I've been meaning to do this forever. Here is a list of blogs I read regularly.

Every weekday starts with checking Gawker.com : "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip" and Defamer.com which covers L.A. movie biz news and gossip.

My other daily read is: Dooce who is a ruthlessly honest 30-something woman who writes about motherhood, poop, depression and life in Utah and rarely fails to be HILARIOUS. If nothing else read this item.

Also on the daily list is Indianz.com which consolidates news and government actions in Indian Country and is excellent for keeping us in the loop at the office.

My other two favorite daily reads are: Kottke.org and Boingboing.net. These sites consolidate a variety of fun Internet stuff, odd sites, and also Internet culture and happenings. I never fail to find something cool at either of these sites.

Some other sites checked regularly but not necessarily daily are: Fussy.org another funny Mom and yoga person; belle de jour diary of a London Call girl; Go Fug Yourself a deliciously mean-spirited fashion commentary site; Mobylives.com news and commentary on books and writers.

Finally, I'll link to 43 folders site which is about being organized and you'd think it would turn me on but instead I find it creepy and terrifying.

That should keep you busy if I'm away for a few days.

I had a bunch of errands to do this morning and I can't complain, they all went surprisingly smooth. I always approach a giant list of errands with dread. There are few things I want badly enough to run all over town to get. It's generally only out of necessity (e.g. holiday) or in honor of someone else (e.g. gifts). Today was a little of both.

I went to Target in Jantzen Beach and it's no surprise that store has become lamer since the thrill of its grand opening not too long ago. All the stores at Jantzen Beach are lame. The place is practically a graveyard. Or what's a word for a dreadful place where people only go because there's no other choice or they're desperate? The traffic plan was invented by a sadist. It's fairly awful on a weekday morning before Noon -- I can't comprehend what it might be like at xmas. The stores are huge and far apart. Walking is discouraged. There's the sense that it's a place no one can admit has been defeated.

I think the entire thing could be razed and started over from square one with traffic in mind, light rail included and a mix of residential and retail with fun outdoor eating, parks and places to walk. There's a gold mine under all that asphalt and brick.

But back to Target. I couldn't find anything I needed. If anyone needs a sportsbra in size 38D, white -- Jantzen Beach is your spot. Otherwise: hard cheese. I wanted some watch-type batteries and wrote down the number and everything. A kid saw me examine the display and hurried over to help me. He didn't see the number I was looking for (like I needed help with that) and encouraged me to try Circuit City. He had a terrible stutter and in my anxiety to not make him feel self-conscious, I thanked him profusely even though he was completely useless.

I'm home now (obviously). We've had an odd damp day and a huge crack of thunder went off over the house and for a split-second I thought the roof was cracking.

Remember a few days ago I said I had a note that said "air" or "Giv" and I didn't know what I meant? I remembered. [I can't get the link to target thing to work right now and as usual I just sat down here for 3 seconds to type this note and I'm not going to take the time to figure it out. Just scroll down to item#5 on August 22.]

It was "air" as in air conditioning. I love the effects of air conditioning and I'm glad it's part of the world but I don't understand why the world thinks that the appropriate temperature to cool a room or building down to is 55 degrees. There you are in your cute sundress or shorts and tank and you walk into a store or someone's home or the movies and you need to find a sweater. I carry a sweater EVERYWHERE.

We had air conditioning installed before this summer which has been wonderful but it does get a little chilly in the rooms with the main vents. In my room, where the computer is, it practically blows on my legs which I do not like and I close the vent when I'm at my desk.

Today has been an odd day because it was just warm enough to kick on the air but not quite warm enough that I could appreciate it. As soon as the cold air came wafting out of the vent I had goosebumps on my arms and legs. Also you should know that I'm pretty cheap when it comes to energy expended on environmental comfort. I set the air at 74 degrees and I'm still cold.

It's my intention to post almost every day. Seriously.

I have ideas of things to write about but then it's a matter of sitting down and organizing my thoughts and then constructing some sentences that sound at least halfway coherent and possibly finding a few links. But then I'm at home and I'm tired or have already sat in front of the computer all day or whatever thing I wanted to write about earlier doesn't sound half as interesting and before you know it 4-5 days have gone by and no new posts. Whether I'm making excuses or apologizing, you be the judge.

On Friday night we saw Los Lobos at the Vancouver Jazz and Wine Festival or whatever it was called. Excellent evening. We enjoyed refreshing adult beverages and a variety of foods. It was a nice crowd but not crowded. The air was cool and a bit breezy.

We had chairs and a nice place to sit but after a couple of songs I wanted to go up front so I dashed up to the concrete in front of the stage and the rest of our crew joined me a half song later. While we were dancing and carrying on, people were shouting requests and Bob said "Mr. Fantasy" which he'd heard Los Lobos play before. A kid in front of us -- about 8 years old -- was dancing with his hippy-ish looking folks and he looks at Bob and goes, "That's Traffic. Mr. Fantasy is Traffic." Three cheers for that kid's parents that their 8 year old son knows Traffic. "They do it too," Bob told him, meaning Los Lobos and the kid turned around and shouted, "Mr. Fantasy!"

I'm trying to get the fridge emptied out. We're having Priscilla over for dinner tonight and making a quasi-fajita thing we've invented. I suggested it because I had 3 bell peppers in the fridge and this seemed an optimal way to get rid of them. Little did I know my spouse ran over to the farmer's market yesterday and picked up 6 (SIX!) bell peppers. On what planet do 3 people eat 6 giant bell peppers for one meal much less 9 which is what we now have? That man needs constant adult supervision.

This morning for breakfast I had some honey Greek-style yogurt from Trader Joes with meusli and some blackberries that I harvested from the backyard last night. It was excellent.

I'm off to take care of some chores.

I finally posted a photo of my Star Wars purse, made by Liz at Bolsa Bonita.

The dang critters keep eating my pumpkins. You'd think they'd give up if they didn't like the first one but no, they have to take a chunk out of every one. I've got a couple that look like they'll make it but they won't be perfectly pretty. Pumpkin vines are crazy. I think I have two plants and they have taken over the garden. That and cucumbers.

Here are a bunch of odds and ends that I've scribbled on paper and then never sat down to write about.

1. Obviously I've never done my train story and the moment is gone now. Here's more info on the Lewis and Clark Explorer. We had a wonderful day on the train. The folks who run the train are total Lewis and Clark geeks and train geeks so lots of fun information. The photos of our day are here.

2. In the midst of all my cleaning and throwing things away -- which is still going on, I am finding things that I bought and have never used. This causes me a great deal of distress. I imagine there are lots of folks in this world who do this regularly and hardly think twice about it but it makes me feel bad to be wasteful. I have software I never quite figured out and books I've never even cracked and clothes I wore once and hated but left in the closet in case I would wear them again.

3. Bob got a new car. I need to take a photo of it. It's a Honda Accord and he reports it's like "riding a pillow of air."

4. I took some of my knives in to get them sharpened. I took my old chefs knife to a potluck thing because you know how there are never enough knives, serving spoons or towels at a potluck? Someone thanked me for bringing such a nice sharp knife and this was before I got it sharpened. It was like a butter knife. I can't imagine what her knives are like at home. The first time I used it, sharpened, I managed to whack a notch in my index finger. I'm taking the rest of my knives in this week.

5. My note looks like it says "air" or "Giv" -- can't imagine what I wanted to say about that.

6. Bob got me the new Bob Mould on emusic. It's fantastic. He's going to be in town in October. Can't wait.

I've been scanning old family photos this weekend. Last time I was in Orleans I took a couple of photo albums home. The albums have lost their adhesive and the photos are jumbled up. I bought some photo-archive boxes and clear plastic sleeves and I'm taking them from the jumble, scanning and then putting them in individual sleeves and into the box. It's way more labor intensive than I imagined.

The scanning process takes too long to sit with each individual photo. But there are a couple of menus to click through and no step takes long enough that you can turn away and accomplish something else. I've gone through 3 pages so far. Only about 16 more to go.

Watermelon Waterfall
Yeah, sure that makes a nice picture but it wasn't so nice if you were there.

Let me start with the beginning of the day, which was quite nice. Bob and I decided to go into Portland to do a bunch of various errands/activities. We went to brunch at Dragonfish. We haven't been there in a long time and always find it yummy and we both had fancy cocktails in a tall tiki cup and we felt like we were getting away with something, like we were on vacation until we decided: Every day is vacation.

From there we headed for the mall to Eddie Bauer to use a gift certificate. Did you know there are about 13 trillion kinds of jeans? Different colors, washes, denims, cuts, waists, lengths -- too many choices. I chose boot cut even though I don't have a boot. Bob got jeans, too and a bunch of clearance stuff. They had some deal going where we got 30% off the clearance price plus 50% off the second pair of jeans and since we spent more than $75 we got a $25 gift card to use next month. I'm not sure how they make money. They also offered us an additional discount if we opened a charge card. Jesus Christ, enough with the charge cards already. I don't know where I've shopped lately where they weren't shoving a charge card down my throat.

On our way back to the car to drop stuff off, we stopped at the coffee place that starts with S and ends UCKS b/c Bob wanted an ice tea or mocha-frappe-tea or whatever $4.00 alcohol-free product they're pimping this month. While we were standing there a parade went by and I ran outside to see what it was about. It was a "don't test on animals" parade. Those animal lovers are a busy lot. Last time I was downtown on a not workday there was a "no fur" parade.

Next stop, Multnomah Library. They are doing a big thing with Native American authors in August and September in honor of a new research collection of Native American Fiction. We went to see our friend Liz Woody read and talk about writing and books. After browsing the library we decided we'd had enough and headed into miserable traffic which I guess is a regular feature in the afternoons even on the weekends. We arrived home blissed with our otherwise wonderful day.

What we didn't know, was that our kitchen was about to turn on us. Last weekend I made peach gelato which was godhead so I wanted to try another gelato this weekend. Priscilla wanted to get a watermelon at the Farmers Market and for some reason was attracted to a 21 pounder which we split. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try making some of it into gelato seeing as how I had a half a dinosaur egg taking up space in the fridge. While I de-seeded (un-seeded?) a food processor bowl full of watermelon, Bob prepared our stuffed peppers that we also bought at the market. I whipped up my watermelon and left it in the processor bowl because right then dinner was ready.

We sat down to our peppers from our favorite food vendor at the market -- the guy is one of Bob's former students. I took one bite and the rice was hard. Also the meat looked a bit pink. Do you stuff peppers with raw materials? Bob decided to cook them more so I went back to my watermelon and [long string of obscenities omitted]! It had overflowed the bowl and ran down the counter. Watermelon juice -- what is stickier than watermelon juice? (Okay, probably honey, but what else?)

It ran into every drawer -- the utensil drawer, the ziploc baggie drawer, the drawer with pieces of the mixers and processors and doo-dads AND the cloth napkin/placemat drawer. And not like dribbled. Like pooled. Plus on the floor. I had to dismantle everything and wipe it off (Bob helped) and in the process EVERYTHING got damp with watermelon juice. Meanwhile, we had the second round of peppers and I still wasn't convinced this was ready to eat. I wasn't there when the cooking instructions were given but I can't imagine what we could have done different. It was too scary, I wouldn't eat it.

I went back to mopping up my sticky kitchen and tossed what was left of my watermelon into the ice cream maker. At this point the sound of the ice cream maker made me want to brain somebody so I quit about the time it was watermelon milkshake. Nothing to write home about.

Later Bob grabbed a glass out of the cupboard and another glass hopped out and shattered on the counter and floor. An exorcist is coming tomorrow.

I finally got rid of my guitar. I purchased it on my birthday in 1985. I wanted it for my birthday but my Mom gave me an espresso machine instead so my friend Jim took me to House of Drums and helped me pick it out.

I bought an acoustic guitar a couple of years earlier and had been taking lessons. I wanted to play like Eddie Van Halen and what I love about my 22 year old self, who was not a brave or confident person, is that I took my new guitar to my teacher and brought tablature from Panama and told him that was what I wanted to play. It never occurred to me that this might be a bit beyond my reach. I don't think my present self would be so fearless but I'd like to think I still have some surprises left in me.

I do not exaggerate when I tell you that I had virtually zero talent for the instrument. I practiced -- not endless hours since I was a student and working and everything -- but I practiced every day and even after a couple of years I could not play anything worth listening to.

Life went on and I played less and less and eventually years went by where I'd never even opened the guitar case. I don't know how many times I've moved in the last 20 years and wondered why I was moving those things yet again. For a long time I thought I might pick it up again. Then I thought I might sell it. I asked Jimmy (different Jim than the one above) about it a few times. I also thought at some point I'd run in to someone to give it to and there have been a few candidates.

A year or two ago I read about Rock and Roll Camp For Girls in Bust magazine and that seemed like a potential home for my guitar but I never did anything about it.

In the last couple of weeks while I've been on this tossing everything binge, I cleaned out my closet and pulled those dusty boxes out once again and decided it was time to finally do something about it. I dropped off my donation at Mississippi Records and sent an email to Rock Star Camp let them know about it and express concern over the old and crustiness of my gear and ask about a tax receipt because the guy at the record store said I'd get it from them.

This was the response:

Oh, man...we need guitars and especially amps more
than you'll ever believe! No worries, we have a great
volunteer-repair-person who loves getting treasures to
work on! I'll stop by Mississippi and send you a tax
receipt out on Monday.
Thanks again!! rock on,
Misty

Totally made my day.

There was a story on boing boing about this guy getting hassled by security for trying to take pictures of a public building in San Francisco. Security followed him around the building and tried to prevent him from taking photos from a public sidewalk.

So he responded by doing what any child of the digital age would do and organized a flash mob to meet at the spot and everyone took pictures of the building. I love it.

Movie Rituals
My favorite time to go to the movies is the first Friday matinee. I park in structure across the street where the theater validates and take a spot on the side that faces east and NOT the ramp because it's too hard to get out of.

The theater is mostly empty. Few employees. The same person who takes my money, tears my ticket and tells me to enjoy the show. I don't get food or drinks. I sit in the exact middle of the theater. If there are talky looking people in that area I will go higher.

Last weekend I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which I loved more than I expected. I remember when the first one came out. I loved the book and couldn't wait to see the movie. I remember being with a bunch of kids, perhaps someone's birthday although the release day was June 30, 1971 which means it wasn't my birthday but that my memory of seeing it with Scotty and Stacy is probably correct.

I watched the 1971 version a weekend earlier and it holds up okay for a movie made in 1971. I admit to fast forwarding through all the musical numbers. I don't think it adequately conveyed how miserably cold and poor the Buckets were -- it left out Mr. Bucket completely. The 2005 version is more true to the book and wonderful -- I don't know where to start. I liked Johnny Depp's kooky performance and I loved the addition of Willy Wonka's back story. Tiny spoiler but turns out his dad is Count Dooku/Saruman.

Also last weekend I saw Must Love Dogs which got dreadful reviews but how many critics are women my age? This is certainly a stupid movie but still satisfying for women around my age or older (who were the only people in the half full room with the exception of two grey haired men who arrived with female companions). While we waited for the movie to start the theater did not show "the 20" (endless commercial pimping various other things to watch or buy) nor did it play any music of any kind. I wasn't sure if we were being neglected because our demographic would be likely to complain about Mountain Dew commercials at ear bending volume, or if it was because they didn't want to waste their time playing the stuff knowing we would be unlikely to buy Starburst or Diet Coke or watch a new TV show about a group of large-toothed twenty-somethings grappling with inane problems.

I finally visited Cinetopia a new entertainment complex that opened in east Vancouver. I've been reading about this place and was a bit skeptical -- it's an upscale theater where you pay more money for a better quality experience. I was expecting it to show the latest numbnutz action movies and stupid comedies and was thrilled to see they have a variety leaning more towards the small films that I would actually want to see.

The reason I went today is because they are showing um, Star Wars in high definition. That was viewing #9 and hi def is AWESOME. (I realize it is not a small film but who cares? I was a film I wanted to see.)

The theater is fantastic. The auditorium theaters have big snazzy leather seats that tilt back and lots of foot room. While I was there I checked out one of the living room theaters and they have luxury leather recliners with an ottoman for your feet. And after 4pm they lock out minors and you can enjoy an adult beverage served at your seat. I told Bob I want to go there for our anniversary in a few weeks.

I don't know if you know about Wikipedia -- this has become a recent ... what's the word I'm looking for. Obsession is too strong. Fixation?

It's a free encyclopedia and anyone can give input. And it covers all kinds of random things. Not just like the economy of Sweden or who invented paper.

I recently ran across a brief discussion about the reading order of the Narnia books and I go along with the folks who believe that they should be read in the order they were originally published and not in Narnia time chronology as they are currently packaged. This brief discussion cited an Wikepedia article that discussed this which you can find: here.

Please read the above because it's freakin hilarious. It's a completely straight-forward, dead serious summary of Narnia as if they were writing about Tunisia or Elizabethan England or other actual real places in history. I've read the Narnia books at least 10 times each and I learned new things. Did you know the Telmarines might have descended from the pirates from the HMS Bounty in our world? There was a portal in a cave on the island. I know, startling new information. I also didn't fully grasp that Narnia is flat -- which is pretty sad considering that Dawn Treader is one of my favorites in the series.

And let's consider for a moment and this is high geek if ever there was such a thing what was going on at the end of Dawn Treader when they were heading for the end of the world: " ... and the sky, a greenish-grey, trembling, shimmering wall and it turned into a wonderful rainbow of colors. ... What they saw--eastward, beyond the sun--was a range of mountains ... these were warm and green and full of forests and waterfalls ... ." and eventually Reepicheep vanishes into a sea of lillies. Contrast this with what Gandalf says in Return of the King, about the end: "The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass. And then you see it ... white shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

I don't know. I'm just saying.

I leave work at 6pm and now especially with the new commute situation (e.g. taking the train) I don't get home until almost 7pm which means making me in charge of dinner preparation is not practical. Plus Bob's commute is about 5 minutes (when he's working and he's off this summer) and he gets done with work (most of the time) way earlier than that so on weeknights Bob is in charge of dinner.

We usually figure out the menu in the morning. On weekends I try to make things with leftovers and we have a freezer full of Trader Joes stuff and we always have a big bowl of salad going so we figure out some ideas of things he can make. Bob is good cook and learning more all the time but he doesn't do recipes that require lots of steps or advanced skills.

Last night I came home and he had the leftover chicken thing in the oven and some pots on the stove and I opened one and there were about 4 tablespoons of peas being steamed within an inch of their lives.

I had harvested the last of the peas from the garden over the weekend and taped a note on the refrigerator that said: "eat corn peas" so we wouldn't forget to eat the fresh yummy stuff.

I was a teeny bit disheartened that he'd opted to cook the living shit out of my fresh pretty peas but it was done so I replaced the lid without comment. He saw me and proudly points to the sign on the fridge: "I saw your note."

"Good," I said.

"Yeah … that's the last of the frozen peas. We only had a little bit."

"Frozen peas?"

"Yeah." He taps the note again.

"Why would I want to finish the frozen peas?" I go to the fridge, open the produce drawer and show him the bag of the fresh peas. "I meant these peas." (Also note that the corn was still in there not being eaten.)

"You taped the note on the list with the stuff from the freezer."

And this is true. I have a list on the fridge that roughly represents the contents of the outdoor chest freezer so we know what we have when we're planning.

"So?" We spent the next several minutes doubled over in laughter. Then he said:

"I ate some last night, too."

--

In a completely unrelated story, yesterday I walked to REI from my office which is a VERY LONG WALK because I wanted to get some new yoga clothes and WTF – they had hardly anything and it seemed like it was all on clearance which means it was all either XL or ugly colors so I went over there for nothing.

On my way back to the office I stopped at See's and bought a pound of candy as a consolation prize.

Bob said, "I love it. You went to buy yoga clothes and came home with See's instead."

Good Freaking God, what happened to today?

I was up early and super industrious. Working on all these loose ends that I've been procrastinating on forever. I did a bunch of online things that necessitated my opening at least 6 new user accounts with usernames and passwords -- I only have about 10 trillion of those right now. Yay, isn't the Internet making life easier? And how about having to click a half million times to buy my 6 items? Yeah, only a teeny bit easier than actually going to the store. (If the store was close by and had a competent person standing there just waiting to help me.)

I was doing all this stuff and suddenly it was 4:30pm so ran to the kitchen to make peach pie (which turned out godhead, by the way. I used Cook's Illustrated, except I didn't like the spices or the sugar ratio, so I read the Betty Crocker recipe, except I didn't want the flour in the filling. I used less brown sugar and more white sugar plus 2 t. lemon and 1 t. lemon zest and 1/4 t. cinnamon and tapioca for my thickener. I've never made a peach pie before but this is going in the rotation. I guess I'd better write down what I did while I'm thinking about it.) (I mean write it on a recipe card. I'm never going to remember to look here for my peach pie tips.)

After the pie I made this baked chicken recipe which was easy but had lots of steps including "browning" it on the stove top in a pan which means "get oil splattered everywhere" so I figured while I was there I'd just disembowel the entire stove top and clean it all.

And after that was done I had to get started on the watering. What a fantastic day. I never turned on the air. I just had the windows open and the breeze felt great. Watering still needed to be done. I've modified my watering routine to do intensive watering every other day rather than half-assed watering every day. But intensive watering takes forever so while I was out there I did yard work and by the time I finished it was almost 9pm. Then I had to eat my chicken and pie.

I'm completely filthy and smell like a stinky hippy but it's too late to bathe now. (I'm sure 90% of you are appalled. Yes, I'm fastidious but I will go to bed stinky and dirty with barely a second thought.) I'm also sort of wound up. Sitting here at the computer typing is not helping.

Point being: I still don't have your train pictures - I did start working on them this morning. And I don't have my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story or any of the other stuff I have jotted on scraps of paper that are scattered all over this room. Maybe later this week.

Meanwhile. I'd just like to point out that something I didn't do this weekend is go to the Willamette Writers conference. I think I've attended at least part of it every year but one for the last 4 or 5. Wow, and I'm not feeling totally humilated or like I wasted my money. Coincidence? I think not.

I have so many notes here of things I want to add, but I'm not quite there yet. Also, still to come: photos and narrative on the train journey.

Here's a tidbit for now:

We rec'd an item in the mail this week that our waranty on our KitchenAid mixer was about done and do we want to extend it. I set it aside to examine more closely although, don't they tell you to buy the KitchenAid mixer because it lasts about 30 years?

It comes with an addressed "no postage necessary" envelope and while I was gathering together a weeks worth of stuff that I'd "set aside" I noticed that the envelope was for "Priests for Life" in Staten Island, NY. There's even a boldfaced notice with three (3) exclamation points informing me that my stamp will help PLF save more Moms and their babies.

I can't tell you how long I looked back and forth at the KitchenAid form and the envelope -- trying to figure out why the Priests are running the warranty program. Finally Bob comes up and says: the direct mail company screwed up. That's the wrong envelope.

I'm still not in the mood to recreate my train trip post and I still haven't posted the photos (well, I've posted 2 but that happened by accident and I wasn't in the mood to fix it).

So, who can we buy this shirt for?

This weekend I continued my bitter project of tossing writing crap. I don't think my attitude is completely healthy but whatever gets you through. I'm making tons of rooms on my shelves and drawers and getting a tiny smug sense of satisfaction. It reminds of this relationship I had in my mid-20's that ended with particular tragedy and the guy gave me a cassette of Edie Brickell and something else, I think a folk singer. I *STILL* can't listen to Edie Brickell. I taped over what he gave me with Megadeth and Racer X.

Petty, childish and strangely satisfying.

Also I cleaned out my closet and I FINALLY hung up the giant vinyl signs that Steve and Denise gave me for the Attack of the Clones DVD sales. I now have a giant Boba Fett that looks over my desk and a giant Yoda and light saber in my yoga handstand practice area. It's awesome. I hung the Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin one in the laundry room. It pleases me greatly that I have better Star Wars stuff than pretty much all the other kids. I have an Obi-Wan bank, talking Yoda, life-sized cardboard C3PO cutout, Darth Vader phone, and R2D2 mini-robot and a photo of me and young George Lucas that was a photo on the wall at a Cafe 50's type diner in San Francisco. (Mel's?). I know. Sad but all true.

I also have a moleskine that I put a retro Princess Leia sticker on and I got a great compliment in line at the movies the other day. Also an awesome Anakin Skywalker backpack that Bob got for me in Chinatown in LA. The clerk asked if it was for his son and he said, "No, my wife."

If Revenge of the Sith is still on big screen this weekend I'll see it again. It will be #9. I saw (big screen) Phantom 13 times and Clones a mere 7. I saw the special editions on big screen: Ep IV (5), Ep V (3) and Ep VI (3). I have no ideas how many times I've seen them on DVD or VCR. I'm not a TV in the background type of person but I often plug in one of those movies when I'm doing an extended cooking project. I watched IV and V the past few weekends -- the old "before special" edition and thought it was cool.

I have no idea why I'm writing out this extended Star Wars confession. I feel perfectly healthy and at relative peace with the world.

Also, completely unrelated but I think I've discovered my pie crust problem. It's the fat. I went back to my Betty Crocker recipe this weekend and was extra generous with the shortening and it was about 90% more successful. Yay.