Laurabelle's Blog

Scathing New York Times editorial today: Clark seemed so immediately electable to so many Democrats that the day after he announced his candidacy, he shot up toward the top of the national polls. These voters are nothing if not principled, and their primary principle is that they should win. This, after all, is a party [...]

Jeff was sick again this week (for the third time since this fall!), and yesterday it was especially bad. I stayed over at his apartment as much as I could, to take care of him, and he pretty much stayed in bed all day. Most unusually for him, he had trouble finishing his oatmeal in [...]

For the past ten years I've been allergic to nickel, which means that I can't wear most metal objects next to my skin. This can get annoying with things like eyeglasses and snaps or rivets on jeans, but gold and silver are generally okay. The exception is that I can't wear pierced earrings at all, [...]

The first assignment for Young Adult Materials is to interview two teenagers, for which we need parental permission. We even have to turn in signed permission slips so that our prof can't get harassed by Human Subjects. So today in class, my wonderful classmate Nic, who let me interview his brother, handed me the permission [...]

Over the past week, I've been on a bathroom-cleaning spree. The trigger for this was my ex-housemate's sink, which was encrusted with old toothpaste and drained painfully slowly. One by one I tackled the drain, sinks, tub/shower, toilet, mirror, and floor. Lori's sink was by far the worst. Some hippie enzyme-rich drain cleaner worked marvels [...]

Last night I dreamed that Goldie had been lost for a couple of weeks but that I found her, that she was hungry and a little bit scratched and bruised but healthy. I was so glad to find her, and I had been so afraid, that I almost cried from relief. I was about to [...]

I have a strange relationship with King Lear. A few years ago I read it in conjunction with Oedipus Rex and found that in comparison, Shakespeare's play was positively uplifting. Now I'm much less convinced. Yesterday evening, Jeff and I attended a preview performance of King Lear by the Seattle Shakespeare Company, invited by Jeff's [...]

Last weekend, when Jeff and I were in Olympia, we played a fun little Sega game called Toejam and Earl. I had never played it before, and it turned out that I liked it a lot, mainly because it's a very collaborative game. Two people can play at the same time, one as Toejam and [...]

This really steams me. Most Americans don't realize this, but Iraq was the most liberal country in the Middle East in terms of women's rights. Saddam was a brutal dictator, but he oppressed everyone equally! Now, under pressure from the Shi'ite majority, Iraq is moving towards Islamic fundamentalism in exchange for political stability. (See Christopher [...]

Yesterday Jeff and I had a couple of his friends over for dinner (fruit salad, chili, and apple cobbler), and it was nice, except that I found myself oddly dissatisfied with the evening. It took me a little while to figure out why, but it comes down to manners. I don't mean to imply that [...]