this year, i decided to head off the inevitable "so, what do you want for christmas?" questions: i now have a wishlist. so go there if, by some bizarre miracle, that question occurs to you. unless you'd prefer human contact, in which case don't go there, call me.

i've been putting off going to bed, because benjamin is not here. good night, gentle reader.

i keep finding things to mention and then not mentioning them, so here's a short list:

1. thank you, patriot act. no really, thank you. i feel so much more secure now, knowing the evil iranian students lay prone before your awesome might. thanks.
2. benjamin's father has cancer. terminal. he's out of the hospital, back with his family. please keep praying.
3. i'm still upset about item 1.
4. the engine in our little saturn is really dying this time. it's still driveable, but not for much longer. new car! again! yippee!
5. with any luck, i'll be transitioning off the beta blogger very soon. it's not friendly to my beautiful custom template, and i don't see the point in learning a new templating language if i won't be using it for long.
6. Rumsfeld resigned!
7. my brothers have started publishing their favorite pastime. watch and enjoy!

just one more comment about item 1. if you watch the video, it's obvious the student was not treating the officers with respect. shouting expletives at them, not jumping at their command, etc. folks, that's not admirable behavior, but neither is it a crime. threatening an innocent bystander with a taser, on the other hand, is. it's the responsibility of people given power to enforce the law to not use it, unless absolutely necessary. if they don't have the patience to exhaust all other options before they pull out the tasers, they need to be removed. maybe that's too jedi for you, but this is absurd.

there was another recent incident in los angeles, featuring a cop beating a contained suspect's face, without provocation and for no apparent reason. the guy's on the ground, immobilized by two cops, and one of them shifts position to get a better angle and bashes the suspect's face in. blood and everything. come on, folks. a woman commented to me after i saw that last video that i shouldn't be too harsh in my opinions, because some day i might need an officer to come running to my protection.

i'm skeptical.

i voted.

i've not been closely following the campaigns, i didn't watch or hear the debates, and i'm not well-versed in the issues--particularly those of relevance to my state. i have a couple strong opinions (e.g., "Why elect a senator who'll only be around for a year and a half, and is brazenly using this state as a stepping-stone to her presidential candidacy?"), but only a couple. i didn't even know there were three state supreme court justices up for election. i have friends who'd be ashamed of me.

i've been mulling it over all day. one of my elections decisions happened in the voting booth: "hey, this guy is endorsed by the democrats and the independents? he must be really bipartisan, i'll vote for him." seriously.

i think i'm a civic failure. ah, well: i hereby resolve to make knowledge a prerequisite to having an opinion.

in other news, i'm thinking of cutting my hair. short.

yesterday was an historic occasion for benjamin and i: we had people over for dinner. we spent the entire day cleaning and dusting and such-what, and then i made this amazing coconut chicken soup and people came over to eat it with us. benjamin got some great bread, and the people brought salad--this woman makes the most incredible salads, buffalo mozzerella and avocado anything and almonds and gourmet olive oil and vinegar with figs. anyway, it was exciting. we've never done that before--hosted a meal for people who serve their meals in a dining room with a chandelier and a mahogany dining set. (which is not to say these people are in any way snobbish, they're great, but they're...well, in a different stage of life than benjamin and i.) it was fun. the soup was a big hit. *grin grin* and then karen and i were soundly trounced by ken and benjamin at canasta. ah well.

we went up to see benjamin's dad again this afternoon. he's still yellow, but much more awake than last week. it was a real treat to see him, even if the pain medication does send him flying. he did fade in and out a few times, usually in mid-sentence. (which, to be perfectly honest, was hysterical. he'd be talking along, telling us about the book he's reading, and all of a sudden his eyelids would drop and he'd trail off to a mumble. we all cracked up several times.) the doctors have ruled out tuberculosis, and have been testing everything they could get their hands on. nothing conclusive so far, but they still think cancer best explains all the symptoms, so please keep praying. he and barb are in pretty good spirits, and his sister-in-law came down to help with marie. their support network is going strong.

in other news, i charged the batteries for my camera today!