Buffy Bites
What is going on with this show? I almost gave up on it until I heard it was ending so thought I'd better tune to see how it all goes. I don't understand what she did to turn virtually every ally she has against her -- I don't buy it. Doesn't make sense unless Jasmine from Angel is exerting her influence.

Beck has an online journal.

I still don't have a car stereo and have come to the conclusion that Vancouver Toyota is lame and that I need to find a new dealer to take care of my car's service-ing. Bob picked up the car last week and didn't find out until then that they didn't have the right part. Then I've never heard another word. Also, a part from the seatbelts -- a plastic cover thing was missing and they were going to order that. I left a message yesterday and never heard back. Not too impressive in the communication department. I hate this stuff where you have to get mad and throw a fit in order to get customer service. It's like the lesson is if you are patient and polite you're screwed.

This morning I was unhappy to find out that both of our suitcases are broken. That would have been nice to know earlier. I have to re-think all my packing now.

Today around lunch time there was a teeny, tiny earthquake -- just a quick jolt. Long enough for the brain to process "hey, this is an earthquake" and create a pounding heartbeat -- and my well-trained instincts had my shoes on, purse in hand and braced in the doorway just in time for it all to be over. Except I thought it might be just a pre-quake and I was ready just in case ...

I have my car back and boy have I missed it. It has seatbelts but still no stereo. They didn't get the right part and I've never heard back so I suppose I'd better get on the horn tomorrow and find out what's going on.

I'm drinking some of the Jack that we bought for the no-show Joey -- it smells like nail polish remover. Is it supposed to? Raise of hands? I suppose I'd better get used it if I'm going to Vegas next week.

Lots to do this weekend. Call it the weekend of loose ends.

The question everyone wants answered: where does SPAM come from?

My words today: inspiration, love and humor.

Yesterday I started checking my bookmarks because there are some dusty ones in there that I haven't checked forever -- but for some reason I resisted deleting them. I notice that a lot of times I save something for later -- to do later or to read later -- and it ends up in the later pile forever until eventually I get rid of it. I'm trying to get rid of things the first time.

300 Hundred Reasons why we love the Simpsons.

Here's #1 - The Schadenfreude felt on recalling George Bush Sr's quote from 1992 - 'We're going to keep trying to strengthen the American family; to make them more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons.' Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are now the most popular American family of all time, especially in America.

Today is a day of cooking. I've been looking foward to this all weekend. I'm making gumbo -- the same recipe I made at Christmas that everybody loved. And I'm making cornbread and I'm going to try baking it in a different sized pan to see if that helps since the last time I made this recipe it didn't want to get baked in the middle. I'm making two salads - an Asian style noodle thing and the sun-dried tomatoes, lentils and feta salad that Lisa likes so much. The salads are mostly for tomorrow night for the potluck at my last writing class. I'm also hoping to bake bread and I'm making Bob brownies. Plus I'm cleaning out the fridge and doing my usual routine with the raw vegetables. For background I'm going to watch Episodes IV to VI. Big day.

Wow, hard to accomplish anything in goofing off time. I thought I'd spend the weekend leisurely laying around and taking my time doing projects I've been ignoring. HA HA. I can't even tell you what I've done except watch some super lame movies and went through some folders. I watched Vertical Limit on a screener video -- this is one of those movies with zero character development but one nail-biter scene after the other -- and often variations of the same nail-biter scene. Surprisingly, I didn't hate it and I'm not a big Chris O'Donnell fan but I liked him in this movie. Tonight I watched a straight-to-video movie with Julie Stiles called Wicked which was only 84 minutes long and otherwise super creepy in a "this movie never should have been made" way.

Went to Toyota today -- 90 minutes I had to wait. I read everything in my bag. I usually bring overkill on reading material -- this time I ran out. This is stupid. Insurance wants to put in a used stereo, Toyota thinks I'm nuts and should get a news one -- the price difference is over $1,000. I just want a car with seatbelts to drive. Being able to listen to the radio and music would be a nice plus. Insurance tells me they warranty the used part. Part of me doesn't care as long as I have a stereo that works another part of me is annoyed that I pay this insurance every year and now I have to dick around with the hand-me-down parts.

This car thing is such a pain in the ass. I called Toyota today, naively thinking that I would make an appointment and my car would be returned to me as I last drove it. HA HA HA. I forgot about the part where the insurance dickers with the fixers. So I have to take it into Toyota tomorrow for an estimate after the insurance adjuster already did an estimate. This doesn't sound good. I would really like to get the thing fixed because our current car distribution is not making either one of us happy.

I "finished" my writing project for my class. I use quotes because it's never really finished. I'm going to do more work after I get feedback. But my class ends on Monday and at least this weekend, for the first time since February I'm going to have a weekend with no writing. I have neglected virtually every non-essential errand and project and recreational activity and I am planning to see movies and read and organize my sock drawer and put some time in the yard for a change. I'll be back at it soon. Other than the additional work on the current project I have a whole new thing that I want to get cracking on.

In other news, my car got broken into on Saturday night. At first we thought it was just the car stereo and one window broken but when Bob when to get the window replaced, we clued in that the seat belts were stolen. What a world. We're still wrangling getting that stuff replaced. Bob is using my car since his commute is short and all on surface seats and I'm driving the boy car which is not as clean and fresh smelling as I might prefer. It's hard to believe that in 30 years we're so accustomed to seat belts that we wouldn't consider driving on the freeway without seatbelt.

From a recent issue of my favorite local paper, the Kourier based in Willow Creek California:

"The other day a message comes over the scanner. It's the police dispatcher in Eureka. "Patrol units. Be on the lookout for an old grey Ford van. Van driver has been camping in local market parking lot. No license number available but has a bumper sticker, 'Too many cats, too few recipes.'"

-- reported by Frank Woodman

My web browser is totally possessed -- now I'm paranoid what my computer's been up to this evening while I was eating dinner. Our big Pyrex exploded in the dishwasher -- how does that happen? I thought Pyrex was indestructible. Didn't the astronauts use it for something? It made a big mess but we got most of it out of there. Daylight savings is always nice but today it feels like I lost way more than one hour. The whole day is like, yikes, it's already Noon? It's already 6pm? And right now: it's already after 9pm? I need to try to wind down and get to bed. I have still been spending about 99% of my free time writing and neglecting everything else. I stopped early today so I could do our taxes. I normally have them done by the end of January but we owe this year because I converted a traditional IRA to a Roth. It had lost about 40% of it's value -- seemed like a good time.

We saw David Mamet on Weds at Arts & Lectures. He was fantastic -- very intelligent and lots to say but more restrained than I expected. He had opinions to share but I'd envisioned someone with more of a wild look and waving fist.

I finished watching Children of Dune this week. I found the Dune geeks online and I'm now fully aware of how little I know about the Duniverse. I put the books on the shelf next to the Lord of the Rings books I'm anxious to re-read but don't have enough time. Also speaking of books I read my first Neil Gaiman novel after looking forward to it for a long time. (American Gods) and I was disappointed and didn't enjoy it much. I thought the protagonist was passive and not terribly interesting and I found the story a little too hallucinogenic -- half the time I wasn’t sure where I was and where I was going. I guess it just wasn’t for me. Gaiman has a manic fans, I really wanted to like it.

APRIL THEME: perseverance