Census 2010 -check!

I was very excited to hear 2010 brought with it the census-the ramifications and magnitude of a project like the census fascinates me.
Thus I felt really bad about missing the April 1st deadline for getting my census forms into the mail.

When I started hearing local public radio stories about how low N.Y.'s return numbers were (currently 64%) , what neighborhoods had the lowest rate of returns and which U.S. states had the highest compliance rate (Wisconsin @78%) - I knew I had to make the second deadline:tax day / April 15th.

Ours is indeed in the mail and I included a thank you card-really an apology card for being late-thus the extra stamp on the outside. So glad it is done & so excited to be a part of this historic count. I hope everyone else has done theirs as it is vitally important to getting funding and services at a time when both are so short in supply due to the economy. For more up to date info. on the 2010 census go here. Very fascinating...

hmm...

Versions of this sign have been popping up on tress and sign posts around the neighborhood since April 1st. I am not sure what to make of them ...

Life on the 4th floor...

The oven broke a few weeks ago. It had been working on and off rather sporadically since we moved in . (the first Thanksgiving we had at the apartment it was so off that the turkey was bloody and had to be cooked in pieces...) It shut down for good on Feb. 4th and this meant we were without a way to cook much in the way of food. (I say "we" to be polite. My husband is not know to go anywhere near a stove and when he does panic attacks and temper tantrums worthy of a 4 year old ensue-not to mention fears of food poisoning...) So "we" (read the husband) decided we could get along with a convection oven. While I wait for our electricity bills to sky rocket (consequence #1) many things have gotten shifted around in our already tiny kitchen in order to make room for this new oven. ( consequence #2) Poor Sandi (and the lone plant) have been shoved into a corner -not a good combination but so far, no harm, no foul. Here is Sandi in her new resting place-a roasting pan , a perch from where she can observe everything.