James Dobson is dressing up as Two-Face for Halloween

Collected from several news articles, and press releases from Focus on the Family's website (all bold emphases mine).

James Dobson issued this statement on October 3rd, 2005: "We welcome the president's nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. He pledged emphatically during his campaign to appoint judges who will interpret the law rather than create it. He also promised to select competent judges who will 'not use the bench to write social policy.' To this point, President Bush's appointments to the federal bench appear to have been remarkably consistent with that stated philosophy. Based on the information known generally about Harriet Miers, and President Bush's personal knowledge of her, we believe that she will not prove to be a lone exception.

"On the other hand, one cannot know absolutely about matters of integrity and philosophy until a jurist is given the tremendous power and influence of their position. As Lord Acton said: 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Sadly, that seems to have happened to Justices Souter and Kennedy. All we can say now is that Harriet Miers appears to be an outstanding nominee for the Supreme Court.

----

Quoted on the Christian Broadcasting Network webpage: "Others such as Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson support her. Dobson supported Miers since the beginning. He was quoted on his radio show saying, "When you know some of the things I know - that I probably shouldn't know, that would take me in this direction - you would understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice."

----

From a transcript of Dr. Dobson's radio broadcast on October 11th: I shared my opinion, that Harriet Miers might well be more in keeping with our views than they might think and that I did believe that she was a far better choice than many of my colleagues were saying and that they obviously believed.

...Karl Rove had shared with me her judicial philosophy which was consistent with the promises that President Bush had made when he was campaigning...the President promised to appoint people who would uphold the Constitution and not use their powers to advance their own political agenda. Now, Mr. Rove assured me in that telephone conversation that Harriet Miers fit that description and that the President knew her well enough to say so with complete confidence.

Then he suggested that I might want to validate that opinion by talking to people in Texas who knew Miers personally and he gave me the names of some individuals that I could call. And I quickly followed up on that conversation and got glowing reports...Harriet Miers is an Evangelical Christian, that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life, that she had taken on the American Bar Association on the issue of abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion, that she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life. In other words, there is a characterization of her that was given to me before the President had actually made this decision.

Harriet Miers is a strict constructionist, which is why the President likes her. And you know, I've never met her; I don't have any personal communication with her. I've never received a letter or a phone call from her or any firsthand knowledge, but I do believe President Bush is serious when he says this is the kind of person I'm looking for and Harriet Miers is such a person.

----

On October 27th, James Dobson was singing a different tune: "I believe the president has made a wise decision in accepting Harriet Miers' withdrawal as a nominee to the Supreme Court. "In recent days I have grown increasingly concerned about her conservative credentials, and I was dismayed to learn this week about her speech in 1993, in which she sounded pro-abortion themes, and expressed so much praise for left-wing feminist leaders. "When the president announced this nominee, I expressed my tentative support, based on what I was able to discover about her. But I also said I would await the hearings to learn more about her judicial philosophy. Based on what we now know about Miss Miers, it appears that we would not have been able to support her candidacy. Thankfully, that difficult evaluation is no longer necessary."

----

And now, Dr. Dobson's opinion on Judge Samuel Alito, released today: "Perhaps the most encouraging early indication that Judge Alito will make a great justice is that liberal senators such as Harry Reid and Charles Schumer and leftist pressure groups such as People for the American Way and Planned Parenthood have been lining up all day to scream that the sky is falling. Any nominee who so worries the radical left is worthy of serious consideration. Based on what is now known about Judge Alito, we applaud the president for this outstanding nomination."

So basically, as long as Bushie likes you and the liberals hate you, you've got the okay from the Christian Right.

Rampant second-half comebacks

#2 Texas down 28-12 at the half, beat Oklahoma State 47-28.
#6 Miami down 16-7 at the half, beat UNC 34-16.
#8 UCLA down 14-3 in the third quarter, beat Stanford 30-27 in OT.
#10 FSU down 21-14 at the half, beat Maryland 35-27.
#12 Ohio State tied 17-17 at the half, beat Minnesota 45-31.
#20 TCU down 13-7 at the half, beat San Diego State 23-20.

And the weekend's one upset: #16 Florida over #4 Georgia, 14-10. Git 'er done.

Yes, I know that Michigan beat Northwestern and South Carolina beat Tennessee. I only consider it an "upset" if a low or unranked team beats someone in the top 10. Otherwise it's just a good win.

/Reluctantly accepts 3rd place for VT
//I guess I'm okay with that
///Texas better beat USC

Cold-induced randomness

"We got information in the Information Age
But do we know what life is
Outside of our convenient Lexus cages?"
-Switchfoot, "Gone"

I haven't really felt like posting this week. Monday and Tuesday were terrible. Wednesday was alright. Thursday and Friday I was at the Resources for Melanoma Research conference. It was held in Gaithersburg - nice to only have a 5 minute commute instead of 90.

We watched the VT-BC game at Ryan's place on Thursday with Dave, Randi, Dan and Crystal (who fortunately did not go into labor that night). I made dinner. It was a pretty good game - better than Maryland anyways. Afterwards, we initiated Randi into the goodness that is Strongbad with some key e-mail viewing. Good stuff.

Yesterday was the walk for the American Heart Association. It was a good day, once it warmed up above refrigerator temperatures. The walk raised over $317,000 for heart disease and stroke research - $675 of that was mine. Thanks to everyone who donated, and if you didn't, don't worry - I plan on doing it again next year.

We watched Stand By Me last night, which Matt hadn't seen. We watched North By Northwest tonight, which I hadn't seen. Mike has never seen The Usual Suspects. 40 lashes with a wet noodle for that one. Maybe we should have a movie night.

I caught a cold from Stephen Hewitt - the NCI researcher that developed the first melanoma tissue microarray. He sat next to me at the conference on Thursday. The NCI has a crappy website. I need to take more cold medicine, although I hate it because it makes me feel dizzy.

I'm making stuffed mushrooms and brownie bites for Randi's party this weekend. Hopefully my head won't asplode before then. It's gotta be the dextromethorphan - Sudafed never makes me feel this funny.

I've seen an awful lot of good links lately, but I don't have any of them now. Maybe I should keep a running file or something. Nah, that would require work.

Better than the average marriage

I guess 8 years, 2 months and 5 days is a pretty good run.

This frightens me

DUI Blog : Bad Drunk Driving Laws, False Evidence and a Fading Constitution - About 2/3 of the way down, on the right, is a list of articles under the heading "The Library." Read them. They will scare you. The idea that I, or someone I know, can be falsely arrested and convicted for a crime that I didn't commit, with little legal recourse and possibly not even a trial by a jury, is very wrong, unamerican, and terrifying.

Monday morning again??

I am sooo tired. And I had some WEIRD dreams last night. Among them, a dream about some crazy english class assignment that I thought I was going to fail, blowing my nose and losing 80 pounds, competitive interpretive dance, marrying a fat woman, and pulling taffy on those big rotary things. I really don't know. Must have been that hot fudge sundae at 9:30pm.

Current temperature is 51 - I'm so wearing my new sweater. Saturday looks to be sunny and 60 - perfect for the American Heart Association walk! There's still time to donate if you haven't yet - clicky over on the right.

Matt won an iPod nano last night in the blogger poker tournament. And after how long I've wanted one, he won't give it to me! So unfair. And he's guaranteed to win Question of the Day too.

I don't want to go to work. But I want the results of this experiment tomorrow. I need to invent a teleporter. Or long-distance telekinesis. Someone needs to get on the ball with this!

Food-related stuff

We had lunch at Silver Diner today with my poker winnings. Again, it was just "alright." I had done something out of character (I can't remember what it was now) and Matt said, "Who are you? What have you done with my wife?? And are you still paying for lunch?"

Roxie spent about 10 minutes trying to get into my bag of flipz (chocolate covered pretzles). She kept crawling back and forth over my lap every time I moved the bag to my other side, or lying on my arms, or kneading my stomach. I think she thought they were treats.

Not food-related, but I picked up my clothes order at JC Penney today. When I got home, I realized that the two sweaters I had ordered were not the same size, although they were both labeled small. The blue one was several inches longer and wider than the pink one. How annoying. So I had to take it back, and they didn't know how to code the return. They finally figured something out, and it should come in 3-4 days.

Matt beat Wil Wheaton in a poker tournament. I didn't know he was on Star Trek - I thought he was an editor at fark. Turns out he just has his own category because they think he's cool.

Success!

Matt's party last night was a hit (and a surprise!) - much pizza, poker, football, and such was to be had. Photos here (I set up a Flickr set today; apparantly they're part of Yahoo now). Thanks to everyone who came!

Take that, Matt Green

Matt Green said on Thursday (in one of his many hysterical comments) that I couldn't go a week without posting something political on my blog. I forget the context or why it was funny at the time. But the point is that I haven't posted anything political-related since last Wednesday, so there.

Anyway. Harriet Miers is pro-affirmative action. And I mean REALLY pro. As in, allowed quota systems when she was president of the Texas Bar Association. Specifically, she encouraged law firms to hire one minority lawyer out of every 10, and set aside a certain number of seats on the board for women and minorities. Now, I am in favor of programs that help make minorities and women more competitive, to "level the playing field," if you will. Because the fact is that sometimes talented minorities just don't have the same opportunities as white males. But I am opposed to a quota system that say you must (or "should") hire a certain number of people for the sake of diversity. I think that, in the end, it helps no one and is even insulting.

I also think we're going to "invade" Syria soon (I use quotes because I don't think we technically invaded Iraq either, we were just there to "help"). There was a UN report out yesterday that implicated the Syrian government in the assassination of the Lebanese Prime Minister, and Pres. Bush called for "an appropriate world response." And we all know that, according to Bush, the "appropriate world response" to anything is US military action. Ugh.

This is disgusting. If I ever start doing this 15 years down the road or so, someone please slap me.

Today will be a better day than yesterday :-)

The only part of the song that I like

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me
It's more the way that you mean it
When you tell me what will be

And when you stop to think about it
You won't believe it's true
That all the love you've been giving
Has all been meant for you

I'm looking for someone to change my life
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if you could see, what it's done to me
To lose the love I knew
And safely lead me through

Between the silence of the mountains
And the crashing of the sea
There lies a land I once lived in
And she's waiting there for me

But in the gray of the morning
My mind becomes confused
Between the dead and the sleeping
And the road that I must choose

I'm looking for someone to change my life
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if you could see, what it's done to me
To lose the love I knew
And safely lead me to
The land that I once knew
To learn as we grow old
The secrets of our souls

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me
It's more the way you really mean it
When you tell me what will be

--Moody Blues, Question

Friday Night

And I'm tiiired. But I'm listening to the mix CD that I just burned:
Moody Blues - Question * Radiohead - High and Dry * Warren Sroka - American Folk Song * Barenaked Ladies - Upside Down * Jason Mraz - No Doubling Back * Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road * Indigo Girls - Nashville * Coldplay - Kingdom Come * Jars of Clay - Worlds Apart * David Crowder Band - I Will Not Be Silent * Dixie Chicks - Fly * Moody Blues - In Your Wildest Dreams * Phil Vassar - American Child * Simon and Garfunkel - Homeward Bound * Switchfoot - Gone * Virginia Coalition - A Song

Yes, I have very broad tastes in music. I have Mara, Hilary and Carrie from freshman year of college (country) and my dad (classic rock) to thank for helping.

California Pizza Kitchen was...okay. I think I'll have garlic breath for like, the next 3 days. Maybe I'll try the pasta next time. I just felt weird not ordering pizza on my first visit, but also not bold enough to try something really eclectic.

A conundrum, if you will

I never would have seen this problem coming. Matt votes for source code availability. I suppose I would as well (although I don't know much about source code copyrights).

Up to 6 pages in the thesis proposal. Going to try out California Pizza Kitchen tonight (we got a coupon). Everyone seems crabby today - I think it's the weather.

Football

I don't know who was on the field during the first half of the VT-Maryland game, but it certainly wasn't the Hokies. 7-3 at the half. Boston College isn't going to let us get away with crap like I saw last night. They managed to pull off a 28-9 win, however, and hopefully they've gotten all that stuff out of their system in preparation for BC and Miami at home.

This photo of a rose frozen in liquid nitrogen being shot is awesome.

Pet Peeves

Two things that have been bothering me lately:
- People who do their own window tinting with that film crap. It looks terrible with all those bubbles and creases. Just pay someone to do it.
-The media's insistence on combining couples' names into one name. Yes, Bennifer was cute. But TomKat and Brangelina make we want to punch someone.

My brush with death, I mean, a celebrity

This phone call took place on my way to work this morning.
Me: You'll never guess who's behind me on the beltway right now.
Matt: I don't know, who?
Me: Matthew Lesko.
Matt: I don't know who tha--Matthew Lesko??
Me: Yep.
Matt: No way!
Me: He's driving right behind me on the beltway, I swear.
Matt: Nuh-uh.
Me: He has an orange scion with black questionmarks on it, and he's wearing a black suit with white questionmarks on it.
Matt: (laughing) You should slam on your brakes.
Me: What??
Matt: And then ask him, "Hey Matt - you got a program for this?"

Days like this make me wish I had a camera phone.

Tuesday Stuff

So the memorial service for Tom was very nice today. You could really tell that he had a hand in planning the details before he died. They had a slideshow going of pictures of him with friends and family and such, a 6-piece contemporary band playing some of his favorite Christian songs, a woman he helped lead to Christ who he had asked to sing "Amazing Grace" a capella (and she had a beautiful voice), and a number of personal memories from close friends of his. It was truly a celebration of his life, and I feel like I know him better now than I did when he was alive.

I only have a few hours before I have to go back to church for the board of deacons meeting tonight...I plan on relaxing!

Seems like Eric has made an enemy, though I can't figure out why. It's mildly amusing though.

I've got an outline!

For my thesis proposal, that is. Now I just need to fill in the 9-22 pages of real stuff. In the next 6 weeks. Bleh.

So, Friday was a long day. I didn't leave work until a little after 5 (which is late for me on Fridays). And Friday was "family crisis night" - no details, please don't ask for 'em - but I was up fairly well past my bedtime.

Saturday, I went to (and survived) the dentist. No cavities, but they did say that my bite is horribly misaligned. Basically, my teeth line up on the left side of my mouth but on the right side, the bottom ones are farther over than the top. I had to have molds made with this nasty, nasty rubber stuff that I couldn't get the taste of out of my mouth for hours. After talking to Megan today, the orthodontics involved sound pretty horrible (and I don't see how it would help, because then my teeth would align but the flat surfaces of my molars wouldn't meet) so I'm undecided if I'm going to do anything about it yet or not. Right now I'm leaning towards "not."

On a side note, it amuses me that every specialist I see thinks that my almost daily headaches are due to something that their specialty treats. So my (former) chiropractor thought that it was because my spine, and thus my neck, were misaligned. My (former) therapist said it was stress-induced. My dentist says that it's because my jaw is misaligned. I bet if I went to an oncologist, they'd tell me I had a brain tumor because that's what they're "supposed" to say. I wonder what would happen if I went to like, a podiatrist.

Sunday was church, and I left a little early to get to the college fair in Columbia. It was fun, better than the last one, I think. It was a little long though (3 hours) and I actually gave away all my booklets in like, the first hour and a half. I think I mentioned last time that there were a lot of parents sans kids at the last one - there were still a fair number of those, but what I noticed more this time around was that there were a lot of *younger* students or parents of younger students. And by younger, I mean SEVENTH GRADE. Seriously, what good is taking a 7th grader to a college fair going to do? They don't know what they want to do, they don't know what kind of grades they have (performance in MS is not always indicative of performance in HS). It's terrible. I didn't go to a college fair or start visiting/looking at colleges until the summer before my senior year of HS. Parents seem to fall into two extremes - micromanage or don't care. What happened to normal parents?

I have a $5 bet against Matt Vaughn on the VT-Miami game. Silly, silly Matt. His prediction for the Rose Bowl is USC and Alabama. Ooh, and BCS comes out tonight - that should be exciting. Here's hoping for #2 based on Texas's lousy strength of schedule. No numerical strength of schedule computation (or quality win adjustment) in the BCS standings this year. I didn't think they could make the BCS worse, but they did.

These are broken

This one took me a minute.

Slightly less subtle.

For more like these ones we found, click here.

Happy Yom Kippur!

No wait, wrong holiday.

Happy 25th birthday, Matt! 5 years ago today was Matt's 20th birthday, and on that day he had no idea that he was going to meet his future wife in less than 36 hours. Winzorz :-)

We had some funny conversations recently. First, we got home last night at exactly the same time (around 9pm) and hadn't seen each other at all since about 6:30 that morning:
C: Howdy, stranger.
M: You don't even know me anymore!
C: It has been over 12 hours.
M: You're right. Have you lost weight?

Then, this morning, I was telling him about a dream I had the night before:
C: So I was at your mom's house, looking through some old pictures and there were a bunch of you with this other woman and two kids. And it turned out that you had been married before you met me. And her name was Pam.
M: Impossible. I would never marry a woman named Pam; I don't like that name.
C: So you're telling me that you could have met an otherwise perfect woman, but just because her name was Pam, you wouldn't even consider her?
M: And here we are today.

I got Matt floor seats to see Chris Tomlin this Saturday.
Happy Birthday, hun! Love you!

Hysterical laughter

This experiment on Zug.com made me laugh so hard I cried. Read it. It will cheer you up.

Daily News Summary e-mail tidbit

USA Today leads with a newly released CIA-sponsored report concluding that the administration--hold on to your hats--covered its eyes when it came to pre-war intel suggesting that Iraq might unravel after Saddam's fall. The report, which was written by former CIA guys and commissioned by former chief George Tenet, concludes, "In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right."

This makes me happy. This makes me unhappy. If you've read this page for any length of time, you can probably figure out why to both.

Marios.64. - pure genius.

Having solved all other crimes, the FBI tries to eradicate porn

Seriously, what is up with this new FBI obscenity squad? I don't agree with the content of these targeted sites, nor would I ever partake in the content. But in my opinion, erotica and pornography of consenting adults, marketed by and to consenting adults, is not a crime and I resent that my tax dollars are being spent on such trivial matters when there are REAL criminals wandering the streets.

Another rainy Tuesday

Things have been pretty slow around here lately. Must be the weather.

Speaking of the weather, we didn't make it to Matt and Sarah's wedding on Saturday because of it. I was very, very disappointed. To me, once you RSVP for a wedding, you better do everything in your power to be there. But it wasn't my call.

Sunday was church, out to lunch with Laura and the girls at Don Pablos, and then over to Matt's aunt's for dinner/birthday celebrations for Matt, his Aunt Leslie and his uncle's business partner, Brian (the "adopted child.") The steak and best buy gift cards were flowing aplenty. Leslie liked the sweater we got her - I just tried to find a picture but struck out. It was a medium blue scoopneck sweater with a matching crocheted scarf.

I found out on Sunday that Tom Rogers, the guy from our church who needed a liver transplant, died on Saturday night. That makes me very sad. I'll say it again - if you're not an organ donor, please sign up. Thousands of people die on the waiting lists because there aren't enough potential donors.

Monday was work, work, work. The virus I worked on the past couple weeks failed for the second time (clearly this is not one of my strong areas). I only got a 3% infection rate - normal is 60-70%. Grrrr. It aggrevates me, because it's such a simple question to answer and can be completed in two easy experiments, and I haven't been able to do it for over 3 months because I can't make the dumb virus. Staci also just told me that both of our power supplies for running gels, etc are dead. Nice.

Matt's birthday is Thursday, and I have the college fair in Columbia on Sunday. A dentist appointment (shudder), a doctor's appointment, and then the Baltimore Heart Walk! I am very close to making my goal (and would LOVE to surpass it)...please consider making a donation! The link is over to your right.

Saturday

Lousy, lousy, lousy day.

Here's hoping tomorrow will be better.

Sammich

We were ordering carry-out from Fingers & Claws last night, a yummy restaurant up the road that has a bunch of seafood and sandwiches and stuff. All their sandwiches have celebrity names.
Me: I want Heather Locklear with no mayo.
Matt: I can't say that over the phone!!
(Heather Locklear is a roast beef sandwich with alouette cheese, lettuce and tomato on crusty french bread, in case you were wondering. Quite tasty.)

Interesting

A game, if you will. Put your Winamp or iPod on shuffle, and use each song title as it comes up for the answer to the next question. No cheating!

1) What do you think of me, Winamp?
Make Me an Angel – Bonnie Raitt

2) Will I have a happy life?
Any Time Now – O.A.R.

3) What do my friends really think of me?
She’s Always a Woman To Me – Billy Joel

4) Do people secretly lust after me?
Daniel – Elton John

5) How can I make myself happy?
Somebody – Brown Derbies

6) What should I do with my life?
Believer - Jake

7) Why must life be so full of pain?
Big Eyed Fish – Dave Matthews Band

8) How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?
Closer To Fine – Indigo Girls

9) Will I ever have children?
Walk Like an Egyptian – Bangles

10) Will I die happy?
Moonshadow – Cat Stevens

11) Can you give me some advice?
Salvation – Passion

12) What do you think happiness is?
Not the Doctor – Alanis Morrissette

13) What's my favorite fetish?
When I See You Smile – Bad English

14) How will I be remembered?
Identity – Pat McGee

Butterfly

Forgot to put this up the other day. Matt's family is passing out these to people who have been praying for Julie:

The back of the card reads:

Pray for Julie Silverthorn
While Julie was in the hospital, God gave us a word picture...Just as a butterfly develops the strength to fly while in a cocoon, we trust Julie is regaining her strength "to fly" as she gradually recovers from her accident. Imagine our utter amazement when we realized that this picture - taken by Susannah Coblentz the morning of a visit with Julie - is of a butterfly generally found along the Gulf Coast and its name is "The Julia." Join us in praying for Julie's complete healing.
Miracles are God's specialty!

Soo Funny!

Sign Up, Foo'

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. If you're not already an organ donor, please consider signing up. You can improve dozens of lives with one signature, and contrary to some beliefs, you will not be denied medical care in the event of an accident or be charged for the removal of your organs. It's such a small thing, but I think everyone should do it. A man at our church, Tom Rogers, is at the top of the liver transplant list with only a few weeks to live.

An example of how little political capital Bush actually has: The Senate voted a whopping 90-9 (I'm not sure what happened to the 100th vote) to enforce the military's restrictions on interrogations of detainees, against Bush's wishes. Specifically, the amendment would "force the military, and only the military, to refrain from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment." A presidential spokesperson said "the measure would restrict the president's authority to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack and bringing terrorists to justice." I'm so glad the president is advocating cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment in order to "protect" me.

My coffee cup is broken.

The glass is always half full

Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight - Such is the American Way, I suppose? Every other nation concerned with avian flu is stockpiling antivirals and beefing up their public health departments. Bush wants greater control over authorizing martial law in the event of an epidemic.

The other thing I find funny, although unrelated to the article's headline, is Bush's perpetual optimism: "Despite the polls and recent grumbling about his performance from some Republicans, Bush insisted he still had 'plenty' of political capital that he would spend getting lawmakers to go along with his proposed budget cuts, Iraq strategy, proposals to add to U.S. oil refining capacity and desire for a reauthorization of the anti-terror Patriot Act."

Maybe someone should tell him that you can't spend political capital like you spend our tax dollars.

Correlation does not indicate causality

But I have noticed something lately. People with democratic bumper stickers on their cars tend to be stupid drivers. People with republican bumper stickers on their cars tend to be overly aggressive drivers. And speaking of driving, it always amuses me when I see a tractor trailer with a "How's My Driving?" sign on the back and the 1-800 number is conveniently spray-painted over.

Marion Barry is in trouble with the law again. When he was mayor of DC about 10 years or so ago, he had a cocaine habit (my dad does an incredibly funny, and true, bit about Marion Barry coked up in his hotel room talking to a walkie talkie. I emphasize that he was talking to the *walkie talkie* and not to the person on the other end of the walkie talkie). I couldn't believe that he got elected as councilman after that. Anyway, the IRS just realized that he hasn't filed a tax return since 1998. Nice.

My prediction right now is that Harriet Miers won't be confirmed. The problem is that no one likes her except George Bush. The Republicans say she's not conservative enough, the Democrats say she's an "unqualified crony," and the Theocrats (Matt used this term for the politically motivated religious right) cite her "insufficient committment to family values" because she has advocated for AIDS education funding and previously appointed a gay lawyer to a city board position. Three strikes and you're out.

I didn't get home last night until 11pm. This had better be the best virus EVAR.

Stuff that makes me sad

1. MSN is broken. No MSN Today, no My MSN, no Hotmail.
2. I have a dentist appointment for October 25th :-(

4:30 pm update:
3. No yoga class for me today because I'm only 1/3 of the way done with my viral concentration.

6:30 pm update:
4. I'm still at work concentrating this stupid virus.

I survived

Made it through yesterday's haze unscathed. Only 4 more days to go! Then we have Matt and Sarah's wedding on Saturday...boy oh boy, 6 more hours in the car!

Fun classic rock trivia fact of the day: The original recording of "Layla," which I think is eons better than Clapton's solo acoustic version, is by Clapton's band Derek and the Dominos, not Cream (which had a more "funkadelic" 60s sound as opposed to the true blues sound of Derek and the Dominos). Clapton was also in the bands Blind Faith and The Yardbirds. Derek and the Dominos only had one album, appropriately titled "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs." Man, I would kick some patootie on Rock and Roll Jeopardy if it was still around. Now that I think of it, I need to buy that CD.

Thawing tubes sucks.

October??

Yes, I had internet access at Matt's parents' house. Yes, I was lazy and didn't post anything else while I was there. Deal with it :-)

So I'm home, still trying to get caught up on stuffs (hence my away message on IM yesterday - "piles and piles of paper"). I'm behind on cleaning and whatnot as well too. I'll get caught up by Friday...I hope.

I took the cats to the vet today. We always take their food and water bowls up the day before, because they get carsick and we like to reduce the volume that can come out of them as much as possible. So they were very hungry and unhappy this morning. I had an issue last night that kept me up for at least an hour after I went to bed, then the cats started fussing (jumping on the bed, knocking things off the bedside tables, crying, headbutting me) all night, and then for some reason at about 6am my legs started aching like it was their job. So I was exhausted when I got up (Matt was as well, because apparantly I was waking him up all night too). Anyway, everyone pooped in their cages on the way to the vet (although the trip is only half as far as it was before, so that helps) but it wasn't too bad, and no one pooped on the way home. Yay! And the cats are fine, as expected. I liked the vet we saw today too...she agreed that Roxie's goopy ears are probably allergies, and not ear mites like that one vet tried to tell us. He couldn't find them in the swab exam, but he made us buy ear drops anyways...I think he would have bet money on ear mites, that's how sure he was. So we don't have to do that again for another 6 months.

I called Wal-mart back today (they had called while I was gone about my contact lenses) and no one knew what was going on with my order. Apparantly half of it was there, and they tried to tell me that they didn't carry toric lenses (for astigmatism). Which is BS, because I've been ordering my contact lenses from Wal-mart for like 8 years, 5 of which have included a toric lens. Then they said it was a computer glitch and asked me to refax my prescription. Good thing I ordered over a month in advance, or I'd be uncomfortable right now.

I'm uncertain about Bush's new Supreme Court appointee...but the new FDA director looks promising. At least this guy has a medical degree (he's an oncologist).

Megan just walked into the common area and said "Okay, woman..." (talking to Rhoda). When I also turned and looked at her, she laughed and said "Courtney looked too...that must be what Matt calls her at home."

I still have aerobics at 5, then dinner with Kim and Let's Dish tonight. Here's hoping I don't fall asleep in my salmon.