Comedy from MyNacho. 

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The Scott McClellan Bitchslap

MyNacho tries not to get political, but I just have to point out this Salon.com article, which highlights certain portions of Monday's White House press briefing between WH press secretary Scott McClellan and WH press corps. "You're in a bad spot here, Scott" indeed.  My favorite lines, spoken by reporters, from the briefing:

• Reporter to McClellan: "No, you're not finishing -- you're not saying anything. You stood at that podium and said that Karl Rove was not involved. And now we find out that he spoke out about Joseph Wilson's wife. So don't you owe the American public a fuller explanation? Was he involved, or was he not? Because, contrary to what you told the American people, he did, indeed, talk about his wife, didn't he?"
• Reporter to McClellan: "Well, you're in a bad spot here, Scott, because after the investigation began, after the criminal investigation was underway, you said -- October 10th, 2003, "I spoke with those individuals, Rove, Abrams and Libby, as I pointed out, those individuals assured me they were not involved in this." From that podium. That's after the criminal investigation began. Now that Rove has essentially been caught red-handed peddling this information, all of a sudden you have respect for the sanctity of the criminal investigation?"
• Reporter to McClellan: "Scott, I think you're [receiving a] barrage today in part because we -- it is now clear that 21 months ago, you were up at this podium saying something that we now know to be demonstratively false. Now, are you concerned that in not setting the record straight today that this could undermine the credibility of the other things you say from the podium? 

 I hope this thing breaks wide open. If I'm McClellan (and very thankful that I am not) I have to be thinking about the future of my job, and whether the WH press corps is starting to turn against me.  Granted, McClellan is (just) the mouthpiece for the administration, but as someone who works in PR, you're screwed if you lose your credibility with your press contacts.

My little brother Colby got married last weekend in Morro Bay, just outside of San Luis Obispo.  There's too much to say (and too much I'd get in trouble for saying) about the weekend, but wanted to share some photos and the top five(ish) classic moments. 

Two little words:  "I do".  Those were the only words Colby and Kristy said during the ceremony.  The beautiful wedding weekend was planned by Kristy, but I could see my brother's fingerprints all over this part of the ceremony.

The Birds:  The ceremony and cocktail reception were held outside, overlooking the ocean, on the deck of the Morro Bay Inn.  Which is located in a national park.  That includes a bird sanctuary.  Located right next to said deck.  Nuff said.

I wear my sunglasses at night:  My dad thought it was cool to wear his sunglasses past the ceremony (where they were understandable) through the reception (which ended after 11pm).  He was wrong.

The case of the missing cousins:  They aren't answering their door!  They aren't answering their phones?!  Have they been poisoned by carbon monoxide from the fireplace? <insert 10 other unlikely scenarios here>.  My aunt was ready to call the authorities.  Until someone remembered they had planned to go to church on Sunday morning.  I quote said aunt -- "god damn them!"

Under pressure:  My grandmother to my boyfriend.  And I quote.  "So marriage.  What are you thinking wrt my granddaughter?  You know, I'm getting older -- I might not be around for much longer."  With this kind of family, I might be single soon.

Kristy and Colby get married:  But the rehearsal dinner was for Christie and Coby.  Dinner coordinator tip up in smoke (coming out of my mom's ears).

For more pics, check out my photo albumn.  But here's one of the beautiful couple (and I very much mean that).

At the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Chicago this week Seattle was named the most "livable" city (over 100K).  Why?  Local officials summarize it as having to do with the city's commitment to curb greenhouse-gas emissions and "smart growth" strategies. 

Obviously trasportation wasn't considered wrt "livablity" nor thought of in conjunction with "smart growth" when they handed out the award.  But on a beautiful day like today I'm finding it hard to be *too* cynical. :-)

Websters adds words like "blog" to the dictionary.  But I'm a bit partial to the new Brit line-up (in Collins) including words like "chavs" and "property porn" (the latter of which I'm guilty of partaking in).  Andrew's been using the word chavs forever, with me asking him to define each time.  Sure I'll remember now.

Dynamic Display Pictures.  The not so well named but terribly addicting killer feature of Msgr 7.  Who would have thought that creating a little Muggin (thanks AG) and making him or her laugh or cry or wink could make a real person want to do the same?  Someone please hide my credit card...I never thought I'd be tempted to by a new outfit for a virtual me. 

What's up with this in the Bachelorette finale:  Jen rejects John Paul's proposal and he's sent to the requisite limo for the tearful drive away.  I paraphrase -- "Jen's going to wake up and she's going to be 32 and looking for someone to marry and realize that she had him and let him go."

Obviously a 25 year old boy making that statement.  Or maybe I'm just being sensitive about the age he picked and essentially deemed the "end of the line". ;-)

The sad thing is, I thought that was the dramatic high point of the show...the real ending...well...when the next installment hits someone please cut off my cable....

There's something we've come to call a "Seattle Stand-off".  It occurs on the roads of Seattle (or Bellevue, or Redmond) when two cars come to a stop-signed intersection or a car tries to merge onto a road or highway.  Both drivers are so unfailingly POLITE that everyone freezes, waiting for the other to make a move.  And driving everyone who wasn't born and bred in the PacNW CRAZY.

Today Seattle was named one of the most well mannered cities in the country.  Explains everything, dont' you think?

OK, no more complaints about my drive home from Cali....

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Phili World: CRASH! the last driving trip of the year..........

And we're finally back at home in Seattle.  The road trip to Cali to visit the family for the holidays sounded like a good idea when we made the decision to do it this fall.  And it proved to be a good idea for the first half of the trip.  We left on the 19th for a meandering drive down the coast.  Christmas was actually feeling like a real "vacation" for the first time in I can't remember how long.  All I could think was -- why haven't I done this before??!?!   Beautiful views of Shasta, gorgeous skies and water in Mendocino and no crowds to fight in Napa.  Ah, the good life.

Until it was time to leave.

The weather gods must have sensed that mom and dad wanted to keep us in Cali.  Because the storm blew in the morning of our departure.  The Shasta area felt like a speed bump on the way down, but on the way back it felt like Mt Everest.  I'll say it here so I don't have to repeat the story to countless uninterested parties -- it took us FOUR HOURS to go FIVE MILES just north of Redding just so we could prove we had snow chains.  (We did.  And now Andrew's insistence that we practice putting them on in Seattle before we left seems smart instead of obsessive.)  And that was the easy part of the drive.  Another 6+ hours and we had passed 2+ miles of backed-up cars heading south (they'd closed the passes) and stumbled into a Comfort Inn in Medford, begging for a room.  

Lessons learned:

• Roadtrips.  Summer.  Period.
• Don't leave your windows cracked to clear the car fog when people are passing you in the snow (yes, that slush will manage to find its way through that crack and onto you/your clothes).
• When you feel that cold coming on and you're stuck in a car for 21 hours, go ahead and start taking the drugs right away. 
• Don't make fun of your travel companion for wanting to practice putting on the chains.  He's right, you're wrong.
• Mince pies are not a food group. 

I was a latecomer to the whole eBay thing, but darn if I didn't love it when I finally dipped my toe in.  There's the wonder/excitement about finding something unique -- like digging up a surprise treasure in your grandmother's basement.  But also, it  can just be a plain, efficient way to shop. 

Well, my innocent love of eBay has just been crushed.  Finally got a bad seller.  Now I'm going through the whole dispute resolution process with eBay's third party as well as PayPal.  But the biggest bummer is that my latest eBay purchase was a Christmas gift.  I have no plan B.  And the giftee thinks this story is all an eloborate ruse to make his gift a surprise.  The big surprise will be when he has no gift-wrapped box from me on Christmas day...

Will I try eBay again?  I'm sure I will.  Will I vet the seller better.  Definitely.

They should, given that it feels like their Real World and Road Rules casts for the last 10 years have never gotten real jobs.  They just keep turning up on reunion shows or contents.  So sad that I sometimes still watch....

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MTV.com - On-Air - Battle of the Sexes 2

If you're marooned on a desert island...

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The Desert Island List

Last Week Rolling Stone published their list of the 500 best rock songs ever. ("Like a Rolling Stone" -- Really? Are you sure? Is that your final answer?)

It reminded me of a conversation I had with some friends over Thanksgiving, where we each listed our favorite movies and songs of all time. For me, I always keep the running total of my top 5 favorite all-time movies, songs, and books in my head, in case of some emergency situation where I'm asked to cite them. I think everybody should. It's like name, age, social security number, mother's maiden name, top 5 movies, songs, books. You should just know it off the top of your head.

It's the desert island list - the whole "if stranded on a desert island and you could bring 10 books, 10 movies, 10 CDs, what would they be?" The below list is mine:

Top 10 (or so) favorite Books

(in no particular order):

1. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon
2. White Noise - Don DeLillo
3. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
4. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
5. Generation X - Douglas Coupland
6. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genious - Dave Eggers
7. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
8. Sex & Death to the Age 14 - Spaulding Gray
9. Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion
10. The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro
11. The Fundamentals of Play - Caitlin Macy

Sure, there's friends, family, food, etc etc.  But those are things that should be enjoyed all year round (I'd even argue that some of them are better outside of the fishbowl of the holidays).  But one thing that's been lacking this year is on its way -- we're finally hitting the season of the "good movie" roll out.  Which is the perfect holiday family activity when you need a little peace and quiet

BTW, first movie up on my viewing list was Closer.  Fascinating character piece.  Glad to see the cast as "actors" vs "stars"...most of them did a v good job checking their usual movie personality at the door.  You're left w/an intriguing -- if not somewhat disturbing -- story about the chaos of relationships.

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MSNBC - Holiday films should warm filmgoers’ hearts

From the Seattle Times site today...the photo in the background

First set of pictures I put up are from my sabbatical a couple of years ago.  Spent part of the summer in Barcelona, part up in Scotland.  I bought my first digital camera for this trip and went a little crazy with the editing tools.  But they always bring a smile to my face...and remind me that it's a LONG time before I'll ever get the summer off again.

OK, I'm embarrassed by how excited I am that this service is up and running!  Can't wait to download the new Msgr beta as well so I can start gleaming for my friends w/my new Space.