The weekend

Had a lovely time with stonebender this weekend. We are very
good at the sitting. We're also very good at the loving companionship. I
have missed that so much. (And we are no slouches in the sex department,
either.) Had a ton of fun just goofing off, and saw a really cute,
completely fluffy movie: Sky High. I love superhero movies, and movies
that don't take themselves seriously. It was great to eat popcorn and
candy and see a fun movie.

Hope your day is going really well. I have a fourteen-hour workday ahead
of me, but I got enough sleep, so it should be cool.

dressup dolls!

Many of you probably know that I am enchanted by Normal Bob's dressup dolls.
I even wrote to him to see how much it would be to have him make one for
me. It's not a ton of money, but it's more than the tattoo I want, so I
asked him for a raincheck. I really recommend emailing him if you'd like a
way-cool doll of yourself or a loved one. Or even an enemy. He does a
*great* job.

Food Not Bombs

[Edit: Thanks to glitterophelia for pointing me to fnb]

Been thinking a lot about Food Not Bombs lately -- I have known about them
for years, but dryadgrl and my Berkeley neighbors have kept it
in the forefront of my mind lately. Then I read their "What is Food Not Bombs?" page and
decided they are definitely doing something I want to get behind (I think
I already knew that, but the page was a really good reflection of how I
feel about the politics of food distribution).

So tomorrow I plan to go help out
with a meal. Any locals wanna come along?

Oh, and because I know it amuses some of you, I thought I'd let you know
that I woke up vegan today. This has happened several times in the last
two years and has usually lasted a few days at most. We'll see. (If
you're not aware of my history with vegetarianism, I don't do dieting or
rules about what I eat, so I resist calling myself a vegetarian, and I
sometimes call myself The
Reluctant Vegan. I just decide from day to day how I feel about food,
and I go with it. For eighteen years, I woke up vegetarian nearly every
day. For the following two years, it was veganism a day at a time. Then
the last two years, I haven't really known from day to day what I would
eat, but most days I've eaten some amount of meat/dairy/eggs. Anyway,
we'll see. :-) I'm having chips and black beans for lunch.)

gakked from j00j

Ten thousand superballs rolling down a San Francisco hill-street (yes, with pictures)
LED prayer rug that points you towards Mecca
Run potato run (flash cartoon, sound)

thought-provoking friends?

pleonastic pointed me/us to slit today, for which I am
grateful, and it made me wanna ask y'all to:

List, please, some journals/blogs you read that make you think. No fair listing
respect_otters, the most common answer when I ask questions like
this. :-)

straw poll

So it looks like the joint dryadgrl-and-serene birthday party
will probably be at a park and pool in Oakland, and that the swimming
portion will be from 5-7pm (on Saturday, 9/17). Questions:

1) Do you think the picnic portion should be before or after the pool
portion? Before means I don't have to figure out food storage during the
pool part. After means the kids don't have to wait for swimming until
after food, and people don't have to swim having just eaten. (Of course, I
could just do all nonperishable foods and folks could eat before *and*
after, and another option is to have it catered, but that's probably outside
our budget at the moment.)

2) Do you think you'll be able to come? Trying to get a rough headcount
so that we can know how many lifeguards to get.

Keep it simple, serene

Note to self: I know that planning your birthday party and alt.polycon is
making you feel all happy and social. This does *not* mean you should get
all excited and start overbooking yourself. It's perfectly okay to take it
easy for a couple of months. Breathe, sweetie, breathe.

KISS redux

Also, dear self: The reason you're deleting all emails that announce
things that cost money is not because you're poor. You may not have any
spare money, but that's because you're saving for a party and a trip, and
those are things that are really exciting to you. You are rich in many
ways; you just don't have any extra money right now. This, too, shall
pass.