Author: lux

Off with a bang…

We leave for Rome tonight, so this will most likely be the last blog update until April 10. I’m told our hotel has Internet access but I want to enjoy Rome while I’m there, not spend my time in front of a computer.

Of course, my PC picked last night to stop recognizing my iPod, so I was up very very late trying to get the two of them talking again. That’s done, and 2 audio books are ready for listening on the flight.

We also discovered, almost by accident, some financial upheaval – it seems someone got one of Scott’s passwords and attempted to transfer all the money in our checking and savings account to our American Express card, then to buy expensive stuff with it. Luckily for us, we found out about it after all the cash had been transferred out of our bank but before it had been moved out of AmEx. Unluckily for us, the person who did this cleaned out our checking and savings accounts the day before our trip and two days before rent is due. AmEx can refund us the money but it will take some time for them to do so.

So overall, our luck held, but it’s still a pretty sucky thing to have happen to you. We’re off to the bank early this AM to see what else we can do to get things straightened out. We don’t have to leave for the airport until 3pm, so there’s time enough for that, a few loads of laundry, and packing, but that’s about it.

Ciao all! See you when I get back.

Light At The End of The Tunnel

This month has really sucked, as far as work goes. But things are (dare I say it?) getting better. One of my staffers from the Santa Rosa store agreed to start working in Corte Madra with me and today was her first day.

What a relief it is to have her there! It’s amazing how much more smoothly things run with the addition of just one more person in the store. I can go buy supplies for the store or take lunch without worrying and rushing back as soon as possible, becasue if there’s a wave of customers when I’m out, there’s two people to handle it, not just one. Things stay more organized and get done faster because there’s that extra pair of hands. And there’s someone else who can help me with the load of managament tasks I’ve had to do alone for the past 6 weeks.

Better still, on Wednesday we head out for Italy! There’s a lot to get done between now and then, but I’ve been trying to stay organized and plan as much as possible, so we don’t get tripped up by last minute issues. We need to pick up a few odds and ends for the trip, and I need to get laundry done, but overall we’re pretty much ready.

The one thing I regret is that I’ve been so damn busy I have not had much time to review the “Living Language” Italian CDs I ordered. I hate being an ignorant tourist who can’t speak the language of the place she’s visiting but we’ll have to wing it with the phrasebook.

In short, I’m starting to feel like I’m coming out of the tunnel I’ve been plowing through since taking over the Corte Madera store. Long may it last!

Slippery Slope? We're flying down it

So the Senate passed an “Unborn Victims of Violence Act” today. This heinous piece of legislation defines an “unborn child” as any child in utero, which it says “means a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.” In other words, from the moment sperm meets egg.

This is some scary stuff for people who believe that a woman should have the right to control her own life and her own reproductive system. If it’s a crime for a 3rd party to harm a fetus, it’s a pretty small step to making it a crime for the mother herself to harm said fetus. And once that’s the case, then is it that big a step to having the government control what a woman can and can’t do, or eat, or drink? Whether she can get on an airplane, or even drive a car while pregnant?

Hell, let’s just send all women who become pregnant off to special pregnancy camps, where they can stay for 40 weeks and incubate, only doing exactly what the government thinks is good for them during that time. Never mind the woman’s rights. It’s all about the fetus.

Think it could never happen in America?

Just wait. If Bush is re-elected, I’ll lay good odds that Roe v Wade goes down during his 2nd term.

A pox on all their houses

I wasn’t planning on blogging any more about the 9/11 inquiries and Richard Clarke this week. As I’ve said before, 9/11 is a painful subject for me so I try not to stir the embers too often. But a friend, we’ll call her Patty, posted the following on a messageboard I frequent and she made a lot of sense.

i could give a rat’s ass about whose party did what. i rarely if ever get into these political threads because i can’t stand all the fingerpointing and nonsense. basically, what i’m trying to say is if you clear away all the bullshit on BOTH sides, what is happening in our government is frightening. unprecedented. everyone is too ****ing busy worrying about who did what to whom and what party is responsible to take a cold hard look at that shit. patriot act, no press conferences, no accountability whatsoever, staff jumping ship like there’s no tomorrow and consistently telling horror stories, LIES LIES LIES that pretty soon no spin in the world is going to cover or hide.

this is much more serious than a blowjob

i ask again, WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE??? it doesn’t matter whose SIDE you are on. any american should want answers. if they have nothing to hide, then they should be happy, no, PROUD to speak on the record re: their actions re: keeping america safe, blah blah blah. all his EFFORTS, all HE’S DONE. prove it then. let’s hear it. i want to, don’t YOU?

isn’t that what bush is going on and on about? isn’t that his bread and buttah stump speech? “i’ll save you, i know what i’m doing!”

okay then. show me your track record. TELL US. we’re listening.

hey, he was ELECTED. he is ACCOUNTABLE, as are his staff. to US.
put up or shut up. obviously they’re afraid of something or they wouldn’t be scurrying around like rats trying to dummy everyone the **** up.

Posted with permission. I bleeped out a bit of profanity.

The Bush Administration is a bunch of liars

Well, most of them are, if Richard Clarke is to be believed, and it certainly sounds like he’s credible. Anyone who read Bob Woodward’s “Bush At War” will not be surprised by Clarke’s charge that administration members wanted to invade Iraq as of September 12, 2001. Only now, the press seems more ready to pay attention to that fact.

There’s a great article at the Center for American Progress’ webaite detailing how Clarke is right and the Bushies are liars. Now, I’m well aware that this is a progressive website and there’s the danger of bias, but unless they’re lying in the quotes they cite, I’m pretty sure they’ve nailed this one. Here’s a sample:

CLAIM #1: “Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction and he chose not to.”

Untitled Post

I’m 38 years old.

When I look in the mirror, I sometimes remember being in my painting class in college and trying to do a self-portrait. It was not one of my more successful works. I could never get my own face right – the angles eluded me somehow.

When I look in the mirror, I don’t see myself as having changed all that much from that 20 year old struggling with paint and brushes. The lines on my forehead are a bit more defined, but otherwise I don’t think I look all that different. The hair is longer than it was then, and it’s bottle-auburn shot through with bits of grey, not blonde. But the face is the same.

I wonder, will I still look in the mirror when I’m 70 and be able to see that same girl?