Weekend Accomplishments and Linkdump

We've been treading water here at Stepford House, trying to get ourselves ahead of the game but usually failing. Right now we see a possible end in sight, with the last exterminator visit being Hallowe'en morning. By November 1st, we should be moving into the next phase of our lives here: clean-up.

Still, lots to try to get done each weekend, and this one was no exception. We started with the usual Saturday shop, only we also hit the dollar store and Bi-Mart to get some extras. I got a few bucks worth of Hallowe'en decorations, including ping-pong eyeballs for Inkwell to play with. Anyway, once we got home it was time to get the yard mowed down into its winter state. We rolled up the hoses, mowed the grass and tumbleweed low, and put everything away, hopefully until spring.

After that, we didn't do much yesterday. Physical labor takes a lot out of me, even if it's as trivial as mowing the yard.

Today I put up my "Don't Forget to Vote" flag and my Hallowe'en flag in the front windows. Makes our house look a little more occupied than without them. I've also been flying the Norwegian flag quite a bit, but it needs to be retired and replaced because I've flown it enough that it's getting ragged.

I also baked some pumpkin cookies today, just because I wanted to bake something. That was fun, but the cookies are a little bland. More pumpkin pie spice next time! I'll be wrapping those up to have for breakfast and the like over the next week or so.

I've also been on Facebook a fair bit, and I post most of my stuff there. I was getting WAY too political, so I told myself I couldn't post about something unless it hit 9 or 10 on my 0-to-10-outrage-o-meter. Some stuff did get through.

It's kind of sad that my linkdumps are now done mostly on Facebook. So I'm going to link to a handful of stuff I've already posted to Facebook, but still think is important or interesting enough to share.

Girl puts on a headscarf, is surprised at just how much different she is treated at the local mall.

A difficult story I wrote for work. I first learned about the attack on Tuesday morning when I looked through the county sheriff's report. I went out there Thursday morning to do the story so we could just let people know the cost of allowing dogs to run loose.

The Salt Lake Tribune endorses Obama. "Politicians routinely tailor their words to suit an audience. Romney, though, is shameless, lavishing vastly diverse audiences with words, any words, they would trade their votes to hear."

Even Ben Stein recognizes that taxes on the rich need to be raised. It's about time he started talking sense.

The 20 Coolest Stop-Motion Monsters. A decent list. I'm not sure it's got all the "coolest" ones, but these are pretty darn good, yeah.

Doctor Who: P.S. - Series 7 2012 - BBC One. For all Doctor Who fans, but only watch if you've already seen The Angels Take Manhattan. Seriously. But if you *have* seen that episode, this is a must-watch.

How many times do I have to say it? It's not that Aquaman can talk to fish that's so cool, it's that he can survive without extra equipment underwater indefinitely. And go to depths humans can only dream about. THAT'S what's cool about Aquaman's powers.

A child nearly dies because someone else didn't vaccinate their own child. People who don't vaccinate their children should be held liable for any child near them that gets a vaccine-preventable disease.