Thursday 13 – Flood 2011
Welcome to Fargo. Grab a Sandbag please. Here in eastern North Dakota we are dealing with our 3rd straight major flood. This year it has all been very quiet and laid back. If you are only in the city and not having to drive anywhere, you would hardly know there’s a flood. That’s because we knew this one was coming. In 2009 we had a mere 9 days to build miles and miles of sandbag dikes. This year we started building sandbags in February. And the river crested at 38.75 feet, the 4th highest crest in history. It is receding now, slowly. We’re expecting up to 5 inches of snow on Thursday nmight and friday, so that may slow things down. But the real problem now is in the rural areas. If you look at these pics and onder why is there a foot of water on the interstates, it because we live on completely flat land. Pour a glass of water on a table, and it will cover the entire table. Not very deeply, but it will keep running until something stops it. Here, there are no hills to stop it, so it just goes everywhere. In my county we have over 60 miles of roads closed, and another 50 miles that are drivable but under at least 6 inches of water. One of my co-workers Carla Busche (I wrote Sleeping With the Wolf for her), has to drive for almost two hours to work, since so many of the roads are flooded and everyone crawls along at a snail’s pace on the few roads that are open. It’s normally a half hour from her farm to work, but now she has to leave at 4:45 am to punch in by 7:00. Her husband takes the kids to daycare partly by boat.Fargo is weathering the flood well, but Valley City, only 55 miles away, is fighting hard. Pray for them. Here are 13 pics of our flood:Honey, we’re gonna need the boat.
This is prairie land, not a lake.
Updates!
What have I been up to lately? Aside from recovering from pneumonia? Well, working on edits for Wolf’s Glory. And working the day job. After missing a little over a week at my desk at NAS, I’m way behind on my work. So I put in my eight hours there, and go home to my other desk. My editor has been very understanding about me being sick. She said I should take care of myself first, then work on the edits. I have gone through the manuscript, made some changes and additions, and turned it in. My editor will review it and send it back sometime this week for me to continue to make improvements. If you go to the Excerpts Page you will find the whole first chapter of Wolf’s Glory.
Another thing that everyone in Fargo is doing is watching the river rise. Unlike in 2009 we have had months to prepare for this flood. I put in my shift at Sandbag Central filling sandbags back in February. This time around the flood fight is calm and steady. I don’t even have an emergency evacuation bag packed. Hm. Hope I won’t need one. The river is hovering right around 38.5 feet, 20.5 feet above flood stage. I believe that is 
the fourth highest crest on record. It may still go a little higher, but not much. As long as the dikes and sandbags hold we’ll be fine. There are about 60 miles of roads under water, including an interstate highway, so getting around is tricky. Rural kids are being brought to school via ATMs, canoes and air boats. Fun times here in the Red River of the North’s valley. Send positive vibes our way, everyone!
Steampunk Costuming Updated
It’s almost done! All I have left to do is put the skirt fastenings on and make the hat. I will make a blouse sometime in the future. That will be more useful if I ever use this costume for spinning demos. For the time being I will wear a lacy white camisole. I almost ordered Victorian boots, but honestly, I’ve already spent a lot of money on this costume, and I have some T-strap low heeled punps I can wear instead. At any rate. I’m feeling pretty pleased with the results.
I will make the hat next weekend. If you’d like to see the step-by-step of this project, I have a photo log of this over on my facebook page.
Steampunk Costume Attempt
Petticoat front
Petticoat back is fuller, for bustle
There’s a sci-fi/fantasy con in Moorhead in April and one of my friends is having a Steampunk themed hospitality room. So I’ve decided to sew myself an appropriate costume. I’ve ordered a corset and jacket from an online store. I won’t have time to sew everything by April 15. Hope they get here on time. Since I’m into historical costuming I decided to go with a Victorian outfit but since it’s fantasy anything goes, right? Anyway, yesterday I began the costume by making a petticoat out of white muslin with ribbon trim. I didn’t have a pattern (it’s a petticoat. 4 gores, a ruffle hem and a casing for an elastic waistband. How hard can it be?) so I measured my hips, divided that number by 4, measured myself waist-to-ankle, and laid out the fabric to cut 4 gores.
Then I sewed the gore sides together, made a casing for two rows of narrow elastic, sewed the black ribbon over the edge of the eyelet ruffle (can you believe how much that stuff costs?!!) and and sewed a couple red ribbon roses over the black ribbon.
I also picked up a black hat and I will be putting ribbon and a silk rose on the crown, and maybe some netting?
I wasn’t planning on spending a lot of money on this outfit, but between the jacket, corset, hat, fabric for the petticoat, blouse andskirt, I think I’ll be sinking around $200.00 into this project. I will have to go to every con I can find to get my money’s worth out of this outfit!
I’ll be posting as I go with pictures of the items I make.
13 Facts about March
It’s March! That means that here in North Dakota winter will be over in a month or so. Hooray!!! But March can be a treacherous month. Did you know that some of the worst weather on record occurred in March? Here are some random facts about March:
1. The word March is from the Roman god of war, Mars. March was the first month of the Roman year.
2. The Great Storm of March 12-13, 1993 affected 26 US states and much of eastern Canada. Syracuse NY had 43 inches of snow. Birmingham AL had 13 inches, Atlanta GA had 4 inches. Several NASCAR races had to be postponed for weeks.
3. On March 4, 1793 George Washington delivered the shortest inaugural speech ever, at just 135 words.
4. On March 15, 1941 the northern plains were hit especially hard by a blizzard. It was 20 degrees and sunny in the morning so folks went into town wearing their spring clothing, but by that evening over 150 people were dead in North Dakota.
5. In the US March is Women’s History Month.
6. In Japan, the spring equinox (around March 20-21) is a national holiday. I like that. It’s better than St Patrick’s Day.
7. On March 1, 1983 the low temperature in Quincy Missouri was -21 F. Yowza. That would be low even for North Dakota.
8. On March 22, 1457 the Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.
9. On March 25 31 AD the first Easter is celebrated in recorded history.
10. On March 26, 2009 the previous record for flood level was broken in Fargo ND. It crested a week or so later at over a foot higher than the previous record.
11. On March 2, 1962 Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a basketball game. NO one has come even close since then.
12. In March of 1949 Newfoundland became Canada’s 10th province. (Not the Yukon)
13. The first St Patrick’s Day parade took place in New York City on March 17, 1762. That was before the Irish Potato Famine drove large numbers of Irish immigrants to New York.
Does any of this surprise you?
Far From Perfect by Portia da Costa
FAR FROM PERFECT – Portia Da Costa
Enduring passion, turbulent emotions, and an engagement of convenience…
Anna Felgate and Nick Lisitano shared a night of passion together four long years ago, and even though the sex was perfect, the emotional aftermath and the estrangement that followed were about as far from perfect as it’s possible to be. Both strong willed individualists, they’ve been keeping their distance ever since – even though they both secretly admit that they’re still hot for each other. But the best laid plans of estranged lovers never run smoothly, and a crisis in Nick’s family brings the two of them back together again. For the sake of his ailing father, Nick proposes a daring plan – a temporary engagement – and even though she knows she’s playing with fire and putting her heart in deep peril, Anna is compelled to agree to it.
Can these two former lovers pull off their deception without tearing each other apart in the process? And will they manage to resist their mutual desire and keep their hands off one another… or will they plunge headlong into an affair, perfect or otherwise?
My Bit For the Fargo Flood Prep
It’s looking less and less likely that Fargo Moorhead will avoid a major flood this year. The city is asking all the larger employers to send 10% of their workforce to Sandbag Central to make sandbags on company time. My employer signed up for today, Feb 21, and next Monday Feb 28. I took the morning shift. We were all smiles as we took our places at Shute #1.
I was going to try for a light hearted tone, and talk about my announcement to the entire building that I wrote smutty romance and the drop dead gorgeous guy I clunked in the head with my shovel handle, but really I hurt too much right now for that.
I am almost 50 years old, and extremely out of shape, but some of the younger gals from work were hurting pretty badly too by the end of our four hours.
Just let me say that I am proud of the hard work I put in today and I hope that it will help in the flood fight.
The weather service is saying that this flood has a higher than 25% chance of topping the flood of 2009. Here is a short feel-good slide show about 2009. I’ve watched it a couple times and it almost gets me to the point where I can stand straight and raise my hands above my waist.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/03/30/fargo.slideshow/index.html
Congrats to the Winner!
The Spread the Love Valentine’s Day Blog Hop was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the snippets, excerpts and short stories along the way. Many thanks to Alanna and Michael for setting it up, and thanks to Mr. Catherine A Noone for supplying the romantic photo that inspired so many of us. Thank you to each of you who hopped on the tour bus and visited our blogs and left so many lovely comments. I hope we can do this again soon!
The winner of the download of Sleeping With the Wolf was Falyn D. Congrats, Falyn!
Hacker Scammer Scum
Earlier this week my email was hacked and hijacked. My contact list was sent an email saying that I had been mugged at gunpoint in London and needed money right now to get back home. This hacker then got into my Facebook account and tried to chat with my friends asking for money. I’m incredibly angry about this, especially since my contact list was deleted, and all my saved emails were deleted too, including one I received from my little sister the morning of the day she was killed in a car accident. I’ve been saving that for a while, pulling it up now and then to re-read our plans for the following weekend. Now it’s gone, and it’s almost like having her be taken away all over again.
Here is the email sent from my account:
Hi,
How you doing? I made a trip to London (United Kingdom) unannounced some days back,Unfortunately i got mugged at gun point last night! All cash,Credit card and phone were stolen,i got messed up in another country, stranded in London, fortunately passport was back in our hotel room. It was a bitter experience and i was hurt on my right hand, but would be fine. I am sending you this message because i don’t want anyone to panic,i want you to keep it that way for now.
My return flight leaves in a few hours but I’m having troubles sorting out the hotel bills, wondering if you could loan me some money to sort out the hotel bills and also take a cab to the airport about ($1,800). I have been to the police and embassy here,but they aren’t helping issues,I have limited means of getting out of here,i have canceled my credit cards already and made a police report, I won’t get a new credit card number till I get back home! So I really need your help.You can contact the hotel management through this telephone number +44 702 404 6640 or +44 702 408 6898,you could wire whatever you can spare to my name and location via Western union:
Name: BLACKED OUT FOR SECURITY
Location:57 Liberty Avenue,London
United Kingdom
SW19 2QS .
Get back to me with the details,would def refund your money once i get back you can count on that,below are the details needed for me to pick up the money with my passport.
MTCN:
Amount Sent:
I await your prompt response.
* * * * * * *
So here are 13 Things I’d Like To Say to the Person who hacked my accounts:
1. Learn to write proper English. If you’re pretending to be me, you should know I’m a native born writer of English, and I know how to punctuate.
2. Did you enjoy the chatty emails I sent to the account you switched to be my primary email? I assume you did, since you replied with a taunt about how 4 of my friends had already sent you 7000 usd.
3. You are a liar. None of my friends have that kind of money, and the ones who care enough about me to be willing to send money know I’m not in London.
4. I have a pair of shoes and I’m not afraid to use them. If you are ever caught I will spend every cent I have for the opportunity to kick you in the balls. The spikes on the toes will create a very satisfying experience. For me.
5. You are pitiful and not as smart as you think you are. Americans don’t use “7000 usd”. I’m laughing myself silly at your stupidity.
6. How much money are you actually making doing this? You’ve been in business with this same scam since at least 2009, and probably earlier. I assume it’s been at least somewhat successful or you would have stopped by now. That means you have committed international theft. The punishment is higher for that.
7. You are a thief. I’ve tracked you to Africa. I’ve heard in some places in Africa theives have their hands chopped off. I approve.
8. My surviving sister is a witch. She has cursed you and asked our deceased sister to haunt you. She could be a real bitch in life and I bet you’re going to have a lovely time with her now that she’s dead and has a grudge against you.
9. You told someone your name is Tunde and you want the money to go to college. What a load of crap. You probably think you’re too smart for college. Again, what a load of crap.
10. I believe in justice. Revenge is good too. I’ll settle for laughing at you while you burn in hell.
11. You are building up a ton of bad karma for yourself. Do you get a kick out of imagining people like me scrambling to get their online lives back together? Do you chuckle at the frustration and heart ache you cause? Watch out. You know what they say about payback. And karma always has the last word.
12. You are a coward without the balls to face your victims. Robbing people through the anonymity of the internet takes no courage.
13. I hate you and I hope someday to be able to dance on your grave. Rot, you scamming hijacking hacker scum.
