Hanging out at Annabel's, the wine bar, on a Friday evening, around 9:30. Sitting at the bar, sipping my wine, reading *Urbanite*...a woman stands next to me, orders a drink, asks the price, the bartender says she just missed happy hour.

"That's the story of my life," I pipe up.

I called Cathy earlier, just to check up on her, let he know that I'm thinking of her at the difficult time. Got her voicemail, which somehow was a little harder than actually talking to her, hearing the same message she had when we were dating. Strange things, minds.

And of course now the Valentine's Day advertising blitz. Managed to forget over the past few years how much it sucks to have advertisers rub it in you're face that you're not getting any on V-Day. Feh.

So who won Super Tuesday?

For the GOP, obviously McCain won big, and will almost certainly take the nomination. Huckabee is staying in, running surprisingly strong, and may have a shot at the VP slot on the GOP ticket.

For the Democrats, it depends on how you count. The Obama campain claims victory yesterday and a lead in the total delegate count. But look at the New York Times results, and they say Clinton's ahead. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Reason magazine and StopTheDrugWar.org detail the sad story of Barack Obama's cowardice on the issue of marijuana decriminalization.

The Washington Times broke the story, reporting that in his 2004 Senate campaign Obama supported eliminating criminal penalties for cannabis use or possession. When the Times brought this up, the Obama campaign first stood by those remarks - then, within 24 hours, changed its story and declared that Obama does not support eliminating criminal penalties for cannabis.

If you thought Barack Obama was a man of courage, think again.

Reuters reports that CIA Director Michael Hayden has admitted to Congress that his organization used the near-drowning torture known as "waterboarding" on three suspects captured after the 9/11 attacks.

Zelda's Inferno writing exercise, Feb. 3: "writing down the spectrum", using a "warm" color

red orange -
gas heat warming us
electric coils in the toaster scrotching bread

red orange -
I had an Orioles jersey when I was a kid, number 5, Brooks Robinson

red orange -
crayola fusion, the big box had red orange and orange red, subtle shade differences

red orange -
the big drainage ditch near the woods where we played as boys, layers of clay, blue, white, red orange

red orange -
I stop on the sidewalk between the supermarket and the liquor store to look at the sunset behind the Asian grocery across the street

red orange -
tempera paints in art class, each in their own little cup, orange and red mixing, rivulets of one entering into the other, interpenetrating

Imbolc today - a.k.a. Candlemas, a.k.a. Groundhog Day. In old Celtic reckoning, an agricultural calendar, this cross-quarter day was seen as the start of spring. In its honor, the Well had a showing of the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.

If you haven't seen it, check it out. While it's probably shelved in the "romantic comedy" category, it's a surprisingly spiritual film. In fact one participant in an internet forum on karate called it a real "warrior's film", which I think is accurate.

Murray's character, a weatherman named Phil Conners, finds himself living the same day over and over again - Groundhog Day, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Once he figures out what's going on, he uses the situation to learn all about the town and its inhabitants, then uses his knowledge to amuse and please himself - seducing women, robbing an armored car and spending the money to buy a fancy car, going for joyrides - all without consequence, as he wakes up the "next" morning with everything reset to the way it was. And this is enough for a while.

Two interesting endorsements for Obama:

Randall Munroe, author of the great webcomic xkcd, notes Obama’s commitment to open systems.

Shepard Fairey, creator of the "Obey Giant" campaign, is putting his sticker and poster art behind an effort to make Obama the face of progress.

Well, the smoking ban is finally in effect statewide - I'm at Bedrock, my first time here, and I'm looking forward to a night in a Baltimore bar without smelling like stale cigarettes the next morning.

And boy, do I need a few drinks tonight.

The week began fine enough, Monday we got the clawfoot tub uncrated and moved in to place on the platform, I got a full day's computer work in (even if I did spend much of it chasing down a dead end), and visited the parental units in the evening. Slightly stressful there, as I learned that the financial situation is tight for them - but as I was to be reminded, that's really not a big deal.

Tuesday, off to the dentist's for a long overdue checkup and cleaning. Had him look at a tooth that's been giving me an occasional twinge. He told me a filling needs to be replaced - we'll do that (and another one that looked iffy) on Monday. Good to get rid of old mercury amalgam and replace it with a nicer composite. Also had him look at a weird spot on my tongue, he said it's probably no big deal but recommended an evaluation by an oral surgeon.

Came home, a few hours of hacking, off to karate class. Stopped home after, to get something to eat before heading off to the first Zelda's Inferno open mic at 2640, and I happened to check my e-mail while I was there. Got a message from Nicole informing me that Cathy's mom had died.

I've been seeing flyers around lately for a upcoming lecture in D.C. by Weston A. Price Foundation president Sally Fallon. Today I got spam from them about it, which prompts me to post a bit about these shills and quacks.

The Weston A. Price Foundation is one of the primary groups responsible for spreading some of the FUD that you may have heard about soy products. Their interest (both philosophical and financial) is in promoting dairy consumption, specifically raw milk. They make claims about supporting "traditional diets", which would be fine - except that the use of dairy products is fairly new in the 200,000 years history of the human species, dating only to the neolithic revolution of about 10,000 years ago; and of course dairy consumption was just about unknown in many areas of the world where lactose intolerance is common. In fact, Price himself wasn't such an advocate of dairy.