I love Judge Leif Clark, and think he should be appointed to the Supreme Court. Any judge who cites from an Adam Sandler movie has got to be kick-ass awesome.

In other news, my beloved Geoffrey is normally one of those warm-blooded guys that women adore on cold winter nights. Even better yet, he actually enjoys it when women apply cold body parts (feet, posterior, etc) to his skin. Last night, however, he was downright chilly. I’m talking teeth chattering, the whole nine yards. His skin was even cold when I snuggled my (warm) self into the bed with him, and he glued himself to me like a remora to a shark.

Then the cat scratched at the bedroom door, as Geoffrey had shut the door all the way instead of leaving it cracked open so the cat could come & go as she pleases. There is no ignoring the cat when she scratches at the door; I’ve ignored her for up to 30 minutes at a time, and she always outlasts me. (After all, the definition of a door is “what a cat will always be on the wrong side of.”) I flung back the covers and got out of bed in order to open the door slightly, and Geoffrey made this incredibly unhappy noise about the ambient temperature, then yelled, “Cold! Throw her down the stairs or something, just get back in this bed!!!”

I’ve been snickering about this all day.

Apparently somebody forgot to notify Mother Nature that it’s March! It doesn’t snow in Portland in March!

Except that it did. Big, fat flakes of snow…here’s Jenn on our front walk, and a shot of our street, at 12:30-ish am. (Damn, I hope the streets aren’t too slick when Geoffrey gets off work at 2 am!)

Today happens to be the birthday of a couple of people who have been important in my life. I’ll start with the present, and get to the past in a moment…

My Number One Internet Fanboy turns 34 today. Karel and I “met” online when he was Googling for taglines, and he found a .txt file of them that I had up on my website. He sent me a thank-you email, and I was delighted; we corresponded for many months before our first in-person meeting. That was several years ago; we’ve gone from casual online pals to very close friends (who also happened to have fallen in love). His mottos for living have deeply impacted my philosophies for the better, his geek-fu has saved my butt (and more importantly, my computer) many times, his common sense & honesty have straightened out my foolishness more than a few times, he’s enriched my life immensely, and he always makes me smile. I hope to be there to toast his birthday for many decades to come!

As for the past…

And now for something completely TMI…

This is all Mari’s and Kylanath’s fault. Isn’t she precious?!

Before hanging out with Lyse and my eldest demonspawn on Sunday, I stopped at Molly’s house to give her the birthday pressie I’ve been saving for her. Her boyfriend Fred (who does kick-ass leather-working, as well as being possibly the best fire-dancer in the country) heard that my stupid kitties like leather things – they are always rubbing all over Geoffrey’s leather jacket if he doesn’t hang it up, and Anxiety’s leather bookbag – so he made a leather mousie for them! It took him maybe all of 5 minutes, and it’s soooo cute, and he could probably sell them on eBay for a small fortune. And my kitties got the first one!!! We hung it from the ceiling so the cats can play with it whenever they want to:

Today my eldest demonspawn, Angst, got her first job requiring a W-4 form. She’s working at a sub shop (sandwiches, people). Today she and her FotW – Flavor of the Week – came by to cart a bunch of her stuff out to Lyse’s place. Angst has been staying there – living out of a suitcase – for a couple weeks now, and is going to officially move there, assuming things all work out. (As we are talking about a 17-year-old, it’s quite possible that disaster could strike in any number of ways that could force her to move back to my house. She hates that idea a lot, though.)

So, Angst and the FotW carted a bunch of boxes & bags out to his El Camino, as well as her futon mattress, computer, and lamp. None of the “big” furniture (desk, dresser) got moved …which is just as well, considering that nobody (except Angst) is 100% certain that this move is going to be permanent. But (despite the possibility that this wasn’t the Actual Move-Out Day), it was fairly emotional. The good-byes dragged out for quite a while, with lots of hugs, and all of us saying “I love you” more than a few times.

And now for something completely TMI…

The weekend’s only half over, and already it’s been quite busy!

Friday night, after I dropped my beloved Geoffrey at work (still suffering from an aching jaw, after 3 1/2 hours of dental work on Thursday), I headed down to the Backspace to meet up with Portland Bloggers. As usual, the attendees were few and the music was obnoxiously loud. (What is with the Backspace, anyway?! An Internet cafe, intended for people to hang out or do some gaming, shouldn’t have an ambient decibel level well into the 90′s! For a business that caters to techno-geeks, I would have thought that’d be a no-brainer.) After an hour-ish of the noise, none of us could take it anymore, and so Karel & I went off to have some food and conversation at the Original Hotcake House.

And now for something completely TMI…

Now for some terrific local news! Today, Rachael Scdoris of Bend, Oregon will start the 2006 Iditarod sled dog race. At the age of 16, she was the youngest athlete (and the first blind person) to finish a 500-mile sled dog race. Last year she had to pull out of the Iditarod because several of her dogs became ill during the race. She’s now 21 and ready to complete the famous race this year.

If you have a few dollars to contribute, her corporate sponsor Standard Insurance Company is matching all pledges and donations to the US Association of Blind Athletes on Rachael’s behalf.

Every year or two, there’s a new “trendy” website to hang out at. A few years back, it was all about Craigslist (which, to give them credit, is still ridiculously popular). Then it was Tribe.net. Now, it’s MySpace.

Of course, the sexual predators know this, too. Even though MySpace is supposed to be only for those 14 & older, there are plenty of younger kids on the site who lie about their age – on that site, as well as many others. (My 13-year-old daughter, for one, who flat-out admitted she pushed back her birthdate a year so she could get a MySpace profile.) And the sexual predators know this, too.

Anyone who’s a parent should be aware of all that their kids are doing online. Period.

Do NOT trust babysitter software. Do NOT trust that your kids aren’t looking at porn & then clearing the cache. Do NOT trust that since your kid is “just in the next room” or “within sight” that they aren’t having IM chats or swapping emails that include content such as sex, cutting, suicide, drugs, and other dangerous activities – possibly with people they’ve never met in real life, and who may be influencing your kid in ways you know nothing about.

If you wouldn’t let your preteen or teenaged kid drive a motorcycle, use a firearm unsupervised, stay at home alone for a weekend, drink or smoke, read Playboy, strike up conversations with total strangers in person, give out their personal info (such as cell phone number) at random, or do any number of other things that could be dangerous to them offline, then why wouldn’t you do whatever it takes to ensure their safety online, too?

Report online sexual predators to CyperTipline (sponsored by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) or call them at 1-800-843-5678.

Oh, look, the state of Washington is just now getting around to making bestiality illegal.

Hmm. [Insert your favorite "Scotsman & a sheep" joke here... or your favorite quote from a animal rights "activist" or PETA president who promotes bestiality.]

Ew. How very.