Buy this!

I'm pleased.

NxNW apparel and stuff.

WTF? Mood phone?

Because I can't tell whether I'm happy or sad.

Mood Phone from Panasonic.

WTF?

Thanksgiving, The Little Beast Dog and Gratitude

Zeta Bear went to the country for Thanksgiving -- and enjoyed herself as a farm dog! We love it out there at my sister's. Fresh eggs from the neighbors, burning your own trash, drinking as soon as you get up -- because if you don't start first thing "you can't say you've been drinking all day!" Just kiddin' -- sorta...

...this from someone clean and sober nineteen years today.

Back to Zeta. She was POOPED when she got home -- and was sick last night-- possibly because some unsuspecting (my sister) soul thought no poor dog should go without table scraps on Thanksgiving, but, farm dog in other ways, Zeta does NOT have an iron stomach. She gets sick when she eats grown up dog food!

I was so worried I was surprised I was so worried. I don't worry much. I worried through church, and was only feeling better about her by the time we got home and I felt her cool nose rub against me as she whizzed by in a black blur -- her normal self.

Last night she slept right next to me, sometimes betwixt the SB and me, which is not allowed! No pets betwixt the humans --- but she was sick! So... I put her on my other side. :-) I held her close and she woke us up about four times and we shooed her out of doors to be ill whilst we stood by for comfort.

Are we pathetic? Yes, we'd do the same for the kids when they were small, they slept with us when they were ill and we shooed them into the back yard when they needed to throw up.

Alright back to the weekend. We had a great Thanksgiving -- my brother was very genuinely happy to get a Longhorn Polo and new mp3 player -- which we presented to him with much glee. No special occasion, just because we felt like it. The turkeys -- all THREE of them, were fried and delicious. We ate, as is customary, plenty of stuff that was not good for us, and when we were done, ate some more and bought some more on the way home!

What a sense of gratitude I felt this year. My sister in law commented that it all felt good and she didn't know why. I said, "not to minimize your current feelings, or the grief any of us might be feeling, but I bet it feels good this year simply because it is NOT last year."

We were all still acutely grieving the loss of her son and also my mother last year. We still do, but we are moving forward. It was wonderful to see my brother and his wife smile -- to hug and touch the rest of us on purpose.

Don't get me wrong -- we miss my mother and nephew, painfully at times ... and they are not just a part of our past certainly, but are now, in a new way, a part of our future.

I was more aware this year of what a lavish life we lead as Americans. Truth is, I feel we forget too often that our lives are already lavish. Even those of us who sometimes struggle lead quite lavish lives in comparison to those in constant poverty.

Let's start with the beds in which we sleep, that are clean, comfortable and covered. Next, we usually have a choice about what to eat for breakfast. A choice! Then, many of us get into overpriced lavish cars that we've been able to purchase, or, for that matter, we have public transportation to get us where we need to go, so that we can continue to earn the money that gets us what we want.

Don't get me wrong! I learned today in the lesson at church that desire is God's way of notifying you of which direction to go toward for your next blessing! That's one way of looking at it. Greed is a different matter altogether.

So, "What do you have that someone else would pay $1 million for?"

We posed that question from time to time this weekend.

Here are some answers I got:

"My dimples and smile."
"My relationship."
"My eyesight."

...and that's just a start.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow!

I'm just busier than a one armed wallpaper hanger.

Yep. OK. That's all the time I have to blog.

Whew.

Boys Are Cool

These guys are CUTE!

Did a photo shoot today!

Here's my tip for shooting tots this age -- let me rephrase... here's a tip for photographing tots this age: just let 'em do what they want if you can, and capture them as best you can when they're immobile for that nanosecond they might provide you from time to time. I mean, really -- what's to accomplish by having them sit still for a photo session? If you let them do as the please, sometimes you'll be blessed with their joy -- just snapped and stopped at the right moment in time.


I did a photo shoot a couple of weeks ago -- the photo was supposed to go into Texas Monthly for an ad for the Palace Theatre in Georgetown. Didn't happen that way. Anyhoo. These guys are er... er... erm... uhhh... cute too. Go see Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).


See how much room I left on the left for advertising? :-(


Boys are cool.

I Miss My Sexy Beast

The comedian Elaine Boosler used to have this bit she did about being single. She said the British called it being "on your own" when you went into restaurants. I'm on my own this week, but no worries -- I'm not single again. SB has travelled to California to visit with her mom and has extended her stay for another week.

SB's mom is healing from a burst appendix which is a very grueling process if you are unaware. Ever so icky dinner conversation... also icky conversation for a blog so I won't repeat it here.

Nevertheless, I'm on my own with Beast Boy II and the Canines. Should that be a name of a band?

I grew stressed to think about it at first but it's really not going to be that hectic of a week. Beast Boy has late rehearsal every night but Tuesday, which means I will do a lot of driving but it's not an insurmountable feat. I have rehearsal on Monday and a meeting on Thursday. The dog beasts are handled on those evenings. The week leaves me quite a bit of time alone. I don't mind that. And I have TONS of stuff to do -- several people to meet up with for NxNW Theatre. Hey! Look at this picture. If you look past the dog beasts you might say my carpet was clean enough to have these folks I need to meet with over to my own house, no? That carpet looks pretty good for being eight years old.



One of my dearest friends let out an evil yet compassionate laugh (Yes, both at the same time! We are actors!) upon hearing of my "single parenting" predicament. But is it single parenting or is it really just running a taxi service with one cab if your kids are teenagers?

So back to my initial stress about the whole situation. It's not the business of running a household and being a sole parent for a couple of weeks that bothers me at all.

I miss my Sexy Beast. It's the longest period of time we've been apart in nine years. NINE years. We celebrated nine years on Friday. Yeah. I miss her. But please! Don't tell her! I wouldn't want her being any more Sexy Beast Princess conceited than she already is. ;-)

I miss her.

A lot.

Molly Ivins: Campaign ‘06—Goodbye and Good Riddance

So good I reposted it here.

Molly Ivins: Campaign ‘06—Goodbye and Good Riddance

Posted on Nov 6, 2006 on TruthDig.org

AUSTIN, Texas—Right to the end, this insane conversation between reality and Not Reality. The president of the United States STILL says we are reducing terrorism by fighting in Iraq; STILL says we are creating democracy; STILL says we’re preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and making Israel more secure; and, shoddiest of all, STILL not allowing that our fallen have died in vain.

The vice president, meanwhile, has announced that, all things considered in Iraq, “if you look at the general, overall situation, [the Iraqi government is] doing remarkably well.” And now he’s gone off to hunt in South Dakota, thus demonstrating a perfectly balanced sense of reality. South Dakota is so sparsely populated, it’s really hard to hit another hunter.

Meanwhile, in case you hadn’t noticed, Iraq is in a state of full collapse. And Afghanistan is not far from it. Baghdad is worse off for water, sewer, electricity and infrastructure than it was before the war. The R’s have taken care of the whole problem with the brilliance we have come to expect from them—they have decided to abolish the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (which has exposed bribery, contracts to cronies, shoddy work, the loss of billions of dollars, the failure to track hundreds of thousands of weapons shipped there, and more). You must admit this is big, bold and brainy. This is Karl Rove problem-solving at its best.

This campaign has been like getting stuck in Alice’s Wonderland for three months. “There is no use trying,” Alice said, “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” replied the White Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Every time you turn around, you run into the Jabberwocky or the Frumious Bandersnatch—Richard Perle in penitence—or some other equally fantastic sight. The great Skywriter in the Sky has positively run amok with irony and has been splashing it all over the campaign like Jackson Pollock. Fortunately, it is not my duty to lend dignity to the proceedings. I do make it a rule to skip talk of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll—but when Mark Foley turns out to be the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, you know you just have to sit down like a tired dog and scratch for a while.

While this perfectly insane dialogue has been taking place, Congress stands before us so hopelessly corrupt that the stench has washed all over the country. Perhaps my least favorite excuse for cheating is “Everybody does it.” NO, everybody DOESN’T do it. Nor does the system make you do it, or alcohol or drugs or Jack Abramoff. I do not want to hear one more excuse—apologize and go.

On the other hand, I am really going to miss the stories this Congress provided. Remember Terri Schiavo? I mean, you wake up one morning and there it is, kind of like finding Fidel Castro in the refrigerator. And you listen to these people who hold high elective office having this debate—as though they know, as though they have any idea, as though they have any right. And then there are some of the troops, like Randy “Duke” Cunningham, semi-owner of the houseboat The Duke-Stir. Some days you couldn’t wait to get up to find out who’d been indicted. I miss watching Katherine Harris from Florida wear less and less blue eye shadow as she went through her Senate race.

Well, it’s been rank—racist, sleazy, lying and full of insinuating scare tactics. Thank God it’s over.

Election Night

CNN has most Democrats winning in their races for Congress.
I'm happy about that.

Zeta is too. Here she is watching the election returns with Beast Boy.

Austin 360 Today

Maybe you noticed?

It wasn't there for long, as I understand it.

Naked Man Arrested For Concealed Weapon

OMG.

LMAO.

Naked Man Arrested For Concealed Weapon.

Now THAT's News of The Weird.