Past my bedtime, but just an FYI, I went ahead and spent the last hour or so adding the new categories, then going through all my entries and moving or adding the relevant ones to the new categories.

What else have I forgotten... Well, the one year anniversary of the war, of course. All the peace marches that went on around the world. I've been looking at a lot of political sites and blogs, have more links of interest to add this week. Sparky and I are eagerly watching to see if the not-so-liberal media is going to stay on the Richard Clarke story, this is the strangest administration I've ever seen, though, they're seemingly bulletproof. I think if someone had an actual video and witnesses of Bush drowning a puppy the diehards would still say it was false. I'm honestly not sure what evidence people are going to need to see through what's going on right in front of them. If only we could catch him getting a blowjob... I'm going to make a new category for Political Rants, I think, there's going to be too much going on the rest of this year and I'll need a place to put it. A friend recently accused me of hating Dubya and his buddies, I don't hate them, they scare the crap out of me! For more of my opinions on this, see these wonderful buttons.

Read a terrific article by Unique Snowflake on the evils of political polls, which I still propose is the reason Kerry won everything, sort of a lemming type thing. Sparky watches the talking heads all day on CNN and MSNBC, they just give me headaches. Hours and hours of time to fill, so they fill it with their unfounded guesses on who's winning what, what so and so is going to do next, it's such crap. It annoys me even more than the constant celebrity coverage of who is dating who, what they're wearing, who might win what awards (who cares!!). But the political polls are scary because they actually affect the way the sheep vote. I know we're in a seriously desperate position right now (the impending end of the world, the end of our civil liberties, etc.) but can't we exercise at least a little bit of free thought?

Also this past weekend marked the Spring Equinox, a happy Ostara to everyone. Thanks to Bacon, Cheese & Oatcakes for the excellent link, I was at a loss. (I spent the weekend blog surfing, found lots of Pagan links and yet another category to add!) Due to my non-stop crappy health I stayed home instead of participating in the services. It's hell being Wiccan when your allergies won't let you go outside and incense sends you into sneezing convulsions :-(

Oh yes, and I got to see Courtney Love going apeshit wild on Letterman last week which was lots of fun, though her arrest the next day was stupid. I still want her new album, though, it's being compared with Live Through This, you've got to admit, the girl can rock.

My beloved eBay screwed me over again this past week by basically eliminating every single subcategory for their DVD section (and music also) without telling anyone in advance. I spent almost an hour the other night having a panic attack thinking my listing program wasn't working then realized it was eBay's fault. So now if I want my DVD listings to be halfway searchable I'm going to have to manually revise every auction I list to add their "item specifics", which my listing program people can't add (they're freaked out by the changes also). I think it's all part of eBay's plot to force everyone to use their "pre-filled" stock descriptions and photos for entertainment items, which I'd rather not use, thank you very much. eBay doesn't even bother to offer any Mac compatible software and now they're trying to run all the third party software companies out of business, what are they thinking? I see they're also playing with the URL's for our stores, which can't be a good thing. I'm having some serious PMS this week, I don't need something else to piss me off...

Oh yes, and we're STILL fighting the damned fleas! They're biting the crap out of me and Phoebe and I still haven't seen one yet. And most of our house has hardwoods, this shouldn't be that hard. We've sprayed twice, treated Phoebe twice and washed every piece of linen in the house at least twice. I swear, even when we leave the house I feel like I'm itching, this is driving me nuts.

The next huge event I didn't get up on time also occurred on March 17, and it was our one year anniversary of adopting our kitty, Princess Phoebe. It doesn't seem like a year, she's as crazy and hyper as the day we got her (she was 6 months old at the time), but I can't imagine spending even a day away from her. She's my constant companion, familiar and amazes us each day with how smart she is. (Sometimes a bit too smart) She's also spoiled rotten and runs the household (hence the "Princess").

Even with all her frenetic energy, over the last year she's only actually broken three things in the house, knocked from shelves by accident. She's a Burmese cat, which is basically the equivalent of a Border Collie, and Burmese are called "dog cats" because of all of their dog-like qualities. She retrieves mice, performs tricks for our amusement, likes to play with water, begs for ice cubes to bat around, has to know what we're doing at all times, eats some of the strangest things I've ever seen a cat eat, and talks up a storm.

Oh good, creative questions. I've been really striving for some creativity this week, I'm making a sincere effort to redesign & streamline my main site and actually get the everything up and loaded. Creativity is hard for me, it always feels very mechanical, but somehow I always seem to get it done. Never to my satisfaction, but that's the hell of being a perfectionist.

If you...

1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve? Probably really good steaks. Nice, simple, hearty food. I'm a very simplistic cook, steaks and pasta are my strong suits.

2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell? I do have two online stores on eBay, one that's Gothic & Wiccan oriented (where I also sell things for other people, mostly DVDs. movie memorabilia and beauty products) and one just for me where I sell antique postcards. I love selling postcards, they're unique and easy to mail, though not a big money maker. I wish I could focus more on jewelry on my other store, but it's a very expensive inventory to have to stock. If I had a brick and morter store, I'd probably like to have a little book store, personally, I love to be surrounded by books. My first job was at the public library here and I eventually had to quit because it was too difficult for me to shelve the books without wanting to read them. When I left I had over 200 books checked out, a few of them turned up years later, oops...

3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be? A vampire romantic suspense novel. It's another project that I have outlined out but have never gotten very far on.

4. ...ran a school, what would you teach? I don't have the patience to be a teacher, but probably organization. It's one of the weird things that I'm naturally good at and actually really enjoy.

5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it? I have a weird Irish white girl voice, kind of monotone, not a lot of volume, but my favorite people to sing along to that I can actually keep in tune with are Poe, Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks and Sinead O'Connor. I'd probably want to do something a little spooky but not really ethereal, more alternative. I'd love to be able to do something jazz, or a kick ass alt rock album, but I don't have the voice for it. Probably my favorite sing-along record of all time is Barbra Joan Streisand... Space Captain... (my husband shudders violently, he really hates that song ;-)

Important stuff, go to Million4Roe this weekend to see what you can do about the urgent abortion rights crisis. We're only one vote away from losing our rights. The Never Go Back fund is matching donations until 8 pm this Saturday night so please check it out right away.

Other stuff I need to get out of my head before I go to sleep...

We've been fighting fleas the last few weeks. I was so dense I didn't realize we had them till the cat started really itching, I thought I was getting hives. I still haven't seen one fo the little bastards yet, but I feel them and Phoebe and I have the scars to prove it. They've barely touched Sparky, as usual. We've gone through one round of spraying and Advantage, going to have to do another round this weekend I think, should have put that on my list below. My sinuses are just recovering from the last spraying, though.

Been watching lots of TV lately, which is weird for me. Somehow this week I've managed to sit through three complete episodes of Queer Eye (which I always seem to miss) and I finally caught the complete first episode of Mad Mad House tonight along with the second episode. I stumbled into the end of the first episode last week, and then the last 20 minutes, and then decided to actually look at the TV guide and made myself sit through two tonight. I'm so out of it, and haven't watched the Sci Fi Channel regularly since MST3K went off the air (too many commercials!!) so this show caught me by surprise. I thought it was going to be a spoof, and then I recognized Fiona Horne. I rarely watch reality TV, but a show with a Wiccan, Voudon and an actual blood drinking vampire seemed to at least merit a chance. Lots of born again Christians and Republicans being tortured, what's not to like?

Went to a post card show last weekend and blew all my money, but found some great stuff. We only get like two postcard shows a year here, so I figured it was worth the investment. I had meant to buy more for resale, but ended up getting like 3 for me, 1 to sell... The show has moved to a new location that's actually near my house, in the brand new Stafford Centre, and it was having it's grand opening the first night I went, which I didn't know. I drove up and there were spotlights outside and people in black tie and was very confused. After the ceremony some of the well-to-do wandered into the room where the show was, champagne in hand, which really freaked out the dealers. And of course, they didn't pay admission.

I lost a hubcap on the way home the first night, but found it intact on the grass the next day waiting for me, so I still have three at least. Lost the other one on the freeway sitting in rush hour traffic in Baton Rouge a year or so ago, usually I jump out and fetch them when they roll off but I didn't realize what that strange noise was until I got to New Orleans.

Didn't do last week's questions, too busy and too old, I don't remember my teacher's names, way too many years ago. But I'll give this week a shot.

1. What was the last song you heard? I was listening to Pretty Girls Make Graves latest CD The New Romance earlier when I turned my stereo off to watch Conan O'Brien earlier (a nightly ritual if it's not a rerun). I think I was up to "The Teeth Collector". I haven't been able to get that one out of my CD player since I bought it, very addictive.

2. What were the last two movies you saw? Haven't been to the movies in a few months, been meaning to see "Monster" and I have a video of "Thirteen" that's been staring at me for a month. I watched "Lost in Translation" on DVD (loved it, thought Bill Murray should have won). Before that I think the last movie I actually sat and watched all the way through is "Message From Space" because Sparky was showing it on 16mm at the house for some friends, trippy 70's Japanese sci-fi, very weird.

3. What were the last three things you purchased? Nothing interesting, I went to the grocery store this afternoon. Got more Starbucks Vanilla Latte, some Diet Mountain Dew for Sparky and an issue of Cooking Light, which I haven't bought in ages, but the dish on the cover is pasta with bacon & cheese, yummm...

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend? Move more of my eBay pictures to my new webhosting service, work on my main website, call my parents, get St. Patrick's Day cards and mail thm.

5. Who are the last five people you talked to? The hubbie, of course, my cat, my dad, the clerk at the grocery store, and Pam at the post office.