Midtopia in mourning

I won't be posting much until later today, because this morning we had to bury our cat. She was 14, and basically stopped eating two weeks ago. There was nothing the vet could do that didn't involve surgery.

She's the third pet we've had to put down in recent years, and the last animal connection to our post-college days.

She died peacefully, while I held her. We buried her this morning in our back yard, next to our other cat. We're down to one animal now, our dog. Hers may be the only dry eyes in the house today.

death, pets, midtopia

Aargh

One of the biggest news event of the Iraq war happens yesterday, and Blogger is down during my posting window. There are no words to describe that sort of frustration.

Everything seems to be working now, so let's get started.

politics, midtopia

Slowdown

I've been a little light on the posts the last couple of days, and I apologize. Work and home life have gotten very busy with the approach of summer, leaving me short on time. I'll have some posts up later today and will play major catch up tomorrow.

In the car I was listening to MPR, which was broadcasting the Hayden confirmation hearings. I had the pleasure of listening to Russ Feingold question Hayden. On this issue I'm very close to Feingold, so it was great to hear him articulating many of the same things that I've written about in the past few months.

I must say I was also impressed by Hayden -- cool, polite, and obviously very smart. I can see why members of Congress who have worked with him like him. He was quite straightforward, not dodging questions and willing to answer hypotheticals -- a refreshing change from the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

So what have I been doing instead of posting? Besides putting in some odd hours at work, I've been cutting in a new vegetable garden. I do it by hand because I like the work: removing the sod with a shovel (to be transplanted elsewhere), hoeing up the soil (instead of renting a tiller), mixing in fresh topsoil and manure, lining the edge with paving bricks turned on edge to help keep the weeds out and putting up a short fence to keep animals out.

I finished it today and was finally able to plant the tomato plants that I've been growing in pots. They're a family beefsteak hybrid, developed by the last farmer in my family tree and kept going by the rest of us saving a few seeds from each season's harvest. This weekend I'll plant the rest of the garden: lettuce, broccoli, peas, beans, corn and maybe some peppers. I tried carrots last year, but our soil is too clayish and dense. So no roots this time around.

Our raspberry patch should also bear fruit for the first time this year, so I'm a happy farmer. My wife likes developing flower beds; for me, it's only worth it if I can eat it.

politics, midtopia

Branching out

For a week or so now I've been a regular contributor over at Donklephant. It's a centrist site that gets as much traffic in an hour as Midtopia gets in a day, so it's a much higher-profile platform, and I'm honored and pleased to be invited on board.

That shouldn't set any alarm bells ringing. Midtopia is my baby, and I'm committed to seeing her grow and thrive. I'll usually put up one or two things a day at Donklephant, and everything I post there will be posted here first. So if you want the full Midtopia experience, this is still the only place you can get it.

But Donklephant is well worth checking out on its own merits (a bit like the flea praising the elephant, that). Give them a look, then come back here for that cozy, honored-guest feeling only Midtopia can provide.

politics, midtopia

Back home

Made it back home yesterday. The return rail trip from Chicago went just as smoothly as the outward leg -- minus the cheesecake (sob). I'm tanned, rested and ready to return to my usual high level of bloviating. To the keyboard!


politics, midtopia

On the road

I'm leaving tomorrow for a week-long road trip -- with wife, sans kids. I'm going to lug my laptop along, but I trust you'll understand if posting is a bit sparse for the next seven days -- though I will try to respond promptly to comments and e-mails.

If you need something to do in the meantime, consider taking up midget tossing.

Busy busy busy

The site's on pace for it's third consecutive 100-visitor day, thanks to links from the Daou Report, the Moderate Voice and the Reaction.. If the pace keeps up, the site will get its 2,000th visitor today.

The most popular post at the moment is ConBoy: The Ballad of Tom DeLay. Check it out if you haven't yet.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to check out Midtopia.

politics, midtopia

Split brain

How do you know if you're a moderate? When stuff like this happens:

Right now the site is getting a stream of (presumably) conservative/Republican readers, thanks to a link from Hugh Hewitt to the post on health insurance and Mitt Romney.

At the same time, another stream of visitors is coming in from the Daou Report, to read why we have no reason to trust the GOP on ethics or budgetary matters.

It's good to be in the middle.

politics, midtopia

Tell me about yourself

The site had its 1,000th visitor last night -- not bad for a blog that launched just over a month ago. Thanks to the various sites that have linked here, and thanks especially to all the readers who chose to make Midtopia part of their day.

I get very curious, though, about who those readers are, since so few of you leave comments. So I'd like to invite all of you to add a short comment to this post telling me a little about yourself. It'll help me get a mental image of just whom I'm writing for.

Feel free to chime in on any other post, too, of course, or continue reading without commenting. And as always, if there are things you'd like to see added, removed or changed on the site, e-mail me. I hope for this to become an interactive blog that readers have a stake in. I can't do that without your comments.

Guest post at The Reaction

The ever-gracious Michael Stickings asked me to do a guest post at his blog, The Reaction, and it's up there now, a fusion of a couple of recent posts on Donald Rumsfeld. The Reaction is a moderate-to-liberal take from a Canadian, which makes for some interesting and thoughtful perspectives. You won't always agree with him, but it's worth checking out.

Thanks for the links

In the last couple of days both the Moderate Voice and the Daou Report linked to the Debt and stimulus post, helping the site break the 100 daily visitors mark for the first time.

And I've just noticed that the Star Tribune's blog roundup, Bloghouse, mentions the Easter Bunny post. It's online already, and will appear in tomorrow's paper.

If you've come to the site from any of those sources, welcome, and thanks for checking out Midtopia.

Comments work again!

The comments problem appears to be fixed. Thanks be to the god of random self-resolving software issues, or the anonymous Blogger tech who found the problem and solved it.

Fire away!

Comments problem

The site is having a problem with comments; people are posting them, but they're not showing up. I'm trying to fix it, but I suspect it's a Blogger problem, not something specific to my blog.

More site tweaks

I've greatly expanded the "Political Blogs" section of the sidebar and begun a list of Minnesota blogs. I've also added a couple of more links to my "Favorites" page.

Getting heard

Thanks to the Daou Report at Salon.com for linking to my health-care post. Welcome, Daou readers!

Housekeeping and recognition

I've been spending some time mucking with the site instead of posting, and have now added a links page. It's a place for any sort of link I find interesting but that doesn't seem to belong in the main page sidebar. It's far from complete, and suggestions are welcome. Scroll down to the "other links" section of the sidebar, or click here.

Separately, my post on the Republican Study Committee's 2007 budget proposal has been picked as one of the Posts of the Week by Blogcritics. In addition, a link from The Moderate Voice to my post on Iran nearly tripled the site traffic over the weekend. I wish you could see the happy dance, but perhaps it's best all around that you can't.

Thanks to everyone who finds Midtopia a worthwhile place to spend part of their day.


politics, midtopia