Random Blather

• I had imagined I'd step away from my Blog for a few days so I could isolate and wallow in self pity. To hell with that idea. She and I did the best we could with what we had and it failed. Sad stuff happens to all of us. We deal with it and try to move on, even with lead feet and bloodshot eyes.
• John Dean, who was Nixon's advisor during the Watergate era, wrote a brilliant piece on the Bush WMD lies. Mike at Spacemonk
has a link to the piece on his site. Dean is hardly a left-wing lugnut, so even the Barcodian types might learn a little by reading it. Nice link, Mike.
• My best friend Anna's little boy Andrei is turning 7. She's throwing a big pool party for him this Saturday. The poor little guy's rough beginnings in Romania have left him slightly behind the other kids in learning and social skills, so I am hoping his party will be the hit of the season. We shopped for some kick-ass goody bag stuff the other day, Anna's hired a balloon lady, and I am thinking of doing caricatures of the little party animals so they have a physical reminder of the party afterwards. I want him to be popular, damn it. I don't mean popular like the Fonz, just popular like Richie Cunningham would do.
• Straight guys, I need an opinion. I bought my straight friend Tommy the Johnny Cash Greatest Hits CD for his birthday. Is that too macho? I figured every guy needed to have on hand the song, "Ring of Fire" once in a while. Besides, it's Johnny's 70th birthday this year and I am not sure he'll last much longer with June Carter Cash so recently departed.
• I bought the new Annie Lennox CD "Bare" the other day. I listened to it in my car yesterday when I was driving to and from Austin to attend my old Mom's 3-month progress meeting at the retirement home.
Annie will be turning 49 on Christmas Day this year. Her new CD reflects a lot of serenity mixed with anguish and stoicism I can relate to at my age. Of course, many of her songs reminded me of my recent love affair, but then lately I've been relating everything from San Pelligrino water to my front porch chairs to that.
Anyway, the new CD is worth owning. The cover art, however, is off-putting. Nobody looks good with her face covered in flour.
• My sister the lawyer has *sort of* invited me to Houston for Gay Pride at the end of the month. Some power queen she knows has arranged luxury hotel accommodations for the cost of taxes, and my friend Bettie will be the Grand Marshall of the Pride Parade.
That was to be the weekend la and I went to Fort Worth to see our political dissident friend in prison. I have some friends in Houston and I should go...but I don't know if I can handle all the crowds and insanity. Not to mention those all happy and coupled up.