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 ...