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Things accomplished today:

1. Mad shopping spree with windrose, we did some serious damage at Crabtree and Evelyn, Lush and Yankee Candle. You would seriously not believe how amazing my house smells at this moment. I've got a lilac candle burning in the living room, a peach salsa votive in the kitchen and a bathroom full of incredible Lush stuff. Did you know if you spend $50 you get a free goodie bag? Yeah I didn't either. And they are giving away some really cool stuff! I got the newest neon green body wash as well and god I can't wait to use it.

2. Lunch at Ariake sushi, ume and shitake rolls, yum!

3. Moved the huge yucca plant all on my own. Mind you the thing weighs at least 200 pounds but sheer stubbornness will get you surprisingly far. That let me get up under the lemon tree and get some more trimming done on it including removing a good deal of the fruit that's just going bad now. I'd have done more but my yard waste bin is (of course) overflowing already. Did clear enough space for the poison section of the garden I want to plant. So far I'm planning on foxgloves and monkshood. If I can track down some henbane that'd be cool too. I've got the perfect shady spot for them all. I will have the medieval garden I've always wanted, oh yes I will.

4. Finished all the shopping for my niece's birthday next month. Go me!

5. Vacuumed, did two loads of laundry, tidied up and even cleared out the sink. Also the cats all have clean litterboxes, yay! I still need to put the laundry away and I think that's about it.

6. Now I just need to reedit the version of "Haram Aleyk" we're choreographing and then fit in some time for yoga and I then get to fall over.

Fun things I've seen on tv today? Namaste America did the all Bollywood song remix and it included a dance remix of "Ringa Ringa" that made me profoundly happy as well as a kickin' Daler Mehndi remix of "Dodo". Additionally I saw a commercial for a movie about a dog named "Hachi" that made me laugh aloud.

Speaking of Hachi she actually cuddled up with aelfsciene last night for the first time. When she flopped down on her foot I knew it was love. She's come a remarkable way in just a few short months.

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Via No More Mister Nice Blog:

Where's the goddamn outrage about this?

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light....

The board, whose members are elected, has influence beyond Texas because the state is one of the largest buyers of textbooks....

There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings, though some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.

And better yet:

[s]truck the word "democratic" in references to the form of U.S. government and replaced it with "constitutional republic."

The GOP isn't going to be content until they've completely rewritten not only history but reality itself to suit them. The sad part is it looks like the rest of us are probably going to sit around and let them get away with it.

Somewhere out there is a woman whose hand I need to shake...

Quite possibly the best sentence I have ever read:

According to his new memoir, a 9-year-old Rove affixed a Nixon sticker to his bicycle, prompting a leftist girl child to give him a bloody nose.