here's something to celebrate

2009 homicide totals plummet in the district

so it's not the end of the decade

my friend rightly pointed out that the end of the decade actually comes next december 31st and that we're all really bad at math. however, i rightly pointed out that we're not bad at math - we're just giving ourselves a mulligan in case we get it wrong this year.

george clooney, ben bernanke and the $2500 movie ticket

as usual, we spent our new year's eve with our friends and, as usual, it ended far before the strike of twelve. it's nice really because i'm able to be home in my warm house and blog in the new year. while all of that it interesting, i'm really writing to tell you this ...

we went to see "up in the air" with george clooney. i'm not sure what i was expecting, but i certainly wasn't expecting it to end the way that it did. although, i guess it would have been safe to assume that any story almost completely focused on people losing their jobs couldn't really be all that uplifting.

so here we are in a movie about the failing economy, the increasing number of people losing their jobs and the burgeoning market for layoff specialists and in an incredibly ironic twist - ben bernanke was sitting a few rows in front of us. we all speculated how he must have been feeling given the fact that many people blame him for at least part of the problem - the real-life, super-huge problem, not the "conflict" part of the movie plot. i'm smart enough to know that bernanke is not the issue, but i still wonder what was going through his head.

he shouldn't have been that depressed though because he was doing his part to contribute to the economy. not only did he purchase a movie ticket, he was accompanied by no fewer than 4 secret service agents. his desire to see a movie on new year's eve certainly put some extra cash in those pockets - and probably cost the tax payers a pretty penny.

the decade that was

it's almost unbelievable that the first 10 years of the 2000s are nearly over. it seems like just yesterday i was a closeted grad student hanging out in nyc with my friend waiting for the ball to drop. and man did the ball ever drop! in this past decade, i -

• graduated from grad school
• began my career in public policy
• came out
• met the love of my life
• moved to the district of columbia
• adopted two peculiar cats
• joined a church
  
• did time as a temporary doorman, temporary proofreader, temporary receptionist, and tutor
• survived a year of workplace hell only to come out better than ever
• bought a house
• became the flipflop fed
• realized that life is too good to be missed

here's to another decade of fantastic fantasticism!

the good in corporate america

i've been defriended

how can this be?! i don't update my status obsessively. i don't send notices about games that you should play - hell i don't even play the games. i sometimes go weeks without ever logging on and yet someone found it necessary to strike me from their ranks? i'm truly offended which i find interesting in itself because i hadn't spoken to this "friend" since 1994 before i friended them earlier this year!! BUT I AM!

there are assholes and then there are f*cktards

(i'll get to the post title in a moment).

remember last year when we thought hubert was having a stroke? (no? read here.) well, tonight was a real emergency. hubert decided to eat a mint candy (we think because it looked like a cat treat?!) and then began to have difficulty breathing. we rushed him to the animal hospital where they immediately did an ultrasound on his neck. then they informed us that they would be putting him in an oxygen tent. yep ... an oxygen tent (see below) -

they finally decided that the mint probably irritated his throat and that he'll be just fine.

then we came home. that's where we found that some person had taken our parking spot - the same spot that we spent about an hour shoveling out this morning. not only did the big-ass-yes-i-bought-this-because-i-question-my-manhood pickup truck take up our spot it also took up our neighbor's spot in front of ours. and that, dear friend, is what will elevate you from mere asshole to gigantic f*cktard!

around town after the snow or how i got a $250 parking ticket

we're finally dug out and thought it would be fun to take a ride down to the whitehouse to see the sights. here's a photo journal of the day ...

show me where it says "snow emergency route no parking!" i'm so fighting the $250 prechristmas gift doled out today by my lovely city.

this is my absolute favorite statue in our city of simulacrum. clearly before they cared about gays in the military.

snoward ho!

the white whitehouse

kristin's got quite an eye

trees in the park

the requisite cute squirrel picture to end

the BEST words to say to a fed - flipflop or otherwise

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS CLOSED!!!

(come to think of it, i bet this brings more joy to a lot of non-federal workers!)

i survived snomageddon '09 and i got was this lousy ...

the snow has fallen (about 16" in dc proper) and the clean up begins. it's almost 1:00 in the afternoon and they have yet to plow my side street. we did have a plow drive down the street - i'm sure that counts for something. here's some final parting shots and hoping that the federal government finds it in its heart to close tomorrow ...

mpd, a guy from maryland and the chinese food delivery man are driving in a snow storm ...

doesn't that sound like the beginning of a REALLY funny joke? well it's not a joke, but it was kind of funny. guess no one should be out driving in weather like this. (by the way, it took the aid of two fantastic women to get all of these men unstuck - go us!)

snopocalypse '09 or what happened when obama pissed off the snow gods

back at the beginning of february obama called us out because we panicked at the mere mention of snow and damn if he didn't piss off the snow gods. now about a year later we're socked in and going nowhere. the buses aren't running, metro's only running trains below ground and 2 of the 3 area airports are completely closed (dulles is operating one runway). all that and they have yet to plow my street. 15.5" on the ground and still snowing ... here's the progression of snomageddon from last night at 11:00 to this evening around 5:00 -

is it really coming??!!

it's definitely snowing, but will we end up with the 16" they're predicting? i'm willing to wait and see and i'm actually feeling quite optimistic. why? because the meteorologists are making definitive statements. check out this description from our local nbc station of what we should expect ...

forget the milk and toilet paper. the winter storm predicted ... may deserve an all out canned beans and creamed corn type panic. stock up now because rationing will begin soon.

okay, so it's a little over the top, but i'm LOVING it!!

the prediction that will not come true

a 50-50 shot at 6 inches of snow this weekend. uh huh, i'll believe it when i shovel it ...

and i said this too

i've told you before about unfortunate things that have come from my mouth so you should not be surprised by what emerged from my lips this evening.

we were eating dinner at good stuff eatery and struck up a conversation with the family next to us. they were in town because their son was a "make a wish" kid. we were talking about all of the fun things to do in dc and they asked about our zoo. they asked if it was fun to which i replied -

i guess, but all of the animals keep dying.

nothing says merry christmas ...

... like your cat pissing on your christmas tree

hey lady

okay so say you go into a public bathroom but you're wishing to have some private time - if you know what i mean.

upon entering you encounter a woman - a woman not from your floor to add insult to injury - at the sink who is readying herself for an evening on the town.

you slink into the stall and wait ... and wait ... and wait ...

the woman continues with her beauty routine - teeth and hair brushing, make up and the like

and you wait ... and wait ... and wait until you realize that there will be no private time in the public bathroom so you flush ...

she smiles and you can think of nothing but shoving the eyebrow pencil up her nose

dawn of a new day

i've never been so proud to be a resident of
the district of columbia

you get more money if you prescribe a pill

the ny times published an interesting article by duff wilson today on a study that found that poor children with mental illness or emotional concerns and on medicaid are more likely to be prescribed an antipsychotic medication than their peers with private insurance. why? because doctors are reimbursed more for the prescribing these medications (ones with documented long-term serious side effects) than they would be for therapy.

and yet another reason we need health care reform NOW!

why i loooovvveee the 90 bus

i've talked about my love of the metro bus before so you can imagine my joy when today i read this "overheard" on dcist -

On the 92 bus:

Getting on the bus, a young man is hitting on a woman:
Man: "Well how can I get at you, girl?"
Woman: "I dunno, hit me up on MySpace or Facebook or my email."
Man: "Girl, do I look like I'm made of money? How you think I'm gonna get on the internet? Where do YOU got internet?"
Woman: "I got internet at my job! But for you - shit, I dunno, go to the library or something."
Conversation continues for some minutes, then the man gets off the bus.

Older, homeless man who had been sitting near them the whole time, turns to the girl and asks incredulously: "How that young [man] gonna holler at you when he ain't got no internet?!"

a peace prize for a war president

$857/square foot

that's right - a manhattan couple recently paid $150,000 for a 175 sq. foot apartment on the upper west side. the "apartment" was originally a maid's bedroom in a full service pre-war and it's now home to two humans, two cats, one tv and one queen sized bed. what more do you really need?

i can think of one thing - a little more space ...

giving new meaning to "teachers of romance languages"

i love a story about people who have no common sense and love it even more when it involves young lesbian teachers in lust.

snow in the bay area?

check this out - it snowed just east of san francisco today. nope ... definitely not experiencing climate change ...

venice the series - shameless promotion

generally, i wouldn't post a video that didn't look just perfect in my layout, but this is a special circumstance. best birthday present ever!

"bloodletting??" is this guy for real?

i was given a pretty cool present at the beginning of my birthday week - the district of columbia city council voted 11-2 to move forward the gay marriage bill (a final vote will come soon). and then wouldn't you know that some assholes had to rain on my parade.

bishop harry jackson, a presumably straight beltsville, md pastor who is particularly interested in the dictating the lives of gay people in the district, declared that he and people like him were going to ramp up their anti-gay efforts. specifically, he said that we're all going to "see a bloodletting that is going to mark a new style of engagement for people who are against same sex marriage." "bloodletting??" for real? and who's blood will be let. bloodletting is performed to get rid of a disease that a person may have, but the quote seems to suggest that jackson and his followers will let their own blood as a new style of engagement. regardless, i'm confused as to how this strategy will really impact the debate; other than one side will be without blood.

which leads me to this - the blood is already being shed. recent crime statistics show that hate crimes against lgbt people are common in the district (particularly in wards 7 and 8 which is interesting because marion barry declared some time ago that ward 8 really doesn't have "but a handful of gay people").

enough with the pro-violence, anti-anyone rhetoric! we're talking about the lives of real people who may love jesus just as much as you, mr. jackson.

i'm that lesbian that you know

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

it's almost december 4th!

getting a little excited - birthday and ...

welcome to the ranks

so proud to be ... 4h

i entered a baking contest at work and pulled out all of the stops -

a ruth reichl recipe
a homemade butter crust
$40 worth of fresh blueberries, raspberries and blackberries
a beautiful, ceramic deep dish

and was beat by some weird cracker thing, a so so pie with a store-bought crust and BLONDIES!!!!

nope, not bitter at all