Letters to Holly

Friday, June 30

Reunited, and it drives so good.

The car works again. While the idle isn't as smooth as I'd like, it's nowhere near as bad as it had been. Also the gear indicator is fixed. We had a pub dinner last night before heading to the forest edge for ice cream. We ran into one of my college drama professors, and we caught up on what's happened since graduation. He mentioned that the college auditions are open to the public, and this is my chance to get my stage legs back. The first potential play is by Edward Albee, and I'm all over that opportunity. I'll be the oldest guy. I can play a dad. If this is typical Albee, it will be a drunk, yuppie dad. We watched a documentary on Superman, and now I'm dying to see the film. Both yesteray and today started with a communal breakfast while waiting for the dealership to call. We never have breakfast together as we rarely awake at the same time. But this was nice. We read papers and ate baked goods. Your Sister's good to hang out with. Glad I married her.

Picture of the Day
I already miss the beard.


In the news
The Supreme Court ruling on Guantanamo detainees only applies to those charged before Congress's 2005 Detainee Treatment Act. Still, it may be the first major step in restraining the growing executive powers. The conservative slant on this is to again cite "activist judges," as if that invented outrage can carry the November elections.

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They're making a Transformers movie. I have no interest in this. My geek bubble only extends so far.

Thursday, June 29

Doggone

Woke up this morning to learn that, while walking the puppy, Your Sister met its owner. The dog went crazy with joy when it saw the man, so it was obviously his. So that's that.

I learned last night that Andrea and P2 won't be coming up this weekend, but will instead plan the trip around his planned seminars in Fayetteville. Maybe next weekend. This frees up Your Sis to see her college buddy in Greenville Sunday and into Monday. I shall stay home and draw. And booze it up.

The dealership said they got the wrong part and won't be able to fix my car until tomorrow morning. The boss has been good about me coming in late today and tomorrow. If they don't give me my car tomorrow, I'm demanding a loaner for the weekend. As I drove Your Sister's car to work, I saw a "Lost Dog" flyer describing the dog we handed over. Her name was Misha. The guy didn't tell us. I have no doubts he was the real owner, but he didn't offer anything for housing the dog he lost. A dog with no tags, no less. He's asking for that pooch to skedaddle again

Picture of the Day
Okily dokily.



In the news
The Supremes ruled 5-3 that the administration cannot deprive the Guantanamo inmates of full civil trials. This leads to a question of whether they are truly military detainees or regular prisoners. Also, it establishes that, despite administration assurances, they do indeed receive full Geneva Convention rights. Dissenting court opinion suggests the government will be hampered in seeking justice, but that assumes there is insufficient evidence to prosecute in a courtroom. If there is not enough evidence, what rationale is there for the incarcerations? The court effectively told the administration to either prove they belong locked up or release them. This is a conservative court, recently filled with two Bush appointees. Roberts excused himself from ruling because he worked the case on the appeal level.

Wednesday, June 28

Spidey!

It's a day of hope: The puppy will go to a animal foster home tomorrow, and the dealership is supposed to call me tonight to give me back the car. We still don't know what this weekend looks like with your family. We haven't heard the plans for Penn2 and Andrea, and I don't know what day I have off for July 4, if any. The boss has been in and out of the office with a family reunion shindig since Friday. I have no idea when I can see the Superman film before Tuesday. And it kills me.

Pictures of the Day
The Cowboy


The teaser trailer for Spider-Man 3 was released online yesterday, and it looks fabulous.



In the news
A bill for a flag-burning amendment failed in the Senate by one vote. This bill was all show. It would only allow Congress to later make the act criminal if it chose.

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House GOPers are trying to pass a bill condemning the NY Times for its article on financial wiretapping. This is yet another attempt to find a rallying position for the November elections. You don't kill the messenger. If someone in the government is leaking classified info, you blame them, not the papers. I suspect the administration wants such articles printed so it gives them something to rail against and appease the loyalists. If there are this many leaks and no one is getting fired for it, maybe the leaks have White House approval.

Tuesday, June 27

24 Hours of Turmoil

Ever since I got my car from my parents (they bought a new one), it has idled hard. Once you drive off, it's golden. But at red lights it shakes something awful. Yesterday, I heard a large engine rattle as I arrived at work. As I cranked it up after work, the rattle was much louder. I popped the hood, thinking maybe a screw had come loose during the recent inspection. Whatever was making the noise was deep in the engine. I drove it home despite awful shuddering and racket at red lights. I called Your Sis to warn her I may need a pick-up, but she wasn't answering her cell of the home phone. This didn't make me happy. We bought cell phones specifically for this contingency.

I arrived home and saw her standing next door. I strolled around the house, pretty mad, for about half an hour and then walked over. Heidi was holding a dog's leash. Little dog. Obviously a puppy, but it was also obviously going to be a big dog. What I gleaned from the conversation was that the dog had walked into our yard sporting no tags. It was a new stray, and the local foster-animal residential folks couldn't take it. Since Heidi found it, we're taking care of it. We borrowed a dog cage from the foster people, and they gave us some used chew stuff for it to play with. It stayed with us in the garage last night. It's a fantastic dog -- well trained and quiet -- but it can't be older than six months. Not only did it not make a peep last night, it didn't pee its cage. If we had a decent backyard to hold it, I'd claim this dog in a heartbeat.

Kathy and Travis came over for wings last night. As I was making the "found dog" signs, Your Sis made the wings. Incorrectly. Instead of flour, she coated them with oat bran. They didn't taste so bad, but they were clearly oatmealish. And I worry what buffalo oatmeal will do to my tummy.

I knew I had to take the car to the dealership this morning for repairs, but it only got a mile before it died. The battery's fine, the brakes are fine, but the idle is shot. I called Triple A for a tow and then Your Sis for a heads-up. After 45 minutes, the tow truck didn't arrive. After another thirty, it didn't arrive. Triple A called me back twice to confirm the truck showed up, and it finally arrived as I talked to them the second time. They towed the car off to the shop, and I took Your Sister's car to work. The dealership called me about an hour later to give me the diagnostic and the estimate. It's not as bad as I feared. I can get it tomorrow night, hopefully, and the idle problem will be no more. Maybe.

Pictures of the Day
This is the dog.



This is me after the first shave Saturday. The sideburns are no longer with us.



In the news
About three months after he avoided prison with a plea deal about prescription shopping, Rush Limbaugh was detained at a Florida airport for carrying Viagra without a prescription. Idiot. Worse, he was carrying it back into the country from the Dominican Republic.

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Palestine's Hamas-Fatah government may recognize Israel.

Monday, June 26

Shavespeare

Kathy and Travis decided not to drive to H'ville for German food, and we ate instead at a local steakhouse. That's fine by me. A good time was had by all. We adjourned to Jason's for dessert and began a lengthy talk about religion. We established no new beachheads but refined our positions better and walked away much later content with the conversation. These are good people, and I enjoy their company a great deal.

Saturday marked the beginning of horrible weather, and that knocked us out of seeing The Tempest at Montford Park. Your Sis asked that I shave so she could see me sans beard but with the short haircut and the new glasses. Before we had lunch, I was shorn, as this week's Pictures of the Day will document. We hit the pub for lunch and discussed our potential August honeymoon. We talked about Chicago, but we both expressed concerns about pulling it together on such short notice. There's also the matter of the necessary chunk of change. I promised to leaf through our Chicago tour books to find the best destinations.

Back home, she reminded me that her sink was borken, and I looked at it. The knob that controls the stopper was broken. I had never fixed a sink before and didn't know what the repair would entail. Off to Lowe's I went and found me a stopper kit to fix it. About 20 minutes later, I had done the deed. It was a cinch, and I didn't have to drain any pipes. I feel so competent. So manly. Had I retained the beard before the repair, I could have been the new Bounty mascot. She took off with Julie, who's getting married next weekend, and they were gone for about seven hours. I sketched a bit and watched the Ebert commentary on the Casablanca DVD. I love that man. He not only knows his stuff, he can communicate it in an interesting way.

The next day, I woke up early to catch England vs. Ecudaor and finally saw Beckham play. he scored the only goal, and it was a soaring beaut. I found a pamphlet from a Virginia Shakespeare playhouse and discovered their August offerings were tempting: Macbeth, As You Like It, and Tempest. We decided this is where we can go for our honeymoon: Shakespeare and bed-and-breakfasts. We are geeks. We watched The Merchant of Venice last night, and having never read the play, I found it a dour, mean-spirited story. I can't tell if it's supposed to signify the effects of crafty women on men, generational wars, or the crippling formality of men. Al Pacino owns the film as Shylock. There's really no other reason to watch the movie.

Picture of the Day
The pre-shave.


In the news
Remember when the GOP slammed the Democrats for suggesting we craft a time-table to withdraw from Iraq? Turns out the Pentagon's top general has done just that. Also, the prime minister of Iraq proposed a program to grant amnesty to insurgents, distinguishing them from terrorists, if they promise to rebuild the city. Guess how happy this makes our administration. This will strain the notion of a "free Iraq," but it's a needed step. He's lives there. He's nominally in charge. He has to try something to end the violence seeing as how we can't.

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UNC might win the College World Weries tonight agaist Oregon State.

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The Florida terrorists arrested last week may instead be a pack of restless twerps with no training, no weapons, no money, and no plot. The question now is this: Were they set up as a big arrest by an undercover agent who directed them to a jihadist stance?