Safeway assaulted me today. I go in to get my weekly groceries and WHAM! Pink, pink, pink, pink. Pink roses. Pink balloons. Pink banners. I mean, it was 20-feet thick as you waded your way through it at the entrance to the store. It was PINK.

Oh, that's right, it's VD .

No, I'm not bitter, or especially so. But with my BS meter set so high these days I was bound to find this utter explosion of forced joy very disturbing and ridiculous. What a waste of time. So this is the only day you can celebrate with the love of your life?

Seems to me a better love is one that lasts all year long and stays steady and becomes your "rock." VD in my opinion is just an excuse to waste money and feel better about yourself for actually remembering the day.

So I'm not actually bitter on love. Jaded on what people think it "should be", perhaps.

"Iritis is a form of anterior uveitis and refers to the inflammation of the iris of the eye."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iritis

Who knew! It kind of sucks as I can't go outside much, and after this entry I am done with computer screens for the night and have to limit my exposure for a few days -- so totally weird. And they don't know what causes it in many cases.

Hmmmpgf!

OK, this stinks. So Toronto was *great* -- more on it later. I am now coming home early. Air Canada was late out of Toronto because, of all things, a panel in the loo would not latch. Took them an hour to "tape it up"! So that left me precious little time in Boston to connect to my Cape Air flight to Provincetown.

So it was a race...and I lost. It seems Air Canada changed places for it's arrivals in Boston and is now on the other side of the airport from Cape Air (because, of cousre, I researched this with zeal while planning this adventure and found both airlines used to be in the same terminal -- they changed just this month!!).

So I wheeze my way up to the Cape Air ticket counter -- and find out the next they could get me out was tomorrow. Guess they are unusually heavily booked. The offered to pay may way via bus (which is more than I expected, but no thanks) and seemed nice, but no-go until tomorrow. So with my time in Provincetown only 2 days anyways-- what's the point? I called American, got a seat on the next flight, so now I'm a a big, hot mess from marching all over the place, at a bar in BOS writing to the 2-3 visitors I get every day (Hi Mom, Hi Dad! :)

Sigh. I was really looking forward to Ptown -- it seemed really cool and relaxing. I guess it's all good -- I get a couple days at home to chill out with the boys -- I'm sure they'll love that!

Anyways, more about Toronto soon -- perhaps in the next few hours as I wait for my new flights. Toronto -- wow -- it's one of those cities I must go back to.

First of all, we won! We won! We Won!

"in-your-face-Republicans!" celebratory remarks aside, fellow Dems, I gotta say we've got work to do and cautions to partake. You do realize that the Evil Empire now has someone to really blame, right? No, we didn't do it. Our party is not the one to lead a disaster in Iraq and screw around with every last intern, page and others wives out there. Our country is not safe, and those pesky terrorists have a way of seclusion and laying in wait. Something is brewing in those tormented minds. I wish nothing this bad, but timing is everything. We must not squander. We must find a way, but not with complete spinelessness.

But politiks is politiks...and Bushies are masters at spinning their venom into cotton candy. Two more years, hell, 2 months can do a lot of political damage. Dems, you listening? Good. Cause you have more work to do now than if you were still the minority. You have to politic your brains out, stay sterile, follow the centrist line, nudge a bit of progressive reform enough to prove your the big donkey asses you are, and stay off the meds (or on if so doctor prescribed) so that in 2008 we can really do some work.

Sorry for the tough love fellow central-lefties, but I needed to say this. Don't f**k it up.

XOXO, Garrett

The heat notwithstanding, I ventured out to the annual Seattle Music festival. To be honest, I was a little dissapointed at the lineup. Or perhaps I'm just getting old. The only selections I desired to see were Blondie and the Steve Miller Band. So on Saturday I walked the 3 blocks from my apartment (nice!) to Seattle Center. I had an hour and a half before Blondie. This event is now is so effed-up that would you believe that I finally got into Memorial Stadium and got to listen to the last 4 songs only!! And the stadium wasn't even full! What's up with that?! Could they not open more gates? I arrived in standard time an hour before I wanted to listen -- and the stadium wasn't even full! Very dissapointing. Bad Seattle people, bad.

(I've been doing a lot of rants lately, huh?!)

On the flip-side I did meet-up with my friend Lauren and had a hoot of a time watching the Rat City Rollers play in their roller derby tournament. It was oddly fascinating to watch, and fun! And plus the campy factor was high, so of course I was all in!

Click here to watch roller derby chicks battle it out!

This year Summer never ends -- uuuuugh!

It was 80 degrees at midnight last night!

Most people who view this will just not understand -- what's not to love about this weather forecast, especially for Labor Day weekend.

Well, this naitive for one is calling for a change. Momma Nature -- I protest your desire to turn Seattle into Phoenix this summer. We've had way too many of these forecasts. If I wanted this I would've stayed in California. Yes, it is that time of the year, but now it's Labor Day. Do your job and make us proud!

Just when is a hermit supposed to sip his hot cocoa, read books and eat Doritos whilst in his comfy new La-z-boy?

[edit: in the time I took to write this short rant, the tempurature went up by 3 degrees....sigh]

I was cleaning out my photo files and came across this recent one. Earlier this year I had a small fender bender just as I was turning into the ally to get to my garage at my old house. You know what they say about most accidents happening within x miles of home? Well this was about 100 feet from home (sigh). Anyways, not much visible damage other than the obvious alignment difficulties the "mating" introduced. Would you believe that the final bill to fix this was over $2000??! My poor car has seen a number of misfortunes. Well, at least it's paid for!

Well, it's done. I have officially cleared the house and am in my new digs in Downtown Seattle. If any of you see me, promise to make me never, ever, ever purchase a residence with more than 1000 Sq FT. Even with a completely agressive "downsizing" of all my worldly possesions, damn I got a lot of shit! And that house was a lot of house to clear-and-clean. And during the last run to the dump, with ever thanks to my parents for the help, I acidentally spilled a garbage can full of decomposed grass clippings that has been sitting outside my house for a year. So decomposed it was liquid. I have yet to smell a more foul odor in my life, and it was all over me. Ahhhhh, though, it's done -- still have to unpack some stuff, but that can come at my own pace without any particular deadline. There is something to be said for a small apartment where it takes you 15 minutes to pick-up stuff and the convienience store is 3 minutes away -- on foot! :)

I just have to say, the Olympics opening ceremonies was hysterical to me. It was nice and spectacular, yadda yadda....but that music -- I was dancing in my living room, memories of High School running in my head. How funny is that. What 30's something musical director did they have?? NOT complaining, I just thought it was funny, and perhaps a little, well, unexpected. It fit the mood perfectly, but you just don't expect mostly American 80's tunes pumping out the loudspeakers at an International event. Am I getting so old that the people in-charge of stuff like this are my age??! Ohyyy!

And that NBC guy at the studio -- how out of touch was that!? That pinstripe suit, although I'm sure expensive, just seemed so wooden and old. He was wooden. And that interviewer talking about Bode Miller as a "Different kind of CAT..." What the hell is that?! 80's tunes and an old guy cool CAT.

Hysterical.

My favorite holiday is today! Buried rodents never get any respect, except today. Let's give 'em their 15 minutes of fame, shall we?

On another topic, Microsoft released a public preview of Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta. I installed it at home, and am using it to write this blog entry. So far it's OK at home. But at work it was a disaster. Completely un-useable. I realize it's not finished, but it was such a turd I immediately uninstalled the thing. Lots of work to do for those Microsofties on the Eastside for sure!

So I was finally getting around to dealing with some old hardware at work. So here I was gutting and parting-out our old file server, and as I cleared the SCSI cables and hard drive shelves, but what did appear -- a pair of snips! Yes, those are scissors inside our old server, that had been laying in there since we received it 4 years ago. Reminds me of those stories where doctors leave saws in people after surgery.

This server was always a bitch to me -- perhaps we now know why....