Minnesota!

Woohoo for Minnesota for legalizing gay marriage! It’s great to see a state go directly from white to green, bypassing the “we’re going to recognize you, but we’re going to make sure you know you’re second-class citizens” yellow stage. It’s also great to update this map 3 times in less than 2 weeks.

So now, based on the state populations from the 2010 US census data:

18.2% of people live in places where gay marriage is available.
25.1% of people live in places where civil unions or domestic partnerships are available.
56.7% of people live in places which do not offer any mechanism for gay and lesbian couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationships.

Baby cardinals update

The chicks in the nest outside M’s window are growing nicely. Both father and mother cardinal are very busy feeding the babies, although they won’t do it if they see me through the window with the camera, so I get out of the way. The babies by themselves do not appear to mind the paparazzi.

My new bedside table

I don’t have a table on my side of the bed, because the bedroom is fairly small, and a floor lamp is there. But there are times when I’ve wanted a little table, just something large enough for a book or my eyeglasses. I could have mounted a shelf on the wall, but that would have been in the way when we flip the mattress or want to rummage for stuff in the adjacent cupboard. And frankly, the walls in this house have enough issues without having yet more holes drilled into them.

And then it occurred to me that perhaps I could use a flask clamp, like we use in the chemistry labs at work, and attach it to the lamp pole and then use it to support a shelf. I figured the rubber on the clamp should keep it from marring the lamp pole, and the clamp should be sturdy enough to hold up a shelf plus some lightweight items.

So I bought a clamp. I cut some 1/4″ plywood to a good size for the shelf. I cut a thin shim, drilled a hole in it to accommodate the pivot pin of the clamp, and trimmed one side to accommodate the wing nut on the clamp. I cut a slightly thicker shim to go under the thinner tail of the clamp. I used my staple gun to attach the shims to the shelf, and then to attach the tail and one leg of the clamp to the shims.

The end result looks exactly like what it is: something kludged together from scrap wood out in the garage. But the kludginess is all hidden on the underside when it’s installed, and see how nice it looks in action!

It works out just as well as I had hoped, to hold a book and pair of eyeglasses. I’m very pleased with it.

Delaware!

Woohoo for Delaware legalizing gay marriage! And special kudos to Governor Markell, who signed it into law within mere minutes of the Senate vote, because, “I do not intend to make any of you wait one moment longer.”

I love the fact that I’m updating this map twice in one week, and am looking forward to updating it possibly twice more in the next few weeks. (Come on, Minnesota and Illinois; all the cool states are doing it…)

So now, based on the state populations from the 2010 US census data:

16.5% of people live in places where gay marriage is available.
25.1% of people live in places where civil unions or domestic partnerships are available.
58.4% of people live in places which do not offer any mechanism for gay and lesbian couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationships.

The joys of spring

It’s days like this that make up for living through a long New England winter.

Forsythia and violets in bloom:

The cat likes spring too:

The cat was very focused on looking up into one particular bush that’s right outside M’s window, and I realized there was a cardinal sitting in her nest near the top of the bush! We actually get a beautiful up-close view by looking through M’s window.

Cardinal in the nest:

And when E checked on the nest this evening, she called out that the babies have been born, because now you can see a little tiny mouth:

The cardinal swooped in with more food a few minutes later.

And for a truly weird spring wildlife encounter, last night E was sitting on the sofa playing on her laptop for a couple of hours with the cat sound asleep beside her. When she got up to go to bed, she realized there was a frog sitting on her laptop cooling fan, which had likely been there all evening:

I’m pretty sure it wandered into the house behind me about 10 hours earlier. I’d heard some weird chirpy/squeaky noises, but thought it was birds arguing outside the open kitchen window. Nope. Evidently it was the frog, saying, “Hey, I’m stuck in here! What should I do? I know, I’ll curl up on this piece of electronics and sleep.”

The frog was happy to get back outside in the sun today (it slept in the garage for the rest of the night), and we were careful to keep the cat away from both the frog and the nest.

World gay marriage map

M saw me editing the USA gay marriage map to color Rhode Island, and since he’s a map fiend, was immediately interested. E then suggested we make a world map, and so M helped me put that together.

So here it is, a global view of gay marriage! (You can click to enlarge it if you wish.) Note: there are a few countries which have approved legislation permitting gay marriage, but it has not yet gone into effect. I’ve colored them green anyway. I have not colored countries, such as the USA, which provide local but not federal recognition of gay marriage or civil unions.

Rhode Island!

Woohoo for Rhode Island legalizing gay marriage! It’s great to have all of New England now colored green.

So now, based on the state populations from the 2010 US census data:

16.2% of people live in places where gay marriage is available.
25.4% of people live in places where civil unions or domestic partnerships are available.
58.4% of people live in places which do not offer any mechanism for gay and lesbian couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationships.