(no subject)

As Amazon was kind enough to send me a $25 gift certificate for using their credit card I immediately turned around and pre-ordered my copy of Venture Brothers season 2. After dithering at jakejr about it, I realized it was definitely the right decision. Then used a few last dollars on the Rent.com $100 gift card I got for finding my current abode through them to do a little iTunes retail therapy. My massive XFiles mix is now turning into a two disk set, which I partially blame moonlightnrain, if she hadn't turned me on to Rufus Wainwright's "Crumb by Crumb" none of this would've happened.

Really.

Overall health-wise I'm feeling pretty good, though my stomach has taken a turn for the worse. I think I was a little too adventurous this weekend. But I've got a nice big bottle of Rolaids at work so all is well. I'm just going to try to be a little smarter for the rest of the week, nothing exciting, just nice bland healthy stuff.

Which reminds me I'm getting really sick of this whole weight gain and my body turning to flabby mush thing. So I'm trying to stay away from the completely unhealthy stuff and eating after 7 pm again. Also back to walking at least a half mile every night (weather and work permitting), which I'm hoping will help. At present I seem to have stabilized, but I'd really like to see the numbers start descending again. I'm about 10 pounds over where I'd like to be, but I'll happily settle for losing just 5.

(no subject)

Clearly I need a Claude Raines icon from Casablanca that simply reads, "I'm shocked, shocked!" for stories like these:

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had "not distinguished themselves" on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading the CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide, administration officials said yesterday.

The ranking placed Fitzgerald below "strong U.S. Attorneys . . . who exhibited loyalty" to the administration but above "weak U.S. Attorneys who . . . chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.," according to Justice documents.
[...]
Mary Jo White, who supervised Fitzgerald when she served as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan and who has criticized the firings, said ranking him as a middling prosecutor "lacks total credibility across the board."

"He is probably the best prosecutor in the nation -- certainly one of them," said White, who worked in the Clinton and Bush administrations. "It casts total doubt on the whole process. It's kind of the icing on the cake."