Out to Pasture

The dealership let me know they are hesitant to make another round of speculative repairs on the car and advise me to get a new one. I wasn't thrilled to hear that, and I remember they said the same thing to me when I took in my original car in 2004. It will cost $500 just to get my still-broken car back from them, but the next round of repairs would double the bill. And after talking to Your Sister, it was decided that we'll get a new one. Just not a Ford. We've done tons of research already, and now we're at the budgeting and test-driving stage.

I don't have as much of an attachment to this car as I did to the previous one. This one was a hand-me-down from my parents, and the previous car was the first car I bought new off the lot. That one was repaired (at a hefty price) and handed over to charity once I got the parents' old car. We both had Ford Contours. Apparently they all reach the age of ten and automatically disassemble themselves. We can still use the car to tool around town, but I don't trust it to get me to work and back.

Picture of the Day
Lenin's got game.

Cooking With Stupidity

Let's say, just for the sake of conversation, you were lactose intolerant. This condition, we'll say, emerged in your mid-20s, and you learned recently that this is not uncommon for people of Cherokee heritage. Like you, maybe. And let's say it was your turn to make dinner, oh, last night, and you decided to forgo the bottled alfredo cause to make a fresh batch from a new recipe book.

1/4 cup grated Romano
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (with additional two tablespoons set aside as a condiment)
cup whipping cream
one egg yolk
dash of nutmeg
dash of pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter

And follow it you did -- to the letter, to the ounce -- and gobbled up the final result with Your Smokin' Hot Wife. Would you be surprised, then, when Your Smokin Hot-Under-the-Collar Stomach decided to mutiny? Would you be shocked to experience pains and discomfort not unlike the Spanish Inquisition? Because if you wouldn't be shocked, you are a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

Lesson Learned: I'm fucking retarded. But in my defense, store-bought alfredo doesn't do this to me, and I thought I was safe. Surely, fresh ingredients are safer for me than preservative chemicals. Right? Can I get a witness? Did I make unwittingly add tainted dog food?

Moving Picture of the Day
The trailer for the third Pirates of the Caribbean. I think we'll see it nine times.



In the News
A fantastic question was offered by a CNN reporter to Tony Snow yesterday during the daily pres briefing.

Q Just to follow up on one point earlier, yesterday the President said, and you've repeated, that the principle at stake here with executive privilege is that the President needs to get candid advice from his advisors, right?

MR. SNOW: What the President has talked about is privileged communications with close staff members, that is correct.

Q But earlier you were saying that, when I asked about, well, was the President informed of this decision, did the President sign off on U.S. attorneys being fired, you said the President has no recollection of being informed of all this.

MR. SNOW: Correct.

Q So were his advisors really advising him on this? Is this really privileged communication involving the President and his advisors, if the President wasn't looped in, you're saying, on this decision? So it was other people --

MR. SNOW: Well, that also falls into the intriguing question category.

Q But, I mean --

MR. SNOW: No, you're asking -- you're asking me to -- look, Ed, there are a number of complex legal considerations in here, and I'm not going to try to play junior lawyer. These are the sort of things that people are going to have an opportunity to talk about.

Q But aren't you having it both ways? If you're saying the President wasn't in the loop, but we need to cite executive privilege for the President's communications --

MR. SNOW: No, what you're -- what you are saying is, are conversations that didn't take place privileged? Well, no -- they didn't take place.

Q So what are you protecting, if they didn't take place?

MR. SNOW: Well, no, we're not -- what we're trying to do is to protect the ability of the American people to see folks in Washington get at the truth without, in fact, engaging in the kind of unseemly partisanship that has too often been a factor in recent political life.

+ + +

Internet Radio may be killed off by new royalty regulations increasing the amount artists and labels are to be paid by online stations. While the rate is measured in penny fractions, it's based on the number of listeners, not the number of times the song is played. A station has to pay a minimum of $500 a year. This hurts independent stations the most.

Spring Has Sprung

My car is back at the shop. It's losing power, and the engine tends to stop if the car is cranked after a long sit. I do not enjoy my car's absence nor do I enjoy depriving My Sick Wife of her car. It's possible she got something from the baby Sunday night.

I saw my first R2D2 mailbox this morning, right at the obelisk in downtown Asheville.

Picture of the Day
The comic is almost finished. I've let it sit for a few days and am about to read it over and adjust the script if need be. I'm maybe an hour away from wrapping it up. I talked to the publisher, and he asked that I edit some fine art panels to make them more kid-friendly. This is what I gave him, and he OKed it.



In the News
Bush offered what he repeatedly called a "reasonable proposal" for his administration representatives to appear before Congress concerning the prosecutor scandal. But he wants his advisers to speak off the public record and without swearing in. He says doing otherwise compromises future advisers from speaking freely to the president. But it allows them to say anything they want to Congress without legal recourse or media scrutiny. He made clear he's daring Congress to seek oaths and public hearings and claimed he'll go to court to preserve this adviser secrecy. Again, the cover-up overshadows the initial event. Gonzales seems to have given false testimony before Congress earlier when this scandal began, testimony that now directly involves Karl Rove and other advisers. The crux of the matter is this: Did the administration fire prosecutors who were sniffing around its political allies?

St. Patty's Weekend

We ordered pizza on Friday and vegged in front of the TV. It was a stressful week for both of us. Her classroom roof leaked and almost ruined a bookshelf full of novels. We went to target Saturday and bought a new shelf while those books dried out. We had one drink each at the pub during dinner and enjoyed various libations while we watched some TV. I cleaned by workshop earlier in the day, a chore always necessary when the comic inking is finished. I also had three months' worth of comics to file away.

I got an email from the director of the play, and he said I was the wrong age for the production. Too young for the leads, and too old for the authorities figures. Part of me wants to quibble; I'm sure our Romeo isn't 14 years old. But he at least said I'd have a better chance trying out for Much Ado. And I'm leaning toward that heavily. Also, the Romeo filler roles would require only Sunday rehearsals, which I can do easily. I might even get a line or two and a sword to carry. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'm running a March madness bracket on the NY Times website. Of the now set Sweet Sixteen, I picked ten correctly. I'm currently third against Times' 21 sports reporters bracket tournament. I had Winthrop and Villanova going to the Elite Eight.

Kathy and Travis came by last night for supper. She made some divine stuffed peppers and we watched some of the basketball, followed by "60 Minutes" and "Family Guy." Your Sis saw ads for an Axis of Evil comedy special where four comedians of Middle Eastern descent do stand-up. We all watched that last night, and it was good stuff. I don't think any of the comedians could necessarily work a special alone, but together -- talking about a post-9/11 world to audience of fellow descendants -- they killed.

Picture of the Day