Looking at my 15 draft posts and my monthly struggle to get at least one post up (and it usually being lame), this blog is going on hiatus.  Between work and various self-imposed tortures, I officially need to have one less thing to think about.  So I guess everyone will have to continue hearing my winding, pointless stories in person.

Perhaps I would have more time if I had not recently started filling it with the following:

• Jezebel.  So pitch perfect for me.  I used to be a huge Wonkette fan, but after Election 2004 my interest waned, and the site was never quite the same after Anna Marie Cox left.  Nice that there’s still something for me in the Gawker Empire.
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.  I’m an old lady with a job so I obviously am not staying up until 12:35, so I record it and watch it over the weekends.  I was really into Conan in school, and I still love his show (and should probably be taping his show too, but I haven’t the time!), but I kind of don’t recall laughing as hysterically and consistently watching Conan as I do watching Craig Ferguson.  (Whose name I sometimes confuse with Colin Ferguson [the good one], who is awesome on Eureka.)
• Law & Order.  Law school actually drove me away - it was a little too much like homework.  I thought I’d checked it out when I saw that Jeremy Sisto, who’s always kind of interesting to watch (is it bad that I always think of Clueless first when I see him in anything?), and Linus Roache, who’s fascinated me since The Wings of the Dove, had joined up.  And even though I’ve always hated the ripped from the headlines plots that are even more prevalent now, the new dynamics are riveting and I could not have possibly prepared myself for how fascinating it is to watch Sam Waterson be the crotchety old D.A.

If you were in the Bay Area, you may have noticed that there was a lot of intense weather yesterday what with the buckets of rain and super-high winds. The news last night was all about the awesomeness of Nature’s destructive power. Lucky me, I was bestowed a tripartite gift.

Element 1) Pants so wet by the time I got to work I could not stand to wear them. Silly me, I thought, I shouldn’t have worn such warm, thick-materialed pants on such a wet day. Luckily I have an emergency suit in my office (and it still fit) so I was cool.

Element 2) Arriving home to see that I had no front window. Literally. My living room window was gone and a spectacle of glass littered the driveway.

It looks like this now:

(I’m sure it’s also the storm’s fault I can’t figure out how to make these pictures bigger!)

Element 3) My next door neighbor decided to wake me up early this morning (ok, it was 10 a.m.) to insist that the leak in her garage was coming from my house. Okay, yeah, the houses are attached, but by her explanation of where her leak was there was no way the fault was on my side. Also she felt the need to point out that my window had been only eight years old and her forty year old windows held up just fine. Nice.

Update: The storm is slightly less evil than previously thought! I’m not stupid! IE7 is! Firefox rules!

So the History Channel, which I have long lamented as being entirely unwatchable, is making me like it again.  As a history major from college, I want to love it - like CourtTV, which I want to love, but seriously hate - but with it’s emphasis on Nazis, Hitler, and blowin’ stuff up, I haven’t been able to.  But starting with Ice Road Truckers this past year, and continuing with random things that I’ve stumbled upon while flipping channels like Star Wars: Secrets Revealed, suddenly I love the History Channel.  The upcoming previews for the new year I saw while watching The States look exciting and non-war related too so I can’t wait!

argh - word press ate my post! anyway, the power’s out in miraloma park, but I’m thumbing away on here treo and thanks to our gas stove we can make dinner, we’ve got a couple battery backups so we’ve got a lamp and mp3 player going, and I can surf the net on my treo, but deep down I just want to watch tv.

Aston Villa 1 - Arsenal 2

Daruma 2 - Ireland’s 32 2

Cal . . . I can’t even write it.

So I just figured out the third thing my Treo is good for, number one being the ability to check my personal e-mail constantly at work without fear of getting heycecilia.com banned and number two access to NextBus so I can make an educated guess as to whether to walk or take MUNI. Number three is the ability to post here while I’m standing here waiting for my ride in the cold and the wet here at the BART station. Go Treo, I guess. (Though it’s hard to type and I can’t format or make links.)

PS Is there a cure for an eye twitch other than stop working the computer? ‘Cause that’s not an option.

Yesterday I went to see The Simpsons Movie, which I liked very much - it was good, but not, of course, Best. Movie. Ever. good, but an enjoyable time. Anyway, there were a million previews, but the single most awesome was for Daddy Day Camp, the sequel to 2003’s celebration of the general incompetence of fathers or something, Daddy Day Care. (Full disclosure: I never saw Daddy Day Care, but I saw the commercials and have seen movies before so I’m sure while the papas struggled at first they eventually make it work, and hilarity ensues, blah blah blah.) So there are many wonderful things about the preview.

First, the screen announced that the movie was “From the Studio that Brought You Daddy Day Care.” Not the producers, not the director, not even the writers. So maybe this isn’t about creative fulfillment?

Second, as I asked Matt, “Wasn’t Eddie Murphy in Daddy Day Care?” Because Eddie, didn’t show up this time around. Instead, this time Cuba Gooding Jr. is dutifully playing the role of “black male lead.” Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. lapping up the sloppy seconds of Academy Award nominee Eddie “Norbit” Murphy. Seriously?

Third, even Jeff Garlin, who played the lesser-known co-star dad in the original, didn’t lower himself to participate in this project. I knew the large man who looked like John Goodman’s cousin was not in Daddy Day Care, but we were halfway through the preview before I remembered Garlin was in the original, which made me sad somehow.

Fourth, Daddy Day Camp looks terrible. Just god-awful and in no way worth whatever they paid to make it. Those kids are going to be accidentally leaving that credit off their resumes for years.

So I just finished watching Emeril Live for the first time since . . . um, actually, I’ve never watched a whole episode of Emeril. I’m at best a casual Food Network watcher, settling on a show for a few minutes when flipping channels - though I’ve always had a soft spot for the aspirational efficiency of 30 Minute Meals. But I could never stand the “Bam!” I recall stumbling on Emeril doing something halfway interesting and then it would come out and the channel would change.

Anyway, I taped this week’s episode of Emeril, “Kicked Up Tailgaiting,” because it featured as special guests soccer stars Pablo Mastroeni and Jimmy Conrad. And by “soccer stars,” I mean people self-proclaimed soccer fan Emeril has never heard of, judging by the fact that he couldn’t remember their last names or their teams without reading them off the blue card. And these poor guys play on the national team for Pete’s sake! Mastroeni and Conrad were, of course, gracious and adorable, which made it much less awkward than it could have been. Even when Emeril thanked “the soccer organization” - whatever that is - at the end of the show.

(I only taped it because it featured the two soccer players. Every couple weeks I do a keyword search in the DVR for “soccer” so I can catch all the games I might want to tape, but that also creates lots of random hits like Emeril, usually at least one Dora the Explorer episode, the Will & Grace where Will and Jack join a gay soccer team, and whimsical bits like Cleats of Imminent Doom.)

Query - why does Emeril have a band? I suppose it’s a vestige of the dizzying heights of fame he once achieved - and the women in his audience still look enraptured by him (though other than the excessive use of cilantro, I would not say no to him cooking for me) - but it’s just so goofy.

The upside of the viewing was that not only is the “Bam!” thankfully gone, but I got to appreciate just how charming Emeril is. He was funny, though not as funny as the audience thought, and I bet no one does lime juice rage like Emeril. His was so into his stories even when they lacked payoff for the rest of us, but he endearingly made it work. And he had no problem teasing himself for his gaffes, including the running motif of measuring so casually that the various pots and bowls were not quite big enough for what he needed to put in them. I have no intention of watching again, but if the Bam! was keeping you away, it’s safe to go back.

So I have found that when I get home, I am tired of one-handed typing due to my broken finger. So I have hit upon a solution of sorts. I have decided to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking for home writing since work writing makes my left hand all tired. I’ve had a Dragon NaturallySpeaking for some time but was always too lazy to do the training to get it too understand to my voice. So this past week I have devoted some time to getting the training done and, in fact, this post is written with the program. Of course, I’ve had to go back and correct a lot of the things that have been written, but mostly it’s just an occasional word here and there. So hopefully I will be able to do more posting before the cast comes off (did i forget to mention the cast?) and who knows? This might make it easier for me to do more posting in the long-term.

alas, i have broken my right pinkie finger. my dreams of blogging about the missives of McCain, Hilary, Barack, and the heretofore silent Giuliani are thwarted by the effort required at this time. i shall soon regain the ability to type away furiously (if with bad form, sorry mavis!). in the meantime, take a moment to remember that here in SF we get a mayoral election this year! That should be fun!