KAMPALA, Uganda — Proposed legislation would impose the death penalty for some gay Ugandans, and their family and friends could face up to seven years in jail if they fail to report them to authorities. Even landlords could be imprisoned for renting to homosexuals.

Gee, how humane! Maybe after passing this law, they can finally get around to voting for funds to erect that 100-foot statue of Idi Amin!

I was sitting on the front porch Tuesday afternoon after I dropped all the rose petals into the flower bed. I was thinking about John Lennon and Riley and their eternal connection in my heart while I sang to the dogs. The dogs LOVE it when I do this; in their excitement, they run to distant corners of The Compound, probably hoping I'll sing even more loudly so the world can share in the thrill of it all.

I wasn't singing a John Lennon or even a Beatles song, but one of my favorite Neil Young songs, "Birds." I was sad, and it occurred to me how one of Riley's gifts was that no matter how crazy awful our lives were (and 1980 delivered a ton of crazy awful), he could always make me laugh. As I sang, I remembered Riley telling me a story about a day he was sitting on his front porch, singing and playing his guitar. He was working on a song of his called "I Saw the Light" about the rotten luck of his alter ego, the Mysterious Vagabond Poet. Each time the MVP thought his life was taking a turn for the better, another awful thing would happen. And as Riley sang, he suddenly realized that across the street, his neighbors were sitting on their front porch and laughing their butts off. That's when he knew he'd accomplished what he wanted to with the lyrics: He'd taken all the crazy awful and made it funny. He came to my house a couple of days later to make sure the song would get the same reaction from me. Remembering how I laughed back then gave me a much welcomed lift.

( And then came magic. )

Can I be tired of winter yet?

It snowed all day Thursday and Friday but only an inch or two stuck. Then a few inches fell Sunday night, it snowed all day today, now we have 12 to 16 inches predicted with a blizzard warning and temps below zero (-18c) forecast. yuck. I detest the Frozen Spit of Satan and the cold that follows it.

Thursday it is suppose to warm up to 9f (-13c), but luckily the hollowing winds are suppose to keep it down to a -25f (-32c).

They called today to cancel my appt. with the doctor concerning my meds until the last week of December, and postpone my therapy session until Monday. Lovely.

They canceled my flu shot for today as well.

There was a bad wreck tonight in the valley next to us. They had two people hurt. It took the emergency folks a long time to get there as they had to follow a snow plow. At least they lived. In last Thursday's snow, a local 15 year old boy and his Dad were killed.

Well, everyone who reads this knows how I feel about the Frozen Spit of Satan, why I stay here, how I adapt my life to the brutal winters...blah blah blah..... ( if not check the archives, as I have vented and rationalized and sussed it all out time after time, post after post. I am too tired and blah to write any of it out again.)

Snow on a Christmas card or holiday movie is the better than the real thing. The reality is a lot of hassle, stress and work.

Just more of me blathering on and on. blah blah blah........

Sixteen shopping days remain before Christmas. I have tomorrow - and the day after - off. There's going to be a snowstorm tomorrow, and as such I couldn't possibly go out. I have an outline and about fifteen pages of scratch notes and about three "screens" on my iTouch for a potential submission for the S&S contest. I have two days with nothing on my schedule but me, those notes, and the awareness that "after Christmas" will be pretty much too late for S&S, and is really pushing it for the two other calls I'm working on.

During Saints and Sinners, one of the major highlights for me was when beckycochrane led a panel about writing while maintaining a full time job. There was this excellent point brought up about how writing is also thinking about writing. Now, that's not to pander to the procrastination reflex, but I really learned something at that panel. My iTouch is full of bits and pieces, my snippits pile has grown (much to the consternation of mrpolyonymous) and I'm much more confident in my ability to "write" during downtime. I don't actually write, which turned out to be the answer, so much as think about it, plan lines, place scenes, and keep quick notes to myself to trigger memories or moods. I used to really get frustrated with myself about word counts, or "how much" I'd accomplished of a complete draft. Now I'm much more likely to sit down and make a rough draft in one day off, patching it together from all the bits and pieces I've let myself be okay with making throughout the weeks prior, and then spending another few days off polishing it.

I'll stop myself from blathering further, but I didn't want to forget to say a huge thank you to beckycochrane and all the panelists for that.

Also, in other news, Famous Author Rob Byrnes turned twenty-nine or thirty-five today. I can't keep track. I'm a lousy friend. But I do suggest that the appropriate thing to do for this particular Robbie Byrnes Day would be to pop a copy of one of his books onto your list of gift-giving for the upcoming holiday season, to anyone who needs a fun book with a high smile quotient.

I scanned my oldest brother's school photos and sent them to him. I'm concerned because there are some photos I can't find, at least right now. I'm not going to panic until I get done scanning all our photos and making searches through all my stuff.

1371 pages left.

Finished Act II.1 and read II.2 of Much Ado About Nothing.

love bites

I don't have a decent photo of Rex for today, so here's a picture of Puddles the puppy about to be eaten by Lloyd the pit bull. Enjoy!

Birthday blessings to bojojoti.
May your day be filled with serendipitous surprises and moments of peaceful, joyous reflection : )

It rained all night, which is optimal sleep weather for me. I actually slept in all the way till nine this morning, which is a record in this time zone. I don't have to be at the office today until three, and I have lots of errands to run as well as writing to do, and I am also having lunch with Dan Boyle, author of Huddle and Housecleaning--he's in town for a conference. I love Dan Boyle--I met him at Lambda Lit Fest in San Francisco in 2001, and we've sporadically stayed in touch and been friends ever since. (His partner, Jason, is a laugh riot.) Whee! Busy day for Gregalicious.

So, where were we in the ongoing saga of Gregalicious and his novels? Ah, yes, we had finally worked our way up to Murder in the Garden District, my most recent tome. ( politics are murder )

But with Carol Burnett thrown in for laughs. Carol's always good value!

I've had the two volumes of Penguin's Charles Dickens Christmas Books for some years now and I have dipped into them on the very odd occasion. They are a couple of those books that I buy with the thought I would really like to read them, but never get round to it (or not completely anyway). Hence, I have read A Christmas Carol and am currently just over halfway through The Chimes. It seems particularly appropriate to be reading them during Advent. The former is such a lovely, classic Christmas story that I believe everyone knows the gist of the tale, even if they have only seen it in cinematic or theatrical form. It's interesting when reading the text that Dickens wrote to note what is different from the myriad versions out there, what has been cut and what has been changed. I must say that the Carol had me feeling particularly warm and Christmassy by the end of the fifth stave - I had an overwhelming urge to join Scrooge and Bob Cratchit in a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop! The Chimes, perhaps like all the other 'Christmas' books, is much less well-known than the Carol. I'm enjoying it. Dickens is back on his 'Poor of England' soapbox, but it was much needed at the time (and is not inappropriate in modern times), and is utilising mythcial creatures, in this case goblins, to spin his yarn. He also uses a similar device for Trotty Veck as he uses for Scrooge, with the protagonist transported in time, where the characters he observes for his greater good alternative lives of characters who can neither see or hear him. I'm looking forward to completing The Chimes and reading the second volume of the Christmas Books, comprising The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man. I don't think anything will beat the Carol, though.

Image taken from the Internet.

• 20:34 Wonders if anyone has a copy of Cyndi Lauper's version of "In The Bleak Midwinter" #

1373 pages left.

Read Act I.1-3 and part of II.1 of Much Ado About Nothing. I read these over the past so many days, but I kept forgetting to post.

Last Friday it snowed all day, which is odd for Houston. At least, that hasn't happened all that much since I moved here. I was at Hanley Inc., because heaven forbid The Boss Lady give us a snow day. Actually, I don't think she knows what a snow day is. Actually, I think this was her first snow experience ever. I was holding her while I took the above photo and when snow landed on her head she shrieked, laughed, and tried to shake it from her hair. It was pretty sweet.

It was the first snow for Puddles the puppy, too. Puddles had a seizure in the middle of the night while she was staying with me Thanksgiving weekend and I had to rush her to the emergency vet. She came out of it okay and her blood sugar levels were fine, so we're not sure why it happened, but she's been fine ever since. It was nice to see her running about chasing snowflakes and having the time of her precious life.

Above is a photo of me holding Pixie at the Saturday With Scout's Honor adoption event the day after Houston's big snow day. It was a bright, sunny day, but it was still cold outside, so I wore knit leggings under my jeans and three layers of shirts. I'm from New England. We don't play around when we layer.

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

I'm all about the Scottish accent (and given enough time immersed in it, I develop one of my own, as well), so you would think that hearing my new favouritest hottie, John Barrowman, talk with his original Glaswegian accent would set me all a-twitter. But I think I prefer it when he talks with his American accent. Maybe that's because it's the one I first identified him with, or maybe it's because his Scottish accent has been diluted over time. Don't get me wrong, I still like it, but I like my accents strong. :-)

I have been back on midnights for 18 days now. For the most part, my sleep has been acceptable. On Saturday, I got up to go to the bathroom around 2:30, and after dealing with issues related to the building inspection notice, I went back to bed, and couldn't get back to sleep, even after trying for almost two hours. So, four hours' sleep that day. A solid 7ish hours' sleep yesterday.

Today, I had to stay up for the inspection (called the company this morning, guy called me back and couldn't have been nicer. Said because I took initiative and made first contact, I would most definitely be first, and guaranteed he'd be in and out in 5 minutes. I think it took 3). I got to bed at 11, and fell quickly and deeply asleep. Until 2:30. And then wide awake again. I tried until 5pm to go back to sleep, and it wouldn't come. And so I am up, probably not to be asleep again until 11am tomorrow. I'm (probably irrationally) optimistically planning on going to the gym in the morning, but we'll see how I feel at 6am. :-)

I had forgotten the totally random aspect of sleep while on the midnight shift. There is no rhyme or reason to sleep or insomnia.

I guess it's time to start bringing out the same tired old Christmas pictures from the archive for the Dogrl Cards!

In honor of the fact that we're supposed to get a "Major Winter Storm" tomorrow: