camping

I just got back from camping. It was nice. We had a good time. I stayed reasonably warm, which is no small accomplishment for me. I was happy to find snow on the ground up there. At least four inches. Our troop joined another, hosting troop. Their leader was quite experienced in cold weather camping. We went out at 9:00 yesterday morning, and left about the same time today. The weather was okay. Mostly cloudy and snowing a little all day yesterday. After sunset it cleared off and turned cold. It was well below zero and sunny this morning.

I wore some nice heavy wool pants, Sorrel boots, wool sweater, etc. I'm rather disappointed to have damaged my gloves. I melted the finger by brushing it on the fire bowl It's hard to find a decent pair of gloves. I also had quite a few of those self-heating hand warmer packets. When it's that cold you do two things to keep warm. First, you eat a lot. Second, you keep active.

I ate:
two peanut butter peanut butter cookie sandwiches
chicken gumbo
beef stew
bread sticks
brownie
two Hershey bars
Snickers bar
much hot chocolate
mountain man breakfast (hash browns, egg, peppers, bacon)

I slept okay last night. I had some of those handwarmers in my sleeping bag so I stayed reasonably warm. Even after a trip to a tree at 3 AM. There was ice on my sleeping bag where my breath hit it. It was four below, according to one guy's thermometer. getting out of the tent was rough. And I had a little trouble starting my car.

At the campfire, one of the guys read aloud the ending to a Jack London story. This guy was walking in Alaska or the Yukon or wherever, and he ends up dying because of the cold. Pretty interesting.

The guy who ran this outing was dog sledding in the boundary water last weekend. He said it was 25 degrees warmer this weekend. He also "slept under the stars" both times. This really meant he had his sleeping bag under a tarp rather than in a tent. He says he enjoys a challenge. *shrug* Whatever turns you on, I guess.

Anyway, everyone had a good time.

Nightmare Before Christmas

I always liked Sally.

( quiz result )

North Dakota Found To Be Harboring Nuclear Missiles

"Hoeven lives a life of comfort and excess inside the heavily patrolled North Dakota governor's mansion, a lavish dwelling paid for entirely by the state, while many of his people engage in subsistence farming."

The Onion

on the hill

where do you live?

two users list Sweet Home Chicago as their city, on LiveJournal. I'm surprised there aren't more. I guess people don't like to take liberties with such an official sounding info field on their user info page.

But then 281 users list their country as The Neutral Zone.

gay rights... or not

I'm not sure were this article was originally published, but ana posted it.

Rescinding what few rights gays have pisses me off, butthe highlighted part just makes me sick.

Right-Wing Bill Would Strip Civil Rights Protections from GLBT
Minnesotans, Says HRC

WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign condemned a radical bill, House
File 341, put forth by conservative state legislators that would strip
all references to "sexual orientation" from Minnesota law. HRC urges the
Minnesota House not to hold a hearing on the hateful bill designed to
stigmatize gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Minnesotans and remove
all civil rights protections GLBT residents currently have, says HRC.
Highlighting the extreme nature of the bill is the fact that the
very first provision in the bill's text is to remove "sexual
orientation" from Minnesota's condemnation of Nazi persecution of people
in the Holocaust.
"It is a disgrace to the enduring legacy of Minnesota as a
leader in civil and human rights that such an incredibly mean-spirited
piece of legislation would even see the light of day," said OutFront
Minnesota Executive Director Ann M. DeGroot. "When legislators stoop to
endorsing Nazi persecution of gay people, you know the motivation is one
of deep-seated prejudice."
"The scope of the bill is alarming and would make gay, lesbian
bisexual and transgender people second-class citizens in a state where
they now enjoy strong civil rights protections," said HRC National Field
Director Seth Kilbourn."
Civil rights language on "sexual orientation" was added to the
Minnesota Human Rights Act in 1993. However, in recent years
conservatives have taken aim at rescinding the law. For example, as a
candidate for governor, Republican Tim Pawlenty announced that his vote
in favor of the amendment was a vote he regretted.
"Minnesota's law includes gender identity in its definition of
sexual orientation, so it is believed this bill would also wipe out
gender identity protection as well," added Kilbourn. "The bill would
also remove references to sexual orientation in the state's hate crimes
law and safe schools law, which are addressed under the Human Rights
Act."

what they're saying is, it's awful that the Nazis killed all those Jews, but killing people who loved people of the same sex is really not that bad.