Bob and I spent the night in Olympia so we could cruise around downtown this morning before heading home. We didn't have a place in mind for breakfast and were sure if we wandered around something great would pop up. Of course it's never that easy and we tromped around finding interesting places that were closed and alterna-cafes with colorful awnings and dogs wearing hemp collars tied up out front. We went to the outdoor outfitters sale tent to see if someone could point us to something good and the guy said, "I'm not much of a breakfast person." We decided to walk up one more block and passed an old van with Yoda on the dashboard. I said, "Look Yoda, it's a sign." At the next block we saw a guy leaving a restaurant with a styrofoam container. Bob said, "It was so good he took his extras with him." The place is called The Urban Onion and we got a great booth in the corner and they poured a delicious cup of coffee. I got huevos and Bob got an omlette with smoked salmon and cream cheese and substituted the potatoes and toast with two pancakes the size of bus tires. After breakfast we went to Orcas books where I bought a large pile of books to go into the stack I'm already too busy to read. A perfect day.

We went to Tacoma for Wintergrass yesterday. We ate dinner at Over the Moon Cafe a place we found by accident at Wintergrass 2 years ago and have been looking forward to returning to ever since. We rushed in to catch Sam Bush followed by Barbed Wire Cutters at the church and then went back to the Sheraton and went up and down the stairs between the convention center and the ballroom plus caught Jimmy Gaudreau & Moondi Klein at the bar. As per our usual luck, we ended up sitting near obnoxious talking people in the convention center. Why go to a kickass bluegrass festival and then stand in the corner with your friends talking and being squirrely? Also the hot accessory this year was a tiny baby. There were tiny babies everywhere. I have a theory that if you have only 1 tiny baby, other than the sleep deprivation and large satchel of baby-shit you have to haul around, you can pretend that your life still hasn't changed all that much and you can get out and do the things you used to do. In the ballroom they were trying something new and had the chairs cleared out for dancing. It was only partly successful. There was the requisite hippie guy with dreads wearing a skirt dancing away, the hippie chick doing interpretive dance, 1 or 2 couples doing organized couple dancing and a bunch of grown ups dancing with their kids. No large scale hippie mob groove.

I think I say this every week at this time but I just can't seem to get my act together. I always optimistically spread my various projects out all over the floor the thought being that it will remind me to get it done and I can enjoy a feeling of accomplishment as I finish it and put it away. Instead I have crap everywhere which on the weekend I stack into an intimidating pile to be ignored until it is spread out on the floor for the following week. The current method is not working.

Meanwhile, I happened to look at LeRoy's webpage that I made for him so long ago and it desperately needs updating. The work site (which I'm not even going to link) needs to be actually built. I have got to get my act together.

I predict that HIDALGO is going to be HUGE. I've seen the trailer: Viggo Mortensen in a dramatic horse race in Saudi Arabia. What woman who sat through 9 hours of LOTR is not going to get in line to see this movie?

X Files
I've been in the mood to watch X Files lately. I found some moldy tapes in the video closet and watched both Tooms episodes (season 1) a couple of weeks ago (still creepy). This week I rented an Episode 3 disc from netflix because I wanted to see "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," the one with Peter Boyle, which was just as good as I remembered. The whole disc was classic. Remember the first three seasons when XFiles was unbeatable TV?

The first two episodes on the disc were season openers which completed a 3 episode story that had aliens in train cars and Indians and stolen files and Krycek. I convinced Bob to watch the fourth episode, D.P.O., last night. Giovanni Ribisi and Jack Black are in it -- GR plays this nutty guy who fries people with lightning while loud rock music blasts. JB gets fried in a shower of quarters. Awesome.

I N S O M N I A
What is my body's problem? It can't seem to go more than 1 or 2 nights of normal sleep without having a sleep deprived night. Is it getting back at me for never having children -- is my sleep repository too full? Last night was terrible. I woke up at 11:30p and didn't get to sleep until around 3:30a. I didn't eat or drink anything unusual yesterday nor did I consume unusual quantities of anything. I didn't watch too much TV or do anything agitating before bed. I was active during the day. I exercised, worked in the yard. I didn't take a nap. What happened? I wouldn't mind insomnia half as much if I didn't feel like death warmed over the next day. I have a lot of work to do today and it's stuff that needs sharp focus. On the bright side, I read another 100 pages of Middlesex.

From the San Francisco Chronicle -- finally, someone's said it: Too Much Positive Reinforcement

"... Like everyone from Paris Hilton, whose attorneys confidently announced in the middle of her sex-tape fiasco that "Hilton is a model and actress (and) is at the beginning of what she had hoped would be a long and prosperous career," to President Bush, who wears his below-average credentials like a badge of honor, Rea was suffering from what one might call Too Much Positive Reinforcement: the belief, against all available evidence, that one is meant for special things.

"TMPR has now reached epidemic proportions. How else to explain the legions of the talent-free who wait in line for days for a chance to show their stuff [on American Idol] -- then are stunned to be told they don't make the grade? After decades of upper-middle-class parenting designed to shield Junior from all possible failure, and from any honest judgment of his talents, it's no wonder we need television shows like "American Idol" and its fellow showcase for TMPR victims, "The Apprentice." These shows are delivering the spanking -- sorry, the time-out -- that our culture of bloated self- evaluation is subconsciously craving. Their success signals that we may be reaching the end of a long national delusion. There is simply not room enough at the top these days for everyone raised to believe they belong there -- and, deep down, we all know it. ..."

Here's another computer thing. Now that I'm ancient and have no idea what the kids are up to these days, I didn't know what song was OutKast Hey Ya! Didn't it win song of the year or something? So I went to cdnow to listen to a clip but cdnow is now amazon (grrr) but I wasn't buying, just listening to a clip and then I get there but I don't have RealPlayer so I go to download it and do I understand correctly that there is no free Realplayer for OS X? So I said screw that, I'm not paying for software just to hear a clip. Bob told me that I could get the windoze media player for OS X which makes zero sense but I checked it out and it was true so I downloaded that and then I went back and found the clip and then I played it. What a hassle. I'm vaguely familiar with the song but it sounds like a commercial for gum or a car and not like something that I would put on the stereo on purpose.

Something unexpected happened which is: I've become a browser slut. I've pretty much always used Netscape although I sometimes used Exploder on the iMac for reasons I can't remember. But the eMac booted up this thing called safari which I fell in love with after about 3 minutes. It's superfast and easy to use and pretty much my only problem with it is that all my bookmarks are floating around somewhere other than in the bookmarks area. I need to find a URL manager. Meanwhile, liking safari made me start thinking about browsers and I found this article about browsers and later I heard about Firefox on a weblog and downloaded that at the office and then downloaded Camino back at home. So now sometimes I have 2 or 3 browsers going at once and bookmarks all over the place. I like safari a lot but this sidebar bookmark thing in Camino is brilliant.

I'm back in the writing project again and did some research yesterday. I can't believe the sort of stuff I find when I'm not looking like Heartless Bitches International. They even have merchandise.

We had a successful eating weekend. We created fish soup from several recipes choosing what sounded good and what we had on hand. We put a bag of seafood medley from Trader Joes plus another pound of whitefish and a dozen leftover shrimp. Tasty treat. I also made chicken soup from the roast chicken. Now we have too much food.

Still trying to get this new system organized. Efficiency eludes me. I have a complaint about OS X which is it has that annoying windoze quality of making me confirm every stupid thing I want to do. I hit a keyboard command to bookmark a webpage and then I have to click again that yes, I do want to add as a bookmark. It asks me if I'm sure I want to shut down. All the double whammy not necessary.

Here's a link to a hilarious website by a new Mom. Quote: "A good day is defined entirely by how many personal hygiene operations I can complete successfully. Brushing my teeth = pretty good day. Brushing my teeth + brushing my hair = I’m doing really good. Brushing my teeth + brushing my hair + taking a shower = I HAVE TAKEN A SHOWER! BEHOLD MY MOTHERLY ABILITIES!"

Also CBS apologized for the OutKast Indian number. Quote: "CBS television on Friday apologized for any offense taken at the American Indian-motif Grammy Awards performance by the hip-hop group OutKast that some Native Americans have condemned as racist." ... " 'We are very sorry if anyone was offended,' CBS spokeswoman Nancy Carr said when asked about the NACC boycott. She declined to comment further." How perfunctory is that?

I made a fun dinner for Valentines: Cook's Illustrated Rosemary-Garlic Roast Chicken with roasted vegetables. The recipe said potatoes but I also threw carrots and onion in plus a turnip and a few pieces of daikon radish -- just to see what it would do. It was all yummy. I made an Expresso Brownie cake from Sunset for dessert. (Both websites want you to be a member or sign in or something.) We invited Priscilla over and had some cheesy pink champagne -- we had a great time and I have a sugar hangover this morning.

Here's a map of all the states I've visited. Only 15. It was kind of hard to remember where I've actually been and places I've wanted to go. Also I didn't count airport layovers otherwise I could have added Utah, Texas, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia and Maine.



create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Weekdays are nuts. I seem to constantly be in a state of hurrying up or cramming something in half-assed or running late. This morning I couldn't (and still can't) find my glasses and I was wandering around the house looking even in the illogical places and I was thinking, I'm turning into my Aunt Janet who is always looking for her glasses and will pick up any pair she can find in a pinch. Later when Bob left for work I said: "I can't find my glasses," and he said, "You're turning into Aunt Janet."

Native Americans Rap OutKast
I didn't watch that Grammys, obviously, because if I would have seen this I would have been ranting about it all week but apparently OutKast performed in front of a green tepee and had backup dancers in feathers and fringe. No one questioned this?

The article says:
"We're not attacking OutKast as artists," the group's chairman Andrew Brother Elk said Wednesday, "They can go out and make fools of themselves if they want to, but we are going to question the commercialization of our symbols." ... "If people were wearing yarmulkes and the Hasidic dress and bumping and grinding, we would see that as ridiculous, but for some reason we don't see what OutKast did as ridiculous,' Brother Elk said."

The double standard is appalling.

My Eyes
More updates on the aging thing: found second grey hair; am getting biofocals.

Frodo
I got my new computer on Thursday and we're having a tough time getting used to each other. First of all, I've never used OS X and sometimes when I want to do something that normally would take me about 10 seconds and it takes me 10 minutes because nothing is like I remember it, well, I call my new pretty machine "a piece of sh*t." Second, I am still using the desk that my Dad made for me when I was in the 7th grade which is a great tribute to the solidity of the stuff my Dad made, but hey, I'm a grown up now (and have been for some time) and desperately need a bigger desk. This desk was ridiculously small for Yoda, the iMac and is downright absurd for the mammoth eMac. So it's uncomfortable to use. Also, the keyboard is different so things I used to do w/o looking are now all forked up. Also, I'm still getting all my regularly used software loaded, upgraded and preferenced like I want. I've got a lot of work to do still. But I can tell after I'm used to it, I will love this puppy.

Everything is Illuminated
I got this book for xmas and when I read the first few pages I loved the voice although I wasn't sure if I could stick with it for a whole book. Turns out the story switches between several voices. I'm not sure how to explain this but there are certain well respected literary voices that I have had a hard time following. A perfect example would be Salman Rushdie. Others: Tom Robbins, Maxine Hong Kingston and Jack Kerouac. I don't know what it is but I have a hard time concentrating on the words long enough to follow the narrative and there is one "voice" in Illuminated where I had this problem. So for 50 or so pages I was bummed that maybe I didn't like this book as much as I wanted to. Turns out it gets hilarious in the middle -- also some very tragic stuff -- but the voice is so charming and funny. I loved it in the end.

Presidential Precinct Caucuses
Today I went to my first presidential caucus and it was awesome. We met downtown at one of the government buildings where four local precincts were meeting. The room was way overpacked -- so many people cared enough to be there at 10am on a Saturday morning-- I was impressed. Everyone clapped when Brian Baird (HR) came in and several local government reps were also present. Excuse my cornball moment: but today was the first time in a long time that I felt proud to be an American. Lots of people were saying that it was their first caucus. Lots of people brough their kids. The representation was full spectrum -- all ages, looked like even split on gender. Our precinct was one of the smallest ones and I'm not sure if that has to do with the way the precincts are organized or suggests an apathy among our neighbors. I'll go for the former. We walk almost every morning and it was fun to recognize other walkers that we see all the time and wave "hello" and exchange small talk with. Our precinct was divided evenly among Kerry, Edwards and Dean (2 delegates ea.) and Kucinich got one.