Monday, February 28, 2005

(Almost completely) powerless over the Oscars

So today I'm tired, having gone to bed just before midnight and dragging my carcass out of said bed around 6:30 a.m. (first alarm was at 5:30--yes, it was a abuse-the-snooze bar kind of morning). Was disappointed with Chris Rock's performance, but maybe my expectations were too high (he can be absolutely marvelous) and/or the Academy reined him in more than anyone could have imagined possible. He looked all shiny and beautiful though, that I cannot deny.

And a friend of mine found him hilarious, so what do I know?

One thing: We didn't watch all of the Oscars, switching at 10 o'clock to "The L Word." It was the usual mixed bag (oh yes, the best cure for a broken heart is definitely a lap dance--just ask any mental health care professional you know) and Jenny's character got way too much air time (when are the writers going to pull her out of the show before we get bored any more than we already are?), but Linda and I will not miss it for anything.
Anyway, the Oscars went late and I'm running on high octane coffee, so I should shaddup already. We have another blizzard coming, so I should get some work done before I have to rustle up the snow throw.....

Friday, February 25, 2005

Happy Friday!

Had a great show last night in Connecticut, and am still feeling groovy as a result. Am always touched by people who take the time to come up and say they enjoyed my set--I know I always used to be too much of a wussy to do such things. Was particularly cheered by the man who had seen me a year (!) ago at another venue and remarked on how dramatically my set had changed (read: improved) in a year. Of course, the folks from a local college who asked me to perform at their pride festivities didn't hurt. And the gift certificate from the bar's manager was a sweet ending, too.

That sort of night makes all those shows at places where the sun of comedy doesn't shine worthwhile. It was all practice, and apparently good practice at that.

The only bad part about last night was driving in the snow, even in my front-wheel drive cutie--felt like such an idiot out there, especially with all the SUVs and other four-wheel drive vehicles whizzing past me. I used to drive a rear-wheel drive car in the snow all the time when I was a youngin' in Wisconsin, but I had no sense of my own mortality (or I was drunk and/or stoned), so I didn't care.

Now, I know death is on the agenda, and the only mind-altering substance in my system was a little post-performance adrenalin, so I was a wreck. Kept thinking, "Wouldn't this be a stupid way to die--driving to and from a comedy night?! (My parents would meet me at the Pearly Gates with rolled-up newspapers for that one.)

Might have to rethink my plans to put off the AWD vehicle for another year or so (it would be the most financially savvy thing to do, but since when have I been a slave to financial savvy? Any savvy?!). We shall see....

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

I'm feeling very sleepy....

My goddess--one night of insomnia = two days of catching up in my middle-aged world! How did I used to party till the wee hours, pass out for a few winks, then get up and go to work?

How, indeed?!

Must've been my youth--or fear. Don't have much of either these days, for better and for worse.

Am getting a lot done, though, especially since the nice woman in town I see every-other-Wednesday cancelled today. There have been times in my life when a sick therapist would have posed a problem, but this is not one of them. Happy day!

Put together a very sharp flyer for our comedy class's latest benefit in March. Can't figure out how to insert such things, so you'll just have to take my word for it....

Listened to That Man earlier today, spreading his particular brand of democracy-scented hogwash in Germany. Never thought I'd write this, but those poor Germans--I can turn off the TV, but they, they were stuck.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Cruel and unusual Tuesday

Have had two telemarketers call in my first hour of operation today--what a pain in the proverbial! That's not the worst of it, for this morning began with insomnia: Linus woke me up, growling and snarling at a nightmare or something in his sleep's imagination. And while I usually go right back to sleep after such interruptions (dogs make a silly amount of noise when they sleep--if they're not whining or growling, they're snoring BIG time), this morning my brain decided it would be more fun to playback that insidious music featured on the latest iPod commercial.

And you know what it's like once a song--even one you don't really know--gets in the groove in your noggin', or don't you? (If you don't, consider yourself blessed.)

My mind is unable to ignore a catchy tune--even if it makes the rest of me cringe, like Barry Manilow's "Copa Cobana." Man, I spent most of the '80s trying to drum that one out of my cranium. Now I'm being kept awake by commercial tunes for personal electronics.

Not exactly progress.

Otherwise, it's a lovely day, and it appears that Shwea's paw has stopped bleeding. For today. Woo!

Monday, February 21, 2005

Flawed, but wonderful

Loved the first new episode of the new "L Word" season, despite some glaring plot holes (but, who watches this stuff for the fine writing?!). Still find Jenny irritating as hell and Tina's the stiffest white girl I have ever seen (and believe me, I know from stiff white girls), and hate the way they wrote (perhaps chopped?) Marina out, but.....

There was enough wonderful/sexy nonsense and carrying on to make it all very worthwhile. Love Ivan, Shane, Dana, and whatever the name of the character played by Laisha Hailey (SP?) is.... Wouldn't want to be living any of these lives (okay, maybe Shane's, but that's a fantasy beyond my grasp, not to mention endurance), but they certainly are fun to watch.

And Arianna Huffington, goddess bless....

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Radio?!

Looks as though I may be interviewed on radio as an "alumna" of the Greefield Community College's "Intro to Standup" course. Methinks our dear prof de comedy, Jerry Caruso, will be the focus of the show, but the host wanted two of his students and suggested yours truly and another comic specifically (she saw us Thursday night).

It's a small station in Amherst, WUMA (I think). Details to come when it seems more of a reality.

Might be fun, eh? We shall see.

On other fronts, Linda and I saw "The Aviator" last night, and while I admire the scope and incredible spectacle of the film, I wasn't moved by the sad tale of Howard Hughes. He wasn't a character one could cozy up to, exactly--or perhaps that's my dislike of Leonardo Dicaprio coloring my view.

Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn, though--that was a character of interest (though her family seemed impossibly smug). Well, it's only a movie...

Today, we installed a light fixture and Linda and I had words. We should really hire professionals for such endeavors, but that would interfere with Linda's view of herself as a "Handy Dyke."

A "Cranky Dyke" is more like it, but you didn't hear that from me.....8-)

(Linda doesn't read my blog as a matter of course. With my luck, she'll start today.)

Saturday, February 19, 2005

A weekend without painting--my heart be still

Though I am my father's daughter (and have the big bones and dimples to prove it), I am not a painter-in-waiting. The fact that I have nothing whatsoever to paint this weekend is a wonderful thing, and I am grateful as all get-out (whatever that means).

Am spending this weekend trying to get my office in order (the paper fairy has been running amok for months) and perhaps getting a start on putting my financial house in order for my tax preparer (the poor, long-suffering soul).

Being self-employed has tremendous perks, but tax season and quarterly tax payments are not among them. But, collecting and copying and tallying all of my receipts for the past year is a small price to pay for the freedom to set my own schedule, work in comfortable clothes and shoes, watch "Charlie Rose" at lunch time, and have dogs as office mates.

Plus, once I do all of this tidying up and organizing, I have "The L Word" to look forward to--if that's not a reward for a job well done, I don't know what is!

Friday, February 18, 2005

A little of this, a little of that....

Last night's benefit at the Bluebonnet Diner was a success--Jessie's House took in $500 from the event, and just about everybody's set went well. Linda even managed to tape my performance with her vintage camcorder, which presented a good news/bad news scenario. The good news? I can watch my performance. The bad news? I can watch my performance.

Goddess, when did I start looking like a troll doll with short hair and glasses?

That minor quibble aside, I was pleased with my set and so was everybody else who matters to me (as well as a number of people I never met).

The funniest bit of the night, however, did not come from a comic. After the closer (who shall remain nameless, and you'll soon see why) had performed for a while, a woman in the audience was heard to yell, "Stop!" After he had performed a good while longer, she yelled something to the effect of, "We want the gay girl back!"

That killed the crowd, and almost did me in, too (not with humor, but with mortification to the extreme). Unfortunately, I was so shocked that I didn't think of what to say until this morning (typical).
Over breakfast, I realized I should have stood up and yelled back, "Mother, you promised!"

Maybe that would have broken the tension, maybe not. It was a night to remember, that's for certain.

On other fronts, Linda and I have thrown in the holistic, homeopathic towel where Shwea is concerned. Not only is her paw not healing, but she's developed an irritation on top of her paw, thanks to all the avid bandaging that has been going on around here. I called the vet this morning, and he thinks there may be something lodged up in her paw causing this to happen.

So yes, we may be meeting with a surgeon in a week or so. Sigh. Not the road we wanted to take, but we can't let this go on indefinitely for Shwea's sake (to say she hates the recurring bandage application is a masterpiece of understatement) as well as ours.

Anybody ready/willing/able to add a lab mix to their prayer list? Much obliged.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Another small victory!

Today I successfully talked with a customer service rep with Microsoft--now that alone is a miracle, but I also got my printer working. And, as I suspected, my old PC didn't have the memory to print out the huge documents that are my bread and butter these days, but my new baby does. Happy day!

Yesterday I had to take two--count 'em, two trips to the dump. In the rain. Not exactly a high point of the week.

Neither is this post, come to think of it. Think I'll wait until I have something to say (Novel idea, eh?) Tonight I have a show, so tomorrow I may actually have something that passes for news to report.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Well, heck!

Was feeling all happy because I managed to get my new PC up and running on the Internet and all, then I tried to enter a post and some new-fangled pop-up blocker messed up my attempt to spellcheck a new post. In fact, it deleted the whole thing!

I know the software is there to help, but when it completely destroys something you're trying to create, it's lost its sense of purpose. Okay, it's a bit of software, some code, so it doesn't really have a sense of purpose--but didn't the person who wrote the damn thing do it for a reason? Or am I on yet another meaningless rant and it's time to shaddup already.

Sorry. This new PC is a thing o' beauty, but the installation of all my stuff is giving me the willies. The dogs, codependent creatures that they are, have caught my nerves, too, and have been barking at anything that moves in the front of the house. Thank goddess we don't live on a busy street, that's all I can say.

But, I did get the Internet going, so shouldn't miss any new bidness that comes my way. Now, I get to go to the dump, lucky me, though I must admit I always feel as though I really accomplished something when I go there--yes, I have very, very low expectations for my days, yes indeed.

Tomorrow night is the benefit in town--no long drives, no "Where do I turn?" "Where do I park?" anxieties for a change. Hope some of my peeps show, but I know Linda and I are meeting a friend for dinner before, and they have really good pie, so I don't really care. (Pie is almost as good as ice cream for helping one deal with disappointment--really!).

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

THIS is February?

It's warm and sunny here--muddy, too. Just took Linus for his constitutional and found all of the ice at Dog Heaven has begun turning to slush. What a mess! But, I didn't slip and slide all the way around our usual loop, so life is good. Shwea didn't come along because her paw is still bleeding a little bit, now and then, and I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to take her to the vet. Will try one more course of homeopathics, and if that doesn't work, we'll go see him. Wish us luck....

Got another friendly e-mail from a Boston comic--how nice is that? Not at all what I expected (which was cold, calculating competitiveness). Guess I may need to revamp my world view a little, at least where this group of comics is concerned.

Valentine's Day wasn't one for the record books. Linda and I ordered in salads and pizza and watched the promo for the second season of "The L Word" that starts on the 20th. Are we a boring, middle-aged couple o' slugs, or what? (No need to answer that.) Am so looking forward to the new season, even though "That 70's Show" does a better job of reflecting my life experience. I don't care--I love the characters and how fabulous they look, even though the dyke drama gets a bit exhausting at times. Better them than me, that's how I look at it...methinks my "drama" days are behind me, and there's not a thing wrong with that.

Monday, February 14, 2005

I am comic, hear me roar!

Well, I finally had some time to putter with my new PC, and discovered to my horror that it wasn't the machine I thought it was. I thought I bought a machine with a CD-RW drive, but when I tried to make recovery disks this afternoon, there were no storage drives to be found. Harrumph.

The PC really had a simple CD disk drive, which is about as useful as a bag of cats to me (sorry, Oatmeal; pardon me, Butler). Harrumph x 2.

I was horrified--had I really, stupidly bought a PC thinking it had a CD-RW drive when it, in fact, hadn't? What gave me the idea that it had a CD-RW drive in the first place?? What a DOPE!

Then I looked at the ad in the PC Connection catalog that drew me in, that said, "This is the PC you need--look at all those features and look how reasonably priced it is!" There, big as life, after the RAM and GHz and so forth, was the "CD-RW" feature I thought I bought. So I wasn't delusional--rather, I was on the receiving end of a wee bit of false advertising. Or something.

Then I called customer service. Well, you can guess what happened. First, the kind gentleman offered to authorize me to return the unit, "explaining" that the CD-RW listed was just among the many features available in the PC series and so on and so forth. In a word: He tried to snow me, dear readers, and not in a little way. But me, fresh off a great standup set in Beantown, found myself saying, "No, that's unacceptable. What's your Plan B?" He had to talk to his supervisor, then offered free shipping on the return of the unacceptable PC and the PC that actually has the features I thought I was getting--but for another $100. "Well, that's not going to work, either. That sounds like a bait and switch. What else can you do?" He had to talk to his supervisor again, and came back with a truly reasonable offer: They'll replace the wrong PC with the right, as-advertised PC at no extra charge. Free shipping, too. We have a winner!

Boy, do I ever feel assertive as all heck. There's more to standup than making people laugh, apparently--I think it helps a gal develop a little more spine, a little more backbone (and if anyone verges on the invertebrate, it's yours truly). It's disorienting, but I think I like it.

Now I have to get up my nerve to see if my new laptop is as advertised. Wish me luck.....

Tired, but happy

What do you know--last night's show at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway (in Somerville) went very, very well. Whew! Both Jennifer and I had great sets. I would rather say Jennifer "killed" and I did "okay," but she would likely reprimand me for my shameless lack of self-promotion skills, so please pardon my boast. (A Midwestern temperament reined in by a Catholic/Presbyterian upbringing is not the best match for the performing arts, but I'm trying to rise above. Really.)

Even met Mr. Tingle (that is so fun to write), who seems a genuinely nice guy. He has a very comfortable and clean performance space and treated us beautifully. Plus, despite what I've heard about how cold and competitive Boston comics are, the other comics were all extremely welcoming and supportive. Here's hoping we get invited back--and soon!

The only down side to last night was the drive. Find one's way around Boston is not for the faint of heart--most of the streets appear to prefer anonymity (i.e., they're unblemished by street signs), and the people who do know where they are going drive as though they're all alone in the universe. And it was late (for me) by the time I got home--slipped into bed just before Midnight. I used to be able to run on five hours' sleep, but methinks those days are behind me.

Thank goddess for coffee.

Well, must get back to work, but I did want to check in--shows like last night's make my day. Heck, they make my week!

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Happy day!

Am surprised to report I'm almost looking forward to tonight's show in Boston--okay, Somerville. Usually have a little fear and loathing the day of a show, but not today. I think I'm as prepared as I'll ever be, which helps--have been practicing every chance I get (my poor beasts). If the dogs' reaction is any indication, I'm ready.

Of course, the show could be a debacle of major proportions, but I don't think so.

Stay tuned.

Last night we rented "Indochine," a movie I forgot I loved. It is so beautiful, even if it tells a heart-wrenching story of colonialism and loss. No one looks better in the midst of tragedy than Catherine Deneuve. No one.

Well, the boss (a.k.a. Linda) is back, so I should get to work. Promised to finish the touchups today, so touchup I must.

Friday, February 11, 2005

Powerful movie, sweet reminder

Saw "Million Dollar Baby" last night, and was very moved. Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hillary Swank were perfection, and they all worked me over throughout the film. Still don't like boxing (though perhaps it is one of the most honest "sports" around), but this film, I liked. The characters rang true, the relationships developed over time, and the ending avoided major Hollywood sappiness. Though Clint and Morgan were surprising and wonderful in their own ways, I think Hillary is her generation's answer to Meryl Streep. Her transformation through training--the rope-skipping sequences in particular--were stunning. Have I carried on enough, have I conveyed my admiration for this film? I hope so! One quibble: Hillary's teeth seemed a bit too perfect for a woman from a desperately poor background, particularly after she started getting hit in the mouth on a regular basis--but then, what do I know? From poverty? From boxing?? Nada/zip/wahloo.

Just came back from giving a dear person a ride to radiation therapy. This person was exceptional, in that she spoke openly about her family--which appears to have been blessed with gay and lesbian children. I was charmed by her matter-of-factness, which suggests to me I have a ways to go to get over my own homo shame, which comes up whenever I meet with people I assume are straight and narrow. Gotta watch that, eh?

Today's moral: Don't buy the Regressive hype! While some of my fellow Americans hate me just for the fact of my sexuality, a lot don't care a whit--and some actively, whole-heartedly love people just like me. What a concept!

And while I love the fact that That Man and his Administration are in hot water for media plants in the White House press pool and beyond, I think the progressive media has got to quit salivating over this story. It's getting a little unseemly.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Things are looking up! (Version 2,356)

I managed to finally get through an editing job that was hanging over my head, bringing me down, and generally bummin' me out. It wasn't just that it required tremendous patience to read and edit the entire thing (it's 157 pages of largely original text, a lot longer than my usual row to hoe), but the topic was so sad: Workplace violence.

As you can imagine, after reading page upon page of shootings, stabbings, assaults, and so forth, I was oh-so-very grateful to come to the end. (And grateful that I have dogs as office mates, not ticked-off, hyped-up, and gun-toting nut jobs.)

Not that I'm finished, mind you (this is one of those jobs that is going to require a second swipe, at the very least), but the worst is over. Happy day!

I may even contemplate taking my new PC out of the box and setting it (partially) up. Don't really know how I'm going to do it all, but I have a feeling it's going to take a while. I'm afraid to say how long, for whenever I estimate how long something is going to take, particularly where computers/software is concerned, I'm usually way off--or way optimistic, depending on how you look at things.

There are two wonderful swipes at That Man (King o' the Regressives) going around via e-mail. One has to do with the similarities of the SOTU address and Groundhog Day, the other with That Man visiting a school and discussing tragedy. If you haven't seen them, drop me a line and I'll forward you a couple o' guaranteed giggles.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Snowed out AGAIN!

Attempting The Comedy in winter is a frustrating enterprise. The show I was to perform in tomorrow night has been cancelled due to yet another huge storm coming our way--as much as 20 inches of the white stuff may be in our future. Mother Nature is just showing off at this point, and I hope she and her ego get over themselves soon. Enough, already!

The good news is my friend Jennifer and I got together last night to work on our sets for Sunday's show in Boston, and I felt really good about what we each put together. Being more than a little shy about my material, I was a little dubious as to how much I was going to be able to get out of meeting with a comic who has so much more experience than I--one of my biggest buttons is marked, "Don't make me look like an idiot." Luckily for me, Jennifer is not that kind of person, bless her, and her input was very helpful. Generous, even. As long as Mother Nature doesn't have another hissy on Sunday or they don't pack the club with stiffs, we're both going to do very well.

This post is remarkably calm, considering I started the morning with a bloody dog. Shwea, our lab mix, has a back right paw that we thought had healed, but apparently it hadn't--or she found a way to cut herself anew. Whatever the cause, she bled all over the back porch after her morning bathroom break and Linda panicked and hollered for help and I came running with my dog First Aid kit (yes, I have one). My first impulse was to take Shwea to our vet, but the last time she had a bloody paw that defied the usual remedies, he suggested surgery. Linda and I talked it over and we're going to try to take care of this ourselves, using natural remedies instead of our vet.

I am trying hard not to think of all the worst-case scenarios that may be causing this bleeding (I have a tremendous ability to worry, which I think I learned at my mother's knee) and am instead trying to focus on what might help her healing. Lucky me, I have another jam-packed day ahead, so fret-time will be at a premium.

Too much work has it's perks!

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Fight the Regressives, Progressives!

I do so adore the Common Dreams News Center--it provides articles such as "What's In a Name? Everything," by David Michael Green. Green makes a great case for progressives (we must abandon "liberal" for the foreseeable, in his view--too tainted by years of smear, merci to the GOP) making language work for us, not against us. For example: It's not tax relief, it's a child tax (suggesting who's going to foot the bill). His best idea? When talking about the dark side, don't use the word "conservative" (still a lot of positive connotations in that term), use "regressive." As in backward, dated, archaic, and so forth.

While I find myself wanting to use the term "fascist" often, he also argues well for why I should opt for something not so 1930's Germany (despite the abundant parallels in our situation in the U.S. o' A.).

I think he's on to something, and I am going to try to use progressive and regressive from here on in. Care to join me?

Lana Turner, where are you?

Just realized I'm over-busy and have jammed myself up this week and am wondering where I'll find the time to do everything I have to do for work and The Comedy and am feeling more than a little bit stressed.
But, since I have a lot of work to do, let's keep this brief: AAAAAAAARGH!


That's better.

Watched "Peyton Place" last night, and all I can say is: Thank God I didn't grow up in the 40's. I would have been sooooooo up a creek without a paddle. Though maybe if Lana Turner was a neighbor, things wouldn't have been quite so bad (is it me, or is she the drama queen of drama queens?!). Sigh.

Off to the virtual salt mine....

Monday, February 07, 2005

Pups and ice do not mix

If you don't want to read a sad story, stop right here. This morning, the buzz at the local nature trail (which I call Dog Heaven) was that a young chocolate lab slipped into the river/broke through the ice and was swept away and drowned last week. That poor pup--he had already been mauled as a pup by another dog and had a muzzle that was off-kilter, but he also had a sweet disposition and I always enjoyed running into him on the trail.

Sad enough, but he was under the care of a dog walker when it happened. She must be devastated, and while she had the permission of the dog's owners to walk him off-leash, I can't imagine she isn't feeling terrible now. Sadness. Makes me want to put my two middle-aged mutts on leashes until Spring....

Thank goddess Linus is afraid of water and Shwea won't have anything to do with the river until it's warm as bathwater (a princess in dog's clothing, that one).

On other fronts, I had a mild hissy yesterday when I realized that two coats of paint weren't going to cut it where our hallway was concerned, and we didn't have enough paint for a third coat. I just want to be done, people, but it seems that this is one of those (many, many, many) household projects that just defies completion, over and over and over again.

But, if owning a house does anything for a gal, it makes sure she doesn't have any idle time on her hands, and with idle time being the devil's workshop and me being a member of a suspect class, the world should be grateful (even if I'm not).

Today's moral: Be careful out there--especially if you have dogs and live in a wintry neck o' the woods!

Friday, February 04, 2005

Just get on with it, will you?

I have spent the last six months dithering about a new PC and laptop. My current setup is about nine years old, which makes them obsolete to the nth degree. With minor tweaking, they've served me very well lo these many years, but they've been acting a little peckish of late, so I've made the decision to buy.

Problem is, I'm a born researcher, and have spent the past four months analyzing every PC and laptop combination possible--well, every possible combination from HP and IBM, the only major blue PC manufacturers around. There are scads of printouts from about 13 different rating/ranking sites in a folder on my desk, and I have been engaging in more than a little "analysis paralysis" on this front. Yesterday, I decided enough is enough.

A catalog from a computer retailer landed on my desk, and it had one page devoted to an IBM laptop and desktop that fit the bill--and together they cost less than my 1996 vintage PC. "A sign from God," as my dear Linda is fond of saying. (I think He gets as bored with my protracted research frenzies as I do, and I appreciate the help. Really.)

So, I bought them. Both. I am very, very relieved, for I have a feeling that if I don't get a new PC soon, my old reliable is going to crash magnificently, and with a lame old asthmatic laptop as my backup, that isn't good. Not when a gal earns her keep pounding the keyboard, no sir.

So, whew! One less nagging thing to do. Next on the list: Get up the nerve to listen to the message on the answering machine about my colonoscopy referral.

Yeah--that may take a while.

Oh, and last night's open mic went pretty well. I wasn't the funniest soul on parade, but I didn't feel like I was speaking into a dark void (a la Breakers), so I was content. Do wonder about comics who need to make fun of people who are not like them--we have the Bush administration for that, don't we?

That wee complaint aside, I have a lot of shows coming up, and I'm looking very forward to them all. In a word: Woo!

Thursday, February 03, 2005

And I thought we had challenges....

Linda and I saw "Hotel Rwanda" last night (yes, in lieu of watching the State of the Union Address--I have high blood pressure to contend with, after all), and it offered a big, heaping dose of horror. And the movie supposedly offered a "sanitized" version of events. As Nancy and Sluggo used to say: Yikes!

Am sorry I left Bill Clinton's bio out at the cottage, for I want to know how he and other world leaders explain their decision not to intervene. I have Madeleine Albright's book around here somewhere; perhaps she can shed some light. Doubt it--seems a shameful business all around.

It's not been a banner couple of years for lesbian/gay rights, but I don't think we have to worry about machete-wielding mobs coming to our door. Do we? (No, you're right--the mobs would probably have automatic weapons. The anti-gay/moral values set likely also being fond of the Second Amendment and all.... Good thing--it would likely be a faster way to go, no?)

Yes, a movie like "Hotel Rwanda" can make a gal a bit dour, yes indeed--but watching Dubya deliver a fresh load wouldn't have done much for my mood, either. According to the paper, he brought up the anti-gay marriage amendment again. What a shock! When the going gets tough (more deaths in Iraq, iffy news on the economic front, questions raised regarding Cabinet appointees and the true nature of the Social Security "crisis"), the homophobes get going. Guess we're the U.S. of A.'s Tutus--but the Hutus (Homophobes) don't have the machetes. Yet.

Woo--ain't life grand?

So much for my improved frame of mind, eh? Oh well, I knew it would pass....

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Things are looking up....Watch out!

I am a cynical soul on a good day, but today strikes me as one in which I've turned a corner. The mean uglies have lifted, and I even had some "comic" thoughts while walking the dogs today. (The last few days have been unfunny in the extreme, so this is a good sign.) And I didn't even run out and buy more St. John's wort. Perhaps it was the 10,000 meters on the rower, perhaps it was the new shoes, perhaps it was writing PBS and telling them what I thought of them (for dropping Buster the bunny like a hot potato), perhaps my hormones have finally decided they've wreaked enough havoc for one cycle, perhaps it's the glorious sunshine--whatever the cause, I'm feeling all upbeat and what-all.

This, too, shall pass.

Tonight is the State of the Union speech from That Man, and Linda and I are going to go to the movies instead of listening to that lying sack o' smirk. Others may have the stomach to hear That Man's plans to dismantle Social Security, charge up another gazillion dollars to keep our troops in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan, reduce what little company-paid health insurance there is, and to end safe and legal abortion, but I sure as heck don't. Instead, we're going to see "Hotel Rwanda," which my boss calls one of those movies you don't necessarily want to see, but that you have to see, if you want to keep your status as a liberal Democrat.

So it'll be good for us. And I always enjoy Don Cheadle--he's been one of my favorites since he was on that wacky "Picket Fences." They don't make 'em like that anymore.....

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Why another blog?

Why indeed? I guess since Verizon dropped about a month's worth of entries last month, I decided to look elsewhere. I may still keep the site (http://mysite.verizon.net/vze86nmj/) for comedy listings and such, but this is where my daily musings (okay, rants) will go for the foreseeable. Plus, this blog offers spellchecking, which my other blog didn't--a must for an editor who has some pride left, life experience notwithstanding.

The name of the blog is the address of my childhood (and messy adolescence) home in a small Wisconsin town. It's where my grandparents moved when they married in 1905, where my mother was born during the great blizzard of 1920, and where my parents moved when Dad's business venture in his hometown failed miserably. Needless to say, my grandparents are dead, and sadly, so are my parents, and the house has changed hands. Species, perhaps.

Okay, that last crack may not be fair, but let's just say that no matter how bad things got financially in my family (and things got dicey on a fairly regular basis), my folks never did car repair in the front yard. Nor did they leave the paint to self-peel in lieu of scraping.

Of course, Dad was a painting contractor, so it probably wouldn't have been good for business, but still...