I really did have every intention of watching some of the Republican Convention this week.  I remember last week after Michelle Obama's speech thinking, "I just can't image Cindy McCain being this articulate.  I'll have to watch next week to see."  I remember wondering who McCain was gonna pick for the VP spot to go against Joe Biden since he kicked ass at the DNC.  I remember watching the news on Monday morning hearing about Palin's daughter and waiting for the national news to start talking about it (and it probably would have been the headlining story if it weren't for a hurricane). 

So I kept watching the news on Monday and waited for things to get interesting.  But instead of getting interesting, my interest went flying out the window.  I think I got as far as hearing Laura Bush and Cindy McCain asking for hurricane relief donations when one of them said something that just rubbed me the wrong way.  I'm not sure which one it was but she said something along the lines of "we need to take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats."  I could be crazy but doesn't this statement imply that a Republican hat is different than an American one? 

Yes, I know it's nitpicky to call out this one silly little thing and even though I know it was meant with in the spirit of "let's all pull together to support our fellow americans", it was the proverbial straw that sent me over the edge.  I had to change the tv channel.  Even now as I sit here, McCain is speaking and my tv is showing a re-run of CSI. 

As much as I'd like to think that I'm open to hearing the Republican side of things (and I think it's important to do so), apparently that isn't so much the case.  So tomorrow I'm going to watch the speech online, listen to the speech while I'm working, do my best to read McCain's speech.  

OOH, they just had a news teaser saying that protesters briefly interrupted his speech.  Perhaps I will watch...     

I don't understand why the major television media seems to be tippy-toeing around the "issue" surrounding Sarah Palin's family situation.  Let's get real here.  If Barack Obama's daughter was 17 and 5 months pregnant, the media (and the Republican party) would be having a field day.

I understand that they have asked for their privacy to be respected and family, particularly children, are said to be off limits in the race for president but let's at least have a discussion about the issues it brings up.  Let's talk about the candidate's plans to curb teenage pregancy.  Let's talk about talk about sex educaton and abstinence and how effective (or ineffective) those two things are.  Let's talk about whether or not it's a good idea to encouraging teens to get married just because they got pregnant.  

Sure it's great that Sarah Palin and her family are being supportive of their daughter.  It's great that they all have DECIDED to keep the baby and that the two teens are PLANNING to get married.  And isn't it wonderful that they were afforded the choice to decide? Just because the decision wasn't the same as other women, doesn't take away from the fact that in this wonderful country the option was there for them to CHOOSE.  I shutter to think of there being no choice.   

I just find it sad that what should have been planning for college, planning for a career, planning for living a life as an independent young adult, is now planning for a child and a marriage.  Far more sad than that is the fact that the planning all came at the wrong time.  If someone had planned to stop at the corner drug store to pick up a condom, none of this would have ever happened.         

The people out there that think because they tell their kids things like "good Christians wait until marriage" need to realize that not only will their kids still have sex, they will have unprotected sex.  Yes, advise them that the responsible thing to do is to wait, and then tell them that when the time comes, the responsible thing is to be protected. 

I doubt that this situation has changed Sarah Palin's opinion on sex education (which is kinda sad) but I hope that it inspires some parents out there to at least have an open conversation with their kids because just telling them don't do it, isn't enough.

I went to sleep last night thinking "I hope it's Joe Biden."

I've still been sort of backing off the political news with the intention of avoiding overload before the home stretch. I'd catch a snipet here and there so I knew Obama was going to announce his VP pick and caught a couple of names that were being tossed around.

Those that know me personally know that I haven't made a really big secret of the fact that I wasn't completely thrilled with Obama being the candidate. I think that mostly I felt his lack of experience internationally could be problematic.  Especially in light of the Georgia/Russia conflict and the deal that Condie just brokered in Poland, not to mention the mess in Pakistan. (Wow, I guess I have been watching the news, huh?)

But now, with Joe Biden I see this is a ticket I can support.  Sure, he's blunt at times but most of the time he's just saying it like it is, which is part of his appeal.  But his experience on foreign policy sure does help cover any Obama "lack of experience" doubts.

I think there are still some concnerns about trying to get former Hillary backers to support Obama and I really hope that the decision to have Joe Biden as a running mate will be one that they can support.

I've been trying to find some interesting things to do locally that require very little cash.  Over the weekend, I went to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles and had a really good time.  I don't think I've ever been before (and if I went as a kid, I don't remember) so it was very interesting.  And my niece Avery really loved the Butterfly Pavilion.  You can see the set of the butterfly pics by clicking here

Yes, I know.  I've been super lazy about blogging.  Truth is, there hasn't really been anything very exciting going on.  The most interesting thing to happen recently was having this lovely x-ray taken of my wrist.   I wish I could say I got it beating the crap out of someone who got on my nerves but it was just my own clumsiness.  All I can say is that slamming my arm against the wall did a great job of preventing a fall and thankfully it was only sprained.  They gave me this great print out of the x-ray.  I think I will have to make it my desktop wallpaper at work. 

When I was a kid I saw this Danny Kaye movie from the 50s and I remember really liking it.  I saw that they had it on Netflix so I added it to my list and hoped that I would still like it.  I do.  The music makes me want to go back to New Orleans. Louis Armstrong plays himself and he is great. 

The lighting in this clip isn't that great but it's just how it was in the movie and it was the only clip I could find that has parts of the actual Five Pennies song.

And this scene follows the one above in the movie.  If you can, let it play all the way through.  They scat at towards the end and it's fantastic.

Maybe I need to pull out some rose quartz, burn some sage and start wearing a talisman.

I woke up this morning to a leaking toilet.  Ever get out of bed and step on to sopping wet bath mats?  In socks?  Lemme tell ya, it's not good. 

Water was dripping from the back of the tank.  Luckily it was just a constant drip, like a faucet that's not quite turned all the way off.  The toilet didn't appear to be just about to break and it wasn't flooding or anything like that.  I just put a container under it, dragged the dripping mats out to the patio, towel dried the floor then got ready for work.

I called the apt manager (that was a whole other adventure - apparently there are still some people out there with pagers!!!) and they fixed it.  Usually I don't like them coming in when I'm not home but I just wasn't up to dealing with it.  Thankfully they were gone and it was all taken care of by the time I got home. 

Sometimes I feel like I've got the worst luck. 

The cops came a-knocking on my door this morning to let me know that my car along with several others in my parking area had been broken into over night.  Absolutely lovely news to hear at the start of a nice long holiday weekend. 

I trotted over to my car to find crumbled bits of auto glass puddled on the outside of the passenger front door.  I looked inside (it was pointless to open the door) and found more glass chunks. 

Everything I had in my glove box, mostly papers and toiletries (a toothbrush, tissues, lotion), were pulled out onto the seat but nothing was missing.  I knew there wouldn't be, maybe that's why I wasn't completely freaked out.  I learned my lesson a couple of years ago when the Honda was broken into so I never really leave anything of much value in the car anymore.  Thankfully this time I didn't actually walk up on the person breaking in like I did last time. 

Apparently they didn't have dry skin or they'd have found the Olay Body Quencher lotion quite handy. 

Since I was still in my pajamas, I went back inside and tried to find someone to fix it.  I found a local glass place that will come fix it for about $200 (more to put on the credit card - oh joy...). 

I'm a little heartbroken that yet another "something bad" has happened to my wonderful car.  I can't help but wonder if these are signs that maybe I should reconsider having this car.  Then again, I also can't help but wonder why in the world I can't just win the lottery. 

Is it completely wrong that I'm in love with my new tv set up?  Is it sad and pathetic?  Well, whatever you want to call it, I don't care.  I love it!

The tech finally arrived at around 4:30pm and didn't finish the set up until 9:30pm.  I felt so bad for him because he was exhausted. I was intent on being pissy with him for being so late but it wasn't his fault and he was really nice.  And when all was said and done, I've got the best hook up I've ever had. 

So many channels, lots of on demand channels, excellent picture quality and I can record up to 4 things at once on the dvr.  I haven't been this excited since I first got TiVo!  It's simply wonderful.

And the part that makes me even more happy is that I get to cancel stupid Time Warner!  Oh the bliss...   

In my little apartment, I've been stuck with Time Warner Cable.  If I want HBO and Showtime, I've had no choice but to get financially raped each month by the stupid cable company.  Until now.

Last week I received a nifty little flier in the mail touting a new tv service AT&T is offering.  From what I understand, it's tv through the DSL line.  I could be totally wrong but I know it's not cable and I know it's not satellite.  So knowing how much I hate Time Warner, I looked into it and found that I could pay about $25 less each month for the same channels.  I was so excited, I ordered.

And today was my appointment to get it all installed.  I got a phone call yesterday and an email reminder telling me that the installation technicain would be arriving between 12:00 and 2:00. 

It's now 4:00 and no one has arrived.  I called them and I still don't understand why they're so late but the tech called about 10 minutes ago saying he was on his way.  Around noon I was really excited.   Four hours later, I'm not all that excited anymore.  Just anxious for it to be done and I'm trying not to think that this might be an indication of things to come with the new service. 

With any luck, the DSL will still be working later and I can post an update once it's all done.