Middle of May Already?!

I noticed a serious up-tick in the amount of spam email making it's way into my bulk email box. I figured out that they come in at a rate of about 7 SPH (spam per hour). Previously I didn't receive anywhere near that much crap email and I'm curious if this is some new spam offensive or if my address just happened to make it into the hands of some young and ambitious spammers. Who knows.

I had a laugh today over the fact that Jodie Foster game the commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania's graduation. She was given an honorary doctorate. But what's really funny is that one of the graduating students was Yakov Smirnoff, who recieved his Master's degree in positive psychology. What a country!

As for the recap of the past week...

Tuesday night I ran Deadlands: Reloaded. The game went pretty well and the players seemed into it and maybe even a little spooked by the weirdness going on around them, but the final, climactic battle with the big, nasty demon ended abruptly when Jason's character cast an offensive spell that killed the thing in one shot. Oh, how unimpressive a monster was that? Major bummer for me. But, the heroes succeeded and saved the inhabitants of the town, so that's a good thing. I'm running again tomorrow night. We'll see how that goes.

The rest of the week was pretty normal, although Friday night Julia and I had dinner with a friend of her's who's from Columbia. We've gone there once before and she's an amazing cook. This time she prepared pork roast in mojo with beans and other yummy snacks. Wow, was it good. They're also big wine fans, so we enjoyed some very tasty wine with dinner along with an excellent dessert wine. If I remembered the name I'd tell you. Luckily, I have the bottle in the back of my car, so I can pick up a bottle at some point. I'll let you know when I do, so you can do the same.

Saturday and Sunday mornings we happened upon some neighborhood garage sales and estate sales where I picked up a couple of books and Julia found a pretty good selection of vintage jewelry for pretty good prices. I think she was happy with her finds.

Saturday evening we went to her parents' place for a(n early) Mother's Day dinner. Julia's dad is a very good cook and he made an excellent meal for all of us (all of us being Julia, her brother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and mom and dad). Then as we were sitting around afterward, Shana called to invite us out to the Showbox to see the sold out Erasure show. I didn't know Julia was a huge Erasure fan, but apparently she is because she was super excited when I asked if she wanted to go see the show. This was a show that sold out in 3 minutes and I remember talking about it with people when it happened. Who knew Erasure had such a following in Seattle?

Anyway, the call came at 8:00 and by 9:05 we'd ditched her mom, changed clothes, and were downtown at the Showbox. The show was excellent! They started on time (who does that?!) and the sound levels were absolutely perfect! I don't say that lightly. I've been to too many shows at which the sound is unnecessarily loud and peircing. Where the sound actually detracts from the overall experience, but that wasn't the case here. I could hear the singer, pick out the different instruments, and hear what my friends were talking about if I leaned in to listen. If every concert could be like that, I'd go more often. Oh, and the show was over by 10:40. They certainly didn't want to keep all those 30-45 year olds out too late...I mean the sitter has to be home before midnight, right?

Sunday afternoon I dropped Julia off at Shana's for Jen's baby shower and I ran to get comics, then went home and had to turn around and pick her up again. Oh well, so much for a couple hours of picking up around the house. Sunday night we lazed about at Julia's and watched the finale of Survivor, which was actually pretty good.

Tonight I came home from work and did a major cleaning of my bathroom. I think I have a mold infestation somewhere in the room (probably the barely-functioning fan). I couldn't get the plate off the fan, so I settled for washing the tub and tile, cleaning the toilet and counter, and scrubbing the floor. I think it's much better now. Now I have to move on to picking up some of the clutter that's been gathering lately.

I've agreed to take on another editing project, which will start as soon as I get the manuscript. I'm hoping to get my hands on a laptop that I can use for about a month. That would be really useful.

Changing gears entirely; I was listening to a podcast from the BBC today (BBC Radio Newspod) and I learned about something that really shocked me. It seems that in Bangladesh that some men who've been jilted by the women they want to marry, have, for the past few decades, taken it upon themselves to throw acid in the woman in question's face. Yeah. And not some wussy acid, we're talking about sulfuric acid (a litre will run you about 50 cents from some kids on the street corner, just tell everyone you need it for your car battery. They'll understand). If you don't beleive me, or if you want to find out more for yourself, you can go here, here or here. I watched the video (the last link) and it's actually a very good ten-minute documentary about the situation. Actually, I can't get over how determined and strong some of these girls are.

Okay, time to go. See you soon.