Hiatus

Hank wants you to know that if this were his blog it would be way more interesting. He'd bring you fun stuff everyday, like this picture of him and the only toy he hasn't completely destroyed. See how sweet he is? It's no wonder I'd rather sit on the couch with him than work.




It's finals time. I have to expand a unit plan and write a research paper on The Divine Comedy.

In the meantime, I won't be posting, though I keep having ideas of stuff to write, because I don't want to write the stuff I have to write.

The unit plan is coming along. I'm supposed to expand a plan I already did, which shouldn't take long because I did more than I was supposed to the first time around. However, I've discovered that I can't just half-ass it, probably because I recognize that I very well might teach this unit plan sometime in the near future.

The research paper has me worried.

Expect something slightly more interesting after the 13th (when the last of it is due).

In the meantime, check out my new glasses! (comic-book style).


You can't really tell, but the frames are sort of amber. I think they're groovy.

Some Late Commentary

So, not long after my last post, Rosie quit The View. I'm so disappointed in her. Her feelings are hurt, and she's letting it get in the way of her job. I mean, it was obvious to everyone that everyone involved was glad she was leaving at the end of the season. But, they all seemed to be dealing with it fairly well. She should have completed her obligation. I think it is kind of sad that she couldn't have held a debate with Elizabeth (who could seriously use a nickname! "Elizabeth" is just too long) about their opposing beliefs without it turning into an argument about who is being a bad friend and whose feelings are hurt. I'm sure the media scrutiny isn't easy, but it seems like Rosie was the only one I ever heard using terms like "fat, mean, lesbian" to describe herself.

I had other stuff I was going to say, about a lot of other topics, but I still have to write something about the Paradiso. Heaven is so boring, I swear. Thirty-three cantos and not a thing I want to talk about. Hell was so much more interesting.

Coming soon: Pictures! I am going to take pictures of the finished bathroom tomorrow - I've decided to wait until someone buys the nice towels for me off the registry, so I'm putting up pictures with our old non-matching towels. Also, we got bookshelves for what will now be referred to as "The Library" because, that's where I'm keeping my books. This is the first time in my life that I have had more shelves than books and it's AWESOME. Of course, this too will change once I go back to my parents' house in June and send the rest of my books back to myself. I'm so excited to have them all together again!

The View

So, I have been watching The View every once in a while when I’m home and supposed to be working on papers for school. I am completely and totally fascinated by the interactions between the hosts.

I love that Elizabeth stands up to Rosie and argues with her. I think it is really interesting to hear someone who strongly agrees with Republicans argue their points. I don’t happen to agree with her, but I think Rosie is also a little too far to the left. But what I love is the way they argue.

All of the women on the view know that Rosie is a lighting rod for criticism, and Rosie, I think, enjoys that. You can see the other women just waiting for this season to be over, so that they can get back to what the show used to be. But you can also see that they are annoyed with her, and I think she knows it. Because these debates between Rosie and Elizabeth always include something about how Rosie is portrayed in the media. The most recent debate – from the May 23rd show – has them arguing about President Bush.

Joy Behar starts the conversation with a list of things that Bush has done in his presidency. Al Gore and Jimmy Carter have recently come out saying that Bush is doing a terrible job, and Joy wants to know why he’s still in office. [I have to say that while the way Bush got into the White House is something of a sham, he did win the election in ’04. The democrats screwed up and couldn’t find a candidate who could defeat Bush. We can’t get him out because, though he has screwed up mightily, he hasn’t done anything worthy of impeachment. We shouldn’t have gotten into this war, but we’re in it, and we can’t pull out now. It would be immoral to go into a country, throw it into chaos, and not help get that country back on its feet. ANYWAY] Elizabeth has something to say, of course, and Rosie interrupts.

For Rosie, this whole thing is not about her lefty beliefs versus Elizabeth’s righty beliefs. It’s that she thinks Elizabeth doesn’t like her. Someone on Fox news said that Rosie think that our troops are terrorists. When that was brought up on the show, Elizabeth said “why don’t you take this opportunity to explain what you meant.” Rosie took that as an insult. She thinks Elizabeth should have defended her. Now, what she said was something along the lines of – innocent people are dying in Iraq every day, so who are the terrorists? I think she meant to imply that our government, who sent the troops over there, is treading dangerously close to being just like the terrorists. But, she never clarifies that on the show. I think she could have made a valid point, but instead of explaining herself and discussing what she intended to get across, she focuses on how Elizabeth should have defended her. Elizabeth is trying to say that what Rosie said was a little ambiguous and, while she realizes that Rosie isn’t accusing our troops of terrorism, she can see how people might have misinterpreted it. Rosie can’t believe Elizabeth is siding with the crazy republicans. They’re supposed to be friends, and Elizabeth should have supported her. Personally, I love watching Elizabeth try to talk over Rosie (which I think is impossible) and I love watching Joy attempt to mediate and bring it back to the issue at hand. You can see her thinking “I’m supposed to be the loud-mouthed broad on this show.”

Now I’m off to watch today’s show, which will hopefully have more arguing fun.

You can watch the May 23rd argument on You Tube here.

Edited to add: Just to be clear, I consider "loud-mouthed broad" to be a pretty high compliment. Joy Behar is a great comedian and has performed in the Vagina Monologues (as have I) which makes me like her a lot. She's very smart, and I think adds a lot to The View. I recently discovered that she started out as a High School English teacher, which makes me like her even more.

Also, today's show had no arguments. They cut the intro / chat portion significantly, I guess so they'd have time to do all of the many summer cooking demonstrations. It kind of sucked.

Told You So!

I never get around to watching Dancing with the Stars when it is actually on. I was under the impression that this week would be the finals, not last Tuesday. When I realized my mistake, I took great pains to not hear who won, so that I could watch it myself. I watched it this morning. While I did manage to skip through a lot of it.... damn. They stretch that shit out. The final show was two hours long! Two hours!

Anyway, Apolo won. Yeah! I think that Joey Fatone was excellent, and was looking as good as Apolo near the end, but I think Apolo came farther. Joey is sort of a trained dancer and an experienced performer. While Apolo was probably used to the kind of pressure they were under, he had to learn a whole new skill and he did it beautifully.

I just love that show.

Honeymoon Dreams

So, we're not sure where we'll go for our honeymoon. We were thinking Hawaii, because it seems like the thing to do for a honeymoon. Then, we were thinking we should go somewhere in the Caribbean - it's cheaper than Hawaii and basically the same thing, but with gambling! Except that we're getting married in October, which is still Hurricane season. Mr is not lucky, and if we go there, we will get to experience a hurricane.

So we're back to Hawaii.

One of the ideas we had thrown out there was Disney World. I think it would be fun. We can go at an off-peak time and save money and experience less crazy kids hopped up on sugar. So I did a little research. Turns out, Florida is in Hurricane season, too. I know, I should have realized that, but I didn't.

Not that it matters to Disney. Nope. Their season is entirely determined by the school schedule, and not Hurricanes. But whatever.

I was looking at Disney again this morning, because though we do think we'll go to Hawaii, we both agreed that it might be fun to go to Disney World someday. I thought I found a really good deal. Disney has these "wonderful weeks of Disney" where you can go for cheaper. I found a villa at their beachfront resort with a dining plan for less than a regular room at the same resort. Awesome, right? So, it's a studio, no big deal, that's like a regular hotel room with a kitchen. Here's the details:

Studios offer views of a parking area. The Studios have one queen-size bed and a double sleeper sofa, dining table with two chairs, and private balcony. Studio amenities include microwave, refrigerator, coffeemaker and wet bar.


1 Bedroom Villa
+$816.72

Ha! "Studios offer views of a parking area." I love that. Like it's a bonus or something. I can just imagine us sipping coffee, reading the paper, watching the morning valet guys come in for their shift. Ah... the magic of Disney.

Of course, you can get a view of the water or the park or whatever, it will just be an extra $816.72.