding behind their own fears. People have cited the Bible against inter-racial marriage, women's rights, and even against abolition. We, as people, are all somewhat afraid of the unknown. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. But when individuals are demeaned because of others' fears... that is unacceptable.

I also want to give you some background on who I am. I grew up in the Hudson Valley, and lived in Boston and Seattle. I moved to Syracuse in 2003 for graduate school. I met my husband while we were both in school. After graduating, instead of moving away, we chose to stay here in Central New York. We fought the brain-drain and bought a house in Syracuse that we've been fixing it up for almost 3 years. Our property was previously used for student housing, and we have since converted it to our home. I have been involved with the University Neighborhood Preservation Association, 40Below, and the Onondaga Creek Revitalization Plan. I volunteered for the Downtown Living Tours and have started a chapter of Slow Food USA in the CNY region. I am very engaged and care about this community.

Senator Valesky, I am, by almost all standards, the type of young person this region wants to keep. Yes, young: I am only 28 and my husband is 24. However, my husband graduates from SUNY Upstate Medical in a few years. While we love Syracuse, we've been seriously thinking about moving to Massachusetts or some other state that has taken the bold initiative to out-right acknowledge same-sex marriage. I hope you can show me that you want people like me to stay. I hope you can show me that my marriage, and my love, is as equally protected and recognized as any other person's.

PSM