We've spent the past couple days avoiding the news as much as we can.

Of course, avoiding means only watching six hours of coverage rather than fourteen.

After last night, we realized that we need to turn off the news, at least for a while, if we're going to try to function somewhat normally.

Last night was really difficult; shock quickly melted away into extreme grief.

Today, we exercised a bit more self-control and watched Valley of the T-Rex on The Discovery Channel. Fascinating stuff -- we learned that all evidence points to the T-Rex being a really ugly scavenger instead of a predator.

And then, we've been watching Heavyweights on the Disney channel.

Slim pickings, I know. But at least it was a diversion.

And then my best friend called. She and her husband are in town from Fresno because her sister-in-law just delivered her baby.

Life goes on.

Tonight we'll be at Ben's parents' house for our birthdays. Mine is tomorrow and Ben's birthday is next Saturday. Being six days apart means that we share birthday parties, an odd thing for an only child to do.

It's the seventh one we are sharing together and I'm very grateful.

N.Y. airport arrests a false alarm
Yeah, you'd think you'd be "belligerant" as well if you were unrightfully arrested and then reported to have: knives, fake airport personnel badges, pilot licenses from Vero Beach and flying manuals.

I'm so sick of misinformation.

It's bad enough when it give hope and only worse when it incites fear.

dooce.com excerpts the articles I've been reading for the past two days that really say it much better than I could.

I've been listening to the congressional prayer vigil.

Yes, I'm Catholic.
Yes, I'm Christian.
They seem to be praying to "my" God; I shouldn't feel excluded.

But isn't there some little thing in the Constitution separating church and state? The lines have been really blurred these past few days.

Perhaps if other religions were more represented, this wouldn't seem as troublesome.

Thought-process update: I've had time to think about this post and realized what really bothered me about the prayer vigil.

It's the whole "my God is better than your God" thing that has been responsible for so much worldwide carnage.

Donate your tax rebate
Soon you'll receive your tax rebate in the mail. Consider donating your rebate to the American Red Cross to help save lives. You'd be amazed at how far your gift will go to help those affected by disaster:

• $600 buys food for a week and clothing for a family of four.
  
• $300 buys five days of meals and motel stays for one displaced disaster victim.
  
• $250 provides emergency shelter and food for 50 disaster victims for one day.
  
• $100 buys replacement prescription medication, like insulin, blood pressure or seizure medication for 3 disaster victims who have lost everything.
  
• $50 buys 10 new blankets in an emergency.
  

Your tax-deductible gift -- in whatever amount you choose -- will provide disaster relief and other essential Red Cross services in your community, and around the world.

---

Congressional leaders and White House agreed to set aside $20 billion for rescue efforts, repairs and counterterrorism work. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young said lawmakers hoped to have the spending bill on Bush's desk by Thursday.

Flight 93 pilot and passengers may have fought back.

It has been those phone calls -- from the passengers to their wives and husbands, mothers and fathers that have been, for me, most poignant.

Another passenger, Tom Burnett, of Pleasanton, Calif., called his wife, Deena, and also reported that the plane had been hijacked, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Burnett knew the plane was going down.

"I love you, honey. We're all going to die, but three of us are going to do something," he said, according to a family spokesman.

And then, there are the reports coming in about trapped victims using their phones to call for help.

The online Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund provided by Amazon.com has gone from $2,000 to $38,000 since I last looked. This, in hardly an hour span of time.

Update: As of 9:30, the fund has reached $132,000.

I only wish we didn't need disasters to demonstrate that, in general, people are good.

Another update: This is really quite amazing, since 5:30 am PST, the fund has gone from about $232,000 to $611,000. (as of 10:30 am pst) It's literally growing by the thousands with every mouse click, every second.

Where to donate blood in the Bay Area.

New York City bombing check-in form.

It has seemingly begun...

I've heard reports that the United States is bombing Afghanistan. Reports are mixed, and some sources say we can't be sure that America is actually responsible for the attacks.

Update: White House says that it wasn't an American attack but rather, continual civil war fighting.

Okay, Ben just woke me up to tell me the news. We're both just in a state of shock. I can't stop saying oh, my God and crying. And, not to make a stupid Bush joke -- but I just can't helping being more scared that he's our president.

I'll strike that last comment since these matters are just so much bigger than politics and The White House. I'm still in state of shock, can barely bring myself to watch the footage. The loss of life is just too horrific to let sink in.

Harriet, Oh Harriet.
In high school, I kept this photo of The Kids in the Hall's Dave Foley in my locker. It was a Xerox copy of a photo from an old Rolling Stone that I had borrowed from the library.

The wonders of pre-Web (at least for me) fanaticism -- a time when, if you wanted to get a picture from a two-year old magazine, you had to do a bit of work.

This was during the 1993-1994 season, a wonderful time when the show was on Comedy Central, HBO and CBS.

While all my friends were lusting over Brad Pitt (who I could never, nor will ever find attractive), I was obsessing over some short guy with beady eyes who liked to cross-dress.

To each his own, I guess.

I'll proudly admit my Dave Foley crush to anyone.

The prior-to-Dave-Foley crush is a little bit more embarrassing:

Mike Myers

I kid you not, I kept a Mike Myers scrapbook. I collected photos and articles around the time of So I Married an Axe Murderer, the movie where I thought he looked his absolute "best." I even had the soundtrack, which with Suede, Big Audio Dynamite and The La's wasn't half bad. But don't get me started on that damn Spin Doctors song.

Oh, and I memorized that "beat" poem he performed in the cafe in the movie.

I still remember most of it.

Okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, does this make me a google-plus-one dork?

And I knew all sorts of weird facts about his life -- like how he met his wife, Robin, at a bar across the street from Second City in Toronto.

Let me just tell you that by the time Dave Foley and The Kids in the Hall entered my life, I was ready to move to Canada and set up residence near a comedy club. I couldn't imagine an easier way to meet my dream man.

After that, for the longest time, I wanted to be a Canadian comedian.

The dreams of a teenage girl.

Michael Jackson: The magic continues.
Is it me or is this photo just a bit unsettling?

The idea of Slash and the King of pop as conjoined twins is the stuff of nightmares.

That's all I see happening in this photo -- don't put any other ideas in my head.

Timothompson.com has extensive coverage of one of the weirdest, oddest, strangest stories to come out of the musical world:

The collaboration of Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando.

At least Mr. Brando refrained from bringing his little friend from The Island of Dr. Moreau onto the stage. Now that would be weird.

But who's my weblogging daddy?
So the meme du jour is locating your long-lost weblogging twin.

Given that there seems to be only around twenty people that enter the mix of possible kin, the whole thing seems a bit like "find your long-lost (famous) Appalachian twin."

So, I'm going to spare you all the inbred connections and mention my real weblogging twin:

It's Paula from The Perils of Leisure.

You may not know her site, but you should.

Despite the fact that she's in Rhode Island and I'm here in California and that she's just a little bit older than me, our childhoods were remarkably similar. This is probably why are personalities are remarkably similar.

The biggest tie between us is our love for our grandparents. Paula was also raised in an extended family -- meaning grandparents were as integral in development as parents.

And because of being raised by incredibly blunt grandmas, completely crafty grandfathers, the presence of Hohners and accordions, and sadistic Catholic School nuns, Paula and I have grown into very similar women.

So take time to learn more about Paula. After all, she is family.