The Moon And Venus

Our friends Ken and Marie came over last night and brought out the telescope and did a little star gazing. It's a little difficult because we have a few neighbors who seem to think they should light up the entire neighborhood at night with their "security" lighting. But we were able to get a good look at the moon and venus. They were in near perfect alignment, which was cool. But what I hadn't realized until I set up the telescope was that Venus was in a crescent that was nearly identical to that of the moon, only much smaller.


Both were slivers of smiles and bright despite how thin they were.

It was a good time to look at the moon because it wasn't overwhelmingly bright. I tried to take a couple of pictures with the little hand held digital camera that I have but I wasn't very steady, as you can see--I'd only had one beer and a mere taste of the port, I swear!

Slap Chop

So the ShamWow guy is now selling a food chopper that looks a lot like the one I got from Pampered Chef a few years ago. Maybe not quite the same quality, but the principle is the same. And, okay, maybe this is very immature of me but I swear to god he says this and it is the only thing I can think of when I use my chopper now:

"You're going to love my nuts."

I swear to god. He says this.

The End Of An Era

Seriously? The End Of An Era? The end of an effing era? That's what the promo for The Girls Next Door is claiming. Apparently Hugh Hefner is kicking out his current stable of three siliconized "girlfriends" and everybody is all weepy. Does anyone actually watch this show? Am I the only one who finds it all just profoundly creepy? Hugh Hefner will soon be 82 years old. These girls are what? In their early 20s? I'm no prude, but good god, that just strikes me as disgustingly freakish. And it's not like these three girls are sharing Hef because they just find him irresistably attractive. It's an obvious "career" ploy and it borders on prostitution. (Isn't that what you call it when you offer sex in exchange for something?) The fact that this show is even on the air should shame every single American. And anyone who watches it, well, there's just no words to describe what you should be feeling.

Like Roses, We Are Clones

Who knows from where such thoughts come? I certainly don't. I don't ascribe to a particular creation myth, though my upbringing would suggest an affinity for the Christian version. I was just reading a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke called "Eve." And I don't know why, but I got to thinking first of incest and same sex marriage--culled from Adam's rib, just how female is Eve? A pointless thought with no basis because of course she could be rendered female with a click of a single gene. That's when I wondered, despite the desperate attempts by politicians and fundamentalist Christian loonies to undo the tenets of modern day science, is Eve nothing more than a clone of Adam? Of course she is. The Christian creation myth is a story of cloning in order to perpetuate a species. From one cloned pair and a handful of generations of mutation and change (hey, the earth is only 6000 years old, right?) all the humans on earth have been derived. From two to six billion in 6000 years, give or take five or six days. That's a pretty good success rate. Not bad for a cloning experiment.

By the way, here's the poem:

Eve

Simply she stands at the cathedral’s great ascent, close to the rose window, with the apple in the apple-pose, guiltless-guilty once and for all of the growing she gave birth to since form the circle of eternities loving she went forth, top struggle through her way throughout the earth like a young year. Ah, gladly yet a little in that land Would she have lingered, heeding the harmony And understanding of the animals. But since she found the man determined, She went with him, aspiring after death, And she had as yet hardly known God.  Rainer Maria Rilke

My Favorite Song

Someone asked me today what my favorite song is. I was left speechless--like, you mean, favorite song of all time?!?! What a horrible question. I can't answer it. I'm quite certain that my answer would change before it even left my mouth. "Baby Please Don't Go"? "Amazing Grace"? "Stranglehold"? "Redemption Song"? "The Bed's Too Big Without You"? 'The Thrill Is Gone"? Something by AC/DC or Aerosmith's version of "Train Kept A Rollin'"? I have no idea. I fully suspect that if I truly tried to answer this question I would end up in an insane asylum.

Cavendish!

Two stages in a row for Isle of Whiter Mark Cavendish. Two close seconds for Tommy Boonen. Looks like Cavendish is taking the fastest man in the world title from Tom in a big, in-your-face kind of way.

Now that I'm home and have to experience the Tour of California via one hour highlight shows on Versus, the weather in California has turned and the riders are enjoying some sun for a change. I would really love to be able to follow the whole tour one of these days.

Oakland Airport

We're sitting in the Oakland Airport waiting for the flight. It's hot in here! At least they have decent wi-fi. I'm looking forward to some warm, dry weather. We've depleted a small forest in tissues. We left Tucson with lousy head colds and it looks like we're returning not a whole lot better. Looking forward to getting back, but it would be nice to be able to follow the tour the whole route. One of these days we're going to do that. Joan gets a bit tired of it after a while, but if the weather is nice it might be easier. She'd rather do winery tours and visit the beaches. I'm good with following the races and, weather permitting, doing some cycling of our own. Oh well. The future awaits, right?