Attorney General Dick Blumental has given his formal legal opinion. He says the bill is clear about not allowing same sex couples to wed and that a DOMA addition is absolutely unnecessary.

Hooray!!!!!

Today the Connecticut House is poised to vote on the civil unions bill (SB-963). PLEASE, if you haven’t already called you representative, do so now. If you don’t know who they are, you can find that information here by filling in your zip code and clicking on the state button at the top right.

Don’t put it off until this afternoon. Tomorrow will be too late.

Ask them to approve the civil unions bill without a DOMA (Defense of Marriage Amendment). Writing discrimination into law is antithetical to the freedoms our ancestors strove for (and, when it wasn’t, we later realized how short-sighted they were). Today is not the day to begin.

After you’ve called your representative, please take a moment to call Governor Jodi Rell. Her phone number is 1-800-406-1527. Rell has indicated that pending a formal legal opinion from Attorney General Dick Blumenthal saying the bill sans DOMA will not permit gay marriage she will sign the bill. If Blumenthal equivocates on the matter, she will require a DOMA.

I would rather see the measure fail if a DOMA is attached to the bill. And I think many people agree with me.

For those of you who are out-of-staters or former residents, please follow this link to email all 151 state representatives and this link to email Gov. Rell.

And please don’t procrastinate. We’re down to mere hours on this one.

People who’ve lived in D.C. for a while will tell you one of the best things about living here is the fact that people move frequently. You can outfit a whole apartment on the cheap if you’re patient and not overly picky based on what you find on Craig’s List and at tag sales.

Two Sundays ago, Rudi and I were heading to the farmers’ market prior to the Nationals-Mets scrimmage when we saw a sign advertising a tag sale in our neighborhood later in the morning. Unfortunately, we were crunched for time and didn’t have time to do more than browse as we walked to the Metro on our way to the game. Rudi eyed a tape deck he believed to be a gem; I noticed a breadmaker. As we continued on, we debated turning back, but decided it would be more prudent just to get to RFK.

I have to admit — baseball drives pretty much everything else from my mind. (What? You’ve noticed that about me too? ;)) By the time the train arrived, I’d already forgotten about the tag sale.

So it wasn’t until we were walking up that same street after the game and saw a pile of stuff in front of the house that my thoughts returned to the potential of a find.

Lo! the breadmaker was still there. And what does this sign say?

Free.

What?

Free.

Woo hoo!

“What if it doesn’t work?” I ask Rudi.

“Leave it out on the sidewalk, like this person has done,” he answered.

“It doesn’t have a manual.”

“Maybe we can find one online or instructions for ordering one.”

So the breadmaker has come home with us. It’s still sitting on the floor in the kitchen, waiting for me to test it, but Rudi did find a PDF of the manual on the Oster website, as well as a bunch of enthusiastic reviews about the model elsewhere on the Internet.

I’ve wanted to learn how to bake bread since I moved down here, but I’ve been lazy. I’m still not sure I consider breadmaker bread to be real bread, but it’s definitely a start.

This coming weekend is supposed to be a little more chilly, and I only have two things on the calendar (a party Saturday night and the farmers’ market Sunday morning). So maybe Sunday evening will find me with a loaf of bread made by my new toy.

The commercial’s tagline is “We don’t want your money; we want your voice.” So I decided to finally see what the organization is all about. Now I invite you to follow suit.
The ONE Campaign | Take Action

What type of sprite am I? A water sprite, of course… (more…)

Things to do with the earlier angst remain unchanged, but the rest of the day has gotten better.

The Mets won their home opener in their traditionally nail-biting way with five runs scored in the bottom of the ninth. Two wins in a row is a streak, right?

And the DC Film Festival called to say I’d been accepted as a volunteer. So I’ll be one of the friendly faces you see at E Street and Regal next Tuesday and Wednesday. And the perks include a free regular screening and a free ticket to the final movie and party! The final movie, Ladies in Lavender, is one of the ones I really wanted to see, too, so I’m particularly excited.