So a group of us are heading up to Seattle for a nice overnight visit and party and such. I’m bringing my camera, so if all goes well there’ll be pictures once I get back.

Don’t get into too much trouble while I’m gone, okay? Thanks.

To say that I’m not thrilled about how things turned out would be an understatement. We’ve got four more years of smirking shrubbery to look forward to, and Oregon passed a measure that writes discrimination into the state constitution.

Color me underwhelmed.

My only real consolation is that very nearly half of everyone who voted is in the same boat I am right now. Misery loves company, wot?

I’ve seen a couple of solar eclipses. My first was when I was pretty darned young. Until tonight, though, I’d not seen a lunar eclipse. Thanks to Mari and Doug (and especially Doug’s nifty homemade telescope) that’s been remedied.

I don’t know about “blood red moons,” but there is a definite reddish tinge to an eclipsed full moon. The really notable part isn’t the color, though. It’s the strange darkness of what is normally a bright white circle in the sky. You get used to full moons looking a certain way, and it’s rather sinister to see it so dim and rusty-red.

It was a nifty experience, indeed. So… I wonder when Mari will get around to posting those pictures she took? (I didn’t bother trying with my camera. My first attempt to snap a picture of a full moon back when I first got the thing resulted in a high resolution picture of almost nothing, punctuated by a little white dot. Bleh.)

I just did something depressing.

I’m not the world’s most organized person. (Yes, I know I’m stating the obvious.) In my email I have a couple of folders for storing certain kinds of messages. The “InfoDump” folder, for instance, contains lots of useful tidbits of data… friends’ addresses, login information, that sort of thing.

And then there’s “Pending.” The point of that folder is, presumably, for me to place messages I can’t deal with Right This Minute but want to get to Real Soon Now.

I hadn’t looked in that folder for months until today. Oh, man. There’s a litany of people who have been expecting something back from me since, oh, last year. Damn. Chores undone. Whoops.

Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete.

I’m down to a dozen messages, now. These are what I deem at least remotely possible to get done and still have the doing mean anything. This doesn’t mean most (or any) of them will get done, mind you.

Great heavens above, but I’m a loser. In the terribly unlikely event that anyone who was expecting something from me in the last two years cares to come and read this: I’m very, very sorry.

Argh.

I went north again this past weekend to spend some time with that delightfully snarky woman I’m so attached to.

Actually, let me back up. I spent Thursday night over at the kids’ place since Wendi and Erica were out camping (I don’t remember if it was a school or church thing… hmm?) and Alex was otherwise going to be left alone. Can’t have a lonely Spud, can we? So he and I got to have some fun boy-bonding time (gaming and other geekery fueled by pizza). Half the time I’m over visiting at the apartment it’s as if I’m not there, since the kids are absorbed in what they’re doing, so it was nice to have an evening where I really got to interact with at least one of my beloved rugrats.

Anyway. The trip. I brought presents up, this time: A new video card and power supply for her compy. Once those were installed (not without some minor fuss… nothing’s ever easy, is it?) we also went and picked up this year’s gaming addiction of choice. While we were out anyway, we also did some clothes shopping. See, I’m sort of light on wearable shirts lately. It probably has something to do with the fact that I only shop once every few years. Go ahead and roll your eyes, folks.

We ended up at the mall, where I found several shirts I actually liked the fit and color of. Since someone put their foot down about who was paying for what, I also (later) picked up a new pair of shoes. (My beloved Rockports were finally becoming completely unwearable… not bad for two years or so of good use.)

The train was half an hour late getting out of Seattle, which meant we got to stand around in the cold and damp on the train platform at Tukwila. Bleah. We did get to see a rainbow, though, and that’s got to count for something. I mainly mention the train ride down on account of the in-trip movie, which I at first tried to ignore and then got sucked into far enough that for the first time I actually plugged my headphones in and listened.

De-Lovely is an odd, odd piece. It’s a fanciful biopic of Cole Porter as played by Kevin Kline (who you recognize mostly by voice since his looks are considerably altered for the role). The movie is stylized and occasionally nutty, but also at times bitterly poignant. If you’re at all interested in Jazz Age stylings, you should check this one out.

And now you’re up to date on my life. Exciting, ain’t it?