the C's do Woodland

Since we didn't go to Bozeman we might as well stay home and spend money, right? Yesterday it was a grand sweep through Woodland, the seat of this fair county. First to look for pants for Mr. C, now that he has shrunk two sizes and it doesn't appear he will ever "fill out", as my mother would say. No luck. Then to La Superior, a great Mexican supermarket to get all the ingredients for tonight's enchiladas con pollo. Next to Home Depot to look for the outdoor lighting, in-ground and in-tree. Found the one but not the other. The plants were nothing to bring home, either. Basically it was a bust, but Woodland is a delightful little city. It has an abundance of old wooden Victorian houses on shady streets, a terrific library, a very funky Main Street (now, sadly, with many closed shops.) We'll make the trek down to Vacaville tomorrow to continue our various searches.

I am always on the lookout for items I need at the beach house. Yesterday I found this handy little gizmo.

My stove there does not have a very low setting. When I try to turn it waaaay down it goes out. I needed something called a heat diffuser. I remember my mother had one. It was about 8" in diameter and sat on the burner to regulate heat. The drawback was that it was probably made of asbestos, currently a big no-no. I found this today while trolling the aisles of Ace Hardware.


The idea is that you set it on the burner and Presto! Instant simmer. We'll see.

About yesterday's cryptic remark about the "don't ask, don't tell" court decision. Here's a bit more about it from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"The case, Pietrangelo v. Gates, was filed by James Pietrangelo, a former Army captain who was discharged for being gay. He was originally part of a group of 12 plaintiffs who were dismissed under the policy because of their orientation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston rejected their suit last year. He appealed to the high court on his own; most other plaintiffs asked the court not to step in, preferring to let the administration deal with the issue. Their position was supported by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit group that helps military personnel affected by "don't ask, don't tell." The network said another case that reached the Court of Appeals, for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, was a better vehicle to take the issue before the high court.

"In the Ninth Circuit case, former Air Force Maj. Margaret Witt, a decorated flight nurse, was allowed to pursue her lawsuit over her dismissal. The appeals court did not declare the "don't ask, don't tell" policy unconstitutional but said the Air Force must prove that discharging her advanced its goals of troop readiness and unit cohesion.

"I think this decision is an absolute travesty of justice and I think every judge on this court should be ashamed of themselves," said Pietrangelo, who served six years in the Army, seven years in the Vermont National Guard, and fought in Iraq in 1991.

"We'll see what the administration does about this one. I agree that it is a better case so perhaps they were waiting for a suit with more teeth."

I like the image of a three-piece sharkskin pinstripe just waiting to take a big bite out of . . .