Saturday night at home

Went over to meet Guy and his boyfriend; Guy had invited me to see a movie with him - we made our plans a week ago. He added in the boyfriend about 20 minutes before I was to meet him/them. I was sitting on the Katy Freeway in traffic for nearly 15 minutes before throwing in the towel.

Now, I'm at home.

Barbara revealed last night and today that she has it for Wolfram. As I suspected, it's likely that she was feeding each of us lines to make each of us ... do whatever she thought would be good for her program. Lovely. Thwarted by a 20 year old female. And a sexually ambiguous married man.

Carlos is going home tomorrow; he's not coming to Houston.

Talked to Wim today finally. Six weeks ago, he came by and said he wanted to work on the Fabulair calendar. Finally, he talked to me today. He's done nothing. That's two people that I offered to pay money to do the calendar research. No, three. No, four. So far, I've gotten approximately 70 events out of it. In a year. A damned year.

TGIF - with New Vision!

I've just returned from the eye doctor, where I was told my eyes are in great shape; arguably better than they were in 1997 when I first started going there. Interesting.

I'm charging my new Bluetooth headset, which I finally figured out how to use. It seems to work great! A huge improvement.

On my way home from the eye doctor, it occured to me that I was driving RIGHT past Pier One, and that I wanted a couple more stacking wine racks - so, in I went. They had the ones I wanted, and I credited myself for only buying two when I wanted THREE (now I have to buy wine.) I found a candle plate for New Vision, and TWO DVD racks that relieved the space problem on the DVD shelf. This does create room for another 20 or so DVDs and the rest of the Angel boxed sets.

Watching "Friday Night Lights." I've been wanting to see this - it's about the 1988 Odessa Permian High School football team.

Applied for a loan for a Phaeton today; have to work out some details.

I've replaced ice cream in my diet with apples and raisins. Not quite the same thing, but it will make me feel a lot better in the long run.

I have a ton of work to do tomorrow.

And, I'm already pooped.

It looks like the club at the end of the street is going to have a parking lot party tonight. That should be .. loud. And, the parking lot should be full of non-resident cars tonight. Fun.

Thursday evening class returns

Urk. I finished my term paper, did most of my reading, did the other homework assignments - I haven't felt so disconnected with a project in a long time.

Today, I got a lot of things done. Almost have the desk cleared off, which is scary. Bought the 1099 kits for myself and clients, got a new bluetooth headset which is too complex for me to figure out.

Talked to C today a while; seems I'll not be having dinner with him this weekend after all. Mikey is taking a sabbatical from the Whores of Baghdad, and Chuck is headed to B'ham to hang out with his lesbionic boyfriend. So, it's just me .. or will it be? Barbara reports that Wolfram has stated his intention to spend time with me this weekend.

Will it be a weekend of sexual ambiguity and mixed messages? Or, do I hunker down, ignore the ministrations of the married, and focus on doing my home work for next week, continuing to get ready for tax season and cleaning my apartment?

I bought some dual layer DVDs today, and STILL can't get all the files I want to write to disk. I'm going to have to beg Mikey to take the blanks and copy the files for me. Sheesh.

Other than synchronizing my Treo, I'm ready to go to class, so I guess this will be a short entry tonight.

MEDICAL INSURANCE EXPLAINED

(Research done by the AARP Legal Department)

Q. What does HMO stand for?

A. This is actually a variation of the phrase, "HEY MOE." Its roots go back to a concept pioneered by Moe of the Three Stooges, who discovered that a patient could be made to forget the pain in his foot if he was poked hard enough in the eye.

Q. I just joined an HMO. How difficult will it be to choose the doctor I want?

A. Just slightly more difficult than choosing your parents. Your insurer will provide you with a book listing all the doctors in the plan. The doctors basically fall into two categories: those who are no longer accepting new patients, and those who will see you but are no longer participating in the plan. But don't worry, the remaining doctor who is still in the plan and accepting new patients has an office just a half-day's drive away and a diploma from a third world country.

Q. Do all diagnostic procedures require pre-certification?

A. No. Only those you need.

Q. Can I get coverage for my preexisting conditions?

A. Certainly, as long as they don't require any treatment.

Q. What happens if I want to try alternative forms of medicine?

A. You'll need to find alternative forms of payment.

Q. My pharmacy plan only covers generic drugs, but I need the name brand. I tried the generic medication, but it gave me a stomach ache. What should I do?

A. Poke yourself in the eye.

Q. What if I'm away from home and I get sick?

A. You really shouldn't do that.

Q. I think I need to see a specialist, but my doctor insists he can handle my problem. Can a general practitioner really perform a heart transplant right in his/her office?

A. Hard to say, but considering that all you're risking is the $20 co-payment, there's no harm in giving it a shot.

Q. Will health care be different in the next century?

A. No, but if you call right now, you might get an appointment by then.

Hump day speedbumps

I don’t know why, but it’s so much easier for me to write these posts using Word than typing them into a browser window.

Today started off ruggedly.   My dad backed off of his promise to send me some money after selling his house in Florida for a half million clear.  I couldn’t reach my mortgage broker to get a check from him that was due today, and I couldn’t email or reach someone at Chase about the rapacious fees they socked me with yesterday for my client’s $200 check bouncing on me the day before.  

So, after mentally throwing in the towel, and realizing that I’d be much happier if I generated my own money rather than having some of my dad’s, I reached the broker, talked to Jeffrey about retrieving my big man bag (which I had left at his place the night before,) and started my circle of errands with my lower lip tucked into my waist band.

Ran errands, feeling quite sorry for myself, and met up with Chuck for lunch.  Came home,helped him with some things, then had the ugly realization that it was nearly 3:00 and I hadn’t yet produced any WORK.  The phone had begun to ring, and I had just a few hours to crank out something productive.  I did make some progress on the inter-asian land purchase transaction – I think I may actually have this one in the bag before the client leaves for a month long vacation to Cambodia.  That’s a shocker.  

Didn’t make ANY progress on my term papers, nor the reading I have to have done for tomorrow night.  

Was going to have dinner with Michael; he wandered off at around 5:00 and said “call me.”  I did, and heard nothing further from him until 7:30, at which time I told him that he had missed his window of opportunity.  Travis, the marvelously sexually ambiguous and likely married doctor called, sounding VERY low tonight, and wanted to “get together” tomorrow night.  I called him back after telling Michael that his time was passed, and he came by around 9:15 tonight.  WOW.

I’ve known Travis about two years now, and he’s never been particularly sexually involved, even when we were going out fairly regularly.  The last two weeks though has signalled a huge shift.  Tonight, he fairly jumped on me.  I was .. shocked?  Flattered?

I’ve always really liked Travis - aside from the fact that he's a proto-nazi, right wing Christian bigot.  He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s beautiful, and no one fills out a pair of Dockers quite as well as he does.

Tomorrow is a hugely busy day for me.  Fortunately, it should start off with some good news from Chase – the officer on my account was SO nice to me today.  Then, some quick work on the inter-asian loan file, and then a TON of sorting through records, trying to make heads or tails of this corporate accounting mess.

And, of course, the reading, terms papers and other preparation for class, which starts up tomorrow.

Courtesy Minneapolis/St. Paul city pages 

Tuesday developments

A good day, I guess, all around. Got work out on two loan files, cleaned up some stuff, got a client's bank account that much closer to straightened out, worked on some consulting gigs, brought in some more work, got funded on a loan. Ended up with a lot less paper on the desk, although the amount of paper that needs be generated tomorrow is larger than what today started with.

Dinner with Jeffrey and Steven tonight - they're so wonderful. Left my big man bag over there, though. Talked to my Aunt Liz today, which was great. Got the bid for the Fabulair merchandise in - Dad closed on his house today (I think,) and I got my Phaeton owner's manual in the mail today.

Finding all KINDS of information that isn't available on the news, mostly from my friend Mike F.

My house is a WRECK. Well, by Hord standards, it's a white trash tenement slum sixth floor cold water walkup flat.

Heard from C today - he's driving down here this weekend. Yup. You guessed it. Oh, my.

Asked Michael out to dinner tomorrow night.

Another REALLY scary article about diabetes in today's NYT. Holy shit.

Okay, it's time for me to get some sleep. Later, gators!

Monday, Monday ver. 660.01

Baking chicken for dinner. I've recently discovered a chicken preparation method that just WORKS. I bake a single chicken breast in a covered, small pyrex dish - just barely big enough for the chicken breast. It gives an amazingly moist breast, without adding liquid.

I figured I'd be hearing from Michael (The Hooker) soon enough - and, tonight, there he was. He wanted to "talk." Uh-huh. What is there to say? He did admit to having to taking my car, and that it was inexcusable. Blah, blah. He wants to come pick up his "stuff." C'mon. Bring it.

Been spending some time today thinking about my self-definitions and beliefs (again.) Worked on my business website, on generating some new income, and on having some new loan business.

Had a message or two from Wolf tonight - I pretty much burned that bridge tonight. Just worn through with ambivalence. Speaking of ambivalence, I had an unsolicited email from N8 today; he's up to his normal bizarre behavior. Strange wit PLUS ambivalence. And, just to make sure things are as amusing as they can be .. PJ has been chasing Mikey around. Apparently, my telling him that he is a drunk, a bad lay and an arrogant little shit who adds nothing to life had something to do with his abandoning me for Mikey.

Watching "Strictly Ballroom." I think I've seen this before - it's just SO overdone. Cute, but overdone.

Big article today in the NYT about diabetes. Scary. Really damned scary. Scared the living shit out of me.

Why is Alito ashamed of his past?

By kos on ScAlito

Michael at AMERICAblog. Apologies for stealing the whole thing, but this deserves as wide a reading as possible.

The far right wants us to believe that Supreme Court nominee Alito is similar to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Even though everyone knew Ginsburg was a liberal, she was passed by a vast majority in the Senate. They are both in the mainstream of judicial philosophy, the far right says. So Alito deserves the same treatment because he's "qualified."

So why is Alito so ashamed of his entire career?

Ginsburg IS in the mainstream of judicial philosophy, even though she's clearly a strong liberal. But she never pretended to be anything else. And everything on Ginsburg's resume was something she was proud of. Every group she belonged to, every organization she worked for, every position she staked out on the issues of the day and every promise she made reflected who Ruth Bader Ginsburg was, what she stood for and what she believed in.

Did she insist you shouldn't read anything into her work for the ACLU? Of course not; she was proud of that work. Did she insist you shouldn't read anything into her activism over the years, her push for equality among the sexes? Don't be absurd. Did she break her word on solemn pledges made before the Senate? Never.

Nothing could be further from the truth for Alito. He is apparently ashamed of everything he's ever done. Alito boasted on an application for promotion in the Reagan administration about belonging to the racist, Neanderthal-ish Concerned Alumni For Princeton. Now he pretends he can't remember ever belonging to them at all.

Alito said he wanted to become a lawyer because he was so distraught about Supreme Court rulings that led to "one person, one vote," a cornerstone of our modern democracy. Now, he says we should ignore his consistent, persistent attacks on affirmative action.

Alito also cannily helped to devise the incremental approach to dismantling Roe v Wade that has been the very tactic the far right has used. Now Alito says to ignore all that.

Alito has repeatedly proven he believes the president is more like an emperor -- someone who deserves almost unlimited deference from the Supreme Court, especially during a time of war.

Finally, Alito pledged to the Senate that he would recuse himself under certain situations as a federal judge. He repeatedly broke that pledge. His excuses vary: he forgot, the computers shouldn't have assigned him those cases in the first place, he never HAD to recuse himself, and finally he never promised he would recuse himself forever. The reasons change, but the fact remains: Alito gave his word and then he broke it. He can't be trusted.

Since Alito is so clearly ashamed of himself, shouldn't we be ashamed of him and keep him off the Supreme Court?

While conservatives like to pretend that the country is with them, their actions speak louder than words.

If the country is truly with them, why do they have to spin, lie, and frame away the things they truly stand for? Scalito is just the latest in a long history of efforts to hide what they really stand for.

To conservatives I say, "Be proud! Stand tall! Tell people what you TRULY believe! And if they're with you, then you've won the war of ideas. But quit the subterfuge. It's quite unbecoming."

Of course, they won't listen. They know that a full airing of their views would doom them. It would doom Alito. And as such, true conservatism remains in the closet, pathetically hiding in the shadows.

More King George

By kos on signing statements

Ahh, this is why Bush has never vetoed any bills:

When George Bush signed the defense appropriation bill containing John McCain's amendment removing torture and other human rights violations from the official repertoire of the armed forces, he added his own little amendment: "Unless I say otherwise." The vehicle through which he reserved the option to break the law is called a bill-signing statement, and as Knight Ridder's Ron Hutcheson revealed on Friday, the McCain bill was far from the first victim of the practice: Bush has used it some 500 times since taking office [...]

Bush doesn't veto bills because in his view, he doesn't have to; he can simply ignore the ones he doesn't like.

The administration have made that argument explicit, but only in terms of the president's capacity as "commander in chief" during an endless war, as with the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping, the decisions to ignore various Geneva Conventions and the selective suspension of habeas corpus. According to the Hutcheson story, though, it isn't only legislation dealing with national security issues that the White House asserts the right to ignore.

In 2003, lawmakers tried to get a handle on Bush's use of signing statements by passing a Justice Department spending bill that required the department to inform Congress whenever the administration decided to ignore a legislative provision on constitutional grounds.

Bush signed the bill, but issued a statement asserting his right to ignore the notification requirement.

Seriously, why doesn't King George just dissolve Congress and get it over with.

Should I stay or should I go?

Church this morning was very good - I was explaining how the Science of Mind works - people seemed to be very pleased.

After church, we went to Sartin's for lunch and our board meeting. Meeting went well; then, we got up to leave and I sliced the snot out of my left ring finger putting my bag over my head. I bled EVERYWHERE. I don't think I've ever bled that much.

I just looked at it thinking .. uh, well .. what do you know? I had many people ministering to me (and wiping up the blood.) Now it's just inconvenient to type with.

Lined up classes that I'll be teaching at NV starting in Feburary; and immediately realized that I need to change the dates, as they will conflict with San Jac teaching.

Got home around 5:45 today - a very full day.

Had a quick conversation tonight with C, who was asking me about my Hallowe'en trip to Dallas - he started asking me about different "events" - it was a "sister say WHAT?" moment. Like, which trip to Dallas had he heard about? The trips I've taken bore no resemblance to what he'd heard. Went to Jack in the Box and picked up who? I didn't have a car! I didn't drive that entire weekend, except when I test drove the Phaeton.

So, more hostility from the leasing office. And more loud banging from upstairs. My lease is up March 6 - my time to give notice is already passed, but I could certainly have Mike F. help me nuke them and get me out. But, where to go?

My blood sugar is totally catawampus again. Blarg.

Where did I put my interview on Fox 26? I can't find the tape.

I had more profound pontificating planned for tonight, but it seems to have escaped me.

Heard from Wolfram tonight:

Wolrfram "I'm breathing again."
Divo "I guess breathing is a good thing."
Wolfram "Back to work for more auditing."
Divo "Tonight? It's 800 pm in the evening."
Wolfram "Yeah. Sigh."
Divo "You didn't hear? Lincoln freed the slaves. So, why communication all of a sudden?"
Wolfram "B told me you asked if I was okay. Busy as hell, but okay."
Divo "Ah. Actually, I asked if she'd heard from you. So, had I not triangulated with her, you would yet be silent? Nice."

No further word.

Had another conversation today that was interesting (they're all interesting, after my conversation with Lisa today.) A guy that I've had ONE date with asks me why I don't like him. Ver. 214.11 ugh. "Why am I the one who always initiates these conversations? Blah, blah." He asked me to be honest. So, after gathering my words, I told him that every conversation with him required that I either assuage his hurt feelings because I had had a phone call, or a fax, or an email that interrupted my immediate response to his hails, OR he asked me why I didn't like him or want to date him, which also required assuagement. Thus, I said, I avoid these conversations, as they're difficult, repetitive and whiney.

Wow.

He says "okay, I can accept that." And promptly begins to tell me that he's worried about me, as I'm the worst workaholic he knows. Uh .. who? Who are you speaking about? You can't follow my somewhat vague, but very clear statement should have included the obvious "I'm making excuses to deflect having to tell you that you're too difficult to spend time with." Along with the fact that the one time we did go out, I thought you were going to eat my face when we had a good night kiss. YUCK.

I've begun to notice that some of my more ... right-wing .. friends have begun to speak with a tone of resignation about the future of the Republicans, and have begun to back away from their association with these folk. It's been very subtle. I think that as this information continues to cascade out - as dots continue to be connected - it's going to get worse.

At which point, I intend to take a baseball bat to anyone who beat the crap out of me about Clinton's blowjob if they aren't crawling on the floor, begging forgiveness for the hypocrisy.

Gently, of course.

Read Philip's blog tonight. He's having a roaring time in Oz. Just totally not my speed or style. I'm glad he's having the trip of his dreams, though.