Jack Skellington on a Skateboard

I'm still coming to grips with the fact that I live in a part of the world where you don't have to wear your snowsuit over your hallowe'en costume.

That said, I'm totally torn about what to dress as. I mean, here it is - day of - and I've got nothing. I'm clearly in a funk. We do actually have two parties to go to, as well. What to do, what to do.....

NO on Prop 8

OK so I'm still visiting with family, but I just wanted to take a moment or two to give some exposure to the No on 8 campaign. The yes folks are spreading some fairly vitriolic propaganda, stuff that has really no basis in fact. In addition, they are blackmailing local small businesses and have hacked the No on 8 website.

I would like to encourage everyone to take a moment and volunteer time (if possible) for No on 8 (or No on 4 if in Florida). If time isn't possible, then spread the word or send some cash - anything will help.

Oh. Hi there, blog.

I have company for a couple of days, so I'm doing the company shuffle. My living room has become a bedroom and I'm struggling to make smalltalk. Praise jeebus for the lubricating tongue teaser known as sweet sweet red wine... Is it too early to start?

I'll be back tomorrow, I promise

xo
Raspberry Sundae


PS - going to a hockey game tonight!!!!!

things found in rental cars

So on Saturday we had to rent a car, because our sweet go-car is in the shop getting his breaks did and I wanted to go shopping (shocking, I know). Anyhoo, as is often the case, the sun reached a point in the sky where the visor was required for safe and comfortable operation of said rental car (a sweet, sweet toyota corrolla, btw), and what do you think we found?

Why, two citations, a vice report, and a letter from the San Diego County Attorney assuring Mr. Dustin Bigguns (name changed to protect the 'innocent') that he was declining to prosecute for said vice arrest.

Oh - and despite the fact that the name on both the letter and the citations was male, the vice report described the person as female, which would lead me to believe that the perp (yay CSI vocabulary!) was a man dressed as a woman. Not that there is anything wrong with that - it's just an interesting addition to the anecdote that cracks me up.

We turned it into the guys at budget with a giggle when we returned the car....

Sloth

Man this presidential election thing is really overwhelming sometimes. I mean, I'm Canadian - have you ever paid attention to Canadian federal election proceedings? (The answer to that question is 'Canada has elections?' - even for most Canadians, unfortunately.) I mean, the most recent was held in mid-October, after about 6 weeks of campaigning. Contrast this to the TWO FRICKING years that we've been bombarded by Americal political propaganda from both sides. It's quite amazing that no one has become immune to it.

Or have they? Maybe the increase in vitriol of the recent weeks has more to do with media over saturation for the poor voters. In order to break through the BTDT apathy so prevalent in the American public, it's necessary to fling around slanderous barbs and virulent conspiracy theories. And, unfortunately, a great percentage of the population often buys the full meal deal of the BS.

One of the cool things you learn when you get an education is how to think critically, and in thinking critically, you understand that *EVERYONE* has an agenda. Usually it's as benign as convincing you that their opinion is the correct one: a toasted cheese sandwich is a good idea for lunch; taking an umbrella is a good idea if the weather threatens rain; Palin is a terrifying Stepford wife Cheney-clone who doesn't have two braincells to rub together - that sort of thing. In order to convince people that your opinion is right, you compile a collection of facts and/or propaganda to support your argument. A good critical thinker reviews a number of these arguments before forming an opinion. Unfortunately, most people in this day and age don't bother to learn how to be good critical thinkers: they simply opt for the argument that's the loudest or the flashiest. The presidential election shouldn't be entertainment, even if it does have more plot twists, comedians, and emotional upheavals than a Hollywood blockbuster most of the time.

Lust (2)

I feel like posting a bunch of random crap today, so here's another. This is why I love the show Supernatural....

From Traveling David

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Envy

Does someone want to redesign my template for me? I'm bored and can't bring myself to do it. Plus I somewhere along the line lost my little rasperry favicon up top there. One moment it was there, the next - not so much. Le sigh.

I'm also extremely envious of people buying clothes. Even though it's going to be 35degC here today, I feel the need to buy a new fall wardrobe. OK so I'm having a bit of a pity party over here - sue me. Hmph.

I made a killer turkey curry last night - we had naan bread and basmati rice. I wish there had been enough left over for some breakfast for me (I've begun eating lunch food for breakfast at like 10am. I dunno why - I'm on a huge morning meal savoury food kick). Alas, there was only enough for the architect's lunch, so I may have to make myself a blackbean quesidilla.

This post sucks.

Lust

So I'm a recent convert of the website cork'd - it's basically a social networking site (like yelp or whatever) but you review wine. Now, we all know how I feel about a tasty bottle of red, and I'm always on the lookout for new bottles. Today, for example, I was reading about a new (to me, anyway) region of France - the Basque. Sure sure the Basque region of Spain is well known and accounted for (terrorists, good food, etc) but France? I had no idea.

It just goes to prove to me how much traveling I really need to do. I mean, I haven't even seen all of CANADA, never mind the US. I've never been to Mexico, and I want, nay NEED to explore more of Europe than Great Britain and southern Spain. I may want to do it all as a crazy food tour. Does that make me a bit obsessed? Possibly... But I don't actually care too much.

And how much of a country can you see in 2wks? Like, do you pick your two weeks and choose one specific region per year, go there, and hope to see it all in your lifetime? Too many people bank on being able to travel once they retire, but who knows what will happen with the economy. Will everyone be left sans job security and/or pension funds (not like I have either at the mo, but you know what I'm talking about)?



Anyhoo.... If the wine thing is your bag, baby (or should I see right up your terroir), send me an email or whatevs and I'll add you as a friend or viceyversy.

Greed

You know, as I contemplate the economy's spectacular implosion, I am forced to ponder wtf actually happened to all the money. Take any number of major corporations - they somehow had enough to pay execs millions of dollars in yearly salaries and then all of a sudden - nothing. Layoffs, closing plants and offices, huge packages to the same executives. Or the lightbulb factory where I used to work - I came in at a time of huge financial prosperity. Within two years, they were laying off over half the workforce (we called it Black Thursday).

Who was held accountable for the financial debacle? The CEO who presided over the fuckup is still in situ. How is this fair, when the folks who showed up for work every day and did their jobs as they were supposed to were laid off? Seems to me as though the top level execs should have been the first out the door, since their principal duties are generally comprised of keeping the company fiscally solvent, no?

Multi-billion dollar bailout packages for companies that can't run themselves effectively kinda make me nauseous, especially when it's reported that as soon as the money was received they scheduled spa vacations for their executives. How does that not make you sick? The sense of entitlement some people have astounds me. Families are losing their homes; going bankrupt due thanks to medical expenses; barely able to make ends meet and this company is spending 23K on spa treatments for its execs. They justify it by saying the retreat was required for company morale. I submit that a steak dinner and a pep talk would have sufficed, considering they were on the brink of bankruptcy.

Sloth - Second only to Gluttony for the rank of Raspberry's Favourite Sin

It's kinda hazy out today, still, and so it's making me not want to leave my bedroom, despite the fact that our floors desperately need a scrubbing and I want to bake some bread.

Le sigh.

Weekend != eventful. Which is good, I suppose, considering the debauchery (chemical and gustatory) of the weekend previous. Someone of my advancing years should not indulge too many of this type of weekend in a row. That sort of nonsense, as well as excessive exposure to the sun's harmful rays, will lead to premature aging. No one wants a dried Raspberry, this is for sure. On the other hand, lack of exposure to the sun's rays leads to an unripened Raspberry. I've been trying to decide on a good day to head over to the pool and was leaning towards Thursday, but I have just received a call to put in a couple o' hours at the salon. Wednesday may be the day. You know, in case anyone wants to come with.

Chuckle & Grin

Canada doesn't want you

"Stephen Baldwin, who has threatened to move to Canada if Barack Obama is elected, has now challenged the candidate to box for charity. "I'd like to knock some good sense into Barack," Alec's right-wing bro said at the Printing House Gym in the Village. "I wouldn't hurt him. But if he wins the election, he'll hurt me. He's a cultural terrorist." This from the man who enriched us all with "Sex Monster" and "Snakeman.""

Source - NY Daily News.com

I was here to please; I'm even on my knees

Still Bronte, for what it's worth. I've even pulled the curtains in the bedroom. They're red velvet and block the world out oh-so-well.

Take a lil look at the blogroll to the right: I've been wasting days reading through my old posts and the comments that match and have added some of the folks who are still out there, somewhere, under the rainbow.

Fuckinell! Someone is driving up and down my street with the bass cranked so high on their car stereo that it is actually HURTING MY HEARS (typo but I'm keeping it). Am I really getting that old or is it ok that I'd like to go outside and smash his/her windshield in with my air conditioner? Smashysmashy rage! And there they go again... OK I live on a really quiet street that dead ends in a canyon. Where are you going, little bassbin twin? What are you looking for?

---

OK so I have to stop reading my old posts. Going back through my personal history is having a weird effect on my mental health - like I can't shake the feeling that I'm just not fun anymore; that my life used to be so much more interesting than it is now. I need to stop rehashing my past, thinking about how much fun I *used* to have, and remind myself of how good things are now. I'm just not sure how to shake the funk and get over it, is all.

Do you think that

since Madonna and Guy are getting divorced, she'll give him his balls back so he can make good movies again?

Seriously.

I spent all day yesterday in a bit of a moody funk, reading through old blog entries and semi-wishing I was still crazy so I could still write well and still be off the hook fun to hang out with. I think I'm maybe a bit dull, nowadays. Perhaps not, though - just my blog is.

Maybe I just need to masturbate more. Heh.

Anyhoo - I spent all of yesterday in bed. I'm blaming the semi-flu the architect has gifted me with (I'm still a bit lightheaded) (shut up, you), but really need to get out of the house today, or else I may go crazy. As it is I've been boring the cat with my chatter. You know you are doing poorly when even the CAT leaves the room to avoid a conversation with you. Sheesh.

Me & Emily

I'm feeling a little Bronte today, and am lying here in my pjs with a glass of juice and a plate full of hummus and pita chips. There will surely be crumbs in the bed, but I'll blame the architect and no one will be the wiser.

Right?

Anyway so I've been flipping through old blog posts and checking out people who used to comment. Most of them have gone away - blogs and all - yet I'm still here. I wonder where they all went? Did they get bored with their current situations and begin new ones? Did they just give up the innerweb, bored with blogging and its plebian sameness? I wonder....

Rollcall:
newly single
dean simon, aka the farmer in the deli
ridley
write hard

There are more....

----------------------------
My gmail status is 'insufficient madness'. Someone who knows me from now not then inquired. What's insufficient, he asked? Seems like the world has enough. I pointed out that it's really just a comment on how I feel as though I can't write worth shit when I'm not batshit insane. Almost worth going off the meds for, no?

Weekend Roundup

So even thought it took me a bit to get into the idea of going out on Friday, I ended up having so much fucking fun I'm really glad I did. Of course, having to cook dinner for 13 people on Saturday when I was more than slightly rEtarded was somewhat less than a good time, but still.

Round about 3/4 of the way through the evening, TCM played da funk, and I had a major flashback to first summer I was a grad student. It was hot, sunny, and I was hanging with my prof and one of the other students all the time & we had SO much fun. We went to this biker party out in the middle of nowhere 'cause Monte was spinning, and we ended up in the parking lot dancing in the rain. It was one of those moments that will just always be in your memory as a highlight of your life, you know?

Let's talk turkey

OK so clearly my days of shit disturbing and getting folks all riled up are over. Le sigh.. I guess that's what happens when you flake on your blog for a year. I'm trying to be better! I swear!

So the architect and I were in the grocery store last night picking up Butch (the turkey)* and the lady behind the till said "what are you guys doing? It's not Thanksgiving yet!" To which I naturally scoffed that of course it is, if you are Canadian. We then had an interesting discourse about the differences between Canada and the US holiday wise - meaning she asked if Canadians have Christmas at the same time as the US. I politely bit my tongue and said yes, of course, but we have way more fun with Boxing Day - Canadians are a pugilistic sort.

So I'm going to see the Crystal Method do a dj set tonight and I'm pretty frickin excited about it. Actually, that's totally a lie. I'm TRYING to get excited about it. It's just that I'd way rather sit in a great restaurant and have a meal and a few bottles of wine with friends than go to a club. Oh I *AM* getting old...




* Please see "Dave Cooks the Turkey". All of my birds since my first experience of that story have been named Butch as an homage.

prop (h)ate

OK so I may be taking the lid off the proverbial barrel of monkeys here, but off we go regardless.

How easy for you is it to be friends with (like invite into your home friends with, not just be cordial to at a social gathering friends with) someone who has political opinions so completely distasteful to you that it makes you feel sick to your stomach?

Case in point - the other evening, a friend of the architect's (and by extension kind of a friend of mine) changed their fb status to 'xx wants you to vote yes on prop 8'. (For those of you not in the know, Prop 8 is the bill which wants to overturn California's decision to allow gay marriage.) I find this morally repugnant. Sure sure, I can understand how you may be religious and not approve of the gay lifestyle, the same way I understand how some people can be anti-abortion.*

HOWEVER what I don't get is the self serving self INVOLVED bullshit idea that you have the right to decide what is ok for everyone else. I mean, aren't we supposed to live in a society that advocates all men equal under god? Moreover, isn't this supposed to be a world in which there is a distinct separation between church and state?

That whole 'traditional definition of marriage' argument is bullshit. Before 1967 (Loving v Virginia), interracial marriages were against the law in many states (still are in many Arab countries). Should we revert to that? Fuck if you want to get really historical, you can find justification for SLAVERY in the bible. We redefine traditions every six seconds - it's the evolution of culture.

We've come so far, people - we've learned so much (as a society) about how to accept people as equals. Let's just take this one more step, ok? No one is going to force you to marry a gay man or a lesbian woman or even go for coffee with them, if it offends you so greatly. Just, please, accept the fact that two men raising a child (or a dog) in a happy household is more of a marriage than an unhappy or abusive man and woman living together ignoring or mistreating their children. Gender does not a marriage make - companionship, friendship, love, and a decision to live together and weather good times and bad; a willingness to make a public and private commitment to be faithful to another person for the rest of your days - let THIS be the only traditional definition of marriage that matters. Let love live.



* Notice here I said anti-abortion, not anti-CHOICE. That's a major distinction and I did it purposefully. While you have the right to say abortion isn't ok for YOU, no way do you have the right to say that I can't make that decision for myself.

fried green tomatoes

I ate too much tonight, and drank too much wine, but what else are you supposed to do when you show up at the gulf coast restaurant and bottles of wine are half off? OK so I may have yakked but it was worth it, dammit. The architect is currently snoring it off at the other end of the couch... I'e been strictly forbidden from taking photos of him while he's snoozering, otherwise I'd have a sweet shot of him with his eyes closed, mouth open, and hands folded across his belly.

Plus now I don't feel so guilty about eating aforementioned fried green tomatoes. mmmmmmmm

I ended up working the salon today, which was pretty cool. I mean, our house is still a mess and I am on the ship tomorrow so no cleaning there, but I figure I can shop and clean and cook and still get a good dinner party together for Saturday. I'm cool like that.

chopin in the dark

The architect is asleep in the bedroom and the chat is asleep on his fugly cushion on the couch and it's 9pm. I cannot possibly go to bed at 9pm. Well fuck it of course I can, it's just that we pulled the couch out today and I napped for 2 hours so I'm only moderately tired instead of obscenely tired like I have been for the last two weeks.

I think I'm getting back into the swing of SD - feeling not quite so alone again. Saturday I went for drinks in the afternoon with a great group of people and it was just what I needed - a few stiff cocktails in good company. Now I'm focused on getting the thank you cards out and the menu planned for my annual Lost Waifs and Orphans Thanksgiving Dinner. I guess this year we're the waifs and/or orphans but whatevs - that makes it even better. I'm just following the Nick Hornby guide to unemployment; breaking my life up into 1/2 hour units and it seems way more manageable.

It rained like a mofo here last night. I like sitting inside listening to the rain - always have. There's something about hearing the water run down through the gutters to the street, hearing the cars hiss by, hearing the wind and the drops hit the windows when you are all curled up inside in your jammies that makes the world feel kinda cozy. Down here, especially, since it only rains so very rarely. I've started scouting for a stand alone electric stove for our living room, since we don't have any heat in here at the moment. There's an ugly gas radiator stored in the cupboard, but I refuse to pull that out when we can get something chic and cozy - something that kinda looks like a fire. I miss my old fireplace.

It gets dark here so frickin' early. I remember being amazed at how much shorter the days were when I moved from PeeGee to Vancouver, now here I am in a part of the world where Zeus shuts the light off at 6pm on the button, banging his thunderstick on the children's doors as he does room check. Lights out... lights out... I'm still trying to adjust, and inevitably I find myself getting ready for bed then discovering that it's only 7.30. When's fall back? That will make it even worse.

thread count and other pressing issues

So here I am back in SD, reclining upon 660 thread count sheets (yay wedding presents!) and drinking pineapple juice trying to kill this frickin' chest cold someone in Vancouver was sweet enough to pass on. Sheets = good wedding presents; colds, not so much, in case you are shopping for the next bride to be on your list.

It's funny how when I was up in Van I missed my house and my stuff, and how once I got back here I missed my friends and family and the kiddo. It's like I don't know what I want. Actually, I do - I want everyone to move here. The weather is soooo much nicer. Seriously. The architect told me I'd get bored of the constant sunshine, but that smacks of ridiculousness.

I am, as well, completely exhausted. The week run up to the reception was exactly that - me going at a dead run trying to get everything ready. In the end, some stuff worked out and some stuff didn't, but I think everyone had a really good time, so that's all that is important, right?