Melyssa-with-a-Y

Travelogue: Germany, June 2011

2011-07-18T13:13:00.004-05:00

Wow, it's been a year since I blogged here. But it's hard to describe a week-long trip abroad in short snippets on facebook, so I thought I'd write it out.

I left on Saturday, June 25. John was nice enough to drive me to the airport for my 6am flight to Newark. (oy, I'm never doing that again!) Then I had five hours to sit around the airport to wait for my flight to Stuttgart. I watched a movie on Netflix (TiMER), watched some Wimbledon tennis in the Heineken bar, and even got a little work done.

The plane was mostly full of Germans. There was one poor German woman on the plane whose son didn’t board in Newark… she cried half way across the ocean. (But he’s 24… he can probably deal.) I didn’t sleep much at all on the plane. I watched Rango during/after dinner, and then tried to sleep but couldn’t… and then with two hours left (at 5am), the guy behind me decided to play some kind of game on the screen on the back of my seat. UGH. No matter how many times I turned around and either gave him the 'evil eye' or asked nicely for him to stop... he just poked harder at the screen.

The passport agent was scary, but maybe that’s because I was so damn tired. The luggage carousel was “smart” – bags that came up the ramp stopped until there was space on the carousel for them to drop. Really quite impressive. (very German) Had a bit of a time finding a money machine… and realized at that moment that I probably have Euros in a drawer at home. Sigh. (as it turns out, I didn't have Euros... Plenty GB pounds, and Costa Rican colones, but no Euros.)

Took a taxi to the hotel. (30 Euros!) Gray weather and very muggy. The taxi driver didn’t speak English, so I sat and read my phrase book and tried to figure out where we were. Then I was so tired when I checked in that I didn’t even give them a credit card. And of course my room was in the other building, so I have to go underground (to floor -2) and walk down a long hallway full of African art (for sale) to the Park building, where I go from floor -1 to my floor. That walk got very old.

Took a nap for an hour, and then a hot shower. I had to eat (breakfast on the plane was just a croissant with jam and OJ), so I had standard European breakfast of bread and cheese and ham and jam, and some coffee at the hotel. Whew, that was expensive! (and I had to pay cash because I hadn’t given them a credit card! Oops!)

I wandered down to the center of town, where the big old buildings and museums are, and the shopping streets. Unfortunately, everything except the cafés is closed on Sunday. So I meandered, and it was hot (they were having a heat wave, it was 85!). Had to stop at Starbucks and get some water – that’s the only place I could find where you could get a bottle of water to walk around with. Saw the Schlossplatz and such, took photos. (See my Stuttgart photos posted on Flickr) People were dipping their feet in the fountains! I was the only one not wearing shorts. Went back to the hotel and tried not to sleep too much…. Then my colleague called and asked if I wanted to go to dinner.

So the American group went to dinner – me, Suzy, Ashok, Steve, and eventually we were found by Merle. We wandered a bit, checking out the menus, and ended up at the Paulaner brewhouse, sitting in the sun. (Between that and the earlier part of the day, I got a sunburn on my chest!) I had a beer, two Weisswurst and a pretzel, and it was fantastic. The honey mustard was great too. I’m now a huge fan of Weisswurst – which are apparently only supposed to be eaten for breakfast. Oh well.

I slept really well on Sunday night. I think all the walking helped. We had a quick breakfast and then took the subway out to the University center. It was HOT! I had dressed up and I got seriously sweaty. The meeting room didn’t have A/C either, which meant that around 3:30, when we were all starting to doze anyway, it got really warm. Luckily, Dan and I had to give our presentation then. He was totally wiped- they flew in on Monday morning and drove from Frankfurt. But the presentation went well, and we were done around 5pm.

Maria came and picked us up – thank goodness I didn’t have to hike back to the subway! – and we got to rest for a bit before going to dinner. Unfortunately, the restaurant where we had dinner also wasn’t air-conditioned. But the dinner itself was AMAZING. The waiter offered us a special deal… lots of mixed appetizers and then a fish dinner and dessert. He spoke German, English, Spanish, Turkish, and Italian, if I counted correctly. The appetizers just kept coming – sliced veal, green salad, seafood salad (like ceviche), fresh baked pita bread, tomato-mozzarella caprese (very fresh), and Italian antipasto. Then there were two kinds of fish and a giant prawn on the dinner plate. Then the three desserts – a chocolate-covered profiterole, a lava cake, and tiramisu. Between that and the wine, and the heat in the restaurant, I was done.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at the hotel (most of the American group left earlier because we had arrived late when we took the train on Monday!) and then Maria drove us to the meeting. After the meeting, the HLRS guy (whose name I don’t know!) showed us the Porsche driving simulator, made from an actual Porsche. Wow. I didn’t try driving it. (see photos on Flickr for that too.)

We left HLRS and drove south to Burg Hohenzollern. It's 2800 ft above sea level. We climbed about 700 of those feet, from the parking lot area. (or at least it felt like that!) The castle was closed when we got to the top, but it was so beautiful. We had ice cream snacks before the walk, and got some water. When we got back to town, Dan was wiped out, but Maria and I went to dinner at a pub just up the street from our hotel. Typical German brewhaus – dark wood walls and benches. They had pretzels and mustard on the table – yum! I had wienerschnitzel (about time!) and a side salad drowning in dressing. Maria had a steak and creamed spinach, which was pretty tasty. By the time I got back to my room it was after 10pm!

We met for breakfast and took off at 9 to go to Neuschwanstein Castle – the one Disney modeled his castles after. It was about 2 hours away, and we had to pick up our tickets at 12:30 for the 1:30 tour. We made it, and took the bus up the hill. Unfortunately, once you get off the bus there’s a hike – both up to the bridge, and then down and back up to the castle. Oy. At least I know my heart can take some serious stress after that! My legs and feet… not so much.

The castle was incredible. We climbed lots of circular stairs… it was gorgeous. Poor Ludwig only lived there for a few weeks before his "mysterious drowning," and most of the rooms were never finished. And you can’t take pictures inside, so the guidebook is 12 Euros. (I didn’t buy one.) The view was amazing. Then we hiked back to the bus stop and took the bus back down the hill to have lunch. More Weissbrat sausages for me! And fries! Then back in the car to go investigate the next thing. Unfortunately, by the time we found the recreation area that Maria found with the cable cars to the top of the mountain, the rain clouds were rolling in, and the mountaintop was obscured, so we didn’t go. (it was also $25 per person to go up and back!) So instead, we drove around Bavaria, and accidentally crossed the line in to Austria! We turned back after a mile or so. We drove through some cute little towns until we found a road that paralleled the highway, and eventually got back on the Autobahn going north. I'm pretty sure Maria was having fun driving at over 150 km per hour. :)

They dropped me off at the University train stop and I took the subway back into town. It’s really an honor system, like the Prague subway was – no turnstiles to check your ticket, you just have to make sure you have one, or it’s a 40 Euro fine. I made sure I had a ticket. I walked out the wrong exit from the train stop, but it got me to a little takeaway place where I bought dinner to bring back to the hotel. (a curry chicken wrap and dried apple slices.) Outside the movie theater down the block from the hotel, they had the ‘bumblebee’ Camaro from Transformers -- I forgot the movie was opening this weekend. I should've taken a picture. I was exhausted, but it took me a while to fall asleep.

Thursday, I got up and had breakfast in the hotel, and went back to my room to check in for my flight. [Paying for Internet access in the hotel was highway robbery!] Then I figured out where the Mercedes Benz museum was, took the S-bahn train north a few stops, and walked to the museum (feet hurting already!) with a gaggle of teenagers who were going to the same place. I’m suddenly very short on patience for groups of kids like that. Maybe it’s worse here because I couldn’t understand them if they were talking to/about me? Hmmm….

Anyway. The museum is beautiful. Starts from the top and comes down in a spiral. I was really impressed at their handling of WWII history. It was restrained, correct, and clear. They had Princess Diana’s MB coupe, which she had for about a year before the Windsors made her give it back. And the Pope-mobile, and some other well-known cars. The gift shop was ridiculous. I might have bought a magnet of just the MB logo, but they didn’t have one. So bleh.

Walked back to the S-bahn, eating the PB crackers that Maria gave me. Thank goodness for those, because I really think I would have passed out otherwise. Got off the train at a different stop – the main train station - and sat down at a café in Schlossplatz… I sat in the sun for a while but that was too hot and I was getting woozy. Bitter Lemon helped, and “meatballs” and potato salad. Still a little woozy, I got some ice cream and walked back to the hotel. Went by the Ulla Popken store – nice women’s plus-sized clothes! I took a nap and put my feet up, that felt SO good. Puttered around watching CNN until 5:30, when I went down to get dinner. I felt like I was finally figuring out the streets of Stuttgart, finding the back way to/from things. Shame, since I was leaving the next day.

For dinner I went back down by the Paulaner café, but I chose one of the Italian places instead. Had a big bowl of ziti with pesto and red sauce, and a homemade lemonade. Wandered around a bit more – it was a good thing I took a picture of Neues Schloss on Sunday, because by Thursday, it was all covered up for the start of Jazz Fest on July 1.

I was really getting a kick out of watching the CNN international coverage of Wills and Kate’s visit to Canada.

I had exactly enough Euros to take a cab back to the airport on Friday morning. It's a really small airport, so all I did was buy a bottle of water and a candy bar, and we boarded the plane. I hate how much longer it takes to fly west across the Atlantic... 10 hours later, we landed at Newark. I was so glad to be back!

I think I'd like to go back to Germany to visit Munich and maybe Berlin. Someday.

Margaritas and queso at Matt's

2010-07-17T18:43:00.000-05:00

More time-delayed photos, courtesy of AT&T. Here are our margaritas (his was top shelf, mine was sangria-margarita) at Matt's El Rancho. The waitress talked us into Bob's queso - queso with ground beef and guacamole in it - she really had to twist our arms, as you might imagine. Allyn practically licked the bowl. ;)

The food at Matt's was good (his Tacos al Carbon was better than my Tacos al Pastor) but not great. Personally, I think Chuy's is better. We will be going there in November.

Jae's first taste of Rudy's - he likes!

2010-07-17T11:27:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, my phone was having posting issues, so this took a while, but here's Allyn on the covered patio at Rudy's (did I mention that he loves outdoor dining?) right before we stuffed ourselves with brisket, turkey, sausage, cole slaw and potato salad. He liked it. Hm. That's an understatement. He offered to eat at Rudy's for every meal for the rest of the weekend, but I declined. :)

Back to blogging

2010-07-06T10:43:00.004-05:00

Someone pointed out to me last week that I hadn't been blogging in a while. It's true, I've gotten so addicted to Facebook that I post just about everything over there. But there's not enough room at FB to really delve into anything... I just post a link and make a little comment, and it's done.

So back to Blogger. And you'll notice I've changed the design of the page a bit... I'm going to keep playing with it until I find a design that I really like. Comments are welcome.

It's July. Half the year is over. Sometimes I really wonder where time goes. I know I go to work every day and get stuff done, and move forward... I just hope I'm making enough of a difference in the world.

We read "The Next Thing on My List" in book club last month (good choice, Maria!) and it got us all to think about what would be on our "lists" -- like a bucket list, only with a slightly shorter time line. The list below was modified from Cassie Boorn's list. She was interviewed on NPR last week about her project asking women to write letters to their 20-something selves, but she also has her own list of things to do before she turns 25. (oy, I'm old!) I called mine "50 Things to do Before I turn 50." heh. that gives me a little wiggle room. :) Some of the things on Cassie's list were good, and I kept them even though I could cross them out.

Here's my list:

1. ~~Visit the Aquarium~~ (Monterrey, Baltimore, Sydney... I love aquariums)

2. ~~Dance in the rain~~

3. Ride in a hot air balloon

4. ~~Buy a house~~

5. Visit all 50 states

6. ~~Own a big girl camera~~

7. ~~Spend a day at a winery~~

8. ~~Tutor Someone~~

9. ~~Host a dinner party~~

10. ~~Go camping~~

11. Write a book…or maybe a nice article (hmmm, does blogging count?)

12. ~~Learn to swim~~

13. ~~Speak to a crowd~~

14. ~~Build something~~ (hello, IKEA)

15. Pay off my car

16. Plant something (that doesn't die...)

17. Take a road trip with friends

18. Try something I hate

19. ~~Go to a movie alone~~

20. Wake up early and sit on my patio

21. ~~Keep a journal~~

22. Take a risk

23. Visit 10 landmarks in Texas (or in the US... I still haven't been to many National Parks outside DC)

24. Teach someone something

25. Do yoga (without getting the giggles)

26. Make a soufflé

27. ~~Make a large purchase without panicking~~

28. Be fearless

29. Write a poem

30. Meditate

31. Fall in love (hasn't happened recently)

32. Change a tire

33. Get married

34. Ride in a horse drawn carriage

35. Pay off my credit cards

36. Invest in something

37. ~~Attend an outside concert~~

38. ~~Catch a fish~~

39. Ride a motorcycle

40. Be content

41. ~~Make my own ice cream~~

42. Read 100 books

43. Take a graphic design course

44. Watch all the movies on AFI's top 100 list

45. Run (or jog) a 5k (as opposed to just walking)

46. Ride an elephant

47. Go to Italy (also on the list: Greece, Ireland, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand...)

48. Learn to speak Hebrew. (I can read it, but that's not enough.)

49. Take a cruise to Alaska

50. Take dancing lessons (swing, salsa, 2-step, etc.)

What's on your list?

Dawn at the Capitol bldg in Austin

2010-03-17T07:40:00.000-05:00

That's cheating!

2010-03-12T18:46:00.000-06:00

in the freezer section @ Costco... pre-made matzoh balls!

Spicy caramel popcorn

2010-02-08T12:30:00.000-06:00

recipe from SmittenKitchen - yum! Next time, I'll remember the peanuts.

A new annual tradition

2010-01-23T19:27:00.002-06:00

Living in Austin has given me a lot of things. A great job, wonderful friends, a nice house... and allergies. Ugh, the allergies. And apparently, as soon as the cold weather goes away (and it happened early this year), and the "cedar fever" starts up, I get bronchitis. Because, you know, it's not enough to just have the cedar allergy. I get the yucky green mucus (tmi? sorry!), the pain in my chest, the coughing, and the Barry White voice. Really pleasant. I could feel it coming on, so I made a pre-emptive appointment with the doc on Wednesday. He looked at his notes and commented that he had prescribed an antibiotic last February for bronchitis. This time, he prescribed a z-pack (more antibiotics) and cough syrup with codeine. wahooo! I haven't had cough syrup with codeine in probably twenty years.

Needless to say, Thursday was not a day for going to work. I slept. I took my antibiotics and some cough syrup, ate some oatmeal, and slept. And slept. Ate some soup. And slept some more. Wow, did that feel good. I decided I had to go in on Friday for a little while -- by then I was so stir crazy, I had to get out of the house! Unfortunately, sitting upright and trying to concentrate for an hour was plenty. I stopped and got a pizza on the way home (random craving, but this way I didn't have to go out again...) and went home and crashed again.

So, after four days of antibiotics and cough syrup, and lots of sleeping and watching random movies, I am pleased to report that the pain in my chest is gone, there's no more green gunk, and I sound a lot more like me, and a lot less like Kathleen Turner. (I suppose it might have been sexy, but the coughing kind of killed the mood.) ;)

Please remind me next year that I need to keep taking my allergy meds when it's still cold outside, so when it warms up, I won't get bronchitis!

Pulled Pork!

2010-01-10T10:00:00.000-06:00

4 lb pork butt, $6.29
BBQ sauce, $2.39
Root beer for cooking, $3.59
Making your own pulled pork: priceless. (and almost irresistible!)

Happy last night of Hanukkah!

2009-12-18T19:58:00.000-06:00

Cheerio, Chaps!

2009-11-27T16:47:00.003-06:00

I'm pleased to report that a) it's been sunny in London (doh! I probably just jinxed us!) and b) we've really had a blast in the past two and a half days.

We arrived on Wednesday morning. It's chilly, but not nearly as cold as it was last year. Or maybe I'm a lot less cold because I brought my super-warm wool coat this year! We hung out in the apartment for a bit, and then Bryan and I went out to find some lunch. Then it was naptime.

Wednesday is also the customary trip to TESCO to stock up on groceries. We stopped at a pub for dinner - had to have fish 'n' chips! - and then went shopping. Prices seem reasonable when you look at the number in pounds sterling... then you do the math and realize that it's $1.65 to the pound. (Which is actually better than it used to be!) Mostly we need breakfast food.

Thanksgiving Thursday, Mom, Dad and I went to the antiques market at Spittalfields. Many of the people in the shops wished us a Happy Thanksgiving. We wished them a happy Thursday. :) There's also a craft market, and some other cute shops. This is the place where I saw the cool giraffe bag last year, and didn't buy it. I wasn't going to make that mistake again! I got some nice jewelry from one of the artisans - a ring, and a matching blown glass pendant and earrings. We tried the Greek place for lunch, for kebabs, salads, feta cheese. It was more like tapas - small plates, for too much money. No wonder it wasn't very crowded!

From there we met Bryan at Gray's Antiques, where dad likes to shop for watches. [and I finally remembered to get a new SIM card for my phone, so I have a UK number now. ] We didn't stay long... the kid and I wandered down Bond street shopping, but we were so exhausted that we headed back to the apartment pretty quickly.

We had planned to go to Five 25 for Thanksgiving dinner, but when we got there, the menu seemed really simple and pub-like, so we opted for Noor Jahan Indian food instead. (My family does Indian food for Xmas, why shouldn't we have it for Thanksgiving?) :) It was lovely. That's one of the restaurants we have come to every year since 2001 - sometimes multiple times in the same trip.

Today was probably one of the best London days I've ever had. As an early Chanuka present, Dad splurged and got me and Bryan tickets to the ATP Tennis World Tour Finals at the O2 arena. Oh. My. Gawd. First off, the arena is really neat. It's that white bubble with the yellow poles sticking out that you see in lots of images of London now - it appeared in the last (Pierce Brosnan) James Bond movie. Inside, there's an inner layer that holds the arena, and an outer layer surrounding it, where there are a dozen restaurants, a music museum, and even a mini amusement park. Also on the outer layer is the practice court for the tournament. We got there just in time to watch Novak Djokovic warming up with his coach, Todd Martin. *sigh* Novak is one of my favorites.

My other favorite is Rafael Nadal. And guess who Novak was warming up to play? :D The opening match was doubles - Max Myrni and Andy Ram against Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy. Apparently my brother has now seen Leander Paes play in four different cities.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention our seats. We had FRONT ROW SEATS. In the center - right behind the umpire's chair. Wow. Just... wow. I'll post some pics soon; we were 15 feet from Nadal! Bryan got Djokovic's autograph as the players were leaving. And it was some of the most amazing tennis I've ever seen.

From there, we had to rush over to Westminster to meet the 'rents for a tour of Parliament. One of the guys who grew up at APIC shows now works for the Conservative party over here. He's been here for about a year. He took us inside Parliament, to the House of Lords, under Big Ben, and almost into the House of Commons (the guard wouldn't let us go past the doorway.) Then we went down to one of the eight (or more?) pubs inside the Parliament grounds for a pint. Unfortunately, as it was Friday night at 6pm, all of the other young staffers had the same idea. It was packed! We had our one beer and got out of there.

On the move again, Bryan and I had tickets to The 39 Steps, so we had to head for Picadilly. I saw it in New York when we were there for Robin's birthday, but the kid hadn't seen it. It was hilarious (again). Bryan laughed out loud.

YAWN. That's two and a half very full days, which will be followed by two more full days, and then a full day flying to get home. Time to get some rest! Tomorrow: Portobello Road.

The blur that was Portland

2009-11-24T17:27:00.003-06:00

I thought I might be able to post more often while I was in Portland, but that just wasn't to be. Here's a quick synopsis.

Sunday was spent at the Convention Center, putting up posters in the TACC booth. We had our share of surprises, successes and snafus, but for the most part, our booth was lovely (bigger than we've ever had) and very successful.

Sunday night, mom and I went to the Intel welcome party at the Portland Art Museum. (Apparently I didn't miss very much at the craft market.) The food was very good, we ran into a lot of people we knew and had some lovely conversations, and they gave out nice fleece jackets as a parting gift. My only complaint was that we didn't get to see the rest of the museum. That was kind of a bummer.

Monday, I moved to the Governor hotel where the rest of the TACCsters were already encamped. After staying in the tiny room with my mom for the weekend, it was a pleasure to have a nice big room on the top floor, complete with fireplace!

After putting the finishing touches on the booth (and stopping by a pre-opening reception), the fun began at the convention center with the opening party for the conference attendees. It was such a blur - we talked to so many people! The booth was very popular. It went on like that for three days - chatting in the booth til closing, checking out a restaurant or a party, and crashing into bed. That's how these things go every year. (I have to say, I miss the LinuxNetworx parties at the sports venues like we had in Seattle and Tampa!)

Thursday, Al Gore did the keynote address at the conference. I was debating whether to go or not - he was besieged by protesters at his speech on Wednesday, and they swore there would be tons of security, blah blah blah. But in the end, I just couldn't stay away. It's AL, after all. I love Al. I think a lot of other people were scared away... I got into the ballroom right away and got a pretty good seat up front, just left of center. It was pretty empty until right before his talk started. I was frantically texting my staff to get them to come quickly -- and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

Al was great. Clearly, he has a selection of canned jokes, mostly self-deprecating, that he likes to tell. And he used an African proverb (that got retweeted multiple times), which he also recited on '30 Rock' and SNL. Ah well. But he gave a tremendous speech, showing that he knew about supercomputing and networking (whether he "invented the Internet" or not...) and issued a call to arms to the HPC community to help solve the climate crisis. It made me sad (again) that we had to live through 8 years of that other idiot... this country would be in a totally different place if Al had been President. *sigh*

The rest of Thursday - another blur. I went to the job fair and talked to some students interested in summer internships... and then I had to haul a** for the airport. I had the chattiest cab driver ever on the way there. He was telling me about his rare book collection, his latest surgery, the love/marriage advice he gave to a woman who was crying in his cab last week... and on, and on, and on.

I was so glad to be back in Austin, even for just four days.

Next stop: London!

Greetings from Portland

2009-11-14T23:59:00.003-06:00

(I mean the one in Oregon.... apparently there are a lot of other Portlands around the USA!)

Today was filled with dining and shopping and football-watching. But let me start with last night's dinner, which was excellent. The front desk person at the hotel recommended a restaurant up the street called Southpark. I admit, I had visions of Stan, Kyle and Cartman at first, but it's actually a seafood restaurant with a distinctly Mediterranean flair. I forgot that it was a Friday night at 7:30pm... the place was packed. I ended up sitting at the bar in the Wine Bar section of the restaurant. It was very nice. I had a glass of Apolloni Pinot Grigio, and a small-ish dinner (it was already almost 10pm for me by then) of warm flatbreads with hummus, and the Pacific Northwest version of crabcakes. I was starving. Everything was very tasty, and the bartenders were really nice (one had even grown up in DC!), but between the time difference and the wine, I was starting to fade. I walked back to the hotel -- ooh, did I mention that it's COLD here! Thank goodness I brought my wool-alpaca coat from last winter in DC! -- and pretty much crashed into bed. Unfortunately, just as I was starting to get comfy and fall asleep, mom came in, having landed at PDX at midnight. So... we didn't get to sleep til after 1am. And I woke up at 5. I'm gonna sleep well tonight!

We slept late (honestly, I don't know when I've ever seen my mom sleep as late as she did!) and had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. We went to the tourist information center for some brochures, watched the giant Xmas tree construction in Pioneer Square, and eventually made it up to the Agency sports bar, which is where the Portland USC Alumni gather to watch games. We were early, so we wandered around the neighborhood and ended up spending a few bucks in the Dollar Store. (yes, we're big spenders, that's right!) She needed hairspray, I needed a scarf... it was very exciting stuff. Then we went back to the bar and found the USC group. They were all very nice and welcoming. We even had a few Stanford interlopers. And then the game started, and it all went downhill from there. All I have to say is, UGH. The rest of that rant we will leave for another day. ;)

When the game ended, we meandered back to the hotel by way of the supermarket, the yarn store -- which it turns out was Dani's fave when she was here -- and the Doc Martens store -- only one in the USA! I looked at some of the boots, but they're seriously expensive. For dinner, we invited zak to come over from Convention-Center-land, and we were originally headed for a Greek place. Unfortunately, I got all turned around and walked us in the wrong direction! For some reason, my normally excellent sense of direction has TOTALLY failed me in Portland so far. *sigh* We turned around and headed for the restaurant, in the right direction, but got sidetracked by a nice looking place, the Red Star Tavern. That was fortuitous, because we ended up having an excellent dinner! Short ribs, scallops, cornbread... it was all excellent.

To continue the bargain-hunting theme, we stopped at Ross on the way back, so mom could buy a hat for tomorrow's trip to the Saturday Market (yes, I know tomorrow is Sunday). We ended up also getting microfleece thermal tops, and another scarf for me. So the grand total of our "shopping" today was $30. The total for food was.... much more than that. :) And that's as it should be, if you ask me.

Before you ask, I didn't take a lot of pictures, but don't get your hopes up - today was likely the only day this week without rain. :(

Pecan praline pie, for supper club. YUM!

2009-10-31T17:44:00.000-05:00

Getting things done

2009-10-18T22:15:00.004-05:00

(I refuse to use Larry the Cable guy's catchphrase. Bleh.)

This weekend, I managed to finish a bunch of things that were just sort of hanging around in limbo. For starters, I finally completed the crochet caterpillar for Nicky W. I'm hoping to get to the post office on Tuesday to ship it off to Boston.

I also finished re-installing (mostly) my printer/copier/scanner so I could use it to scan photos and such. (see photo, right --> ) More of those will be posted shortly. There are so many to choose from!

And, I cleared out a ton of cardboard boxes that have been filling my garage... I need the space -- my new B&D electric mower is coming on Thursday! (it's so cute!) There are so many things I can get done outside, now that it's not going to be 104 degrees every day.

I also started a few new things - a new pot of basil is growing, some new parsley seedlings are peeking out, and I made an apple granola crumbly-thing for breakfasts this week.

I'm sure this burst of energy will run out soon, but for the time being, I'm kind of enjoying this whole "done!" thing.

my house has been warmed

2009-09-24T18:45:00.000-05:00

A big ol' thank you to Auntie M, for the bounty of housewarming goodies I found when I got back from DC. In no particular order: serving plates, a turkey baster, loaf pan, giant knitting needles, decorative glass bottles, cheese spreaders, tomato saver, and 'Auntie Sam' poster. phew!

Nationals Park is pretty cool

2009-09-23T18:42:00.000-05:00

Ryan got us tickets right behind home plate! So what if the Nats could be handed loss #100 tonight... it's a nice place.

L'Shanah Tovah

2009-09-22T09:59:00.003-05:00

(Image taken from treppenwitz, created by his wife Zahava)

greetings from our nation's capital

2009-09-21T11:50:00.000-05:00

(and our nation's Capitol!)

view from my seats @ UT

2009-09-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

you could call these nosebleed seats... but I think those are below us!

I've gone from two eyes to four!

2009-08-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

First pair of eyeglasses... ever! It's amazing how much clearer everything is.

Remembrance and Hope for the Future

2009-08-09T22:20:00.007-05:00

Last week, a gunman entered a LGBT Center in Tel Aviv and killed two people, and wounded a dozen more. Unfortunately, violence in Israel isn't exactly unusual, and while I frequently get choked up about it, this one was different.

Because of Aubrey, I know a lot about the LGBT community in Austin (and have spent plenty of time in gay bars!), including the existence of Out Youth, which is an outreach center for young people, exactly like the one that was attacked in Tel Aviv. I went to their prom! -->

Tonight, Out Youth, together with other LGBT community organizations and the Jewish Community Association of Austin, co-sponsored a vigil at City Hall to honor the victims in Tel Aviv. I had to go.

When I started thinking about the whole situation earlier in the day, I started to cry. There is certainly no question that what happened in Tel Aviv was horrible. Any shooting, and particularly the shooting of children, is tragic. But even moreso because, of all of the places in the world where this could happen, Israel is different. The Jewish people have been persecuted, just for being who we are, since the beginning of time. [On Bill Maher's show last week, it was pointed out that Judaism was around *before* Christianity - even people who quote the Bible (the New Testament) don't seem to grasp that there's an Old Testament for a reason! But I digress...] Israelis are used to the threat of violence. They go on living their lives in the face of a constant ... nervousness... that the next person who gets on the bus, or walks into the store, could be a suicide bomber. West Wing addressed this nicely after 9/11 in "Isaac and Ishmael" -- one of the students asks Sam, "...what do you call a society that has to just live every day with the idea that the pizza place you are eating in could just blow up without any warning?" "Israel," Sam answers. That's it. They're used to it, for lack of a better term -- as much as you can be.

But here was an assailant who chose to attack an even more specialized group. Teenagers who didn't feel comfortable being themselves anywhere else -- many of them weren't out to their parents yet -- could be assured that at this center, in this support group, whoever they were was fine. And this guy violated that trust. (They haven't found him yet.) How are these kids ever going to feel safe again?

As Jews, we are taught the values of respect for human life, for *all* people, and that persecution of any kind is wrong. If we do not stand up for the rights of others, who will stand up for us?

All this is to say, we understand.

Tonight, the quick rainshower that passed over Austin gave way to a gorgeous rainbow, which hung directly over City Hall as I drove downtown. I thought it was a good sign. :)

The vigil was very well attended (over 100 ppl) and well-run. The Out Youth kids were basically in charge of the whole thing. Three local rabbis, including Rabbi Freedman from my temple, offered prayers and song. I cried through the Mourner's Kaddish... but then I always do. The teenagers read statements, sang songs (Leonard Cohen's Halleluyah, which was beautiful), and gave their heartfelt speeches about love, acceptance and hope for the future. The most unexpected speech came at the end of the evening, from a woman whose daughter is transgender. She talked about the pain of being a parent, knowing what your child will go through and how the rest of the world will react to her "differences." It is only with love and acceptance from parents like this - and the rest of us, LGBT allies - that awful events like what happened in Tel Aviv will be stopped.

So say a prayer for the families of the teenagers and their support system in Tel Aviv, who were killed and injured last week. But don't stop there. Stand up to bullying and injustice when you see it. Support OutYouth, or a similar organization in your area. And above all, share the love! :)

new furniture

2009-08-08T18:10:00.000-05:00

it took most of the day to get it all set up properly, but I love my new Mission style bedroom set! (thank you craigslist...) :)

un-learning what I've learned

2009-07-16T16:42:00.003-05:00

Last month, I decided to organize a "Biggest Loser" contest at my office. I've since dropped out, but not because I am giving up. I'm taking a new path.

Over the past... 20 or so years, I have spent a lot of time thinking about food. What to eat, what not to eat, how many calories (or WW points) everything is, how much I have to exercise to burn off whatever I ate for dinner, writing down what I've eaten -- and deciding whether to write something down at all (like those miniature york peppermint patties that I keep in my freezer)... and somehow, it never seems to end. I have been brainwashed by WW, so it's not a "diet" it's a "lifestyle change" -- I haven't used the word "diet" in forever.

In the last year, I've been working with a nutritionist and a personal trainer (three years with the trainer), and although I know I'm in much better shape than I was when I started -- I definitely have more stamina, and I can lift about 2x the weight-- I haven't gotten any smaller.

Why isn't it working? What's wrong with me? The nutritionist suggested that I go see a "food therapist," who could help me figure it all out.

My first session with the therapist was excellent. I didn't cry (much). She's going to help me figure out my food issues -- and along the way, probably a host of other issues! -- and she's started me on a program of "Intuitive Eating." When I looked the book up online after the session, I was really excited to read the ten principles of Intuitive Eating.... but also a little scared.

Reject the Diet Mentality
Honor Your Hunger
Make Peace with Food
Challenge the Food Police
Respect Your Fullness
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food
Respect Your Body
Exercise--Feel the Difference
Honor Your Health

I've listened to the audiobook of part 1, and I have to say, principle #1 absolutely floored me.

Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.

It's going to literally mean un-brainwashing myself, never thinking about calorie counts or "good fooods" and "stupid foods" (that's what I called them)... ever again! No more weighing myself! No more scale! (The audiobook says "The scale is evil." I wrote that one down.) :)

Needless to say, as soon as I got the first CD, and read the website, I stopped doing Weight Watchers, cold turkey. No more recording every bite that went into my mouth. No more worrying about portion size, or whether I could eat french fries or not. And, even though I'm still going to the gym 3x or 4x a week, I've started gaining weight.

And therein lies the rub. One of the main points of the first principle is that you have to put the idea of weight loss on the back burner. And accept the fact that, while you're first getting started with Intuitive Eating, you will probably gain weight. AAAH! I don't know how to be ok with gaining weight. I can feel it slowly attaching itself to my midsection. Eventually, according to the book, your body will recover from the constant yo-yo-ing of diets, and shift toward your ideal weight - whatever your body wants it to be. Here's another challenge for me - on the one hand, I'm not supposed to worry about what I weight, right? but on the other hand, in the back of my mind, I need to believe that my "ideal weight" is smaller than where I am now. and I know from experience that if I don't think about calories and I don't get to the gym all the time, I gain tons of weight. AAAAH! It's making my head explode.

This week, I told the therapist about this concern (aka major freak-out) about what would happen if my body wants to be bigger. She said, "Well, you can always go back on a diet." But somehow, I can't see myself doing that either. I just have to be patient. She said that the more she listened to me talk, the more she could tell that it really was going to be a radical change for me to do Intuitive Eating, and she was glad I was sticking with it.

So who wants to go have a burger on Friday? ;)

my new baby!

2009-07-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

anybody want a ride? :)

yes, that's the temperature.

2009-06-25T17:09:00.000-05:00

aaah, summer in Austin!

Austin Aztex warming up

2009-06-21T17:37:00.000-05:00

it may be 90-something, but it's not so bad in the shade, and there's a nice breeze!

You Matter

2009-06-17T11:38:00.000-05:00

(taken from Seth Godin's blog)

When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

made it to the finish line!

2009-06-06T09:06:00.000-05:00

five year old tae kwan do expert!

2009-06-05T15:59:00.000-05:00

backyard arsenal

2009-06-01T20:59:00.000-05:00

I stopped by HD on the way home to pick up some supplies. Now comes the real test - will any of it work? News at 11!

Spelling Bee buzz

2009-05-31T15:35:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, while I was getting ready for my supper club (making whole wheat pizza dough, and then rolling it out and decorating it with homemade pesto, mozzarella and sundried tomatoes, and another one with crushed tomatoes and artichoke hearts and more mozz...) I was listening to the middle rounds of the National Spelling Bee on ESPN. It was sort of funny to see how ESPN made it more "exciting" ... they even did short interviews with the kids and their parents. It was cute.

Starting with Round 4 (semifinals), they had to spell words like skeuomorph, hircocervus, echinocystis, and omphaloskepsis. Yikes! These are mostly 12 and 13 year old kids! I was amazed. I thought I was a good speller - I won the spelling bee in my elementary school in 5th grade and made it to regionals... where I was tripped up by the word "platelet" (I hadn't had biology yet, I didn't know that it didn't have the "-ette" on the end! oh well..) So yesterday, I tried to spell the words along with the kids, without looking at the spelling on the tv... I think I would have been out in round 5. ;)

The winning speller, Kavya Shivashankar (she's 13!), had to spell the following in the last six rounds:
11. Caerphilly
12. wisent
13. bouquiniste
14. isagoge
15. phoresy
16. Laodicean (winner!)

Wow. I'd better go back to studying. :)

Nathan Hubble at La Zona Rosa

2009-05-29T23:32:00.000-05:00

eeeexcellent.

Downtown Austin on a Saturday morning

2009-05-23T10:37:00.000-05:00

and it's empty! where is everybody?

100 miles in one day

2009-05-22T21:04:00.006-05:00

oy vey.

This has been some day. I think I spent more time in my car than I did at the office. Or anywhere, except maybe the doctor's office.

I started the day at the medical building for my annual physical, and to get a referral so I can get my knee checked out. He thinks I have patella-femoral syndrome, which is exactly what Bryan had when he grew too fast and had no cartilage in his knees. I can live with that -- I'd rather have to do PT than have any kind of surgery, but we'll see what the ortho says. I was all ready to head back to work after 45 mins in the docs office, but no! That would be too easy. I had to go to the lab first. EKG, blood test, and a tetanus shot for good measure. (ow. did I mention that they had to stick me twice to take my blood, because he screwed up the first time? ugh.)

An hour later, I was finally on my way. I made a beeline for Starbucks first, since I had been fasting since midnight, and had only slept for about 5 hrs. And "beeline" was the right word -- after three sips of iced coffee, I was buzzing like a beehive. I zipped back to the office (really, I might have been able to run faster than the car went!), I edited a document, and left again to drive down to a luncheon on campus. (Yes, ok, I should have gone straight from the doc's office to campus, but I thought I had enough time... learned my lesson!)

Went to the lunch meeting, which was really uneventful, and then went back to the office. (Again, should have stayed on campus...) I was in the office for a whole 45 minutes, and then I raced down to the airport to pick up Amy & Mary. I took them back to the office, gave them a tour, and did a little bit of work, until about 5:15. By then, the office had emptied out and we were hungry, so we went over to Roaring Fork for dinner. We sat outside -- and had to fight off some really aggressive flies -- and watched people swimming in the lake. The food was good, the weather was warm but pleasant, and the check blew away. (we had to pay anyway, the nice waiter reprinted it. damn.)

Then I brought the girls up to see my house, since this was about the closest we'll be all weekend. They liked it. We all nearly fell asleep in the living room, so I drove them downtown to their hotel, dropped them off, and came back.

Phew. Want to see what the map looks like?
(B) is the doctor's office
(D) is campus
(F) is the airport
(G) is my office
(H) is the hotel
(I) is my house

Tomorrow: I'm sleeping late!

Play it again, please

2009-05-17T20:52:00.006-05:00

Having a whole bunch of movie channels (and a DVR) is great, though sometimes it keeps me from watching my Netflix movies for months at a time. I can watch some of my favorite movies whenever they're on, over and over again, and quote most (if not all) of the lines. The list is long: Star Wars/Empire/Jedi, Princess Bride, Pretty Woman, Hunt for Red October, French Kiss, Footloose, Crimson Tide, Bridget Jones, Unforgiven... occassionally Dani and I try to build a complete list, but we can never think of all of them. I think it's a comfort thing. I know I can do just about anything around the house - work, laundry, build bookcases, hang pictures, knit, and even nap - and know exactly what's going on in the movie. It's actually harder for me to do these things when I'm watching a new episode of something, like Countdown on MSNBC, or CSI, because I want to concentrate on what's being said. But these movies are my comfort food.

Speaking of which, tonight, Field of Dreams was on, followed by Bull Durham. *sigh* It's no secret that I had a HUGE crush on Kevin Costner when these two movies came out. My dad even got me the cardboard stand-up of KC and Susan Sarandon* from the video store, (that one -->) which hung over the curtain rod in my bedroom until I went to college. (It was conveniently also good for keeping out early morning sunlight!) I can pretty much recite the lines from start to finish on both of these. And they have two of the best speeches out of all the films I love. In FoD, it's James Earl Jones explaining that "people will come:"

... People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

And of course, Crash's speech in the beginning of Bull Durham, explaining what he believes in:

Well, I believe in the soul, the c*ck, the p*ssy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.

Yes, it's probably a waste of time to watch these things over and over, but it's comfortable. They're like my old friends, and I wouldn't want to ignore my friends!

* Random quirk of mine - Susan Sarandon was married, for a time, to Chris Sarandon (aka Prince Humperdinck, from Princess Bride). Strangely, I pronounce her name Sa-RAN-don, and I pronounce his name SAH-ran-don. Don't ask me why, I don't know.

A lovely baby shower

2009-05-02T19:15:00.001-05:00

This afternoon, Rebeka and I went to a baby shower for our friends Juan and Letty. Letty has another six weeks to go, but she looks like she's about to pop! It was a nice, small shower, with couples and kids. Of course, I was happy to go to the shower, and I made the world's quickest duckie - started last night at 9:30am, finished in the car on the way to the party! But the biggest draw for me was that it was being hosted by one of my favorite bloggers, Stephanie Klein (and her husband Phil).

I've been reading Stephanie's blog for at least a couple of years, since she published her first book, Straight Up and Dirty, moved to Austin (shortly before I did, I think), had her twins in December '06... It was great to actually meet her! The "beans" are a little over 2 now and talking. They're SO cute. And Phil is just the nicest guy in the world.

Our illustrious hosts made finger sandwiches, complete with the crusts cut off -- cucumber, salmon, egg salad -- as well as awesome little roast beef sandwiches with cheese and horseradish, and teriyaki meatballs... we definitely ate well. There was a big pitcher of lemonade, with a bottle of Absolut Vanilla next to it. We didn't realize that the lemonade was *already* spiked... it was tasty, but I had to stop after one cup. :) And then to top it all off, Letty made a lemon tart. Wow. Juan said they made him stop bringing her baked goods to work, and I can totally see why!

Needless to say, the duckie was a big hit. :) I didn't take out my own camera, but there will be pictures soon, I'm sure.

So a big ol' thank you to Stephanie and Phil, and mazel tov to Juan and Letty! (I even offered to babysit!)

2009-04-30T13:33:00.001-05:00

Wholesome student fun: BYU has a bowling alley on the bottom floor of their student center... And it's packed!

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waterfall @ sundance resort

2009-04-29T18:26:00.000-05:00

Time flies- last time I was here was four years ago!

view from the meeting room at BYU

2009-04-28T16:49:00.000-05:00

mountains are purty... :)

greetings from Utah!

2009-04-28T13:15:00.000-05:00

Getting back to knitting...

2009-04-24T22:29:00.001-05:00

Annetrelac socks, in On Linie supersocke 100, Highland color. Trying to decide how much more cuff before I stop...

This is why I buy strawberries @ Costco

2009-04-19T18:14:00.000-05:00

4lbs of strawberries for $5.99! and they're HUGE! yummmmmm

First taste of Rudy's

2009-04-17T14:30:00.000-05:00

After a much delayed flight (2.5 hrs on tarmac in Houston!) mom and dad made it to Austin... and not having eaten, I brought them right to Rudy's. :)

non-Seder Passover meal

2009-04-10T19:32:00.005-05:00

I am trying to keep Pesach this year. I get almost all the way through the week every year, but after about five days or so, I invariably put something in my mouth and start chewing before I realize it's a no-no.

But, I definitely do my best at home. I moved all of my chametz into a couple of bags and put them away in the closet. I have been eating "matzah-and-" everything I would normally eat, so it's matzah and sun butter for breakfast, matzah and sliced turkey for lunch... etc. And some leftover matzoh ball soup (don't ask me why I spell the crackers with an "a" and the balls with an "o" - I don't know!)... and haroset... it hasn't been too difficult yet.

Tonight I decided to cook one of the new Passover products I found- Kosher for Passover cous cous, to go along with a really neat recipe for chicken with asparagus.

All I can say is, one of these recipes worked very well and is delicious. The other one, not so much. Can you guess which was which?

Yes, the cous cous looks like ... well... rabbit pellets made of matzah. The chicken flavoring helps a little, but it's just... mushy. Bleh. Reminds me of the "Matzah-O's" we tried for breakfast once when Bryan was little. No thanks!

The best part about Pesach, though, is matzah brei for breakfast. I eat mine with cinnamon-sugar. It's excellent. (I was going to provide a link to a matzah brei recipe, but there are so many to choose from! Savory? Sweet? both? choose your own!) Suffice it to say you dampen the matzah, mix it with a few beaten eggs, and fry it up -- sorta like the Pesach version of French toast. That'll be my breakfast tomorrow, so feel free to stop by.

Chag Sameach, everybody!

view from my seat at Bruuuuuuuuce!

2009-04-05T23:42:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I'm finally seeing Springsteen! It's taken me 20 years to get here!

backstage @ Bob Bullock IMAX

2009-04-02T18:11:00.000-05:00

they're about to show Monsters v. Aliens in 3D... coming off two giant film reels. It's a $30million machine. Wow.

my first brisket

2009-03-27T22:06:00.000-05:00

Passover is coming. I'm going to be making a brisket for Seder, so I thought I should practice making it once, just in case. I bought a small 1.5lb brisket and cut off the fat, and made it with garlic, broth, thyme and tarragon. It isn't falling apart like mom's did, but it's very tasty, and now I know what to do!

Not your average thunderstorm

2009-03-25T20:55:00.004-05:00

There was a severe storm warning in Austin this afternoon, which became a severe thunderstorm watch... so I stayed at work for a while longer to wait out the storm. But then I discovered that one of my neighbors had golf-ball sized hail in his backyard!

Yet another one of the new things I'm learning as a homeowner -- hail is scary! What if it broke my windows? So I drove (slowly and carefully) home in the diminishing rainstorm, and was pleased to find that while there were little golf-ball hail lumps all around the house, the house was still intact. :)

Here's a pic of the hail (oops, it's blurry) and a pic of the backyard. It's wild! Of course, less than an hour later, the sun came out, and there was a nice sunset. But the hail didn't melt right away.

good karma

2009-03-22T17:34:00.003-05:00

Sitting at National airport, watching USC basketball and waiting for my flight back to Austin, a lady walked by my table and made what she called a "strange request" -- she asked if she could use my laptop really quickly to send a note to her boss. I figured, what the heck, she looks nice, and it's good karma. And I know the feeling - though it hasn't happened to me since I got my blackjack last year.

She sat down and started typing, and we chatted a bit... it turns out she is going to Israel to visit her son. She didn't bring her blackberry because she doesn't have international service on it, and she really needed to send an email. I mentioned that I hadn't been to Israel since my bat mitzvah, and we had a laugh about "Jew-dar." :)

She told me she'd be at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem tomorrow, and would say a prayer for me.

So there you go, I'd say that's good karma!

Grammy Fratkin and baby Blake

2009-03-20T10:14:00.000-05:00

Hmmm... maybe I'm off the hook for a little while? Thanks, Val! ;)

The bracket-watching has begun

2009-03-19T18:01:00.004-05:00

-- and no, I don't mean the NCAA men's basketball tourney... I mean "Fug Madness 2009!"

I love reading the Go Fug Yourself blog. There are times when I don't recognize the featured personalities, but it's fun to see what odd things Hollywood people like to wear out of their houses, especially when nobody else in their right mind would wear that stuff! I mean, really! Who is the stylist who told you that was a good idea? and why haven't you fired them?

So, in order to pick the "fugliest" dresser of the year, we get Fug Madness, for which there are four brackets: Madonna, Charo, Cher and Bjork (they're real fashion trendsetters, don'tcha know...) and everyone votes for the fashion victim of their choice, until we're down to one. The nice thing is, you can instantly see the top vote-getters when you vote. And over 11,000 people have voted already!

Last year's winner was Bai Ling. Suffice it to say, Bai wore some goofy, strange outfits last year. Can't wait to see who our winner is for 2009! :)

Drink more wine! (and Happy St. Patrick's Day)

2009-03-17T13:52:00.003-05:00

This is a letter from a right-wing organization that was in today's email from the Texas Freedom Network. Since when is PP a "pro-abortion behemoth"? I say, Run, don't walk, to your nearest store and BUY SOME WINE!

From: Life Decisions International
Date: March 17, 2009

Do You Enjoy a Glass of Wine
FRONT ROYAL, Va., Mar. 17 /Christian Newswire/ -- Do you drink wine? Millions of people do, but most are unaware of the fact that many winemakers give financial support to Planned Parenthood, the world's leading pro-abortion behemoth.

"I like a glass of wine every now and then," said LDI Chairman Thomas C. Strobhar. "I am appalled that so many winemakers fund the Culture of Death. I urge my fellow pro-life activists to let winemakers know that they have a 'choice'. They may continue to fund Planned Parenthood and lose a lot of business to competitors or they may stop funding Planned Parenthood and reap the benefits that come from happy consumers."

Whether you are a wine drinker or not, please urge winemakers to stop supporting Planned Parenthood. A recently updated list of winemakers that fund Planned Parenthood may be found on the website of Life Decisions International. (Please read the introductory text and then scroll down to the link that reads, "Wineries/Vineyards," which may be found after the list of states.) Contact information is provided for each winemaker listed.

Life Decisions International (LDI) is dedicated to challenging the Culture of Death, concentrating on exposing and fighting the agenda of Planned Parenthood. LDI's chief project is a boycott of corporations that fund the abortion-committing giant.

... and if you're in Texas, support the TFN!

on the way to the new house!

2009-03-14T11:32:00.001-05:00

there goes the truck, full of my stuff!

I can haz fridge?

2009-03-12T09:02:00.001-05:00

Yes! Iz purty. :)

Invaders!

2009-03-10T22:04:00.005-05:00

Sunday afternoon, I took another load of boxes up to my new house (yay!) and discovered new little friends: pillbugs! also known as roly-polys! EVERYWHERE! Well, ok, not everywhere. Around the kitchen and the bathrooms -- apparently they like dampness. When I went back tonight, they were mostly dead in corners. Not to worry, though, I bought Ortho MAX, and will be spraying it around the outside of the house and in the kitchen and bathrooms, before move-in day. :)

I also picked out a fancy new fridge (it was on sale) and a garage-door opener, both of which should be installed later in the week. And then on Saturday, I'm moving in! OMG!

Photos from move-in will be posted... when I recover.

it figures...

2009-02-28T13:54:00.000-06:00

Bright, sunny Saturday, so I decide to move some boxes to the new house. And, my friend John comes to meet me so he can give me a quote on some minor repairs. We go out into the back yard, and what happens? Door locks automatically! Yep, that's right -- I got locked out of my new house on the first day!
Fotunately, John had his phone, so we called a locksmith. One hour and $90 later, I'm back inside.
sheeesh!

something not quite right...

2009-02-22T13:21:00.000-06:00

I loooove Rachel's yogurt, so I stopped to check out the sign @ Whole Foods - and then I did the math.
4 for $5 means each one is $1.25, right? (fortunately, they're on sale for $0.79 at HEB this week... ) If you can read it, in the corner it says reg price $1.19 - you *save* 6 cents. um.... no.
Maybe I should tell the manager? :)

Amen!

2009-02-17T12:24:00.003-06:00

Finally, someone who both believes in Gd and understands evolution! A Baptist blogger has written a nice piece about why religion and evolution do not have to be mutually exclusive. I'm not sure I agree with him 100%, but at least he makes the case for open-mindedness.

All I have to say is, Thank you! I'm pleased to see that rational thought exists somewhere in this country!

For another view on evolution vs. creationism, see this Family Guy clip. :)

A few days late...

2009-02-02T14:16:00.000-06:00

but you'll notice the Bush Countdown Clock is GONE from the sidebar! He's GONE! :) hoooray!

Pope 2; Reasonable Thought, 0

2009-02-02T11:15:00.001-06:00

He's at it again -- already! Just one week after reinstating a Holocaust-denying Bishop (and then releasing a statement about how we must all work together to make sure the Shoah doesn't happen again), the Pope has now elevated to Bishop an Austrian priest who says that the Harry Potter books are spreading Satanism, and that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans to wipe out the hedonism (and the abortion clinics) there.

If there's one thing that was drummed into me as a child, it was "Question Authority." Please tell me there are Catholics in the world who don't agree with this man? ... Who have more sense than this? ... Who, even though it might be sacrilegious, are willing to question the authority of the Pope to do these things?

Yikes.

Rockin' the Casbah with Skyrocket

2009-02-01T00:01:00.000-06:00

@ Momo's - right at the stage! :)

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

2009-01-28T13:11:00.002-06:00

On the anniversary of the day that the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz in 1945 (see video below), I was treated to a story on NPR this morning about the Bishop that was "un-excommunicated" by the Pope this week. Bishop Richard Williamson has been -- recently, not just in the past -- quoted as saying there's no historical evidence that 6 million Jews died in WWII.

Bishop Williamson, who has said that the Vatican is controlled by Satan and that the Jews are bent on world domination, reiterated in a broadcast last week on Swedish television that the historical evidence was “hugely against six million having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I believe there were no gas chambers”.

I'm sorry, WHAT?!? and he gets to be a Bishop in the Catholic Church? The way the current pope is reversing Vatican II, I'd say the "heretics" in Europe had better watch out - the Spanish Inquisition may be poised for a comeback!

But in the meantime, a moment of reflection on the horrors that took place at Auschwitz, and how grateful we are that Hitler and the Nazis were defeated.

I think it's time for the Shehecheyanu:

My 15 minutes of fame is officially up

2009-01-19T22:23:00.005-06:00

This afternoon, I did seven interviews with Canadian Broadcasting Corp stations all over Canada - from British Columbia to Saskatchewan to Manitoba to Ontario to New Brunswick to Yukon (not geographically in any particular order). They asked me questions about collecting political memorabilia -- how I got started, why people collect, what's valuable, and what's out there for Obama. I talked about my flasher collection, Cox-Roosevelt buttons, and the Obama Chapter of the APIC.

The station in Victoria, BC (6th go-round) sent me an MP3 recording of the interview. I've asked for recordings of the other ones, but I actually think this one was the best. One of the producers I spoke with likened the experience to "Groundhog Day", and she was right! The station in New Brunswick also offered to send me a bobblehead doll of one of the DJs. :)

If I can figure out how to post it here, I will. Otherwise, if you want to hear it, email me and I'll send you the 6MB file. I sound kinda squeaky - who was it who suggested that I speak in a lower voice so I didn't sound nasal? oh well! It was fun.

And that's enough for my 15 minutes.... I'm sure they're sick of me in Canada. ;)

I never "liveblog" ...

2009-01-18T14:41:00.001-06:00

...but the "We Are One" concert is on, and it's amazing!

1:30pm (CST) Starting with Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man was genius - it was symbolic, as an announcement of a new beginning. It's one of my favorite pieces. I was in tears almost immediately.

(starting to regret staying in Austin for the weekend...)

Watching the Obama girls see themselves on tv was so cute! (Sasha made her mother move out of the way!)

1:40pm Bruce. Wow. The newscasters kept saying that the musicians weren't going to be singing their own music, but singing "The Rising" with a huge choir in the background was fabulous.

1:50pm Hmm... maybe Mary J. Blige should have worn something other than white/off-white so she'd stand out a little more against the steps? Oh well. Lean On Me, another great uplifting song. You go Mary J! and Michelle is singing along! :)

[and, not having saved this post often enough, my Firefox crashed and I lost almost an hour's worth of commentary. doh!]

I may try to reconstruct, using my trusty DVR, but for the time being, let's watch Garth Brooks singing American Pie!

More on Israel

2009-01-14T14:49:00.004-06:00

For your reading pleasure (or discomfort, in this case), here's a post detailing the various actions going on in other parts of Israel, instigated by the same Arab countries who won't admit to directly helping Hamas, and won't help the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

If you are inclined to 'poo poo' the seriousness of these attacks or downplay their impact on Israeli morale, just think back to 2002 when the 'Beltway Sniper' was able to terrorize the entire eastern seaboard of the United states into immobility with nothing more than a hunting rifle and an old Chevy Caprice. Also, with Israel at war on one front, just how much restraint are we really expected to practice with all the other belligerents in the neighborhood?

A fair question, I think. Americans have never been exposed to this kind of constant barrage -- Beltway Sniper notwithstanding -- he could only fire in one place at a time. How can we be expected to understand the mentality of the Israeli people? We can't tell them not to fight back. It's ludicrous.

eat more, not less

2009-01-13T21:59:00.003-06:00

I went to the nutritionist tonight for a "check-up" -- this is the same woman who put me on a mostly-organic diet in January 2008, and with whose help I lost about 15 lbs last year. We talked about what I've been eating, which has been far more sensible since I've been back from DC. I showed her my last 10 days of Weight Watchers food tracking. Other than the fact that it is sorely lacking in vegetables, it looked pretty good. But then she did the math, and apparently I'm not getting enough calories!

The way WW does things, I get to eat food that adds up to 25 points per day (a point is 60 calories or 6 grams of fat), plus an extra 35 pts to use throughout the week. Ergo, 25 x 60 = 1500 calories. And if you evenly split the 'extra' pts, that's an extra 300 calories per day. But I hardly use those - the program makes it sound like those are for "emergencies" only.

But according to the tests that Nancy did last year when I signed up for my Lean 'n Fit program, I should get about 1900 calories, or 31+ points. So that means I get to eat more! As long as it's healthy, of course.

She recommended all kinds of interesting foods, including "Dark Chocolate Dreams" peanut butter from PB&Co! Seriously!

another goofy list, a less serious post

2009-01-09T16:28:00.004-06:00

Yet another "about me" list that I've stolen from Phyl:

The things I have done are in bold.

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain (Not sure if hiking counts but it was a moutain)
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself art from scratch (does knitting count?)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (I was ... 3? I don't remember it much)
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (indoor)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (fish count yes?)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Rode an elephant

Some of the things I want to do are on this list - particularly the international travel ones. :)

Happy Friday!

Israel, Gaza... the whole thing

2009-01-06T15:13:00.003-06:00

I have (until now) refrained from posting any rants here about the situation in Gaza -- how Hamas is getting their own people killed; Israel's right to defend herself... etc. I mean, seriously, if crazies in Cuba or Mexico or Canada were indiscriminately dropping rockets on New York or Miami or Houston -- TRYING to kill civilians -- wouldn't we fight back? Damn right we would!

But now apparently all Jewish children are targets, no matter where we live -- as Jeffrey Goldberg points out on his blog:

Put aside Zahar's chutzpah -- Hamas has been happily killing Jewish children for years. What's important is that he is making an explicit plea to jihadists everywhere to take matters into their own hands and kill Jews. Any Jewish school or synagogue or JCC anywhere in the world that doesn't take this seriously is beyond negligent. This is not a time for panic, just preparation.

But if you read further down in that article, French President Sarkozy points out that the miserable living conditions of the Palestinian people in Gaza are actually Hamas' fault. Unfortunately, that strategy works -- keep them in poverty, and blame the Israelis, and it takes very little to incite violence. [see also: Nazi Germany, 1938 for that familiar refrain: blame the Jews!]

Maybe the Palestinians in Gaza will realize that they need to get rid of Hamas so they can live peacefully. On that very subject, there was an interesting post on HuffPo yesterday.

It is Hamas, by using civilians to act as human shields for its military operations, that has put the Palestinian civilians in jeopardy, and the blood of the injured and dead civilians is on Hamas's hands.

There was another post about the difference in media strategy between Hamas and the Israelis. Ever notice that you only hear about suicide bombers in Israel if they're successful? You never hear about the dozens of would-be bombers who are stopped before they can carry out their horrible assignments. The Palestinians, on the other hand, play the victim very well, showing off their casualties -- which wouldn't happen if the militants didn't hide in schools and churches, knowing full well that the people around them will die.

It makes me so angry!

ok, rant over, for now. Can't wait to see how the Obama Administration handles this whole thing, in TWO WEEKS! (Lord knows what the situation in Gaza will be by then...)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T00:24:00.003-06:00

It's 2009! How did that happen? 2008 was a fun year, and I can only wonder at what 2009 holds for all of us. Hope y'all have a happy, healthy year, full of pleasant surprises. :)

And now, for a trip down memory lane: I found this on Phyl's blog, and I love it!

IF YOU WERE A LITTLE GIRL IN THE 70'S...
1. You had that Fisher Price Doctor's Kit with a stethoscope that actually worked. Hmmm. Don't remember this.

2 You owned a bicycle with a banana seat and a plastic basket with flowers on it. Uhhh, Nope. I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 13. By then, it was the mid-80's.

3. You learned to skate with actual skates (not roller blades) that had metal wheels. Oh yes, and skated through some dogsh*t the first time my dad took me out on them.

4 You thought Gopher from Love Boat was cute (admit it!) Sigh. ok, I admit it.

5. You had nightmares after watching Fantasy Island. EEEK!! I thought Scooby Doo was too scary. I didn't even watch Fantasy Island!

6. You had either a 'bowl cut' or 'pixie', not to mention the 'Dorothy Hamill' People sometimes thought you were a boy. Oh yes, Dorothy and I looked so cute with our little bowl cuts.

7. You had rubber boots for rainy days and Moon boots for snowy days. yep. Little red boots with an elastic thingy that went over a button to hold them together.

8. You owned a 'Slip-n-Slide' , on which you injured yourself on a sprinkler head more than once. No, sad to say, I didn't have a backyard, so that didn't happen.

9. You owned 'Klick-Klacks' and smacked yourself in the face more than once! What the heck is a Klick-Klack?

10. Your Holly Hobbie sleeping bag was your most prized possession. Nope. I had a Star Wars sleeping bag from the very beginning!

11. You wore a poncho, gauchos, and knickers. My mom made the poncho. I'm sure I wore gauchos... I don't remember knickers.

12. You begged Santa for the electronic game, Simon. LOVED Simon, and Merlin, and the Little Professor.

13. You had the Donnie and Marie dolls with those pink and purple satiny shredded outfits, or the Sunshine Family. I did have Donnie and Marie. Or maybe Molly had them and I just adopted them?

14. You spent hours in your backyard on your metal swing set with the trapeze. Nope, no backyard.

15. The swing set tipped over at least once. (see above)

16. You had homemade ribbon barrettes in every imaginable color. Mine were mostly red-white-and-blue -- I'm sure that's shocking to everyone. :)

17. You had a pair of Doctor Scholl's sandals (the ones with hard sole & the buckle). Yep.

18. You also had a pair of salt-water sandals. What's that? Jellies?

19. You wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder really bad; you wore that Little House on the Prairie-inspired plaid, ruffle shirt with the high neck in at least one school picture;and you despised Nellie Oleson! Oy. My mom dressed me in florals and ruffles and LH-inspired brown corduroy outfits. It wasn't by choice!

20. You wanted your first kiss to be at a roller rink! Didn't have a roller-rink nearby.

21. Your hairstyle was described as having 'wings' or 'feathers' and you kept it 'pretty'with the comb you kept in your back pocket.When you walked, the 'wings' flapped up and down, looked like you were gonna 'take off'. Of course!

21. You know who Strawberry Shortcake is, as well as her friends, Blueberry Muffin and Huckleberry Pie. Knew of them but never owned.

22. You carried a Muppets lunch box to school and it was metal, not plastic.It had a thermos inside. Some were glass and broke the first time you dropped them. I had a Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox. Which my dad has since sold on eBay.

23. You and your girlfriends would fight over which of the Dukes of Hazzard was your boyfriend. Bo Duke was my guy. I liked blondes when I was younger. I've changed my mind since then. ;)

24. YOU had Star Wars action figures, too! Absolutely. I wore a Darth Vader costume for Halloween one year!

25. It was a big event in your household each year when the 'Wizard of Oz' would come on TV.Your mom would break out the popcorn and sleeping bags! I remember watching "the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" more than the Wizard of Oz.

26. You often asked your Magic-8 ball the question: 'Who will I marry.Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, or David Cassidy? Or John Schneider... or Scott Baio...

27. You completely wore out your Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and Fame soundtrack record albums. I wasn't allowed to have my own records at that age. I had 8-tracks instead!

28. You tried to do lots of arts and crafts, like yarn and Popsicle-stick God's eyes, decoupage,or those weird potholders made on a plastic loom. Oh definitely. I was queen of the crafts!

29. You made Shrinky-Dinks and put iron-on kittens on your t-shirts! Shrinky dinks - once, I think. I remember putting the glitter-puffy-paint on my t-shirts!

30. You used to tape record songs off the radio by holding your portable tape player up to the speaker. I was so excited when I got a tape-recorder/radio so I could record directly... I had so many tapes where you could hear the DJ at the beginning or the end of the song.

31. You had subscriptions to Dynamite and Tiger Beat. No, my friends bought them at the store. But I cut out the pictures of Scott Baio or John Stamos.

32. You thought Olivia Newton John's song 'Physical' was about aerobics. You mean it's not?

happy last night of Chanukah!

2008-12-28T19:13:00.000-06:00

inauguration prep

2008-12-23T14:03:00.000-06:00

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... ) ;)

By all means, save the rainforest

2008-12-22T21:09:00.002-06:00

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 any reason. Using religion -- which is supposed to be about accepting everyone, the Golden Rule and all that -- to further discrimination is in my mind the worst thing a leader can do.

Hmmm... Maybe the Austin Babtist Women should go and sing for the Pope? Or at the Obama Inauguration? Can we get them in to the Texas Ball? :D

Faux snow at the Tyson's Galleria

2008-12-22T11:38:00.000-06:00

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

Of chocolate cupcakes and Babtist Women...

2008-12-19T14:21:00.005-06:00

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 for the supper club party on Saturday. The cake batter wasn't too hard, though there was a LOT of it -- it filled my 4qt bowl almost to the top! But I had to trade off time in the oven for the meatballs, too... the food smells wafting around my kitchen were very pleasant, though sometimes a bit incongruous. Cooked the brownies, cooked the meatballs, and then while the chocolate cake was in the oven, I ran off to the RMcD house to deliver the brownies, and then went home to finish getting ready. Whew! Turns out that much chocolate cake batter makes 24 mini-cupcakes, 12 full-sized cupcakes, AND an 8" cake. My counters were covered! (Here's a slightly fuzzy picture of the mini-cupcakes, filled and topped with marshmallow creme. They were yummy!)

We had so much tasty food at the holiday fest - I don't even think I can remember it all. Smoked gouda and veggie quesadillas... goat cheese with apples and walnuts... salmon mousse... cookies galore... Can you tell that I popped a LOT of lactaid pills that night? Oy.

Sunday night, Aubrey took us get some more religion -- and for a cause that's even closer to my heart - the Breast Cancer Research Center! The Austin Babtist women were there, along with some other drag performers from Dallas. We laughed and laughed... they were wonderful. And between the door donations, the silent auction, and people holding out their bills for the ladies to take, they raised over $4,700!

Here are the ladies doing some of their Christmas music... This was followed by "Walkin' Round in Women's Underwear" (to the tune of "Winter Wonderland", natch), in which they stripped down to their lovely lingerie -- and threw off their wigs! No photos of that - I was too busy laughing. They're amazing!

That was my weekend. (that and Giana's ballet recital, which was lovely!) The rest of the week has been a whirlwind of more cooking, holiday parties, going to the gym (yes, I'm behaving!) and even cramming in a little holiday shopping. I am now a big fan of the reserve-online-pickup-in-store option from Borders. Woohoo!

Tonight is the office holiday party, complete with white elephant gift exchange. That'll be fun... though my track record with these things is not the best. I've come home with an "It's a Wonderful Life" video (nice gift for the *only* Jew in the room), and a Longhorn spinning mobile thingy (don't know what you call them, they sell them at a kiosk at every mall)... maybe this year will be better. :)

Rose Bowl bound! (again!)

2008-12-08T11:42:00.003-06:00

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 a similar shirt on eBay now, too.

Fight on!

Day five, walking Monday

2008-12-01T17:02:00.001-06:00

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 meeting 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 pub, over by St. Paul's Cathedral. (My picture wasn't quite as good.) We had pints and lunch, and chatted and watched the people go by. Then we ventured out into the cold again, and walked across Millennium bridge towards the Tate Modern. I got great pics of St. Paul's from many angles. Then we walked back across the Blackfriars bridge, and along the river towards Westminster. We walked along the Birdcage Walk to Buckingham Palace, and across the park to The Ritz. Unfortunately, we were underdressed and sans reservation, so they gave us the boot! We walked over to the Fountain restaurant at Fortnum & Mason, and had tea and scones there instead. (It turns out my parents had been at Fountain about an hour earlier!)

After our lovely tea service (I still don't get the appeal of clotted cream), we walked up to Old Bond street and looked at the shops (oooh, sparkly pretty things!), and went over to one of Ben's favorite tapas restaurants, El Pirata in Mayfair. I had taken him to Jaleo in DC a few years ago, so he thought he'd return the favor. I was stuffed from all the other food we had, but I tried their garlic aioli (YUM) on potatoes, tortilla, and mushrooms. And a glass of white Rioja. I couldn't eat anything else after that.

Ben walked me to the tube station at Green Park, and he was off back to Paddington to go home. All in all, we walked 6.27 miles today! No wonder I'm so tired! Here's the map of where we walked:

Day four, Museum Sunday

2008-11-30T17:00:00.005-06:00

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 architecture of the internal courtyard of the museum, which they covered over with a skylight in 2000.

For lunch, we met dad and two of his British friends at the Texas Embassy Cantina. Yes, I went to a Texas-themed Mexican restaurant in London. The chips and salsa were good ... my aunt's cheese enchiladas were covered with Velveeta. (ugh.) The other food was good (not great), but I did have a Pacifico beer! And I bought a burnt-orange t-shirt with the restaurant logo, to wear when I get back.

After lunch, mom and Abbe and I headed over to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. It's the companion exhibit with her new book, which includes both her well-known photos of celebrities for Vanity Fair, and personal photos of her children, her parents, her partner (Susan Sontag) and other life events. I heard an interview with her about the whole thing on NPR a few weeks ago, so I was excited to see the photos. The rest of the gallery was horrendously crowded, though, so we didn't stay too long.

At that point, we headed straight for the tube to come home. It was dark at 4pm, and cold, and raining! Bleh. The group couldn't make up their minds about dinner, so I chose the Greek place down the street. It was great! We brought home a bunch of leftovers. Dad tried to order spanakopita, but the waiter didn't understand him -- the guy was Italian! He only knew the name of the "spinach pie" in English. heehee :)

Tomorrow: Covent Garden market, the London Transport Museum, and souvenir shopping.

Day three, a chilly Saturday

2008-11-29T15:24:00.004-06:00

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?)

So that was last night. We didn't get home til after 10. Bryan went out to dinner and a pub with some of his Aussie friends who are working here. He didn't come home til 3:30am... but I wasn't awake to hear it! I slept like a dead person.

Saturday is Portobello Road market day. Mom and Dad got up early and went to meet their friends around 9:30am... I didn't make it out of bed til 10:30. Bryan didn't even move a muscle. With a little effort, I made it up there by noon, and we battled the chill and the crowds looking for bargains for a few hours, and then found a nice Italian restaurant for lunch. Mediterraneo was crowded, the food was excellent, and it was staffed entirely by actual Italians (unlike most places in the States). I said "grazie" once and the waiter asked me (in Italian) if I spoke Italian. umm... no. At least I know my accent passes muster. Maybe I'll be able to pull it off when Dani and I go to Italy (someday). :)

We walked through the food stalls - they sell everything! - and bought some fruits and veggies. There was a paella stand with those giant traditional paella pans - three feet across! Amazing. Here's the guy setting up a third pan to make a new batch of paella.

Slightly off-topic... I've decided I want one of those giraffe handbags. Ok, so I'm six or eight months behind the times. Mom and I saw the giraffe bags at Dooney & Bourke in Vegas, but the real thing is very expensive. I saw one at Spitalfields market the other day, and didn't buy it, and now I can't find one anywhere! I hope they have them at Covent Garden on Monday.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We took the bus home from Notting Hill, and we haven't left the flat again. It got REALLY cold towards the end of the day -- like, "it's going to snow" cold. We cooked dinner at home - moussaka (they do a lot of pre-prepared foods here, it's great!) and vegetables, and Bryan made guacamole. Yes, it's a little random, but mom and I had bought avocados at the Portobello market (5 for 1 pound!) and dad went to the store and got us some salsa and chips. Well, not really salsa. He got us Old El Paso "fajita sauce" -- which has a "smoky" flavor. In other words, it has bbq sauce in it! ICK! We tried very hard to add only a small amount of the sauce to make the guacamole... it tasted kind of odd.

Tomorrow, we're doing museum(s) where we can be indoors and warm. Because this cold, rainy English weather is just awful!

Day two, and it's not Black Friday

2008-11-28T11:46:00.002-06:00

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 interesting artifacts. Today, however, it was also full of kids on school trips. OMG! I have never seen so many people in there before! We did our best to go in the opposite direction from the student groups. We walked through the exhibit commemorating World War I. The opening wall of the gallery has pictures of the last 3 British WWI soldiers who were alive at the start of 2008. It was very moving. The exhibit also has personal effects, letters, and information about a wide range of personalities who were involved the war, including Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Edith Cavell (and a lot of non-famous figures as well).

Then we walked through the D-day experience. Again, really interesting and sobering stuff. Bryan and I are both well-versed in WWII history, given the house we grew up in. ;) The D-Day exhibit explores the preparation, planning, and execution of Operation Overlord. There's an Enigma machine, maps, guns, photos, artwork... it was really neat.

At that point, we were just exhausted, and we hadn't eaten lunch. We took the tube back to Embankment and got out so we could go see Trafalgar and Big Ben. We stopped for a snack and took some pictures, and then got back on the tube at Westminster. Lovely, rush hour on the tube! Worse than rush hour in DC!

Tonight we're going to dinner with Betty over near the Tower Bridge. Indian food, yum!
(pictures later, time to leave for dinner)

London, Day One

2008-11-27T17:19:00.000-06:00

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 paintings.

In the search for the synagogue, we also managed to walk right under the "Gherkin" -- (I think I'd rather call it the Towering Innuendo). But trying to get one of us in the picture AND the whole building was a challenge.
<-- Bryan and the tower

By the time we were done with the art museum, we were all exhausted. It was supposed to be naptime, but that never happened. We came back and within an hour we had to leave for Gordon Ramsay's restaurant at Claridges.

I have to say, this was one of the best meals I've ever had. We had the three course menu (which also includes at least one amuse before each course...). The first amuse was a soup/puree of parsnips with mushrooms. My lobster and salmon ravioli was incredible. It was one very large round ravioli, with a lovely coconut sauce. We all ate too much of the bread/crackers with butter, and interesting spreads -- one with truffle and one with salmon. Then the main courses came. I had venison with cabbage and an interesting dark chocolate sauce. Dad had the lamb, but the lamb was rubbed with anchovy paste, and he doesn't much like fish. So that was almost a bust - but not entirely, because Bryan thought it was fabulous! He liked that better than my chocolate-sauced-venison, but then again, he doesn't *ever* mix sweet with savory flavors. Bryan and Abbe both had the pork belly, and they really enjoyed it. Mom had the sea bass, which was also tasty.

For dessert, Bryan and I split the Apple Tart Tartin. Oh. My. Gawd. It was fantastic. But wait, that was preceded by a little skinny glass of vanilla cheesecake with blackberries. That was excellent, but then the apple tart with vanilla ice cream beat all! (yes, I was popping lactaid all night, but it was SO worth it.) They also served us little post-dessert amuses: a toasted-almond-covered ball of vanilla ice cream, a square of candied passionfruit, and a dark chocolate truffle. We literally had to ask for little boxes to bring them home in, because we couldn't eat another bite!

But we did take a tour of the kitchen. Our (handsome) head waiter, from Barbados (with a very nice accent) took us into the ridiculously busy kitchen. They have a chef's table, which you have to book waaaaay in advance, and costs over 800 British pounds for up to 8 people! (the price is the same for 2 or 8, so take more people if you can...) The people at the table can just go in and walk around the kitchen and talk to the chefs!

Then, as long as we were all gussied up, we took a family photo. :) (and Winston Churchill in the background - how appropriate!)

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! I hope y'all have a relaxing and pleasant day with your families and friends. (Can't even watch the UT-A&M game, it doesn't start here til 1am!)

Let the craziness begin!

2008-11-25T15:28:00.003-06:00

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 what I've brought this time will be enough. I haven't even done any research into what's on exhibit at which museum... There just wasn't time. It didn't even feel like I was really going until I got to the gate area in Dallas. YAY! Now I'm going.

I'm hoping that the Verizon-anywhere broadband modem will work in London. If not, there's always the internet cafe. :)

Safe travels, y'all!

Sunday night out

2008-11-23T21:54:00.003-06:00

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 of dress my grandmother wore to mine! :)

Here they are, in all their glory (sorry, the cameraphone takes fuzzy pics sometimes):

you go, girls!

vallejo at maggie may's

2008-11-19T22:47:00.000-06:00

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

one more Obama video

2008-11-11T09:30:00.001-06:00

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

more One-Word-Answers

2008-11-07T23:07:00.004-06:00

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
When is the last time you cried? 10am

I'm flattered, but...

2008-11-07T20:41:00.002-06:00

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 was Ethiopian) said, "I guess you are an Obama fan?" I said, yes definitely!

He said, "you want to make another Obama?"

oh my.

(I said no.)

It's been a heck of a week.

Obama wins!

2008-11-04T22:08:00.001-06:00

I feel like I can breathe! And Go Virginia!

Joe Lieberman

2008-11-04T21:42:00.001-06:00

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

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-29T17:25:00.004-05:00

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

I Voted!

2008-10-29T12:36:00.003-05:00

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.

If I lived in California, I'd vote NO on Prop 8

2008-10-28T09:26:00.005-05:00

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 sister to do a reading. She chose her text from various sources, all on the subject of “home.” She explained that that was what marriage meant to her, and what she hoped it would mean to us. She emphasized that that this one person, this one who loves and supports you and greets you in the morning and at the end of the day with a smile: This person is home.

In the past seven years, we’ve discovered just how true that is. We are each other’s home, and we work every day to make sure that is as true on the days when the most romantic thing we do is laundry as it was on the day that we promised to love one another forever.

We consider our wedding date to be that day: October 20, 2001. But the state of California thinks our wedding date is July 11, 2008, because that was the day that we promised we would love each other forever after the California Supreme Court declared marriage a legal option for ALL consenting, adult Californians on May 15, 2008. And to be honest, I didn’t think that second wedding date was going to be a big deal. We considered ourselves married already; this was just a formality. But when I heard the words, “By the power vested in me by the State of California…,” I knew there was a difference. There was a difference between a legal recognition of domestic partnership and a legal recognition of a marriage. In fact, there are over 1000 civil rights afforded by “marriage” that are not afforded by “domestic partnership.” The Supreme Court of California noted that this was a case of separate but (un)equal, and I agree. It felt different. (Please see Lesbian Dad’s similar post for what can happen when insurance companies will not recognize a designation.)

On the California ballot in the upcoming election, Proposition 8 proposes to reverse the California Supreme Court decision that allowed same-sex marriage to make marriage between “one man and one woman.” This proposition has extremely heavy funding from the Mormon Church and other religious organizations who are using scare tactics that include unabashed lies (not very Christian, that) in their advertisements, stating that churches will lose their tax-exempt status if gay people have the right to marry. I have also heard arguments that Proposition 8 should pass because marriage between a man and a woman is “traditional,” that heterosexual marriage needs to be protected, because the Bible says being gay is bad, or because it’s all a slippery slope into bigamy and (my personal favorite) bestiality. I truly believe that these arguments are all a smokescreen because people feel icky about gay marriage. And to be even more forthright: They feel icky about gay sex, but have too much difficulty enforcing anti-gay sex laws, so instead want to make sure that gay families aren’t allowed the same rights as heterosexual families.

But let’s look at the arguments anyway:

THE LIE: Churches Will Lose Their Tax-Exempt Status
The pro-Proposition 8 ads note that if Prop. 8 is defeated, churches COULD lose their tax-exempt status.

Well, you know what? The sky could fall in, too. However, if churches lost their tax-exempt status every time they did something that went against law, then the Catholic church would have lost their tax-exempt status when they refused to let women become priests. Any other business would be in huge trouble with labor attorneys over gender discriminatory practices, but the Catholic church continues on its merry way because of the separation of church and state (otherwise known as the First Amendment to the United States constitution). And that’s fine. I truly believe in all of the amendments of the Constitution, that one first and foremost. I have no interest in legislating churches with my “gay agenda,” and neither does the government.

And while I hate to accuse anyone of lying outright, the pro-Prop. 8 people are LYING. I cannot believe that they are so stupid that they think that this one tiny proposition allowing gay marriage to be recognized by the state will spell the doom of any church, be it founded by St. Paul or by Paul down the street. And the fact that the pro-Prop. 8 campaign is predominantly funded by churches and church organizations means that they are knowingly lying, or at the very least purposefully misleading others through fear. Which is not really something I should expect from my church.

Marriage Between a Man and a Woman is “Traditional.”
Merideth, Mandy and I have a tradition where we go shopping together on the day after Thanksgiving. I get an eggnog latte, and we stroll the Stanford Shopping Plaza, picking up Christmas gifts and enjoying the high school carolers. We’ve had this tradition for seven years, so I think it’s time to legislate it.

Nevermind that I could argue that a marriage between one man and one woman is hardly “traditional” based upon historical documents and using the Bible as examples. Nevermind that we all have to give an offensive wink, wink, nudge about the Mormon religion’s idea of traditional marriage. You know what else is traditional? Slavery. Also? Subservient women, racial separatism, spousal abuse, peeing outdoors, and sitting in the dark once the sun goes down. Happily, along with tradition, there’s also progress, both in technical inventions and in societal understanding and conventions.

Heterosexual Marriage Needs to be Protected.
From whom? Me? Really? If anyone’s THAT intent on protecting marriage, I think all states should refuse to recognize marriages from Nevada unless all parties signed a sober affidavit. We should also maybe outlaw divorce. That’ll protect marriage.

The Bible Says Being Gay is Bad.
Merideth and I are both Christians, which might come as shocking news to other Christians who keep throwing their Bibles at us. (We have a few, and have actually read them, but thanks.) And while I would love to get into it about what the Bible says about homosexuality (this San Francisco Chronicle article did a good job, as did Jen Austin in her book, “Coming Out Christian,” a must-read for any Christian struggling with homosexuality) the Bible shouldn’t even be figuring into this. Once again, the separation of church and state must wield its ugly head and roar about how the Bible doesn’t get to dictate what happens in the law. And if the Bible DID get to dictate, I think we should probably be pointing fingers at the people who are trying to persecute gay people based upon outdated Old Testament laws when Jesus clearly said we had a new covenant. I’m pretty sure that if we all glanced at our bracelets and asked ourselves what Jesus would do in this circumstance, it would be to promote loving families, not stone a minority group.

Slippery Slope.
The slippery slope has always been my favorite. If we let the gays marry, the next thing you know, bigamy will be rampant and people will want to marry their dogs. This will, of course, be right after my head explodes because of how obtuse anyone who spouts this argument has to be. How hard is it to have a law that marriage can be between two consenting adults?

I’m much more scared of the other slippery slope: If we decide to take away the right of homosexuals to marry, what’s stopping us from letting them have jobs? And who said they had the right to be out after dark? At what point will they have to wear a symbol on their clothes so we can recognize them? Sound familiar? If not, Tivo the history channel for one day for a big fat refresher on what the “slippery slope” of letting the government revoke human rights looks like. Or better yet, ask your grandfather what it was like to liberate Germany.

Plea.
I realize that I’ve treated this with a silly tone in some parts, but I am deadly serious about this Proposition. The venom and bigotry behind it make me dizzy because of the amount of effort being put forth to restrict my right to pursue happiness.

I wasn’t alive when the Nazi party came to power, but I know it didn’t happen in one day. Little laws and restrictions kept sneaking their way in until one day those who were considered unfit for civilization were all hauled away, many never to be seen or heard from again. Do not misunderstand: I do not think we are on the threshold of a Holocaust, nor do I want to minimize the amount of suffering of those who lived through it or died because of it. My point is that we are currently seeing a specific targeting of a minority class who has not done any harm other than make some people feel squeamish. And that is dangerous. As Americans — hell, as people — we have an obligation to protect the minority classes, because often the majority turns into mob rule.

Call me melodramatic, but I am honestly fearful that those who will not help protect me today would also turn their faces if I or someone else were made to wear a sleeve insignia or get taken away on a train in the night.

So please: Donate to Equality California. Even if you don’t live in California, do it for every person you love who is or might be gay. Do it for the children you have or might have. Do it for that uncle who’s been living with his male “friend” for the last fifty years. Do it because it’s the right thing to do. Do you have ten extra dollars? Donate ten dollars.

And if you do live in California? For heaven’s sake, vote No on 8.

* and in case you're wondering, here's why it's called getting up on your soapbox.

Pink landmarks for BC Awareness

2008-10-26T20:40:00.000-05:00

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 Awareness? to support the search for the Cure? High risk people like me need all the help we can get!

Sarah Palin, take note:

2008-10-22T16:30:00.003-05:00

"'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! :)

Another Obama video

2008-10-12T21:32:00.002-05:00

... and it comes with some spectacular music!

AFL-CIO speech for Obama

2008-10-02T13:49:00.002-05:00

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!

Austin City Limits music festival

2008-09-27T22:54:00.000-05:00

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!

The Curse of Corvallis

2008-09-26T09:19:00.003-05:00

(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 long flight back to LA.

Next week: the Oregon Ducks at the Coliseum.

In honor of Sarah Palin's candidacy:

2008-09-24T13:19:00.004-05:00

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 be happy with Palin's selection, especially on her positions on women's issues. So, if you feel you can't support the Obama campaign financially, may I suggest the following fiendishly brilliant alternative?

Make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin's name. And here's the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/

You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:

McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202

Feel free to send this along to all your women friends and urge them to do the same.

So please, if you haven't already, support PP and let the McCain campaign know that the fact that they chose a woman does not mean that the rest of the women of America support her views.

Gigi was here!

2008-09-23T22:50:00.003-05:00

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 interesting - songs I'd never heard them play before - but Gigi just couldn't get over the variety (and the vintage) of the songs they played. The first few notes of every song made her say "oh my gawd!" or "wow!" Then Keith and Steve and Alli showed up, and we hit the dance floor for the second set. These are the hits we know and love -- Blondie, the Bee Gees, Air Supply, Eurythmics, even the Bay City Rollers! It was great! We stayed through the second set, and then it was just too late and we were all exhausted.

Saturday morning I took Giselle to the Omelettry for late breakfast. We stuffed ourselves with pancakes and eggs and coffee, to fortify us for going to the Pecan Street Festival. I had never been... it was pretty much the same as most other street festivals, in New York or DC... It was a little warm. We wandered along the stalls, and she bought a cute painted metal fish for her bathroom, and some gorgeous earrings at the SoLa booth -- it was great to see Coral & Joel, and their booth was busy! I hope they did well.

Then we went home to veg for a bit and recover from the heat, before going back downtown with Atesha for the UT-Rice football game. It was a great game for Texas... not so much for Rice. We left after the third quarter, when the score got out of hand. We had to have some bbq before Gigi left, so we went down to County Line on the Lake. It was about 9:30 when we got there -- the place was empty. We stuffed ourselves (again, but we hadn't really eaten since lunch) with bbq pork/ham/brisket/sausage/ribs, and dessert. Urp.

The only thing that we did on Sunday morning was go to the airport. I dropped off Gigi and went straight to the gym, to burn off all the calories from the weekend of stuffing my face... and boy did I ever burn them! Lara made sure of that. :)

So, thanks, G, for coming down to visit, and I hope you had fun! I know I did! (Eventually I will get around to posting the three pictures we took the whole weekend...)

* Stuart has been here more than once, but he didn't stay with me or need me to show him around. ;)