MAR 31 :: [pope watch] Back from lunch. Thai Luang is fabulous. Weather is crap today. Checked out Helix for a friend's wedding. Shopped a little at Urban Essentials. Nothing major.

So, the pope is dying. Hrmph. Apparently, he's very close now as he's just been given his last rites. Oh well. Yea, it's sad that he's dying but there is absolutely zero love or respect on my part for him. He used his position in the Roman Catholic Church to espouse views that are completely against everything I believe in. Anti-contraception, anti-choice, anti-gay and just plain nasty. The only thing consistent with the RCC is the pro-life theme which, unlike the idiotic anti-abortionists in the US, includes anti-death penalty. I won't go as far as to say "good riddance" when he's gone but it's definitely not a great loss in my eyes.

On a local note, DC is planning to tear down the Whitehurst Freeway; or at least has started a study. Which means it would take 10 years or more before it actually happens, if it even happens. Good news is that Freeway is a MAJOR eyesore. Bad news is it's much needed to route traffic around Georgetown. So much for fighting against a Metro station, huh?

A little further from home, CNN had an article on the world's tallest building-to-be, the Burj Dubai. It's almost impossible to imagine how tall this building is going to be. Why? Coz they're keeping it a secret so no one else can build one taller than the Burj before it's completed. Sneaky. The current tallest building is Taipei 101 and together with China, makes up 6 of the 10 tallest buildings in the world (the other 2 are in the US - Sears and the ESB, and 2 more in Malaysia - the Petronas Twin Towers!).

[miscellaneous] Terri Schiavo has finally passed away - Thank God! I mean as in no more political football over her life ;) I know this is a waaaay foregone conclusion but it doesn't hurt to say it again: The Bush Administration is filled with idiots and Bush himself is a war criminal. If it were anybody else besides the United States, an unprovoked attack against another nation based on false pretenses would have generated some serious consequences. Number of innocent civilians killed: tens of thousands, number of American soldiers killed: 1500+, number of WMDs found: 0, getting away with killing all those innocent ppl for a false cause: priceless.

I can't believe they kicked off Jessica Sierra last night on AI4. It just goes to prove that American Idol viewers are deaf. The women did so much better than the men on Tuesday night and they send 2 women to the bottom 3. Whatever. Last night's West Wing was exciting. I have this nasty feeling that they're gonna reveal the next President next week which would screw up the entire flow of the series. They haven't even announced the Democratic nomination yet! Furthermore, Presidential elections are in November, d'oh. Hello, NBC? Are you listening?

OK, enough rambling. Off to lunch with my hag.

MAR 30 :: [2 weeks later] There's still a hole in my shoulder. It's now 14 days later. Ugh. I never heard back from the dermatologist which means the biopsy results were benign. But I don't care! It looks terrible... The hole is HUGE, like you can stuff a pea in it. And the skin around it is all pigmented and gross. If this ugliness persists into the summer, I won't be able to wear a tank top, waaa!

Yes, I'm a drama queen :)

[pollen gets in your eyes] It's that dreaded (at least for me) time of the year again - pollen season! Tree pollen, to be precise, or otherwise known as tree cum ;)

It all started in N'Awlins last weekend. The tree pollen there was extremely high and it really bothered me on Sunday when it was dry, sunny, windy and warm (the lethal combination for pollen to propagate everywhere); made worse by the fact that it had rained heavily the day before which caused everything green to start screwing and making pollen *groan*.

My eyes were crazy scratchy for the past few days but I stuck to my regiment of eye drops, nasal spray, changing clothes frequently, and showering before bedtime, and voila, things are better today. Yay! It worked well enough that I drove around with the top down yesterday - the first time in FIVE months - woo! Anyways, I have no idea why my eyes are so allergic to pollen but at it's worst, it can be debilitating. My eyes are swollen shut and I can barely keep them open.

Sigh. Not fetch.

[switcheroo] So it's that time again. MBNA will announce next month that beginning May, there will be a 2% surcharge on all foreign currency transactions. That is above and beyond the 1% Visa/MC already charge by default (Visa now calls it "International Transaction Fee" which applies to ALL overseas transactions regardless of whether it was made in a foreign currency or not... sneaky!). That means all foreign currency purchases will have a 3% fee tacked on to it.

Why am I up in arms about that? Well, I have an MBNA credit card and I've been using it exclusively when I travel internationally. Both my other cards charge 2-3% so it makes quite a difference on a $5,000 vacation when MBNA only charges 1%. Well, not anymore.

It's all very annoying. I can almost (but not quite) understand why Visa needs to charge 1% for currency conversion and all that but these unscrupulous banks have no right collecting 2% of every foreign currency purchase when they're not providing a service. It's a huge scam and it should be illegal. But it's not.

So, I have decided to apply for a Capital One card. Yea, yea, they have those annoying ads on TV but they're resisting charging that additional 2%... for now. Getting another credit card might lower my FICO score but I'd rather that than waste countless of hundreds of dollars in "foreign currency conversion fees". I'm voting with my feet. Time to cancel my MBNA card!

To be fair, what MBNA is doing is just following the pack. All the other huge issuers of credit cards (Citibank, BofA, Chase, Bank One, etc.) already charge the 2% fee. Sigh. I hate fees.

MAR 29 :: [long time coming] So I've been busy looking for a new job. No, I didn't get fired... I'm still employed :) But basically, I'm gonna meet with my boss on Friday to decide my layoff date/separation notice/termination or whatever you want to call it. There's precious little for me to do at SAIC and I've been wanting to look for a new job for a long time so leaving SAIC would be a great opportunity and a nice big kick in the right direction to move me forward career-wise.

I had my come-to-Jesus moment last Monday after I got back from NYC. Hence, the silence. So far, I've done quite a few interviews and I'm happy to say that I'm closer to securing a new job. The one I went to today looked and sounded promising. It didn't start off so well though. The interview location was in Landover, MD and after driving through some gritty neighborhoods, I went in with a mindset that this is not where I wanted to be but still I had an open mind and decided to give it my best shot. Well, it turns out that the job location is in SW DC! How fetch. And since I gave it my best shot, they were already talking about my future with them and my involvement in the project. There was no "if you get the job" caveat. Giggle. I rule!

Anyways, I have no job offers yet but I hope those will be coming in soon. I have another interview later today with a recruiting company so other than leads, it's not gonna net me anything in the form of a job. I've also had lots of help from lots of ppl which is very heartening.

So things are looking up. I think. I still haven't found what I'm looking for but I'll take whatever I can get. It's not like my next job is gonna be permanent, right? Gosh, 7 years at SAIC.. who would've thought.

[town whore] Oh my Beyonce, did you see Desperate Housewives on Sunday? I almost passed out giggling when Bree said to Maisy in a tone dripping with poison: "Oh sweetie, they didn't abandon you because you were a whore, they abandoned you because you weren't all that nice to begin with."

LOL!!!

[8.7] My heart skipped a beat yesterday when news of the giant earthquake off the coast of Sumatra rolled through the news websites like a tsunami at around noon DC time. Thankfully, there were no tsunamis spawned by this quake but the sheer magnitude of the quake when it was first reported (8.7!) definitely made millions nervous across the globe. It was just shy of the magnitude 9.0 quake that spawned the killer tsunamis three months ago. Almost 300,000 people are dead or missing from the first earthquake.

As it turned out, the quake occurred deep in the earth and the waters above the epicenter were shallow. The tsunamis generated were small because the earth absorbed much of the earthquake's power and the shallow waters meant less ocean to displace. Also, apparently the epicenter was almost directly underneath Nias island which ended up suffering the bulk of the damage. It's weird how we think of "2,000 dead" as "not bad". What a difference 110 miles makes (which is the distance between the epicenters of the two quakes).

It must be horrific for the residents near the epicenters to have to relive the force of the earth moving so soon after the first occurrence. It must be terrifying for them to realize that another tsunami may be imminent. I just can't imagine. Not to mention the tsunami warnings that swept across South and Southeast Asia. I would definitely move, but that's a luxury I have. What a crazy world we live in.

MAR 24 :: [alive and well] No, I'm not dead... I've just been busy sorting out my life. More soon. Promise.

MAR 18 :: [much better] Yay! I feel much better today. Dr Harry basically said it was viral and that I would just have to ride it out. He gave me some medications for my nasal congestion and some antibiotics just in case but all in all, he says my blood pressure is low, I've lost weight, and everything looks fine. Yay! I love it when doctors are happy with me.

I still have a hole in my shoulder. And Tony decided to "scrub" it last night till it bled. Urm, not fetch. It doesn't hurt as much as it is just grossing out. Bleagh. I wonder if it'll heal.

Went out to dinner last night - first time since Sunday - at Beacon with Rob/Mikko, Chris/Dave, Maria, and some guy from MS (eww). Dinner was good but service was abysmal. I doubt I'd go back voluntarily but the food is pretty good so I can be coaxed :) Had maybe 2 glasses of wine. I was such the good little boy last night ;)

We're off to NYC tonight. We have dinner plans for this evening (at L'Impero... how will it compare to Babbo? Stay tuned...) followed by maybe drinks with Ben. We have theater tickets for La Cage tomorrow, maybe some shopping, a Korean BBQ dinner with a whole bunch of Nu-Yawkers followed by a party somewhere, dunno where yet. We also have Sunday brunch plans at Jean Georges' Spice Market in the Meatpacking District (giggle, I love saying that) which basically means we'll have no leisure time at all this weekend. Heh. Story of our lives. Of course, there's Nu-Awlins next weekend. Followed by an April that's shaping up to be just as busy. Never a dull moment, is there? :)

Whatever it is, I'm just *soppy I'm feeling better! Just in time for another party weekend, woo!

MAR 17 :: [i give] I have a doctor's appointment at 4pm today. After resisting this flu-like onslaught of symptoms for the past 10 days, I'm officially giving up and letting the pros take a look at my ailing self. I'm feeling better today but only marginally so. My nose is still running, my cough has subsided but my body still aches. I'm *SO* over this!

Let's hope they'll give me a miracle pill of sorts to make me feel better before my trip to NYC tomorrow. Sigh.

So, apparently texting is now catching on in the US. D'oh. What's surprising is that only 63% of cellphone users between 18 and 27 have sent/received a text message in the past month. That's it?! Gosh, text messaging is like oxygen to me - couldn't live without it. It all boils down to a difference in the pricing structure - in Europe, texting is cheaper than calling but in the US, texting costs money whereas phonecalls are already included in the bucket of minutes. If one can talk for "free", why bother texting, right?

Virginia is at it again; paving over more land for highways in the hopes that if they build it, traffic will get better. How ludicrous. What's even more ridiculous is the fact that they only want to widen I-66 from the Rosslyn tunnel onwards in the westbound direction. Huh? And the eastbound direction where the Dulles Toll Road merges with I-66 from 4 lanes to 2 is any better? I-66 is not congested because it is 4 lanes, it is congested because of how it winds through neighborhoods when it was built and the badly placed entrance/exit ramps. Having a major entrance ramp (Glebe Rd) right where the interstate makes a sharp bend is always gonna cause problems no matter how many lanes you have. If adding a third lane in each direction is guaranteed to alleviate congestion, then by all means do it. But no amount of lanes is gonna solve congestion caused by a bad alignment and badly-placed entrance/exit ramps.

Maybe they should make I-66 HOV all day?

MAR 16 :: [broken] Yup, that's me. Broken. Giggle. Yea, yea, I'm being a drama queen. Can't help it since that's all I can do to elicit sympathy for my 2-week old flu. Yuck. At least this week I'm doing the right thing by staying home every night to recover from this nasty bug. That means no fun for me tonight or tomorrow night (St. Patrick's day!). Boo.

Wanna know what else is broken? My skin. It's far better than it was when I first came here but I still have the occasional itchy dry skin issues. Of course, most of it is because I have no self-control when it comes to scratching myself into oblivion and causing an infection. Anyways, routine visit to the dermatologist yesterday until he spots an irregular "mark" on my left shoulder and proceeds to "scrape" it out for a biopsy. Precaution against melanoma, it seems. It's quite gross. The scraping didn't hurt but there's like a hole in my shoulder now. Not fetch! Other than that, skin is healthier than it's ever been which doesn't say much coz it used to be chronic.

Let's see what else is broken... Records. Unwanted ones, of course. Oil races past $56 to an all-time high of $56.60, no surprises there of course. No surprises here either but seeing the number on paper is still shocking - $666bn trade deficit for 2004. Well, the US has always had a trade deficit - a sign of how robust the domestic consumption economy is sucking up much of the world's exports - but this one combined with the budget deficit is just really bad news for the nation's finances, affecting everything from interest rates to the dollar, the stockmarket and the price of oil.

Bush's head is broken... as he nominates the Deputy Defense Secretary to the World Bank president post. So now we're gonna provide development loans at gunpoint? Just what we need, more neo-conservative hawks in charge of global economic policy. Hmm, Congress is broken too, approving the drilling of the ANWR today for oil. When is this obsession over oil going to stop? Why are the Republicans so in love with destroying the natural environment (and going to war no less) for a few more barrels of oil? Is it me or is this dependence just so unhealthy?

Oh well, we live in a broken world, filled with broken promises, by broken politicians. We'll just have to deal with it and move on :)*

MAR 14 :: [baby steps] A small but significant victory for GLBT rights in California today. SF County Superior Court judge rules that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples only is unconstitutional. The ruling will definitely be appealed to the state Supreme Court where, hopefully, California will join Massachusetts as the only other state in the union to allow same-sex marriage. This is significant not the least because California is the most populated state in the country and 1 in 8 Americans live there. We await the day of justice.

[let 'em choose] So, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is back in the headlines. Senator Ted Stevens (whose home state of Alaska is where the ANWR is) has been fighting for opening up ANWR to oil drilling, apparently, for the past 24 years. Wow. Talk about persistence. Well, if you ask me, I'm dead against the idea. Drilling, no matter how safe, will always have consequences on the environment. And so what if we find oil? Those, too, will run out some time in the future. And then what? Keep drilling some more? Until the entire earth is one big hole, drilled of all its oil? Shouldn't we think about conservation instead? Or, better yet, alternative fuels? Do we really want to be dependent on foreign oil any longer?

Sacrificing our long-term natural environment for short-term gains and gas-guzzling gratification? Not such a fetch idea, believe me.

But is it really up to me? Or even Congress? If the people of Alaska want their own land drilled, if their Senators and their Governor and their Representatives and their entire friggin' state government want it, who are we to stop them? Yes, the environment is one of those federal responsibilities (like national defense and foreign policy) but I have no idea why. Shouldn't California be allowed to set its own fuel efficiency standards (which it already does and to huge protests from US car companies no less)? Shouldn't Texas be allowed to pave over their entire state if they choose to if the paving stops at the state borders? Isn't this about self-determination?

How sick am I of the vile Republican-led US Congress stamping their radical social conservative policies all over the District, floating up idiotic bills banning everything they disapprove of in the name of God as test cases before launching those bills nationwide? And if that pisses me off, it should piss Alaskans off that tree-huggers (I say that with love but in context ;)) all over the country have a say on how they want to use their resources. Forbidding Alaska from drilling in the ANWR, no matter how bad an idea we all think it is (and it is!), is like Congress forbidding the District from bestowing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. If that makes you sick, then let 'em choose!

I don't want somebody else determining what is rightfully a local issue to be decided by local politicians. I don't want somebody else shoving his/her ideology down my throat - everytime I hear "Reagan National" I still wince (fuck you, Barr). So, y'know what? Let 'em choose! And if they're dumb enough to drill their pristine natural heritage away for a few billion barrels of oil, then so be it. They have to live with it. Not me.

[still sick] Ugh, can you believe it? It's been one whole week and I'm still sick! I mean, I'm not SICK sick. Just a little boogery and snotty. I'm blowing my nose like twice an hour now instead of twice a minute before. But still, the nasal congestion is annoying and the waking-up-groggy shit is *so* over. And the weather hasn't helped one bit. It's March, for God's sake, but it's still freezing outside! We're in for another week of sub-freezing temperatures this week with no end in sight. It's just not right.

And I went out the past four nights in a row. Giggle!

Yea, yea, I brought this on to myself. Oh well. I just couldn't stay home any longer so Thursday night, we went to the Dining Out For Life (at least I was partying for charity to the detriment of my health!) thingie at Logan Tavern. I've never liked the food there but the company was fun so why not, right? Plus, 25% of the proceeds go to charity. After that, Gen and I went to Halo and chatted up a storm before I walked her home. Now any sane person would've gone home at this point of the evening but nooooo, I succumbed to phonecalls and text messages and ended up at JR's for one last drink of the evening which also happened to be one too many. Yup, my recovery hit a brickwall at JR's.

Friday night was Chris' belated birthday dinner at Duplex. Rob/Carlos, Brett, Dave were also there. Rick and Rob/Mikko came later. Fun, food and friends. As usual, lots of hot boys at Duplex. After that we retired for the evening at Rob/Mikko's. Rick and I headed to Annie's for some much needed supper before ending the evening early. Yoga on Saturday kicked my ass. I couldn't really breath and since most of the poses required some yogic breathing to ease into, I was really having a hard time. Not fetch at all. Met Rick at JR's on Saturday night. Andy and Evan show up and it's officially a party. The bunch of us then skanked it up at Cobalt (yes, this whole time, just remember that I'm sneezy and leaky) before grabbing a huge slice of Alberto's pizza to end the night. How... healthy :)

Sunday was easier. Hung out with Andy/Evan and had dinner in Chinatown (Full Kee has the best dumplings and noodles!) followed by a movie at the brand spanking new Regal Gallery Place. We watched Robots which was super-funny and gut-bustingly hillarious. The movie was short but felt even shorter because it was action-packed and filled with laugh-a-minute lines. There was no lag at all. It was complete family entertainment, IMHO. The movie theater, on the other hand, was kinda skanky. I *much* prefer Georgetown. Oh well, it was an experience. We had gone to this particular movie coz of the Star Wars trailer but ended up really liking the movie instead (Robin Williams' character does a Britney Spears number - you just HAVE to see it!).

Sounds exhausting? I definitely am. I'm gonna (try to) take it easy this week. We're headed to NYC this weekend followed by N'Awlins next weekend. Gotta conserve energy and recover. Yea, right. That's what I said before...

MAR 10 :: [slowly but surely] My fever broke last night and I'm feeling better today but not quite at 100% yet (or even 90%). I'm into my fourth day of being sick and all's I have to say is I'm so sick of being sick!! Still have no idea what caused this. Oh well... Ç'est la vie.

Needless to say, I haven't done much in the past week since the crazy weekend. I haven't even been outside where I hear it is ridiculously cold (20s and 30s in March? Gimme a break!). So over winter. Spring needs to come... fast.

Charity season kicks into high gear tonight when we have the Dining Out For Life thingie at Logan Tavern for HIV awareness and education. Next Thursday, Whitman-Walker is hosting a $150/pp Going The Extra Mile event at the Finnish Embassy. That will be followed by our trip to NYC and then New Orleans the week after. Phew! April will sweep in before we know it.

Major flashback: today happens to be the FIFTH anniversary of Nasdaq's go-go years. On Mar 10, 2000, the Nasdaq hit 5,048.62 - an all-time high. And it's fallen ever since. It stands barely above 2,000 today, 60% off its peak value. Even if the Nasdaq doubled, it would still be 20% off its all-time high. That's how far the Nasdaq has fallen. And don't we all know it well... shredded undiversified portfolios, frantic calls to the brokers, watching the indices in disbelief day after day, etc. You know what they say about money: easy come, easy go.

Bill Clinton is in surgery today, we wish him well. Gas rises above $2 today inching towards the all-time record of $2.05/gallon set last May. Hong Kong's first leader since the 1997 handover resigned today. Mr Tung has been a disaster for HK and let's hope Beijing sees that and appoints a better leader this time around. Michael Jackson's trial continues, Senate battles are heating up over abortion, judges, the environment, etc., spring break is just around the corner, ticket sales for the Nationals are going on sale in 2 days, phew! Talk about events overload.

On a more personal side, I got my new phone yesterday. It's a Sony Ericsson K700 and I don't love it but it's more than adequate as a stepping stone towards my next phone (which will definitely be a megapixel camera phone). The K700 has 40+MB worth of memory (!!), a VGA camera (640x480 - cool), and it's a fantastic upgrade in speed over the T610. My T610 has been croaking for awhile now and since the joystick has been failing, I've been yearning for a new phone. So, yay me!

Well, I'm slowly but surely feeling better and better. I wanna go out tonight so wish me luck in my recovery! :)

MAR 8 :: [it's snowing... again] Strong winds slammed into DC this morning bringing with it heavy rain and that rain has now turned into a cold, wet, blowing snow. It's almost blizzard-like outside with visibility down to 0 and heavy snow blowing around. Quite a departure from yesterday when the mercury hit 70 degrees (21 C!). In fact, the temperature has plunged 40+ degrees since 24 hours ago and an amazing 20 degrees in the past 3 hours alone. Windchills are down to the teens which marks a 60-degree departure from yesterday! Oh my Beyonce.

Temps are expected to bottom out in the low 20s tonight with windchills below 10. Brrr... bundle up!

Not feeling fetch today. Went to bed last night with a 99.5 F fever and woke up this morning with a 100.7 F fever! Not fetch at all. I think this is from going out too much and exerting myself at yoga for two days in a row. I'm gonna stay home and nurse myself to health before venturing outside. Not fetch that Tony is heading to Boston today :(

Woe is me. Need a warm body to cuddle with.

MAR 7 :: [can't move] So adventurous ol' me decided to go to Yoga 2 (intermediate) yesterday. And Oh-My-Britney-Federline, am I suffering today because of that silly decision. Not fetch. My WHOLE body is aching like you would not believe. Not to mention I couldn't do half the poses in the class. Ugh.

Of course, I added salt to the injury by going out drinking after yoga. Definitely not a good idea when your entire body is dehydrated and your muscles are aching for fluids. And apparently alcohol is not a fluid, giggle! But JR's was fun last night. Lots of ppl showed up. Fun!

The dinner party on Saturday night was a blast. The gang of eight reconvened for an Asian feast at our house. It started with a Thai amuse-bouche of sorts (miang khum), followed by a trio of salads - pomelo, papaya and beef, and then tom yum soup, and finally the entrees which consisted of thai red curry, rendang beef and the hit of the evening (who would've thought) - my mom's stew pork belly recipe. We topped off the evening with mango sticky rice. Quite a fetch evening but drank too much wine!

So the theme from the past week or so has been pretty consistent - drinking, drinking and more drinking! Giggle. I think I need a rest after 4 nights of partying. Need to rest my body.

Still feeling kinda achey and out of it. What a shame coz it's a brilliant 70 degrees outside today. And the Arctic cold blasts in tonight sending temps into the 20s and 40s for the rest of the week, ugh. Not looking forward to that. And they're saying it's definitely (not "likely") going to rain tonight and definitely (yea, right) going to snow tomorrow. Maybe even an inch. Or two. Not to mention another storm system moving in by the end of the week with potentially more snow. Wow. It hasn't snowed much in March since 1999.

Anyway, today's my mom's birthday. I hope she's not expecting a present from me after the extended vacation I paid for while she was here! ;) Hehe...

Ow, ow, ow. Can't laugh too hard. Stomach muscles hurt. Need to drink more water. I have drank like 6 gallons of water today and haven't peed once! Giggle! Ow!

MAR 5 :: [dude, where's my liver?] Gurrrrrrl. My liver has had enough. "No more!", it says. I punished my liver both Thursday AND Friday nights. And we have a dinner party tonight so the punishment continues. Not to mention Sunday nights at JR's, oy!

Thursday was innocent enough - y'know, the usual... work, sushi lunch with Nicole, etc. - but then I roped a bunch of people (the usual suspects - Rick, M2, Chris... Giggle!) to all-u-can-drink happy hour at JR's from 5-8. Yea, totally fetch! I skipped my usual meal at dinnertime (mistake #1) and it was definitely not a good idea. By the time I stumbled home at 11, I was ravenous and completely smashed. EVERYbody was at JR's that night - both latino Andy and whiteboy Andy, Evan (whiteboy Andy's friend), Peter and his amazon co-worker Kim, and Rick's usual bag of tricks... loooordy. Let's just say it was a party, mmm-kay?

So Friday was a complete waste for me as I slept till like, oh I dunno, noon. And then I proceeded to spend the next 15 hours with Rick (mistake #2, LOL!). We had a fetch lunch at Bangkok Joe's and then watched Desperate Housewives (on TiVo, of course) before heading out to JR's for a Friday night on the town. Well, lo and behold (it's never a coincidence with Rick around), we are surrounded by 3 southern boys from Louisiana and the next thing we know, we're at Secrets. Oh my Beyonce. The drama starts and we end up in Chinatown for supper at 2am.

I can't even begin to tell all the stories. But rest assured there'll be more from this weekend which has barely just begun! My liver has just filed a temporary restraining order. Stay tuned :)

MAR 3 :: [where's spring?] It's bone-chillingly cold outside today and for the past few days. Walking home from Cobalt on Tuesday night was not fetch! Giggle. I know, what on earth was I doing at Cobalt? Well, it all started out innocently enough at our broker's meeting (lots of controversies but I shan't divulge sensitive financial info). That led to dinner at Annie's with Rick/M2 followed by JR's for American Idol. Barely watched it coz we were busy getting drunk. We hooked up with a few people there and headed to Cobalt for retro night and Oh, My, Beyonce was it fun!! We danced till 1am before heading home. I just couldn't see myself staying till closing time. The whole time I was wondering: "don't these ppl have jobs?!". Anyways, the music was fantastic and I wore myself out jumping/dancing/screaming to Vogue. It was one big fetch evening.

It's way too cold for March. And that's leading to a predictably late blooming of the cherry blossoms this year. Hopefully the weather will be warmer by then! I can't wait for the cherry blossoms. They're always a definite sign that spring has arrived. I love it.

So Martha is due out of prison tomorrow. How fabulous. Free Martha! In 5 short (an adjective she probably wouldn't agree with) months, her stock has soared along with her celebrity status. She even got a TV contract out of it. Maybe she should stay longer in prison? :) Only the world's domestic diva can pull off a feat like making the best out of prison. Definitely a diva. Martha everywhere.

I think Greenspan has finally come to his senses. He's finally saying something about the unsustainable budget deficits. And even better, he is proposing a transition to a consumption tax from our current income tax model which is grossly and hideously broken. Someone needs to simplify the tax code and do away with all the ridiculous subsidies, deductions, exemptions and loopholes. Granted some of the deductions are useful like the mortgage interest deduction which encourages home ownership and the 401(k) which encourages saving for old age. But seriously, using the federal tax code to manipulate social policy is as ridiculous as using the federal budget to manipulate social policy. Marriage doesn't need to be rewarded. Neither does childbirth. Nor savings. Nor home ownership. Economic policy should not mix with social policy. Period.

With a national sales tax, the less you buy, the less taxes you pay. So simple. The rich buy more and pay more taxes, the poor pay less. Again, so simple. So why not, right?

And this is sad. And sobering. Unnecessary deaths. All Bush's fault. Liar and murderer. But the country refuses to hold him accountable for anything. If democracy at gunpoint is such a fabulous idea, why not waste another 1500 lives on Iran? North Korea? Why just Iraq? Yup, double standards. Just like the disgusting Abu Ghraib scandal as we lecture the rest of the world on human rights. What a bunch of bullshit!

MAR 1 :: [can't wait] March! Can you believe it? Ugh. I feel like my year is wasting away. Yesterday's snowstorm was a dud. Officially, just over 2+" in DC and close to 5 in the suburbs. But nothing like 6-10.

So the Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty for minors is unconstitutional. I support the decision as strongly as I am against the death penalty... which is not very. I can relate to the humanitarian grounds of this issue but boy, if they're really guilty beyond reasonable doubt, I have no problems wanting them gone from society. Is that mean? But since nothing is an exact science and doubt can never be removed completely from the judicial process, the death penalty is just cruel and unusual punishment. Crimes against humanity.

I'm lamenting the fact that there won't be any new episodes of Desperate Housewives until Mar 20th! I cannot believe they're making us wait this long. Yes, I'm seriously hooked. Can't wait for then. Can't wait for the beginning of spring the next day (officially, the vernal equinox). Can't wait for daylight saving time to begin the following week. Can't wait for the cherry blossoms! Can't wait for warmer weather...

More >>

31 :: pope watch
31 :: miscellaneous
30 :: 2 weeks later
30 :: pollen gets in your eyes
30 :: switcheroo
29 :: long time coming
29 :: town whore
29 :: 8.7
24 :: alive and well
18 :: much better
17 :: i give
16 :: broken
14 :: baby steps
14 :: let 'em choose
14 :: still sick
10 :: slowly but surely
08 :: it's snowing... again
07 :: can't move
05 :: dude, where's my liver?
03 :: where's spring?
01 :: can't wait