Good weekend to you and hope the weather where you is more springlike.  Ours hasn't yet put us in a real spring mood.  The warm days haven't been frequent enough or warm enough to do that.  Mom is doing our laundry and there is a lot of it since we haven't washed for about three weeks.  Colds do that to you.  You don't want to do much of anything and you don't do anything you don't have to.

Otherwise I have a few things I want to get done.  I want to start a new bunch of spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers.  I think I said I am not too happy with the plants I started in the peat plugs.  They are somewhat spindly and weak.  I will start the new ones in the paper pots filled with potting soil.  The problem may be a combination of too little light and too few nutrients in the plugs.  I will have to admit that over the last two weeks I have not paid them much attention--no energy with the cold.

I am also looking for some substitute for Google Reader which, for god only knows what reason, Google is terminating in a couple months.  That is irritating because it was so nice and easy to go to one site to access all of the blogs I like to read.  At least I have a time to move things over to what ever site I eventually choose.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all.  I sympathize with one of the news readers as she wished her viewers the same: it feels like we have been celebrating the day for the last three weeks.

Anyone who thinks the financial crisis in Europe (or anywhere else) is over needs to pay close attention to this article.  The looting continues so the bankers and their shareholders can stay fat and happy.  I am waiting for the day when a country decides leaving the Eurozone and Euro is the lesser of the evils that fact them.  And lets be clear--Cypriots haven't been asked to surrender 10% of their savings.  This is extortion pure and simple.  The Agonist has more here.  While reading it I had an interesting thought.  The package the EU/IMF etc are offering is for some 10 billion euros.  The so-called 'one-off tax' will raise about half that amount.  I am amazed that the Cypriots don't simply tell the EU/IMF etc to get stuffed, raise the money for themselves and leave the Eurozone.  The last line of the Agonist report is key: the actions basically call into question the whole notion of private property rights of any kind.  Or rather, they underline the fragility of such rights.  Take a look at the foreclosure mess in this country or MF Global's collapse or name your favorite expropriation story of recent years.

I have said before that my major concern with our nuclear energy/military weapons etc. is what to do with the waste.  The highly radioactive material has to be kept secure for thousands of years and to date we have no really good plant for how to do that.  Evidently our government has a plan for the lower level waste: recycle it into consumer goods, building materials and such.  So, if they get their way, the next belt buckle, baby stroller, or frying pan you buy might have been made with recycled low level nuclear waste.  Of course they well assure us it is perfectly safe.  And, of course, we will trust them.  There really is no we here.  I certainly don't trust them.