Happy Halloween

Not exactly, the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, but it's holiday greetings from YouTube just the same.

What's everyone going as tonight?

Knitting for a cause

I know some of you knit, and those who want to take up the hobby may be motivated by a good cause.

The Orphan Foundation of America (OFA) is looking for people to knit or crochet red scarves to be sent in Valentines Day care-packages for parentless college students. Scarves are accepted during the month of January, and the only real guidlines are that they have to be some shade of red and about 60" long.

The website has a pretty easy pattern to use, and any local yarn store can help with the details (if they're anything like mine, they practically give you things just for walking in there).

For more info, check out: http://www.orphan.org/red_scarf_project.html

As I told my WW group earlier, idle hands eat cookies. Knitting hands change lives. :)

Not that I've been posting much lately anyway

But I’m announcing here and now that I’m taking the month of November off from blogging and focusing my attentions on a project that I’ve always wanted to try. Namely, National Novel Writing Month.

This goal of this project is to begin and finish a 50,000-word novel between November 1 and November 30, 2006. That means an entirely new project (I’m going to have to wait until January to finish my project about Regency England), and yes, I’m a mite bit terrified. However, if I can pull this off, it will be a TREMENDOUS accomplishment, and after I spend the month of December editing, hopefully I’ll be able to really start pursuing the publishers.

A favor, please. Nothing will stress me out more than having to give updates on my progress. I’ll update you when I can, but please don’t ask how it’s going.

If you want to join in the “fun,” (I know most of you are brilliant writers!) you can sign up here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Good luck and happy writing!!

He...

May not get a third date as last night was a little less comfortable. He makes me laugh, and that's a good thing; but he also thinks I'm a little bit crazy thanks to my interest in the supernatural. I won't stop being interested in that particular subject, and he only got a three-year window into the entire history, but I could see the wheels turning.

There also seems to be a language barrier that I hadn't encountered before. The difference between "cuter" and "better" seemed to totally escape him. He thought my friends were talking about how they had "BETTER" undies, and I told him that they said "CUTER." I attempted to explain that BETTER implied that granny-panties and laundry-panties were in the regular rotation while CUTER was just a visual thing (hearts, flowers, polka-dots). He wasn't convinced.

We talked politics (a news story came on about NJ and gay marriage), and this is where I started to realize that the language barrier was a deeper issue than just polka-dots and granny-panties. Though he claims to be a Democrat, he kept insisting that gays should have the same rights as a married couple, but we should call the marriage something else. You know, to distinguish it from a "real marriage." I told him that the entire issue was based upon the fact that all the people who were suing in NJ wanted was a "real marriage," and for it to be recognized as such. Another "separate but equal" status was a little reminiscent of the 60s and the bigotry that existed in this country at that time.

Who said I couldn't formulate a good argument about issues that are really important?

I'm not 100% sure that he's not going to get a third. I'm not 100% sure that he is, either. We'll see.

Fantasy Baseball?

Sorry, no.

Baseball season has ended. For the O's fans, it ended around June 15; for the Mets fans, it ended with a guy striking out looking in the bottom of the 9th. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Either way, I'm not watching the World Series.

What I'm talking about here, kids, is Fantasy Congress. For those of you, like me, who get most of your daily news from Jon Stewart, hold firm to the belief that Bradley Whitford should still be running the White House instead of a SNL-knock-off, and spend campaign season figuring out ways to play drinking games while the election results are returned (check my blog for details about that), this game is perfect!

Even if you don't know anything about politics, you could always do what I did for Fantasy Football...pick a team based on name recognition and cuteness factor. To review: John McCain = IN (name recognition), Barbara Mikulski = OUT (cuteness factor). Either way, it should be an
interesting way to learn a little more about how a Bill becomes a Law than what the singing piece of paper taught us in 5th grade.

I've set up a league, and I'm inviting you all to join in. Like everything else in life these days, it's pretty darn simple:

1. Log on to the Fantasy Congress website: www.fantasycongress.org
2. Join the League: "StewartColbert 08" (owner mdsnbelle) with the
password "channel64."
3. Draft your team.
4. Sit back and watch as the points are determined.

To make it fair, I'm not going to activate the league until Election Day. Congress should be close to being back for their Lame Duck (otherwise known as the "I've got two weeks left, so screw it all") Session, and the game should be running in real time at that point. In the meantime: sign up, talk a little smack, and let's figure out if we're playing for bragging rights or something a little more substantive.

The invite is wide open.

Meet the Mets

Most of you know how the story ended last night, the NY Mets held off the St. Louis Cardinals until the last inning of the 7th Game of the NLCS. Then, with a single homerun, the Cards scored the two winning runs and the final Met struck out LOOKING at the ball.

Note to all ballplayers attempting a career in the majors: if you've been watching an umpire call a wild strike zone all night, you're known as a "home-run hitter," bases are loaded, you're two runs down, and there are two outs at the end of the ninth inning...YOU ALWAYS SWING AT THE BALL!

But that's the way the story ended. Now, let me tell you how it began.

It all started in a cow pasture in Cooperstown, NY. The year was 1839, and the bases were steaming piles of....

Eh, maybe we should skip forward a little.

The story I want to tell you is how I, a lifelong O's fan with a minor affinity for the Mets (thanks to the Tidewater Norfolk Tides being their farm team) ended up at Shea Stadium with a boy from college and 35k people having what can best be described as a group therapy session.

That is, of course, if group therapy is supposed to be a good thing.

It all started Tuesday night when I accepted a drinks-date with Jeff. Just a casual thing that was a bit of a relief after the whole Friday night minor-drama.

Wednesday, I called Ben to get his email address for a friend who's looking for a new job (she's fabulous if you're hiring). While we were on the phone, he mentioned the game. Granted, we weren't sure there was even going to be a Game 7, but, like me, Ben likes to keep his options open. Long story short, there was a Game 7.

This then posed an "interesting" problem for me. See, while I had accepted the ticket to the game (and I had promised to pay for it), I didn't have:

1. A place to stay in NYC
2. The necessary time off of work
3. Any clue how I was going to get out of my date with Jeff.

Problem #2 was the easiest to manage. I walked out of the office, promised my boss I'd make up the time I needed, and scored his agreement that I could work from "home" today. Yes, I'm in NY and my sister's firewall isn't exactly letting me get into the files that I need to actually accomplish anything, but my coworker sent me a few things, and I'm doing a lot of thinking. That works, right?

Problem #3 also seemed easy. I sent Jeff this fabulous little email saying that while I'd totally love to go out with him, it was a once in a lifetime (I'm an O's fan, remember) opportunity that I couldn't pass up. I figured it he was any sort of a guy I wanted to see again, he'd go along with it. And he did.

Problem #1 proved to be the hardest. Julia is committed to not having her house turned into "Hotel Charles," and while I respect that, I do have an open invitation from her fabulous roommate. The problem, however, was Ben. Julia didn't know who he was (she does now), and didn't want him staying at the house. Since I couldn't find a place for him to stay, the whole plan was almost abandoned. Which caused a couple of emails to be sent back to Jeff.

• Email #1: Was the one I mentioned earlier.
• Email #2: Was the one I asked Julia to send when she told me that Ben couldn't stay and then Ben decided that it would probably be "easier" if we bagged the trip altogether. I don't have access to my Gmail, so I thought I'd see if I could reschedule with Jeff.
• Email #3: Was the one Julia sent after I convinced her Ben could stay. I needed to cancel again (obviously).

Truth be told, I probably was better off staying in Baltimore. See, every time I get together with Ben, he forgets that we're not dating and tries to get me to kiss him. He's a nice guy, but NO. And the more he throws himself at me, the more that I realize that I want nothing to do with him. I'm going to give him a cooling-off period and then contact him around Christmas.

Funniest part of the evening happened on the train on the way home. Gotta love that post-game zone-out, right? I was sandwiched between a bunch of boys on the 7 when one of them starts bitching about it not being an "Express Train." I turn around and go, "There is no express train; there is only ZOOOOL." Didn't realize I was being loud, but apparently I was. Look for me, on Overheard in NY sometime this fall.

So, kids, no more baseball until the spring. Since the Mets, the O's and the Red Sox are completely out of it, there's no reason to watch the Series. I'll be back in February with a new Baseball Blog, so stay tuned!

BW3

I just heard this lady in my office talking about BW3 opening up in
Maryland. Assuming it was in Baltimore, I immediately started craving
wings. Not sure why, because I don't particularly like wings, but these
are different. Since, I can't make it down to the 'Burg this weekend,
I'm assuming that something in my subconscious saw it as the next best
thing.

So, I checked the website, and it turns out that the closest BW3 is
actually in Westminster. This is 23 miles away. Do I drive 23 miles
for wings? Something tells me that I shouldn't, but somehow I think
that this fall I'm going to find myself doing just that.