A little late, but …

HT: Rachel McWhirter

Tomorrow morning Wendy and I will be boarding a plane headed to Pittsburg. From there we’ll begin the drive to the darkest woods of NW Pennsylvania, headed to my home town of Warren. We’ll be staying with my aunt and uncle, who have only dialup internet service, so I may be somewhat out of touch for this next week.

Last I heard, my uncle had measured 27 inches of snow at his place. After living so long in Texas, I’m afraid it’s going to be something of a shock to my system. If you don’t hear from me in a week or so, send out the St. Bernard with the cask of brandy around it’s neck. I might need it!

Hope everyone (at least, everyone is the US) has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

In honor of my upcoming vacation to visit family back home, and because I haven’t updated in forever, I’ve decided to switch the theme on the blog. I do love the beach …

The McCain/Palin campaign has been hammering on this non-story about Obama’s link to Ayers. But this interview seems to do a good job of throwing it back in their faces. Apparently, to Palin, you’re not considered a terrorist unless you target government and military targets, so abortion clinic bombers can’t be considered terrorists. You know, I always thought that terrorists were, almost by definition, those who went after civilian targets, to cause more, you know, terror. But, of course, I would guess that Palin secretly (or not so secretly) sympathizes with those particular bombers)

And, as an aside, I can’t watch this video without thinking about the scene from Chicago with Flynn as the puppet master using Roxy as a ventriloquist’s dummy. Wish I had a clip to put up.

Wendy and I watched the presidential debate last night. (Well, I watched it. Wendy slept through part of it because she did not sleep well the night before). It looks to me like John McCain is becoming more and more a caricature of himself that you might see on SNL or The Daily Show, rather than a real political figure. Of course, I’m clearly biased. I’ve been an Obama supported since before the primaries here in Texas.

Unfortunately, I cannot say that Obama won the debate. In my opinion, there was no winner. Only losers. Obama did a good job of stating his positions, but he spent far too much time trying to place blame, in my opinion. I understand the desire to set the record straight, but I believe that Obama would have been much better served sticking to the high road, and addressing the questions put to him. Getting into a finger-pointing match with McCain is playing the game by McCain’s rules..

Wendy also pointed out that, when Obama was talking about a moral imperative, as apposed to national security imperative, he didn’t seem to be speaking with the authority and passion that he had had in the past. The words were there, but not the fire and intensity behind them.

I’ll still vote for Obama. I believe in the policies and principles he represents. He just appears a little more tarnished to me at this point.

I’d love to hear other opinions about this. I’m perfectly willing to be convinced that my perception is all wrong. In fact, I’d welcome that. Anybody out there up for the job?

Update: Hunter at DailyKos has posted an article which seems to express some similar thoughts, though it’s much harsher toward McCain, and, for the most part, gives Obama a pass. Guess I was not alone in my reactions.

Those who know me well know I’m about as liberal as they come. So, ready for a surprise? Here’s a link to the Republican National Committee that I recommend you read. Why? Because it’s a great place to read about many of Barak Obama’s priorities. The actual purpose of the site is to scare people with the potential cost of all of these programs, but do they really think that objecting to Obama’s support for things like

Obama Would Implement The Lugar-Obama Legislation To Crack Down On The Smuggling Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction

and

Obama Would Assist High School Students With Obtaining Access To College-Level Courses

is going to help them win this election?

ht: Daily KOS

Apparently, the newest McCain ad in the “Obama as celebrity” series is out:

I personally think these ads are just silly. But one thing in particular struck me as a potential problem for McCain if people make a big deal about it. The whole point of the spot is to ridicule Obama, and his supporters, as having no depth or experience. But that one line, “hot chicks dig Obama.” seems to me to be a problem. Given the tenor of the rest of the spot, it seems clear to me that the McCain campaign is implying that “hot chick” = “stupid.” Dumb blond jokes aside, I don’t think that’s a good message for McCain to be putting out there. Women make up a significant percentage of the voting public. Dismissing the opinions of women because they’re just “hot chicks” sounds like a good way to lose the election.

Of course, that would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?

I have a confession to make. As one of the directors of “Little Old Ladies in Tennis Shoes” at Baytown Little Theater, part of my job is to remind the actors always to check on their props and costumes before the show, so they don’t get a surprise during the show. Well, guess, what? I should have heeded my own advise. I’ve had to take a small on-stage role in the show, in addition to directing. I don’t come on until the last few seconds of the first act, so I don’t get into makeup and costume until late in the show.

Well, last night I came upon a little surprise. As I was putting on my costume (a blue business suit) I realized that I had left my shoes at home! I had brought them home the prior weekend to wear to church. All I had with me were some very “beachy” looking sandals — definitely not in keeping with the rest of my costume. I was in a panic, searching frantically for anything that would do as a substitute. Just then, Kim Martin walked back stage, getting ready for his BBQ sale the next day. And he was wearing shoes appropriate to my character!

With utter embarrassment, I asked him if I could borrow his shoes for the evening. Without a moment’s hesitation, he took them off and handed them over. “Anything for the show,” he said. Where else but in community theater would that be considered a perfectly normal thing to do? I’ve heard of giving the shirt off your back, but the shoes off your feet?
Thank you, Kim, for saving me the humiliation of walking out on stage with no shoes. Of course, I wear a size 7, and Kim’s shoes were size 10 1/2, so it looked a little like I was wearing clown shoes, but I doubt the audience noticed. Besides, the play the BLTeens are working on for the TNT Youth conference is called “Clowns’ Play” so it’s fitting.

(If you read this in time, head down to the theater today, June 7, and support the BLTeens by buying some BBQ.)

Ants swarm over Houston area, fouling electronics – Yahoo! News

I guess fire ants aren’t bad enough. Apparently, we now have a new type of ant in our area. According to the article, they’ve been around since 2002, but this is the first I’ve heard of them. They’re called “Crazy Rasberry Ants” believe it or not.

They eat fire ants (good), they don’t sting (good), but they do bite (bad) and they apparently like to munch on electronics (very bad) and are resistant to most anti-ant technology.

Now all we need is some radiation to turn them six stories tall, and we’ll have a perfect 50’s sci-fi ‘B’ movie. 3-D glasses, anyone?

I got to do some diving on our recent trip to Cabo San Lucas. These photos are from the first trip, out to Cabo Pulmo. I’ll get to the others a bit later maybe. These were all taken by me with my newest toy, an Olympus UZ-560 digital camera (8mp, 18x optical zoom!) in an underwater housing.

This is the dive shop where we started out. Cabo Pulmo is about 2 hours north of Cabo San Lucas, where we were staying. It was a very small place, but the people were very friendly. As were the dogs. There were about three of them running around. They all wanted to play ball, but didn’t quite get the concept that they had to let me actually hold the ball before I could throw it.

This is a turtle that we scared out of the rocks early on in our dive. It was the first time I’d seen a turtle in the wild like that. I know it looks pretty ordinary, but I really liked it

And this is a ray that we saw rise up from its hiding place in the sand.

Of course, I took a lot more photos than this. Unfortunately, most of them didn’t turn out very well. I’m still learning how to use the camera, and being underwater doesn’t exactly make it easy to play around with settings.

I’ve also got some pictures from the other dive I did, closer to where we were staying, but there weren’t many good ones there, either. Guess I need more practice.