Nerds in costume. Prior to wandering around SF on Hallow E’en’
Oh, wait. There I am before the party started!
There we are. We were marvelous. A good time was had by all.
November 3, 2008
Wife of former 49er Young voting No on Prop. 8
Wife of former 49er Young voting No on Prop. 8
You GO! Steve and Barbara.
Interesting. Has there been any fallout?
Interesting. Has there been any fallout? asks Sour Grapes, in response to my Vote NO on Proposition 8, redux. post.
My answer?
The biggest fallout is Proposition 8.
Attempts to make the anti-marriage-equality stance part of the state Constitution were already in motion after San Francisco authorized gay marriage … only to have those marriages halted and then voided the same year because of the existence of the legal language brought into play by Proposition 22.
San Francisco and other proponents of marriage equality took the matter to court.
Question: Was Proposition 22, passed in 2000, to define marriage as between a man and a woman unconstitutional?
Well, said the anti-marriage-equality wing, even before the judges decided the matter. Let there be no question. Let’s change the Constitution and put the definition of marriage there (instead of in the legal code) and that way it will be constitutional!
But a move to put the Constitution amendment on the ballot had slowed until the Sanders turnabout shocked the right wing of the Republican party. If even a true-blue anti-gay-marriage Republican could change his mind …
The shock of it energized the folks who wanted to put the matter to the voters … again. Proposition 8 is the fallout.
***
On the front window of our older son’s house is an Obama sign and a hand-lettered sign.
The hand-lettered sign says:
SAVE OUR MARRIAGE. VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 8!
(Axel the window dog [ed. Axel is a big dog that spends each day sitting on the window seat waiting for the guys to come home and has become something of a neighborhood mascot] says JOINT FILING MEANS MORE MONEY LEFT AFTER TAXES AND MORE DOGGIE TREATS FOR ME!)
Our older son and his husband (yes, they got married =again= after the state courts legalized marriage equality in June) would like to stay married this time.
Make it so. Vote NO on Proposition 8.
November 2, 2008
You betcha!
You know the thing that maybe bugs me most?
I can never say, “You betcha” without thinking of Sarah Palin.
(His nibs and I said ‘you betcha’ more often than I’d realized … not realizing we were mocking a potential vice-presidential candidate to be.
Oh.)
Now I can’t say “You betcha” without thinking of Sarah Palin.
Alas.
November 1, 2008
Love Story–Gold Winner: Los Muertos
Best Travel Writing – Love Story–Gold Winner: Los Muertos
Lovely story and timely with its Día de los Muertos theme.
[via a link from James O’Reilly’s twitterfeed]
October 21, 2008
I’ve voted. Have you?
“And it seems that the worse McCain is doing in the polls, the more his team is relying on the same gutter tactics. So over the next 15 days, look for the McCain campaign to become even uglier. That’s what happens when following Rovian politics is your only strategy — and Rovian politics isn’t working.”
Happy to be out of it. Glad my vote is winging its way to City Hall.
We had
(1) the Presidential election to vote on
(2) The US House of Reps (Cindy Sheehan or Nancy Pelosi? Hm.)
(3) Our local state assembly critter
(4) Our school board.
(5) Our college board.
(6) Our District 3 Supervisor to replace Aaron Peskin. (Nine candidates running. Ranked voting returns.)
(7) Superior Court judge
(8) Twelve state propositions, including Proposition 8.
VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 8!
(9) City-wide measures A-V (that would be um. a-b-c-d-…twenty-two city-wide measures) including Measure R (“Renaming the Oceanside Water Treatment Plant to the George W Bush Sewage Plant” Sophomoric? You betcha!) and Measure V. (“Policy Against Terminating Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Programs in Public High Schools” … Shall it be City policy to encourage the School Board to reverse its decision to terminate JROTC and to continue to offer JROTC in San Francisco public high schools?) and Measure E (“Changing the Number of Signatures Required to Recall City Officials”) and Measure K (“Shall the City: stop enforcing laws against prostitution; stop funding or supporting the First Offender Prostitution Program or any similar anti-prostitution program; enforce existing criminal laws that prohibit crimes such as battery, extortion and rape, regardless of the victim’s status as a sex worker; and fully disclose the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against sex workers?”)
Have I mentioned I think twelve state-wide propositions and twenty-two City measures seem to be public policy run amok? More thoughts on this in a later post.
October 8, 2008
Off I go again.
This time to Baltimore and Bouchercon.
Have to be at the airport by 5A, which means up by 4A in order to get some espresso in my system.
Walked down the hill tonight for a gathering to talk about our neighborhood community center, Tel-Hi. Our friend Donna is the development director. She spends her days raising money for the center. Another friend, Gail, is on the board and spoke tonight and sent e-mails to people she knew on the invite list, saying you must come, will I see you there.
Met some nice people. Bumped into some old friends. The hosts had a Dali on their wall, a portrait of the wife at age maybe eight twelve with her mother. A definite Dali, but no melting watches or weirdnesses. Wonderful place filled with interesting stuff.
Wonderful place. Genuine people. Good cause.
We — well, I — missed the debate. We walked down the hill and over to the gathering and I could hear Obama’s voice coming out of open windows as neighbors watched the debate we’d jettisoned in order to support a good cause. I’m sure I’ll be able to pick up on what happened at the debate some time between now and when the next debate happens.
See you ’round some time after I get back. I get back late Monday. Give me at least Tuesday to veg out on the couch and restore my social equilibrium.
His nibs will be home for Fleet Week and the Blue Angels, but I’ll miss all that. C’est la vie.
Baltimore here I come.
October 5, 2008
Late again, naturally.
Just realized when checking the program schedule for Bouchercon that although I (rightly) booked Oct 8 – 13 for the hotel — and booked early enough this year to actually get in the convention hotel — my frequent-flyer tickets are for the 9th and I’m arriving late afternoon, so I’ll miss the first day. Don’t know how that mixup happened.
Drat.
Double drat because I’d already begun ratcheting up my “maybe I don’t want to go after all” “who really will I know” misgivings and this almost completely derailed me.
I’ve recovered. I’ll call the hotel and tell them I won’t be there until the 9th.
But drat anyway.
Update: His nibs, being the sweet feller he is, called Delta and asked how much it would cost to change my tickets from Thursday 7A to Wednesday and they said, $100. So, his nibs, being the sweet feller he is, changed the tickets. Bless his heart. Plane leaves at 6A Wednesday and xfers through Atlanta, then on to Baltimore.
September 28, 2008
Election Pie Party
The younger niblet is far away. (His mom and dad miss him.)
We talked with him today over a spotty line that probably is Skype’d over to that end of the world and then fed into his cell phone/Handy. Who knows who taps in from here (Hi, Tony!) or there (Hi to you too, Yuri!)
The younger nib said he’s hoping to have a party. Where he is is ten hours off from us. If we call him at ten in the morning, it’s eight in the evening there.
So, he’s planning a party to watch the election results in November at another PCV’s place. This PCV has access to a big screen TV. Our niblet is homesick for pies. The plan is to get pies made and brought over, to sit in front of the big screen TV and to watch the American election results and hooray! or commiserate over the results.
Pie will be involved, though. No matter if the wrong party wins and the world comes to an end, the niblet will have pies and the companionship of friends.
I think that works.
September 24, 2008
Book Bay, a dangerous pleasure
After meeting with two flooring contractors for bids (and calling a third to meet up with tomorrow), we headed over to Book Bay at Fort Mason (the Friends of the San Francisco Library used book store) to look for a copy of Gibbons’ DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE — a special request from the younger niblet.
Couldn’t find a copy, but did find several other books I wanted as well as fourteen books on the $.50 (3/$1) table. Couldn’t find a fifteenth, but the staff gave me a deal.
With my Friends of the Library discount and one of the “extra 25% off” coupons they give you when you renew your annual membership, I got 35% off my purchase: eighteen books for $15.60.
But not a DECLINE AND FALL.
Talking it over with his nibs, I realized I should just rummage through the book boxes labeled HISTORY and pick one of the duplicates that isn’t an old, old copy. His nibs remembers having a copy his Aunt Burta bought used back in the first quarter of the last century. I know I had a 2v. copy when I was in my late teens and we probably have other editions as well. I’ll find a good — but not valuable — copy to send. I’m assuming that any book I send to Ukraine will not be coming home in 2010, and I’d hate to have the younger niblet worry about damaging a book I held dear.
Nice trip to Book Bay, though.