Last night's dream

Last night's dream was interesting enough where Laura said I should post it.

Laura and I decided it would be a good idea to decorate Chicago. So we started hanging huge posters of Simpsons characters on a building. We thought it was good looking, but we were forced by a judge to take them down.
We took them down but we didn't know what to do with all the paper. We were just driving around Chicago and being close to the Chicago river, LAURA decided it would be ok to throw them in the river and light them on fire. She made me stop the car on the LaSalle Street bridge and lit an edge of one and threw the bundle over the side. When it hit the water - it was like hitting gasoline (not far fetched) and the water caught fire. The fire spread to the buildings along the river banks. Laura ran down to the river side and tried to put a few things out, but was apprehended by the fuzz. I fled south and waited until the situation was in control; fire put out, etc. When I came back, Laura had somehow talked her way out of being arrested, but now she was married to Dr. Cox from Scrubs. They made fun of me some and drove away laughing in his Porsche.

Despondent, I walked south, but got lost. Eventually, I met a bum who stabbed me in the gut, where my scars are. It was painful and I fell, but eventually I rose up. I then learned that I had super powers. That's a super hero origin you've never heard.

I went home to get Annie. Laura wasn't returning and there was nothing for me besides Annie. I decided to go to see my old boss in California. I picked up Annie and started to run across the country. We came upon a small wooden bridge, but Annie wouldn't cross it. If I tried to force it, then she would bite me and snarl. I couldn't cross this bridge with her. I decided to wait until Annie was ready to cross the bridge. I would go and get her food and water, but I never ate, because I had super powers. (Maybe I am dead?) Years passed, and eventually Annie died of old age. I was extremely sad. I buried her by the bridge, and crossed. I found a cute puppy just on the other side of the bridge.

I ended up in California, where I met Clark Kent. We fought crime, and when we flew, I had my puppy in a rubber inner tube tied to my feet.

That's where I woke up.

Another fun little quiz

I found this on another blog a while back, and my discussions revolving around taxes and the role of government on other sites have led me back to it.

I have to say, the results are shocking! ;)

Do your beliefs line up with how you think of yourself politically? This is in no way as high quality an evaluation as the political plot quiz I did about 2 years ago or so. That had about 80-100 questions and they weren't as, well, obvious, as these... but it's still fun.

Which political sterotype are you?

Democrat - You believe that there should be a free market which is reigned in by a modest state beaurocracy. You think that capitalism has some good things, but that those it helps should be obliged to help out their fellow man a little. Your historical role model is Franklin Rosevelt.
Take this quiz!

A cute little quiz

You are all-around smart. Essentially, that means that you are a good combination of your own knowledge and experience, along with having learned through instruction - and you are equally as good with theoretical things as you are with real-world, applied things. You have a well-rounded brain.



40% applied intelligence
20% learned intelligence

The html that the quiz site gave me didn't paste correctly, so I just lifted the image and text. Click on the picture to take this quiz. It's silly really, obviously in no way scientific, but I love these things anyway.

I guess that it means that I've learned everything I know from either school or applied necessity and that I'm not, say "naturally" gifted. I dunno about you, but I've always disliked the typical "book smart" people. Sure, they're well read and can quote some obscure theory to you, but they also can't find their way around public transportation or read a map. There's a lot to be said for common sense! It definitely pegged me as the "learn by doing" type. That's me. Fuck the instruction manual, I'll figure out how this thing goes together myself!

First day of "school"

We sent Annie to doggie daycare for the first time since her surgery. Emotional John, of course, didn't want to send her and thought she'd get hurt. I, along with Rational John, convinced Emotional John that one day every now and then won't hurt her as long as she's in the small dog group.

They came to pick her up, and I went out to the van with her and the handler, Phil. I explained that she cannot jump into the van anymore, and so he had her put her front paws on the step and lifted her hindquarters in. Once she was in, she saw other dogs and knew where she was going. I had Friday off, so I spent most of the day cleaning and going through clothes. At one point, John called down and asked me if Annie was downstairs with me - forgetting that she was gone for the day. It was very sad.

She came home about 2:30 and was tired, happy, stinky and a little sore. I think, though, that it was "oh my god I just exercised for the first time in months" sore and not injured-sore. She got lots of water, a Frosty Paws puppy ice cream (no, we don't spoil her at all), slept the rest of the evening. We gave her a bath an hour before bedtime and she did her "crazy wet dog" dance all over the apartment.

We're going to send her a couple more times between now and Vegas, since our upstairs neighbor (the nice one, not Broadzilla) is going to be out of town and we just had to invite everyone to Vegas whom we could have asked to watch her (just kidding). So anyway, we've decided that the best plan, since it's only 4 days, is to board her with the daycare place. She'll get to play every day, she'll get fed and walked at regular intervals, and she'll be safe. I don't want to hire a "sitter" since they only come by a few times a day and Annie is used to all-day contact since John works from home. So hopefully this place works out - she loved going before she got hurt - and she apparently did very well for her first day back after nearly a year.

My world comes crumbling down...

Yes, it's official:

Some 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries voted to condemn Pluto, discovered in 1930 and the most recent addition to the Solar System, to the status of a "dwarf".

Just wait... pretty soon, we'll have to call it a "little planet."

This also means that those children in school districts with outdated science books can relax... there are again officially only 8 planets. No need to buy new books now. Phew!

John and I watched a show recently on Discovery Science about Pluto and it's very interesting. There's kids who wrote a science museum (I can't remember which) that removed Pluto from it's solar system model, asking them to reinstate Pluto. What is this emotional attachment? Seriously?

In other news
Apparently the Morning After Pill will be approved for sale without prescription to women over the age of 18. I'm conflicted by this decision. If the Morning After pill will entice teens to engage in premarital sex due to the availability of this treatment then why are condoms available without a prescription? Seriously folks, isn't it better to have a girl have access to the Morning After Pill, which prevents conception, then to put that girl through abortion or pregnancy?

And for all those critics who argue that the Morning After Pill is nothing but an abortion in a box:

"The pills are a concentrated dose of the same drug found in many regular birth-control pills. Taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, a woman can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent. If she already is pregnant, the pills have no effect."

Then there's this...

Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.

The omission is inadvertent, said Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, which administers the grants. “There is no explanation for it being left off the list,” Ms. McLane said. “It has always been an eligible major.”

Another spokeswoman, Samara Yudof, said evolutionary biology would be restored to the list, but as of last night it was still missing.

If a major is not on the list, students in that major cannot get grants unless they declare another major, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Mr. Nassirian said students seeking the grants went first to their college registrar, who determined whether they were full-time students majoring in an eligible field.

Maybe it is just an oversight, but whoever deleted the program should be fired. With all the debate over whether evolution should be taught in schools and Bush's not-so-subtle embrace of "intelligent design" as an alternative scientific theory, I can hardly believe it was an accident. I agree that theories of origin can be debated in school. But not in science class. Philosophy, theology - sure - debate all you want. Intelligent design is appropriate conversation for those courses, but it is not science.

(B)rats

Ok. It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of children. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an ogre. I used to think I hated all kids. Then I started to realize that the only kids I had ever been around were simply worth hating. Some of my friends' kids are wonderful, as are some of my little cousins (and some not so good).

Really, I have come to realize that a lot of my ire should be directed at the parents, not the kids. I still am not comfortable around many kids, I can't relate to them until they can form complete sentences. But my loathing is really of the parents.

Case and point:

We went to the Daily Bar and Grill for dinner because I needed a beer and John needed a greasy burger. We sat outside on their patio, and were having a discussion about work, etc. When all the sudden these two brats got bored at their table, where mom (buffy) and dad (chad) were too engrossed in their own conversation to watch their kids. The kids (we'll call them Brittney and Todd) decided it would be fun (and appropriate) to run around the patio playing tag around our table. Todd bumped my chair several times, and several other times I looked over my shoulder to see one or the other standing right behind me.

I looked over and the parents were oblivious. John, who was facing them, said the mother just smiled and watched on as her brats continued to be obnoxious. Somehow I think a good early lesson for kids is not to bother other people in a restaurant. If they want to play, fine - keep them by you and don't assume that everyone thinks that your little "angels" are as adorable as you think they are.

There was a teenage boy watching the two kids, seeing what was going on, but who felt powerless to stop it. I mean, they're not his kids (i hope).

John made a motion to the little boy that maybe he should sit down, and he got sad. As the parents got up to leave, they were still oblivous to what had been occurring for the past 10 minutes.

I really wanted to say something. But we live in a world where if you criticize a parent for the behavior of thier children, then somehow you're out of line.

RRRRG.

Moral of the story: Please, don't assume that we all think your kids are just as adorable as you do and that we want them coughing up their kid germs behind us while we're eating our dinner.


PS: Johnnyism... If you ask Laura if she wants a bite of whatever you happen to be eating, and she says no, shove it in her face anyway just to be sure.

Yeah, yeah....

I know it's been a while. Zip it.

I haven't had much time to update lately. Last week was very busy as was this weekend. So below are some pictures from St. Louis:

I took this for Donna. We found her homeland.


City Museum

Ok, so this is like the coolest place. Ever. It's hard to describe. Think of every piece of American kitsch you've ever seen. Then cram it all into a single building.



Now imagine that the building itself has been turned into an adult habitrail. There is no surface you cannot climb on, explore, or crawl through - unless you don't fit. Some of the spaces are built for children/Kate Moss. I could probably have fit one of my buttcheeks into a couple of the spaces. There's even a tunnel you can crawl through where you can look up through plexiglass and see the people standing on the floor you're under. I got claustrophobic just looking at the people in there.





The habitrail extends outside, where they have build MonstroCity. Yes, those are real plane fuselages and yes, that's a schoolbus on the roof. See the plane in the middle? Follow the wire grid to the left. See that slight upturn in the coil? We were inside there. I think I may have conquered my fear of bridges. If I can climb through an open-air coil made of roundbar hanging 5 stories above ground, I think I can cross Michigan avenue without fear now...





St. Louis was fun. We had a lot of good food (everything from bbq to lebanese to a big plate full of chocolate), walked around town, and just relaxed for the most part.

Heathen and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine at the Moolah theatre, which is an old Masonic temple converted into a movie theatre with leather couches and beer. I loved the movie. John went to see it while I was out of town and said he didn't like it as much as he thought he would. I thought it was fantastic. Heathen and I were both about ready to choke Greg Kinnear every time he opened his mouth about his 9-step motivational plan (he was a struggling motivational speaker). We were both creeped out by all the pre-pubescent beauty queens. That whole culture is just completely disturbing.


So I got home Monday afternoon and played with the puppy and everyone was happy to see me. Scout even brought me a sock (She meows and carries socks upstairs from the laundry, like a mother cat bringing food to her kittens. John said she didn't do that the whole time I was gone).

Friday I went to the Cubs game with a friend who had an extra ticket. Saturday I went to a bachelorette party (for the same woman). We started out at Arlington Park - which I used to enjoy, but now I can only think about the poor horses. I know they're well taken care of - until they're no longer useful... and then they're killed. Because they're just things we use for entertainment.

We ended up back downtown and went to Cafe BaBaReeBa for dinner and then a few local bars for drinks, etc.

Sunday we borrowed dad's truck to return the ill-fated dehumidifier. Never, ever buy anything from Soleus Air. Their customer service people are horrible. The new one, a name brand appliance from Sears, works almost too well. We have to keep it on low I think.


Let's see, what else?

Oh, Secret Rudy sent me this. Want to take money from an active anti-gay organization? Me too! In return, you get fantastic reading materials about how gays are sinners and don't deserve the same rights as real human beings. Focus on the Family also probably looks down on someone like me, who is denying her "natural" urge to breed.

I'm back!

I just got home about a half hour ago. The trip was great and we had lots of fun. A detailed account is forthcoming.

Thanks to John for filling in - I knew he had it in him.

Ironically, Friday was one of my quickest trips through O'Hare airport security - ever.

I also have to share my new favorite quote, which is now my email signature. Heathen found it at a great store in their hood called Ploughshare Market. They buy goods from artisans in other countries at a living wage and collect charity for impoverished families worldwide:

"The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other Cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit"

Wade Davis.

The internet-age equivalent of Drunk Dialing

Skype is a wonderful piece of software. I use it every working day when I need to talk to one of the Russians or even some people in California, and a few far flung friends/ex work buddies. Hell, my company even writes VOIP, yet even that team uses Skype. It's engine is the best, and it even has a kick ass API.

There's only one problem: Asshats from China, Brazil, and so on that I don't know that happen to read my Skype profile (I leave it public for work reasons, thank you) and then decide they want to talk to someone in Chicago for some fucking reason.

I don't mind talking to people over the internet from other cultures, but it's invasive when you're status isn't "Skype Me!" Here's John's helpful tips on what to do when some one Skype's you out of the blue:

1. Start with innuendos, and work your way up to be full on raunchy. Fellas - this works great if you're talking to uptight Chinese girls, but it works BETTER if your talking with any guy.
2. If they're foreign, make up English words. Most of these people are calling you to use their ESL course dollars. The very least you can do is blarg to them in a screnching way.
3. If they're texting you, I can't stress using emoticons with the first tip enough.
4. use every emoticon in your arsenal in a single sentence.
5. If it's voice, stop and tell your "kid" that if he doesn't stop what he's doing, then you'll get out the firecrackers and lube and it will be just like last time in an even and matter-of-fact tone as you are able.
6. Use a funny voice, if you can. If you can do a small child voice, start with that - then bust in on yourself as an adult about a minute in and say "I thought I told you not to touch the magic picture box!" and then start smacking your hand and crying in your child voice.
7. If you have two microphones (headset and netcam for instance) make the netcam mike the one that Skype is using and hide it under the papers on your desk. Yell.
8. you're at your computer - there's loads of sound effects on the internet.
9. Search for transcripts from weekday talk shows. Choose a part and stick with it. Don't deviate from your lines. Or have a couple and swap. Now you can be Matt Lauer and that jerk from Fox.
10. Get paranoid. Ask if they're recording this, why they just won't leave you alone. Tell them you drowned the puppy they left on your doorstep.
11. Or go a different route. The rendez-vous point is in New York. Bring the "cheese" and I'll bring the "wine." No funny business or Sarah's going to die. If they tell you that they don't know what your talking about, tell them that you heard that they're clever and would try to convince you that they're not involved.
12. If they're in the same town as you, narrow down their location until they realize that you live across the street. Then pick a fight.
13. just hang up

Make sure to block their ID after you're finished.

Inner dialog

Logical John: Hmm...it's 5:30 pm - why don't we go see a movie and get some dinner?

Emotional John: No, we can't. We'll leave our puppy all alone in the house!! We know she'll DIE all alone.

I think she'll be fine. Aren't you hungry?

HOW CAN YOU THINK OF FOOD WHEN YOU KNOW THE DOG IS MISERABLE. FUCK MAN - EVEN THE CATS ARE ON EDGE!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, little buckaroo! Calm down. Just because Laura's not here doesn't mean that things have to degrade into chaos. Penny hasn't even moved her fat ass from where she was yesterday.

That's because Penny is a special kitty and doesn't have the sense of a turnip. But you can see she's upset because she's lonely.

You're special.

I know.

You...oh never mind. Remember last night when we got hungry at 2am? I let you go upstairs and make a Hot Pocket and surf the internet to look at new gear. Why can't you let me do something we'll all enjoy now?

You stopped me from ordering a new projector AND the Sager laptop we'd both enjoy too. So I don't see how that qualifies as you letting me do what I want.

No shit I stopped you. Can you imagine trying to tell that to Laura when she got home?

Yeah - she's scary when we buy nice things for some reason.

Not scary - just upset that we didn't invol-

SCARY!!

Whatever dude. So are we seeing a movie tonight or what?

Only if we go tomorrow to see about getting new things for the bike.

We could look into getting a take off windshield because that makes sense....hey....you tried to trick me into making your end of things logical...jerk.

You leave that dog alone - I'm going to kick your ass.

It's a fucking shame that you're three times the size of me. Where do we want to order from?

Why do always try to make me decide?

Because you're the picky one. I could eat anything that had nutrition.

You're an asshole.

Takes one to know one.

Mischievious John: Hey dudes! What's up? I don't think Broadzilla's at home! Let's go piss on her yard chair!

Just because Laura is articulate - it doesn't mean I am

Starting off, you people are strange to me. I don't know why this small bit of hype exists for a post created by me.

To be honest, it made me feel a bit like being under a microscope. Am I so bizarre? Do I really stand out from the rest of the herd? How did Rudy know about the Earwig King? Is he also in servitude to His Excellency?

I guess that's neither here nor there, but be assured Rudy and I are going to talk about what he knows and doesn't.

Last night's dream: The guy from Dirty Jobs - Mike Rowe - was filming an episode where he was doing gruesome murders, and I wasn't the victim - but a grip with the film crew. He kept on asking me to get him Starbucks, but I was afraid to go outside because I was covered in blood.

Not all my dreams are funny. They are all weird though. I know where all aspects of this dream came from - I am playing "Dead Rising" on the Xbox 360, love to watch Dirty Jobs, and there's a Starbucks a block away. Sometimes it is really hard to tell where these dreams come from.

Annie and I are spending most of the time in the yard this weekend- it's perfect outside right now. I washed the motorcycle and gassed it up. FYI - BP high-test is clear, but Shell's is yellowish. What gives there?

A Laura-ism for you:

I can spot Laura from a mile away if she's walking towards me. She walks like she's got a purpose when she's alone. She looks a little angry, and she zig-zags around the slower traffic. I call it Laura's Defensive Walking. It's the kind of walk in movies where the heroine is in a crowded area, and has just spotted the object of her pursuit who has just as quickly blended back in with the crowd, and now she is desperately on the trail of the person. That said, when we walk together, she's much slower than I am, and usually in no big hurry. If I get distracted while walking with her, I usually am half a block ahead before I realize she's not there anymore. This annoys her to no end because I am easily distracted.

Sayōnara

I will eventually post a review of the Athiest/Christian 30-days episode, because I thought it was, overall, very good. Unlike other shows (like Wife Swap) where they pick the craziest pentacostal bitch to unleash on a new age family, 30-days does a good job of picking everyday people. All those involved in the episode were rational, polite, and accepting of each other - it wasn't a fireworks show.

Also, John told me that the MinuteMan from the first episode this season called into the Adam Carolla radio show to yell at Morgan Spurlock for editing out the scene where he cries about the fate of the family of illegals he lived with for a month. Spurlock basically said if he gets his own show, he can edit it any way he wants. I think that's an odd thing to edit out though - that the man had a real, emotional reaction to the circumstances of the family. He also said he was portrayed negatively, but I disagree. He was portrayed as a man who came in with very black and white beliefs about illegal immigration and who left with a deeper understanding of the problem and the issue. There's nothing negative about that at all.

Anyway, I will be down in St. Louis watching skyscrapers melt with CilliC and Heathen this weekend. I have, begrudgingly, given John permission to post in my absence. God help us.

Have a good weekend everyone.

How to avoid work

If you have to dry the dishes (such and awful boring chore.)
If you have to dry the dishes (instead of going to the store.)
If you have to dry the dishes and you drop one on the floor
maybe they won’t let you dry the dishes anymore.
~Shel Silverstein

Does anyone ever get the idea that some people take this poem as a serious model for how to avoid doing work? If you fuck something up enough times, maybe they'll just find some other schelp to do it for you.

Playground dispute resolution

I love whitehouse.org. Their newest article is a guide for children on Israeli-American Playground Dispute Resolution. Though I really think they should have added Hezbollah to that too considering that they're not exactly innocent bystanders here. All seriousness aside, this is funny:



And another thing: Does anyone else think that the newly proposed Army-World theme park is in extremely poor taste? Seems we're taking a cue from China on that one. It's not enough that we have war-themed video games to train future grunts for our never-ending war on terror. Now we need a theme park? Even the Army doesn't want anything to do with the park, though I'm sure they wouldn't mind the new recruits they might get from all the kids who think that war is a game.

For my Atheist and Christian friends

The next episode of 30-days on FX has an atheist woman going to live with a die-hard Christian family. It looks interesting. I like 30-days because it is not usually as sensationalistic as other shows that do the whole "swap" thing, like Wife swap or something. Also, in each episode, the person living in another's shoes for 30 days usually seems to learn something, or at least come away with a more in depth perspective.

Though I do have to complain that in the last episode on outsourcing, there was absolutely no reason why they had to show a close-up of a dead dog in the aftermath of a riot in a poor Bangalore neighborhood.

The first two episodes this season prove to be much more in-depth than many of the first season episodes. The first season had 3 episodes that I really liked: Living on minimum wage, a Christian living as a Muslim, and a homophobe living with a gay man in San Francisco's Castro district.

The first episode this season, on illegal immigration, had a Minute Man and anti-immigration man whose family emigrated from Cuba (legally) going to live with a family of illegals in LA. He learned that it's not as simple as "send them home" when he went and saw first-hand the "house" they lived in in Mexico. He learned that it's harder to have a black and white view of a problem when it has a human face.

The second, on outsourcing had a programmer whose job was outsourced go to India and live with a family who works in a call-center. It was a good follow up to a documentary I saw a few years ago called Diverted to Delhi. He learned that the people who take the jobs in Bangalore pay some very high prices, in terms of balancing their culture and traditions with the Westernization they are forced to undergo as a precursor to working in call centers (something documented in creepy detail in Diverted to Delhi when they show the speech and diction classes). He also sees the complete poverty that awaits those people who do not have these jobs and realizes that, even unemployed, he has it better than a lot of the employed people in Bangalore.

I highly recommend the show.

Our porch hath gone a-chunder

OK, so about 4:30am I wake up because I hear footsteps stomping around upstairs (we can normally hear our upstairs neighbor since she is, I believe, a descendent of a wooly mamoth). Then Annie start's huffing under her breath. I hear other noises, like doors opening, and I'm thinking - is someone going on a trip and leaving early for the airport? But no, it goes in and out, in and out. So I get up, go upstairs and peek out the front door of our apartment into the main inner hallway.

Nothing. I go back to bed.

We keep hearing noises - now in the backyard. What the fuck.

So John goes to check it out. A few minutes later, he comes down to get a bucket. Huh?

Well, apparently some drunken girl was so drunk that she couldn't find her way home, thought our house was hers, and then blew chunks on the front steps. Our upstairs neighbor was apparently awakened by her also (maybe she rang the 2nd floor doorbell) and was trying to help her. But the girl took off.

John needed the bucket because, of course, the Klopeks next door have a privacy fence on the East side of our building and that is where the hose hookup for our building is. So we can't bring the hose from that side, and it won't reach all the way around. So John had to fill buckets and try to rinse it off that way. It didn't work.

So now there's puke drying on our steps and we have no way of getting it off except to, I guess, let it dry and scrape it off. There's also a nice brown smear on the window of our front door. Ugh.

Seriously, how drunk and stupid do you have to be to not be able to find your way home? I half wanted to scour the neighborhood looking for her to beat the crap out of her and make her clean up her own puke. This is the second time this has happened to us. One New Year's Eve some woman came through our back door of our old apartment thinking it was her house.

So I couldn't get back to sleep and now I'm surly.

Thanks mystery bitch.

Another little quiz

This is a quiz about movies. Or rather movie stars. Beside the name of each actor and actress please type your favorite of their movies.

• Harrison Ford: Indiana Jones movies
• Carrie Fisher: Wonderland
• Mark Hamill: Empire Strikes Back
• Gene Kelly: Singing in the Rain
• Johnny Depp: Ed Wood / What's Eating Gilbert Grape
• Orlando Bloom: Pirates of the Caribbean
• Keira Knightly: Bend it like Beckham
• Robert Redford: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Cary Elwes: The Princess Bride
• Anne Hathaway: Never seen anything she's in
• Tom Hanks: Big / Philadelphia
• Meg Ryan: Top Gun - cuz she's only in it for 15 seconds
• Sandra Bullock: Crash
• Keanu Reeves: Devil's Advocate / I love you to Death
• Elijah Wood: Sin City
• Viggo Mortenson: History of Violence
• Will Smith: Men in Black
• Nicole Kidman: Dead Calm
• Tommy Lee Jones: Fugitive
• Jim Carrey: Truman Show
• Val Kilmer: Real Genius
• Tom Cruise: Rainman
• Ewen MacGregor: Trainspotting
• Gwyneth Paltrow: Royal Tannenbaums
• Toni Collette: Sixth Sense (and a pre-emptive Little Miss Sunshine. I just know I'll love that movie)
• Hugh Grant: Ugh, do I have to choose? Four Weddings and a Funeral I guess
• Colin Firth: Pride and Prejudice is the only thing I've seen with him in it
• Renee Zellwegger: Cinderella Man/ Chicago
• Kate Winslet: Heavenly Creatures
• Emma Thomson: Much Ado about Nothing
• Alan Rickman: Die Hard / Dogma
• Kevin Costner: Bull Durham
• Arnold Schwarzenegger: Terminator
• Elisabeth Shue: Trigger Effect / Soapdish
• Kathleen Turner: War of the Roses
• Michael Douglas: Romancing the Stone / Traffic / Falling Down
  
• John Turturro: Big Lebowski / Quiz Show
• Matt Damon: Good Will Hunting
• Woody Allen: Ugh, I don't like Woody. Pick whichever annoying, neurotic character you like best.
• John Goodman: O Brother, Where Art Thou / Revenge of the Nerds
  
• Dustin Hoffman: Rainman
• Nicolas Cage: Raising Arizona / The Rock
• Bruce Willis: Pulp Fiction

Jeez, I could add more people to this list, but eh.

Finally, a real vacation day

Yesterday was the first of my Friday's off that I actually felt like I was on vacation. The past two weeks were spent mostly running errands (planned and unplanned).

Yesterday John woke me up and we went to breakfast at this new little place called Over Easy on Damen. It's reaaaaaaly good - it is small, however, and not suitable for groups of more than 4 or 5. We got back and I put some things together for my spa visit. I went, for the first time, to Thousand Waves - a Japanese-style spa for women only. They have massages and herbal wraps that include use of the spa or you can go to use the spa only. I got a 90 minute massage (boy did I need it) and my neck does feel a little better. However, I think there's something other than a muscular problem in my shoulder. My doc said it could be tendonitis, but we'll see.

Anyway, they provide robes, towels, sandals, and lockers. The spa includes a hot tub big enough for about 4 people at a time. I spent most of my time there, since I don't do well in saunas or steam rooms. There is also a Eucalyptus steam room, which I tried for about 20 seconds until I realized that I couldn't see and couldn't breathe. There is also a dry sauna with room for about 4-6 people (depending on if you lay down or sit up). You can use the spa for up to an hour before your treatment. Then there is a relaxation room. A quiet room with comfy chairs (and little cabanas that you can nap in if you want) and reading materials and complimentary herbal tea. After about a half hour in the hot tub and 15 minutes in the relaxation room, I went up to the massage area.

I came home, nice and relaxed, and took a nap. Then John and I tried this new Italian place that opened on Lincoln 2 weeks ago. It was pretty good.

Tomorrow we're going for a ride with my folks and the Oak Park Harley club. My dad told me a couple weeks ago that an old friend of mine from high school is part of it and he went on a trip with them. It's a group of about 20 bikes that meet in the morning and ride out someplace for breakfast and wing the rest of the day. They also don't care what you ride. Some Harley clubs are snobby like that. These guys just like to ride, they don't care what you ride. So that should be fun.

Nature's Lightshow

We had one hell of a lightning show last night. John and I caught some of it on our way home from dinner. This is a picture from the Tribune website.


Thankfully it's cooling off now. It's miserable and grey outside, but it's also not 106 degrees.


Also from the Tribune: "Battle for Bear Butte"

STURGIS, S.D. -- When folks around here say the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally doubles the population of South Dakota, it's only a slight exaggeration. More than 500,000 bikers invade the Black Hills each August; 776,000 people live in the state.

As the influx revs up this week, so does the tension that has been mounting for several years between the party-hearty biker culture and Native Americans trying to preserve their religious traditions.

It came to a boil this year when Arizona entrepreneur Jay Allen started building what he proudly calls the world's biggest biker bar 2 miles from Bear Butte, one of the most sacred sites of the Plains tribes.

"Imagine sitting in a church or sitting in a synagogue, trying to have a . . . prayer service, and you have half a million bikes running by every minute of the day and night for three weeks," said Debra White Plume, a Lakota Sioux from the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. "That's what the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally does to this environment."

I've never been a big fan of biker culture - it's rowdy, misogynistic, and generally annoying. I've also read some books by Sioux women who, in passing, mention the Sturgis festival and how badly many of the bikers treat the local Indian populations. Not that the Sioux are treated especially well by the whites that live outside the res. anyway (Native American women are some of the most likely women to be raped). So I'm sure the visiting bikers just take their cues from the behavior of the locals.

Sigh.

End of an era...

So I heard that Val's Halla Records in Oak Park is closing and moving to a smaller location.



Val's has been in that location since 1972 and was one of the best indpendent record stores I have ever seen. I admit that I am part of the demise of the local record shop, since I can't remember the last time I actually went to a store to buy an actual CD. But when I was deep in my Pink Floyd record-collecting days, I would frequent Val's to dig through the bins and bins of used records. Though I never collected as much vinyl as some of my friends (ahem, WestSide Charlie), I had a decent collection of essentials.

Some of my finds:

• A mint condition copy of Dark Side of the Moon complete with the original posters and post cards
• A near mint condition copy of the Atom Heart Mother
• A bootleg picture disc (Prism) of the Dark Side of the Moon studio sessions
• A bootleg picture disc (Wish You Were Here handshake) with one side having a rare bootleg concert with Careful with that Axe Eugene and Fat Old Sun.
• A bootleg concert vinyl called "The Screaming Abdabs" - some of you may remember that before Pink Floyd was Pink Floyd, they were The Screaming Abdabs.

I also purchased my fair share of CDs (new and used) there.

It was a modest shop - complete with an Elvis shrine and fountain in an old, unused bathroom, that people would leave pennies in.

Hopefully Val has many more years in her new location.