It's Friday.  Time for another random walk down to Fergieville.

Austin is a great town.  Reminds me of a cross between Eugene and Las Vegas.  Too much traffic.  You've got to see Esther's Follies, though.

Why doesn't anybody else vote for the honest politician?  It seems like we could have gotten rid of these posturing empty suits like Dubya a long time ago if we just chose the guy with character and brains instead of the cheerleading, alcoholic, drunk-driving frat boy who was good at tapping into Daddy's network of donors.

Jeff and I had a so-so set tonight with a lot of crazy hands.  Nice to get some new material, if not all of it favorable.

I miss my cottage.  Pine trees.  Bullfrogs.  Canoe.  Turtles.  Logs.  Narrows.  Sun.  Steep path.  Propane.  Boathouse.  Sleeping on the screen porch.  Maybe next year.

You know that guy Joe Rogan, the host of Fear Factor and UFC?  He's the funniest MoFo on the planet.  If you haven't seen his stand-up act, you haven't lived.

I wonder when we're going to have a big war with China.  They seem to be planning for it.  I have a feeling that apart from a few geeky shmoes in the Pentagon, we're not.  Something tells me that won't be so good for us a couple of decades from now.

I've always tested really well when it comes to IQ/analytical ability, but I can't visualize like most good bridge players I know (if you give me a hand, I have to write it down or look at it, I don't do well with 'AQ fourth, three rags, etc.')  Is that a deficiency I can overcome or can I learn to do that or am I just hosed?

The whole religion thing deserves an entry of its own, but I don't want to alienate the 3 readers I have, so I'll keep it to this paragraph.  What's up with this whole 'supernatural being' crap?  Don't we have enough arbitrary categories that divide us without inventing new ones?  Okay, our ancestors were afraid of lightning, drought and disease and needed to explain these events to their children and themselves, I get it.  I also get that in order to perpetuate these ridiculous beliefs that these religions resorted to torture, war and capital punishment.  But don't we know better by now?  I naively imagined that the 21st century would be an age of enlightenment and progress, but most Americans are determined to keep their brains back in the middle ages.  Oh, the Easter Bunny, how cute.  As a recent South Park episode queried, what the f*** does the Easter Bunny have to do with Easter?  These guys have a great TV show that reminds me that not everyone else is insane.

My workout routine has been compromised lately.  It's kind of like in bridge, I hit a plateau and my interest wanes.  Still, I'm in the best shape I've been in in 10 years, so that in itself is a decent accomplishment.