Boys. Oy.

Why oh why are boys at the gym so dang loud? I took a Pilates class yesterday next to this guy who you would think spent the entire class bench-pressing twice his own weight. In Pilates. (a) it really isn't the sort of workout that requires grunting and (b) aren't you supposed to be breathing in and out slowly and thoroughly anyway?
And why oh why do boys feel the need to grunt, groan, moan, exhale explosively, etc. in the steam room? Sweet Jesus - they aren't doing anything in there except (hopefully) relaxing - and can't they even relax quietly? Why?
The steam room aspect is clearly an annoying aspect of my gym - to wit. the co-ed steam room. In this instance I miss my supremely expensive back-when-I-was-a-lawyer gym with the steam room in the locker rooms - no need for a suit *and* blessed blessed silence. The other annoying aspect of my current gym is the Parade Grounds for all the women. Everything - and I mean *everything* - main cardio room, main weight room, pool, steam room, sauna, whirlpool, quiet cardio room, all studios and the MEN's locker room are on the first floor. What, you might ask, is on the second floor (and it is really more like a loft - it is not the whole second floor by any means)? The women's locker room - accessed by a set of stairs and a bridge, right out there in the open, which means that, when you arrive, to get to the locker rooms you have to Parade up the stairs and across the bridge - in full and glorious sight of the entire main work-out room, then you Parade back down. Even worse is getting to the pool area, because there is an equivalent Parade Ground consisting of bridge and stairs that you have to trot down in your swimsuit - cellulite and ass in full view of anyone (a) already in the pool or (b) lounging in the hot-tub. Men just appear - poof! - at the pool - their workout room opens onto right next to the pool - I feel it is unfair.
My annoyance with this has been building for a while, clearly. If it weren't for the lovely cleaned-by-non-chlorine-methods pool, which leaves your skin smooth and soft after a long swim, instead of stretched tightly across your bones in the manner of chlorine pools anywhere...

Random Dumbledore-ish Thoughts

Having read some comments on the web responding to JKR's announcement that she has always thought of Dumbledore as gay (which I was totally there for, and am (bias alert) totally for) can I just say the following?

1. Gay does NOT equal pedophile. Sweet Jesus, people. C'mon.
2. I sincerely doubt that JK Rowling is concerned about boosting her sales numbers.
3. I was there, and, while we, in the audience, speculated about how long it would take to hit teh internets, the AP? BBC? NPR? Really? (And did I mention I was there).
4. The books are written from a point of view - specifically - Harry's. If Harry doesn't see something (with I believe only one exception - "The Two Prime Ministers" chapter) neither do we. Harry is prolly not real worried about Dumbledore's sexuality (perhaps because he has many other qualities?). Dumbledore can be gay and it can be something that wouldn't make it into the books.
5. It makes sense in context of the books, particularly book 7. (And, see 4 above).
6. There are pretty broad hints as regards bestiality in the books and THIS is what has people's knickers in a twist?

Hopefully, if you care I texted you

(sorry if I missed you) but I was totally there tonight when Jo (I suddenly feel comfortable now calling her 'Jo' after 1.5 seconds in front of her and being now the proud possesor of a signed copy of Deathly Hallows (Bloomsbury version, if you please)) announced that Dumbledore was gay - mad cheers and applause greeted this announcement, which was in response to a young girl asking, since (paraphrase from memory) Dumbledore is so convinced of the power of love in the HP series, whether Dumbledore himself had ever found love. (Yes, and re-reading the Dumbledore/Grindelwald passages in this context JKR suggests will now be appropriate - noting particularly that Dumbledore finally met someone as intelligent as he).

After a lovely, charming, and nigh on wine-sodden dinner with the superb Professor B, I returned to M&M's - compelled to see if this wee bit of my life had made the news (as I type at 1:40a.m. EST - and yes - totally has). Loving my life at this exact moment! And loving that, in the same way My Own Private Idaho let me approach Henry V in a new way, this revelation lets me approach Deathly Hallows in a new way.

Sigh. Happy.

Ding was totally right

The Golden Compass rocked - I finished it at one late-night/early-morning go last night. This, of course, means I now have no airplane book. I'll be purchasing The Subtle Knife, but have decided not to do so until tomorrow - who knows if I could keep out of it for a whole day.

Interestingly, according to the movie website's test, my daemon is an osprey called Archeleron. My other daemon, of course, is a dog called Teddy.

I can also report that, as per usual, I pronounce all the character names and made-up-world-objects differently in my head than they will pronounce them in the movie. ie: 'day-mon' rather than 'dee-min,' 'Leer-ah' rather than 'Lie-rah,' etc.

Pricey War and Peace

I'm back from Borders - Tolstoy-less. Borders price? $40.00 ($3.00 OVER the list price) - Amazon's price? $22.20. So I'll be waiting for War and Peace to be free-shipped to me sometime next week.
Meanwhile, to tide me over on my plane ride Thursday (!!!) I picked up The Golden Compass, the first book in Phillip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series which Ding has been recommending to me since before recommending it was cool. I've resisted because I have a thing about talking animals - but I'm going to try to power through that mental tic.

Literary Weakling

I admit it, with the exception of Life of Pi, I've never made it through a Booker prize winning novel - perhaps because every one I've picked up shares traits in common with this year's winner (and congrats to Anne Enright, but I won't be attempting her novel) - the story regarding the win contains such selling points as:

Howard Davies, the chairman of the judging panel, acknowledged the book was "a little bleak" in places, but praised it as "a very readable novel."

"Anne Enright has written a powerful, uncomfortable and, at times, angry book. 'The Gathering' is an unflinching look at a grieving family in tough and striking language," ...

Jonathan Ruppin of British bookstore Foyles called the judges' choice "a welcome boost for serious literature."

"Not everyone will be comfortable with this bleak account of conflict and despair, but the writing is undeniably exquisite," he said.

Hmmmm. I like non-serious literature. However, in an attempt to shore up my literary chops, I'm about to head over to Borders to get the new translation of War and Peace. And, no, I've never read that either - with the exception of Oblomov, I've never made it through a Russian novel.

Dog with a bone

Honestly, you would think I was getting paid for this - many many years ago I was a chaperone/leader on the worlds most frustrating (particularly for a fundy survivor) high school church group mission trip - ostensibly to build an orphanage (or, apparently, an "orpahnge") in the middle of the freaking desert, Mexico. Of the rattlesnakes-were-killed-on-this-trip sort of middle of the freaking desert. And frustration? This trip spawned bi-monthly meetings of the local women survivors to drink and continue to release our venom until it was (mostly) containable.

At one of the 'tell me how you *really* feel about it' drinks-fests, we got to speculating about the money making potential of an orphanage that will never get finished and will never house children. (This thought was a natural spin off when considering that the buildings we mostly worked on were meant for staff and that the first priority in building the orphanage was to build a freaking wall around 27 acres of land. 27 acres!!!! That'll help the children.) (Oh, and I note that priorities remain oddly skewed - the website is currently over the moon because they finally were able to put up the - no - I can't paraphrase - I must quote directly - I won't even bother to put in the necessary sic - maybe it is a pun:

Our 600 lb. Granite Plaque goes up above the front doorway to the children's home. We've been waiting for 10 yrs. for this day! The plaque states; Solomente por la Gloria de Dios ~ Only for the Glory of God! It is a beautiful site to see!

needless to say, the plaque is beautifully mounted on an unfinished building.)

Considering that the project began around 1997 (or, at least, tax returns are available from 1997) and we went in maybe 1999? 2000? I block a lot of this out. And here we are at 2007 with a long 'to do' list yet to go - little things like the home for the orphans, a water supply, a septic system, a fund to support the orphans... (happily the US headquarters, U.S. warehouse and U.S. office building (where the founder and his family lives and works) has been completed - phew.)

So - back to the title - I've been making like a dog with a bone over the tax returns - and it was when I started delving into prior year returns, figuring out the 'overhead to services' ratio and filling up a page with notes that I realized I might still be just a teensy bit bitter about the whole thing, and it might be best to stop, blog it out, and go home!