Christmas Break

Kristin learned about voting this past election. She has decided that she wants everybody in this house to vote on whether I need to find the time to get on the treadmill. She votes yes.

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We're wrapping up the first week of her three week Christmas break and so far it has gone dreadfully slow. We had a plumbing issue that required plumbers under the house replacing pipes. That took two days with no water. Now the satellite (tv) has been down for three days. Dish Network set up a window from noon to 5 one day, when the guy would be out, but he didn't show up until after 7. It was too dark for him to see outside, so he made arrangements to come back the next day between noon to 5. Between this and the plumbers, this has stuck Kristin and I at the house for days and with no tv to boot. Tis the season.

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One of the aftereffects of Prop 8, is that Toney and I have reconnected with the community. We've joined Salinas Valley Equality, which is a group that formed due to Prop 8. Toney and I have donated the website (we built, fund and maintain it). It's great to be involved in the community again.

We had a protest at Cinemark Theaters (they donated to Prop 8 and also refuse to show Milk in this town), although we missed that protest, and tomorrow there is a silent candlelight vigil to protest loss of rights, that we will be attending. We've hosted a meeting or two (I'm not sure if some of those were official), and I look forward to this coming year and seeing (I hope) our community become organized, effective and efficient in reaching people in this area and achieving equality.

Can't We All Just Get Along? An Open Request to the President-elect.

We were sitting down to dinner yesterday, and discussing the days events, as we often do, when I mentioned to Toney that Mattel won their lawsuit against MGA Entertainment, and the ruling would eventually cause Bratz dolls to be taken off the market.

This became very distressing to Kristin, and it's been on her mind for the last 24 hours. She came up with the solution at the table, that Barbie and the Bratz dolls should work together and not fight.

Today she asked me if we could call President(elect) Obama and get him to make them get along. We can use this house as an example. The Barbies and the Bratz dolls in this house play together and do not fight.

We told her not to worry, our suspicion is that Mattel will end up owning Bratz dolls and so they will ultimately live together anyway. She wants the President to make them get along now though.

So I told her I would send a note to the President asking for his help. So here is an open letter to the President, you have your work cut out for you. Make Barbie and Bratz get along this Christmas. The next generation is counting on you.

Google Maps - Street View

If you look at the google maps street view of our house, and you position the camera in the center of the nearest intersection and swing the camera around to our house, you can see me walking on the sidewalk, going to meet Kristin after school.

If you move the camera one position in any direction though, I'm not there anymore, which means they must have updated some positions but not others? I can spend hours looking at Google Maps Street View. If I go look at busier streets like Main Street, I can recognize familiar cars. If I Google Map Kristin's school, there's a car driving by that belongs to the person a few doors down, that type of thing.

It's Prop 8, the Musical!

A star studded cast!

There's Margaret Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Andy - Conan O'Brien's former sidekick, Kathy Najimy, Allison Janney from West Wing, who else do you recognize in Prop 8, the Musical?

Prop 8, The Musical.