Obama's campaign called!

And it was a real live person up in Boston! I couldn't believe it. Go Obama! I'd better go get a campaign sign for my front yard....

Swing low....

All right, this is just sick.

Why on earth would anyone be impressed by one of these? And why would anyone think other people would be impressed by one of these? If I ever see some in a parking lot, I may have to cut them off!

I must say though, I'm impressed Newsweek would cover redneck culture at this low level.

Spring has sprung here in Pennsylvania. The tulips and daffodils are poking up. The air is milder. Leaf buds are appearing. And Primary Day is less than a month off.

The dinner-hour robo-calls have already begun (Thanks, Hillary!). So much for having an unlisted number. I realize it's a lot cheaper to have a machine make your campaign calls instead of live humans (even if they're live humans with fake American names in some call bank in India). But WHY would any candidate think that robo-calling someone would make them want to vote for you? If you're going to make campaign calls at all (and I wish you wouldn't), for the love of God spend the money to have real people make them instead of a recording. Honestly, does anyone enjoy getting these calls? Even if it's somebody famous on the recording?

I've always sworn not to vote for anyone who robo-calls me. If Obama tries this, I'm screwed. It may come down to whomever robo-calls me less.

The non-wearin' of the green

So I've been neglecting the ol’ blog again. I’ve been in an intense writing cycle at work, which leaves little energy to write anything coherent in my off-hours. Also, the inspiration for blog posts only seems to hit me when I’m in a time or place when I can’t post. Like when I’m driving, or in the shower. Or sitting in my office facing a really ugly report assignment that should have been done three weeks ago and cannot wait any longer. I thought of a great one this morning driving to work, but it evaporated as soon as I got out of the car.

St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone. I didn’t wear green. Didn't eat cabbage or soda bread or green bagels. Didn’t drink any Guinness (not that I didn't want to. I could have used one by 10AM, and a few more that evening). But I did eat a big fat baked potato for dinner!

I'm sure people may be wondering why I have a blog name that references both potatoes and soup. Oddly, while I love potatoes, and I love soup, I don't particularly like potato soup (with or without leeks, bacon, cheese, sour cream, chives, etc.). Too grainy, not enough protein or fiber, often made with Potato Buds, usually kind of tasteless and disappointing in my experience.

So where did the name come from? Well...Spudd is actually an inside joke/nickname with certain close friends (hence the two Ds--truly I'm not trying to be the next Dan Quayle here), and soup seemed an appropriate analogy for the mixture of random odds and ends that characterize my normal thought process. And I even found a template that shows lots of vegetable-colored dots floating in space!

I keep thinking about inserting a little section on the blog page with a soup of the week or something. But then people might want recipes, and I'm not going down that foodie-blog road right now. Maybe I should just list my top ten favorite soups and potato dishes. Not that anyone really wants to know! But maybe it would come in handy for entertainment if I haven't posted anything new in awhile.

She blinded me with science

22 years later and it seems I'm still pretty useless at science:

Thanks to Anne for providing this quiz to confirm my lack of science skills, but also for renewing my faith in the value of an English degree.