I’m sitting here at my desk and wedged in between my chair and the wall is the most cowardly golden retriever on the face of the planet. I’ve written before about Sasha, my parents’ neurotic dog. She accompanied my parents here for my sister’s graduation and she’s been staying with me for the last week. I came home from work today and found her curled up in a ball under my bed. I think the thunder from a passing storm freaked her out. She’s definitely not happy here; she goes outside only after much coaxing and never after the sun goes down. I think she misses my parents’ yard and quiet neighborhood. But having her around makes me wonder if I should get my own dog. Nothing big; maybe a terrier or something. Are there any small dogs that aren’t also incredibly stupid? Because I don’t want a stupid dog. And I don’t really need a Helping Paws kind of dog. With a nurse always accompanying me, a trained dog might be a little superfluous.

Kevin Featherly, a fellow Fellow, has a witty op-ed piece in today’s Strib poking fun at Governor Pawlenty’s decision to put a cigarette tax, er, fee on the table to get a deal on a final budget. Kevin is more of a libertarian than me, but I think we’re both amused by the Governor’s semantic gymnastics on this point.
It looks like bipartisanship hasn’t totally disappeared from the Senate. The filibuster deal forces those of us on the left to swallow some bitter medicine. I’m especially dismayed that William Pryor’s nomination will move forward. Pryor, an opponent of the ADA in particular and disability rights in general, strikes me as someone who places ideology well before rule of law. But the right to filibuster, at least in theory, is still preserved. And I’ll admit to getting all warm and fuzzy when I read James Dobson’s written statement temper tantrum. I especially love his thinly veiled threat to those disobedient Republicans, implying that they’ll be punished in the next election. I could be wrong, but I don’t think most people are going to be thinking about filibusters and rules of cloture when they go into the voting booth. And if Bill Frist loses a little of his shine among the rabid right-wingers because of this deal, all the better.

The new Star Wars film is worth seeing. It doesn’t completely redeem the previous two episodes, but it does offer a satisfying conclusion to the story of Anakin’s fall. Everything is neatly set up for Episode IV; it’s difficult not to admire Lucas’ ultimate vision, whatever you think of his execution. There are some visual sequences that are simply stunning, particularly in the beginning. And this movie surpasses all other episodes in terms of lightsaber-dueling goodness. And this probably makes me as something of a sentimental geek, but I was actually disturbed when the Jedi were executed one by one. :sniffle:

Today’s Morning Edition had a clip of a woman discussing her life with cerebral palsy. The interview is part of the Library of Congress’ StoryCorps project. I haven’t checked their website to see if the full interview is available. Her remarks on relationships echo some of my own sentiments when I’m feeling melancholy.
I’m going to try to see Revenge of the Sith tonight. I’ve been trying to avoid the avalanche of news media screaming at me to see this movie. Like I need to be reminded. At least the reviews for this episode are a little more encouraging. Do you think the kid from Episode I pops in the DVD of that movie once in a while to marvel at his own craptacular performance? Do you think he cringes whenever he hears himself shout out “Yippie!” with all the feeling of a tree stump? God, I hope so. Over on Metafilter, they linked to some old Usenet postings containing reviews of Return of the Jedi. Even 20+ years ago, “spoiler” was part of the geek vernacular. There’s something kind of reassuring about that.

As I do more research on my trip to Europe, I realize the issue of electricity issue is a little more complicated than I first realized. As most travelers know, Europe uses 220v electricity, as opposed to 110v here in the States. I think my vent has a 110/220 switch, but I need to figure out what I need to do to charge my batteries overnight, both on the vent and wheelchair. And then there are my other pieces of equipment, like the nebulizer and suction. I may have to purchase a few converters of different capacities for the trip, as well as make some phone calls to various manufacturers. I know there’s a way to make this all work, but I’d appreciate any tips. I also need to figure out whether I can plug in my vent on the airplane during the flight to save on the battery. Northwest will probably make me fly first-class for that privilege.