This is disgusting! Taste it!

Wow. I feel like I'm on my second week within this week. It's been that busy.

I Marched for Peace and Justice, and felt downright conservative last Saturday, both in style and beliefs. I'm glad I went, though. It felt good to be among so many other people who are just sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. It felt good to get up and do something. I'd been feeling like this Meat Puppets lyric lately: "Who needs action when you've got words?" I was proud to be one of the 350,000. Everyone seemed to have some other agenda beyond opposing the war, but then again, so do I have agendas. It's hard to untangle all of them once you get them, I think. L'Ailee, meanwhile, was taking her gymnastics kids to see Stick It. In her words, "It was not quite as stupid as the commercials made me think."

Talladega got rained out! (And yes, I saw Tony Stewart's crash. He wouldn't have survived it even five years ago, but in the AD--After Dale--era, the safety standards have gotten so much better, as everyone could see.) Stupid Jimmie Johnson won, but Tony's maintaining his points standing with that number two finish, and that's just fine. This will surprise you all, I'm sure, but L'Ailee and I could find another way to entertain ourselves on a boring Sunday afternoon once it became clear there would be no race. We actually got to watch it on Monday.

I got off for Beltaine; L'Ailee was off, but decided to stay home and not spend any money in support of the immigrant boycott. I've been hearing conflicting reports on the effectiveness of the boycott. I think it depends on the neighborhood. Again, we came up with activities that involved spending no money. That's right, we played with the cats. ;-) We also had a nice ritual for mental fertility--a/k/a creativity--and for me, the ability to finish what I start.

And then work got all busy. I can't talk much about it, but I can share this. This morning, L'Ailee walked into work with me. I had to make a Fourbucks Starbucks run immediately, and I had L'Ailee serve as my assistant. I was very weak, and got a green tea blackberry frappucino because it looked good. It did not *taste* good, however. I didn't realize those damn things are, like, all milk! Just enough green tea to tint it, not to taste! And the blackberry syrup added only a note of sickening sweetness. It wasn't even a good berry-flavored shake. I took two sips. L'Ailee was carrying most of the coffees back. I held it out to her and said, "This is disgusting, taste it." She's done it to me often enough! We were talented enough that she could turn her head and take a sip hands-free as we both walked. "Gross!" she exclaimed. "I said..." I murmured as I fed her a citrus breath strip to kill the taste.

I've got a few links.

Today's Washington Post has something interesting on Rod Dreher's little crunchy-conservative movement. Crunchy as in granola. It sounds nice, except he opposes SSM. Nice. Once again, some Republican has to use us and our lives to get some street cred. I'm tired of people who think our lives are their bargaining chip!

Miss Manners gives some terrific advice to two-woman couples wanting to get married (and their concerned parents, too!)

Speaking of weddings, did y'all know you can get married at Precious Moments Wedding Island? As in, the big-eyed porcelain figurines? I'm gonna cry; I missed out on so much!

The Wall Street Journal sees that Tom Cruise is turning off women. Well, of course. As another belly-dancing student muttered, "I'm not buying his kid *or* his girlfriend another damn pacifier."

Bill Clinton's getting sodas out of our schools. Had I known about this as a soda-dependent high school student, I would never have voted for him my senior year...

And finally, Are you sitting comfortably? I've mentioned that I don't take unasked-for help or excess training with good grace. Once, a couple jobs ago, I snapped at a "helpful" co-worker, "I'm going to the bathroom. I swear I won't need your help there." The people who wrote this Scottish brochure would probably beg to differ!