HPV and Vaccination

The current debate on the HPV vaccine is driving me crazy. The mandated vaccines, the cost, the lack of insurance coverage, but that isn't why I'm writing about it. What irritates me is that once again the burden of protection is placed on women and girls, with no treatment for men -- the carriers.
I keep remembering an Ann Lander column from 1987 or so, when someone wrote in and excitedly described a new method of birth control: a robot IUD that could zap sperm coming into a woman's uterus! Amazing! Space-age technology inside our bodies! Ann Landers's reply? She'll be more excited when they come up with something similar for men.

Crazy Cat Lady

Halloween decorating is fun, but why stop with the house? My cats should benefit, too. So when I dropped by a local yarn store that's going out of business, I bought some "eyelash" yarn to make into cat leis. Not collars, mind you, because cats should only wear collars with break-away fasteners and I don't have any around.

Pickle shows off his new necklace.

Taco just wants to know where his dinner is.

Oh yeah. I definitely need to try this in new colors.

September

I hate to say it, but I think that summer is over. It's past Labor Day, the leaves are turning here in SE Wisconsin and school has begun. The calendar says that autumn doesn't begin for another 10 days, but I don't think that the upcoming equinox has much to say about the matter. Don't get me wrong, I love fall. I just wish the sun didn't set so early.

With that in mind, I love autumn. For many reasons, including the Weird Pumpkin season. Here are a few gourds I picked at the grocery store and farmer's market. I don't know all of the varieties because none of them were labeled, so comment if you can identify any of these!

Decorative gourd

Delicata, perhaps?

Hubbard squash

Sweet dumpling

Baby pumpkin

Kabocha squash, I think.

Taco in a basket, just because he's cute.