Wretched weather

According to Vancouverite, there has been a surge in the deaths due to swine flu in Ontario.  Stay well, all my Ontario kith and kin.

The weather is horrid. The wind was rattling the plastic siding last night; it sounded like a large and uncomfortable animal scrabbling around in the wall right next to my ear.

Katie is supposed to be back from her business trip today.  Two weeks ago she wasn’t working and now she’s travelling on business. Bizarre.  I hope for a full report soon.

Yesterday I did a lot of laundry and shifted things around and took up the curtain in the entertainment room and played with Miss Margot (she really likes the thunder tube).  Jeff brought the cat furniture upstairs earlier this week and the cats are very happy to have their perch back in the window.  Now we have to figure out how to re-cover it.

The crossover CSI-NY-Miami-Vegas episode we watched was so gruesome, and so disturbing, that I’m not surprised folks we know are reporting that it’s giving them trouble sleeping.  The episode was about human trafficking.  There are more slaves alive today than ever in human history.  It’s a horrible thing to think about; worse is knowing that there are very likely sex slaves walking distance from my house.  Here’s a link to information about human trafficking in  BC.

I have Keith/Jeff’s cold.  I thought it was going away but it’s hanging about.  Given that I have a dinner to go to tomorrow (the place the church is now located is holding a fundraiser to pay for the roof, and we kinda sorta have to show our flag (at $50 a pop, which I will get refunded)) I am really hoping it just goes away.

Paul and Keith are back today

kira REALLY misses them.

(Cat and Parrot video.)  When they are little I just eat them.  When they’re big, they’re kinda hawt.

I sometimes wish I could make money out of my fetishes, but then I read things like this and decide to stick with regular paid employment.

This story about Libyan freedom fighters, Gadhafi’s kid (Saif al Islam al Gadhafi) and a challenge to the moral leadership of al-Qaeda is remarkable, if true.

In a Brief History of Everything, Ken Wilber says I don’t mean to be crude, but it appears that testosterone basically has two, and only two, major drives: f*** it or kill it. Perhaps that is true, but I would add three items to that list: “Be First” and “Be Best” and “Submit your will to no one else”.  That is certainly how I have seen testosterone, properly utilized, play out in a man’s life.

On this Remembrance Day, let us remember the fallen dead, the falling dead, in all the past, present and future wars.  As the candles are lit, as the hiss of the wicks and the warm smell of beeswax fills the shrine, remember the dead.

Render true felicity

I am pleased as punch to announce the upcoming nuptials of Doug and Elly.  They will marry next August in Toronto, which gives me almost long enough to make or find or buy the gift of such suitability and robustness that it will be a thing of daily wear for the rest of their married life.

Their many kindnesses to me and my extended family are in my mind right now, with a feeling about growth and happiness as a lifetime gig.  I’m filled with a burnished contentment.

Fat acceptance quote

Livejournal has some GREAT stuff in there this morning.  This passed along by way of rocket genius Peter Alway….

“People really, truly believe that it is not only acceptable, but right to treat fat people with disdain. I’m sad to say that I’ve been inculcated with enough societal garbage that I occasionally hate my own body—but as a thin (white, able-bodied, etc.) person I cannot fathom what it must be like to have others take it upon themselves to hate my body for me. As I’ve said before, if you think fat people have no self-discipline, consider the fact that they haven’t killed you yet.”

— Robin “Miss Conduct” Abrahams

Right on, sister.