OK, so I’ve been back from vacation for a few weeks. In my defense, my sister managed to infect me with her germies right before I left, and so I’ve spent most of the past two weeks in bed or, during my more lucid moments, doing mindless dreg work on the ‘puter. Hence my general lack of posting, yada yada yada.

Anyway, I bring you vacation pics (including some of - drool! - vegan donuts) with the usual caveat. Flickr sucks re: their sizing options (or, perhaps more accurately, my blog sucks re: column width and general layout), so the largest I can go without knocking everything outta whack is 250 pixels wide. Which is way small. So in the unlikely event that you’re one of those sickos who actually likes sitting through other people’s vacation slideshows, hop on over to Flickr and check out my Road Trippin’ ‘06 set.

First up - THOSE VEGAN DONUTS from Ronald’s Donuts in Las Vegas:

Yes, yes, I know - one of the donuts does have a huge hunk missing. It’s in my belly. Well, technically, I guess they all ended up in my belly, but that half was ingested in the seconds before I snapped the pic. You see, I was so excited by the presence of VEGAN DONUTS that I wolfed half of ‘em down before I even thought to take a picture.

Luckily, we bought a second batch before our departure:

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? It brings a tear. (Guess you’ve gotta be a veg*n to understand.)

Sadly, the donuts didn’t fare too well on the plane ride back. I still ate ‘em, though. Hey, it’s hard to completely annihilate such sweetness.

As a semi-interesting side note, the week after we arrived back in Kansas, Grist ran a story on green food options in Sin City. Ronald’s made the cut, as did another veggie place we hit up, Rainbow’s End Natural Foods & Café. Not quite as kickass as Ronald’s (which, curiously, is owned by a Korean guy by the name of Henry Kang), but it still rocks the strip.

While in Vegas, we also…

…got married…

…saw lotsa finely sculpted boobies…

…enjoyed (more) yummy veg*n dining (courtesy of the Cheesecake Factory)…

…sucked on giant margaritas…

…and marveled at how crappy, crappy they managed to make NY, NY.

(The inside, that is. The pseudo-skyline is pretty cool.)

Back in Rochester, NY, I got to see my little bro graduate from HS (and bust his first-ever move at Liquid while our designated driver Shane nodded asleep on a couch in the corner of the club); caught a Red Wings game with some post-show fireworks; saw some gawd-awful “comedians” “perform” at Comix Cafe; had a Chinese feast with the family; and was embarrassed at the Corn Hill Arts Festival by some strange man I don’t know.

Seriously. Never seen him in my life. And he certainly isn’t my father or anything.

Good times.

I’ll leave y’all with a picture of my dogs’ pimped out ride.

Ralphie especially enjoyed his shiny new car cage. The wires were just perfect for pinning O-Ren up against while he tried oh-so-frantically to hump her.

Still no luck, though. As always, she wound up on top. That’s my girl.

(Oh, and PS - don’t call me Mrs. Brady. Evah.)

(Double PS - check out my veg*n blog, easyVegan.info, for a lengthier / prettier / all-around-more-entertaining version of this post.)

Finally - some good news. And it’s even outta Texas. Go figure.

Yates Found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity

A jury in Houston today found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2001 drowning of her children. It was the second time Ms. Yates had been tried for the deaths of her children, in a long-running case that has highlighted the issues of postpartum depression and the insanity defense in the Texas legal system.

Ms. Yates, whose lawyers said she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis when she drowned her five children, ages 6 months to 7 years, will likely spend the rest of her life in a state mental institution, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine if she should be released.

Prosecutors had maintained that Ms. Yates, who is 42, failed to meet the state’s definition of insanity, because they said she was able to distinguish right from wrong.

When the verdicts were read today, Ms. Yates appeared stunned, and then her eyes misted over, while one of her lawyers, George Parnham, wiped away tears. Later, he called the verdict a “watershed event in the treatment of mental illness.”

Today, her former husband, Rusty Yates, who has sat through most of the retrial, said he was glad the jury accepted the insanity plea instead of sending Ms. Yates to prison. He talked about how the prosecution showed pictures of the couple’s five children before their deaths to the jury, hoping to convince them prison was the best resolution for Ms. Yate’s actions.

“Did they think our children want Andrea to be in prison?” he asked reporters outside the courtroom. “Did they think that we, her family on either side, want Andrea to be in prison? Is it of any public benefit for Andrea to be in prison? Is she a danger to anyone? It’s amazing to me. I’m so proud of the jury for seeing past that.”

Damn straight.

(13:07:45) kgarbato: hey, i was checking out some new music
(13:08:04) kgarbato: want me to put the latest nickelback cd on hold for ya?
(13:08:10) kgarbato: *snap*
(13:10:57) [shane]:
(13:11:04) [shane]: that stung

…while you wait, oh so patient-like, for me to update my f’in blog already!

Via Nerve:

A group of “experts”, assembled by Film Four in Britain, have come up with a list of Fifty Films Everyone Should See Before They Die.

Drumroll, please…

Apocalypse Now
The Apartment
City of God
Chinatown
Sexy Beast
2001: A Space Odyssey
North by Northwest
A Bout de Souffle
Donnie Darko
Manhattan
Alien
Lost in Translation
The Shawshank Redemption
Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
Pulp Fiction
Touch of Evil
Walkabout
Black Narcissus
Boyz n the Hood
The Player
Come and See
Heavenly Creatures
A Night at the Opera
Erin Brockovich
Trainspotting
The Breakfast Club
Hero
Fanny and Alexander
Pink Flamingos
All About Eve
Scarface
Terminator 2
Three Colours: Blue
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Ladykillers
Fight Club
The Searchers
Mulholland Drive
The Ipcress File
The King of Comedy
Manhunter
Dawn of the Dead
Princess Mononoke
Raising Arizona
Cabaret
This Sporting Life
Brazil
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
Secrets and Lies
Badlands

Not bad, not bad, but wtf is Kill Bill, people? O-Ren is not pleased.

 

 

Watch and learn, ladies, as That Girl Emily lives out every scorned woman’s ultimate revenge fantasy:

In the last few days, I’ve done a lot of thinking. I’ve done some number crunching. I’ve done some brainstorming. I’ve made some phone calls. I’ve thought about what the rest of my life will entail. And the rest of my life starts tomorrow. Tomorrow, the world will bear witness to a woman scorned. After tomorrow, husbands all over the country will think twice before inviting their divorcee secretaries out for a mojito. They’ll check themselves before they wander into online singles chat rooms. After tomorrow, husbands will be rubbing one out in the shower, instead of signing the room check for their mistress at the Plaza. Steven and Laura have been doing a lot of fucking lately. Now, it’s my turn.

She’s only on Day 3, so grab some popcorn, blogroll ‘er, and enjoy.

UPDATE: Oh, Emily, you whore, you! (She may be fake, but she’s still entertaining.)

I’m back - kinda, sorta - with an alert from DefCon:

Demand President Bush sign stem cell legislation

Despite fierce opposition from the religious right, the Senate is poised to pass the bipartisan Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.

But President Bush has promised to veto the legislation. He needs to hear from you!

By urging Bush to choose hope over the religious right, you are joining 72% of Americans, bi-partisan majorities in both houses of Congress, as well as our nation’s leading scientists - all of whom support rescinding President Bush’s 2001 ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Take action now!

And be sure to pass it around!

For more info on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act…

“Abortion: never an easy choice, sometimes the best choice, always a woman’s choice.”

- One “laurahcory,” in response to Salon’s piece on a godbaggin’ douchebag who penned a zealously deadpan attack on the author of a 7-year-old editorial entitled “I’m Totally Psyched About This Abortion!” Which was published in The Onion. I shit you not. Really. Links available at said Salon piece. Because I refuse to link to anyone that stupid.