Hey all!

I'm taking time off from posting until I'm happier with the direction life is going - for me and for everyone else. Just wanted to pop in and wish every one of my friends on LJ and in real life a very Happy New Year. May 2009 bring us all happiness, good will, good economics, good love, good friends, and good luck.

Muse

Let me e'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

1. I owe my mother an apology - I was supposed to drive with her out to meet up with my sister and her kids in Tennessee on Sunday, and I didn't because I haven't been sleeping well and wanted to sleep in that morning. Turns out she had made a whole gluten-free picnic for the day, which I didn't know about until afterward. So Mutti, I'm very sorry I flaked.

2. On Saturday night I went with notgruntled  and a few other friends to see Tropic Thunder at the drive-in. I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard at any movie, and the drive-in is the perfect venue for a movie that encourages a raucous audience. It was absolutely hilarious. And yes, I've regained a modicum of respect for Tom Cruise. Further, to those people who are protesting because of the fake mentally-handicapped character of "Simple Jack", you clearly have never heard of the following terms: irony, sarcasm, subtext, allegorical.

This is a pet peeve of mine. Because a movie has a sexist or racist character, it doesn't mean that the movie is therefore ALSO racist or sexist. When a movie shows a person doing an offensive portrayal of a character which is clearly MEANT to be over the top and offensive, so as to point out the obtuseness of the person portraying the character in addition to the shallow industry promoting that type of portryal and the easily-emotionally-manipulated mass audiences who often thrive on such characters, the movie is therefore mocking the aforementioned person and groups and NOT the actual offensively portrayed character. Ok?

3. We got a new couch for our upstairs media room - it is bright red and exactly what we've been looking for since we bought the house almost five years ago. Most importantly, the cats approve.

4. I broke down and signed up on Facebook. *sigh* And it's already a soul-sucking timewaster. And I intend to waste more time with after I've gotten my inbox down to 100 emails.  On the plus side, I've already - in the space of a few hours - managed to reconnect with a number of old high school friends with whom I haven't been in touch since I graduated in 1991. I'm also grinning at the number of them who also qualify as ex-boyfriends. I was such a playa.

5. Are you all sure you don't need a fabulous black desk?? Do you know anyone who might??

6. I'm looking forward The Daily Show's take on the DNC convention. Their whole "Best F*cking News Team Ever" gag has been terrific.

7. Fritos make an excellent side to roasted red pepper and tomato soup. (And all gluten-free!)

8. It's clear that McCain is going to take a page from Giuliani's old playbook and replace the overused phrase "9/11" with "POW". Yes, you were in a POW camp, you survived a horrible experience, it's admirable as hell, but it HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MOST OF THE QUESTIONS YOU ARE BEING ASKED. Now please, continue your regularly scheduled program of gaffes, hypocracy and right-wing-ass-kissing.

That's all, folks - have a lovely week!
.</lj>

 If one or more of the following applies to you, this clip MUST be watched:

1. You love Neil Patrick Harris
2. You watch How I Met My Mother
3. You love Les Miserables
4. You love to try to sing both parts of the Javert/Valjean confrontation song at once

Credit goes to dangerousdame  who posted this on the dr_horriblesing  group.

I haven't actually watched Dr. Horrible in over two weeks - deliberately - and yet I STILL can't get the entire score out of my head. Every morning I wake up with at least one of the songs in my head, and then they cycle throughout the day. It's like auditory flashbacks. It's fabulous stuff, but please, god, make it stop!
------------------------------------------------------

In other news, I'm on Day 6 of the gluten-free diet, and it's not too terrible. We've been cooking at home every night, which is great, and making pretty healthy meals. There are tons of gluten-free resources on the web and I'm finding some good ideas. Still don't think it will hold up when I'm in Budapest in October, but we'll see.

Husband and I went to see my parents in Cape Cod last week and had a wonderful time with them - although it's pretty clear that Massachusetts weather hates my husband, because every time he's up there with me it's cold and rainy, but if I'm there without him it's beautiful. In this case he went home three days before I did so I could have some quality time alone with the 'rents, and literally the MOMENT he got on the plane the weather turned gorgeous. Meanwhile, I gorged myself on all my favorite Cape Cod food, and all the stuff I knew I might never be able to eat again - fabulous bread, clam chowder, lobster bisque, fried clams, lobby rolls, etc. And oh yes, a fabulous night of fresh lobster with lots of lovely bread to dunk in the melted butter, and many bottles of good wine. My dad and step-mum are very good to me - I've never been able to find bialys in Georgia, so we had them every morning for breakfast. Yum!

The view from my parents' house is truly amazing - from their upstairs balcony you can see up and down the inside of the Cape. Husband put up some pictures - he's still having fun playing with the new SLR camera, so there are some random sort of repetitive pics in the mix, and I'm not sure why he put up some many of the Hood blimp. (And oh yes, I'm still waiting for him to upload the London/Indian Wedding pics...unfortunately he got busy with work, so that got set aside.)  These photos were all taken on the day we got there, when it was still gorgeous and the weather hadn't realized that Husband was in town.

And finally, I'm on call this week and next for Federal Jury Duty. Had a fascinating time participating in a "voir dire" session on Monday where 40 prospective jurors (including me) were interviewed in the courtroom with the judge, attorneys, and defendant (charged with the sale of marijuana and meth). I had asked my lawyer friend Tammy who they would be looking for and she responded quickly, "Not you." Apparently they don't want people who are opinionated, read a lot, and have political bumper stickers. Meanwhile I got to learn very private information about these 39 other strangers, including the fact that one woman has four brothers-in-law addicted to crack, another has a husband in prison for 40 years for abusing their 4 month old daughter, and one woman's brother was shot to death by NYPD officers inside the Nigerian embassy in New York. Anyhow, Tammy was right and I was dismissed from that one (as soon as they asked what my bumper stickers said - the other jurors chuckled and one muttered "oh yeah, you are SO not getting chosen")  but I still have to call every day for two weeks to see if I have to go back in.

And that's the news, folks.

Quote for the Day:

"Anybody who maintains absolute standards of good and evil is dangerous. As dangerous as a maniac with a loaded revolver. In fact, the person who maintains absolute standards of good and evil usually is the maniac with the revolver."

--Tom Robbins
.

For the last few months I've been composing posts in my head, and then not getting around to actually posting them. And then I felt that that too much had happened since my last post, and I'd never be able to catch up. So now I present a quick Top Ten Rundown of What's Been Happening in Muse's Life Since She Last Posted Three Months Ago:

10. I resigned from my job and started my own company (per rednekkid's recommendation I've removed the link, but I'll re-post it in a friends-locked post.)

9. Speaking of husband, he got a fantastic new job with Teach For America as a director in their marketing department - a terrific organization and one that he's really enjoying working for. Glad one of us is now doing something worthwhile and generating some good karma!

9. I've been very worried about getting business, but suddenly I find myself completely booked up for October (including a meeting in Budapest) and with a few scattered event gigs between now and then. Now I need to learn to juggle my time for multiple clients and make sure not to over-commit myself.

8. I joined the board of Actor's Express, and am now trying to plan their annual fundraising gala.

7. I turned 35 and have decided that I'd like to go back to being 32, as 35 is just a hair too close to 40 for my taste. Sorry, I'm not ready for that yet.

6. Husband and I went to London (just got back today) for an Indian wedding for a friend and had a fantastic time - husband took over 1,000 photos with our new SLR camera, so there WILL be a link to photos posted sometime soon.  To my delight it was pretty much just as I had envisioned it thanks to movies like Monsoon Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham. And yes, we both bought and wore fabulous authentic outfits, which we fully intend to wear at the next opportunity.

5. I took over as Managing Editor for the quarterly magazine for the Georgia chapter of Meeting Professionals International, and articles for our next issue are due to the publisher tomorrow. Most of them are ready with one major and important exception. D'oh.

4. Going back to the Indian outfits thing, someone I met at the wedding suggested throwing a party with the theme: Wear That Thing You Have That You Never Get To Wear But Want To. Now I just have to find a free weekend to do that....

3. When last I posted, contact had just resumed after six years (with extremely infrequent exceptions over that time) with my sister, her husband, and four children. They actually wound up visiting us twice since April - once with the family split between our house and my mother's house (yes, my sister is once again talking to her as well - we think it's the influence of the Quaker church they seem to have become enthusiastic members of) and once with the entire family (all six) crashing at our house. It worked suprisingly well, and my favorite part would have to be the sight of my 14 year old nephew and his father (complete hippy, has never cut his hair or his curly beard, wears very bohemian clothing etc) playing Wii boxing together. The two eldest kids, the 14 year old nephew and 12 year old niece, are coming back next week by themselves, and I'm very excited to play auntie again.

2. I've seen a new doctor who is convinced, and presents a convincing argument, that the skin problems on the soles of my feet that have been plaguing me for years are the result of an allergy to gluten. So, starting in September I'm going to attempt two months gluten-free to test that theory. Why September? Because in August we're going up to visit my dad and step-mother at their house in Cape Cod, and I need to have fabulous French bread one last time (possibly) with my lobster. I'm so incredibly not-thrilled about this diagnosis, I can't even express my frustration. I'm a total foodie, and have always prided myself on being able to eat anything set in front of me. I hate the idea of having to be careful and cautious about what I eat, and I hate becoming That Person who has to inquire about all the ingredients of a dish when eating out. And I love bread. I ADORE bread. So, not happy. But if it makes the problem go away - and I can sleep and no longer look like I have leprosy on my feet - it's probably worth it. Probably.

1. Husband and I are well and happy, and enjoying the coolness from the brand spanking new HVAC system we had to have installed when our old one died during a week when the temperatures didn't get below 90. I spent a lot of time that week melted on the couch, while the cats sprawled next to me on the floor, all three of us unmoving until husband got home.

I'm sure there are some other crucial and important updates I've completely forgotten to post. I've been reading my LJ friends' journals, though mainly lurking and rarely commenting. I'll try to be better about both posting and commenting in the future.

Now off to sleep in an effort to get my body clock back on schedule.
.

Happy (day after) Birthday to moxiegirl  !

I just finished reading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. I can honestly say I have no desire to see the film. It's an excellent book, but...

On a completely different wave, I also re-watched Peter's Friends, which, while charming and featuring a terrific cast of wonderful actors (Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branaugh, and many more), now seems like a very dated and British version of The Big Chill. It's lovely to watch this talented cast interact, and of course for those of us now used to seeing Hugh Laurie as the cynical American doctor on House, it's great to be reminded of his musical and comedy abilities (although he gets a chance to use his drama chops, as well.) What seems dated is the death knell that sounds when Peter announces he is HIV positive: I think it's a wonderful thing to be able to say that 16 years later it is no longer the absolute death sentence that it was. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

And finally, Husband and I were invited by the neighbors to spend Saturday playing kickball in a tournament (and drinking beer, beginning at 10 AM.) Considering that was the only sport in elementary school for which I did NOT get picked last, it was quite fun. I'm pretty sure it's been 25 years (ye gods that makes me feel old) since I played it last.

With March 1 comes the loss of my Gold Medallion status on Delta... I'm now only Silver, which essentially makes me a peon. It means I'll no longer get frequently upgraded, and will have to be content being squeezed into coach with the rest of you lot. Actually the only real reason I really like the upgrades is NOT for the alcohol or larger seats (I'm small enough that coach is generally fine in that regard) - it's for the meals served on longer flights. Totally worth it when it means an actual full meal with protein, vegetable, starch and dessert - instead of a pack of crackers, something that passes for spreadable "cheese", and a teensy box with about 8 raisins. Ah, woe is me. I somehow think I'll survive; I just had to whine a little.
.

I've become a huge fan of "Bill in Portland Maine"'s Cheers and Jeers blog on the Dailykos site - it's become regular daily reading for me. Today he posted this excerpt from the book "How to Win a Fight with a Conservative" by Dan Kurtzman. I admit I don't have permission to post it here, but if it's any consolation to the author, I plan on buying the book - plus a few copies for friends.

This is why I'm a proud liberal:


Right on.

In cat news, Ariel absolutely hates Luna, Luna is getting depressed about it, and Husband thinks the solution is to get a third cat, Luna's age and approximate size (she's twice the size of Ariel) so she can have a friend. I'm not thrilled at the prospect of that much cat litter to deal with. What say you, oh multiple-cat owners?

I'm off to San Antonio at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow morning. Alas, I'll be working, so I'll miss the Oscars with my beloved Jon Stewart hosting - thank goodness for TiVo (and I can fast forward through the tacky dance routines and overly long retrospectives). Next Wednesday I head straight from there to Miami to testify against the Asshat Company who owes my old company money. At least I'll get to hang out a bit with my old boss and some coworkers, whom I adore.

In politics, I'm thrilled to see Obama's campaign picking up speed. Newsweek has a great article about Michelle Obama, and she's a refreshingly REAL person. I'd like to see both of them in the White House.

And finally, Husband and I have been invited to a three-day Sikh wedding in London, in July. For those of you who have seen Bend it Like Beckham, yes, apparently it will be just like that. If I have to cash in every frequent flyer mile, every hotel point, and every other reward point I have, we are so going to this. Oh - whyvette and supergoober, I need Indian garb to wear! And so does my husband! Wanna help?

Have a lovely week, all.
.

I'm in Mexico City for work, staying in the lovely Sheraton Centro Historico, in a spacious room on the 26th floor.

This morning I stepped out of the shower and decided to open the bathroom door as the mirror was all steamed up. I pushed open the door, and it gently started to swing back closed, so I moved the solid trash can in front of it, and turned back to the mirror. Behind me I saw the door PUSHING the trash can. Well that didn't seem right - the trash can was pretty solid, and the door wasn't that heavy. Then I realized the door to the toilet was swinging back and forth.

Oh great, I thought, ghosts in my bathroom. After all, Mexico City is built over Aztec ruins.

Then I realized that *I* was swaying, and so was everything else.

I stepped into the bedroom to see the curtains and curtain rods swaying and banging against the wall.

"Earthquake?" I thought. I've never been in one. But there weren't any sirens going off, and traffic was still moving in the city down below. I made my way back the bathroom and realized I was having trouble walking and that the building was definitely swaying.

Well, I'm wrapped in a towel and on the 26th floor. So really, what is there to do? I sat down on the bathroom floor and waited for the swaying to stop

I wondered if perhaps it was incredibly windy outside, and this building was built to "give" more than it should.

Oh no, it was an earthquake. Well, the tremors from a 6.4 magnitude quake in southern Mexico.

So there's my excitement for the week - my very first earthquake - or as close as I ever want to be to one.
.

And once again it's snowing in Atlanta - those of you living in cold climates would be terribly amused by the OMG!!!111 panic that sets in if anything resembling snow hits the forecast.

My mom-in-law made it in on Thursday from Ohio, and has been having fun playing with Luna. The real reason she came down (I haven't seen her in a year) is to see the kitties, not us. But that's ok. She likes us, too.

She leaves early Sunday morning, and then we go have Dim Sum with some friends - it's a group that started off with a nice small manageable size - a few other couples and us - and then suddenly everybody invited everybody, and now we have 12 all together. I don't even remember if Canton House has tables that big, but I guess we can always split in two if needed. After that we're going to go see Cloverfield (the 2:20 PM showing at Regal Hollywood 24 on I-85 and Shallowford, if anyone else wants to come) which seems to be getting good press.

This morning I received a subpoena for a deposition in the lawsuit currently going on between my old company and That Asshat Company That Ruined My Physical and Mental Health (second link is friends-locked, but I'm considering changing that) last year, and then refused to pay for our services. My old boss keeps telling me that they can't compel me to appear because I no longer work for the company, but my sister the attorney says that's baloney, and the subpoena says I can be held in contempt of court if I don't appear. Of course the time that they are saying I have to show up is completely conflicting with some important conference calls I have with my current clients, so I don't know if I have any recourse to make them reschedule... Sent a copy of the subpoena to my sister, and I'll see what she says. Personally I have no problem with testifying about how hard my team and I worked, and what a crappy project it was from the beginning thanks to poor decisions on the part of the client. But for some reason the attorney for my old company seems to be trying to find a way to keep me out of it. Hey, whatever works.

I made the soup again! That would be the Fabulous Divine Best Vegetable Soup Ever. Only this time it came out really good, but not divine. I think the problem is that I used to much broth. At any rate, if anyone is interested, here's the recipe, more or less:


Enjoy the snow, all you other Atlantans. I'm glad we have a big pot of hearty soup and some nice crusty Tuscan bread to go with it. That, plus some movies, and there's our Saturday.
.

1. It's snowing. In Atlanta! Big fluffy flurries of whiteness and it is, for the moment at least, actually sticking. What fun! Of course I'm not sure how this will affect my mother-in-law who is flying in from Ohio tomorrow around noon...

2. Thanks to WOXY Vintage 'net radio I discovered another bizarre punk song to share. This time it's by The Circle Jerks, the title is "Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)", and it's basically a punk medley of "Along Comes Mary", "Close To You", "Afternoon Delight", and "Love Will Keep Us Together", along with a few others. Very odd. True to form (for the CJs) the vocal quality sucks, but I'm generally entertained by punk covers of very non-punk songs. Husband has been collecting those for a while and found some true gems. I wouldn't say this qualifies as a gem, but it's entertaining.

3. Thanks to my mother for this VERY cool link - (bohemiangel, you will love this). Interactive maps that show you the course of history in 90 seconds. This one shows you the spread of religion around the world over the course of history. This one shows the various empires that had hold of the Middle East throughout history. Both are pretty astounding.

4. Update on the Fish Situation: He's dead, Jim. For god's sake man, I'm a meeting planner not an ichthyologist.

5. Did I mention the snow?
.

Some randomness for Monday morning - if I don't go ahead and post it now, I never will! (Friday I made notes of the various links and stuff I wanted to post, then accidentally deleted it. D'oh.) Of course I have a ton work of to get done this morning, and a coworkers calls to avoid (it's impossible to have a short conversation with her, and I just don't have the energy for her on a Monday morning.)

1. My heart goes out to pmgoose    for her loss.

2. From Cracked.com: 8 Celebrities You Didn't Know Were Geeks. I have to admit there were a few surprises on that list. I knew about Natalie "I went to Harvard" Portman, and Vin "D&D DungeonMaster" Diesel (and Asia "MENSA member who played at Carnegie Hall when she was 14" Carrera.) But I wasn't aware that Brian May from Queen studied and wrote books on astrophysics, or that Dolph Lundgren has a Master's in Chemical Engineering. Color me impressed.

3. Last week, listening to WOXY Vintage 'net radio, I discovered two new songs that now have regular rotation in our household iTunes collection:
  ** Green Haze, by Elvis Hitler. It's the words to the theme song from Green Acres sung to the tune of Purple Haze.
  ** Burning Down the House covered by Tom Jones and the Cardigans. Pretty awesome combination.
( Watch Tom Jones have way too much energy... )

4. Watched a fantastic movie last week that I have to recommend: The Lives of Others. Phenomenal German movie about a Stasi officer in East Berlin who is assigned to monitor a playwright and his lover. How does one spy on the intricacies of someone else's life and not get involved somehow? In this case, the officer can't. The acting is amazing, it's perfectly paced, and the ending is truly beautiful.

5. Also re-watched Pulp Fiction with Husband, and had fun remembering the first time we each saw it, and how much of the script has been absorbed into popular culture. Although violent, I still think it's a terrific movie (and one of the all time greatest soundtracks.)

6. I've decided that I can officially label cooking as my hobby. I love it. A week or so ago I came up with a recipe for the Most Delicious Vegetable Soup Ever (agreed upon by all who tasted it)(which consisted of my mother and my husband) and last night I made delicious Mustard & Rosemary Encrusted Rock Cornish Game Hens for the neighbors who joined us for dinner. My mom-in-law is coming to visit on Thursday, and I have to try to recreate the soup recipe. If I can, I'll post it here in case anyone is interested.

7. The Luna Situation: Ariel is tolerating Luna, but poor Luna is bored to tears. She wants to play, and Ariel wants to snooze. While I sit up in my office working I can hear Luna making disgruntled mrowr noises downstairs, and if she thinks I might pay attention to her for a sec she comes running upstairs eagerly. Poor thing. She lived the first year of her life as a shelter cat, and she's used to having lots of interaction with animals and people. I feel like I should get her either a cat nanny or her own kitten. She's a complete sweetheart but REALLY doesn't just want to sit around the house and sleep, as Ariel does. Oh, and best toy ever for a kitty? Laser pointer. Also still trying to figure out how to feed them both, since Ariel is a grazer, and Luna will immediately down whatever food is put out.

8. The Fish Situation: One of our neighbors is in Egypt with his partner for 3 weeks, and we're feeding his cat and his fish. They have one fat goldfish in a plain empty aquarium. He asked if we could change out the water if it got too cloudy, so Husband and I have done that. We've been feeding him as requested. But for the last two days he's been floating upside-down on the BOTTOM of the tank, breathing, but not doing much else. We've tried to stir him and get him right-side-up, and he does that for a second, swishes all his little fins, and then goes upside-down again. WTF? Does anyone have any idea what's going on here? The water feels a bit cold (there's no temp guage or filtration system), so maybe he's hibernating? Any insight would be helpful.

That's it. There's more, but I really do have work to do. Have a lovely morning, all.
.

Much random goodness today.

1. We got a new cat!

2. I know I'm not the only one going through massive Daily Show withdrawals (I'm looking at you, baldsug ) - and apparently, so is Brian Williams. He's got a great blog post entitled "Where Have You Gone, Jonathan Stewart Leibowitz?" My favorite excerpt:

The serious fact is that Jon Stewart and his colleagues in comedy -- along with the writers who support them -- serve an invaluable purpose by skewering the pompous and deflating the egos of the high and mighty. They function almost as a separate branch of government. We need them, and we miss them.

Brian, I know how you feel.

3. Tomorrow I leave for Los Cabos, Mexico on a company holiday trip for three days. I hope it shall be fun. This company is a group of hard drinkers, and I'm a one (maybe two) drink kinda girl. But I really like the coworker I'll be sharing a room with, and I'll get to do my first ATV ride, so that should be fun. And we're staying here, so it looks like it won't suck. (Oooh - I just checked the website and saw that they have a zip-line on the beach. OK, I'm starting to build a little enthusiasm here...)

4. Without going into details, 2007 appears to be the Year of Bad Decisions. Looking forward to 2008. Maybe it can be the Year of Raining Chocolate.

5. Christians, you need to start lobbying to get Sherri Shepherd off the air. The absurdities that come out of her mouth are swiftly disproving any notion of "Intelligent Design". (She's not helping the cause of Evolution either.)

6. And speaking of silliness on television, I admit it - I watch Desperate Housewives.

7. In the spirit of the approaching holiday season, here's my favorite Xmas song of all time. Wish there was a real video, but alas, no such thing exists. You can play this in the background, at least, whilst working on other things:
( Bah Humbug! ) While trying to find a real video I wound up reading an interesting little article about the guy who wrote the song and founded The Waitresses.

8. I've discovered Wordsmith's Books in Decatur - nice little store! Consider this a plug. Husband and I attended a fun little presentation from a professor of physics at Emory who wrote a book about the way science is portrayed in science fiction movies.

9. LiveJournal Users of the World - Beware! Thanks to yendi  for this nasty discovery.

Have a lovely weekend, all.
.
.

I keep meaning to put up a real post - hell, I have pages of introspective notes from re-watching the Buffy series this summer - but it seems I just don't get around to it. Part of it is me wondering if people really want to hear about me running through the airport in O'Hare like OJ in that old commercial and barely catching my flight after a meeting with miatuc  in Chicago, or that husband and I are getting a new cat (all black with gold eyes - we're naming her Luna), or how I stuffed myself with roast goose for Thanksgiving up in Massachusetts and bumped into moxiegirl  in the grocery store (haven't seen her in person since I was about 17), or all the other random and fairly inconsequential crap going on in my life that seems only interesting to me. So instead I just haven't been posting. I should probably go ahead and just start posting. (Voice posting is a lovely feature, but when are they going to invent "I think about it and it appears on my LJ" posts?)

But then I got this from moxiegirl  and the answers were really just too perfect - particularly the nine cats a-cooking and the five Dead Kennedys, so I had to go ahead and post:



So which two gay rights do you think Santa is bestowing? And I'd settle for just one LIVE Douglas Adams...

And on another note, what song makes you absolutely bawl involuntarily every time you hear it, without fail? For me it appears to be Michelle Branch "Goodbye to You".

Back to work now. I almost had my inbox under 200 emails yesterday - got it down to 198 - now it's back up to 221. *sigh* (It didn't help that thanks to goudabonbon I kept watching this video and giggling. A bit distracting.)
.

And in the spirit of Monday's cake for lunch, sometimes for dinner you need to eat chocolate ice cream and drink good red wine.

(Not just any chocolate ice cream - Häagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream. It's almost a worthy substitute.)
.

Sometimes you just have to have a slice of cake with buttercream frosting and a glass of milk for lunch.
.

First, and most importantly - Happy 35th Birthday to my wonderful husband! I love you and can't imagine a life without you.

Second, just a statement of fact: I was a much more productive human being before I started reading Fark.com. I blame Husband for that. Today's best submitted headline:

In Vegas, even the young are riding disability scooters. "A little less ambulation, a little more traction please---All this biped-action ain't satisfactioning me"

I'll now have that song in my head all morning, thank you very much.

Third, while web surfing this morning I came across two very interesting montages - one is of celebrities who are openly gay (actually there are two of these) and the other is of people who were gay "when it was out to be out". No surprises in the first, but a few surprises in the second, like Raymond Burr (Perry Mason.) There's a nice short blurb accompanying each photograph, talking about the individual's life. (One other interesting fact - gay actor Anthony Perkins' widow was on American Airlines Flight 11, one of the planes that flew into the World Trade Center on 9/11.) All three montages are a testament to the diversity of the gay and lesbian community, and the whole thing drives home the fact that this country is going backwards in its social evolution in trying to limit gay rights and freedoms.

And finally, Husband's and my favorite LOLZcats picture (thanks to kalki) which we've been quoting all morning since it's applicable to him today:

There's a lot going on on my life, but the big stuff has necessitated posting "friends-only", so this is just a little Sunday Sampler posted for all to see...

1. Happy Birthdayyendi !

2. Speaking of yendi , I'd like to pimp some of the LJ users on my f-list who are excellent and entertaining writers - I'm only including those whose LJ is not friends-locked as I don't want to intrude on those who prefer privacy, so please don't be offended if I didn't include you here - and if you'd prefer I delete your reference, let me know:

• yendi - smart and snarky with entertaining movie reviews (he's been posting a review of a different horror film every weekday this year) with a little sports and food appreciation thrown in for good measure
  
• notgruntled - doesn't post often these days, but when he does you can be assured it will be something well thought out, funny, and eloquently insightful
  
• doczauthor - one of my dearest friends in the world for over 15 years now (since I was in 8th grade, I think?) and a recent addition to LJ - he's a writer (plays, radio shows, fiction), a composer, and a graphic artist
  
• eyeheartjamaica - my fabulous wonderful neighbor and friend - she does lots of interesting marathons/races
  
• derspatchel - another high school friend with a decidedly quirky take on life, sometimes specifically related to life in Boston, but also on a myriad of other topics - defies description, really
  
• fierce_rabbit - actress and activist, lots of posts on must-read political and religious freedom articles/videos (also check out her husband, galbinus_caeli)

I'm enamored of all of the people on my friends list, but felt the need to pimp these particular ones.

3. Husband and I have needed to do yard work for at least two weeks (weeding, hedge triming, mowing, pulling down the vines from the our side of the fence we share with eyeheartjamaica since they've already pulled them down on theirs), but it's been very windy and below 50 degrees all weekend and we don't like to be cold. Considering he grew up in Ohio and I grew up in Massachusetts, you'd think we could handle it for an hour or so. But, no.

4. For those on my friends-list who have been reading my posts, I've realized that I hate transition more than I hate change, and I can't wait until the whole thing is done and over. My incredibly unsubtle subconscience is working overtime with my dreams on the subject.

5. I turn 34 on Tuesday, and I've decided that I don't want to. I'd prefer to go back to 31 and just stay there. Has anyone else in their 30's started to forget exactly how MUCH over 30 you are, and have to stop and think about it when someone asks your age?

6. Friends in Atlanta - and those who want to travel - mark your calendars for Saturday, July 7th for the second annual Not Quite Fourth of July Cookout in the shared backyards of eyeheartjamaica and us! Expect kegs, grilled food, possibly a slip-and-slide, and potentially a DJ...

Off to my mother's house to decorate eggs and have some early birthday cake - Husband is taking me for sushi on my actual birthday, just the two of us. I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend...
.

Great weekend - dance lesson at the Cheetah with some girlfriends*, Karaoke Revolution chez whyvette (Happy Birthday!!!), and then softball on Sunday. To which I completely forgot to wear sunscreen. Did I mention I'm practically translucent as a normal rule? Yeah, I hurt.

But on to important things: politics. This clip from Bill Maher may be the best and most eloquent** indictment of this administration that I have seen yet. Show it to all of your Republican friends.

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the clip - not sure how to embed it, but click here to view.

(EDIT: click here for the C&L page that allows different viewing options for the clip.)

---------------------------
* thankfully the intelligent, non-giggly kind, contrasted by the drunk bunch of giggly, screaming Buckhead girls also in the class who made me REALLY appreciate my friends 
** sorry Jon Stewart, you know I love you, but Bill took a much needed serious note here, with only a little comedy thrown in, and it's brilliant

Having a difficult day? Need something to give you the warm and fuzzies?

.