On a lighter note

stringbot (11:28:58 AM): omg what is the music on this bulldog puppy video
ants555ants (11:29:09 AM): uh. i dunno.
ants555ants (11:29:13 AM): it's not BAD though
stringbot (11:29:27 AM): um it has panflutes in it
stringbot (11:29:34 AM): by definition that is bad
ants555ants (11:29:38 AM): but panflutes kind of go with those puppies
stringbot (11:29:49 AM): i don't even know you anymore
ants555ants (11:29:57 AM): hahaha
ants555ants (11:30:03 AM): i can forgive!
stringbot (11:30:15 AM): you just went from saying you want jesus lizard tickets to "panflutes kind of go with those puppies" in like 5 lines

Anyhow,

Happy Thanksgiving, America

In case you didn't hate Sarah Palin already:



Who would give an unrelated interview in front of animals being slaughtered? Oh. That's who.

Then again, maybe it's a good thing. While I'm positive it's not what they had in mind, maybe someone watching this will think for a moment about where their deli slices come from. Does watching the animal struggle pull on at least one of your heart strings? Eh. Maybe not. Many people prefer to not to actualize this.

I guess what really gets to me is the fact that this is not necessary. We're an advanced society. We don't need to be doing this to survive anymore. Compassion!

Sometimes you just HAVE to take pictures of your tv.



Best Christmas special ever.

So it's a good thing this house thing isn't gonna happen for a little while, because it takes a whole lotta research & preparation. Now can I relax?

Apparently not.

The spring on our garage door broke Wednesday morning. As a result I have to park on the street for a day or so while it gets fixed. Already, someone smashed my passenger window as the car sat in front of our house yesterday. Really nice. Right?

But tonight while I'm picking glass out of the seat crevices with freezing fingers, I'm gonna remember to feel fortunate that I have the money to fix it. And I'm glad I had the money to straight up purchase a replacement gps for $130 on ebay last night. Had we purchased something like the house in the last picture I posted, I'd probably be saving up change before I could do all that.

And fortunately I have renters insurance which will cover anything stolen from the car. How that relates to your rental property I have no idea, but I won't complain. And fortunately my car is just barely still under warranty - which might get me something for the fact that the car alarm failed. And fortunately my Z is great and attentive as always and gave me hugs and found some places to get the window fixed.

Despite my bad luck this week, I'm a really lucky girl over all.

House hunting is really easy to lose sleep over. Even if you just kinda started looking around and don't intend to actually buy anything for months. I'm good at generating my own what-ifs out of nothing. Add pretty houses to the mix and I'm a wired, matrix making, 2nd and 3rd opinion asking freak.



A big problem is that most of the kitchens already look like this:



The contractors have already swept through our neighborhood, making everything in their path overly swanky. Is there anything out there that we can still do ourselves?

Oh oh! This one: Could it be any cuter from the front?

Probably not, but it's about the size of a shoebox inside. : (

Plant trial early in the morning. I've been having trouble sleeping. Worrying about a whole lot of nothing. Everyone else over here is asleep. I should be sleeping.

Don't have a whole lot to say here today. Maybe I can dig around and find a photo for you. Give me a sec....


Here. Here are two snaps I took of the park outside the polling station on election day. It was a perfect day to take off work and appreciate the neighborhood.






I'm going to talk to a mortgage dude on Saturday morning. I sure hope we can afford to stay in this neighborhood. I suppose if not, well, then our little rental ain't all that bad, is it? Living in 700 sq ft is fun at times because it forces you to keep it real, and deters you from crap collecting for the most part. But dang it would just be so nice to have a real kitchen. And to have a bedroom just a little larger than 8ft in one dimension. And hm. to have heat in our bedroom. Yeah that would be super.

holy multi media weekend

We're bun-sitting this weekend. Let me add to the numerous videos of cute animals munching things on youtube:



Sorry Mom. That was you calling in and yeah, I did decide to defer your call. But, I mean, I was capturing a moment. He was about to finish his leaf!

Also, doing my duty as the youngest child and hippie of the family, I got to take my brother and his munchkins to an art show today.

The Exquisite City is a set of city blocks of Chicago (fantasy or otherwise) built out of cardboard. Each block is done by a different artist. I love things that show multiple people's take on the same thing. And this one is pretty unpretentious for the most part, so that is also great.

Today was a pretty nice day to go back because we had the entire place to ourselves and could hear the city soundtrack that went with the show. Here are some pictures our friend Jason took for the newspaper:







And here are four of my (much less profesh) photos:





J. Ryan's block (shown above with Lia) must be the most photographed of them all, even though it's one of the least complex. We spent a lot of time keeping the one-year-old from going godzilla on the city blocks that included little cars but it was fun.

No matter how you voted, you have to admit this is pretty great:





Especially the little suitcase. And ear.

Justin, who knows the cartoonist, says of him: "He wears really tight pants for an older gentleman."

Okay so that is totally irrelevant, but still, hard to pass up. You know.

So, you know, I'm feeling pretty emotional as is.

Then on the drive home tonight traffic slowed to a crawl. Flashing lights of the minute men and police cars seem to slow time down to an equal pace in the dark. When I finally made my way up the procession I saw a man violently pulling on the legs of a deer that had been pinned under the frame of a sparkling Audi. Immediately beyond this, traffic picked up to a regular freeway pace and I drove in silence south toward the city with tears in my eyes.


And now the sad grandpa is pulling on my heart strings. Even though I unsubscribed from his mailing list three years ago, tonight he sent me an email asking one last time for my vote. Funny enough, it started out: "My friend, from the time I entered blah blah blah..."

Oh John. In the past I've been so excited about you. You've made so much sense and you've made so many enemies in awesome ways. I've admired your fiscal conservatism. I was totally excited about your efforts to cut the crap with regard to campaign finance (what ever happened to that?) and general ridiculous government spending. I was really excited when you and Kerry were working together on fuel economy standards before the green wave even hit. And in general, I always really liked listening to you speak.

But then you became a candidate. I thought that was what I always wanted, but you are not so much the McCain I've been following for the past eight years. You've become a device, regurgitating the catch phrases of your party's campaign. Of course so has Obama. And this is why those "debates" had me fuming. I know neither of you stand behind everything you're saying now. As if that could've helped anyone get to know either of you better. As if either of you were actually saying anything at all.

Seriously, I think I tripled my workout each night you two got up and spit rehearsed lines at one another on the televisions at the gym. Like if I pushed hard enough I could've run away from the insults of modern general election politics.

And then you chose her.
I find this to be unforgivable.

I am really unhappy and worried tonight. Even though I'm well aware that in my district it doesn't matter what I finally do.