coming back from a vacation (or in this case, a four-day weekend) is always a bear. you get so used to the lazy days of non-work schedules, and it's that much harder to come back. our executive director decided to give us friday off because of the impending terrorist threat on major cities at the end of the muslim holy days (translation: people thought we would be attacked on valentine's day, so our ED gave us the day off to get out of major cities). unnecessary, as it turns out (big surprise), but it gave me a four-day weekend so i am not complaining. i didn't get a chance to stock up on water, plastic, and duct tape, though. darn.

friday, on my day off, i watched about two hours' worth of diplomatic debate on cspan. it's very odd to watch these men politely argue the pros and cons of going to war, when you know they'll never be on the front lines themselves. yes, i know colin powell has been there, but it's weird to watch people debating the futures of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. most of the UN was bent on giving iraq more time to comply with resolution 1441 (which i presume was the resolution to disarm, or at least disclose numbers and location of existing nuclear and chemical weapons), while colin powell beseeched the security counsel to take action, to give no more time and no more inspections. while i agree that we can't just let things go on indefinitely, there are some very obvious gaps in the go-to-war-now logic. first of all, what about the threat of north korea? and what about the across-the-board lack of UN support (besides britain and spain)? shouldn't that throw up some major warning flags? colin powell really is the only member of the shrub administration who i personally can give any credence to, but even he is pleading for war. who pleads for war? if there's another solution, please use it. war is never the answer... the sad thing is that there may never be any way to negotiate with a madman. (saddam, kim jong il, or shrub, you ask? sometimes i'm not sure.)

busy weekend with lots of driving, but not out of the greater bay area! over 600 miles on my car. wheee!

went to see the hours with the folks yesterday... it was very seamlessly done, and exceptional acting by exceptional actors. however, this is an extremely difficult novel to adapt for the bigscreen, and i truly feel that something was lost in the translation. it's a very intriguing exposition on imprisonment in a life you don't want to live, but not knowing how to get out of it or change it... for some, the change is death. for others, life. the need is in the contrast, though-- to discover how life should be as opposed to how it is. again, very well done, but read the book. it's worth it. (i have to say, too, that claire danes is lovely. she's always been cute, but now she really is a beautiful woman. she had a quite small part in this movie, but she was lovely in it.)

got to see george this weekend, which is always a good thing :) he and his band, ogilthorpe, will be playing at the stork club in oakland tomorrow at 9pm. be there, if you can.