Melyssa-with-a-Y

The bleachers are being erected on Pennsylvania Ave! Fewer seats than last time, tho, to allow for more standing room. (since there probably going to be fewer protesters, too... ) ;)

The Pope today told senior Vatican staff that saving the world from homosexuals and transsexuals is as important as saving the rainforest . Oy. So he's equating human industrialization encroaching on the rainforest with homosexuals "encroaching" on straight people's lives? Riiight, because every time we hang out with Aubrey, he's trying to make us gay. [Ok, so I've been to more gay bars than "straight" bars in the last month. That's definitely Aubrey's fault.] This, in addition to the furor over Pastor Rick Warren being chosen to give the invocation at President-Elect Obama's Inauguration -- a man who has said that homosexuality is akin to pedophilia. Having just seen ' Milk ' [Go see it! right away!] , I'm keenly aware that just being out was (and still is) a challenge. The last thing we need is to add fuel to the fire of the people who actually *believe* these things. I am against discrimination of any kind, for a...

to put the shoppers in the holiday spirit, the mall has little blowers showering us with 'snow' ... lovely.

Sorry, I've been busy! Here's some fun stuff to tide you over til I can post properly about what the quack in the White House -- sorry, I mean the Lame Duck President -- is doing in his last 30 days. Let's start with last Saturday's supper club. Every year we cook dinner for the Ronald McDonald house, on the same night that we have our December supper club event. This year, we decided to make a Mexican-themed meal for RMcD. I tried to make Mole' Brownies , from a recipe from Texas Monthly. They just didn't cook. I ended up with a rather tasty, spicy-cinnamony-chocolate mush. (Which tasted very good with vanilla ice cream... but wasn't what I was looking for.) On to plan B. Purchase 2 boxes of brownie mix -- add cinnamon and ancho chile powder to one of them, to simulate Mole' -- and two disposable brownie pans. Much better results. The challenge was that I was also making SK's homemade hostess cake , and Rachael Ray's chicken-feta meatballs ...

Sigh. Another year, another Rose Bowl . (don't I sound ungrateful?!) After beating the Bruins in their home stadium (which is in fact the Rose Bowl) a respectable 28-7, and with Oregon beating Oregon State, USC was awarded the traditional Pac-10 berth at the Rose Bowl game on January 1. Four years running. It's not quite the national championship... The sports writers are not terribly excited about this one, given how well USC did against Ohio State, but we'll see. I'm still hoping for a good game! (and I love the countdown clock on the Rose Bowl website!) But the funniest news from the day had to be the ad that UCLA put in the LA Times, with Coach Neuheisel, with the headline 'The football monopoly in Los Angeles is officially over.'" Um. Not so much. The USC folks took that and made a t-shirt with the same text, except it says, "The football monopoly in Los Angeles is officially over THERE" (in cardinal and gold, of course). :) You can get...

Monday is antique day at Covent Garden. We got up early and bundled up, and went to see the wares. I bought two pashminas for 5 pounds. We went to the Whittard's store again, but since it's before Xmas, the stuff that was all on sale last time was not quite so cheap. I bought some "hangover cure" tea and coffee... not sure when I'll need it, or who'll get it as a gift, but it seemed like it might be useful. :) I had wanted to go to the London Transport Museum to see the poster exhibit, but the museum entry wasn't cheap -- 10 pounds -- and it turned out that my friend Ben was on his way into London earlier in the day than I had expected. So we went to the shop and the cafe at the Transport Museum, and waited. I don't think I've seen Ben since the last Council HPC-AC me eting that I did, in April of '06. We had such a blast! He doesn't much like the tube, so we walked... and walked... and walked. First, we headed for the Ye Olde Watling ...

Last night was the USC-Notre Dame game in LA. This is the first time in six years that I haven't been there! (it's not so bad really, they only play at Thanksgiving every other year) At 1am, we brought up the online game-tracker and watched the beginnings of what we hoped would be a massacre by the Trojans. And it was! I went to bed after the first touchdown, but the final score was 38-3. Fight On! (and, Oregon State lost to Oregon, so SC might get to go to the Rose Bowl after all!) I thought about sleeping late, but decided to get up and go to the British Museum with Mom and Bryan. I mean, I'm only in London once a year -- if I'm lucky -- and the last time I was here was 3 years ago. I could spare an hour or two of sleep for the British Museum! of course, it was cold and rainy and gross outside, but it was worth it to go back and see the sarcophagus of Cleopatra and the Mesopotamian sculptures and Egyptian hieroglyphics. I love that stuff. :) I also love the a...

Starting with dinner last night: Indian food at Bengal Clipper near Betty's apartment. The food was tremendous, but the service was crap. (Betty did warn us that this was the case.) I hadn't seen Betty since she was in DC visiting, right before I moved to Texas. She hasn't changed! :) We took the tube to Tower Hill and walked across Tower Bridge. (Photos of this part of the evening did not come out well, because of my inability to hold 100% still when taking a photo at night. Oh well. You've all seen Tower Bridge before! Instead, I give you a photo of Big Ben that I took on the way back yesterday evening.) The food was very good, and we were part of a group of 13 -- Betty's oldest friend from high school and her husband were visiting from the DC area for Thanksgiving. Both of their sons live in London, too. And apparently the girlfriend of one of the sons went to Bryan's high school for a while, but was a year ahead of him. (did you follow that trail?) ...

No waking-up-at-6am-to-shop for us today... although given that I didn't really fall asleep until 7:30am, I could have! This time zone thing is a killer. I slept mostly from 7:30am to 10am. Then Bryan made breakfast. Eggs and bacon (or sausage) and toast and tomatoes. The kid can actually cook! :) We let the "grownups" go off on their own today, and Bry and I went to the Imperial War Museum to see the Ian Fleming/James Bond exhibit . It was REALLY well done. I hadn't realized how much Ian Fleming had used his personal experience in Naval Intelligence as influence on his Bond adventures. It was also interesting to see the gadgets and memorabilia from the movies, and how the films had differed from his original stories. (Many of the oddest villains were not written by Fleming at all -- like Jaws, Scaramanga, and Drax.) I bought some goodies and some Christmas presents at the shop! :) The Imperial War Museum is a huge place, full of moving exhibits and interestin...

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving! Today we started off with some quick antiquing at Spitalfields. (What, you thought this family could get through more than one day without a flea market?!) They've apparently updated the space recently, so there were fewer dealers, but a slew of new restaurants -- a Gourmet Burger Kitchen(gbk) , Wagamama , La Tasca , Giraffe , and some others. We didn't find much in the antique stalls, but the artist stalls on the other side were full of gorgeous goodies - purses, jewelry, shirts, dresses... (no, I didn't buy anything) We stopped for lunch at gbk -- a fancy version of Five Guys or Mighty Fine -- we just beat the lunchtime rush. Then we went looking for Be vis Marks , the oldest synagogue in London. After a minor challenge with the map, we found it, but we couldn't go inside. The "best kosher restaurant in London" is also there. After that, we walked over to the Guildhall Art Museum, to see an exhibit of GF Watts...

The family is starting its travel madness early this year... we're all boarding planes for the other side of the pond around the same time today. Mom & Dad on BA, Bryan on Virgin, and me on AA. It's almost 9 hours from Dallas to London.... bleh. I brought some SimplySleep, so hopefully I'll nod off pretty soon. I also brought a pair of socks that have been languishing in my project bag for six months or so ( Diamante socks, from knitty, in Fleece Artist, 100% Merino, bronze colorway) I stopped at a sock-and-a-half, though it looks like I have enough yarn left to make more. One good thing: The Dallas airport D Gate area has a nice little charge station, so my laptop can charge and I can sit on a stool and not huddle on the floor near an outlet like I've had to do at the A gates. So I'm actually getting some work done. Haven't been to London in 3 years! It was about 10-15 degrees colder last time I was there (it was a month later), too, so I'm hoping ...

Aubrey decided that tonight we all had to get some religion. :) We were treated to a performance by the Austin Babtist Women at Oil Can Harry's. [I was one of the only five or six women in the place, and definitely one of the only straight ones!] We had dinner beforehand at Hut's hamburgers , an Austin institution. I hadn't been there yet. Big, greasy, messy burgers and pretty tasty fries. Yum! Anyway... the Babtist women have been singing together for nearly 22 years, raising money for HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and other charitable causes. Altogether, they have raised over $6M! We had prime location in the front of the room to watch the show. And while they only did four or five songs, they were a RIOT! They were all decked out in wigs and makeup and dresses and high heels -- though amusingly, they didn't bother to shave off their facial hair! The dresses really reminded me of the dresses that grandmothers wear at Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and weddings. Definitely the kind...

at the AMD party for SC08 -- we got two tables in the front. The band is awesome!

will.i.am's newest -- it's a catchy song! (I love the video snippets of people singing along - Hi Kyra and Kevin!)

Dani did this meme today, so I thought I'd steal it. :) Where is your mobile phone? Sofa Where is your significant other? undetermined Your hair colour? Mahogany Your mother? Funny Your father? Stubborn Your favourite thing? Cooking Your dream last night? weird Your dream goal? Peace The room you're in? Living Your hobby? Knitting Your fear? Loss Where do you want to be in 6 years? Austin Where were you last night? Wake What you're not? JAP One of your wish-list items? House Where you grew up? Washington The last thing you did? Cook What are you wearing? Jeans Your TV? Small Your pets? None Your computer? Old Your mood? Spent Missing someone? Joel Your car? PT Something you're not wearing? makeup Favourite shop? Target Your summer? Hot Love someone? everyone! Your favourite colour? Red! When is the last time you laughed? 8pm ...

Today, I had to rush home at 4:15 to meet the technician from the cable company, because some of my cable channels were on the fritz -- pixelated, blacking out periodically, or not coming in at all. And the phone kept losing its dial-tone. So they had to send a tech, because my "signal was weak." Little did I know that the dead animal that was removed from the attic in September -- right before Gigi was here - the smell was awful! -- was related to the weak signal... Two and a half hours later, when the tech finally finished re-running my cable all the way across the garage and through the attic and down into the wall behind the tv, he told me that the cable had probably been chewed by a rat. *shudder* Maybe that's what killed it - it got zapped? Yuck. But that wasn't his most interesting comment. As he was finishing the paperwork, I turned on Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, who was talking about President-elect Obama's first press conference. The tech (who I think ...

I feel like I can breathe! And Go Virginia!

.... Is the moral equivalent of Jews for Jesus. --pnav

From Batgirl, Little Orphan Annie, and ... Atesha in Halloween garb. ;)

and here's a little PSA to remind the Democrats not to be complacent. If you can vote early, go do it! Make sure you vote, and if you can, volunteer next Tuesday.

And if *you* live in California, please vote NO on Prop 8. Here's an eloquent and humorous post from Beth (pasted below). ( here I go on my soapbox*... ) The government (federal or state) should not be able to legislate what a marriage is -- if two people love each other, they should be able to get married. Period. And visit each other in the hospital. And get health care benefits. And all of the other things that "traditional" married couples do. And while I don't necessarily believe that this "slippery slope" will lead to anything like the Holocaust, I do believe that ANY kind of discrimination against ANYONE, because of their race, religion, gender, sexual preference, or ANYTHING, is absolutely wrong. (ok, soapbox over) read on: I am asking every American who has a gay child, parent, sibling, cousin or friend to read this through to the end. It is my plea. When Merideth and I exchanged vows seven years ago (on October 20), we asked Merideth’s si...

Laura Bush made the White House pink . Elizabeth Hurley was on hand ( and popping out of her dress ) to light up the Tower of London in pink . Why, you ask? Estee Lauder has sponsored the Global Landmarks Illumination Initiative since 2000. They've been able to illuminate ( 'pinkify' is my new word ) an amazing array of world landmarks. The whole list for 2008 has yet to be released, but they have made a good start with the White House and the Tower, I'd say. Images from past years (and the White House) in this slideshow ... we won't discuss what the photo from Jerusalem sorta resembles... I'm arranging " Passionately Pink for the Cure " Day at my office on Friday... as long as some people would be dressing up for Halloween anyway, I'm going to put it to a good cause! I'm asking everyone to wear pink, and donate $5 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. It worked last year - we raised over $200! Are you doing your part to raise Breast Cancer Awa...

"'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." -- Abraham Lincoln And just so y'all know, those contributions to Planned Parenthood "in honor of Sarah Palin" have now topped $1 million! now, GO VOTE! And let's change the direction of this country as soon as possible! :)

... and it comes with some spectacular music!

Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO makes the case for Obama. (snagged from the Daily Dish ) -- this is how this country is going to change. Can't wait to see the debate tonight!

Rebeka, Atesha and I braved the crowds (and the intermittent clouds of pot) to see Erykah Badu, John Fogerty, and Robert Plant w/Alison Krauss. Aubrey joined us for a bit, and we tasted the wares of some of Austin's best restaurants! it's a lot cooler now that the sun is setting. and we get to come back and do it again tomorrow!

(SI is calling it the "house of horrors" - but I think it's a curse, plain and simple.) *Sigh.* The Trojans went back to Corvallis, and got their a$$es handed to them on a silver platter. Again. Freshman Jacquizz Rodgers (the 5-foot-7, 193-pound tailback) became the bane of their existence, running through blocks and streaking down the field like he was covered in Crisco. Couldn't stop him! Wasn't hard to see what he was doing, he was just so "wiry" (my favorite line from Rhys Ifans in " The Replacements ") that they couldn't grab him. And the team's trademark ball-stripping moves wouldn't work, because he was so much smaller than the defense. *sigh* Two touchdowns in the third quarter, one in the fourth (in 1:20, no less!) -- flashes of "the real USC" muted by their inability to stop the Beavers from running all over them. And Rey Maualuga's knee injury didn't help. It was a long night. I'm sure it was a l...

Please give to Planned Parenthood! Here's an email that has been going around this week... it was not started by anyone at PP, but it appears to be working - as of today, they have received 18,000 donations in Sarah Palin's honor!! If you haven't done it yet, please consider following the instructions below. (I wonder how the folks at the McCain campaign feel about all those postcards they've been receiving...) Dear Friends: We may have thought we wanted a woman on a national political ticket, but the joke has really been on us, hasn't it? Are you as sick in your stomach as I am at the thought of Sarah Palin as Vice President of the United States? Since Palin gave her speech accepting the Republican nomination for the Vice Presidency, Barack Obama's campaign has raised over $10 million dollars. Some of you may already be supporting the Obama campaign financially; others of you may still be a little honked off over the primaries. None of you, however, can...

Finally, one of my friends from DC made it down to Austin to visit*! Giselle showed up on Friday afternoon, and walked straight into a whirlwind schedule of eating, drinking, dancing, and football. First, we had to go to happy hour, to say farewell (for now) to Aaron, who is moving with his wife (Erin) to India. She won a Fulbright scholarship to go study art! He'll be "telecommuting" til next June. But we couldn't stay at happy hour for long, because we had dinner reservations. We went back to my house to change and wait for Atesha, and then we were off to Ranch 616 . It was crowded, but the food was SO good. We all ordered steak - three different specials. Mine had crabmeat, Giselle's had a little quail on the side, and Atesha got a mesquite grilled steak as big as her head! And the biscuits - we were so glad Aubrey told us to make sure we got biscuits! :) Once we were completely stuffed, we moved on to Momo's to see Skyrocket . The first set was int...

I spun myself dizzy SO many times trying to be her! And come on, Lynda Carter even has a Y in her name! Recently, the lovely Washington-area resident (betcha didn't know she lives in DC!) did an interview with Philadelphia magazine, where they asked her about people comparing Sarah Palin to Wonder Woman. Here's what she said: Don’t get me started. She’s the anti-Wonder Woman. She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ ve got to live their lives. And a superior religious self-righteousness ... that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about. Hillary Clinton is a lot more like Wonder Woman than Mrs. Palin . She did it all, didn ’t she? ... I like John McCain. But this woman — it's anathema to me what she stands for. I think America should be very afraid. Very afraid. Separation of church and state is the one thing the creators of the Constitution did agree on — that it wasn ’t to be a religious government. People should feel free to speak their minds about rel...

I needed a vacation to recover from my vacation! (have I said that before?) :) Playa del Carmen was beautiful. For the most part, hurricanes Hannah and Ike left us alone -- though we did get a few minutes of heavy rain every afternoon, which reminded me of being in Miami! We stayed in a 3-BR, 2-BA condo, nicely furnished, at an apartment complex with a lovely pool, free wireless, and few people (that we saw). It's one of those places that rents out the apartments when the owners are not there, like the flats we've enjoyed in London. We generally had the pool to ourselves, and the water was perfect. The adventure began on the way to the condo, as apparently the driver of the airport van didn't know where the condo complex was. Granted, it's pretty new -- some of the apartments are still under construction -- but every other taxi driver we had knew about it! And unfortunately, the helpful guy at the airport didn't know where the condo complex was either! The place...

(I will post more about the trip to Mexico shortly. I'm waiting for the underwater cameras to be developed. When was the last time you had to wait for film developing?!?) Anyway, on to the topic of my post. George Coyne, an ordained Catholic priest and renowned astronomer, discussed intelligent design and evolution at a lecture Sept. 4 at the College of New Jersey (not to be confused with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, my alma mater) He said although he believes in G-d, and believes G-d created the universe, he cannot believe in intelligent design as a scientist . He personally encourages evolution to be taught in school, not intelligent design. "You shouldn't talk about God in a science classroom," he said. According to Coyne, it is the parents' duty to teach their child about G-d if they want, not the science teacher's responsibility. He also said as a scientist, he cannot truly believe in the biblical explanation for the creation of the world....

we snorkeled in the lagoon at Yal Ku, then came to the beach and swam among the loggerhead turtles. I think that's the coooolest thing I've ever done! You'll just have to wait til I get the waterproof cameras developed to see how close they were! and now, naptime. all that snorkeling is exhausting!

this morning we are headed to Akumal to go snorkeling with sea turtles, underwater cameras at the ready!

Did you know the Austin airport has a South Terminal? We had to find it this morning! Here we are waiting to board the flight to Cancun... Janie's doing some last-minute work. :(

It's so nice to have friends with little kids, so I can tag along when they go to the circus! I think I was more excited to take Giana to the circus on Saturday than Rebeka was. I've always loooved the Circus. When The Greatest Show on Earth would come to DC when we were little, mom would take us down to see them unload the train cars and walk the elephants over to the Armory. I used to love Gunther Goebel Williams - he was flashy and fun, and was an expert at making the tigers do exactly what he wanted! We even skipped class one day, senior year in high school, to go down to the DC Armory to see the circus - we got hopelessly lost along the way, but made it in time to see Gunther. It was his farewell tour -- here's the program that I had kept *forever* -- I think I might have gotten rid of it when I moved to TX. (Drat! might have been worth something!) Summer of '87, we went to Milwaukee, WI for the APIC National Convention (see previous post about APIC). Mom pile...

I missed the APIC National Convention in Las Vegas two weeks ago, but my friend Adam is expert at the PR thing (it's his job, natch), so he corralled a good number of media outlets to come and report on the event. He got everyone from the New York Times to UPI photographers to the Las Vegas Review Journal to come and interview folks and record the event for posterity. A reporter from the Las Vegas Sun spent some time talking to Dad -- I could recite the stories he tells about small buttons on lapel pins, and people's habits changing because of air-conditioning... in my sleep! ;) (love ya, Dad!) It's nice to see that the hobby is getting good press. Now if only we could find somebody other than old white guys to join! We're forming an Obama collectors chapter, so maybe we'll drum up some more members in the next few months. Election years are good for that.

The rules of the meme: bold those you have tried, strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet. The Omnivore's Hundred is a list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives. 1. Venison 2. Nettle tea 3. Huevos rancheros 4. Steak tartare 5. Crocodile 6. Black pudding (aka blood pudding or blood sausage) 7. Cheese fondue 8. Carp 9. Borscht 10. Baba ghanoush 11. Calamari 12. Pho 13. PB&J sandwich 14. Aloo gobi 15. Hot dog from a street cart 16. Epoisses [ahem. lactose intolerant] 17. Black truffle 18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes 19. Steamed pork buns 20. Pistachio ice cream 21. Heirloom tomatoes 22. Fresh wild berries 23. Foie gras 24. Rice and beans 25. Brawn, or head cheese 26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper 27. Dulce de leche 28. Oysters 29. Baklava 30. Bagna cauda [never had it, but it sounds good !] 31. Wasabi peas 32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl 33. Salted lassi (is that a different version of ...

All in one night! Ah, the contrasts of Austin. :) Saturday was "get your groove on" night. While we do absolutely loooove seeing Skyrocket or the Spazmatics at Cedar Street, sometimes it's nice to go hear music someplace where you won't sweat to death within 60 seconds (i.e. indoors). So on Saturday we decided to go to the famous Broken Spoke . Cowboy boots required! (well, not officially, but strongly encouraged!) We had to have dinner first, of course, so El Sol y La Luna was destination #1. Yummmm. A carpool of four turned into dinner for five - no, six! - and then a table for seven at the Spoke. The singer -- Dale Watson -- looked a good deal like Billy Bob Thornton, though with more hair (and a little more meat on his bones). The dance floor was packed most of the night. The people-watching was amazing - everyone from long-time-practically-pro-dancer couples, to little kids being held up by their (grand)parents as they spun around the room, to a sudden ...

"...And even if the book itself isn't that sexy, the title helps: 'Sex, Science and Stem Cells.'" The Washington Post notes that Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), a chief architect of the stem cell research bill that was vetoed twice by President Bush, writes about the Bush administration's politicization of science and sex and warns that if the country elects John McCain president in November, "we'd be signing on for four more years of more of the same - the same blind faith that dogma and ideology ought to stand ahead of science and reason." ... And more government invasion of women's bodies: Ahem. The pill is not equivalent to abortion! The Bush Administration has ignited a furor with a proposed definition of pregnancy that has the effect of classifying some of the most widely used methods of contraception as abortion. A draft regulation, still being revised and debated, treats most birth-control pills and intrauterine devices as abortion bec...