(This is our house in the background)

• More live Bonerama recordings. Bonus happy points for ‘Lost My House’, ‘Hard Times’, and ‘Folsom Prison Blues’
• Best Game Ever: Fun and heart-warming.
• Iowa is thisclose to having a smoking ban! Woo! [Though I honestly wonder what will become of The Deadwood.]
• Spending time online with Lisa looking at hotel rooms for Mardi Gras 2009…
• Finally, this clip from SNL last week continues to crack me up:
  

Theaters Begin Barring Children
Some theater chains have begun barring children from theaters after 8:30 p.m. if they are not accompanied by their parents — in hopes of attracting more adults who are put off by the disruptive behavior of some kids, according to USA Today. A spokeswoman for the Midwest chain Kerasotes Theaters said that it is testing “adult-friendly” screenings at 13 of its 95 locations. Marcus Majestic Cinema in Brookfield, WI, has gone further, serving alcoholic beverages and prepared entrees in its adults-only auditoriums and providing a babysitting service. “We want to create an entertainment destination and reach people who might not otherwise come to a movie theater,” Marcus Theatres spokesman Carlo Petrick told the newspaper.

I don’t like the whole trend of “eating a meal” during a movie, the last thing I want is someone chomping on more than popcorn and all those smells, but anything that gets kids out of theaters is welcome to me. Actually, I don’t think this goes far enough, I’d like to see kids banned completely after a certain hour. I know some kids are good movie go-ers (I’d like to hope I was), but the parents I see traipsing into the theaters with multiple children to watch violent films late at night need to be tossed out. Especially the ones who just let their kids run around in the theaters. Arrrgh. The big screen is no more a babysitter than your television. And really, your kid should be in bed and not at the 10:30pm screening of the latest action flick.

I had a doctor’s appointment this morning and I saw a chick carrying the book in the waiting room and she looked like she was only 1/4 of the way through. Seriously? Didn’t everyone finish it this weekend? I was done at 1:30pm on Sunday and that was only because my Bonerama boys delayed my getting started on Friday and Saturday.

Please read this post with as much sarcasm as you need to not be put out at me.

I watched some of the convocation ceremony that was just held at VT and the one image that stood out for me was just a short shot of some students in the large audience. In the middle of other students in their VT sweatshirts and t-shirts sat a guy with his head bowed, dressed in his VT marching band uniform. What a beautiful tribute to a friend.

I honestly had no idea that the members of Congress didn’t move to Washington DC while they served. Most fly back and forth to their homes in whatever state they are from every week. Really? I had no idea. I assumed if you were elected, you moved your family to Washington since that’s where your job is and I assumed it was such an important job that you needed to be there pretty much all the time. I know that the members have offices back in their home states that they visit, but I didn’t realize when I voted for someone I was making them basically a consultant who has to travel back and forth all the time. That seems like it would really make these people travel weary eventually and make them even less effective than they really are already. So people just live out of hotels or what when they are there during the week? Who’s paying for that? Who’s paying for all those flights every week?

This quote just killed me: The new schedule poses a headache for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who runs her 7-year-old daughter’s Brownie troop meetings on Monday afternoons in Weston, Fla. “I’ll have to talk to the other mothers and see if we can move it to the weekend,” she said.

Um, you’re in Congress. Somehow I think your constituents expect you to be in Washington getting something done, not playing with Girl Scouts. Get someone else to run the troop!

Apparently I’m a more ignorant voter than I realized.

[update] Apparently, I’m not the only person who wonders about this… the original post author disagrees with me for a semi-valid point, but the commenters make a lot of good points more in my vein of thinking. These people knew they were getting elected to Congress. It wasn’t like it was a random promotion they didn’t want and now have to deal with it affecting their own and their families lives… they asked, practically begged, for these positions. They all need to get to work and put their butts in the seats so we can see them on C-SPAN.

Where was I? Oh yeah, 6:45am… too early. I turn on the TV expecting to see final tallies for the house or see how many races are still undecided. But no, I don’t see anything about last night. All I see is a segment on who’s running for President in 2008! PEOPLE! SHUT UP AND GO AWAY FOR A WEEK OR TWO. Anyone who starts campaigning within the next week automatically falls to bottom of the pile of people I’m going to consider voting for. This constant campaigning is getting absolutely ridiculous. Some news commentator made the half-joke that at least 10% of the Senate would soon be running for president?!? I think people should have to give up their seat completely if they run for a different office because how exactly can they focus on working in Congress if they’re not even going to be there or be completely focused on themselves for the next two years?

Also in current events, Britney Spears finally filed for divorce yesterday. All these celeb divorces going around and just once, I’d like to see the legal documents where they check the box indicating why they are filing for divorce where the option is “incurable insanity.” Wouldn’t that be great? Aren’t half these people insane anyway? “Irreconcilable differences” is so dull.

In my own current events, work is draining my life, but my house is cleaning and my knitting is going better.

or if you want to skip the NYTimes rigamarole all together: Fantasy Congress

From KWWL regarding the Pierre Pierce case, who is being sentenced today for

third-degree burglary, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, false imprisonment and fourth-degree criminal mischief.

Here’s the title-inspiring part:

Pierce’s attorneys asked that he receive a suspended sentence for the burglary charge and a deferred judgment on the other charges. If given deferred judgments, Pierce would be placed on probation. The charges would be erased from his record if he successfully completes probation. Defense attorneys say Pierce is trying to turn his life around, and his chance to play pro basketball justifies him not going to prison.

Disgusting.

Tonight in weather, we’re looking at six days in a row.

and that was it.
I couldn’t stop laughing.

Six days straight! WOOHOO!! And here I was dreading that 36 hours or so of an alternate universe come Wednesday.