Oh, my stars and garters!

So far

I've been to a party and an amusement park and messed up a laminating job at Vickie's work in an attempt to "help." (Yeah, Vickie, I'll help you...help you have to redo your work. Bwah!)

Also we've yakked, chatted, shot the shit, and it's possible I babbled last night.

The people-watching at the amusement park was exquisite, by the way. We saw a woman with a tattoo of a heart with "JUSTIN" across the front, but it was clear some other poor soul's name had been there before. We saw a young lady with jeans so ripped and panties so abbreviated that most of her buttocks were visible for all to see and surreptitiously point at. Also a girl with open sores on her face and a man with a deeply sun-damaged face wearing a football jersey that said "BOOZER" on the back. Be still, my catty little heart. It was a trashy bonanza.

The park was cute, too. Vickie and I rode all the throw-up rides while everyone else took turns watching the baby.

Later we'll run errands and have sushi. Then more hanging out and some more face time with the baby, and Friday we go to Toronto.

More later, maybe.

Vacation/Bye Forever

Tomorrow I leave for an eight-day visit with Vickie and Valerie in Rochester, NY. I haven't seen Vickie since she came down for my college graduation in 2002, and I haven't seen Valerie since I was last up there in 2000. It's going to be good to catch up. You can only convey so much in e-mails, letters, and even phone calls, and there's no substitute for hours of unstructured time on the couch with your friend, drinking coffee and desultorily watching bad tv or playing cards or whatever. You know?

My internet access will be spotty, but I'll try to update a time or two while I'm gone. So long, suckers!

Bookstore

I've always liked going to BookPeople because it's huge and nice and has fun toys and a good magazine section. Also it's local, which counts for a lot.

But today I was using their restroom and noticed they've taped up passages of fiction in the bathroom stalls, so you'll have something to read if you need to hang out in there for a while.

As a bathroom reader who keeps a stack of magazines on the back of the toilet and and often brings in a book just to pee, I thought that was so thoughtful and civilized. BookPeople is now without a doubt my favorite bookstore ever.

Black thumb

My noble experiment has failed.

Oh, well. At least I won't have to water anymore.

Lovely!

"[Lovely Giraffe] is a weblog that shows giraffe collections and books etc...by giraffe colector SAKURA. Sorry japanese only but you can see lovely images Enjoy!!"

Mess

My office is messy. My room is messy. My car is messy. My life seems kind of messy right now, too. Not in a hot, dangerous kind of way, but in a slightly boring, disorganized kind of way.

Nothing's filthy or damaged, mind you, just messy.

Some people I know are very organized. You'll never catch them bruising their shins on the bedframe because they tripped over a tangle of shoes on the floor. You never see them scaring the cat by screaming GODMUTHERFUCKINDAMMIT after searching for their keys for fifteen minutes. You won't run into them at the grocery store every other day because they don't plan their meals more than 36 hours in advance and for some reason feel it's preferable to buy their groceries 10 items (or fewer) at a time.

I'm not sure what my point is here because I'm not doing a very good job of organizing my thoughts just now. I don't think being messy is entirely a bad thing, but I can't articulate why right now. I'll have to think about this some more and get back to you. Or not.

Catastrophic

Instead of hideous and scary, today I'd like to feature beautiful and scary:

from NASA

Mercy

I don't have time for a post now. I just wanted to get that hideous picture of Cheney off the top of the page.

Bye!

Convention

All politics aside, Dick Cheney scares the holy living fuck out of me.

I tried to watch his speech tonight, just to fully appreciate the spectacle, but I couldn't do it.

He's just too creepy. That grimace of his looks like it should be rimmed with the blood of newborns. I kept jumping up and turning away and ineffectually waving my arms in front of my chest: Eeew Eeeeww Eeeeww!

So Roone turned the channel, and we watched the Rangers lose instead. That was a little sad, but at least it wasn't terrifying.

What I'm worrying about today:

Supervolcanoes!

I don't know, there are probably worse ways to go.

Suggestion

Some coworkers were just talking about poison ivy in their yards. Now I am itchy. Gaah!