Welcome back, chocolate!

Follow up from the blog awhile back about this awesome chocolate cafe being ruined by corporate greed - I went to the Moonstruck cafe today to pick up some chocolate for an upcoming family trip (sorry to spoil the surprise, guys!) and - guess what? Almost ALL of the old desserts (chocolate pyramid, built-like-a-brick brownie, peanut butter cheesecake, etc.) were back! The skimpy ones that cost twice as much were gone!

The barista said there were literally at least half a dozen people coming in every day asking for the corporate contact info. to complain. (The million dollar question: how many of those were fueled by rampant PMS made worse by the deprivation of our favorite dessert fixes? Inquiring minds want to know!)

The original move was made to save money because Moonstruck had expanded into other, non-Oregon locations and wanted to pay for it. Well, pay they did - they closed those locations to focus on (duh!) their local stores.

So the moral of the story is...if you complain enough about the $6 desserts that you're missing, they'll come back :)

And I'll try not to get eaten by bears.

I'm off to North Carolina tomorrow for work. (An aside: I have to get up at 4:30 a.m.!!! How I will pull that one off without biting anyone remains to be seen.)

I've never been there before.

So I'm telling this to a counterpart at one of our organization's affiliates and she says, "Oh, North Carolina's cool. Just watch out for bears."

Huh?

I wait for laughter. There is none.

Me: "Are you just kidding?"
She: "Nope. I lived there for three years and they just sometimes wandered into town."

That's some interesting business travel advice, I have to say.

So I hope all of you lovely people out there in blogland have a fabulous weekend...meanwhile, apparently I'm going to the zoo.

Burn after running

Do you ever have little things add up until you're just absolutely livid?

I had that happen today. I'm not a patient person to begin with, and I'm anxious about a couple of upcoming events, and stuff at work just drove me fucking CRAZY!

Tip for the uninitiated: when I have to work on grants that need to go out before COB Thursday, and I say I'm sorry that I don't have time to meet with you, this DOES NOT mean you should stop by my desk and show me pictures of your fundraising quilts!!!!

I came home and cranked at Mr. Riot Kitty because everything wasn't in tip top clean shape, and realized I needed to go for a run. I had THAT MUCH energy to burn off...

I know running isn't for everyone. For a brief period in college, my brother decided to get up at 8 a.m. instead of noon, and run.

"But didn't it feel great?" I remember asking.

"NO!" he replied. "IT FELT LIKE I WAS GOING TO FUCKING DIE!!!"

So this lasted for about a week.

Before I moved to the Northwest, I used to go running all the time. Living in California with a climate that was dry most of the year made it easy...so did living 20 minutes from the beach.

I forgot how much I hate running on cement, even if it is around a lake. My ankles have been telling me to go fuck myself ever since I ran the first step.

But it felt GREAT! I've never had runner's high, but runner's relaxation is impossible to equal. I came back calm and happy.

Next time I'll opt for a rubberized track, though.

What do you do to relax?

The awesome!

Just hung up the picture from Coby - it's as if it was made to match the colors in our living room?

My dad is proud of me - it's my first purchase of a major piece of art. Most of it has been kindly donated by said daddy.

Chew on this

Those of you who know me know I'm thrilled that Connecticut's top court has thrown out its ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional.

Some of you may not agree with this - and although personally, I think if you're against gay marriage, don't have one, consider the argument that Justice Peter Zarella made against allowing same-sex marriage:

He argued that argued the real purpose of marriage laws is to regulate "procreative conduct."

Huh?

How many of you want the government to regulate your decisions about whether or not to have children? I'd say all of the conservatives, liberals, and in-betweens that I know are formidably against Big Brother telling them that they should or shouldn't have kids.

Zarella continues:

"If the state no longer has an interest in the regulation of procreation, then that is a decision for the legislature or the people of the state and not this court."

THE REGULATION OF PROCREATION!!!!

PEOPLE!

This argument has also been used by the Washington State Supreme Court.

Think about it.

Using that argument, my marriage isn't valid, because the only pitter-patter of small feet we have in my house is that of our kitties.

What about people who don't want children? Or can't have them?

One thing I know for sure - I want the government to stay out of our pants.

The need for proofreaders

My brother sent me the e-news that he gets from one of his favorite independent comic book stores, with this note:

"See if you can spot the typo on the list of percentages off. Please don't forward it around though, as I'm sure L- is embarrassed enough."

Weeeeeeeeeeeeelllll, I've omitted any revealing details, but L- clearly needs a proofreader.

Here is a snippet:

25¢ Comics.

$5 Graphic Novels.

50% off all sets.

20% off all back issues.

20% off new comics.

20% off Shits

10% off Graphic Novels.

(Sorry, no discount on subscriptions or that week's new items.)

*So clearly he decided to put the GOP on sale, right?*

And to make you laugh

Scarlet asked in a post for everyone's most embarrassing karaoke moment (isn't that redundant?) I have never done karaoke. Short of that, she asked for our most embarrassing moment in general.

Ah, so many to choose from, so little time to type.

I had been looking for a good blog idea for awhile...so please join me in the comments section with an embarrassing moment of your own.

One of the (many) embarrassing moments in my life - when I was a reporter covering energy policy, we had an editorial board meeting with some high-ups from the Northwest regional Dept. of Energy people. One of the guys who was their PR guy I hadn't seen in awhile, and he had done his hair differently.

So I blurt out in front of editors and all of the federal muckety-mucks, "Hey, Ed! I like your new hair!" I forgot to add "style" to the end of "hair."

Everyone stared. The room went silent.

He said, simply, "Same hair."

And then, thank god, someone started our meeting.

A bit of history

Not too many people know that a female and an African-American man have previously shared the ticket.

Yet in 1872, Victoria Woodhull was the first woman who ran for president, sharing the ticket with abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

An interesting campaign, because Douglass was advocating for the Republicans (this being post-Civil War, when they were actually for civil rights) - but do some reading, if you haven't already. It's fascinating stuff.