For all of you fans of the current administration, Cheney is working on declaring himself completely above the law.

Last spring, Cheney asserted that he wasn’t subject to executive-branch rules about classified information because he wasn’t actually part of the executive branch.

Now his office argues that he and his staff are completely immune from congressional oversight. That’s right: Completely immune.

I can’t imagine this could possibly last, right? The next president can put this shit to bed — just Cheney saying it doesnt make it true, right? I mean, unlike everything else that he and Bush have said/done/declared true the last 8 years.

I’m going to go sit in the corner and cry.

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fleshbot links to galleries of all the playboy centerfolds from the 50s, 60s and 70s. clearly nsfw. but really interesting to see how the times have changed. (and boy howdy have they.)

now go get downthemall for firefox, so you can quickly slurp them all out to your harddrive.

via valentine

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1. today is free cone day at ben and jerry’s.
2. tomorrow is 31 cent scoop day at baskin robbins.

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This is a quickie, but I’m tossing it up anyway.

This book popped to the forefront of my mind when I decided that I was going to focus on happiness and look at it in my own life. And I went to the library and got it.

As I walked out, thumbing pages and wondering how silly I was being, I couldn’t help think what a waste reading this book was going to be. It leans more on the science side of things, but in that “Blink” / “Freakanomics” tone.

Great, knowing how my brain fires isn’t going to make me happier. That’s like reading a book on my digestive system to fix colitis.

Boy, was I wrong. On every count. The book was fantastic. It did help me understand various firings in my brain. And I have adjusted based on tis knowledge and have actually gotten less tense/anxious as a result.

I never realized how much time I spent thinking about the future. Well, I did. And I knew that it was detrimental. But it took the book to make me realize that I had to stop. And I have. Which has made the whole “Rachael going to Harvard” a little easier to swallow. I have managed to stop worrying about what my life will be like in 6 or 8 months and have focused instead on right now.

There are some quotes from the book I want to talk about, but I returned it to the library already. Thankfully, it is being checked out again so that Rachael can read it.

Obviously, this one gets a strong A, though your mileage might vary. Even if you don’t share my focus at the moment, I would still give it a strong recommend (and maybe then an A-).

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I am in LA. I was in LA yesterday. Yesterday was when I experienced a string of awesome failures, coupled with good times.

I woke up yesterday and went to go shower. Which is when I discovered I failed to pack underwear. I have never done this before, save for once when I forgot to pack a few undershirts. This was a bit worse. I laughed, though it did mean a detour during the day. Not a big deal, but it count as failure #1.

R’s grandfather lent me his car so that I could drive down to Hollywood and see friends. Which is what I did. Met a friend at Sabor y Cultura, my coffee haunt from my time in Little Armenia. We walk out 45 minutes later and I notice that the lights appear to be on. Which is odd, because 1. I didn’t turn them on and 2. they should have turned themselves off, regardless.

This all becomes less fascinating and more frustrating when the car won’t turn over. The battery is dead. My friend has a set of jumper cables and we spend 30 minutes getting her car arranged next to mine and jumping it. This also involves an angry man in a truck cursing us for blocking an alleyway (though there was another exit), multiple phone calls to my father and me stressed because it is the grandfather’s car.

But we get it running. And go to Target so I can buy some underwear. Yes, this is truly a vacation of the highest order.

Friend leaves and I go to the Grove to have lunch with Sam and Josh. According to the car, when I park on the 6th floor of the parking structure, in the shade, it is 91 degrees. It is hot. We eat and wander and it is really great to see them.

Then it is off to get Keren, drive to the valley to get R and back down to go to Jumbo’s Clown Room for a pre-dinner drink. Will and Jen skip out so we have 1 drink and head over to their house to see them and meet Barkley.

Then it is a race to drop off Keren and get back to the valley for a 7pm dinner. Except as we walk out of the house, I notice something. Bad. As I begind cursing and crying, Keren and R trade confusions.

We have a flat tire. A super flat tire. Seeming created by a lovely nail in the tire.

A borrowed car, a dead battery, a flat tire.

Oh — the car is parked on a steep incline. With about a foot between us and the car behind us.

I have never changed a tire on an incline. I have no desire to change a tire on this car. I have done enough. R calls AAA. 30 minutes later a guy shows up. 5 minutes after that, the tire is changed.

On the hill, piece of a cake. Of course, his jack was way better than the dinky one found in the trunk of the car. Nonetheless, it was impressive.

Drop off Keren. Run by the gas station to put air in the spare, as it looks low. “Free Air” it says. 1 minute later, I realize that the air is not free and while I thought I was adding air, it was, in reality, letting it out. Now the tire is much more flat. Great. Put in 75 cents, fill the tire, get gas. Oops. The “system is down,” which apparently means that I can’t buy any gas. So we have to go to another station.

The rest of the evening is fine. Especially since it consists of driving to the valley, eating takeout food and sleeping.

The plus side is seeing people and having fun. The downside? All the stupid stress from dealing with absurd situations — having to buy underwear, having the dead battery and the flat tire.

Oy. I’m tired.

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I stood in the rain last night.

A cold front pushed through our area last night just after dinner, bringing with it gusty winds and big, fat rain drops. I just had to stick my head out the door to feel the wind, the wonderful wind on my face. Being inside is just too far from this all too short season. And the wind felt like cool spring.

Once my head was out the door, it was impossible for the rest of me not to yearn for the same. So, I hopped outside for a brief moment, stood in the thick, cold rain and felt exhilarated by the rush of life. I wonder if that’s how plants feel when the rain comes. Each dashing droplet that struck my skin (and here I’ll note that at times there are incredible but rare advantages to having a completely shaved head) was like a joyous bolt of electricity, recharging my batteries. 

I can’t recall doing this since I was in high school. There, in deeply rural Hanover County, we’d sit on the long porch and watch the spring storms wet the earth. One day I just stood up, walked down the steps and into the rain. No where to go, no car to hurry from or to, nothing to keep dry. Nothing to do but stand there and experience how amazing rain can feel.

Last night, I only jumped out there for two moments, but it was enough. It was rejuvenating. Almost literally.

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