We have pets!

350 of them.

Their sheer numbers should tell you what they are,
but if not, here's a hint:











Alameda County runs a program called Stop Waste, to encourage residential and commercial trash customers (that is, all of us) to reduce and recycle. We got a letter asking us to consider buying a yard composter or a Wriggly Wranch, or ideally, both. I read it and gave it to Zirpu, remarking that the county is greatly subsidizing the price of these items. I didn't expect him to do anything with the brochure but recycle it, but Zirpu got online and ordered the set. The day after Zirpu's birthday, two big boxes arrived via UPS. I stuck a leftover gift ribbon on one of them and when he came in I said, "I got your birthday present!"


Yesterday Zirpu and I went to the liquor store/bait shop down the road. As we walked in we passed under a stuffed deer's head that seemed to define "moth eaten" and by the kind of freezer that usually holds ice cream sandwiches filled with sardines in bags with "for bait ONLY" printed on them. Zirpu marched up to the counter and tried to determine whether jumbo or regular sized worms would be better for the worm bin. The instructions that came with the bin said to add about a pound of worms, but the lady was only selling them by number. In the end, he selected 50 jumbos and 300 regular size (which are much smaller than the jumbos, actually). The instructions that came with the worm bin say that if you feed them and keep them healthy, eventually the bin should be able to support 1500 worms.


I am not sure what we will do with the compost and castings the worms produce. Perhaps Zirpu's garden experiment will expand, though most of our backyard is covered by the deck.

Main Street and $700 Billion

I was listening to Fresh Air on my way home yesterday and heard this interview with Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times.





I haven't really understood what happened and how, and I had no idea why the bailout is a good thing for taxpayers. I heard a line (in a story regarding AIG), which was "Profits are privatized, but losses are socialized" and other than that I didn't have a sense of how we got here. Morgenson explained it in language and analogies I understood. If you want to understand it too, check out the interview.

The Personal IS Political, and Love! Love! Love!

I'd like to think everyone I know is in favor of love and opposed to Measure 8 and other "Defense of Marriage" Act-type laws. I understood why the doctrine of "separate but equal" is wrong, but not what was so "right" about being married. Then I knew I wanted to marry Zirpu and I understood why being married is so important.


I recently received this wedding announcement from two dear friends of mine, announcing their act of "civil obedience." They have given permission for me to post this beautiful letter. Hooray for love!

+++ +++ +++

Greetings,

It seems suddenly the personal has become very political, in my life. This is an unusual wedding announcement, because I'm sending it to everyone I can think of, not just family and close friends, and not even just those who recall how they know me (although I hope all of you do!) I'm delighted to announce that Michelle Greenberg, my partner of four years, and I will be getting legally married here in San Francisco (I know, we live in Oakland, but SF City Hall is MUCH prettier) this coming month. This announcement is also unusual because it's not to invite you all to the ceremony -- they only allow six attendees -- or to try to get you to send gifts. Please don't send gifts, really!!

The purpose of this announcement is to tell you how much it means to us to be able to get married, legally, as we contemplate trying to create a family together, and spending our lives together, as the life of a married couple.

Most of you are aware there's a ballot measure here in California that is trying to make unconstitutional the marriage of couples who are of the same gender. Yes, Michelle and I are the same gender. Please think of us at the polls, because for every same-sex couple out there waiting to arrive at the moment when they know their love is forever, there are two sets of wonderful, loving family, friends and acquaintances just like all of you, who can offer them their support in assuring that this right be preserved for us all to find the love of our lives and make solemn and legal the commitment we make to each other, to our communities, and to our families. Please share our story with your friends, family and acquaintances, if you feel so inspired!

For those to whom this reaches a deep, deep place in your hearts, perhaps because you are also affected by this issue, or perhaps because this issue simply speaks deeply to your personal principles, I have included a link to a website of a coalition of organizations, No on Prop 8, where donations can be made to support efforts to defeat this ballot measure. You can go to https://secure.ga4.org/01/equalityforall If you're one of those people that absolutely can't resist sending wedding gifts, consider this the best possible option, in our case!

My home state of Wisconsin passed a similar measure some years back, referred to as a DOMA, or Defense of Marriage Act, as an amendment to its constitution. As a result, I cannot move my family back to the state where my mother lives, and where I grew up, and preserve for my future spouse and our children the rights and protections conceded to us by the current laws of the State of California. I am very grateful to be able to continue my life here in California and enjoy all the rights, and carry all of the responsibilities, of other married people in loving, nurturing families here in this State. I hope someday that Wisconsin's DOMA may be repealed, and I'm sure there will be plenty of people like Michelle and me, living out their lives in Wisconsin, who will continue to fight for that greater justice. Sadly, it is so much harder to undo what has already been done, especially in the sphere of laws. I wish them courage and perseverance. And I pray (yes, pray) we do not to have to go through that ourselves, here in California.

Lastly, I write to simply tell you what great joy it gives me to announce my upcoming marriage to Michelle Hannah Greenberg, daughter of Cheryl and Dave Greenberg of Detroit, MI As far as making a family together, we'll keep you posted.....

with much love in my heart,
Margaret Stevenson

Real People Really Affected

Yesterday a woman came into the food bank practically hyperventilating because she was so upset. She had just worked out a budget for herself and was saying to her teenage daughter that she just didn't know how she was going to be able to do this.


It became clear after a few minutes that she hadn't been paid in 76 days because she provides care for five children and the state hasn't been sending out checks since July. I was happy to tell her that a budget had been passed by the state legislature and that the Governator had said he would sign it. She was incredibly relieved to know that finally some money would be coming in.

I did not mention that there are no winners in this budget, only losers, and that we'll be right back here again next year, unless the economy miraculously improves by then. When I talked to her I didn't know that he was scheduled to sign it next week. I wonder when she is going to get a check, and if it will be everything owed her since the end of July, or in chunks?

Around The Budget In Eighty Days

So, some work finally got done in Sacramento!


The Legislature put together a budget of cuts and magic and the Governator signed it. Schools can hire teachers and create smaller classes; hospitals, clinics, and residential care programs can pay the loans they took to keep themselves operating, childcare and adult care centers can keep kids and adults safe and supervised; and college students can get their state grants to pay for books and living expenses. In the meantime, no one got their wages reduced to $6.55 an hour because the lawsuit didn't get far enough along in the process.


I can't help thinking that a situation exactly like this - only ending two weeks earlier than this time around - is what got Gov. Grey Davis recalled and Arnold Schwarzenegger elected.

Birthday Weekend

A success! I had a great time this past weekend, but I was wrong about having a birthday party every month helping me relate to being 40: I'm used to saying I'm 40, but I'm not used to the idea yet... Just celebrating the thirteenth anniversary of my 27th birthday...


I'm still much younger than most of the people I work with, and I doubt there are many 40 year olds who can say that. Go food bank volunteers!


The birthday party was big fun! I managed, somehow, to invite just enough people from all the circles of my life for everyone to see someone they knew. The chatter was loud! The food was good - if I say so myself, since I made most of it and Shobi-wan made the rest.







We had yummy beverages made from Stirrings brand martini and margarita mixes (with which I wound up due to circumstances beyond my control). I told everyone that since the mixers don't include high fructose corn syrup, and lemons and limes are high in Vit C, the drinks were healthy!

Plus, Rouzi has agreed to be my personal bartender. Every forty-year old should have one.










As requested, my friends also brought 107 pounds of canned goods and a generous cash donation to the party for the food bank, which rocked. I got the idea from a young Alamedan who did it for her birthday party two months ago.



The next afternoon Shobi-wan and I went kayaking at Half Moon Bay. I had never been before and just as I was thinking, "Hm, kayaks!" Shobi-wan asked, "Wanna go kayaking?" We got outfitted and paddled around the outer walls of the harbor, looking at pelicans, jellies, and sea stars.


Monday Mom, Shobi-wan, and I went to a preview of the new California Academy of Sciences, which was amazing. I am really excited to go there when the whole place is open. There were a few familar things: the pendulum, which a docent told us hadn't originally been planned as an exhibit in the new building, but the docents petitioned and persuaded the curators to add it back in; the T. Rex skeleton; the original Hall of Man with dioramas of African animals (which now includes an African penguin tank, and had a human in it playing with the birds); and the original seahorse railing around the alligator swamp.


In the evening we met Zirpu, KT, and No at Destino for dinner and alfajores for dessert. A great birthday weekend!


The best thing for me - and excuse me if you think I'm getting soft in my old age; I've always been sappy - is that I got to spend it with people I like who like me.


Now, what to do for my October Unbirthday...? I'm celebrating the whole year, you know!

My Young Friend

Phil's birthday was today. He would have been 41.


My closest college friend, the person I thought of as the other side of my coin, is still 24.


I think of how I now feel about 24 year olds, now that I'm 40, and I wonder at how I know I would feel that way about Phil, too. He's still 24. He's always going to be 24. I can't even imagine what he would be doing now, what he would be like now, because with two exceptions none of my college buds is now doing what each of us thought we would be doing sixteen years from 1992.


It's totally weird.