sundries

It has rained for the last three days. It's going to rain for the next five. The current evolution of my cold/flu is alarming sinus activity. That started Monday, was frightening me by Tuesday night (I'm a hypochondriac, that fact that I was afraid means nothing), seems somewhat better today, and, I suspect, will ebb and flow until the rain finally stops next week. This is miserable.

I need a witty Jack Harkness-esque comeback (that is NOT an invitation) for the messengers in my office building that greet me with "hello, baby girl!" because you've got to be joking. For one thing, I am old enough to be that guy's mother. For another, conversations that start "hello, baby girl!" shouldn't really end with "god bless you!" either.

Starbucks. I spend money at you now in deference to your gluten-freeness.

I am thinking I will finally be able to think enough to write the railroad story tonight.

Need to call Duchess Clothiers today. And order new checks. And put money in the cruise fund. Not related, but transactional stuff all goes in the same category.

Also need to catch up on email. I will note that my gay fandom boyfriend apologizes when it takes him two days to email me, whereas I'm lucky if I reply to him within a week.

Keith Olbermann is annoying me more and more lately, but I still have to flip the show on every night to see his fabulous wardrobe.

Rachel Maddow. Interviewing Ron Paul. Wow, was she holding herself back or what? Also, she seemed sort of bored as he droned on and on. Ron Paul really works my last nerve sometimes, because he's so deeply rational on some things, and a complete loon (and/or bigot) on others.

Those of us who lived through the 80s tend to have a certain allergy to second-person prose. There was a lot of it in the cocaine-obsessed Wall Street fantasy fiction of the era and it can be a trick both trite and aggressive. However, neifile7, uses it to great effect in a Torchwood fic that takes the times to actually figure out what the hell Jack's 51st century mores are, quite apart from anything goes. It's different than the sense of that I've constructed in the past, but I think it's totally right on, and she hits it out of the park: http://neifile7.livejournal.com/4773.html

My uncle, whose wife died last summer, is dating someone new and wants my parents to meet her. My mother doesn't want to go because of her loyalty to the dead aunt (they're not related, they both married into my father's family) and also doesn't want to go because the woman is a two-time cancer survivor and likes to talk about her treatments. My mother finds this objectionable, because in the face of her cancer she "tried to just keep living a normal life" -- well through a fluke my mother didn't even need chemo, so she had an option for normal I don't think she understands. There's also probably a lot of money subtext involved in all this. The whole conversation sort of irritated me though.

Miss California is about to lose her crown for the same reason as so many pageant contestants before her -- nude photos. Eventhough the pics we've seen don't actually show any pink (other than the ugly panties), it's still a violation of her contract and there's ample evidence to suggest she's trying to lie about when the photos were taken to try to wriggle out of the problem. Regardless, it's standard pageant dramarama, and the second she blames the release of the photos on those evil gays, well, I might start ranting, but I'm not going to be surprised.

Meanwhile, Joe the Plumber, rants about keeping his children away from queers in the new issue of Christianity Today. I say, shame on Christianity Today, which was often in my house growing up (remember: Dad wrote his own version of the Bible and self-published) and seemed mainstream and not crazy. I may identify as queer, but it's still a slur coming from people like Joe the Plumber, and I'm more than a little disturbed that Christianity Today let such tonal quality grace its pages.

Gay marriage in Maine

The AP is reporting the Maine governor has signed the bill, making it legal. CNN and NYTimes seem to be slow on updating.

ETA: ah, link!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/06/maine.same.sex.marriage/index.html

ETA2:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/us/07marriage.html

There's probably a lot more action to come on this in Maine. We must remain vigilant.

*dancedancedance*

My suit is being shipped out today. The Duchess folks will be back in town at the end of the month, at which point they will have their alterations person on hand, should it need any tweaks and I'll be able to look at getting some shirts made and talk more about the tux or the next suit or whatever.

*rolls around in happiness*

Sadly, however, I've been remiss about getting shirts done, and I think the odds of me finding any men's shirts that will fit my neck and have French cuffs are completely south of zero. So things aren't going to be quite right at first.

Anyway, if I am very lucky, the suit will be here Friday. But Monday, realistically.

Also nice? The balance I owed on it was less than I recalled. Yay.

Clearly, I need to get my hair cut this week.

*

Also, unrelatedly, does DWNY know how to hook up geektastic social opportunities or what? Which is to say, if you thought that foot in mouth interaction with Paul Cornell re: Steven Moffat was hilarious who knows what terrible things we'll say to Gareth Roberts. I'm sorry, man. In advance. I'm just sorry.

random media mention lolz

http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2009/05/06/Campus/Kindle.Headline-3737807.shtml