Women in Rodeo: The Eagle County Rodeo was less neutral than I expected.  First of all, the comedy routine between the announcer and the rodeo clown featured several problematic "jokes" about gender and Asian languages.  Further, we were asked to subscribe to American Exceptionalism, as we gazed at "the greatest flag in the world: (the stars and stripes), sang "the best song ever written" (The Star Spangled Banner), and practiced "religious freedom" by joining in a group prayer to the Christian God.

I also noticed that in the first hour of the event, the only women I saw were the rodeo royalty (pictured above) and the trick riders, who wore skin-tight sparkly onesies.  On our way out, I asked the Rodeo Queen and Rodeo Princess how they got their titles.  "It's basically a pageant, but also with horse stuff," said Maddy, the queen on the right.  Back at our rental, I googled "Women in Rodeo" and discovered that prior to 1929, there were actually many women competing in rodeo events like saddle bronc and steer wrestling. Now, they're pretty much only in barrel racing. Barrel racing is also cool, obviously, but not the marquee event. What happened was that a bronc rider named Bonnie McCarroll died during an event in 1929. Gene Autry then became the head of rodeo and started banning women from the main events.  That sucks, but I'll be honest and say that rodeo doesn't seem safe for people of any gender.

Hot Springs and Psoriasis: My one trip to the Glenwood Hot Springs has made an incredible difference in my psoriasis.  I'm not even kidding.  I have partial clearance in the tricky areas and pretty much full clearance on my limbs. As we don't have a hot springs in Minnesota, I spent a lot of time googling substitutes that I could use at home in my own bathtub.  Here's what you need to know: sufferers of psoriasis flock to the Dead Sea, which is like a hot springs with super high salination.  I knew this, but a trip to Israel isn't currently in the cards for me.  Here's what I didn't know: I can order Dead Sea salts from Amazon and reap the benefits at home.   I had tried Epsom salt baths, but never mineral baths with salts from the actual Dead Sea.  My friend Tracy is worried that I'll accidentally purchase inauthentic salts, but I'm going to trust the companies when they promise they're real.

How Long Will it Take for AC to Cool My House: I'm happy to have missed most of the brutal heatwave my Minneapolis neighbors have been experiencing.  When we walked in the door, the temperature in our family room was a very stuffy 85 degrees. We switched it right on, but our brand new air conditioner is having trouble getting its legs under it, and it's still 76 in here. Hopefully, it'll keep trucking things down to a chilly 68.  I have faith in you, air conditioner. Let's do this.

Desperate Googles from 2009

Googling poems and reading them with high schoolers.