my post about gas prices.

This is my post about gas prices. They are high. I paid $36.47 to fill up my Civic yesterday. Wow. Holy shit and all that.

equal pay day.

Today is Equal Pay Day.

Equal Pay Day is observed in April to indicate how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year. Tuesday symbolizes the day when women's wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week. Because women on average earn less, they must work longer for the same pay. For women of color, the wage gap is greater.

Here's more info from the National Committee on Pay Equity:

The median earnings of women working full-time year-round was 77% of men's median earnings last year, the same as the wage gap in 2002. But this narrowing of the wage gap from 76% last year was achieved only because men's earnings fell more than women's during that time. Women's earnings were $31,223, a drop of 1%, while men's earnings were $40,798, a drop of 2.3% from the previous year. Median earnings for women of color continue to be lower, in general, than earnings for men as a whole. In 2004, the earnings for African American women were $27,730, 68% of men's earnings (up from 66% last year to return to the level of 2002), Latinas at $23,444, 57% of men's earnings (a slight gain from 55% last year and 56% in 2002), and Asian American women at $35,975, 88% of men's earnings (an increase from 80% the last two years).

Go to The Wage Project to find out how your salary compares to those in your area doing the same job.

Here's mine:

You currently make 60% of what the average White Non-Hispanic Male makes with your same job title in the county you provided.

After adjusting for age, education, and industry, you currently make 66% of what your corresponding White Non-Hispanic Male coworker makes.

Over the next 41 years, you will earn $636,464.34 less than your corresponding White Non-Hispanic Male coworker.

Over your entire working life, discrimination will cost you $698,558.42

Your job in the location provided is 15% male and 85% female.

4/20

Today is April 20.

Or 420. Also 420.

I'm sure my soon-to-be-former landlord and his (common-law?) wife Dime-Bag will be celebrating this evening with their friend Mary Jane.

Spark it, Motherfuckers.

for the love of cheese.

I was so happy when Easter finally arrived yesterday. I think I really taxed myself this year with my Lenten discipline-- I gave up cheese.

Yes, cheese. This is apparently very traditional according to the Lent entry of Wikipedia:

During the early Middle Ages, meat, eggs and dairy products were generally proscribed. However, dispensations for dairy products were given, frequently for a donation, from which several churches are popularly believed to have been built, including the Butter Tower of the Rouen Cathedral.

I did allow myself cottage cheese (too good for me to count as a real sacrifice), once slipped and had cream cheese and completely forgot and took a bite of a slice of sharp Cheddar cut to fit on a cracker. Ooh, but that tasted good.

I didn't miss cheese on stuff- like burgers, cold cut sandwiches or even burritos. But I DID miss things in which cheese was the main ingredient: pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, goat cheese on Triscuits. Nachos. Queso. So many things I just didn't count on as being off-limits for those 40 long days. I can't remember the last time I ordered a pizza before Lent, but during Lent all I could think about was a large pepperoni from Papa John's. With the garlic dipping sauce. The entire box of Hot Cross Buns and ridiculous amount of Honey Nut Cheerios, Honey Bunches of Oats and Special K with Red Berries I allowed myself to eat almost made up for the empty place in my diet. Almost.

I like to think I was pretty stalwart about it; I didn't really get cheese-happy til Good Friday, when my mom told me she was boiling eggs for Easter and I unthinkingly said "With cheese?"

Yes, God would have forgiven me had I decided to order a pizza or make myself a grilled cheese sandwich (especially considering the unfortunate living situation my roommate and I were in, albeit temporarily). But where's the discipline in that?

lotsa stuff going on, nothing to write about.

• There will be new kitchen counters and cabinets at the our new home when we move in at the end of the month. Also a new landlord and an actual property manager who is excited to have us move in!
  
• Boy troubles, not mine. I guess they aren't troubles when things end.
  
• Beatrice is due for kitty shots. I hate taking her to the vet. It's very stressful for both of us.
  
• I've been trying to pack a box a night. That hasn't really been working out for me.
  

Generally things are falling into place--except those things which are falling apart of course.

ass.

Because to Bill Napoli some rapes just don't count.

"A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."

In the context, this is the -only- situation in which Sen. Napoli believes the choice of a woman should be abortion. God forbid she should ever've had sex before.

Fucking South Dakota.

EDIT: Added link.

a place of our own.

HotCop and I put a deposit down on a place this morning. It has a fireplace!!

UP NEXT: Washer/Dryer purchase!