Feminist Friday Quick Clicks, 8

This is, of course, also an open thread.  And sorry to be posting this so late, I need to learn not to let my computer troubles get the best of me.

• On dealing with ‘sexism doesn’t exist’ comments from other women.
• Hells yes.  “at least 41 House Dems are writing directly to Pelosi, telling her that they will not vote for anything “that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law.””
• Just in case anyone hadn’t heard:  “the Republican National Committee (RNC) has a health insurance plan for their employees that covers abortion.”
• Rachel Maddow. Apparently the teabaggers and the teabaggers are suing each other.
• Sesame Street in South Africa has a new HIV+ character on it’s show.
• India is friggin rocking right now, allowing people to signify ‘female,’ ‘male,’ or ‘other’ on ballot forms.
• Another study on math and how environment, more than innate ability, effects how women perform.
• On cancer and divorce rates.

Sunset, Sunrise

According to the internet, the sun set tonight at 4:30pm.  It was completely dark by five.  And it’s not even winter yet.  (Oh, and this is a more personal post, if you haven’t noticed yet.)

On the brighter side of things, today I have, for the second time, successfully bicycled up the ridiculously steep hill behind the house without falling off (the falling off was generally a result of me not having the strength to pedal against the hills steepness, the bike halting, then tipping to the side- the path curves.)  So that was exciting.  I was completely out of breath for the remainder of the way to the 6yr olds school, but my goal was to do it, and I have.  Now my goal is to do it every day when I pick her up, in the hopes that by the end of the month I am not winded by the time I am at the top.

Last night I made this Moroccan dish for dinner, subbing the ground coriander for fresh coriander leaves/cilantro and leaving the cayenne pepper out (we don’t have any so I put red chili flakes on the side to sprinkle over if anyone wanted.)  It was delicious.  We ate the leftovers again tonight with a small salad (still yummy.)  Tomorrow I plan to make a Thai red curry (pretty much my favorite dish.)

I’ve been very busy lately with my Danish lessons.  I’m there three days a week for four hours.  I find them particularly interesting because I am almost completely immersed in the language at home (and everywhere I go) so every thing I learn is like a small (tiny!) piece of a very large puzzle clicking into place.  I had a twenty minute conversation with a woman from Brazil during break last week who didn’t speak any English.  We got through [most of] an entire conversation speaking Danish, Spanish (me,) and Portuguese (her.)

Oh, and I have an appointment for later this month to get a pap smear.  Hopefully this time it will come out clear, but if not the doctor will recommend a gyno (in DK you don’t just see a specialist because you feel like it, you have to see your regular doctor first and the doctor will recommend if you need to see one or not) and I’ll make an appointment.  If this whole pre-cancer shit is still there it’ll probably be time to scrape it out.  Who knows

And, lastly, I want to make some cute slippers to wear around the house to keep my feet warm.  Anyone have any good patterns?

-Ariel