Are those clean?

OK, so I pulled the boys' winter coats out of the dryer this a.m. so they could wear them in the rain.

So knowing this, do you figure that I, ya know, washed them? Well, my wife had to doublecheck. "I hope you cleaned those," she said. Really, I was incredulous. Did she think I would plant the jackets in the dryer to fool her? "I didn't take them down to the river and beat them with a rock, if that's what you mean."

In her defense, I was raised in an environment where a brown (i.e. unbleached) paper towel put in the wrong place turned the nuclear family of my childhood more nuclear than family. So I learned how, especially as my mom got older and lost visual acuity, to fake it sometimes.

Not that Cheryl is like my mother. But I do know that I will never be as hygenic as my dear wife might want.

OK, so one time I put away dishes that had only been rinsed. But that was a misunderstanding on my part ... a completely accidental failure to understand the controls of our new dishwasher. And I got (most) of the not-so-clean stuff back into the dishwasher for a real washing.

Anyway, I DID wash the damn jackets!

Hitched again!

We're just gonna keep marrying and registering until it's fully real. . .

Funderwear!

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia (the lesbian edition)

Well, it was fun while it lasted, but now the publisher of Maureen "Marcia" McCormick's new book is denying rumors that it will include details of a tryst between McCormick and Eve "Jan" Plumb.

But they can't make the images leave my mind. And I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Goin' bowling

Angelina has only slept with four guys ....

... But she didn't say how many women she has slept with. Hmmmm.

From MSNBC:

LOS ANGELES - For all the talk and insinuations of her promiscuity, Angelina Jolie says she’s only slept with four men.
In an interview with Britain’s Cosmopolitan magazine, the sexy star said she has only “slept with four men in my life — and I married two of them!”
Of course, Angelina has also been linked to various women over the years, including her former “Foxfire” co-star Jenny Shimizu.

She certainly seems like someone who's well in touch with her sexuality.

That early drive to the train station has some excellent mountain views ....

I'm ready to move the wife and kids to San Diego!

OK, except for the fact that it's too expensive and we love it where we are and too much sunshine makes me nervous.

Here's why: http://cbs5.com/video/?id=26888@kpix.dayport.com

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders offers a heartfelt and brave example of what happens when life collides with the things we think we believe. (He just signed a resolution supporting an effort to overturn California's prohibition on same-sex marriages.)

I used to think civil unions were good enough. Now I only believe that's true if the government decides to get out of the marriage business for straight people. Civil unions for all! And marriages for people, gay and straight, who want to seek God's blessing. I'm so thankful that, despite what some believe, that blessing does exist for my wife and I (even if for now we're only married in Canada).

A freaky moth on my finger

So we found this thing at the boys' preschool, perched like some sort of bird. And it sat on the end of my finger and just kind of hummed at me for the longest time. I was both intrigued and a little nervous. And glad it wasn't any larger.

With bugs, I embrace a no-kill, touch-with-care philosophy. And I try not to ever think about anything but how amazing God's creation can be 'cause otherwise I'll get grossed out or scared.

A freaky moth

Hillary on Ellen, Talking About Rights for People Like Me

OK, so when will the actresses start coming out in earnest?

In the news: Power Lesbians, Out in Hollywood. I wish it was a post about Jodie Foster, though it's not fair for non-public me to push her to say, publicly acknowledge the woman she's with as her kids' other parent (I can't even say for sure that the woman in the red pants is Jodie's partner, though if it quacks like a duck and holds the kids' hands ....).

Anyway, here's what Defamer had to say about the Power Lesbians (I left out the quote about sex toy ettiquette after a change in girlfriends 'cause that's just yucky):

W Mag To Throw Coming Out Party For Rubyfruit Mafia
Today's Page Six previews W's upcoming story on the rapidly growing membership of the all-female Velvet Mob splinter group the magazine has dubbed the Rubyfruit Mafia, a faction whose influence grows each time one of the industry's power-lesbians makes the brave choice to step out of the closet:

THE lesbians of Hollywood seem to be multiplying as they come out of the closet. "Call them the Rubyfruit Mafia," W magazine says in its latest issue. Movie producer Nina Jacobson said she didn't know of one other openly lesbian executive in Los Angeles in the early '90s when she told a colleague at Universal Studios, "I actually am not straight."

It would be wrong just to sit on the jiggly piece . . .

The tilt-a-whirl is serious business . . .

Our second night in a row at the fair . . . Dollar ride Monday.

Diet Mountain Dew, Vault, and My New Affection For Not-Quite energy drinks

So, my love of Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper has a rival: Diet Mountain Dew and Vault, the citrus-flavored caffiene-rich sodas from Pepsi and Coke.

How much caffiene does it have 70.5 mg, significantly more than Dew, at 55 mg. I'm not sure which one I like better. And I'm not sure if the caffeine even makes that much difference. Really, I'm someone who can sleep no matter what.

Hmmm. Just discovered a small problem involving Vault Zero (aka Diet Vault) and benzene. It's supposedly cleared up now, but ... BENZENE?

A perfect day at the Puyallup Fair ... But where was everybody?

Cheryl and I took the boys to the fair today, making first use of the season passes we got at Costco for essentially nothing (we got 'em for the price of admission to Wild Waves, where we were going anyway).

Anyway, it was bright, sunny and wonderful. We even found street parking. Which was the first clue that it would be kind of an odd day: The weather couldn't have been better, but the fair was hardly filled. I wonder if it was the competition from the Seahawks game .....

Well, we'll be back, and we'll see if it was an oddity or a new reality for one of the country's biggest fairs. Is it possible that people just aren't into fairs anymore? It's funny 'cause for many years I went almost every day as part of my job as a music reviewer for The News Tribune. I got a little tired of it, I'll admit. But now, even with a season pass, it's more fun. We can go for a few hours at a shot and leave before we get sick of it.

Paintin' toenails with my boy

Turning 40: Not so bad, if you're Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt's got another movie coming out ("The Long-Titled Movie About The Assassination of Jesse James By Some Other Dude" or something like that), so the door to the Pitt-Jolie household is open a crack. He said some interesting stuff to Details:

On leaving his spouse for someone else, in public (which I can relate to other than the in-public part): "I don't know how better to have handled it. My view was, this is no one's business in the end — at least in matters of the heart. So you need to protect all involved as much as possible. I don't know if that cooled things off or exacerbated them, but it was a thing I felt justly about at the time. Again, the thing guiding me then was you don't know how many days you have and you need life to be everything you want it to be. … Jen and I still maintain a deep friendship and have a lot of life together that isn't erased in any way."

And on turning 40: "Your face kind of goes. Your body's not quite working the same. But you earned it. You earned that, things falling apart."

Brad Pitt: Expert on going to seed.

NASCAR: I'm Not the Only Lesbian Into It

OK, so it warmed my heart in an odd way to hear that Melissa Etheridge sang the national anthem at the NASCAR race over the weekend in Fontana, Calif. One doesn't necessarily thnk of NASCAR as a super gay-friendly thing. But I can dream, can't I?

Said California Speedway President Gillian Zucker:

"As an outspoken advocate for the environment, human rights, and cancer survivors, Melissa Etheridge is more than just a wonderfully talented musician. We can't wait to introduce this Grammy and Academy Award winner to NASCAR at California Speedway."

How long until having a lesbian sing the national anthem at NASCAR no longer seems like a subversive act?