Woohoo -- busy week so far, in that I finally got my foot in the door of the archaeology world once again! After paying my $10 to become a member of the Center for Desert Archaeology, a non-profit group, today I solicited and was offered a volunteer position with one of their researchers. Not where I want to be ultimately, but I've got my hands on the artifacts again, and all looks promising.

And I'm gathering signatures on my petition to become an elected Democratic Precinct Committee-member -- whatever the hell that means. What I understand it to mean is that I'll be an official hardcore violunteer Democrat shit-kicker in this here neighborhood, shaking hands, getting people to register and vote for the good guys, and generally be a politico-nerd until the general election and beyond. The thought isn't necessarily the most welcoming I can think up, but things being the way they are, it's really something I don't think I can avoid undertaking and still feel I'm doing enough for the cause. This week, I think I've already swayed one under-informed Bush supporter toward the light, and registered another prevaricating Democrat to vote. Seeing as Gore won Pima county in 2000, it's probably a foregone victory anyway, but Arizona sure as hell isn't, so maybe I can make a dent.

Janine's pestering me to use the computer, so I better end it here. Will I be able to tolerate this abuse for the next 50 years?

Ah, who am I kidding?

Rate my Valentine's Day stabs at Romanticism!

Didn't tell Janine where we were going, but grabbed over-sized picnic basket and dog and drove across town to new, highly touted Mexican joint for take-out, which went into the basket. Drove downtown to the lawn of the city hall to the Same-Sex Marriage Rights rally, where we cheered on the speakers and their sentiments while eating enchiladas and decent salsa.

Later, did Janine's laundry without complaining!

Circle level of Romantic oomph.

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Quickly, more wedding info...

The last couple of weeks have actually been pretty dull, hence the absence of amusing, witty, confusing, senseless, etc. posts -- dull in some ways, interesting in others. Janine picked up a paperback copy of Smart Couples Finish Rich, by cookie cutter financial self help savior John Bach, and while I'm sure any financial self help book would have done the trick nicely, Bach helped me get my mind around the concept of money management, saving for retirement, and what the hell is meant by variable annuity, large cap growth fund, money market, ad infernum. My skills in personal finance have been absolutely wretched since I was able to crumple up bills with my infant paws, but things have been clicking over the past couple of weeks. Again, nothing anyone would want to read about, and really nothing I want to actually spend my time doing (a sadly neglected copy of Sinclair Lewis's Main Street lies frozen in Chapter 2 on my nightstand), but something that really really badly needed doing, and I feel much more grown up now (even though I'm inclined to subscribe to Dan's philosophy that this is a step in entirely the wrong direction).

All this is hopefully enabling us to save up for the big wedding day, now semi-officially to be on August 28 at my Uncle Fred's place, about an hour from DC. More details when I update my wedding website, which as it stands now still has us getting married in May on a yacht off of Sarasota, FL. Dinner will likely be BBQ. Vegetarians best like sauce.

Next goal: get "Girl From Ipanema" out of my head.