freedom of free association

It's been raining here for days. Good for the flowers, bad for my walking.

Have I ever mentioned that I love getting late presents? See, while it's great to get, you know, birthday presents on your birthday and Chanukah presents in December, it's that much better to get a present when you don't expect one. To that end, although not a present, one of you should be watching her mailbox. Think better late than never. Debt paid.

I hate my health insurance company.

I broke two nails int he past 24 hours and now have to cut the other 8.

Lots of fun on the calendar this monrth...new friends for dinner, new friends out for dinner sevearl times (once to the yummy sushi place!), trip to the nursery with Karen, and a visit from Sam, which is sure to include some fairly heavy drinking.

Weird story: An old friend of Andrew's called this week. Andrew was inthe basement, and I answered the phone. It was the first time I'd spoken with this friend in about 2 years. Somehow, the conversation turned political very qucikly and, next thing I knew, he was ranting his conservative rant at me, spewing about Muslims, something to the effect of "those people don't value human life." I tired to explain that mine were the politics of compassion, that I am less interested in powerful extremists of any flavor than I am in making sure that mothers all over the world, who are exactly the same as I am, do not have to worry about getting gang raped while going to the stream to get clean water to keep their babies from dying of dysentery. He told me that's because I haven't studied Islam the way that he has, and then he called me ignorant. Ignorant. Hello, two years later, and, by the way, you're ignorant. I told him to hold on, that I was sure Andrew would be thrilled to speak with him.

My car had no gas in it today. None. Yellow light on all the time. Gauge parallel to the road. $50.29. Do you think that, given gas prices, I should give the cleaning lady a small raise? Seems that it's pretty tough for her to have to buy gas drive all over the county to clean other people's houses. Hang on, baby, November's coming.

What about Duke? What a mess that case is going to be. And, for once, I have no gut feeling. Someone is telling a whopper of a lie here but, unlike in many recent notorious cases, it's not really obvious to me who that is.

And now, I'm off to Bed, Bath & Beyond, Staples, Walgreens, the mall, dinner, and a Girl Scout parents' meeting.

Later, dudes.