Gators beat Bama!

Actually Alabama muscled us around pretty good for a little bit, causing me serious fear before the half and for the first few drives of the third quarter. Then our Gator quarterback Tim Tebow decided to take over the whole team, acting (as I recall, blinded by my patented Tim Tebow goggles) as both quarterback and wide receiver. Also, he sold hot dogs in the stands. At one point, he flew above the field in his invisible plane, wielding the lasso of truth...oh wait, that's Wonder Woman. Yeah, he did good. :)

Still, my favorite quote came during the Georgia game a few weeks ago, when the announcer said (on national TV), "Yup, tonight Superman will be wearing Tim Tebow pajamas." Oh yeah, he said it.

Bring on the Sooners! This is all the more fun, because my dad's little brother lives in Norman, OK, and is a giant Sooners fan. Hee hee, we will crush them.

GATORS. 'Nuff said.

Tired of moving boxes and fertility docs

Nuff said.


see more crazy cat pics

OK, this is filled with nerdy beauty.

Watch this video, do it now. Do not question the power of the Twins.

Finally a cat who isn't scared of the vacuum.

OK, I want a cat who drives the roomba (this is not a euphemism).  All my previous cats just wanted to lie around eating premium tuna out of gold embossed cans while flipping off the squirrels.  

At last our deep fat fryer finds a home--and we do too.

We rented a big ol' foursquare house, with plenty of space for all our wacked out kitchen gadgets.  Deep fat fryer, here we come!  

I'll miss the streetcar right outside the door, but we're walking distance to all kinds of goodies, including the Clinton Cafe (free Pagan Jug Band on Tuesdays) and New Seasons.

Big American flag on the house, which the landlady hung up after Obama won.  Aww.  It's nice that it's cool to be patriotic again, since I always was.  Almost Jan 20...

Yes, it's beginning to look a lot like...we're not buying a house.

Yup, we're officially part of the deflation problem.  'Cause we'd like to buy a house, but we're not, because we think house values here in Portland, OR are just at the top of the water slide, ready to go Whee! down to the bottom.  So we don't want to give Generobank, Inc.  our life savings quite yet.  Ya know, in case we need them when GM goes under and cannibals start roaming the streets with their pointy pointy teeth.  :)  

So house values probably will drop, because people like us aren't buying.  We're looking at a rental house on Saturday.  I feel like such a ...trend.  

Weirdly, KMart is all popular again.  Why?  Because the big K still lets people put gifts on layaway.  Every other store shut this feature down years ago (since people had credit cards--essentially Master Card's layaway plan).  But now that credit is tight, big K layaway has lines across the store (according to NPR).  Everything old is new again, baby.  If I show any desire to wear tie-dye or big feathered Farrah hair, feel free to administer a beat down.  

  

Whee! Watch the economy slide! But do it with your friends.

Ah, the economic weirdness continues full-tilt, and everything just seems a tad...expensive, as we see friends get laid-off for no good reason.  We've been quite lucky, I realize, since (no whammies) software/IT seems to be doing just fine so far.  

But life continues in the world of make your own fun, and it's not so bad.  Playing board games with friends is much cheaper than going out drinking, and is quite fun.  Renting a DVD (or even better, getting one from the library) and watching it with friends is a zillion times cheaper than buying movie tickets.  And we cut off the cable two months ago ($79) and haven't much missed it (hooray for Daily Show on-line).  

There are great cookbooks at Goodwill on Grand Avenue (Joy of Cooking for $3) which is cheaper than cooking classes at Sur La Table ($75 per person per two hour class, holy crap, when did I ever think that was OK).   Portland is full of free or cheap live music.   Libraries are great for the latest books--and there's always the good used books at Powell's.  If you volunteer at Schoolhouse Supplies once a month, you get to help local teachers and get free random books too!  Playing poker at the M-in tournaments is pretty cheap ($5 buy-in) and an evening's worth of fun and drama (if you can control your urge to re-buy, or, in my case, my desire to go all-in on a pair of kings.  Darn that dude's pocket aces.)  The Portland Spelling Bee is every Monday night, and if you can spell, you might just get free Mississippi Pizza and drinks.  

Welcome to the new economy...where friends mean more, and 401Ks are worth less.   

Obama wins Florida! And Virginia! And North Carolina!

And the whole country!!  And there was great rejoicing.  

My father called, all choked up, and said, "I am just so proud of my country."  'Nuff said.

On a less happy note, our fabulous friend Molly lost her job, when the credit crunch took out another magazine.  Rackin' frackin' greedy Wall Street bozos, I'd like to break a bottle of Cristal over their coiffed, highlighted, and empty heads.  

So if you need the best web and print editor, publications manager, and all-around digital image goddess to come work in your office, Molly Newman is the bomb.  Hire her now, but email her first at redmolly@gmail.com.  

Gators beat Georgia!

CLANG!  Ah, the sound of a missed Georgia field goal (one of many) clanging off the left upright and bouncing back in their faces.  Yay!  I love November.  Gators 49-Georgia 10.  

And the lazy Georgia fans left early, missing their only touchdown, scored against our second string.  

Plus Texas Tech beat the daylights out of the #1 Texas Longhorns.  Gotta love the shocked look on the Longhorns' faces.  

Gators #4 in the AP Poll, #5 in BCS.  We'll see Alabama for the SEC Championship (if we beat Vandy first).  

Speed-Writing Ghost Story Contest

My friend Molly and I went to the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) for a Halloween ghost story speed writing contest.  15 minutes, no time to edit, pens to paper, the moderator drew genres out of a hat.  First Genre Selected:  Personal Ad.  Hee hee.  Try to make a personal ad a scary ghost story, 15 minutes or less.    Second genre selected: Confessional. Alas, Molly's choices of "limerick" and "footnote" were not picked out of the hat--or my choices "obituary" and "want ad" either.  

So, after a bit of scary music, we were off and running.  Molly and I mutually vowed to post our stories on-line, so here's mine.  See Molly's (really worth it) at redmolly.typepad.com.  

(Personal ads)

SWF seeks man with 2 silver dollars, suitable for placing on eyes of the dead.  Must be comfortable with small dark places.  No mold allergies please.  Reply by midnight.  

Angry spirit seeks priest for light fondling and possible exorcism. Long term relationship not desired.  

Gravedigger seeks woman in black. Cold hands a plus.  Fresh flowers in a wreath wait for you!

(Confessional--I envisioned this like a radio play, creaking rocking chair and all.  Remember, 15 minutes, no editing at all!)

Shut-in

I still see her hands, you know.  No matter how many hours, how many years, I sit and rock on this porch, I still see them, just reaching up out of the ground, cold and white and small.  

My foot hasn't touched ground in 23 year, and that's no accident, no sir.  'Cause those cold, white hands, you can't trust them...one step off this porch onto that rich black earth and they could grab you and pull you right down, down under the ground.  

It wasn't so often back then, but now, now I'm old, it's every night I have that dream.  Just letting it happen , taking off my worn out shoes and going barefoot out there.  Feeling those white hands grab my ankles and pull me down, the cold earth at my knees, my waist, my arms, my neck, and then soil tumbling down my throat, closing my tired eyes.  Cold earth and tiny white hands pulling me down.  

(Standing, rocking chair stops) Every night, just about this time, I think about doing it.  Taking that one step onto that ground.

Turn around for a minute, sonny.  Tonight Granny's going for a little walk.

(Sound of screaming, muffled by earth)

__________________________

I tied for third place (yay!) and Molly came in second (yay!), so we were quite pleased with ourselves.  The other writers were great too.  :)  

Suzy Q  

 

Godless heathens?

Oh, there's just no bottom for morally retarded Republican campaigners these days. Courtesy of Politico.com:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1008/Dole_still_keeping_the_faith.html
________________________________
Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s latest advertisement suggests her Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, is a godless heathen.

“A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser for Kay Hagan,” the 30-second spot says, showing footage of the group’s members talking about their atheist beliefs on cable news.

“Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took godless money,” the ad concludes. “What did Kay Hagan promise in return?”

At the very end of the ad, a voice sounding like Hagan's says: "There is no God."

The ad is airing across North Carolina.

The ad bases the charge on Hagan’s attendance at a netroots fundraiser on her behalf that was hosted by two advisers of the Godless Americans’ political action committee. According to its website, the group advocates for atheists' rights.

Hagan is holding a press conference with her pastor and family this afternoon to rebut the charges. Hagan is an member (and elder) at the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro.
________________________

Yup, they're willing to lie, cheat and distort, and say that this church elder who teaches at her church's Sunday School is godless...and even worse, they're willing to treat Americans who are atheists like second-class citizens, who have no right to participate in the political process.

I've never had anything against Liddy Dole, but anyone who approved this ad deserves to lose this race. Can we all rally behind Kay Hagan and get the votes out on this one?

I arm-wrestled a bee!

I arm-wrestled a bee (and lost).  OK, actually a very nice editor for Imbibe Magazine, who was dressed as a bee, for the first prize in last night's Portland Spelling Bee.   She and I couldn't successfully spell the Round Six words, so we were forced to settle it with (non) brute strength in front of a cheering crowd.  True story.  

Pictures to come soon--as soon as Jim emails them to me.  Hooray for Hannah the Bee...she was victorious.  Buzz.  :)

Victorian bondage gear?

OK, now that you're paying attention...my doctor says I have an unstable ankle.  My ankle is deeply insulted.  He gave me a black lace up brace with double cross over straps.  If that sounds sexy, be assured that it's really not.  

$150,000 on clothes from Joe Six-Pack?

Yup, while the stock market tanks and our economy unravels, Palin was doing her part by spending $150,000 from the Republican National Committee to improve the economy at Saks. All that $ to dress her and her family in the latest and greatest clothes and makeup, including getting her 7 year old daughter Piper a Louis Vuitton bag.

Though you can see their point--check out the last photo but one in the slideshow, to see how she dressed before.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/22/palin-clothes-spending-ha_n_136740.html

And here I thought Joe Six-Pack shopped at Target. Silly old me.

Consumer vs. Citizen

OK, I've had enough of being referred to as just a consumer. When did "American consumer" become synonymous with "American citizen"? Listen to CNN or Fox, and you will hear the word consumer at a ratio of about 30 to 1 to the word citizen. Enough! We are not locusts, measured entirely by our ability to strip the fields (and malls, and car dealerships, and jewelry shops) clean. The extent to which the word "consumer" has replaced the word "citizen" (or even the word "American") is a symbol of how corporate marketing, greed and easy credit have overwhelmed the classic idea of citizenship with a tidal wave of shopping. I want to take back the word citizen--you know, someone with duties, responsibilities and rights as a proud American--and not just the right to slap down my platinum card to buy some piece of junk. Americans are producers, and family members, and voters, and church (and temple) goers, and thinkers, and engineers. Let's ditch the "consumer" label, once and for all.