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Just typical for the Republican party...

As Bush and leaders and delegates get into NYC for the RNC, they are working on officially putting the gay marriage ban into their platform for the election. Then, they passed out discount ticket passes for Broadway shows to the delegates. As if Broadway wasn't gay enough, they included discounts for the show "Naked Men Singing," an obviously gay-themed show. Also playing on Broadway: Rent, Boy from OZ, Avenue Q, La Cage aux Follies, Mamma Mia!, The Producers, I Am My Own Wife, and Dame Edna, which are nothing if not gay.

Once they realized how ironically idiotic this was, they pulled the discounts for the "gay" shows, and let the delegates go to the safer shows. As if the male hero really IS in love with the female lead and doesn't have a swooning boyfriend for himself waiting for him to come home from work after the show.

Just a perfect example of how you simply cannot live out an extreme conservative view anymore. It's just too bad this obviously dying breed is able to pretend they are so strong.

Just a few FYI's.

There are new pictures in the Staci & Todd section from the dinner party with Chris, Marc, and Aaron.

Also put up new pictures of the cats and a few new hotel reviews.

So on the subject of the olympics... first I must say I am in general not a fane of the games. What are these people doing with their lives is what I ask.

But beyond that complaint, why are the men gymnasts 20-30 something, but the women or girls in their yound teens?

So, a couple of observations about the Olympics...

1) Why do we insist on counting our chickens before they are hatched? A friend and I were talking about the American behaviors and reactions to winning and losing. The media says "And here's Phelps who is slated to win 8 medals this year..." SAYS WHO!?! No one knows these sorts of things! Then when this guy gets ONLY 5 medals or something, it's a disappointment! Unreal. Winning ONE gold medal is amazing...to be the best in the world!?! Wow! Why must we do all of this hypothetical crap which sets expectations sky high (in a greedy way) and then be disappointed when it doesn't happen.

2) What exactly does Bob Costas do when the Olympics aren't happening?

Two things to note today- one funny one sad.

Last night Staci and I are house sitting at a co-worker or hers. Its a nice house in the foothills with a pool, VH1 the works... The Santa sisters enjoyed it just a week ago today. Well, I had been out for a smoke and the dog–Miles was out there with me. I quickly finished so I could get back to watching the "Man in the Mirror", a Michael Jackson movie on Vh1. The dog was not interested in the jacko so he stayed outside. I left the door cracked for him should he change his mind. Well, Staci many commercials later goes into the livingroom and yells Todd come in here fast, but don't run. When i arrive what do I see but a HUGE spider. Now this is not really a huge spider like my friends in the midwest are thinking. It was a tarantula. The size one might expect that Crocidile Hunter to wrestle on TV. I screamed and ran away. But the thing needed removed. After calming down I opened the door wide and gently encouraged him to leave with a flip flop. (never leave home without a flip flop.) He left and was actually a bit cuter and less scarey once we had a little heart to heart about where people and spiders should live. Now the truely funny part is Staci and I were too scared to stay at the house last night. You see who knows how many more might have come in. Hell a scorpion or havalina might be in teh house. So at midnight we pack up and head back to civilization. We are definately city people.

On the sad note, I read that Julia Childs died. A sad day indeed. I recall like yesterday when her and Martha cooked together. I bet the poor old woman died of the thought of her good friend Martha behind bars.

Something has finally happened to inspire me to blog. No, it's not about my wedding in 18 days or my new life living with Pape or Pape's transition to the US or the hellish immigration process we're now enduring or or or. It's my job.
First I'll give you the brief version of what I do. My nonprofit organization is a contractor for the US State Department to plan professional programs for international delegates selected by the US Embassy's abroad. These international visitors come to the US to meet with their professional counterparts in a variety of fields-education, journalism, government, NGO management and on and on.
Now I'll get to the meat of the issue. A group of new government officials from Iraq recently came to the US on this program to learn about local government administration, something they need since they're starting from scratch. They were in Memphis, Tennessee where they had a variety of meetings with local government officials. When they arrived for a meeting with a member of the city council of Memphis the City Council Chairman refused to let them into City Hall stating that they were a security threat and that he would have the whole buiding evacuated if they were permitted to enter. They were finally invited across the street to the County Commissioner's building where the city council member met with them, but the whole incident is so embarassing I can't stand it.
These were guests of the US government, had surmounted the enormous background checks and security checks in order to get a visa to come, had obviously been deemed safe enough to be allowed onto airplanes in order to get to Memphis in the first place and then this guy decides they're a security risk just like that and they're turned away at the door.
Anyway, I guess I'll leave it at that. I need to get back to work since CLEARLY my job is more important than ever before.

Staci's sisters Sandy and cindy were just here for a short visit.

Checkout the pictures from the weekend under the Personal section.