The posting here has been sparse for the past month or so. Sorry! That’s due, in part, to not having a whole lot to say that’s relevant to Life in Ithaca. Mostly though, it’s because our Life in Ithaca is coming to an end… very soon!

We’re packing up and leaving in 19 days. Matt’s got a job in London, UK!

So big changes :O)

After what’s sure to be an amazing Christmas visit with family up there in Canada (the “attic of the United States”) we fly to Heathrow, arriving at 9:00am on January 1, 2006.

Currently we’re tumbling toward a move-out tizzy! This is the biggest purge-time ever in our household… Freecycle wants it, so does Salvation Army and so does Craigslist.. and small electrical appliances, furniture too, be gone! If only that magic wand trick worked ;)

Warning: future posts to this blog may include rants about tenant’s rights and rental issues in Ithaca.

But I just cracked the shell of the new blog of the future, so check it out if you like over at london.different-day.com

It’s nearly impossible to find a good printer that does 8×12 photo prints from digital files! After a relatively lengthy search I discovered printroom.com. The site is more refined-looking than your average snapfish and I was convinced by their range of print sizes and paper choices that they cater more to pro and semi-pro photographers. To me this meant the print quality is subject to a higher standard, so I placed an order for several enlargements. Their prices are great too! You can track the order progress online, and they shipped the following day. Prints arrived very quickly, wrapped and packaged appropriately and best of all - I’m very satisfied with the results!

Unfortunately this weekend marks the first real chill of fall, which means the balloon game and ferris wheel on Cayuga Street aren’t doing much business. At the moment the temperature is 42F/6C - yikes!

The rain didn’t stop some people yesterday from touring the Commons, browsing tables of goodies made from apples. We picked up a half-peck of macoun apples from the Cornell Plantations stand. I think a half-peck is five pounds, but I’ve never heard the term before so can’t be sure. I know it was enough to make 4 1/2 pints of delicious apple butter! I used Elise’s recipe at Simply Recipes and highly recommend it if you’re in the mood for canning. YUM! We also bought a mini apple pie from the Amish booth.

Yesterday was also the opening of the fall Friends of the Library book sale - “One of the largest book sales in the country, with nearly 250,000 selections which are collected over a 10 month period.” We arrived around 8:30 and waited in line for about 1/2 hour to get in. I overheard the line monitor say that some diehards started lining up at 4am! The used booksellers in town show up first thing to snap up the best deals. Matt saw a guy with a handheld scanner, entering all the book UPC’s for whatever reason. Small paperbacks are $2 and trade’s and hardcovers are $4.50. Hot deals! We got out for 26 bucks, definitely a feat for Matt who eats books for breakfast :O)

After the book sale we tried dim sum at Hai Hong restaurant, which runs on weekends from 11am-2pm. My favorites were the crab-stuffed shrimp ball and sweet red bean paste-filled sesame balls.

I’m hoping the rain lifts later in the week so I can take a drive out to Taughannock and Treman falls for some fall foliage photo sessions. Next week is apparently peak color time and all the rain makes for better falls.

A couple of weeks ago we took a drive to Corning (about 30 miles away) to check out the Museum of Glass which we knew about from reading finger lakes area tourist info. Corning as a town seems much smaller than Ithaca with the exception of CMOG - obviously the main attraction there. We were surprised to find a huge, ultra-modern (and glass-walled, go figure) building in the midst of a farmland valley.

The posted admission for adults is 12 bucks, but here’s a tip: Ithaca residents qualify as ‘locals’, so show ID and pay only 4 bucks! Great deal :O)

There’s an enormous marketplace on the main floor selling products in all configurations of glass you can imagine - some pieces of art we saw were tens of thousands of dollars, but there’s plenty to buy for those with a tighter budget. Christmas ornaments, perfume decanters, glass-bead jewelry, beverage glasses, dishware, and the latest bodum designs… we didn’t spend, but there’s enough temptation.

The museum is definitely of world-class quality and wouldn’t be out of place in the big city, so go if you can! Here’s a link to some pics I took.

Too many mice, too few traps!

In the past three days I’ve trapped four little mice under the sink. I’ve been using the humane ‘mice cube’ traps which are clean and work like a charm. This is becoming too ritualistic for my liking - cutting the cheese, rubbing a bit on the door to create temptation, then placing the cheese far inside to lead the mouse in far enough so the door closes. When one crawls in you can hear the door closing behind it from the next room. This is handy when you’re awake, then you just carry the cube down the block to the park, turn it over and set the critter free!

I just came back from the park where this latest catch - a super-tiny one - stood frozen and frightened, not knowing what to do. So sad..

When the mouse is trapped all night though, I open the cupboard, see the tell-tale condensation lining the inside of the cube (so I have to look close to confirm the catch) and there’s a whole mess of poop in there with it, rendering the trap too filthy for me to want to clean and reuse.

The plug-in ‘ultrasonic multi-pest repeller’ I bought the other day isn’t working so well. It is keeping them off the kitchen counter though, which is a positive thing! We don’t leave any food out and we’re clean, really :O) The problem is under the sink, where for some reason the landlord has cut out the wall and left it unsealed, so the mouses have run of the house.

Grand total trapped in this apartment to date: 6 7

Only store in Ithaca selling humane traps (that I’ve found, and believe me I searched): WalMart

This is the most personal and detailed story I’ve seen so far from a hurricane survivor.

“Missing Person: Sarah’s tale” was written by Sarah Donley, the daughter of the editor of NOLA.com. She tells her whole experience from the time she evacuated the 9th ward on Friday night before Sunday’s storm. It’s almost 5000 words, but I’m sure much-abridged. Here’s an excerpt where she describes the moment she heard news about the fate of her neighbourhood:

The only information we received at all those few days was a woman in line at Saia’s, a small grocery store that opened on Tuesday with no power and two inches of water on the floor. The owner was only letting a few people in at a time, and as a result we waited in line for nearly an hour. At some point I heard a woman behind me in line mention the Bywater. I went up to her and asked her if she had mentioned the Bywater. Yes she had, she told me. Desperate for any sort of information, I begged her to tell me anything she had heard. She looked me square in the eye, and said softly “All I’ve heard is that they are pushing floatin’ bodies out of the way to find survivors.”

I’ve just heard the St. Bernard Parish President Henry “Junior” Rodriguez talk about the situation they’ve had to deal with over the past 10 days. One of the hardest-hit areas in New Orleans has just seen FEMA for the first time today. He couldn’t believe that they haven’t had federal help, but that 50 rescue workers from Canada have been there for days and helped rescue and evacuate more than 8000 people from the parish.

Update - found a Reuters article with details.

A multitude of issues are to blame for the fact that thousands of suffering people are still clinging to rooftops awaiting rescue five days after being stranded there, that tens of thousands of people are living in danger in areas covered in garbage and feces, with little or no access to food, water, showers, clean clothes and all the rest. Those things have become luxuries. There are babies who have been wearing the same diaper fo several days, and this is the richest, most powerful nation in the world?

It’s sickening. Especially since authorities on many levels who are speaking from the ground of the disaster have routinely REFUSED help offered by private citizens and even countries.

Two days ago I watched a press conference with Mike Brown, who is directing FEMA in New Orleans. When asked if the US would be accepting foreign aid to assist with the disaster, his response was: No, if we need it we’ll ask for it, and we won’t because we’re more than capable to take care of our own. I thought his attitude at the time was ridiculous, and now even moreso. He mentioned he had experience directing relief efforts in Asia after the tsunami and he knew from experience what needed to be done. Today, however, the Boston Herald has a story claiming Brown was unqualified for the FEMA job, and was asked to resign from his last job - running horse shows - because there were failures in his supervision.

A private company called Innovative Emergency Management (IEM, Inc.) was responsible for the New Orleans hurricane disaster plan. You will find this article very interesting as it seems IEM has done absolutely noting in this situation and is, in effect, shirking their responsibility.

I also made a comment on my last post that, if you are not aware by now, the Red Cross has been denied access to the city of New Orleans where their help has been most needed for days.

Also, wouldn’t you think people who moved from the filthy Superdome to the Astrodome in Houston might want a clean change of clothes? Apparently, according to this first-hand account (via BB), there are few or no visible officials at that shelter and clothing donations were refused.

And when will there be an official list naming who is housed in which shelters? Some kind of registration process is crucial so families can be reunited. –I just heard Red Cross has now set up a network for this.

I’ve been hoping that people who need it are somehow gaining access to support information and to the internet to connect with FREE HOUSING being offered by individuals both on Craigslist as I mentioned yesterday, and now at hurricanehousing.org where more than 40,000 beds are being offered.

I visited New Orleans four years ago and hope/d to return again sometime in the near future. It was an unforgettable experience for many reasons. One memory that sticks out in my mind is sitting on a 2nd floor patio on Bourbon Street that was attached to the building at nearly a 45-degree angle - a sign of how the buildings there responded to the weather, humidity and to existing so close to the edge of sea level. New Orleans seemed like a hidden world saturated with colourful culture, art, music and free spirits. And you could physically feel its history, unlike most places I have visited.

Now that its people are suffering their worst nightmare, its also encouraging to see how individuals throughout the country are reaching out to offer help however they can. Thousands are offering FREE rooms and homes to people who are displaced here on Craigslist, so at least there’s hope for people to get back on their feet and start again in different locations.

Many universities, including Syracuse, are taking in students who were supposed to begin classes at Tulane this week. Also I read that Noah’s Wish, an animal welfare organization, has sent 100 volunteers to New Orleans to rescue suffering and displaced pets.

Lots of people have made donations to Red Cross already, and fundraising TV telethons (complete with celebrities!) are imminent. Here’s one great way to donate your cash - at this Crafters United / Esty shop you can purchase some amazing handmade items that have been donated by crafters, and all proceeds go to Red Cross hurricane relief fund. Check it out:

* 15-20 people chattering about outside the church doors
* 7-8 guys sitting in and under a large tree
* 5 people sprawled on the lawn smoking a joint
* 2 guys practicing juggling with pins