Anyway, a lot has happened over the past 3 days in the Wide World Outside. President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. I have to admit, my first thought on hearing the news was, “Did the wars end when I was sleeping? I must have missed something.” Thinking about it some more though, a lot of the time the Nobel committee have given Peace Prizes to encourage behavior. And he has been working toward world nuclear disarmament, reopening the discussion on global warming (hey, at least he doesn’t think it’s just a myth), and at least recognizing that diplomacy can do more than pre-emptive warfare. There’s also the little matter of rescinding the Global Gag Rule, which isn’t necessarily peace related to anybody else but me. Diplomacy, even if it’s not ending the wars we’re in as quickly as we’d like here in the US, is a refreshing change from our “Wild West shoot-em up” politics of the previous administration. It would be kind of nice if he donated the money to a community organizing nonprofit. Just sayin’.

There was alos a new law in Oklahoma which is going to start a very scary trend for those of us who believe that a woman has the right to decide whether or not she gets or stays pregnant. I’m still thinking about what to say about it. Maybe my overlords here will allow me to write more tomorrow. And not just on my iPod.

I finally got to spin up some of the beautiful super-wash Merino roving I bought from Karrie back in October.

The colors are just gorgeous; the photos can’t possibly show them all. I’m hoping that I can ply them up so they look as good as the roving, but I don’t know.

The color was called “Art Deco”, but to me it looked like an old Frankenstein poster. I’m not sure what I’ll make with this, but I’m shooting for a 3-ply light sportweight.

There’s also been some progress on School Girl’s mitten/glove thing.

One glove down, one more to go – and then I have to weave in all the ends and finish up the embroidery on the fingertips and mitten tops.

Speaking of embroidery:

The pattern was a freebie from Urban Threads to commemorate Poe’s 200th birthday last month. I’m not happy with the lettering. Next time, one ply of florescent thread should be plenty. Two threads are a recipe for pain and suffering. Not inappropriate for ol’ Edgar, I guess, but it makes everything go a hell of a lot more slowly.

This is something I started while watching the Presidential Inauguration last month:

For some reason, I could not get a decent picture of this. The other picture I have is way overexposed; not even Photo Studio can fix it. I finally finished it slightly less than a week ago.

I also got talked into making School Girl a dress for a father-daughter dance this weekend. Unfortunately for her (and luckily for Evil Dad), it looks like we might not go after all. But she’ll still have the dress, and maybe we can talk Dad into taking us out to dinner or something Saturday night.

What I loved the best about this morning:

• Seeing the Obama kids up there on the platform with the rest of their family. Just lovely.
• Joe Biden being his goofy self. Like him or hate him, he’s a real person.
• Yo-Yo Ma.
• Obama mentioned non-believers! And gave a shout out to science! It’s sad, but it made me cry to hear both of those said out loud. And not as a means of attack, but as a means of inclusion and welcome.
• Just getting to see the Rev. Joseph Lowery. A figure from my US History book come to eloquent life.

It also give me great pleasure to add the official White House blog to ye olde blogroll over there. The White House home page has been changed over already and looks beautiful. Now to go work on something that I’ve been putting off until today – I might post it on Flickr when it’s finished.

From now on, I can actually write the word President without quotation marks, without any sort of snark whatsoever. It feels really good.

Now there will be a trial in the Senate, but it’s unclear as to how soon that will start – I’m guessing very, very soon. Lots of people involved in IL politics would dearly love this to go away, including our President-elect.

As a refresher, here’s the reason Gov. Blagojevich has been impeached – he allegedly tried to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s now-vacant US Senate seat to the highest bidder:

Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on federal charges that include allegations he schemed to profit from his power to name Obama’s replacement in the Senate. The criminal complaint included an FBI agent’s sworn affidavit describing wiretaps that caught Blagojevich allegedly talking about what he could get for the seat, how to pressure people into making campaign contributions and more.

That arrest triggered impeachment hearings by a special House committee.

Honestly, I’m surprised it got this far. But maybe I shouldn’t be. Wonder what will happen to Roland Burris now?

I can think of a lot more compelling reasons for impeaching a top government official. Lots of people who should have been way ahead in the impeachment line than a state governor in terms of their crimes against the people they represent. But then, I’m just a petty heathen liberal. Not that what the Gov. did was acceptable – not in the slightest. Just saying.

Thanks to – believe it or not – Towleroad for the story.

As Mr. Obama prepared to make his first post-election visit to the White House on Monday, his advisers were compiling a list of policies that could be reversed by the executive powers of the new president. The assessment is under way, aides said, but a full list of policies to be overturned will not be announced by Mr. Obama until he confers with new members of his cabinet.

“There’s a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for Congressional action, and I think we’ll see the president do that,” John D. Podesta, a top transition leader, said Sunday. “He feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set.”

The list of executive orders to be “reviewed” is expected to include the “global gag rule”, which prohibits international agencies that support abortion as a means of family planning from receiving US taxpayer money, prohibitions on opening up new lines of stem cells for researchers, and allowing drilling for oil and natural gas in environmentally sensitive areas. Among other things. Ah, it’s a new day…