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home sweet home

The Virginia primary is today, and Barack wins by a landslide.

However, in my hometown of Roanoke County, Hillary wins 56% to 43% with 64% reporting. In Roanoke city, Hillary loses 44% to 55%. The racial and economic composition of Roanoke City and County are very different, so I guess it's not surprising.

The Republicans are more unified. While it's a close race statewise, Huckabee wins with at least 60% of the vote in both Roanoke County and Roanoke City (McCain 32% or less).

For the SW Virginia reader (ie Rosa), Clinton also won in Bedford, Bedford City, Botetourt, Buchanan (with 90% of the vote!), Franklin County, and Pulaski. Basically she rocked SW Virginia. I hesitate to speculate on the reason.

5:22 p.m. - Feb. 12, 2008

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sexism is not dead

I caucused for Hillary. It was an interesting experience. There were perhaps 25 people in my precinct. Hillary got the majority, but delegates were split, 2 and 2.

After the initial vote, we all had the opportunity to make speeches. Here's where things got interesting. Perhaps 8 Hillary supporters gave speeches, including myself. We all managed to support her without denigrating Obama. Not so for the Obama supporters.

Most of the Obama supporters didn't feel like talking. 4 gave speeches. Of those 4, 2 were particularly interesting.

Speaker #1: I hate to say it, but it's still an old boy's club, and I really think we should vote for Obama because he's a man. I just don't think, as a woman, that Hillary will be as effective in getting her platform through. (Spoken by a woman.)

Speaker #2: I think we should vote for Obama because he's a man. I think this is important because he'll be more effective at negotiating with foreign leaders. I think they won't take Hillary seriously because she's a woman.

Think sexism is dead? Think again.

I guess I'm sheltered. I encounter subtle sexism all the time, but I can't remember the last time I encountered overt sexism face-to-face. Other caucus goers I talked to in different precints encountered the same sort of thing. Somewhere on the order of 1 in 20 or 30 voters in the Seattle area is not only sexist but is willing to make a speech about it.

11:43 p.m. - Feb. 11, 2008

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love em or leave em

I ran a 5K this morning. I had hoped to go under 23:00 and was a bit disappointed that I didn't, but I just noticed that my fastest 5K time since moving to Seattle is 22:57, so I guess I don't feel so bad. My time today was 23:15. That's 7:30 minutes per mile. I placed 140 / 1153 overall, 13/271 in my age division (don't know what that was), and 41 / 810 out of the women runners. The fastest woman finished in 19:03.

I have actually run in very few races with 1000 or more runners; this was probably only the third race of this size. The first mile was very crowded and I felt like I was constantly weaving around people. On one hand conditions were perfect - cool, flat, and not too windy. On the other hand, I was sick this week, and I haven't done any speedwork since last spring, and the course was crowded. (Why do *some* people who plan to run a 5K in 9:00 miles line up at the 7:00 mile location? Most don't, of course, but a very small number of much slower runners can cause a real traffic jam. They had pace markers at the start.) In addition, I don't wear a watch when I run, so I am really dependent on them calling out mile splits during races which they didn't do today. If I'd known how close I was to 23:00, I might have run a little faster. I plan to wear a watch during the half marathon, so I guess I should probably get a watch and start getting used to running with it.

I was standing at the starting line at about 9:22. The race was to start at 9:30. It was a "valentine's day" run, so I was idly watching one sickeningly cute couple beside me. I noticed they had matching doodads on their shoes. I thought, "how cute!" Then I realized, "#$&*(! That's a chip!" I'd left my chip in the car. The car was half a mile away, and as noted, the race was to start in 8:00! Basically, I sprinted back to the car, got the chip, put it on my shoe, and got back at about 9:30. The race ended up starting 5 minutes late, so I had time to catch my breath.

I was a little grumpy because the race cost $25. This is pricey for a 5K. It was on a trail, so they didn't have to close any streets. They gave out T-shirts, but they were just cotton, and they'd run out of Smalls AND mediums so I ended up with a large (unisex) which is about as useful to me as a women's small would be to B. They didn't have people calling out times at the mile markers. There was no water available on the course, and there was no entertainment of any kind. If they were supporting a charity, they made no mention of it on the website or shirt. What was all the money for??? I guess this was very much a for-profit venture.

11:05 a.m. - Feb. 10, 2008

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sigh

Yesterday morning, I looked onto my B of A account just to see my balance and so on. I noticed 3 charges that I couldn't remember making. I looked more closely; two of them were Yah*oo and one was A*OL. I have never spent any moeny with either of those companies. Twenty minutes later, I'd cancelled my card. I also called AOL to try and figure out who made the charge. This person had an account, and I provided the information, so supposedly it's "being worked." We'll see.

The question is, how did both my credit card and my debit card get stolen with one month? Coincidence, or something else? It makes me nervous. The only things I can think of are (a) mail fraud or (b) having used both cards with a single vendor. Neither seems likely, but I've cancelled paper statements from my bank and credit card accounts. I already have paper statements from one brokerage account, and the other goes to work, which I think is safe. I save all my statements, which is why I hadn't gone to paper statements before.

I've also resolved to use the same card for ALL internet purchases - my credit card. That way, my debit card (which is more vulnerable and more difficult to get money back from in cases of fraud) shouldn't get stolen. If it is, then I'll know it's not through the internet.

I guess the next thing I should do is check my credit and make sure nothing else is going on.

10:23 a.m. - Feb. 09, 2008