Stop the Iran War

February 28, 2007 | 1 Comment

Video link is here.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Politics
1 Comment to "Stop the Iran War"

Look It Up

February 28, 2007 | 1 Comment

When I was a kid I used to ask my mom, “How do you spell __?” and she’d respond, “D-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y.”

Now I’m all grown up and I ask my husband, “How do you spell __?” and he responds, “G-O-O-G-L-E.”

I’m still a horrible speller. When writing this post I spelled dictionary without the “A.” But I got lucky this time and discovered my mistake pre-publishing.

Speaking of publishing, the rumor is Ed’s fourth book is finished. Don’t know how long it will take to get it on the shelves, but expect to see it in your local Border’s or B&N soon. It’ll probably hit Amazon sooner, though. Or if you’re really itching for it you can order it directly from the publisher. (But I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I forgave him, but I still don’t really like him.)

I’ve stolen a couple of Ed’s books and given them away. There’s at least one on BookCrossing and I gave one away in the Off Topic Secret Santa gift giving game last Christmas. The Henderson and Las Vegas libraries have a few copies as well. I think I’ll drop off a couple at some New York libraries soon. I think maybe I’ll have some sort of lottery and give a few away right here on my site. Haha! The Stolen Books Lottery. Brilliant. I’m buying the domain name now.

Kidding.

I will, however, have a lottery. Just give me a few hours/weeks to think about it and work out the details. Hmm…

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Books, Family, Kids, & Friends
1 Comment to "Look It Up"

Interview with Rex of Fimoculous

February 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Let me introduce you to Rex Sorgatz, of Fimoculous.com. Here’s an interview with another one of the 2000 Bloggers.

Elaine: Why did you start blogging?

Rex: The same reason everyone starts blogging: to show off their ridiculous talent.
Hah, honestly though: it was a way to meet interesting people. Some of my best friends are blogger types who live around America. I travel a lot for work, so I get to meet a lot of people that I correspond with in blog land.

Elaine: How do you describe your blog?

Rex: Fimoculous.com typically falls in the category known as “link blog.” I aggregate stuff around the internet that I find interesting. I basically serve as a filter for what is vastly too much information.

Elaine: How has your blog changed over time?

Rex: Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn’t.

Elaine: Do you have any other blogs?

Rex: Not that I’ll tell you about. :)
I’ve created several blog-related projects. One is MNspeak, a community blog based in Minneapolis, where I lived for many years. It was one of my favorite projects because it became very woven into the city.

Elaine: Do your family and friends blog, too?

Rex: All of my friends blog, none of my family blogs.

Elaine: What are you favorite blogs? Who do you read?

Rex: I follow about 500 blogs at any given time, so the best answer here might be to point to my post from a few months ago: Best Blogs of 2006 that You (Maybe) Aren’t Reading.

Elaine: Will do!

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under 2kbloggers
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New York Blues

February 28, 2007 | 3 Comments

I’ve been not hearting New York lately. I miss the desert. I underestimated the toll the move would have on me. I had some roots in Las Vegas; I have nothing in New York. The last week or so, though, I’ve fixated on one thing: taxes. We’re going to pay more in New York city and state taxes this year than I put down on my Vegas condo. That’s insane.

So we’ve talked about buying a home somewhere else and living here part time. It’s not as though we have to be in New York year round. Neither of us have jobs here and we certainly aren’t making the most of our tax contribution. Austin is on the list. Ed says it’s great. The home prices are relatively low. And the weather’s nice. I’m not sure I can handle Texas, even if it’s Austin, but I’m willing to take a trip to see. If I had my druthers, we’d go to France or California.

People laugh when I say that because France and CA are just as or more expensive than New York City. But they’re missing two things: 1)Some parts aren’t as expensive as NYC and 2)I like those places better than NYC.

And there are some trade-offs. For example, if we moved to France and converted our citizenship, our children would have better and cheaper education. I worry about our retirement, but then when I think about having kids, I worry about their college educations, too. Everything just costs so much money. It makes me angry.

PS - links in this entry are just for fun and have no relevance to the entry :)

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under New York, Work, Business, & Finances
3 Comments to "New York Blues"

Where I’ve Been

February 27, 2007 | 2 Comments

Here are the countries I’ve been to:

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands
Australia is awesome. Well, at least Melbourne is. France is cool, but they hate vegetarians. Spain is beautiful. London is, dare I say, better than New York.

Here are the states I’ve been to:

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.
Many of those states I could tell you nothing about. I saw them from an RV window while herding cats and dog on our cross-country trek last summer. We moved from Las Vegas to Manhattan. (I miss the desert.)
I can, however, tell you that California has the best weather. Arizona and Utah are beautiful. The Badlands in South Dakota are stunning. I desperately want to go back to visit the Badlands. To me, they were absolutely gorgeous. I loved them. The highways in Illinois are terrible. The gas is cheaper on the East Coast. Wyoming doesn’t deal well with vegetarians. Nevada has more to offer than you’d think. Texas has some loud-mouthed Republicans. And Louisiana is an odd state.