sundries

Last night Cricket managed to flip a hideous waterbug onto its back so that Patty could dispose of it. Cricket, though, did not understand why. Pretty and I, meanwhile, supervised.

Woke up to good news this morning. The cruise we want for next year is back in the catalog for the dates we want it. This is very, very exciting, and I look forward to calling and switching the reservation and seeing what they can do for us $$-wise.

Patty and I are going to stop by the opening of Eataly tonight, I think.

I really, for reals, seriously, have a damn proposal deadline today. But the weather in my head hasn't been great regarding my ambitions and whether they're any good for me lately. Which is all well and good, but I can examine that when I'm Not on a Deadline.

Both Kai Owen and James Marsters have had to pull out as Dragon*Con guests. Having seen them both at various cons before, I find myself oddly relieved: less stuff I want to do at Dragon*Con means more time to relax, and lord knows I'll need it with what my own schedule looks like.

Rachel Maddow had a long, scary round-up on anti-Islamic violence last night. Anyone know of anything similar on the Internet I can point to. There's the Koran-burning in Florida, the stabbing here in NYC, the prayer rug desecration (also in NYC), the opposition to the mosque in Tennessee that supposedly about parkking availability but clearly isn't now that construction equipment has been set on fire and shots fired, and some stuff going on in California.... yeah. Bad news. azn_jack_fiend points us to a piece on the trends from SPLC that is necessarily working with older data as well as current events. But being reminded of the SPLC is always good.

Ickful, interesting and weirdly hilarious: the trials and tribulations of bedbug researchers. The best part? Totally the part about the university and the condom budget.

But New York doesn't just have a bedbug problem. Oh no, now we have raccoons. It's not just that the little fuckers might be rabid; it's that they are really good at breaking into houses.

Torchwood: tragically delicious!