Now I remember why I live in Florida (other than this is where my job is and my house is and my kids are and my friends are and....) Today was glorious - cloudless sky, 80 degrees, low humidity, cool breeze, the windows are wide open now, though I'll close them before bed because it will get chilly tonight. Aaah, yes, I remember why I'm here. It sure as shit ain't for June through October.

Didn't make the soup - I was too tired and nasty after housework to go buy the needed canned chiles. I had everything else in the pantry. Damn.

A gender issues rant (scroll down a day or two) triggered a rant of my own. Anybody else see the Today show yesterday? Though I cannot stand Sob Sister Katie I usually have it on as I'm getting ready for work - it raises my heart rate like brisk walk most days - and one story yesterday just infuriated me, and yes, it was here in Florida (though the problem apparently is national). The Jelly Bracelet Story. It goes like this - middle school girls wear jelly bracelets. They are a cheap fashion fad making a return appearance. Jelly bracelets apparently have taken on some sort of sexual connotation - different colors mean different sex acts. So a game called "Snap" has developed - middle school boys (let's recall, they are 11-14ish) - "snap" the bracelet and the girl is expected to perform the sexual act? So 12 year old boys are sexually harassing 12 year old girls because of a piece of cheap plastic jewelry, and the Marion County (FL) School Board's solution to this problem is to BAN THE BRACELETS? How about dealing with the obvious moral and legal problems afoot in 12 year old boys demanding sexual favors from 12 year old girls? This is, I think, sexual harassment no matter how you slice it. How about stopping the boys from acting like this? Attempting to educate them that this behavior is wrong? How about telling the girls they don't deserve to be treated like pre-pubescent whores? How about teaching the girls to verbally humiliate any boy who treats them that way (as only a middle school girl can) to break them of this behavior? How about some self-and-mutual respect lessons for both sides? Oh no, it's all about the damn BRACELETS. If not for those damn bracelets, those boys would never act that way! Those girls better not wear that piece of plastic on their wrists anymore, they are Asking For It if they do. It's their fault, those brazen 12 year old hussies.

Is it just me, or is this really seriously fucked up? Who's running these schools, and where did THEY grow up? This is not a shocking new human behavior, there really is nothing new under the sun - but the response to it per this Today report is pathetic, ineffectual, and reeks of Blaming the Victim, and does not deal with the underlying problems so visible they can be spotted from orbit. Yore skool bored at wirk - "How can we stop this quick, it's such bad publicity?" So that sent me out the door pissed off, as the Today show so often does.

So after I cleaned until I was tired (note I didn't say "cleaned until I was done") I got out the swift and ball winder and wound the lilac Carodan Farm wool I bought at the retreat. Then I thought I'd cast on just to swatch it. Then I thought, ohwhatthehell, I'll just go ahead and start that very easy dresser tray from Felted Knits. My stash contains a pretty handpainted yarn in roses and blues and purples (retreat attendees saw it as the trim/straps of my deep purple felted bag) and that will be the I-cord edging on this lilac tray. We'll see how it felts - I've never felted Carodan's wool before, but I bought two skeins with the intention of felting it, so if this doesn't work out I'll have a stray $5 skein in the stash, no harm, no foul. If it does work I think it will be adorable - my new bedroom colors are coming together, around my best personal colors, which are purple, red and turquoise. No, the whole room will not be that dramatic, because I am me, and I am both lazy and all about resale value. I think the walls will be a nice creamy white, and the dramatic colors will come in via art and accessories. Then my drama and I can de-ass the premises if I decide single family homeownership is no longer for me. Right now it suits me fine, though.