Non-monogamy

I think it's great that diverse relationship structures seem to be getting more attention lately. Structure that are not only outside of socially conventional monogamy, but also go beyond the implicitly normative idea of a primary couple who have 'people on the side.'

I think the fifth example in this cartoon is a good approximation of the intent that my partner Danae and I had in designing our commitment ceremony. Yay for deconstructive (reconstructive?) approaches to social norms!

Unexpected Architecture Connection

Sometimes one of the people I'm researching turns out to be easy to find. I'm looking for one Bernard Joseph Stanislaus Cahill. It turns out that as well as having patented an interesting buttefly map projection, he was a very well-known architect in San Francisco who worked up and down the coast and into Canada. UC-Berkeley has a significant archival collection related to him. He may be best known for graveyards and a large columbarium in San Francisco, and he did some really pretty neo-classical designs!

I'm finding that I never know what I'm going to get when I start researching one of these folks.

http://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/tag/bernard-cahill

Shopping in the Rain

For some reason, I thought Price-Rite was a drug store. To my surprise, as I biked into the parking lot in the rain I realized it was a discount grocery store. Which was ok, because I bought a couple things there before continuing my trip to Aldi. After two years of 16 miles a day in all weather, a mile and a half through the rain for grocery shopping is a breeze. It was kind of nice, even.

As comfortable as I am jumping on the bike for errands, I don't imagine I'll be using the Zipcar membership I just signed up for very often. But I did get one! My card just arrived in the mail yesterday. I was trying to figure out how to get Danae here from the airport around Thanksgiving. (To my disgust, the public transit system does not serve the nearby airport.) Zipcar has been in the back of my mind ever since Lisa was using the system, so I checked into it. As an SU student, my application fee was waived, so I'm only paying for time.

Speaking of travel, I'm catching a bus from Syracuse to New York City tomorrow evening. Danae will be in town for a conference and we're going to spend the weekend there at a hostel together. "Yay" is an understatement, but most anything would be.

I should pack today!

Odd First Name

I've seen a lot of unusual first names working in tech support and in geneaology. Today, though, I saw one I've never seen before. The father of the person I'm researching is named Xury. I've confirmed the spelling on several documents. He was born in Ohio in 1858. The census says his ethnicity is White. It looks like his father was named Joseph and died in the Civil War. I have no good guess as to where that name comes from. Any ideas?

Can't Get There From Here

Trying to figure out the Syracuse public transit system is like deciphering encryption. The website sucks, the trip planner on it doesn't work, Google Transit doesn't seem to have the routes in its system, and the proliferation of route numbers on the PDF map are beyond comprehension. If I wasn't carrying a bunch of heavy books, a laptop, and four days of clothing, I'd just walk the two-and-a-half miles. It's not that far.