Ali's Going Away "Party"

On Ali's last Saturday in San Diego, we attempted to throw her a little going away party. Little is the operative word here. But it was fun nonetheless. Ali came over early before Yvonne even got off work. She brought her hookah with her and some yummy double apple tobacco. For those that haven't smoked out of a hookah, it's a fairly simple process. First, you put the tobacco in the top, cover it with tinfoil and poke holes in the foil. Then, you light a little coal on top of the tinfoil and smoke away. Well, Ali brought some lovely coal with her that when she lit over the stove, burst into little flaming pieces all over our kitchen floor. She screamed "fire! fire!" while I sat on the couch laughing thinking she was being dramatic. I was finally persuaded to come into the kitchen where I find a huge scattered pile of coal, slowing burning its way through the linoleum.

No, that is not dirt, folks. That is burned linoleum. Ali felt bad, but I told her that at least now we'll never forget her; for she is ever engraved in our kitchen floor. Plus, now I have a fun DIY project.

This was around 9:00pm. I even had a sign custom made to say "we will miss you Ali". Not really...

mmmmmm....

It was nice when Leda and Michelle showed up.

Bored.

Excited.

Fun! More guests! Vaniesha, Anaya and Roberta came.

And then Yvonne started reading Harry Potter. Not a good sign.

Aw crap, Ali is sleeping!! What kind of party is this??

Even though the guests were a bit lacking, I have to say that it really was a good time and hope that Ali had fun during her last weekend here.

Bourbon Street

We went to Bourbon Street last night for a little happy hour fun. It was a good time as always and was nice to see all of the people that were there.

He's really happy to be there...really.

I'm kicking myself for not gettting one of Ali in the wet t-shirt contest. It was awesome. And she won second place and 75 bucks! It was also fun seeing Loan and Rachel.

Vaniesha and her girl Anaya and their friend Roberta.

Jill and Nadia (did I spell it right?). Fun as always.

Awww...sweet lips.

This is Robin's "Chucky" face.

Kurt "pretty eyes"

To a Friend

I ask but one thing of you, only one,
That always you will be my dream of you;
That never shall I wake to find untrue
All this I have believed and rested on,
Forever vanished, like a vision gone
Out into the night. Alas how few
There are who strike in us a chord we knew
Existed, but so seldom heard its tone
We tremble at the half-forgotten soul.
The world is full of rude awakenings
And heaven-born castles shattered to the ground,
Yet still our human longing vainly clings
To a belief in beauty through all wrongs.
O stay your hand, and leave my heart its song!

--Amy Lowell

Movie Review

I recently saw two new releases, both entirely different than the other. I thought I would briefly comment on both...

The first was The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Aside from my fascination with horror movies, I was intrigued by this movie because it was based on a true story. From what I read, "Emily Rose" was actually a young girl from Germany who died in 1976 from what some say was demonic possession. Others believed that she actually suffered from a rare and serious form of epilepsy and died as a result of severe neglect by her parents and priest. The movie was not a true horror flick but was actually more of a court room drama that flashed back to scenes from Emily's life. Some scenes were eerie (I did jump a couple times) but definitely not as flashy as scenes from "The Exorcist". What was interesting about the movie is that I walked away not completely convinced about the cause of Emily's death. I won't give too much away, but I will say that it sparked some interesting conversation about religion versus science. (And for those that pay attention to legal details, as I naturally do, some technical aspects of the trial made me laugh solely for the apparent lack of a legal consultant on the set. But again, it's Hollywood).

The second movie I saw was Just Like Heaven, the definite opposite of the previous movie. It wasn't Reese Witherspoon that did it for me, but Mark Ruffalo was great, as he usually is. This was the perfect "date" movie. It had it all...romance, laughter, sadness, cheesiness, predictability. Despite my usual dislike for cookie cutter movies, I thought this one was pretty enjoyable. I think I even found myself laughing outloud a few times (and apparently the girls sitting behind us thought everything was just hilarious and made that well known). It may be a "wait and rent", but I don't regret paying to see it on the big screen. It was entertaining and overall I would rate it "cute".

Arnold, What A Joke

Even though I didn't vote for him, I had some hope that Arnold would take his responsibilities as Governor seriously. It should be no surprise that he has turned into a joke. I don't know why I ever believed that he would stay true to his moderate conservatism and resist the pull from the extreme right. I guess he is just like every other politician. Lies, lies, lies, some distractions from his lies, more lies.

Let's talk about AB 849, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act which passed the Assembly on September 6, 2005. This is the first bill of its kind to be passed by any state legislature without direction from the courts. We have all heard the term "activist judges" and have come to understand that term to mean judges who make sweeping declarations of law with little or no legal basis. In the case of marriage equality, the term refers to those judges that have determined that the ban on same sex marriage is unconstitutional (we'll sidestep the fact that there is ample constitutional support for this notion; I hear substantive due process and equal protection ringing in my ears). So, we don't want activist judges, right? We want the people to decide these issues or at least representatives of the people, right? Well, ta da! I bequeath to you the will of the people: AB 849. What is that you say, Arnold? This issue should be left to the courts to decide? Am I hearing this correctly or do I have a screaming right wing extremist crying in my ear?

So, Arnold turns to Prop 22, the anti-marriage initiative that passed 5 years ago. Well, I guess that closes the door, the people have spoken. That will set a great precedent for me when I get my initiative passed: The Anti-Free Speech Initiative. Hey, if the people pass it, that means it's constitutional and Arnold has to uphold it.

Even conservative anti-marriage folks are criticizing Arnold for the way he's responding to this bill. Fox News (yes, I said FOX NEWS) quoted several right wingers stating that he is going about this the wrong way. "It's not an issue for the courts--he's inviting judicial activism and that's what we're opposed to" "I've never heard of any Republican who's actually looking to the courts to decide". See the entire article here.

So, what should this be saying to Arnold aside from the fact that he needs more intelligent advisors? Perhaps he should reconsider his goals. He knows he is never going to be president. Someone should suggest to him that he has an opportunity here to make history. If he refuses, he will just end up like all of the other political hypocrites that people will only remember for their bigotry. I think the sun has set for the Governator. Hollywood is calling you home, Arnie.

Oh, L.A.

Yvonne and I took a trip up to L.A. on Sunday to say goodbye to Sabrina and Sydney, who are leaving us for Indiana in a couple weeks. It was very nice to see them and we are sad that they are leaving. We got there late Sunday night and Sydney got to stay up late to greet us. She came to the door in her plastic high heel Barbie shoes and her silky white gloves. What a princess.

On Monday, Sabrina agreed to call her out of school so we could take her on a trip to the California Science Center. We arrived around 12:00 noon and spent twenty minutes looking around one of the exhibits when all of the sudden, the lights went out. Oh, so that's what one of those "blackouts" looks like. We were told that the power may come back in five minutes or five hours. We decided to stick it out for a bit since there was no where else to go because all of the museums in the area were affected. Syd spent some of the waiting time lifting a 5,000 pound truck that was suspended by a lever. She got a kick out of believing she was that strong. She spent the remaining time recruiting other kids to play duck duck goose and tag. What a trooper. The power came back on after an hour so we headed back in and explored the rest of the museum.

We were planning on leaving Monday night but decided we were too tired to drive so we stayed another night. On Tuesday we hung out at Sabrina's coffee shop a bit. While there, a guy came in and sat at the counter near us. Yvonne kept saying that he was famous, that he had been on some show. I couldn't place him. After he left, Sabrina told us who he was: Jason Mardsden. You know, one of the guys from "Step by Step". So, that was our celebrity sighting. But I have to say, it didn't really beat seeing David Crosby the last time we were there...

It was a good time and we are really going to miss those girls. I hope Indiana is good to them...

Night Out

After deciding whether to stay home, lay on the couch and watch a movie, or go out, we decided to head out to Six Degrees last night. It's always nice to hang out on the patio, listen to some old school music, and throw back a couple of long island's. And of course you need some good company...

Isn't she cute?

It was great to have Noah there and I hope he enjoyed his first visit to the last lesbian bar in San Diego. He was also subjected to a subtle come-on by a big burly man that said something like, "I'm about to leave and get me some hot man, like the one behind you", refering of course to Noah.

The Hoooookers

Aw, Patt...back from his long week after the move.

Patt and his roommate. They make an adorable couple. *wink*

I should have gotten one with Ali chair dancing. And of course our chair wrestling.

In Our Own Backyard

Looking through the hundreds of pictures from the recently devastated southern United States, it is difficult not to become overwhelmed with emotion. The magnitude of destruction is beyond comprehension. Imagine for one moment that everything you had was destroyed. Then imagine the days following. How would you get food? Drinking water? Medication? How would you react to rotting corpses floating down the flooded streets in front of what was once your home? Unimaginable.

How is it that our government can justify the ease in which we invade foreign countries in a matter of hours yet cannot seem to respond to a disaster in our own backyard for which we had several days notice? People are angry; they are rioting; they feel betrayed by their government that proclaims to be the strongest and richest in the world. Of course they cannot be surprised. They are the poor. They are the inner city residents that offer little to the advancement of the richest nation on the globe; this superpower. Why would our government feel the need for a quick response to help "them"? Funny that "they" are the ones that helped re-elect our current administration. Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? It is deplorable, yet not surprising. I would riot, too.